MPhil Diary: Week 4, 19 -25 September

A campus short cut.

Before my arrival in Jamaica, I had not appreciated how hard it would be to concentrate in the midst of a tropical storm. While Jamaica has fortunately dodged the centre of Tropical Storm Ian this weekend, the outer bands are still covering us. The sheets of rain, thunder, and lightning have been intermittent on Sunday and Monday, and the forecast isn't all that great for the rest of the week.

This last week has been quiet other than the rapturous thunder. I had a seminar discussing Patrick Bryan's history of Wolmer's Schools and another discussing 'what is history?' and 'what is historiography?'. I have been reading Erna Brodber's Second Generation of Freemen in Jamaica, although I have found preparing for my next seminars to be a little difficult when I can't really leave my flat without becoming a wet blob.

I did manage to head to the library earlier and get a good survey of the material in Kenneth Ingram's various bibliographies. I have some really good ideas of where to source information for qualitative analysis, but on Thursday I am planning a visit again to the Jamaica Archives to really get some the parish tax information transcribed and start to build up my quantitative data that will be so crucial a successful study of Kingston. I have made the conscious decision to locate and gather qualitative sources but not to dig into them until I have got the number crunching out of the way. This does mean I am restraining my brain a bit, as it really wants to dig into something and run with it, but I think in the long run a disciplined approach will pay dividends.

I have also begun thinking about my assignments for my two classes this semester. The first (other than seminar reports/book reviews) is to write a grant proposal, due in a couple weeks. I have chosen for this the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme, and my target the Jamaican Court of Vice Admiralty collection in the Jamaica Archives. This has been discussed as a potential real application by people who are also interested in this stuff, and while my application will initially be just theoretical, I would have an extra month to turn it real if I wanted to. You never know.

This week allows me to share in the misery of lots of others around the world being paid in GBP. I don't think much needs to be said about this other than I am most definitely registering as an overseas voter. I am privileged enough to be in receipt of a generous studentship so that I should be fine, financially, although I would much rather be working with the exchange rate that existed a mere three weeks ago!

A little bit of rain never hurt anybody.

A little on logistics

Logistics makes the world go around, and since I haven't discussed it much, I thought I would put some words down here. The big day with the most moving parts was of course my departure day from the United Kingdom, 28th August. The Leverhulme Trust studentship covered the cost of the flight and any additional baggage costs up to a certain amount (which I did not exceed, although I could have brought more books I think). My dad kindly took me down and we stayed overnight the night before in a hotel by a motorway service station a few miles from Gatwick. Currently, only BA and Tui fly to Jamaica - BA from Gatwick to Kingston and Tui from a few places to Montego Bay. The Tui flights are cheaper but would have put me on the wrong side of the island, probably not ideal for the first visit. You can also only book the Tui flights from the UK, not from Jamaica, so I couldn't return on a Tui flight without paying for the flight out first.

All went well on the day, and I got through security and all that stuff without any issues. I did cut it a little fine with lunch, however, with my flight departing at 12:35. The flight itself was a good experience. I didn't get to sleep, although I didn't try very hard - my row mate slept through nigh-on the whole thing and took up more than his fair share of space, which I was too polite to do anything about. My in-flight entertainment had to be turned off and back on again by the stewards a couple times, but it kicked in before too long. I enjoyed Phantom of the Open and binged almost all of Martin Freeman's The Responder. Many of the shots reminded me of the city I called home for a year.

After landing, we queued first for immigration. I was given the entry stamp in my passport without too much fuss, the officer only asked to see my offer letter from the university and reminded me that I would need an extension of stay. I was nervous about customs, not because I was bringing in anything I shouldn't, but because I really had never been through international customs before in my memory. I was practically waved through. All they asked was whether I was bringing in anything I shouldn't, to which I confidently replied 'no'.

The prearranged airport transfer and arrival on campus all went smoothly, and although I was bemused by my first experience of Jamaican driving, it's all rather familiar now. Arranging accommodation from abroad had been a nightmare, and I failed dismally to get into Marlene Hamilton Hall - the postgrad studios - not for lack of trying. About a month before I left I applied to live in Leslie Robinson Hall, a private hall run by 138 Student Living, whose properties have a reputation for a high proportion of international/regional students. I paid the deposit and first month's rent, only for them to not be able to locate for a solid two weeks. Fortunately, about a fortnight before I was to leave they did 'find' it and when I arrived they did know who I was. It did take about 45 minutes for the security and night manager to find keys to an unoccupied room, though.

Other than the big first day, I have slowly begun to enter Jamaican society as an official immigrant. I obtained a Taxpayer Registration Number (TRN) from the tax office on Constant Spring Road, and I also now have a National Insurance Scheme (NIS) number from the office on Ripon Road. Both experiences were quite quick and efficient, nothing at all like I had been warned might be the case. I needed both of these as I am hoping to start working one day a week in West Indies and Special Collections (WISC) in Mona Library. I was most pleased, however, to find that as a full-time UWI student I am exempt from needing a work permit. Nonetheless, I think there is still paperwork to fill out to confirm that exemption, which I have not yet been informed about. My extension of stay for the duration of my course will hopefully soon be confirmed too, and can be done on campus through an arrangement between the university and PICA, the relevant government agency.

