We can mention another Rait in New Zealand. She is a mystery person whose only mention is in two registered birth certificates. One of her daughter Caroline Woodman born 9 October 1864 in Ngāruawāhia in the Waikato. The father is given as Edward Woodman, a sawyer, and the mother as Mary Ann Woodman, formerly Rait. Mary Ann, residing in Ngāruawāhia registered the birth in Auckland on 30 November 1864. The other was of an earlier child, son Joseph, born on 1 January 1861 in Big Muddy Creek, Auckland with the father given as Edward Woodman, sawyer, and the mother as Mary Ann Woodman, formerly Real (though probably Reat - an alternative spelling for Rait/Raitt - is intended). Joseph died aged four in 1864.

And that’s it! There is no further mention of Mary Ann Rait in New Zealand records that we can find. No date of birth, no marriage, no divorce, no age, no census, no death. It would appear than Edward Woodman and Mary Ann Woodman had two other children - their registered birth certificates have not yet been found, so it is as yet unknown whether they also mention Mary’s former name. Son Thomas Edward was born about 1863 and also died in 1864; Maude Rebecca was born ostensibly in 1873 and died in 1932; Caroline Mary herself died about 1924. It would appear that Mary Ann Woodman had another child for the Nelson Evening Mail, Vol X, issue 312, 23 November 1875 notes that an inquest was held yesterday on the body of the infant daughter of Mary Ann Woodman, who died a few minutes after birth. It was proved that the child was prematurely born, and a verdict was returned to the effect that death was the result of natural causes.

It appears Edward Woodman was born on 7 January 1828 in Stanbridge, Bedfordshire, England to Thomas Woodman and Mary Elizabeth Goodman who married in 1818. He is not found in the 1841 census, but he seems to have enlisted in the 58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment of Foot which was later deployed to New Zealand. The regiment had spent 11 years in Ceylon from 1828 and then escorted convict ships from Britain to New South Wales in 1843. In the New South Wales Government Gazette for 4 April 1845, Edward Woodman, 58th Regt. is named in the General Post Office, Sydney list of unclaimed letters for the month of March 1845. The regiment remained in Australia for two years before being sent to Northland, New Zealand in March and April 1845 to put down a Maori rebellion. For some reason Edward himself seems to have arrived some years later in New Zealand than the bulk of the regiment as he is recorded as a Corporal, aboard the Louisa on 6 March 1849, having earlier arrived in Australia aboard the convict ship Pestonjee Bomanjee on 19 January 1849 - his origin was given as Leighton, England. When the regiment finally left New Zealand nearly fourteen years later in November 1858, several hundred soldiers opted to stay on in the country, including Northland,  which opened for settlement through the 1850s. Presumably Edward Woodman, aged 31, was one of them - remaining in the country until his death in Auckland on 17 July 1906. His death certificate gives his age as 75 (rather than 78) and his parents as Thomas Woodman (a farmer) and Mary Woodman, formerly Goodman and he had lived in New Zealand for 57 years. Whether he met Mary Ann before, during or after he left the 58th regiment is not known.

In 1875 Edward married Grace Gribble in Auckland (which would suggest that either Mary Ann had died before 1875 or that the couple had got divorced or possibly that they were not really married in the first place) and had a further four children with her, including another daughter in 1876 named Caroline Grace. Mary Ann’s daughter, as Caroline Mary Woodman, married George Finlay in 1884; she died in 1924 aged 60. How long did Caroline Mary live with her mother and father and where? Did she stay with her mother after her father married Grace, or did she move in with them? Unanswered questions! It is significant that on Caroline Mary Woodman's marriage certificate to George Finlay she lists her father as a soldier, but is unable to provide the maiden name of her mother and the given name of her father. This would appear to indicate that she was estranged or unfamiliar with both her parents. On the other hand, in Edward Woodman’s death announcement in the New Zealand Herald for 19 July 1906, it states that he died at his daughter’s residence [Amy Kaspar] in Auckland and he was late corporal 58th Regiment.

The image below shows NCOs of the 58th Regiment of Foot in New Zealand, c.1858.

But who was Mary Ann Rait? Given the name, it is highly likely she came from Scotland (a Mary Ann Rait was baptized in Kent, England in 1811, but she would be over fifty when Caroline was born) - either under her own steam or as part of a larger family, but sadly there are no travel records for the name at the approximated dates. So we are left with assuming who she might be. There are perhaps several possibilities: Mary Ann Rait born 16 Nov 1834 to Thomas Rait and Margaret Stewart, in Canongate, Midlothian;  Mary Ann Rait born 11 Jan 1838 to Alexander Rait and Mary Stormont from Arbroath, Angus; Mary Ann Rait born 7 April 1839 to Thomas Rait and Margaret Miller in Dundee, Angus; and Mary Ann Reat, born 9 July 1843 to William Reat and Margaret Key in Barry, Angus.

