Thomas Stamford Raffles' Masonic Career in Java: A New Perspective on the British Interregnum (1811–1816)

Abstract

This paper looks at ways in which Raffles' membership of Dutch masonic lodges proved beneficial to his personal initiatives and professional career both in Java (1811–16) and subsequently as founder of Singapore (1819). Contradictory statements abound about the date of his admission to the Masonic Order. The dominant view is that he was initiated in the Lodge Virtutis et Artis Amici in 1813, a view based on a certificate dated to the masonic year 5813, which says that 'T. Stamford Raffles' had received the first two masonic degrees of Entered Apprentice and Fellow of the Craft in that lodge. Scrutiny of the certificate on the basis of a new photographic image, however, shows that the document itself and plans for the foundation of the lodge predate the British interregnum. At the same time, current interpretations of the masonic dating cannot be reconciled with Raffles' elevation to the degree of Master Mason in the Lodge De Vriendschap in Surabaya on 5 July 1813. Establishing the correct date of Raffles' initiation in September–October 1811 is therefore essential both for the reconstruction of his masonic career in Java, and an understanding of the special supranational character of the British interregnum itself.