and member of Assembly for St. Mary, 1707; for Port Royal, 1708–09; for
St. George, 1711; for Port Royal again, 1716; and for St. Anne, 1718. He
enriched himself by the slave trade, as factor for the Assiento.
Until about the middle of the last century various inns and
posting-houses, or taverns, as they were generally called, were kept in
Jamaica. Some were rendered unnecessary by the advent of the railway,
and some were superseded owing to the more rapid travelling rendered
possible by better roads.
Of these the =Ferry Inn=, formerly the halfway house between Kingston
and Spanish Town, has survived hurricane and earthquake, only to live on
its departed glory, and no longer as a tavern.
In 1677 “An Act for the Ferry between St. Catherines and St. Andrews”
was passed, of which the preamble runs:
Whereas William Parker, of the parish of St. Andrews, Esquire, hath at
his particular Charge found out and made a very convenient Way between
the Salt and Fresh River in the Parish of St. Andrews and St.
Catherines, which will be of great use and advantage to the whole
Island, in causing a more near and easie Correspondence with the
several Precincts and whereas the said William Parker hath likewise
set up and erected a Ferry for the better Accommodation of the said
Passage, and whereas the same cannot be maintained without great and
constant charges....
In return for the right to demand Toll over the Ferry, Parker was bound
to “compleat the said Way and Passage within twelve months from and
after the making of this Act, and that in all places it be not less than
eight foot broad.”
This was one of a batch of laws that was not assented to by the King,
and included in the laws passed under the Great Seal of England in 1678,
and brought out by Carlisle for the Assembly’s acceptance which was
refused. It was repeated in an Act of 1683. An Act of 1699, confirmed in
1703, directed the building of a bridge, and the 1683 Act does not
appear in subsequent editions of the laws. The Ferry river—once known as
the Lagoon river from its source to the Ferry and thence to its junction
with the Salt river as the Fresh river—rises at Governor’s Spring in
Ellis’s Caymanas and runs into the Salt river; the united stream then
runs into the old course of the Rio Cobre just before it enters Hunt’s
Bay in Kingston harbour.
[Illustration:
THE FERRY INN
]
By the Act of 1677, “William Parker, his Heirs and Assigns” were
“Impowered and Authorized, for the space and term of fourteen years from
the making thereof, to ask, demand, sue for, recover, and receive as a
Duty and Toll for the Transporting of any Person over the said Ferry,
Seven pence half peny; for every Horse and Man, fifteen pence; for every
grown Beast that hath no Rider, seven Pence half peny; for every Sheep,
Calf, or Hog, sixpence; and that the said William Parker, his Heirs and
Assigns, may and shall erect a Tavern or Victualling-house near the said
Ferry, and shall not be compelled to renew or pay any License Money for
the same.”
Lady Nugent, in her Journal, mentions visits to the Ferry Inn on three
occasions, all in 1803; on February 10, when the Governor’s party
breakfasted there prior to the review of the St. Andrew’s militia by
General Nugent; on May 27, when “most of our family dined at the Ferry
House, on the Kingston Road, and our dinner party was very small”; and
lastly, on June 13, when she writes: “13th—Sent carriages, soon after
5, into Spanish Town, for the Murphy family, who slept there. Soon
after breakfast, General N. set off with Mr. M. in the curricle, to
visit the estates between this and Kingston called the Camoens
[Caymanas]. After second breakfast Mrs. and the Misses Murphy with me
in the sociable. The rest of the party in kittareens, phaetons, and on
horseback, all proceded to the Ferry Inn to meet the Admiral and a
large party at dinner. We had sent on to order the dinner, a few days
before, and all that Jamaica produces was ready to be served up. The
poor Admiral however, was so overcome with fatigue and the heat of the
day, that he was quite ill, and obliged to leave the table. In
consequence we all separated early. Mr. and Mrs. M. went with the
Admiral, and are to be his guests till Wednesday. I took my seat in
the curricle with General N., and all our young people went in the
sociable; and really if it had not been for Sir J. T. Duckworth’s
illness it would have been a merry party. As it was I was much
entertained; for the Inn is situated on the road between Kingston and
Spanish Town, and it was very diverting to see the odd figures and
extraordinary equipages constantly passing—kittareens, sulkies, mules,
and donkies. Then a host of gentlemen, who were taking their
_sangaree_ in the Piazza; and their vulgar buckism amused me very
much. Some of them got half tipsy; and then began petitioning me for
my interest with _his Honour_—to redress the grievance of one, to give
a place to another, and so forth; in short it was a picture of
Hogarth....”
