Matthew Hunkin

Hunkin was born in Mevagissey, Cornwall, England. In February 1838, he married a Samoan woman of high rank, Fatumalala Fai'ivae Aumavae Ilaoa Hunkin, in Leone. They were the parents of 4 sons and 3 daughters. He is the founder of what may be the oldest lineage of mixed European and Samoan origin.^[2]

He died on 15 April 1888, in Leone.

Matthew Hunkin arrived in Pago Pago in 1834 and joined Archibald Murray^{[disambiguation needed]} under the patronage of High Chief Mauga. The two toured villages on Tutuila's eastern coast, then moved to Leone, where Murray started planning the Mission Institute for Pacific Islanders at Fagatele on the village's outskirts.^[3]

In 1836, Matthew Hunkin wed Fatumalala Faiivae - the daughter of Leone's High Chief Faiivae - becoming one of the first Europeans to settle in Samoa. After building a boat for King Tui Manu'a in the Manuʻa Islands, he resided in Leone. Recognized by the London Missionary Society (LMS) as an assistant missionary, Hunkin later attempted to evangelize Niue. He left the church in 1849, opened one of Tutuila's earliest shops in Leone, and donated land there for mission houses.^[4]

Hunkin's effort to open Niue to the London Missionary Society fell short, after which he managed the LMS station in the Manuʻa Islands. He left the mission in 1849 and reinvented himself as a trader, U.S. consular agent for Tutuila, and landholder in his wife's village of Leone - establishing one of the earliest European-Samoan family lines. The U.S. consul in Apia also hired him as tender, but in 1888 U.S. Consul Harold M. Sewall advised closing the Tutuila agency, suggesting the U.S. Navy employ Hunkin directly to oversee the coal depot in Pago Pago. He died a few months before any decision was finalized.^[5][6]