Bernice Pauahi Bishop - Life

Life

Pauahi was born in Honolulu on December 19, 1831 in ʻAikupika, the grass hut compound of her father. Her father, High Chief Abner Kuhoʻoheiheipahu Pākī (c. 1808-1855), was a noble from the island of Molokaʻi, and son of Aliʻi Kawao and Kalani-hele-maiiluna Pākī, who descended from Aliʻi Aimoku of the island of Maui. Her mother was Princess Laura Kōnia (c 1808-1857), granddaughter of Kamehameha I. She was the younger daughter of Aliʻi Pauli Kaʻōleiokū (1767–1818), by his second wife, Aliʻi Kahailiopua Luahine, was an illegitimate but legitimated natural (eldest) son of King Kamehameha I. She was named for her aunt Queen Pauahi (c. 1804–1826), one of the widows of King Kamehameha II, and given the Christian name of Bernice. Pauahi was adopted at birth by Princess Kīnaʻu (who took office as Kuhina-Nui Kaʻahumanu II). She was sent back home when Kīnaʻu died of the mumps in 1839.

Beginning at age eight, Pauahi went to the Chiefs' Children's School (later called the Royal School) until about 1846. Her teachers were Mr. and Mrs. Cooke. Pauahi greatly enjoyed horseback riding and swimming, and she also liked music, flowers, and the outdoors. She dressed like any fashionable New York or London woman and wore the trappings of the Victorian Era.

It had been planned from childhood that Pauahi, born into Hawaiian royalty, would marry her hānai (adopted) brother Prince Lot Kapuāiwa. Pauahi married businessman Charles Reed Bishop May 4, 1850 despite the objections of her parents. Per her request, very few people attended her wedding. One of the few witnesses was Princess Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau, her cousin. The couple had no children of their own. They adopted a son named Keolaokalani Davis from Pauahi's cousin Ruth Keʻelikōlani in 1862, against the wish of Ruth's husband, but the infant died at the age of six months. In 1883, they offered to adopt William Kaiheekai Taylor, the infant son of Pauahi's distant cousin Lydia Keomailani Crowningburg and Wray Taylor, only to be turned down by the reluctant parents.

Prince Lot Kapuāiwa became King Kamehameha V in 1863, and offered Pauahi the throne on his deathbed in 1872. But, taken aback, she replied, "No, no, not me; don't think of me. I don't need it." The king pressed on. But she again spurned the throne: "Oh, no, do not think of me. There are others." After considering the alternatives, all of whom were rejected, the king said no more. The king died an hour later. Pauahi's refusal to accept the crown allowed the House of Kalākaua to come to power. No one knows why Pauahi refused the throne. The answer may have been in her letters left in the care of her husband. Unfortunately, they were destroyed during the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

On October 16, 1884, at the age of 52, Pauahi died of breast cancer at Keōua Hale, Honolulu. She is interred in the Kamehameha Crypt at Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii at Mauna ʻAla on Oʻahu.