Thursday October Christian (14 October 1790 – 21 April 1831) was the first son of

Fletcher Christian Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was master's mate on board HMS ''Bounty'' during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti during 1787–1789 for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the ''Bounty'', Christian sei ...

(leader of the historical mutiny on the ''Bounty'') and his Tahitian wife Mauatua. He was conceived on

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Aust ...

, and was the first child born on the

Pitcairn Islands The Pitcairn Islands (; Pitkern: '), officially the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four i ...

after the mutineers took refuge on the island. Born on a Thursday in October, he was given his unusual name because Fletcher Christian wanted his son to have "no name that will remind me of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

." Thursday, at age 16, married an older native woman, Teraura (Susannah/Susan Young), who had been

Ned Young The complement of , the Royal Navy ship on which a historic mutiny occurred in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789, comprised 46 men on its departure from England in December 1787 and 44 at the time of the mutiny, including her commander Lieute ...

's original

consort __NOTOC__ Consort may refer to: Music * "The Consort" (Rufus Wainwright song), from the 2000 album ''Poses'' * Consort of instruments, term for instrumental ensembles * Consort song (musical), a characteristic English song form, late 16th–earl ...

. She was past 30 at the time of the marriage. The ceremony was carried out with a ring that had belonged to Ned Young.

Meeting the British

When the British frigates ''Briton'' and ''Tagus'' arrived at Pitcairn on the morning of 17 September 1814, Thursday and George Young paddled out in canoes to meet them. Both spoke English well, and made a good impression on the officers and men of the ships as they met on the deck of the ''Briton''. Their demeanour helped persuade the two captains that

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

had created a civilized society, and did not merit prosecution for the mutiny. The ships stayed only for a few hours, and sailed away later that evening. This was when the only surviving portrait of Thursday was drawn. Captain Philip Pipon, commander of the ''Tagus'', describes Thursday as being "about twenty five years of age, a tall fine young man about six feet high, with dark black hair, and a countenance extremely open and interesting. He wore no clothes except a piece of cloth round his loins, a straw hat ornamented with black cock's feathers, and occasionally a peacock's, nearly similar to that worn by the Spaniards in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

, though smaller."

Death in Tahiti

Edward Gennys Fanshawe, Susan Young, The only surviving Tahitian woman, Pitcairn's (Island), Augt 1849

Along with a number of other Pitcairners, he migrated to Tahiti in 1831, but having no immunity to the diseases of the island he died on 21 April. At that point he had been "the oldest and perhaps the most respected of the first generation of native born islanders". Eleven other Pitcairners died in the same

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious d ...

. Deprived of leadership, the group left Tahiti on 14 August 1831 to return to Pitcairn facilitated by Captain William Driver. His wife outlived him by 19 years. Thursday's third son was Thursday October Christian II (1820–1911). For many years Thursday's house was the oldest building still standing on the island, until it was demolished on 12 March 2004 because of

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes ( eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blat ...

damage.

Ancestry

Literary references

Thursday's life story was written by R. M. Ballantyne in ''The Lonely Island; or, The Refuge of the Mutineers'' (1880). He also appears in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' '' The Long Voyage'' (1853). Thursday October Christian is also mentioned on the Rasputina album '' Oh Perilous World''.

References

External links

The complete text of Ballantyne's ''The Lonely Island''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, Thursday October 1790 births 1831 deaths Pitcairn Islands people Pitcairn Islands people of English descent Pitcairn Islands people of Manx descent Pitcairn Islands people of Polynesian descent