The Raitt Stuff
 
 
This page contains anecdotes I have come across about people called Raitt (and variations) and others associated with the family. They may or may not all be actual ancestors or relatives. New anecdotes are added at the bottom of this page. This is because although the text moves down automatically if I add something above it, the images associated with the text do not and so I have to move them all down manually. ---------- In Linlithgow gardens, near Edinburgh, there is a sign (shown on the Welcome page and opposite) commemorating poor old George Raitt whose apparition ( a screaming severed head) is said to haunt the narrow wynds around Annet House in Linlithgow. George was a blacksmith who “lost the heid” when he attempted to kill an old horse using a pickaxe. As the implement entered the horse’s skull, it threw back its head wrenching the pickaxe from Raitt’s grasp. The wooden handle caught the hapless blacksmith under the chin, ripped off his head and propelled it over the town wall. It was never found: carried off perhaps by the wild dogs which inhabited the outlying area. ---------- Some of the early paternal ancestors of mine, the Scorgies and Sangsters, came from Gamrie in Banffshire. There, in the year 1004 a Viking party searching for supplies came ashore. The local Scottish chief vowed to build a church on the spot where the intruders were encamped dedicated to St John if the Saint helped them repulse the raiders. The ensuing battle was known as the battle of the Bleedy Pits and the local Scots defeated the Vikings with great slaughter on the top of Gamrie Mhor. The Scots decapitated three of the Viking leaders and the skulls – “grinning horrid and hollow” - were displayed fixed in the wall in the church of St John’s, directly east of the pulpit. The date of the battle was inscribed on the ruins of the old church. The remains of the pre-reformation St John’s church built in 1513 to commemorate the Viking raid can still be seen today – as can the skull recesses. The skulls, “remaining in their prison house for 800 years” , were still there in 1832 but were later supposedly removed by Aberdeen University archaeologists. Sir W. D. Geddes, parochial schoolmaster in Gamrie and later Principal at Aberdeen University, penned a poem about the skulls. The poem and the story of the skulls can be found in the Google Books version of Banffshire by W. Barclay, p74 and also on the Electric Scotland website. ---------- Johnny Kellogg was only just 19 when he left his bride of a few months, Sidney Gaston, to ride with 31 others of the Gonzales Ranging Company of Mounted Volunteers to help relieve and defend the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas against the Mexican General Santa Anna and his 2000-plus troops. They knew it was a fruitless task and five days later, on 1 March 1836, Johnny was killed in battle there along with all the other 189 or so defenders including legendary folk-heroes Davy Crockett (he of the coonskin hat and born on a mountain top in Tennessee and killed him a bear when he was only three) and Jim Bowie (famous for his “Bowie” knife). Six days after Johnny’s demise, Sidney gave birth to John Benjamin Kellogg and sadly died herself six months later. Brought up by his grandparents, who also died a short time later, John Benjamin eventually married and his illustrious Alamo-defender (one of the Immortal 32 Gonzales Rangers) father’s descendants include Kay Raitt. ---------- John Wilkie was a soldier in the Forfarshire Militia in the early 1800s. He then was in the army of the Honourable East India Company and by 1815, after the Battle of Waterloo, was stationed on the island of St Helena in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at the time that Napoleon was exiled there (1815-1821). St Helena was owned by the Company and was used for acclimatizing European troops for service in India. The St Helena Regiment comprised a garrison of 820 men and was responsible for guarding Napoleon. Two of John Wilkie’s sons were born on St Helena at the time Napoleon was there, and his eldest child, Catherine, was born just before they set sail for the island. Catherine married William Purvis and was the mother of my paternal great grandmother, Mary Purvis. ---------- My family south of the border, (my children excepted) all call me either The Sprog or Sproggie. This nickname goes back to my wartime birth. My father was a Physical Training Instructor in the RAF (and my mother was in the WRNS) - besides fitness, he also trained aircrew in parachute jumps. On the fateful day of my birth on 2 November 1944, he was conducting a course in the swimming pool while stationed at South Queensferry near Edinburgh when an airman came in and announced my birth by saying “Hey Sarge - you’ve got a sprog” - sprog being the military slang for a new recruit. The name stuck! ---------- When my great grandfather's brothers, John and James Dorward Raitt, emigrated to America from Scotland in the 1860s or so, they were following a trail blazed as far back as 1620 when the Pilgrim Fathers established themselves in Massachusetts. Many others had arrived in the years in between, among them the Hinkles (or Henckels) from Germany. They found a more dangerous place than my great grand uncles. The official roster of the Revolutionary War dead buried in Ohio include Joseph Hinkle, private, Captain Conrad, Karner's Company, Lieutenant Adam Fischer's Regiment, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Militia, who enlisted on 8 June 1782 as "Private 5th Class. Covalt Station, in the valley of the Little Miami River about ten miles above Columbia near the present village of Terrace Park, Ohio, was established by Captain Abraham Covalt of New Jersey and a Revolutionary rebel. He left Pennsylvania, his residence, on 1 January 1789 with a party of forty-five, including Joseph. The women and children slept in tents during that bitterly cold and snowy winter. After arriving on 19 January 1789, the men built a strong fort, seventeen cabins and a mill. The outpost was named Covalt's Station after their leader. Young Abraham Covalt of the Captain's family was killed by the Indians in 1789 some miles above Covalt's Station. On 17 March 1793 while getting timber for his own house, Captain Covalt with his two sons and Joseph Hinkle were attacked by Indians. Joseph was killed by tomahawks and then scalped. Captain Covalt, shot twice, urged his sons to run to the fort saying he was wounded. He managed to stagger one hundred yards towards his attackers brandishing his axe, then fell dead. He too was scalped. Another of the fort's soldiers, Abel Cook (either the father or brother of Joseph's wife Lydia Cook), was killed at Round Bottom after Harmon's defeat in 1791. One of Joseph’s descendants eventually married a descendant of John Raitt. ---------- T’was a dark and stormy night when the Lawton – a forty year old wooden 30 ton sloop owned and skippered by John Spalding and bound for Newcastle from Arbroath with a crew of three and carrying scrap iron – got into difficulties in a force eight north easterly gale off the uninhabited volcanic island of Fidra in the outer Forth estuary on 30 November 1875. The vessel became stranded and the shipping reports said that it was a total loss. The master and his son were saved, but one of the crew drowned. Although not named in any of the official records, the unfortunate seaman was master mariner Alexander Croal, aged 75 years, from Arbroath and the widower of Susan Raitt (1803-1871), sister of my great great grandfather John Raitt (1805-1880), also a master mariner. On his death extract, his occupation is given as seaman mate, marine service, and it states that he drowned on 29 November 1875 at around 2am. His residence was given as 4 East Mary Street, Arbroath. The informant was the Lawton owner and master John Spalding who lived at 19 Catherine Street, Arbroath. The death extract goes on to say that at the time the death was registered on 7 January 1876, the body had not been found. A lighthouse was subsequently erected on the rocky island in 1885. It seems that John Spalding himself may have also gone to a watery grave. A stone in Arbroath Western cemetery gives the name of John Spalding, shipmaster, who died 20 January 1895 aged 65. Two of his sons also died at sea - one in November 1876, aged 20, and the other in February 1881, aged 17. Possibly Alexander and John were related (which may have been why Alexander was on the boat) since I have come across a Croal-Spalding marriage. Alexander and his wife Susan appear to have had no children – unusual for the time, though the possibility that they died young should not be discounted. And although there were many more deaths at sea as a perusal of the Angus coastal graveyard memorial inscriptions reveals, one other worthy of mention here is that of Alexander Raitt (the above John and Susan Raitt’s brother Alexander’s grandson), a master mariner who commanded a number of vessels and who died at Elsinore in Denmark in July 1869, age 36. I have not come across his death extract, but he is mentioned on a gravestone in Arbroath cemetery. ---------- The colony of Maryland in what is now the USA was granted its charter by Charles I in 1632. To try to gain settlers, Maryland awarded land to people who transported colonists to Maryland. In 1634, the first settlers – mostly Protestants - were sent into this area, however Maryland soon became one of the few regions in the British Empire where Catholics were welcome and was the first to pass a law upholding religious tolerance. Although Maryland was also one of the key destinations of tens of thousands of British convicts, most of the English colonists arrived in Maryland as indentured servants, hiring themselves out as laborers for a fixed period to pay for their passage. Maryland was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. In Colonial Maryland, the sheriff was responsible for collecting taxes, rents and other monies owed to the governor, as well as issuing court summonses. The sheriff was appointed by the governor as a patronage position, and through the fees he was allowed to collect for himself, could bring the officeholder significant profit. However, sheriffs would often put forward their own money to cover the obligations of citizens who could not pay, and could consequently lose a great deal of money if unable to collect. The office of sheriff first appeared in Maryland in 1637/8 and the first known sheriff of Anne Arundel County (Maryland’s third county and founded in 1650) assumed office around 1658. John Raitt was Sheriff of Anne Arundel County from 1755-1757 and one-time armourer for the Province of Maryland. He was also a merchant, selling European and East Indian goods at a shop in a house he leased in Pinkney St, Annapolis. From 1745-1748, he was the (Maryland) Provincial Agent in England – a position not available to residents of Maryland. However, he subsequently resided in Maryland, building up wealth and fortune along the way and marrying his children into illustrious