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Letter from Inhabitants of Pitcairn Island to
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Copy Pitcairn Island
July 27th 1853. May it please your Majesty, We your Majesty’s loyal and devoted subjects the inhabitants of Pitcairns Island, avail ourselves of an opportunity just offered us, to assure your Gracious Majesty of our loyal attachment to your person and Government. The recollections of your Majestys Ships visits to our Island will be preserved with pride and gratitude, and we desire to express in the most unqualified manner our |
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thanks for these gracious marks of Royal favour. We humbly trust we may be allowed to consider ourselves your Majesty’s subjects; and Pitcairns Island a British Colony as long as it is inhabited by us in the fullest sense of the word. Several years since the Captain of your Majesty’s Ship Fly took formal possession of our little Island and placed us under your Majesty’s protection, and if your Majesty’s Government would grant us a document declaring us an integral part of your Majesty’s dominion, we should be freed from all fears (perhaps groundless) on that head; and such a gracious mark of Royal favour would be cherished by us to an exertion in the discharge of the |
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various duties incumberent on British subjects. The Commander-in-Chief for the time being in the Pacific Ocean, has permitted a Ship of War to visit us occasionally, and we humbly trust your Majesty will be pleased to permit those visits to be continued; if your Majesty’s Government should think fit to remove us to some other place. At the suggestion of our worthy benefactor Rear Admiral Moresby we have ventured to present your gracious Majesty with a small chest of drawers of our own manufacture from the Island wood; the native name of the dark wood is miro, the bottoms of the drawers made of the breadfruit tree; our means are very limited; and our |
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mechanical skill also; and we will esteem it a great favour if your Majesty would condescend to accept it as a token of our loyalty and respect to our gracious Queen. In conclusion we beg to add our earnest desire and prayer, that your Majesty may long live to govern those whom God has placed under your Majesty’s care and protection; may he strengthen protect and prosper you is the earnest desire of Your Majesty’s loyal and (Signed) Arthur Quintal Junr. |
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Notes.
Pagination of the original autograph has been maintained. Sir Fairfax Moresby GCB (786 – 1877) was a Royal Navy officer. In 1850 Admiral Moresby became Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Station. His main responsibility was to protect British commercial interests in Valparaíso in the face of unrest among the people of Chile. He also took an interest in Pitcairn Islands at this time and planned the emigration of the islanders to Norfolk Island. Arthur Quintal, Jr. (1816 – 1902) served as Magistrate of Pitcairn Island on three occasions between 1845 and 1854, he served as Magistrate of Norfolk Island twice between 1862 and 1885. Quintal was the son of Arthur Quintal, Sr. and Catherine McCoy. He was a grandson of Matthew Quintal and William McCoy. Quintal was known as Dowley. Quintal married Martha Quintal, his half-cousin, who was the daughter of Edward Quintal, Arthur Sr's half-brother. They had 11 children, Quintal died on Norfolk Island in 1902. [Wikipedia] |
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Source.
Document no. 76. July 27, 1853. "Letter from Inhabitants of Pitcairn Island to Her Majesty the Queen (Third enclosure to Moresby's letter of 31 December 1853). Pages 1384 to 1391.
This transription was made from a documents in a collection of documents at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa Library.
Last updated by Tom Tyler, Denver, CO, USA, Aug 3 2022.
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