Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 5.djvu/164

 162 LOVAT. marriage; but, having failed therein, compelled her mother (the Dowager Baroness) to marry him, tho" subsequently, apparently, that proceeding was held to be invalid. He was (with his father) found guilty of high treason, 1698, and outlawed 17 Feb. 1701. After intriguing heavily with the exiled Stuart family, he suddenly changed sides, and so valuable was his assistance to the Government in 1715, that, on 10 March 171ti, he received a full pardon and a graut of the Lovat estates during the life of Alexander Mackenzie, aKjM Fraser aboveuained (the husband of the heir of line', who had forfeited his interest therein. (») He now tendered his vote at the election of Scotch Peers in 17*21, 1722 and 1 727, which was objected to, on the ground that the Barony of Lovat was. by decree of the Court of Session on 2 Dec. 1702. vested in his cousin, the heir general ; on which refusal he, in 1730, brought an action for "reducing " the said decree, which was accordingly done, and on 30 July 1730 he was declared to be entitled to the Loral peans, 21 Sep. 1715. he sent round the fiery cross to summon his followers; was taken prisoner 11 Dec. 1745, but escaped 2 Jan. following, and having vainly exhorted the Prince, after his defeat, 10 April 174ti, at Cullodeu, to make one mitre ellort, was finally captured on Lake Morar, brought to the Tower of London ; found guilty of high treason by the House of Lords, 18 March 1746/7, whereby his honours and estates were forfeited. i' 1 ) He Hi. (besides the connection with the Dow. Baroness Lovat above alluded to) firstly in 1717 Margaret, da. of Ludovick Guam, of Grant, by his first wife, Janet, da. of Alexander IJhodie, of Letheu. She was living 1729. He m. secondly, 1 July 1733, Primrose, sister of John, 4th DlIKK OF AltOYI.L [S.], 5th da. of the Hon. John Camp-bell, of Mamore, by Elizabeth, da. of John ( Eli'HinsTonk), Sth Loan Eu'HInstoNE [S.] He was beheaded, P April 17-17. in his SOth year, on Tower hill, and bur. in St.. Peter's ad Vincula in the Tower. ( c ) His widow d. at Edinburgh, 23 May 1796, aged 86. date is "according to his age at his death printed on his coffin and to several state- ments made by himself.'' (») Tli's life rent he, by purchase from the reversioners, turned subsequently (about 1733) into an inheritance in fee simple. ( b ) " Exclusively on this ground — that in virtue ef the latest valid rnd effective charter (Great Seal Register) and effective charter and investiture of the Baronial fief, Lordship or superiority of Lovat. dat. 2(i March 1530, both direct heirs male and even heirs male collateral, bearing armti ilUigniai/ue it Cognomen dc Fraser, were preferred to heirs whatsoever." See '' Itiddell," p. 371, where it is also stated that " Lord Hailes, a contemporary, explicitly states that the Lovat charter in 1530 was the grant upon which the Court of Session rightly adjudged the honours of Lovat to Simon Fraser." The decision, even then appears to have been arrived at by a narrow majority, Ufa, but 8 out of 1 5 Judges. The case is quoted in Bankton's " Institutes of the Law of Scotland" (1751) as illustrating the law, that "If there is no patent, but only possession, which is the case of our ancient Lords, the title of honour must go to the heir at law, who inherits all hereditary rights where a provision in favour of other heirs does not appear ; but if the old rights of the Barony and Lordship belonging to the family have always gone in a perpetual channel to heirs mole, then all titles thereon founded will be understood to go in the same manner to the heirs male, tho' the rights of the estate came afterwards to be destined to heirs whatever." See the decision of 1G33 in the case of the Barony of Oliphant [S. ], as to the title of the heir general being preferable to that of the heir male. (■=) See vol. i, p. 59, note " b," sub " Albemarle " for a list of *' the Jacobite peerages" so conferred. On or after '2 Jan 1740,7 he writes to his son "to take measures to secure the patent of the Dukedom, stating that if it was refused he must keep to his oath that he would never draw sword till that was done " [Nat. JJiogr.] (<>) This was one of the seven Scotch peerages forfeited in the insurrection of 1745 which has, with two others (Strathallan and Weniyss) been restored. See fuller particulars in vol. iii, p. 393, note "a," sub " ForbeB of Pitsligo." (o) He had three sons, all of whom d. without surv. male issue, viz. (1) Simon