VIII St. Ann
The parish of St. Ann is rich in associations with the aboriginal inhabitants, the Spaniards, and with the early history of the British occupation of the colony. It was in St. Ann that Columbus discovered Jamaica; it was in St. Ann that he spent a twelvemonth while waiting for help from Hispaniola; it was in St. Ann, at Ocho Rios, that two engagements of note with the Spaniards were fought; it was from St. Ann that the last remnants of the Spaniards left the island, while the last battle of importance was fought at Rio Nuevo in St. Mary, but a few miles across the border.
A kitchen midden of peculiar interest was opened up in 1912, situated at the top of the hill, some 980 feet high, on which stands the great house of Liberty Hall, commanding a view from Seville, the old Spanish settlement, on the west, to Port Maria on the east, and overlooking the little creek to the east of St. Ann’s Bay, known as Don Christopher’s Cove, where Columbus spent twelve weary months, from June 1503 to June 1504. The thick foliage must in those days, however, have precluded any more than mere peeps at that sea over which the dreaded Caribs might at any moment arrive.
It is highly probable that the Liberty Hill Arawâks supplied Columbus and his companions with food while he lived on board ship in the creek some three miles distant, into which the Spanish Lookout river runs, through land which afterwards became Drax Hall property and whence Beckford of “Vathek” fame later obtained much of the wealth he spent lavishly at his Gothic residence in Somerset. It is possible that some of the pottery recently dug up by the turn of the fork may have been used to cook this food, and it is conceivable that some of the vessels may have been handled by the great discoverer himself.
The area of the midden or shell-mound is, roughly speaking, about half of an acre, consisting of the brow of the hill on which the great house stands. The richest collection of remains was found just outside the garden gate on the carriage drive, where a few days before some pieces had been unearthed in the preliminary work of grading the drive to facilitate the turning of motor cars—a strange link between the old world and the new. Investigation in the banana walk at the back of the house, and in the garden on the one side and the pastures on the other, yielded proof that the midden extended all round the brow of the hill, as was the usual custom.
The remains resemble in the main the usual results of search in such middens—as described in Dr. Duerden’s “Aboriginal Indian Remains of Jamaica” published by the Institute of Jamaica in 1897, and in Mr. T. De Booy’s more recent pamphlet, “Certain Kitchen-Middens in Jamaica” (1913)—land and marine shells, some pierced for the purpose of carrying them, fish bones, coney bones, broken pottery, broken stone implements, flint flakes and chalcedony, from which their beads and other ornaments were made. The Jamaica arawâk pottery, Professor Mason tells us, lies between the Porto Rican and that of Florida to Carolina. The pieces unearthed at Liberty Hill afford good examples of its decoration, in the handles especially. One is distinctly fashioned like a parrot’s head. The borders show the usual indentations made, before the pottery was baked, by cross-hatching and otherwise. But one has a curious serrated edge not hitherto found in Jamaica. Examples of this collection are in the museum of the Institute of Jamaica.
Although from the nature of things only fragments of pottery were obtained, it is not difficult, in the light of previous experience, to reconstruct the bowls of which they formed part. Dr. Duerden mentions as the greatest size hitherto found, a circular basin with a diameter of about eighteen inches. That must have been approximated by one found at Liberty Hill. The bowls vary in thickness from three-sixteenths of an inch to half an inch, but pieces of flat cooking slabs were found as thick as one inch. The pottery on the whole seems better baked than that usually found.
Additional interest attaches to the Liberty Hill mound from the fact that clay from which some of this pottery was made is to be found at Lime Hall hard by, where there was in recent times a pottery in operation, and also from the fact that in the St. Ann’s Great River, which runs bordering the property to the east, are to be found stones from which aboriginal hatchets were made, and alongside a supply of sandstone which the Arawâks conceivably used for the shaping and polishing of their implements. A slab of stone was found on the midden itself, suggesting that perhaps Liberty Hill may have been the site of a factory of both earthenware bowls and stone hatchets. But it would seem that its greatest interest lies in its possible close association, during a twelvemonth, with the life of the great Columbus.
Other kitchen middens have been discovered at Moneague, on the hotel grounds; at Friendship, near by; at Belle Vue, on the banks of the White River; at Retreat, at Orange Valley; and at Cranbrook. Further investigations would doubtless reveal others.
There are Arawâk rock-carvings in a cave at Coventry.
On September 12, 1492, Columbus, after encountering oppositions and difficulties which would have deterred all but very resolute men, was the first European to set foot in the New World—landing on that day at Guanahani (Watling Island) in the Bahamas. The important discovery of Cuba and Hispaniola was made on his homeward voyage.
On May 4, 1494, while on his second voyage of discovery, he was the first European to land in Jamaica, running his lateen-rigged caravel, the Niña, and her two consorts into Dry Harbour Bay on the north side of the island.
On April 24 he had left his new-founded city of Isabella in Hispaniola, and started on a further voyage of discovery. He sailed westward along the north coast of Hispaniola, and, leaving the point we now call Cape St. Nicholas, stood across to Cuba, and anchored in a harbour (Guantanamo), to which he gave the name of Puerto Grande. Leaving on May 1, he coasted along the southern shores, admiring the beauty of the landscape, noting the rivers, and receiving visits from numerous Indians in their canoes, with whom he exchanged beads and hawks’ bells for cassava bread, fish and fresh water. But soon, on the advice of his Guanahani guide (whom he had taken to Spain on returning from his first voyage) he stood due south in order to visit a large island of which the natives spoke. As he neared the island a number of carved and painted canoes, one nearly ninety feet in length, crowded with Indians, came out to meet him a league’s length from the shore. After giving them presents, Columbus sailed on and dropped anchor in a place which he named Santa Gloria, on account of its extreme beauty. Passing the night there he sailed westward to find a closed port in which he might careen and caulk up his vessels. About four leagues further on he found a very singular port, to use the words of Bernaldez, or, as Fernando Colombo describes it, resembling a horseshoe in shape, which he named Puerto Bueno. Here two canoes full of Indians met him, but after six or seven of the natives had been wounded by bolts from the Spaniards’ crossbows they retreated.
On anchoring Columbus saw “so many Indians that the earth was covered with them,” all painted, chiefly in black, wearing nothing but plumes on their heads and aprons of leaves round their waists. Wishing to assert his authority and instil a fear for the arms of Castile into the hearts of the natives, Columbus, as the caravels could not reach the shore owing to the shallowness of the water, sent three boatloads of men, who, aided by the pioneer of those hounds which afterwards did fearful execution amongst the poor Indians, drove them off so that there was not a man or woman left in the neighbourhood. On the following day six Indians came as ambassadors from the caciques or chiefs, begging Columbus not to go away; and later on the caciques themselves and many followers came and brought provisions, which probably consisted of cassava, arrowroot, guavas, naseberries, cocoa-plums and star-apples. During the time they were there the Spaniards had everything in abundance, and the Indians were very pleased with the objects (hawks’ bells, beads and the like) which the admiral gave them. When the vessels had been repaired and the crews were rested, Columbus left Puerto Bueno after a three days’ stay, and skirted the northern shore, being visited from each village by canoes full of Indians, who exchanged native products for hawks’ bells and beads, till he came to Point Negril, which he named “Cabo del Buen Tiempo.”
Owing partly to contrary winds and partly to the impression that there was “no gold in it, or any other metal, although the island was otherwise a paradise and worth more than gold,” Columbus now left Jamaica and returned to Cuba.
The historians of Jamaica and the West Indies generally have thrown but little light on the subject of the Jamaica landing. For a time the honour was about equally divided between St. Ann’s Bay and Port Maria. So far, however, as the somewhat scanty information warrants one in coming to a conclusion, it may be assumed that Columbus’s Santa Gloria was probably St. Ann’s Bay and that his Puerto Bueno was what is now known as Dry Harbour, for it is said that he called the first port he touched at Santa Gloria; that he stayed at Santa Gloria in 1504; that Sevilla arose near Santa Gloria, and Sevilla, we are told, was near St. Ann’s Bay. The horseshoe shape of Puerto Bueno, as well as other evidence, points to Dry Harbour as the place of Columbus’s first landing in Jamaica. It may be mentioned that the identification of Puerto Bueno with Dry Harbour was dealt with by the present writer at greater length than is possible here in “The Story of the Life of Columbus and the Discovery of Jamaica” (Kingston, 1894). There was a Fort Columbus at Dry Harbour in and about 1783.
It is not here necessary to follow Columbus in his further voyaging—through “The Queen’s Garden,” as he named the islands off the southern coast of Cuba, back to Jamaica, where on the south side he had, as we have seen in the account of St. Catherine, an interview at Old Harbour with an important cacique, thence to Isabella, on the north coast of Hispaniola, and so home. But Dry Harbour was once again visited by the admiral on his fourth and last voyage.
