Journal of Chinese Australia, Issue 1, May 2005

Lee Hang Gong/Sarah Bowman family history research: A progress report

Valerie Lee with Jill Godwin and Allan O'Neil

This paper is a progress report of family history research into my father's paternal family, the Lees, who have been in Australia since the 1850s. In 1998 I made contact with two other people who had been researching the same family, that is, the family of Chinese born Lee Hang Gong and English born Sarah Bowman who lived together and later married in Victoria in the 1860s. Sarah and Hang Gong had seven children: Thomas, Arthur, Jane, Selina (Cissie), Henry, Herbert and Ernest.

My fellow family historians are my second cousin Allan O'Neil who lives in Canberra and a friend of the Lee family Jill Godwin who lives in Melbourne. Jill's research is being conducted for her grandchildren Misha and Jayden Godwin-Lee who are descended from Arthur's line and are members of the seventh generation of Sarah and Lee Hang Gong's family tree. Allan is a grandson of Jane, and I am a great-granddaughter of Thomas.

Allan, Jill and I decided to share resources and information with each other and since then we have continued our family history hobby, contacting each other as time permits. We have also been supported in our research by another second cousin Connie Jauhari (a granddaughter of Arthur). However, distance - I live on the Central Coast of New South Wales - and other commitments have so far prevented us from consolidating our growing files of information.

We have collected many primary sources including certificates of births, deaths and marriages, certificates exempting from dictation tests, naturalisation papers, newspaper notices, rates notices, government records, shipping records, photographs and oral history. We are indebted to Connie Jauhari's mother, Selina Hassan (nee Lee) who is a granddaughter of Hang Gong and Sarah. Selina left a valuable legacy of oral history and memoirs. In addition to this, we have many secondary sources as several historians have referred to the Lee Hang Gong/Sarah Bowman family in publications on the history of the Chinese in Australia (see Reference list).

The first part of this paper gives a summary of the family's history in Australia from the 1850s to the early 1900s, highlighting a few areas where more research is needed and some of the questions we as family historians are asking. The second part is a short summary of one branch of the tree - my personal branch in Darwin from the 1900s to the 1920s. A simple timeline of significant events in the Lee Hang Gong/Sarah Bowman story is appended.

PART ONE - Hang Gong, Sarah and children

Lee Hang Gong was born in Tai Shan (formerly Sunning) in the Pearl River Delta in about 1836, and was therefore a See Yap. According to his memorial papers for naturalisation, he arrived in the colony of Victoria on the ship Jupiter on 22 February 1854. However, we have not been able to confirm this. A reference in shipping records to a Lee Hang Gong (written as one word 'Hangong') has been found for the ship Singapore which arrived on 20 December 1854.

Figure 1. Lee Hang Gong
[Courtesy Connie Jauhari]

Lee Hang Gong probably spent much of his first ten years in Australia on the Ballarat and Creswick goldfields before settling in Creswick for the next ten or so years (until about 1876). The spelling of his name while in Victoria was usually Lee Hong Gong.

Sarah Ann Bowman was born in Stepney, London, on 23 April 1844. Her father Thomas Bowman was a brewer's servant. It is possible that Sarah had some nursing experience in England and this was the reason that she was often called upon as a midwife in Australia.

In December 1861, when she was only seventeen years old, Sarah made the journey to Australia with her younger sister Elizabeth on the ship Commodore Perry. They travelled under their mother's maiden name Hurst.

We do not have any information as to where or when Sarah and Hang Gong met but their first child, Thomas George, was born in Napier Street, Creswick, on 30 November 1864. Sarah was twenty years old and Hang Gong about twenty-eight. The couple had another child Arthur Edward on 15 January 1867 and a daughter Jane Elizabeth on 28 July 1869. A few weeks later, on 19 August, Sarah and Hang Gong were married by the Wesleyan minister in Creswick.

