English and French settlers started setting up colonies on St. Kitts from 1624. They share the island and agreed to keep the peace unless war was declared by their sovereign nations. The area now called the Salt Ponds was to be used in common.

The very narrow isthmus that connects the Salt Pond area to the main part of St. Kitts was very hilly and heavily wooded making it easier to access the peninsula by sea. .A road down the peninsula was built by the French. Their Basseterre Quarter was contiguous to it and they might have harboured hopes of owning it outright. The value of this real estate can be seen from the fact that the English were willing to give up Brimstone Hill for half of it. At the time, salt was a commodity that made trade possible. Vessels would stop in the small inlets of the peninsula to collect it to preserve food for long voyages. In 1693 and 1694 when the British controlled the area, Deputy Governor Hill incurred the fury of the Nevis Council, because he only allowed “certain people” to collect salt from the ponds.

The Norwood map of 1700 designates the area as “Quartier Maron”. The map by surveyor Pierre Buor (1714) does not show any settlement on the peninsula. This made it an ideal place for runaways to continue to find shelter there. A law passed in 1711 stated that numerous “sundry negroes” who had “withdrawn themselves into the late French Quarter and there absconded themselves in the grounds called the Salt Ponds and in other ground lying to windward of Frigate Bay, with design and intent not only to go over themselves to the enemy, when opportunity shall present but also to persuade and intice other negroes and slaves to go with them.” A law passed in 1722 mentions Johnny Congo, Christopher and Antego Quamina who had armed bands in on the peninsula.

When the French lands were offered for sale starting in 1726, the land of St. Kitts was identified by quality. Good quality land was near water, and fairly level and quite expensive to purchase. Ghauts and mountainsides were considered of inferior quality. The land in the Basseterre area demanded very high prices so the Commissioners who were in charge of the sale had no intention of allowing poor people who could not buy the land to continue to occupy it. A number of poor persons, who had settled on what was considered “valuable” land along College Road, were moved to the Salt Pond which was less valuable. It could not have been a welcome change for them. Their efforts to make a fresh start were hindered by the presence of cattle belonging to people in Nevis. However planters soon found use even for this area.

According to the Baker Map of 1753 the land around the Great Salt Pond was owned by

Earl of Romney, Sir Ralph Payne later Lord Lavington, William Woodley, Richard Holmes, Lt General Gilbert Fleming, All were men involved in administration, some served as governors of the Leewards or locally in St. Kitts. The map shows a small fort at Cockleshell bay. It seems to be located on the Fleming land.

The McMahon map of 1828 shows the land being owned by Romney, J. St. Leger Douglas, William Woodley and Sir Wastel Brisco, the great-grandson of Gilbert Fleming had cane fields, a cotton field, two slave villages and sugar works. The other properties may have been used as pasture.

During this period Rev Daniel Gateward Davis (later Bishop of Antigua) who had been installed as Rector at St. George’s took responsibility for the Salt Pond very seriously. He had a temporary chapel and school erected there. It was established in 1828 as a day school and in 1837 it had one female teacher who taught reading and catechism to around 30 students.

In 1854, John Davy described the use of the Salt Pond in these words:

This lake at the time I saw it, on the 30^th of March was about two miles in circuit, surrounded by muddy low ground, occasionally overflowed, and inclosed, except where there is an opening towards the sea, by hills that would have been naked, but for the great flowing aloe, and a bushy prickly mimosa scattered thinly over them. The bottom of the lake being but 6 feet below the sea level, there is a tendency of the sea to flow into it, which is effected in one place through a sand bank by a process of oozing, giving rise to a small salt stream, and in another, in tempestuous weather by the breaking of waves over the intervening low neck of land, which is paved. It is only in seasons beyond the average in regard to dryness that the lake is productive of salt. A strong drying wind of a month’s duration will commonly reduce the water to the point of crystallization. The salt forms at the bottom. It is collected by labourers in punts about eight feet long, and four broad, any by them conveyed to the shore. Occasionally a crust forms like ice at the surface impeding the process. The people employed have half of what they collect for their labour, or rather the price of half, for it is bought on account of the estates to which the lake belongs – thus if the price if the basket is fixed at three pence, three is fixed for each basket. In some years immense quantities have been obtained, and a labourer has made as much as twelve collars a week. The salt is sold chiefly to the Americans.

