Gerrit P. Judd, a New York native born in 1803, arrived in Hawai'i in 1828 as a medical missionary, but he eventually became a trusted adviser to the royal leaders of the Hawaiian kingdom.
Judd was a busy doctor immersed in the community. He became so fluent in the Hawaiian language that he translated state papers and authored a medical book on human anatomy in Hawaiian.
In 1842, Judd became a counselor to King Kamehameha III, marching at his side during formal processions in Honolulu.
The measure of his loyalty to the monarchy came in 1843 when a British naval officer sailed into Honolulu Harbor and forced the king to relinquish his sovereignty.
Judd secretly wrote an appeal to the British government, working on it at night inside the Royal Mausoleum, where he used Queen Ka'ahumanu's coffin as a desk.
His plea, heard in Washington and Britain, was successful, and five months after the takeover, the kingdom was restored to Kamehameha. Judd stood beside the king on the steps of Kawaiaha'o Church to announce the news, translating a British proclamation into Hawaiian for the crowd.
Judd, the father of nine children, purchased the Kualoa land division from Kamehameha, and his descendants still own and manage the property as Kualoa Ranch.
He died in 1873.
