Chapter D: O. M (4)

The records of the parish church of Kingston extant unfortunately only go as far back as the year 1722, the date of the first “Christening” recorded. The marriages at that time were by licence, or _Bannis tribus vicibus promulgatis_. By recent legislation one calling of the banns is sufficient. It is curious to note the large number of widows amongst the brides and of mariners amongst the bridegrooms. One of the best kept registers is that of baptisms, commenced in 1785 by the Rev. Thomas Rees. The first entry is:

Joseph Fennell Brookbank, the son of Mary Fennell, a free mulatto
woman, by George Brookbank, was born April 12, 1779, Bapt. Jany. 1,
1785.

The next entry, _more Jamaicense_, records the baptism of “Jamima Beaumont, the daughter of Mary Fennell, by James Beaumont.” Two out of the first seven entries in this register are of children of married women, which unfortunately would not be, according to the Registrar-General’s returns, a bad record even for to-day. On Christmas Day, 1786, the rector baptized twelve of his own slaves _en bloc_.

Those who were baptized are described as black, or negro; mulatto; sambo; quadroon; mestee, or mustee; brown; of colour; Indian (these were probably from the Mosquito Coast); and slave, or property of; and free. The old African names of Quashie, Quasheba and the like were replaced by ordinary Christian names, with a partiality for Biblical ones, with here and there a classic designation. The names on one page, taken at random, of the register for 1797 are: John, Sarah, Richard, Lucretia, Susanna, Margaret, Hannah, Jeremiah, James, William, Edward, Cilly (_sic_), Juno, Mary, Eleanor, Joseph. These, in the main, simple names are preferable to the Thomasina, Justina, Rosina, and so on, affected to-day.

In 1745 Cornelius Lilly, “of the parish of Kingston, mariner,” was married to Jane Macky of the same parish. One wonders whether he was a relation of Colonel Christian Lilly who had laid out the town. The first burial recorded is under date March 27, 1741, “Ralph Greathead, belonging to the _Sheldon_, Capt. Read, Command.” The ship _Sheldon_ possibly belonged to the owner of Sheldon, a property in the Blue Mountains. The baptism in 1797 of “Dorothy Morgan Mahony, a negro woman slave of Thomas Mahony, aged forty years,” recalls Dolly Mahony’s Gap in the St. Andrew Mountains.

The following particulars of the baptisms solemnised in the parish church in the year 1828 may be of interest:

White 10
Coloured 164
Black 54
No memo made of colour 53
——— 281
Slaves—Coloured 40
Black 276
——— 316
———
597

From its position of principal church in the chief town of the island, Kingston parish church is frequently chosen for the holding of state and other important services rather than the cathedral of Spanish Town, which now finds itself left by the stream of time in a civic backwater.

With the exception of the cathedral at Spanish Town more celebrated personages have been buried within the walls of Kingston parish church than in those of any other church in the island.

Of the memorials, the most interesting is the tomb of Benbow, of dark blue slate, in the chancel, the inscription on which is curiously inaccurate. He was not, we learn in his life in the “Dictionary of National Biography,” an admiral of the white, but vice-admiral of the blue. He was not fifty-one years old at his death, but forty-nine; and the arms carved on it are not his. The arms are: Palewise, two bent bows between two sheaves of arrows; the crest, on an esquire’s helmet, a harpy. The following is the inscription:

Here Lyeth Interred the Body of John Benbow Esq: Admiral of the White:
a true Pattern of English Courage who Lost his life In Defence of his
Queene & Country, November ye 4th 1702 In the 52nd year of his age by
a wound In his Legg, Receeiu’d In an Engagement with Monsr. du Casse,
Being Much Lamented.

Of the monuments, there are only four of artistic merit—three by John Bacon, all similar in style, figures carved in high relief against a pyramidal background of marble; and one without the sculptor’s name, in the north wall of the inner north transept, to Edward Maiming. It consists of a bust in mezzo-relievo. If executed shortly after Manning’s death in 1756, it is too early for a work by Bacon. It is a good example of English sculpture of that time, and it is possibly by Roubiliac, by whom there is a monument of the year 1754 to Lieutenant Stapleton in Port Royal church, or more probably by John Cheere (brother of Sir Henry Cheere, Roubiliac’s instructor for some time), by whom there is a monument of the year 1733 to the Hon. James Lawes (eldest son of Sir Nicholas Lawes) in Halfway-Tree church. Cheere’s work resembles more closely the Manning bust than does that of the more florid Roubiliac. As was the case with Bacon, one commission for Jamaica sometimes led to others. The arms on the Manning monument are wrongly blazoned in Lawrence-Archer’s “Monumental Inscriptions of the British Indies.” They are: Gules, a cross fleurie [not moline] or between four [not three] trefoils slipped or.

Of the monuments by Bacon, that to Malcolm Laing and his wife (1794) represents a female figure seated, emblematic of grief; the phœnix, of which Bacon was fond, is introduced in the background.

The monument to Dr. Fortunatus Dwarris, member of the House of Assembly for St. George (which is now merged in Portland), and his stepdaughter (1792), represents a recumbent female figure resting on an urn, gazing at an angel conducting the soul of the departed upwards. In it the poetry on the urn descriptive of the scene represented is hardly equal to Bacon’s art:

Ascend to Bliss ye gentle Spirits
Where yon Angel soars above:
Their Virtue her Reward Inherits
Crowne’d with Heav’n’s eternal love.

Sir Fortunatus William Lilley Dwarris (d. 1860), the lawyer and antiquary, eldest son of William Dwarris, of Warwick, England, and Golden Grove, Jamaica, of which he was a native, was a member of the same family.

