Chapter XI: Introduction (2)

In 1671 Sir Thomas Modyford replied to enquiries of His Majesty’s Commissioners that: “Their Lordships will find among the statutes with these presented a law for the maintenance of the ministry; until this His Majesty was piously pleased to pay five ministers £100 each, but since they were left upon the charity of the inhabitants, he has encouraged them to enlarge their payments at St. Katherine’s, where he lives, from £50 to £140, and at Port Royal £200. At St. Katherine’s, Mr. Howser, a Switzer, officiates; at Port Royal, Mr. Maxwell, a Scotchman; at St. John’s, Mr. Lemmings, an Englishman, lately sent by my Lord of London; and in St. Andrew’s, Mr. Zellers, another Switzer; all these are orthodox men, of good life and conversation, live comfortably on their means, and preach every Sunday. Mr. Pickering, of St. Thomas and St. David’s, at Port Morant and Yallows, is lately dead, and they have none to supply his place. But, alas, these five do not preach to one-third of the island, and the plantations are at such distance that it is impossible to make up congregations; but they meet at each others’ houses, as the primitive Christians did, and there pray, read a chapter, sing a psalm, and home again; so that did not the accessors to this island come so well instructed in the article of faith, it might well be feared the Christian religion would be quite forgot. I have, my Lords, and shall use all the persuasive means I can to advance this people’s knowledge of the true God, as also of all Christian and moral virtues.”

In 1675 a Mr. Crandfield reported that there were six churches and four ministers, and two years later there were but three clergy in the island. In a MS., once in the House of Assembly Library, entitled “The State of the Church in His Majesty’s Island of Jamaica,” dated May 1675 (which was allowed to perish after Richard Hill quoted from it in 1864), it was stated, after enumerating the then stipended ministers of religion: “All the other parishes on the northside, and St. Elizabeth’s on the south, are great and ill-settled, without churches, they being almost planted in Sir Thomas Lynch’s time, who ordered Glebe lands to be reserved in two or three places in every parish, that in time may prove convenient.”

In 1677 Howser and Zellers, “His Majesty’s chaplains in Jamaica,” petitioned that they might receive the pay promised to them, and declared that “the island, in regard of its great poverty, is not able to allow maintenance for four chaplains resident there.” In the same year the Bishop of London represented the ill-usage of ministers in the Plantations, and their too great subjection to the vestrymen, especially in Jamaica; and the Lords of Trade and Plantations resolved that the clergy should, in future, “make a part of the vestry in the regulation of all matters, except in the settlement of their maintenance.”

In 1681 an Act was passed for the maintenance of ministers and the poor, and erecting and repairing churches. Ten vestrymen and two churchwardens were yearly elected by the freeholders of each parish. The law provided for the keeping of a register of births, christenings, marriages and burials. Port Royal was to pay £250 to its minister, St. Catherine £120, St. Thomas, St. Andrew and St. John £100, and other parishes £80. These stipends were apparently not sufficient inducement, for in 1706 an Act was passed “for the encouragement of good and able ministers to come to this island.” The salary of St. Catherine was fixed at £150 (or £250 if the vestry wished); for St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, St. Dorothy, Kingston, Vere, and Clarendon, it was £150 (or £200), and for the other parishes (including Port Royal, by reason of its recent disasters) £100 (or £150 if the vestry wished). This system of payment of the rectors by the parishes was continued till late in the eighteenth century, when they were placed on the Island Establishment.

In 1682 Sir Thomas Lynch sent home to the Bishop of London a detailed report of the state of the Church in Jamaica. He says: “At St. Jaga de la Vega the minister is also a Swiss, Mr. Howsyer; he has £140 a year by law, and, since I came, £150. He is a reasonable preacher, a good liver, well esteemed, and very rich. The church is a Spanish church, and the parsonage good. The parish is called St. Catherine’s.”

When, by an Act passed in 1789, burying in churches was prohibited, on penalty of £500 imposed on any rector who permitted it, the rectors received compensation in lieu of fees, the largest amount falling to the rector of Kingston, who received £100 per annum, St. Catherine being next with £70.

