THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 






By permission of Messrs. Elliott and Fry. 
THE MOST REVEREND THE ARCHBISHOP OF THE WEST INDIES. 

Frontispiece. 



/THE 
DIOCESE OF JAMAICA// 

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF ITS 

HISTORY, GROWTH AND 

ORGANISATION. 



BY THE 

REV. J. B. ^ELLIS M.A., 

For some years Secretary of the Synod, the Diocesan Financial 
Board and the Diocesan Council of the Jamaica Church. 







WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 

LONDON: NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, w.c. 

BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET 

1913 




768803- 



PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE* 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

Discovery of Jamaica by Christopher Columbus 
His Second Visit Spanish Occupation : Re 
ligious Work Gage Hatuey Seville Las 
Casas Caribs and Arawaks African Slavery 
Sugar Cultivation - 13 

CHAPTER II 

Acquisition of Jamaica by Great Britain Sir A. 
Shirley Colonel Jackson Cromwell s Ex 
pedition ; Penn and Venables Early Settlers 
Final Defeat of Spaniards Death of 
Cromwell Richard Cromwell Charles II. - 24 

CHAPTER III 

General D Oyley Lord Windsor Commissions to 
first Governors Spanish Town Church (now 
the Cathedral) Other Churches Sir Thomas 
Modyford Some of the first Clergy Half 
way Tree Church The Rev. J. Zeilers The 
Rev. H. H. Isaacs Island divided into 
Parishes Bishop of London s Supervision 
Charles II. James II. William and Mary 
Great Earthquake at Port Royal Lewis 
Galdy Hysterics - 30 

CHAPTER IV 

Large Importation of Slaves Church life Fre 
quent risings of Slaves Long on Jamaican 
Clergy A French Traveller Governor Tre- 
lawny and other Governors Clerical Sti 
pends Some Penalties and Restraints 
Bequests and Donations Work among 
Slaves Maroons - 40 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER V 

PAGE 

The Bishopric of Jamaica Slow formation of 
Colonial Episcopate Growth of Agitation for 
Abolition of Slavery Registry Act Heavy 
Death Rate Canning s Resolutions Ap 
pointment of Commissaries ; some records of 
their Court Lieutenant-Governor Morrison 
Edward Gardiner s Complaint The Rev. 
G. R. G. Hill" Monk " Lewis Missionary 
Work by Nonconformist Churches The 
Jamaica Assembly and the Teaching of Slaves 
Bishop Porteus " The Incorporated 
Society" Early Church Missionary Work 
among Slaves - 47 

CHAPTER VI 

Dr. Christopher Lipscomb, first Bishop of Jamaica ; 
condition of the Church on his arrival The 
Episcopal Establishment The Clergy Act 
Dissatisfaction among Clergy The Rev. G. W. 
Bridges Archdeacon Pope Creation of 
Rural Deaneries C.M.S. S.P.G. Planters 
and Instruction of Slaves Risings and Re 
bellions Persecution of Nonconformists 
The Colonial Church Union Emancipation 
Compensation Apprenticeship - 60 

CHAPTER VII 

Christian Faith Society S.P.G. " King s Let 
ter " The Negro Education Fund End 
of Apprenticeship Freedom Increased 
work by C. M.S. Withdrawal of C.M.S. 
Progress after Freedom A Vexatious Law 
suit Elementary Education Bishop Lips- 
comb s Death and Funeral ; his last Report 
to S.P.G. 71 

CHAPTER VIII 

Dr. Spencer, second Bishop of Jamaica Parish 
Church, Spanish Town, created the Cathedral 
of the Diocese Bishop Spencer s first Impres 
sions Withdrawal of Parliamentary Grant 
" Jamaica Diocesan Church Society " 
Bishop Spencer s Primary Visitation Agricul- 



CONTENTS vii 



tural Troubles " Retrenchment Struggle " 
Increase of Parochial work The Rev. C. 
M Laverty No Proselytising Resignation 
of Archdeacon Pope Creation of three Arch 
deaconries King of the Mosquito Indians 
Mr. Christian Post Three Diocesan Societies 
Failure of the Surrey Society A Meeting 
at Spanish Town Bishop Spencer s Illness 
and Resignation Consecration of Bishop 
Courtenay Reduction of Clerical Incomes 
Bishop Courtenay s Primary Charge A 
Moving Population A Diocesan Missionary 
Society necessary - 81 

CHAPTER IX 

Formation of Diocese of Nassau Jamaica Home 
and Foreign Missionary Society With 
drawal of S.P.G. s Grants Political and 
Social Troubles Morant Bay Governor 
Eyre The Rev. Victor Herschell Unsuccess 
ful Appeals for help Disendowment drawing 
nearer - 96 

CHAPTER X 

A new Constitution Sir John Peter Grant Dis 
continuance of Vestry Grants Suggestion of 
Concurrent Endowment The Rev. J. M. 
Phillippo. Disestablishment and Gradual 
Disendowment First Synod Law 10 of 
1 870 Second Synod Work of Synod - 103 

CHAPTER XI 

The Canons of the Jamaica Church Declaration 
of Principles Provincial Synod Provincial 
Court of Appeal Committee of Reference- 
Constitution of Synod ; Lay Representatives ; 
ex officio Members. The Incorporated Lay 
Body Diocesan Council and Financial 
Board Diocesan Expenses Fund Episcopal 
Stipend Fund General Sustentation Fund 
Parochial Councils Church Committees 
Education Boards Widows and Orphans 
Fund Clergy Pensions Fund Cathedral 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGE. 

Chapter Ministry and Services of the Church 
Coadjutor or Assistant Bishop Arch 
deacons Canons Rural Deans Titles of 
Clergy Sponsors in Baptism Marriage 
Divorce Discipline - - 112 

CHAPTER XII 

Gradual growth of Canons Early difficulties after 
Disestablishment Appeal to England 
Archdeacon Campbell Colonial and Conti 
nental Church Society Death of Bishop 
Spencer Resignation of Bishop Courtenay ; 
his Death Appointment of Bishop Tozer ; 
his short Episcopate, Resignation and Death 
Election and Consecration of Bishop Nuttall 
Eight years work Appointment of Assistant 
Bishop Consecration of Bishop Douet 
Panama Mission Visit of Bishop of the Falk 
land Islands Diocese of British Honduras 
Bishop Holme Bishop Ormsby - 121 

CHAPTER XIII 

Bishop Douet Bishop Nuttall, Primate and 
Archbishop of the West Indies Resignation 
and Death of Bishop Douet Resolution of 
Diocesan Council and Financial Board on 
Bishop Douet s Resignation Archbishop s 
Appreciation Memorials of Bishop Douet 
Increased burden of Archbishop s work 
Selection and Consecration of Dr. Joscelyne as 
Coadjutor-Bishop Some workers Quiet 
work Canon Grant s Mission Professor 
(Bishop) Collins visits Jamaica ; His Impres 
sions of Church work in the West Indies - 131 

CHAPTER XIV 

English Archbishops Committee on Church 
Finance Home Mission Work ; its growth 
Schoolmaster-Catechists Mission Churches 
and Chapels Kingston Church and School 
Extension Canon Harty East Indian Im 
migrants Mosquito Indians Chinese Im 
migrants Syrians in Jamaica Pongas Mis 
sion Bishop Rawle Jamaican Missionaries 
The Rev. A. H. Barrow The Rev. W. A. 



CONTENTS ix 

Burris Bishops Ingham and Tugwell and the 
Rev. D. H. D. Wilkinson visit Jamaica 
Western Equatorial Africa Missionary 
Students Jamaica Church Theological Col 
lege Codrington College Lady Howard de 
Walden University of Durham King s 
College, Nova Scotia Generous Helpers 
Scholarships Laymen s work in Jamaica 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew Evangelists 
Lay- Readers Catechists Brotherhood Con 
vention Deaconess Home Nursing in 
Jamaica Nursing Hostel Girls Schools 
Mothers Union Girls Friendly Society 
Widows and Orphans Fund Clergy Pensions 
Fund Belmont Orphanage Purity and 
Temperance Societies - - 138 

CHAPTER XV 

Endowments Assessments Income of Clergy 
Classification of Churches Appointment of 
Clergy Buildings and Repairs ; Loans and 
Debts Insurance of Church Buildings 
Education Secondary ; Elementary; 
Jamaica Day School Catechism ; Training 
Colleges Shortwood ; the Mico College - 168 

CHAPTER XVI 

Sunday Schools Confirmations Special Missions 
Parochial Councils Episcopal Visitations 
"The Jamaica Churchman" Diocesan 
Hymn Book Lepers Home Chaplaincy 
Jamaica Church Aid Association S.P.C.K. 
and Jamaica Census and other Returns - 190 

CHAPTER XVII 

Disasters Floods Droughts Cyclones Earth 
quake Fire; Hurricane of 1903 Earth 
quake of 1907 ; Archbishop s Impressions 
Relief Work Mansion House Fund Im 
perial Loan Imperial Grant Wrecked and 
Damaged Church Buildings Church Relief 
Fund Archbishop of Canterbury Sir Syd 
ney Olivier Pan-Anglican Congress More 
suitable buildings to be erected Bishop 



x CONTENTS 

Joscelyne Some Prominent Helpers Con 
secration of New Churches Official Greetings; 
Archbishop of Canterbury ; Presiding Bishop 
of U.S.A. - ----- 203 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Obeah Government Medical Service Sir George 
Grey Marriages and Births Improved 
House Accommodation Absence of Serious 
Crime Praedial Larceny Prison Discipline 
Jamaica and Problems of Empire Cultiva 
tion Sanitary Improvements A Winter 
Health Resort Dr. Johnson and Chief Justice 
Cockburn on Jamaica Changes - - - 218 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Most Reverend the Archbishop of 

the West Indies Frontispiece. 

Spanish Town Cathedral - - To face page 30 

Bishop Lipscomb - 60 

Bishop Spencer - - ti % l 

Bishop Courtenay - - ,, 92 

Bishop Tozer - - ti I2 ^ 

Bishop Douet It i$i 

An Earthquake Scene - - - 206 



THE 
DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 



CHAPTER I 

THE Story of the Diocese of Jamaica would be incom 
plete unless some account, however brief, were given of 
the general history of the Colony, both before and after 
the date at which it was created a Bishop s See. A 
hurried survey must be made of the principal historical 
landmarks, the discovery of the Island, its acquisition 
as a British Possession, together with the various in 
fluences, religious, social and political, which affected it 
before it was constituted a separate diocese. By so 
doing we shall be able to form some definite idea of the 
racial and other characteristics of the various classes of 
men who are now collectively known as Jamaicans ; we 
shall learn something of the causes which in times past 
tended, some to retard, others to advance the moral and 
religious growth of the Colony, something too of the 
difficulties which the Church of England has had to 
contend with as well as the temporal and secular advan 
tages which she has had to assist her. 

Such a sketch must necessarily be fragmentary and 
incomplete, for the history of Jamaica is so full of ex 
citing events and thrilling incidents that its compression 
into a limited space must deprive it of much that is 
interesting and worth knowing. 

In the last decade of the fourteenth century, 
Christopher Columbus, under the auspices of the Spanish 
monarchy, started on his memorable voyage to find a 
Western route to India. On the I2th of October, 1492, 



I 4 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

he landed on one of the Bahama Islands, called by the 
natives Guanahane", which he named San Salvador, and 
which is now known as Watling s Island, commemorating 
the name of a notorious buccaneer, who was shot in 
1680 in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the town of 
Arica. Believing that he had reached either the coast of 
India or the shores of some out-lying island, Columbus 
naturally called the natives Indians, a name which was 
afterwards generally given to the aboriginal inhabitants 
both of the continent of America and of the Islands in 
and around the Caribbean Sea. After it was realised 
that Columbus had not found a new way to the known 
Indies, but a hitherto unknown continent, the words 
"Indies" and "Indians" still continued to be used 
with the prefix West, to distinguish places and peoples 
from the East Indies and East Indians. 

On the 3rd of May, 1494, when England was occupied 
with Perkin Warbeck, Columbus, then on his second 
voyage of discovery to the Western Seas, anchored off 
the Northern coast of Jamaica in a harbour which was 
probably the present Port Maria, though there are those 
who consider that St. Ann s Bay and Dry Harbour have 
greater claims to priority of discovery. Struck with the 
surpassing beauty of the place off which he anchored, 
Columbus named the harbour Santa Gloria one of the 
considerable number of names given by him, some 
religious, some descriptive, others fanciful, many of 
which had but a short and fugitive existence and never 
passed into common use. Finding the harbour too much 
exposed for the safety of his weather-beaten ships, on 
the following day he sailed in a westerly direction and, 
amid some slight opposition from the natives, landed 
either at Dry Harbour or at Ora Cabecca, now known 
as Oracabessa, and took formal possession of the Island 
in the united names of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, 
Contrary to his usual custom Columbus did not, as in the 
cases of Nevis, Grenada, etc., name the newly-found 
Island after some geographical feature of Spain, or, as in 
the cases of Trinidad, Dominica, Guadaloupe, etc., by any 
name suggested by religious associations, but adopted 
the name Xaymaca, since corrupted to Jamaica, which 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 15 

was in use among the Indian fishermen who guided his 
course. The word Xaymaca, we are told, is derived 
from two Indian words meaning " water" and " wood," 
and there is quite a possibility that it was originally used 
in a generally descriptive sense rather than as an ex 
clusive title, for the name is appropriate enough at the 
present day, except in time of severe drought, to any 
part of the district first visited by Columbus. 

In thus taking possession of Jamaica in the name of 
the Spanish Sovereigns, Columbus may have been 
partly influenced by the common-sense reason that the 
expedition under his command was fitted out from Spain, 
but his action was mainly due to the fact that, as a devout 
Catholic, he was bound by a decree, dated in the previous 
year, May, 1493, in which Pope Alexander VI. gave to 
the Spanish Crown " omnes insulas et terras firmas, 
inventas et inveniendas, detectas et detegendas versus 
Occidentem." The right of discovery, and subsequently 
of conquest, would now-a-days probably be regarded 
as more substantial than this deed of gift. The Pope, 
whose ability is recognised by historians as frankly as 
his immoral character and vicious habits are denounced, 
seems to have been influenced by political, quite as much 
as by religious, motives in making this grant, but there 
is no doubt that Queen Isabella was genuinely anxious 
for the religious instruction and moral improvement of 
the newly acquired Indian subjects of the Spanish 
Crown. The first visit of Columbus was of short duration. 
Two weeks coasting brought him to the North-Western 
extremity of the Island, from which point he sailed in a 
northerly direction to Cuba, returning to Jamaica in 
July of the same year (1494) . Sailing along the Southern 
coast from West to East against contrary winds and in 
weather-beaten ships, he found welcome shelter in 
various land-protected harbours till he reached a bay 
which, from his description, is easily identified as being 
between Portland Point to the East and Cabarita Point 
to the West, having on its shore the little town now 
known as Old Harbour. Here in a curious interview, 
Columbus in a friendly way declined to give a free passage 
to Spain to an Indian chief who was anxious, together 



16 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

with wife, sons, daughters and brothers, to return with 
him. Continuing his journey along the Southern coast 
he left Jamaica on the i6th of August, 1494, and did 
not return until nearly ten years later, when in June, 
1504, with two leaking, crippled ships he put in at Puerto 
Bueno, the modern Dry Harbour, on the north coast of 
the Island. Here he lingered for twelve months. It is 
no part of our story to give a detailed account of this 
visit. It was a time of grievous trial and hardship. 
Not merely had he to endure a long and painful illness, 
which kept him in enforced inactivity, but also he had 
to deal with mutiny and discontent among his companions, 
and to bear the spiteful jealousy of the Spanish Governor 
of Hispaniola (Haiti) who, though apprised of his gallant 
countryman s urgent need, first delayed to send any sort 
of help, and then, by trickery and treachery, tried to 
frustrate the assistance he was reluctantly compelled to 
provide. On the 28th of June, 1505, Columbus left 
Jamaica, never to return, having crushed the mutiny 
and generously forgiven all the mutineers except Francisco 
de Porras, one of the ringleaders. 

Jamaica, thus discovered and acquired, remained in 
the possession of Spain for more than a century and a 
half. This period is mainly memorable for the almost 
complete annihilation of the aboriginal inhabitants of 
the island. 1 As far as the religious condition of Jamaica 
during these years of Spanish occupation is concerned, it 
is unfortunate that most of our available authorities write 
with so strong and pronounced a Protestant bias that we 
are bound in common charity to believe, as well as to hope, 
that their records of the misdeeds of the Roman Catholic 
Church are grossly exaggerated. The stream is certainly 
coloured and was probably tainted at its source. The time, 
too, was not one that was remarkable for any very great 
display of missionary spirit or evangelistic effort. In 
deed, it could not be, for at that time nearly the whole 
of the inhabited part of the then-known world was under 
Christian influence, if not Christianised. In our days 

1 For an account of the process by which this depopulation 
was effected, reference may be made to Chapter I. in Rodway s 
" West Indies " in " The Slory of the Nations " Series* 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 17 

missionary work is being carried on in countries which 
were unknown when Columbus set sail for the West, and 
there need be little wonder that the missionary zeal of 
the apostles and even the missionary character of the 
Christian faith should not be prominent in the Church 
in the Middle Ages. Our Lord s command "go ye into 
all the world" was still there, but, to the extent of the 
geographical knowledge of the day, the Church had gone 
into all the world. And we cannot forget that the house 
of the Church of England, which was subsequently built 
on the ruins of the Romish Church, was so largely con 
structed of glass that we cannot afford to throw stones at 
our predecessors. One of the most generally quoted 
authorities is Gage, whom the Rev. G. W. Bridges (a 
Church of England clergyman), in his Annals of Jamaica, 
refers to as one whom we have no reason to suspect 
either of exaggeration or of prejudice. This certificate 
of character can scarcely be accepted by any one except 
by those who are themselves prejudiced. For Gage had 
been for thirty-eight years a Romish priest, and, while 
giving him full credit for conscientiously joining the 
ministry of the Anglican Church, we must also credit 
him with his share of the enthusiasm of a new convert, as 
well as with that self-complacency which sometimes 
looks back with contempt on opinions which it has left 
behind. It is indeed not always easy for those who 
" seem to have reached a purer air " to be content with 
leaving their " sister where she prays." It is also worthy 
of note that, though Gage speaks in language of supreme 
contempt not only of the doctrines and practices which 
he had discarded, but also of the means by which the 
Spanish clergy enriched themselves in Jamaica, he does 
not appear to have made any effort to refund any part 
of the money, amounting to nearly 500 per annum, 
which he had received by those very means which he 
denounces with so much vigour and spleen. Plainly, 
the evidence of such a man must be cautiously received. 
Putting aside, then, prejudice and exaggeration, the most 
we can definitely say is that the Roman Catholic priest 
hood did very little, and perhaps had very scant oppor 
tunity, to spread any actual knowledge of Christian 



i8 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

truth among the Jamaica Indians, or to set before them 
any very striking model of Christian practice. 

Nor is this very surprising. The Spanish adventurers 
and settlers of these fierce times not a few of them 
being transported robbers and murderers were not 
made of that material which is most susceptible to the 
reception of religious truths or most likely to retain 
religious impressions, while, as far as the Indians were 
concerned, the difficulty, not to say the impossibility, of 
carrying on any real missionary work among them may 
be illustrated by an anecdote from the neighbouring 
island of Cuba. A cacique, or chief, by name Hatuey, 
fled from St. Domingo to Cuba to escape his European 
tormentors, having in his possession a valuable casket 
of gold. When pursued by the Spaniards the idea oc 
curred to him that he might propitiate the Spanish 
Deity. " Behold," he said, pointing to the golden box, 
" the God of the Europeans " ; and summoning his 
friends and followers he held a mighty feast in honour 
of this Deity, offering sacrifices and singing and dancing 
round the precious box. Still the Spaniards drew nearer 
in their pursuit and Hatuey told his companions that 
they must be rid entirely of the God of the Spaniards 
before they could hope to be free from their persecuting 
presence. Accordingly the gold casket was solemnly 
buried in the sea. Nevertheless Hatuey was captured 
and promptly possibly because the coveted gold had 
been thrown away condemned to be burnt alive. 
While the necessary preparations for his execution were 
being made, a good friar tried to convert and baptize the 
unhappy cacique, enlarging much on the happiness oi 
a future heaven. " In this heaven of yours," asked the 
condemned man, " are there any Spaniards ? " " Cer 
tainly," answered the friar, " but they are all good 
Spaniards." " The best of them are good for nothing," 
retorted Hatuey, " and I will not go where I am likely 
to meet one of that awful tribe." So he died bravely, 
unshriven and unbaptized. Hatuey s opinion, thus 
frankly and roughly stated, was probably shared at that 
time by most Englishmen and cordially reciprocated by 
most Spaniards. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA ig 

The religious ceremonies of the Church appear, where 
possible, to have been conducted in stately buildings, of 
which little or no trace remains. At the first capital 
Seville D Oro, in the parish of St. Ann, founded by 
Diego Columbus, son and successor of the discoverer, 
was built a Collegiate Church, which was served by the 
order of the Hieronimites and of which Peter Martyr 
was the Abbot. There is no direct evidence that Peter 
Martyr ever resided at Seville Abbey, though in the 
" Decades " he writes in glowing language of the plea 
sure to be derived from such residence. In 1688, Sir 
Hans Sloane reported the existence of ruins of 
ecclesiastical buildings at Seville, but these and other 
relics of distant days have long ago disappeared 
beneath the exigencies of agriculture and the rapid 
growth of tropical vegetation. For some reason, 
which can only be conjectured, the seat of Government 
was moved in or about 1530 from Seville to St. Jago 
de la Vega (the modern Spanish Town), and here were 
built an abbey, two churches and two chapels. Jamaica, 
not being so wealthy as the neighbouring Spanish West 
Indian possessions, does not seem to have attracted 
Spanish-born priests so much as did the richer places, 
for when the English first occupied the island, they found 
negro priests of the Roman Church. No reference, 
however scanty, to the religious condition of Jamaica 
during the Spanish occupation would be complete with, 
out mentioning the labours in the cause of righteousness 
of Las Casas, who has deservedly been called the " Pro 
tector-General of the Indians." Las Casas gives 
horrible accounts of blood-curdling atrocities, of which 
he was himself an eye-witness. No good purpose could 
be served by repeating these accounts. It is enough for 
us to record here that his humane efforts were so far suc 
cessful that a Bull was issued in 1542 by the Pope, restoring 
the Indians to nominal freedom . But this concession came 
too late. The philanthropic friar had tried to save a 
doomed, or a dying, race, for when the Bull was granted 
by the Pope and confirmed by the Emperor Charles, 1 
Jamaica was almost depopulated of its aboriginal Indians. 

1 The grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. 



20 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

A few words must be said about this interesting 
people. They left behind them few records, few 
memorials, hardly a trace of legendary lore. Indeed, 
after the discovery of the West Indies, European 
adventurers in and about the islands were too keen in 
their often fruitless search for wealth to care much, if 
at all, for the Indians, whose lands they sometimes 
appropriated, sometimes ransacked and left desolate. 
The special correspondent was then unborn ; printing 
was in its infancy and but few travellers put into writing 
the impressions they formed or the information they 
collected. It seems, however, certain that the Bahamas 
and the Western Islands (the Greater Antilles) were 
inhabited by Arawaks, and the Eastern Islands (Leeward 
and Windward Islands) by Caribs. " Both are de 
scribed," so summarises Sir Frederick Treves, " as races 
of the Mongolian type, with yellow to olive-brown skin, 
long, lank, black hair, a broad skull, almond-shaped 
black eyes, slightly oblique, and bodies of moderate 
stature." Whether they were descended from, or akin 
to, emigrants from Asia to the American continent 
some thousands of years ago is an interesting question 
outside the purpose of these pages. 1 It is, however, 
fairly certain that within not too distant times both 
Arawaks and Caribs emigrated from Yucatan and 
Mexico to the Northern and North-Easterly parts of 
South America, and thence came north to the Islands, 
the former being the first to arrive. It was Arawaks that 
Columbus found in possession of Jamaica. They appear 
to have been of a gentler, milder, more inoffensive 
disposition than we usually associate with savage tribes. 
Though not deficient in courage, they offered only a 
feeble resistance to Columbus and his companions. 
They were not cannibals, nor were they treacherous or 
cruel. Far different were the Caribs, a wild, fierce, 
warlike race, freely practising cannibalism. It is pro 
bable that the Arawaks had been driven from South 
America by Caribs, and later on from the Lesser Antilles 
to the more Western Islands ; and that, but for the 

1 See Robertson s " Religions of Ancient America" in "Re 
ligious Systems of the World." 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 21 

Spanish occupation, they would either have been eaten 
by their ancient enemies, or forced to find refuge on the 
mainland of Central America. 

Little is known of the Arawak religion. No idols 
of theirs, no images survive, and only the dimmest 
outline of a creed. They were religious with perhaps an 
unusually small element of superstition in their religion. 
They believed in the existence of a Supreme Being, all- 
powerful and invisible, whom they worshipped under 
the name of locahuna, while at the same time they did 
reverence to other inferior and household deities. In 
the very scanty records of their ritual observances I 
can find no evidence to show that they offered human 
sacrifices. They had certain quaint ideas of the creation 
of the world, and also a tradition about a deluge, and 
they believed in a future state of existence, the highest 
happiness in which was to be found in the enjoyment 
of sensual, rather than of spiritual, delights. 

Their form of Government was simple, patriarchal and 
dignified. They were expert fishermen, and cultivated 
the soil just as much as was necessary to supply their 
own needs from day to day. In a tropical climate it 
is not necessary to lay by a store of provisions for un 
productive winter months : hence the impossibility of 
satisfying the Spanish demands for supplies of food for 
a large number of men. Their main recreation was 
dancing, and they played a game called Bato, a primitive 
sort of Rugby football, modified by a few acrobatic 
arts : in this game, both men and women joined in 
playing, and matches were frequently played between 
teams from neighbouring villages. They smoked tobacco, 
using that curious form of pipe which resembles in 
shape a schoolboy s wooden catapult, and consists of 
one straight tube, branching off into two other tubes 
which were inserted up the nostrils. They were kind 
to each other and hospitable. Indeed from what we 
know of these simple-minded, unfortunate people we 
may well believe that the world would have been none 
the worse for their survival, and for the extermination 
in their stead of some other race less creditable to 
humanity. We may note, by the way, that these 



22 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

innocent people are reported to have been taken in by 
the familiar use of an eclipse of the moon. Something 
of this sort is almost inevitable in stories of intercourse 
with savage, or uncivilised, races. In the case of the 
Jamaica Indians it is related that Columbus himself 
predicted an eclipse of the moon at a certain time as a 
sign that his great Deity was angry with the people 
for not supplying him with sufficient food. The eclipse 
came ; the Indians were alarmed ; later on, apparently 
in consequence of the prayers of Columbus, the moon 
resumed her wonted functions and a plentiful supply of 
provisions was assured for the future. The story may 
be true and, again, it may not be true. Travellers 
sometimes tell strange tales. 

There is some evidence which enables us to estimate, 
or perhaps to guess, the Indian population at the time 
of the discovery of Jamaica. Columbus reported the 
island to be thickly populated, and Las Casas compares 
the population to ants on an ant-hill. These estimates 
would, however, refer not to the whole island, but to the 
cultivated plains and savannahs along the coast, and 
would of course include the crowds who, naturally and 
out of curiosity, would be attracted to see these mysteri 
ous visitors in their strange caravels. We are further 
informed that " in Jamaica and the adjacent islands 
the Spaniards destroyed, within less than twenty years, 
more than 1,200,000 of the native Indians." The 
greater part of this slaughter would take place in the 
larger islands of Cuba and Haiti. Whether the number 
who perished in Jamaica were great or small, the fact 
remains that the Aborigines were completely exter 
minated with the exception of a few who managed to 
make good their escape to the mainland of Central 
America where, it is said, their descendants still live 
on the Mosquito coast and perhaps elsewhere. 
^ In the earlier years of the sixteenth century the 
Spanish population slowly increased, Jamaica being used 
as a sort of penal settlement, while the destruction of 
Indian life led to the importation of African slave labour. 
Negro slavery already existed in Spain and Portugal 
and was readily adopted in their American possessions. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 23 

It may here be mentioned that it was in 1562, that 
Captain (afterwards Sir John) Hawkins, brought the 
first cargo of African slaves to the West Indies. Many 
cargoes followed during many years, but the discredit of 
introducing the traffic does not belong to England. 
The number of Africans imported by the Spaniards 
was relatively much less in Jamaica than in other parts 
of the West Indies. The more ambitious settlers were 
attracted to wealthier places. While large fortunes 
were being made by enterprising Spanish adventurers in 
Cuba and Haiti, and by those who rushed to the rich 
mines of Mexico and South America, their fellow- 
countrymen in Jamaica, of a less adventurous disposition, 
were satisfied to live a lazy, luxurious life. At the same 
time it was not to be expected that those who treated 
the Indians with inhumanity should deal out kindness 
and consideration to the Africans. Writing of the Slave 
Code which existed among the Spaniards, a contempor 
ary writer says, " quam equidem legem ab immani 
aliquo daemone scriptam crediderim." Under this law 
a slave who failed to perform his allotted task was 
liable to be buried up to his neck and to be left to be 
devoured by insects. Naturally risings and rebellions 
were frequent. But on the whole the Africans in Jamaica 
fared better under the Spaniards than did their fellows 
In Cuba and Haiti. One more fact in connection with 
the Spanish occupation must not be omitted, namely 
the introduction of the sugar cane, and the consequent 
beginning of what became in after years the absorbing 
industry of the island. 

These three points then the extermination of the 
Indians, the importation of the African slaves, and the 
introduction of cane cultivation stand out as the most 
prominent features of the 150 years during which Spain 
ruled over Jamaica. The actual remains at the present 
day are few. They consist of a few names and a few 
stones. The site of the first capital of the island, Seville 
D Oro, founded by Diego Columbus, son of the dis 
coverer, is hardly recognisable. In the town of Porus 
we have perpetuated the name of the two brothers Porras 
who headed the mutiny against Columbus in 1505. In 



24 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

the Pedro plains and the Pedro river survives the name 
of Don Pedro de Esquimel, one of the most cruel of the 
Spanish Governors ; and some other names, either of 
Spanish or of Indian origin, remain, though most of them 
have been changed both in spelling and in pronunciation. 



CHAPTER II 

To inquire into all the causes which led to the acquisition 
of Jamaica by Great Britain would necessitate a careful 
review of the relations between England and Spain during 
the latter part of the Tudor Period of English History 
and during the first half-century of the Stuart dynasty. 
Such a review would hardly be in place here. A good 
many things had happened between the discovery by 
Columbus and the conquest by Cromwell, including the 
Reformation and the Spanish Armada. It is enough to 
state here that both James I. and Charles I., abandoning 
the vigorous policy of Queen Elizabeth, had given way 
too timidly and too tamely to Spanish claims and pre 
tensions, and that the honour of England, the protection 
of her commerce and the safety of her subjects, made it 
imperative on Cromwell s Government to defend British 
interests and rights in the West Indies. 

During the years of the Spanish occupation English 
freebooters landed on two occasions on the island and 
plundered the capital. These attacks were made in 
*597 by Sir Anthony Shirley and in 1638 by Colonel 
Jackson. Both Sir Anthony and the Colonel seem to have 
enjoyed their visits, fighting against a very feeble re 
sistance, burning and robbing and retiring with a grati 
fying amount of booty. Both of these were filibustering 
expeditions undertaken by private adventurers without 
any authority from the Crown. The expedition fitted 
out by Cromwell was of an entirely different kind. That 
the Protector was partly actuated by the desire to further 
crush the overbearing power of Spain is probably as true 
as that he desired to increase the power and prestige of 
his own Government ; but beyond this he was distinctly 
influenced by religious motives. The fact that motives 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 25 

of worldly policy were strangely placed side by side with 
professions of religions enthusiasm does not necessarily 
imply that these latter professions were not as genuinely 
felt as the former motives were undoubtedly entertained. 
Thus in 1653 in the course of negotiations preliminary 
to signing a treaty between England and the United 
Provinces, Cromwell writes to the Dutch Ambassador 

" That teachers, men gifted with knowledge of Jesus 
Christ, shall be sent by both states respectively unto all 
people and nations to inform and enlarge the gospel and the 
ways of Jesus Christ." 

The same document recommends 

" Such enterprise as shall be for the encircling of both 
states and for the propagation of true religion," 

and concludes by expressing a hope that by the conquest 

of Spain 

" England may very well enjoy such a revenue as to 
discharge all taxes of the subjects of England, and to pay 
the navy and forces by sea and land by the customs of 
America, beside the great trade and riches the subject shall 
have thereby." 

In documents and despatches of this character it is 
obviously difficult to distinguish what was genuine from 
what was conventional, what was diplomatic from what 
was religious, but it is hard to believe that so determined, 
so sincere and so original a man as Cromwell would 
descend in important documents to the use of formal or 
unmeaning words. And it is equally hard to refuse to 
recognise Milton s deeply religious sincerity when he 
wrote of : 

" The most opportunities of promoting the glory of God, 
and enlarging the bounds of Christ s kingdom, which we 
do not doubt will appear to be the chief end of our late 
expedition to the West Indies." 1 

It is probable that some of the leaders of this expedition 
may not have been as much in earnest as Cromwell and 
Milton for the religious welfare of the conquered people 
and the future colonists, though many of them were 

1 See the " Manifesto of the Lord Protector " explaining 
fully the causes which led to the war with Spain. This mani 
festo was written in Latin by Milton in the year 1655, and a 
translation of it is to be found in R. W. Griswold s Edition of 
Milton s Prose Works and, I suppose, in other editions. 

C 



2 6 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

men of irreproachable piety of life, integrity of speech 
and uprightness of conduct. 

The expedition itself well deserves Carry le s descrip 
tion of it as " the unsuccessfullest enterprise Oliver 
Cromwell ever had concern with." Admiral Penn, 
father of the Pennsylvanian Quaker, was in command 
of the fleet and General Venables of the land forces. 
The original intention was to attack and acquire St. 
Domingo as a preliminary to obtaining " establishment 
in that part of the West Indies which is possessed by the 
Spaniards." This intention ended in a miserable failure. 
Owing to incompetence and bad management, to quarrels 
between Admiral and General, perhaps to treachery, the 
invading force was hopelessly repulsed at St. Domingo. 
The weakened remnant of the expedition, with a view 
to saving its face from utter disgrace in England and 
ashamed to return home empty-handed, sailed for 
Jamaica and landed troops at Caguaya, and the wonder 
is that they were not driven out of Jamaica with as little 
difficulty as they had been from St. Domingo. Any sort 
of organised resistance would have routed and annihilated 
the demoralised forces of the invaders. This resistance 
was not forthcoming. After a wretched pretence of 
war, discreditable alike to victor and to vanquished, 
Articles of Capitulation were signed on the nth of May, 
1655. These articles laid down that any one who wished 
to leave the island might do so under certain more or less 
humiliating conditions, while those who decided to remain 
were promised their lives and the benefit and protection 
of the laws of England. While considering, or perhaps 
while pretending to consider, the terms of this Treaty, 
the Spaniards took the opportunity of removing from the 
capital as much of their property and stock as possible, 
so that when the British troops entered St. Jago de la 
Vega, they entered a deserted and half-ruined city. 
Then followed distress, hardships, insubordination, 
famine and pestilence among the troops, while the fugi 
tive Spaniards took refuge in the mountains in the centre 
of the island and on the North coast. 

Although, then, the expedition, as a whole, was a signal 
failure, and although Penn and Venables were rightly 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 27 

sent for a time to the Tower on their return home " for 
having deserted the forces committed to their charge," 
yet Jamaica was taken and became a British possession. 
Cromwell, disappointed and disgusted at the meagre 
result of his attempt to break the Spanish power in the 
West Indies, determined to make the best of what little 
had been achieved. Venables was succeeded by General 
Fortescue, a despatch from whom to Cromwell throws 
some light on the religious side of the conquest of Jamaica. 
Soon after taking over his command, Fortescue prepared 
a formal declaration which he signed on behalf of himself 
and his brother officers and sent to Cromwell ; this 
declaration contains the following paragraph : 

" Forasmuch as we conceive the propagation of the 
Gospel was the thing principally aimed at and intended in 
this expedition, I humbly desire that His Highness will 
please to take order that some godly, sober and learned 
minister may be sent unto us, which may be instrumental 
in planting and propagating of the Gospel, and able to 
comfort and stop the mouth of every cavilling adversary 
and gainsayer, and the rather for that two of the ministers 
are already dead, and a third lieth at the point of death." 

Cromwell s reply to this declaration is characteristic. 
After giving military directions and commending Fortes- 
cue for his " faithfulness and constancy in the midst of 
others miscarriages," he writes : 

" To conclude : As we have cause to be humbled for the 
reproof God gave us at St. Domingo, upon the account of 
our own sins as well as others, so, truly, upon the reports 
brought hither to us of the extreme avarice, pride and 
confidence, disorders and debauchedness, profaneness and 
wickedness, commonly practised amongst the many, we 
cannot only bewail the same, but desire that all with you 
may do so ; and that a very special regard may be had so 
to govern, for time to come, as that all manner of vice may 
be thoroughly discountenanced and severely punished ; 
and that such a frame of government may be exercised that 
virtue and godliness may receive due encouragement." 

Before this letter reached Jamaica Fortescue was dead. 
It should be mentioned here that the Expedition of Penn 
and Venables had included seven " ministers of religion." 
These would in the first place be naval or military chap 
lains. Whether it was intended that they should take 
up missionary work, if the enterprise were successful, I 



28 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

know not. They had no opportunity for doing so, for, 
including the two mentioned by Fortescue, six of the 
seven speedily fell victims to tropical fever, and the 
seventh soon followed his colleagues. I have failed to 
trace their names. Meanwhile the desperate condition 
of the troops, " dying at the rate of 200 a day," the 
inefficient equipment of the expedition and the disaffec 
tion which prevailed among both officers and men, com 
bined to increase the difficulties of the settlement and 
effectually to block the way of religious influence or 
progress. But if little or nothing was done in the way 
of building, there was no lack of that iconoclastic zeal 
so prominent a feature of the Puritanism of the time 
which delighted in pulling down the most magnificent 
parts of churches and cathedrals, and in destroying 
" all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers/ 
The religious sentiments of the victorious and disorderly 
army were displayed in the complete destruction of the 
Roman Catholic places of worship. Zeal for religion 
seems to have exhausted itself with this furious outbreak 
of destructive violence. 

We have mentioned the heavy mortality among the 
troops, and have now to allude to the steps which were 
taken to repeople the island with British subjects. The 
Spanish slaves followed the fortunes of their owners or 
escaped to the mountains, and there is nothing to show 
that many negroes were imported in Cromwell s time, 
but considerable additions were made from various 
sources to the white population. From England, Royal 
ists known to be disaffected, Roundheads suspected of 
wavering in the cause of the Commonwealth either came 
voluntarily or were sent under compulsion. The sheriffs 
of Scotch counties received instructions to apprehend all 
known idle, masterless robbers and vagabonds, male and 
female, and transport them to the Island. As one of 
the consequences of Cromwell s policy of Coercion in 
Ireland, we have the following Order in Council, under 
date 3rd October, 1655 : 

" Commissioners of Admiralty to have boats built ; one 
thousand Irish girls and as many youths of fourteen or under to 
be sent to Jamaica, the allowance for each not to exceed 203." 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 29 

Another Order in the following month directs that two 
thousand Bibles shall be sent to Jamaica "to be paid 
for with the rest of the provisions." Presumably these 
Bibles were intended for the two thousand girls and boys 
so cruelly exiled. 1 

All this time Jamaica was under military law, for 
Spanish troops were still on the island and had not given 
up hope of regaining possession of it. At last, seeing 
how disease and dissension were weakening the British 
forces, they made a final effort, under the command of 
the late Governor, Don Arnoldi Sasi, in October, 1658, 
but were defeated by the British, under General D Oyley, 
at the battle of Rio Nuevo. A few months of desultory 
guerilla warfare followed, after which Sasi and a few sur 
viving followers managed to make good their escape to 
Cuba from a bay on the northern coast, which has since 
been known as Runaway Bay. Don Sasi retired to a 
monastery in Spain, where he spent the closing years of 
his life. 

Cromwell died six weeks before the Spaniards were 
defeated at Rio Nuevo, and D Oyley was left by the 
home authorities to act on his own responsibility. 
Richard Cromwell, during his short Protectorate, de 
clined an offer to restore Jamaica to Spain in return for 
a large sum of money, and Charles II., soon after his 
accession to the throne, was proof against the plausible 
request that Jamaica should be given back to Spain 
on the ground that it had been captured by rebel sub 
jects of the King of England, contrary to the Treaty of 
Peace between the two crowns. These events, however, 
happened in England, and the second Charles had been 
twelve months on the throne before he took any official 
notice of Jamaica. 

1 Anticipating time, and to complete this point, it may here 
be stated that Monmouth s Rebellion, the Rye House Plot, 
Judge Jeffries, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the French 
Revolution (as far as it affected Haiti) were responsible for the 
arrival in Jamaica of various contingents of white people. 



3 o THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 



CHAPTER III 

THE complete conquest of Jamaica may be said to 
synchronise with the death of Cromwell, which happened 
before he had time to give effect to any religious or 
benevolent intentions. And the history of the Church of 
England in Jamaica begins with the reign of Charles II. 
In 1661 General Edward D Oyley, who, as has been 
already mentioned, had been in command of the military 
forces at the time of Cromwell s death, was appointed 
first Governor of the Colony, and his commission definitely 
instructed him 

" to discourage vice and debauchery and to encourage 
ministers that Christianity and the Protestant religion, 
according to the Church of England, might have due rever 
ence and exercise." 

Lord Windsor, the second Governor, was in 1662 similarly 
instructed to take measures " for the encouragement of 
an orthodox ministry." Successive legislatures passed laws 
regulating ecclesiastical matters and were notably liberal 
in making financial provision for the support of the clergy. 
As was natural, the first English church built in the Island 
was at St. Jago de la Vega, or Spanish Town, the latter 
name being soon substituted for the former. The church 
was built on the site of one of the old Spanish churches, 
the Red Cross Church, destroyed by the Puritan soldiers 
of the Commonwealth. Various opinions are held as to 
exact date or dates at which the present building was 
erected or completed. The first church was destroyed 
by hurricane in 1712, rebuilt in the two or three following 
years, enlarged in 1762, carefully and judiciously restored 
and much beautified and internally improved during 
Bishop Douet s Rectorship (1876-1891), and the sub 
sequent rectorships of Canon Wortley (1892-1901) and 
of Canon Ripley (1901-1904), damaged by earthquake 
in 1907, and is now, both on account of its orderly and 
stately condition and because of the historic associations 
connected with it, a building of which the Church of 
England has no reason to be ashamed. It is one of the 
oldest if not the oldest buildings now in use as a 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 31 

British Colonial Cathedral. While other dioceses have 
erected new and sometimes costly chief churches, Jamaica 
has been wisely contented to connect the present with 
the past by adapting for Cathedral uses the old Parish 
Church of the ancient capital of the island. The Cathe 
dral is cruciform in shape, with a beautiful stained-glass 
east window, much fine wood carving and many inter 
esting cenotaphs and memorial tablets, in the inscrip 
tions on which we can trace a good deal of island history. 
There are also noteworthy pieces of sculpture some by 
Bacon, R.A. erected to the memory of the Earl and 
Countess of Effingham, Sir Basil Keith, Major-General 
Selwyn and the Countess of Elgin. 1 

Before 1664 six other churches were built, or probably 
existing buildings were set apart and used for Church 
purposes. In that year there were five clergy in the 
island. Two years later a Mr. Nicholas ministered at 
Morant Bay, but soon died of fever. The then Governor, 
Sir Thomas Modyford, writes about this time to His 
Majesty s Lords Commissioners the following descrip 
tion of the religious condition of the island : 

" Five parishes only have churches, the rest are coming 
on. as fast as their small means will permit them ; but alas, 
my lords, these five do not preach to one-third of the island. 
The plantations are at such distance from each other that 
it is impossible to make up convenient congregations or 
find fitting places for the rest to meet in ; but they agree 
among themselves to meet alternatively at each other s 
houses, as the primitive Christians did, and then to pray, 
read a chapter, sing a psalm and home again ; so that, 
did not the accessors to this island come, men and women, 
and so well instructed in the articles of our faith in their 
own countries, it might well be feared that the Christian 
religion would be quite forgot, or at least little minded 
among them." 

This quotation is interesting, partly as illustrative of 
what we know has gone on in later years in out-of-the- 
way parts of other and more important Colonies than 
Jamaica, and is now going on, and partly as suggestive 

1 A full and interesting sketch (with illustrations) of the His 
tory of the Cathedral has recently been, written by the present 
Eector (Canon Hendrick), and may be obtained at the S.P.C.K, 
offices. 



32 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

of the quiet influence of some of the Cromwellian exiled 
settlers only a few years before Modyford wrote. 

In 1671 we know from records that a Mr. Barrow was 
working as a clergyman in the parish of St. Elizabeth. 
In 1675 there were only four clergymen resident in the 
island. These were Mr. Hansyer (a native of Switzer 
land) at Spanish Town, Mr. James Zellers (another Swiss) 
at St. Andrew s, Mr. Hayne at Port Royal, and Mr. 
Lemon at Guanaboa. It will be noticed that these 
places are within a limited radius of Spanish Town, 
confirming the accuracy of Sir Thomas Mody ford s letter. 
The journals of the House of Assembly of this period 
speak highly both of the ability and of the piety of these 
men. Of the ministry of the Rev. James Zellers and his 
successors some facts are known, owing to the preserva 
tion in very good condition of the Registers belonging to 
St. Andrew s Church, which for certainly more than a 
century has been singularly fortunate in being under 
the pastoral care of a series of most efficient clergymen. 
Mr. Zellers himself was rector of the parish for thirty- 
six years, namely from 1664-1700. He began his minis 
try in a small and plain building and in 1684 commenced 
the erection of a church, which was completed in 1692, 
and was unfortunately destroyed by earthquake less 
than six months after it had been opened for public use. 
Nothing daunted by this calamity, Mr. Zellers set to 
work again and lived to see another church built. This 
structure suffered much at various times from storm and 
hurricane and was patched up and repaired over and 
over again. In 1879, during the rectorship of the late 
Rev. H. H. Isaacs, whose great work as Secretary for 
many years of the Jamaica Home and Foreign Missionary 
Society has left its mark all over the island, the church 
was admirably restored, beautified and enlarged, the shell 
or outer-wall of Mr. Zellers s second church being retained. 
Mr. Isaacs died in 1900, and in memory of his faithful 
ministry the church was further enlarged to meet the 
demand for increased accommodation. The west end 
of the church, including the tower, was much damaged by 
the earthquake of 1907. It has again been restored and 
again enlarged, an extended nave replacing the old tower. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 33 

In 1681 the Island was divided into fifteen parishes 
and an Act of Assembly was passed by which the magis 
trates were authorised to raise taxes for the maintenance 
of ministers and for the erection of new, or the repair of 
old, churches. The incomes of these parishes varied, 
the Rector of Port Royal receiving 250 per annum, of 
St. Catherine s (Spanish Town) 140, the Rectors of three 
other parishes 100 each, and the remainder 80 each. 
These figures, by no means represent the total incomes 
of the clergy. There were various supplementary sources 
of revenue, a contemporary writer informing us that 
" in most parishes the contingencies, by voluntary pres 
ents for christenings, marriages, buryings and otherwise 
with houses, taking boarders, schooling, etc., make con 
siderable additions." 

At this time and until its formation in 1824 into a 
distinct see Jamaica, like other "plantations" or 
colonies, was under the episcopal jurisdiction of the 
Bishop of London. It is evident that this jurisdiction 
was not intended to be merely nominal. We find in a 
Report, dated 6th of August i68i r from the Committee of 
Trade and Plantations that it was recommended to the 
King as necessary " that no minister be received in 
Jamaica without license from the Right Reverend the 
Lord Bishop of London ; and that none, having his 
Lordship s license, be rejected without sufficient cause 
alleged ; as also, that, in the direction of Church affairs, the 
ministers be admitted into the respective vestries." This 
was embodied in the official instructions given to successive 
Governors. But the J amaica Assembly, during the whole 
202 years of its existence, was one of the most independent 
legislative bodies that have ever administered Colonial 
affairs, and was never in a temper to submit blindly to the 
jurisdiction of an ecclesiastic who was separated by a whole 
ocean from the obj ects of his supposed supervision . An early 
statute accordingly decreed that " no ecclesiastical law, 

1 In 1634 an order of the King in Council (Charles I.) was 
obtained by Archbishop Laud for extending the jurisdiction of 
the Bishop of London for the time being to English congregations 
and clergy abroad. This order does not appear to have contem 
plated missionary work. 



34 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

or jurisdiction, shall have power to enforce, confirm or 
establish any penal mulct or punishment in any case 
whatsoever." This plainly questioned the right of the 
Bishop to suspend any clergyman in the island either ab 
officio or a beneficio. As a matter of fact everything was 
new, and very much mixed, and there was neither 
tradition nor precedent to guide. It is not likely that 
the Assembly had any rooted objection to Episcopacy as 
a form of Church Government, but it probably saw and 
appreciated the absurdity of an Episcopacy when the 
Bishop lived 4,000 miles from his clergy and had not the 
slightest intention of personally visiting either churches 
or congregations. Nor, as we shall presently see, were 
the character and attainments of some of the clergy, 
licensed by Bishops of London, calculated to give the 
laity of Jamaica much confidence in the judgment or tact 
of the prelates who selected these clergy and licensed them 
for their sacred duties. 

In 1683, as the result of a suggestion of Bishop 
Compton (of London), the clergy were appointed ex 
officio members of the Parish Vestries, which had the 
assessing of taxes for Church purposes ; and at the same 
time the minimum stipend derived from taxes was fixed at 
100 a year. Whether the former of these arrangements 
was wise or not at that particular time need not concern 
us now, but there can hardly be two opinions that in 
recent years much valuable help has been given to 
parochial boards by the presence thereon of judicious clergy 
who have been able to look after the temporal needs of 
their parishes as well as to attend to their ministerial 
duties. Of course it all depends on the man, but it would 
be a deplorable thing, in the opinion of most thoughtful 
people, if Jamaica clergy of any denomination were to 
become an exclusive ecclesiastical class, holding them 
selves aloof from the material well-being and progress of 
the Colony. 

An interesting feature of the religious life in Jamaica 
during the reign of Charles II. is the broad, generous 
spirit of toleration displayed by the king towards those 
who differed from his religious ideas. Charles II. s religion 
at best sat rather loosely on him and, such as it was, it 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 35 

was narrow and cramped ; and few who have studied 
his conduct in England, or been shocked at his religious 
policy in Scotland, can hear without surprise and amaze 
ment that his policy in Jamaica was that of a tolerant, 
liberal ruler. It may be that this was merely the out 
ward sign of an utter indifference, but there are many 
Scotch Presbyterians who would regard the indifference 
of a Stuart as a virtue when compared with his zeal for 
Episcopacy. We find, as evidence of this toleration, 
that he gave instructions " for the encouragement of 
persons of different judgment and opinions in matters 
of religion to transport them with their effects to 
Jamaica/ There may possibly be those who think that 
transportation two hundred years ago to a scarcely- 
known tropical island was but a poor sort of encourage 
ment to independent religious thinkers, but the tolerant 
spirit and the good intentions of the king are seen when 
he further directs that in order that these transported 
persons " may not be obstructed and hindered, under 
pretence of scruples of conscience, the oaths of supremacy 
and allegiance shall be dispensed with in those that should 
bear any part in the Government (the members and 
Officers of the Privy Council alone excepted) and that 
some other way of securing their allegiance should be 
devised." Further evidence pointing in the same 
direction is to be found in an order of Council bearing 
date, igth January, 1682. The Order authorises the 
Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High 
Admiral of England 

" to provide passage, together with provision of victuals 
as shall be necessary, for forty-two French Protestants, 
whose names are to be certified unto them by the Right 
Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of London, to be 
transplanted to his Majesty s Island of Jamaica, with the 
first conveniency they can, and the Right Honourable, Mr. 
Secretary Jenkins is to send letters recommending the said 
persons to the favourable reception of Sir Thomas Lynch, 
Governor of His Majesty s said Island, they intending to 
plant and settle there." 

Few events of importance to the Jamaica Church are to 
be noted in James II. s short reign. The Protestantism 
of the colonists was perhaps too apprehensive of the 



36 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

King s possible policy, but it turned out that he confirmed 
all the ecclesiastical laws existing in the colony. 
Whether he would have continued that policy is another 
matter. It is indeed probable that, had James II. been 
permitted to reign long enough, the history of a good 
many places besides Jamaica would be very different 
reading from what it is. In 1687 the Duke of Albemarle, 
a Roman Catholic, was appointed Governor. He 
brought out with him Sir Hans Sloane as his private 
physician, and Father Churchill who was described as 
" the chief pastor of His Majesty s Catholic subjects in 
Jamaica." The priest s mission was soon cut short, for 
the Duke, after a serious quarrel with the Assembly, 
died in the year following his arrival, and in the same 
year William and Mary ascended the throne and issued 
a proclamation granting " liberty of conscience to all 
except Papists." 

