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Clunies-Ross family

January 19, 2024

The Clunies-Ross family were the original settlers of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a small archipelago in the Indian Ocean. From 1827 to 1978, the family ruled the previously uninhabited islands as a private fiefdom, initially as terra nullius and then later under British (1857–1955) and Australian (1955–1978) sovereignty. The head of the family was usually recognised as the resident magistrate, and was sometimes styled as the "King of the Cocos Islands"; a title given by the press.

Oceania House, residence of the Clunies-Ross family

History edit

John Clunies-Ross edit

John Clunies-Ross was a merchant born in Weisdale, Shetland on 23 August 1786.[1] In 1813 he was at Timor as Third Mate on board the whaler Baroness Longueville when he received the opportunity to become captain of the brig Olivia, which he took.[2] He reportedly first cruised the waters of the then uninhabited Cocos (Keeling) Islands in 1825. After surveying them he moved his family to live on one of the islands in 1827.[3][4][5] Only Joshua Slocum used different dates, when he wrote that "John Clunis-Ross, who in 1814 touched [the island] in the ship Borneo on a voyage to India", nailed up a Union Jack with plans to settle in the future and "[...] returned 2 years later with his wife and family".[6]

In 1823 an English adventurer, Alexander Hare, had settled on another of the islands with some runaway slaves. Hare soon departed, and Clunies-Ross alone obtained permanent rights by settlement.[7] He planted hundreds of coconut palms and brought in Malay workers to the islands to harvest the nuts, building a business by selling copra.[8] In the beginning, Javanese convicts were used as labourers and "crime of all kinds was rife", before "getting rid of the criminal class and obtaining a better type of Malay coolie."[3]

According to a 1903 article in The Timaru Herald, Ross "[ran] his little colony on model lines and succeeded beyond expectation" and Charles Darwin mentioned after his 1836 visit with HMS Beagle that he "found the natives in a state of freedom".[4] However, the article omitted the sentence that immediately followed: "but in most other points they are considered as slaves".[5][9] Ross traded with Dutch vessels en route to Dutch ports on Java and Sumatra, and became a naturalised Dutch subject;[4] he had approached both the British and the Dutch government for annexation but neither had responded.[3] John Clunies-Ross died in 1854.

John George Clunies-Ross edit

His son John George Clunies-Ross (born 1823) took over from his father under the name of Ross II.[10] In 1857 British Captain Stephen Grenville Fremantle visited aboard HMS Juno who "took possession of the islands in the name of the Britannic Majesty's Government". Fremantle appointed John George as superintendent of the islands and left after a 3-month vacation. The connection to Britain changed nothing in Ross's autonomous administration, and it was not until fifteen years later another British ship arrived for a complete survey of the island.[4] Apparently, Fremantle annexed the islands by mistake, thinking he had arrived on the Coco Islands of the Andaman Islands.[3]

John George Clunies-Ross received the Malay title of Tuan Pandai ('the learned one') due to his amateur medical knowledge and research into the natural history of the islands. The head of the family Clunies-Ross kept the title 'Tuan', a term that can be translated as 'sir'.[10] He married S'pia Dupong, a Malay of high rank, in 1841.[11]

George Clunies-Ross edit

Born on 20 June 1842 in the Cocos Islands to John George Clunies-Ross and S'pia Dupong, George Clunies-Ross was sent to Scotland where he studied engineering at Glasgow.[7] In 1871, known as Tuan Tinggi,[11] he became superintendent after his father died,[4][11] then married Inin (1850–1889),[10] a Malay of high-rank like his mother.[7] It was during his administration, in 1885, that the first annual inspection by a representative of the Straits Settlements Government occurred.[3]

In 1886 Queen Victoria granted the islands in perpetuity to the Clunies-Ross family.[8] Representatives of the Government of the Straits Settlements were sent to the island each year and reports reflected that "members of the Clunies-Ross family are to-day in every sense of the word proprietors of the islands, for Mr George Clunies-Ross makes his own laws and interprets them, polices his little domain, provides his own coinage [...] controls the entire trade and acts as 'the universal provider' to satisfy the wants of the community".[4] According to Chambers' Journal, there had not been any metallic coins since 1837.[3] Six years after Inin's death, George Clunies-Ross married Ayesha, a former boi (servant) in 1895.[11]

