how lovely to have Gerry's tribute to Granny! It would be great if we could get more photos and memories of Miss Lilly, and perhaps some details of her life.
From the family tree...
LILIAS
MARY FRASER was born March 30, 1882 in Rutland Vale Estate, St. Vincent, West
Indies, and died September
6, 1970 in Hope, St. Vincent, West Indies.
She married JOHN
LANGLEY PUNNETT December 10, 1907 at Rutland Vale Estate, St. Vincent, son
of JAMES-ROBERT PUNNETT and MARY-CHARLOTTE DEARY.
Granny's
parents were Catherine Robertson (daughter of Frances and Alexander Robertson
of Rosebank Estate, St. Vincent) and Alexander Murdoch Fraser (born 1844 in
Crauts Farm, Knockie, Banffshire, Scotland), who together died in St. Vincent
in the 1902 eruption of La Soufrière.
Her
siblings were Marie (married Norman Blencowe), George (married John Langley
Punnett's sister, Gladys) and (from her father's earlier marriage to Frances
Rosalie Murray), Alexander Murdoch (father of Louie, Una, Agnes, Eileen, Laurie,
Pat and Jean). The family tree shows
another son of that first marriage named Douglas, with no further
information.
According
to the family tree, when she was 8 years old, Lillias went with brother George
to spend 3 months in Kincardine with the family of Kenneth McKenzie Wright,
eldest son of her father’s sister, Mary Fraser. Other family stories suggest she was
visiting in Kincardine when her parents were killed in the 1902 eruption in St.
Vincent, and thereafter returned home.
I
remember hearing that Granny would not accept Grandad's proposal until he was
earning $100 a month, and so she took off to Jamaica to visit her brother
George who was working in Jamaica. It
seems Grandad got a little desperate and posed for a photo with his arm around
some young lady and made sure the picture found its way to Granny. Apparently, it did the trick and she was back
home and married before he hit the earnings mark!
On my
childhood visits to Hope House, I spent as much time with Granny's maid, Donna,
as with the grownups. There was a story
about Donna seeing a photo of a very attractive young woman and, on learning
that it was Granny, saying something like, "Oh Gawd, Mistress, you was
real pretty, an' watch how yuh come now"!
One love!
Lisbie x
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| Hope House, where Lilias and John spent their last years, after turning over the estates to their sons |
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It's wonderful to see this photo of Hope House - there are colourful houses with fences built all around nowadays, and the Vermont Road runs right through where the chicken shed was - it is hard to remember what it was like in the 1970s. I love the anecdotes around Lily, very entertaining. What a treat you great aunts have given to us all, thank you!
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