8 to 10-minute read.
Hookum Chan, a ‘small and dapper’ man born in 1800 on the border between Tibet and India, arrived in the Swan River Colony aboard the Cumberland in 1829. Often listed as Indentured he was more likely a servant (employee) of the East India Company along with his fellow traveler John Laurence Morley.
Hookum, a well-educated, high-born Hindu carpenter, had previously served in that capacity for both the East India Company and the British navy. As a free settler to the new colony, he was not required to return to India within a set time frame, as was usually the case with ethnic Indians on indentures. Both Hookum and, later, his wife Hannah were allowed to stay in the colony for the duration of their lifetimes. Though his surname is recorded mostly as Chan, this is probably a variant of the Hindu clan name Chand, a Sanskrit name meaning Shining moon.
Ties between the early Swan River Colony and India were intrinsically linked. The coastal climate and dry air of Western Australia was regarded as suitable for those wishing to escape the oppressive southern Indian climate without returning to the long winters and restrictive social mores of England.
Trade and transport between the continents were convenient, with less distance and gentler seas than other maritime routes. Retiring British East India officers and their families saw the new colony as an ideal base for financial and agricultural investment – including the large-scale breeding of mounts for the Indian Army and polo ponies under the direction of the Prinsep family.
Ellen Mangles, wife of Captain James Stirling, came from a family with substantial long-term investments in both the East India Company and the sub-continent itself and her contacts may have helped forge close ties between India and the Swan River Colony.
Hookum trained and worked as a carpenter constructing furniture at the East India Company headquarters, Belvedere, in Calcutta (now Kolkata) where his talent in woodcarving impressed Charles Prinsep. This connection was later revived in Western Australia when Hookum worked at the Prinsep estates at Australind and Dardanup.
In 1831, after completing some public works and starting a boat repair workshop, Hookum and John Morley travelled to Albany aboard the Sulphur where Morley constructed a house (now Patrick Taylor Cottage) possibly with the assistance of Hookum and, later, leased and occupied the Government Farm from an administration reluctant to fund its ongoing costs.
It is probable that Hookum worked on buildings while at the government farm (Strawberry Hill) under the direction of Morley. When Sir Richard and Lady Spencer arrived to take up a posting as Government Resident of Albany, John Morley vacated the cottage at the government Farm for them and moved to his house in town.
Morley and Hookum sailed to India once more in 1835, returning a year later. This may have been when Hookum finalized plans for his marriage to Hannah (nee Suli Soloman). Indian custom would have dictated an arranged marriage, and this took place in 1845 some ten years later. Hannah’s family had long connections to the East India Company also, her father having served as a colonel.
The two men travelled back to Albany bringing with them ten Indian craftsmen who went on to construct buildings in the Albany township, including a house overlooking the water for Morley (now Wollaston House) once he was appointed harbormaster.
Tragedy was to strike when John Morley drowned along with Sir Richard and Lady Spencer’s eldest son Hugh in a tragic accident coming back from piloting a vessel from the harbour on March 6th, 1840, not long after the death of Sir Richard himself.
Whether it was the death of his friend and serving officer which made Hookum decide to leave the district or not is unrecorded, but between 1852 to 1874 Hookum was in Perth running his own carpentry business and employing Ticket-of-Leave men (29 in all), including carpenters, chair makers, upholsterers and cabinet makers – some in the Geraldton area where pre-fabricated timber buildings were being erected as the town established itself and the town of Greenough.
His genial and trusting nature could be taken advantage of but he was no fool, and there are several instances of him pursuing nonpayment for goods and even stealing by his employees.
In 1868 one of his employees, a Ticket-of-Leave man named William Lundy, is charged with ‘embezzling the monies of his master’.
In evidence Hookum notes, ‘I am a carpenter and turner, and I employed the prisoner in March last; I paid him by feeding him and finding his clothes; I sent him with some turned legs to Mr. Halliday and told him to bring back 5s. for them; Lundy had been a long time away and returned drunk. He told me Halliday had not paid him; I gave him 1s to get sausages; he was a long time away, and on looking for him I found him in the “John Bull” Inn; he had money in his hand.’
Lundy, six years free, gained a sentence of twelve months in prison.
