Thursday October Christian
Thursday October Christian, 1814, J. Shillibeer
Born	(1790-10-14)14 October 1790 Pitcairn Island
Died	21 April 1831(1831-04-21) (aged 40) Papeete,Tahiti
Spouse	Teraura
Children	Joseph John Christian Charles Christian Mary Christian Polly Christian Peggy Christian Thursday October Christian II
Parents	Fletcher Christian (father) Mauatua Maimiti (mother)

Thursday October Christian (14 October 1790 – 21 April 1831) was the first son ofFletcher Christian (leader of the historicalmutiny on theBounty) and his Tahitian wifeMauatua.^[1] He was the first child born on thePitcairn Islands after the mutineers took refuge on the island. Born ona Thursday in October, he was given his unusual name because Fletcher Christian wanted his son to have "no name that will remind me ofEngland."

Thursday, at age 16, married an olderTahitian woman,Teraura (Susannah/Susan Young), who had beenNed Young's originalconsort. She was past 30 at the time of the marriage. The ceremony was carried out with aring that had belonged to Ned Young.

When the BritishfrigatesBriton andTagus arrived at Pitcairn on the morning of 17 September 1814, Thursday and George Young paddled out in canoes to meet them. Both spokeEnglish well, and made a good impression on the officers and men of the ships as they met on the deck of theBriton. Their demeanour helped persuade the two captains thatJohn Adams 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 theTagus, 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 ofcloth round his loins, astraw hat ornamented with black cock's feathers, and occasionally a peacock's, nearly similar to that worn by theSpaniards inSouth America, though smaller."

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.^[2] 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 sameepidemic. 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 wasThursday 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 oftermite damage.^[2]

Thursday's life story was written byR. M. Ballantyne inThe Lonely Island; or, The Refuge of the Mutineers (1880). He also appears inCharles Dickens'The Long Voyage (1853).

Thursday October Christian is also mentioned on theRasputina albumOh Perilous World.

• The complete text of Ballantyne'sThe Lonely Island.

• 1790 births
• 1831 deaths
• Pitcairn Islands people of English descent
• Pitcairn Islands people of Polynesian descent
• Pitcairn Islands people of Manx descent

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• Use dmy dates from February 2022
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