200_l._; burying, 50_l._ 360 0 0
Clerk’s salary, 70_l._; taking care of plate, 15_l._;
palls, 10_l._ 95 0 0
Sexton’s salary, 70_l._; digging graves, 25_l._; ringing
the bell, 25_l._ 120 0 0
Keeper of the town clock salary, 40_l._; repairs to
organ, 120_l._ 160 0 0
Sundry repairs and alterations for the present year 200 0 0
Organist’s salary, 130_l._; beadle’s salary, 84_l._;
lighting up the church, 132_l._ 346 0 0
Amount required for the Chapel of Ease 300 0 0
————— ———— ————
£1581 0 0
This of course does not include the stipends of rector and curate, which
were paid by the Government.
N. B. Dennys, who was here in 1861, writing in “An Account of the Cruise
of the _St. George_” (1862), miscalls the church St. Andrews and
describes it as a “small building, whose only point of interest seemed
to be its extreme old age.”
Of the fabric of the church wrecked by the earthquake of 1907 nothing
much need be said. It was a simple brick structure with concrete pillars
and round-headed arches and window openings. Cruciform in shape, in
accordance with English custom it was oriented with its altar at the
east end. The pulpit and reading-desk originally stood, as was the case
at Halfway Tree, Port Royal and Montego Bay, at the transept, almost in
the centre of the building.
The present building was erected from a design by Mr. B. A. Raves at a
cost of £6000, in reinforced concrete on the old foundations, and as
nearly as possible similar in design, with the omission of the tower.
The window openings differ from those of the old building; two of them
being decidedly original in design. The new building was consecrated on
January 17, 1911, by the Archbishop of the West Indies, assisted by the
Bishops of St. Albans, North Carolina, Honduras and Antigua, the
Coadjutor Bishop of Jamaica, and the Assistant Bishop of Toronto.
About the beginning of the nineteenth century, as “Monk Lewis” mentions,
the church was extended in length and the renaissance baldachin, which
was not replaced after the recent rebuilding, an unusual addition to an
Anglican church, was, it is said, added by the then rector, the Rev.
Isaac Mann. Some thought they saw in the floral device immediately
beneath the crown over the centre of the baldachin, the monogram W.M.,
which they took to stand for William and Mary, but there are no grounds
for the supposition, and the structure was probably of later date.
In Duperly’s view taken in about 1844 the old sash windows appear; and
the old curved lead gargoyles, most of which were removed later, are
very evident.
In 1883–85, during the incumbency of Archdeacon Downer, who held the
living for thirty-five years and took part in the recent consecration
service, the church, which in 1873 consisted of nave and transepts
without side aisles, was considerably enlarged by G. Messiter, by the
addition of two side aisles on each side, giving extra accommodation for
500 persons, making the building available for 1300 in all.
The aisles nearest the nave extended the full length of the fabric,
while the exterior ones only ran east of the transepts. This, added to
their apsidal form, gave, and gives, the church the appearance of a
miniature cathedral in plan. Pieces of the original outside walls could,
till the recent reconstruction, be seen _in situ_ in corners of the
transept. The original windows were removed to the new outer walls and
the mural monuments were taken down and replaced on the new walls, a
process which had to be repeated in 1910. When some of the old walls
were pulled down many massive beams of timber were found embedded in the
masonry, placed in several directions. Some of them were ten or fifteen
feet long, many inches in diameter and of bully-wood in perfectly sound
condition. Some, including Messiter the architect, thought that these
were put in to strengthen the walls in case of a repetition of the Port
Royal earthquake of a few years before: and they certainly suggest the
method of construction adopted by the Spaniards for that purpose and
described in Long’s history. At the same time, when the foundation of
the east wall was underpinned, a large vault under the altar was opened;
and in it was found a coffin—covered with the remains of velvet and gilt
ornaments, apparently of a most expensive character—thought to have been
Admiral Benbow’s.
The oldest dated Communion plate is of the year 1707. Two patens were
the gift of Mrs. Ann Plowman; and two other pieces, a chalice and
flagon, were given by Mr. Elias Nezerau in that year. Mrs. Elizabeth
Sillers gave in 1721 a flagon identical with that given by Mr. Nezerau
fourteen years earlier. Both flagons bear the maker’s mark.
The clock dates from 1801, the organ from 1878, the lectern from 1886,
the bell from 1890, the pulpit (of white stone, with marble columns)
from 1891, when it was erected in memory of a former rector, Archdeacon
Campbell, his brother Dr. Charles Campbell, and the doctor’s partner,
Dr. Bowerbank.
