Part 21

The parish of St. Andrew was originally called Liguanea, and the name still lingers round the plain. It now consists of what before the passing of law 20 of 1867 comprised the parish of Port Royal and the parish of St. Andrew, less the parts known as Smith’s Village, Hannah’s Town, Fletcher’s Town, and the town of Port Royal. There are no towns in St. Andrew; the principal villages being Halfway Tree, Gordon Town and Stony Hill.

The earliest known reference to Halfway Tree on record occurs in the minutes of the Council of January 4, 1696, when “the Governor acquainted the Board that he had been informed that Mr. Redman Maccragh, Mr. Henry Archbold, and others had assembled together att halfeway tree in the parish of St. Andrews and had obleiged severall of His Majesty’s subjects passing that way to drink a health to the late K. James, which was lookt upon by the Board to be a great misdemeanour,” and it was ordered that all persons concerned should appear before the Board the next Council day; but this apparently they discreetly abstained from doing.

It derives its name from a cotton tree dating from the conquest, which existed as late as 1866. Richard Hill, in an article which was published posthumously in the “Victoria Quarterly” in 1890, said:

“I visited Halfway Tree on Sunday the 25th November, 1866. When I first saw the cotton tree at the junction of the four roads through the plain of Liguanea from which Halfway Tree receives its name, it had nearly lived out its time. It is of that lofty straight-stemmed variety of Eriondendron which originally growing among some clustering trees had overtopped them and had spread its horizontal arms out above them at about some fifty or sixty feet in elevation from the root. Four or five of these arms yet remained with a few scattering stems on which a few straggling leaves vegetated. An age of surface rains rushing to the sea three miles away had removed all the soluble earth from the platform roots, so that they made arched resting places, where the marketers coming from the mountains would rest themselves in groups for they had reached the Halfway Tree.... At the time of the conquest of the island 200 years ago, the Halfway Tree was one of those tall and solitary cotton trees of the Liguanea Plain.”

It is to be regretted that no illustration exists of this interesting tree, which has perished since Hill wrote. It stood near the present church, where the original road (now known as the old Pound Road) going from Passage Fort, the landing-place from Port Royal, direct towards the mountains, was cut by the road that went from Spanish Town to the plain of St. Andrew.

Long the historian says: “The village of Halfway Tree is situated ... at the intersection of the three roads which lead to Spanish Town, St. Mary, and St. George,” and this probably is the origin of the name.

The ascription of the name to the half-way position for the troops between Greenwich on the Harbour and Stony Hill is evidently wrong, as the troops were not placed at Stony Hill till 1799.

The =Old Burial-Ground, Halfway Tree=, is the name usually given to the disused graveyard on the road between King’s House and the Constant Spring road, where the Waterloo road crosses it on its way to the foot of the hills. Standing on land falling away towards Sandy Gully, it is said to be the site of the first church erected by the English in St. Andrew, one of the seven parishes into which the island was originally divided by Sir Thomas Modyford in 1664; but there are now no evidences of the foundations to be seen.

In 1682 Sir Thomas Lynch sent home to the Bishop of London a detailed account of “this infant church” in Jamaica. Of Halfway Tree he wrote: “On the north side of Port Royal harbour lies St. Andrews, where Mr. Cellier, a Swiss, is minister. It is the pleasantest part of the Island, with an ordinary church and a pretty parsonage house. The minister has £100 a year, he is an honest man and well beloved. Colonel Beeston can tell you about him.”

The second church was erected near where the present fabric stands; the foundation stone being laid on January 12, 1686, according to the following extract from the early vestry minutes:—“1686, January 12, Prayers at the old church and a sermon from Gen. ch. 28, v. 16, 17. The first brick of the new church laid by the Rev. Mr. Zeller, the second by Col. Sam. Barry.” The building of this church had evidently been contemplated for some time, a previous entry, under date July 28, 1684, reading “Agree about building the new intended Church.” James Zellers, a Swiss by birth, came out to Jamaica in 1664 and was at once appointed to St. Andrew, which parish he served for thirty-six years. Colonel Barry, who owned Cavaliers, was one of the largest landowners in the parish. The second church was destroyed by the earthquake of 1692. In “The Truest and Largest Account of the Late Earthquake in Jamaica ... written by a Reverend Divine there ... London, 1693,” it is thus referred to: “From thence it is but a short way to _Ligania_, the first and principal place for Planting, (whereunto my own parish is immediately the next) which for the most part imitating, if not Exceeding the stateliness of Port Royal, is now, together with its fine New Built and not yet finished Church, buried in the same Ruines with the Houses.” This old ground was used for interment long after the present church was built; in fact, as late as 1862.

