Sturge Town

Sturge Town Baptist
Church

Parish: St. Ann

Sturge Town, named after Joseph Sturge, the Quaker philanthropist who advocated for the end of the apprenticeship system, was established in 1839 by Reverend John Clark, a Baptist missionary. The property contained about 120 acres of good land and was located about eight miles from Brown's Town. The cost of the land including expenses of conveyance and surveying was about ₤700. Of this amount, more than £400 was paid down by eighty or ninety people and the remainder by installments and additional purchasers. It has been estimated that settlers paid about £7 per acre for their holdings.

Sturge Town Baptist Churc A school and church were added to the community by 1840. The school was run by the church and the church was staffed by a local minister Samuel Hodges. Therefore, shortly after its establishment, Sturge Town had a church-run school, its own chapel and resident minister.

Each house had a separate acre of land where, in addition to provisions, there were a number of pimento trees and in some instance sugar cane was cultivated. Pimento is a traditional export crop in Jamaica, and was probably sold by the Sturge Town people. Surpluses of other trees crops such as mangoes and breadfruit were probably also sold for distribution in the island markets