Salt picking continued well into the 20^th century. In most instances it was the kind of work done by persons who were not employed in cutting cane in St. Kitts or picking cotton in Nevis. Most of the workers were Anguillans or Nevisians. When cotton was reintroduced in Nevis at the beginning of the 20^th century it allowed Nevisians an opportunity of staying home so that recruitment for Salt picking became dependent on how many workers could find work in the cane or cotton fields. In 1938 an estimated Salt crop of six hundred thousand barrels was predicted. But labour was scarce and labourers were even recruited in Montserrat, Dominica and St. Vincent. The average wage at the time was $5 a week but it was reported that a man from Newtown managed to make $13 per week collecting 20 barrels a day. This was considered exceptional.

Because of its isolation and lack of supervision the area was notorious for smuggling or the manufacture of illicit rum. The Daily Bulletin of the 1 ^st April 1938 alleged that the area was the ideal place for keeping smuggled goods as government had no means of getting there except occasionally.

I t is well known that continuous smuggling is carried on in Nevis with Salt Pond as the base of operations and that persons concerned in smuggling accept the job of picking salt in order to have access to the coast.

The same new paper had reported on the 28^th March 1938 that Cockle Shell Bay was raided and a quantity of liquor seized and taken to Nevis. Another search took place the next day when the raiding party was attacked by about 50 persons. Irving Howell. a young revenue officer was chopped in the back of the head with a machete. Mitchell Williams, a deck hand on the Ursula and Louis Bell also suffered injuries. The rest of the party managed to get Howell and Williams on board the Ursula and to the Alexandra Hospital where they were operated on. A man and woman were arrested. Three persons were arrested and given jail sentences. In 1954 the Daily Bulletin again reported that 5 illicit rum stills had been found at the Salt Pond.

The work of salt picking was back breaking work in the hot sun. It eventually died out.

In 1986 the Government embarked on a venture to cut a road through the peninsula. It was opened in 1989 and named the Kennedy Simmonds Highway. Besides the laying of the road the project included the infrastructure for the supply of electricity, water and cable television to any development that might occur. In an interview for the 25^th anniversary of independence Sir Kennedy Simmonds reflected

As those developments progressed we decided we will concentrate on the road. We received some criticism because we did not continue to its logical conclusion. Some people regarded the road and called it the road to nowhere. But you know in developmental terms you cannot regard things in terms of five years or ten years even fifteen years, you have to think in terms of generations and once the infrastructure was provided, we have water under the road, we have electricity, facilities for television, cable, under the road once this infrastructure was in place it did not matter, the fact that they were there would lead to further development in the area

This was the incentive that lead to the development of the Peninsula and more recently to the grand project that is Christophe Harbour. In 2013 at the ground breaking ceremony for the Park Hyatt, Minster of Tourism Ricky Skerritt recognized the early entrepreneurs who had envisioned tourism related development in the area:

Some of you would know that, prior to the construction of the highway into the area, three small hotels operated at various periods on this site. I am therefore taking this opportunity to pay tribute to those entrepreneurs, who such a long time ago shared a vision for resort tourism in this area. I speak of the Bowers family who built a small ten-room hotel on the neighbouring Cockleshell Beach back in the 1970’s, and of Mrs. Margo Schmidt who built a small exclusive hotel here on Banana Bay around the same period. Both of those hotels were accessible only by sea at that time and they operated side by side for about ten years or so before closing because of ongoing financial losses. I also want to pay tribute to Colin Pereira, his family, and their business partners at Ocean Terrace Inn, who later purchased both properties and developed the OTI Banana Bay annex which operated successfully for a few years before it was purchased by the famous Butch Stewart of Sandals in 1988. Unfortunately Sandals never developed the much anticipated resort that Butch and the Government of the day promised to build here, and the site was eventually sold by Sandals at a windfall price to the Christophe Harbour developers in 2007, nearly twenty years later. Nevertheless, I expect that the Bowers, Schmidt and Pereira families would all be pleased to see their tourism dreams for this area being given a major rebirth through this Park Hyatt project.

There were two Spooner plantations on St. Kitts. One was in Christ Church and seems to have been known by various names. These notes focus on the one in St. Mary’s.

