Details

Name

Janet Fraser

Brief Biography

1806 - 1873, British / Scottish

Description

Janet Fraser was the wearer of items in Glasgow Museums' dress collection. Janet was born on 25 December 1806, the daughter of Angus Fraser, merchant, and his wife, Elizabeth Sutherland in Dornoch, Sutherland. Janet married Lewis Hoyes on 14 February 1838 at the Mount Parnasseus Estate, Grenada, with a marriage announcement appearing in the Grenada Free Press and Weekly Gazette. Hoyes was originally from Forres, but had been living in the British Caribbean for many years employed as a merchant, plantation owner and agent, and Speaker of the House of Assembly, Grenada. The couple settled in Grenada, where Mrs Hoyes become involved in civic events, including presenting a set of colours to St Andrew's Regiment of Militia in January 1839. The couple's son, Lewis, was born in 1841. The family returned to Scotland in late 1842 to visit family and friends, where Janet's husband died on 5 December 1842. Now widowed, Janet, returned to Grenada to settle her husband's affairs and oversee the public auction of some of his goods. There their daughter, Elizabeth, was born in April 1843. Janet and her young family subsequently settled in Scotland. The Census for 1861 records them living with her brother, William, a banker and procurator fiscal, mother Elizabeth, and two unmarried sisters, Helen and Christina, in Dornoch. By 1871 Janet, Lewis and Elizabeth had moved to Edinburgh, where they are listed living in lodgings at 47 Great King Street in 1871. Ten years later, Janet, William, now a solicitor, and Elizabeth, were recorded living at 15 Nelson Street, Edinburgh, where Janet died on 14 December 1873, aged 66.