occurs in 1807. The society, which had evidently been in existence for
some little time, belonged to Cornwall. As it was called the
Agricultural Society it was presumably the only one of its kind in
existence. In 1825 a Jamaica Horticultural Society was formed at
Kingston, which two years later became the Jamaica Society for the
Cultivation of Agriculture and other Arts and Sciences, which did good
work till it ceased to exist in 1850.
In the year 1824 an effort was made to restore the value and usefulness
of the botanic gardens, and Sir M. B. Clare, from the Committee
appointed to enquire into the state of the Botanic Garden, reported:
“That the Botanic Garden in St.-Thomas-in-the-East, established more
than fifty years ago, has during that period received and transmitted
for propagation throughout the island many valuable plants. That the
royal munificence of his late Majesty promoted the object of this
institution by vessels of war employed to collect plants in the
settlements of the east and south seas, some of which are now
naturalized in this island, and more might be added, greatly to the
advantage of its inhabitants. Your Committee therefore recommend that
proper care may be taken to preserve the valuable plants which the
Garden now contains. That in addition to the above considerations, Your
Committee are of opinion that one object of this institution of chief
importance has never been properly attended to, namely, the
investigation of the many unknown native plants of this island, which,
from the properties of those already known, it is reasonable to infer
would prove highly beneficial in augmenting our internal resources, by
supplying various articles either for food, for medicine, or for
manufactures, to be cultivated, prepared and exported as staple
commodities, by which great commercial advantages might be obtained;
among others the various vegetable dyes claim particular attention as
promising a fruitful field for discovery. That it appears to your
Committee that the person fit for undertaking such enquiries ought to be
a well-educated and scientific man, combining with his botanical
knowledge sufficient information in experimental chemistry to enable him
to discover the useful qualities of such indigenous plants, and improve
the productions of those already known; but at the same time your
Committee strongly recommend that such person should not be a medical
man, as his whole time and attention ought to be applied to promote the
above objects. Your Committee recommends to the House to instruct the
Commissioners of Correspondence to direct the Agent to apply for such a
person to the President of the Linnean Society in London.” As a result
of this proposal James Macfadyen was selected and approved of as a
botanist, and arrived in the island in 1825.
At the same time it was felt that the botanic garden at Bath was too
distant from Kingston and the seat of government to answer the intention
proposed, and it was recommended that a bill be brought in for
purchasing a proper place for such a garden in the vicinity of Kingston
and Spanish Town.
This proposal was, however, never carried into execution, and the garden
at Bath on the removal and death of Macfadyen, “fast falling to decay,”
was placed in charge of Thomas Higson; and his petitions addressed to
the House of Assembly during 1830–32 show that the allowances made were
not sufficient for the maintenance of the garden even in its reduced
state, and that no remuneration had been made to him for its
superintendence.
In 1833, in another fit of economy, owing to domestic troubles and the
need for retrenchment, a Committee was appointed to “report on the best
means of diminishing the contingencies and expenditure of the island and
to consider whether the Botanic Gardens at Bath could be sold for the
benefit of the public.” The report was made at the close of the year and
ordered to lie on the table. Nothing further, however, appears to have
been done for the garden till 1840, when the sum of £300 was “voted for
the improvement of the Garden at Bath and for the services of a
Botanist.” This sum, afterwards reduced to £200, was placed in the hands
of the members of St. Thomas-in-the-East, Portland and St. David, by
whom it appears to have been administered down to the year 1852, when
the garden was transferred to the Board of Directors of the Bath of St.
Thomas the Apostle. Nathaniel Wilson was appointed Curator of the Garden
in 1847, and devoted many years, often labouring under great
discouragements, in maintaining and improving the garden and introducing
new plants. His yearly reports contain sufficient evidence of the value
of the garden, small as it was, to an island entirely dependent for its
prosperity on its agricultural interest; and, assisted and encouraged by
the Rev. Thomas Wharton, Wilson laboured most successfully in the
propagation and distribution of valuable plants, and especially in
developing the “fibre” resources of the colony.
