Chapter D: O. M (7)

Stokesfield, which was possibly the earliest home of Luke Stokes, stand at an elevation of about 300 ft., about three miles to the north of Port Morant harbour, of which it commands a fine view. Much damaged by the hurricane of 1903 and again by the earthquake of 1907, it was originally a substantially built loopholed two-storey building, but inferior in solidity to Stokes Hall. It has evidently been altered from time to time; in the early part of the nineteenth century, and again in the seventies, when the present owner took possession. The building was in the shape of a cross, the transept made by two porches 18 ft. square, the main body measuring 74 ft. by 46 ft. with five bedrooms upstairs, to which access was gained by a winding stair. On the front wall has been placed a tablet with the inscription “T. S. H., 1775,” it is supposed for Thomas Stokes Harris (said to have been the grandson of Colonel Stokes), whose grave is still to be seen on the estate. Till some years ago an English weeping willow planted by it was still alive. Thomas Stokes Harris is recorded as one of the magistrates of St.-Thomas-in-the-East and St. David in the “Jamaica Almanac” for 1776: but as he continues as Thomas S. Harris till 1791, he must have been of a later generation than the man who died in 1775. From 1782 to 1805 a Thomas Harris was coroner and clerk of the peace and vestry for the parish. The latter Thomas Stokes Harris’s will dated 1790 was proved in 1792.

In the “In-giving” for 1810, and for another thirty years or more, in the “Jamaica Almanac,” Stoakes Hall was owned by the trustees of Alexander Donaldson. In 1810, it had 263 slaves and 169 head of stock. Stoakesfield was then owned by Peter Wallace, and had sixty-four slaves and seven head of stock, but the latter is absent from later in-givings.

In 1746 Jacob Stoakes and Mary his wife mortgaged Stoakes Hall to Daniel McQueen to secure £3209 (currency). It was described as containing 1057 acres part of 1330 acres patented by Charles Whitefield. Jacob Stoakes died in 1749. McQueen took possession after Stoakes’s death and continued in possession till July 8, 1758, when he died; and his executors continued to run the estate until Ann Stoakes, the only surviving child, who in 1760 had married Richard Cargill of St. Thomas, took proceedings in Chancery which resulted in their favour and also showing a balance in their favour of £639 18_s._ 4_d._ which was directed to be paid them by the executors of McQueen, who were also ordered to reconvey Stoakes Hall to Richard Cargill and Ann his wife free from the mortgage.

The following items of account taken from the old Chancery records may prove of interest.

STOAKES HALL A/CS.
£ _s._ _d._
Profit shown in a/c for year 1749 312 1 8
„ „ „ „ „ „ 1750 45 14 6½
„ „ „ „ „ „ 1751 543 0 8
„ „ „ „ „ „ 1752 34 3 8
„ „ „ „ „ „ 1753 1441 11 8½
„ „ „ „ „ „ 1755 786 4 0
„ „ „ „ „ „ 1756 1317 0 2¼
„ „ „ „ „ „ 1757 897 5 9¼

CERTAIN ITEMS FROM A/C.
1752

_Nov._ 24th. To paid Ann Downes for 2 qrs. Board of
Mrs. Mary Stoakes D of Captain
Stoakes dec^d £15.

1753

_May_ 7th. To cash paid the soldiers at Rock Fort
for taking up Rob^t Can a white
serv^t belongs to this estate 6_s._ 3_d._

_Oct._ 11th. Box knives and forks sent p for the use
of the overseer of this plantation 3_s._ 9_d._

A/CS _re_ STOAKES HALL PLANTATION WITH THE ESTATE OF DANIEL MCQUEEN
DECEASED
(Extracts.)
1748

_Sept._ 13th. To Sundrys sent for the Funeral of
Jacob Stoakes viz.

From Rob^t Wilson one compleat set of
coffin Furniture and one thousand of
brass nails £5 10 0

From Eliz. Able 12 pr. white gloves
37_s._ 6_d._, 2 pr. black Shammy do.
37_s._ 6_d._—15_s._, 2 crape hat
bands 12_s._ 6_d._—25_s._, 2 oz. mace
7_s._ 6_d._, 2 doz. cloves 5_s._ 4 10 0

10 Black silk scarves 27_s._ 6_d._ £13
15_s._, 8 Black hat bands 12_s._
6_d._ ea. £5, a box &c. to pack them
in 2_s._ 6_d._ 18 17 6

——— —— —

£28 17 6

_Sept._ 30th. To sundries sent to Mrs. Stoakes viz.

2 pr. white and black callicoe £4
15_s._, 1 pr. silk shoes 10_s._ 5 5 0

A black Fan 5_s._, 2 skains black silk
1_s._ 3_d._ 3 yds. narrow ribband
1_s._ 10½_d._ 8 1½

1 pr. Buckles 2_s._ 6_d._, 1 pr.
Buttons 1_s._ 3_d._, 2 laces 1_s._
3_d._—2_s._ 6_d._ 6 3

4 yds. Broad Ribband for Knotts 1_s._
3_d._ per yard 5 0

1 pr. woven blk. callimanco shoes
12_s._ 6_d._, 2 prs. girls blk.
leather shoes 11_s._ 3_d._ 1 3 9

Paid to Mingo for grass for the horses 3 9

_Nov._ 7th. To cash paid Parson Bonnervalle for his
attendance at Mr. Stoakes’s Funeral. 4 15 0

1749

_May_ 29th. Taxes for 1748. 15 10 7½

=Morant Bay=, the chief town and shipping port, is noted as being the principal scene of the disturbances of 1865. Nearly all the public buildings were then burnt down. No disturbance in the West Indies since the days of Emancipation has caused half so much excitement or given rise to half so much acrimonious correspondence, publication and litigation as that which occurred in Jamaica in 1865, and is usually known as the “Morant Bay Rebellion.” Apart from the official inquiry, which is of course judicial in tone, the publications range over the whole subject of negrophobia or negrophilia—of abuse of Governor Eyre and of his defence.

