Portrait of Sir William Fraser, Bt. (1737-1818)

inscribed l.l.: SIR WM FRASER / OF LEDECLUNE & / MORAR 1st BARONET and further inscribed 1792 (on the relining)

oil on canvas half length, seated, wearing a black coat with brass buttons, holding a receipt inscribed and dated 1762, with a map of Papua or New Guinea beside, inscribed e Mano 1780

The sitter was the son of William Fraser of Ledeclune and his wife Helen Ross. He joined the East India Company in 1760 and by 1772 had become Captain of the Lord Mansfield. His final voyage was in the 1783-1784 season as commander of the Earl of Mansfield. He was particularly notable as being one of the first to fix the longitude at sea through lunar observation. The reference on the map to New Guinea suggests that Fraser was involved with the efforts of Thomas Forest in 1774 to explore New Guinea and establish for the East India Company its trading potential. He was made Fellow of the Royal Society in 1791 and created a baronet in 1806. In 1786 he married Elizabeth Farquharson by whom he had three sons and eleven daughters.