The reign of William and Mary is memorable in the 
annals of Jamaica as being that in which the wealthy 
town of Port Royal was destroyed by earthquake. 
Perhaps no account of Jamaica would be complete with 
out some reference to this dire calamity, while it has its 
own importance to our present purpose as indirectly 
throwing light on the religious condition of the colony 
at that time. It must be remembered that not only was 
Port Royal the principal sea port and distributing centre 
of the island but also, since the capture of Jamaica by 
Cromwell s forces, it had been the head-quarters of 
British buccaneers, who had previously, together with 
their French and Dutch comrades, made the island of 
Tortuga, off the north-western coast of Haiti, the basis 
of their operations. The catastrophe itself has often 
been described and no fresh description can add to its 
horrors. About midday on the 7th of June, 1692, the 
earth was shaken with repeated shocks of such violence 
that on all sides were heard and seen the din and con 
fusion caused by falling walls and buildings. Wharves, 
laden with valuable merchandise, private houses of 
wealthy men, merchants stores, together with the church 
of the town and the Government fortifications, were all 
overwhelmed in one common ruin : as the earth opened 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 37 

and closed again, receiving (so we are told) whole streets 
of houses and hundreds of terrified people, so did the 
sea rise in large waves and, sweeping over the ruined and 
sunken town, complete the devastation. But this was 
not the end ; for many days after mutilated corpses 
floated up and down the harbour or lay unburied on the 
shore, and the pestilence thus generated claimed almost 
as many victims as did the earthquake. Nor was de 
struction confined to Port Royal, for nearly every district 
in the island suffered to an extent which in some instances 
seems almost incredible. One well-known and extra 
ordinary escape should not be omitted from any record 
of this terrible visitation. At Green Bay, on the opposite 
shore to Port Royal, is the tomb of Lewis Galdy, a 
Huguenot refugee, who died in 1739. The inscription on 
the tombstone records that Galdy was swallowed up by 
one earthquake shock and that, before life was extinct, a 
second shock cast him up again into the sea, whence he 
escaped by swimming to a boat which carried him to the 
shore. He lived for nearly half a century after this 
strange adventure, was a member of Assembly and a 
respected merchant in Port Royal, but has left no record 
in writing of the sensations or impressions produced by 
this remarkable experience. One cannot help feeling 
something of Tennyson s regret at the silence of Lazarus, 
when one thinks of all that Galdy might have told : 

" Behold a man raised up by Christ ! 

The rest remaineth unreveal d ; 
He told it not ; or something seal d 
The lips of that Evangelist." 

Inscriptions on tombstones may sometimes give an 
exaggerated estimate of the moral character and varied 
virtues of those who are gone, but their historical accur 
acy is generally admitted. The inscription on Galdy s 
tombstone quoted by Bridges is as follows : 

HERE LIES THE BODY 
OF 

LEWIS GALDY ESQUIRE, 

who departed this life at Port Royal, 
the 22nd December, 1739, aged 80 years 



38 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

He was born at Montpelier in France, but left that country 
for his religion, and came to settle in this island ; where 
he was swallowed up in the great earthquake in the year 
1692 ; and by the Providence of God, was, by another shock, 
thrown into the sea, and miraculously saved by swimming, 
until a boat took him up. He lived many years after in 
great reputation, beloved by all who knew him and much 
lamented at his death." 

Among the survivors of this terrible catastrophe was 
the Rector of Port Royal, whose letters relating his ex 
periences have been preserved in the columns of the 
Gentleman s Magazine. 1 The religious condition of Port 
Royal, if we may judge from these letters, must have been 
appalling. Having remarked that by daily prayers he 
had endeavoured " to keep up some show of religion 
amongst a most ungodly and debauched people," the 
Rector proceeds to describe the earthquake itself and his 
own narrow escape from destruction and then continues : 

" The people, seeing me, cry d out to come and pray with 
them. When I came into the street, every one laid hold of 
my clothes and embraced me, so that I was almost stifled 
with their kindness. I persuaded them at last to kneel 
down and make a large ring, which they did. I prayed 
with them near an hour, when I was almost spent by the 
sun and the exercise. They then brought me a chair, the 
earth working all the while with new motions and tremblings, 
like the rolling of the sea, insomuch that sometimes when 
I was at prayers I could hardly keep upon my knees. By 
that time I had been half-an-hour with them, setting before 
them their sins and heinous provocations and seriously 
exhorting them to repentance." 

Later on he writes : "I hope by this terrible judgment 
God will make them reform their lives, for there was not 
a more ungodly people on the face of the earth." 

This is very strong, not to say hysterical, language, 
but no stronger or more hysterical than has recently been 
used not in the West Indies, but in England, after 
the eruption of Mt. Pelee in 1902 or the earthquake in 
Jamaica in 1907. It is of course quite possible that even 
in the seventeenth century (to say nothing of the 
twentieth) the lessons of the fallen tower of Siloam had 
been imperfectly learnt by an otherwise reputable clergy 
man, but the estimate formed by the Rector of Port 

1 See Gardner s " History of Jamaica," p. 108. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 39 

Royal seems to have been acknowledged as generally 
accurate. The Assembly at its first meeting after the 
earthquake decreed a perpetual fast on its anniversary, 
the 7th of June, on the ground that it had " pleased 
Almighty God justly to punish the inhabitants of this 
island for the manifold sins and wickedness committed 
against His Divine Majesty." 

Commenting some forty years after on what he calls 
this " unhandsome Reflection on the Country " an anony 
mous writer compares the destruction of Port Royal 
with the violent earthquake at Palermo in 1726 and 
remarks that " no such Reflections were flung upon this 
unhappy people as this clergyman has occasioned upon 
the Inhabitants of Port Royal." He further clinches 
his point by an unanswerable argumentum ad, hominem 
by asking, " But what would he have said when the 
hurricane of 1722 blew down the house of the Rev. Mr. 
May, the present Lord Bishop of London s Commissary 
in Kingston, and killed his wife and broke his leg ? 
Would he have carried such reflections down to posterity 
(of a man much superior in character than most of the 
West India Clergy) as he has done of the inhabitants of 
Port Royal?" 

The bell of the destroyed church of Port Royal was 
rescued by divers and is to be seen in the Museum of the 
Jamaica Institute. It bears the inscription : " Jesu 
Maria. Et verbum caro factum est et abita" and is 
undated. 

The population of the island at the end of the seven 
teenth century consisted of (in round figures) 7,000 
Europeans and 40,000 Africans, a large increase since 
the Restoration, the growth of the slave population being 
disproportionately great when contrasted with that of 
the European. This large increase in the African popu 
lation marks the rapid growth of the sugar industry. 
In the early days of the British occupation it was found 
that, though the best kinds of cane were not indigenous 
to J amaica, yet both the soil and climate were admirably 
suited to the cultivation of sugar. Consequently and 
unfortunately almost every other form of cultivation 
had to give way to sugar. The effect of this was as 



40 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

important socially as it was materially, for while British 
settlers and white slaves for such in reality were many 
of the persons transported for political and other offences 
in the Stuart period could carry on agricultural pur 
suits in the cooler and more bracing mountain districts, 
they were incapable of hard and continuous manual 
labour in the cane-growing districts in the lowlands. 
Hence the traffic in African slaves and the system of 
negro slavery increased with the extension of sugar 
cultivation. 

CHAPTER IV 

THE eighteenth century is characterised in Jamaica 
history both by the rapid increase in the wealth of the 
Colony and by the beginning of the agitation which 
culminated in the abolition of slavery. Figures alone 
can show how quickly the black population grew in 
spite of what must have been a terrible mortality. With 
out detailing lengthy statistics we may mention that 
between the years 1700 and 1786 no less than 610,000 
slaves were landed in Jamaica, of whom 160,000 were 
re-exported to other parts of the West Indies or to North 
America. Thus more than 5,000 were added every year 
to the existing number. The reason for this large and 
constant increase may partly have been that the amount 
of land under cultivation was being greatly extended 
but it was certainly to some extent due to the hard labour 
and harsh treatment which retarded the natural increase 
of the population, and to the fact that the number of 
male slaves imported was largely in excess of the number 
of female. And there must not be forgotten the heavy 
death-rate among the slaves on the not infrequent occa 
sions of famine, pestilence or insurrection. 

A careful examination of the available literature having 
reference to the Church of England in this century in 
evitably leads to the conclusion that, though the As 
sembly ungrudgingly voted the necessary money for 
Church purposes, yet the Church itself was regarded as 
little more than a respectable and ornamental adjunct 
of the State, the survival of a harmless home institution 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 41 

which would cease to be tolerated if it showed any signs 
of energy or activity outside its own particular groove. 
The Church at home was willing to provide chaplains 
for white settlers, but its missionary zeal in the first half 
of the eighteenth century was only beginning. C.M.S. 
did not then exist, and S.P.G., as its full name implies, 
had for its object to establish and conduct missions in 
foreign parts. Jamaica was not foreign ; it was a British 
colony. The probability is that the Bishops of London in 
sending out clergy gave no instructions as to missionary 
work among negroes, about whom they cared little or 
nothing, but, as has been suggested, exercised in many 
cases their office or patronage to oblige a friend or to find 
a home and an income for some family incumbrance. 1 
The most we can say is that the Church represented the 
religion of the white settlers and planters and officials ; 
but it cannot claim to have been in any sense a missionary 
Church to the black labourers. It may be that the good 
of many a pious and industrious Church clergyman lies 
buried with his bones in some far off corner of the colony ; 
but few records exist and few traces are to be found of 
any marked efforts on the part of the Church to raise the 
moral tone of the slaves, to ameliorate their distressful 
condition or to instruct them in the elements of Christian 
truth. Perhaps things were no worse than might have 
been expected from the state of public opinion at that 
time. The eighteenth century was not the brightest in 
the history of the Church of England at home and there 
were peculiar difficulties in the way of the Jamaica clergy 
man. The Assembly, on whose vote the emoluments of a 
clergyman depended, consisted almost entirely of slave 
owners or of sympathisers with slavery. There was, on 
an average, an outbreak or rebellion of slaves, more or 
less severe, in some part of the island once every five years. 
As subsequent events proved, and as no doubt the 
planters anticipated, the inculcation of Christian truths 
could not fail to produce feelings of disaffection and a 

1 Some writers go so far as to say that Bishops of London 
occasionally sent out as clergymen persons who had not been 
ordained. Let us hope this is not true ; or, if it is true, let us 
hope that these irregular ministers did good and honourable service. 

D 



42 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

consciousness of humiliation and ill-treatment in the 
minds of the African bondsmen. " The truth shall make 
you free " and those who were opposed to freedom were 
at any rate consistent in withholding the truth. It is 
easier though it ought not to be to find fault than 
it is to make allowance, and if the Jamaica clergy of the 
eighteenth century deserve their share of blame, they are 
at least entitled to a large and charitable allowance in 
view of the difficult and unusual circumstances under 
which they laboured. 

The discreditable condition of Church matters at this 
time can best be illustrated by a few quotations and 
references. Thus Long in his history writes : 

" Of the character of the clergy in this island I shall say 
but little. There have seldom been wanting some who were 
equally respectable for their learning, piety and exemplary 
good behaviour : others have been detestable for their 
addiction to lewdness, drinking, gambling and iniquity ; 
having no control but their own sense of the dignity of their 
function, and the censures of the Governor." 

Again : 

" Some labourers of the Lord s vineyard have at times 
been sent, who were much better qualified to be retailers 
of salt-fish or boatswains to privateers than ministers of 
the Gospel." 

After speaking of the little discrimination shown by 
Bishops of London in the choice of clergymen for Jamaica, 
Long concludes : 

" Let us, however, venture to assert in their favour that, 
although some may perhaps be found who, in their moral 
conduct would disgrace even the meanest of mankind, there 
are others, and in a much greater number, who, by their 
example and their doctrine, would do honour to their pro 
fession in any part of England." 

Another contemporary writer speaks of the majority 
of the clergy as being " of a character so vile that I do 
not care to mention it ; for, except a few, they are gener 
ally the most finished of all debauchees." The same 
writer adds that many of the churches were seldom 
opened, a fact which only a sham sentiment can regret. 
There is a sort of pleasure in giving these disreputable 
clergy credit for the possession of that amount of grace 
and good feeling which was sufficient to prompt them to 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 43 

keep their shameless persons outside the doors of the 
House of God. 

Mr. Bridges quotes from a French traveller who visited 
Jamaica about the middle of the century the following 
uncomplimentary opinion : 

" Les eglises de Spanish Town sont en forme de croix, 
avec un petit dome aii mileau mais les voyageurs ajouent 
que le clerge du pays est peu occupe de sa profession, et que 
rarement les portes des eglises sont ouvertes. Quelle honte, 
s ecrie 1 auteur, quand on considere combien de mille livres 
sterling les habitans paient pour les eglises, et pour ies 
pretes." 

There is extant a copy of a letter, dated 1738, in which 
the writer, a quaint and discriminating person, thus 
alludes to the morality and religion practised and 
observed at that date : 

" That vicious people are in all countries cannot be denied 
and no doubt Jamaica has its share, but there is too much 
reason to believe that more vice is brought into the country 
by new-comers, than what the Creoles can justly be taxed 
with ; and among the inhabitants there are Gentlemen 
as remarkable for their Virtue and Integrity as in other 
Countries. And though Religions of all Christian Sects are 
tolerated, the Church of England is the Chief established, 
and the Clergy are better provided for there than at home, 
except in Dignities or Power of Ecclesiastical Courts ; for 
besides Cotton Walks and the Labour of fourteen Negroes 
they have often a Chaplaincy in a Man-of-War, etc. At 
Kingston is a large Congregation, where may be seen from 
fourteen to twenty Coaches and Chariots every Sunday ; 
the Quakers have also a meeting there. At Port Royal 
the Captain of the Fort with the Garrison and Inhabitants 
make another ; and you will believe that at Spanish Town, 
where the Governor resides, if there is any Deficiency or 
Neglect of Duty, it is owing more to the Clergy than to the 
people." 

The Governor in question who exercised this wholesome 
and restraining influence was Mr. Edward Trelawny. 
Unfortunately all the early Governors of Jamaica did 
not bear the same character or set the same example of 
life. We find one of them described as being " the 
most prof est immoral liver in the world," and another as 
being " one of the lewdest fellows of the age." Governors 
in those days were probably chosen quite irrespectively 
of their moral character and virtuous living and, unless 



44 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

the combined voices of historians are misleading, there 
is reason to fear that the example set at Government 
House was not always in the direction of righteousness. 
Let us now proceed to summarise the legislative and 
other efforts made during this century to improve the 
position of the Church and to advance the religious growth 
of the Colony. The Act, already referred to, of 1683 was 
supplemented by another in 1706 " for the encourage 
ment of good and able ministers to come to the island," 
and an increase of income was provided as an induce 
ment. 1 As an illustration of how little care the legisla 
tion took in the religious training of the slaves, we may 
mention that the fee, fixed by law in the above-named 
Act, for administering the Sacrament of Baptism to a 
slave was i 35. gd., a sum large enough to be prohibitory. 
Minor measures, all in a liberal direction, were passed in 
subsequent years until we come to 1748, when further 
legislation took place on the ground that the provision 
made for the clergy was " too scanty for a proper and 
suitable maintenance" and that, as part of the salary 
depended on the pleasure of vestries, the clergy were 
placed in an " improper state of dependence." Under 
this Act the vestries were relieved of the responsibility 
of providing any portion of a clergyman s salary, which 
was in future to be paid from the island funds. In 
accordance with custom the opportunity was taken to 
increase the salaries. The parochial vestries, however, 
were not entirely relieved for they were required either to 
build a rectory at a cost not exceeding 500, or to provide 
an allowance of 50 a year for rent. At that time there 
were nineteen ecclesiastical parishes in the island. In 
1750 provision was made for a missionary to the Musquito 
Coast. In 1770 the attention of the Assembly was drawn 
to the irregular ministrations of some of the clergy, 
and some restraining legislation was necessary. An Act 
was accordingly passed to prevent the incumbent of one 
parish from officiating as a curate in another parish, 
and " a fine of 50 was imposed on any clergyman who 

1 From 1683 to the end of Queen Anne s reign the Home 
Government allowed 20 for passage money to every minister 
or schoolmaster leaving England for Jamaica 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 45 

should receive a stipend without actually officiating and 
residing (unless in case of sickness or absence) for a term 
not exceeding one month at a time or two months in the 
year." These conditions and penalties do not err in the 
direction of severity, and the island funds were not 
largely increased by the exactions of many fines. Never 
theless, as a sort of set-off against the very slight severity 
of the 1770 Act, it was decreed in 1773 that, in parishes 
where churches, rectories and cemeteries were needed, 
the respective vestries should provide them at a cost of 
5,000 from parochial funds. These instructions were 
not always carried out, for in some parishes Divine 
Service was conducted in private houses. 

During this period the Church was enriched by bequests 
or donations of land. The Rectory of St. Andrew 
received six hundred acres of glebe ; the Rectory of St. 
George s received the same amount, which was vested 
in trustees, who appropriated the proceeds of the sale 
of half of it to the purchase of slaves to stock the other 
half which was reserved as a glebe for the rector and his 
successors. In the case of the Rectory of St. Elizabeth 
we read that " upwards of thirteen hundred acres, which 
had been appropriated or had fallen by patent of escheat 
to the use of the parish, having long laid waste the 
rector was joined by his parishioners in an application 
to the Assembly for the purpose of disposing of eleven 
hundred acres wherewith to purchase slaves and of re 
taining the remainder as a provision for himself and his 
successors for ever." 1 In 1787 a sense of the reverence 
due to sacred buildings seems to have dawned upon the 
Assembly which put an end to the custom which had 
hitherto prevailed of holding elections in parish churches. 
In 1789 intramural burials were forbidden on sanitary 
grounds under a penalty of 500, while compensation 
for the consequent loss of fees was made to the amount 
of 640, distributed pro rata among the various parishes 
where such burials had been customary. 

The last legislative enactment to be noted in this 
century was passed in 1797 and has an importance of its 
own to these pages as being the first indication of a 

1 Sec p. 169. 



46 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

change of front on the part of the Church towards the 
slaves. The reasons for this change will more appro 
priately appear in the next chapter. The main features 
of this Act are thus summarised by the Rev. G. W. 
Bridges : " The penalties attached to the non-perform 
ance of the several duties imposed by former Acts upon 
magistrates and vestrymen, in respect to the Church, 
were extended to 100 ; when parishes failed in providing 
places of worship, the Board of Works should cause them 
to be built and assess the expenses on the parishes 
not exceeding the sum of 3,000 ; that rectors should 
forthwith be provided with suitable houses at an expense 
not exceeding 1,200 ; that they appropriate a certain 
portion of every Sunday to the instruction of slaves ; 
that the stipends of all the rectors should be equalised 
and paid quarterly by the Receiver-General of the island, 
at the rate of 420 per annum, exclusive of certain sums 
paid in lieu of Church burials, but subject to a deduction 
of ten per cent, for the establishment of a fund to pro 
vide for the respectable maintenance of the widows and 
orphans of deceased rectors ; that no salary be paid by 
the parish vestries ; and that the liberty given to the 
rector of St. Andrew s to lease his glebe should be ex 
tended to all the beneficed clergy." 

The population at the end of the seventeenth century 
was estimated at 30,000 Europeans, 250,000 negroes, 
10,000 coloured people and free negroes and 1,400 
Maroons. A few lines about the last-named. The 
word " Maroon " is an abbreviated form of the Spanish 
"Cimaroon" or "Simaroon," meaning wild, unruly, 
derived from cima, the top of a hill. The name was 
originally given to Spanish runaway slaves who escaped 
to Central America, where as long ago as 1572 we read 
of their helping Blake and Oxnam (Kingsley s Oxenham) 
in their dealings with the Spaniards. The Jamaica 
Maroons, in the beginning, were also runaway Spanish 
slaves, who lived in what were then almost inaccessible 
mountain districts ; later on, when the Spaniards under 
Don Sasi fled from Jamaica, their abandoned slaves 
joined the Maroons, who were afterwards reinforced 
from time to time by runaway English slaves, who 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 47 

managed to make good their escape. For many years 
they were a terror and a scourge to the Colony, brave men 
and strong, hardened and unscrupulous. The most 
serious trouble with them was in 1795, when those who 
had made their home in the uplands of Trelawney revolted. 
In the end a large number of them surrendered and were 
shipped off to Nova Scotia and lived for a time on the 
bounty of the British Government. Later on they were 
transferred to the newly-founded colony of Sierra Leone, 
the climate of which was more suited to them than the 
rigours of Nova Scotia, and where their descendants are 
to be found among the better class of the Africans in Free 
Town. Others stayed in Jamaica, where their descend 
ants still live, enjoying certain treaty rights, but otherwise 
part and parcel of the general population, In 1842 they 
were granted all rights of British subjects. 

CHAPTER V 

BEFORE relating the events of the nineteenth century in 
their order we must mention two important matters 
which, though actually occurring in that century, had 
their foundations laid in the eighteenth. These were the 
formation of the See of Jamaica in 1824 and the abolition 
of slavery in 1837. With reference to the former the 
Order in Council, passed in the reign of Charles I., under 
which the Bishop of London held jurisdiction over Colonial 
churches, originally applied to clergy ministering to 
British subjects resident in foreign parts, and later on to 
settlers in newly discovered lands. These latter gradu 
ally developed into Colonies, and the subsequent increase 
of Great Britain s Colonial possessions quickly showed 
that such a jurisdiction could not be more than merely 
nominal. This is not the place in which to discuss the 
desirability, or otherwise, of an episcopal form of Church 
government, but no one is likely to dissent from the 
statement that an Episcopal Church without an active 
working Bishop is as incongruous an institution as would 
be an army without a commander or a monarchy without 
a monarch. 
The first suggestion for the establishment of a ColoniaJ 



48 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Episcopate was made in 1638 by Archbishop Laud, who 
proposed to send a Bishop to New England, and in the 
reign of Charles II. Lord Chancellor Clarendon actually 
obtained the King s sanction to a proposal for a Bishop 
of Virginia. This proposal fell to the ground. Almost 
from the beginning of its career in 1701 S.P.G. took up 
the question most vigorously, missionaries pressing upon 
it both the desirability and the necessity of sending out 
a Suffragan Bishop to superintend their missions, to 
" ordain some, confirm others and bless all." A memorial 
on the subject was presented to the Queen in 1707. The 
matter was fairly well received by both Houses of Con 
vocation, but nothing definite was agreed to owing to 
the absence from England of the Bishop of London. 
Again another memorial was presented to the Queen 
in 1713 by S.P.G. and hopes were raised that the Society s 
efforts would meet with success, hopes only to be crushed 
by the Queen s death. In 1715 the Society approached 
George L, submitting to him a plan for the creation of 
four bishoprics, two for the islands and two for the con 
tinent of America. Of the island sees it was proposed 
that one should be " settled at Jamaica for itself with the 
Bahama and Bermuda Islands." The rebellion of 1715 
and the direction of political feeling combined to make 
this scheme a failure. In the same year the Archbishop 
(Tenison) of Canterbury bequeathed 1,000 " towards 
the settlement of two Bishops, one for the continent, the 
other for the isles of America." In 1732 Bishop Berkeley 
preached his celebrated S.P.G. sermon at the Society s 
anniversary service, in the course of which he acknow 
ledged the care bestowed by the French and Spanish 
Roman Catholics upon the Indians and negroes in their 
colonies and the reproach which that fact cast upon 
other denominations, after which he goes on to say : 

" They have also Bishops and seminaries for their clergy ; 
and it is not found that their colonies are worse subjects 
or depend less on their mother country on that account." 

The S.P.G. continued irrepressible in its persistence, 1 

1 Sec " Digest of S.P.G. Records," Chapter XCIV. The above 
paragraph is a most insufficient summary of the events in a most 
interesting epoch of Church history. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 49 

but more than half a century passed away until, after 
long and importunate struggles with political obstruc 
tions and legal difficulties not to mention prejudice and 
red tape and other stupidities the Home Church was 
able to arrange for the consecration of a colonial Bishop, 
and on the I2th of August, 1787, Dr. Charles Inglis was 
consecrated first Bishop of Nova Scotia. Thirty-seven 
years later, in 1824, after more than a century of wasted 
discussions and memorials and time and formalities, 
the See of Jamaica was created, including the island of 
Jamaica, the Bahamas, the settlements in the Bay of 
Honduras and their several dependencies. 

Turning now to the abolition of slavery, we find that 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century there were 
more than a quarter of a million slaves in Jamaica. It 
is almost impossible to fix the exact date when the agita 
tion which culminated in abolition began, for from the 
days of Queen Elizabeth there have always been found 
some in England and elsewhere to protest against the 
institution. Happily, we are nowadays spared any 
necessity to denounce either the trade or the system ; 
and happily also, certainly in Jamaica, bitter feelings 
inherited from a bitter past are rapidly dying away, 
if not already dead. That the system involved cruelty 
needs no proofs, for a cruel system can only be worked 
by cruel means and carried out by cruel laws, and the 
plausible fallacies by which its upholders endeavoured 
to defend it may fitly be taken as illustrations of the 
depth of absurdity and of groundless or false statements 
to which the champions of wrong are bound to be driven 
in fighting against truth and light. Our space here only 
allows us to sketch the progress of the agitation to the 
extent that is necessary to throw light on the history of 
the Church. In the year 1772, through the instrumental 
ity of Granville Sharpe, the judicial decision was given 
that " as soon as any slave sets his foot on English ground 
he is free." One would have thought that this decision 
would have immediately and permanently settled the 
question : that, if the possession of slaves was wrong and 
illegal in England, it was equally wrong and illegal in 
other parts of the British Empire ; that if the setting the 



50 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

foot on British soil in Kent or Devonshire could bestow 
freedom, the same privilege belonged to British soil in 
Jamaica or Trinidad. But the day of Justice was far 
distant. The heart of philanthropic England was indeed 
roused, but the West Indian interest was then politically, 
commercially and socially more powerful than any senti 
ment, however philanthropic, or any sense of justice, how 
ever deeply rooted. At length, on the 25th of March, 
1807, the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade re 
ceived the Royal Assent. The trade was to stop on the 
ist of March, 1808. But the system lingered. The 
Bill did not, and was not intended to, affect the condition 
of existing slaves. Meanwhile the J amaica Assembly had 
wisely passed several Acts with the professed object, 
and with the actual result, of modifying and ameliorating 
the conditions of slavery. At the time of the abolition 
of the trade there were reported to be 323,827 slaves in 
Jamaica. In 1817 an Act was passed for the compulsory 
registration of slaves, the intention of which was to make 
it impossible to practically revive the trade by secret 
importations. When this Registry Act came into opera 
tion there were 345,252 slaves in the island. Eight years 
later this number had decreased to 314,305. These 
figures are worth noting, as showing that when the trade 
was abolished the system was doomed, for they show 
that the rate of mortality among the slave population 
annually exceeded the birth-rate by nearly 4,000. Thus 
when importation ceased the system, if left alone, must 
die out, for the reproductive increase of the slaves was 
less than the loss by death. Figures such as these carry 
their own teaching when one thinks of the physical and 
sanitary conditions in which the slaves were compelled 
to exist. 

A similar lesson comes from Cuba, and speaks more 
strongly than any eloquence and more forcibly than any 
fiery denunciation. In his preliminary Essay to Hum- 
boldt s " Island of Cuba" Mr. J. S. Thrasher shows that 
in 1811 there were 211,700 slaves in that island and that 
in 1817 the number had increased to 225,000 ; during 
these six years 67,700 negroes were added by importation 
frorn Africa. Thus the mortality had swallowed up 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 51 

54,000 more than the increase of reproduction. The 
Spaniards, too, prided themselves at that time on treating 
their slaves with singular humanity. Beyond pointing 
the moral of these figures, we have here nothing to do 
with Spain, and they are only mentioned as coinciding in 
effect with the Jamaica statistics, which show that, when 
the importation of 5,000 per annum ceased, the popula 
tion decreased by 4,000 per annum. It is sad to think 
that the extermination of the Indians should have been 
followed by this continuous sacrifice of African life. In 
150 years the Spaniards annihilated the Aboriginal 
Indians ; in little more than half that time, had not 
emancipation intervened, the system of slavery, sanc 
tioned by Great Britain, would have exterminated the 
imported Africans. Without going step by step through 
the details of this agitation, it will be enough here to note 
the position which it had reached at the close of Ihe 
period (1800 to 1824) covered in this chapter. In the 
year 1823 Canning s Resolutions passed the House of 
Commons. These Resolutions recommended such re 
form in the Code as might prepare the slaves for a partici 
pation in those civil rights and privileges which were 
enjoyed by other classes of His Majesty s subjects. The 
suggested reforms included, among others, the discon 
tinuance of Sunday markets, the cessation of the practice 
of carrying (and using) a whip in the field, and the ex 
emption of women from corporal punishment under any 
circumstances whatsoever. When these resolutions had 
been agreed to the Colonial Office directed the Governors 
of slave-holding Colonies to give effect to their provisions. 
This the Jamaica Assembly flatly refused to do, alleging 
that the Slave Code was as complete in all its enactments 
as the nature of the circumstances would permit and 
that the slave population was as happy and comfortable 
as the labouring classes in any part of the world. This 
was the condition of the agitation when Jamaica was 
created a bishopric. 

The legislation affecting the Church during this period 
was limited to two important enactments. The first of 
these, which was passed in 1799, came into operation in 
j 800, and its effect was to annul the ordinary jurisdiction 



52 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

of the Bishop of London and to transfer it to persons 
resident in the island, to be nominated by the Crown. 
Failure to discharge their duties on the part of many of 
the clergy, together with the fact that the Bishop of 
London had never exercised any restraining authority 
or influence over them and was never likely to do so, 
made some such measure necessary in order to procure 
any kind of proper supervision. The Jamaica Assembly 
proposed to hand over the Bishop of London s jurisdic 
tion to the Governor of the Colony for the time being, but 
the Attorney-General (in England) recommended the 
alternative measure on the ground that a Colonial 
Governor could not have " intimate knowledge of the 
nature and exercise of the pastoral office." The 
Attorney- General s advice was accepted and accordingly 
the rectors of the parishes of Kingston, St. Andrew, St. 
James, St. Elizabeth and St. Catherine were appointed 
Commissaries in the year 1800. The supervision exercised 
by five resident Commissaries does not seem to have been 
much more effectual than that of one non-resident Bishop, 
for the Assembly again had to deal with the irregular con 
duct of some of the clergy. This was done by passing 
an Act which provided that the rectors should not re 
ceive their quarterly stipends unless they could show a 
certificate from the Churchwardens of residence and con 
formity. The wind, however, was tempered to the 
shorn shepherd for another clause in the same Act 
decreed that if the Churchwardens should refuse a certifi 
cate on insufficient grounds they would incur a penalty 
of 500. Very few Churchwardens cared to run such a 
risk, although there is at least one case on record in which 
a clergyman was suspended for three years for neglect 
of duty. 

The records of the Commissaries Court give us some 
idea of a part of Church life under their jurisdiction. A 
few illustrations must suffice here, premising that they 
must not be regarded as samples of the whole, but must 
be looked at as exceptional cases. In 1811 the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, Mr. Edward Morrison, drew their atten 
tion to the fact that it had been brought to his knowledge 
that, when no white person was present, it was the habit 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 53 

of many of the clergy to refuse Divine Service to persons 
of different complexion. This was dealt with by sending 
a judiciously worded circular letter to the clergy. What 
effect, if any, the letter had is not told. In 1815 the 
Commissaries had to investigate a strange, and probably 
unique, complaint. Mr. Edward Gardiner, a retired 
dragoon, who had settled down on his estate in Jamaica, 
wrote to the Governor, the Duke of Manchester, to com 
plain of the conduct and language of the Rev. D. W. 
Rose. This clergyman had called Mr. Gardiner " a 
cowardly rascal and scoundrel" and had further, in Mr. 
Gardiner s own words, " wrought him up to frenzy by 
the accompaniment of an effort to throw a glass, a case 
bottle and a pitcher of water at his head." No mention 
is made of the contents of the bottle. The provocation 
received by Mr. Rose certainly did not justify either his 
language or his conduct. He had offered to baptize all 
the negroes on Mr. Gardiner s estate at Flint River in 
return for a fee consisting of a puncheon of rum. Mr. 
Gardiner had declined, alleging that, in his opinion, 
baptism administered under such circumstances could 
hardly affect the condition of its recipients. Hence Mr. 
Rose s wrath. In this case, after several sessions of the 
Ecclesiastical Court, the Commissaries decided that 
they had no jurisdiction in such a matter, which seems 
to be rather a lame conclusion, by no means calculated 
to allay the anger of the ex-dragoon. 

We will take one more illustration of this phase of 
Church life. The Churchwardens of Kingston, in the 
year 1818, brought a series of charges against the Rev. 
G. R. G. Hill, for which he was brought to trial. He had 
neglected to bury a corpse one Sunday. His defence 
against this was that the funeral arrangements were not 
complete and that he could not wait on Sundays. 1 He 
had declined to baptize a sick child ; here his defence 
was that he never baptized on Friday, reserving that day 
for the preparation of his Sunday sermons. Another 
charge was worded as follows : " that he did appear and 
officiate in the Parish Church of Kingston, before a large 

1 Not a few clergy in modern days will sympathise with this 
grievance of Mr. Hill : but now they wait and make no complaint. 



54 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

and numerous congregation, with a bandage on one of hi* 
eyes, on which he had received a wound whilst engaged, 
to the great scandal and disgrace of his sacred calling, 
in a boxing match." To this charge Mr. Hill submitted 
in reply that his bandage concealed a " contusion " and 
not a " wound " and that he had merely put on the 
gloves with a friend, an exercise which could not fairly 
be called a " boxing match," adding that he " did not 
consider the wearing the said bandage would be co- 
sidered improper or derogatory to his profession and was 
induced to do so by the impression that his not perform 
ing the duties of the day would be more reprehensible 
than his wearing such bandage." These explanations 
were regarded as satisfactory by the Court. But the 
Churchwardens had not yet done with Mr. Hill. Burial, 
Baptism, Boxing were only preliminaries, hors d ceuvres, 
side issues, leading to a charge of a much more serious 
nature. It was that " with a view to degrade, insult 
and hold up to public odium and contempt the corporate 
body and magistracy of Kingston he had used the follow 
ing (amongst other) words in a sermon preached in the 
Parish Church : 

" When we say Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day 
we should immediately perceive certain sapient shakes of 
the head and sudden significant bobs of the under jaws 
among the ignorant and uninformed part of our congrega 
tion expressive of their contempt of our weakness and 

confused ideas, for say they to themselves Mr. 

desired me himself to make certain entries in his ledger and 
copy certain letters which will at least take up the greater 
part of the Sabbath. How inconsistent then, is this, "Thou 

shalt do no manner of work " for surely he (Mr. ) knows 

what is correct and would desire me to do what is proper 
and right. " 

The fate and future destiny of those who thus moralise 
was then described in graphic and uncomfortably realistic 
terms by the preacher. The charge proceeded to say 
that " in the delivery of which passages the said Rev. 
George R. G. Hill addressed himself more especially 
to certain members of the corporate body and magis 
tracy present in Church in a very intemperate, angry, 
pointed and offensive tone and manner." Mr. Hill s 
language is not perhaps as refined and choice as we 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 55 

expect in a present-day pulpit, but his sentiments, apart 
from his " tone and manner," scarcely seem so outrageous 
as to justify his suspension for nine calendar months. 

Nor is the evidence outside the Commissaries Court 
much more satisfactory. A visitor to Jamaica in 1808, 
speaking of the " debauched and profligate lives which 
so large a proportion of the white inhabitants of Jamaica 
lead," writes, " All those in the planting line seldom or 
never attend any religious institution ; nor do they either 
read pious books themselves, nor enjoin their children 
to do so. Sunday is a day like any other, and religious 
piety and devotion are terms which may be said to be 
blotted from the Jamaica vocabulary." The same 
gentleman also writes : " Of the regular clergy of the 
island there are few of them who are so solicitous about 
making proselytes as about making money." Matthew 
Gregory ("Monk") Lewis s last book relates his ex 
periences in Jamaica in the year 1816, on the return 
voyage home from which visit he died and was buried 
at sea. Mr. Lewis was a landed proprietor in Jamaica, 
and had the reputation of being an indulgent master to 
his slaves. One day during this visit a slave wished 
to have one of his children baptized and, as there was no 
clergyman within many miles, Mr. Lewis undertook to 
administer the sacrament. The ceremony took place in 
the dining-room, Mr. Lewis signing the child s forehead 
with the sign of the Cross and offering an ex tempore 
prayer. This was followed by the baptismal party giving 
three cheers for Mr. Lewis, who concluded the ceremony 
by distributing Madeira among the congregation. 

But better, brighter days were beginning to dawn. 
The progress, indeed, was slow, very slow. It is, how 
ever, ill weeds that grow apace, while the fruit of the good 
seed is only brought forth " with patience." We have 
mentioned in our last chapter the Act of 1797 which 
directed that rectors should devote a certain portion of 
every Sunday to the instruction of slaves. This may 
perhaps be regarded as the first turning point in the 
history of the Church in Jamaica. At the same time it 
must be remembered, and this is the most suitable place 
for recording it, that both before the passing of this Act 



56 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

and after it was in operation the religious welfare of the 
slaves had been affected by other causes which cannot be 
overlooked. Earnest ministers of other denominations 
were working at the education and enlightenment of the 
negroes. In 1754 the Moravians came and began a good 
work which is still being carried on and, in many points, 
presents a model which other churches would do well to 
imitate. In 1789 a Wesleyan Methodist Mission com 
menced, and in 1814 the Baptist Church began its labours ; 
in 1819 the established Church of Scotland started work 
in Kingston and in 1823 the Scottish Missionary Society 
began a useful work which is now being carried on by the 
United Presbyterian Church. It is no part of this story 
to relate how some of the missionaries of these denomina 
tions were thwarted, reviled, hindered and persecuted. 
Such things are written at length in their own records. 
Beyond doubt the planters and the Assembly associated 
the teaching of these missionaries with the emancipation 
of the slaves. We need not pause to ask whether this 
association was real or imaginary. Indiscreet some 
ministers may have been, and probably were, for indis 
cretion is no infrequent companion of religious zeal ; 
but the heedless indiscretion of Wesleyan or Baptist 
compares favourably with the apathetic indifference 
which characterised many of the ministrations of the 
Established Church. Admitting that some of the efforts 
of the Nonconformist missionaries produced, directly or 
indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, consequences 
which disturbed public order and resulted in riot and 
bloodshed, no one can deny that these efforts were in 
the direction of justice to the black population. Honour 
to whom honour is due. Those who provoked the hos 
tility of the Church and of the planters earned the 
gratitude of the poor and the oppressed. There were 
indeed and their numbers were increasing men of 
zeal, perseverance and devotion in the ranks of the Esta 
blishment, but the lion s share of the honours of perse 
cution belonged to the Nonconformist churches. The 
Government was a negrophobic Plantocracy and the 
Established clergy sympathised with the Government. 
The mind of the Assembly is seen in a resolution passed 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 57 

in the year 1815, in which it was determined to take into 
consideration at the next meeting the state of religion 
among the slaves 

" and carefully investigate the means of diffusing the 
light of genuine Christianity, divested of the dark and danger 
ous fanaticism of the Methodists, which has been attempted 
to be propagated, and which, grafted on the African super 
stitions, and working in the uninstructed minds and ardent 
temperament of the negroes, has produced the most per- 
nicious consequences to individuals and is pregnant with 
imminent danger to the community." 

In the following year, 1816, an Act was accordingly 
passed, the preamble of which somewhat strangely con 
trasts with the language of the above resolution. This 
preamble states that 

" from the extent of many parishes in this island and the 
number of inhabitants therein, religious instruction cannot 
be extended to all under the present Ecclesiastical Estab 
lishment, therefore it is necessary to increase the number 
of officiating clergymen for the purpose of giving religious 
instruction to the slaves." 

Either then with the intention of competing with the sec 
tarian missionaries or with the benevolent wish to relieve 
the overburdened rectors, the Governor was empow 
ered by this Act to appoint Curates, not exceeding the 
number of the beneficed clergy, to assist in propagating 
the Gospel among the slaves. The parishes were to 
provide suitable places of worship and the baptismal fee 
for a slave was fixed at two shillings and sixpence. The 
stipend of these curates was fixed at 300 a year, which 
was increased in 1818 to 500, as the Bishop of London 
was unable to secure suitable men at the lower rate. In 
1822 there were twelve curates in the nineteen parishes 
in the island, but in very few parishes had churches or 
chapels been built in which they might conduct service. 
The Governor was then requested not to nominate any 
curate to any parish unless some chapel had been pro 
vided. Under this legislation several clergymen of 
excellent character and fired with a missionary spirit 
were appointed to various districts in the island and 
were zealously atoning for the Church s past neglect 
when, in July, 1824, letters patent were issued by 
George IV. creating the Bishopric of Jamaica. With 



58 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

reference to the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London, 
now about to cease, an unconsciously amusing side-light 
is thrown on their choice of clergy in a letter from 
the excellent Bishop Porteus to William Wilberforce. 
Bishop Porteus was a supporter in the House of Lords 
of the Slave Trade Abolition Bill, and was known and 
bitterly condemned as a " missionary favourer." But 
when a Mr. Creevey in the House of Commons accused 
him of giving an English living to a missionary, the good 
Bishop was very much annoyed at what he called a 
" groundless assertion " and a " preposterous calumny." 
To what extent things are changed now is beyond the 
scope of these pages. 

One more event, affecting the future progress of the 
Church, must be mentioned before we leave this section 
of our history. About the year 1820 a Society was 
formed in England, bearing the name of " The Incor 
porated Society for the Conversion and Religious Instruc 
tion and Education of the Negro Slaves in the British 
West Indies." The name, if somewhat long, is suffi 
ciently explicit to make unnecessary any explanation 
of the Society s objects. The origin of the Society is 
interesting. Many years previously the Hon. Robert 
Boyle had left a considerable property to be applied 
to the advancement and propagation of the Christian 
religion among the heathen. An estate was purchased 
by his executors and, with the sanction of the High 
Court of Chancery, the rents were vested in trustees to 
be applied to the education and Christian instruction 
of Indian children in Virginia. After the American 
War of Independence it was felt that, in accordance 
with the spirit of the testator s will, the charity should 
take a different direction and be applied to heathens 
who lived under the control of the British Crown. The 
Court of Chancery approved of this change, and hence 
the formation of the Incorporated Society. This 
Society was entirely non-political as far as the abolition 
agitation was concerned, its avowed purpose being rather 
to improve the existing condition of slaves than to 
attempt to abolish the system of slavery. As such it 
was in sympathy with the spirit of recent legislation in 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 59 

Jamaica and with the wishes of the best and most humane 
of the planters. There was a great willingness to receive 
the missionary agents of the Society and to put facilities 
in the way of their teaching, the chief hindrance being 
the frequent risings or rebellions. The Rev. Hugh 
Beams, for instance, in the parish of St. James, obtained 
permission to use the barracks on the estate of Mont- 
pelier for Divine Service and secured as clerk the good 
offices of a neighbouring proprietor, who was also a 
member of the House of Assembly. For a short time his 
labours were interrupted by a rising of slaves on Argyle 
Estate, but when this was put down he was allowed to 
resume his teaching and was also invited to preach on the 
estates of Seven Rivers, Hazelymph, Duckett s Spring, 
Content and Shettlewood, while before long the proprietor 
of Argyle Estate, the scene of the rising, invited him to 
conduct service there. Similarly the Rev. Thomas 
Stewart writes from St. Elizabeth that " the proprietors 
seem most desirous of the moral and religious improve 
ment of their slaves ; but unfortunately at this moment 
they are so harassed and distressed by the unhappy 
acts of rebellion in this part of the country that they 
are unable to adopt the measures they may wish until 
tranquillity be restored." Another case is that of the 
Rev. John Stainsby, who worked in the parish of St. 
Thomas with the sympathy and active assistance both 
of the planters and of the state-paid rector. Mr. Stainsby, 
it may be said, had a varied experience, for a few years 
later in another parish he earned for himself the reputa 
tion of being " worse than a Baptist." These instances, 
out of many, chosen from opposite and distinct parts 
of the island, are mentioned here because they teach 
a lesson which should not be forgotten. It may, of 
course, be said that the planters were beginning to 
realise that the abolition of the system of slavery must 
sooner or later follow the abolition of the trade ; but it 
is only fair to them and right to say also that, however 
strenuously they resisted emancipation, they and their 
representatives in the Assembly encouraged religious 
instruction of the slaves when there was no suspicion 
of its connection with emancipation and with, as they 



60 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

thought, their own consequent and inevitable ruin. 
Those aspects of the Christian religion which taught 
the slave to be patient and resigned and contented with 
his present condition may well have found appreciative 
advocates in persons who were opposed to any change 
in that condition. The missionaries of the Incorporated 
Society did their work well. On the one hand they so 
carried out their instructions that they did not come 
into collision with the secular powers, and on the other 
hand they shared with other Christian teachers the 
privilege of imparting instruction and knowledge to 
those who had for years been disgracefully neglected. 

CHAPTER VI 

DR. CHRISTOPHER LIPSCOMB, formerly Vicar of Sutton 
Benger, in the county of Wiltshire, the first Bishop of 
Jamaica, was consecrated in Lambeth Palace Chapel on 
the 25th of July, 1824, and arrived in Jamaica on the 
nth of February, 1825. 
His letters patent, issued by George IV., state that : 

" Whereas the doctrine and discipline of the Church of 
England are professed and observed by a great majority 
of our loving subjects in the islands and settlements of the 
West Indies, and whereas the churches of the said islands 
and settlements are not without difficulty supplied with 
ministers duly ordained, and the people thereof are deprived 
of some offices prescribed by the Liturgy and usage of the 
Church of England for want of a bishop residing in the said 
islands and settlements. For the remedy of the aforesaid 
inconveniences and defects we have determined to erect 
the said islands and settlements into a Bishop s See. And 
we do by these presents erect, ordain, make and constitute 
the Island of Jamaica, the Bahama Islands, and the settle 
ments in the Bay of Honduras, and their respective depend 
encies to be a Bishop s See, and to be called from henceforth 
the Bishopric of Jamaica." 

Bishop Lipscomb s arrival coincided with an extremely 
critical period in the social and political history of the 
colony and the work which lay before him was of a 
delicate and difficult character. The abolition agitation 
was at its height : the relations between the colony and 
the mother-country were so far strained that the majority 




{Page 52. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 61 

of the Assembly threatened " to transfer their allegiance 
to the United States or even to assert their indepen 
dence after the manner of their continental neighbours. 1 
Much disaffection prevailed among the slave population, 
while planters foresaw in the approaching emancipation 
nothing but ruin and disaster both to themselves and 
to the colony at large. During the early years of Dr. 
Lipscomb s episcopate, outbreaks, or risings, or rebellions 
so they were variously called were almost common 
enough to be considered constant among the slaves, who 
somehow or other had gathered, from conversation 
overheard and misunderstood, that emancipation had 
been agreed on in England and was being withheld in 
Jamaica. Some of these rebellions were of a most 
serious character ; not only were lives lost on both sides 
and bad feeling intensified, but property to an enormous 
value was destroyed. Almost the only weapon, except 
the tools used in agriculture, within reach of the insur 
gents was fire, and the beginning of nearly every out 
break was signalised by the burning of crops and houses. 
How serious such outbreaks sometimes were may be 
gathered from the fact that on one occasion property - 
largely consisting of crops ripe for reaping to the value 
of 666,977 were destroyed, and the resultant distress 
was so great that a loan of 200,000 was made by the 
Home Government to replenish the devastated estates. 
Surroundings such as these did not tend to facilitate 
the Bishop s work. Nor, unfortunately, did he receive 
from the clergy of the Establishment that cordial co 
operation and sympathetic assistance which he was on 
every ground entitled to expect. 

Dr. Lipscomb on landing in Jamaica was received with 
military and other honours. Addresses of welcome were 
presented to him, and in his replies he recommended 
the adoption of measures which he thought " might 
improve the spiritual condition of the slave population 
and render effectual the object of his mission." The 
Bishop, who brought out with him six clergymen from 
England, was installed on the I5th of February, 1825, 
and on the I3th of the following April held the first 
Church of England Ordination in Jamaica. As far as I 



62 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

can gather the records are rather confusing there 
were then 40 clergymen in the diocese, of whom 19 
were rectors, 14 Island curates, 3 missionary auxiliaries, 
and 4 garrison chaplains : 4 of the Bishop s companions 
were appointed auxiliary curates, bringing the total 
up to 44. There was a slave population of 317,338 
distributed among 5,632 proprietors. The available 
finances of the Establishment may thus be summarised : 

I 

Stipends of rectors 8,820 

Stipends of curates i,55o 

Vestry allowances - ... 3,430 

Fees - ... 5,372 

28,172 

These figures, which do not include the cost of 
the upkeep of thirty-nine churches and chapels, would 
be misleading if it were not mentioned that they and all 
stipends referred to in previous chapters were in current 
money, not in sterling, and that 100 currency equaled 60 
sterling. x Even with this explanation the provision seems 
to be quite sufficiently generous. The Episcopal Estab 
lishment was endowed by the British Government and 
amounted to 10,900 currency, which was a charge on 
the Consolidated Fund of England, and provided incomes 
for the bishop, an archdeacon and six auxiliary curates. 
Unfortunately, there are no records available by which 
we can learn the average attendance at Divine Service 
when Bishop Lipscomb arrived. Prior to the establish 
ment of Episcopacy the Assembly was apparently content 
to vote large sums of money for Church purposes, with 
out inquiring too closely how the money was earned or 
spent so long as it was free from the taint of slave- 
emancipation. 

As was natural, at the first session of the Assembly 
after the Bishop s installation an Act the Clergy Act 
was passed to consolidate and amend all the ecclesiastical 
laws then on the statute-book of the colony, and to bring 
them into conformity with the new condition of things. 
The Act decreed that " all such laws, ordinances, and 
1 It was not until 1851 that the Jamaica currency was assimi 
lated to that of Great Britain. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 63 

canons ecclesiastical as are now used in England, so far as 
relates to the due ordering and ecclesiastical regimen of, 
and jurisdiction over, the clergy, shall be in force within 
this island." This jurisdiction did not extend to any 
judicial authority, spiritual or temporal, over the " lay 
inhabitants," or affect the jurisdiction of the Governor, in 
whose hands was still left the power of presentation to 
vacant livings. The " Clergy Act," differed from pre 
vious legislation affecting the Church in that it had a 
duration clause of eleven years attached to it, after which 
it had to be renewed, or re-enacted, as was done in 1836, 
1847 and 1858. We shall see later on what happened 
in 1869. Turning to some of the provisions of the Act, 
we find that the rectors stipends were increased to 600 
a year, exclusive of fees, and that the number of churches 
was increased to forty-two, though no clergy were to be 
appointed until a place of worship had been built or 
provided. The fees of the rectors were fixed at what 
seem nowadays almost incredible sums. The fee, for 
instance, for meeting a corpse at the parochial burial- 
ground and reading the grave service was i 6s. 8^., 
double that amount being charged for the full funeral 
service. Churches were scattered and at a great distance 
from many of the houses, and funerals often took place 
in private grounds ; in such cases, if a service were held 
by a clergyman, the fees were again doubled. The fee 
for baptism in church on Sunday was five shillings and 
in any other place or on any other day it was i. A fee of 
i for every mile beyond the first mile was exacted for 
every service in addition to the ordinary fee. Thus, a 
rector would receive, or at any rate he might legally 
claim, 3 for riding three miles to baptize a sick child. 
Slaves were exempt from the payment of fees, which 
means that their owners were exempt from paying for 
them, which was distinctly a step in the right direction, 
for it gave the slaves a right to the ministrations of the 
Church. Necessary provision was made in the Act for 
enabling the Bishop to discharge the duties of his office. 
Unfortunately, one or two clauses of the Act gave offence 
to the clergy. These clauses put certain powers in the 
Bishop s hands, where it was obvious they ought to be. 



64 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Thus, rectors or curates absent for three months in any 
year without the Bishop s consent were liable to forfeit 
200. If any clergyman absented himself without leave 
for more than eighteen months from his cure the Bishop 
had power to declare the living vacant. No stipend was 
to be paid unless a certificate of residence and service 
signed by the Bishop was produced. It is not easy to 
see how complaint could reasonably be made of the hard 
ship of these regulations. But complaint was made. 
Perhaps it is not in human, and clerical, nature to expect 
that clergymen, who had for years enjoyed whatever 
freedom or license is worth enjoying in the absence of 
episcopal supervision, should have uncomplainingly 
accepted their altered conditions of service. Friction 
early set in. The Rev. G. W. Bridges, who oddly filled 
the double role of the advocate of negro slavery and the 
champion of clerical independence, writes in 1828 : 

" It would have been well if the power with which the 
country so inconsiderately invested the office of its Bishop 
had been confined in its operation and consequences within 
the island : but the clergy have unfortunately found it 
otherwise their prospects, and even those of the ir children, 
have been sacrificed to an arbitrary feeling and even the 
privilege of carrying an appeal to the foot of the throne has 
been denied them. Upon his arrival the Bishop of Jamaica 
found the livings and curacies occupied chiefly by Creoles, 
but some of them by British clergymen ; and, looking 
forward to the possession of the patronage, his avowed 
principle was that no good could be expected from his 
mission until the old clergy, that is, those who owed their 
appointments to the Duke of Manchester, were exterminated. 1 
The climate did much to effect his purpose, but prejudice 
and oppression did more. The Governor, though still 
holding the patronage, was bereft of the discretionary power 
of granting leave of absence on emergent occasions of ill- 
health or private business, and the lives or fortunes of 
those who have been longest in the active discharge of their 
duties have been sported with or destroyed by their un 
reasonable detention. The consequence has been that at 
no period within the last thirty years has the island been 
so destitute of regularly ordained clergymen as at the 
present moment, for none could venture to a country where, 
besides the natural disadvantages of climate, they have to en- 

1 The Duke of Manchester was Governor of Jamaica from 
1808 to 1827. The parish of Manchester is named after him and 
the town of Mandeville after the courtesy title of his eldest son. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 65 

counter a partial and arbitrary system of ecclesiastical Govern 
ment, where irregularity is in so many respects degrading to 
the profession and injurious to the credit of the Church." 

This is strong language and plainly Mr. Bridges was 
very angry. Perhaps the Bishop had refused to give 
him leave of absence, which in former days clergy had 
taken without asking for it. Seeing, however, that 
Mr, Bridges, a strong and capable man, is entitled to be 
regarded as the mouthpiece of the majority of his brother 
clergy, we can easily understand the difficult position 
in which the Bishop found himself. 

