Mary Paaaina

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Mary or Polly Paʻaʻāina was a Hawaiian chiefess and sister of Queen Emma who attended Royal School.

She was born circa 1833. Her parents were Henry Lewis, a foreigner, and High chiefess Fanny Kekela. He mother was daughter of John Young the advisor of Kamehameha the Great and was also grandniece of Kamehameha the Great. She was adopted by John Papa Ii and his wife Sarai. Her hanai parents were lesser ali'i and her foster father also served as kahu (caretaker) to Princess Victoria Kamamalu and as member of the first Hawaiian House of Nobles. Her half-sister was Emma Rooke who was 3 years younger than her and the daughter of her mother's marriage to George Naea.

Entering the boarding school May of 1843, she was the last girl to enter the school with the last boy John Kinau entering in 1844. She was 10 years old which was pretty old considering the fact some of the student had attend from the day they knew how to walk.[1] She was taught reading, spelling, penmanship, arithmetic, geometry, algerbra, physics, geography, history, bookkeeping, singing and English composition by the missionary couples Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke. In the classroom students were divided by their age and or length of time as the school. The older group consister of Moses, Lot, Alexander, William, Jane, Bernice, Abigail and Elizabeth who had attend the school since 1839. The next class consisted of Emma, James, Peter and David. Mary was in the youngest class together with Victoria, Lydia, and John Pitt due to her late attendance.[2] They never failed to go to church in a procession every Sunday in charge of their teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Cooke, and occupied seats in the immediate vicinity of the pew where the king was seated. The custom was for a boy and girl to march side by side; the lead being taken by the eldest scholars. Moses and Jane had this distinction, next Lot and Bernice, then Liholiho with Abigail, followed by Lunalilo and Emma, James and Elizabeth, David and Victoria, Mary and Peter, and John and Lydia being the last. She was called Polly Paaina by the Cookes but Liliiuokalani mentioned her in her Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen as Mary Paaina. Notice the numbers of a in her name varies. [3]

[edit] Reference

  1. ^ The Hawaiian Chiefs' Children's School By Amos Starr Cooke, Juliette Montague Cooke, Mary Atherton Richards
  2. ^ Emma: Hawaiʻiʻs Remarkable Queen : a Biography By George S. Kanahele. Page 30-34.ISBN:0824822404
  3. ^ Chapters I-V