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CHAPTER III

THE SECOND DECADE (1829-39)

EARLY in February 1830 there was a serious outbreak of fire in Chinatown. It began in a blacksmith’s shop in Circular Road, burned down Philip Street and one side of Market Street and nearly got to Commercial Square. Abdullah’s account of the great fire in his Hikayat evidently referred to this event, and not, as his translator Mr Thomson¹ suggests, to the fire in 1847 at Kampong Glam. To quote from his graphic description:

After I had heard of the death of Mr Collie² [which took place in 1828] I was living in a house in the merchants’ quarter, very ill with fever, and impatiently waiting to return to my college work in Malacca, when, about 7.30 pm on the 13th of the 1st Chinese moon, as the children were busily engaged in playing with kuda api (candle-lit paper horses), and half of the Chinese were amusing themselves, and half making great noises with their musical instruments – I heard the cry of ‘Fire! Fire!’

The fire spread rapidly in the direction of the house wherein he was lying down, and so startled him that, forgetting all his personal belongings and the $400 he had in his box, he rushed out of the house with just the clothes he had on.

I saw many coveted goods and merchandise in the middle of the streets which people had thrown out like rubbish. Chests of opium were scattered about all down the streets, while spirits were flowing like a stream to the sea.³

There were no fire engines, of course, and the only water supply was by buckets carried by the convicts [29]. The fire raged for three successive nights and days. Abdullah composed a poem of this fire which ‘I named Singapura Terbakar, and is well known to all Singaporeans and Malakites.’

In the year 1831 thirty-six Chinese merchants and traders formed themselves into a Family Benefit Society under the name of Keng Tek Whay . The Society still exists and owns eight valuable shophouses in the Town of Singapore. No new members have ever been admitted, and all the present members are representatives of the original members, some of whom are referred to in these records, viz: See Boon Tiong,⁴ Ang Choon Seng,⁵ Chee Teang Why,⁶ Chee Kim Guan⁷ and So Guan Chuan.⁸ The last two named ‘brethren’ are presumably the two Chinese gentlemen who were elected to sit on the first Committee of the Chamber of Commerce in 1837.

Buckley in his Anecdotal History⁹ speaks of Singapore as being in a lawless state in 1831. Several murders were reported in one week, while no proper measures were available to trace the criminals or to secure life and property in the outlying parts of the town. Very little was known of the island beyond the hills behind the town, and convict labour was being then employed in road-making from Kampong Glam across the Kallang and Gaylang bridges. While a gang of Chinese convicts was at work on a road on the outskirts of the town, a number of Chinese ran out of the jungle and rescued ten of these convicts by carrying them off and knocking off their irons. The whole police force, eighteen strong, was mustered and recovered five of the convicts. It was said at the time that there was a secret society exceeding 1,000 men established in the jungle and that they had actually an armed fort there. This seems to have been the first mention of secret societies in Singapore.

On the 8th of June 1831 a dinner was given to all the influential residents by Choa Chong Long to celebrate his forty-fourth birthday. He was born circa 1788 in [30] Malacca, as his father was the Captain China there when the settlement was under Dutch rule. In the judgment of Maxwell CJ¹⁰, in the reported case of Choa Choon Neo¹¹ v Spottiswoode,¹² the deceased was described as a person ‘born and domiciled in Singapore but of Chinese descent’. This description is evidently an error.¹³ He lived in Commercial Square, and sometimes gave entertainments in European style to the British merchants and was a very intelligent and wealthy man. After the dinner above referred to, a number of toasts were drunk, including the health of Mr Ibbetson¹⁴, the Resident, and the memory of Sir Stamford Raffles, and Chong Long proposed the health of the Duke of Wellington. Wealthy and influential though he was (for at one time the natives called one of the hills near Tanjong Pagar, now demolished, Bukit Chong Long), he was apparently a man that you could not impose upon or take liberties with. To this day, the following pantun is still remembered:

Tinggi tinggi rumah Chek Chong Long

Di-bawahnya buat kedai kain:

A lang-nya bisa ular tedong

Bulih-kah tangkap buat main?¹⁵

He went to China in 1838, and was murdered in a house in Macao by some burglars in the middle of December. He appointed Mr William Spottiswoode¹⁶ executor of his will, which contained a devise for ever of certain properties for ‘sinchew’ purposes, and this was probably the first Chinese will which the Courts here had to construe on that point, when it was held that such a devise was void as being in perpetuity, and not a charity.

Mr GW Earl¹⁷ has this paragraph on the Malacca-born Chinese of whom Chong Long was a fine example:

The Malacca-born Chinese hold more direct intercourse with the European merchants than the others. Many of these are born of Malay mothers, but, as they [31] always adopt the manners and mode of dress of their fathers, they are scarcely to be distinguished from the actual natives of China, and although they are probably less active and energetic than the latter, they are more enlightened and make better merchants. Many of this class who have been educated at the Malacca College speak English tolerably well, and from their constant communication with Europeans they have acquired in some measure their general habits and mode of transacting business, which renders them more agreeable to the latter than those who have not enjoyed similar advantages. They are all employed in commerce, many as independent merchants, and some are engaged as cashiers and under-clerks in European go-downs. They are always remarkably clean and well dressed, and few are obliged to resort to manual labour.¹⁸

A serious blot upon the Government up to this time, and for many years after, was the piracy in the waters of the Archipelago. The usual prey of the pirates was the native junks which traded between China and the Straits ports. Criticism in the press and representations by the local merchants only resulted in spasmodic efforts on the part of the Government, which did not stamp out the evil, but only scotched it from time to time. So intolerable had the situation become that in June 1832 the Chinese merchants in Singapore, with the sanction of the Government, equipped at their own expense four large trading boats, each manned by thirty Chinese, well armed and carrying several guns, to go out and attack the pirates who were lurking outside the harbour. This little fleet went out and soon fell in with two pirate prahus, one large and one small, and sank one but the other escaped. One or two Chinese were killed. The Chinese merchants had agreed to pay $200 for every pirate boat attacked, and also $200 to the relatives of any man who was killed in the expedition. The Government having been shamed, apparently, by the action of the Chinese, two boats were built at Malacca for protective purposes. These were armed with 24-pounder guns, and manned by Malays [32] who were trustworthy characters. It was, however, a totally inadequate provision for dealing with the widespread piracy then existing. Petitions to the King and to the Governor-General of India for more effective measures to check this evil received at last a favourable response, and in March 1836 HM Sloop Wolf arrived in the harbour and commenced a vigorous crusade against the pirates. As a mark of ‘their grateful sense of his unwearied and successful exertions’, the European and Chinese merchants presented to Captain Stanley,¹⁹ the commander of the Wolf, a sword of honour, and a dinner was given to him and his officers on the 14th June 1837, at which complimentary speeches were made.²⁰

Mr Buckley says that in 1832 there were some six or seven hundred Chinese Christians (Roman Catholics) and the small chapel built in 1823 or 1824 on the site of the present St Joseph’s Boys’ School had become too cramped. But Mr Earl writes:

Of the 300 native Christians mentioned in the census (of 1833) ‘at least nine-tenths are Roman Catholics, who are either descendants of the Portuguese or converts to the French missionaries’.

