Stamford Raffles
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles FRS FRAS (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826)[1][2] was a British colonial official who served as the governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. Raffles was involved in the capture of the Indonesian island of Java from the Dutch during the Napoleonic Wars. It was returned under the Anglo–Dutch Treaty of 1814. He also wrote The History of Java in 1817, describing the history of the island from ancient times.[3] Rafflesia flower was named after him.[4]
The Honourable SirStamford Raffles
Office established
Office abolished
Robert Rollo Gillespie
(acting)
5 July 1781
Onboard the ship Ann, off the coast of Port Morant, Jamaica
5 July 1826 (aged 45)
Highwood House, Highwood Hill, Middlesex, England
Apoplexy (stroke) due to brain tumour
St Mary's Church, Hendon, England
5
- Benjamin Raffles (father)
- Anne Raffles (mother)
Mansion House Boarding School
Raffles also played a role in further establishing the British Empire's reach in East and Southeast Asia. He secured control over the strategically located Singapore from local rulers in 1819 to secure British access along the Strait of Singapore and the nearby seas in the region, particularly the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. His actions were initially not endorsed by the British government and led to tensions between the British and the Dutch; war was avoided under the Anglo–Dutch Treaty of 1824 which firmly established their spheres of influence, whereby the Dutch would relinquish its claims to Singapore and the British seceding Bencoolen in Sumatra to the Dutch. An entrepôt was subsequently established in Singapore for maritime trade between Europe and Asia.
While Raffles was largely credited for the founding of contemporary Singapore, the early running of day-to-day operations was mostly done by William Farquhar, who served as the first Resident of Singapore from 1819 to 1823.[5] Raffles soon returned to England in 1824, where he died on his birthday in 1826 at the age of 45. His legacy while complex remains significant in Singapore, most notably the Raffles's Landing Site, as well as his name being a common sight in numerous entities and institutions throughout the country. Others have argued against excessive reverence as he was an imperialist who projected colonialism onto the population of Singapore that predated his arrival.[6][7]
Early life[edit]
Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was born on 5 July 1781 on board the ship Ann, off the coast of Port Morant, Jamaica,[2] to Captain Benjamin Raffles (1739, London – 23 November 1811, Deptford) and Anne Raffles (née Lyde) (1755 – 8 February 1824, London).[1] Benjamin served as a ship master for various ships engaged in the direct trade between England and the West Indies. Although some biographers have suggested that Benjamin was involved in the slave trade, modern historians have refuted such claims. When Benjamin ended his involvement in the West India trade in 1800, it caused his family considerable hardship.[8]
The little money the family had went into sending the young Raffles to the Mansion House Academy, Hammersmith, a moderately priced boarding school, offering Latin, Greek, French, arithmetic, bookkeeping and geography, that specialised in preparing boys for clerkships or the army.[9] In 1795, at the age of 14, Raffles started working as a clerk in London for the British East India Company, the trading company that shaped many of Britain's overseas conquests. Nine years later, in 1804, the 23-year-old Raffles married Olivia Mariamne Devenish, a widow ten years his senior,[1]: 57, 73, 107 who was formerly married to Jacob Cassivelaun Fancourt, an assistant surgeon in Madras, who had died in 1800.[1]: 59, 69
In 1805, he was sent to Prince of Wales Island, Malaya, starting his long association with Southeast Asia. He started as assistant secretary, under the Honourable Philip Dundas, the new governor of Penang.[10] At this time, he also made the acquaintance of Thomas Otho Travers, who would accompany him for the next twenty years.[8]
Interlude in England[edit]
In 1817, Raffles wrote and published The History of Java,[17] describing the history of the island from ancient times as well as its geography, flora, and fauna.
In 1817, Raffles was created a Knight Bachelor by the Prince Regent George IV, whose daughter, Princess Charlotte, was particularly close to him. At the publication of the book, he also stopped using the name 'Thomas', preferring to use his middle name, 'Stamford', possibly to avoid confusion amongst his associates with Sir Thomas Sevestre, or his cousin, Thomas Raffles, who both bore the same first name.
On 22 February, he married his second wife, Sophia Hull,[10][18][19] and later set sail to Bencoolen (present-day Bengkulu in Indonesia) to take up his new post with his new wife.
Administration of Bencoolen, 1820–1822[edit]
Raffles returned to Bencoolen in ill-health, but as his health improved, he continued on his quest to learn about the island he now called home. He studied the Batak cannibals of Tapanuli, and their rituals and laws regarding the consumption of human flesh, writing in detail about the transgressions that warranted such an act, as well as their methods. He also noted the rise of the Sikh religion in certain parts of Sumatra.
By early 1820, Tengku Long had firmly established himself as the Sultan of Johor to the British, but the political situation in the area remained a befuddled mess, with the old sultan dying, and many new ones attempting to gain either the crown or regency. As Farquhar was involving himself poorly in local politics, Raffles appointed Travers as the Resident of Singapore, replacing Farquhar. Upon his arrival, Travers found the colony a delightful smörgåsbord of different races and cultures, numbering over six thousand. He also found that Singapore's trade was slowly overtaking that of Java.
As in Java, Raffles collected samples of local species of plant and animal, as well as describing them in his journals. He located other tribes, and recorded their customs, especially their religions and laws. Bringing the island of Nias under British rule, he noted its civilised state and high production yields of rice.
Yet the production of food remained a problem. In Bencoolen, Raffles paid special attention to the agricultural methods of the Chinese, including an introduction to the only issue of Proceedings of the Agricultural Society. To remedy the shortages, his employer, the East India Company, concerned themselves only with profit-taking. Even as Raffles lived like a country gentleman, and ran his colony like an estate, his expenditure on nature preservation was seriously frowned upon. In both Calcutta and London, they discussed his removal from office, while Castlereagh continued negotiations with the Dutch regarding the ongoing diplomatic conflicts.
Luckily, the Singapore issue had its supporters in the House, so as negotiations continued in Europe, Raffles remained largely idle in Bencoolen. The only major issue, outside the politics of the local sultans, involved the replacement of Farquhar, who decided that he had no intention of leaving his post voluntarily, causing a moment of tension between him and Travers. Raffles's request for Travers to deliver dispatches to India nullified the issue late in the year, and Farquhar remained in charge of Singapore, with its survival still in doubt for many in both India and London, who believed that it would either be handed over to the Dutch, or taken violently by force when Castlereagh's negotiations had ended. Still William Farquhar stirred up more trouble, especially with local English merchants over trivial matters of self-importance, and overreaction over small infractions of white traders, for some of which he was reprimanded by Calcutta officially. Public works, commissioned by Raffles but undertaken by Farquhar, were becoming overwhelmingly expensive.
Personal tragedies also started for Raffles. His eldest son, Leopold Stamford (b. 1818), died during an epidemic on 4 July 1821. The oldest daughter, Charlotte (b. 1818), was also sick with dysentery by the end of the year, but it would be his youngest son, Stamford Marsden (b. 1820), who would perish first with the disease, on 3 January 1822, with Charlotte to follow ten days later. For the good part of four months, the couple remained devastated. The year would be eventful with the suicide of Castlereagh, and the appointment of Lord Amherst as the governor-general of India, replacing Hastings. As Raffles grew restless and depressed, he decided to visit Singapore before retiring and heading home to England. Accompanying him would be his wife Sophia and their only surviving child, Ella.
Raffles was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in 1822.[23]
