The second Lord Lovat, Thomas, held the office of Justiciary of the North in the reign of James IV of Scotland, and died 21 October 1524.

The title descended in a direct line for nine sequential generations from 1458 until the death of the ninth Lord in 1696.

In 1697 the latter's son, Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, known as Simon "the Fox", kidnapped and forcibly married the late ninth Lord's widow, the former Lady Amelia Murray, only daughter of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl.

Lady Lovat's powerful family, the Murrays, were angered, and prosecuted Fraser, who fled the country.

Fraser had been created Duke of Fraser, Marquess of Beaufort, Earl of Stratherrick and Upper Tarf, Viscount of the Aird and Strathglass and Lord Lovat and Beaulieu in the Jacobite Peerage of Scotland by James Francis Edward Stuart (titular King James III of England and VIII of Scotland) in 1740.

His eldest son, the fourteenth Lord, was a soldier and politician and notably held office as Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs from 1926 to 1927.

The Conservative politician Sir Hugh Fraser was the younger son of the fourteenth Lord.

[8] Anderson lists the same lineage as given below, but his designation of which sons actually succeeded to the title of the Lordship is different,[6] when compared to the accepted modern version given below.

[8] The following is also in accordance with James Balfour Paul's 1908 volume 5 of The Scots Peerage which lists the aforementioned Simon and Archibald as the "de jure" 12th and 13th Lords Lovat before reverting to Thomas Alexander Fraser, 12th Lord Lovat proper who was from the Fraser of Strichen cadet branch.