The monument to John Wolmer (1789) is on the west wall of the outer north aisle. Of the three monuments by Bacon this is the best. Erected just sixty years after Wolmer’s death, it represents a seated figure of Liberality, carved in high relief, holding a medallion, on which the crest of the school, the sun of Learning breaking through a cloud of Ignorance, is represented. On the supporting brackets are scholastic emblems—a quill pen, a book, parchment, scientific instruments and the like.

Besides the three monuments in this church already mentioned, there is another monument to Mary, daughter of Dawkins Carr (who died in 1798). It is in the usual pyramidal form, and represents a classic urn on a pedestal. It is signed “J. Bacon, sct., London, 1799,” and must have been one of the last works sent out of his studio in his lifetime, for he died in that year.

Some monuments make one wish that the admirers of the worthies represented had followed the Erewhonian plan of paying the sculptor on condition that he did not make the statue, letting into the pavement a small inscription where it would have stood, as was the case in that delectable country. The tribute of respect would have been paid to the deceased, and the rest of the public would have suffered no inconvenience.

Other tombs of interest in the church are those to Smart Pennant (wife of the rector, William May), who “was kill’d in ye 23rd year of her age by ye fall of an house in ye great storm, August ye 28th, A.D. 1722” (when her husband’s leg was also broken; he was commissary to the Bishop of London); to Susanna, wife of Colonel William Gordon (d. 1731), of the family which gave its name to Gordon Town; to Captain Charles Brown (d. 1747), who is evidently the Commodore Brown who was described in a pamphlet published in 1740 as living in Kingston, “and entertain’d the gentlemen and Ladies about Ligunea once a fortnight with an Assembly”; to Captain Samuel Phillips (died in 1757, aged 54), who, as the inscription tells us, “Commanded the _Alexander_, Private Ship of War, out of Bristoll, and Cut His Majesties Ship _Solebay_ out of St. Martin’s Road the 10th of April, 1746, for which he had the honour to kis His Majesties hand and Received a Gold Medal and Chain. _Alexander_ 140 Men and _Solebay_ 220 men”; to John Jaques (d. 1815), first mayor of Kingston; to Hon. George Kinghorne (1823), custos of Kingston; to Hon. Joseph Barnes (d. 1829), mayor and custos of Kingston, whose memory lives in Barnes Gully; to Virginia Fairfax, wife of Peter Alexander Espeut, and daughter of Colonel Robert Munroe Harrison, consul-general of the United States of America for Jamaica; to Lieut.-Colonel Sir Alexander Leith, Bt.; to William James Stevenson, receiver-general; to Ebenezer Reid (d. 1843), headmaster of Wolmer’s school for twenty-eight years (the monument was erected by his pupils); to William Augustus Hunt (d. 1852), another headmaster of Wolmer’s school, a member of the family of Barbadian Hunts of which Leigh Hunt was one; to Bartholomew Owen Williams (d. 1830), founder of the Sussex Lodge of Freemasons; to Colonel Hill (d. 1819), who took part in the engagements of Vimiera and Vittoria; and to Dr. Edward Nathaniel Bancroft (d. 1842), deputy inspector-general of Army Hospitals.

Of tombs of special biographical interest are those of Benbow, Rowley and Brown, sailors; May, Mann and Humberstone, clergymen; Campbell, an author; Higson, a botanist; Wolmer, a philanthropist; and Manning, Lawrence, Mitchell and Jordan, politicians.

At the principal entrance to the north transept was a large dark blue slate slab, foot-worn, but without an inscription.

“The story is,” says Lawrence-Archer, “that it is turned on its face, to conceal the epitaph of an early Rector of the parish, who was hanged for coining counterfeit doubloons in the vestry. It is said he was discovered in consequence of having issued one from his mint before it was quite cold. The story is most improbable.” In 1885 the slab was raised and turned, when it was found to be to the memory of James Ramadge, a merchant of Kingston, who died in 1755, aged thirty-three years. Why it had ever been placed face downwards is not known. But that there is some reason for the legend is proved by a reference to the “St. Jago de la Vega Gazette” for December 19, 1801, where we read:

A number of counterfeit Doubloons and Eight-Dollar pieces are now in
circulation. The inscription on the face is Carol’s 3d., date 1761.
The face does not by any means resemble any effigy given of him or any
coins issued by Spanish Government during his reign. It is a perfect
copy of the head of Ferdinand the 6th, which appears on the doubloons
issued by him ten years before the accession of Charles the 3rd to the
throne. The pieces now in circulation are said to have been coined by
a Reverend Mr. Smith, who suffered for the crime many years ago on the
Kingston Parade.

Can this have been the Hadden Smith who was curate of Kingston parish church in 1766?

The death of Peter Wagstaffe (who died in 1759) was curiously enough recorded on two tombstones, both lying in the north aisle.

In the churchyard are three interesting tombstones, those of Janet Scott, sister to Michael Scott (the author of the well-known “Tom Cringle’s Log”), who was two years her brother’s senior, and evidently came out with him and his bride in 1818, when he returned from Glasgow to Jamaica; to Robert Bogle, his brother-in-law, of the firm of Bogle, Harris & Co., of Glasgow; and to Robert Hamilton, who was planting attorney to Sir Edward Hyde East, the owner of Maryland, on which stands Raymond Hall, where “Tom Cringle’s Log” was written. Hamilton was a friend of Scott’s, and was portrayed as Aaron Bang in the Log. The Scotts and the Bogles were evidently old friends. A “Jennet Scott, the daughter of Robert Bogle and Margaret his wife,” was baptized on April 5, 1793. She was probably a sister of the Robert Bogle who was Scott’s brother-in-law. The following are the inscriptions on the three tombs:

Here lies Interr’d the remains of Mr. Robert Bogle, third son of
Robert Bogle, Esqr., Merchant, Glasgow, formerly of this city Merchant
who departed this life on 21st December 1819 aged 18 years.