The rose window in the north transept, representing the Good Samaritan,
with medallions of St. John, St. Peter, St. Stephen, St. Andrew as
deacon, and St. Stephen as martyr, was put up in 1888 to the memory of
the Hon. H. F. Colthirst, a churchwarden, and his children. The
corresponding window, of 1887, in the south transept, representing, in
the centre, the Angel at the Sepulchre, surrounded by cherubs, is a
memorial to Mr. C. A. Robinson and children. These two windows gave a
good illustration of the manner in which concrete, even before the
earthquake of 1907, was made to do duty for stone in Jamaica. Portions
of the glass from these windows have, in the recent reconstruction, been
scattered throughout various window openings. The window at the east end
of the north aisle, heraldic and geometric in character, was erected to
the Hon. Dr. Hamilton, District Grand Master of the Freemasons in
Jamaica. The east window was erected in 1914 in memory of Archdeacon
Downer.
The vestry was built in 1895, and in that year the old brick wall which
formerly surrounded the churchyard was replaced by the present railing.
The City Council contributed £50 towards the cost of the bell on the
condition that it should be rung at nine o’clock every evening—a
reminiscence of the English curfew which is still continued.
Beside the west door were hung the old colours of the 2nd Battalion of
the West India Regiment, returned to the rebuilt garrison chapel at
Up-Park Camp in 1912, and on either side are monumental brasses—one
(1896) to the memory of officers and men of the 1st Battalion W.I.R. who
fell in West Africa in various expeditions, and another (1898) to
officers who died of fever on the West Coast of Africa and in this
island; and there are marble tablets to the officers of the 1st and 3rd
W.I.R. who died here and elsewhere in the West Indies of yellow fever in
1853.
The following is as perfect a list of the rectors of the parish as it
has been found possible to compile:
1701–(?) 1714. Rev. William Collins.
1715————— Rev. — Skipp.
1722–1754. Rev. William May, M.A.
1729————— Rev. Charles Lambe, D.D.
1754–1765. Rev. Robert Atkins.
1766–1768. Rev. John Pool.
1768–1776. Rev. Thomas Coxeter.
1776–1784. Rev. William Morgan, D.D.
1784–1805. Rev. Thomas Rees.
1805–1813. Rev. Alexander Campbell, M.A.
1813–1828. Rev. Isaac Mann, M.A.
1829–1847. Ven. Archdeacon Edward Pope, D.D.
1848–1860. Ven. Archdeacon Thomas Stewart, D.D.
1861–1872. Ven. Archdeacon Duncan Houston Campbell, M.A.
1873–1908. Ven. Archdeacon George William Downer.
1908.————— Rev. R. J. Ripley.
It is difficult to understand how Lambe came to be rector during May’s
tenure of office. It may have been an acting appointment during the
incumbent’s illness. The authority for including Lambe in the list of
rectors is the following entry in Foster’s “Alumni Oxonienses”:
Lambe, Charles. S. John [Dean of Ely]. Ch. Ch. Matric. 1697, aged 18
[or 13]; B.A. 1701, M.A. from King’s Coll., Cambridge, 1709. D.D.
Lambeth, 1722.... Chaplain to the Duke of Portland when Governor of
Jamaica, Rector of Kingston, Jamaica, 1729.
The records of the parish church of Kingston extant unfortunately only
go as far back as the year 1722, the date of the first “Christening”
recorded. The marriages at that time were by licence, or _Bannis tribus
vicibus promulgatis_. By recent legislation one calling of the banns is
sufficient. It is curious to note the large number of widows amongst the
brides and of mariners amongst the bridegrooms. One of the best kept
registers is that of baptisms, commenced in 1785 by the Rev. Thomas
Rees. The first entry is:
Joseph Fennell Brookbank, the son of Mary Fennell, a free mulatto
woman, by George Brookbank, was born April 12, 1779, Bapt. Jany. 1,
1785.
The next entry, _more Jamaicense_, records the baptism of “Jamima
Beaumont, the daughter of Mary Fennell, by James Beaumont.” Two out of
the first seven entries in this register are of children of married
women, which unfortunately would not be, according to the
Registrar-General’s returns, a bad record even for to-day. On Christmas
Day, 1786, the rector baptized twelve of his own slaves _en bloc_.
Those who were baptized are described as black, or negro; mulatto;
sambo; quadroon; mestee, or mustee; brown; of colour; Indian (these were
probably from the Mosquito Coast); and slave, or property of; and free.
