One Hundred Years' History Of The Chinese In Singapore: The Annotated Edition. Ong Siang Song
51Seah Eu Chin was buried on Grave Hill, adjacent to Bukit Brown Cemetery. For many years, his tomb was lost after it was covered by undergrowth. In November 2012, brothers Charles and Raymond Goh – who have spent many years hunting down and documenting tombstones – rediscovered Seah’s grave (see Rachel Boon, ‘Teochew Pioneer’s Grave Found in Toa Payoh’, Straits Times 28 Nov 2012).
52TJ Newbold, Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca (London: John Murray, 1839), Vol 1, at 286.
53[Song: British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca (1839)]. See Ibid.
54Ibid, at 287.
55JT Thomson, Hakayit Abdulla: Translations from the Hakayit Abdulla (bin Abdulkadar), Munshi, with comments (London: HS King, 1874), at 206.
56Ibid.
57[Song: Manners and Customs of the Chinese]. See, JD Vaughan, The Manners and Customs of the Chinese of the Straits Settlements (Singapore: Mission Press, 1879). Jonas Daniel Vaughan (1825–1891) was a sailor, public official and lawyer. Between 1851 and 1867, he served as Superintendent of Police in Penang, Master Attendant in Singapore, Police Magistrate and Assistant Resident Councillor and was elected to the Municipal Council. He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1869 and in addition to operating an active practice, found time to guest edit the Straits Times and the Singapore Free Press, whilst contributing numerous historical articles to their pages. He was also artistically and musically gifted. In October 1891, while on the way home from Perak, Vaughan was lost at sea and was presumed to have fallen overboard. See Duncan Sutherland, ‘Jonas Daniel Vaughan’ Singapore Infopedia, <http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1826_2011-08-11.html> (accessed 1 Jul 2014).
58JD Vaughan, The Manners and Customs of the Chinese of the Straits Settlements (Singapore: Mission Press, 1879) at 92.
59Alternatively spelt See Hood Kee, See Hoot Kee, Seet Hoot Kee, and Si Hoot Kee, he was born on 28 Oct 1793 in Malacca and died on 26 Sep 1847 in Malacca. He was the eldest son of See Tiong Ham (1751–1804). In 1793, he married Tan Choon Neo and among his sons were Eng Watt, Eng Moh, Moh Guan, Koon Guan, and Tek Guan. See Hood Keh arrived in Singapore in 1826 and quickly became an important leader of the Hokkien bang. He contributed significantly to the building and running of the Heng Shan Ting Temple and also the Thian Hock Keng Temple on Telok Ayer Street. In 1843, at the age of 46, he returned to retire in Malacca and became the leader of the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple there. His duties at Thian Hock Keng were taken over by Tan Tock Seng. (See
60John Prince (c1772–1848) was Resident Councillor of Singapore from 15 August 1826 to 18 November 1827. He was the first person to scale Singapore’s highest hill, Bukit Timah Hill, in June 1827.
61Kenneth Murchison (1794–1854) was the third Governor of the Straits Settlements, from 1833 to 1836. Prior to that, he was Resident Councillor at Penang, and then at Singapore. On the day Murchison was appointed Governor, he left for a holiday in South Africa and over the next three years, spent much of his time away from the Straits. It was Samuel Bonham – his eventual successor – who handled most of the administration of the Straits Settlements. See Justin Corfied, Historical Dictionary of Singapore, New ed (Toronto: The Scarecrow Press, 2011), at 180.
CHAPTER III
THE SECOND DECADE (1829-39)
EARLY in February 1830 there was a serious outbreak of fire in Chinatown. It began in a blacksmith’s shop in Circular Road, burned down Philip Street and one side of Market Street and nearly got to Commercial Square. Abdullah’s account of the great fire in his Hikayat evidently referred to this event, and not, as his translator Mr Thomson1 suggests, to the fire in 1847 at Kampong Glam. To quote from his graphic description:
After I had heard of the death of Mr Collie2 [which took place in 1828] I was living in a house in the merchants’ quarter, very ill with fever, and impatiently waiting to return to my college work in Malacca, when, about 7.30 pm on the 13th of the 1st Chinese moon, as the children were busily engaged in playing with kuda api (candle-lit paper horses), and half of the Chinese were amusing themselves, and half making great noises with their musical instruments – I heard the cry of ‘Fire! Fire!’
The fire spread rapidly in the direction of the house wherein he was lying down, and so startled him that, forgetting all his personal belongings and the $400 he had in his box, he rushed out of the house with just the clothes he had on.
I saw many coveted goods and merchandise in the middle of the streets which people had thrown out like rubbish. Chests of opium were scattered about all down the streets, while spirits were flowing like a stream to the sea.3
There were no fire engines, of course, and the only water supply was by buckets carried by the convicts [29]. The fire raged for three successive nights and days. Abdullah composed a poem of this fire which ‘I named Singapura Terbakar, and is well known to all Singaporeans and Malakites.’
In the year 1831 thirty-six Chinese merchants and traders formed themselves into a Family Benefit Society under the name of Keng Tek Whay
Buckley in his Anecdotal History9 speaks of Singapore as being in a lawless state in 1831. Several murders were reported in one week, while no proper measures were available to trace the criminals or to secure life and property in the outlying parts of the town. Very little was known of the island beyond the hills behind the town, and convict labour was being then employed in road-making from Kampong Glam across the Kallang and Gaylang bridges. While a gang of Chinese convicts was at work on a road on the outskirts of the town, a number of Chinese ran out of the jungle and rescued ten of these convicts by carrying them off and knocking off their irons. The whole police force, eighteen strong, was mustered and recovered five of the convicts. It was said at the time that there was a secret society exceeding 1,000 men established in the jungle and that they had actually an armed fort there. This seems to have been the first mention of secret societies in Singapore.
On the 8th of June 1831 a dinner was given to all the influential residents by Choa Chong Long to celebrate his forty-fourth birthday. He was born circa 1788 in [30] Malacca, as his father was the Captain China there when the settlement was under Dutch rule. In the judgment of Maxwell CJ10, in the reported case of Choa Choon Neo11 v Spottiswoode,12 the deceased was described as a person ‘born and domiciled in Singapore but of Chinese descent’. This description is evidently an error.13 He lived in Commercial Square, and sometimes gave entertainments in European style to the British merchants and was a very intelligent and wealthy man. After the dinner above referred to, a number of toasts were drunk, including the health of Mr Ibbetson14, the Resident, and the memory of Sir Stamford Raffles, and Chong Long proposed the health of the Duke of Wellington. Wealthy and influential though he was (for at one time the natives called one of the hills near Tanjong Pagar,