One Hundred Years' History Of The Chinese In Singapore: The Annotated Edition. Ong Siang Song
Co, 2008), at 6–10.
53Yeo Kim Swee was originally from Penang and came to Singapore in 1829. See
54James Guthrie (1813–1900) arrived in Singapore in January 1837, and became a partner in his uncle, Alexander Guthrie’s company – Guthrie & Company – in 1837. By the mid 19th century, the company was a successful merchant house trading British goods for produce from the Straits. James Guthrie headed its Singapore office from 1847. Guthrie Lane is named after him. See CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 65-66; and Norman Edwards & Peter Keys, Singapore: A Guide to Buildings, Streets and Places (Singapore: Times Book International, 1988), at 447.
55Seah Eu Chin (also spelt ‘Siah U Chin’) was a Teochew who came to Singapore in 1823 from Swatow. Heir to Yeo Kim Swee, he took over Yeo’s lands and assets. He married the daughter of Tan Ah Hun, the Teochew Capitan China of Perak, and retired in 1864, after which his brother-in-law Tan Seng Poh took over the family’s business. Seah’s sons took over from Tan after his death in 1879, and the family continued to dominate the pepper and gambier business and opium farming. The Seah family also exercised a controlling influence over a large section of the Teochew community. In the 1850s, Seah emerged as a leader of the Teochew community and was regarded by the British as one of the ‘headmen’ responsible for the conduct of the community. He is the father of Seah Liang Seah, Seah Peck Seah and Seah Chiu Seah who were leading lights in Straits Chinese society in the 1880s and 1890s. See Carl A Trocki, Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control (London: Routledge, 2006), at 43.
56Tan Che Sang (1763–1835) was one of the earliest merchants from Malacca to come to Singapore when it was first set up as a settlement. On the accuracy of his name, see Chapter 2 n 16. Born in Quanzhou, he left China at 15 to seek his fortune. After stints in Riau, Penang and Malacca, he settled in Singapore in 1819 until his death. Reported to be the richest tycoon of his time, he was said to also be a gambling addict and a miser, apparently hoarding his wealth in iron boxes and sleeping among them. See George Windsor Earl in Chapter 2, n 20. See also, CB Buckley, An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819–1867 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), at 216; & CM Turnbull, A History of Singapore: 1819–1988 (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989), at 13–14 and 25–26.
57Richmond William Hullett (1843–1914) was originally from Derbyshire. Educated at Cambridge, where he earned a first-class honours degree, he left for Singapore in 1871 where he was appointed Principal of Raffles Institution until his retirement in 1906. He then became an Inspector of Schools in the Straits Settlements and Director of Public Instruction in Singapore. Hullett was also a passionate botanist and discovered the Bauhunia hulletti, an orchid-like plant, on Mount Ophir, Malaysia. A variant of the Bauhunia, appears on the Hong Kong national flag, coins and coat of arms. See A Cambridge Alumni Database (University of Cambridge); and Robert Harold Compton et al, ‘An Investigation into the Seedling Structure in the Leguminosae’ (1913) 41 Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany 1–122, at 12–15.
58Tan Beng Teck (birth and death unknown) hailed from Penang. He was said to have a fine command of both the Chinese and Malay languages and translated at least four Chinese novels which were published in 1889 in Singapore. He was also among the first persons in the Straits Settlements to translate Chinese works into colloquial Malay. See Claudine Salmon (ed), Literary Migrations: Traditional Chinese Fiction in Asia (17th to 20th Centuries) (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2013), at 280.
59A grandson of Tan Tock Seng, Tan Chay Yan (1870–1916) inherited a vast fortune along with his brothers. He was the first practical rubber planter in Malaya and played an important role in setting up Tan Kah Kee in the rubber business, selling him 180,000 rubber seeds at a bargain. He owned significant tracts of land in Singapore and visited it to encourage friends to take up rubber planting. Tan also played an active part in the public life of Malacca for several years, being appointed a Justice of the Peace when he was just 24 years old and serving as Municipal Commissioner. See
60Seet Kee Ann (1863-1924) was a Malaccan merchant and landed proprietor. He planted tapioca, gambier and pepper and in 1897 became partner and manager of opium and spirit revenue farms in Malacca. A prominent community leader, he was President of the Hokkien Huay Kuan and a member of the Malacca Chinese Chamber of Commerce. He was also appointed Municipal Commissioner in 1895 and a Justice of the Peace in 1901. Jalan Kee Ann in Malacca is named after him. See Arnold Wright & HA Cartwright (eds), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1908), at 160.
CHAPTER IV
The Third Decade (1839-49)
IN his Diary for July 1839 Sir James Brooke1 (afterwards Rajah of Sarawak) gives his impressions of the Chinese in Singapore:
Emigrants from the Celestial Empire greatly exceed the natives of all other countries put together, and form the chief mass of labourers and shopkeepers. I know not whether most to admire the Chinese for their many virtues or to despise them for their glaring defects and vices. Their industry exceeds that of any other people on the face of the earth, they are laborious, patient and cheerful; but on the other hand they are corrupt, supple and exacting, yielding to their superiors and tyrannical to those who fall into their power. The most interesting class of Chinese are the squatters in the jungle around the high hill of Bukit Timah. Their habitations may be distinguished like clear specks amidst the woods, and from each a wreath of smoke arises, the inmates being constantly engaged in the boiling of gambier. We may estimate at nearly 2,000 these people who, straying from the fold of civilisation, become wild and lawless on its very confines.
The nature of the country renders control difficult, if not impossible, so that they may be said to live beyond the reach of all law, and frequently resort to acts of violence and robbery. They are, however, habitually prudent and frugal, and if permitted would in the day of their prosperity lay by a sufficiency to meet any reverse of fortune, and so might gradually emerge from the jungle and commence labour in the town, but this [46] desirable object is defeated by their own countrymen, who, making advances of money on their arrival and monopolising the supplying of their common wants at an enormous profit, load them with an irredeemable debt and render them a nuisance instead of a benefit to the colony.2
In 1840 two Chinese firms, Chong-san Seng-chai & Co and Kim Seng & Co, both having offices at Boat Quay, figured as members of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce. Other Chinese firms already established at this date were Hooding & Co, Teang-why & Co, Tan Tock Seng3 and Whampoa.
Tan Kim Seng, the founder of the well-known firm of Kim Seng & Co, was born in 1805 in Malacca, which was also the birthplace of his father. Coming to Singapore, he embarked in business as a trader and by his perseverance, intelligence and integrity he rose steadily in the world and left a large fortune to his descendants. He was made a JP in 1850 on the death of Tan Tock Seng, and was highly respected by the whole community, and his advice on Chinese questions was frequently sought by the Government. He was a public benefactor on a large scale, and numerous are the gifts which bear his name and serve to keep his memory green. He constructed the Kim Seng Bridge over the river close to the Stadt House in Malacca; he built and endowed the Chinese Free School known as ‘Chui Eng Si E’ in Amoy Street, Singapore, and dedicated to the public the thoroughfare known as Kim Seng Road, leading from River Valley Road to Havelock Road. He was the President of the principal Chinese Temple in Malacca and leader of the Chinese community in Singapore and Malacca. A warm supporter of Tan Tock Seng Hospital, he used to send annually