With the arrival of the Rev Etienna Albrand²¹ in 1833 the work of the Mission among the Chinese received an impetus and met with much success. In the course of a few months, with the assistance of the funds subscribed by the inhabitants, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, and with the gratuitous labour of his Chinese converts, he completed his new chapel. About six years later, in June 1839, the Rev John Tschu, a Chinese Catholic priest, was sent from Siam to be head of the mission in Singapore. John Tschu was born in the province of Canton of a respectable family, his father being a literate mandarin. He had been sent, when young, by a French missionary to the college in Penang, and after doing mission work there, he was transferred to Siam, where his work flourished. He laboured for nine years in Singapore, during which time he built up a large congregation and [33] died on the 13th July 1848. His early death was much felt by the Roman Catholic community.²² He was buried in the church at the altar of St Joseph, where a granite stone was placed over his tomb. When the new church was built the coffin was opened and the bones were placed in the St Joseph chapel in the new church, and a marble slab with an inscription was put on the side wall.

In 1845 the Chinese congregation raised the sum of $700 for the erection of a house in the school compound where religious instruction might be given to the Chinese. In the following year a plank and attap chapel was built at Bukit Timah for the Chinese congregation there, chiefly engaged in planting, and the Rev A Manduit²³ went to live permanently among his flock until his death in 1858. In the ‘sixties Pedro Tan No Keah was an influential man among the Roman Catholic Chinese, and we find him subscribing liberally toward the cost of erecting the Chinese Church of St Peter and St Paul in Queen Street, completed in 1871. The Chinese Roman Catholic community in town having outgrown the accommodation in the aforesaid church, the Cantonese congregation has since 1910 worshipped in the Church of the Sacred Heart, situated in Tank Road.

One of the earliest ‘sons of the soil’ was Teo Lee, who was born in Singapore about 1833. His father came from China in a junk shortly after the foundation of the Settlement, and was for many years a gambier and pepper planter somewhere in the vicinity of Bukit Tunggal. Teo Lee started life as a cloth pedlar. Later, he opened a shop in Beach Road under the chop Tiang Bee, dealing in mercer and piece goods and as general commission agent, and gradually built up an extensive trading connection with Trengganu, Kelantan, Bali and Ampenan. Like many of the early settlers, Teo Lee invested his savings in landed property, and at the time of his death he was a considerable landowner. He was a great friend of the late Sultan Abubakar of [34] Johore. His two sons, Messrs Teo Eng Hock²⁴ and Teo Bah Tan,²⁵ are well-known merchants and rubber planters and dealers in Singapore. His widow, Tan Poh Neo, who is now eighty-one years of age, is the granddaughter of Tan Hong Khuay, who was mayor of Muntok. The eldest daughter of Mr Teo Lee was married to Lim Peng Nguan,²⁶ and became the mother of Mr Lim Nee Soon,²⁷ who will be referred to in a later part of this history.

Teo Lee

Mrs Teo Lee

Mr Earl, writing of the Chinese in Singapore during the three years 1832 to 1834, mentioned that –

The ground at the back of the town is laid out in gardens by the Chinese, who grow large quantities of fruit and vegetables for the supply of the inhabitants, while on the bank of the creek are many plantations of pepper and gambier, also cultivated by the Chinese.²⁸

There are several sago factories on the banks of the Singapore River, a little beyond the town, owned and conducted by Chinese, in which the pith of the sago-palm imported from the neighbouring islands in Malay prahus underwent numberless washings on large wooden troughs and other processes until it became the pearl sago of commerce.

The interior of the island is almost unknown to Europeans, but there is a small independent Chinese settlement a few miles distant from the town, which is said to be very populous, and as considerable quantities of produce are brought thence to the town for sale, their plantations must be extensive. No European has yet visited them.²⁹

The system of land tenure at that time gave no encouragement to the planter, while the inefficiency of the police, coupled with the frequent reports of the killing by tigers of Chinese planters and coolies in the newly opened plantations, kept back not a few enterprising people from agricultural pursuits.

A certain number of bad characters had already found their way to this Settlement, and these, with their ranks augmented by agricultural labourers who had been [35] in receipt of low and unremunerative wages, made their appearance as organised bands of robbers. Fortunately they were ‘such arrant cowards that they retreated on the slightest opposition,’ and were armed with no weapons more formidable than spears.

Mr Earl, writing of agriculture in Singapore at this time, pronounced it to be ‘of minor importance, when compared with commerce, for it has been by means of the latter alone that Singapore has attained its present state of prosperity’. But, two years later (in 1836), gambier and pepper plantations began to be of greater commercial importance, the yearly production of the former being about 22,000 piculs and of the latter about 10,000. On a plantation producing from 100 to 110 piculs, the average size of the gardens, six coolies were employed at wages from $4 to $4.50. The price of gambier was then about $3 a picul.

In Logan’s Journal,³⁰ we read that the cultivation of gambier by the Chinese had increased rapidly since 1830, but in 1840 it was already retrograding, as the older plantations had all become exhausted. Nothing daunted, the Chinese began to open up gardens on the adjoining coast of Johore, and by 1845 there must have been at least a hundred plantations on the mainland.

The Free Press of March 1839 speaks of the cultivation of gambier and pepper by the Chinese settled in the interior as the only cultivation on the Island which had yet assumed any degree of commercial importance:

It is well known to our local readers that the cultivation of pepper and gambier is always carried on in conjunction, the support which they mutually afford each other being, it seems, indispensable to the existence of either of these plantations, commonly termed ‘bangsals’. There are now altogether about 350 in the Island, which we may divide into plantations of the first, second and third class.

