Olivia Mariamne Devenish (16 February 1771 – 26 November 1814) was the spouse of Sir
Stamford Raffles
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British statesman who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. He is ...
, vice governor of
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
(1811–1816) from 1805 to 1814. A monument was erected to her memory in the botanical garden of
Buitenzorg
Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.Madras Presidency,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. The daughter of George or Godfrey Devenish, she was raised in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. Olivia was married in Madras in 1793 to Jacob Cassivelaun Fancourt, who died in 1800, and in 1805 in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
to
Thomas Stamford Raffles
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British statesman who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. He is ...
. It was commonly said that her second husband, Raffles, was helped in his career through her relationship with his superior.
While Stamford Raffles was governor on Java, she introduced many social reforms in her capacity as first lady, which set the standard for the rest of the century. She showed herself by the side of her husband at official occasions, such as visits to the native rulers, and held receptions for people of all sexes and ethnicity, which was new on Java, as white women had previously isolated themselves from the native population.
At this point, the Western colonists at Java mixed their European habits with East Indian ones: for example, white women born in the East Indies used ''
Areca catechu
''Areca catechu'' is a species of palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. The palm is believed to have originated in the Philippines, but is widespread in cultivation and is considered naturalized in so ...
'', and they only dressed in European fashion on official occasions, such as going to church, receptions and visits, and otherwise wore the more comfortable Asian dress ''
Kebaya
A kebaya is an upper garment traditionally worn by women in Southeast Asia, notably in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Southern Thailand. Outside of Southeast Asia, it is worn by Javanese, Malays and Portuguese Eurasians in Austral ...
'' and
sarong
A sarong or sarung () is a large tube or length of fabric, often wrapped around the waist, worn in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, Northern Africa, East Africa, West Africa, and on many Pacific islands. The fabric often has woven plaid o ...
.Ulbe Bosma & Remco Raben: Being "Dutch" in the Indies: A History of Creolisation and Empire, 1500-1920 These habits contributed to what European visitors regarded to be the decadence of the colonial lifestyle in the Dutch East Indies. Devenish banned the common use of chewing ''Areca catechu'' by Western women, and removed the pots for this from the reception rooms of the Governor's residence to prevent her guests from using it. She also banned the wearing of the Asian sarong and kebaya gowns by Western women.
These informal social reforms remained in place for the rest of the 19th century. It was not until the late 19th century, however, that it became common for Western women in Java to dress in Western clothes in their everyday life, the climate making the Western corset and many skirts uncomfortable.
Death
She died in
Buitenzorg
Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.West Java
West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...
, on 26 November 1814, and was buried in
Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
Taman Prasasti Museum
Museum Taman Prasasti (Indonesian for Museum of Memorial Stone Park or Inscription Museum) is a museum located in Jakarta, Indonesia. The museum was formerly a cemetery, built by the Dutch colonial government in 1795 as a final resting place for ...
, the former European cemetery of Batavia that had been converted into a museum.
In the monument that was erected for her in National Botanical Gardens,
Buitenzorg
Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.
Legacy
The British author
Charlotte Louisa Hawkins Dempster
Charlotte Louisa Hawkins Dempster (1835–1913) was a Scottish novelist, essayist and author, noted also as a collector of folklore, especially in the Highland county of Sutherland. She spent much of her life in France.''The Feminist Companion ...
claimed in her memoir, ''The Manners of My Time'' (1920), that she was Olivia's great-great-granddaughter through Captain John Hamilton Dempster, the illegitimate younger half brother of George Dempster of Dunnichen and Skibo, a Director of the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...