In spite of all such difficulties and in defiance of such 
discouragements as those alluded to above, Bishop 
Lipscomb resolutely set to work to organise his diocese, 
always bearing in mind that the object, as he said, of 
his mission was to improve the spiritual condition of the 
slave population. An Archdeacon (the Ven. Edward 
Pope, D.D.) was appointed in 1825 an d in 1828 the 
diocese was divided into three rural deaneries, the first 
Rural Deans being the Rev. L. Bowerbank, the Rev. A. 
Campbell and the Rev. J. Mclntyre. Ordinations were 
held from time to time and, if the number of clergy in 
1828 was less than in 1824, the younger men were free 
from many of the prejudices, and not blindly addicted 
to many of the customs, of those who were licensed before 
the days of episcopal rule. In 1826 the Bishop paid his 
first visit to the Bahamas and British Honduras, and in 
the same year he consecrated at Harewood the first new 
church built in Jamaica after his arrival. 1 The Incor 
porated Society continued its good labours, and the 
Established Church began to free itself from much of the 
reproach of former days and, without losing the patron 
age and regard of the planters, was rapidly winning the 
attachment and affection of the slaves. The attention 
of other Home Missionary Societies was also being drawn 
to Jamaica s needs. The Church Missionary Society s 
agents were in the field before those of the Society for the 

1 Before this the churches had, I suppose, been formally 
dedicated and set apart for their sacred use, but the probability 
is that many of the older churches in Jamaica have not been conse 
crated in the sense that more recently-built churches have been. 



66 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Propagation of the Gospel. 1 In 1825, on the invitation 
of the owner, two catechists and their wives were sent 
out by the C.M.S. to reside on an estate in the parish 
of St. Thomas for the " purpose of imparting religious 
instruction to the negroes." Suitable buildings were 
provided for worship and instruction, and by allotting 
one day every week to the slaves for their own use 
Sunday could be devoted to rest and religious instruction 
instead of being spent at the Sunday market or in tilling 
the plot apportioned to the slave for a provision ground. 
Sometimes at the expressed wish, sometimes with the 
ready concurrence, of the proprietors similar arrange 
ments were made in other parts of the colony. Here 
again we see the attitude taken by many of the planters 
in the matter of slave-instruction. They had no wish 
to keep their slaves in heathenism and ignorance, but 
they claimed to have a voice in the method, means and 
choice of agents for instruction and they objected, point- 
blank, to any teaching which, in their judgment, tended 
to foster the advance of freedom. Soon after Bishop 
Lipscomb s arrival the C.M.S. missionaries were put 
under his authority, and an annual grant of 200 was 
made to him to be employed at his discretion for the 
spiritual benefit of the negroes. In 1831 the C.M.S. 
had 9 schoolmasters and catechists in the diocese, 
19 schools and 903 scholars. Constant reference is 
made in letters and reports at this time to the sympathy 
and assistance given to C.M.S. agents by owners of estates 
and by several of the clergy of the Establishment. Their 
work was of that extremely elementary character which 
calls for an extraordinary amount of patience. It was 
sowing with but little prospect of reaping ; or, rather 
it was preparing the soil with only a very slight chance 
of being permitted to sow the seed. The mere persuading 

1 Jamaica and the West Indies generally were rather unfortu 
nately overlooked when the C.M.S. and S.P.G. began their work. 
The C.M.S., as its full title sets forth, is a Missionary Society 
for Africa and the East. Jamaica is neither in Africa nor in 
the East. The S.P.G. has for its purpose the propagation of 
the Gospel in foreign parts, and Jamaica is not a foreign part. 
Both Societies have, happily and to their credit, been more 
generous and less exclusive than their names. 






THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 67 

of negroes to substitute an assent to the truths of Chris 
tianity for an acquiescence in some phase of African 
superstition was far from being the main purpose of these 
good men. Untaught minds had to be taught : intel 
lectual faculties, hitherto latent, had to be trained. 
Some years before this the clergymen of the Establish 
ment, endeavouring to rival the records of Nonconformist 
missionaries, had, as it were, administered baptism 
wholesale, with little thought or care as to the mental or 
spiritual condition of the recipient. Not so with these 
first missionaries. Step by step and inch by inch were 
Hght and knowledge imparted before there was any 
thought of formal admission to the Church. At some 
stations pupils of all ages were to be found in the same 
class ; an old slave, his son and his grandson were to be 
seen standing side by side learning to spell and to read. 
At other stations an infant school was held from 8.0 to 
n.o a.m., a school for older children from n.o a.m. to 
4.0 p.m., and a class for adults, when their day s work 
was done, from 6.0 to 9.0 p.m. The reports which detail 
these patient labours contain little or no reference to 
persecution, hindrance or obstruction. They are simple, 
unadorned records of the doings of self-denying men, 
working in some obscure corner of the island, living a 
useful life of uninteresting drudgery, many of them 
dying at their post with no other consolation than the 
reflection that they had done their duty and made the 
way easier for others to follow them. 

The years 1831-1834 were anxious and critical. 
Slavery, long since doomed, died in 1834, though not 
without a terrible death struggle. Its last state was in 
many ways worse and more cruel than its first. In 
December, 1831, there were simultaneous risings of 
slaves in the western county of Cornwall, which were 
only suppressed at the price of many lives. Martial 
law was proclaimed throughout the island and troops, 
together with the island militia, at once took the field. 
The wrath of the planters was poured out on the teachers 
of religion, but most of it fell on the Nonconformist 
missionaries. The Church of England teachers and 
clergy, though here and there inconvenienced, annoyed 



68 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

and subjected to opposition, escaped actual persecution. 
But if they were unscathed by persecution, they were also 
innocent of any attempt to incite to rebellion. That 
other Christian ministers suffered with their converts and 
were accused of being implicated in rebellion gives greater 
prominence to their names but does not detract from 
the fact that Church of England ministers and mission 
aries were quietly working and gaining power and influ 
ence over the people. In fact, where the Church was 
weakest the rebellion was strongest. " In quietness and 
confidence shall be your strength," and it is quite possible 
that the sobriety of devotion which is characteristic of 
the Church s teaching had its soothing influence on the 
minds of thousands who were eagerly panting for freedom, 
but who were satisfied patiently to wait the issue of 
events rather than to attempt to anticipate the inevit 
able. If, therefore, the honours of persecution were not 
to the Church, the equally great honour of having pre 
vented disaffected feelings from breaking out into open 
rebellion may well be awarded to many a conscientious 
missionary. To prevent mischief is at least as noble, 
though not perhaps so dazzlingly heroic, as to suffer the 
consequences of mischief. 

This rebellion being crushed, and during the time 
that the ringleaders, together with Baptist and other 
missionaries, were waiting their trial for sedition, an 
extraordinary movement in the name, though surely 
not in the spirit, of the Church occurred. This was the 
formation on the 26th of January, 1832, of the Colonial 
Church Union, a society the proposed objects of which 
were to defend by constitutional means the interests 
of the colony, to expose the falsehoods of the Anti- 
Slavery Society, and to uphold the Established Church 
and Kirk. The constitutional defence of a colony, 
the maintenance of the Church, and the exposure of 
falsehood are all excellent mainsprings of action, but 
unhappily these words were used to conceal, not to 
define, the real motive of the Society, which was to delay 
the day of emancipation by silencing the Nonconformist 
missionaries, and by destroying their places of worship. 
It is to put it very mildly a matter for regret that 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 69 

the name oi the Church should have been in any way 
associated with this discreditable business, and it is 
still more to be regretted that the Union had the sym 
pathy and support of many churchmen, including some 
of the rectors. For some days the Union was inactive ; 
but when, on the 5th of February, 1832, martial law 
ceased, it broke out again with all the fury of bigotry 
and passion. Salter s Hill Chapel was first burnt by 
the militia of St. James s parish. Then followed similar 
riotous destruction of chapels at Stewart Town, Lucea, 
Brown s Town, Sav.-la-Mar, St. Ann s Bay, Fuller s 
Field, and other centres of Wesleyan and Baptist 
activity. After a short and infamous career the Colonial 
Church Union was declared by proclamation to be an 
illegal association, and it received its death-blow by the 
vigorous action of the Governor, who deprived of their 
commissions the magistrates and officers who persisted 
in their connection with it. 

Still the struggle continued, and still the Bishop, with 
his loyal clergy and faithful missionaries, kept on 
quietly preparing the way for the further progress of 
the Church and development of the slave population. 
A statement, presented to the Assembly in 1832, enables 
us both to see the condition of the Church on the eve 
of emancipation, and also to gather some idea of Bishop 
Lipscomb s work in the earlier years of his episcopate. 
Contemporary writers have failed to do justice to the 
Bishop s energy and success in the face of many diffi 
culties and much opposition. It is shown in this 
statement that since 1824, that is in eight years, thirteen 
churches had been built, and that nine others were 
then in course of construction. The funds for these 
buildings had been readily provided by the Assembly 
and the vestries. There were forty-five clergymen, and 
thirty-two catechists and schoolmasters in the Diocese, 
and religious instruction was given to slaves on 280 
estates. Archdeacon Pope reported at the same time 
that on 70 of these estates the number of slaves under 
instruction exceeded 18,000. 

The Jamaica Assembly continued to assert its inde 
pendence of the British Parliament, and to refuse any 



7 o THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

further legislation in the spirit of Canning s Resolutions 
in 1823, until on the 28th of August, 1833, the Emancipa 
tion Act was passed. This Act decreed that on, and 
after, the ist of August, 1834, an< slaves should be free, 
though complete freedom was not to be given till after 
an intermediate period of apprenticeship of six years 
for predials, or field labourers, and of four years for 
domestic servants. The Home Government s proposal 
to advance a loan of 15,000,000 was altered into a 
grant of 20,000,000 as compensation to the slave" 
owners. This compensation is often misunderstood. 
As recently as 1907, at least two members of the House 
of Commons are reported to have spoken of compensa 
tion being given for the abolition of the slave trade. 
Of course it was nothing of the sort ; the slave-traders 
had already had their compensation in the purchase 
money for the slaves, many of whom they had stolen. 
The actual compensation was given to those who had, 
in open market, bought and paid for these stolen goods, 
and who by the Act of Emancipation were deprived of 
property legally their own. It was meant to be an equit 
able business transaction quite apart from the morality 
or righteousness of a system to which it put an end. 

The Jamaica Assembly, in the following October, 
ungraciously accepted the Act, protesting that the 
conduct of the Imperial Parliament was unconstitutional, 
and involved a policy of " spoliation which could produce 
nothing but discontent and rebellion." Thus, on the 
ist of August, 1834, slavery ceased, and the apprentice 
ship began. Jamaica owners many of them resident 
in England received as compensation 5,853,975 in 
consideration of the manumission of 255,290 slaves, 
while 55,780 slaves, consisting of children, old people, 
and runaways, were excluded from compensation. 
Slaves were allowed to release themselves by purchase 
from their apprenticeship, and a goodly number took 
the opportunity if doing so. The Journal of Messrs. 
Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey contains the follow 
ing " communicated " statement : 

" From the ist of August, 1834, to 3ist May, 1835, 998 
apprentices purchased their freedom by valuation, and paid 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 71 

33,998. From the 313! May, 1836, to the ist November 
in the same year 582 apprentices purchased themselves and 
paid ^18,217, making in all ^52,215 ; a prodigious sum to 
be furnished by the negroes in two years. This makes a 
large community of persons of provident habits, spread 
throughout the country, who are establishing themselves 
as small settlers." 

The above quoted figures seem almost incredible, though 
the authority is good, and the comment is certainly 
worth noting. It is just possible that some apprentices 
were surprised to find how much they were worth when 
they had to pay for themselves. 

The subject of compensation attracted a good deal 
of attention in England, which is thus casually alluded 
to here because of a striking remark made by Hugh 
S to well at the C.M.S. Annual Meeting in 1834. 
"Where," he exclaimed, "is the compensation for the 
slaves ? " The answer to Mr. Sto well s question is to be 
found in the increased activity shown by all Christian 
denominations. Church vied with Church to make 
the best and the most of the years of apprenticeship. 
The C.M.S. increased the number of its agents and of 
its stations ; the Incorporated Society continued its 
work ; the S.P.G. began that connection with the 
Diocese which has been productive of so much good ; 
the Religious Tract Society gave its aid, and the S.P.C.K. 
was to the fore with liberal grants. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE Assembly continued its generous provision for 
churches and church work (including schools), and if 
there was any failure it was hardly due to want of funds. 
Indeed, the amount of money cheerfully and readily 
provided for Church purposes is bewildering and almost 
dazzling to those who live in days of disendowment. 
At times it seems as though there was little to point to 
as a fair return for all the expenditure, but the best 
criterion of the work that was being done in these early 
days is to be found in contemplating the present rather 
than in reviewing the past, Many of the old mission 



72 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

stations are now parish churches. There has been a 
continuity of Christian teaching and a gradual, and 
often unbroken, growth of Christian life from the days 
when the missionary kept his primitive school in some 
slave-barrack or estate boiling-house till the present 
day when large and orderly congregations meet Sunday 
by Sunday in consecrated churches. It is as though 
the missionaries laid their foundations, strong and deep 
and costly, in preparation for stately buildings which 
later generations were to erect. 

The Incorporated Society, which was the first Home 
Society to send agents to Jamaica, and which now, 
under the abbreviated name of " The Christian Faith 
Society," continues largely to assist the educational 
work of the diocese, had after, and because of, emancipa 
tion to change its name. Again it took a name suffi 
ciently long and comprehensive to render superfluous 
any explanation of its objects and intentions. It was 
called " The Society for advancing the Christian Faith 
in the British West India Islands and elsewhere in the 
Dioceses of Jamaica and of Barbados and the Leeward 
Islands, and in the Mauritius." Gradually as other 
Societies sent agents to Jamaica and as the Established 
Church increased the number of its clergy, the Christian 
Faith Society gave its assistance, as it now does, in 
the form of an annual grant placed in the hands of the 
Bishop of the diocese to be applied by him, at his discre 
tion, to such purposes, principally educational, as may 
be in most urgent need of help. 

Prior to emancipation S.P.G. had had a fitful connec 
tion with Jamaica, its first gift being in the year 1703, 
two years after its formation, when the sum of 5 was 
voted towards replacing the library of the Rev. Philip 
Bennet, whose parsonage at Port Royal had been burnt. 
Other donations of books for clergy or for the use of 
their congregations were made in 1705 to the Revs. 
A. Auchenleck and G. Wright ; in 1706 to the Rev. 
Roe ; in 1707 to the Revs. E. Shanks, Cunningham 
and J. Thompson ; in 1709 to the Rev Fouk ; and 
in 1710 to the Rev. W. Guthrie. Mr. Wright, like many 
other people leaving^home, had not a very full purse 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 73 

and " pawned and sold " some of the books " in his 
necessity at Portsmouth before coming to the Island : " 
it is gratifying to be able to put on record that his suc 
cessor, the Rev. W. Johnston, who gave the above ex 
planation, repaid the value of the books to the Society 
in the year 17 14* . Donations is aid of passage money 
were occasionally made in the earlier years of the 
eighteenth century. In 1830 the S.P.G. voted 244, 
out of the fund created by Archbishop Tenison s bequest, 
to assist in the formation of a Diocesan Library. In 
1834 and 1835 there was a remarkable eagerness in 
England to use the interval of apprenticeship for the 
benefit of the emancipated slaves. The S.P.G., availing 
itself of this feeling, decided that the opening in the 
West Indies was so plain and the need so pressing that a 
great and exceptional effort must be made. It therefore 
resolved to raise a general subscription to form a West 
India Fund and to secure a " King s Letter " to be sent 
to all parishes in England and Wales directing that 
collections be made for this fund, 8 the full name of which 
was " The Fund for the Building of Schools and Chapels 
for the Emancipated Negroes of the British West Indies," 
and is referred to in reports as " The Negro Education 
Fund." The ready response which was made to this 
appeal shows that Church people at home sympathised 
with the words of the Bishop of Gloucester, who preached 
the annual S.P.G. sermon in the following year. " Un 
less," said Bishop Monk, " means shall be found to 
instruct in the principles of our holy religion all the negro 
population of the West India Islands, the freedom which 
was intended to be a blessing may prove a curse. A 
deliverance from the restraint of earthly masters may 
become the means of licentiousness unless it be attended 
with such instruction as shall substitute the holy 
restraints of religion." 
Towards this West India Fund S.P.G. appropriated 

1 See S.P.G. Digest. 

Similar Letters had been granted six times in the eighteenth 
century and also in 1824. The last appears to have been issued 
1^1854. 



74 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

5,000 as its own contribution ; S.P.C.K. gave 10,000 \ 
the Christian Faith Society 5,000 ; an annual, varying, 
Parliamentary Grant was made, beginning at 7,500, 
but never going beyond that amount ; merchants and 
others interested in the West Indies contributed liber 
ally ; clergy and congregations responded freely to the 
" King s Letter," collections being made in upwards of 
9,000 churches in England and Wales. By these means 
together with considerable Grants from S.P.G. s General 
Fund, the sum of 171,777 was at the Society s disposal 
for the erection of churches and schools and the mainten 
ance of clergymen, schoolmasters and catechists. Of 
course the expenditure of this money was spread over 
a good many years, the last payment being made in 
1850. It was decided to apply one-half of the above 
money to the building of schools and maintenance of 
schoolmasters, and the other half to the building and 
enlargement of churches and chapels and to the passage- 
money and maintenance of clergymen and catechists 
on condition that in every instance at least one-half of 
the salaries of clergymen, schoolmasters and catechists 
should be provided from some other source, and that 
contributions should cease altogether as soon as the 
colonies were able to defray the expenses from their own 
funds. In connection with this movement we are, for 
the first time in our history, in possession of complete 
statistics. Before making its grant for educational 
purposes, the Home Government sent a circular to 
ministers and teachers of every denomination asking 
for information as to condition and needs of their 
societies. The Bishop of Jamaica s reply summed up 
the position of the Church of England and showed that 
there were sixty-one churches and chapels and temporary 
rooms used for service in the diocese, providing accom 
modation for 28,196 persons, with an average attendance 
of 28,511. Making allowance for the number of persons 
who were prevented from habitual attendance by various 
occupations, sickness and other causes the Bishop 
calculated that the total number of Church people in 
the diocese was 38,014, or one-third more than the 
average attendance. In twenty-four of the churches, 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 75 

including those of Black River, Buff Bay, Lacovia, 
Port Antonio and Vere, the average attendance was 
larger than the accommodation, the surplus congrega 
tions having to stand^round the doors and windows of 
the churches. The total number of communicants was 
only 3,360. There were 142 schools, where instruction 
was given to 8,500 scholars ; and there were 56 clergy 
and 95 lay teachers. Such was the position of the 
Church in 1835. 

In the year 1836 an important political step was taken. 
An Act was passed in the month of June, embodying 
a resolution of the British House of Commons, by which 
the Assembly, with a not particularly gracious protest, 
decided that the apprenticeship should not run its full 
time, but should cease and determine on the ist day of 
the following August, instead of on the ist of August, 
1840. For various reasons the apprenticeship 1 plan 
broke down in the working. It is not necessary at this 
late day to go into reasons for this breakdown. In many 
cases it is plain that more severe and cruel punishment 
was meted out to apprentices by Law, as administered 
by special magistrates, than had been given to slaves 
by owners or overseers. That the self-denying activity 
of Christian missionaries had done much to teach the 
liberated slaves to use their freedom is generally 
admitted, and it is a significant fact that some form of 
thanksgiving in church or chapel accompanied the 
rejoicings which celebrated the advent of complete 
freedom, and that the festivities, extending over three 
days, ended without any riot or disturbance. 

So slavery ceased. In the happy phrase of Bishop 
Coleridge, of Barbados, " eight hundred thousand human 
beings lay down at night as slaves, and rose in the morn 
ing as free as ourselves." Bishop Lipscomb, preaching 
at York two years later, describes the Emancipation 
Day in Jamaica as being 

1 Information on this point may be found in the Journal 
(above referred to) of a visit to the West Indies by Joseph Sturge 
and Thomas Harvey in 1837 "for the purpose of ascertaining 
the actual condition of the negro population of those islands." 
Very much of this is not nice reading. 



76 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

" received not by unseemly transports not by degrading 
indulgences not by excess or riot, but by a calm and 
settled religious feeling, consecrating the glorious day of 
their emancipation (as I myself witnessed) to devotional 
exercises and evincing the proofs of that Christian faith 
which they had imbibed, however imperfectly, but which 
so powerfully sustained them under that most difficult of 
all human trials sudden temporal prosperity." 

At the time of the cessation of the apprenticeship, and 
referring to the effect produced on the negroes by 
religious instruction between the years 1834 and 1837, 
Bishop Lipscomb writes : 

" No one who has witnessed, as I have lately witnessed, 
the large proportion of the apprentices, panting, like the 
hart, for the water brooks, and being athirst for the living 
God, conducting themselves on this day with strict pro 
priety and decorum repairing in crowds to God s house 
reading, or acquiring the power to read, the inspired Scrip 
tures frequently joining in the impressive liturgy of our 
Church renewing their baptismal vows in order to allow 
of their becoming duly qualified partakers of the Lord s 
Supper : no one who has seen these things can possibly 
doubt that the fear of the Lord is the beginning not only 
of all wisdom, 1 but of all civilisation, of all advances in 
the scale of all rational beings the only true method of 
preparing their minds for unfettered rights and unrestricted 
freedom. . . . The intensity of their feelings on this subject, 
is strong in proportion to their having been so long estranged 
from so rational an indulgence. It is a new sense, whose 
keenness and relish is enhanced from its being exercised for 
the first time. In default of proper places of worship they 
will resort, for the purposes of communion and devotion, 
to the dens and caves of the earth they will hide themselves 
in the woods they will meet by the riverside they will 
revere the place where prayer is wont to be made. " 

Following the course of events through the second 
half of Bishop Lipscomb s episcopate, we will return 
in the first place to C.M.S. It is difficult, with several 
agencies at work at the same time, to make our story 
consecutive and so to avoid scrappiness ; a certain 
amount of overlapping and dovetailing is almost inevit 
able. C.M.S. gradually increased its interest in Jamaica, 
until in 1840 its mission had reached its greatest extent. 
In that year it had 21 stations in 9 different parishes, 
and its staff consisted of 7 clergymen and n European 
laymen. Its attendants at Divine Service numbered 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 77 

6,610, of whom 271 were communicants. It had 47 
schools, with an average attendance of 5,000 scholars, 
and had established a training-school for schoolmasters, 
catechists, and missionaries. Summarising the work of 
its agents, the Society reported in 1839 that 

" large congregations were gathered. The decencies of 
human life became respected and the degrading habits of 
former days were abandoned. Christian ordinances came 
to be valued and frequented ; many were confirmed ; 
others became communicants ; schools were well attended ; 
and affecting proofs were afforded of the willingness of the 
negro to assist in the expenses of the mission." 

This statement, though it only refers to a few districts 
scattered about the island, may be regarded as a satis 
factory record of little more than twelve years work, 
but the conclusions at which it arrives can hardly be 
said to be consistent with the above-quoted figures, nor 
can they be taken as an accurate description of the whole 
diocese. The Society may, of course, have been misled 
by the couleur de rose reports of some of its agents, and 
have formed its judgment from these reports rather 
than from actual facts. About this time the C.M.S. s 
income fell considerably below its expenditure, the 
former for the year 1839 being 72,000, and the latter 
91,453, leaving a debit balance of 19,453. The amount 
spent on West Indian missions during the same year was 
19,193, so that a clean balance sheet would be nearly 
obtained by a withdrawal of the West Indian grants. 
Accordingly, the Society resolved to withdraw its opera 
tions from Jamaica. Writing on this action, Dr. Eugene 
Stock, in his History of the C.M.S., says : 

" The Society naturally incurred much blame for having 
thus put its hand to the plough and then turned back ; but 
when we come to the financial position, we shall see that 
drastic measures somewhere were inevitable, and it seemed 
to the Committee that the West Indian work, interesting 
and important as it was, was of a less definitely missionary 
character than the work in Africa, India, and other great 
Heathen fields. Meanwhile the S.P.G. and the Noncon 
formist Missions continued their operations, and were the 
instruments of great good among the negro population." 

Apart from the reasons mentioned by Dr. Stock, we 
may add that the C.M.S. was further justified in its 



78 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

action by the continued liberality of the Legislature of 
Jamaica, for, from a Parliamentary Return bearing 
date 1839, we learn that there were on the Establishment 
of the Island fifty-three churches, sixty-five clergymen, 
and seven catechists, at an annual cost of 43,000. 

C.M.S. s withdrawal, though as gradual as possible 
without upsetting work, was by no means slow. We have 
already seen that in 1825 provision had been made for 
increasing the number of island churches to forty-two, 
on condition that appointments should not be made 
until suitable buildings were erected for church services. 
Under the terms of this Act, ten of the C.M.S. stations 
were at once transferred to the general ecclesiastical 
establishment of the Colony, or were placed, in preparation 
for such transfer, under the superintendence of a neigh 
bouring clergyman. Smaller stations and out-stations 
were temporarily closed. Piteous accounts, tinged with 
a doubtless genuine, but rather sentimental, tone were 
given at the time of the grief of the people who thought 
they were being deprived of religious privileges. In 
1842 the number of C.M.S. stations was reduced to four, 
and in 1848 its connection with Jamaica ceased for some 
years. 

Turning to general Church work, we find that, by means 
of the help received from the West India Fund, churches 
and chapels were built or enlarged, missionaries and 
schoolmasters were sent out and stirred up so strong a 
feeling in their favour that in 1838 the Bishop was able 
to write that " the vestries of Jamaica are coming for 
ward with such a sense of religious instruction that the 
difficulty will now rather be to meet their grants for the 
moieties of curates and teachers salaries with an equal 
sum from the funds of the societies that aid them." 
The above sentence and the transfer of the C.M.S. mis 
sionaries to the State Establishment seem to suggest 
that even so early as 1838 the Church s ministrations 
were becoming more parochial than missionary a point, 
I think, not to be lost sight of. The remnant of the old 
established clergy still resisted the Bishop s authority in 
certain matters in which they thought he was disposed 
to encroach on, or interfere with, powers legally belonging 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 79 

to them before his appointment. I suppose it was not 
to be either hoped or expected that, with the changed 
conditions arising from direct, personal, Episcopal rule, 
some friction should not have arisen. " The old order 
changeth, yielding place to new," but, old orders are 
very jealous of their old privileges. Consequently in 
1838 Bishop Lipscomb was involved in a vexatious law 
suit with one of his leading clergy, a lawsuit 1 which was 
only possible in a state-subsidised Church and in a 
transition stage of authority. Some of the relatives of 
the clergyman in question are still living, and therefore 
it is as well to abstain from entering into particulars, 
merely noticing that it is a strong illustration of the 
dangers of Erastianism in the Church of England that 
the wording of an entry of marriage in the register of a 
church should involve the suspension of a useful clergy 
man and an appeal, after eighteen months undignified 
correspondence and irritating litigation, to the Privy 
Council in England, which august body dismissed the 
appeal, without entering into the merits of the case, 
entirely on the ground of the omission of some technical 
formality in one of the early stages of the proceedings. 

In 1839 tne appointment of a general clerical inspector 
of elementary (Church) schools marks the growth of edu 
cation which made such an officer necessary. During 
the next few years the Church progressed quietly and 
uneventfully until the 4th of April, 1843, when in the 
midst of his labours, after an episcopate of nearly nine 
teen years, Dr. Lipscomb died at his post and was buried 
in the churchyard of St. Andrew s Church ; and thus the 
first Bishop of Jamaica removed from his diocese any 
claim to be included in the often uncalled-for sneer that 
Colonial Churches cannot point to the graves of their 
bishops. Dr. Lipscomb was a man of strength, energy 
and determination, perhaps not very conciliatory in his 

1 A somewhat parallel, though by no means similar, case 
occurred in more recent years, consequent on the altered con 
ditions created by the disestablishment of the Church. No 
further reference to this will be made in these pages beyond this 
expression of personal opinion that it caused both unnecessary 
pain and quite needless irritation, that it ought to have been 
avoided and that it did no sort of good to anyone. 



80 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

methods, bent on having his own way when he thought 
his own way was right, and certainly unfortunate in 
meeting with opposition where he had a right to hope for 
sympathy and co-operation. His foes figuratively, 
of course were those of his own household. His work 
at a critical time was good and sufficiently solid for others 
to build on the foundations he laid. The Bishop s 
chaplain writes that Dr. Lipscomb " was followed to the 
grave by thousands, literally, whose simple expressions 
of sorrow testified how sincerely they felt the loss of him 
who, while living, had entitled himself to their respect 
and regard by his unvarying kindness, gentleness and 
benevolence." During the last days of his life, the 
Bishop s mind reverted to the scenes and incidents of 
his laborious episcopate, and more than once he referred 
to his last report to S.P.G., in which he compared the 
diocese in 1843 with the state of things he found in 1824 
and expressed an anxious wish that all would be con 
sidered satisfactory. This report has the interest which 
is always attached to the words of the dying, for the 
Bishop was in his grave before any reply could be re 
ceived. It is dated the ist of February, 1843 and was 
written on his return from his last visitation of the 
diocese. In this report the Bishop expresses his sense 
of the liberality of the Jamaica Legislature and thus 
describes the condition of Jamaica : "I am happy to 
state that I was much pleased with the general informa 
tion of the negroes during my late visitation, and the 
evident advance made in their manners, conduct and 
civilisation. I saw nothing but happiness and com 
fort among the people who, in truth, exact what wages 
they please and have it all their own way, the planters 
being completely in the power of the labouring popula 
tion, who carry their independence sometimes too far." 
And again : " Everywhere I notice in the conduct and 
character of the people the most satisfactory marks of 
improvement." 

During his nineteen years episcopate Dr. Lipscomb 
ordained sixty-six priests and seventy-three deacons ; 
he consecrated thirty-eight churches, thirty-one of which 
were in the Island of Jamaica, and he licensed for the 




m 



; , i 



m 



BISHOP SPENCER. 



\_Page 73. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 81 

purpose of Divine Service forty-one other buildings, some 
of which were school-rooms, some disused boiling-houses, 
others coffee stores. No building, however, was so 
licensed without an assurance that furniture suitable for 
Church uses had been provided. In addition to the 
growth of diocesan order out of state-subsidised chaos 
and the large increase in the number of churches and 
schools, Dr. Lipscomb s episcopate is mainly memorable 
for the greater and more genuine interest which the clergy 
of the Established Church were taking in the welfare of the 
labouring classes. 

CHAPTER VIII 

DR. LIPSCOMB was succeeded in the Bishopric of Jamaica 
by the Rt. Rev. Aubrey George Spencer, D.D., who 
had been Bishop of Newfoundland since 1839. Of 
Dr. Spencer it may be said that he was one of those 
self-sacrificing men whose zeal and devotion are largely 
in excess of their physical strength. His previous 
career, first as a missionary in Newfoundland and 
Bermuda, and afterwards as the first Bishop of New 
foundland, augured well for his episcopate in Jamaica. 
Unfortunately exposure to cold in his northern diocese had 
told so disastrously on a constitution naturally weak 
that his possibilities of usefulness in Jamaica were 
sadly crippled and the years of his active episcopate 
there were but few. He landed in Jamaica on the 4th 
of November, 1843, and was enthroned in the parish 
church of Spanish Town which in his letters patent 
had been formally created the Cathedral of the diocese. 
Just as Dr. Lipscomb s episcopate was noteworthy for 
the large contributions in aid of Church work both from 
public and from private sources, so was that of Dr. 
Spencer signalised by the beginning of that gradual with 
drawal of external, financial help which, though at the 
time it shook the prosperity and seemed to retard the 
progress of the Church, served to create that spirit of 
unselfish and wide-spread liberality which only required 
the exigencies of disendowment to find full scope for its 
display. Soon after his arrival, having ascertained the 



82 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

most urgent needs of the diocese, Bishop Spencer sent a 
plaintive appeal to the C.M.S. to renew some of its 
abandoned labours in Jamaica. He wrote : 

" Chapels closed, dilapidated school-houses, scattered 
congregations, thousands of Maroon wanderers, all emanci 
pated slaves, deprived of all means of Christian worship 
and instruction, notwithstanding the liberal provisions of 
the late Clergy Act, present me with an unhappy picture on 
my arrival in this colony, and show the disastrous conse 
quences of your abandonment of a field which your mis 
sionaries and catechists were so well qualified to occupy." 

The good Bishop may have used rhetoric as an aid 
to persuasion, but it is difficult to reconcile his account 
of his first impressions of the diocese either with the 
latest report of his predecessor or with the glowing ac 
counts given by C.M.S. in 1839, except on the ground 
that in a tropical land decay, unless arrested, is quite 
as rapid as growth. At any rate a sad state of things 
is here revealed. It may be that mission stations had 
been required to run alone before they were strong 
enough to stand without external support, and that the 
inevitable result was " closed chapels, dilapidated 
school-houses, scattered congregations ! " No doubt 
such an appeal would have met with a liberal response 
from C.M.S., had it been possible. But it was not 
possible for the Society to overlook, in favour of Jamaica, 
the more pressing needs of other fields of its labours. 
Other troubles and anxieties gathered round the Bishop. 
Rumours were afloat to the effect that the Island Legisla 
ture would be compelled to reduce its generous grants. 
The West India Fund, founded by the S.P.G., had in 
the opinion of its directors almost finished its contem 
plated object, which had special reference to the transi 
tion from slavery to freedom and was never intended 
to be permanent. Notice had been given that the 
Parliamentary grant to the Fund would be withdrawn 
in 1846. This was done and the last payments from 
the Fund were made in 1850. l In view of these and 

1 During the sixteen years this Fund had been in existence 
the Jamaica Church received from it ^49,913 and the Bahamas 
8,153, more than one-third of the total contributions, which 
amounted to 171,777. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 83 

other like circumstances the only alternative left to 
the Church was to begin to help itself. Bishop Spencer, 
happily for Jamaica, had not been without experience 
of this sort of emergency in Newfoundland, where he 
had originated a Diocesan Church Society. Accordingly 
in March, 1844, five months after his arrival, he addressed 
a circular letter to the clergy on the subject of the forma 
tion of an association to be called " The Jamaica Diocesan 
Church Society for the Propagation of the Gospel." 
The aim of this society, in brief, was to do by local 
contributions the work which until then had been mainly 
done by home contributions. The new Society failed 
to receive much support from individuals, for Church 
people at that day were so accustomed to receiving 
that the " more blessed " habit of giving was but little 
practised. The Island Legislature, however, came to 
the society s assistance with a grant of 3,000, to be 
expended on completing several churches and chapels, 
which were in the course of erection at the time of the 
withdrawal of much of the help from home. During 
the nine years of its existence, from 1844 to 1853, more 
than 7,000 children of the poorer classes received religious 
and secular instruction at schools maintained by this 
society. These figures are not very encouraging, but 
the times were very hard. 

Having had twelve months experience of his new 
diocese, Bishop Spencer held his primary visitation in 
the Spanish Town Cathedral on the i2th of December, 
1844, on which occasion there were gathered together 
a larger number of Church of England clergymen than 
had ever before been assembled on the western side 
of the Atlantic. The actual number present was 75, 
two in excess of the number which met in Toronto in 
the previous June. In his address at this visitation 
the Bishop said : 

" According to the returns which have been collected 
from the several clergy and carefully collated, there are in 
Jamaica seventy-six Churches and chapels of ease, either 
consecrated or ready for consecration, and eleven chapel 
school-houses under Episcopal license, affording accommo 
dation to 51,000 persons. Of these buildings I have myself 
consecrated five, while thirteen more are reported as waiting 



84 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

that rite at my hands. In the parish churches and in most 
of the chapels Divine Service is performed twice on every 
Sunday, and once at least in the course oi the week. I wish 
I could add that to each church a Sunday-school is attached. 
In Jamaica we have in all ninety clergymen ; of whom 
sixty-five may be reckoned as stated ministers, deriving 
their maintenance from the local Legislature and having 
their stations legally and permanently assigned ; seven are 
curates paid by Her Majesty s Treasury, and placed at the 
disposal of the Bishop ; eight are missionaries of the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, with 
a moiety of their salaries locally disbursed ; three are sent 
under Episcopal license to particular stations by the Church 
Missionary Society ; five are curates paid by the incumbents 
whom they assist ; and two are supplied by the schools of 
which they are the principal masters. 

" The whole cost of the maintenance of the clergy, exclu 
sive of the Bishop and the Archdeacon, amounts to 32,000 
annually (not including allowance for house rent), of which 
3,900 is defrayed in England, and he remaining charge 
provided within the colony. 

" It would appear from the scholastic tables which I 
have caused to be constructed and which are formed from 
specific and accurate returns, that there are within the 
island 100 schools in connection with the Established 
Church, in which about 7,000 children receive daily instruc 
tion, at the annual cost of 7,297, or little more than i 
sterling for each child. Of this expense the sum of 1,224 
was borne last year by the S.P.G. ; 826 by the S.P.C.K. ; 
1,252 by the parents of the pupils ; and 5,117 by local 
endowments -and ventry grants." 

The Bishop s statistics given in this address of the 
number of persons attached to the Church of England 
are rather startling. He estimated the population of 
the Colony at 400,000, of whom 220,000 had " declared 
themselves Dissenters/ while the rest either belonged 
to no denomination or were members of the Established 
Church. 

At this time the Colony was passing through a severe 
ordeal, which could not fail to affect the Church. A 
succession of earthquakes, storms and floods well nigh 
ruined the agricultural interests in some parts of the 
Island: an outbreak of cholera in 1850 claimed more 
than 32,000 victims, nearly 8 per cent, of the population : 
the difficulty of securing labourers, together with the 
equalisation by the Imperial Parliament of the duties 
on free and slave-grown sugar, threw many estates out 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 85 

of cultivation. Remedial measures all seemed in vain. 
A costly attempt was made to introduce European 
immigrants, but with no success ; abortive efforts were 
made to cultivate tea, tobacco and silk. There was 
a legislative deadlock owing to the impossibility of the 
two branches of the Legislature agreeing ; taxation was 
enormous and jobbery very general, while a belief was 
prevalent among the peasantry that the United States 
of America were likely to take possession of the Island 
and to consign the negroes to slavery again. Social 
order was thus threatened with collapse and material 
adversity was likely to bring with it a withdrawal of 
such spiritual blessings as the people enjoyed. The 
Church indeed was so absolutely identified with the State 
that circumstances which injuriously affected the latter 
could not fail to tell seriously on the former. Together 
must they rise or fall. Thus, at a time of depression, 
in some instances of ruin and poverty, when those in 
trouble had a right to look for consolation and encourage 
ment from the ministrations of the Church, the clergy 
themselves were so bound up with the well-being of 
the State that they could not rise to the occasion. Subse 
quent calamities have proved the advantage of having 
in the Church of England, distinct from any department 
of the State, an outside power and influence to assist, to 
inspire, to guide those on whom trouble has fallen. 
Certainly in Jamaica, whatever may be the case else 
where, experience clearly shows that an entire dependence 
for support upon the secular powers, however pleasant 
in the days of colonial prosperity, saps the vitality of a 
Church and checks the growth of that firm and independ 
ent spirit which is so necessary in the time of adversity. 
The political, social and material troubles alluded to 
above led to what was known to contemporary writers 
as " the retrenchment struggle." Bearing in mind the 
altered finances of the colony and the fact that Noncon 
formist Churches were doing useful work, unassisted by 
State subsidies, the Ecclesiastical Establishment, costing 
the colony more than 40,000 a year, was a fair object 
for the attack of reforming economists. No alteration 
in the financial status of the clergy was actually made 



86 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

until Bishop Spencer had retired from the active super 
vision of the diocese, but the growth of the Church was 
necessarily retarded by the unsettled and distressed 
condition of the colony. For a short period, indeed, 
the state of the Island Exchequer was such that the 
clergy had to work without receiving any pay, a fate 
which was perhaps not undeserved by a Church, many 
of whose servants in days gone by had been in the habit 
of receiving pay without doing much work in return. 
But if the Church in these hard times did not advance 
much, she cannot fairly be said to have fallen back : if she 
was unable to " lengthen her cords " she did not fail to 
" strengthen her stakes." Here and there, thanks 
to the continued liberality of S.P.G., new openings for 
work were taken advantage of, but the leading feature 
of Church life during Bishop Spencer s residence in 
Jamaica was the strengthening and consolidating of 
existing churches and congregations rather than the 
opening up of new ground. In this work the Bishop 
received ready support wherever his needs were known. 
The missionary work stood still, but the parochial work 
increased. One or two extracts from the Bishop s 
correspondence will illustrate this. At the close of his 
first visitation of the diocese in 1845 he wrote : 

" The results of this personal intercourse with my clergy 
and people are, I thank God, already apparent. Parochial 
vestries, which had withheld pecuniary grants to the national 
schools are now, in many instances, liberal in their supplies ; 
the funds of the Church Society are enriched ; local con 
tributions for the enlargement and repairs of chapels are 
more numerous ; the number of pupils in the schools is 
generally on the increase, and the co-operation which I 
have met with from the magistrates and vestries is universal." 

In the following year the Bishop reported that three 
of the S.P.G. missionary stations, namely those at Ocho 
Rios, Manchioneal and Dallas, had been transferred to 
the Island Establishment. His remarks in reference to 
the last-named of these places may be quoted in full : - 

" I cannot," he writes, " close this letter without adverting 
to the extraordinary success with which it has pleased God 
to bless the efforts of a clergyman, lately an S.P.G. Mission 
ary to the district called Dallas, in the mountains called 
Port Royal. The Church on this mountain was projected 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 87 

and commenced by my lamented predecessor, but finding 
no probability of procuring the completion of the building 
on the large scale on which it was designed ; finding, more 
over, that the inhabitants of this district were, for the most 
part, members of the Baptist congregation, and that not 
more than 100 could be brought to the school-house licensed 
as a temporary chapel, I determined on removing the 
stipendiary curate, then in charge, to the more promising 
district of Guy s Hill. Within a year after this removal, 
I was induced to ordain the Rev. Colin McLaverty, a gentle 
man of some private fortune and the proprietor of an estate 
in the district of Dallas, assigning to him a stipend 150 
of which was paid by the Society (S.P.G.) on the expectation 
that by his influence and means, aided by a grant from the 
Diocesan Church Society, he would be able to effect the 
completion of the Dallas Church, and collect such a congre 
gation as might ultimately justify the adoption of the 
station by the Colonial authorities. This good work has, 
I rejoice to say, been effectively done by this exemplary 
missionary of the S.P.G. The chapel will be fit for conse 
cration before or at Easter ; the station has been constituted 
an island curacy ; nearly i ,000 converts, diligently prepared 
by Mr. McLaverty, are now awaiting at my hands the rite 
of confirmation." 

This is a remarkable record of missionary work, which 
carries us back in thought to Apostolic times, and is 
probably unparalleled in the history of the Jamaica 
Church. 

The mention in the previous extract from the Bishop s 
correspondence of his removal of a state-paid clergyman 
from a district which was well served by a Baptist 
minister reminds us that the principle, first adopted by 
the Missionary Societies and afterwards followed by the 
Church, was to start in districts where help was most 
needed and not to attempt to interfere with other men s 
labours. The Church strove to Christianise and to 
civilise, not to episcopalianise or to proselytise. 

In further proof of this and to show how careful Bishop 
Spencer was to discourage proselytising, and how long a 
period of probation he imposed on those who, on con 
scientious grounds, wished to come from the ministry 
of one denomination to that of another, we may quote the 
following words from a letter dated 2nd September, 1847 : 

" It will interest you to hear that Mr. had 

been for many years a Minister, but being con 
vinced of the danger of separation proposed to me three 



88 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

years ago to be employed as a Catechist and to bring over 
both his own chapel and his congregation to the Church. 
After placing this gentleman during that long interval under 
the Rural Dean and three clergymen in his neighbourhood, 
I felt myself justified in admitting him on their testimonials 
to the order of Deacon." 

In the year 1847 Archdeacon Pope, after twenty-two 
years zealous service in the diocese, resigned the Arch 
deaconry of Jamaica and, on the recommendation of the 
Bishop, the island was divided into three Archdeaconries, 
those of Surrey, Middlesex, and Cornwall, commensurate 
with and called by the same names as the three civil 
counties into which Jamaica is divided. The stipends 
(600 per annum each) of the new Archdeacons were 
charges on the Consolidated Fund. On the i8th of 
November, 1847, an event of some interest took place 
at the consecration of a little mountain Church at Coning- 
ton, namely, the confirmation of the young king of the 
Mosquito Indians, who came to Jamaica principally for 
that purpose. " The first convictions," writes Bishop 
Spencer, " of Christian faith which have evidently taken 
hold of the mind of this young prince argue well for the 
gradual conversion of his subjects, and if it were within 
the character and power of the Society (S.P.G.) to estab 
lish a mission at Blewfields, the capital of his dominions, 
they would add to their history the record of another 
triumph of the cross, well worthy of the name and object 
of the S.P.G." We have already seen that the Jamaica 
Assembly had sent a missionary to the Mosquito Coast 
in the year 1750. This was done in response to a letter 
received from the Mosquito Indians by the then Governor, 
Mr. Edward Trelawny, asking amongst other things for 
his 

" assistance in sending us some Powder, shot, flints, small 
arms and cutlasses to defend our country and assist our 
Brothers Englishmen ; and a good schoolmaster to learn 
and instruct ou* young children, that they may be brought 
up in the Christian Faith. All we beg is that he may bring 
with him his books and a little salt ; as for anything else 
we will take care to provide for him and a sufficient salary 
for his pains. We likewise promise him that he shall have 
no trouble to look for victuals, nor any provisions ; for we 
shall take care to provide for him such as our country can 
afford." 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA gg 

The Governor forwarded a copy of this letter to S.P.G. 
who, between 1767 and 1777, sent out four missionaries, 
one of whom died a few days after his arrival, while the 
stay of the others was very short, as they could not stand 
the climate. Mr. Christian Post did excellent work as a 
Catechist from 1767 to 1785, bravely bearing danger, 
poverty, sickness, full of mercy and of good works, so 
generous out of a small income that his wife was driven 
to complain that he would " leave nothing when he died 
but a beggar s staff." The Mosquito Territory is now a 
part of the Diocese of Honduras. The peculiar interest 
which attaches to the Mosquito Indians lies in the belief 
that they may be of the same race as those who inhabited 
Jamaica at the time of its discovery and that possibly 
some of them may be descendants of those who were 
fortunate enough to make good their escape from Spanish 
tyranny. 

In 1849 E> r - Spencer completed a long visitation tour of 
the greater part of Jamaica and on his return was pre 
sented with an address, signed by a number of the clergy, 
from which, as well as from his reply, we may get a 
glimpse of the condition of the Church at that time. 
The address speaks of the " healthy life and operation of 
many ecclesiastical institutions ; of a growing observance 
of religious order and moral duties ; and of the pious 
liberality of some who, even in the present distress, have 
devoted their time, their labour and their substance to 
the Church of Christ and the education of His poor." 
On the other hand we read in the same document of an 
" appalling deficiency of churches and schools in many 
populous districts, and a total want of them in others." 
The Bishop s reply speaks of useful work being quietly 
done, of his confirmation of 10,000 persons during his 
recent visitation, of an increase in the number of clergy 
and of centres of Christian teaching and of the fact that 
" congregations exhibit more of the Christian life in their 
conduct than was formerly manifested among them." 
In the light of coming events the following passage from 
the Bishop s reply seems almost prophetic : 

" The quiet which we now experience may indeed be but 
the calm which indicates the coming storm, and soon may 



90 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

we be called upon to endure the action of the agitated 
elements, and to deal with the political and social convul 
sions we may nevertheless believe to be but the wind and 
storm fulfilling His Word. " 

In 1853 it was found that the Diocesan Church Society, 
extending its operations over the whole Island, did not 
adequately represent the requirements of different 
districts and therefore it was resolved to substitute for 
it three distinct societies, one in each archdeaconry. 
The wisdom of this decision may well be questioned. 
The frequent change of the names of Societies, Institu 
tions, even of places, connected with the Church in 
Jamaica, can hardly fail to give an impression of a want 
of continuity and permanence in the Church s work. 
Nor is the present generation quite cured of this trick. 
As a matter of fact such an impression is not altogether 
well founded : certain operations have necessarily been 
tentative and some have been discontinued in due course, 
but on the whole the growth has been gradual and uni 
form with no very violent catastrophes. The new Societies 
thus created were least inactive in the Archdeaconries 
of Surrey and Middlesex and after a short existence 
perished of inanition. When the bundle was undone 
the separate sticks were easily broken. They failed, 
in the then depressed condition of the Colony, to receive 
much substantial support and mainly served to show 
how much of the work of previous years was merely 
scratching the soil, and how much remained yet to be 
done. They are important to our purpose here because 
they enable us to contrast the actual condition of Church 
affairs at the time with the flourishing position repre 
sented by official returns to the Bishop. In 1854, at 
the first anniversary meeting of the Surrey Society, 
held in Kingston, the Committee had to report a falling 
off both in numbers and in efficiency ; thirteen schools 
out of thirty-one had been closed during the past year, 
while schoolmasters had been kept for months without 
remuneration. The lower classes are described as being 
indifferent to the advantages of education, and the 
committee pointed to " the lamentable deterioration of 
morals and absence of principle in the masses of the 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 91 

population of this colony." At the corresponding 
meeting of the Middlesex Society, held in Spanish Town, 
a curious incident occurred. The chair was taken by the 
Governor, Sir Henry Barkley, who before presiding had 
not taken the precaution to read the Report. In his 
opening address His Excellency expressed his great 
satisfaction in finding that the efforts of Ministers were 
devoted to the establishment of schools in every portion 
of the diocese : he was glad to find so much enterprising 
spirit in the colony for the formation of religious and 
other societies ; there was no necessity for him to dilate 
on the progress of this Society in the past (it was only 
one year old) for the meeting would be addressed by 
gentlemen who were more cognisant than he was with 
the true state of things. Some of these more cognisant 
gentlemen must have astonished His Excellency. The 
Secretary led the way and reported that there had been 
no advance made in education, but that there had been 
a "lamentable diminution in the number of Church 
Schools and Church Scholars throughout almost every 
part of the Archdeaconry." The freewill offerings of 
the people (about 150,000) of the county of Middlesex 
had amounted to less than 140, and nearly two-thirds 
of the children of Jamaica, the men and women of the 
next generation, were destitute of religious and secular 
education of any kind. Archdeacon Courtenay spoke 
at length on the " destitute and ignorant condition of 
the people and the low state of the schools." It was an 
ignorance " more deplorable, pregnant with deeper 
evils and more urgently demanding remedy than many 
persons felt it to be." The Attorney-General, speaking 
from his professional experience, corroborated the secre 
tary and the Archdeacon, as likewise did other gentle 
men " more cognisant " than the Governor with the true 
condition of Jamaica. The language of compliment, not 
to say of flattery, is not infrequently used by Chairmen 
of public meetings, and even Colonial Governors have 
been known to say foolish things, but the statements 
made at this meeting have a deeper and more solemn 
lesson for us. They tell a sad tale, which must be told, 
sad as it sounds in the telling. Bright spots there 



92 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

undoubtedly were around the home of some devoted 
missionary, or beneath the shadow of church, chapel, 
or school, but in spite of the liberality of Imperial and 
Colonial Governments, the munificence of Societies 
and the generosity of individuals, the great mass of the 
population was almost uninfluenced by religion and 
the provision made for the education of the men and 
women of the future barely touched the hem of what 
was necessary. 

In the same year, 1854, Bishop Spencer held what 
proved to be his last visitation of the Jamaica part of 
his diocese. The Ecclesiastical Returns sent in to him 
in view of this visitation revealed a degree of prosperity 
which, if figures have any force, has not since been 
reached and which I find it impossible to reconcile with 
the foregoing and other statements. The returns in 
question show a staff of 81 clergymen, ministering in 
96 churches, which provided accommodation for 50,000 
persons and were attended by 125,000 persons. The 
total cost of this establishment to general revenue and 
parochial funds amounted to 60,000 per annum, apart 
from contributions from the Imperial Treasury, from 
S.P.G., from the Christian Faith Society and from other 
sources. 

Having completed his visitation, Bishop Spencer s 
health quite broke down and he was ordered home. 
His medical advisers gave him no hope of ever being 
able to resume his espiscopal labours in the Tropics and 
accordingly he was compelled to apply for the appoint 
ment of a Co-adjutor Bishop. There being no provision 
for pensioning the Bishop, he was allowed nominally 
to retain the Bishopric with its income (from the Con 
solidated Fund) on condition that he paid a substantial 
sum to the Co-adjutor who supplied his place in Jamaica. 
After a good deal of unnecessary delay, and in spite of 
difficulties which might well have been avoided, Dr. 
Reginald Courtenay, who had been Archdeacon of Middle 
sex (Jamaica) since 1853, was consecrated a Bishop in 
April, 1856, and appointed Co-adjutor Bishop of Jamaica, 
taking the title of Bishop of Kingston. 

While the negotiations for the appointment of a 




15ISHOP COURTKXAY. 



\_Page 84. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 93 

co-adjutor were being carried on, the Jamaica Assembly 
had agreed on a measure of retrenchment which finan 
cially affected the clergy. The reduction of one s 
income without one s own consent and against one s own 
wishes is seldom a pleasant process, but then it was 
plain that the large subsidy given by the State to the 
Church was in excessive disproportion to the reduced 
revenues of the colony. Happily the action of the 
Government does not seem to have been prompted by 
any deficiency of service on the part of any great number 
of the clergy. It was entirely a matter of ways and 
means. At last the following scheme was agreed on. 
The clerical stipends were reduced, rectors to 400, 
island curates to 340, on the understanding that any 
clergyman who declined to accept this new arrangement 
should be paid his original salary until December, 1858 
when the Clergy Act 1 expired, after which date a 
still further reduction, which would be compulsory, 
would be made in such cases. Most of the clergy wisely 
and cheerfully accepted the reduction, but a few con 
tinued to draw the full amount of their original salaries. 
On the ist of January, 1860, these latter were put on 
the further reduced income, which they continued to 
receive for a few years, after which they were placed on 
the same footing as those who had accepted the commu 
tation. In 1858 the same Clergy Act was re-enacted 
for eleven years with the additional provisions that the 
number of Island curates should be increased to fifty 
and that the Island Treasury should pay half the stipend 
of ten additional curates, the other half being provided 
by the Bishop out of funds placed at his disposal by 
English societies. 

