The family of Sir Stamford Raffles

When Stamford Raffles married Sophia Hull in February 1817 and a year later welcomed the arrival of his first child, Charlotte, family life looked to be full of happiness. His earlier marriage to an older widow, Olivia Mariamne Devenish had ended with her untimely death in Java, leaving him bereft of “all that I held dear on earth”. Now, settled in Bencoolen as Lieutenant-Governor of Fort Marlborough, he watched with satisfaction over the growth of Singapore and the increase in his young family. For all these joys, however, he was also to find that in this “most wretched place”, death was never far away.

Drawing on a wide range of sources – including new findings from birth records, marriage registers, letters and wills – historian John Bastin and genealogical researcher Julie Weizenegger make an invaluable contribution to what is known about the members of Sir Stamford Raffles’s family. Rigorously researched and engagingly written, this new book is a superb account of Raffles’s ancestry, immediate family and closest relations – and how they connected with one another during each step of his celebrated career.