Moses Kekūāiwa

Moses Kekūāiwa
Prince of Hawaii
The Kamehameha Tomb at Mauna ʻAla, his name is inscribed on the left side of the monument under "Kekuaiwa".
Born	(1829-07-20)July 20, 1829 Honolulu, Oʻahu
Died	November 24, 1848(1848-11-24) (aged 19) Honolulu, Oʻahu
Burial	December 30, 1848 Pohukaina Tomb October 30, 1865 Mauna Ala Royal Mausoleum
Names Moses Kekūāiwa
House	House of Kamehameha
Father	Kekūanaōʻa Kaikioʻewa (hānai)
Mother	Kīnaʻu Emilia Keaweamahi (hānai)
Signature

Moses Kekūāiwa (July 20, 1829 – November 24, 1848) was a Hawaiian prince and a member of the royal family of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The eldest surviving son of Kīnaʻu and Kekūanaōʻa, he was the older brother of King Kamehameha IV and King Kamehameha V. As a grandson of King Kamehameha I, he was chosen to attend the Chiefs' Children's School (later renamed Royal School) taught by the American missionary Amos Starr Cooke and his wife, Juliette Montague Cooke, alongside his siblings and royal cousins. He was declared eligible to succeed to the Hawaiian throne by his uncle King Kamehameha III and was regarded as a potential future governor of Kauaʻi. His upbringing within the traditional Hawaiian aliʻi (noble) environment sometimes conflicted with the strict moral discipline imposed by the school’s missionary teachers, and these tensions contributed to his expulsion from the school in 1847. He died at the age of nineteen during the 1848 measles epidemic, before assuming any major political role.

Kekūāiwa was born on July 20, 1829, in Honolulu, to Mataio Kekūanaōʻa and Elizabeth Kīnaʻu.^[1][2] The birth was recorded by American missionary Levi Chamberlain and American merchant Stephen Reynolds, who called the child "a fine boy".^[3][4] He was named Kekūāiwa after his maternal aunt Queen Kamāmalu, the favorite wife of Kamehameha II, who was also known as Kamehamalu Kekūāiwaokalani.^[5][6][7] He was baptized on August 23 according to the journals of American missionary Levi Chamberlain.^[4]

He was the second son of Kekūanaōʻa and Kīnaʻu, and a grandson of Kamehameha I through his mother, who was known as Kaʻahumanu II when she was serving as regent and Kuhina Nui.^[8][9] His maternal grandmother Kalākua Kaheiheimālie was one of the wives of Kamehameha I whom he had wed under the rites of hoao-wohi. Kaheiheimālie was also the younger sister to Queen Kaʻahumanu, the king's favorite wife, who co-ruled as Kuhina Nui with his successors Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III starting in 1819.^[10][11][12]

He had three brothers, David Kamehameha (1828–1835), Lot Kapuāiwa (1830–1872), Alexander Liholiho (1834–1863), and a sister, Princess Victoria Kamāmalu (1838–1866). Their Hawaiian contemporaries considered these five siblings to be of divine rank. He had other siblings, an unnamed, elder half-brother, from his mother's previous marriage to Kahalaiʻa Luanuʻu, who died young, and half-sister, Ruth Keʻelikōlani (1826–1883), from his father's previous marriage to Pauahi.^[13]

Shortly after his birth,^[3] the child was adopted according to Hawaiian custom (hānai) by High Chief Kaikioʻewa, the then incumbent Governor of Kauaʻi and former guardian of King Kamehameha III, and Kaikioʻewa's wife Emilia Keaweamahi. It was expected from an early age that he would succeed his adoptive father and become the Governor of Kauaʻi.^[2][14][15]

In January 1839, Kaikioʻewa returned the reluctant nine-year-old Kekūāiwa to the care of his parents Kekūanaōʻa and Kīnaʻu, so he could attend school in Honolulu.^[16] Contemporary sources by Sereno Edwards Bishop describe how the young prince fiercely resisted being separated from his guardian, clinging to a departing vessel at the wharf and crying for hours while attempts were made to persuade him to return. Because of his high rank, no one dared to use force on the child until his father sent soldiers to take him back to the palace.^[17]

His uncle, King Kamehameha III, placed him in the Chiefs' Children's School (later renamed Royal School), the exclusive school for the children eligible to be rulers. Along with his other classmates, he was chosen by Kamehameha III to be eligible for the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom.^[18][19] The school was taught by the American missionary couple Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke while John Papa ʻĪʻī and his wife Sarai Hiwauli, who were originally only the kahu (caretaker) of Princess Victoria Kamāmalu, were appointed by the King as kahu to the royal children.^[20][21] Kekūāiwa started attending on February 14, 1839, when the school was initially a day school. Within days, Cooke noted his uneasiness and repeated desire to leave early, writing that Kekūāiwa “continues to come, but he is rather uneasy. He requests to go every day before school closes. I hardly know what to do about it.”^[22] The school was officially established as a boarding school in April 1840.^[23]

