Part 25

In 1746 Jacob Stoakes and Mary his wife mortgaged Stoakes Hall to Daniel McQueen to secure £3209 (currency). It was described as containing 1057 acres part of 1330 acres patented by Charles Whitefield. Jacob Stoakes died in 1749. McQueen took possession after Stoakes’s death and continued in possession till July 8, 1758, when he died; and his executors continued to run the estate until Ann Stoakes, the only surviving child, who in 1760 had married Richard Cargill of St. Thomas, took proceedings in Chancery which resulted in their favour and also showing a balance in their favour of £639 18_s._ 4_d._ which was directed to be paid them by the executors of McQueen, who were also ordered to reconvey Stoakes Hall to Richard Cargill and Ann his wife free from the mortgage.

The following items of account taken from the old Chancery records may prove of interest.

STOAKES HALL A/CS. £ _s._ _d._ Profit shown in a/c for year 1749 312 1 8 „ „ „ „ „ „ 1750 45 14 6½ „ „ „ „ „ „ 1751 543 0 8 „ „ „ „ „ „ 1752 34 3 8 „ „ „ „ „ „ 1753 1441 11 8½ „ „ „ „ „ „ 1755 786 4 0 „ „ „ „ „ „ 1756 1317 0 2¼ „ „ „ „ „ „ 1757 897 5 9¼

CERTAIN ITEMS FROM A/C. 1752

_Nov._ 24th. To paid Ann Downes for 2 qrs. Board of Mrs. Mary Stoakes D of Captain Stoakes dec^d £15.

1753

_May_ 7th. To cash paid the soldiers at Rock Fort for taking up Rob^t Can a white serv^t belongs to this estate 6_s._ 3_d._

_Oct._ 11th. Box knives and forks sent p for the use of the overseer of this plantation 3_s._ 9_d._

A/CS _re_ STOAKES HALL PLANTATION WITH THE ESTATE OF DANIEL MCQUEEN DECEASED (Extracts.) 1748

_Sept._ 13th. To Sundrys sent for the Funeral of Jacob Stoakes viz.

From Rob^t Wilson one compleat set of coffin Furniture and one thousand of brass nails £5 10 0

From Eliz. Able 12 pr. white gloves 37_s._ 6_d._, 2 pr. black Shammy do. 37_s._ 6_d._—15_s._, 2 crape hat bands 12_s._ 6_d._—25_s._, 2 oz. mace 7_s._ 6_d._, 2 doz. cloves 5_s._ 4 10 0

10 Black silk scarves 27_s._ 6_d._ £13 15_s._, 8 Black hat bands 12_s._ 6_d._ ea. £5, a box &c. to pack them in 2_s._ 6_d._ 18 17 6

——— —— —

£28 17 6

_Sept._ 30th. To sundries sent to Mrs. Stoakes viz.

2 pr. white and black callicoe £4 15_s._, 1 pr. silk shoes 10_s._ 5 5 0

A black Fan 5_s._, 2 skains black silk 1_s._ 3_d._ 3 yds. narrow ribband 1_s._ 10½_d._ 8 1½

1 pr. Buckles 2_s._ 6_d._, 1 pr. Buttons 1_s._ 3_d._, 2 laces 1_s._ 3_d._—2_s._ 6_d._ 6 3

4 yds. Broad Ribband for Knotts 1_s._ 3_d._ per yard 5 0

1 pr. woven blk. callimanco shoes 12_s._ 6_d._, 2 prs. girls blk. leather shoes 11_s._ 3_d._ 1 3 9

Paid to Mingo for grass for the horses 3 9

_Nov._ 7th. To cash paid Parson Bonnervalle for his attendance at Mr. Stoakes’s Funeral. 4 15 0

1749

_May_ 29th. Taxes for 1748. 15 10 7½

=Morant Bay=, the chief town and shipping port, is noted as being the principal scene of the disturbances of 1865. Nearly all the public buildings were then burnt down. No disturbance in the West Indies since the days of Emancipation has caused half so much excitement or given rise to half so much acrimonious correspondence, publication and litigation as that which occurred in Jamaica in 1865, and is usually known as the “Morant Bay Rebellion.” Apart from the official inquiry, which is of course judicial in tone, the publications range over the whole subject of negrophobia or negrophilia—of abuse of Governor Eyre and of his defence.