In 1903, the islands were annexed to the Straits Settlements and incorporated as part of the settlement of Singapore, without affecting the ownership of the territory. George Clunies-Ross died on 7 July 1910 at Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight, after going to England for medical treatment.[7][1] His body was taken back to the Cocos in 1914.[1]

John Sidney Clunies-Ross edit

 
Clunies-Ross family, 1930s generation.

John Sidney Clunies-Ross was born in the Coco Islands on 13 November 1868, the son of George Clunies-Ross and Inin. Known as Tuan Ross, he inherited an economic disaster after a cyclone destroyed almost every house and coconut palm on Home Island in November 1909.[11]

During the Second World War, the Cocos islands served as a major base for the Royal Air Force. John Sidney Clunies-Ross died of a heart attack during a Japanese bombing on the islands in August 1944. The British military took over control of Home Island until John Cecil Clunies-Ross returned to the Cocos on 6 July 1946.[12][10]

John Cecil Clunies-Ross edit

The title to the islands was claimed by the Ross family until 1978, when John Cecil Clunies-Ross (born 29 November 1928),[12] known as Tuan John,[10] sold them to the Commonwealth of Australia for £2.5m ($4.75m)[clarification needed] under threat of expropriation,[8][13] with the exception of his house on Home Island, which was eventually purchased by the government in 1993.[14] The Commonwealth had already been administering the islands since November 1955, with the proclamation of the Cocos (Keeling) Island Act 1955.[14]

John C. Clunies-Ross eventually went bankrupt after the Australian government refused to give any business to his shipping line company. He then moved to Perth with his wife.[8][13] During the 1984 referendum, he campaigned for independence but the majority of the islanders chose integration with Australia.[13]

He died in Perth at the age of 92 on 13 September 2021.[15]

Legacy edit

As of 2007, John "Johnny" George Clunies-Ross (born 1957[16]), the son of John C. Clunies-Ross, lived on the West Island, breeding clams. He stated that he was initially frustrated with the 1978 transfer of the islands to Australia, but that he had changed his mind since then: "I was 21 and I'd been brought up to do the job. But even in the old man's time, it had become anachronistic. It had to change".[8]

List of resident magistrates edit

Resident magistrate[8][13] Regnal name[17][12] Native title[11][10] Life dates Entered office[12][10] Left office[12][10]
John Clunies-Ross Clunies-Ross I 1786–1854 1827 1854
John George Clunies-Ross Clunies-Ross II Tuan Pandai 1823–1871 1854 1871
George Clunies-Ross Clunies-Ross III Tuan Tinggi 1842–1910 1871 1910
John Sidney Clunies-Ross Clunies-Ross IV Tuan Ross 1868–1944 1910 1944
John Cecil Clunies-Ross Clunies-Ross V Tuan John 1928–2021 1946 1978

