Captain Elliot and the Founding of Hong Kong Read online

  CAPTAIN ELLIOT AND THE FOUNDING OF HONG KONG

  In memory of my father

  Charles Bursey

  1916 – 1984

  CAPTAIN ELLIOT AND THE FOUNDING OF HONG KONG

  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.

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  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Author’s Note

  Maps

  Northern British Guiana

  Pearl River Delta

  East China Coast

  Republic of Texas

  List of Illustrations

  Prologue

  Part One

  Chapter One Forbears, Father and Family

  Chapter Two Minor to Midshipman

  Chapter Three Commission to Captain

  Part Two

  Chapter Four Slavery and British Guiana

  Chapter Five Office and Delusion

  Chapter Six Trade and China

  Chapter Seven Fizzle, Silence and Quiescence

  Chapter Eight Opium Prelude

  Chapter Nine Authority and Honour

  Chapter Ten War

  Chapter Eleven Recall, Reaction and Resolve

  Chapter Twelve Texas: Spain, Mexico and the United States

  Chapter Thirteen ‘This Raw Country’

  Chapter Fourteen ‘Knavish Tricks’

  Part Three

  Chapter Fifteen ‘A Delightful Residence’

  Chapter Sixteen Back to the Caribbean

  Chapter Seventeen Intermission

  Chapter Eighteen Last Posting

  Chapter Nineteen The Final Chapter

  Epilogue

  Appendix 1 Genealogies

  Appendix 2 Timeline

  Appendix 3 Ships

  Notes and References

  Bibliography

  Acknowledgements

  With 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.

  Author’s Note

  The 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 Elliot’s 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 Blake’s 1960 biography Charles Elliot RN 1801 – 1875: A Servant of Britain Overseas and, especially, Susanna Hoe’s and Derek Roebuck’s 1999 study, reprinted in 2009, The Taking of Hong Kong: Charles and Clara Elliot in China Waters. Blake’s book has the Texas period of Elliot’s life as its main focus, though giving almost as much attention to his time in China. Hoe’s and Roebuck’s 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 Elliot’s 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 Elliot’s 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. Elliot’s 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.

  Maps

  Northern British Guiana.

  Pearl River Delta.

  East China Coast

  Republic of Texas

  List of Illustrations

  1. 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).

  2. Minto House, Hawick, c.1910

  Historic Environment Scotland.

  3. Rt. Hon. Hugh Elliot

  The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

  4. Reading School and Playground, 1816

  Edmund Havell

  By kind permission of the Old Redingensians Association.

  5. Bombardment of Algiers, 1816

  Thomas Luny

  Private Collection (Copyright), Royal Exchange Art Gallery at Cork Street, London/Bridgeman Images.

  6. HMS Minden off Scilly, 1842

  Lieutenant Humphrey J. Julian

  Copyright National Maritime Museum, London.

  7. Slave ship captured by boats of the Royal Navy, 1824

  Image Reference Magasin8, as shown on www.slaveryimages.org, compiled by Jerome

  Handler and Michael Tuite, and sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library.

  8. Emma, Lady Hislop (née Elliot)

  Thomas Charles Wageman

  Courtesy of Private Collection.

  9. Georgetown Harbour, British Guiana c.1850

  Courtesy of Private Collection.

  10. Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston, 1844–45

  John Partridge

  Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London.

  11. Howqua

  Lamqua

  Pictures from History/Bridgeman Images.

  12. William Jardine

  Thomas Goff Lupton, after George Chinnery, 1830s Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London.

  13. Commissioner Lin Zexu

  Lamqua

  Courtesy of Gibson Antiques.

  14. The Hongs of Canton, early 1830s

  Sunqua

  Photo: Martyn Gregory Gallery, London.

  15. (Thought to be) Clara Elliot c.1838

  George Chinnery

  Courtesy of Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

  16. San Francisco Green: ‘Houses of Mr Whiteman (“the forty-pillared house”) and Captain Elliot, and Monte Fort, Macao’

  George Chinnery, 1836

  Copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

  17. The Bocca Tigris from the South

  Chinese Artist c.1840

  Photo: Martyn Gregory Gallery, London.

  18. Commissioner Lin Zexu overseeing the destruction of Opium at Humen, June 1839

  Chinese Artist

  Pictures from History/Bridgeman Images.

  19. James Matheson

  Henry Cousins, after James Lonsdale, 1837

  Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London.

  20. Emily Eden, 1835

  Simon Jacques Rochard

  Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London.

  21. Nemesis destroying junks in Anson’s Bay, 1841

  Edward Duncan

  Copyright National Maritime Museum, London.

  22. Major General Sir Hugh Gough after Sir Francis Grant, 1854

  Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London.

  23. Hong Kong Island and Harbour, c.1860

  Nam Ting

  Photo: Martyn Gregory Gallery, London.

  24. Sir Henry Pottinger

  Sir Francis Grant, 1845

  Copyright UK Government Art Collection.

  25. George Hamilton Gordon, fourth Earl of Aberdeen, c.1847

  John Partridge

  Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London.

  26. President Sam Houston

  Daguerreotype, studio of Mathew Brady

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress LC-USZ62-110029.

  27. President John Tyler

  Charles Fenderich

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress LC-USZ62-7266.

  28. Port of Galveston

  Illustrated London News, January 1845

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress LC-USZ61-293.

  29. Government House, Mount Langton, Bermuda, mid-1850’s from Bermuda: a Colony, a Fortress, and a Prison by Anonymous, Ferdinand Whittingham (London, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1857).

  30. Ireland Island, Bermuda

  from sketch in Illustrated London News, July 1848 Private Collection (Copyright) Look and Learn/Illustrated Papers Collection/ Bridgeman Images.

  31. Governor’s Cottage Residence, Trinidad, 1857.

  Michel J. Cazabon

  Courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art,

  Paul Mellon Collection.

  32. Harriet (née Elliot), Hon. Mrs Russell

  Camille Silvy, 1860

  Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London.

  33. Henry George Grey, third Earl Grey, 1861

  Camille Silvy

  Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London.

  34. Sir Henry Taylor

  Julia Margaret Cameron, 1864

  Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London.

  35. Plantation House, St Helena, 1857

  from St Helena: a Physical, Historical and Topographical Description of the Island by J.C.Melliss (London, Reeve and Co., 1875).

  36. St Helena, Jamestown from the Sea

  Nineteenth century

  Photo: Martyn Gregory Gallery, London.

  Prologue

  Relatively few people have heard of Captain Charles Elliot. Of those who have, most have probably done so because of his part in the founding of modern Hong Kong. While Governors, Colonial Secretaries and even junior officials are commemorated in eponymous streets and institutions, there is hardly any public recognition of Elliot in Hong Kong today. Glenealy, a steep ravine between Robinson Road and Wyndham Street on Hong Kong island, was formerly known as Elliot’s Vale, and there is a government map book reference to an Elliot Crescent near the Roman Catholic Cathedral (though no evidence on the ground).1

  Elsewhere in the world there are a few other isolated reminders, such as a school in Bermuda and a small coastal town in South Australia.

  This is neither a ‘rags to riches’ nor an ‘obscurity to fame’ story. Elliot was in many respects a man of his time; born into an ancient Scottish border family some of whose members had already achieved fame (or in an earlier, more turbulent age, notoriety). He had some distinguished contemporary relations, and he did not at that time stand out as an exceptional figure for someone of his background. In his early career, in the Royal Navy, and in his later career, as a colonial governor, Elliot was working in established organisational structures where expectations of him were, on the whole, clear and he could usually see the way forward. His mid-career years, taken up with his British Guiana, China, and Texas assignments, were on the other hand often nearer the other end of the spectrum, with less clarity both about his roles and about the policies which governed them. Some degree of uncertainty was inevitable; the three posts he held had each been established in response to particular, and problematic, local circumstances, and in Guiana and China his predecessors’ performances had been less than impressive. These appointments were especially challenging.

  Charles Elliot died in 1875.The seventy-four years of his life had seen huge changes in Britain, Europe and the wider world. Britain, which was reaping the commercial rewards of the industrial revolution, had through enterprise, philanthropy and military superiority attained a position of global pre-eminence.

  For most of Elliot’s life the dominant political figure in British foreign policy was Henry John T
emple, third Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) who as Secretary at War (1809–28), Foreign Secretary (1830–34, 1835–41, 1846–51) and Prime Minister (1855–58, 1859–65) played a major role in the projection of British power abroad. Palmerston’s part in the Elliot story is important for the points at which the two men interacted directly during Elliot’s China years (1834–1841), although for much of that time Palmerston was preoccupied with foreign policy issues closer to home, in Europe and the middle East.

  In pursuing their overseas objectives Palmerston and mid-nineteenth-century British governments were confident in the knowledge that the Royal Navy, whose power and effectiveness had reached a peak in the protracted wars with France from 1793 to 1815, could generally be relied on to administer enforcement when required. From a peacetime complement in the eighteenth century of between 20,000 and 40,000, naval manpower at the height of the Napoleonic Wars totalled around 150,000. During the several decades of relative peace which followed, often known as the Pax Britannica, and with the gradual replacement of sail by steam-driven vessels, the size of the navy reduced. Britain nevertheless remained the world’s leading maritime power.

  Advances in ship design and the introduction of steam led to major improvements in communications. Voyages to far-flung parts of the world became significantly faster, having a direct effect on the execution of the British government’s policies by its servants overseas. Between the 1830s and the 1860s average mail times to the Americas and Southeast Asia more than halved (though to Asia that reduction was also due to the introduction of the overland route between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea).

  As better communication made imperial officials more readily accountable to government, legislation at home was making government – and Parliament – more accountable to the people. The Great Reform Act of 1832, which extended the franchise to all men in the towns and eliminated a number of undemocratic institutions such as the ‘rotten boroughs’, paved the way for further electoral reform and the eventual establishment of universal suffrage in the next century.