Trelawny, near Falmouth
Good Hope
Great House
A hilltop sugar estate above the Martha Brae, built on enslaved labour.
- Built
- c. 1755
- Economy
- Sugar
- Style
- Georgian
- Today
- Museum / attraction
Overview
Good Hope stands on a rise above a bend in the Martha Brae River, a few miles inland from Falmouth on the edge of Cockpit Country. It began in 1744 as a 1,000-acre sugar estate granted to Colonel Thomas Williams. In 1767 the young planter John Tharp bought it, together with the people enslaved there, and made it the headquarters of one of the largest slave-holding empires in Jamaica.
Around the great house he built a counting house, a storehouse, a hospital for the enslaved and an aqueduct that powered several mills. Hundreds of men, women and children lived in the estate village and worked the cane. After emancipation the estate passed through several owners, became a cattle pen, then a hotel for wealthy visitors from the 1920s.
Today it is a privately owned heritage and adventure attraction operated by Chukka, where visitors tour the great house and outbuildings.
Timeline
16 dated moments in the life of Good Hope. 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.
- 1744
Sugar estate founded
Colonel Thomas Williams receives a grant of about 1,000 acres on the Martha Brae River for a sugar plantation.
- 1755
Earliest wing of the house
Archaeologists date the south wing of the great house to about this year, during the Williams period.
- 1767
John Tharp buys Good Hope
Tharp, about 23, purchases the estate together with the people enslaved on it.
- 1770
Trelawny parish created
The new parish of Trelawny is formed from parts of St James and St Ann, and Good Hope falls within it.
- 1790
Storehouse built
A two-storey masonry storehouse for sugar and rum is completed as part of Tharp's building campaign.
- 1794
Estate survey
A survey plat shows about 50 houses of enslaved people with gardens across roughly seven acres.
- 1798
Hospital for the enslaved
A stone hospital designed by Thomas Paterson is built, positioned to be watched from the overseer's house.
- 1804
Death of John Tharp
Tharp dies at Good Hope; his inventory lists 484 enslaved people on this estate.
- 1817
First slave register
The register records 448 enslaved people at Good Hope: 238 female and 210 male.
- 1834
Abolition and apprenticeship
Slavery is abolished in law, but formerly enslaved people must work as unpaid 'apprentices' until 1838.
- 1836
Compensation awarded
Claim Trelawny 532 awards £7,725 7s 8d for 373 people, paid to the owners, not to the formerly enslaved.
- 1840
Frederick Coy buys the estate
Coy continues sugar and rum production with free and indentured workers until 1878.
- 1898
Becomes a cattle pen
Captain Alexander Oppenheim buys Good Hope and raises cattle there.
- 1912
Bought by John F. Thompson
The New York banker later turns the estate into the Good Hope Hotel, open from the early 1920s to 1950.
- 2012
Royal visit
Prince Harry tours the great house during his Diamond Jubilee visit to Jamaica.
- 2014
Village excavation
DAACS-led archaeologists dig 182 test pits in the former slave village.
The story of Good Hope
Origins, owners and the working estate.
The estate began in 1744 when Colonel Thomas Williams was granted about 1,000 acres on the Martha Brae River to establish a sugar plantation. At that time the land lay in the parish of St James; Trelawny was only carved out in 1770. Archaeologists working with the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS) believe the south wing of the great house is the oldest part, dating to around 1755, and may have been the Williams family home. A water-powered mill already appears on a map from the 1760s.
In 1767 John Tharp, then about 23 years old and heir to Hanover estates, bought Good Hope along with its enslaved workforce. Over the following decades he bought and developed neighbouring properties in Trelawny, St Ann and St James, and Good Hope became the administrative centre for them. Between roughly 1790 and 1802 he carried out a major building campaign: a two-storey storehouse for sugar hogsheads and rum puncheons (1790), an enlarged boiling house and rum distillery, an in-ground aqueduct that also served downriver mills at Lansquinet and Potosi, and a stone hospital for the enslaved (1798). The great house itself grew to at least nine rooms and was turned to face a new eastern approach.
