Frasers at Culloden: Where They Came From and What Happened Next

The Frasers who fought for the Jacobites at Culloden on April 16, 1746, belonged principally to the Highland Frasers of Lovat. Their recruiting network centered on Fraser-controlled country west and south of Inverness, including the Aird, the Beauly valley, Kilmorack, Kiltarlity, Kirkhill, and Stratherrick.

Only part of the Fraser force reached the battlefield in time. One body, commanded by Charles Fraser of Inverallochy, fought on Culloden Moor. Another, led by Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, approached too late and encountered retreating Jacobites near Inverness. What happened to those late-arriving men is more complicated than the familiar claim that they simply escaped into the Highlands.

Which Frasers Fought at Culloden?

The name Fraser covered more than one important Scottish family network. The Highland Frasers of Lovat were centered in Inverness-shire and the Great Glen. The Frasers of Philorth and Saltoun had their principal associations in northeastern Scotland, particularly Aberdeenshire and the Fraserburgh area.

The Jacobite force represented the Lovat interest. The Complete Guide to Clan Fraser explains the Lovat and Philorth or Saltoun branches. A Fraser ancestor from another region cannot be connected to the Lovat regiment through surname alone. Place and surviving records must establish the connection.

Not every soldier carried the Fraser surname. Recruitment followed networks of landholding, obligation, family, and local leadership. Men with other surnames could serve because they lived on Lovat land or belonged to Fraser communities. The guide to Clan Fraser septs and documentary proof explains these relationships.

The surviving evidence does not provide a complete roll of every man who served. Historical estimates of the Fraser strength vary, while reconstructed lists represent only part of the force. Numbers such as 300, 400, or 500 should therefore be presented as estimates, not exact totals.

A Partial and Reconstructed List of Lovat Participants

The following table is partial and reconstructed. It is not a complete muster roll, and inclusion does not prove that every man fought on Culloden Moor. Some belonged to the Fraser force that reached the battlefield under Charles Fraser of Inverallochy; others were associated with the wider Lovat force, including the body that arrived too late.

The MacIver, MacDonald, and MacTavish entries are important because they show that the Lovat force was not composed exclusively of men named Fraser. Local residence, tenancy, kinship, employment, and allegiance could connect men of other surnames to Fraser leadership. Just as importantly, appearing in a reconstructed regimental record does not by itself prove that a man stood on Culloden Moor on April 16, 1746.

Where the Frasers at Culloden Came From

The heart of Lovat Fraser country lay around the River Beauly and the Aird, west of Inverness. The Aird is the district extending between the Beauly Firth and the river valleys leading inland. It contained farms, settlements, churches, and estates tied to Fraser authority.

Castle Dounie

Castle Dounie – also rendered Castle Downie in some sources – stood near the site of present-day Beaufort Castle, which was the chief’s seat. Beauly served as an important local center, but the recruiting landscape extended beyond the town. Surviving lists associate officers and men with places in Kilmorack, Kirkhill, Kiltarlity, Culbokie, Redcastle, and Stratherrick. These locations form a recognizable Fraser network around the Beauly Firth and the approaches to the Great Glen.

Stratherrick

Stratherrick was especially important. This broad upland district stretches along the southeastern side of Loch Ness and into the country south of Inverness. Its residents had already appeared in Fraser military activity earlier in the rising. Men connected to Stratherrick participated in the unsuccessful attempt to seize Culloden House in October 1745 and in operations around Fort Augustus.

Predominately in Inverness-shire Communities

That does not mean every Fraser at Culloden came from within a precise distance of Beauly. Some named participants came from places outside the narrow heartland, and reconstructed regimental lists remain incomplete. It is safer to describe the force as predominantly rooted in Lovat-controlled Inverness-shire communities.

Culloden was fought close to Inverness and within the wider region where the Lovat Frasers held influence. It occurred near communities and roads many recruits knew. Yet “within sight of their own backyard” is a memorable image, not a documented fact.

For family historians, the place names are more valuable than a dramatic radius. A documented ancestor in Kilmorack, Kirkhill, Kiltarlity, the Aird, or Stratherrick has a meaningful geographic connection to the Lovat world. That connection is a research lead, not proof that the person fought in 1745 or 1746.

Why the Frasers at Culloden Were Divided

Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, was one of the most politically complicated figures in the rising. He had supported the government during the Jacobite rising of 1715 and benefited from that loyalty. In 1745, he attempted to protect his position while communicating with competing sides.