In 1862 Edward John Eyre was appointed acting governor of Jamaica, and when in 1864 he became full governor, the post was no bed of roses. The island was not prosperous, the American war had raised the price of American breadstuffs, and the governor was at variance with the House of Assembly, in which the negro population was then represented. Agitation ended in riot at Morant Bay on October 11, 1865. Undoubtedly the riot, or rebellion, was a very serious one in its actual results, and still more in its possible consequences, and but for its prompt and energetic repression it might have spread into a general negro insurrection in an island where the negroes outnumbered the whites by at least fifty to one. Martial law was proclaimed on October 13 throughout the county of Surrey, except Kingston, and tranquillity was restored. Then followed courts-martial and punishments; and George William Gordon, a ringleader, was taken from Kingston, where martial law did not exist, to Morant Bay, where it did, tried by an ill-constituted court-martial, and executed in haste and on evidence wholly insufficient.

On the day of the outbreak at Morant Bay, October 11, 1865, twenty-two civilians, including the custos (the chief magistrate), and volunteers were killed and thirty-four wounded; under martial law 439 were put to death (354 by sentence of courts-martial—the rest shot by soldiers, sailors or maroons who were employed by the Government). In addition there were 147 put to death after martial law ceased. One thousand “houses,” some of them very flimsy in character, were destroyed.

These Jamaica disturbances engaged public attention in England for nearly three years, and caused an excitement quite unprecedented. The Parliamentary papers relating to the case are voluminous, consisting as they do of eight separate publications and covering in the aggregate no less than 2336 pages. The first series of papers begins with the celebrated letter of Dr. Underhill to Mr. Cardwell, drawing attention to the state of affairs in Jamaica, and the subsequent despatches have reference to it or the question which it raised.

The Commissioners appointed to enquire into the origin, nature, and circumstances of the disturbances and the means adopted for their suppression, and the conduct of those concerned in the disturbances and suppression, after taking a large amount of evidence reported that the disturbances had their immediate origin in a planned resistance to lawful authority, which resistance was caused in manifold ways—by a desire to obtain land free of rent, a lack of confidence on the part of the labouring class in the tribunals before which most of their disputes were adjudicated, and in some cases hostility towards political and personal opponents, and a desire to attain their ends by the death or expulsion of the white inhabitants of the island. They further reported that, though the original design was confined to a small portion of St.-Thomas-in-the-East, the disorder rapidly spread over an extensive tract of country, and that praise was due to Eyre for his skill, promptitude and vigour, which in a great degree caused its speedy termination. The military and naval operations appeared to them prompt and judicious, but they thought that martial law was continued longer than necessary and that the punishments inflicted were excessive.

The reply of the Secretary of State to Sir Henry Storks stated that Her Majesty’s Government generally concurred in the conclusions arrived at by the commission. So far as Eyre was concerned, it gave him full credit for his promptness in quelling the outbreak, but held him responsible for the continuance of excessive severity, and for the method of Gordon’s trial and execution. Eyre was recalled and was most bitterly attacked by a large section of the English people headed by John Stuart Mill, and defended by another led by Carlyle, whose original draft manuscript defence of Eyre is in the West India library of the Institute of Jamaica. Eyre successfully underwent more than one legal prosecution. He retired on a pension into private life, and never sought, even in the face of the greatest hostility, to justify his actions to the world. He died at Tavistock on November 30, 1901, aged eighty-six. “He did many good and brave things, and atoned for the one error of his life by a silence so dignified and so prolonged.”

Behind the court house is =Mount Bay Fort=, dating from the seventeenth century.

The present church of =Morant Bay= was built in 1881, on the site of the church destroyed by the cyclone of August 19, 1880, and the church so destroyed was built to take the place of the old church near the almshouse, which is now in ruins. There are tombs in the ruined church to Jane Ellis (d. 1763); Marmaduke Freeman (d. 1709); and to Mary, wife of Sir Henry Lyttelton, governor (d. 1808).