As evidence of the relative value of the livings in the island at the time it is interesting to quote from the “Jamaica Magazine” that in November 1814, “The Reverend Alexander Campbell has been translated from the living of Kingston to that of St. Andrew’s, vacant by the death of his father, the reverend John Campbell; the Reverend Isaac Mann to that of Kingston; the Reverend William Vaughan Hamilton from St. Elizabeth’s to St. Catherine’s; and the Reverend William Peat from St. Dorothy’s to St. Elizabeth’s.”

In 1800 Ecclesiastical Commissioners were appointed. But it is evident that they had not been able to effect much by April 1802, when Lady Nugent wrote: “I will conclude my tour through the island with a few remarks. In this country it appears as if everything were bought and sold. Clergymen make no secret of making a traffic of their livings; but General N—— has set his face against such proceedings, and has refused many applications for the purpose. He is determined to do all he can towards the reformation of the Church, and thus rendering it respectable. It is indeed melancholy to see the general disregard of both religion and morality throughout the whole island.”

Matters were much improved when the see of Jamaica, which then included the Bahamas and British Honduras, was formed in 1824; and in 1870, when Disestablishment threw the Church almost entirely on to voluntary resources, it gave to it a new vitality.

Many of the old Baptismal, Marriage and Burial registers are deposited for safe keeping in the Record Office at Spanish Town, where all the old church registers should be, as they would there have a chance of longer life than when exposed to the vicissitudes of local vestries, and would, moreover, be more readily available for research than when scattered throughout the island.

It may be convenient to give here a list of the earliest date of the Baptismal, Marriage and Burial registers for the island, taken from “Sketch Pedigrees of some of the early Settlers in Jamaica. By Noel B. Livingston, Kingston 1909.”

EARLIEST DATE OF PARISH REGISTERS

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.

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. Andrew. A school was consequently incorporated, with a seal, bearing the founder’s arms, but it failed for want of sufficient means, and the land was attached to the rectory. Twelve years afterwards Zacariah Gaulton left £80 per annum to pay a master and £500 to build a schoolhouse, and in 1721 Benjamin Cotman bequeathed his estate for the same purpose.” As a matter of fact Sir Nicholas Lawes’s will is dated August 21, 1730, and the bequest was not to _establish_ a school, but “unto the Governors of the Free School of St. Andrews in the Island of Jamaica for the time being, and in case there be no Governors at that time as the Law directs then to such Governors as the Chancellor or Commander-in-Chief of the said Island shall direct and appoint Governors of the said Free School then I say I give to such Governors of the said Free School and their successors for ever the estate and premisses aforesaid for and towards the maintenance of the Masters Teachers and other Officers of the said Free School the repairing and making new Buildings more fitt and comodious large house or houses on the land at Halfway Tree which I formerly gave for that use finishing and furnishing the same and for and towards the maintenance support education and learning of so many Scholars (native youths of Jamaica) as the said Governors of the said School or the major part of them shall from time to time think fitt to admit to that benefit and the said bequest can support and maintain.”

But this bequest never took effect, for all his children who were living when he made his will—his sons James and Temple and his daughter Judith Maria—survived him.

Roger Elletson, Speaker of the House of Assembly, and Chief Justice, in the year 1690 gave £20 towards the foundation of a school in St. Andrew. Edward Harrison, in 1695, and Charles Delacree, in the succeeding year, each bequeathed £10 per annum for the same purpose. The bequests, however, were allowed to lie dormant until the year 1789, when the principal and interest were estimated at £14,710, no part of which was, however, recovered.

John Mills, in 1711, after several entails, left money to establish a free school in St. Elizabeth, but no such institution ever existed.

In the year 1736, Edward Pennant left £200 for a school and books, in Clarendon; and a school was founded in Old Woman’s Savannah, aided by subscriptions to the amount of £2000. It flourished about the year 1758, when, by some ill-management, it failed; the premises were vested in trustees for sale, and the institution vanished.