Figure 2. Sarah Lee Hang Gong (nee Bowman) with four of her children. Thomas (standing left); Jane (standing right); the two other children are probably Henry and Herbert. This photograph was possibly taken in Sydney in 1885 before Jane's marriage to George Tye.
[Courtesy Valerie Lee]

It is interesting to note that in 1871 Sarah's sister Maria came to Victoria with her daughter Emma and that in 1873 her sister Elizabeth married a Chinese man, Lee Long Hearng (also spelt Herring and Hearring), a butcher, who came from the same province as Lee Hang Gong. Elizabeth later changed her surname to Young. Sarah had at least one other sister, Alice (who never came to Australia), and a brother Thomas. Although not approved by many, marriages between English or Irish women (or Australian women of English or Irish heritage) and Chinese men were apparently not uncommon for the time.

On 23 June 1871 Sarah and Hang Gong had another daughter, Selina Ellen, who was born in her parents' home at Black Lead in Creswick. The name of the baby was subsequently recorded as Selina Emma. She was usually known by the family as Cissie.

It was also in 1871 that Lee Hang Gong, by then thirty-five years old, decided to become a naturalised British subject. Another son, Henry, was born into the family on 30 September 1873, also in Creswick.

Local newspaper entries, rates notices and post office records show that Lee Hang Gong worked in various occupations, including miner, cook, saloon keeper and merchant. The family lived at Black Lead, the site of the Chinese camp. Sarah is listed in the Post Office Directory of 1875 as Sarah Hong Gong, storekeeper at Black Lead, and Lee Hang Gong is listed as Hong Gong, merchant at Black Lead.

By 1874 Sarah and Hang Gong had enrolled one of their children at the Creswick Grammar School. It was most likely their eldest boy, Thomas, who would have been about nine years old. He was registered simply as Hong Gong. [1]

In John Graham's publication on the history of the school, there are no other Chinese names among the lists of students, so it can probably be assumed that Thomas was the only child of Chinese descent enrolled there. This raises a few questions: Why did Sarah and Hang Gong choose the Grammar School instead of the public school? Given the negative sentiment of many people towards the Chinese at the time, would there have been any objections to the enrolment of Thomas in the school?

There are several Chinese names listed in the 1875 Post Office Directory and it is estimated that there were three thousand Chinese men in Creswick during the gold rush. However, John Graham's publication on Creswick's history, Early Creswick, published in 1942, only briefly mentions the Chinese.

The Lee Hang Gong family left Creswick in about 1876, the last known record of Sarah and Hang Gong in Creswick being 1875. According to oral history, Sarah and Hang Gong's sixth child, Herbert Doral, was born in Australia, possibly in Creswick just before they left Victoria. However, we have been unable to locate an Australian birth record for him.

Lee Hang Gong probably moved to the Northern Territory for a short time with some members of the family so that he could set up business connections before leaving Australia for Hong Kong.

Sarah accompanied her husband to Hong Kong. While she waited there (for about three to four years) Hang Gong returned to Tai Shan where he married the Chinese woman he had been promised to almost forty years previously. His Chinese wife was about forty-one years of age when she gave birth to their daughter and, a year later, to a son. The son became a prominent member of the Kuomintang, and after the revolution he was executed. Nothing is known of what happened to the daughter. [2]

Meanwhile Sarah waited in Hong Kong and gave birth to their seventh and last child, Ernest Howard, in about 1878. Lee Hang Gong and Sarah eventually returned to the Northern Territory with Ernest.

This interlude in Hong Kong and China is another area for investigation and/or speculation: What were the Chinese cultural traditions relating to marriage promises? Did Lee Hang Gong hold an important position in his village that required him to fulfil this obligation? If so, why did he wait so long to go back? And what about Sarah's feelings? How did she react to Lee Hang Gong's other marriage?

From the early 1880s to the turn of the century Lee Hang Gong opened stores in Southport and in Cavenagh Street, Palmerston; established an importing business and a brick works; and owned and operated several gold mines. His business partner in several of these ventures was Yam Yan. In 1882 Lee Hang Gong was naturalised again probably because his Victorian naturalisation was not recognised in the Northern Territory.

