Bonham, Samuel George 文咸

Updated September 17, 2014

Samuel George Bonham 文咸, 3rd Colonial Governor, was listed as a resident of Hong Kong from 1848 to 1854. He was the President of the Royal Asiatic Society, China Branch in 1850. He was the Patron of several societies including the Medical Missionary Society 中國博醫會, Morrison Education Society, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and Society for Relief of Sick and Destitute Foreigners.

Variant names: in Chinese 般咸.

Bonham's full style was: His Excellency Samuel George Bonham, Esq, C.B. - Governor, and Commander in Chief, and Vice-Admiral of Hong Kong, and its Dependencies. Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, and Chief Superintendent of Trade.

Selected Bibliography: Tarrent, William, The Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for the Year 1846, 1848, 1850, Hong Kong: China Mail, resp. 1846,1848 and 1850.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

BPCST - Hong Kong Office of the British Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of Trade
d.um - died unmarried
ExCo - Executive Council
LegCo - Legislative Council
LMSTS - Theological Seminary of the London Missionary Society 倫敦會中國神學院
m; m1; m2, etc. - marriage, first, second time, etc.
MEP - Société des Missions étrangères de Paris (Society of Foreign Missions of Paris)
PAHK - Prefecture Apostolic of Hong Kong [Xianggang] 香港監牧區
RA - Royal Artillery, the Britsh Army
RAC - Royal Asiatic Society
RE - Royal Engineers, the Britsh Army
RN - the British Royal Navy
s/o - son of

From Rudi Butt

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I am taking the rest of the summer off and will reply to your email/comments when I am back. Thank you for your patience and I hope you too will have an enjoyable summer. (6/24/2016)

The most boring task of compiling a biographical dictionary, speaking from my very limited experience, is to list up all the names and attach the most basic of information in each entry. My bases for this phase of the project lie upon three volumes of “The Hong Kong Almanack and Dictionary” viz. 1846, 1848 and 1850, which were compiled by William Tarrent, editor of The Friend of China. I hope I am able to get this done say within a couple of weeks and move into the next, and clearly a much more interesting, phase in which I will begin researching the individuals. (8/3/2014)

Biographical Dictionary of Residents of Hong Kong, the First Ten Years (1841-1850)