The crucial role played by the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief in India, the Marquess of Hastings, in the founding of Singapore, and especially in its retention during the early critical years of its existence, has never been fully recognised. He made the fateful decision to establish a British settlement at the southern entrance of the Straits of Melaka and it was his determination that led to its retention despite strong opposition from the Netherlands colonial government at Batavia, the British and Dutch authorities in Europe, and the government of Prince of Wales Island (Pinang). This opposition led him to waver briefly in his support of Raffles, inviting the comment by D.C. Boulger in his Life of Sir Stamford Raffles (London, 1897) that his “vacillation” deprives him of much of the share in the establishment of Singapore.1 This is a partisan view designed to give credit to Raffles’s single-mindedness in pursuing his objective and does less than justice to Hastings’s resolution in maintaining the British settlement. When Raffles sailed from Calcutta on 7 December 1818 as Agent of the Governor-General with instructions to establish a British trading post, Hastings’s last words to him were, “Sir Stamford, you may depend upon me”.
During the ensuing months, despite some initial concern about Raffles’s actions following the Dutch return to Pulau Bintan in the Riau Archipelago, Hastings remained steadfast in his support, writing to the Chairman of Directors of the East India Company in May 1819 strongly advocating the retention of Singapore, and in the same month to the Secret Committee describing it as “a valuable post, which it is desirable to retain”.2 Hastings’s support was fully recognised by Raffles when he stated in a Farewell Address to him from Singapore in 1823 that the British settlement had been “planned under your Lordship’s auspices, and maintained against jealous rivalry by the vigour and firmness of your counsels”.3
Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings and 2nd Earl of Moira, was a prominent member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. He was born on 9 December 1754, the eldest of six children of John, Baron Rawdon, in the Irish peerage, who was later created Earl of Moira, the title passing to his son on his death in 1793. Francis Rawdon’s mother, Elizabeth Hastings, was the eldest daughter of the 9th Earl of Huntingdon, and in 1789 she succeeded to the ancient baronies of Botreaux, Hastings, Hungerford, Neumarch, Moels, Peverel, De Homet and De Moleyns, following the death of her brother, Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon. Her son inherited these ancient baronies when she died on 11 April 1808 and, as heir to the 10th Earl, he became Rawdon-Hastings. He was educated at Harrow and matriculated at University College, Oxford, but left without taking a degree. He was gazetted Ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot at the age of seventeen, and in 1773, with the financial support of his uncle, he purchased a commission as Lieutenant in the 5th Regiment of Foot. In his nearly eight years’ service in America during the War of Independence, he distinguished himself at Bunker’s Hill and in the battles of Brooklyn and White Plains, and in 1778 he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and Adjutant-General to the British forces. On his return to England he was promoted Colonel and appointed aide-de-camp to the King, who elevated him in 1783 to the peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Rawdon, of Rawdon, in his own right. In 1793–94, with the rank of Major-General, he commanded a division of 10,000 troops supporting the Duke of York’s army on the Continent during the French Revolutionary War, his services there and in America being adjudged so highly by the historian of the British Army, J.W. Fortescue, that he placed him after Wellesley and Moore as “probably the ablest soldier in the army”.4
In his political career, he initially sided with Pitt, but subsequently acted in loose association with the Whigs. As spokesman, agent, and financial backer of the Prince of Wales he attained considerable political influence, and on the formation of the Fox-Grenville ministry in 1806 he was appointed Master-General of Ordnance and a Privy Councillor. He resigned in the following year and in 1809 he declined the post of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Perceval’s ministry. At the beginning of the Regency it was widely considered that he might become Prime Minister,5 but disagreements with the Prince persuaded him to abandon politics and to accept on 11 November 1812 the post of Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief in India. He was created Marquess of Hastings, Earl of Rawdon and Viscount Loudoun on 7 December 1816, from which time he was known by his foremost title.6
Fig. 3
Francis Rawdon-Hastings (1754–1826), 1st Marquess of Hastings, Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of India, 1813–23.
Contemporary engraving.
On 14 April 1813 he sailed for India with his wife, Flora, Countess of Loudoun, and his three eldest children on HMS Stirling Castle (under the command of Sir Home Popham), and after a brief sojourn at Madras between 11 and 18 September, he assumed the duties of Governor-General on his arrival at Calcutta on 4 October 1813.
The details of his ceremonial reception by his predecessor, Sir Gilbert Elliot, 1st Earl of Minto, at Government House are described in his Private Journal, which he commenced on his arrival in India. Because of “excessive pressure of business”, however, he found no time to make further additions to it until February 1814, when, curiously, in the very first entry we find him writing critically of Raffles.
