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the stories of our proud and friendly people, our charming and colourful villages, our fascinating ruins, our intriguing rain forests,
and our traditions that span centuries.

Our People

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Donald Lloyd Matheson

 

D L Matheson On the 24th January 1914, Donald F. Matheson and his wife Charlotte Matheson nee Mercer welcomed a son into the world. They called him Donald Lloyd. The world that the Mathesons lived in was one of privilege and young Lloyd, driven by a desire to learn, moved without much difficulty from the St. Kitts Grammar School to West Buckland School in Devon, England. The young man returned to St. Kitts in 1931 and joined...

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John H. A. Duport

 

John H. A. Duport John H. A. Duport was born in the Parish of St. Thomas, Middle Island in either 1830 or 1831 and may have been the son of enslaved parents. Nothing is known of his childhood but he must have been a good student and seems to have developed an interest in the Anglican Church during his teenage years. In 1851, Archdeacon Brathwaite of St. George’s recommended two young men for training for a new...

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Victor Emanuel John

 

Victor Emanuel John Victor Emaunuel John was born on the 1st Dec 1877 to Ishmael John and Catherine Phipps.  The couple were married on the 23rd Dec of that same year in St. Ann's Anglican Church in Sandy Point.   Ishmael John was a St. Vincentian who had been given the appointment of  schoolmaster at the Methodist School in Sandy Point, St. Kitts. It was there that young Victor received his early education and developed an ambition and...

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Our Places

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Spooners Plantation, Cayon

 

Spooners Plantation, Cayon There were two Spooner plantations on St. Kitts. One was in Christ Church and seems to have been known by various names. These notes focus on the one in St. Mary’s. De Brissac The land that became Spooner’s seems to have been (at least in part) the property of Captain Paul De Brissac. In 1706 De Brissac, who was probably a French Huguenot, claimed for damage suffered during the French attack of 1705 in which...

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Caines Estate

 

Caines estate is located near the village of Dieppe Bay. It was part of the French Quarter called Capisterre. It is not clear when members of the Caines family arrived in St. Kitts. CAINESOn the 15th August 1726 Charles Caines offered to buy a plantation in Capeseterre Quarter above Deep Bay from the Commissioners for the sale of the French Lands. It contained 152 acres 3 roods and 7 perches. At the time, thirty acres were...

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Fort Street

 

  Fort Street 2008 Basseterre was the main town of the French quarters of the island.  Just as Thomas Warner set up wooden forts in Old Road, Pierre Belain D’Esnambuc set up a Fort Pierre in Basseterre.  When Governor Phillippe De Longvillier De Poincy took over the administration of the French Caribbean Islands, he wanted something stronger and more permanent.  It is known that De Poincy took military architecture seriously.  He had books on the subject.  The...

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Our Events

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Cholera Epidemic 1854

 

  The Phantom of Cholera   Cholera is an infectious disease of the small intestine that causes severe watery diarrhea over a few days.  It , can lead to dehydration and even death if untreated. It is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae. In 1850, cholera made its presence felt in Barbados and St. Vincent and by 1853 it was in Nevis.  St. Kitts attempted to control the flow of people from places where...

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Disasters in Basseterre

 

Hurricanes Wars were not the only dramatic events to effect the development of Basseterre. Natural disasters played a very significant roll.The 1642 and 1667 hurricanes destroyed all the houses on the island. In 1667 French Governor Laurent reported I hold myself obliged to inform you that this island is in the most deplorable state that can be imagined and that the inhabitants could not have suffered a greater loss, or been more unfortunate except they had...

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St. Kitts Music Festival - end of June

 

The St. Kitts Music Festival takes place every year at the end of June. It was the brain child of then Minister of Tourism and Culture, G A Dwyer Astaphan who wanted to create an event that would attract visitors to St. Kitts in the off season and to expose the creative elements on the island, and the general public to the different genres of music. The festival’s website sets out its objectives as follows: to...

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"In this  bright future, you can't forget your past"

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