Sultan Hussein signed the Treaty with Raffles and ceded Singapore as a British Settlement in perpetuity Descendants of the Sultan still live here.

On 6 February 1819 Raffles acknowledged Hussein as 'His Highness the Sultan Hussein Mohamed Shah, Sultan of Johore' and signed a treaty with him. Another Treaty was concluded in June 1819 defining the boundaries of the new Settlement. A final Treaty of Friendship and Alliance between the East India Company, Sultan Hussein and the Temmenggong was negotiated in 1824 by John Crawford, the British Resident. In August 1824 in exchange for cash payments and annual pensions Sultan Hussein and Temmenggong Abdul Rahman ceded to the East India Company the perpetual title to Singapore and all island within 10 miles of its shores.

In 1822 Stamford Raffles drew a master plan for Singapore and he assigned specific areas for different races to live in.

Kampong Glam was allocated to the Malays, Bugis and Arabs. The village derives its name from the glam trees found in abundance there. Temenggong Abdul Rahman was resettled in Telok Blangah.

Sultan's gate was the seat of Malay royalty in Singapore. Raffles reserved Kampong Glam for Sultan Hussein Shah and his descendants.

Sultan Hussein built a place for himself soon after the founding of Singapore. He brought his whole family and hundreds of followers from Rhio. His son Sultan Ali built Sultan's Gate between 1840 and 1843. Sultan Hussein died in 1835 and was buried in Melaka.

It is lamentable that John Crawfurd, the Resident, tried to oust the Sultan and the Temenggong from Singapore and made their lives miserable. In September 1824 Crawfurd freed 27 female slaves who had escape from the Sultan's place. The following month Crawfurd drove a road to Kampong Bugis through the Sultan's compound smashing down his wall! He, however, failed to dislodge the chiefs and their continual residence in Singapore. This rash act brought considerable embarrassment to the British Government.

The style of Sultan's Gate reflect G.D. Coleman's work but there is no evidence that it was Coleman who built it.

Sultan's Gate is painted in strong yellow, the colour of Kings the world over.

The descendants of Sultan Hussein receive about $70,000 annually from the Singapore Government. Finance Minister Dr Goh Keng Swee said in Parliament on 18 December 1967, that this was an 'obligation which we have inherited from the distant past…' The Istana occupied some of the heirs of the Sultan. In 1897 the Court of Singapore ruled that the land belonged to the Colony of Singapore and not to the Sultan's descendants but they were allowed to use it. In 1967 there were 23 beneficiaries.