Straits Settlements

Following territorial acquisitions made by the East India Company as part of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the Straits Settlements, as a territory, was established in 1826. In South-East Asia, it consisted of:

• Malacca
• Penang (Prince of Wales Island)
• Singapore

The Straits Settlements came under the Bengal Presidency.

The Straits Settlements came under direct British control as a Crown colony on 1 April 1867.

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. Returns are continued in the Bengal returns 1830-1868. All these records are now available online on the pay site Findmypast.

The Straits Settlements factory records can be viewed at the British Library. The reference is IOR/G/34. These records have been microfilmed, along with other related India Office holdings, and are available at various international locations, including the National Library of Australia.

A good list of official records held in various collections can be found on the A Sense of History: a select bibliography on the history of Singapore page on the National University of Singapore's website.

Also see the sections for Records on the pages Malaysia and Singapore.

External links

• Straits Settlements Wikipedia
• Straits Settlements Association - online article on National Library of Singapore's Infopedia
• Straits Settlements Postcards (1890 - 1946) 20 colonial era postcards nominated for inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register (from the National Archives of Malaysia)
• 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.
• Has Somerset Maugham promoted Malaysia more than Shahrukh Khan? by Oscar the Grouch. The short stories by W. Somerset Maugham set in Malaysia and Borneo, written during the 1920s and 1930s, were typically concerned with the lives of the British imperial colonist. Includes details of a murder in 1911 in Malaya on which one of the stories is thought to be based.
  • A list of the short stories by W. Somerset Maugham set in Malaysia and Borneo www.maleisie.be

Historical books online

• Also see Malaysia
• Straits Settlements Blue Book for the year… broken range from 1873 to 1919, including years not specifically mentioned 1907, 1908, 1910. 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.

Straits Settlements Blue Book for 1912, 1917, 1919, 1922, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1929,1930, 1931, 1932, 1936, 1937,1938 Google Books.

National Archives of Singapore has many editions catalogued as Straits Settlements Blue Books. In the Advanced Search for the title use search term Blue Books. All editions 1870-1938 appear to be available to read online (but download does not appear possible) and additionally there is Colony of Singapore Blue Book 1946. Unfortunately the book reader is not easy to use. To increase size of font use your mouse wheel , and then an adjustment bar appears. To navigate to a particular page, use the thumbnails. The catalogue includes editions from 1867, but editions prior to 1870 do not appear to have been digitised. There is a Search option within each text, and the Search link previously mentioned also seems able to be used to search the texts of the entire collection using keywords.

Straits Settlements Blue Book are available on "Sea-Delt SouthEast Asian DEvelopment in the Long Term", however all years available appear to be also available on other sites. Example 1932 Pdf. (Also 1888, 1904, 1907, 1908, 1910 which are also available on Archive.org, and 1922 available Google Books).

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. (Also CO 939/1 for 1946, for Singapore).

• 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
• Straits Settlements, page 718 A Gazetteer of Southern India: with the Tenasserim Provinces and Singapore by Pharoah &Co 1855 Google Books
• 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.
• Reminiscences of an Indian Official by General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh 1884 Archive.org. The author joined the Bengal Army in 1837. After the Indian Mutiny he was appointed Governor of the Straits Settlement, where he remained until transfer of the administration of the Straits Settlement to the Colonial Office in April 1867.
• Life of Lieut.-General the Hon. Sir Andrew Clarke, Colonel-Commandant of Royal Engineers edited by Col. RH Vetch 1905 Archive.org. "Governor of the Straits Settlements 1873-1875" pages 119-192.
• 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.