Founded by Thomas Reid in 1769, Falmouth flourished as a market centre and port for forty years at a time when Jamaica was the world’s leading sugar producer.
[1]
[unreliable source] It was named after the town of the same name in Cornwall, which was the birthplace of governor of Jamaica Sir William Trelawny, who was instrumental in its establishment. Falmouth was built upon the coast of Trelawny at a place previously known as Martha Brae Point. In 1774, there was only one dwelling in the port of Falmouth, and by 1781 there were only between 8-10 houses there.
However, by 1793 the port had expanded rapidly to the point where there were over 150 dwellings there.
[2]
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Falmouth was one of the busiest ports in colonial Jamaica. It was home to masons, carpenters, tavern keepers, sailors, planters and people of other occupations. It was a wealthy town in a prosperous parish with a diverse ethnic mixture. Within the parish, nearly one hundred plantations were continuously producing sugar and rum for export to Europe. Jamaica, during this period, had become the world’s leading sugar producer
