Major William Farquhar was a British East India Company officer who served as Resident of Malacca and, subsequently, as the first Resident of Singapore. In the Achehnese literature he is chiefly significant for his explorations of Borneo’s west coast and the Karimon Islands in 1818 and for the letter of 19 January 1819 in which he invited Raffles to inspect the latter — an invitation that produced Raffles’s sudden detour from the Acheh commission and the founding of Singapore.
Explorations in Borneo and the Rhio–Lingga Archipelago
Farquhar had been dispatched in 1818 on an exploratory cruise to the west coast of Borneo and to Lingga. At Pontianak he was refused landing by the Dutch commissioner Van Boekholz, who turned him away from the river; at Lingga, on the other hand, he succeeded in concluding a treaty with the Sultan. The news of his rejection at Pontianak and of the subsequent destruction of his Lingga engagement by Schout-bij-nacht Wolterbeek at Riouw did much to inflame British opinion against the Dutch and helped to bring about the Acheh commission of 1819.
In the course of these voyages Farquhar formed the opinion that the Karimon Islands would afford an excellent site for a British establishment. The Dutch governor at Malacca, Timmerman Thyssen, reported the matter to Wolterbeek in a private letter of 11 November 1818, observing that «the Major still hopes to take possession of the Karimon Islands; at Pulo Pinang it seems to be a settled plan to take possession of these and of the kingdom of Acheen on Sumatra».
The Karimon Letter and the Founding of Singapore
On the afternoon of 19 January 1819, while Raffles was making his preparations at Penang for the Acheh voyage, Farquhar addressed him a letter expressing his favourable opinion of the Karimon Islands and inviting him to make a joint inspection. Raffles found the invitation of such importance that he not only postponed the entire Acheh mission, the urgency of which he had hitherto insisted upon, but actually departed without taking leave of either Governor Bannerman or Captain Coombs, taking with him, to Bannerman’s indignation, the artillery stores which the Penang government believed had been destined for the Acheh operation. The detour produced, in the space of a few weeks, the founding of Singapore — «an anti-Batavia», as Van der Kemp puts it.
Role in the Minto Dispatch
Raffles afterwards sought to justify his decision by Farquhar’s concurrence. In his letter to O. F. Metcalfe of 30 September 1819, printed as Appendix 5 of Van der Kemp’s article, Raffles stated that, having «accidentally» realised that the interests of Jauhar Alum might suffer during his absence from the Acheh commission, he had consulted Farquhar on the propriety of dispatching the *Minto* to Pedir, and that «as he fully concurred with me, I detached the Minto with the instructions» given to Captain Criddle.
Later Career
Farquhar became the first Resident of Singapore under Raffles, and is generally accounted the co-founder of the settlement. His wider Malaccan career belongs properly to the Singapore-Malacca record, but it is worth noting that his correspondence with Raffles during the Karimon episode was one of the immediate causes of the long quarrel between Raffles and the Penang government, a quarrel whose documentation forms the bulk of the Acheh treaty of 1819 file studied by Van der Kemp.
See Also
- Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
- Colonel John Alexander Bannerman
- Captain Coombs
- Raffles’ detour to Karimon Islands
- Founding of Singapore
- Raffles-Coombs Acheh Commission (1819)
- Dispatch of the Minto to Pedir
- Schout-bij-nacht Wolterbeek
- Timmerman Thyssen
- Van Boekholz
- Karimon Islands
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.
Major William Farquhar was a British East India Company officer who served as Resident of Malacca and, subsequently, as the first Resident of Singapore. In the Achehnese literature he is chiefly significant for his explorations of Borneo’s west coast and the Karimon Islands in 1818 and for the letter of 19 January 1819 in which he invited Raffles to inspect the latter — an invitation that produced Raffles’s sudden detour from the Acheh commission and the founding of Singapore.
Explorations in Borneo and the Rhio–Lingga Archipelago
Farquhar had been dispatched in 1818 on an exploratory cruise to the west coast of Borneo and to Lingga. At Pontianak he was refused landing by the Dutch commissioner Van Boekholz, who turned him away from the river; at Lingga, on the other hand, he succeeded in concluding a treaty with the Sultan. The news of his rejection at Pontianak and of the subsequent destruction of his Lingga engagement by Schout-bij-nacht Wolterbeek at Riouw did much to inflame British opinion against the Dutch and helped to bring about the Acheh commission of 1819.
In the course of these voyages Farquhar formed the opinion that the Karimon Islands would afford an excellent site for a British establishment. The Dutch governor at Malacca, Timmerman Thyssen, reported the matter to Wolterbeek in a private letter of 11 November 1818, observing that «the Major still hopes to take possession of the Karimon Islands; at Pulo Pinang it seems to be a settled plan to take possession of these and of the kingdom of Acheen on Sumatra».
The Karimon Letter and the Founding of Singapore
On the afternoon of 19 January 1819, while Raffles was making his preparations at Penang for the Acheh voyage, Farquhar addressed him a letter expressing his favourable opinion of the Karimon Islands and inviting him to make a joint inspection. Raffles found the invitation of such importance that he not only postponed the entire Acheh mission, the urgency of which he had hitherto insisted upon, but actually departed without taking leave of either Governor Bannerman or Captain Coombs, taking with him, to Bannerman’s indignation, the artillery stores which the Penang government believed had been destined for the Acheh operation. The detour produced, in the space of a few weeks, the founding of Singapore — «an anti-Batavia», as Van der Kemp puts it.
Role in the Minto Dispatch
Raffles afterwards sought to justify his decision by Farquhar’s concurrence. In his letter to O. F. Metcalfe of 30 September 1819, printed as Appendix 5 of Van der Kemp’s article, Raffles stated that, having «accidentally» realised that the interests of Jauhar Alum might suffer during his absence from the Acheh commission, he had consulted Farquhar on the propriety of dispatching the *Minto* to Pedir, and that «as he fully concurred with me, I detached the Minto with the instructions» given to Captain Criddle.
Later Career
Farquhar became the first Resident of Singapore under Raffles, and is generally accounted the co-founder of the settlement. His wider Malaccan career belongs properly to the Singapore-Malacca record, but it is worth noting that his correspondence with Raffles during the Karimon episode was one of the immediate causes of the long quarrel between Raffles and the Penang government, a quarrel whose documentation forms the bulk of the Acheh treaty of 1819 file studied by Van der Kemp.
See Also
- Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
- Colonel John Alexander Bannerman
- Captain Coombs
- Raffles’ detour to Karimon Islands
- Founding of Singapore
- Raffles-Coombs Acheh Commission (1819)
- Dispatch of the Minto to Pedir
- Schout-bij-nacht Wolterbeek
- Timmerman Thyssen
- Van Boekholz
- Karimon Islands
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.