Raffles’ own copy of John Richardson’s A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English

Prior to establishing the British trading settlement on Singapore in 1819, Raffles was Lieutenant Governor of Java from 1811 to 1816. It was shortly after his appointment in Java that he acquired this Persian-Arabic-English dictionary at an auction of the books owned by William Hunter, Superintending Surgeon of the British expedition of Java, upon his death in 1812. After Raffles’ death, his widow Lady Sophia Raffles presented the book to the library of St. Augustine’s College.

See related items

‘Dictionary of Colloquial Malay’ by R.O. Winstedt

‘Malay for Beginners: Vocabulary English-Malay and Conversations’

A Biographical Dictionary of the Living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland by John Watkins and Frederic Shoberl

John Gorton’s “Raffles (Sir Thomas Stamford)” in A General Biographical Dictionary