Titaua Salmon

Titaua, photograph by Paul-Emile Miot, 1869-70

Princess Titaua Marama of Tahiti (1842–1898), also known as Tetuanui Reiaitera'iatea Titaua Salmon, was a Tahitian princess who traveled the 10,000 miles from Tahiti to Scotland in 1892.[1]

Early life

She was born November 3, 1842, in Papetoai, Moorea, in the Society Islands, the daughter of Alexander Salmon and Princess Arrioehau.[2][3] Growing up as Chiefess of Haapiti, she met the author Robert Louis Stevenson and the painter Constance Gordon-Cumming when they visited the island.[1]

At the age of 14, in July 1859, she married Scottish merchant John Brander.[2][3] Together they had nine children.[4] Following Brander's death in 1877,[5][6] she married her second husband, George Darsie, in Tahiti in 1878.[7][8] Together she and Darsie had six children, five of whom died.[9]

Scotland

In 1892 she moved with Darsie to Anstruther, Scotland.[1]

She died on 25 September 1898 in Anstruther,[10] after giving birth to her fifteenth child, who was known as Princess Paloma.[9] She is buried alongside Darsie at the Anstruther Parish Church.[11][10]

She is the subject of the book From the South Seas to the North Sea by British-American author Fiona J Mackintosh.[12]

References

1. "Blue plaque commemorates Anstruther's fascinating link to a South Seas princess". The Courier. 30 July 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
2. Frank, Ben (2011-10-18). Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond. ISBN 9780762777471.
3. Tilburg, Joanne Van (2003). Among Stone Giants: The Life of Katherine Routledge and Her Remarkable Expedition to Easter Island. ISBN 9780743244800.
4. "SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION of FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES BULLETIN" (PDF). April 2013. p. 6. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
5. Delsing, Riet (2015-05-31). Articulating Rapa Nui: Polynesian Cultural Politics in a Latin American Nation-State. ISBN 9780824854614.
6. Porteous, John Douglas (January 1981). The Modernization of Easter Island. ISBN 9780919838093.
7. Brown, Campbell; Wiggins, Steven (1992-12-15). St Andrews and Fife Walks. ISBN 9781845029326.
8. Stevenson, Stephanie (2004). Anstruther: A History. ISBN 9781904607441.
9. Rush, Christopher (July 1, 2010). A Twelvemonth and a Day. Canongate Books. ISBN 9781847675699 – via Google Books.
10. "Anstruther from the Gazetteer for Scotland".
11. "Anstruther Parish Church". 2017-07-04.
12. Mackintosh, Fiona J (2011). From the South Seas to the North Sea. ISBN 9780953653850.