from the first clearing of the Ground, and from bad Accommodations,
then Hutts built with Boughs, and not sufficient to keep out Rain,
which in great and an unusual manner followed the Earthquake, lying
wet, and wanting Medicines, and all Conveniences, etc., they died
miserably in heaps. Indeed there was a general sickness (supposed to
proceed from the hurtful Vapours belch’d from the many openings of the
Earth) all over the Island so general that few escaped being sick; and
’tis thought it swept away in all Parts of the Island 3000 Souls; the
greatest part from Kingston only, yet an unhealthy Place.
Many people remained at Port Royal, but most of the survivors removed to
the lower part of Liguanea. The Council paid Beeston on June 28, £1000.
A plan for the town was drawn up by Colonel Christian Lilly, “Her
Majesty’s engineer-general,” under the direction of the Government.
In his plan Lilly adopted the chessboard fashion of all Spanish cities
in the New World—a plan which is at least as old as the Romans. If one
omits the lanes, the plan of Kingston as laid down by Lilly in the
seventeenth century is precisely the same as that of the recently
unearthed Roman city of Calleva (Silchester) of thirteen centuries
earlier, with its insulæ, prototypes of the American blocks. Kingston
consisted then of a parallelogram one mile in length from north to
south, and half a mile in breadth, regularly traversed by streets and
lanes, alternately crossing each other at right angles. When Long wrote
it contained “sixteen hundred and fifty-five houses, besides negro
houses and warehouses; so that the whole number of its buildings,
including every sort, may be computed at between two and three thousand,
and thirty-five spacious streets and sixteen lanes.” At present there
are in Kingston 171 streets and sixty-nine lanes and about 9000 houses.
[Illustration:
HARBOUR STREET, KINGSTON, IN 1820
From a coloured engraving in Hakewill’s “Picturesque Tour of Jamaica”
]
Unfortunately Lilly when he planned Kingston, when land was cheap,
omitted to leave room for lines of trees down each principal street. Had
this been done, shade would have been afforded to drivers and
pedestrians alike, and a picturesque feature would have been assured for
the town. Moreover, the chessboard plan of laying out a town, naturally
from its regularity dear to the heart of an engineer, is fatal in the
interests of picturesqueness, however suitable it may be for
progression.
There was not at first much progress in its settlement, the recollection
of the former wealth and greatness of Port Royal giving the colonists a
continued preference for that place; but the fire of 1703 completely
destroyed the favourite town, and the disheartened inhabitants went in
large numbers to Kingston, which the Assembly caused to be divided into
lots and given to those who had lost their houses. A law was also passed
directing the slave-owners in the parish of St. Andrew to send one out
of every twenty of their slaves to build temporary huts for the
refugees, and, as an encouragement for the early settlement of the new
town, every house built within the year (1703) was exempted from taxes
for seven years. Soon after this another law was passed declaring
Kingston to be “the chief seat of trade and head port of entry” of the
island.
From this time the prosperity of the town was assured, and in the year
1713 it was declared by law that the place should “for ever be taken and
esteemed as an entire and distinct parish, with all the powers of any
other parish,” and, further, that it should “have the right of sending
three representatives to the Assembly.”
So rapidly had the town grown that in 1716 it was thus described by a
historian of the time:
Within the harbour and about six miles from the town of Port Royal
lies the town of Kingston, first laid out and partially settled after
the great earthquake.... It is now become greatly increased in houses,
stores, wharves and other conveniences for trade and business, so that
it is by much the largest town in the island; and if the island shall
increase in people and new settlements (the consequences of trade and
riches) it is likely to be much the fairest town in all the Indies for
’tis most commodiously laid out, happily and beautifully situated, has
many spacious houses in it, and more are daily building, is the
residence of the greatest merchants and traders, and has resorting to
it most of the ships or vessels that come to the island, and in it is
managed the greatest part of the trade of Jamaica.
In 1721 an Act was passed empowering the inhabitants to erect a court
house and exchange; and for nearly half a century the town continued to
grow in size and opulence, and so important had it become in 1755 that
the attempt was then made to constitute it the seat of government. The
Governor (Admiral Knowles) twice proposed and the Assembly twice
rejected a bill for that purpose; but at length the Assembly gave way
and a law was passed giving effect to the arrangement. Soon after the
public archives were removed to Kingston and the superior courts were
established there. But the change was unpopular throughout the island,
and numerous petitions against it were sent to the King. On October 3,
1758 (after Knowles had left), the disallowance of the law was
proclaimed and the records were returned to Spanish Town, escorted by “a
considerable body of military.”
