Kingston, Jamaica was founded
This Day in history, July 22, 1692, Kingston, Jamaica was founded as a refugee for survivors of an earthquake that destroyed Port Royal.
Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, is the smallest parish yet the most populated city on the island. It faces the 7th largest natural harbor in the world that is protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island.
Created as a refuge for survivors of the earthquake on June 7th which had destroyed two-thirds of Port Royal the new town was bounded on the south by Harbor Street while East, West and North Street defined the remainder of Kingston. The original grid pattern of Kingston remains the same today except for a few additions including streets were named after the councillors at the time when the town was founded.
Before the earthquake, Kingston’s functions were purely agricultural. The earthquake survivors set up a refugee camp on the sea front. Two thousand people died due to mosquito borne diseases.
In the mid-eighteenth century, the Governor of Jamaica, Admiral Charles Knowles, motioned to have Kingston as the capital city of Jamaica instead of Spanish Town. However this reign was brief as Knowles’ successor, Henry Moore, announced on October 3, 1758, that the King had not allowed the Bill making Kingston the capital city of Jamaica.
In 1865, after Admiral Knowles’ attempt to remove the capital of Jamaica to Kingston, Governor Sir John Peter Grant was assigned the task of re-organizing the country after a period of civil upheaval which had resulted in the Morant Bay Rebellion. Part of John Peter Grant’s re-organization of the island included the relocation of the capital from Spanish Town to Kingston. Kingston developed at a phenomenal rate and soon became the centre of trade and commerce in the island. The population of Kingston grew to such an extent that it spilled over into the north, St. Andrew.
