XIV Manchester
Manchester was separated from the adjoining parishes of St. Elizabeth, Clarendon and Vere in 1814, and was named after the Duke of Manchester, who was Governor of the island at the time; while the chief town, Mandeville, was named after his eldest son.
The parish is more noted for its agricultural than historic associations. Mandeville is much frequented by visitors from the United States and Canada and Great Britain. The court-house is said to have cost upwards of £20,000. In the churchyard is the tombstone of Sir William Scarlett, chief justice of the island from 1821 to 1832, who is referred to in the account of St. James.
Bridges, the historian, was the rector from 1817 to 1823. In that period he baptized 9547 slaves, and married 2187. In 1823 he published his “Voice from Jamaica,” written in defence of slave-owners, for which the Assembly two years later voted him £700. He valued his living at £1118 per annum. The Rev. Samuel Stewart, writing in 1840, says: “Four large schoolhouses have been erected, one-half of the expense paid by the Bishop, the other moiety by the Vestry.”