Georgian History Jamaica and More

Georgian History Jamaica and More Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Georgian History Jamaica and More, Landmark & historical place, 1 Historical Society Avenue, Kingston.

Georgian History Jamaica and More - This page will also have information about Jamaican history in general although the focus will be the Georgian period 1715-1830

03/09/2026

Bonham Spring, Lodge, and Exchange, St. Ann - Visited this area recently and found it interesting. This was an area of several estates/pens along the White River. Two of the prominent pens were Eltham and Bonham Spring of over 1,000 acres. It appears that Bonham Spring was originally established by Edward Bonham in 1674. It was owned by Joseph Price in 1779 and from 1809 to 1826 by Benjamin Scott and from 1826 possibly into the 20th C by Benjamin Scott Moncrieffe. It seems there was also a Peter Moncrieffe. It seems that in the latter part of the 20th C, Bonham Spring was owned by entrepreneur, Robert Lee, who established Irie River recreational area on the White River.
Small settlements in the area are now Lodge, which was part of Bonham Spring Pen and was subdivided from it in 1957, and Exchange, which was Prosper Hall. In a Gleaner article from 2021 on the anniversary the Exchange Baptist Church, it is recorded that the area became known as Exchange because people, perhaps descendants of the enslaved people, who lived on plots of land used to pay their rent using cattle and other valuables. This was likely post emancipation. It appears that the Baptists were in the area from the 1880s, although the Exchange Baptist Church was built in the 1980s.
This area now has several recreational attractions - Irie River, Blue Hole, and Spring Paradise on the White River.
Thanks to several people who helped with the information about this area - Peter Espeut, Micheal Linyard, and Wendy Lee, and the interest sparked by the CCRP group excursion to Spring Paradise.
I hope to further update this post with other information provided.

Other buildings in the Allman Town area - the Arnold Road Methodist Church at 20 Arnold Road built in 1952, now 74 years...
17/08/2026

Other buildings in the Allman Town area - the Arnold Road Methodist Church at 20 Arnold Road built in 1952, now 74 years old, and the headquarters of the Moravian Church at Hector Street which was the original site of the Morris Knibb Preparatory School, founded by Mary Morris Knibb, educator, social reformer and politician, in 1928. The school was relocated out of the area in 1984. Mary Morris Knibb was a Moravian. She was the first woman to win a seat in a parish council election and to campaign for a seat in the Legislature in 1944.



Images: 1. Arnold Road Methodist Church 2. original site of the Morris Knibb Preparatory School and now HQ of the Moravian Church

History of Kingston and St. Andrew Communities:Allman Town: the first post-emancipation suburb - Allman Town, is believe...
12/08/2026

History of Kingston and St. Andrew Communities:

Allman Town: the first post-emancipation suburb - Allman Town, is believed to be originally Allman Pen which was part of Cavalier's Estate. It could have been named for either Thomas Allman or George Allman both of Ireland. It was sub-divided into housing lots starting in the 1840s and became known as Allman Town from at least 1843. Developers in Allman Town were William and William Thomas Connolley. Allman Town was noted, for among other places, St. Matthews Anglican Church and Lannaman's Confectioneries, makers of paradise plum and other sweets.

See article at link:

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20260810/allman-town-first-post-emancipation-suburb



Images: 1. 1890s map of Allman Town; 2. St. Matthew's Anglican Church 3. a traditional Allman Town house, 4. A early 20th C house on Connolley Avenue.

