Notes:
Kingston (bevolking 800.000) is de hoofdstad van Jamaica en ligt in het zuidoosten van het land. Het ligt in een natuurlijke haven, die door Palisadoes wordt beschermd.
Geschiedenis
Kingston werd gesticht in 1693 door de Britten, na een rampzalige aardbeving die veel van de vorige hoofdstad Port Royal vernietigde. De stad werd de regeringszetel van Jamaica in 1872 en behield deze status toen het eiland onafhankelijk werd in 1962. Op 14 januari 1907 doodde een aardbeving in Kingston meer dan 1000 mensen.
In bestuurlijk opzicht vallen alleen het oude centrum (downtown ) en enkel aan zee grenzende wijken onder de parish Kingston. De overige wijken, waaronder het zakencentrum New Kingston en de villawijken in de heuvels vallen onder de parish Saint Andrew.
In Kingston bevinden zich de meeste kantoren en organen van de Jamaicaanse overheid. De Gouverneur-Generaal zetelt in het Kings House aan Hope Road in St.Andrew, dat oorspronkelijk de residentie van de bisschop van Jamaica was. Hier bevinden zich ook Jamaica House , de zetel van de minister-president en de befaamde studio van Bob Marley, Tuff Gong International. In de aangrenzende voorstad Mona liggen de Hope Gardens, nu de campus van de Universiteit van West-Indië, die in 1948 werd opgericht. In Kingston worden verscheidene jaarlijkse en goedbezochte festivals worden gehouden.
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica and is located on the southeastern coast of the island country. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island. In the Western Hemisphere, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States, with a population of 651,880 (2001 census).
The local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew were amalgamated by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act of 1923, to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC). Greater Kingston, or the "Corporate Area" refers to the KSAC; however, it does not solely refer to Kingston Parish, which only consists of the old downtown and Port Royal. Kingston Parish had a population of 96,052, and St. Andrew had a population of 555,828 in 2001.
The city proper is bounded by Six Miles to the west, Stony Hill to the north, Papine to the northeast and Harbour View to the east. Communities in rural St. Andrew such as Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, Lawrence Tavern, Mt. Airy and Bull Bay would not be described as being in Kingston.
Two parts make up the central area of Kingston: the historic but troubled Downtown, and New Kingston. Several reggae stars, including Buju Banton, Sean Paul, Bounty Killer, and Beenie Man, hail from Kingston. Attractions include the nearby Hellshire and Lime Cay beaches, the National Gallery of Jamaica, the ruins of Port Royal, and Devon House, a mansion with adjoining park that once belonged to Jamaica's first black millionaire. Several annual and well-visited festivals are held in Kingston.
Kingston is served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller and primarily domestic Tinson Pen Aerodrome.
History
Kingston was founded on July 22, 1692, as a place for refugees for survivors of the 1692 earthquake that destroyed Port Royal. Before the earthquake, Kingston’s functions were purely agricultural. The earthquake survivors set up a refugee camp oon the sea front. Approximately two thousand people died due to mosquito borne diseases. Initially the refugees lived in a tented camp on Colonel Barry's Hog Crawle. The town did not begin to grow until after the further destruction of Port Royayal by the Nick Catania Pirate Fleet's fire in 1703. Surveyor John Goffe drew up a plan for the town based on a grid bounded by North, East, West and Harbour Streets. By 1716 it had become the largest town and the centre of trade for Jamaica. The government sold land to people with the regulation that they would purchase no more than the amount of the land that they owned in Port Royal, and only land on the sea front. Gradually wealthy merchants began to move their residences from above their businesses to the farm lands to the north on the plains of Liguanea.
The first free school, Wolmer's, was founded in 1729 and there was a theatre, first one in Harbour Street and then moved in 1774 to North Parade. Both are still in existence. In 1755 the governor had decided to transfer the government offices ffrom Spanish Town to Kingston. It was thought by some to be an unsuitable location for the Assembly in close proximity to the moral distractions of Kingston, and the next governor rescinded the Act. However, by 1780 the population of Kingston was 11,000, and the merchants began lobbying for the administrative capital to be transferred from Spanish Town, which was by then eclipsed by the commercial activity in Kingston.
At the end of the 18th century, more than 3000 brick buildings were in the city. The harbour fostered trade and naval wars of the 18th century. Kingston took over the functions of Spanish Town (the capital at the time). These functions included, agriculture, commercial, processing, and a main transportation hub to and from Kingston and other sections of the island.
