Table Of ContentYAP AH LOY
1837-1885
by
S.M. Middlebrook
with an introduction and
three final chapters
by
J.M. Gullick
Previously published as
MBRAS Reprint No. 9
in 1983.
Now reprinted in 1989.
MB
I
REPRINT Number 9
Reprinted by Academe Art 8: Printing Services Sdn. Bhd.,
282, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, 50470 Kuala Lumpur.
© MBRAS 1989
I
Edited for the Council of the Society
by
Tan Sri Data Mubin Sheppard
List of Illustrations
. .
Group photograph. .. 1884 frontispiece .
Yap Ah Loy as a young man between pages 20 & 21
Early views of Kuala Lumpur, c. 1882/1884.
Frank Swettenham, British Resident Selangor,
1882-1883. between pages 88 & 89
The first row of brick shop houses in Kuala
Lumpur, built by Yap Ah Loy in 1881. 77 as is as
Yap Ah Loy in his Mandarin robes c. 1880 between pages 96 & 97
Sultan Abdul Sam ad and his court at Lariat, c.
1880. as 93 13 go
Yap Ah Shale, friend, ally and business partner
of Yap Ah Loy, and his successor aslCaptain
China Kuala Lumpur, 1885-1889. between pages 98 & 99
Sze Si Yeah Temple, in Jalan Bandar, Kuala
Lumpur, built by Yap Ah Loy, C. 1865. as as as 77
All photographs supplied by Muzium Negara, Kuala Lumpur.
1
Yap Ah Loy
(1837-1885)
by the late
S. M. Middlebrook
with an intl'oductioll and three final
chapters by J. M. Gullick.
_
Preface . . . . . . . . . 3
-
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . 5
l I
1. Early Days in Malaya . . . . . . 12
l l
2. Yap Ah Loy moves to Kuala Lumpur 17
D
3. Quarrelling amongst the Malay; . . 23
I l
4. Yap Ah Loy become Capitan China . . _
| l
5. The Murder of "Sweet Potato" Ah Sze . . 32
i
6. Raja Mahdi instals Yap Ah Loy_ as Capitan China 36
'7. Mahdi is driven out of Kiang . . . . . . 41
8. Yap Ah Loy seeks help from the Sultan . . I . 44
. . . . l
9. The Kanching Massacre . . 48
. . _ I I
10. The First Attack 011 Kuala Lumpur . . 52
11. Fighting round Rawang ._ ._ . . . l .1 58
l
12. July to September, 1871 . . . 62
13. Raja Asal changes sides ._ ._ I 68
11 l 1. i
14. The loss of Kuala Lumpur . 73
. . i
15. The end of the Civil War 'Z8
16. British Intervention in Selangor . .. S3
I
17. Yap Ah Loy as an Administrator . . $9
l r
18. The Last Years . . . . . . . 96
NNootteess o01n1 ththee S Touerxcte s U.s .e d .. .. .. .. .1 .» I II 110210
|
Map 1, Selangor in the 1870's . . 2
Map 2, The environs of Kuala Lumpur 54
Map 3, Ulu Selangor in the 18'70's . . 66
Map 4, Kuala Lumpur in the 1880's 92
First published in the Journal of the M.B.R.A.S.,
Volume 24, Part 2, in 1951.
Preface
The late S. M. Middlebrook joined the Malayan Civil Service
to
early in 1921. In March the following year he went
Canton for two years to learn Cantonese. Thereafter conscien-
tiously and with great tiero rnise he occupied a number of posts on
the Chinese side of Civil Service until the surrender of
Singapore to the Japanese in February 1942. He was interned
in Changi Gaol during the first half of the occupation. Then in
December 1943 he was one of the unfortunate persons removed
from the prison camp by members of the Keinpei Tai for their
association with the distribution of the B.B.C. news bulletins: he
died early the following year from injuries which he receivecl at
their hands.
Middlebrook's attention was first drawn to Yap Ah Loy in
1936, when he read an article in an old Chinese periodical from
*which he learnt something of the prominent part that Ah Loy had
pla.y ed in the Selangor Civil War of 1869-73. The state histories
'by Wilkinson (1920, 2nd ed. 1923) and Winstedt (193441) make
110 mention of Yap Ah Loy, though they deal moderately fully
with his period. Initially Middlebrook planned the preparation of
a paper to correct this omission. Subsequently, on the advice of
several friends, he decided to turn his account into a full biography.
Numerous other calls 011 Middlebrook's time (including the
preparation, in collaboration with A. W. Pinprick, of a book 011
civics) delayed his work 011 Yap Ah Loy. By the end of 1940
he had collected most of the ayailable information, but had been
able to write only the first draft of the first fifteen chapters of the
biography as it new stands. In 1941 he began an extensive
revision of this text, and started the preparation of the notes,
partly as a result of sympathetic criticism which he had received
from Mr G. L. Hawkins. I-Ie continued this section of the work
during the first year of his internment, and at the same time
sketched out the lines along which he proposed to write the
'introduction and the last three chapters. His papers were
lfiscated by the Kemper Tai officers wheN he was arrested, but the
majority were returned to the camp after his death, and subsequently
reached his widow, new Mrs D. S. Robertson.
no
Much of the material surviving for this work was in manu-
:no
script, or in typescript heavily amended in hand-writing.
was reduced to $ single typescript account by Mrs Robert OD. in
1948: without this valuable contribution little could have been done.
Subsequently the sections forming chapters 1-15 were revised by
4
the present writer, who is also responsible for the notes on the
sources used and the published form of the notes 011 the text. The
latte % part based on MS material left by Middlehrook, and
in part 011 brief notes and indications of quotations which he
proposed adding. An attempt has been made to achieve uniformity
of presentation, but the task has not been an easy one. The
manuscript that survived the war was work in progress, not a
paper ready for submission to an editor. In a few instances it
has been necessary to consider and include additional information
of which Middlebrook was apparently unaware. At the same time
some sections dealing with aspects of the Civil War beyond Yap
Ah Loy's part in it, which might perhaps have been omitted, have
been retained with the object of keeping the paper in general as
close as possible to the form in which he had planned it.
The last three chapters (nos. 16-18) and the introductions have
been added by J. M. Gullick, who has also read and criticized the
earlier part of the text. The conversion of dates from the Chinese
to the Gregorian ealend-are has been checked by Mr G. W. Davies.
Finally Mrs D. S. Robertson, Mr David Gray and Prof. Northcote
Parkinson have kindly- read through the final version of the text' and
its notes, and made several helpful suggestions.
Middlebrook had intended dedicating his biography to Yap
Ah Loy's descendants, who had graciously placed some of the
material that he at his disposal. Those of us who have
assisted in preparing his work for publication and in seeing it
through the press wish to dedicate our share in it to his memory
20: 2: '51. C. A. GIBSON~HILL.
