In addition to the naval station at Port Royal (where the commodore on
the station till recently resided at Admiralty house), there were for
many years to the west of Kingston a dockyard at Greenwich (with a depot
for military stores, and a hospital, as well as a cemetery attached)
which was the point of embarkation for the naval authorities; and a pen
residence for the commander-in-chief near Kingston, known as =Admiral’s
Pen=. At times the admiral on the station had a house in the hills, and
there was at one period a naval convalescent hospital (now called The
Cottage) in the St. Andrew mountains.
The earliest record of a suggestion for a permanent residence for the
admiral on the station is to be found in the will of Zachary Bayly (the
uncle of Bryan Edwards the historian) who offered Greenwich Park,
situated between Admiral’s Pen and Greenwich, near Kingston, to the
government “for the use and residence of a Governor, or of the
Commander-in-chief for the time being, of His Majesty’s ships of war
employed or kept upon this station,” at a reduction of £1000 sterling on
a just valuation. This offer, which Bryan Edwards, as executor, made to
the House of Assembly in 1770, was not accepted.
But in 1773 the House resolved “that a sum not exceeding £2500
(currency) be laid out in purchasing the house and pen in the parish of
St. Andrew, where Sir William Burnaby, Admiral Keppel, and Admiral Parry
formerly lived, to be annexed to the Government for the use of the
Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty’s ships of war on this station.”
Admiral’s Pen was bought on January 13, 1774, by Jasper Hall, _et al._,
commissioners for purchasing a pen for the admiral on the station, from
John Dalling, _et ux._, for the sum of £2500 (currency). This was
Lieut.-Colonel Dalling, who was then lieutenant-governor. Its purchase
was no doubt due to Rodney, who was then the admiral on the station. As
he left, however, in that year, Gayton, commodore at Jamaica in 1776–78,
was probably the first admiral to inhabit it as an official residence.
Gayton was followed by, amongst others, Sir Peter Parker, Joshua Rowley,
Gardner, Affleck, Sir Hyde Parker, Lord Hugh Seymour, Sir J. T.
Duckworth, Dacres, Cochrane, Douglas and Popham. In November 1829
Admiral Fleeming reported that Admiral’s Pen was “ruinous and
uninhabitable.”
[Illustration:
ADMIRAL’S PEN
]
On May 20, 1863, Thomas Cushnie, for the Executive Committee of the
Government, bought it for £600 (sterling). It is now used as a Union
Poorhouse for Kingston and St. Andrew. Its whitewashed walls and stones
along the drive recall the coastguard stations of England, and keep
alive the memory of its connection with the navy of Great Britain at a
period of some of its brightest achievements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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