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GRAY, Thomas of Brighouse, Burgess of Aberdeen
(About 1555-)
GRAY, William of Pittendrum, Sir
(About 1600-1648)
SMYTH, Geillis
(1605-)
GRAY, Issobell
(1638-1676)

 

Family Links

Spouses/Children:
1. HAMILTON, William Merchant in Edinburgh
2. FRASER, James Minister of Culross, Reverend Mr

GRAY, Issobell 3

  • Baptised: 27 July 1638, Edinburgh parish, Edinburgh, Scotland 3
  • Marriage (1): HAMILTON, William Merchant in Edinburgh 1
  • Marriage (2): FRASER, James Minister of Culross, Reverend Mr on 31 July 1672 in Pencaitland parish, East Lothian, Scotland 1 2
  • Died: October 1676 1

   Other names for Issobell were GRAY, Isabell 2 and GRAY, Isobel.1

   User ID: G504.

  General Notes:

"GRAY
ISSOBELL
WILLIAME GRAY/GEILS SMYTH FR1147 (FR1147)
F
27/07/1638
685/1 40 421
Edinburgh"

from Births and Baptisms 3


Issobell married William HAMILTON Merchant in Edinburgh.1 (William HAMILTON Merchant in Edinburgh was born about 1630.)


  Marriage Notes:

"Isobel (Gray) (died Oct. 1676), daugh. of Sir William Gray of Pittendrum, and widow of William Hamilton, merchant, Edinburgh ..."

from Fasti Ecclesiae 1

Issobell next married Reverend Mr James FRASER Minister of Culross, son of Sir James FRASER of Brea, Governor of Inverness, 'Tutor of Lovat' and Beatrix WEMYSS 'of Fairkley' (Fife), on 31 July 1672 in Pencaitland parish, East Lothian, Scotland.1 2 (Reverend Mr James FRASER Minister of Culross was born on 29 July 1639 in Kirkmichael, Ross-shire, Scotland 4 and died on 13 September 1699 in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland 1.)


  Marriage Notes:

"FRASER
JAMES
ISABELL GRAY/FR383 (FR383)
25/07/1672
716 10 / 358
Pencaitland"

from Index of Marriages




(at Culross in 1689)

"James Fraser of Brea, born at Brea, in the parish of Kirkmichael Ross-shire, 29th July 1639, son of Sir James F. of Brea (who sat as Commissioner from the Presb. of Inverness in the Glasgow Assembly of 1638), and grandson of Simon, seventh Lord Lovat, by his second wife, Jean Stewart, daugh. of James, Lord Doune, son of James, Earl of Moray.

His father died while F. was still a child, and some of the greatest troubles of his life came to him out of his ownership of Brea and the derangement of his father's pecuniary affairs. These, however, he was able to amend considerably in course of time. He graduated M.A. at Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1658, and thereafter commenced the study of law. Coming under deep religious impressions he resolved to enter the ministry, and having qualified himself was ord. by the outed mins. of the Presb. of Moray in 1672.

In 1674 he was ordered to be apprehended for preaching at conventicles, and letters of intercommuning were passed against him 6th Aug. 1675. He was summoned before the Privy Council 29th Jan. 1676, and next day he was sentenced to imprisonment on the Bass Rock, where he remained for two and a half years, during which period his chief studies were the Bible and Oriental languages. He was released on giving security for his good behaviour in July 1679, Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor becoming cautioner in the amount of £560. In Dec. 1681 he was again called before the Council and sent to Blackness Castle until he should pay a fine of 5000 merks, and give a promise to cease preaching or leave the country. Unknown to him, a brother - in - law petitioned for a remission of the fine. Set free, he went to London 16th June 1682, where he was apprehended for a third time and confined in Newgate 21st July 1683 for six months for declining what was styled the 'Oxford oath.'

He returned to Scotland before 6th July 1687, when he was resident within the bounds of the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Early in 1689 he became min. of this parish, preaching in a meeting- house till the Committee of Estates sanctioned his use of the church, 13th May. He was a member of Assembly 1690 and 1692, was sent to give supply in the North, and had a call from Inverness Sept. 1696, but was not settled; died at Edinburgh, 13th Sept. 1699.

Fraser's reputation rests on his noble and saintly character, his devotion to the Presbyterian principles, his sacrifices for the same, and his Memoirs, a 'book of the intricacies of his own heart and life' : of which Dr Alexander Whyte said : 'It is in his Memoirs that James Fraser of Brea will live, and he will live in that remarkable book as long as a scholarly religion, and an evangelical religion, and a spiritual religion, and a profoundly experimental religion, lives in his native land. It is a book that for depth and for grip has few, if any, equals among the foremost books of its kind in the whole world.'

He marr. (1) 31st July 1672, Isobel (died Oct. 1676), daugh. of Sir William Gray of Pittendrum, and widow of William Hamilton, merchant, Edinburgh, and had issue - Jean (marr. as his second wife, 1698, Hugh Rose of Kilravock), died s.p. (see Note below) ; Beatrice (marr. William Burnet, min. of Falkirk) : (2) Christian (died s.p. about 1696), daugh. of John Inglis, min. of Hamilton, and widow of Alexander Carmichael, min. of Pettinain."

from Fasti Ecclesiae

Note:

Hugh Rose and Jean Fraser did in fact have a son, James Rose of Brea.
1 2

Sources


1 e-books, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae vol. 5 Fife Angus and Mearns by Hew Scott.

2 GRO Scotland, OPR Index of Marriages.

3 GRO Scotland, OPR Index of Births and Baptisms.

4 e-books, History of the Frasers of Lovat, with genealogies of the principal families of the name to which is added those of Dunballoch and Phopachy by Alexander Mackenzie (1896).

© Copyright 2024 Mary McGonigal


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