Seah Eu Chin - Family Life

Family Life

In 1837, he married a daughter of Tan Ah Hun, the Kapitan (Captain) China (i.e. leader of the Chinese community) of Perak. She died soon after from the effects of smallpox, and about a year later, he married her sister with whom he had several children. His brother-in-law, Tan Seng Poh, came with his sister to Singapore to be educated there. Seng Poh was an opium and spirit farmer (i.e. he ran a government-tendered monopoly processing raw opium imported from British India. The Opium and Spirit Farm, or Excise, was the main source of income for the Straits Settlements) and helped manage Eu Chin's mercantile firm after the latter's retirement in 1864. Most prominent among his children were Seah Liang Seah and Seah Pek Seah, both of whom also became Justices of the Peace and prominent members of the Chinese community; the former was also an Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council. His eldest son, Seah Cheo Seah, was also a J.P. but he died only two years after his father, in 1885. He had another son, Seah Song Seah, who died in China, and three daughters, about whom little is known.