A bangsal of the first class produces about 210 piculs of gambier annually and employs from ten to eleven [36] men, including the proprietor. To supply firewood for the boiling-house, it is necessary to have a tract of jungle in the immediate vicinity, and it is a serious objection to any locality for gambier-growing if it has not, at the commencement, an available extent of jungle for fuel equal to the area occupied by the plant and which it is computed will supply firewood for a term of twenty-five years. The annual produce of pepper on a bangsal of this description is about 125 to 150 piculs.

Bangsals of the second class average about 150 piculs of gambier annually and about 80 piculs of pepper, employing eight or nine men; while those of the third class, about 100 to 120 piculs of gambier annually, and about 50 piculs of pepper, there being seldom more than seven men to the latter.

The aggregate produce of the whole of the 350 bangsals in gambier and pepper is stated at fully 48,000 piculs annually of the former, and 15,000 piculs a year for the latter.

Nearly all these plantations were commenced by individuals without capital of their own, who began on small advances from the Chinese shopkeepers in town, on the security of a mortgage of their ground; and out of every three of them it is probable that two are subject to encumbrances of this description, the advances sometimes running on at a very high rate of interest, and often made in clothes and provisions at higher than market rates. The consequence is that frequently plantations are changing hands, the original settlers often absconding, leaving considerable debts behind them. Notwithstanding all this, however, the Chinese in town who support the planters, and the better class of planters themselves, affirm that a plantation is almost sure to clear off the original advances and finally yield a fair profit, if the planter is steady and industrious and abstains from gambling and opium smoking. …

Many of the old gambier plantations, and there are some, it seems, eighteen years old in the Island, have considerably diminished in value of late years, as well from the soil being partly exhausted as from the want of firewood, all the jungle in the neighbourhood having [37] been cleared away, and requiring the settlers to proceed to a considerable distance to bring it. This is the great drawback, and in consequence of it alone several bangsals have been given up altogether, and the ground abandoned to that inveterate enemy of all cultivation, the lalang grass.³¹

Major Low,³² concerned about the agricultural future of the Island, in his Journal kept during 1840 and 1841 made the following observations:

The Chinese have been the chief cultivators of gambier and pepper, but then they have no attachment to the soil. Their sole object is to scourge the land for a given time, and when worn out to leave it a desert. It seems clear that, if no general cultivation of a more permanent nature than pepper and gambier can be advantageously established, the forest must ultimately reassume its dominion. The only remaining chance, therefore, would seem to be the planting of coconut, areca, and other indigenous fruit trees and incorporating them gradually with sugar cane and trees yielding an exportable produce.³³

Across the Johore Straits, where there was a vast expanse of unopened territory, the Temenggong³⁴ was only too glad to welcome these Chinese agriculturalists who had been obliged to abandon their exhausted plantations in Singapore, and to encourage the more enterprising and adventurous among them by appointing them ‘kang-chus’ or concessionaires exercising jurisdiction and enjoying rights and privileges over certain rivers. In the course of opening up the plantations, there was great loss of life from wild animals, bad water supply and sickness. The planters did not sever their connection with Singapore altogether, for a number of Chinese merchants, especially Teochews, in this town, acted as financiers, making advances on the understanding that they were to have the monopoly of all produce from the plantations of their debtors.

In 1867 the Gambier and Pepper Society (or ‘Kongkek’) was established in Singapore for the mutual [38] protection and benefit of the financiers and planters and of the trade between Johore and this Island. The plantations in Rhio produced red gambier, which was an adulterated product, while Johore manufactured black gambier, which fetched better prices in the market. In the ‘Eighties the ‘Kong-kek’ Cup was regularly presented by the Gambier and Pepper Society, and the ‘Kang-chu’ Cup by the Kang-chus of Johore for the Spring and Autumn Race-meetings.

The cultivation of pepper was found to be unprofitable while coolie labour became more expensive, and after 1905, when the railway was opened, coolie labour became more difficult to retain, as the railway afforded the coolies better chances for absconding.

The Society is now in a moribund condition, but during a period extending over forty years when the gambier and pepper trade between Johore and Singapore was considerable, the Society discharged a useful duty in arbitrating between the financiers and the planters. One of its honoured Presidents was Mr Tan Joo Tiam, who came from China about fifty years ago and established himself in business as a gambier merchant under the chop ‘Hua Heng’³⁵ in Teochew Street and as a cloth merchant under the chop ‘Kia Heng’ in Upper Circular Road. For many years he figured as one of the leading gambier and pepper planters in Johore, and he has had the honour of being decorated by the Sultan of Johore.³⁶ He is an influential member of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and acted as President during the absence from the Colony of Mr Tan Jiak Ngoh,³⁷ the substantive holder of the office.

A few Chinese landowners had tried nutmeg planting. The nutmeg had been introduced into Singapore in 1819 when 125 seedlings and 1,000 seeds were planted on Fort Canning and continued for more than thirty years with much success at the beginning, but ‘the circumstance that operated against the extension of its cultivation was the scarcity of manure.’ The trees took a long time before yielding any returns, and such [39] plantations as belonged to Chinese were generally so neglected that they were seldom brought up to the producing point.

Coffee planting was also tried, and Captain Newbold³⁸, writing in 1839, says that the Chinese were so confident of success in coffee that they were everywhere extending their plantations, and there were at that time several with 2,000 to 3,000 young plants coming up. In the ‘Forties Mr Kiong Kong Tuan planted out about 50 acres of coffee near Jurong, but the plantation died out and his enterprise ended in complete failure. In Dr Little’s paper on ‘The Habitual Use of Opium’³⁹ Mr Kong Tuan is mentioned as the holder of the farm when the retail price of opium was very high and smuggling was so great that he was a loser by the speculation, but the next farmer made a handsome monthly profit because the price of opium had meanwhile been lowered.