In 1780, and again in 1782, the town was severely stricken by a fire. In
the former year the large and closely built portion of the town lying
between King and Orange streets was burnt down, the destruction of
property being estimated at £30,000. But the town soon recovered from
the effects of the conflagrations, and prospered to such an extent that
in 1802 it was granted a corporation under the style of “The Mayor,
Aldermen and Common Council of the City and Parish of Kingston.” The
Court of Common Council was given a seal and empowered to make and
ordain bylaws, ordinances and regulations for the good order of the
city, not repugnant to prerogative or to the laws of the island. The
following is a description of the city seal: On the obverse the island
arms, crest, supporters and mottoes. Legend, _Sigi Commune Civit:
Kingston in Jamaica_. Reverse, Britannia, in the dress of Minerva,
holding a trident in one hand, and in the other a mirror, reflecting the
rays of the benign influence of Heaven on the produce of the island;
behind her the British Lion, supporting her shield, a conch shell at her
feet, and at a distance a ship under sail. Legend, _Hos fovet, hos
curat, servatque, Britannia Mater_.
In 1843 another great fire devastated a large portion of the city. It
began shortly before 10 A.M. on August 26, in a foundry situated at the
east end of Harbour street and extended diagonally across the city until
it reached the old Roman Catholic chapel at the corner of Duke street.
Many of the best dwellings and much valuable property were consumed, and
a large number of persons were left in utter destitution. The sum of
£10,149 was distributed among the sufferers, of which £5000 was voted by
the House of Assembly. At this period a great deal of the foreign trade
of Kingston had disappeared in consequence of the establishing of direct
steam communication between the European and Spanish-American states;
still Kingston continued an important centre of commerce.
In March 1862, another great fire occurred by which the commercial
division of the city was devastated. Nineteen of the principal stores in
Harbour and Port Royal streets, three wharves, and the extensive and
well-built three-storied house in which the Commercial Hotel was kept,
were burnt down at a loss of £30,000. The value of the merchandise,
furniture, &c., destroyed was estimated at £60,830, making a total of
£90,830. Of this £9400 was covered by insurances, leaving £81,530 as the
total loss to the owners of the premises and stock.
Three years afterwards representative government was abandoned in
Jamaica, and Kingston ceased to be a corporate city. All the powers and
immunities of the common council were transferred to a nominated
municipal board created by Law 8 of 1866, the privilege of making
ordinances for the regulation of the city being transferred to the
Governor in Privy Council. Since 1885 its affairs have been administered
by a mayor and city council, elected every three years, similar to the
parochial boards of the other parishes.
For many years it had become evident that the convenience of the
Government and of the general public would be best served by a transfer
of the seat of government from Spanish Town, and in 1872 Sir John Grant,
with the approval of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, gave
effect to the change.
A calamitous fire occurred in Kingston on December 11, 1882, by which a
large section of the business portion of the city was destroyed. The
total number of houses entirely destroyed was five hundred and
seventy-seven, whilst twelve were partially destroyed. These places were
inhabited by about six thousand persons. The total loss of house
property was estimated at between £150,000 and £220,000.
On January 14, 1907, the city suffered great damage from the disastrous
earthquake of that date and from fire. Much the same area as that
devastated by fire in 1882 was destroyed in the fire of 1907, in
addition to the havoc caused by the earthquake. The loss of life was
variously estimated as between 1000 and 1500. The value of property
destroyed amounted to between £1,000,000 and £1,500,000. A Mansion House
fund for the relief of the sufferers amounted to £55,395, and a free
Imperial grant was made by Parliament of £150,000 and a loan of £800,000
was authorised. The relief funds were distributed by a Relief Committee,
afterwards the Assistance Committee, constituted by the Assistance
Committee Law 20 of 1907. After considerable delay and much
negotiations, and on the failure of an appeal in a test case to the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the insurance companies agreed
to pay the claims to the extent of 85 per cent. on the face values of
the policies, and the money was distributed in 1909.
