History of Clarks Town

Clarks Town was originally part of Swanswick Estate - owned by G.M. Clarke - and was created in the post-Emancipation period.

The town was centred around a church and is identified on the plan of 1843 as Swanswick Town and Church.

The estate's records for 1842, however, include £80 "received for five lots of land for building in the New Town of Saint Michael's Chapel", so clearly, the name was evolving.

The town later became known as Clarke's, then Clarks Town. The church retains the name 'St Michael's Church'.

The town was probably named for the Reverend John Clark, rather than the owners of the estate. He also noted that according to the Baptists, the church was founded by a Reverend Thomas. The church is Anglican.

At one time, there were 10 sugar factories in the area, with all the properties surrounding present-day Clarks Town belonging to the Clarke family.

At the time of Emancipation, there was a demonstration that resulted in a confrontation between freed slaves and the militia. The field where this occurred - opposite the trash-drying house, the present office of Long Pond Estates - is known to this day as Martial Law.

For many years, the growth of Clarks Town was inhibited because it was surrounded by sugar cane plantations. It was not until the 1940s that expansion took place as the Government acquired the Hyde and Gibraltar properties.

Further expansion occurred in 1987 when lands to the northwest were made available by the Long Pond Sugar Company.

Sources: www.cockpitcountry.com, and the Windsor Research Centre in Sherwood Content, Trelawny.