Joshua Kaeo

Who is Joshua Kaeo?

Joshua Kaʻeo, was a Hawaiian high chief or nobleman of Big Island descent, the uncle of Queen Emma of Hawaii, and an early Hawaiian politician and advisor of Kamehameha III.

His father was Asa Kaʻeo, a grandson or son of Princess Manoua of Hawaii, the daughter of King Kalaniʻōpuʻu and one of his wives, Mulehu, from a noble family of the Kaʻū district; Mulehu was also the grandmother of Abner Pākī through a second marriage and great-grandmother of Bernice Pauahi Bishop. His mother is named Paaluanui. Kaʻeo's father was an early convert to Christianity and had taken the Christian name Asa after the American missionary, Asa Thurston. He was distant cousin to Kamehameha I since his great grandfather Kalaniʻōpuʻu was Kamehameha I's half-uncle.

He was member of the King's Privy Council from 1845 to 1850 and a member of House of Nobles from 1845 to 1856. At one time, he was the Judge of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.

He married Jane Lahilahi Young, the hapa-haole daughter of John Young and his wife Kaʻōanaʻeha, the niece of Kamehameha I. Kaʻeo and Lahilahi had two sons:

Peter Young Kekuaokalani Kaeo, he was given as a hānai child to Jane's brother Keoni Ana and his wife Julia Alapai. Educated at Royal School, he became a member of the House of Nobles but later contracted leprosy and was sent to leper colony at Kalawao.