Part 5

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 1804 1804 1808 St. George 1806 1807 1811 St. Mary 1752 1755 1767 Clarendon 1690 1695 1769 St. Ann 1768 1768 1768 Manchester 1816 1827 1817 St. Catherine 1668 1668 1671 St. John 1751 1751 1751 St. Dorothy 1693 1725 1706 St. Thomas ye Vale 1816 1816 1816 Metcalfe 1843 1843 1843 Westmoreland 1740 1740 1741 St. Elizabeth 1708 1719 1720 Trelawny 1771 1771 1771 St. James 1770 1772 1774 Vere 1696 1743 1733 Hanover 1725 1754 1727

John Roby, Jamaica’s most celebrated antiquary, published (from notes made in 1824) in 1831, at Montego Bay, where he was then collector of customs, “Monuments of the Cathedral Church and Parish of St. Catherine.” The information therein given was included and supplemented by Lawrence-Archer in his “Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies,” published in 1875: and annotations to Lawrence-Archer’s account, by the present writer and Mr. N. B. Livingston, were published in “Caribbeana” for January and April 1910. A full account of the history of the Church of England in Jamaica may be gathered from the work of the Rev. J. B. Ellis, published in 1913, “The Diocese of Jamaica.”

The history of the Department of Public Gardens and Plantations, now known as the Agricultural Department, is intimately connected with the various vicissitudes through which the island has passed. The following particulars have been taken in great measure from the account in the “Handbook of Jamaica for 1900.”

Directly and indirectly during the last hundred years and more the Department has been the means of introducing and propagating some of the most valuable plants, now the sources of the staple products of the island.

It is a striking fact that with the exception of pimento and a few others of comparatively little value, most of the staple products of the island are derived from exotics or plants introduced from other parts of the globe, either by accident or by direct intention.

The sugar-cane, though here in the time of the Spaniards, was first cultivated by the English, by Sir Thomas Modyford, in 1660; but its most valuable varieties, the Otaheite and Bourbon canes, were introduced in His Majesty’s ships by Captain Bligh as late as 1796. Coffee was introduced by Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes in 1718. The mango, brought by Captain Marshall of Rodney’s squadron in 1782, was first planted in Hinton East’s botanic garden, in Liguanea, and is now one of the commonest trees in the island. The plentiful and free-growing logwood was introduced from Honduras by Dr. Barham, the author of “Hortus Americanus,” in 1715. The beautiful akee was obtained by Dr. Thomas Clarke, first Island Botanist, from a West African slave ship in 1778. The cinnamon came with the mango in Captain Marshall’s ship in 1782, and was distributed from the Bath Garden by Dr. Dancer. The ubiquitous but graceful bamboo is also an exotic and owes its introduction to M. Wallen, who brought it from Hispaniola and first planted it in the parish of St. Thomas-in-the-East. To Wallen, formerly owner of Cold Spring and Wallenford, the friend of Swartz and a successful botanist, we are no doubt indebted for the first plants of the watercress, chickweed, wild pansy, groundsel, dead nettles, dandelion, common honeysuckle, black-berried elder, evening primrose, nasturtium, common myrtle, the English oak, white clover, and the sweet violet, now common on the Port Royal and Blue Mountains, being possibly escapes from his garden at Cold Spring, which even in 1793 was well stocked with choice selections of introduced flowers and European trees and shrubs. For the cherimoyer we are indebted to Hinton East, who introduced if from South America in 1786; to East and his magnificent garden we also owe the jasmines and many species of lilies, many convolvuli, the oleander, the horse-radish tree, numerous roses, the trumpet-flower, monkey-bread, the camellia, _Calla æthiopica_, the weeping willow, the mulberry tree, the _Arbor vitæ_, and the sweet-scented mimosa. Dr. Clarke, on his arrival as Island Botanist in 1777, brought with him the jujube tree, and the litchi, the purple dracæna, the sago palm, and the valuable camphor tree; at the same time there came the now common “almond tree,” the tea tree, and the “sunn” hemp plant. The wanglo, or zezegary, was sent by Sir Simon Haughton Clarke in 1801. The nutmeg tree, first brought by Rodney in 1782, was reintroduced by Dr. Marter in 1788, together with the clove and black pepper, for which he received the thanks of the House of Assembly and an honorarium of £1000. The seeds of the valuable and now indispensable Guineagrass were accidentally introduced from the West Coast of Africa as bird food in 1745. Scotch grass received its name from having been first brought from Scotland to Barbados.

