The history of the Waite family as we know it to date begins in Lincolnshire, a maritime county in the East of England, bounded North by Yorkshire, from which it is separated by the Humber; East by the North Sea; South by Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk; and West by Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Rutland.

Lincolnshire is the second largest county in England. For a very long time it has been divided into 3 ‘parts’ –namely, The Parts of Lindsey, the Parts of Kesteven, and the Parts of Holland. Generally speaking the land is flat and low, especially on the coast, which in some parts requires an embankment to check the encroachments of the sea. The Wolds, or Chalk Hills, in the Northeast, are about 47 miles long and 6 miles broad.

Henry Waite’s story begins in Benniworth, where he was christened. Benniworth is a village in the Horncastle Union and County Court District, Wraggoe Wapentake – a historical subdivision of some of the Northern Counties in England, corresponding roughly to the hundred in other shires – having a long and interesting heritage of history.

According to the Lincolnshire Gazette, Benniworth is sited on a bold acclivity of the wolds. To the humble Kiwi, this simply means that it is on sharply rising ground in rolling pastures, however it is difficult to see by the passer-by, since it is largely obscured by higher ground on either side.

It is believed that the name Benniworth is probably a compound of the name Bain – the river that flows through the district – and the word Garth, or yard, and that the ancient name of the place was Beninguade. It was so given in the pages of the Domesday Book, where there are two references to the place.  A Church, the focal point of village life in earlier days, was there even in the days when William the Conqueror’s Survey was taken – towards the end of the Eleventh Century, however the Church Register only dates back to 1691, which makes the research of earlier days very difficult. Land there was held by Thomas, Archbishop of York and one of William the Conqueror’s Chaplains. Before then it was under the ownership of the Saxons Siward and Turgot.

The population was always very small – in 1872 only 411 souls inhabited the 2994 acres, or 1212 hectares, of Benniworth. By 1881 this had reduced to 381, and in 1910 it was below 300, yet despite this Benniworth Haven was well known to the Peers of the Realm and Royalty. A haven is by definition a Port or Harbour, yet Benniworth was remote from any coast. The ‘haven’ was in fact a series of ponds covering a mere eight acres, but were well stocked with fish of many kinds which provided a relaxing diversion for the nobility.

The Benniworth Parish Council also possessed another virtue, which most today could envy. They had never levied a rate upon the inhabitants, though there were several other Councils in the region that shared that boast.

The History Gazetteer and Directory of Lincolnshire in 1872 listed specifically 24 of the then current population of 411. One of these was Richard Waite, shoemaker, however in the White’s Directory of Lincolnshire of 1882 no Waites were mentioned.

The progression of Richard Waite from shoemaker to master shoemaker, and then cordwainer can be followed through the census data of the area. A cordwainer, as a matter of interest, was a specialty shoemaker who fabricated shoes from a higher quality leather.

A difficulty arises when some members of the family seem to disappear from the census lists.  This can come about from the nature of their employment. Bearing in mind that Lincolnshire was mainly rural in the 1800’s, many of the younger family members were likely to be employed as farm workers or domestic servants, we need to understand how this affected their census lists.

A farm servant was hired at a local hiring fair. In order to be a farm servant you had to be single. The ‘contract’ stated this. If you married during the term of the contract then it was deemed broken. The difference between a farm servant and a labourer was that a ‘farm servant’ lived in – that is their board and lodging were found by their employer, they contracted for a wage which was usually above the norm but were expected to be ‘on the spot’. A ‘servant’ could move across parish boundaries and live beyond that of their residence whereas a ‘labourer’ or ‘worker’ returned to their own parish at night.  This is why ‘single’ persons seem to go missing in census’ as they could be up to 30 miles from their home parish.

As stated above, the population of Benniworth was always very small, suffering a sharp decline between 1871 and 1881 census’.

In April 1872 the ‘Lincolnshire Labour Emigration League’ was established. Large numbers emigrated during the second half of the 1870’s. For instance, between 1874 and 1879 the Laceby agent, John H. WHITE, recruited more than 2000 men from the Wolds and Marsh of North Lincolnshire for emigration to New Zealand.

In May 1874, WHITE began recruiting for a ship to make the trip in the autumn. By mid-August, 50 people had enlisted from Laceby, 20 or 30 from Keelby, 20 or 30 from Ulceby, 20 or 30 from Binbrook, and about 100 from Caistor.

New Zealand was not the only destination. In 1875, 60-70 people left Market Rasen for Liverpool, to embark for Canada.

Since all these towns are in the neighbourhood of Benniworth, it is likely that this mass exodus to the colonies was the catalyst that persuaded the Waites to join in the adventure and make a new life.

We have traced back a possible family tree of Richard Waite, the father of Henry Waite who married Mary Ann Whipham, going back around 1731. However there exists an anomaly over a death date which introduces a doubt.

Even in the relatively small area around Grantham, there were several Richard Waites.  This is compounded by the sketchy information contained in Census Records which are not always accurate.  The original enumerators often filled in the data by questioning householders. With the effects of mis-hearing and often almost illegible handwriting, plus further handwritten transcriptions which we have proved can contain further errors due to transposition of data between lines, the final absolute verification of data can be very tricky.