died in infancy; of the eight who survived, Simon Fraser only mentions
two,--his elder brother, Alexander, and his younger, John. Alexander,
who died in 1692, was of a violent and daring temper. A determined
adherent of James the Second, he joined Viscount Dundee in 1689, when
the standard was raised in favour of the abdicated monarch. During a
funeral which had assembled at Beauly, near Inverness, Alexander
received some affront, which, in a fit of passion, he avenged. He killed
his antagonist, and instantly fled to Wales, in order to escape the
effects of his crime. He died in Wales, without issue. John became a
brigadier in the Dutch service, and was known by the name of Le
Chevalier Fraser. He died in 1716, "when," says his brother, Lord Lovat,
in his Memoirs, "I lost my only brother, a fine young fellow."[123]
Simon Fraser, afterwards Lord Lovat, was born at Inverness,--according
to some accounts in 1668, to others in 1670: he fixes the date himself
at 1676. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, where he
distinguished himself, and took the degree of Master of Arts. During his
boyhood he shewed his hereditary affection to the Stuarts,--an affection
which was probably sincere at that early age: and he was even
imprisoned for his open avowal of that cause, at the time when his elder
brother repaired to the standard of Dundee. Deserting the study of the
civil law, to which he had been originally destined, Simon Fraser
entered a company in the regiment of Lord Tullibardine, his relation;
nevertheless, he twice attempted to benefit the Jacobite cause,--once,
by joining the insurrection promoted by General Buchan, and a second
time by forming a plan, which was rendered abortive by the famous
victory at La Hogue, for surprising the Castle of Edinburgh, and
proclaiming King James in that capital.
This plot escaped detection; and the young soldier pursued his military
duties, until the death of Hugh Lord Lovat drew him from the routine of
his daily life into intrigues which better suited his restless and
dauntless character.
Although his father, it is clearly understood, never bore the title of
Lord Lovat, Simon, immediately upon the death of Lord Hugh, took upon
himself the dignity and the offices of Master of Lovat. He seems,
indeed, to have assumed all the importance, and to have exercised all
the authority, which properly belonged to Lord Lovat. He was at this
time nearly thirty years of age, and he had passed his life, not in mere
amusement, but in acquiring a knowledge of the world in prosecuting his
own interests. It is true, his leisure hours might have been more
innocently bestowed even in the most desultory pursuits, than in the
debasing schemes and scandalous society in which his existence was
passed: it is true, that in studying his own interests, he forgot his
true interest, and failed lamentably; still, he had not been idle in his
vocation.
He is said, on tradition, to have been one of the most frightful men
ever seen; and the portrait which Hogarth took of him, corroborates that
report. He inherited the courage natural to his family, and his
character, in that single respect, shone out at the last with a radiancy
that one almost regrets, since it seemed so inconsistent that a career
of the blackest vice and perfidy should close with something little less
than dignity of virtue. He seems to have been endowed with a capacity
worthy of a better employment than waiting upon a noble and wealthy
relative, or inflaming discords between Highland clans. If we may adduce
the Latin quotations which Lovat parades in his Memoirs, and which he
uttered during his last hours, we must allow him to have cultivated the
classics. His letters are skilful, even masterly, cajoling, yet
characteristic. It is affirmed that in spite of a physiognomy vulgar in
feature, and coarse and malignant in expression, he could, like Richard
of Gloucester, obliterate the impression produced by his countenance,
and charm those whom it was his interest to please. His effrontery was
unconquerable: whilst conscious of the most venal motives, and even
after he had displayed to the world a shameless tergiversation, he had
the assurance always to claim for himself the merit of patriotism. "For
my part," he said on one occasion, in conversation with his friends, "I
die a martyr to my country."[124]
In after life, Lovat is described by a contemporary writer, "to have had
a fine comely head to grace Temple Bar." He was a man of lofty stature,
and large proportion; and in the later portion of his life, he grew so
corpulent, that "I imagined," says the same writer, "the doors of the
Tower must be altered to get him in."[125]
"Lord Lovat," says another writer, "makes an odd figure, being generally
more loaded with clothes than a Dutchman: he is tall, walks very
upright, considering his great age, and is tolerably well shaped; he has
a large mouth and short nose, with eyes very much contracted and
down-looking; a very small forehead, covered with a large periwig,--this
gives him a grim aspect, but on addressing any one, he puts on a smiling
countenance: he is near-sighted, and affects to be much more so than he
really is."
