St. Thomas Parish John Stokes 25 acres. St. David’s Parish Jacob Stokes 640 acres. Jacob Stokes and Smith 1 acre. Of Luke Stokes research has failed to reveal any particulars, either as to place of origin, family or personal accomplishments. He would seem to have been a simple-minded man, who did his best for his country. One wonders what relation, if any, he was to Admiral John Stokes, “Commander-in-Chief of the English Forces upon the coast of Africa,” against whose actions the States-General of Holland, on behalf of the Dutch West India Company, protested in 1663. This was apparently the same Admiral Stokes who commanded the _Marmaduke_ which brought Modyford from Barbados to Jamaica in 1664. Jacob Stokes, who was member for St. David in 1672, and his namesake who sat for St. Thomas in 1721, were apparently the only members of the family to sit in the House of Assembly, although their name appears in the Island records till the beginning of the nineteenth century. In November 1732 a petition, dated April of that year, by one John Evans, overseer of Dousabel plantation, complained to the Assembly that he had been opprobriously used by Colonel Jacob Stoakes and his son Jacob Stoakes, with several of their negroes, in passing through said Colonel Stoakes his plantation to the seaside or barquadier in which complaint it appears that Evans applied in vain to the custos, the chief justice, the magistrates of the parish, and the attorney general, being sent from one to the other—for a warrant for Colonel Stoakes’ arrest. It was resolved that the report do lie on the table. =Stokes Hall= and =Stokesfield= are now all that remain to testify to gallant old Luke Stokes’s attempt to assist the struggling colony of Jamaica. [Illustration: STOKES HALL ] Stokes Hall is possibly the oldest house in good preservation in the island. It was probably built soon after it was found that Stokesfield was unhealthy by reason of the swamps near Port Morant. It is a very substantially built building. It apparently consisted at first of a single-storey building measuring 48 ft. 6 ins. by 30 ft., with four two-storied towers at the corners each measuring 13 ft. by 19 ft., the towers overlapping the main building by the width of the doorway. The walls are of solid stone work 2 ft. 6 ins. thick. The lower storeys of the towers are 13 ft. high and the upper about 15 ft. Both towers and main building are loopholed, each tower having eight loopholes, two at each corner. The building stands at an altitude of about 290 feet, on a range of hills between Plantain Garden valley and the sea, and commands a fine view of Holland bay about five miles away. The upper storey of the main building and the front and back verandahs are evidently additions of a later date.