By the end of the seventeenth century the need of education for the sons and daughters of the colonists must have become pressing. The plan usually adopted by those who could afford it was to send their children (often the illegitimate as well as the legitimate) home; and so it continued in the main till the end of the following century, and indeed far into the nineteenth. Many a son of Jamaica acquired a good education in England, and not a few graduated at the universities. A manuscript “Catalogue of Men born in the Island of Jamaica who matriculated at Oxford 1689–1885 extracted from Alumni Oxonienses. (To which I have added a few stray names of men connected with the island.) By William Cowper, M.A.,” in the Library of the Institute of Jamaica, contains 268 names of men known to have matriculated at Oxford. Peter Beckford, who matriculated in 1688, and afterwards became lieutenant-governor of Jamaica, is the first on the list which includes other well-known names, such as Garbrand, Dawkins, Nedham, Ellis, Price, Gale, Gregory, Haughton, Morant, Barham, Lawrence, Lewis, Clarke, Barrett, East, Dallas, Dwarris and Scarlett.

A review of the state of education in the middle of the eighteenth century is given by Leslie in his “New History of Jamaica” (1740). He says:

“Learning is here at the lowest Ebb; there is no publick School in the
whole Island, neither do they seem fond of the thing; several large
Donations have been made for such Uses, but have never taken Effect.
The Office of a Teacher is looked upon as contemptible and no
Gentleman keeps Company with one of that Character; to read, write and
cast Accounts, is all the Education they desire, and even these are
but scurvily taught. A Man of any Parts or Learning, that would employ
himself in that Business, would be despised and starve. The Gentlemen
whose Fortunes can allow it, send their Children to _Great Britain_,
where they have the Advantage of a polite generous Education; but
others are spoil’d, and make such an inconsiderable Figure ever after,
that they are the common Butt in every Conversation. Mr. _Beckford_[3]
has lately bequeathed £2000 _sterling_, for a Free-School: It is
doubtful whether this Gentleman’s Intentions will be answered by the
Managers; for by their way of proceeding there is small Appearance
they design to encourage Men of Merit to take upon them such an
Office. Several have lately offered themselves who were every way
qualified for the Undertaking; and some promised themselves Success,
from the good Disposition they perceived in many to encourage their
Design; but after a Trial were of Necessity obliged to quit it. ’Tis
Pity, in a Place like this, where the Means could be so easily
afforded, something of a publick Nature should not be done for the
Advantage of Posterity; but when such a Spirit will appear, is hard to
determine. There are indeed several Gentlemen who are well acquainted
with Learning, in some of its most valuable Branches: but these are
few; and the Generality seem to have a greater Affection for the
moodish Vice of Gaming than the _Belles Lettres_, and love a Pack of
Cards better than the Bible. To talk of a _Homer_, or a _Virgil_, of a
_Tully_, or a _Demosthenes_, is quite unpolite; and it cannot be
otherwise; for a Boy, till the Age of Seven or Eight, diverts himself
with the Negroes, acquires their broken way of talking, their Manners
of Behaviour, and all the Vices which these unthinking Creatures can
teach: Then perhaps he goes to School; but young Master must not be
corrected; if he learns, ’tis well; if not, it can’t be helped. After
a little Knowledge of reading, he goes to the Dancing-school, and
commences Beau, learns the common Topicks of Discourse, and visits and
rakes with his Equals. This is their Method; and how can it be
supposed one of such a Turn can entertain any generous Notions,
distinguish the Beauties of Virtue, act for the Good of his Country,
or appear in any Station of Life, so as to deserve Applause? Some of
the Ladies read, they all dance a great deal, coquet much, dress for
Admirers; and at last, for the most part, run away with the most
insignificant of their humble Servants. Their Education consists
intirely in acquiring these little Arts. ’Tis a thousand Pities they
do not improve their Minds, as well as their Bodies; they would then
be charming Creatures indeed.”

Footnote 3:

Peter Beckford, the grandfather of William Beckford of Fonthill, who
behaved badly with respect to the Drax property.

That the object of those few who, amongst a community indifferent to such matters, wished to benefit education in Jamaica, had been in the main disregarded during the eighteenth century, is evident from a report of a Committee of the Assembly presented in November 1791 by Bryan Edwards, the historian. The Committee had been appointed to “enquire into and prepare an account of the several charities and donations that have been made and devised from time to time, by well disposed persons for the establishment of free-schools in the different parts of this Island, and which have not been carried into effect agreeably to the intention of the donors; and further to report a state of the landed and other real property, funds, and securities for money, which, in the judgment of the Committee, are at this time subject and liable to such donations; and their opinion what steps are proper to be taken for the recovery and establishment thereof for the purposes intended.”

