Clarendon [Capital: May Pen]
Ranked as
Jamaica's third largest parish,
Clarendon was named in honor of the Lord Chancellor Sir Edward Hyde,
Earl of Clarendon. The parish was formed from a combination of three
parishes: St. Dorothy's, Vere and the old parish of Clarendon. Before
the merger, the capital was Chapelton.
Hanover [Capital: May Pen]
Established
on November 12, 1723, and given
the family name of the English monarch, George I who was from the House
of Hanover in Germany.
In the early colonial days, Lucea, the main
town, was an even busier town than Montego Bay. By the mid-18th
century, Lucea was the hub of an important sugar growing region and the
town was prosperous as a sugar port and market centre. Jews from Europe
settled in the parish as merchants, store keepers, haberdasher, shoe
makers and goldsmiths, and it became a free port.
Kingston [Capital: Kingston (Downtown)]
A parish consiting of old downtown Kingston
and Port Royal, once known as the
richest and most wicked city in the world.
Manchester [Capital: Mandeville]
Formed in
1814 by an Act of the House of
Assembly, the parish was an amalgamation of the parishes St. Elizabeth,
Clarendon and Vere. The amalgamation was done in response to a petition
from the inhabitants of Mile Gully, May Pen and Carpenters Mountain who
complained that they were too far away from an administrative center.
Manchester was named in honor of the Duke of Manchester, the then
Governor of Jamaica. He was governor for 19 years, setting the record
as the longest serving Governor of the island. The capital town,
Mandeville, established in 1816, was named after his eldest son, Lord
Mandeville.
Portland [Capital: Port Antonio
Noted for
its fertile soil, beautiful
scenery, and fine beaches. Portland, named after the Duke of Portland,
governor of Jamaica when the parish was created in 1723, lies in the
direct path of the northeast trade winds and the Blue Mountain ridge to
its south traps the moisture causing the parish to have the highest
rainfall in the island. Port Antonio,
its chief town and capital, has
two harbors, the western one being sheltered by a small islet, Navy
Island. Portland covers an area of 814 square kilometers, making it
Jamaica's seventh largest parish.
The parish has a variety of complex landforms; the entire coastline is
dotted with caves, bays, rivers, waterfalls and hills. There are
fourteen caves, which include those at Buff Bay, Orange Bay, Hope Bay,
Port Antonio, Boston Bay, Long Bay, Innis Bay and Nonsuch. There are
also 17 rivers which form a network throughout the parish. The largest
are the Rio Grande, Buff Bay and Hectors Rivers.
St Andrew [Capital: Half Way Tree]
St. Andrew was one of the first parishes to
be established by law in 1867. It was originally knows as Liganea
before being established as the parish of St Andrew.
It lies just north of Kingston, bounded in the west by St. Catherine,
north by St. Mary, northeast by Portland along the Blue Mountain range,
and east by St. Thomas. In 1923, the parishes of St Andrew and Kingston
were administratively merged to form the Kingston and St Andrew
Corporation (KSAC), with a single elected council and a mayor. The
geographic area of the KSAC is often referred to as the "Corporate
Area." The current mayor of KSAC is Desmond McKenzie.
Cross Roads, New Kingston, Half-Way-Tree, Matilda's Corner, and
Constant Spring are important commercial centres in St. Andrew, but may
be regarded as suburbs of Kingston. West St. Andrew, however, is a
populous residential area. Total population of the parish is an
estimated 555,828.
St Ann [Capital: St Ann's Bay]
One of the oldest populated areas in the
island of Jamaica tracing back to 600 - 650 A.D. It is believed to be
the earliest Taino/Arawak settlement in Jamaica. When Christopher
Columbus first came to Jamaica in 1494, he landed on the shores of St.
Ann. He returned to Jamaica on his fourth voyage and was eventually
marooned for one year at St. Ann's Bay (June 1503 - June 1504), which
he called Santa Gloria. The first Spanish settlement in Jamaica was
also at Sevilla la Nueva, now called Seville, just to the west of St
Ann's Bay. Established by Juan de Esquivel, the first Spanish Governor
of Jamaica, St Ann's Bay became the third capital established by Spain
in the Americas. The first sugar mills were established by the
Spaniards in Sevilla la Nueva before 1526.
After 1655, when the English captured Jamaica, St Ann's Bay gradually
developed as a fishing port with many warehouses and wharves. The
parish of St. Ann was later named after Lady Anne Hyde the first wife
of King James II of England. Ocho Ríos began to develop as a
modern town and a favorite tourist destination in Jamaica. Its
development commenced when Reynolds Jamaica Mines built a deep-water
pier, west of the town to ship bauxite ore from the mines.
St
Catherine [Capital: Spanish Town]
Jamaica's forth-largest parish, the
south of the parish is virtually flat except for the Hellshire Hills
near the coast. The central and northern sections are very mountainous,
however; the northern border is on Mount Diablo, which crosses over
into St Ann, the highest point being 686 metres (2,700 ft).
St Elizabeth [Capital: Black River]
Saint Elizabeth, the second largest parish, originally included most of
the south-west part of the island, but in 1703 Westmoreland was taken
from it and in 1814 a part was annexed to Manchester. The resulting
areas were named after the wife of Sir Thomas Modyford, the first
English Governor of Jamaica.
There are also traces of Taínos/Arawaks existence in the parish,
as well as Spanish settlements. After 1655, when the English settled on
the island, they concentrated on planting sugar cane. Today, buildings
with 'Spanish wall' (masonry of limestone sand and stone between wooden
frames) can still be seen in some areas.
St Elizabeth became a prosperous parish and Black River an important
seaport. In addition to shipping sugar and molasses, Black River became
the center of the logging trade. Large quantities of logwood were
exported to Europe to make a Prussian-blue dye which was very popular
in the 18th and 19th centuries.
St James [Capital: Montego Bay]
Saint James was named by Sir Thomas
Modyford, the island's first English Governor in honor of James, Duke
of York, later King James II of England. The capital, Montego Bay, was
an export point for lard, which was obtained from wild hogs in the
forests during the years of Spanish occupation. In many of the
Jamaica's early maps, Montego Bay was listed as "Bahia de Manteca"
(Lard Bay). At the beginning of the English rule, the parish was one of
the poorest; it had no towns, few inhabitants and little commerce,
except for the exported lard. However, after the treaty with the Maroon
in 1739, St James became one of the most important sugar producing
parishes. Annually, more that 150 ships arrived in Montego Bay bringing
slaves and supplies, and taking sugar. Commerce developed as wealthy
merchants and planters erected many elaborate town houses. In 1773
Montego Bay had the only newspaper outside of Kingston - The Cornwall
Chronicle.
A fire, in 1795 and again in 1811, destroyed many parts of Montego Bay.
After being rebuilt, it was again destroyed in 1831 by a rebellion led
by Sam Sharpe. This rebellion was as a result of the slave owner's
reluctance to free the slaves, even after England proposed that they
end slavery. Sam Sharpe, at first, tried to advocate passive
resistance, but a group of slaves became violent and began setting fire
to buildings and the surrounding plantations and cane fields. As a
result of being the main planner of the rebellion, Sam Sharpe was
hanged in the Montego Bay market place, which is today known as Sam
Sharpe Square.
After emancipation in 1834, the fortunes of the town and parish
declined until the banana trade was promoted by J E Kerr and Co. This
prompted the start of tourism in Jamaica. A Freeport was constructed in
the 1960s, and later, a cruise ship terminal was opened. Montego Bay
was accorded city status on May 1, 1980. The Sangster International
Airport, one of the two on the island, is the hub for the national
airline, Air Jamaica.
St Mary [Capital: Port Maria]
Saint Mary was one of the first sections
of the island to be occupied by the Spaniards. Puerto Santa Maria,
later Port Maria, was the second town the Spaniards built on the
island. In 1655, after the English captured Jamaica from the Spanish,
the area around the north coast town of Santa Maria became known as St.
Mary, with the chief town called Port Maria.
There are indications of strong resistance to slavery in the parish.
The Easter Rebellion led by Tacky in 1760 and the existence of the
Maroons at Scotts Hall showed that the parish was one of the most
active in the fights for freedom. Its present size was determined in
1867, when the parish of Metcalfe was merged with St Mary.after the
capital, Puerto Santa Maria under Spanish rule (now Port Maria)
St Thomas [Capital: Morant Bay]
The parish of Saint Thomas was densely
populated by the Tainos/Arawaks when Christopher Columbus first came to
the island in 1494. The Spaniards established cattle ranches at Morant
Bay and Yallahs. In 1655, when the English captured Jamaica, residents
from other British colonies were invited to settle there. About 1600
colonists, mainly from Nevis, including the Governor of Nevis, his
wife, children, settled there. In a short time, however, two-thirds of
them died of fevers.
In 1674, the French Admiral Du Casse, sailed from Santo Domingo and
landed at Morant Bay on June 17. For a month, he wrought havoc on the
settlers there, killing many and carrying off their slaves. Later,
bands of Maroons settled in the mountains of St Thomas and they
eventually joined with the Maroons in Portland to form the Windward
Maroons.
Trelawny [Capital: Falmouth]
In 1770, the wealthy planters in St
James and St Ann succeeded in having sections of those parishes become
the parish of Trelawny as they were too far from administrative
centers. Trelawny was named after William Trelawny, the then Governor
of Jamaica. The first capital was Martha Brae located two miles inland
from Rock Bay.
Trelawny is best known for its sugar estates and sugar factories. It
had more sugar estates than any other parish, so there was need for a
sea coast town to export it. Falmouth became a thriving seaport and
social centre. The town had two of its own newspapers; The Falmouth
Post and The Falmouth Gazette.
Trelawny was also home to the largest group of Maroons in the island. A
1739 treaty between the Maroons and the English gave the Maroons
freedom and land, which effectively put a stop to their raids on the
plantations. However, a second Maroon uprising in 1795, led to over 600
Maroons being exiled to Nova Scotia, Canada and later to Sierra Leone
in Africa in 1800.
Westmoreland [Capital: Savana-la-Mar]
Named after the county in England, and
because it was the most westerly point in the island. One of the first
Spanish settlements was built at what is now Bluefields in this parish.
Savanna-la-Mar, a town by the coast, replaced Banbury as the capital in
1730.
In 1938, riots at the Frome sugar estate, changed the course of
Jamaica's history. The changes that came in the wake of these riots led
to universal adult suffrage in 1944, as well as a new constitution,
which put Jamaica on the road to self government and eventually
independence. The two national heroes, Sir Alexander Bustamante and
Norman Washington Manley, emerged as political leaders during this time.