In April, 1858, two years after his consecration, Bishop 
Courtenay delivered his primary charge, an able, out 
spoken statement which enables us to learn something 
both about the work of the Church and the position and 
needs of the colony. Speaking of the clergy, the Bishop 
quoted facts and figures which were, he said, " numerous 
enough to vindicate the character of the clergy generally, 
and to prove that the labours of the ministers of religion 
1 See p. 63. 



94 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

have the blessing of God upon them and deserve to be 
thankfully acknowledged, encouraged and promoted/ 
But when he turns to speak of the general condition of 
the island, the Bishop s words are painful to read. The 
truth is not always welcome and is often unlovely, but no 
good purpose can be gained by concealing it. " We are," 
said the Bishop, " in Jamaica in a land but partially 
reclaimed from heathenism from heathen superstition 
and licentiousness. How often, reversing the Apostolic 
rule, those we would convert in understanding are 
children, while in malice they are men. Unable to read 
or write without books, without instruction, without 
external control, unintellectual, immoral the baser 
impulses of human nature are indulged without restraint 
either from a sense of shame or of religious obligation." 

These weighty words and many others might be 
quoted to the same effect the accuracy of which has 
never been called in question point mainly to two facts ; 
firstly that the clergy of that day were men of higher 
character and attainments than those of previous years 
and, secondly, that no amount of diocesan, or parochial, 
organisation could possibly dispense with the absolute 
necessity for distinct and systematic missionary work. 
This is the moral which meets us whenever, in the course 
of our history, we pause to note the position and prospects 
of the Church ; and this too, though to a decreasing 
extent, is one of the problems which the present rulers of 
the Church are endeavouring to solve. 

If it be asked and the question is a very natural one 
how so deplorable a condition of things came to prevail 
in Jamaica, in spite oi the efforts of the Church and of 
other religious bodies and in seeming contradiction to 
official reports of Church progress, the answer is not far 
to seek. In the first place it must be remembered that 
the negro population of Jamaica was at that time less 
than a generation from slavery days and it is ridiculous to 
expect one generation or even two, three, or four 
generations of African people to show the growth and 
development which have required centuries for their 
production in other races. Doubtless many, perhaps a 
majority, of the freed negroes originally attached 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 95 

themselves to some Christian Church in gratitude for the 
part which Christian teachers had taken in advocating and 
securing their freedom. The white man had given them 
freedom ; black and white were equally subjects of one 
Queen and the black man would show his equality by 
adopting the white man s Creed. In the second place it 
must be borne in mind that the facility with which land 
was acquired and the ease with which a small settler 
could earn a sufficient competence from the rich soil of 
the island had materially changed the aspect of the popu 
lation. In the old slavery days the population was in 
groups or large settlements, but emancipation gave the 
freed labouiers an opportunity to occupy small settle 
ments of their own and thus to move away from the 
former centres of population. The first churches were 
naturally and as a matter of convenience built near the 
homes of the Church people and, as we have seen, much 
of the work of the missionaries actually began on sugar 
estates. And as the labouring classes asserted their 
independence of paid labour and worked on their own 
little properties, whether as owners or as squatters, they 
were scattered far and wide over the island, out of reach 
of church or chapel or school, before any religious or 
educational impressions had had time to take permanent 
root. 1 For, however willing a clergyman might be to 
follow the migrations of his flock, there were plenty of 
reasons to prevent him doing so. His own congregation 
required his full time ; his own schools demanded his 
personal attention ; the wanderers could only be got at 
by long rides over rough and almost inaccessible paths 
and hill-tracks or the beds of mountain torrents, and a 
country parish of sixty square miles may under such 
conditions fairly be called unworkable. So it happened 
that as the industrious negroes acquired their own small 
settlements and moved farther and farther from the 

1 In illustration of the way in which negroes got scattered 
and practically lost and cut off from all knowledge of outside 
life, we may mention that the Rev. J. Morris, a hardworking 
S.P.G. missionary at Keynsham, reported in 1857 that a former 
slave had lived for twenty years in ignorance of his emancipation 
aad that it was difficult to make him realise that " free is come." 



96 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

centres of Christian teaching, so did the insufficiency of 
religious and moral instruction become emphasised. I 
believe this to be the true explanation of the state of the 
Church in Jamaica at that date. All the clergy who in 
recent years had been ordained in the colony may not 
have been models of clerical efficiency, (where are they 
models ?) but to attribute the sad condition of a great 
mass of the people to ministerial neglect would be as 
unreasonable as to hold an enthusiastic East-end clergy 
man in London responsible for the vice and crime with 
which he is trying to cope. Indeed, the disestablished 
Church of England in Jamaica owes so much to the un 
selfish and unflinching labours of some of those who 
ministered during what seemed to be these days of 
deterioration that we are bound to look outside the 
clerical staff for the causes of that degeneration which 
for a short time threatened to overwhelm the colony. 
With the political, social and other causes which were 
tending to the same end we have here nothing to do, but 
I believe that I have correctly stated the real reason for 
any decline which observers have found in the influence 
of the Church during the middle decades of the last century. 
Unless, then, the Church of England was to be content 
to be represented by a limited number of foci of religion 
oases of Christianity in a desert of heathenism it must 
renew its missionary methods. To Bishop Courtenay 
is due the inauguration of a Missionary Society within 
the diocese. If missionaries were not to be sent from 
England to Jamaica, then Jamaica must find and form 
and train her own missionaries. 



CHAPTER IX 

WHILE Bishop Courtenay was contemplating the local 
missionary efforts referred to at the end of the previous 
chapter he was relieved in 1861 of a portion of his diocese 
by the creation of the See of Nassau. The increasing 
duties and responsibilities of the Church in Jamaica 
had rendered the supervision of the Bahamas very 
difficult, and latterly almost perfunctory. Facilities for 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 97 

travelling were scarce in these days ; even now there is 
little direct communication between Jamaica and the 
Bahamas. The number of the islands one missionary 
had no less than seven under his charge made it quite 
out of the question for a bishop, resident in Jamaica, to 
visit regularly every church and congregation. A 
separate diocese was necessary. The new diocese com 
prised the Bahama Islands, the Turks Islands, and the 
Caicos Islands, and left the island of Jamaica and the 
colony of British Honduras to form the diocese of 
Jamaica. 

Realising, then, as we have seen, the most pressing 
needs of the Church and of the colony, Bishop Courtenay 
in January 1861, acting in concert with some of the 
leading laity and clergy of the diocese, inaugurated the 
Jamaica Church of England Home and Foreign Mis 
sionary Society. The purpose of this society, which 
still exists with an unchanged name, and with both the 
fulfilment and the promise of useful activity, was the 
furtherance of missionary operations : 

(1) in those districts of Jamaica which are still, 
from peculiar circumstances, destitute to a certain 
extent of the means of grace ; 

(2) In that portion of Western Africa, bordering 
on the River Pongas ; 

(3) In the territory of the Mosquito Indians on 
the coast of Central America. 

Apart from the great need of Home missionary work, 
it was rightly felt that the Church of England in Jamaica 
needed some of that stimulus which is always to be found 
where a missionary spirit exists. If, indeed, the presence 
or the absence of this missionary spirit is the sign of a 
standing or a falling Church, then was the Jamaica 
Church in a somewhat tottering condition. In 1824 the 
parish of St. Thomas had sent 100 as a contribution 
to S.P.C.K., a performance which remains an unbroken 
"record" in Jamaica. Small contributions had from 
time to time been sent to the " West Indian Church 
Association for the Furtherance of the Gospel in Western 
Africa," but little or no organised effort had been made. 
The propriety of the choice of the two outside channels 



98 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

for missionary support is too apparent to require explana 
tion here. They will more fitly be referred to later on 
in this sketch. 

The birth of this new society was cordially welcomed 
both by laity and by clergy. It began with four stations, 
which at the time of disestablishment had increased to 
26, and now number 122. Most of these stations were, 
and still are, served by Catechist-schoolmasters, acting 
under the superintendence and direction of the nearest 
available clergyman. The direct good done in past years 
by these mission stations and their direct influence over 
the present condition of the Church, are perhaps only 
exceeded by their indirect. For not merely was Christian 
teaching spread over a wider range of ground, but the 
established clergy were led to take an active interest in 
others besides the members of their own congregations, 
and both laity and clergy were able to avail themselves 
of the privilege of systematic giving. Nor was this all. 
Several of the present country churches were originally 
mission stations founded by this Society and, when the 
early needs of the disestablished Church pointed to a 
difficulty in finding men to fill vacancies in the ranks of 
the clergy, caused by death or resignation, there were 
found among the agents of the Missionary Society men 
fit to be prepared for ordination, possessing a practical 
acquaintance with ministerial duties, and some experience 
of the methods of the voluntary system of Church 
organisation and work. 

Partly because of the formation of this Society, but 
mainly because of other claims, and of the continued 
liberality of the Jamaica Legislation for the maintenance 
of the Church, S.P.G. considered that it was justified in 
withdrawing its grants at the end of r.865. 1 There were 
then 92 clergy in the island supported by the State ; 
and it was calculated that 200,000 persons, or two-fifths 
of the population, were " wholly inaccessible to the 
ministrations of the clergy, or of the ministers of any 
religious denomination." At the time of its withdrawal 
S.P.G. estimated that the average population of each 
of the ecclesiastical parishes on the State Establishment 

1 See S.P.G. Digest, Chap. XXIX. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 99 

was 3,240. The area of the town parishes would natur 
ally be small, but some of the country cures had an area 
of 60 square miles. These figures, and those of the 200,000 
" wholly inaccessible persons," bear out what has been 
said about the dispersion of the population, and point to 
the wisdom of forming the Jamaica Missionary Society, 
if the Church were not to lose touch with nearly half the 
population of the island. 

A few months before this withdrawal of S.P.G. from 
Jamaica^ political and social troubles drew general atten 
tion to the Colony. With the rising, or rebellion, in 
October, 1865, the Church cannot be said to have had 
any direct connection, and therefore it is unnecessary, 
even if it were desirable, to enter at any length in these 
pages, either into the causes, or into the details, of that 
most unfortunate occurrence. But a certain amount 
of responsibility must, of necessity, belong to the Church 
of England. Years, almost centuries, of duties shirked, 
and of opportunities neglected, must have their conse 
quences. It is true that there were many and encourag 
ing signs of growth, development, improvement, but 
when we think of the provision made for the maintenance 
of the Church by successive legislatures of Jamaica, and 
of the liberality of English societies and friends, one can 
not but also think and that too without defaming the 
dead that if the Church in the bygone days of her 
wealth and of her ease had been more loyal to her true 
mission, the rebellion of 1865 would have been as impos 
sible then as a similar outbreak is improbable now. A 
very fair account of these disturbances is to be found 
in the forty-ninth chapter of Mr. Justin McCarthy s 
" History of our own Times." 

It is difficult, as readers of that chapter will readily 
admit, to know where to apportion blame, and unhappily 
there is not much occasion for the apportionment of 
praise. To what extent the trouble was misunderstood 
in England may be gathered from the fact that so very 
careful a chooser of words as Sir Leslie Stephen described 
it as " a servile insurrection." The verdict of 50 years 
hence will probably be that there were on both sides 
misapprehensions, exaggerations, groundless ill-feelings, 



TOO THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

frenzy born of fear and panic, uncontrolled excitement, 
Leading to unnatural conduct. The outbreak might have 
been inevitable owing to strained feelings : whether or 
no there was reasonable provocation for it, there is 
no doubt that it was purposeless and uncalled for. It 
was promptly suppressed : in Governer Eyre s words, 
within three days of the first intelligence of the rebellion 
reaching Kingston it was headed, checked and hemmed 
in : within a week it was fairly crushed." The soldiers 
can hardly be said to have had any fighting, as distinct 
from shooting, to do, for the rioters never took the 
field against them : and lastly the revenge exacted was 
as purposeless and uncalled for as was the outbreak 
itself. There was fear on both sides : hatred is the 
child of fear and the parent of cruelty. For what is 
true of the " rebels," if the disaffected persons are en 
titled to be so called, is equally true of those who sup 
pressed the rebellion. If it is true, as stated in a petition 
sent to England at the time by the Jamaica Church, 
that the " heathenism and barbarism still existing 
among the negroes have in one district suddenly and 
unexpectedly exhibited a ferocity almost African " it 
is equally true that this ferocity was responded to by an 
amount of unnecessary cruelty and relentless revenge 
which we may well hope is entitled to be called " un- 
English." It is ridiculous to predicate any virtue, or 
any vice, as an universal characteristic of the inhabitants 
of an entire continent, and " a ferocity almost African " 
is, in the light of the events of this sad time, as meaning 
less a phrase as would be " a revenge almost European 
in its unreasonable cruelty." It is an open question 
whether the student of the history of ferocity would go 
to Africa for his most pointed illustrations. The dis 
positions and habits of different African tribes present 
features quite as varied as do those of different European 
nations, and the natives of one continent are quite as 
susceptible to the humanising influences of Christianity 
as are those of the other. 

One clergyman of the Church of England was killed 
in these disturbances, namely, the Rev. Victor Herschell, 
curate of Bath. Mr. Herschell was present at the Morant 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA loi 

Bay Court House when the riots broke out, having gone 
there to confer with the magistrates on some business 
connected with the repair of his church. His name is 
prominently mentioned in a proclamation inciting to 
riot which was supposed to have emanated from Mr. 
G. W. Gordon. Amidst the rattle of musketry and the 
roaring of flames and the falling of a burning roof Mr. 
Herschell did not forget his sacred functions, and he and 
his ill-fated companions were engaged in prayer when the 
heat of the burning building became so intense that they 
had to try to leave it, many of them, including Mr. 
Herschell, to meet a possibly worse doom than that of 
being burnt alive. There is no reason for supposing 
that Mr. Herschell s fate was in any way due to opposi 
tion to the Church. No fault was found with his per 
formance of ministerial duties, and his name appeared 
in the proclamation above referred to entirely on account 
of his action as a citizen. 

As was natural, one consequence of this rising was to 
cause anxious inquiry to be made into the position, 
work and possibilities of the Church, with the view of 
creating such an influence as would tend to prevent the 
recurrence of a similar calamity. There was plainly 
need for more vigorous and widespread effort, and 
especially for more missionary work among the African 
population. Nothing could in reason be expected from 
the Government which helped parochial, not missionary, 
work, and had its hands full of its own difficulties 
and embarrassments, financial and other : C.M.S. had 
withdrawn from Jamaica twenty-five years ago : S.P.G. 
was on the point of doing so. Accordingly, the Jamaica 
Home and Foreign Missionary Society, whose stations 
were then seventeen in number, determined to appeal 
to England for help wherewith to extend its operations. 
The appeal was unsuccessful. Perhaps the time was 
unsuitable : a deputation that was sent home found that 
English people were willing enough to argue whether 
Governor Eyre had pursued a right or a wrong policy : 
they were ready to discuss Jamaica, its problems and 
its politics, but otherwise they were almost indifferent. 
Past events were a more absorbing topic than present 



102 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

needs or future prospects. Nor were appeals to English 
Societies more successful. C.M.S. through its Secretary, 
the Rev. Henry Venn, sent in reply a kindly and well- 
meaning lecture, in the form of a letter which contained 
valuable suggestions, most of which were already partially 
in operation in Jamaica, It was one of those letters 
which are wise in the abstract but miss the point from 
a want of knowledge of local facts and requirements. 
The C.M.S. also used language which seemed to imply 
that the labours of its own missionaries years before 
had been a failure. Plainly this was not so, and the Jamaica 
Committee was able to correct this misapprehension by 
pointing to many of the Society s old stations, which 
were then, as they are now, centres of Church activity 
and of Christian usefulness. Exception must, however, 
to taken to one remark contained in Mr. Venn s letter, 
and repeated in substance in Dr. Eugene Stock s " His 
tory of the C.M.S.," that " at the end of twenty-five 
years the social and religious condition of the negro 
population, numbering more than 400,000, is below 
what it was at the time of emancipation." Mr. Venn 
makes this statement " in the opinion of many competent 
judges ; " the accusation is so sweeping as to be unjust 
and to make us doubt the competence of the judges on 
whose opinion he relied. It is a point that had better 
not be discussed. Perhaps the truth is that the Society, 
which had done so much good work in Jamaica, hoped to 
reap too soon after it had sown. 

With S.P.G. the Jamaica appeal fared no better. 
On being asked to resume its labours in Jamaica, the 
Missions Committee of the Society reviewed the appeal 
favourably, but the Standing Committee rejected it, 
stating that it did so on a full conviction that the present 
number of clergy and schoolmasters in the diocese were 
sufficient for the spiritual education and wants of the 
people if clergy and schoolmasters " devoted themselves 
zealously to their duties." Not unnaturally, some 
indignation was both felt and expressed at the implica 
tion underlying this statement. Its tendency seemed 
likely to be to check any interest that home friends 
might be willing to take in the struggles and difficulties 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 103 

of a Missionary Church. The decided and peremptory 
language in which it was worded was taken to mean that 
the Standing Committee had actual facts before it 
on which to base its conviction. Happily, indignation 
soon cooled down. S.P.G. had been such a good friend 
to Jamaica that it was fairly entitled to a friend s privi 
lege of freedom of speech. 

Thus the Church in Jamaica was again taught the 
salutary lesson that she must look to herself lor the 
maintenance of her missions and the extension of her 
work among the scattered people living in large and 
thinly-populated districts. The failure of these appeals 
drove home the need for self-reliance and self-denial. 
Church-Hie, necessary in exceptional cases, is not the 
highest ideal either for Churches or for individuals. 
Hitherto the Church had limped along supported by 
State subsidies and societies grants ; now she had to 
learn to feel her own feet firm on the ground, to dispense 
with her crutches and be strong in her own inherent 
strength. For disendowment was more than in the air. 
Years ago the question had been asked: " Will the 
State withdraw its aid ? " Lately the question had 
been changed to " When will the State withdraw its aid ? " 
Now men did not ask " When ? " but " How soon ? " 



CHAPTER X 

THE consequences following on the Morant Bay rising 
were many and far-reaching. A Special Commission was 
appointed by the Colonial Office to inquire into the 
causes of the outbreak and the means employed to sup 
press it. An excellent summary of the Report of this 
Commission may be read in Gardner s " History of 
Jamaica." Omitting much that is not strictly relevant 
to Church history, we may briefly say that, as one result 
of the finding of the Commission, Mr. Eyre was removed 
from the Governorship of the Colony. But before he 
left Jamaica, he induced the House of Assembly, which 
had been in existence since 1664, to pass, whether wisely 
or unwisely, perhaps in panic, certainly in haste, a law 



104 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

abolishing the old Constitution, and requesting the Crown 
to " create and constitute a Government for this Island 
in such form and with such powers as to Her Majesty may 
best seem fitting." Thus Jamaica became a Crown 
Colony, administered by a Legislative Council nominated 
by the Crown. The first Governor under this new 
Constitution was Sir John Peter Grant, a strong, reso 
lute man, of great ability and wide experience, whose 
reforming zeal was speedily shown in every department 
of public administration. By his vigorous rule he soon 
proved himself to be both competent and determined to 
carry into execution his alleged threat that he would so 
change the condition of Jamaica that if the dead could 
rise from their graves they would not recognise the 
Island. In the desperate state of the Island s finances 
and immediate prospects, retrenchment on a large scale 
was necessary, if effect were to be given to Sir John 
Peter s proposals for progress and improvement. Natur 
ally his attention was drawn to the Church Establish 
ment. The following table shows the relative position, as 
nearly as I can ascertain, of various religious bodies at the 
time of the inauguration of Crown Government in Jamaica, 
the estimated population being then about 480,000 : 





Accommodation. 


Average 
Attendance. 


Church of England 


48,824 


36,300 


Wesleyan - 


4L775 


37,570 


Baptist .... 


31,640 


26,483 


Presbyterian 


12,575 


7,955 


Moravian .... 


11,850 


9,650 


London Missionary Society - 


8,050 


6,780 


Roman Catholics - 


4,110 


1,870 


American Mission 


1,550 


775 


Church of Scotland - 


1,000 


45 


Hebrew .... 


1,000 


500 


Total - 


162,374 


128,333 



Thus the Church of England could claim to have control 
over a little more than one-fourth of the religion of the 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 105 

Colony, and she received for her services 7,100 a year 
from the Consolidated Fund and 37,284 from the Island 
Government, the latter sum being inclusive of parochial 
expenditure on Church officers. Evidently the Church 
was not the Church of the majority. Sir John Peter 
Grant moved quickly and soon got to work. Very early 
in his administration he made an important announce 
ment to the effect that " no vacancy occurring in the 
ecclesiastical establishment would be filled up until a 
new scheme for supplying the religious wants of the 
island should be determined on by Her Majesty s Govern 
ment." The intention of this is quite clear and anti 
cipated what actually happened. If the vested interests 
of the clergy were to be protected after the expiry 
of the Clergy Act, and if economy was to be effected, 
the Governor naturally and I think rightly decided 
that no further vested interests should be created which 
would defeat his purposes of retrenchment. 

Another of the earlier acts of Sir John Peter Grant s 
ecclesiastical policy was to direct the discontinuance 
of the annual appropriation from general revenue to the 
several parochial vestries for the purpose of defraying 
all " charges for organists, beadles and other Church 
servants, and all miscellaneous and contingent expenses 
of the several churches and chapels." This was fair 
enough and received the full concurrence 1 of the 
Bishop of Kingston. When other denominations were 
making provision for such expenses it was manifestly 
unfair that one religious body already heavily subsidised 
should be further assisted from general revenue. The 
annual saving thus effected to the Colony, and therefore 
the annual sum to be raised by the Church, amounted 
to 8,000. One consequence of this step was a decrease 
in the annual contributions to the Jamaica Missionary 
Society. This decrease was only temporary, as the 
necessity for the Society was growing more apparent 
even than it had been at its formation. For the an 
nouncement mentioned above that no vacancies in the 

1 Professor Caldecott says that the Bishop " rather acquiesced 
than approved." Whichever word is correct, the Bishop had 
no choice but to submit. 



io6 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Establishment would then be filled up was followed by 
a further announcement that such vacancies would only 
be temporarily supplied by catechists acting under the 
superintendence of a neighbouring clergyman. Thus it 
happened that between the years 1866 and 1870 the 
number of state-paid clergy was reduced from ninety-two 
to fifty-five and there were thirteen lay-catechists re 
ceiving a stipend from the colonial treasury. The work 
of these thirteen catechists by no means made up for the 
loss of the services of the thirty-seven clergy who either 
died or retired during the four years above-named. 
Hence again was shown the need of the Missionary 
Society, the stations of which increased in number, and 
the funds of which revived. 

There was not much real doubt as to what the " new 
scheme " foreshadowed by Sir John Peter Grant, " for 
supplying the religious wants of the island " was to be. 
Credit is due to somebody for expressing this intention 
in euphemistic language. Some indeed hoped that the 
Government would introduce a system of concurrent 
endowment, whereby all denominations would receive 
small subsidies in proportion to the number of their 
accredited members. 1 A good deal might be written 
both for and against this plan which, however, works 
satisfactorily in other colonies. Sir John Peter Grant 
himself was in favour of some form of concurrent en 
dowment and endeavoured to induce Nonconformist 
Churches to accept grants in aid of ministerial work in 
destitute districts. Owing largely to the representations 
of the late Rev. J. M. Phillippo, the sturdy and venerated 
head of the Baptist Mission, who resolutely refused to 
act contrary to his conscientious convictions, the 
Governor had no alternative but to adopt the voluntary 
principle. It is only due to Mr. Phillippo and to others 
who acted with him to say that they were not influenced 
by any personal hostility towards the Church of England 
or towards Episcopacy in the part they took in petition 
ing for the entire separation of Church and State. Strong 

1 In Trinidad, when the offer oi concurrent Endowment was 
made, both the Baptists and the Congregationalists refused to 
accept any such aid from the State. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 107 

language was used in some of these petitions, but it is 
sometimes difficult to give expression to strong feelings 
without the use of strong language. Among other sug 
gestions was one made by the present Archbishop of the 
West Indies, then Island Curate of St. George s, Kingston, 
to the effect that an actuarial valuation of the vested 
interests of the clergy then on the establishment should 
be made and the amount thus ascertained should be 
handed over in a lump sum to the Disestablished Church 
(the rights of existing clergy being safeguarded) ; and 
that the Church on these terms should at once accept 
complete disendowment rather than the lingering decay 
of finance involved in the Government plan. It is im 
possible to say what the effect of this proposal would have 
been ; for there was not enough unanimity among the 
clergy affected to render it possible for the Government 
to consider seriously such a suggestion. The first con 
dition for its acceptance must have been the consent of 
all whose interests were involved, and this consent was 
not forthcoming. The Church seems to have accepted 
disestablishment and disendowment as being bound to 
come ; there was not sufficient corporate feeling to make 
any vigorous or effective protest, and both clergy and 
laity were more occupied in thinking of the future than 
in lamenting over the inevitable end of the past. Thus 
in a despatch to the Governor in 1870 the Secretary of 
State for the Colonies (Lord Kimberley) wrote that " he 
had received no protest from the Bishop and members of 
the Church of England against the Disendowment Act 
and therefore he should advise the Crown to allow it." 
Lord Kimberley s remarks may be taken for what they 
were worth. Under the circumstances then prevailing, 
and with the mind of the Government fully made up 
and determined, a dignified silence was preferable to any 
number of protests foredoomed to failure. 

The idea of disestablishment was not generally popular 
with the laymen in the colony. The leading secular 
organs of public opinion were opposed to it on the ground 
that it was likely to hinder the general moral advance 
ment of the community ; many thoughtful Nonconform 
ists held that such a step, even if theoretically just 



io8 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

and financially necessary, might interfere for some time 
with the spread in Jamaica of Christian principles and 
practices, quite apart from sectarian differences of 
opinion on non-essential points. It is extremely im 
probable that the old elected House of Assembly would 
ever have consented to such a measure. 1 In a small 
colony, where vested interests are generally personal 
interests or the interests of personal friends, Crown 
Colony Government administered by a strong and fearless 
Governor is often more sweepingly radical in its reforms 
than any representative Government is likely to be, 
and the present independent vitality and vigour of the 
Church of England in Jamaica owe their origin, humanly 
speaking, to the incongruous anomaly that a most radical 
reform was brought about by the uninvited action of the 
most conservative form of Colonial Government. 

On the 7th December, 1869, Sir John Peter Grant 
wrote to Bishop Courtenay, notifying him that the 
Clergy Act which would expire with the then current 
year would not be renewed. Thus the Union of State 
and Church which had existed since the early days of 
Charles II s reign ceased. Little fault can be found with 
the terms and conditions of the separation. The fact 
that no vacancies in the Clergy List had been filled up 
for the past four years may have influenced the generous 
terms of disestablishment as far as the clergy were 
concerned and this is not unlikely, for Sir John Peter 
Grant was a fair man. It was arranged that the incomes 
of the Rectors and Island Curates then on the Establish 
ment should be continued to them by the State during 
the discharge of their duties ; they also retained their 
rights to be pensioned on retirement, and their claims 
on the Rectors and Island Curates Widows and Orphans 
Funds were secured to them. One act of injustice was 
contemplated, namely, the summary dismissal of all 
the catechists thirteen in number and of clergymen 

1 The Colony of Barbados which, unlike Jamaica, still retained 
its independent, self-governing powers refused, in spite of the 
Colonial Office, to consent to any proposals for disestablishment 
or disendowment, and the Church of England is still established 
in that Colony. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 109 

not on the establishment receiving pay from the colonial 
treasury for doing temporary duty. On the representa 
tion of the Bishop that it would be hard on these men to 
throw them out of employment on a few days notice, 
before the Church had time to make arrangements for 
their future stipends, the Governor consented to modify 
the original plan to the extent of retaining their services 
for three months. The question of Church property, 
as we shall see, was dealt with later on. 

Thus in January, 1870, began the task of organising 
the Church of England in Jamaica on the voluntary 
principle. A good many hard things had been said in 
days gone-by about the standard of efficiency and the 
character of the established clergy of Jamaica. It is 
only right to say here that, to whatever extent such 
words may or may not have been deserved years ago, 
they cannot fairly be applied to the majority of the 
clergy who were on the establishment in 1869. The 
present position of stability of the Church, its increase 
in usefulness, its growth in influence and in numbers are 
largely due to the energy and the unselfish activity with 
which the State-paid clergy braced themselves to their 
new responsibilities. Of course there were exceptions. 
There were " laudatores temporis acti " who were either 
too lazy or too indifferent to adapt themselves to changed 
circumstances. But with the majority there was no 
hesitation, no faltering, no lack of faith. And as with 
the clergy, so with the laity ; laymen of all ranks and 
classes were not only ready to come forward with sub 
scriptions, but were willing to give their time and their 
talents to the management of Church affairs. Govern 
ment officials, professional men, merchants, planters, 
settlers, willingly and cheerfully brought their experience 
and their knowledge of the requirements and circum 
stances of the colony to assist the new organisation. 

As was inevitable there were difficulties ; the 
end of the old order though expected had been hurried ; 
everything was new, and mistakes were certain to be 
made while experience was being gained. In the initial 
proceedings the State was more wide of the mark than 
the Church, and his wannest admirers cannot credit Sir 



no THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

John Peter Grant with carrying out his work of disestab 
lishment in the wisest way. The right course to have 
taken would have been for the Government, while it 
had control of ecclesiastical matters, to create some 
properly constituted authority in which Church property 
could be vested, or at any rate to determine by legislative 
enactment how the liberated Church should select or 
appoint an authority which would be recognised by the 
State. This latter course was subsequently adopted. 
So it happened that the legal disestablishment came 
after the actual. The actual is dated January, 1870, 
the legal is dated June, 1870. 

On receiving notification of the intention of the Govern 
ment Bishop Courtenay lost no time in summoning 
the clergy and the leading laity of the diocese for advice 
and consultation. On the I3th of January, 1870, the 
first Synod of the Church of England in Jamaica was 
held. All the clergy were invited to be present by the 
Bishop, who at the same time requested each of them to 
select from his congregation one suitable communicant 
layman as a lay representative of his church or, if pre 
ferable, to delegate such selection to the main body of 
the communicant members, the Bishop reserving to 
himself the liberty to invite for this meeting only such 
laymen as he thought fit in addition to those selected by 
the clergy. The Synod was attended by forty-seven 
clergymen, (of whom five are still (1912) alive) by 
twenty-seven lay representatives of the churches and 
by twelve laymen, present by special invitation of the 
Bishop. The meetings of the Synod were preluded by a 
service in the Kingston Parish Church, in the course oi 
which Bishop Courtenay preached a vigorous and inspir 
ing seimon. The main business of this first Synod was 
the formation of a constitution for the Church and the 
framing of a provisional financial scheme. Its delibera 
tions were thus summed up in the Journal : 

" Thus ended the first Synod of the Church of England 
in Jamaica, which in the peculiar unanimity of sentiment 
and principle on most questions between clergy and black 
and white representatives of the laity, and in actual business 
results, exceeded the most sanguine expectations of those 
interested in its success." 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA in 

Hardly had this Synod completed its sessions when 
Sir John Peter Grant announced that he could not recog 
nise its proceedings, or hand over Church property to it, 
because it had only been representative and that often 
by nomination, not by election of the communicant 
members of the Church and not of the whole body of 
baptised Churchmen. In order to prevent any further 
confusion the Governor did what he ought to have done 
earlier, namely, provide by statute for the disestablish 
ment and gradual disendowment of the Church. Ac 
cordingly in June, 1870, an enabling statute 1 was 
passed, entitled " A Law to regulate the gradual dis 
endowment of the Church of England in Jamaica and 
for other purposes." This law authorised a constitution 
to be framed and regulations to be made for the gradual 
management, discipline and good government of the 
Church, it fixed the constituencies to elect lay repre 
sentatives to the first Diocesan Synod, leaving the future 
representation to be fixed by the Synod ; it gave power 
to Her Majesty the Queen, whenever the proper time 
arrived, to incorporate by charter the duly appointed 
representatives of the Church communion, after which 
incorporation the Governor would have power to vest 
in such corporate body all church property belonging to 
any rectory or curacy which should become vacant by the 
death, resignation or removal of any incumbent ; finally, 
it secured the continuance of their stipends to those of 
the clergy upon the late establishment who should con 
tinue in the due discharge of their ecclesiastical duties 
as members of the voluntary communion. This law 
differed from the election regulations laid down in the 
constitution of the January Synod in giving to non- 
communicants the power to vote at the first election. 
Bishop Courtenay wisely, but with a dignified and em 
phatic protest, assented to these provisions and a second 
Synod was summoned in the following September and 
the requirements of the Government were complied with. 

It would be both wearisome and unnecessary to go in 
detail through, or even to pass in review, the proceedings 
of the annual Synods of the Church. The main work 

1 Law 50 of 1870. 



H2 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

of the earlier Synods was naturally the enactment of 
Canons, which consist of a number of carefully-prepared 
regulations originally based on what was considered 
necessary at the time and amended and improved after 
wards as the result of experience in Jamaica and else 
where. Each session of Synod is opened by a celebra 
tion of the Holy Communion 1 and time is set apart for 
the holding of a Devotional meeting, while for many 
years the Archbishop has given an address or charge 
on the evening of the first day of the session. But the 
main purpose of the Synod is business. 

The difference between a legislative and a deliberative 
body is well illustrated in the records of the Synods of a 
disestablished Church. It is one thing for clergy and 
laity to meet for discussion only, but it is quite another 
thing when voting has to follow debate and when future 
action depends on votes given. There are many ques 
tions touching the life, and some more closely affecting 
the sentiment rather than the existence, of the Church 
which are interesting subjects enough for discussion in 
Convocation or at a clerical meeting, but such academic 
or theoretical questions are quite out of place in a repre 
sentative body, met together for business purposes, 
which has power to give practical effect to its opinions 
by legislative action. 



CHAPTER XI 

IT may be well for many reasons here to anticipate a 
little and give the results of past synodical proceedings 
in the form of a short summary of the main features of 
the Canons, as now in force. The present volume con 
tains forty-eight Canons, which are grouped in five sec 
tions. Most of them have stood the test of time and 
experience and it is very unlikely that they will be 
substantially changed, though it is quite certain that, 
if any addition or alteration can be made in the direction 

1 Some of the addresses given at these Corporate Communions 
by Dr. Joscelyne, the Co-adjutor Bishop of Jamaica, have been 
published by Nisbet & Co., in a little book called " Words for 
Workers." 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 113 

of improvement or of adaptation to new conditions and 
requirements, there will be no hesitation about making 
it. It is possible that Churchmen in England will see in 
parts of the Canons of the Jamaica Church if they 
ever read them signs of the adaptability of Western 
institutions rather than of the inflexible conservatism 
of the " unchanging East," but when due account is 
taken of local needs and conditions, they will find that 
these Canons are solidly based on the principles, and are 
full of the spirit of the Mother Church at home. 1 Many 
of them deal with matters of Diocesan organisation and 
others make legal and binding on the clergy certain 
duties which are part of the recognised machinery of a 
well- worked English parish. 

The Canons are prefaced by a Declaration of Prin 
ciples, in which the canonical books of the Old and 
New Testaments are received as the Word of God, and 
as the Rule and Standard of Faith ; the Book of Common 
Prayer and Sacraments, together with the Thirty-nine 
Articles of Religion as a true and faithful declaration 
of doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures ; the 
Orders of Bishops, Priests and Deacons ought to be 
retained as Scriptural and Apostolic ; the authority of 
the Church of England is admitted and accepted in all 
matters affecting the fundamental doctrines or discipline 
of the Church, as is also the authority of the Provincial 
Synod, that the union of the Jamaica Church with the 
other Dioceses of the Province may be increased and 
strengthened. The concluding Article declares that 
irrespective of all legal obligations it is " the duty of all 
persons claiming membership in the Church of England 
in Jamaica to submit voluntarily to all rules and regula 
tions of Church order and discipline, passed and declared 
by its Synodical authority." 

1 The Canons of the English Church, except in so far as they 
may be altered, modified, or repealed by a rather roundabout 
process, are still a part of the Canon Law of the Jamaica Church 
(See Canon iv , Art. 2). It is, however, quite possible that 
these venerable instruments, which James I. described himsell 
as " having diligently, with great contentment and comfort, 
read and considered," are no more carefully studied in Jamaica 
than they are in England. 



H4 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Following this Declaration of Principles, the first 
section of the Canons deals with bodies to which the 
Jamaica Church owes and acknowledges subordination. 
These are the Provincial Synod of the West Indies, the 
Provincial Court of Appeal and the English Church 
Committee of Reference. The Provincial Synod con 
sists of the Bishops, titular, coadjutor, or assistant, of 
Antigua, Barbados, British Guiana, British Honduras, 
Jamaica, Nassau and Trinidad, the Bishop of Barbados 
also representing the diocese of the Windward Islands. 
The Canons and acts of the Provincial Synod are binding 
on the Jamaica Church, as far as they are from time to 
time approved and adopted by the Diocesan Synod. 
The Provincial Court of Appeal consists of the Arch 
bishop and two other Bishops and possesses jurisdiction 
in all cases in which an appeal is made from any decision 
of the Diocesan Ecclesiastical Court to be hereafter 
mentioned. The Church Committee of Reference is 
composed of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York 
and the Bishop of London or (if either of the latter decline 
to act) of the other Bishops of the Established Church 
according to rank and seniority and has authority to 
deal with any matter referred to it either specially or by 
any Canon of the Church. 

The second Section contains fourteen Canons which 
deal with diocesan and parochial organisation. The 
Government of the Church is vested in a Diocesan Synod, 
which consists of : 

(1) The Bishop, who is president. 

(2) The coadjutor or assistant Bishop. 

(3) Every clergyman holding the Bishop s license. 

(4) Lay representatives and ex-officio Lay 
members. 

Lay Representatives, who hold office for one year, 
are elected by the registered male communicant members 
of each congregation and by such male non-communicant 
members and subscribers as shall sign a declaration 
that they are baptized laymen of twenty-one years of 
age or upwards, and that they belong to no other denomin 
ation. Lay Representatives must be registered communi 
cants. Every congregation, numbering fifty registered 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 115 

communicants, may elect one lay representative, and 
every congregation, containing not less than two hundred 
registered communicant members, may elect two repre 
sentatives, this latter number being the maximum for any 
congregation. Two or more neighbouring congregations 
not numbering individually fifty registered communi 
cants may combine to elect one lay representative. 
The ex-officio members are the members of the Incor 
porated Lay Body, the chairman of the Diocesan Finan 
cial Board and, if they are communicants, the Chief 
Justice and the Attorney General. The Synod thus 
constituted is the legislative body of the Church and 
meets annually, unless summoned by authority, given 
in the Canon, for some especial purpose. 

The central executive work is entrusted to three 
bodies, the Incorporated Lay Body, the Diocesan Council 
and the Diocesan Financial Board. The Incorporated 
Lay Body consists of four communicant lay members 
appointed by the Synod, as vacancies occur. All 
Church property is vested in this body, which was created 
by the Synod of September, 1870, and is empowered to 
exercise all the rights and duties of a corporation. It is 
not in itself an administrative board, but its members 
are ex-officio members of the Financial Board, with 
which they act jointly in the administration of Church 
property and finance. The Diocesan Council consists 
of the Bishop, the coadjutor or assistant Bishop, the 
Archdeacons and twenty-four other members, twelve 
of whom must be clergymen and twelve laymen. Half 
of the twenty-four members, i.e., six clergymen and six 
laymen, are annually nominated by the Bishop, and half 
are elected at the annual meeting of Synod. The duties 
of the Diocesan Council, which meets once a month, 
unless specially summoned, are defined as being " to 
assist the Bishop in all matters connected with the 
administration of the Diocese which are not specially 
committed to the management of the Diocesan Financial 
Board," but it cannot act contrary either to the provi 
sions of the Canons or to any resolution or instruction 
of the Synod. 

The duties of the Diocesan Financial Board are to 



n6 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

administer, according to rules approved by the Synod, 
the funds and the revenues of the Church. Its constitu 
tion is as follows : 

Permanent Members : The Bishop, the coadjutor 
or assistant Bishop, the Archdeacons, the Com 
missaries, and the members of the Incorporated 
Lay Body. 

Non-Permanent Members : 

(a) A chairman annually appointed by the 
Synod. 

(b) Twelve members elected by the Synod, 
nine being communicant laymen, and three 
clergymen. Four of these twelve members, 
three laymen and one clergyman, retire 
annually in the order of their appointment 
and are eligible for re-election. 

To enter in any sort of detail into the various funds 
which the Financial Board has to administer would mean 
in the first place to transcribe many pages of the Canons 
and in the second, to explain many points which need 
no explanation in Jamaica and which (in other connections) 
will be more appropriately mentioned in subsequent 
pages. To explain the principles of Diocesan Finance 
ought not to be very difficult. The basis of it is the 
Diocesan Church Fund, which, for purposes of adminis 
tration is divided into three main sub-sections, namely, the 
Diocesan Expenses Fund, the Episcopal Stipend Fund and 
the General Sustentation Fund. The Diocesan Expenses 
Fund, the income of which is mainly derived from assess 
ments from every Church and Mission Station, makes 
provision for the payment of the stipends of the Office 
staff, and of other charges fixed by Synod. The name of 
the Episcopal Stipend Fund explains itself. Its revenues 
consist of interest on money invested for the Endow 
ment of the Bishopric, collections at Confirmations 
and assessments on churches. The stipend of the Bishop 
must not be less than 500 a year, with a hitherto un- 
reached maximum of 800 ; that of the coadjutor or 
assistant Bishop is 400 a year. The General Sustenta 
tion Fund is the source from which poor and struggling 
churches, or churches which have suffered from some 



[THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 117 

natural calamity, such as drought or storm, may be 
helped to carry on their work or to tide over some tem 
porary difficulty. The income of this Fund is derived 
partly from the interest on the General Endowment 
Fund and partly from assessments. Something will be 
said later on about endowments and assessments, as 
well as about other moneys administered by the Board. 

This section of the Canons then proceeds to deal with 
the constitution and functions of Parochial Councils : 
the fourteen civil parishes into which Jamaica is now divid 
ed are recognised as ecclesiastical parishes, and for each of 
these is appointed a Parochial Council. This Council 
consists of every clergyman in the parish holding the 
Bishop s license, one communicant member from the 
Committee of each Church, the lay representative to 
Synod of every congregation within the parish and any 
member of the Incorporated Lay Body who resides in 
the parish. Chairmen of Parochial Councils are nomin 
ated annually by the Bishop in Synod, and have the 
alternative designation of Rural Dean. The duties of 
a Parochial Council correspond with those of a Ruri- 
decanal Chapter in England, with the addition of such 
extra duties as are created by the exigencies of the volun 
tary system. The best-worked parishes are generally 
those in which the quarterly meetings of Parochial 
Councils are most regularly and most fully attended. 
They give opportunity for the interchange of thought 
and speech between clergy and laity, they serve to break 
the monotony of what is often an isolated life with its 
inevitable tendency to lethargy and self-containedness, 
and they give the younger clergy opportunities of learning 
from the experience and mellowed wisdom of their 
seniors in the ministry. It should not be overlooked 
here that in recent years the attendance at these meetings 
has much improved, the Councils being all in good 
working order ; in one or two cases the distance that 
has to be travelled and the condition of the roads at 
certain times make it difficult for lay members living 
in outlying districts to be present very regularly. 

Each Church, too, has its Church Committee, elected 
annually by those members of the congregation who are 



n8 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

entitled to elect lay representatives to Synod, and con 
sisting of not less than eight and not more than twelve 
members, eight of whom must be communicants. The 
duties of Church Committees are carefully defined by 
Canon and are too obvious to need repeating here. Two 
Churchwardens are annually appointed, one by the 
clergyman, and the other by the Committee, from among 
the members elected to serve on the Church Committee. 

The constitution and duties of the Education Boards 
are then prescribed : there is a General Board, called 
the Diocesan Education Board, which consists of the 
members of the Diocesan Council ; and there are local 
boards, called the Parochial Education Boards, the 
membership of which is the same as that of the Parochial 
Councils with the addition of three laymen, if desired, 
to associate with any Council for educational purposes. 
The Education Board acts as a vehicle of communication 
between the Government Education Department and 
elementary schools, assisted by State subsidies, under 
the control of Church of England managers. In addition 
to this it deals, often on the recommendation of the 
Synod, with larger questions connected with the growth 
and extension of elementary education in which the 
Island Government is keenly interested. There are 
times of course when the Board has to safeguard what it 
considers to be the interests of the Church, not so much 
in respect of denominational education as in the mainten 
ance of Church buildings used for school purposes ; but 
the main efforts of the Church, through its executive 
authorities, are in the direction of increasingly satisfying 
the educational needs of the Colony, irrespective of 
denominationalism . 

Two Canons in this section contain very minute and 
carefully prepared rules for the management of the 
Widows and Orphans Fund and the Clergy Pensions 
Fund, to be hereafter referred to. Ecclesiastical Returns, 
the Missionary Work of the Church and the duties of the 
Registrar are then dealt with in successive Canons ; 
and the Section concludes with the Canon of the Cathe 
dral Chapter. The Chapter was created in the year 
1899 and consists of the Bishop (who is the Dean) ; the 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 119 

Coadjutor or the Assistant Bishop ; the Archdeacons ; 
six Canons, of whom the Rector of the Cathedral Church 
is ex-officio the senior ; and a Lay Treasurer. One 
Canonry is reserved for a Canon-Missioner, but is at 
piesent in abeyance pending the complete financial 
arrangements for the maintenance of so desirable an 
addition to the Cathedral and Diocesan staff. 

The third Section contains nineteen Canons which 
refer to the Ministry and services of the Church. Bishops 
are elected by a special Synod summoned for that purpose 
and no election is valid unless a clear majority of the votes 
of both orders has been given to one nominee. It is also 
permissible to delegate the nomination of a Bishop to 
the English Committee of Reference. Every election, 
or nomination, to the Bishopric requires the confirma 
tion of the Archbishop of the West Indies and of a major 
ity of the Bishops forming the Provincial Synod. The 
Section then lays down rules for the administration of 
the Diocese in the Bishop s absence ; for the action to 
be taken on the resignation 1 or death of the Bishop ; 
for the appointment, if desired, of a Coadjutor Bishop 
(with right of succession) or an Assistant Bishop ; for 
the appointments of Archdeacons, Commissaries and 
Rural Deans, all of whose functions are defined with no 
more than the usual vagueness which characterises such 
definitions. The status and titles of the clergy whether 
rectors, curates-in-charge or curates are all clearly 
explained, and rules are laid down for the appointment, 
institution and removal of clergy, and also for certain 
" clerical duties " which are incumbent on every clergy 
man. These refer mainly to Sunday duties and fall 
very far short of the minimum amount of work which 
falls to the lot of even the most casual of clergymen. 
There must be a Sunday School in every district, under 
the supervision and encouragement of the clergyman, 
who is also required to take an active interest in public 

1 Provision is also made in this Canon (xxl.) for taking 
action " in consequence of a long unexplained absence of the 
Bishop from the Diocese, or of other circumstances arising which 
seem to indicate that there is a practical vacancy of the See " 
although no formal resignation has been sent in. 



120 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

educational efforts. Subsequent canons in this section 
deal with Deaconesses, Lay-Readers, Catechists, Candi 
dates for Ordination ; others refer to the conduct of 
Divine Service and to any modifications which may be 
permitted in the Forms prescribed in the Book of Common 
Prayer, to Sponsors in Baptism, to the Law of Marriage 
and Divorce and to Burials. Parents, if communicants, 
may be sponsors for their children. The disestablish 
ment of the Church slightly affected the question of 
marriage. Clergy are now appointed marriage officers 
by the Government, and in addition to the marriage 
service in the Prayer-Book (which is required by Canon) 
have also at stated places in the service to use the declara 
tions required by the State for civil marriage. This is an 
improvement on the practice which prevails in some 
countries, and certainly in one denomination, of separa 
ting the civil from the religious ceremony. A clergyman is 
not obliged to use the Prayer-Book Form of Solemnisa 
tion of Matrimony for any marriage unless both the 
parties are baptized persons, nor is he required to re 
marry a divorced person during the lifetime of the second 
party to the previous marriage, and he is forbidden to 
re-marry a person for whose offence a divorce has been 
granted when the innocent party is still living. 

The fourth Section contains two Canons referring to 
Discipline (i) of the Clergy and (2) of the Laity. The 
procedure through a Diocesan Ecclesiastical Court in the 
former case is given in detail at very considerable length 
and need not be recorded here; in the latter case the 
first three rubrics in the Prayer Book Service for the 
administration of the Lord s Supper are embodied in the 
Canon, with the addition that a repelled person may 
protest to the Bishop against his repulsion, and the 
Bishop shall cause due inquiry to be made in a manner 
laid down in the Canon. 

The last Section of the Canons contains miscellaneous 
provisions and regulations on various matters which 
could not be appropriately grouped in any other section. 1 

1 See Appendix. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 121 



CHAPTER XII 

IN making the summary contained in the previous chap 
ter it was necessary to anticipate the order of events so 
as to give a more or less complete view of the Canons as a 
whole. It is, of course, understood that they did not 
begin life full-grown. They have been amended and 
added to as experience showed the necessity of amend 
ment or addition. In some instances the example of 
other disestablished Churches was taken advantage of : 
in other instances other dioceses have borrowed from the 
experience gathered in Jamaica. To give a detailed 
account of the gradual growth of any one Canon would 
be both wearisome and unprofitable. It would be in 
some cases to rake up the ashes of questions which once 
were burning but which are now burnt out ; in other 
cases it would be to draw attention to tentative 
and provisional measures which later legislation has 
strengthened and completed. Further reference will be 
made to some of the Canons as parts of the working 
machinery of the Church of to-day. 

I propose now to return to the Episcopate of Bishop 
Courtenay. The fact has already been mentioned that 
between the years 1866 and 1870, when disestablish 
ment was both threatened and expected, and when there 
was a degree of uncertainty as to how far it would be 
accompanied by disendowment, the number of State- 
paid clergy had shrunk from ninety- two to fifty-five. 
These figures alone are sufficient to give us some idea of 
the difficulties that had to be faced ; it was impossible 
to start any new work or to continue any advance on that 
which had been made since emancipation, little more 
than thirty years before. The trouble was to continue the 
existing work and to prevent any leakage from what had 
been done since 1837. Growth and extension must wait 
their time. It is true that the Church had buildings 
here and there throughout the Diocese ; but congrega 
tions needed the ministrations of the clergy, and more 
jirgent still was the need of missionary work among the 



122 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

unreached African population. The first step was the 
temporary combination of neighbouring churches under 
one clergyman. This was done at the cost of a good deal 
of self-denial on the part of the clergy, most of whom 
were happily young and vigorous and enthusiastic to 
make the best of the new order of things. The help of 
laymen too was willingly given in many parishes. 

It was also felt that for central Church purposes, such 
as the provision of the Bishop s stipend and the general 
sustentation of Church work, an appeal for help in the 
early days of disestablishment might reasonably be made 
to English societies and friends, and that such an appeal 
would be cordially responded to. Nor did the result 
disappoint these expectations. Friends and societies 
came forward with liberal donations, which were sufficient 
to encourage the newly- organised Church. Some re 
marks in this connection from a sermon preached by the 
late Archdeacon Campbell at the opening service of the 
second Synod of 1870 will bear quotation : 

"Let me assure you," said the Archdeacon, "as one of 
your deputation to the Church and people of England, that 
the success which God has given to our efforts has depended , 
humanly speaking, on these two things : First, that we 
were able to show that under the unprecedented difficulty of 
our sudden disestablishment, the Bishop and Synod had 
acted with Christian wisdom and catholic consistency, and 
next that most of our congregations had begun, in a spirit 
of holy forethought, self-denial and liberality, to 
contribute to a central fund for the permanent endowment 
of the future voluntary Church. Had we been compelled 
to speak on either of these matters with doubtful mind or 
hesitating tongue, we should have come back to you with 
shame and disappointment, to tell you that there is no 
sympathy in England for any daughter-church unfaithful 
to its inherited constitution, no help for congregations who 
are unwilling to help themselves." 

Perhaps this is the most suitable place in which to say 
a few words on the connection of the Colonial and Con 
tinental Church Society with Jamaica. Before disestab 
lishment this Society had helped to maintain Church of 
England schools, but had decided to make no additional 
grants, believing that the J amaica Government would make 
sufficient provision for elementary education. In 1870, 
partly induced thereto by the late Rev. C. D. Marston, 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 123 

of St. Paul s, Onslow Square, a Jamaican by birth, the 
Society added Jamaica to its list of Colonial Dioceses, and 
has since that date regularly contributed towards the main 
tenance of four or five, and sometimes more, clergy. The 
Society s grants, being supplementary to voluntary offer, 
ings, have enabled the Church to continue her work in many 
a poor parish which otherwise could not possibly be self- 
supporting. The grants are not necessarily made to places, 
but to clergy, approved of both by the Society and by the 
Bishop, who can be transferred to other districts if their 
services are required without the grant lapsing ; while 
on the other hand, in case of a parish beoming self-support 
ing, the grant can be transferred to a clergyman working 
in a district where it is more urgently needed. The con 
tinued and substantial interest taken by the Colonial and 
Continental Society in Jamaica has been of invaluable 
service, both in ordinary times and in times of crisis and 
disaster. Thus in 1897, when it was in contemplation 
that the grant should be annually reduced, with a view 
to gradual and complete withdrawal, the Society, bearing 
in mind the commercial depression then existing in 
Jamaica, agreed not merely to continue but to increase 
its help. So also in more recent years (1903 and 1907) 
special grants were made to meet urgent needs of clergy 
who had suffered by hurricane and earthquake. Neither 
the amount of the grant nor the proportion in which it 
is distributed is anything like enough to dispense with 
voluntary effort, but both are sufficient to enable work 
to be carried on and to prevent either individual distress 
or congregational collapse. The list of clergy who have 
been on the Society s list since 1870 is a very long one, 
but as most of them are still living and working I do 
not insert their names here. 

