Memoirs of the Rev. James Fraser of Brea

52 Melville Street,
Edinburgh, April 1st, 1889.

Dear Mr Melven,

I AM glad to see that you are about to publish a new edition of Fraser of Brea. In this you are doing a great service to the cause of personal religion in the country. Fraser was one of the ablest men in a time of able men, and his high and abiding value stands in this, that he turned his great intellectual gifts so powerfully to the interests of experimental religion. Fraser is one of my prime favourites: he stands besides Augustine, Bunyan, Baxter, Edwards, Boston, Shepard, and Halyburton, at my elbow.

I wish your new edition great success.

With much regard,

Yours most truly,

ALEXANDER WHYTE.

MR JAMES FRASER was born at Brea, parish of Resolis, Black Isle, Ross-shire, 29th July, 1639.

His father was proprietor of Brea, a Knight, and brother of Lord Lovat of that time, who was a Covenanter. James succeeded to the estate, was possessed of good talents, well educated, became the subject of a gracious change; his Memoirs are a proof of its genuiness.

Although at first he intended studying law, he eventually gave himself up to the study of Divinity, was licensed and ordained, apparently about 1672, by the Field Presbytery of Moray (that is, the outed ministers in that district who had constituted themselves into a Presbytery). (See Macdonald’s, of Nairn, “Covenanters.” He was strongly opposed to Prelacy, and was a thorough Presbyterian and Covenanter; suffered much and long for his faithful testimony to the rights of the Redeemer’s Crown.

In August, 1673, ne was intercom muned along with several eminent ministers and also gentlemen and ladies. Although exposed to all the difficulties connected with intercommuning, yet he had the testimony of his conscience that he was following his Master, and had the privilege of being in the company of Hog of Kiltearn, McKillegan of Fodderty, and Donald Cargill, with many others of a kindred spirit.

In 1677 he was imprisoned in Edinburgh, brought before a Committee of Council, and sent to the Bass, where he suffered severely, but enjoyed much of the Lords presence.

In 1679, witn others, he was taken from the Bass and imprisoned in Edinburgh, but liberated and enjoyed freedom until 1681, during which time he continued wandering but preaching every Lord’s-day.

In 1681 he was sent by the Council to Blackness Prison, was at length liberated upon bond to leave Scotland for London.

The ministers of Inverness after the Revolution kept their charges and livings by qualifying to Government. Although one of the Episcopal ministers who had qualified died in 1691, yet the magistrates would not suffer the charge to be declared vacant, and on the 21st June of that year all the avenues to the church were beset with armed men, so that no minister might enter; and when Duncan Forbes of Culloden, father of the Lord President, sought to open the doors, he was thrust back and struck. He and others on this account represented the case to the Council, and in August, 1691, Leven’s Regiment was sent north to protect the well-affected in obeying the law; but for ten years thereafter no Presbyterian minister could be settled there (see Shaw’s “Province of Moray,” page 379). Mr McKillegan, Fodderty, because of his ailments was obliged to reside in Inverness, to be near a physician, and preached there until his death, 8th June, 1689.

Mr Fraser of Brea also preached there for some time, but was not admitted minister (see Shaw, page 359). He was eventually admitted minister of Culross, where he finished his course about 1698 or 1699.

He was assisted at a Communion in Culross in 1698, very shortly before his death, by the celebrated Boston of Ettrick, then a young man.

Fraser and his associates suffered, laboured, and bore testimony for truth and religious liberty. May we, their descendants, be kept from provoking the Lord to withdraw them. “Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.”

GUSTAVUS AIRD.

Free Church Manse,

Creich, Jul) 1889.

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