Mr Kiong Kong Tuan came from Penang, where he had carried on business as a merchant and established himself in Singapore. He married a daughter of the well-known Choa Chong Long, by whom he had an only son, Kiong Seok Wee, and several daughters, one of whom became the wife of Wee Bin of the steamship firm of ‘Wee Bin & Co’. Mr Kong Tuan also figured as the Spirit Farmer for some years. He had a spirit factory at Pearl’s Hill, and the site is still known among the Chinese as Chiu-long-san (the spirit factory hill). He died at the age of 64 years on 16th January 1854. Mr Kong Tuan was the grantee of that large tract of land comprising twenty acres which has now become a thickly populated Straits Chinese residential quarter with Chin Swee Road as the main artery, and Cornwall Street and Seok Wee Road as side streets. His son, Kiong Seok Wee, did not fancy spirit farming. He went into business with his brother-in-law, Wee Bin,⁴⁰ but the partnership was short-lived. In 1865 along with Wee Leong Hin, the firm of Leong Hin, Seok Wee & Co, chop Aik Ho, ship-handlers, was established at Boat [40] Quay and another under the chop Joo Chin & Co. as General Merchants. ‘Aik Ho’ was accidentally burnt down, and as it was not covered by insurance, Mr Seok Wee sustained a severe loss which was augmented by the failure of Joo Chin & Co. He was at that time one of the proprietors of the Singapore Daily Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser. In 1869 the affairs of Mr Seok Wee and his partner were administered by the Court of Insolvent Debtors. He died in 1888 at the age of 49 years, leaving six sons and two daughters, the elder of whom became a daughter-in-law of Mr Tan Kim Ching.⁴¹ The youngest son of Mr Seok Wee is Kiong Chin Eng, chief clerk and cashier at the General Hospital, a man of liberal education and a firstclass player both in tennis and chess.

The Free Press of February 1837 contains the following complaint about cracker-firing at Chinese New Year:

It has been brought to our notice that the firing of noisy crackers by the Chinese, with or without the permission of the police, in the streets during this season of their New Year’s festivals, occasions so much alarm to the owners of carriages that they are compelled to forgo their use, unless they prefer to risk their necks. The burning of large heaps of gilded joss-paper in the middle of the street may be a harmless amusement and not dangerous to pedestrians, but firing crackers is a more serious matter, and may very easily lead to damage to limb, if not to loss of life, especially as the little urchins think it a very fine piece of fun to plant one right in the track of your passing or advancing vehicle. This ought not to be permitted, or if it does seem meet to show respect for the ‘customs of the natives’ they should be restricted at least to particular hours and places.⁴²

On the 20th February 1837, following upon a meeting held twelve days earlier of all the merchants, agents and others interested in the trade of Singapore, a Chamber of Commerce was established, composed of [41] the principal European and native merchants, and the first Committee elected consisted of eleven persons; including two Chinese, Chee Kim Guan⁴³ and So Guan Chuan,⁴⁴ and Syed Abubakar. Newbold has this remark on the subject: ‘The liberality of sentiment displayed by the British merchants in opening the doors of the Chamber to the natives, and in enrolling them on the first committee is proof of a good and honourable feeling which will no doubt be reciprocated and tend to the best results.’⁴⁵ Just five months later two Chinese members of the Chamber were expelled from it for having sold to a Jew four cases of opium, after putting in spurious contents of an inferior quality and weight.

Buckley says that up to this time no Chinese woman had ever come to Singapore from China, and the newspapers said that, in fact, only two genuine Chinese women were, or at any time had been, in the place, and they were two small-footed ladies who had been, some years before, exhibited in England:

The commercial activity of the Chinese is seen to the greatest advantage during the annual visit of the junks from China. These remain in the harbour from December until June, and throughout the whole period boats filled with Chinese are continually passing and repassing among the shipping, giving to the roads the appearance of a floating fair.

The first junk, which arrives generally a little before Christmas, is most anxiously looked for, and when its approach is notified by the crew of a Malay sampan which has been on the look-out to the eastward, the greatest bustle pervades the Chinese community. … Many hasten off to the vessel to learn the news from China. … The first boat reaches the junk when she is still several miles distant, and as she nears the town she gains an accession of bulk at every fathom, until at last the unwieldy mass slowly trails into the roads, surrounded by a dense mass of boats, having the appearance of a locust which has inadvertently crossed an ants’ nest, and is dragging after it countless myriads of the enraged inhabitants, attached to its [42] legs and feelers. As the decks of the junk are always crowded with emigrants, the greater proportion of the visitors are obliged to remain in the boats, and these endeavour to gain as much information as they can by shouting out questions to the people on board.

Other junks soon arrive, and although these do not excite quite so much interest as the first, the same scene is enacted over each. For a day or two after their arrival, there is little business transacted, as the crews are all engaged in building roofs over the vessels to shelter the wares which are to be exposed for sale on the decks. When these arrangements are completed, the fair commences, and the junks are surrounded from morning till night by the boats of the Chinese traders from the shore.⁴⁶

Mr Earl’s description of the landing of the emigrants from the junks in those days is equally applicable to our own time, with the necessary modifications:

They usually came ashore in large cargo boats, each carrying from fifty to sixty persons, scarcely any space being left for the rowers. As the boat approached the landing place, which was always on these occasions crowded with Chinese, the emigrants would cast anxious glances among them, and a ray of delight would occasionally brighten the countenance of one of the ‘high aspirants’ on recognising the face of a relative or friend, on whose favourable report he had probably decided on leaving the country.⁴⁷

Abdullah, in his Kesah Pelayaran, has given us a very full and interesting account of a mission undertaken by him and one Grandpre (an Englishman) to Pahang, Trengganu and Kelantan, being in charge of letters from Mr Bonham⁴⁸ to the Rajah Bendahara⁴⁹, the Rajah Temenggong and the Yang di-pertuan at Kelantan. The arrangements were made by two Chinese merchants, Poh Eng⁵⁰ and Ban Tiong⁵¹ by name, who had despatched money and merchandise to Kelantan in their boats, which could not return owing to the disturbed state [43] of the country. On the 27th March 1838 the expedition left in Mr Scott’s ketch Maggie Lauder along with Mr Boustead’s⁵² Waterwitch. Abdullah says that he asked for $100 as his fee, which on the arbitration of a Chinese merchant Kim Swee was fixed at $80. The mission having been successfully accomplished, after exciting experiences both on land and sea, Abdullah reported at the shop of Baba Ban Tiong, and was greeted with the remark:

You have arrived safely, it is well: but you will be paid nothing as your fee. Tomorrow we will meet at Baba Kim Swee’s shop to discuss the matter.

The Kesah goes on to say that both Grandpre and Abdullah went to Ban Tiong for payment, and not getting satisfaction they threatened legal proceedings. Grandpre’s agreed fee of $120 was paid, and he was asked not to tell Abdullah that he had been paid in full. Poh Eng offered Abdullah $40 in settlement, and later $60 – which Abdullah says he refused to accept and laid his complaint before a magistrate, whereupon the full fee of $80 was paid to him.

