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Debunking myth of the sleepy fishing village
This is the fifth of six weekly articles covering the Singapore History Series - Seven Centuries In Six Episodes, organised as part of the SkillsFuture Festival in collaboration with the Singapore Bicentennial Office.
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Melody Zaccheus
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Among Singapore's early landowners - whose presence predated a treaty allowing Raffles to set up a trading post here in 1819 - was Hajjah Fatimah, a Bugis trader from Melaka.
She and her husband were drawn to the island due to its viability as an alternative trade port to Riau. Hajjah Fatimah, who was widowed soon after, not only owned her own boats but also had plots of land near present-day Beach Road.
