John Young (Hawaii)

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John Young (c.1742–December 17, 1835) was a British Royal Advisor to Kamehameha I in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was accidentally left behind by a British ship Eleonora and along with a Welshmen Isaac Davis 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.

1 Life
2 Marriage
3 Death
4 External Links
5 References
6 See also

[edit] Life

According to his tombstone at Mauna Ala, (the Hawaiian Royal Mausoleum) he was born in 1742 in Crosby, Lancashire, England. He was the son of Robert Young, of Crosby, Lancashire, by his wife, Grace. The Hawaiians gave him the name ʻOlohana based on Young's typical command "All hands.

[edit] Marriage

His descendants all had the blood of chiefs flowing in their veins, for his wives were women of high rank.

His first marriage, in Hawaii, was to the chiefess Namokuelua of Oahu aristocracy. Their son, James Kanehoa, was an influential member of the court of Kamehameha II. On the king's 1823 visit to England, Kanehoa was entrusted with the official letters of introduction and served as translator. This visit ended sadly, for Kamehameha II, his queen and three other chiefs contracted the measles and died abroad. James Kanehoa had a brother named Robert Young, born in 1796. In 1802, Robert was sent to Boston for a proper American education. He entered the American Navy at age 16, served in the War of 1812 and was taken as a prisoner to Bermuda, where he became lost to history.^[1]

About 1805, Kamehameha sent for his niece, the Princess Ka‘ōanā‘eha, the daughter of his favourite 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. Fanny Kekelaokalani Young, his eldest daughter who later married George Naea and gave birth to a daughter, Emma, who would become one of the most beloved queens in the Kamehameha dynasty. Grace Kama'iku'i Young who married Dr. T.C.B. Rooke and hanaied (adopted) her niece Emma. John Kaleipaihala Young Jr. Keoni Ana Opio, who married Alapai would become one of the only two males to hold the title of Kuhina Nui. Jane Lahilahi Young who married Johshua Kaeo and gave birth to Peter Kekuaokalani Kaeo, cousin to Queen Emma and a member of the House of Nobles. Jane also mother an illegitimate son by Kamehameha III, Albert Kunuiakea who would be the last with Kamehameha blood.

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

In December 1835 his daughter Grace sent a ship to collect his wife Kaoanaeha and himself. She transport them from Kawaihae on the Big Island to Hobolulu so her husband Dr. Rooke could administer a new heart medication and keep him under observation. He insisted on bringing his own coffin with him. "When I die, I don't want to leave any question about how I wished my body to be treated," he said. Fear of being murdered and having his body treated for burial in the old traditions, with the chiefs taking his bones to make icons or fishhooks, plagued his painful day and nights.^[2] Two weeks after he arrival on Oahu, John Young died at Rooke House in Honolulu on December 17, 1835, at the age of 93 after living in Hawai'i for 46 years. Grace sent for the family while the Oahu chiefs planned his funeral. His lands were divided among his children and the children of Isaac Davis who he had adopted.

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 beneath 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 people 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 weirdness, 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 "Sandwhich Islands"