| Activity | William Fraser was born in 1816 and became a solicitor in Edinburgh. Interested in history and genealogy, he took the post of Assistant Keeper of Sasines in 1852, moving to the post of Assistant Keeper of Records in 1880. He worked extensively in the private archives of prominent families and wrote a number of family histories, encouraging the study of Scottish history. He was knighted in 1887, and died in 1898, leaving money to endow a new Chair of Scottish History at Edinburgh University. |