Exhumation request
Date Published
: bones return
: Sydney
: Sydney
: 1862
From the beginning of the Chinese diaspora, it was considered of great importance that the bones of the dead be returned to their villages of origin. This 1862 request is one of the earliest indications of this practice.
NSW State Archives, Col Sec; 4/3476, 62/4222, Molison & Black to Colonial Secretary, 26 August 1862.
In the early 1860s, representatives of three Pearl River Delta counties approached the firm of Molison & Black to help them obtain official permission to remove bones to China. These are the same three districts mentioned forming the Yeung-Woo Company in California, namely Dongguan, Zengcheng, and Zhongshan.
According to Molison & Black, they wished 'to exhume the remains of a number (estimated at 150 to 200) of their deceased countrymen with a view to their removal to China ,,,"
NSW State Archives, Col Sec; 4/3476, 62/4222, Molison & Black to Colonial Secretary, 26 August 1862.
Transcription with some interpretation
62/4222 [correspondence file number]
Mollison and Black [firm of solicitors]
The Hon. Charles Cooper
Colonial Secretary [effective head of government]
On behalf of influential Chinese, for authority to exhume the remains of their Countrymen (from about 150 to 200) with a view to their removal to China.
Sir,
We have been requested by Chin Ateak, Tin Mak, and Tan Tchou influential Chinese headmen resident in Sydney, to apply to you for an Authority under any reasonable condition as will enable them or their accredited Agents [confusion between district name and persons name] Heong San [Xiangshan], Tong Goon [Dong Guan] and Tcheung San [Zheng Cheng?], to exhume the remains of a number (estimated at 150 to 200 of their deceased Countrymen with a view to their removal to China at an early date.
This Question is held in great reverence by the Chinese. And we believe has been put in practice several times in California.
We are Sn, xxxx [probably, sincerely your humble servant] Servants,
Molison & Black
