Another track and trace
Friday 25 March 2022
When a friend sent me a ten year old photo of a gravestone from Balgay Cemetery in Dundee with the name John Raitt Stewart Henderson, my curiosity was piqued. How did he have the name Raitt in there? I was initially sidetracked because I misread the ages when I enlarged the photo - I read his age as 85 rather than 65 - meaning he was born in 1887! (However, that did afford me more completely different Raitt records, as I will explain later.) Not having much luck in finding him, I changed tack and looked up David Grieg Henderson J. P. who was also on the stone along with his wife Janet Whitton and John’s wife Susan Burnett Watson (whose dates and age I also read incorrectly on the enlarged image). David died on 8 August 1936 in Dundee and son John R. S. Henderson was the informant. David married Jessie Campbell Whitton in Dundee in 1898. I googled David and came across him in a Whitton family website which gave few details about him apart from the dates of birth (1877) death (1936) and marriage (1898), but did note that the couple had a son John R. Henderson who was adopted. So I thought I’d look in ScotlandsPeople for the birth of a John Rait with the surname left blank and born in 1887 (I mean, how many could there be?). In fact there was only one (though 27 other surnames with the first names as John Rait(t) born in other years! There were also a couple of others in England.): John Rait Brodie born in Dundee (in Henderson’s Wynd!) whose parents were James Brodie and Isabella Cheape. As I didn’t find this John in the 1891 census then I thought he must have been given up for adoption for some reason. I was still intrigued as to where the Rait came from and it turned out to be the name of his father’s mother - Margaret Raitt (sic). Her father was George Raitt (wife Christina Cairncross) - a baker/grocer in West Port, Dundee. So I will be following up on George!
Back to John R. S. Henderson - well, once I’d realized that his death year was 1972 and his age was 65, then unfortunately that record was not yet available online, though it could be ordered. The next step was to check his marriage - and I found that he married Susan Bennet (sic) Watson on 28 June 1933 in Dundee. His name in full was given as John Rait Stewart Henderson and simply as John Rait Stewart. He was an Assistant Agent for the Prison Aid Society, a bachelor aged 26 living at 3 West Bell Street, Dundee; Susan was a clerk typist aged 27, living at 407 Blackness Road, Dundee. We learn that his mother was Christina Rait Stewart, afterwards married to William Smith, seaman, deceased. Susan’s parents were Andrew Watson, jute factory manager and Elizabeth Halliday and she seems to have been born in Dysart, Fife in 1905. The marriage extract of John’s mother and William Smith is somewhat terse: the date was 15 February 1916 in St Clement, Dundee, her name is given simply as C. R. Stewart, jute spinner, aged 32, and his as Wm Smith, merchant seaman aged 36 - both residing at 12 Session St, Dundee. The marriage was by declaration in the presence of three named people and with a warrant of Sheriff Substitute of Forfarshire date 15 February 1916. William’s parents were James Smith, merchant seaman and Margaret Fraser - both deceased; and Christina’s were John Rait Stewart, cattleman, deceased and Elizabeth Milne, deceased. Just a couple of years or so after her marriage, Christina Rait Smith, age 35, died of tuberculosis on 15 April 1919 in Dundee and from the extract (which again gives her parents), we see that her husband’s full name was William Fraser Smith.
So, armed with his name and mother and the year of birth from his gravestone as 1906/1907, I was able to find the birth of John Rait Stewart. He was born in the District of St Mary in the Maternity Hospital, Dundee on 27 September 1906. He was illegitimate and his mother was Christina Rait Stewart, housekeeper, domiciled at 40 Taylor’s Lane, Dundee. The birth was registered on 18 October 1906 in Dundee. No father is given, but a note in the left margin of the extract reads “Paternity of child found by Dec. (Declaration?) of Court. See Reg. of Cor. (Register of Corrections) ..…..7 March 1907”. The correction does given the name of the father (James Elder, coal carter). There was another birth extract for him this time in the District of St Peter giving the same details (including margin note) but with an additional margin note at right saying the District of birth was St Mary. I was not minded to follow up further on his father, William Smith or the Hendersons since my interest was the Rait(t)s! However, it would appear that the Hendersons were childless and how and when they adopted John is not known - though it looks as though it was after 1911 (see below).
So who exactly was Christina Rait Stewart and when was she born? Her marriage and death extracts gave her parents as John Rait Stewart and Elizabeth Milne and her computed year of birth was 1884. There appears to be only one marriage between a John Stewart and an Elizabeth Milne and that was on 3 April 1859 at her home in Speymouth, County of Elgin. John was 27, a widower, resident Craithie, County of Aberdeen and a blacksmith journeyman. His father was John Stuart (sic), general labourer, and his mother was Jane Thomson. Elizabeth was 26, resident in Speymouth and a dressmaker. Her parents were George Milne, crofter, and Elspet Milne, maiden name Thomson.
I have tracked the family through the censuses - in 1861 in John and Elizabeth are in Speymouth; both born in 1833, John in Banffshire - and there is a son John Paterson Stewart age 3. In 1871 with several more children the family is in Enzie, Banffshire. Elizabeth died in Elgin in 1872. In 1881 blacksmith John is in Elgin with a new wife called Robina - probably Robina Mcleod who he married in Elgin in 1874 - and five children. Interestingly, the youngest was a daughter named Christina born to them in 1879 in Elgin. In 1891 the family is still in Elgin; also in 1901 but just the parents. A John James Erskine Stewart died in Elgin in 1908 aged 74. But in no record for this family is there any mention of the name Rait - so I believe that Christina’s Rait parentage as given in her marriage and death extracts may be unreliable.
Looking then for a Christina Rait Stewart born in 1884, there again seems to be only one! She was born on 16 January 1884 in Nelson Street, Ferry Port on Craig, Fife - just across the water from Dundee. Like her son, she too was illegitimate and her mother was named Christina Stewart - a spinner in a jute mill who could not write as she made her mark with an X against her name. Daughter Christina would thus have been 22 when John was born. I am pretty sure this is her and John in the 1911 census living at 83, Wilkies Lane, Dundee. Christina Stewart is head of the household, age 27, single, had three children born, two still living (though this is crossed through in red), she was a jute preparer in a jute mill and born in Tayport, Fifeshire. Also in the household is John Stewart, son, age 4, born Dundee; another son named Andrew Stewart, age 1, also born Dundee; and her father John Caird, age 72, widower, born in Balgavies, Forfarshire, a farm labourer doing canning (?) work. It is interesting that here she seems to have a father, when her birth extract says she was illegitimate. Did he step up to the plate later? At least if he is still working at age 72, then he is presumably trying to support his daughter and her young family. And where does the Rait come in - from her illegitimate mother? Her son Andrew was born on 15 August 1909 at the Maternity Hospital in Dundee. He too was illegitimate, but at least a father is on the birth extract and gave him his surname of Lamond. The father. also named Andrew Lamond, was a contractor’s labourer residing in Perth and the mother was Christina Stewart, housekeeper, domicile, 40 Taylor’s Lane, Dundee. Andrew Lamond Stewart died in Dundee in 1996 aged 86. His mother’s name is given as Stewart - but details are not available online - only by ordering certificate.
So the trail runs cold for the moment. Did Christina have some vague recollection of person named Rait? Was she confused with her parents names? I did come across the marriage in 1900 in Arbroath of a John Stewart and Christina Milne and though there were some Raits in Fife - even in Ferry Port on Craig - though none of them fit the bill for being a cattleman.
