St James, near Montego Bay
Cinnamon Hill
Great House
The Barrett family's sugar-estate home that later belonged to Johnny Cash.
- Built
- Mid-1700s
- Economy
- Sugar
- Style
- Georgian (Jamaican vernacular)
- Today
- Museum / attraction
Overview
Cinnamon Hill Great House sits on a slope above the north coast just east of Rose Hall, near Montego Bay. It was the family seat of the Barretts, among the richest planter families in Jamaica, and the birthplace of Edward Moulton-Barrett, father of the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Samuel Barrett Jr began the house and his son Edward Barrett completed it in the 1780s, when he also built the estate's sugar works.
Cinnamon Hill and the neighbouring Cornwall estate were worked by close to 500 enslaved people by the 1830s. After emancipation the property passed through several hands and was eventually absorbed into the Rose Hall lands. In the 1970s it became the Jamaican home of country singer Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.
It is now owned by the Rollins family's Rose Hall company, which offers tours of the house, still kept much as the Cashes left it.
Timeline
15 dated moments in the life of Cinnamon Hill. Select a marker, or use the arrow keys, to read each one. Shaded bands show the wider eras of Jamaican history; dotted lines mark island-wide uprisings.
Swipe sideways to see the whole timeline, or read the full list below.
- 1663
Barrett land patent
Hersey Barrett, who arrived with the 1655 English conquest, receives a land patent in Jamaica.
- 1734
House begun (traditional date)
Samuel Barrett Jr is credited with starting Cinnamon Hill; 1734 is also the year his son Edward was born.
- 1760
Samuel Barrett Jr dies
He dies before the house is finished and is buried on the property.
- 1784
Sugar works built
Edward Barrett completes the house and builds the sugar works and aqueduct, marked by a dated tablet.
- 1785
East wing completed
The two-storey east wing is added around 1780–85.
- 1798
Moulton-Barrett name; Edward Barrett dies
Edward Barrett dies and his grandsons born at Cinnamon Hill take the name Moulton-Barrett.
- 1816
224 enslaved recorded
The Jamaica Almanac lists 224 enslaved people at Cinnamon Hill and 200 at Cornwall.
- 1831
Christmas Rebellion
The uprising led by Samuel Sharpe sweeps St James; Cinnamon Hill is among the great houses that survive.
- 1832
309 enslaved recorded
Samuel B. M. Barrett returns 309 enslaved people at Cinnamon Hill and 171 at Cornwall.
- 1837
Compensation claim 666
A contested claim for 477 enslaved people on Cinnamon Hill and Cornwall is lodged in May 1837.
- 1839
Richard Barrett buried here
The Speaker of the Assembly dies in Montego Bay and is buried in the Cinnamon Hill family cemetery.
- 1841
Compensation adjudged
£7,029 17s 0d is awarded to Edward Moulton-Barrett and his son.
- 1972
Johnny Cash buys the house
The country singer buys Cinnamon Hill from John Rollins and makes it a family home.
- 2003
Death of the Cashes
June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash die, ending about thirty years of family use.
- 2012
Rollins family repurchase
The Rollins family buys the house back, and it opens for tours through Rose Hall.
The story of Cinnamon Hill
Origins, owners and the working estate.
The Barretts came to Jamaica with the English conquest of 1655. Hersey (or Hercie) Barrett received a land patent in 1663. His grandson Samuel Barrett Jr acquired land on the north coast of St James, married Elizabeth Wisdom and raised a large family. He began building Cinnamon Hill but died in 1760 before it was finished, and he is buried on the property.
His fourth son, Edward Barrett (1734–1798), married Judith Goodin, completed the house and greatly expanded the family's landholdings. Edward is also credited with helping to found the town of Falmouth. A date tablet with his initials marks the estate's sugar works, including an aqueduct and a trash house with round stone columns, which he built in 1784. The east wing of the house is dated to around 1780–85.
Cinnamon Hill was a sugar estate, worked together with the adjoining Cornwall estate. Edward's daughter Elizabeth married Charles Moulton in 1781. Their sons, Edward and Samuel, were born at Cinnamon Hill and took the surname Moulton-Barrett by royal licence in 1798. Samuel Barrett Moulton-Barrett managed the Jamaican plantations, served as an MP for Richmond, Yorkshire, and died in Jamaica in December 1837.
