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seamanship. When Holly was lost in the 1940 flood at the Roper River Mission, he was placed in charge of Iorana,
the replacement vessel.
Hamilton married Marjorie McLoud. Her father Alec was a European who owned a store and library at Borroloola.
Her mother was an Aboriginal named Minnie, later called Leah after she had been baptised. On government
orders, the Reverend H E Warren brought Minnie and Marjorie McLoud to the CMS Roper River Mission when
the latter was three or four year of age. Her mother later married James Japanma, an Aboriginal teacher at Roper
River. When Marjorie was about nine or 10 years of age she was taken with other part-Aboriginal children to the
CMS Mission at the Emerald River on Groote Eylandt where she was cared for. In 1930 the Reverend H E Warren
married her and Harold Hamilton.
In 1943 Harold Hamilton joined his wife who had been evacuated south with the other white and half-caste
women and children during the previous year because of the war. For the next 18 years he had a responsible
position in Sydney with the Shell Oil Company, whose executive officers had known him when they had a fuel
base at the CMS Emerald Mission airstrip. He then worked with the Maritime Services Board in Sydney until his
death on 6 May 1968. He and his family lived for a number of years at Berowra, an outer suburb of Sydney.
K Cole, Groote Eylandt Stories, 1971; CMS Records, Melbourne and Sydney; AA.
KEITH COLE, Vol 1.
HAMPTON, TIMOTHY (c1902–?), missionary, was educated at the Church Missionary Society (CMS) Roper
River Mission. Toward the end of 1922 he was confirmed, together with four other part-Aborigines and an
Aboriginal woman, Elizabeth. He was an outstanding young man, being trained by the Reverend H E Warren and
the other missionaries to be a teacher. In 1922 he accompanied Warren to Melbourne, where he was well received
as a deputationist. In 1923 he was accepted as an official mission worker and was paid accordingly. Later in the
year he accompanied the Reverend R D Joynt, his foster-father, on furlough south, and again made an impression
on the people he met.
On 15 January 1924 Hampton married Sarah Johnson, another part-Aborigine living at the CMS Roper River
Mission. The Reverend R D Joynt conducted the service. The Reverend A J Dyer gave the bride away.
When the part-Aboriginal children were taken to the CMS Emerald River Mission on Groote Eylandt in
September 1924, the Reverend R D Joynt and Timothy and Sarah Hampton were left in charge of the mission
at Roper River. Joynt and the Hamptons continued their exacting mission responsibilities until 1928, when they
resigned through over-work. Joynt withdrew his resignation several months later and Hampton the following
year.
In June 1929 Hampton finally resigned and left the mission with his wife. Joynt resigned in 1930 and went to
England to live. In 1930 Sarah Hampton returned to Roper River Mission where she stayed for a number of years.
She died at Alice Springs. Timothy Hampton moved to Sydney where it is thought that he died.
K Cole, Roper River Mission 1908–1968, 1969; K Cole, Groote Eylandt Mission, 1971; CMS Records, Melbourne.
KEITH COLE, Vol 1.
HANG GONG, JANE ELIZABETH: see TYE, JANE ELIZABETH
HANG GONG, LEE also LEE HANG GONG (c1836–1892), merchant, builder and Chinese patriarch, was born
in Sung Ding, Canton, China in about 1836. Family records indicate that he arrived in Victoria on 22 February 1854
on board Jupiter, although official records show that ship arriving in Victoria from Batavia on 23 July 1853
carrying goods but no passengers. It is possible he was a crewmember on board this vessel and decided to stay in
Australia.
He spent much of his early years on the Victorian goldfields, mainly in the Creswick and Ballarat region, where
he became a successful merchant and possibly engaged in some prospecting. He formed a permanent relationship
with Sarah Bowman, an English born woman with whom he appears to have had at least six children between
1864 and 1878. It is not clear whether Sarah and Lee Hang Gong ever formally married but they clearly lived
together as husband and wife. Hang Gong is named as the father of all but one of the children born to Sarah but it
is likely that her first child, Thomas, was also a result of that union.
Hang Gong was naturalised in 1871 when he was listed as a storekeeper in Creswick, aged 35. It is not known
exactly when the family first arrived in the Northern Territory but its members are first mentioned there in records
and in newspapers in 1881. By September of that year Hang Gong had a storekeeper’s licence for Southport as well
as operating a successful storekeeper’s business in Palmerston. Although he seems to have been a successful and
respected businessman, he was sometimes the target of complaints. For instance, in November of 1881 someone
complained to the newspaper about the stench arising from the vacant block of land ‘between Mrs Parker’s
butchering business and Mr Hang Gong’s house’, although the bulk of the complaint appears to have been directed
at the butcher’s shop.
Hang Gong took an active part in the community and in December of 1882 joined a group of 13 Chinese
merchants in petitioning the South Australian Minister over the fact that there was not a legal practitioner in the
Territory who could assist the Chinese in court cases. They pointed out that most of the Chinese did not speak
English and did not understand the European legal system and that the magistrate had often allowed a layman,
V L Solomon, to conduct the defence in cases involving Chinese. The Minister was unsympathetic to their pleas
and replied that it was the discretion of the magistrate as to whether he allowed laymen to conduct the defence