William Farquhar ( ; 26 February 1774 – 11 May 1839) was a Scottish colonial administrator employed by the East India Company, who served as the sixth Resident of Malacca between 1813 and 1818, and the first Resident of Singapore between 1819 and 1823. History Early life Farquhar was born in Newhall, Aberdeenshire, near Aberdeen in 1774 as the youngest child of Robert Farquhar and Agnes Morrison, his father's second wife. His brother, Arthur, two years his senior, rose to the rank of rear admiral in the Royal Navy, and received a knighthood for his distinguished services during the Napoleonic Wars. Shortly after arriving in Madras on 19 June 1791, Farquhar joined the East India Company as a cadet at the age of 17. He was promoted to a low-rank commissioned officer of the Madras Engineer Group on 22 June 1791. Two years later, on 16 August 1793, he became a lieutenant in the Madras Engineer Group. Malacca Between 1795 and 1818, Farquhar was the chief administrator of British-occupied Malacca. Farquhar was Chief Engineer in the expeditionary force which took Malacca from the Dutch on 18 August 1795. He spoke Malay and was popularly known as the Rajah of Malacca. He kept a Malaccan-French mistress, Antoinette "Nonio" Clement, with whom he had at least six children, one of which died while still an infant. Their eldest daughter Esther Farquhar would marry Captain Francis James Bernard who became a prominent part of early Singapore. On 1 January 1803 he was promoted to the rank of full captain. During his tenure here he assisted in missions around the region, including the British Invasion of Java led by Governor-General Baron Minto and Sir Stamford Raffles in August 1811. He was made a full major in Corps on 26 September 1812, before he was officially appointed Resident and Commandant of Malacca in December 1813. He was made in charge of both civil and military offices until the Dutch returned in September 1818. An engineer, his reputation was established by his long and successful term as Resident of Malacca, of which he was given charge when it passed into British hands from the Dutch. A task given him by the British Government was to demolish all the structures left by the former occupants; he blew up the fortifications with gunpowder but spared some of the other buildings, showing great intelligence. While still in Malacca, Farquhar