| Popularly known as the tourist hub of the Caribbean St. James Jamaica is the home to Montego Bay the playground of the rich and famous. Learn more about the different locations in the parish such as Adelphi, in St. James. It was first known as “Stretch and Set”. This property was acquired in 1786 by Mr. Isaacs Lascelles Winn, an English Quaker, who, it is thought, named it after Adelphi in London. It was the first place in this parish at which religious knowledge was given to slaves. This came about in the following manner: Winn, wishing to purchase slaves, went to Kingston to do so. He then found that several of them had received religious instructions at Rev. George Lisle’s Baptist Church on Windward Road in that city, and that they bemoaned the fact that where they were going they would no doubt receive none. Winn, a man ahead of his time, decided to take a religious teacher with him. To this purpose, Moses Baker, a runaway slave from the Bahamas, who had been converted under George Lisle’s teaching, was chosen to go back to Adelphi with him. So successful was Baker’s teaching that his converts became the nucleus of the first real tablet to Baker is to be seen in the Salter’s Hill Baptist Church in this parish; it reads as follows: To the memory of Moses Baker, Baptist Minister. . . he introduced the gospel to the enslaved population in this part of the island. Baker was born in America, but was of African descent. He endured much persecution because of his Christianity, but remained faithful until his death at Martha Brae in Trelawny on 26th November, 1828, at the advanced age of 97 years.
In 1887 Adelphi came into the ownership of the government, who, after reserving a portion of land for a post office, police station and market, sold three sections to Mr. Benjamin Lowe of Montego Bay. The property, which was once a famous sugar estate, had its Great House some 100 chains up a hill from the road. By the time Lowe acquired it, both the house and the factory buildings were in ruins, the latter remaining an elegant facade of cut stone and ferns for many years. The frontage where the present house now stands was a veritable thicket of logwood and scrub, but with wonderful perception, the frontage was worked on to produce one of the finest lawns in St. James.
Mr. A.B. Lowe and his brother, Dr. F.E. Lowe, inherited the property in 1912, and finally it was owned by A.B. Lowe and his immediate family. In 1907 A.B. Lowe married Lilian Nicholas of Kingston. They had four daughters who survive their parents. A.B. Lowe was a graduate of York Castle High School, and did much travelling in the U.S. and Santo Domingo before he settled to a life of farming on the Adelphi Estate, which comprised 115 acres. He was always greatly interested in public affairs, being a Member of the Parochial Board for many years, and at the time of his death was the oldest P J.P. in the parish.
From 1936 to 1944 A.B. Lowe represented the parish of St. James in the Legislative Council, during which he pioneered land settlements there, getting seven properties bought for the purpose. He was very active in agricultural associations and school boards not only in the parish but in the island as a whole. He was Founder-Director of the Jamaica Banana producers Association, and remained a director until the time of his death. It might have been a coincidence that this property, so strongly Baptist in history,’ was bought by as ardent a Baptist as Lowe, who was a very active member of the denomination, serving for many years on its executive committee, and in other capacities. Lowe died in 1967 at the age of 94.
As a result of the acquirement of Windsor Lodge and Content for land settlement, the village of Adelphi has improved the standard of the area and can now be regarded as a small town.
Albion in north-western St. James is a community within the city limits of Montego Bay. Amity Hall — St. James: it is interesting to note that the new method of packing bananas for export, that of “boxing” them, was first used at this estate in 1901.
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Barrett Hall in St. James bears the name of early English settlers. Samuel Barrett, the second Samuel in a list of six of the same Christian name, settled in this and other parishes from 1715 on land held under deed of gift from Charles II. Barrett Hall Estate is now (1971) being used for establishment of village to be known as S.O.S. Village. This is being spearheaded by Dr. Hartland Hastings, Chairman of the Council! Of Voluntary Social Services for St. James. There is another village in the parish of St. Ann known as Barrett Hall.
Bethel Town, in St. James, was one of several villages established so that the newly freed slaves of Jamaica (August 1, 1838) could acquire land. This village came into existence through the effort of the Rev. Thomas Burchell, Baptist minister then stationed at Montego Bay. It is claimed that the first building erected there was a Baptist church, whose witness continues until the present day. Bloody Bay, St. James, was so named because of the killing of whales there.
