History of the Frasers of Lovat

50 HISTORY OF THE FRASERS.
from any territorial grants, came into use. It was admitted
that in the family of Lovat there never was a patent; and
the question of their creation as Lords Baron must be
subject to the evidence of record." Dr Hill Burton agrees
with Anderson on this point. He says that the date when
the Frasers of Lovat " became lords of Parliament cannot
be assigned ; their dignity was held by tenure, not by writ,
and is found in existence in the middle of the fifteenth
century. Their wide estates, including- flat, fruitful land,
as well as those Highland districts in which the people
lived by plunder or the chase, give them a mixed character ;
and the Baron of Lovat was at one time a lord of Parlia-
ment, partaking in the counsels of the monarch ; at another
the mountain chief retired within his fastnesses, and was
more absolute and independent in Stratherrick than the
king at Holyrood."* Other authors, including Douglas,
Crawford, and Nisbet, agree that the actual date when the
family came to the Peerage is not known. They were
possibly promoted to that honour by James I. after 1430,
but there is no voucher to show that they were Peers of
Parliament until 1472, in the reign of James III.
In any event it is certain that at that date the family
were ranked among the Scottish nobility. On the 22nd
of June, 1605, a proclamation was made that "Dukes,
Marquesses, Earls, Lords, and Barons should show their
evidents to the effect that (we) know who is most worthy,
and every man to have his own place in Parliament, and
other proclamations, that they compear the first of Nov-
ember, their haill names being read out by the messenger."
In compliance with this order a decreet of ranking- of the
Scottish nobility, as authorised by James VI. was given
out, dated the 5th of March, 1606, narrating the citation
of the different nobles (Simon Lord Fraser of Lovat being
one of the number) and setting forth the order of pre-
cedence to be as therein shown in all time coming. In
this decreet Lord Lovat stands between Lords Oliphant
and Ogilvy — after the former and before the latter. Among
* Lives of Simon Lord Lovat and Duncan Forbes of Citllodcn, p. 6.