Robert Grimes Davis
| Robert Grimes Davis | |
|---|---|
.jpg)
Residence of Robert G. Davis in 1853, lithographed by Paul Emmert
|
|
| Associate Justice of the Kingdom of Hawaii Supreme Court | |
|
In office February 16, 1864 – July 8, 1868 |
|
| Appointed by | Kamehameha V |
| Preceded by | John Papa ʻĪʻī |
| Succeeded by | James W. Austin |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 10, 1819 Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Died | March 4, 1872 (aged 52) Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Resting place | Oahu Cemetery |
| Nationality | Hawaiian |
| Spouse(s) | Harriet Swain Hammett Maria Sumner Sea |
| Relations | William Heath Davis (brother), Samuel Wilder King (grandson) |
| Children | Elizabeth J., William Heath, Charles Hammett, and Charlotte Holmes, Maria & Robert C. W. Davis |
| Occupation | Merchant, Lawyer, Judge, Civil Servant, Consul |
Robert Grimes Davis (May 10, 1819 – March 4, 1872) was an early lawyer and judge of the Kingdom of Hawaii who served many different posts for Hawaii and the Republic of Peru. He was also known as Lopaka, the Hawaiian version of Robert.
Davis was born in 1819, in Honolulu to Captain William Heath Davis, Sr. and Hannah Holmes Davis, a daughter of Oliver Holmes, Governor of Oahu. His father, who arrived in Hawaii in 1812, was a Boston ship captain and one of the pioneer merchants of the sandalwood trade in the islands. He was given his middle name after Captain Eliab Grimes, a close friend of his father who was also once a privateer in the War of 1812. His younger brother was William Heath Davis, Jr., who was an early settler of San Diego. Davis and his younger brother were one-quarter Hawaiian from their maternal grandmother Mahi Kalanihooulumokuikekai, a high chiefess from the Koʻolau district of Oʻahu. After his father's death in November 26, 1822, Hannah Holmes remarried to another American merchant John Coffin Jones, who took the five-year-old Davis back to Boston in 1825. In the United States, he was given "a classical education" and raised in the household of an uncle who was a wealthy merchant in Boston, remaining there until he completed his schooling. He traveled for a time in Europe where he acquired the ability to speak French, Spanish and German. For a time, he was a clerk on the Boston merchant ship Monsoon which traded in Monterrey and Yerba Buena (now San Francisco). He returned to Honolulu and went into the mercantile business, trading between Hawaii and California.
In 1850, Davis was appointed Peruvian Consul General to Hawaii by President Ramón Castilla succeeding James F. B. Marshall, who had resigned. He would hold this position for much of the 1850s. Davis resigned his post as Peruvian Consul upon his appointment as Police Magistrate of Honolulu in 1859. Davis also served many governmental posts for the Kingdom of Hawaii. He served as Commission of Customs in 1853, Police Magistrate of Honolulu in 1859 and briefly served as a member of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Hawaiian legislature, during the session of 1855. He was also a member of the Privy Council from 1863 to 1865 under the reign of Kamehameha V. In 1852, he began studying law and shortly after became a well read lawyer. He also was appointed to succeed John Papa ʻĪʻī as the Second Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii from February 16, 1864 until his resignation in July 8, 1868. Serving alongside Chief Justice Elisha Hunt Allen and First Associate Justice George Morison Robertson, the effectiveness of the three men's terms in office were considered highly by their contemporaries. In 1873, a writer in the Hawaiian newspaper The Advertiser stated:
...
Wikipedia