Description:

King Kamehameha III of Hawaii
Honolulu, Oahu, Kingdom of Hawaii, September 3, 1847
King Kamehameha III Signed Bilingual Land Grant In Manoa, Possibly for Sugarcane or Coffee Growing, Granted to Native-Born Hawaiian
PPDS

A bilingual English and Hawaiian "Royal Patent / Palapala Sila Nui" land grant signed by King Kamehameha III of the Hawaiian Islands (1814-1854) as "Kamehameha" at lower right. September 3, 1847. Honolulu, Oahu, Kingdom of Hawaii. Co-signed by Keoni Ana (1810-1857), also known as John Kalaipaihala Young II, a half-English, half-Hawaiian royal adviser who served as Kahina Nui, or Prime Minister, between 1845-1855, as "Kuoni Ana" below the royal signature. The 1p partly printed and partly manuscript document includes a pre-printed royal stamp at top, and a red wax seal at bottom. The English section of the Royal Patent is not filled in, but the Hawaiian section has been completed. An ink drawing of the land allotment is found verso. Expected wear including flattened paper folds, reinforced with paper strips verso. The gutter is also reinforced. Uneven scattered stains, edge darkening, closed tears, and minor chips. Else very good and quite legible. Unfolded measures approximately 16" x 13.25; folded measures 8" x 13.25". Provenance: Ex-Honolulu Stamp and Coin, 1984.

Helu 48 (no. 48) granted 1 12/100 acres of land to a patentee named Kamakea. The land allotment's measurements are specified in the Hawaiian section of the text, in kualahao, or chains, and kapuai, or feet. The ink drawing verso shows us that the oblong land allotment was surrounded on all four sides by three different neighbors. The purchased land was located in Manoa, a lush, wet valley located about three miles east of downtown Honolulu, in what is today a metropolitan residential neighborhood. Manoa was where the first sugarcane and coffee plantations were developed in the Hawaiian Islands in the 1810s and 1820s, so we might surmise that Kamakea intended to use the land for growing similar cash crops.

The historical records reveal that Kamakea received at least three royal patents between 1847-1850, granting him land parcels of various sizes on Oahu. On the same day, September 3, 1847, Helu 47 - the one before ours - granted Kamakea a much larger land allotment of 4.59 acres in exchange for $4.50. We know little about the landowner Kamakea except for what he wrote in a December 1847 land commission claim submitted by him two months after receiving these land grants in Manoa. In this claim, Kamakea described himself as "a native-born resident of Kawailoa, Waialua, Oahu." Thus Kamakea hailed from the other side of the island of Oahu, on the North Shore, approximately 30 miles to the northwest of Manoa.

King Kamehameha III served as the longest-reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, from 1825 until his death at age 40 in 1854.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: folded: 8" x 13.25"
  • Medium: PPDS

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