BOOK TWO
THE ADMINISTRATORS
PENANG: THE FOURTH PRESIDENCY OF INDIA, 1805–1830
INTRODUCTION
I
n the previous book, the interplay between the East India Company’s administration and the British government was briefly touched upon, as was the prevailing politics at the turn of the nineteenth century. It is helpful here to offer an overview of how the East India Company administration operated both at home and in its territories. The word ‘government’ is used frequently throughout this volume and unless specifically stated to be otherwise refers to the Company administration. Although the British parliament had introduced far greater control over the Company’s operations by the time Penang was settled as a port of call, in practice the Company largely remained an autonomous body, especially out in the field. From the time of the East India Company’s incorporation in 1600 its operations were governed by a series of charter acts passed from time to time by parliament. Until the Regulating Act of 1773 the Company was essentially left to its own devices with regard to governing India. Even at this time the British government was only concerned with the Company’s political affairs and not the commercial side of its operations which were seen as integral to the well-being of the national economy. The Company’s political involvement in India had not initially arisen from a territorial expansionist policy per se but as a consequence of the establishment of trading links which developed into more permanent settlements. The administration of these territories created a huge financial burden which by 1772 required the assistance of government loans. As a result, the 1773 Regulating Act introduced significant modifications to the overall administration of India. First, the post of governor general was created in Calcutta, essentially as an arbitrator between the Company and Crown, supplementing a council of four. This body was termed the ‘supreme government’ and had the power to form regulations for the administration of all Company settlements in India. The presidencies of Madras and Bombay also fell under its jurisdiction but retained limited powers to form laws or regulations. The governor general could not act independently of his council but was vested with the casting vote. Initially the Crown reserved the right to make these appointments but under protest this was modified by Pitt’s India Bill in 1784 to allow the Court of Directors the power to nominate and recall the governor general and councillors with the sanction of the Board of Control. Interestingly a Company man, Warren Hastings, was appointed the first governor general of India but would later pay the heavy toll of impeachment and acquittal in the courts. Second, English law was to be introduced to India with the establishment of a Supreme Court in Calcutta, its judges appointed by the Crown. Third, and perhaps most significantly, the Act set down that the ‘acquisition of sovereignty by the subjects of the Crown is on behalf of the Crown and not in its own right’. The Company was thereby recognised as a sovereign representative of the Crown. By the charter of 1698 the London-based Court of Directors comprised 24 men who were at first elected annually by the shareholders or proprietors, each of whom 186
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was entitled to one vote providing they held a minimum of £500 of Company shares. But after 1714 only the chairman and deputy chairman were elected, the balance being appointed by ballot. The Regulating Act of 1773 set down that six new directors were required to be elected each year with six remaining for two years; six for three years; and six for four. This meant that six directors would retire or go back out for re-election or ‘rotation’ each year. Proprietors would need to own £1,000 of stock for one vote, £3,000 for two, £6,000 for three or £10,000 for four votes. In reality a system more akin to the 1714 resolutions was practised. The Court of Directors met regularly, each meeting requiring a quorum of 13, whereas the Court of Proprietors was only obliged to meet quarterly. Meetings of each body were held in separate rooms within the Company’s East India House buildings in Leadenhall Street, London. As the Company’s prestige grew, so did these buildings, resulting in the impressive edifice that was completed in 1799. Following the passing of Pitt’s India Bill on 6 July 1784 a Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India was established. Initially made up of four privy councillors, one of the secretaries of state and the chancellor of the exchequer, this body, better known as the Board of Control, was to have power of veto over any aspects of the
55 ‘East India House’ by J.C. Stadler, after T.H. Shepherd, coloured aquatint, published in London, 1817 © The British Library Board. P1389.
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56 The General Courtroom, East India House by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, watercolour, c. 1820. Here the Company stockholders attended quarterly and extraordinary meetings; the Court of Directors held meetings in an adjoining room. © The British Library Board. WD2466.