In 1842 we find there were local agricultural societies in St. Dorothy,
St. John, St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, St. Thomas-in-the-East, St. Catherine,
St. Andrew, St. James and Trelawny. In the following year a general
Agricultural Society was established, with the governor as patron, with
eighteen vice-patrons, and local committees in each of the parishes. In
1845 this society became the Royal Agricultural Society of Jamaica. In
1854 a Jamaica Society of Arts was established, which two years later
became the Royal Society of Arts of Jamaica. This in 1864 was
amalgamated with the Royal Agricultural Society—the two becoming the
Royal Society of Arts and Agriculture, but it ceased after about 1873:
the present Jamaica Agricultural Society being established in 1895.
In 1857 a grant was passed by the Legislature for purchasing land and
for a botanic garden at Castleton, in the parish of St. Mary, nineteen
miles from Kingston, and steps were at once taken to establish the
garden and remove such plants as could be spared from Bath.
Writing in 1861 Wilson referred to the successful introduction of seeds
of the valuable cinchona tree to Jamaica, through the liberality of the
British Government and recommendation of Sir W. J. Hooker of Kew. By the
month of October 1861 Wilson reported that he had over four hundred
healthy plants quite ready for planting out. As the climate of Bath was
unsuitable for the successful growth of cinchona, by the kindness of Dr.
Hamilton, they were tried at Cold Spring coffee plantation in St.
Andrew, at an elevation of 4000 feet. Here Wilson found “the climate and
soil to be all he could desire,” and as it afforded every facility for
carrying out so valuable an experiment he at once availed himself of it,
and planted out in the coffee fields, November 1861, several plants of
each species.
The garden at Castleton was then finally established, and ultimately the
government Cinchona plantations were opened in 1868, and placed under
the management of Robert Thompson, who on Wilson’s retirement had been
appointed superintendent of the Botanic Gardens. The cinchona trees
flourished, but the industry was killed by the cheaper production of
bark from India.
Thompson retired in 1878, and was succeeded by Mr. (now Sir) Daniel
Morris till 1886, then Mr. William Fawcett till 1908, when the
Department was changed into an agricultural Department, with Mr. H. H.
Cousins as Director and a Farm School and Stock Farm were added to the
Hope establishment. At the same time the Government Laboratory,
originated in 1870 as a separate department, and in 1901 brought into
direct connexion with agricultural work, was amalgamated with it.
The Palisadoes plantation of coco-nuts, which in 1884 had some 23,000
palms in bearing, was while in the care of lessee later attacked by
disease.
Mining operations have been carried on with more or less success in
Jamaica from time to time. In 1857 there were four mining companies
operating: the Clarendon Consolidated Copper Mining Company in
Clarendon, where mining has recently been reintroduced; the
Wheal-Jamaica, with a capital of £100,000; the Ellerslie and Bardowie
Copper Mines (capital £50,000) in St. Andrew; and the Rio Grande Copper
Mine (capital £60,000) in Portland.
The earliest reference to Education in the history of Jamaica occurs
under date February 23, 1663, when a warrant was issued to prepare a
bill for the king’s signature authorizing the treasurer of the exchequer
to pay the sum of £500 yearly to Thomas Povey to be by him transmitted
and equally distributed to five ministers serving in Jamaica or to four
ministers and a schoolmaster as shall seem fit to the governor.
Jamaica then apparently preferred preaching to teaching—there being at
the time obviously few children of a teachable age—for there is no
further reference to the schoolmaster.
In 1671 the last of twenty-four enquiries sent to the governor, Sir
Thomas Modyford, was “what provision for instructing the people in the
Christian religion and for paying the ministry?”; but there was no
mention made of secular education.
In 1675 Sir Thomas Lynch reported that “Mr. Lemon, a sobergoing man and
a very good preacher, is minister of Guinaboa, St. John’s parish; he has
£100 per annum from the parish, and about as much from Colonel Coape for
keeping a free school he has erected.” To John Coape, who was a member
of the first Council, Custos of Precinct VII (consisting of the parishes
of St. John, St. Ann, St. George and St. Mary) and a Quaker, is due the
honour of having spent the first money recorded in the cause of
education in Jamaica.
