St James Parish Church, Jamaica is an eighteenth century church in

Montego Bay Montego Bay () is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth most populous urban area in the country, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. It was started in 1774 at a time when the town was increasing in importance as a centre for trade and the number of merchants was growing. It was built as the principal

Anglican church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

in St James Parish, in

Cornwall County, Jamaica Cornwall is the westernmost of the three historic counties into which Jamaica is divided. It is the least populated county of the country. It has no current-day administrative significance. It includes Montego Bay, the island's second largest ...

. The vestry of St James Parish built the church from

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

, a building material which had become increasingly popular in England, and its use in this church reflected the cosmopolitan tastes of the mercantile elite responsible for its design.Nelson, Louise (2005)"Anglican Church Building and Local Context in Early Jamaica", ''Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture'' Vol. 10, Building Environments, pp. 63-79 Gleaming white limestone was the principle building material. A local source for this stone had been found. The design included a Venetian window in the chancel, an innovation unusual in Jamaican churches of the period, and which may have been influenced by

Batty Langley Batty Langley (''baptised'' 14 September 1696 – 3 March 1751) was an English garden designer, and prolific writer who produced a number of engraved designs for " Gothick" structures, summerhouses and garden seats in the years before the mid-1 ...

's 1740 ''The City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Designs''. The opulent and cosmopolitan design signified that Montego Bay was rising in status to become Jamaica's second largest port and a significant location in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

Rosa Palmer Memorial

The Rosa Palmer memorial, featuring a sculpture by John Bacon the elder has gained a reputation both from the English sculptor who carved it in 1794, and the subsequent myth of the White Witch of Rose Hall which became wrongly attached to it. Bacon had carved 12 statues in Jamaica, starting off with that of

Admiral Rodney Admiral George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB ( bap. 13 February 1718 – 24 May 1792), was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularl ...

Spanish Town Spanish Town (Jamaican Patois: Spain) is the capital and the largest town in the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of St. Catherine, Jamaica, St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica, Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and Briti ...

. The memorial is to Rosa Palmer (1718-1790) and bears the following inscription:

Near this place
are deposited the Remains of
Mrs. ROSA PALMER
who died on the first day of May, 1790
Her manners were open, cheerful and agreeable,
and being blessed with a plentiful fortune
hospitality dwelt with her as long as health permitted her to enjoy society.
Educated by the anxious care of a Reverent Divine, her father,
her charities were not ostentatious but of a nobler kind
She was warm in her attachment to her Friends,
and gave the most signal proof of it
in the last moments of her life.
This tribute of affection and respect
is erected by her husband
the Honourable JOHN PALMER
as a monument of her worth
and his gratitude.

The journalist John Castello, proprietor of the ''

Falmouth Post The ''Falmouth Post'' was newspaper established in 1834 Falmouth, Trelawny Parish, Jamaica to promote the full freedom for the enslaved Africans who had been obliged to work unpaid as "Apprentices" by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 The Slav ...

'', first created the link to the witch myth in a pamphlet he wrote in 1868 which contained several inaccuracies.

References

{{coord missing, Jamaica Churches in Jamaica