And the above Tablet removed from the inner Wall
In the year MDCCCXVII.
His Grace the Duke of Manchester Governor.
John Lunan, Francis Smith, Churchwardens.
When Long published his History in 1774, the church being without a
tower, the congregation was “summoned by a small bell hung in a wooden
frame erected in the churchyard.”
Hakewill (1821), one of the few artists who have ever seen the
cathedral, calls it “an ancient brick structure of no exterior beauty.”
In Roby’s time (1831) the walls were wainscoted, and the roof was coved
and ornamented with circles, ovals, and lozenges. In 1843 the letters
patent creating Aubrey George Spencer second bishop of Jamaica, created
the parish church of St. Catherine the cathedral of the diocese. The
chancel was restored and extended in 1853. A chapter was formed in 1899.
The church, which had fallen into disrepair, was restored in 1901, as is
duly recorded on the tower, “in commemoration of the glorious reign of
her most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, 1837–1901.” Considerable
damage was wrought by the earthquake of 1907, and a further restoration
was completed during the year 1908.
On state occasions, such as the burial of the governor, the House of
Assembly was wont to attend in a body; and the church was, from the
taking of the island till the removal of the capital to Kingston in
1866, intimately associated with all the important events in the
island’s history, being near both to the House of Assembly and the
governor’s residence. Nearly all its celebrated personages were at some
time or another within its walls, and many of them are buried within its
precincts.
Of its monuments the most important are those to the Earl and Countess
of Effingham (d. 1791); the wife of Sir Adam Williamson (d. 1794); and
Dr. Brodbelt (d. 1795), all by Bacon; Sir Basil Keith (d. 1777), by J.
Wilton, R.A.; the Countess of Elgin (d. 1842), by Sir John Steell;
Colonel John Colbeck (d. 1682), who came out with Penn and Venables;
William Nedham (d. 1746), four times elected speaker of the Assembly;
William Selwyn (d. 1702), governor; Henry Cunningham (d. 1735–6),
governor; Sir Thomas Modyford (d. 1679), governor; Elizabeth Modyford
(d. 1694), wife successively of Samuel Barry and Sir Nicholas Lawes; Sir
Thomas Lynch (d. 1684), governor; Samuel Long (d. 1683), the patriot
who, with William Beeston, succeeded in maintaining the privileges of
the island as against the restrictions attempted to be imposed by the
Earl of Carlisle, acting on instructions from home; Peter Beckford (d.
1710), lieutenant-governor; Major-General James Bannister (d. 1674), at
one time governor of Surinam.
When Sir William Trelawny died, the Assembly expended 1000 guineas on
his funeral, but no monument or slab marks his last resting-place. Other
governors who have died in the island and are without a monument are,
the Duke of Albemarle, the Duke of Portland, Sir Nicholas Lawes, General
Hunter and General Haldane; the bodies of the two first-named (as was
that of Sir Basil Keith) were sent across the Atlantic for interment;
but portions of Albemarle’s body were buried under the altar. Inchiquin
was buried in the church, but there was no memorial of him until the
present Lord Inchiquin erected a brass tablet in 1912.
The earliest monument is that to Catherine, wife of Sir Charles
Lyttelton (January 1662).
The following plate is in the Cathedral:
FLAGON: The Rev. John Lindsay, D.D., Rector; Samuel Howell, James
Trowers, Esq., Churchwardens. From the old plate of St. Catherine,
Jamaica, 1685. Refashioned 1777. Maker’s name S. W., like that of
the maker of a pair of Candlesticks of the year 1759 in Trinity
College, Oxford (recorded by Cripps).
2 PATENS: On each—The Gift of Susannah Butler, widow, of St.
Catherine, Jamaica, 1702. Refashioned 1777. Maker’s name S. W.
2 PATENS (Small), with foot. The gift of Mrs. Jane Spencer to the
Altar of St. Catherine, Jamaica. Refashioned 1777. Maker’s name S.
W.
2 CHALICES: On each—The gift of Mrs. Jane Spencer to the Altar of St.
Catherine, Jamaica. Refashioned 1777.
