Personal data
Alexander Fraser
Born 1733   Died 1794  
8th of Strichen

Alexander Fraser was the son of Alexander Fraser (ca. 1700-1775), 7th of Strichen,1  and Anne Campbell (1692-1736). In 1764 he married Jean Menzies with whom he had at least nine children.

Fraser was granted the lands of Strichen, Aberdeenshire, in 1759, during his father's own lifetime. He was also the grandfather of Thomas Fraser (1802-1875), who in 1854 became the 12th Lord Lovat, following the reversal of the attainder of the 11th Lord, who was executed in 1747 following the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.

On August 25, 1773, Boswell and Dr Johnson continued their journey to the Highlands from their stay at Slains Castle. According to Boswell, "Mr Johnson was curious to see a Druid’s Temple. I had a recollection of one at Strichen which I had seen fifteen years ago. So we went four miles out of our road after passing Old Deer, and went thither. Mr Fraser, the proprietor, was at home and showed it. But I had augmented it in my mind, for all that remains is the two stones set up on end with a long one laid between them, as was usual, and one stone at a little distance from them. That stone was the capital one of the circle which surrounded what now remains. Fraser was very hospitable."

The stone circle in mention was since destroyed twice before being restored in the 1980s.2

Fraser's father was a long-time colleague of Boswell's father Lord Auchinleck in the Court of Session.

  • 1The older Fraser was a longtime judge of the Court of Session (1730-1775), styled Lord Strichen.
  • 2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strichen_stone_circle
Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)

Unless otherwise noted, the source for a dated quotation of Boswell's is generally the corresponding volume of the Yale Trade Editions of Boswell's journals.