Series 3 > Papers from the collection of Sir William Fraser

INTRODUCTION
Sir William Fraser, K.C.B., LL.D., was born at Arduthie,
near Stonehaven, on 18th February 1816. When still a
young man, after some successful inquiries for other
people, he turned his attention to the history of his own
family. He failed, however, to trace it very far. In the
year 1740 a certain John Fraser, said to be ‘of the Frasers
of Lovat ’ and to have come from Kirkmichael in the
heights of Banffshire, had a small farm in the parish of
Aberlour. His wife was Jean Carmichael, and they had
a son William, born in 1746, and two daughters Anne and
Clementina, a name in those days suggesting loyalty to
the exiled Royal House. About 1770 William Fraser the
son found his way to Aberdeen and thence into the Mearns,
where he was employed in building a new steading at
Cowie, near Stonehaven. On the completion of the work
he settled down there as a mason and married Christian
Young, daughter of James Young, tenant of the Mill of
Cowie, by whom he had a large family, including William
who carried on business as a mason and builder in Stone¬
haven ; James, the father of Sir William; and Jean, married
to John Dickson, tenant of Alpity, a farm on Arbuthnott.
In 1845 this John Dickson, then a man of eighty-seven, told
Sir William that though his grandfather said he came from
the Awin Water side, he was not in the way of talking
about his connections in the North Country—that he had
‘ a kilt in which he dressed occasionally with long flowing
hair on his back,’ and that his wife, when they returned
from their marriage jaunt, reported that she had met some