FLAGON AND 2 CUPS AND 2 PATENS: With the year mark 1789. Maker’s name,
W. P.
1 FLAGON, 2 CHALICES AND 2 PATENS: On each—Presented by Sarah Cole to
Trinity Chapel, St. Catherine’s, Jamaica. Christmas, A.D. 1851.
PATEN (Small): The gift of Wm. G. Macfarlane, in memory of his sister,
Elizabeth E. Jackson, born October 8th, 1819, died Dec. 5th, 1854.
STRAINER SPOON: Year mark 1855. Maker’s name G. A.
It is to be regretted that the old plate of 1685 was refashioned in
1777.
The church at Spanish Town is the oldest foundation in the colony,
dating from the year of the British occupation, 1655; the next oldest
being St. Andrew (Halfway-Tree), dating from 1666, the Alley, 1671, and
St. John’s Guanaboa Vale, which dates from 1699.
The Baptismal and Marriage registers date from 1668: the Burial from
1671.
It is interesting to note that one of the earliest bequests recorded in
the island was that of Edward Morgan of July 14, 1674, of “his house for
a parsonage house” in St. Jago de la Vega.
In April 1677, the Assembly gave “Thanks to Mr. Howser for his sermon;
to be desired to say prayers in the House every morning between six and
seven o’clock, who answered that he would give his attendance at that
time. Every member not attending prayers to be fined 15d.”
In the following year the Assembly requested Mr. Howser “to say prayers
every morning between 6 and 7 o’clock.”
The following is a list of the rectors. Since 1899 they have been _ex
officio_ senior canons of the cathedral.
1664–1683—Rev. Henry Howser (d. Dec. 29, 1683).
1683–1700—Rev. Philip Bennett (d. Sept. 5, 1707).
1700–1702—Rev. James Cunningham.
1702–1703–4—Rev. William Alsop (d. Jan. 10, 1703–4).
1704–1720—Richard Tabor (d. April 6, 1720).
1720–1734—Rev. John Scott (d. Nov. 22, 1734).
1735–1748—Rev. Calvin Galpine (d. Aug. 20, 1748).
1748–1764—Rev. John Venn, B.A. (d. April 6, 1764).
1764–1773—Rev. Samuel Griffiths, A.M.
1773–1788—Rev. John Lindsay, D.D. (d. Nov. 3, 1788).
1789–1791—Rev. Alexander Cumine, D.D. (d. July 18, 1791).
1791–1808—Rev. Robert Stanton Woodham, M.A.
1808–1813—Rev. Isaac Mann.
1814–1822—Rev. William Vaughan Hamilton.
1823–1843—Rev. Lewis Bowerbank, A.M.
1843–1857—Rev. Samuel Paynter Musson, D.D.
1857–1864—Rev. G. J. Handfield, M.A.
1864–1868—Rev. Joseph Williams.
1869–1875—Rev. F. S. Bradshaw, LL.D.
1876–1891—Rev. Charles Frederick Douet, A.M. (afterwards Assistant
Bishop).
1892–1900—Rev. Canon Edward Jocelyn Wortley.
1901–1904—Rev. Canon Reginald John Ripley.
1904–1908—Rev. Canon John Walton Austin.
1909– —Rev. Canon Samuel Purcell Hendrick, M.A.
Tabor is referred to in “The Groans of Jamaica.”
Of the Rev. John Venn, Bryan Edwards wrote an epitaph beginning:
Beneath this stone lies plain John Venn,
Neither the best, nor the worst of men;
and ending:
To sum in short—yet speak in full—
Our plain John Venn was blunt John Bull.
Lindsay was ordained in December 1753 in Conduit Street Chapel, Hanover
Square, London; he was presented to the rectory of St. Thomas-ye-Vale,
Jamaica, in 1768, and was made rector of St. Catherine in 1773; and he
was made D.D. by the University of Edinburgh in the same year. He
officiated at Spanish Town till his death in 1788. The sermon which he
preached at the funeral of Sir Basil Keith, the governor, in 1777, was
published. In 1770 he petitioned the House of Assembly to assist him in
publishing his collection of “drawings of the most curious and beautiful
plants, trees, fruits, birds, insects, fishes,” but received but cold
comfort—the House resolving that the drawings “will merit the attention
of the curious in natural history.” In 1781 and 1783 he published in
“The Gentleman’s Magazine,” “An Examination of the Hypothetical Doctrine
of Waterspouts, in Opposition to the Ingenious Speculations of Dr. B.
