The History of Trelawny

Did you know that the parish of Trelawny was originally part of St. James up to the year 1770 ? It was formed as a parish on its own after wealthy planters complained that the parish capital of Montego Bay was too far from them to conduct business. The parish was named after the then Governor . William Trelawny and Falmouth the parish capital was also named after William Trelawny’s birthplace in England.

Falmouth was not always Trelawny’s capital. Originally, the coastal village of Martha Brae which is said to have been a Spanish settlement served in that role up to 1790 until its mouth at Rock silted up and made navigation difficult. The Martha Brae river, is one of Jamaica’s finest. Rising at Windsor Cave in the interior of the parish, the river is over 32 kilometres long and is the source from which Falmouth first got its water supply. Today, rafting on the Martha Brae is one of Trelawny’s main tourist attractions.

Falmouth has always been the focus of Trelawny parish because of its well preserved Georgian architecture which gives the town much of its 18^th century ambience of brick, stone and timber. Like the rest of the parish it has had a chequered history, first becoming one of the busiest ports and arguably the most vibrant town on the north side of the island. Falmouth boasted  hotels, department stores , craftsmen such as goldsmiths, gunsmiths, tinsmiths and carriage makers.

 At the height of the sugar era, Trelawny was the richest sugar area in Jamaica with over 88 estates, and some 40+ factories worked by over 30,000 enslaved.  When sugar declined so did Falmouth and Trelawny in general and by 1890 Falmouth was practically a ghost town. Today except for Hampden Estates only Long Pond remains.

For over 100 years, Trelawny literally fell off the map and out of focus  until two major events brought the parish and the town back into national and international focus within  three years of each other. The first was the emergence of Usain St Leo Bolt from the rural village of Sherwood Content as a world sprinting superstar at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The other event was the opening in 2011 of the $180 million port built to accommodate the newest and largest cruise ships in the world and immediately revived Trelawny’s fortunes as a tourist centre .

In the intervening ‘lost’ years Trelawny gave Jamaica its third Prime Minister, Rt. Hon Hugh Lawson Shearer, and the cultural and intellectual giant and educator, Rex Nettleford both of whom were to fundamentally influence labour relations and the cultural identity  of the nation in the immediate post-Independence years.

Trelawny also played a pivotal role in the opposition to and the eventual abolition of slavery. The parish and its capital became the centre of the anti-slavery struggle led by the Baptist minister William Knibb. The present William Knibb Memorial Church at the corner of George and King Street, successor to the one built by Knibb himself was completed in 1948. Falmouth’s only High School named after Knibb was first located at the corner of Market and Trelawny Streets and housed in the original Baptist manse before it was re-located to its present site at Martha Brae.

Although the parish has followers from all religious denominations, Trelawny could be called the Baptist parish with chapels located in every major village – Duncans, Waldensia, Unity, Wakefield, Deeside, Duanvale, Clarks Town, Refuge, Stewart Town, Alps, Ulster Spring, Spring Garden and Rio Bueno. Westwood High School for Girls, one of the oldest High schools in Jamaica located in Stewart Town in the parish was also founded by the Baptists in 1882.

DID YOU KNOW?

[bs-quote quote=”Piped water was introduced to Falmouth before New York City. A 20-ft water wheel was installed on lands at Martha Brae turned by the current of the river and emptied about 100 gallons of water per revolution into a wooden trough . A 6’ main carried the water for a mile into a large tank located in the Falmouth town square – hence the name ‘Water Square’.



At one point Falmouth supported three weekly newspapers : The Cornwall Courier; The Falmouth Post and The Falmouth Gazzette.



Martha Brae was supposed to be a Taino Indian girl who had supernatural powers. During the Spanish occupation of Jamaica she was the only person in the village who knew the whereabouts of a gold mine and she was tortured by the Spaniards who wanted her to lead them to the site. Eventually she agreed to take them there but calling on her powers , she changed the course of the Martha Brae river which drowned her and the Spaniards and closed forever the entrance to the mine.



Falmouth is noted for the introduction of anaesthetics for extracting teeth and for scientific experiments by David Lindo a Jewish merchant and chemist who developed the Lindo-Sladding method of determining the total nitrogen in fertilizer.” style=”style-7″ align=”center” color=”#dd3333″][/bs-quote]

What to do in Trelawny 

All the official guides and travel brochures have on the top of their lists a walking tour of the town of Falmouth to experience its quaint 18^th century ambience reminiscent of Georgian England – the Court House, facing the seas; the Parish Church of St. Peter on Duke Street; William Knibb Memorial Church at the corner of George and King Streets and of course Water Square to name a few of the town’s landmarks.

But what if you are not into architecture or old historic buildings? For romance and a bit of historic nostalgia, there is Rafting on the Martha Brae and if you are adventurous visit the Windsor Cave on the Windsor Estate one of the largest, most accessible and best known in the island. Its many grottos and vaults are adorned with the most beautiful dripstone formations.

Glistening Waters is a more sedate attraction located at Oyster Bay near the Falmouth town centre. The water is sometimes phosphorescent , due to the presence in it of micro-organisms which give off a light similar to that produced by fireflies when the water is disturbed.

And then there is Good Hope which began in 1744 as a sugar estate and was a microcosm of the entire slave and plantation system of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Today it is a stately estate home tastefully restored in his inimitable style by Chris Blackwell as part of his Island Trading Group where the visitor can travel back in time to experience luxurious colonial living at its villa complex with all modern conveniences.