•Useful for historians and students of colonial law and colonial administration, Hong Kong (China) legal and social history.•Carefully edited and annotated transcription of newspaper reports of magistrate's court cases at a particularly lively period in Hong Kong history, with analyses and background documentation of specific offences, detailed references to historical Ordinances, and a careful index.•Illuminates the interface and parallels between the establishment of a colonial education system and the introduction of colonial law. •Extends our knowledge and understanding of nineteenth century Hong Kong family and social life, law, policing, and court practice. Provides information about hundreds of individuals.•Throws additional light on the Irish Roman Catholic Governor of the time, John Pope Hennessy and the Founder of Hong Kong Government Education, Frederick Stewart.