Ann Sophia Fisher (19 December 1839, London - 17 May 1907, Ashburton, New Zealand) was the eldest daughter of Mary Ann Warland (1812 - 1847) and John Fisher (1812 - 1843) who married by 1839 in Middlesex. Click this link for the details of Mary Ann Warland's family. Mary Anne's older sister Eliza Harris (nee Warland) migrated to Sydney, Australia in 1844, while her younger brother Henry Warland and his wife Sarah (nee Watts) migrated to Melbourne, Australia by 1855.
Mary Ann Warland married John Fisher (21 September 1812, London - 1843) in England. They had two children:
John Fisher died in 1843 (likely the death of a person with the same name recorded at St Martin-In-The-Fields). Mary Ann Fisher then married William Nunn; this could be the William Nunn and Mary Ann Fisher whose marriage was recorded at St Martin-In-The-Fields in 1843.
Unfortunately for William, Mary Ann Nunn (nee Warland, previously Fisher) died in 1847; this is probably the Mary Ann Nunn born 1812 whose death is recorded at St Martin-In-The-Fields in 1847. Her two daughters were now only 8 and 4.
Ann Sophia and Mary Garwood Fisher's uncle Edward Warland and his wife Mary (nee Cutler) cared for the two children after the death of both parents, as recorded in the 1851 census records. Edward and Mary Warland had two children of their own, Alfred Warland (born 1849) and Sarah Ann Warland (born 1856, died in South Africa).
There are various stories about how Ann Sophie Fisher ended up in New Zealand.
One story states that Ann Sophia Fisher travelled to New Zealand in 1851 at the age of 12 as a nurse maid for a wealthy family, possibly Dr Baker or Mr Godley. (Source: Joy Wilson, from Nancy Gray). John Robert Godley, a wealthy man, named his first home in New Zealand 'Stickland', which may be a reference to the Stickland family that is linked with the Warland family from Dorset.
Another story states that Ann Fisher may have arrived in 1851 on board the same ship, the Charlotte Jane, as a Dr Baker, a doctor and photographer. The problem with this version of her story is that Ann Sophia Fisher was recorded at her uncle Edward's house in the 1851 UK census; the census was taken after the Charlotte Jane had left England. There were, however, other people on the ship with the surname of Fisher and these may be related or be a coincidence.
However she got there, Ann Sophia Fisher was in Christchurch, New Zealand by June 1861.
At some point by 1861, Ann Sophia Fisher had met William Gray (2 April 1831, Willoughby-with-Sloothby, Lincolnshire, - 1917), the eldest son of William Teesdale Gray and Eliza Hodgson who had married in Huttoft, Lincolnshire on 24 September 1828. (Source https://www.genealogy.com/forum/regional/countries/topics/englandcountry/123097/ which includes a listing of William's siblings)
Ann Sophia Fisher and William Gray married at the home of Mr Smithson in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 13 June 1861 (NZ BDM Ref 1861/3217). The identity of Mr Smithson is not yet known.
William and Ann Sophia Gray (nee Fisher) had eleven children, all of whom were born in the Canterbury District of New Zealand:
A young woman named Mary G Fisher arrived in Lyttelton (south of Christchurch) on 1 July 1864 on board the Amoor that had departed London in April 1864. Mary was recorded in the passenger list as a 21-year-old domestic servant.
It is not known if Mary G Fisher was the sister of Ann Sophia Gray (nee Fisher) but her age and the fact that she travelled to the same place where Ann Sophia was living seems too much of a coincidence, but there no known knowledge of contact between the two, or awareness of this relationship among living descendants. At this stage, the best we can say is that Mary G Fisher could have been Ann Sophia's sister.
Mary Fisher is recorded in the Christchurch area having children with a Joseph Mandell Waite from 1871, eventually moving to Auckland in 1885 where she died. Click this link for the rest of Mary Fisher's story.
Another William and Ann Gray had children in New Zealand in the early 1880s:
Mary Waite, possibly Ann Sophia Gray (nee Fisher)'s sister, died in Auckland in 1885 and was buried at Symonds Street Cemetery in that city.
Sarah Ann Elizabeth Gray (1867 - 1956) was the fourth child of William and Ann Sophia Gray (nee Fisher). Sarah Ann Elizabeth Gray was recorded in BDM records as Elizabeth Sarah Ann or 'Lizzie'. Sarah married Andrew Ross (1851 - 1935) in 1888 (NZ BDM Ref 1888/1654) and had the following children:
Elizabeth Sarah Ross was the great-grandmother of Joy Wilson.
Note that another Andrew Ross married a Sarah Montgomery in 1888 (NZ BDM Ref 1888/1160). Their children are listed with Sarah's name only.
William Alfred Gray (1862 - 1941), the eldest child of William and Ann Sophia Gray, He married Helen Hopwood (1865 - 1926) in 1891 (NZ BDM Ref 1891/861). They had the following children:
Edward Arthur Gray (1868/9 - 1951) was the fifth child of William and Ann Sophia Gray. He married Maria Thomasina Harland (1867 - 1939) in 1892 (NZ BDM Ref 2221). They had the following children:
Edward Arthur Gray was the grandfather of Nancy Gray.
Frank Baldock Gray (1874 - 1961), the 8th child of William and Ann Sophia Gray, married Jane Cecilia/Celia Burke (1875 - 1960) in 1897 (NZ BDM Ref 1897/575). They had the following children:
Ann Sophia Gray (nee Fisher) died on 17 May 1907 at Ashburton, New Zealand.
Mary Maude Gray (1880 (NZ BDM Ref 1880/6561) - 1960), the eleventh child of William and Ann Sophia Gray (nee Fisher), married John Edward Moore (1869 - ?) in 1912 (NZ BDM Ref 1912/5115). They had the following child (perhaps more after 1918 but not yet accessible):
William Ernest Gray (1878 - 1955), the tenth child of William and Ann Sophia Gray, married Grace Ellen Wellington (1901 - 1992) in 1931 (NZ BDM Ref 1931/4150).
Page created 1985, last updated 21 March 2025 (added details of Mary G Fisher, possibly Ann Sophia Fisher's sister). Copyright © Andrew Warland