To-day one can drive by the road and meet perhaps only a few drays,
laden with wood or guinea-grass for Kingston, or, it may be, bananas or
other agricultural produce. Of the “host of gentlemen” one sees nothing.
The Ferry was in the early nineteenth century one of the places where
tolls were charged. In the “Royal Gazette” for November 17, 1827, the
Lease of the Ferry Toll was advertised for tender.
The records of the House of Assembly contain many references to the
grants made in aid of roads, their management and the like. It may be
interesting to take the history of the Spanish Town road, which until
the advent of the railway was the principal, as typical of the rest.
“An Act for the Highways,” passed in 1681 (the third Act passed by the
legislature of the colony) provides “That the Highways be sixty foot
wide in standing Wood, forty foot where the Wood is only on one side,
and twenty-four foot in open ground.”
The early “Act for the Highways” is alluded to in a slightly later Act
(passed before 1695): “For making and Clearing a Publick Road from St.
Mary’s and St. George’s into the Parish of St. Andrew’s.”
In 1698 Parker was brought before the House for collecting toll at the
Ferry although the law had expired. A Committee to whom the matter was
referred, reported that they had
examined the business referred to them by the House, concerning the
Ferry between St. Catherine’s and St. Andrews and upon perusal of the
Patent granted anno 1682, the whole Committee came to this resolution,
viz. That the patent was void and the law expired:
Whereupon the said letters patent and the law being read in the house,
it was put to the vote, whether the House would concur to the report
of the committee of grievances;
Carried in the affirmative.
Michael Holdsworth and John Moone, esquires, ordered to wait on the
Governor and acquaint him of the resolution of the House about the
ferry, who returning, reported the delivery of the message, and that
the Governor said that he hoped the house would take care to make a
law that the benefit of the ferry should go to the two parishes, but
that he thought it reasonable that the parish of St. Andrew shall have
somewhat the more of the benefit, in regard that the road on the other
side the ferry is to be maintained by them, which will be chargeable.
Whereupon Michael Holdsworth, Usher Tyrrell, John Walters, John Dove,
Emanuel Moreton, William Hall, Jervis Sleigh, and John James,
esquires, were appointed a committee to bring in a bill for that
purpose.
And in the following year an Act was passed “to oblige the parishes of
St. Catherine and St. Andrew to build a bridge over the Rio Cobre.” The
bridge was to be at least twelve foot wide.
In October 1723 a Committee of the Assembly, appointed to consider the
most effectual means for repairing the public roads, reported:
1. That although the road leading from Spanish-Town to the Parish of
St. Andrew were repaired according to the Act of this island directing
the repairing the public roads, yet it would be of no effect, unless
the Rio Cobre were first cleared.
To which the House agreed....
And a committee was appointed to bring in a bill for repairing the road
leading from St. Jago de la Vega to the town of Kingston. The committee
was, five days later, ordered to insert a clause for cutting a new
channel for the Rio Cobre.
By 1745 the road was known as the Ferry Road, and in that year a
Committee of the Assembly was appointed to enquire into matters
respecting it.
In 1748 the Assembly again considered the state of the Ferry Road, and
passed “An Act to empower Commissioners to keep the Ferry, and erect a
toll-gate or turnpike, between St. Catherine’s and St. Andrew’s, to
commence at the expiration of an Act entitled An Act for empowering
William Peete, Esquire to keep the Ferry, and erect a toll-gate or
turnpike between St. Catherine’s and St. Andrew’s, and taking up runaway
negroes.”
In 1758 an Act was passed for “Vesting in Trustees a toll to keep the
ferry, and erect a toll-gate or turnpike between St. Catherine’s and St.
Andrew’s ...” and a similar Act was passed in 1761.
In 1777 a Committee reported:
4. On consideration of the motion for £4000 to be applied towards
carrying on the road from the church in Spanish Town to the church in
Kingston, it appears to your Committee, from accounts solemnly
attested and rendered in, and also from vouchers produced, that the
sum of £2000 granted last session of Assembly, for carrying on the new
road from the town of St. Jago de la Vega to the Ferry, in the parish
of St. Catherine, and of £2000 for carrying on the new road from the
Ferry, in the parish of St. Andrew, to the Town of Kingston, have been
all expended on the said roads; your Committee were therefore of
opinion, the sum of £4000 now applied for, should be granted: Your
Committee have come to two resolutions respecting this road:
1st. _Resolved_: It is the opinion of this Committee that the road
between Spanish Town and Kingston is laid out on too large a scale;
that therefore, it ought to be contracted that thirty feet in the
centre well paved and gravelled (except in the Salina which ought to
be paved forty feet) would answer every purpose to the public, and
save a considerable expense.