It has been found impossible to get any information concerning some of the Chinese merchants whose names appear in these pages. Baba Kim Swee mentioned in the Kesah was probably the Chinese merchant Yeo Kim Swee ⁵³ who did a large business in Boat Quay between Market Street and Bonham Street, and who, according to Mr James Guthrie,⁵⁴ had employed Seah Eu Chin⁵⁵ in his early days here as book-keeper. In 1831 or thereabouts Kim Swee bought half of the land belonging to Morgan & Co’s estate, extending from the corner of High Street near the Court House to the bridge on the riverside. He erected houses on this land which afterwards was acquired by Seah Eu Chin.

During this decade several retail druggists’ shops, e.g. Kye Guan, Seng Tek Kee, Tong Sian and Hok Ann Tong, were already doing a good business. The last named was started by Lee Eng Guan, a physician who had come from China and in time got to be well known. In those days the fee paid to a Chinese doctor [44] was only ten cents. Lee Eng Guan married a niece of Tan Che Sang,⁵⁶ and their only son Lee Boon Lim, born in Singapore in 1842, became engaged in export and import business with Shanghai, but died at the age of 31 before he had managed to establish the business on a sound footing, leaving a son Lee Phan Hok aged 11. After being educated at Raffles Institution, where Mr RW Hullett⁵⁷ had already taken up the appointment of Principal, Mr Lee Phan Hok was employed in the firm of Chip Hock & Co, Provision and Wine Merchants in Raffles Square. This firm was begun by E Chip Hock in partnership with Tan Beng Teck,⁵⁸ a Straitsborn Chinese, who, after some years’ residence in Japan, had returned to Singapore with a large consignment of lacquer and brass ware and porcelain, and the earlier firm of Beng Teck, Chip Hock & Co was one of the first shops to deal in Japanese ware. Chip Hock & Co, however, had to be wound up, and Mr Lee Phan Hok joined the Police Office as clerk and interpreter in 1881, retiring in 1897. He started a spirit shop in the following year and still owns it. He has acted and continues to act as agent to collect house rents in Singapore for Malacca landlords, like the late Mr Tan Chay Yan⁵⁹ and Mr Seet Kee Ann.⁶⁰ He has travelled extensively in Japan, China and India, is a man of liberal views and is always ready to help in works of charity. He was one of the early adherents of the Singapore reformed party which discarded the queue in 1898. The cause of female education finds in him a keen and consistent supporter.

1John Turnbull Thomson (1821–1884) was a surveyor and artist born in Glorum, Northumberland. He first came to the Straits in 1838 as a young man of 17 and worked as a surveyor in Penang. In 1841, he became Government Surveyor for the Straits Settlements. For the next 12 years, Thomson surveyed the island and made long-term plans for the development of Singapore Town. He was responsible for many important public buildings, including the Dalhousie Memorial, the Ellenborough Buildings and Horsburgh Lighthouse. Thomson had an artistic hand, and his many articles, paintings and sketches of colonial Singapore provide an excellent glimpse into the lives of early settlers in Singapore. Proficient in Malay, he completed the first English translation of large segments of Munshi Abdullah’s Hikayat Abdullah. Thomson moved to New Zealand and became its first Surveyor-General in 1876. He retired in 1879 and died in 1884 at his home in Invercargill. See Justin Corfield, Historical Dictionary of Singapore (Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 2011), at 272.

2The Reverend David Collie of the London Missionary Society. Collie was based in Malacca from about 1822. He spoke and read Chinese fluently and translated The Four Books, a classical Chinese text, which he printed in Malacca in 1828. He died on 27 February 1828 on a ship off the coast of Singapore. See The Missionary Register for 1828 (London: LB Seeley & Sons, 1829), at 528.

3JT Thomson, Translations from the Hakayit Abdulla (bin Abdulkadar), Munshi, with comments (London: HS King, 1874), at 230.

4See Boon Tiong (1807–1888), also referred to as ‘Seet Boon Tiong’, ‘Ban Tiong’ or ‘Boon Tiong’ in records, was an influential Chinese merchant who facilitated trade missions between the British and Pahang and Kelantan. He was said to be a close friend of pioneer merchant Alexander Laurie Johnston, after whom Johnston Pier was named. A Malacca-born Baba, See arrived in Singapore in 1825 as one of the early Chinese settlers and set up a trading business. He retired to Malacca in 1848 and became a Justice of the Peace in 1860. Boon Tiong Street is named after him. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 717.

5Also known as Ung Choon Seng or Ung Choon Sing. Born in Malacca, Ang Choon Seng (1805–1852) was a commissioning agent, merchant, and philanthropist. Along with several Chinese leaders, he wrote in 1850 to William John Butterworth, Governor of the Straits Settlements, to request a more lenient approach towards weddings, funerals, prayers, festive celebrations and other Chinese customaries. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 145.

6Also known as Chee Teangwy, Chee Tiong Why and Chee Teang Wye. Along with Ang Choon Seng (see above), Chee Teang Why was one of several Chinese merchants who petitioned Governor Butterworth for a more sympathetic treatment of the Chinese. He owned and operated Teang-why & Co (active 1840–1858) in Market Street, and contributed generously to various causes including the Chinese Free School. He died in 1861. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 162.

7Another Malacca-born merchant, Chee Kim Guan was a founding member of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce. His son, Chee Yam Chuan, was elected Head of the Malacca Hokkien community. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 163.

8Born in 1808, So Guan Chuan became one of the wealthiest Straits Chinese in the 19th century. He contributed generously to the building funds of the Thian Hock Keng Temple on Telok Ayer Street and became its General Manager in the 1840s. Guan Chuan Street in Tiong Bahru is named after him. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 53.

9See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902). Charles Burton Buckley (1844–1912) was born on 30 January 1844, the second son of Reverend John Wall Buckley, Vicar of Paddington, London. One of his younger brothers, Henry Burton Buckley (1845–1935) became Lord Justice of Appeal in England. Charles Buckley was educated at Winchester College, but did not attend university on account of his poor health. His neighbour, William Henry Read (then head of AL Johnston & Company in Singapore) suggested that he go to Singapore to recuperate and offered him a job. Buckley arrived in Singapore in 1864, aged 20. While working with AL Johnston & Co, he read law privately and in 1875, left AL Johnston & Co and worked briefly as assistant to Attorney-General Thomas Braddell. In 1877, he became partner at the firm of Rodyk & Davidson, retiring in 1904. In 1884, Buckley acquired and revived the defunct Singapore Free Press, turning it into a daily and expanding its history column. Buckley was active in numerous committees and causes and was the first person to import and drive a car in Singapore. He is most well-known for his book, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore. See ‘The Late Mr Charles Burton Buckley’ Singapore Free Press, 24 May 1912, at 7

10Sir Peter Benson Maxwell served as Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements from 1867 to 1871, and Recorder of Singapore from 1866 to 1871. Born in 1817, Maxwell was of Irish descent. He was called to the bar in 1841 and authored The Interpretation of Statutes. See Lim Kheng Eng, Sir Peter Benson Maxwell: His Malayan Career (1856–1871), Department of History Academic Exercise (Singapore: University of Malaya, 1959).

