{{Infobox person | image = Emma Eliza Coe - Photo21.jpg | caption = Emma Coe Kolbe (known as Queen Emma) 1896 in San Francisco | other_names = Princess Tui Mālietoa Coe<br>Queen Emma<br>Emma Forsayth<br>Emma Farrell<br>Emma Kolbe | birth_name = Emma Eliza Coe | birth_date = 26 September 1850 | birth_place = Apia, Samoa | death_date = 21 July 1913 | death_place = Monte Carlo, Monaco | spouse = James Forsayth<br>(m. 1869; lost at sea)<br>Thomas Farrell<br>(m. ?; died 1886)<br>Paul Kolbe<br>(m. 1893; died 1913) | children = Jonas Myndersse Coe Forsayth | mother = Joana Le'utu Taletale | father = Jonas Myndersse Coe }}
{{Short description|Samoan-American princess and businesswoman}} '''Emma Eliza Coe''' (September 26, 1850, in Apia, Samoa – July 21, 1913, in Monte Carlo, Monaco; formally styled '''Princess Tui Mālietoa Coe''') was a Samoan-American princess and businesswoman who became the most prominent woman in commercial enterprise across Melanesia. Born to Joana Le'utu Taletale, a member of the Samoan royal Mālietoa dynasty,<ref name="salesa-243">{{cite book |last=Salesa |first=Damon |title=An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays |publisher=Auckland University Press |year=2017 |page=243}}</ref> and Jonas Myndersse Coe, a representative of the United States in Apia, she was recognized at birth by her Mālietoa family with the royal title, Princess Tui Mālietoa Coe, which conferred land rights and privileges.<ref name="day-85">{{cite book |last=Day |first=A. Grove |title=Adventurers of the Pacific |publisher=Meredith Press |location=New York |year=1969 |pages=85–86}}</ref><ref name="robson">{{cite book |last=Robson |first=R.W. |title=Queen Emma |publisher=Pacific Publications |location=Sydney |year=1965 |page=16}}</ref> Known via her three successive marriages as '''Emma Forsayth''', '''Emma Farrell''', and '''Emma Kolbe''', she became recognized throughout the Pacific as '''Queen Emma''' — a designation earned through both her royal Samoan ancestry and her substantial economic influence in the region.<ref name="salesa-250">{{cite book |last=Salesa |first=Damon |title=An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays |publisher=Auckland University Press |year=2017 |page=250}}</ref>
==Biography== '''Emma Eliza Coe''' was born on 26 September 1850 in Apia, Samoa. Her father was Jonas Myndersse Coe, a United States commercial representative. Her mother was Joana Le'utu Taletale, a member of the Samoan Mālietoa dynasty. Her mother's bloodline was related to the Moli tribe, and Emma was recognized by the Mālietoa as a princess.<ref name="pngpc-1971">{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250201505 |title=Queen Emma, a legend in her lifetime |work=Papua New Guinea Post-Courier |page=26,31 |date=10 September 1971 |access-date=29 June 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> At the age of twelve, she entered the school at Subiaco<ref name="adb">{{cite web |title=The History of The Vineyard and Subiaco Estate – Rydalmere |work=Parramatta History and Heritage |publisher=Parramatta City Council |url=https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/research-topics/agriculture-and-farming/history-of-vineyard-and-subiaco-estate-rydalmere |access-date=16 May 2026 |year=2026}}</ref>, near Parramatta, to be educated for a time in the care of the Benedictine Nuns.<ref name="ryan">{{cite book |last=Ryan |first=H.M. |title=Obsculta |publisher=Bolt Publishing Services |year=2024}}</ref>
In 1869, she married a Scottish seaman named James Forsayth. Together they set up a shipping and trading business in Samoa. Emma Coe participated in island politics with her father but fell out of favor with the local population after he was deported in 1876. Around this time, her husband was said to be lost at sea, but there was no confirmation that he was dead.<ref name="pngpc-1971" />
In 1878, she left Samoa with an Australian trader, Thomas Farrell, who was known as a blackbirder, captain, and trader for the Duke of York Islands in between New Britain and New Ireland. There they traded mainly copra with the local population for beads, tobacco, knives, and mirrors. The area where Emma and Farrell traded was largely unsettled by Europeans, in part due to resistance from the local population.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
