St Andrew, near Kingston
Cherry Garden
Great House
Sugar estate where National Hero George William Gordon was born into slavery.
- Built
- Mid-1700s
- Economy
- Sugar
- Style
- Jamaican Georgian (two-storey)
- Today
- Private residence
Overview
Cherry Garden Great House stands in the hills of upper St Andrew, looking down over the Kingston plain and harbour. It was the centre of a sugar estate assembled from the 1690s by Colonel Ezekiel Gomersall and later held for generations by the absentee Dickinson and Harman families, who lived in England. Its enslaved workforce numbered roughly 160 to 175 people in the official registers of 1817 to 1832.
One of the women enslaved there, Ann Rattray, had children with the estate's Scottish attorney, Joseph Gordon. Their son, George William Gordon, grew up to be a self-made merchant, preacher and politician who defended poor Black Jamaicans. After the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865 Governor Eyre had him court-martialled and hanged, and in 1969 he was named a National Hero.
The estate land is now the Cherry Gardens residential district, and the great house survives on a small plot as a private family home.
Timeline
14 dated moments in the life of Cherry Garden. 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.
- 1694
Estate begins
Colonel Ezekiel Gomersall starts acquiring land in St Andrew and builds Cherry Garden up to about 300 acres.
- 1734
Passes to the Dickinsons
Gomersall dies and the estate passes to his wife's relatives; Ezekiel Dickinson owns it from England.
- 1740
Sugar and rum accounts
Plantation accounts filed from 1740 show sugar and rum as Cherry Garden's main products.
- 1788
Barnard Dickinson inherits
Barnard Dickinson becomes owner, still absentee, with overseers and attorneys running the estate.
- 1815
Harman ownership
Jeremiah and Ezekiel Harman appear as joint owners of Cherry Garden.
- 1817
First slave register
The register lists 172 enslaved people, including Ann Rattray and her children.
- 1820
George William Gordon born
Gordon is born on the estate to Ann Rattray and Joseph Gordon (some evidence points to 1815).
- 1826
Joseph Gordon as attorney
Joseph Gordon registers the enslaved people as attorney for the Harmans; between 1826 and 1829 Ann Rattray and most of her children are freed.
- 1834
Emancipation
Slavery is abolished and replaced by apprenticeship until 1838; the estate's owners receive £3,331 4s 4d compensation.
- 1845
Son saves the estate
George William Gordon pays off his father's debts and secures Cherry Garden for the family.
- 1865
Morant Bay and execution
After the Morant Bay Rebellion, Gordon is court-martialled and hanged at Morant Bay on 23 October.
- 1868
Marescaux remodels
Banker Oscar Marescaux buys the house from Gordon's widow and adds the roofed patios and mahogany panelling.
- 1969
National Hero
George William Gordon is proclaimed a National Hero of Jamaica.
- 1981
Photographed
A photograph of the house in its palm-lined yard is taken, now held by the National Library of Jamaica.
The story of Cherry Garden
Origins, owners and the working estate.
The Cherry Garden estate was built up by Colonel Ezekiel Gomersall (1663–1734), a member of the colony's governing Council and colonel of the St Andrew horse regiment, who began acquiring land here in 1694 and expanded it to about 300 acres. Gomersall had no surviving children, so after his death the estate went to members of his wife's family, the Dickinsons. Ezekiel Dickinson and later his son Barnard Dickinson owned it while living in England, running it through local attorneys and overseers. Plantation accounts from 1740 onward, summarised in the UCL Legacies of British Slavery database, show Cherry Garden producing mainly sugar and rum, with molasses, coffee, cotton, corn, cattle and sheep in some years; James Robertson's map of 1804 marks it as a sugar estate with a cattle mill.
