Historic Jamaica

Is it nature or by the error of fantasie that the seeing of places we know to have been frequented or inhabited by men whose memory is esteemed or mentioned in Stories, doth in...

1664. Robert Freeman 1664. Sir Thomas Whetstone 1671. Samuel Long 1672–73. Major John Colebeck (_pro tem._) 1673. Samuel Long 1677. Lieut.-Col. William Beeston 1679–88. Samuel B...

On this subject Long wrote: “From the resemblance which the language of these islanders bears in some respects to the Spanish, I am apt to suspect that many of their words have...

In his opening speech to the Assembly Carlisle said that the King looked on Jamaica as “his darling plantation, and has taken more pains to make this island happy than any other...

Parish Baptisms Marriages Burials Kingston 1722 1721 1722 Port Royal 1728 1727 1725 St. Andrew 1664 1668 1666 St. Thomas ye East 1709 1721 1708 St. David 1794 1794 1794 Portland...

Bridges tells us that “in the year 1695 Sir Nicolas Lawes bequeathed his estate, in default of heirs, to found a free school for the benefit of the parishes of Kingston and St....

Sir Thomas Modyford, in his “View of the Condition of Jamaica, the 1st of October, 1664,” reprinted in the appendix to the first volume of the “Journals of the House of Assembly...

Modyford, the governor, wrote home, “The Spaniards wondered much at the sickness of our people, until they knew of the strength of their drinks, but then they wondered more that...

On March 23, 1692–93, Beeston, in writing home, had said: “But there is little of Port Royal left, being now a perfect island of about twenty-five acres and too small to hold th...

A portrait bust in wood, which formed the figurehead of the _Aboukir_, port guardship from 1862 to 1877, and now rests in the dockyard (alongside the figureheads of the _Imaum_,...

The most important event, however, in the history of Passage Fort is the taking of Jamaica by the English in 1655. After an inexcusable failure on Hispaniola (or, to give it its...

1664–1683—Rev. Henry Howser (d. Dec. 29, 1683). 1683–1700—Rev. Philip Bennett (d. Sept. 5, 1707). 1700–1702—Rev. James Cunningham. 1702–1703–4—Rev. William Alsop (d. Jan. 10, 17...

We come to so late as 1848–49 when Sir Charles Grey was Governor. He rode in a State Coach drawn by four horses, and had outriders as part of his equipage. Besides coachman and...

Two principal entrances lead through it into the body of the house; the one opens into a lobby, or ante-chamber; the other into the great saloon, or hall of audience, which is w...

Amongst other monuments in the church are those to the following: Richard Guy, who represented in the Assembly “the North-side” (1671–2), St. Ann and St. James in 1673–74, and S...

Whereas William Parker, of the parish of St. Andrews, Esquire, hath at his particular Charge found out and made a very convenient Way between the Salt and Fresh River in the Par...

Others went to the place called Kingston (or by others Killcown) where from the first clearing of the Ground, and from bad Accommodations, then Hutts built with Boughs, and not...

In the city and parish of Kingston, there is but one church, which will hold nearly a thousand people; it is thronged every Sunday morning, principally by free people of colour,...

Copies of the inscriptions on all the tombs both in church and churchyard up to the year 1875 will be found in Lawrence-Archer’s “Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Ind...

The old Mico Institution in Hanover street—now used as a technical school, and for a few years after the earthquake of 1907 used as the supreme court of the colony—was the origi...

When Colonel Christian Lilly laid out the town of Kingston in 1692, he left in the centre a plaza or square after the Spanish method of colonial town-planning. In the eighteenth...

The Robert Beckford who, on June 6, 1688, married Anne Prenyard, must have been a member of the well-known family, possibly a brother of Colonel Peter Beckford, the president of...

At the commencement of the nineteenth century Constant Spring estate was the place selected for his experiments in the improvement of the manufacture of sugar and rum by Dr. Bry...

At Matilda Corner, near Hope, is a Drinking Trough, erected in 1914 by his widow to the memory of Sir Charles Frederick Lumb, puisne judge of the colony from 1892 to 1909, showe...

Stokes Hall is possibly the oldest house in good preservation in the island. It was probably built soon after it was found that Stokesfield was unhealthy by reason of the swamps...

The “great house” is at a little distance on rising ground, commanding a _coup d’œil_ of the whole plain; hundreds and thousands of acres of canes may be seen at one glance. A s...

In 1786 as he was in financial difficulties the House advanced £5000 on mortgage of the Decoy, but in the following year a new Assembly voted this transaction “unconstitutional...

Foiled by their own cowardice and want of enterprise from leaving Jamaica, they ran riot throughout the island, ill-treating the natives, and thereby upsetting the reputation fo...

Lord generall don Christopher Arnoldo & Sasi, Governor for his majestie the king of Spayne, my lord of the island of Jamaica, answering to your letter, wherein you require me to...

“During one of these visits he got into a dispute with the redoubtable Hutchinson about a boundary-line between their properties, Hutchinson claiming some portion of land which...

Bryan Edwards, the son of a gentleman of Westbury in Wiltshire, who tried not very successfully to add to his patrimony by dealing in corn and malt, was born at Westbury in 1743...

At Rio Bueno is =Fort Dundas=, dated 1778 and taken over as an Island fort in 1800. At =Mayfield= are the tombs of John Spence (d. 1785) and Anne Blake, the wife of John Hodges...

When “cultivation was suspended, the courts at law had long been shut up, and the Island seemed more like a garrison under the power of the martial law than a country of agricul...

William Anglin Scarlett was born on June 24, 1777. He died at Grove pen in Manchester on October 9, 1831, and lies buried at Mandeville. The following is the inscription on his...

In August 1694 Sir William Beeston sent home to the Duke of Shrewsbury “A Brief Account of what passed in Jamaica during the preparations and duration of the French attacks on i...

As, with the exception of Hakewill and John Bartholomew Kidd, R.S.A., George Robertson is the only artist of any importance who has devoted his pencil to portraying the beauties...

Nothing but skirmishes took place till Sunday the 22nd, when the French marched upwards till they came to the house of a certain Mr. Hubbard, which was garrisoned with twenty me...

5. To the memory of the Hon. Kean Osborn of Caswell Hill in the parish of Vere and of Montpelier, Saint Thomas-in-the-East, late Speaker of the House of Assembly in this Island,...

1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 3. Enclosed italics font in...