Between 1874 and 1881, Hookum owned and ran a factory in Murray Street Perth from which he supplied both government buildings and households with furniture. Two pieces Hookum made for the Prinsep’s in Dardanup, with whom he maintained a close relationship, now form part of the collection in the National Gallery in Canberra while an armchair he made for son-in-law, Alfred Jackson, is housed in the Western Australian Museum/Boola Bardip.
Hannah passed away in 1872 early on in Hookum’s factory years, at the relatively young age of 45. She is buried in East Perth cemeteries her cause of death listed as chest complaint (probably pneumonia). During her life in Australia, she became well known for her compassion and assistance toward the destitute – particularly those of Indian descent. The marriage had produced 9 children, 7 of whom survived to adulthood. At the time of her death two of their children, Matthew, and John, were still toddlers and Hookum would have needed to call on their daughters Roseanna Julia and Dhano Annie to help raise their younger siblings.
Throughout the 1880s Hookum is mentioned in newspaper reports of vagrants being charged with sleeping on his premises. There were many homeless people in Perth at the time, drifting their way back from the goldfields and the sudden influx of people into the city caused a housing shortage. Hookum allowing destitute and homeless men to sleep in his yard and outhouse is possibly something he allowed in respect of the work of his late wife, or perhaps the inevitable consequence of living behind the Shamrock Hotel (now Savoy) with a laneway in between.
Generally, Hookum is regarded as a kind and generous man, well-spoken and his work highly regarded. He is also an astute, politically aware community member and is one of the signatories, along with other prominent Perth citizens, on a petition encouraging Septimus Burt Esq.Q.C. to stand for an upcoming election for the Legislative Council in 1888 as Western Australia moved toward self-government and its own Constitution.
The petition, in the classified advertising section, reads: ‘We wish respectfully to submit to your earnest consideration the peculiar circumstances which now exist owing to the impending change of Constitution, rendering it highly desirable that an experienced lawyer like yourself should again have a seat in the house, and we trust that at so serious a crisis in our history you will not refuse to accept a position which we confidently believe would be an advantage to the whole colony.’
For Hookum this may have been a more pressing matter than for most. By the late 1800s, mainstream Australian (and British) sentiment was turning against people of other races, in particular, those of colour. Where Hookum has always assumed his social standing as high, determined by his craftsmanship and good works, he is now beginning to be judged by race.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857, and its bloody aftermath, saw British administrations increasingly distrustful and defensive in their colonies, culminating in Australia with the disastrous ‘White Australia Policy’ enshrined at Federation in the National Constitution of 1901.
In 1892 Hookum loses a court case against WA Norwood Estate Company over ownership of Swan Locations A4 and A5 which he believed belonged to him by ‘rights of length of possession’ as well as sale. The land in question is in the East Perth/Warndoolier area on Whadjuk Boodjar, a registered Aboriginal site (3767). Though Noongar people lived in these areas for many thousands of years, they were largely forced away from their country by this time and areas close to Perth were seeing the development of suburbs and residential estates on the outer fringes. The land Hookum had used for many years was now valuable real estate and the company he was up against was flush with money made in the mining boom.
During court proceedings, ‘The Defendant (Hookum) was then put in the box to prove the acts of ownership he had exercised upon the land in question. He said that he had known Swan Location A5 since 1843. Mr. W. H. Drake sold it to him that year for £105. Mr. Drake gave him a paper which he gave to old Mr. Hillman, the surveyor. He entered upon the land at once and fenced about two acres.’
Hookum then goes on to attempt to prove his continuous possession and use of the land, as a wood cutting business and with various tenants in situ. Two of his sons gave evidence on his behalf. The judgment went against Hookum, and he was ordered off the land and to pay court costs. The area was subdivided and sold for housing. Six years later the Norwood Estate Company would go into liquidation but by then Hookum had other, more pressing, concerns.
This is the beginning of a difficult time for Hookum. During the court hearing he is taken to task by the Magistrate, Justice Stone, for not becoming a British Citizen. He has been in the colony now for 63 years, raised a family and been a productive member of society. Prior to that he also served the East India Company for a good length of time and possibly thought his actions proved he was a good citizen by now. Hookum is now 92 years of age and must have felt bewildered at the aspersions cast on his integrity.
