Agreement · 22 January 1878
The 1878 Agreement
On 22 January 1878, Sultan Jamalul Alam granted Overbeck and Dent rights over the coast from the Pandassan River to the Sibuku. The arrangement provided for an annual payment of 5,000 dollars.
The primary-source collection
The Document Archive
Explore the Sultan’s commission, British parliamentary records, historical books and maps.
26 records
Documents, maps & photographs
The 1878 grant and commission
The territorial instrument and the appointment to govern, with their manuscript reproductions and translations.
Read the instruments together6 matching copies & editions
Published documentary reprint · 22 January 1878 · reprinted 1908
The Sultan’s commission to Overbeck
An English reprint of the commission appointing Overbeck Datu Bandahara and Raja of Sandakan, issued alongside the territorial transaction.
Manuscript reproduction · 22 January 1878
The 1878 agreement in Jawi
The territorial agreement written in Malay using Jawi, an Arabic-derived script. The surviving reproduction shows the Sultan’s seals, signature and the witnessed instrument.
Manuscript reproduction · 22 January 1878
The Sultan’s commission in Jawi
A reproduction of the separate commission appointing Overbeck Datu Bendahara and Raja of Sandakan. The printed Malay caption identifies the appointment.
Translation · 2019
The Malay text and the lease translation
The published exhibit provides Malay transliterations and English translations of both the agreement and the letter of authority. It renders the operative transaction as a lease.
Agreement translation · 22 January 1878
The 1878 grant: British English translation
This English reading copy uses grant-and-cede terminology while recording annual payment to the Sultan, his heirs or successors.
Map · 1881 (catalogue date)
A company-era map of Borneo
A London-published map depicting lands associated with grants from the sultans of Brunei and Sulu, with inset harbour maps.
Agreement · 9 July 1963
The Malaysia Agreement
The United Nations Treaty Collection records the agreement relating to Malaysia, signed in London on 9 July 1963.
Historical photograph · c. 1885–1925
At the gate at Jolo
A historical photograph of people at the gate at Jolo, held by the Library of Congress.
Map · Published 1908
The Sulu Archipelago
A geographical plate showing the island chain between Borneo and Mindanao, reproduced from Saleeby’s historical publication.
Parliamentary debate · 13 March 1882
Granville on sovereignty and the Company charter
The government’s explanation of the relationship between the Royal Charter, the Company’s powers and the authority of the Sultans.
Historical book · 1891
British Borneo: a colonial participant’s account
A public-domain account by the first Governor of British North Borneo. Chapter VII describes negotiations with Brunei and Sulu.
Historical book · 1908
The History of Sulu
A public-domain historical compilation containing narrative history and reprinted documents. The 1878 commission is a starting point for this collection.
Historical agreement; archival reprint enclosure · 26 June 1946
The Company–Crown transfer agreement
The British Crown took over North Borneo. The transfer agreement traced the Company’s asserted rights back to earlier grants and commissions. For the Sulu claim, the central question remained what those instruments had actually conveyed—not simply who now administered the territory.
Published diplomatic record with editorial annotation · 1963 · records the 1962 claim
The Sulu-derived claim in the diplomatic record
The Philippines took up a claim derived from the asserted rights of the Sultan of Sulu and his heirs. Australia’s published diplomatic record identifies that connection explicitly: the heirs maintained that the territory had been leased, and the Philippine claim rested on succession to Sulu’s sovereign rights.
Registered intergovernmental agreement · 31 July 1963
Manila Accord: the claim expressly preserved
Indonesia, the Federation of Malaya and the Philippines agreed that North Borneo’s inclusion in Malaysia would not prejudice the Philippine claim or any rights under it.
Registered bilateral agreement · 7 February 1966
The 1966 reaffirmation of the Manila Accord
Malaysia and the Philippines exchanged notes and issued a communiqué reaffirming the Manila Accord as the framework for peaceful settlement of the Philippine claim to Sabah.
Domestic judicial decision · 16 August 2011
Magallona v. Ermita: the Sabah reservation retained
In Magallona v. Ermita, the Philippine Supreme Court confirmed that the 2009 baselines law had not repealed the Sabah reservation in the 1968 statute. The decision documents the claim’s persistence in Philippine law; it did not decide sovereignty between the Philippines and Malaysia.
Treaty reprint · 28 January 1761
Sulu and the East India Company
Articles of friendship and commerce record the East India Company dealing with the Sultan of Sulu as a treaty-making ruler.
Agreement translation · 22 April 1903
The 1903 agreement on offshore islands
The Sultan identified islands associated with the 1878 arrangement. The published text records an additional annual payment of 300 dollars and arrears for past occupation.
Royal charter · 1 November 1881
The British North Borneo Company charter
The charter recounts the grants and commissions obtained from the rulers of Brunei and Sulu and authorises the Company to acquire their benefits.
Protocol · 7 March 1885
The Madrid Protocol
The European powers addressed Spanish sovereignty in the Sulu archipelago and Spain’s renunciation, as against Britain, of claims over the Borneo territories described as belonging or formerly belonging to Sulu.
Agreement · 12 May 1888
The North Borneo protectorate agreement
The agreement placed North Borneo under British protection while leaving internal administration with the Company. Its recitals derived the Company’s claimed sovereign rights from grants and commissions.
Executive order · 10 May 1974
The Sultan’s confirmation in 1974
The Philippine government organised assistance for the Ruma Bechara’s confirmation of Sultan Mahakuttah, whom the order identifies as succeeding his father.
Judicial decision · 18 December 1939
The heirs’ right to the annual payments
The North Borneo court considered who was entitled to receive the annual sums under the 1878 and 1903 instruments after Sultan Jamalul Kiram’s death in 1936.
Historical artifacts
Material culture · 18th–19th century
A kris from Jolo
A steel and silver kris attributed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Jolo.