Saint Elizabeth Parish: History
Saint Elizabeth originally included most of the southwest part of the island, but Westmoreland was taken from it in 1703, and in 1814 a part of Manchester. The resulting areas were named after the wife of Sir Thomas Modyford, the first English Governor of Jamaica.
There are archeological traces of Taíno/Arawak existence in the parish, as well as of 17th-century colonial Spanish settlements. After 1655, when the English settled on the island, they concentrated on developing large sugar cane plantations with enslaved African workers. Today, buildings with 'Spanish wall' construction (masonry of limestone sand and stone between wooden frames) can still be seen in some areas.
St Elizabeth became a prosperous parish, and Black River an important seaport. In addition to shipping sugar and molasses, Black River became the centre of the logging trade. Large quantities of logwood were exported to Europe to make a blue dye very like Prussian blue, which was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.
St Elizabeth was the first parish to have electric power, where it was first introduced in a house called Waterloo in Black River in 1893.
In October 2025, St Elizabeth was directly hit by Hurricane Melissa, causing devastation throughout the parish including destroying a majority of the parish capital Black River, with damage dubbed by media as a "disaster of unprecedented catastrophe".