Greenwood Great House
The Greenwood is considered the best antique museum
in the Caribbean, as well as being the finest great house in the
island of Jamaica, and constructed during a period of elegance and
brutality, but still continues to keep its beauty and interest that
captures thousands of visitors, which was built by the Barretts of
Wimpole Street London, in 1800, with quite a bit of its original
furniture and furnishings, with the biggest and rarest collection of
musical instruments and books in the island. Hersey Barrett, an
officer in the expedition led by Admiral Penn and General Venables,
would be sent by parliament to capture Hispaniola from the Spanish
in 1633, but would prove much too difficult to capture, so they
headed to Jamaica and captured it for England, and Barrett would
given granted lands in the country and soon come back to settle
there. While many of the original settlers of the island worked hard
and barely made a living off the soil, the Barretts would prosper
and become very rich by the mid 18th century, owing more than 84,000
acres and more than 2000 slaves. The family retained its London
house, while the head of the family at that time, Edward, also the
father of famous writer Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was getting an
income of over 60,000 pounds a year, they would travel back to
England in 1795, with his brother Samuel and sister Sarah, who had
been nicknamed, "Pinkie". Richard, Edward's cousin, would stay
behind in Jamaica and run the family business, while also becoming
Speaker of the House, a judge, Custos of the parish of St. James and
other things. The great house has many oil paintings of the
Barretts, along with china that was made for them by Wedgwood and a
magnificent library filled with many rare books that date back to
1697 and beautiful antique furniture.
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