Her father remarried and the last two of his children were with his second wife,[1] Margaret Smellie, (a widow, born Weir) of Gibraltar.

In 1870 her father conducted the wedding between her and James Walter Fell who was two years older than her in Sydney.

[8][9] While visiting London her husband died aged 35 leaving her a wealthy woman with three children.

[10] After her only son, John Walter Fell, died in 1891[11] she and her daughters returned to Scotland for five years.

She was the first treasurer of the Presbyterian Women's Missionary Association[1] in 1891, when Ann Goodlet was the President and Elizabeth Forbes was the secretary.