George Charles Beckley

Beckley was born in England, possibly on March 5, 1787. In 1801, Beckley arrived in Honolulu, in what was then known to him as the Sandwich Islands. He sold his ship to local chiefs and took up residence in the kingdom. During his early years in the islands, Beckley acted as a privateer; he waylaid ships on the high seas and sold many of them to King Kamehameha I, who was attempting to consolidate his control over the kingdom. The Englishman eventually rose to some prominence in the court of Kamehameha, and Beckley became one of the king’s foreign advisors. On the occasion of the birth of the Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena at Keauhou, Kona, Hawaii, in 1815, Beckley was made a high chief by Kamehameha I so that he might, with "impunity enter the sacred precincts of the grass house". Beckley "present[ed] the royal infant with a roll of China silk, after which he went outside and fired a salute of thirteen guns in her honor.". American missionary Hiram Bingham I mentioned in his diary that an "Englishman Beckley" occupied a position of some importance on the islands. Russian explorer Otto von Kotzebue recorded his meeting with Beckley on the island of Oahu in his journal. == Creation of the Hawaiian flag ==

In 1801, the modern Union Jack replaced the former King James Union Jack. Inspired by the many British vessels that visited Hawaii, King Kamehameha commissioned a flag of his own. The exact designer of the flag is disputed between Captain Beckley and Alexander Adams, another of the British captains under Kamehameha's service. == Family and children ==

In 1813, he married Elizabeth Ahia (1797–1854), a Hawaiian high chiefess. She was the daughter of Kahakuʻi-i-ka-waiea, high priest of the heiau of Puʻu o Maneʻo at Honokane, Kohala, and was granddaughter of Kahānui who with his twin sister Kahaʻopulani hid and reared Kamehameha during his infancy, When her father was charged with building Kamehameha's war canoes, Ahia served as the religious moa (mascot) for the blessing of the fleet. Known to be a haughty woman, she accompanied Beckley on his many trips to sea and dressed in both Spanish and Hawaiian fashions. She was required to "kolokolo" or crawl in the presence of her husband after Beckley's royal elevation in 1815. Their hapa-haole (part-Hawaiian) descendants were regarded as members of the aliʻi (noble) class during the Hawaiian monarchy; they went on to intermarry and form different families of their own. Their six or seven children included: • William Charles Malulani Beckley (1815–1871), who was brought up alongside Kauikeaouli, the future Kamehameha III. He married three times; his first wife was an unnamed pure Hawaiian chiefess who died childless, his second wife was Kahinu, daughter of Hoʻolulu. His third wife was Mary Ann Kameʻehiwa Tressilyan Beckley, considered "The Rose of the Pacific". His children with Kahinu included Frederick William Kahapula Beckley Sr., Maria Beckley Kahea, and George Charles Moʻoheau Beckley, and their grandson was Frederick William Kahapula Beckley Jr. Beckley Street in Kalihi, Honolulu is named after Frederick (William’s son). • George Frederick Hoapili Beckley (1822–1868). == References ==