Amy Frater

Signed family name

Frater

Signed given name

Amy

Given address

Livingstone

Sheet number

299

Town/Suburb

Livingstone

City/Region

Otago

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Amy Nicholas was born in 1840 in Cornwall, England – the daughter of Collen Nicholas, a miner, and Elizabeth Martyn.

Amy came to New Zealand in the 1860s and she married John Frater, a miner from Mt Ida, on 22 January 1868 in Dunedin.

They had 11 children and lived at Maerewhenua.

John died in 1883 while working on his gold claim 'by a fall of earth', leaving Amy and the children without means of support. John is buried in the Livingstone Cemetery.

The following year John’s mining claim, which was heavily mortgaged, was put up for sale by his creditors. A public appeal was made raise money for the family to 'avert great sorrow and misery from a most deserving though heavily afflicted family'.

Amy remained in Livingstone until the 1910s when she moved to Oamaru. She died in February 1926 and is buried in the Old Oamaru Cemetery.