Trelawny, near Falmouth
Green Park
Great House
A fortified sugar house near Falmouth where more than 500 people were enslaved.
- Built
- 1764
- Economy
- Sugar
- Style
- Georgian (fortified plantation house)
- Today
- Ruin
Overview
Green Park lies a short distance south of Falmouth in Trelawny. First a cattle property called Green Pond, it was renamed Green Park in the 1760s by Kingston merchant Thomas Southworth and his partner, who turned it to sugar. Southworth started the present great house in 1764 but died before it was finished; his heir William Atherton completed and enlarged it as a defensible plantation house.
The Atherton family kept the estate for well over a century. Government registers show that between about 530 and 560 enslaved people lived and worked there in the 1810s–1830s, making it one of the larger sugar estates in the parish. After sugar failed in the 20th century, the American collector Ray Fremmer bought the house and tried to restore it. After his death it was given to the people of Jamaica, but today the house stands in ruins.
Timeline
14 dated moments in the life of Green Park. 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.
- 1740
Green Pond estate
George Sinclair is said to have built the first house on the property, then called Green Pond.
- 1764
Great house begun
Thomas Southworth, who renamed the estate Green Park, starts the present great house but dies before it is finished.
- 1765
Atherton and Holme take over
Estate accounts list Peter Holme and Southworth's heirs; William Atherton inherits Southworth's share.
- 1771
Bradshaw estate added
Atherton buys the neighbouring Bradshaw estate, bringing Green Park to about 1,315 acres.
- 1773
Windmill built
A second sugar mill with a stone windmill is added.
- 1783
Atherton leaves Jamaica
Atherton departs, later retiring to England while overseers run the estate.
- 1817
First slave register
The register records 528 enslaved people at Green Park: 275 female and 253 male.
- 1832
Last slave register
The final register before abolition lists 561 people.
- 1834
Abolition and apprenticeship
Slavery ends in law, but freed people must work as unpaid apprentices until 1838.
- 1836
Compensation awarded
Claim Trelawny 539A–C pays £10,172 17s 9d to the owners' interests for 544 people.
- 1910
Sold to the estate manager
The Atherton heirs sell Green Park to Walter Woolliscroft.
- 1957
Sugar estate closes
After years of low sugar prices, the estate ceases operation.
- 1970
Photographed by Brian Hudson
Photographs of the great house, windmill and a steam locomotive are taken; they are now in the National Library of Jamaica.
- 1990
Given to the nation
After Ray Fremmer's death at the property, the great house is given to the people of Jamaica.
The story of Green Park
Origins, owners and the working estate.
Green Park began as a smaller property called Green Pond. According to notes compiled from the researcher Ray Fremmer, George Sinclair built the first house there around 1740, and a later owner named Clarke built a second house in about 1743, whose remains lie under the east wing of today's building. The land passed briefly through other hands, including the neighbouring Barrett family (around 1757) and James Peterkin.
In the 1760s two Kingston merchants, Thomas Southworth and John Kennion, bought the property, renamed it Green Park and began converting it from cattle to sugar. Southworth, who was also a slave trader, started building the present great house in 1764 but died soon after. His share passed to William Atherton, a Kingston merchant, who co-owned the estate with the Liverpool merchant Peter Holme. Atherton finished and enlarged the house. Colonial rules of the time expected large plantation houses to be defensible against attack from outside or uprising from within, and Green Park was built with this in mind.
Atherton expanded the business: in 1771 he bought the neighbouring Bradshaw estate, bringing the total to about 1,315 acres, and in 1773 he added a second sugar mill with a stone windmill. Rum was distilled at the related Spring Vale Pen. Atherton left Jamaica in 1783 and later retired to Prescot Hall in Lancashire, leaving overseers such as Edmund Eccleston and William Fairclough in charge. After his death in 1803–04 the estate passed to his brother John, then to nephew Edward Atherton, then to Edward's heirs. In 1811, around 400 acres were in cane. Robertson's map of 1804 shows two cattle mills and a windmill.
Architecture
How the house was built, and what survives.
The great house was planned as a strong, defensible plantation residence, reflecting colonial concerns about attack and revolt. Construction began in 1764 under Thomas Southworth and was completed and enlarged by William Atherton. Two marble plaques at the front entrance credit the building to Atherton in 1764, though historical records show Southworth began the work that year. Researchers report that remnants of an earlier house, built around 1743, survive beneath the east wing.
In the 20th century Ray Fremmer altered the building significantly, reusing pieces of industrial machinery such as sugar-cane rollers and windmill drive shafts. Photographs taken in 1970 by geographer Brian Hudson, held by the National Library of Jamaica, show the great house, an overseer's house and a windmill tower on the estate, as well as a small narrow-gauge steam locomotive that Fremmer kept on site. Detailed documentation of the interior plan has not been found in accessible sources, and the house is now ruined.
The people of Green Park
Owners, enslaved Africans and their descendants, workers and keepers.
Green Park's sugar and rum were produced by enslaved people. The Jamaica slave register of 1817 lists 528 people at Green Park, 275 female and 253 male. Through the 1820s the number stayed around 530–550, and the 1832 register records 561. Combined with the related Spring Vale Pen, the Athertons held close to 800 people. An estate journal from 1823 records four children born to enslaved women that year. Estate records list a series of white overseers who ran the work day to day, including Robert Grant, Francis Falshaw, Christopher Forsyth, Edmund Eccleston (to 1791) and William Fairclough (1792–1808). Names of individual enslaved people have not been found in accessible published sources for this archive.