The art of self-defence was not neglected. Sara Lyssons, of St. Thomas,
employed John Lookmore, “a master of the noble science of defence,” to
teach her sons, in 1678.
Till the end of the seventeenth century the safety of trade and
commerce, the means of defence against Spanish or French invasion, the
encouragement of immigration, government, and legislation, formed the
subjects of discussion with the home government, and the comparatively
newly formed colony was too unsettled to think of imparting knowledge to
the rising generation.
The only reference to education found in the legislation of the century
is in an “Act for Confirmation of Pious, Charitable and Public Gifts and
Grants,” to “erecting or maintaining of Churches, Chappels, Schools,
Universities, Colledges, or other places for education of Youth or
maintenance of men of Learning, or any Alms-houses or Hospitals, or any
other uses whatsoever, heretofore made, and hereafter to be made within
the time aforesaid.” But it was long ere “Colledges” came into being,
and the Universities are as yet in the future.
In the year 1688, Sir Henry Morgan, of buccaneering fame, gave £100 to
aid the bequest of £100 sterling by Joachim Hane to found a school in
St. Mary, but nothing was rendered available to the establishment of
such a school.
Bridges tells us that “in the year 1695 Sir Nicolas Lawes bequeathed his
estate, in default of heirs, to found a free school for the benefit of
the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew. A school was consequently
incorporated, with a seal, bearing the founder’s arms, but it failed for
want of sufficient means, and the land was attached to the rectory.
Twelve years afterwards Zacariah Gaulton left £80 per annum to pay a
master and £500 to build a schoolhouse, and in 1721 Benjamin Cotman
bequeathed his estate for the same purpose.” As a matter of fact Sir
Nicholas Lawes’s will is dated August 21, 1730, and the bequest was not
to _establish_ a school, but “unto the Governors of the Free School of
St. Andrews in the Island of Jamaica for the time being, and in case
there be no Governors at that time as the Law directs then to such
Governors as the Chancellor or Commander-in-Chief of the said Island
shall direct and appoint Governors of the said Free School then I say I
give to such Governors of the said Free School and their successors for
ever the estate and premisses aforesaid for and towards the maintenance
of the Masters Teachers and other Officers of the said Free School the
repairing and making new Buildings more fitt and comodious large house
or houses on the land at Halfway Tree which I formerly gave for that use
finishing and furnishing the same and for and towards the maintenance
support education and learning of so many Scholars (native youths of
Jamaica) as the said Governors of the said School or the major part of
them shall from time to time think fitt to admit to that benefit and the
said bequest can support and maintain.”
But this bequest never took effect, for all his children who were living
when he made his will—his sons James and Temple and his daughter Judith
Maria—survived him.
Roger Elletson, Speaker of the House of Assembly, and Chief Justice, in
the year 1690 gave £20 towards the foundation of a school in St. Andrew.
Edward Harrison, in 1695, and Charles Delacree, in the succeeding year,
each bequeathed £10 per annum for the same purpose. The bequests,
however, were allowed to lie dormant until the year 1789, when the
principal and interest were estimated at £14,710, no part of which was,
however, recovered.
John Mills, in 1711, after several entails, left money to establish a
free school in St. Elizabeth, but no such institution ever existed.
In the year 1736, Edward Pennant left £200 for a school and books, in
Clarendon; and a school was founded in Old Woman’s Savannah, aided by
subscriptions to the amount of £2000. It flourished about the year 1758,
when, by some ill-management, it failed; the premises were vested in
trustees for sale, and the institution vanished.
By the end of the seventeenth century the need of education for the sons
and daughters of the colonists must have become pressing. The plan
usually adopted by those who could afford it was to send their children
(often the illegitimate as well as the legitimate) home; and so it
continued in the main till the end of the following century, and indeed
far into the nineteenth. Many a son of Jamaica acquired a good education
in England, and not a few graduated at the universities. A manuscript
“Catalogue of Men born in the Island of Jamaica who matriculated at
Oxford 1689–1885 extracted from Alumni Oxonienses. (To which I have
added a few stray names of men connected with the island.) By William
Cowper, M.A.,” in the Library of the Institute of Jamaica, contains 268
names of men known to have matriculated at Oxford. Peter Beckford, who
matriculated in 1688, and afterwards became lieutenant-governor of
Jamaica, is the first on the list which includes other well-known names,
such as Garbrand, Dawkins, Nedham, Ellis, Price, Gale, Gregory,
Haughton, Morant, Barham, Lawrence, Lewis, Clarke, Barrett, East,
Dallas, Dwarris and Scarlett.