Bogue Islands, west of Montego Bay in St. James, were previously islands set in mangrove swamps: the islands were joined by a dredging process begun in 1967, through which 350 acres of land have been reclaimed. The large ensuing peninsula extends into the middle of the Bay and has been joined to it by roads. Hotels and other resorts, commercial and residential buildings, a free port, and a shopping centre have been erected there. By the establishment of this port, the old custom of loading banana beats in midstream — taking bananas in what were called ‘dragger boats’ — has been discarded.
Burchell Field, in St. James, was originally land purchased by the Rev. Thomas Burchell, English Baptist missionary stationed at Montego Bay from 1824, who purchased it for what was known then as a “free village”, upon which the newly freed slaves (August 1st, 1838) who had never owned land were able to acquire holdings and established homesteads
Cambridge, in St. James, was first owned by Phillip Anglin Scarlett (1765-1874), who became a Member of the Assembly. By 1838 the Scarlett family, early English settlers, owned nine properties in four parishes. The family vault is still to be seen on the Cambridge estate. There is now a Cambridge Railway Station.
Catadupa, St. James, bears a name originally applied to the cataracts of the Nile, and once designated a waterfall in both French and English. Catherine Hall and Catherine Drive, in St. James and in the town of Montego Bay, were so named after the family of the late Sir Francis Kerr-Jarrett, Custos of St. James.
Charles Square, Montego Bay, St. James. Was named after St. Charles Knowles Governor of Jamaica 1752 – 1756. Chatham, in St. James, comes from Kent, England. There is a hotel of this name in Montego Bay.
Cinnamon Hill, near Rose Hall, St. James, is named from the grove of cinnamon trees which once grew there. In its graveyard are the tombs of six generations of Barrett’s who, granted land in Jamaica by Charles II, became sugar planters and owned many estates in Clarendon and St. James. They were a Cornish family who came from Tregame, where they had owned land from 1180. Cinnamon Hill was owned by Edward Barrett, who built the Great House, a massive and solid stone structure of unique architectural beauty; it afterwards came into the ownership of Edward Barrett, Moulton Barrett, of the branch of the family related, by the marriage of E1izabet1 Barrett, the
Creek Dome, Montego Bay, in St. James, now referred to as “The Dome”, was the Rio de Camarones of the Spaniards. The Spanish name originated from the following episode. A senorita out for a walk with her maid one day saw a crab run under a stone and asked the maid to life the stone. As this was done, water gushed out and the señorita exclaimed “Rio de Camarones”. This river for years was the sole water supply for Montego Bay.
Deans Valley, in St. James, was originally an old sugar estate, owned by Rowland Williams. In the will of the original settler it is listed as “Dane’s Valley”. The late James Rowland Williams, M.A., came from a family which resided in Westmoreland continuously for some seven generations.
Doctor’s Cave Bathing Beach, Montego Bay, St. James, derives its name from its frequent use over a period of many years by Dr. Alexander McCatty and his son, Dr. Alexander James McCatty, as also Drs. Harry Johnson and George Thompson, who were friends of theirs. It was the doctors who chipped out the steps in the rock, which, until 1932 when the rock was damaged and had to be removed, led down into a cave with a sandy floor.
The fame of Doctor’s Cave Bathing Beach became more pronounced after Sir Herbert Barker, English specialist in manipulative surgery, declared that he was restored after bathing there. There is also a McCatty Street in Montego Bay named after Dr. Alexander James McCatty, M.D. He was born in 1859 and died in 1923, having practiced in Montego Bay, for the entire time, as did his father, Dr. Alexander McCatty.
