Originally transcribed as Louisa McBain
Biography contributed by Clare Cramond
Louisa McKain was 70 years of age when she signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition, one of the more senior signatories. Newspaper reports prior to her death acknowledged her as one of Frasertown’s oldest residents.
Louisa Alloway was born in 1823 at Henley, England to James and Tabitha Alloway. James was a painter. Louisa’s mother had died by 1841 when she sailed under the Australian Government’s Bounty Immigration scheme to New South Wales on the Conrad. Her occupation was listed as 'nursemaid'.
By 1846, Louisa was in Wellington where she married Frederick Dunmore McKain. Her mother-in-law Douglas Mary McKain and several of her children including 14-year-old Frederick arrived on the Olympus in 1840 as free-passage emigrants. The McKain family made a significant contribution to early colonial New Zealand.
Louisa and Frederick’s first baby died at birth in 1847 and Selina who was born in 1848 died aged eight months. Then Julia Ann, Louisa Frederika, Eliza Mary, Frederick James, Laura, Rosina Lavinia, George Henry and Alfred Robert were born between 1849 and 1867.
Their son, Frederick James died in 1883, aged 26 years and was buried in the old Frasertown Cemetery along with his father who died a year later. After signing the Petition, Louisa is listed in the 1893 Electoral Roll as a widow, living in Frasertown. In 1894, Louisa hosted the wedding of her grand-daughter, Ellen Power (Louisa Frederika’s daughter) to Albert Beckett, son of Mary Ann Hayden, also a signatory of the Petition.
Louisa was reported unwell in early 1899, her daughters going to attend to her; she died on 10 May 1899 and was buried in the Frasertown cemetery. Her will outlined the distribution of her land and possessions and Louisa made note of a painting 'Stag at Bay' which she left to her grand-daughter Eliza McKain Taylor.
Sources
New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RSN-G3D?cc=1865481&wc=4BD7-W7F%3A1045247901%2C1045319501 : 21 February 2019), Napier Court > Probate records 1888-1903 P1077, P1066-P1085 > image 366 of 396; Archives New Zealand, Auckland Regional Office
Australia, New South Wales, Index to Bounty Immigrants, 1828-1842," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DTZ7-DV?cc=1542665&wc=MLTG-X1N%3A100207101%2C100207102 : 13 June 2019), Alloway > Louisa > image 1 of 1; Western Sydney Records Centre, Kingswood.
Births Deaths and Marriages Online https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6P5S-PHP?cc=1609792&wc=MP7R-Y4W%3A119153601%2C119164501%2C119234601 : 6 July 2019), New Zealand > 1840 > Olympus > image 6 of 14; Archives New Zealand, Wellington.
Margaret G. Patrick. 'McKain, Douglas Mary', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1990. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1m36/mckain-douglas-mary (accessed 24 September 2020)
Mary Douglas McKain, Diary and Commonplace Book (MS-Papers-7262) Alexander Turnball Library
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HBH18940802.2.7 Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9748, 2 August 1894, Page 2
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18990530.2.66 New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11076, 30 May 1899, Page 6
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH18990107.2.8 Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8409, 7 January 1899, Page 2