Chapter D: O. M (6)

In 1765 Constant Spring estate with some mountain land adjoining, called Snow Hill, was (the writer was informed by Mr. G. F. Judah) sold by Henry Archbould to Daniel Moore, who had in the previous year provisionally leased the property. Daniel Moore, member of the Assembly for St. Andrew from 1768 to 1781, who had done a thriving trade in prizes and prize money in those privateering days, and was latterly joined in business by Jasper Farmer, died in 1783–4, and his properties formed part of his residuary estate. After his death there was a suit in Chancery, “Maitland _vs._ Moore _et al_,” and in 1785 Constant Spring and Snow Hill, with its slaves and other effects, were sold under a decree of the Court at Riley’s tavern in Kingston for £33,000 current money of the Island. It became afterwards the property of George Cuthbert (who administered the government of Jamaica in 1832), who mortgaged it for £77,000 to Alexandre Lindo, a retired merchant; the latter sold the mortgage debt in 1810 to his son, Abraham Alexandre Lindo, the proprietor of Kingston Pen.

It was during the ownership of Daniel Moore in 1770 that an Act was passed empowering him to bring, by means of a tunnel through the mountain range and an aqueduct, the water of the Wag Water (the Agua Alta of the Spaniards) to his estate, which means now serve in part to supply the town of Kingston with water. It was entitled “An Act to enable Daniel Moore, Esquire, to take up a sufficient quantity of water for turning mills for grinding sugar-canes, out of or from Agua Alta River, commonly called Wag Water River, in the parish of St. Andrew; and to convey the same to his works on the plantation in the said parish, called Constant Spring.”

In 1898 the original brick-lined tunnel, which is about half a mile in extent, was straightened in parts, and converted into a concrete pipe of six feet diameter. The proposal to supply Kingston with water from the Wag Water was first made, it is interesting to note, as early as 1798.

In 1811 there were on the estate 401 slaves and 22 head of stock.

As the result of legal proceedings of a protracted character the estate about 1832 became the property of Mrs. Jasper Farmer Cargill (_née_ Jane Marston), when there were 312 slaves and 31 head of stock; the only estate in the lowland district of St. Andrew with more slaves being Hope.

It later passed into the hands of Chrystie and Porteous, merchants of Kingston, the memory of this ownership still living in the title Porteous’s Pen, applied to a lower and now distinct part of the property. In the ‘seventies it was owned by a Captain Carson, a son of a member of the above-named firm.

In the year 1888 the American Hotels company was formed in Jamaica, principally with Jamaica capital, and properties were acquired and two or three hotels were started, Constant Spring amongst the number. When the Jamaica Exhibition of 1891 was in preparation, the Government, thinking there was not enough hotel accommodation, passed the Hotels Companies law, and the directors of the Constant Spring hotel, as it was not paying as well as was anticipated, mortgaged it to the Government, to whom they subsequently handed it over. Golf links and tennis courts now usurp the place of cane-fields. The hotel since that date afforded a pleasant temporary home for numberless visitors to the island.

At the commencement of the nineteenth century Constant Spring estate was the place selected for his experiments in the improvement of the manufacture of sugar and rum by Dr. Bryan Higgins (miscalled “Wiggins” in Gardner’s “History of Jamaica”), the celebrated physician and chemist, who came to Jamaica in 1797 at the instance of the West India Committee (as related in the issue of the “Circular” for November 6, 1906).

On March 4, 1801, the House of Assembly resolved, “That a Committee be appointed to visit Constant Spring estate in Liguanea, on Monday, the 9th instant, to inspect what improvements Dr. Higgins has effected there in the manufacture of sugar and rum, and to report their opinion thereon to the House.”

RAYMOND HALL
]

On the 13th of that month the Committee made a lengthy report, in which it stated that:

“As Doctor Higgins has exemplified practically what theoretically he has detailed in print, the Committee deem it unnecessary to lay before the House in their report a more particular account of what they have seen and so satisfactorily approve.

“That the Committee lament that they have to state to the House that the infirm state of Doctor Higgins’s health obliges him to return to England this year; his assiduous and indefatigable exertions, both of body and mind, in the public service ever since his arrival, of which every gentleman with whom he has by turns resided is a witness, have been too much for his weak frame and advanced years, and render the change of climate necessary.”

“The observations and Advices for the Improvement of Muscavado Sugar and Rum by Bryan Higgins, M.D.,” was published in the “Columbian Magazine” in Kingston in 1798.

Constant Spring forms part of the scene of a tale by Captain Brooke-Knight, entitled “The Captain’s Story, or Adventures in Jamaica Thirty Years Ago,” which appeared in the “Leisure Hour,” illustrated by (Sir) John Gilbert, in 1859–60, and was afterwards published in book form with the same illustrations about 1880, under the title “The Captain’s Story, or Jamaica Sixty Years Since.” At the time of the story (1832) Constant Spring, which is in it called “Running Water,” was, as is mentioned above, the property of Mrs. Cargill; and Judge Jasper Farmer Cargill figures in the work as Mr. Jasper. The author, Captain Brooke-Knight, who appears as Lieutenant Brook, married Miss Marston.

The original Constant Spring works stood to the east of the new main road to Stony Hill, about seven miles from Kingston, just below the aqueduct. They were later removed to the other side of the road lower down the hill, near the end of the car line, where they still stand in ruins; and traces of the stone guttering connecting the old works with the new may still be seen on the east side of the main road. The late Dr. Cargill stated (in an article on “The Captain’s Story” which appeared in the “Journal of the Institute of Jamaica” in 1896) that the great house stood a little below the aqueduct. Mr. Soutar, however, says that the house at Spring Garden was the original great house. The remains of a substantial though short flight of stone steps (marking, Mr. Soutar says, the old still-house) exist to-day just above the reservoirs, commanding one of the finest views to be obtained on the higher slopes of the plain of Liguanea. These old aqueducts, which enhance the beauty of many a Jamaica landscape, besides telling of the day when sugar was king, afford the best examples of architecture to be found in the island.

