In 1660, Dissava Tennekoon I arrested a group of sixteen Englishmen, including the well-known author Robert Knox and his father, also named Robert Knox. According to Knox, the arrest took place on 4 April 1660 in the English Julian (Old Style) calendar, which corresponds to 14 April 1660 in the modern Gregorian calendar. At that time, Dissava Tennekoon I was the Dissava in charge of the Seven Korales (සත්කෝරළේ දිසාවනිය). Although he held office in the Seven Korales, the arrest itself took place near Trincomalee on the eastern coast of the island.
"Thus were Sixteen of us left to the mercy of those Barbarians, the Names of which are as follow. The Captain, Mr. Joh. Loveland, John Gregory, Charles Beard, Roger Gold, Stephen Rutland, Nicolas Mullins, Francis Crutch, John Berry, Ralph Knight, Peter Winn, William Hubbard, Arthur Emery, Richard Varnham, George Smith, and my Self."
This was not the first arrest of its kind. Approximately a year and a half earlier, in 1658, Dissava Tennekoon I had arrested another group of thirteen Englishmen at Puttalam, on the western coast of the island, according to Robert Knox.
"In the same Captivity with our selves on this Island, was another Company of English Men, who were taken about a year and an half before us, viz. in the year MDCLVIII. They were Thirteen in number, whose names were as follow, viz. Mr. William Vassal, John Merginson, Thomas March, Thomas Kirby, Richard Jelf, Gamaliel Gardiner, William Day, Thomas Stapleton, Henry Man, Hugh Smart, Daniel Holstein an Hamburger, James Gony, and Henry Bingham. The occasion of their Seizure was thus. The Ship these Men belonged unto was the Persia Merchant, Capt. Francis Johnson Commander, which was lost upon the Maldives Islands. But they escaped in their Boats, and passing along by this Land went on shoar to recruit and buy Provisions, and so were taken."
Two members of this group, William Day and Thomas Kirby, escaped to Dutch-controlled territory in 1683, four years after Robert Knox had done so. At the time of their escape, Thomas Kirby was 56 years old and William Day 44. William Day was accompanied by a sixteen-year-old son whom he had fathered with a local woman. On 12 April 1683, the two Englishmen gave a statement in Portuguese at Fort Colombo.
"The deponents declared that in the year 1659, having departed from England aboard the ship the Persian Merchant, and having arrived at the Maldives Islands, the said ship ran upon a reef and was lost. Thereupon the crew all embarked together in the ship's boat; but finding it too small to carry them all—being in number 52 persons—across the sea, they purchased from the inhabitants of the said islands another vessel.
Into this vessel there transferred themselves thirteen persons, among them the two deponents and the merchant (supercargo) of their ship, named William Wessel (Vassall).
They then put to sea with both the boat and the said vessel, steering a course for the island of Ceylon. They came ashore with the vessel at Puttalam, where they were immediately taken into custody by the Dissava of that district (who was at that time, the uncle of the late Dissava Tinnecon)."
This account agrees closely with Robert Knox's narrative, with one notable discrepancy. Knox dates the incident to 1658, whereas Day and Kirby identify the year as 1659. This apparent discrepancy, however, is not an error by either party but a reflection of the different calendar systems they employed: VOC officials used the New Style (Gregorian) calendar, whereas Knox followed the Old Style (Julian) calendar then in use in England.
Under the English Old Style system, the legal year began on 25 March rather than 1 January. Consequently, dates falling between 1 January and 24 March 1658 (Old Style) correspond to dates between 11 January and 3 April 1659 in the Gregorian calendar. Thus, an event recorded by Knox as occurring in 1658 could legitimately appear as having occurred in 1659 in Dutch VOC records.
Taken together, and allowing for the different calendar systems employed by each party, the two descriptions are entirely consistent. They indicate that the arrest of the first group by Dissave Tennekoon I at Puttalam occurred in early 1659 according to the Gregorian calendar, approximately one to one and a half years before the arrest of the second group of Englishmen at Trincomalee.