Lee Hang Gong was one of a group of Chinese merchants in Palmerston who actively lobbied the South Australian Government on many issues, often putting his signature to official petitions and contracts. [3] Historian Timothy Jones, in The Chinese in the Northern Territory, mentions that in 1891 Lee Hang Gong was among twenty Chinese merchants who gave an official banquet in the Town Hall in honour of the visiting governor of South Australia. A separate banquet for the 'white' population was also held.[4]

Historian Barbara James gives detailed biographical entries on Sarah and Hang Gong and their daughter Jane Tye in the Northern Territory Pioneer Dictionary. She comments that Sarah was also interested in politics and in 1902 was listed as a supporter of Charles Herbert who was a candidate for the Territory seat of the South Australian Parliament. [5]

In the 1880s the two oldest sons Thomas and Arthur visited Hong Kong to choose Chinese wives. Arthur and his wife, Louey Yat Tai (later known as Emily), returned to the Northern Territory in early 1887. Thomas and his wife, Lou See, returned a few years later.

In July 1882 Sarah and Hang Gong sent their daughter Cissie, who had just turned eleven, back to Victoria because they were worried about her health. She stayed with her aunt Elizabeth Young in Ballarat. In 1887, when Cissie was almost sixteen, Sarah travelled from Palmerston to give her consent to her daughter's marriage to Robert Harrison.

Figure 3. Thomas Lee Hang Gong
[Courtesy Connie Jauhari]

Thomas and Arthur worked together in business and occasionally also worked as interpreters. Arthur was a court interpreter and in 1884 became a member of the Northern Territory Mounted Police for about a year. He subsequently rejoined the force but then left again to assist his father in business. Arthur and Thomas were both keen sportsmen. Arthur joined in athletics competitions such as sprinting and Thomas played cricket.

Figure 4. Arthur Lee Hang Gong
[Courtesy Connie Jauhari]

Barbara James notes that the business ventures of Lee Hang Gong and sons included importing opium and, in Arthur's case, sly grog dealing. As well as this, Lee Hang Gong and his partner, Yam Yan, applied unsuccessfully in 1888 to set up a farm to grow opium in Australia. [6]

Historian Eric Rolls makes several mentions of members of the Lee Hang Gong family in his publications Sojourners and Citizens. He relates one incident where a person named Hang Gong was among a group of naturalised Chinese who had travelled to China early in 1888 but had had difficulty returning to Australia. The problem was caused by the reluctance of the captains of the steamers to take on Chinese passengers as they feared their ships would face quarantine on arrival back in Australia. [7]

It is important to note here that we cannot always be sure who 'Hang Gong' refers to. The names Lee and Hang Gong - and often even the full name of Lee Hang Gong - were used at various times as the family surname by different members of the family and in government documents. However, it seems that by about the 1920s, 'Lee' had been adopted back as the traditional family surname by most family members with some preferring to continue to use 'Hang Gong'.

Lee Hang Gong died in January 1892 at the age of fifty-six. The Northern Territory Times and Gazette recorded his death and noted the high respect accorded to him in the community. He is listed as being buried in Palmerston but there is no actual grave or headstone for him. It is believed that his remains were later shipped back to China.[8]

In 1904 Arthur Hang Gong registered the Wheel of Fortune tin mine at West Arm, Darwin. The tin was reportedly accidentally discovered by a friend of the family, an Aboriginal woman known as Mumma Annie. Mumma Annie was one of a group of Aboriginals working at the time with one of Arthur's brothers at a small tin claim known as Webb's Show. [9] Timothy Jones writes that Arthur established 'a large tribute workforce, a store, and provided dray transport from his boat landing to the tinfields two or three miles away'. Jones describes the mine as 'phenomenally rich' and Arthur Hang Gong as a 'leading entrepreneur'.[10]

Younger brother Henry Lee Hang Gong had a long involvement with the Wheel of Fortune Mine, supervising its operations when his brothers travelled to Hong Kong and during the time of its reduced output. We do not have much information on his brother Herbert's involvement. In 1901 Herbert was an engine driver at Yam Creek and he later worked in Hong Kong and Thailand in railway construction. The youngest child Ernest worked as a packer at the Union Reef, a major gold field in the Pine Creek area. [11]