Hurdles yet to be jumped include organising insurance (medical, personal belongings) and a local bank account. Fortunately, unlike the UK, physical bank branches are still plentiful and so I will be making my way to one (probably Jamaica National) this week and enquiring about the process. JN also offer lots of insurance and have strong links to the UK so seem like the best bet from my initial research. As a student I also have medical and dental cover through the University Health Centre, and I believe I need to pick up a card confirming that at some point, from somewhere, although I haven't had an official notification.

A haphazard stack of reference books on the third floor of Mona Library. While the library is actually rather good and it grows on me every visit (other than when a pipe burst in the ground floor toilets last week), let us just say I will never complain about the lack of resources in a UK university library again.

MPhil Diary: Week 3, 12 -18 September

A view from my accommodation of Long Mountain, St Andrew.

It's now been three weeks since I arrived in Jamaica, and I have yet to succumb to the tropical disease profile that made the place so dangerous in the eighteenth century. An article about my proposed research was published in the Leverhulme Trust's September newsletter, page 10, and I am grateful to Bahia Dawlatly at the Trust for arranging that.

Parish taxes and West Indian historiography

I have not visited any repositories of intellectual resources in Jamaica this week, other than the Main Library on campus. This week has been marked by my first classes, one on West Indian Historiography, and the other on History and Heritage: Theory and Practice. There are overlapping elements, though that is no harmful thing, and both classes have graded assignments that can be incorporated into my thesis (a historiographical essay on a topic of my choosing, and a grant proposal) so I am not too worried about them dominating this semester. I have found Erna Brodber's work particularly interesting. I found Patrick Bryan's history of Wolmer's Schools to be a little on the tedious side, although valuable, while I thought that J. H. Hexter's writing on historiography was quite pretentious (I found reading M. G. Smith's annotations on the particular article in WISC to be quite cathartic).

One of the most interesting discoveries for my thesis, following on my blog post last week, was Jack Greene's Settler Jamaica in the 1750s: A Social Portrait. In this work, Greene has dedicated one chapter to Kingston: an economic/social analysis of its middle-upper classes based on the 1753 parish tax roll. It was a great relief to find that my proposal of an analysis of the parish/poll taxes in the Kingston Vestry Minutes was not unbroken ground, and while Greene's work was limited, it means I have a basis to build from, rather than dreaming it all up anew, which is somewhat daunting.

I believe that the ideal historical study of the kind I am proposing to do should have a rigorous quantitative basis, and on top of that a generous qualitative analysis. I would feel much more comfortable making claims about Kingston in the eighteenth century with some numbers to back it up, and so carrying out a study beginning with the parish/poll taxes would be my ideal approach. I am glad to see that it is feasible.

Aspirations for this year

I am particularly keen to take advantage of the myriad grants that exist for postgraduates (graduate students in the US) to visit archives and libraries. I am particularly keen to apply for an Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship at the British Library, which as well as being a remarkable opportunity for study, would also be a pleasant excuse to return to the UK for a few weeks. Before I can really think hard about that, I need to consult Ingram's bibliographies of Jamaican sources to ascertain what relevant material is at the BL which has not yet been digitised. There are a much greater number of American archives, too, and to visit one or two of them over the next couple years would be a fantastic opportunity (especially as I have never visited the United States before).

To visit a conference would be a very valuable experience, especially after reading Small World by David Lodge. The Association of Caribbean Historians, which I recently joined, is having their June 2023 conference in Puerto Rico, although that is reasonably expensive to get to from Jamaica. Another option might be the Conference of Florida Historians, in January, which would at least be cheaper to get to. There are many other choices, like the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era in Texas in February. I will be keeping an eye open. Some financial support should be available from UWI, although I doubt their coffers run deep.

It would also be good to write something for submission somewhere. A book review, if nothing else, and this forthcoming publication looks like a good place to start. I have also been eyeing the New American Antiquarian as a place to publish some of the unpublished letters I have from Liverpool Record Office. We'll see.

This coming week brings more work and hopefully a first visit to the National Library of Jamaica.

MPhil Diary: Week 2, 5 -11 September

A view from Penfield River, Gordon Town, St Andrew.

Yesterday marked two weeks since I arrived in Jamaica to complete an MPhil in History at the University of the West Indies. The week in global news was dominated by the death of the Queen and the accession of King Charles III, who is also King of Jamaica. This was the last week before my two semester one seminars began, so I wasn’t really deep into research mode – still orienting myself.

The biggest development in my research was a visit to the Jamaica Archives in Spanish Town on Wednesday. I was particularly pleased to find a good quantity of useful records for Kingston, dating back further than Kenneth Ingram knew of in his Sources of Jamaican History (likely transferred from the Institute of Jamaica to the archives since in the 1970s). I consulted 2/6/1b in the local government records, which was a large bound volume of Kingston Vestry Minutes between 1744 and 1749. I found this volume particularly useful as it published the full tax lists for the annual parish and poll taxes, essentially providing lists of the wealthy residents of Kingston and the streets they lived on, as well as some extra information (like rent, number of enslaved people owned, number of cattle owned, and of course the value of tax levied). The Vestry Minutes also recorded a tax list on transient merchants passing through Kingston, another fantastic source.