old-English families reaching back to royalty itself. During his tenure as Sheriff he saw some exciting times; holding in custody a runaway servant, John Bruff, imported on the Rose by Capt. Slade in 1755 and belonging to Jonathan Mulleneux of Elk Ridge – who reported another runaway servant as well as a couple of stray horses and who eventually ended up in gaol in 1756 for a long time for debt. An orderly servant of John Raitt accidentally drowned in 1750, and other of his servants drowned in the river Severn in 1754. ---------- The Siege of Calcutta (present day Kolkata) was a four-day battle between the British Honourable East India Company, and Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab (governor) of Bengal. The Nawab sought to wrest the city of Calcutta from European control, after tensions had risen due to the East India Company building fortifications in response to French rivalry as part of the Seven Years War. The British were unprepared for the ferocious Indian attack on 20 June 1756, and Fort William - containing the entire European population of the city - fell almost immediately, leaving the city in Indian hands. Many of the British prisoners were kept overnight in the fort’s bare, low-ceiling dungeon with just two barred air-holes. The prison, known as the 'Black Hole', was little more than a cell intended to hold at most a couple of prisoners instead of the 145 men and one woman who were herded in. When they were released at dawn after ten suffocating hours in the hell hole there were only 23 survivors. However, later reports estimate that only 76 persons lost their lives during the siege of Calcutta either in the actual fighting or in the Black Hole, while 142 Europeans survived. In trying to identity the names of the survivors there were the twin problems of trying to establish who was actually present during the siege and having proof of their survival afterwards. Positive evidence and diligent scholarship brought the total of survivors to 136. Then an additional six names of survivors was discovered based on a petition to Roger Drake, the acting Governor General of Calcutta, signed by them on 10 July 1756. Among these six names was one Thomas Raitt. ---------- Up to the close of the eighteenth century, either tramping on foot or riding on horseback was the ordinary mode of making a journey in North East Scotland along roads that were pretty rudimentary. Until the middle of the eighteenth century, it took three days for the mail to travel on its journey from Edinburgh to Aberdeen with the post-boys spending two nights en route. In October 1755, a regular postal service was established three times a week between Aberdeen and Inverness, with letters arriving within twenty-four hours. Some ten years later mail from London reached Aberdeen after six days. However, the establishment of public conveyances for passengers was a separate matter from the carriage of the mails. It was not until 1758, when the population of Glasgow had risen to about thirty-five thousand, that a conveyance drawn by four horses, and accomplishing the journey in twelve hours, including stoppage for dinner, was successfully established between that city and Edinburgh. There was no other stage coach on that important line of road for another thirty years, nor did any acceleration in speed take place during that time. Although there were stage conveyances southward from Aberdeen during the latter years of the eighteenth century, the first serious effort to establish a public conveyance to northward of Aberdeen seems to have been made soon after the construction of the Inverurie turnpike, by an enterprising citizen named Alexander Scorgie. Post horses and post chaises (light carriages) had hitherto been the recognized means of transportation on long journeys, but Alexander had a bolder plan. He started a passenger "Caravan" to travel on stated days between George Street, Aberdeen, and the house of John Norris, tailor, West Wynd, Huntly, Aberdeenshire. Scorgie’s Caravan was a covered conveyance, which in its original form stood on two wheels, and was drawn by one horse. The covering was of painted canvas and accommodated four passengers. The driver sat outside on a flat board at one side in front, with accommodation for a passenger on the opposite end of the bench. In September 1807, after he had ferried passengers to and from Huntly for a while, Alexander announced that for the more general convenience of the public, he would extend the journey as far as Keith (Banffshire) leaving Aberdeen every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and returning on the intervening days. At Keith, saddle horses and gigs were provided for the conveyance of passengers going on to other destinations. He soon developed a new Caravan with full glass windows at front and sides and elegantly padded inside. This improved Caravan could boast four wheels, and was drawn by two horses driven tandem. It was specified to give full room inside for six passengers, but would accommodate eight at a pinch, with also two passengers outside. However, it was not until 1811 that regular mail coaches were established between Aberdeen and Inverness. Alexander Scorgie may have been an ancestor or relative of my paternal grandmother Helen Scorgie, whose parents and family came from the same neck of the woods in Banffshire. Extracted from: Northern Rural Life in the Eighteenth Century Improved Locomotion -The Early Mails and Post-Boys - The Edinburgh Fly - Scorgie’s Caravan - The Aberdeenshire