De Brissac

The land that became Spooner’s seems to have been (at least in part) the property of Captain Paul De Brissac. In 1706 De Brissac, who was probably a French Huguenot, claimed for damage suffered during the French attack of 1705 in which he lost six enslaved workers valued at £204 and cattle and horses worth £203. The invasion had also caused damage to a number of buildings on his plantation. These included his house, a boiling house and still house and a mill. He also claimed for 25 acres of plant canes, 50 acres of ratoons and 8.5 acres of young cane valued at £1129. The claim did not give the exact location of the property. ( Report of the commission to enquire into losses sustained by inhabitants of St. Christopher and Nevis during the French invasion 1706 TNACO243/3 page 458) The Bour map of 1714 shows De Brissac was still the owner of land in the hills in the Cayon area. Paul De Brissac died in 1719 and the plantation became the property of John Spooner soon after.

The Spooners

John Spooner was the first of his family to be connected with St. Kitts. He was Solicitor General, and later Speaker of the Assembly. The earliest mention of him on the island came in Sept 1711, when he and John Pinney were appointed by Governor Walter Hamilton to take evidence from witnesses about complaints against him for a report to the Council of Trades and Plantations. Hamilton described Spooner as

Solicitor General of these islands, and a verry worthy gentleman...  he is a person very capable to inform theire Lordships about the state of these islabds, and in particular as to my conduct.

Hamilton went on to recommend that Spooner should be granted land formerly in possession of Governor Douglas.  In 1723 the Brissac lands that Spooner had acquired were in dispute.  The lands of a Monsieur Salanave, a neighbor of De Brissac, had been granted to Daniel Cunningham.  This grant also included some of the Brissac property.  A report from the committee of the Privy Council agreed with Spooner's claim and an order-in-council confirmed his ownership of the land.

However in 1726 the Commissioners for the sale of the French Lands arrived in St. Kitts and those holding land in the former French parts of St. Kitts were made to pay for them. On the 24^th Aug 1726, Spooner appeared before the Commissioners and offered to buy the plantation in St. Mary’s at the rate of £7 sterling per acre. The Commissioners expected £10 per acre which had been the offer on the adjoining plantation. Spooner asked for time to show that the land was not of the same value as that adjoining it. He also produced a document dated the 16^th June 1722 signed by General John Hart (Governor of Leewards 1721-1728) to show his right of possession. This put him in conflict with William Woodley, who was attempting to buy several plantations which may have included the one that had been given to Spooner. Woodley refused to be in the company of Spooner except at public land auctions.

17 Oct 1726 John Spooner appeared before the Commission to settle his accounts but it was noted that the land allotted to him was a little over 78 acres. This was 14 acres more than had been agreed upon. The commission’s surveyor pointed out that six acres of it was steep, rocky and barren. Since the Commission felt that he had been over charged for the rest of the land he had bought, it was agreed that Spooner should only pay 25 shillings per acre for the additional acres. He paid £658 1s 6d for all the land purchased.The commissioners did not insist on any new buildings as ‘sufficient being already erected.’ Spooner seems to have caused a great deal of anxiety for the commission. They were suspicious of his claims and his intention to pay for the land. Despite all this John Spooner became the owner of a plantation in Christchurch. two in St. Mary’s. and one in St. George’s

He died 1758. His will, was written in 1754. The document was dominated by the marriage settlement of his eldest son, John to the heiress Mary Fortescue. (1710 – 1752). The will was not specific about which plantations in St. Kitts formed part of the settlement. The estates in St. Mary and Christ Church St. Kitts ended belonging to his third son, Charles who took his responsibilities seriously.

It was during Charles’ ownership that a hurricane caused a great deal of damage in 1772.

The Water-mill was almost torn to pieces, several other buildings damaged, the dwelling house a little stripped, negro houses mostly, if not all, down and the crop something hurt.

Charles Spooner showed great concern for the survival of the plantation.  Some might have been caused by the trauma caused by the Hurricane.  His will stated: in case of Hurricanes or violent storm whereby buildings shall be blown down or greatly injured or whereby great damage or destruction shall happen to the same Estates respectively or to the stock thereof to raise by mortgage of the same plantations and estates respectively or other usual ways and means such sums as shall or may from time to time be wanting to repair or make good the damage or destruction so done or happened to the same Estates or the buildings and stock thereof respectively and thereupon to apply such monies so to be raised accordingly and which sums so to be raised are to be raised and paid as herein before mentioned.