"His natural abilities," remarks the editor of the Culloden Papers,
"were excellent, and his address, accomplishments, and learning far
above the usual lot of his countrymen, even of equal rank. With the
civilized, he was the modern perfect fine gentleman; and in the North,
among his people, the feudal baron of the tenth century."[126]
It seems absurd to talk of the religious principles of a man who
violated every principle which religion inculcates; yet the mind is
naturally curious to know whether any bonds of faith, or suggestion of
conscience ever checked, even for an instant, the career of this base,
unprincipled man. After much deception, much shuffling, and perhaps much
self-delusion, Lord Lovat was, by his own declaration, a Roman Catholic:
his sincerity, even in this avowal, has been questioned. In politics, he
was in heart (if he had a heart) a Jacobite; and yet, on his trial, he
insisted strongly upon his affection for the reigning family.
Such were the characteristics of Simon Fraser, when, by the death of
Hugh Lord Lovat, his father and himself were raised from the
subservience of clansmen to the dignity of chieftains. To these traits
may be added a virtue rare in those days, and, until a long time
afterwards, rare in Highland districts;--he was temperate: when others
lost themselves by excesses, he preserved the superiority of sobriety;
and perhaps his crafty character, his never-ending designs, his
remorseless selfishness, were rendered more fatal and potent by this
singular feature in his deportment. There was another circumstance, less
rare in his country, the advantage of an admirable constitution. It was
this, coupled with his original want of feeling, which sustained him in
the imprisonment in the Tower, and enabled him to display, at eighty,
the elasticity of youth. Lord Lovat was never known to have had the
headache, and to the hour of his death he read without spectacles. A
very short time after the death of Hugh Lord Lovat elapsed, before those
relatives to whom he had bequeathed his estates were involved in the
deadliest quarrel with the family of Lord Tullibardine.
The family of Lord Tullibardine, at that time called Lord Murray,
furnish one of those numerous instances which occur in the reign of
William the Third, of an open avowal of Whig principles, joined to a
secret inclination to favour the Jacobite party. The Marquis of Athole,
the father of Lord Tullibardine, had been a powerful Royalist in the
time of Charles the First; but had, nevertheless, promoted the
Revolution, and had hastened, in 1689, to court the favour of the Prince
of Orange, with whom his lady claimed kindred.
Disappointed in his hopes of distinction, the Marquis returned to his
former views upon the subject of legitimacy; and finally retired into
private life, leaving the pursuit of fortune to his son, Lord John,
afterwards Earl Tullibardine, and Marquis of Athole. The disgust of the
old Marquis towards the government of William the Third, and the evident
determination which his son soon manifested to ingratiate himself with
that monarch, had, at the time when the death of Hugh Lord Lovat took
place, completely alienated the Marquis from his son, and produced an
entire separation of their interests.[127]
In his zeal for the King's service, Lord Tullibardine had endeavoured to
raise a regiment of infantry; and it happened, that at this time Simon
Fraser, as he expresses it, "by a most extraordinary stroke of
Providence, held a commission in that regiment." This commission had
been procured for him by his cousin, Lord Lovat, who looked upon it as
the best means of "bringing him out in the world," as he expressed
himself. The mode in which Simon was induced by Lord Murray to accept of
this commission, and the manner in which he was, according to his own
statement, induced to support a scheme which was adverse to the
interests of King James, is narrated in his own Memoirs. If we may
believe his account, he opposed the formation of this regiment by every
exertion in his power: he aided the Stewarts and Robinsons of Athole,
devoted Jacobites, and determined opposers of Lord Murray, whose claims
on them as their chieftain they refused to admit; and when Lord Murray,
on being appointed one of the Secretaries of State, resolved to give up
the colonelcy of the troop, he tried every means in his power to
dissuade his cousin, Hugh Lord Lovat, to whom it was offered, from
accepting the honour which it was inconsistent with his principles to
bear. This conduct, according to the hero of the tale, was highly
applauded by the old Marquis of Athole, who even engaged his young
relative, Simon, to pass the winter in the city of Perth with the
younger son of the Marquis, Lord Mungo Murray, in order that they might
there prosecute together the study of mathematics.
