Moses Kekūāiwa (July 20, 1829 – November 24, 1848) was a Hawaiian prince and a member of the House of Kamehameha, the ruling family of Hawaiian Kingdom. He was the eldest surviving son of Kīnaʻu and Kekūanaōʻa, and was the older brother of King Kamehameha IV and King Kamehameha V. As a grandson of King Kamehameha I, Kekūāiwa was chosen to attend the Chiefs' Children's School (later renamed Royal School), where he was taught, alongside his siblings and royal cousins, by the American missionary Amos Starr Cooke and his wife, Juliette Montague Cooke. Kekūāiwa was declared eligible to succeed to the Hawaiian throne by his uncle King Kamehameha III, and was regarded as a potential future Governor of Kauaʻi. His upbringing within the traditional Hawaiian aliʻi (noble) environment sometimes conflicted with the strict moral discipline imposed by the school’s missionary teachers, and these tensions contributed to his expulsion from the school in 1847. Kekūāiwa died at the age of nineteen during the 1848 measles epidemic, before assuming any major political role.
Early life and family Moses Kekūāiwa was born on July 20, 1829, in Honolulu, to Mataio Kekūanaōʻa and Elizabeth Kīnaʻu. The birth was recorded by American missionary Levi Chamberlain and American merchant Stephen Reynolds, who called the child "a fine boy". He was named Kekūāiwa after his maternal aunt Queen Kamāmalu, the favorite wife of Kamehameha II, who was also known as Kamehamalu Kekūāiwaokalani. According to the journals of American missionary Levi Chamberlain, Kekūāiwa was baptized on August 23, 1829.
Kekūāiwa was the second son of Kekūanaōʻa and Kīnaʻu, and a grandson of Kamehameha I through his mother, who was known as Kaʻahumanu II when she was serving as regent and Kuhina Nui.; ; Kekūāiwa's maternal grandmother, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, was one of the wives of Kamehameha I, whom he had wed under the rites of hoao-wohi. Kaheiheimālie was also the younger sister of Queen Kaʻahumanu, the king's favorite wife, who co-ruled as Kuhina Nui with his successors Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III starting in 1819.
Moses Kekūāiwa had three brothers; David Kamehameha (1828–1835), Lot Kapuāiwa (1830–1872), and Alexander Liholiho (1834–1863); and a sister, Princess Victoria Kamāmalu (1838–1866). Their Hawaiian contemporaries considered these five siblings to be of divine rank. Kekūāiwa had other siblings: an unnamed, elder half-brother from his mother's previous marriage to Kahalaiʻa Luanuʻu who died young, and a half-sister, Ruth Keʻelikōlani (1826–1883), from his father's previous marriage to Pauahi.; ; ;
Shortly after his birth, Kekūāiwa was adopted according to Hawaiian custom (hānai) by High Chief Kaikioʻewa, the then-incumbent Governor of Kauaʻi and former guardian of King Kamehameha III, and Kaikioʻewa's wife Emilia Keaweamahi. It was expected from an early age Kekūāiwa would succeed his adoptive father and become Governor of Kauaʻi.
Education
In January 1839, Kaikioʻewa returned the nine-year-old Kekūāiwa to the care of his parents Kekūanaōʻa and Kīnaʻu so he could attend school in Honolulu. According to contemporary sources by Sereno Edwards Bishop, Kekūāiwa fiercely resisted being separated from his guardian. Because of his high rank, no one dared to use force on Kekūāiwa until his father sent soldiers to take him to the palace.
Kekūāiwa's uncle, King Kamehameha III, placed him in the Chiefs' Children's School (later renamed Royal School), the exclusive school for children eligible to be rulers. Along with his other classmates, Kamehameha III chose Kekūāiwa to be eligible for the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The school was taught by the American missionary couple Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke. The king appointed John Papa ʻĪʻī and his wife Sarai Hiwauli, who were originally only the kahu (caretakers) of Princess Victoria Kamāmalu, as kahu to the royal children. Kekūāiwa started attending the school on February 14, 1839, when it was a day school. Within days, Amos Cooke noted Kekūāiwa's unease and repeated desire to leave early, writing that Kekūāiwa "continues to come, but he is rather uneasy. He requests to go every day before school closes. I hardly know what to do about it." The school was officially established as a boarding school in April 1840.
On April 4, 1839, Kekūāiwa's biological mother, Kīnaʻu, died during a mumps epidemic. A week later, his hānai father, Kaikioʻewa, died in the same epidemic. Kekūāiwa had also contracted mumps but was able to recover. After recovering, he returned to Kauaʻi in June to be proclaimed the governor of the island, but never assumed official duties due to his age. In his lifetime, Kekūāiwa was referred to as the "prospective Governor of Kauaʻi", the nominal governor during that time. His hānai mother Keaweamahi, and later his cousin Kekauʻōnohi and Paul Kanoa, were considered placeholders for the position until Kekūāiwa came of age.