Sarah and Hang Gong's daughter Jane, who married George Gee Tye in Sydney in 1885 and then returned to Palmerston in 1897, was well known in the Northern Territory for many years as Granny Tye, a highly respected midwife who had 'never lost a single case either of mother or child'. She was described after her death as 'one of nature's gentlewomen whose long and useful life was one of sacrifice and service, intermixed with kindness and generosity which she dispensed with open hands'. [12]

Sarah and Hang Gong encouraged their children to be bilingual and Sarah herself was apparently fluent in Chinese. Barbara James quotes from the North Queensland Register of December 1904, where Alex Dowker, who had recently visited the Northern Territory, reported on the fortunes of the family. He commented that Mrs Hang Gong conversed 'celestially as readily as in her mother tongue' and that 'the Dalar [sic] Lama [sic] [was] not in it … compared with Mrs Hang Gong in Palmerston'. Dowker prefaced his comments with a description of Mrs Hang Gong as 'stout, hale and hearty'. [13]

Figure 5. Jane Elizabeth 'Grannie' Tye (nee Hang Gong) 1869-1934
[Courtesy Allan O'Neil]

It is clear that being acknowledged as Australian was very important to the family. This was obviously made more urgent by the passing of the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901. When Thomas died in January 1902, his death was recorded in the Northern Territory Times by the words: '… a prominent Chinese has passed away'. Thomas' sister Jane and mother Sarah contacted the newspaper, which then issued this apology:

In referring last week to the death of Thomas George Hang Gong, we inadvertently described the deceased as being a Chinese. His mother, Mrs Hang Gong, has pointed out to us that her late son was a native of the colony of Victoria and a British subject, and that in describing him as a Chinese an error had been committed which has caused his relatives pain. This is a matter for regret. [14]

Sarah Hang Gong died of alcoholism and associated illnesses on 6 April 1911 and was buried in the Goyder Road Cemetery in Darwin. Selina Hassan recalls having to stay home from school to look after her grandmother during her illness. Selina used to fan her and clean out the clay pipe Sarah smoked. [15]

An interesting point is that Sarah's death is recorded in the Northern Territory's Aliens Index (Deaths) 1875-1922, an index compiled by the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory from original records held at the National Archives of Australia, Darwin. Ten years before her death, Sarah was listed in the 1901 census for the Northern Territory with a hand written notation next to her name reading 'White woman'.

The names of Jane Tye and the Lee Hang Gong family have been placed in the BP Bicentennial Quiet Achievers commemorative path in Darwin, which honours 200 Northern Territory citizens.

PART TWO - George and Eva and children

The second part of this paper is a brief outline of the lives of some of the people on my personal branch of the tree in Darwin. Sarah and Hang Gong's first son Thomas married Lou See and had five children: King Chun William, King Tim, George Thomas, Lin Seene Hilda and Florrie. Their third child, George, was my grandfather.

George was born in Palmerston in about 1888. In 1912 he married Chong Gum Yook who was born in Brocks Creek, Northern Territory, in 1893. Gum Yook is of Chinese descent and her family were Hakka. Other spellings of her names are Chang and Kim Yook. George and Gum Yook had nine children, and one of these children is my father Arthur Ernest Lee.

The Lee Hang Gong family and the Chong family apparently had known each other for some time in Palmerston, which was not surprising given the closeness of the community. We know that Gum Yook's parents, Foong Ah See and Chang Too Shang, celebrated their marriage at Arthur Hang Gong's residence in 1887. My research is limited on Eva's family but relatives have told me that she had two sisters.

George and Gum Yook married on 30 July 1912 at the Registrar General's Office in Darwin. One of the witnesses to their marriage was George's aunt Jane Tye. Jane probably attended as the midwife at the birth of George and Gum Yook's twin daughters, Mary and Mona, on 28 March 1911, about a week before the death of their great-grandmother Sarah.