A review of the state of education in the middle of the eighteenth
century is given by Leslie in his “New History of Jamaica” (1740). He
says:
“Learning is here at the lowest Ebb; there is no publick School in the
whole Island, neither do they seem fond of the thing; several large
Donations have been made for such Uses, but have never taken Effect.
The Office of a Teacher is looked upon as contemptible and no
Gentleman keeps Company with one of that Character; to read, write and
cast Accounts, is all the Education they desire, and even these are
but scurvily taught. A Man of any Parts or Learning, that would employ
himself in that Business, would be despised and starve. The Gentlemen
whose Fortunes can allow it, send their Children to _Great Britain_,
where they have the Advantage of a polite generous Education; but
others are spoil’d, and make such an inconsiderable Figure ever after,
that they are the common Butt in every Conversation. Mr. _Beckford_[3]
has lately bequeathed £2000 _sterling_, for a Free-School: It is
doubtful whether this Gentleman’s Intentions will be answered by the
Managers; for by their way of proceeding there is small Appearance
they design to encourage Men of Merit to take upon them such an
Office. Several have lately offered themselves who were every way
qualified for the Undertaking; and some promised themselves Success,
from the good Disposition they perceived in many to encourage their
Design; but after a Trial were of Necessity obliged to quit it. ’Tis
Pity, in a Place like this, where the Means could be so easily
afforded, something of a publick Nature should not be done for the
Advantage of Posterity; but when such a Spirit will appear, is hard to
determine. There are indeed several Gentlemen who are well acquainted
with Learning, in some of its most valuable Branches: but these are
few; and the Generality seem to have a greater Affection for the
moodish Vice of Gaming than the _Belles Lettres_, and love a Pack of
Cards better than the Bible. To talk of a _Homer_, or a _Virgil_, of a
_Tully_, or a _Demosthenes_, is quite unpolite; and it cannot be
otherwise; for a Boy, till the Age of Seven or Eight, diverts himself
with the Negroes, acquires their broken way of talking, their Manners
of Behaviour, and all the Vices which these unthinking Creatures can
teach: Then perhaps he goes to School; but young Master must not be
corrected; if he learns, ’tis well; if not, it can’t be helped. After
a little Knowledge of reading, he goes to the Dancing-school, and
commences Beau, learns the common Topicks of Discourse, and visits and
rakes with his Equals. This is their Method; and how can it be
supposed one of such a Turn can entertain any generous Notions,
distinguish the Beauties of Virtue, act for the Good of his Country,
or appear in any Station of Life, so as to deserve Applause? Some of
the Ladies read, they all dance a great deal, coquet much, dress for
Admirers; and at last, for the most part, run away with the most
insignificant of their humble Servants. Their Education consists
intirely in acquiring these little Arts. ’Tis a thousand Pities they
do not improve their Minds, as well as their Bodies; they would then
be charming Creatures indeed.”
Footnote 3:
Peter Beckford, the grandfather of William Beckford of Fonthill, who
behaved badly with respect to the Drax property.
That the object of those few who, amongst a community indifferent to
such matters, wished to benefit education in Jamaica, had been in the
main disregarded during the eighteenth century, is evident from a report
of a Committee of the Assembly presented in November 1791 by Bryan
Edwards, the historian. The Committee had been appointed to “enquire
into and prepare an account of the several charities and donations that
have been made and devised from time to time, by well disposed persons
for the establishment of free-schools in the different parts of this
Island, and which have not been carried into effect agreeably to the
intention of the donors; and further to report a state of the landed and
other real property, funds, and securities for money, which, in the
judgment of the Committee, are at this time subject and liable to such
donations; and their opinion what steps are proper to be taken for the
recovery and establishment thereof for the purposes intended.”