11Choa Choon Neo was a descendant of Choa Chong Long. In 1869, she successfully contested her ancestor’s will reserving properties in Malacca and Singapore in perpetuity for ‘Sinchew’ rites (for descendants to worship Choa and his wives) in favour of partible inheritance. She died in 1875. On her legal case, see Choa Choon Neoh v Spottiswoode [1869] 1 Kyshe 216.

12[1869] 1 Kyshe 216.

13Song considered this description erroneous because he distinguished between those “of Chinese descent”, who were newly-arrived Chinese migrants, and Straits-born Chinese, who were local born, like himself.

14Robert Ibbetson served as Resident and then, from 1832 to 1834, Governor of the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca and Singapore. He arrived in Penang in September 1805 as one of the first batch of Covenanted Civil Servants and was placed in the Secretary’s Office under Stamford Raffles, then the Under Secretary. In 1808, Ibbetson was sent to Rangoon to learn the Burmese language and ‘to qualify himself for superintending the purchase of teak for shipbuilding, then proposed to be carried on in Penang’. This did not come to pass and Ibbetson returned to Penang the following year and joined the office of the Civil and Military Paymaster. In 1820, when the Court of Directors of the East India Company gave special permission to civil servants to cultivate spices, Ibbetson took advantage of the opportunity. In 1824, he became Secretary to the Government and two years later, became a member of the Council. When the Straits Settlements Presidency was ‘downgraded’ to a Residency in 1829, Ibbetson was appointed Resident of all three Settlements. In 1832, when the capital of the Straits Settlements moved from Penang to Singapore, Ibbetson became its Governor but had no real power. See ‘Mr Robert Ibbetson’ Straits Times, 26 Sep 1874, at 1.

15As translated by G Uma Devi, this reads:

Rather tall is the house of Chek Chong Long

Underneath it is a shop that sells cloth

Alas a poisonous snake lives nearby

Can we catch and play with it?

16Very little is known of William Charles Spottiswoode save that he was one of the partners of the trading firm Spottiswoode Connolly, which had been founded in 1824 by John Connolly and Charles Spottiswoode. In 1849, the name of the firm was changed to William Spottiswoode Co. William Spottiswoode left the firm at the end of 1856. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 233.

17[Song: Eastern Seas (1837)]. George Windsor Earl, The Eastern Seas or Voyages and Adventures of the Indian Archipelago in 1832–33–34 (London: Wm H Allen & Co, 1837), at 363. George Windsor Earl (1813–1865) was an English lawyer, explorer and colonial civil servant. British scholar Russell Jones writes of Earl:

George Windsor Earl was one of the many versatile amateur scholar-adventurers who found their way to the east in the nineteenth century. To Australians he is known as a ‘pioneer of northern Australia’. We know from one of his books that by August 1828 he had spent several months in Fremantle, Western Australia, and since he had by then been out of England for three years he may have reached Australia by 1829. …

He had other interests. In fact his peregrinations tended to conform to a triangular pattern stretching between London, Australia, and South-East Asia. His first recorded contact with the Indonesian area was during the period 1832–34 when, sailing northwards from Australia, he visited Java, Singapore, Sumatra, Thailand, Borneo, and other places. The book in which he described these travels, The Eastern Seas, is the one by which he liked to be remembered. The rest of Earl’s life is reasonably well documented and can be summarised without difficulty. When he arrived in Singapore once more, in 1848, he was accompanied by his wife, acquired in London, and their baby daughter, acquired in Sydney. With family responsibilities, he settled down to less adventurous jobs. In September 1849, as we saw earlier, he settled in Singapore as a partner in the law practice of JR Logan, an occupation he was following in the crucial year 1850.

In 1852 Earl left Singapore to perform once more his triangular peregrination: in 1854 to Australia, in 1856 back to Singapore to resume his practice of the law. In June 1857 he entered the Public Service in Singapore, a profession which occupied the remaining eight years of his life. At first he was a magistrate and Assistant Resident Councillor in Singapore; in February 1859 he transferred to Penang, another of the Straits Settlements. Penang was less salubrious than Singapore and Earl ‘whose constitution had been undermined by recurrent bouts of malaria for the past twenty years’ suffered from ill health during his service there. Penang includes the strip on the opposite mainland called Province Wellesley and it was while serving there on 29 August 1863 that Earl had an attack of ‘sunstroke’, leading to paralysis of one side of his body. He was able to carry on in his office, but by the end of the year his condition had deteriorated to a point where he had to be given medical leave for twelve months. As a result he spent most of 1864 on sick leave in Australia.

By January 1865 he had recovered and was able to resume duty in Penang. In June 1865 he applied for transfer from the island to Province Wellesley. There again he fell ill and again had to be given twelve months’ sick leave, this time in Europe. On 7 August he embarked with his wife in the Shantung, but two days out from Penang he died. His remains were brought back to Penang for burial.

See Russell Jones, ‘George Windsor Earl and “Indonesia”’ (1994) 22(64) Indonesia Circle 279–290, at 281–282.

18George Windsor Earl, The Eastern Seas or Voyages and Adventures of the Indian Archipelago in 1832–33–34 (London: Wm H Allen & Co, 1837), at 363.

19Edward Stanley (1798–1878) entered the Royal Navy in 1812. While serving on HMS Gloucester in 1826, he was the officer in command responsible for suppressing a fire in Cronstadt and saved the Russian fleet from destruction. For his work against piracy in the region, which included attacking a large group of 18 prahus with 700 people on board in March 1835, he received thanks from the Governor General of India in Council, the Naval Commander-in-Chief Sir Bladen Capel, the Governor of Prince of Wales’ Islands and Singapore, the Penang Chamber of Commerce, the Madras Chamber of Commerce as well as the Singapore Chamber of Commerce. See Richard Gott, Britain’s Empire: Resistance, Repression and Revolt (London, Verso, 2011), at 287–288.

20See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 280.

