Kingston has for nearly two centuries been indebted for the
excellent school bearing his name. Of his life little is known. On
July 11, 1705, he married at Halfway Tree Mary Elizabeth Lumbard.
From the name of one of the executors of his will (Samuel Kemer
Main), as well as from his own, it is possible that he was of German
or Swiss extraction. By his will, dated May 21, 1729, he devised,
after some small legacies mentioned therein, the rest and residue of
his estate for the foundation of a Free School in the parish in
which he should happen to die. This amounted to about £2360. He died
on June 29, 1729, at Kingston, where he had resided for upwards of
twenty years. In 1820 Wolmer’s Pen, adjoining Camp, was purchased by
the authorities in order to secure a better water-supply for Camp.
Although a bill was brought into the House of Assembly to give
effect to the will in June 1731, and the matter was again revived in
1734, it was not till 1736, and then after many amendments and
conferences between the Assembly and the Council, that a law was
passed and the Trust put upon a firm basis. The marble to his memory
in the church was erected “as a monument of public gratitude,” sixty
years after his death.
HON. EDWARD PRATTER, who died in 1735, aged 52, was member of the
Assembly for Hanover in 1723–24 (he and John Morant being the first
members for that parish) and for Kingston in 1726–27, 1731, and
1732–33. He was receiver-general, and also agent in Jamaica for the
South Sea Company. Kingston Gardens, in Kingston, was formerly known
as Pratter Pond.
REV. WILLIAM MAY, born at Ash, in Kent, in 1695, was educated at St.
John’s College, Cambridge, was commissary of Jamaica, and for
thirty-two years rector of Kingston. He died in January 1753–54. His
first wife was Smart Mary, daughter of Edward Pennant, of Clarendon,
widow of Thomas Peters, member for Clarendon; his second wife was
Bathusa, daughter of Florentius Vassall, of St. Elizabeth. His only
surviving son, Rose Herring May, was a member of the Council and
custos of Clarendon and Vere.
EDWARD MANNING, who died in 1756, aged 46, was a member of the House
of Assembly for Kingston in 1744, 1745–46, 1749 and 1752; and for
Portland in 1754–55, in which year he was chosen speaker. He and his
partner, James Ord (who also represented Kingston in the Assembly),
were considered the principal merchants of the island in their day.
In 1756 Manning was made a member of the Council. He was also custos
of Kingston. His wife was Elizabeth, the only sister of Henry Moore,
lieutenant-governor of Jamaica from 1756 to 1762, when he was
created a baronet; he became governor of New York in 1765. Moore’s
wife, Catherine Long (sister of the historian), gave her name to
Catherine’s Peak, the highest point in St. Andrew, as she was the
first lady to ascend it in 1760. Manning’s marriage with Elizabeth
Moore was, after the taking of evidence, dissolved in 1739 by an Act
of the legislature of the island, the co-respondent being Ballard
Beckford (a member of the House of Assembly and a relation of the
famous author of “Vathek”). This was the only Divorce Act ever
passed in Jamaica, the Assembly being told they were not to pursue
the same course again. The inscription on Manning’s monument is
given below, as only an abbreviation is given by Lawrence-Archer:
Near this monument
Lies interred the Body of Edward Manning, Esq.
One of the Honourable Privy Council
Speaker of the Assembly
And Custos Rotulorum of this Parish
In which Stations he distinguished himself.
A true patriot to his country, in Private life he was remarkable for
Filial Duty Steady Friendship and kind Benevolence to the Distressed
which with his affable Disposition gained him the
Esteem of all who had the Pleasure of knowing him.
He died greatly lamented December 6th 1756 aged 46 years.
COLONEL JAMES LAWRENCE, the third son of John Lawrence and Susanna
Petgrave, belonged to a family which was amongst the earliest and
most extensive landed proprietors in the parish of St. James. In
1739 they owned four out of eight sugar estates in the parish. It is
said, possibly without reason, that they were descended from Henry
Lawrence, President of Cromwell’s Council, to whose son Milton
addressed the sonnet, “Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son.”
