Mary Susan (Whitehouse) Blane (1833 - 1876)

Born 1833 in Otago, New Zealand

Ancestors

Wife of Joseph William Rigby — married 7 Jun 1852 in Petane, Eskdale, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

Wife of John Blane — married 19 Jan 1859 (to 1862) in New Zealand

Wife of Frederick Kennedy Williams — married about 1863 in Partnership, New Zealand

Descendants

Died 12 Oct 1876 at about age 43 in Wellington, New Zealand.

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Tania Bearsley [send private message]

Biography

IMPORTANT: The Information within this story is very important part of New Zealand history and wars: (there are numerous versions published about the dunking of Rev. William Colenso - most are fiction, written to make someone look honest, but published to make Rev. Colenso look bad. The discrediting of a person by "gossiping" was typical Warfare during this period. Colenso was promoting the land owner NOT sell their land to the British Government.

I leave the details for the researcher - if you read your history you'll see the time lines, weather and facts don't agree. Someone has been creative with those publications. Merehana is fact. The dunking occurs after her wedding.

Another mystery: Why did her mother Tamairaki go to the Chathams, without her daughter; was Tamairaki taken there by the Military?

At an unknown stage in her early life Merehana was given or chose the name Mary Susan Whitehouse (but appears in various records as Mary, Mary Suzanne, Mary Susan, Suzanne, Susan Mary and plain Susan). She was also known as Mary Susan Holmes, and Russell Caldwell has pointed out that this would be plausible because of her mother's relationship with John Holmes. We will call her Mary Susan from here on.

Mysterious MEREHANA

When interviewed by Ron Hawker in the mid 1990s, descendants of the Owen family who had researched their whakapapa, were surprised and puzzled by the sudden emergence of Tamairaki's first daughter Merehana whom they were previously unaware of, and they were initially reluctant to accept that she had actually existed.

But Merehana most certainly did exist and here we take the unusual step of moving to her death certificate for clues. It records the death on 12 October 1876 of Susanne Blaine who was born in the Province of Otago, mother of seven sons and three daughters, and whose father was listed as Whitehouse, Master Mariner.

Before her relationship with John Holmes, Tamairaki and Whitehouse had a daughter about 1833 called Merehana. If the death certificate information about place of birth is accurate, then Tamairaki may have gone to the Chathams Islands and then on to the Auckland Islands after Merehana was born.

Her early life is indeed a mystery, and perhaps a likely explanation is that she was adopted out at an early age which would not have been unusual for the times. It is also possible that Whitehouse entered into a relationship with another woman and they took the child north with them, and Tamairaki for some reason went to the Chathams without her daughter. What is known is that Merehana was not recorded as being with her mother at Murrays River on Stewart Island in the Ruapuke Registers compiled in September 1850 by the Rev Wohlers.

At an unknown stage in her early life Merehana was given or chose the name Mary Susan Whitehouse (but appears in various records as Mary, Mary Suzanne, Mary Susan, Suzanne, Susan Mary and plain Susan, ). She was also known as Mary Susan Holmes, and Russell Caldwell has pointed out that this would be plausible because of her mother's relationship with John Holmes. We will call her Mary Susan from here on.

Caldwell, previously of Ngai Tahu whakapapa, carried out considerable research (over a period of two years in fact) and in 1995 produced a document entitled Report On Rigby/Williams Families (remembering that our A K Hawker married Edith Williams, daughter of Mary Susan). In a subsequent report, Caldwell cleared up the Mary Susan mystery and established her as first born of Tamairaki. His reports are commended to you.

ANYWAY........

Mary Susan Whitehouse has been reported as having arrived in Wellington from South Island about 1850 and moving on to Napier with a pakeha family named Villers who were her guardians. (Mary Jane Villers was born at Napier in 1851, the first white child born in Hawkes Bay, and Villers Street still exists at Petane).

[added notes - McKain & Villers families worked for the NZ Land Company - and were part of Thomas Henry FitzGerald scheme to break Hawkes Bay from Wellington Province and the serious issues being created by the British Empire. T H FitzGerald had Colenso on their side and they eventually set up the HB Provincial Council in 1859. The other side was not impressed and wanted revenge. Settlers switched sides, families were split as everyone did what they thought was best for themselves. As the British Empire military was dissembled, and local NZ militia created to grab the land, Hawkes Bay Provincial supporters took a big hit. Innocent people, such as one they named "Te Kooti" (not his real name) found themselves imprisoned at the Chatham Islands]

Mary Susan worked as a servant girl for the McKain family which became very successful in commerce in Napier. When she was 19 years old, she and a seaman, Joseph William Rigby, were married by controversial pioneering missionary, printer and botanist, Rev William Colenso. In the book The Story of Hawkes Bay the author wrote the following -- The missionary tells us in his Journal that on the 5th of June, 1852, he left his mission station for Petane where, on the morning of the 7th, he married an Englishman to a half-caste girl, in the presence of ten Europeans who accompanied the couple from Ahuriri. It was, he says, the first marriage he had performed in the English language in Hawkes Bay." This was Mary Susan and Joseph Rigby.

