Part 37

When Long wrote his “History” in 1774, the town of Carlisle, so-called in honour of the Earl of Carlisle, who was governor in 1678–80, was only a hamlet of ten or twelve houses near the mouth of the Rio Minho, or, as it is sometimes called the Dry River. Now all that is left is Carlisle estate and one house at the Bay. As the mouth of the river is known to have moved of late years considerably further to the east, it is probably about the site of this house, now about half a mile from the river mouth, that the French landed.

In those days the parish of Vere, which was formerly called Withywood, was very thickly wooded. Later the trees were cut down to make way for the sugar-cane, which still holds its own, thanks to the adoption of the central factory system.

Withywood took its name, Long tells us in his History (1774), from its having been

formerly overspread with wood and withes when the English first settled upon it, and which grew so thick that it was impossible to walk among them without a cutlass to clear the way. This is the part which, on account of its rich soil, was afterwards filled with indigo and sugar works, the opulence of whose owners is spoken of by several writers; and though it has been called in question by some, yet it is very certain that more carriages of pleasure were at one time kept there than in all the rest of the island, Spanish Town only excepted. It is indeed almost incredible to think that vast fortunes were made here by cultivation of this simple commodity.

And in describing the cultivation of Jamaica:

There were formerly upwards of seventy gentlemen’s carriages kept in the parish of Vere, the vast profits of their indigo works enabled them to live in such splendour; and that part of the country for its number of houses and inhabitants, on both sides of the Rio Minho resembled a populous town.

One may compare with this Rampini’s account of 1873, just one hundred years later than Long:

How can we describe the unutterably bare and barren character of the scenery between the Alley and Four Paths, our half-way station on the road to Chapelton?

Dusty roads, bordered with stunted logwood trees for miles; then dusty roads without the logwood trees; then a dry river course full of rough stones, which broke our buggy springs, and delayed us an hour to have them tied up with ropes and branches; then more dusty roads and logwood trees, and then dusty roads without logwood trees as before. Not a bird to be seen, not a butterfly on the wing; not a bit of colour, except a stray orchid or two, to break the drear monotony of the landscape.

Rampini evidently visited Vere during a period of drought; or when he was suffering from dyspepsia.

Withywood appears as Wither Wood in Blome’s map of 1671, which is copied in Long’s History as “according to a survey made in the year MDCLXX.” The name does not appear on modern maps, though it was used as late as 1728 in the Journals of the House of Assembly. The village that has arisen around the old church is now known as Alley. Remains of the old indigo works are still to be seen here and there in the cane pieces, and indigo grows as a weed. There cotton was formerly cultivated extensively. As late as 1808 Vere had some cotton plantations, while at the same time there were thirty sugar estates. Cotton is again being grown there.

Vere, from 1673 to 1867, was a distinct parish of Jamaica, albeit it lost part of its area when Manchester was formed in 1814.

The =Church= itself, with its magnificent old cotton tree, forms one of the most attractive pictures of a simple type in Jamaica, and approaches more nearly to an English village church in character than any other in the colony. Built of brick, with stone quoins, it is a serviceable structure which has successfully withstood earthquake and hurricane since it was constructed in the earlier part of the 18th century, about 1715–35. It was originally a squat building about 33 ft. wide and some 48 ft. long with the present tower. The eastern end was erected and consecrated in 1872. Some monuments which Lawrence-Archer recorded are now covered by the flooring of the seats in the nave. On the other hand, some which he did not record are now visible in the nave.

On February 1, 1671, a petition was submitted to the Council by Christopher Horner, George Osborne, John Aldred, George Child, Tho. Coswell, Jno. Warren, Wm. Hinkston, Robt. Smith, James Jenner, Jno. Downer, and Phi. Robarts, inhabitants of Withywood and Dry River:

“that whereas His Excellency had recommended Mr. Lander to them for their minister, and they had bought land and were building him a church, and had provided him a competent maintenance, pray they may not be liable to contribute to any other church within the parish.” This was “referred to the next General Assembly in regard the justices and vestry men of every parish are empowered by Act of the General Assembly to lay such assessments and parish duties as they shall think requisite and that power cannot be taken from them by the Governor and Council only.”

