Major John Jarrett (died 1839) was a

Jamaican Maroon Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ens ...

leader of the Maroons of

Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) Cudjoe's Town was located in the mountains in the southern extremities of the parish of St James, close to the border of Westmoreland, Jamaica. In 1690, a large number of Akan freedom fighters from Sutton's Estate in south-western Jamaica, and th ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

. He was most likely named after a neighbouring planter with a similar surname.

Trelawny Town

John Jarrett was born in Trelawny Town, a town that is actually in St James Parish, not

Trelawny Trelawny or Trelawney may refer to: Places * Trelawny (electoral division), an electoral division of Cornwall * Trelawny, Black Hill, Ballarat, a heritage house in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia * Trelawny, Jamaica, a parish of Cornwall County, Jam ...

. Jarrett was a captain of Trelawny Town, and he was a junior officer to Colonel

Montague James Montague James (d. c. 1812) was a Maroon leader of Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) in the last decade of eighteenth-century Jamaica. It is possible that Maroon colonel Montague James took his name from the white superintendent of Trelawny Town, Joh ...

. The Maroons were descendants of the runaway slaves of Jamaica. These slaves were primarily of

Akan Akan may refer to: People and languages *Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire *Akan language Akan () is a Central Tano languages, Central Tano language and the principal native language of the Akan people of Ghana, spoken ...

heritage, but also of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

Miskito Miskito may refer to: * Miskito people, ethnic group in Honduras and Nicaragua ** Miskito Sambu, branch of Miskito people with African admixture ** Tawira Miskito, branch of Miskito people of largely indigenous origin * Miskito language, original l ...

, and Taino heritage. Originally known as Cudjoe's Town, under the leadership of

Cudjoe Cudjoe, Codjoe or Captain Cudjoe (c. 1660s – 1764),Michael Sivapragasam''After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842'' PhD Dissertation, African-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica library ...

, these Leeward Maroons fought for their independence during the

First Maroon War The First Maroon War was a conflict between the Jamaican Maroons and the colonial British authorities that started around 1728 and continued until the peace treaties of 1739 and 1740. It was led by self-liberated Africans who set up communities in ...

of the 1730s. When Cudjoe signed the treaty of 1739, the Maroons of Cudjoe's Town officially secured their freedom. In the years that followed 1739, Cudjoe's Town became known as Trelawny Town, named after the governor, Edward Trelawny, who agreed to terms with Cudjoe. John Jarrett was born a free Maroon in Trelawny Town. He rose to the rank of captain by the time the

Second Maroon War The Second Maroon War of 1795–1796 was an eight-month conflict between the Maroons of Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town), a Maroon settlement later re-named after Governor Edward Trelawny at the end of First Maroon War, located near Trelawny Pa ...

broke out in 1795.

Second Maroon War

A resident magistrate in Montego Bay mishandled a complaint over pigs when he ordered the whipping of two Trelawny Maroons, and this resulted in a conflict between Trelawny Town and the Jamaican colonial authorities. Captain John Jarrett followed Montague James in taking up arms against the British militias. Despite having the better of a number of encounters, the Trelawny Maroons were unable to maintain their guerrilla campaign, and they eventually agreed to come to terms. However, the governor,

Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres and ''de jure'' 23rd Earl of Crawford (18 January 175227 March 1825) was the son of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres. He was a general in the British Army. Early life He entered the army at the a ...

, overturned a promise by Colonel George Walpole not to deport them from Jamaica.

Nova Scotia

Jarrett was also one of about 580 Maroons who were transported from

in 1796 to

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

. Jarrett was promoted to major in Nova Scotia. He survived the ship's journey to Nova Scotia, and his family accumulated a significant amount of wealth in Canada. His success generated a certain amount of resentment, as another Maroon named William Barnet assaulted his daughter, Elsy, over a case of unrequited love. Her child with Maroon officer Charles Shaw was born premature, and Elsy blamed Barnet for that misfortune. In 1800, James was finally successful in his petition to the British government for his Maroons to leave Nova Scotia. Jarrett was one of about 550 who then went to

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational an ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

Sierra Leone

On the journey to Sierra Leone, the colonial authorities put an English officer, John Sheriff, and a Maroon officer, Jarrett, in charge of distributing provisions. However, other Maroon officers such as

and

Andrew Smith (Maroon) Andrew Smith (died c. early 1800s) was a Maroon officer from Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town). His brother, Charles Samuels, was also an officer from Trelawny Town, and both officers reported to Colonel Montague James. Second Maroon War As the po ...

alleged that Sheriff and Jarrett were corrupt in their practices, and on investigating the proceedings, superintendent George Ross found that James and Smith were correct, and he dismissed Sheriff and Jarrett from their posts. When the ship carrying Jarrett and the Trelawny Maroons arrived in Freetown, the British authorities asked them for help in putting down a rebellion by the

Black Nova Scotians Black Nova Scotians (also known as African Nova Scotians and Afro-Nova Scotians) are Black Canadians whose ancestors primarily date back to the Colonial United States as slaves or freemen, later arriving in Nova Scotia, Canada, during the 18t ...

. Montague James, Jarrett and the Trelawny Maroons agreed, and after they put down the revolt, the

Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone The Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone were a group of just under 600 Jamaican Maroons from Cudjoe's Town, the largest of the five Jamaican maroon towns who were deported by the British authorities in Jamaica following the Second Maroon War in ...

received the best land and houses. Shortly afterwards, Jarrett expressed satisfaction when Barnet eventually killed himself after murdering a Maroon woman named Fanny Williams. Jarrett did not get on with the other Maroon officers, and when James selected his list of officers of the

, Jarrett was not one of them. In 1839, a

Liberated African The liberated Africans of Sierra Leone, also known as recaptives, were Africans who had been illegally enslaved onboard slave ships and rescued by anti-slavery patrols from the West Africa Squadron of the Royal Navy. After the British Parliament ...

apprentice, an Ibo named Martin, murdered his elderly Maroon employer, John Jarrett. A group of Maroons caught Martin, and they tortured him, and then burnt him to death. The Ibo in the colony demanded vengeance, and attacked Maroons in Freetown, forcing a number of them to flee for safety in the interior. After this incident, large numbers of Maroons no longer felt safe in Sierra Leone.James Walker, ''The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone 1783-1870'' (London: Longman, 1976), pp. 240-3. His descendants lived around

Maroon Town, Sierra Leone Maroon Town, Sierra Leone, is a district in the settlement of Freetown, a colony founded in West Africa by Great Britain. History Following their defeat in the American Revolutionary War, the British had resettled African Americans in the British c ...

and are a prominent Creole family. Some of the Jarretts immigrated to

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It ...

and assimilated into

Americo-Liberian Americo-Liberian people or Congo people or Congau people in Liberian English,Cooper, Helene, ''The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood'' (United States: Simon and Schuster, 2008), p. 6 are a Liberian ethnic group of Afric ...

society.

References

{{reflist Jamaican Maroon leaders Sierra Leone Creole people 18th-century Jamaican people 1839 deaths