On his way back from the continent of America, which he saw for the last time on May 1, 1503, while making for Hispaniola for succour, as his two worm-eaten caravels the Capitana and the Santiago de Palos were in no fit state to cross the Atlantic, after passing the Cayman Islands, which he named Las Tortugas, and encountering a storm at the west end of Cuba, he ran for Jamaica and reached Dry Harbour on June 23, 1503; when, finding no water there, he went on to Puerto Santa Gloria (St. Ann’s Bay) and ran his caravels on the beach in a cove, possibly in that which is still called Don Christopher’s Cove. Why another cove in St. Mary received the same name is not evident.
Being unable to keep the ships afloat any longer he stranded them as best he could, one near the other, and propped them up on both sides so that they could not move.
The lower parts soon filled when pumping ceased, and cabins had to be built on deck thatched with straw to supplement the accommodation now only found in the cabins under the poops and forecastles. There, in the words of Mendez, they were “not without considerable danger from the natives, who were not yet subdued, and who might easily set fire to our habitation in the night, in spite of the greatest watchfulness.”
The natives, however, soon showed that they were inclined to be friendly, and Columbus endeavoured to see that nothing was done to abuse their confidence. They brought in provisions such as cassava, fish and birds, which they willingly exchanged for cheap ornaments; and we are told that Columbus’s youthful son, Fernando, took great interest in these barterings, which were organised on a large scale by Diego Mendez, who had ever been a good and faithful follower of the admiral.
The following is Mendez’s account11 of what he did:
It was there that I gave out the last ration of biscuit and wine; I then took a sword in my hand, three men only accompanying me, and advanced into the island; for no one else dared go to seek food for the Admiral and those who were with him. It pleased God that I found some people who were very gentle and did us no harm, but received us cheerfully, and gave us food with hearty goodwill. I then made a stipulation with the Indians, who lived in a village called Aguacadiba, and with their cacique, that they should make cassava bread, and that they should hunt and fish to supply the Admiral every day with a sufficient quantity of provisions, which they were to bring to the ships, where I promised there should be a person ready to pay them in blue beads, combs and knives, hawks’-bells and fish hooks, and other such articles which we had with us for that purpose. With this understanding, I dispatched one of the Spaniards, whom I brought with me, to the Admiral, in order that he might send a person to pay for the provisions, and secure their being sent. From thence I went to another village, at three leagues distance from the former, and made a similar agreement with the natives and their cacique, and dispatched another Spaniard to the Admiral, begging him to send another person with a similar object to this village. After this I went further on, and came to a great cacique named Huareo, living in a place which is now called Melilla, thirteen leagues from where the ships lay. I was very well received by him; he gave me plenty to eat, and ordered all his subjects to bring together in the course of three days a great quantity of provisions, which they did, and laid them before him, whereupon I paid him for them to his full satisfaction. I stipulated with him that they should furnish a constant supply, and engaged that there should be a person appointed to pay them. Having made this arrangement, I sent the other Spaniard to the Admiral with the provisions they had given me, and then begged the cacique to allow me two Indians to go with me to the extremity of the island, one to carry the hammock in which I slept, and the other carrying the food.
In this manner I journeyed eastward to the end of the island, and came to a cacique who was named Ameyro, with whom I entered into close friendship. I gave him my name and took his, which amongst these people is regarded as a pledge of brotherly attachment. I bought of him a very good canoe, and gave him in exchange an excellent brass helmet that I carried in a bag, a frock, and one of the two shirts that I had with me; I then put out to sea in this canoe, in search of the place that I had left, the cacique having given me six Indians to assist in guiding the canoe. When I reached the spot to which I had dispatched the provisions, I found there the Spaniards whom the Admiral had sent, and I loaded them with the victuals that I had brought with me, and went myself to the Admiral who gave me a very cordial reception. He was not satisfied with seeing and embracing me, but asked me respecting everything that had occurred in the voyage, and offered up thanks to God for having delivered me in safety from so barbarous a people. The men rejoiced greatly at my arrival, for there was not a loaf left in the ships when I returned to them with the means of allaying their hunger; this and every day after that, the Indians came to the ships loaded with provisions from the places where I had made the agreements; so that there was enough for the two hundred and thirty people who were with the Admiral.
In spite of Mendez’s efforts, it was evident to Columbus that the present state of affairs was highly unsatisfactory. Neither of the caravels could be made fit for sea, and it became necessary to seek aid from Hispaniola. After a conversation with the admiral, and when no response had been made to an appeal for volunteers for such a risky journey, which appeal Columbus had made publicly at Mendez’s suggestion, Mendez offered to go, saying:
“I have but one life, and I am willing to sacrifice it in the service of your lordship, and for the welfare of all those who are here with us; for I trust in God, that in consideration of the motive which actuates me, he will give me deliverance, as he has done on many other occasions.”
It was decided that he should be accompanied by Bartolomé Fiesco, in a second canoe, who was to return and announce Mendez’s safe arrival in Hispaniola, while the latter was to go on to Spain and let the sovereigns know of the results of the voyage, and for that purpose Columbus entrusted Mendez with a long letter descriptive of the voyage.
In the meantime hope of assistance deferred, their crowded quarters on shipboard, and want of occupation and exercise began to have their effects upon the health and spirits of the little settlement at Santa Gloria. Discontent led to open rebellion. The brothers Porras (Francisco the captain of the Santiago, and Diego the accountant) led the revolt, followed by Juan Sanchez, the pilot Ledesma, Barba the gunner, and some fifty others, who were moved to rebellion by Porras’s false representations. On January 2, 1504, when Columbus was confined in bed by gout, Francisco de Porras burst into his small cabin and accused the admiral of having no intention of returning to Spain. Remonstrances were useless, and, to quote the “Historie”:
“Porras replied, that it was not now time to talk, and that the Admiral must either embark immediately or stay there by himself; and turning his back upon the Admiral he called out in a loud voice, ‘I am bound for Spain with those that are willing to follow me.’ On this all his followers who were present shouted out, ‘We will go with you! we will go with you!’ and running about in great confusion crying, ‘Let them die! let them die! For Spain! for Spain!’ while others called on the captain for his orders, they took possession of the poop, forecastle, and round tops.
“Though the Admiral was then so lame of the gout that he could not stand, he yet endeavoured to rise and come out upon deck on hearing this uproar; but two or three worthy persons, his attendants, laid hold upon him and forcibly laid him again in bed, that the mutineers might not murder him; they then ran to his brother, who was going out courageously with a half-pike, and wresting it from his hands, they forced him into the cabin beside the admiral, desiring Captain Porras to go where he liked, and not commit a crime for which they might all suffer; that he might be satisfied in meeting no opposition to his going away, but if he killed the Admiral he must lay his account with being severely punished for what could not possibly be of the least benefit to his views.”
The rebels seized some stores and ten canoes which Columbus had purchased at Maima, a native village near where the caravels were grounded, and which perhaps stood by Mammee Bay, and made several futile attempts to follow Mendez to Hispaniola; proving themselves such wretches, it is said, as to force into the sea when the waves ran high, in order to lighten the canoes, those poor Indians whom they had taken with them to navigate their canoes.
Foiled by their own cowardice and want of enterprise from leaving Jamaica, they ran riot throughout the island, ill-treating the natives, and thereby upsetting the reputation for kindness and fair dealing which the admiral had carefully been building up. The result was that the natives, not able to distinguish between the followers of Columbus and his renegades, began to change their regard for their visitors; the consistent and steady labour necessary for the due supply of food also was unusual and proved irksome to them, and the Spanish trinkets with their loss of novelty lost much of their value in their eyes. Supplies therefore were not now forthcoming, and Columbus found himself and his companions, many of whom were with him owing rather to sickness than to loyalty, in danger of starvation. Once again his resourceful nature stood him in good stead, and he made use of an approaching eclipse to bring them to reason in the manner related by Mendez.
But Columbus’s troubles were by no means over. In March, just as discontent amongst his followers was again becoming formidable, a caravel hove in sight, and all hearts were raised in thanksgiving in anticipation of being removed from their disagreeable position. Bitter must have been the disappointment when, the ship anchoring outside the bay, a boat put off, and Escobar, the messenger sent by Ovanda, handed a letter to Columbus, with a present of a bottle of wine and a piece of bacon; and it was found that the letter contained merely condolences for their sufferings, and regret that no vessels could be spared for the purpose of bringing them from Jamaica. It was a sorry jest on Ovanda’s part, and there seems reason for believing that Escobar had been sent rather in the hope of finding that the admiral was dead, than to render succour. Still Columbus’s dignity and courage did not desert him. He sent an answer asking for assistance, consoling himself with the reflection that Mendez was safe, and that sooner or later succour would come: and Escobar left that same night.
