Robert Ibbetson

Robert Ibbetson (4 May 1789 – 4 November 1880) was a colonial governor of the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore from 1832 to 1834. History Born on 4 May 1789. Little is known of his parents, in 1804 his father took him to the offices of the East India Company in Leadenhall Street, London to thank the directors for giving Robert a cadet-ship with their company, in Penang. Steadily climbed the ranks within the company. Robert Ibbetson joined the service in 1804 as a writer. In 1807 he was appointed an assistant in the Secretary's Office. In 1808 he was appointed to assistant in the Collector's Office. In 1810 he was made Deputy Collector at Malacca and promoted in 1810 to Collector and his responsibilities expanded to include Paymaster and Commissary of Provisions, at Malacca. In 1811 he was Factor, Paymaster and Storekeeper. In 1814 he was Junior Merchant and Commissary for the Recovery of Small Debts. In 1817 Ibbetson married a widow, Harriet Georgina Hutchings Bennett, in Penang; she was a daughter of the late George Caunter, acting superintendent of Penang. That same year Ibbetson was promoted to Senior Merchant and Sheriff. In 1820 he was Paymaster and Storekeeper and Suptd of the company's Law Suits. In 1824 he was Secretary and acting Accountant. By the time from 3 February 1825, he was Provisional Member of Council for the Straits Settlements in Malacca. In 1826 he was Fourth in Council and Resident Councillor at Malacca, Ibbetson had been Resident Councillor at Penang from 1826, In 1827 his responsibilities expanded to include Suptd of Landed Tenures, Collector of Quit Rents, and Civil & Marine Warehouse Keeper. In 1828 he was made Second in Council. In 1829 he was assisted by James William Salmond, Second Assistant to the Resident Councillor at Penang. Prior to Governor Fullerton's move of the seat of the Straits Government from Penang to Singapore on 12 November 1829, after which time Ibbetson assumed the role of governor of Penang, as the sole survivor of the officials appointed to the new Penang Presidency in 1805.