Richard Fraser of Touchfraser

Sir Richard Fraser was a Scottish noble of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. He succeeded to the lands of Touchfraser (or Tulchfraser) in Stirlingshire upon the death of his grandfather, Sir Gilbert Fraser (d. c 1263). Life The son of John Fraser of Touchfraser and Alicia de Conigburg, Sir Richard Fraser first appears in the records when he served as a witness to the resignation of Pencaitland in East Lothian from John de Pencaitland to Herbert de Maxwell in 1276 at which time he is recorded as having the rank of miles (knight). In 1289, he, along with his cousin Sir Simon Fraser, Sir John de Lindesay, and several monks and clergy, was sent to Carham on Tweed to a court hearing ordered by England’s King Edward I. At issue was the justice of a claim made by a merchant of Gascony that King Alexander III of Scotland had died greatly indebted to him. In the interregnum following the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, in 1290, Sir Richard, like all Frasers of the period, supported John Balliol. On 8 July 1291 Sir Richard swore fealty to Edward I, who appointed him one of the auditors of the pleadings presented by the various competitors to the Scottish crown, which was ultimately awarded to Balliol. The following year on two occasions, Sir Richard was among the witnesses when Balliol paid homage to Edward: the first at Norham on 20 November 1292, and the second at Newcastle upon Tyne on 26 December. At about the same time, on 14 November, Edward granted Sir Richard the wardship of the lands of the late Richard de Glen in Peeblesshire, including the maritagium, that is, the right to determine the marriage of the heir, Richard, son of Duncan de Glen. For this privilege, Fraser paid 100 merks in four installments of 25 each. Balliol appointed Fraser vicecomes (sheriff) of Berwick in 1293. In 1296, when Balliol and Edward quarreled over the status of William Thorold, an English malefactor who had fled to Scotland. In negotiations with his English counterpart, the sheriff of Northumberland, Sir Richard dissembled, saying he could not rightly judge the matter as he had not held his office long enough to know what Balliol would have him do. As a consequence, Edward stripped Richard of his lands in Peeblesshire.