Pindars were brought to Hinton East from South America; the afou, the acorn and Guinea yam, and indeed all but one of the cultivated yams, are from the coast of Africa or East Indies. The seeds of the guango were brought over from the mainland by Spanish cattle. Cacao is indigenous to Central America. The shaddock was brought to the West Indies from China by Captain Shaddock, hence its name. The genip was brought to Jamaica from Surinam by one Guaf, a Jew. The ginger is a native of the East Indies, introduced to Jamaica by a Spaniard, Francisco de Mendiza. The locust tree and blimbling were brought to Jamaica from the South Seas in H.M.S. _Providence_ in the year 1793. The orange, both sweet and Seville, the lime, the lemon and citron, were brought hither by the Spaniards. The Jerusalem thorn is from the Spanish main. The prickly pear is a Mexican plant.

It appears that the first public garden established in the island was the old Botanic Garden at Bath; and in the Journals of the House of Assembly mention is made of Dr. Thomas Clarke, “Practitioner in Physic and Surgery,” who came to the island in 1777, at the particular instance and request of Sir Basil Keith, to superintend two botanic gardens, then intended to be established in the island. One was to be a European Garden, which however was not established till long after, at Cinchona, and the other was the Tropical Garden at Bath.

A private garden possessing many rare and valuable plants had already been formed by Hinton East in Liguanea (Gordon Town), which, on the death of the founder, became the property of his nephew, E. H. East, “who with great generosity offered it to the Assembly of Jamaica for the use of the public at their own price.”

Bryan Edwards remarks that “the Assembly of Jamaica, cooperating with the benevolent intentions of His Majesty (to introduce valuable exotics and productions of the most distant regions to the West Indies) purchased in 1792–93 the magnificent Botanical Garden of Mr. East and placed it on the public establishment, under the care of skilful gardeners, one of whom, Mr. James Wiles, had circumnavigated the globe with Captain Bligh.”

An interesting catalogue of the plants in this garden, at the time of East’s decease, was prepared by Dr. A. Broughton, and forms an appendix under the title of “Hortus Eastensis” to Bryan Edwards’s “History of the British West Indies.”

From a letter addressed to Sir Joseph Banks by the Botanic Gardener, Jamaica, 1793, we gather that the bread-fruit trees “were upwards of 11 feet high, with leaves 36 inches long, and the success in cultivating them has exceeded the most sanguine expectations; the cinnamon tree is become very common, and mangoes are in such plenty as to be planted in the negro grounds. There are, also, several bearing trees of the jack or bastard bread-fruit ... and we have one nutmeg plant.” For his services in introducing the bread-fruit tree, 1000 guineas were granted in 1793 to Captain Bligh and 500 guineas to Lieutenant Portlock.

The Botanic Garden at Liguanea continued to be under Wiles’s care (superintended by a Committee of the House of Assembly) for many years, while that at Bath was entrusted to Dr. Dancer as Island Botanist. The allowance for the two gardens was fixed at £800. The duties of the Island Botanist were defined as follows: “To collect, class and describe the native plants of the island; to use his endeavours to find out their medicinal virtues; to discover if they possess any qualities useful to the arts, and annually to furnish the House with a correct list of such plants as are in the Botanic Gardens, together with such information as he may have acquired relative to their uses and virtues.”

For the purpose of distributing the bread-fruit and other valuable plants from the Botanic Garden the Committee of the House “appointed several Committees for each county, to receive and distribute the allotments destined for them,” and, according as sufficient numbers were prepared for propagation, the Chairmen of the County Committees were apprised and their respective proportions delivered and distributed, “by which means,” it is quaintly remarked, “the public has derived all the advantages to be expected from these establishments.”

During the years 1791–1807 the Committee in charge of the Botanic Gardens, with Shirley as Chairman, greatly developed and improved them. Enquiries were made everywhere for new products; thanks and gratuities were voted for the introduction of valuable plants, and these were cultivated and distributed with great assiduity and care. In order to make the islands less dependent on America for supplies every encouragement was given to the cultivation of yams, cocoas, maize, plantain, and such products as the bread-fruit, zezegary or wanglo, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, pindars and coffee, it being believed that the “cultivation of these valuable exotics will without doubt in a course of years lessen the dependence of the Sugar Islands on North America for food and necessaries; and not only supply subsistence for future generations, but probably furnish fresh incitements to industry, new improvements in the arts, and new subjects of commerce.”

These beneficial efforts, long and successfully maintained, were however greatly relaxed after the year 1807, and under the influence of domestic troubles, want of due appreciation of the value and nature of botanic gardens, or the need of strict economy, a bill was introduced into the House of Assembly in 1810 “for vesting the Botanic Garden in Liguanea in the Commissioners of the Board of Works, to be sold and the money to be brought to the credit of the public.” This bill was finally passed December 1810, and, the garden passing to private hands, many of the valuable plants contained in it, and collected with so much care and industry, were entirely lost.

