If you were to Google "Jamaica's first car", you would be led to believe (by such reputable sources as the Georgian Society of Jamaica and the Daily Gleaner) that it was imported to Black River, St. Elizabeth, in 1903 by H. W. Griffiths of Hodge's Pen.
There's just one problem: Griffiths' car was not Jamaica's first. Dr Joy Lumsden has pointed out the same on her website 'A Steampunk History of 19th Century Jamaica'. The first car was actually brought to Jamaica six years earlier by Henry Walker, a resident of St. Andrew.
Walker was a mechanical engineer and an English expatriate. Born in the industrial city of Manchester in 1833, he migrated to Jamaica in the 1860s, by Dr Lumsden's best guess. Walker appears to have developed a relationship with a servant named Agnes Sarah McKen, with whom he had his first child in 1870. McKen was 10 years younger than Walker, born in Golden Grove, St. Thomas, in the year 1843. McKen was most likely black or mixed-race, as her children with Walker are described as "coloured" or black in later documents. Between 1870 and 1885, McKen and Walker had five children together (that I have been able to identify), four boys and one girl. In 1885, they married at St. George's Church in Kingston. Their only daughter, Helena Maude Walker, married Robert A. Marley, uncle of Bob Marley.
There is more to be learnt about Henry Walker, who does not appear in the Daily Gleaner archives until the 1890s. What was his business as an engineer in Jamaica? When did he leave Britain? Where was he trained and educated? His relation to Bob Marley and his heading a mixed-race family makes him appear a curious - but not untypical - white middle class resident of Jamaica in the Victorian period.
Walker's car
The story begins in May 1896, when an American car magazine called The Horseless Age published a letter from Walker. He told the magazine's readers that he had "a steam carriage, which he had built for his own use." He claimed that Jamaican "servants are a great nuisance... impertinent, thievish and lazy to a degree." He announced his intention to buy a motor carriage, perhaps of American manufacture.
Walker made good on this announcement, and in February 1897 he submitted a letter to the Kingston City Council, asking "for permission to use a motor carriage, which he intended to import, in the streets of the city." The council had no objection, and on 24 July his car arrived from Southampton, England, via the Royal Mail steamship Derwent. The Daily Gleaner reported "Mr Walker has removed it to his house in St. Andrew, but we may expect to see it on the streets of Kingston before long."
Walker had little chance to see that through, as on 17 December 1897, he died of nephritis. It appears he may have died intestate, as in May 1898 the Administrator-General ordered his car to be auctioned. It was described as "one horseless carriage with leather hood, complete with all necessary fittings. This carriage is from one of the leading makers in the world and is very strong, light, speedy, and easy running." It's not known exactly who purchased Walker's car after he died, but Dr Lumsden suggests it may have been Dr John A. Carpenter, a dental surgeon in Kingston. As early as November 1898, Dr Carpenter was reported as driving around Kingston, attracting "much public attention."
I have not found any information on the actual manufacturer of Walker's car. If he did not leave a will, the information will not be found there. It may be possible to find a cargo list for the Derwent in 1897, but my research so far has not found one. Historical car registration records, if they exist at all for Jamaica, would not cover Walker's car as the first motor car law was only introduced in 1907. Based on the information that is available, it's unlikely the car was of American manufacture, as it was imported from England. England's car industry was minimal at this point, so it was probably French or German. Therefore, Walker's car may have been one of several different makes and models, such as a Benz Velo or Victoria, a Peugeot Type 3, or a Panhard et Levassor.
Conclusion
It would take another 15 years after Walker imported his car for automobiles to take off in popularity in Jamaica, but what is evident is that Jamaica's first car arrived at the onset of automotive manufacturing history. Even the six year difference between 1897 and 1903 marks a major change in the development of the car. But for car enthusiasts of Jamaica, they can now rest assured in taking 24 July 1897 as the beginning of Jamaica's automotive history.
P.S. So what of H. W. Griffiths of St. Elizabeth, who in popular perception is considered the owner of the first car in Jamaica? Griffiths was certainly a notable early motoring advocate, and a voice who was published more than once in the Daily Gleaner on the subject. It is easy to see how his more vocal presence was mistaken for him being the earliest pioneer of this form of transport on the island. Perhaps his story will need to be explored in more detail in another blog.
