the regiment went to America, and was much remarked for its brilliant conduct in the field during the ensuing campaigns, and the thrift and sobriety of the officers and men (Knox, Hist. Mems.) Wolfe, in a letter to Lord George Sackville, speaks of the regiment as ‘very useful, serviceable soldiers, and commanded by the most manly lot of officers I have ever seen’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. iii. 74). Fraser was with it at the siege of Louisburg, Cape Breton, in 1758, and in the expedition to Quebec under Wolfe, where he was wounded at Montmorenci. He was wounded again at Sillery, 28 April 1760, during the defence of Quebec, and commanded a brigade in the advance on Montreal. He appears to have been still serving in America in 1761. In 1762 he was a brigadier-general in the British force sent to Portugal, and was one of the officers appointed to commands in the Portuguese army, in which he held the temporary rank of major-general. At the peace of 1763 the 78th highlanders were disbanded, and Fraser was put on half-pay. In the ‘Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament’ Fraser is shown in 1768 as a lieutenant-general in the Portuguese service, and in 1771 as a major-general in the British army. He petitioned the government for the restoration of his family estates (Gent. Mag. xliv. 137), and as it was held that his military services entitled him to ‘some particular act of grace,’ all the forfeited lands, lordships, &c., were restored to him on the payment of a sum of 20,983l. sterling, by a special act of parliament (24 George III, c. 37), ten years before the same grace was extended to any other family similarly circumstanced. The family title was not revived until 1837. At the outbreak of the American war of independence, Fraser, then a major-general, raised another regiment of two battalions, known as the 71st or Fraser highlanders, the third of five regiments which in succession have been so numbered. Many officers and men of the old 78th joined the colours, for Fraser appears to have been liked by his men, and possessed in a remarkable degree all the attributes of a highland military chieftain. Stewart relates a story of an aged highlander who, after intently watching Fraser harangueing his men in Gaelic, accosted him with the respectful familiarity then common, ‘Simon, you are a good soldier. So long as you live Simon of Lovat never dies’ (Scottish Highlanders, vol. ii.) Mrs. Grant of Laggan, however, describes him as hard and rapacious under a polished exterior. Fraser did not accompany his regiment to America, where, after several years of arduous and distinguished service, the men were taken prisoners with Lord Cornwallis at York Town, 19 Oct. 1781. The two battalions of the 71st or Fraser highlanders, and a corps known as the second 71st regiment, formed after the surrender at York Town, were disbanded at the peace of 1783, after Fraser's death. Fraser was returned to parliament for the county of Inverness, when away with his first regiment in Canada in 1761, and was thrice re-elected, representing the constituency until his death. A speech of his in the house, in which he accused the government of lukewarmness in prosecuting the war with the colonies, is given in ‘Gent. Mag.’ xlviii. 657. Fraser married a Miss Bristo, an English lady, by whom he left no issue, and who survived him and was alive in 1825 (see Anderson). He died in Downing Street, London, 8 Feb. 1782.
Fraser's only brother, the Hon. Alexander Fraser, born in 1729 (reg. Kiltarlity parish), became a brigadier-general in the Dutch service, and died unmarried in 1762. By a deed of entail dated 16 May 1774, and registered in Edinburgh 18 June and 28 July 1774, the recovered estates passed at Fraser's death to his younger half-brother, the Hon. Archibald Campbell Fraser [q. v.], M.P. for Inverness county and colonel of the Inverness local militia.
[Anderson's Account of the Family of Frisel or Fraser (Edinburgh, 1825, 4to); Foster's Peerage, under ‘Lovat;’ Aikman's List of Advocates, in Library of Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh; Arnot's Scottish Criminal Trials (Edinburgh, 1785, 4to); Trial of James Stewart of Aucharn (Edinburgh, 1753); Army Lists, 1757–82; London Gazettes; Knox's Hist. Memoirs (London, 1769); Journal of Siege of Quebec, printed in Proc. Hist. Soc. of Quebec, 1870; Stewart's Sketches of the Scottish Highlanders (Edinburgh, 1822); Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs (London, 1794); Scots Mag. various vols. vi. to xliv.]
FRASER, SIMON (1738–1813), lieutenant-general, is described by Stewart as the son of a tacksman (Scottish Highlanders, ii. App. xxxi.). He was senior of the Simon Frasers serving as subalterns (not captain-lieutenant as stated by Stewart) in the 78th or Fraser highlanders, commanded by Simon Fraser (1726–1782), Master of Lovat [q. v.], in the campaigns in Canada under Wolfe, Murray, and Amherst in 1759–61. He was wounded at the battle of Sillery 28 April 1760. When the regiment was disbanded in 1763 he was placed on half-pay as a lieutenant. In 1775 he raised a company for the 71st or Fraser highlanders, then forming under the command of his old colonel, Fraser of Lovat. He became senior captain and afterwards major in this regiment, with which he
