One Hundred Years' History Of The Chinese In Singapore: The Annotated Edition. Ong Siang Song
The following letters are quoted from Miss Edith Legge’s Biography of her father:
LEICESTER, Jan 24, 1848
… Tuesday morning took me and the Chinese lads to Manchester. … The same evening we went on to Rochdale, and thence on Thursday to Hull. … On Saturday we came on here, and I addressed about 1,000 children in the afternoon and preached in the evening. A meeting to-night, for which I have retained the lads, but to-morrow I shall send them on to London, following myself on Thursday. The fatigue and excitement have been too much for them and for myself also.4
LONDON, Feb 5, 1848
The principal engagement of to-day was a private audience first of Prince Albert and secondly of the Queen, along with the Chinese lads. I knew not of it till a letter came from Lord Morpeth, saying if I would be at the Palace at 3 o’clock to-day he would be there to conduct me to the presence. Our audience was very pleasant and courteous on the part of the Queen and His Royal Highness. He is a fine, handsome, gentlemanly looking man, and she is a sweet, quiet little body. She was dressed simply and unpretendingly.… Our conversation was all about China and the lads. The boys were much taken by surprise, having been expecting [78] to see a person gorgeously dressed with a crown and all the other paraphernalia of royalty.5
A few months after his return to Singapore, Mr Hoot Kiam married his first wife, Yeo Choon Neo, one of the pupils of Miss Grant, the representative of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East, who had come out in 1843 to take charge of the Girls’ School which had been begun by Mrs Dyer of the London Missionary Society. This young couple founded the oldest family of Straits Chinese Christians in Singapore. In 1853 Mr Hoot Kiam joined the service of the P&O Company which had in 1845 established a branch office here, and held the post of cashier until his retirement in 1895. He associated himself with the work of the Rev BP Keasberry, by whom the Malay chapel in Prinsep Street had been built and opened in 1843. Mr Hoot Kiam was the possessor of a fine voice, and in the days before there was such a thing as an organ in that chapel he was the ‘precentor’ and led the singing at the chapel services. From the Straits Directory of 1864, we find that he was at that time the treasurer of Mr Keasberry’s chapel. Under his influence, a number of young men joined this church, among them being Tan Kong Wee,6 Tan Boon Chin and Foo Teng Quee.
Mr Hoot Kiam was thrice married. After the death of his first wife, he married in 1870 Phan Fung Lean, belonging to a Christian family from Penang, and the eldest child of this union is Song Ong Siang. Although Mr Hoot Kiam never again met his old master – who had attained a world-wide reputation as a Chinese scholar – he had the pleasure of welcoming Dr Legge’s second son in 1890 when the latter visited Singapore. Says the biographer:
Song Hoot Kiam spoke English perfectly, and was only too delighted to see and entertain his old friend, Dr Legge’s son.7
About the same time Dr Legge, ‘the most charming of old men’ – then about 76 years old, but up at four o’clock [79] in the morning working away at a translation of some Chinese classics – had the young fellow, Ong Siang, to spend a few days with him at his house in Keble Road, Oxford. Mr Hoot Kiam died on 7th October 1900 at the age of 70, nine daughters and five sons surviving him.