Miss Janet Scott, fourth Daughter of Allan Scott, Esq., of Glasgow,
departed this life on the 4th January 1819 aged 32 years.

In memory of Robert Hamilton, Esq., of the Parish of St. Andrews, who
departed this life on the 30th day of October 1826, aged 68 years. His
unbounded Hospitality and goodness of heart endeared him to all who
knew him and his worth and amiable qualities will long live in the
remembrance of his Family who pay this last tribute due to the Memory
of a revered Father.

The Hamilton tomb is close to the south door. The Scott and Bogle tombs are side by side further south.

It is possible that the name of Murray Crymble, who was receiver-general in the middle of the eighteenth century, may have suggested to Scott the somewhat curious name of the hero of his novel. Crymble patented land in Grand Cayman in 1741.

Copies of the inscriptions on all the tombs both in church and churchyard up to the year 1875 will be found in Lawrence-Archer’s “Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies” (London, 1875); but many of the tombs mentioned by him as being in the churchyard were, at the enlargement of the church in 1883–85, placed on the floor of the side aisles. During the recent reconstruction of the church, many changes have taken place in the monuments and tombstones.

The following brief biographical notes on some of the principal persons buried in the church and churchyard may have some interest:

WILLIAM HALL, youngest son of Edmund Hall, of Greatford Hall,
Lincolnshire, was born in Lincolnshire in 1656, and was for a time
British Consul at Bilbao. In 1687 he accompanied the Duke of
Albemarle, as his secretary, when he came out as Governor to
Jamaica. In the following year he married Elizabeth, daughter of
William Wyatt. He was member of the Assembly for St. Andrew from
1695 till his death, which took place in 1699.

VICE-ADMIRAL JOHN BENBOW, the son of a tanner, was born at Shrewsbury
in 1653. In 1678 he entered the navy, and served in the
Mediterranean, where he did good service against the Algerine
corsairs. In 1686 he appears to have owned a ship in the Levant
trade. In 1689 he re-entered the navy, and became master attendant
at Chatham Dockyard and at Deptford. In 1690–92 he acted as Master
of the Fleet; he was present at the engagements of Beachy Head,
Barfleur and La Hogue. In 1693–94 he commanded a flotilla of bomb
vessels against the French; and, though only a captain, received the
pay of rear-admiral, which rank he acquired in 1695; and in 1697 he
became Commander-in-Chief of the King’s ships in the West Indies,
with especial orders to hunt down the pirates. The help which he
rendered to the Scotch colony in Darien was not acceptable to the
English government. In 1700 he returned to England, but in the
following year he was back in the West Indies, and in 1702 he was
stationed at Jamaica. From August 19 to the 24th of that year took
place his engagement off Santa Martha with Du Casse, _chef
d’éscadre_ in the French navy, and a former governor of San Domingo,
which has been called “the most disgraceful event in our naval
records.” Owing to the cowardice displayed by some of his captains,
Benbow had to abandon pursuit. He court-martialled his captains, of
whom two were shot, one cashiered and two suspended. Benbow died of
his wounds at Port Royal on November 4, 1702.

JOHN WOLMER, was a goldsmith, to whose benefaction the town of
Kingston has for nearly two centuries been indebted for the
excellent school bearing his name. Of his life little is known. On
July 11, 1705, he married at Halfway Tree Mary Elizabeth Lumbard.
From the name of one of the executors of his will (Samuel Kemer
Main), as well as from his own, it is possible that he was of German
or Swiss extraction. By his will, dated May 21, 1729, he devised,
after some small legacies mentioned therein, the rest and residue of
his estate for the foundation of a Free School in the parish in
which he should happen to die. This amounted to about £2360. He died
on June 29, 1729, at Kingston, where he had resided for upwards of
twenty years. In 1820 Wolmer’s Pen, adjoining Camp, was purchased by
the authorities in order to secure a better water-supply for Camp.
Although a bill was brought into the House of Assembly to give
effect to the will in June 1731, and the matter was again revived in
1734, it was not till 1736, and then after many amendments and
conferences between the Assembly and the Council, that a law was
passed and the Trust put upon a firm basis. The marble to his memory
in the church was erected “as a monument of public gratitude,” sixty
years after his death.

HON. EDWARD PRATTER, who died in 1735, aged 52, was member of the
Assembly for Hanover in 1723–24 (he and John Morant being the first
members for that parish) and for Kingston in 1726–27, 1731, and
1732–33. He was receiver-general, and also agent in Jamaica for the
South Sea Company. Kingston Gardens, in Kingston, was formerly known
as Pratter Pond.

REV. WILLIAM MAY, born at Ash, in Kent, in 1695, was educated at St.
John’s College, Cambridge, was commissary of Jamaica, and for
thirty-two years rector of Kingston. He died in January 1753–54. His
first wife was Smart Mary, daughter of Edward Pennant, of Clarendon,
widow of Thomas Peters, member for Clarendon; his second wife was
Bathusa, daughter of Florentius Vassall, of St. Elizabeth. His only
surviving son, Rose Herring May, was a member of the Council and
custos of Clarendon and Vere.

EDWARD MANNING, who died in 1756, aged 46, was a member of the House
of Assembly for Kingston in 1744, 1745–46, 1749 and 1752; and for
Portland in 1754–55, in which year he was chosen speaker. He and his
partner, James Ord (who also represented Kingston in the Assembly),
were considered the principal merchants of the island in their day.
In 1756 Manning was made a member of the Council. He was also custos
of Kingston. His wife was Elizabeth, the only sister of Henry Moore,
lieutenant-governor of Jamaica from 1756 to 1762, when he was
created a baronet; he became governor of New York in 1765. Moore’s
wife, Catherine Long (sister of the historian), gave her name to
Catherine’s Peak, the highest point in St. Andrew, as she was the
first lady to ascend it in 1760. Manning’s marriage with Elizabeth
Moore was, after the taking of evidence, dissolved in 1739 by an Act
of the legislature of the island, the co-respondent being Ballard
Beckford (a member of the House of Assembly and a relation of the
famous author of “Vathek”). This was the only Divorce Act ever
passed in Jamaica, the Assembly being told they were not to pursue
the same course again. The inscription on Manning’s monument is
given below, as only an abbreviation is given by Lawrence-Archer:

Near this monument
Lies interred the Body of Edward Manning, Esq.
One of the Honourable Privy Council
Speaker of the Assembly
And Custos Rotulorum of this Parish
In which Stations he distinguished himself.

