Frances Lucy James

Frances "Fanny" Lucy Fisher

Frances Lucy "Fanny" Fisher (1823–1909) was to have married the widowed solicitor G. F. Shipster, but the wedding had to be cancelled due to his illness; he died the following day. J. H. Fisher brought up and educated his young son. She later married John Vidal James (1820–1897), pioneer settler at Inman Valley and Willunga, later Colonial Storekeeper. They returned to England in 1855.

"Died, almost suddenly, at his country residence in Kensington, on the evening of last Sunday, the 29th December, 1844, G. F. Shipster, Esq., solicitor, of North-terrace, in this city. The circumstances attending the death of this much respected and talented gentleman call for especial notice. Mr Shipster came to this Colony about eighteen months ago a widower, and being in the prime of life, a second attachment was not to be wondered at. Saturday last was the day appointed for his nuptials with a lovely and amiable young lady, the eldest unmarried daughter of J. H. Fisher, Esq., at whose house the wedding party had assembled; but the bridegroom came not, and an alarming message having prompted some of the kindred guests to repair instantly to his residence in the country, they were shocked to find him seriously ill. In truth though they saw it not, the hand of death was upon him, medical skill was unavailing, and another day was his last. The deceased being of a highly nervous, and peculiarly excitable temperament, his self-declared indisposition was but too little regarded by his domestic attendants; but to the skillful pathologist the causes of death became evident enough to supersede the necessity of an inquest. The case seems to have been one of intense morbid sensibility, superinduced possibly by latent organic disease. By this mysterious dispensation of Divine Providence, an interesting boy, in his tenth year, has become an orphan in a strange land, and a most excellent young lady, although bereaved, has been spared the severer pangs of untimely widowhood."

Family Notices (1845, January 4). Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 - 1904), p. 5. Retrieved October 19, 2016