At this time Columbus endeavoured to pacify the rebel party by sending to tell them of the arrival of Escobar, giving them a piece of the bacon as token; and he offered, if they returned to obedience, to give them a free pardon and a passage to Spain. Porras persuaded his followers to decline this offer and to demand permission to reside where they liked in the island and a promise of half the room on ship board and half the stores when help should arrive. On being told that these demands would not be complied with, they said they would take them by force.
Hearing that Porras and his mutineers were marching in open rebellion upon Maima, Columbus entrusted to the adelantado the task of pacifying them or defying them. Bartolomé gathered together what men he could, about fifty in all, and, after overtures had been rejected by Porras, who calculated on his superior numbers to gain him an easy victory, prepared to receive attack on May 19. Porras and six others made a dead set at the adelantado, for they thought if they could kill him, the rest would be easy. But the bold Bartolomé was not dismayed. His first three blows disposed of the powerful Sanchez the pilot, Barba the gunner, and Ledesma, who, however, recovered from his wounds in spite of the fact that he fell into a ravine and was not discovered till the next day. Then he received on his shield a fierce blow from Francisco de Porras, who, his sword sticking in the shield, was overpowered and bound. His followers fled, and the formidable revolt was quelled by the courage and strength of one man. The adelantado lost but one soldier. This miniature battle had been witnessed by the natives drawn up in battle array, and after the fight was over they marvelled to find that the strangers from the skies were but mortal like themselves. Columbus, with his usual clemency, granted the pardon asked for by the rebels, and even spared the lives of the two Porrases, whom he, however, kept in custody.
At last, about the end of June, the long looked for help arrived in the shape of two caravels, one sent by Mendez under the command of Diego Salcedo, and a second sent as an ostensible aid to Columbus by Ovando, who, now that he found that the admiral could get assistance without him, thought it well to take part in the relief.
On June 28, 1504, after a sojourn of twelve months and four days in the island, Columbus and his followers, accompanied by Salcedo, left Jamaica, which could have had but unhappy memories for the great mariner.
Four years later the town of Sevilla Nueva, later known as Sevilla d’Oro, was founded under the authority of the admiral’s son and successor Diego, near the spot occupied by the wrecked caravels.
Sloane on his expedition to the north side visited Sevilla Nueva. He says:
I observed the ruins of the town called Sevilla, among which a church built by Peter Martyr of Angleria, of a sort of freestone (to be had near this city) and bricks. A pavement was found two miles from this church; the city was so large it had a fortified castle, the walls of pebbles and bricks, four feet thick; it was and is a good port.... This town is now Captain Hemmings’ plantation. The church was not finished; it was thirty paces broad and thirty paces long. There were two rows of pillars within; over the place where the altar was to be were some carvings under the ends of the arches. It was built out of a sort of stone between freestone and marble, taken out of a quarry about a mile up in the hills; the houses and foundations stand for several miles along. The ground towards the country is rising. Captain Hemmings told me he sometimes found pavements under his canes, three feet covered with earth, and several times wells, and sometimes burialstones finely cut. There are the beginnings of a great house called a monastery, but I suppose the house was designed for the Governor. There were two coats-of-arms not set up—a ducal one, and that of a count, I suppose belonging to Columbus’s family, the proprietors of the island. There had been raised a tower, part brick and part hewn stones, as also several battlements on it, and other lower buildings not finished. At the church lie several arched stones to complete it, which had never been put up, but lay among the canes. The rows of pillars within were for the most part plain. In the time of the Spaniards it was thought the Europeans had been cut off by the Indians, and so the church left unfinished. When the English took the island the ruins of this city were so overgrown with wood that they were all turned black; nay, I saw a mammee, or bastard mammee tree grow within the walls of the tower, so high that it must have been a very large gun could kill a bird on the top of it, and most part of the timber fell’d off this place, when it was planted, was sixty foot or more long. A great many wells are on this ground.... The west gate of the church was a very fine work, and stands very entire; it was seven feet wide, and as high before the arch began. Over the door in the middle was our Saviour’s head with a crown of thorns between two angels; on the right side a small round figure of some saint with a knife struck into his head; on the left a Virgin Mary or Madonna, her arm tied in three places, Spanish fashion. Over the gate, under a coat of arms, this inscription:—Petrus Martir ab Angleria Italvs Civis Mediolanen. Prothon. Apos. hvivs Insulæ Abbas Senatus Indici Consiliarivs Ligneam privs Ædem hanc bis Igne consvmptam Latericio et Quadrato Lapide primus a Fundamentis Extruxit.
This Long thus translates:—
Peter Martir, of Anghiera, an Italian citizen of Milan, chief missionary and abbot of this island, member of the Council of the Indies, first raised from its foundation, with brick and square stone, this edifice, which formerly was built of wood, and twice destroyed by fire.
This Peter Martyr must not be confounded with his namesake, Pietro Martire Vermigli (1500–62), of Florence, who at Cranmer’s instance went to England, and for six years occupied a professor’s chair of theology at Oxford. Our Peter Martyr was Pietro Martire of Anghiera (1455–1526), a native of Arona in Italy, apostolic protonotary, and a member of the Council of the Indies to Charles V. and first abbot of Jamaica. He was a prototype of the absentee proprietor; he never set foot in the island. He is best known by his work entitled “De Orbe Novo,” commonly called “The Decades.” The “some saint with a knife struck into his head,” mentioned by Sloane, was the Dominican saint of the thirteenth century, well known to students of mediæval Christian art, especially by reason of Titian’s world-famous painting of his martyrdom, and the saint after whom the two sixteenth-century Peter Martyrs were named.
At the time that Long wrote (1774), nearly a century later than Sloane, several fragments of carved work in stone “that would be thought no mean ornaments in an European church” were still to be seen there, and the ruins of two edifices, one said to have been a castle and the other probably the collegiate church, were still remaining, separated by about half a mile. The walls were compacted with a very hard cement, and were several feet in thickness. But he mentions that these walls were being every day diminished for the sake of the materials, which were used in repairing the buildings on the estate, so much so that the remains of the castle were then below the surface of the earth. In 1764 he tells us there were dug up two pilasters of about seven feet in length, “of no particular order, but somewhat resembling the Ionic,” on which were “some carvings in alto-relievo.” Four or five coarse images were likewise found, one of which resembled a sphinx, another an alligator, and the rest creatures of the mason’s fancy. Long says that the Spaniards abandoned Sevilla Nueva because the south side ports were more convenient for the galleons and other vessels passing between St. Domingo and Cartagena.
The usual derivation of the name of Ocho Rios, one of the most beautiful spots in the beautiful parish of St. Ann, as meaning eight rivers, is probably wrong. The word is most likely a corruption of chorréra, a spout, having reference to the waterfall near by. In Long’s time it was called Chareiras, and as late as 1841 William Rob wrote: “Ocho Rios called to this day by the old inhabitants ‘Cheireras,’ its early and appropriate name, ‘the bay of waterfalls.’” It is interesting to note that there is a Chorréra River in Cuba, near Havannah.
In 1657 a letter from Bayona, the governor of Cuba, to a certain Spanish serjeant-major in Jamaica, making arrangements for an attack on Jamaica to be aided by the whilom Spanish slaves in the island, was intercepted. Immediate steps were taken by the resourceful Doyley; and Arnoldo Sasi, the Spanish governor, who having yielded up Jamaica to Penn and Venables had re-landed on the north side from Cuba, was signally defeated by Doyley in person at Ocho Rios, whither he had sailed round from Passage Fort.
The following is the account which Doyley himself gave to Cromwell in “A Narrative of the Great Success God hath been pleased to give his Highness Forces in Jamaica, against the King of Spain’s Forces. Published by His Highness Special Command. London, 1658.”
Right Honourable,
Since my last to Your Honour, the First of October last, I have had intelligence, that the Galleons with Plate, I then mentioned to be at Carthagena bound for Spain, were cast away by a Hirecane; and an evident token thereof, the Burmudans, our Informants, being in a small Shallop, brought in hither about Twenty thousand pieces of Eight, which they had taken in the Rack. And according to my former to the Committee for Jamaica, having by a Prisoner notice, that about Five hundred of the Enemy were landed here, and that the Governour Don Christopher Arnaldo Sasser [sic] was fortifying himself at St. Anne about Thirty-five miles from us, I was resolved to give him time to fortifie so much, that he might think himself secure enough to stand us (that we might not perpetually be put to the toyl of hunting them in the Woods), and yet so that he might not be able to give us any strong resistance: which accordingly being done, I sent a Party of Stout, Well and Willing men, under the command of Major Richard Steevens to whom about Sixty of our Officers joyned, Volunteers, exceedingly desirous of action (after so long a cessation) who advanced to the place, very strongly situated on a Rock; as soon as the Enemies Centinels discovered them, they threw down their Arms, gave the Allarm to the Governour, who with the rest fled to the Woods, leaving behinde them all their Arms and Ammunition; so, finding the vanity of following them in the Woods and Mountains, we left them.
