The Clan Fraser in Canada: Souvenir of the First Annual Gathering

The menu card, a copy of which has been reproduced for this volume, will be found to have been a clever effort of the artist, Mr. W. A. Fraser, Secretary of Committee. A representation of the Falls of Foyers is given on the cover, and on the last page a celtic armorial device surrounded by the names of a number of old Fraser estates.

The Chairman was Mr. Alexander Fraser (MacFhionnlaidh); and the vice-chairs were occupied by Mr. Robert Lovat Fraser, Barrister, Toronto, and ex-Mayor Fraser of Petrolea. A picture of the company is given on another page, which will form an interesting reminiscence of the happy gathering. From the picture, the face of one who was present at the dinner is unfortunately absent, that of Mr. Henry Sandham Fraser, and that of Mr. Wm. Fraser, of whom a brief notice is given on another page, appears, although he was not present, as he would have been were it not that he was just then stricken down with illness, to which, not long afterwards, he succumbed. The dinner was excellently served, and then came the toast list with the speeches. The first toast was that of:

"THE QUEEN."

The Chairman in proposing the health of the Queen said: – Our Clan has invariably been a loyal one, even in the rising which terminated so fatally on the battlefield of Culloden, the Clan Fraser took part, believing that they were striking a blow for the rightful king. I am sure we all agree that no sovereign has ever held sway over the British Empire who is more worthy of the regard of men of Highland blood than Her Majesty Queen Victoria. She who has given so many proofs of regard for the Highland people is beloved by them in return. Her volumes of her life in the Highlands, one of which has been well translated into Gaelic and the other indifferently so, bear testimony to the deep interest with which she regards that portion of her ancient kingdom of Scotland, to which we lay claim as our native land. She has gone in and out among the peasantry and gentry with perfect confidence in their loyalty and in their attachment to her person. She surrounded herself by faithful Highlanders, and their services to her, whether in the household or in positions of public preferment, have been uniformly of a high character and invariable success. That she may long live and rule in the hearts of her people, no body of men can wish more strongly than this company that has given to her name its just place of honor at the head of the toast list.

The toast was cordially honored.

"THE CHIEF."

The Chairman next proposed the toast of the Chief. He said: It is stated that a man of the name of Cameron, who had fought at the Battle of Falkirk with the Royal Army, his clan being on the side of the Prince, joined his kinsmen after the battle, but still wore the Royal uniform in the bonnet of which there was a cockade. Lord Kilmarnock, coming up and seeing an armed Royalist, as he thought, suspected danger to the Prince, and in an altercation he snatched the cockade from the soldier's hat and trampled upon it. This aroused the ire of the Camerons who saw their comrade maltreated, and they resented Kilmarnock's interference, saying, "No Colonel nor General in the Prince's army can take that cockade out of the hat of a Cameron except Lochiel himself." I mention this incident as affording a good example of the bond of fealty by which the clansman was held to his chief. To him the chief was supreme in all things. He was not only the head of his family, but the provider and protector of the clan. His authority he derived from his position, his position he secured, sometimes by the good-will of the clan, but generally on account of birth. The clansmen considered themselves as the children of the chief, and the system demanded that they subordinate themselves to his rule. Without a chief or his substitute there could be no organized clan, and it is rightly understood how important was his position under the clan system. Chiefs of our Clan proved themselves to be worthy of the position, as a rule, and Simon Joseph, Lord Lovat, the young nobleman who now holds the chiefship, already gives promise of faithfully following in the footsteps of his forefathers. At the celebration of his majority, not long ago, there was a considerable gathering of clansmen and others to do him honor, and the manner in which he performed his part as host on that occasion is an augury of a distinguished future. It is said that he shows a deep interest in the welfare of his people, that he is a young man of highly patriotic feelings, and, as his sphere of usefulness is a wide one, he, no doubt, will have ample opportunity of filling the highest expectations of the Clan. Following the traditions of his house he has entered the army, and, should he decide to follow arms as a profession, no doubt the military genius of his race, bequeathed to him through a long line of ancestors, will win for him honorable distinction as a soldier. I now ask you to charge your glasses and to drink to the health of our young chief with Highland honors.

The toast was drunk with Highland honors; the company singing "He's a Jolly Good Fellow," after which the piper played the Clan welcome, "Morar Sim."

Mrs. Charles Gordon Fraser was at this stage introduced, and her little boy, Master Norman Fraser, attired in Highland costume, gave a spirited and clever execution of the Highland fling, for which he was enthusiastically cheered.

"THE CLAN."

The Chairman proposed the next toast, that of the Clan. He said: – In rising to propose the toast of the evening, my first duty, it seems to me, is to express my sense of the great honor done me by my clansmen in asking me to preside over the first family dinner of the Clan in this Province. Many there be with us, who, from age and distinction and fitness in every respect, ought to have come before me, and who would have done greater honor to the position on such an occasion as this, than I can hope to do, even with your kind indulgence. The rather active part it has been my privilege to take in bringing about this happy gathering may have suggested your choice, and should I be right in this conjecture, that fact but deepens the feeling with which I regard the honor. But a still more arduous duty laid upon me was to give the toast of the evening, that of "The Clan." I can assure you it required all the courage I could muster to undertake the task. The motto of the Clan was held up to me, but I did not forget that Je suis prest ought to be the corollary of Paratus sum, and I fear that but few could step into the breach and do full justice to the great Clan Fraser. In assigning the toast, moreover, the request was made that I should give as much information regarding the Clan, as could well be packed into a speech, even if the limit of time should have to be extended over that which is usually allowable for an after dinner effort; but, as I understand the information is intended for a wider circle of clansmen than is here, I feel assured of your patience and forbearance while I struggle through a narrative, the length of which under other circumstances would have been an unpardonable breach of good taste.