John Lawrence emigrated to Barbados, coming on to Jamaica about
1675. James Lawrence was his grandson. In 1736 he commanded, as
captain, a party raised in St. James and St. Ann to suppress
rebellious negroes; the House of Assembly voting to “each white
shot, twenty shillings; each black shot, ten shillings; and each
baggage-negro, five shillings,” as a further encouragement to the
party. He subsequently became colonel of the St. James regiment. He
represented the parish of St. James in the three Assemblies which
were held in Kingston (the only Assemblies ever convened in that
town), which met on October 21, 1754, on January 20 and on April 8,
1755, when he supported the governor, Admiral Charles Knowles, in
his scheme for the transference of the legislature, courts and
public offices from Spanish Town to Kingston. Party feeling ran
high. Many of the Spanish Town party rendered the formation of a
quorum difficult by withdrawing themselves from meetings—the two
Prices, Roger Hope Elletson, William Nedham, Thomas Beach and
others, and refused to obey the summons of the Speaker for their
attendance. For this seventeen members were expelled the House, but
all but two were re-elected by their constituencies. The House sat
usually in the court house, but once it met at Wolmer’s school house
and at Hibbert house (the present Headquarters house, where the
legislative council now sits), and sometimes at Dr. Clarke’s house.
In 1755 Lawrence was made custos rotulorum of the parish of St.
James, and in that year he erected the square in Montego Bay, which
he called Charles Square, in honour of his friend and patron, the
governor. His wife, Mary, was daughter of Colonel Richard James, of
Hanover, who was the first child born of English parents in Jamaica.
Lawrence died at Kingston in 1756, aged forty-six. Lawrence-Archer’s
statement to the effect that “he was buried there 16th June” is made
in error to appear as though it was part of the inscription.
ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, who died at Kingston on December 16, 1780, in the
fifty-fourth year of his age, was the son of a divine of Edinburgh
of the same name. A classical scholar, he all his lifetime dabbled
in books; but he became purser of a man-of-war and led a wandering
and unsettled life. In 1745 William Falconer (author of the
“Shipwreck”), who was serving on the same ship, became his servant.
About 1760, on a long voyage, Campbell read the “Rambler,” and soon
afterwards at Pensacola wrote “Lexiphanes” and the “Sale of
Authors.” The former, a dialogue in imitation of Lucian, was
published in order to cast ridicule on Dr. Johnson’s style. Issued
anonymously in 1767, it was attributed by Sir John Hawkins to Dr.
Kenrick. It is not known when or why Campbell came to Jamaica.
RICHARD CARGILL, colonel of the St. Thomas Regiment of Foot Militia,
and member for that parish of the House of Assembly, died in 1781,
aged thirty-seven years. The first reference to the Cargill family
in Jamaica is to “one Cargill,” who is believed to have slain in a
duel Thomas, son of Colonel Peter Beckford, in 1731.
THOMAS HIGSON, a merchant of Kingston, who was born in 1773, succeeded
Macfadyen as island botanist and curator of the Gardens at Bath in
1828, which post he held till 1832. He presented to the garden a
collection of living plants collected by himself in South America.
He died in Kingston in 1836, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
VICE-ADMIRAL BARTHOLOMEW SAMUEL ROWLEY was the second son of
Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley. He was commander-in-chief at Jamaica
from 1809 till 1811, when he died on October 7, aged forty-seven
years. He was buried in the churchyard. A monument to him is over
the west door.
REAR-ADMIRAL WILLIAM BROWN was a member of an old Leicestershire
family. He was made a lieutenant in the Navy in 1788, a commander in
1792, and was raised to post rank in the next year. In 1794 he
served in the Channel under Lord Howe. In 1805 he took part in the
engagement off Cape Finisterre. He missed being present at Trafalgar
by going home to give evidence at Calder’s court-martial. He was
afterwards commissioner of the dockyards at Malta and at Sheerness.
He attained flag rank in 1812. He was commander-in-chief at Jamaica
in 1813–14. He died on September 20 in the latter year, after an
illness of five days. He is buried in the churchyard.
REV. FRANCIS HUMBERSTONE was born at Ampthill, Bedfordshire, in 1791,
and was trained at Newport-Pagnell college. He came to Jamaica in
1818 as curate of the parish of Kingston, and was appointed chaplain
to the Corporation of that town in the following year, at a salary
of £420 per annum, and chaplain to the 61st Regiment. He died on
August 9 in the same year after only nine months’ residence in the
island, in which time he made a reputation as a very fervent and
fearless preacher; preaching especially on behalf of the slaves. The
tablet to his memory was erected by the Corporation, which also paid
£210 to his widow.
REV. ISAAC MANN, M.A., was rector of Kingston from 1813 to 1828. He
was chaplain of the Provincial Grand Lodge, and Past Master of the
Sussex Lodge, No. 8, in Kingston. He died in 1828, aged fifty-one. A
monument was erected to his memory in the churchyard by the Brethren
of these Lodges.