A true patriot to his country, in Private life he was remarkable for
Filial Duty Steady Friendship and kind Benevolence to the Distressed
which with his affable Disposition gained him the

Esteem of all who had the Pleasure of knowing him.

He died greatly lamented December 6th 1756 aged 46 years.

COLONEL JAMES LAWRENCE, the third son of John Lawrence and Susanna
Petgrave, belonged to a family which was amongst the earliest and
most extensive landed proprietors in the parish of St. James. In
1739 they owned four out of eight sugar estates in the parish. It is
said, possibly without reason, that they were descended from Henry
Lawrence, President of Cromwell’s Council, to whose son Milton
addressed the sonnet, “Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son.”
John Lawrence emigrated to Barbados, coming on to Jamaica about
1675. James Lawrence was his grandson. In 1736 he commanded, as
captain, a party raised in St. James and St. Ann to suppress
rebellious negroes; the House of Assembly voting to “each white
shot, twenty shillings; each black shot, ten shillings; and each
baggage-negro, five shillings,” as a further encouragement to the
party. He subsequently became colonel of the St. James regiment. He
represented the parish of St. James in the three Assemblies which
were held in Kingston (the only Assemblies ever convened in that
town), which met on October 21, 1754, on January 20 and on April 8,
1755, when he supported the governor, Admiral Charles Knowles, in
his scheme for the transference of the legislature, courts and
public offices from Spanish Town to Kingston. Party feeling ran
high. Many of the Spanish Town party rendered the formation of a
quorum difficult by withdrawing themselves from meetings—the two
Prices, Roger Hope Elletson, William Nedham, Thomas Beach and
others, and refused to obey the summons of the Speaker for their
attendance. For this seventeen members were expelled the House, but
all but two were re-elected by their constituencies. The House sat
usually in the court house, but once it met at Wolmer’s school house
and at Hibbert house (the present Headquarters house, where the
legislative council now sits), and sometimes at Dr. Clarke’s house.
In 1755 Lawrence was made custos rotulorum of the parish of St.
James, and in that year he erected the square in Montego Bay, which
he called Charles Square, in honour of his friend and patron, the
governor. His wife, Mary, was daughter of Colonel Richard James, of
Hanover, who was the first child born of English parents in Jamaica.
Lawrence died at Kingston in 1756, aged forty-six. Lawrence-Archer’s
statement to the effect that “he was buried there 16th June” is made
in error to appear as though it was part of the inscription.

ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, who died at Kingston on December 16, 1780, in the
fifty-fourth year of his age, was the son of a divine of Edinburgh
of the same name. A classical scholar, he all his lifetime dabbled
in books; but he became purser of a man-of-war and led a wandering
and unsettled life. In 1745 William Falconer (author of the
“Shipwreck”), who was serving on the same ship, became his servant.
About 1760, on a long voyage, Campbell read the “Rambler,” and soon
afterwards at Pensacola wrote “Lexiphanes” and the “Sale of
Authors.” The former, a dialogue in imitation of Lucian, was
published in order to cast ridicule on Dr. Johnson’s style. Issued
anonymously in 1767, it was attributed by Sir John Hawkins to Dr.
Kenrick. It is not known when or why Campbell came to Jamaica.

RICHARD CARGILL, colonel of the St. Thomas Regiment of Foot Militia,
and member for that parish of the House of Assembly, died in 1781,
aged thirty-seven years. The first reference to the Cargill family
in Jamaica is to “one Cargill,” who is believed to have slain in a
duel Thomas, son of Colonel Peter Beckford, in 1731.

THOMAS HIGSON, a merchant of Kingston, who was born in 1773, succeeded
Macfadyen as island botanist and curator of the Gardens at Bath in
1828, which post he held till 1832. He presented to the garden a
collection of living plants collected by himself in South America.
He died in Kingston in 1836, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.

VICE-ADMIRAL BARTHOLOMEW SAMUEL ROWLEY was the second son of
Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley. He was commander-in-chief at Jamaica
from 1809 till 1811, when he died on October 7, aged forty-seven
years. He was buried in the churchyard. A monument to him is over
the west door.

REAR-ADMIRAL WILLIAM BROWN was a member of an old Leicestershire
family. He was made a lieutenant in the Navy in 1788, a commander in
1792, and was raised to post rank in the next year. In 1794 he
served in the Channel under Lord Howe. In 1805 he took part in the
engagement off Cape Finisterre. He missed being present at Trafalgar
by going home to give evidence at Calder’s court-martial. He was
afterwards commissioner of the dockyards at Malta and at Sheerness.
He attained flag rank in 1812. He was commander-in-chief at Jamaica
in 1813–14. He died on September 20 in the latter year, after an
illness of five days. He is buried in the churchyard.

REV. FRANCIS HUMBERSTONE was born at Ampthill, Bedfordshire, in 1791,
and was trained at Newport-Pagnell college. He came to Jamaica in
1818 as curate of the parish of Kingston, and was appointed chaplain
to the Corporation of that town in the following year, at a salary
of £420 per annum, and chaplain to the 61st Regiment. He died on
August 9 in the same year after only nine months’ residence in the
island, in which time he made a reputation as a very fervent and
fearless preacher; preaching especially on behalf of the slaves. The
tablet to his memory was erected by the Corporation, which also paid
£210 to his widow.