There is an earlier Mary Ann Rait born to David Rait and Janet Moncur on 20 November 1813 in Dundee, Angus - but she is discounted for the same reason as the Kentish one. Also discounted is Mary Anne Tomlinson Rait, born in Glasgow in 1834, died in Inverness in 1903 aged 69. She married H. C. MacAndrew in 1962 in Anderston, Glasgow aged 28. Her parents were David Crighton Rait, goldsmith, and Fanny Milnes.

The Mary Ann, born in 1838, can also be discounted because this family are my own relatives and she is listed in all the censuses - she was a spinster and died in 1888. The Mary Ann Rait, born in 1839, married Alexander Hoseick on 9 January 1862 in Dundee aged 22. Her father Thomas Rait was the town missionary, her mother was Margaret Miller. She died on 6 June 1885 aged 47 in Dundee. Mary Ann Reat, born 1843, is not found in the 1851 census with parents and siblings in Carmyllie, Angus (in the 1841 census Reat has become Raitt, but in 1951 it was Rait) though as 7 year old Mary Ann Rait she is found in Barry at the house of her grandfather William Key, aged 66, a widower and a shoemaker, along with presumably her brother James aged 9. Her parents William Raitt and Margaret Key married in Barry on 17 Oct 1840. Mary Ann’s marriage and death are not found nor is she or the family found in later censuses.

There are also several plain Mary Raits who were born during the likely timeframe, but these have not been looked at in any detail and are probably not the Mary Ann being sought.

So we are left with two main possibilities: the Mary Ann born in Canongate in 1834 and the Mary Ann born in 1843 in Barry. The former would be six years younger than Edward Woodman, while the latter would be fifteen years younger - it is thought, then, unlikely to be her. I think it would probably have been fairly unusual for a young teenager, even a working girl, to go all the way to New Zealand herself, So she would either have came to New Zealand as a young girl with her family or was born there before records were properly official recorded.

In the 1841 census for Jacks Close, Edinburgh, Midlothian, we find Thomas Rait, 40, brewer, born Scotland; wife Margaret, 40, born Scotland; and children Margaret, 20, born Scotland; Thomas, 17; Duncan, 14; John, 10; Catherine, 7; and Marion, 5 (thus apparently born 1836) - all born Midlothian, Scotland. The question is, did Mary Ann’s parents call her Marion sometimes - or did the person who took the census (assuming it wasn’t her father) mishear perhaps an accented Mary Ann and thought the name was Marion? There are actually three Rait girls born Marion: 1698 in Edinburgh; 1704 in Arbroath, and 1770 in Dundee. Interestingly, no marriages or deaths for Marion Raits have been recorded in the Old Parish Registers, though a Marione Raitt married in 1588 in Aberdeen. Another interesting fact is that only children Thomas, Duncan and Mary Ann have the parents named as Thomas Rait and Mary Stewart - some of the others have their parents spelled in variations of the name, e.g. Thomas Reate and Margaret Steuart! Thomas and Margaret married in Stirling on 27 September 1818 and the ages of the family members in the 1841 census are some two years off their actual ages: Thomas born 1821, not 1824; Duncan born 1825, not 1827; Mary Ann born 1834, not 1836 etc. And while the sons do seem to be in later censuses, the girls do not. Nor do they appear to have married or died! So did they all go to New Zealand together? Where are the traces?

What about references to Mary Ann Woodman? Did she stay around the Auckland area or move away? The supposition is that Edward Woodman and family moved to South Island, probably to prospect for gold. Looking in Papers Past here are several articles about a Mary Ann Woodman of Westport (South Island) who was convicted of manslaughter in 1871 aged 32 (thus born 1839). Mary Ann Woodman was charged with having caused the death of another woman of loose life with whom she shared a house on the West Coast. She was indicted for the manslaughter of Catherine McCarthy, at Westport, on 21 November 1872. She had been tried and convicted in the District Court for a brutal assault on McCarthy, by striking her on the head with a frying pan. Before the death of McCarthy, the prisoner had been tried and convicted at the District Court of an aggravated assault, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, but on McCarthy’s death from the blow, the question arose as to whether she could be charged again for the graver crime. Her lawyer argued that she could not; however the Court prevailed and she was found guilty and after appeal her sentence was increased to three years of hard labour in August 1873. (Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, vol XXXII, issue 37, 7 May 1873). A detailed police report can be viewed at https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NENZC18730507.2.5?

It would seem that she had been in trouble before. Mary Ann Woodman, aged 32 (thus born 1839) was charged with unlawfully wounding Margaret Newrington Carr by beating her with a stone on the night of 8 November 1871 and subsequently throwing stones at her causing injuries. Apparently the women lived in the same house with and Mary Ann claimed the other woman threw her 19 month old baby into the street (this was probably Maude Rebecca as the actual date of birth is not found).

