Lt. John McTavish (1701-1774)
of the 78th Highlanders; Tacksman of Garthbeg, Inverness-shire
He was the tacksman of Garthbeg in the Scottish Highlands and bore the arms of the McTavishes of Garthbeg. He fought as an officer with the Jacobite armies at the Battles of Culloden (1745) and Falkirk Muir (1746), and was one of the few who were specifically named as to not receive a pardon from George II after the Jacobites were defeated! In 1757, General Simon Fraser of Lovat appointed him a Lieutenant in his newly raised 78th Fraser Highlanders. Apparently changing his name to "Fraser" (his wife's name) so as to escape the authorities, he went with the regiment to Nova Scotia and fought for the British at the Battle of Louisburg (1758) where he was severely wounded and left to die. Unable to fight at the Battle of Quebec (1759), he was only well enough to be sent home, "as an act of charity to him and his family" in 1761. His two eldest sons were taken into the care of his friend, Dugald MacTavish of Dunardry, Chief of the Clan MacTavish; and, in 1764, his son Simon was sent to New York with his sister and her husband, Capt. Hugh Fraser, later building the McTavish Mansion at Montreal.
