Sulu tradition dates the acquisition of northeast Borneo from Brunei to around 1704, following assistance in a Brunei civil war. Dalrymple recorded the 1704 date in 1774. This territorial history precedes the British Company by generations.
Sources & further reading
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The Early Relations of England with Borneo to 1805 (1922)
Johannes Willi · Internet Archive
Johannes Willi, The Early Relations of England with Borneo to 1805 (1922), pp. 38–40; Appendix II, pp. 137–138.