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Gibson-Hill, C. A. (1952). "Documents relating to John Clunies Ross, Alexander Hare and the early history of the settlement on the Cocos-Keeline Islands". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 25 (4/5 (160)): 5–306. ISSN 2304-7550. JSTOR 41502769.
  2. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 January 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "The Cocos Islands". The Chambers's Journal. Edinburgh. 76: 187–190. 1899. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Long, Edward E. (3 October 1903). "King of the Cocos Island". Timaru Herald, Volume LXXIX, Page 2. No. 12187. Via Government of New Zealand. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  5. ^ a b . www.abc.net.au. ABC Australia. 16 November 2004. Archived from the original on 31 August 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  6. ^ Joshua Slocum, (1901) "Sailing Alone Around the World", New York Century Co, Pan American edition, p. 212
  7. ^ a b c d im Thurn, Everard Ferdinand (1912). "Clunies-Ross, George" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 1. pp. 375–376.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Nick Squires The man who lost a 'coral kingdom' BBC News, 7 June 2007
  9. ^ Keynes, Richard (2001), Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary, Cambridge University Press, pp. 413–418, retrieved 12 April 2016
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Irving, David R. M. (2019). "Strings across the ocean: practices, traditions, and histories of the Cocos Malay biola in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Indian Ocean". Ethnomusicology Forum. 28 (3): 283–320. doi:10.1080/17411912.2020.1754874. hdl:10261/215984. ISSN 1741-1912. S2CID 218931038.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Hunt, John G. (1989). The revenge of the Bantamese: Factors for change in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, 1930-1978 (Thesis). Australian National University. doi:10.25911/5d7637458205c. hdl:1885/10900.
  12. ^ a b c d e "Heir to the Coco Islands". Pacific islands monthly. Vol. XX, no. 3. October 1949. p. 13.
  13. ^ a b c d Wynne, Emma (6 April 2019). "There was trouble in paradise until Cocos Islanders changed their destiny". ABC News. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  14. ^ a b "The Cocos (Keeling) Islands" (PDF). National Archives of Australia.
  15. ^ Howe, Alan (25 September 2021). "End of the line for the Clunies-Ross men who ruled paradise". The Australian. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  16. ^ "Trove". trove.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  17. ^ "Cocos Island: The King Is Dead". Time. 11 June 1945. ISSN 0040-781X.

Further reading edit

  • Clunies-Ross, John Cecil; Souter, Gavin The Clunies-Ross Cocos Chronicle, Self, Perth 2009, ISBN 9780980586718
  • Ross, J. C. (May 1835). "The Cocos' Isles. Letter to the Editor, New Selna, Cocos' Isles, July 8th, 1834". Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine. The Metropolitan, part 1. Peck and Newton. pp. 219–221.

