Part 7

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” ([Spanish Town] 1811), says “there is in the said island but seven established parishes: _videlicet_, the town and parish of St. Katherine’s, St. John’s, the town and parish of Port Royal, Clarendon, St. David’s, St. Andrew’s, and St. Thomas, which are very large, and in them all but one church, that at St. Katherine’s.”

The parish of St. David was part of the precinct of St. Thomas-in-the-East, and St. George was part of the precinct of St. Mary.

As a result of the survey ordered by Sir Thomas Modyford, and made by “Serjeant-Major John Man, Surveyor-General for His Majesty,” who calculated that the island comprised seven millions of acres, a map was prepared by Man and copied by “Mr. Innians, the surveyor,” and published in Blome’s “Description of the Island of Jamaica” in 1671. There are included on this map, in addition to two unnamed precincts occupying approximately the positions of the present Hanover and Manchester, the precincts of St. Catherine, St. Andrew, Port Royal, St. David, St. Thomas, St. George, St. Mary, St. John, St. Ann, St. James, St. Elizabeth and Clarendon.

In the year 1673, Vere was formed by cutting off a portion of Clarendon, but it still remained part of the precinct of Clarendon; and in 1675 when an Act was passed for dividing His Majesty’s Island of Jamaica into several parishes and precincts, St. Thomas-in-the-Vale was taken from St. Catherine; and Clarendon lost another piece out of which was formed St. Dorothy, which parish became part of the precinct of St. Catherine.

In “The State of Jamaica under Sir Thomas Lynch, His Majesty’s present Captain-General and Chief Governour, September 20th, 1683,” prefixed to the “Laws of Jamaica” (London 1684), it states “since that time (1661) it has been divided into Fifteen Parishes and they into eight Provinces or Precincts.”

The first act on record having reference to the parishes of the island was read on the 11th of May, 1675, by the Council, and sent to the Assembly with this amendment, that the Magotty be annexed to the sixteen-mile-walk, but continue still to pay all parochial duties to St. John’s except to the repairing of the highways, until a church be built and a parish settled in the parish of St. Thomas-in-the-Vale. A law was passed in 1677. The law itself had not been preserved, but it is recited in a law passed in 1681 (33 Car. 2), “An Act for the maintenance of Ministers and the Poor, and erecting and Repairing of churches.” (“The Laws of Jamaica,” London 1684): “and whereas this Island, in the twenty-ninth year of His Majesty’s reign, by an Act of this Country, was divided into fifteen parishes, which were called, distinguished and known, by the several names hereafter mentioned, that is to say, _St. Thomas_, _St. Davids_, _Port Royal_, _St. Andrews_, _St. Katherines_, _St. Dorothys_, _St. Thomas in the Valley_, _Clarendon_, _Vere_, _St. Johns_, _St. Georges_, _St. Maries_, _St. Anns_, _St. James_, and _St. Elizabeths_; Be it therefore enacted and ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every of the said Parishes, rest, remain, and for ever hereafter be distinguished and known by the aforesaid respective Names, and by no other whatsoever, anything in this or any other Law to the contrary notwithstanding.”

In 1692, on the destruction of the greater part of Port Royal by earthquake, most of the inhabitants that survived settled in hastily erected buildings in St. Andrew, on the harbour, and in the following year the parish of Kingston was formed.

In 1703 Westmoreland was formed out of a portion of St. Elizabeth. In 1723 Portland was formed, the land being taken partly from St. Thomas-in-the-East, and partly from St. George (by 10 Geo. 1); and Hanover was formed out of part of Westmoreland. In 1739 (12 Geo. 2, ch. 6) parts of the Carpenters Mountains, heretofore esteemed part of St. Elizabeth and Clarendon, were transferred to Vere.

In 1758 the three counties of Surrey, Middlesex and Cornwall were created (by 31 Geo. 2, ch. 15) with a view to the more convenient holding of courts of justice. The middle county was appropriately called Middlesex; the westernmost was named after the most western county in England, Cornwall; and the eastern division was called Surrey, probably because, like Surrey in England, its principal town was Kingston.

