Maimiti aka Mauatua ^903,904,905

  General Notes:

Mauatua was perhaps also the consort of Ned Young.
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Notes by Paul Lareau, (HMS Bounty Ancestors and Cousins)

ID: I4541 Name: MAIMITI Sex: F Birth: in Tahiti Death: 19 SEP 1841 in Pitcairn Reference Number: "ISABELLA" Note:
Also known as MAUATUA.
"MAUA TUA" - "mountain spirit"
"MI-MITTI" - "sick, sea"
"MA VATUA" - "with seasickness"
"ISABELLA" - English: Christian's cousin's wife was Isabella Curwen
"MAINMAST" - English: "tall and straight as the mainmast of the ship"

She was said to be the daughter of a Tahitian chief, however, because Christian was at that time lower in rank to the "English chief" Bligh, it is more likely that he would have been equated with ra'atira rank, thus it is likely that Isabella would have been of that rank as well.
She was said to be very tall, perhaps 6 feet, which also speaks to her above average status. She would also have been a bit older, thus willing to settle down with one man, and if Gardner's estimate is to be believed, she is likely to have been somewhere around 35. She was a devoted wife to Christian until his death. The legend is that they were officially married on Tahiti in the custom of her people before leaving for Pitcairn.
In 1841, George Gardner, visiting the island, described her as the 'most perfect picture of an old hag I ever saw. She is surprisingly active, her age being estimated between 80 and 90.
She remembers Captain Cook and speaks of him'. But even more interesting, she remembered Heywood, and being told of his success, later marriage, and recent death, she gathered several yards of beautifully decorated tapa cloth, made by her own hand, and gave it to Captain Jones as a present for 'Peter's wife'.
Other visitors of that period indicated that visitors would not talk to her, and considered her children to be mentally deficient (she did have one child who was, and another that had a club foot). Within a month of Gardner's visit, she had died in the epidemic.



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Maimiti married Fletcher Christian, son of Charles Christian and Ann Fletcher Dixon, on 16 Jun 1789 in Tahiti ⁹⁰³.^,905 (Fletcher Christian was born on 25 Sep 1764 in Eaglesfield, Cumberland ⁹⁰⁵ and died on 20 Sep 1793 in Pitcairn Island ⁹⁰³.)