Charles Fraser-Mackintosh

{{Short description|British politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2018}}

Charles Fraser-Mackintosh {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FSAs}} ({{langx|gd|Teàrlach Friseal Mac An Tòisich}}; 1828 – 25 January 1901) was a Scottish lawyer, land developer, author, and independent Liberal and Crofters Party politician. He was a significant champion of the Scottish Gaelic language in Victorian Britain.

Fraser-Mackintosh was the son of Alexander Fraser, of Dochnalurg, Inverness, and his wife Marjory Mackintosh. He assumed the additional surname of Mackintosh by royal licence 1857.[https://archive.org/stream/debrettshouseo1886londuoft Debretts Guide to the House of Commons 1886] He trained as a lawyer and became a councillor in Inverness. He was heavily involved in land and development in the town and was chairman of the Anglo-American Land Mortgage and Agency Co. Using money he made from the construction of Union Street, in which he made a large number of people homeless [see The Life and Times of Fraser Mackintosh, pages 23 to 34 ] he bought and laid out the Drummond estate (1863), which had previously belonged to Fraser-Mackintosh's great-great uncle Provost Phineas Mackintosh{{cite web|url=http://orapweb.rcahms.gov.uk/wp/00/WP000479.pdf|title=Drummondville Stratherrick Road Inverness|access-date=25 April 2017}} and Ballifeary estates (1860s).[http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/sub_section.jsp?SectionID=122¤tId=735 Am Baile Highland History and Culture]{{cite book|title=Antiquarian Notes : a Series of Papers Regarding Families and Places in the Highlands|url=https://archive.org/stream/antiquariannotesfras/antiquariannotesfras_djvu.txt|access-date=25 April 2017|language=en}} Fraser-Mackintosh was also a captain in the Inverness-shire Rifle Volunteers from 1860 and a J.P. for Inverness-shire.{{cite book|title=The Celtic Magazine: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Literature, History, Antiquities, Folk-lore, Traditions, and the Social and Material Interests of the Celt at Home and Abroad|publisher=A. & W. Mackenzie.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OBgJAQAAIAAJ&q=drummond+estate+1863+charles+fraser-mackintosh&pg=PA267|access-date=25 April 2017|language=en|year=1884}}

As a lawyer, he had access to many rare manuscripts and documents, and these formed the basis for his own published works on Scottish history. In his historical work, Fraser-Mackintosh admitted to a sympathy for the Jacobite cause of "Bonnie Prince Charlie," due to being indirectly named after the prince via various Jacobite ancestors. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. In 1875, he was Chief of the Gaelic Society of Inverness.[http://gsi.org.uk/history/1971/ Gaelic Society of Inverness] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106030516/http://gsi.org.uk/history/1971/ |date=6 January 2010 }} He was the third President of {{lang|gd|An Comunn Gaidhealach}}, the national Gaelic Society, serving from 1896 to 1898.Programme,Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail 2017, Loch Abar(Inverness : An Comunn Gáidhealach. 2017) p210

It is thought that Fraser-Mackintosh rendered legal assistance to {{lang|gd|Mairi Mhòr nan Oran|italic=no}} when she was accused of theft from her employer in 1872. He appears to have recruited to her cause by John Murdoch and to have earned her enduring gratitude and affection.Ewan A. Cameron, The Life and Times of Fraser-Mackintosh Crofter MP,(Aberdeen:University of Aberdeen,2000),50-51. He is one of the land rights campaigners mentioned in her celebrated poem {{lang|gd|Nuair a chaidh na ceithir ùr oirre}}.Dòmhnall Eachan Meek,Mairi Mhòr nan Oran,(Dùn Eideann :Comann Litreachas Gàidhlig na h-Alba, 1998),186-189

Fraser-Mackintosh was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Inverness Burghs in 1874 and held the seat until the 1885 general election.{{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=F. W. S.

|author-link= F. W. S. Craig

|title=British parliamentary election results 1832–1885

|orig-year=1977

|edition= 2nd

|year=1989

|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn= 0-900178-26-4

|page=551

}} Initially he was opposed to agrarian unrest, arguing that negative consequences would occur if Scottish Gaels adopted the tactics of the Irish Land League and came to be seen as "discontented and disaffected."{{cite book|last1=Cameron|first1=Ewen A.|title=Poverty, Protest and Politics: Perceptions of the Scottish Highlands in the 1880s|url=http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/scottishstudies/ebooks/chap%208%20Cameron.pdf|page=226|access-date=13 July 2017}} Later he changed his mind and was returned as the MP for Inverness-shire for the Crofter's Party in 1885.{{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=F. W. S.

|author-link= F. W. S. Craig

|title=British parliamentary election results 1885–1918

|orig-year=1974

|edition= 2nd

|year=1989

|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn= 0-900178-27-2

|page=543

}} He was returned unopposed in 1886, but opposing home rule for Ireland,{{cite book|last1=Cameron|first1=Ewen A.|title=Poverty, Protest and Politics: Perceptions of the Scottish Highlands in the 1880s|url=http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/scottishstudies/ebooks/chap%208%20Cameron.pdf|page=235|access-date=13 July 2017}} he joined the Liberal Unionist Party, and lost the support of the local Highland Land League. The League backed Liberal Party candidate Donald MacGregor at the 1892 election, who unseated Fraser-Mackintosh. He was then the only Gaelic-speaking member of the Commons and became known as the 'Member for the Highlands'.{{cite web|url=http://www.ambaile.org.uk/gd/set/show_content_page.html?category=51&set=244&qw=|website=Am Baile|access-date=25 April 2017|title=Search Results}} One of five members of the Napier Commission, set up in 1883, to investigate the crofters' situation; he was the driving force behind the establishment of the Crofters' Commission and for promoting the use of Gaelic in Highland schools. His efforts led to the establishment of a Free Library in Inverness in 1883.

Fraser-Mackintosh died at the age of 72 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Fraser-Mackintosh married Eveline May Holland of Brooklands, Streatham in 1876. His widow left his personal library of over 5000 books and journals to Inverness Burgh library in 1921.