AncientPages.com - On April 9, 1747, the Scottish Jacobite Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, became the last man in Britain to be publicly beheaded at Tower Hill, London.
The last ever beheading with an axe in the UK was that of the Luddite Jeremiah Brandreth of Derby on November 7, 1817.
The chief of Clan Fraser, Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat switched his support to and fro between the Jacobites and the government throughout his long life. Spectacularly unprincipled and guided solely by self-interest, this charming bigamist convinced everyone from Louis XIV and Mary of Modena, to William of Orange and George I. Eventually, in 1746, he was wrong-footed, having brought out his clan to fight for Prince Charles at Culloden.
Simon Fraser was beheaded because he was fighting on the wrong side at the Battle of Culloden, the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745 and part of a religious civil war in Britain.
Simon Fraser was described as 'the Fox' or "the most devious man in Scotland." Those epithets were primarily justified, and he was undoubtedly one of the Highlands' most intriguing characters.
Fraser of Lovat Chiefs was dubbed 'the MacShimi' (the son of Simon) in recognition of their descent from Sir Simon Fraser, who was killed at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. The unfortunate, 18th Century incarnation of Simon Fraser was embodied in the seventy-nine-year-old MacShimi Chief of Clan Fraser of Lovat.
The Tower of London was built shortly after William the Conqueror landed in 1066. It was in almost continuous use for the imprisonment of traitors and other important prisoners up until the end of World War II.
He was the 11th Lord Lovat and a convicted Jacobite rebel.
For the crime of treason, Fraser was beheaded on Tower Green in London on that day.
Like many other so-called Scottish noble families, the Frasers were, in fact, Norman-French. They originated in Anjou and Normandy and appeared in Scotland for the first time around 1160, during Malcolm 'the Maiden' reign.
The name of Fraser is derived from the French word 'Fraise,' meaning Strawberry, three flowers that appear on the Clan's Coat of Arms.
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