Surrey | |
|---|---|
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| Country | Jamaica |
| County town | Kingston |
| Established | 1758 |
| Named for | Surrey, England |
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| This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Jamaica |
| Judiciary |
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Surrey (also Surry) is the easternmost and the smallest by area of the three historic counties into which Jamaica is divided. It was created in 1758, and is divided into four parishes. [1]
Jamaica's three counties (Surrey, Middlesex and Cornwall) were established in 1758 to facilitate the holding of courts along the lines of the British county court system. [2] Surrey was named after the English county in which Kingston upon Thames is found. [2] Kingston was its county town. [2]
The county of Surrey is shown in yellow.
| Surrey County | ||||
| On map | Parish | Area km² | Population Census 2011 | Capital |
| 11 | Kingston Parish (1)(2) | 21.8 | 96,052 | Kingston |
| 12 | Portland | 814.0 | 80,205 | Port Antonio |
| 13 | Saint Andrew (1) | 430.7 | 555,828 | Half Way Tree |
| 14 | Saint Thomas | 742.8 | 91,604 | Morant Bay |
| Surrey County | 2,009.3 | 823,689 | ||
| Jamaica total | 10,990.5 | 2,607,631 | Kingston | |
(1) Kingston Parish and Saint Andrew Parish together form Kingston and St Andrew Corporation.
(2) Kingston Parish does not encompass all of Kingston.
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 the Right Honourable 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.
St 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.
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.
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. In the 2011 census, it had 573,369, the highest population of any of the parishes in Jamaica. George William Gordon, one of Jamaica's seven National Heroes, was born in this parish.
Kingston is one of the 14 Parishes of Jamaica. Together with neighboring St. Andrew Parish, it makes up the amalgamated Municipal Unit of Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. The city of Kingston is the parish and national capital.
Middlesex is the central of the three historic counties into which Jamaica is divided. It has no current-day administrative significance. It covers 5,041.9 km² and has a population of 1,183,361 giving it the largest area and population of the three counties. It includes Spanish Town, the island's original capital.
Cornwall is the westernmost of the three historic counties into which Jamaica is divided. It has no current-day administrative significance. It includes Montego Bay, the island's second largest city by area.
Liguanea is an area of the island of Jamaica. Its name came from the language of the Yamaye people who currently inhabit some of the island's rural areas in Cornwall County. and named it after the iguana lizard that is endemic to the island, and an important source of food for the Yamaye.
Mavis Bank is a rural coffee farming community approximately 10 miles (16 km) north east of Kingston, Jamaica in east rural St. Andrew in the Blue Mountains, close to the border of Portland.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Jamaica:
The Gleaner Company Ltd. is a newspaper publishing enterprise in Jamaica. Established in 1834 by Joshua and Jacob De Cordova, the company's primary product is The Gleaner, a morning broadsheet published six days each week. It also publishes a Sunday paper, the Sunday Gleaner, and an evening tabloid, The Star. Overseas weekly editions are published in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The paper was known as The Daily Gleaner until 1992.
Harbour View is a community in Kingston, Jamaica. It is administered by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation and is served by the Kingston 17 Post Office. Harbour View was built in 1963, one year after the country's Independence in 1962. The community was the first in Jamaica to have a community paper and its residents claim that the community was the first to host street dances. Harbour View is located in East Kingston and can be described as one of the best communities to live and raise families.
The Otram River, formerly the Port Maria River or the Port Maria Western River, is a river in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. It reaches the sea in the parish capital of Port Maria and contributes to flooding in that town.
Stony Hill is a residential neighbourhood in St. Andrew Parish, Surrey County, on the northern outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica. As of 2009 it had a population of 8,388.
All American Institute of Medical Sciences is a private medical school located in the town of Black River, St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, which began operations in 2009. It was chartered by the Government of Jamaica in 2009, and provisionally accredited by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) in 2010 with an annual renewal to 2015. The university began classes in 2011 at its Jamaica campus and graduated its first class in 2014.
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.
The Gleaner is an English-language, morning daily newspaper founded by two brothers, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova on 13 September 1834 in Kingston, Jamaica. Originally called the Daily Gleaner, the name was changed on 7 December 1992 to The Gleaner. The newspaper is owned and published by Gleaner Company publishing house in Kingston, Jamaica.
Rollington Town is a neighborhood in the area of Kingston, Jamaica. Part of it is in Kingston Parish. A campus of Kingston College is in Rollington Town.
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 plurality 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.