There was a church in Withywood, although no parson, as early as 1675. Sir Thomas Lynch, writing in May of that year, says,

None but these four parishes, Port Royal, St. Catherine, St. John and St. Andrew, are supplied, though there are 14 in the island. In Vere or Withywood there is a church, and that and Clarendon parish adjoining are able and willing to give a minister £100 per annum.

At a meeting of the Council held at St. Jago de la Vega on February 19, 1693,

The Council being acquainted that Mr. Samuell Cook, Rector of the parish of Vere, was attending at the Door, To answer for a Certaine Remonstrance by him writt and published, was ordered to be called in. Then the Clerke of the Councill was ordered to read the same in his presence. Acknowledged his Error and promised to give a Recantation under his hand and presented to this board which he did accordingly and was accepted of.

In a list of the Parishes, Churches and Ministers in Jamaica, April 18, 1715, under Vere is recorded “a church rebuilding” but no rector’s name is given.

In 1737 the Committee appointed by the Assembly to inspect the list of dockets of the charitable devises and donations in the Secretary’s office, drew up and submitted a very interesting analysis of the list, parish by parish.

So far as Vere is concerned we find that:

William Gibbons gave £20 for a communion plate; George Forsett in 1680 gave £10 for a church Bible and pulpit cloth; Andrew Knight in 1683 gave £20 to the church and poor; Hugh Gurge in 1687 gave £10 towards building a church; Magdalen Fawcett in 1688 gave £10 to the poor, and £10 for the minister and pall; Joseph Taylor in 1689 gave fourteen acres of land for the minister and poor; John Moore in 1690 gave £150 towards building a church; Christian Flyer in 1715 gave £50 towards building a wall round the church [then being built]; Nathaniel Skeen in 1721 gave £100 for ornaments for the pulpit and pall; and Robert Cargill in 1731 gave £30 towards building the church.

The principal monuments in the church are those to the Morants, the Gales and the Suttons, families long and honourably connected with Jamaica history as members of the Council and the Assembly and in other capacities; the Gales having, however, more to do with St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland than Vere. John Gale (1680–1721), the general Baptist Minister, son of Nathaniel Gale, “an eminent citizen” who had property in the West Indies, was evidently connected with this family. Colonel Jonathan Gale was custos of St. Elizabeth, and member for St. Elizabeth 1709–11, and for Westmoreland 1721–26.

[Illustration:

THE ALLEY CHURCH ]

Vere gave but two speakers to the Assembly from among its members, Andrew Langley and William Pusey, but among its representatives were those bearing the well-known names of Ivy, Sutton, Vassall, Cargill, Beckford, Lawes, Morant, Dawkins, Nedham and Batty. Andrew Knight, who was its member in 1677–79, was, his tombstone tells us, custos of Clarendon and Vere, and he was probably its first custos.

John Morant settled in Jamaica soon after the occupation. His son John Morant, Custos of Clarendon and Vere, married Mary Pennant, aunt of the first Lord Penrhyn.

Edward Morant, son of John, represented Vere in 1752, 1754, in both the Assembly of 1755, and in 1756. He was called up to the Council in 1757, left Jamaica in 1760, and purchased Brockenhurst manor, which is owned by his descendants. In 1761 he was elected M.P. for Hindon. On July 16, 1791, as he was driving in Kensington, his horses took fright, when he was precipitated from his carriage, carried home senseless, and died four days afterwards. He married first in Clarendon, June 10, 1754, Eleanor Angelina, widow of William Dawkins, member for Portland in 1749, and St. Thomas in the Vale in 1752, whose tombstone in Clarendon old church is inscribed:

Here lieth the Body of William Dawkins Esqre., of this Parish, who died the 14th of December, 1752, aged 26 years.

Edward Morant married secondly in England, April 22, 1762, a Miss Goddard, grand-daughter and only remaining descendant of President John Gregory, who twice administered the government of Jamaica, on the refusal of Edward Pennant, the senior member of the Council, to act in that capacity.

Elizabeth Morant, daughter of John Morant, the younger, and sister of Edward, married in Vere, January 11, 1753–54, her cousin, William Gale, who represented Hanover in 1754 and 1755, and St. John in the second Assembly of 1755, and in 1756. He was the younger son of John Gale, the member of Council, who in 1747 first settled the estate of York (from the county of his ancestors) in this parish, and died 1749–50. Another mural monument in the church commemorates his elder son, a younger daughter, himself and his daughter-in-law.