In 1862 Edward John Eyre was appointed acting governor of Jamaica, and when in 1864 he became full governor, the post was no bed of roses. The island was not prosperous, the American war had raised the price of American breadstuffs, and the governor was at variance with the House of Assembly, in which the negro population was then represented. Agitation ended in riot at Morant Bay on October 11, 1865. Undoubtedly the riot, or rebellion, was a very serious one in its actual results, and still more in its possible consequences, and but for its prompt and energetic repression it might have spread into a general negro insurrection in an island where the negroes outnumbered the whites by at least fifty to one. Martial law was proclaimed on October 13 throughout the county of Surrey, except Kingston, and tranquillity was restored. Then followed courts-martial and punishments; and George William Gordon, a ringleader, was taken from Kingston, where martial law did not exist, to Morant Bay, where it did, tried by an ill-constituted court-martial, and executed in haste and on evidence wholly insufficient.

On the day of the outbreak at Morant Bay, October 11, 1865, twenty-two civilians, including the custos (the chief magistrate), and volunteers were killed and thirty-four wounded; under martial law 439 were put to death (354 by sentence of courts-martial—the rest shot by soldiers, sailors or maroons who were employed by the Government). In addition there were 147 put to death after martial law ceased. One thousand “houses,” some of them very flimsy in character, were destroyed.

These Jamaica disturbances engaged public attention in England for nearly three years, and caused an excitement quite unprecedented. The Parliamentary papers relating to the case are voluminous, consisting as they do of eight separate publications and covering in the aggregate no less than 2336 pages. The first series of papers begins with the celebrated letter of Dr. Underhill to Mr. Cardwell, drawing attention to the state of affairs in Jamaica, and the subsequent despatches have reference to it or the question which it raised.

The Commissioners appointed to enquire into the origin, nature, and circumstances of the disturbances and the means adopted for their suppression, and the conduct of those concerned in the disturbances and suppression, after taking a large amount of evidence reported that the disturbances had their immediate origin in a planned resistance to lawful authority, which resistance was caused in manifold ways—by a desire to obtain land free of rent, a lack of confidence on the part of the labouring class in the tribunals before which most of their disputes were adjudicated, and in some cases hostility towards political and personal opponents, and a desire to attain their ends by the death or expulsion of the white inhabitants of the island. They further reported that, though the original design was confined to a small portion of St.-Thomas-in-the-East, the disorder rapidly spread over an extensive tract of country, and that praise was due to Eyre for his skill, promptitude and vigour, which in a great degree caused its speedy termination. The military and naval operations appeared to them prompt and judicious, but they thought that martial law was continued longer than necessary and that the punishments inflicted were excessive.

The reply of the Secretary of State to Sir Henry Storks stated that Her Majesty’s Government generally concurred in the conclusions arrived at by the commission. So far as Eyre was concerned, it gave him full credit for his promptness in quelling the outbreak, but held him responsible for the continuance of excessive severity, and for the method of Gordon’s trial and execution. Eyre was recalled and was most bitterly attacked by a large section of the English people headed by John Stuart Mill, and defended by another led by Carlyle, whose original draft manuscript defence of Eyre is in the West India library of the Institute of Jamaica. Eyre successfully underwent more than one legal prosecution. He retired on a pension into private life, and never sought, even in the face of the greatest hostility, to justify his actions to the world. He died at Tavistock on November 30, 1901, aged eighty-six. “He did many good and brave things, and atoned for the one error of his life by a silence so dignified and so prolonged.”

Behind the court house is =Mount Bay Fort=, dating from the seventeenth century.

The present church of =Morant Bay= was built in 1881, on the site of the church destroyed by the cyclone of August 19, 1880, and the church so destroyed was built to take the place of the old church near the almshouse, which is now in ruins. There are tombs in the ruined church to Jane Ellis (d. 1763); Marmaduke Freeman (d. 1709); and to Mary, wife of Sir Henry Lyttelton, governor (d. 1808).

The village of =Bath= contains a thermal spring of great value. An historical account of the Bath was contributed by Dr. G. J. Neish to the “Journal of the Institute of Jamaica” in 1895, and from it much of the following account is taken.

Tradition says that a runaway slave hiding in the gorge came upon a spring in which he bathed. Finding the temperature greatly to his liking, he returned constantly to the pool, and after the lapse of some days was astonished and delighted at the evidence of healing in a long-standing ulcer on one of his legs. With his ulcer healed he braved the wrath of his master to communicate the discovery of the pool. Colonel Stanton, the owner of the land, sold his right in the spring “to the public in the year 1699 for a valuable consideration.”

By the law passed in 1699 the land was vested in “The Directors of the Bath of St. Thomas the Apostle.” They consisted of the governor (Sir William Beeston), the chief justice (Nicholas Lawes), Peter Beckford, and Peter Heywood, and seven other members of the privy council, and five justices of the peace of St. Thomas and St. David. They were a body corporate and had power to erect a market, and to grant licences and to sell and retail strong liquors.

In 1731 an Act was passed for rendering the Bath more serviceable. From the preamble it appears that there were no house or proper conveniences for the accommodation of sick persons. £500 was voted for a house. The leases of lands were cancelled, but land was to be granted to soldiers and others who would settle, and who would be exempt from taxes for seven years.

A road was made, buildings were erected, and the public began to make use of the bath. Shortly afterwards lots were laid out and assigned, a town sprang up. Slaves were purchased to look after the roads and the vegetable gardens which had been planted for provisioning the hospital, which was built on the town square. The foundation was in more modern days utilized for supporting the present court house, and the old baths are still to be seen on the ground floor. The bath house at the spring was first built on the brink of the river, opposite the point of issue of the water which was conducted across the stream by a wooden gutter.