2nd. _Resolved_: It is the opinion of this Committee that the salaries
allowed to the Superintendent, and his assistants, amounting to about
£900 per annum, are too large; and that, in future, they ought to be
reduced.
In 1778 an Act was passed “for explaining and amending the several
Highway Laws now in force, and rendering the said Laws more effectual.”
It was repealed and expired by 1792.
In 1799 an Act “for continuing the Act commonly called the Highways Act
for a certain time longer,” was passed, but expired in 1812.
In 1801 a Highway law was passed, but was repealed in 1805.
In 1802 a law was passed “for rendering more effectual the several laws
relating to the public road from the church in the town of Saint Jago de
la Vega to the church in Kingston,” and “the Trustees of the Ferry Road”
were thereby appointed.
In 1815 an Act was passed giving “fuller powers to the Trustees of the
Ferry Road,” as it was found that “the present state of the Ferry Road
requires that their powers shall be extended, and that prompt and
efficacious means should be used to repair and keep the same in good
order especially by causing it to be frequently examined.”
The oldest tablet in the =Church of St. Thomas-in-the-Vale= at Linstead
is that of one Elizabeth Burton, who died in 1742. At the time of the
threatened invasion by the French in 1805 the Records of the island were
removed to this church, and were protected by a militia guard. The said
church was blown down by a hurricane in March 1822, and was shortly
afterwards rebuilt. A tower was added to the church in 1830.
The church was destroyed by earthquake on January 14, 1907, and was
rebuilt of reinforced concrete with eternit roofing at a total cost of
£950 and was consecrated in 1911.
Although the parish of St. Thomas-in-the-Vale dates from 1675, when the
author of “The Present State of Jamaica” (published in 1683) wrote his
work, its church was not one of the seven churches in the island; the
nearest church then being St. John’s, Guanaboa Vale, which had been in
existence since 1669. The earliest rector recorded was the Rev. Thomas
Garbrand, appointed in 1705. In “The Early English Colonies” (1908), by
Mr. Sadler Phillips, is given “A List of the Parishes, Churches and
Ministers in Jamaica, April 18th, 1715,” in which is included “St.
Thomas-in-the-Vale, a church blown down, Mr. Reinolds.” The Rev. James
Reynolds had come out in 1709, sent by the Bishop of London, who since
1702 had had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Jamaica. In 1798 the
rector was the Rev. William Williamson. In 1820 and for some years after
the rector was the Rev. William Buston.
=Williamsfield=, in St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, on the road between St. Mary
and Spanish Town, was first settled by Needham, a large proprietor, but
was soon purchased by one Harvey from Barbados, who in turn sold it to
Daniel Lascelles, brother to the first Baron Harewood. It remained in
the Lascelles’ hands for many years. In 1743, Henry Lascelles went to
London from Barbados, and being a wealthy man purchased the Harewood
estate, carried on business in London as West India merchants with
George Maxwell. His son Edwin was created Baron Harewood in 1790.
At a Council meeting held on July 11, 1692, at St. Jago de la Vega (the
first held there after the earthquake) it was “ordered that the Councill
meet on Wednesday next at Musqueto Point to view and consider of a place
in order to the Building a fortification for to secure the Channell.”
And on August 8 it was “ordered that a fortification be made at Mosquito
Point, of the ground &c. fitt to erect the same and that Charles
Bouchier, Esq. goe and veiw the same and draw out Plott thereof and the
same Returne to this Board.” This was the origin of =Fort Augusta=.