The Vestry Minutes (the Common Council took over in 1803) exist from 1744 to 1815, with gaps in 1749-50, 1754-63, 1767-68, 1770-81, and 1788-95. There is also, apparently, some earlier material for the years 1739-44 in one of the later volumes. There is also some other material, including the Kingston Parochial Tax Roll from 1774-1805, the Parish Accounts from 1722-89, Vestry Accounts from 1760-92, Kingston Quarter Sessions Proceedings from 1770-98 and 1803-1839, the Toll Book of Slaves Sold 1738-43, and the Register of Free Persons 1761-95.

This was good to find out as my original research proposal involved doing some prosopographical work to really dig into the connections between individuals, particularly economic actors, in Kingston during the eighteenth-century. This looks all the more plausible, even though I am slightly handicapped by the prohibitive fee per photograph at the Jamaica Archives ($500 JMD, about £3). After building lists of individuals, these names could then be cross-referenced with birth, marriage, death records, inventories, court records, manumission records, cadastral maps, and so on. The list is practically endless, and so a line would have to, of course, be drawn.

A quick snap from the entrance of the Jamaica Archives in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

I have been surveying other sources, too, and compiled a list of historic maps of Jamaica (and particularly Kingston) in the eighteenth-century, from online sources. I’ve yet to dig into the manuscript collections of the National Library of Jamaica, or the West Indies and Special Collections here at Mona. I also need to look into the findings of the British Library’s EAP 148: a 2007 survey of endangered archival holdings in Jamaica.

I came to the sudden epiphany that the question I really wanted to answer was: “What did it mean to be a ‘merchant of Kingston’ in the eighteenth-century?” Studying the Atlantic history of places like Liverpool and Lancaster, ‘merchant of Kingston’ was a moniker attached to many people from these places. But what did it really mean? I think a study that examines the nature of the activities of a ‘merchant of Kingston’, particularly focusing on professions such as factors, super cargoes, and agents, who have thus far been neglected by secondary literature, and then set against a backdrop of a social/demographic history of eighteenth-century Kingston, would be truly worthwhile. The idea will continue to be developed as sources emerge.

This coming week sees my first two postgraduate seminars on Monday and Wednesday evenings, and hopefully I can fit a first visit to the National Library of Jamaica in there. I’d also really like to get my hands on some of the microfilm in the West Indies and Special Collections, a collection that is reputed to be extensive indeed.

MPhil Diary: Week 1, 28 August-4 September

 

Part of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, Mona Campus.

Today marks the end of my first week as an MPhil student in History at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. My course, generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust, has thus weighed anchor and won't come into port for another two years.

Setting a course

Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.

I was fortunate enough to have secured accommodation by the time I arrived in Jamaica last weekend, as the period of trying to find somewhere to live between receiving my offer from the university in May to my arrival can only be described as a 'palaver'. I have been able to get through all administrative hoops smoothly since my arrival, and having worked for a year in a UK university I am no stranger to the vexatious spirit of higher education, which seems to be replicated the world around. Although, I can imagine that things might not go so smoothly if there were actual problems. I have no reason to doubt what one my fellow students described as the Kafkaesque nature of UWI's bureaucracy (not, I believe, an isolated feeling).

Postgraduate teaching does not begin until the week of 12 September, when I will commence my two seminars: HIST6712 on Monday with Professor James Robertson, and HIST6003 on Wednesday with Professor Kathleen Monteith. Prof Robertson's course is on the theory and application of history, while Prof Monteith's course is on West Indian historiography. I am looking forward to both and my free week next week will be about getting through the reading, and if possible, getting ahead of the following week. As the only new history postgrad at UWI this year, I expect these will be classes of one or two.

I have also met with my proposed supervisor, Dr Dexnell Peters, who like me has only just moved to Jamaica from the UK. My original research proposal submitted as part of my applications to both UWI and the Leverhulme Trust was for a thesis on "The Trading Community of Kingston, Jamaica, 1770-1800", although my gut instinct is to broaden that to a wider "Social and Economic History of Kingston, Jamaica, 1692-1807" until I have the material gathered to narrow down the remit, if I desire to do so.

I haven't had much time to think about the thesis in the first week, but I have downloaded Zotero and started working on getting some of my core secondary sources in order. I have also started scouring the internet for digitised material on Kingston and eighteenth-century Jamaica, of which there is no shortage. The idea, of course, is that digitised material in concert with archival material in the country will form the basis of my thesis. If I can find funding to visit some relevant libraries or archives in the UK or US, then all the better.

Next week I plan to make my first visit to the Jamaica Archives, in Spanish Town, which is by no means the most pleasant part of the country and so I will need to be extra careful. I am looking forward to getting my first look at the Kingston Vestry records, and some of the Jamaican prize papers, though. If anyone wants to drop me a line as I begin this journey, feel free to reach out at andrew.williams13(at)mymona.uwi.edu.