The Imperial Loan was administered by a Loan Board created by law. Up to
March 31, 1914, loans had been made to the value of £326,000.
A fair number of the streets of Kingston have personal names. Those
named after Governors: Beeston street, (Sir William Beeston, 1692–1701);
Beckford street (Sir Peter Beckford, 1702); Heywood street (Peter
Heywood, 1716–17); Laws (_sic_) street (Sir Nicholas Lawes, 1718–22);
Elletson road (Roger Hope Elletson, 1766–67); Nugent lane (General
Nugent, 1801–6); Manchester square (Duke of Manchester, 1808–27); Elgin
street and Lord Elgin street (Earl of Elgin, 1842–16); Darling street
(Captain Charles Darling, 1857–62); Musgrave avenue (Sir Anthony
Musgrave, 1878–83); Norman road, Norman crescent and Norman range (Sir
Henry Norman, 1883–89); and Blake road (Sir Henry Blake, 1889–98).
There was a Thomas Allman, clerk to the Agent Victuallers at Jamaica,
who was wanted for forgery and embezzling £1283 in 1743: but Allman
Town, which came into existence soon after Emancipation, was, so Mr. G.
F. Judah stated, named after George Allman, who was either an officer in
the army or the son of one.
Barry street reminds us of Colonel Samuel Barry, who was one of the
first Council named in 1661, and owned the land on which Kingston was
built. The land called Colonel Barry’s Hog Crawle was sold to Beeston,
who had it laid out in lots for the building of Kingston. Byndloss lane
bears the name of a family which in the seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries supplied seven members to the Assembly—the earliest being
Colonel Robert Byndloss, member for Cagua in 1663. Barnes gully recalls
Joseph Barnes, mayor, custos and representative in the Assembly of
Kingston, who died in 1829. Bowrey road reminds us of a recent island
chemist, from whose property the road was formed. Hibbert street also
recalls a family closely connected with Jamaica in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, one member of which built Headquarters House,
formerly known as Hibbert house. Marescaux road, north of Kingston,
reminds us of the late manager of the Colonial Bank. Orange and Hanover
streets refer to reigning houses of England.
It is probable that Pechon street was named after Major John Bonnet
Pechon, who was assistant engineer on the military staff in 1809, and
later island engineer. He died in 1815. Princess street is a corruption
of Prince’s street, as it was called in Beeston’s time. It is called
_Rue du Prince_ on a French translation of Lilly’s map. Sutton street
was probably named after Colonel Thomas Sutton, who was speaker of the
Assembly at the time of the earthquake of 1692. Temple lane in Kingston,
as well as Temple Hall in St. Andrew, was named after Susanna Temple,
the fourth wife of Sir Nicholas Lawes, sister of “la belle Temple” of de
Grammont, the wife of Sir Charles Lyttelton. Whence Tower street
obtained its name is not known. The following has been suggested as the
origin. In the very early days of Kingston the town had a rector but no
church. The rector lived in Tower street. It is thought that the
rector’s house may have been used as a church and had a tower and bell.
Wildman street is named after James Wildman, a member of the Council in
1786, and later fellow member of Parliament for Hindon with Monk Lewis,
another Jamaica proprietor.
Though they omitted for two centuries to dedicate their parish church to
a patron saint, the people of Kingston named five of their lanes after
the Apostles.
Dr. Samuel Knight, who practised medicine in the island “magna cum
laude” for thirty-four years, represented Kingston in the Assembly in
1698 and 1701; he lies buried in the church.
In 1694, when an Act was passed for raising money “to solicit in England
the affairs of this Their Majesties’ island,” the parish of St. Andrew
was taxed to the extent of £52 17_s._ 5_d._, St. Katherine £56 16_s._
3_d._, and others in less amounts; Kingston only being called upon to
contribute £19 5_s._: but soon after, on another tax being raised,
Kingston was regarded as being on a par with Port Royal and St. Jago de
la Vega.
It is interesting to note that in 1699 a law was passed uniting the
precincts of St. Andrew and Kingston for the purpose of keeping their
courts and sessions. This law was repealed in 1704, by which time the
new town had become more prosperous.
The church has always been known as =Kingston Parish Church=, and there
is no record of its ever having been dedicated to any saint until, at
the time of the recent consecration of the new building (in 1911), it
was decided to dedicate it to St. Thomas.