It was at Constant Spring hotel in 1894 that “Alice Spinner” wrote a “Study in Colour,” one of the best pictures of negro character sketched by an English pen; and the hotel figures in the story as Summerlands Hotel, where “no ill-cooked stew or muddy coffee could rob the glorious mountains of their jewelled peak.”

=Olivier Road=, near Constant Spring, helps to record the fact that Sir Sydney Olivier, when colonial secretary, lived near by. It is the only publicly-given name after a colonial secretary.

Although of late, writers, misled by Anthony Trollope’s doubting reference to the story, and by a misreading of Froude’s words, have attempted to prove that “Tom Cringle’s Log,” a work which brought literary fame to Michael Scott at a bound, was probably written in Glasgow in the intervals of business, and although it is possible he may have rewritten in that city the chapters to suit the pages of “Blackwood,” there seems very good evidence still obtainable that the original studies of Jamaica life and character, which have delighted three or four generations of readers, were actually written in Jamaica.

Michael Scott, who was born at Cowlairs, on the outskirts of Glasgow, on October 30, 1789, was the son of Allan Scott, a Glasgow merchant and owner of a small estate at Cowlairs. After being educated at the high school and the university of Glasgow, he came in 1806 to Jamaica to manage several estates. Four years later he entered in Kingston a business the nature of which compelled him to travel frequently both by sea and road. He visited the neighbouring islands, especially Cuba and the Spanish Main, and the experiences of tropical scenery and nautical life thus gained formed the basis of his “Log.” In 1817 he returned to Scotland, and in the following year he married Margaret, daughter of Robert Bogle, of Gilmore Hill, a merchant in Glasgow. He returned to Jamaica immediately afterwards, but left the island finally in 1822, and, settling in Glasgow, became a partner in his father-in-law’s firm, Bogle, Harris and Co., of Glasgow, and Bogle, Douglas and Co., of Maracaybo. He died in Glasgow on November 7, 1835. It was in 1829, we learn from Mowbray Morris’s introduction to the edition of 1895, that the “Log” began to make its appearance in “Blackwood’s Magazine” as a disconnected series of sketches, published intermittently as the author supplied them, or as the editor found it convenient to print them. Blackwood, while keenly alive to their value, was urgent, we are told, with the author to give these sketches some connecting link, which, without binding him to the strict rules of narrative composition, would add a strain of personal and continuous interest to the movement of the story. The young midshipman accordingly began to cut a more conspicuous figure; and in July 1832 the title of “Tom Cringle’s Log” was prefixed to what is now the eighth but was then called the eleventh chapter. Henceforward the “Log” proceeded regularly each month, with but one intermission, to its conclusion in August 1833; and in that year it appeared in volume form in Philadelphia, in what was probably an unauthorised edition. Mowbray Morris gives 1834 as the year of its first appearance as a book; the “Dictionary of National Biography” says 1836; Allibone gives 1833. Both the “Log” and its successor, “The Cruise of the Midge,” were highly praised at the time, and Coleridge, in his “Table Talk,” called them “most excellent.” Scott so successfully concealed his identity that he was dead before his authorship of “Tom Cringle” was known. It was attributed to Captain Chamier, to Captain Marryat, and to Professor Wilson, to whom it was ascribed in a German edition published at Brunswick in 1839. From internal evidence it is clear that the events in this story synchronise, if they are not identical, with Scott’s own travels.

Anthony Trollope, who visited Jamaica in 1859, tells us, in his “West Indies and the Spanish Main,” that “Nothing can be grander, either in colour or grouping, than the ravines of the Blue Mountain ranges of hills. Perhaps the finest view in the island is from Raymond Lodge [_sic_], a house high up among the mountains, in which, so local rumour says, ‘Tom Cringle’s Log’ was written.” Trollope misrepresented the case and misled later writers when he used the expression “so local rumour says,” for he heard the story from the then owner of Raymond Hall, Captain Hinton East, as Captain East’s daughter, the late Mrs. Marescaux, one of the two ladies whom Trollope mentions as accompanying him on his ride to Newcastle, well remembered, and told the present writer.

Mowbray Morris says that “the tradition seems to have died away before Froude’s visit,” but the reason why the historian did not mention it is probably because he never heard it. =Raymond Hall= is the great house on Maryland coffee estate. Situated in the Blue Mountains at an altitude of about 3000 feet, some eleven miles from Kingston, it has been in the possession of the East family for upwards of 200 years. When Scott was here it was in the possession of Sir Edward Hyde East. In the returns of properties given in the “Jamaica Almanac” for 1840, Maryland is recorded as being 1265 acres in extent. In 1845 it had increased to 1700.

Mr. Hamilton, the original Aaron Bang in the “Log,” was, at the time when Michael Scott was in Jamaica, planting-attorney to Sir Edward Hyde East for Maryland; he resided at times at Kingston, at Raymond Hall, and in St. Thomas-in-the-Vale. At all three places his friend Scott was wont to stay with him. Hamilton was known among his friends as (Aaron) Bang from his fondness for practising with firearms, and until the hurricane of 1886 there stood in front of Raymond Hall a cabbage palm, the stem of which was riddled with shot, it is said, from Hamilton’s gun. Under this tree Scott wrote his studies of Jamaica life and scenery. So Captain East, who came out in 1836, only fourteen years after Scott had left, was informed.

