Governor Petrie was a British East India Company official who served as Governor of Penang (Prince of Wales’ Island) in the years immediately preceding the appointment of Colonel Bannerman in 1817. He is significant in the Achehnese record for having authorised the first Acheh mission of Captain Coombs.
Authorisation of Coombs’s First Acheh Mission
The political superintendence of Achehnese affairs had been assigned by the Bengal government to the authorities at Penang. «Still during Petrie’s lifetime», writes Van der Kemp, «a certain Captain Coombs was sent on a commission to Acheh at the end of 1817 or the beginning of 1818, to enquire after the rightful sultan». Coombs found the chiefs of the capital insisting that they had forever renounced Jauhar Alum and recognised Syf ul-Alum as their sovereign. A few days before his arrival a British brig had been cut out by Tuku Pakih of Pedir (Capture of British brig by Tunku Pakih); Coombs took the matter up with the chiefs, who expressed indignation and promised to call Pakih to account. After a stay of fourteen days Coombs left the «ungenerous port» in February 1818, convinced that Syf was the rightful sultan but that the British government would have to support him with at least a thousand men if he were to maintain his authority. He then proceeded to Calcutta to make his report «in accordance with the wishes of the Penang government» — that is, of Petrie’s government.
Death and Succession
Petrie died in office, and on his death Bannerman succeeded him as Governor of Penang. Van der Kemp notes that Bannerman, on his appointment, «fell into the middle of the Achehnese questions, which were unknown to him» — questions that Petrie had set in train by authorising the Coombs mission and that would culminate, under Bannerman’s successor, in the Raffles-Coombs commission of 1819 and the treaty of 22 April 1819.
See Also
- Colonel John Alexander Bannerman
- Captain Coombs
- Captain Coombs’ first Acheh mission (1817-1818)
- Raffles-Coombs Acheh Commission (1819)
- Sultan Saif ul-Alum
- Sultan Jauhar Alum
- Tunku Pakih
- Capture of British brig by Tunku Pakih
- Acheh succession dispute (1802-1819)
- Penang
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.
Governor Petrie was a British East India Company official who served as Governor of Penang (Prince of Wales’ Island) in the years immediately preceding the appointment of Colonel Bannerman in 1817. He is significant in the Achehnese record for having authorised the first Acheh mission of Captain Coombs.
Authorisation of Coombs’s First Acheh Mission
The political superintendence of Achehnese affairs had been assigned by the Bengal government to the authorities at Penang. «Still during Petrie’s lifetime», writes Van der Kemp, «a certain Captain Coombs was sent on a commission to Acheh at the end of 1817 or the beginning of 1818, to enquire after the rightful sultan». Coombs found the chiefs of the capital insisting that they had forever renounced Jauhar Alum and recognised Syf ul-Alum as their sovereign. A few days before his arrival a British brig had been cut out by Tuku Pakih of Pedir (Capture of British brig by Tunku Pakih); Coombs took the matter up with the chiefs, who expressed indignation and promised to call Pakih to account. After a stay of fourteen days Coombs left the «ungenerous port» in February 1818, convinced that Syf was the rightful sultan but that the British government would have to support him with at least a thousand men if he were to maintain his authority. He then proceeded to Calcutta to make his report «in accordance with the wishes of the Penang government» — that is, of Petrie’s government.
Death and Succession
Petrie died in office, and on his death Bannerman succeeded him as Governor of Penang. Van der Kemp notes that Bannerman, on his appointment, «fell into the middle of the Achehnese questions, which were unknown to him» — questions that Petrie had set in train by authorising the Coombs mission and that would culminate, under Bannerman’s successor, in the Raffles-Coombs commission of 1819 and the treaty of 22 April 1819.
See Also
- Colonel John Alexander Bannerman
- Captain Coombs
- Captain Coombs’ first Acheh mission (1817-1818)
- Raffles-Coombs Acheh Commission (1819)
- Sultan Saif ul-Alum
- Sultan Jauhar Alum
- Tunku Pakih
- Capture of British brig by Tunku Pakih
- Acheh succession dispute (1802-1819)
- Penang
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.