‘Song Hoot Kiam’, says the Straits Chinese Magazine,8
was neither rich nor great, but he was a specimen of the best type of Chinese character. Sober, persevering and conservative, he was a mighty rock to his large family. Early associations and the friendship of the late Dr James Legge made him a Christian, and his sojourn in England from 1846 to 1848, during which he was presented to the Queen, completed his training for the faith which he had adopted. … He toiled on quietly, and in hope and faith, raised up sons and daughters to worship God, and to work for the kingdom of heaven. … He laboured well, though few heard of his arduous toil. … As a servant, as a friend and as a father – he stands pre-eminent as an example for the Straits Chinese. Honest, punctual, sober, industrious and conscientious, he discharged his duties to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company for a period of forty-two years. His masters did not overlook his merits, which, on his retirement, were recognised by a gratuity. Half a century of honest, steady and successful work for others is a sufficient commentary on the man’s character. As a friend Mr Hoot Kiam is loved wherever he is known, but he is known only to a small circle. Being of a shy and retiring disposition, he spent most of his time among his family, and those of us who can realise the happiness of this simple domesticity may well envy the coolness, the contentment and the goodness of our friend who has just departed.9
On the 21st November 1901 a marble tablet to his memory was unveiled at Prinsep Street Church by the Rev JAB Cook in the presence of a large gathering of his friends and fellow-workers. [80] The threedays’ visit of the Marquis of Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India, to this Settlement in February 1850 was an event long remembered by the inhabitants, and before the end of the year the Obelisk, which now stands near the sea-wall on the north side of Anderson Bridge, had been erected by means of a $5 subscription fund, as a permanent memorial of the event. The names of Tan Kim Seng, Seah Eu Chin and Ang Choon Seng appeared on the Committee of the Dalhousie Testimonial. On the day before Lord Dalhousie’s departure, various addresses were presented to him, one of which was from the Chinese merchants. The Chinese people hit upon a happy idea. The Free Press says:
The forenoon of Wednesday, the day fixed for his Lordship’s departure, was signalised by a display of feeling on the part of the Chinese community, which we believe to have been quite spontaneous. About nine o’clock the road up Government Hill was occupied by a long train of toy carriages, splendidly painted and gilded, some drawn by ponies, others by men, which were filled with gaily dressed Chinese children, sent by their mothers to wait upon Lady Dalhousie. It was altogether a most pleasing spectacle, and as a display of feeling on the part of our large Chinese community, is not devoid of importance. Her Ladyship, as well as Lord Dalhousie, received their youthful visitors with the utmost kindness, and appeared to take great delight in the novel and interesting sight. The great kindness and personal notice bestowed by her Ladyship on the children during the visit have, almost more than anything else, gained the hearts of the Chinese.10
Such a quaint procession, got up at a moment’s notice, is impossible to-day, at least as far as the beautifully carved and gilt toy carriages (‘kreta Wang-kang’) and the diamond-crusted head-dresses are concerned. These have all been consigned to the limbo of the past. More’s the pity!
Ang Choon Seng11 was born in Malacca in 1805. Coming [81] to Singapore at an early age, he started business in Philip Street under the chop Chin Seng as commission agent and provision merchant. He owned two schooners, Patah Salam and Kong Kek, trading to Saigon and Bangkok, and went in for nutmeg planting, which was for a little time successful. This nutmeg plantation was situated somewhere in Moulmein Road. At his death on 2nd February 1852 his elder son Ang Kim Cheak (who was born in 1827) continued the business, in which he was joined by his younger brother Ang Kim Tee (born in 1839) when he came of age. When Kim Cheak died in 1870, Ang Kim Tee carried on the same business as its sole proprietor, which ceased with his death on 14th December 1901. He married a daughter of Mr Lim Kong Wan and three of his daughters became successively the wives of the Hon Mr Tan Jiak Kim, while another daughter is married to Mr Lim Tek Wee of the Straits Times office. His son Mr Ang Hock Siew is chief cashier to the Straits Steamship Co Ltd. Both Ang Kim Cheak and Ang Kim Tee took a special interest in the Kim Seng Free School for Chinese boys in Amoy Street, and held successively the post of treasurer.
A letter dated 23rd March 1850 to Governor Butterworth and signed by Tan Kim Seng, Seah Eu Chin, Lim Keng Liak, Chan Koo Chan, Cheang Sam Teo, Sim Ah Khay, Ang Choon Seng, Chee Teang Why, Yeo Hoot Seng, Wee Chong San and Ang Chat Wat is quoted in extenso as it sets out the nature of the petition of the Chinese inhabitants of that period praying for more sympathetic treatment:12
We have been requested to wait upon your Honour by the Chinese who signed the petition to the Most Noble the Marquis of Dalhousie, KT, Governor General of India, praying for liberty to observe the rites and customs appertaining to marriages and funerals and which are essential to