Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Robertson, George Morison February 26, 1821 - March 12, 1867
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr orr@hawaii.com October 7, 2009, 4:33 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Published by The Honolulu Star Bulletin, Territory of Hawaii, 1925.
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

GEORGE MORISON ROBERTSON, Jurist and Statesman. No biographical history of 
Hawaii would be complete without extended reference to the life and works of 
George Morison Robertson who, although dead for many years, exerted an 
influence in Hawaii as a jurist and lawmaker which will be felt long after 
material monuments have perished.
  Born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Feb. 26, 1821, Mr. Robertson died 
at Waianae, Oahu, March 12, 1867, at the age of 46 and at the height of his 
career, with a record of achievements rarely if ever equaled in Hawaii.
  Removing to New Brunswick from his native Scotland at an early age, Mr. 
Robertson first arrived in the islands where he was to attain high distinction 
in 1844, on the British whaling ship “Peruvian.” After a cruise to northern 
waters, he obtained his discharge when his ship returned to Honolulu and 
located here. He served in the Treasury and Interior offices of the Hawaiian 
Monarchy but went to California in the gold rush of “49, returning to Hawaii 
the following year and accepting an appointment to the Board of Land 
Commissioners, with which he was connected for five years, during the same 
period holding the offices of police justice of Honolulu and, later, circuit 
judge on the Island of Hawaii.
  Many of the present land titles of today in Hawaii are based on the work 
performed by Mr. Robertson and his associates of the Board of Land 
Commissioners, 1850-55, for it was during that period that the kuleanas of the 
common people were awarded to them under the law of 1845 by which King 
Kamehameha III surrendered his sovereign rights.
  It was as a jurist, however, that Mr. Robertson became most famous. 
Appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1855, he held that 
office until his death twelve years later, except for a few weeks in Dec., 
1863, and Jan. and Feb., 1864, when he was in the cabinet of King Kamehameha 
V, his intimate friend. As a jurist, Mr. Robertson helped to build the 
foundation of Hawaii’s present judiciary system and was one of the framers of 
the Civil Code of 1859. He was a master of the Hawaiian language, and was 
highly regarded as a friend and sincere adviser by the Hawaiian people.
  No less prominent as a legislator than a jurist, Mr. Robertson was a member 
of the House of Representatives from 1851 to 1859 and was speaker at several 
sessions. In those days it was not thought improper for a justice of the 
Supreme Court to hold a seat in the legislature. In 1864 he was a delegate to 
and chairman of the historic Constitutional Convention. He was a Knight 
Commander, Order of Kamehameha, and a Privy Councillor, in addition to his 
other honors, a charter member of the Honolulu Sailors’ Home, 1855; charter 
member of the Queen’s Hospital, 1859, and a trustee of Oahu College from 1860 
until his death.
  As the culmination of an unusual romance, Mr. Robertson in 1851 married Miss 
Sarah Humphreys, daughter of William Humphreys, a distinguished figure of the 
period. Mrs. Robertson, a year before her marriage had been shipwrecked at 
Waikiki Beach when the ship “Fortuna” foundered on the reef while en route 
from Australia to San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Robertson had six children, four 
of whom survive, Mrs. F. A. Schaefer, Mrs. W. R. Lawrence, Miss Grace 
Robertson and Alexander G. M. Robertson, jurist and lawyer of Honolulu, whose 
career has closely paralleled that of his distinguished father.
  Mr. Robertson was given a funeral with royal honors, at the expense of the 
Hawaiian Monarchy, and among the mourners in attendance were King Kamehameha 
V, members of his court, high military and civil officials and members of the 
diplomatic corps.
  The Pacific Commercial Advertiser of March 16, 1867, in recording the death 
of Mr. Robertson said, in part:
  “Judge Robertson’s death will be a great loss to the community, but 
especially to the government, in which he was a wise counselor and an 
impartial, upright judge. Native Hawaiians always found in him a kind friend 
and adviser, and learned to trust to his wisdom. It will be impossible to fill 
the vacant judgeship with a man of the same varied qualifications, for there 
is no one living possessed of the knowledge of the native language combined 
with the firmness, impartiality and virtue which he had.”


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