Middlesex is the central of the three historic

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

into which

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

is divided. It has no current-day administrative significance. It covers 5,041.9 km² and has a population of 1,183,3612001 census (about 45% of the island's area and population) giving it the largest area and population of the three counties. It includes

Spanish Town Spanish Town ( jam, label= Jamaican Creole, Panish Tong) is the capital and the largest town in the parish of St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and British capital of Jamaica from 1534 until 1872. T ...

, the island's original capital. Jamaica parishes numbered2

''The county of Middlesex is shown in pink.''

History

Jamaica's three counties were established in 1758 to facilitate the holding of courts along the lines of the British county court system. Middlesex, the middle of the three, was named after an English county of the same name. It was chosen in

presumably because of its central position. Spanish Town was its

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

Parishes

References

{{Authority control Counties of Jamaica 1758 establishments in the British Empire