RAFFLES, SIR THOMAS STAMFORD, the son of a captain in the West India trade, was born at sea off the coast of Jamaica on the 5th of July 1781. Returning with his mother to England, he was placed in a boarding-school at Hammersmith, where he remained till the age of fourteen, when he entered the East India House as an extra clerk. While employed there, he occupied his leisure hours in various kinds of acquirements, and particularly in studying languages, for which he gave proofs of possessing great facility. In 1805 the directors of the India House having resolved to found a new settlement at Penang, or Prince of Wales' Island, on the coast of Malacca, for the purposes of trade, Raffles had risen so steadily in their good opinion that he was appointed assistant-secretary to that establishment. On his voyage out he acquired the Malay language, which stood him in good stead a short time afterwards, when, owing to the illness of the chief secretary, Raffles had to undertake the entire labour of arranging the forms of the new government, and of compiling all public documents connected with it. Such an accumulation of work proved too severe for his constitution, and in 1808 he had to visit Malacca to recruit his shattered strength. Here he enjoyed large opportunity of mingling with a very varied population congregated from all quarters of the Eastern Archipelago and the distant Asiatic continent. He likewise made the acquaintance of Marsden and the lamented Leyden, and in company with these two orientalists he began his elaborate researches into the history, the laws, and the literature of the Hindu and Malay races. In zoology he took a special interest, and ultimately became founder, on his return to England, of the Zoological Society, of which he was the first president. While on a visit to Calcutta in 1809, Raffles suggested to Lord Minto, then governor-general of India, the desirableness of wresting Java from the French, and rendering it a British possession. The governor-general grasped the idea with vigour; and ere many months had passed away a fleet of 90 ships dropped anchor before Batavia in August 1811. A short time effected the conquest of the island, and annexed Java to our East Indian dominions. Stamford Raffles was made lieutenant-general of the new territory, and resolved, at whatever cost, to give to the island, which had been subjected so long to the selfishness of a horde of Dutch robbers, a pure and upright administration. There were three sources of abuse which he resolved to eradicate. These were—the revenue system, the system of police and public justice, and the abolition of the slave trade. In a period of only five years Raffles had almost effected his design; he was adored by the native Javanese; all classes of society mentioned his name only with praise; and the revenue was eight times larger than it had been under the Dutch. However, the policy of some of his measures was considered doubtful by the home authorities, and he was in consequence recalled. Raffles reached London on the 16th of July 1816, and on his laying his case before the Court of Directors of the East India Company, they saw it expedient to express their conviction that the measures which he had adopted had "sprung from motives perfectly correct and laudable." To meet the growing demand for information about Java, he published a History of Java, in 2 vols. 4to, 1817.
Having received the honour of knighthood from the prince regent, Sir Stamford Raffles set out for the island of Sumatra as lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen or Fort Marlborough, a small district in the south-west of the island that belonged to Great Britain. He arrived at his new destination on the 22d of March 1818, and immediately set to work to abolish slavery, and gradually to liberate the convicts who had been transported thither. Anxious for some new settlement where some accredited British authority might be stationed to afford protection to British shipping, Sir Stamford
Raffles proceeded to Calcutta to consult the Marquis of Hastings, then governor-general of India. The marquis approved of his plan; and Sir Stamford proceeded down the Straits of Malacca, and on the 29th of February 1819 the British flag was waving over Singapore. Returning to Bencoolen, he found that society was improving, and the foundations of good order were fairly laid. Sir Stamford and Lady Raffles began now to look forward to a return to England. They had sacrificed three children to the climate, and they were anxious for the safety of their remaining daughter. Before taking leave, however, of the Eastern Archipelago, he resolved to visit Singapore, his "political child," and see what progress it was making towards prosperity. He arrived there on the 10th of October 1822, and occupied himself for nearly a year in laying out the new city, and in establishing institutions and laws for its future constitution. It was expressly provided, among a multitudinous array of details, that Singapore should now and for ever be a free port to all nations; that all races, religions, and colours should be equal in the eye of the law; and that slavery should have no existence. Java had been given up to the Dutch shortly after Sir Stamford left it, and now Bencoolen was granted to them in exchange for Malacca. A short time before the latter arrangement had been completed, Sir Stamford Raffles and his lady had landed in Plymouth. A most disastrous event occurred on setting sail from Sumatra on the 2d February 1824. The ship Fame, when about 50 miles from land, suddenly took fire. The crew and passengers were with difficulty saved. The loss to Sir Stamford was beyond all repair. The whole of his drawings, all his collections in botany and zoology, all his papers and manuscripts, of which there were many volumes, fell a prey to the flames. His pecuniary loss amounted to more than £20,000. During one of his excursions into the interior of Sumatra, in company with the lamented Dr Arnold, he came upon the largest and most magnificent flower in the world, the Rafflesia Arnoldi. In 1820 he sent home a large collection of preserved animals, now in the museum of the London Zoological Society, and a paper containing a description of them was read before the Linnean Society, and published in their Transactions. He died on the 5th of July 1826, in the forty-fifth year of his age.