Franklin, of Philadelphia, F.R.S.,” which was reprinted in “The Journal
of the Institute of Jamaica,” for December 1897. It is curious that one
of his illustrations represents the church of St. Catherine with a tower
and spire, for it had not even a tower in 1781. In the Bristol Museum
are four volumes of coloured drawings of Jamaica plants and animals made
by Lindsay from 1758 to 1771, many of them accompanied by descriptive
matter.
The Rev. Robert Stanton Woodham was rector in Nugent’s time, and is
frequently mentioned in Lady Nugent’s Journal. She appears to have
formed no very high opinion of the clergy of the island.
Dr. Musson, who died in 1857, is the only rector whose resting-place is
recorded in the church.
Dr. C. F. Douet was for many years assistant bishop of the
diocese—1888–1904. He died in England in 1905. The stained glass window
was erected to his memory in 1914, at the same time as the Children’s
window over the north door.
After the Rodney memorial, the monument in the cathedral, Spanish Town,
erected to the memory of the =Earl of Effingham=, governor of Jamaica,
and his countess, is the most important and the most beautiful work by
Bacon in Jamaica. It is of marble, and bears the legend “J. Bacon,
sculptor, London, 1796.”
On a base stands an urn, decorated with festoons of flowers, and
bearing, under an earl’s coronet, the arms of Effingham: Quarterly, 1st
gules on a bend between six cross crosslets fitchée argent, an
escutcheon or, bearing a demi-lion rampant pierced through the mouth
with an arrow within a double tressure flory counterflory of the first.
2nd gules three lions passant guardant in pale or (England) with a label
of three points. 3rd checky, or and azure. 4th gules a lion rampant
argent. In fess point of the shield a mullet for difference. Supporters
two lions rampant. Motto, _Virtus mille scuta_. Above the urn, hanging
on an obelisk which rises from the base of the monument, are represented
the Chancellor’s seal, the mace and sword in saltire, and the usual
emblematic scales.
On one side of the monument, clasping the urn, is an elegant female
figure personifying Jamaica, bearing the crest of the colony, an
alligator passant proper, on her zone. On the other side is a lovely
boy, his left hand holding an olive branch, resting on a cornucopia full
of tropical fruits, and his right hand upon a shield bearing the arms of
Jamaica as granted by Charles II, viz,: Argent on a cross gules five
pineapples proper. Dexter supporter an Indian female, in her exterior
hand a basket of fruit. Sinister, an Indian warrior, in his exterior
hand a bow, both plumed, all proper. Crest, an alligator. Motto, _Indus
uterque serviet uni_. The epitaph, written by Bryan Edwards, the
historian of the West Indies, and then member of Assembly for Trelawny,
is as follows:
TO THE MEMORY OF
THOMAS EARL OF EFFINGHAM BARON HOWARD, CAPTAIN GENERAL AND CHIEF
GOVERNOR OF THIS ISLAND IN THE YEARS 1790 AND 1791, AND OF CATHERINE
HIS WIFE. THE LATTER DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF
OCTOBER, 1791, IN A VOYAGE UNDERTAKEN FOR THE BENEFIT OF HER HEALTH,
IN HIS MAJESTY’S SHIP DIANA: THE FORMER ON THE 19TH OF THE FOLLOWING
MONTH, THE THIRD WEEK AFTER THE MELANCHOLY RETURN OF THE DIANA WITH
THE REMAINS OF HIS BELOVED CONSORT, WHOM HE SEEMED UNWILLING TO
SURVIVE, AND WITH WHOM HE WAS DEPOSITED IN THE SAME GRAVE, THUS,
UNITED IN THEIR LIVES BY THE MOST TENDER AND EXALTED TIES,
HE—THE FOND AND INDULGENT HUSBAND,
SHE—THE CHEERFUL AND OBEDIENT WIFE—
IN THEIR DEATHS THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED.
