Descendants of the Bounty mutineers

Descendants of the mutineers John Adams and Matthew Quintal on Norfolk Island, 1862
Total population
~1,000 worldwide[1]
Regions with significant populations
Pitcairn Islands	~45 (2021)[2]
Norfolk Island	~450 (2016)[3]
Australia	~250 (2016)[4]
New Zealand	~45 (2018)[5][6]
Languages
English Pitkern
Religion
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Related ethnic groups
English people Tahitians Scottish people Irish people Cornish people Manx people

The descendants of the Bounty mutineers include the modern-day Pitcairn Islanders as well as a little less than half of the population of Norfolk Island. Their common ancestors were the nine surviving mutineers from the mutiny on HMS Bounty which occurred in the south Pacific Ocean in 1789. Their descendants also live in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.

Origins

The nine surviving mutineers from HMS Bounty arrived on Pitcairn on 15 January 1790 with eleven Tahitian women and six men. Each of the mutineers took one woman as a wife, with the two remaining women to be shared by the six Tahitian men, which they resented. According to author Caroline Alexander, the women were "passed around from one 'husband' to the other".^[7]: 369 Fletcher Christian, Ned Young, John Adams, John Mills, William McCoy, and Matthew Quintal had relationships with six Tahitian women. Mauatua, Toofaiti, Vahineatua, and Teio had children from two of the mutineers and one of their sons. Tevarua and Teraura had only one partner. Together they had 24 children, who in turn had 77 children. Because of the scarcity of people on the island, many of the mutineers' children and grandchildren intermarried, with some marrying first and second cousins.

When John Williams and John Adams' wives died, they commandeered two of the Polynesian men's wives, who plotted to kill the men in retribution. Two of the plotters were killed instead. On 20 September 1793, the four remaining Polynesian men stole muskets and killed Christian, Mills, Brown, Martin, and Williams. The remaining seamen—Adams, McCoy, Quintal, and Young, with the assistance of Teraura, the wife of Ned Young—who beheaded the Polynesian Tetahiti while he slept—soon killed the Polynesian men.^[8] In 1798, McCoy built a still. He, Quintal, and some of the women were continually drunk. On 20 April 1798, McCoy attached a rock to his neck with a rope and leaped over a cliff to his death. Quintal became increasingly erratic and threatened to kill the other seamen and their wives. In 1799, Adams and Young killed him. Young died of an asthma attack in 1800. Adams lived until 1829.^[9] Occasionally a new person would arrive on the island bringing with them a new surname (like Samuel Russell Warren from the United States, whose descendants still live on the island today).

First generations

Other descendants

• Malcolm Champion (12 November 1882 – 27 July 1939), New Zealand Olympic swimmer; his mother Sarah Clara Quintal was a descendant of Matthew Quintal.
• Thomas Colman Christian (1 November 1935 – 7 July 2013) known as the "Voice of Pitcairn" for his nearly lifelong role in keeping the island connected to the world via ham radio, died at age 77 on the island where he was born. He was a great-great-great-grandson of Fletcher Christian. In 1957, while working on a National Geographic-sponsored dive off Pitcairn, Christian helped salvage some of the sunken remains of the Bounty, including its old hull fittings. Tom was the son of Frederick Christian, grandson of Daniel Christian, great-grandson of Thursday Christian, and great-great-grandson of Friday Christian, who himself, was the son of Fletcher Christian. The cause of Tom's death was complications of a recent stroke, said his daughter Jacqueline Christian.^[12]
• Rosalind Amelia Young (13 August 1853 – 1 February 1924), historian and greatgrandaughter of John Adams

The majority of the many rulers of the Pitcairn Islands have been descendants of the Bounty mutineers, till this day.

In 1935 – in the wake of their successful American blockbuster movie Mutiny on the Bounty, which premiered that year – the MGM Studios also shot a short documentary with the title "Pitcairn Island Today" (a Eugene H. Roth production, narrated by Carey Wilson).^[13][14] It tells the story of some of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers, who were natives of Pitcairn and inhabitants of the only village of the island, Adamstown.

The list of descendants mentioned and presented in this MGM documentary includes:

• William Christian, 60–70 years old (judging by appearance), farmer, presented as "Fletcher Christians great-grandson".
• Benjamin Young, 84 years old (i.e. born around 1851), blacksmith, presented as the "great-grandson of a happy young Midshipman of the Bounty" (that would be Edward "Ned" Young).
• Edward Christian, 55–60 years old (judging by appearance), stonecutter, presumably another descendant of Fletcher Christian.
• "Pastor Christian", pastor and mayor of the island. Most likely he is to be identified as Edgar Allen Christian (at that time 52 years old, an age corresponding to his appearance in the video). Furthermore, this assumption is based on the fact that he (as seen later in the footage) appears to have signed a marriage announcement in his function of being the "Magistrate" of the island (see below). In earlier and later years, however, Edgar A. Christian's cousin Charles Richard Parkin Christian too held this double office of being both the religious leader as well as the Chief Magistrate of Pitcairn (cf. List of rulers of the Pitcairn Islands).^[15]
• (Aunt) Annie McCoy, 70–80 years old (judging by appearance), descendant of Able Seaman William McCoy.
• Rebecca Young, 12–20 years old (judging by appearance), presumably another descendant of Midshipman Ned Young.
• Allan Christian and Eva Christian, a couple (of likely young age?) whose intention of marriage is officially signed and publicly announced by "Edgar Christian – Magistrate" (during the time of shooting the documentary).
• David Young, a newborn baby (who nearly died because the doctor came by ship from abroad and almost arrived too late), yet another descendant of Midshipman Ned Young.

On top of those, three more people are mentioned in the MGM documentary: Andrew Warren (grandson of a whaler who came to Pitcairn around 1875, thus being no descendant of the mutineers), as well as Dora Warren and Roy Clark, whose exact direct descent from the mutineers (or lack of such) remains unclear, when judging only from the information that the documentary reveals.

A 1962 documentary, Pitcairn People (directed by Peter Newington, narrated by Patrick Wymark), was produced by the British Petroleum Company. It featured many of the island residents of that time. Another documentary, Miracle on Pitcairn Island, was produced in the 1960s by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (filmed and written by Eric Were, narrated by Neal C. Wilson). It featured many of the same residents.

References