DR. EDWARD NATHANIEL BANCROFT was born in London in 1772. He graduated
bachelor of medicine at Cambridge in 1794, and was in the following
year appointed physician to the Forces. In 1804 he took his degree
as M.D., and commenced to practise in London. He became a Fellow of
the Royal College of Physicians. In 1811 he gave up practice in
London and resumed his duties as physician of the Forces, and came
to Jamaica, where he resided till his death in Kingston in 1842,
when he held the post of deputy inspector-general of Army hospitals.
The mural tablet was erected to his memory “by the Physicians and
Surgeons of Jamaica.” One of his earliest writings was due to
conflict with his brother army medical officers—“Exposure of
misrepresentations by Dr. McGrigor and Dr. Jackson to the
Commissioners of Military Enquiry” (1808); but he is best remembered
by his “Essay on the Disease called Yellow Fever, with observations
concerning Febrile Contagion, Typhus Fever, Dysentery, and the
Plague, partly delivered as the Gulstonian Lectures before the
College of Physicians in the years 1806 and 1807” (1811 and 1817).
In 1839 he published in Jamaica “A Letter to the Hon. Hector
Mitchell on the proposed erection of a new Lunatic Asylum,” and in
the following year he issued another “representing the total
unfitness of the present Asylum for Lunatics, and the urgent
necessity for building a new Lunatic Asylum in a proper situation.”
HECTOR MITCHELL was elected mayor of Kingston in 1833 and held the
office till he died, aged eighty-four years, in 1853 at Kingston.
His body lay in state in the old court house, and his funeral was
attended by most of the prominent men of Jamaica. He was also custos
of Kingston. His portrait—a lithograph by A. Maurin, from a
daguerreotype by A. Duperly, printed for distribution when he
addressed the electors of Kingston in 1848—is in the Jamaica History
Gallery in the Institute.
EDWARD JORDAN, C.B., was born in 1800. He devoted himself to
journalism in early life, and for many years was connected with the
“Watchman” and the “Morning Journal.” While representing Kingston in
the House of Assembly he was in 1854 called to the Council, and on
that occasion received a testimonial from the inhabitants of the
island; but he resigned his seat to seek reelection in the Assembly
at the time of the introduction of the new constitution. He was
elected, and was furthermore made a member of the Governor’s
Executive Committee, which carried with it the leadership of the
Assembly. He also acted as Speaker. He represented Kingston till the
abolition of the House in 1866. He was appointed custos of Kingston
by Sir Charles Grey, and held the post till 1866. Governor Eyre
appointed him receiver-general, but he did not hold the post for
long; and he was appointed Governor’s Secretary, with which was
amalgamated on the death of the Hon. W. G. Stewart the Island
Secretaryship. He died in 1869 at his residence, Good Air, in St.
Andrew. On the Parade stands a monument of him erected by public
subscription. There is also a tablet to his memory in Halfway Tree
church. His portrait, an oil painting from life, is in the Jamaica
History Gallery in the Institute.
As in Lawrence-Archer many of the coats-of-arms are blazoned wrongly and
a few omitted, and as many of the arms on the slabs on the floor of the
church were in danger of being completely, as some of them were then
partly, effaced, it was thought desirable, some years before the
earthquake of 1907, to describe all the armorial bearings in the church;
and this was duly done in the “Jamaica Churchman” in 1902, and the
descriptions were reprinted in the “West India Committee Circular” for
March 26, 1912.
The floor of a church, where they are subjected to the tread of many
feet, is not a good position in which to place monuments with a view to
their preservation; but it is to be deplored that some other method of
rendering the seats stable was not adopted by the architect in charge
during the alterations of 1883–85 than fastening them to the pavement by
iron clamps, many of which have actually been driven through armorial
designs—that of Benbow not excepted.
It has recently been well said that “the village church is the village
Westminster Abbey, in which every object commemorating our ancestors
ought to be sacred, small as well as great.” This applies with the
greater force to the principal church in the chief town of an ancient
colony. But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that even the
ancient stall-plates of the Knights of the Order of the Garter in St.
George’s, Windsor, have not altogether escaped damage at the
“restorer’s” hands.
Amongst the coats-of-arms alluded to above occur the following examples
of allusive devices—the canting heraldry of England, the _armes
parlantes_ of France—the asses of Askew, the bent bows of Benbow, the
fern of Ferneley, the hinds of Hinde, and the vessel (both cup and ship)
of Vassall; whilst amongst the mottoes we have the “Sanguis et vulnera”
of Skinner. It may be of interest to note that the only arms in the
church represented with supporters are those of Crawford.
Rubbings of the most interesting of the armorial bearings were made, for
preservation in the Library of the Institute of Jamaica, by the Rev. W.
