FRASER, JAMES (1818–1885), English bishop, was born at Prestbury, in Gloucestershire, on the 18th of August 1818, and was educated at Bridgnorth, Shrewsbury, and Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1839 he was Ireland scholar, and took a first class. In 1840 he gained an Oriel fellowship, and was for some time tutor of the college, but did not take orders until 1846. He was successively vicar of Cholderton, in Wiltshire, and rector of Ufton Nervet, in Berkshire; but his subsequent importance was largely due to W. K. Hamilton, bishop of Salisbury, who recommended him as an assistant commissioner of education. His report on the educational condition of thirteen poor-law unions, made in May 1859, was described by Thomas Hughes as “a superb, almost a unique piece of work.” In 1865 he was commissioned to report on the state of education in the United States and Canada, and his able performance of this task brought him an offer of the bishopric of Calcutta, which he declined, but in January 1870 he accepted the see of Manchester. The task before him was an arduous one, for although his predecessor, James Prince Lee, had consecrated no fewer than 130 churches, the enormous population was still greatly in advance of the ecclesiastical machinery. Fraser worked with the utmost energy, and did even more for the church by the liberality and geniality which earned him the title of “the bishop of all denominations.” He was prominent in secular as well as religious works, interesting himself in every movement that promoted health, morality, or education; and especially serviceable as the friendly, unofficious counsellor of all classes. His theology was that of a liberal high-churchman, and his sympathies were broad. In convocation he seconded a motion for the disuse of the Athanasian Creed, and in the House of Lords he voted for the abolition of university tests. He died suddenly on the 22nd of October 1885.
A biography by Thomas Hughes was published in 1887, and an account of his Lancashire life by J. W. Diggle (1889), who also edited 2 vols. of University and Parochial Sermons (1887).
FRASER, JAMES BAILLIE (1783–1856), Scottish traveller
and author, was born at Reelick in the county of Inverness on
the 11th of June 1783. He was the eldest of the four sons of
Edward Satchell Fraser of Reelick, all of whom found their way
to the East, and gave proof of their ability. In early life he
went to the West Indies and thence to India. In 1815 he made
a tour of exploration in the Himalayas, accompanied by his
brother William (d. 1835). When Reza Kuli Mirza and Nejeff
Kuli Mirza, the exiled Persian princes, visited England, he was
appointed to look after them during their stay, and on their
return he accompanied them as far as Constantinople. He was
afterwards sent to Persia on a diplomatic mission by Lord
Glenelg, and effected a most remarkable journey on horseback
through Asia Minor to Teheran. His health, however, was
impaired by the exposure. In 1823 he married a daughter
of Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, a sister of the
historian Patrick Fraser Tytler. He died at Reelick in January
1856. Fraser is said to have displayed great skill in water-colours,
and several of his drawings have been engraved; and
the astronomical observations which he took during some of
his journeys did considerable service to the cartography of Asia.
The works by which he attained his literary reputation were
accounts of his travels and fictitious tales illustrative of Eastern
life. In both he employed a vigorous and impassioned style,
which was on the whole wonderfully effective in spite of minor
faults in taste and flaws in structure.
Fraser’s earliest writings are: Journal of a Tour through Part of the Himālā Mountains and to the Sources of the Jumna and the Ganges (1820); A Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan in the Years 1821 and 1822, including some Account of the Countries to the North-East of Persia (1825); and Travels and Adventures in the Persian Provinces on the Southern Banks of the Caspian Sea (1826). His romances include The Kuzzilbash, a Tale of Khorasan (1828), and its sequel, The Persian Adventurer (1830); Allee Neemroo (1842); and The Dark Falcon (1844). He also wrote An Historical and Descriptive Account of Persia (1834); A Winter’s Journey (Tâtar) from Constantinople to Teheran (1838); Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia, &c. (1840); Mesopotamia and Assyria (1842); and Military Memoirs of Col. James Skinner (1851).