REV. ISAAC MANN, M.A., was rector of Kingston from 1813 to 1828. He
was chaplain of the Provincial Grand Lodge, and Past Master of the
Sussex Lodge, No. 8, in Kingston. He died in 1828, aged fifty-one. A
monument was erected to his memory in the churchyard by the Brethren
of these Lodges.

DR. EDWARD NATHANIEL BANCROFT was born in London in 1772. He graduated
bachelor of medicine at Cambridge in 1794, and was in the following
year appointed physician to the Forces. In 1804 he took his degree
as M.D., and commenced to practise in London. He became a Fellow of
the Royal College of Physicians. In 1811 he gave up practice in
London and resumed his duties as physician of the Forces, and came
to Jamaica, where he resided till his death in Kingston in 1842,
when he held the post of deputy inspector-general of Army hospitals.
The mural tablet was erected to his memory “by the Physicians and
Surgeons of Jamaica.” One of his earliest writings was due to
conflict with his brother army medical officers—“Exposure of
misrepresentations by Dr. McGrigor and Dr. Jackson to the
Commissioners of Military Enquiry” (1808); but he is best remembered
by his “Essay on the Disease called Yellow Fever, with observations
concerning Febrile Contagion, Typhus Fever, Dysentery, and the
Plague, partly delivered as the Gulstonian Lectures before the
College of Physicians in the years 1806 and 1807” (1811 and 1817).
In 1839 he published in Jamaica “A Letter to the Hon. Hector
Mitchell on the proposed erection of a new Lunatic Asylum,” and in
the following year he issued another “representing the total
unfitness of the present Asylum for Lunatics, and the urgent
necessity for building a new Lunatic Asylum in a proper situation.”

HECTOR MITCHELL was elected mayor of Kingston in 1833 and held the
office till he died, aged eighty-four years, in 1853 at Kingston.
His body lay in state in the old court house, and his funeral was
attended by most of the prominent men of Jamaica. He was also custos
of Kingston. His portrait—a lithograph by A. Maurin, from a
daguerreotype by A. Duperly, printed for distribution when he
addressed the electors of Kingston in 1848—is in the Jamaica History
Gallery in the Institute.

EDWARD JORDAN, C.B., was born in 1800. He devoted himself to
journalism in early life, and for many years was connected with the
“Watchman” and the “Morning Journal.” While representing Kingston in
the House of Assembly he was in 1854 called to the Council, and on
that occasion received a testimonial from the inhabitants of the
island; but he resigned his seat to seek reelection in the Assembly
at the time of the introduction of the new constitution. He was
elected, and was furthermore made a member of the Governor’s
Executive Committee, which carried with it the leadership of the
Assembly. He also acted as Speaker. He represented Kingston till the
abolition of the House in 1866. He was appointed custos of Kingston
by Sir Charles Grey, and held the post till 1866. Governor Eyre
appointed him receiver-general, but he did not hold the post for
long; and he was appointed Governor’s Secretary, with which was
amalgamated on the death of the Hon. W. G. Stewart the Island
Secretaryship. He died in 1869 at his residence, Good Air, in St.
Andrew. On the Parade stands a monument of him erected by public
subscription. There is also a tablet to his memory in Halfway Tree
church. His portrait, an oil painting from life, is in the Jamaica
History Gallery in the Institute.

As in Lawrence-Archer many of the coats-of-arms are blazoned wrongly and a few omitted, and as many of the arms on the slabs on the floor of the church were in danger of being completely, as some of them were then partly, effaced, it was thought desirable, some years before the earthquake of 1907, to describe all the armorial bearings in the church; and this was duly done in the “Jamaica Churchman” in 1902, and the descriptions were reprinted in the “West India Committee Circular” for March 26, 1912.

The floor of a church, where they are subjected to the tread of many feet, is not a good position in which to place monuments with a view to their preservation; but it is to be deplored that some other method of rendering the seats stable was not adopted by the architect in charge during the alterations of 1883–85 than fastening them to the pavement by iron clamps, many of which have actually been driven through armorial designs—that of Benbow not excepted.

It has recently been well said that “the village church is the village Westminster Abbey, in which every object commemorating our ancestors ought to be sacred, small as well as great.” This applies with the greater force to the principal church in the chief town of an ancient colony. But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that even the ancient stall-plates of the Knights of the Order of the Garter in St. George’s, Windsor, have not altogether escaped damage at the “restorer’s” hands.

Amongst the coats-of-arms alluded to above occur the following examples of allusive devices—the canting heraldry of England, the _armes parlantes_ of France—the asses of Askew, the bent bows of Benbow, the fern of Ferneley, the hinds of Hinde, and the vessel (both cup and ship) of Vassall; whilst amongst the mottoes we have the “Sanguis et vulnera” of Skinner. It may be of interest to note that the only arms in the church represented with supporters are those of Crawford.

Rubbings of the most interesting of the armorial bearings were made, for preservation in the Library of the Institute of Jamaica, by the Rev. W. B. Atherton, B.A.

Hakewill, writing in 1821, said, “The handsomest building in Kingston is the =Scotch Church= in Duke street, which was erected about the year 1814 by a public subscription from a plan of Mr. James Delaney.” This church was destroyed by the earthquake of 1907 and subsequently rebuilt on the old foundations.

With the destruction of “Jasper Hall” in the earthquake of 1907, =Headquarters House=, as it is still called, in Duke street, became possessor of the undisputed title of the finest old house in Kingston. Its history is of interest.

