John Young (Hawaii)

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John Young (c.1742–1835) was a British Royal Advisor to Kamehameha I in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was accidentally left behind by a British ship and became a friend and advisor to Kamehameha. He brought western military knowledge to Hawaii and played a big role during Hawaii's first contacts with the Europeans powers. He spent the rest of his life in Hawai'i. Between 1802-1812, John Young ruled as Governor of the Island of Hawaii while King Kamehameha was away on other islands.

[edit] Life

According to his tombstone at Mauna `Ala, (the Hawaiian Royal Masoleum) he was born in 1742 in Lancashire, England.

About 1805, Kamehameha sent for his niece, the daughter of his favorite brother, and she became the second wife of John Young. This marriage brought him increased recognition and prestige.

Four children were born to John Young's second marriage -- Fannie, Grace, John Jr., and Jane. To Fannie, when grown and married, was born a daughter, Emma, who would become one of the most beloved queens in the Kamehameha dynasty.

Mrs. Lucy Thurston, in her story of her life as a missionary in Hawaii, in speaking of John Young, says; "He had long been a rare example in that degenerate age, of building a hedge about his family and standing in the gap thereof. When occasion offered, he spoke with energy and decision, giving no uncertain sound, well understood by his children and by strangers. By marriage, by deeds and by counsel, he had justly risen to the eminence of a peer with the chiefs of the nation. Saxon blood flowed in his veins. He was Mr. Young, the noble grandfather of our most noble Queen Emma."

[edit] Death

John Young died in Honolulu on December 17, 1835, at the age of 93 after living in Hawai'i for 46 years.

In a speech delivered by his Excellency, J. H. Kapena, Minister of Foreign Relations, on the occasion of the laying of the Cornerstone of The Royal Palace, Honolulu, in 1879, His excellency says;

"Here in the premises of Pokukaina was erected the tomb of the departed chiefs and at the entrance of the sacred place was placed the body of John Young, one of Kamehameha's intimate friends. In order that the spot may not be forgotten where a tomb once stood, King Kalakaua has caused a mound to be raised there, crowned with ferns and flowers in memory of those who slept beeath it. Doubtless the memory is yet green of that never to be forgotten night when the remains of the departed chiefs were removed to the Royal Mausoleum in Nuuanu Valley. Perhaps the world had never witnessed a procession more weird and solemn than that which conveyed the bodies of the chiefs through the streets, accompanied on each side by thousands of eople until the mausoleum was reached, the entire scene and procession lighted by large kukui torches, while surrounding darkness brought in striking relief the coffins on their biers. Truly we cannot forget the wierdness, the solemnity and the affecting scene afforded by that strange midnight procession."

At the Royal Mausoleum, on a flat, grey stone which covers his grave, is the following inscription:

"Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of John Young [of Lancashire, England] the friend and companion in arms of KAMEHAMEHA who departed this life December 17th, 1835, in the 93rd year of his age and the 46th of his residence on the SANDWICH ISLANDS"