The government passed an act to transfer the government offices to Kingston from Spanish Town, and in 1872 the capital was transferred from Spanish Town to Kingston. It kept this status when the island was granted independence in 1962.
In 1907, 800 people died in another earthquake known as the 1907 Kingston earthquake, destroying nearly all the historical buildings south of Parade in the city. That was when a restriction of no more than 60 feet was instated on buildings in the central business district. These three story high buildings were built with reinforced concrete. Construction on King Street in the city was the first area to breach this building code.
During the 1930s, island wide riots lead to the development of trade unions and political parties to represent workers.
The city became home to the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies founded in 1948 with 24 medical students.
It wasn’t till the 1960s that major change occurred in the redevelopment of Kingston’s central business district. The international attention of reggae music at that time coincided with the expansion and development of 95 acres of the Downtown Kingston water front area.
These developments lead to an influx of shops and offices, and the development of a new financial center: New Kingston, which replaced the Knutsford Racetrack. Multi-story buildings and boulevards were placed within that section.
In 1966 Kingston was the host city to the Commonwealth Games.
The westward section of the city was not the focus of development, and that area proved to be a tense area in political times. The 1970s then saw deteriorating economic conditions that led to recurrent violence and a drop off in tourism which later affected the island.
In the 1980 general elections, the democratic socialist People's National Party (PNP) government was outvoted. The subsequent governments have been open market oriented since the 1980s. Within a global urban era, the 1990s saw that Kingston has made efforts to modernize and develop its city structure and functions. Various organizations such as The Kingston Restoration Company, the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the Port Authority of Jamaica, along with the Port Royal Development Company, among others sought to develop the urban structure of the city.
Modern development
Today, the city of Kingston sees that the original waterfront area along Harbour Street, once redolent with the aromas of colonial West Indian trade in rums and spices, has been re-developed and shipping has moved out to Newport West, adjacent to the extensive Kingston Industrial Estate.
A great deal of Kingston is pure shanty town, but again one sees striking contrasts, especially in New Kingston, situated between the teeming downtown and mid town areas and the fading but still gracious suburbs of St. Andrew.
The city’s wealthy is situated in the suburbs to the northern section of Kingston, closer to the hills and Mountains of the Blue Mountains range. The functions of the wealthy are met with in the New Kingston, Manor Park and Barbican / Liguanea areas, thus the downtown is now used mostly used by the low-income population.
New Kingston is a business area which embodies the best of modern tropical town planning, graciously combining high rise buildings and well-groomed gardens with the soaring Blue Mountains as a backdrop.
Matches 1 to 7 of 7
Last Name, Given Name(s) ![]() |
Birth ![]() |
Person ID | Tree | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 1693 | I192032 | savenije |
2 | ![]() | 21 Jun 1853 | I118732 | savenije |
3 | ![]() | 23 Dec 1813 | I118723 | savenije |
4 | ![]() | 1718 | I192112 | savenije |
5 | ![]() | 1714 | I192035 | savenije |
6 | ![]() | 1738 | I191969 | savenije |
7 | ![]() | 1716 | I192113 | savenije |
Matches 1 to 5 of 5
Last Name, Given Name(s) ![]() |
Christening ![]() |
Person ID | Tree | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 18 Jun 1693 | I192032 | savenije |
2 | ![]() | 13 May 1718 | I192112 | savenije |
3 | ![]() | 29 Aug 1714 | I192035 | savenije |
4 | ![]() | 22 Jun 1738 | I191969 | savenije |
5 | ![]() | 29 Apr 1716 | I192113 | savenije |
Matches 1 to 4 of 4
Last Name, Given Name(s) ![]() |
Death ![]() |
Person ID | Tree | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 24 Jun 1742 | I192032 | savenije |
2 | ![]() | 05 Aug 1859 | I118719 | savenije |
3 | ![]() | 25 Apr 1746 | I192031 | savenije |
4 | ![]() | 1756 | I192113 | savenije |
Matches 1 to 2 of 2
Family ![]() |
Marriage ![]() |
Family ID | Tree | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Livingston / Beekman | 22 Dec 1711 | F76758 | savenije |
2 | Stuyvesant / Slichtenhorst | 09 Oct 1681 | F76732 | savenije |
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