BISSET, John of Lovat ^{1 2 3 4}

   Other names for John were BISSET, John Lord of the Aird ⁵ and BYSET, John of Lovat, Sir.^{6 7}

   User ID: Z323.

  General Notes:

"The lands of Lovat, which lie in the county of Inverness, belonged during the first half of the thirteenth century to
John Bisset, who also possessed a district called the Ard, as well as lands in Ross-shire. About 1268 these lands were divided amongst three co-heiresses who were married respectively to Sir David de Graham, Sir William Fenton, and Sir Andrew de Bosco; Lord Saltoun conjectures that possibly Hugh Fraser first designed of Lovat married the descendant and heiress of one of these three. On the other hand, the Wardlaw Manuscript states that in the year 1254, on the forfeiture of John Bisset, Sir Simon Fraser obtained a charter from King Alexander III. of 'totam et integram terram de Loveth vulgo Morvin,' and places Hugh of Lovat third in descent from him. Whatever may be the correctness of these statements, there are no authentic documents known in which any Fraser is styled of Lovat before the time of Hugh Fraser of Lovat and Kinnell .... "

from Scots Peerage

Note: There is little agreement regarding the order of birth of the three daughters of Sir John Bisset.




"So great was the popular outcry against the whole family that they narrowly eluded the vengeance of their foes. John Byset of Lovat, the uncle of the Lord of Aboyne, fled to Ireland, and Walter of Aboyne, although assisted by Alexander II., only escaped after making .oath that he would undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and there, for the remainder of his life, pray for the soul of the murdered Earl ... "

from Records of Aboyne




" The property in Inverness-shire which afterwards came into the possession of the Frasers, lords Lovat, formed a portion of the large territories in the north of Scotland belonging to the Bisset family. John Bisset, in 1230, founded a priory of the order of Vallis Caulium, or Val des Choux, in Ross-shire, which, from the beauty of its situation he called Beaulieu, now Beauly, and which gave name to the small river which flows past..... It is one of many instances of Norman, or rather French, names, given at this early age to localities in the north of Scotland. The tower and fort of Lovat, founded in the same year, near the eastern bank of the Beauly, was anciently the seat of the Bissets."

"In 1245, Sir John Bisset of Lovat was imprisoned in the castle of Inverness for the imputed crimes of connection with the murder of the earl of Athol, and of fealtyship to the Lord of the Isles. In 1258 Sir John Bisset of Lovat mortified an annuity out of his lands to the bishop of Moray. He died without heirs of his own body, leaving his estate to his three daughters; the eldest of whom married David Grahame, thereafter designed of Lovat, as in an agreement betwixt him and the bishop of Moray, concerning the fishing of the water of Torn. The second daughter became the wife of Sir William Fenton of Beaufort, and the third of Sir Andrew de Bosco."

from Electric Scotland ^{2 7 8}

John married.