Francis Light

Career Naval career

In February 1754, Light joined the Royal Navy, serving as a surgeon's mate onboard the 64-gun HMS Mars. Light was promoted to midshipman on the 74-gun HMS Arrogant in 1761 before being discharged from the British navy without being commissioned as an officer in 1763.

In the colonies

His movements between 1763 and 1765 are not recorded, but it seems that he managed to amass enough of a fortune to bequeath a considerable amount of property in a will to William Negus and three other men.

Thalang, Siam

In 1765 Light embarked on the East India Company (EIC) merchant ship Clive, bound for Madras and Bombay. In British India, he secured command of a "country ship" belonging to the Madras trading firm Jourdain, Sulivan & Desouza, He soon gained an influential position with the Sultan of Kedah.

Whereas his previous suggestion had brought no result, following the American Revolutionary War during which Britain had struggled with France for naval superiority, Light's suggestion took on a new significance. In 1786, on behalf of the EIC, Light leased Penang Island from Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah, for the price of 6,000 Spanish dollars per annum. Under the administration of Governor-general Sir John Macpherson, Light was entitled superintendent and put in charge of the settlement, styled Dewa Raja by the Malays, on 1 July 1786; thus marking the beginning of British Malaya. despite the fact that Sultan Abdullah asked him to refrain from landing until the promise of military aid had been confirmed in London. Thus, when the Sultan's territories were invaded and no aid was forthcoming, the Sultan attempted to take back the island as a refuge in 1790.

The multicultural colony of Penang became extraordinarily successful from its inception and Light served as superintendent of the settlement until his death in October 1794, apart from 21 November 1789 to 9 February 1790, when John Glass acted in his place. By 1789 there were about 10,000 inhabitants, and by 1795, 20,000.

Accounts of his actions seem to indicate that he was a fair-minded and honourable man. In 1790, he asked for a higher salary, in order to allow him to live without having to engage in trade (by which he may have enriched himself, but possibly compromise his role). This led to his business partnership with James Scott being dissolved. and was buried at the Old Protestant Cemetery at Northam Road (now Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah Road) in George Town, Penang. He remembered his friends James Scott, William Fairlie and Thomas Pegou in his will.

A bronze statue, sculpted by F.J. Wilcoxson and cast at Burton's Foundry in Thames Ditton, bears Francis Light's name but was actually modelled on the features of his son William, as there were no portrait of Francis to use. Erected in 1936 to celebrate 150 years since George Town was founded, it stands at Fort Cornwallis in George Town. whose origins and status are the subject of debate. She has been variously recorded as being of Portuguese or French extraction on one side, and of Siamese or Malay on the other. She was also rumoured to have been a princess, possibly given to Light as a reward, or the island as her dowry, although other sources state that the princess was sent to enlist Light's aid on behalf of the Sultan.

Two contemporaries of Light, historian William Marsden (who says that she was the daughter of the Sultan of Kedah), and Captain Elisha Trapaud (who describes the wedding of Light to a princess of the Sultan's family, bestowed upon him as a mark of the prince's gratitude) seem to confirm the story that she was of noble blood. However, John Crawfurd, later First Resident of Singapore, said in 1820 that Martina was not a princess, but a Portuguese woman from Siam, and Steuart points out that there is no evidence that Trapaud knew Light when the couple began living together. Other contemporary accounts name her as the daughter of the 19th Sultan of Kedah (Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin II), by a lower-ranking wife of mixed Thai-Portuguese ancestry. She may have adopted her mother's name to emphasise her ancestry and "high birth". She was probably one of many Portuguese Eurasian Catholics who had fled religious persecution in southern Siam and to Kedah.

There were a number of Rozells registered at George Town in 1788. There was also a Martinha (no surname shown) registered as being from Siam, with a son William, of Kedah. Steuart posits that Martina was the same person as the "Nonya" who took part in the earliest negotiations with the Sultan in 1770–1771. This would support the idea that she was not a princess, but nevertheless had strong connections with both Siam and Kedah and therefore a useful person to employ in negotiations between the Sultan and the British administration at Aceh. If they were legally married, Light did not declare it. However, it was against East India Company rules to marry a Catholic and, as Martina belonged to the Catholic faith, Light may have tried to avoid dismissal by refraining from officially declaring his marriage. Light left Rozells his considerable property in his will. Either way, they cohabited for at least 22 years before his death. Their daughters were named Sarah, Mary and Ann (aka "Lukey"). They all married in Calcutta. Sarah married General James Welsh, an EIC officer in the Madras Army. Mary married a wealthy indigo plantation owner, George Boyd, and Ann married a physician, Charles Hunter. By 1818, Welsh observed that his wife and her siblings had seen all of their mother's property disappear.