[Illustration:
PARISH CHURCH, KINGSTON
]
The first traceable documentary reference to the church occurs under
date October 1701, when the land was sold to the churchwardens. In March
1702–3 it is recorded in the “Votes” in the house of Assembly, that the
commissioners appointed to receive claims and make distributions of the
lands, under the Act of that year, “to invest Her Majesty in land in
Kingston, for the reception of the sufferers by the late dreadful fire
at Port Royal, declaring Kingston to be the chief seat of trade and head
port of entry, and fortifying West Chester,” gave notice that they would
sit in the church at Kingston. But the Act was disallowed in the
following year; and West Chester, wherever it may have been (probably
the western part of the town), was never fortified. It is interesting to
note that the only serious rival to Kingston in its claim to be made the
chief seat of trade was Old Harbour. The use of the parish church for
civic purposes was by no means unusual in those days in England: for
instance, from 1576 (the date of the town receiving a charter) till 1794
the paroise (or priest’s chamber) over the porch of the parish church of
Hythe was used as a town hall.
There were probably in Jamaica nine churches of older foundation than
Kingston—those at Spanish Town, Port Royal, Halfway-Tree, St. John’s (in
Guanaboa Vale), Port Morant, Yallahs, The Alley, Old Harbour and one
other. Kingston, till an earlier year can be assigned, must rest content
with 1699, the date of its oldest tomb—that to William Hall, a merchant
of Kingston and member of Assembly for St. Andrew from 1694 to 1699 (one
of the Halls of Lincolnshire)—although it was possibly erected in or
about 1695. On the other hand, if the church was standing in 1701, it is
odd that it is not mentioned in the deed conveying the land given by Sir
William and Lady Beeston to the churchwardens.
The following is a copy of the register:
Lib. 33. Fol. 85. Beeston, Sir William et Ux.
Dated 13th October, 1701. to
Enrolled October 28th, 1701. The Churchwardens of
Kingston
Josiah Heathcote and
Peter Caillard.
All these two lotts or parcells of land with the appurtenance
thereunto belonging being part and parcell of the said five hundred
and thirty acres of land situate and lying and being in the said Towne
of Kingston both the said lots containing one hundred foot to the High
Street westward one hundred and fifty foot northward to the Parade one
hundred foot East to Temple Lane and one hundred and fifty foot South
to the land of the said Sir William Beeston.
It is probable that a temporary building was at first erected, and was
served by the rectors of Halfway Tree and Port Royal pending the
appointment of a rector; and that the permanent structure of the church
was only commenced after the land had been given by Beeston.
In 1703 a sermon was “preached at King’s Town in Jamaica upon June 7,
being the Anniversary Fast for that Dreadful Earthquake which happened
there in the year 1692, by William Corbin.” This was “printed and sold
by William Bradford at the Bible in New York, 1703.”
James Knight, whose manuscript history of Jamaica (dating from 1746) is
in the British Museum, thus describes the Kingston of his day, which he
represented in the Assembly from 1722 to 1735, with intervals:
“The plan of the town is three-fourths of a mile in length, N. and S.,
and half a mile in breadth, E. and W. Streets are Broad and are
Regularly laid out with a Parade in the centre. The South part is
built from one end to the other as high as the Parade and many
buildings are scattered in the North part so that there are now 1200
Houses and Storehouses, most of which are handsome Buildings, two
stories high besides garrets. They are covered with shingles, sashed
and glazed with Piazzas before every house so that a man may walk from
one end to the other without going in the sun but in crossing streets.
The church, which is a handsome building in form of a cross, is 120
feet in length and stands in the S.E. part of the Parade, the pulpit,
pews and wainscote about 8 feet in height are all neatly made with
cedar, and it has a very good organ in it. There is also in the town a
Quakers’ Meeting House and a Jews’ Synagogue, no other place of Public
Worship, though there are grounds to believe some Roman Catholics or
disguised Papists and Priests privately assemble and meet together.
There is also a very good Town Hall about 80 feet in length and 30 in
breadth on the South side and fronting of King Street, with a Piazza
round which is made use of as an exchange.... Kingston being the most
popular parish in the island, and a great number of strangers
resorting to it yearly, the Benefice is estimated at six hundred
pounds per annum currency.”