21Song appears to misspell Albrand’s first name. Etienne-Raymond Albrand (1805–1853) came from Gap, in Dauphine, France. He preached to people on the streets and instructed potential converts in his house, sometimes rewarding new students with tea and tobacco. By September 1833, he had 100 Chinese converts. He also learnt Teochew, aiding in his conversion of 30 Chinese in the Riau Islands. He died a Bishop, after having worked 21 years first in Singapore and then in Thailand. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 121–122.

22See Singapore Free Press, 27 Jul 1848, at 3.

23Anatole Manduit (1817–1858) came from Coutances in Normandy, France. He studied Chinese and could converse with and hear the confessions of Chinese Christians. He actively sought funds for his church and the school until his death at age 41 on 1 April 1858 and was buried in the grounds of St Joseph’s Church in Bukit Timah. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 251.

24Teo Eng Hock (1871–1958) was a Straits-born Teochew. He invested in rubber plantations in his early years and, along with Tan Kah Kee, monopolised the 20th century rubber shoes manufacturing trade in Singapore. He took part in the Singapore Revolutionary Movement and later followed Sun Yat Sen. He was a founder of the Tung Meng Hui (Chinese Revolutionary League) Branch in Singapore in 1906 and of the Kuomintang Branch in Singapore in 1912. He founded Nanyang Girls’ School in 1917. He returned to China in 1932 and became Mayor of Swatow. During World War II, he supported Wang Jinwei’s pro-Japanese regime and was later classified as a war traitor and detained by the Kuomintang government. He retired and passed away in Hong Kong. His daughter, Teo Soon Kim, was Singapore’s first female lawyer; Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean is her grand-nephew. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 109.

25Along with his brother Teo Eng Hock, Teo Bah Tan is a prominent supporter of Singapore’s Tung Meng Hui. He is the great-grandfather of current Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 109.

26Lim Peng Nguan (d 1887) came to Singapore in the 1860s. He was a merchant and ran a sundries shop in Beach Road. He was also one of the earliest gambier and pepper planters in Singapore. Peng Nguan Street in Tiong Bahru is named after him. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 132.

27Lim Nee Soon (1879–1936) studied at St Joseph’s Institution and Anglo-Chinese School. He lost his parents at an early age and was cared for by his maternal grandfather Teo Lee. He reclaimed over 20,000 acres of waste land for rubber and pineapple planting, and, by 1910, became known as both ‘Rubber King’ and ‘Pineapple King’. He founded Chinese High School with Tan Kah Kee in 1919. He was also a founding member of the Tung Meng Hui in Singapore and helped Sun Yat Sen acquire support and money for the revolution. He passed away in Shanghai and is buried in Nanking near the Sun Yat Sen mausoleum. The Yishun area is named after him. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 118 & 119.

28George Windsor Earl, The Eastern Seas, or Voyages and Adventures in the Indian Archipelago in 1832–33–34 (London: Wm H Allen & Co, 1837), at 352.

29Ibid, at 353.

30[Song: Vol iv, p 30]. See JT Thomson, ‘General Report on the Residency of Singapore, Drawn Up Principally with a View of Illustrating Its Agricultural Statistics’ (1850) 4 Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia 27, at 30.

31See Singapore Free Press, 28 March 1839, at 3. The quote Song extracted is edited and inaccurate, with several missing paragraphs and sentences.

32Major, later Lieutenant-Colonel James Low of the Madras Army was for many years employed in the Straits Settlements civil service as Magistrate and Chief of Police in Penang up to 1850. He was known as a writer of agriculture, geology and the history of the Straits and the Malay Peninsula. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert E Brooke & Roland St J Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 81; and also CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 366–367.

33It is unclear as to the precise provenance of Low’s journal but it is reproduced in extenso in CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 355–366. The above passage is found at 362.

34In traditional Malay states, the Temenggong was an official responsible for maintaining law and order and commanding the police and army. This important non-hereditary position emerged during the development of the 15th-century Malaccan state. See ‘Temenggong’ in Encyclopedia Britannica, available at <http://global.britannica.com/topic/temenggong> (accessed 20 July 2015).

35Also spelt ‘Wah Heng’. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 705.

36Ibid.

37Tan Jiak Ngoh (1866-1939) was a Teochew merchant whose ancestors hailed from Guangdong, China. He was summoned to Singapore to take over his father’s successful business and also set up his own clothing shop on Circular Road and a remittance business. He donated generously to various causes, such as the Prince of Wales’ Fund, and returned to China in 1932 where he later died. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 84.

38Thomas John Newbold (1807–1850) was born on 8 February 1807 and joined the 23rd regiment Madras light infrantry of the East India Company in 1828. He spoke both Hindi and Persian and in 1832 was posted to Malacca. In the three years that he was in the Straits of Malacca, he ‘had constant intercourse with the native chiefs on the Malayan peninsula’ and ‘accumulated materials for several papers contributed to the journals of the Asiatic societies of Bengal and Madras’. These papers formed the basis of his book, A Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, viz. Penang, Malacca and Singapore; With a History of the Malay States on the Peninsula of Malacca, 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1839). Newbold was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1834 and captain in 1842. He died at Mahubuleshwar, in the Indian state of Maharashtra, on 29 May 1850. See William Albert Samuel Hewins, ‘Newbold, Thomas John’ in Sidney Lee (ed), Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Vol 40 (New York: Macmillan & Co, 1894), at 314–315.

39[Song: Logan’s Journal, Vol II (1848)]. See R Little, ‘On the Habitual Use of Opium in Singapore’ (1848) 2 Journal of the Indian Archipelago & Eastern Asia 1.

40Wee Bin (1823–1868) was a Fujian-born shipping tycoon. He owned a fleet of more than 20 ships that plied trade routes to China and around the Malay and Indonesian archipelagos. A philanthropist as well, he contributed generous amounts to the building of the Chinese Free School, and the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School. (Most information is from Internet e.g. Factiva but – See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 181.)

41Malacca-born Tan Kim Ching (1829–1892) was Tan Tock Seng’s eldest son, and a prominent businessman and philanthropist. He founded one of the earliest Chinese multinational rice-trading companies, becoming the ‘Rice King of Singapore’ in the 1870s. He served as the Hokkien Huay Kuan’s president for over 30 years from 1860. He was also one of the founders of Anglo-Chinese School. He held various important appointments, including that of Consul-General and Special Commissioner for Japan, Siam and Russia in the Straits, and was the first Asian to be elected member of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Tan Kim Cheng Road in Bukit Timah is named after him. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 82.

42See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 313.

43See note on Chee Kim Guan at n 7 above.