TO PERPETUATE THE REMEMBRANCE OF SO ILLUSTRIOUS A PATTERN OF CONJUGAL
AFFECTION, TO MANIFEST THE PUBLIC SENSE OF THE MANY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
VIRTUES OF THEIR RESPECTED GOVERNOR, AND TO RECORD FOR THE BENEFIT OF
POSTERITY THE CLEARNESS OF THAT SAGACITY, THE EXTENT OF THAT
KNOWLEDGE, AND THE PURITY AND FIRMNESS OF THAT INTEGRITY, WHICH
RENDERED HIS ADMINISTRATION THE BOAST AND SECURITY OF A GRATEFUL
PEOPLE; THE ASSEMBLY OF JAMAICA, HAVING CAUSED THE REMAINS OF THIS
NOBLE AND LAMENTED PAIR TO BE INTERR’D WITH FUNERAL HONOURS AT THE
PUBLIC EXPENSE, THE WHOLE HOUSE ATTENDING EACH PROCESSION AS MOURNERS,
AS A FURTHER TESTIMONY OF MERITED ESTEEM, INSCRIBE THIS MONUMENT.
By an Act passed in 1789, burying in churches had been recently
prohibited, and a penalty of £500 imposed on any rector permitting such
burial; but two bills, dispensing with that Act and indemnifying the
Rev. Robert Stanton Woodham, the then lately appointed rector of St.
Catherine, from its penalties in the special cases of the Earl and
Countess were introduced in the Assembly by Bryan Edwards and passed
unanimously.
On November 19 the House “resolved, _nem. con._, in order to testify the
grateful respect which this House entertain of his late Excellency’s
merit and virtues, his firm and independent conduct, and the sense they
have of the great and universal satisfaction which his mild and
equitable administration, in every department, gave to all ranks of
people, and the regret which they feel at his loss, that the funeral of
the late Earl of Effingham be conducted at the public expense”; and on
December 7, 1791, the Assembly voted £500 sterling toward this monument.
The monument, together with the two funerals, which were attended by the
members of the Assembly, cost the island £8700.
The Rev. Thomas Warren, rector of St. Elizabeth, and domestic chaplain
to the governor—the same Thomas Warren who ten years later disgusted
Lady Nugent by his toadyism while conducting the service at Black
River-preached the funeral sermons, which are given in the “Columbian
Magazine or Monthly Miscellany” published in Kingston in June 1797.
The Earl and Countess of Effingham arrived at Port Royal on March 17,
1790, in the ship _Catherine Countess of Effingham_. During his short
period of governorship the condition of Jamaica was the cause of some
anxiety owing to the nearness of the republican movement in San Domingo;
so much so, that during the Christmas holidays of 1791 two ships of war
patrolled round the island. The National Assembly of France passed a
decree of thanks to the King of Great Britain, to the English nation,
and to Lord Effingham, governor of Jamaica, for his generous conduct in
relieving the planters of St. Domingo from the horrors of famine, and in
furnishing them with arms and military stores against the rebel negroes.
It was during Effingham’s governorship that the bread-fruit and other
trees were imported from the south seas, and a collection of Jamaica
plants was sent home to Kew Gardens.
The House of Assembly addressed the governor on the subject of proposed
additional duties by England on sugar and rum, but to their
representations the governor made a diplomatic reply.
The Earl’s mother was daughter of Peter Beckford, speaker of the
Assembly, and sister to the celebrated lord mayor of London. His wife,
whom he married in 1765, was the daughter of Metcalfe Proctor, of
Thorpe, near Leeds. They had no children.
Next to the Effingham monument that to the =Countess of Elgin= is the
most interesting from an art point of view.
