From the Plains of Culloden to the Plains of Abraham: the Frasers between rebellion and conquest

As a descendant of the Fraser clan, this story touches me personally. Tracing the journey of my ancestors — from the Jacobite defeat to the shores of the St. Lawrence — has made me realize how much the history of Quebec is woven with unexpected threads.

Culloden, 1746: the end of a world

On April 16, 1746, on the sodden Culloden heath, the warriors of Clan Fraser charged one last time for the Stuart cause. Thirteen years later, on September 13, 1759, men bearing the same surname—often the same men, or their sons and brothers—scaled the cliffs of Quebec under the British flag. How did defeated rebels become the elite soldiers of the Empire they had fought against?

The Battle of Culloden was the final stand of the Jacobite rebellion, an uprising aimed at restoring the Stuart line to the British throne. The Fraser clan fought there under the banner of Charles Edward Stuart—the legendary Bonnie Prince Charlie. Their leader, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, had supported the Jacobite cause with his characteristic strategic ambiguity.

The defeat was brutal. In less than an hour, the Duke of Cumberland's artillery decimated the Highland ranks. The reprisals that followed were even more devastating: systematic disarmament of the clans, prohibition of tartan and bagpipes, and dismantling of the clan system that had structured Highland society for centuries.

Lord Lovat was captured, tried for high treason and beheaded at the Tower of London in April 1747 — the last man to suffer this punishment in England.

The Reversal: From Rebels to Soldiers of the Empire

Yet, barely ten years after Culloden, London radically changed its strategy. The Seven Years' War was raging across Europe and its colonies, and the British army needed men. William Pitt the Elder, then Prime Minister, had an idea as cynical as it was brilliant: to recruit the defeated Highlanders.

In 1757, the son of the beheaded Lord Lovat—Simon Fraser, known as the "Master of Lovat"—received royal permission to raise a regiment. Thus was born the 78th Regiment of Foot, better known as Fraser's Highlanders.

This regiment was recruited largely from Culloden veterans, their sons and brothers, as well as men from Fraser country and neighboring clans. For these dispossessed Highlanders, whose lands had been confiscated and way of life outlawed, military service offered a path to rehabilitation—and survival.

General Wolfe, who was to command the assault on Quebec, reportedly said of the Highland recruits that if they perished in combat, "it would not be a great loss."

A trajectory in thirteen years

April 1746 — Battle of Culloden. The Frasers fight for the Stuarts. Defeat and massive repression in the Highlands.

April 1747 — Execution of Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, at the Tower of London.

1747–1756 — Dark years for the Highlands. Tartan, the carrying of weapons, and bagpipes were banned. The clan system was dismantled.

January 1757 — Simon Fraser Jr., son of the beheaded chieftain, receives permission to raise the 78th Regiment — Fraser's Highlanders. Approximately 1,500 men are recruited from the Highlands.

1758 — The 78th participated in the siege of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia. First baptism of fire on Canadian soil.

September 13, 1759 — Battle of the Plains of Abraham. The Fraser's Highlanders played a decisive role in the British victory that led to the fall of Quebec.

After 1763 — Several soldiers of the 78th settled in Quebec, married French-Canadian women and put down roots in the St. Lawrence Valley.

The great paradox: Culloden vs. Quebec

At Culloden in 1746, the Frasers fought against the British Crown under Simon Fraser Sr. (Lord Lovat). The result was defeat and suppression. At Quebec in 1759, these same men—or their relatives—fought for the British Crown under Simon Fraser Jr. (Master of Lovat). The result was victory and the rehabilitation of the Fraser name.

The Quebec connection

After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, several soldiers of the 78th Fraser's Highlanders chose not to return to Scotland. Their lands had been confiscated, their crops forbidden, and their leader beheaded. Canada offered land, a future—and, ironically, a Catholic community with which many of the Highlanders shared their faith.

One of the best-documented stories is that of Malcolm Fraser (1733-1815), a lieutenant in the 78th Regiment. Wounded at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, he chose to settle permanently in Canada after the Conquest, becoming seigneur of Murray Bay (La Malbaie) and Mount Murray. His journey—from young Scottish soldier to Canadian seigneur deeply rooted in colonial society—exemplifies the transition experienced by so many Highlanders.

The book Malcolm Fraser: From Scottish Soldier to Canadian Lord, 1733-1815 traces this remarkable trajectory in detail;

*This book is available in our professional library

Beyond its biographical narrative, this work proves particularly valuable for genealogical research: it contains a name index that allows for the quick identification of individuals mentioned—soldiers, landowners, allied families—and provides essential contextual information on family networks, land grants, and marriage alliances of the period in the Charlevoix and Lower St. Lawrence region. It is the type of source that allows one to situate an ancestor within their social and geographical environment, far beyond a simple date in a register. It is now part of my professional research library.

These former soldiers settled mainly in the Quebec City region and on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. They married French-Canadian women, adopted the local language and customs, and integrated into colonial society. Within one or two generations, their descendants bore French first names, spoke French, and lived in the French style—all while retaining a Scottish surname.

This is why we still find Frasers, MacPhersons, Camerons and Murrays in Quebec genealogy today — names of Highland clans rooted in the Catholic parish registers of the 18th century.

Why this story matters

For anyone in Quebec who bears the name Fraser—or is descended from a Fraser through the female line, as I am—this trajectory is more than just a historical narrative. It's a key to understanding where we come from. It sheds light on why a Scottish name appears on a Catholic baptismal record in Beaumont or L'Islet, why an ancestor spoke Gaelic before speaking French, and why our DNA carries the imprint of the Highlands as much as that of the St. Lawrence River.

The men who had tried to overthrow the English Crown helped, thirteen years later, to give it New France — and then put down roots there forever.

Genealogy is precisely that: tracing the threads of history until they tell our own story. And the story of the Frasers, from Culloden to Quebec, is one of the most compelling I have had the privilege of retracing.

— Patrice Bourque, professional genealogist and descendant of the Fraser clan