The old African names of Quashie, Quasheba and the like were replaced by
ordinary Christian names, with a partiality for Biblical ones, with here
and there a classic designation. The names on one page, taken at random,
of the register for 1797 are: John, Sarah, Richard, Lucretia, Susanna,
Margaret, Hannah, Jeremiah, James, William, Edward, Cilly (_sic_), Juno,
Mary, Eleanor, Joseph. These, in the main, simple names are preferable
to the Thomasina, Justina, Rosina, and so on, affected to-day.
In 1745 Cornelius Lilly, “of the parish of Kingston, mariner,” was
married to Jane Macky of the same parish. One wonders whether he was a
relation of Colonel Christian Lilly who had laid out the town. The first
burial recorded is under date March 27, 1741, “Ralph Greathead,
belonging to the _Sheldon_, Capt. Read, Command.” The ship _Sheldon_
possibly belonged to the owner of Sheldon, a property in the Blue
Mountains. The baptism in 1797 of “Dorothy Morgan Mahony, a negro woman
slave of Thomas Mahony, aged forty years,” recalls Dolly Mahony’s Gap in
the St. Andrew Mountains.
The following particulars of the baptisms solemnised in the parish
church in the year 1828 may be of interest:
White 10
Coloured 164
Black 54
No memo made of colour 53
——— 281
Slaves—Coloured 40
Black 276
——— 316
———
597
From its position of principal church in the chief town of the island,
Kingston parish church is frequently chosen for the holding of state and
other important services rather than the cathedral of Spanish Town,
which now finds itself left by the stream of time in a civic backwater.
With the exception of the cathedral at Spanish Town more celebrated
personages have been buried within the walls of Kingston parish church
than in those of any other church in the island.
Of the memorials, the most interesting is the tomb of Benbow, of dark
blue slate, in the chancel, the inscription on which is curiously
inaccurate. He was not, we learn in his life in the “Dictionary of
National Biography,” an admiral of the white, but vice-admiral of the
blue. He was not fifty-one years old at his death, but forty-nine; and
the arms carved on it are not his. The arms are: Palewise, two bent bows
between two sheaves of arrows; the crest, on an esquire’s helmet, a
harpy. The following is the inscription:
Here Lyeth Interred the Body of John Benbow Esq: Admiral of the White:
a true Pattern of English Courage who Lost his life In Defence of his
Queene & Country, November ye 4th 1702 In the 52nd year of his age by
a wound In his Legg, Receeiu’d In an Engagement with Monsr. du Casse,
Being Much Lamented.
Of the monuments, there are only four of artistic merit—three by John
Bacon, all similar in style, figures carved in high relief against a
pyramidal background of marble; and one without the sculptor’s name, in
the north wall of the inner north transept, to Edward Maiming. It
consists of a bust in mezzo-relievo. If executed shortly after Manning’s
death in 1756, it is too early for a work by Bacon. It is a good example
of English sculpture of that time, and it is possibly by Roubiliac, by
whom there is a monument of the year 1754 to Lieutenant Stapleton in
Port Royal church, or more probably by John Cheere (brother of Sir Henry
Cheere, Roubiliac’s instructor for some time), by whom there is a
monument of the year 1733 to the Hon. James Lawes (eldest son of Sir
Nicholas Lawes) in Halfway-Tree church. Cheere’s work resembles more
closely the Manning bust than does that of the more florid Roubiliac. As
was the case with Bacon, one commission for Jamaica sometimes led to
others. The arms on the Manning monument are wrongly blazoned in
Lawrence-Archer’s “Monumental Inscriptions of the British Indies.” They
are: Gules, a cross fleurie [not moline] or between four [not three]
trefoils slipped or.
Of the monuments by Bacon, that to Malcolm Laing and his wife (1794)
represents a female figure seated, emblematic of grief; the phœnix, of
which Bacon was fond, is introduced in the background.
The monument to Dr. Fortunatus Dwarris, member of the House of Assembly
for St. George (which is now merged in Portland), and his stepdaughter
(1792), represents a recumbent female figure resting on an urn, gazing
at an angel conducting the soul of the departed upwards. In it the
poetry on the urn descriptive of the scene represented is hardly equal
to Bacon’s art:
Ascend to Bliss ye gentle Spirits
Where yon Angel soars above:
Their Virtue her Reward Inherits
Crowne’d with Heav’n’s eternal love.
Sir Fortunatus William Lilley Dwarris (d. 1860), the lawyer and
antiquary, eldest son of William Dwarris, of Warwick, England, and
Golden Grove, Jamaica, of which he was a native, was a member of the
same family.
