Michael Fraser, Priest of Daviot and Dunlichity 1673-1726

Strathnairn is one of the most beautiful places in Scotland -- wonderful in summer and magnificent in winter, with its tranquillity cloaking a long history. The cairns and hut circles speak of a people long ago, the church sites of Celtic saints, and the glen itself of Bonnie Prince Charlie's desperate ride from the battlefield of Culloden.

And hidden stories can be found in the lives of those who lived in the glen. That of Michael Fraser, priest of Daviot and Dunlichity for 53 years, reveals a great survivor in troubled times. He was the child of Thomas Fraser and his wife Katherine Gordon, daughter of Sir Robert and Lady Gordon of Embo. He studied at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and in 1670 was appointed schoolmaster, often in those days a forerunner to ordination, at Thurso in Caithness. He was ordained on February 19th, 1672, and the Bishop of Moray, Murdo Mackenzie, nominated him as priest at Daviot and Dunlichity on October 20th that year.

Dunlichity Parish Church in Strathnairn

Michael Fraser's appointment came twelve years after the restoration of both King Charles II and of the Episcopal Church as the Church of Scotland. The latter change had produced little alteration in the worship within parish churches but pressure on Presbyterians gradually increased during these years. Ministers who would not conform to the Episcopal ways were forbidden to exercise their ministry and, indeed, from living within 20 miles of their former parishes. In Strathnairn Alexander Fraser, minister of Daviot and Dunlichity, was deposed for his Presbyterian views, thus creating the vacancy which the bishop wished Michael Fraser to fill.

There was, though, an immediate problem. Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor claimed that the bishop had no authority to appoint anyone to Daviot and Dunlichity as that right belonged to him as patron of the parish. Sir Hugh wanted to appoint the Reverend Donald Macpherson of Cawdor Church instead. Bishop and Presbytery united in favour of Michael Fraser, but Sir Hugh persisted in his claim until the bishop eventually withdrew his own nominee. However, having gained the victory, Sir Hugh himself now nominated Michael Fraser as the new priest, and his long ministry in Strathnairn began on March 4th 1673.

Bishop Mackenzie’s opinion of Michael Fraser soon changed and just after Christmas 1674 he rebuked him for being in Edinburgh and absent from the parish for too long. A few months later the Synod, annoyed by his artistic endeavours, demanded that he "abstain from all limning and painting which hitherto has diverted him from his ministerial duties". Patience had run out by 1678, the year Bishop Mackenzie died (he had resigned in 1677) and Michael Fraser was suspended from office. He was soon back in place but an enormous change was coming to the whole church. In 1688 there was revolution and James VII and II was succeeded by his daughter Mary and her husband William, the Prince of Orange. The Scottish bishops declined to recognise the new monarchs and in consequence, in 1690, the Episcopal Church was once more displaced as the Church of Scotland by a Presbyterian regime.

It made no difference in Strathnairn. Michael Fraser continued blithely on, and even when in 1694 the Presbytery formally declared the parish vacant he took absolutely no notice. And, indeed, the Presbytery took no further action against him for the next 21 years. Only after he played a prominent role in the 1715 Jacobite Rising did the Presbytery attempt another intervention. It declared him to be "an intruder at Daviot and Dunlichity". The priest then offered to resign, but only on condition that a competent person be appointed in his place.

Nothing came of it and so he stayed. Five years later a Presbytery visit to the parish received a hostile reception. Parishioners were quick to defend their priest and stones were thrown. The following year the leading gentlemen of the parish asked the Presbytery's forbearance for the priest, saying that they would concur with the Presbytery’s wishes in the event of his death "which now, in the course of nature, cannot be long". It was actually another four years, in 1726, before Michael Fraser, the great survivor, died -- still, of course, in office.

Saint Paul’s Church and Hall in Strathnairn

The Episcopal Church remained strong in Strathnairn and is today is represented by Saint Paul's at Croachy. The church building (the second on the site and the fourth in the glen) dates from 1868. A hall was added in 2002.

Gerald Stranraer-Mull