Charles Mackenzie Fraser of Castle Fraser

Biographical Summary

Mackenzie Fraser, Charles (1792-1871), of Inverallochy and Castle Fraser, Aberdeen

Constituency

Ross-shire 25 Oct. 1814 - 1818

Family and Education

b. 9 June 1792, 1st s. of Alexander Mackenzie of Inverallochy. educ. Kenton, Mdx. 1805.1 m. 25 Apr. 1817, Jane, da. of Sir John Hay, 5th Bt., of Smithfield and Haystoun, Peebles, 5s. 5da. suc. fa. 1809; gt.-aunt Eliza Fraser to Castle Fraser 1814.

Offices Held

Ensign, 78 Ft. 1806; lt. 52 Ft. 1808; lt. and capt. 2 Ft. Gds. 1810, ret. 1814.

Col. Ross militia 1815.

Biography

Mackenzie Fraser entered the army as an ensign in his father’s regiment and subsequently transferred to the 52nd, with which he served in the Peninsula. In 1811, his uncle Lord Seaforth encouraged him to investigate the possibilities of an attempt on Inverness Burghs, but he made no headway. His rejection the same year of an offer from the Gordon family to back him in Aberdeenshire if a vacancy occurred was seen by one observer as evidence of his ‘good sense’.2 On inheriting the Castle Fraser property in 1814 he resigned his commission and in October he was returned on a vacancy for Ross-shire by Seaforth, like his father before him. He voted with government on the Spanish Liberals, 1 Mar., the Regent’s expenditure, 31 May, the Duke of Cumberland’s establishment, 3 July 1815, the property tax, 18 Mar., the public revenues bill, 14 and 20 June 1816, Admiralty economies, 25 Feb. 1817, the censure of the Scottish law officers, 10 Feb., and the Duke of Clarence’s allowance, 15 Apr. 1818. Mackenzie Fraser, who voted against Catholic relief, 21 May 1816, is not known to have spoken in the House, from which he retired in 1818. He died 7 Mar. 1871.

SOURCE: The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986

Other References

• BBC - Your Paintings - Charles Mackenzie Fraser, MP
• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland 6th ed. London : Harrison 1879. Vol I. page 600