Kingston was declared the county town of Surrey; St. Jago de la Vega, that of Middlesex; and Savanna-la-Mar, that of Cornwall. In the first-named were the seven parishes of Port Royal, Kingston, St. Andrew, St. David, Portland, St. George and St. Thomas-in-the-East; Middlesex comprised St. Catherine, St. John, St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, St. Dorothy, Clarendon, Vere, St. Ann, and St. Mary; while Cornwall had but four parishes, St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover and St. James. The next change was in 1770, when Trelawny was formed out of a portion of St. James. In 1814 Manchester was created by taking parts from Clarendon, Vere and St. Elizabeth, thus transferring a portion of Cornwall to Middlesex.

In many old maps of the island, notably James Robertson’s (published in 1804) the names of the owners are given rather than the names of properties, and in many instances these proper names exist to this day; and to-day the negro peasantry are often able to tell one the name of the owner when they are ignorant of the name of the estate or house.

In 1809 a law was passed (50 Geo. 3) for fixing the boundaries of the several counties and parishes of this island, by which the extent and boundaries of the counties and parishes as laid down and delineated in the three maps of the counties and the general map of the island, made and published by Robertson, were taken as the bounds of the counties and parishes, and printed copies of the maps were recognized as evidence in all courts of justice in the island.

In 1831 McGeachy and Smith, surveyors, proposed to publish by subscription maps of the three counties at £20 apiece. They received the names of eighty-six subscribers, but the maps were never published, as we learn by “St. Jago de la Vega Gazette” for February 12, 1831.

In 1841 the last parish to be created in the history of Jamaica, Metcalfe, was formed out of the parishes of St. Mary and St. George, whereby Middlesex again gained land, this time at the expense of Surrey. The parishes then numbered twenty-two. In 1844 an Act (8 Vic. c. 39) was passed defining the boundaries of Kingston Harbour.

In 1867, as part of the reformation scheme of Sir John Peter Grant, was passed the law for the reduction of the number of parishes. In Surrey, Kingston, was increased by taking part of St. Andrew, a part of the parish and the whole town of Port Royal. St. Andrew took the remaining part of Port Royal parish; and St. David was merged into St. Thomas-in-the-East, and St. George into Portland, which also took the Manchioneal district of St. Thomas-in-the-East.

In Middlesex the recently created parish of Metcalfe was merged into the parish of St. Mary. St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, St. John, and St. Dorothy were all merged into St. Catherine, and Vere again became part of Clarendon; St. Ann and Manchester remaining as they were. In Cornwall there was no alteration, the five parishes remaining as they were.

In 1900 Port Royal was made a separate parish for municipal purposes, remaining still part of the electoral district of Kingston.

Of names given owing to natural features, there are numbers in Jamaica—the Blue Mountains; the Red Hills; the Great, White, Swift, Dry, and Milk Rivers; Green Island; Dry Harbour; Dry Mountains; the Round Hill (in Vere), and so on.

The Y. S. River (pronounced Wyers) is, Long tells us, so called from the Gallic word Y. S., which signifies crooked or winding. Another authority says the name of the property was Wyess, and its commercial mark for shipping purposes was Y. S.

Labour-in-vain Savannah in St. Elizabeth is a name perfectly descriptive of its nature. So, too, is Burnt Savannah.

The struggle for and the success of emancipation have left their names on many a free negro settlement; some of which, it is to be feared, have not realized their early promise: Clarkson Ville, Sturge Town, Wilberforce, Buxton, Liberty Hill and others.

Some names are typical of the simple faith and language of the negro, such as Wait-a-bit and Come-see. Me-no-sen-you-no-come, in Trelawny, must have been named by folk of recluse habits. Others are not euphonious—Fat Hog Quarter, Running Gut (which Lawrence Archer, in his “Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies,” thinks may probably be a corruption by some seafaring man of _Harangutta_, a branch of the Ganges), Starve Gut Bay; and one rather wonders whether they are not vulgar corruptions of different designations. We find, however, similar names in the other islands: _Dos d’Ane_ in Dominica, and _Mal d’Estomac_ in Trinidad. On the other hand _Kick-em-Jenny_, the rock between St. Vincent and Grenada, is said to have been originally called _Cay qu’on gêne_—the islet that bothers one, from the roughness of the neighbouring sea.

