[1] Horsburgh Lighthouse was named after Captain James Horsburgh (28 September 1762 – 14 May 1836), a Scottish hydrographer from the East India Company, who mapped many seaways around Singapore in the late 18th and early 19th century.

His charts and books allowed ships to navigate through treacherous areas of the ocean, saving many lives and property on the seas between China and India.

[2] On the wall of the Visitor's Room on the sixth floor of the lighthouse under the light room there is a panel with the following inscription:[3] Pharos Ego Cui nomen praebuit Horsburgh Hydrographus In maribus Indo Sinicis praeter omnes praeclarus Angliae Mercatorum nisi imprimis indole Ex imperii opibus Anglo Indici denique constructa Saluti nautarum insignis viri memoriae Consule

The Horsburgh Lighthouse is raised by the British enterprise of British Merchants, and by the liberal aid of the East India Company, to lessen the dangers of navigation, and likewise to hand down, so long as it shall last, in the scene of his useful labours, The Memory of the Great Hydrographer whose name it bears.

Translated literally into English, the Latin inscription reads: I, the lighthouse, to whom was given the name of Horsburgh the Hydrographer who is famous beyond all others in the Indo-Chinese sea, was constructed, if not primarily by the natural talents of the English merchants, then certainly by the power of the Anglo-Indian empire, for the salvation of sailors and in memory of the famous man, during the consulate of W. J. Butterworth, C. B., governor of the province of Malacca, in 1851.The lighthouse was built over an outcrop of rocks that for centuries was identified on maps as Pedra Branca ("white rock" in Portuguese).