Fraser (Frazer), Alexander McKenzie

Alexander McKenzie Fraser is known to have lived in Berrima in 1841 and remained there till at least 1843. His name is on the 1841 Census as part of a household comprising a married couple and a single man. All were aged between 21-45 years and had arrived free in the colony. The two men were listed as ‘shopkeepers and other retail traders’.

PURE SPECULATION: An A M Fraser was witness to a marriage at All Saints, Sutton Forest in August 1840 between a Janet Fraser (of Berrima) and a William Gannon (of Sutton Forest).[1] (The other witness was Charlotte Jenkins.) No proof of a link between Alexander and Janet Fraser has been found. A Janet Fraser, aged 30, arrived on the Portland in 1837 and is recorded as being from County Ross, Scotland.[2] The only William Gannon found was a 23-year-old ploughman from County Kildare who arrived as a free immigrant in 1839 on the North Britain.[3] Gannon was a Catholic and given that one member of the 1841 household was recorded as a Catholic it is possible that he and Janet were the married couple and Alexander the single male.

The 1841 Census tells us the household was living in a brick/stone house in Jellore Street. At the time the name Jellore St applied only to the western end of what we now call Jellore St, the buildings at the eastern end being referred to as on the Market Place. Only one stone/brick house remains in Jellore Street – Berrima House – which was probably occupied by the Jenkins family, so we cannot locate precisely where Alexander was living.

Though he is not known as a landholder in Berrima he did hold freehold to the value of £300, a large amount at the time, which qualified him as a juror.[4] This entry states he was living on the Market Place. He was still in Berrima in 1843 when he is listed as a member of a jury that tried and convicted the murderer, John Lynch.[5]  But given that he is not recorded as an eligible juror when they were listed later that year this is when he must have moved on.

^[1] Baptism, Burial, Confirmation, Marriage and composite registers in the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney Archives

^[2] SRNSW. Entitlement certificates of persons on bounty ships; Series: 5314; Reel: 1287

[3] SRNSW. Entitlement certificates of persons on bounty ships; Series: 5314; Reel: 1304

[4] SRNSW. Indexes to eligible jurors, Berrima 1844; Series Number: 854; Reel: 2759

[5] Sydney Herald, 25 March 1843 p. 2