Archibald Scott Cleghorn

Archibald Scott Cleghorn (November 15, 1835 – November 1, 1910) was a Scottish businessman who married into the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Biography

He was born on November 15, 1835 in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Thomas Cleghorn and wife, Janet Nisbet. In 1851, at the age of 16, Archie Cleghorn traveled with his parents to Honolulu, where his father established a dry goods store. His father died within the year, and his mother left for New Zealand, but Archibald remained in Hawaii and continued running the store. His business prospered and he expanded to other islands. With a Hawaiian woman, Elizabeth Lapeka Pauahi Grimes, Cleghorn had three daughters: Rose Kaipuala Cleghorn (1859–1911), who married James William Robertson, Helen Maniʻiailehua Cleghorn (1863–1927), who married James Harbottle Boyd, Annie Pauai Cleghorn (1867–1897), who married James Hay Wodehouse. Cleghorn and Lapeka later separated. He also had a son named Thomas Alexander Kaulaʻahi Cleghorn (1899–1984) by another Hawaiian woman Annie Ana Makanui.

Cleghorn became a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1870. He married Princess Miriam K. Likelike who was 19 years old, sister of David Kalākaua, on September 22, 1870 at Washington Place. In 1874 Kalākaua became King, and Cleghorn's daughter Princess Victoria Kaiʻulani was the heir to the throne of the House of Kalākaua. In 1877, Cleghorn and Princess Likelike arranged to donate the land surrounding the monument to Captain James Cook on Kealakekua Bay marking the site of his death, in trust to the government of the United Kingdom.

Cleghorn served in the House of Nobles from 1873 to 1888, and the Privy Council from 1873 to 1891. He acted as the Royal Governor of Oʻahu in July 1887, and was appointed to succeed Prince Consort John Owen Dominis upon his death in November 1891, until February 28, 1893. He was the president of the Kapiʻolani Park Association since 1888, and first parks commissioner for the City & County of Honolulu in 1900. He served as a trustee of The Queen's Medical Center from 1905 to 1909. He died of a heart attack on November 1, 1910 at the ʻĀinahau royal estate. He was buried in the Kalākaua Crypt of the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii.

His downtown Honolulu estate became the home of The Pacific Club in 1926.