British Bencoolen
British Bencoolen was a British possession in Sumatra based in the area of what is now Bengkulu City. The British East India Company (EIC) established a presence there in 1685,[1] and in 1714 the EIC built Fort Marlborough there.
Bencoolen Residency | |||||||
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Residency of British Empire | |||||||
1609–1824 | |||||||
Flag | |||||||
• Type | Residency of British India | ||||||
History | |||||||
• Established | 1609 | ||||||
17 March 1824 | |||||||
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Today part of |
Originally a Presidency within British India, in 1785 it was downgraded to Bencoolen Residency and placed under the Bengal Presidency.[2]
On 15 October 1817, Stamford Raffles was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen. During his time as Lieutenant-Governor, Raffles enacted major reforms, including the abolition of slavery, as well as creating Singapore to provide a new trading port in the region.
In 1823, Singapore was removed from the control of Bencoolen.[3] The British ceded Bencoolen to the Netherlands in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.[4]
References
- Olson JS, Shadle R, editors. Historical Dictionary of the British Empire, Volume 2. page 1074 (at entry for Sumatra). Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. ISBN 9780313293672
- http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Indonesia.htm#Bencoolen
- Kevin YL Tan. The Singapore Legal System.
- Roberts, Edmund (1837). Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 34.