by Charles Burton Buckley, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0 19 582602 7:
| p.48 | Much of the area on the opposite side of River Valley Road, which had formed part of Dr Oxley’s estate, had been subdivided and sold off in lots in the early 1850s, and by 1858 about twenty houses had been built, an early sign of the suburban expansion which would follow some twenty years later. |
| p.61-62 | .. the whole of Emerald Hill was sold in 1890 to one
Edwin Kock and thereafter it became an orchard. Like
Cuppage’s former nutmeg plantation, it failed, and
by the turn of the century, the land and its three houses
became the property of one or two rich Chinese
businessmen who were to exploit its potential value by
subdividing it into smaller lots in the manner of the
Killeny Road area on the opposite side of Orchard Road. This area south of Orchard Road, formerly a part of the plantation of Thomas Oxley and subdivided by him in the 1850s, was now home to numerous Chinese families for whom the ownership of a modern-style bungalow, however small, was a matter of some importance... Bordering the Killeny-Devonshire Road area on the slopes of Mount Oxley, there had been little change since the erection by Oxley of ‘Killeney House’, later renamed ‘Belle Vue’, in the 1840s, and the subsequent addition of equally grand villas during the 1860s and 1870s. [Picture: Front porch of ‘Belle Vue’, Oxley Rise, Singapore; build circa 1840. From M J Doggett, Characters of Light, Singapore, Times Books International, 1985] |
| p.77 (1822) |
Dr Montgomerie, who is said to have first introduced Gutta Percha to the notice of Europeans, stated that he obtained the name of it, at Singapore, in 1822, while making enquiries relative to caoutchouc, but he lost sight of the subject, having returned to the Bengal Residency for a time. Some gutta was taken to England by Dr dÁlmeida in 1842, but did not attract much attention, and it was brought into notice, practically, at last, by Dr Oxley and Dr Little's discoveries about the year 1845. |
| p.128 (1834) |
Regarding elementary
schooling in Singapore, and the founding of the Raffles
Institution: In February 1834, Mr Darrah, the Chaplain, began writing about the subject of the neglected education of the children in the Settlement, and on 3rd May made a proposal to establish elementary schools in different places with native masters, with a central school at which the descendants of Europeans could attend… The Committee consisted of Messrs Johnston, Wingrove, Scott, Darrah, Oxley and Napier. Mr Moor was the first European Master at $75 a month, and there were two native masters at $12 each. |
| p.129 (1835) |
On the 27th August 1835, a meeting was held at the Court House, Mr Alexander Guthrie in the chair, at which it was resolved that the original scheme of the [Raffles] Institution [the school] should be rescinded and another adopted more consonant to the general sense of the supporters and better adapted to the object in view. That children of any country should be taught without regard to any exclusive course of religious instruction. The salary of the head master not to exceed $100, and for native teachers $15. The Patrons to be the Governor, Recorder and Resident Councillor, and a Committee of five was appointed, of Messrs Wingrove, W Napier, G D Coleman, Thomas McMicking and Thomas Oxley. Dr Oxley became Honorary Secretary. |
| p.219 (1831) |
… it was usual to say in Singapore that no tigers were known on the island before 1835. Dr Oxley in a paper on the zoology of Singapore, written in 1849, said that not many years before, the existence of a tiger on the island was firmly disbelieved. It must be remembered that in 1831 the island was thick jungle except near the town, and there were, and are to this day, so many deer and pig that the tigers were not likely to venture near human habitations. |
| p.217 | "... It was not until the 1880s that the professional architect arrived on the scene. Up till then, most buildings were designed by anonymous builders and tradesmen and a handful of military and civil engineers, surveyors and draughtsmen. They were responsible for the succession of large country houses such as ‘Killeney House’, Whampoa’s house, and those built at Telok Blangah and elsewhere in the 1830s. Other notable examples were ‘Cairnhill House’ and the residences put up by Thomas Oxley on his plantation in the 1840s and 1850s... few of the draughtsmen who designed these buildings had any formal training and relied instead on the availability of pattern books." |
| p.220 | Dr Oxley says that it was found on careful enquiry that 300 human beings were killed by tigers in 1857, of whom only seven were reported to the police. |
| p.222 (1831) |
In October a burglary was committed in Dr Oxley’s house, and a convict, a servant of the Doctor, caught the man, a Malay of Bencoolen, after the Doctor had shot at him with some small shot just as he was getting out through the window. The burglar wounded the convict with a kris, and he then jumped out of the window in the Doctor’s room, fifteen feet from the ground. Dr Oxley was Government Surgeon, and the story was often told that on going to the hospital the next morning, a man had to have a lot of shot picked out of his back; and it is said the doctor, who knew how the shot got there, was a long time getting out the pellets. |
