# Moses Kekūāiwa

Moses Kekūāiwa (July 20, 1829 – November 24, 1848) was a member of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

## Early life and family

Kekūāiwa was born on July 20, 1829, in Honolulu, as noted by 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. He was baptized on August 23 according the journals of American missionary Levi Chamberlain.
He was the second son of Mataio Kekūanaōʻa and Elizabeth 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. His 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 to Queen Kaʻahumanu, the king's favorite wife, who co-ruled as Kuhina Nui with his successors Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III starting in 1819.
He had three brothers, David Kamehameha (1828–1835), Lot Kapuāiwa (1830–1872), Alexander Liholiho (1834–1863), and a sister, Princess Victoria Kamāmalu (1838–1866). Their Hawaiian contemporaries considered these five siblings to be of divine rank. He had other siblings, an unnamed, elder half-brother, from his mother's previous marriage to Kahalaiʻa Luanuʻu, who died young, and half-sister, Ruth Keʻelikōlani (1826–1883), from his father's previous marriage to Pauahi.
Shortly after his birth, the child was adopted according to Hawaiian custom (hānai) by High Chief Kaikioʻewa, the then incumbent Governor of Kauai and former guardian of King Kamehameha III, and Kaikioʻewa's wife Emilia Keaweamahi. It was expected from an early age that he would succeed his adoptive father and become the Governor of Kauai.

## Education

In January 1839, Kaikioʻewa returned the reluctant nine-year-old Kekūāiwa to the care of his parents Kekūanaōʻa and Kīnaʻu, so he could attend school in Honolulu. His uncle, King Kamehameha III, placed him in the Chiefs' Children's School, the exclusive school for the children eligible to be rulers. Along with his other classmates, he was chosen by Kamehameha III to be eligible for the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The boarding school was taught by the American missionary couple Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke while John Papa ʻĪʻī and his wife Sarai Hiwauli, who were originally only the kahu (caretaker) of Princess Victoria Kamāmalu, were appointed by the King as kahu to the royal children. Moses started attending the school in February 14, 1839.
On April 4, 1839, his biological mother Kīnaʻu died during a mumps epidemic. A week later, his hānai father Kaikioʻewa died on April 10. Moses traveled back to Kauai in June to be proclaimed the governor of the island. He never assumed the official duty of the governorship due to his age. In his lifetime, he was referred to as the "prospective Governor of Kauai"; the nominal governess during the time, his hānai mother Keaweamahi, and later his cousin, Kekauʻōnohi, were considered placeholders for the position until Moses came of age.
The Cookes often used corporal punishment to discipline the students. Mr. Cooke described how he had "to discipline Moses to make him mind." On one occasion, he struck Alexander on the head and in defense of his brother Moses replied, "he keiki a ke ali'i oia nei," which translates to, "He is the son of the chief (i.e. King Kamehameha III)." Cooke replied "I am the King of this school." Moses and his brothers Alexander and Lot were considered the more troublesome of the group of students and received the most disciplinary actions from Cooke. Cooke recorded multiple incidents of the brothers sneaking out of the school at night and drinking alcohol.
The disciplinary situation became a governmental concern. 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 Mr. Cooke and Thomas Douglass.
   His Majesty turned and spoke to Moses Kekuaiwa, Liholiho and Lot. Saying to them I have heard of your fault, your teachers have been patient with you, I heard no report of the matter, but your teacher in his trouble has complained to me of your use of intoxicating liquors, your going out at night, and your associating with bad people. Once I did thus but have seen the evil of it and forsaken that way. Now you will do the same will you? If such is your course you will not be children (heirs) of Kinau. I am her child (heir)
   You have also said you would abandon the country and go to Tahiti. Whence is this idea of yours? I thought you were pursuing knowledge, and when you are adult you are expected to take up the good work which we are doing if you are compent to do it. This what I require.