Gradually vacancies in the clergy list were refilled, 
till, in less than ten years from Disestablishment, the 
number of clergy had increased from fifty-five to seventy- 
five, of whom as many as forty-four were on the staff of 
the disestablished Church, supported and maintained by 
voluntary contributions. Meanwhile other changes were 
taking place. Bishop Spencer died at Torquay in 1872, 
sixteen years after retiring from the active supervision 



124 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

of the diocese. Dr. Courtenay , retaining the title of Bishop 
of Kingston, continued, with the approval of Synod, to 
discharge the duties of his office in Jamaica. The British 
Government had in 1868 decided to withdraw, as occasion 
offered, the grants made in 1824 for the maintenance of an 
Episcopal Establishment. This withdrawal, as far as 
Bishop Spencer was concerned (though Bishop Courtenay 
unsuccessfully protested against it) took place on his 
death in 1872. Thus early the disendowed Church had 
to face what must always be one of the initial difficulties 
of such a body : namely, the due financial provision for its 
episcopate. In 1879 Bishop Courtenay retired, after 
twenty-six years service in Jamaica, though he nominally 
retained his archdeaconry until his death, at the age of 
ninety-three, on the I3th of April, 1906* Bishop 
Courtenay s episcopate must always be memorable from 
the fact that he had to face the difficulties created by 
disestablishment and to lay the foundation of the volun 
tary system, while the inauguration by him of the 
Jamaica Home and Foreign Missionary Society marks a 
distinct epoch in the history of the Jamaica Church. 

On Bishop Courtenay s resignation the choice of his 
successor was in the hands of the Synod, and a special 
meeting was summoned to elect a new Bishop. The 
result of the ballot was that the selection of the fourth 
Bishop of Jamaica was deputed to the English Committee 
of Reference. This Committee selected and appointed 
the Right Rev. W. G. Tozer, D.D., who from 1863 to 1874 
had been Missionary Bishop of Central Africa, a position 
which he had been compelled to resign on account of 
repeated and disabling attacks of fever. Bishop Tozer 
arrived in Jamaica in October, 1879, and his friends in 
England and elsewhere, who had followed with interest 
his African career, looked forward to his doing good ser 
vice in his Western diocese. Unfortunately, the mischief 

1 As a curiosity, probably unique in the annals of episcopacy, 
it is worth putting on record here that, in the year 1900 when 
87 years of age, Bishop Courtenay re-published under the title 
of " The Great Awakening " the most important parts of a 
larger book which he had written and published fifty-seven years 
before when he was a " chancery barrister who did not at all con 
template a change in his profession," The book is worth reading, 




BISHOP TOZER. 



[Pageiri. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 125 

done in Africa had taken so firm a hold on the Bishop s 
constitution that his health again gave way, before he had 
time to do any real work in Jamaica, and he retired in 
April, 1880. Bishop Tozer died on the ijth of June, 1899. 

In July, 1880, a special Synod was held to elect a 
successor to Bishop Tozer, and the choice fell on the Rev. 
Enos Nuttall, B.D., Island Curate of St. George s, King 
ston, Jamaica, who, by his ability, energy and experience, 
had taken a prominent not to say the most prominent 
part in building up the voluntary Church. In addition 
to and apart from his parochial experience, Mr. Nuttall s 
business capacity, his ready grasp of financial detail, 
his power of clear expression, his unwearying industry, 
his familiarity with the methods of a voluntary church, 
all pointed to him as the natural leader and guide of 
the Jamaica Church. As Secretary of the Financial 
Board he had established a system of Church finance 
both diocesan and parochial which has stood the test 
of time, while in Synod he had been foremost in devising 
and creating the Constitution and Canons of the Church, 
in recognition of which services Archbishop Tait had 
conferred on him the degree of B.D. His election to 
the Bishopric was therefore no matter for surprise. 
Mr. Nuttall, having received the D.D. degree, was conse 
crated a Bishop in St. Paul s Cathedral on St. Simon 
and St. Jude s Day, 1880. 

A summary review of the position of the Church at 
this time shows that there were 75 clergy in the diocese 
holding the Bishop s license, 29 of whom were in receipt 
of stipend from the State ; there were 25,000 registered 
members ; the initial difficulties of disendowment were 
being overcome, but the financial strain of filling vacan 
cies, caused by the death or retirement of state-paid 
clergy, was in great part still to be met ; the Missionary 
Society s stations numbered only 26 ; the Canons, with 
the exception of those necessary for the carrying on of 
the routine business of the Church, were in a somewhat 
inchoate condition ; the training of candidates for 
Ordination was greatly handicapped for lack of money ; 
many diocesan organisations and institutions were 
waiting their time to spring into life. 



126 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Such was the position of the Church at the beginning 
of Bishop Nuttall s Episcopate, which at the time of 
writing has already extended over thirty years; and, 
without in any way overlooking or depreciating the work 
of others, both laymen and clergymen (which he himself 
would be the first to admit and to be thankful for) , it is 
no false use of words to say that the history of the Church 
of England in Jamaica since the year 1880 is synonymous 
with the biography of the first Archbishop of the West 
Indies. History is largely the relation of events that 
have marked the progress, or otherwise, of a community 
or institution, and I have tried to set forth these events ; 
but biography is the record of the part any man takes in 
the doings and movements which make history, and for 
writing the biography of a man still living I have no 
capacity. In this case the intimacy of many years and 
gratitude for much kindness and help and consideration 
have not left me either unbiassed or impartial. But 
in any case the history of the growth and progress of an 
institution cannot be rightly written without some direct 
reference to the prime mover in this growth and progress. 
With the several Diocesan Societies and organisations I 
propose to deal separately in a subsequent chapter, in 
preference to relating their gradual development year 
by year. 

At the Synod held in February, 1888, Bishop Nuttall 
took the opportunity of summarising a portion of his 
work during the early years of his Episcopate. His own 
words will tell their tale better than any words of mine. 
He said : 

" I have presided at eight Diocesan Synods in Jamaica, 
which altogether have extended over forty working days 
and have required for that time, and for many days before 
and after in each case, close attention to business for eighteen 
hours out of every twenty-four. I have already presided 
at one Diocesan Synod in British Honduras, which included 
the complete re-organisation of the affairs of the little. 
Church in that outlying portion of the British Empire and, 
besides the private negotiations and public services and 
meetings, necessitated three weeks more to be spent in sea- 
voyaging and land travelling to accomplish the entire 
journey of 3,600 miles, via New Orleans. 

" I have taken part in two Provincial Synods, which 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 127 

together have occupied all the working hours of twenty-six 
days and one of which involved sea-voyages of nearly 
5,000 miles, occupying six weeks. 

" I have held twenty-eight ordinations in Jamaica, at 
which thirty-nine deacons and thirty-nine priests have been 
ordained ; confirmed in Jamaica more than 20,000 persons 
and consecrated eleven churches. 

" I have visited most of the churches in the diocese three 
times and have held confirmations in all ; many of the 
churches I have visited several times, and in some of the 
most accessible I have held confirmations once every twelve 
or eighteen months ; and I have also visited many of the 
out-stations and held confirmations in some. To accomplish 
this I have travelled in various ways, but chiefly in buggy 
and on horseback, about 20,000 miles. This is exclusive 
of about 8,000 miles of sea-voyaging and other travelling 
in connection with my official visit to Honduras and to the 
Barbados Provincial Synod. 

" I have delivered about 3,000 sermons and addresses. 
I have presided at about 1,400 meetings of such bodies as 
the Diocesan Council, Parochial Councils, Church Com 
mittees, Jamaica Schools Commission, Board of Directors 
of the Mico Training College and Jamaica Female Training 
College. A considerable number of these meetings have 
occupied as much as three or four hours each. 

" I have written about 40,000 letters, a large proportion 
of which have not been unimportant and have had to be 
copied for future reference ; and not a few have been 
lengthy documents, dealing with questions of various kinds 
arising out of the disestablishment of the Church and the 
changed relations requiring to be established with the 
Government, the public, the clergy and the lay-members 
of the Church and have therefore been documents requiring 
to be prepared with care. I have also written and published 
several pamphlets and many circulars dealing with ecclesi 
astical, educational and social questions." 

No one will be surprised, after reading this simple 
record of toil, that Bishop Nuttall was ordered by his 
medical advisers to take a complete rest, and that the 
Synod unanimously determined on the appointment of 
an Assistant Bishop. The Canon, which had been 
specially prepared and passed in view of this emergency, 
placed the nomination of an Assistant Bishop in the 
hands of the Bishop of the Diocese, subject to the con 
firmation of Synod by vote of a clear majority of each 
order. Dr. Nuttall, in accordance with this Canon, 
nominated as his assistant the Ven. Charles Frederick 
Douet, M.A., Rector of the Cathedral Church, Spanish 



128 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Town, and Archdeacon of Surrey (Jamaica), and the 
Synod in September, 1888, confirmed this nomination 
by a unanimous vote. No better nomination could 
have been made. Archdeacon Dou&t was consecrated a 
Bishop in Westminster Abbey on St. Andrew s Day, 1888. 

Briefly reviewing the Church s progress between 
Bishop Nuttall s consecration and the appointment of an 
Assistant Bishop, we find that at the latter date Church 
membership had steadily, though perhaps slowly, 
increased ; that there were eighty-seven clergy in the 
diocese, of whom sixty-eight were on the staff of the 
voluntary Church ; that Sunday School work had 
shown encouraging signs of growing activity ; that the 
number of Mission Stations was forty-seven, an increase 
of two per annum ; that the Canons were gradually 
getting into a more permanent and less experimental 
condition ; that the number of persons confirmed was 
larger ; and the places at which Confirmations were held 
were more numerous, though not enough to satisfy either 
the Bishop s wishes or his intentions ; that a beginning 
had been made in the establishment of a Theological 
College, and a temporary home found for its work, 
nine students from which were already ordained and 
working in the Diocese ; and that throughout the Diocese 
there was a feeling of loyal confidence in the administra 
tion of Church affairs by the executive Boards, presided 
over and guided by the Bishop. 

Other, causes, besides the state of the Bishop s health, 
pointed to the necessity of securing additional Episcopal 
help. The resolution of the Synod approving of this 
appointment stated " that the appointment of an Assis 
tant Bishop is necessary to assist the Bishop of Jamaica, 
in consequence of the growth of the Diocese and the 
heavy work which its missionary character entails upon 
him." The latter clause of the above sentence has 
reference to work not only within the Diocese but also 
on the Isthmus of Panama. A large portion of the work 
on M. de Lesseps s ill-fated attempt to construct a canal 
through the Isthmus of Panama, from Colon on the Atlan 
tic to Panama on the Pacific coast, was done by British- 
African labourers from the West Indian Islands, the 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 129 

greater part of whom were Jamaicans ; in fact at one 
time more than 20,000 Jamaicans were employed on 
the Isthmus, attracted there by higher wages and possibly 
by the pleasing lure of future advantages and comforts 
which were not realised, but ignorant of the conditions 
under which they would have to work and live or die. 
Many of these were communicant members of the Church 
of England ; others were regular or occasional attendants 
at Church services. Practically no provision was made 
for the spiritual needs of the emigrants, and not much 
for their material wants. In 1882 the Bishop of Jamaica 
obtained from S.P.G. a grant towards the stipend of a 
chaplain to minister to British subjects on the Isthmus. 
The Mission began well, but was interrupted by a rebel 
lion in 1885, during which the town of Colon was almost 
entirely destroyed by fire. Nominally the Isthmus 
at that time was within the jurisdiction of the Bishop 
of the Falkland Islands, but for obvious geographical 
reasons the mission there could more fitly be supervised 
from Jamaica than from the Falklands. In 1885 the 
Bishop of the Falkland Islands visited Jamaica, and 
an arrangement was made by which the direction of 
the Panama Mission was handed over to the Bishop of 
Jamaica. On the collapse of M. de Lesseps s undertaking, 
though the majority of those who survived the climate 
and circumstances of the Isthums were re-patriated to 
Jamaica, a great number remained in Colon and Panama 
and other parts of the United States of Columbia, and 
the missionary work of the Church on the Isthmus was con 
tinued under Bishop Nuttall s guidance until the forma 
tion of the Diocese of Honduras, when it was transferred 
irom Jamaica to the newly-created Diocese. 

The care of the Church in British Honduras had long 
been a source of anxiety to Bishops of Jamaica. Early 
in the nineteenth century C.M.S. had made an attempt 
at work there which does not appear to have been 
followed up, and S.P.G. had helped to support mission 
aries in Belize and Corosal. In 1862, Belize, as the settle 
ment was then called, was constituted the Colony of 
British Honduras, and a Church Establishment of two 
clergy was maintained in the town of Belize. This 



130 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Establishment ceased in 1872. In 1880 the Church 
in British Honduras " organised itself on the basis of a 
separate diocese," and elected Dr. Tozer, then Bishop of 
Jamaica, as its Bishop. On Dr. Tozer s retirement 
from Jamaica he retained the Bishopric of Honduras 
for some months, and then resigned. In 1881 the 
Archbishop of Canterbury asked Bishop Nuttall to 
undertake the task of re-organising the Church in British 
Honduras and to give episcopal supervision there until 
some other arrangement could be made. In 1883 
Bishop Nuttall visited Honduras and held a special 
Synod at which the Church was regularly constituted a 
Diocese in communion with the Church of England, 
though no appointment was made to the Bishopric 
until 1891, when Archdeacon Holme, of St. Kitt s, 
was consecrated a Bishop in Barbados Cathedral the 
first consecration of a Church of England Bishop in the 
West Indies. Bishop Holme s career was tragically 
short. He was shipwrecked on his way to Honduras 
and had to spend some days on a sandbank : his health 
was seriously affected and, beginning rough work before 
his complete recovery, he died three months after his 
consecration. After an interval of two years, during 
which Bishop Nuttall resumed charge of the diocese, 
Dr. Ormsby, Vicar of St. Stephen s, Walworth, was 
appointed Bishop and held the See until 1908, when 
he resigned ; under his vigorous guidance the Church 
made steady progress and now includes, in addition to 
churches and missions and schools in the colony of 
British Honduras, English-speaking congregations in 
the Republics of Guatemala, Nicaragua, Spanish Hon 
duras and Costa Rica, where many Jamaicans have 
settled who gladly welcomed the ministrations of the 
Church. The United States of Columbia, with the 
Church Missions on the Isthmus of Panama, were also 
included in the Diocese of Honduras till, in 1904, the 
United States of America secured possession of the section 
of country through which the Canal is being constructed 
by American engineers. The Church Missions were 
then transferred to the Protestant Episcopal Church 
of America. 




BISHOP DOUET. 



123. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 131 



CHAPTER XIII 

BISHOP DOU&T returned to Jamaica immediately after 
his consecration and threw all his remarkable energy 
into duties which he continued to discharge until his 
retirement in 1904. He probably knew Jamaica and 
its needs and conditions, both religious and secular, 
better than any man in the island. Ordained in 1862, 
he had held cures in different parts of the Diocese until 
his appointment in 1879 to tne Rectory of the Cathedral 
Church in Spanish Town, where he remained until his 
removal to Mandeville in 1892. He was keenly inter 
ested in educational matters, and was himself an experi 
enced and successful teacher. While Rector of Spanish 
Town, he was also Principal of the Government Training 
College for Elementary Teachers and was for some years 
head master of the Beckford and Smith s Middle Grade 
School in that town. From the time of his ordination 
he had been an ardent supporter of the Missionary 
Society and a frequent speaker at its meetings. The 
help of such a man as Assistant Bishop was a great 
personal relief to Bishop Nuttall, more especially as his 
duties and responsibilities as Bishop of Jamaica were 
further increased by his being chosen in 1894 Primate of 
the Province of the West Indies in succession to the late 
Bishop Austin of British Guiana and being appointed 
in 1897 Archbishop of the West Indies. The important 
work connected with this office is only fully known to 
the Archbishop and the members of the Provincial 
Synod, but it is a matter of general knowledge that 
various exceptional events, involving much corres 
pondence and many communications on matters civil 
and political, as well as ecclesiastical, have combined 
to make the Primacy and the Archbishopric a heavy 
and critical burden. 

After sixteen years of vigorous and devoted Episcopal 
labour Bishop Doubt s health broke down and in 1904, 
acting under expert medical advice, he was compelled 
to retire from Jamaica work. He was appointed Rector 



132 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

of Ashton Hayes, near Chester, and his friends hoped 
that under more favourable climatic influences his 
health might be restored and that he would be enabled 
to do useful work in the Diocese of Chester and to en 
courage in England interest in the Jamaica Church. 
But this was not to be. After some months of wearying 
sickness he passed away on the 27th of December, 1905, 
in the Seamen s Hospital, Albert Dock, London. It is 
not easy to tell of the affection and regard which were 
felt for him all over Jamaica : there is not a Church or a 
Mission Station in whatever out-of-the-way corner of 
the Diocese it may be, where he was not known and 
loved and where there are not many to tell of his goodness 
and his sympathy : there is not a clergyman, a catechist, 
a teacher, who is not a better and more efficient worker 
because of help and counsel received from Bishop Douet. 
During a ministry extending over forty years he had 
been a very real power for righteousness and order and 
development in Jamaica, his influence extending to 
every phase of Church and civil life and progress. 

I quote here in full the Resolution agreed upon by 
the Diocesan Council and Financial Board, and endorsed 
by the Synod, when Bishop Douet s resignation was 
officially reported : 

" The Diocesan Council and Diocesan Financial Board 
learn with profound regret that the Right Reverend Charles 
Frederick Douet, D.D., Assistant Bishop of this Diocese, 
acting under the highest medical advice which prohibits 
his return to the tropics, has been compelled to resign his 
appointment as Assistant Bishop. The announcement of 
his decision will be received throughout the Diocese by all 
the members of the Church of England in Jamaica with 
very genuine sorrow ; for Bishop Douet, during the tenure 
of this office (extending to a period of sixteen years and 
including the visitation of every Church in the Diocese), 
has endeared himself to our congregations by his kindness 
of manner, his genial disposition, his heartfelt sympathy, 
and by the sterling nobility of his character and the faithful 
ness with which all his episcopal duties have been performed ; 
and nowhere will his presence be more missed than in the 
meetings of the Church Boards, where his conciliatory 
temper and the stimulus of his self-denying energy have 
been most valuable. The loss of the services and of the 
personal influence of Bishop Douet will be severely felt, not 
only within but without the pale of the Church of England 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 133 

among all classes of the community and by most of the 
religious denominations in the Island. The position filled 
by Bishop Douet in Educational as well as in Church matters 
is one that will be exceedingly difficult for any other to 
occupy, as no one knew the wants and dispositions of our 
people better ; and his advice and active co-operation at 
every stage of educational development in this Colony 
during the last thirty years has been most valuable. The 
Council and Board feel that they are voicing the sentiments 
of the people of Jamaica generally in regretting the necessity 
for Bishop Doudt s resignation and, prompted by feelings 
of the deepest respect and warmest affection for him, they 
earnestly pray that much better health may be in store for 
him and that he may be spared for many years of usefulness 
in the sphere of labour to which he has been appointed in 
England." 

On the Bishop s relations to the Archbishop of the 
West Indies, I cannot do better than recall the Arch 
bishop s words in his address to the 1905 Synod : 

" It has been given to few communities such as ours to 
have the advantage of that amount, variety and quality 
of public service from a single individual which we have 
derived through the long connection of Bishop Doudt with 
this Island and Diocese." 

And then after an apt quotation from the De Amicitia 
in which Laelius speaks of his friendship for Scipio, His 
Grace added : 

" I should think it a unique experience for a Bishop and 
an Assistant Bishop to work together as Bishop Douet and 
myself have done, under difficult conditions, and in circum 
stances in which there has constantly been room for diversity 
of opinion and action, and yet no thought or word or act 
indicating annoyance or misunderstanding, and no failure 
in active mutual co-operation, has occurred." 

The present generation of Jamaica Church people 
need no reminder of Bishop Douet s life and work : 
future generations will find memorials of him in the 
Cathedral and in Mandeville Parish Church. The 
latter consists of the completion of the re-seating of the 
Church, an undertaking planned and begun by the Bishop, 
and of a lectern on which is the following inscription : 

" To the Glory of God, and in affectionate remembrance 
of Charles Frederick Douet, D.D., Assistant Bishop of 
Jamaica and for 14 years Rector of Mandeville. 

" Born 9 May 1840 : At Rest 27 December, 1905. 

" His absolute unselfishness, simplicity of character 



134 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

large-hearted devotion to duty and ready sympathy gained 
the love of all who had the privilege of knowing him." 

Bishop Doubt s resignation of his office made it neces 
sary to appoint either another assistant Bishop or a co 
adjutor with the right of succession. The appointment 
of one or the other was imperative, for the episcopal 
work had grown largely during the years that Bishop 
Douet was assisting the Archbishop. It could not be 
decreased and must continue to increase. Neither 
standing still nor going back was to be thought of. 
Members of Churches and of Mission Stations had become 
used to annual visits and often indeed to more frequent 
visits from Archbishop or Bishop. Temporary and 
much appreciated relief in clearing off arrears of con 
firmations accumulated during Bishop Douet s long 
illness had been given by the Bishop (Ormsby) of Hon 
duras, but this could not long continue and in no sense 
met the full needs of the Diocese or gave the Archbishop 
the amount of help he required apart from Confirma 
tions. Then, too, there were many other demands on 
the Archbishop s time and energy. In recent years 
notable progress had been made, and there were many 
indications that in coming years more progress would 
be made, in Jamaica in matters educational, philanthropic, 
social and agricultural. In all these the Archbishop 
had been called on to take an active, in many of them a 
leading, part. He could not help himself. It would 
have been impossible for him, when called on, to hold 
aloof from such movements as I am referring to, which, 
by the way, were not of a political character. His 
knowledge and widely-gathered experience outside 
ecclesiastical matters had to be at the service of the 
whole Island. The well-being of the members of the 
Churches was so closely connected with the material life 
and progress of the Colony that the Archbishop would 
have fallen short of the responsibilities of his office, as 
Head of the Church of England in Jamaica, had he 
limited his energies merely to his Episcopal duties, 
however welcome such a limitation might have been to 
him personally. A short quotation from the Arch 
bishop s 1903 Synod Address will illustrate what I mean : 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 135 

"You will not be surprised," His Grace said, "when I 
now say that I wish to divest myself, as much as may be 
rightly possible, of responsibility and effort in regard to 
many of those other things which heretofore it has appeared 
to be my duty to undertake, and to devote such portion as 
may remain of my active life to the promotion of those 
greater, those abiding spiritual things, to which I have 
alluded." 

Since these words were spoken " the responsibility and 
effort in regard to those other things " have vastly 
grown, but with this growth there has also grown a 
corresponding increase in devotion to " the promotion 
of those greater, those abiding spiritual things." No 
wonder that the combined burden of " those other 
things " and " those greater things " required continual 
relief and help ! 

A successor, then, must without delay be found to 
take Bishop Douet s place. The Archbishop, accord 
ingly, laid before the 1905 Synod a Report from the 
Diocesan Council and Financial Board which contained 
alternative suggestions as to how the necessity might be 
met and recommended the appointment of a coadjutor 
Bishop with right of succession. The Synod agreed 
to this recommendation and delegated the selection and 
appointment to the Archbishop with the advice and 
help of such other persons as he might think fit to con 
sult. The Archbishop s choice fell on the Rev. Albert 
Ernest Joscelyne, D.D. at that time Vicar of St. John s, 
Islington, a clergyman of much and wide experience, 
gained in various home parishes, both in parochial 
work and in conducting mission services. Dr. Joscelyne 
was consecrated in Westminster Abbey on St. Luke s 
Day, 1905, and arrived in Jamaica in December of that 
year, being cordially welcomed by the Archbishop and 
the members of the Executive Boards of the Church. 

Mention may here be made more fitly than elsewhere 
of some few of those who have now passed away and who, 
since Dr. Nuttall s consecration, were among the fore 
most in Church effort and organisation and administra 
tion such as Archdeacon Ramson, a strenuous worker 
and vigorous enthusiast for the missionary society: 
Archdeacon Panton, keenly interested in Sunday school 



136 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

work : the Rev. H. H. Isaacs, for many years honorary 
secretary to the missionary society, which owes to him 
and to his painstaking care much of its present position 
of usefulness and still more of its progress in struggling 
days : the Rev. E. B. Key, the first superintendent of the 
Panama Mission ; the Rev. Canon Kilburn, secretary of 
Synod and active in many good works in Kingston. 
This list, did space permit, might easily be enlarged. 
For obvious reasons I refrain from naming others who are 
still living and working. Of course there is always a 
danger of putting a relatively higher value on the services 
of men who have occupied prominent and official positions 
and lived more in the public eye than on the less showy 
but equally important work of the Christian pastor. 
The growth of the Church since disestablishment is not 
merely the outcome of central organisation and of 
accurately kept accounts. These are necessary, so neces 
sary indeed that in the early days of a disestablished 
and disendowed church the Apostolic order would seem 
to be reversed and those who " serve tables " and attend 
meetings and keep accounts appear to occupy more 
important positions than those who limit their functions 
to the discharge of their purely pastoral or missionary 
duties. Increase in numbers, growth in influence, 
though partly due to careful organisation, are in reality 
quite as much, if not more, due to lives of unassuming 
usefulness and quiet benevolence. There has, it is true, 
been a great improvement in the structure and general 
appearance of churches and mission stations and school- 
houses ; more order and more seemliness have been 
maintained than in years gone by ; things which were 
quietly accepted as the best possible forty years ago 
would not be either permitted or endured to-day. But 
when all that has been admitted, it remains that much 
of actual Christian work has been done and though 
surroundings and conditions are year by year being 
made better is still being done in dull and distant ham 
lets, in hidden valleys, on mountain sides, in negroes 1 huts, 
in dingy mission rooms, in roughly furnished churches, 
done by men living on a mere pittance of a salary, cheer 
fully and willingly done, because they feel the doing of 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 137 

it to be a duty. These the quiet, the zealous, the self- 
denying, the unnamed workers are often enough the 
real heroes of the Church in Jamaica as well as elsewhere. 
An English Bishop is reported to have said of a clergy 
man in his diocese, " He must be a good fellow, because I 
never heard of him." That criterion for excellence 
cannot exist in Jamaica, where Archbishop and Coad 
jutor Bishop are in constant touch with the clergy. But 
still it often happens in a Colonial Church as well as at 
home that it is not always the most prominent and 
pushing clergy who are the most efficient ministers. 

Two events of a very helpful and welcome character 
may suitably be placed on record here. The former of the 
two was a general Diocesan Mission in 1888, conducted 
by the Rev. Canon Grant, Rector of Holy Trinity Church, 
Guildford ; and the latter was a visit paid to Jamaica 
by Professor Collins (afterwards Bishop of Gibraltar) 
in 1902, when he held a series of " Quiet Days " in the 
Cathedral for clergy, conducted two missions and preach 
ed in many churches during his short stay in the 
Island. The stimulus thus provided, not only by new 
ideas but by unfamiliar and unaccustomed ways of 
expounding old ideas, served in both cases as an inspira 
tion and an encouragement both to congregations and 
to cleigy. The almost inevitable danger of getting 
into a rut, which English country clergy, in common 
with their brothers in Jamaica, are too painfully conscious 
of, is greatly lessened by such intercourse and visits as 
these. Professor Collins, on his way home, spent two 
weeks in Barbados, and both there and in Jamaica was 
able to learn much about Church work throughout the 
West Indian Dioceses. The impressions made upon 
him and the conclusions he arrived at were thus summed 
up in the Ramsden Sermon, which (when Bishop of 
Gibraltar) he preached before the University of Oxford, 
on Whit-Sunday, 1909. He said : 

"The noble little Church of the West Indies in my 
judgment one of the brightest jewels of the Anglican Com 
munion (as the British West Indies themselves were formerly 
called the brightest jewel of the English Crown) can in 
some respects teach us all. Elsewhere divers races have 
learned to live and deliberate and worship side by side ; 

K 



138 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

but I know no part of the world where the racial problem 
has been so far solved, and certainly no Church which has 
solved it so thoroughly. Elsewhere the Church is a strong, 
unifying force, but I know no region where the Church does 
so much for union as in the West Indies, helping to develop, 
as it does, a common life in the British islands of a great 
archipelago; in which there is little else to hold them together. 
Elsewhere the question of finance has been very pressing, 
and has been gallantly met ; but I know of no region where 
they have, so far, solved it as here, adopting the system of 
our Wesleyan brethren and adapting it to their own circum 
stances, and thus providing that, whilst the Church shares, 
as it should, the poverty of the people, no amount of poverty 
will cause it to lose sustenance altogether, and that, on the 
other hand, it will profit by the prosperity which we trust 
is yet in store for the West Indies." 

Nowhere was the news of the early death of Bishop 
Collins more regretfully received than in Jamaica, and 
by none is his memory more affectionately cherished than 
by the many friends he made there. 



CHAPTER XIV 

INSTEAD of relating in detail the gradual development 
of Church life and work in Jamaica since Archbishop 
Nutt all s consecration, it will be more convenient and 
less tedious to give brief notices of various Diocesan 
institutions and organisations, some of which have been 
brought into existence and into efficient activity under 
his initiation and guidance, others of which have steadily 
advanced into a position of more assured prosperity 
and security. And in this connection, as a sort of pre 
face to what follows, I quote from the Report of the 
Committee appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury 
and York to consider matters affecting the position and 
administration of Church Funds in England, generally 
known as the Archbishops Finance Committee. Early 
in its Report (on page 10) the Committee writes : 

" The objects, which as a result of prolonged and careful 
investigation and deliberation appear to us to be essential 
to the Church s life and welfare, and to which therefore 
must be given their true place as vital departments of the 
Church s work, are the following : 

" (i) Training of candidates for the ministry. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 139 

" (2) Maintenance of the ministry, clerical and lay. 

" (3) Provision of pensions for the ordained and lay 
ministers of the Church. 

" (4) Provision for Widows and Orphans of the 
clergy, and for clergy in temporary necessity. 

" (5) Provision for the erection and repair of Church 
buildings, and for building loan funds. 

" (6) Provision for the Religious education of the 
young. 

" (7) Provision for the necessary expenses of organis 
ation and machinery, Central as well as Diocesan." 

It will be seen in this and other chapters of this book 
that the Jamaica Church has been for some years en 
deavouring to satisfy all these essentials. I will in this 
chapter refer mainly to those institutions and societies 
which present annual reports to Synod and may 
rightly be styled Diocesan. 

Home Mission Work. Mention has already been made 
of the formation in 1861 of the Jamaica Home and Foreign 
Missionary Society, and of the gradual extension of its 
operations. In 1911 it celebrated its Jubilee, when 
commemorative services were held in every church 
and mission station in the Diocese. The number of 
stations at the present date is 122, showing an average 
numerical increase of three per annum during Archbishop 
Nuttall s episcopate. Anything approaching so rapid 
an increase in the near future is very unlikely, for there 
are few settled districts in the Island so remote and 
isolated as not to be within reach either of church or 
mission station. But there is still much unoccupied 
land with a rich soil and great capacities for cultivation ; 
and with the keen and more intelligent interest now 
being taken in agriculture and fruit-growing it is impos 
sible to say that no extension of the Society s work 
may be called for. If such extension should be necessary, 
there is in the Missionary Society an organisation, with 
gathered experience, both able and willing to meet such 
a demand. The Official Returns published in the last 
Synod Journal show that, with few exceptions, every 
church has connected with it two, and in many cases 
three or four, mission stations. The numbers of regis 
tered members is 8,221 and there are 9,209 children in 



140 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

attendance at the day schools, and 11,519 on the Sunday 
school books, with 507 Sunday school teachers. These 
figures may not to some people seem large, but they are 
very considerable and important and encouraging when 
we bear in mind that they represent a part of the result 
of Christian effort among people scattered in out-of-the- 
way places, often difficult of access, which without the 
Society s aid would be practically beyond the reach 
of central parochial ministrations. They mean literally 
Church Extension towards the outside in districts 
remote from the Mother Church of a parish. By no 
other agency could the Church meet the needs of a 
quickly growing population or the requirements created 
by the migrations of people seeking a home in some 
newly opened or partially settled district. 

Each mission station is under the direction of the 
clergyman in charge of the parish, who receives a small 
remuneration, barely sufficient, in many cases, to exceed 
the cost of travelling expenses. As a general rule the 
catechist is also the schoolmaster of the elementary 
school conducted at the station, his small pay as catechist 
being supplementary to his income as teacher. One 
used to hear a good deal of unfavourable, not to say 
unfriendly, criticism on schoolmasters being allowed 
to undertake catechetical duty. If their attention 
to Church duties injured their day school teaching, 
there might be some good ground for this criticism, 
but that would soon be discovered at the official inspec 
tion of their schools, and a deficiency in teaching would 
result in a falling off of marks, and consequently a reduc 
tion of income and possibly dismissal from the teacher- 
ship. Experience, however, shows that good teachers 
are generally serviceable and diligent catechists, and 
vice versa. No teacher is under any compulsion to do 
catechetical work, nor on the other* hand is there any 
thing to prevent a clergyman seeking the services of a 
man capable of fulfilling the combined duties of teacher 
and catechist. We cannot dictate to a teacher how he 
shall spend his leisure time on Sundays and on week-days 
after school hours, and there can reasonably be no more 
objection to his spending a part of his Sunday in Christian 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 141 

work than there is to his cultivating the garden or provi 
sion ground attached to his house in his week-day 
leisure time after his school duties have ceased. The 
Church in Jamaica is indeed under great obligations to 
these men. Taken in many cases from the same social 
status as those amongst whom they are appointed to 
minister, living on an income little, if at all, in excess 
of that of a small settler or an industrious artisan, they 
are able to show how the influences of Christianity can 
be brought to bear on the actual, practical life of the poor. 
Since the above was written I have received a copy 
of a sermon preached by the Archbishop at one of the 
Society s Jubilee Services, from which I extract the 
following passage : 

" The combination of the work of Catechist with that of 
schoolmaster is sometimes spoken of with scornful criticism 
by persons who know little or nothing of the real facts. 
The truth is that, as in other Denominations, so in the case 
of our Church, this combination has been a source of great 
strength to education and to religion, especially in some 
of the remote places where clerical visits cannot be very 
frequent or clerical oversight very vigorous. Strengthened 
by funds collected to aid the work in such districts and 
also by the visits of the Superintending Clergyman the 
schoolmaster-Catechist has been an influential person in 
these remote places : and there have been many really 
good earnest men engaged in this work. The teacher s 
work among the children during the week-days has given 
him an influence with the parents which otherwise he would 
not have possessed. His work of visitation of sick or careless 
members of his Church or Mission has strengthened his 
school work and helped him to secure and utilise opportuni 
ties of looking after careless children and stimulating regular 
attendance at school. His work on Sundays at Church 
and Sunday School has further added to his influence and 
the beneficent results of his efforts." 

The services and meetings at these mission stations 
are held in the schoolrooms. These buildings are the 
property of the Church and, though simple and unpre 
tentious enough, are in appearance and suitability an 
immense improvement on their predecessors of thirty 
years ago. Some of them are entirely new ; the majority 
have been enlarged or restored. In some cases the 
work of rebuilding or of renovation has been helped 
(for school purposes) by a Government building grant, 



142 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

no part of which can be received until a sum of money 
equal to the part claimed has been locally raised and spent 
on the building : in cas es of new buildings the S. P. C.K. (for 
Church purposes) has assisted by a grant -in-aid, which 
cannot be paid until, in accordance with an excellent 
rule of the Society, the Archbishop certifies that, on 
receipt of the grant, the building will be both complete 
and free from debt. In every case a large part of the 
cost of building, enlargement, or restoration has been 
met by the unpaid labour or gifts of materials or money 
contributions by members of the station. 

Nearly all the new mission stations mentioned above 
are in country districts, and are necessary to meet both 
the increase and the dispersion of the people. In the 
meanwhile the population of Kingston increased since 
1 88 1 more rapidly than that of any country parish, 
namely, at the rate of nearly 1,000 persons a year. The 
Church accommodation, barely sufficient for Church 
members, was plainly quite inadequate to meet fresh 
requirements. In Kingston, too, there had been a steady 
migration from the town to newly-opened suburbs, access 
to which was to be had by tram-car. The principal 
churches were well attended and the Parish Church had 
been considerably enlarged. The time, it is true, was 
not propitious for incurring any great expenditure, but 
something had to be done. Accordingly, in 1892, the 
Archbishop started a bold movement of faith and hope 
for increasing the number of Churches and Mission chapels 
in Kingston and its suburbs. This was known as " The 
Kingston Church and School Extension Fund." The 
response to the Archbishop s appeal, which did not err 
in the direction of excess, failed to discourage him, and 
two churches and three mission chapels were built. 
Plans were formed for gradually meeting the cost of the 
erection of these buildings. These plans need not be 
related here, for they were completely upset by the 
wrecking disaster of January, 1907. The churches and 
schools have all been rebuilt ; the two churches have been 
consecrated and their districts form independent parishes. 
An important step, which has already had a very 
beneficial influence on the well-being of the Missionary 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 143 

Society, was taken by the Synod of 1905, when the 
Rev. Canon Harty was appointed organising secretary. 

East Indian Immigrants. Evangelistic work among 
East Indian immigrants has never been so pressing a 
problem in Jamaica as in other dioceses, e.g., Trinidad, 
where they are present in much greater numbers. They 
were first brought to Jamaica in the year 1845, eight 
years after Emancipation. Many of the freed negroes 
preferred to cultivate their own "provision ground," 
others preferred to do nothing rather than continue in 
the paid service of their former owners. Thus there 
was created a demand for additional labour, mainly 
on sugar estates, which at that time represented a more 
profitable industry than in subsequent years. Referring 
to the 1912 Jamaica Handbook, we find that there are 
now 2,892 East Indians serving under indenture, and 
12,523 who have completed both their indentures and a 
ten years residence. Many of the last-named have 
definitely settled in Jamaica in preference to returning 
home. The material welfare of these alien people is 
carefully looked after by a Government Department. 
The organisation of mission work among them was no 
easy task. Their various languages and dialects formed 
one difficulty ; differences of creed and delicate questions 
of caste had to be taken into account ; very few showed 
any real interest in their religious welfare ; the Church 
was established and not missionary. It was not till 
the year 1870 that a tentative beginning of mission work 
was made among East Indians, in the parish of Clarendon, 
by the late Bishop Douet and the late Archdeacon 
Downer. In a few years the work was stopped for 
want of qualified agents. .An attempt was made to 
secure from the C.M.S. the services of men who had had 
experience in India. The attempt failed, as did other 
appeals. Perhaps the mission in Jamaica was too small 
when contrasted with the millions in India. And yet 
there is reason to believe that, though not on any Society s 
list of missionaries, some East Indians who returned home 
on the completion of their indentures are bearing testi 
mony among their own countrymen in their native land 



144 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

to the Christian truths which they were taught in 
Jamaica. 

For some years little systematic work was done, 
though its necessity was not lost sight of, until, in 1894, 
when the income of the Jamaica Missionary Society 
justified it, a grant was made sufficient to secure the 
services of an East Indian catechist. From that date 
until now the East Indian Mission has been a recognised 
part of the Society s work; several special catechists 
are employed, and plans are being matured for further 
extension. It has to be admitted that the actual num 
ber of converts is small and that, if progress is to be 
judged by statistics, it has been slow, but if it be judged 
by influence exercised, and by interest created, and by 
a growing desire for instruction among the immigrants, 
it has been considerable. Few ways, more pleasant 
or more profitable, could be found in which a missionary 
from India could spend a part of his furlough than in 
paying a visit to Jamaica, where he could stimulate and 
encourage the work among the East Indian immigrants. 

The Mosquito Indians. The intention to extend the 
Missionary Society s operations to the Mosquito Indians 
on the coast of Central America was never given effect 
to. Everything cannot be done at once. More urgent 
work at home and in the Pongas Mission crippled the 
possibilities of carrying out the rather ambitious pro 
gramme which the Society had in mind when it began 
its career. Happily other developments have made it 
unnecessary for any organised attempt to be made to 
minister from Jamaica to the Mosquito Indians, as their 
territory is now included in that under the episcopal 
care of the Bishop of Honduras. 

Chinese Immigrants. Under the Immigration Law 
of the Colony, 1,152 Chinese have been landed in Jamaica, 
the last to arrive being as far back as 1884 : they all 
completed their indentures many years ago and, beyond 
a few who returned to their native land, are absorbed 
in the ordinary population of the Island, though most of 
them retain their own habits and dress and religion. 
Mission work among them, where it has existed, has been 
a part of parochial work. They had a place of worship 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 145 

in Kingston, where their own religious rites were cele 
brated, which was destroyed by the earthquake of 1907. 
Some Chinese converts have for several years been regular 
members of the Kingston Parish Church, and the present 
rector, the Rev. R. J. Ripley, has taken up work among 
them very keenly. Here, as in the case of the East 
Indians, the language was a great difficulty. Lately, 
however, Mr. Ripley has succeeded in securing the help 
of a Chinese Christian to act as interpreter, and has also 
completed arrangements for having regular services held 
every Sunday in one of the mission stations connected 
with the Parish Church. A goodly number of the Chinese 
in Kingston appreciate these efforts, and there are hopes 
of a successful mission being carried on among them. 
The next generation of Chinese in Jamaica will in all 
likelihood as has happened elsewhere in the West 
Indies be English-speaking and thus one great obstacle 
in the way of their evangelisation will be removed. 

The Syrians in Jamaica. Though of a fraternal and 
not of a missionary character, mention may appropriately 
be made here of another interesting feature which has 
recently been added to the many good works of the King 
ston Parish Church. There are in Jamaica, sojourning 
for business purposes, more than a hundred Syrian 
Christians, members of the Orthodox Greek Church. A 
majority of these live in Kingston. They have no place 
of worship of their own and no resident minister of their 
own Church. For some years past they have been 
expressing their wish that something might be done for 
their spiritual welfare and were advised by the Bishop 
(Greek) of Brooklyn, U.S.A., to avail themselves, if 
possible, of " the good services of the Episcopalian 
priests as they are the most friendly to our Orthodox 
faith." As a consequence of this and of other communi 
cations, the Rev. R. J. Ripley invited in July, 
1909, the members of the Syrian community in Kingston 
to meet the Archbishop. An address presented by 
the Syrians to the Archbishop stated that " nothing 
would give us greater satisfaction than to worship with 
our brethren in the Anglican Communion." The Arch- 



146 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

bishop s reply is thus summarised in the " Jamaica 
Churchman " : 

"It is to me a very interesting opportunity of meeting 
fellow Christians belonging to the Greek Church Syrians 
who have come to settle in Jamaica and to make it their 
home. I have had some acquaintance with some of your 
Bishops and in common with all the leaders of our Church. 
I have a strong wish and hope to see unity between the 
Greek and Anglican Churches. I am glad to be associated 
with Mr. Ripley in this good work, and I trust that we may 
be of real use to you in extending to you the privileges of 
Christian worship and fellowship and affording you oppor 
tunities of service and instruction. Mr. Ripley will tell 
you of such opportunities as he may be able to make for 
the better education of your children, and I know that you 
may confidently apply to any of our Clergy to support you 
in your endeavours in this direction. I fully recognise the 
great part that the Greek Church, with its various branches, 
has played in the history of Christendom, and I am especially 
glad to know that while here on business you do not wish to 
forget your God and Saviour or to be shut out altogether 
from these privileges which as members of the great Christian 
family we all enjoy." 

Mr. Ripley promised that one of the mission churches 
associated with the Parish Church should be at the dis 
posal of the Syrians at certain times when services could 
be held in their own language and in accordance with 
their own ritual, and also that he would hold a special 
service of recognition in the building then being used 
as the Parish Church 1 at which those Syrians who desired 
could be received into the congregation. This service 
was duly held and since then Syrians have been regular 
worshippers both at the Parish Church and at the Mission 
Church allotted to their use. A year later the ties of 
fellowship were drawn closer when Father Antonio 
Michael, a Syrian priest of the Orthodox Greek Church, 
acting under authority from the Patriarch of Antioch, 
visited his countrymen scattered throughout the West 
Indian Islands. When in Jamaica, with the hearty 
approval of the Archbishop and Diocesan Council, he 
administered the Holy Communion in the Kingston 
Parish Church to his fellow-Christians at a service con 
ducted in Arabic with the ceremonials and rites of the 

1 The Parish Church was then in course of re-erection after 
the earthquake destruction. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 147 

Greek Church. At the close of this interesting 
service Father Antonio Michael commended the Syrians 
in Kingston to the pastoral care of the Rector. Thus 
was taken a distinct step in the direction of Christian 
Unity, which the Archbishop has so deeply at heart, and 
to foster which so much is spoken and, as the impatient 
think, so little is done. 

The West Indian African Mission. In its original 
Charter it was stated that the second purpose of the 
Society was the Evangelisation of that portion of West 
Africa bordering on the Rio Pongo. The Mission was for 
many years known as the Pongas Mission and is generally 
so-called now, though its correct title is the West 
Indian African Mission. The site of the Mission is about 
100 miles to the North of Sierra Leone, and in territory 
on the mainland between the Rivers Nunez and Dubrika, 
and includes a group of Islands, called the Isles do Los, 
a corruption of the old Portuguese name Yolas de los 
Idolos, or Islands of Idols. The district was a favourite 
hunting ground of the old slave raiders, and the ancestors 
of many West Indians were stolen and deported from 
there. The idea of a West Indian Mission to West 
Africa had suggested itself rather vaguely to Arch 
deacon Trew, of the Bahamas, and to Bishop Parry, of 
Barbados ; but it remained for the Rev. R. Rawle, 
principal of Codrington College (afterwards Bishop of 
Trinidad) to throw himself energetically and heartily 
into giving effect to his grand conception that as the 
ancestors of the West Indian population of African 
descent had been brought as slaves from West Africa, 
so their descendants should return there and preach the 
Gospel which they had learnt in the islands of their 
captivity. Mr. Rawle formulated his plans in 1851, 
and three years later the first two missionaries to the 
Pongas left Barbados. 

The early and indeed the later history of this 
Mission is extremely interesting, but this is hardly the 
place in which to relate it in full. We have to do with 
Jamaica s share in it. At the beginning the Jamaica 
Church seems to have looked on rather coldly and 



148 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

unsympathetically : as we have seen, there was great 
need for missionary work much nearer home than 
West Africa. The Mission was regarded as a Barbados 
movement with Codrington College as its basis of opera 
tions and Mr. Rawle as its leader. There were no old 
Codringtonians in the island at that time, and Jamaica s 
active interest in the Pongas Mission dates from the forma 
tion of the Jamaica Home and Foreign Missionary Society. 
In addition to private donations and subscriptions of 
no great amount, the Missionary Society was a regular 
contributor to the Pongas Mission from 1861 to 1869. 
Then came disendowment and the demands of the 
voluntary Church, and for some years the purse of the 
Society was perforce closed to West Africa. For the 
next twenty years help could only be given by the 
struggling Church occasionally and fitfully. Since 1889, 
in spite of hard times and frequent depression, the 
Society has been able every year (with one exception) to 
forward a varying contribution. Nor in making the 
Pongas its special mission was the Jamaica Church 
forgetful of the C.M.S. and S.P.G., which in days gone 
by had been such helpful friends. It was decided some 
years ago that one-tenth of the amount annually received 
for the general purposes of the Society should be ap 
propriated to Foreign Missions in the following propor 
tions : five-sevenths to the Pongas, and one-seventh each 
to the C.M.S. and S.P.G. 

In 1892 a further advance was made which linked 
Jamaica to the Pongas Mission more closely than any 
contributions in money could do, namely, the selection 
and training of two Jamaica catechists for educational and 
ministerial work in the Pongas. After preliminary train 
ing in Jamaica, they completed their course at Codrington 
and j oined the Pongas Mission. One of them withdrew and 
the other, the Rev. W. A. Burris, after nine years diligent 
service, has recently spent his first furlough in Jamaica, 
and by addresses and sermons has stirred up much keen 
interest in the Pongas Mission. The Mission, interesting as 
it is, is little known in England : in fact, Mr. Rawle from 
the first intended it to be distinctly a West Indian Mission. 
Speaking about it at a meeting at home he said : 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 149 

" Let it be well understood that it is to be a West Indian 
work in respect of origin, motive, and machinery ; whatever 
help may be obtained from other quarters, the main labour 
and cost will rest with that colonial branch of our Church. 
It must be the joint act of all our congregations there ; it 
must be planned and appointed by the West Indian Bishops 
and carried on (independently of Societies here) on a system 
and by instruments on which they shall agree." 

But the sixty years that have passed have brought 
with them changes, which Mr. Rawle in his sanguine 
zeal could not be expected to foresee. Agricultural and 
commercial conditions then were very different from 
what they are now. And also when he spoke, the 
West Indian Dioceses were liberally maintained by the 
State ; now, with the exception of Barbados, they are 
either self-dependent or slightly subsidised under some 
form of concurrent endowment. And if Barbados does 
not, as it did in Mr. Rawle s time, almost carry the Mission 
on its own shoulders, it must in fairness be remembered 
that Barbados, though a distinct Diocese, takes on 
itself much responsibility for the up-keep of the poor 
and portionless neighbouring Diocese of the Windward 
Islands, which is under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of 
Barbados. When the Mission could not be maintained 
entirely by West Indian Dioceses, S.P.G. came to the 
rescue with a sufficient annual grant, and a few branch 
committees have been at work in England, of which 
that at Clifton is the most prominent and the most 
helpful. The control of the Mission is now in the hands 
of an English Committee (of which Dr. H. J. Wolseley 
is chairman) in consultation to the Barbados Board and 
the Bishop of Sierra Leone. 

A visit in 1908 to the West Indies by the Rev. A. H. 
Barrow, for many years Honorary Secretary to the 
English Committee, did much to increase the local 
interest in the Mission in the Dioceses which he was 
able to visit. As far as Jamaica is concerned the efforts 
of Mr. Barrow and Mr. Burris have already borne fruit ; 
and with a wider knowledge of the work being done and 
of that yet remaining unattempted, more desire and 
willingness to help the Pongas Mission exist than have 
been shown for many years past. There are many 



150 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

old West Indians at home and others interested both in 
the West Indies and in West Africa who, if they knew 
of the Mission, would be glad to help ; as things are, the 
Mission is almost lost in the overwhelming records 
published in S.P.G. s Annual Reports, and few people 
could find the Pongas country in an Atlas without the 
aid of the index of names of places. 

A further connection exists between Jamaica and 
West Africa. The Bishop (Dr. Ingham) of Sierra 
Leone visited Jamaica in 1895, and it occurred to him 
that young Jamaicans might be trained, or partially 
trained, there for educational and missionary work in West 
Africa under the C.M.S. A visit in 1896 by the Bishop 
(Tugwell) of Western Equatorial Africa and by the Rev. D. 
H. D. Wilkinson (of the C.M.S. Secretarial Staff), provided 
opportunities for maturing Bishop Ingham s suggestion. 
Accordingly plans were formulated and, with variations, 
are still in existence, by which missionary candidates 
could take the two years normal course for students 
at the Mico College, and take a part, or the whole, of 
a third year at the Theological College, getting at the 
same time, when possible, training in dispensing at the 
Public Hospital, and instruction in the art of practical 
building. The ordinary number of such students is 
four, and their expenses are met by the generosity 
of members of the Buxton family, who are interested 
both in the C.M.S. and in the Mico College. Ten of 
these missionaries thus trained are at the present time 
at work in West Africa, principally in Northern and 
Southern Nigeria. Unhappily the prospective supply 
of capable and qualified men is largely in advance of 
the demand for their services, the C.M.S., while extending 
its labours in other directions and maintaining its 
existing work in West Africa, not being in a financial 
position to justify its sending out new missionaries. 
This will be rectified in time, but in the meanwhile 
several men who are fit and ready and eager for African 
service have had to find other employment in Jamaica. 

Theological College. For some years before Bishop 
Nutt all s consecration the question of the training of 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 151 

candidates for Ordination had been becoming more and 
more urgent. Years ago clergy had been sent out from 
England, licensed and authorised by the Bishop of 
London. The remuneration in those days was ample, 
the privileges were considerable, the work almost op 
tional and at the best little more than nominal ; and 
apparently there was not much difficulty in obtaining 
a numerically sufficient supply. From the arrival of 
Bishop Lipscomb until the disestablishment of the Church 
the standard of attainment required for Ordination had 
been gradually raised, and an attempt had been made to 
found a Bishop s College under the direction of Bishop 
Spencer, and under the charge, as Principal, first of the 
Rev. W. Handheld, and subsequently of the Rev. Dr. 
Bradshaw. In the early days of uncertainty after 1870, 
when the exigencies of the Diocese seemed to demand 
that vacant cures must be filled in order that congrega 
tions might not be deprived of ministerial services, it is 
quite possible that in the choice of clergy regard was 
had in some cases to moral fitness and general good 
character, quite apart from other considerations. At 
that time there was naturally some difficulty in getting 
a supply of men from England. Prospects were doubtful ; 
the future was uncertain. Except for the call of duty 
and the pleasure of work, there was little to attract men 
to Jamaica. It was outside the range and protection 
of the great Home Missionary Societies. It was a mission 
ary field without the romance of missions ; there were 
no savages, no cannibals, no new language to learn ; the 
Colony was becoming so Anglicised that few new habits 
had to be acquired or old habits shaken off. 