44See note on So Guan Chuan at n 8 above.

45TJ Newbold, A Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, viz. Penang, Malacca and Singapore; With a History of the Malay States on the Peninsula of Malacca, Vol 1 (London: John Murray, 1839), at 394.

46George Windsor Earl, The Eastern Seas or Voyages and Adventures of the Indian Archipelago in 1832–33–34 (London: Wm H Allen & Co, 1837), at 365–367.

47Ibid, at 367–368.

48Sir Samuel George Bonham (1803–1863) was born in Feversham, Kent, the son of Captain George Bonham. He served as Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1837 until 1847, becoming Governor of Hong Kong in 1848 until his retirement in England in 1854. See Robert P Dod, The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Whitaker & Co, 1860), at 124– 125; & GB Endacott, A Biographical Sketch-book of Early Hong Kong (Hong Kong University Press, 1962) 30–35.

49This administrative position within classical Malay kingdoms, comparable to a vizier, existed until the intervention of European powers in the 19th century. Sultans appointed the bendahara to his hereditary position; both shared the same lineage. See RO Windstedt, ‘Bendaharas and Temenggungs’ (1932) 10(1) Journal of Malayan Branch of Royal Asiatic Society 55–66.

50Chia Poh Eng (birth and death unknown) was a Hokkien Baba trader from Malacca and one of 36 merchants who co-founded a Family Benefit Society under the name Keng Tek Whay. His son was Chia Ann Siang. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 195.

51See note on See Boon Tiong at n 4 above.

52Edward Boustead was an Englishman who arrived in Singapore in 1828 enroute to China. He saw the business opportunities offered by the vibrant trade settlement and founded Boustead and Company. The company initially traded spices, coconut, tea, tin, tobacco and silk. Today, it is a holding company with interests ranging from information and data systems to marketing services, and the second oldest company of European origin in Singapore. Boustead retired to England in 1850. See Walter Makepeace, Gilbert E Brooke & Roland St J Braddell (eds), One Hundred Years of Singapore Vol 2 (London: John Murray, 1921), at 189-191 & Melanie Chew, Boustead 1828 (Singapore: Boustead & Co, 2008), at 6–10.

53Yeo Kim Swee was originally from Penang and came to Singapore in 1829. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 55–56.

54James Guthrie (1813–1900) arrived in Singapore in January 1837, and became a partner in his uncle, Alexander Guthrie’s company – Guthrie & Company – in 1837. By the mid 19th century, the company was a successful merchant house trading British goods for produce from the Straits. James Guthrie headed its Singapore office from 1847. Guthrie Lane is named after him. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 65-66; and Norman Edwards & Peter Keys, Singapore: A Guide to Buildings, Streets and Places (Singapore: Times Book International, 1988), at 447.

55Seah Eu Chin (also spelt ‘Siah U Chin’) was a Teochew who came to Singapore in 1823 from Swatow. Heir to Yeo Kim Swee, he took over Yeo’s lands and assets. He married the daughter of Tan Ah Hun, the Teochew Capitan China of Perak, and retired in 1864, after which his brother-in-law Tan Seng Poh took over the family’s business. Seah’s sons took over from Tan after his death in 1879, and the family continued to dominate the pepper and gambier business and opium farming. The Seah family also exercised a controlling influence over a large section of the Teochew community. In the 1850s, Seah emerged as a leader of the Teochew community and was regarded by the British as one of the ‘headmen’ responsible for the conduct of the community. He is the father of Seah Liang Seah, Seah Peck Seah and Seah Chiu Seah who were leading lights in Straits Chinese society in the 1880s and 1890s. See Carl A Trocki, Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control (London: Routledge, 2006), at 43.

56Tan Che Sang (1763–1835) was one of the earliest merchants from Malacca to come to Singapore when it was first set up as a settlement. On the accuracy of his name, see Chapter 2 n 16. Born in Quanzhou, he left China at 15 to seek his fortune. After stints in Riau, Penang and Malacca, he settled in Singapore in 1819 until his death. Reported to be the richest tycoon of his time, he was said to also be a gambling addict and a miser, apparently hoarding his wealth in iron boxes and sleeping among them. See George Windsor Earl in Chapter 2, n 20. See also, CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 216; & CM Turnbull, A History of Singapore: 1819–1988 (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989), at 13–14 and 25–26.

57Richmond William Hullett (1843–1914) was originally from Derbyshire. Educated at Cambridge, where he earned a first-class honours degree, he left for Singapore in 1871 where he was appointed Principal of Raffles Institution until his retirement in 1906. He then became an Inspector of Schools in the Straits Settlements and Director of Public Instruction in Singapore. Hullett was also a passionate botanist and discovered the Bauhunia hulletti, an orchid-like plant, on Mount Ophir, Malaysia. A variant of the Bauhunia, appears on the Hong Kong national flag, coins and coat of arms. See A Cambridge Alumni Database (University of Cambridge); and Robert Harold Compton et al, ‘An Investigation into the Seedling Structure in the Leguminosae’ (1913) 41 Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany 1–122, at 12–15.

58Tan Beng Teck (birth and death unknown) hailed from Penang. He was said to have a fine command of both the Chinese and Malay languages and translated at least four Chinese novels which were published in 1889 in Singapore. He was also among the first persons in the Straits Settlements to translate Chinese works into colloquial Malay. See Claudine Salmon (ed), Literary Migrations: Traditional Chinese Fiction in Asia (17th to 20th Centuries) (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2013), at 280.

59A grandson of Tan Tock Seng, Tan Chay Yan (1870–1916) inherited a vast fortune along with his brothers. He was the first practical rubber planter in Malaya and played an important role in setting up Tan Kah Kee in the rubber business, selling him 180,000 rubber seeds at a bargain. He owned significant tracts of land in Singapore and visited it to encourage friends to take up rubber planting. Tan also played an active part in the public life of Malacca for several years, being appointed a Justice of the Peace when he was just 24 years old and serving as Municipal Commissioner. See (Singapore: EPB, 1995), at 75–76 and also See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 842.

60Seet Kee Ann (1863-1924) was a Malaccan merchant and landed proprietor. He planted tapioca, gambier and pepper and in 1897 became partner and manager of opium and spirit revenue farms in Malacca. A prominent community leader, he was President of the Hokkien Huay Kuan and a member of the Malacca Chinese Chamber of Commerce. He was also appointed Municipal Commissioner in 1895 and a Justice of the Peace in 1901. Jalan Kee Ann in Malacca is named after him. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 160.