The subject of this memoir is descended from, and connected with, the most ancient family in Scotland; his father being the 6th in lineal descent (by the Strichen branch) from Alexander, the 5th Lord Lovat, who died in 1558; and his maternal grandmother was eldest daughter of John Hamilton, Esq. of Gilkerscleugh, descended from the 1st Marquis of Hamilton, (the 2d daughter was mother to that eminent judge, the late Lord Braxfield).

In the year 1760, when only 9 years of age, the late Admiral George Gayton, then commanding the Fly sloop, being in Shetland, where his father was surveyor of H. M. Customs, finding in the boy a desire to go to sea, kindly took him under his protection; and during the continuation of that war behaved to him in all respects as a father. With Captain Gayton he was at the siege of Belleisle, and also in Basque Road, when the praams from the river Charente attacked the squadron off Aix.

At the conclusion of the war he returned to Edinburgh, where he continued, to finish his education, until the end of 1767; when, his predilection for the sea service continuing, he went, as midshipman of the Mermaid frigate, to America, and remained in her three years; and then went acting lieutenant of the Bonetta sloop, commanded by Captain (the late Admiral) Matthew Squire, who had been lieutenant of the Mermaid, and had a particular regard for Mr. Fraser.