Lawrence-Archer records Colonel Thomas Sutton, who played an important

## part in the successful repulse of the French at Carlisle Bay in 1694;

but the monument is no longer to be seen. It probably is hidden by the flooring of the nave. It is to be regretted that copies of the inscriptions were not taken before they were covered up.

One of the most interesting accounts of the earthquake which destroyed Port Royal in 1692 is “The Truest and Largest Account of the Late Earthquake in Jamaica, June the 7th, 1692, Written by a Reverend Divine there to his Friend in London. With some Improvement thereof by another Hand. London: Printed, and are to be sold by J. Buttler, Bookseller at Worcester, 1693,” of which a copy is in the library of the Institute of Jamaica, and a reprint is given in the second volume of the “Journal of the Institute of Jamaica.” It is dated “Withywood, in the parish of Vere, June 30th, 1692.” Nothing is known for certain of the author. He was probably the Thomas Hardwicke who was made rector of Vere by the Earl of Carlisle in 1678. The following extract shows how Vere fared in the great calamity:

It overthrew all the Brick and Stone buildings in the Countrey, whereof several in my own Parish, which now are either leveled with the ground or standing Monuments of the Wrath of God, are so shattered and torn that they are irrepairable. While these were trembling, the Earth opened in my Parish in multitudes of Places, and through thier dire Chasms spew’d out Water to a considerable height above ground, in such quantities in some Places, that it made our Gullies run on a suddain, tho’ before exceeding dry; in so much that some were afraid of being overwhelmed at once by the River and Sea joining together to swallow up the Countrey, especially nigh the River, in the purest Mould, which had not Clay or other Consolidating Matter beneath to oppose the force of the Fountain of the Deep breaking up; for where that was, we do not find any cracks of the Earth at all; and yet it pleases God that we in the Parish have escaped the Danger much better than our Neighbour Parishes; for happening to content ourselves with mean and low built Houses, for the most part built with Timber, and boarded, or with Cratches set deep in the ground and Plaistered, such Houses are generally standing: So that we have means to assist one another in this calamitous distress.

In 1728 the finances of the parish were in such a bad condition that a Bill was passed by the Assembly to reduce the rector’s salary from £150 to £100.

Under date February 11, 1803, Lady Nugent records that “The Admiral brought Mr. and Mrs. Ledwich and Captain Dunn with him.” This may refer either to the rector of Vere or to his brother, G. Ledwich, the rector of Port Royal. On July 2 she entertained “the Mr. and Mrs. Ledwich” again.

The following is a list of the rectors as complete as it has possible to make it:

1671. Rev. Lander. 1675. Vacant. 1678. Rev. Thomas Hardwicke. 1693. Rev. Samuel Cook. 1701. Rev. Richard Tabor. 1716. Rev. James White. 1762–63. Rev. Samuel Griffiths, A.M. Cantab. 1763–70. Rev. John Lindsay, D.D. 1770–72. Rev. John Wolcot (Peter Pindar). 1776. Rev. William Morgan. 1782–94. Rev. Francis Johnstone. 1795–96. Rev. Thomas Markly. 1797–1802. Rev. Edward Ledwich. 1803. Vacant. 1804. Rev. Thomas Underwood. 1805. Rev. Humphries. 1806. Vacant. 1807–09. Rev. Isaac Mann. 1811–15. Rev. Edmund Pope, LL.D. 1816. Rev. John M’Cammon Trew. 1817–20. Rev. George Crawford Ricketts Fearon. 1821–24. Rev. Joseph Jefferson. 1825. Rev. Edward F. Hughes. 1826. Rev. Urquhart Gillespie Rose. 1827. Rev. Henry V. Towton, M.D. Edin. 1817. 1828–44. Rev. John Smith, A.B. 1845–47. Rev. B. Robinson, B.A. 1849–50. Rev. J. Williams. 1851. Rev. W. S. Coward. 1855–69. Rev. Thomas Garrett, B.A. 1870. Rev. Alexander Foote. 1871–76. Rev. C. Douet, B.A. (later Assistant Bishop). 1876. Rev. C. T. Husband. 1905. Rev. S. Negus.