Simon accepted the invitation; and whilst he was at Perth, he was,
according to his own statement, cajoled by Lord Murray into accepting
the commission, which "he held by a stroke of Providence;" and which was
represented by Lord Murray, as Simon affirms, to be actually a regiment
intended for the service of King James, who, it was expected, would make
a descent into Scotland in the following summer. And it was observed
that since the Laird of Beaufort was so zealous in his service, he could
not do his Majesty a greater benefit than in accepting this commission.
Influenced by these declarations, Simon had not only accepted the
commission, but had used his influence to make up a complete company
from his own clan: nevertheless, the command of the company was long
delayed. His pride as a Highlander and a soldier was aggrieved by being
obliged to sit down content, for some time, as a lieutenant of
grenadiers; and, at last, the company was only given upon the payment of
a sum of money to the captain, who made room for the Laird of Beaufort.
Nor was this all; for upon the Lord Murray being made one of the
Secretaries of State, he insisted upon the regiment taking oath of
abjuration, which had never before been tendered to the Scottish
army.[128]
Such had been the state of affairs when Hugh Lord Lovat was taken ill,
and died at Perth. The manner in which Simon Fraser represents this
event, is far more characteristic of his own malignant temper, than
derogating to the family upon whom he wreaks all the luxury of vengeance
that words could give. Simon, it appears, had persuaded Lord Lovat to
go to Dunkeld, to meet his wife, the daughter of the Marquis of Athole,
in order to conduct her to Lovat. Lord Lovat, disgusted by the treachery
of the Earl of Tullibardine in respect to the regiment, had refused to
have anything more to do with "this savage family of Athole," as he
called them, "who would certainly kill him."[129] According to an
account more to be relied on than that of the scheming and perfidious
Simon, the aversion which Lord Lovat imbibed during his latter days to
his wife's kindred, was implanted in his mind by Simon Fraser, in order
to gain his weak-minded relative over to that plot which he had formed
in order to secure the estates of Lovat to his own branch of the
house.[130] This, however, is the account given by Fraser of his
kinsman's last illness:--
"In reality he had been only two days at Dunkeld, when he fell sick, and
the Atholes, not willing to be troubled with the care of an invalid, or
for some other reasons, sent him to an inn in the city of Perth, hard by
the house of Dr. James Murray, a physician, the relation or creature of
the Marquis of Athole, upon whom the care of Lord Lovat's person was
devolved.
"The moment the Laird of Beaufort heard the news that Lord Lovat had
been conducted, very ill, to the town of Perth, he set out to his
assistance. But before his arrival, in consequence of the violent
remedies that had been administered to him, he lost the use of his
reason, and lay in his bed in a manner incapable of motion,--abandoned
by his wife and the whole family of Athole, who waited for his
dissolution in great tranquillity, at the house of Dr. Murray, their
relation."
Lord Lovat, however, recollected his cousin, and embracing him said,
"Did not I tell you, my dear Simon, that these devils would certainly
kill me? See in what a condition I am!" Simon could not refrain from
tears at this melancholy spectacle. He threw himself on the bed beside
Lord Lovat, and did not quit him till he died the next morning in his
arms. Meanwhile, not an individual of the Athole family entered his
apartment after having once seen him in the desperate condition in which
he had been found by the Laird of Beaufort.
