NAME OF FEATURE | THE GLEANER | MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2022 5 JAMAICA AT 60: MANCHESTER Paul H. Williams/Gleaner Writer THE PARISH of Manchester was created in 1814, twenty-four years before the emancipation of chattel slavery. Two years after Emancipation, a free village for residential purposes was created by Moravian missionaries on parts of a coffee plantation called Maidstone. Located in hilly terrain at about 954 feet above sea level, it is said that English settlers at Adams Valley thought the conical, stony hills in the area looked like the‘breasts of maidens’, hence the name of the place. In the 1820s, that plantation and one calledChathamwereoperated jointly and owned by Thomas Frith, who sold coffee, hired out enslaved people, sawyers, et al. In 1817, he owned over 100 enslavedpeople. Ownership of Maidstone was passed on to John Racker Webb in 1826. He possessed about 200 enslavedpeople. By 1829, Maidstonewas operatingby itself and partly acquiredbyHymen and Judah Cohen. It also produced sugar, rum, ginger, molasses, cotton, cocoa, pimento, mahogany, horses, and cattle. In 1840, two years after Emancipation, it was in joint operation with Bath plantation. In that same year, Judah sold 341 acres of Maidstone to the Moravian Church missionaries for their mission station. The Moravians in turn subdivided the acres into 98 plots ranging from one to 15 acres. The plots were sold “generously” to newly freed people to circumvent the high costs of rent on plantation lands, thus the establishment of the first free village in Manchester. The deposits were small, andby1850, theyhad completed payments. The land was hilly and rocky, so the plot layouts were uneven. They nonetheless evolved into a large village of independent peasants, who helped each other to clear lands, build wattle-anddaub houses, and to prepare fields to growcoffee, in addition to cash crops. TheMoravians themselvesestablished infrastructure. A schoolhouse, whichalsoservedas achapel,wasone of the first buildings in thenewvillage. TheMaidstoneGreatHousewasonce the residenceof theestatemanager. It is said that it was converted to a slave hospital, and later, to a manse for the Moravianminister. Nazareth was established on the former coffee plantation called Maidstone. It was a cornerstone of the post-Emancipation development of Manchester – and a significant one, too. The place where enslaved people used to toil in servitude was now owned by them. They were then a major part of the watershed of peasantry in Jamaica. The topography of rocks was not the best place for agriculture, but the early peasants were determined to eke out a living for themselves and to create opportunities for their descendants, many of whomare still living in the region andwho carry the same surnames as their ancestors. Remnantsof barbecues, andtheold slave hospital, the church, the cemetery, and the primary school also still exist. The school has a small museum that is the repository of artefacts that tell the stories of Maidstone’s history. TheNazarethMoravianChurch itself haswithstood the vagaries of time. It was established at Adams Valley in 1838 but was re-established inMaidstone,with the laying of foundation stones in 1888. It was reopened in 1890 at Maidstone and has been part of the lifeblood of Maidstone since. Over the years, efforts have been made to preserve it, and in 1987, it received a Heritage in ArchitectureAward fromthe Jamaica National Heritage Trust for best-kept historical church. However, after 60 years of Independence in Jamaica, the population of Maidstone has been on a continuous decline. Not many employment opportunities are in that rocky place. Nonetheless, its place in history as one of the cornerstones of Manchester’s development is fixed, never tobe surpassedby thenumber of peoplewho live there. MAIDSTONE: A MANCHESTER CORNERSTONE The Nazareth Moravian Church in Maidstone, Manchester, played a critical role in the development of the free village. FILE Located in hilly terrain at about 954 feet above sea level, it is said that English settlers at Adams Valley thought the conical, stony hills in the area looked like the ‘breasts ofmaidens’, hence the name of the place. jamaica at
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