different engagements and sickness, about 700 men; of these about 550
were killed at Carlisle Bay, albeit Père Labat puts it down at 150 only.
On the English side 100 were killed or wounded; but 50 sugar-works were
destroyed and many plantations burnt, and about 1300 negroes carried
off. Du Casse received a pension of 100 pistoles per annum.
A sum of £4000 was received as a royal bounty to the sufferers by the
French invasion. When called upon by the House of Assembly to account
for it, Beeston declined; and the House, refusing to proceed with
business, was dissolved by him. The matter was subsequently allowed to
drop.
Colonel Richard Lloyd, alluded to above, who was chief justice of
Jamaica in 1696–98, entered, however, a caveat with the Council of Trade
and Plantations, received by them on April 26, 1699, against the late
act of Assembly for a present of £1500 to Sir William Beeston. He says:
“The pretence for giving him this money is to reward his care in the
time of the French invasion of that island. I was a principal actor
against them at that time, and have a journal of the whole affair. It
will be ready for the press by the beginning of next week. I intend to
dedicate it to your Lordships, and think it may induce you to think he
deserves not to be gratified for his behaviour on that occasion.” If the
journal was ever printed, no copy is now known to exist. It is difficult
to say where the truth lay in the dispute, at a time when corruption was
rife in high places.
In consequence of this descent of the French, the Government set to work
to guard the coast as well as it could, and Carlisle Fort was built the
following year. When Leslie wrote in 1740 “A New History of Jamaica,”
the fort was “now in ruins and little regarded.” There is little left of
it now, and that little is in the sea—part being shown in the
illustration on page 375.
When Long wrote his “History” in 1774, the town of Carlisle, so-called
in honour of the Earl of Carlisle, who was governor in 1678–80, was only
a hamlet of ten or twelve houses near the mouth of the Rio Minho, or, as
it is sometimes called the Dry River. Now all that is left is Carlisle
estate and one house at the Bay. As the mouth of the river is known to
have moved of late years considerably further to the east, it is
probably about the site of this house, now about half a mile from the
river mouth, that the French landed.
In those days the parish of Vere, which was formerly called Withywood,
was very thickly wooded. Later the trees were cut down to make way for
the sugar-cane, which still holds its own, thanks to the adoption of the
central factory system.
Withywood took its name, Long tells us in his History (1774), from its
having been
formerly overspread with wood and withes when the English first
settled upon it, and which grew so thick that it was impossible to
walk among them without a cutlass to clear the way. This is the part
which, on account of its rich soil, was afterwards filled with indigo
and sugar works, the opulence of whose owners is spoken of by several
writers; and though it has been called in question by some, yet it is
very certain that more carriages of pleasure were at one time kept
there than in all the rest of the island, Spanish Town only excepted.
It is indeed almost incredible to think that vast fortunes were made
here by cultivation of this simple commodity.
And in describing the cultivation of Jamaica:
There were formerly upwards of seventy gentlemen’s carriages kept in
the parish of Vere, the vast profits of their indigo works enabled
them to live in such splendour; and that part of the country for its
number of houses and inhabitants, on both sides of the Rio Minho
resembled a populous town.
One may compare with this Rampini’s account of 1873, just one hundred
years later than Long:
How can we describe the unutterably bare and barren character of the
scenery between the Alley and Four Paths, our half-way station on the
road to Chapelton?
Dusty roads, bordered with stunted logwood trees for miles; then dusty
roads without the logwood trees; then a dry river course full of rough
stones, which broke our buggy springs, and delayed us an hour to have
them tied up with ropes and branches; then more dusty roads and
logwood trees, and then dusty roads without logwood trees as before.
Not a bird to be seen, not a butterfly on the wing; not a bit of
colour, except a stray orchid or two, to break the drear monotony of
the landscape.
Rampini evidently visited Vere during a period of drought; or when he
was suffering from dyspepsia.