In April 1841, Elizabeth Mary, the twenty-year-old daughter of Charles
Lennox Cumming Bruce, was married to Lord Bruce, the son of the earl of
“Elgin Marbles” fame. He had the year before become heir to the earldom
through the death of his elder half-brother; and in the July following
he was elected member of Parliament for Southampton, and succeeded to
the title in the November of the same year (1841), becoming a peer of
Scotland without a seat in the House of Lords. In the April of the
following year he was made governor of Jamaica at the early age of
thirty-one years, and there served his apprenticeship to his greater
work as governor-general of Canada and viceroy of India. He experienced
a period of depression, owing to the effects of emancipation, and of
storms and floods; but in spite of difficulties he endeavoured, not
without success, to improve the social conditions and develop the
industrial resources of the island. The Royal Agricultural Society of
Jamaica (later merged into the Royal Society of Arts and Agriculture of
Jamaica) and several parochial agricultural associations were
established by him; the first batch of coolies arrived from India in
1845, and the railway was opened for traffic in the same year.
On the death of the countess within less than a twelvemonth of her
landing, and after a little more than two years of married life, the
House of Assembly voted three hundred guineas for a monument to be
erected in the cathedral at Spanish Town. It was carved by Sir John
Steell, and is inscribed on the back “Jn. Steell, Sculptor, Edinr.,
1849.” He is best known for his statues in Edinburgh of Sir Walter Scott
and the Prince Consort, and for his colossal statue of Burns in New
York. The first-named is said to have been the first marble statue
commissioned in Scotland from a native artist; the second secured him
his knighthood. Steell in early life patriotically declined Chantrey’s
flattering offer to remove from Edinburgh to London, in order that he
might devote himself to the improvement of the art of his native
country.
His busts are said to be distinguished by great dignity and refinement.
These characteristics are evident in his posthumous portrait of Lady
Elgin.
The following is the inscription on the monument:
IN MEMORY OF
ELIZABETH MARY, COUNTESS OF ELGIN AND KINCARDINE, ONLY CHILD OF
CHARLES LENNOX CUMMING BRUCE, ESQR., OF ROSEISLE AND KINNAIRD IN
SCOTLAND, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR THE COUNTIES OF ELGIN AND NAIRN,
AND OF MARY ELIZABETH BRUCE. GRANDDAUGHTER AND REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
DISTINGUISHED TRAVELLER IN ABYSSINIA. BORN ON THE 13TH APRIL, 1821,
SHE WAS MARRIED ON THE 22ND APRIL, 1841, AND HAVING ACCOMPANIED HER
HUSBAND, HIS EXCELLENCY JAMES EARL OF ELGIN AND KINCARDINE, TO
JAMAICA, IN APRIL, 1842, SHE DIED AT CRAIGTON, IN THE PARISH OF ST.
ANDREW’S, ON THE 7TH JUNE, 1843: RESTING WITH ASSURED FAITH ON THE
LOVE OF HER REDEEMER, AMIDST THE UNSPEAKABLE SORROW OF HER RELATIVES
AND FRIENDS, AND THE DEEP LAMENT OF THE COMMUNITY THAT HAD WITNESSED
THE RICH PROMISE OF HER EARLY VIRTUES. THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY
THE LEGISLATURE OF THE COLONY NOT AS A COLD TRIBUTE OF RESPECT DUE TO
EXALTED RANK, BUT TO MARK THE PUBLIC REGRET, FOR DISTINGUISHED WORTH
AND TALENT, SO EARLY LOST TO HER COUNTRY AND HER FAMILY.
“BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD.”
Craigton, used as a mountain residence by the Earl of Elgin, is in the
Blue Mountains, by the fourteenth milestone on the driving road to
Newcastle.
The following passage from Professor Wrong’s “Earl of Elgin” tells in a
few words the sad cause of Lady Elgin’s death:
In April 1842 Lord Elgin left England for Jamaica. On the way he
experienced the dramatic and, for him, tragic consequences of
shipwreck; the steamer struck on the coral reefs surrounding Turk’s
Island, one of the Bahamas, and became a total wreck. No lives were
lost, but Lady Elgin received a shock from which she never recovered.
