Since its establishment in the 17th century, Kingston and its citizens have for many years interred the dead in cemeteries across the city.

Cemeteries, from

the viewpoint of many, are morbid reminders of death and sadness – the final

stop in paying respects with one’s hope to never set foot in another.

However, BUZZ is of the unpopular opinion that there is no greater teacher of past experiences than a cemetery.

Luckily for us (and you), sections of Kingston are still perfectly preserved in time, as the dead refuses none who wish to learn.

With over 150 years as the capital of Jamaica, Kingston has seen its fair share of tragedies and disasters; the deaths arising from these, range in the thousands.

The welcoming silence of a cemetery makes the skin of some crawl with fear and uncertainty – fuelled by decades of ‘duppy stories’ – Kingston’s cemeteries hold some of the world’s most interesting histories.

Old Jewish Cemetery

Arguably holding the distinction of being the oldest in the island, and the oldest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, the Old Jewish cemetery can be found at 1 Hunt’s Bay Road in St. Andrew.

In the latter part of the 17th century, when Port Royal was a bustling metropolis and the commercial hub of the British Caribbean, the thriving Jewish community dedicated a cemetery for the final rites and rituals of its people to be performed.

Many of those tombs are still preserved at the Old Jewish Cemetery, bearing inscriptions in three languages:  Portuguese, Hebrew, and English.

Many of the remaining Jewish tombstones either bear ornately chiselled rose and hourglasses, trees being cut down by a hand bearing an axe, or a skull and crossbones.

After the devastating Port Royal earthquake of 1692, Jewish burials continued for a few more years into the 18th century, with the last tomb belonging to Moses Ferro – bearing the date 1771.

Old Naval Cemetery

Built on top of what remains from a much older cemetery, the Old Naval Cemetery was put into commission by the British around 1742.

The facility, found just outside of the sleepy town of Port Royal, was constructed in the aftermath of the former city sinking under the sea during the devastating 1692 earthquake.

Victims of the deadly Yellow Fever epidemics that plagued Kingston in the 18th and 19th centuries are also buried at the Old Naval Cemetery.

More recently, efforts to conserve the location’s rich history have come under threat as the Kingston Harbour reclaims sections of the cemetery.

St. Andrew Parish Church

The second oldest

cemetery within Kingston can be found on the grounds of the St. Andrew Parish

Church, built in 1664. With over 7,000 burials on the 8 ¼ acres, this cemetery

is the largest private facility of its kind on the island in continual

use.

Interred there are

the remains of historic figures including Archbishop Enos Nuttall, the first

Archbishop of the West Indies after whom the Nuttall Hospital in Kingston is

named.

It stands to this

day as a popular internment plot for Kingston’s affluent – and is a prized

focal point of interest for genealogists, historians, researchers and archaeologists

who seek insight into personalities of the past, customs and culture over the

last 350 years.

May Pen Cemetery

Kingston’s most famous (or infamous in equally as many eyes) cemetery, the May Pen Cemetery, can easily be seen from the busy Spanish Town Road thoroughfare that cuts adjacent to the massive property.

As one of the oldest public cemeteries in the Caribbean, the May Pen Cemetery is one of the only burial sites where persons of all nationalities, races, religions and faiths are interred.

Established on 200 acres of the derelict Littleworth Race Course in 1851, burials began some years afterwards according to ‘Law 21’ of 1874. By then, May Pen Cemetery was the most popular burial site of its kind in the Caribbean – with partitions and special plots called ‘grounds’ reserved for several Christian denominations, Jews, Muslims and others from across Europe (English, Spanish, French, Irish, German and Portuguese) who called Jamaica home.

Importantly, a section was deemed the ‘Pauper Ground’, for the burial of the poor and indigent. There was even a section for victims of cholera, which affected Jamaica periodically back then, with the largest outbreak occurring in the early 1850s.

In the advent of

Kingston’s well-to-do elites leaving the downtown district for the cool hills

of St. Andrew, the May Pen Cemetery was frowned upon and largely reduced to a

pauper’s plot. So much so was this stigma that by 1905, nearly 76% of all

persons buried there were classified as ‘poor and indigent’.

There have been recent attempts to resurrect May Pen Cemetery to its former glory, as records show many influential Jamaicans including pioneering musician and trombonist Don Drummond (BUZZ has learned his remains were moved recently).

Calvary Cemetery

On the other side

of Kingston, Calvary Cemetery, sprawled along Slipe Pen and Lyndhurst roads

came into existence in the late 1800s. Some records obtained show one of the

first burials, Rose Escoffery, taking place in the 1880s. Burials at the quiet

and scenic Calvary Cemetery are still common today.

Brigg’s Park

Briggs’ Park, the

only military cemetery on the island, has been a part of the Jamaica Defence

Force’s (JDF) Up Park Pen (now Up Park Camp) estate since 1900. The JDF also

houses a special cemetery at its Newcastle Training Depot since the late 1800s

for soldiers and recruits alike.

Chinese Cemetery

The Chinese

Cemetery along Waltham Park Road in Kingston is the largest single burial

ground of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean for Chinese nationals and

their descendants.

With burials

starting in 1912, to date, over 3,600 persons have been interred at the

11.5-acre property – managed and maintained by the Chinese Benevolent

Association (CBA).

Like many other

cemeteries in the city, the Chinese Cemetery has endured periods of upkeep and

disrepair over the 100+ years it has existed – coming into being after the

great 1907 earthquake that levelled much of Kingston.

National Heroes Park

Officially designated a botanical garden, National Heroes Park is the last stop in Kingston on our BUZZ cemetery tour.

As the largest open space on the island, the park’s 50 acres also serves as the final resting place for several notable Jamaican figures, including founding fathers Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante; freedom fighters Marcus Garvey, Paul Bogle, Sam Sharpe, and George William Gordon.

Established in 1783, the park, originally a race track called Kingston Race Course – renamed to what stands after Jamaica’s independence in 1962 – is also the last resting place of other past Prime Ministers, athletes, entertainers, poets, sculptors and painters, and even mass fire victims.

With the exception of Briggs’ Park and the St. Andrew Parish Church, all the above-mentioned cemeteries are open to the public and available for tours.