Changes in the river bank afterwards made it possible to build the house on the same side as the hot spring and so near that the water retained its heat. The baths grew fashionable and the town of Bath rapidly became a society resort. People of wealth built houses and brought their amusements with them. Gaiety prevailed and music, dancing and card-playing were indulged in; but fashionables wearied, quarrelled and sought for pastures new. In 1774, Long complained of the desertion of Bath; the decline went steadily on, and it never regained its popularity.

There is a stone table affixed to the portico of the court house, bearing this inscription:

This public building was erected under the inspection of the Hon.
Charles Price, Peter Valette and William Forbes, Esqrs., appointed
commissioners for carrying on the same, the foundation of which was
begun on the 10th day of March, 1747.

This tablet originally belonged to the old bath house and was many years ago picked out of the river bed, and after lying in a yard in the town for some time was rescued by the authorities and placed on the front of the court house.

After 1789, the old =Botanic Garden= in Bath was placed under the corporation. Dr. Thomas Dancer, best known as the author of “The Medical Assistant or Jamaica Practice of Physic” (1801), and as chief of the hospital staff on the expedition to San Juan de Nicaragua from Jamaica in 1779, when Nelson nearly lost his life from malarial fever, was for many years from 1781 to 1792 physician to the bath, and Island botanist from 1797. While acting in the former capacity, he brought out in 1784 “A Short Dissertation on the Jamaica Bath Waters, to which is prefixed an introduction concerning mineral waters in general....”

Of the rainfall he says, “above forty perpendicular inches have fallen in about the space of six or eight hours, which is nearly double the quantity that on a medium, falls in Great Britain through a whole year.” The work also contained a list of the rarer plants cultivated in the garden, of which he published a full list in 1792. Some of the plants he owed to the interest of Sir Joseph Banks, with whom he corresponded.

Near the Johnson River to the west of Morant Bay is =Belvedere= estate, 2200 acres in extent, the original home of Colonel Thomas Freeman, the first speaker of the House of Assembly.

There are remains of a fine aqueduct, a water-wheel, still used for pumping water, parts of very extensive works, and higher up the hill the great house and the overseer’s house. Now, bananas and coco-nuts usurp the place of cane. Not far from the great house, in a logwood plantation, is a tomb on the front of which is a massive slate slab with the following inscription:

Here lyeth Anne Freeman who was Wife to y^e Hon. / Colonel Thomas
Freeman of Bellvedere Daughter to Richard Bellthrapp Esq. &
Grandaughter to St. John Colt / Shee left five sonns and one daughter
(viz) Thomas, / John, Charles, Richard and Howard, And Anne two
sisters /in the island Hester married to y^e Hon. Colonell John Cope /
and Margaret unmaried. Shee departed this life August y^e 3rd 1681
Ætatis Sua^o 30.

Shee liv’d a Vertuous and Religious Life
Shee was a Tender Mother and a most loveing wife.

The slab was thrown down by the earthquake of 1907, and on October 4, 1911, the writer saw in the vault two skulls and the bones appertaining.

The tomb of George Cuthbert (who governed Jamaica as senior member of the Council in 1832 and 1834); which is said to have been here, is not now to be found.

Dr. William Lloyd, in his “Letters from the West Indies,” wrote in 1837 of Belvedere as follows:

Belvidere is a noble estate: the great house has a balcony thirty
yards long, fronting the sea; it may be one mile from the shore; the
cane grounds descend thereto skirted by cocoanut palms; neighbouring
and distant hills form an imposing background and complete the
panoramic spectacle. The sick house is a clean, commodious, handsome
building, and the children and others confined under a prevalent
epidemic, measles, well attended to: the negroes’ cottages were like
so many harbors in bowers of ever-greens; and close at hand the
inmates had built a chapel at their own expense, spacious enough for
hundreds; neither mahogany, glass nor doors, formed part of the
structure; but there was a pulpit, and one substantial adornment,
simplicity, around and throughout; service was performed in it every
sabbath. An intelligent negro acted as our Cicerone through the
village, conducting us into his dwelling, where he waited on us with
due politeness, in handing water; from the evident air of comfort
around, I was certain that “Aristus would not be so amiable, were it
not for his Aspasia; nor Aspasia so much esteemed were it not for her
Aristus”; yet distress sits over those unaspiring seats. Count F——,
the proprietor, a French nobleman, resides in France, and he is not at
present liberally disposed. The provision grounds are in the
mountains, and the watchmen being removed, cattle and thieves destroy
the fruits of their exertions; so that instead of having provisions to
sell, they suffer scarcity themselves, only being allowed one pound of
salt fish per week; in crop time they are defrauded and overworked,
and these teasing impositions, which are beneath a proprietor’s
dignity, destroy their peace.

On =Lyssons= estate, named after Nicholas Lycence, member for St. Thomas in 1671–72, by the works, are the remains of an old windmill with the date 1764.

Here is the tomb to Sir John Taylor, Bt., and Simon Taylor, to the north of the main road running through the property. It is in good condition. The latter held many important posts and was a very wealthy planter, leaving behind him, it is said, the largest fortune ever accumulated by a West Indian. Both Sir John and his brother Simon were originally buried at Vale Royal, in St. Andrew; but on the sale of that property their bodies were removed to Lyssons.

The following are the inscriptions:

[_On the South side_]

Here lie the Remains of—Sir John Taylor, of Lissons, Baronet,—Amiable
in His Manners, Steady in His Attachments—& Exemplary in the Practice
of the Social & Domestic Duties.—He died—during a visit to His Estates
in this Island,—May 6th, 1786,—Aged 41.

[_On the North side_]

Here lie the Remains of—the Honourable Simon Taylor,—A Loyal Subject,
A firm Friend, & an Honest man.—Who, after an active life,—During
which he faithfully & ably filled the highest Offices—of Civil &
Military Duty in this Island,—Died April 14th, 1813,—aged 73.