The village of =Bath= contains a thermal spring of great value. An historical account of the Bath was contributed by Dr. G. J. Neish to the “Journal of the Institute of Jamaica” in 1895, and from it much of the following account is taken.

Tradition says that a runaway slave hiding in the gorge came upon a spring in which he bathed. Finding the temperature greatly to his liking, he returned constantly to the pool, and after the lapse of some days was astonished and delighted at the evidence of healing in a long-standing ulcer on one of his legs. With his ulcer healed he braved the wrath of his master to communicate the discovery of the pool. Colonel Stanton, the owner of the land, sold his right in the spring “to the public in the year 1699 for a valuable consideration.”

By the law passed in 1699 the land was vested in “The Directors of the Bath of St. Thomas the Apostle.” They consisted of the governor (Sir William Beeston), the chief justice (Nicholas Lawes), Peter Beckford, and Peter Heywood, and seven other members of the privy council, and five justices of the peace of St. Thomas and St. David. They were a body corporate and had power to erect a market, and to grant licences and to sell and retail strong liquors.

In 1731 an Act was passed for rendering the Bath more serviceable. From the preamble it appears that there were no house or proper conveniences for the accommodation of sick persons. £500 was voted for a house. The leases of lands were cancelled, but land was to be granted to soldiers and others who would settle, and who would be exempt from taxes for seven years.

A road was made, buildings were erected, and the public began to make use of the bath. Shortly afterwards lots were laid out and assigned, a town sprang up. Slaves were purchased to look after the roads and the vegetable gardens which had been planted for provisioning the hospital, which was built on the town square. The foundation was in more modern days utilized for supporting the present court house, and the old baths are still to be seen on the ground floor. The bath house at the spring was first built on the brink of the river, opposite the point of issue of the water which was conducted across the stream by a wooden gutter.

Changes in the river bank afterwards made it possible to build the house on the same side as the hot spring and so near that the water retained its heat. The baths grew fashionable and the town of Bath rapidly became a society resort. People of wealth built houses and brought their amusements with them. Gaiety prevailed and music, dancing and card-playing were indulged in; but fashionables wearied, quarrelled and sought for pastures new. In 1774, Long complained of the desertion of Bath; the decline went steadily on, and it never regained its popularity.

There is a stone table affixed to the portico of the court house, bearing this inscription:

This public building was erected under the inspection of the Hon. Charles Price, Peter Valette and William Forbes, Esqrs., appointed commissioners for carrying on the same, the foundation of which was begun on the 10th day of March, 1747.

This tablet originally belonged to the old bath house and was many years ago picked out of the river bed, and after lying in a yard in the town for some time was rescued by the authorities and placed on the front of the court house.

After 1789, the old =Botanic Garden= in Bath was placed under the corporation. Dr. Thomas Dancer, best known as the author of “The Medical Assistant or Jamaica Practice of Physic” (1801), and as chief of the hospital staff on the expedition to San Juan de Nicaragua from Jamaica in 1779, when Nelson nearly lost his life from malarial fever, was for many years from 1781 to 1792 physician to the bath, and Island botanist from 1797. While acting in the former capacity, he brought out in 1784 “A Short Dissertation on the Jamaica Bath Waters, to which is prefixed an introduction concerning mineral waters in general....”

Of the rainfall he says, “above forty perpendicular inches have fallen in about the space of six or eight hours, which is nearly double the quantity that on a medium, falls in Great Britain through a whole year.” The work also contained a list of the rarer plants cultivated in the garden, of which he published a full list in 1792. Some of the plants he owed to the interest of Sir Joseph Banks, with whom he corresponded.

Near the Johnson River to the west of Morant Bay is =Belvedere= estate, 2200 acres in extent, the original home of Colonel Thomas Freeman, the first speaker of the House of Assembly.

There are remains of a fine aqueduct, a water-wheel, still used for pumping water, parts of very extensive works, and higher up the hill the great house and the overseer’s house. Now, bananas and coco-nuts usurp the place of cane. Not far from the great house, in a logwood plantation, is a tomb on the front of which is a massive slate slab with the following inscription:

Here lyeth Anne Freeman who was Wife to y^e Hon. / Colonel Thomas Freeman of Bellvedere Daughter to Richard Bellthrapp Esq. & Grandaughter to St. John Colt / Shee left five sonns and one daughter (viz) Thomas, / John, Charles, Richard and Howard, And Anne two sisters /in the island Hester married to y^e Hon. Colonell John Cope / and Margaret unmaried. Shee departed this life August y^e 3rd 1681 Ætatis Sua^o 30.

