John Fraser

John Fraser [also, more commonly then, Frisel or Frisell] (died 1507) was a late medieval Scottish prelate. Born about 1429, or 1430 if later tradition can be believed, with strong connections to the burgh of Linlithgow, Fraser held a variety of high-level ecclesiastical positions in Scotland, including being the first Dean of Restalrig collegiate church (which he helped to found) before becoming Bishop of Ross in 1497, a position he held until his death in 1507.

Early career Fraser was a university graduate, M. A., and he seems to have been the John Fraser who was Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of St Andrews in 1479. He is found as Provost of the collegiate church of Abernethy on 2 February 1476; it is not known when he obtained this position, and the latest documentation of a previous provost occurs all the way back on 13 March 1445. He can be found as the Official of the diocese of Dunblane on 26 August 1476. He was litigating to gain the precentorship of Elgin Cathedral in 1480, although nothing more of this is heard. He is found as rector of the parish church of Douglas on 28 August 1481. After the election of Robert Blackadder as Bishop of Aberdeen on 14 July 1480, Fraser received provision to the now vacant position of Archdeacon of Aberdeen; he did not secure the position because of the lack of royal support, but was still claiming the position in 1488.

Collegiate church of Restalrig Fraser was the first Dean of the new collegiate church erected on 13 November 1487 at Restalrig in Midlothian. Fraser petitioned the pope for the creation of the collegiate church on 6 May, to be dedicated to the "Holy and Indivisible Trinity" and the Virgin Mary; the church had and was benefiting from the patronage of King James III of Scotland, and the church was called at the time the "King's chapel" or "chapel royal". Fraser founded a chaplaincy in the new collegiate church, to which he donated a tenement he had built in the Canongate.

Bishop of Ross In the 1490s, Fraser became a royal councillor and Clerk of the Register. He received papal provision on 14 March 1498. On 5 May, the Florentine clerk Ilarion de Portiis acting in Fraser's name paid the papacy 600 gold florins. The tradition – attested in the Wardlaw MS History of the Frazers – that he was Abbot of Melrose and Prior of Beauly is now thought to be spurious. Professor Donald Watt omitted him from his list of chancellors of Glasgow Cathedral, a position he was also widely believed to have held.