The old chandelier, at the west end, dating from the year 1706, the gift
of Nicholas Lawes, is a good example of English brass work of that
period. The copy of the royal arms, also at the west end, dates from the
time of Queen Anne, as the initials A. R. testify. The tattered flags of
the 3rd West India Regiment told of a time when there were more
battalions than there are now. Laid up on the disbandment of the
regiment in 1870, they were on July 31, 1912, removed from the church to
the recently erected garrison chapel at Up-Park Camp.
The registers contain many records of interest. In the early years occur
the well-known names of Brayne, Beeston, Barry, Elletson and Lawes.
Between 1671 and 1691 Colonel Samuel Barry had four children baptized;
Colonel William Beeston, five; and Roger Elletson (who married Anne Hope
on May 6, 1680), six.
The Robert Beckford who, on June 6, 1688, married Anne Prenyard, must
have been a member of the well-known family, possibly a brother of
Colonel Peter Beckford, the president of the council.
Amongst the baptisms are recorded those of Robert Charles Dallas, the
author of “The History of the Maroons,” on Christmas day, 1756; of
William, son of Lieut.-Col. John Dalling, afterwards governor of the
island, in 1771; and of Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Despouches
and Sir Hyde Parker, vice-admiral of the red, in 1797.
Slaves were often baptized _en bloc_. In 1780 four negroes “the property
of the Dutchess of Chandos” were baptized on February 8. On May 5, 1790,
five slaves, the property of Simon Taylor, the wealthiest man of his
time, were baptized; and on September 9, 1803, eighteen slaves on Mona
estate; and on July 15, 1815, twenty-nine male adults, twenty-seven
female adults, eight male and nine female children slaves were baptized
on Fair Hill plantation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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