1125+
web files in a constantly updated compendium on Bermuda's business, culture,
cuisine, customs, districts, economy, education, food, geography, government,
history, internet access, laws, parishes, politics, religions, traditions,
wildlife etc. For tourists, business visitors, employers, employees, newcomers,
researchers, retirees, scholars. Funded by and linked to The
Royal Gazette, Bermuda's only daily newspaper.
By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online
To refer to this web file, please use "bermuda-online.org/seetown2.htm" as your Subject.
See by name in St. George's Parish.
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Mid Ocean Club.
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St. George's Golf Club. Photograph by Government Information Services |
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Tucker's Point Golf Club
Photograph by Government Information Services |
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In 1775, from the town, many barrels of gunpowder were stolen from the British garrison near this site by Bermudian sympathizers of the American Revolutionary War. They were rolled down the hill to nearby Tobacco Bay and rowed to an American ship manned by US Marines. Unfortunately, the Gunpowder Cavern, built in 1887 near where the Gunpowder Plot occurred to store gunpowder more securely than earlier, is no longer open to visitors. Bermuda Gunpowder Plot of 1775, from a 1995 Bermuda Postage stamp. |
The historic, 2-storey, 4,500 square feet, former Queen's Warehouse building by the Penno's Wharf Cruise Ship Terminal. This was earmarked with the help of overseas expert Bill Pfeifer, the director for interpretive programs, staff development and visitor services for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia, and design consultant Ed Bronwikonski, Jr. who had earlier designed the award-winning North Rock Exhibit at the Bermuda Aquarium.
This small park is on the right side of Ordnance Island as you face it. It includes the the Desmond Hale Fountain statue of Sir George Somers, unveiled by the late Princess Margaret in 1984, during the 375th anniversary of the Sea Venture shipwreck in 1609. The park itself was unveiled on April 20, 1997 during the Twinning Ceremonies with Lyme Regis, with a Scottish Piper in attendance. Major Burns, originally from Scotland in the United Kingdom but Bermudian by status and domicile, was the Town Crier from 1964 to 1994 and a very popular figure for many years.
| Broad Alley, behind St. Peter's Church. A restored 18th century parsonage, an immaculate cottage with black shutters and with its exterior similar to an English country garden except that lime, loquat and spice trees abound. Note the similarities to many buildings in the more historic parts of Virginia, built in the same period. Originally built by a pirate. His widow inherited the property. Once the residence of the Rev. Alexander Richardson, rector of St. Peter's, thus the name. He died in 1805. In 1903, owned by Robert H. James whose heirs sold it in 1950 to the Bermuda Historical Monuments Trust, now the Bermuda National Trust, leasing the property. With typical welcoming arms architecturally. |  |
A
major Bermuda landmark. On
Princess Street, this property (photo by author Keith A. Forbes) is
administered by the Old State House Preservation Society (see below). It was once the meeting
place of local parliamentarians and now a Freemasons Lodge but open to the
public. It was originally the first stone-built civilian property in Bermuda, dating back to
1621 and one of the oldest standing stone structures erected by English
colonists in the New World. It was built by Governor Nathaniel
Butler, constructed nine years after the first stone-built military
property in Bermuda, Paget Fort on Castle Island. Its design was perhaps
influenced by the Italianate style introduced to England by Inigo Jones from
about 1610. Except that an Italian flat
roof proved to be completely the wrong idea for Bermuda's porous native limestone building
material. Various changes had to be made from
a flat roof to a hip roof. It was rebuilt yet again, this time with a flat roof
once more, from the level of its downstairs windows in 1969 using John
Smith's engraving as evidence and with technical overseas assistance. Its flat
roof is not original, a reconstruction of the original flat roof from Gunpowder
was stored in this building for more than a century and a half, until 1767.
During the American Revolution, British troops from New York and South Carolina
were quartered here from September to December 1780. From the time of Governor
Butler until the capital of Bermuda was moved to Hamilton in 1815, it was also
referred to as the Sessions House - as the seat of the local parliament and
Courthouse, where legal justice was dispensed. Today, it is leased by the Government
of Bermuda to the prominent Masonic Lodge St. George No. 200 of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, for the annual rent of one peppercorn.
A registered Bermuda charity, number 576, to help maintain the Old State House. Suite 898, 48 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton HM 11. It consists of about 30 concerned citizens locally and about six former citizens of Bermuda, now overseas, who wish to assist.
A residential street with, like so many others in the old town, a distinctly British name. It was named during the American Revolution when Governor Bruere, a former British Army soldier whose two sons were fighting in the British Army in America, placed a gun platform in the alley after the pro-American Gunpowder Plot of 1775 in Bermuda. Completed in late October 2002 were many improvements including laying of attractive brick paving, period lighting and more as part of the Town Heritage Plan.
