Saint John Figtree is one of five administrative parishes which make up the small Caribbean island of

Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and ...

. These five parishes are part of the fourteen parishes that exist within the Federation of

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain ...

, a two-island country in the Leeward Islands,

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc bet ...

, West Indies.

Description

The parish capital of Saint John Figtree is the settlement known as Church Ground. The parish church, Fig Tree Church, is notable for being the location where the registration of the marriage between young Nevisian plantation family widow Frances Nisbet and Horatio Nelson was carried out, in 1787, when Nelson was still a young sea captain. The village of Bath is at the northwestern end of this parish, just south of Charlestown. Nearby is the Bath Hotel, which is now government offices, but which was originally (in 1778) the first tourist hotel and spa in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. Also nearby is Government House. Stoney Grove Estate, a former plantation, is located here. This parish is unique in St Kitts and St Nevis in that it is the only parish that does not allow women to serve on its parish council. Other villages within the parish are: Brown Hill, Prospect, Pembroke, Fig Tree, Brown Pasture, Cole Hill, Beach Road, and Pond Hill. The Nevis Botanical Garden is more or less centrally located in the parish, as is the hotel, Montpelier Plantation Inn. In the southernmost part of the parish is the Nevis deep-water port. Most of the coastline of this parish consists of small cliffs and coves with small beaches, many of which are not easily accessible from the land.

References

*ORDNANCE SURVEY, GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1984, Nevis, with part of St. Christopher (Saint Kitts). Series E803 (D.O.S. 343), Sheet NEVIS, Edition 5 O.S.D. 1984. Reprinted in 1995, published by the Government of the United Kingdom (Ordnance Survey) for the Government of Saint Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis. *ROBINSON, DAVID & JENNIFER LOWERY (Editors), 2000. The natural history of the island of Nevis.

Nevis Historical and Conservation Society The Nevis Historical and Conservation Society is a nonprofit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in the Caribbean island of Nevis, founded in 1980 to protect the cultural and natural heritage of the island. Mission and funding The Societ ...

Press, Ithaca, New York. *HUBBARD, VINCENT K., 2002. Swords, ships, and sugar: a history of Nevis, Premiere Editions, Corvallis, Oregon. 5th Edition. Parishes of Saint Kitts and Nevis Nevis {{SaintKittsNevis-geo-stub