Many names of townships and properties have been translated from the old country—Oxford, Ipswich, Cambridge, Newmarket and the like—and the number of Bellevues, Belvideres, Contents, speak little for the inventive faculties of those who named them.

Of its trade with the outside world Jamaica has evidences in Jamaica Bay, in Acklin’s Island, Bahamas; in Jamaica (as old at least as 1699), Long Island; in Jamaica Plain near Boston; in Jamaica Street in Glasgow; in Jamaica Street in Greenock; and formerly in the Jamaica coffee house in London.

The Jamaica coffee house was in St. Michael’s Alley, Cornhill, which runs out of Cornhill to the west of St. Michael’s church. This alley is famous as having contained the first coffee house established in London. The Jamaica coffee house is kept in memory there by the Jamaica wine house which adjoins the office of a wine merchant (E. J. Rose & Co.) and by Jamaica buildings. Like all city alleys, the place has been entirely rebuilt.

Jamaica Street, one of the busiest streets in Glasgow, leading to Jamaica Bridge over the Clyde, was named in 1763, and its name was doubtless suggested by the business connexion. There are other evidences in Glasgow of West Indian trade in St. Vincent Street, Tobago Street, and the “Havannah” (Street); but the name of Kingston Dock has no connection with Kingston, Jamaica.

There is a Jamaica Road in Bermondsey and a Jamaica Street in Shadwell.

I PORT ROYAL

The chief interest of Port Royal lies rather in the silent witness which through two and a half centuries she has borne to the naval activities of the island of Jamaica, and in a measure to those of the British fleets which have from time to time visited these waters, than in any part which she has played in the internal domestic development of the colony, although she has now and again sent to the Assembly such notable members as William Beeston, Samuel Long, Marmaduke Freeman, Peter Beckford, Matthew Concanen, Roger Hope Elletson and Samuel Jackson Dallas. The three last, however, were connected, not with “the Point,” but with that portion of the old parish of Port Royal which now forms part of St. Andrew and is known to-day as the Port Royal Mountains.

In these days of pageants, Port Royal would fittingly make either background or proscenium to many a stirring episode illustrative of the island’s history.

Though Jamaica since its occupation by the English has escaped the capture and recapture which was the fate of many of the smaller West Indian islands which are now British, and its forts have never had to face besieging ships, the vessels sent out from its harbour from that date till the early years of the last century played no insignificant part in the sum total of Britannia’s naval history; and Port Royal was a toll-gate on Britain’s path of Admiralty at which many heavy tolls were paid.

From the _Swiftsure_, Admiral Penn’s flagship in the expedition which gained the island for England, to the _Suffolk_ and _Sydney_, many of the finest ships in the British Navy have sailed or steamed past Port Royal’s shores; and the flags of not a few of England’s most celebrated seamen have waved near its walls—Myngs, Morgan (who was buried there), Nevell, Benbow (who died there), Vernon, Hosier, Ogle, Keppel, Rodney, Peter Parker, Nelson, Joshua Rowley, McClintock, and lastly Admiral Lloyd.

Columbus, who was intimately acquainted with the north side of Jamaica, probably only saw Port Royal from the _Niña’s_ deck as he, after discovering the island on his second voyage, in 1494, beat slowly homeward along the south side, after having exchanged courtesies with the caciques in Old Harbour bay, putting in here and there for shelter from the contrary wind.

During the Spanish occupation the Point remained unoccupied and the harbour of Kingston was disregarded till 1520, when the Spaniards removed their northside capital to St. Jago de la Vega.

In January 1596–97, the inhabitants of Port Royal, had there been any, would have seen that adventurous soldier of fortune, Sir Anthony Shirley, sail up the harbour, whence he plundered the island and burnt St. Jago; in March 1643, the buccaneering hero Captain William Jackson, with his marauding company of three ships sent out from England by the Earl of Warwick, recruited at Barbados and St. Kitts, again insulted the powerless or supine Spaniards, passing Port Royal, which was then an island; and in May 1655, the inhabitants fell an easy prey to a ragamuffin army of 8000 troops contained in thirty-eight ships under Penn and Venables, who tried to atone thereby for their ineffectual attempt on Hispaniola. This was probably the largest fleet which up to that moment had entered Kingston harbour.