Griffiths accompanied the Governor, William Henry Lyttelton, to the island in 1762, and was in the same year presented to the rectory of Vere. He afterwards removed to St. Dorothy, and later to St. Jago de la Vega. Of Dr. Lindsay some account was given in the notice of the Cathedral.

Wolcot, satirist and poet, best known perhaps by his satires on the King and the Royal Academy, accompanied as physician his kinsman, Sir William Trelawny, when he came out to take up the governorship of Jamaica in 1767. They were both Cornishmen, and Wolcot had been chaplain on Trelawny’s ship when the latter was a captain in the navy. Finding that medical prospects in Jamaica were not promising he returned to England in 1769, and took orders with a view to being appointed rector of St. Ann, the Bishop of London ordaining him deacon and priest on succeeding days. Returning to Jamaica early in 1770 he found the rectory of St. Ann not vacant, and he was appointed to Vere. He was _ex-officio_ a trustee of the Vere School. He lived with the Governor at Spanish Town and performed most of his duties by deputy. In May of the same year he was appointed physician general to the horse and foot soldiers in the island. He lived on terms of close intimacy with the Trelawnys, and one of his earlier poems, “The Nymph of Tauris,” which first saw the light of day in Jamaica, is an elegy on the death of Ann Trelawny, sister to Sir William. Soon after the Governor’s death, which occurred in December 1772, Wolcot accompanied Lady Trelawny to England, and Redding in his “Recollections Literary and Personal,” tells us that her death shortly afterwards robbed him of a future wife.

While rector of Vere he published a work entitled “Persian Love Elegies, to which is added the Nymph of Tauris,” printed in Kingston in 1773 by Joseph Thompson and Co. It is dedicated to Lady Trelawny. This work is, apart from the Kingston printed Almanac of 1751, the oldest Jamaica printed book in the library of the Institute.

The following tale is told of Wolcot’s ready wit in Jamaica. At a dinner-party given by Pusey Manning of Vere, he jokingly introduced the rector to a stranger in the following manner, “This is Dr. Wolcot, the unworthy incumbrance of this parish.” “And this, Sir,” retorted Wolcot, “is Pusey Manning, Esq., the scabbiest sheep in my flock.”

The east window of the church is filled with stained glass, and stained glass is in two lights of the west window. That to the south is “In memory of Marie Sophie, the beloved wife of James Harvey, who died on July 24, 1871, aged 41 years”: that to the north is “In memory of George Harrison Townsend, died July 10, 1846, and Sarah Bevil his wife died Feb. 22, 1871.”

The church owns a most interesting chalice and paten: on the former is inscribed “The Gift of Ralph Rippon, sen., to the Parish Church of Vere, in Jamaica, 1687”: on the paten “Ralph Rippon, 1687.” Except for the paten at Yallahs, which dates from 1683, these are the oldest examples of plate in the colony. Both bear the date mark of 1685. The chalice is typical of what Cripps calls “the rude vessels of the latter part of the century.” Rippon represented Vere in the Assembly from 1726 to 1733, with an interval in 1731, when he sat for St. Elizabeth.

The following are the principal tombs in Vere Church, those that are given in Lawrence-Archer being so stated:

MURAL MONUMENTS

1. Underneath, amidst the ashes of her father, mother, brothers and sisters, lyes interred the body of Elizabeth, daughter to ye Honble. John Gale, Esq., and Elizabeth, his wiffe, who dyed April the 30, 1761, in the 34th year of her age, in memory of whose many amiable qualities her Husband Daniel McGilchrist, Esq., hath erected this monument of his love and regard to one of the best of wives.

[In Lawrence-Archer, who, however, omits the arms:—A lion rampant: impaling a bar charged with 3 lions heads between 3 pairs of fish in saltire.]

2. Beneath this marble, in this pew, lieth interred the body’s of the Honourable John Morant, Esq., who departed this life October the 3rd anno domini 1723, in the 44th year of his age, and his son, John Morant, Esq., who departed this life February the 6th, anno domini 1734, in the 36th year of his age, and also Elizabeth, the wife of John Gale, Esq., daughter of John Morant the elder, who departed this life January the 10th, 1740, in the 34th year of her age.

_Arms_—Gules, a fess lozengy argent and azure, between three talbots passant or.

[In Lawrence-Archer, who has “38th year” for “36th year,” and calls the azure sable, and puts rampant for passant.]