Selina Hassan (nee Lee), George's cousin, was about ten years old at the time. About one month after the twins' births, Selina was given the responsibility of carrying baby Mary to the joss house. One of the twins' aunts, possibly Florrie, carried baby Mona. [16]

George and Gum Yook's first son, John Bunny, was born on 25 August 1912, soon after their marriage. Four more sons were born in Darwin: Arthur Ernest in 1915, Harry Henry in 1916, Alfred Claude in 1917 and Charles in 1919.

When I was researching my family's lives in the Northern Territory, it was suggested that I look in the Northern Territory's Aliens Index (Births) even though they had all been born in Australia. There I found the names of my father as well as my aunts and uncles who were born in Darwin. Next to the entry for my aunts' births (twins Mary and Mona) the government official noted in brackets that their father George Lee was 'white'.

About ten years after her marriage, Gum Yook adopted the English given name Eva, which had been suggested by her son Arthur as it was an easy name to learn to say and write.

When the oldest son in the family, John, was about eight or nine years old he was sent to Thursday Island to stay with relatives of his mother for a time, and later to China to attend school. A few years later, in the mid-1920s, John returned to Australia to be with his family who had by then moved to Queensland.

In 1925 Eva gave birth to her eighth child George Edward. The family later settled in New South Wales where another child Linda Rose was born in 1932.

After a few years in Surry Hills, Sydney, some of the family moved to the western Sydney suburb of Ryde and then to Auburn. In the early 1940s brothers Arthur and Harry established a successful fruit and vegetable shop, Lee Brothers, in Auburn Road, Auburn, where many of the family worked at various times until its closure in about 1954.

Conclusion

When I first approached the Creswick Historical Society early in 1998 for information on the Chinese, I found that interest in this topic had been gradually increasing due to individual inquiries from family historians. My inquiry also coincided with a push by some members to erect a monument acknowledging the presence of the Chinese in Creswick. In November that year one of Sarah and Hang Gong's descendants, Wellington Lee, who was a Melbourne Councillor at the time, was asked to unveil the monument which was placed near the site of the old Chinese camp. Several members of the extended Lee family attended the ceremony.

The above outline only touches the surface of the many interesting stories and genealogical data related to the Lee Hang Gong/Sarah Bowman family history. Many more details are being added to the branches as more family members have recently become interested in their genealogy. We have also documented oral history from relatives whenever we have had the opportunity so that they can pass their memories on to the next generation.

Contact details:

Valerie Lee: vleerubie@hotmail.com
Allan O'Neil: ptchas@bigpond.net.au
Jill Godwin: JjPetGod@aol.com

Timeline of Lee Hang Gong/Sarah Ann Bowman

1854 - Lee Hang Gong arrives from China

1861 - Sarah Bowman arrives from England

1864 - Birth of Thomas George, Creswick (first child)

1867 - Birth of Arthur Edward, Creswick (second child)

1869 - Birth of Jane Elizabeth, Creswick (third child)

1869 - Sarah Bowman and Lee Hang Gong marry according to the rites of the Wesleyan Church, Creswick

1871 - Birth of Selina (known as Cissie), Creswick (fourth child)

1871 - Naturalisation of Lee Hang Gong (spelt Lee Hong Gong)

1873 - Birth of Henry, Creswick (fifth child)

1874 - Child, Hong Gong, enrolled in Creswick Grammar School

1875 - Sarah Hong Gong - storekeeper, Black Lead

Hong Gong - merchant, Black Lead (Post Office Directory)

1876? - Herbert Doral - born Creswick? (sixth child)
1876? - Family leaves Victoria, sets up businesses in Palmerston

- Family members travel to Hong Kong

- Lee Hang Gong marries promised Chinese bride
- Birth of Lee Hang Gong's two children to Chinese wife in China

1878? - Sarah gives birth to Ernest Howard, Hong Kong (seventh child)
- Older children find spouses in Hong Kong

1880? - Lee Hang Gong and Sarah return to Northern Territory

1882 - Lee Hang Gong naturalised a second time

1892 - Lee Hang Gong dies

1904 - Claim made to rich tin mine by Arthur Hang Gong

1911 - Sarah Lee Hang Gong dies

REFERENCES

Primary Sources

Selina Hassan, Interview by Barbara James, 1983, held in Northern Territory Archives Service, NTRS 226; TS 236.