Jamaica-US relations - at the people level - noting the 250th anniversary of US Independence a link between peoples . Th...
04/07/2026

Jamaica-US relations - at the people level - noting the 250th anniversary of US Independence a link between peoples . The first British (English) settlement in what is now the USA was at Jamestown in 1607. British settlements in the Caribbean began in the 1620s. There was constant movement of people between the 13 American colonies and the British West Indies as trade between the territories was very important. The movement of peoples from the various strata of Jamaican society increased after the US Civil War which ended in 1865 - with contracted farm workers and other people seeking work. Jamaicans initially went to the northern states - New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut where segregation was less strictly enforced. Now many Jamaicans live in Florida, especially from the 1970s. Many people of Jamaican heritage have risen to prominence in the USA. Americans have come to Jamaica for leisure and work. Americans were involved in the banana, tourism and bauxite industries. In WW2, soldiers were stationed at the US military base at Vernamfield. Americans came as aid volunteers with the Peace Corp and other aid peogrammes. Through the years several noted Americans have made a home in Jamaica. Today, approximately 1.5 million people of Jamaican, heritage live in the USA. On average 2 million people from the USA come to Jamaica on vacation. Given proximity and years of connection, even with changes in US immigration policies, the link between and among peoples in Jamaica and the USA should remain quite strong. See Gleaner article at link:

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20260704/marking-250th-anniversary-us-independence-jamaica-and-usa-people-link



Images: American, Ruth Bryan Owen; 2. Her Golden Cloud Villa, Oracabessa, 3. Jacob DeCordova of Jamaica; 4. the DeCordova House on Waterloo Road.

Langley Great House, Mount Moses, St. Andrew - owned by the Government of Jamaica - what a waste!! – This 1,000 acre pro...
03/07/2026

Langley Great House, Mount Moses, St. Andrew - owned by the Government of Jamaica - what a waste!! – This 1,000 acre property in the hills of St. Andrew at Mount Moses was a coffee estate and was known as Mount Moses Estate from the 18th to the 19th Cs. Elizabeth Langley, daughter of Alderman John Langley of Cornhill, England, married Fulke Rose (1644-1694) at Port Royal in 1678. They had 3 daughters, Elizabeth, Anne and Mary. Her father does not appear to have had connections with Jamaica. Fulke Rose was a slave merchant and plantation owner. He was more than likely, the owner of Mount Moses /Langley.

On the death of Rose, Elizabeth married Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), English/Irish doctor and botanist, in Ireland in 1695. They had 2 surviving daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah. Elizabeth died in 1724 in England. Hans Sloane had been to Jamaica with Governor, Christopher Moncke, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, 1687-1688. He is credited with improving a cocoa drink found in Jamaica by turning it into chocolate milk. He published botanical information gathered in Jamaica in the 1690s. It appears that he spent time in Jamaica after his marriage at this Mount Moses property in St. Andrew. He used this time to collect more specimens. Hans Sloane’s collections formed the core of the British Natural History Museum. This property in Jamaica was known as Mount Moses up to the 1870s and was owned by the Marshall family up to the 1840s. It must have been sold after the deaths of Elizabeth and her Husband. The name, it seems, was changed to Langley in the latter part of the 19th C. In 1896, it was being sold at auction and remained for sale into the 1930s when it was a hotel run by Robert Gillies. In 1938, British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament, Sir Stafford Cripps, was staying at Langley and was picked up here by Norman Manley, as he was the guest speaker at the first General Conference of the People's National Party in September of that year.
It was taken over by the National Water Commission ( NWC) in the 1950s. It is now owned by the Government of Jamaica through the Commissioner of Lands. This property, with the investment and careful and sustainable development, could become a significant outdoor recreational area, which is needed here in Kingston and St. Andrew.

Aqueduct at Constant Spring - The NWC Water Treatment Plant is on a portion of the old Constant Spring Estate, which was...
03/07/2026

Aqueduct at Constant Spring - The NWC Water Treatment Plant is on a portion of the old Constant Spring Estate, which was originally about 1, 400 acres when it operated as a sugar estate from possibly the 17th C as one of the early estates allocated after the British captured Jamaica. It had about 400 enslaved people at its peak. The aqueduct to bring water from the Wag Water River was constructed in about 1770. Daniel Moore, merchant, owned the property in the 1770s. Henry Archbould and other having interests. At emancipation, it was owned by Simon Taylor of Kingston, with 1,600 acres and about 312 enslaved people. By the 20th C, this property, like others, was being subdivided. In 1947, G. W. Burke sold part of Constant Spring Estate to M.A. Bolt for £1,450. In 1961, another portion was sold to North American Life Insurance Company for £9,100.

