The Clunies-Ross family were the original settlers of the

Cocos (Keeling) Islands ) , anthem = "''Advance Australia Fair''" , song_type = , song = , image_map = Australia on the globe (Cocos (Keeling) Islands special) (Southeast Asia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands , map_caption = ...

, a small archipelago in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

. From 1827 to 1978, the family ruled the previously uninhabited islands as a private fiefdom, initially as ''

terra nullius ''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land". It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it. : : ...

'' and then later under British (1857–1955) and Australian (1955–1978) sovereignty. The head of the family was usually recognised as the resident magistrate, and was sometimes styled as the "King of the Cocos Islands"; a title given by the press.

History

John Clunies-Ross

John Clunies-Ross was a merchant born in Weisdale, Shetland on 23 August 1786. In 1813 he was at Timor as Third Mate on board the

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

''Baroness Longueville'' when he received the opportunity to become captain of the brig ''Olivia'', which he took. He reportedly first cruised the waters of the then uninhabited

in 1825. After surveying them he moved his family to live on one of the islands in 1827. Only Joshua Slocum used different dates, when he wrote that "John Clunis-Ross, who in 1814 touched he islandin the ship ''Borneo'' on a voyage to India", nailed up a

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

with plans to settle in the future and " ..returned 2 years later with his wife and family".Joshua Slocum, (1901
"Sailing Alone Around the World"
New York Century Co, Pan American edition, p. 212 In 1823 an English adventurer, Alexander Hare, had settled on another of the islands with some runaway slaves. Hare soon departed, and Clunies-Ross alone obtained permanent rights by settlement. He planted hundreds of coconut palms and brought in Malay workers to the islands to harvest the nuts, building a business by selling

copra Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from co ...

.Nick Squire
The man who lost a 'coral kingdom'
BBC News, 7 June 2007 In the beginning, Javanese convicts were used as labourers and "crime of all kinds was rife", before "getting rid of the criminal class and obtaining a better type of Malay

coolie A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent. The word ''coolie'' was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders acros ...

." According to a 1903 article in ''

The Timaru Herald ''The Timaru Herald'' is a daily provincial newspaper serving the Timaru, South Canterbury and North Otago districts of New Zealand. The current audited daily circulation is about 14,500 copies, with a readership of about 31,000 people. The pap ...

'', Ross " anhis little colony on model lines and succeeded beyond expectation" and

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

mentioned after his 1836 visit with HMS ''Beagle'' that he "found the natives in a state of freedom". However, the article omitted the sentence that immediately followed: "but in most other points they are considered as slaves". Ross traded with Dutch vessels en route to Dutch ports on Java and Sumatra, and became a naturalised Dutch subject; he had approached both the British and the Dutch government for annexation but neither had responded. John Clunies-Ross died in 1854.

John George Clunies-Ross

His son John George Clunies-Ross (born 1823) took over from his father under the name of Ross II. In 1857 British Captain Stephen Grenville Fremantle visited aboard who "took possession of the islands in the name of the Britannic Majesty's Government". Fremantle appointed John George as superintendent of the islands and left after a 3-month vacation. The connection to Britain changed nothing in Ross's autonomous administration, and it was not until fifteen years later another British ship arrived for a complete survey of the island. Apparently, Fremantle annexed the islands by mistake, thinking he had arrived on the

Coco Islands The Coco Islands ( my, ကိုကိုးကျွန်း) are a small group of islands in the northeastern Bay of Bengal. They are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar. The islands are located south of the city of Yangon. Coco Island gr ...

of the Andaman Islands. John George Clunies-Ross received the native title of Tuan Pandai ('the learned one') due to his amateur medical knowledge and research into the natural history of the islands. The head of the family Clunies-Ross kept the title 'Tuan', a term that can be translated as 'sir'. He married S'pia Dupong, a Malay of high rank, in 1841.

George Clunies-Ross

Born on 20 June 1842 in the Cocos Islands to John George Clunies-Ross and S'pia Dupong, George Clunies-Ross was sent to Scotland where he studied engineering at

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. In 1871, known as Tuan Tinggi, he became superintendent after his father died, then married Inin (1850–1889), a Malay of high-rank like his mother. It was during his administration, in 1885, that the first annual inspection by a representative of the Straits Settlements Government occurred. In 1886

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

granted the islands in perpetuity to the Clunies-Ross family. Representatives of the Government of the Straits Settlements were sent to the island each year and reports reflected that "members of the Clunies-Ross family are to-day in every sense of the word proprietors of the islands, for Mr George Clunies-Ross makes his own laws and interprets them, polices his little domain, provides his own coinage ..controls the entire trade and acts as 'the universal provider' to satisfy the wants of the community". According to '' Chambers' Journal'', there had not been any metallic coins since 1837. Six years after Inin's death, George Clunies-Ross married Ayesha, a former ''boi'' (servant) in 1895. In 1903, the islands were annexed to the Straits Settlements and incorporated as part of the settlement of Singapore, without affecting the ownership of the territory. George Clunies-Ross died on 7 July 1910 at

Ventnor Ventnor () is a seaside resort and civil parish established in the Victorian era on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, England, from Newport. It is situated south of St Boniface Down, and built on steep slopes leading down to the sea. ...

, in the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

, after going to England for medical treatment. His body was taken back to the Cocos in 1914.

John Sidney Clunies-Ross

John Sidney Clunies-Ross was born in the Coco Islands on 13 November 1868, the son of George Clunies-Ross and Inin. Known as Tuan Ross, he inherited an economic disaster after a cyclone destroyed almost every house and coconut palm on

Home Island Home Island, also known locally as Pulu Selma, is one of only two permanently inhabited islands of the 26 islands of the Southern Atoll of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian external territory in the central-eastern Indian Ocean. Des ...

in November 1909. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the Cocos islands served as a major base for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. John Sidney Clunies-Ross died of a heart attack during a Japanese bombing on the islands in August 1944. The British military took over control of

until John Cecil Clunies-Ross returned to the Cocos on 6 July 1946.

John Cecil Clunies-Ross

The title to the islands was claimed by the Ross family until 1978, when John Cecil Clunies-Ross (born 29 November 1928), known as Tuan John, sold them to the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

for £2.5m ($4.75m) under threat of

expropriation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

, with the exception of his house on Home Island, which was eventually purchased by the government in 1993. The Commonwealth had already been administering the islands since November 1955, with the proclamation of the Cocos (Keeling) Island Act 1955. John C. Clunies-Ross eventually went bankrupt after the Australian government refused to give any business to his shipping line company. He then moved to

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

with his wife. During the 1984 referendum, he campaigned for independence but the majority of the islanders chose integration with Australia. He died in Perth at the age of 92 on 13 September 2021.

Legacy

, John "Johnny" George Clunies-Ross (born 1957), the son of John C. Clunies-Ross, lived on the

West Island The West Island () is the unofficial name given to the cities, towns and boroughs at the western end of the Island of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. It is generally considered to consist of the Lakeshore municipalities of Dorval, Pointe-Cla ...

, breeding

clams Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two ...

. He stated that he was initially frustrated with the 1978 transfer of the islands to Australia, but that he had changed his mind since then: "I was 21 and I'd been brought up to do the job. But even in the old man's time, it had become anachronistic. It had to change".

List of resident magistrates

References

External links

Cocos Island page
Genealogical Gleanings Cocos (Keeling) Islands History of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands History of Christmas Island Scottish diaspora Families of Scottish ancestry Asian kings