The identification of the captor is particularly significant. Day and Kirby state that the official who arrested them was the Dissava of the Puttalam district—then part of the Seven Korales—and describe him as "the uncle of the late Dissava Tinnecon" (den oom van den overleden dessave tinnecon).
This contemporary statement links the Dissava who arrested them with another Dissava who also bore the name Tinnecon. In this study, the earlier official is identified as Dissava Tennekoon I, while the later official is identified as Dissava Tennekoon II. Since the deposition was recorded in 1683, the phrase "the late Dissava Tinnecon" indicates that Dissava Tennekoon II had already died by that date. Combined with Knox's reference to the "old Dissava Tennekoon," the evidence points to two different Dissavas named Tennekoon who were closely related, the earlier being the uncle of the later.
Dissava Tennekoon I was serving as Dissava of the Seven Korales in 1659–1660, when he arrested these two groups of Englishmen. Earlier, in 1658, however, he appears to have been serving as Dissava of Sabaragamuwa (සබරගමුව).
A Dutch report dated 8 May 1658 states:
"This opinion is reinforced by a certain letter from Captain Emond Ruijsch at Matara, in which he reports, on the testimony of a Moor who had left the court of Kandy only twenty-one days earlier, that the Dissava of Saffragam, Tenecon Apohamy, had been summoned before His Majesty, and that the young prince of Uva (Louva) had also arrived there."
This report also identifies Dissava Tennekoon I by the personal name Tennekoon Appuhamy.
This is not the earliest appearance of the name Tennekoon in the Dutch records. A report dated 5 July 1656 identifies Tinnecon as the Dissava of the Four Korales (සතර කෝරළේ).
"You have informed us that one of our yachts was wrecked at Batticaloa, and that its goods were inventoried by the Dissava of those districts, in order that, by Your Majesty's gracious pleasure, they might be restored, whether by sea or by land.
If this is the free burgher's yacht that was wrecked last year, an inventory of it has already been delivered to the Dissava of the Four Korales, Tinnecon, a copy of which is once again enclosed herewith. But if the wrecked vessel is another one, then we request that you kindly let us know this as well, together with the circumstances and location, so that we may be able to give or obtain fuller information concerning it from Your Majesty."
Another Dutch report, dated 11 December 1657, records the sudden death from fever of the Dissava of Sabaragamuwa (whose name is not given) while he was in Kandy. This suggests that Tennekoon may have been transferred from the Four Korales to Sabaragamuwa toward the end of 1657 or early 1658. He appears to have been transferred again to the Seven Korales, probably in late 1658.
While serving as Dissava of the Seven Korales, Tennekoon also exercised authority over Matale. This is confirmed by a retrospective deposition given in 1669 by a native of the Seven Korales, several years after Dissava Tennekoon's death.
"As the basis for this knowledge, the deponent states that he had seen the said Astana Kumara on many occasions, and that everything stated above he had himself seen with his own eyes and heard with his own ears, both during His Majesty's campaign under Attepatte Modliar, and afterwards, at the time when the said Attepatte Modliar and the others were put to death, while he himself was in the service of Dissava Tinnecon of the Seven Korales and Matale."
Taken together, these contemporary records attest to the prominent position held by Dissava Tennekoon I before his execution by King Rajasinghe II in 1662. They indicate that he successively held the offices of Dissava of the Four Korales, Sabaragamuwa, and the Seven Korales, and that, while serving in the latter office, he also exercised authority over Matale. They further associate him with two major arrests of English captives on opposite coasts of the island, at Puttalam in the west and near Trincomalee in the east.
References
Knox, Robert. An Historical Relation of Ceylon. Edited by James Ryan. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1911.
NL-HaNA, VOC 1.04.02, inv. 1215, fol. 1015; inv. 1224, fol. 49; inv. 1226, fol. 849; inv. 1227, fols. 542–549; inv. 1270, fol. 464; inv. 1383, fols. 738–746; inv. 1387, fol. 1320 (GLOBALISE transcriptions).