### Expulsion from school

Moses was caught attempting to visit Queen Kalama at night on December 26, 1846 by ʻĪʻī, Sarai and Douglass. According to his confession written on January 8, 1847, he had gone out three nights between December 19-26 to attempt to see the Queen, although he claimed that she was not hewa (guilty). Historian Julie Kaomea speculates that this meeting between Moses and Kalama may have been part of a traditional Hawaiian practice, in which an older chiefess instructs a young chief in matters of 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 Moses 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 his kahu and William Richards was appointed his guardian.
After leaving school, Moses lived with his father Kekūanaōʻa. Moses seemed to have fallen into some financial troubles and was described as a spendthrift. On June 26, 1847, his father published a notice in The Polynesian newspaper asking no one to trust his son and he would not pay any of his debt.
According to historian Albert Pierce Taylor, Kekūāiwa assembled a company of young Hawaiian men and drilled them in military combat in the Koʻolau district of Oahu. The explanation was that he planned to lead a voyage of conquest to Tahiti and the Society Islands, but it was also suspected that he planned on seizing the Hawaiian throne by force. Taylor did not assign a year to when these events took place.

## 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 Governess of Oahu Kuini Liliha. After his expulsion from school, the Cookes encouraged her to marry American lawyer John Jasper instead of Kekūāiwa.
According to Mr. Cooke, two Tahitian women arrived in July 1848 with letters from Queen Pōmare IV of Tahiti in which she proposed the union of one of her relatives to Kekūāiwa. Cooke was personally against the proposal but described, "It seems to take with the Chiefs..." Kekūāiwa was engaged to the Tahitian Princess Ninito Teraʻiapo (d. 1898) in one of a series of historical attempts of marriage alliances between the royals of Hawaii and Tahiti. Teraʻiapo was a niece of Tute Tehuiari'i, the private chaplain of Kamehameha III, and cousin of Manaiula Tehuiarii. She was also a female relative of Queen Pōmare IV, and the sister of High Chiefess Ariitaimai, the mother of Queen Marau, wife of Pōmare V, the last King of Tahiti. Ninito set sail for Hawaii, but arrived in Honolulu to the news of his death.

## Death and legacy

The measles epidemic of 1848-49 was brought to Hilo by an American warship. During this short period, a combination of measles and whooping cough and influenza epidemics killed 10,000 people, mostly Native Hawaiians. In October, Kekūāiwa developed whooping cough symptoms and got progressively worse. The Cookes and his former classmates visited the ailing Kekūāiwa and prayed with him. Mr. Cooke wrote, "About noon [on November 24] I went & found him very low, as I thought. I said that Jesus Christ alone could afford him assitance. He replied 'I hope so.'" Kekūāiwa died around 4:30 pm in the afternoon, on November 24, 1848, in Honolulu. He was 19 years old, unmarried, and without any children.
Among the high chiefs who died were William Pitt Leleiohoku I (husband of his half-sister and father of his classmate John William Pitt Kīnaʻu) and the three-year-old Kaʻiminaʻauao, the hānai daughter of Queen Kalama and younger sister of his classmates Kalākaua and Liliuokalani. The bodies of the deceased were embalmed with alcohol in lead coffins and placed inside wooden coffins. His funeral service was held on December 30, 1848, alongside that of Leleiohoku and Kaʻiminaʻauao. His hānai mother Keaweamahi also died on the same day and had her service on the same day, although she was not included in the state funeral of the three chiefs.
Originally buried in the Old Mausoleum on the grounds where the current ʻIolani Palace stands, his remains were transported along with those of his father and other royals in a midnight torch-lit procession on October 30, 1865, to the newly constructed Mauna ʻAla Royal Mausoleum in the Nuʻuanu Valley.
Even in death, the Cookes expressed their negative views of their former pupil. Mr. Cooke warned the graduated Alexander and Lot about the future of the Hawaiian monarchy under them. He emphasized their anxiety that they do not become a "great disappointment" like their elder brother. In a letter to her mother, Mrs. Cook wrote:
   On Friday last, the 24th inst., we were all called to mourn the loss of Moses Kekuaiwa, once of our family, but expelled some two years since. He has never made himself useful in any way, but on the contrary has confined himself to his vicious practices, and rendered himself disgraceful to our school, to his parents and to the nation. We hope his vicious course and sudden death will be a beacon to his brothers who are about to leave us, to his sister Victoria and to all the remaining members of our family.
On March 17, 1912, the Cooke Memorial Tablet was dedicated at Kawaiahaʻo Church commemorating the sixteen royal children of the original Royal School, and their teachers, on the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Juliette Montague Cooke. The ceremony was officiated by Liliʻuokalani and Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau, the last surviving members of the Royal School. Kekūāiwa's name was placed first among the sixteen students.