George Caunter (c. June 1758 – 25 December 1811) was a British administrator who governed Prince of Wales Island (Penang Island) as Acting Superintendent from 1797 to 1798 and again from 1798 to 1800. As First Assistant under Lieutenant-Governor Leith, he negotiated the treaty that brought Province Wellesley under British sovereignty in 1800 and that provided, in British eyes, an unequivocal basis for British sovereignty over Penang Island. At various times Caunter further held the offices of marine storekeeper, master attendant, Chief Magistrate, Treasurer and Chaplain in Penang.
Life and family George Caunter was baptised in his family's ancestral Devonshire parish of Staverton on 13 June 1758. His parents were George Caunter, gent. of Abham house, Staverton – a farmer, cider-maker and nurseryman,The London Chronicle, 10–12 November 1763, letters. and Hester Rockey of Werrington, Devon (now Cornwall).
He married Harriett Georgina Hutchings (Dittisham, Devon, 1769 – Govt. House, George Town, Penang, 1798), a daughter of the Rector of Dittisham. A brother of hers, Robert Sparke Hutchings, founded Penang Free School in 1816, was involved in the founding of the Raffles Institution in Singapore and revised an early Malay translation of the Bible. George and Harriett's children were George Henry (1791–1843), John Hobart (1793–1851), Harriett Georgina Hutchings (1793–1826, married later Penang governor Robert Ibbetson), Sarah Sparke (1798–1875) and Richard McDonald (1798–1879).F. Lyde Caunter (1930), Caunter Family Records, printed by The Solicitors' Law Stationery Society, Limited, at their works, 102-107 Fetter Lane, E.C.4.
Career Arrival in Penang Caunter, a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Marines,'Second Lieutenants,' in The Navy List, Corrected to the end of December 1814. London: John Murray for the Admiralty Office. 1815. Page 34. became a Reduced Second Lieutenant on 13 April 1781 and was put on half-pay from 22 March 1792.'Marine Officers on Half-Pay,' in A List of the Army and Marines; A List of the Officers on Half Pay; And a Succession of Colonels. The Thirty-Fifth Edition. War-Office. 15 February 1787. Page 351.'List of the Reduced Officers of his Majesty's Royal Marine Forces,' in A List of the Officers of His Majesty's Royal Marine Forces. London: M and S Brooke for the Admiralty Office. 1 January 1803. Page 55.'Officers of the Royal Marines [Ordnance Department 1821] on Half-Pay,' in A List of the Officers of the Army and Royal Marines on Full and Half-Pay. War Office. 1 January 1821. Page 361. He became friendly with East India Company official John Shore, the later Baron Teignmouth, and accompanied him to the East. Caunter, then aged 36, first arrived in Penang aboard the Nepture on 7 May 1795 with an appointment as marine storekeeper and master attendant, functions he took over from John Beanland. Following the death of Acting Superintendent Thomas Pigou in early 1796, Caunter was appointed Third Assistant in the administration of the island.
Friction with the mercantile community Superintendent Major Forbes Ross MacDonald sent Caunter to Bengal on "special business" in June 1796. In August, the Governor General in Council appointed Caunter First Assistant to MacDonald. Returning to Prince of Wales Island in September with new instructions to convey to MacDonald, Caunter found there was a "serious rupture" between the island's British administration and the Sultan of Kedah, Abdullah Mukarram Shah. This seemed due in part to agitation by the mercantile community following MacDonald's attempt to introduce import/export duties and taxes. The Sultan had placed visiting vessels from Prince of Wales Island under an embargo. Caunter managed to resolve the situation amicably and obtained a release of the vessels.
Superintendency of Prince of Wales Island On 24 September 1797, Caunter was appointed Acting Superintendent of Prince of Wales Island while MacDonald was away in Bengal. In this period, Caunter and Philip Manington Jnr acted as Magistrates.Caunter and Manington took turns at the bench, never sitting together except in capital cases when they were also joined by the Superintendent as President of the Court. Court papers up to 1811 mention him as 'Police Magistrate.'In 1797, while he was Magistrate, George Caunter had the heads of a Chinese man and woman shaved and ordered them to stand in the pillory, as punishment for adultery (Purcell, Victor. The Chinese in Malaya. 1948. Print. Page 49; and The Chinese in Southeast Asia. 1965. Print. Page 246). It was at this time customary for the British court on the island to follow the jurisprudence of the local communities, ruling for instance in accordance with Malay law. During his superintendency, Caunter faced further unrest from resident traders. He was suspicious especially of the faction of James Scott, the business partner of the late founder of the British settlement in the island, Captain Francis Light. MacDonald had denounced the confluence of mercantile and political interests, writing to the Council in Calcutta about the perceived undue dominance and influence of the mercantile house of Scott & Co.
Caunter took several persons into custody whom he suspected of conspiring to set up a jurisdiction independent of the East India Company, to go on trial when MacDonald returned. Caunter's twins Sarah Sparke and Richard McDonald were born at Government House in March 1798, but his wife Harriett died in labour.London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: DL/T/092/010. Major MacDonald resumed the superintendency on 28 October, but in December illness forced him to leave for Calcutta, where he died the following year. Caunter consequently again became Acting Superintendent in December 1798, relinquishing the position of marine storekeeper and master attendant to Captain John Baird.