Tharp died at Good Hope in 1804. His Jamaican inventory listed more than 2,800 enslaved people across his properties, 484 of them at Good Hope. Trustees, attorneys and relatives then ran the estate, while his will became tied up in a long Chancery case in England.
After emancipation, Frederick Robert Coy bought Good Hope in 1840 and kept sugar and rum production going until 1878 using free Jamaican and later East Indian indentured workers. The estate declined under his heirs, became a cattle pen under Captain Alexander Oppenheim from 1898, and in 1912 was bought by New York banker John F. Thompson, who turned it into the Good Hope Hotel.
Architecture
How the house was built, and what survives.
The great house sits on a hill looking over former cane fields toward the Queen of Spain Valley. Its plan is made of two gable-ended wings joined by a central block; the south wing is thought to be the earliest section, from about 1755, with later expansion in the 1780s and 1790s. The walls are of dressed stone, and one wing is of brick. Heritage writers describe verandahs, jalousie-trimmed windows, high raftered ceilings and floors of pitch pine and other local timber, with tall sash windows that helped air circulation.
The kitchen is a separate building, a common fire precaution. A bath extension at the back of the house is said to have used a fireplace and flue to heat water for a metal tub. Many Tharp-era outbuildings survive close to the house: a carriage house, a kitchen and laundry, a counting house where estate business was done, and a two-storey privy that carries a cornerstone from the Williams period. Further away stand the 1790 storehouse, the ruins of the sugar works, and the shell of the 1798 hospital.
A measured plan of the house was drawn by Edward Chappell in 1995, and University of Virginia students recorded its elevations in 2010.
The people of Good Hope
Owners, enslaved Africans and their descendants, workers and keepers.
Good Hope's wealth was produced by enslaved Africans and their Jamaican-born descendants. Tharp's 1805 inventory counted 484 enslaved people at Good Hope out of more than 2,800 across his estates. The government slave registers kept after 1817 record 448 people at Good Hope in 1817 (238 women and girls, 210 men and boys), falling to 389 by 1832. DAACS researchers note that the village population averaged around 414 and peaked in 1803 before declining sharply, a pattern seen on many sugar estates where deaths outnumbered births. An estate survey of 1794 shows about 50 small houses with gardens covering some seven acres near the sugar works; this is where the enslaved community lived. The 1798 hospital was laid out so that the overseer's house could watch its entrance. The UCL Legacies of British Slavery database notes an enslaved family named Behaviour at Good Hope, but individual life stories have not yet been widely published.
John Harewood (also spelled Harwood), Tharp's son born outside marriage, served as a senior manager on the estate. After Tharp's death, attorneys including William Fairclough, William Shand and William Mitchell Kerr ran the property for the trustees. When slavery was abolished, 373 people were listed in the compensation claim for Good Hope; they then had to serve an unpaid 'apprenticeship' until full freedom in 1838. Later workers included free Jamaicans and East Indian indentured labourers under Frederick Coy.
Colonel Thomas Williamsestate 1744–1766
Founder and first owner
Received the original land grant; the earliest wing of the house probably dates to his time.
John Tharp1744–1804
Owner and planter
Bought Good Hope in 1767 and made it the centre of a vast slave-holding business; died there in 1804.
John Harewoodlate 18th–early 19th century
Estate manager; Tharp's son born outside marriage
Held a senior management role at Good Hope, according to DAACS.
The Behaviour familyearly 19th century
Enslaved family at Good Hope
Noted in the UCL LBS record for John Tharp; few details are published.
Thomas Paterson1798
Designer of the 1798 hospital
Plan drawn by Tharp's nephew Alexander Campbell.
Frederick Robert Coy1840–1878
Post-emancipation owner
Ran sugar and rum production with free and East Indian indentured labour.
John F. Thompsonfrom 1912
Owner; hotel developer
New York banker who turned the estate into the Good Hope Hotel.
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.
389
Between 1815 and 1832 the recorded number fell by 75, from 464 to 389. 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 estate sat untouched in legal limbo for a century after Tharp died, until 1912.
The record
Tharp's will was tied up in Chancery, but archaeological research records later owners such as Frederick Coy (1840) and Alexander Oppenheim (1898) before 1912.