The only island in the old town, this
one is 1.75 acres and man-made. There were once several islands here.
The present island incorporates what was Ducking Stool, Frazer's and Gallows. One stored munitions for the British Army and Royal Navy.
Another was where people convicted of capital crimes or witchcraft were hanged. It is now permanently connected to St. George's Island by a bridge so cunningly designed that it does not seem to be a bridge at all.
During World War 2 it was a US Navy anti-submarine base. In fact, the US Navy built the present bridge between Ordnance Island and King's Square. Before that, it was a wooden bridge. Cruise ships berth here. Several of the most prominent attractions of the town are located here or nearby. Today, the island has a small park for choice views, a statue of Admiral Sir George Somers who founded the town in 1609, one of the two cruise ship berths and a former government building, "Tabernius House," tastefully renovated with spacious and unique 2-bedroom condominium suites with waterfront and views across St. George's Harbor.
No longer serving the Queen as a Bermuda Customs warehouse but still named this. It is intended as a world-class visitor centre for the St. George's Foundation, for a symbolic lease of a small bale of cotton. It will be the $20 million cornerstone of St. George's as one of the more than 812 World Heritage properties in 125 countries on the UNESCO list.
The Sunday before Remembrance Day, a Public Holiday. The Royal Artillery Association Bermuda Branch has an annual Remembrance Sunday Wreath Laying Ceremony, Parade and Church Service on King's Square - near the war memorial - and St. Peter's Church, led by the Band of the Bermuda Regiment, on the day before Remembrance Day. Decorations and medals are worn.
See Bermuda Cuisine.
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Duke of York Street, across St. Peter's Church. Telephone (441) 297-1423. In the renovated ($431,000) Globe Hotel, King's Square, owned by the Bermuda National Trust. Open Mondays to Saturdays, 10 am to 4 pm and on Sundays, 1 pm to 4 pm. It began life as Bermuda's second Government House - dwelling and seat of power of the colonial Governor (Samuel Day) from 1698 to 1700. When he refused to give it up after being replaced as Governor, it became his private residence and a third Government House was built on the site of the Unfinished Church. Later, as the Globe Hotel, it became the headquarters of the Confederate Agent in Bermuda in the American Civil War. For many years it was known as the Confederate Museum. This has now been deemed politically incorrect and the building is now referred to instead as Rogues and Runners, much to the outrage of at least one American writer. Keith Forbes graphic |
It has displays, maps, memorabilia and period furnishings on Bermuda's role, biased towards the Confederates. It angered Union forces. Artifacts and more tell of blockade running and linking Bermuda with the Confederates, thanks to the skills of Britons and Canadians.
When
the American Civil War began in 1860,
it was not long before Bermuda, with its convenient access to open ocean and its
St. George's in particular, became the second-largest, after Nassau, Bahamas,
transshipment base for large British-built but not British-approved (because
Britain was officially neutral) ships crossing the Atlantic and smaller but
faster, also mostly British-built but Confederate-owned fleet of blockade
runners. In contemptuous defiance of British neutrality laws or regulations,
large ships from the United Kingdom unloaded in St. George's huge cargoes of
arms and ammunition, cannon, gunpowder, lead and other tools or weapons, plus
huge amounts of smokeless anthracite coal from Wales, into town warehouses,
where they were stored until loaded aboard fast steamers bound for Confederate
ports.
Confederate purchasing agents and British speculators - English, Scots, Welsh and Irish - rented every available wharf, storehouse and warehouse, often at exorbitant rates, while Bermudians made fortunes from renting or leasing their wharves or warehouses. It turned usually sedate St. George's into an overcrowded, polluted, often lawless and dangerous town, especially with sailors looking for liquor and women.
There were dangers, too.
In October 1864, Bat, length 230', beam 26', draft 7'6", speed 16 knots, her sisters Owl, Stag, and Deer were side-wheelers with long, low, molded steel hulls, schooner-rigged fore and aft, with two funnels. They had twin, 180-nominal hp., vertical, double-oscillating, Watt engines and capacity for 800 to 850 bales of cotton, plus enough anthracite to return from Nassau, Havana or Bermuda. Bat reached Halifax on her maiden voyage and ran down to the Cape Fear River, attempting entrance the night of October 8 1864 with a cargo of shoe machinery and 200 tons of coal; she was turned back by blockaders. On October 10, Captain A. Hora, a blockade runner, tried again and was hit by USS Montgomery. The 30-pounder amputated the leg of seaman Match Madick, an Austrian, who had been captain of the forecastle in the Alabama during her battle with USS Kearsarge. Captain Hora surrendered and called Montgomery's surgeon but Madick died.