On April 4, 1839, his biological mother Kīnaʻu died during a mumps epidemic. A week later, his hānai father Kaikioʻewa died on April 10 in the same epidemic.^[24] Kekūāiwa had also contracted mumps but was able to recover.^[25] After recovering, he traveled back to Kauaʻi in June to be proclaimed the governor of the island. He never assumed the official duty of the governorship due to his age.^[26] In his lifetime, he was referred to as the "prospective Governor of Kauaʻi"; the nominal governor during the time, his hānai mother Keaweamahi, later his cousin, Kekauʻōnohi, and Paul Kanoa were considered placeholders for the position until Kekūāiwa came of age.^[27][2][28]

The Cookes often used corporal punishment to discipline the students. Mr. Cooke described in 1839 how he had "to discipline Moses to make him mind." On the following day, Cooke struck Alexander on the head and in defense of his brother Kekūāiwa replied, "he keiki a ke ali'i oia nei," which translates to, "He is the son of the chief (i.e. King Kamehameha III)." Cooke replied, "I am the King of this school."^[29] Punishments included whippings, confinement, and withholding food. Corporal punishment was considered especially humiliating for the royal children because it violated the traditional sacredness (kapu) associated with the bodies of the aliʻi.^[30][31] Kekūāiwa and his brothers Alexander and Lot were considered the most troublesome of the group of students and received the most disciplinary actions from Cooke.^[31] As the brothers grew, they became harder for Cooke to physically control. At age fourteen Kekūāiwa weighed 152 pounds (69 kg), suggesting a comparatively robust build for his age.^[32] By comparison, his teacher Mr. Cooke, who was described as little more than five feet (about 152 cm) tall, weighed less than 110 pounds (50 kg).^[33] Cooke also described incidents of impropriety in which Kekūāiwa, Lot and the other boys entered the sleeping quarters of female students.^[34] One of their classmates, Abigail Maheha, later became pregnant and left the school. Although no contemporary sources identify the father of the child, historian Julie Kaomea suspects Lot as the father.^[35][36]

Cooke recorded repeated incidents of the brothers leaving the school grounds at night, as well as smoking cigars and drinking alcohol. The boys were often locked up in their bedrooms at night to prevent any more incidents of "nightwalking".^[37][38] The disciplinary situation became a governmental concern when Mr. Cooke discovered a coded letter in 1845 describing how Kekūāiwa wished to run away with his brothers to Tahiti.^[39][40] Writing to a Mr. Binns and Mr. St. John as "John David Hammond, Commander in Chief of the H Army", the letter reads:

...We cannot endure it...My dear friends, my pen & ink cannot express what I wish to say. My dear friends make haste & tell me what is the best way for us to clear out as fast as we can. I cannot stay in the land of my birth. I cannot stay in the land where my forefathers had die. For they shamefully treated us. Farewell to my native land. The land of my birth. Write me soon & let me know what is your thought. With regret I wrote this letter to you, you must not say that I only wish to cut you out of your business. And to ruin your characters. It was the love of liberty that enticed us to leave our native shores. Do write me today. Can you make a bargain with the captain of the Brig Euphemia to take us down to Tahiki on the first port he would on some of these Southern Islands. If we would leave these Island, then I shall bid farewell to my native land. And see no more the face of my parents...^[41][42]

The king and the high chiefs fully backed the disciplinary actions of the Cookes.^[38] On September 5, 1845, their uncle King Kamehameha III reprimanded the three brothers in the presence of his Privy Council of State and their teachers Mr. Cooke and Thomas Douglass.^[43][44]

His Majesty turned and spoke to Moses Kekuaiwa, Liholiho and Lot. Saying to them I have heard of your fault, your teachers have been patient with you, I heard no report of the matter, but your teacher in his trouble has complained to me of your use of intoxicating liquors, your going out at night, and your associating with bad people. Once I did thus but have seen the evil of it and forsaken that way. Now you will do the same will you? If such is your course you will not be children (heirs) of Kinau. I am her child (heir) You have also said you would abandon the country and go to Tahiti. Whence is this idea of yours? I thought you were pursuing knowledge, and when you are adult you are expected to take up the good work which we are doing if you are compent to do it. This what I require.^[44]