External links edit

  • Genealogical Gleanings

January 19, 2024
clunies, ross, family, were, original, settlers, cocos, keeling, islands, small, archipelago, indian, ocean, from, 1827, 1978, family, ruled, previously, uninhabited, islands, private, fiefdom, initially, terra, nullius, then, later, under, british, 1857, 1955. The Clunies Ross family were the original settlers of the Cocos Keeling Islands a small archipelago in the Indian Ocean From 1827 to 1978 the family ruled the previously uninhabited islands as a private fiefdom initially as terra nullius and then later under British 1857 1955 and Australian 1955 1978 sovereignty The head of the family was usually recognised as the resident magistrate and was sometimes styled as the King of the Cocos Islands a title given by the press Oceania House residence of the Clunies Ross familyContents 1 History 1 1 John Clunies Ross 1 2 John George Clunies Ross 1 3 George Clunies Ross 1 4 John Sidney Clunies Ross 1 5 John Cecil Clunies Ross 2 Legacy 3 List of resident magistrates 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External linksHistory editJohn Clunies Ross edit John Clunies Ross was a merchant born in Weisdale Shetland on 23 August 1786 1 In 1813 he was at Timor as Third Mate on board the whaler Baroness Longueville when he received the opportunity to become captain of the brig Olivia which he took 2 He reportedly first cruised the waters of the then uninhabited Cocos Keeling Islands in 1825 After surveying them he moved his family to live on one of the islands in 1827 3 4 5 Only Joshua Slocum used different dates when he wrote that John Clunis Ross who in 1814 touched the island in the ship Borneo on a voyage to India nailed up a Union Jack with plans to settle in the future and returned 2 years later with his wife and family 6 In 1823 an English adventurer Alexander Hare had settled on another of the islands with some runaway slaves Hare soon departed and Clunies Ross alone obtained permanent rights by settlement 7 He planted hundreds of coconut palms and brought in Malay workers to the islands to harvest the nuts building a business by selling copra 8 In the beginning Javanese convicts were used as labourers and crime of all kinds was rife before getting rid of the criminal class and obtaining a better type of Malay coolie 3 According to a 1903 article in The Timaru Herald Ross ran his little colony on model lines and succeeded beyond expectation and Charles Darwin mentioned after his 1836 visit with HMS Beagle that he found the natives in a state of freedom 4 However the article omitted the sentence that immediately followed but in most other points they are considered as slaves 5 9 Ross traded with Dutch vessels en route to Dutch ports on Java and Sumatra and became a naturalised Dutch subject 4 he had approached both the British and the Dutch government for annexation but neither had responded 3 John Clunies Ross died in 1854 John George Clunies Ross edit His son John George Clunies Ross born 1823 took over from his father under the name of Ross II 10 In 1857 British Captain Stephen Grenville Fremantle visited aboard HMS Juno who took possession of the islands in the name of the Britannic Majesty s Government Fremantle appointed John George as superintendent of the islands and left after a 3 month vacation The connection to Britain changed nothing in Ross s autonomous administration and it was not until fifteen years later another British ship arrived for a complete survey of the island 4 Apparently Fremantle annexed the islands by mistake thinking he had arrived on the Coco Islands of the Andaman Islands 3 John George Clunies Ross received the Malay title of Tuan Pandai the learned one due to his amateur medical knowledge and research into the natural history of the islands The head of the family Clunies Ross kept the title Tuan a term that can be translated as sir 10 He married S pia Dupong a Malay of high rank in 1841 11 George Clunies Ross edit Born on 20 June 1842 in the Cocos Islands to John George Clunies Ross and S pia Dupong George Clunies Ross was sent to Scotland where he studied engineering at Glasgow 7 In 1871 known as Tuan Tinggi 11 he became superintendent after his father died 4 11 then married Inin 1850 1889 10 a Malay of high rank like his mother 7 It was during his administration in 1885 that the first annual inspection by a representative of the Straits Settlements Government occurred 3 In 1886 Queen Victoria granted the islands in perpetuity to the Clunies Ross family 8 Representatives of the Government of the Straits Settlements were sent to the island each year and reports reflected that members of the Clunies Ross family are to day in every sense of the word proprietors of the islands for Mr George Clunies Ross makes his own laws and interprets them polices his little domain provides his own coinage controls the entire trade and acts as the universal provider to satisfy the wants of the community 4 According to Chambers Journal there had not been any metallic coins since 1837 3 Six years after Inin s death George Clunies Ross married Ayesha a former boi servant in 1895 11 In 1903 the islands were annexed to the Straits Settlements and incorporated as part of the settlement of Singapore without affecting the ownership of the territory George Clunies Ross died on 7 July 1910 at Ventnor in the Isle of Wight after going to England for medical treatment 7 1 His body was taken back to the Cocos in 1914 1 John Sidney Clunies Ross edit nbsp Clunies Ross family 1930s generation John Sidney