Raffles
Page 39
Highwood House 287, 289, 290
The History of Java 166, 189, 233
letters to 165, 240, 254, 281, 286, 294
Gillespie’s charges 171
Java 62–3, 85
marriage to Sophia 170–1
missionaries 243
Singapore 225, 245
Memoir 298, 299
and Raffles 155–6, 186, 280
Raffles’ bust 299
Raffles’ knighthood 177
Raffles’ will 290
and royals 174, 176, 177
Serat Bratayuda 166
and Sophia 187, 280, 306
and Wilberforce 185
Raffles, Thomas (grandfather) 4
Raffles, William (uncle) 4, 108, 155, 178, 187, 285, 287
Raffles-Flint, Muriel Rosdew 308
Raffles’ Ark Redrawn (Noltie) 305
Raffles Club 303
Raffles Hotel xi
Raffles Institution 253
Raffles of Singapore (musical) xii
Rafflesia arnoldii 201–3
Ramsay, William 15, 16, 22, 28–9, 59, 142
Ramsay, William Brown 14, 15, 22, 28
Cheltenham 163
letters to 56, 85, 109, 112–13, 125–6, 144, 152, 227, 235
Raffles’ dismissal 145–6
Reunion 61
Rhio 210, 215, 217, 218
Richmond, George 306
Ricklefs, M.C. 46
Robarts, Edward 50
Robinson, Crabb 4, 189, 232
Robinson, William 50, 51, 117, 127, 131, 142
Robinson, Rev. William 243
Robison, Major William 88–9, 97, 127, 301
Palembang 100, 101, 126, 133, 134
ronggengs 194
Rosdew, Richard 194
Rose (ship) 19, 27
Ross, Captain Daniel 214, 217
Royal Institution 159, 161
Royal Society 156, 157, 158, 161, 162–3
Rozells, Martina 31
Runnymede 50, 57, 64
Russell, Lord 287
Russia, Dowager Empress 203
ryotwari system 113–15, 171–2
S
St Helena 150–2, 278
St Mary’s Church, Hendon 290, 297
St Paul’s Church, Mill Hill 290, 310
Saleh, Mr 145
Salmond, Captain Francis 205, 207, 245, 267, 270
Samarang 101, 128
Savoy 179
Scenes of Infancy (Leyden) 33
Scotland xvi
Scott, David 272, 273
Scott, Sir Walter 91
Scott, Sir William 187–8
Serat Bratayuda 166
Seton, Archibald 79
Sevestre, Sir Thomas 96, 149, 164, 170, 177
Seymour, Lord Webb 159–60
Shadow Line, The (Conrad) 86
Shelley, Percy Bysshe 135, 182
Siami 149
Singapore xv, 210, 215, 256–7
administration 220–1, 245–7, 255–6
Botanic and Experimental Garden 249
Crawfurd 246, 264, 265, 267, 272
Dutch 221–2
East India Company 222–3, 229, 242–3
Farquhar 231–2, 237, 259–66, 278, 303–4, 305
Farquhar’s Memorial 291–2
Flint 266
friendships 253
Java invasion fleet 85
Menangkabau people 206
paper war 223, 234–5
Raffles’ arrival xi, 1–2, 217–19
Raffles’ departure 267–8, 272
Raffles Hotel xi
Residency House 249–50, 255
steam vessels 288–9
Straits Settlements 283
town planning 226, 247–9
Travers 231, 232
Treaty of Alliance 219–20
Treaty of London 279
Singapore Airlines xi
Singapore Chronicle 303
Singapore History Museum 305
Singapore Institution 250–3, 267, 299
‘Singapore Stone’ 226, 246
slavery 45
Bencoolen 236
Java 93, 121
Malacca 82
Singapore 246, 256
Smith, Adam xii, 311–12
Society of Antiquaries 282
Somerset, Duchess of 158–9, 186, 187, 193–4
letters to 191, 195, 222, 229–30, 231, 278–9, 281, 285
from Bencoolen 201, 202, 205, 206, 208, 235
from European tour 181, 182
from Singapore 245–6, 254
porcelain 158–9, 307
Somerset, Duke of 158, 159, 186, 187, 193–4, 295
Soper-Dempster, Harriet 18, 19, 20–1, 23, 76
Soper-Dempster, William John 21, 76
Southey, Robert 4, 190
Spain xiii
Spencer, Thomas 189
Spice Islands 59
spices 8, 241
Stamford, Thomas 3
Stanley, Sir Edmond 49
steam engines 288–9
Stephenson, George 162
Stockdale, John Joseph 122
Stopford, Rear Admiral Sir Robert 79
Straits Settlements 283
Straits Settlements Association 297
Sumatra xv, 206, 208, 279 see also Bencoolen
Sumner, Charles 309
Sumner, John 309