Before our Party came in, our Ships brought in a Portugal, running into Cuba, who examined, told me that there were Five hundred landed about the middle of July, that they had marched up the Countrey, and finding the scarcity of provisions (contrary to what was told them) were almost starved, had endeavoured to mutiny; and that about Three hundred of them were by the Spanish Commanders returned to a place called the Chareras, in the North, over against Cuba, where they first landed, where was their Magazine and Provisions, and more men and Provisions dayly expected, where likewise they were fortified and received their relief, which he had twice carried them.
Upon this intelligence, I met the Party coming home, and dismissing about a hundred to their plantations (which wanted them) I shipped the rest under the same command, on board the Indian, and went myself with them for the better carrying on and expediting the business.
The 24 of October we set sail from Cagway Point, and the thirty stood over against the place. Early in the morning we spied a Sail from Cuba running into the place we were bound for, who had come with relief, but told them he could not unlade himself because he saw Ships at Sea. Our Party landed Six miles below the place intended, there being no place nearer, and marcht on; who ere they had marched Two miles, were saluted with a round Volley out of a wood, at which ours, prepared for before by their Orders, never made stand, but fired in boldly at the Ambuscade, in which the Enemy had Four wounded, we One; the Captain with the rest made hast to their Fort, and ours so fast after them, that onely the Captain and Four of the forty could get in.
Our Party found them very well prepared with Matches lighted in the Stockadoes (for that is the manner of their fortification, with great Trees and Flankers) ours leaving a Third for a reserve, without any gradual approaches, presently ran up to their Work, and with their Musquets possest as much advantage, as the Enemy (the Work being not at all Lined) between whom for the Space of near Three quarters of an hour was a stiff dispute, till some of ours with the help of Hatchets (which they were ordered to carry) made a Breach and entred; as soon as the Enemy saw that, they betook themselves to run over the Rocks, leaping into the Sea, and shifting for themselves (though the Officers endeavoured to rally them) yet made not such hast, but that they left One hundred and twenty, or thereabouts dead on the place, and many wounded, amongst whom were most of the Officers; the Mastre del Campe Don Francis De Prencia, by means of a Prisoner of ours, whom he kept by him, got quarter, and some others whom we found in the Rocks whom (though we had received barbarous usage from them) we could not kill in cold blood.
We took here Thirty-three barrels of Powder, with Match and Bullet proportionable, and good Store of Bread and Salt, and likewise their Musters, their Commissaries book; which Powder, and what we took before from the Governour, within less than Two Barrels did ballance the Commissaries Accompt, so that they were wholly deprived of that. And that which did more indear our Success; we had onely Four men killed, and about Ten wounded, some whereof I have sent home, and humbly and earnestly desire they may be provided for.
After I had refresht the men, I put them aboard again, and with small Parties in several little Boats, Scoured all the Coast, and left them that fled neither Boats nor time to get away; since which time some are come in to us almost starved. The Negroes formerly their Slaves, using them roughly, and denying them Provisions, so that I saw a Letter from Don Francis de Liva, the Deputy-Governor, to one of his former Slaves, wofully bemoaning the condition of his Majesties Infantry, and giving him the title of Worship at every word; to such a necessity are they reduced, and we have not been idle to pursue them in all quarters, though we now lie still for want of Shooes, if there should any more of the Enemy come, which we have reason to expect; for that I find by Letters, that the Governour of Cuba Don Peter de Bayona being an old Souldier in Italy, doth not onely heartilie solicite it, but makes a great benefit by it, having received money from the Vice Roy, for the payment of Three Moneths to the Souldiers, according to their Kings express command, whereof they never received any; and since that, hath received Twenty thousand pieces of Eight from the Vice Roy for levying more men. I shall not fail in my endeavours to prepare for their coming, and doubt not, but that the King of Spains lessening his Garrisons, may in time produce good effect to our Nation.
I have sent the Mastre del Campe, the Colours, some Paper and Letters; he is the onely man hereabouts, and hath chiefly advised in this relief, and therefore I hope shall not be released till we are better settled. I had almost forgot to acquaint your Honour that the enemy at their first coming, sent a Lieutenant and two more, to scatter Papers amongst our Souldiers signifying that who would come to them, should have fair quarter and transport; who being met withall by some of our Hunters, were all kil’d, and so that hopefull design of theirs had no effect: And that the Governour of Porto Rico, having set One hundred men to demand some English, living in new Turtola, a Coloney of the Dutch, being refused to have them delivered up, was in his return cast away by the Hericane, one onely Mulatto escaped. The King of Spains Affairs do very much fail in these parts, and his Trade is almost brought to nothing, by the many private Men of War of English and French and ours are still abroad to annoy them.
All I have more is, onely to intreat your Honour, and all our Friends with us, to magnifie the goodness of God, who hath given yett by his glimmering, some hopes, that he altogether hath not forgotten us, but doth, and will at length continue to own his Servants, who trust in him, and to subscribe myself,
Your most Obedient and
Faithfull Servant,
Edward Doyley.
Cagway, Feb. 3, 1657.
In spite of the fact that Doyley felt aggrieved at having been twice superseded by Cromwell in military command (by Sedgwick and by Brayne, both avowed followers of Cromwell) and at not being appointed actual governor, and showed his resentment by asking to be allowed to return home, he loyally did his best for the infant colony which fate had more than once entrusted to his care; and it was owing to the wise and prompt methods he pursued that the last serious attempt made by the Spaniards to retake Jamaica was frustrated.
In the May of 1658, Spanish reinforcements of troops from Spain, consisting of thirty small companies making in all about one thousand men, landed at the mouth of the Rio Novo in St. Mary, where they erected a fort of some strength on a rocky eminence near the sea and not far from the west bank of the river.
The account of the occurrence given by Long, which is relied on by later historians, is taken from the letter which Doyley sent home; and it is better, therefore, to give the description in Doyley’s own words, which, though not printed in the “Calendar of State Papers,” are given by Thurloe:
Right Honourable,
The 8th of May last the Spaniards made good my intelligence to your honour, by landing thirty captaines, thirty alferes, and thirty companyes of foote, at a place called Rio Nova, in the north of this island, who were there about 12 days, before they were discovered; at which tyme our ships playing up and downe, saw three sayle of Spanish in that bay, and made an attempt to have boarded them; but being becalmed could not effect it. That night the Spaniards stole away, and a ship came out to acquaint me therewith. I immediately called a counsell of warr, as the affair did importune; and we debated, whether it were most advantageous to assault them presently, or let them partake of the distemper and want of the country; and when sickness had weakened them, to attempt them then, though much might have beene and was urged, how invaders were to be used with delayes, &c., the exceeding desire of the officers and soldiers to be doing with them, cut of all debates, and termed a sudden resolution to fall on them, before they were fortified; so I comanded out 750 officers and souldiers; and on the 11th of June last, wee set sayle from this harbour towards them, and on the 22d in the morning wee attempted the landing on a bay, which was defended by 2 companies and 2 captains within half shott of their cannon playing from their fort. Our forelorne went on with such gallantry, and kept into the water with so much chearfullness, that perswaded the enemy they would not be denyed entrance, and so they ranne, leaving one of their captaines and about 23 slaine; the other were took wounded, who dyed since. Then we made all the hast, and in a hour landed our men, their cannon playing all the while with little successe. That day we spent in playing upon their fort from our ships, though the place being of so vast an height, they could bear to doe them little harme. The next day understanding their numbers to be more than ours, we were at a stand how to attempt them, having fortified themselves and having 6 pieces of ordnance, and a river to passe, the depth whereof we knew not. Wherefore after our ladders were made, and other things fitted as well as we could, in the evening I sent a drummer, partly to discover the depth of the river he was to passe, with this summons:
Sir, being here with the forces of the mighty prince, the protector of England and the dominions thereunto belonging, I doe, in his name and for his use, require and summon you to deliver up the fort of Rio Novo, with the ordnance and amunition therein; assuring you honourable termes and transport to your country; which, if you shall refuse, I shall be acquitted of the bloud shall be shed. I expect the returne of my drummer in an hower, and am,
Your very humble servant,
E. D.
For Don Christopher Arnoldo Sasi,
Commander in chiefe of the Spanish Forces.