Withywood appears as Wither Wood in Blome’s map of 1671, which is copied
in Long’s History as “according to a survey made in the year MDCLXX.”
The name does not appear on modern maps, though it was used as late as
1728 in the Journals of the House of Assembly. The village that has
arisen around the old church is now known as Alley. Remains of the old
indigo works are still to be seen here and there in the cane pieces, and
indigo grows as a weed. There cotton was formerly cultivated
extensively. As late as 1808 Vere had some cotton plantations, while at
the same time there were thirty sugar estates. Cotton is again being
grown there.
Vere, from 1673 to 1867, was a distinct parish of Jamaica, albeit it
lost part of its area when Manchester was formed in 1814.
The =Church= itself, with its magnificent old cotton tree, forms one of
the most attractive pictures of a simple type in Jamaica, and approaches
more nearly to an English village church in character than any other in
the colony. Built of brick, with stone quoins, it is a serviceable
structure which has successfully withstood earthquake and hurricane
since it was constructed in the earlier part of the 18th century, about
1715–35. It was originally a squat building about 33 ft. wide and some
48 ft. long with the present tower. The eastern end was erected and
consecrated in 1872. Some monuments which Lawrence-Archer recorded are
now covered by the flooring of the seats in the nave. On the other hand,
some which he did not record are now visible in the nave.
On February 1, 1671, a petition was submitted to the Council by
Christopher Horner, George Osborne, John Aldred, George Child, Tho.
Coswell, Jno. Warren, Wm. Hinkston, Robt. Smith, James Jenner, Jno.
Downer, and Phi. Robarts, inhabitants of Withywood and Dry River:
“that whereas His Excellency had recommended Mr. Lander to them for
their minister, and they had bought land and were building him a
church, and had provided him a competent maintenance, pray they may
not be liable to contribute to any other church within the parish.”
This was “referred to the next General Assembly in regard the justices
and vestry men of every parish are empowered by Act of the General
Assembly to lay such assessments and parish duties as they shall think
requisite and that power cannot be taken from them by the Governor and
Council only.”
There was a church in Withywood, although no parson, as early as 1675.
Sir Thomas Lynch, writing in May of that year, says,
None but these four parishes, Port Royal, St. Catherine, St. John and
St. Andrew, are supplied, though there are 14 in the island. In Vere
or Withywood there is a church, and that and Clarendon parish
adjoining are able and willing to give a minister £100 per annum.
At a meeting of the Council held at St. Jago de la Vega on February 19,
1693,
The Council being acquainted that Mr. Samuell Cook, Rector of the
parish of Vere, was attending at the Door, To answer for a Certaine
Remonstrance by him writt and published, was ordered to be called in.
Then the Clerke of the Councill was ordered to read the same in his
presence. Acknowledged his Error and promised to give a Recantation
under his hand and presented to this board which he did accordingly
and was accepted of.
In a list of the Parishes, Churches and Ministers in Jamaica, April 18,
1715, under Vere is recorded “a church rebuilding” but no rector’s name
is given.
In 1737 the Committee appointed by the Assembly to inspect the list of
dockets of the charitable devises and donations in the Secretary’s
office, drew up and submitted a very interesting analysis of the list,
parish by parish.
So far as Vere is concerned we find that:
William Gibbons gave £20 for a communion plate; George Forsett in 1680
gave £10 for a church Bible and pulpit cloth; Andrew Knight in 1683
gave £20 to the church and poor; Hugh Gurge in 1687 gave £10 towards
building a church; Magdalen Fawcett in 1688 gave £10 to the poor, and
£10 for the minister and pall; Joseph Taylor in 1689 gave fourteen
acres of land for the minister and poor; John Moore in 1690 gave £150
towards building a church; Christian Flyer in 1715 gave £50 towards
building a wall round the church [then being built]; Nathaniel Skeen
in 1721 gave £100 for ornaments for the pulpit and pall; and Robert
Cargill in 1731 gave £30 towards building the church.