Long gives the following account of the fort in his time. He makes a
strong attack on the policy of fortifying a place which he designates a
“still unfinished battery stuck into a quagmire at the entrance of
Kingston Harbour,” and says that the immense charges incurred on its
behalf had by 1757 helped to cripple the island financially. He says:
This fort mounts eighty-six large guns, kept in excellent order. It
contains a large magazine, a house for the commandant, barracks to
contain three hundred soldiers, with all convenient offices, and
casemates. It was projected to mount one hundred and sixteen guns; but
it is not yet compleated. The walls and bastions are built upon piles
of the palmeto or thatch-pole tree, which is endued with the property
of lasting in water without being liable to erosion by the worm. These
were driven down through the loose land, until they reached a firm
bed. If the same precaution had been used in constructing the houses
of Port Royal, it is probable that the greater part of the town would
have survived the earthquake. This fort contains an hospital, besides
habitations for the officers, and is looked upon to be an healthy
garrison. The neck of sand which joins it to the main is not above
fifty or sixty feet wide in most places, and so low, that an enemy
could not carry on approaches, on account of the water rising near the
surface; and it is flanked by a lagoon, or inlet of water from the
harbour, of some extent; for these reasons, and because the ships, in
passing up the channel towards Kingston, must come within point-blank
shot of a whole line of guns, a governor of this island pronounced it
impregnable both by land and sea.
During a storm in 1744 a new fort begun at Mosquito Point was entirely
destroyed.
The present fort was erected on Mosquito Point in Kingston Harbour in
1753. On September 13, 1782, the magazine, with three hundred barrels of
powder, blew up. Amongst the military tombs is that to Major John Sankey
Darley, 2nd W.I.R., who was killed in a mutiny of the West India
Regiment there in May 1808. Recruits of the 2nd West India Regiment,
Chamba and Koromantyn negroes, mutinied on parade, aided by some of the
older men. The Lieutenant and Adjutant Ellis was killed on the spot, and
Darley died of the wounds he received. The general officer commanding,
Carmichael, got into conflict with the House of Assembly by directing
his officers not to answer any questions that that body might put to
them with reference to the occurrence. Darley was brother to Alderman
Darley of Dublin, of Orange notoriety. Carmichael died in 1813 while
governor of British Guiana.
=Rodney’s Look-out= on the Heathshire Hills was shaken down by the
earthquake of 1907. It was erected by Rodney while he was admiral on the
Jamaica station, (1771–74), for the purpose of keeping a look-out to
windward. =Port Henderson= hard by, is named after a former owner, John
Henderson, colonel of militia, who was presented at Court in February
1784. He died at his estate in Scotland in 1811. It was founded in
opposition to Passage Fort, as it afforded better accommodation for
ships.
Towards the close of the nineteenth century it was the site of a
temporary laboratory of marine zoology for students of the Johns Hopkins
University.
=Lawrencefield= is said to have been the residence of Sir Henry Morgan,
governor of Jamaica (1673–82). =St. Jago Farm= is said to be the site of
the residence of Sasi, the last of the Spanish Governors. =Government
Pen= was the residence of former governors, and is frequently mentioned
in Lady Nugent’s “Journal.” At Caymanas is an Arawâk kitchen-midden·, at
Mountain River, St. John’s, some Arawâk rock-carvings, and at Goat
Island (in Old Harbour Bay) is a cave with Arawâk remains. At Point Hill
are some old barracks which are now used as a police station.
=Keith Hall= is probably named after Sir Basil Keath, governor in
1774–77, and =Sligoville= after Peter, Marquis of Sligo, governor in
1834–36.
III
KINGSTON
That there was a collection of houses on or near the spot where Kingston
now stands, some years before its formation into a town and parish, is
evident, but it is also evident that Gardner’s application of the name
to “the little village of Kingston” in 1673 is based on imagination. In
the map of Jamaica in “The English Pilot” of 1689 in the inset of “the
draft of the Harbor of Port Royal” is marked Liganea, with seven small
houses and one larger one where Kingston now is, and one larger one
half-way to The Rock.
In the “Present State of Jamaica,” published in 1683, occurs the
following description of the village:—“At Liguania, the inside of the
harbour, opposite to Port Royal, about two leagues, is several houses,
some of them very handsome, and well built, which place in time is like
to become a pretty town.”
On the map which accompanies the “State of Jamaica under Sir Thomas
Lynch” (included in the “Laws of Jamaica,” published in London in 1684)
the place where Kingston now stands is marked “Beeston.” The original
owner of the land was Colonel Samuel Barry, who patented it in 1664 and
later sold it to (Sir) William Beeston, who, coming to Jamaica in 1660,
represented Port Royal in the first House of Assembly, and was
lieutenant-governor of the island from 1693 to 1700, and Governor till
1702: but there is on the map a mark for a “towne” on the harbour to the
west, between “Beeston” and Hunt’s Bay, where Greenwich now is.