B. Atherton, B.A.
Hakewill, writing in 1821, said, “The handsomest building in Kingston is
the =Scotch Church= in Duke street, which was erected about the year
1814 by a public subscription from a plan of Mr. James Delaney.” This
church was destroyed by the earthquake of 1907 and subsequently rebuilt
on the old foundations.
With the destruction of “Jasper Hall” in the earthquake of 1907,
=Headquarters House=, as it is still called, in Duke street, became
possessor of the undisputed title of the finest old house in Kingston.
Its history is of interest.
The story goes that in the latter half of the eighteenth century four
Kingston merchants with great wealth and equally great ambition as to
appearance—Jasper Hall, Thomas Hibbert, John Bull and another, made a
heavy bet amongst themselves as to who should build the most magnificent
dwelling. This resulted in Jasper Hall, till recently standing in High
Holborn street; Headquarters House; Bull House, in North street; and the
house to the north of the old “Mico” in Hanover street, once called
“Harmony Hall.” The name of the winner of the bet is not recorded. It
should have been Jasper Hall.
Jasper Hall, who was receiver-general and speaker of the house of
Assembly, died in 1778. As mentioned above, he was in 1774 one of the
commissioners for purchasing a pen for an official residence for the
admiral on the station. His house, which he named “Constantine House,”
bore the date “June 1, 1756”; and not many years ago possessed what was
probably the best collection of paintings, engravings and books ever got
together by a private individual in Jamaica. Unfortunately at the sale
many bibliographical treasures were allowed to leave the colony.
Thomas Hibbert, who arrived in Jamaica in 1734, soon became one of the
principal and most opulent merchants in Jamaica. He was member of
Assembly for St. George and for Portland, and speaker of the Assembly in
1756. He died in 1780, and was buried at “Agualta Vale” pen in St. Mary.
His house was long known as Hibbert’s House.
In November 1755, when the Assembly was sitting in Kingston, it on the
12th adjourned “to the dwelling house of Thomas Hibbert, Esquire, a
member of this House, where he and Colonel Lawrence, another member of
this House, are indisposed, there to proceed to business,” and the House
met there for several days. In December 1814 it was purchased by the War
Office of the widow of Dr. Solomon Deleon, of Kingston, and was
thenceforward known as General’s House or Headquarters House. Although
the governor of the colony has ever held the rank of captain-general of
the forces, there has always been a general officer in actual command of
the troops; and in former days, and as late as 1895, such general held,
_ex officio_, a commission as lieutenant-governor of the colony, and
succeeded to the control of affairs when occasion arose. The house still
retains the name of Headquarters House, though it has been the colonial
secretary’s office since the government was removed from Spanish Town to
Kingston. It was purchased by the Government in 1872 for £5000. It also
contains the chamber in which the legislative council sits. The “Hibbert
Trust” was founded by a member of this family.
[Illustration:
DATE TREE HALL IN 1906
]
John Bull was the owner of Sheldon coffee estate in the Blue mountains.
The name of the builder of the house to the north of the Mico has not
been recorded.
Amongst those, many of them lieutenant-governors, who were general
officers commanding the forces in Jamaica while the headquarters of the
army were in Duke street, Kingston, were Archibald Campbell (1782–84),
who controlled military affairs at a troublous time for Jamaica, and by
sending troops to act as marines materially assisted Rodney in his
victory over de Grasse; Sir Alured Clarke (1785–90), during whose tenure
of office there was a succession of severe storms during one of which
the barracks at Up-Park Camp were blown down; Sir Adam Williamson
(1790–95), who was in 1795 governor-general of that part of St. Domingo
which was under the control of Great Britain; the Earl of Balcarres
(1796–1801), who is chiefly remembered in connection with the Maroon
war; Sir George Nugent (1801–05), whose doings have been fully
chronicled by his wife in her Journal; Sir Eyre Coote (1806–09), who had
served with distinction under Cornwallis in America, under Grey in the
Leeward Islands, and in Egypt; Hugh Carmichael (1809), who had declined
to let the House of Assembly interfere with a purely military matter—the
mutiny at Port Augusta alluded to in the chapter on St.
