1870s links
The Revd Dr A J Milne left Jamaica in the early months of 1870 and the Collegiate School entered a
decade during which it was led by the Revd John Radcliffe and Mr William Morrison, with considerable
success and distinction. Milne's departure was recalled by a Gleaner writer in 1895 in the lines below,
though there was apparently little written in the Gleaner in 1870.
Doctor Milne remained in Jamaica as head of the Collegiate School and assistant in the Church for nearly fifteen years, and on his leaving the island was
made a recipient of
addresses with very
valuable presents of massive silver plate, from various associations,
as we noticed in our columns at the time. Especially we might refer to the handsome
testimonial from the Kirk Session and members of the congregation, and to that from his
fellow Scots of the Caledonian Society, of which he was virtually founder, and of which he was the President.
Daily Gleaner, July 27, 1895
[I'm working on material from the Colonial Standard. JL]
A burglary in 1870 at the Collegiate School, then still on Church Street, illustrates William Morrison's involvement with the school, and also perhaps that he was not a very good shot, though having a compassionate nature. I have now picked up a reference to the trial of the unfortunate James Abrahams, and there are further references which appear to deal with the case >>> Daily Gleaner, April 2, 1870   | Daily Gleaner, May 19, 1870  Mr Morrison's 'fowling piece' would have looked like the one in the picture below. In the early '70s it was still possible to shoot ducks at Prater's Pond, then still in existence at the bottom of the Allman Town area, where Kingston Gardens was later built. Joseph Brennan, a Collegiate 'Old Boy', still remembered the duck-shooting at Prater's Pond when he was in his 90s, in the early 1950s.
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The Collegiate School in 1871: An interesting development in the fall of 1871 was the departure of Theophilus
Cox, one of the Collegiate's teachers, to set up his own school, which may represent the first attempt by
the Church of England to establish its own boys' secondary school. more >>> Daily Gleaner, January, 1871  Daily Gleaner, June 21, 1871 click on image below for prize list  Daily Gleaner,
December 22, 1871 [The 1871]
Christmas Examination of the (the left-hand edge of the page is cropped; I have suggested the possible missing words!) click on image below for prize list Daily Gleaner, Jamuary 9, 1872 | The Collegiate School in 1872: Daily Gleaner, January 20, 1872  please click on the images below; these prize lists are all I have found so far about the Collegiate in 1872. Daily Gleaner, June 27, 1872  Daily Gleaner, January 9, 1873  This is how the Collegiate School was advertised in the early 1870s:  |
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The Collegiate School in 1873: click on image below Andrew Hendricks, who appears on this prize list, later was a much valued and loved member of the Collegiate staff. Daily Gleaner, July 5, 1873  I have not yet been able to find any other information for 1873 | Daily Gleaner, July 23, 1873  |
smallpox cases, and in consequence, deaths, since the early 1850s. Cases occurred in
various parts of the island, and in the summer and fall of 1874 Kingston was affected,
leading to a brief postponement of the start of the new term at the Collegiate School.
in this city for months past.' Daily Gleaner, October 19, 1874
Daily Gleaner, July 18, 1874  | Daily Gleaner, July 23, 1874  |
click on the image below for that term's prize list
Daily Gleaner, January 12, 1875
The Collegiate School in 1875: Daily Gleaner, January 19, 1875  Daily Gleaner, April 16, 1875  Daily Gleaner, June 24, 1875 (click on the image below for the Prize List)  Daily Gleaner, July 16, 1875   I have found no account of the postponed debate. Click on the image below for the Prize Giving and Prize List for Christmas 1875.  | The Collegiate School in 1876: Apart from housing the Collegiate School the building on Church Street, later always referred to as the Collegiate Hall, hosted a wide variety of functions. It was rebuilt after the 1907 earthquake and demolished in 1949. Click on the link below to see the events at the Hall in 1876: School events in 1876 - click on image below -   Daily Gleaner, December 21, 1876 (click image below)  In the latter part of 1876 another attempt was made to establish a boys' secondary school under the auspices of the Church of England. In the 1880s this school was amalgamated with the Collegiate School for several years. Somewhat confusingly the principal of the new school was also called Morrison, D S Morrison, an American with long experience in teaching. Daily Gleaner, October 14, 1876  Daily Gleaner, January 4, 1877  |
It is of some interest that in November 1876 the first, mule-drawn, streetcars began to operate in Kingston, and so, presumably, the 130 year story of Kingston school children and public transport commenced.
 The picture of this mule-drawn streetcar on its way to the Exhibition in 1891 is the only one I have seen of a mule-drawn streetcar in Kingston; there are many pictures of the later electric cars introduced in the late 1890s. Daily Gleaner, November 4, 1876  Montgomery's Corner was the old name for Cross Roads. The line from Cross Roads to Half-Way-Tree was opened in November 1877. Daily Gleaner, November 8, 1876  |  Daily Gleaner, November 11, 1876     Daily Gleaner, November 14, 1876  |
The Collegiate School in 1877: Daily Gleaner, January 22, 1877  In June 1877 an interesting concert featuring a local Black poet, Matthew Josephs, was held at the Collegiate School. For more, click below.  The school, of course, continued its work, but I have not found any account of a prize-giving in the summer of 1877.  Nor have I found much further information for 1877; one item refers back to the earlier years of the school, with a note of the death of the Rev Mr Jardine in british Guiana.  [The run of the Gleaner I am using currently does not contain the month of December 1877; I will have to try to access another run to find what happened then!] | The Collegiate School in 1878: In January 1877 William Morrison had become editor of the Colonial Standard for which he had frequently written articles in the past. The newspaper work certainly took up time, and also increasingly involved Morrison in political issues which at the time were increasingly involved with the demand for restoration of representative institutions in the island. This journalistic activity may, or may not, explain the few references to the school in 1878: it certainly brought him into confrontation with Sir Anthony Musgrave who had become Governor in the fall of 1877. In December the usual Christmas prize giving function took place: Daily Gleaner, December 16, 1878  Apparently Morrison had invited the new Governor to the Collegiate function, but Musgrave was already severely put out by Morrison's criticisms:  |
The Collegiate School in 1879: I have found nothing relating to the Collegiate School in the first half of 1879.
 | In September an item in the Gleaner was a reminder of the successes being achieved by old boys of the Collegiate School. Derwent Waldron had been there in the later 1860s, but although there were pupils named Bell at the School at that time, I have not identified Robert G S Bell. Daily Gleaner, September 11, 1879  Daily Gleaner, December 17, 1879  click on image above for account of prize-giving |
By the end of the 1870s the Collegiate School had established itself, over more than 25 years, as the leading secondary school in the island - writing of the need for more institutions of secondary and tertiary education in Jamaica, a writer to the Gleaner in 1878 referred to them as 'higher schools, of which the far-famed Collegiate is a prominent pattern'. The 1880s were to be far more troubled years, which the Collegiate School only survived in a re-incarnated version, entirely shaped by William Morrison, and sustained by him for another decade and a half.
more on Morrison's reputation around this time >>>
