Chapter XII: Introduction (3)

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.”

JAMAICA
]

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.

Modyford, the governor, wrote home, “The Spaniards wondered much at the sickness of our people, until they knew of the strength of their drinks, but then they wondered more that they were not all dead.” The buccaneers, another writer tells us, “have been known to spend 2000 or 3000 pieces of eight in one night.”

The memory of the wild deeds done by those who put off from Port Royal’s shore is kept alive in the name of =Gallows Point=, where many notorious pirates were, when condemned, hung up, and where the last of those executions, of which one is graphically described by Michael Scott in “Tom Cringle’s Log,” took place in 1831. Rackham, another pirate, was executed on the cay which still bears his name.

The following interesting account of Port Royal is given, in Francis Hanson’s account of Jamaica, written in 1682, appended to the first printed edition of the “Laws of Jamaica”:

The Town of Port Royal, being as it were the Store House or Treasury
of the West Indies, is always like a continual Mart or Fair, where all
sorts of choice Merchandizes are daily imported, not only to furnish
the Island, but vast quantities are thence again transported to supply
the Spaniards, Indians, and other Nations, who in exchange return us
bars and cakes of Gold, wedges and pigs of Silver, Pistoles, Pieces of
Eight and several other Coyns of both Mettles, with store of wrought
Plate, Jewels, rich Pearl Necklaces, and of Pearl unsorted or
undrill’d several Bushels; besides which, we are furnished with the
purest and most fine sorts of Dust Gold from Guiney, by the Negroe
Ships, who first come to Jamaica to deliver their Blacks, and there
usually refit and stay to reload three or four Months; in which time
(though the Companies Gold may be partly sent home) yet the Merchants,
Masters of Ships, and almost every Mariner (having private Cargoes)
take occasion to sell or exchange great quantities; some of which our
Goldsmiths there work up, who being yet but few grow very wealthy, for
almost every House hath a rich Cupboard of Plate, which they
carelessly expose, scarce shutting their doors in the night, being in
no apprehension of Thieves for want of receivers as aforesaid. And
whereas most other Plantations ever did and now do keep their accounts
in Sugar, or the proper Commodities of the place, for want of Money,
it is otherwise in Jamaica, for in Port-Royal there is more plenty of
running Cash (proportionably to the number of its inhabitants) than is
in London....

One of the earliest to bring lustre to the crown of Port Royal was Admiral Myngs, by his capture in 1662 of St. Jago de Cuba, and other naval exploits.

Then came Sir Henry Morgan, the conqueror of Panama, whose deeds of undoubted valour were smirched by cowardly conduct towards priests and defenceless women. In later life he turned respectable, even to the extent of persecuting his former comrades, when he acted as lieutenant-governor. But the old spirit died hard, and we are not surprised when we read that the governor, Lord Vaughan, complained that Morgan made himself “so cheap at the port drinking and gaming at the taverns” that he intended to remove thither himself, from Spanish Town, for the credit of the island. In justice to Morgan’s memory it may be said that some historians hold that Oexmelin’s account of the buccaneers is a libel on Morgan, and that he was not nearly so black as he has been painted: and when we find his methods of warfare, and worse, adopted by a nation that has hitherto claimed to be in the forefront of civilization we are tempted to forgive Morgan much. As admiral of the Jamaica fleet, Morgan at the time commanded twenty-eight English-built ships and eight taken from the French—thirty-six in all, with a tonnage of 1585, the size of a small passenger steamer of to-day.

The Council was sitting at Port Royal on June 7, 1692, when by the ever memorable earthquake of that day many important colonists lost their lives. Houses, said to have been as good as many in the city of London, were destroyed; and the part of the town bordering on the sea entirely disappeared, owing to insecure foundations. A century later remains of these houses were still visible. Lewis Galdy, a French immigrant, was swallowed and cast up again, and lived many years. He will be referred to in the chapter on St. Catherine. The mace brought out by Lord Windsor in 1662 (erroneously supposed to have been the bauble which Cromwell ordered out of the House of Commons), was damaged at the time of the earthquake, and repaired after it; but it has since disappeared. The two maces in the Institute of Jamaica are of later date.

The principal authorities usually quoted on the earthquake of 1692 are Sir Hans Sloane’s account in the “Philosophical Transactions”; the description given by Long, in his History of Jamaica; and a letter by the rector of the parish which appeared in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for 1750, and was reprinted by Bridges—all of which information was epitomized by Gardner in his history.