Acquisition of Province Wellesley
Caunter's second superintendency lasted until the arrival on 20 April 1800 of Sir George Alexander William Leith.'Notices of Pinang,' in The Journal of The Indian Archipelago Vol V. Singapore: G. M. Frederick for J. R. Logan. 1851. Print. Page 118 The Governor-General of India, Richard Wellesley, had created Leith Lieutenant-Governor of Prince of Wales Island with a view to bringing greater order and authority to the island's European inhabitants in particular. Caunter was First Assistant in Leith's Government, with Philip Manington Jnr as Second Assistant;'A List of the Honourable United East-India Company's Covenanted Civil Servants on the Bengal Establishment,' in New Oriental Register and East India Directory for 1802. London: Black's and Parry. Page 6. in addition, Leith appointed Caunter Lay Chaplain in May 1800.The Straits Times, 26 May 1956, Page 9
Security considerations made it desirable for Prince of Wales Island to control a buffer of land on the opposite shore. The French were considered a growing threat; in addition, piracy had become frequent since the growth of the port of George Town, the main settlement on the island. Pirates had their base at the mouth of the Perai River across from George Town. This part of the Malay Peninsula belonged to the Sultanate of Kedah.
Bad blood between the British and the Sultanate had been set, however, when Superintendent Light reneged on his promise of military assistance to Kedah and failed to pay the full annual amount agreed in exchange for the British settlement of Penang. When the Sultan died in 1799 and was succeeded by his brother, Dziaddin Mukarram Shah II, the British sensed an opportunity. Shortly after Caunter handed over the Government of the island to Leith, the latter appointed him to negotiate the cession of a coastal strip of land on the mainland called Seberang Perai.
Caunter travelled to Perlis, the place of residence of the Sultan, or Raja Muda of Perlis and Kedah as he was styled, and conveyed a letter and presents on behalf of Leith. He spoke with the Sultan's confidential adviser on the subject of the land and was soon given to understand that the Sultan was disposed to cede it, but that his ministers were opposed to this. There was a stalemate for several days until it was hinted to Caunter that the ministers and the women of the seraglio required some presents. On inquiry, the sum of 2,000 Spanish dollars (then the international currency) was named and Caunter took it upon himself to promise payment of this amount. All obstacles were then removed.
Significance of the Treaty of friendship and alliance The treaty concluded with Kedah, referred to in the treaty text as the Treaty of friendship and alliance, came into effect on 7 July 1800 and brought Province Wellesley under British sovereignty. The treaty, which superseded Francis Light's earlier agreements of 1786 and 1791, provided, in British eyes, an unequivocal basis for the status of Prince of Wales Island and Province Wellesley as British territory. The treaty influenced the East India Company's attitude towards Kedah and Siam, and expanded the resources of Prince of Wales' Isle, the opportunities for, and the sphere of influence of its mainly planting and mercantile inhabitants.
On 8 May 1801 a son of Caunter's, James, was baptised whose mother was recorded as Silvia, likely a non-European, local woman. The infant didn't live, and was buried on the 9th in the Protestant cemetery of George Town.British Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections, IOR/N/8/1. Another son of George Caunter's, William, was also born around 1801."Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK1V-PZ7C : 3 August 2020), William Caunter, Burial, Penang, Penang, Malaysia, Protestant Cemetery; citing record ID 145706362, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
In February 1803, Caunter applied for compensation on account of expenses incurred by him while engaged as Acting Superintendent during the earlier absence, and, later, the death of Superintendent Forbes Ross MacDonald, stating, "It will not, I hope, be deemed improper in me to observe that in taking charge of the Superintendence of this island, I considered it to be my duty to support the credit and dignity of the station to the best of my ability, and therefore continued to keep a public table for strangers, and to give the usual annual public dinners as had been customary with the Superintendents, and I trust the expenses thereby incurred will not be deemed lavish when the times during the above period, considerable fleets and armaments were in the port and some of them for many weeks at a time."
Loss of appointments, stay in England and return to Penang In 1805 Penang was elevated to the status of fourth Presidency of British India, based largely on expectations of its potential as a naval base. Philip Dundas arrived in September as the Presidency's first Governor, along with an expanded administration of 27 officials. The change took residents of Penang by surprise. Caunter, as an official under outgoing Lieutenant Governor Farquhar, lost his appointments as First Assistant, Chaplain and Treasurer."From the Hon'ble Court of Directors to Govr Phillip Dundas, 2nd John Hope Oliphant, 3rd Alexander Gray and 4th Colonel Norman Macalister read in council on 20th September 1805," in The Journal of The Indian Archipelago Vol VI. Singapore:G. M. Frederick for J. R. Logan. 1852. Page 31. Since his previous government positions he had not carried on any mercantile trade, and he had invested his property in clearance and cultivation on the island. He returned to Britain on the East Indiaman Warley in 1806 to plead his case personally with the East India Company's Board of Directors, offering his services as Superintendent of Police and Magistrate in Penang. Although he wasn't a covenanted civil servant as was generally preferred, the following year the EIC recommended him for these positions.