| p.304 (1836) |
On the 24th May a public meeting was held at the Reading Room to form the Singapore Agricultural and Horticultural Society, with a subscription of $2 quarterly to meet at 7 o’clock in the evening of the first Saturday of every month.. The meetings were held regularly at the houses of members of the committee in turn, for some time, papers being read upon various subjects. One, the first, being read by Dr Oxley on the objects of the Society. |
| p.313 (1837) |
A meeting was held in the vestry of the Mission Chapel to open a branch of the British & Foreign Bible Society, to be called "The Singapore Bible Auxiliary". The Resident Councillor, Mr Wingrove, was President, and Dr Oxley and many others joined the Society. |
| p.315 (1837) |
In the same week [in May], the first Annual Meeting of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society was held… Dr Oxley in the chair, and it was decided to keep only the horticultural garden, under his management. […] Dr Oxley, Dr Montgomerie, and Mr T O Crane, the Secretary, were the prominent members of the Society. |
| p.316 (1837) |
On Monday 26th August the first meeting was held of the Singapore Temperance Society, which began very successfully, with Lieut. Ashley of the Artillery as Secretary, and the Hon. T Church as President, and the clergy and Dr Oxley on the Committee. |
| p.385 (1843) |
There was a long series of
robberies and attacks by numbers of armed Chinese about
this time, and a public meeting was called, of which the
following are the minutes: ‘At a Public Meeting of the Inhabitants of Singapore, held at the office of Messrs Hamilton, Gray and Co, on the 10th February 1843, Thomas Oxley, Sheriff, in the Chair, the following Resolutions were read from the Chair and unanimously adopted:-‘ |
| p.393 (1843) |
Information was received in town that a tiger had been caught in a trap in the jungle on the left of Bukit Timah Road near the third mile stone, not far from the present Botanical Gardens. In a few minutes vehicles of every description went conveying Europeans from town…. "The tiger made a double spring at the side and then at the mouth of the pit, and its foreclaws reached to within a foot and a half of the top, when Dr Oxley, who with Mr Read and one of two others had stood his ground, fired both barrels down its throat and it fell back dead, never moving again." |
| p.403 (1843) |
Regarding Gutta Percha: "…Subsequently in 1845, Dr Montgomerie sent some specimens to the London Society of Arts… and the natural result was that the gold medal of the Society was given to Dr Montgomerie, who had presented it. It is singular that the properties for which the gutta was most admired by the aborigines of this Peninsula, namely its applicability for handles to cutting instruments, from the firm grip that its solid yet slightly elastic principal gives to the holder, seems never to have been developed in Europe, although cavalry sabres and other weapons of the kind would be much improved by its use." The insulation of submarine cables was an unknown quantity when that was written. A few years afterwards Logan’s Journal, published in 1847, continued an article on Gutta Percha, its botanical description and economic uses, by Dr Oxley, who claimed to be the discoverer of one of its most important applications, which led to a controversy that has existed ever since. The Free Press remarked about it: "Our opinion is that both Dr Little and Dr Oxley are discoverers, and the only advantage on Dr Oxley’s side consists in his having first promulgated the discovery to the world. It is probable, however, that if he has been the first to announce it, the merit of the application will generally be given to him. This ought to incite Dr Little, and all other discoverers, not to lose any time in future in publishing their discoveries, else they may find themselves anticipated by others equally ingenious and more prompt in giving them publicity. "It was very surprising that such a useful substance as gutta should have remained so long unnoticed, as it appeared that it had been in some limited use by the natives in these parts." |
| p.405 (1843) |
Dr Montgomerie was succeeded
as Senior Surgeon, Straits Settlements in 1846 by a very
well known Singaporean, Dr Thomas Oxley. He had been for
about four years in Malacca where he performed the
manifold duties of Police Magistrate, Superintendent of
Police, Collector of Assessment and Commissioner of the
Court of Requests, for which, as the Free Press remarked,
he received the salary of Rs 200 a month, in addition to
his allowance as Assistant Surgeon, and in order to take
up the duties had left a remunerative practice in
Singapore,, and a great deal of useful work, especially
that of Honorary Secretary of the Raffles Institution. He
wrote many scientific papers, some of what are in
Logan’s Journal; namely, On Gutta Percha (Vol. 1,
page 22); On Nutmegs (Vol. 2, page 641 and N. S. Vol. 1,
page 127); On Amoks (Vol. 3, page 532); On Zoology (Vol.