His brother Edward lived in England. His wealth, drawn largely from these estates, supported the household in which his daughter Elizabeth Barrett Browning grew up. Nearby, the Spring estate also came to the Barretts of Cinnamon Hill through marriage. Its records show Edward Barrett as owner in the 1770s and list sugar and rum as its produce, giving a picture of the kind of business the family ran.
By the early nineteenth century Cinnamon Hill was effectively an absentee-owned estate, run largely through attorneys and family managers on behalf of owners living in England.
Architecture
How the house was built, and what survives.
The oldest part of Cinnamon Hill is a single-storey stone section on the west side, which holds the dining and living rooms. A two-storey wing on the east side was added around 1780–85 and contains the kitchen. The floors are polished hardwood, probably mahogany, stained a deep red. The main staircase has red-polished treads and dark wooden balusters.
Verandahs run along both the front and back of the house, a common way of shading rooms and catching breezes in Jamaican great houses. At the north-west corner stands a small triangular hurricane shelter built into the wall and roof, later turned into a bathroom by Johnny Cash. A separate small building to the south-east served as June Carter Cash's sewing room. Nearby are the ruins of the eighteenth-century sugar works, including an aqueduct, and a walled family cemetery where several Barretts are buried. The house is surrounded by the Cinnamon Hill golf course.
The people of Cinnamon Hill
Owners, enslaved Africans and their descendants, workers and keepers.
Cinnamon Hill was one of the largest slave-holding estates in St James. Jamaica Almanac returns show 224 enslaved people at Cinnamon Hill in 1816, rising to 329 in 1819, then 321 in 1824, 303 in 1827 and 309 in 1832. Cornwall, the neighbouring Barrett estate, held around 160–200 more. The Barretts are thought to have held about 2,000 enslaved people across their Jamaican estates at their peak.
No named individuals from the Cinnamon Hill registers were found in the sources checked. In the Christmas Rebellion of 1831–32, which began in St James, many great houses were burned, but Cinnamon Hill survived. After abolition, Samuel Barrett Moulton-Barrett claimed compensation for 477 enslaved people on Cinnamon Hill and Cornwall together (St James claim 666). The claim was contested by creditors, C.
N. Palmer and Martin Williams, who alleged breaches of trust by the late Edward Barrett. After Samuel's death, £7,029 17s 0d was adjudged in 1841 to his brother Edward Moulton-Barrett and Edward's son Charles. Richard Barrett, Speaker of the Assembly and owner of Greenwood, died in 1839 and was buried in the Cinnamon Hill cemetery.
Two of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's brothers later managed the estates and are also buried there. After 1838, the people who had been enslaved on Cinnamon Hill were free to work for wages or leave.
Samuel Barrett Jrd. 1760
Founder of the house
Began Cinnamon Hill and is buried on the estate.
Edward Barrett1734–1798
Planter; completed the house
Built the 1784 sugar works and greatly enlarged the family's lands.
Samuel Barrett Moulton-Barrett1787–1837
Owner and manager
MP for Richmond, Yorkshire; original compensation claimant for Cinnamon Hill and Cornwall.
Edward Moulton-Barrettb. 1785 at Cinnamon Hill
Heir; father of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Awarded compensation for the estate in 1841.
The enslaved people of Cinnamon Hill and Cornwall18th century–1838
Estate workers
477 people were listed in the 1837 compensation claim.
Johnny Cash and June Carter Cashc.1972–2003
Owners and residents
Used the house as their Jamaican home for about three decades.
John Rollins and Michele Rollins1960s–present
Owners of the Rose Hall lands
Sold the house to Cash and later bought it back.
What the records count
Every mark below is one person listed as enslaved on the estate in the official returns. Choose a year to see how the number changed.
309
Between 1816 and 1832 the recorded number rose by 85, from 224 to 309.
Myth and fact
Stories told about the house, checked against the documents.
The story
Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived at Cinnamon Hill.
The record
Her father and grandparents' family were linked to the house, but the poet herself is not known to have lived in or visited Jamaica.
The story
Cinnamon Hill is haunted by Annie Palmer, the 'White Witch'.
The record
The ghost story belongs to the legend of neighbouring Rose Hall. Historians regard that tale as largely fiction.