Hastings wrote of Raffles not by name, but as Lieutenant-Governor of Java responsible for causing a heavy financial drain on the Bengal treasury. Various factors are attributed by Hastings to the “great pecuniary embarrassment” of the Indian Government at this time, including the remittance to London of £300,000 in gold pagodas on the orders of the Directors of the East India Company, and bills drawn on the government by the Governors of Isle de France and Ceylon; but he considered that “a still worse drain” than these was the island of Java, whose Lieutenant-Governor, instead of providing the surplus revenue he had promised, now stated that “he cannot pay his provincial corps unless we allow him 50,000 Spanish dollars monthly in addition to the prodigious sums which we already contribute to his establishment”.7
Fig. 4
Sir Gilbert Elliot (1751–1814), 1st Earl of Minto, Hastings’s predecessor as Governor-General of India, 1807–13.
Portrait by James Atkinson.
This criticism hardly presaged a good working relationship between the two men, but Hastings had every right to be critical of Raffles, who had addressed a number of despatches to Bengal containing exaggerated accounts of the economic benefits that would accrue to the East India Company from the capture of Java from the Dutch in 1811. He had referred to the large surpluses of rice, coffee and spices available for sale as well as supplies of Bangka tin, and had calculated that with the addition of revenues from customs and farms, especially the opium farm, Java would yield an annual revenue of more than 5 million Spanish dollars against disbursements of less than one-eighth of that sum.8
As it happened, large quantities of colonial produce were seized as prize property by the British military and naval forces, and in the absence of neutral shipping during the American War of 1812, and the closure of European markets by the Napoleonic decrees, the loss of export opportunities led to a glut on the local market, with coffee prices falling by four-fifths. Having no other sources of revenue to meet the cost of the large military contingent on the island, Raffles was forced in 1812 to issue one-quarter of a million Spanish dollars in treasury notes covered by bills of credit drawn on the Bengal government. Further large sums were expended in withdrawing from circulation the Dutch depreciated paper currency, and without sufficient silver to meet the government’s expenditure, especially the payment of troops, Raffles had no recourse but to appeal to the Supreme Government for permission to draw bills on the Bengal treasury to the extent of 50,000 Spanish dollars a month.9 This request was directed to his patron, Lord Minto, who, as the one responsible for retaining Java under British control, might have given it sympathetic consideration. Instead, Raffles’s request was received in Calcutta by Lord Hastings, who saw no reason to bestow favours on one of his predecessor’s placemen, even though Lord Minto had solicited his support for Raffles’s administration in Java and for his succession to the reserved post at Bengkulu in west Sumatra.
Fig. 5
Major-General Robert Rollo Gillespie (1766–1814), Commander of the Forces in Java.
Contemporary print after a painting by George Chinnery.
Hastings’s view of Raffles at this time was also strongly influenced by the charges of maladministration made against the latter by the former Commander of the Forces in Java, Major-General Robert Rollo Gillespie, who had arrived at Calcutta from Batavia (Jakarta) in December 1813, two months after Hastings. Harbouring bitter feelings against Raffles’s initial appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of Java, he now levelled serious charges against his conduct in government, including his personal involvement in the purchase of colonial lands.10 These charges he discussed with Hastings, whose sympathies naturally went to a fellow soldier, whose military exploits and “heroic valour” he admired.11 Hastings’s antagonism towards Raffles increased after Raffles counter-charged Gillespie with immorality, alleging that “a virgin was forcibly demanded by his orders from the Orphan School at Samarang”, and that a “similar outrage” had been perpetrated by his alleged agent. Hastings’s evident distaste for the subject, involving the examination of a witness before the Supreme Council, led to Raffles being condemned for making an unwarranted and unproven charge against a British officer, and a communication to this effect was sent to the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London.12
The examination by the Supreme Government of the Gillespie charges against Raffles was unnecessarily protracted, but the matter was eventually resolved in Raffles’s favour, except in the matter of his personal involvement in the purchase of lands, which was characterised by the Governor-General in Council as “an act of the highest indiscretion, evincing a perfect ignorance of the principles of Government, as applicable to the State of affairs in our Eastern possessions”.13 This was written in December 1815, after the Supreme Government had received instructions from the Court of Directors of the previous May ordering Raffles’s removal from the government of Java.14
In October 1815 Raffles had addressed a personal appeal to Hastings for a resolution of the case, the first of his extant letters to Hastings in the Bute Collection at Mount Stuart.15 The Governor-General’s reply, however, simply conveyed the order of the Court that he was to be removed from his office as Lieutenant-Governor of Java and its Dependencies:16
Letter 1
Hastings to Raffles
4 December 1815
Calcutta, Decr 4th 1815
Sir,
I have the Honor to acknowledge your Letter by the Nautilus. It gives me much concern that you have been kept so long in suspense regarding the opinion of the Supreme Government on the matters of which testimony had been required from Sir: G: Gillespie and Mr Blagrave.17 The delay occurred from a correspondence which by distance rendered slow, between the V: President & me as to how far we might be justified in abstaining from the execution of an order from the Court of Directors for a further investigation of the transactions. That question has since been set at rest by the subsequent Commands of the Honble Court that you should cease to conduct the Government of Java. The resolutions of the Supreme Government on the charges & defence, as far as the loose nature of the enquiry warranted an opinion, are now transmitted to you; & they of course supersede the necessity of entering into any detail. You will perceive that the Council decides in favour of your occupying the Residency of Bencoolen which has been remained open to you.
