Saint James, Jamaica — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Saint James known for?

Montego Bay stands as the second city of Jamaica, behind Kingston, and the parish around it is the birthplace of Samuel Sharpe. Sharpe is one of Jamaica's seven National Heroes. Cornwall's parishes include this one at the north-west end of the island, where a suburban stretch of country runs up to the edges of the second city.

Where is Saint James?

Cornwall is the county. Saint James takes in the north-west end of the island, a compact parish of just under six hundred square kilometres with Montego Bay at its head. The parish is small by area.

Saint James counts as a suburban parish rather than a rural one, and Montego Bay is the reason, since the city sets the pattern of settlement for the ground around it. The county of Cornwall is the administrative frame above the parish. Jamaica sits in the tropics.

Everything about the parish's setting follows from that band and from its place at the north-west end of the island, where Montego Bay grew into the second city of Jamaica. Just under six hundred square kilometres is not much ground for a parish with a city in it. Montego Bay lies close at hand wherever you start in the parish.

Cornwall, the parish line, and Montego Bay's own boundary are three frames laid over the same corner of the island, and travellers cross all of them without noticing. Samuel Sharpe was born in this parish, which ties the ground itself to one of Jamaica's seven National Heroes.

What is Saint James like?

Samuel Sharpe was born here. The Right Excellent Samuel Sharpe is counted among Jamaica's seven National Heroes, and Saint James claims him as its own by birth, a standing in the national story quite apart from anything Montego Bay contributes. English is the language of the parish.

Titles matter in that account, and the honorific Right Excellent travels with Sharpe's name wherever it appears in the Jamaican record. Montego Bay supplies the other half of the parish's cultural weight, a city made so by an act of the Jamaican Parliament in 1980 and ranked the second city of Jamaica in 1981. Kingston holds first place.

That ranking is formal rather than sentimental, settled by the state in the same decade the city was chartered. Saint James Parish is the fuller form of the name. Between a National Hero's birthplace and the second city of Jamaica, the parish carries two distinct claims on the country's attention, and neither depends on the other.

Visitors reading about Saint James meet Montego Bay first and Samuel Sharpe second, though the parish record puts them on equal footing.

What is the history of Saint James?

Samuel Sharpe came from here. The parish records his birth, and the honour that followed set the Right Excellent Samuel Sharpe among the seven National Heroes named by Jamaica. Montego Bay's own status came much later.

Its charter as a city dates from 1980, granted by the Jamaican Parliament, and the formal ranking as second city of the country behind Kingston was settled in 1981.

What is the climate of Saint James?

The tropical band runs across Saint James as it does across the rest of Jamaica, which leaves the parish warm the year round and without a season that reads as winter. Shade is the variable. Montego Bay works to the same warmth as the parish around it.

Anyone planning time in Cornwall's north-west parish packs for heat first and for everything else second.

How do you get to Saint James?

Montego Bay is the point of arrival for Saint James, the parish's capital and the city that an act of the Jamaican Parliament raised to that rank in 1980. The parish is compact. Just under six hundred square kilometres is the whole of it, so nowhere in Saint James sits far from Montego Bay.

Kingston lies elsewhere on the island. Travellers making for the birthplace of Samuel Sharpe come through Montego Bay as well.