The registers of the church of St. Andrew at Halfway Tree, dating back to 1666, are the oldest in the island. They contain many records of interest. Unfortunately, the entries for the early years are only a transcript of about the middle of the eighteenth century, the same handwriting extending to the year 1741. The first entry of baptism extant is that of Grace, daughter of Edward Onion, under date June 10, 1666. The earliest marriage is that of John Wilson and Anne Zeale on June 7, 1666; and the first death Arabella Joanes, on July 4, 1666.

Amongst those who lie in the old burial-ground are George Bennett, of Dorsetshire family, “who came here a soldier under General Venables”; Henry Dakins, who died in 1683; Major Samuel Guy, who died in 1736; and “Edward, the soven (_sic_) of William and Anne Beeston, who dyed this 5th day of August, 1678, being above the age of ... months,” and “Henry the sonne of William and Anne Beeston who dyed the first day of May, 1677, being about the age of 14 months.”

[Illustration:

HALFWAY-TREE CHURCH IN 1906 ]

Sir William Beeston was governor of Jamaica from 1693 to 1701. His daughter Jane married firstly Sir Thomas Modyford, the fifth and last baronet, and secondly, Charles Long, of Longville, son of Samuel Long who came out with Penn and Venables as secretary to Cromwell’s Commission, and rose to fame. With his friend Beeston, Samuel Long was sent home a prisoner by the Earl of Carlisle, but they successfully vindicated the privileges of Jamaica. Edward Long, the historian of Jamaica, was grandson of Charles and Jane Long.

The wall of the churchyard no doubt dates from early in the eighteenth century, as appears by a further extract from the vestry minutes, under date “1706, February”: “Ordered that both these churchyards [the new and the old] be walled in.”

The vestry minutes are copied from a reference in the “Morning Journal” of June 18, 1858, contributed by Mr. Livingston.

The =Parish Church of St. Andrew=, commonly known as Halfway Tree church, is, after the cathedral at Spanish Town, the most interesting, from an historic point of view, of all the churches in the colony.

The vestry lost no time in rebuilding after the earthquake had destroyed the first church, for we learn from the vestry minutes, under date July 5, 1692; “Ordered that a new church be forthwith built on the church land at Halfway Tree of the figure of the late new church, and a house for the Minister 50 feet front from out to out, 16 feet wide from in to in, 9 feet high a brick and half thick.”

The building was apparently so far completed as to receive monuments on its walls by the following March, for that is the date of the one which records the death of Frances, wife of Sir Nicholas Lawes, a successful planter, and a wise and beneficent governor in times of great misfortune. Lawes himself was buried in the church of the parish, the interests of which he did much to further, but his tomb is not now to be found. His name still lives in Laws street, Kingston.

The following further extracts from the vestry minutes are interesting: “1697, order for building a Vestry room and hanging the Bell”; “1699, April 29, Bargain about a Steeple”; “... December 22, Order for pewing the Church.”

The church was finally completed in 1700. In 1701 Sir William Beeston and his wife gave, as we have seen, a site in Kingston for the erection of a church in that town, and in the year following, namely, on January 13, 1702, the Vestry of St. Andrew ordered “That the benches belonging to the church be given to Kingston for the use of their church.” On October 25, 1703, it was ordered “that the tyles be taken off the roof of the church, and that it be covered with shingles instead thereof”; and in 1705 that the ceiling, &c., be plaistered. Richard Hill is probably in error in saying that “the then existing church shattered and blown down in the hurricane of 1712 and 1722 was succeeded by the present edifice,” but one’s later day experience of hurricane and earthquake have shown that these and the work of “restorers” make sad havoc of the historic evidence offered by monumental inscriptions. In 1685 it was decided to order a communion service from England, but the oldest chalice and flagon in the church bear the date 1700, and the mark, B.O., of John Boddington (who made a communion flagon which is at North Cerney in Gloucestershire).

