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
Residency of British Empire
1609–1824
Flag
 • TypeResidency of British India
History 
• Established
1609
17 March 1824
Succeeded by
Dutch East Indies
Today part of Indonesia

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
  1. 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
  2. http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Indonesia.htm#Bencoolen
  3. Kevin YL Tan. The Singapore Legal System.
  4. Roberts, Edmund (1837). Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 34.

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