A Matter of Trust

Two weeks prior to May Hunter’s marriage in 1903, Anne Hunter alias Kot Choy transferred a property on Shelley Street from her name as sole owner, to a trusteeship between herself and her daughter May. On her death in 1937 this property should have passed directly to her daughter May. 

On Jan 31, 1937, Anne Hunter alias Kot Choy did indeed pass away. This event should have left a single trustee for this property; May Cock, nee May Hunter, daughter of the deceased.

Anne Hunter alias Kot Choy died intestate. My grandfather Tobias Hunter and his sister May Cock, who both lived in Shanghai at he time, petitioned for administration of the estate. 

There is no mention of the Shelley Street property in the following liquidation of assets nor in the letter of disbursements. May Hunter was a co-administrator, so she was active in the process.

There was another property owned by Kot Choy that formed part of the estate; 4 Moreton Terrace, the property that first brought my attention to any of this. 

Letters of administration were duly granted and they went about the winding up of her affairs. Funeral expenses were paid, and various legal disbursements made and the Moreton Terrace house was sold in 1939. The proceeds of the sale was held in hopes of better exchange rates between Hong Kong and Shanghai dollars. Sadly this proved to be a poor choice and considerable value was lost. 

Still, there was money left so in Sept 1940 a 1/4 share was split between my mother and her sister. The other three, quarter shares, I’m not sure about as they had obviously been disbursed a year earlier.

James was dead so anything due to him would have presumably gone to his daughter Ellen, who remained living at the Shelley Street residence until her death in 1944. Everyone else was back in Shanghai now, except my mother’s sister Nora who was working in Kuala Lumpur. So who shared in “G’s” estate? Maybe just the boys, George and my grandfather as May had been taken care of by the Shelley Street property she got in the trust?

This brings me back to the Shelley Street property, originally held by Kot Choy at a value of $6250 in 1899 and transferred to the trust Mar 31, 1903.

*Note: May this is where May’s sole ownership of the property should be recorded? Just sayin’

The next transaction is a transfer to “Wu Siu Ying” on Mar 2, 1961 and registered June 9, 1961. In case anyone missed it, “Wu Siu Ying” is Ellen Hunter’s step-mother. She was aged 43 when Ellen died and was the concubine of her father, James Hunter ) The co-petitioner for Ellen’s estate was her adopted sister, “Fok Shuk Chun” 

This transaction to “Wu Siu Ying” is marked as a “deed of gift” with no value shown.

A year later, in Sept, 1962 this property changes hands again to “Chen Shui Ling” with a value of $73,000.

And finally a year after that, in July of 1963 it goes to “Leung Yu Yee” with a new value of $232,000. 

What happened to the trust?

Maybe they’re family!

Below is one of my favorite mystery photos. Of the four people pictured, I know just one. The man on the left is my grandfather. I’ve posted this picture many times before, on Facebook pages and any website I can find that might take a crack at it. 

What I’ve come up with so far is, the car looks to be a 1933 Austin A10 and the location is Hong Kong. There is a Royal Hong Kong Auto Club badge on the front bumper. The building probably no longer exists and no one seems to recognize it. Unfortunately the license plate is blocked and also the side of the car so we can’t tell if it’s a two or four door, but probably the latter.

My guess ( hope ) is that the other three people are my grandfather’s brother James far right, with his wife Emma in the long coat, and their daughter Ellen. If I’m correct about the year, they were all still alive but Emma Hunter died in June of that year so the photo must have been early spring. Their ages would fit; with Tobias Hunter 56, Emma Hunter 56, Ellen Hunter 34, and James Hunter 58. Further investigation revealed that my grandfather, who at that time lived in Shanghai, had rented out his home there in order to do some traveling. My mother had married in Oct of 1931 and was on a home leave with her husband to the USA and England. My aunt, who had been living in the big house in Shanghai, had taken a job with the Rubber Institute in KL, Malaya, so there was little need for the large space at the Columbia Circle home.

If anyone has any photos that might help identify this building, and of course, any of the three people other than the one on the left, then please, please, please let me know!

Just a matter of feet?

Seeing my daughter’s feet the Asian woman said, “Oh, you have feet just like mine. What size shoes do you wear?” 

My daughter then told her about our rather weird family history, with DNA tests linking us to a Chinese ancestor. She likely mentioned how her crazy father was obsessed with finding the true identity of his great grandmother, who is suspected to have been at least part Asian, who lived and died in Hong Kong.

