Frasers of Philorth > Volume 2

WILLIAM FEASEE, BISHOP OF ST. ANDREWS. 97
WILLIAM FRASER, Bishop of St. Andrews, 1279-1297, and a Guardian
or Regent of Scotland, son of Sir Gilbert Fraser.
As a Churchman of the thirteenth century, this son of the Sir Gilbert
Fraser from whom were descended the Touch-fraser and Oliver Castle
branches, cannot be placed in either of those families, while the eminent
position which he occupied, and the eventful period in which he lived, render
his career interesting to all of the race.
He was educated for the Church, took Holy Orders, and became Rector
of Cadzou (Hamilton), and Dean of Glasgow, 1 in which station he entered
into an obligation for certain purposes with the Chapter of the Cathedral in
1279, and for the performance of this engagement his brothers, Sir Simon
Fraser and Andrew Fraser, became his sureties. 2 It has been already seen
that there was an Andrew Fraser, son of Sir Gilbert Fraser, in 1280, a and
this, with the succession of Sir Simon to the Sheriffships held by Sir Gilbert,
affords evidence of the parentage of the three brothers.
He was appointed to the office of Chancellor of Scotland, which William
Wisheart had resigned when made Bishop of St. Andrews, 4 according to
Crawford in 1274, but certainly not later than 1276, in which year, on the
10th March, William Fraser was a witness, as Chancellor, to a charter by
Alexander in. 5
Havins; succeeded Wisheart as Chancellor, William Fraser aa;am became
his successor at his decease in 1279 ; and on the 4th of August in that year-
was elected Bishop of St. Andrews, and consecrated at Rome by Pope
Nicholas HI. on the 18th of June 1280, about which time he resigned the
Chancellorship.
Ere many more years had passed over William Fraser' s head, he exchanged
the tranquil life of an eminent church dignitary, under the peaceful sway of
the wise and good king that then reigned over Scotland, for an existence
embittered by the turbulence of faction, the horrors of war, and at last the
melancholy prospect of the subjugation of his country to a foreign yoke.
1 Caledonia, vol. iii. p. 6S3. 4 Lives of Officers of State, p. 15.
- Cart. Glasgow, No. 232. 5 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland,
3 Cart. Kelso, No. 124. vol. i. p. 80**.
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