From about 1815 Jeremiah and Ezekiel Harman, Dickinson relatives in England, were joint owners. In the 1820s and early 1830s the estate was managed by Joseph Gordon, a Scottish attorney who controlled many properties on the island and later became Custos of St Andrew. As sugar declined after emancipation, Gordon fell into financial trouble, and in 1845 his son George William Gordon used his own business wealth to clear the debts and keep the property in the family. After George William Gordon's execution in 1865, his widow sold the house in the late 1860s to Oscar Marescaux, a Colonial Bank manager, who gave the building much of its present appearance.
In the 20th century the house passed to the Jones family, and the surrounding land was divided into the Cherry Gardens residential area.
Architecture
How the house was built, and what survives.
Cherry Garden is a two-storey Jamaican Georgian house whose features suggest it was built in the mid-18th century. A double staircase that splits in two leads up to an entrance portico held up by four cast-iron columns with decorative tops, sitting above an open cellar, and the entrance floor and steps are of marble. Rows of jalousie windows run along the main walls, mixed with casement windows, reaching from about chair-rail height up to the beams of the upper floor so that air and light can pass through while keeping the rooms shaded and cool.
A hardwood staircase inside, to the left of the front door, rises to the upper floor, and a second stair at the back gives outside access. A verandah across the back on both levels extends the living space outdoors. As at many great houses, the kitchen was a separate building behind the main house to reduce heat and fire risk; it has gone, but the walkway that linked it to the house remains, resurfaced in modern materials. Much of what visitors see today dates from changes made by Oscar Marescaux after 1868, when the front and back patios were enlarged and roofed and mahogany panelling was added inside.
The people of Cherry Garden
Owners, enslaved Africans and their descendants, workers and keepers.
Cherry Garden was worked by enslaved Africans and their descendants. Colonel Gomersall was described as one of the biggest purchasers of enslaved people in St Andrew. The official slave registers record 172 enslaved people on the estate in 1817 (95 women and girls, 77 men and boys), 163 in 1820, 170 in 1823, 168 in 1826, 171 in 1829 and 170 in 1832, registered by the attorneys Donald McLean and later Joseph Gordon for the absentee Harman owners. Among them was Ann Rattray, a woman of mixed race listed in the 1817, 1820 and 1826 registers with several children.
Joseph Gordon, the estate attorney, was the father of her children, including George William Gordon. Between 1826 and 1829 Ann Rattray and most of these children were freed. George William Gordon left to live with his godfather in Black River, opened a produce business in Kingston in 1836, and became a landowner, magistrate, Assembly member and Baptist preacher who championed poor small farmers. When the Morant Bay Rebellion broke out in October 1865, Governor Edward Eyre blamed him; he was taken from Kingston into the martial-law zone, tried by court-martial and hanged at Morant Bay on 23 October 1865.
Slavery ended in 1834, followed by apprenticeship until 1838; compensation of £3,331 4s 4d was paid for the people of Cherry Garden.
Ezekiel Gomersall1663–1734
Founder of the estate; member of the King's Council
Assembled Cherry Garden from 1694.
Barnard Dickinsonowner 1788–1811
Absentee owner
Ran the estate from England through attorneys.
Jeremiah and Ezekiel Harman1815–1834
Absentee joint owners
Owners during the slave-register years.
Ann Rattrayc.1792–before 1865
Enslaved woman on Cherry Garden, later freed
Mother of George William Gordon; freed with most of her children 1826–29.
Joseph Gordon1790–1867
Scottish attorney for the estate; later Custos of St Andrew
Father of George William Gordon; moved to Jersey and died there.
George William Gordonc.1820–1865
Merchant, politician, preacher; National Hero
Born on the estate; hanged after the Morant Bay Rebellion.
Oscar Marescauxowner from late 1860s
Colonial Bank manager and owner
Remodelled the house.
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.
170
Between 1817 and 1832 the recorded number fell by 2, from 172 to 170. On most Jamaican sugar estates, deaths outnumbered births under slavery; the population was kept up by purchase.
Myth and fact
Stories told about the house, checked against the documents.
The story
The pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read were tried at Cherry Garden.
