Mary Fraser

Mary Fraser was the only daughter of Alasdair Fraser, Lord Saltoun. She was very fond of her four brothers, and they revelled in their connection with Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat (1668-1747), the last nobleman to be beheaded on Tower Hill in London in 1747 for his role in the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.

Thousands of these prints were made from Hogarth’s sketch; this one is a family treasure!

Mary was the toast of London: she married Lieutenant-Commander John Codrington during the First World War, only to be widowed in 1918, just as the war was ending. This velvet covered folder records their brief union. Their letters have been presented to the Codrington family.

After the war, she married Arthur Wardlaw Ramsay and they lived, first at Whitehill, then in Somerset, with a brief spell in London when their daughters were older. Mary took on a flat in South Kensington when Arthur died. This photo shows her with her granddaughter Celia Heneage. She kept in touch with her Scottish relatives, and often headed North in her little car to visit them. Her brother Alasdair and wife Dodo lived nearby, in Cross Deep, Twickenham. He was a busy member of the House of Lords.