After the Jacobite victory at Prestonpans, Lovat directed his eldest son, Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, to bring out Fraser men for Charles Edward Stuart. The younger Simon was only 19 and appears to have been far less enthusiastic about the Jacobite cause than his father. Nevertheless, he acted under intense family and political pressure.

The other central officer was Charles Fraser, younger of Inverallochy. His family belonged to an important Fraser cadet branch associated with northeastern Scotland. That explains an apparent geographic contradiction: the commander who led the Fraser contingent on Culloden Moor came from the Inverallochy branch, while many of the men under him were recruited in Lovat territory around Inverness-shire.

Sources describe the Fraser formation with inconsistent terminology. Some call it a regiment containing two battalions. The National Trust for Scotland’s Culloden history describes two companies, one associated with Inverallochy and the other with the Master of Lovat. Rather than force eighteenth-century organization into one tidy modern label, the clearest explanation is that two substantial bodies of Fraser men did not arrive on the battlefield together.

The Frasers Who Reached Culloden Moor

The Fraser men under Charles Fraser of Inverallochy stood on the Jacobite right with the Mackintoshes and Stewarts of Appin, near the Camerons. Their part of the battlefield presented serious difficulties.

The ground was wet and uneven, slowing movement. A walled enclosure affected the route of the Jacobite advance and provided cover for government troops. As units moved forward, men crowded together while attempting to pass the obstruction and maintain the speed needed for the Highland charge.

Despite these problems, men from the Jacobite right reached the government line. The fighting could not reverse the larger disadvantages facing the Jacobite army. Government units reinforced threatened positions, while artillery, musket fire, battlefield organization, and greater numbers worked against the attackers.

The Fraser contingent eventually withdrew toward Inverness with other surviving Jacobites. Reports of Fraser casualties differ considerably. Later clan accounts sometimes give very high numbers, but incomplete rolls and conflicting estimates prevent a trustworthy exact calculation.

Charles Fraser of Inverallochy was wounded and died after the battle. A widely repeated account says that a government officer ordered his death while he lay wounded. The National Trust presentation repeats this account, but its details should still be attributed rather than presented as if every element can be independently proven from surviving contemporary records.

The battlefield’s Fraser memorial stone commemorates the clan’s participation, but it is not a roster or a grave marker for every individual Fraser. Visitors should treat the battlefield as a protected war grave and the stone as a place of collective remembrance.

What Happened to the Frasers at Culloden That Arrived Too Late?

The Second Fraser Body

The second Fraser body, under the Master of Lovat, did not fight in the main battle. Accounts agree on that essential point, but they differ over why the men were absent and what the Master intended to do when he learned of the defeat.

The late company came out from Inverness toward Culloden and encountered Fraser survivors and other Jacobites retreating from the moor. One traditional account says the Master was sharply criticized for arriving when his help could no longer affect the outcome.

He then reportedly proposed returning to Inverness and defending the bridge over the River Ness. The bridge offered an obvious defensive position and a possible way to protect retreating men. Inverness, however, contained both government and Jacobite sympathizers, and its residents had good reason to resist having the town turned into another battlefield.

There may have been a limited confrontation around the bridge, but the evidence does not establish a determined, prolonged defense. Historians have debated whether the Master abandoned the idea to spare Inverness, recognized that resistance was hopeless, or deliberately began distancing himself from the defeated Jacobite cause. His later pardon and British military career have encouraged suspicions that he changed sides, but later advancement does not prove what he intended at the bridge in April 1746.

The Fate of Survivors and the Second Force

The men under him did not share one clearly documented fate. Some probably returned to their home districts. Others may have remained with retreating Jacobite groups or surrendered. Individual men faced different choices shaped by location, family responsibilities, opportunity, and the presence of government patrols.

Therefore, it is not accurate to say that the entire late force was hunted down, escaped together into one Highland refuge, or immediately dissolved without further action. The surviving evidence supports a scattered aftermath, not a single dramatic ending.

Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, remained at risk after the defeat. He eventually surrendered to the government and was confined, first in Edinburgh Castle and later under restrictions in Glasgow. Simon was not executed. He received a full pardon in 1750 and entered Scottish legal and public life.

Reprisals in Fraser Country

Missing the battle did not protect the late-arriving men or their families from the consequences imposed on Fraser country. Government forces sought fugitives, disarmed communities, confiscated livestock and supplies, and damaged property in districts associated with the rebellion.

