James Fraser, Jr., of Brea, Min. of Culross

Biographical Summary

"James Fraser of Brea, born at Brea, in the parish of Kirkmichael [Resolis], Eoss-shire, 29th July 1639, son of Sir James F. of Brea (who sat as Commissioner from the Presb. of Inverness in the Glasgow Assembly of 1638), and grandson of Simon, seventh Lord Lovat, by his second wife, Jean Stewart, daugh. of James, Lord Doune, son of James, Earl of Moray. His father died while F. was still a child, and some of the greatest troubles of his life came to him out of his ownership of Brea and the derangement of his father's pecuniary affairs. These, however, he was able to amend considerably in course of time. He graduated M.A. at Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1658, and thereafter commenced the study of law. Coming under deep religious impressions he resolved to enter the ministry, and having qualified himself was ord. by the outed mins. of the Presb. of Moray in 1672. In 1674 he was ordered to be apprehended for preaching at conventicles, and letters of intercommuning were passed against him 6th Ang. 1675. He was summoned before the Privy Council 29th Jan. 1676, and nest day he was sentenced to imprisonment on the Bass Rock, where he remained for two and a half years, during which period his chief studies were the Bible and Oriental languages. He was released on giving security for his good behaviour in July 1679, Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor becoming cautioner in the amount of £560. In Dec. 1681 he was again called before the Council and sent to Blackness Castle until he should pay a fine of 5000 merks, and give a promise to cease preaching or leave the country. Unknown to him, a brother - in - law petitioned for a remission of the fine. Set free, he went to London 16th June 1682, where he was apprehended for a third time and confined in Newgate 21st July 16S3 for six months for declining what was styled the " Oxford oath." He returned to Scotland before 6th July 1687, when he was resident within the bounds of the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Early in 1689 he became min. of this parish, preaching in a meeting-house till the Committee of Estates sanctioned his use of the church, 13th May. He was a member of Assembly 1690 and 1692, was sent to give supply in the North, and had a call from Inverness Sept. 1696, but was not settled; died at Edinburgh, 13th Sept. 1699. Fraser's reputation rests on his noble and saintly character, his devotion to the Presbyterian principles, his sacrifices for the same, and his Memoirs, a " book of the intricacies of his own heart and life", of which Dr Alexander Whyte said : " It is in his Memoirs that James Fraser of Brea will live, and he will live in that remarkable book as long as a scholarly religion, and an evangelical religion, and a spiritual religion, and a profoundly experimental religion, lives in his native land. It is a book that for depth and for grip has few, if any, equals among the foremost books of its kind in the whole world." He marr.

(1) 31st July 1672, Isobel (died Oct. 1676), daugh. of Sir William Gray of Pittendrum, and widow of William Hamilton, merchant, Edinburgh, and had issue —

• Jean (marr. as his second wife, 1698, Hugh Bose of Kilravock), died s.p.
• Beatrice (marr. William Burnet, min. of Falkirk)

(2) Christian (died s.p. about 1696), daugh. of John Inglis, min. of Hamilton, and widow of Alexander Carmichael, min. of Pettinain."

SOURCE: Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation, Vol. V, page 15-16

Other References

• Memoirs of the Rev. James Fraser of Brea, A.D. 1639-1698; 1891