RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
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216

NOTES AND QUERIES

the case of the firms at West Point it was not a good situation in spite of the advantages of its water front. Neither of the firms used their property for a long period. Henry Pybus purchased Marine Lot 58 and the firm of Jamieson How and Company bought the adjoining Marine Lot 57. Both were Calcutta-based firms and both purchased their Hong Kong property at the first land sale in June, 1842. They immediately began to build godowns and residences and were in occupation by the fall of 1842.

Both Pybus and Jamieson, How and Co. had connections with Yorick Jones Murrow, an old China hand. In 1839 he was the agent at Canton for Jamieson's. Upon the death of Henry Pybus, Murrow succeeded to his business in 1844, and in 1852 he bought the adjoining godown property of Jamieson, Edgar and Co., as the Hong Kong branch of the firm was called. Murrow formed a partnership with James Stephenson to engage in California trade at the time of the gold rush. They developed an extensive trade with San Francisco and arranged for a line of steam packets between it and Hong Kong. The partnership was dissolved in 1854 and Murrow moved to Canton. In 1859, his property at West Point was sold at Sheriff's sale. Two years previous, he had moved back to Hong Kong and became editor and subsequently owner of the Hongkong Daily Press.

Murrow as the "Laird" of West Point had a running feud with the Princely Hong at East Point. He used his newspaper as a weapon to attack. He was, of course, the lightweight contestant and several times he was sentenced for libel and for a period operated his newspaper from prison. He left Hong Kong in 1867*. 

The suitability of the area for ship berthing has been mentioned. This feature attracted enterprises connected with the shipping industry. In the 1860's and '70's the shipping industry became an increasingly important feature of Hong Kong's economy, particularly as steam replaced sails.

In 1851, Thomas Roberts opened the West Point Cooperage and Boat Yard on the lot on the west side of what is now Queen Street. He sold his property to Lee Hing alias Li Sing in 1861. It

* Frank H. H. King and Prescott Clarke: A Research Guide to China Coast Newspapers, 1822-1911 (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), pp. 139-141.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572
283

11

Murrow, Stephenson & Co. (AAR1-MIMO). He seized every chance to gain advantage and became rich. He was respected by the Chinese as well as by the foreigners. Later, he established the Heng Ch'ang (97) fuel company (R) by himself. At his suggestion, three steamers, the Russell (M), the Shamrock (A), and the Merry (4), began running between Hong Kong and Macao. Then he opened a Yü-sheng (4) Store (19) and a Yu-cheng (M = Esing) Bakery. The businesses expanded daily. Yu-cheng was a Bakery using western methods to produce the finest quality goods. Its products supplied all the water and land (residents) of Hong Kong.

Because he had too many workers, he had no time to check minute details. One day, through carelessness, a worker dropped some odd things (*) into the flour. When the westerners bought and ate the bread, they all felt sick and fainted. At that time, because the French and British had attacked Canton in 1856, the Chinese Government was preparing to declare war on the French and the British. Thus, the British suspected that he was commanded by the Chinese Government to poison the British, and prepared to prosecute him. However, because of his truth and honesty, he was soon released.

Because of this unhappy incident, he went back to Macao and opened a Hang-tai (48) store to sell western goods. He lived as if nothing had happened. Four years after, in 1860, when the French captured the six prefectures of Vietnam, a French lieutenant came to Macao and met him. The lieutenant made a contract with him for building several dozen junks (##). In 1862, when the construction was completed, he went personally to deliver the junks to the French in Vietnam.

Because of his loyalty and honesty, the French Governor (iti) requested him to do business in Vietnam. Thus, he stayed in Vietnam and travelled around the country. He saw that the country was rather poor, and that the houses were all made of mat and grass. He then bought machines and established four brick-kilns, (Yuan-heng (V), Li-cheng (i), Chien-mei (#), and Kun-mei (1)), and employed workers to make bricks and tiles for building houses.

The country soon became prosperous and populated, and merchants started to congregate in the country. There were 200 Hainan Chinese who sailed directly to Vietnam at that time. Because they did not know the French law, they were arrested and accused as pirates. Before they were all sent to be shot, he personally exerted himself in their
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572
286

CHOI CHI CHEUNG

The Cheung lineage was not prosperous until the Tao Kuang (*) period. Ancestor Yao-chih (2) of the 2nd sub-lineage became a successful merchant, and through his generous donation, an Ancestral Hall for the whole lineage was built. The Ancestral Hall of the Ya-kang segment was built in the middle of the Chia Ching period by the effort of ancestor I-pi ( ), brother of Ah-lum's grandfather (see clan record, Tz'u yu pu (3) section, Tz'u T'ang Chi (2) sub-section pp. 1-4). Though the lineage had several National School students (B), no one succeeded in the official examinations until the end of the Ch'ing dynasty when they had three chüren (A). Two of them were Ah-lum's sons. Ah-lum's father was also a National School Student who earned his living by teaching in the villages nearby (see the biography of Ah-lum's father in the Clan record, Chi-ching pu (it) section, Hang Chuang ((HA) sub-section p. 5).