3. Near this place are deposited the remains of John Morant, who died the 9th of August, 1741, aged 18, William Morant, who died the 9th of November, 1744, aged 19, Samuel Morant, who died the ... October 1752, aged 18, Eleanor Angelina Morant, who died the 5th of February, 1756, aged 24, Mary Morant, who died the 9th August, 1759, aged 60.

_Arms_—Gules a fess lozengy argent or sable, between three talbots or.

[In Lawrence-Archer, who has “1756” for 1759.]

4. Near this place are deposited the remains of John Gale, Esquire, who departed this life on the 24th June 1758, aged 24 year, Sarah Gale, who died on 29th August, 1748, aged 14 year, the Honble. John Gale, Esquire, who died on 27th February, 1749–50, aged 52 year, Jonathan Gale, who died 30th April, 1756, aged 25 year, and Elizabeth, the wife of William Gale, and daughter of John Morant, Esquire, who departed this life the 14th of June, 1759, aged 31 year.

_Arms_—Quarterly 1 and 4, on a fess between three pairs of fish in saltire as many lions heads erased; 2 and 3 a chevron between three talbots passant.

[In Lawrence-Archer, who gives “1743” for 1748, omits all reference to Jonathan Gale, and calls the fish in saltire merely saltires.]

5. To the memory of the Hon. Kean Osborn of Caswell Hill in the parish of Vere and of Montpelier, Saint Thomas-in-the-East, late Speaker of the House of Assembly in this Island, who departed this life the 4th of September, 1820, at Mont-sur-Vaudray, in France, on his way to Italy for the health of the wretched survivor, Elizabeth Osborn.

6. Sacred to the memory of Ennis Read, Esq., who departed this life on the 10th day of Novr., 1771, aged 58, and of Margaret, his wife, who died on the 29th of Septr., 1745, aged 34. A pair that by a primæval purity of manners acquired the universal esteem of and reflected honour on human nature. To the world their lives were fair models of imitation: their last moments an instructive lesson that shew’d with what fortitude and serenity, virtue can support her votaries in the awful hour of dissolution.

O’er Birth and Titles let the column heave And venal flattery mock the lifeless ear, Far nobler honours grace your humble grave, Truth’s simple sigh and Virtue’s sacred tear.

_Arms_—Azure a griffin rampant or, impaling between three stags passant or a chevron charged with three rosettes gules.

7. Erected to the memory of Saml. Alpress Geo. Osborn, lieutenant 74th regiment, aged 20 years, who departed this life on the 26th September, 1828, at Gibraltar, of the malignant fever prevalent there, by his broken-hearted grandmother, Elizabeth Osborn....

8. George Cussans Richards, Esqr., Obit. Jany. 1828. Erected to the memory of their relative by John Morant, George Morant, Esquires, Sir John and Lady Lambert. Sacred to the memory of Edward Sympson, Esqre., younger son of Robert Sympson, Esqr., of Monymusk, in this parish. Previous to his residence in this island, he served with credit many years in the royal navy and was present at the Battle of Navarino, 20th October, 1827, in H.M. Ship _Asia_, 84 guns, Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, G.C.B. He obtained and preserved the universal goodwill and affection of his comrades and of those amongst whom his lot was subsequently cast. Died at Monymusk, March 8th, 1846, aged 33 years.

9. Near this monument lies interred the body of John Pusey. Esqr., who died the 24th day of January, 1767, aged 75 years, Disinterestedly sincere, and uniformly steady in the interest of his native country; he lived truly and justly venerated. Unsolicitous of public honours, he knew no ambition but that of doing good; and possessing a soul rich in humanity and benevolence which poured forth its bounty with a generous and unbounded hand. He died gratefully lamented.

_Arms_—Gules 2 bars or. Crest: a cat o’mountain statant gules.

10. In memory of John, who died the 14th January, 1860, also of Mary Agatha, who died 22 March, 1862, the infant children of Rev. Thos. Garrett, M.A., rector of this parish, and of Sarah, his wife, this tablet was erected in the 16th year of his incumbency, in the year of the Lord, 1869.

11. Sacred to the memory of Anna Maria, widow of the late Stephen Hannaford, Esquire, of Amity Hall, in the parish of St. Dorothy, who departed this life on the 20th day of January, 1874, in the 68th year of her age. Deeply regretted by her family and friends who mourne her loss.