Who was very civilly treated; the generall gave him twenty-five pieces of eight, and sent me a jarr of sweate meates, and this answere:
Lord generall don Christopher Arnoldo & Sasi, Governor for his majestie the king of Spayne, my lord of the island of Jamaica, answering to your letter, wherein you require me to deliver the fort of Rio nova, and what else is therein, I say, that his majestie, whom God preserve, hath appointed me for governor of this island, being his owne property, and hath remitted me unto it a regiment of Spanish infantry, and twenty foote companies to defend it. The forts and castles of his majestie are not yielded with so much facility hitherto. I have received noe batteries, nor have you made any advance. I want noe powder, ball, provisions, nor gallant men, that know how to dye before they be overcome. God keepe your honour many years in those commands that you desire.
Don Christopher Sasi Arnoldo.
To the generall Mons. Doyley,
governor of the forces of England, these.
Wee made noe more demurrs, but resolved to march the morrow morning: soe I ordered two of our vessels to set sayle leeward, to perswade them. We intended to stand on that side of them; the other ships to warpe as neere as they could, and play in them, while wee fell on the other side. Wee marcht as so’on as it was light, haveing two arches to goe being through a wood on the back side of them. About a quarter of a mile from their fort wee mett a party on a worke on a high hill, prepared to obstruct our goeing over the river, who onely gave us a fruitless volley, rann to their fort, and told them all the world was comeing. Wee clymed that hill with much adoe, refreshed our weariness and advanced. When wee came in sight of their fort, we found, to our exceeding joy, that the work on that side was not finished to that height, as that to the leeward. Wee ordered our business with our forlorne ladders and handgranades, and without any further dispute received their shott, and rann up to their flankers, which in a quarter of an hower wee gained. Many of them made shift to runn out of the works, and ours followed their chase about three or four miles, doeing execution. The seamen likewise seeing of them runn along the rocks, came out with their boats, and killed many of them.
In this fort, wee took about ten double barrels of powder, shott great store, six peices of ordnance, great store of provisions, wyne, brandy, salt, oyle, and other provisions for eight months, as they termed it. There was slayne about three hundred persons, diverse captaines, two priests, and their serjeant-major, about one hundred taken, and six captaines, which we have sent home; the king of Spayn’s standard and ten collours. The rest, especially the strangers, that are in the woods, must of necessity perish. Though this mercy was very great, yet our joy had some abatement, by the losse of capt. Wiseman, capt. Meers, capt. lieutenant Walker, capt. lieutenant Robinson, and ensign Ferror, men for their gallantry rather to be admired than comended, about some twenty-three private souldiers killed, and thirty-fower wounded, whereof some are since dead; some other of our officers slightly wounded with stones. Thus hath the Lord made knowne his salvation. His righteousness hath He openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. I have sent this short narration, because it comes by colonell Barry, who was an eye witness, and principal actor herein, and rest
Your honour’s faithful servant,
Edw. Doyley.
Cagway in Jamaica the 12 July, 1658.
To the Colonel Barry, the first name mentioned in the list of Doyley’s first Council elected in 1661, reference has been made in the chapter dealing with Kingston.
In this action we can imagine that the soldiers played their part. William Burough, the steward-general, wrote home on July 15, 1659: “The ships in his Highness’s service here are the Marston Moor, Grantham, Cagway, Blackmore, Hector, Pearl and Dolphin, with upwards of 650 men all in good health. Three were slain in their late expedition to Rio Novo. Their stay aboard was near six weeks, the soldiers about 700, who made a great hole in the stores.”
On the 16th he wrote:
This comes by the Martin to communicate our good news which he desires may be kept from the press well knowing the Commander-in-Chief sends a fuller account. Several letters of private persons here have been inserted in the weekly prints “which is judged to be popularity and a matter of great offence here.” Has seen a great deal of bloody work in his time both by land and sea, but never saw any action carried on with so much cheerfulness as this was, the Commander-in-Chief, Colonel D’Oyley, telling the soldiers that a great deal of England’s glory lay at stake, and therefore hoped they would consider it and carry themselves accordingly, going himself from party to party, and following the rear of the forlorn in a very signal habit. His gallant behaviour was answered both by officers and soldiers with a silent cheerful obedience, and through God’s gracious goodness there was found such a joint unanimous willingness to the work that the truth is it was of God and it hath exceedingly endeared us one to another since we came here.
Doyley evidently had difficulty in beating round Port Morant, for he mentions incidentally (on another occasion) that the Nevis settlers there quartered 400 men for a week en route.
Among those who took part in the expedition was Captain Sibada, who had joined Penn’s fleet from Antigua, and acted as pilot of the flagship.
The army evidently had to do its work on short commons. Burough wrote home in November: “Stores almost spent, occasioned by entertainment of soldiers on board the fleets in two expeditions, one to Rio Nuevo with 700 men, equal to the number of the fleet for six weeks, and 300 men in the late expedition to find out the Spanish fleet, ten weeks. If they had not pinched the army the fleet and garrison on the island must have been starved.”
Hickeringill tells us that Doyley at Rio Novo made amends for the loss of British honour at Hispaniola:
to whom our Nation in some measures stands indebted for the Reprizal of the Honour at Rio Novo which was so shamefully Lost under the Debauch’d conduct of General Venables in Hispaniola: the Spaniards till then having so mean and despicable Thoughts of English Courage, that upon the Onset at Rio Novo they upbraided our Men with the opprobrious mention of Sancto Domingo, till the repeated Assay of their Valour, disicplin’d them into better manners.
For though the number of the Spanish Forces at Rio Novo doubled the English (being sent from Cuba to reinforce and settle the Island) and those strongly Entrenched, yet such was the enraged earnestness of the Soldiery to redeem their wounded Honours, that (regardless of all odds and disadvantages) they storm’d them in their Trenches with a resolution as undaunted as the success was prosperous. Hereby not only retrieving the Prestine Fame of their Country-men; but also hitherto frustrating all hopes in the Spaniards of further Attempts to regain the Island.
Sir Hans Sloane, in his account of his visit to the north side of Jamaica in 1688, says: “I went from St. Anns towards St. Georges, where I crossed the river called Rio Nuevo. I saw the old Spanish Fortifications, whither the Spaniards retreated and kept themselves till they were carried to Cuba, where they, for the most part, settled about a place called St. Jago. Colonel Ballard, who was present at the taking of the Island, assured me that the Spaniards (who inhabited the Island to the number of Five thousand, with as many Blacks) retired to the North-side, where Seven hundred fortified themselves very well, but were beat in their Forts by so many English. The Governour was an old decrepid Man, who was brought to them in an Hamaca, his name was Don Juan Ramires de Arellano Cavalero del Habito de S. Jago. They held it out in this North-side for some time.”
In the beginning of the year 1660, Long tells us, Doyley was informed by the friendly negroes that his old opponent Sasi, unwilling to resign his pretensions to the government so long as he could maintain the least party or show of authority, was lying perdu on the north side of the island. Doyley ordered out a detachment under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Tyson, consisting of eighty officers and soldiers, and twenty-one of the revolted Spanish blacks; which, after a tedious march across the mountains, found Sasi in a swampy place, now part of Shaw Park, with one hundred and thirty-three men. Sasi himself was then old and infirm, but his second in command was an experienced soldier, who had served in Spain and had engaged in this new service in consideration of double pay, and a promise of succeeding to the chief command after the governor’s death.
The English advanced upon them with intrepidity, and at the first onset the Spanish lieutenant-general received a lance-wound, of which he died in two hours. On the loss of this able leader, upon whom all their hopes had been fixed, the whole of the little army was panic-stricken. Sasi was one of the first to retreat, and “ran so nimbly as to save himself from being taken.” Several, however, were made prisoners, and about fifty officers and soldiers slain on the part of the Spaniards, without any loss to the victorious side. The negroes were extremely active and dexterous in catching the fugitives. Long goes on to say:
The unfortunate old Governor, being now reduced to the last extremity, and studious only for the preservation of life, sent commissioners to treat on his behalf; and was permitted to retire to Cuba.
After this exploit the English proceeded to Chereiras Bay, where a vessel lay at anchor, which the Spaniards had formerly taken and employed to bring them monthly supplies of provision from Cuba, such as cassada-bread, sweet-meats, chocolate and other conveniences. The better to secure her from being surprised they kept several scouts at some distance from the shore, to reconnoitre the country, and give the alarm upon the approach of any enemy. Colonel Tyson had intelligence of this caution; and disposing his men on different ambuscades, found means to secure all the scouts one after another; after which he concerted his measures so well as to make himself master of the vessel, on board of which he found twenty officers and soldiers, who were all taken prisoners.
The few remaining Spaniards who had eluded the search of the English forces, embraced the first convenient opportunity of making their escape from the Island, leaving about thirty of their negro slaves behind, who secreted themselves in the mountains and afterwards entered into alliance with other unsubdued banditti.
It is to be regretted that Tyson, who acquitted himself so nobly on this occasion, shortly afterwards gave occasion to Doyley to have him shot, as has been described in the chapter dealing with St. Catherine.
