XIII St. Elizabeth
The parish of St. Elizabeth was probably named in honour of Elizabeth, Lady Modyford, the daughter of William Palmer, whose tombstone is in the cathedral. It is one of the largest parishes and one of the most important. In the parish church at Black River are memorial tablets recalling to the memory of the living the many good qualities of the departed St. Elizabeth gentry. The handsomest are those on either side of the chancel to the memory of Caleb Dickenson and Robert Hugh Munro, founders of the Munro and Dickenson’s trust, which to-day maintains two of the principal schools in the island. The Maroon township called Accompong on the northern boundary of the parish has been referred to in the account of the neighbouring parish of St. James.
Robert Hugh Munro, of the parish of St. Elizabeth, by his will dated January 21, 1797, and a codicil of May 23, 1797, bequeathed the residue of his real and personal estate in certain contingencies in trust to his nephew, Caleb Dickenson, and the churchwardens of the parish of St. Elizabeth, and their successors, to lay out the same in the endowment of a school to be erected and maintained in the said parish, for the education of as many poor children of the parish as the funds might be sufficient to provide for and maintain, and, if necessary, to apply to the Legislature for an act for the regulation of the charity and to carry out his intentions. For years after the death of Dickenson, who had bequeathed them fully to carry out his uncle’s intentions, the funds of the Charity were applied to anything but their proper purpose, and at length in 1825 an Act of the Legislature was passed for regulating the charity, which recited the history of the trust up to that date, and propounded a scheme which had been agreed upon for the management of the trust; but this commendable scheme appears never to have been carried out, and it was not until 1855 that the Act 18 Victoria, chap. 53, was passed with the object of rescuing the remains of the charity.
In 1856 a Free School for boys was opened near Black River, and early in 1857 the premises at Potsdam, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, were purchased and the school was removed thither. The Trust maintains two schools situated in the Santa Cruz Mountains—that for boys still at Potsdam; that for girls formerly at Mount Zion, now at Hampton.
At Lacovia, on the main road from Santa Cruz to Black River, precisely at its junction with the road from Lacovia to Balaclava, there are two tombs, side by side; the space between being only six feet. One, built of large squares of stones or rock commonly used for building purposes, is in the last stages of decay and ruin, and without any slab or inscription. The other is a high brick tomb, with a massive white marble slab on which is the following inscription:
Here lyes interr’d the body of
Thomas Jordan Spencer.
Born Octbr. the 14th, 1723, who departed this life Sunday morning, September the
17th, 1738.
The Arms are: Quarterly argent and gules, in the second and third quarters a frette or: over all, on a bend sable, three fleurs-de-lis of the first. The Crest an esquire’s helmet.
This monument is not mentioned in Lawrence-Archer’s “Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies.” The quartering of the shield is very much worn owing to the exposed position of the tomb.
Tradition says that at a tavern which formerly stood hard by, a friendly party was interrupted by angry words which led to a duel, in which both combatants fell, and that they were buried side by side.
At Lacovia estate is the tomb of Barnard Andreiss (d. 1710), custos of the parish; Dickenson’s Run has Jewish tombs with inscriptions in Hebrew and Portuguese. At Pedro is a cave with Arawâk remains, and also at Hounslow. Hampstead great house is said to have been the summer residence of former Jamaica governors.
Some one with classic taste named Catadupa, a word originally applied to the cataracts of the Nile, and once used both in French and English for a waterfall.
Long, after ridiculing the tale copied by many writers that the rain-drops which fall at Magotty turn into maggots, goes on to suggest the derivation of “maga (an enchantress) and oteo (watching on a high place); alluding probably to the pinnacle of Monte Diablo, over which the thunder clouds so frequently break, as together with its horrid aspect to make it seem a proper residence for a witch, under patronage of the devil, to whom the mountain was dedicated.”
Surinam Quarters, in St. Elizabeth, were settled in 1675 by planters from Surinam, when that colony was exchanged with the Dutch for New York.
Culloden and Auchindown, in St. Elizabeth, date from the time of the arrival of the ill-fated Darien refugees.