The English conquerors soon saw the strategic advantage of Cagua (which they corrupted into Cagway), or the Point, as they called it, as a protection to the harbour and the capital at St. Jago de la Vega.

The earliest act of this motley crew, when they tired of killing the cattle which the Spaniards had been at great pains to breed on the sea-washed savannahs on the south side, was to erect a fort at Cagway under Sedgwick in March 1656. At the Restoration it not unnaturally received the name of Fort Charles, and the collection of houses that grew up around it was called Port Royal, at the dictates of loyalty or sycophancy, according to the political creed of the members of the new colony. But the governor and council had often great difficulty in persuading the Assembly to vote the funds necessary for its upkeep and improvement. A writer during Sir Charles Lyttelton’s governorship, 1662–1664, says it was called Port Royal from the excellency of the harbour; but it was apparently not till February 1674 that that became its official name, when the Assembly voted “Point Conway (an obvious misprint for Cagway) to be called Port Royal.” In addition to Fort Charles there were three other principal forts called James, Carlisle and Rupert.

For a time Port Royal was the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor, while the Governor’s official residence was at Spanish Town. In November 1661, it was ordered “that no person remain on Point Cagua without giving security to a Justice of the Peace not to be chargeable to the inhabitants for more than one month. Any waterman bringing a person likely to be chargeable to pay a piece of eight and carry him back again.” In 1664 the Assembly desired and advised the Council that the Court of Common Pleas should be held constantly “in St. Jago de la Vego and no more at Port Royal,” and the Council agreed. In March 1674–5 Peter Beckford wrote home:

Lord Vaughan arrived on the 13th inst. at night and landed at Port Royal; next day his commission was read, and he was entertained as well as the island could afford; 15th, he remained on Port Royal, viewing the fortifications; came next day to St. Jago, being received at the seaside [at Passage Fort, probably] by 150 horse and a company of foot, besides the gentlemen of the country and seven coaches, all which attended him to the town, where he was received with two companies of foot, and dined with Sir Thos. Modyford.

By 1675, residence by the Governor at Port Royal had gone out of favour. In that year was passed a resolution to the effect that—the “Captain-General’s salary to be £2000 per annum, residing usually at St. Jago, his residence at Port Royal to be omitted.”

In 1680, the custos of Port Royal was Sir Henry Morgan, J.P. The judges of court of common pleas were William Beeston, Reginald Wilson and Anthony Swimmer. The justices of the peace were, besides the judges, John White, Theodore Cary, Prichard Herne and Harbottle Wingfield.

Sir Thomas Lynch wrote, in 1682, to the Bishop of London, of Beeston: “You may be disposed to credit him as Dr. Beeston’s brother, and a very ingenious man, to whose skill and zeal we owe the building of our church at Port Royal, the handsomest in America....” This church, called Christchurch, perished in the earthquake. The present building, erected in 1725–26, contains monuments to many of those who succumbed to yellow fever. Its most notable monument is that to Lieutenant Stapleton (d. 1754) by Roubiliac. Of the rest the most interesting is that to Captain de Crespigny (d. 1825), who had served under St. Vincent, Nelson and Collingwood, and during his career saved no less than sixteen lives. The carved organ loft was erected in 1743.

In the Council minutes for June 1685, occurs the valuation of two parcels of land taken for the public use. One “contiguous to the breast work” (probably identical with the “Redoute” in Lilly’s plan) was valued at £125.

