W. E. Phillips

Properties2
tagsperson, british-official
aliasesW. E. Philips, Phillips, Phillipps, Mr. Phillips

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W. E. Phillips was a British East India Company official who served as Governor of Penang from August 1819, on the death of Colonel Bannerman, until succeeded by Robert Fullerton. In the Achehnese record he is significant for his handling of the Syf pension question, the Lucas affair, the early phase of Said Akil’s Deli adventure, and for his Pinang Nota of November 1823, in which the British government’s interference in Achehnese affairs was formally renounced.

The Syf Pension and the Wilhelmina Mutineers

Soon after taking office, Phillips was confronted with the consequences of Syf ul-Alum’s flight to Calcutta and his return to Penang on a pension of 500 dollars a month charged to Sultan Jauhar Alum. When, in February 1821, the Dutch governor of Malacca, Timmerman Thyssen, dispatched Colonel E. Lucas in the man-of-war Irene to Telok Semawé to demand the surrender of the Wilhelmina mutineers and their plunder, Phillips opposed the project. In his minute of 1 February 1821 he argued that, since Syf had acted as a sovereign at Telok Semawé at the time of the mutiny, no competent tribunal existed on Penang to adjudicate the Dutch claims; and that, given the British defensive alliance with Sultan Jauhar Alum, Dutch warships should be dissuaded from proceeding to the coast of Acheh. The Penang government’s letter to Thyssen of 7 February 1821, drafted on these principles, is printed in summary in Van der Kemp’s text, and the Clubley reply to Lucas of 12 February 1821 makes clear that Penang would make no further enquiry of Syf.

Relations with Sultan Jauhar Alum and the Three Sagis

Throughout 1822 Phillips urged Jauhar Alum to leave Pedir and re-establish himself at the capital. The sultan’s reply of 15 April 1822, also summarised by Van der Kemp, begged for patience: the capital was in ruins, the revenues were uncollectable, and a meeting with Panglima Polim was promised within months. In December of the same year Phillips received the celebrated letter of the three Sagis declaring that they had sworn on the tomb of Tunhar Anjung at Kampong Java never to receive Jauhar Alum again, and requesting that Syf ul-Alum be sent back to them as sultan. Phillips replied firmly that, the British Government being on terms of amity with Sultan Jauhar Alum, he could not «concert measures or hold correspondence with the enemies of that Prince».

The Pinang Nota of November 1823 and the Said Akil Affair

After the death of Sultan Jauhar Alum in December 1823, the Penang government’s policy of non-interference was formally stated in the Pinang Nota of November 1823, in which Phillips expressed his satisfaction at the Sartorius mission and announced that, save for representations to the Supreme Government, he would «scrupulously abstain from forming any more political relations with the Dutch» and from interfering in the affairs of Acheh, Kedah and Siam.

Phillips was still governor when, in 1824, the Sultan of Deli wrote to him on 27 August 1824 announcing that he had adopted Syed Akil — the son of Syed Hussein and younger brother of Syf ul-Alum — as a son. When Akil later armed a force to seize the government of Deli in 1826, Phillips dispatched the Malay translator John Anderson with a letter of 11 April 1826 requiring Akil to return to Penang. The Sultan of Deli’s letter to Phillips’s successor Fullerton describes Phillips as one «with whom I was on terms of friendship» and expresses regret at his impending return to Europe.

See Also

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.

W. E. Phillips was a British East India Company official who served as Governor of Penang from August 1819, on the death of Colonel Bannerman, until succeeded by Robert Fullerton. In the Achehnese record he is significant for his handling of the Syf pension question, the Lucas affair, the early phase of Said Akil’s Deli adventure, and for his Pinang Nota of November 1823, in which the British government’s interference in Achehnese affairs was formally renounced.

The Syf Pension and the Wilhelmina Mutineers

Soon after taking office, Phillips was confronted with the consequences of Syf ul-Alum’s flight to Calcutta and his return to Penang on a pension of 500 dollars a month charged to Sultan Jauhar Alum. When, in February 1821, the Dutch governor of Malacca, Timmerman Thyssen, dispatched Colonel E. Lucas in the man-of-war Irene to Telok Semawé to demand the surrender of the Wilhelmina mutineers and their plunder, Phillips opposed the project. In his minute of 1 February 1821 he argued that, since Syf had acted as a sovereign at Telok Semawé at the time of the mutiny, no competent tribunal existed on Penang to adjudicate the Dutch claims; and that, given the British defensive alliance with Sultan Jauhar Alum, Dutch warships should be dissuaded from proceeding to the coast of Acheh. The Penang government’s letter to Thyssen of 7 February 1821, drafted on these principles, is printed in summary in Van der Kemp’s text, and the Clubley reply to Lucas of 12 February 1821 makes clear that Penang would make no further enquiry of Syf.

Relations with Sultan Jauhar Alum and the Three Sagis

Throughout 1822 Phillips urged Jauhar Alum to leave Pedir and re-establish himself at the capital. The sultan’s reply of 15 April 1822, also summarised by Van der Kemp, begged for patience: the capital was in ruins, the revenues were uncollectable, and a meeting with Panglima Polim was promised within months. In December of the same year Phillips received the celebrated letter of the three Sagis declaring that they had sworn on the tomb of Tunhar Anjung at Kampong Java never to receive Jauhar Alum again, and requesting that Syf ul-Alum be sent back to them as sultan. Phillips replied firmly that, the British Government being on terms of amity with Sultan Jauhar Alum, he could not «concert measures or hold correspondence with the enemies of that Prince».

The Pinang Nota of November 1823 and the Said Akil Affair

After the death of Sultan Jauhar Alum in December 1823, the Penang government’s policy of non-interference was formally stated in the Pinang Nota of November 1823, in which Phillips expressed his satisfaction at the Sartorius mission and announced that, save for representations to the Supreme Government, he would «scrupulously abstain from forming any more political relations with the Dutch» and from interfering in the affairs of Acheh, Kedah and Siam.

Phillips was still governor when, in 1824, the Sultan of Deli wrote to him on 27 August 1824 announcing that he had adopted Syed Akil — the son of Syed Hussein and younger brother of Syf ul-Alum — as a son. When Akil later armed a force to seize the government of Deli in 1826, Phillips dispatched the Malay translator John Anderson with a letter of 11 April 1826 requiring Akil to return to Penang. The Sultan of Deli’s letter to Phillips’s successor Fullerton describes Phillips as one «with whom I was on terms of friendship» and expresses regret at his impending return to Europe.

See Also

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.

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