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'The Rajah of Sarawak, Sir James Brooke' (29 April 1803 – 11 June 1868) was a British statesman. His father, Thomas Brooke was English and his mother, Anna Maria was born in Hertfordshire, England, the daughter of Scottish peer Colonel William Stuart, 9th Lord Blantyre by his mistress Harriott Teasdale. James Brooke was born in Secrore, a suburb of Benares, India.

Contents

Early Career

Sarawak

White Rajah

Fiction

Trivia

Personal life

Burial

References

Notes

Early Career

Sir James was educated at Norwich School, England and became the first White Rajah of Sarawak. Brooke travelled to Burma with the army of the British East India Company in 1825, was wounded, and sent to England for recovery. In 1830, he arrived back in Madras too late to rejoin the service.

Sarawak

He attempted to trade in the Far East, but was not successful. In 1835, his father died and left him £30,000, which he used as capital to purchase a schooner, the ''Royalist''. After setting sail for Borneo in 1838, he arrived in Kuching in August of the same year to find the settlement facing a Dayak uprising against the Sultan of Brunei. Offering his aid to the Sultan, he and his crew helped bring about a peaceful settlement and was granted the title of Rajah of Sarawak by the Sultan, due to the fact that he threatened the Sultan with military force (although the official declaration was not made until August 18 1841).
Brooke 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. 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 KCB.

White Rajah

His Highness became the centre of controversy in 1851 when accusations of misconduct against him led to the appointment of a royal commission in Singapore. As the result of its investigation the charges were not proven but the accusations continued to haunt Sir James.
Having officially no children, in 1861, he named Captain John Brooke Johnson-Brooke, his sister's oldest son, as his successor. Two years later, while John was in England, James deposed and banished John from Sarawak because John criticised him. He later named another nephew, Charles Anthony Johnson-Brooke.
He ruled Sarawak until his death in 1868, following three strokes over a period of ten years. He is buried in Sheepstor church near Burrator, Plymouth. He was succeeded as Rajah by his nephew Charles Anthony Johnson-Brooke.
During his rule, Brooke faced threats from Sarawak warriors like Syarif Masahor and Rentap, but remained in power.

Fiction

A fictionalised account of James Brooke's exploits in Sarawak is given in C. S. Godshalk's novel Kalimantaan. Brooke is also featured in ''Flashman's Lady'', the 6th book in George MacDonald Fraser's meticulously researched Flashman novels and in ''Sandokan: The Pirates of Malaysia'', (''I pirati della Malesia'') the second novel in Emilio Salgari's Sandokan series.

Trivia

★ James Brooke was a model for Lord Jim in Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim.

★ The tropical pitcher plant species ''Nepenthes rajah'' was named in his honour by Joseph Dalton Hooker.

★ The tropical butterfly Raja Brooke, species Trogonoptera brookiana, was named after him by the naturalist Alfred R. Wallace.

Personal life

Throughout his life, Brooke's principal emotional bonds were with adolescent boys, while he exhibited a total lack of interest in women. Among his more notable relationships with boys was the one with Badruddin, a Sarawak prince, of whom he wrote, "my love for him was deeper than anyone I knew." Later, in 1848, Brooke fell in love with Charles Grant (grandson of the seventh Earl of Elgin), who had just been recruited, being sixteen at the time. His love war reciprocated by the boy.^[1][2]
Although he died unmarried, he did acknowledge one son. It has also been claimed, that he married, by Muslim rites, Pengiran Anak Fatima, daughter of Pengiran Anak Abdul Kadir, and granddaughter of Omar Ali Saifuddin II, Sultan of Brunei. It is further said that he too had a daughter. The identity of the son's mother is not clear.
The son, (Reuben) George Brooke has been traced on a British census return for 1871 at the parish of Plumtree, Nottinghamshire where he gave his name as 'George Brooke', age '40', birthplace 'Sarawak, Borneo.' George Brooke was married and had seven children, three of whom survived their infancy. He died in the wreck of the SS British Admiral while on a voyage to Australia 23 May 1874.
[1] As Rajah Robert Brooke died officially "unmarried and without issue", the title of Rajah passed to the son of his sister.

Burial

All three White Rajahs are buried in St Leonard's Church in the village of Sheepstor on Dartmoor.

References

★ Cavendish, Richard. "Birth of Sir James Brooke." ''History Today''. April 2003, Vol. 53, Issue 4.

★ Doering, Jonathan. "The Enigmatic Sir James Brooke." ''Contemporary Review'', July, 2003. (Book review of ''White Rajah'' by Nigel Barley. Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-85920-6.)

★ Jacob, Gertrude Le Grand. ''The Raja of Saráwak: An Account of Sir James Brooks. K. C. B., LL. D., Given Chiefly Through Letters and Journals''. London: MacMillan, 1876.

★ Wason, Charles William. ''The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year 1868.'' London: Rivingtons, Waterloo Place, 1869. pp. 162-163.

Notes

1. Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience, Ronald Hyam; pp.44-45
2. WALKER, J.H., This peculiar acuteness of feeling: James Brooke and the enactment of desire, Borneo Research Bulletin, vol 29 (1998) pp 148- 189