FRASER, SIR WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, Bart. (1826–1898), English
politician, author and collector, was born on the 10th of
February 1826, the son of Sir James John Fraser, 3rd baronet, a
colonel of the 7th Hussars, who had served on Wellington’s staff
at Waterloo. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church,
Oxford, entered the 1st Life Guards in 1847, but retired with a
captain’s rank in 1852. He then set about entering parliament,
and the ups and downs of his political career were rather remarkable.
He was returned for Barnstaple in 1852, but the election
was declared void on account of bribery, and the constituency
was disfranchised for two years. At the election of 1857 Sir
William, who had meantime been defeated at Harwich, was
again returned at Barnstaple. He was, however, defeated in
1859, but was elected in 1863 at Ludlow. This seat he held for
only two years, when he was again defeated and did not re-enter
parliament until 1874, when he was returned for Kidderminster,
a constituency he represented for six years, when he retired. He
was a familiar figure at the Carlton Club, always ready with a
copious collection of anecdotes of Wellington, Disraeli and
Napoleon III. He died on the 17th of August 1898. He was
an assiduous collector of relics; and his library was sold for
some £20,000. His own books comprise Words on Wellington
(1889), Disraeli and his Day (1891), Hic et Ubique (1893),
Napoleon III. (1896) and the Waterloo Ball (1897).
FRASER, the chief river of British Columbia, Canada, rising
in two branches among the Rocky Mountains near 52° 45′ N.,
118° 30′ W. Length 740 m. It first flows N.W. for about 160 m.,
then rounds the head of the Cariboo Mountains, and flows
directly S. for over 400 m. to Hope, where it again turns abruptly
and flows W. for 80 m., falling into the Gulf of Georgia at New
Westminster. After the junction of the two forks near its
northern extremity, the first important tributary on its southern
course is the Stuart, draining Lakes Stuart, Fraser and François.
One hundred miles lower down the Quesnel, draining a large
lake of the same name, flows in from the east at a town also so
named. Farther on the Fraser receives from the west the
Chilcotin, and at Lytton, about 180 m. from the sea, the Thompson,
its largest tributary, flows in from the east, draining a series
of mountain lakes, and receiving at Kamloops the North
Thompson, which flows through deep and impassable canyons.
Below Hope the Lillooet flows in from the north. The Fraser
is a typical mountain stream, rapid and impetuous through all
its length, and like most of its tributaries is in many parts not
navigable even by canoes. On its southern course between
Lytton and Yale, while bursting its way through the Coast
Range, it flows through majestic canyons, which, like those
of the Thompson, were the scene of many tragedies during the
days of the gold-rush to the Cariboo district. At Yale, about
80 m. from its mouth, it becomes navigable, though its course
is still very rapid. In the Cariboo district, comprised within the
great bend of the river, near Tête Jaune Cache, are many valuable
gold deposits. With its tributaries the Fraser drains the whole
province from 54° to 49° N., except the extreme south-eastern
corner, which is within the basin of the Columbia and its tributary
the Kootenay.
FRASERBURGH, a police burgh and seaport, on the N. coast
of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Pop. (1891), 7466; (1901), 9105.
It is situated 4714 m. by rail N. of Aberdeen, from which there
is a branch line, of which it is the terminus, of the Great North
of Scotland railway. It takes its name from Sir Alexander
Fraser, the ancestor of Lord Saltoun, whose seat, Philorth
House, lies 2 m. to the south. Sir Alexander obtained for it
in 1613 a charter as a burgh of royalty, and also in 1592 a charter
for the founding of a university. This latter project, however,
was not carried out, and all that remains of the building intended
for the college is a three-storeyed tower. The old castle
of the Frasers on Kinnaird Head now contains a lighthouse,
and close by is the Wine Tower, with a cave below. The
town cross is a fine structure standing upon a huge hexagon,
surmounted by a stone pillar 12 ft. high, ornamented by the
royal and Fraser arms. The port is one of the leading stations
of the herring fishery in the north of Scotland and the head