Flamingo, length 270', beam 24', draft 7', crew 45, speed 16 knots. She suffered a serious setback in Bermuda, with with her sister, Ptarmigan, while their crews battled yellow fever. She was wrecked off Battery Rutledge on the north side of Charleston harbor.
Greyhound was fast, with red streak along her light lead colored hull. Built in Liverpool in 1863 she left for the Confederacy on January 5, 1864 on her maiden voyage, and ran between there and Bermuda mostly. Commanded by Lt. George Henry Bier, CSN, on 9 May 1864 she ran out of Wilmington NC, with 820 bales of cotton, 35 tons of tobacco and 25 casks of turpentine. Captured next day by USS Connecticut, she became celebrated as the ship that carried a mysterious "Mrs. Lewis", soon recognized as "the famous rebel lady, Miss Belle Boyd.” The prize master, Acting Ensign Samuel Harding, Jr., USN, who took Greyhound to Boston was persuaded by his charming prisoner to let Captain Bier escape from Boston to Canada; for this Harding was dismissed from the US Navy in disgrace, so married Belle Boyd in England.
In January 1865, when Wilmington, North Carolina was captured by Union forces, the fleet of blockade runners based in Nassau and St. George's, Bermuda, vanished - and so did the prosperity that the US Civil War had brought Bermuda by being so hugely on the side of the Confederates. See the story of Bermuda and the American Civil War and a video with great images of the forces which shaped Bermuda, titled Bermuda: Center of the Atlantic.
Lynx was a long, very fast Clyde-built (in Scotland) paddle-steamer with two stacks and two masts, all painted white. She met her end bound for Bermuda, running out of Wilmington NC, under Captain Reid, with 600 bales of cotton, passengers and special cargo, including $50,000 in gold. She was hit eight times, six below the waterline, by the 100-pounder and 30-pounder rifles of much slower USS Howquah, assisted by Niphon and Governor Buckingham. Sinking, with one of her wheels damaged, Lynx was beached about six miles below Fort Fisher. The Confederates all escaped, along with the gold, although Federal sharpshooters got near enough to wound one crew member. The ship's remains were set afire.
Owl, length 230', beam 26', draft 7'6", speed 14-16 knots. She was at Bermuda with cotton. Captain John N. Maffitt, once the Florida captain, collected the latter's survivors in Bermuda. (She was a Confederate cruiser sunk by the Union Navy).
Robert E. Lee, length 283', beam 20', draft 10', speed 13.5 knots. A schooner-rigged, iron-hulled, oscillating-engined paddle-steamer with two stacks originally the Giraffe, built on the Clyde during the autumn of 1862 as a fast Glasgow-Belfast packet. Alexander Collie & Co., Manchester, acquired her for their blockade-running fleet but were persuaded by renowned blockade-runner Lt. John Wilkinson, CSN, to sell her to the Navy Department. Her first voyage, for the Confederate Navy, was into Old Inlet, Wilmington NC, in January 1863 with valuable munitions and 26 Scot lithographers, eagerly awaited by the Government bureau of engraving and printing. She established a legendary reputation by outracing the blockader USS Iroquois. Lt. Richard H. Gayle, CSN, assumed command in May, relieving Lt. John Wilkinson. Robert E. Lee's luck ran out on November 9, 1863, after 21 voyages in 10 months carrying out over 7,000 bales of cotton, returning with munitions invaluable to the Confederacy. She left Bermuda five hours after her consort, Cornubia, only to be run down a few hours later by the USS James Adger.
Stag. Length 230', beam 26', draft 7'6", speed 16 knots. She was a fast, modern, steel paddle-steamer built for the Confederate Navy at Liverpool as Jones, Quiggin & Co.'s Hull No. 169 in 1864 to the order of Cdr. James D. Bulloch, CSN. She sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage in August, getting away from Nassau about 1 September. For the rest of the year, she was busily running out of Charleston and Wilmington to Nassau or Bermuda. She fell into Union hands when she attempted to run into Wilmington in January 1865; Fort Fisher having just fallen, she was trapped by the Union Navy along with the Charlotte.
24 Cut Road, phone 297-1612.
5 Queen Street, GE 05. P. O. Box GE 58. Telephone (441) 297-8043. Fax (441) 297-2479. E-mail stgeofoundation@ibl.bm. Bermuda registered charity 454.
Scenic waterfront, looking clear over to St. David's. The harbour has docks for cruise ships, marinas and anchorages. It also has some interesting wrecks.
In the first half of the 10th century, it also housed prison hulks, as the second graphic below shows.
This view from Gleason's Pictorial Drawing Room Companion.