Castle Dounie became the most visible symbol of the punishment. Historic Environment Scotland’s official account of Beaufort Castle records that Dounie Castle was burned and razed after Culloden. A surviving section of wall marks the site of the former Fraser stronghold.

The effects extended beyond the chief’s residence. Removing animals, grain, boats, tools, or household goods could threaten a tenant family’s survival. These actions affected women, children, elderly residents, laborers, and tenants who had never stood on the battlefield, as well as returning soldiers.

Lord Lovat fled after Culloden but was captured. He was taken to London, convicted of treason, and executed on Tower Hill on April 9, 1747. The title was attainted, and the Lovat estates were forfeited to the Crown.

For genealogists, forfeiture changed the paper trail. Crown officials and estate commissioners generated rentals, accounts, correspondence, claims, surveys, and administrative records. A political disaster for the family could therefore create evidence that helps descendants identify tenants and communities affected by the rising. The fuller story appears in Clan Fraser Lands: Lovat Estates, Loss and Restoration.

From Reluctant Jacobite to Crown Officer

The younger Simon Fraser’s later career produced one of the most striking reversals in the Fraser story. After receiving his pardon, he helped raise a Highland regiment for British service in 1757. The unit became the 78th Regiment of Foot, commonly remembered as Fraser’s Highlanders, and served in North America during the Seven Years’ War.

Some recruits may have been veterans of the Jacobite rising or relatives of men who served in 1745 and 1746. The regiment also drew on the same broad Highland recruiting culture. Nevertheless, it is misleading to claim without qualification that the late company or the Culloden survivors simply became the 78th as one body. Eleven years had passed, and the 1757 regiment was a new military formation with its own recruitment and command structure.

Simon Fraser’s Crown service helped restore his political standing. The Lovat estates were returned to him in 1774, although the old peerage title was not restored at that time. His life links rebellion, surrender, pardon, imperial warfare, and estate restoration, but it should not be used to impose a single path on every Fraser who survived Culloden.

What Culloden Means for Fraser Descendants

The Frasers at Culloden came principally from the Lovat world of Inverness-shire, but surname and clan tradition alone cannot identify an ancestor as one of them. The best evidence begins with a named person and a documented place, followed by military lists, prisoner records, parish registers, estate papers, and local associates. Clan Fraser Genealogy: Lovat, Saltoun, and the Truth explains how to keep clan context separate from genealogical proof.

The late Fraser force avoided the battle’s immediate casualties because it arrived too late, but the individual fates of its men afterward varied. They returned to divided communities facing pursuit, confiscation, forfeiture, and uncertainty. Their story is most powerful when told without turning incomplete evidence into certainty: one Fraser body fought on Culloden Moor, another arrived too late, and the lives that followed were far more varied than clan legend suggests.

Where to Research the Fate of a Fraser at Culloden

Readers trying to trace a particular Fraser should begin with the University of Glasgow’s Jacobite Officers Database, remembering that it covers officers rather than the entire rank and file. The National Library of Scotland holds manuscript lists of people killed or captured at Culloden, prisoners, those who surrendered, and those attainted. Britain’s National Archives preserves government prisoner returns and related correspondence in State Papers series SP 54. Researchers should also search ScotlandsPeople for parish registers and wills, then consult its guidance on rentals and forfeited-estate papers. Because spellings vary, names repeat, and many records are incomplete, no single entry should be accepted as proof until the person’s location, associates, and chronology agree.

Related Articles

For the larger family story, begin with the Complete Guide to Clan Fraser. To understand what happened to the chief’s land after the rising, continue with Clan Fraser Lands: Lovat Estates, Loss and Restoration. Family historians can use Clan Fraser Genealogy: Lovat, Saltoun, and the Truth to separate clan tradition from documented ancestry. The guide to Clan Fraser septs explains why people with several surnames could belong to the wider Fraser community. For the contrasting Philorth and Saltoun branch in northeast Scotland, visit Cairnbulg Castle: The Fraser Stronghold on Scotland’s Buchan Coast.

About the Author

Terry Donlan is the founder of Irish Scottish Roots and has researched his Irish and Scottish family history since 1985. He has made six research trips to Ireland and Scotland. He writes about genealogy, heritage travel, historical records, and the people and places that shaped Irish and Scottish family stories.

Some infographics and images in this article were created using Gemini NotebookLM. Other images are identified by their accompanying credits.