The garden at Bath was however maintained, though in a very reduced state. Dr. Stewart West acted for some time as Island Botanist, and was engaged in collecting the plants that had been lost from the gardens, for the purpose of propagating and distributing them.

The first record to be found of any agricultural society in Jamaica occurs in 1807. The society, which had evidently been in existence for some little time, belonged to Cornwall. As it was called the Agricultural Society it was presumably the only one of its kind in existence. In 1825 a Jamaica Horticultural Society was formed at Kingston, which two years later became the Jamaica Society for the Cultivation of Agriculture and other Arts and Sciences, which did good work till it ceased to exist in 1850.

In the year 1824 an effort was made to restore the value and usefulness of the botanic gardens, and Sir M. B. Clare, from the Committee appointed to enquire into the state of the Botanic Garden, reported: “That the Botanic Garden in St.-Thomas-in-the-East, established more than fifty years ago, has during that period received and transmitted for propagation throughout the island many valuable plants. That the royal munificence of his late Majesty promoted the object of this institution by vessels of war employed to collect plants in the settlements of the east and south seas, some of which are now naturalized in this island, and more might be added, greatly to the advantage of its inhabitants. Your Committee therefore recommend that proper care may be taken to preserve the valuable plants which the Garden now contains. That in addition to the above considerations, Your Committee are of opinion that one object of this institution of chief importance has never been properly attended to, namely, the investigation of the many unknown native plants of this island, which, from the properties of those already known, it is reasonable to infer would prove highly beneficial in augmenting our internal resources, by supplying various articles either for food, for medicine, or for manufactures, to be cultivated, prepared and exported as staple commodities, by which great commercial advantages might be obtained; among others the various vegetable dyes claim particular attention as promising a fruitful field for discovery. That it appears to your Committee that the person fit for undertaking such enquiries ought to be a well-educated and scientific man, combining with his botanical knowledge sufficient information in experimental chemistry to enable him to discover the useful qualities of such indigenous plants, and improve the productions of those already known; but at the same time your Committee strongly recommend that such person should not be a medical man, as his whole time and attention ought to be applied to promote the above objects. Your Committee recommends to the House to instruct the Commissioners of Correspondence to direct the Agent to apply for such a person to the President of the Linnean Society in London.” As a result of this proposal James Macfadyen was selected and approved of as a botanist, and arrived in the island in 1825.

At the same time it was felt that the botanic garden at Bath was too distant from Kingston and the seat of government to answer the intention proposed, and it was recommended that a bill be brought in for purchasing a proper place for such a garden in the vicinity of Kingston and Spanish Town.

This proposal was, however, never carried into execution, and the garden at Bath on the removal and death of Macfadyen, “fast falling to decay,” was placed in charge of Thomas Higson; and his petitions addressed to the House of Assembly during 1830–32 show that the allowances made were not sufficient for the maintenance of the garden even in its reduced state, and that no remuneration had been made to him for its superintendence.

In 1833, in another fit of economy, owing to domestic troubles and the need for retrenchment, a Committee was appointed to “report on the best means of diminishing the contingencies and expenditure of the island and to consider whether the Botanic Gardens at Bath could be sold for the benefit of the public.” The report was made at the close of the year and ordered to lie on the table. Nothing further, however, appears to have been done for the garden till 1840, when the sum of £300 was “voted for the improvement of the Garden at Bath and for the services of a Botanist.” This sum, afterwards reduced to £200, was placed in the hands of the members of St. Thomas-in-the-East, Portland and St. David, by whom it appears to have been administered down to the year 1852, when the garden was transferred to the Board of Directors of the Bath of St. Thomas the Apostle. Nathaniel Wilson was appointed Curator of the Garden in 1847, and devoted many years, often labouring under great discouragements, in maintaining and improving the garden and introducing new plants. His yearly reports contain sufficient evidence of the value of the garden, small as it was, to an island entirely dependent for its prosperity on its agricultural interest; and, assisted and encouraged by the Rev. Thomas Wharton, Wilson laboured most successfully in the propagation and distribution of valuable plants, and especially in developing the “fibre” resources of the colony.

In 1842 we find there were local agricultural societies in St. Dorothy, St. John, St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, St. Thomas-in-the-East, St. Catherine, St. Andrew, St. James and Trelawny. In the following year a general Agricultural Society was established, with the governor as patron, with eighteen vice-patrons, and local committees in each of the parishes. In 1845 this society became the Royal Agricultural Society of Jamaica. In 1854 a Jamaica Society of Arts was established, which two years later became the Royal Society of Arts of Jamaica. This in 1864 was amalgamated with the Royal Agricultural Society—the two becoming the Royal Society of Arts and Agriculture, but it ceased after about 1873: the present Jamaica Agricultural Society being established in 1895.