Surabaya 120, 130
Surakarta 101–2, 104, 128, 141, 147–8
Swettenham, Sir Frank 30, 38
Switzerland 179, 182
Syed Hussein 36, 37, 49, 73, 213, 223
Syf-ul-Alum 213, 223, 224
T
Tambora, Mount 143
Tapanuli Bay 230
tapirs 212, 304
Tayler, John 192
Tayler, Richard 17
Taylor, Jean Gelman 140
Taylor, Captain William 72, 78, 79, 80, 82, 87–8, 94, 96
tea 8
teak 102, 114
Temenggong 1, 85
Thompson, Acheson Quinton Dick 50, 163, 186, 281, 301
Thompson, Charlotte Raffles Drury see Knox, Charlotte Raffles Drury
Thompson, Rev. G.H. 251
Thompson, Maryanne see Flint, Maryanne
Thompson, Quintin Dick 32, 50, 57, 186
Thorn, Major William 89, 120–1, 189
tiger fights 129, 148
Timmerman Thyssen, Mr 97, 138
Timmerman Thyssen, Gesina 138
Timmerman Thyssen, Olivia 138
Torriano, Ella 177
Travers, Mary 165, 187, 191, 200
Travers, Captain Thomas Otho 40–1
Albion tavern dinner 187
and Arnold 204
baby’s birth 200
Bencoolen 191, 199–200, 227–8
Cheltenham 163, 284
death 307
and Gillespie 127
Gillespie’s charges 131, 132–3, 144
Ireland 164, 165, 232
Java 96–7, 119, 145, 148–9, 199–200
leaves Java 149, 150
marriage 187
Palembang 100
and Raffles 44, 97, 200, 294–5
Raffles and Gillespie 120, 124, 126
returns to England 153, 154
Singapore 231, 232
slaves 121
and Sophia 169, 172
Surakarta 147, 148
Yogyakarta 107
Treaty of London 279
Trincomalee 51
Troubridge (ship) 127
Tulloch, Jacobina Maria 138
Tulloch, Stamford William Raffles 138
Tunku Long 1–2, 217, 219, 221–3
U
University of Edinburgh 253
Upas Tree 121–3
V
Van der Capellen, Governor 223, 269
Van Hogendorp, Dirk 111
Van Hogendorp, G.K. 180
Van Riemsdijk, Mr 97
Vellore 89–90
Vereenigde Oost-Indis
che Compagnie (VOC) 8
Victoria, Queen 256
W
Wa Hakim 1
Wallace, Alfred Russel 302
Wallich, Nathaniel 212, 247, 249, 304
Jack’s letters to 214, 215
Raffles’ letters to 246, 252, 254–5, 259, 262, 266, 268–9, 270
Walthen, Maria 17
Walworth 5
Wardenaar, Willem 137
Waterloo 146–7, 183
Watson, Captain Thomas 145, 229, 241
Wealth of Nations, The (Smith) 311–12
Wellesley, Richard 15
Wellington, Duke of 183
Wheal Busy mine 154
white elephants 137
Wilberforce, William 185–6, 251, 286–7, 290, 295, 310
Wilde, Oscar 110
William I of the Netherlands 180
William II of the Netherlands 175
William V, Prince of Orange 42
Williams, Rev. Theodore 290
Williamson, Captain Thomas 17, 25–6
Wise, Mary Ann 285
Wordsworth, William 182–3
Wynne, Charles Williams 281–2, 283
XYZ
Xavier, St Francis 46
Yogyakarta 101, 102–8, 113, 128, 141, 147, 148
Zoological Society 285–6, 289, 295, 299
1. No one would guess from this formal portrait by George Francis Joseph (1817), that Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles FRS had recently been recalled by the East India Company from his post as Lieutenant-Governor of Java. Here he is the quintessential statesman and connoisseur, with papers on his knee and at his elbow, and Javanese objects from his collection on the table beside him.
2. Raffles’ unfortunate father Captain Benjamin Raffles, around the time that Raffles was born.
3. A drawing of his mother Anne towards the end of her life.
4. The Rev. Thomas Raffles, his first cousin and confidant, and a celebrity preacher.
5. Raffles’ much-loved first wife Olivia, ten years older than he and with a child born out of wedlock.
6. India House, the pompous headquarters of the East India Company in Leadenhall Street in the City where, from the age of fourteen, Raffles laboured as a copying-clerk for ten long years.