The story goes that in the latter half of the eighteenth century four Kingston merchants with great wealth and equally great ambition as to appearance—Jasper Hall, Thomas Hibbert, John Bull and another, made a heavy bet amongst themselves as to who should build the most magnificent dwelling. This resulted in Jasper Hall, till recently standing in High Holborn street; Headquarters House; Bull House, in North street; and the house to the north of the old “Mico” in Hanover street, once called “Harmony Hall.” The name of the winner of the bet is not recorded. It should have been Jasper Hall.

Jasper Hall, who was receiver-general and speaker of the house of Assembly, died in 1778. As mentioned above, he was in 1774 one of the commissioners for purchasing a pen for an official residence for the admiral on the station. His house, which he named “Constantine House,” bore the date “June 1, 1756”; and not many years ago possessed what was probably the best collection of paintings, engravings and books ever got together by a private individual in Jamaica. Unfortunately at the sale many bibliographical treasures were allowed to leave the colony.

Thomas Hibbert, who arrived in Jamaica in 1734, soon became one of the principal and most opulent merchants in Jamaica. He was member of Assembly for St. George and for Portland, and speaker of the Assembly in 1756. He died in 1780, and was buried at “Agualta Vale” pen in St. Mary. His house was long known as Hibbert’s House.

In November 1755, when the Assembly was sitting in Kingston, it on the 12th adjourned “to the dwelling house of Thomas Hibbert, Esquire, a member of this House, where he and Colonel Lawrence, another member of this House, are indisposed, there to proceed to business,” and the House met there for several days. In December 1814 it was purchased by the War Office of the widow of Dr. Solomon Deleon, of Kingston, and was thenceforward known as General’s House or Headquarters House. Although the governor of the colony has ever held the rank of captain-general of the forces, there has always been a general officer in actual command of the troops; and in former days, and as late as 1895, such general held, _ex officio_, a commission as lieutenant-governor of the colony, and succeeded to the control of affairs when occasion arose. The house still retains the name of Headquarters House, though it has been the colonial secretary’s office since the government was removed from Spanish Town to Kingston. It was purchased by the Government in 1872 for £5000. It also contains the chamber in which the legislative council sits. The “Hibbert Trust” was founded by a member of this family.

DATE TREE HALL IN 1906
]

John Bull was the owner of Sheldon coffee estate in the Blue mountains. The name of the builder of the house to the north of the Mico has not been recorded.

Amongst those, many of them lieutenant-governors, who were general officers commanding the forces in Jamaica while the headquarters of the army were in Duke street, Kingston, were Archibald Campbell (1782–84), who controlled military affairs at a troublous time for Jamaica, and by sending troops to act as marines materially assisted Rodney in his victory over de Grasse; Sir Alured Clarke (1785–90), during whose tenure of office there was a succession of severe storms during one of which the barracks at Up-Park Camp were blown down; Sir Adam Williamson (1790–95), who was in 1795 governor-general of that part of St. Domingo which was under the control of Great Britain; the Earl of Balcarres (1796–1801), who is chiefly remembered in connection with the Maroon war; Sir George Nugent (1801–05), whose doings have been fully chronicled by his wife in her Journal; Sir Eyre Coote (1806–09), who had served with distinction under Cornwallis in America, under Grey in the Leeward Islands, and in Egypt; Hugh Carmichael (1809), who had declined to let the House of Assembly interfere with a purely military matter—the mutiny at Port Augusta alluded to in the chapter on St. Catherine—eventually, but by the King’s command, had to appear before that body, which grudgingly accepted the explanation offered; Edward Morrison (1811–14); Francis Fuller (1814–17); Henry Conran (1817–23); Sir John Keane (1823–30), who had served under Wellington in the Peninsula, and while in Jamaica took part in the attack on New Orleans, and later served with distinction in India; Sir Willoughby Cotton (1831–37), who in Bermuda had had Havelock as his aide-de-camp, and in Jamaica suppressed the rebellion in St. James; Sir William Maynard Gomm (1839–42), at one time governor and commander-in-chief of the Windward and Leeward Islands; Sackville Hamilton Berkeley; Samuel Lambert; Thomas Bunbury; Sir Richard Doherty; Edward Wells Bell; Pringle Taylor; Charles Ashmore; and lastly Luke Smythe O’Connor all of whose regimental commissions were in the 1st West India Regiment, and who was in command of the troops during the Morant Bay rebellion of 1865.

The old Mico Institution in Hanover street—now used as a technical school, and for a few years after the earthquake of 1907 used as the supreme court of the colony—was the original home of the Mico College, which is now removed to St. Andrew.

With their destruction by the earthquake in 1907 Kingston lost two important old-time houses in Blundell Hall and Date Tree Hall, at the lower end of East street. Both had been in former days boarding-houses. Latterly the former had served as the home of a part of the Post Office, the latter as that of the Institute of Jamaica, founded in 1879. =Blundell Hall= was for some years under the proprietorship of Mary Seacole, a native of Jamaica, well known in connection with her kindness to the sick and wounded of the British soldiers in the Crimea, where she filled the position of sutler, having failed to obtain that of nurse. Sir William Russell wrote a preface to her “Adventures,” published in 1857. Seacole Cottage in Duke street was named after her.

The reconstructed =Institute of Jamaica= possesses several objects of considerable historic interest. Besides the Arawâk pottery and implements and the slave branding-iron alluded to in the Introduction, there is a cage in which criminals were hung to die of starvation, as late as the early days of the nineteenth century. There is also the Chancellor’s purse for holding the official seal of the colony, recalling the days when the governor sat as chancellor, which lasted up to the passing of the judicature law of 1879.

The following—taken from “The State of Jamaica under Sir Thomas Lynch, 1683,” printed in “The Laws of Jamaica” (London, 1684)—is the earliest reference to the Seal of the Island:

The King has been pleased to honour this Island with a large guilt
Mace, as a signal Mark of his Favour, and to make the Government
appear more great and formal: It’s carried before the Governour and
Chancellour on Solemn Occasions.