Emma and Farrell were to assist people who were involved in the Marquis de Rays incident, when over 500 people were swindled out of their life savings to form a new colony at the southeastern tip of New Ireland. Four ships sailed from France between January 1880 and August 1881: the ''Chandernagore'', ''Genil'', ''India'', and ''Neu-Bretagne''. This practically marooned the colonists while the founder reported the progress of the colony in an extremely positive light in his newspaper, ''La Nouvelle France'', in Paris. Emma and Farrell assisted the marooned colonists in moving to Australia. De Rays was later tried and found guilty of fraud in France.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
In 1881, Emma became interested in land around the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain and differed with Farrell, who continued trading. Emma bought the land from the local chiefs and with the assistance of her Anglo-German brother-in-law, Richard Parkinson, set up a large coconut and cocoa plantation around Kokopo, East New Britain.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
In 1893, Emma married Paul Kolbe, a German colonial official and former army captain who was nearly fifteen years her junior.<ref name="salesa-160">{{cite book |last=Salesa |first=Damon |title=An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays |publisher=Auckland University Press |year=2017 |page=160}}</ref> Her commercial empire was still in full swing when she learned of increasing tensions between Germany and Britain in the colonies and Europe towards the end of 1907. Emma sold off most of her assets in c. 1910 to Heinrich Rudolph Wahlen of Hamburgische Südsee AG.<ref name="pim-jun-1958">{{cite journal |title=Once a King on Maron: Heinrich Rudolph Wahlen expects to live to be One Hundred |journal=Pacific Islands Monthly |date=1 June 1958 |volume=28 |issue=11 |at=p. 79, col. 3 |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-320274159/view?sectionId=nla.obj-364402038 |access-date=24 October 2018}}</ref><ref name="salesa-161">{{cite book |last=Salesa |first=Damon |title=An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays |publisher=Auckland University Press |year=2017 |page=161}}</ref>
She died in Monte Carlo in 1913, and her ashes were subsequently buried in New Guinea.<ref name="pim-1956">{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-319058411/view?sectionId=nla.obj-333029052 |title=Strange Death and Strange Burial of "Queen Emma" of N. Guinea |work=Pacific Islands Monthly |volume=XXVI |issue=6 |pages=80–81 |date=1 January 1956 |access-date=29 June 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==Legacy== Forsyth is portrayed by Barbara Carrera in the 1988 television serial ''Emma: Queen of the South Seas'', which was directed by John Banas for Australia's Network 10. She is featured in Christian Kracht's 2012 novel ''Imperium'', which focuses on August Engelhardt.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== {{refbegin|2}} *{{cite journal |last=Salesa |first=Damon |title=Emma and Phebe: Weavers of the Border |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |date=2014 |volume=123 |issue=2 |pages=145–167 |doi=10.15286/jps.123.2.145-167 |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Volume123/JPS_123_2_04.pdf |doi-access=free |archive-date=2022-10-06 |access-date=2018-10-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006181755/https://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Volume123/JPS_123_2_04.pdf |url-status=dead }} *{{cite book |last1=Parkinson |first1=Richard |editor1-last=White |editor1-first=J. Peter |editor2-last=Dennison |editor2-first=John |title=Thirty years in the South Seas : land and people, customs and traditions in the Bismarck Archipelago and on the German Solomon Islands |date=2000 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=0-8248-2245-5 }} *{{cite book |last1=Robson |first1=Robert William |title=Queen Emma: The Samoan-American girl who founded an empire in 19th century New Guinea |date=1971 |publisher=Pacific Publications |location=Sydney |isbn=0-858-07002-2 |edition=4th}} {{refend}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Forsayth, Emma}} Category:1850 births Category:1913 deaths Category:American businesspeople in the real estate industry Category:American Samoan businesspeople Category:19th-century American businesswomen Category:19th-century American businesspeople Category:Women in real estate