Saint Mary historical timeline

Saint Mary’s history is out of proportion to its size.

Spanish and English

The last stand of Spanish Jamaica was fought here: after England seized the island in 1655, a Spanish counter-attack landed at Rio Nuevo and was defeated there in 1658, ending the Spanish claim. The site above the river mouth is marked.

Sugar and revolt

Plantations spread through the parish in the eighteenth century, and in April 1760 it became the centre of the most serious uprising of enslaved people the island had seen. Tacky, a Fante man who had been a leader in West Africa before being enslaved, led an attack on the fort at Port Maria on Easter Monday, seized arms and gathered several hundred followers. The rising spread to other parishes and took months to suppress; Tacky was killed, and the reprisals were severe. It changed colonial policy across the British Caribbean and is now commemorated as a national episode rather than a local one.

Bananas

From the 1870s the parish became one of the great banana-exporting districts, with Port Maria shipping fruit to Boston and New York and a railway running inland. That trade built the towns and then collapsed.

The banana railway

A branch line ran inland from Port Maria through Highgate to carry fruit to the wharf, and the coast had loading points at several bays. The trade made the parish briefly wealthy and tied it to Boston and New York rather than to Kingston; when fungal wilt and hurricanes broke the industry in the mid-twentieth century, the line closed and the towns have been quiet since.

The mid-century

Ian Fleming bought land at Oracabessa in 1946, Noel Coward followed, and the parish became a discreet retreat for writers, actors and musicians.