Alexander Fraser (1820 - 1886)

Born 5 May 1820 in Philorth, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Husband of Charlotte (Evans) Fraser — married 25 Apr 1849 (to 1886) in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England

Descendants

Died 1 Feb 1886 at age 65 in Saltoun, Scotland [uncertain]

Biography

"Fraser, Alexander, Born May 05 1820 in Philorth, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Died Feb 01 1886 in St George Pimlic, Westminster, Middlesex, England." He was the 18th Lord of Saltoun.

In the family’s West India (slave) business Simon Fraser later inherited Ness Castle but, at his early death in 1811, this passed to his younger brother, William [1791−1845], who later also joined the West India merchant house. William’s son, Alexander Fraser, Lord Saltoun [1820−1886] wrote in 1879:

The mercantile house of which [William] was head shared the ruin brought upon many similar establishments by the enactment of the abolition of slavery in the West Indian islands and dependencies, which the compensation of twenty millions granted by Parliament was bit a drop in the ocean to avert. However right in the abstract, it is very doubtful whether that measure has proved as beneficial to the negroes themselves as its promoters anticipated and desired, or whether a more gradual change might not have produced better effects upon their protéges, and less ruinous consequences to some of their fellow-countrymen; but these pages are not the proper place in which to discuss that question.

Alexander also wrote of his father: His character may be given in a very few words. He never made an enemy. Robust and active, he delighted in field sports and athletic exercise, while the kindness of his disposition and the geniality of his temper made him a very general favourite. A good husband and father, and a warm friend, there were many that sorrowed for this comparatively early death.

Alexander Fraser (Lord Saltoun), The Frasers of Philorth, p. 313

http://www.tribalpages.com/tribe/familytree?uid=donnelly999&surname=Fraser

Sources

• THE PEERAGE 16839

https://www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/index.asp?pageid=628424