Princess Tui Mālietoa Coe, commonly known as Queen Emma, established a commercial network across Melanesia that defined her as the most prominent woman in Pacific trade during the late nineteenth century. Born in 1850 to a Samoan royal mother and a United States commercial representative, she navigated regional power structures to command vast coconut and cocoa plantations.
Early Life and Education
Born on September 26, 1850, in Apia, Samoa, she was the daughter of Jonas Myndersse Coe and Joana Le'utu Taletale. Her status was cemented at birth through her maternal connection to the Mālietoa dynasty, granting her land rights as a princess. By age twelve, she moved to Australia to attend the Benedictine Nuns' school located in Subiaco, near Parramatta.
Twenty questions, eight minutes on the clock, and a percentile measured against everyone who has taken it. No sign-up.
Take the IQ test →Initial Business Ventures
In 1869, she married James Forsayth, a Scottish seaman, and began a joint venture in shipping and trading. While she was active in local Samoan politics alongside her father, the family's influence waned following his deportation in 1876. Her husband eventually vanished at sea, leaving her to pursue independent commercial interests.
Trading and Rescue Operations
She relocated in 1878 with the trader Thomas Farrell to the Duke of York Islands. Operating in an area resistant to European presence, they traded copra for knives, beads, tobacco, and mirrors. They provided essential support to survivors of the Marquis de Rays incident, where hundreds were swindled into a failed colonial scheme involving four ships: the Chandernagore, Genil, India, and Neu-Bretagne. She helped facilitate the transport of these colonists to Australia.
Plantation Empire and Later Years
After choosing to separate her business focus from Farrell, she acquired land around the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain in 1881. Supported by her brother-in-law, Richard Parkinson, she founded large-scale coconut and cocoa plantations near Kokopo. She married Paul Kolbe, a German colonial official, in 1893. Sensing political instability in Europe and the colonies, she liquidated the majority of her assets to Heinrich Rudolph Wahlen in 1910 before her death in Monte Carlo in 1913.
Fast facts
- Born: 1850, Apia, Samoa
- Died: 1913, Monte Carlo
- Title: Princess Tui Mālietoa Coe
- Notable Partner: Richard Parkinson
- Primary Industries: Copra, cocoa, coconut
- Known as: Queen Emma
- Final Sale: Hamburgische Südsee AG
Questions readers ask
How did she earn her royal title?
She was born to Joana Le'utu Taletale, a member of the Samoan Mālietoa dynasty, which granted her the title Princess Tui Mālietoa Coe at birth.
What was the Marquis de Rays incident?
It was a fraudulent colonial scheme that stranded over 500 people on New Ireland, whom she helped relocate to Australia.
.jpg)
