Likelike
Likelike was a princess of the Hawaiian Kingdom and member of the reigning House of Kalākaua. She was born in Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. Likelike's parents were Analea Keohokālole and Caesar Kapaʻakea, and the family were members of the aliʻi class of the Hawaiian nobility. Before the age of six, she was raised on the island of Hawaii for her health. Likelike later returned to Honolulu, where she was educated by Roman Catholic and Congregationalist teachers in the city's girls' schools.
She married Scottish businessman Archibald Scott Cleghorn in 1870 and was the mother of Princess Kaʻiulani, the last heir to the throne before the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Likelike was the first mistress of the ʻĀinahau estate, which became associated with her daughter. She was Governor of the island of Hawaii from 1879 to 1880 and was in the line of succession to the throne after her sister, Liliʻuokalani. Likelike died under mysterious circumstances in 1887, with rumors that she was malevolently "prayed" to death. She and her siblings are recognized by the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame as Na Lani ʻEhā for their patronage and enrichment of Hawaii's musical culture and history.
Early life and family
Likelike was born on January 13, 1851, in Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, to Analea Keohokālole and Caesar Kapaʻakea. Her full name was Miriam Likelike Kekāuluohi Keahelapalapa Kapili. Two of her namesakes were Likelike and Miriam Auhea Kekāuluohi, Kuhina Nui and the mother of King Lunalilo.Her parents were political advisors to King Kamehameha III and later to his successor, Kamehameha IV. Likelike's mother was the daughter of ʻAikanaka and Kamaʻeokalani, and her father was the son of Kamanawa II and Kamokuiki. Their family belonged to the aliʻi class of Hawaiian nobility and were collateral relatives of the reigning House of Kamehameha, descended from the 18th-century aliʻi nui Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku. Likelike was descended from Keaweaheulu and Kameʻeiamoku, two of the five royal counselors of Kamehameha I during his conquest of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Kameʻeiamoku, her parents' grandfather, was depicted with his royal twin Kamanawa on the Hawaiian coat of arms.
The youngest daughter and penultimate child of a large family, her biological siblings included James Kaliokalani, David Kalākaua, Liliʻuokalani, Anna Kaʻiulani, Kaʻiminaʻauao, and William Pitt Leleiohoku II. They were hānai by other family members. The Hawaiian custom of hānai is an informal form of adoption in extended families.
Because Likelike was not healthy as a child, she was sent to live in the dry climate of Kona on the island of Hawaii. The 1892 obituary of Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Lawrence McCully noted that he was her teacher while he resided in Kona. According to historian George Kanahele, she was raised in Hilo on the wetter windward side of the island of Hawaii: "Little is known about her early years".
The identities of Likelike's hānai parents are unknown. According to historian Sammy Amalu, Likelike was brought up in the household of Peleuli with Peleuli's granddaughter Miriam Auhea Kekāuluohi Crowningburg, a second cousin of King Lunalilo. According to newspaper columnist Clarice Taylor, Likelike was raised by her mother and then cared for by Queen Emma after her death.
Education
At age six, Likelike returned permanently to Honolulu. She was initially educated at the Sacred Hearts Convent and School by the Roman Catholic sisters of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The sisters arrived in Hawaii in 1859, and established day and boarding schools for Hawaiian girls next to the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. The schools were the predecessor of the Sacred Hearts Academy in Kaimuki. Likelike was later educated by American Congregationalist missionary teacher Maria Ogden at the Makiki Family School, established in Honolulu in 1860 with the support of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma. Her last school was the Kawaiahaʻo Seminary for Girls; Likelike's teacher was Lydia Bingham, daughter of Hiram Bingham I. Her classmates at Kawaiahaʻo included Annie Palekaluhi Kaikioʻewa and Lily Auld, also members of the Hawaiian nobility.Likelike was particularly close to her elder sister, Liliʻuokalani, who was warm towards her younger sister. In a September 7, 1865, letter, Liliʻuokalani advised Likelike about her education:
Betrothal to Albert Kūnuiākea
Likelike was betrothed around 1869 to Albert Kūnuiākea, an illegitimate son of King Kamehameha III and the hānai son of Queen Dowager Kalama. Contemporary sources noted, "Their betrothal much desired by those in authority as well as the other chiefs". During the 1869 visit of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and the Galatea, Likelike's sister Liliʻuokalani entertained the British prince with a traditional Hawaiian lūʻau at her Waikiki residence of Hamohamo. Likelike accompanied Queen Dowager Kalama and Kūnuiākea on a carriage of state from Honolulu to Waikiki on the occasion of the festivities. The couple broke off the engagement soon afterwards, for unspecified reasons. Kūnuiākea married Mary Lonokahikini, widow of the Reverend Z. Poli, in 1878.Marriage to Archibald Scott Cleghorn
Likelike married Archibald Scott Cleghorn, a businessman from Scotland almost twice her age, on September 22, 1870; Cleghorn was 35, and Likelike was 19. They were married in an Anglican ceremony officiated by Reverend Charles George Williamson, rector of St. Andrew's Cathedral. The wedding was at Washington Place, her sister Liliʻuokalani's residence. Cleghorn had fathered daughters Rose, Helen and Annie with his part-Hawaiian mistress before the marriage, and Likelike accepted the children.The couple initially lived in a mansion on Emma Street, the present-day site of The Pacific Club, in Honolulu. Likelike gave birth to their daughter, Kaʻiulani, on October 16, 1875. Liliʻuokalani wrote that Kaʻiulani "was at once recognized as the hope of the Hawaiian people, as the only direct heir by birth to the throne." The long-awaited future heir to the throne was christened by Bishop Alfred Willis at the pro-cathedral of St. Andrew's on December 25, 1875. Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani and the king and queen were her godparents. Keʻelikōlani gave of her land in Waikīkī to her goddaughter. The family sold their Honolulu property in 1878 and moved to the beachfront district of Waikīkī, where Cleghorn built a family estate which Likelike named ʻĀinahau.
