| Bounty Hall, poet, belonged The poet was a Trelawny, birthplace of John Kenyon, to a family called Kennion, later Kenyon. Friend of many famous literary figures. Braco, property and village in Trelawny, is named from a place in Perthshire. In 1795 Braco was a sugar plantation, but now coconuts are grown there. It is owned by the Hon. Val Parnell, Custos of Trelawny
Bunkers Hill, Trelawny, may have been named after the battle between the Americans and the British in 1775. Burnt Hill is in Trelawny with Carrickfoyle, near Granville in Trelawny, is the name of a place in Ireland, Carrickfoyle appeared on a map dated 1 888, but it is thought to be a great deal older than that. It was owned in 1885 by the late Donat Delgado of Falmouth, and is now a land settlement.
Clarks Town, Trelawny, was named after the late Mr. G.M. Clarke, who in the 19th century owned Swandwick sugar estate, and gave land for the establishment of a town, which then took his name. It was first spelt “Clarke’s Town”. Duanvale nine miles from Falmouth, is a village with a population of about 1,400 in the heart of the cane area. It was discovered (1971) that the clay in this area was suitable for making pottery, so the Social Development Commission Agency set up a pottery industry and factory there, which fills large orders for modeling purposes from schools.
Duncans is a town in Trelawny. It is said to have originally been a property owned by Patrick Duncans from 1784 and was named after him. Falmouth was named by Sir William Trelawny after his birthplace m the county of Cornwall, England. Sir William was Governor of Jamaica from 1767 to ‘71, and it was during his time that the parish of Trelawny came into existence and was named after him.
First Hill is the first foothill in the Trelawny Alps, Trelawny. It raises jut tingly from the low range lining the Hampshire Valley, on the south, towering over Jackson Town. First Hill is truly an alp, not only in its sharp contours, but in its structure. Although disguised with a lush cloaking of bracken, sharp, brittle, age-old rocks, riddled with holes, protrude. It also has small caves, sudden and treacherous pitfalls and sharp-stoned banks completing its barrenness, and testifying to the hopelessness of any cultivation in that area. The Alps, which are only three-quarters of a mile from Jackson Town, can be reached by a road, which though rough, winding and steep, is worth the effort because of the panoramic view from its summit.
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The first building to be erected here was a school founded by The London Missionary Society in 1838. It was not the intention of the missionaries to build at First Hill, for they had come originally at the invitation of the proprietors of the Arcadia sugar estate, and had commenced work there, but the emphasis placed on the education of the people brought the missionaries into disfavor and they were almost literally chased on to the Hill. They started with a tent, and then got the use of an old house. The building of the school was made possible by a grant from the British Government. (This school was destroyed in 1903 by hurricane, and another was built on land in Jackson Town in 1948, which is now known as “The Jackson Town Infant School”.) It is said to have been the first school established in that area.
Florence Hall is named after Cossley Hall, who died there in 1740. Subsequent owners include Gayle’s Valley Estate bears the surname of an 18th century owner, S.M. Gayle. This old sugar estate is now a part of Hampden Estates Ltd. Golden Grove in Trelawny was first known as “Tern Spring”. It was then a part of the parish of St. James, and was owned by Colonel Thomas Reid (1743). Good Hope, in the parish of Trelawny, was settled in 1744. A tablet there had this inscription:
Colonel Thomas Williams Jnr., from the Parish of Westmoreland, began to settle this estate April ye 7th 1 774 and named it Good Hope. The Great House was built in 1775.
Granville, a town in the parish of Trelawny, was originally 90 acres of land acquired in the 19th century by Rev. William Knibb, Baptist minister in charge of the Falmouth sphere of churches, and representative of the Baptist Missionary Society of England, who by its sanction, purchased this land for what was then known as a “free village”. (Free villages came into existence after the abolition of slavery on 1st August, 1838.) He named it after Granville Sharpe, advocate of the abolition of slavery, and founder of Sierra Leone (17 15-1813).
Green Park was called “Green Pond” by its first owners — George Sinclair of St. Ann and William Clarke of Hanover — and it derived its name from a small pond on the property not far from the house. Mr. George Sinclair built the first house on the site of the present Great House in 1740. Sinclair sold the estate, consisting of 300 acres, to Clarke in 1743. The latter built a second house, the masonry walls of which can still be seen under the east wing of the present house. In 1757, Clarke sold Green Pond to Edward Barrett, great-grandfather of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This property adjoined Barrett’s and increased his total acres to 742. He sold the property in 1759 to James Peterkin, and in 1761 it was again sold to two Kingston merchants by the names of Southworth and Kennion. In 1764 Southworth began constructing the present Great House, but died before it was completed. Bequeathed to William Arherton, who finished it, the house, and the property, were owned by his heirs until 1910. It was Southworth who changed the name to Green Park.
