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Introduction Origin and Range The 119 land deeds here transcribed and translated are a representative sample of the traditional land deeds of the New Territories (about 300 land deeds of this character are known to survive). Deeds have been chosen for transcription and translation from as many village areas of the New Territories as possible. Most of the deeds chosen for transcription and translation here come from the various collections of traditional village land deeds which are currently known. There are nine or ten of these. The Àrst is a collection of deeds from Wo Hang Village. These are the deeds of the third fong of the Lee (李) clan of that village, discovered by the author, of which a photostat set has been put on deposit in the Central Library of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Hong Kong. There are some sixty deeds in this collection, dating from the third quarter of the eighteenth century to the Japanese Occupation period, all relating to the communal holdings of this branch of the clan in and near Wo Hang. The second is a collection of some dozen deeds, also belonging to the Lee clan of Wo Hang, and covering a similar time period, extending down into the 1930s, but referring to land near Sha Tau Kok Market. These were also discovered by the author and the originals are now deposited in the Central Library. A third collection, of some twenty deeds, refers to land at Wu Kau Tang (烏蛟騰) Village. Most of these relate to transactions during the third quarter of the nineteenth century, mostly relating to the family of Lei Sze-shing (李仕勝) of that village. The author has a photostat collection of these deeds. A collection of about Àfty original deeds, dating from the 1870s to the 1940s, from the papers of Yung Sze-chiu (翁仕朝) of Hoi Ha Village, discovered by the author and Dr David Faure, has now been put on deposit at the Central Library. This collection all refers to the holdings of Yung Sze-chiu and his immediate family. 186 Customary Land Deeds The remaining collections were put together by Dr James Hayes, mainly during his government service in the New Territories between 1957 and 1962, and between 1975 and 1982. Some are original deeds, but many are photostat or hand-transcribed copies of original deeds now no longer available. Although, in the notes to the deeds as transcribed and translated below, these deeds are all described as being “from the collection of Dr J.W. Hayes”, copies of them are, in fact, now all deposited in public collections, predominantly in the Hong Kong Public Records OfÀce. The deeds collected by Dr Hayes include about forty-Àve original deeds from Shek Pik Village, on Lantau Island, given to him by an elder of the Chi (池) clan of that village in 1960. These comprise deeds relating to purchases by members of that section of that clan from men of other Shek Pik clans, and earlier deeds relating to the same property passed to the Chi family when the property was purchased. There are also papers about an eighteenth-century division of family property, and an appeal to the elders subsequent to this division (Deeds 103–104), and others relating to the operation of money loan associations in the village (including Deed 58). These Shek Pik papers are now in the Permanent Collection of the Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In addition, photostat copies of these and other, later, deeds from Shek Pik are held by the Hong Kong Public Records OfÀce, together with some translations made by the District OfÀce, South/Islands.1 Dr Hayes also had a copy transcribed of a notebook from Pui O village in which Àfteen deeds relating to the family of Cheung Kwong-tsuen, 張廣全, were copied. This notebook probably contains a copy of every deed issued for land transactions the family was engaged in between about 1891 and about 1903, with some earlier deeds as well. The collection of Dr Hayes also includes smaller groups of original deeds, as well as copies taken from other deeds loaned temporarily by their owners, together with miscellaneous individual documents from scattered locations. The former comprise deeds from several places on Lantau Island, and some from Sai Kung, Tsuen Wan, Tsing Yi, and the Sheung Shui and Ho Sheung Heung areas. The latter include copies of deeds from Tai O on Lantau Island, Cheung Chau, and Peng Chau. Among these deeds...

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