In 1817, William Jordon, manager of the properties of Charles Spooner made a return of the enslaved working on the various Spooner estates. It showed a total of 139 workers and those who were able to work were all engaged in plantation duties. There were no house slaves. This meant that the managers had to look after themselves or purchase or rent enslaved workers for their household needs.

Charles ensured that both his wife Mary (nee Burt) and his sister-in-law received annuities from his estates. As he was childless, he left his estate in St. Mary’s to his nephew, Hungerford Spooner.

Hungerford Spooner died in 1819 leaving no legitimate male heir so the estates devolved on the Shaw branch of the family. In 1823 Peter Theodore Shaw and his son Peter Spooner Shaw mortgaged the properties to the firm of Manning and Anderdon Originally, a mercantile firm trading with the West Indies, Manning and Anderdon owned several other estates in St. Kitts and the Caribbean.

Post Emancipation

The years that followed Emancipation in 1834, saw Spooner’s, Cayon passing from one owner to the next.

J W Freshfield sold it to John Hopton Forbes, in trust for William Beckford and John Rankin in 1837.

John Rankin’s heir in 1844 was his niece Janet Davidson from whom the property passed on to William Adam Davidson.

In 1855 Davidson sold it to Nicol Graham Graham to clear his debts. Graham was a colonel resident at Jarbruck, Dumfriesshires, Scotland.

On his death in 1858, the property went to his son Ivan Cunningham Graham then resident in Guernsey.

In 1862 he in turn conveyed it to Francis Wigley and Archibald Paull Burt (the first Chief Justice of Western Australia). They were a legal firm that was becoming involved in plantation ownership.

From Wigley and Burt it passed into the ownership of Mary Hamilton Laing in 1863 (SKNNA St. Christopher Register Series 4, Vol. W, doc 21290). Laing seems to have been the grand-daughter of Thomas Clarke Trotman, owner of Bulkeleys, Carmichaels and Valley estates in Barbados. An indenture drawn up in 1872 between Mary Hamilton Laing and Robert Baxter Rose gave Rose an interest in the property.

In 1876 Robert Baxter Rose sold Spooners to Solomon Abraham Wade. All the changes in ownership could not have been healthy for the estate and its workers. The Rose to Wade sale ushered in a more stable period with regards to ownership but with prices of sugar fluctuating dramatically, the industry itself was in an unpredictable state of affairs.

Wade

Solomon Abraham Wade’s (1801-1881) was the son of Abraham Wade probably of St. Martin and his wife, Frances Paget, the daughter of the Rev Thomas Paget of St. Thomas Middle Island. He seems to have started out in small business which grew into the partnership of Sandall and Wade. Wade also went into plantation ownership

Solomon bequeathed Spooners to his son, Ethelbert whose will passed it on to his brother Paget who converted the sugar factory there to a cotton ginnery in 1901. Amy Wade, his wife continued overseeing the work at Spooners and other Wade estates. Their son Charles Paget Wade inherited most of the estate from her. He was more of an artist than a business man. The death of his mother forced him to pay attention to the management of Wade Plantations, the company created to manage the Wade estates in the Caribbean, and the source of his income.

In 1938 the cotton ginnery at Spooner’s was destroyed by fire. Wade Plantations Ltd replaced it with a new ginnery and oil refinery in 1940. The new establishment had 4 gins with a capacity of 1600 lbs lint per working day. Cotton seed was used for making other products. Oil was extracted from the cotton seed. It was refined and sold as cooking oil. More solid fats were manufactured into soap and the remnants of the seeds were turned into fodder for the plantation livestock

In 1950 the wages on the Wade estates were as follows

Cotton

Weeding cotton 88c-$1 per acre

Picking cotton 2.5c per lb

Cleaning cotton 81c pr 100lb

Heaping cotton 27c per acre

Cleaning fields $2.23 per acre

Ginnery male labourers 80c per day

Ginnery female labourers 56c per day

Sugar

Estate male labourers 91c-1.02 per day

Cutters $13.12 per week

Handers $8.13 per week

Packers $1230 per week

Tractor drivers $18.60 per week

Truck drivers $17.36 per week

Estate female labourers 56c-68c per day

Spooner’s ginnery seems to have been in operation till about 1964 after which date it stopped featuring in the company’s accounts. Spooner’s was one of estates acquired by government in 1975.

1997 boys drumming outside cotton ginnery

inside the ginnery

machinery

machinery

Spooner's village

spoonerscayon26.jpeg