In addition to these is available a broadside in the British Museum, a copy of which is in the Institute of Jamaica. The key and letter which form part of the broadside appeared in the “Journal of the Institute of Jamaica,” in 1892.

The following accounts of the earthquake have also been printed in the “Journal of the Institute of Jamaica”:

(1) Sir Hans Sloane’s account consisting of (_a_) “An account ...
which I wrote myself being present in it.” (_b_) “Extract from a
letter from one in Jamaica who was in the terrible earthquake.” (_c_)
“Extract of a letter ... giving an account of the sickness that
followed the earthquake.” (_d_) “Part of a letter ... giving a further
account from another hand.” (_e_) “Part of another from the same
hand.” (_f_) “Part of a letter from a gentleman in Jamaica ... not
being present in the earthquake ... very curious.” (2) Notes by Mr.
Maxwell Hall on an article by Colonel A. B. Ellis in “Popular Science
Monthly” for 1892. (3) “A full account of the late dreadful earthquake
at Port Royal in Jamaica written in two letters from the minister of
the place [Dr. Heath],” which is copied incompletely and incorrectly
by Bridges. (4) An account by Mrs. Akers of Nevis, printed in a
“Natural History of Nevis ... by the Rev. Mr. Smith ... 1745.” (5)
“The Truest and Largest account of the earthquake in Jamaica ...
written by a Reverend Divine there to his friend in London ... 1693,”
a copy of which is in the West India Library in the Institute. The
letter is dated “Withy Wood in the parish of Vere,” and it is possible
that the “Reverend Divine” was Thomas Hardwicke, who was appointed
Rector of Vere by the Earl of Carlisle. (6) “A letter to a friend from
Jamaica, Spanish Town, the 29th of June, 1692,” by John Pike, printed
in a pamphlet, a copy of which is in the British Museum.

There were also two letters dated from Port Royal on June 20 and June 28, 1692, given in “Earthquakes explained and Practically Improved ... by Thomas Doolittle, M.A., Jamaica’s Miseries show London Mercies ... London, 1693.”

In addition to all these there is a letter sent home by the Council to the Lords of Plantations, which is given in an abbreviated form in the “Calendar of State Papers (Colonial Series)—America and West Indies—1689–1692.” The following is copied in extenso from the manuscript Council minutes in the Colonial Secretary’s office, Jamaica, a manuscript copy of which is in the Library of the Institute:

A letter from the President and Council of Jamaica to Lords of Trade
and Plantations of the date June 20 from on board the _Richard and
Sarah_, Jamaica. May it please Your Lordships on the seventh instant
it pleased God to afflict this whole island with an earthquake, the
dreadfullness whereof will sensibly enough appear in acquainting Your
Lordships that in the space of two minutes [the “Calendar of State
Papers” has ten] all the churches, the dwelling houses and sugar works
of the whole island were thrown down: two-thirds of Port Royal
swallowed up by sea, all its forts and fortifications demolished and a
great part of its inhabitants miserably either knockt o’th head or
drowned. As we are become by this an instance of God Almighty’s severe
judgment, so we hope we shall be of Your Lordships compassion. We have
in the midst of this confusion applied ourselves with all vigour to
the restoring of things. We have taken into Their Majesties’ service
the _Richard and Sarah_, a merchantship, where though to a great loss
in the neglect of our own private affairs, we sit _de die in diem_ in
Council; protecting the merchants in their fishing on the ruins of
their own houses; preventing robbery and stealing amongst the ruins;
deciding controversies and punishing quarrels too frequently arising
from the uncertain right of things. In sinking floating carcasses,
taking care of the sick and wounded; lastly, in feeding and sustaining
the necessitous which must now be done out of the Country stock, all
kinde of stores being lost in the ruin of Port Royall. We have sett
the masters of ships to the sounding a channell leading further up
into this harbour, where we are like to have a scituation equal to
Port Royall in everything and exceeding it in its being capable of
relieving the country or being on any invasion relieved by it. This
may it please Your Lordships we doe in all humble confidence hoping
Your Lordships will consider us as we are all open and exposed to the
attempts of enemyes by sea as well as by land. At land at this instant
we are contending against a party of French who have been for some
time ravageing the north side of the island, and though we have sent a
proportionable force against them both by sea and land, yet by reason
of the violent rains and earthquakes at land and blowing weather at
sea it has not pleased God as yet to make us able to give much account
of them as we still hope to doe. Among other accidents of the
earthquake, their Majesties ship the _Swan_, which was lying at the
wharves for careening, was suckt among the houses of Port Royall, has
lost her guns, rigging, cables, and anchors, and her keel damaged, and
is on survey cast, and we must inform Your Lordships that could
repeated persuasions or even threats have prevailed on Captain Nevill
to any degree of diligence, the _Swan_ had either been out of harbour
or rid out of danger. Many of the guns of the fortifications are two
fathoms under water, and are in danger of being lost. The small arms
of the country are generally broke by the fall of the houses, which
gives us apprehensions from the slaves. This being the true state of
our condition we must humbly beseech Your Lordships effectually to
intercede with their most gracious Majesties that we may have a
proportionable reliefe in time, and in all humility we think till we
shall be able to fortify it cannot be less than three fifth Rates with
one or two good fourth Rates for a battery, together with four or five
hundred land soldiers and all sorts of arms and ammunition (great shot
excepted), and that Your Lordships would procure us such a Governor
whose generous care and charity may be equall to the needs of this
distressed place, and we humbly take leave to inform Your Lordships
that a tollerable choice may be made from amongst ourselves till, by
the blessing of God and the just and equal administration of the
Government, it may again grow to be fitt reward for greater persons.
We humbly beg that this advice sloop may be speedily returned and the
master and men protected. All which is humbly submitted. We are, may
it please your honours, Your Lordships most humble servants, John
White, P.C., John Bourden, Peter Heywood, Samuell Bernard, John
Towers, Nicholas Laws, Francis Blackmore, Charles Knight, Thomas
Sutton.