Earlston, in St. James, was named by Sir John Gordon, baronet of Eariston, Scotland, after his county seat in Scotland. Fairfield in St. James, was one of the numerous properties owned in this parish by the Lawrence family, the first of whom, John Lawrence, was said to have been one of the seven sons of the President of Cromwell’s Council. John Lawrence had three sons. The eldest was also named John, and he possessed land amounting to 40,000 acres, which was parcelled into 24 different estates. John, the son, married Susanne Petgrave, and had six sons by her: John owned “Iron shore” and Benjamin owned “Profitable Valley” (a name afterwards changed to “Running Gut” from the gully so called). James owned Fairfield, which also included the estates of Bellfield, Tower Isle, Charliemont, and Amity Hall, and these were later owned by George Lawrence. Ezekiel Lawrence owned Little River Estate and Spring. The last of the Lawrence’s to own Fairfield was Mr. W.F. Lawrence,
who sold it in 1910. It had been in their family for 234 years. Fairfield in St. James is now a hotel and country club.
Flamstead in St. James was owned in the early 18th century by Samuel Vaughan, whose mother was a Bostonian, and whose father, Benjamin, was a West Indian merchant of London. Samuel Vaughan was one of the few early proprietors of estates to encourage religious teaching on his estates.
Flower Hill is in St. James. After British occupation of the island in 1655, it came into the possession of John
Lawrence, the first of the Lawrence family to settle in St. James. This family included Sir. John Lawrence and Jnr.,
Richard Dunn Lawrence, George Hall Lawrence and W.F. Lawrence.
Flower Hill consisted of 16,000 acres and produced sugar until 1922. For several years it was owned by John Lawrence Walcott, whose mother was a Lawrence. Fort Street, in Montego Bay St James, was named from Fort Montego, which was erected in 1774. This ancient fort with cannon is still to be seen.
Gun Hill, in the parish of St. James, derives its name from the allegation that a cannon was put at this spot to mark the burial place of John Bradshaw, the president of the court which condemned Charles 1 (1642-49). Bradshaw was buried in Westminister Abbey. His body was exhumed by his son, brought to Jamaica and buried here, “to save it from the indignities of the Restoration”, and also so that it could be reburied with honours by the Cromwellian soldiers.
Ironshore Estate, in St. James, was originally settled by a Scottish physician in 1752, whose family, the livings, named the land thus and turned it into a huge plantation. The livings fought in the American Civil War and the First World War, but always came back to Ironshore Estate. Until very recently, the land was owned by the livings. Tombstones engraved with the Irving name can be seen in the St. James Parish Church in Montego Bay.
Over 1,000 acres of Ironshore Estate is now owned by Trans-Caribbean Estates, Ltd., and there are Iron shore Country Club and Golf Course and villas for rent. Irwin, in St. James, once a large sugar estate owned in the 18th century by Thomas Hall of England, is now an agricultural station for experiments in citrus, with nurseries which supply plants to small farmers. There is also Irwin Hill, named after the estate, where there is a Moravian Church, dated 1 815, which came into existence by the invitation of Hall for religious instruction to be given to his slaves by Moravian missionaries.
Kempshot, in St. James, was named after a place of the same name in Hampshire, England, by a member of the Maxwell Hall family who settled there. Ma.we1l Hall, son of John and Charlotte Hall of Kirkenbright, England, was born at Cheltenham in the same country. He was educated at King’s College, London, and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He married Gertrude Tullis and had seven children. They settled at Kempshot, Jamaica, in 1872. Maxwell Hall had degrees in meteorology and was a barrister. He set up an astronomical observatory at Kemp- Shot and took up private scientific work. He was appointed Government Meteorologist in 1880; Stipendiary Magistrate for St. James, 1884, and for Hanover, 1891; and Resident Magistrate for Clarendon in 1911, retiring soon afterwards. He published various articles on scientific subjects. One daughter and a son of the Maxwell Hall family have survived. Kempshot was sold in the 19th century to a Mr. Worster.
Little River, in St. James, was, in the 18th century, the boundary of the estates of the two largest landed proprietors. Maldon, St James, was originally what was known as a “free village”, founded by Rev. Walter Dendy, English Baptist missionary, with financial assistance from Baptists at Maldon, Essex, England. A “free village” consisted of land acquired by philanthropists where those who, on August 1St., 1838, were freed from slavery, could acquire land, and so build homes of their own.