The principal monuments in the church are those to the Morants, the
Gales and the Suttons, families long and honourably connected with
Jamaica history as members of the Council and the Assembly and in other
capacities; the Gales having, however, more to do with St. Elizabeth and
Westmoreland than Vere. John Gale (1680–1721), the general Baptist
Minister, son of Nathaniel Gale, “an eminent citizen” who had property
in the West Indies, was evidently connected with this family. Colonel
Jonathan Gale was custos of St. Elizabeth, and member for St. Elizabeth
1709–11, and for Westmoreland 1721–26.
[Illustration:
THE ALLEY CHURCH
]
Vere gave but two speakers to the Assembly from among its members,
Andrew Langley and William Pusey, but among its representatives were
those bearing the well-known names of Ivy, Sutton, Vassall, Cargill,
Beckford, Lawes, Morant, Dawkins, Nedham and Batty. Andrew Knight, who
was its member in 1677–79, was, his tombstone tells us, custos of
Clarendon and Vere, and he was probably its first custos.
John Morant settled in Jamaica soon after the occupation. His son John
Morant, Custos of Clarendon and Vere, married Mary Pennant, aunt of the
first Lord Penrhyn.
Edward Morant, son of John, represented Vere in 1752, 1754, in both the
Assembly of 1755, and in 1756. He was called up to the Council in 1757,
left Jamaica in 1760, and purchased Brockenhurst manor, which is owned
by his descendants. In 1761 he was elected M.P. for Hindon. On July 16,
1791, as he was driving in Kensington, his horses took fright, when he
was precipitated from his carriage, carried home senseless, and died
four days afterwards. He married first in Clarendon, June 10, 1754,
Eleanor Angelina, widow of William Dawkins, member for Portland in 1749,
and St. Thomas in the Vale in 1752, whose tombstone in Clarendon old
church is inscribed:
Here lieth the Body of
William Dawkins Esqre.,
of this Parish, who died
the 14th of December,
1752, aged 26 years.
Edward Morant married secondly in England, April 22, 1762, a Miss
Goddard, grand-daughter and only remaining descendant of President John
Gregory, who twice administered the government of Jamaica, on the
refusal of Edward Pennant, the senior member of the Council, to act in
that capacity.
Elizabeth Morant, daughter of John Morant, the younger, and sister of
Edward, married in Vere, January 11, 1753–54, her cousin, William Gale,
who represented Hanover in 1754 and 1755, and St. John in the second
Assembly of 1755, and in 1756. He was the younger son of John Gale, the
member of Council, who in 1747 first settled the estate of York (from
the county of his ancestors) in this parish, and died 1749–50. Another
mural monument in the church commemorates his elder son, a younger
daughter, himself and his daughter-in-law.
Lawrence-Archer records Colonel Thomas Sutton, who played an important
part in the successful repulse of the French at Carlisle Bay in 1694;
but the monument is no longer to be seen. It probably is hidden by the
flooring of the nave. It is to be regretted that copies of the
inscriptions were not taken before they were covered up.