Such was the state of family discord when Lord Lovat died; and it was
discovered, to the consternation of the Marquis of Athole and his sons,
that he had made a will in favour of his relation Thomas of Beaufort,
and to the exclusion of his own daughter.
The right of Thomas of Beaufort was deemed incontestable; and not a man,
it was presumed, dreamed of disputing it. Yet it was soon obvious that
the Earl of Tullibardine, who had now acquired the title of Viceroy of
Scotland, was determined to support a claim in behalf of the daughter of
Lord Lovat, and to have her declared heiress to her father. This scheme
was coupled with a design of marrying the young lady also to one of Lord
Tullibardine's own sons,[131] of whom he had five, and, according to
Simon Fraser, without fortune to bestow on any of his children.
The Master of Lovat, Simon Fraser, as he rightfully was now,
communicated this scheme to his father, and entreated him to resist this
claim. Recourse was had to several of the most able lawyers of the
kingdom, and their opinion unanimously was, that Lord Tullibardine had
no more right to make his "niece heiress of Lovat than to put her in
possession of the throne of Scotland: that the right of Thomas of
Beaufort to those honours and estates was incontrovertible, and that the
King himself would not deprive him of them, except for high treason." It
appears that Lord Tullibardine was satisfied of the justice of the
opinion as far as the title was concerned, but he still considered that
the property of the last Lord Lovat ought to descend to his daughter and
heiress. The point was warmly viewed between the Earl and the Master of
Lovat; but the conference ended with no farther satisfaction to either
of the gentlemen than that of having each a full opportunity of reviling
the other: such, at least, is the account given by one of the parties;
no reasonable person will venture wholly to vouch for its accuracy, yet
the dialogue does not appear improbable. This firmness and spirit threw
the Lord Commissioner into a violent passion; he exclaimed in a furious
tone, "I have always known you for an obstinate, insolent rascal; I
don't know what should hinder me from cutting off your ears, or from
throwing you into a dungeon, and bringing you to the gallows, as your
treasons against the Government so richly deserve." Simon, having never
before been accustomed to such language, immediately stuck his hat on
his head, and laying his hand upon the hilt of his sword, was upon the
point of drawing it, when he observed that Lord Tullibardine had no
sword: upon this he addressed him in the following manner.
"I do not know what hinders me, knave and coward as you are, from
running my sword through your body. You are well known for a poltroon,
and if you had one grain of courage, you would never have chosen your
ground in the midst of your guards, to insult a gentleman of a better
house, and of a more honourable birth than your own; but I shall one day
have my revenge. As for the paltry company that I hold in your regiment,
and which I have bought dearer than ever any company was bought
before,--it is the greatest disgrace to which I was ever subject, to be
a moment under your command; and now, if you please, you may give it to
your footman."[132]
Such was the beginning of a long course of hostilities which were
thenceforth carried on between the Murrays and the clan of Fraser, and
which was productive of the deepest crimes on the part of the Master of
Lovat. That he was fully prepared to enter into any schemes, however
desperate, to ensure the succession of the estates of Lovat, cannot be
doubted. He prosecuted his designs without remorse or shame. The matter
of surprise must be, that he found partisans and followers willing to
aid him in crime, and that he possessed an influence over his followers
little short, on their part, of infatuation.
The first suggestion that occurred to the mind of this bold and reckless
man was, perhaps, a natural and certainly an innocent method of securing
tranquillity to the enjoyment of his inheritance. He resolved to engage
the affections of the young daughter of the late Lord Lovat, and, by an
union with that lady, to satisfy himself that no doubt could arise as to
his title to the estates, nor with regard to any children whom he might
have in that marriage; nor was the hand of the Master of Lovat, if we
put aside the important point of character, a proffer to be despised.
