Amongst the rectors was the Rev. William Leacock, who was of the Leacock
family in Barbados. He gave up the living in 1836–37 and went to America
and was the leading divine of the Episcopal church in New Orleans. He
was succeeded by the Rev. Charles Hall, the Rev. McAlves, and the Rev.
George Wilkinson Rowe, brother of Sir Joshua Rowe, the chief justice of
Jamaica, who held the rectory for upwards of 30 years, and the Rev. W.
C. McCalla, who commenced the building of the chancel and organ chamber
about 1890.
Up to the year 1845–46 the old church was usually called the Old Harbour
“barn,” with red brick walls and wooden window shutters. The church was
renovated and restored and a belfry was put on the roof by the late
Alexander Bravo in the time of the Rev. George W. Rowe.
In the church are monuments to Colonel Thomas Fuller (d. 1690) and John
Pusey (d. 1767).
=Colebeck Castle=, which stands on a ridge of land on the west bank of
the Colebeck gully, about a mile and a half to the north-west of Old
Harbour town, overlooking the bay, probably dates from the end of the
seventeenth century. It must have been the most imposing building of the
kind erected in Jamaica. It was evidently at one time partially
destroyed by fire. It is rectangular in plan, about 114 feet wide and 90
feet deep, consisting of four three-storied, square, tower-like
buildings at each corner, rising to a height of about 40 feet, connected
by two-storied arched arcades, consisting on two sides of three arches,
on the other sides of five arches. The windows on the ground floor are
circular. The walls are formed of stone, filled in between with rubble,
with brick quoins and window facings, and are about 2 feet 6 inches
thick; at every fourth or fifth course is a course of larger sized
bricks. The inside walls have been coated with plaster work. Some of the
lintels of doors and windows still remain, and are of bully-wood, as
good as when they were first put up. A concrete terrace ran around the
castle, with steps at front and back.
Parts of a projecting wall—at a distance of about 114 feet from the
castle on each side, enclosing a square of about 300 feet—about 12
inches thick, still remain, and show crudely-formed loopholes for
firing. In some places there is a drop of from 12 to 20 feet on the
outside. At each corner of the outer wall was a substantial building
some 60 feet square, and underneath three of them were vaulted dungeons.
Two dungeons are no higher than 6 feet, 8 feet wide, and 24 feet long,
with only one very small aperture low down at one end. The dungeon at
another corner measures 60 feet by 20 feet, and is reached by a flight
of twenty steps.
To-day the castle is surrounded by bush, and is the abode of bats and
owls. On the surrounding property sugar has given place to tobacco.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account