The Pioneer Chocolate Company, Williamsfield, Manchester, - This company , it appears, was established by Walter Nias Cu...
22/06/2026

The Pioneer Chocolate Company, Williamsfield, Manchester, - This company , it appears, was established by Walter Nias Cunningham (1891- ? ) of Manchester between 1924 and 1926. He was the son of Thomas Cunningham, a contractor/builder, and his wife, Mary Ann Nias. Walter was a Veterinarian, Mechanical Engineer and Manufacturer. He and his wife, Zilla Agatha Pommelis, had a business called Mahgrinnuk which dealt, among other things, in cocoa products - powder, butter, and bitter sweet chocolate confectionery. This, it seems, is what is now the Pioneer Chocolate Company, which produces chocolate/cocoa powder drinks and cocoa butter from mainly local cocoa. The Pioneer Chocolate Company may have come into existence in the 1960s. John J. Cunningham Sr took over the business from his father, Walter. The business is still owned by the Cunningham family and is a family run business.


Devon Missionary Church, Devon, Manchester - established in 1875 - interesting that a village church had a clock. This w...
22/06/2026

Devon Missionary Church, Devon, Manchester - established in 1875 - interesting that a village church had a clock. This was perhaps one of the first Missionary Churches established in Jamaica through the Missionary Churches Association, which started operating in Jamaica in the 1870s. One of its well-known pastors was David Brooke Clarke (1919- 2022) of Manchester, a past student of Munro College, who would go on to establish the Grace Missionary Church in St. Andrew in 1956. He died at age 103 in the USA in 2022.

For Roland Gayle - house in the Manning's Hill Road area. I am not sure of the date this house was constructed, but clea...
13/06/2026

For Roland Gayle - house in the Manning's Hill Road area. I am not sure of the date this house was constructed, but clearly an older single family house, now fast disappearing. It seems that any cellar was closed off:

Motion Pictures (Moving Pictures) in Jamaica - Audley Orlando Morais, 1884-1967, a Jewish entrepreneur and noted sportsm...
13/06/2026

Motion Pictures (Moving Pictures) in Jamaica - Audley Orlando Morais, 1884-1967, a Jewish entrepreneur and noted sportsman (horse racing, boxing) - this is the man who made a business out of the screening of moving (motion) pictures in Jamaica in the first decade of the 20th Century. It seems he initially had a company called Movies Ltd and a theatre called Movies where movies were screened. He was responsible for the construction of the Palace Theatre at Victoria Ave and South Camp Road, which opened in 1915 (Gleaner). He founded the Palace Amusement Company in 1921. He married Nora Gwendolyn Brandon and they had one daughter, Phyllis. He eventually sold the Palace Amusement Company in 1947 to the British-owned J. Arthur Rank Organisation, having also acquired the newly built Carib Theatre, opened in 1938, and the Jamaican Theatres Ltd.

Note that the first movie filmed in Jamaica in 1915/1916,"A Daughter of the Gods", was shown at theatres in Jamaica, including the Palace, in 1919. Another movie, the Devil's Daughter or Pocomania, was filmed in Jamaica in 1939 directed by Arthur H. Leonard and starring coloured American actress, Nina Mae Mckinney. It was shown in movie theatres in Jamaica in 1940. This must have been a black American movie as racial segregation was still law in the USA and there was a separate black movie industry. Black actors and actresses did get roles in Hollywood films, such as the 1939 Gone with the Wind, which saw Hattie McDaniel become the first black American actress to be awarded an Oscar. Roles for black actors were the usual stereotypes.

cinemainjamaica

Images: 1. Audley Morais 2. His Gothic Revival style house which he built for his wife, in 1935, at 6 Fairway Ave, now Temple of Light Church since 1978, 3. an early picture of the Palace Theatre (NLJ), and 4. the facade of the Palace Theatre in 2025.

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