Kekūāiwa was caught attempting to visit Queen Kalama at night on December 26, 1846, by ʻĪʻī, Sarai and Douglass.^[45] According to his confession written on January 8, 1847, he admitted secretly leaving the school grounds on three occasions between December 19 and 26 in hopes of seeing the Queen, though he insisted she was not hewa (guilty).^[46] He had been reprimanded by Cooke in the past for attempting to visit the Queen.^[47] Kaomea speculates that these meetings between Kekūāiwa and Kalama may have been part of a traditional Hawaiian practice, in which an older chiefess instructs a young chief in matters of sexual education—a practice that clashed with the strict moral beliefs of the American missionaries, who viewed it as adultery.^[48]

On February 1, 1847, King Kamehameha III and the Privy Council made Kekūāiwa sign a document expelling him from the school and relinquishing control of his property to his father Kekūanaōʻa until he reached majority. The minutes of the Privy Council recorded his offense as "constantly falling into bad vices, drinking intoxicating liquors, going out nights and of being disobedient to the teachers, which have a tendency of leading the rest of the students astray."^[49] ʻĪʻī was appointed his kahu and William Richards was appointed his guardian.^[50][48]

After leaving school, Kekūāiwa lived with his father Kekūanaōʻa at the Honolulu Fort.^[51][52] The few government records indicate that Kekūāiwa continued to perform some duties connected to the Foreign Office despite his disciplinary action. On March 16, 1847, he was asked by Minister of Foreign Affairs Robert Crichton Wyllie to request that his father provide two soldiers to salute the British Consul General Guillermo Miller. A similar request on February 2, 1848, involved sending soldiers to present arms to the French Consul. On May 22, 1848, he was also asked to translate and deliver a letter to his father, showing his role as both intermediary and translator in official government communication for his father.^[53]

Kekūāiwa seemed to have fallen into some financial troubles and was described as a spendthrift. On June 26, 1847, his father published a notice in The Polynesian newspaper asking no one to trust his son, and he would not pay any of his debt.^[54][55] Prior to 1848, his landholdings, which he inherited from his royal relatives, consisted of 21 ʻĀina, mostly on Kauaʻi and Maui. He relinquished 12 of these landholdings to the King during the Great Māhele of 1848. Following his expulsion from school, most of his properties were temporarily taken from him until he reached majority leaving him with only three properties on the islands of Oʻahu, Lānaʻi and Maui.^[45] After his death, his lands were inherited by his father and siblings. In 1859, the Hawaiian legislature authorized compensation to the heirs of Moses Kekūāiwa for government sales and leases of portions of his lands at Kōloa, Kauaʻi.^[56] All these lands were eventually passed down to his cousin Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who established the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate after her death, which funds the Kamehameha Schools to this day.^[57][58]

Kekūāiwa, as the eldest male of his generation and a lineal descendant of Kamehameha I, was expected to marry a high chiefess of rank to continue the royal line. He was originally betrothed to his classmate Jane Loeau, the eldest female student at the Royal School and the daughter of Governess of Oʻahu Kuini Liliha. After his expulsion from school, the Cookes encouraged her to marry American lawyer John Jasper instead of Kekūāiwa.^[59][60]

Two Tahitian women arrived in Honolulu in July 1848 with letters from Queen Pōmare IV of Tahiti in which she proposed the union of one of her relatives to Kekūāiwa. Cooke was personally against the proposal but described, "It seems to take with the Chiefs..."^[61] Kekūāiwa was engaged to the Tahitian Princess Ninito Teraʻiapo (d. 1898) in one of a series of historical attempts of marriage alliances between the royals of Hawaii and Tahiti. Teraʻiapo was a niece of Tute Tehuiari'i, the private chaplain of Kamehameha III, and cousin of Manaiula Tehuiarii. She was also a female relative of Queen Pōmare IV, and the sister of High Chiefess Ariitaimai, the mother of Queen Marau, wife of Pōmare V, the last King of Tahiti.^[62] Ninito set sail for Hawaii but arrived in Honolulu to the news of his death. She settled in Hawaii and married a Hawaiian chief, John Kapilikea Sumner.^[63][64][65]

According to the later writings of historian Albert Pierce Taylor, Kekūāiwa assembled a company of young Hawaiian men and drilled them in military combat in the Koʻolau district of Oʻahu. The explanation was that he planned to lead a voyage of conquest to Tahiti and the Society Islands, but it was also suspected that he planned on seizing the Hawaiian throne by force. Taylor did not assign a year to when these events took place.^[66]

The measles epidemic of 1848-49 was brought to Hilo by an American warship. During this short period, a combination of measles, whooping cough, and influenza epidemics killed 10,000 people, mostly Native Hawaiians.^[67][68] In October, Kekūāiwa developed whooping cough symptoms and got progressively worse.^[69]

American merchant Gorham D. Gilman, who visited Hawaiʻi in 1848, left a brief description of Kekūāiwa. Writing shortly before Kekūāiwa's death, and apparently without full knowledge of the circumstances surrounding his earlier expulsion from the Royal School, Gilman recorded:

