Preserving history

At Guanaboa Vale, St Catherine there is need to save sites associated with national heroes Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante

In the parish of St Catherine, national heroes Norman Washington Manley (1893-1969) and Alexander Clarke Bustamante (1884-1977), cousins sharing a grandmother, Elsie Clarke Shearer, had a link to Guanaboa Vale, which was in the historic old parish of St John (the St John district of St Catherine).

St John was one of the first parishes established by the British after they captured Jamaica, starting in May 1655. It was merged with St Catherine in 1866, when the number of parishes were reduced from 22 to 14 under the administration of Governor Sir John Peter Grant.

St John‘s Anglican Church was established as the parish church, possibly before 1681, and is one of the oldest Anglican churches in Jamaica. There were several plantations in the immediate area, including Guanaboa, Mountain River, Belmont, Alymers, and Lloyd’s.

ASSOCIATION WITH NATIONAL HEROES

Norman Washington Manley was born on July 4, 1893 at Roxborough, Manchester. His parents were Thomas Albert Samuel Manley and his wife, Margaret Ann Shearer.

In December 1890, Thomas Manley, with his brothers and father-in-law, Alexander Shearer, acquired Belmont estate, a property of about 2,000 acres, located near Guanaboa Vale. Alexander Shearer lived at Belmont with his daughters, Elizabeth and Winnie, following the death of his wife, Elsie.

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Thomas Manley died in March 1899 leaving his wife and four children (Vera, Muriel, Roy and Norman) in financial straits, heralding a move from Manchester. Seeking work in the United States, Margaret Manley left her four children at Belmont with her father. She returned to Jamaica after a year and moved her family to Rae Town in Kingston, where Norman was registered at the Wolmer’s School in 1902. The family moved again in 1903 back to Belmont in Guanaboa Vale. With meagre finances, his mother sent Norman to the Guanaboa Vale Elementary School, while his older sisters were boarders at Hampton in St Elizabeth. He would spend three years there. By this time, his mother was managing the Belmont estate full-time.

Their relatives, the Clarkes of Hanover, were frequent visitors to Belmont. In 1904, Norman’s restless cousin, Alexander Clarke [Bustamante], age 20, son of Robert Constantine Clarke and his wife, Mary Wilson, came to Belmont to work as a junior overseer. He was there for a year and then left for Cuba in 1905.

In 1906, Margaret Manley was finally able to send Norman to the more prestigious Beckford and Smith School (now St Jago High School). He was later that year awarded a partial scholarship to Jamaica College in St Andrew, where he would complete his secondary school education.

So, Norman Manley and Alexander Clarke Bustamante, national heroes of Jamaica today, living or visiting in Guanaboa Vale, would have been associated with St John’s Anglican Church; the elementary school; the other businesses in the small town; the Chinese grocery shop, the post office, and the marketplace.

It is believed that some members of the Manley family are buried in the St John’s churchyard. Norman’s mother, Margaret Ann Manley, died in February 1911, age 42. Norman was 18 years old.

By the 1930s, Belmont seems to have been subdivided and sold by the Manleys and Shearers.

It remains a privately owned property today.

BUILDINGS IN A DILAPIDATED STATE

St John’s Anglican Church, the elementary school, and other buildings in the Guanaboa Vale township are in ruins or in a dilapidated state, except for the police station, which looks fairly sound from the outside. These important historic buildings, given their long history and their association with Jamaica’s national heroes, should be preserved for posterity. It appears that St John’s Church was declared a national heritage site under the Jamaica National Trust Commission (established under the 1958 Jamaica National Trust Law). When this was replaced by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust in 1985, it does not appear that St John’s was included on the new list of declared heritage sites. St John’s and other sites in Guanaboa Vale should be declared as such. They, however, need to be restored to create a national heritage park.

It could be another great shame on the country to allow the buildings of this historically important site to disappear. Too many of Jamaica’s historic buildings are on the greatly endangered list, or nearing complete destruction, while the nation stands aside and looks. History matters; preserving it matters; and it could have greater economic value.

Marcia Thomas is a member of the Jamaica Historical Society and Built Heritage Jamaica, formerly the Georgian Society of Jamaica.