Postscript—Since the foregoing their Majesties’ ship _Guernsey_ with
the sloop which we sent out against the French that had landed on the
north side of this island are come into port and have had good
success, having burnt the enemy’s ship and taken and destroyed all the
men both by land and sea, except eighteen which escaped in a sloop.

In all humility we are your Lordships most humble and obedient
servants.

Jamaica. From on board the _Richard and Sarah_, June the 20th, 1692.

The old bell in the Institute of Jamaica, is said to have been sunk originally by the great earthquake, and to have been recovered during some dredging operations off Port Royal. Tradition said that it was given to the old Spanish church at Port Royal, by a convent in Spain, but this is obviously incorrect as the Spaniards had no church, or in fact, any building at the Point. It is, of course, possible that the early English settlers took it from the ruins of some Spanish Town church, for use in the church they built at the Point, or it may have been taken to Port Royal at a later date. In any case it is curious that the only Spanish bell known in Jamaica should have been discovered at Port Royal and not at Spanish Town or at St. Ann’s Bay, where the first Spanish settlement stood.

SPANISH CHURCH BELL
]

Either in the ordinary course of events by the continual beating of the clapper, or through a flaw in the metal, or through its fall at the time of the earthquake or at some other time, the bell was cracked; but after its recovery the crack was stayed by a drill hole, and the bell is said to have been hung in the new church which had been built at Port Royal in 1725.

In 1855, as the crack had extended in two directions and rendered the bell useless, the “whitewash and plaster” churchwardens of the day sold it for old metal. During the administration of Sir John Peter Grant it was pointed out to the Government that it was lying in an old curiosity shop in Kingston, in imminent danger of being melted down; and it was purchased by the Government and deposited at the Ordnance Wharf, whence it found its way to the Institute of Jamaica. It is 2 feet 1¾ inch in height and 6 feet 7 inches in circumference at the base. Round the edge runs the following inscription:

_Ihesv Maria et Verbum Caro Factum Est et Abita_.

In the Vulgate, the 14th verse of the 1st chapter of St. John’s Epistle commences thus: “_Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis_.”

The bell also bears a cross made of a series of stars, and two small designs in relief placed in duplicate on opposite sides, representing the one the Virgin and Child, and the other, a saint, probably St. George or St. Michael.

The bell, in the opinion of an expert to whom a photograph was sent, is certainly Spanish; the cross and letter are from fifteenth-century moulds, but the small designs are later, probably sixteenth century. In casting, old moulds were frequently used. The cross is decidedly Spanish.

In September 1692, the Council wrote home, “Port Royal which was our chief stay and where we could muster two thousand effective men is, since the earthquake, reduced to about two hundred men.”