The monument to John Wolmer (1789) is on the west wall of the outer
north aisle. Of the three monuments by Bacon this is the best. Erected
just sixty years after Wolmer’s death, it represents a seated figure of
Liberality, carved in high relief, holding a medallion, on which the
crest of the school, the sun of Learning breaking through a cloud of
Ignorance, is represented. On the supporting brackets are scholastic
emblems—a quill pen, a book, parchment, scientific instruments and the
like.
Besides the three monuments in this church already mentioned, there is
another monument to Mary, daughter of Dawkins Carr (who died in 1798).
It is in the usual pyramidal form, and represents a classic urn on a
pedestal. It is signed “J. Bacon, sct., London, 1799,” and must have
been one of the last works sent out of his studio in his lifetime, for
he died in that year.
Some monuments make one wish that the admirers of the worthies
represented had followed the Erewhonian plan of paying the sculptor on
condition that he did not make the statue, letting into the pavement a
small inscription where it would have stood, as was the case in that
delectable country. The tribute of respect would have been paid to the
deceased, and the rest of the public would have suffered no
inconvenience.
Other tombs of interest in the church are those to Smart Pennant (wife
of the rector, William May), who “was kill’d in ye 23rd year of her age
by ye fall of an house in ye great storm, August ye 28th, A.D. 1722”
(when her husband’s leg was also broken; he was commissary to the Bishop
of London); to Susanna, wife of Colonel William Gordon (d. 1731), of the
family which gave its name to Gordon Town; to Captain Charles Brown (d.
1747), who is evidently the Commodore Brown who was described in a
pamphlet published in 1740 as living in Kingston, “and entertain’d the
gentlemen and Ladies about Ligunea once a fortnight with an Assembly”;
to Captain Samuel Phillips (died in 1757, aged 54), who, as the
inscription tells us, “Commanded the _Alexander_, Private Ship of War,
out of Bristoll, and Cut His Majesties Ship _Solebay_ out of St.
Martin’s Road the 10th of April, 1746, for which he had the honour to
kis His Majesties hand and Received a Gold Medal and Chain. _Alexander_
140 Men and _Solebay_ 220 men”; to John Jaques (d. 1815), first mayor of
Kingston; to Hon. George Kinghorne (1823), custos of Kingston; to Hon.
Joseph Barnes (d. 1829), mayor and custos of Kingston, whose memory
lives in Barnes Gully; to Virginia Fairfax, wife of Peter Alexander
Espeut, and daughter of Colonel Robert Munroe Harrison, consul-general
of the United States of America for Jamaica; to Lieut.-Colonel Sir
Alexander Leith, Bt.; to William James Stevenson, receiver-general; to
Ebenezer Reid (d. 1843), headmaster of Wolmer’s school for twenty-eight
years (the monument was erected by his pupils); to William Augustus Hunt
(d. 1852), another headmaster of Wolmer’s school, a member of the family
of Barbadian Hunts of which Leigh Hunt was one; to Bartholomew Owen
Williams (d. 1830), founder of the Sussex Lodge of Freemasons; to
Colonel Hill (d. 1819), who took part in the engagements of Vimiera and
Vittoria; and to Dr. Edward Nathaniel Bancroft (d. 1842), deputy
inspector-general of Army Hospitals.
Of tombs of special biographical interest are those of Benbow, Rowley
and Brown, sailors; May, Mann and Humberstone, clergymen; Campbell, an
author; Higson, a botanist; Wolmer, a philanthropist; and Manning,
Lawrence, Mitchell and Jordan, politicians.
At the principal entrance to the north transept was a large dark blue
slate slab, foot-worn, but without an inscription.
“The story is,” says Lawrence-Archer, “that it is turned on its face, to
conceal the epitaph of an early Rector of the parish, who was hanged for
coining counterfeit doubloons in the vestry. It is said he was
discovered in consequence of having issued one from his mint before it
was quite cold. The story is most improbable.” In 1885 the slab was
raised and turned, when it was found to be to the memory of James
Ramadge, a merchant of Kingston, who died in 1755, aged thirty-three
years. Why it had ever been placed face downwards is not known. But that
there is some reason for the legend is proved by a reference to the “St.
Jago de la Vega Gazette” for December 19, 1801, where we read:
A number of counterfeit Doubloons and Eight-Dollar pieces are now in
circulation. The inscription on the face is Carol’s 3d., date 1761.
The face does not by any means resemble any effigy given of him or any
coins issued by Spanish Government during his reign. It is a perfect
copy of the head of Ferdinand the 6th, which appears on the doubloons
issued by him ten years before the accession of Charles the 3rd to the
throne. The pieces now in circulation are said to have been coined by
a Reverend Mr. Smith, who suffered for the crime many years ago on the
Kingston Parade.