Clunies Ross was born in the Coco Islands on 13 November 1868 the son of George Clunies Ross and Inin Known as Tuan Ross he inherited an economic disaster after a cyclone destroyed almost every house and coconut palm on Home Island in November 1909 11 During the Second World War the Cocos islands served as a major base for the Royal Air Force John Sidney Clunies Ross died of a heart attack during a Japanese bombing on the islands in August 1944 The British military took over control of Home Island until John Cecil Clunies Ross returned to the Cocos on 6 July 1946 12 10 John Cecil Clunies Ross edit The title to the islands was claimed by the Ross family until 1978 when John Cecil Clunies Ross born 29 November 1928 12 known as Tuan John 10 sold them to the Commonwealth of Australia for 2 5m 4 75m clarification needed under threat of expropriation 8 13 with the exception of his house on Home Island which was eventually purchased by the government in 1993 14 The Commonwealth had already been administering the islands since November 1955 with the proclamation of the Cocos Keeling Island Act 1955 14 John C Clunies Ross eventually went bankrupt after the Australian government refused to give any business to his shipping line company He then moved to Perth with his wife 8 13 During the 1984 referendum he campaigned for independence but the majority of the islanders chose integration with Australia 13 He died in Perth at the age of 92 on 13 September 2021 15 Legacy editAs of 2007 update John Johnny George Clunies Ross born 1957 16 the son of John C Clunies Ross lived on the West Island breeding clams He stated that he was initially frustrated with the 1978 transfer of the islands to Australia but that he had changed his mind since then I was 21 and I d been brought up to do the job But even in the old man s time it had become anachronistic It had to change 8 List of resident magistrates editResident magistrate 8 13 Regnal name 17 12 Native title 11 10 Life dates Entered office 12 10 Left office 12 10 John Clunies Ross Clunies Ross I 1786 1854 1827 1854John George Clunies Ross Clunies Ross II Tuan Pandai 1823 1871 1854 1871George Clunies Ross Clunies Ross III Tuan Tinggi 1842 1910 1871 1910John Sidney Clunies Ross Clunies Ross IV Tuan Ross 1868 1944 1910 1944John Cecil Clunies Ross Clunies Ross V Tuan John 1928 2021 1946 1978See also editList of administrative heads of Cocos Keeling Islands Ian Clunies Ross prominent Australian scientist and administrator and relative of the Clunies Ross family Alfred Clunies Ross the first non white rugby union international player and relative of the Clunies Ross family Pulu Cocos MuseumReferences edit a b c Gibson Hill C A 1952 Documents relating to John Clunies Ross Alexander Hare and the early history of the settlement on the Cocos Keeline Islands Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 25 4 5 160 5 306 ISSN 2304 7550 JSTOR 41502769 Farram Stephen 2007 Jacobus Arnoldus Haazart and the British interregnum in Netherlands Timor 1812 1816 Accessed 8 November 2016 PDF Archived from the original PDF on 11 January 2017 Retrieved 9 November 2016 a b c d e f The Cocos Islands The Chambers s Journal Edinburgh 76 187 190 1899 Retrieved 12 April 2016 a b c d e f Long Edward E 3 October 1903 King of the Cocos Island Timaru Herald Volume LXXIX Page 2 No 12187 Via Government of New Zealand Retrieved 15 February 2015 a b Dynasties series Clunies Ross Timeline episode 2 www abc net au ABC Australia 16 November 2004 Archived from the original on 31 August 2014 Retrieved 12 April 2016 Joshua Slocum 1901 Sailing Alone Around the World New York Century Co Pan American edition p 212 a b c d im Thurn Everard Ferdinand 1912 Clunies Ross George Dictionary of National Biography 2nd supplement Vol 1 pp 375 376 a b c d e f Nick Squires The man who lost a coral kingdom BBC News 7 June 2007 Keynes Richard 2001 Charles Darwin s Beagle Diary Cambridge University Press pp 413 418 retrieved 12 April 2016 a b c d e f g h Irving David R M 2019 Strings across the ocean practices traditions and histories of the Cocos Malay biola in the Cocos Keeling Islands Indian Ocean Ethnomusicology Forum 28 3 283 320 doi 10 1080 17411912 2020 1754874 hdl 10261 215984 ISSN 1741 1912 S2CID 218931038 a b c d e f Hunt John G 1989 The revenge of the Bantamese Factors for change in the Cocos Keeling Islands 1930 1978 Thesis Australian National University doi 10 25911 5d7637458205c hdl 1885 10900 a b c d e Heir to the Coco Islands Pacific islands monthly Vol XX no 3 October 1949 p 13 a b c d Wynne Emma 6 April 2019 There was trouble in paradise until Cocos Islanders changed their destiny ABC News Retrieved 11 July 2020 a b The Cocos Keeling Islands PDF National Archives of Australia Howe Alan 25 September 2021 End of the line for the Clunies Ross men who ruled paradise The Australian Retrieved 1 October 2021 Trove trove nla gov au Retrieved 11 July 2020 Cocos Island The King Is Dead Time 11 June 1945 ISSN 0040 781X Further reading editClunies Ross John Cecil Souter Gavin The Clunies Ross Cocos Chronicle Self Perth 2009 ISBN 9780980586718 Ross J C May 1835 The Cocos Isles Letter to the Editor New Selna Cocos Isles July 8th 1834 Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine The Metropolitan part 1 Peck and Newton pp 219 221 External links editCocos Island page Genealogical Gleanings Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Clunies Ross family amp oldid 1189853665, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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