The Pitcairn Islands, 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 islands—Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno—are scattered across several hundred miles of ocean and have a combined land area of about 18 square miles (47 km2). Henderson Island accounts for 86% of the land area, but only Pitcairn Island is inhabited. The islands nearest to the Pitcairn Islands are Mangareva at 688 km to the west and Easter Island at 1,929 km to the east.
John Adams, known as Jack Adams, was the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island in January 1790, the year after the mutiny. His real name was John Adams, but he used the name Alexander Smith until he was discovered in 1808 by Captain Mayhew Folger of the American whaling ship Topaz. His children used the surname "Adams".
The history of the Pitcairn Islands begins with the colonization of the islands by Polynesians in the 11th century. Polynesian people established a culture that flourished for four centuries and then vanished. They lived on Pitcairn and Henderson Islands, and on Mangareva Island 540 kilometres (340 mi) to the northwest, for about 400 years.
Fletcher Christian was an English sailor who led the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, during which he seized command of the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty from Lieutenant William Bligh.
Steven Raymond Christian is a politician, convicted sex offender and child rapist from the Pitcairn Islands. He was mayor of the islands from 1999 until 2004, when he was removed from office after being found guilty in the Pitcairn child sexual abuse trial.
Thursday October Christian II was a Pitcairn Islands political leader. He was the grandson of Fletcher Christian and son of Thursday October Christian, and mother, Teraura. He was also known as "Doctor", "Duddie" or "Doodie". He spent several years on Norfolk Island but returned to Pitcairn in 1864. Christian was three quarters Polynesian.
Bounty Day is a holiday on both Pitcairn Island, destination of the Bounty mutineers, and on Norfolk Island. It is celebrated on 23 January on Pitcairn, and on 8 June on Norfolk Island, the day that the descendants of the mutineers arrived on the island. It is named for the Bounty, although the ship never saw Norfolk Island.
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.
Pitcairn Islanders, also referred to as Pitkerners and Pitcairnese, are the inhabitants of the Pitcairn Islands, a British Overseas Territory including people whose families were previously inhabitants and maintaining cultural connections. Most Pitcairn Islanders are descendants of the Bounty mutineers.
Nobbs is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Arthur Quintal was a Pitcairn Islander who served as the island's second magistrate, in 1840/1841. Quintal was the son of Matthew Quintal, the bounty mutineer, and his wife Tevarua. The elder Quintal was killed with a hatchet in 1799. Arthur appears to have inherited some of his father's bad temper; he allegedly treated his sister Jane 'so harshly' she left the island and never returned. Quintal also allegedly made a pact with his best friend Daniel McCoy, to take each other's sister as a wife. Quintal married Catherine McCoy, and they had 9 children, including Arthur Quintal II, who also became magistrate. After Catherine's death in 1831, Arthur married Mary Christian and had a further 5 children. He succeeded his half brother as magistrate, and was succeeded by his brother-in-law. Quintal died on Norfolk Island in 1873.
Matthew McCoy served as Magistrate of the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Island twice, in 1843 and in 1853. McCoy was the son of Daniel McCoy and Sarah Quintal, making him the grandson of HMS Bounty mutineers William McCoy and Matthew Quintal. He married Margaret Christian, making him the brother-in-law of his predecessor Fletcher Christian II. McCoy had 12 children, including Magistrate James Russell McCoy and Rebecca Holman Ascension McCoy, who married Benjamin Stanley Young. McCoy was fatally wounded when the Bounty cannon was fired to mark the departing of a ship; the cannon exploded shattering his right arm. The arm was amputated and he died days later.
Arthur Quintal, Jr. served as Magistrate of the Overseas British Territory of Pitcairn Island on three occasions between 1845 and 1854, he served as Magistrate of Norfolk Island twice between 1862 and 1885. Quintal was the son of Arthur Quintal, Sr. and Catherine McCoy. He was a grandson of Matthew Quintal and William McCoy. Quintal was known as Dowley. Quintal married Martha Quintal, his half-cousin, who was the daughter of Edward Quintal, Arthur Sr's half-brother. They had 11 children, Quintal died on Norfolk Island in 1902.
Charles Christian, Jr. served as Magistrate of the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Island in 1847. He was the son of Charles Christian and Sully. He married Charlotte Quintal and had 16 children. Christian died on Norfolk Island.
The complement of HMS Bounty, 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 Lieutenant William Bligh. All but two of those aboard were Royal Navy personnel; the exceptions were two civilian botanists engaged to supervise the breadfruit plants Bounty was tasked to take from Tahiti to the West Indies. Of the 44 aboard at the time of the mutiny, 19 were set adrift in the ship's launch, while 25, a mixture of mutineers and detainees, remained on board under Fletcher Christian. Bligh led his loyalists 3,500 nautical miles to safety in the open boat, and ultimately back to England. The mutineers divided—most settled on Tahiti, where they were captured by HMS Pandora in 1791 and returned to England for trial, while Christian and eight others evaded discovery on Pitcairn Island.
Rosalind Amelia Young was a historian from Pitcairn Islands.
Norfolk Islanders also referred to as just Islanders are the inhabitants or citizens of Norfolk Island, an external territory of Australia. The Islanders have their own unique identity and are predominantly people of Pitcairn and English descent and to a lesser extent of Scottish and Irish.
Teraura, also Susan or Susannah Young, was a Tahitian woman who settled on Pitcairn Island with the Bounty Mutineers. She took part in Ned Young's plot to murder male Polynesians who had travelled on HMS Bounty and killed Tetahiti. A tapa maker, examples of her craft are found in the British Museum and at Kew Gardens.
Mauatua, also Maimiti or Isabella Christian, also known as Mainmast was a Tahitian tapa maker, who settled on Pitcairn Island with the Bounty mutineers. She married both Fletcher Christian and Ned Young, and had children with both men. Fine white tapa, which was her specialty, is held in the collections of the British Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum, amongst others.
Teio, also known as Te'o, Mary, and Sore Mummy, was a Tahitian woman who settled on Pitcairn Island with the Bounty mutineers. Alongside Mauatua and Teraura, she is one of the island's six original matriarchs.