They reported “that the committee, limiting their enquiries to such charities or donations only, in the recovery whereof there appears at this time any visible property to which resort can be had, confine themselves to the several Parishes of St. Ann, St. Andrew, Vere, and Westmoreland: In each of these parishes donations have been made for the purpose in the resolution of the House mentioned; some of which donations have not been carried into full effect, and others have remained wholly unapplied and unaccounted for by the several devisees, executors, purchasers, or possessors, under the original granters or donors of such estates or properties as were specially charged with such donations.”

That matters had not much improved by the beginning of the nineteenth century is evident from “An Account of Jamaica and its Inhabitants,” published in 1808. “Literature,” the author says, “is little cultivated in Jamaica, nor is reading a very favorite amusement. There is a circulating Library in Kingston, and, in one or two other places a paltry attempt at such a thing, these collections of books not being of that choice and miscellaneous nature which they ought to be, but usually composed of a few good novels mixed with a much larger proportion of these ephemeral ones which are daily springing up, and which are a disgrace to literature, and an insult to common sense.”

John Rippingham, the author of “Jamaica considered in its Present State, Political, Financial, and Philosophical” (1817), presented a memorial to the Assembly, setting forth that “there is no establishment provided by this Island for the education of sons of gentlemen, that he had had considerable experience in the higher departments of education, and had published several works upon intellectual improvement, and that he offered his abilities, acquirements, and assiduity to supply the deficiency and craved the aid of the house.” The matter was referred to a Committee and the House agreed, on their report, that they did not consider it expedient to adopt any measure on the subject. Whether the House thought higher education was not necessary or doubted Rippingham’s ability to give it, is not stated.

Bridges, writing in his “Annals,” gives some account of the educational efforts of the past. He reports “no endowments of any kind” in the parishes of Trelawny, Manchester, St. Dorothy (now part of St. Catherine), St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, and St. Thomas-in-the-East or in St. James, although the Legislature had early in the eighteenth century appropriated £1400 per annum for the purpose.

In 1843 the Charity Commissioners of England reported on the schools of Jamaica:

“With this view, then, we may be permitted to observe that almost all the schools in question have been greatly modified by, and that many owe their very existence, or their increased income to, acts of the Legislature. The original bequest to the Jamaica Free School would probably have been lost to that institution, but for the interference of the Legislature, and a great part of its present funds was derived from a grant of the Crown. So at Vere, the Act 2 Geo. 4, c. 19, recites that the school was failing for want of scholars, and its original constitution was accordingly varied, by throwing it open for the reception of children from the adjoining and other parishes. Grants have, from time to time, been made to each of these schools for temporary purposes, _e.g._ repairs, etc., and a permanent rate of interest amounting to no less than 8 per cent. is paid by the Receiver General to both. It is not, therefore, we think, too much to say that the Legislature has thus acquired (even if it did not necessarily possess it) a right to deal with the funds of these institutions, in such manner as it may deem expedient. Least of all can this be denied where the object is not to divert them from, but to apply them more usefully to the great purpose of education, for which they were originally intended. More especially does this remark apply to the Jamaica Free School, which appears by the Act 18, Geo. 3, c. 25, s. 5, to have been expressly intended to fulfil this end, and was even permitted to incorporate with its own funds those of any other charitable institution, which were either unappropriated, or which parties were willing to transfer to it, with a view to carry out this very object.”

Of the condition of education in the middle of the nineteenth century, Gardner, in his “History” (1873), states:

“Another Commission, first appointed in 1843, was also discharging the duty of enquiring into the extent and management of the different charities of the island, and quietly preparing the way for some wholesome reforms. Many painful facts were brought to light relative to the culpable alienation of benevolent bequests from their intended purpose; and other facts equally discreditable, in reference to the mode in which existing charities were managed.”

Robson, in “The Story of our Jamaica Mission” (1894), says:

“In 1855 the Governor, Sir Henry Barkly, in a despatch to the Colonial Secretary, said: ‘By far the most creditable institution in the island is the Presbyterian Academy, principally intended for training young men of the ministry or the scholastic profession. It still held a foremost place and was accomplishing excellent work; there were twenty-four missionary students and fifty-six public scholars in attendance. But the expense to the Home Church, amounting to nearly £500 a year, appeared to call for some more economical scheme.’”

