Malacca

Malacca was ceded to the British in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for Bencoolen on Sumatra. From 1826 to 1946 Malacca was governed, first by the British East India Company and then as a Crown Colony. It formed part of the Straits Settlements, together with Singapore and Penang (also known as Prince of Wales Island).

History

Malacca and the Spice Islands details military actions between the British and Dutch East India Companies at the end of the eighteenth century.

Battle of Soongei Pattye 1831
Battle of Kalama to Taboo 1832

Records

• BACSA have published the book Malacca: Christian Cemeteries and Memorials by Alan Harfield, 2002 (revised edn). "From the Portuguese time in 1511, through the Dutch occupation 1641-1795 and from 1819-25 to the British period. Includes a short history with lists of churches and MIs; also an account of the local wars with lists of casualties in the Malayan Emergency. 214pp, 70 illustrations, 8 maps and plans"

For details including purchase, see BACSA Books - select Cemetery Record Books.

BACSA have put indexes to the majority of their cemetery books online and these indexes are free to search and browse, see the Fibiwiki page BACSA. If an indexed name is of interest then application can be made to BACSA for details of the relevant burial inscription - charges apply for this service.

• FamilySearch have digitised the above BACSA book. Catalogue entry. However, the FS Digital Library catalogue entry says (at 2020/09/16) "Due to copyright restrictions, this book cannot be viewed online". Perhaps this restriction may change in some way in the future.

• Ecclesiastical Returns: Baptisms, Marriages and Burials at the British Library. Prince of Wales Island [Penang], Malacca and Singapore 1799-1829 in IOR N/8. These records are included in the digitised records available on the commercial site findmypast

The LDS film number for these records is 498606, item 2.

Returns are continued in the Bengal returns 1830-1868, N/1. For Malacca marriages 1820-1824, see also IOR: R/9/39/3.

• Dutch Records for Malacca in the India Office Records Malaysian Branch of Royal Asiatic Society.

• Malay documents in the Melaka Records in the British Library by Annabel Gallop
• The National Archives of Malaysia (Arkib Negara Malaysia) in Kuala Lumpur holds the following records from Melaka (Malacca), held on microfilm at the National Archives.
  • Baptismal registers 1642-1825 of the Dutch Reformed Church.
    • These records are also available on FamilySearch microfilm, but most are only available at the main FamilySearch Library, known as the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. (Kerkelijke registers, 1642-1825: catalogue entry which also includes limited marriage and death records from Arkib Negra Malaysia). The Family History Library is understood to have access to a complete microfilm collection, even though microfilms can no longer be ordered, so these microfilms should still be available there. (Currently (2020/09), these records have not been digitised, see FamilySearch Centres for details.) Note however there is one film listed which has been digitised (DGS 8864996) and is viewable on your home computer, but you must be signed in to FamilySearch. This film appears to be records from an archive in the Netherlands.

    If you are able to visit the Family History Library in person, there are specialists available to assist, see Family History Library Research Specialists

    Should you wish to hire a researcher to access these records at the Family History Library, you may wish to discuss this, preferably by telephone, with the Family History Library, noting they are early Dutch records, (see FamilySearch Centres for details) or try contact through the Family History Library Facebook page.

    Reading Dutch Handwritten Records: 3 Lessons FamilySearch Learning Center/Lessons.

  • Marriage registers 1768-1838 and burial registers 1787-1827 from St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church
• Search the FamilySearch Catalog for FamilySearch records additional to those mentioned above.
• The booklet An introduction to Christ Church Malacca, published by the Malacca Historical Society, is for sale at the church and contains details of the memorials in the church (2 examples of memorials, one being the wife of a member of the Madras Medical Service). Possibly the same book, (so it may, or may not contain the memorials information) a book with the same title but a different publisher is available at the British Library with notes "Consists of material extracted from a pamphlet originally published in 1917 and reprinted in 1937" UIN: BLL01016033188. Note, probably these memorial inscriptions would also appear in the book by Alan Harfield Malacca: Christian Cemeteries and Memorials, see above.
• The BACSA archive at the British Library contains some references to Malacca.
  • Mss Eur F370/829 "Malacca, Malaysia Fort Cemetery, Malacca: 1670-1682, 1816-1838 St Paul's Cemetery, Malacca: 1843-1860 St Paul's Hill, Malacca: 1568-1712 Christ Church, Malacca: 1774-1955 Sungei Ujong, Rasah New Village: 1875-6"
  • Mss Eur F370/1547 A History of Christ Church, Melaka of the Diocese of West Malaysia, by S Batumalai (Melaka, 2003)
• Also see Dutch.