[_On the East side_]

To the Memory of—A beloved & Honoured—Father and Uncle.

This Monument was erected—By Sir Simon Richard Brissett
Taylor,—Baronet,—1814.

[_On the West side_]

_Arms_, Two escutcheons.

1. Argent, a saltire sable, between two human hearts, in pale gules, &
2 cinquefoils in fesse, vert. Baronet’s badge in the fesse point.
_Crest_, Out of a ducal coronet, a cubit arm holding a cross crosslet.

2. The same arms with supporters—Two leopards chained & collared.
_Motto_, “In hoc signo Vinces.”

All that is left of =Hordley= are the remains of the works and overseer’s house. Of the great house, two miles away at an elevation of 700 feet, there is now nothing left.

While on his second visit to Jamaica, in 1818, Monk Lewis paid a flying visit to this estate.

Here (he said) I expected to find a perfect paradise, and I found a
perfect hell. Report had assured me that Hordley was the best managed
estate in the island; and, as far as the soil was concerned, report
appeared to have said true: but my trustee had also assured me that my
negroes were the most contented and best-disposed, and here there was
a lamentable incorrectness in the account. I found them in a perfect
uproar; complaints of all kinds stunned me from all quarters: all the
blacks accused all the whites, and all the whites accused all the
blacks; and, as far as I could make out, both parties were extremely
in the right.

In the week at his disposal he was not able to effect much remedy. He found his “trustee” not cruel, but merely indolent as to the fate of the negroes; but he dismissed one of the book-keepers and the “chief black governor.” He gave the negroes new holdings, additional allowances of salt fish and presents of money, &c., and “left them in as good humour, apparently, as I found them in bad.”

ALBION ESTATE
]

=Albion= estate, on the right bank of the Yallahs just before it joins the sea, is the estate whence the white Albion sugar well known in England takes its name. The old works and the coolie hospital, erected in the middle of the nineteenth century, and the old-time book-keeper’s house still exist; but the great house is now in ruins.

Dr. William Lloyd, in “Letters from the West Indies,” above quoted, gives the following account of =Golden Grove=:

The “great house” is at a little distance on rising ground, commanding
a _coup d’œil_ of the whole plain; hundreds and thousands of acres of
canes may be seen at one glance. A school house has been erected near,
and a pleasing young man sent out by the Church Missionary Society has
charge of it. We were pleased with the good order of the children;
many were absent; at present the measles prevail, which may be one
cause. During the day we visited a very celebrated estate, Golden
Grove; attorney, Thomas McCornock, Esq., custos of the parish,
answering to our Lord Lieutenant. The extent of this estate is two
thousand acres; apprentices five hundred; and it exports near six
hundred hogheads of sugar: “_communibus annis_.” All the arrangements,
buildings, machinery, et cet, are of a very superior description. A
very neat chapel with a tower and clock close to the principal
dwelling, was built by the tradesmen of the estate during the slave
regime; and such was the interest evinced by the slaves for religion,
that they subscribed twenty pounds to buy a communion service cup; it
has been appropriately engraved; much might be said on this
occurrence.

The plate mentioned is now preserved in the offices of the Church of England in Jamaica in Kingston. The chalice, eight inches high, is inscribed round the foot, “Purchased for Golden Grove Chapel by the slaves of the estate, 1830.”

At =Cambridge Hill= and at =Botany Bay= are caves in which Arawâk remains have been found.

=Cow Bay= and =Bull Bay= recall the old days of the “cow killers” or buccaneers; cow being by them applied to all kinds of horned cattle.

VI
PORTLAND

The parish of Portland was named after the Duke of Portland, who was Governor of the colony at the date of its formation. It includes the old parish of St. George and part of St. Thomas, from which it was originally taken in 1723. St. George derived its name from the patron saint of England. Roby thinks that the name might have received additional appropriateness from the fact that George was the Christian name of the Duke of Albemarle, Sir Thomas Modyford’s relative and patron; as also of Colonel Nedham, his son-in-law.

Port Antonio, which was then established, has two of the finest and securest harbours in the island. It is divided into Upper and Lower Titchfield, named after the property of the Duke of Portland. Upper Titchfield stands on a peninsula and contains Fort George, the old military barracks.

In the year 1721, when strenuous efforts were made to induce immigrants from the British Isles to settle in the north-eastern part of the island, the Governor was empowered to make grants in the king’s name:

To every white person, being a protestant, thirty acres; to every white person in the family, thirty acres; to every free mulatto Indian or Negro, twenty acres; to every slave bought, five acres; with a proviso that no person not having fifteen white persons in the family should have above 400 acres in the whole. On the condition that the grantees should settle and plant the land, or some part thereof, within six months from the date of the patent, and should not alienate the land for seven years from that date. Special facilities were given to intending settlers: the lands were exonerated from all arrears of quit rent and all grants made without fee of office, and the settlers freed from all taxes (general or parochial) (except quit rents) for seven years.

In 1723 the receiver-general was authorised to raise a sum of £1500, to be applied: £1000 in purchasing lands, &c., provided by Act 9 Geo. 1, c. 8, and to provide each newcomer (man or woman) that should come over and settle within twelve months with two barrels of beef and one barrel of flour to be delivered at Port Antonio free of all charges as a means of support until the lands allotted to them should be planted with proper provisions, and until the same were grown up and become fit for use—and also to provide proper necessaries and conveniences for the newcomers travelling to the land where they were to settle.

To encourage new settlers and on account of the distance from the supreme court (then held in Spanish Town), persons settling were freed from all suits, actions and arrests, and public taxes, for three years.

