The Hawaiian Chiefs' Children's School was founded in June 1839 when Hawai‘i's Congregational missionaries, gathered in the dusty port town of Honolulu for their annual General Meeting, received a letter from Hawai‘i's high chiefs asking them to establish a school exclusively for their children, the royal children. The chiefs' proposal was discussed at length by the assembled missionaries. Some expressed concern about devoting limited missionary resources to so few children. Others did not think the chiefs' children should be singled out for special treatment. In the end, however, these reservations were overcome, and the mission voted to accept the chiefs' request.