St. James is situated on the north western end of Jamaica. St. James
is one of the smaller parishes of the island. It was one of the second
group of parishes formed in Jamaica, and was named by Sir Thomas Modyford in
about 1665, for the Duke of York, who later became James II, the reigning
monarch at the time. The parish is bounded by the parish of Trelawny to the
east, St. Elizabeth to the south and Hanover and Westmoreland to the west.
Montego Bay is the capital and was known to the Spanish under the name of
Mantica Bahia. It was first used as a relay port, on the route between
continents. Located in this parish is “Mellila”, the site of the first
town built by the Spaniards in Jamaica. It is believed that the first Jamaican
migrant set sail with Colombus from “El Cabo de Buen Tiempo”, Montego
Bay’s original name for Spain.
The favourable conditions existing in Montego Bay influenced its
establishment as an economic centre for the western part of the island.
Since the early 20th century, it has enjoyed significant commercial
activity with the major exports being sugar, rum and coffee. After the late
1940’s however, tourism emerged as the dominant economic activity and remains
so today.
In 1795 and 1811, parts of Montego Bay were destroyed by fire. The town was
later rebuilt only to be again destroyed in 1831 by a rebellion led by Sam
Sharpe. England was determined to free all slaves but the planters in Jamaica
were reluctant to do so. Sam Sharpe tried to advocate passive resistance to
force the planters to comply with England but this did not go as planned. A
group of slaves became violent, setting fire to buildings and cane fields. Sam
Sharpe was hanged in the Montego Bay market place.
Today, tourism is a major foreign exchange earner. St James is over 80%
dependent on this industry for its economic survival.
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