Fueling racial tensions, Western Australia was also increasingly in the grip of fear about the incidence of leprosy in the colony. In October 1898, the Northam Enquirer published the findings of a leprosy Enquiry in Western Australia. ‘In regard to leprosy, your committee begs to suggest that extraordinary powers should be given by statute to the health authorities to deal with all suspected cases and is of opinion that it would be to the benefit of the public health if legislative means were provided whereby Asiatic habitations might be subject to surprise domiciliary visits by the health officers. Power should also be given to allow the arrest of persons suspected of being sufferers from leprosy so they may be examined by a magistrate and two medical men in a manner similar to that provided in the case of suspected lunatics.’
This is exactly what happened to Hookum in his 98th year. He was both distressed and humiliated by the process which sought to determine whether his skin condition – actually Vitiligo, a loss of pigmentation in the skin – was leprosy. There was a real danger Hookum could now be locked away in the quarantine station at Woodman Point for the rest of his life or sent as far away as Derby in the northwest to the leper colony there. People suffering from Hansen’s disease (leprosy) were then outcast by society, considered untouchable and unclean. Many people suffered terribly from the isolation and stigma surrounding this disease and to be accused of carrying leprosy in the Perth region would be a frightening experience for anybody, let alone a man of Hookum’s advanced age. The accusation was proven to be false, but the damage was done.
Hookum’s long term neighbor and friend, Timothy Quinlan from the Shamrock Hotel, protested at a later government tribunal about the treatment of ‘a respectable old resident of the colony’ saying, ‘they came to my house to look for this man. To say that this man, who was the father and grandfather of a family, was a leper on such flimsy information was not fair at all.’
Hookum, once released, was devastated at the damage to his standing in the community he had served so well. He lived out his last days in a house on the corner of William and Wellington Streets in Perth visited by family and old friends, including members of the Prinsep family. His son and daughter-in-law, William and Annie, by now had a large house in Fitzgerald Street and they took Hookum to live with them once he became bedridden.
Hookum Chan died on 19th March 1903. His funeral was attended by members of his large family, representatives of the Prinsep family along with other prominent early colonists. He was buried in a jarrah coffin with heavy black mountings in the East Perth Cemeteries alongside his wife and two sons in the Church of England section, in a now unmarked grave.
Attributed to Hookum Chan (c. 1800-1903), elegant Regency-style sideboard in jarrah c.1868, made for the Prinseps, h 90.6 w 198.2 d 54 cm. Wordsworth Collection, National Gallery of Australia
Alternative spellings:
Hookhan/Hookan/Hookum/Hookun
Chan/Tchan/
Mahomed/Mahommed
References
Bird, I (1940) The Story of Strawberry Hill. Middleton Road Albany Western Australia. 1791 to 1891 and 1891 to 1941. Jones, J (Ed) (2000)
Classified Advertising. (1888, May 9). The West Australian. P.2.
Erikson, R (1987). The Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians pre- 1829-1888. Vol. 1. C. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Western Australia, 6009.
Erickson, D. (2013). Hookum Chan and family: 19th Century furniture makers in Western Australia. Australiana. 35(2), 20-25.
Erickson, D. (2015) Inspired by Light and Land; Designers and makers in Western Australia 1829-1969. Western Australian Museum. Welshpool. Western Australia.
East Perth History. https://library.vincent.wa.gov.au/local-history-centre/stories/the-norwood-jackson-s-hotel-in-east-perth.aspx Retrieved 10.11.2023.
Heritage Council of Western Australia. Inherit. Wollaston House. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from Heritage Council of WA – Places Database (dplh.wa.gov.au)
Mr. Hookham Chan. (1903, March 28). Western Mail. P.48.
Stopford, L, R. (2013). A brief Biography of Hookum Chan(D). State Library Archive
Supreme Court – Criminal Side. (1868, April 8) The Inquirer and Commercial News. P.3.
Supreme Court – Civil Sittings. (1892, December 8). The West Australian. P.6.)
The Leprosy Inquiry. (1898, October 26). The Northam Advertiser. p.3.
The West Australian Norwood Estate Coy. (Ltd). (1898, July 24). New South Wales Government Gazette. P.5629.
