Frasers of Philorth > Volume 2

SIR SIMON FRASER, BROTHER OF THE CHAMBERLAIN. 125
possession until 1407, yet many lands in Scotland bear that prefix, and it is
sometimes found as the name of an estate without any additional appellation.
It is, therefore, also possible that this individual may be the Andrew
Fraser of Touch mentioned by some genealogists, perhaps first by Crawfurd, 1
who also terms him Sheriff of Stirling ; but this last statement is erroneous,
for it has been seen in the account of the family of Touch-Fraser that the
Sheriffship of that district was held by his father, of the same name, from
whom it descended, through Sir Alexander Fraser, the Chamberlain, to
Margaret Fraser, the grand-daughter of the latter ; and it has also been seen
that Sir Andrew, the Sheriff, never succeeded to Touch -fraser, having died
before Sir Eichard Fraser, who was proprietor of that estate, and who was
succeeded in it by Sir Alexander Fraser, the Chamberlain.
SIR SIMON FBASEE, MAEGAEET,
YOUNGER SON OF SIR ANDREW FRASER, DAUGHTER OF AN EARL OF CAITHNESS.
SHERIFF OF STIRLING, 1293.
1307-1333.
Theee can be no doubt that this Sir Simon Fraser was a brother of the
Sir Alexander Fraser who was Chamberlain of Scotland during a portion of
the reign of Eobert I., and, consequently, that he was a son of Sir Andrew
Fraser the Sheriff; but before relating such events in his career as are to be
discovered, it will be as well to notice more at length than has yet been
done, an assertion made by one author, Mr. Anderson, that he was the eldest
son, and that Sir Alexander the Chamberlain was one of the younger sons of
that Sir Andrew. 2
Mr. Anderson bases his assertion almost entirely upon the fact of Sir Andrew
Fraser having married a lady who had dower lands in the district of Caithness,
and upon the inference that some litigation between Sir Simon Fraser and
the Sheriff of Inverness arose from his having succeeded to the great estate
which, Mr. Anderson says, Sir Andrew thereby acquired. Mr. Anderson notices
that Barbour, in his poem " The Bruce," styles Sir Simon Fraser brother to
Sir Alexander Fraser, but does not print the passages, which run thus—
1 Crawfurd's Remarks on Ragman Rolls, p. 13.
2 History of the Family of Fraser, pp. 35-43.