(fl. early 19th century), schoolteachers. Jane and Jemima Fraser, remembered as the Misses Fraser, operated a private school for girls at Williamstown. They were the sisters of Jessie Fraser the wife of the Rev. John McKenzie. Since McKenzie did not come to Williamstown till 1819, it is probable that his wife’s sisters did not settle there before that date. Ewan Ross thought the school existed “probably from shortly after 1818 until about 1850.” However, in Grace Campbell’s novel The Higher Hill (1944), where the sisters appear among the characters, their school was in operation during the lifetime of the Rev. John Bethune, who died in 1815. In the novel, Jemima is the head mistress, and the school is called “The Misses Fraser’s Seminary for Young Ladies.”

Centenary 1912 73 * Harkness 120-121* MacGillivray & Ross 238 * Grace Campbell, The Higher Hill, esp. Chapter I * Ross & Cameron 2-3 * Williamstown 200 103