In a chapter in his “History” devoted to “Religion, Education, and Social Progress, from 1839 to 1865,” Gardner makes no reference to Secondary Education, unless the foundation of Calabar College in 1843 for the training of a native Baptist Ministry can be so considered.

In 1865 an Act (28 Vic., c. 23) was passed by which the Government appropriated the sums of money deposited from time to time in the Public Treasury by various charities and institutions at varying rates of interest, and became responsible for the payment of perpetual annuities in lieu thereof, thereby preventing for the future so far as those funds were concerned any of that misapplication alluded to in the reports of the Committee of 1791.

Under that able organizer, Sir John Peter Grant (1866–1874), elementary education was put on a sound basis of encouragement and support; by him was also founded the too ambitious and short-lived College at Spanish Town which aimed at providing a university education for a community that was not yet ready for it.

During the governorship of Sir Anthony Musgrave the needs of Secondary Education—which was defined as being the encouragement of education of a higher grade “among those classes of the community who would value it, if placed within their reach, but whose means do not enable them to send their children to Europe for the purpose of obtaining it”—received full consideration.

By the creation in 1879 of the Jamaica Schools Commission, which exercises over endowed schools in Jamaica the same sort of supervision formerly exercised by the Charity Commissioners in England over English schools, means were afforded for placing the old endowed schools of the island under suitable management. The Jamaica High School was established, the Jamaica Scholarship was started, and the Cambridge Local Examinations were held for the first time in 1882; and later in 1891 the University of London was induced to hold its examinations in the colony.

The Wesleyan Church started their High School at York Castle, in St. Ann, in 1876; and the Institute of Jamaica for the encouragement of Literature, Science and Art was founded by the Government in 1879.

In 1892 a Secondary Education Law (32 of 1892) was passed, empowering the Governor in Privy Council on the recommendation of the Board of Education—a Board formed with the main object of advising on elementary education—to declare any important centre of population to be without adequate provision for secondary education and to establish a school there, to be managed by a local committee of management under the supervision of the Board. A subsequent act of the Legislature transferred the duty of supervision of all such schools from the Board of Education to the Jamaica Schools Commission. In 1911 the secondary schools of the island were first inspected and reported on by an English school inspector.

Taverns must have existed in Jamaica from early times. They are mentioned in the Deficiency law, by which one white hired or indentured servant had to be kept for every tavern or retail shop; and White’s Tavern in Kingston is referred to in the Journals of the Assembly in 1730. That there was a tavern at Dry Harbour in 1769 is evident from a rare view published in that year entitled “Dry Harbour in the Parish of St. Ann’s, Jamaica, taken from the West end of the Tavern, with the Fort and Barracks, now in Ruins.”

But when one considers the large amount of travelling by road that was done in Jamaica in the past, there were, comparatively speaking, few taverns or posting houses, the truth being that planters and even strangers relied in the main on the proverbial hospitality of the inhabitants. Of “the Permanent natives, or Creole men,” Long tells us in his history (written in 1774), “their hospitality is unlimited; they having lodging and entertainment always at the service of transient strangers and travellers; and receive in the most friendly manner those, with whose character and circumstances they are often utterly unacquainted.” And he adds as a footnote: “One obvious proof of this is, that there is scarcely one tolerable inn throughout the whole Island, except at a great distance from any settlement.” He refers to Knockpatrick, now in Manchester, and “two good taverns” at Lacovia in St. Elizabeth. He says: “The Tavern at Knockpatrick (belonging also to Mr. W—stn—y), the next settlement we come to, stands very commodiously, and enjoys a most excellent climate. The English beans, pease, and other culinary vegetables of Europe grow here in most seasons of the year, to the utmost perfection. A gentleman who supped here could not help remarking, that the victuals were literally brought smoaking-hot to table, a phenomenon seldom observed in the low lands, where the air is so much more rarefied.” Elsewhere he states that “Mr. W—stn—y” is said to be a natural son of the late “Duke of L—ds.”

Bryan Edwards in 1806 says: “As Mr. Long has remarked, there is not one tolerable inn throughout all the West Indies.” He then goes on to contrast the general plenty and magnificence of the Jamaica planter’s table and the meanness of their houses and apartments: “it being no uncommon thing to find, at the country habitations of the planters, a splendid sideboard loaded with plate and the choicest wines, a table covered with the finest damask, and a dinner of perhaps sixteen or twenty covers; and all this in a hovel not superior to an English barn.”