The King has likewise honoured this Island with Arms, and with a
publick Broad Seal; and on one side of it his Majesty is seated on his
Throne, with two _Indians_ on their knees, presenting him _Fruits_,
and two Cherubins aloft, supporting a Canopy; underneath his Feet,
this _Motto_:

_Duro de Cortice fructus quam Dulces?_[5]

Footnote 5:

How sweet the fruit the hard rind yields.

The Inscription about it is, _Carolus Secundus Dei gratia, &c. Dominus
Jamaicæ_; On the other side is an Escutcheon, bearing a Cross charged
with five Pines; two _Indians_ for the Supporters and for the _Crest_
an _Alligator_. The Inscription in the Orle, Inclosing all, is

_Ecce alium Ramos porrexit in orbem
Nec sterilis crux est_[6]

Footnote 6:

Behold! the Cross hath spread its arms into another world, and
beareth fruit.

The _Motto_ underneath the Escutcheon is,

_Indus Uterq: serviet uni_[7]

Footnote 7:

The Indians twain shall serve one Lord.

All this, as I have heard, was designed by the present Lord Archbishop
of _Canterbury_, in the year 1661, and the Seal then delivered to Sir
_Charles Littleton_, that came hither Chancellour, for the
Chancellours always keep it, and with it Seal all Publick Grants,
Commissions, Patents &c.

The King by a Clause in the Commission for the Government, appoints
the Governour to be Chancellour, as judging it fittest to entrust him
with the Equity, who is to see the Laws executed, and not thinking it
for the good of his Subjects to have many great Officers in a young
Colony; and that if the Seal were in private hands it would be erected
into an Office: Now its worth little or nothing. For the Chancellour
has no Fee, only for granting Land and that amounts to very little
now....

There is no mention of a purse, but one was probably sent out with the Seal and Counter-Seal.

Lawrence-Archer—misled by Bridges, who, ignoring the “present,” simply says, “This seal was designed by the Archbishop of Canterbury”—says, “At that time (1662) the Metropolitan See was filled by William Juxon.” It is true that Lord Windsor came to Jamaica while Juxon was archbishop of Canterbury (1660 to 1663), but Sancroft occupied the see in 1683, when the sentence quoted from the Records of the house of Assembly was written.

The only Jamaica chancellor’s purse that is known to exist to-day is that which is now in the history gallery of the Institute, whither it was transferred from the supreme court office some years ago.

No mention of the purse has hitherto been found in any of the histories: it is not even mentioned by Lady Nugent, who makes frequent references to her husband, Sir George Nugent, sitting as chancellor. Bryan Edwards says, “The Governor or Commander-in-chief is chancellor of his office, and presides solely in that high department, which is administered with great form and solemnity.”

It would seem evident that a new purse was not supplied each year. In fact there is no evidence that any later purse than this dating from the time of George III has ever been in use in the colony.

In form and character and size it is just like the purses used in England. Like them, it measures 1 ft. 6 in. by 1 ft. 4 in., and is made of red velvet. The arms of Jamaica (with the cross gules, be it observed) are in the centre, and are surmounted by the arms of England at the time of George III. At the base are two cornucopias, and on each side is a decorative border of roses and other flowers. It is embroidered with gold and silver thread and coloured silk, ornamented with beads. It has suffered by wear and neglect.

The mace was evidently the property of the governor, and was probably used when the council met.

The council is known to have sat on the fatal June 7, 1692; and in the Journals of the house of Assembly is this entry:

June 7, 1692.—This day happened the great earthquake which destroyed
Port Royal, and did great injury throughout the island: The Council
had previously met in that town, and it is probable were sitting when
it commenced, as no adjournment is entered that day in the Journal.

This is not correct, as the president was with the rector.

The next record we find of a mace is on December 1, 1763, when the house of Assembly resolved: “That the Receiver-General do send to his correspondent in England, to purchase a silver mace gilt, of the same size, for the use of the Speaker of the House, as that used by the Speaker of the House of Commons; and that this or any future Assembly will make the same good.”

The older of the two maces at present in the Institute was possibly imported as the result of this resolution. It is silver-gilt, measures 5 ft. 6 in. high and weighs 297 oz. 5 dwt., and is thus both higher and heavier than the mace of the House of Commons. It is surmounted by a royal crown, on the base of which are the British coat-of-arms as used from 1714 to 1801, and the letters G. R. (Georgius Rex). Round the head, in panels divided by caryatides, are the emblems of England and Scotland, Ireland and France, and the arms of Jamaica. It bears the London hall marks and date letter of the year 1753, and the initials M. F. of the maker, Mordecai Fox of London.

The other mace evidently came as the result of the resolution of the Assembly of December 22, 1786: “That the Receiver-General do immediately remit to the agent the sum of £300 to be by him laid out in the purchase of robes for the Speaker, and a mace.” Four years later they voted £200 for a coach to be obtained from England. The mace is similar in appearance, but of a little later date, measures also 5 ft. 6 in. high, and is also surmounted by a royal crown on the base of which is the same form of the British coat-of-arms; and round the head are the same emblems of England and Scotland, France and Ireland, and the arms of Jamaica. It bears the London hall marks and date letter of the year 1787, and the initials H. G. of the maker, Henry Green of London, whose initials are on a piece bearing the mark of the same year in the hall of the Clothworkers Company, London, and who also made the Grenada mace, which dates from 1781, and which is almost as massive as the Jamaica mace of 1753. The Barbados mace, which dates from 1812, is 4 ft. 4 in. high. The head of the Jamaica 1787 mace has at some time been bent by a blow, and should stand up in the same manner as that of the older one. This is not to be wondered at when we read of the stormy meetings held in the last century by the house of assembly.

