Historical Constructions Of Raffles' Wives

Abstract

In the early nineteenth century hundreds of British women spent at least part of their lives in Britain's Southeast Asian colonies: the Straits Settlements (Penang, Melaka and Singapore), Java, and Bengkulen in south-western Sumatra. Most were there because of family relationships, as wives, sisters or daughters of British administrators, merchants, planters, soldiers, sailors and missionaries; a few single women also came to work as teachers, governesses, nurses and so on. Yet in general these women have received scarcely a mention in mainstream historical accounts of British colonialism in Southeast Asia.$^1$ Until recently such histories have been imbued with a masculine ethos of imperial expansionism which allowed little scope for the contributions of women. Although more recent histories are no longer dominated by imperialist sentiment, the cursory treatment accorded to women suggests that the masculinist orientation has yet to be overcome.$^2$ However, there have been two notable exceptions to this general invisibility of women in colonial history. Two women, Olivia Devenish and Sophia Hull, have attracted unequalled attention from historians - not in their own right, but because of their connections with an archetypal British imperialist: Thomas Stamford Raffles, administrator in Penang, lieutenant governor of Java, lieutenant governor of Bengkulen, and founder of British Singapore.