Kaʻiulani was the couple's only child. Likelike had a miscarriage in June 1877 on a ship en route to San Francisco, California, and may have had another miscarriage after a fall from a horse before her final illness.
Like her sister Lydia's marriage to John Owen Dominis, her marriage to Cleghorn was bittersweet. Victorian gentlemen expected to be the lord of their castle, their servants, their children, and their wives. Hawaiian nobility, however, were raised to rule others. Cleghorn could be blustery and demanding; on several occasions, the princess returned to the island of Hawaii and refused to return until they reconciled.
Likelike was vivacious and well-liked, and her home was open to important people from all over the world. She had a reputation as a gracious hostess at her ʻĀinahau estate. Likelike was au courant with the latest fashions, ordering dresses and clothing from San Francisco and Paris. She was known be imperious and quick-tempered, once striking a groom with a whip for not keeping the carriage properly polished. Likelike was baptized and confirmed in the Anglican Church of Hawaii in 1882.
Public life
After his accession, Likelike's brother Kalākaua bestowed royal titles and ranks upon her and their siblings: sisters became Princess Lydia Kamakaʻeha Dominis and Princess Miriam Likelike Cleghorn and their brother became Prince William Pitt Leleiohoku. The latter was also named heir to the Hawaiian throne, as Kalākaua and Queen Kapiʻolani had no children of their own.After Leleiohoku's death on April 9, 1877, Kalākaua proclaimed Liliʻuokalani heir apparent to the throne. Likelike and her daughter were next in the line of succession. Kalākaua bestowed the title of Princess of the Kingdom on Likelike by letters patent on February 10, 1883, also recognizing other members of his family who been using their courtesy titles since 1873. She was ranked in precedence behind the king and queen, Queen Dowager Emma and Liliʻuokalani and her husband, John Owen Dominis, and ranked above her husband and their daughter Princess Kaʻiulani. Likelike participated in Kalākaua's coronation, nine years into his reign, on February 12, 1883. She wore "a robe of brocaded white satin trimmed with pearls and feathers" ordered from San Francisco, and was waited on by sisters Clara and Lizzie Coney.
The Cook Monument, an obelisk commemorating Captain James Cook's landing on the Hawaiian Islands, was unveiled in November 1874 at the place where he was killed. Great Britain and the United States were seen at the time seen as allies who prevented Russia from seizing the kingdom. On January 26, 1877, Likelike and Cleghorn deeded their land at the Cook Monument at Kealakekua Bay in trust to the British Commissioner to Hawaii James Hay Wodehouse and his subsequent heirs for one dollar "to keep and maintain" the monument. Although the deed names Likelike and her husband, its only signatory was Cleghorn's. Because of the deed's wording, Wodehouse and his heirs became owners of the land. The error was not discovered until 1939, when the Wodehouse estate conveyed the deed to the British government for $1.
Governorship
died in office on March 11, 1879. Likelike was appointed his successor on March 29, and held the position until September 2, 1880. Her first official meeting as governor was at the Hilo courthouse on May 31. The island of Hawaii was no stranger to a female governor, since Princess Keʻelikōlani had held the position from 1855 to 1874. During her tenure, Likelike visited all of the island's districts and had a special affinity for Kona and Hilo.In April 1880, the legislature of the Kingdom appropriated an annual allowance of $8,000 for Likelike "provided she resigns the office of Governess of Hawaii". She had resigned her position by September 1880, and Princess Victoria Kinoiki Kekaulike was appointed her successor on September 2 of that year. The 1882 legislative session increased her annual salary to $12,000 and appropriate $5,000 for her seven year-old daughter Princess Kaʻiulani.