One of the most interesting accounts of the earthquake which destroyed
Port Royal in 1692 is “The Truest and Largest Account of the Late
Earthquake in Jamaica, June the 7th, 1692, Written by a Reverend Divine
there to his Friend in London. With some Improvement thereof by another
Hand. London: Printed, and are to be sold by J. Buttler, Bookseller at
Worcester, 1693,” of which a copy is in the library of the Institute of
Jamaica, and a reprint is given in the second volume of the “Journal of
the Institute of Jamaica.” It is dated “Withywood, in the parish of
Vere, June 30th, 1692.” Nothing is known for certain of the author. He
was probably the Thomas Hardwicke who was made rector of Vere by the
Earl of Carlisle in 1678. The following extract shows how Vere fared in
the great calamity:
It overthrew all the Brick and Stone buildings in the Countrey,
whereof several in my own Parish, which now are either leveled with
the ground or standing Monuments of the Wrath of God, are so shattered
and torn that they are irrepairable. While these were trembling, the
Earth opened in my Parish in multitudes of Places, and through thier
dire Chasms spew’d out Water to a considerable height above ground, in
such quantities in some Places, that it made our Gullies run on a
suddain, tho’ before exceeding dry; in so much that some were afraid
of being overwhelmed at once by the River and Sea joining together to
swallow up the Countrey, especially nigh the River, in the purest
Mould, which had not Clay or other Consolidating Matter beneath to
oppose the force of the Fountain of the Deep breaking up; for where
that was, we do not find any cracks of the Earth at all; and yet it
pleases God that we in the Parish have escaped the Danger much better
than our Neighbour Parishes; for happening to content ourselves with
mean and low built Houses, for the most part built with Timber, and
boarded, or with Cratches set deep in the ground and Plaistered, such
Houses are generally standing: So that we have means to assist one
another in this calamitous distress.
In 1728 the finances of the parish were in such a bad condition that a
Bill was passed by the Assembly to reduce the rector’s salary from £150
to £100.
Under date February 11, 1803, Lady Nugent records that “The Admiral
brought Mr. and Mrs. Ledwich and Captain Dunn with him.” This may refer
either to the rector of Vere or to his brother, G. Ledwich, the rector
of Port Royal. On July 2 she entertained “the Mr. and Mrs. Ledwich”
again.
The following is a list of the rectors as complete as it has possible to
make it:
1671. Rev. Lander.
1675. Vacant.
1678. Rev. Thomas Hardwicke.
1693. Rev. Samuel Cook.
1701. Rev. Richard Tabor.
1716. Rev. James White.
1762–63. Rev. Samuel Griffiths, A.M. Cantab.
1763–70. Rev. John Lindsay, D.D.
1770–72. Rev. John Wolcot (Peter Pindar).
1776. Rev. William Morgan.
1782–94. Rev. Francis Johnstone.
1795–96. Rev. Thomas Markly.
1797–1802. Rev. Edward Ledwich.
1803. Vacant.
1804. Rev. Thomas Underwood.
1805. Rev. Humphries.
1806. Vacant.
1807–09. Rev. Isaac Mann.
1811–15. Rev. Edmund Pope, LL.D.
1816. Rev. John M’Cammon Trew.
1817–20. Rev. George Crawford Ricketts Fearon.
1821–24. Rev. Joseph Jefferson.
1825. Rev. Edward F. Hughes.
1826. Rev. Urquhart Gillespie Rose.
1827. Rev. Henry V. Towton, M.D. Edin. 1817.
1828–44. Rev. John Smith, A.B.
1845–47. Rev. B. Robinson, B.A.
1849–50. Rev. J. Williams.
1851. Rev. W. S. Coward.
1855–69. Rev. Thomas Garrett, B.A.
1870. Rev. Alexander Foote.
1871–76. Rev. C. Douet, B.A. (later Assistant Bishop).
1876. Rev. C. T. Husband.
1905. Rev. S. Negus.
Griffiths accompanied the Governor, William Henry Lyttelton, to the
island in 1762, and was in the same year presented to the rectory of
Vere. He afterwards removed to St. Dorothy, and later to St. Jago de la
Vega. Of Dr. Lindsay some account was given in the notice of the
Cathedral.
Wolcot, satirist and poet, best known perhaps by his satires on the King
and the Royal Academy, accompanied as physician his kinsman, Sir William
Trelawny, when he came out to take up the governorship of Jamaica in
1767. They were both Cornishmen, and Wolcot had been chaplain on
Trelawny’s ship when the latter was a captain in the navy. Finding that
medical prospects in Jamaica were not promising he returned to England
in 1769, and took orders with a view to being appointed rector of St.