When, in the following summer, she died in Jamaica, Lord Elgin was so
prostrated by grief that his recovery seemed doubtful. He was left
with one infant daughter. From utter loneliness the society of his own
kindred saved him; with him were his sister Charlotte, afterwards Lady
Charlotte Locker, and his brother Robert, the latter as his Secretary.
Though living chiefly at the country house, Craighton (sic), in the
Blue Mountains, he did not neglect holding at Spanish Town, then the
capital of Jamaica, the receptions and entertainments which must be a
heavy burden upon the time and patience of those in high official
position. The life was sufficiently monotonous, and after three years
he longed for more active employment.
The immediate cause of Lady Elgin’s death was the birth of an infant
daughter, who only lived a few hours. Her only surviving child, Elma,
married Baron Thurlow.
With regard to the actual spot where the body is interred, we read in
the “Morning Journal” of June 1843:
His Honour, the Chief Justice, the Custos, and several other
officials, then proceeded to the selection of a proper place for the
sepulture of her Ladyship. The spot they selected was immediately
below the Communion Table, in the Cathedral, and in which the remains
of the Earl and Countess of Effingham were interred in 1791. The
excavation took place under the superintendence of His Honor the
Custos, assisted by Mr. Churchwarden M’Anuff; and about five o’clock
on Thursday morning the vaulting and arches were complete.
The funeral was attended by all the high officials, civil, naval and
military, and by the members of the House of Assembly.
Though the present =House of Assembly= probably only dates from about
the same period as King’s House (1762) or a little later, the Assembly
always met (with a slight diversion, in favour of Kingston, under
Admiral Knowles in 1755) in Spanish Town, and the old capital was thus
associated with the story of the long series of struggles which took
place between the people’s representatives and the Crown.
In 1702 the Assembly met at the Queen’s House and at the Court House. In
his speech to the Assembly on September 5, 1706, Handasyd said, “That
the public building, I mean the Assembly House, being ready to fall, I
don’t doubt but you will give orders for the rebuilding of the same.”
In 1728 the Duchess of Portland, widow of the late Governor, gave a
portrait of George I to the Assembly. It was hung over the speaker’s
chair. One wonders where it now is.
One of the most dramatic incidents which ever happened during a session
of the Assembly is that which caused the death of Peter Beckford, a
former lieutenant-governor of the colony, the president of the Council,
and the first custos of Kingston.
The incident is thus described by Bridges:
During a warm debate in the Assembly on June 8, 1711, on the right of
adjournment for a longer period than _de die in diem_, Peter Beckford,
the Speaker (son of the President), repeatedly called to order; and
was at length compelled to enforce it by adjournment. But irritation
had gone so far that, when he rose to quit the chair, the Members drew
their swords and held him there, while the obnoxious questions in
debate were put and carried. The doors were barred; the uproar was
alarming; and the Speaker’s father heard the disturbance in the
Council Chamber. He recognised the voice of his son crying aloud for
help, and rushed into the Governor’s apartment. Sir Thomas Handasyde
seized his sword, ordered the sentinels to follow him, forced the door
of the Court House, and dissolved the Assembly in the Queen’s name.
But the fray was fatal to the elder Beckford; in his agitation his
foot slipped, and he was precipitated down the staircase, and the
effects of terror were deadly to his aged frame.
From this account we incidentally learn that the Assembly then had no
House of its own and met in the court house, which probably stood where
the present court house stands, at the south side of the square; the
House of Assembly being on the east side, the King’s House on the west,
and Rodney’s memorial on the north. In 1679 the church was first used as
a House of Assembly, and was so used occasionally, as well as the court
house, till its destruction by hurricane in 1712.
In “A View of the Proceedings of the Assemblies of Jamaica for some
years past,” published in London in 1716, occurs a letter dated from
Kingston, December 4, 1715, which begins, “The Grand Court is Sitting,
as also the Assembly (who as former Assemblies have done in Court time)
Sit in the Great Church [at Spanish Town]....”
The speaker alluded to above, Peter Beckford, held that office no less
than four times. He will ever be remembered, in Spanish Town at all
events, as the founder of Beckford and Smith’s School.