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East India Company’s government in India, which meant that the voluminous amount of correspondence flowing to and from the Company’s territories was to be vetted. The Company was also required to form a secret department comprising three members of its Court of Directors, and all sensitive material pertaining to military activity or regional politics was to be channelled through them to the Board of Control. This tedious process of supervision was continued by the Charter Act of 1793, when the Company’s monopoly of trade to the East was extended for a further 20 years. When Francis Light established an East India Company port in Penang in 1786 the new settlement fell under the administrative umbrella of the conglomerated Bengal government, and indeed was approved by it in the first instance, subject to approval by the Court of Directors and, by default, the Crown. Worthy of note here is that Cornwallis, the incoming governor general immediately following settlement of Penang, had been appointed by the Crown and was relatively fresh from commanding British army forces in the American revolutionary wars and sitting in parliament. He knew little of India. His perspective was therefore far different to that of the East India Company civil or military service personnel who generally
BOOK TWO • THE ADMINISTRATORS
rose to prominence over a long period serving the Company in India. As a representative of the Crown Cornwallis was empowered with greater discretion than his predecessors. Penang’s first 19 years under Company occupation were managed under the auspices of the Bengal government, its administrators and defence forces drawn predominantly from the Company’s Bengal and Madras civil and military services, though occasionally a non-Company man, such as Sir George Leith, would slip through the net until removed under protest. Correspondence between Penang and Calcutta took just weeks and matters were generally resolved in a reasonable timeframe. When the island was raised as India’s fourth presidency in 1805 the governor and council were appointed by the Court of Directors with the approval of the Board of Control and answerable directly to the Court of Directors, though also subject to regulatory and judicial matters which fell under the auspices of the governor general. Military personnel, however, continued to be drawn from the Bengal and Madras presidencies. Administrative correspondence to and from Penang, then, became subject to the vagaries of a long sea voyage, scrutiny by the Directors, relevant departments and the Board of Control, before being finalised, signed off by the directors, and dispatched via the ships of the season. This process could take well over a year and often two or more, so it is not difficult to understand the implications such an inordinate amount of time passing between a request and an instruction on any given matter would have. Perhaps in acknowledgement of this awkward delay dispatches from the Court of Directors were always endearingly signed ‘Your loving friends’. After 25 years of this chain of command, the management of Penang, together with its dependencies of Province Wellesley, Malacca and Singapore, was once again placed under the Bengal government following abolition of the presidency. By the Charter Act of 1813 parliament had put an end to the Company’s monopoly of trade to India, which saw the Crown exerting authority over the commercial side of the Company’s affairs for the first time. This was further extended by the Charter Act of 1833 whereby the Company’s last bastion, the China trade, was also thrown open to competition. It was then only a matter of time until the Company’s cumbersome financial burden of civil service and military personnel also fell under the control of the British government. In 1858 the East India Company was abolished and its affairs in Asia were placed under the interim management of the India Office before the entire apparatus was transferred to the secretary of state for the colonies in London, better known as the Colonial Office, in 1867. This book is designed to provide an overview of the personalities and achievements of each of the men appointed to the highest rank attainable in Penang from its founding as a Company settlement to the end of the presidency, either officially or in an acting capacity. Naturally the manner in which each dealt with the relevant chain of command depended greatly on his experience and character. Some played it by the book; others were more proactive. Some worked in harmony with the island’s inhabitants more than others. This is hardly surprising considering that most had little experience of managing the wants and needs of a multicultural 189
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community, not to mention dealing with the internal and external politics of a relatively unknown region. The effects of different management styles are clearly seen in the difficulties Light’s successors had trying to control the free entrepreneurial spirit he had instilled in the population. However, it is also fair to suggest that the friction this early freedom caused between European free settlers and their Company rulers diminished as the settlement developed. Balancing all these factors while serving the interests of the Company and the Crown was no easy task, added to which was the constant threat of invasion by both regional and European antagonists. The juxtaposition between job roles undertaken by Company and Crown servants of each is harder to delineate. As we have seen, under the Regulating Act of 1773 all territory claimed by the Company was considered to be property of the Crown, so by default the settlement in Penang was destined to be British Crown land unless given up by the Company. The Company’s servants were therefore also serving the interests of the Crown. However, this would be a simplistic view, as at the time the settlement lived or died by the resources and requirements of the Company. Though their civil servants were loyal to both the Company and the Crown, they had chosen the certainty of employment over the lure of possible wealth as private merchants or landholders, notwithstanding that some also pursued a supplementary income where permitted, such as spice growing. The senior judge, or recorder, of the court was, however, always a representative of the Crown, aided by Company servants including members of the council. Each of the island’s administrators is introduced in succession. The period of tenure relates to the actual time in office in Penang rather than the date of their official appointment, which was generally confirmed earlier in India or Britain. Where a timeline is included it should be considered as an indicative summary only and not absolute. Greater detail on many of the numerous topics mentioned can be found in the further volumes of this series.
PRE-PRESIDENCY, 1786–1805 17 July 1786–21 November 1789
Captain Francis Light: Superintendent Francis Light was born in Suffolk, England, where he was baptised on 15 December 1740. In February 1754, at the tender age of 13, he joined the British Navy as a surgeon’s servant on HMS Mars, and spent the following nine years in His Majesty’s Service, chiefly as a midshipman. In 1765 he sailed for India aboard the East India Company ship Clive, and thereafter began employment in charge of trading vessels owned by the Madras-based mercantile firm Jourdain, Sullivan and De Souza. Some 16 years of conducting business throughout the Southeast Asian archipelago followed, arming him with a local knowledge of the culture, customs and languages of the region that few others could boast. Prior to his acceptance of the superintendence of the new settlement in Penang, Light had spent many years based in Tha Rua on the east coast of Phuket, then 190