Canal. ---------- The Lords of the Privy Council gave full licence and liberty to William Rait of Halgrein (amongst others) and whoever else is in his company to eat and feed upon meat during the forbidden time of Lent – and also upon Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays for one year after the date of this letter (signed in Edinburgh in March 1642. ---------- Cowie (from "coille" meaning wooded), a small village to the north of Stonehaven Bay, was once one of the most important areas in the North East of Scotland having been created a Royal Burgh in the 11th century.. It gained a further claim to fame in 2003 when an amateur paleontologist discovered the fossil of an air-breathing millipede less than one centimeter long and over 420 million years old. It was later confirmed as the earliest form of life on dry land ever found. Today, whatever still lies under the ground, still standing above are the ancient remains of Cowie’s royal hunting castle and graveyard with its ruined chapel of Collyn (Capella de Collyn). Cowie graveyard, situated within the parish of Fetteresso, and about a mile to the east of Stonehaven is one of great antiquity, having been established prior to 678 AD under the patronage of St. Nathalan (Nauchlan). The chapel was dedicated by William, Bishop of St. Andrews, in 1276 to St Mary of the Storms, but seems to have been suppressed as a place of worship some time before 1567. The ruins of the chapel, with its east wall pierced by three lancet windows, have a romantic position upon the top of a cliff adjoining the sea. However, according to local lore, the chapel was "demolished by reason of the superstitious resorting thereto; and a certain man, called William Rait of Redclock, brought away some of the roof of the chapel, and built a house therewith, and in a little thereafter the whole house rained drops of blood." ---------- On 9 Dec 1940 the local newspapers reported that Wallace Raitt, 36, a farmer living six miles southwest of St Edward, Nebraska was fatally burned the previous evening when he attempted to light the fire in a heating stove at his home by throwing kerosene on the hot coals. In the explosion that followed his clothing caught fire and he became a human torch. He ran outside into the yard followed by his wife, Mary Anne, who tried in vain to extinguish the flames, severely scorching her hands while attempting to beat out the flames which burned all the clothing from her husband’s. Leaving her husband lying on the ground Mary Anne rescued their two and a half year old daughter from the bedroom and drove to the Floyd Nieman home a mile and a half distant to summon firemen and a doctor. In the meantime, Wallace managed to call out to their four small boys, all ranging from four to nine years old and asleep in a second story room. They broke a window of the room and crawled out onto the roof of a porch to safety. The fire swept through the interior of the home completely destroying the contents but firemen arrived in time to save the exterior. Wallace Raitt was taken to St Edward’s hospital where he died a few hours later. Ironically, his Korean war-hero son William Wallace Raitt died on 6 Dec 1993 aged 62 at his home in Liberty, Utah of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning together with his wife Sheila (see under Illustrious Raitts). ---------- What happened to Orville Dorward Raitt, born of Scottish ancestry, in Rising City, Nebraska in 1902? In 1920 he was a boarder in Union Township, NE with a brother and sister and their families as neighbours. A few years later he was in Iowa where he married in his early twenties, before returning to Nebraska where a daughter was born in 1926. He then moved to Chicago where he appears (alone) in the 1930 census. He presumably got divorced in the interim because he re-married there later that year, having a son in 1932 who was named after him. However, then he just disappeared off the face of the Earth. No forwarding address, no birthday cards sent to his infant son, no record of death, no nothing. After seven years, he was declared legally dead – but what happened to him is a mystery. Shortly after his disappearance, one of his brothers went to Chicago to talk to the authorities and they informed him that Orville had been a member of Al Capone’s mob and the word was out that he had been murdered and they didn’t expect to find a body. Alphonse Capone, of Italian ancestry, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899. He moved to Chicago when he was 22 where his job was to persuade speakeasy proprietors to buy illegal alcohol as a result of prohibition laws. A couple of years later he controlled over nearly 200 illegal drinking establishments and had his fingers in many other pies - using ruthless tactics such as the killing of competitors. In one year alone some 130 gangsters were murdered in just one district of Chicago – several in the infamous St Valentine's Day Massacre. Partly because of police corruption, gangsters were able to make huge profits. It is estimated that by 1929, Capone's income was over $100 million from illegal alcohol, gambling dens, vice and prostitution and various other rackets. At the height of his career, Capone was employing over 600 gangsters to protect his nefarious businesses from rival gangs. Finally indicted in 1931, Capone was jailed in 1932, paroled in 1939 and died in 1947. In jail and coupled with the repeal of prohibition in 1933 Capone’s power and influence diminished rapidly – and this meant that erstwhile rivals were free