Gerrit P. Judd

Gerrit Parmele Judd
Born	April 23, 1803 Paris, New York
Died	July 12, 1873 (aged 70) Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawaii
Resting place	Oahu Cemetery
Nationality	United States
Occupation	Missionary, Physician, Politician
Spouse(s)	Laura Fish
Children	Gerrit Parmele II, Elizabeth Kinaʻu, Helen Seymour, Charles Hastings, Laura Fish, Albert Francis, Alan Wilkes, Sybil Augusta, Juliet Isabelle
Parent(s)	Elnathan Judd Betsey Hastings

'Mrs Gerrit P. Judd and her Daughter Juliet Isabel', oil on canvas painting by James Gay Sawkins, 1850, Mission Houses Museum (Honolulu)

Gerrit Parmele Judd (April 23, 1803 – July 12, 1873) was an American physician and missionary to the Kingdom of Hawaii who later became a trusted advisor and cabinet minister to King Kamehameha III.

Life

Judd was born April 23, 1803 in Paris, Oneida County, New York, the son of Elnathan Judd and his wife Betsey Hastings. On his mother's side, he was descended from Thomas Hastings, who came from the East Anglian area of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.

He was educated as a physician at the medical college in Fairfield, New York. He married Laura Fish (1804–1872) on September 20, 1827 in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. The couple sailed to Hawaii (then known as the 'Sandwich Islands') that same year, on the ship Parthian, the third company from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.^[1] He was assigned to the mission at Honolulu on the island of Oahu, as a missionary physician, and continued in that employment fifteen years.^[2]

Work

In 1842 he resigned from the mission and became an advisor and translator to King Kamehameha III. He also became involved in the civil concerns of the islands, and was the King’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from November 1843 to March 1845, Minister of Interior from March 1845 to February 1846, Minister of Finance from April 1846 to September 1853, and in the House of Representatives from 1858 to 1859.^[3] He was commissioned in 1849 as Minister Plenipotentiary to England, France and the United States.

He was one of the founders of the Punahou School for children of the missionaries in 1841. He founded Hawaii's first medical school in 1870, and was the author of one of the first medical texts written in Hawaiian, Anatomia : he palapala ia e hoike ai i ke ano o ko ke kanaka kino, in 1838.

In 1850 Judd purchased from King Kamehameha the land which became the Kualoa Ranch on the Windward Coast of Oahu. His descendants still own and operate the ranch today.^[4]

Judd died July 12, 1873 in Honolulu and was buried in the Oahu Cemetery.

Legacy

They had nine children:^[5]

1. Gerrit Parmele II born March 8, 1829, died November 13, 1839, buried in Oahu Cemetery.
2. Elizabeth Kinaʻu born July 5, 1831 died August 9, 1918. Married September 29, 1857 to Samuel Gardner Wilder (1831–1888) from Leominster, Massachusetts, six children.
3. Helen Seymour born August 27, 1833 and died April 2, 1911.
4. Charles Hastings born September 8, 1835 (twin) died April 18, 1890. Married November 1, 1859 to Emily Catherine Cutts (1840–1921), four children. Worked in the Guano and farming businesses, and held several posts in the Kingdom.^[6]
5. Laura Fish born September 8, 1835 (twin) died November 22, 1888 at San Francisco, California. Married February 22, 1861 to Joshua Gill Dickson (1830–1880), four children.
6. Albert Francis born January 7, 1838 died May 20, 1900. Married April 4, 1872 to Agnes Hall Boyd (1844–1934) nine children. Last child Lawrence M. Judd became Governor of the Territory of Hawaii in 1929–1934.^[7]
7. Alan Wilkes born April 20, 1840 and died March 26, 1875.
8. Sybil Augusta born March 16, 1843 and died September 10, 1906. Married February 27, 1862 to Henry Alpheus Peirce Carter (1837–1891), seven children. Son Charles Lunt was a member of the Committee of Safety, and son George Robert was Governor of the Territory of Hawaii (1903–1907).
9. Juliet Isabelle born March 28, 1846 and died June 27, 1857.

Judd's life was the basis of the novel The White King. A biography, Dr. Judd, Hawaii’s Friend^[8] which was written by his great-grandson Gerrit P. Judd IV (1915–1971) and published in 1960.^[9] His papers were kept under restricted access at the Bishop Museum until his great-grandson Albert Francis Judd III died in 2006.^[10]

Publications

• Gerrit P. Judd (1838). Anatomia. Lahainaluna.

References

1. Charles William Miller (2006). "The Voyage of the Parthian: Life and Religion Aboard a 19th-century Ship Bound for Hawai'i" (PDF). Hawaiian Journal of History (Hawaiian Historical Society, Honolulu) 40.
2. Rufus Anderson (1872). A Heathen Nation Evangelized: History of the Sandwich Islands Mission. Congregational Publishing Society. p. 379.
3. "Office holding record for Gerrit Parmele Judd". State of Hawaii Digital Collection website.
4. "Kualoa History". Retrieved 2010-04-14.
5. George R. Carter and Mary H. Hopkins, eds. (July 1922). A record of the descendants of Dr. Gerrit P. Judd of Hawaii, March 8, 1829, to April 16, 1922. Hawaiian Historical Society.
6. George F. Nellist, ed. (1925). The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Honolulu Star Bulletin.
7. Ann Rayson (2004). Modern History of Hawaii. Bess Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-1-57306-209-1.
8. Judd, Gerrit P. IV (1960). Doctor Judd, Hawaii's Friend: A Biography of Gerrit Parmele Judd, 1803-1873. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
9. "Gerrit P. Judd IV, Distinguished Professor of history and author". University Archives Faculty Collections. Hofstra University. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
10. Joel Tannenbaum (June 11, 2006). "From mystery to Hawai'i history". Honolulu Advertiser.

Further reading

• Buckminster, Lydia N.H., The Hastings Memorial, A Genealogical Account of the Descendants of Thomas Hastings of Watertown, Mass. from 1634 to 1864, Boston: Samuel G. Drake Publisher (an undated NEHGS photoduplicate of the 1866 edition).
• Judd IV, Gerrit P., Dr. Judd, Hawaii's friend, A biography of Gerrit Parmele Judd (1803–1873), Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1960.

External links

• Descendants of Thomas Hastings website