Name of Cox's Road

Submitted by lolau on Tue, 05/27/2014 - 23:43

Any one know the name of Cox's Road come from? I found two names from "Hong Kong Governemnt Reports Online":

1) Lieut. R. C. C. Cox of 27th Inniskillings and became A.D.C. of HK Governor

2) John Samuel Cox, JP who became Justice of Peace in 1883. He together with a group of owners of land at kowloon Point (Tsim Sha Tsui) including the famous C.P. Chater wrote to the government to give comment of the Bill of Municipal Rate ordinance in 1885.

3) James Henry Cox, JP who also became JP in 1883

2 & 3 were appointed as a member of the JP Commission in 1885

Any idea?

Wikipedia says:

The road was named after lessor, same as the nearby street, the Cox's Path. James Cox was a drug trade merchant who did smuggling, selling and doing deals with opium. In 1782, he started out by selling mechanical novelties in Canton but soon changed into the profitable business. Mr James Cox was obliged to leave China and eventually he had gone into real estate dealing in Hong Kong. James owned the leases on a number of the lots which ran Cox's Road and Cox's Path.

Something isn't right though - if he was selling in Canton in 1782, he was probably born around 1760. He couldn't have leased land in Kowloon until after 1860. So maybe it is a different James Cox, or the "1782" year is wrong.

Regards, David

That's why I raised out the above question. It seems nothing more could be found from the web on James Cox who had lived in HK except the info from the Wikipedia.

this guy may be able to help - he's giving a talk on June 15 about street names

Hollywood Road, Queen's Road and Boundary Street are streets that are familiar to the public, but what are the interesting stories and the history behind their names? The Hong Kong Public Libraries of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) will hold a talk titled "Hong Kong History Behind the Street Names" at 3pm on June 15 (Sunday) at the Lecture Theatre of Hong Kong Central Library.

There have been different naming methods and systems for streets in different periods of history. In the early years, most of the streets in Hong Kong were named after notable people. In recent years, street names have often been associated with local features or auspicious words.

Dr Lau Chi-pang will introduce the origins of street names in Hong Kong so that the connected local history can be explored from different perspectives. The talk will be conducted in Cantonese with free admission on a first-come, first-served basis.

Dr Lau is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and the Coordinator of the Hong Kong and South China Historical Research Programme of Lingnan University. He is also the Director of the Hong Kong Local Records Office and the Editor-in-Chief of the Comprehensive Records of Hong Kong project. Dr Lau has been actively engaged in community and cultural services and is a member of the Town Planning Board, the Advisory Committee on Revitalisation of Historic Buildings, the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust Council, the Public Libraries Advisory Committee and the History Museum Advisory Panel, as well as a Museum Expert Adviser of the LCSD.

For enquiries about the talk, please call 2921 0351.

I had looked up the same query a few years back.

My information suggests that Cox's Road was named after James Henry Cox who was a long time resident of Hong Kong.

China Mail 27 July and HK Daily Press 28 July 1904

J. H. Cox one of the oldest residents in the Colony died at his residence in Kowloon on 27 July 1904. He was one of the pioneers of Kowloon and is buried in Happy Valley as shown here He had come out to join the firm of Turner & Co in 1860/1861 and later managed it. He was also a Justice of the Peace.