Catherine—eventually, but by the King’s command, had to appear before
that body, which grudgingly accepted the explanation offered; Edward
Morrison (1811–14); Francis Fuller (1814–17); Henry Conran (1817–23);
Sir John Keane (1823–30), who had served under Wellington in the
Peninsula, and while in Jamaica took part in the attack on New Orleans,
and later served with distinction in India; Sir Willoughby Cotton
(1831–37), who in Bermuda had had Havelock as his aide-de-camp, and in
Jamaica suppressed the rebellion in St. James; Sir William Maynard Gomm
(1839–42), at one time governor and commander-in-chief of the Windward
and Leeward Islands; Sackville Hamilton Berkeley; Samuel Lambert; Thomas
Bunbury; Sir Richard Doherty; Edward Wells Bell; Pringle Taylor; Charles
Ashmore; and lastly Luke Smythe O’Connor all of whose regimental
commissions were in the 1st West India Regiment, and who was in command
of the troops during the Morant Bay rebellion of 1865.
The old Mico Institution in Hanover street—now used as a technical
school, and for a few years after the earthquake of 1907 used as the
supreme court of the colony—was the original home of the Mico College,
which is now removed to St. Andrew.
With their destruction by the earthquake in 1907 Kingston lost two
important old-time houses in Blundell Hall and Date Tree Hall, at the
lower end of East street. Both had been in former days boarding-houses.
Latterly the former had served as the home of a part of the Post Office,
the latter as that of the Institute of Jamaica, founded in 1879.
=Blundell Hall= was for some years under the proprietorship of Mary
Seacole, a native of Jamaica, well known in connection with her kindness
to the sick and wounded of the British soldiers in the Crimea, where she
filled the position of sutler, having failed to obtain that of nurse.
Sir William Russell wrote a preface to her “Adventures,” published in
1857. Seacole Cottage in Duke street was named after her.
The reconstructed =Institute of Jamaica= possesses several objects of
considerable historic interest. Besides the Arawâk pottery and
implements and the slave branding-iron alluded to in the Introduction,
there is a cage in which criminals were hung to die of starvation, as
late as the early days of the nineteenth century. There is also the
Chancellor’s purse for holding the official seal of the colony,
recalling the days when the governor sat as chancellor, which lasted up
to the passing of the judicature law of 1879.
The following—taken from “The State of Jamaica under Sir Thomas Lynch,
1683,” printed in “The Laws of Jamaica” (London, 1684)—is the earliest
reference to the Seal of the Island:
The King has been pleased to honour this Island with a large guilt
Mace, as a signal Mark of his Favour, and to make the Government
appear more great and formal: It’s carried before the Governour and
Chancellour on Solemn Occasions.
The King has likewise honoured this Island with Arms, and with a
publick Broad Seal; and on one side of it his Majesty is seated on his
Throne, with two _Indians_ on their knees, presenting him _Fruits_,
and two Cherubins aloft, supporting a Canopy; underneath his Feet,
this _Motto_:
_Duro de Cortice fructus quam Dulces?_[5]
Footnote 5:
How sweet the fruit the hard rind yields.
The Inscription about it is, _Carolus Secundus Dei gratia, &c. Dominus
Jamaicæ_; On the other side is an Escutcheon, bearing a Cross charged
with five Pines; two _Indians_ for the Supporters and for the _Crest_
an _Alligator_. The Inscription in the Orle, Inclosing all, is
_Ecce alium Ramos porrexit in orbem
Nec sterilis crux est_[6]
Footnote 6:
Behold! the Cross hath spread its arms into another world, and
beareth fruit.
The _Motto_ underneath the Escutcheon is,
_Indus Uterq: serviet uni_[7]
Footnote 7:
The Indians twain shall serve one Lord.
All this, as I have heard, was designed by the present Lord Archbishop
of _Canterbury_, in the year 1661, and the Seal then delivered to Sir
_Charles Littleton_, that came hither Chancellour, for the
Chancellours always keep it, and with it Seal all Publick Grants,
Commissions, Patents &c.
The King by a Clause in the Commission for the Government, appoints
the Governour to be Chancellour, as judging it fittest to entrust him
with the Equity, who is to see the Laws executed, and not thinking it
for the good of his Subjects to have many great Officers in a young
Colony; and that if the Seal were in private hands it would be erected
into an Office: Now its worth little or nothing. For the Chancellour
has no Fee, only for granting Land and that amounts to very little
now....
There is no mention of a purse, but one was probably sent out with the
Seal and Counter-Seal.
Lawrence-Archer—misled by Bridges, who, ignoring the “present,” simply
says, “This seal was designed by the Archbishop of Canterbury”—says, “At
that time (1662) the Metropolitan See was filled by William Juxon.” It
is true that Lord Windsor came to Jamaica while Juxon was archbishop of
Canterbury (1660 to 1663), but Sancroft occupied the see in 1683, when
the sentence quoted from the Records of the house of Assembly was
written.