In a bank in the Pacific Northwest is a safe deposit box which contains a crystal necklace that is said to have belonged to Princess Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn. My sister, who happens to bear a strong physical resemblance to the Princess, wore the necklace at her wedding in Hilo, Hawaii, years ago. It was a gift to our mother from our father on the occasion of their marriage in Honolulu in 1942. Our father received it from his mother. She was the youngest child of Rose Cleghorn Robertson, Kaiulani’s older half-sister.
The Cleghorn family arrived in Honolulu in 1851 from Edinburgh, by way of Auckland. Two years later, Thomas Cleghorn died and his widow returned to New Zealand, leaving her sixteen year old son Archibald to manage the family dry goods store. Manage he did, althoughthe details are sketchy. One wonders how a sixteen year old could obtain funds for dry goods inventory in 1850s Honolulu. Perhaps he had help from his maternal relatives in Auckland. Nonetheless the business thrived, and provided him a very good living.
In 1869 he was thirty-five and soon to be married. His nineteen-year old bride, Likelike, was the younger .sister of David Kalakaua and Liliuokalani Dominis. In 1875 their daughter, Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn was born. Like her mother, the child was in line for the throne. The relationship between husband and wife grew contentious, and they began to spend considerable periods apart, Likelike living in Kona, where she had family. There were rumors of an affair between Likelike and an American naval officer. She asked for a divorce and was refused. At the end of 1886, when Likelike was thirty six years old, she retired to her bed, refusing food and drink. In just over a month, she was dead.
The Ruler of the Heavens 
This is fascinating reading Yama. Thanks so much for filling in so many gaps of family history for us. I am so grateful for all I learned from your Mother, dear Pauline. I was thirsty to learn about the family and she was very eager to share all that she knew. I know she would be proud of the depth of the research you have done. I miss both of your parents. They epitomized the warmth and hospitality of the old Hawaiian way. Happy that I finally got to bond with my ohana through the Macy line. My mother was Jean Cullen Bailey. Her mother was Elizabeth (you may have known her as Aunty Lizzy).
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