Having no legitimate children, in 1861 he named Captain John Brooke Johnson-Brooke, his sister's eldest son, as his successor. When Wallace arrived in Singapore in September 1854, he found Rajah Brooke "reluctantly preparing to give evidence to the special commission set up to investigate his controversial anti-piracy activities."ĭuring his rule, Brooke faced threats from Sarawak warriors like Sharif Masahor and Rentap, and an uprising by Chinese miners in 1857, but remained in power. After investigation, the Commission dismissed the charges but the accusations continued to haunt him.īrooke met the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in England sometime around 1852 or 1853, because he wrote Wallace on leaving England in April 1853, "to assure Wallace that he would be very glad to see him at Sarawak." This was an invitation that helped Wallace decide on the Malay Archipelago for his next expedition, an expedition that lasted for eight years and established him as one of the foremost Victorian intellectuals and naturalists of the time. Brooke returned temporarily to England in 1847, where he was given the Freedom of the City of London, appointed governor and commander-in-chief of Labuan, British consul-general in Borneo and was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).īrooke became the centre of controversy in 1851 when accusations against him of excessive use of force against natives, under the guise of anti-piracy operations, ultimately led to the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry in Singapore in 1854. He was granted the title of Rajah of Sarawak on 24 September 1841, partly attributed to his relationship with a daughter of the Sultan, although the official declaration was not made until 18 August 1842.īrooke began to establish and cement his rule over Sarawak: reforming the administration, codifying laws and fighting piracy, which proved to be an ongoing issue throughout his rule. In return the sultan ceded complete sovereignty of Sarawak to Brooke, who in 1846 presented the island of Labuan to the British government. Brooke, with assistance from a unit of Britain's China squadron, took over Brunei and restored its sultan to the throne. However some Malay nobles in Brunei, unhappy over Brooke's measures against piracy, arranged for the murder of Muda Hashim and his followers. Raja Brooke was highly successful in suppressing the widespread piracy of the region.
Greatly impressed with the Malay Archipelago, in Sarawak he met Pangeran Muda Hashim, to whom he gave assistance in crushing the rebellion, thereby winning the allegiance of the Sultan, who in 1841 offered Brooke the governorship of Sarawak in return for his help.
Setting sail for Borneo in 1838, he arrived in Kuching in August to find the settlement facing an Iban and Bidayuh uprising against the Sultan of Brunei. In 1833, he inherited £30,000, which he used as capital to purchase a 142-ton schooner, The Royalist. He remained in the ship he had travelled out in, the Castle Huntley, and returned home via China.īrooke attempted to trade in the Far East, but was not successful. In 1830, he arrived back in Madras but was too late to rejoin his unit, and resigned. He saw action in Assam during the First Anglo-Burmese War until seriously wounded in 1825, and sent to England for recovery.
Some home tutoring followed in Bath before he returned to India in 1819 as an ensign in the Bengal Army of the British East India Company. Brooke stayed at home in India until he was sent, aged 12, to England and a brief education at Norwich School from which he ran away. His father, Thomas Brooke, was an English Judge Court of Appeal at Bareilly, British India his mother, Anna Maria, born in Hertfordshire, was the daughter of Scottish peer Colonel William Stuart, 9th Lord Blantyre, and his mistress Harriott Teasdale. James, Rajah of Sarawak, KCB (born James Brooke 29 April 1803 – 11 June 1868) was a British adventurer whose exploits in areas of the Malay Archipelago led to him becoming the first White Rajah of Sarawak.īrooke was born in Secrole, a suburb of Benares, India.
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