Francis Light - Founder of a Colony

Francis Light was born in the middle of the eighteen century, a time when Britain was expanding its trade in the far-east.

Francis Light was baptised in Dallinghoo and the record of the occasion names his mother as Mary Light, but his father preferred to remain anonymous.  Francis was brought up in the house of William Negus, a prominent landowner in Melton, and it is possible that Francis was either the illegitimate son of Negus or that Negus was paid to look after him and be his guardian throughout his schooling.

In 1747 Francis Light was enrolled at Woodbridge Grammar School.  In 1759 he joined the Royal Navy and served as midshipman on the Captain.  Shortly after he transferred to the Dragon and subsequently became a midshipman on the Arrogant.  (Note - one account of his life states that five years before becoming a midshipman he was a surgeon's servant on the HMS Mars.)

In 1763 he left the Navy and two years later embarked on a journey, bound for Madras, aboard a ship of the East India Company.  In India he secured command of a ship belonging to a Madras firm of merchants and he was posted to Kedah, one of the Malay states.

A map showing the location of Kedah is given below.  The state of Kedah is coloured red and the state of Selangor orange.  The other states which comprise Malaysia are yellow.

A small part of Kedah is coloured lime green and it is there that Francis Light established a small colonial settlement. A statue of him stands outside Penang Museum.

Francis Light's statue outside Penang Museum.

On this map the Malaysian states of Kedah and Selangor are coloured red and

orange respectively.  The other states which comprise Malaysia are yellow.

Light quickly won the confidence of the Sultan of Kedah and, in 1771, he offered Light the port and the coast as far as the island of Penang in return for protection against Selangor, one of the other Malay states.

Light urged his superiors in Madras to accept this offer and also told the East India Company of the desirability of acquiring Penang as a commercial centre. Missions were subsequently dispatched in 1772 to negotiate with the Sultan of Kedah but they failed because the East India Company refused to promise aid against Selangor.

During the rest of the 1770s and the early 1780s, Light continued to engage in trade off the north-west coast of Siam. Growing Dutch power in the region led to new interest in establishing a British base in the Strait of Malacca and, in 1786, Light obtained a renewal of the offer of Penang from the sultan of Kedah, on the condition of a defensive alliance with the East India Company. This offer was accepted and the island was formally acquired as a British possession on the 11th August 1786. Light was appointed its first superintendent.

Eight years later Light's life was abruptly cut short by malaria. He achieved much in those eight years. He organised the clearing of the swampy, mosquito-infested land. He did this by blasting silver coins into the jungle to encourage his work force to clear the trees. He put up a makeshift fort. He enticed business to his prototype free-trade zone, and he laid out a town without any town-planning experience. If this were not enough to cope with, from 1791 he had to fend off the troops of the Sultan of Kedah who was enraged because the East India Company failed to observe the defensive clause in the treaty of accession.

For 22 years Light lived with, but never officially married, Martinha Rozells. She is believed to be of Portuguese and Siamese lineage and it is sometimes suggested that she was a Princess of Kedah. The union produced five children, three girls and two sons. William Light, the eldest son, was the founder of Adelaide.

Light owned a pepper estate which he called Suffolk, after his homeland, but there is no evidence that he built this handsome Georgian country mansion  -  called Suffolk House. It was probably the work of his successor.

Suffolk House

Francis Light’s tomb

Memorial to Francis Light in the Compound of St George’s Church

Sources

Last edited 18 Aug 23