External links

• Malacca Wikipedia
• Straits Settlements Wikipedia
• Official website of the Malaysian Dutch Descendants Project, now archived, includes History of the Dutch and Dutch-Eurasians in Malaysia, now archived. A history has been published.
• Photograph: Malacca The Straits Settlements Shewing the Roman Catholic Cathedral Photographs of British Burma and the Straits, 1876-7-8-9 Southeast Asia Visions, Cornell University.
• The Dutch East India Company and the Straits of Malacca, 1700-1784 : trade and politics in the eighteenth century by Dianne Lewis 1970 PhD Thesis Australian National University. Link to a download ANU.

Historical books online

• Also see Malaysia
• Singapore and Malacca 1825-1826 page 231 Bits of Old China by William C Hunter 1885 Archive.org
• Official Papers on the Medical Statistics and Topography of Malacca and Prince of Wales' Island and on the prevailing diseases of the Tenasserim Coast by T M Ward and J P Grant 1830 Archive.org. Wellcome Library version with rotatable pages.
• Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca: Viz. Pinang, Malacca, and Singapore, with a History of the Malayan States on the Peninsula of Malacca‬ by T J Newbold 1839 Google Books Volume I, Volume II
• Statistics of the Colonies of the British Empire from the Official Records of the Colonial Office by Robert Montgomery Martin 1839 Google Books. Book IV- Possessions in Asia "Chapter IV Malacca" pages 405-408
• "The Eastern Settlements: Singapore, Prince of Wales Island, Malacca" page 283 The Bengal and Agra Annual Guide and Gazetteer for 1842 Volume II Google Books. Includes Lists of Inhabitants.
• Malacca and Penang Chapter 6 of Trade and Travel in the Far East; Or, Recollections of Twenty-one Years Passed in Java, Singapore, Australia, and China by G.F. Davidson 1846
• Malacca, page 723 A Gazetteer of Southern India: with the Tenasserim Provinces and Singapore by Pharoah & Co 1855
• Memorandum on the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca by John Crawfurd 1858 Google Books (Missing pages 2-3) Penang, Malacca and Singapore
• "Malacca" page 289 Reports on mountain and marine sanitaria; medical and statistical observations on civil stations and military cantonments, jails - dispensaries - regiments - barracks, &c. within the Presidency of Madras, the Straits of Malacca, the Andaman Islands, and British Burmah from January 1858 to January 1862 by Inspector General of Hospitals Duncan Macpherson. 1862 Archive.org. Part of the series Selections from the Records of the Madras Government.
• Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India: Being a Descriptive Account of Singapore, Penang, Province Wellesley, and Malacca: Their Peoples, Products, Commerce and Government by John Cameron. 1865 Google Books. Reprint edition 1965 with an Introduction by Wang Gungwu. Archive.org Lending Library.
• Straits Settlements Blue Book for the year… broken range from 1873 to 1914. Archive.org. Very informative publications.

For 1873, Contents; Civil Establishments , commencing with an Index page 177, Singapore page 187, Penang page 209, Malacca page 223.

Other editions of the Blue Books of Statistics are available at the National Archives, Kew record series CO 277 1867-1939, part of "Records of Local Bodies and Other Colonial Miscellanea" commencing with CO 277/1 for 1867.

• Straits of Malacca, Indo-China, and China; or, Ten Years’ Travels, adventures and Residence Abroad by J Thomson 1875 Archive.org. British Library Digital Collection version with rotatable images. Through the Lens of John Thomson : Biography
• The China Sea Directory Volume I Supplement ... Directions for Malacca Strait. Compiled by Staff Commander John Cumins Richards, Hydrographic Office, Admiralty 1876. British Library Digital Collection.
• Prisoners their own warders: a record of the convict prison at Singapore in the Straits Settlements, established 1825, discontinued 1873, together with a cursory history of the convict establishments at Bencoolen, Penang and Malacca from the year 1797 by Major J. F. A. McNair, assisted by W. D. Bayliss. 1899 Archive.org
• Slavery and the slave trade in British India: with notices of the existence of these evils in the islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, drawn from official documents Published 1841 Google Books
• Précis of information concerning the Straits Settlements and the Native States of the Malay Peninsula. Prepared in the Intelligence Division, Horse Guards, War Office, etc. 1891. With a Map of Town of Singapore (which can be rotated). British Library Digital file.
• Historical tombstones of Malacca, mostly of Portuguese origin, with the inscriptions in detail and illustrated by numerous photographs by Robert Norman Bland 1905 Archive.org
• The Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c. For a range of editions to 1922, see China.
• The London and China Telegraph. Published weekly in London. Covers China, Hong Kong, Japan, Straits Settlements (Singapore, Penang), Batavia and perhaps a wider area. For editions 1860-1875 (missing 1862), see China.