[HI-FOOTSTEPS] Hi-Statewide Co. Bios (Dowsett)

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Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Dowsett, James Isaac December 15, 1829 - June 14, 1898
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr orr at hawaii.com September 9, 2009, 1:37 pm

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

JAMES ISAAC DOWSETT, Pioneer Capitalist. On June 1, 1834, the ship “Victoria,” 
commanded by Captain Samuel James Dowsett who, six years before, had settled 
in Hawaii, sailed from Honolulu on a pearl fishing expedition to the 
Pescadores Islands. A year passed and the mariner had not returned to his wife 
and four small children, left alone with comparative strangers in 
the “Sandwich Islands.”
  Alarmed by his absence, the Hawaiian government, in 1835, sent the 
brig “Waverly’ on a search for the missing captain. But the “Waverly,” also, 
was fated never to return. The brig was seized by natives at Strong’s Island, 
captain and crew were murdered and the ship burned. No trace was ever found of 
Captain Dowsett. 
  Such was the final tragic chapter in the life of the British seafarer, first 
of his line in Hawaii, and although his stay in Honolulu was brief, his 
descendants have remained here for a century of progress in the islands. 
  Of the arrival of Captain Dowsett in Hawaii, little has been recorded. 
Research by members of the present generation of the Dowsett family has 
established the fact that Captain Dowsett first saw the islands in 1822, when, 
as first officer of the “Mermaid,” his vessel accompanied the “Prince Regent,” 
a gift-ship from King George IV of England to King Kamehameha, and he returned 
with the crew of the “Prince Regent” to Sydney, N.S.W., his colonial station.
  Available records show that Captain Dowsett served in the British Colonial 
Navy, although his various ranks have not been definitely established, but it 
is believed he joined the Colonial service in the capacity of a chief officer 
or mate. His history in Australia subsequent to his first trip to Hawaii on 
the “Mermaid,” shows that he was made a captain before leaving the service and 
that he purchased the “Wellington” in 1827 or thereabouts from Mr. Joseph 
Underwood of Sydney.
  Upon his resignation from the British service, Captain Dowsett, commanding 
the “Wellington,” sailed from Sydney, April 8, 1828, for the “Sandwich 
Islands,” arriving in Honolulu, July 27, 1828. With him came his wife, Mary 
(Bishop) Dowsett, and infant daughter, Deborah Melville Dowsett (Mrs. 
Howland), who was born at Melville Island. Captain Dowsett was a native of 
Rochester, Kent, England, born Dec. 11, 1794, the eldest of twenty-one 
brothers and one of twenty-three children. His wife also was of English birth.
  Established in Honolulu, Captain Dowsett engaged in trading. When he 
embarked on his tragic voyage his family had grown to four children, James 
Isaac, Elizabeth Jane (Mrs. M. C. Monsarrat), and Samuel Henry Dowsett having 
been born in Honolulu. James Isaac Dowsett, the sea captain’s eldest son and 
the principal subject of this sketch, had a long and eventful career in his 
native city.
  Born in Honolulu, Dec. 15, 1829, the late Mr. Dowsett is said to have been 
the first Anglo-Saxon child, not of missionary parentage, born in Hawaii. Not 
quite five years of age when his father sailed away to his death, young James 
Isaac was looked upon almost from that early day as the head of the family.
  He received his education at the Johnstone School in the early 40’s and when 
hardly more than twelve years of age entered the employ of the Hudson Bay 
Company, continuing his schooling while working until fourteen years of age 
when he became breadwinner for his widowed mother. Mrs. Dowsett, devoted to 
the memory of her lost husband, refused numerous offers of marriage and 
remained a widow until her death, in 1860. During this youthful period, young 
James Isaac Dowsett was a playmate of Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and 
Lunalilo, future kings of Hawaii. In his school days Mr. Dowsett was 
associated with former Governor Pacheco of California, who was sent to Hawaii 
from California to be educated in the islands, a custom followed extensively 
in early days by parents who sought the best schools for their children.
  Remaining with the trading company, and in spite of his many family 
responsibilities, James Isaac Dowsett prospered. With his early savings he 
made small investments in business projects of the time, and these yielded 
excellent returns. The early 60’s saw him actively engaged in the whaling 
business and he was one of the leaders in the development of an industry which 
created considerable wealth in Hawaii. He owned a fleet of whaling ships which 
made annual trips into the Artic. Among these, remembered by his children, 
were the “R. B. Wood,” the “Yankee,” the “W. B. Allen,” and the “Harvest,” the 
last-named being captured and destroyed by the Confederate commerce 
raider “Shenandoah” during the Civil War.
  Besides his whaling activities, Mr. Dowsett engaged in the lumber business 
and owned a fleet of schooners and small steamers operating between the 
islands. The crack two-masted schooner “Haleakala” was one of his ships. He 
had extensive ranching interests, holding leases on properties now occupied by 
Schofield Barracks, and the present sugar cane fields of the Honolulu 
Plantation, as well as the land of Mauna Loa and Kahauiki, now Fort Shafter, 
Nanakuli, Mikilua and Lualualei were once pastures for Mr. Dowsett’s cattle 
and horses. He was engaged in ranching as early as 1850, and a medal was 
awarded him at the Agricultural Fair at the time for the best pair of “working 
oxen.” Mr. Dowsett was the first rancher to import Aberdeen Angus stock to 
Hawaii. The famous Ulupalakua ranch on Maui, now owned by Frank F. Baldwin, 
was one of Mr. Dowsett’s properties. He founded the Puuloa salt works.
  Active in political affairs of the 80’s and 90’s, Mr. Dowsett was created a 
noble and was a member of the House of Nobles during the reigns of King 
Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani. He supported the Provisional Government after 
the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, and in the subsequent counter-
rebellion of 1895 was an avowed champion of law and order. He died June 14, 
1898, shortly before the annexation of Hawaii by the United States, death 
preventing him from automatically becoming an American citizen.
  Mr. Dowsett married Annie Green Ragsdale of Honolulu and they were the 
parents of thirteen children, James Isaac, Jr. (deceased), Alexander 
(deceased), Phoebe K. (Dowsett) Raymond, Edward Ragsdale (deceased), Mary K. 
(Dowsett) Parish, Alexander Cartwright, Annie K. (Dowsett) Kirklady, Elizabeth 
Jane (Dowsett) Knight, David A. (deceased), Rowena N. (Dowsett) Turner, Samuel 
Henry K. (deceased), Marion C. (Dowsett) Worthington and Genevieve N. 
(Dowsett) Dunbar (deceased).
  The late Mr. Dowsett was one of the founders of the British Club, now the 
Pacific Club of Honolulu, and was a trustee of The Queen’s Hospital from its 
establishment until his death. For many years he was one of the principal 
supporters of the Sailors’ Home Association, now the Seamen’s Institute, 
serving as its president in 1893 and was a member of the board of trustees at 
the time of his death. Mrs. Dowsett was also widely honored for philanthropic 
works. With Queen Kapiolani, Mrs. Dowsett was one of the founders of the 
Kapiolani Maternity Home, the Queen and Mrs. Dowsett planning the 
establishment of the home while visiting London in 1887 and 1889, where 
similar works had been undertaken by English social service institutions.



Additional Comments:
**Note-a handwritten notation indicates that the daughter Phoebe K. was “first 
wife of Charles Makee whom she divorced and remarried Dr. J. H. Raymond. 
Children are Violet Makee and Harvey Raymond.”

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