All these Acts and the facilities and encouragements apparently proved ineffectual to settle the parish, and in 1725 an Act was passed and the privileges of the previous Acts extended to all inhabitants of the island as well as newcomers.

In 1730, the Crown having purchased the remainder of Lynch’s Island, the twenty acres originally allotted for a town and fortifications were vested in the Crown as they were found necessary for building wharves and stores and for careening men-of-war.

In 1733 an Act was passed for cutting a road from the breastwork, building a defensible house, and prohibiting the sale of rum in Titchfield. Breastwork (about one and a half miles from Port Antonio) is still a local name on the Golden Vale road.

In 1743 settlers in Portland were granted the same privileges as persons settling at Manchioneal and Norman’s Valley in St. Thomas-in-the-East, by Act 9 Geo. 2, that is; their passages were paid and that of their slaves not exceeding twenty, and the receiver-general was to subsist them and their slaves for twelve months on the following scale: each white person, four barrels of beef and 400 lb. of biscuit or bread; each slave a barrel of herrings and 400 lb. of biscuit or bread—the number of slaves not exceeding twenty. Every settler was entitled to a grant of land: for himself, thirty acres; for his wife, fifty acres; for each child, twenty acres; for every other white, fifteen acres; for each slave, ten acres; not to exceed in the whole 300 acres. He was exempted from taxes for five years, but had to commence settlement within three months from the date of his patent.

This Act was limited in its duration, and subsequently expired.

Long tells us that under the inducements of the laws passed between 1736 and 1752, in sixteen years, one hundred and eight families and fifteen artificers were introduced into Portland and elsewhere at an expense of £17,898, but that many of them failed for lack of capital.

In 1780 all the restrictions, conditions, penalties and forfeitures imposed on settlers by the several Acts from 1721 to 1776 having failed of their end, these Acts were repealed, and lands were to be held free from such restrictions, &c., and thereafter grants were to be made free therefrom—with a proviso excepting persons who had within four years before evaded the condition of their grants.

From this date legislation with a view to settle the parish appears to have been discontinued, as no more Acts with that object are to be found in the statute book.

In 1722 it was enacted that fifty acres at a certain place named Pattison’s Point and thirty acres on Ruther’s or Lynch’s Island should be allotted for a town, and that two hundred and fifty acres adjoining should be a common belonging to the said town or towns.

PORT ANTONIO IN 1770

From an engraving
]

By an Act of 1725 (an explanatory Act for the further encouraging the settling the parish of Portland) it was enacted that for enlarging the said town of Titchfield which had sprung up, fifty more acres should be added to the town and one hundred acres should be added to the common. By 1785 it appeared that divers people unlawfully encroached on the common of 350 acres, and the land had become of little or no use or profit to the town and the benefit was in danger of being entirely lost to them. Certain trustees were appointed by act 26 Geo. 3, c. 7 (an Act for vesting the common lands of the town of Titchfield in the parish of Portland, in trustees, for the purpose of raising a fund for erecting and maintaining a free school in the said town; and for other purposes therein mentioned), for the direction and management of a free school to be erected in or near the town of Titchfield, to be maintained and endowed from the proceeds of the 350 acres of common land. The object of the trust was to provide instruction for youths, without charge to their parents, in reading, writing, arithmetic, Latin, Greek, mathematics, &c., and the masters were to be of the Church of England. The school was open to children of the island generally, but those of the inhabitants of the town of Titchfield were to have the preference.

The school was in active operation from its foundation to the year 1855, when it appears to have been closed in consequence of a report made on its “state and condition” by Henry Laidlaw, stipendiary magistrate, in pursuance of a commission entrusted to him by the Governor, and because of the trust having been thrown into Chancery by reason of having incurred debts amounting to nearly £300, for which judgment was obtained against the trustees in the Grand Court of October 1852, in the case of “Anderson Charles _vs._ the Trustees of the Titchfield Free School Trust.”

From the revelations laid bare in Laidlaw’s report, and from the tenor of a resolution passed at a meeting of the trustees held on January 3, 1853, it may be gathered that the trust at this time was in a very bad state.

In 1883 a scheme was drawn up by the Jamaica Schools Commission, by which the management of the trust was vested in the Schools Commission and a board of local managers appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Schools Commission, and in 1903 the Titchfield lands were vested in trustees appointed by the Governor.

=Olivier Park= in Port Antonio was named after Sir Sydney Olivier, when he was Colonial Secretary; =Carder Park= after a benefactor to the town.

The fruit trade, which was opened up in Portland in the year 1868, has made Port Antonio a town of considerable importance.

The Maroon settlement, called =Moore Town=, named after Henry Moore, Governor in 1760–62, is nine miles from Port Antonio on the banks of the Rio Grande.

There are at =Low Layton=, 150 feet above sea level, the remains of an extinct volcano.

Manchioneal was the scene of some of the exploits of “Tom Cringle,” recorded in his Log; and the great house on =Muirton= is said to be the one to which he was taken on his arrival from Cuba with yellow fever.

=Darlingford=, an extensive coco-nut plantation belonging to the heirs of Sir Charles Darling, a former Governor of Jamaica, stands around the village of Manchioneal.

At =Spring Garden= is a ruined fort, said to have been erected against the buccaneers. Sir Thomas Modyford, Governor from 1664 to 1670, is probably commemorated in =Modyford’s Gully= at Dry River in St. George. =Balcarres Hill= is perhaps named after Alexander, Earl of Balcarres, Governor in 1795–1801, but Crawford Town was so called before the Earl of Balcarres came to the Island. =Seaman’s Valley= is said to have derived its name from the destruction of a party of seamen by the Maroons.

In 1842 the portion of the original parish of St. George to the west of the little Spanish River, together with part of the eastern portion of St. Mary, was taken to constitute the separate parish of Metcalfe. On the reduction of the number of parishes in 1867 this parish of Metcalfe fell to St. Mary, and the parish of St. George as reduced in 1842 fell to Portland.

