known as Col. Alexander Fraser of Fraserfield (18 Jan. 1786-12 Nov. 1853), soldier, public figure. (Col. and Fraserfield commonly used with his name as in entry to the present article) Born near Fort Augustus, Scotland. He came to Canada in 1805 as a member of the Canadian Fencibles, and was quartermaster of the Canadian Fencibles during the War of 1812. From 1816 he was a half-pay officer. He founded the estate of Fraserfield near Williamstown. By 1851 the estate amounted to 1281 acres, and he built the great stone house of Fraserfield which still stands, though stripped now of the wings it once had. On the house he employed the architect Archibald Fraser. John Fraser’s eloquent description in his Canadian Pen and Ink Sketches (1890) of a visit in 1839 or 1840 to the Fraserfield mansion and its hospitable owner is one of the best known Glengarry literary passages. John Fraser “had no idea that so grand a building was to be found in the wilds of Glengarry,” and he found “the old colonel himself at the head of the table doing the honours, as he well knew how.” (pp. 115, 117) The history of the Fraserfield estate is remarkable, and could well sustain a book in itself.

     Alexander Fraser was a JP from 1820, and was involved with the GC militia from early 1820s. In the supression of the Rebellion of 1837-1838, Fraser commanded the 1st Regiment of Glengarry Militia with great success. He represented GC in the Upper Canada House of Assembly 1828-1834. (For his colleague in the representation of the two-member GC constituency at this time, see Alexander McMartin) Fraser was a member of the Legislative Council for Upper Canada from 1839, and a member of the Legislative Council of United Canada from 1841. At the first elections (1841) for the House of Assembly of United Canada he helped to launch John Sandfield Macdonald on his political career. Fraser was the first warden (-1850) of the Eastern District. He helped to prevent the breakup of the Eastern District under the Municipal Corporations Act, and the Eastern District continued in a united form as the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry (SDG). Fraser was elected to the Charlottenburgh Township Council in 1850 but was not chosen the first warden of SDG.

     Fraser was active in the Highland Society, and was one of the great men of GC at a time when the county had an impressive social elite which included the retired Nor’Westers and Bishop Macdonell. He served as government land agent. Very much involved with the settlers’ land-granting problems, he often showed a strongly emotional side to his nature in his correspondence on land grants. He was the registrar of GC from the mid 1830s to his death.

     He died at Fraserfield. Roman Catholic. He was buried at St. Mary’s cemetery, Williamstown. Rhodes Grant knew an old lady who “remembered how the bagpipes played the MacCrimmon’s Lament all the way from Fraserfield to Williamstown… as they led the cortege to the cemetery.” Fraser was married (1) to Catherine Grant, who died in 1818, and (2) to Ann Macdonell (1797-1861), daughter of Archibald (Leek) Macdonell. There were two sons and four daughters from the second marriage. The elder son Archibald Fraser succeeded his father as the laird of Fraserfield. The daughters were (1) Ann, married Dr Daniel Eugene McIntyre, (2) Catherine, married Donald A. Macdonald, (3) Isabella, married J.F. Pringle, well remembered as Judge Pringle, and (4) Mary, married James Dunbar Pringle, a lawyer, and brother of J.F. Pringle; their daughter Gertrude married E.H. Tiffany. Col. Alexander Fraser has been, over the years, one of the best remembered of all Glengarrians. Fraser Township near Pembroke, Ontario, is named after him. He was a brother of Paul Fraser. There was another Fraserfield in Edwardsburgh Township, owned by Thomas Fraser.

Life of Fraser by Bruce W. Hodgins in Dictionary of Canadian Biography VIII * Evelyn M-M Scullion, The Frasers of Fraserfield and Their Related Families (2002), being the Sandfield Macdonald Connection Series, Book I (abbreviated Scullion in this dictionary) * MacGillivray & Ross 51-53, 58-64 * Harkness: index * Scott, ii, 36-41 * Johnson: index * Col. Fraser’s Parents: John Fraser’s Canadian Pen and Ink Sketches (1890) 118-120 * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 24-25 * Armstrong, 97, 155 * Rhodes Grant, i, 126-127 * Elinor Senior, “The Glengarry Highlanders and the Suppression of the Rebellions in Lower Canada 1837-38,” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, 56:227 (Autumn 1978) 143-159 * A.L. Dunlop, “54-Room Mansion West of Williamstown Was Built Shortly after War of 1812-14,” undated clipping from Standard Freeholder about 1950s (illust.) * two articles by Nick Wolochatiuk on history, current work of restoration of Fraserfield (illustr), Hometown supplement to SFH 21 & 28 Oct. 1995 * Alan Rayburn, Naming Canada: Stories about Place Names from Canadian Geographic (1994) 201 * letter from colonels of the four GC regiments (includes Fraser) expressing loyalty, Montreal Gazette 30 Nov. 1837 repr. Montreal Transcript 2 Dec. 1837 * Fraser one of those presiding at dinner, Williamstown, for officers of his militia regiment, Montreal Transcript 5 March 1839 * presides at meeting, Alexandria, is critical of Rebellion Losses Bill, The Pilot (Montreal) 5 May 1849