Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

THE ERASERS OF COWIE, DURRIS, AND PHILORTH. 129
having succeeded to the earldom of Mar, in which the superiority over
Tibberty and Utlaw was vested, while the barony of Aberdour was also
in the royal hands by the forfeiture of the ninth Earl of Douglas and his
family during the preceding year ; and this instance of his sovereign's
favour is an evidence that Alexander Fraser had adhered to the king's party
in the struggle that decided whether a Stewart or a Douglas was to reign in
Scotland.
The name of Alexander Fraser of Philorth is found among those of the
twenty-one influential nobles and gentlemen that composed the assize of
error, or inquest, held at Aberdeen on the 5th November 1457, in the course
of the law-suit between the Crown and Thomas Lord Erskine, respecting the
half of the earldom of Mar, which the latter claimed as having been the pro-
perty of his father, Eobert Lord of Erskine. His claim, however, was rejected
by the verdict of the inquest, which found that the half of the earldom had
never rightfully belonged to his father, but had been possessed by King
James I., on whose decease it descended to James n. 1
Crawfurd says that Alexander Fraser received the honour of knighthood
from James II., 2 and it was about this time that he attained to that rank, for
on the 14th of April 1461, under the designation "Miles," he was served heir
to his grandfather, Sir Alexander Fraser of Cowie, by an inquest held at
Kincardine ; 3 but this service seems to have been merely accessory to the
establishment of the title of Nicholas, second Earl of Errol, to that estate,
which had been given by the first Earl of Errol in 1447 to his uncle, William
de Hay of Ury, second son of the Sir William de Hay who had bought it
from Sir William Fraser in 1413, but was to revert to the earldom, if Hay of
Ury died without issue, which event occurred about three months before the
inquest was held.
A transaction that occurred in the year 1464 deserves some notice,
reciprocal entails were made by Sir Alexander Fraser, dominus de Philorth,
and his cousin, Hugh dominus Fraser de Lovat ; for, on the 1 3th July in that
year, the former executed a charter of tailzie or deed of entail, by which,
after destining his whole lands to his own six sons, and the heirs-male of each
1 Miscellany of Spalding Club, vol. v. p. 2 Lives of Officers of State, p. 281.
272. 3 Philorth Charter-room.