Rose Hall, Montego Bay

Last updated

Rose Hall Great House
Rose Hall Jamaica Photo D Ramey Logan.jpg
Jamaica location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Jamaica
General information
Architectural style Jamaican Georgian
Location Montego Bay, Jamaica
Coordinates 18°31′00″N77°49′09″W / 18.5167104°N 77.8192574°W / 18.5167104; -77.8192574
Completed1770s
Renovated1960s
OwnerMichele and John Rollins

Rose Hall is a Jamaican Georgian plantation house now run as a historic house museum. It is located in Montego Bay, Jamaica with a panoramic view of the coast. Thought to be one of the country's most impressive plantation great houses, it had fallen into ruins by the 1960s, but was then restored. The museum showcases the slave history of the estate and the legend of the White Witch of Rose Hall.

Contents

Description

Rose Hall House, Jamaica Rose Hall view Jamaica Photo D Ramey Logan.jpg
Rose Hall House, Jamaica
The ground plan of Rose Hall Ground-Plan-Rose-Hall.JPG
The ground plan of Rose Hall

Rose Hall is widely regarded to be a visually impressive house and the most famous in Jamaica. It is a mansion in Jamaican Georgian style with a stone base and a plastered upper storey, high on the hillside, with a panorama view over the coast. The architect James Hakewill visited the building and wrote:

It is placed at a delightful elevation, and commands a very extensive sea view. Its general appearance has much of the character of a handsome Italian villa. A double flight of stone steps leads to an open portico, giving access to the entrance hall; on the left of which is the eating-room, and on the right the drawing-room, behind which are other apartments for domestic uses. The right wing, fitted up with great elegance, and enriched with painting and gilding, was the private apartment of the late Mrs. Palmer, and the left wing is occupied as servants’ apartments and offices. The principal staircase, in the body of the house, is a specimen of joinery in mahogany and other costly woods seldom excelled, and leads to a suite of chambers in the upper story. [1]

Rose Hall was restored in the 1960s to its former splendor, with mahogany floors, interior windows and doorways, paneling and wooden ceilings. It is decorated with silk wallpaper printed with palms and birds, ornamented with chandeliers and furnished with mostly European antiques. There is a bar downstairs and a restaurant.

The Estate on which Rose Hall sits now also includes a championship golf course, hotel and high-end real estate. [2]

History

Engraving from James Hakewill's A Picturesque Tour of the island of Jamaica, from drawings made in the years 1820 and 1821 (1825) Hakewill, A Picturesque Tour of the Island of Jamaica, Plate 20.jpg
Engraving from James Hakewill's A Picturesque Tour of the island of Jamaica, from drawings made in the years 1820 and 1821 (1825)

The land, 290 acres of caneland, was bought by Henry Fanning for £3,000 in 1742. It was previously called "True Friendship" and had belonged to Richard Lawrence. Henry married Rosa Kelly on July 16, 1746, but died soon afterwards. [3] His widow inherited the estate and married George Ash, a local plantation owner who realised Fanning's plan to build Rose Hall. It cost £30,000 to build and was lavishly decorated with carved mahogany and stone. However Ash died in 1752. Rosa married for a third time, to Norwood Witter in May 1753, who lived until 20 May 1765, managing to consume a significant amount of her fortune. In May 1767 she married John Palmer, a widower who owned the adjoining plantation, "Palmyra".

Tomb said to be that of Annie Palmer at Rose Hall Annie Palmer - Tomb at Rose Hall.jpg
Tomb said to be that of Annie Palmer at Rose Hall

Rosa died in 1790, leaving her property to her husband. When Palmer died in 1797, he left the property in trust to his two sons John and James Palmer. However, they both died childless, and in 1818 the two estates were passed down to John Rose Palmer, his grandnephew. John Rose Palmer came to Jamaica from England to claim the estate, and on 28 March 1820 he married Anne Mary Patterson from Lucea, Hanover Parish. John Rose Palmer died in November 1827.

Rose Hall estate had about 650 acres divided among sugar cane, grass, and pasture for over 270 head of cattle. About 250 enslaved Africans were housed on Palmyra estate, which comprised about 1,250 acres. [4]

Refurbishment

Rose Hall before the reconstruction Rose-Hall-Before-Reconstruction.JPG
Rose Hall before the reconstruction

Rose Hall was bought in 1977 by former Miss USA Michele Rollins and her entrepreneur husband John Rollins. They refurbished it at great personal expense and conceptualised a tour and museum that showcase Rose Hall's slave history, antique splendor and original fittings. Rose Hall also offers night tours that focus on the "Annie Palmer" legend: supposed locations of tunnels, bloodstains, hauntings and murders. Seances are also held on the property in an attempt to conjure Annie's spirit.