The anonymous author of an undated work, published in London in 1740,
entitled “The importance of Jamaica to Great Britain, considered.... In
a Letter to a Gentleman,” thus refers to the church:
There is a handsome neat church, which consists of four Isles; the
Pulpit-Cloth is red Velvet, with Gold Fringes; the Seats large,
uniform and airy; has a good Organ; but the Church has no steeple,
there is no Bell hung up in it, but ’tis supplied by a small one set
up on a Frame not far from it; a large one lies in readiness to be set
up when they think proper, or have a Conveniency to hold it. The
Churchyard is wall’d in, which has several Tombs in it; in the Church
under the Altar, lies the brave Admiral _Bembow_ (_sic_); and in
another burying-place is a Tomb, which bears the Arms and Name of one
of the noble Family of the _Talbots_.
From this it appears that the tower had probably been erected between
1740 and 1774, for Long, whose history was published in 1774—easily
pleased in matters architectural—calls it “a large elegant building, of
four aisles, which has a fine organ, a tower and spire, with a large
clock. The tower is well-constructed, and a very great ornament to the
town.” “The Rector’s stipend,” he adds, “as fixed by Law, is only £250;
but the surplice-fees are so large, that his income is supposed at least
to be £1000 per annum, Jamaica currency (£715 stirling).” His “four
aisles” is a very free use of the term. The church was in his time an
aisleless, cruciform building, but Greek rather than Latin in shape, a
not uncommon custom in Jamaica in early days.
In 1808 the mayor and commonalty of Kingston petitioned the House of
Assembly, _inter alia_, that “the resort of persons to the parish church
of the parish of Kingston for public worship hath of late years so much
increased that the said church cannot with convenience accommodate
them.”
In the “Jamaica Magazine” for 1813 we read: “An ordinance was passed in
Common Council of Kingston, the same day (15th) for punishing all
persons conducting themselves in a manner offensive to public decorum in
the church. It enacts a punishment on all white and free persons of £100
fine or three months imprisonment for such an offence, and on slaves
thirty-nine stripes or three months imprisonment.”
“Monk Lewis,” who saw it in 1816, says:
The church is a large one, but it is going to be still further
extended, the negroes in Kingston and neighbourhood being (as the
Rector assured me) so anxious to obtain religious instruction, that on
Sundays not only the church but the churchyard is so completely
thronged with them, as to make it difficult to traverse the crowd; and
those who are fortunate enough to obtain seats for the morning
service, through fear of being excluded from the evening, never stir
out of the church the whole day. They also flock to be baptised in
great numbers, and many have lately come to be married; and their
burials and christenings are performed with great pomp and solemnity.
James Hakewill, the architect, who was here in 1820, in his “Picturesque
Tour,” calls the church truly “a plain, convenient structure, but
without any pretensions to architectural beauty.”
The Rev. R. Bickell, who had been naval chaplain at Port Royal and for
some time curate of Kingston, wrote in his “West Indies as they are,” in
1825:
In the city and parish of Kingston, there is but one church, which
will hold nearly a thousand people; it is thronged every Sunday
morning, principally by free people of colour, and free blacks.
Indeed, had there been two or three churches more built in this
populous city, six or seven years ago, and zealous clergymen appointed
to them, I feel confident in saying, they would, ere now, have been
equally thronged; but, though there are eight or ten thousand slaves
in the place, and a greater number of free people, with several
thousand white inhabitants, an island curate has never been appointed
there, and consequently a chapel of ease has never been built: on this
account, seeing so good an opening, the Dissenters have been very
active, and have four or five places of worship, three of them built
within the last three years; the Scotch, and other Presbyterians, have
a very large kirk (built principally with Episcopalians’ money) which
is not half filled; but the Wesleyans have two large chapels, capable
of containing more than two thousand persons, and which are well
attended (even filled I have been told) morning and evening, chiefly
by negroes and people of colour. The Baptists have also a large and
handsome chapel well attended by Blacks and Browns, besides a smaller
one occasionally opened. There is also a Catholic chapel for the
French and other foreigners.
In the “Estimate of Contingencies for the City and Parish of Kingston
for the year 1830” occur the following entries:
CHURCH £ _s._ _d._