An orange tree under which Scott, as he relates in his “Log,” made love to his cousin Maria, stood till quite recently at the back of the house. Mrs. Marescaux remembered the old estate carpenter, Stackpole by name, who was wont to show where Scott wrote, and where Hamilton fired at the cabbage palm from an old sofa which the writer saw resting in the same corner at Raymond Hall. The house was much shaken by the earthquake of 1907.

The following is Scott’s description of the house and its view:

“The beautiful cottage where we were sojourning was situated about
3000 feet above the level of the sea, and half-way up the great prong
of the Blue Mountains, known by the name of the Liguanea range, which
rises behind and overhangs the city of Kingston.... Immediately under
foot rose several lower ranges of mountains—those nearest us, covered
with laurel-looking coffee-bushes, interspersed with negro villages
hanging among the fruit trees like clusters of birds’ nests on the
hill-side, with a bright green patch of plantain suckers here and
there, and a white-painted overseer’s house peeping from out the wood,
and herds of cattle in the guinea-grass pieces. Beyond these stretched
out the lovely plain of Liguanea covered with luxuriant cane-pieces,
and groups of negro houses, and guinea-grass pastures of even a deeper
green than that of the canes; and smaller towns of sugar works rose
every here and there, with their threads of white smoke floating up
into the clear sky, while, as the plain receded the cultivation
disappeared, and it gradually became sterile, hot and sandy, until the
Long Mountain hove its back like a whale from out the sealike level of
the plain; while to the right of it appeared the city of Kingston,
like a model, with its parade, or _place d’armes_, in the centre, from
which its long lines of hot, sandy streets stretched out at right
angles, with the military post of Up-Park Camp, situated about a mile
and a half to the northward and eastward of the town. Through a
tolerably good glass the church spire looked like a needle, the trees
about the houses like bushes, the tall cocoanut trees like harebells;
a slow crawling black speck here and there denoted a carriage moving
along, while waggons with their teams of eighteen and twenty oxen
looked like so many centipedes. At the camp, the two regiments drawn
out on parade, with two nine-pounders on each flank, and their
attendant gunners, looked like a red sparkling line, with two black
spots at each end, surrounded by small black dots.”

Michael Scott is now chiefly remembered in connection with a cotton tree at Camp by the barracks, and one on the Spanish Town road, half-way from Kingston.

The following is the passage from “Tom Cringle’s Log” which has made the cotton tree at =Up-Park Camp= famous:

“I had occasion at this time to visit Up-Park Camp, a military post
about a mile and a half from Kingston, where two regiments of infantry
and a detachment of artillery were stationed.

“In the forenoon I walked out in company with an officer, a relation
of my own, whom I had gone to visit; enjoying the fresh sea-breeze
that whistled past us in half a gale of wind, although the sun was
vertical, and shining into the bottom of a pint-pot, as the sailors
have it.

“The barracks were built on what appeared to me a very dry situation
(although I have since heard it alleged that there was a swamp to
windward of it, over which the sea-breeze blew, but this I did not
see), considerably elevated above the hot, sandy plain on which
Kingston stands, and sloping gently towards the sea. They were
splendid, large, airy, two-storey buildings, well raised off the
ground on brick pillars, so that there was a perfectly free
ventilation of air between the surface of the earth and the floor of
the first storey, as well as through the whole of the upper rooms....

“This superb establishment stood in an extensive lawn, not surpassed
in beauty by any nobleman’s park that I had ever seen. It was
immediately after the rains when I visited it; the grass was luxuriant
and newly cut, and the trees, which grew in detached clumps, were most
magnificent. We clambered up into one of them, a large umbrageous wild
cotton tree, which cast a shadow on the ground—the sun being, as
already mentioned, right overhead—of thirty paces in diameter; but
still it was but a dwarfish plant of its kind, for I have measured
others whose gigantic shadows, at the same hour, were upwards of one
hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and their trunks, one in
particular that overhangs the Spanish Town Road, twenty feet through
of _solid_ timber; that is not including the enormous spurs that shoot
out like buttresses, and end in strong twisted roots that strike deep
into the earth and form stays, as it were, to the tree in all
directions.

Our object, however—publish it not in Askalon—was not so much to
admire the charms of Nature as to enjoy the luxury of a real Havannah
cigar in solitary comfort; and a glorious perch we had selected. The
shade was grateful beyond measure. The fresh breeze was rushing,
almost roaring, through the leaves and groaning branches, and
everything around was green, and fragrant, and cool, and delicious—by
comparison, that is, for the thermometer would, I daresay, have still
vouched for eighty degrees. The branches overhead were alive with a
variety of beautiful lizards and birds of the gayest plumage; amongst
others, a score of small chattering green paroquets were hopping close
to us, and playing at bo-peep from the lower surfaces of the leaves of
the wild pine (a sort of Brobdignag parasite that grows like the
mistletoe in the clefts of the large trees), to which they clung, as
green and shining as the leaves themselves, and ever and anon popping
their little heads over to peer at us; while the red-breasted
woodpecker kept drumming on every hollow part of the bark for all the
world like old Kelson, the carpenter of the _Torch_, tapping along the
top-sides for the dry rot. All around us the men were lounging about
in the shade and sprawling on the grass in their foraging caps and
light jackets, with an officer here and there lying reading, or
sauntering. about, bearding Phœbus himself, to watch for a shot at a
swallow as it skimmed past; while goats and horses, sheep and cattle
were browsing the fresh grass, or sheltering themselves from the heat
beneath the trees....

“At length the forenoon wore away, and the bugles sounded for dinner,
when we adjourned to the mess-room.”

Up-Park Pen, on which Up-Park Camp now stands, was conveyed to King by the trustees of Sir Alexander Grant in 1784. In 1793 the Assembly deducted lodging allowance previously made to the army because of the new barracks at Up-Park. In 1819 the Assembly in response to a request for a water-supply resolved that it “does not feel justified in making an extraordinary grant for the troops at Up-Park, a post entirely under the control of the British Government.” In the following year Wolmer’s Pen adjoining was purchased by the Treasury as it had a well. In that year the officer commanding asked for six mules to carry water; but the House was obdurate, “the barracks at Up-Park not being under the control of the House.” For a similar reason Up-Park was not included in the official list of “Forts, Fortifications and Public Buildings” for many years. The history of the West India regiment, closely associated with Up-Park Camp, is extremely interesting. It dates back to the American War of Independence when a British expedition from New York captured the State of Georgia. As a result, black and white loyalists flocked to the British camp where they were formed into corps of which the South Carolina was one. This regiment took an active part in the war, and in 1780 was converted into a cavalry regiment which at the close of the war was stationed in Jamaica under the command of Lord Charles Montagu.

The regiment at this period consisted of both black and white soldiers, and on the general disbandment of provincial corps in 1783, the white members were compensated with grants of land, and the black formed into a foot regiment in combination with black mechanics, under the name of the “Black Carolina Corps.” War broke out with France in 1793 and at that time various black corps were formed in the West Indies, all of which took an active part in the fierce fighting that took place during the succeeding years in those islands. With one of these corps, the Royal Rangers, the South Carolina Regiment was amalgamated in 1795 under the title of “Whyte’s Regiment of Foot.” In the West Indies, however, these regiments were called the West India Regiments, “Whyte’s Regiment of Foot” receiving the title of “The First West India Regiment.”

This regiment, which is now the only British black regiment surviving, has a magnificent record. It took part in the Ashantee wars of 1864 and 1873–74 and was especially complimented by Sir Garnet Wolseley on its behaviour; and in all punitive and other expeditions associated with African colonisation, its members have maintained its reputation for soldierly qualities of the highest order. It is interesting to note that in 1815 the regiment was strengthened by the Bourbon regiment of French _emigrés_ which had been disbanded at the outbreak of the French Revolution. The present Zouave uniform of the corps was adopted in 1858 at the suggestion of Queen Victoria.

The first reference to a West India regiment in the Jamaica Almanacs is in 1802, when the second is recorded, and so continues to 1809; then till 1813 the fifth is recorded: in that and the following years the second and seventh were also at Up-Park. Then the second occurs down to 1842, being accompanied by the third in 1841 and 1842. A new chapel erected to replace the one destroyed by the earthquake was consecrated in May 1912, and in 1915 four windows were put in to replace those (lost with the old chapel) which had been erected to the memory of officers and men of the 2nd W.I.R. who fell in the Ashantee war of 1873–74.

=Plum-Tree Tavern=, which stands on the junction road between Kingston and Annotto Bay, and seven miles distant from the former, is of interest as having been the scene of one of the last duels fought in Jamaica.

The late Dr. Cargill, in his article entitled “A few Words about ‘The Captain’s Story’” in “The Journal of the Institute of Jamaica” for July 1896, says: “A very amusing duel (almost the last fought in Jamaica) took place near ‘Running Water’ [Constant Spring Estate], and was omitted from the ‘Captain’s Story’ by request of the parties concerned. As they are all dead and gone there is no reason why it should not now be related. My uncle, Dr. John Marston and a Captain Peel, R.N., went to a party and were requested to sing. Captain Peel sang _first_, and then Dr. Marston was asked to sing the same song that Captain Peel sang, but got more applause. Peel conceived himself insulted and called out Marston. They fought at ‘Plum Tree.’ I have the pistols, Wagdon and Barton’s hair-triggers. They fired and missed, but Marston’s shot hit a tree and glanced off on to the forehead of a Mr. Berry (a book-keeper) who had hidden in the bush to see the fight. Dr. Marston had to leave the battlefield to attend to Berry, who was supposed to be killed. In the meantime ‘Mrs. Jasper’ (my mother) heard of the duel and came down to Plum Tree and prevented further hostility. Mr. Berry only died a few years ago. He had the mark of Dr. Marston’s bullet in the space between the eyes. I have often seen the wound, which had broken the outer table of the bone there.”

Unfortunately old Plum-Tree Tavern was wrecked by the hurricane of 1903, and little more than the lower walls now remain to bear witness to old-time life in Jamaica.

A fort on Bridge Pen (formerly Berthaville) and, at the foot of the Long Mountain, now a ruin, was probably erected as a protection against rebellious slaves marching on Kingston.

At =Garden House=, Gordon Town, Hinton East (receiver-general of the Island, 1779) gathered together a collection of rare and valuable plants which were purchased by the Government in 1792–3, as is mentioned in the Introduction. The house of =Hope Tavern= was destroyed by the earthquake of 1907; the foundations still stand above the Hope river just beyond Papine on the way towards Gordon Town. In the old days it was the place where travellers to the Port Royal Mountains and the Blue Mountains exchanged buggies for saddles. =Cherry Garden= was once the residence of George William Gordon, who will be found mentioned elsewhere.

The estate at =Hope=, now a botanical garden, formerly belonged to the Duke of Buckingham. In “Notes in Defence of the Colonies,” by a West Indian, 1826, we read:

A decrease is not from premature mortality arising from slavery, for
slaves live to great ages in Jamaica: eighty and one hundred years old
are as common on estates as in any country of the same latitude, or
more so; and I saw a few years ago a negro from the Hope Estate in St.
Andrew’s, belonging to the Marquis of Buckingham, one hundred and
forty-five years old. He had walked seven miles that morning, and his
faculties were perfect, except his sight. Admiral Douglas had a
painting taken of him, by Field[8] of the Royal Academy, who was out
here, which I saw.

Footnote 8:

There was never a member of the Royal Academy of this name. The
painter referred to was probably R. Field of Halifax, Nova Scotia, who
exhibited a portrait in 1810.

The =Jamaica College= at Hope, which was established under law 34 of 1879 as the Jamaica High School, became the inheritor of the Walton foundation in St. Ann of the year 1802, which may therefore be taken as the date of its foundation. A college, called University College, was opened in connection with the school in 1890, but by law 26 of 1902 the college and school were amalgamated. During its existence thirty students passed through the college, and four students took the London B.A. degree, and one the M.A., without leaving the island. Amongst its alumni are several well-known teachers now working in Jamaica.

At Matilda Corner, near Hope, is a Drinking Trough, erected in 1914 by his widow to the memory of Sir Charles Frederick Lumb, puisne judge of the colony from 1892 to 1909, showed a keen interest in the welfare of animals.

The =Mico College= was erected in 1896 on land in St. Andrew to the north of the racecourse. This building was wrecked by the earthquake, rebuilt in 1909, and again destroyed by fire in 1910: it was rebuilt as it now stands in 1911. The origin of the charity is of some historic interest.

Jane Robinson, widow of Sir Samuel Mico, an alderman of the city of London, of the family of Micault of the Isle de France, amongst numerous other bequests in her will, dated July 1, 1670, made the following:

“And whereas I haveing a great kindness for Samuel Mico, my deere
husbande kinsman son of John Mico of Croscombe in the county of
Somersett and well knoweing that my deere husband with myself had
thought of marrying him to one of my neeces and when and as sune as he
shall marrey such nece of mine viz: one of the daughters of my
brother-in-law Andrew Barker or my brother William Robinson
aforemencioned then and not before or otherwise, I give and bequeath
to him two thousand pounds lawful money of England, and on the
forementioned condition I give and bequeath to him a farm called the
Littell Parke which I bought or purchashed in the names of my brother
Andrew Barker and my brother William Robinson of the Right Honourable
the Marquis of Worcester in the manner (_sic_) of Crookham scituate
lyeing and being in the severall parishes of Chatcham in the countey
of Barke and Kingscleare in the countey of Southampton now in the
tenor or occupation of Thomas Browne and when the aforesaid Samuel
Mico shall have given a full discharge according to law when he comes
to one and twenty years of age to the executors of my deere husband
for his estate in thare hands then I give him one thousand pounds of
lawful money of England and if hee doe not to thare satisfaction I
then give it to redeeme poor slaves in what manner my Executors shall
think most convenient and I give to Samuel Mico aforesaid my deere
husband’s picter set with diamonds and I give him my crimson damaske
bedd with all that belongs to that sute and my great Lucking Glace and
my marbell tabell when he comes to the age of one and twenty yeares he
dying before that age I give them to my two Executors.

“But if the above Samuel Mico do not marry one of my neces aforesaid
my will is if he be a civel man and doe marrey into a good family and
has a porchone with her answereable to his estate and has a sonne that
lives to the age of a man I then give him the Littell Parke in the
manner of Crookham in the parish Chactham in the County of Barkes and
Kingscleare in the county of Southampton. But if he have no sonne I
give it to his brother Richard Mico sonne if hee have any if he have
no sonne then to my two executors I give it.”

After further bequests she turns to her nephew.

“And furthermore I doe hereby declare that whereas I gave Samuel Mico
aforesaid two thousand pounds when he had married one of my neeces he
not performing it I give one of the saide thousand pounds to redeem
poore slaves which I would have put out as my Executors thinke the
best for a yeerely revenue to redeem some yeerely, and if the
aforesaide Samuel Mico marry one of my neeces I then give him my best
Pearl Necklace and all my plate that I doe not give away by this my
will.”

Samuel Mico was by the terms of his aunt’s will given the option of marrying any one of the six nieces of Lady Mico-Jane, Mary and Elizabeth Robinson, and Jane, Mary and Elizabeth Barker; the Jane in each case being apparently the most desirable bride from a monetary point of view as being god-daughter of his rich aunt: and of these Jane Barker was the favourite, unless Lady Mico in her bequest took into account the respective wealth of the two families, for there is evidence in Lady Mico’s will that Jane Barker’s father was not opulent. Apparently not one of the six pleased him; nor could he be induced to change his mind by the promise of his aunt’s best pearl necklace and the unbequeathed portion of her plate. Thus the £1000 went to the redemption of “poore slaves,” _i.e._ Christians held in captivity by the Moors of Algiers, in aid of whose release benevolent persons were at that time wont to make bequests.

In the seventeenth century pirates, mostly from Algiers, swarmed along the coasts of the Mediterranean sea, and numberless captives were taken as slaves and detained as such in Algiers and Barbary.

During the latter part of the eighteenth and the earlier part of the nineteenth century both France and England had done much to put a stop to piracy in the Mediterranean, and when in 1816 Algiers was taken by Pellew and the slaves, some three thousand in number, mostly Spanish and Italian, were liberated, there no longer existed an outlet for the special benevolence on their behalf of Lady Mico and other philanthropists.

In the year 1827 the Court of Chancery referred the matter of the Mico bequest for the redemption of poor slaves to Lord Henley, Master in Chancery, to devise a scheme for the application of the money according to the will of the foundress; and if the Master should find that the same could not be executed according to her will, then “as near its intent as possible,” regard being had to existing circumstances.

In the meantime Lady Mico’s £1000 had increased—partly by the re-investment of the unused income, partly by the realisation of a material profit on an investment in London property—to upwards of £120,000, giving a yearly income of £3625, and nobody knew what to do with it; but a matter very “near its intent” was already before the public.

While the name of William Wilberforce in England will ever be honoured as the prime mover in the abolition of the curse of the Slave Trade, the completion of his life’s work by the abolition of slavery in the British colonies proved too heavy for his age-enfeebled shoulders. This great undertaking he consigned in 1821 to the care of an earnest colleague, Thomas Fowell Buxton; and it was under this younger champion’s leadership of the forces of Emancipation and through his indefatigable efforts that the inevitable day was hastened, when, in Jamaica, the flag of Great Britain floated—as in every portion of the far-extended British dominions—over none but freemen.

The Emancipation Act came into force on August 1, 1834, and on July 29 of the following year the Master of the Rolls made an order confirming the scheme prepared by Buxton and Stephen Lushington, by which the Lady Mico Charity was founded, for giving Christian education to the coloured population of the British colonies. It was eminently fitting that to Buxton and Lushington, with others of kindred spirit, should be trusted the administration of the fund to confer the blessings of education upon the freed people of the British West Indies.

The institution in Jamaica, where the trustees have finally concentrated their efforts, was at first locally looked after by a board of visitors. This in 1882 was replaced by a board of directors. Each year some twenty-four students leave its walls to take up the work of education.

The burial-grounds of interest are the =Newcastle Burial Ground=, containing military monuments, _inter alia_ a monument to officers and men of the 36th Regiment who died there and at Stony Hill of yellow fever in 1856; and the rare instance of musical notation on a tomb. The oldest tomb is dated 1844. The =Jewish Burial-Ground= at Hunt’s Bay, the wall of which was destroyed by the earthquake of 1907, has its oldest tomb 1678; at the Up-Park Camp new burial-ground the oldest tomb is dated 1836; and at the disused graveyard the oldest one is dated 1819, a year during which yellow fever proved very fatal to the troops. The principal monument in =May Pen Cemetery=, the general burial-ground for Kingston, is the simple obelisk erected in 1909 to the Unknown Dead who perished in Kingston in the earthquake of January 14, 1907.

The Kitchen-middens worthy of note are =Norbrook=, near Constant Spring; =Belle Vue=, in the Red Hills; =Hope=, near the old tavern; and =Long Mountain= (on the top and on northern slope): =Dallas Castle= Cave and =Bloxburgh= Cave have Arawâk remains. The latter was discovered in 1895, and gave an impetus to archæological research.

=Silver Hill=, near Newcastle, contains the Jamaica Spa, a mineral spring of great value; it was once in great request, but is now not used. The =Cane River Falls= are famed for their beauty. They were the haunt of “Three-fingered Jack,” who was captured in 1781, and later formed the hero of a transpontine melodrama; various editions of the play having been issued.

=Hagley Gap= is named after Hagley in Worcestershire, the home of William Henry Lyttelton, governor in 1762–66. It is interesting to note that Mr. Jekyll in his “Jamaican Song and Story” informs us that he was told locally that it was so called because it was “a hugly place”!

=Catherine’s Peak= (often miscalled St. Catherine’s Peak), near Newcastle, was named after Catherine Long (sister of the historian, and wife of Henry Moore, lieutenant-governor) who in 1760 was the first lady to ascend that peak.

=Gordon Town= was formerly the property of a family of that name; but was not, as some suppose, connected with George William Gordon, of Morant Bay fame.

=Dallas Castle= (which still survives as a district in St. Andrew) was owned by a scion of the family of Dallas, in the state of Alabama, whose descendants played their part in Jamaica history.

=Manning’s Hill= in St. Andrew Hills, and =Salt Hill=, =Morce’s Gap=, and =Hardwar Gap= (usually miscalled Hardware Gap), in the Blue Mountains, recall the names of former owners. Edward Manning, a wealthy merchant, who represented Kingston in the Assembly for many years. John Morce was at one time sergeant-at-arms of the Assembly and also deputy postmaster. John Hardwar was auditor-general in 1782.

The Scarletts were amongst the earliest settlers in Jamaica. On April 24, 1673–74, Colonel Samuel Barry and Captain George Nedham took to the Council from the Assembly, with four other bills, a bill for compensating the loss of “Mr. Nicholas Scarlett, received by the pursuit of the rebellious negroes at Legonea.” This was read three times and sent to the Assembly with these amendments: “In the sixth line after ‘be it enacted by the Governor and Council’ add ‘and the representatives of the Commons of this Island now assembled and by the authority thereof, that the said Nicholas,’ &c....” On May 17 it passed the House. A similar bill was No. 14 on the list of forty bills brought out by the Earl of Carlisle. It was voted “not to pass” on October 11, 1678, the Committee’s reasons against it being: “Because Mr. Scarlett hath been in England since, and when the former Act was first made it was intended to continue only during the residence here, and, that if notwithstanding any further consideration ought to be had it were better that the entire sum were given, rather than to enlarge anything upon the revenue.” What relation Nicholas Scarlett was to Francis Scarlett is not evident. He is not mentioned in the latter’s will.

Captain Francis Scarlett, the son of Benjamin Scarlett, of Eastbourne in Sussex, came out with Penn and Venables, but as his name is not mentioned in the “perfect list of all the forces under the command of His Excellency General Venables, taken at muster, March 21, 1654,” he presumably must then have held rank below that of captain. He patented lands on the Wag Water in the 28th year of Charles II, and bought neighbouring land in the vicinity of the present Temple Hall Estate. In the “Survey of the Island of Jamaica” sent home by Modyford in 1670 he is put down as owning 1000 acres in St. Andrew, in which parish there were then 194 families, and people, “by estimation” 1552. Only five men—Archbould, Hope, Howell, Parker (his neighbour), and Tothill were larger landowners in the parish than Scarlett at that time. He was recorded as Captain Francis Scarlett, member of the Assembly for St. Andrew in 1680–81; his co-member was Colonel Samuel Barry. He returned to England, and died unmarried in Eastbourne. He left his estate to his nephew William Scarlett, of the Middle Temple. A William Scarlett, of Port Royal, merchant, named as one of the Commissioners to take the evidence of certain witnesses in the Chancery suit of Elizabeth Smart _versus_ John Parnaby in 1685, may be identical with him. It is interesting to note that one of his executors to whom he left legacies was Sir Bartholomew Gracedieu of London, Agent for Jamaica in England.

The first William Scarlett was succeeded by his only son William. This William (the second) was married in 1705 in the parish church of St. Andrew to Judith, daughter and co-heiress of Gideon Lecount of St. Jago de la Vega. She must have been very young, for she was not of age three years later. He and his wife sold the Wag Water estate, some of it to Sir Nicholas Lawes, the rest to James Herbert of St. Andrew, planter, and from that time onwards the fortunes of the Scarletts were connected with the western parishes of the Island.

V
ST. THOMAS

The parish of St. Thomas (or as it was formerly called St. Thomas-in-the-East to distinguish it from St. Thomas-in-the-Vale), which now embraces the former parish of St. David, is one of the oldest parishes in the island. Roby points out that, although St. Thomas was so called before the arrival of Sir Thomas Modyford, Doyley’s immediate successor in the Government was Thomas Hickman, Lord Windsor, after whom it may have been called. But many of the parishes in the sister colonies were named after saints, and we need probably seek no further than the desire to establish church districts in the newly acquired lands for the origin of the names of several of Jamaica’s parishes. It was settled by the Spaniards and was thus described by General Venables, of the army of occupation, in 1655: “Morante is a large and beautiful hato, being four leagues in length, consisting of many small savannahs, and has wild cattle and hogs in very great plenty, and ends at the mine, which is at the cape or point of Morante itself, by which towards the north is the port of Antonio.”

There was a settlement at Yallahs (called Yealoth), when Sir Thomas Modyford surveyed the island in 1663. In 1661 Sir Charles Lyttelton recorded that “the regiment of Port Morant, Morant and Yallahs, commanded by Colonel Lynch, is the richest settlement.”

In 1671 Sir Thomas Modyford wrote home, in answer to questions as to church matters, that “Mr. Pickering of St. Thomas and St. Davids at Port Morant and Yallahs, is lately dead and they have none to supply his place.” There is no reference to a church, but rather a suggestion that there was none; “but they meet at each others houses as the primitive Christians do.”

There is, however, a church shown at Yallahs in “A new and exact map of Jamaica ... dedicated to Sir Thomas Lynch” in “The Laws of Jamaica” of 1684. Therefore the date of the foundation of =Yallahs Church= was between 1671 and 1684.

The chalice and patten belonging to this church are amongst the oldest in the island. They are at present deposited in the offices of the Church of England in Jamaica in Kingston. The chalice, 6 inches high, is inscribed:

_John Hammond }
William Donaldson } Esqrs.
Churchwardens
of St. David
1739._

The patten, 9¼ inches in diameter, is inscribed:

_St. Davids
Thomas Rijues
James Lobley
Churchwardens
1683._

After Cromwell had acquired Jamaica through the blundering of Penn and Venables at Hispaniola, he set about finding colonists for his new plantation, and conceived the idea of inducing settlers in the Leeward Islands to go thither. Amongst those who acted in the matter was old Luke Stokes, governor of Nevis.

On March 12, 1655–6, he wrote from Nevis to Sedgwick in Jamaica:

MAJOR SEDGWICKE,

SIR, his highnes undeserved and unexpected favours he hath bin pleased
to throw some of them uppon my self wherein hee hath in some
particulars declared his highnes designe concerning Jamaica and made
mee an instrument to declaire it to the people of this colloni; so
likewise I have declaired it to my adjacent nighbours, and caused his
proclamations to bee published; and I find in this island the greatest
part of the inhabitants, with their wives, children and servants, are
willing and ready to accept his highnes termes, laid downe in his
highnes proclamation.

There is onely wanting transportation for them and theires. What
provission his highnes intends to make when his fleete comes (which
wee are informed wee may daily expect) I know not; but in case there
bee not, if by you and the others, that are intrusted in those great
affaires of his highness, to send them shipping for theire
transportation, and such provissions as they intend to carry with them
may effect it, the which I leave to your grave considerations.

Sir, the number of men in a moneth’s time, which is of this place, may
arrise neere to one thousand, besides women children and slaves. Sir,
other islands are forward, if they may but have a convenient
transport, and some man impowered to treat with the governours about
them, concerninge some small debts, or other small engagements, which
paradventure may bee some cause of stoppidge to them therein, which to
further his highnes designe may be composed with his power.

Sir, bee pleased to give mee leave, to publish to yourself, I am in my
hart his highnes faithful servant, yours and all his. Sir, I pray God
direct you in all your highnes designes and bee your wisdome and
directions, and all God’s people in theire lawfull imployes. Sir

Your servant,
L. STOKES,
Major.