On June 9, 1741, the churchwardens were ordered to send to Great Britain for a “Pulpit Cloth with Cushions and other necessary ornaments for the Pulpit, Reading Desk, and Communion Table, of crimson, with a plain gold fringe, and six dozen hassocks.” The edifice was somewhat damaged in the hurricane of October 20, 1744; and on November 3 following the churchwardens were ordered to agree with workmen to put the church immediately in repair and secure the windows with substantial shutters on the outside. In 1760 orders were given for the importation of an organ, and on July 1, 1762, Messrs. Freeman and Dixper were employed to take down the old organ and to put up and tune the new one for £80.

For many years the church remained, as it was built, a plain unattractive structure, by men who had the fear of earthquake and hurricane before them. In 1879–80 extensive restorations were carried out; the Campbell memorial chancel was added, extensions were made to the north and south ends of the transept, and at the west end so as to connect nave and tower, and the ceiling was removed.

In 1904, in order to provide extra accommodation, a south chancel aisle, designed with deep-mullioned, unglazed window-openings, so as to exclude sunlight and yet admit fresh air, was added in memory of the late rector, the Rev. H. H. Isaacs. And in 1909 extensive repairs, involving the pulling down of the shattered tower, the space occupied by which was thrown into the nave, were rendered necessary by the earthquake of 1907.

The first rector, James Zellers, was appointed to St. Andrew on June 9, 1664, and since that date the parish has been served by but sixteen rectors, giving an average of upwards of fifteen years for each incumbent—not a bad record for a “pestilential climate,” as that of Jamaica was formerly called.

In this connection it is of interest to note that a recent member of the congregation worshipped in the church for upwards of seventy years, for a large part of which time he was verger. Stephen Dale, who was born in the parish of Manchester in or about 1806, came to St. Andrew as a slave on Cassia Park, a property near the church, when a young man, and lived in Halfway Tree till his death. Though pensioned as verger in 1896, he still, to the advanced age of 106, in 1912, played his part in collecting the offertory at the Sunday services, and performed other duties in connection with the church. He remembered that he was thirty-two years of age at the time of Emancipation.

Of the monuments by far the most interesting from an art point of view is that formerly on the south wall of the chancel, now on the north wall of the nave, to =James Lawes=. One of the best pieces of iconic sculpture in the island, it is by John Cheere (miscalled Sheere by Lawrence-Archer), the brother of Sir Henry Cheere (b. 1703, d. 1781), at first a pupil of Sheemakers, and afterwards employer and instructor of Roubiliac.

Sir Henry Cheere was the chief of the statuaries of his time, working in marble, bronze, and lead to meet the demand for garden decoration. He executed numerous monuments for Westminster Abbey. In 1760 he was chosen by the County of Middlesex to present a congratulatory address to the King on his accession. Knighted on that occasion, he was created a baronet six years later. In 1755 he drew up the first proposals for the formation of the Royal Academy. All we are told of John Cheere is that he was “also a statuary and probably a partner in his brother’s works.”

Of James Lawes almost all there is to tell is stated in Latin on his handsome monument. He was baptized in 1697, married in 1720, and was member of the house of Assembly for St. Andrew in 1721, and for Vere in 1722. He was called up to the council in 1725. He died in 1733. He had a dormant commission, but never acted as governor. His widow re-married, in 1742, William Home, eighth Earl of Home, governor of Gibraltar. His epitaph, translated, runs as follows:

In this neighbourhood lie the remains of the Hon. James Lawes: he was the first-born son of Sir Nicholas Lawes, the Governor of this island, by his wife Susanna Temple: he married Elizabeth, the only daughter and heiress of William Gibbon, Esquire: then in early manhood, when barely thirty-six years of age, he obtained almost the highest position of distinction amongst his countrymen, being appointed Lieutenant-Governor by royal warrant; but before he entered on his duties, in the prime of life—alas!—he died on the 29th day of December, A.D. 1733.