Shee liv’d a Vertuous and Religious Life Shee was a Tender Mother and a most loveing wife.

The slab was thrown down by the earthquake of 1907, and on October 4, 1911, the writer saw in the vault two skulls and the bones appertaining.

The tomb of George Cuthbert (who governed Jamaica as senior member of the Council in 1832 and 1834); which is said to have been here, is not now to be found.

Dr. William Lloyd, in his “Letters from the West Indies,” wrote in 1837 of Belvedere as follows:

Belvidere is a noble estate: the great house has a balcony thirty yards long, fronting the sea; it may be one mile from the shore; the cane grounds descend thereto skirted by cocoanut palms; neighbouring and distant hills form an imposing background and complete the panoramic spectacle. The sick house is a clean, commodious, handsome building, and the children and others confined under a prevalent epidemic, measles, well attended to: the negroes’ cottages were like so many harbors in bowers of ever-greens; and close at hand the inmates had built a chapel at their own expense, spacious enough for hundreds; neither mahogany, glass nor doors, formed part of the structure; but there was a pulpit, and one substantial adornment, simplicity, around and throughout; service was performed in it every sabbath. An intelligent negro acted as our Cicerone through the village, conducting us into his dwelling, where he waited on us with due politeness, in handing water; from the evident air of comfort around, I was certain that “Aristus would not be so amiable, were it not for his Aspasia; nor Aspasia so much esteemed were it not for her Aristus”; yet distress sits over those unaspiring seats. Count F——, the proprietor, a French nobleman, resides in France, and he is not at present liberally disposed. The provision grounds are in the mountains, and the watchmen being removed, cattle and thieves destroy the fruits of their exertions; so that instead of having provisions to sell, they suffer scarcity themselves, only being allowed one pound of salt fish per week; in crop time they are defrauded and overworked, and these teasing impositions, which are beneath a proprietor’s dignity, destroy their peace.

On =Lyssons= estate, named after Nicholas Lycence, member for St. Thomas in 1671–72, by the works, are the remains of an old windmill with the date 1764.

Here is the tomb to Sir John Taylor, Bt., and Simon Taylor, to the north of the main road running through the property. It is in good condition. The latter held many important posts and was a very wealthy planter, leaving behind him, it is said, the largest fortune ever accumulated by a West Indian. Both Sir John and his brother Simon were originally buried at Vale Royal, in St. Andrew; but on the sale of that property their bodies were removed to Lyssons.

The following are the inscriptions:

[_On the South side_]

Here lie the Remains of—Sir John Taylor, of Lissons, Baronet,—Amiable in His Manners, Steady in His Attachments—& Exemplary in the Practice of the Social & Domestic Duties.—He died—during a visit to His Estates in this Island,—May 6th, 1786,—Aged 41.

[_On the North side_]

Here lie the Remains of—the Honourable Simon Taylor,—A Loyal Subject, A firm Friend, & an Honest man.—Who, after an active life,—During which he faithfully & ably filled the highest Offices—of Civil & Military Duty in this Island,—Died April 14th, 1813,—aged 73.

[_On the East side_]

To the Memory of—A beloved & Honoured—Father and Uncle.

This Monument was erected—By Sir Simon Richard Brissett Taylor,—Baronet,—1814.

[_On the West side_]

_Arms_, Two escutcheons.

1. Argent, a saltire sable, between two human hearts, in pale gules, & 2 cinquefoils in fesse, vert. Baronet’s badge in the fesse point. _Crest_, Out of a ducal coronet, a cubit arm holding a cross crosslet.

2. The same arms with supporters—Two leopards chained & collared. _Motto_, “In hoc signo Vinces.”

All that is left of =Hordley= are the remains of the works and overseer’s house. Of the great house, two miles away at an elevation of 700 feet, there is now nothing left.