Can this have been the Hadden Smith who was curate of Kingston parish
church in 1766?
The death of Peter Wagstaffe (who died in 1759) was curiously enough
recorded on two tombstones, both lying in the north aisle.
In the churchyard are three interesting tombstones, those of Janet
Scott, sister to Michael Scott (the author of the well-known “Tom
Cringle’s Log”), who was two years her brother’s senior, and evidently
came out with him and his bride in 1818, when he returned from Glasgow
to Jamaica; to Robert Bogle, his brother-in-law, of the firm of Bogle,
Harris & Co., of Glasgow; and to Robert Hamilton, who was planting
attorney to Sir Edward Hyde East, the owner of Maryland, on which stands
Raymond Hall, where “Tom Cringle’s Log” was written. Hamilton was a
friend of Scott’s, and was portrayed as Aaron Bang in the Log. The
Scotts and the Bogles were evidently old friends. A “Jennet Scott, the
daughter of Robert Bogle and Margaret his wife,” was baptized on April
5, 1793. She was probably a sister of the Robert Bogle who was Scott’s
brother-in-law. The following are the inscriptions on the three tombs:
Here lies Interr’d the remains of Mr. Robert Bogle, third son of
Robert Bogle, Esqr., Merchant, Glasgow, formerly of this city Merchant
who departed this life on 21st December 1819 aged 18 years.
Miss Janet Scott, fourth Daughter of Allan Scott, Esq., of Glasgow,
departed this life on the 4th January 1819 aged 32 years.
In memory of Robert Hamilton, Esq., of the Parish of St. Andrews, who
departed this life on the 30th day of October 1826, aged 68 years. His
unbounded Hospitality and goodness of heart endeared him to all who
knew him and his worth and amiable qualities will long live in the
remembrance of his Family who pay this last tribute due to the Memory
of a revered Father.
The Hamilton tomb is close to the south door. The Scott and Bogle tombs
are side by side further south.
It is possible that the name of Murray Crymble, who was receiver-general
in the middle of the eighteenth century, may have suggested to Scott the
somewhat curious name of the hero of his novel. Crymble patented land in
Grand Cayman in 1741.
Copies of the inscriptions on all the tombs both in church and
churchyard up to the year 1875 will be found in Lawrence-Archer’s
“Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies” (London, 1875); but
many of the tombs mentioned by him as being in the churchyard were, at
the enlargement of the church in 1883–85, placed on the floor of the
side aisles. During the recent reconstruction of the church, many
changes have taken place in the monuments and tombstones.
The following brief biographical notes on some of the principal persons
buried in the church and churchyard may have some interest:
WILLIAM HALL, youngest son of Edmund Hall, of Greatford Hall,
Lincolnshire, was born in Lincolnshire in 1656, and was for a time
British Consul at Bilbao. In 1687 he accompanied the Duke of
Albemarle, as his secretary, when he came out as Governor to
Jamaica. In the following year he married Elizabeth, daughter of
William Wyatt. He was member of the Assembly for St. Andrew from
1695 till his death, which took place in 1699.
VICE-ADMIRAL JOHN BENBOW, the son of a tanner, was born at Shrewsbury
in 1653. In 1678 he entered the navy, and served in the
Mediterranean, where he did good service against the Algerine
corsairs. In 1686 he appears to have owned a ship in the Levant
trade. In 1689 he re-entered the navy, and became master attendant
at Chatham Dockyard and at Deptford. In 1690–92 he acted as Master
of the Fleet; he was present at the engagements of Beachy Head,
Barfleur and La Hogue. In 1693–94 he commanded a flotilla of bomb
vessels against the French; and, though only a captain, received the
pay of rear-admiral, which rank he acquired in 1695; and in 1697 he
became Commander-in-Chief of the King’s ships in the West Indies,
with especial orders to hunt down the pirates. The help which he
rendered to the Scotch colony in Darien was not acceptable to the
English government. In 1700 he returned to England, but in the
following year he was back in the West Indies, and in 1702 he was
stationed at Jamaica. From August 19 to the 24th of that year took
place his engagement off Santa Martha with Du Casse, _chef
d’éscadre_ in the French navy, and a former governor of San Domingo,
which has been called “the most disgraceful event in our naval
records.” Owing to the cowardice displayed by some of his captains,
Benbow had to abandon pursuit. He court-martialled his captains, of
whom two were shot, one cashiered and two suspended. Benbow died of
his wounds at Port Royal on November 4, 1702.