Frasers of Philorth > Volume 2

SIR SIMON FRASER, BROTHER OF THE CHAMBERLAIN. 127
Of these, the three first, together with Sir Richard's estate of Touch-fraser,
were certainly inherited by his son, Sir Alexander Fraser. They descended to
Sir Alexander's grand- daughter and heiress, Margaret Fraser, and belonged to
her in 1392 and 1407, as already shown in the account of the family of
Touch-fraser and Cowie.
The whole of Sir Andrew Fraser's hereditary estates and emoluments, so
far as they can be ascertained, therefore passed to his son, Sir Alexander
Fraser ; and it remains to be seen what foundation there is for Mr. Anderson's
assertion, that Sir Simon Fraser inherited a large estate in the district of
Caithness from his mother.
It is true that Sir Simon Fraser, towards the end of the reign of Robert I.,
made a querela, a complaint or petition, to the King, " super Vice-comitem
de Inverness," and another in 1330, "super Comitatum de Caithnes ;" but
both these querela? were made in conjunction with Margaret his wife, whois
described as "unius heredis Comitis de Caithnes," 1 and this appears to be
evidence that it was her claim or right that occasioned these petitions, and
there is nothing to show that Sir Simon had any interest in that part of the
country beyond that which he may have acquired with his wife.
It has already been seen, in the account of the family of Touch-fraser
and Cowie, that in 1312 Alexander Fraser had claims, which there is good
reason for believing to have been hereditary, upon the estates of Lady Mary
de Moravia, or Moray (widow of Sir Reginald le Chen, junior), an heiress in
Caithness, which he must have inherited from either his father or his mother,
and could not, like Sir Simon, have acquired in right of his wife ; and this,
coupled with the fact of all his father's other hereditary possessions, so far as
known, having descended to him, affords strong evidence of his primogeniture.
When to the above is added that upon the only three occasions in which
the two names are found together, one of these being a legal document, Sir
Alexander's name is placed first, and Sir Simon is designated as his brother,
it appears evident that Mr. Anderson had no warrant for his assertion (his
alone supported by no authority), that Sir Simon Fraser was Sir Andrew
Fraser's eldest son, and Sir Alexander Fraser one of his younger sons, and
that the reverse was, in reality, the case.
1 Robertson's Index, pp. 28, 29, Nos. 14-24.