She later moved to Berbice where she lived with her partner William Fraser, conducting business in her own right.
She acquired property and over 75 slaves, leaving a legacy to her children, who had been legitimized by their father, of £5,400, (equivalent to £600,000 in 2025, according to calculations based on retail price index measure of inflation.
[3]) Elizabeth, christened along with her sister Susannah, on 22 February 1785, was born in Saint Michael Parish, Barbados as the daughter of Lydia Ostrehan.
[7] To secure her freedom, Susannah sold Elizabeth to Captain James White, a prominent seafaring merchant, enlisting his help in obtaining her manumission papers in London.
[8] At the time, manumission fees in Barbados were extremely high, £300 for women and £200 for men,[9] as compared to £10 in Dominica or Grenada[10] and £50 in England.
To avoid the high cost of Barbadian freedom, those wishing to manumit slaves would find a trustworthy and sympathetic mariner traveling to England to go to the Lord Mayor of London, pay the fee, obtain the paperwork, and return with the certificate.
[2] Recognizing that in Britain his children were seen as illegitimate, Fraser petitioned the Colonial Secretary for letters of legitimation to allow him to bequeath his estate to his offspring.
Bannister's son John Fraser became apprenticed to study surgery in Cromarty, but died in Scotland before 1845.