User:RGKMA/sandbox/Sturge Town, Jamaica
Sturge Town | |
|---|---|
Village | |
  Sturge Town | |
| Coordinates: 18°25′09″N 77°19′01″W / 18.4193°N 77.3169°W | |
| Country | Jamaica |
| County | Middlesex County |
| Parish | Saint Ann |
| Founded by | John Clarke and Joseph Sturge |
| Named for | Joseph Sturge |
| Area | |
• Total | 200 ha (500 acres) |
| Elevation | 360 m (1,180 ft) |
| Population (2010)[1] | |
• Total | 6,928 |
Sturge Town is a village town located in the Dry Harbour Mountains of the Saint Ann Parish of northern Jamaica. It was one of the first Free Villages in Jamaica. The population of the town was 6,928 in 2010.[1]https://www.geonames.org/11495652/sturge-town.html
History
[edit]Sturge Town was established in 1839 by Joseph Sturge and the Rev. John Clarke, a pastor at the nearby Brown's Town Baptist Church. In Clarke's report to Sturge, he describes that the land he bought contained "120 acres of good land, about eight miles from Brown's Town" and the cost was "£700 sterling."[2] The report also stated:
Nearly 100 building lots, and an equal number of acres for provision grounds, were surveyed. Small neat cottages were speedily built, and the land brought into good cultivation. There was a house and two or three acres of land left clear after the whole cost was paid. The house was converted into a schoolroom, and placed in trust for the benefit of the villagers, who erected a large booth, as a temporary place of worship, capable of containing 400 or 500 people. A chapel and mission house have subsequently been built.
They purchased 500 acres (200 ha) of land at Mt. Abyla for to help 500 newly freed families settle after the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Each house had its own acre of land. The original establishment included a Baptist church and a school which were built in 1840.
References
[edit]- ^ a b St. Ann Parish Plan Summary (PDF) (Report). October 12, 2011.
- ^ a b Mintz, Sidney W. (September 1958). "Historical Sociology of the Jamaican Church-Founded Free Village System". De West-Indische Gids. 38 (1/2). Brill Publishers: 46–70 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Reddie, Richard S. (2007). Abolition!: The Struggle to Abolish Slavery in the British Colonies. Foreword by Tony Benn. Lion Hudson. p. 288. ISBN 978-0-7459-5229-1.
- ^ Institute of Jamaica (September 23, 2010). "Sturge Town—a truly free village". The Gleaner. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
- ^ McLaughlin, Andewale (July 14, 2014). "Free village focus: The rise of Sturge Town". The Gleaner. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
- ^ Hall, Catherine (Autumn 1993). "White Visions, Black Lives: The Free Villages of Jamaica". History Workshop (36). Oxford University Press: 100–132 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Martin, Robert Montgomery (1850). The British Colonies: Their History, Extent, Condition and Resources. John Tallis and Company. p. 86.