Mincing Lane, in St. James, is a place-name originating in England. The property was first owned by Thomas Broad- wood, famous English piano-maker, who purchased it because mahogany — with which he intended to make pianos — grew there. The mahogany, however, proved inadequate for the purpose, so the scheme was abandoned.
Miranda Hill, in St. James, above the town of Montego Bay, is said to be named after Alonzo de Miranda, who was appointed Governor of Jamaica by the King of Spain. For many years there were ruins of old Spanish buildings to be seen at Miranda Hill. The old Spanish road at the foot of the Hill was one much used by the English for the development of this area.
Montego Bay, the capital of St. James, was named by Christopher Columbus El Golfo De Bueno, which means “Fair-weather Gulf”. The name “Montego” was derived from the Spanish word manteca for “lard” or “butter”. This arose from the fact that the Spaniards slaughtered as many as 8,000 hogs per year, loading the lard in jars and shipping them to Cartagena from Montego Bay. An early map has “Lard Bay” listed for Montego Bay. Another idea is that as Montego de Salamanca was an early colonizer of Jamaica, Montego Bay might well have been named after him.
Montpelier is found in St. James and St. Thomas. The name originated in the south of France. In St. James Montpelier and Shettlewood Estates comprise 10,000 acres and are divided by the valley of the Great River. Between 1752 and 1912, the estates belonged to the Ellis family, the first of whom was Captain John Ellis, who came out during Charles II’s reign. This family, in later years, was represented by the Howard de Walden family. These two estates are now owned by Clifford Delisser, a leading agriculturist in Jamaica.
Morrison Drive, in Montego Bay, St. James, is named after Dr. Herbert Leopold Morrison, M.B., Ch.B. (Edin.), late resident M.D., Kingston Public Hospital, 1930-35; S.M.O., St. James Hospital, 1936-58; Mayor of Montego Bay, 1960-61; and Member of the St. James Parish Council.
Mount Carey, in St. James, was named after William Carey (1761-1834), the first Baptist missionary to go to India. He became a famous Oriental scholar and published 24 different translations of the Bible. Mount Carey has been a Baptist missionary centre since 1 830, and was established by The Rev. Thomas Burchell, English Baptist missionary stationed in Montego Bay, where, in after years, a Burchell Memorial Church was erected. At
Mount Carey there is a monument to him which reads as follows: Thomas Burchell born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, Engkznd, December 25th 1793, educated at Baptist College, Bristol, landed in Jamaica 15th January 1824, and died May 16th 1840 in his 47th year.
Rose Hall, in the parish of St. James, might have been named after Rose Kelly, the first mistress of this famous house about which legendary stories have been told, and at which, in these modern days, one is invited to go to meet “The White Witch of Rose Hall”. Rosa Kelly, daughter of the Rev. John Kelly, rector of the Church of England for the parish of St. James, was married to Henry Fanning of St. Catherine in 1746. Fanning began to build the Great House, which cost £30,000. Rosa’s second husband, George Ash, finished it.
Rosa Kelly lived very happily with all her husbands, the last being the Hon. John Palmer, Custos of St. James, to whom she was married for 10 years. She died in 1777, leaving a will which stated: I give and devise, and bequeath all my residue of my estate real and personal unto my dearly beloved husband John Palmer, who is most deserving thereof.
It is claimed that Rose Hall did not become notorious until John Rose Palmer, the grandnephew of John Palmer, inherited Rose Hall and Palmyra. He married Annie Mary Paterson in 1820; she came from Haiti, and is said to have indulged in voodooism. She murdered her husband and other men whom she inveigled into her clutches.
Annie Mary Palmer was greatly feared and hated by her slaves, for she took great enjoyment in torturing them. The fate of this Mrs. Palmer, “The Wicked One”, came one dark night when loud screams were heard, but no one heeded, and when next morning she was found flung across her bed with signs of being strangled, her slaves refused to dig her grave, and neighboring planters were called in to do so. At any rate, this is the popular legend.