The old plan of Port Royal which was reproduced on page 442 of the “West India Committee Circular” of September 23, 1913, was formerly in the Dockyard there, having been presented to that office by Commodore the Hon. W. J. Ward, in August 1880. It was handed over to the Institute of Jamaica by the last commodore after the dockyard was given up. It is obviously a copy of an older plan in the Colonial Secretary’s office. In mistake it is stated on it that the original plan was surveyed in June 1857. It should have been 1827.

The wording on the original plan is as follows: “A general plan of the town, forts and fortifications, etc., of Port Royal, performed by an order from His Grace William, Duke of Manchester, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Island of Jamaica and the territories thereon depending in America, Chancellor and Vice-Admiral of the same. Surveyed in June 1827 by Philip A. Morris, Crown Surveyor.”

On the original plan are the following notes: “All within the yellow lines is Crown property.” “The blue lines represent the town of Port Royal before the great earthquake of 1692.” “The red line is what remained of the town after the earthquake.” “The ochre colouring represents the town as it now stands.” “True copy from Morris, original Survey. The blue, red and yellow lines added by me.” (Signed) Thos. Harrison, Govt. Surveyor, 20th September, 1870; (Signed) J. R. Mann, D. of Rds. and Surveyor-General, 24th October, 1870.

The following interesting experience of a diver during his visit to submerged Port Royal, appeared in the “Falmouth Post,” of October 7, 1859.

SIR,—Being aware that many erroneous statements regarding my
explorations of old Port Royal have been circulated, I beg to offer
the public, through the medium of your valuable journal, the following
statement, should you deem it worthy a place in your columns.

I first went down on the remains of the old Port Royal on the 29th
August, and found that what I had heard with regard to some of the
buildings being seen when the water was clear was correct. I landed
among the remains of ten or more houses, the walls of which were from
3 to 10 feet above the sand. The day was rather cloudy and I could
only get a view of a small portion at a time.

After repairing H.M. Ship _Valorous_, I went down again on the 9th
instant, at what is called at Port Royal, “The Church Buoy,” but which
ought to be called the “Fort Buoy,” it being placed on the remains of
old Fort James; but the day was unfavourable, the water being muddy—so
that I could not see much; and being impressed with the idea that it
must have been the remains of the church on which I was, my
explorations that day were not satisfactory. About 12 o’clock (being
then down four hours) the water cleared a little, and getting a better
view I concluded that the ruins which I was on must have been those of
a fort. But soon after I found a large granite stone somewhat the
shape and size of a tombstone, which was covered with a coral
formation, so that I could not tell whether it had an inscription or
not. Fancying this stone to have been a tombstone, thereby indicating
the vicinity of a churchyard, I was not satisfied what the character
of the building could have been. I came to the surface about 1 o’clock
determined to wait a more favourable day. In the meantime Mr. de Pass
was so good as to obtain for me, from the collection of Henry
Hutchings, Esq., a map of the old town as it stood before the
earthquake, by which I learnt that the ruins, of the nature of which I
had all along my doubts, were in fact the ruins of old Fort James, and
that the Church stood about the east end of the present dockyard.

Monday, the 19th instant, being a very clear day, I went down about 2
o’clock, and had a very good view of the Fort. At times I could see
objects 100 feet each away from me. The Fort forms an obtuse angle to
the west, on a line with the north end of the hospital—the wall of the
angle runs in a N.E. direction, the other in a S.S.E. The walls are
built of brick, and are as solid as so much rock. I have traced and
examined several of the embrasures and have no doubt but that the guns
in them are covered with coral; that known as “brain stone,” being
large and numerous on the fort. After being down about two hours, I
found an iron gun in one of the embrasures almost covered in the
ruins, with a heavy copper chain to the breech. After sending up the
gun next day, I found the end of another chain not far from where the
gun lay. On heaving it out of the sand and mud, I found it was
attached to a granite stone similar to the one I had seen before. I
have no doubt these stones were part of the embrasures and that the
copper chains were used for slinging the guns. The gun which I found
had no trunnions to it, and therefore could not have been used on a
carriage.

I am of opinion, from what I have seen of old Port Royal, that many of
the houses remained perfect after the earthquake, though sunk in the
water, and that the sand has been thrown up, and the mud settled
around and in them from time to time, until all the largest buildings
are covered over, so that the remains of the houses which I have seen
may have been the top part of the highest buildings; which is
apparently the case from the irregularity of the heights.

I intend paying another visit to the ill-fated town, in a week or two;
and I will take the first opportunity of informing you, and through
you the public, of anything new that may come to my notice.

I remain, Sir, &c.,
(Sgd.) JEREMIAH D. MURPHY.

