Francis James Bernard

Francis James Bernard (1796–1843) was a founding pioneer in the British settlement at Singapore, serving as its first Master Attendant, inaugural head of the police department, and founder of the Singapore Chronicle newspaper. His career, shaped by the nepotism and patronage prevalent in the settlement’s early years, has been overshadowed by adverse characterisations from Sir Stamford Raffles and later historians, though a re-examination of East India Company records offers a more favourable assessment of his administrative contributions [1, pp. 25–26].

Early Life and Arrival in Singapore

Bernard was born in London on 6 July 1796, the youngest son of Charles and Mary Bernard. He joined the Bengal Pilot Service of the English East India Company, being sponsored by Sir Francis Baring, a director of the Company and a prominent merchant banker, and sailed for Calcutta on the Lord Keith before his fourteenth birthday [1, p. 26]. Officially appointed to the Marine Service on 10 December 1810, he rose to the rank of Second Mate before being struck off the list of pilots in March 1815, the records giving no reason for the action [1, p. 26].

On 26 June 1818 Bernard married Esther Farquhar at St John’s Church in Calcutta, and the couple sailed for Melaka, where her father, Major William Farquhar, was Resident and Commandant. Farquhar gave Bernard command of the 130-ton brig Ganges, which was subsequently chartered as part of Raffles’ expeditionary fleet when the latter arrived in Penang in January 1819 with instructions from Lord Hastings to establish a new British base [1, pp. 26–27]. Following the founding of the settlement, Raffles appointed Bernard as Acting Master Attendant and Marine Storekeeper on a provisional salary of $300 per month [1, p. 27].

Administrative Roles and the Police Department

Bernard’s duties as Master Attendant were extensive: he ensured the provision of fresh water, food supplies, firewood and timber for vessels in the roadstead, supervised the outpost on St John’s Island, collected anchorage fees from native craft, and compiled monthly reports of vessel arrivals and departures. From February 1820 he also kept a detailed account of imports and exports, providing evidence of Singapore’s expanding role in regional trade [1, pp. 27–28].

When Governor-General Hastings ordered cost-cutbacks in 1820, Bernard’s salary was halved to $150 and his responsibilities expanded through the merging of several offices. He was superseded as Master Attendant in April 1820 by Captain William Flint, Raffles’ brother-in-law, on the unsubstantiated ground that ‘many complaints had been made against Bernard’ [1, p. 28]. However, Farquhar’s proposal to establish a small police force funded by licensing fees for opium, arrack and gambling houses opened a new path. Bernard was appointed Police Assistant at $100 per month, a post he retained when Raffles sanctioned the arrangement in August 1820 [1, p. 29].

His first annual police report, submitted in July 1821, recorded 49 crimes committed since the department’s establishment, noting that after an auxiliary night watch was introduced in the European town, only two or three petty thefts had occurred [1, p. 29]. Bernard worked closely with Farquhar and the capitans (headmen of the ethnic communities) to preserve the peace and settle disputes, and his duties extended to witnessing loan contracts and registering land transfers [1, p. 30]. In February 1823 he was appointed to Raffles’ Town Improvement Committee, where he oversaw the relocation of the Temenggong and some 600 of his people, the removal of more than 80 buildings, and the design of new streets and markets [1, pp. 33–34].

Rivalry with Raffles and Later Career

Relations between Bernard and Raffles deteriorated sharply after Raffles’ return to Singapore in October 1822. Raffles described Bernard as a ‘head constable’, a term Farquhar interpreted as a ‘premeditated insult and affront’ [1, p. 31]. Raffles also denied Bernard’s claims for compensation for his house in the cantonment and questioned the legality of his plantations on Blakan Mati (Sentosa Island) and at Tanjong Katong [1, pp. 34–35]. In March 1823, Bernard’s actions inadvertently led to Farquhar being wounded during an incident involving a jailed Arab trader, further straining Raffles’ already hostile disposition [1, p. 35].

After Raffles left Singapore in June 1823, Bernard established the Singapore Chronicle with the approval of Dr John Crawfurd, who had replaced Farquhar as Resident. The newspaper debuted in January 1824 as an exclusively commercial publication [1, p. 36]. However, a dispute over the contents of farewell addresses to Farquhar led to Bernard’s resignation as Police Assistant in February 1824, and Crawfurd subsequently appointed his own nephew, William Campbell, to the post [1, p. 36]. Bernard was later appointed Singapore’s first Notary Public and supplemented his income through commissions as agent for Lloyds Insurance Company and from shipbuilding and housebuilding enterprises [1, p. 38].

Bernard left Singapore in March 1827, accepting the post of supercargo on the Meridian. He spent his final years in Wajo, a small sultanate in South Sulawesi, where he became involved in the Bugis language, culture and local politics, and later in Surabaya [1, p. 42]. He died in Batavia on 19 December 1843 [1, p. 42].

Research and Documentation

The historiography of Bernard has been dominated by negative assessments. Carl Gibson-Hill’s 1960 article in JMBRAS described him as a ‘shifty, unsatisfactory person’ and ‘a damaging associate’, a view echoed by Jeyamalar Kathirithamby-Wells in 1969 [1, p. 26]. Nadia Wright’s 2016 article in JMBRAS challenged these conclusions by re-examining India Office Records and Straits Settlements Records, arguing that Raffles treated Bernard unfairly and that his characterisation as a ‘low character’ was unsupported by evidence [1, pp. 25–26]. Wright’s analysis highlights how Raffles’ patronage network shaped the administrative record, elevating his own nominees while marginalising those outside his circle. The Supreme Government’s eventual award of $3,757 in combined house compensation and salary arrears, based on Crawfurd’s recommendation, further undermines Raffles’ negative portrayal [1, pp. 39–40].

MBRAS Sources

N.H. Wright (2016). The career of Francis James Bernard: nepotism and patronage in early Singapore. JMBRAS 89(2): 25–44

References

N.H. Wright (2016). The career of Francis James Bernard: nepotism and patronage in early Singapore JMBRAS 89(2): 25–44. Read on JSTOR