Monk Lewis, writing on his visits to the Island in 1816 and 1818, in his “Journal of a West India Proprietor,” alluded to a “solitary tavern called Blackheath” near Claremont, and to a lodging-house in St. Ann’s Bay where he found “an excellent breakfast at an inn quite in the English fashion;” to the “Wellington Hotel” at Rio Bueno in Trelawny; to “Judy James’s” in Montego Bay, in St. James; to “Miss Hetley’s” inn at Yallahs in St.-Thomas-in-the-East; to a “solitary tavern” at Bluefields in Westmoreland, where he met “the handsomest creole that I have ever seen,” Antonietta by name, of Spanish-African parentage; and to “West Tavern,” which must have been somewhere near Ewarton, as it was nineteen miles from Spanish Town on the north road. He also alludes to “The Gutturs” in St. Elizabeth, where they found “everything that travellers could wish.”

Lewis says: “All the inns upon this road [the western half of the north side] are excellent, with the solitary exception of the Blackheath Tavern, which I stopped at by mistake instead of that at Montague [an obvious misprint for Moneague].” While elsewhere he says: “Inns would be bowers of Paradise if they were all rented by mulatto ladies like Judy James.”

A strangely long time was allowed to elapse after the settling of the various islands in the West Indies before printing presses were established. Perhaps some of the governors thought like Berkeley of Virginia, who, in his report to the Lords of Trade in 1671, wrote: “But I thank God, _there are no free schools_, nor _printing_, and I hope we shall not have, these hundred years; for _learning_ has brought disobedience, and heresy and sects into the world, and _printing_ has divulged them, and libels against the best of government. God keep us from both.”

The earliest printing press in America was set up in Mexico before the middle of the sixteenth century.

The first printing press in English Colonies was set up in Massachusetts in 1638. In Jamaica it was established in 1721, sixty-six years after the acquisition of the colony by the British. The first almanac printed in the colonies was produced at Cambridge in 1639. Unfortunately no copy is known to exist: the earliest existing being one issued at Cambridge in 1646 in private possession. Printing was practised at Havanna, in Cuba, as early as 1729, and in Martinique as early as 1727; a Royal printing house was established in St. Domingo in 1750. The “Barbados Gazette,” published weekly, has been called the earliest British West Indian newspaper. Its first issue appeared on May 18, 1731, but Isaiah Thomas, in his “History of Printing,” says that the “Weekly Jamaica Courant” was published at Kingston as early as 1722.

The first Jamaica wall almanac and the earliest piece of Jamaica printing known to be extant dates from 1734, a copy of which is in the Library of the Institute of Jamaica. The earliest Jamaica-printed book known is the “Merchant’s Pocket Companion,” printed in Kingston—be it observed, not in Spanish Town, the then capital of the island—in 1751. The next oldest Jamaica-printed book known is a volume of Love Elegies by Peter Pindar of the year 1773. A copy of each is in the Institute Library. The best known of the early Jamaica newspapers was the “St. Jago de la Vega Gazette.” There may be early volumes of the “St. Jago de la Vega Gazette” (founded in 1756) in existence, but the earliest in the Institute Library bears date 1791, and the earliest of the “Royal Gazette” (founded in 1779) there bears date 1780. The earliest example of a Jamaica newspaper in the Library is an issue of “The St. Jago Intelligencer” of Kingston of the year 1757, possibly the earliest copy of a Jamaica newspaper extant.

In Hickeringill’s “Jamaica View’d,” published in the year 1661, appears what is probably the oldest English map of the island. With the exception of Guanaboa, The Seven Plantations, The Angels, and St. Jago de la Vega, only towns on the sea-board are mentioned in it, and there is no attempt to divide the island into parishes.

In a census taken in 1662 the Island was divided into ten districts, as follows: the Precincts of Port Moranto; Morant; Yealoth; and Legene; the town of Saint Angelo Delvega [St. Jago de la Vega]; Between Black River, Bower Savanna and thereabouts; In the Angles Quarter; In the Seven Plantations, Macaria, Quathebeca; In the Quarters Quanaboa and Quardelena; and Point Caugway.

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.