to extract revenge on Capone’s gang members. And so this is possibly what happened to Orville Dorward Raitt – maybe the life of a farmer and family man was not for him and the bright lights of Chicago and the attraction of easy money and the excitement of the times lured him to leave his family and join Al Capone – with the result that following the latter’s downfall, those that Orville may have ridden roughshod over during those heady years handed him the ultimate punishment – perhaps a pair of concrete shoes. ---------- Alexander Raitt left his native Scotland about 1825 to try his luck in New Brunswick, Canada. There he later met and married a young Irish immigrant named Ann Gosnell. The Gosnells were originally from England, by way of Cork County, Ireland, where they stopped off for a hundred years or so. The name “Gosnell” appears to have evolved from “Gosnold”, which is attached to Henry Gosnold/Gosnell (born in Otley, Suffolk in 1565}, who was dispatched to Cork by Elizabeth I as the Attorney-General for the province of Munster in 1596. Henry was secretary to his cousin Robert Devereux (The Earl of Essex), who was also sent to Ireland by Queen Elizabeth to settle the unrest there. The Earl of Essex fell into disfavour with the Queen and was beheaded in the Tower of London in 1601. Sir Henry became Second Justice of Munster in 1602 and was a part of the commission that divided Munster into counties, Cork County being designated at this time. A relation of Sir Henry’s was Bartholomew Gosnold. He explored and named much of the New England coastal area (naming Martha’s Vinyard after his daughter}. More famously, he was one of the founders of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia, dying there during the first winter. Recently, his grave site was discovered and his body exhumed, in the interest of learning what scourge befell the ill-fated colony. ---------- Some forty years ago a colleague I used to visit fairly often in Stockholm gave me a copy of a little book called Scots in Sweden, published in 1962. I still have the book today as a treasured possession. Over the centuries there had been many Scots in the country - merchants, but often soldiers who went there to help King Gustavus Adolphus in his war against Denmark in the early seventeenth century. The King had some 34 Scottish Colonels and 60 Lieutenant Colonels in his service - including a whole list of Sinclairs who were elevated to the Swedish aristocracy by becoming the Counts of Lambahof and the Barons of Finnekumla of that country. In the book Scottish Arms, there is mention of the arms of Orchardtoune of that Ilk. However, no such family ever existed, and the Litera prosapice under the Great Seal, issued in 1663 in favour of John Orchardton, Major of the Guards of the King of Sweden, is one of the best examples of a genealogical fable sanctioned by the highest authority, of which there were many in the seventeenth century. Orchardton was a major of a regiment of foot and apparently the Swedes at last became so suspicious of the universality of high birth among the Scottish soldiers of fortune who joined their army, that in some cases they insisted not on a mere certificate, but exacted a formal genealogy on parchment, with the arms of ancestors painted at the top and an own self-portrait at the foot (an early form of identity card!) before receiving him a member of the Ridderhus. Major Orchardton attained the rank of Colonel, and died in 1679. For his arms, the birthbrief gives him sixteen quarters, including Rait on his father's side! In a further interesting twist, the mother of the William Purves born 1686 (who just might be my earliest known ancestor on that side) was named Helen Orchardsone - near enough the same to be confused in those early days. ---------- In the days of yore, Highlanders used to hide their claymores and dirks under the eaves of their thatched crofts to prevent confiscation by the authorities, but also to be available at a moment’s notice to defend themselves. So it was of some interest to learn that during recent roof renovations to the main farmhouse of the Raitt Homestead Farm Museum at Eliot, Maine, USA a relic from a bygone age literally fell out of the eaves. It was a Beals Remington Revolver dating to 1858. With it was a powder horn and other sundries. The homestead had been built in 1896 by Charles A. Raitt, a descendant of Captain Alexander Raitt from Scotland - but just who the revolver belonged to or who hid it when is not known. The finds are, however, now on proud display in the Museum. ---------- Glenkinchie, as you may know, is a single malt whisky, produced at the Glenkinchie Distillery in East Lothian, Scotland. It is one of only three remaining Lowland malt whiskies in production. Glenkinchie lies in a glen of the Kinchie burn near the village of Pencaitland some 15 miles south east of Edinburgh in rich farming country. Its origins date back to 1825 when, as the Milton Distillery, it was opened by farmer John Rate who farmed the adjoining lands of Milton, Lempock Wells and Peaston Bank. Like most distilleries at the time it was very much a secondary concern of the farm – simply another way of supplementing income by utilizing the barley he grew. The business became a partnership consisting of John and his brother George who was also a farmer, and it remained in operation at least until 1834 - there are no records of any activity for the period from 1834 until some time in 1837, when the Rate brothers are recorded as licence holders of the Glen