Shipwrecks in the harbour include:
1918. En route to the USA from Britain with a cargo of Dover chalk, the three-masted, steel-hulled, 236 foot vessel Taifun, built in Greenock, Scotland in 1894, was badly damaged at sea in a bad storm. She was stranded there for 3 years and in February 1921 was further damaged by a steamer in the harbour. She was left to decay.
1919. The American four-masted auxiliary schooner NE Turner, quite new when disabled off Bermuda and towed here where she remains.
Market Nights every Tuesday night 7 pm to 10 pm from April 30 to November 30 in King's Square. A traditional Bermuda market with stalls featuring locally made arts and crafts, market produce, music and sale of baked goods. Gombeys perform. Cruise ship passengers can join other visitors and residents.
It goes to some of the places within St. George's Parish that the regular buses don't visit. Details from Visitors Service Bureau.
Under the Town of St. George (Protection of Buildings of Special Interest) Act 1950, Bermuda Government appointees are shown under this name in Bermuda Government Boards.
Duke of York Street.
In many ways the religious, spiritual and cultural
icon of Bermuda. Anyone
interested in helping with the preservation of the church should contact The
Friends of St. Peter's Church. It was once on part of a sea inlet. Claimed
as the oldest continually occupied Anglican church in the Western
Hemisphere. Governor Moore constructed the original
church before Christmas, 1612. Whether exactly on the site of the present church
is not known, but due to negligence of the workmen in charge, but mostly because
the church was located on an bleak, exposed hill, a gale tipped over the
timber-framed structure. The Governor then,
from the ruins of the wooden church, constructed a very fine house built in the
shape of a cross", which served the faithful and may also have been used
for the first Court of General Assize in 1616. That second church lasted but
four years, at which time in early January 1620, the energetic Governor Butler
built a new one: it was there that the first Assembly was held on August 1,
1620.
In September 1712, the church was demolished by a hurricane and the "parishioners rallied round to make a new stone building", which was to be a cruciform with a "southern extension with a welcoming-arms porch and steps". In 1815, under the "moving spirit" of John Till, the church was extensively enlarged. The original Jacobean communion table (the oldest piece of Bermudian cedar woodwork), the unusual three deck pulpit and other fittings salvaged.
A large number of the original timbers were also incorporated. Gravestones in the way of that development were tossed aside or buried; walls built over graves contributed to the perilous state of the building by the 1950s. In 1841, the southern extension was lengthened for a new main entrance. In the early 1950s, the church was much rebuilt and at that time, "the most spectacular find was the old original 'welcoming' bricked steps" of the 1700s, and a number of headstones which had been "buried" under the main entrance when it was extended in 1841.
The
surrounding historic graveyard is the last resting place for many generations of
gentry and commoners, governors and slaves, privateers and statesmen of
Bermudian, British and American birth. Inside the Church the walls are covered
with memorials to many men and women significant in the history of Bermuda and
Western Atlantic settlement. Slaves and former slaves were freed when the British declared
slavery illegal in
the early 1800s. Those
reposing in their eternal rest in the graveyard to the right of the church include
American midshipman, Richard Dale, mortally wounded in the 1812-14 War. In gratitude, his parents inscribed the headstone.
The church’s oldest bible is dated 1594 and the earliest communion ware is the St. George’s Chalice given to the church by the Bermuda Company in 1625, in the reign of Charles I. Another set was given to the church by William III in 1697. The Bishop’s throne dates from the 18th century. With the flag of St. George waving over the town from its tower, St. Peter’s has been at the heart of the community for almost four hundred years. Generations of townspeople have looked to its clock for the time of day and its bell has called the people of the parish to worship. It has also announced other important events such as the declaration of the emancipation of slaves on August 1, 1834. The church was also the meeting place of the first Parliament of Bermuda, held August 1, 1620 and has continued to be a special place of important community events such as the annual Remembrance Sunday Service.
The church has many unique military memorials from when it was a British Army garrison town, mostly from or about soldiers who died in Bermuda from yellow fever earlier or in the mid to late 1800s. The valuable and unique communion plate and related items are tangible reminders of Bermuda's history. In August 2008 the remains of three men were found under the floorboards of the church. They were buried in haste. One was the skeletal remains of the man who was Governor of Bermuda during a significant moment in history, found after lying forgotten for 228 years beneath the floorboards of this church. The wood coffin that once encased Governor George James Bruere had disintegrated with the passing of the centuries, but a copper name plate inscribed with his details and date of death, September 10, 1780 at the age of 59, originally attached to the top of his coffin was found resting in the chest cavity of his skeleton by archaeologists crawling through a tiny two-foot gap beneath the church floor. It is believed he died of Yellow Fever, which is why he was placed under the church, not in the graveyard. Bruere was in charge of Bermuda at the time of the infamous gunpowder plot during the American Revolutionary War, when a stash of gunpowder was plundered from the Island and then used to devastating effect against the British forces. Bruere, a former British Army Lieutenant Colonel who lost a son also in the army fighting the Americans, was outraged when he discovered what had happened and put up a reward for the capture of the Bermudians responsible but to no avail. Bruere was Governor from 1764 until his death on September 10, 1780. His portrait hangs in the Bermuda National Trust's Tucker House museum in the heart of St. George's.
