The Clan Fraser in Canada: Souvenir of the First Annual GatheringFraser, Alexander
History
The Clan Fraser in Canada: Souvenir of the First Annual Gathering
Fraser, Alexander
Clans -- Canada; Fraser family
At the close of the war many of the officers and men settled in the
Provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia, having obtained their discharge and
grants of land in the New World. It was not long ago computed that the
descendants of these Highlanders in the Province of Quebec numbered
3,000, but merged in the French-Canadian peasantry to such an extent
that even the names have lost their original form. In Nova Scotia the
name Fraser flourishes in every township of every county. There have
been many accessions to the Clan since the days of the Seventy-Eighth
and the Battle of the Plains, but at least four-fifths of those bearing
the Clan name in Canada to-day, trace their descent from the victorious
clansmen of Cape Breton and Quebec.
On the outbreak of the American War the Royal Highland Emigrants were
embodied, and in that regiment, commanded by the gallant Lieut.-Colonel
Allan MacLean (son of Torloisk), 300 men who had belonged to Fraser's
regiment enlisted. In the interval between the cession of Canada and the
American War, the Lovat estates were restored to the Master of Lovat,
for his eminent services (the title was kept in abeyance), and he was
asked to raise a regiment, the Seventy-First, of two battalions. This he
speedily accomplished and soon found himself at the head of a double
regiment numbering 2,340 officers and men. They behaved with the highest
distinction throughout the war and earned flattering encomiums from the
commanding officers. General Stewart, than whom no more competent
authority has written of Highland regiments, and but few who have
understood Highland character better, whose Sketches have furnished
facts to all subsequent writers on the subject, speaks of the
Seventy-First, Fraser's Highlanders, thus: "Their moral conduct was in
every way equal to their military character. Disgraceful punishments
were unknown. Among men religious, brave, moral and humane, disgraceful
punishments are unnecessary. Such being the acknowledged general
character of these men, their loyalty was put to the test and proved to
be genuine. When prisoners, and solicited by the Americans to join their
standard and settle among them, not one individual violated the oath he
had taken, or forgot his fidelity or allegiance, a virtue not generally
observed on that occasion, for many soldiers of other corps joined the
Americans, and sometimes, indeed, entered their service in a body." The
Seventy-First did not leave many behind as settlers, and the reference
to it here is only permissible as illustrating the high character of the
Clan, of which the Seventy-Eighth, which left its quota of settlers
behind, formed an important part. General Simon Fraser's intimate
connection with Canada, as commanding officer of Fraser's Highlanders
(1757), and in other interesting respects, may suffice as a reason why a
good anecdote of him may be here related. When the Seventy-First
mustered at Glasgow, Lochiel was absent, being ill at London. His
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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