As early as 1661 there were in Fort Charles “some as good cannon planted as the Tower of London would afford,” but it was not ever thus. The fort was “not shook down, but much shattered” by the earthquake of 1692. Seven or eight years later it was reconstructed by Colonel Christian Lilly, an engineer officer of considerable ability, who had laid out the town of Kingston in 1694, and who, in 1734, was captain of the fort. He was probably the author of “An Account of Commodore Wilmot’s Expedition to Hispaniola” of the year 1696, in which occurs a very caustic description of the “small fort” at Port Royal, which he regarded as

Of little significance in case of an attack. It is something like a square redoubt of forty or fifty paces to a side with two small bastions towards the town, but nothing towards the sea but a small semi-circular advance in the middle of that side, capable of containing three or four pieces of cannon. The walls are built after the ancient way of fortifications and are not cannon-proof. The embrasures are arched over, and so large as to be more like gates for the enemy to enter at than port-holes. There is not so much as a trench or palisade round it, and I believe not six pieces of cannon that can bear at one time upon a ship when opposite to it. Outside this fort, when I was there, there was a long line of cannon; but so extremely exposed to the enemy’s fire that it would be hard matter for any one to use them in case of an attack, and they are of no use at all in case an enemy gets into the harbour, for they can then be taken in reverse. This is the chief artificial fortification of Port Royal, and the natural fortification is not much except that it is now an island, for the town is all open to the harbour and partly to the sea. In my opinion, therefore, there would be no difficulty for a small fleet to master it, and less risk than in encountering two stout men-of-war, were it not for our own ships in the harbour, as I can explain if required. This place, being the bulwark and gate to the conquest of the island, should be better secured. The side of the fort towards the sea, already falling down, should be rebuilt in some figure better suited for its defence, and the whole should be surrounded by a good deep ditch and a row or two of strong palisades. The embrasures should be lessened to two feet at most to protect the gunners at their guns. The battery on the east side should be made defencible and cannon-proof. The plot of land to north-west of the fort should be taken into a horn-work and fitted for several guns, to defend it against attack in reverse. To eastward of the town a work should be thrown up to cover it against the isthmus, and to guard against surprise by boats on that side. These fortifications could also be built of earth and wood; which would save much expense and would suffice if they lasted to the end of the war.

This account tallies with a description of Port Royal, dated October 25, 1699, signed by Lilly himself.

Sir William Beeston, writing to the Council of Trade and Plantations in February 1700, said—with all the self-sufficiency of one in authority:

The storehouses are finished and of great use, and so is Fort Charles with all the advantage the ground will afford. Captain Lilly would have had it built in another figure, but that was more to show his desire it might be done by his directions than of any use, for, as he proposed, there would have been much less room, and the spurs were not capacious enough to contain any guns. I had the approbation of all people in the figure I proposed, and it’s not only very useful but very beautiful also. The next public work we go about is to lay a line of thirty or forty guns in good stone work to the eastward of Fort Charles, which guns will be right up the channel where all ships come in, and make the place not easy to be attempted by sea.

From the earliest times the members of the House of Assembly, ever ready to insist on their rights, were admitted to view the forts and fortifications, and a joint committee of the Assembly and Council used to report annually on Fort Charles. After pointing out various defects for thirty or forty years, the committee in 1736 got angry, and complained “that the present state and condition of the fortifications in Port Royal, which is very defenceless, require the immediate consideration of the Legislature, as they are the strength and security of the island,” and that “little or no notice had been taken to remedy the grievances complained of.”

Towards the close of the eighteenth century there were thirty forts and batteries in the island. At present there are but three worthy of the name—Fort Nugent at Harbour Head, Fort Clarence, opposite Port Royal, and Rocky Point, on the Palisadoes.

As the island became more settled under the British colonists, vessels which had at first been equipped for home defence began to assume the position of private men-of-war, or privateers, and to bring into Port Royal, sometimes with the warrant of the governor, sometimes without, spoils from the Spaniards. When it suited the home programme the local Governor was praised for zeal in Imperial service. When the complaints of the Spanish court became too insistent, he was made a scapegoat and recalled. But the habit of plundering the hated Spaniard had got into the blood of men who were ill-fitted to lead a sedentary life, and the steps from authorized privateersmen, first to unauthorized buccaneer, and then to pirate and murderer, were easy. And no close scrutiny was placed upon the origin of the wealth poured into Port Royal, which its owners squandered in drinking and gaming as quickly as they had gained it. Port Royal was then the centre of much debauchery.