1909 - The Portuguese return

Submitted by David on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 00:43

Portuguese names suddenly disappeared from the Jurors Lists in 1903. Several reasons why have been suggested, but we still don't have a firm answer.

Now in 1909 they're back again. Here's how many times a given name appears in each year's Jurors List:

  1902 1903 1908 1909
Figueiredo 4 1 1 4
Lopes / Lopez 6 - - 3
Remedios 18 2 - 3
Ribeiro 12 1 - 5

1909 shows a noticeable jump from 1908 in the number of Portuguese names, but they're still nowhere near the 1902 numbers.

The total number of jurors also increased in 1909, to 1,120. That's the first time we've beaten the 1902 total of 1,111:

Number of Jurors, 1894-1909

Looking at 1907 on the chart, it shows another jump in the total. I wondered if there'd be a matching jump in the number of Portuguese names that year, but a quick check shows not:

  1902 1903 1907 1908 1909
Figueiredo 4 1 - 1 4
Lopes / Lopez 6 - - - 3
Remedios 18 2 - - 3
Ribeiro 12 1 - - 5

Now one suggestion for their disappearance in 1902/3 was that the Portuguese had moved away from Hong Kong. Looking at the 1909 list, I think we can discount that.

As an example, take the four gentlemen surnamed Figueiredo in the 1902 list. Three of the four also appear in the 1909 list, and still worked for the same employer they listed in 1902. It looks very likely they stayed in Hong Kong in the years between.

So any other ideas about why they were off the list in the years 1903-8?

Regards, David

PS Please can you help us type up next year's 1910 Jurors List? It only takes around 30 minutes to finish a page, please click here for details.

Comments

I don't know why they went off in the first place, but I have some slightly tangential evidence about them coming back on in 1909. I've recently been reading my grandmother's diary of her journey out to HK from Southampton in late 1906 - there was a couple called Ferrer also on the boat. My grandfather, James Martin, working for Kowloon Docks, appears on the jurors' list in 1907; it takes to 1909 for Edward Ferrer to turn up, working for HK & Shanghai Bank. It seems clear that he'd been there, like the Portuguese, and was finally picked up and put on the list in 1909 - it's difficult to quantify absence, to know how many people in general this applied to without alternative sources of information to correlate to. 

I suppose I'm suggesting that for whatever reason the Portuguese dropped off the list on 1903, it may have been quite easy to stay off until there was some sort of sweep for the 1909 list to pull in all those eligible. Does anyone else have any evidence around this - it could just be a random coincidence,

Kate

Kate, thanks for writing - your grandmother's diary must be an interesting read.

I'm not sure there was any special 'sweep' for the 1909 list. As we've typed the lists from 1903 to 1909 it's clear there is a steady turnover of people leaving the list and others being added to it. I don't have any better explanation for the delay in adding Mr Ferrer though!

Regards, David

PS I couldn't see any Ferrer in the 1909 jurors list we typed. Am I missing it, or is it a different spelling?

Yes, sorry, he's referred to as Mr. Ferrier in the diary, so I assume that's the Charles Ferrier in the 1909 list - I just trusted my rather aberrant memory, but I knew I'd found him. 

I could see how, if some firms had a policy of automatic registration of new arrivals, there would always be new names coming on; it just seemed to me that something had maybe occurred in 1909 to register residents who could have been on the list, but weren't, for whatever reason. But there wasn't a very big bump in numbers that year, so even if it happened it was probably quite minor,

Kate 

Hello Kate,

Thank you for your contributions earlier to this site. I'm a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and I'm studying the history of Portuguese in Hong Kong. I am interested in your grandmother's recollections of that period, especially in personal recollections you could share concerning Portuguese business and social life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Please send any replies to my personal e-mail address: rdinvst@yahoo.com

Some Background: My great grandfather, Libello J. Xavier, founded the Hong Kong Printing Press in 1888 and operated it until his death in 1909. His brother succeeded him and kept the press in the family until around 1910, when I believe he sold it.

Thanks for your assistance.
R.E. Xavier

Sorry Roy, what I've got's not going to be of any use to you, as the diary only covers the voyage, stopping as they arrive in HK. I didn't know of its existence until it turned up when I was clearing out my father's house after his death last year, and as the house is now empty, there's regrettably no chance of any subsequent diaries emerging. Food for the imagination, but not research material.

However, if in the course of your researches, you find an explanation for the Portuguese dropping off the Jurors' List in 1903, it'd be good if you could post it up and help solve the mystery,

Regards, Kate

The 1902 bankruptcy is an interesting find, though I'm not sure if it would have affected who could be a juror?

I've just had another look at this time through Google. This document describes  the 1890 Ultimatum by Britain that is considered a low-point in the relations between the two countries. However it ends with the following text, showing that by the years 1903-1908, when Portuguese jurors dropped off the list, relations between Britain and Portugal were good again:

The Boer war also changed things. The Anglo-Portuguese Declaration of 1899 signed on 14 October 1899 reaffirmed former treaties of Alliance. According to the new treaty, Britain committed herself to defend Portuguese colonies from all enemies present and future. Portugal agreed to stop the supply of arms through Lourenço Marques to the Transvaal and officially declare neutrality in the Anglo-Boer conflict.

The document was signed by Salisbury and Soveral. The latter was a close friend of the Prince of Wales and had long been working on a rapprochement between Portugal and Britain. Anglo-Portuguese Royal family ties, fostered by Soveral, together with his diplomatic efforts tried to get what politicians found hard to achieve. In the early twentieth century Soveral helped organizing Royal visits to both countries to strengthen the Anglo-Portuguese connection

It must not be forgotten that the King of Portugal, Don Carlos, and Queen Victoria were relatives. Prince Albert was the cousin of Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha who got married to Queen Maria II, King Carlos’ grandmother.

In April 1903 King Edward VII visited Portugal on a State visit. In November-December 1904 King Carlos visited Britain. A new treaty of Alliance was then signed at Windsor on 16 November consolidating the rapprochement between Portugal and Britain which had started with the 1891 treaty. In January 1905 the Duke and Duchess of Connaught visited Lisbon. In April it was Queen Alexandra’s turn to come to Portugal.

King Manuel II, who succeeded his father King Carlos on the Portuguese throne after he and the Prince Heir were murdered in Lisbon in February 1908, officially visited Edward VII in November of 1909 and he was invested with the Order of the Garter. On 20 May 1910 he attended Edward VII´s funeral.

On 5 October 1910, following the fall of the Portuguese Monarchy, King Manuel went to exile in England. He never returned to Portugal. He died at his home in Fuwell Park in Twickenham in 1932.

So I don't think that the jurors were removed due to any poor relations between the two countries.

Regards, David