FRASER, William of Brackla, 92nd Foot, Captain ^{2 3}

   User ID: P960

  General Notes:

"FRASER
WILLIAM
DONALD FRASER/JANET MCARTHUR
M
12/05/1767
122
10 / 64
Cawdor"

from Births and Baptisms




"William Fraser was born in Brackla in 1767. At the age of 16 he enlisted in the army and went to India. He served with the 73rd (Highland) Regiment of Foot in the Third Mysore War against the fearsome rocket-launching armies of Tipu Sultan. Although wounded at the Battle of Seringapatam in 1792 and again at the siege of French-held Pondicherry the following year, he participated in the British invasion of the Dutch colonies in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1795-96.

After 14 years in India, Fraser was forced by ill health to return to Britain. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) and then in 1805 secured a transfer to a Royal Veteran Battalion stationed at Fort George, near his birthplace. He married that year and, near the end of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1814, he retired on a full military pension to live and farm at Brackla.

The Captain was concerned that farmers on his estate were turning to illicit whisky distillers to find buyers for their barley. The passing of the Small Stills Act in 1816, however, encouraged many local landowners to set up small licensed distilleries and the Captain joined four other men to build one at Brackla. They struggled to compete with the whisky smugglers and his partners gave up after two years of heavy financial losses. The stubborn Captain continued alone. [....]

The whisky was sold at £1 per gallon or in bottles at £2 and 4 shillings (£2.20) per dozen. The price was right, and the Captain prospered. Then, in 1838, the young Queen Victoria granted the distiller her own Royal Warrant. By the time the Captain died in 1846, Royal Brackla was famous throughout Britain."

from Whisky Heroes ^{3 4}

William married Anne FRASER, daughter of Reverend Mr Alexander GRANT Minister of Duthil, then of Cawdor parish, Nairn and Grizell FRASER, on 12 September 1805 in Cawdor parish, Nairn, Scotland.¹ (Anne FRASER was baptised on 31 March 1785 in Cawdor parish, Nairn, Scotland ³.)

  Marriage Notes:

"GRANT
ANN
WM. FRASER/FR 248 (FR248)
12/09/1805
122/
10 264
Cawdor"

from Index of Marriages ¹