Cinnamon Hill today
In the later nineteenth century Cinnamon Hill passed out of Barrett hands. Before 1895 it was owned by George Robertson, who also held Rose Hall, and it was later absorbed into the Northern Estates company and then Rose Hall Estates. In the 1960s the American businessman John Rollins bought the Rose Hall lands, including Cinnamon Hill. He sold the house to Johnny Cash, who bought it in about 1972.
Cash and June Carter Cash used it as their Jamaican home for about thirty years, until both died in 2003. The Rollins family bought the house back from the Cash estate around 2012. It is now run by Rose Hall Developments, sits within the Cinnamon Hill golf course, and is shown on guided tours. The interior keeps many of the Cash family's furnishings and belongings. Cash also wrote a song, 'The Ballad of Annie Palmer', inspired by the Rose Hall legend.
Cinnamon Hill is shown by guided tour arranged through Rose Hall; check with the operator for current tour availability before visiting.
Learn
For students, teachers and the curious.
Did you know?
- Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash lived at Cinnamon Hill on and off for about 30 years.
- The father of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born at Cinnamon Hill.
- A small hurricane shelter at the house was turned into a bathroom by Johnny Cash.
- Members of the Barrett family are buried in a walled cemetery on the estate.
- Today the house stands in the middle of a golf course.
Test yourself
Sources
Where this account comes from. The web addresses are listed so you can check the evidence yourself.
- UCL Legacies of British Slavery – Jamaica St James 666 (Cinnamon Hill [includes Cornwall])https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/21376
- Jamaica Great Houses – Cinnamon Hillhttps://jamaicagreathouses.com/cinnamonhill/index.html
- Jamaica Great Houses – Barrett family treehttps://jamaicagreathouses.com/greenwood/barrettfamily.html
- F. J. DuQuesnay, 'Cinnamon Hill' (Jamaican Family Search)http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/fred07.htm
- Rose Hall – Cinnamon Hill Great Househttps://rosehall.com/cinnamon-hill
- 1833 Jamaica Almanac – St James slave-ownershttps://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/AL33James.htm
- 1828 Jamaica Almanac – St James slave-ownershttps://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1828al18.htm
- Wikipedia – Cinnamon Hill (pointer only)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon_Hill
- Wikipedia – Barrett family of Jamaica (pointer only)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett_family_of_Jamaica
Historian's notes: what is uncertain
Build date: 1734 is the date commonly given (Rose Hall's site says Edward Barrett built it in 1734), but Edward was born in 1734. Jamaica Great Houses says Samuel Barrett Jr began it, and the 1734 start date should be treated as low confidence. Almanac counts for Cinnamon Hill exclude Cornwall, which is listed separately; claim 666 combines both.
Almanac years reflect returns for the March quarter of the year before publication. Compensation figures: the claim header shows £8,791 14s 8d, an amended award of £1,767 17s 8d appears in T71/873, and the final adjudication on 22 Nov 1841 was £7,029 17s 0d. The adjudged figure is used, as £7,029.85.
A separate small claim, St James 815A-C (35 enslaved, £558 6s 2d, awarded to Mary Scarlett and others), is also labelled 'Cinnamon Hill'. It appears to concern people held by another owner on or near the estate and is not included above. A different Cinnamon Hill in St Paul (Hanover) appears in LBS and is unrelated.
The UCL LBS estate page for Cinnamon Hill (estate 41) could not be loaded. The Johnny Cash purchase is given as 1972 (Wikipedia) and the 'early 1970s' (Jamaica Great Houses, Rose Hall). The Rollins repurchase year of 2012 comes from rosehall.com only.
Survival in the 1831 rebellion is per Jamaica Great Houses. JNHT declaration is per the Wikipedia list of National Heritage Sites; the year was not confirmed on jnht.com. Samuel Barrett Moulton-Barrett's birth date (31 Mar 1787) comes from a genealogy site and was not independently verified. Coordinates are approximate.
Nearby great houses
This profile was compiled by Jamaica Homes News from the sources listed above and checked against archival records where they were available. Legends are labelled as legends. Inclusion here does not confirm public access or opening hours. Spotted an error, or hold records about this house? Return to the Great Houses archive to explore the other houses.