Hanover () is a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

located on the northwestern tip of the island of

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. It is a part of the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, bordered by St. James in the east and Westmoreland in the south. With the exception of Kingston, it is the smallest parish on the island. Hanover is the birth parish of Alexander Bustamante, labour leader, first head of government of Jamaica under universal suffrage, and one of seven Jamaican National Heroes. Its capital is Lucea.

History

The region was initially under Spanish control as a colony until 1655, when Spain relinquished control to the English. Over time, parishes were formed to govern the island. The parish would go unnamed for many decades even though many of the towns existed. Hanover was established on 12 November 1723. It is the second smallest parish in Jamaica and was established from parts of Westmoreland and St James parishes. It was named in honor of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

, George I, who was a member of the German

House of Hanover The House of Hanover ( ) is a European royal house with roots tracing back to the 17th century. Its members, known as Hanoverians, ruled Hanover, Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire at various times during the 17th to 20th centurie ...

. There had been a governmental proposal to name parish St. Sophia, after the King’s mother; however, the assembly did not approve the proposal. The parish's capital town, on the other hand, has name variations: St Lusia, St. Lucia, St. Lucea and, today, Lucea. In the early colonial days, Lucea, the main town and port, was even busier than

Montego Bay Montego Bay () is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth most populous urban area in the country, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore ...

. By the mid-18th century, Lucea was the hub of an important

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

-growing region, and the town was prosperous as a sugar port and market centre. European

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

settled in the parish as merchants, store keepers, haberdashery, shoe makers and

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Modern goldsmiths mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, they have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), plat ...

s. It became a

free port A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to ...

After the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. T ...

in 1834, the free people prospered, developing a variety of crops, and supplying produce to much of the rest of

. The harbor was used to export

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s until after the 1960s. A deep-water

pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

was built, but this has been restricted to the shipping of

molasses Molasses () is a viscous byproduct, principally obtained from the refining of sugarcane or sugar beet juice into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, the method of extraction, and the age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is usuall ...

, an important sugar product. The port was closed in 1983. The historic Fort Charlotte stands at one side of the entrance to the harbour, but was never garrisoned.

Geography and demography

Hanover covers an area of 450 km². The capital town, Lucea, is located at

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

18°25'N,

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

78°08'W. The highest point in the parish is the Dolphin's Head, which serves as a landmark for ships at sea. The parish has a mountainous terrain; it features three small

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s, several

cove A cove is a small bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creek (tidal), creeks, or recesses in a coast ...

s along its coastline, such as the Davis Cove—named after a prominent Hanover family—along its coast, and large

caves Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground (such as rock ...

. A

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

was installed in the centre of Lucea in 1817; it still stands, and is still fully functional. The parish had an estimated 67,176 inhabitants in 1999, 5,739 of which lived in Lucea. The large majority of the population is

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

(92.1%), with 0.8%

whites White is a racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly European ancestry. It is also a skin color specifier, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, ethnicity and point of view. De ...

, 3.7% Asians, 2.3% Latinos, and 2.1% identifying as other. The Great River is the officially recorded river in Hanover. Its valley has been an important agricultural region. Other notable towns include Sandy Bay, Dias, Green Island, Hopewell and

Cascade Cascade, or Cascading may refer to: Science and technology Science * Air shower (physics), a cascade (particle shower) of subatomic particles and ionized nuclei ** Particle shower, a cascade of secondary particles produced as the result of a high ...

Politics

Hanover Parish has two MPs and two

constituencies An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

; Hanover Eastern and Hanover Western.

Commerce

Agriculture

Hanover is known for the production of yams,

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, pimento,

turmeric Turmeric (), or ''Curcuma longa'' (), is a flowering plant in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. It is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that requires temperatures between and high ...

breadfruit Breadfruit (''Artocarpus altilis'') is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family ( Moraceae) believed to have been selectively bred in Polynesia from the breadnut ('' Artocarpus camansi''). Breadfruit was spread into ...

and

arrowroot Arrowroot is a starch obtained from the rhizomes (rootstock) of several tropical plants, traditionally ''Maranta arundinacea'', but also Florida arrowroot from ''Zamia integrifolia'', and tapioca from cassava (''Manihot esculenta''), which is of ...

. It is also celebrated for its fine breeds of

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

, and pigs and goats are raised.

Sights

Although Hanover is not one of Jamaica's major tourist areas, a tourist resort is situated in the village of Hopewell about east of Lucea. This area has several large hotels, including Round Hill and Tryall (noted for its

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

). There is also the Grand Palladium resort and spa in western Hanover and on the northern part of the Negril strip (which falls within Hanover not Westmoreland) are the Grand Lido, Couples, Riu, Sandals, Negril cabins and beaches. Lucea Parish Church - The main structure of the Lucea Parish Church building dates back to the 18th century. It was built prior to 1725, but records at least establish it in 1725 with oldest baptism recorded. It is the oldest building in the parish of Hanover. It is said that a tunnel leads from underneath the church to nearby Fort Charlotte, which is approximately 400 m away. Fort Charlotte - Commanding the entrance to Lucea Harbor is the well-kept 18th-century Fort Charlotte, constructed in 1745 and renamed in 1778 to honor

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

’s Queen Charlotte. (Prior to that year, it was listed as Lucea Fort.) It was erected in defense of the harbor, and stands on a peninsula overlooking the sea channel. The

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

in Britain transferred the barracks and Fort Charlotte in 1862, as a gift to the Executive Committee of Jamaica.

Plantations

* Axe and Azde * Bachelor's Hall * Betsy Mount * Caldwell * Comfort Hall * Cousins Cove * Cottage * Haughton Court * Haughton Grove * Haughton Hall * Haughton Tower * Hopewell (Bucknor's) * Prospect * Retirement * Rhodes Hall Estate * Salt Spring * Saxham * TryallTryall Estate.
Legacies of British Slave-ownership, UCL. Retrieved 16 May 2019.

References

External links

{{Authority control Parishes of Jamaica 1723 establishments in the British Empire