LOVAT, SIMON FRASER, Lord, was b. about the year 1676, and was the second son of Thomas Fraser, fourth son of Hugh, ninth lord Lovat. His mother was Sybilla, daughter of the chief of the Macleods. The Frasers, a family of Norman origin, had obtained Highland territories, in the county of Inverness, in the 13th c., and had estab lished themselves as the patriarchal chiefs of the Celtic inhabitants within these territo ries, rather than as landlords, in the feudal acceptation of the term. The first settler—or, mere probably, the first who gained renowu—was natned Simon, and hence his descendants were called sons of Simon, or M'Shime. The descendant here com memorated had little hope of succeeding to the estates and honors, until the prospect opened to him under a settlement by Ins cousin lord Lovat. The succession was not indisputable, but until a much later period in the Highlands, influence with the clan often superseded direct hereditary descent. Simon at an early period gained their hearts. His first adventure was au effort to get forcible possession of the young sister of the late lord, who had more legal claims, as heiress to the Fraser estates. Baffled in this, lie, for a reason which has defied all attempts to discover, seized on the widow of the late lord, a lady of the Athole family, and compelled her to marry him. As this WRS not only a crime, but an offense to a powerful family, Shnon could only protect himself from pun ishment by force, and thus he kept up a petty rebellion for some years. On the acces sion of queen Anne, when his opponents became all-powerful, he fled to the continent. He was at the bottom of the affair called the Queensberry plot in 1703, in which he pro fessed to reveal the policy of the exiled court, and a plan for a rising in their favor among the Highlanders. On the discovery that he had hoaxed Queensberry and other states
men, and was playing a deep game of his own, lie escaped with difficulty to France. Of the method of his existence there during twelve years, there are only mysterious rumors, by one of which he was reputed to have taken orders as a Rounish priest. He had been outlawed for his outrages, and another enjoyed his estates by the letter of the law; but he was still the darling of his clan, and on the breakiug out of the insurrection of 1715, they sent a sort of ambassador to bring him over. What followed is remarkable, as showing that the Highlanders were led by the politics of their chiefs, not by their own prepossessions. The holder of the estates having joined the insurrection, Simon found it his interest to take the government side. His clan at once left the insurgents; and for this good service lie WilS invested with the estates, not only by the votes of his clan, but by the law. His life, for the ensuing 30 years, was active with local intrigues calculated to strengthen his iufluence. In the insurrection of 1745, he tdcd to play a double game, sending forth his clan, under the command of his son, to fight for the pretender, and deeply plotting for that cause, while he professed to be a loyal subject. He was a special. object of the vengeance of the government, and after a, trial by his peers, was beheaded on April 9,1747. He was remarkable as a type of that class of Highland chiefs who pro fessed to be led by policy as sovereigns, rather than by the laws of the couutry or its social system, and who were ashamed of no turpitude, fraud, or violence, if it tended to the aggrandizement of themselves and their clans.