The story
Legend: Colonel Williams's wife Elizabeth is buried beneath the ground floor of the house.
The record
This story appears on heritage tourism sites, but no independent source confirming it was found.
The story
Good Hope had hot running water before New York City.
The record
This is a popular claim. A heated bath is described at the house, but the comparison with New York is not documented.
Good Hope today
From the early 1920s until about 1950, Good Hope operated as a hotel for wealthy guests, which helped keep the great house standing. Later owners ran it as a farm and guest house; one heritage website credits Patrick Tenison with this period and says the Hart family bought the estate in 1989. A 2017 Jamaica Observer report credited the Hart family with much of the private restoration. The property now covers about 2,000 acres and is operated by Chukka as a heritage and adventure park, with great house tours alongside river tubing, zip lines and buggy rides; a US$4-million adventure park expansion was reported in 2017.
Prince Harry toured the house in March 2012. Archaeologists from DAACS, Falmouth Heritage Renewal and the University of the West Indies excavated part of the former slave village in 2014, digging 182 test pits, and the masonry of the hospital has been stabilised. The old hospital later served as a penitentiary, a school and St Peter's Anglican church.
Good Hope is privately owned and operated as an attraction, with great house tours offered alongside adventure activities. Check with the operator for current tour arrangements, as availability may change, including after recent hurricane seasons.
Learn
For students, teachers and the curious.
Did you know?
- The building that was once the hospital for enslaved people later became a prison, a school and a church.
- Good Hope was in the parish of St James when it was founded. Trelawny did not exist until 1770.
- Archaeologists dug 182 small test pits in 2014 to learn how the people of the estate village lived.
- From the 1920s to 1950 the estate was a hotel for wealthy visitors.
- An aqueduct at Good Hope carried water to turn mills on other estates further down the river.
Test yourself
Sources
Where this account comes from. The web addresses are listed so you can check the evidence yourself.
- DAACS – Good Hope Estatehttps://www.daacs.org/plantations/good-hope-estate/
- DAACS – Good Hope site overviewhttps://www.daacs.org/?p=14073
- UCL LBS – Good Hope Estate (estate 2901)https://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/2901
- UCL LBS – Claim Jamaica Trelawny 532 (Good Hope)https://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/22141
- UCL LBS – John Tharp IV, of Good Hope and Chippenham Parkhttps://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146642249
- Jamaica Great Houses – Good Hopehttps://jamaicagreathouses.com/goodhope/index.html
- Jamaica Great Houses – Good Hope timelinehttps://jamaicagreathouses.com/goodhope/goodhope-timeline.html
- JIS – Prince Tours Good Hope Great House (2012)https://jis.gov.jm/prince-tours-good-hope-great-house/
- Jamaica Observer – Opportunities for heritage tourism in Jamaica (2017)https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2017/02/26/opportunities-for-heritage-tourism-in-jamaica/
- Jamaica Observer – Chukka Good Hope gets US$4m adventure park (2017)https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2017/04/12/chukka-good-hope-gets-us4-m-adventure-park/
Historian's notes: what is uncertain
Coordinates are approximate (about 5–6 miles south/south-west of Falmouth). Current ownership is unclear: a 2017 Observer piece credits the Hart family with restoration and a heritage site says Tony Hart bought the estate in 1989, while a 2015 TravelAge West article names the Melville family (Chukka); Chukka operates the attraction. The jamaicagreathouses.com timeline says the estate stayed in Chancery from 1804 to 1912, which conflicts with DAACS records of sale to Coy (1840) and Oppenheim (1898); DAACS is preferred here.
Tharp's acreage is variously given as 9,000 or about 25,000 acres; omitted. The Almanac figure of 550 for 1826 is out of line with the register (428). Claims that Tharp was 'benevolent', that his bath caused lead poisoning, and the burial of Elizabeth Williams under the house are unverified.
JNHT declaration status was not confirmed. Compensation amount £7,725 7s 8d expressed as decimal 7725.38. Possible damage from Hurricane Melissa (Oct 2025) not verified.
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.