James Fraser of Brae

James Fraser of Brea (1639–1699) was a Covenanter. Early life He was born in the parish of Kirkmichael, Ross-shire, on 29 July 1639. His father, Sir James Fraser, was the second son of Simon Fraser, 6th Lord Lovat, by his second wife, Jane Stewart, daughter of James Stewart, 1st Lord Doune. Sir James Fraser, a devout man, was elder for the presbytery of Inverness in the general assembly of 1638 which abolished episcopacy, and sat in several other general assemblies. James was educated at a grammar school, and suffered much from his father's financial difficulties. At the Siege of Inverness his father Sir James Fraser held Inverness Castle for the Covenanters of the Clan Fraser of Lovat against the royalist James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose. In 1658 he graduated MA from Marischal College, Aberdeen and then began to study Law. However he abandoned his study of the law, and obtained license as a preacher of the gospel as a Presbyterian minister in 1672 by the presbytery of Moray.