Another skeleton found there, also buried in haste for the same reason, was Sir Jacob Wheate, a British Navy captain and commander of HMS Cerberus - now a dive site also known as the 'Musket Ball Wreck'. The 5th Rate 32 gun ship was launched in 1779 but struck rocks in Castle Harbour and sank in 1783. A team of archaeologists at St. Peter's Church found a coffin plate next to the corpse, inscribed with Sir Jacob's name and the words 'Commander of his Majesty's ship Cerberus'. Historical records suggest Sir Jacob died in 1783 of yellow fever. He should have had a more substantial burial, but it is thought they may have buried him quickly because he had yellow fever. It is hoped to re-intern Governor Bruere and Sir Jacob in the grounds of St. Peter's Church in a ceremony officiated by the present rector. The other corpse has been discovered slightly to the south, on top of the limestone bedrock. Traces of a coffin and coffin nails were found, plus small copper pins which suggest the man was wrapped in a shroud, the fibers of which would have disintegrated over the centuries. His identity is not yet known.Among the formal military graves is that of an American patriot from Philadelphia, honored by the the Daughters of the American Revolution organization. She was Anne Willing Bingham, said to be the most beautiful woman of her time. On May 11, 1801 she was buried here. She was Anne Bingham, in her 37th year, born in 1764, daughter of Thomas Willing of Philadelphia. At the age of 16, she married Senator William Bingham, possibly the wealthiest man in America, owning at one time more than a million acres of the state of Maine. They spent some years in Europe and it was there that Anne contracted an illness, for which Bermuda was prescribed as a place of cure. Unfortunately, a cure was not to be had. Anne Willing Bingham's reputation and fame yet survives, for she is supposed to have been the model for the famous Draped Bust portrait on the obverse of the American silver dollars and other United States coinage between 1796 and 1804. The famous artist Gilbert Stuart is said to have made a portrait of Anne in 1785, when she was 21 years old. From that sketch, the "Miss Liberty" of the Draped Bust coins was probably created.
In the lower
graveyard to the right of the church are
the graves - shown above and here - of Sir Richard
Sharples, Governor of Bermuda and his aide-de-camp (ADC) at that time Captain Hugh Sayers,
Welsh Guards, British
Army. Both were assassinated on March 10, 1973 and buried here at the express wish of
their families after being gunned down
without warning in Bermuda in the grounds of Government House, Pembroke
Parish, as they were taking a walk with a dog. It was only a few
hours after the Governor and Captain Sayers had been
visited by the Commanding Officer of the US Naval Station at St.
David's. (He had been driven by Ed Falato, who served on
the base from 1970-74).
The Bermudian killer Erskine Durrant Burrows was hanged, after being found guilty not only of these murders but also Police Commissioner George Duckett in September 1972 and an armed robbery in April 1973. After the hanging at Casemates Prison on December 2, 1977 of Burrows and another killer Larry Winfield Tacklyn, dreadful revenge racial riots occured in Bermuda, with attacks on police stations and many injuries to policemen and others. World-wide publicity gave a terrible picture of Bermuda. Many from overseas swore never to go there, or go there again. It was claimed by the Bermuda and British Governments that the killer was a Black Power advocate. During the riots, a prolonged State of Emergency occured that included a call-up of the Bermuda Regiment. British Governors of Bermuda were advised to stop having aides from overseas and instead to have local ones. It is how the tradition started in the Bermuda Regiment.
The widow of Sir Richard Sharples was subsequently made Baroness Pamela Sharples in 1973 by the British Government in London, to mark the honor, sympathy and respect the British Government had for Sir Richard and to show the outrage Britons felt over how the Queen's Representative in Bermuda was assassinated in the only British territory ever to have a Governor murdered in cold blood. After a long absence because of the assassination, Baroness Sharples and her family bought a house in Bermuda.
In 1999, perhaps fearing the repercussions of another riot - and under pressure from the British Government which objects to it - the Bermuda Government abolished the death penalty - unlike the USA which retains it.
George Tucker was a model citizen. He had inherited the posts of Colonial Secretary and Provost Marshall from his father, who had served in these offices in the 1720s. He was a member of the Govemor's Council under both Governors Popple. His house was a crowded one, since he had a wife, five children, and eleven slaves.
