A Moderated Customer Comment Blog.  Search

3 Celts & Company • "FRASER"

At first de Friselle or Fresel, then 'Fraisier' from the "fraises" or strawberry flowers in their armorial bearings, this Norman family first settled in Tweeddale under Malcome Canmore, to become the chief power in Peeblesshire throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, owning Oliver, Neidpath and other castles, also estates in East Lothian. The chief male line there dying out devolved upon the Lovat branch which had firmly established itself in the North, in Bruce's time. A further branch of Philorth founded Fraserburgh [see Baird] in the 16th century.
The Fraser clan have played a full part in history, not only in Scotland. For his Jacobite activities, Simon Fraser (Lord Lovat) was beheaded after Culloden at the age of eighty; and a later namesake explored the Fraser river in Canada. Sir James Fraser, author of "The Golden Bough," made folk-lore a study of the modern scientist.

"BAIRD". When the Bairds were in possession of Auchmedden it was Thomas the Rhymer who prophesied that "As long as eagles nested on the cliffs of Pennan, there would be Bairds in Auchmedden."

Septs: ABERNETHY, BISSET, BISSETT, BREWSTER, COWIE, FRAZER, FRESER, FREZEL, FRISELL, FRIZELLE, GILRUTH, GREWAR, GRUAR, GRUER, MACGREWAR, MACGRUER, MACILLRICK, MACILRIACH, MACIMMEY, MACKIM, MACKIMMIE, MACSIMON, MACSYMON, MACTAVISH, OLIVER, SIM, SIME, SIMON, SIMONS, SIMPSON, SIMS, SIMSON, SYM, SYME, SYMON, SYMONS, TWADDLE, TWEEDDALE, TWEEDIE

"FRASER." Scots Kith and Kin and Illustrated Map Revised Second Edition. Edinburgh, SCOT: Clan House, c.1970. p.56. Print.

Baird, Hamish L. M. "THE BAIRDS". [http://clanbaird.net/]. MAY 1974. web.

keywords[x] tartan, wool, kilts, Fraser, Baird, Bard, clan, septs

3 Celts & Company • BLACK WATCH "Independent Highland Companies"

The first Independent Companies (then known as the 'Kings Guard') are generally regarded to have been formed after the Union of the Crowns in 1603 when James VI of Scotland became James I of England. Following events of 1688, King James II of England (VII of Scotland) made a decision to secure peace throughout both the Scottish Highlands and Scottish Lowlands. The main chiefs were asked to supply a certain number of men each. By 1738 the Independent Highland Companies were known officially as 'Am Freiceadan Dubh' or Black Watch. The Independent Highland Companies took a very active part in the Jacobite rising of 1745. One of their first actions was when 600 men of the Grant, two Sutherland, Munro and Mackay companies fought in the Siege of Fort Augustus (December 1745). The fort was liberated from the Clan Fraser of Lovat, largely Jacobites.
During the Seven Years’ War a number of unidentified Independent Highland Companies were raised but were almost immediately sent south to the Scottish Lowlands or to England as new recruits and could scarcely be regarded as true Independent Companies but were more like a recruitment agency for the British Army. There were no more Independent Highland Companies formed after 1763 but from those that had been before emerged the world-famous Highland regiments during the remainder of the 18th century.

Clans: MURRAY, MENZIES, STUART, CAMPBELL, ROBERTSON, MACFARLANE, GRAHAM, GORDON, MONRO, SUTHERLAND (under GUNN), GRANT, MACKAY, MACLEOD, MACINTOSH (town of INVERNESS), MACKENZIE, MACDONALD of SLEAT, ROSS

"Independent Highland Companies." Wikipedia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Highland_Companies]. 3 November 2013. web.

keywords[x] tartan, wool, kilts, Black Watch, clan, regiments