The record
Their 1720 trial was held in Spanish Town. The link is that the estate's founder, Ezekiel Gomersall, reportedly sat as one of the judges.
The story
Joseph Gordon built the great house.
The record
One travel guide says so, but other accounts date the house to the mid-1700s, before Joseph Gordon's time, with major changes added by Oscar Marescaux after 1868.
Cherry Garden today
After the Marescaux era the house passed in the 20th century to the family of Oliver Jones. The roughly 300 acres of the old estate were divided up and developed into Cherry Gardens, one of Kingston's upscale hillside neighbourhoods, leaving the great house on about two acres. Recent descriptions say the house is a shadow of its former self, surrounded by modern concrete homes, but it still keeps its Georgian form, jalousie windows and staircases. The grounds have been noted for orchids, crotons and orange trees.
It is a private home and is not open to the public, though travel writers report the owners have not objected to people viewing the outside. The National Library of Jamaica holds a 1981 photograph of the house. Its greatest significance is as the birthplace and family home of George William Gordon, whose name is carried by Gordon House, Jamaica's Parliament building, and who has appeared on Jamaican money since 1969.
Cherry Garden Great House is a private home and is not open to the public; please respect the owners' privacy and view it only from the road.
Learn
For students, teachers and the curious.
Did you know?
- National Hero George William Gordon was born on the Cherry Garden estate to an enslaved mother.
- Gordon's mother, Ann Rattray, appears by name in the estate's official slave registers.
- The Cherry Gardens neighbourhood of Kingston is built on land that was once this sugar estate.
- Jamaica's Parliament building, Gordon House, is named after George William Gordon.
- The front entrance has a double staircase that splits into two, leading up to a portico held up by iron columns.
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 – Cherry Garden Estate (St Andrew)https://lbs.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/2983
- UCL Legacies of British Slavery – Joseph Gordonhttps://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/20354
- Jamaica Information Service – George William Gordonhttps://jis.gov.jm/information/heroes/george-william-gordon/
- Jamaica Gleaner – National Hero George William Gordon's link to Shortwood (2024)https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20241028/national-hero-george-william-gordons-link-shortwood-teachers-college
- Jamaica Great Houses – Cherry Gardenshttps://jamaicagreathouses.com/cherrygardens/
- Jamaica Great Houses – Cherry Garden timelinehttps://jamaicagreathouses.com/cherrygardens/cherrygarden-timeline.html
- Jamaica Fiwi Roots – Great Houseshttps://fiwiroots.com/greathouses.html
- National Library of Jamaica Digital Collection – Cherry Gardens photograph (1981)https://nljdigital.nlj.gov.jm/items/show/5620
- Moon Jamaica – Cherry Gardens Great Househttps://mail.moonjamaica.com/node/218
- Wikipedia – George William Gordon (pointer only)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Gordon
Historian's notes: what is uncertain
Construction date is not documented; the mid-18th-century estimate is based on architectural style, and one guide claims 17th century while Moon says Joseph Gordon built it. George William Gordon's birth year is given as 1820 by most sources, but LBS cites an 1815 baptism of a George Gordon on Cherry Garden; JIS says he was born near Mavis Bank. His parentage by Joseph Gordon is widely accepted but LBS notes the documentation is partly genealogical.
Accounts differ on Gordon's link to the house: some say he bought it in 1845 and lived there until his arrest, while a 2024 Gleaner article says he lived next door, saved it for his father, and his family lived there after Joseph left Jamaica. One source says he was arrested at the house; others say he surrendered in Kingston. Joseph Gordon is recorded by LBS as attorney (1826–32), not owner, at Cherry Garden; the claim that he acquired title is unconfirmed.
The LBS estate page gives compensation of £3,331 4s 4d but no claim number or awardee was retrievable, so those fields are blank. LBS lists other estates called Cherry Garden (e.g. St Dorothy) which are different properties. Pirate-trial link rests on a single non-academic source. JNHT declaration status not found.
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.