Guide to the Papers of Pennington of Muncaster (as filmed by the AJCP), 1869-1925

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Summary

Collection number:

M1340-1362

Creator:

Ramsden (Family) and Cumbria Record Office. Robert Baxter. Senior Archivist

Extent:

249 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the Cumbria Archive Service and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the Cumbria Archive Service and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: Penang Rubber Estates Co. Ltd, 1913-1922, Papers of Pennington of Muncaster, Cumbria Archive Service (AJCP Ref: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-838033059/findingaid#nla-obj-1088705259).

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

Correspondence, telegrams, reports, contracts, financial papers, notices and minutes of meetings, returns, newspaper cuttings, maps and publications relating to sugar and rubber plantations in the Straits Settlements and Malaya. They document: the activities of the Penang Sugar Estates Co; Penang Rubber Estates Co; Straits Sugar Co; Straits Rubber Co; Rubana Rubber Estates Co; Bagan Serai Co; Batak Rabit Estate Ltd; Selaba Rubber Estates Ltd; Tali Ayer Rubber Estates Ltd; and Sabrang Rubber Estates Ltd. The bulk of the records is dated 1875-1925.

Correspondents include Sir John Ramsden, Sir John F. Ramsden, James Ray, Percy Taylor, E.L. Hamilton and William Duncan.

Biographical / Historical:

By 1850 planters based in Malacca, Singapore, Province Wellesley and northern Perak began to take up sugar-growing. The largest investor in western Malaya was the English politician Edward Horsman (1807-1876). Working through an attorney in Penang, he bought from the East India Company six estates: Caledonia, Krian, Victoria, Golden Grove, Jawi and Vol d'Or, amounting to almost 12,000 acres by 1857. Horsman never visited Malaya, but his Penang agents Brown Company organised the construction of a factory producing white sugar and rum and shipped the sugar and rum to European and Asian destinations.The sugar plantations ran up large overdrafts and Horsman often had to obtain funds from his brother-in-law, Sir John William Ramsden (1831-1914), 6th Baronet. Ramsden was extremely wealthy, owning extensive estates in Scotland, Cumberland and Yorkshire and much of the town of Huddersfield. Horsman finally went bankrupt in 1874 and he gave the title to his Malayan estates to Ramsden. Like Horsman, Ramsden was an absentee landlord, but he took a strong interest in the development of the plantations, selected his managers carefully, and advanced money for equipment, labour and the purchase of new estates in the Krian district and southern Perak. In 1874 over 2000 labourers from India, China and Java worked in the fields, with Chinese also working as clerks. The managers, who lived at Caledonia House on the Byram estate, were usually Scotsmen. In 1876 Ramsden's business was incorporated as Penang Sugar Estates Ltd, with a small head office in London. Some of his family, friends, army officers and Straits businessmen owned shares, but Ramsden and later his son always held a majority of the shares.Between 1900 and 1940 rubber cultivation became the dominant industry in western Malaya, reaching 2.3 million acres in 1922 and 3.5 million acres in 1940. By 1920 rubber was the principal export crop. Ramsden was one of the first plantation owners to move from sugar to rubber cultivation, experimenting with rubber seedlings as early as 1902. Penang Sugar Estates and Straits Sugar Estates were liquidated and replaced by Penang Rubber Estates and Straits Rubber Estates. In 1910 William Duncan was engaged as general manager to oversee the transition to rubber plantation. New companies were floated, often with Scottish names, to cash in on the rubber boom. By 1915 Ramsden's son, Sir John Frecheville Ramsden (1877-1958), 6th Baronet, controlled over 55,000 acres of rubber plantations. The wealth derived from sugar was reflected in the grandeur of Caledonia House, known as the 99 Doors Mansion, and its beautiful gardens.After World War II, the dominance of rubber in the Malayan economy faded. Ramsden's son and heir, John St Maur Ramsden, lived intermittently on the Penang Rubber Estates, but he was murdered at Caledonia House in 1948. Within a few years his father liquidated all his Malayan companies.Josslyn Pennington (1834-1917), 5th Baron Muncaster, was a cousin of Sir John William Ramsden. He had no children and on his death his estates passed to the Ramsdens. In accordance with his will, they adopted the name Pennington-Ramsden in 1925.

Reference: Lynn Lees. Planting empire, cultivating subjects: British Malaya, 1786-1941, Cambridge, 2017.

Indexed terms

Names:: Cumbria Record Office. Robert Baxter. Senior Archivist

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:

Available for Access.

Conditions Governing Use:

Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.

Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission from the Cumbria Archive Service, Cumbria.

For more information contact the Cumbria Archive Service [https://www.cumbria.gov.uk/archives/]