Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

THE FRASERS OF COWIE, DURRIS, AND PHILORTH. 139
propria ;" and the desire of obtaining the Earl's assistance against those of
his relatives that impugned his competency to manage his affairs was pro-
bably the cause of his entering into the engagement, but it was of no avail,
and the verdict of 1491, and subsequent proceedings, put an end to his power
of hurting himself or his family by any follies he might have committed
since his succession.
He lived in retirement, but properly taken care of, and maintained
according to his rank, as is expressly ordered in the appointment of his
guardians, until the year 1500, when he died, and was succeeded by his
brother William.
SIE WILLIAM FEASEE, ELIZABETH DE KEITH,
SIXTH OF PHILORTH. DAUGHTER OF SIR GILBERT DE KEITH OF
INVERUGIE.
Bv the verdict of the above-mentioned inquest held at Aberdeen on the
4th October 1491, William Fraser was said to be seventeen years of age at
that time, which would place his birth in 1474, or the end of the preceding
year ; and from 1496, after he had been associated with some of his relatives
and Sir Walter Ogilvie in the guardianship of his imbecile elder brother, he
appears to have acted as the representative of the family.
In 1497, on the 23d of January, as " William Fraser of Fyllorth," he was
one of the witnesses to a bond of manreut, given at Inverness, by Eobert
Stewart of Clawak to Alexander Lord Gordoun. 1
His grandfather purchased the estates of Scatterty and Byth in 1469,
and held them under the Lord of the Isles, superior of the barony of
Kinedward. He had settled them upon his eldest son and Lady Margaret
Hay at the time of their marriage, without obtaining the consent or confir-
mation of the feudal superior; and they passed to the eldest son of that
marriage, the fifth Laird of Philorth.
James Stewart, Earl of Buchan, uterine brother of James in., in 1490
received a grant of the barony of Kinedward, after the final forfeiture, of John,
1 Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 191.