Memorial for Lee Hong Gong, Department of Immigration, Letters Received, National Archives of Australia, CRS A712.

Northern Territory Aliens Indexes of Births and Deaths, compiled by NT Genealogical Society from original sources held at National Archives of Australia, Darwin.

Secondary Sources

White, Sally, A Patchwork Heritage: Thirteen Australian Families, Collins Dove, Melbourne, 1986.

Moran, Irene and Jenny Hanckel (ed), Rain or Shine, She Walks Everywhere: Territory Births 1888-1938, Childbirth Education Association, Darwin, 1988.

Graham, John A, The Creswick Grammar School History, Brown, Prior, Anderson Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1940.

Graham, John A, Early Creswick, Arbuckle Waddell Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1942.

Grassby, AJ, 'Contribution of Chinese Settlers in Australia', Yearbook of the Australian Chinese Community Association of NSW, 1977, pp. 57-64.

James, Barbara, 'Hang Gong, Lee'; 'Hang Gong, Sarah'; 'Tye, Jane Elizabeth', in Pioneer Dictionary of the Northern Territory.

James, Barbara, No Man's Land: Women of the Northern Territory, Collins Australia, Sydney, 1989.

Jones, Timothy, The Chinese in the Northern Territory, NTU Press, Darwin, 1990.

O'Brien, Vern, 'Granny Tye - Jane Hang Gong and George Tye', Newsletter of the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory Inc, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 79-81.

Rolls, Eric, Sojourners, University of Queensland Press, 1992.

Rolls, Eric, Citizens, University of Queensland Press, 1996.

Harvest of Endurance: A History of the Chinese in Australia 1788-1988.
A five metre scroll painted in traditional gonghi style by Mo Xiangyi, Australia-China Friendship Society.

Newspaper Articles

Kennedy, Heather, 'The China Women', The Age, 8 July 1986.

White, Sally, 'Families that made Victoria famous: The Chinese connection', The Age, 10 December 1984, p. 11

Author unknown, 'Plaque now marks Creswick's historic Chinese settlement', The Advocate (Creswick), 11 November 1998.

Unpublished Works

O'Neil, Allan, 'When Hang Gong met Sarah: Family Stories', unpublished work, 2000.

Notes

[1] John Graham, The Creswick Grammar School, 1940, p.69.

[2] AJ Grassby, ‘Contribution of Chinese Settlers in Australia’, 1977 Yearbook of the Australian Chinese Community Association of NSW. Part of this article is based on information provided by Selina Hassan, daughter of Arthur Hang Gong.

[3] Allan O’Neil, ‘When Hang Gong met Sarah: Family Stories’, unpublished work, 2000.

[4] Jones, Timothy, The Chinese in the Northern Territory, NTU Press, Darwin, 1990, p.73.

[5] James, Barbara, 'Hang Gong, Lee'; 'Hang Gong, Sarah'; 'Tye, Jane Elizabeth', in Pioneer Dictionary of the Northern Territory.

[6] James, Northern Territory Pioneer Dictionary.

[7] Rolls, Eric, Sojourners, University of Queensland Press, 1992, p.493.

[8] Grassby, 1977, p.61.

[9] Rolls, Eric, Citizens, University of Queensland Press, 1996, p.255.

[10] Jones, 1990, p.93.

[11] O’Neil, 2000.

[12] Northern Standard, 12 June 1934.

[13] North Queensland Register, December 1904, as quoted by James, Pioneer Dictionary of the Northern Territory.

[14] Northern Territory Times, 17 January 1902.

[15] Hassan, interview by James, 1983.

[16] Hassan, interview by James, 1983.

About the author

Valerie Lee is as an ESL (English as a Second Language) and Australian studies teacher at Holroyd Intensive English Centre, Sydney. She has a special interest in local, family and applied history which she is studying part-time at the University of New England. Valerie's personal family history research includes one tree that can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century when her great-great-grandmother, an English woman called Sarah Bowman, married Chinese born Lee Hang Gong in Victoria.

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