Green Park lay in the western parishes swept by the 1831–32 Christmas Rebellion, but no source consulted describes specific events there. When slavery was abolished in 1834, freed people had to serve as unpaid 'apprentices' until 1838. Under the compensation scheme the owners, not the formerly enslaved, were paid: claim Trelawny 539A–C, dated 8 February 1836, awarded £10,172 17s 9d for 544 people, divided between William Harrison, Fielden and Atherton interests. A further 182 people were freed at the linked Spring Vale Pen, according to a summary of the compensation records. The Atherton heirs sold the estate in 1910 to its manager, Walter Woolliscroft.
Thomas Southworthd. c.1764–65
Merchant, slave trader and owner
Renamed the estate Green Park and began the great house in 1764.
William Athertond. 1803/04
Merchant and planter, owner
Completed and enlarged the house and expanded the sugar works.
Peter Holme1760s–1770s
Liverpool merchant, co-owner
Partner with Atherton in Green Park and Spring Vale.
Edmund Eccleston and William Fairclough1782–1808
Overseers
Managed daily work on the estate for the absentee owners.
Eleanora Atherton1820s–1830s
Co-proprietor and compensation claimant
Claimed compensation with Richard Willis in 1836.
Walter Woolliscroftowner from 1910
Manager, then owner
Bought the estate from the Atherton heirs; later ruined by falling sugar prices.
Ray Fremmerd. c.1990
Collector, amateur historian and owner
Tried to restore the house as a museum; it passed to the nation after his death.
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.
561
Between 1815 and 1832 the recorded number rose by 18, from 543 to 561.
Myth and fact
Stories told about the house, checked against the documents.
The story
Green Park was the 'party palace' home of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's family.
The record
That description belongs to Greenwood Great House. Green Park was an Atherton family estate for most of its history.
The story
The plaques say William Atherton built the house in 1764, so he started it.
The record
Records show Thomas Southworth began the house in 1764; Atherton inherited it and finished it.
Green Park today
Sugar at Green Park became unprofitable in the 20th century. Walter Woolliscroft, the former manager who had bought the estate in 1910, was ruined after the 1929 crash drove sugar prices down, and the sugar estate closed by 1957. The American Second World War veteran and amateur historian Ray Fremmer later bought the great house, collected historic objects such as gravestones and a small steam locomotive, and wrote articles for the Sunday Gleaner. He hoped to create a museum about slavery and plantation life.
In 1970 he survived an armed break-in in which one attacker died; he was charged and later acquitted. Fremmer died at the property around 1990, and the great house was then given to the people of Jamaica. Some movable items were removed or placed in safekeeping. The house is now described as a ruin. It is often confused with Greenwood Great House, a different Barrett-family property near the Trelawny–St James border.
The great house is a ruin and there is no confirmed public visitor programme; anyone wishing to see it should seek local guidance and permission first and take care around unstable structures.
Learn
For students, teachers and the curious.
Did you know?
- Green Park used to be called Green Pond and was a cattle property before it grew sugar.
- More than 500 enslaved people were listed at Green Park in every slave register from 1817 to 1832.
- A small steam locomotive was once kept at the great house by its last private owner.
- Plantation houses like Green Park were built to be defended, because owners feared attack and uprisings.
- Green Park is a different place from Greenwood Great House, even though the names are often mixed up.
Test yourself
Sources
Where this account comes from. The web addresses are listed so you can check the evidence yourself.
- UCL LBS – Green Park estate (3197)https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/3197
- UCL LBS – Claim Jamaica Trelawny 539A-C (Green Park)https://lbs.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/24110
- UCL LBS – William Athertonhttps://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146643895
- Wikipedia – Green Park Estate, Jamaicahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Park_Estate,_Jamaica
- Cockpit Country – Green Parkhttps://cockpitcountry.com/Green%20Park.html
- National Library of Jamaica – Green Park Great House (1970 photo)https://nljdigital.nlj.gov.jm/items/show/6229
- National Library of Jamaica – Green Park overseer's house & windmillhttps://nljdigital.nlj.gov.jm/items/show/6231
Historian's notes: what is uncertain
Ownership claims in the brief were checked: the Barrett family is said to have briefly held Green Pond around 1757 (Fremmer-derived notes) and held adjoining land, but Green Park was an Atherton property from the 1760s to 1910. A Cockpit Country web page suggests the Tharps gained an interest on 10 Dec 1789 based on the Tharp Papers; this is not supported by UCL LBS records, which list Atherton ownership throughout, so it is treated as unverified. A holiday-jamaica.com listing conflates Green Park with Greenwood Great House (Barrett) and was not used.
Early owner names before 1765 (Sinclair, Clarke, Peterkin, Bradshaw grant) come from Fremmer-derived notes and Wikipedia and are not independently confirmed. Fremmer's death is given as 1990 (Wikipedia) and 'early 1990s, murdered' (Cockpit Country); sources differ. Wikipedia describes the 1836 split as involving 'William Harrison, father of Joseph Feilden', which conflicts with LBS listing Harrison and Fielden as separate awardees; LBS is followed.
JNHT declaration status and present public access are unconfirmed; Wikipedia cites a JNHT 'History of Green Park' page that could not be opened. Compensation £10,172 17s 9d expressed as decimal 10172.89. Effect of Hurricane Melissa (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.