The detached two-floor cottage to the north of the main house was probably home to some of Tucker's slaves, whose duties undoubtedly included looking after the small herd of livestock which Tucker kept in the yard. An archaeological excavation at Stewart Hall in 1990-91 revealed a livestock watering trough for these cattle, over a mid-17th century woman's grave, dug long before Stewart Hall was built. A probate inventory made after George Tucker died in 1766 reveals the wealth and refinement of the Secretary's home. He had created a cross chamber on the ground floor by dividing the larger hall with a partition, reflecting the Georgian predilection for symmetry and its emphasis on creating private spaces by increasing the number of doorways in a house. Tucker has a writing closet off the hall where he attended to his official duties. Silver plate, Chinese porcelain, English salt-glazed stoneware and lead crystal graced the Tuckers' dining room and exhibited their wealth and status. George Tucker's widow Mary lived in Stewart Hall until her death in 1787. The house was then rented to Andrew Durnford between 1789 and 1791 while he was improving the colony's fortifications and building Durnford. He lived in Stewart Hall with his mistress, Elizabeth Lucas, with whom he had six children. Hannah Stockton, who was George Tucker's niece, purchased the house at auction in 1795. She died there two years later and the house went to her two young children.
The direct impact of the arrival of the British military in the 1790s can be seen in the fate of the Stockton's children. Her son became a purser in the Royal Navy and her daughter Sarah married Lieutenant James Robinson of the Royal Fusiliers. The Robinsons lived in Stewart Hall until 1819, when they departed for England and sold the house to silversmith John Trott Cox. He was responsible for the one-floor addition to the north of the house, which housed his workshop and retail store. Barrister (lawyer) Duncan Stewart purchased the property in 1849 and, although he never lived in the house himself, the name Stewart Hall, commemorates his ownership.
In the early 20th century, Stewart Hall was owned by the Higinbothom and Clifford families before the Bermuda Historical Monuments Trust purchased it in 1949. Until recently, it housed the St. Georges' branch library. It has since been acquired by The Bermuda National Trust. The latest tenant is the Bermuda Perfumery, now owned by The Brackstone Partnership.
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Bermuda cedar originals of these on King's Square were used from the early 17th century onwards, to mete out public humiliation and punishments. Today, they show how the punishment was inflicted. The stocks are like a guillotine's platform an offender has to climb up. Instead of a sharp and vicious blade coming down to sever the head at the neck, the head is held in the tight grip of two boards with apertures for the head and hands. In the old days, onlookers often threw rotten fruit at those being punished. In this photograph by Keith A. Forbes, a couple from Maine are locked in the stocks. |
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These are all British, mostly from the
early 17th century.
Names reflect the whimsy or purpose of the streets.
As merely a few examples, Duke of York Street commemorates the Duke 2with that title of the period.
Featherbed Alley (shown) commemorates the fact that a local property could afford a featherbed, at a time when most could not.
One Gun Alley is so called from when a gun platform protected the town during the American Revolution.
Shinbone Alley commemorates British soldiers being so drunk from a grog shop once here that they went back to their barracks on their hands and knees.
Named after a dockside area in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, it is a western area of the town, near where ships and freighters dock and where there are loud concerts. A plaque here marks the World Heritage Site status conferred on the town, to make it one of the more than 630 such sites.
The
custom and tradition is now an entirely British one. It stretches back many years
before this town was born in 1612.
"HEAR ye, hear ye!" Bermuda's David Frith, Town Crier of St. George's, was awarded the top prize at an international Town Crier competition in England.
The Armada Cup, held every year in late July, traditionally consists of two "cries" in Kingsbridge, Devon, southwest England, and then a third cry in a neighboring town, this year Paignton. Competitors are judged on the clarity of their voice, their diction, the consistent pitch and volume as well as their appearance. They are provided with a subject upon which to speak and are usually limited to 100 words. The subject of the third and final cry in Paignton was "A British Vacation", which Mr. Frith edited slightly to be a "British Vacation to Bermuda", extolling the reasons why Britons should come to the island for a holiday. Since becoming St. George's Town Crier in 2004, Mr. Frith has travelled each summer to the event, all the while keeping his eye on the prize. "This summer was my fifth trip," said Mr. Frith (see photo). "I've been vying for the trophy for the past five years and it has eluded me. I've placed second two (previous) times. Now the trophy has my name on it, so hopefully I can retain it next year." Tracing the position's roots back to ancient Greece, town criers were virtual "newscasters" of the day and usually the chief means of disseminating public news. Employed by a town council, criers were typically literate individuals who were able to read announcements, proclamations, local bylaws, advertisements to the townspeople, since many townspeople could not read or write. Notifying citizens by ringing a bell (or banging on a drum in France and Holland), criers in mediaeval England typically dressed elaborately and shouted "hear ye, hear ye" which signified attention and silence.The costume indicates his official status as an ancient town's watchman and reader of news. He also specified the punishments to be publicly administered to law breakers according to the traditions at that time. They included consignment to the stocks, being pilloried and whipped, ducking stool sessions, and execution.