7/8. Raffles’ favourite sister Maryanne, and her second husband Captain William Flint.
9. Their son Charles, ‘Charley Boy’, aged five. He was brought up by Raffles and his second wife Sophia. They had the drawing done for Maryanne, and Charley Boy’s coat, embroidered ‘in the Polish fashion’, cost them six guineas.
10. Raffles’ adoring second wife Sophia, painted shortly after their marriage – note the prominently displayed wedding ring. She was tougher and more resourceful than the fanciful costume suggests, and the mother of his five children.
11. Companion-piece to the portrait of Sophia, depicting Raffles’ foxy colouring and light eyes more faithfully than other portraits.
12. Bust of Ella, their only surviving child (until aged nineteen), said to be just like her father.
13. Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Prince Regent, who befriended Raffles and probably engineered his knighthood.
14/15/16/17 (clockwise): William Farquhar, first Resident and Commandant of Singapore, with whom Raffles fell out disastrously. John Palmer, the rich merchant who briefed against Raffles in Calcutta. Lord Minto, Governor-General of India, Raffles’ mentor and his collaborator in planning the invasion of Java. He gave this portrait to Raffles. Robert Rollo Gillespie, the military hero who brought charges against Raffles.
18. Borobudur in Central Java, the great Buddhist temple uncovered from the jungle by Raffles’ team.
19. Dick the Papuan Boy, whom Raffles brought to London in 1816.
20. A head of Buddha brought home by Raffles from Borobudur.
21. Image of a Javanese shadow puppet from Raffles’ collection.
22/23. Raffles’ homes: Above, Buitenzorg, his country residence when Lieutenant-Governor of Java, and where Olivia died. Below: ‘I have cleared my Hill’ – Permatang Balam, the house he built for his growing family when Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen.
24/25. Above: Malacca on the Malaysian pensinsula, from where the invasion fleet set sail for Java, showing the Dutch church and, on the right, Government House. Below: Bencoolen, the unpromising settlement on the west coast of Sumatra where Raffles was Lieutenant-Governor and where four of his little children died.
26/27. Singapore: Two views of the new settlement from Government Hill, where Raffles built his bungalow. He described how he looked from his hill all the way down the High Street to the bay, crowded with vessels coming in to trade. Nowadays you cannot see the sea at all from Government Hill on account of the massed high-rises.
28. An imagined depiction of the fire on the Fame, from which Raffles and Sophia escaped with their lives but with the loss of his natural history collection, his drawings, maps and papers, and all their personal belongings.
29/30. The Asian Tapir, first described by William Farquhar, to Raffles’ annoyance. The water-colour drawing is from Raffles’ collection. Rafflesia arnoldii, the vast bloom found by Dr Arnold on Raffles’ expedition into south-west Sumatra – ‘the wonder of the vegetable kingdom’, as Raffles wrote, ‘it measured across rather more than a yard.’ The fleshy flower smells disgusting.
31/32/33/34. clockwise: The Marquess of Hastings, Governor-General of India, initially hostile to Raffles but soon his keen supporter. Raffles’ good friend the Duchess of Somerset, to whom he wrote some of his best letters. Sir Joseph Banks, famous naturalist, President of the Royal Society, and the most influential of Raffles’ ‘Great Men of the Town’. Captain Thomas Otho Travers from Co Cork, Raffles’ ADC and his most loyal friend and admirer.
35. East Street in the village of Walworth, Raffles’ modest boyhood home.
36. Highwood, his last home, the happy house on a hundred acres in Mill Hill. He died here, thousands of pounds in debt to his lifelong employers, the East India Company.
37. Sir Everard Home FRS, the comparative anatomist who performed the autopsy on Raffles at Highwood on the day of his death.
38. A modern artist’s impression of the probable appearance of Raffles’ open skull with the fatal arterio-venous malformation at the front.
39. Raffles’ monument by Chantrey in Westminster Abbey. It is surrounded by massive memorials to grandees of the East India Company. The plaque on Raffle’s monument lists his high achievements with no mention of the Company at all.
40. Raffles against the office towers on Boat Quay – a reproduction of the original statue by Thomas Woolner. The plaque reads: ‘On this historic site, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28 January 1819, and with genius and perception changed the destiny of an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern Metropolis.’