The estate of Beaufort had long been in the possession of his father, as
an appanage of a younger son; and had only been lent as a residence to
Hugh Lord Lovat, on account of the ruinous state of the castle of Lovat.
Downie Castle, another important fortress, also accrued to the father of
Simon Lovat; and the estate of Lovat itself was one of the finest and
best situated in Scotland.[133] In addition to these, the family owned
the large domain of Sthratheric, which stretches along the western banks
of the Ness, and comprises almost the whole circumference of that
extensive and beautiful lake. The pretensions of the Master were,
therefore, by no means contemptible; and as he was young, although,
according to dates, ten years older than he states himself to be, in his
Memoir of his life, he had every reason to augur success.
For a time, this scheme seemed to prosper. The young lady, Amelia
Fraser, was not averse to receive the Master of Lovat as her suitor; and
the intermediate party, Fraser, of Tenechiel, who acted as interpreter
to the wishes of the Master, actually succeeded in persuading the young
creature to elope with him, and to fix the very day of her marriage with
the Master, to whom Fraser promised to conduct her. But either she
repented of this clandestine step, or Fraser of Tenechiel, dreading the
power of the Athole family, drew back; for he reconducted her back to
her mother at Castle Downie, even after her assurance had been given
that she would marry her cousin.[134]
The circumstances of this elopement are obscurely stated by Lord Lovat
in his account of the affair; and he does not refer to the treachery or
remorse of his emissary Fraser of Tenechiel, nor does he dwell upon a
disappointment which must have gratified his mortal enemies of the house
of Athole. Yet it appears, from the long and early intimacy to which he
alludes as having subsisted between himself and the Dowager Lady Lovat,
that he may have had many opportunities of gaining the regard of the
young daughter of that lady,--an idea which accounts, in some measure,
for her readiness to engage in the scheme of the elopement. At all
events, he expresses his rage and contempt, and makes no secret of his
determined revenge on those who had, as he conceived, frustrated his
project.
The young lady was at first placed under the protection of her mother
at Castle Downie, the chief residence of the clan Fraser; but there it
was not thought prudent to allow her to abide, and she was therefore
carried, under an escort, to Dunkeld, the house of her uncle, the
Marquis of Athole. And here another match was very soon provided for
her, and again her consent was gained, and again the preliminaries of
marriage were arranged for this passive individual. The nobleman whom
her relations now proposed to her was William, afterwards eleventh Lord
Salton, also a Fraser, whose father was a man of great wealth and
influence, although referred to by the Master of Lovat as the
"representative of an unconsiderable branch of the Frasers who had
settled in the lowlands of the county of Aberdeen."[135] This match was
suggested to the Athole family by one Robert Fraser "an apostate
wretch," as the Master of Lovat calls him, a kinsman, and an advocate;
and he advised the Marquis of Athole, not only to marry the young lady
to the heir of Lord Salton, but also, by various schemes and manoeuvres,
to get Lord Salton declared head of the clan of Frasers. This plot was
soon divulged; disappointment, rage, revenge were raised to the height
in the breast of the Master of Lovat. His pride was as prominent a
feature in this bold and vindictive man, as his duplicity. Throughout
life, he could, it is true, bend for a purpose, as low as his designs
required him to bend; but the fierce exclusiveness of a Highland
chieftain never died away, but rankled in his heart to the last.
It must be admitted that he had just cause of irritation against the
Murrays, first for disputing the claim of his father to the Lovat title
and estates, a claim indisputably just; nor was their project for
constituting Lord Salton the head of the clan Fraser, either a wise or
an equitable scheme. It was heard with loud indignation in that part of
the country where the original stock of this time-honoured race were,
until their name was stained by the crimes of Simon Fraser, held in love
and reverence. It was heard by the Master of Lovat perhaps with less
expression of his feelings than by his followers; but the meditated
affront was avenged, and avenged by a scheme which none but a demon
could have devised. It was avenged; but it brought ruin on the head of
the avenger.