Eliza Fraser
Eliza's portrait depicts her as a classical beauty, with long neck, sloping
shoulders, oval face, straight nose and ringlets. Her father died when she was
six, and she went to join her uncle in Madras when she was fifteen, where prospects
of marriage were better than in Inverness. She married at eighteen,
and bore thirteen children of whom eleven survived her, dying suddenly at 42 when the
eldest was 21 and the youngest was one. It sounds like a hard life, but she had
a husband who loved her dearly, who made her wealthy, and who considered
himself 'blessed... in the knowledge that my Eliza considered herself a happy
wife'. I hope he was right!
- Lived
- 4 March 1792-1834
- Origin
- Inverness
- Father
- Donald Fraser, (1760-1798) writer (solicitor) of
Inverness. At his death he was found to be owed £42, but no other
property was listed (4)
- Mother
- Mary Ord (1768-1842), daughter of Richard Ord, overseer of
the salmon fishing on the River Ness; and Elizabeth Mackenzie, daughter of John
Mackenzie, son of Alexander Mackenzie 7th of Davochmaluach
- Address
- Her mother-in-law's, 48 Queen Street
- Story
- Mary went out to Madras in in 1807, apparently visiting her
uncle Dr William Ord, surgeon. She married George in 1810 and had her first
daughter Mary in 1812. George was eager to return to Britain before she was 4,
and they returned to his mother's house in Edinburgh in 1816, moving to London
in 1819. In 1833 her husband wrote in his diary, 'the anniversary of the birth
of my excellent wife... She has given birth to 13 children, of whom eleven are
now alive, the eldest near 21 years old, the youngest little more than a
month.' She died suddenly the following year, while George was away. He wrote,
'I have lost more than half of myself, -- she was my oracle, -- she was the
staff on which I leant... On the whole, I feel that my Situation is far happier
than many a one who has been left a widower, that I ought to be thankful for
the happy period of 24 years of my married life, blessed as I am in the
knowledge that my Eliza considered herself a happy wife!'
- Chapel connection
- 1816 (baptism)
- Married
- 26 April 1810
- Spouse
- George Arbuthnot
- Children
- Mary (1812), Robert (1813), George (1815), Jane and Anne
(1816) Coutts (1818), Elizabeth (1820), John (1822), Catherine (1824), William
(1826), Elizabeth (1828), Laura (1830), Eleanor (1833)
 |
Eliza Fraser |
Sources
- Registers of Charlotte Chapel (NAS CH12/3)
- Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1818
- P. Arbuthnot, Memories of the Arbuthnots of Kincardineshire and Aberdeenshire (London, George Allen and Unwin Ltd 1920) p.357-368
- Donald Fraser's Inventory, National Archives of Scotland CC11/1/6/471
Back to index