Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

THE FRASERS OF COWIE, DURRIS, AND PHILORTH. 155
of Aberdeen raised an action before the Court of Session for the purpose of
obtaining a declarator that the privileges of trade, etc., granted to that town
by former monarchs, included the whole sheriffdom or county of Aberdeen,
and that therefore the creation of Fraserburgh as a burgh of regality and free
port was illegal. 1 Their object appears to have been to obstruct the ratifica-
tion of the royal charters by Act of Parliament, on the ground of the action
being still undecided, and for that purpose they sent one of their burgesses,
Mr. James Mowat, to Edinburgh, and seem to have spent considerable sums
of money in following up the lawsuit, so that in the year 1606 they had suc-
ceeded in procuring letters of horning against Sir Alexander and his tenants of
Fraserburgh, charging them to " desist and ceas from vsing any merchandice,
packing, or peilling within the said towne, or hauldin of oppin buiths thairin,
vsing or vsurping the libertie of frie burgesses of gild in tyme coming."
Sir Alexander Fraser resisted this somewhat selfish and tyrannical con-
duct, and managed to obtain letters of suspension against those of horning ;
and the lawsuit appears to have dragged on until the year 1616, when, in
spite of resolutions passed at a rather stormy meeting, convened by Thomas
Menzies. then Provost of Aberdeen, that it was " verie necessar and expedient
that the saide actioune sail be prosequite and followit out cairfullie and
diligentlie," it seems to have been abandoned, and Fraserburgh was left in
the peaceful enjoyment of its privileges. 2
Such is the record of the birth of Fraserburgh, and although the magnifi-
cent aspirations of its founder have not been realised, — although the projected
university was but nominally established, and the college that was built soon
became diverted from its original purpose, — although the feudal castle on
the commanding but exposed elevation of Kinnaird Head was abandoned by
his descendants for a more sheltered residence, and now performs the useful
part of a lighthouse to guide vessels around that dangerous coast, yet much
of the practically beneficial fruit of Sir Alexander Fraser's labour and ex-
penditure remains to the present day ; and the harbour, much improved and
enlarged, and capable of infinitely greater development as a harbour of refuge,
affords shelter to the ships engaged in the commerce of a thriving seaport,
containing above 5000 inhabitants ; and in the season of the herring-fishery,
1 Council Register of Aberdeen, vol. ii. pp. 279, 2S4. 2 Ibid. p. 336.