The clan system holds an intermediate position between the patriarchal and feudal systems. It is sometimes confused with the former, more rarely with the latter. The feudal lordship, in its genius and scope of operation, was diametrically opposed to the salient characteristics of the clan system. The distinctions need not be enlarged upon here, let it suffice to draw attention to the fact that clanship was a distinct form of government, under well recognized and applied principles. In modern literature we find the characteristic most emphasized to be the loyalty with which the clansman followed and served his chief, as in the words of the quotation on our toast list, "Master, go on and I will follow thee, to the last gasp, with truth and loyalty." That truth and loyalty, however, was not born of a servile, but of a highly patriotic feeling, for the bond which united chief and clansman was that of kindred and common interest, and not of hire and servitude. This explains why a people so highly sensitive, fiery and impetuous as the Celts, gave such loyal and perfect allegiance to the chief of the clan.

Alexander Fraser (Mac-Fhionnlaidh)

Chairman.

Since the fact that we were to hold a clan gathering got abroad, I have been asked for information regarding the origin of the clans in the Highlands. How these clans were first established authentic history does not record with clearness. We are left in the task of unravelling the origin of the clans to meagre allusions in classical writings, in genealogies which, to some extent at least, are mythical, and to tradition, ever changing with the progress of the centuries. There can be no question that many of theclans grew gradually from the native population after the consolidation of the Scottish Kingdom. We know that tribes, some bearing names of modern clans, existed in what may be described as prehistoric times, in the ordinary acceptation of that term, in that part of Scotland north of the Forth and Clyde. Amongst these were the Bissets, the Fentons of the Aird, and others, whose names still survive in the County of Inverness, and who must have to some extent merged into the Fraser Clan, by adopting the name of the lord of the manor. I do not like to quote John Hill Burton as an authority, prejudiced, as he manifestly is, and unfair, as a rule, when dealing with the Highlands and the Celts, but a passage from his unreliable Life of Simon, Lord Lovat, will show how a surname may impose itself on a community and how clans have been, to some extent, constituted. He says: "In some instances the foreign family adopted a purely Celtic patronymic from the name of the sept of which they were the leaders. In other cases, such as the Gordons and Frasers, the sept, probably absorbing various small tribes and admitting to its bosom many stray members owning strange varieties of Gaelic names, took the name of the leader; hence we find the purest Gaelic spoken by people enjoying the Norman names of a Gordon or a Cumin. But, whether the imported lord of the soil adopted the name of the tribe or the tribe that of their lord, the unyielding influence of old national customs and peculiarities prevailed, and their families gradually adapted themselves in speech and method of life to the people over whom they held sway." This principle holds good in the case of the composite Fraser Clan, and a curious example is afforded by an extract from the Allangrange MS., with respect to the Rev. Wm. Fraser, of Kilmorack, published in that repository of Highland lore, the Celtic Magazine: —

"Bishop Hay, maternal uncle to Agnes Lovat, carried away by Kenneth Mackenzie (a Bhlair), Seventh Baron of Kintail, when he sent away his first wife Margaret, daughter of John, Earl of Ross, advised Kenneth and the lady's friends that a commission should be sent to the Pope in 1491 to procure the legitimation of their union. This was agreed to, and the following is the account of the commissioners: —

"'To that effect one called Donald Dhu McChreggie, priest of Kirkhill, was employed. This priest was a native in Kintail, descended of a clan there called Clan Chreggie, who, being a hopeful boy in his younger days, was educated in Mackenzie's house, and afterwards at Beullie by the forementioned Dugall Mackenzie (natural son of Alexander 'Ionraic' VI. of Kintail pryor yrof). In the end he was made priest of Kirkhill. His successors to this day are called Frasers. Of this priest are descended Mr. William and Mr. Donald Fraser.'

"The author of the Ardintoul MSS. gives a slightly different version, and says: 'To which end they sent Mr. Andrew Fraser, priest of Kintail, a learned and eloquent man, who took in his company Dugald Mackenzie, natural son of Alexander Inrig, who was a scholar. The Pope entertained them kindly, and very readily granted them what they desired, and were both made knights to the boot by Pope Clement VIII., but when my knights came home they neglected the decree of Pope Innocent III. against the marriage and consentricate of the clergy, or, otherwise, they got a dispensation from the then Pope Clement VIII., for both of them married. Sir Dugal was made priest of Kintail and married Nien (daughter) Dunchy Chaim in Glenmoriston. Sir Andrew likewise married, whose son was Donall Dubh MacIntagard (Black Donald, son of the Priest) and was priest of Kirkhill and chapter of Ross. His tacks of the Vicarage of Kilmorack to John Chisholm, of Comar, stands to this day. His son was Mr. William MacAhoulding, alias Fraser, who died minister of Kiltarlady. His son was Mr. Donald Fraser, who died minister of Kilmorack; so that he is the fifth minister or ecclesiastical person in a lineal and uninterrupted succession, which falls out but seldom, and than which, in my judgment, nothing can more entitle a man to be really a gentleman; for that blood which runs in the veins of four or five generations of men of piety and learning and breeding cannot but have influence, and it confirms my opinion that the present Mr. Wm. Fraser (who is the fifth) has the virtues and commendable properties of his predecessors all united in him.'"