I have &c
The Honble T: S: Raffles &c
Fig. 6
The Prince Regent (1762–1830), by whom Raffles was knighted in 1817; later King George IV.
Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
Fig. 7
Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796–1817) and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1790–1865), later King of the Belgians.
Contemporary print.
Although the post of Resident of Fort Marlborough (Bengkulu) was being held out to him, Raffles decided on grounds of health to postpone taking up the appointment and proceed directly to England. There, during 1816–17, much changed in his favour. He was exonerated by the Directors of the East India Company of the charges levelled against him by Gillespie as affecting his moral character,18 and he was knighted by the Prince Regent following the publication of his book, The History of Java (London, 1817).19 He also formed influential connections with Queen Charlotte,20 Princess Charlotte and her husband, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,21 Edward Adolphus, 11th Duke of Somerset, and his wife, Charlotte, Duchess of Somerset,22 the Whig politician, Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne,23 William Wilberforce,24 and prominent members of the East India Company’s directorate, including Charles Grant25 and Hugh Inglis.26 He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society27 and became closely associated with its President, Sir Joseph Banks,28 and with many of the naturalists and scientists connected with him.29
Fig. 8
Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820), President of the Royal Society.
Contemporary print after a portrait by Thomas Phillips.
Fig. 9
William Wilberforce (1759–1833), leading campaigner in Parliament for the abolition of slavery.
Portrait by Karl Anton Hickel.
These were all important considerations, though Hastings may have been influenced more favourably towards Raffles by the opinions of Sir Miles Nightingall, who had succeeded Gillespie as Commander of the Forces in Java, and by Raffles’s successor as Lieutenant-Governor, John Fendall, who was now a member of the Supreme Government.30 At any rate, the conditions were favourable for a fresh start between the two men, initiated by a letter of reconciliation which Raffles addressed to Hastings on 16 April 1818, shortly after arriving at Bengkulu:31
Fig. 10
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781–1826), Lieutenant-Governor of Java 1811–16, and subsequently Lieutenant-Governor of Fort Marlborough (Bengkulu) 1818–24.
Miniature portrait.
Letter 2
Raffles to Hastings
16 April 1818
Private
Bencoolen the 16th April 1818
My Lord,
On my return to this Country I feel it to be my first duty respectfully to appeal to your Lordship’s liberality and candour.
In the course of my administration in Java, there were many measures which did not receive your Lordship’s approbation – Some of them required explanation, others were perhaps injudicious – Your Lordship’s confidence was withheld and I had the misfortune to labour under your displeasure –
It is not my wish to agitate a retrospection of those measures – the motives and grounds of their adoption were long since submitted to your Lordship and I must be content with the decision, be it favorable or otherwise – But, now that I am entering on a new field, with the prospect of avoiding those rocks and shallows on which my little bark had formerly well nigh perished, I hope I shall be forgiven in approaching your Lordship with a hope that I may obtain your countenance and support and be allowed to look forward to your confidence and esteem –
In this hope, and in order that I may be enabled the better to submit to your Lordship’s consideration the views which I am induced to take of our Interests in the Eastern Seas, I beg leave respectfully to prefer a Request that your Lordship will grant me the honor of a personal interview and permit me to proceed to Calcutta for that purpose.
Your Lordship’s compliance with this Request will be hailed by me, as an indication of your favorable sentiments, & shall anticipate in it the accomplishment of my highest ambition –
I have the honor to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s
Most Obedient and
Faithful humble Servt
T S Raffles
His Excellency
The Most Noble the Marquess of Hastings
&c &c &c
Hastings’s reply was written from the Gogra River, during the last phase of British military operations against the Maratha Confederacy:32
Letter 3
Hastings to Raffles
6 July 1818
On the Gogra
July 6th 1818
Sir
I have the Honor to acknowledge your Letter & offer my congratulations on your safe arrival [at Bencoolen].
It was painful for me that I had in the course of duty to express an opinion unfavorable to certain of your measures in Java. The disapprobation, as you would perceive, affected their prudence alone; on the other hand, no person can have felt more strongly than I did your anxious & unwearied exertions for meliorating the condition of the Native Inhabitants under your sway. The procedure was no less recommended by Wisdom than by Benevolence; and the results are highly creditable to the British Government.
I request you to consider yourself at liberty to carry into execution your wish of visiting Bengal whensoever your convenience & the state of affairs in the Island may afford an eligible opportunity. The means of rendering the Settlement at Bencoolen more advantageous to the Honble Company than it now appears to be[,] are certainly more likely to be struck out in oral discussion than thro’ any formal correspondence.
I have &c.
P.S. Allow me to return many thanks for your goodness in sending me your account of Java which I shall read & peruse at Calcutta with great interest.
