Series 3 > Papers from the collection of Sir William Fraser

INTRODUCTION
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those early days it is plain that Sir William carefully
prepared his letters and preserved the drafts.
On the completion of his apprenticeship he went to
Edinburgh in December 1835, and had the good fortune
to obtain employment with Messrs. Hill and Tod, W.S., with
whom he stayed some four years. While in this situation
he attended the University of Edinburgh, and in particular
the classes of Scots Law and Conveyancing, of which
George Joseph Bell and MacVey Napier were then the
professors. In January 1840 he entered the office of
Mr. Warren Hastings Sands, W.S., with whom he remained
till nearly the end of 1848.
Mr. Sands was a man of some importance, being Solicitor
of Teinds. Fraser’s position in his office must have been
rather an unusual one. Not merely did he carry on
business on his own account, chiefly though not solely in
connection with peerage claims and cases where historical
and antiquarian knowledge was of importance, but in
1842 he became clerk to Mr. Charles Baillie, afterwards
Lord Jerviswoode, and in 1847 to Mr. Cosmo Innes, then
Sheriff of Elgin and Nairn.
From Mr. Sands he passed to Mr. John Gibson, a
prominent Writer to the Signet who had acted for Sir
Walter Scott in his troubles, and was a clerk with him till
1st January 1851, when along with Mr. Gibson’s son he
became a partner of the firm of Gibsons and Fraser, W.S.
In February of that year he was admitted a member of the
Society of Solicitors before the Supreme Court.
During all this time he maintained a regular correspond¬
ence with his uncle and with a number of his early friends.
From such letters as have been preserved it is plain that
away in Edinburgh, and steadily climbing the professional
ladder, Sir William maintained a keen and kindly interest
not merely in his own kith and kin, but in his native place
and its people generally, and was always ready to help every