Introducing the ‘Curious Cleric’: James Fraser and the Early Modern Scottish Highlands

This introduction presents the outline of a new interpretation of Scottish Highland history in the century prior to the Battle of Culloden in 1746. It does so by considering the revealing autobiographical sources left by Fraser. Despite significant historiographical breakthroughs, which are considered in detail, the entire period can still appear enigmatic in the history of the region. However, this introduction presents a different side to the Highlands during Fraser’s lifetime. No primary sources are objective, as the case of Fraser makes abundantly clear. It is our task as historians to interrogate, critique and interpret them for a broader audience, and, where the evidence from them supports it, to convey their meaning and significance. In this case, the evidence is overwhelmingly autobiographical, thus, of course, fallible and yet simultaneously original and informative, and so the approach taken is to deal with both historical facts and memory. It is for these reasons that the biographical method is outlined as the best and most accessible one, the objective being to provide a new pathway into the world of the Highlands as it was before Culloden.