St. George's Mayor Mariea Caisey accompanied Mr. Frith on the trip abroad and was asked to judge the "Best Dressed" competition in Paignton. The primary reason for their trip was to attend the annual Somers Day Commemoration Parade in Lyme Regis, a town in Dorset that was the home of Sir George Somers, the English Admiral shipwrecked in Bermuda in 1609 while leading a relief fleet to the starving Jamestown colony in Virginia. Sir George and the survivors of the Sea Venture wreck came ashore in Bermuda in what is now the parish of St. George's. As Lyme Regis is the twin town of St. George's, Mr. Frith is also the honorary Town Crier of Whitchurch Canonicorum, the village where Sir George Somers is buried. Possessing the honorary title made Mr. Frith eligible to compete in the European Town Crier Championship, which was held in Holland while the pair were abroad. While Mr. Frith didn't win the overall competition, he did take top prize in the "Best Dressed" competition, which landed him on the front page of the local Dutch newspaper Almelo. Mr. Frith's elaborate costume was made by Liz Campbell, wife of Dr. Gordon Campbell, who adorned the back of his jacket with hand-painted dragon, which is symbolic of Saint George, the patron saint of England. While many do not know about town crier competitions, Bermuda has historically done well. St. George's former Town Crier E. Michael Jones won the Armada Cup in 2000 and St. George's Town Crier in the mid-1980s, Major D. H. (Bob) Burns, MC, holds the Guinness World Record for the loudest human speaking voice. Mr. Frith hopes to continue his winning ways and attributes his success to Mayor Caisey. "I was very fortunate to have her with me on the trip. She was very supportive and I am very thankful to her and the Corporation of St. George's."
Town criers and their spouses from around the world visited Bermuda and this town in 2000.
When not in session, the town hall is open to the public by day. However, for over 100 years, it has been a controversial issue that town hall meetings have not been open to the public, unlike in all British -UK municipalities and most USA and Canadian ones.
Behind the Town Hall are toilets for men and women, also with access for the disabled.
Water
Street, St. George's. Telephone (441) 297 0545. Open Monday to Saturday 10 am to 4 pm. The
stark exterior of this early 18th century merchant's house is a most interesting museum
owned by the Bermuda National Trust. The house is said to be the most typical of
early Bermudian house construction although the date of the building is unknown.
Archaeological evidence suggests that it was standing, largely as it appears
today, by the middle of the 18th century. A known first owner was a Thomas
Smith. See the architecturally elegant interior furnished
with family heirlooms dating back to 1775, when the house was owned and occupied by
the Hon. Henry Tucker, Colonial Treasurer and President of the Governor's Council (1775-1807) and
his family from 1770 to 1808. The first Tucker to arrive on the Island was
Daniel, who came out from Kent in 1616 to serve as the Colony’s second
governor. It is believed that the Tuckers installed the large paneled doors with
the decorative wood carvings, inspired by the Adams brothers, some time during
the last quarter of the 18th century. Henry Tucker and his sons were involved in the infamous
Bermuda Gunpowder Plot of 1775. They contributed richly to British, American
and Bermudian history. Crystal chandeliers, an extensive collection of Tucker family
silver, antique English mahogany and Bermudian cedar furniture and exquisite hand sewn quilts, are some of the
treasures on view. A few of the lovely antiques include a superb Bermuda cedar
tea table circa 1730-1740, along with a fine set of Bermuda cedar side chairs
with caned seat (circa 1730). These and the tea table are thought to have once
belonged to the original Tucker home, The Grove. In the drawing room are two
important portraits of Colonel and Mrs. Tucker, nee Anne Butterfield, painted in
1753 by Joseph Blackburn, a visiting artist who was also well know in New
England. Major Henry Tucker (1658-1726) stands over the fireplace. The
bedroom has an English mahogany four-poster bed with rice pattern carving, on
which lies a hand sewn quilt. There is a rare example of a Bermuda cedar
three-sided cradle in the nursery along with side chairs made for children.
Many items were donated by the American branch of the Tucker family, from Baltimore, Maryland, and Williamsburg, Virginia. Three pieces were made by cabinet makers Henry and Samuel Smith and their slaves Nokey and Augustus. As a team, they created superb examples of local furniture modified from English and American furniture.
One of the portraits on display
is that of His Excellency, Governor George James Bruere, Lieutenant Colonel in
His Majesty's Service, at the who died on September 10, 1780 at the age of 59
years.