VII
ST. MARY

The parish of St. Mary was probably so called from the port, Puerto Santa Maria, thus named by the Spaniards, now known as Port Maria: but Roby points out that Modyford’s daughter’s name was Mary, and it was immediately next to the parish of St. George, the name of her husband being, as we have seen, George Nedham. It includes the former parish of Metcalfe, as well as a part of the old parish of St. George.

At =Gray’s Inn=, near Annotto Bay, are to be found remains of an old Spanish house, one of the few left in the island. The Maroon Town of =Scott’s Hall= is situated behind Castleton Gardens on the Junction road, from Kingston to Annotto Bay.

The account of the defeat of Sasi by Doyley at Rio Nuevo, now on Spring Valley, will best be told in the account of St. Ann amongst Doyley’s other operations.

At =Decoy= on the borders of St. Catherine is the tomb of Sir Charles Price, Bart., called the Patriot, for many years speaker of the Assembly. The property has now been divided up. The tomb is illustrated in Hakewill’s “Picturesque Tour of Jamaica.”

The following is a copy of the lengthy inscriptions. The Latin inscription is on the top, the English round the sides.

HIC JACET
CAROLUS PRICE BARONETTUS
MULTIS VIR ORNATUS VIRTUTIBUS
IN OMNIBUS ENIM VITÆ OFFICIIS
ITA SE PROBAVIT
UT ET CIVIBUS ET SOCIIS

GRATISSIMA ESSET EJUS INTEGRITAS
ET FIDES.
MEMORIÆ TANTI VIRI
CAROLES PRICE
FILIUS NATU MAXIMUS
ET QUATUOR SOLUS SUPERSTES
FORTUNÆ ET HONORIS
UTINAM AC VIRTUTUM
HÆRES
HOC MONUMENTUM
POSUI.

Though thou hast past the murky road
Which Cato, Raleigh, Sidney, trod
Yet still thy name and deathless praise
By Poets sung in artless lays
Or by tradition handed down
To latest ages shall be known
With tears of unaffected joy,
Each parent teach his fav’rite boy
How you withstood your country’s foes
And o’er their spleen triumphant rose
Although ‘twill hardly be believed
That such a Patriot ever lived.

This truly great man was born on the 20th August 1708. Having finished
his Classical Education in some of the best private schools in
England, his academical at Trinity Colledge in the University of
Oxford and taken the tour of Europe he returned to this his Native
Country in the month of January 1730.

On the 13th March 1732 he was elected a Member of the Honourable House
of Assembly, of which on the 18th March 1745 he was chosen Speaker.

On the 3rd of August 1748 the House came to the following Resolution:

Resolved Nemine Contradicente: That Charles Price Esq. have the thanks
of this House for his candid and impartial behaviour in the Service of
this Country as Speaker of the Assembly, and that as a farther
acknowledgement of his said Service:

Ordered:—That the Receiver-General do purchase a peice of Plate for
the said Speaker of the value of Two hundred Pistoles to be made in
such Form and Shape as the said Speaker shall direct.

December 19th 1760 the House came to another Resolution:

Resolved Nemine Contradicente: That Charles Price, Esqr. Speaker of
the Assembly hath supported that High Office with great Dignity,
Impartiality, and Integrity, and that the thanks of the House be, and
they are hereby given to the said Charles Price, Esqr. for his
faithful discharge of the High Office of Speaker, and as a further
Testimony of the Sense this House entertains of his Conduct in that
Office that a peice of Plate of the value of Two Hundred Pounds
sterling be presented to him.

Ordered:—That Robert Graham Esq. the Receiver-General, or the
Receiver-General for the time being do pay to the order of Charles
Price Esq. the sum of two hundred pounds sterling to be laid out in
the purchase of a Peice of Plate and that this or any future Assembly
will make the same good to him.

TOMB OF SIR CHARLES PRICE
]

On the 11th day of October 1763 his seat was vacated at his own
request, and the House came to the following Resolution:

Resolved Nemine Contradicente: That the Thanks of this House be given
to the Honourable Charles Price Esqr. for his steady, faithful, and
impartial Discharge of the high and important Office of Speaker of the
Assembly for a long series of years, throughout the whole course of
which he distinguished himself in the most conspicuous manner, and
approved himself a dutiful and loyal subject to His Majesty and a true
lover of this Country by supporting on every Occasion the Honour and
Dignity of the Crown and the Rights and Privileges of the People, and
as a farther testimony of the high sense and approbation this House
entertains of his conduct in that Office and Services to the Public
that he be presented with a Peice of Plate of the value of five
hundred Pounds sterling.

Ordered:—That Malcolm Lang Esqr. Receiver-General or the
Receiver-General for the time being do pay to the Order of the
Honourable Charles Price Esqr. the sum of Five Hundred Pounds sterling
to be laid out in the Purchase of a Peice of Plate, and this or any
future Assembly will make the same good to him.

Ordered:—That Mr. Speaker do transmit to the Honourable Charles Price
Esqr. a copy of the foregoing Resolution and Order, in a Letter of
thanks agreeable to the above Resolution, and expressing likewise
their Concern for the great loss the Country hath sustained by his
Resignation occasioned by his ill state of Health.

In the year 1768 as an additional Testimony of the Approbation of his
Conduct and in Reward of his great Merit, His Majesty King George the
Third in a manner, the most distinguishly honourable, it being
unsolicited, was most graciously pleased to create him a Baronet of
the Kingdom of Great Britain, an Honor, which though he did not live
many years to enjoy, he might justly be said to enjoy with honor.

In the offices also of Judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature,
Custos Rotulorum of the Parish and Precinct of St. Catherine, and
Major-General of all the Horse and Foot Militia in the Island, he
eminently distinguished himself in the service of his Country.