From 1874 to 1882, under the direction of the Rev. C. F. 
(afterwards Bishop) Douet, special training was given at 
Spanish Town to candidates for Ordination, some of 
whom proceeded to Canada, some to Codrington College, 
Barbados, for final preparation. But these were few 
in number. From Dr. Bindley s recently published 
"Annals of Codrington College" I find that between 
1830 and 1909 there were only twelve Jamaicans edu 
cated at Codrington, some of whom (in later years) were 
able to go as holders of the West Indian Diocesan Scholar- 



152 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

ship, jointly given by S.P.C.K. and S.P.G. In this year s 
Jamaica Clergy List appear the names of six Codring- 
tonians, four of whom are Jamaicans by birth. But the 
distance (1,000 miles) between Barbados and Jamaica, the 
expense of the voyage, the cost of maintenance during 
vacations, combined with other circumstances, make it 
impossible for Jamaica to take that advantage of Cod- 
rington which other Dioceses nearer to Barbados have 
been able to do to their great benefit. To the above 
may be added Bishop Nutt all s strong desire that candi 
dates for Ordination should, as far as possible, be under 
his personal supervision, and also that they should have 
some practical training and experience in the working 
of a Voluntary Church on the lines laid down in the 
Jamaica Canons : this latter could not be included in 
the Codrington curriculum, as the Barbados Church is 
still supported by the State. 

Accordingly, one of the first endeavours of Bishop 
Nuttall after his consecration was to consolidate and 
develope the efforts above referred to and to establish a 
Diocesan College. He set to work and began in January, 
1882, with such material as was then available, in a very 
unpretentious way, in some rooms in the courtyard of a 
building then used as the Principal s house of the Kings 
ton Collegiate School. Shortly afterwards he obtained 
possession of the whole house, which was for some years 
the home of the College, then known by the more modest, 
and at that time certainly more appropriate, name of the 
Divinity School. In 1888 the work of the College was 
transferred to the Bishop s Lodge, where it was continued 
until its present substantial and suitable buildings were 
erected and opened for use in 1893, on the eastern portion 
of the Bishop s Lodge grounds. In this work the Bishop 
was largely helped by friends in England, and most 
especially by munificent gifts from the late Dowager 
Countess Howard de Walden, by means of whose generous 
help the buildings were so near completion that the 
Bishop was in a position to comply with the conditions 
enabling him to receive and use a grant of 1,000 from 
the Marriott bequest in the year 1897. The College 
Endowment Fund of 9,000 is one of the several 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 153 

permanent memorials of Lady Howard de Walden s 
interest in the Jamaica Church. 

So much for the building. And with gradually grow 
ing conveniences and financial possibilities the work of 
the College has also grown. At the beginning the teach 
ing was mainly that of preparing students for the Bishop s 
Ordination examinations, which for range of subjects and 
required standard of efficiency were those of any English 
Diocese in which Hebrew is not a compulsory subject. 
These examinations were conducted by the Bishop s 
Examining Chaplains. In 1888 the Bishop was able to 
make an arrangement with the University of Durham, 
by which an outside test of the efficiency of the work 
was obtainable, that University undertaking the annual 
examination of College students on subjects required for 
the Durham Intermediate B.A. or L.Th. degree. The 
examinations were held at the College and the answers 
returned unread to the English examiners. A few years 
later a further advance was made, and the College was 
added to the list of those Theological Colleges the 
students of which, having satisfied certain requirements, 
are admitted to residence at Durham for three terms 
with a view of their taking the B.A., degree. 1 The con 
cession of this privilege, while accepted as an indication 
that the University recognised the status of the College 
and the value of the teaching therein given, was not really 
of much practical benefit. Advantage of it was taken 
by one, and only one, student. The expenses of the 
journey to and from Durham, the finding of College fees 
and other necessary charges during a three terms resi 
dence were far beyond what an average young clergyman 
in Jamaica, with his limited means, could be expected to 
provide, even by the strictest economy ; besides which, 
after some years of the wear and tear of a busy life in the 
tropics it is wiser to spend leave of absence in rest and 
recreation than in keeping terms and studying for a 
University degree. In the year 1910 the Durham 
authorities agreed that students in associated colleges 
such as that in Jamaica, might sit locally for the examina 
tions required for the License in Theology, the questions 

1 See Title II. 5 of Durham University Regulations. 

L 



154 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

being sent from Durham and the answers returned there. 
Writing of the affiliation of Codrington College to Durham, 
Dr. Bindley says that " by this delightful connection 
Codrington may be said to touch hands with St. Cuth- 
bert across the centuries and a West Indian College to 
claim an academic kinship with the schools of Melrose 
and Lindisfarne, of J arrow and of Wear." In its teach 
ing and endeavours the Jamaica College aspires to claim 
a similar kinship with Lightfoot and Westcott and 
Moule. Besides this connection with Durham, students 
may, at their option, be prepared for the London B.A. ; 
and the College has quite recently been affiliated to the 
University of King s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia. 

In addition to the endowment created by Lady Howard 
de Walden, annual contributions towards the upkeep 
of the College are given by the Taylor Trustees and for a 
considerable time by the executors of the late Mr. J. J. 
Cator, and in recent years by his son, Mr. J. J. Cator. 
The S.P.C.K. helps by way of scholarships, open to 
students born in Jamaica, and two years ago two scholar 
ships were founded, one by the Coadjutor Bishop under 
taking to secure 40 per annum for a Scholarship open 
to boys educated at any of the High Schools in Jamaica ; 
and the other by an anonymous Jamaican friend of the 
Archbishop, who gave the sum of 1,100 to endow a 
scholarship, to be called the " Middlesex Scholarship." 

The teaching staff of the College, which is necessarily 
limited by the available income, is aided by lectures 
given from time to time by the Archbishop, the Coadjutor 
Bishop, some of the more experienced clergy stationed 
near Kingston, and by several capable laymen ; the sub 
jects of these lectures include Education, Church History, 
Pastoral Work, English Literature, Church Music, 
Book-keeping, with special reference to the keeping of 
Church accounts as required by Synod, according to 
regulations laid down in the Appendix to the Canons. 
To the above must be added that definite parochial 
work is assigned to each student at one or other of the 
churches and mission stations in or near Kingston, 
under the direction of the clergyman in charge. 

Another branch of the College work is the training in 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 155 

theological studies of the C.M.S. students preparing for 
missionary work in West Africa (see p. 150). Arrange 
ments are also made under which catechists and 
evangelists come up in groups for short periods of resi 
dence in the College for special instruction in matters 
relating to their several duties. 

The Theological College the institution, not the 
building has now been in existence for nearly thirty 
years, and more than half the clergy licensed in the 
Diocese have passed through its curriculum. The build 
ings suffered considerably from the earthquake of 1907 
and are now restored. 

The Brotherhood of St. Andrew. From the early days 
when the C.M.S. sent its first lay missionary to Jamaica, 
and when some earnest planters were giving their slaves 
instruction in Christian truths, the services of laymen 
have been a notable feature in Jamaica Church life. 
There has been a remarkable growth of this lay work 
during the last thirty years. It has been the aim of 
the Archbishop not merely to avail himself on behalf 
of the Church of the good intentions of lay teachers 
but to build up their capacity for teaching and to make 
them more efficient Church workers. One of his first 
efforts in this direction was the institution of an annual 
examination for Catechists on such subjects as Scripture 
Knowledge, Church History, the Book of Common 
Prayer, and Christian Evidences. Thus, as the number 
of mission stations increased, so were more capable 
men found ready for the work. Very quickly other lay 
agencies arose as circumstances demanded : such as 
the Jamaica Church Army, and the later and more 
successful methods indicated by the names of the workers, 
as lay evangelists and colporteurs. This variety of 
service pointed to the need for some central organisation 
in which might be incorporated the different sections of 
the work of faithful laymen. Accordingly, at a Synod 
held at Montego Bay in 1896, it was agreed that the 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew should be introduced into 
the Diocese as the centre of lay work. The Brotherhood 
was founded in the United States by the late James L. 



156 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Houghteling, of Chicago, and had for its object the 
banding together of Christian laymen to win, mainly 
by individual effort, men and boys to the Church and 
to the active service of the Lord Christ. Its constitution 
is such that it readily supplied what was needed to draw 
together into one Association the various branches of 
lay work in the Jamaica Church. 

The Brotherhood, besides local Chapters attached to 
congregations, has three Diocesan Chapters : 

(1) The Evangelists Chapter. This Chapter not only 
aims at the carrying out of the Rules of the Brotherhood, 
but its special object is that of taking the Gospel into 
neglected and needy districts by the agency of trained 
Evangelists and colporteurs, and by conducting ordinary 
parochial missions by recognised missioners ; thus taking 
over and extending the work formerly done under the 
auspices of the Jamaica Church Army. Arrangements 
are made for the training of Evangelists at the Theological 
College. There are in 1912 eleven Evangelists. 

(2) The Lay Readers Chapter. Lay readers often 
men occupying a prominent position in the Island give 
voluntary service to the Church. They are licensed by 
the Bishop to perform, under the direction of their 
superintending clergyman, the following duties : 

(1) To read Morning Prayer and the Litany, and 
Evening Prayer and the Holy Scriptures, as set forth in 
the Book of Common Prayer of the Churchof England. 

(2) To catechise and read printed sermons, 
homilies and other religious discourses during the 
time of Divine Service in any consecrated or licensed 
building as the superintending clergyman may direct. 

(3) To teach and instruct children and adults 
in the principles of the Christian religion, according 
to the tenets of the Church of England, at such 
times and in such manner as the superintending 
clergyman may direct. 

(4) To preach, if their license contains a special 
provision to that effect. 

(5) To read, as occasion may require, the Service 
for the Burial of the Dead. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 15? 

The number of members in the year 1912 of the Lay 
Headers Chapter was 171, who are classified as proba 
tioners, licensed lay readers, and licensed lay preachers. 
The last named have the Bishop s sanction to preach 
sermons of their own composition ; and many lay sermons 
are preached in Jamaica which not a few clergy would be 
glad, as they certainly ought to be glad, if they could 
be credited with the authorship of such well-prepared 
and excellent addresses. 

(3) The Catechists Chapter. The members of this 
Chapter are the catechists of the Diocese, 107 of whom 
are employed by the Jamaica Home and Foreign 
Missionary Society, and 65 of whom are known as 
Diocesan catechists, being in charge of mission stations, 
connected with certain churches and not on the Missionary 
Society s list. Most of these catechists are teachers of 
elementary schools, and in some instances receive some 
slight remuneration (over and above their school income) 
from either the Missionary Society or the Financial 
Board ; a few, who receive no remuneration, are known 
as voluntary catechists. The work of the catechists has 
been more fitly referred to under the section dealing 
with the missionary work of the Church. 

These three diocesan chapters represent centralisa 
tion and organisation of work previously going on, 
which would have gone on without the Brotherhood. 
But the main work of the Brotherhood is done in the 
parochial chapters, the number of which is now 80 
senior and 13 junior, with memberships respectively 
of 1,175 and 125. The members of the parochial 
chapters strive to bring men and boys to Divine Service 
or to Sunday school, encourage them to pray, to read 
the Bible, to attend Bible classes, are a constant living 
protest against wrong doing and in a quiet and unpre 
tentious way proclaim by teaching and example the 
Gospel of the Lord Christ. In proof of the usefulness 
and energetic influence of the parochial chapters may be 
mentioned the increased attendance of men and boys 
at church and school in parishes where a working chapter 
exists, and also the increasing number of young men and 
boys who offer themselves as candidates for confirmation. 



158 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Another noteworthy feature about the Brotherhood 
is that in parishes where a chapter has been formed, 
and has been diligently and sympathetically working, 
it is found to be so necessary a part of parochial 
machinery that it has seldom been closed for lack of 
interest or enthusiasm. 

An annual Convention of the Brotherhood is held in 
Spanish Town, which is increasingly well attended and 
always enjoyed. Part of the time of the Convention is 
allotted to business, and part to devotional services, 
practical addresses and social intercourse amongst men 
who, except on occasions of this sort, have few oppor 
tunities of meeting. Local assemblies of parochial 
chapters are also held from time to time. As intimated 
before, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew did not originate 
lay work in Jamaica : it found it there and absorbed it 
and strengthened it, and has been the means of drawing 
Church laymen together in harmony and Christian 
fellowship, encouraging one another, helping one another 
and thereby helping many others and bringing them into 
personal communion with the Church. 

While the Brotherhood is naturally desirous that a 
chapter should be established in connection with every 
church and mission station in the Diocese, the formation 
of a new chapter is quite optional. In some parishes 
there are branches of the Church of England Men s 
Society, in others similar work to that of the Brother 
hood is being done through some parochial organisation 
of long standing and proved efficiency. Here and there, 
maybe, the help of the layman is not valued or ap 
preciated as it should be. But one great fact stands 
clearly out which is that it would be impossible to carry 
on the Church s work, especially in country districts 
with a scattered population, without the large amount 
of lay help which is such a distinctive feature of Jamaica 
Church life. The extent, indeed, to which the work 
of the Church is thus aided and strengthened may partly 
be realised when it is remembered that Divine Service is 
held simultaneously every Sunday in 300 places of 
worship, such services in two cases out of three being 
conducted by laymen. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 159 

The work of laymen in Jamaica is by no means 
confined or limited to the ministerial and parochial 
work mentioned under the various sections of the 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew, as sketched above. The 
duties of churchwardens and members of parochial 
councils and church committees are anything but 
nominal : the lay members of Synod take an active 
and useful part in its deliberations, and have often been 
the originators of valuable suggestions, which are now 
incorporated in the Canons of the Church. And beyond 
these, and sometimes including these, there has never 
failed a supply of good men and true, men of ability 
and of judgment, who, in the prominent positions of 
members of the Incorporated Lay Body, of the Diocesan 
Council and Financial Board, and the Business Referees 
of the Church, have quietly and cheerfully and 
gladly helped the Church by their counsel and advice. 
Space and " time \vould fail to tell " of their names 
and services in the past forty years, but neither their 
names nor their services will readily be forgotten by the 
Jamaica Church, which has benefitted so much by their 
capacity and steadfastness and willing devotion. 

The Deaconess Home. The Deaconess Home is the 
centre for organised work among women and girls in the 
Diocese. Its short name very inadequately describes 
the many useful purposes which it accomplishes. The 
duties of a Deaconess are declared in Canon XXX. to 
be " the care of our Lord s poor and sick ; the education 
of the young ; the religious instruction (under control 
of the parish clergyman) of the neglected ; the work of 
moral reformation ; and duties of a kindred nature. It 
shall also be an especial part of the work of Deaconesses 
to become sponsors for illegitimate children and others 
needing especial care, and to be to them effectual spiritual 
guardians." 

Nursing in Jamaica. In addition to the parochial and 
benevolent duties enumerated above, the Deaconess Home 
was the first institution in Jamaica to attempt properly 
to train women to be nurses. This department of the 
Home has received much sympathy and encouragement 



160 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

from medical men, especially from the staff of the Public 
Hospital, where facilities are given for practical training 
and learning. It would be difficult to over-estimate 
the value of the work done by this nursing side of the 
Home, which has in a few years almost revolutionised 
the art of nursing in Jamaica. Towards the close of the 
year 1908 it was found possible to put into effect an idea 
which had for a long time occupied the thoughts of 
the Archbishop, namely, the establishment of a Nursing 
Hostel. This institution is situated at 116, East St., 
Kingston, and is worked under the direction and re 
sponsibility of the Archbishop and the Council of the 
Deaconess Home. 

The object in view is to provide skilled and careful 
nursing for persons of various classes, whether inhabitants 
of Kingston, or residents in the country who come to 
Kingston for special medical or surgical treatment, and 
for English and other strangers who need medical treat 
ment and careful nursing. The Hostel is intended to 
furnish these advantages under the most favourable con 
ditions as to locality and accessibility to doctors and 
patients, and as to comfort and convenience, the rates 
being fixed as low as possible with due regard to the 
institution being efficient and self-supporting. 

The Hostel is personally superintended by Sister 
Adelaide, M.R.B.N.A., of the Deaconess Home, who is a 
certificated nurse and a former sister of St. George s and 
Bethnal Green Hospitals, London. 

There is an aseptic operation room with the latest 
surgical appliances. Patients are received on the recom 
mendation of their own medical advisers, by whom they 
are attended, and with whom they make their own finan 
cial arrangements. [In the case of country patients they 
are attended by Kingston doctors recommended or 
selected by their local medical advisers.] 

Terms for residents at the Hostel have to be arranged 
in each case, and are payable weekly in advance. They 
range from two guineas to five guineas a week, according 
to the kind and amount of accommodation and nursing 
required. Special terms are made for special cases. 

So far the institution has amply justified its existence 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 161 

and if the necessarily heavy initial expenses and cost of 
further developments (about 800), and the sum of 
1,200 required to purchase the premises, could be pro 
vided without much further delay, it would be possible to 
maintain in efficiency and usefulness an institution whose 
value will be more and more appreciated as the years go 
by. An eloquent tribute to the worth of the institution, 
so ably managed by Sister Adelaide, is the use made of it 
by the doctors in Kingston. 

The Archbishop has recently issued an appeal to those 
persons in Jamaica who ought to be able to respond : 
the result so far is, I understand, encouraging. 

Other and not less important features of the work 
springing from this centre are the Deaconess Home 
Schools for Girls, of which there are twelve, either in 
Kingston or in other towns ; and the Bookstall, begun 
chiefly through the suggestion and advice of Bishop 
Joscelyne, is under careful management disposing year 
by year of an increasing number of books, mainly of a 
devotional character. Of the other activities of the 
Home there seems to be no limit to the number and 
variety : they include temperance work, Sunday school 
teaching, Bible classes, prison visiting, mission services. 

The Home itself is in Kingston, on the site of the 
building which was formerly the Theological College. 
It is said, and I have never heard it contradicted, that in 
former days these premises were used as a slave-market, 
to which captured Africans, who survived the voyage, 
were taken on their arrival for a short rest, and to be 
well fed and made ready to be disposed of either by 
private sale or by public auction. The old Home was 
seriously injured by the earthquake of 1907, and a few 
weeks after the earthquake a fire destroyed any hope of 
repairing the old building. New and more suitable 
buildings have since been erected. 

An annual conference is held at the Home, at which 
papers are read dealing with some specially chosen 
religious subject, either devotional or practical. The 
annual Report is presented to the Synod for approval 
and printed in the Synod Journal. 

The Deaconess Home has been particularly fortunate 



162 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

in having been from its beginning under the manage 
ment and control of two devoted Mildmay sisters, Sister 
Isabel and Sister Madeline. Other societies having for 
their object Christian work among women, though not 
officially connected with the Home, find in it a convenient 
centre for annual and other meetings, such as the Mothers 
Union and the Girls Friendly Society. These meetings 
are frequently held at the time of the Annual Synod, 
and afford opportunities for circulating information and 
enlarging the operations of various branches of Christian 
work among women and girls. 

Mothers Union. About the year 1890 a branch of the 
Mothers Union was started as an offshoot of the Central 
Society in England. The late Archdeacon Ramson, 
with the ready concurrence of the Archbishop, was the 
first clergyman to introduce the work of the Union into 
his parish. It may be of interest in Jamaica to note that 
Bishop Douet was consecrated in Westminster Abbey 
together with Bishop Sumner, the husband of the 
foundress of the Mothers Union. There are now 20 
branches of the Union in Jamaica with a membership 
of more than 700. With so many calls on their time and 
so little time for their calls, many clergymen have not 
seen their way to incorporate this useful institution into 
the rest of their parochial machinery. But the number 
of Branches is slowly increasing, the influence of the 
Union is being more widespread, and in parishes where 
it is established and encouraged there is no doubt of its 
power for good in conditions where it is perhaps more 
needed than in England. The movement has taken 
root and is growing. 

The Girls Friendly Society. The work of the G.F.S. 
was brought before the notice of a small gathering of 
clergy by the Archbishop at Bishop s Lodge towards the 
end of the year 1905, and opportunity was taken at the 
same time of a visit paid to the Island by Miss Brewin 
(Working Associate of the Twickenham Branch), who 
was good enough to address meetings and explain the 
methods of the Society s work. It was thought desirable 
in the first place to start the Society among the students 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 163 

of the upper and middle class girls schools, and more 
particularly of the Deaconess Home Schools. Certain 
peculiar difficulties, which do not exist in England, are 
being overcome, and already there are a large number of 
young girls enrolled as candidates, and teachers admitted 
as associates. The results obtained in a few years are 
both gratifying and encouraging. 

Widows and Orphans and Clergy Pensions Funds. The 
accounts of these funds are kept in the books of the 
Financial Board, and the management and control are 
under the personal care of the Hon. Sec. the Ven. 
Archdeacon Simms, to whom the Diocese is under deep 
obligation for his wise and unceasing supervision of 
these funds. The inherent risks and anxieties attend 
ing the creation of such funds as these were safely and 
happily tided over, there having been few claims either 
for annuities or for pensions until the funds had reached 
a condition of stability. 

The Widows and Orphans Fund is on a contributory 
basis, abatements being made from the monthly stipends 
of clergy, and is partly supported by one-half of proceeds 
of a yearly offertory which should, according to Canon, 
be given at every church and mission station in the 
Diocese to this and the Clergy Pensions Fund. Dona 
tions and bequests may be, but seldom are, made : if 
made, they would be welcomed and gratefully appre 
ciated : up to date there has been only one donation 
and no bequest. The Fund has also, through a kindly 
decision of the Government, the reversionary interest in 
the Rectors and the Island Curates Funds of the old 
State-supported Church. In the natural course of 
things many years must elapse before anything can be 
realised from this source, and the amount to be received 
is problematical, but is not likely to be very great. It 
would occupy many pages of this little book if I were to 
relate all the details and conditions of the management 
of the Widows and Orphans Fund. It must suffice to 
say that, while the abatements are small, the advantages 
relatively are considerable and that it is practically a 
purely business fund dependent upon sound arrangements 



iD4 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

as to the disposal of the contributors money. 
The last quinquennial valuation by the Actuary (Mr. 
T. E. Young, F.I.A.) revealed a condition of things 
so satisfactory that an increase was recommended 
and authorised by Synod both to the present and to 
prospective annuities. 

The Clergy Pensions Fund differs from the Widows 
and Orphans Fund in that it is non-contributory on the 
part of the clergy. Its resources are (i) an annual 
contribution of not less than 100 from the Diocesan 
Expenses Fund ; (2) any donations, bequests or collec 
tions specially made ; (3) one-half of a yearly offertory 
to be given by every church and mission station in the 
Diocese for the^Widows and Orphans and Clergy Pensions 
Funds. The amount of pension is decided every year 
by Synod, but it cannot at present exceed 2 for each 
year of service, and is fixed as near that sum as the 
Fund will allow. No pension shall be paid for less 
than ten years continuous service. 

It is of course impossible that a Fund so maintained 
can offer its advantages to all clergy, irrespective of 
other circumstances. A Fund entirely contributory, or 
with compulsory contributions, would give a clergyman 
on his retirement an automatic right to a pension ; but 
beginning as this Fund necessarily did with few con 
tributors nothing short of prohibitory annual abate 
ments from small stipends could have prevented its 
being swamped in its opening career if there had been 
heavy demands on it. Accordingly the Canon decrees that : 

" No clergyman who has retired from the Diocese and 
has been granted a pension shall be entitled to receive any 
portion of the pension if from any other source he be in 
receipt of an income of ^120 a year or upwards. If he be 
in receipt of an income which, with his pension, shall amount 
to 120 a year, or upwards, he shall only receive so much 
of his pension as shall make his income 120 a year." 

That is to say, pensions are granted to those who 
really need them ; not, however well deserved, to supple 
ment an already sufficient, even though small, income 
from any other source. Moreover, other provisions are 
made in the Canon with the intention of safe-guarding 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 165 

the interests of prospective pensioners and of the Fund 
itself ; The main points of these provisions are : 

(1) Whenever a clergyman, who is still in active service 
in the Diocese, has reached or passed the age of sixty-five 
years, he shall be entitled to retire and upon such retirement 
be entitled to a retiring allowance, according to the regula 
tions for the time being in force. 

(2) Whenever a clergyman, who has reached or passed 
the age of sixty-five, is, by the Bishop and joint resolution 
of the Diocesan Council and Diocesan Financial Board, 
declared superannuated, he shall be compulsorily retired, 
and upon such retirement shall be entitled to claim a retiring 
allowance according to such regulations as may for the time 
being be in force. 

(3) A clergyman who has not reached the age of sixty-five 
may be compulsorily retired, under regulations laid down 
by Canon, for any of several reasons, such as want of har 
mony between himself and his congregation, or a diminution 
of congregation and especially of communicants : in such 
case he may be granted either a pension according to the 
rules in force at the time, or a compassionate allowance, 
the latter being subject to an annual vote of the Synod. 

(4) If a clergyman should feel himself compelled to 
retire on the ground of ill-health after the completion of 
ten years continuous service, he is entitled to claim a 
pension according to the regulations then in force if the 
necessity of his retirement be established on medical evidence 
to the satisfaction of the Bishop, or, under certain defined 
conditions, he may receive a compassionate allowance. 

(5) If, after less than ten years completed service, a 
clergyman retires on account of ill-health, the Financial 
Board may not must pay him a gratuity not exceeding 
five pounds for each year of his service. 

It will be seen from the above summarised regulations 
that the Fund is protected in the interests of the legiti 
mate beneficiaries both from any premature and inde 
fensible claim by a clergyman, and also from any un 
necessary generosity on the part of its administrators. 

One other point may without, I hope, giving offence, 
be alluded to in connection with the Widows and Orphans 
and Clergy Pensions Funds and that is the insufficient 
support they receive from churches and mission stations. 
The words of the Canons are explicit enough : they are, 
" one half " not the whole " of a yearly offertory from 
every church and mission station in the Diocese for the 
purpose of the Widows and Orphans and Clergy Pensions 



166 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Funds." Nothing could be plainer than this. It is not 
optional : it is a canonical regulation. If the Canon is 
wrong in any way or is thought to inflict any kind of 
hardship it can be amended or repealed by Synod : if it 
is right, and so long as it is not repealed or modified, it 
ought to be obeyed. But, leaving on one side the ethical 
aspect of obedience to legislative authority, let us glance 
at another aspect of the matter, namely the result. In 
the 1911 Synod Journal it was reported that the contri 
butions for the previous year from fifteen churches and 
mission stations amounted to between 16 and 17. If 
all the churches and all the mission stations had contri 
buted in the same proportion the total would have 
exceeded 248 or 124 for each Fund. The sums re 
ceived in the year mentioned were admittedly below 
the average of the previous five years, which amounted to 
nearly 25, or more than half as much again, bringing, 
if the Canons had been uniformly obeyed, the annual 
contributions up to more than 372 or 186 to each Fund. 
Of course the year in question was an exceptional year 
a familiar expression both in Jamaipa and in other places 
but I venture to make the remark that, whe e finance 
is concerned, very few people are so old, or so inexperi 
enced or so tenacious of memory as to be able to call to 
mind any year that was not exceptional. Now the 
Widows and Orphans Fund has been in existence for 
thirty years : Pensions date from 1886. If the canonical 
requirement had been generally complied with, it is not 
difficult to calculate to what a material extent each Fund 
would have profited and what increased benefits might 
now be given both to annuitants on one fund and to 
pensioners on the other. It is true that it may not always 
be easy for a diffident and sensitive clergyman to ask his 
congregation for a collection in the proceeds of which he 
is either directly or indirectly concerned. But this 
difficulty was met beforehand by the wording of the 
Canons. And after all it is a question which appeals to 
congregations quite as much as, if not more than, to 
clergy ; for it must be painful to laymen to think that 
so slight a provision is made for the widows and orphans 
of clergy and for retired clergymen , who on small stipends 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 167 

have for years borne the brunt of heavy parochial duties 
and equally painful to think that they are deprived of the 
privilege, accorded to them by Canon, of helping to 
remedy a condition of things they deplore. It only 
remains here to emphasise the fact that, had the Canons 
been faithfully obeyed throughout the Diocese, the results 
would be seen to-day in increased annuities for widows 
and in the possibility for larger pensions for the clergy 
in their old age. 

The Belmont Orphanage. The Belmont Orphanage 
was started by the Archbishop in 1892, as a home and 
industrial school for destitute orphan children. Accom 
modation is found for twenty girls in buildings on a site 
adjoining that of the Archbishop s cottage home at 
Stony Hill. It is maintained in part by voluntary con 
tributions and in part by a grant-in-aid from the Govern 
ment under the Industrial Schools Law, but it owes much 
of its usefulness and success to the devoted and unceasing 
care of the Archbishop s daughter, whose official title 
of " Secretary and Resident Principal," give a very 
vague and insufficient idea of the amount of labour and 
affection and keen interest daily showered upon these 
happy children. They receive the ordinary infant 
school education and, when old enough, attend the day 
school attached to Stony Hill Church ; they are also 
trained to become domestic servants and to be qualified 
(as far as their age will permit) for ordinary household 
duties required in Jamaica. The following extract from 
the 1910 Report gives us an idea of the varied character of 
the instruction given and the work done at the Orphanage, 
apart from religious training and secular education : 

" An approximate estimate of labour, exclusive of school 
and general housework is as follows : 41,808 articles 
washed ; 4,149 Ibs. of brown and white bread made for 
sale and home use ; 183 articles made in the sewing class, 
exclusive of weekly mending ; 246 hats, baskets, brooms 
and mats made and sold ; and 30,242 hours of work in the 
field. . . . The field work includes weeding and keeping 
in order all the outside premises and gathering wood for 
kitchen, baking and laundry purposes. The girls work 
regularly every week in the field besides looking after the 
small stock hares, donkey, goats and pigs and gathering 
the large quantity of green food required for all these." 



168 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

As must be expected in an institution of this sort the 
children on admission are usually very delicate and badly 
nurtured, and it says much for the patient and tender care 
and skilled medical attention which they receive when 
we learn that the Orphanage had been in existence 
nearly twenty years before death claimed one of its 
inmates. 

Purity and Temperance Societies. There are Diocesan 
Branches, recognised by the Synod, of the Church of 
England Temperance Society and of the Purity Society. 
Both of these branches present annual reports to Synod. 
Judging from these reports it does not appear that much 
is being done on the lines indicated in the regulations, 
though there are a few enthusiastic workers. But the 
truth is that very much of the work usually associated with 
these Societies falls under the care of the Brotherhood 
of St. Andrew or of some off-shoot of the Deaconess 
Home. Thus the annual reports, which are generally 
interesting and suggestive, by no means convey a com 
plete idea of the work being done and the time spent in 
urging the practice of these essential Christian virtues. 



CHAPTER XV 

IN a previous chapter I gave a short synopsis of the 
canons of the Jamaica Church, and I mentioned the 
constitution and the main administrative functions of 
the Diocesan Financial Board. I now draw attention 
to some details of its duties and responsibilities which 
affect the churches and congregations of the Diocese. 
The points I refer to are : (i) Endowments ; (2) Assess 
ments ; (3) Income ; (4) Appointment of Clergy ; (5) 
Buildings and Repairs, Loans and Debts ; (6) Insurance ; 
(7) Education. 

(i) Endowments. For central Church purposes, such 
as the provision of the Bishop s stipend and the general 
sustentation of Church work, an appeal was made 
immediately after disestablishment, which has already 
been mentioned. 1 A substantial foundation was laid 

1 See p 122, 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 169 

both for an Episcopal Stipend Fund and for a General 
Sustentation Fund. 

It may seem a contradiction in terms to talk about 
the endowments of a disendowed Church but, as a simple 
matter of fact, there is no Church of whatever denomina 
tion, and possibly no institution or society, which has 
not its endowment of some sort. The definition of 
Endowment as recognised by British law is to be found 
in Law 16 and 17 Viet., and is as follows : " The ex 
pression Endowment shall mean and include all lands 
and real estate whatsoever, of any tenure, and any 
charge thereon or interest thereof, and all stocks, funds, 
moneys, securities, investments and personal estate 
whatsoever, which shall for the time being belong to 
or be held in trust for any charity, or for all or any of the 
objects or purposes thereof." Whatever lands, with 
buildings thereon, whether churches, schools or parson 
ages, had been given or bequeathed for Church purposes 
before 1870 have been, on the resignation or death of the 
Rector or Island Curate, legally transferred by the Govern 
ment to the Incorporated Lay Body of the Church ; the 
Government also, in accordance with an equitable and a 
distinctly generous custom, putting the buildings into a 
condition of substantial repair before so transferring them. 

While, strictly speaking, the word " Endowment " has 
the wide meaning above mentioned, yet it is ordinarily 
understood to refer to vested moneys and the interest 
derived from them. There were few endowments in 
money held in trust by the State for Church purposes. 
One there certainly was, and it may be mentioned here 
as being perhaps unique, and as undoubtably an in 
teresting link with the past. At the time of emancipa 
tion the sum of 1,800 was paid to the Rectory of 
Black River Church by the Imperial Treasury as com 
pensation for the liberation of slaves whose labours 
were part of the Rector s emoluments. At the death of 
the last State-paid Rector of Black River this money 
was paid by the Government to the voluntary Church, and 
now forms a very considerable part of the endowment 
of Black River Church. 1 During the years when many 

J $9* p- 45- 

M 



i;o THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

of the churches had the services of a State-paid clergy 
man a portion of the voluntary contributions of 
congregations was devoted to the purpose of creating 
the nucleus of an endowment for the particular church 
from which such contributions were sent. As the 
number of State-paid clergy decreased, so did the means 
and opportunities for increasing these endowments 
diminish. At the present time, out of in churches, 
69 have endowments, the capital sums varying from 
4,591 to 6. There is not much likelihood of any 
large addition being made to any of these small endow 
ments, only five of which produce an annual income 
exceeding 100. 

Endowments for central funds and special institu 
tions have already been mentioned ; they amount to : 

Episcopal Stipend Fund 14, 595 

General Sustentation Fund - ... 5,570 

Theological College 9,045 

,, Middlesex Scholarship - 1,100 

Lepers Home Chaplaincy - - *- - 100 

Of the first named of these the Episcopal Stipend 
Fund an effort was made in 1911 (in connection with 
the consecration of churches, to replace those wrecked 
by earthquake in 1907) to increase the endowment. 
The appeal resulted in an increase of 126 to the 
Endowment Fund. For many reasons it seems un 
desirable that the income of the Bishop of a Diocese 
should depend, even in part, either on an annual vote 
of Synod, or on assessments based on the income of 
the clergy, or on collections made at Confirmation 
services. 

(2) Assessments. There is a connection, in the cases of 
the Episcopal Stipend Fund and the General Sustenta 
tion Fund, between endowments and assessments, the 
latter being necessary to supplement the former when 
the interest of endowment fails to meet the required 
expenditure. The money thus needed can, I will not 
say only but certainly most fairly and with least 
friction or ground of complaint, be made on some 
basis of assessment equitably affecting all who have to 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 171 

contribute. The actual basis may be a matter for 
difference of opinion. Any reader of the Report, already 
referred to, of the English Archbishops Committee 
on Church Finance will see the difficulty which that 
Committee, consisting largely of prominent and practical 
Churchmen, had in making recommendations which 
were not complicated, and which would not involve 
much difficulty in being given effect to without producing 
something like general dissatisfaction. In Jamaica the 
Episcopal Stipend Fund and the General Sustentation 
Fund are partly maintained (in addition to the amount 
derived from endowment) , by assessed contributions from 
every church and mission station in the Diocese, in 
accordance with rules of assessment from time to time 
made by Synod. The costs of the Diocesan Expenses 
Fund are met entirely by assessments, with the exception 
of the amount collected at the Annual Synod Service. 
The basis of all these assessments is the average income 
(whether derived from endowment or from voluntary 
contributions) for the three past years of each clergyman 
or catechist, and the amount of the assessment varies 
with the average income, and is distributed in accordance 
with the needs of each Fund. Thus, if a clergyman 
feels aggrieved at the high rate at which his church is 
assessed, he has the satisfaction of knowing that this 
is caused by the prosperity of his church ; while, on the 
other hand, if his income is reduced, he may derive 
consolation from the fact that the assessments on his 
church are also reduced. The last Synod Journal shows 
that 65 churches were assessed at the rate of 20 per cent., 
25 churches at the rate of 15 per cent., 19 churches and 
22 mission stations at the rate of 10 per cent, and 
72 mission stations at the rate of 5 per cent. The total 
thus raised by assessment was divided as follows : 
3f per cent, of the whole to the Episcopal Stipend Fund, 
3j to the General Sustentation Fund and 13 to the 
Diocesan Expenses Fund, the last named having no 
endowment, and being called upon to meet many expenses 
for the benefit of the Diocese generally, in addition to 
the maintenance of the Church office and its staff. 

(3) Income of Clergy and Classification of Churches. The 



172 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

churches of the Diocese are divided into three classes, 
and the income of the clergy varies in accordance with 
this classification. 

Class A consists of those churches, or combined cures, 
which ordinarily provide stipends of ^180 and upwards. 
The Financial Board will pay stipends as fixed by Synod 
to clergy in charge of churches in this Class in equal monthly 
instalments provided the funds available for this purpose 
at the credit of the church be sufficient ; otherwise two- 
thirds of such monthly instalment shall be paid. But the 
Financial Board shall have power to further reduce monthly 
payments when it is evident that a church is getting into debt. 

Class B consists of those churches, or combined cures, 
which provide stipends varying between ^120 and ^180 a 
year. In the case of churches in this Class the Board will 
pay a monthly stipend at the rate of 120 a year, provided 
the funds available for this purpose at the credit of the 
church are sufficient ; otherwise two-thirds of such monthly 
instalment will be paid. But the Financial Board shall 
have power to further reduce the monthly instalments when 
it is evident that a church is getting into debt. 

Class C consists of those churches, or combined cures, 
which can seldom provide stipends of more than ^120 a 
year, and often fall considerably below that amount. In the 
case of churches of this Class the Board is authorised to 
pay stipends at the rate of 50 a year in monthly instal 
ments, provided that any balance available at the end of 
each quarter shall be paid, up to the amount of the stipend 
fixed by Synod, and provided also that if there be any 
failure to make remittances adequate to prevent ultimate 
debt the Board has authority to deal with each case on its 
merits. 

In many cases the " church" assessed on and classified 
as above consists of a combination of two neighbouring 
churches, or of churches and mission stations where the 
employment and consequent remuneration of a catechist 
are necessary. Taking figures and summarising them 
from the Journal of Synod, I find that the amount required 
to meet that fixed for the Classification for 1912 exceeded 
14,000, while another Return shows that the amount 
actually received in 1911 by clergy and catechists was more 
than 13,000. It must be remembered that the intention 
of the classification is for the purpose of information 
and administration, and that one of its objects has been 
to enable the Financial Board to bring about such a 
combination of cures as to secure that no clergyman shall 
receive less than 120 a year, So far has this latter 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 173 

object been attained, that in the latest official list 
of clerical incomes it is shown that only ten clergy have 
an income of less than 120 a year ; and in many, if 
not most, of these ten various reasons have existed 
which have made impossible a formal combination or 
an absorption into any other cure. Another report 
from the latest Journal shows that upwards of 12,000 
was locally raised by congregations (mainly through 
offertories) and expended on the relief of the poor, schools, 
the maintenance of Divine Service, the payment of 
church officers and other church purposes, missions, 
and special local needs. 

(4) Appointment of Clergy. There is, and can be, no 
such an institution as private patronage. All appoint 
ments are made by the Bishop, but the congregations 
concerned have large powers of nomination, specified by 
Canon . The right of nomination is given to such congrega 
tions as have, for three years preceding a vacancy, pro 
vided a stipend of 120 a year for a clergyman s income, 
besides meeting other obligations. The lay members of 
a Church Committee are constituted a Board of Nomina 
tion, the order of their procedure being carefully fixed 
by Canon. A similar Board is constituted for combined 
cures, consisting of the lay members of the church 
which has contributed most largely to the stipend of 
the clergyman, together with four deputies from each of 
the other churches forming the combination. A Board 
of Nomination is authorised to submit to the Bishop 
the names of three clergymen in Priest s orders, indicat 
ing the one it specially desires to be appointed. If the 
Bishop sees good reason for not appointing the specially- 
chosen clergyman or either of the other nominees, and 
if, after further negotiations, he fails to obtain the consent 
of the Board of Nomination to the appointment of any 
other clergyman, other steps, to be immediately noted, 
must be taken. This leads me to mention that a few 
years ago a Committee of Selection was created, consisting 
of the Bishop, three members of the Diocesan Council 
annually appointed by the Synod, and three members 
to be elected by and from the committee or committees 



174 I HE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

of the church or churches concerned. The functions 
of the Committee of Selection are to deal with a 
vacancy : 

(1) In a case where the congregation has not provided 
the necessary stipend and met the required obligations of 
the cure ; 

(2) in a case where the Bishop and a Board of Nomination 
fail to come to an agreement ; or 

(3) in a case where no nomination is made by a Board 
of Nomination within six weeks from the date at which a 
vacancy is officially notified to a Church Committee. 

I have related the above arrangements for clerical 
appointments in some detail, though very summarily, in 
order to show that the democratic rights of congrega 
tions are recognised and protected, while at the same 
time there is no interference with the authority or juris 
diction of the Bishop. 

(5) Buildings and Repairs ; Loans and Debts. The 
question of the repair and up-keep of Parsonage Houses is a 
serious one in a Colony the climate of which is not, to put 
it mildly, favourable to immunity from dilapidation or 
decay of buildings, especially those largely constructed 
of wood. In some places it has been necessary to repair 
an existing Parsonage, in others either a new building 
has to be erected or a house purchased for Parsonage 
uses. There are few parishes, if any, so wealthy as to 
be able to afford either erection, purchase or repair in 
one year without neglecting other obligations. The 
one and only way to get the work done is to borrow 
money. A private loan is impossible. The money can 
only, by Canon, be borrowed from the Financial Board, 
and the Financial Board is not empowered to grant a 
loan until certain securities or guarantees have been 
given. Application, accompanied by plans and estimates, 
must be made in writing by the clergyman and Church 
Committee asking for a loan. They must show that 
one-third of the amount proposed to be spent has already 
been raised. This money need not be in hard cash ; 
one member of a Church, for instance, cannot afford to 
give money, but he will give a certain number of days 
gratuitous labour, which will be put down as a contribu 
tion equal to the amount a paid labourer would receive ; 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 175 

another member will supply material, free of cost, in 
the shape of wood, lime, etc. ; and a third member, who 
owns a mule and dray, will without charge bring material 
to the site of the building. Having then ascertained 
that one-third of the money, or its equivalent, has thus 
been raised or secured, the Financial Board has to con 
sider the desirability of advancing, by way of loan, the 
remaining two-thirds, and in so doing has to satisfy 
itself on such points as these : Is the property secured 
by a legal title ? Is the church in question in debt for 
any other loan ? Is money being regularly sent in to 
enable the clergyman to receive his stipend and all other 
financial obligations to be met ? Are the general pros 
pects of the church and district such as to justify a 
reasonable expectation that the loan will be repaid with 
out interfering with other demands and requirements ? 
The loan being granted, the Clergyman and Church Com 
mittee must consent to the repayment of the principal 
and the payment of interest being made a first charge on 
the contributions of the congregation to the Diocesan 
Church Fund. Repayment is made by means of equal 
quarterly payments at the rate of not less than 12 per 
cent, per annum on the sum advanced, of which 6 per 
cent, is reckoned as interest and the remainder as instal 
ments of the principal. 

There are a few other provisions made, all in favour 
of a church reducing, when possible, the strain of a loan 
on its finances ; but they need not be dealt with here, 
nor need those which have reference to other loans on 
General Security. The equitable arrangements for grant 
ing loans, as summarised above, must inevitably tend 
to the process of gradually reducing debts on a good 
many churches, and the fairness and common sense of 
the method of repaying sinking-fund and interest in 
equal annual instalments, spread over a number of years, 
will be plain to anyone. 

What I have written about loans to Parsonages will 
partially explain the existence of Debts to the Financial 
Board by not a few churches ; and as every year repairs 
are necessary to Parsonages here and there, there must 
always be a certain amount of this sort of debt. But 



176 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

there are debts of an entirely different kind to those 
connected with the repayment of loans : these are debts 
which have been incurred because insufficient contribu 
tions towards stipend have been lodged by some churches 
to the credit of the Board. Notwithstanding the 
economy, directed by Synod and practised by the Board 
on the lines laid down in the regulations for the Classifica 
tion of Churches, debts have accrued and have been the 
cause of much anxiety. For some years past a great 
effort has been made, partly by the urgency of the Arch 
bishop, partly by the energy of Clergy and Church Com 
mittees and partly by supplementary grants from the 
General Sustentation Fund, to bring about, as near as 
may be, a condition of all-round solvency. So far has 
this effort, which has involved much labour and self- 
denial, been successful that at the beginning of the year 
1907 there were seventy-two churches in debt, a number 
reduced at the beginning of 1912 to forty-six, the debt 
on twenty-three of which did not exceed 12 which, 
given favourable conditions, will be paid off before the 
year s accounts are made up. During the five years 
referred to more than 1,000 has been paid towards 
remission of debt. The improvement thus begun will 
doubtless continue, though some years must elapse 
before the Board can hope to present a clean sheet to 
the Synod. To account for these debts it must be borne 
in mind that some represent the accumulations of past 
years ; others arise from reduced -contributions during 
a vacancy in a cure and until a congregation has become 
acquainted with the incoming clergyman arrears of 
subscriptions are very hard to collect ; others occur 
because on occasions of drought or storm contributions 
must fall off in the districts affected until a normal state 
of things is reverted to, but in the meanwhile some pay 
ment must be made to clergymen who, in a time of trouble 
and distress, have often to be the leaders and directors 
in the work of relief. Hence these debts must not of 
necessity be regarded as a sign of neglected duty. A 
careful study of recent debts on many churches, together 
with a knowledge of those districts which have suffered 
most from physical calamities of a local character, will 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 177 

explain the cause of some debts to anyone who has com 
pared the last ten (or more) Journals of Synod with 
secular papers recording these calamities. It would of 
course be absurd to say that there have been no failures, 
no incompetence, no unacceptability, no deficiency of 
service, no youthful (or aged) mistakes among the clergy, 
but it would be both absurd and unjust to attribute 
these debts entirely to any or all of these reasons. 

(6) Insurance. It has from the beginning been the 
rule of the Jamaica Church that all buildings, which are 
the property of the Incorporated Lay Body of the Church, 
must be insured against fire in some general Insurance 
Office. All parsonages and all buildings in towns were 
fully insured in some Insurance Society doing business 
in Jamaica, the premiums payable being those of the 
chosen society. Other smaller buildings, with no special 
risks, were insured partly in some society and partly 
in a Diocesan Mutual Insurance Fund, paying to the 
latter premiums at the rate of 2s. 6d. per 100 per annum. 
It is not necessary to enter in detail into these previous 
arrangements for insurance. It is sufficient to record 
here that proper provision had been made and that, 
thanks to diligent custodianship, there were very few 
claims on the Diocesan Insurance Fund. But the 
Cyclone in 1903 and the Earthquake in 1907, drew atten 
tion to other and more serious perils than slight and 
occasional fires. Till then, I think I am right in saying, 
no successful attempt had been made to secure outside 
insurance against such calamities. A ship and its 
cargo might be insured against risks from a storm at sea, 
but buildings and crops on shore could not be insured 
against the damage which might be wrought by the 
same storm. The idea of insuring against loss by 
earthquake was hardly contemplated. 

I here anticipate, for the sake of grouping together 
a number of pieces of Diocesan machinery, what has 
to be said in a subsequent chapter by way of historical 
narrative. This method of arrangement may be wrong, 
but I think it is convenient. On his visits to England 
after the earthquake the Archbishop, as the result of 



178 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

long deliberations and consultations and of almost 
countless interviews and correspondence, succeeded 
in making arrangements whereby insurance could be 
effected on reasonable terms with a substantial Insurance 
Company, not merely, as before, against loss by fire, 
but also against injuries by hurricane or earthquake. 

As a full explanation of this most important matter, 
instead of making a short summary of what has been 
done, I quote in full certain sections of the Archbishop s 
annual addresses to the Synod in the years 1911 and 
1912, merely premising that legislative and canonical 
sanction was given by each Synod to the suggestions 
contained in the address and to the action taken by the 
Archbishop. In 1911 he said : 

" As regards the Insurance of our Churches and other 
Buildings I have to report that we have been able to effect 
Insurance on them to the extent of one-half of the risks 
required to be covered against earthquake, hurricane, and 
fire however caused. Perhaps the best form in which I can 
for popular information present this subject is to repeat in 
substance part of what I said in the Address I delivered at 
a meeting in the Church House, London, last July. I have, 
with the assistance of some of our clergy and principal 
laymen, taken a great deal of pains to bring about a judicious 
arrangement for such insurance, and it has taken a long 
time to work out. Of course it is not impossible in the 
City of London to make speculative and untrustworthy 
arrangements for almost anything ; but we wished to 
arrange a well thought-out plan by which our Church 
Buildings could be insured against disasters of all kinds, on 
a secure and equitable basis, which, while advantageous to 
us, would provide proper recompense for those who risked 
their money. One of the representatives of a leading 
London firm, which has dealings with such matters in con 
nection with Lloyd s, visited us in Jamaica last April, and 
I took to England with me at the end of June final proposals 
for all our buildings, big and little. Arrangements were 
completed immediately after my arrival whereby every one 
of our Churches, school-chapels and parsonage-houses is 
insured to the extent of one-half its insurable value. I will 
tell you presently why we have not gone further than that. 
But the important fact is that, to the extent I have specified, 
our buildings are insured in the City of London, at Lloyd s, 
against fire by whatever cause produced, against earth 
quakes and against hurricanes. I hope that that arrange 
ment will be the beginning of many such arrangements 
affecting Churches in tropical and earthquake countries 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 179 

like ours. It seems to me, however, having regard to many 
recent disasters of the kind in various regions, a little diffi 
cult to say what are earthquake countries and what are not. 
As regards insuring half of the insurable value, that does 
not include foundations and sites. The real reason why 
we have not insured more than half our risks in this way is 
that we were doubtful about providing necessary premiums. 
But we determined that we must press upon the churches 
the duty of providing the resources for insurance against 
all risks to the extent just specified. In the meantime we 
made arrangements in Jamaica of a temporary character, 
at moderate rates, for covering another quarter of our 
risks from fire however caused. 

" We have in this Synod to consider how far we can go 
in providing permanently against the remaining half of the 
risks. As I have said, we have temporarily covered a 
portion of these risks as regards fire. No doubt it will be 
a great strain upon us to meet the costs of full insurance, 
but the two following points need specially to be borne in 
mind, 

" (i) Those friends in England who help us in emer 
gencies expect us, now that the facilities exist, to cover 
our risks fully. 

" (2) The S.P.C.K. which helps us in emergencies, 
and in meeting the cost of our ordinary new buildings 
from time to time, requires the covering by insurance 
of two-thirds of the risk in regard to the buildings 
which it assists. 

" To accomplish the further needed insurance now pro 
posed, though it will involve a very considerable and steady 
effort on the part of our congregations to provide the neces 
sary money, on the other hand, it will prevent their being 
financially crippled in the future to the point of distress 
when casualty arises. These natural calamities of fire, 
earthquake and hurricane come at uncertain intervals ; 
but on the average they may be expected to occur within 
calculable periods, and it is a necessary policy to make 
provision against them in some form. The persons with 
whom we have been dealing in London, and groups of 
Underwriters at Lloyd s, and now at last the Insurance 
Companies doing business here having had time to look 
into the matters more fully, are all disposed to give facilities 
at rates more within our range. This Synod will not be 
asked to determine the particular methods in which the 
further and the future insurance will be affected, but to 
express its willingness to meet the obligations to insure, 
leaving it to the Diocesan Council and the Diocesan Financial 
Board with myself to discover and utilise the best ways of 
accomplishing these insurances safely and effectively whether 
through one source or several. I may here properly repeat, 
however, the expression of my hope and earnest advice that 



i8o THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

both ourselves as the responsible owners and users of Church 
buildings, and proprietors generally both large and small 
throughout the Island, will utilise as fully as they can oppor 
tunities for insurance now forthcoming, so as to prevent 
the collapse of business followed by general distress should 
any disaster arise." 
Again, in 1912, the Archbishop said : 

" It will be well for me to call attention to the position 
of our affairs as regards insurance. 

" (i) One of the important items of business which 
I had to carry through while in England last year was 
that of arranging with the Underwriters at Lloyd s and 
with Insurance Companies the basis on which the 
Church Authorities could obtain in new policies the 
most favourable terms for insurance of Church build 
ings. It is not necessary for me here to narrate the 
substance of the many interviews which I had, at 
three of which Sir John Pringle (Chairman of the 
Financial Board) was present with me. All that I 
need now say is that, through the aid of Messrs. Henry 
Head & Co., we were able to obtain favourable terms 
for ooir insurance. What has been so far done is as 
follows : Our Church buildings (including parsonages 
and schools) have been insured for half their insurable 
value against loss by earthquake, hurricane and fire 
however caused. In addition to the aforesaid, a further 
insurance has been arranged against loss by fire however 
caused in respect of two-thirds of the second half of the 
insurable value of our Church buildings, leaving the 
remaining one-third of this said half to be dealt with 
through our own Diocesan Insurance Fund in so far 
as this is prudent. Thus a great weight of responsi 
bility has been lifted off the Church Authorities ; and 
though the burden of insurance may not be relished by 
everyone, still when it is realised that in case of disaster 
of one kind or another it will not be possible for us to 
obtain any substantial aid from England again, unless 
we can show that we have done all in our power to 
insure fully, it will be admitted that all reasonable 
steps must at present be taken to safeguard us against 
unbearable loss in the event of unforeseen calamities. 

