St Ann's Bay

Town on the north coast of Jamaica, in the Caribbean Sea; population (1991) 11,000. A provincial market town, St Ann's Bay was once the commercial centre of the surrounding region, but has since been eclipsed by the development of Ocho Rios. Marcus Garvey, the political activist and founder of the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) was born here in 1887.

The explorer Christopher Columbus is said to have landed here in 1494 and it was known as Santa Gloria by the Spanish, because of its beauty. It was a prosperous seaport in the 18th and 19th centuries. A fort was built here in 1750, and later served as a ‘house of correction’, with separate rooms for debtors, lunatics, and slaves. Following the slave rebellion of 1831, the local rector, Rev John Wilson Bridges, formed the Colonial Church Union in St Ann's Bay.