Saint Ann's Bay | |
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Town | |
 | |
  Saint Ann's Bay | |
| Coordinates: 18°26′10″N77°12′07″W / 18.436°N 77.202°W | |
| Country | Jamaica |
| County | Middlesex |
| Parish | Saint Ann |
| Population (2009) | |
| • Total | 13,671 |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (EST) |
Saint Ann's Bay is a settlement in Jamaica, the capital of Saint Ann Parish. It had a population of 10,961 at the 1991 census. [1]
Musicians Floyd Lloyd and Burning Spear, and Marcus Garvey were born in the town.
When Christopher Columbus first came to Jamaica in 1494, he landed on the shores of St. Ann's Parish. 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. A statue of Christopher Columbus is located near the town’s main traffic intersection to commemorate the discovery of the bay. [2]
The first Spanish settlement in Jamaica was also at Sevilla la Nueva, now called Seville, just to the west of Saint 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. Sevilla la Nueva was abandoned in favour of Santiago de la Vega due to the sanitary problems and frequent raids from French filibusters its inhabitants faced in the decades following its foundation. [3] 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.
St. Ann’s Bay was named as the capital of the Parish of St. Ann, largely because of its large harbor and port for shipping goods ranging from bananas to bauxite. In later years, Ocho Rios has eclipsed St. Ann’s Bay due to its rapid growth in tourism and commerce, but St. Ann’s Bay remains a popular destination for those seeking a more traditional Jamaican experience. The town features a number of well-maintained buildings in the early 20th-century Jamaican vernacular tradition. Two of the oldest buildings in town are the St. Ann Parish Church and the St. Ann’s Bay Courthouse. The St. Ann Parish Church is located at the corner of Main St. and Church St. and was constructed in 1871. The St. Ann’s Bay Courthouse is located nearby and was constructed in 1860. [4]
St. Ann’s Bay is also home to Jamaica’s first prison, and is a reflection of the town’s early importance and position of authority. The Old Jail in St Ann's Bay was originally built as a fort in 1750 and was converted to a jail in 1795. [5]
One of Jamaica’s most famous citizens, Marcus Garvey, was born in St. Ann’s Bay in 1887, and spent his childhood and early youth in the locality before moving to Kingston in 1903. [6] A statue was erected in his honour in front of St. Ann’s Bay Library.
Cardiff Hall, situated to the West of Saint Ann's Bay, was a plantation house owned by John Blagrove. The plantation was worked by 1,500 enslaved Africans. James Hakewell considered Blagrove a kind master, as he gave each slave a dollar in his will. [7]
The Caribbean Island of Jamaica was initially inhabited in approximately 600 AD or 650 AD by the Redware people, often associated with redware pottery. By roughly 800 AD, a second wave of inhabitance occurred by the Arawak tribes, including the Tainos, prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494. Early inhabitants of Jamaica named the land "Xaymaca", meaning "land of wood and water". The Spanish enslaved the Arawak, who were ravaged further by diseases that the Spanish brought with them. Early historians believe that by 1602, the Arawak-speaking Taino tribes were extinct. However, some of the Taino escaped into the forested mountains of the interior, where they mixed with runaway African slaves, and survived free from first Spanish, and then English, rule.
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.
Saint Ann is the largest parish in Jamaica. It is situated on the north coast of the island, in the county of Middlesex, roughly halfway between the eastern and western ends of the island. It is often called "the Garden Parish of Jamaica" on account of its natural floral beauty. Its capital is Saint Ann's Bay. Saint Ann comprises New Seville, the first Spanish settlement in Jamaica.
The parishes of Jamaica are the main units of local government in Jamaica. They were created following the English Invasion of Jamaica in 1655. This administrative structure for the Colony of Jamaica developed slowly. However, since 1 May 1867, Jamaica has been divided into the current fourteen parishes. These were retained after independence in 1962. They are grouped into three historic counties, which no longer have any administrative relevance. Every parish has a coast; none are landlocked.