This man is not otherwise mentioned in the Clan record.

According to Ah-lum's statement as given in court, "he first came to the colony at only 18 years of age. He was first employed by Mr. Bigham, who went to California; after that by Mr. Franklyn; then by Murrow, Stephenson & Co.; then by Mr. De Silver, for whom he made biscuits, as well as did other business see: British Parliamentary Papers, China, no. 24: Hong Kong, P. 183. (= BPP 24:183).

The Russell was owned by Russell & Co., and the Shamrock by Mr. Xavier, c.f. BPP 24:170 and 173.

See BPP 24:164–184. The bakery had three machines making bread to supply most of the foreigners in Hong Kong.

See BPP 24:155-184, and Eitel op.cit. p. 311-313.

10 The Arrow War. The anti-foreigner movement was supported by Yeh Ming-shen (), the Imperial Commissioner for Kwangtung, in Canton. See Wakeman, F. Jr. Strangers at the Gate. 1966, pp. 109ff. Also Eitel op.cit. p. 305.

11 Eitel: op.cit. p. 312-313.

12 According to Chen Kuan-ying (###), Ah-lum was chief of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co. (TERA) in Vietnam. He owned a shop Hung Tai Ch'ang() in Saigon, and his son Ti-fu (#) was chief manager (*) of the Cambodia Opium Co. (12). Chen Kuan-ying (E), Nan-yu Jih-chi (12), (Diary of a Journey to the South), reprinted 1967, Taiwan, p. 19ff, 81-89. According to the Clan Record Tsa Chi-pu() section, Pa-yu (if) sub-section, p. 1, Ah-lum had businesses in Saigon, Haiphong, Comuponton, and in Nha Trang in Kwangnam (ÂM NHIỀU).

13 According to the clan record, we know that one of Ah-lum's sons was buried in the free cemetery of Haiphong (), and another was buried in the free cemetery of the Canton City Association in Vung Tau, Vietnam (#).

14 In 1884, when Chen passed through Vietnam, Ah-lum was chief manager (*) of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co. in Vietnam. See Chen: p. 19.

15 Chen: ibid.

16 Clan record, Chi-ching pu (###) section, Ch'i-shou (##) sub-section, pp. 1-4; has two essays presented on this occasion by the gentry of Heung Shan, and by the merchants of the Canton City Association in Vung Tau, Saigon (F#城會館).
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g
45

Before that he had been an assistant in Siemssen and Co. He went into business for himself in 1875 and two years later took on as a partner his brother Gustav Adolph Grossmann (DP 19 Jan. 1878). Christian Friedrich died in Hong Kong February 1899. A few days before his death Alexander Heinrich Alfred Finke became a co-partner (GG 7 Jan. 1899). Mr. Finke had been an assistant in the firms of Stolterfoht and Hust 1892-1895, Stolterfoht and Hagan 1896 and Lauts, Wegener and Co. 1898.

Ships and Stores

Backhard and Company

  Friedrich Johan Berthold Schwarzkopf, a ship's captain who took the name Blackhead, was in China by the year 1853 for in February of that year he was married at St. John's Cathedral, Hong Kong, to Sarah Bullen, the youngest daughter of William Robert Bullen of West Hackney, Middlesex, England (FC 19 February 1853 and St. John's Cathedral Marriage Register No. 131, 16 February 1853). He was an assistant in the firm of Murrow and Stephenson. He named his first child, who died in infancy, after William Murrow. Mr Blackhead began business on his own. In 1856 he opened a ship chandlers store on a hulk at the Whampoa anchorage on the Pearl River (FC 24 July 1856). His store shop "Hornet" was an old sailing vessel turned into business premises.

When hostilities broke out between Britain and China over the Arrow lorcha incident at Canton, and foreign shipping had to leave Whampoa, the “Hornet” was moved to the Hong Kong harbour. Mr. Blackhead began building warehouses and an office by the seaside at the foot of Aberdeen Street. In September 1860 the company announced it had removed its ship chandlery, sail making and auction business from the "Hornet" to "those new buildings lately erected in Queen's Road West, opposite Messrs. Gibb, Livingston and Co. and next door to offices of Messrs. Phillips, Mone and Co." (FC 13 September 1860).

John Morris was admitted a partner in March 1860 (GG 31 March 1860) but he died in January 1861 (FC 21 Jan. 1861). He held a one third share in the business (PRO, Probate File No. 19 of 1861 [f/104]). Captain Henry A Bell was in charge of the business at Whampoa in 1860 and 1861, but Mr. Blackhead was the sole proprietor of the company until he left Hong Kong in 1872.
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