These two maces were used, the one at the meetings of the house of Assembly, the other at those of the legislative council. One or other of them was used at the meetings of the privy council until some time in Sir John Peter Grant’s administration, when its use was discontinued. They were both deposited in the Institute of Jamaica in 1879, and were shown at the exhibition in 1891.

Of the public monuments in Kingston the principal is the =Statue of Sir Charles Metcalfe=.

High on a list of those governors who have left their mark on Jamaica history stands the name of Metcalfe, the only governor to whom the colony has erected a statue. Without seeking it, Metcalfe gained everywhere where his work lay such popular esteem as finds expression in statues and addresses, while he received the sincere regard of those with whom he came in close contact. Coming in September, 1839, when relations between the planters and the British government on the one hand and the emancipated slaves on the other had become very strained over questions arising out of the recent abolition of slavery, he, by the same tactful manner which he had employed in India with marked success, did much to reconcile the differences; and when he left Jamaica three years later it was amidst the genuine regret of all classes of the community.

Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, the son of a major in the Bengal army, who later became a director of the East India company, was born at Calcutta in 1785. He was one of a family of six; the boys all had, in addition to another, the name Theophilus, the girls Theophila. After spending five years at Eton, where he did much “sapping,” he, to his own regret at having to leave, entered the East India service at the early age of fifteen. By the time he was nineteen he was earning £1000 a year; and after working in several important branches of the service as special commissioner, and as president at Delhi, and at Hyderabad, where he incurred the displeasure of the governor-general by his fearless methods of pressing reforms, he became in 1827 a member of the supreme council, on which he sat for nearly seven years. In 1832 he succeeded his brother in the baronetcy which had been bestowed upon his father, and in 1836 he received the Grand Cross of the Bath in reward for his distinguished services. In 1835–36 he held provisionally the post of governor-general of India, at which he had confidently aimed from almost the commencement of his career, and he only lost the actual position, to which he was nominated by the court of directors, because the ministry did not consider it advisable to appoint one so experienced as Metcalfe in Indian affairs to that high office, which they wished to bestow on their own nominee.

STATUE OF SIR CHARLES METCALFE
]

Always a Liberal in politics and wide in his sympathies, he during his tenure of office gave offence to the directors of the company by his action in removing the restrictions on the liberty of the press, and this led ultimately to his resignation from the company’s service.

After a period of rest in England from official labours, he was in 1839 made governor of Jamaica, two former governors of which colony—Sir Alured Clarke and Sir George Nugent—he had incidentally met in India. He was made a privy councillor “as a mark of consideration for his past services and a tribute to the importance of the office he was about to assume.”

The sending of an East Indian official as governor to the West Indies was then an unusual occurrence, but the undoubted success achieved by Metcalfe led to greater frequency in the custom. Somewhat tired of administrative work, a lover of a quiet life and with some parliamentary ambition, he only accepted the office because he knew that the affairs of the colony were in disorder, and he looked upon it as a duty to his country to be at the call of the Colonial Office.

The few years that had elapsed since Emancipation had not proved sufficient in Jamaica to efface differences of opinion and produce harmony where conflicting interests were rife. The apprenticeship system had broken down the year before, and total abolition had come into effect. Trouble had arisen between the Assembly and the Home Government. The Assembly considered the passing of the West India Prisons bill an aggression on their rights, and declined to perform any legislative functions not absolutely necessary, until those rights were restored. The British Government retorted by threatening to suspend the constitution of Jamaica, and a measure was ultimately passed which increased the powers possessed by the governor. Metcalfe was selected as a possibly popular governor to tide over a critical period of great anxiety.

On his arrival he saw that the existence of the stipendiary magistrates, which body had been formed with a view to counteracting the alleged lack of justice on the part of the local magistracy composed chiefly of the planters and their attorneys, was a means of keeping alive the ill-will between the planters and the emancipated slaves and their well-wishers; and he therefore decided to let the scheme gradually die out, by abstaining from filling up vacancies as they arose.

In his work of conciliation Metcalfe did not hesitate to controvert the opinions of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and to point out to him the error of his views in certain cases.

He achieved the at that time difficult task of gaining the esteem alike of the white and the black population, and he did much to remove the mutual mistrust existing between them. The only sect in sympathy with whom he found it difficult to work was the Baptist community, who wished him to be hostile to the planters and were displeased by his absolute impartiality.

In November 1841 he considered that the purpose of his visit had been achieved, and he resigned his office. By his honesty of purpose and the conciliatory nature of his methods of work he had endeared himself to almost all.

As his mission had been one of smoothing over difficulties arising from a recent legal and social upheaval, it obviously was not a time for great administrative changes; but while he was in Jamaica the judicial system and the criminal code were amended, the military cantonment at Newcastle was established, and the salary of the governor was put on a more satisfactory and permanent basis.

Metcalfe had his portrait painted twice in Jamaica—once by a Danish artist, a full-size, half-length, which he sent home to his aunt, Mrs. Manson: the other, a full-length, by another artist, “was intended for the town hall of our principal city Kingston.” Where is that portrait now? There is a portrait of him, by a very mediocre painter, in the court house at Old Harbour, and a full-length standing painting, dated 1846, and signed by A. Bradish, in the Town Hall at Falmouth. The portrait of him by F. R. Say in the Oriental Club, a copy of the engraving after which by F. E. Lewis is in the Jamaica history gallery in the Institute, was painted between his return to England from Jamaica and his going to Canada. Another portrait in the same gallery is a mezzotint engraving by William Warner of Philadelphia, after a painting by A. Bradish, executed in 1844, representing him half-length seated. This print, published at Montreal, was dedicated to Sir Robert Peel. It shows the left side of the face, the right having by that time been disfigured by the sad malady which caused his death.

Metcalfe on leaving Jamaica received addresses.