In his account Bridges says that “The British troops pursued him [Sasi] to a little bay about eight miles to the westward of the ruins of Seville; thence he escaped in a Canoe and ended his days in the bosom of peace and Christianity, by retiring to a monastery in Spain.” The spot from whence he embarked still retains the name of Runaway Bay.
In Modyford’s “View” of 1664 there is no reference to St. Ann. It first appears in the same governor’s “Survey” of 1670; the other new parishes being St. George, St. Mary, St. Elizabeth and St. James.
The parish is said to have been named after Anne Hyde, wife of James Duke of York. If Roby is right in this, the correct spelling of the name of the parish would be St. Anne, as indeed Long and others spell it.
Not more than a mile to the west of St. Ann’s Bay is the site of the first capital of the island, Sevilla Nueva, or “Sevilla d’Oro,” as it was afterwards called. This town was founded by Juan d’Esquivel, the first Spanish governor of Jamaica, he having been commissioned and sent over by Diego Columbus (Christopher’s son), the hereditary viceroy of the New World, to establish a colony there. Esquivel arrived in Jamaica in November 1509, accompanied by a number of the viceroy’s friends. “Bringing with them the refinements of taste and the means of displaying it, they assisted in the foundation of Sevilla Nueva, whose fame long attested its superiority over every other town which has since been built here.” The town contained many buildings worthy of note, amongst which were a monastery, a cathedral, a theatre and many palaces. Sevilla did not long, however, continue the capital, having been abandoned for St. Jago de la Vega. The reason for the change is not quite agreed upon; some say that it was owing to the Spanish inhabitants of Sevilla having in their wars with the natives been suddenly and entirely cut off, and others assigned the desertion to “a visitation of innumerable ants” that destroyed all the provision grounds of the people and compelled them to find a home elsewhere. Bridges, however, attributes the abandonment to the depredations of the French filibusters, and states that “the northern coast of Jamaica afforded frequent spoils to this bold band of corsairs.”
No property in Jamaica has perhaps been handed down in the same family for so many years as Cardiff Hall. The first Blagrove to settle in Jamaica was a regicide. Land in St. Ann was early taken up—about 1665; and before the middle of the eighteenth century Cardiff Hall was a place of note. The earliest patent of land to a Blagrove of which a record has been discovered is to John Blagrove of 700 acres in St. James in 1689. On Orange Valley, near to Cardiff Hall, in the possession of the same owner, are the remains of a so-called Spanish residence; and, going further back, on “big pasture” is a series of Arawâk kitchen-middens of the usual type, from which a small modelled human head of greater naturalistic treatment than is usually met with was excavated in April 1914. Other middens are near this series, indicating a thick population in aboriginal times. It is conceivable that the residents were amongst the first to welcome Columbus on his landing at Dry Harbour, a few miles off. The present building of Cardiff Hall, which possesses more architectural features than most houses in the colony, of which the fine old mahogany staircase is not the least noticeable, probably dates from the middle of the eighteenth century. It displays details of a Renaissance character, such as a line of columns in the entrance hall, a three-light window in what was evidently the drawing room upstairs, and an ornamentation over the doorways dating from about the closing years of the century. The hospital and other buildings are also of a character superior to those usually met with. The first named has Corinthian pilasters of considerable beauty. Guns, too, that formerly protected the property from buccaneers, are still in situ. In front of the house is a vaulted chamber, half dug out of the rock, which is said to have been designed as a place of refuge in case of hurricane. It measures some 7 feet by 20 feet, and is 10 feet high, with walls some 2 feet thick. The house attracted the attention of Hakewill, who included it in his “Picturesque Tour” (1825), the drawings of which were made in 1820–1.
John Blagrove, who was proprietor shortly before Hakewill visited the island, was born at Cardiff Hall, but was sent, like the majority of planters’ sons in those days, at an early age to England. He received his education at Eton, and afterwards passed a considerable time in travelling. On his return to Jamaica he occasionally took an active part in the discussions which occurred in the House of Assembly, to which he was returned by his native parish, St. Ann, in 1787. The only member of the family to sit in the Assembly before him was his father, Thomas Blagrove, who had represented Hanover in 1755. He (Thomas Blagrove) died in that year, when only 21 years of age, leaving a widow and one son. He was buried at Maggotty.
During the Maroon war John Blagrove was most actively engaged, and shared in its privations and dangers. He, Hakewill tells us, bestowed the greatest attention to improvement of the breed of cattle on his several pens. He imported into the island some of the best-bred horses England ever produced, and his liberality and public spirit were rewarded by the high price which his stock, particularly his horses, always commanded. He was a successful competitor on many occasions for the cup given at the races held in the parish of St. Ann; in fact, his horses for the most part beat the whole field. The Blagrove stables were successful in other races as well. On the flat land by Runaway Bay the memory of the old private racecourses on which the horses were trained is still preserved in the names of three pastures. In Palache’s “Jamaica Stud Book” John Blagrove is recorded as having imported for racing purposes Lurcher, a bay colt, bred in 1789, and Buzzard, imported in 1809. For many years previous to his decease John Blagrove was resident in England. He died at Great Abshot, near Titchfield, in Hampshire, in 1824.
At this period, when the whole system of colonial slavery was being severely criticized, Blagrove was always considered by his slaves as a most kind and humane master. His will states:
And, lastly, to my loving people, denominated and recognized by Law as, and being in fact my slaves in Jamaica, but more estimated and considered by me and my family as tenants for life attached to the soil, I bequeath a dollar for every man, woman and child, as a small token of my regard for their faithful and affectionate service and willing labours to myself and family, being reciprocally bound in one general tie of master and servant in the prosperity of the land, from which we draw our mutual comforts and subsistence in our several relations (a tie and interest not practised on by the hired labourer of the day in the United Kingdom), the contrary of which doctrine is held only by the visionists of the puritanical order against the common feeling of mankind.
Henry John Blagrove sat for St. Ann for a short time in the middle of the nineteenth century. In the library of the Institute of Jamaica, which inherited the library of the House of Assembly, is a series of twenty-five bound volumes of the “St. Jago de la Vega Gazette,” ranging from 1791 to 1840, “presented to the Library of the Hon. House of Assembly of Jamaica by Henry John Blagrove, Esq. Representative in Assembly for the Parish of St. Ann. 1851.” He soon afterwards left the colony, never to return.
The view by Hakewill is “taken from the great interior road, and represents, seen through the pimento grove, the south or entrance front of the house. On the right is the barbecue or plaister floor, on which the pimento is spread out to dry. The excellence of the house, the delightful variety of the grounds and the contiguity of the sea, render Cardiff Hall one of the most desirable residences in the island of Jamaica.”
A sketch of a photograph taken recently from the same point of view is shown on this page.
Near the house is a private burial-ground with five tombs. Three are unnamed; of the other two one is inscribed as follows:
Here lyeth the body of Thomas Williams, Esqr., who departed this life the 7th of June, 1746, aged 66 years.
Here lyeth the body of Mary Williams, who departed this life on April 14, 1753, aged....
The arms are those of the Williams of Herringstone, county Dorset. Argent a greyhound courant in fess between three Cornish choughs proper, a border engrailed gules charged with crosses pattée or and bezants alternately. Crest, a man’s arm couped at the elbow, habited sable charged with a cross pattée or the hand proper holding an oak branch vert, fructified gold. Neither the motto, Nil Solidum, nor the tinctures are given. The second tomb is inscribed:
In the memory of Peter Blagrove, Esq., son of John Blagrove, Esquire, and Ann, his wife. Born at Cardiff Hall in this parish, 21st May, 1789, and died there 10th August, 1812.
The wife’s name was Shakespeare.
The following account of this Peter Blagrove is taken from the “Jamaica Magazine” for 1812.
At Orange-Valley Pen, in St. Arm’s, on the 9th inst., aged 24 years, Peter Blagrove, Esq., third son of John Blagrove, of Cardiff Hall. In spite of the best medical skill and experience, he fell on the eighth day a victim to one of those insidious fevers so fatal to many young men from Europe. Detained with an elder brother in France, which he visited after the peace of 1802, for the purpose of gaining a knowledge of mankind, he endured, for seven years, an exile from his family and friends—which as it was inflicted on himself, and his unoffending countrymen, during a profound peace, will continue to stamp with infamy the despot and government that sanctioned it as long as the laws of nature and nations shall be understood. Impelled by his attachment to liberty and his country, he adopted the disguise of one of the meanest of the French peasants to effect his escape; and with a perseverance the most extraordinary, he encountered scenes and hardships to which his earlier years were not accustomed. Unappalled by the danger of the attempt such were the vigour of his mind and his resources, amidst the hazard of hourly detection, that for many months he eluded the vigilance of the most active police, employed by any barbarian; and, having traversed the greater parts of France, Switzerland and Germany he reached Trieste in safety, and soon after repaired to his native country.