It would be interesting to know what became of the gun referred to.

Port Royal as a town, never recovered from the effects of the earthquake of June 17, 1692.

Shortly after, the town of Kingston rose on the mainland across the harbour, and thither much of the wealth of Port Royal went, and the principal commercial and shipping street was not unnaturally called Port Royal Street.

In August 1702, brave old Benbow sailed into Port Royal after his fight with Du Casse off Santa Marta, extending over five days (a fight which, thanks to his cowardly captains, was one of the darkest blots on Britannia’s shield) only to die here of his wounds two months later.... He was buried in Kingston parish church.

In 1703 arrived from Massachusetts one good foot company of volunteers, “the first men in armes that ever went out of this Province, or from the Shoar of America”: they were intended for a further expedition.

In January 1703–04, a fire destroyed that part of Port Royal which the earthquake had spared. The occurrence is thus described by Christian Lilly: “Between 11 and 12 of the clock in the morning a fire hapn’d thro carelessness to break out in a warehouse at Port Royall which before night consumed all ye Town, and left not one house of it standing, by which meanes a great many people, especially merchants are ruin’d. For this Town being scituated upon a small Cay, now, of about Thirty Acres of Land surrounded with the sea, and the whole place taken up with houses and the streets and lanes extreamly narrow, the poor people had not that conveniency of saving their goods as might have been expected in a place where they might have been more at large.”

In 1708, Admiral Sir Charles Wager, commander-in-chief of Jamaica, met and conquered a Spanish treasure ship, and though, owing to the cowardice of two of his captains, much of the treasure (said to have been worth from four to ten millions) was lost, Wager became a wealthy man. During his command (1707–9), a greater number of prizes were taken than at any former period of like duration.

On March 23, 1692–93, Beeston, in writing home, had said: “But there is little of Port Royal left, being now a perfect island of about twenty-five acres and too small to hold the trade and people.” After the fire a bill was passed in the Assembly to prevent the re-settling of the town, but this was warmly opposed and in October 1703 another bill was passed entitled “an Act for making the Key, whereon Fort Charles and Fort William are erected, a port of entry”; and in a letter written from Jamaica in 1712, Port Royal is referred to as a “small island about fourteen miles from Spanish Town”: In 1716, William Wood, in his preface to “The Laws of Jamaica” says, “The Town of Port Royal, formerly much larger and very populous, is built on a key, which before the great earthquake, joyned to an Isthmus of Land that divides the sea and the Harbour of Kingston,” and there is additional evidence that, at various stages in the history of the Palisadoes, channels were formed by the sea across what is, after all, nothing but a string of islands more or less closely connected by drifted sand and stone. And an engraving, in Long’s History, as late as 1774, shows it as an island.

A manuscript chart, in the Institute of Jamaica, entitled “A plan of the Harbour of Port Royal in Jamaica, survey’d in the year 1724, and carefully examin’d in the year 1728, by Capt. John Gascoigne,” tells of the severe shocks which the town and harbour have received within historic times. As we see by the map, the hurricane of 1722 once more cut it off from the isthmus to which it is now connected, if, indeed, the passage existing ten years before had silted up.

Professor Robert T. Hill, in “The Geology and Physical Geography of Jamaica,” writes:

The Kingston formation is the oldest of the formations of old gravel
and other alluvium occurring upon the plains of the Liguanea type.
This is the formation upon which the city of Kingston and suburbs are
built, including the strip of land known as the Palisades, and the
plain extending back of Kingston to the foot of the mountains. The
material consists of boulders, gravel, and pebble of varying sizes,
usually very angular, and representing every known material of the
Blue Mountain series. These are embedded in a matrix of dull red
arenaceous clay, producing a chocolate soil and derived from the Minho
beds so completely exposed _in situ_ in the mountains north of
Kingston.

With reference to the chart, Mr. Charlton Thompson, R.N., the harbour master, wrote in 1907 as follows:

“I have always been of opinion that the Palisadoes were originally
coral cays joined gradually by sand-spits. To my knowledge of Port
Royal Point (thirty-one years), I am sure it had grown out about 50
feet during that time, which portion sank during the last earthquake;
and the depressions or subsidences which took place then were all
made-up land. There were also subsidences in the Palisadoes.”

The following account of the hurricane of 1722 above referred to is from “A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West Indies; in His Majesty’s ships the _Swallow_ and _Weymouth_” by John Atkins, a naval surgeon (2nd edition, London, 1737).