Bruere was the British Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda from 1764, through the start of the American Revolution in 1776, until his death.
He was outraged when, under his nose, Bermudians who sympathized with George Washington and his patriots including the owner of this house, stole a big cache of British Army gunpowder in Bermuda in 1775 and got it to the Americans.
Bruere was outraged when he discovered what had happened and put up a reward for the capture of the Bermudians responsible but to no avail. It became celebrated as the Bermuda Gunpowder Plot (see stamp, right). Because he died of fever he was buried under St. Peter's Church, St. George's. Bruere lost a son also in the army fighting the Americans in 1778.
One of the rooms in the house is dedicated to one Joseph Haynes Rainey, who spent the American Civil War years in Bermuda with his wife. Both had managed to escape from their earlier lives in the American South, where they had been slaves. They sought and obtained refuge in Bermuda. As a barber and dressmaker respectively, they were treated with respect and made a good living. When they finally returned to their native Southern state in 1866, with slavery having been abolished there, Mr. Rainey was appointed - not elected - during the Reconstruction period as the first ever black member of the United States' House of Representatives.
The home was bequeathed to the Bermuda Historical Monuments Trust, predecessor of the Bermuda National Trust, by their great-grandson, Robert Tucker, when he died in 1950 at the age of 102.
Underneath Tucker House, at street level, there is a book store called "The Book Cellar" with a complete range of books on the town. For further information, call (441) 297 0448 or fax (441) 297 4072.
A long, colorful residential homestead road, a hill in parts, off the main artery of Queen Street, within the town. It is so-called because the road and area was once part of a 17th to 18th century farming district which used to grow lilies, potatoes, turkeys, ducks and chickens for export. In about 1620, the turkeys that originally came from the USA were the subject of many complaints for being wild. But in about 1762, about 30,000 turkeys were reputedly sold to the USA, which is when the road was titled.
On Church Folly Lane, this towering structure on Government Hill Road was begun in 1874, on the site of the third Government House - dwelling of the Governor until 1815 and seat of local colonial power - which was demolished to make way for this church. Original architectural plans for this historic monument were by the famous Scottish firm of William Hay (who also designed the current Anglican Cathedral in the city of Hamilton and Government House in Pembroke Parish). It was intended as a replacement for St. Peter's Church, but was never completed. It was then believed that St. Peter's had deteriorated too much to be worth saving. But financial difficulties, followed by dissent within the Anglican community at the time, then finally severe damage to the rising structure by a storm, caused the project to be abandoned for good. Nevertheless, it is a magnificent gothic structure. In its death as an intended new church, it breathed life back into the old one when St. Peter's was restored. Today, it is one of the many properties of the Bermuda National Trust which is working to make it safe for public viewing and perhaps a site for cultural performances. Visitors can enjoy the views, but from a safe place.
A $6 million project begun in 2004 that restored the 1860-built Queen’s Warehouse at Penno’s Wharf. It has a new movie theatre; new air conditioning; a new bathroom, new staircase, new windows, doors, flooring and roof repairs. It is an important education and tourism product; creates life and activity in the Penno’s Wharf area; and became a teaching resource for Bermuda’s students and visitors who can view Bermuda’s history through film and interpretative exhibits, and then explore the Town. The Bank of Bermuda Foundation is the single largest donor to the Centre. Visitors and residents alike can learn more about the history that has shaped Bermuda over the past 500 years. The second phase of the World Heritage Centre in the restored Queen’s Warehouse was opened in June 2006. Guests take a walk-through tour of displays charting Bermuda’s history from the pre-settled era the ending of slavery in the 1800s. There is a life-size recreation of the deck of the Sea Venture as she floundered in the storm that brought the first settlers to the Island, and another exhibit features a model whale’s tail and a Bermudian fisherman poised with a harpoon. Amongst the static displays is a life-size giant turtle, a few cahows looking down from rocky perches and a miniature model of how St. George’s is thought to have looked in 1620. Children and the young at heart are able to dress up in period costumes from bygone days in a special activity corner of the Orientation Exhibits Gallery. On the walls of the gallery are displays charting the events that shaped Bermuda’s evolution from an uninhabited paradise to a prosperous and remote colony. Bermudian actors recorded the audio soundtracks that are played in some parts of the gallery. The exhibition is part of the St. George’s Foundation’s work. There is a small shop on the ground floor and have the Visitor Service Bureau move into the building to oversee the use of the gallery.
| City of Hamilton | Devonshire Parish | Hamilton Parish | Paget Parish | Pembroke Parish |
| Sandys Parish | Smith's Parish | Southampton Parish | St. George's Parish | Warwick Parish |
Last Updated:
October 10, 2008
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