Amongst evil-doers mentioned in Jamaica history, Lewis Hutchinson of Edinburgh Castle holds a high place. Some of the accounts of him are based on that given by Bridges in his “Annals of Jamaica”; others, more fantastical, on the imagination of their writers. But the following account taken down in 1897 by Miss A. E. Cork, from her great-aunt Miss Potenger, kindly contributed by the late Miss Robinson, of Trafalgar, St. Ann, is based on better tradition, and is more likely to be correct. Miss Cork is great-great-granddaughter of Dr. Hutton, mentioned in the narrative.
“About the year 1768 there lived at Edinburgh Castle, in the Pedro district of St. Ann, Jamaica, a desperado called Lewis Hutchinson. He owned the property on which he lived, and was said to have been a man of some education, but he was the terror of the neighbourhood, and it was not infrequent for a white man to disappear mysteriously, and it would then be said that Hutchinson had made away with him by shooting him as he passed the ‘Castle,’ which was furnished with loopholes and overlooked the road. But these stories were hard to verify, and such was the unsettled and lawless state of the Island in those days that people preferred to leave Hutchinson alone, rather than attempt to have him arrested.
“A few miles from Edinburgh Castle was Hutton Bonvil, or Bonneville Pen, as it is now called, which, with Lebanon Pen, adjoining, belonged to Dr. Jonathan Hutton, an Englishman. Dr. Hutton was a retired naval doctor, and also owned property in Lincolnshire, his native county. He spent his time between England and Jamaica, sometimes remaining in the latter place a year or two at a time.
“During one of these visits he got into a dispute with the redoubtable Hutchinson about a boundary-line between their properties, Hutchinson claiming some portion of land which Dr. Hutton asserted was his own. This caused great bitterness of feeling on Hutchinson’s part towards Dr. Hutton; and one evening as the doctor, who was colonel of militia for the parish of St. Ann, was riding home from muster at Moneague with his black servant man following on foot, carrying his sabre and other accoutrements, Hutchinson overtook the man and took away the sabre from him, saying, ‘You can give my compliments to Dr. Hutton and tell him I have got his sabre.’ Dr. Hutton appeared to have taken no notice of this. Some months later Dr. Hutton made arrangements to go to England. His wife and one of his children—a little girl of about eight years of age—were in Jamaica with him, and Mrs. Hutton went to the adjoining parish of Clarendon on a visit, intending to meet her husband in Kingston, and return with him to England. The little girl, Mary Hutton, was left with her father at Bonneville; and Dr. Hutton set out one morning on horseback on his journey to Kingston, little Mary being carried by one of his servants in attendance before him on horseback.
“Dr. Hutton intended to pursue the route now usually taken from Pedro through Moneague and St. Thomas-ye-Vale to Spanish Town, and on to Kingston; with this exception that the public road from Pedro to Moneague in those days lay across the hill from Grier Park, where they were met by Hutchinson and a following of his slaves. He rode up to Dr. Hutton, who was unarmed, and attacked him fiercely, the weapon he used being Dr. Hutton’s own sabre which he had stolen. He struck the doctor such a severe blow on the head with this sabre that the latter fell senseless from his horse. Hutchinson made off with his servants, and Dr. Hutton’s terrified servants carried him back to Bonneville, where he stayed for a few days until he partially recovered, when, without venturing to travel by the same road he had at first intended to take, his servants took him across the hills to join his wife in Clarendon and they and their little girl went on to Kingston together. Dr. Hutton laid information there about Hutchinson; but as he was unable through the cruel blow he had received to remain in the Island to prosecute the matter, no steps appeared to have been taken. Dr. Hutton proceeded to England still suffering much from the wound in his head, and when he got there had to undergo the operation of trepanning, and wore a silver plate in his head until the day of his death. Dr. Hutton remained in England for about a year or more, and on his return to Jamaica tried to get Hutchinson arrested; but such was the terror he inspired, that the doctor found it hard to get anyone to take the warrant. At last a white soldier named Callender agreed to go, and with some others proceeded to Edinburgh Castle. As soon as Hutchinson found what was their errand, he fired at Callender and shot him dead on the spot. The others fled, and Hutchinson was again left unmolested for a short while. But this crime committed before white witnesses could never be passed over, and a strong body was sent to arrest him for the murder of Callender. He was overpowered and taken to Spanish Town jail. The castle was searched and forty-three watches were said to have been found there, besides quantities of clothing and many other articles, showing that Hutchinson had committed most, if not all, of the murders with which he was popularly credited. His unfortunate slaves, to whom, as may be supposed, he had been friendly, came now gladly and told all that they knew about his proceedings, and showed what he used to do with the bodies of his victims, which had hitherto been a puzzle.
“Not far from Edinburgh Castle House, in a small wood, was a sink-hole with a large mouth and supposed to be bottomless. To this sink-hole the bodies of Hutchinson’s victims were carried by the slaves on a plank in the dead of night, and one edge being placed at the edge of the hole, the other was raised and the body shot down never to be seen again by human eyes. Many of his victims were persons against whom he had no grudge, and murder was evidently a mania with the wretched man. Edinburgh Castle overlooked the road, and it was Hutchinson’s playful little practice to stand at one of the loopholes and fire at any solitary white traveller who might be passing. As he was a dead shot they never lived to tell the tale. His negroes would then bring the body to the house, where after being rifled of whatever valuables might be on it, it was kept until night and then disposed of in the manner already stated. It was said by these slaves that once a young man—a stranger to his reputation—being ill in the road, called up and asked for hospitality, which was at once accorded to him; Hutchinson showing him every kindness and administering remedies kept him for some time until the young man was able to proceed on his journey. Hutchinson then took his station at his loophole, and as the young man turned into the road, shot him dead and disposed of his body as usual. Many such tales were related by the slaves, but a coloured person’s evidence was not admitted in those days; and so Hutchinson was tried, convicted and hanged for the murder of Callender only.
“This story of Hutchinson and his crimes and connections has been variously told. In Mr. Bridges’ ‘Annals of Jamaica,’ another version will be found. This was owing to Mr. Bridges having sent for an old Bonneville slave and obtaining from him the story as it was current among slaves. But as I have told it, I think it is fairly correct, allowing for the lapse of years. The little Mary Hutton—who was an eye-witness of Hutchinson’s attack on her father, married in England, and was Mrs. Potenger—lived afterwards at Bonneville for many years. One of her daughters was my grandmother, and from my late great-aunt, Miss Elizabeth Potenger, another of her daughters, I have often heard the story related to her by her mother.
“Annie E. Cork.
“Great-great-grand-daughter of Dr. Hutton.
“December 1897.”
George Wilson Bridges was rector of St. Ann from 1823 till 1837, when, on losing four daughters by a boating accident in St. Ann’s Bay, he left Jamaica never to return. In his story he appears to have confused Callender with Dr. Hutton, and makes him manager of a neighbouring property. The statement in the account given above, that Hutchinson was “overpowered and taken to Spanish Town jail” is incorrect. Hutchinson, when he saw that the authorities were determined to arrest him, escaped south to Old Harbour and put out to sea in an open boat, where he was captured by one of Rodney’s officers, acting under his directions. He was hanged in Spanish Town on March 16, 1773.
Bridges states that Hutchinson left a hundred pounds to erect a monument to his memory, and that he (Bridges) saw the following autograph writing:
Lewis Hutchinson—hanged in Spanish Town, Jamaica, on the sixteenth morning of March, in the year of his Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three.—Aged forty years.
Their sentence, pride, and malice, I defy;
Despise their power, and, like a Roman, die.
Of his life little is known. In the St. Ann Vestry Records (February 5, 1768) his name appears on the jury list for the parish. In 1771 he was called upon to supply slave labour for mending the road passing Edinburgh Castle to Pedro River. In 1773 the “Estate of Lewis Hutchinson” was returned at twenty-four slaves and ninety-three head of stock; but it does not appear whether he had heirs or whether it went to the Government.
On December 2, 1773, the House of Assembly resolved: “That the thanks of the House be given to Sir George Brydges Rodney, baronet, rear-admiral of Great Britain, vice-admiral of the red, and commander-in-chief of His Majesty’s squadron on this station, for the essential service rendered to this Island by his ready and effectual assistance of the civil power, at the instance of his Majesty’s Attorney-General, in apprehending Lewis Hutchinson, since executed for murder, and that Mr. Speaker do transmit the same to the Admiral, in the most acceptable manner.”
