Tweet
Montego Bay’s amazing rise to prominence
Font size:
By Shalman Scott 13/09/2013 12:16:00
Colonel Jonathan ‘John’ Barnett owned Barnett Property, which started east of the Barnett River stretching across what is now the downtown areas of Montego Bay to end at North Gully, and South up to the Brandon Hill section of Rose Heights, Rose Mount, Barnett Heights, and the area on which the Westgate Anglican Church is now built.
It was in that vicinity he was laid to rest after his death, in a small cemetery close to Colonel Nicholas Jarrett, who was also part of the 8000-man strong and 85 ships of the British invasion force, which captured Jamaica from the Spaniards in a bitter war lasting from 1655- 1661, and ending with the battle of Rio Nuevo in St Mary.
Barnett and Jarrett’s bodies were much later exhumed, and re-interred in the Kerr-Jarrett family plot at the Pye River cemetery. What is known today as Barnett Estates, which is a combination of several smaller properties, is currently in a different location altogether, to the original Barnett Property owned by John Barnett.
It is understood, that the Kerr-Jarretts, after acquiring several properties adjacent to Catherine Mount, inclusive of the original Barnett Property, named these in honour of the businessman, visionary and philanthropist.
BARNETT STREET- TOWN OF MONTEGO BAY
In 1704, the town of Montego Bay was created by John Barnett, who subdivided a section of his land on the water front, to layout what 300 years later, would become the tourism capital of Jamaica. It was this man after whom one of the city oldest and longest streets, Barnett Street was named.
The amazing rise of Montego Bay owes a debt of gratitude to several families, who over a long period in the commercial and political life of the city, have built and bequeathed the legacies of strategic planning and balanced development to succeeding generations.
In the 18th and 19th centuries and beyond, the cluster of Wharves on the Montego Bay water front, around the area where the creek flowed into the sea was a beehive of activities.
Among them was the Barnett Wharf owned by John Barnett that facilitated import and export trade, boosting the local economy and paving the way for capital formation for further expansion within the domestic economy.
HARBOUR
The creek was a busy water way, facilitating the transport of cargo up and down the river to the merchant ships anchored out in the habour. Some time later, it was through another great Montegonian James E. Kerr, politician and businessman, that a deep water habour was created.
This saw commercial activities being shifted from the creek as the ships bringing in and receiving cagoes could come closer in to port. In the 20th century, businessman Tony Hart brought into being, a long standing vision of the earlier planners and established the Montego Freeport, circa 1968 inclusive of a cruise shipping terminal later, to complete critical infrastructural development needs for the city.
Montego Bay and western Jamaica backward and forward linkages in commercial, industrial, and social activities were further consolidated.
AIRPORT
Earlier in the 1940, Sir Francis Kerr-Jarrett initiated several moves to establish a military Air-base on the north side of the town, which transitioned into a commercial facility, a proud land mark which is now known as the Sangster International Airport. It was built by AGS Coombs.
From the earliest period, phenomenal growth and expansion in industries such as sugar, banana, and tourism resulted in not only the parish of St James, created in 1664, but Jamaica, becoming one of the prized possessions of the colonies in the British Empire, contributing significantly to the pool of wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 1850s!
French philosophers’ Voltaire and Roseau’s writings, were to prove catalytic in those periods of monumental change in the world. Also of utmost significance, is the contribution of members of the ‘Invisible College’ and various Philosophical Schools in the USA, England, and France.
Looking at the sweep of the city’s history, there was no century after the Spanish evacuation, that Montego Bay had not seen some significant event that would for the most part, advance the gravitas and bono fides of this once sleepy fishing village inherited from the Tainos (Arawak Indians}.
WATER SUPPLY
I must pause to mention that under the Spanish possession, the creek water supply that was the only source for the city was discovered by an African slave girl, and that a member of a powerful Spanish aristocratic family Alonzo de Miranda, after whom Miranda Hill is named, choose Montego Bay to build his mansion as Governor of Jamaica.
The point here is that the place called Montego Bay was destined to be great. By May 1, 1796, immediately after the second Maroon War in upper St James, city status was granted to Montego bay which was designated the ‘Corporation of Montego Bay and St. James’.
Governor Balcarres who led the military campaign, using the town as his base (at Barracks Road and Old Fort) against the Trelawny town Maroons in upper St. James, after getting the warriors to surrender by way of trickery, rounded up their families and shipped them all to Nova Scotia in Canada, and again three years later to Sierrie Leone in West Africa.
CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME FROM MOBAY
City Status was a kind of reward for the town’s endurance, of being turned into a garrison town similar to Nazareth at the time of Jesus. But could anything good come from MoBay? The answer is a resounding,YES!
With this new status the Vestry (Parish Council) of which the meeting place was the Parish Church building, was now able to raise funds, 20,000 pounds, using its property as collateral through a commercial bank to pursue its own development projects, and so the construction of the Montego Bay Court House in the town Square started in 1806, and was completed in 1810.
This building housed the Resident Magistrate Court on the top floor, with the tax office and Parish Council offices below. Five years later in 1815, Judicial Administration of the Assize Court (Circuit Court), was transferred from Savanna-la-mar and taken to Montego Bay! The importance of this development was, that Montego Bay overtook Savanna-la-mar as the capital of the County of Cornwall that same year! The leaders in the parish of Westmoreland’s religious, business and political sectors were incensed beyond description, but the dye was cast.
ELECTRICITY
Electricity was brought to Montego Bay in 1928, and the Gas Lamps which had to be lit every night by men walking around Town, and put them out in the mornings were removed. The following year, 1929. at the start of the Great Depression in the United States of America, a Government Hospital was constructed and opened, across from the Wexford Court Hotel and Pelican restaurant, which was only empty land space at that time.
This hospital served the city for 40 years. But this was a time for different thinking, as the wind of social revolution, and the urgency of creating a space for the black under class began to blow more strongly. In 1927 Marcus Mosiah Garvey returned to the Island after deportation from the USA.
This will be explored further as we dig deeper into this journey, in which Revivalism and Judaism (Jews), played parallel parts which converged in an explosion of a long process, that has landed this city into the 21st century.
As the story unfolds it will be discovered, that the rise of this city is not only colourful but simply amazing! The dynamics of the interplay of external forces within the western hemisphere, and their catalytic impact on the city’s journey has to be accounted for, in this renewed scrutiny of our History: you may call this exercise the Montego Ray Renaissance!
Font size:
By Shalman Scott 13/09/2013 12:16:00
Colonel Jonathan ‘John’ Barnett owned Barnett Property, which started east of the Barnett River stretching across what is now the downtown areas of Montego Bay to end at North Gully, and South up to the Brandon Hill section of Rose Heights, Rose Mount, Barnett Heights, and the area on which the Westgate Anglican Church is now built.
It was in that vicinity he was laid to rest after his death, in a small cemetery close to Colonel Nicholas Jarrett, who was also part of the 8000-man strong and 85 ships of the British invasion force, which captured Jamaica from the Spaniards in a bitter war lasting from 1655- 1661, and ending with the battle of Rio Nuevo in St Mary.
Barnett and Jarrett’s bodies were much later exhumed, and re-interred in the Kerr-Jarrett family plot at the Pye River cemetery. What is known today as Barnett Estates, which is a combination of several smaller properties, is currently in a different location altogether, to the original Barnett Property owned by John Barnett.
It is understood, that the Kerr-Jarretts, after acquiring several properties adjacent to Catherine Mount, inclusive of the original Barnett Property, named these in honour of the businessman, visionary and philanthropist.
BARNETT STREET- TOWN OF MONTEGO BAY
In 1704, the town of Montego Bay was created by John Barnett, who subdivided a section of his land on the water front, to layout what 300 years later, would become the tourism capital of Jamaica. It was this man after whom one of the city oldest and longest streets, Barnett Street was named.
The amazing rise of Montego Bay owes a debt of gratitude to several families, who over a long period in the commercial and political life of the city, have built and bequeathed the legacies of strategic planning and balanced development to succeeding generations.
In the 18th and 19th centuries and beyond, the cluster of Wharves on the Montego Bay water front, around the area where the creek flowed into the sea was a beehive of activities.
Among them was the Barnett Wharf owned by John Barnett that facilitated import and export trade, boosting the local economy and paving the way for capital formation for further expansion within the domestic economy.
HARBOUR
The creek was a busy water way, facilitating the transport of cargo up and down the river to the merchant ships anchored out in the habour. Some time later, it was through another great Montegonian James E. Kerr, politician and businessman, that a deep water habour was created.
This saw commercial activities being shifted from the creek as the ships bringing in and receiving cagoes could come closer in to port. In the 20th century, businessman Tony Hart brought into being, a long standing vision of the earlier planners and established the Montego Freeport, circa 1968 inclusive of a cruise shipping terminal later, to complete critical infrastructural development needs for the city.
Montego Bay and western Jamaica backward and forward linkages in commercial, industrial, and social activities were further consolidated.
AIRPORT
Earlier in the 1940, Sir Francis Kerr-Jarrett initiated several moves to establish a military Air-base on the north side of the town, which transitioned into a commercial facility, a proud land mark which is now known as the Sangster International Airport. It was built by AGS Coombs.
From the earliest period, phenomenal growth and expansion in industries such as sugar, banana, and tourism resulted in not only the parish of St James, created in 1664, but Jamaica, becoming one of the prized possessions of the colonies in the British Empire, contributing significantly to the pool of wealth that financed the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 1850s!
French philosophers’ Voltaire and Roseau’s writings, were to prove catalytic in those periods of monumental change in the world. Also of utmost significance, is the contribution of members of the ‘Invisible College’ and various Philosophical Schools in the USA, England, and France.
Looking at the sweep of the city’s history, there was no century after the Spanish evacuation, that Montego Bay had not seen some significant event that would for the most part, advance the gravitas and bono fides of this once sleepy fishing village inherited from the Tainos (Arawak Indians}.
WATER SUPPLY
I must pause to mention that under the Spanish possession, the creek water supply that was the only source for the city was discovered by an African slave girl, and that a member of a powerful Spanish aristocratic family Alonzo de Miranda, after whom Miranda Hill is named, choose Montego Bay to build his mansion as Governor of Jamaica.
The point here is that the place called Montego Bay was destined to be great. By May 1, 1796, immediately after the second Maroon War in upper St James, city status was granted to Montego bay which was designated the ‘Corporation of Montego Bay and St. James’.
Governor Balcarres who led the military campaign, using the town as his base (at Barracks Road and Old Fort) against the Trelawny town Maroons in upper St. James, after getting the warriors to surrender by way of trickery, rounded up their families and shipped them all to Nova Scotia in Canada, and again three years later to Sierrie Leone in West Africa.
CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME FROM MOBAY
City Status was a kind of reward for the town’s endurance, of being turned into a garrison town similar to Nazareth at the time of Jesus. But could anything good come from MoBay? The answer is a resounding,YES!
With this new status the Vestry (Parish Council) of which the meeting place was the Parish Church building, was now able to raise funds, 20,000 pounds, using its property as collateral through a commercial bank to pursue its own development projects, and so the construction of the Montego Bay Court House in the town Square started in 1806, and was completed in 1810.
This building housed the Resident Magistrate Court on the top floor, with the tax office and Parish Council offices below. Five years later in 1815, Judicial Administration of the Assize Court (Circuit Court), was transferred from Savanna-la-mar and taken to Montego Bay! The importance of this development was, that Montego Bay overtook Savanna-la-mar as the capital of the County of Cornwall that same year! The leaders in the parish of Westmoreland’s religious, business and political sectors were incensed beyond description, but the dye was cast.
ELECTRICITY
Electricity was brought to Montego Bay in 1928, and the Gas Lamps which had to be lit every night by men walking around Town, and put them out in the mornings were removed. The following year, 1929. at the start of the Great Depression in the United States of America, a Government Hospital was constructed and opened, across from the Wexford Court Hotel and Pelican restaurant, which was only empty land space at that time.
This hospital served the city for 40 years. But this was a time for different thinking, as the wind of social revolution, and the urgency of creating a space for the black under class began to blow more strongly. In 1927 Marcus Mosiah Garvey returned to the Island after deportation from the USA.
This will be explored further as we dig deeper into this journey, in which Revivalism and Judaism (Jews), played parallel parts which converged in an explosion of a long process, that has landed this city into the 21st century.
As the story unfolds it will be discovered, that the rise of this city is not only colourful but simply amazing! The dynamics of the interplay of external forces within the western hemisphere, and their catalytic impact on the city’s journey has to be accounted for, in this renewed scrutiny of our History: you may call this exercise the Montego Ray Renaissance!
Comment