Family or Clan?
In his colorfully expansive three volume history "The Frasers of Philorth", Alexander Fraser of Philorth, 18th Lord Saltoun states, in Volume One, (Edinburgh MDCCCLXXIX (1879):
"Some remarks upon the subject of the Highland Clan Fraser will explain their position; for their great influence in the Highlands of Scotland during comparatively modern times, and their possessions in those districts, have created the belief that all of the name must necessarily be members of that Clan, and some have supposed that the family had a Highland or Celtic origin, a supposition in some degree countenanced by one or two writers on the subject; especially by one who styles the town of Fraserburgh "strange offspring of a Highland Clan"...
...a branch, which also held lands in Forfarshire, obtained large possessions in the districts around Inverness, and eventually becoming very numerous, originated or formed the Highland Clan of the name. But the senior line, which continued to have their principal seat in the Lowlands, and those of the surname who remained in that section of Scotland, where Teutonic institutions prevailed, and whence the patriarchal system of Clans and Clanships had long been banished, had nothing to do with the origin or formation of the Highland Clan, and never belonged to it. "
In other words, the Frasers of Philorth never belonged to the Gaelic, Highland Clan Fraser.
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