Brief History

Sighted by Columbus in 1494, he called the island Jamaica from the Amerindian word Xaymaca, and the island was colonised by the Spanish. The arrival of Europeans decimated the indigenous Awarak population with disease. The Spanish built Spanish Town as a base for the conquest of the Americas. 

In 1655, Jamaica was captured by the British expedition led by Admirals Penn and Venables, without opposition from the Spanish. After experimenting with European labor on the sugar plantations, the British enslaved and imported Africans on a massive scale. The plantations dominated Jamaican economic life, and brought great wealth to their British owners. The island was ruled by a Lieutenant Governor from Britain. 

Slavery was abolished in 1838 and political Independence was granted in 1962. More history. 

Ducal Estates

The first Duchess, Anna Eliza, inherited the Hope plantation from her mother, Anne Eliza widow of Roger Hope Elletson. 

The family also owned the Middleton plantation. This described in Cundall as being near Newcastle. Jasmine Bennett tells me that the Middleton Estate was in the Parish of St Andrew in the East of the Island at the foot of the Blue Mountains near Newcastle.

In 1827, the Estate Manager in England was Mr Urren, who lived at Buckingham House (1827/06/26; HEH STG Correspondence Box 4 (09).

Lieutenant Governors

• Roger Hope Elletson. Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica from 1766–67. Educated in England, Elletson returned to Jamaica where was a Member of the House of Assembly, on the council, and finally as Lieutenant Governor. He married Anna Eliza Gamon, his second wife, in 1770. There were no children and on his death in 1775, his Jamaican property, including the Hope plantation, passed to his widow. (Sturtz)
• Sir George Nugent. Son of the half-brother of Mary Nugent, was Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief in Jamaica from 1801-1806.