XI Hanover
Kingston and Port Royal excepted, Hanover is the smallest parish in area in the island. When it was formed the Assembly wished to call it St. Sophia in honour of the mother of George I, but in this it was overridden by the Council, and the name was chosen with reference to the reigning family in England. In the “Jamaica Almanac” for 1751 it is called, German fashion, Hannover.
In the Church of Lucea is a monument to Sir Simon Clarke, 7th baronet (d. 1777) by Flaxman. The inscription runs: “In this church is deposited the mortal part of Sir Simon Clarke, Bart., who was born in this island A.D. 1727, and died on the 2nd of November, 1777, having that day completed his 50th year.” His father, the sixth baronet, represented St. John in the Assembly in 1731, and St. Mary in 1732 and 1736, and was called to the Council in 1739. Sir Simon, the seventh baronet, represented Hanover in the Assembly in 1760 and 1772. By his wife, Anne Haughton, eldest daughter and co-heir of Philip Haughton, he left two sons, Philip Haughton and Simon Haughton. Sir Simon Peter, the fifth baronet, was an officer in the royal navy in 1730, but was transported for highway robbery to Jamaica, where his uncle held the office of patent clerk of the Crown.
Martin Rusea, a French refugee, in grateful recollection of the hospitality manifested towards him on his arrival and settlement in the colony, left by his will, dated July 23, 1764, all his real and personal estate, which afterwards realised £4500 currency (£2700 sterling), for the establishment of a free school in the parish of Hanover.
The devise was disputed, but in 1777 an Act was passed (18 Geo. 3, chap. 18) settling the trust and establishing an undenominational school, which has been maintained since in Lucea. It is at present situated in the old barracks, and is known as Rusea’s School.
Trinity Chapel, Green Island, has the tomb of Hugh Munro (d. 1829); at Orange Bay estate is the tomb of Colonel James Campbell (d. 1744) and others of the family, including one to John Campbell, custos of the parish (d. 1808, aged 76) “erected by his dutiful and affectionate nephew, John Blagrove, Esq.,” the John Blagrove, alluded to in the account of Cardiff Hall, in St. Ann, to whom Campbell owned his indebtedness for much financial assistance in his will, and to whom he left his estates under certain conditions. He manumitted certain of his mulatto slaves and left them money to purchase negroes to assist them in carrying on their business. In a codicil he states:
It is my will and desire also that the place of my interment should be about 20 feet in direct line from the front Bow windows of the Hospital [for the completion of which he made provision] and that a sun-dial be erected over my grave. The Sun Dial 18 inches in diameter to be supported by both hands upon the head of a Leaden figure of a Negro man with a bandage about his waist Kneeling upon the right knee, placed upon a platform laid with Bristol Flags, six feet square and 18 inches higher than the ground round about, so that it requires three steps of Bristol Flags six inches high and 18 inches wide to get up to the platform, and this will effectually prevent the Cattle and Horses while pasturing from rubbing against it, and putting it out of plumb.
At Haughton Court Mountain is the tomb of Christopher Crooks (d. 1762). The tomb of John Pearce is on the parochial road between Hopewell and Welcome; he was murdered by the slaves of the adjoining estate on December 30, 1831. Salt Spring estate burial-ground has a monument to John Campbell (d. 1782); Haughton Court burial-ground has tombs of Colonel Richard Haughton (d. 1740), Jonathan Haughton (d. 1767), and others of the family who came to Jamaica from Barbados; Fat Hog Quarter Estate burial-ground has tombs of Philip Haughton (d. 1765) and others of the family; and at Point Estate burial-ground are tombs of David Dehaney (d. 1701) and others of the family. Haughton Hall, Rhodes Hill, New-found River and Kew are all places with Arawâk kitchen-middens. At The Bluff, Round Hill, is a stone to James Reid (d. 1772). Cousin’s Cove is interesting as being the property which caused Mrs. Flora Annie Steel, its present owner, to visit Jamaica in 1914 on account of a lawsuit connected with it.
Shettlewood, originally belonging to an owner of that name, was for many years, with Montpellier, the property of the Ellis family. In the closing years of the nineteenth century extensive tobacco-growing experiments were carried out, but were ultimately abandoned. Both pens of recent years have had many head of imported Indian cattle placed on them.