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Francis Light (c. 1740 – 21 October 1794) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for founding the colony of Penang and its capital city of George Town in 1786. Light was the father of William Light , who founded the city of Adelaide in South Australia in 1836.
In 1786 Francis Light claimed the island of Pulau Pinang on behalf of the King of England and renamed it Prince of Wales Island. There were only about a hundred Malay fishermen inhabiting the island at that time, but the population would grow fast - to 5,000 in 1789 and 10,000 ten years later.
The Francis Light statue is a memorial to Captain Francis Light (1740–1794), the founder of the British colony of Penang in 1786. It is situated in the grounds of Fort Cornwallis , George Town , Penang, Malaysia.
The Governor of Penang (Malay: Yang di-Pertua Negeri Pulau Pinang) is the ceremonial head of state of the Malaysian state of Penang.The role of governor is largely ceremonial with the power vested in the executive branch of the state government led by the chief minister.
Already in the 1790s, Francis Light mentions Chulias (that is, people from the Coromandel Coast of India) as shopkeepers and farm labourers in Penang. Light estimated that about two thousand men came to work in this manner each year. however, in contrast to the Chinese, these labourers did not create a permanent settlement in Penang.
Francis Light had established George Town as a free port to entice merchants from the Dutch ports in the region. [12] Attracted by the promise of free trade without having to pay any form of tax or duties, and assured of their safety at the British-governed harbour, merchants flocked into George Town; consequently, the number of incoming ...
Faced with the Dutch dominance of the East Indies (now Indonesia) and a growing French threat, Light, who by then had risen to the rank of captain, was ordered to acquire Penang Island from Kedah. [ 30 ] [ 32 ] The British East India Company sought control of Penang Island as a Royal Navy base, and a trading post between China and the Indian ...
The Esplanade is the site on Penang Island where Captain Francis Light, a trader for the British East India Company, first landed on 17 July 1786.Having obtained the island for the British Empire, Light then ordered his ships to fire silver coins into the then forested area to entice immigrants to clear as much land as possible.