Penang

Penang Island was also known as Prince of Wales Island. It was part of the Straits Settlements, along with Singapore and Malacca. The capital of Penang is George Town (or Georgetown). The island now forms a part of the larger Malaysian state of Penang.

Province Wellesley (now Seberang Perai), or mainland Penang, is opposite Penang island on the Malay Peninsula. This area was also incorporated into the Straits Settlements.

Alternative Spelling

Pinang

Records

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.

For other record sources generally, see Singapore and Malaysia.

FIBIS Resources

• Images and transcriptions of graves at Northam Rd Cemetery, Georgetown FIBIS database
• The Protestant Cemetery, Penang, Malaysia - Records of graves FIBIS database.

Cemeteries

See FIBIS Resources above. Also:-

• BACSA have published
  • Penang: Graves in the Protestant Section of Western Road Cemetery by Justin Corfield, 2000 80pp, 27 illustrations. Available at the British Library UIN: BLL01009531508 .
  • Christian Cemeteries of Penang & Perak by Alan Harfield c 1987 which details inscriptions of those buried there. Available at the British Library UIN: BLL01011842779

  The index of persons named therein can be searched at BACSA Search. Application can be made to BACSA for copies of the full inscription - charges apply. For details of the books including purchase, see BACSA Books - select Cemetery Record Books. In addition FamilySearch have digitised Christian cemeteries of Penang and Perak, which has restricted access, but which may be viewed on a FamilySearch computer at a FamilySearch Centre. Catalogue entry. For more information, see FamilySearch Centres. Update June 2018. It appears that FamilySearch digital viewing is no longer possible, but possibly this availability may return in the future.

• Details of the English Cemetery and some Graves from Pete's Penang.

External Links

• Penang Island Wikipedia
• Straits Settlements Wikipedia
• Photograph: St George's Church - Penang - 1818 by DBHKer flickr.com
• Introductory Note to the Microfilm: History of Saint George's, Penang by Michael Poon. anglicanhistory.org. With pdf downloads which are only available in the archived version , particularly Part 2 which includes An Alphabetical List of Memorials and Monuments in St. George's Church, Penang, with Short Biographical Details of the Persons Commemorated. Unfortunately the text quality of this listing is not very good. Note, pdfs may be slow to load.
• Official website of the Malaysian Dutch Descendants Project includes History of the Dutch and Dutch-Eurasians in Malaysia
• Pete's Penang photographs of Penang by Peter Loud

Cemetries

• George Town’s Northam Road Protestant Cemetery. From George Town World Heritage Inc. html version, pdf
• "A Penang Kaddish: The Jewish Cemetery In Georgetown. A case study of the Jewish Diaspora in Penang (1830s-1970s)" by Raimy Ché-Ross 2002. The Penang Story-International Conference 18-21 April 2002. Now an archived webpage. Includes some transcriptions from tombstones.

Historical books online

• Also see Malaysia
• Historical Memoir Relative To Prince Of Wales Island, In The Straits Of Malacca: And Its Importance Political And Commercial: Submitted To The Honourable The East-India Company, And The Government and Legislature Of Great Britain by Norman Macalister, Captain and late Commander of the Artillery upon Prince of Wales Island 1803. Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. Also available on BookSG National Library of Singapore.
• A short account of the settlement, produce, and commerce, of Prince of Wales Island in the Straits of Malacca by Sir George Leith, Major 17th Foot, and late Lieutenant Governor. 1805 British Library Digital Collection. SouthEast Asia Visions version Cornell University Library.
• Extract from Prince of Wales island Gazette [containing a memorial by C. Mackinnon, Head Surgeon, to the Court of Directors of the East India Company] 1811 Google Books
• Annual Register and Directory 1821 Prince of Wales Island . This publication lists the British government and administrative departments, military personnel, organisations, trades, church committees, etc, on Prince of Wales Island. Includes an index. Available to read online or download from BookSG, National Library of Singapore.
• 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 III Penang, or Prince of Wales’s Island" pages 402-405
• "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
• The Burney Papers. Cover the period 1825 to 1849. See Thailand.
• The Practical Sugar Planter: A Complete Account of the Cultivation and Manufacture of Sugar-Cane….in the East and West Indies and the Straits of Malacca… by Leonard Wray 1848 Archive.org
• De Zieke Reiziger: Or, Rambles in Java and the Straits. In 1852 [The Invalid Traveller] by A Bengal Civilian [stated elsewhere to be Charles Walter Kinloch] 1853 Google Books.
• Penang, page 718 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
• "Penang" page 284 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 of Malacca, Indo-China, and China; or, Ten Years’ Travels, Adventures and Residence Abroad by J Thomson 1875 Archive.org. British Library Digital Collection 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.
• 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.