And it was further resolved: “That as a testimony of the approbation of the House, respecting the behaviour of Mr. George Turnbull (an officer in his Majesty’s Navy, employed by the Admiral to take and secure the said Lewis Hutchinson), and of the spirit and address with which he executed that charge, the Receiver-General to pay to the said Mr. George Turnbull, or his order, the sum of £50 sterling, to be laid out in the purchase of a gold-hilted sword; and this or any future assembly will make the same good; and that the admiral be desired to signify, to the proper department of state, the sense the House entertains of Mr. Turnbull’s merit on that occasion.” An account—basing his undoing on a quarrel with a neighbour named Callender over a jackass—is given in the “Columbian Magazine” for June 1797, published in Kingston.
The ruins of Edinburgh Castle still stand on a rising piece of ground near the main road, which it commands, running from St. Ann’s Bay to the south side of the island. It was a small two-storeyed rectangular building with two loopholed towers, circular in plan, at diagonally opposite corners. A doorway was at one side of the front angle, and another at the side to the east near the front tower. There are evidences of there having been a fireplace on each story of the front tower, and of a series of spiral steps in the back tower. The adjacent ruins to the west are said to mark the site of the slave quarters.
Mr. R. F. Perkins, who went down the sink-hole some years ago, wrote as follows:
“Sir Henry Blake with two or three others, I among the number, went down it. It is 265 feet deep from its edge to the point where a stone dropped down would first strike, and it slopes down for another ten feet or so, where it stops. The ground around the top of the hole slopes rapidly down to its edge, and the bottom is wider than the top; the sides of the hole are of nearly vertical rock.
“All this refers to the hole known as ‘Hutchinson’s Hole,’ which local tradition connects with the murderer. Hundreds of people have visited the place and rolled down stones, so it is possible that any remains might well have been covered. We did not find a vestige of anything connected with the atrocities. From more recent investigations I believe that ‘Hutchinson’s Hole’ is not the hole at all. It is about a quarter of a mile away from the castle, to the south; and there is another far less formidable one quite close, that, I should not be surprised to find, has some hidden entrance from the castle.”
Sir Henry Blake wrote as follows:
I had, of course, heard the accounts of the various murders committed by the notorious Hutchinson, and I determined to ascertain the depth and details of the cave, which is in limestone formation, and to see if any remains of bones, arms, &c., could be found.... On July 22, 1895, I was lowered to the bottom and examined the cave, or “Swallow Hole,” carefully. The opening at the surface was 15 feet by 8 feet. The cave was, in shape, somewhat like a champagne bottle, 270 feet deep, and 70 feet by 50 feet at the bottom, which was formed by a level mass of stones of all sizes. There were no bones to be seen; but remembering the time that has elapsed since the notorious Hutchinson held the country in terror, bones, if any, may well have been covered to a considerable depth by the stones flung down by curious visitors, and the stones and rubbish from the adjacent fields flung into the pit by the inhabitants.
The old tavern at Moneague, which was represented by Duperly in 1844, has been succeeded by the Moneague hotel. A reference to the early taverns of Jamaica will be found in the Introduction.
As we have seen in the Introduction, in the eighteenth century there were many forts around the coast of Jamaica, as protection against privateers. St. Ann had her fair share of such forts, of which remains still exist. There was one at Mammee Bay, two miles east of St. Ann’s Bay, where the St. Ann volunteers repelled an attack by pirates in 1795; another between Roaring River bridge and Ocho Rios, close to the main road, dating from the eighteenth century; two at St. Ann’s Bay—one, erected in 1777, now used as a slaughter-house; Windsor Fort, erected in 1803; and Dry Harbour, existing in 1777. In 1737 an Act was passed to enable the inhabitants of the parish of St. Ann to build a barrack at or near the head of the Rio Bueno, which divides the parish of St. Ann from the parish of St. James. Other places of historic interest in the parish are: Priory, nine miles west of St. Ann’s Bay, where are the ruins of an old church, the oldest tomb being dated 1750; best known during the incumbency of Bridges the historian, who resided at one time at Tydenham, which was purchased by the vestry as a rectory in 1817. At Dixon Pen, in the Pedro district, there are remains of a very old building said to have been the residence of a Spanish governor of the island. At Green Park, near Claremont, is said to be the house mentioned in Scott’s “Cruise of the Midge.”
At Geddes, about five miles from Claremont, there is a curious slave punishment cell, with holes in one wall, through which it is possible the hands of the prisoner were fastened.
At Rio Hoe, properly Rio Hoja, two miles south-east from Moneague, was the last settlement of the Spaniards prior to their departure from the Island. At York Castle, in the Pedro district, was held from 1576 to 1900 the Wesleyan High School for boys, which during that period contributed eight of the Jamaica scholars. The Dry Harbour Caves, on Hopewell and Cardiff Hall, are about a mile and a half from the village of Dry Harbour. They inspired a poem entitled, “The Grotto of Melancholy,” in “A Short Journey in the West Indies,” published in 1790. Moseley Hall Cave, on Guy’s Hill, on the border of St. Mary and St. Ann, has fine stalactites, which were much visited in former times. Llandovery Falls are natural waterfalls on the Llandovery; a view of them is reproduced on one issue of the Jamaica penny postage stamps.
Metcalfe Ville is named after Sir Charles Metcalfe, mention of whom has been made in the chapter on Kingston.
Walton, near Moneague—where a lake appears at intervals after very heavy rains, is the site of an old military barracks, also the original site of the Jamaica High School, now the Jamaica College at Hope, in St. Andrew. Here also is a lake which appears at intervals after very heavy rains.
Charles Drax, by will dated 1721, directed that a charity school should be established in the said parish of St. Ann for maintaining and educating eight poor boys and four poor girls belonging to the said parish as well as for other charitable purposes: And, as an endowment to the said charity, the testator made subject and liable all that his estate in the said parish of St. Ann, called Shelton; and if that estate be found insufficient, his will was, that all his, the testator’s, other estates should be made liable for the deficiency.
It appears from the report that William Beckford, the well-known author of “Vathek,” had obtained possession of Drax Hall, the principal property, in a manner “that excited the indignation of every honest man who became acquainted with the transaction.”
Protracted legal proceedings resulted in Beckford having to disgorge £5200. A free school, commenced by the vestry of St. Ann in the old court house in that parish in 1795, was in 1802 by an Act of the legislature (43 George 3, c. 32) endowed with the sum obtained from the Drax bequest and called Drax’s Free School; and trustees, consisting of the president of the Council, the speaker of the Assembly, and representatives of St. Ann, were appointed. In 1806 the trustees of this school purchased Walton, the buildings on which had originally been erected as barracks. In 1807 they expressed their willingness to surrender their charge for the public good, and new trustees (embodying many of the old members) were appointed (by 48 George 3, c. 25), and the name of the school was changed to the Jamaica Free School. At its formation the school was thrown open to the island, ten nominations to the school being reserved for the parish of St. Ann in view of the bequest, and thirteen being for the other parishes on the nomination of the Governor, this privilege being transferred by Sir John Peter Grant in later days to the custodes of the thirteen parishes; and on the school being removed and merged into the Jamaica High School, which was opened in the newly constructed buildings at Hope in 1885, after a short sojourn in Barbican great house hard by, the same course was followed, the thirteen open scholarships being awarded by the Jamaica Schools Commission, as the trustees and board of management of the College.
The old Jamaica Free School, like other schools in the island at that period, was somewhat overweighted by trustees, consisting as they did of the Governor, the president and members of the Council, the speaker and members of the Assembly, the chief justice, the Attorney-general and others. In the case of the Jamaica Free School their duties were not onerous. The law enforced their meeting only “once in every year, during the annual session of the Legislature of this Island, in the town of Saint Jago de la Vega, for the purpose of examining into the state of the said free-school, &c.”
When Bridges wrote his Annals, he said of it:
The total income of the establishment is now about £1700 per annum, which educates, maintains and clothes ten boys, nominated by the parish, and six named by the Governor. In the session of 1825, a grant of £1500 displayed the liberal desire of the public to extend the means of instruction, and dissemination of Christianity, by the addition of a chapel to the establishment. The master’s salary is £300; and he is allowed to appoint an under-master with £150 per annum. Under the management of the late master, the establishment rose to be the first in the Island; public examinations took place twice a year; and besides the objects of the foundation, thirty-one boys were educated there at £70 per annum each. The present master is permitted to hold the curacy of the parish; but the chapel being thirty miles distant, he is under an engagement to the Trustees, not to quit the school, but to pay half the salary of his cure to an officiating curate.
It is a curious record, that the estate of Drax Hall still remains charged with the sum of £500, payable to the same fund, whenever the old Spanish Abbey at Seville d’Oro shall be rebuilt.
In the Wesleyan church, Brown’s Town, are two recently erected memorials to the Rev. W.C. Murray, D.D. (d. 1909), for fifty-one years a minister, and for eighteen years Governor of York Castle, which school, while it existed, did much for secondary education in Jamaica—in the church a mural tablet, in the churchyard an obelisk of granite.
Notes
11. Mendez wrote in 1536.