Zorobabela Kaʻauwai

Zorobabela Kaʻauwai
Assistant Judge of the Supreme Court of Hawaii
In office May 10, 1842 – November, 1846
Succeeded by	Joshua Kaʻeo
Member of the Board of Commissioners to Quiet Land Titles
In office February 10, 1846 – March 21, 1850
Succeeded by	Joshua Kekaulahao
Member of the Kingdom of Hawaii House of Representatives
In office 1851–1852, 1854–1855
Personal details
Born	c. 1799/1806 Kona, Hawaii
Died	August 8, 1856 Makawao, Maui
Nationality	Kingdom of Hawaii
Spouse(s)	Kalanikauleleiaiwi III
Children	David Kahalekula Kaʻauwai William Hoapili Kaʻauwai George Kaleiwohi Kaʻauwai
Alma mater	Lahainaluna Seminary
Occupation	Deacon, Judge, Politician, Businessman

Zorobabela Kaʻauwai (c. 1799/1806 – August 8, 1856) was an early politician and judge in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Beginning as an assistant to the Hoapili, Governor of Maui, he served many political posts including Assistant Judge of the first Supreme Court of Hawaii, an original member of the Board of Commissioners to Quiet Land Titles, a multiple-term representative in the Hawaiian legislature and circuit judge for Maui. An early convert to Christianity and devout adherent of the Protestant faith, his first name is a Hawaiian form of the Biblical name Zerubbabel.

Kaʻauwai was born around 1799 or 1806, in the district of Kona on the island of Hawaii. Although not of chiefly descent, his family belonged to the "old class of chief's right-hand men." Later historian Jon Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio stated he was a chief, of Maui lineage. At a young age, he attracted the attention of Kamehameha I and later came under the patronage of High Chief Hoapili, one of Kamehameha's advisor and loyal companion and later Governor of Maui. He worked in the household of Hoapili and became his loyal subject. Later writer noted that Kaʻauwai "must have been an extraordinary youth to secure, as he did, the confidence and love of this old chieftain."

Kaʻauwai revered Hoapili as a father figure and accompanied him into battle and fought in the 1824 rebellion of Humehume, on the island of Kauai. He was present when the American missionaries, who arrived in Hawaii in 1820, established a mission station at Lahaina. After the converted Hoapili imposed a law requiring his household retainers to learn the Hawaiian alphabet or otherwise be deprived of food, the obedient Kaʻauwai abstained from food for two entire days and he learned to read and write. He and his friend David Malo became interested in Christianity at the same time and both served as early helpers to the missionaries in Lahaina, although unlike Malo, he was never licensed to preach. Under the order of Hoapili, he helped build the stone church of Kalaniʻohua, on Maui. With Malo, he attended the Lahainaluna became one of the first generation of Hawaiians to receive a western education by the American missionaries who arrived in Hawaii in 1820. Reginald Yzendoorn, author of History of the Catholic Mission in the Hawaiian Islands, later wrote that Kaʻauwai was a judge and Calvinist deacon who related the burning of the Roman Catholic chapel of Wailuku in 1843 to his mother-in-law Marie Leahi, an early Catholic female catechumen. In the early Hawaiian Protestant mission, deacons did not have to be licensed to preach.

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