3, page 594); and on Botany (Vol. 4, page 436). Dr Oxley’s name is still well known owing to the land which he bought from Government being known as Oxley’s Estate. It was then of little value, and in the jungle; and is now one of the most densely built-on districts near the town. He purchased it on 18th March, from the East India Company, for Rs. 2,342-0-3. The area was acres 173.3.18, for ever. It was bounded by River Valley Road, Tank Road, Orchard Road and Grange Road; but it extended along Rover Valley Road beyond Grange Road so as to include what is now called Moss Bank, contains therefore about 145 acres. On the top of the hill stood the house called the Pavilion, still standing, which was built by Mr George Gorden Nicol, who lived there until he built Chatsworth. Dr Oxley lived there for many years. Admiral Keppel tells the story of being there at breakfast one morning when they heard the children calling out in a side room in an excited way. On going in o see what it was, the children were seen dancing in great glee backwards and forwards towards a cobra, which was standing erect in the corner spitting at them. Snakes were very common in those days, now they are very rarely seen. Dr and Mrs Oxley left Singapore finally for England with five children in the P. and O. Mail on 23rd February 1857, and he died in England in March 1886. Dr Oxley had a large nutmeg plantation on all the high ground in Oxley Estate, and Mr G F Davidson in his book said: "Dr Oxley’s is by far the finest nutmeg garden on the island. He has spared neither trouble nor expense in bringing his plants forward and five thousand of the finest nutmeg trees I ever saw. Nothing can be finer than their beautiful position, tasteful outlay and luxuriant foliage." The cultivation of nutmegs was thought at that time to be a sure road to a speedy fortune, and their failure caused very serious loss and great discomfiture in Singapore. |
| p.454 | There is a copy in the Library of Captain G Rodney Mundy’s book, published by Murray in 1848, called ‘A Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes from the Journals of Sir James Brooke, and An Account of the Cruise of H.M.S Isis’... His book contains a good deal about Captain Keppel and the Dido, which he says (page 100) made the quickest run on record from the Straits to England. He speaks of the kindness he met with from Mr W H Read and Dr Oxley, and of Captain Charles Morgan Elliot having remained two months with him at Sarawak... There are a number of picture in the two volumes. |
| p.490 | On Tuesday the 22nd August [1848], Mr Brooke was created a K.C.B. [...] with instructions from Prince Albert to omit nothing in the ceremony that might evince the esteem entertained by the Queen for Mr Brooke. The ceremony took place in the public Assembly Rooms, at the foot of Fort Canning, and the Free Press contained a very long account of the most elaborate ceremonial that had ever taken place in Singapore; from which we take the following:-[...] Here follows a list of the second procession, which included Dr Treacher, Colonial Surgeon of Labuan; Mr Thomas Dunman, Superintendent of Police; Mr St John, one of Sir James Brooke’s Secretaries; Dr Oxley; Mr Behn, Hamburg Consul; Mr Nichol, Danish Consul[...] |
| p.535 | Proceedings of the Singapore Committee for the
furtherance of the objects of the Great Exhibition of
1851, under direction from the Bengal Government and
Central Committee of Calcutta, held this 16th May 1850. President: Hon’ble Colonel Butterworth,C.B., Governor Members: Hon’ble T Church, H C Caldwell, G W Earl, Capt. Man, G G Bicol, W W Ker, Tan Kim Seng, Syed Omar, and T Oxley, Member and Secretary. |
| P.557-558 | [Account of celebrated murder in Singapore] "Dr Oxley proved that the body was that of the boy who had been injured." |