St. David's Angelican Church

History of St. David's

St David’s Church in Yallahs, St. Thomas, Jamaica, is one of the oldest Anglican churches in the island, being founded in 1664, just nine years after the British took Jamaica from Spain. It is a simple, single- aisle church, which has been extended westwards as the congregation expanded. Initially it was very small, serving the scattered plantations in the old St. David’s Parish. The latter was only dissolved in 1868, when it was incorporated into the neighbouring Parish of St. Thomas-in-the-East, and renamed the Parish of St. Thomas.

As the Parish Church of St. David’s, it was at the centre of the local administration. The local Vestry was the unit of local government which oversaw local affairs and the Rectors of St. David’s would have played a critical role in its deliberations. The sugar estates, particularly those like Albion, and the coffee plantations in the Blue Mountains, would have supplied the early membership of the Church.

Being named after the patron saint of Wales, St. David, it is commonly believed that Welsh migrants to Jamaica played a part in the church’s early origins. Welsh place names in the parish underscore that assumption.

In the nineteenth century pressure was applied to have more convenient places of worship and St. John’s Church, Woburn Lawn, came into existence in 1843, along with All Saint’s, Llandewey, in 1888. Trinityville, with which the present ecclesiastical parish is twined, was already a major focus of worship by the mid-nineteenth century, and, until recent times, was the larger of the two congregations.

Today, St. David’s Church still stands proudly in the centre of the town. Recent renovations and renewals have included the building of an adjacent Church Hall, the tiling of the interior and (as of February 2010) the re-roofing of the entire building. It is undoubtedly one of the oldest existing structures in St. Thomas and richly deserves the care and attention lavished on it by the current membership.

We also do repairingTopic 1

We also do repairingTopic 3

<Clear this text to enter your information here>