The Legg(e) family

Submitted by anashuster on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 06:33

I need help again for my research. I've gone as far as I think I could up to now with the Shusters and now something is puzzling me - Fritz Edward Shuster (the POW) was married to Emma Legg(e). All I know from the Legg(e) is what I got in the Carl Smith Collection Card and, what my granmother told me - That Emma's father was Henry Thomas Legg, married to Anne Muey, she had a sister (at least) she was very fond of and that got married and moved to England. According to my grandmother she had a lot of property and was quite well off and all her business were dealt by Ruttonjee...

She also sent Fritz, her son, to study in Melbourne. my grandfather used to tell my grandmother, in his letters, that once the war was over, he would like to move to Melbourne with the family. I wonder if the legge's were from Australia.  In the Carl Smith Collection Cards there is a reference to more Legge people: Henry Legge and David Legge, uncle and nephew and Henry thomas Legge, Anne Muey, another Henry Legge, Emma and her sister.

Any idea on how to find out more about them? When Emma's husband died, in the newspaper news, it says that she went to her mother's house. That means the Legge family lived in Hong Kong...

You could try the Australian Newspaper Archive. The Singapore one might also be worth searching, for passenger lists and so on. The latter also sometimes turns up syndicated Hong Kong news that slips through the Hong Kong MMIS system, and it goes back earlier in time.

In her recent book, "Policing Hong Kong," (Blacksmith Books), Patricia O'Sullivan recounts an unsolved murder case of 1887, that of Achan, the daughter of Thomas Henry Legg, one of three adopted by his wife, Amni Legg. Achan was found with her throat slit and her seventeen year-old sister Tai Yuk sitting by her. Patricia cites The Hong Kong Telegraph, The Hong Kong Daily Press and The China Mail for coverage of this mysterioius case from 7 October 1887. Might the Henry Thomas Legg and Anne Muey in Ana Shuster's post above be the same as Thomas Henry Legg and Amni Legg? I recall various threads about the complicated Schuster/Legg family that I think Richard Smith and Ana Schuster were researching, having found each other on Gwulo. It would be interesting to know the results of their researches since 2011 and whether they think that Henry Thomas might be the same man as Thomas Henry. Having suffered from cover ups in my own family, I can imagine that this is a story that would not have been passed down to subsequent generations.

That is absolutely true :) I met Richard Smith (or Richard found me) here and it was basically Richard who found all the news on my Great-grandmother Emma Legg. It is also true that we, in the family, didn't know about this event, but according to all the details Richard found, besides the daughters mentioned in the local newspapers, Henry Thomas Legg was the father of my great-grandmother, Emma Legg, who would only have been 2-3 years old (the child referred to as one playing outside). Emma Legg eventually married Edward Henry Shuster and had a son, my grandfather, Fritz Edward Shuster who died as A POW in a Japanese Camp.

I can't tell whether Thomas Henry Legg and Henry Thomas Legg are the same person, but I do believe they are. I have researched many, many documents on the family and the names are written differently in many of the cases.

Unfortunately, that is all the information we have so far.

Ana, great to hear from you so quickly. If, as I read in Patricia's book, Henry Thomas (or Thomas Henry) Legg had originally been a sailor, it sounds as if he did quite well out of marrying the property-owning Anne Muey. Your family seems to have many ramifications though. Do you happen to know anything about Anne Muey marrying again after Henry Thomas Legg died in 1904? Are you based in the UK by the way?

Hello Jill and Ana,

I hope you're still looking at this thread!   I have been 'out of the loop' for many years, but finally I'm finally getting round to writing up the family history.

First of all, a few comments on names. On nearly all the records I have, Emma's and Annie's parents are listed as Henry Thomas and Amui Legg.  I have re-read the newspaper reports of the 1887 trial and it appears that they adopted all their four daughters according to Amui's evidence. They are Tai Yuk, Achan, Emma and Annie. I know nothing of Tai Yuk, the first of their adopted daughters, other than the details from the trial. If either of you are interested, I can send copies of the original newspaper articles from 1887. I would also be happy to send the draft of the start of the chapter I have written on Annie's life up to her departure from HK in 1920. I would be most appreciative of any impressions, suggestions, corrections...  I also have a number of photos of Annie in Hong Kong. My email, should you wish to follow up, is smith.richard.nm@gmail.com

Oh, and thanks for the reference to Patricia O'Sullivan's book. I have just ordered a copy. 

That's enough for now! Kindest regards,

Richard