Ann, the Bishop of London ordaining him deacon and priest on succeeding
days. Returning to Jamaica early in 1770 he found the rectory of St. Ann
not vacant, and he was appointed to Vere. He was _ex-officio_ a trustee
of the Vere School. He lived with the Governor at Spanish Town and
performed most of his duties by deputy. In May of the same year he was
appointed physician general to the horse and foot soldiers in the
island. He lived on terms of close intimacy with the Trelawnys, and one
of his earlier poems, “The Nymph of Tauris,” which first saw the light
of day in Jamaica, is an elegy on the death of Ann Trelawny, sister to
Sir William. Soon after the Governor’s death, which occurred in December
1772, Wolcot accompanied Lady Trelawny to England, and Redding in his
“Recollections Literary and Personal,” tells us that her death shortly
afterwards robbed him of a future wife.
While rector of Vere he published a work entitled “Persian Love Elegies,
to which is added the Nymph of Tauris,” printed in Kingston in 1773 by
Joseph Thompson and Co. It is dedicated to Lady Trelawny. This work is,
apart from the Kingston printed Almanac of 1751, the oldest Jamaica
printed book in the library of the Institute.
The following tale is told of Wolcot’s ready wit in Jamaica. At a
dinner-party given by Pusey Manning of Vere, he jokingly introduced the
rector to a stranger in the following manner, “This is Dr. Wolcot, the
unworthy incumbrance of this parish.” “And this, Sir,” retorted Wolcot,
“is Pusey Manning, Esq., the scabbiest sheep in my flock.”
The east window of the church is filled with stained glass, and stained
glass is in two lights of the west window. That to the south is “In
memory of Marie Sophie, the beloved wife of James Harvey, who died on
July 24, 1871, aged 41 years”: that to the north is “In memory of George
Harrison Townsend, died July 10, 1846, and Sarah Bevil his wife died
Feb. 22, 1871.”
The church owns a most interesting chalice and paten: on the former is
inscribed “The Gift of Ralph Rippon, sen., to the Parish Church of Vere,
in Jamaica, 1687”: on the paten “Ralph Rippon, 1687.” Except for the
paten at Yallahs, which dates from 1683, these are the oldest examples
of plate in the colony. Both bear the date mark of 1685. The chalice is
typical of what Cripps calls “the rude vessels of the latter part of the
century.” Rippon represented Vere in the Assembly from 1726 to 1733,
with an interval in 1731, when he sat for St. Elizabeth.
The following are the principal tombs in Vere Church, those that are
given in Lawrence-Archer being so stated:
MURAL MONUMENTS
1. Underneath, amidst the ashes of her father, mother, brothers and
sisters, lyes interred the body of Elizabeth, daughter to ye Honble.
John Gale, Esq., and Elizabeth, his wiffe, who dyed April the 30,
1761, in the 34th year of her age, in memory of whose many amiable
qualities her Husband Daniel McGilchrist, Esq., hath erected this
monument of his love and regard to one of the best of wives.
[In Lawrence-Archer, who, however, omits the arms:—A lion rampant:
impaling a bar charged with 3 lions heads between 3 pairs of fish in
saltire.]
2. Beneath this marble, in this pew, lieth interred the body’s of the
Honourable John Morant, Esq., who departed this life October the 3rd
anno domini 1723, in the 44th year of his age, and his son, John
Morant, Esq., who departed this life February the 6th, anno domini
1734, in the 36th year of his age, and also Elizabeth, the wife of
John Gale, Esq., daughter of John Morant the elder, who departed this
life January the 10th, 1740, in the 34th year of her age.
_Arms_—Gules, a fess lozengy argent and azure, between three talbots
passant or.
[In Lawrence-Archer, who has “38th year” for “36th year,” and calls
the azure sable, and puts rampant for passant.]
3. Near this place are deposited the remains of John Morant, who died
the 9th of August, 1741, aged 18, William Morant, who died the 9th of
November, 1744, aged 19, Samuel Morant, who died the ... October 1752,
aged 18, Eleanor Angelina Morant, who died the 5th of February, 1756,
aged 24, Mary Morant, who died the 9th August, 1759, aged 60.
