Olivia Mariamne Devenish

Who was Olivia Mariamne Devenish?

Olivia Mariamne Devenish, was the spouse of Thomas Stamford Raffles, vice governor of Java, from 1805 to 1814. A memorial monument was erected to her memory in the botanical garden of Buitenzorg.

The daughter of George Devenish, she was married in Madras in 1793 to Jacob Cassivelaun Fancourt, and in 1805 in London to Thomas Stamford Raffles. She was born in India but was raised in Ireland. It was commonly said that her second spouse was helped in his career through her relationship with his superior. British author Charlotte Louisa Hawkins Dempster claimed in her memoar The Manners of My Time, 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 from 1769 and a key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment movement.

During the tenure of her spouse as governor on Java, she introduced many social reforms in her capacity as a so called first lady: she showed herself by the side of her husband at official occasions, such as visits at the native rulers, and held receptions for people of all sexes and ethnicity, which was new on Java, where white women had previously isolated themselves from the native population. She banned the use of Areca catechu for western women but also advocated the use of a sarong for them.