" (2) I may also mention here that one of the reasons 
why we have been able to obtain such favourable 
terms is that the Insurance Companies realise that th 
aim of the Church is, while securing protection against 
unexpected loss, at the same time to safeguard the 
interests of the Companies as far as possible by watch 
fulness over Church properties, and the avoidance of 
exaggerated claims in case of loss. I must therefore 
ask you and our Church Committees and others inter 
ested in our Church to continue the careful management 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 181 

of our Church property in order that our casualties 
may continue to be only such as are unavoidable, in 
which case, as experience has shown, our claims will 
always be honoured." 

EDUCATION. 

(i) Secondary Education. The story of secondary 
education in Jamaica until quite recent years is neither 
entertaining nor creditable. It can only be referred to 
very briefly here. In former days many bequests 
some of considerable amount consisting of money, 
landed property and slaves were made. We read of 
more than 200 legacies left to promote or to foster 
educational efforts. These bequests were intended 
for the benefit of free people and of certain privileged 
persons. The history down to the middle of the nine 
teenth century of the endowments thus created is in 
great part a record of audacious and often successful 
misappropriation not merely misapplication of 
benevolent funds. Somebody got the money, the pro 
perty, the slaves : education did not. The wonder 
is that so much was saved from what might have been a 
complete wreck. The turning-point in secondary 
education may be dated from 1879, when, during the 
Governorship of Sir Anthony Musgrave, the Jamaica 
Schools Commission was created with powers to deal 
with the endowed schools of the Island. This Commission 
(of which the Archbishop is Chairman) has done an 
enormous amount of good in encouraging and solidifying 
secondary education by rearranging the surviving 
endowments so as to apply the power of money to the 
points where it could do most work under modern 
conditions and could best supply modern requirements. 
There are now nine secondary schools enjoying the 
benefits of the salvage from old endowments and worked 
under schemes drawn up by the Schools Commission. 
Most of the larger centres of population are thus provided 
for ; and for the rest the Government was empowered 
in 1892, to create a secondary school in any centre 
where in its opinion it is necessary to do so, the control 
of such school being now in the hands of the Schools 
Commission. One such school has been established, 



182 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

namely that at Montego Bay. The education given 
in the more important of these schools is up to the 
standard of that of an average English Public School : 
in others it corresponds more nearly to the old-time 
Grammar School education. 

Jamaica is provided with a considerable number of 
scholarships. First, in order of date, is the Jamaica 
Scholarship, founded by the Government in 1881, of 200 a 
year for three years, or of 150 a year for four years, tenable 
at any recognised university or college in the British 
Empire. This is awarded on the results of the senior 
Cambridge local examination : the second in order of the 
candidates for this examination is entitled to a scholarship 
of 60 a year, tenable for three years. Scholarships of 
smaller amounts are also given by the Government. 
All the above are open to girls as well as to boys. 
Jamaica was fortunate enough to have allotted to it 
one of the Rhodes Scholarships of 300 per annum, 
tenable at Oxford, and awarded in accordance with the 
well-known conditions laid down in Mr. Rhodes s will. 
In 1911 a special scholarship for girls, tenable at an 
English, Scottish or Canadian University, of the value 
of 150 a year for three years, was established. 

In bygone days, to some considerable extent, clergy 
men of scholastic capacity took private pupils, and in a 
few instances were masters of private schools. Few 
do so now. The increase of parochical duties, the 
number of mission stations attached to central churches 
and other demands on time and energy combine to 
make it impossible in all but exceptional cases for a 
clergyman, without neglecting other duties, to avail 
himself of the Canonical provision to become, with 
the consent of the Bishop, " a teacher of youth for the 
better increase of his living." 

(2) Elementary Education. The question of element 
ary education in Jamaica has for long years been 
one of much difficulty and urgency. Though much 
has been done the difficulty and the urgency continue, 
though to a decreased extent. Before emancipation, 
elementary education, where it existed, was given by 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 183 

missionaries and, as far as it went, was well given by 
these self-denying men. But it is very unlikely that 
up to that date it went much beyond the amount of 
knowledge necessary to read the Scriptures. Perhaps 
the greatest credit is due to Baptist missionaries and, 
to a smaller extent, as far as numbers go, to the 
Moravians and Wesley ans. But the Church mission 
aries, when they got to work, did their full and honourable 
share. Immediately after emancipation, enthusiasm 
for educating the children of liberated slaves seems to 
have run riot. But it did not last long. An Imperial 
grant of 30,000 a year was given for five years, and a 
reduced grant for another five years. A great part of 
this money was appropriated to the building of schools, 
more than half of which belonged to the Church of 
England. When the Home grant ceased local enthusiasm 
followed suit. The amount of help from England in the 
years following emancipation acted as a deterrent on 
the Jamaica Assembly, the members of which were 
none too willing to encourage efforts to educate the 
children of freed slaves. Parochial Vestries, it is true, 
did something to maintain schools in their several 
parishes, but it was not until Sir John Peter Grant s 
Governorship that any solid attempt was made to 
establish a real system of island education for the 
benefit of the children of the labouring classes. From 
that time there has been progress, though for years it 
was very slow progress. Codes and Standards were 
formulated and agreed on, and things looked very nice 
on paper, but teaching and learning often enough lagged 
inefficiently behind. The fact, however, is admitted 
that since Sir John Peter Grant s time there has been 
gradual improvement. The great, perhaps the greatest, 
difficulty in the way of education has been money. 
There is not, and as far as I know there never has been, 
any unwillingness on the part of the Government to 
make provision for maintaining elementary schools, 
but a fluctuating and often a decreasing revenue has 
made it impossible for the Government to keep pace 
with the needs of a quickly increasing population. 
Passing over intermediate steps the present system 



184 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

of elementary education is largely the result of modifica 
tion, and developments recommended in the Report 
in 1898 of a Commission appointed by the then 
Governor (Sir A. W. L. Hemming). Following on the 
recommendations of this Commission, certain unnecessary 
schools were closed, others were amalgamated with a 
view to increased efficiency and economy ; no new 
denominational schools were to be recognised by the 
Government, and any new schools which it might be 
found necessary to establish must be under Government, 
and not denominational, control ; special instruction 
must be given in practical agriculture and in manual 
training. School fees had been abolished in 1892. 
The latest Annual Report shows that there are 692 
elementary schools in the island, of which 194 are 
Church of England schools : there are 89,902 scholars 
on the books with an average attendance of 57,849 : 
the Church Returns show 28,255 scholars on the books 
with an average attendance of 17,250. 

An important step, long thought of and talked about 
by many and strongly urged by the Archbishop, was 
taken in the year 1910, namely the partial introduction 
of compulsory education. The difficulties in the way 
of a compulsory system were as great as they were 
obvious and need not be enumerated here, but they 
were no more insurmountable than many other diffi 
culties which earnestness and determination have over 
come. The Archbishop never suggested, and the 
Government has not determined, that a school attendance 
should all at once be made compulsory throughout 
the Island, or that compulsion should extend over the 
whole of the years during which children may attend 
elementary schools. The Order in Privy Council 
authorising this change contains safeguards against any 
possible hardship being inflicted either on parents or 
on children. When compulsion was introduced into 
England forty years ago it will be remembered chat 
there were many leading men, and some statesmen, who 
argued that it was what was called " Un-English," and 
that a true-born Briton had a right, if he so chose, to 
have his children brought up in complete ignorance. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 185 

If the proposal had been made forty years ago in 
Jamaica, many would doubtless have resented it on the 
ground that compulsory teaching was akin to com 
pulsory, or slave, labour. No such thought exists to 
day. A beginning, then, of compulsory school attend 
ance has been made in Kingston and in the country 
towns of Falmouth and Lucea. The effects of this 
change will be eagerly awaited. It is more than an 
experiment which may result in success or may end 
in failure. It is an honest effort, not made without 
long and serious deliberation, to deal with one of the 
most urgent needs of the Island, whether regarded from 
the standpoint of the Churches or of the State. If, 
and when, the success of the initial attempt has been 
demonstrated it will certainly be applied, firstly to other 
towns and then gradually to country districts. Why the 
need is so urgent and why a successful issue is so 
anxiously looked for, may be gathered from the plain 
but painful fact that all the educational efforts of the 
Government and of the denominations have hitherto 
left untouched and untaught 50 per cent, of the children 
of schoolable age. This ought not to be, and is not going 
to be allowed to continue. 

The up-keep of school buildings and teachers houses 
is a source of much anxiety, especially in country 
districts. The cost has largely to be met by congrega 
tions, either by contributions of money and materials, 
or by voluntary and unpaid labour. The Government 
appropriates a certain amount as much probably as 
the Island Revenue will permit towards repairs of 
school buildings, but it is only a small percentage of 
schools which in any one year, or in any one decade, 
can hope to receive any benefit from this source. With 
an increased Revenue the Government has lately been 
giving more money in aid of school buildings. S.P.C.K. 
gives frequent grants-in-aid on its usual terms for 
new buildings or the enlargement of old buildings, but 
does not undertake to help in the restoration of the 
many buildings which surfer materially from the wear 
and tear of use and of the climate. Not only are the 
schools and teacher s houses the property of the 

N 



186 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Church, but the actual fabrics represent in great part the 
self-denial and generosity of members of the Church. 
Anyone revisiting Jamaica after the lapse of many 
years cannot fail to be struck with the marked im 
provement both in the style and in the structure of 
school buildings. That there is room for further im 
provement may readily be admitted, but it must also 
be taken for granted that neither the civil nor the 
ecclesiastical authorities would sanction the erection 
of such buildings as were considered sufficient thirty or 
forty years ago buildings which look quaint and 
picturesque enough on a lantern slide, or on a post-card, 
or as illustrations in a book ; but there their virtue ends. 

(3) Religious Education in Elementary Schools. Happily 
the religious difficulty, as it exists in England, is unknown 
in Jamaica. Scripture and morals are included among 
the subjects taught in elementary schools, subject, 
of course, to the operation of a conscience clause. 
Where all denominations stand in the same relation 
to the State, one great, perhaps the greatest, cause 
of denominational jealousy and rivalry is done away 
with. One outcome of this friendly feeling has found 
expression in the preparation and use of " The Jamaica 
Day School Catechism," prepared by a Committee, 
presided over by the Archbishop and consisting of 
leading representative ministers of all denominations, 
except the Roman Catholic Church. The purpose of 
this Catechism is to teach " the large mass of 
Christian doctrine and moral teaching commonly held 
by most, if not by all, Christians." I quote further 
from the Preface to the Catechism : 

"It is of set purpose that there is omitted from this 
Catechism all reference to the distinctive teaching of any 
one denomination, and particularly to the doctrines con 
cerning the Constitution of the Christian Church and the 
Sacraments. These are matters in which difference of 
opinion arises ; and it is felt that they are in any event best 
left to be taught in the Church, in the family and in the 
Sunday School." 

This Catechism is gradually getting into use, and it 
may reasonably be hoped and expected that in a few 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 187 

years time its use will be general, though of course not 
compulsory, throughout the schools in the island. 
Soon after the publication and circulation of the Cate 
chism, the Board of Public Instruction for the Province 
of Quebec agreed to recommend its adoption and use 
as supplementary to the syllabus of Scripture lessons 
in that Province. In notifying the Archbishop of this 
decision, the Bishop of Quebec writes that the result 
will be that : 

" a vast number of young people will now learn these 
great truths, leaving it to their parents and guardians and 
to their Clergy and Sunday School teachers to give them 
further teaching as regards the Church and the Sacraments. 
Nay more ! I hope, and believe, that this good work that 
you have been permitted to do will prove to be a great 
object lesson, showing how we all (and indeed our Roman 
Catholic neighbours as well) heartily agree in the whole of 
this nine-tenths of the sacred deposit, and that we only 
differ as regards the one-tenth a fact which should surely 
press upon us that, in God s own good time, reunion is not, 
as so many say and think, an impossibility." 1 

(4) Training Colleges. There are two principal institu 
tions for training elementary school teachers, namely the 
Mico College for male students and that at Shortwood 
for female, of the Board of Directors of both of which 
the Archbishop is Chairman. Both are undenomina 
tional, or perhaps " inter-denominational " is a better 
word wherewith to express both their purpose and 
their method of working. Shortwood College, established 
in 1885, is almost entirely maintained by the Government 
and provides training for thirty students. The Mico 
College had an interesting origin. Lady Mico, widow 
of Sir Samuel Mico, a member of the Mercers Company, 
who died in 1666, had a young relative also named 
Samuel Mico, who she hoped would marry one of her 
nieces (six in number), and in the event of that marriage 
she proposed to give him 2,000. For reasons best 
known to himself and unrecorded none of the six found 
favour with young Samuel. And Lady Mico had to 
make a different disposition of the proposed gift. She 

1 Copies of the Catechism, price 3d. each, may be obtained 
in England at or from the Jamaica Agency, Carnage s Buildings, 
Holborn, London, E.C. 



188 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

did so in her will, dated ist July, 1670, in the following 
words : 

" . . , . Wharas I gave Samuel Mico aforesaid two 
thousand pounds when he married one of my neices hee 
not performeing it I give one of the said thousand pounds 
to redeeme poore slaves, which I would put out as my 
executors thinke the best for a yearly revenue to redeem 
some yearly. . . ." 

The Court of Chancery in 1680, authorised the pur 
chase with this legacy of a freehold wharf and premises in 
London, which were conveyed to Lady Mico s executors. 
At that time Algerian piracy was rampant and many 
Christians were seized by the Moors and sent into 
captivity. They could be released by a payment of 
money and, amongst other moneys given or bequeathed 
for the redemption of these unfortunate people, the 
proceeds of the Lady Mico bequest found a place. In 
1816, Algerian piracy was effectually suppressed and 
about 3,000 slaves, mostly Italian and Spanish Christians, 
were liberated. The Mico money thus set free, meeting 
with a better fate than befell many such bequests, 
was well invested and the estate was carefully adminis 
tered. The capital, already of a considerably increased 
value, was allowed to accumulate until 1834, when 
it amounted to 120,000. In that year Sir Thomas 
Powell Buxton, one of the most ardent supporters of 
emancipation and keenest friends of the West Indies, 
suggested that the interest of the Trust, instead of 
being allowed to further accumulate or to be otherwise 
appropriated, should be devoted to the education of 
the children of liberated slaves in the West Indies and 
in other parts of the British dominions, and also to 
the training of some of them to become teachers in 
elementary schools. The necessary legal steps were 
taken and the Court of Chancery authorised this use 
of the money. Probably few Trusts have been more 
Btrangely created : certainly few have been put to a 
more useful purpose. The inability or unwillingness 
two centuries ago of Samuel Mico, notwithstanding the 
promised 2,000, to make choice of one of six nieces, 
or perhaps the failure of the fascinations of all the 
niecefe, has been largely and permanently beneficial to 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 189 

education in the West Indies. The cynic or the 
satirist might have something to say here : but this is 
history. 

Schools were established in Demerara, in some of the 
West Indian Islands, in Mauritius, in the Seychelle 
Islands. Training institutions in the West Indies were 
established in Jamaica, in Antigua, in St. Lucia, with 
practising schools attached to them. As the Govern 
ment support of Denominational Schools in Jamaica 
increased, so did the necessity of the Mico Elementary 
Schools decrease : at the same time the unsatisfactory 
character of the education given in elementary schools 
and the poor results obtained pointed to the need of a 
better equipped class of teachers. Accordingly the 
attention of the Mico authorities was devoted more and 
more exclusively to Training College work. In course 
of time this has gradually become centred in Jamaica. 
First the St. Lucia Institution was dropped, then that 
in Antigua, students from the Leeward Islands being 
now sent to the Jamaica Mico College. 

There can be no sort of doubt that whatever improve 
ment has been noted in late years in the elementary 
education of the Island largely owes its origin to the care 
ful work of the Mico College, and of the Shortwood College. 
The Mico Trust Funds are administered by Trustees in 
England, and the local management is in the hands of a 
Board of Directors in Jamaica. This development of 
the Mico has rendered unnecessary the continuation 
both of several denominational training colleges and 
of a Government training college. At the present time 
the Government makes an annual grant sufficient to 
cover the cost of training forty students ; there are 
twenty students on the original foundation supported 
by the Trustees in England ; there are six from the 
Leeward Islands and Demerara and a fluctuating 
number of missionary students referred to elsewhere 
in these pages. 1 The subjects taught include manual 
training and practical agriculture in addition to those 
ordinarily contained in the curriculum of such an insti 
tution. 

1 See p. 150, 



igo THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

The college buildings, which were erected in 1894 
at a cost of 12,000, have an eventful and exciting record. 
Severely damaged by the hurricane of 1903, they were 
restored in time to be wrecked by the earthquake of 
1907, and after being rebuilt were destroyed by fire in 
January, 1910. The college has again been rebuilt, 
and is now in complete working order. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE enumeration in a previous chapter of Diocesan 
organisations would be incomplete without a brief refer 
ence to parochial work which is carried on, allowance 
being made for local conditions, very much on the same 
lines as in home parishes, whether town or country. The 
Archbishop s object, perhaps unconsciously, seems to 
have been to centralise organisation, wherever possible, 
so that the unit is the Diocese rather than the parish or 
the congregation. By this means there is less over 
lapping of work, with its inevitable waste of time and 
dissipation of energy. This is particularly the case with 
the Brotherhood of St. Andrew and the Deaconess Home 
work. And many, especially of the younger clergy, 
realise that it is a great help to find familiar machinery 
in good working order in a new parish to which they may 
be appointed ; and it is more than possible that many 
congregations are relieved when they find that their 
newly-appointed clergyman has no intention to intro 
duce many new methods but will continue to work on old 
and familiar and well-tried lines. At the same time there 
is no attempt at restraint or interference with individual 
liberty of choice or action. What suits one parish may 
not suit another. One clergyman has one method of 
working, another has a different method. One object 
appeals to one man, another to his neighbour. There 
is no limit or restriction either to the variety or to the 
extent of parochial energy, provided it does not trans 
gress Canonical order and regulation. 

(i) Sunday Schools. Among parochial duties the 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 191 

greatest stress is placed by the Archbishop on Sunday 
schools. This emphasis may to some people appear 
unnecessary, for no part of a clergyman s (or a 
layman s) work is more pleasant or more profitable 
or more full of promise than Sunday school teaching. 
It is laid down in the Canons that " Every clergyman 
in charge of a district shall have a Sunday school 
and shall give personal supervision and encouragement 
to the maintenance thereof." A reference to Church 
returns and population statistics shows that of the 
estimated population the proportion who are children of 
Church of England parents and between the ages of five 
and fifteen is about 88,000 : official returns show that there 
were last year 30,426 on the Sunday school registers, 
and with an average attendance of 15,853. The average 
may seem low, but allowance must be made for absences 
caused at certain seasons by heavy rains and floods, 
which make is impossible for children to walk to school. 
The number on Church Sunday school books exceeds by 
2,000 the number in the day school books, but the average 
attendance does not show so good a record. Except in 
town parishes there must always be a difficulty in obtain 
ing the help of competent teachers, distance between 
home and school being a greater obstacle in a tropical 
than in a temperate climate ; and the regular holding 
of Sunday school teachers instruction classes is very 
difficult in a scattered country parish. Bearing in mind 
all these circumstances, the number of Sunday school 
teachers, 1,774, speaks well for the interest taken by 
educated men and women in the Sunday training of the 
young. In Kingston there are 218 Sunday school 
teachers. To make a comparison and assuming that 
every Sunday school teacher is a communicant, the 
latest edition of the Church s Year Book shows that in 
England one in every eleven communicants teaches in a 
Sunday school. In Jamaica one in every twenty- three 
does so. There is room for improvement here. More 
teachers would mean better individual teaching, and 
would be followed by more scholars. At the same time 
too much praise cannot be given to those who willingly 
and cheerfully undertake this most difficult and important 



192 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

work, a work which requires so much self-sacrifice 
as almost to deserve a special blessing. The course of 
study, recommended by Synod and generally adopted, 
is that of the Church of England Sunday School Insti 
tute. The largest town Sunday school in the Diocese, 
and possibly in the Island, is that in connection with the 
Kingston Parish Church with 1,016 pupils on the books, 
and an average attendance of 497 ; the largest country 
school is at Mandeville, a small town in the Manchester 
hills, of which the Coadjutor Bishop is the present 
rector ; this school has an average attendance of 314, 
with 659 names on the books, the overwhelming majority, 
here as elsewhere in Jamaica, both of teachers and pupils 
consisting of persons who are wholly or partially of 
African descent. Contrast this with an incident which 
occurred at the opening of Mandeville Church almost 100 
years ago when the militia marched into the Church and 
arrested the only coloured person in the congregation 
a little girl with a slight touch of negro blood in her veins, 
but outwardly as fair to look upon as were those yellow- 
haired Anglican slaves, whose beauty and distress moved 
to pity the heart of Pope Gregory as he strolled through 
the slave-market at Rome. This little girl had presumed 
to go to Church. 

(2) Confirmation. Great importance is attached to this 
rite. Churches and mission stations are not grouped into 
centres for collective Confirmation, but there is a Con 
firmation Service held in every church and mission 
station. In many churches this service is annual ; in 
others it is held once at least in eighteen months. 
Preparation for Confirmation, following on Sunday 
school teaching, is generally extended over many months, 
and in a considerable number of parishes Confirmation 
classes are held throughout the year. After one Con 
firmation the preparatory class for the next begins 
forthwith. One feature in connection with Confirmation 
in Jamaica is that in many churches, at some suitable 
place in the service, there is a roll-call of those who had 
been previously confirmed, at which most of those still 
resident in the district are present and are encouraged by 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 193 

the Archbishop or by the Coadjutor Bishop to continue 
steadfast to their promise. As a rule persons after con 
firmation immediately become communicant members 
of the Church and the constant and continued teaching 
and oversight and pastoral care of these young people is 
urgently advised by the Archbishop and very generally 
practised by the clergy and catechists. Many of them 
are lost sight of by removal to other districts or by 
migration to Central America, where, on the banana 
plantations or on the Panama Canal, work is more 
abundant and more profitable than in Jamaica. 

Independent testimony from outside is often more 
valuable than any other witness, and therefore I may 
quote a few words from a sermon preached at the re 
opening of Annotto Bay Church by the Bishop, (Dr. 
Bury) of Honduras, in which he reminded the congrega 
tion that in the part of Central America in which he 
worked he was constantly meeting Jamaica people, and 
how keen and hearty they were there in their Church 
life ; and he added " When I see these well- worked 
parishes in Jamaica, I begin to see the reason why these 
same men when they come to Costa Rica and other parts 
are so keen and alive in Church matters. They are 
clearly taught in their own country to take a real interest 
in their Prayer Book service." 

There are a few remaining features of Diocesan work 
for which only a brief reference can be made here, such 
as the following : 

(i) Special Missions. The conducting of Special 
Missions to various parishes has been to a great extent a 
recent development of Church life in Jamaica. The 
General mission conducted by Canon Grant has already 
been mentioned, as has also the special work by Bishop 
Collins. But in late years the experience of Dr. Joscelyne 
(the Coadjutor Bishop) in such work in England, com 
bined with his spiritual force and earnestness and capac 
ity, has been largely used and many congregations and 
individuals have been impressed and influenced and 
encouraged. To be a mission preacher, as distinct from 
a parish minister, is in its way a great and special gift, 



194 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

and happily a goodly number of the present clergy in 
Jamaica have this gift in varying degree ; and very 
wisely those who have it not abstain from attempting to 
use what they do not possess and are content to do work 
for which they are fitted and to avail themselves of the 
occasional help of a brother who has gifts not bestowed 
on them. But missions must be special, and not frequent. 
There is a well-known case, which ought not to be for 
gotten, of a North country clergyman in England who 
nearly emptied his own church because of his acceptance 
and popularity as a mission preacher in other parts of 
England : he now sticks to his own parish and has huge 
and crowded congregations. The moral is obvious. 

(2) Parochial Councils and Episcopal Visitations. 
The Archbishop and the Coadjutor Bishop have been 
making strenuous efforts to make the meetings of 
Parochial Councils, or Ruri-decanal Chapters, much 
more than formal gatherings of a few clergymen and lay 
men for the presentation and receiving of official returns. 
Certainly once a year, when possible, one or other of them, 
sometimes both, make a special visitation to a parish to 
be present at its Council meeting, and to give advice and 
direction, if needed, or to obtain on the spot information 
which is requisite for the effective administration of Church 
matters in which the welfare of any parish in concerned. 
This frequent and friendly intercourse between bishops 
and clergy and laity is of inestimable value. The Bishop 
is no longer regarded as a figure-head, invested with 
certain powers and privileges appertaining to his office : 
the clergy lose that feeling of loneliness which is often so 
depressing and discouraging : and the laymen become 
conscious that they are a real and integral and founda- 
tional part of the Church, something more than members 
of a congregation or attendants at church services. 

(3) " The Jamaica Churchman This is a Diocesan 
Quarterly Journal and Record of Church News. A few 
parishes have their own (localised) magazines and may 
possibly have the financial anxieties which not infre 
quently accompany such efforts without impairing their 
interest and usefulness. But The Jamaica Churchman 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 195 

is an official record of Diocesan events, besides reporting 
local news from various parishes and containing 
occasional articles of value and appropriate extracts 
from home papers. The cost of publication and circula 
tion is mainly borne by subsidies, voted by Synod from 
the Diocesan Expenses Fund and the Missionary Society ; 
by donations and subscriptions ; and by grants received 
through the Archbishop. Such a paper ought to be self- 
supporting, but it is not, and it is not my business to fix 
the blame for this anywhere. Possibly and probably I 
might fix the blame on the wrong shoulders, and there 
are several to choose from, and suggestions in a little book 
of this sort would be purely academic and of little value -. 

(4) Hymn Book. The custom of having different 
Hymn Books in use in churches and mission stations was 
for years a cause of inconvenience and a source of regret. 
When the time seemed ripe for a change the Archbishop 
brought the question to the notice of the Synod in the 
year 1905, when after full discussion it was unanimously 
agreed to adopt " Church Hymns," published by 
S.P.C.K., as a Book of Common Praise for the Diocese. 

(5) The Lepers Home Chaplaincy. The Lepers Home, 
maintained by the Government, is situated near Spanish 
Town, and the rector of the Cathedral Church is Chaplain 
with a nominal stipend of 4 per annum, interest on an 
Endowment Fund. The Endowment was provided and 
a Chapel built by Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Watts who visited 
Jamaica some years ago and were deeply impressed by 
the self-denying labours of Bishop Douet and others 
among the sufferers in the Home. For many years Miss 
Mackglashan was untiring in her kindly ministrations to 
the Leper inmates of the Home, seldom numbering less 
than one hundred. She was killed in the earthquake 
on the I4th of January, 1907, and the memory of her 
work and devotion is perpetuated by a memorial window 
in the Cathedral, the gift of Mrs. Watts, who also repaired 
the damage done to the Chapel by the earthquake. 
Sunday and other services are regularly held in the 
Chapel by the rector or the curate of the Cathedral, and 
the Archbishop holds confirmations there from time to 



196 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

time. On the occasion of confirming in March, 1910, 
eleven men and seven women, inmates of the Home, the 
Archbishop unveiled the memorial window in the Cathe 
dral and referred to Miss Mackglashan s labours in the 
following words : 

% " This window has been presented to the Cathedral in 
memory of Miss Mackglashan, whose life and work at the 
Lepers Home were well known to the people of Spanish 
Town. Hers was a life earnestly, quietly and continually 
devoted to the service of God, and that in a very special 
way. Many years ago, about 1876, the Lepers Home, 
through the influence of Bishop Dou6t and others, was 
transferred to the site it now occupies near Spanish Town. 
At a meeting of the Church workers of the Cathedral, Bishop 
Douet, who was then Rector of the Cathedral, asked if any 
one would be willing to undertake the regular visitation of 
the Home. His suggestion was accepted by Miss Mack 
glashan and she continued from that time to the day of her 
death to be the devoted counsellor, friend, spiritual teacher 
(together with the Rector) and helper of the inmates." 

Miss Mackglashan s good work is now being carried on 
by her sister. The inmates of the Home are carefully 
tended by a superintendent and a matron and by a very 
competent and sympathetic medical attendant (Dr. 
W. D. Neish), and every possible provision is made for 
the comfort of the sufferers and for the alleviation of their 
distressful condition. 

(6) The Jamaica Church Aid Association. This 
Association was started soon after Dr. Nuttall s conse 
cration by some of his personal friends in England and 
has gradually grown until it is almost essential to the 
work of the Diocese. Its title indicates its purpose, 
which is to help, not to create, to help both in emergencies 
and in normal conditions. The Bishop of Islington is 
President, Canon Pearce is Chairman of the Committee, 
Miss Florence Klein is Hon. Secretary and Mr. W. G. 
Klein, 24 Belsize Park, London, N.W. is Hon. Treasurer 
of the Association. The members and helpers of the 
Association are mainly those who have some connection 
with, or interest in, Jamaica either personally or through 
friends. Branches of the Association have been estab 
lished at Ardingly (Diocese of Chichester Branch), Bed 
ford, Belsize Park, Bournemouth, Bristol, Brompton, 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 197 

Ealing, Lewisham, Manchester, Oxford, Rochester, 
Southsea, Torquay. In illustration of the aid given in 
emergencies, it is only necessary to put on record that 
more than 3,000 was sent to the Hurricane (1903) Relief 
Fund, and that more than 10,000 was contributed or 
collected for the Earthquake (1907) Relief Fund. The 
ordinary help given by the Association and the use to 
which it is put may best be described in the Archbishop s 
own words. In October, 1910, he wrote : 

" In ordinary times and in the absence of catastrophes 
like earthquake and hurricane, we have a considerable 
number of churches in which the congregations voluntarily 
provide for the maintenance of the clergyman and the 
institutions and work of the Church ; and also do something 
towards Church extension. But we have also a large 
number of poor churches and districts where religious 
ministrations cannot be provided without extraneous aid. 
And we have numerous places in which assistance to the 
extent of 20 or ^30 a year would make this great difference 
that a clergyman would live and work with moderate com 
fort and with efficiency (including the providing adequately 
for the keep of a horse for travelling and other necessities) 
instead of being personally ill-provided for and also crippled 
in his work. . . . The Jamaica Church Aid Association has, 
in the average, raised about ^500 annually in aid of Jamaica 
Church work. In Jamaica, especially in the country dis 
tricts, this assistance has done much towards enabling us 
to carry on work which would otherwise have been neglected. 
I shall not, however, I hope, be thought ungrateful for the 
help given if I urge the great need for increased efforts. 
If I could rely on receiving ^1,000 yearly from the Associa 
tion it would do much to lesson the wearing anxieties as to 
how expenses are to be met for many of the bare necessities 
of Church work in Jamaica. The money received from 
time to time is placed in the Colonial Bank, Jamaica, where 
all other Diocesan moneys for current expenses are deposited ; 
and the accounts of this English Fund are kept by the 
Diocesan Financial Board, and the Grants paid out by 
its cheques. The Grants are made so as to help to meet 
every kind of pressing necessity as regards erection and 
repairs of buildings, and special requirements of workers 
(clergy, catechists and teachers) and the maintenance of 
our College and Deaconess Home work ; and it is seldom 
that any grant is made except as a means of stimulating 
and aiding local effort, and the grants are not paid unless 
the persons locally concerned do their part. So that * 
large amount of necessary outlay in various departments 
of our work is provided for which could not be accomplished 



I 9 8 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

without the stimulus and encouragement of such grants-in- 
aid from the English Fund." 

Again, in April, 1911, accounting for the expenditure 
of money received in the previous year, he wrote : 

" To some it may appear that ^500 or ^600 per annum 
can be of little use, and is not needed in a diocese like Jamaica, 
but I, who have the privilege of being conversant with the 
needs in detail of our various agencies, realise fully the good 
that is accomplished by this total outlay ; and this is 
strongly impressed on me by what I see in individual in 
stances, in which the expenditure of 5 or 10 encourages 
and stimulates work and workers. It would fill us with 
sadness if our work in the Vineyard of the Lord were to 
become feeble and ineffective for lack of necessary financial 
help. Our people give to the best of their ability ; but 
without extraneous aid expansion and strengthening of 
existing work cannot be secured. It is, therefore, no mere 
form of words that I use when, in thanking my friends for 
past help, I plead for a continuance and increase thereof 
in the future." 

Whenever the Archbishop is in England he arranges 
to have a special meeting of the Association which is 
attended by members and by friends, many of whom are 
Jamaicans, resident in, or visitors to, England who avail 
themselves of this opportunity of renewing old friend 
ships and acquaintanceships, and of hearing from the 
Archbishop and other speakers something about the 
Island in which they lived and the Church of which many 
of them are members and in the welfare of which all are 
interested. 

(7) S.P.C.K. and Jamaica. I have already written 
of the help given, when it was sorely needed, to the 
Diocese of Jamaica by the C.M.S., the S.P.G. and the 
C. and C.C.S., and have occasionally referred to the 
S.P.C.K. But this Society deserves more than occasional 
reference and may almost be regarded as a Diocesan 
Institution. At its first meeting in 1698 the promotion 
of religion in the Plantations they were not then called 
Colonies was stated in a plan submitted by Dr. Gray 
for its constitution, which was to be " to provide and 
support such missionaries as the Lord Bishop of London 
shall think necessary to be sent into these parts, where 
no establishment or provision is yet made for the support 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 199 

of the Clergy." Other plans were also projected, such 
as the provision of libraries for parochial uses. On the 
28th of October, 1701, it was " resolved that from hence- 
forwards the usual subscriptions to the Plantations shall 
cease." This was because of the formation in that year 
of the S.P.G., which undertook to look after the spiritual 
needs of America. How thoroughly the S.P.G. fulfilled 
this trust has already been told. But the S.P.C.K., 
though relieved for a time of much responsibility, did 
not lose sight of the West Indies, when in later years and 
under changed conditions its help was asked for and 
readily given. In 1701 the Society had a correspondent 
in the Colony, James Blair (of the celebrated sermons). 
In 1821 a District Committee was formed in Jamaica, 
and in 1824, when the See of Jamaica was founded, the 
Society made a grant of 500 to Bishop Lipscomb, to be 
appropriated by him in such manner as might appear 
best. In 1834 an interesting letter from Bishop Lips- 
comb, too long for reproduction here, reports his satis 
faction that " a very considerable increase in the schools 
and in the number of apprentices under instruction on 
the several properties, has taken place during the last 
year." From that date, or rather from six years before 
that date, S.P.C.K. s help to Jamaica has been continu 
ous and incessant. Its grants during the years 1828- 
1898 are thus summarised in " Two Hundred Years," 
the History of the Society from its formation to its 
bicentenary in 1898 : 

I 

145 churches and schools - ... 6,510 
Block Grant for churches and schools - - 300 

Restoration of churches and schools after 



hurricanes - 
Cathedral 
Colleges - 

Endowment of See - 
Endowment of Clergy 
General purposes 
Studentships - 



3,000 
500 

1,065 
500 

5,000 
973 



19,161 

The above return does not include Jamaica s share of 
10,000 granted in 1834 for the religious instruction of 



200 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

emancipated negroes. A careful analysis of the Society s 
grants down to the year 1898 shows that, out of ninety- 
two Missionary and Colonial Dioceses, which are indebted 
to it for assistance, in only three (those of Nova Scotia, 
Ontario and Toronto) has the building of more churches 
and schools been helped, and that only three (those of 
Calcutta, Cape Town and Madras) have received so 
large an amount of money for Church purposes. And 
since the Bicentenary of 1898 the same generous help has 
been almost lavishly given, including a grant of 1,000 
after the hurricane in 1903, and another of 4,000 after 
the earthquake in 1907, while grants for new or enlarged 
buildings and for (native) studentships at the Theological 
College still continue to be given. With justice and truth, 
indeed, might Canon Pearce say at a monthly General 
Meeting of the Society that " to the Church of an island 
situated as Jamaica is the S.P.C.K. is a necessity of its 
existence." 

(8) Census and other Returns. The official returns of 
the last Synod showed the number of registered members 
of the Church of England in 1911 was 41,290. Comparing 
one year with that preceeding it, membership recorded 
in these returns does not at first sight seem to vary very 
much from year to year, but it is worth while noting that 
it has more than doubled since 1870, when the voluntary 
system was introduced. Let us see now how these 
figures compare with the general statistics of the colony. 
The Census taken in 1911 showed a total population of 
831,382 and the following are the returns in that Census 
under the heading of Religion : 

Baptists - - # - : -* *..,"- - - 195,053 
Bedwardite ii5 



Christian 

Church of England 
Church of Scotland 
Congregationalists - 
Evangelistic Mission 
Friends - - 
Hindu ... 
Jewish 



21,218 

266,478 

6,305 

3, i43 
1,535 
9,211 
1,487 



Me hodists : 

Wesleyan 83,228 

United - - . - " - - - - 10,420 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 20! 



Moravian - 
Presbyterian Church 
Roman Catholic 
Salvation Army 
Seventh Day Adventists- 



36,208 

50,335 
24,619 
2,878 
3,955 



Others numbering less than 1,000 each - 5,486 

No Religion 22 

Not stated ------- 95,502 



Total 831,383 

The returns presented for the same year to Annual 
Synods, Conferences, and Central authorities were stated 
in the " Handbook " as being : 



Church of Scotland 
Roman Catholics - 
Baptists 

Congregational Union 
Wesleyans 



3,200 
18,000 
37,202 

3,338 
21,024 



Moravians 14,176 

Presbyterian Church 12,547 

Seventh Day Adventists - 2,000 



Total 111,487 

The above total, added to that of the Church of 
England members, amounts to 152,777. In the cases 
of other denominations the actual membership is not 
stated in the Handbook." They total 56,513 in the 
Census Returns. Of this number 10,698 are Jews or 
Hindus, and the figures represent both race and religion. 
Then the designation " Christian " in all likelihood 
was often used in a general and undenominational 
sense it would certainly include the Syrian Christians 
and not as necessarily implying membership of " the 
Christian Church " or " the Church of the Disciples of 
Christ," a religious movement, doing excellent work 
in Jamaica and elsewhere, having for its object the union 
of all Christians on the basis of New Testament teaching 
alone. Also two or three of these smaller denominations 
are open for adherence to adults only and at present 
take no account of children who are too young to 
understand or to accept dogmas, the acceptance of 
which is necessary for membership. 

Having in view the seeming discrepancy between 
Church and Census returns, we must first remember 



262 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

that registers of Church members do not, as a rule, 
include the names of children : indeed, except in cases 
so few in number that they need not be reckoned with, 
the registered members of the Church of England are 
all persons who have been confirmed. Fixing the aver 
age age for confirmation in Jamaica at fifteen and 
assuming that registration in other Churches does not 
begin at an earlier age, we may therefore for the present 
purpose deduct from the whole population the number 
of children under the age of fifteen. The report of the 
1911 Census Commissioners shews that there were 331,166 
children under the age of fifteen, leaving 500,217 persons 
above that age. Of these latter the Returns to the 
Churches show that 152,777 are directly connected 
with some religious organisation ; and the Census 
Returns show that 56,513 are also members of some 
religious body, the total being 209,290. Following the 
precedent of Bishop Lipscomb we may fairly add to the 
number of accredited members one-third of that number 
to represent persons whose attendance at church or 
chapel is only fitful and casual, and also those who are 
in the position of candidates for confirmation or of 
" inquirers " or of probationers in some other sect. 

We can now analyse the Census and other Returns as 
follows : 

From Church Returns and Census of other 

religious bodies ------ 209,290 

\ for casual adherents, etc. - 69,763 

Children under fifteen years of age - - -331,356 
Persons of no religion or of a not stated religion 95,524 

Total 705.693 

This leaves the large number of 125,690 persons who 
declined to state that they had no religion and entered 
themselves as members of some denomination to 
which perhaps they or their parents formerly belonged, 
or in the work of which they sympathised without 
taking the necessary steps to be registered therein. 

I believe the above figures are correct, with the 
exception that the number of unregistered and occasional 
attendants at divine service is larger now than it 
was in Bishop Lipscomb s days. Certainly if the 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 203 

figures err at all it is not in the direction of over-stating 
the case from the standpoint of the Churches. I have 
tried to be fair and just. Now while these figures show 
that there is unmistakably much work still in front of 
the Churches, their one gratifying feature is that the 
number of persons deliberately and conscientiously 
associating themselves with some denomination is 
gradually increasing and that this increase more than 
keeps pace with the growth of the population. And 
there is indirectly another lesson to be learnt, which is 
that the demands on parochial or congregational work, 
in order to keep together a parish or a congregation, 
are so incessant and so pressing that there is a danger 
of those outside any fixed organisation being neglected 
and allowed to continue in their neglect. We know 
that this danger exists in no little degree at home and 
that strenuous efforts are being made to deal with it. 
Similar efforts are being made in Jamaica and will 
continue to be made. 



CHAPTER XVII 

I HAVE reserved for a separate chapter of this little 
book the relation of the possibility and actual occurrence 
of natural disasters which have influenced the progress 
and well being of the Churches quite as much as they 
have been harmful to the general prosperity of the 
Colony. These are grimly set forth in the Jamaica 
Official Handbook in the section referring to the Chrono 
logical History of the Colony. I need not repeat them, 
though perhaps I may say that these calamities seldom 
affect the whole island at the same time ; floods, for 
instance, after an abnormal rain-fall are more frequent 
in the North-Easterly section, possibly owing to the 
mountainous nature of the country, while droughts are 
more frequent in districts more remote from high hills 
covered with trees : so too West Indian hurricanes, 
being of a cyclonic character, wreck havoc in the district 
which they encircle, but are less severely felt as the 
fringes of them only slightly injure neighbouring places. 



204 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

The first cyclone in recent years going back to the 
disestablishment of the Church was that in 1875, the 
next was in 1880, the year of the Archbishop s consecra 
tion, which completely destroyed a number of churches 
and schools and seriously injured many others. A 
calamity of this kind does not, it must be remembered, 
confine its attention to ecclesiastical or scholastic 
buildings ; it destroys crops and agricultural produce ; 
it clears the provision grounds of the peasant popula 
tion, on which they so much depend ; it often sweeps 
away the cottages of the poor as well as injuring the 
houses of the better-to-do ; so that very frequently 
those who are willing enough to join in the work of 
Church restoration are unable to do so. After the 1880 
cyclone an appeal for help was made to English friends, 
and met with a response which encouraged local effort 
and the damage was repaired. In 1886, the storm 
which struck St. Vincent with such overwhelming 
violence left its mark on Jamaica. A Mansion House 
Fund was formed in London for the relief of St. Vincent, 
and it was felt in Jamaica that the greater distress 
prevailing in the smaller Colony made it an unneigh- 
bourly act to issue a rival appeal to home sympathy. 
In 1882, a great fire in Kingston, raging over an area 
of forty acres, destroyed property to the value of over 
150,000, and caused much distress. As far as Church 
property was concerned, the Jews were the greatest 
sufferers by the fire, their two synagogues with their 
sacred paraphernalia being entirely destroyed. Within 
a few years both these buildings were replaced by hand 
some structures. The Jews in Jamaica have always 
given such generous support to any benevolent object 
that every Christian was glad when they were able to 
renew their ancient religious rites and ceremonies in 
suitable buildings, and to recover from a calamity which 
spared Christian places of worship. When the earth 
quake came both creeds were alike fellow-sufferers and 
sympathisers. 

In these and such-like circumstances it has been 
impossible to replace buildings without help from out 
side Jamaica, and it need not be said that Church people, 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 205 

who have lost property and growing crops, and who are 
for the time being in close touch with actual poverty, 
are unable to contribute to the support of their clergy, 
and therefore clerical income has to be provided, in a 
reduced amount, from some other source ; otherwise 
the clergy would be destitute. 

From 1890-1900, Jamaica was almost entirely free 
from any convulsions of nature, though other parts of 
the West Indies suffered, notably Barbados and the 
Windward Islands in 1898, and the Leeward Island in 
1899, to the relief of which considerable contributions 
were sent from Jamaica. e-4 

The opening decade of the twentieth century will 
probably always be remembered for its remarkable 
number of physical catastrophes. San Francisco, 
Hong-Kong, Valparaiso, St. Pierre, Sicily, will each have 
its mournful tale to tell. But Jamaica s troubles differ 
from all these in that they did not come alone, for within 
little more than three years from the hurricane of 1903, 
from the devastation caused by which the Colony had 
gradually recovered, there came the crushing calamity 
of the earthquake oi 1907. At the beginning of the new 
century Jamaica s prospects were bright with hope and 
promise. Economies in administration had been effected, 
agriculture was being extended in various directions, 
more markets for Jamaica fruits had been found, 
further facilities for carrying produce were available, 
tourists, bent on a pleasant holiday, and seekers- after 
health from the United States and elsewhere had 
discovered in Jamaica the scenery and the climate 
they were looking for. Church life, too, was vigorous 
and encouraging. In the city of Kingston alone, in 
addition to the enlargement of the principal churches, 
there were twice as many churches and schools as 
there had been when the Archbishop was consecrated. 

Then came a terrible reaction. On the nth of 
August, 1903, a hurricane of exceptional violence struck 
the east end of the Island, causing serious losses both 
to large planters and to small settlers, and inflicting 
either complete or considerable or in some cases only 
slight damage to Church buildings. The number of 



206 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

these buildings amounted in all to 135. Help, as usual, 
came from home friends and societies, sufficient to 
meet about one-third of the cost of restoration or 
replacement, and the other two- thirds were provided by 
the self-sacrifice and liberality of Jamaica Church people, 
largely by free labour and gifts of material. Naturally 
there was much suffering and some loss of life among the 
dwellers in the cyclone-swept districts. Within little 
more than three years the Archbishop was ready to 
report to the Synod that by far the greater part oi the 
damage done by the hurricane to Church buildings 
had been repaired, and that the prospects of completing 
the restoration within a reasonable time were, on the 
whole, hopeful and cheerful. So were things when in 
the year 1907, " in the first month on the I4th day of 
the month," a great earthquake, accompanied by 
fire, practically annihilated the city of Kingston and 
inflicted much damage on several neighbouring parishes. 
The destruction in Kingston was almost complete. It 
need not be mentioned here in lengthly detail. It is 
enough to say that the business portion of the city was 
laid waste, the homes of merchants and professional men 
were wrecked, churches, chapels and schools were 
overthrown, thousands of industrious artisans and 
working people were rendered homeless and destitute, 
and a heavy percentage was levied on the life and limbs 
and future health of the community. To enter in 
many words into the often described horrors and con 
fusion and bewilderment consequent on this calamity 
would be out of place in a simple record of the Jamaica 
Church. Possibly the experience of many corresponded 
with that of the Archbishop. He was present at the 
time of the earthquake at a meeting of an Agricultural 
Conference then being held in Kingston, and largely 
attended by delegates from other West Indian Colonies 
and from home. All present escaped uninjured from 
the Conference room, and the Archbishop, in an address 
in England thus relates his own impressions : 

" After the shock was over I immediately went about 
the town to see of what use I could be to the people. It 
was a most distressing and pathetic sight ; all who were 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 207 

not injured had gone out into the streets ; many crowded 
round me, laying hold on me as if for protection and calling 
upon God for mercy and help ; others were loudly expressing 
their conviction that the Day of Judgment had come. And 
I can assure you that, though I did not think of it as the 
Day of Judgment, I felt then, and I feel now, that when I 
do see the Day of Judgment, and if it should correspond 
literally with the figurative descriptions in the Bible, it 
will be nothing strange to me. But I will not enlarge on 
that : it expresses just the feeling I then had, and the 
feeling I have now, concerning the awful destruction and 
distress, the terror on every face, the wailing, the sorrow, the 
hopelessness and the crying for Divine mercy." 

The work of relief began promptly ; the wounded were 
rescued from falling or burning buildings and taken 
to the Public Hospital, to ships in the harbour and such 
other places as were attainable ; the homeless, many of 
them infirm old people or young children, were provided 
with rough shelter in open spaces, such as the Race 
Course and the Public Gardens. Accounts vary as to 
the number of persons who actually perished ; the 
variation is a slight matter at such a time ; according to 
one Return, 750 persons were buried within one or two 
days in the City Cemetery, and very many were dug 
out of the ruins and burnt, it being impossible in many 
cases to recognise and identify the mutilated and charred 
corpses. These unnamed and unknown dead are not 
uncommemorated, for on the 2nd of June, 1909, the 
Governor, Sir Sydney Olivier, unveiled at the cemetery 
a monument erected by public subscription in memory 
of about 500 persons who lost their lives in the earth 
quake. A low wall surrounds the place where the 
trenches and graves were ; in the centre of this space is 
another enclosure, octagonal in shape, with pillars at 
the corners of the octagon, and connecting walls between 
the pillars. Within these walls is the principal feature 
of the memorial, a central column built of reinforced 
concrete. On it is a marble tablet, with the following 
inscription : 

" In the earthquake and fire which destroyed the City 
of Kingston on the fourteenth day of January in the year 
1907 A.D. about one thousand persons perished, and this 
enclosure marks the spot where five hundred, whose remains 
were unrecognisable, were buried together. This monument 



208 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

is erected to their memory by their surviving kinsfolk, 
friends and fellow-citizens. 

" The rich, the poor, the great, the small, are levelled. 

" Until the Angel calls them they slumber." 

Instinctively the people, who had learnt to regard 
Archbishop Nuttall as their trusted friend and coun 
sellor, looked to him for direction at this crisis, and 
the Governor, following the popular voice, officially 
appointed him Chairman of the General Relief Com 
mittee ; there he presided over men and women, 
irrespective of race or creed or colour, some of one 
Church, others of another, others of no Church, but all 
bound together to do what they could by ties of common 
humanity and of common sorrow and misfortune. The 
task of the Committee was two-fold immediate and 
permanent. In the first place it had to collect and 
distribute food and clothing, to provide shelter and 
employment, to restore, as far as might be, the conditions 
of a healthy life. Help was readily forthcoming from 
sister Colonies, from Great Britain, from the United 
States and elsewhere. The Lord Mayor of London (Sir 
William Treloar), opened a Mansion House Fund and 
members of the West Indian Committee were active in 
their efforts to obtain assistance. But it was soon 
evident that this was insufficient, that private philan 
thropy could not be adequate to rebuild the ruined city, 
and to restore the lost livelihood of many of the survivors. 
Numbers of persons were crippled or partially disabled 
for life ; there were widows and orphans to be provided 
for ; others had not a penny wherewith to resume an 
active life. Then, too, there were considerable merchants 
and men of business who resented the idea of being 
dependent on charitable doles, and who sought for 
means by which they could help themselves to rebuild 
their ruined premises and restore their commercial 
prosperity. Under these circumstances it was agreed 
that a Deputation, consisting of the Archbishop and 
the Crown Solicitor (Mr. A. W. Farquharson), should 
proceed to England to plead for an Imperial Grant to 
meet the former of the distressful class of cases above 
mentioned, and an Imperial Loan to meet the latter. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 209 

The Deputation succeeded in its object ; a Loan of 
800,000 was made, and a Grant of 150,000 was given. 
And in consequence, the city has largely been rebuilt 
on improved plans ; widows and orphans have had 
sufficient provision made for them ; those who lost 
property in houses or otherwise have been compensated ; 
merchants have been enabled to restore their premises 
and to resume business on reasonable terms of repay 
ment (approved by the Imperial Government), for 
Sinking Fund and interest on the loans advanced to 
them. It was a great piece of work which the Arch 
bishop and Mr. Far quh arson had been enabled to 
accomplish, and no one will be surprised to know that 
they had a most enthusiastic and hearty reception on 
their return to Jamaica. 

The allotment of relief was undertaken without delay 
and completed as soon as possible. Of course, every 
body was not satisfied. When is everybody satisfied ? 
The amount to be distributed was large namely 
Imperial Grant, 150,000, and Mansion House Fund, 
55,395, some of which, as it was received, had already 
been spent on immediate and urgent relief. But the 
claims for help were larger ; it was impossible to meet 
them all to their fullest and most literal extent. In 
every calamity there are some losses which cannot be 
replaced and also, though the losers do not think so 
at the time, there are often losses of unnecessary things 
which need not be replaced. No question of official or 
social position, no question of religion or race was 
allowed to influence the Committee which had the 
difficult and sometimes thankless task and responsibility 
of equitably distributing this money. 

We now turn to the Church s losses by the earth 
quake. While the Archbishop was busy presiding over 
the Committee whose duty it was to supply the material 
needs of the people he had also to consider the structural 
losses which had befallen Church buildings. These 
were serious indeed, especially in Kingston. The total 
number of buildings destroyed or injured was 130 ; of 
these fortunately a goodly number were so slightly 
damaged that their repairs could be effected mainly 



210 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

by local effort, not involving the charge of more than 
a few pounds to the Church Relief Fund. But in other 
cases a different story has to be told. Of churches 
which were entirely or almost entirely wrecked, the 
number was 30, the cost of rebuilding varying in estimate 
from 7,000 at the Kingston Parish Church to 100 for 
smaller churches in country districts. The Theological 
College, the Deaconess Home, the Bishop s Lodge, the 
Church Offices were all victims to a very serious extent. 
So complete was the wreckage in Kingston and neigh 
bourhood that out of some dozen churches which would 
otherwise have been available not one could be used for 
an Ordination, which was accordingly held under the 
shade of trees in the grounds of the Theological College, 
probably, in the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
" the first time in modern history when anything of 
that sort has been done in an emergency such as this " ; 
and the Synod of 1907, with its accompanying services, 
was held in a tent on the same grounds. 

There was little or no delay in ascertaining approxi 
mately the amount of injury done and the probable cost 
of rebuilding and repairs. The first estimate of money 
required came to upwards of 38,000, to meet which the 
Archbishop appealed to English Societies and friends for 
30,000, being confident that with that outside assistance 
he would be able by local aid and by careful management 
to secure the effective reconstruction of the wrecked 
buildings. His confidence was fully justified. 

