George Hunn Nobbs
Pitcairn and Norfolk Island Chaplain · 1799–1884
Who is George Hunn Nobbs?
George Hunn Nobbs was a British-born mariner, schoolmaster, and clergyman who became the spiritual and civic leader of the Pitcairn Island community and later of Norfolk Island. Born in 1799, he served in the British and Chilean navies in his youth before settling on remote Pitcairn Island in November 1828, where he took on the roles of schoolteacher and unordained pastor to the small community descended from the HMS Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions. In October 1829 he married Sarah Christian, a granddaughter of mutiny leader Fletcher Christian, tying him directly into the founding family. Briefly displaced from leadership between 1832 and 1837 by a self-styled impostor claiming government authority, Nobbs returned to lead the community, and in 1852 travelled to England, where he was formally ordained and licensed as chaplain of Pitcairn Island, also gaining an audience with Queen Victoria. When the Pitcairn community outgrew its island home, Nobbs was instrumental, alongside Admiral Fairfax Moresby, in arranging the 1856 migration of nearly 200 islanders to Norfolk Island, where he continued as pastor and teacher until his death on 5 November 1884, leaving a widow, ten children, and dozens of grandchildren.
Sources: Australian Dictionary of Biography, "Nobbs, George Hunn (1799-1884)" · Autograph Letter Signed, George H. Nobbs to the Right Reverend Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln — University of Hawai'i at Manoa Library · Wikipedia, "George Hunn Nobbs"