The Jamaica Almanac 1840 records Edward Wright as owning 95 acres at Beggars Bush in the parish. There a number of ironic names recorded in the Almanac. The name does not appear in Higman B.W. & Hudson, B.J. Jamaican Place Names.
Because an earlier date cannot be proved I cannot say that this was another “frontier” site, such as County Offaly, Ireland, Charles River, Virginia or Albany, Cape Province. However, it has all the characteristics of such sites, being on the edge of the expansion of what would become the British Empire, marginal, dangerous and subject to attempts to plant settlers on unproductive land. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: April 10th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Albany, Cape Province, Charles River, County Offaly, Jamaica, James Harrington, Philipstown, St Thomas in the Vale, Virginia, frontier | No Comments »
This is a very late and tragic example of the place name. The naming can be fixed to a very short period, responsibility for naming can be limited to a small group, and their situation at the time is known It falls within the same general circumstances as the other ‘frontier’ sites, but even more intense and dangerous. However, it may not arise from the literary usage but have it’s origins in another location.
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Posted: March 19th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Donnybrook, Literary, Suvla Bay, frontier | No Comments »
This is one of three frontier sites where English settlers arrived in a non English speaking country. Before Virginia English settlers arrived in Philipstown, County Offally, Ireland, and after it, Albany, Cape Province, South Africa. They have many features in common; they were on the very edge of the British Empire, they were remote. the settlers were poorly prepared, may not have been told the whole truth before they emigrated and the natives were not friendly.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Albany, Cape Province, Charles River, County Offaly, Ireland, Philipstown, South Africa, USA, Virginia, beggars, frontier, geuzen, proverb | 6 Comments »
This is a “frontier” site in an English plantation or colonial setting. It is not the earliest site in Ireland, which is Dublin, Donnybrook. The setting and background is very similar to the later frontier Beggars Bush sites at Charles River, Virginia and Albany, Cape Province. It must be a name given by the English where settlers faced danger from the original inhabitants and may have felt that the situation they found themselves in what far from what they had been lead to expect. As such the use of the name is entirely consistent with the contemporary literary usage, of being brought to ruin, perhaps by one’s own folly.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: County Offaly, Henry Chettle, Ireland, Philipstown, early sites, frontier | No Comments »