Directly after the news of the disaster had been 
telegraphed to England, the Jamaica Church Aid 
Association set to work to obtain help through its 
organisation. The Archbishop s visit to England on 
behalf of the Colony further stimulated the efforts of 
the Association, he being at liberty, when he had secured 
the main object of his visit, to plead for a short time 
the claims of the Jamaica Church. The Mansion House 
Relief Fund, the Imperial Loan and the Imperial Grant, 
were ear-marked for their special purposes, namely 
to meet the material needs of the people and to help to 
restore the ruined city. It is necessary here to correct 
a misapprehension, which was widely prevalent in 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 211 

England at the time, to the effect that the various 
Churches would be assisted in the distribution of the 
funds above named. This is wrong. The Funds referred 
to were devoted, as they were intended to be, entirely 
to secular relief and the Church neither asked for, nor 
expected, nor received any help from them. It is 
possible that if any Church had asked, giving a sound 
business security, for an advance from the Imperial 
Loan on the regulated terms of repayment such an 
advance might have been made ; but, as far as I know, 
no suggestion of that sort was ever thought of. The 
mistaken impression was soon corrected and did not 
interfere very much with the Church Relief Fund. It 
had its origin in the work which the Archbishop was 
called on to do for the whole of Jamaica, both there 
and at home. Writing on this point the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, commending the Jamaica Church Associa 
tion s appeal, said 

" The noble work of the Archbishop of the West Indies 
on behalf of the whole people, without distinction of race or 
creed, has to some extent diverted attention from the special 
necessities and distresses of the Church people over whom 
he more immediately presides, and we cannot better recognise 
the value of his services to the community as a whole than 
by contributing adequately to meet the special needs arising 
from the destruction of our churches." 

So, too, speaking at the Mansion House the Governor 
of Jamaica (Sir Sydney Olivier) mentioned the manner 
almost self-denying, so far as the Church of England is 
concerned, in which the Archbishop had put the cause 
of public and private relief before the meeting perhaps 
more fully than even the cause of the restoration of the 
churches of the Island of Jamaica." 

In the following year (1908) the Archbishop was again 
in England for a short time to be present at the Lambeth 
Conference and the Pan- Anglican Congress. One feature 
of the latter was the presentation and subsequent allot 
ment of the Thank-Offering Fund. The Congress Com 
mittee dealt most generously and promptly with the 
urgent needs of the Jamaica Church. I quote the follow 
ing from the published address of the Archbishop, on his 
return to Jamaica : 



212 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

" You are aware that we have been promised a grant of 
15,000 from the Pan- Anglican Thank Offering Fund towards 
the restoration of our church buildings. We are all very 
grateful that this grant has been given, and given in such 
a warm-hearted and prompt manner. I attended several 
meetings of the Appropriation Committee, and tried to aid 
in presenting the needs of some other countries as well as 
the West Indies. As regards our own requirements I did 
not attempt to urge our claim, but, in brief, clear, printed 
statements and in individual conversations about the facts, 
as well as in the meetings of the Committee, I presented 
the truth of our case as definitely and simply as I could ; 

and the grant was made unanimously There 

was a deep and intelligent sympathy with our needs which 
realised the wisdom of giving without delay what it was felt 
to be right and proper to give. We can now see the way 
to the adequate restoration of all our buildings." 

Meanwhile the Jamaica Church Aid Association was 
still at work with satisfactory results. But, in addition 
to finding the cost of rebuilding, there were other pressing 
matters brought into prominence by the earthquake, 
namely the insurance of Church buildings and the methods, 
plans and materials for rebuilding. The former has been 
more appropriately referred to in a previous chapter. 
With regard to the latter it has to be borne in mind that 
more than two centuries immunity from very severe 
earthquake shocks had led to its inevitable result. 
Slight shocks had been felt from time to time, but they 
were hardly noticed ; occasionally some damage had 
been done, but it was soon forgotten and its lessons were 
disregarded. The destruction of Port Royal in 1692 
happened a long time ago, and was little more than a 
curiosity of distant history. No one dreamt that it was 
going to be repeated on a larger scale. And so for years 
buildings churches, schools, colleges, parsonages among 
others were built after the English style with modifi 
cations to suit the climate but with little or no regard to 
the possibility of destruction by seismic catastrophe. 
Perhaps this was natural ; it is so in almost every 
department of human thought : the efforts we make to 
encourage natural growth and the faith we have in some 
sort of uniform evolution in the direction of what is right 
and good and sure have shut our eyes to the possibility 
we laugh at the probability of any violent catastrophe. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 213 

Jamaica, and especially Kingston, had had a terrible 
lesson and an awful warning. And they were willing to 
learn the lesson and to take the warning to heart. Public 
and commercial and ecclesiastical buildings must be 
reconstructed in such a manner and by means of such 
materials as modern progress and knowledge and experi 
ence had shown to be able to give some trustworthy 
security against future calamity. This, it is believed, 
has been done and the new buildings constructed of 
reinforced concrete in the case of town buildings will, 
it is hoped, offer substantial resistance to any threatened 
disaster in the future. 

The rebuilding and restoration of churches had already 
begun before their completion was assured by the grant 
from the Pan- Anglican Congress. Without this grant 
they would without doubt have been carried out in course 
of time, though not, perhaps, without leaving a burden of 
debt on many churches. As it was, the grant served 
to stimulate local effort. Having secured the means 
necessary to relieve the Church from anxiety, and being 
confident in the willingness of the congregations to supple 
ment what had been given from home, the Archbishop 
and his advisers lost no time in continuing strenuously to 
work. Progress was reported by the Archbishop to 
successive Synods. Thus in 1908 he reported that six 
teen buildings had been restored and that work was being 
done on seven other buildings. To the same Synod, 
bearing in mind the demands made on his time and 
strength by services rendered to the general public, he 
took the opportunity in his annual address of saying : 
" It has been a satisfaction to me to know that, largely 
through the efforts of the Coadjutor Bishop, in a year 
of unexampled strain upon myself, the visitation of the 
Diocese has been thoroughly complete . " In the year 1909 
he reported that a large number of buildings had been 
restored and that the three principal churches in King 
ston were in course of re-erection, that the contract had 
been given out for the rebuilding of the Deaconess Home, 
and that plans were being prepared for the restoration 
of the Bishop s Lodge and other buildings. While Church 
Committees and congregations were readily giving much 



214 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

local help, it seems only right that, without overlooking 
or undervaluing their services, mention should be speci 
ally made of some members of the executive Boards of 
the Church, who were constantly available and who 
cordially and unsparingly assisted the Archbishop. He 
would indeed be the last man to approve of any omission 
of their names from even the slightest sketch of the 
history of those arduous days. I, therefore, quote the 
following paragraph from the 1909 Synod address : 

" I desire here to put on record my appreciation of the 
services of those persons in this Diocese who have locally 
and at the Central Offices given special help in arranging 
for the work of Church restoration and the carrying through 
of it. In this list I must specially mention Mr. Albert Jones 
(the Vice-Chairman of the Diocesan Financial Board), the 
Rev. E. J. Wortley, Mr. L. G. Gruchy, Mr. J. M. Nethersole 
and the Hon. G. P. Myers who as a Central Advisory 
Committee have aided me in regard to much of our build 
ing work ; and also Mr. I. R. Latreille, the Accountant 
of the Diocesan Financial Board, and my Secretary, Mr. 
R. C. B. Foster. The work of Mr. Foster in this department 
has been very arduous and efficient. The assistance fur 
nished by the Rev. F. L. King requires particular mention. 
Besides frequently conferring with me at Bishop s Lodge, 
he has by the expenditure of much time and labour given 
help in directing on the spot the actual restoration of many 
country buildings ; his assistance has been invaluable, and 
has saved us much money, secured a better kind of restora 
tion than would otherwise have been possible, and enabled 
many congregations to get back into the comfortable use 
of their Churches which, without this help, would have long 
remained in that broken-down condition which was keeping 
many persons away from the public services." 1 

In the following year (1910) the Archbishop reported 
that nearly all the buildings injured or destroyed by the 
earthquake had been restored or re-erected including the 
three principal churches in Kingston ; a few buildings 
were unfinished but were approaching completion ; one, 
owing to certain peculiar and local difficulties, had not 
then been begun. 

The month of January, 1911, witnessed the consecra 
tion of ten new churches ; restored churches had pre 
viously been reopened with befitting ceremony. It had 

1 Mr. King gave similar assistance in the restoration of the 
churches injured by the hurricane of 1903. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 215 

been appropriately arranged that these consecration 
services should be held as near as might be to the 
anniversary (the fourth) of the destruction of the former 
buildings. It is doubtful whether in the history of the 
Anglican Church there is an instance of so many churches 
being consecrated within such a limited time. I thought 
that this might have been the case after the great fire 
in London in 1666 but, having carefully examined such 
London Diocesan Registers as I was allowed access to, 
I can find no record of such a number of consecrations. 
The Archbishop s first estimate of the amount required 
for rebuilding was 38,000, and he appealed to outside 
help for 30,000, relying upon the Jamaica Church 
people for the remaining 8,000. The receipts from out 
side sources exceeded 34,000 (including 15,000 from 
the Pan Anglican Congress and more than 10,000 
collected by the Jamaica Church Aid Association). 
The actual work on the restored fabrics involved a total 
cost of 50,000, towards which the contributions of con 
gregations, including the value of free labour and of gifts 
of materials, amounted to no less than 18,000. This 
excess of contributions over an estimate (made when 
returns were not complete) of bare necessary expenditure 
assured the complete and efficient restoration of the 
buildings and also secured that, except in very few cases, 
there should be no debt on the restored churches. In 
every case grants from the Relief Fund were paid in 
instalments to supplement local effort. To give two 
illustrations of this the Kingston Parish Church was 
re-erected at a cost of 6,000 of which 2,000 was con 
tributed by the congregation : at Linstead Parish Church 
the congregation either contributed or made provision 
for 600 and the grant amounted to 350. 

The Archbishop was assisted in the consecrations by 
the Bishop of St. Alban s (Dr. Jacob), representing 
the Church of England at home, by the Bishop of North 
Carolina (Dr. Cheshire), representing the Protestant 
Episcopal Church of the U.S.A., by the Assistant Bishop 
of Toronto (Dr. Reeve), representing the Canadian 
Branch of the Anglican Church, by the Bishops of 
Trinidad (Dr. Welsh) Honduras (Dr. Bury) and Antigua 



216 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

(the Right Rev. Edward Hutson, consecrated in 
Spanish Town Cathedral on the I5th of January, 1911), 
.and the Co-adjutor Bishop (Dr. Joscelyne) of Jamaica. 1 
Archdeacon Bryan of Panama, Canon Pearce, the 
Archbishop s Commissary in England, and Canon Tree of 
Trinidad also took part in many services and ceremonies 
during a memorable fortnight The Churches con 
secrated were the following : 

On ioth January - St. Cyprian s, Highgate. 
1 2th - St. Thomas s, Linstead. 



iyth 
lyth 
1 8th 
i8th 
igth 
22nd 

22nd 
2yth 



- Kingston Parish Church. 

- All Saints, Kingston. 

- St. George s, Kingston. 

- St. Matthew s, Allman Town. 

- St. Michael s, Kingston. 

- St. Andrew s, Half Way Tree (an 

extension) . 

- St. Joseph s, The Grove. 

- Holy Trinity, Linstead. 



Other services, functions and meetings were inter 
spersed between these consecrations and are all duly 
recorded in a special number of the " Jamaica Church 
man." 2 One of these deserves special mention, namely 
that at which, after the consecration of the Kingston 
Parish Church, an address of welcome was presented by 
the Diocesan Council. This admirable address is too 
long for reproduction here ; it was replied to by the 
visiting Bishops and others, and in the cases of the 
home church by an official letter from the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, and of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
of the U.S.A. by a similar letter from the Presiding Bishop. 

These two letters I give as a fitting termination to a 
very compressed account of a series of notable ceremonies. 
The Archbishop of Canterbury sent the following letter 
addressed to the Bishop of St. Alban s : 

" I rejoice to think of your being the bearer to the West 
Indian Church of our warm Christmas greeting and our 

1 While these pages were in the press, news was received that 
Dr. Joscelyne had resigned his appointment as Co-adjutor 
Bishop of Jamaica. 

2 It is much to be desired that this most interesting number 
should be reprinted, with possible additions, in pamphlet or 
book form. 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 217 

grateful recognition of the service which West Indian 
Churchmen have rendered to the whole Anglican communion. 
For the example of their courage and perseverance under 
the splendid leadership of the Archbishop has stimulated 
and helped us all. To have faced and conquered such 
difficulties in the buoyant spirit of Christian hope and 
resolve is a feat of religious statesmanship which will have 
permanent record in the annals of the Church s life. We 
shall be with you in spirit at the consecration of the new or 
renovated buildings. 

" May the abiding blessing of our Lord Himself rest 
upon the workers and the work." 

The greeting of the American Church was conveyed 
in a letter, read by Bishop Cheshire, from the Presiding 
Bishop (Dr. Tuttle) to the Archbishop of the West 
Indies and was as follows : 

" Sorrow and gladness get much intermingled in this 
world of ours. 

" With me there is sorrow that I cannot come to be with 
your Grace in the ceremonies approaching, attendant upon 
the happy consecration of the re-erected churches in your 
field ; and yet with the sorrow there blends much gladness 
that the Church in the United States will be represented 
in these ceremonies by our faithful and much loved brother, 
the Rt. Rev. Dr. Cheshire, the Bishop of North Carolina, 
whom we beg hereby to commend affectionately to you 
and to your loyal flock of all the brethren of the Church 
in the West Indies. 

" May the merciful favour and abundant blessing of 
Almighty God be upon the Church in the West Indies 
upon its head and all its members in your services in the 
Consecration of the renewed fabrics, and in your grateful 
devotions before His Throne. 

" The entire Church in the United States, I am persuaded, 
sends herewith to your Grace and to your people its glad 
greetings and affectionate congratulations. 

" And knowing you, my most Reverend Brother, as we 
widely do and remembering how you bore up against the 
wind and wave and violent rendings of some years ago, 
the pen of the presiding Bishop and the voice of his loved 
brother of North Carolina will alike vouch for the full truth 
of the Cambridge orator s application of the Poet s wonderful 
prevision of Jamaica s storm and Jamaica s prelate in the 
words : 

" Justum et tenacem propositi virum," and 

" Si fractus illabitur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae. 

" Professing again the felicitations of all our Church folk 
and to no inconsiderable degree of all our countrymen, and 
praying God s blessing upon all your joys and his comforting 
grace in all your trials, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

P 



2x8 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 



CHAPTER XVIII 

MANY features of Jamaica life have necessarily been 
omitted from these pages as being outside their scope 
and purpose ; much growth, especially in recent years, 
bearing on the many efforts now being made to raise the 
material condition of the great mass of the people has 
been at best but hinted at, and that only when connected 
in some way with the Church. But there still remain a 
few matters to be mentioned, which are not exclusively 
or directly a part of the story of the Church of England, 
but in which all Churches are equally concerned and 
interested. These are not associated with current 
politics or secular controversy, but they touch the 
human and social side of life to which no Church can be 
indifferent. 

Obeah. In the month of November, 1911, a person 

calling himself Professor living in Edgware Road, 

London and described as a well-groomed man of colour, 
born in Jamaica, was sent to prison as a rogue and vaga 
bond for pretending, or professing, to tell fortunes with 
intent to deceive His Majesty s subjects. According to 
newspaper reports it was stated, and proved from the 
rascal s cash-book, that he had received more than 650 
in fifteen months by his fraudulent tricks. The defence 
set up on his behalf by his solicitor was that he was 
a Jamaican, and that West Indians were supposed to 
know more about magic than English men and women. 
Fortunately the magistrate before whom the case was 
tried had spent two years in Jamaica and was able to 
say that he did not know of any magicians there. In 
view of the opinion thus expressed by the magistrate 
probably the best and the best-known in London the 
prisoner pleaded guilty and was duly, though very 
leniently, sentenced. This indicates to a great extent 
the impression conveyed to many home-readers by 
tourists, with a turn for writing and a desire to write 
something tasty and spicy, who bring back with them 
thrilling stories of the prevalence of the practice of 
Obeah. Many of these stories are as old as the old 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 219 

days of sailing ships, and may be found in old and almost 
forgotten books and pamphlets ; many of them are 
ubiquitous ; their narrative, like history, repeats itself 
with but slightly different geographical settings. What 
was told, and probably truthfully told, in Antigua a 
hundred years ago was related fifty years ago as having 
quite recently happened in Trinidad, and thirty years 
later a modern traveller in Jamaica was regaled with 
the same story of what took place " on this very estate, 
I assure you, my dear sir." No dates are mentioned 
and the guileless tourist fills his note-book with century- 
old yarns which he believes to be present day 
happenings. 

But what are the facts ? It is possible, and from 
the accepted derivation of the word, very probable, that 
Obeahism has its roots far away in the past, being a 
by-product of the old serpent worship prevalent in 
Egypt in the days of Moses. Be this, however, as it 
may, the Obeahism which prevailed in Jamaica and is 
now dying there came from West Africa. It was a 
strange compound a sorcery which played on and took 
advantage of the nerves of a nervous and superstitious 
people ; a knowledge of the healing power of certain 
leaves and certain roots and of the bark of trees, 
together with an equal knowledge of the baneful and 
poisonous power of other vegetable substances ; a 
claim to possess some mysterious power, sometimes to 
detect, sometimes to prevent crime, sometimes to kill, 
sometimes to concoct a harmless and sentimental 
love-philtre. It will readily be understood how these 
supposed gifts in the hands of unscrupulous men wrought 
havoc among timid and credulous people. But that 
was Obeah as it left Africa more than a century ago. 
The exercise of the art was accompanied by a ritual 
at once debasing and indescribable and terrifying and, 
as it now seems, foolish and unmeaning. Often too it 
worked in secret and then it was most harmful. Anyone 
who wants to know what unrestrained Obeahism might 
have developed into should read Hesketh Pritchard s 
" Where Black rules White." But the point is that 
in Jamaica it has been restrained. And there are 



220 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

several reasons for this. The original Obeahmen were 
natives of Africa, and their Jamaica-born successors 
never had the same power or dire influence. That is 
natural enough. Then it must be remembered that the 
teaching of Christian missionaries both before and 
after emancipation was sufficient to prevent Obeahism 
from becoming a Religion or a Creed, like Vaudouism. 
It gradually became more dreaded than practised, but 
the dread was a very real thing when it was honestly 
believed that there was only a thin border line between 
rank imposture and secret poisoning. One may not 
believe in the poisoner, but one cannot help being afraid 
of the possible poison. And yet, as that most careful 
and accurate writer, the Rev. W. J. Gardner, clearly 
shows, the reported ability of the Obeahman, even in 
his palmiest days, to poison has been greatly exaggerated. 
But as long as the possibility and the supposed power 
were there, the fear was bound to continue. And the 
Obeahman traded on fear. The fight between faith 
and superstition is often long, especially when the 
superstition is old and active and the faith is new and 
unproved. But there is an end to the fight. " Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt 
thou serve." When this truth is realised it leads 
logically to the " Get thee behind me, Satan," which 
West Indian negroes have learnt to say to the Obeah 
man. Bearing on this point I quote in full a short 
passage from Bishop Nuttall s address to the Synod 
of 1888, perviously referred to, the accuracy of which 
passage is admitted by everyone who has not wilfully 
shut his eyes to the most evident facts : 

" At the last English Church Congress," said the Bishop, 
" held at Wolverhampton, Canon Isaac Taylor made some 
references to Jamaica to which I have briefly replied. I 
think it well to reaffirm here, in your presence, what I have 
thus written to England. I have said : " A long and 
close acquaintance with the people of Jamaica leads me to 
conclusions respecting them directly the opposite to those 
expressed by Canon Taylor. I think there is abundant 
evidence to show, not that the negroes of Jamaica are 
lapsing into Obeahism, but that as a body they are (as 
rapidly as can reasonably be expected) developing in general 
knowledge and in all those qualities, attainments and beliefs 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 221 

which go to make up an intelligent, industrious, progressive 
Christian community. And as to Canon Taylor s view of 
the inability of negroes to understand and appreciate 
Christianity in the form in which it is presented by the Church 
of England, the answer to this, as far as Jamaica is concerned, 
is furnished by the continuous and rapid growth of our 
Church in this Diocese as an institution chiefly supported 
by the voluntary contributions of the black people." 

What was true in 1888 is much more true in 1913. 
Some words of Burke on slavery and the slave trade 
may well be applied to Obeahism. " I confess," he said, 
(l I trust infinitely more (according to the sound prin 
ciples of those who have at any time ameliorated the 
state of mankind) to the efforts and influence of religion 
than to all the rest of the regulations put together." 

Other causes have combined to help. Prominent 
among them must be placed the establishment by Sir 
John Peter Grant in the year 1868 of a Government 
Medical Service, bringing medical and surgical aid within 
reasonable reach of the majority of the population. 
The towns in an Island Colony are generally on the sea 
coast ; the country districts are not thickly populated. 
Doctors in towns could earn a livelihood ; they could 
not do so in many parts of the country. Hence the 
wisdom of the State subsidising medical officers in 
country districts. Now the most beneficial perhaps 
the only beneficial aspect of Obeahism was that its 
professors had some (unqualified) knowledge of healing 
and doubtless up to the extent of their capacity did some 
service to suffering humanity. The Government Medical 
Service put within the reach of the people at fixed moder 
ate charges the Obeahman s knowledge of medicines 
without the superstition and the pretended supernatural 
powers which were such a terror to an untaught and 
credulous and undeveloped people. What had happened 
elsewhere happened in Jamaica with similar results. 
Thus, speaking of his experiences in West Australia and 
New Zealand years ago, Sir George Grey, one of the 
greatest of British Proconsuls, said : 

" The mystery of managing native races resolves itself 
into a few natural laws. My hardest trouble was the witch 
craft, which held in bonds the savage peoples whom I had 



222 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

to govern. It might differ, here or there, in its character 
istics ; the evil was there all the same. Not merely did 
the natives believe in witchcraft, but their chiefs made a 
profit therefrom and were staunch in its maintenance. My 
antidote was the introduction of medical aid, so that in the 
cures wrought these children of the dark might see what 
surpassed their own magic. They were discomfited, as it 
were, on their own ground." 

Then Sir George added " Superstition, which I dis 
tinguish from witchcraft, though the greater evil flour 
ished on the less, had its best treatment in the spread of 
the Christian religion." So in Jamaica Christian teach 
ing, education, the gradual growth of civilisation in 
various forms are combining to what is hoped will be a 
speedy end to a foolish and degrading superstition. I 
refer of course to the harmful aspects of the old Obeahism 
as it was imported from Africa. Superstitions of some 
sort will continue to exist as long as people are super 
stitious ; fanciful people will always have their fancies 
and will be influenced by them in their conduct. These 
superstitions and fancies, however, are innocent and 
harmless, even if unconvincing to an unimaginative 
person. The most and the worst that can be done is to 
smile at them. But to associate negro superstitions and 
fancies with an old time belief in a system, often vicious, 
sometimes criminal, is as unreasonable as it would be to 
connect some innocent English or Scotch or Irish fancy 
with some dead and gone creed, which was debasing and 
irreligious. 

Naturally, all Christian Churches have taken strong 
action against this evil, when and where it has been 
found to be indulged in, and this not merely by teaching 
and personal influence but by the exercise of ecclesiastical 
discipline. The Church of England (Canon XXXVIII.), 
expressly directs that " all persons who in any way 
participate in the practice of Obeah shall, on the facts 
coming to the knowledge of the clergyman of the Church 
attended by them, be expelled from the Holy Communion 
and public notice thereof given in Church." There has 
not been much occasion in recent years to give practical 
effect to this Canonical regulation which was passed forty 
years ago in the earlier days of Disestablishment, when 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 223 

Obeah was a much more prevalent practice than it is 
to-day. As a matter of fact, any misguided Church mem 
ber who lapses into a temporary dallying with Obeah has 
the grace and the shame to abstain from approaching 
the Lord s Table and practically excommunicates 
himself. 

Marriages and Births. There is one depressing feature 
of Jamaican, and indeed of all West Indian, life which can 
not be overlooked here, namely the large number of men 
and women who are content to dispense with any ceremony 
of marriage, whether performed in church or chapel or at a 
registrar s office. The Registrar-General s statistics show 
that no less than 60 per cent, of the births are those of 
children born out of wedlock. Many of these, it is true, are 
the offspring of consistent, rather than of promiscuous, 
concubinage, and it may be that the 40 per cent, of 
legitimate births is not to be despised as a sign of progress 
among a people whose ancestors less than a century ago 
were permitted and encouraged to breed like cattle and 
were denied admission to that " holy estate which Christ 
adorned and beautified with His presence and first 
miracle that He wrought." Inherited instincts and 
habits do not disappear in one, two or three generations, 
but the Churches can strain and struggle to teach the 
children of the present generation to transmit to their 
descendants instincts and habits both holier and purer 
than those which they inherited from their ancestors. 
But still the fact remains that these figures year by year 
indicate little or no sign of alteration or improvement. 
And the time has almost, if not quite, gone when thinking 
people can complacently take icfuge from anomalies or 
\\Tong-doings or apparent defiance of Christian duties, 
rites and requirements behind the shelter of a system 
which ceased to exist three-quarters of a century ago. 
This argument has been used as an excuse quite long 
enough. No one in his senses would say a word in ex 
tenuation or apology for any wrong action or improper 
custom in England or anywhere else because that custom 
or action had been prevalent or permitted before the 
accession of Queen Victoria to the throne. 



224 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

Nor must it be forgotten that much of the percentage 
of illegitimacy is due to unfortunate circumstances and 
conditions quite as much as to inherited habits or vicious 
inclinations. For the majority of those who help to 
swell the totals of illegitimacy live in homes if a one- 
roomed hut can be called a home in which the chances 
of either physical or moral health are very remote. We 
know, of course, in this connection the wonderfully 
pure lives of Irish peasantry, housed little, if any, better 
than the peasantry of Jamaica, and enduring climatic or 
other hardships unknown in the West Indies. And we 
also know that there are in Jamaica poor people, poor 
black men and women, not merely one here and one there, 
but in far greater numbers than the traducing critics 
of their race would have us believe, who are to-day living 
pure and virtuous lives in the midst of every sort of allure 
ment and incitement to sin. Any reform in this im 
portant matter must be based on pity, not on blame. I 
personally knew of one really pathetic case, not in 
Jamaica but in one of the Leeward Islands, where a 
young man told me that he could not marry a girl who 
was the mother of his children because his parents had 
been so good to him, and his marriage would seem a 
reproach on them or, as he put it, " to shame them." 
It is not a question of overlooking or winking at sin 
where sin exists and beyond doubt it does exist in white 
as well as in black, in well-to-do as well as in poor, but 
it would be unjust to pass a sweeping condemnation 
where there is such a loud call for pity. The Church of 
England and other churches, both through their ordinary 
ministrations and by special efforts, are doing what they 
can to bring about an improvement, but so far they have 
not met with much success. Advice, warning, exhorta 
tions are of little avail. Threats, lectures, denunciations 
are worse than useless. Some years ago petitions were 
presented to the then Governor, begging for legislation 
which might tend to the removal of obstacles in the way 
of purity of living ; these petitions were from separate 
denominations, and from a meeting consisting of ministers 
of almost every denomination. In some points these 
petitions may have been, through intense earnestness 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 225 

and strength of feeling, incautiously worded ; some 
suggestions, unless modified, may have been Utopian 
in theory and impossible in practice ; but the petitioners 
deserved a better fate than they received, namely, that 
of being alternately flattered and snubbed in a series of 
solemn platitudes. 

The Housing Problem. Already a distinct improvement 
has taken place in new cottages built in every country 
parish ; and the Archbishop in the year 1909 submitted 
to certain persons,likely to take a sympathetic interest in 
the matter, a Memorandum suggesting a method by which 
improved houses might be provided for the poorer class of 
Kingston workers. He proposed that this should be done 
on strictly business lines, quite apart from other efforts 
which philanthropy might suggest or personal generosity 
be prompted to give effect to. The outcome of this 
Memorandum was the formation of the " Kingston Model 
Dwellings, Limited." The. principal objects for which 
this company was formed are thus stated : 

" To purchase and acquire from time to time parcels of 
land in the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew for the 
purpose of erecting thereon residences, rooms, cottages, or 
other buildings to be let to tenants, or sold to tenant- 
purchasers at such rental or upon such terms as may from 
time to time be decided upon by the Company the inten 
tion being that such residences, cottages, rooms and other 
buildings are to be occupied as dwellings of a better class 
than are at present available by working people of limited 
resources at a moderate rental, and the profits and dividends 
of shares are to be limited to 5 per cent, on the amount of 
capital paid from time to time after payment of all necessary 
working expenses." 

Already one block of buildings has been erected and is in 
use ; and if it is found and surely there is no reason 
why it should not be found that the Company pays its 
way, further buildings will be erected, private enterprise 
will be stimulated, and much desirable improvement 
may be expected. 

Again, the careful preparation of candidates for Con 
firmation and for formal admission into some denomi 
nations, together with vigilant supervision and kindly 
encouragement afterwards, are relied on to do a great 



226 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

deal ; but still the dismal truth remains, that the per 
centage of illegitimate births is not perceptibly altered. 
It is a sad record to have to relate. As things now are, 
it seems that an appreciable fraction of the population 
of Jamaica is in danger of being morally debased, if not 
ruined, before it knows the meaning of sin, and before it 
has had time or opportunity to learn the meaning of self- 
control and self-restraint. The full meaning, the conse 
quences, direct and indirect, of the fact that three out 
of every five children born in Jamaica are illegitimate 
need not be told in detail. The early fruits are seen in 
excessive infant mortality ; the later fruits are often, 
not always, found in the absence of a home in the real 
sense of that sacred word, in the need of refining home 
influences, in the want of the truest and purest forms of 
domestic affection. Until this shockingly large per 
centage of illegitimacy is materially diminished, neither 
religion, nor education, nor civilisation can claim that it 
has done much more than begin its work. 

Crime in Jamaica. This is a dark picture, but in many 
other respects the general progress of Jamaica in all that 
tends to make for moral, intellectual, social or religious im 
provement is most marked. Amongst other indications of 
progress let me mention that prison statistics, both as to 
the number of persons convicted and as to the quality of 
the crime committed, compare favourably with those of 
other places which enjoy the advantages of a more pro 
tracted and a more deeply-rooted civilisation. In the 
cases of persons who are as yet unreached by education 
and only slightly influenced by religion the faults are the 
faults of a thoughtless and impetuous child rather than 
the developed vices of a hardened man. Commenting 
on criminal statistics, the New York World recently 
printed an article, extracts from which were republished 
in the London Standard of August 27th, 1912, in which 
it was stated that " the proportion of homicides to popu 
lation in that country (U.S.A.) is about 10-04 to 100,000 
population. In England it is 3 to 100,000 population." In 
Jamaica last year it was 3 to more than 800,000 popu 
lation. If figures can speak, or if they have any meaning, 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 227 

these should be taken to indicate an absence of serious 
crime which would seem almost incredible to those who 
do not know the West Indies, and who talk and write 
about the negro race without any knowledge of local 
conditions and habits. So, too, it is worth putting on 
record here that no such thing as " lynching " is known 
in Jamaica, for the simple reason that the offences or 
crimes which provoke, or are alleged to provoke, this 
summary form of rough-and-ready justice and indignation 
and revenge have no existence. 

But while there is this commendable absence of the more 
serious forms of crime, one cannot overlook the prevalence 
of praedial larceny which is a terrible drawback and dis 
couragement to agricultural progress and a cruel wrong to 
industrious peasants striving to earn an honest and in 
dependent living. There does not at the present time seem 
to be much improvement in this matter. It is not only the 
number of arrests and convictions that is startling but 
still more the number of undetected offences, the quiet 
stealing of vegetables, fruits, poultry and so on by idle 
non- workers who are too willing to pick up a living by 
preying on their more industrious neighbours, and who 
are shrewd enough to escape detection. The processes 
of the law are costly, and in nine cases out of ten the cost 
is out of proportion to the market value of any ordinary 
theft. Many remedies have been suggested, some use 
ful, some quaint, some impossible. Some latter-day 
writers have commented on the excellent management 
and arrangements in the prisons of Jamaica which they 
have visited, and in which they seem to find a cause and 
encouragement for crime. They complain that humani- 
tarianism in these institutions is carried to an unnecessary 
extreme and that prison life is an attraction rather than 
a deterrent. Certainly, and more particularly within 
recent years, the sanitary and other conditions of prisons 
have been greatly improved, but there has been no 
relaxation of punitive discipline. A prisoner, especially 
in the prison farm at Spanish Town, learns something 
about productive labour, and he also learns to be orderly, 
punctual, cleanly and industrious ; and if he rightly 
learns these lessons his chances of being a useful citizen 



228 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

after his release are increased. I remember when, more 
than thirty years ago, a waterspout burst over St. Kitt s 
and did an enormous amount of damage, tearing up many 
old roads in and around Basseterre. A few days after I 
was staying with the Director of Roads, who was applying 
for men to repair the damage and to make new roads, 
some as labourers, some as foremen of gangs of labourers. 
One morning an applicant for work came a strong, 
well-built fellow and when my friend, the Director of 
Roads, asked for references as to his character and experi 
ence, he frankly replied that he could not produce much 
favourable evidence as to his character but, as far as 
experience went, he had just completed three years in 
prison in Antigua, and had spent most of his time there 
in road-mending. He proved to be a most efficient work 
man. But to say that prisons are too attractive or 
too comfortable, because they differ from the homes from 
which a great number of criminals come, is absurd. They 
may in some few cases encourage the bad, but they very 
often educate and bring out the possibilities for good in 
others who are not thoroughly bad. And who will say 
that any one is thoroughly bad ? It need not be said 
that these critics of prison life and its attractions do not 
speak from personal experience. Nor do I. But I have 
in mind an old friend of mine (a gardener) who got into 
judicial trouble some years ago because a neighbour s 
fowl was missing and who, after some months retirement 
from public life, assured me that in his well-considered 
judgment a prison in Jamaica was "no fit place for a 
Christian gentleman." There we have the verdict of 
experience. Nor is the problem solved by a broad and 
sweeping and rather common generalisation that " all 
negroes are born thieves." They are no more so than 
is any other section of the human race ; and, whatever 
they were when born, the fact remains and is a solid truth 
that, as the result of education and religious teaching 
and example, the large majority of them are honest. 
Notwithstanding the dictum of Epimenides, there were 
doubtless many truthful men and women in Crete, and 
wholesale condemnation is as unjust as it is cruel. No. 
the root trouble about praedial larceny is not to be found 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 229 

in or removed by any pessimistic and complacent utter 
ances about inherent racial tendencies, or in any com 
parison between a cleanly and healthy prison and a 
wretched and uncomfortable home : the thing is there 
and it must be cured : it must be met partly by religion, 
partly by education, and partly by public opinion, a 
communal determination in every district to make things 
too hot for idle non-workers to live by theft on the 
industry of honest, right-living people. 

Jamaica does not loom largely in the present-day 
problems of Empire. It is a small place which, except 
on the occasion of some terrible calamity, does not supply 
sufficiently good " copy " to obtain frequent mention in 
the British Press. But at the same time, a great, and to 
some extent an Imperial, problem is being worked out 
there which cannot be overlooked. The great continent 
of Africa is being, year by year, more and more developed 
and gradually whether rightly or wrongly, wisely or 
foolishly partitioned among European nations : the 
benefits and comforts and advantages of civilisation are 
perhaps being more quickly introduced there than 
civilisation itself is being acquired. And in that con 
tinent there are estimated to be more than 200,000,000 
persons belonging to some tribe or section of the negro 
race and very many of these are British subjects or under 
British control and protection. What will their future 
be ? Some day this question must be answered, this 
problem must be solved. One answer to that question and 
one solution of that problem may possibly be found in the 
West Indies, where members of their race, handicapped 
from the start by unfavourable conditions, have shown 
that they are capable of assimilating modern civilisation, 
of living Christian lives and of becoming useful and 
capable citizens of the Empire. The annals of the West 
India Regiment show that they can fight, the records of 
the Pongas and other missions prove that they can teach 
and preach the Gospel. 

Another point to be noted is that Jamaica is no longer, 
as it used to be, a colony of large estates with many 
absentee proprietors. The decline, which began years 
ago, in the output of sugar estates, which required capital 



230 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

to run and which still, under altered conditions and with, 
but not without, sufficient capital can provide a moderate 
return, has led to other cultivation, such as that of 
bananas, oranges and other fruits : and here, according 
to the returns given in the 1912 Handbook, we find that, 
while sugar estates and grazing pens are owned and worked 
by large proprietors, the cultivation of other crops is 
extending in a remarkable way to small proprietors and 
settlers. Thus, about seven-eights of the acreage 
devoted to coffee cultivation is in the hands of small 
settlers or of proprietors with less than 50 acres of land, 
and one-fifth of the bananas and cocoa is produced on 
estates of less than 20 acres and by small settlers. This 
is to a great extent due to the agricultural teaching given 
in schools and training colleges, and to instructors 
throughout the island employed by the Jamaica Agri 
cultural Society. 

The next point to emphasise is that the sanitary 
conditions in Jamaica have been largely changed and 
improved. The fight against fever, with an increased 
knowledge of the causes of it, and of the remedies for it, 
is steadily being won, though the work, perhaps, is not 
being so thoroughly and masterfully done as in Havana 
or on the Isthmus of Panama. Years ago Jamaica 
shared with other places the unenviable claim to be 
called a " white man s grave." Perhaps it did not really 
deserve its bad reputation, for, as pointed out by Mr. 
Hastings Jay 1 , Port Royal 200 years ago was practic 
ally the only station in the West Indies where England 
had anything like a hospital ; to this hundreds and 
thousands of sailors were brought from the most deadly 
places in Central and Southern America to die of yellow 
fever. Absence of sanitary precautions and a knowledge 
of medicine, which would nowadays be considered less 
than elementary, enabled the fever to spread, but there 
is little or no evidence to show that it is indigenous to 
Jamaica. It is many years since there has been a really 
serious epidemic of yellow fever, though slight epidemics 
and sporadic cases have occurred occasionally. Possibly 
in few parts of the world is there a more healthy and 
1 " A Glimpse of the Tropics." 



THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 231 

pleasant climate than in some of the drier of the mountain 
districts of Jamaica, and many persons, both in England 
and more especially in the United States, have learnt 
to travel to Jamaica in order to avoid the severity of a 
northern winter, and of certain consequent ailments. 
Of course the climate varies, and there are low-lying 
lands which are unhealthy enough ; but no invalid in 
search of good health would elect to sleep in a swamp or 
to take lodgings in a lagoon. 

This steady improvement in sanitation, combined with 
increased facilities for steamship travelling and the 
building of well-equipped hotels, has resulted also in a 
great number of tourists from the United States, and 
some from Great Britain, spending a portion of the cooler 
months (December to March) in Jamaica not for reasons 
of health but for purposes of holiday-making, pleasure and 
recreation. There is much to see, to learn, to enjoy and 
to interest. For Jamaica has not lost its romance of 
history, of scenery, of ethnological development. Its 
social and racial conditions differ in toto from those of 
Australian and Canadian colonies, and present aspects 
as interesting to the philanthropist, the political econom 
ist, or the statesman, as are the problems of colonies 
and countries largely peopled by conquered races or 
by emigration from home. So, too, the botanist, the 
ornithologist (though many birds are protected by 
law), the conchologist, the marine zoologist, will find 
ample scope for his special subject : while the insect 
population, including butterflies and moths, is varied 
and interesting, and war is being waged on the malaria- 
carrying mosquito. 

But the change from " Jamaica as a yellow fever 
bed," to " Jamaica as a winter health resort," is not so 
great as is the change which has come over the moral, 
social and religious condition of the Colony. About the 
middle of the eighteenth century Dr. Johnson, whose 
faithful servant, Francis Barber, was a Jamaican negro, 
wrote that Jamaica was " a place of great wealth and 
dreadful wickedness, a den of tyrants and a dungeon of 
slaves." 

Things have changed since then, even more than they 



232 THE DIOCESE OF JAMAICA 

have in the Fleet Street which Dr. Johnson loved so 
dearly. The tyrants have gone, the slaves no longer 
exist, and the den and the dungeon are things of the 
past ; there certainly is not great wealth, but there is 
reason to believe that present-day wickedness deserves 
a much milder adjective than " dreadful." Little 
more than 100 years after Johnson wrote, the Lord 
Chief Justice of England (Sir Alexander Cockburn), 
in the course of a memorable charge, declared that there 
was not a " stone in the island of Jamaica which, if the 
rains of heaven had not washed off from it the stains of 
blood, might not have borne terrible witness to the 
manner in which martial law had been exercised for the 
suppression of native discontent." It would be more 
difficult nowadays to find these stones than it is to find 
traces of Spanish occupation or of the aboriginal Indians 
disturbed by Columbus. " The gentle rain " has indeed 
dropped " from Heaven upon the place beneath," and 
now we see : 

" The rainbow to the storms of life, 
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away 
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray." 

For in the place of this " native discontent " we find 
in Jamaica a contented population, containing upwards 
of eight hundred thousand persons, African by descent 
but British subjects by birth, speaking (with idiomatic 
variations) the English language, enjoying English 
institutions, with an English literature and English 
laws, loyally bound by ties, both of gratitude and of 
affection, to the British Throne. And in bringing about 
this change, the Church of England, in spite of imper 
fections, drawbacks, failures and even scandals, may 
fairly claim to have done her part. Much as there is 
to regret, much as there is to try to forget, much as 
there is to ask to be forgiven in the records of the past 
years of the Church of England in Jamaica, there is 
much more to encourage us in the present and to inspire 
us in the future. 



APPENDIX 



I here append a copy of the Canonical Regulations having 
reference to the Registration of Church members. 

" It is clearly the duty of every member of the Church, of 
whatever station in life, to contribute according to his means 
for its maintenance and extension. It is, therefore, the duty of 
the communicants of the Church and all other persons, who 
claim to be under the pastoral c,i,re of its clergy and to receive 
the benefit of their services, to get themselves registered as 
members of some congregation and to subscribe to the Diocesan 
Church Fund according to their means. Such subscription shall 
be at the minimum rate of threepence per week ; provided that 
the clergy,, with the concurrence of their Church Committees, 
shall be empowered to remit this contribution or to reduce it in 
case of poverty, or for other cause shown. The wealthier laity 
should not limit their contributions but, over and above the 
minimum rate, should give as God hath prospered them." 
Canon VIII., Art. i (of Finance). 

" It shall be the duty of every clergyman and catechist to keep 
a Register, or Registers, of the names of the communicant and 
of the non-communicant members of the church or churches 
under his care, in the form approved by the Synod. Provided 
that the name of no person shall be entered or retained on the 
Register who is under ecclesiastical censure, lawfully conveyed, 
or who refuses, or neglects, after sufficient opportunity has been 
given him or her, to subscribe to the Diocesan Church Fund, unless 
he or she has been exempted from the payment of such subscrip 
tion, in the manner prescribed by the Canon of Finance. Provided, 
also, that this Canon shall not be so interpreted as to impose 
on any clergyman, having conscientious objections thereto, the 
necessity of refusing to admit to the Holy Communion persons 
who may refuse, or neglect, to subscribe to the Diocesan Church 
Fund as aforesaid." Canon XL., Art. I (of Registration of Church 
Members) . 



INDEX 



Adelaide, Sister, 160. 
African Problems, 229. 
Albemarle, Duke of, 36. 
Antigua, Bishop of, 215. 
Appointments of Clergy, 173. 
Apprenticeship, 70, 75. 
Arawaks, 20. 
Assembly, Legislative, 31, 41, 

44, 50,52, 56,69,71,93, I0 3, 

108. 
Assessments, 170. 

Baptists, 56. 
Barber, Francis, 231. 
Barkley, Sir Her.ry, 91. 
Barrow, the Rev. A. H., 149. 
Beams, the Rev. H., 59. 
Belmont Orphanage, 167. 
Berkeley, Bishop, 48. 
Births, 223. 
Bishop s College, 151. 
Bishops, Election of, 119. 
Black River, 45, 169. 
Blair, James, 199. 
Bridges, the Rev,. G. W., 17, 46, 

64. 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew, 

155- 

Bryan, Archdeacon, 216. 
Burris, the Rev. W. A., 148. 
Bury, Bishop 193, 215. 

Campbell, Archdeacon, 122. 
Canning s Resolutions, 51. 
Canons of the Church, 112. 
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 

211, 216. 
Caribs, 20. 
Catechists, 157. 
Cathedral, 30, 8 1, 118. 
Cator, Mr. J. J., 154. 
Census Returns, 200. 



Charles II., 29, 34. 
Chinese Immigrants, 144. 
Christian Faith Society, 58, 72, 

74- 

Church Committees, 117. 
,, of Scotland, 56. 
,, Missionary Society, 65, 
76, 82, 102, 129, 150. 
Theological College, 

ISO- 
Classification of Churches, 171. 
Clergy Act, 62, 93, 105, 108. 
Clergy Pensions Fund, 118, 164. 
Cockburn, Chief Justice, 232. 
Codrington College, 151. 
Collins, Bishop, 137. 
Colonial Episcopate, 47. 

,, and Continental Church 

Society, 122. 
,, Church Union, 68. 
Columbus, 13, 14, 15. 
Commissaries, 52. 
Compensation, 70. 
Confirmations, 192. 
Consecration of Restored 

Churches, 214. 

Courtenay, Bishop, 91, et seq. 
Crime in Jamaica, 226. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 24. 

,, Richard, 29. 
Cyclones, 204. 

" Day School Catechism," 186. 
Deaconess Home, 159. 
Debts, 175. 

Declaration of Principles, 113. 
Diocesan Church Society, 83, 

90. 
Council, 115. 

Ecclesiastical Court, 

114. 
Expenses Fund, 116. 



INDEX 



Diocesan Financial Board, 116. 

Synod, 114. 
Disasters, 203. 
Disestablishment, 106, in. 
Divinity School, 152. 
Douet, Bishop, 127, i^i t etseq, 

195. 

D Oyley, General, 29. 
Dry Harbour, 14. 
Durham University, 153. 

Earthquake (1907), 206. 
East Indian Immigrants, 143. 
Education Boards, 118. 

,, Compulsory, 184. 

,, Elementary, 182. 

,, Secondary, 181. 
Emancipation, 69. 
Endowments, 168. 
Episcopal Establishment, 62, 

124. 

Stipend Fund, 116, 
170. 

,, Visitations, 194. 
Evangelists, 156. 
Eyre, Governor, 100, 103. 

Falkland Islands, Bishop of, 

129. 

Finance Committee, 138. 
Fire in Kingston, 204. 
Fortescue, General, 27. 
Foster, Mr. R. C. B., 214. 

Gage, 17. 

Galdy, 37. 

Gardiner, Mr. Edward, 53. 

Gardner, the Rev. W. J., 220. 

General Sustenation Fund, 183, 

221. 
Girls Friendly Society, 162. 

,, Schools, 161. 
Grant Sir J. P., 104, 108, 1 10. 

,, the Rev. Canon, 137. 
Grey, Sir George, 221. 
Gruchy, Mr. L. G., 220. 

Harewood Church, 65. 
Harty, the Rev. Canon, 143. 
Hatuey, 18. 
Hemming, Sir A. W. L., 184. 



Herschell, the Rev. Victor, 100, 
Hill, the Rev. G. R. G., 53. 
Holme, Bishop, 130. 
Home and Foreign Missionary 

Society, 96, 105, 139. 
Honduras, Diocese of, 1 29, 2 1 5 . 
Housing, 225. 

Howard de Walden, Lady, 152. 
Hymn Book, 195. 

Imperial Grant and Loan, 208. 
Income of Clergy, 171. 
Incorporated Lay Body, 115. 
Ingham, Bishop, 150. 
Insurance, 177. 

Isaacs, the Rev. H. H., 32, 136. 
Isabel, Sister, 162. 
Islington, Bishop of, 196. 

Jackson, Colonel, 24. 
Jamaica Churchman, 194. 
Jamaica, Discovery of, 14. 

,, English Conquest of, 

26. 
,, Spanish Occupation 

of, 14 

James II., 35. 
Johnson, Dr., .31. 
Jones, Mr. Albert H., 214. 
Joscelyne, Bishop, 112, 135, 
161, 193, 216. 

Key, the Rev. E. B., 136. 
Kilburn, the Rev. Canon, 136. 
Kimberley, Lord, 107. 
King, the Rev. F. L., 214. 
" King s Letter," 73. 
Kingston Church and School 

Extension, 142. 
, , Model Dwellings, 225. 
Klein, Miss Florence, 196. 
Mr. W. G., 196. 

Las Casas, 19. 
Latreille, Mr. I. R. 214. 
Lay Readers, 156. 
Lepers Home Chaplaincy, 170 
195. 

Lewis, M. G., 55. 
Lipscomb, Bishop, 60, et seq. 



236 



INDEX 



Loans, 174. 

London, Bishops of, 33, 35, 42, 

47, 52, 57- 
Long, 42. 
" Lynching," No, 227. 

Mackglashan, Miss, 195. 
Madeline, Sister, 162. 
Manchester, Duke of, 53, 64. 
Mansion House Fund, 208. 
Maroons, 46. 
Marriage, 120. 
Marriott Bequest, 152. 
Marston, the Rev. C. D., 122. 
McLaverty, the Rev. C. 87. 
Mico College, 187. 
Milton, 25. 

Modyford, Sir Thomas, 31. 
Morant Bay troubles, 99. 
Moravians, 56. 
Morrison, Lieut. -Go v., 52. 
Mortality among slaves, 50. 
Mosquito Coast, 22, 88, 144. 
Mothers Union, 162. 
Musgrave, Sir Anthony, 181. 
Myers, the Hon. G. P., 214. 

Nassau, Diocese of, 96. 
Negro Education Fund, 73. 
Neish, Dr. W. D., 196. 
Nethersole, Mr. J. M., 214. 
Nomination, Board of, 173. 
North Carolina, Bishop of, 215. 
Nursing in Jamaica, 159. 
Nuttall, Archbishop, 1 2 5 to end. 
,, Miss, 167. 

Obeah, 218. 

Old Harbour, 15. 

Olivier, Sir Sydney, 207, 211. 

Oracabessa, 14. 

Ormsby, Bishop, 130, 134. 

Panama Mission, 128, 130. 
Pan Anglican Congress, 211. 
Panton, Archdeacon, 135. 
Parochial Councils, 117, 194. 
Pearce, the Rev. Canon, 196, 

200, 216. 

Pedro de Esquimel, 24. 
Penn, Admiral, 26. 



Peter Martyr, 19. 
Phillippo, the Rev. J. M., 106. 
Pongas Mission, 147. 
Pope, Archdeacon, 65, 88. 
Porras, Francisco de, 16, 23. 
Porteus, Bishop, 53. 
Porus, 23. 
Port Maria, 14. 
,, Royal, 36. 
Post, Mr. Christian, 89. 
Praedial Larceny, 227. 
Pringle, Sir John, 180. 
Prison Life, 227. 
Pritchard, Hesketh, 219. 
Provincial Court of Appeal, 1 14. 

Synod, 113, 114. 
Purity Society, 168. 

Quebec, Bishop of, 187. 

Ramson, Archdeacon, 136, 162 

Rawle, Bishop, 147. 

Registry Act, 50. 

Repairs, 174. 

Rio Bueno, 29. 

Ripley, the Rev. R. J., 30, 145 

Roman Church, 16. 

Rose, the Rev. D. W., 53. 

Runaway Bay, 29. 

Rural Deans, 65, 117. 

St. Alban s, Bishop of, 215. 
St. Andrew s Parish Church, 

3 2 45- 

St. Ann s Bay, 14, 
St. Jago de la Vega, 30. 
Sanitation, 230. 
Santa Gloria, 14. 
Sasi, Don Arnoldi, 29. 
Scholarships, 154, 182. 
Schoolmaster-Catechists, 98, 

140. 

Selection, Committee of, 173. 
Settlers, Early English, 28. 
Seville D Oro, 19. 
Sharpe, Granville, 49. 
Shirley, Sir Anthony, 24. 
Shortwood College, 187. 
Slavery, 22, 40, 49, 61, 67. 
Sloane, Sir Hans, 36. 
S.P.C.K., 7r, 74,97, 185, 198. 



INDEX 



237 



S.P.G., 71, 98, 102, 129. 
Special Missions, 193. 
Spencer, Bishop, 81, et seq. 
Stainsby, the Rev. J., 59. 
Stewart, the Rev. T., 59 . 
Stock, Dr. Eugene, 77, 102. 
Sturge and Harvey, 70. 
Sunday Schools, 190. 
Synod, First, 1 10. 
Syrians in Jamaica, 145. 

Taylor, Canon Isaac, 220. 

,, Trustees, 154. 
Temperance Society, 168. 
Titles of Clergy, 119. 
Toronto, Assistant Bishop of, 

215. 

Tozer, Bishop, 124. 
Training Colleges, 187. 
Tree, the Rev. Canon, 216. 
Trelawny, Governor, 43, 88. 
Treves, Sir Frederick, 20. 
Trinidad, Bishop of, 215. 
Tugwell, Bishop, 150. 
Tuttle, Bishop (U.S.A.), 217. 

U.P. Church, q6. 



Venables, General, 26. 



Watling s Island, 14. 

Watts, Mr. E. H., 195. 

Wesleyan Methodists, 56. 

West India Fund, 73, 82. 

African Mission, 147. 

Widows and Orphans Fund, 
118, 163. 

Wilkinson, the Rev. D. H. D., 
150. 

William and Mary, 36. 

Windsor, Lord, 30. 

" Winter Health Resort," 230. 

Wolseley, Dr. H. J., 149. 

Wolverhampton Church Con 
gress, 220. 

Wortley, the Rev. Canon, 30, 
214. 



Xaymaca, 15. 
Yellow Fever, 230. 
Zellers, the Rev. J., 32. 



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