The present church of =Morant Bay= was built in 1881, on the site of the church destroyed by the cyclone of August 19, 1880, and the church so destroyed was built to take the place of the old church near the almshouse, which is now in ruins. There are tombs in the ruined church to Jane Ellis (d. 1763); Marmaduke Freeman (d. 1709); and to Mary, wife of Sir Henry Lyttelton, governor (d. 1808). The village of =Bath= contains a thermal spring of great value. An historical account of the Bath was contributed by Dr. G. J. Neish to the “Journal of the Institute of Jamaica” in 1895, and from it much of the following account is taken. Tradition says that a runaway slave hiding in the gorge came upon a spring in which he bathed. Finding the temperature greatly to his liking, he returned constantly to the pool, and after the lapse of some days was astonished and delighted at the evidence of healing in a long-standing ulcer on one of his legs. With his ulcer healed he braved the wrath of his master to communicate the discovery of the pool. Colonel Stanton, the owner of the land, sold his right in the spring “to the public in the year 1699 for a valuable consideration.” By the law passed in 1699 the land was vested in “The Directors of the Bath of St. Thomas the Apostle.” They consisted of the governor (Sir William Beeston), the chief justice (Nicholas Lawes), Peter Beckford, and Peter Heywood, and seven other members of the privy council, and five justices of the peace of St. Thomas and St. David. They were a body corporate and had power to erect a market, and to grant licences and to sell and retail strong liquors. In 1731 an Act was passed for rendering the Bath more serviceable. From the preamble it appears that there were no house or proper conveniences for the accommodation of sick persons. £500 was voted for a house. The leases of lands were cancelled, but land was to be granted to soldiers and others who would settle, and who would be exempt from taxes for seven years. A road was made, buildings were erected, and the public began to make use of the bath. Shortly afterwards lots were laid out and assigned, a town sprang up. Slaves were purchased to look after the roads and the vegetable gardens which had been planted for provisioning the hospital, which was built on the town square. The foundation was in more modern days utilized for supporting the present court house, and the old baths are still to be seen on the ground floor. The bath house at the spring was first built on the brink of the river, opposite the point of issue of the water which was conducted across the stream by a wooden gutter.