In him we lose an upright and honoured citizen, a faithful and industrious friend, a most affectionate husband, a man who was just and kind to all, and distinguished by the lustre of genuine religion. His wife who survived him had this tomb erected to perpetuate the memory of a beloved husband.

His arms are painted on the monument: “Or, on a chief azure, three estoiles of eight points or. On an escutcheon of pretence, or, a lion rampant sable debruised of a bend gules charged with three escallops, or.”

He was probably born at Temple Hall, where his father, governor of the colony from 1718 till 1722, introduced towards the close of his life, in 1728, the coffee plant into the island. His mother was a daughter of Thomas Temple, of Francton, Warwickshire, and Temple Hall, in St. Andrew, sister of “La Belle Temple,” of de Grammont (wife of Sir Charles Lyttelton, governor of Jamaica), and widow of Samuel Bernard, speaker of the Assembly. She was the fourth of Sir Nicholas Lawes’s five wives, all widows when he married them.

Other interesting monuments in the church are those to Zachary Bayly, uncle and patron of Bryan Edwards, the historian, who wrote his flowery epitaph typical of the time; to Admiral Davers, who was one of the principal actors in the quarrel between Sir Chaloner Ogle and the governor, Trelawny, an echo of the jealousy of Wentworth and Vernon, which was a factor in their deplorable failure at Cartagena; and to General Villettes (by Sir Richard Westmacott), commander of the forces and lieutenant-governor, to whom there is a mural tablet in Westminster Abbey; and in the churchyard is the monument of Christopher Lipscomb, first bishop of Jamaica.

The earliest dated tomb is that to Edward Harrison, of the year 1695. The latest monuments of importance erected in the church are those in memory of Sir James Fergusson, who was killed in Kingston by the earthquake of 1907, and lies buried in the churchyard; and a brass tablet to the memory of Sir Anthony Musgrave, a former governor.

The number of naval men buried here is somewhat remarkable for an inland church: Admiral Davers (d. 1746), Dr. Charles Mackglashan, R.N. (d. 1834), Commodores Pring (d. 1846), Peter McQuhae (d. 1853) and Cracroft (d. 1865), Admiral Holmes (d. 1761), Captains Renton (d. 1747–8), Shortland (d. 1827) and Morrish (d. 1861).

Amongst military men are General William Anne Villettes (d. 1808), Lieut.-Col. Augustus Frederick Ellis (d. 1841), Lieut.-Col. Charles Markham (d. 1842), and Major-General Lambert (d. 1848).

The old chandelier, at the west end, dating from the year 1706, the gift of Nicholas Lawes, is a good example of English brass work of that period. The copy of the royal arms, also at the west end, dates from the time of Queen Anne, as the initials A. R. testify. The tattered flags of the 3rd West India Regiment told of a time when there were more battalions than there are now. Laid up on the disbandment of the regiment in 1870, they were on July 31, 1912, removed from the church to the recently erected garrison chapel at Up-Park Camp.

The registers contain many records of interest. In the early years occur the well-known names of Brayne, Beeston, Barry, Elletson and Lawes.

Between 1671 and 1691 Colonel Samuel Barry had four children baptized; Colonel William Beeston, five; and Roger Elletson (who married Anne Hope on May 6, 1680), six.

The Robert Beckford who, on June 6, 1688, married Anne Prenyard, must have been a member of the well-known family, possibly a brother of Colonel Peter Beckford, the president of the council.

Amongst the baptisms are recorded those of Robert Charles Dallas, the author of “The History of the Maroons,” on Christmas day, 1756; of William, son of Lieut.-Col. John Dalling, afterwards governor of the island, in 1771; and of Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Despouches and Sir Hyde Parker, vice-admiral of the red, in 1797.

Slaves were often baptized _en bloc_. In 1780 four negroes “the property of the Dutchess of Chandos” were baptized on February 8. On May 5, 1790, five slaves, the property of Simon Taylor, the wealthiest man of his time, were baptized; and on September 9, 1803, eighteen slaves on Mona estate; and on July 15, 1815, twenty-nine male adults, twenty-seven female adults, eight male and nine female children slaves were baptized on Fair Hill plantation.