While on his second visit to Jamaica, in 1818, Monk Lewis paid a flying visit to this estate.

Here (he said) I expected to find a perfect paradise, and I found a perfect hell. Report had assured me that Hordley was the best managed estate in the island; and, as far as the soil was concerned, report appeared to have said true: but my trustee had also assured me that my negroes were the most contented and best-disposed, and here there was a lamentable incorrectness in the account. I found them in a perfect uproar; complaints of all kinds stunned me from all quarters: all the blacks accused all the whites, and all the whites accused all the blacks; and, as far as I could make out, both parties were extremely in the right.

In the week at his disposal he was not able to effect much remedy. He found his “trustee” not cruel, but merely indolent as to the fate of the negroes; but he dismissed one of the book-keepers and the “chief black governor.” He gave the negroes new holdings, additional allowances of salt fish and presents of money, &c., and “left them in as good humour, apparently, as I found them in bad.”

[Illustration:

ALBION ESTATE ]

=Albion= estate, on the right bank of the Yallahs just before it joins the sea, is the estate whence the white Albion sugar well known in England takes its name. The old works and the coolie hospital, erected in the middle of the nineteenth century, and the old-time book-keeper’s house still exist; but the great house is now in ruins.

Dr. William Lloyd, in “Letters from the West Indies,” above quoted, gives the following account of =Golden Grove=:

The “great house” is at a little distance on rising ground, commanding a _coup d’œil_ of the whole plain; hundreds and thousands of acres of canes may be seen at one glance. A school house has been erected near, and a pleasing young man sent out by the Church Missionary Society has charge of it. We were pleased with the good order of the children; many were absent; at present the measles prevail, which may be one cause. During the day we visited a very celebrated estate, Golden Grove; attorney, Thomas McCornock, Esq., custos of the parish, answering to our Lord Lieutenant. The extent of this estate is two thousand acres; apprentices five hundred; and it exports near six hundred hogheads of sugar: “_communibus annis_.” All the arrangements, buildings, machinery, et cet, are of a very superior description. A very neat chapel with a tower and clock close to the principal dwelling, was built by the tradesmen of the estate during the slave regime; and such was the interest evinced by the slaves for religion, that they subscribed twenty pounds to buy a communion service cup; it has been appropriately engraved; much might be said on this occurrence.

The plate mentioned is now preserved in the offices of the Church of England in Jamaica in Kingston. The chalice, eight inches high, is inscribed round the foot, “Purchased for Golden Grove Chapel by the slaves of the estate, 1830.”

At =Cambridge Hill= and at =Botany Bay= are caves in which Arawâk remains have been found.

=Cow Bay= and =Bull Bay= recall the old days of the “cow killers” or buccaneers; cow being by them applied to all kinds of horned cattle.

VI PORTLAND

The parish of Portland was named after the Duke of Portland, who was Governor of the colony at the date of its formation. It includes the old parish of St. George and part of St. Thomas, from which it was originally taken in 1723. St. George derived its name from the patron saint of England. Roby thinks that the name might have received additional appropriateness from the fact that George was the Christian name of the Duke of Albemarle, Sir Thomas Modyford’s relative and patron; as also of Colonel Nedham, his son-in-law.

Port Antonio, which was then established, has two of the finest and securest harbours in the island. It is divided into Upper and Lower Titchfield, named after the property of the Duke of Portland. Upper Titchfield stands on a peninsula and contains Fort George, the old military barracks.

In the year 1721, when strenuous efforts were made to induce immigrants from the British Isles to settle in the north-eastern part of the island, the Governor was empowered to make grants in the king’s name:

To every white person, being a protestant, thirty acres; to every white person in the family, thirty acres; to every free mulatto Indian or Negro, twenty acres; to every slave bought, five acres; with a proviso that no person not having fifteen white persons in the family should have above 400 acres in the whole. On the condition that the grantees should settle and plant the land, or some part thereof, within six months from the date of the patent, and should not alienate the land for seven years from that date. Special facilities were given to intending settlers: the lands were exonerated from all arrears of quit rent and all grants made without fee of office, and the settlers freed from all taxes (general or parochial) (except quit rents) for seven years.