PLACES are given specific names by chance and sometimes by reason. However, over the years names change and the history is not passed down through generations.

Such is the case of the Richmond Gap and Richmond Vale communities in St Thomas, once called Wilson because of the interesting story surrounding its existence.

According to Justice of the Peace and Richmond Vale resident, Howard Shepherd, the communities were first known as Content Estate and Richmond Estate under colonial rule. This, as the Banana River which runs through the community divides the area into Content Estate to the left, and Richmond Estate to the right.

But as the story goes, the names were changed when a black woman Elizabeth Wilson, affectionately known as Ya Ya Moodie, who was said to be a ‘healer’ or ‘obeah woman’, healed the owner of the Richmond Estate creating history in the process.

“Ya Ya Moodie had healed a white man with malaria who was the owner of the estate, and for her work she was awarded a section of the estate and she called it Wilson, making her the first black woman to own property in Jamaica under colonialism,” said Shepherd.

He explained that while completing his studies in the United States, he had to research the history of the community and found this fascinating information at the Brooklyn National Library in New York.

And for those wondering what happened to the area called Content Estate, Shepherd said it is sometimes still called that, but people prefer to refer to it as Richmond Vale. The hilly terrain now differentiates the vale from the gap, as the gap is the area of land on the hill and the vale is in the valley.

A section of the Content Estate, he said, houses the cave which belonged to Jack Mansong or Three Fingered Jack, a runaway slave, who was famous for his robberies through the Leeward Passage, the area now called 14 Miles near Bull Bay, St Thomas.

Shepherd further added that the gully which runs from the Three Fingered Cave to the Banana River, which once separated both estates is now called the Three Fingered Gully.

According to Shepherd, the entire place became Richmond Vale/ Gap in 1948 when colonialism was being phased out and Jamaica was ruled by a premier government.

“In 1948 the community was divided into a vale and a gap, (and) it was basically at the end of colonialism when we had a premier government,” he said.

The only evidence of colonial rule which remains in the community is the Richmond Vale Baptist Church which was built in that era. Shepherd said after Hurricane Charlie in 1951, restoration and preservation work was done there to maintain an important piece of the country’s history.

— Kimberley Hibbert