The good people of Kingston not infrequently came to St. Andrew to be married, _e.g._, on September 12, 1792, Robert Hibbert, Esq., Jun., of the parish of Kingston, married Elizabeth Jane Nembhard, of the same parish. Another interesting marriage that took place in St. Andrew was that of Philip Livingston of Kingston, merchant (the eldest son of Philip Livingston, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence of the United States in 1776), to Sarah Johnson, of the parish of St. Andrew, on June 29, 1768. Apparently, also, sometimes burial services were conducted in St. Andrew prior to entombment elsewhere. Under date November 5, 1702, is recorded the death of “Admiral John Bembo,” whose tombstone is in Kingston parish church. He had died at Port Royal on November 4. There is an old tradition that Benbow was buried at Greenwich, then a naval station on the harbour to the west of Kingston. This would be compatible with the entry in the Halfway Tree register, as Greenwich was and is in the parish of St. Andrew; but James Knight, who was member for Kingston in 1722 and following years, says, in a manuscript history of Jamaica in the British Museum, “He was buried the day following [his death] in the church at Kingston, greatly lamented by all ranks of people.” It is strange, therefore, that his burial should be recorded in the register of St. Andrew. It may be that when two rectors took part in the burial service each recorded it.

Amongst other interesting items in the burials we read: “1772, Nov. 6, Mrs. Clies, mother-in-law to Sir George Bridges Rodney, Bart.” She was the mother of Rodney’s second wife, Henrietta. Her husband was John Clies, of Lisbon.

The following is a complete list of the rectors of the parish:

July 1664 to 25th May 1700 Rev. James Zellers 1700 to 5th July 1710 Rev. John Moodie 1710 to 22nd Oct. 1714 Rev. George Wright 1714 to 25th March 1738 Rev. John Carey 1738 to 26th April 1747 Rev. Alexander Inglis 1747 to 25th Oct. 1760 Rev. George Eccles 1760 to 13th April 1768 Rev. Gideon Castelfranc 1768 to 1782 Rev. John Pool, LL.B. 1782 to May 1813 Rev. John Campbell 1813 to 8th Dec. 1858 Rev. Alexander Campbell, M.A. 1858 to 1860 Ven. Archdeacon Richard Panton, D.D. January 1861 to 1870 Rev. William Mayhew, M.A. October 1870 to August 1872 Rev. George Taylor Braine, B.A. August 1872 to Oct. 1878 Ven. Archdeacon Duncan Houston Campbell, M.A. March 1879 to 22nd Sept. 1900 Rev. Hubert Headland Isaacs M.A. January 1901 Rev. Edward Jocelyn Wortley

[Illustration:

KING EDWARD’S CLOCK TOWER ]

Amongst interesting houses are =Lundie’s Pen=, Halfway Tree, a typical eighteenth-century Jamaica house, but altered after the earthquake of 1907—it bears date September 3, 1767. =King’s House=, which was formerly the residence of the Bishop of Jamaica, was purchased for £5000 as an official residence of the governor, on the removal of the seat of government to Kingston in 1872. A dining-hall and ballroom were added later. It was wrecked by the earthquake of 1907, and was rebuilt in 1909 from designs by Sir Charles Nicholson. In it are two full-length portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds of George III and Queen Charlotte, copies of the portraits which were painted in 1779 and for which Reynolds received £420. Reynolds made it a condition of his acceptance of the presidentship of the Royal Academy that he should be allowed to paint portraits of the king and queen. The portraits were presented to the Royal Academy by the king. Thirteen pairs of copies were painted. Copies are in the possession of the Earl of Malmesbury at Heron Court; at the Viceregal Lodge, Dublin; at Hatfield House; at Cobham Hall; at Knole; the Senior United Service Club, London; and the Cutlers’ Company; and the pair mentioned above at Jamaica. The king is seated in his robes, with the sceptre in his right hand; in the background are a canopy and the aisles of Westminster Abbey. The queen is seated on a throne, with a sceptre on a cushion in front. She is clad in a gold-embroidered dress, with lace sleeves, and ermine train and robe.

At Halfway is =King Edward’s Clock Tower=, erected as a memorial by public subscription in 1913.