Saint Thomas, once known as Saint Thomas in the East, is a suburban parish situated at the south eastern end of Jamaica, within the county of Surrey. It is the birthplace of Paul Bogle, designated in 1969 as one of Jamaica's seven National Heroes. Morant Bay, its chief town and capital, is the site of the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865, of which Bogle was a leader.
Saint Catherine is a parish in the south east of Jamaica. It is located in the county of Middlesex, and is one of the island's largest and most economically valued parishes because of its many resources. It includes the first capital of Jamaica, Spanish Town, originally known as San Jago de la Vega or Santiago de la Vega.
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.
Brown's Town is one of the principal towns in St. Ann Parish, Jamaica. In 1991, its population was 6,762. The town is a market and road center in an agricultural region.
Saint Andrew is a parish, situated in the southeast of Jamaica in the county of Surrey. It lies north, west and east of Kingston, and stretches into the Blue Mountains. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 573,369, the highest of any of the parishes in Jamaica.
Morant Bay is a town in southeastern Jamaica and the capital of the parish of St. Thomas, located about 25 miles east of Kingston, the capital. The parish has a population of 94,410.
Discovery Bay is a town in Saint Ann Parish on the northern coast of Jamaica. The city is also known locally as Dry Harbour, and gives its name to the Dry Harbour Mountains in St. Ann. There is a dispute as to whether Christopher Columbus first landed in Discovery Bay or Sevilla la Nueva in 1494. Near to the city are Puerto Seco Beach and several historic sites, such as the Green Grotto Caves and Columbus Park. Visitors to the Green Grotto Caves can see relics of the native Taíno Arawak lifestyle there. It is said that many Spaniards escaped the English invasion of 1655 through secret passages in the caves with the help of Arawaks and African slaves, in exchange for the slaves' freedom.
Allan George Richard Byfield was a Jamaican school teacher and politician. He was a senator of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962, and president of the Senate of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980. In the late 1970s he was minister of education.
Highway 2000 is a highway system in Jamaica connecting Kingston, with Ocho Rios and a planned connection to Montego Bay, passing through the parishes of St. Catherine, Saint Ann, Clarendon and proposed sections through St. James, Saint Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover. The highway is operated by the Jamaica Infrastructure Operators and developed by Trans-Jamaica Highway Limited through contractors CHEC and Bouygues Construction.
Santiago was a Spanish territory of the Spanish West Indies and within the Viceroyalty of New Spain, in the Caribbean region. Its location is the present-day island and nation of Jamaica.
The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was primarily used for sugarcane production, and experienced many slave rebellions over the course of British rule. Jamaica was granted independence in 1962.
Spanish Jamaicans are Jamaican citizens of Spanish origin or descent.
Hamilton Brown was a Scots-Irish planter, slave owner, and politician in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica, which he represented in the House of Assembly of Jamaica for 22 years. Brown founded the settlement of Hamilton Town in Saint Ann Parish, which was named after him.
The 1944 Jamaica hurricane was a deadly major hurricane that swept across the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico in August 1944. Conservative estimates placed the storm's death toll at 116. The storm was already well-developed when it was first noted passing westward over the Windward Islands into the Caribbean Sea on August 16. A ship near Grenada with 74 occupants was lost, constituting a majority of the deaths associated with the storm. The following day, the storm intensified into a hurricane, reaching its peak strength on August 20 with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 km/h). At this intensity, the major hurricane made landfall on Jamaica later that day, traversing the length of the island. The damage wrought was extensive, with the strong winds destroying 90 percent of banana trees and 41 percent of coconut trees in Jamaica; the overall damage toll was estimated at "several millions of dollars". The northern coast of Jamaica saw the most severe damage, with widespread structural damage and numerous homes destroyed across several parishes. In Port Maria, the storm was considered the worst since 1903.
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