Kinchie distillery (also known simply as Kinchie). The re-named distillery took its name from the burn that ran through the glen and from which it took its water. The name Kinchie itself was derived from de Quincey – the name of the original owners of the land in the 14th century. James Gray took over the running of the distillery in 1840. However in 1852 John Rate regained control in order to close down and sell the premises, which he did the following year, to Mr Christie, another farmer, who converted the building into a sawmill. The precise location of the original distillery is now apparently unknown, although it was certainly in the proximity of the existing Glenkinchie distillery. John Rate was born in Saltoun, Haddingtonshire (East Lothian) on 6 Sept 1791 to George Rate and Christian Park, who married there on 5 March 1786. Christian was still alive in 1841. His brother George was born there on 9 Nov 1795 and married Jane Park in 1821. He died before 1861. John married Sarah Jane Bland from Ireland in 1839 and also died before 1861. They both had several children. George’s son George, also a farmer in Mongowells and Lempockwells, married Alicia who died in 1918 at the ripe old age of 94. She was the daughter of Captain Bowen, who as a midshipman on board the Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, was standing so near Admiral Lord Nelson when he was shot that his uniform was bespattered with his Lordship’s blood. By complete chance I came across a letter (or at least envelope) from George Rate sent from Lampackwells to Henry Davidson in Haddington dated 21 Feb 1835. ---------- As a young lad Abe Raitt emigrated from Poland to America in 1914 with his parents and they settled in Detroit. Details on the family are to be found under Michigan Raitts (as well as briefly under American Raitts.) Life was probably pretty uneventful until one day in April 1946 when Abe, just turned 43, married with two young sons, was the manager of a dress shop in Woodward Avenue, Detroit. According to a news item in the Montreal Gazette, on 15 April some 600 women were patiently waiting in line outside the shop to buy nylons, when word got out that a non-paying customer had beat them to it. Abe reported to the police that a burglar had drilled 32 holes in the roof of the shop to enter during the night and had walked off with 162 pairs of hose and other items valued at $4000 (that’s about $47.000 today!) It doesn’t say whether the thief was wearing a stocking over his face to disguise himself (or perhaps herself)! ---------- James Rait was born in 1808, possibly in Edinburgh. That is where he was convicted of house-breaking by the Edinburgh Court of Justiciary on 19 July 1837. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison - not in the Edinburgh city jail, but instead the penal colony on Van Diemen’s Land (or Tasmania as it is known today). Between the time he was convicted and before he was deported, James was first imprisoned and then from 15 August 1837 held onboard the prison hulk Fortitude at Chatham where from the register we learn his age was 28 and besides housebreaking he had former convictions (for drunkenness) and imprisonment (he denied this) which was probably why he was sentenced to 14 years. Happily, he was unmarried – unlike some of his co-convicts, one of whom, sentenced to seven years in Van Diemen’s Land, was married with ten children! James could both read and write and his trade was watch and clock maker. Presumably he did not have enough clients with clocks to mend which was why he supplemented his income with housebreaking. The gaoler’s report details that his character was very bad, although he seemed not to have a lot of dubious connections. Clapped in irons and taken aboard the convict ship Moffat, James, along with 399 other convicts, awaited the long voyage to Australia via the Cape. He arrived in what was to be his new home on 1 April 1838. The 143 day voyage was fairly eventful. The Moffat, 820 tons, built in Bengal, fitted out in Deptford in October 1837 for carrying 400 prisoners, set sail on 7 November 1837 from Sheerness on its second voyage to Van Diemen’s Land, but was forced into Spithead a bit further down the coast to replace rigging. After some delay, although the voyage to the equator was tedious, the weather held fine. By the twelfth week scurvy had begun to affect the prisoners. The surgeon superintendent thought this was not anything to do with the ship which was large and commodious or the diet, but rather to the delay in beginning the voyage and to the generally poor condition of the prisoners, who were unable to face the cold and were confined below decks in a polluted atmosphere. The vessel was cleaned by scraping and dry holy-stoning the deck and the applying chloride of lime. Beds were taken on deck every day and the men had clean shirts every Sunday. The prisoners on this ship were apparently more fortunate than some as they were allowed to indulge in 'innocent recreation', and singing and dancing every evening. The surgeon’s report noted that James was quiet and orderly. One wonders how James himself was treated on board – conditions at the best of times for normal crew and passengers were never particularly good, so it must have been much worse for convicts, shackled below decks in cramped quarters and sleeping in hammocks. They were only allowed on deck occasionally for fresh air and exercise. Three of the convicts died en route. One of James’s fellow prisoners was kept in solitary confinement, given 25 lashes for