They reported “that the committee, limiting their enquiries to such
charities or donations only, in the recovery whereof there appears at
this time any visible property to which resort can be had, confine
themselves to the several Parishes of St. Ann, St. Andrew, Vere, and
Westmoreland: In each of these parishes donations have been made for the
purpose in the resolution of the House mentioned; some of which
donations have not been carried into full effect, and others have
remained wholly unapplied and unaccounted for by the several devisees,
executors, purchasers, or possessors, under the original granters or
donors of such estates or properties as were specially charged with such
donations.”
That matters had not much improved by the beginning of the nineteenth
century is evident from “An Account of Jamaica and its Inhabitants,”
published in 1808. “Literature,” the author says, “is little cultivated
in Jamaica, nor is reading a very favorite amusement. There is a
circulating Library in Kingston, and, in one or two other places a
paltry attempt at such a thing, these collections of books not being of
that choice and miscellaneous nature which they ought to be, but usually
composed of a few good novels mixed with a much larger proportion of
these ephemeral ones which are daily springing up, and which are a
disgrace to literature, and an insult to common sense.”
John Rippingham, the author of “Jamaica considered in its Present State,
Political, Financial, and Philosophical” (1817), presented a memorial to
the Assembly, setting forth that “there is no establishment provided by
this Island for the education of sons of gentlemen, that he had had
considerable experience in the higher departments of education, and had
published several works upon intellectual improvement, and that he
offered his abilities, acquirements, and assiduity to supply the
deficiency and craved the aid of the house.” The matter was referred to
a Committee and the House agreed, on their report, that they did not
consider it expedient to adopt any measure on the subject. Whether the
House thought higher education was not necessary or doubted Rippingham’s
ability to give it, is not stated.
Bridges, writing in his “Annals,” gives some account of the educational
efforts of the past. He reports “no endowments of any kind” in the
parishes of Trelawny, Manchester, St. Dorothy (now part of St.
Catherine), St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, and St. Thomas-in-the-East or in St.
James, although the Legislature had early in the eighteenth century
appropriated £1400 per annum for the purpose.
In 1843 the Charity Commissioners of England reported on the schools of
Jamaica:
“With this view, then, we may be permitted to observe that almost all
the schools in question have been greatly modified by, and that many owe
their very existence, or their increased income to, acts of the
Legislature. The original bequest to the Jamaica Free School would
probably have been lost to that institution, but for the interference of
the Legislature, and a great part of its present funds was derived from
a grant of the Crown. So at Vere, the Act 2 Geo. 4, c. 19, recites that
the school was failing for want of scholars, and its original
constitution was accordingly varied, by throwing it open for the
reception of children from the adjoining and other parishes. Grants
have, from time to time, been made to each of these schools for
temporary purposes, _e.g._ repairs, etc., and a permanent rate of
interest amounting to no less than 8 per cent. is paid by the Receiver
General to both. It is not, therefore, we think, too much to say that
the Legislature has thus acquired (even if it did not necessarily
possess it) a right to deal with the funds of these institutions, in
such manner as it may deem expedient. Least of all can this be denied
where the object is not to divert them from, but to apply them more
usefully to the great purpose of education, for which they were
originally intended. More especially does this remark apply to the
Jamaica Free School, which appears by the Act 18, Geo. 3, c. 25, s. 5,
to have been expressly intended to fulfil this end, and was even
permitted to incorporate with its own funds those of any other
charitable institution, which were either unappropriated, or which
parties were willing to transfer to it, with a view to carry out this
very object.”
Of the condition of education in the middle of the nineteenth century,
Gardner, in his “History” (1873), states:
“Another Commission, first appointed in 1843, was also discharging the
duty of enquiring into the extent and management of the different
charities of the island, and quietly preparing the way for some
wholesome reforms. Many painful facts were brought to light relative to
the culpable alienation of benevolent bequests from their intended
purpose; and other facts equally discreditable, in reference to the mode
in which existing charities were managed.”