William Burgess Pryer

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William B. Pryer

William Burgess Pryer (born March 7, 1843 in London , England , † January 7, 1899 in Suez , Egypt ) was the first British resident in North Borneo and founder of the city of Sandakan .

Life

William B. Pryer was born in London on March 7, 1843, the son of Thomas and Isabel Pryer. Nothing is known about his youth and his professional training. Pryer's character is described as adventurous, hardworking, and goal-oriented. For example, we know that before starting his career in Shanghai he had explored large parts of the Philippines and that he was a former amateur boxing champion.

Pryer began his professional career as an accountant at Thorne & Company , a British company in Shanghai. Here the adventurous young man is obviously recruited by Baron von Overbeck . Pryer thus belonged to the entourage of the Austro-Hungarian consul and Alfred Dent , who negotiated a concession for their colonial interests with the rulers of the areas of North Borneo. After the treaty had been paraffined on January 22nd, 1878 with the help of William Clarke Cowie , a Scottish adventurer and friend of the Sultan von Sulu, von Overbeck and his business partners sailed to England to raise capital for the planned company. They gave the 33-year-old Pryer the grandiose title of Resident of the East Coast and set him up on February 11, 1878 as a sign of their claim to the new territory in North Borneo at the old trading post of Cowie.

This trading post on Pulau Timbang , also known as kampung jerman because of its German settlers , was the forerunner of Sandakan, but was further south-west of the present port city. From his provisional "residence", Pryer began to explore the surrounding area and to implement Overbeck's orders, namely to build friendly relationships with the indigenous people, respecting local customs, including their chiefs in the jurisdiction and all matters relating to the purchase and sale of Land concerned to monitor.

In September 1878 Pryer had to pass the hardest test to date: On September 4th, the El Dorado , a Spanish gunboat , entered the port. Captain Lobe informed Pryer that he would hoist the Spanish flag as ordered. Pryer announced resistance and convinced the Suluk chief Nakoda Alee to position his warriors in full war gear in front of the houses. In view of the warlike presence, the Spaniards refrained from further hostilities and announced that they would return with reinforcements from Manila; a threat that was never carried out.

When kampung jerman fell victim to the flames on June 15, 1879 and burned down completely, Pryer took this as an opportunity to move the settlement to its present location in Sandakan Bay. The choice soon turned out to be a wise decision, as the settlement founded on July 21, 1879 on previously uninhabited jungle and mangrove forests, grew faster than any other in North Borneo. William B. Pryer named her Elopura and thus became the founder of Sandakan.

It was also Pryer who proposed that William L. Treacher be made governor of North Borneo. Treacher had already been present at the negotiations with the Sultan of Sulu and had appointed Pryer as consular plenipotentiary before Baron Overbeck had left him in Kampung Jerman . While there was perfect harmony between Treacher and Pryer, united by the enthusiasm with which they approached their pioneering task, the arrival of more "officials" and the accompanying circumcision with Pryer's area of ​​responsibility led to increasing conflicts.

On December 10, 1883, the forty-year-old married Ada Blanche Locke, who was twelve years his junior.

Pryer began to retire into various agricultural projects. He acquired Pulau Bai , the island in Sandakan Bay, where he planted coconuts, coffee and betel nut palms and ran livestock . On Beatrice Estate , another plantation near Elopura, Pryer experimented with growing new products. He completely refused the cultivation of tobacco, which began in 1892, rather he predicted a decade before the natural rubber boom that the rubber tree would be the ideal crop for the native coastal inhabitants.

In 1892 he retired in agreement with the board of directors of the North Borneo Chartered Company , founded his own company and acquired a property about 20 kilometers north of Sandakan. He used another property on the Kabeli, a tributary of Sandakan Bay, to grow sugar cane, nutmeg , cocoa , cotton, the gambier plant and rubber . At the same time his health deteriorated noticeably; he suffered increasingly from severe and inexplicable pain. In 1898 he decided to return to England.

Pryer died on the way to England on January 7th or 8th, 1899 near Suez and was buried there on January 11th. He left his wife, Ada, but no children.

William Pryer memorial

The William Pryer Memorial

In honor of Pryer, the city of Sandakan erected a monument in the form of a fountain to its founder. It bears the inscription:

This Memorial
was erected
in Memory of
William B. Pryer
1845-1899
Founder of Sandakan
in 1879

literature

  • KG Tregonning: "William Pryer, the founder of Sandakan" , Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asian Society (JMBRAS), Vol. XXVII, May 1954, issue 1, pages 35-50; Singapore
  • KG Tregonning: "A History Of Modern Sabah (North Borneo 1881-1963)" , 2nd edition, University of Malaya Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1965, reprint 1967
  • Mrs. WB Pryer: "A Decade In Borneo" , London, 1893

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," indexed on FamilySearch under William Burgess Pryer, 07 Mar 1843 , FHL microfilm 0375014, 0375017; Accessed September 8, 2012
  2. ↑ a b JMBRAS, page 35
  3. ^ British North Borneo Herald , September 17, 1928; cited in JMBRAS, page 47
  4. ↑ Tregonning: A History of modern Sabah , Page 15 / North Borneo , page 50
  5. ↑ a b The Straits Times; The man who founded Sandakan  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Nov 13, 1954, p. 9@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / newspapers.nl.sg  
  6. ↑ a b Albert CK Teo: Guide to Sandakan ( Memento from February 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 3.4 MB), Kota Kinabalu, 1990
  7. ^ Written instructions from Overbeck to Pryer dated February 10, 1878; cited in JMBRAS page 36
  8. ↑ JMBRAS, pp. 42-43
  9. ↑ Tregonning: A History of modern Sabah , page 49
  10. ↑ Tregonning: A History of modern Sabah , page 15
  11. ↑ JMBRAS, pp. 44-45
  12. ↑ Susan Morgan: Introduction to the Diary A Decade in Borneo by Ada Pryer, page 15, Leicester University Press, London, 2001
  13. ↑ JMBRAS, pp. 46-47

Remarks

  1. ↑ Although his year of birth is given on the monument in Sandakan as 1845, the entries in his diary (quoted in JMBRAS, page 37) and the information provided by Tregonning indicate that the entry in the English family register is correct.
  2. ↑ Baron von Overbeck subsequently abandoned two other young men on the west coast: William Pretyman at the mouth of the Sungai Tempasuk and HL Leicester in Papar . Pretyman received the title of Resident of the West Coast .
  3. ↑ The Spaniards had defeated the Sultan of Sulu and therefore claimed all the possessions belonging to the Sultanate of Sulu, including his possessions on Borneo, which he had ceded six months earlier.
  4. ↑ The El Dorado was one of the ships that were sunk in the port of Manila in 1898 during the Spanish-American War .
personal data
SURNAME Pryer, William Burgess
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British resident of North Borneo
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1899 or January 8, 1899
Place of death near Suez , Egypt