“His Life was gentle, and the Elements so mixed in him, that Nature
might stand up and say to all the world This was a Man.”

In the “Columbian Magazine,” Kingston, 1796, occurs a poem on “The Decoy”:

Dedicated to Sir Charles Price, Baronet, by his Son, the Hon. Charles
Price Esq. Speaker of the Honourable House of Assembly of Jamaica.

To dust and suffocating heats,
Well pleas’d, we bade adue;
To taste your garden’s rural sweets,[9]
And pay respects to you.

Peace to this calm, sequester’d seat,
Where art and nature vie,
To decorate your lov’d retreat,
And charm the mental eye.

But who its beauty can disclose,
Who paint its gay array?
What friendly muse will interpose
And aid an artless lay?

From this sweet spot; when æther’s clear,
Rich culture breathing round,
“Cuba’s” blue distant hills appear,[10]
The prospect’s utmost bound.

Whilst you such constant care employ,
And genuine taste impart,
No wonder it should thus Decoy,
And captivate the heart.

Yet, tho’ the scene does greatly please,
You greater joy dispence,
Conversing with convivial ease,
And solid, sterling sense.

Far from the world’s alluring ills
And folly’s wide controul,
Here candid Contemplation fills
And elevates your soul.

Footnote 9:

This delightful spot, to which art and nature seemed to have
conspired, in imparting the brightest touches of beauty and sublimity
to the surrounding scenery, is situate in the higher part of the St.
Mary’s Mountains, and at present in possession of Henry Archbould,
Esq. It was denominated the “Decoy,” from the various attractions it
possessed, and the interest it maintained in the breast of its
numerous visitors. The garden is represented as the burial-place of
that respectable but unfortunate family the Prices.

Footnote 10:

From its elevated situation, the island of Cuba is said to be
distinctly seen in a clear day; a prospect, however, commanded by many
other mountainous settlements on that side of the Island.

In the same magazine appears a poem by Sir Charles Price entitled “Resignation.” One of the twelve verses may suffice:

It was Heaven’s Almighty decree,
You will say, then, why should I repine?
Tho’ in this we perhaps may agree,
Have you ever felt anguish like mine.

Long says of St. Mary: “The weather in this parish is extremely wet during great parts of the year, and so cold, that few if any of the houses are unfurnished with a chimney.” In writing of the Decoy he says:

One of the greatest curiosities in this parish is the Decoy, the seat
of Sir Charles Price, Bart. It is situated on part of the range of
mountains which border on St.-Thomas-in-the-Vale. The house is of
wood, but well finished, and has in front a very fine piece of water,
which in winter is commonly stocked with wild-duck and teal. Behind it
is a very elegant garden disposed in walks, which are shaded with the
cocoanut, cabbage and sand-box trees. The flower and kitchen garden
are filled with the most beautiful and useful variety which Europe, or
this climate produce. It is decorated, besides, with some pretty
buildings; of which the principal is an octagonal saloon, richly
ornamented on the inside with lustres, and mirrors empanneled. At the
termination of another walk is a grand triumphal arch, from which the
prospect extends over the fine cultivated vale of Bagnals quite to the
North-side sea. Clumps of graceful cabbage-trees are dispersed in
different parts, to enliven the scene, and thousands of plantane and
other fruit-trees occupy a vast tract, that environs this agreeable
retreat, not many years ago a gloomy wilderness.

He further tells us that Price constantly resided on this property, and in truly Jamaica old-time fashion kept open house: “Few gentlemen of rank, whether of the army or navy, on service here, quitted the island without having passed some of their time at the Decoy.”

Sir Charles Price, the first baronet, was a grandson of Francis Price, a captain in the army of Venables at the capture of the island, who married the widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Rose, also one of the army. His son, Colonel Charles Price, who died in 1730 and lies buried, as we have seen, in the church of St. John, Guanaboa Vale, was the father of the first baronet. Sir Charles Price was a native of Jamaica, and “endued with uncommon natural talents, which were improved by education, and polished by travel in the early part of his life”: these abilities and his personal wealth gained for him considerable influence in the island. He was member of the Assembly for St. Thomas-in-the-Vale 1732, for St. Catherine in 1752–66, and St. Mary 1756–61, and again for St. Catherine in 1766, was speaker in 1746, and from 1756 to 1763.

He was created a baronet, of Rose Hall, Jamaica, in 1768.

His son, Sir Charles Price, the second baronet, was member of the Assembly for St. Catherine in 1768, for St. Thomas-in-the-Vale in 1779 and 1787. He was speaker in 1763 (when he succeeded his father in that office), 1765, and 1770. In October 1775 he was expelled the house at his own request, and left for England, intending never to return.

In 1786 as he was in financial difficulties the House advanced £5000 on mortgage of the Decoy, but in the following year a new Assembly voted this transaction “unconstitutional and of dangerous example.” He died in 1788 in Spanish Town without issue, and the title became extinct.

Sir Charles Price’s name was for many years associated with a particular species of rat—the largest in the island—known as the “cane-piece rat,” or the “Charles Price rat” on the assumption that it was introduced into Jamaica by him; but Richard Hill, who investigated the matter for Gosse, and obtained the family tradition on the subject from George Price, of Worthy Park, a great-grandson of Sir Charles Price, came to the conclusion that the animal, which Price introduced from South America and in the eyes of the negroes had strong rat characteristics, was no rat. Several were set loose at the Decoy, and at Worthy Park, but they did not survive. They may possibly have been a species of opossum, one example of which recently came to Jamaica in a ship from Costa Rica. To show what a curse rats were to the sugar planters, Beckford records that 39,000 were caught in five or six months on one estate.

At =Agualta Vale= is the tomb of Thomas Hibbert (d. 1780), who came to Jamaica in 1734.

