Lem AH CUE [8203]

   Other names for Lem were John AH CUE, William AH CUE, Ah CUE, John CUE and LEMCUE.

  General Notes:

aka Lem Cue aka Ah Cue aka Arh Cwe aka William Lemcue was born in Canton in China in 1843. He signed his naturalisation papers with (chinese character) which is pronounced Kiu in Cantonese.

He arrived in Australia on the 20th of January 1862 on the ship "Wee Sing" which sailed from the port of Hong Kong. In 1869 he married Sarah Hannah Doncaster, and their first child (William) was born three years later in Wangaratta in 1872. He was naturalised not long after in 1873 at which time he was working as a market gardener.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ah_Cue-3

Occupation on death certificate given as gardener.

Excerpt from
SOME OLDTIME RECOLLECTIONS.
BY OUR SUNBURY CORRESPONDENT.
The Bacchus Marsh Express (Vic. : 1866 - 1918) Saturday 6 March 1886 Page 3
................................This was not the case, for to my knowledge " The Flowery Land " children were here in 1846, but only in very limited numbers.
Richard Sinclair Brodie had three of them in his service, and John Aitken had some more shepherding and hut-keeping, one of whom died and is buried somewhere on the eastern branch of the Kororoit Creek. Brodie used to relate a story of one of his chinkies worth telling, because it will lead up to the other matters worthy of record. John Ah Cue, in search of work, came to the station one day, accompanied by a thoroughly respectable looking European woman. John interviewed Mr. Brodie, and as he required a married couple for the kitcken, and knowing that Ah Cue was a very handy fellow, he resolved to engage the pair. Before doing so he cornered John alone, and put the question "Ah Cue, are you honestly married to the woman, and who married you." This was a necessary precaution, for by the old squatting laws any run-holder knowingly employing a couple not lawfully married did so at the risk of forfeiting his licence to hold Crown lands. Some clauses in those regulations were supremely ridiculous. For instance, we had the privilege of cultivating land to raise produce for the consumption of the station, but were expressly forbidden to grow anything for sale. To return to John. He met Brodie's queries cool as a cucumber. " Oh, yes, me mally all light. Parson Thompson he mally me." -This'satisfied Brodie, so he engaged the pair, and the woman proved such efficient servant that Brodie was quite delighted with his bargain. His brother George came up one day to see how station affairs were going on, and seeing the woman he observed " Richard, I perceive you have got a married couple, who are they." "John Ah Cue and his wife," replied Richard. "It may be so," said George, "but I feel inclined, to doubt it." "Call the man up." Mr. George put John through the same ordeal as his brother had. The Chinaman stuck to his former statements in such a straight forward manner that the brothers, lacking better testimony, felt for the present that they must give credence to his story. That time there were only three ministers of religion resident in Melbourne,. viz., the Reverends Mr. Forbes, Presbyterian,. E Geohaghan, Roman Catholic, and Thompson, Church of England. George Brodie on his a return to town, called upon the three clergy men. Marriages were not so plentiful then that there was any need to refer to the registers: to ascertain if a Chinaman had entered into the matrimonial bonds. As it was more expeditious to drive up than to wait for anyone travelling the way to carry a letter, Brodie ordered out his trap and drove to the station. On his arrival, after the usual greetings, he requested John's presence. That worthy came forth, and Mr. Brodie accosted him with the words "John, Parson - Thompson never married you." Ah Cue answered with the utmost composure, ''I makee mistakee in name, Parson Forbes he mally mine, you savee." " Come, come," said Brodie, highly assumed by the style John hedged the question, ''you are not married." -"I have been to Father .Geohaghan, Mr.Thompson, and Mr. Forbes, and none of those gentlemen -ever married a Chinaman in Melbourne or anywhere else.'' John, in spite of this, persisted that he was "plenty mallied." But at last he burst out laughing and said, " Over the bloomstick, you savee, Mr. Blodie." The long and short was that John, with his quasi-wife, got their walking tickets........................


Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1855 -1918) Saturday 16 February 1895 page 7
WANGARATTA REVISION COURT
Thursday, February 14.
(Before Mr O. L Dobbin, P.M.),
Ratepaying Roll. - The following objections were made Ah Cue, not being a naturalised subject ;

Lem married Sarah Hanna DONCASTER [8204] [MRIN: 2615] in 1869 in Wangaratta, Vic, Australia.⁶⁵⁹¹ (Sarah Hanna DONCASTER [8204] was born about 1852 in , , New Zealand, died on 4 Jul 1926 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ⁶⁵⁹³ and was buried on 6 Jul 1926 in Fawkner, Victoria, Australia.)