Malacca Records

IOR/R/9

Malacca Records

1685-1835

The records originally comprised 36 boxes of Orphan Chamber records, 54 boxes of records of the College of Justice, 1 box of the records of the Political Council, and 7 boxes of miscellanies. For the most part the records are written Dutch. The bulk relates to the period 1785-1825 i.e. the last years of the Dutch East India Company's administration, the British occupation of 1795-1818, and the second Dutch administration of 1818-1825.

Public Record(s)

Chinese; Dutch; English; French; Malay; Portuguese; Tamil

98 boxes (899 files)

Unrestricted

Malacca was captured by the Dutch from the Portuguese in 1641. Administratively Malacca was subject to the Supreme Government in Batavia but it had its own dependencies which included Andragiri in Sumatra and the island of Riau [Bintan] at the tip of the Malay peninsula. In 1795 the authorities in British India decided the conquest of most of the Dutch possessions in the East. Malacca was captured on 26 August 1795 and the English East India Company imposed a military garrison on the town. The commandant of the garrison was appointed to act 'ex officio' as Resident, but the Dutch civil administration was allowed to continue more or less as before. The records of the first period of British occupation are therefore in Dutch whereas after the permanent transfer to Great Britain in 1825 they are written in English. Malacca was made subject to the new Eastern Presidency of Penang in 1805. By the terms of the London Convention of 1814 provision was made for handing back Malacca to the Netherlands but the actual restoration did not take place until 21 September 1818. However a further treaty of 17 March 1824 which effected an exchange of Dutch and British possessions in India and the East Indies re-assigned Malacca to Great Britain. The British occupied Malacca in April 1825 and the town was placed under the direct authority of the Bengal Government.