Granville | |
|---|---|
  Granville | |
| Coordinates: 18°26′39″N77°53′35″W / 18.44417°N 77.89306°W Coordinates: 18°26′39″N77°53′35″W / 18.44417°N 77.89306°W | |
| Country | Jamaica |
| Parish | St James |
| First settled | 1845 |
| Founded by | Rev. William Knibb |
Granville is a small community in the parish of St. James on the island of Jamaica.
Granville is named after Granville Sharp in 1845. Sligoville was said to be the first ‘free village’ to be established, and this was done by Rev. James Mursell Phillippo. [1] William Knibb bought 90 acres here to create somewhere that ex-slaves could live if they were thrown off their previous owners land. The 90 acres had been a farm known as Grumble Pen. Knibb also hoped to grow the congregation of Falmouth Baptist Church. [2]
What became known as ‘The Free Village System’ resulted from the first named Sligoville, [3] and similar villages were established throughout the island, most of them by ministers of religion, who supplied land to the ex-slaves. [4] [5]
Knibb died in 1845 and became a Jamaican hero. The village of Granville was looked after by his widow Mary Knibb and a Sargeant Wallace. Some of the people still living there have deeds signed by Mary Knibb which show that they have a legal entitlement to their land. However this is not always the case. The village has a primary and infant school, a church, and a postal agency. The school was rebuilt in 1953 after the previous one was lost in a hurricane in 1951. [2]
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 — after Cuba and Hispaniola — of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 km (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 km (119 mi) west of Hispaniola ; the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some 215 km (134 mi) to the north-west.
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island. Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city in the Caribbean.
Queen Nanny, Granny Nanny, or Nanny of the Maroons ONH, was an 18th-century leader of the Jamaican Maroons. She led a community of formerly enslaved Africans called the Windward Maroons. In the early 18th century, under the leadership of Nanny, the Windward Maroons fought a guerrilla war over many years against British authorities in the Colony of Jamaica in what became known as the First Maroon War.
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, Ninjaman, 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.
Westport House in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland, is a country house, historically the family seat of the Marquess of Sligo and the Brownes and designed by notable eighteenth century architects Richard Cassels, Thomas Ivory and James Wyatt. The title and the house were separated in 2014, following the death of Jeremy Browne, 11th Marquess of Sligo, who left the estate to his five daughters. His titles passed to his first cousin, Sebastian Ulick Browne, a residential estate agent in Australia. The house was purchased by the Hughes Group in 2017.
William Knibb, OM was an English Baptist minister and missionary to Jamaica. He is chiefly known today for his work to free enslaved Africans.
George Liele was an African American and emancipated slave who became the founding pastor of First Bryan Baptist Church and First African Baptist Church, in Savannah, Georgia (USA). He later would become a missionary to Jamaica.
Thomas Burchell (1799–1846) was a leading Baptist missionary and slavery abolitionist in Montego Bay, Jamaica in the early nineteenth century. He was among an early group of missionaries who went out from London in response to a request from African Baptists on the island. He established churches and schools to aid the slaves. Burchell is credited with the concept of Free Villages and encouraging their development by Baptist colleagues such as William Knibb, as well as by other denominations. Anticipating abolition of slavery, he helped raise funds in Great Britain to acquire land for freedmen after they were emancipated, and to develop Free Villages.
Free Villages is the term used for Caribbean settlements, particularly in Jamaica, founded in the 1830s and 1840s with land for freedmen independent of the control of plantation owners and other major estates. The concept was initiated by English Baptist missionaries in Jamaica, who raised funds in Great Britain to buy land to be granted to freedmen after emancipation. The planters had vowed not to sell any land to freedmen after slavery was finally abolished in the Empire in 1838; they wanted to retain freedmen as agricultural workers. The Free Villages were often founded around a Baptist church, and missionaries worked to found schools as well in these settlements.
Indo-Jamaicans are the descendants of people who came from the Indian subcontinent to Jamaica. Indians form the third largest ethnic group in Jamaica after Africans and Multiracials.
The Jamaica Province of the Moravian Church is part of the worldwide Moravian Church Unity.
Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo, was an Irish peer and colonial governor, styled Viscount Westport until 1800 and Earl of Altamont from 1800 to 1809.
The Rev. Joseph Jackson Fuller (1825–1908), Baptist missionary to the pre-colonial African Chiefdoms of the Cameroons, was one of the earliest slaves to be freed in Jamaica who went on to become well-educated and travel internationally. He headed mission stations, teaching, preaching, brick-making, and translating books such as John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress into Duala. Retiring to England, Fuller ended his days as a public speaker for Baptist and missionary audiences, sometimes before thousands of people.
Christianity is predominant religion in Jamaica. Jamaica's laws establish freedom of religion and prohibit religious discrimination. According to the census of 2011, 69% of the population are Christians of various denominations, while 21% stated they had no religion.
Porous is a village in Manchester, Jamaica that overlooks a plain to the south, with hills behind it to the north. A tributary of the Rio Minho runs parallel to the main road, helping to keep the atmosphere cool.
Oracabessa is a small town in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica 10 miles (16 km) east of Ocho Rios. Its population was 4,108 in 2009. Lit in the afternoons by an apricot light that may have inspired its Spanish name, Oracabeza, or "Golden Head", Oracabessa's commercial district consists of a covered produce market and a few shops and bars. The main street is a narrow promenade with a number of well-maintained buildings in the early 20th century Jamaican vernacular tradition.
James Phillippo was an English Baptist missionary in Jamaica who campaigned for the abolition of slavery. He served in Jamaica from 1823 to his death, with some periods lobbying in England for funds to support his work on the island. He led the founding of several Free Villages, having gained funds to grant freedmen and their families plots of land for farming in villages independent of planter control. He also wrote and published three books about Jamaica.
Sligoville is a small community approximately 10 miles from Spanish Town in the parish of St. Catherine on the island of Jamaica.
Mary Morris Knibb, MBE was a Jamaican teacher, social reformer and philanthropist. She founded the Morris Knibb Preparatory School and donated a building which is used as the headquarters of the Moravian Church in Jamaica as well as land for construction of a community center. Morris Knibb was a women's rights activist and the first elected councilwomen in Jamaica. She was the first woman to vie for a seat in the House when Universal Suffrage was granted to all Jamaicans.
Jamaican nationality law is regulated by the 1962 Constitution of Jamaica, as amended; the Nationality Act of 1962, and its revisions; and various British Nationality laws. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Jamaica. Jamaican nationality is typically obtained either on the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Jamaica; or under the rules of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth abroad to parents with Jamaican nationality. It can also be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalisation. There is not currently a program in Jamaica for persons to acquire nationality through investment in the country. Nationality establishes one's international identity as a member of a sovereign nation. Though it is not synonymous with citizenship, for rights granted under domestic law for domestic purposes, the United Kingdom, and thus the commonwealth, have traditionally used the words interchangeably.