_Arms_—Gules a fess lozengy argent or sable, between three talbots or.
[In Lawrence-Archer, who has “1756” for 1759.]
4. Near this place are deposited the remains of John Gale, Esquire,
who departed this life on the 24th June 1758, aged 24 year, Sarah
Gale, who died on 29th August, 1748, aged 14 year, the Honble. John
Gale, Esquire, who died on 27th February, 1749–50, aged 52 year,
Jonathan Gale, who died 30th April, 1756, aged 25 year, and Elizabeth,
the wife of William Gale, and daughter of John Morant, Esquire, who
departed this life the 14th of June, 1759, aged 31 year.
_Arms_—Quarterly 1 and 4, on a fess between three pairs of fish in
saltire as many lions heads erased; 2 and 3 a chevron between three
talbots passant.
[In Lawrence-Archer, who gives “1743” for 1748, omits all reference to
Jonathan Gale, and calls the fish in saltire merely saltires.]
5. To the memory of the Hon. Kean Osborn of Caswell Hill in the parish
of Vere and of Montpelier, Saint Thomas-in-the-East, late Speaker of
the House of Assembly in this Island, who departed this life the 4th
of September, 1820, at Mont-sur-Vaudray, in France, on his way to
Italy for the health of the wretched survivor, Elizabeth Osborn.
6. Sacred to the memory of Ennis Read, Esq., who departed this life on
the 10th day of Novr., 1771, aged 58, and of Margaret, his wife, who
died on the 29th of Septr., 1745, aged 34. A pair that by a primæval
purity of manners acquired the universal esteem of and reflected
honour on human nature. To the world their lives were fair models of
imitation: their last moments an instructive lesson that shew’d with
what fortitude and serenity, virtue can support her votaries in the
awful hour of dissolution.
O’er Birth and Titles let the column heave
And venal flattery mock the lifeless ear,
Far nobler honours grace your humble grave,
Truth’s simple sigh and Virtue’s sacred tear.
_Arms_—Azure a griffin rampant or, impaling between three stags
passant or a chevron charged with three rosettes gules.
7. Erected to the memory of Saml. Alpress Geo. Osborn, lieutenant 74th
regiment, aged 20 years, who departed this life on the 26th September,
1828, at Gibraltar, of the malignant fever prevalent there, by his
broken-hearted grandmother, Elizabeth Osborn....
8. George Cussans Richards, Esqr., Obit. Jany. 1828. Erected to the
memory of their relative by John Morant, George Morant, Esquires, Sir
John and Lady Lambert. Sacred to the memory of Edward Sympson, Esqre.,
younger son of Robert Sympson, Esqr., of Monymusk, in this parish.
Previous to his residence in this island, he served with credit many
years in the royal navy and was present at the Battle of Navarino,
20th October, 1827, in H.M. Ship _Asia_, 84 guns, Admiral Sir Edward
Codrington, G.C.B. He obtained and preserved the universal goodwill
and affection of his comrades and of those amongst whom his lot was
subsequently cast. Died at Monymusk, March 8th, 1846, aged 33 years.
9. Near this monument lies interred the body of John Pusey. Esqr., who
died the 24th day of January, 1767, aged 75 years, Disinterestedly
sincere, and uniformly steady in the interest of his native country;
he lived truly and justly venerated. Unsolicitous of public honours,
he knew no ambition but that of doing good; and possessing a soul rich
in humanity and benevolence which poured forth its bounty with a
generous and unbounded hand. He died gratefully lamented.
_Arms_—Gules 2 bars or. Crest: a cat o’mountain statant gules.
10. In memory of John, who died the 14th January, 1860, also of Mary
Agatha, who died 22 March, 1862, the infant children of Rev. Thos.
Garrett, M.A., rector of this parish, and of Sarah, his wife, this
tablet was erected in the 16th year of his incumbency, in the year of
the Lord, 1869.