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Fraser family

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 Part 2: Hugh Fraser Jr (1792 - 1867)

Working life and marriage to Jessie Robertson

Hugh Fraser Jr was the sixth child of Hugh Fraser Sr and Isabel Hutchen. He was born 29 October 1792 in Foxhall, Kiltarlity Parish, south-west of Inverness, Scotland, near Loch Ness. His baptism occurred a day later.

In 1822, the Caledonian Canal was opened, providing a quicker route for boats through the Great Glen, rather than circumnavigating the dangerous coast of Scotland. A series of canals were built linking five lochs. At some point, Hugh moved to Aberchalder, in Boleskine and Abertarff Parish, an area between Loch Ness and Loch Oich through which the canal passed. He was the bridge keeper at Abercalder swing bridge for more than forty years. The Frasers lived in 'Bridge Keeper's House' which overlooked the bridge. The house had been constructed in 1815 and according to the 1861 Scotland Census, five of its rooms had at least one window! The house is still standing and is now the Bridge House Tea Garden, open March to October. A photo of the house can be viewed here. The swing bridge there now is not the original one. In Hugh's time, the bridge across the Caledonian Canal was for people on foot (now it is for cars on the A28) and would have been hand cranked by Hugh himself. In November 1834, a flood occurred which raised the water above the lock gates at nearby Cullochy Lock. Five years later, the canal was strengthened but a decade later the Aberchalder Bridge was washed away in more floods. The canal was dredged and the bridge rebuilt in 1854. The swing bridge today dates from the 1930s. [2]

Hugh lived out the rest of his life in Aberchalder. He married Jessie Robertson (c1811 – 1853) 20 June 1828. ('Jessie' is a diminutive form of 'Janet' and she was on occasion known by the latter name.) She was born in Inverness-shire c1811, possibly in Kilmonivaig Parish, southwest of nearby Loch Lochy. Her parents were Alexander Robertson and Mary McDonell. Her father was an innkeeper at Kinloch Uanagan, a hamlet near Fort Augustus, and died three months before her marriage. Her mother was still alive in 1841 and listed as a 'Spirit Dealer' in the census, still living in the same place. A John Robertson was also living there, probably a grandson, rather than a son. Also in the same area was agricultural labourer William Robertson and his family (who would lodge Jessie's son in twenty years' time). No record of Mary's death has been found so far. Jessie died 11 February 1853.

Hugh and Jessie had four children: twins Alexander and Hugh, Andrew and Mary. It is not known if Hugh and Jessie were native Gaelic speakers, but the area where they lived was certainly populated by those who were and English was considered an emerging 'second language'. Within the century, the positions would be reversed and Gaelic the minority language. The family had a couple of domestic servants to help them, one of whom, Ann McDonald, stayed with the family for at least a decade (though for some reason she seemed reluctant to list her real age, going from age 14 to 17 in only a decade!). After Jessie's death and his sons had left home, a Mary Fraser came to board who might have been a relative. Hugh died 28 August 1867 at his home of old age/debility, aged 74. He, Jessie, and their two youngest children were buried at Kilchuimen Burial Ground, Fort Augustus.

 Children of Hugh and Isabel

Hugh and Jessie's eldest children, Alexander and Hugh, were born 14 May 1835. Hugh was probably the older sibling as he was listed first in the parish record and described in an inventory of his father's effects as being the oldest next of kin. More information about Alexander appears in Part 3.

Hugh Fraser III (1835 - 1894) became a Church of Scotland minister. [1] He was not at home with the rest of his family in the 1851 census and it is possible he had moved away for his studies, though it cannot be certain where he was living at the time. He was educated at King's College, Aberdeen, date unknown (now part of the University of Aberdeen). It was not unusual for a boy younger than 18 to attend university, as Hugh's cousin Hugh Fraser (son of Donald) did. Despite the modern view that Scottish universities were more egalitarian than their English counterparts, boys of the two Hughs' social background were less likely to go. Given that church ministers were often sons of ministers themselves, it seems the cousins most likely had a relative who was a minister himself who provided the inspiration (and probably the financial backing) for their career choice.