The site of Kingston was not the first chosen by the English for the
commercial capital of the island. Port Royal, as we have seen,
flourished as such until 1692, in which year occurred the great
earthquake which destroyed that place and caused the death of 3000 of
its inhabitants. That dealt it a fearful blow.
On June 24, 1692, a little more than a fortnight after the earthquake
which destroyed Port Royal, the Council ordered a “survey of 200 acres
of Colonel Beeston’s land in St. Andrews where the Council have resolved
to build a new town,” and four days later the Council ordered that £1000
should be paid to Beeston, who was at the moment in England, for the 200
acres: but this was apparently _ultra vires_ on the Council’s part, as
they had no power to originate money votes. The first traceable
reference to the place by name occurs in the Council minutes of July 21,
1692, when regulations for building “the new town of Kingston in St.
Andrews” were drawn up, and it was resolved that every purchaser should
within three years build a house worth £50 on forfeiture of that sum.
Such forfeiture, it was later decided, should go towards founding a
hospital.
The following occurs in the Council minutes for August 9, 1692:
Ordered that no freeholder of Port Royall have laid out for him above
one lott by the sea side.
Ordered that none of the Inhabitants of Port Royall have laid out for
him above one lott.
Ordered that all the freeholders of Port Royall have laid out for them
in the said Towne the same quantity they had on Port Royall provided
it Exceed not three lotts.
Ordered that all the freeholders that had land bounding upon the North
sea side on Port Royall be Preferred to the sea side land and that
their lotts be first cast.
Ordered that all the lotts for the Towne of Kingston be cast on once
and that if Claimers doe not appear for all the said land that then
blankes be cast to Coll^{ll} Peter Beckford and Coll^{ll} Nicholas
Laws or be disposed of by them to the next Pretenders.
Ordered that for every lott of land there be reserved to their
Maj^{ties} Tenn Shillings a year as an anuall Quitt Rent.
Ordered that the chiefe Justice be desired to order the Drawing of
Conveyances for the severall parcells of land laid out in the said
Towne.
Ordered that the forfeiture of fifty pounds for not building a house
upon the Premises of the Value of fifty Pounds within the time
appointed by this Board shall be applied to the building of an
Hospital in the said Towne.
Ordered that the Councill meet at the house of Mr. Ann. Lowder in the
Towne of Kingston on Tuesday next to Receive the claims of the
freeholders and Inhabitants of Po^t Royall & all others that are
Desireous to Erect and build in the said Towne & that notice be given
thereof accordingly.
After the Calamity of the Earthquake we had appointed a place for y^e
building of a Towne w^{ch} we then thought by its Scituation would
have been equall if not Exceeding Port Royall where we had ordered all
ships and vessells arriveing here to unlade and also ordered the
severall offices to settle there for Enterey of the same—
But may it pleas y^r Lordships Since to o^r no small greif we are made
sensible of the unhealthyness of the place. By the great Mortality
that there happened & finding a Greater difficulty then we Expected in
fortifying the harbour Have been forst to order the withdrawing of
those offices to the Remains of Port Royall where there is firme Rock
enough left for fortifying that neither the Earthquake nor the sea
hath distroyed or made Unhabitable.
On August 16 the Council itself met at Kingston. Orders were given for
the erection of a market to be held daily, Edward Yeamans to be clerk.
Thomas Clarke was provisionally appointed naval officer and collector of
customs, and Deodatus Stanley was appointed bellman of Kingston.
Kingston was not represented in Sir William Beeston’s first Assembly,
which met in 1693; of his second, which met in the following year, the
names of the members are not recorded; so it is impossible to give the
names of those who probably represented the new town for the first time.
But in Beeston’s third Assembly, which met on March 5, 1694–5, Kingston
was represented by Josiah Hethcott, James Bradshaw and Samuel Foxley. Of
these Bradshaw was a relative (probably son) of the regicide of that
name. According to a document in Fulham Palace, recently quoted by Mr.
N. Darnell Davis in “Notes and Queries,” “in 1723–4 Bradshaw, the son of
President Bradshaw, came frequently to Liguania and received the
sacrament there.”
A letter, dated Port Royal, July 3, 1693, quoted by Sir Hans Sloane in
his account of the great earthquake already alluded to, contains the
following information about Kingston: