Our (almost) link to a famous Jacobite

For some time I have been saying that in 1851, Alexander Bain was working at Moniack Castle, which was really nice because there was a picture of it, and it used to be open to the public. The owners of Moniack Castle were the Lovatt Frasers. Simon Fraser of Lovatt was a famous Jacobite. 

Simon was the 11th Lord Lovatt. During the 1715 Jacobite uprising he was loyal to the British Government and was rewarded with return of the ancestral lands in Inverness-shire. He was a wily one though, and by the 1746 Battle of Culloden he was on the Jacobite side. He is famous as the last man executed by beheading on 9 April 1747. He is emblematic of the efforts all Highland lords took to regain lost lands, curry favour with men in authority and feather his own nest. He ordered his eldest son to join the Jacobites, while he continued to pay lip service support to both sides. 

However….. Alexander actually worked at Moniack House, situated about1.5 km to the east in Easter Moniack. It is also known as Reelig House, after the Frasers of Reelig.



Don’t be confused by the presence of another Knockbain in Inverness-shire. Alexander’s brother John was living in Knockbain in Ross-shire in 1871.

Not to worry, this was also owned by a Fraser family and I shall have to find the link to the Lovat Frasers. For the moment enough to say that in the 1840s, the Laird of Reelig employed many men evicted in clearances. There is a celebrated set of five brothers, one of whom was a famous artist, who managed to bring the estate back into financial security following their losses at Culloden. Read about my recent visit to Culloden, today, 22 May 2025, and Ju-Ju’s birthday back home.

Reelig House courtesy of Creative Commons license.

Alexander was a ploughman on the estate in 1851, as was his eldest son Alexander aged 19. Eldest daughter Margaret is a house servant, while the other children are scholars.

His employer was Hugh Fraser, a farmer with 300 acres, employing 11 labourers, born in Kirkhill, ie locally. He is 58, with a 40 year old wife and sons 8 and nearly 3. Another family in the census is named McBain, which I will need to check. And there is a John Chisholm, visiting the Frasers, who is a 56 year old teacher. Chisholm is of course the maiden name of Alexander’s mother.

Is Hugh Fraser one of the Frasers of Reelig? Or merely renting the farm?




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