Sedgwick probably only received this letter a few weeks before his death, which occurred on May 24, 1656.

Vice-Admiral Goodson wrote home to the Admiralty Commissioners from on board the _Torrington_ at Jamaica on June 24:

Upon notice given from Governor Stokes of himself and the people of
Nevis their intention to transplant themselves hither, dispatched
three ships for their transport, and 4th June a vessel arrived from
the Governor with three gentlemen to treat with us concerning shipping
and to view the country. Afterwards fitted out a small vessel to carry
back our resolutions of sending ships for about 1000 people besides
women, children and servants.

On September 23 he wrote that he had been informed by Wm. Simons, master of the _Peter_ of Bristol, which had put in at Barbados, that:

Three ships had sometime since arrived at Nevis, that the Governor
there had not only used all means possible to induce the people of
Nevis to transplant themselves to [Jamaica] but had gone to St
Christopher’s to draw what people he can from thence.

Stokes, with his 1600 settlers, arrived in Jamaica during the administration of Goodsonn and Doyley, and just about the same time as the arrival of Brayne on December 14 with his 1000 troops. The site selected for Stokes was in the Spanish Hato de Morante, near Port Morant, whither some of the soldiers had already been sent with the object of colonization; and doubtless he set to work to establish his settlement with all the ardour that he had displayed in getting his followers together; but the sad fate of his venture is recorded by Long, the historian. Brayne had petitioned the Protector that he might be recalled at the end of one year’s service. Long tells us that:

Several disheartening circumstances occurred besides what have already
been noticed, and contributed to make him disgusted with the command.
He had conceived great hopes from the industry of the Nevis planters
settled at Morante; and imagined, that the example of their success
would not only prove an incentive to the drones of the army, but
induce many persons to remove from the other islands and dissipate
their ill-grounded fears. But, about the latter end of February,
Governor Stokes and his wife died, leaving three sons, the eldest of
whom was not more than fifteen years old. The Governor was advanced in
age when he left Nevis; and had been at so much expense in the
removal, that his fortune was greatly impaired by it. In his last
moments he earnestly recommended his family to Brayne and the
Protector, who afterwards bestowed a commission in the army on his
eldest son. Either this gentleman, or one of his brothers, formed a
very good plantation, which still continues with their descendants.
Near two-thirds of these unfortunate planters at Morante were buried
before the month of March; the rest were reduced to a sickly condition
and the danger of starving, for want of strength either to gather in
their crops of provisions already come to maturity, or to plant anew.

But a little further on Long tells us that “in the meantime the remnant of the settlers at Morante, having recovered their healths, and got in their harvest, were exempted from the calamities which oppressed the other inhabitants, and proceeded in their labours with great ardour and success.” And still further on he says that “In 1671 notwithstanding the mortality which had swept off many of the first planters, there were upwards of sixty settlements in this neighbourhood; many of which formed a line along the coast Eastward from the harbour, where are only two or three at present.”

In Modyford’s “Survey of the Island of Jamaica” sent home on September 23, 1670, we find recorded:

St. Thomas Parish John Stokes 25 acres.
St. David’s Parish Jacob Stokes 640 acres.
Jacob Stokes and Smith 1 acre.

Of Luke Stokes research has failed to reveal any particulars, either as to place of origin, family or personal accomplishments. He would seem to have been a simple-minded man, who did his best for his country.

One wonders what relation, if any, he was to Admiral John Stokes, “Commander-in-Chief of the English Forces upon the coast of Africa,” against whose actions the States-General of Holland, on behalf of the Dutch West India Company, protested in 1663. This was apparently the same Admiral Stokes who commanded the _Marmaduke_ which brought Modyford from Barbados to Jamaica in 1664.

Jacob Stokes, who was member for St. David in 1672, and his namesake who sat for St. Thomas in 1721, were apparently the only members of the family to sit in the House of Assembly, although their name appears in the Island records till the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In November 1732 a petition, dated April of that year, by one John Evans, overseer of Dousabel plantation, complained to the Assembly that he had been opprobriously used by Colonel Jacob Stoakes and his son Jacob Stoakes, with several of their negroes, in passing through said Colonel Stoakes his plantation to the seaside or barquadier in which complaint it appears that Evans applied in vain to the custos, the chief justice, the magistrates of the parish, and the attorney general, being sent from one to the other—for a warrant for Colonel Stoakes’ arrest. It was resolved that the report do lie on the table.

=Stokes Hall= and =Stokesfield= are now all that remain to testify to gallant old Luke Stokes’s attempt to assist the struggling colony of Jamaica.

STOKES HALL
]

Stokes Hall is possibly the oldest house in good preservation in the island. It was probably built soon after it was found that Stokesfield was unhealthy by reason of the swamps near Port Morant. It is a very substantially built building. It apparently consisted at first of a single-storey building measuring 48 ft. 6 ins. by 30 ft., with four two-storied towers at the corners each measuring 13 ft. by 19 ft., the towers overlapping the main building by the width of the doorway. The walls are of solid stone work 2 ft. 6 ins. thick. The lower storeys of the towers are 13 ft. high and the upper about 15 ft. Both towers and main building are loopholed, each tower having eight loopholes, two at each corner. The building stands at an altitude of about 290 feet, on a range of hills between Plantain Garden valley and the sea, and commands a fine view of Holland bay about five miles away. The upper storey of the main building and the front and back verandahs are evidently additions of a later date.

Though not of course the selfsame house that sheltered poor Luke Stokes, it carries us back to the days when dwellers far from the capital of St. Jago de la Vega had to depend in great measure on their own resources for protection from the incursions of foreign foes, bloodthirsty pirates or rebellious slaves.