Founding On 15 July 1823,
John Crawfurd, who had been appointed the
Resident of Singapore in May following the dismissal of
William Farquhar, submitted an application for the establishment of a newspaper on behalf of
Francis James Bernard. At the time, Bernard was serving as the head of the local police department. The proposed publication was to be both published and edited by Bernard, with Crawfurd acting as its supporter and official intermediary in dealings with the colonial administration. He attempted to withdraw the resignation at least twice though Crawfurd refused to accept his withdrawal. According to historian
Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill, Crawfurd was "pleased to see him go", suggesting that he might have "engineered the quarrel, in front of witnesses, in order to get rid of Bernard without dismissing him." William Campbell succeeded Bernard as editor in March 1824 and sent an application seeking permission to publish a newspaper "similar published at this place, but which is now discontinued", which was accepted by Crawfurd as Resident on the same day. The first issue edited by Campbell was published on 1 April. Under him, the newspaper, renamed
The Singapore Chronicle, was published fortnightly. The paper, to be known as
The Commercial Register and Advertiser, would be published every Saturday and contain a list of imports and exports, a price list, current prices of foreign markets, advertisements and shipping information. It cost half a Spanish dollar a month to subscribers of the
Chronicle and 25 cents an issue to those without a subscription.
George Bonham, acting as Resident in place of Crawfurd, "immediately" approved the application. In early December 1826, Campbell announced that he would soon be departing from Singapore. He made an application seeking to transfer editorship and proprietorship to James Loch, who had arrived in Singapore in the same month. The transfer was approved by the Penang Council on 23 December. Loch was critical of both the government and of press control and the newspaper began publishing articles that were critical of the local government. This led to the local government re-imposing the
Gagging Act on the paper, which required each issue to be vetted by the Resident Councillor, then
John Prince, before publication. However, Loch became "fairly subdued" in later issues. On 30 March 1829, Loch sold both
The Singapore Chronicle and
The Commercial Register and Advertiser to
William Renshaw George, who had come to the settlement "without a license to settle and seemingly with little or no capital" on 19 February. Permission to transfer proprietorship and editorship to George was granted by the Penang Council on 24 April. Under George, there was "little change in the police of the papers" from Loch's tenure as editor, although he "promised more attention to local affairs, especially commercial matters, without a serious loss on the reporting of important events from India and Europe." In early 1830,
John Henry Moor succeeded George as editor of both the
Chronicle and
The Commercial Register and Advertiser, though George remained in charge of the commercial notes. According to Gibson-Hil, Moor "brought a new vigour to the editorial side of the paper". He also established his own press, with which he printed the newspaper beginning in September 1930. This eventually allowed for the newspaper to be published weekly. At the end of 1830, George merged
The Singapore Chronicle with
The Commercial Register and Advertiser as
The Singapore Chronicle and Commercial Register. The first issue was published on 6 January 1831. A subscription then cost $18 a month or $4.5 a quarter, with individual issues costing 50 cents. From 1831 to 1835, save for the
Prince of Wales Island Gazette which was "not a serious competitor", the
Chronicle and Commercial Register was the only newspaper in the
Straits Settlements following the closures of its other competitors, such as the
Malacca Observer, the
Pinang Register & Miscellany and the ''Government Gazette of Prince of Wales's Island, Singapore and Malacca''. The
Gagging Act was lifted on 28 March 1833, freeing the newspaper from censorship.
Decline In September 1835, George sold the newspaper, which was then a "flourishing concern", to local merchant
Walter Scott Lorrain, who in turn sold the newspaper to Penang-born merchant
James Fairlie Carnegy, though Lorrain continued to serve as editor after the sale. Gibson-Hill stated that it is "clear" that Carnegy's arrival in Singapore was "not a welcome advent to at least a section of the local business community." In response to the sale,
The Singapore Free Press was established in October. Moor had resigned as editor of the
Chronicle and become the editor of the
Free Press. To compete with the newly established paper, the subscription rates were lowered to $12 a year, 50 cents for each issue for subscribers and 25 cents for each issue for non-subscribers. According to Gibson-Hill, the
Chronicle continued to decline in quality whereas the
Free Press continued to improve, which led to advertisers choosing the latter, in spite of its higher rates. The final issue of the
Chronicle was published on 30 September 1837. ==Contents==