The following is the inscription:

In a vault near this place lie deposited by his own direction the
remains of—Thomas Hibbert, Esq.,—late a Merchant in the Town of
Kingston—and proprietor of this and two adjoining Estates. He was the
eldest son of Robert and Mary Hibbert, of Manchester, in the county of
Lancaster, in the Kingdom of Great Britain—from whence he first
arrived in this Island in 1734—and after residing in it, with little
interruption, almost forty-six years—Died unmarried at this Estate, on
the 20th of May, 1780—in the 71st year of his age....

As we have seen, he built Headquarters House, Kingston. He purchased Agualta Vale, containing about 3000 acres, from the heir of one Bendish about the year 1760. The sugar estate was settled in 1771.

=Fort George=, near Annotto Bay, is now all that remains of the lands of the Ellis family, which once owned numerous properties in the island—Shettlewood Montpelier in St. James, Ellis Caymanas and Crawle Pen in St. Catherine and Nutfield, Newry, Greencastle and Fort George in St. Mary.

The statement often made that John Ellis, the first settler, was an officer in Venables’ army is not borne out by the list of those officers. He is recorded as a captain in 1685. He and his descendants sat in many Assemblies, and intermarried with the Nedhams, Beckfords, and Longs. Charles Rose Ellis was created Baron Seaford in 1826, and his son became Baron Howard de Walden in right of his mother.

George Ellis, the poet, and John Ellis, the naturalist and Agent in England for Dominica, were also members of this family, who have, from time to time, done much for cattle breeding in Jamaica, having been pioneers in importing valuable breeds from Cuba, India, Portugal, and Italy. To George Ellis, chief justice in 1736–39, Jamaica owes the introduction of guinea grass—the seed having been brought from Guinea as food for cage-birds.

At Fort George indigo was cultivated in the early days.

At =Dryland=, near Woodside, is an example of Arawâk rock-carving (illustrated in the “Journal of the Institute of Jamaica,” vol. ii, No. 4). =Fort Haldane=, situated on a cliff above the coast on Gray’s Charity, a mile west of Port Maria, is named after General George Haldane, Governor in 1759. =Prospect=, near White River, is an old loopholed house, a good example of Jamaica architecture; and =Heywood Hall= was the scene of a fight between Koromantyn slaves and the white inhabitants of St. Mary, who defeated them, in 1760.

As early as Slaney’s map of 1678 there was a =Christopher’s Cove= in St. Mary in addition to Don Christopher’s Cove in St. Ann.

VIII
ST. ANN

The parish of St. Ann is rich in associations with the aboriginal inhabitants, the Spaniards, and with the early history of the British occupation of the colony. It was in St. Ann that Columbus discovered Jamaica; it was in St. Ann that he spent a twelvemonth while waiting for help from Hispaniola; it was in St. Ann, at Ocho Rios, that two engagements of note with the Spaniards were fought; it was from St. Ann that the last remnants of the Spaniards left the island, while the last battle of importance was fought at Rio Nuevo in St. Mary, but a few miles across the border.

A kitchen midden of peculiar interest was opened up in 1912, situated at the top of the hill, some 980 feet high, on which stands the great house of =Liberty Hall=, commanding a view from Seville, the old Spanish settlement, on the west, to Port Maria on the east, and overlooking the little creek to the east of St. Ann’s Bay, known as Don Christopher’s Cove, where Columbus spent twelve weary months, from June 1503 to June 1504. The thick foliage must in those days, however, have precluded any more than mere peeps at that sea over which the dreaded Caribs might at any moment arrive.

It is highly probable that the Liberty Hill Arawâks supplied Columbus and his companions with food while he lived on board ship in the creek some three miles distant, into which the Spanish Lookout river runs, through land which afterwards became Drax Hall property and whence Beckford of “Vathek” fame later obtained much of the wealth he spent lavishly at his Gothic residence in Somerset. It is possible that some of the pottery recently dug up by the turn of the fork may have been used to cook this food, and it is conceivable that some of the vessels may have been handled by the great discoverer himself.

The area of the midden or shell-mound is, roughly speaking, about half of an acre, consisting of the brow of the hill on which the great house stands. The richest collection of remains was found just outside the garden gate on the carriage drive, where a few days before some pieces had been unearthed in the preliminary work of grading the drive to facilitate the turning of motor cars—a strange link between the old world and the new. Investigation in the banana walk at the back of the house, and in the garden on the one side and the pastures on the other, yielded proof that the midden extended all round the brow of the hill, as was the usual custom.

Dry Harbour
]

The remains resemble in the main the usual results of search in such middens—as described in Dr. Duerden’s “Aboriginal Indian Remains of Jamaica” published by the Institute of Jamaica in 1897, and in Mr. T. De Booy’s more recent pamphlet, “Certain Kitchen-Middens in Jamaica” (1913)—land and marine shells, some pierced for the purpose of carrying them, fish bones, coney bones, broken pottery, broken stone implements, flint flakes and chalcedony, from which their beads and other ornaments were made. The Jamaica arawâk pottery, Professor Mason tells us, lies between the Porto Rican and that of Florida to Carolina. The pieces unearthed at Liberty Hill afford good examples of its decoration, in the handles especially. One is distinctly fashioned like a parrot’s head. The borders show the usual indentations made, before the pottery was baked, by cross-hatching and otherwise. But one has a curious serrated edge not hitherto found in Jamaica. Examples of this collection are in the museum of the Institute of Jamaica.

Although from the nature of things only fragments of pottery were obtained, it is not difficult, in the light of previous experience, to reconstruct the bowls of which they formed part. Dr. Duerden mentions as the greatest size hitherto found, a circular basin with a diameter of about eighteen inches. That must have been approximated by one found at Liberty Hill. The bowls vary in thickness from three-sixteenths of an inch to half an inch, but pieces of flat cooking slabs were found as thick as one inch. The pottery on the whole seems better baked than that usually found.