In 1857 a grant was passed by the Legislature for purchasing land and for a botanic garden at Castleton, in the parish of St. Mary, nineteen miles from Kingston, and steps were at once taken to establish the garden and remove such plants as could be spared from Bath.

Writing in 1861 Wilson referred to the successful introduction of seeds of the valuable cinchona tree to Jamaica, through the liberality of the British Government and recommendation of Sir W. J. Hooker of Kew. By the month of October 1861 Wilson reported that he had over four hundred healthy plants quite ready for planting out. As the climate of Bath was unsuitable for the successful growth of cinchona, by the kindness of Dr. Hamilton, they were tried at Cold Spring coffee plantation in St. Andrew, at an elevation of 4000 feet. Here Wilson found “the climate and soil to be all he could desire,” and as it afforded every facility for carrying out so valuable an experiment he at once availed himself of it, and planted out in the coffee fields, November 1861, several plants of each species.

The garden at Castleton was then finally established, and ultimately the government Cinchona plantations were opened in 1868, and placed under the management of Robert Thompson, who on Wilson’s retirement had been appointed superintendent of the Botanic Gardens. The cinchona trees flourished, but the industry was killed by the cheaper production of bark from India.

Thompson retired in 1878, and was succeeded by Mr. (now Sir) Daniel Morris till 1886, then Mr. William Fawcett till 1908, when the Department was changed into an agricultural Department, with Mr. H. H. Cousins as Director and a Farm School and Stock Farm were added to the Hope establishment. At the same time the Government Laboratory, originated in 1870 as a separate department, and in 1901 brought into direct connexion with agricultural work, was amalgamated with it.

The Palisadoes plantation of coco-nuts, which in 1884 had some 23,000 palms in bearing, was while in the care of lessee later attacked by disease.

Mining operations have been carried on with more or less success in Jamaica from time to time. In 1857 there were four mining companies operating: the Clarendon Consolidated Copper Mining Company in Clarendon, where mining has recently been reintroduced; the Wheal-Jamaica, with a capital of £100,000; the Ellerslie and Bardowie Copper Mines (capital £50,000) in St. Andrew; and the Rio Grande Copper Mine (capital £60,000) in Portland.

The earliest reference to Education in the history of Jamaica occurs under date February 23, 1663, when a warrant was issued to prepare a bill for the king’s signature authorizing the treasurer of the exchequer to pay the sum of £500 yearly to Thomas Povey to be by him transmitted and equally distributed to five ministers serving in Jamaica or to four ministers and a schoolmaster as shall seem fit to the governor.

Jamaica then apparently preferred preaching to teaching—there being at the time obviously few children of a teachable age—for there is no further reference to the schoolmaster.

In 1671 the last of twenty-four enquiries sent to the governor, Sir Thomas Modyford, was “what provision for instructing the people in the Christian religion and for paying the ministry?”; but there was no mention made of secular education.

In 1675 Sir Thomas Lynch reported that “Mr. Lemon, a sobergoing man and a very good preacher, is minister of Guinaboa, St. John’s parish; he has £100 per annum from the parish, and about as much from Colonel Coape for keeping a free school he has erected.” To John Coape, who was a member of the first Council, Custos of Precinct VII (consisting of the parishes of St. John, St. Ann, St. George and St. Mary) and a Quaker, is due the honour of having spent the first money recorded in the cause of education in Jamaica.

The art of self-defence was not neglected. Sara Lyssons, of St. Thomas, employed John Lookmore, “a master of the noble science of defence,” to teach her sons, in 1678.

Till the end of the seventeenth century the safety of trade and commerce, the means of defence against Spanish or French invasion, the encouragement of immigration, government, and legislation, formed the subjects of discussion with the home government, and the comparatively newly formed colony was too unsettled to think of imparting knowledge to the rising generation.

The only reference to education found in the legislation of the century is in an “Act for Confirmation of Pious, Charitable and Public Gifts and Grants,” to “erecting or maintaining of Churches, Chappels, Schools, Universities, Colledges, or other places for education of Youth or maintenance of men of Learning, or any Alms-houses or Hospitals, or any other uses whatsoever, heretofore made, and hereafter to be made within the time aforesaid.” But it was long ere “Colledges” came into being, and the Universities are as yet in the future.

In the year 1688, Sir Henry Morgan, of buccaneering fame, gave £100 to aid the bequest of £100 sterling by Joachim Hane to found a school in St. Mary, but nothing was rendered available to the establishment of such a school.