Rose Hall Great House, now owned by John Rollins, former Governor of Delaware, has been restored as closely as possible to the original 1750 structure, with special attention to keeping the period style throughout. The mahogany staircase which leads to the ill-fed bedrooms of Annie Palmer and het husband is illustrative of the exacting attention to detail which has gone into the restoration of this widely discusseit, and never to be forgotten, Great House. Rollins has also acquired 6,000 acres of the surrounding plain and hillside to create here a type of resort so far unparalleled in the history of Jamaica.
Round Hill, in St. James, is the Pan de Botello of the Spaniards. Running Gut, in St. James, is named after a gully which is found on this estate, and from which the estate takes its name. It was first owned by Benjamin Lawrence of the English family of the same name, who came to settle in Jamaica in 1676.
Sandy Bay and Sandy Bay River are in St. James. Sani)Y Bay was first a piece of land bought by Rev. Thomas Burchell in 1838 for the establishment of a “free village” for the recently emancipated slaves. Beyond the Sandy Bay Baptist Church is a plaque stating this fact and also that that particular area is known as “Burchell’s Field”. The Sandy Bay River is one of the few places left in Jamaica where women can still be seen washing clothes and scrubbing them on the stones in the river.
Shettlewood, in St. James, according to Arish records, was named after its first owner. It later came into the possession of the Hon. Evelyn Henry Ellis (fifth son of the sixth Lord Howard de Walden), who was born in 1843. He was the last of the Ellis family to own property in Jamaica, and was responsible for the importation of the valuable Zebu cattle from India, in this way improving the breed of cattle in Jamaica.
Sign, in St. James, is the site of an old Great House, now a hotel. Spot Valley, in St. James, is said to be so named because of the number of small hills ‘spotted’ all over the valley. It has been in the Grant-Fletcher family for over 100 years. Alexander Grant, the grandfather of the present family, came from England in 1825 as an overseer on Carlton, property of the Gordon’s of Scotland. He acquired the Sugar estate in the l830’s and built the Spot Valley Great House, which was damaged in the 1957 earthquake. He died on December 12th, 1874. A memorial tablet to him is to be seen in the Mount Zion Presbyterian Church in this parish.
Spot Valley is now a horse-breeding farm. Success Estate, in St. James, was owned by Robert Scarlett, who was born in 1737.
Success Estate is now known as Success Farm, and is in the process (1971) of being developed. It will have a public park, town hail etc.
Tulloch, in St. James, was first known as “Tulloch Castle”, named after John Tulioch of Ross, Scotland, who owned it from 1769 to 1837.
Unity, in St. James, according to a local story, is said to have received its name in the following manner: the younger of two brothers asked the elder to lend him £1,000 to buy this plot of land; the elder brother refused to do so, and the relationship between them became strained. However, both went to church on the following Sunday. The text of the sermon was taken from the Psalm which reads in part: “Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”. The elder brother felt it was a divine direction. He raised a loan and the land was purchased and given the name “Unity”.
A folk song has been written about Unity. It begins
“Come we go down ah Unity”.
Vaughanfield, in St. James, is named after one of its owners, Samuel Vaughan, who also owned Flamstead in St. Ann and Ridgeland, in Westmoreland. Vaughan came from Boston in the U.S. and his father was a West Indian merchant of London.
Virgin Valley, in St. James, known from 1810, was listed as owned by T.P. Leyden in 1920. Wales in St. James was owned in the 19th century by Mr. A.W.L. Clerk. Watt Town, in St. James, could have been named after Richard Watt, an early English settler (1782-4). Welcome Hall is in St. James. Wemyss, in St. James, is originally a Scottish place-name. There is also a Wemyss Castle. Flamstead Gardens in St. James.
Maroon Town, in St. James, was first known as Trelawny Town, and was named after Edward Trelawny, Governor of Jamaica from 1769 to 1772, in whose tenure the Maroons signed a peace treaty with the English. However, in 1795 the Maroons took up arms against the government, but were forced to surrender. The place since then became known as Maroon Town. The word, “Maroon”, is derived from Cimarron, which means “wild” or “untamed”.
Mccatty Street, in Montego Bay, is named after Dr. Alexander James McCatty.. |
Kingston 
