Grace Kamaʻikuʻi Young Rooke (September 8, 1808 – July 26, 1866) was a Hawaiian high chiefess who was daughter of
John Young John Young may refer to:
Academics
* John Young (professor of Greek) (died 1820), Scottish professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow
* John C. Young (college president) (1803–1857), American educator, pastor, and president of Centre Col ...
, the chief military advisor during the formation of the
Kingdom of Hawaii, and adoptive mother and aunt of a future queen consort.
Early life and marriage
She was born in 1808, in
Kawaihae
Kawaihae is an unincorporated community on the west side of the island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii, north of Kailua-Kona. Its harbor is one of only two on the island, together with that of Hilo.
Description
The town's harbor includ ...
, in the
Kohala District, on the
Island of Hawaiʻi. Her father was
John Young John Young may refer to:
Academics
* John Young (professor of Greek) (died 1820), Scottish professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow
* John C. Young (college president) (1803–1857), American educator, pastor, and president of Centre Col ...
, known as Olohana, the royal advisor of
Kamehameha I
Kamehameha I (; Kalani Paiea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiikui Kamehameha o Iolani i Kaiwikapu kaui Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea; – May 8 or 14, 1819), also known as Kamehameha the Great, was the conqueror and first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Th ...
, from
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
, England. Her mother was
High Chiefess Kaʻoanaʻeha, the niece of Kamehameha I. She was probably named after John Young's mother from England. She was raised on her father's homestead on a barren hillside overlooking the
Kawaihae Bay, on land Kamehameha had given to her father on the Island of Hawaiʻi. It is now part of
Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site. She grew up with her two sisters,
Fanny and
Jane
Jane may refer to:
* Jane (given name), a feminine given name
* Jane (surname), related to the given name
Film and television
* ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd
* ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...
, and her brother,
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
. Fanny was oldest, Grace was second, John was third, and Jane the youngest. She had two older half-brothers by her father's first marriage to
Namokuelua:
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
and
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguati ...
. The siblings were ''
hapa-haole'' or part Caucasian, but still considered to have royal status from their mother.
In her teenage years, she married
High Chief "George Cox" Kahekili Keʻeaumoku, the
Governor of Maui. Cox was a close advisor of the Hawaiian king and the younger brother of the powerful Queen regent
Kaʻahumanu
Kaahumanu (March 17, 1768 – June 5, 1832) (''"the feathered mantle"'') was queen consort and acted as regent of the Kingdom of Hawaii as Kuhina Nui. She was the favorite wife of King Kamehameha I and also the most politically powerfu ...
's. He was about twenty years her senior, so she was left a young widow when Cox died at Honolulu, Oahu in 1823.
She remarried
Thomas Charles Byde Rooke
Thomas Charles Byde Rooke (18 May 1806 – 28 November 1858) was an English physician who married into the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He built a mansion called the Rooke House in Honolulu that became popular with political and socia ...
(1806–1858), a British physician to king
Kamehameha III, in 1830. She was the only royal part-Hawaiian chiefess to marry a white man in her generation. Her sisters, Fanny and Jane, had married native Hawaiian nobles.
Marriage to Rooke
Grace had a fair command of the English language and was acquainted with British ways. She probably felt socially equal, if not superior, to her husband for he had come from a family of commoners. Yet he was "a man of rare cultivation and refinement", with an outgoing and cheery disposition that complemented Grace's natural bashfulness. Rooke operated a dispensary in a one-story, part-adobe structure on Union Street in Honolulu. As one of the only three Western doctors in the Kingdom, he had more business than he could handle. The Rookes' connections with the royal court made them secure and comfortable.
Both Rookes wanted a child but Grace was unable to give birth. She and Dr. Rooke decided upon ''
hānai
''Hānai'' is a term used in the Hawaiian culture that refers to the informal adoption of one person by another. It can be used as an adjective, such as "''hānai'' child", or as a verb to ''hānai'' someone into the family.
In the Hawaiian cultu ...
'' adoption. ''Hānai'' was a common custom in native Hawaiian culture, even if both natural parents of the adopted child were still living, despite missionaries' stern opposition to "giving away" children. All classes, especially the royal family, practiced ''hānai''. Adoption generally occurred in the same ''ʻ
ohana
is a Hawaiian term meaning " family" (in an extended sense of the term, including blood-related, adoptive or intentional).
The term is cognate with Māori , meaning "nest".
The root word refers to the root or corm of the , or taro plant (t ...
'', or extended family. The Rookes, therefore, could choose between the children of Grace's sisters, Jane and Fanny. Why, in the end, they chose Fanny is unknown; it may have been because Fanny was a more serious stable person and a Christian, while Jane tended to be "clever as well as a little frivolous." Fanny and her husband George Naeʻa consented, promising the child before its birth.
As soon as the baby was delivered, the Rookes "immediately" wrapped her in soft tapa cloth and took her to their home nearby, a two-storey, frame building on Union Street facing Fort Street in Honolulu. One should not take the word, "immediately", too literally, for it was customary to preserve the ''piko'' or
umbilical cord
In placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or ''funiculus umbilicalis'') is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord is physiologi ...
, to bathe the infant and perhaps oil it lightly, to wrap it snugly in its tapa-cloth receiving blanket, to allow the mother to nurse it, and then to perform the ''hānai'' ceremony. When a child was handed to the adoptive parents, the natural parents would seal the act with words "''Nau ke keiki kukae a naʻau''", meaning literally, "I give you this child intestines and all". (In Hawaiian tradition, the intestines were regarded as the seat of emotion, intelligence, and character.) The ceremony of ''hānai'' constituted a solemn promise that was as binding as any modern legal instrument: the Rookes did not sign a written deed of adoption until December 30, 1851, fifteen years after.
Their ''hānai'' daughter was named
Emma, who took the surname of her ''hānai'' parents, Rooke. Grace and her husband moved into their new spacious wood-frame mansion,
Rooke House, shortly after Emma's birth. While Dr. Rooke raised Emma with British customs, Grace raised her in Hawaiian ways. Emma learned about the world from her scholarly father, with the help of letters of advice from her paternal grandmother in England. The British did not spoil their children, while Hawaiians did, especially upper class children, so they compromised. Emma called Grace ''Kiawai''. She grew up speaking both the
Hawaiian language and English language fluently. Emma began her formal education at the
Chiefs' Children's School at five years of age.
After living in the Hawaiian Islands for nearly thirty years, the fifty-two-year-old Dr. Rooke died on November 28, 1858, at Kailua, Hawaii. Grace died July 26, 1866. Her funeral was held on August 18 and she was buried in the
Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii
Royal may refer to:
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* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
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* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
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at Mauna ʻAla.
Emma was traveling in the eastern United States and Canada at the time and upon receiving the news of her death by telegram on a stop at
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
, she immediately returned to Hawaii returning home by October 22. Emma later wrote to
Kamehameha V, "I loved my mother above everything on this side of the grave and perhaps it was my erring in making too much of my earthly thing that she has been taken from me..."
Family tree
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Grace Kamaikui
1808 births
1866 deaths
Hawaiian Kingdom people of Scottish descent
Royalty of the Hawaiian Kingdom
House of Keliimaikai
Burials at the Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla)