Fort George, Jamaica

Fort George
	Port Antonio, Portland, Jamaica
	Fort George
Coordinates	18°14′00″N76°47′00″W / 18.2333°N 76.7833°W
Site information
Owner	Government of Jamaica
Open to; the public	Yes
Site history
Built	September 1729
Built by	Christian Lilly
In use	No
Materials	Granite

Last updated April 02, 2019

Fort George is situated on the Titchfield Peninsula in the town of Port Antonio, in the parish of Portland, Jamaica. The proposal for a fort in Port Antonio was first discussed in 1728, when a committee of the House of Assembly met to consider measures to be taken in the face of a possible Spanish invasion. In 1729, Christian Lilly was assigned the task of building a fort which, after being built, became known as Fort George in honour of King George I of Great Britain. Lilly had built some of the walls at the Royal Citadel, Plymouth, and the bastion at Fort George was designed as a smaller version of the Citadel.^[1]

Port Antonio is the capital of the parish of Portland on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, about 60 miles (100 km) from Kingston. It had a population of 12,285 in 1982 and 13,246 in 1991. It is the island's third largest port, famous as a shipping point for bananas and coconuts, as well as one of its most important tourist attractions, tourism being a major contributor to the town’s economy.

Portland, with its capital town Port Antonio, is a parish located on Jamaica's northeast coast. It is situated to the north of St Thomas and to the east of St Mary in Surrey County. It is one of the rural areas of Jamaica, containing part of the Blue Mountains, where the Jamaican Maroon communities of Moore Town and Charles Town are located.

Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola.

Fort George’s construction served a dual purpose, first as a source of defence against foreign invasion and, second, to deal with the menace of the maroons in the area.^[2] The area between Fort George and Fort Haldane in nearby Port Maria had a very large population of freedom fighters in the mid-eighteenth century. One of the most notable was Tacky, who led an insurgency, known as Tacky's rebellion against the British which lasted over five months.^[3]

Maroons were Africans and their descendants in the Americas who formed settlements away from New World chattel slavery. Some had escaped from plantations, but others had always been free, like those born among them in freedom. They often mixed with indigenous peoples, thus creating distinctive creole cultures.

Fort Haldane is located near Port Maria in the parish of St Mary, Jamaica and was erected in 1759. It was named after General George Haldane, then Governor of Jamaica. The fort was constructed to protect the harbour of Port Maria from Spanish raids. It was also used as a garrison to keep the enslaved and working classes of St. Mary under control.

Port Maria is the capital town of the Jamaican parish of Saint Mary.

Fort George was built to hold 22 guns including 8 large cannons, and has walls ten feet thick. The fort was used during World War I as a training base and supply depot for the British Navy. The barracks of the fort now house classrooms for the Titchfield High School. Much of the fort has been lost over the almost 300 years since its original construction, and all that remains are the Munitions Building, the defence walls and a line of cannons.^[4]

World War I 1914–1918 global war originating in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

A barracks is a building or group of buildings built to house soldiers. The English word comes via French from an old Catalan word "barraca" (hut), originally referring to temporary shelters or huts for various people and animals, but today barracks are usually permanent buildings for military accommodation. The word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes, and the plural form often refers to a single structure and may be singular in construction.

Related Research Articles

A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city" and thus means "little city", so called because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. Ancient Sparta had a citadel as did many other Greek cities and towns.

Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts.

Portland Harbour is located beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. When completed in 1872, its 520-hectare (1,300-acre) surface area made it the largest man-made harbour in the world, and it is the third largest as of 2016, after the 4,500-hectare (11,000-acre) Ras Laffan Harbour in Qatar and the 1,500-hectare (3,700-acre) Cherbourg Harbour in France. It is naturally protected by Portland to the south, Chesil Beach to the west and mainland Dorset to the north. It consists of four breakwaters — two southern and two northern. These have a total length of 4.57 km and enclose approximately 520 hectares of water. The initial southern breakwaters were built between 1849 and 1872, and Portland Harbour was a Royal Navy base until 1995.

Nothe Fort is a fort in Weymouth, Dorset, England, situated at the end of the Nothe Peninsula, which juts eastwards from the town of Weymouth, and Weymouth Harbour, into the sea to the north of the ex-military Portland Harbour. The fort is located next to Nothe Gardens.

Verne Citadel is a 19th-century citadel on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. Located on the highest point of Portland, Verne Hill, it sits in a commanding position overlooking Portland Harbour, which it was built to defend. It later became HM Prison The Verne in 1949.

Portland Castle is an artillery fort constructed by Henry VIII on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, between 1539 and 1541. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the Portland Roads anchorage. The fan-shaped castle was built from Portland stone, with a curved central tower and a gun battery, flanked by two angular wings. Shortly after its construction it was armed with eleven artillery pieces, intended for use against enemy shipping, operating in partnership with its sister castle of Sandsfoot on the other side of the anchorage. During the English Civil War, Portland was taken by the Royalist supporters of King Charles I, and then survived two sieges before finally surrendering to Parliament in 1646.

Saint Mary is a parish located in the northeast section of Jamaica. With a population of 114,227 it is one of Jamaica's smallest parishes, located in the county of Middlesex. Its chief town and capital is Port Maria, located on the coast. It is also the birthplace of established dancehall reggae artists, such as Capleton, Lady Saw, Ninja Man, Sizzla and Tanya Stephens. Other notable residents of St. Mary parish include bestselling author Colin Simpson, who is the great-great grandson of noted slavery abolitionist James Phillippo, famed Jamaican writer and community activist Erna Brodber, and acclaimed music producer Chris Blackwell who is credited with "discovering" Bob Marley.

The Royal Citadel in Plymouth, Devon, England, was built in the late 1660s to the design of Sir Bernard de Gomme. It is at the eastern end of Plymouth Hoe overlooking Plymouth Sound, and encompasses the site of the earlier fort that had been built in the time of Sir Francis Drake.

Fort Canning Hill, formerly Government Hill, Singapore Hill and Bukit Larangan, is a small hill about 48 metres (157 ft) high in the southeast portion of the island city-state of Singapore, within the Central Area that forms Singapore's central business district. Although small in physical size, it has a long history intertwined with that of the city-state due to its location as the highest elevation within walking distance to the city's civic district within the Downtown Core. It is also a popular venue for music shows and concerts.

Jaisalmer Fort is situated in the city of Jaisalmer, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is believed to be one of the very few "living forts" in the world, as nearly one fourth of the old city's population still resides within the fort. For the better part of its 800-year history, the fort was the city of Jaisalmer. The first settlements outside the fort walls, to accommodate the growing population of Jaisalmer, are said to have come up in the 17th century.

The Palmerston Forts are a group of forts and associated structures, around the coast of Britain.

The Portland Breakwater Fort is a 19th-century fort, built between 1868-1875 to defend Portland Harbour, Dorset, England. It is located on the outer breakwater of the harbour and has been Grade II Listed since 1978. The fort is not open to the public and remains derelict. On the opposite side of the next stretch of the breakwater is the Portland Breakwater Lighthouse.

The Citadel Prins Frederik, also called Fort Prins Frederik, was a fortification built in 1837 by the Dutch in Batavia, in the Dutch East Indies. It was demolished around 1961 and replaced by the Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta.

Inner Pierhead Fort is a 19th-century fort built to defend Portland Harbour at the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. It is positioned on the end of the inner breakwater, which abuts from the former dockyard of HMNB Portland. The fort was constructed between 1859-1862, and is 100 ft in diameter. The inner breakwater, including the fort, became Grade II Listed in 1978.

Plymouth Castle was a castle built in the early 15th century to defend the town and harbour of Plymouth in Devon, England. By the end of the 16th century it had ceased to have any military function and fell into disrepair, being almost completely demolished by the 19th century. Only a small fragment of an outer gatehouse remains.

The fortifications of Plymouth in Devon are extensive due to its natural harbour, its commanding position on the Western Approaches and its role as the United Kingdom's second largest naval base after Portsmouth. The first medieval defences were built to defend Sutton Harbour on the eastern side of Plymouth Sound at the mouth of the River Plym, but by the 18th century, naval activity had begun to shift westward to Devonport at the mouth of the River Tamar. During the Victorian era, advances in military technology led to a huge programme of fortification encompassing the whole of Plymouth Sound together with the overland approaches. Many of these works remained in military use well into the 20th century.

The RML 64-pounder 58 cwt guns (converted) were British rifled muzzle-loading guns converted from obsolete smoothbore 32-pounder 58 cwt guns.

The island of Guernsey has been fortified for several thousand years, the number of defence locations and complexity of the defence increasing with time, manpower and the improvements in weapons and tactics.

References

↑ http://www.polyolbion.org.uk/Fortifications/Plymouth/PlymouthCitadel.html Ref to Christian Lilly
↑ http://www.jnht.com/heritage_site.php?id=291 Historical significance
↑ https://archive.org/stream/cu31924020417527/cu31924020417527_djvu.txt Tacky’s Rebellion
↑ http://www.jamaicatravelandculture.com/destinations/portland/port_antonio/fort_george.htm Ref to cannons

External links

Aerial view

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] ttp://www.polyolbion.org.uk/Fortifications/Plymouth/PlymouthCitadel.html Ref to Christian Lilly

[2] ttp://www.jnht.com/heritage_site.php?id=291 Historical significance

[3] ttps://archive.org/stream/cu31924020417527/cu31924020417527_djvu.txt Tacky’s Rebellion

[4] ttp://www.jamaicatravelandculture.com/destinations/portland/port_antonio/fort_george.htm Ref to cannons