Francis Light - Family

Family

Light died from malaria on 21 October 1794 and was buried at the Penang Protestant cemetery on Northam Road (now Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah) in George Town. A statue, which bears his name but has the facial features of his son William, stands at Fort Cornwallis in George Town.

Light had four daughters and two sons with Martina Rozells, who was said to be of Portuguese and Siamese lineage. Martina is occasionally referred to in the literature as the Princess of Kedah, as above. If they were legally married, he did not declare it. However, it was against East India Company rules to marry a Catholic and, as Martina was Catholic, Light may have tried to avoid dismissal by never declaring his marriage. He did leave her his considerable property.

Their son, Colonel William Light, was the first Surveyor General of the Colony of South Australia; William is famous for choosing the site of the colony's capital, Adelaide, and designing the layout of the streets and parks in the Adelaide city centre, North Adelaide and the Adelaide Park Lands.

Read more about this topic:  Francis Light

Famous quotes containing the word family:

    It is extraordinary that when you are acquainted with a whole family you can forget about them.
    Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

    The East is the hearthside of America. Like any home, therefore, it has the defects of its virtues. Because it is a long-lived-in house, it bursts its seams, is inconvenient, needs constant refurbishing. And some of the family resources have been spent. To attain the privacy that grown-up people find so desirable, Easterners live a harder life than people elsewhere. Today it is we and not the frontiersman who must be rugged to survive.
    Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978)

    Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)