Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/232

 FRASER, WILLIAM, eleventh (1654–1715), second son of Alexander Fraser, master of Saltoun, and Lady Ann Ker, was born on 21 Nov. 1654. He was educated at King's College, Aberdeen. His elder brother, Alexander, having died in 1672, he, on the death of his father in 1682, became Master of Saltoun, and in August 1693 he succeeded as Lord Saltoun on the death of his grandfather, Alexander, tenth lord. In the earlier period of his life the family fortunes were at a very low ebb, nearly all the estates being mortgaged heavily. To save them so far as possible, he was infeft in them in 1676 on a disposition by his father and grandfather, and having acquired a considerable dowry with his wife, Margaret Sharp, daughter of James Sharp, archbishop of St. Andrews, whom he married on 11 Oct. 1683, he succeeded, by judicious sales and otherwise, in redeeming the estates out of the hands of the creditors. He wrote a narrative of this part of the family history, so far as concerned the efforts of his father and himself, which is preserved at Philorth. Previous to his marriage he was in command of a regiment of infantry, under a commission from James, duke of York. In 1697 the marriage of his eldest son to Emilia Fraser, eldest daughter and heiress of Hugh, lord Lovat, was arranged, by which means the barony of Lovat would have been annexed to that of Saltoun. But Fraser of Beaufort and his son Simon (afterwards twelfth Lord Lovat) [q. v.], being next heirs of entail to Lovat, determined to frustrate the match, and took arms to enforce their plans. Lord Saltoun was forbidden to visit Beauly, where lay Castle Downie, the residence of Lovat, but disregarding their threats he did so, and was seized, imprisoned, and threatened with the gallows, which was erected in front of his prison, unless he bound himself to terminate the marriage negotiations. He was taken back to Castle Downie as a prisoner, and there is sufficient warrant for believing that Simon Fraser would have executed his threat. The marriage was broken off. As a lord of parliament Saltoun took his seat and the oath on 9 May 1695, and used his influence and vote in furtherance of the Darien scheme, and in opposition to the treaty of union with England. He died on 18 March 1715, his wife, by whom he left three sons and four daughters, surviving till 1734. The eldest son, Alexander (1684–1748), succeeded as twelfth lord, and his great-grandson, Alexander George Fraser [q. v.], sixteenth lord Saltoun, was the famous general.

[Lord Saltoun's The Frasers of Philorth; Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, ix. 347, 350.] 

FRASER, WILLIAM (1784?–1835), Indian civilian, youngest son of Edward Satchell Fraser of Reelick, Inverness-shire, arrived in India to take up a nomination to the Bengal civil service in 1799. After acting in subordinate capacities, he was appointed secretary to Sir David Ochterlony, then resident at Delhi, in 1805, and in 1811 he accompanied Mountstuart Elphinstone's expedition to Cabul as secretary. In 1813 he was promoted to be assistant to Mr. Seton, the resident at Delhi, and in 1815 was political agent to General Martindale's army, and subsequently travelled with his brother, James Baillie Fraser [q. v.], in the Himalayas. In 1819 he was sent to settle the hill state of Garhwal, which had just been freed from the Goorkhas. In 1826 he was appointed second member of the board of revenue of the north-western provinces, and in 1830 he was promoted resident and agent to the governor-general at Delhi, in succession to Sir T. F. Colebrooke. He held this appointment until the evening of 22 March 1835, when he happened to be riding along the junction of the roads leading from the Cashmere and Lahore gates of Delhi, attended only by a single sowar, and was suddenly shot dead by a Muhammadan, named Kureem Khan. The actual perpetrator of the deed was tried and hanged, and earnest efforts were made to find out who had suggested the murder. Suspicion fell upon a wealthy Muhammadan nobleman, Shams-ud-din, nawab of Firozpur, against whom Fraser had issued a decree, and after a long trial he too was found guilty and hanged. His trial greatly excited the Muhammadans of Delhi.

[East India Directory; Gent. Mag. February 1836.] 

FRASER, WILLIAM, LL.D. (1817–1879), educationist, was born at Cullen in Banffshire about the end of 1817. At an early period he entered the Normal Seminary in Glasgow, where he soon became one of the head-masters and a zealous coadjutor of David Stow in carrying out his training system—a new feature in Scottish education. Soon after the disruption of the Scottish church, the Normal Seminary was claimed by the church of Scotland, and Stow, Fraser, and nearly all the other teachers, having become members of the free church, had to leave, but were soon provided with a new building. In 1849 Fraser, after completing his studies for the ministry, was ordained to the pastoral charge of the Free Middle congregation, Paisley. In this office he remained till his death, greatly distinguished both for his pulpit and pastoral labours, and especially his work among young