Jon Bursey - Captain Elliot and the Founding of Hong Kong

C APTAIN E LLIOT AND THE F OUNDING OF H ONG K ONG

In memory of my father

Charles Bursey

1916 1984

PEARL OF THE ORIENT

Jon Bursey

First published in Great Britain in 2018

by Pen and Sword History

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Limited

47 Church Street,

Barnsley,

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Jon Bursey, 2018

ISBN: 978 1 52672 256 0

eISBN: 978 1 52672 257 7

Mobi ISBN: 978 1 52672 258 4

The right of Jon Bursey to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS,

United Kingdom

E-mail:

Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

W ith apologies for any omissions, I offer my warmest thanks to all who have assisted me with the project.

The staff of the following libraries and institutions have been unfailingly helpful: the UK National Archives, Kew; the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; the London School of Economics; the University of Durham; the University of Hong Kong; the University of Cambridge; the Institute of Historical Research, University of London; the British Library, London; Birkbeck, University of London; the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the London Library; the South West Heritage Centre, Exeter; Exmouth Museum and Exmouth Library.

Specific enquiries have been very helpfully answered, or access granted to sources, by Martin Barrow, Matheson and Co. Ltd.; Ken Brown, Archivist at Reading School; Dr Patrick Conner, Martyn Gregory Gallery; Richard Dabb, National Army Museum; Hugh Elliot, Queensland, Australia; Colin Fox, Friends of St Helena; Karla Ingemann, Records Officer, Bermuda Archives; and Keith Searle, Online Parish Clerk for Withycombe.

My thanks are due to my family and to former colleagues and other friends who have provided advice, encouragement, references, and practical help. They include Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell; Peter Bursey; Roger Clayton; Dr Ellie Clewlow; Ian Dixon; Diana Driscoll; Dr Shane Guy; Alasdair Meldrum; Eleanor Moore; Michael Niblock; Dr John Thomas; and Professor Vernon Trafford. My daughters and sons-in-law have been generous in accommodating me for my work in London. Above all, I am indebted to my wife Rowena for her interest, patience and constructive criticism, which have been invaluable and have sustained me throughout.

This brief expression of gratitude would not be complete without reference to my former colleagues the late Professors Kenneth Bourne and Michael Leifer, whose supportive and interested comments first sowed the seed, and to Claire Hopkins, Karyn Burnham and Janet Brookes at Pen and Sword for guiding me through the final stages.

Any remaining errors and infelicities in the text are entirely my own responsibility.

T he events which shaped the establishment of Hong Kong as a colony have been the subject of numerous studies. Many have written about the First Anglo-Chinese War, usually referred to as the Opium War, over several decades and from different standpoints. In reading those accounts I have been struck, as have others, both by the crucial nature of Elliots role and by the comparative lack of recognition accorded him subsequently as a person and for his work. I have sought in this book to describe his life and the challenges that faced him, and to set them in historical context.

I have consulted the only two works hitherto specifically about Elliot, Clagette Blakes 1960 biography Charles Elliot RN 1801 1875: A Servant of Britain Overseas and, especially, Susanna Hoes and Derek Roebucks 1999 study, reprinted in 2009, The Taking of Hong Kong: Charles and Clara Elliot in China Waters . Blakes book has the Texas period of Elliots life as its main focus, though giving almost as much attention to his time in China. Hoes and Roebucks work concentrates on the China years and makes extensive use of personal correspondence from the collection of Minto family papers. I too have drawn heavily on those documents, and I owe a special debt to The Taking of Hong Kong for pointing me to them. Much has been written covering Elliots role in China, less concerning his activities in Texas, and very little about the rest of his life. It has been my intention to cover the whole of Elliots career as thoroughly as sources permit.

On the text:

For the sake of authenticity I have reproduced spelling, punctuation and syntax from sources as they appear in the original, odd though they may sometimes seem, including the apparently random use of capital letters. Elliots own usage is often idiosyncratic but the meaning is always clear where it matters. His handwriting is notoriously difficult to read, but I have had the benefit of the work of others (especially Hoe and Roebuck) in deciphering much of it, for which I am duly grateful.

Except in a few cases where Anglicisation is more appropriate to the narrative, for example Hong Kong and Canton, pinyin Romanisation has been used for Chinese proper names.

Where sums of money are mentioned, illustrative present-day values are also usually noted, but as a rule of thumb mid-nineteenth century figures should be multiplied by 110 to give approximate real-terms worth for 2015.

Northern British Guiana.

Pearl River Delta.

East China Coast

Republic of Texas

List of Illustrations

Captain Charles Elliot c.1855 while Governor of Trinidad Photo. courtesy of the Governor of Trinidad and Tobago c.1953, from Clagette Blake, Charles Elliot RN (Cleaver-Hume, London 1960).

Minto House, Hawick, c.1910

Historic Environment Scotland.

Rt. Hon. Hugh Elliot

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

Reading School and Playground, 1816

Edmund Havell