The habits & tastes of this young man were quite firmly fixed as he had been wholly under native influence which is not the best adapted to instruct a young mind in the paths of virtue. Moses however was not naturally a viscously—nor maliciously inclined—& He remained at the school enjoying and improving its advantages in a manner creditable both to himself & his instructors—till his health and other circumstances induced his Father to take him from school and he has since lived with his Father at the Fort. He looks feeble—as if he did not enjoy good health. He is the prospective Gov of Kauai—having the same claims as his Brother to the Island of Maui—but his health would not allow his taking the charge even should other weightier objections be removed.^[52]

Mr. Cooke, ʻĪʻī and his former classmates visited the ailing Kekūāiwa and prayed with him. Mr. Cooke wrote, "About noon [on November 24] I went & found him very low, as I thought. I said that Jesus Christ alone could afford him assistance. He replied, 'I hope so.'"^[69] Kekūāiwa died around 4:30 pm in the afternoon, on November 24, 1848, in Honolulu. His two brothers were at his deathbed. He was 19 years old, unmarried, and without any children.^[69][70]

Besides Kekūāiwa among the high chiefs who died were William Pitt Leleiohoku I (husband of his half-sister and father of his classmate John William Pitt Kīnaʻu) and the three-year-old Kaʻiminaʻauao, the hānai daughter of Queen Kalama and younger sister of his classmates Kalākaua and Liliʻuokalani.^[67][71] The bodies of the deceased were embalmed with alcohol in lead coffins and placed inside wooden coffins.^[72] His funeral service was held on December 30, 1848, alongside that of Leleiohoku and Kaʻiminaʻauao.^[67][73] The funeral procession, which began at his cousin Kekauʻōnohi's residence, included the king and queen, members of the royal family, cabinet ministers, governors, members of the Privy Council, high chiefs, foreign consuls and representatives, clergy, and government officials, accompanied by soldiers, kāhili bearers, and the Royal Standard. They were buried at the Royal Cemetery in the presence of both Hawaiian subjects and foreign residents.^[74][75] His hānai mother Keaweamahi also died on the same day and had her service on the same day, although she was not included in the state funeral of the three chiefs.^[76][77]

Initially buried in the Pohukaina Tomb, located on grounds of ʻIolani Palace, his remains were later transported along with those of his mother's and other royals in a midnight torchlight procession led by his father and brother Kamehameha V on October 30, 1865, to the newly constructed Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla in the Nuʻuanu Valley.^{[78][79][80][81]} In 1887, after the Mausoleum building became too crowded, the coffins belonging to members of the Kamehameha Dynasty, including Kekūāiwa's, were moved to the newly built Kamehameha Tomb. The name "Kekuaiwa" was inscribed on the ʻewa (western) side of the monument above his final resting place.^[82]

Even in death, the Cookes expressed their negative views of their former pupil. Mr. Cooke warned the graduated Alexander and Lot about the future of the Hawaiian monarchy under them. He emphasized their anxiety that they do not become a "great disappointment" like their elder brother.^[83] In a letter to her mother, Mrs. Cook wrote:

On Friday last, the 24th inst., we were all called to mourn the loss of Moses Kekuaiwa, once of our family, but expelled some two years since. He has never made himself useful in any way, but on the contrary has confined himself to his vicious practices, and rendered himself disgraceful to our school, to his parents and to the nation. We hope his vicious course and sudden death will be a beacon to his brothers who are about to leave us, to his sister Victoria and to all the remaining members of our family.^[84]

Despite the intensive missionary education received by the royal children at the Royal School, its long-term political influence proved limited. Kekūāiwa’s surviving brothers, who later became King Kamehameha IV (r. 1855–1863) and King Kamehameha V (r. 1863–1872), gradually distanced themselves from missionary authority and influence. Reflecting on this outcome, missionary advisor Gerrit P. Judd observed, “The King educated by the Mission, most of all things dislikes the Mission. Having been compelled to be good when a boy, he is determined not to be good as a man.”^[85]

On March 17, 1912, the Cooke Memorial Tablet was dedicated at Kawaiahaʻo Church commemorating the sixteen royal children of the original Royal School, and their teachers, on the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Juliette Montague Cooke. The ceremony was officiated by Liliʻuokalani and Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau, the last surviving members of the Royal School. Kekūāiwa's name was placed first among the sixteen students.^[86]

• Hawaii – Tahiti relations

• Cooke, Amos Starr; Cooke, Juliette Montague (1970) [1937]. Richards, Mary Atherton (ed.). The Hawaiian Chiefs' Children's School (Revised ed.). Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle Co. ISBN 978-0-8048-0881-1. OCLC 1185695.