misconduct and insubordination, and served in chain gangs on arrival. Another, after arrival, was punished several times for absconding, but succeeded in 1846 in evading authorities and escaping on a ship to Adelaide where he changed his name and married. The final port of call for the Moffat on this trip was not Hobart in Van Diemen’s Land, but rather Sydney where it arrived on 4 April 1848 with several passengers who had been on the ship all the way from England (one wonders what they must have felt being cooped up for nearly four months with 400 convicts!), as well as thirty prisoners of the Crown, and nine soldiers of the 50th regiment. From the Van Diemen’s Land convict records we discover that James was 5ft 5in without shoes, his complexion was fair, his hair was dark brown and his whiskers were reddish, he had grey eyes and light brown eyebrows. His head was round, his visage was oval, he had a high forehead and a medium nose, chin and mouth. The record adds he was 29 and was born in Custarven, Scotland (though just where this is I haven’t found – my guess is that it is meant to be Corstorphine – originally a village to the west and separate from Edinburgh, but now a suburb of the city). The space for trade is left blank. James appears in the convict muster rolls and ledger returns for 1841, 1846 and 1849 and he seems to have been in paid labour. For instance, in 1841 he looks to have been in the employ of Mr Barclay of Hobart, while in 1849 he seems to have been in a position paid by J. Hamilton of Hobart. However, it seems that he was not exactly a model prisoner – over his years there he was frequently drunk and disorderly, insolent, absent without leave – his punishments included loss of pay, 25 lashes, 14 days in the cells, 14 days solitary confinement and six months hard labour. Whether he was actually released in 1851 or 1852 after serving his 14 years, is not known. But presumably he would have stayed on in Tasmania rather than have returned to Scotland where he may not have had any family left. Indeed, a James Ramsey Rait is recorded as dying in Hobart in 1881 aged about 70 – buried with his wife Isabella (Tait), who he married in January 1860 in Hobart, and one other – possibly a child. The timeframe is certainly right. There were, however, other Raits in Hobart – a James Rait married Florence Green there in 1899 – could he have been the son of “our” James? Also a James Miller Rait married Elizabeth Jane Spotswood there in 1879 – though he was born in 1853 – and they had a son Alexander born in 1880. There was also a John Rait, born in Scotland in 1836, who married Isabella Fulton there in 1863 and had several children – James Fulton Rait being born in 1880. And a James Rait was a member of a jury in 1889 in Hobart. Whether they were related to the James in this story is yet to be discovered. But talking of prisoners, it is worth mentioning here two other Raitts who were certainly not convicts. Lance Sergeant William Raitt of the Gordon Highlanders, soldier number 2878636, was a prisoner of war in Stalag camp 383 at Hohenfels in Bavaria, Germany during the 2nd World War. He appears to have been on the Entertainment Committee at the camp. Another POW was Trooper J. G. Raitt of the South African Armoured Car Company, soldier number 53519, who was captured on 20 November 1941. He eventually escaped from his camp and reached safety in Switzerland where he was interviewed on 23 January 1944. ---------- Whilst he was serving overseas during the 1st World War, Rifleman (and seaman) Joseph Raitt, son of James and Helen Raitt of Lyttelton, New Zealand, did not receive a Dear John letter from his wife. However, when he returned home to 197 Vivian Street, Wellington in June 1918 after a spell in hospital where he was admitted on 6 July 1916 following wounds sustained in battle almost immediately after arriving on the Front, Joseph found his wife, Eliza Jane, living with another bloke. He subsequently divorced her, it becoming finalized in August 1918. The papers had a field day with the whole lurid story being aired. In the Evening Post for 16 August 1918 under the column Severed Ties and the heading A Soldier’s Petition, it says: “Joseph Raitt, a returning soldier, said he left New Zealand in 1916 and returned in June of this year. While he was away his wife Eliza Jane Raitt, drew his pay, but on his return he found her living at Tui-street with a man variously known as M’Intyre and Telford. She admitted that she had been living with the man for some time, and made similar admissions on subsequent occasions. A private detective gave corroborative evidence, stating that Telford was also a returned soldier. A degree nisi was granted, with costs on the lowest scale against the co-respondent.” The story was picked up by the Dominion on 17 August 1918 under the heading Divorce Court. Here it says that: “A returned soldier name Joseph Raitt, petitioned for the dissolution of his marriage with Elizabeth Jane Raitt on the grounds of misconduct. The parties were married on July 31, 1906, at Christchurch. The petitioner enlisted and left New Zealand with the Ninth Reinforcements, and was invalided and returned home to the Dominion on June 15 last. During his absence his wife received his pay and allowances. When he returned he obtained his wife’s address from Base Records, and went to Tui Street, and there found his wife and a returned soldier named Telford, who were both very drunk. When questioned his wife admitted she had been living with Telford for the past eight or nine