Hague is in Trelawny. This place-name is originally Dutch. The estate was owned by Mr. Charles Stewart of Duncans, also in the parish, but has been sold to the Agricultural Society for a housing estate and agricultural development. There is also a Hague Show Grounds. Hampden, in the parish of Trelawny, was, in the 18th century, a large sugar estate owned by Mr. Archibald Sterling of Scotland. Sterling and his friend, William Stehert, also of Scotland, who owned Dundee Estate nearby, decided to invite the Scottish Missionary Society to establish missionary work in that area. Sterling gave a part of Hampden Estate as a site for a church, and both Stehert and himself offered to pay half the expense of erecting it.
The Scottish Missionary Society received their request in 1823 and in 1824 sent Rev. George Blyth, who erected a church there, which was said to be dedicated in 1827. The Hampden Presbyterian Church then became the first of that denomination to be established in Jamaica. Hampden Sugar Estate then came into the ownership of D.O. Kelly— Lawson, son of Patrick Joseph-Kelly, M.D., and Carey, daughter of G. MacFarquharsen Lawson, M.D. Kelly-Lawson married Charlotte, daughter of the Rev. John Smith of Edinburgh, Scotland, and they had three children: two sons and one daughter. Both sons predeceased their parents; the elder, George MacFarquharsen, Second-Lieutenant, Royal Garrison Artillery, who served in France during World War I, was killed in action May 3, 1 917. His parents presented a commemorative stained glass window of him, pictured in his soldier’s uniform, to the Hampden Presbyterian Church.
Kelly-Lawson was Custos of St. James in 1875 and justice of the peace for the parishes of Trelawny and St. James. His wife survived him. She endowed an economic centre for girls which bears her name. A town clock at Wakefield, also in Trelawny, has an inscription which states that it was presented by Kelly-Lawson. Ena Kelly-Lawson (the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D.O. Kelly-Lawson) married a Mr. Farquharson, and on her mother’s death, inherited HAMPDEN. Since her death, her husband has resided at Hampden Estate. The Kelly-Lawson burial ground is on the Estate.
Harmony Hall was owned by Dr. Robert Dewar and family about 1883. It was a coconut property, and copra was made there. Dr. Dewar donated a clinic to Duncans known as “Dewar Health Centre”, also a town clock with a brass tablet which records this fact. Hell Below, in the parish of Trelawny, is a dangerous corner near Duncans where there is a steep fall to the sea.
Hyde Hall was first owned by James Hall from 1699. Hyde Park is named after Mr. George Hyde Clarke, first owner, and at one time Custos of Trelawny. He was a member of the Clarke family after which Clark’s Town is named.
Jackson Town, in the Hamshire Valley, Trelawny, is a rapidly-growing township, because of the bauxite business there, and the government-sponsored town extension, contain fling market, collect orate, library, supermarket, churches of many denominations, a large primary and infant school, and a well-staffed post office. A suburb of Jackson Town is known as “St. Andrew”, and is said to have been so named because when the middleclass citizens began to build along the Nightingale Road, people described the location as “a second St. Andrew”.
Joe’s Hut, in the parish of Trelawny, got its name in the following manner: in the 18th century, a man with the Christian name of Joe arrived in that area, bought land, and proceeded to cultivate it. He built himself a hut and lived alone for many years. The area soon took the name of Joe’s Hut, and the small village now bears this name. Three or four generations ago, it was suggested that the name should be changed to “Joe’s Town”, but this was not accepted by the people. Many small settlers now live at Joe’s Hut and several acres of land have been cultivated with bananas and yams. Joe’s Hut is still known for its beautiful scenery.
Kent Estate, in the parish of Trelawny, formerly owned by Colonel Kerr, is now owned by Sidney Armstrong. Kettering, in the town of Duncans, Trelawny, was named after the birthplace of the late Rev. William Knibb, English Baptist, who was born at Kettering in Northampton, England, on Sept. 8, 1803. Knibb came to Jamaica as a teacher of slaves in Kingston, in the school established at East Queen Street Baptist Church premises in 1825, on the death of his brother Thomas, who had also been teaching there. He was not ordained then, but in later years, at the request of his Baptist brethren, the B.M.S. of London agreed to his ordination. He was transferred to Savanna-la-mar in 1827 to take charge of the Ridgeland Baptist Church. While there, he accepted a call to the Falmouth sphere of churches, and arrived there in 1830. It became a memorable ministry: that parish contained the largest proportion of slaves, and when he observed the cruelties meted out to them, he became an advocate for freedom. He toured England, making known to the Christians of England the conditions under which the slaves in Jamaica toiled. He also visited parliament and made an appeal there. In 1834, while he was still in England, the Abolition Act was passed, and, in 1838, full freedom came to the slaves. The house at Kettering was given by the freed slaves to William Knibb in appreciation of his efforts — and the persecution which he had endured — on their behalf.
Llandraff Pen, originally of Welsh origin consists of about 900 acres. It lies between Sawyers and Stewart Town, and includes “Black Lands”. There is still a place on “Black Lands” known as “Soldier’s Hill”, after the military camp which was established there.
Long Pond Estate no longer exists as a distinct estate; it has recently been amalgamated with Lottery Sugar Estate, and is now known as Trelawny Estates Ltd. Mahogany Hall derives its name from the following incident which took place there many years ago: a captain of the English Army, seeking to capture Spanish escapees in the last effort of this Army to drive the Spaniards from the island, discovered a Spanish senorita hiding in the hollow of a mahogany tree. He fell in love with her and married her. He then built a house on the other side of the tree and called it Mahogany Hall. In time the old mahogany tree rotted and the last of it was removed, a stone set up to mark the spot. In after years the estate also became known as Mahogany Hall (and still is).
Martha Brae is mentioned in Sloane’s History (vol. 1, p. 8) as follows: “Little River, Rio Para Matar Tiboron River, — Damerons River”. Martha rae is also seen on a Spanish map dated 1680. The town of Martha Brae took its name from the river. There is a legendary story about a human Martha Brae, who was said to be a witch and who knew the secret of the gold mine of the Spaniards: one day the river (Martha Brae) became very swollen by heavy rains, and Martha Brae was drowned; at the same time the entrance to the gold mine was blocked and completely obliterated.
Maxfield once an estate, is now a home for girls. Sherwood Content is a district in Trelawny. Southfield in the parish of Trelawny which was owned by the late Hon. Guy S. Ewen, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Jamaica, Member of the Legislative Council for Trelawny in 1913, and ex-officio Member of the Trelawny Parochial Board. Southfield is now a Government Land Settlement.
Sportman’s Hall derived its name in the following manner: sportsmen on a bird-hunting party found a cave large enough to be used as a house; they divided it into two parts, one for men and the other for women, then jokingly called it ‘Sportman’s Hall’. Afterwards the area took this name.
Springfield Pen in Trelawny, five miles from Falmouth, formerly “Gerrard Pen” and now known as Springfield, consisted (in the ninetçenth century) of 400 acres of land, and was a cattle property owned by Mr. James Gerrard, who was born in England, but whose family were French, originally Huguenots.
Gerrard was an architect and built numerous houses and the parish church in Falmouth. The place-name Stettin is so named by Dr. William Lemonius after the city of that name in Pomerania, then a province of Germany (now East Germany), from which his family came. It was Dr. Lemonius who arranged for the settlement of Germans in Jamaica, for which ‘German Town’ got its name.
Stewart Castle is named after James Stewart of Scotland, who acquired 167 acres of land here in the 18th century. Stewart built an impressive cut-stone mansion designed like a fortress. It is thought that the Stewart family left Jamaica towards the middle of the 19th century, after which the mansion fell into disrepair and is now almost a complete ruin. The mansion has been designated a National Monument, and the property is now a land settlement.
Stewart Town is named after the Hon. James Stewart, custos of that parish from 1812, who evinced great interest in establishment of the town: by an Act in 1815, and by Order of the Justices and the Vestry, lap was acquired for that purpose. Stewart was a son of the) original James Stewart who came from Scotland and owned ‘Stewart Castle’. Within the township are located the Episcopal Church of St. Thomas and the Webb Memorial Baptist Chapel. The latter was named in memory of the late Rev. William Menzie Webb, a Jamaican who was instrumental in getting the Trestrial family of Bristol, England, to establish a school for girls in this parish, now known as Westwood High School.
Stirling Castle in Trelawny. Stonehenge originated in Wiltshire, England. It is listed in 1920 as owned by the well-known Dewar family. Tan N See is in Trelawny. ‘Tan An’ See in Jamaican Creole means “stand and see” The area is located on the summit of a hill which commands an extensive and beautiful view; hence the injunction.
Tharpe Street, Falmouth, Trelawny, was named after John Tharpe, large landed proprietor in the 18th century, who owned his own (Falmouth) wharf and ship. Time And Patience received this name for the following reason: after the 1st of August 1838, this plot of land was chosen for a “free village”, and the persons to whom land was granted gave it this apt name, declaring “Time and Patience work wonders”.
Troy, in the parish of Trelawny, bears the name of the ancient city famous in Greek legend. Troy is one of the entrances to Cockpit Country. Ulster Spring is in Trelawny. The name “Ulster” originated in Ireland. Ulster Spring is the principal village in southern Trelawny, and is sited in a verdant valley with lush growth of bananas and hills as beautiful as Trelawny hills can be. In the centre of the village is an old Baptist church, which was began in 1897, and in which there is a list of all the ministers who served there, among them Rev. Joseph Augustus Edwards (1856-1896); Rev. Charles Barron, a Scotsman (1896-1905) who designed the colored glass windows, which gives the church an attractive appearance; Rev. William M. Webb (i905-1908);Rev. Dr. G. Douglas (1908-1919); Rev. John E. Alexander (1950-1958) and Rev. Donald Modest (1958-1970).
Wait-A-Bit derives its name from the wait-a- bit thorn (Parkinsonia aculeata). This thorn grows in Africa, and, it is surmised, was brought by African slaves to Jamaica and planted in that area, where it thrived. Hence the name. It is described as a short, thick thorn, which, no matter what is caught in it, does not break. For this reason, it is grown in Africa as a hedge against wild animals.
Wakefield is in Trelawny. This place-name could have originated in either England or the United States. (In Jamaica) Wakefield is found also in St. Ann, St. Catherine and Westmoreland.
Waldensia derives its name from that of an early Christian community known as “Waldenses”. This community originated in the 12th century through the efforts of Peter Waldo of Lyons, France; .and the religion was referred to as “Waldensianism”. The Waldenses united with the famous Bohemian brethren, the Moravians, greatly persecuted for their religion.
It was not until 1561 that the Waldenses were granted “freedom of worship in the valley”. The name of the valley was Piedmont, and Waldensia in Jamaica was also sited in a valley by this name. The Piedmont valley (in Jamaica) was owned by the William Flash family, who gave a part of it to Rev. William Knibb, English Baptist Minister stationed at Falmouth, for the erection of a chapel, and Knibb decided to name the chapel “Waldensia”. Since those early days, the Baptist chapel has been moved to another site, but the name remains. Waltham Abbey the site of a Baptist church, is named after Waltham Abbey in England. Warsop is in Trelawny. The name originated in Notts., England. Windsor Castle in Trelawny was owned for many years by the Cooke family, but is now owned by Mr. Harry Cummings.
Albert Town was named after Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria. Albert Town and the near approaches are hilly, but attractive because of the diversity of plants growing there. Alps is said to have derived its name from the fact that these mountains bear a resemblance to the European Alps. An interesting historical fact is that the London Baptist Missionary Society began missionary work here in 1835. Rev. William Dexter was in charge and the only place available for worship was an old coffee house which was repaired and used for this purpose.
Arcadia Mountain was sold as a property in 1954 by the Commonwealth Missionary Society to the Kaiser Bauxite Company. Armagh originally an Irish place-name, is a property which is on the summit of a high bill overlooking the town of Falmouth. Barbecue Bottom, Trelawny, is so named from the fact that the earth here slants downwards. Residences have been built in the Bottom. California Estate was evidently named after California in America, and is a short distance from the famous Rose’Hall Great House. In 1896 an important Arawak burial cave was found here by Dr. Duerden, the then Curator of the Science Museum of the Institute of Jamaica.
Sawyers, in Clarendon and Trelawny, bears the surname of the Airst owner of property there. Stewarton, found in Trelawny and in Portland, comes from Air, Scotland. Balcarres Fort in Falmouth, Trelawny, are named after Alexander, Earl of Balcarres, and Governor of Jamaica, 1795-1801.
Vale Royal — this place-name is found in Trelawny and st. Andrew. In Trelawny it incorporates a number of small sugar estates, namely Georgia, Swanswick, Hampshire, Barnstable, Oxford, Hopewell, and Arcadia. At Georgia the Great House is in good preservation, and of considerable charm. It is still owned by Mr. Henry Sewell.
Windsor in Trelawny has recently been bought by Kaiser Bauxite with surrounding land for farmers to resettle on, their land being displaced by the mining operations. The Great House at Windsor has been given to the Boy Scouts of Jamaica. |
Kingston 