Conflict with the Cookes The Cookes often used corporal punishment to discipline the students. In 1839, Amos Cooke described how he had "to discipline Moses to make him mind". The following day, Cooke struck Alexander on the head, and in defense of his brother, Kekūāiwa replied: "he keiki a ke ali'i oia nei" ("He is the son of the chief" (i.e., King Kamehameha III). Cooke replied: "I am the king of this school". Punishments included whippings, confinement, and the withholding of food. Corporal punishment was considered especially humiliating for the royal children because it violated the traditional sacredness (kapu) associated with the bodies of the aliʻi. Kekūāiwa, and his brothers Alexander and Lot, were considered the most troublesome of the group of students, and received the most disciplinary actions from Cooke. As the brothers grew, they became more difficult for Cooke to physically control. Kekūāiwa weighed at age twelve and at age fourteen, suggesting a comparatively robust build for his age. By comparison, Amos Cooke, who was described as little more than tall, weighed less than . Cooke also described incidents of impropriety in which Kekūāiwa, Lot, and the other boys entered the sleeping quarters of female students. One of their classmates, Abigail Maheha, later became pregnant and left the school. Although no contemporary sources identify the father of the child, historian Julie Kaomea said Lot may have been the father.
Amos Cooke recorded repeated incidents of the brothers leaving the school grounds at night, smoking cigars and drinking alcohol. The boys were often locked in their bedrooms at night to prevent what Cooke called "nightwalking". The disciplinary situation became a governmental concern in 1845, when Amos Cooke discovered a coded letter describing how Kekūāiwa wished to run away with his brothers to Tahiti. Writing to a Mr. Binns and Mr. St. John as "John David Hammond, Commander in Chief of the H Army", it said:
The king and the high chiefs fully backed the Cookes' disciplinary actions. On September 5, 1845, their uncle, King Kamehameha III, reprimanded the three brothers in the presence of his Privy Council of State and their teachers, Amos Cooke and Thomas Douglass.
Expulsion from school
On the night of December 26, 1846, ʻĪʻī, Sarai, and Douglass caught Kekūāiwa attempting to visit Queen Kalama. According to his confession written on January 8, 1847, he secretly left the school grounds on three occasions between December 19 and 26 in hopes of seeing the Queen, though he insisted she was not hewa (guilty). Amos Cooke had previously reprimanded Kekūāiwa for attempting to visit the Queen. According to Kaomea, these meetings between Kekūāiwa and Kalama may have been part of a traditional Hawaiian practice, in which an older chiefess instructs a young chief in sexual education—a practice that clashed with the strict moral beliefs of the American missionaries, who viewed it as adultery.
On February 1, 1847, King Kamehameha III and the Privy Council made Kekūāiwa sign a document expelling him from the school and relinquishing control of his property to his father, Kekūanaōʻa, until he reached majority. The minutes of the Privy Council recorded his offense as "constantly falling into bad vices, drinking intoxicating liquors, going out nights and of being disobedient to the teachers, which have a tendency of leading the rest of the students astray". ʻĪʻī was appointed Kekūāiwa's kahu and William Richards was appointed his guardian.
Life outside school
After leaving school, Moses Kekūāiwa lived with his father Kekūanaōʻa at Honolulu Fort. Few government records indicate Kekūāiwa continued to perform some duties connected to the Foreign Office despite his disciplinary action. On March 16, 1847, Minister of Foreign Affairs Robert Crichton Wyllie asked Kekūāiwa to request that his father provide two soldiers to salute the British Consul General Guillermo Miller. A similar request on February 2, 1848, involved sending soldiers to present arms to the French Consul. On May 22, 1848, he was also asked to translate and deliver a letter to his father, showing his role as both intermediary and translator in official government communication for his father.
Kekūāiwa may have experienced some financial trouble and was described as a spendthrift. On June 26, 1847, his father published a notice in the newspaper The Polynesian asking no one to trust his son, stating Kekūāiwa would not pay any of his debts.
Landholdings Moses Kekūāiwa inherited a number of land parcels from his royal relatives, the bulk of them coming from his hānai father Kaikioʻewa. Kekūāiwa and his siblings were among the largest landholders in the islands, although his properties were considerably fewer than those of his sister Victoria Kamāmalu. Prior to 1848, these landholdings consisted of 21 ʻĀina, mostly on Kauaʻi and Maui. Kekūāiwa relinquished 12 of these landholdings to the King during the Great Māhele of 1848 and received nine back. In the Māhele division, nine ʻāina were set apart for Kekūāiwa: Kōloa, and Wahiawā on Kauaʻi; seven ʻili of Kapālama on Oʻahu, namely Kapālama, Māliko, Kaluapilau, Hanahome, Kealia, Makela, and Kalanakila; Kaʻohai on Lānaʻi; Honokōhau and ʻAlio on Maui; and ʻŌmaʻo, Puʻoa, and Nanawale on Hawaiʻi Island.
Following his expulsion from school, most of Kekūāiwa's properties were temporarily taken from him until he reached majority, leaving him with three holdings: Kapālama on Oʻahu, Kaʻohai on Lānaʻi, and ʻAlio in Lahaina on Maui. After his death, Kekūāiwa's lands were inherited by his father and siblings. In 1859, the Hawaiian legislature authorized compensation to the heirs of Moses Kekūāiwa for government sales and leases of portions of his lands at Kōloa, Kauaʻi. All these lands were eventually passed to his cousin Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who after her death established the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, which continues to fund the Kamehameha Schools.
Betrothal to Tahitian princess Kekūāiwa, as the eldest male of his generation and a lineal descendant of Kamehameha I, was expected to marry a high chiefess of rank to continue the royal line. He was originally betrothed to his classmate Jane Loeau, the eldest female student at the Royal School and the daughter of the Governess of Oʻahu, Kuini Liliha. After his expulsion from school, the Cookes encouraged Liliha to marry the American lawyer John Jasper instead of Kekūāiwa.