Nationality or Ethnicity?

For the sake of argument, I mean ethnicity as referring to one’s race or ethnic origin, such as Caucasian, Asian, Indigenous etc and nationality, meaning one’s country of citizenship, either by birth or by naturalization.  

An example would be an ethnic Chinese, born in the United States would have an American nationality but still be ethnically Chinese. Likewise, an ethnic caucasian born in China to English parents who had been born in China, would always be of caucasian ethnicity but could be Chinese by nationality. 

Emma Hunter

James Hunter

This brings me to my case in point. I have three separate death certificates; father, mother and daughter, all members of the same family. Under the heading “Rank or profession and nationality so far as is known” we have a father and mother listed as British and their daughter as Chinese. Note,  they ask for nationality and not race or ethnic origin. 

Ellen Hunter

Both parents had passed away prior to WW2 so neither of them were on the rolls of the Stanley Camp internees, but neither was their daughter. She died at the family residence, 11 Shelley Street in November, 1944. Hong Kong was under Japanese occupation and control from Christmas of 1941 until almost a year past her death. Why was she not interned during this period? Was she exempt because she was ethnic Chinese? If she was caucasian and  was born in 1899 in Hong Kong she’d have “British” status, especially if both her parents were British. Even if her grandmother ( Anne Hunter/Kot Choy ) was full Chinese, she’d have only been 25%. If her father was like his brother, one quarter Chinese, then she’d only have been about 12%. Would this amount have been enough to save her from Stanley Camp?

 Why become a Catholic at 37?

My grandfather’s brother, James Hunter was baptized November 29th, 1911 at St Peter’s Church in Hong Kong. It was also  known as the Seamen’s Church and was Catholic. He was 37 years old and married with a 12 year old daughter. However, both his wife Emma and his daughter were Catholic.

From what I know of the Hunter family, none were Catholic. My grandfather and and his brother George were both married in Anglican churches; my grandfather at St Andrews in Kowloon and his brother George in Leeds, England. Their sister May was either  church of England or Anglican, but not Catholic as far as I know.

When James’s wife died in 1933 she was buried at St Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Happy Valley and when their daughter passed away in 1944 she was placed with her mother and her name was added to the grave.

The cemetery record book from St Michael’s has the two burials cross-referenced to each other as pictured in the entries below. The graves are 9347 and 5877. There’s a discrepancy in Ellen Hunter’s Chinese name, which was apparently a transcript of a Chinese name. It was Fok Shuk Wah. She was not married.

James Hunter himself died in 1937 and is buried in the main colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley and NOT with his wife and daughter even though it seems he had become a Catholic, and even if not, from what I’ve heard, he’d have been allowed to be buried alongside his wife and daughter.

A recent new theory has come to light. James was a teacher or so it is stated in his obituary. There’s a possibility that maybe he converted in order to obtain a teaching position. Maybe a Catholic school would have required or at least preferred their staff to be of the faith?

Strange 11 Shelley Street Coincidences!

The Hunter family residence was 11 Shelley Street, Hong Kong. The location was first registered about 1897. Over the years, deaths in the family have all been listed with this address. The lady we believe is my great grandmother, Anne Hunter alias Kot Choy, died there Jan 31, 1937. Prior to this, my grandfather’s brother’s wife Emma Hunter died there June 14, 1933, followed by James Hunter August 8, 1937 and lastly his daughter Ellen, Nov 18, 1944.

When Emma Hunter died, I looked up her funeral attendees to see if I could come up with any new leads. Besides a lot of Choa family members, there was a J. D. Bush. Looking into him I found that James Daniel Bush lived at 9 Shelley Street which was next door. He was an American born in Shanghai. His father was Frederick Bush of New York, so he claimed American status by parentage. JD Bush had two brothers, Edred Drummond Bush, a merchant of groceries and metals in Shanghai and William Bush. All were born in Shanghai.

Looking further into James Daniel Bush, I found that like his neighbor ( my great uncle James Hunter ) he was also a school teacher. J.D. Bush was married to Victoria Ho, who survived him until 1974. I’m still trying to find out where they taught school.

I came across a photo of William Bush ( the Bush brothers were much alike in looks ) and the resemblance to my grandfather was noticeable. That’s Bush on the right and my grandfather and my aunt Nora on the left. Of course clothing styles of the era and habitat had an influence, but it’s still quite a likeness.