months. Corroborative evidence was given by Samuel Fee, private detective. A decree nisi was granted, to be made absolute in three months, and costs were allowed on the lowest scale.” A few days later, the NZ Truth for 24 August 1918 under the heading Raitt v. Raitt – A Tit-bit from Tui-street, had a lengthier, more tittle-tattle, article. “Joseph Raitt, a short stockily-built soldier, took to his bosom Elizabeth Jane, in 1906, at Christchurch. In 1916, Joseph went to war and returned in 1918 to find that another returned soldier had beaten him for his bride. Joseph had allowed his wife 3s a day out of his pay, and she had also 3s a day separation allowance. When he returned he found the erring Elizabeth living in a house in Tui-street with a man who gave his name as McIntyre, but who was subsequently found to be one Telfer. When he visited the house both his wife and Telfer were drunk. She confessed that she had been living with Telfer for nine months and that she was expecting to add a little McIntyre-Telfer to the population shortly. On his appeal to her “To Come Home” she refused, saying that she “didn’t want to lose both of them.” She had saved no money from his pay and he landed back in New Zealand invalided and penniless. He saw his wife as recently as Tuesday of last week, and she admitted that she was living with Telfer in Tinakori-road and had the gall to ask him for money. He didn’t give her any, because he had not got any, which he thought was a fair and reasonable excuse under the circumstances. Decree nisi, with costs against Telfer.” ---------- A number of newspapers picked up the story of a Mr Raitt being killed by a tiger in India: the Northern Warder and Bi-Weekly Courier and Argus, July 28 1876; the Dundee Courier and Argus, Friday 28 July 1876; the Aldershot Military Gazette, Saturday 29 July 1876; and the Luton Times and Advertiser, Saturday 29 July 1876. An Attack by a Tiger The following facts relating to the death of young Mr. Raitt, from injuries inflicted by a tiger, are given in the Indian papers: - Mr. Raitt, who was an enthusiastic sportsman, had obtained a couple of months leave, and was shooting big game in the Asseergurh jungles. He had already shot some half-dozen bears, besides panthers, a good many sambhur and other animals, when on the night of the 9th of June, a large tiger came within an hundred yards of his tent, and carried away the carcase of a bear he had shot the day before. Mr. Raitt was at this time shooting on the banks of the Taptee, about twelve miles distant from the Chandnee railway station. On the morning of the 10th he tracked up the tiger who had been so near his tent, but eventually lost her, for the animal proved to be a tigress. At about 4.30 p.m., when Mr. Raitt, who had been walking all day, was feeling very tired and had given his rifle to a beater to carry, the tigress suddenly appeared in sight, but disappeared before he could get a shot at her. The beaters then put Mr. Raitt on the bank of a nullah, and said they would beat the animal up towards him. She appeared in sight, and Mr. Raitt, who was a splendid shot, fired and wounded her, but not severely. He fired again with the same effect. A third time he fired with apparent fatal effect this time, for the tigress rolled over on her back, clawing the air convulsively with her legs. On his Mr. Raitt went up within fifty or sixty yards of her and fired again to make sure of her. The bullet struck her, she got up once, and in a few bounds was on poor Raitt, knocking him down and seizing him by the left knee, which she bit severely, and loosing her hold made a grab at his head, which he saved with his arm. He must have been killed on the sport, had not one of his beaters, a Gond, rushed up to him in the most plucky way, and put an end to the tigress by shooting her through the head. Mr. Raitt was able to getup, and his beaters helped to make up a charpoy, on which he was carried to Chandnee railway-station, which he reached next morning. Mr. Raitt thought his injuries were not serious, but on the 13th he became delirious, and died the next day. I am not sure which Raitt this is, but he worked for the Bombay Uncovenanted Service. The Uncovenanted Civil Service was the name given to the lower echelon of the general civil service in India under both the East India Company and the Crown. The Uncovenanted Civil Service (as opposed to the Covenanted) was recruited almost entirely from persons born in India, whether European, Eurasian or Asian. In 1892 it was divided into an Upper (Provincial) Service and a Lower (Subordinate) Service. In fact, since the death was reported in the Dundee Courier as well as the Aldershot Military Gazette, then this might indicated that Mr. Raitt was a son of a military Raitt – possibly Colonel Francis Jolliffe Raitt (see under Illustrious Raitts - Soldiers) who resided in Bombay; or perhaps a Rait(t) of Anniston (the headline in the Dundee Courier actually spelled the name Rait, though Raitt was used throughout the text). ---------- http://www.electricscotland.com/history/moray/chapter15.htmArbroath%20Mariners.htmlhttp://www.electricscotland.com/history/rural_life13.htmhttp://www.electricscotland.com/history/rural_life13.htmhttp://www.electricscotland.com/history/sweden/index.htmhttp://www.raittfarmmuseum.orgMaine%20Raitts.htmlMichigan%20Raitts.htmlIllustrious%20Raitts.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8
Some Raitt anecdotes
St John’s churchyard
© Bruce Stanley
Fidra © David Ross
© with permission from ADCA © Colin Milne