Bernice Pauahi Bishop

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Bernice Pauahi
Princess of the Hawaiian Islands
Spouse Charles Reed Bishop
Full name
Bernice Pauahi Paki Bishop
Titles and styles
HRH The Princess
Royal house House of Kamehameha
Father High Chief Abner Paki
Mother Princess Laura Konia
Born 19 December 1831(1831-12-19)
Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaii
Died 16 October 1884 (aged 52)
Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaii

Bernice Pauahi Bishop, born Bernice Pauahi Paki (December 19, 1831 – October 16, 1884) was a Hawaiian woman, a direct descendant of the royal House of Kamehameha, aliʻi, and philanthropist. She was the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I and the last surviving descendant of his royal line. Her estate is the largest private landowner in the state of Hawaiʻi. The revenues from these lands are used to operate the Kamehameha Schools, which were established in 1887 according to her last will and testament. Pauahi's husband was businessman and philanthropist Charles Reed Bishop.

Contents

[edit] Life

Born in Honolulu to Aliʻi Paki and princess Aliʻi Konia, Pauahi was raised by kuhina nui (prime minister) Kīnaʻu and was later educated by Protestant missionaries.

Her father, lord Aliʻi Abner Kuhoʻoheiheipahu Paki (c 1808-55), was a noble from the island of Molokai, and son of lady Aliʻi Kawao and lord Alii Kalani-hele-maiiluna Paki who himself descended from Aliʻi Aimoku of the island of Maui.

Bernice's mother was Princess Aliʻi Laura Konia (c 1808-57), declared Royal Highness by decree of her grandfather Kamehameha I. She was the younger daughter of Aliʻi Pauli Kaoleioku (1767-1818), by his second wife, Aliʻi Kahailiopua Luahine, was an illegitimate but legitimated natural (eldest) son of king Kamahameha the Great. She was name for her aunt Queen Pauahi, the widow of Kamehameha II.

Bernice Pauahi was adopted at birth by Princess Kinaʻu Kaʻahumanu II, Kuhina-Nui. She was sent back home when Kinau died of the mumps in 1839.

Contrary to a chiefly posthumous but popular belief, the great lady Bernice Pauahi never used in her lifetime, nor was officially entitled to, the title Princess. This frequent error is repeated in a wide variety of modern publications.

Beginning at age eight, Pauahi went to a school called the Chiefs' Children's School until about high school about 1846. Afterwards, it was renamed the Royal School. Her teachers were Mr. and Mrs. Cooke. Pauahi really enjoyed horseback riding and swimming, and she also liked music, flowers, and outdoors. She dressed like any fashionable New York or London woman and the trapping of the Victorian Era.

Pauahi married businessman Charles Reed Bishop in 1850 despite the objections of her parents. It had been planned from childhood that Pauahi, born into Hawaiian royalty, would marry her hanai brother Lot Kamehameha. Very few people attended her wedding at her request. One of the few witnesses was that of Princess Elizabeth Kekaʻanaʻiu, her cousin. The couple had no children of their own; they adopted a son from her cousin Ruth Keʻelikōlani but the infant died at the age of six months.

King Kamehameha V offered her the throne on his deathbed. But, taken aback, she replied, "No, no, not me; don't think of me. I don't need it." The king pressed on. But she again spurned the throne: "Oh, no, do not think of me. There are others." After considering the alternatives each he rejected, the king said no more. The king died an hour later. Her refusal to accept the crown allowed for the House of Kalākaua to come to power. Why she had turned the throne? No one knows for sure. The answer may have been contained in ger letter and memorabillia left in the care of her husband. Unfortunately they were destroyed during the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

On the October 16, 1884, at the age of 52, Princess Pauahi died of cancer in Keōua Hale, Honolulu. She is interred in the Kamehameha Crypt, Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla, Nuʻuanu Valley, Oʻahu. After her death, her husband helped establish the Kamehameha Schools in 1887, and created the Bishop Museum in Honolulu in 1889 as a memorial to her.

[edit] Kamehameha Schools

Bishop wished that upon her death a portion of her estate be used to establish a school for educating boys and girls. The 1883 will directed that a portion of her estate be held in trust "to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools...one for boys and one girls, to be known as and called the Kamehameha Schools."[1] She directed her five trustees to invest her estate at their discretion and use the annual income to operate the schools

When she wrote her will, only 44,000 Hawaiians remained. After Mrs. Bishop's death in 1884, her husband Charles Reed Bishop started work in carrying out her will.

The original Kamehameha School for Boys was established in 1887 on the site of the current Bishop Museum. The girls' school was established in 1894 on a nearby campus. By 1955 the schools moved to their current 600 acre (2.4 km²) headquarters in Kapālama Heights.

[edit] Will controversies

There has been some controversy over the interpretation and legality of her will, with some[who?] insisting that her intention was to only admit children of Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian ancestry to the schools, others[who?] interpreting her will more liberally, as well as those who contend her instructions are manifestly unconstitutional.

In the will, the trusties were instructed "...to devote a portion of each year's income to the support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood..." Additionally she directed that: replacement trustees be appointed by the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, and that they be Protestants; that all teachers be Protestant, without regard to denomination. These clauses were deemed unconstitutional in 1993 by the 9th Circuit Court.[2]

On December 5, 2006, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned an earlier ruling in the John Doe vs. Kamehameha Schools lawsuit which ruled the Kamehameha Schools policy amounted to unlawful discrimination. The 8-7 decision allows Kamehameha Schools to continue its native Hawaiians only admissions. Eric Grant, the attorney for John Doe, said he would appeal to the Supreme Court,[3] but the parties settled out of court and certiorari was accordingly denied.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Kamehameha Schools - Bernice Pauahi Bishop's Will and Codicils
  2. ^ E.E.O.C. v. Kamehameha School/Bishop Estate, 990 F.2d 458, 460-464 (9th Cir. 1993).
  3. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/12/05/hawaiian.school.ap/index.html

[edit] References

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