Legend

According to legend, a "white witch" called "Annie Palmer" who murdered three husbands haunts the property. An investigation of the legend in 2007 concluded that the story was fictionalized. [5] [6] [7] [8]

Rose Hall was the focus of episode 44 of the popular "How Haunted?" podcast.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint James Parish, Jamaica</span> Parish of Jamaica

St. James is a suburban parish, located on the north-west end of the island of Jamaica in the county of Cornwall. Its capital is Montego Bay. Montego Bay was officially named the second city of Jamaica, behind Kingston, in 1981, although Montego Bay became a city in 1980 through an act of the Jamaican Parliament. The parish is the birthplace of the Right Excellent Samuel Sharpe, one of Jamaica's seven National Heroes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Witch of Rose Hall</span> Jamaican legend

The White Witch is a legendary story of a haunting in Jamaica. According to the legend, the spirit of "Annie Palmer" haunts the grounds of Rose Hall, Montego Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nottoway Plantation</span> Historic plantation in Louisiana, United States

Nottoway Plantation, also known as Nottoway Plantation House is located near White Castle, Louisiana, United States. The plantation house is a Greek Revival- and Italianate-styled mansion built by slaves and artisans for John Hampden Randolph in 1859, and is the largest extant antebellum plantation house in the South with 53,000 square feet (4,900 m2) of floor space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Hakewill</span> English architect

James Hakewill (1778–1843) was an English architect, best known for his illustrated publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathaniel Bayly</span>

Nathaniel Bayly was an English owner of West Indies plantations and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1770 to 1779.

Alexander Bayley was the owner of the Woodhall estate in Saint Dorothy Parish, Jamaica, and a slave-owner of over 200 people at one time. He was elected to the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1820.

Wentworth Bayly was the owner of the Gibraltar estate in Saint George Parish, Jamaica. He was elected to the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1820. He died at Weston Hall, Suffolk. His will is held at the British National Archives.

John Blythe was the owner of the Kendal and Tweedside estates in Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica. He was elected to the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1820.

John Hanson was a planter in Jamaica and the owner of the Salt Pond Pen. He inherited this estate from his father, the planter and slave owner John Hanson. He was elected to the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1820.

Henry James Passley was a planter and slave-owner in Jamaica. He owned Rodney Hall plantation in the parish of Portland with John Paton Passley and Richard Brown Passley. He was elected to the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1820.

Peter Robertson was a planter and slave-owner in Jamaica. He owned Dunrobin Plantation, Friendship Valley Pen, Prospect pen, and the Weybridge Estate, and had interests in others. He was elected to the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1820 for the parish of Saint Thomas-in-the-East.

William Stimpson was a planter and slave-owner in Jamaica. He owned the Java Plantation in Manchester Parish and had interests in others. He was elected to the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1820 for the parish of Vere.

John Williams was a planter and slave-owner in Jamaica. He owned the Cool Spring Plantation in Clarendon Parish and had an interest in Provost's Rock River plantation. He had family connections to the Isle of Wight in England. He was elected to the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1820 for the parish of Clarendon.

Francis Rose was a plantation owner in Jamaica. He was active in the politics of the island and was elected to serve in the House of Assembly of Jamaica multiple times, becoming speaker in 1702, and later president of the Council of Jamaica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity plantation</span> Plantation in Jamaica

Trinity was a plantation in colonial Jamaica, located south of Port Maria, in Saint Mary Parish, one of several plantations owned by Zachary Bayly that formed part of the area known as Bayly's Vale. By the early nineteenth century, over 1,000 people were enslaved there producing mainly sugar and rum for which a mile-long aqueduct was built by Nathaniel Bayly to supply water for the refining process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albion plantation</span> Sugar plantation in Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica

Albion was a sugar plantation in Saint David Parish, Jamaica. Created during or before the 18th century, it had at least 451 slaves when slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833. By the end of the 19th-century it was the most productive plantation in Jamaica due to the advanced refining technology it used. By the early 20th century, however, its cane sugar could not compete with cheaper European beet sugar, and it produced its last sugar crop in 1928. It subsequently became a banana farm for the United Fruit Company.

Cinnamon Hill is a great house and sugar plantation associated with the Cornwall plantation located in St James Parish, Jamaica. It is close to Rose Hall and overlooks the sea. The House was started by Samuel Barrett junior, who had bought the Cornwall Estate. However he died and the work was continued by his son Edward Barrett (1734–1798). Edward also completed the Cinnamon Hill sugar works in 1784.

St James Parish Church, Jamaica is an eighteenth century church in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was started in 1774 at a time when the town was increasing in importance as a centre for trade and the number of merchants was growing. It was built as the principal Anglican church in St James Parish, in Cornwall County, Jamaica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brimmer Hall</span>

Brimmer Hall is a Jamaican Great House and 642 acre plantation located near Port Maria, in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. In the eighteenth century Brimmer Hall was owned by Zachary Bayly as part of a series of contiguous sugar plantations. These consisted of Trinity, Tryall, and Roslyn Pen as well as Brimmer Hall. Together they were known as Bayly's Vale. The land was worked by about 1,100 enslaved Africans in this period.

References

  1. A Picturesque Tour of the Island of Jamaica at Wikisource
  2. rosehall.com
  3. Du Quesnay, Frederick. "Rose Hall Greathouse". www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  4. Hakewill J. (1825), A Picturesque Tour of the island of Jamaica, from drawings made in the years 1820 and 1821 (1825).
  5. Radford, Benjamin (September 2008), "The White Witch of Rose Hall", Fortean Times , no. 239, ISSN   0308-5899
  6. Jim Stefko, "The White Witch of Rose Hall", Suite101.com (site blocked)
  7. "Heeding (Or Ignoring) Skeptical Investigation". Center for Inquiry. 22 October 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  8. Polly Thomas (2 August 2010). The Rough Guide to Jamaica. Penguin. pp. 185–. ISBN   978-1-4053-8205-2 . Retrieved 31 May 2012.