in. APRIL 22, mi NOTES AND QUERIES.
301
LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1899.
CONTENTS. -No. 69.
N )TES : Dr. James Fraser, of Aberdeen, and Sir E. Irapey, iOl Historical Research, 302 Addams Family, 303 London "and "Lonnon " "Phantomnation" Daniel" Ohaucer, 304 Cromwell and the Organ The Battle of Dorking Alexander .Barclay Nicholas Downton Wai- ace's 'Russia,' 305 Archbishop Vesey "Mead and Obarni" An Oxford Reminiscence, 306.
QUERIES :" Geese" CM. Expulsions from Oxford- Coronations on St. George's Day ' The Wise Men of Gotham' Berkshire Carol Egyptian Flag Bess of Hard- wick, 307 Heraldic Major-General George Morgan Cosby and Jeffreys Families Process for removing Paint from Oak Eucharis Armorial Fulhnm Family Astro- logy John Bysse William Gulston Thomas Theobald = Rosa (?) Sir Richard Collet County Histories, 303 The Ubiquity of Irishmen Inscription on the Tomb of Richard II. Frisbie, 309.
REPLIES: The Place-name Oxford, 309 " Strenua nos exercet inertia," 310 Leigh : Lea, 311 Curious Christian Name' Oxford Argo 'The Roman Ghetto, 312 Doubt- ful Grammar in A.V. Bedfont, Middlesex Termination "ington," 313 St. Clairs of Herdmanstoun Relics of Charles I., 314 Gate : Sign of Inn Rutabaga Lines by Dickens Author Wanted, 315 Slough " Aerial Tour" C. Dalton, Black Rod " Illustration "Decollation of Charles I. All Souls' Day " Cow-rake," 316 'Lucy's Flitting' Witchcraft 'The Spiteful Letter' St. Cross Priory, Isle of Wight Date of Wedding Walton French Proverb, 317 "Cambuscan bold" Hereditary Odour, 318.
NOTES ON BOOKS: 'The Historical English Dictionary' 'History of South America' Oman's 'Great Indian Epics Notes on Jamieson's " Scottish Dictionary"' Folkard's ' Wigan ' ' Register of Salisbury Cathedral Choir.'
Notices to Correspondents.
DR. JAMES FRASER, OF ABERDEEN AND
CHELSEA, AND SIR E. IMPEY.
A NOTE in your issue for 5 Aug., 1882 (6 th S. vi. Ill), as to Dr. James Eraser, of Aberdeen (b. 1645, d. 1731), a man well known in his day as a great benefactor to that University and otherwise, put me on inquiries which enabled me to clear up a very confused state- ment in E. B. Impey's life of his father, Sir Elijah Impey, the Chief Justice of Calcutta, whose character was so fiercely attacked by Macaulay, arid has been so admirably vin- dicated by the late Sir Fitzjames Stephen. E. B. Impey says (p. 2 of the ' Life ') :
" His mother was nearly related to the noble Scotch family of Lovat, being the daughter of James Fraser, LL.D. Dr. Fraser was author of a 'Life of Nadir Shah,' held an official situation in Chelsea Hospital, and was uncle to Amelia, Baroness in her own right, and married in the strange manner recorded in history to Simon, twelfth Lord Lovat, beheaded for the part he had taken in the rebellion of 1745."
This passage is a curious mosaic of mistakes. The victim of the wicked Simon's outrage, here represented as Dr. Eraser's niece, was not the "Baroness Amelia," but the Baroness's mother, widow of the eleventh lord, a lady who was by birth a Murray of the Athole
family ; and Hugh, the eleventh lord, had
no brothers. The Dr. James Fraser who
wrote the 'Life of Nadir Shah,' and the Dr.
James Fraser who was first secretary^ of
Chelsea Hospital, were two different men.
The Orientalist, as the preface to his book
shows, was collecting MSS. in the East from
1730 to 1740, and brought out the book in
1742, while the secretary of Chelsea Hospital
died in 1731. That the Chelsea Fraser, and
not the Orientalist, was the grandfather of
Sir E. Impey, is proved by his will, wherein
there is much about " my daughter, Martha
Impey," wife of Elijah Impey, of Hammer-
smith. Also Ker's ' Frasereides,' mentioned
in your note of, 1882, gives an account of this
J ames Fraser's family connexions, and of his
daughter's marriage to Elijah Impey. The
full title of this book is :
" Frasereides, sive Funebris Oratio et Elegia in Laudemdesideratissimi Viri Jacob! Fraserii J.U.D., Collegii Regii Aberdonensis Msecenatis et Patroni beneficentissimi ; qui Londini obiit xxvi Maii, AJ>. MDCCXXXI, habita, &c., Perorante J. Ker, Grrecarum Literarum Professore. Aberdonise, 1732."
The date here given for his death cannot be correct, for his will was proved, according to the record at Somerset House, on 24 May, and the burial register of St. Martin's-in-the- Fields shows him as buried there on the 22nd. The " oratio " sets forth Fraser's munificent donations to his Alma Mater, donations which fairly earned him the name of " second founder." He spent large sums on the re- storation of the buildings, besides giving hundreds of books to the library, and en- dowing bursarships. Ker traces his descent, in a sketchy but definite manner, back to a Fraser known as "John the son of Alex- ander," of Farilon in Strath Errick ("do Farilon in valle Herica "), which Alexander I find described in Mackenzie's recent ' History of the Frasers' as the first of the line of Farraline, and third son of Hugh, fourth Lord Lovat. (Burke calls this Hugh the first Lord Lovat, saying that he was made a Lord of Parliament between 1458 and 1464.) The excellent Dr. James, of Chelsea, was thus only a very remote cousin of the famous (or infamous) Simon. He was a man who de- serves to be remembered as an example of public spirit in the use of wealth. "When I consider seriously within myself," he says in his will,
" that God has not sent me into the world for my own happiness only, or for that of my family, but for the benefit and good of mankind in general, and of my own country in particular, therefore I thought myself obliged, and accordingly purposed, to have left more than now I am able to do for publick and charitable uses, had I not been disappointed by