However, there is no strong evidence to prove that this Mary Ann Woodman is actually Mary Ann Rait. The fact that she is described as a “loose woman” who was living in houses on the West Coast with other women, might suggest that Edward Woodman was no longer part of her life - in any event he was back in Auckland by 1875 when he married Grace Gribble. Of course this woman may have been actually born Mary Ann Woodman - but births prior to 1840 are not recorded in New Zealand unfortunately. And no death of a Mary Ann Woodman is recorded, though a marriage is recorded between a Mary Ann Woodman and John Goodwin in 1892 - when she would have been 56 from her NZ age, or 58 if she is the Canongate Mary Ann). A marriage is also recorded for Mary Ann Woodman and George Skivington Rielly in 1916 - but then she would have been pushing 80! There are several deaths of Mary Ann Goodwins - all in their 80s, but the best fit would be the one dying in 1934, aged 85 - but that would mean she was born in 1849 - so this is probably not the right woman! Whether she remarried or not, however, there is still the possibility that Mary Ann Rait/Reat is the manslaughter and stone throwing perpetrator. But that doesn’t alter the fact that her former life is still pretty opaque - the only known information known about her in New Zealand is the name on two birth certificates!

----------

And then there is Alexander Rait and family. Alexander married Ann McKenzie on 6 June 1835 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland and they arrived in New Zealand in 1842. According to the New Zealand Index of Early Settlers 1840-1864, Alexander Rait, aged 28, a farm labourer; wife Ann, 28; son John aged 6; and daughter Christian aged 1, arrived in Nelson, New Zealand on 25 October 1842 aboard the settler ship Thomas Harrison which had left London on 26 May 1842. A quick search reveals them in the 1841 census living in James’s Place, Dunfermline, Scotland. Alexander Rait, 25 (born 1816 in Scotland), linen handloom weaver; wife Anne, 25, (born 1816, Fife); children John, 5 (born 1836, Fife); Christian, 0 (born 1841, Fife) and three other Raits: Anne, 20 (1821); and presumably twins Isabella and Elizabeth - both 15 (1826) and all born Scotland. These are possibly siblings of Alexander and did not accompany him to New Zealand, at least on the same ship. Sister Ann, may be the one who married James Smith on 7 January 1842 in Dunfermline. Alexander and Ann Rait had another son, Donald, born in 1838, but dying in 1839 in Dunfermline. Interestingly, there is seemingly no record of a child being born to Alexander and Ann in New Zealand and neither is there a record of either Alexander’s two children marrying, nor any of the four members of the family dying there! And I am uncertain of the parents of Alexander and his siblings. So like Mary Ann Rait, did this family also vanish without trace?

Nelson Haven, 1841. Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

Thomas C. Harrison. State Library South Australia

In fact, Alexander Rait and family seem to have moved on to Australia. There is a record of a son, James Miller Rait, being baptized at age 0 in Hobart, Tasmania with parents given as Alexander Rait and Ann McKenzie. Another record gives his birth as 7 November 1854 in Hobart and his death there on 3 October 1898. His mother is named as Ann Rait, his father as Alexander Rait, and his wife as Jane Elizabeth Rait. He was the father of two children: James Alexander Rait and George Spotswood Rait. FindaGrave adds that his date of birth was 8 November 1853, registered in Hobart, and he died on 30 September 1898 and that he was the youngest son of the late Alexander L.S. Rait. The Cornelian Bay Cemetery and Crematorium in the City of Hobart also contains the burial on 2 January 1884 of Ann Mackenzie Rait, relict of the late Alexander Rait, aged 70 years, who died at her residence in Hobart on 31 December 1883; and also Catherine McKenzie Rait, youngest daughter of Alexander Rait and Ann McKenzie, born 18 June 1856 in Hobart, dying on 8 May 1892 and buried on 11 May, aged 35.

James’s wife, Jane Elizabeth Spotswood, born 25 September 1854 in Tasmania and buried on 18 November 1910 aged 56. She is buried in Heads Road General Cemetery, Whanganui, Whanganui District, Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand.

Son James Alexander Rait, born in 1880, was buried on 4 November 1929 in Karori Cemetery and Crematorium, Wellington, New Zealand. He was a grocer’s assistant aged 49. His brother, George Spotswood Rait, born 1881, was cremated on 15 March 1863 at Wakumete Cemetery & Crematorium, Glen Eden, Auckland, New Zealand. George’s wife Mary Emma Lucinsky, born 1882, and was cremated on 2 December 1961 in the same cemetery. Their son Dennis Spotswood Rait, born 1916, was buried, aged 8, on 19 January 2025 in Karori Cemetery.

In fact the Cornelian Bay Cemetery in Hobart has a number of other graves of various Raits - the oldest appearing to be that of John Rait, born 1836 and dying on 25 July 1896 at Trafalgar Place, Macquarie street and being interred on 28 July 1896. His wife Isabel Fulton, born 1840, was buried there in 1906. The record notes she was born in Scotland and her father was William Bell and mother was Isabella Fulton. In fact John Rait married Isabella Fulton on 26 March 1863 at her father William's house in Hobart - their ages are given as 21 (meaning they were adults) and John was a builder. Interestingly, one of the witnesses was an Alexander Rait. I believe this will be our New Zealand Alexander Rait above and John would be his son, age 6 when they arrived in Nelson in 1842!

I will do further work on these Hobart Raits and add to the Australian Raitts pages.