Welsh Journals

June, 1885. BYE-GONES. 235 in the course of a life devoted to ambition andto intrigue, obtained from George I. a pardon covering all his offences against the State and usurped the title of Lord Lovat. The title meanwhile appears to have been illegally assumed by the eldest son ot the eldest daughter of Hugh the 11th Earl. Simon, however, in 1730, by repre¬ senting himself to the Court of Session as " the eldest law¬ ful son " of Thomas Lord Fraser of Lovat, his father, and consequently as heir male of the family of Lovat, obtained a decree of the Court, adjudging him the title as such " eldest lawful son," his elder brother Alexander being still a fugitive and unapprised of the proceeding. It is asserted, on the part of the petitioner that the Court of Session in pronouncing this decree went beyond their legal powers, they having really after the union of England and Scotland in 1707 no right to adjudicate in the matter of a peerage claim. Simon was never "served" heir to his father, and by representing himself in the Court of Session proceedings to be the "eldest lawful son" he got rid of the onus which other¬ wise would have rested upon him of proving that Alex¬ ander died without issue. By the decision of the Court of Session he ostensibly obtained the title and got possession of the family estates. In 1745 Simon, while professing openly to side with the Government, secretly incited his son to head a force of rebels, at the same time asserting that his son had acted against his wish in joining the rebels. Simon, however, was brought to trial for high treason in 1747 and was eventually bebeaded on Tower-hill. Simon left issue male—Simon, his eldest son, who died without issue ; Alexander, who also died without issue ; and Archibald Campbell. Simon, the eldest son, was at¬ tainted for his share in the rebellion of 1745, but in 1750 he was pardoned, and in 1774 he obtained a restoration of the family estates. The Act of Parliament passed to en¬ able George III. to restore those estates contained a clause in the following words :—" Saving to all and every person or persons, bodies politic and corporate, his, her, and their heirs, successors, executors, and administrators (other than and except the King's Most Excellent Majesty, his heirs and successors), all such estates, rights, titles, interests, claims, and demands of, into, and out of the lands and premises to be granted as aforesaid as they, every or any one of them, had before the passing of this Act, or should or might have held or enjoyed in case this Act had never been made." This Simon having died with¬ out issue the title and estates passed to his youngest and surviving brother, Archibald Campbell Fraser, who died in 1815 without surviving issue, and thus the line of Thomas of Beaufort became extinct except as regards the issue of Alexander of Wales. In the year 1826 Thomas Alexander Fraser of Lovat and Strichen, the eldest male heir of Thomas of Knockie and Strichen, the second son of Alexander the sixth Lord Lovat, presented a petition praying that it might be declared that he was entitled to the barony, and after a period of proceedings before the Lords' Committee for Privileges extending from 1826 to 1857 he was in the latter year, in the absence of the de¬ scendants of Alexander of Wales, declared to have made out his claim to the Barony of Lovat, he having in the mean time, in 1837, been created Baron Lovat in the peerage of England and having obtained an Act of Par¬ liament in 1855 reversing the attainder of Simon. In 1875 Thomas Alexander Fraser, Baron Lovat, died, and was succeeded both in his English and his Scotch peerages by bis eldest son Simon, the present Baron Lovat. The reason put forward by the present claimant for his ancestors not disputing the claim of Thomas Alexander Fraaer to the Scotch title was their inability from great poverty to un¬ dertake the necessary proceedings with a view to the recovery of the barony, but it is alleged that about the time of the death of Archibald Campbell Fraser the twelfth Lord Lovat, John Fraser, the eldest son of Alexander of Wales, did go to Inverness to claim the estates, the necessary expenses of the journey being subscribed by gentlemen of the district and by his fellow miners. Having made a fruitless attempt to get his case legally taken up in Edinburgh in forma pauperis, he came to London, where he laid his case before the then Lord Mayor, but without success. It is only recently that the present claimant has been in a position to bring forward his claim. On the case being called on, Sir John Rose, the Clerk of the Parliaments, read the petition of the Right Hon. Simon Lord Lovat in the peerage of the United Kingdom and Lord Lovat in the peerage of Scotland, praying to be heard by counsel, agent, and witnesses in opposition to the claim of the petitioner, John Fraser. The Lord Chancellor asked Sir H. Giffard, Q.C., whether he objected to Lord Lovat being heard by that title. Sir H. Giffard, Q.C., said that he made no objection to the noble lord being heard under that title. The Committee then resolved that Lord Lovat should be heard in opposition to the claim, in accordance with the prayer of the petition. Sir H. Giffard, Q.C., said that he appeared on behalf of John Fraser of Mount Pleasant, in Carnarvon, in the county of Carnarvon, mining engineer, who claimed the dignity, title, and honours of the Barony of Lovat in the peerage of Scotland. He had now to make an application on behalf of the petitioner that the hearing of his case might be postponed for a short time. The motion was agreed to, and their lordships adjourned. JUNE 3, 1885. NOTES. DARWIN IAN A (May 27, 1885).—Visiting Cam- bridge in January last, I was interested to find a painting of Charles Darwin, side by side with Milton, in the Hall of Christ's College, to which both of these equally great men belonged. And, writing of portraits, it may be men¬ tioned that there is a striking photograph of Charles Darwin in the Free Museum at Shrewsbury ; where also the silhouette of his father, recently reproduced in Bye- Gones, is now to be found. E. CRABBED AGE AND YOUTH.—Newspapers early in the century had an unpleasant way of noting any peculiarity in connection with courtship and marriage. I have just been running over some lists for 1808. In one we have appended to the announcement, that " the bridegroom crawled to the church on crutches;" in an¬ other that the ceremony took place ''after a tedious courtship ot three weeks." A third reads as follows (and is from a paper dated June 3,1808):—" Wednesday week, at Welch Hampton, Mr Joshua Lewis, of Breaden Heath, to Miss Glover, of Elleamere : the bridegroem is 17 years of age, and the bride 83;—just a century between them!" SOBOBBES BTBIG. ROWLAND HILL AT WREXHAM.—In the Life of Rowland Hill, written by William Jones, there is the following incident connected with a visit of that popular preacher to Wrexham :—" Near the spot where he preached there was a tenter-field, on which a fine kind of thread, or yarn, was exposed to the air. Several women, who were taking care of it, observing a number of persons