Hugh was ordained in 1860. The following year saw him as a missionary for two mission chapels at Loch Arkaig and Brae Lochaber in Kilmonivaig Parish. He was living at Blarour Farm with the family of William Robertson (who had twenty years earlier lived next to Jessie's mother Mary - he might well have been Jessie's brother). He was presented by Queen Victoria 10 December 1863 and admitted to Berriedale Parish, Caithness-shire, 31 March 1864, succeeding his cousin. It was while he was at Berriedale that he married Mary McNab McCalman, daughter of Rev. Hugh McCalman of Latheron. The two parishes are located south-west of Wick and were disjoined in 1846. Hugh and Mary's three eldest children were born there: Hugh (1866), Alexander McCalman (1867) and Ursula Gilmour (1869). He was again presented by the Queen, translated and admitted to Fearn Parish, Ross and Cromarty Shire, 23 September 1869. Five more children were born: an unnamed girl born prematurely who only lived two hours (1870), Janet Isabella (1871), Julia Gilmour (1872), John McCalman (1874) and Andrew Robertson (1879).

Hugh remained the minister at Fearn until his death 22 November 1894, aged 59. In tribute to him, the Presbytery recorded that he had '... served his master faithfully for 25 years in the Parish of Fearn, preaching the Gospel of Christ with simplicity and power. He was a devoted pastor, and endeared himself to his parishoners [sic] of all classes by his amiable disposition and general sympathy, and by the meek Christian spirit which he manifested.' In his will, Hugh stated that his estate should go to his 'beloved wife ... to be used & [sic] enjoyed by her' and the residue on her death to any unmarried daughters, explaining that by educating his sons, they had already been recompensed! Mary McNab died 29 October 1912 in Edinburgh, aged 71.

Andrew (1835 - c1850), Hugh and Jessie's third child, was born 08 January 1838 in Boleskine and Abertarff Parish. He died aged 12, c1850.

Mary (1841 - c1846), their only daughter, was born 08 September 1841 in Boleskine and Abertarff Parish. She died aged 5, c1846. [3]

Next: Alexander Fraser

Footnotes

[1] There were two Hugh Frasers, cousins born a year apart in the Inverness-shire area who both became Ministers of the Church of Scotland, which has led to some confusion about who is who in earlier census records. In 'Fasti  Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ: Vol VII ', Hugh Fraser III's father is erroneously listed as 'Thomas Fraser', not Hugh Fraser, which shows these church records are not without error.

[2] Waterscape website (www.waterscape.com); 'The Caledonian Canal' by A.D. Cameron (1972); Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland website (http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk); The Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts (www.sabre-roads.org.uk); Report from the Select Committee on the Caledonian and Crinan Canals (1839).

[3] International Genealogical Index [IGI]; Old Parish Records pre 1855: Births & Baptisms, Marriages & Proclamations of Banns. Deaths & Burials, Statutory Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths 1855-2006, Scotland Census 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881. 1891, 1901 (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk); Scotland Census 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, various family trees (Ancestry.co.uk); Gazetteer for Scotland (www.scottish-places.info);  'The Third Statistical Account of Scotland: The Parish if Boleskine and Abertarff' by Rev. Angus Macaskill (www.southlochnessheritage.co.uk); 'A History of the Scottish People: The Scottish Educational System 1840-1940' by W.W. Knox (www.scran.ac.uk/scotland); 'Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ: Vol VII Synods of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness, Glenelg, Orkney and of Shetland,' by Hew Scott D.D. (1928) (www.dwalker.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk); Kilchuimen Burial Ground Memorial Inscriptions, Cill Chuimein Heritage Group (www.cillchuimeinheritagegroup.co.uk/index.asp); newspaper index at Am Baile Highland History and  Culture website (www.ambaile.org.uk); Fearn Peninsula Graveyards Project Memorial Inscriptions (www.fearnpeninsulagraveyards.com); 'Church Life in Ross and Sutherland 1688-1914' edited by Charles MacNaughton (1915); 'Pre 1855 Inverness District West Monumental Inscriptions' edited by Alistair G. Beattie and Margaret H. Beattie (1993); Wikipedia