Rev. Colenso recorded the event with a handwritten marriage certificate which Mary Susan signed with a cross, and the marriage was not entered into the Marriages Register of The District Of Ahuriri until August 11, when Mary Susan again signed with a cross. Being illiterate might explain why so many different spelling versions of her name were used. She may not have been able to recognize the differences and in fact her name is recorded as Mary Susanna Whitehouse on the marriage certificate.

Mary Susan and Joseph Rigby had three children before he died, William born 1852 and George born 1853, then Henry born 1857 who died aged 10.

On 19 January 1859, Mary Susan married John Blain and they had two children, John born 1860 and Thomas born 1862. John Blain left for Dunedin on the ship Zephyr in 1861 while Mary Susan was still carrying Thomas, and he was apparently not seen again even though his name resurfaces several times.

She moved to Wellington where in 1867 she had a boy, probably about the time of the death of her 10 year old son Henry Rigby because she named the new child Henry John. His surname was given as Blane but the father was listed on the birth certificate as Frederick Williams. The father of her next child, Herbert Guy born 1868, was named as John Blane. (Some of the spelling looks awry here, but it is as it was used then). Whatever, she then had Mary Ann (Sissy) and then our Edith born 18 February 1872 at Ohariu Valley. She was not quite five when her mother died aged 40. Two other children were born in Wellington, Frederick Williams and Anne Williams who both also apparently used the name Blaine, but few details are unknown.

Mary Susan died in Wellington on 12 October 1876 and her husband Frederick Kennedy Williams on 7 Jan 1878 less than two years later, leaving six young orphans. The Colonial Secretary was successfully petitioned by Henry Woodward Williams to provide 200 pounds for their well being from the public purse. Henry Williams was Edith's uncle, being the brother of her father Frederick Kennedy Williams. (Henry drowned in Wellington Harbour in 1883).

It is interesting that Henry requested the financial help go to Annie, Edith and Herbert Guy Williams as he hoped the others, Henry John, Mary and Edward Arthur Williams, were already being provided for. The last named, Edward Arthur Williams does not tie in with names of Rowallan Block grantees, but the name Frederick appears among the grantees but not among the orphans!

Edith, of course, married Alfred King Hawker and the blood proceeds down through Ronald Gordon Hawker, then Carl Ronald Hawker, then Tracy Anne Hawker to her sons Samuel Tutuila Su'a and Mitchell Byron Bell Hawker.

Regarding the South Island lands. Under the South Island Landless Natives Act the following people were granted land in 1906 in Block IV, Section One, of the Rowallan Block -- George Rigby, William Rigby, Sissy Williams, Fred Williams , Henry John Williams, Herbert Guy Williams, Edith Williams, Anne Williams, John Bentinck Blaine and Thomas Robert Blaine -- according to The New Zealand Gazette, issue No 53 dated 9 July 1908

Birth

Mary was born in 1833.

Marriage

Mary Whitehouse was married three times. 7 Jun 1852 Petane near Ahuriri, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand To Joseph William Rigby^[1]. 19 Jan 1859 Napier, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand to John Blaine^[2] 19 Jan 1859 Napier, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand to John Blaine

Death

Bolton St COE plot Wellington (undisturbed but not located)

Mary was born about 1833. She passed away about 1877. ^[3]

MERGE INITIATED INTO WHITEHOUSE-355. ONCE COMPLETED HALF SISTER OF 355 NEEDS DISCONNECTED THEN MERGED INTO 355.

Sources

1. ↑ Mary Susanne Whitehouse in the New Zealand, Marriage Index, 1840-1937 Name: Mary Susanne Whitehouse Marriage Year: 1851-1852 Marriage Place: New Zealand Spouse: Joseph William Rigby Folio Number: 519 Source: ancestry.com
2. ↑ Susan Rigby in the New Zealand, Marriage Index, 1840-1937 Name: Susan Rigby Marriage Year: 1859 Marriage Place: New Zealand Spouse: John Blain Folio Number: 59/333 Source: ancestry.com
3. ↑ Unsourced family tree handed down to Tania (Thomson) Bearsley.

Bolton St Cemetery records

Research Notes

Birth before NZ bdm index No marriage or death found.