The Tang Holdings Collection contains 70 holograph letters of Sir Stamford Raffles and 58 holograph letters of Lady Raffles - by far the largest number in any depository in Singapore.  Among Raffles's letters are 16 to his mother, the only such letters to have survived, and the principal letters to his cousin, the Revd Dr Thomas Raffles, written between 1808 when he was at Melaka, and 1826, the year of his death.  Lady Raffles's letters extend chronologically from the time of her marriage to Raffles in 1817, until shortly before the death of her remaining child, Ella Sophia, in 1840.  They contain virtually all that is known of her life after the death of her husband.

The letters in the Collection throw much new light on Raffles's personal and family history and provide many insights into his life in Pinang, Java, Sumatra and Singapore.  They also reveal his views on religion, his ideas on education, his efforts to complete the writing of The History of Java, and his attempts to establish the Zoological Society of London.

The Tang Holdings Collection also contains a number of books which belonged to Raffles and Lady Raffles as well as related memorabilia, including a lock of Raffles's hair, the Diploma issued by the Royal Jennerian Society in London in recognition of his support of small-pox vaccination in Indonesia, and coins issued during his administration in Java.

Of the other books and pamphlets in the Collection, the rarest is the farewell Address of the Merchants of Singapore  to Raffles, which was printed in 1823 at the Sumatran Mission Press and is known in only one other copy.  Of equal interest and rarity is the set of Farewell Addresses presented to him in 1824 by the inhabitants of Bengkulu before his departure for England, and after his escape from the fire on the ship Fame which destroyed all his possessions and scientific papers.

As well as providing a fully documented and illustrated account of the letters, books and memorabilia in the Tang Holdings Collection, the book contains a chapter on Raffles's early life and his own account of the founding of Singapore.  Offering a vivid record of contemporary documents and artefacts, the Letters and Books of Sir Stamford Raffles and Lady Raffles  is a major contribution to the study of Raffles, Singapore and the region.

About the author

John Bastin is Emeritus Reader in the Modern History of South-East Asia in the University of London.  He was foundation Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Arts in the University of Malaya and subsequently Reader in the Modern History of South-East Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.  He was a foundation Fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies and General Editor of Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints.  He is the author of numerous books and articles on the history of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, and is the leading authority on Sir Stamford Raffles and his circle.