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I knew only my grandfather on my fathers side and my grandmother on my mother side, after I was born in 1925. I was just a young boy when they told me about slavery time in the rural part of Kensington, St Ann. When my grandmother died my mother said she was 96 years of age. My grandfather, Henry Brown born 1821 had several brothers, but I never knew them. One brother I only knew and he was the father of Uziah Brown. James Brown was married to Sarah Christie. The next one was Gladston Brown father, Ebenezer Brown son of James Brown. The brothers inherited the land in Kensington (from my great-grandfather) probably after the abolition of slavery.

Henry Brown, lived to be 115 years old. He fathered six sons and five daughters: Samuel, Ezekiel, Ebeneezer, Nathaniel, George, Doctor, Julienne, Sophia, Marion, and Irene. Ebeneezer Brown, my father, married my mother, Bethsheba Wisdom on 20 December 1916. She was the daughter of James Wisdom and Anna Gray and brother to Caleb Wisdom.

I grew up and saw aeroplane flying and four cylinder car from England on the road since 1906. My grandfather knew only mule and cart in the reign of Queen Victoria, who died in 1901, then succeeded by her son George V who was crowned King in 1910 until 1936. During my time, Hugh Foot (Michael Foot brother) was made Governor of Jamaica (1945-1947) who then returned in 1951 and stayed until 1957 as Captain General and Governor in Chief, taking Jamaica to independence.

After living on the land for many years, my grandfather distributed his land in Kensington between his three children: Samuel, Ezekiel, and Marion, giving each a plot to build their future homes. As a boy, I used to visit uncle Ezekiel and played with my cousins, on the relics of the barbecue pen left behind during slavery times. Sometimes we played games in the oven where the master used it to bake bread. A few miles from Kensington, landowners used to rear animals in a place called Muirhouse Pen. Today you can still see where they use to raise chicken in what use to be the fowl house and raise sheep in the sheep-pen.

Grandfather moved from Kensington and went to Buxton, where he acquired land in a place called Hatchard Piece; also pronounced 'Orchard Piece'. Grandfather had his children: Ebenezer, Nathaniel, George, Doctor, and daughter Irene, not too far a way, as he gave each child a separate piece of lot all in close proximity of each other. Only Sophia accepted her portion back in Kensington. One of my main chores before going to school was to take coffee to grandfather each morning. He lived in Orchard Piece until his death in 1936. His sons fulfilled his promise to take his body back to Kensington where he was laid to rest.

When I became a young man, it was impossible for me to find the time to play dominoes with my friends in the district on a Friday night. My father, Ebenezer Brown, chooses me out of all my older brothers: Leonard, Albert, and James, to carry out his business; to buy and sell his cows, and sell pimento. He used to sit me among his friends who were elders in the district: Hilton Palmer, Obediah Grey, Matthew Grey and Zid McAnuff, to hear stories about Buxton.

My father, choose me out of all my older brothers: Leonard, Albert, and James, to carry out his business; to buy and sell his cows and sell pimento. He used to sit me among his friends who were elders in the district- Hilton Palmer, Obediah Grey, Matthew Grey and Zid McAnuff, to hear stories about Buxton. My father told me when he was growing up how things were hard in fi dem days. The only ambition was to give their children an education, as some of them never had none. They deliberated, reflecting back into their childhood when their forefathers worked much harder, on the plantations for the slave master.

Muirhouse, Middle Buxton and Lower Buxton belonged at the time to the Mortimore family, who brought the land from a previous slave owner. Mr Mortimore, Mike Mortimore father, had 120 acres of land he wanted to sell, but wanted only one person to take charge and own the land. Mortimore turned to my father, and asked whether he was interested, My father considered it too much of a responsibility to own all that land; so he decided to divide the acres into lots and sold his first piece to my mother's brother, Adrian Wisdom, a piece of land which was in Coonoo-pond. He sold the next piece to a man called Linden Grey and to Rosain Grey from the district and then to Barry Higgins from Green Hill.


News finally got outside the district when newcomers including John McFarlane and brother Stephen, from Watt Town, purchased residential lots from Ebeneeza who held the title to all the holdings for that estate who later paid Mortimore for the land. From here on all the local residents in the district, endured the new progression and wealth that came from Muirhouse, Buxton. The whole of Buxton before was slavery dwelling, inscribed by the hand-cutting of stones craved by our forefathers. As too, were the stones that played a part in the construction of the old school in Muirhouse. I remember my father buying a piece of land in Coliston, a far place crossing over from Lower Buxton, ping way up into the mountains.

Descendants of Ebenezer Brown and Bethsheba Wisdom who had 13 children from their marriage.

Some buildings from enslavement are still marked where tanks are on top of the old barbecues and slavery tombs, with all kind of trees grown over them. Household name like Charlie Palmer in Lower Buxton and others went up into Coliston and acquired land at competitive prices. I even remember one man by the name of Dolfus Wisdom, who raised and kept hundred of bees in boxes up there. I was sometimes afraid to walk pass them.

Those people who had family members buried on the land, did remove their loved ones to the burial ground in Coonoo-pond (between Muirhouse and Lower Buxton). Descendants who have ancestors from the area are laid to rest there. A road was cut through from Coliston into Lower Buxton, was able to drive down the buggy and cart into the burial ground, to carry the dead!

I've been away from Muirhouse for 45 years. Yet, I still hope and pray to have another chance to visit the old place once again. * (Interviewed in 2002)

In Loving Memory

Ebenezer Brown, b. 1891 in Muirhouse Buxton, (son of Henry Brown and Sarah Jane McFarlane) buried in Family plot, Muirhouse. He married Bethsheba Wisdom, married 20 Dec 1916 in Bethany, b. ABT 1893 in Buxton, (daughter of James Nathaniel Wisdom & Anna Gray).
Children
i. Albert Brown b. 8 Aug 1917.
ii. Matilda Elizabeth Brown b. 11 Jan 1919.
iii. Leonard Brown b. 25 Dec 1919.
iv. Jane Brown b. 14 July 1920.
v. James Brown b. 24 Jun 1923.
vi. Jonathan Brown b. 19 Jan 1925.
vii. Eustace Brown b. 8 May 1926.
viii. Sofia Brown, b. abt 1927 in Buxton.
ix. Emma Brown, b. 1927 in Buxton, d. abt in St Ann.
x. Clemmie Brown, b. 1928 in Buxton.
xi. Zechairah Brown b. 10 June 1929.
xii. Stanley Brown b. 2 Apr 1933.
xiii. Henry Brown b. 19 Aug 1937.

Family History
Ebenezer Brown, b. 1891 in Muirhouse Buxton, buried in Family plot, Muirhouse. He married Bethsheba Wisdom, married 20 Dec 1916 in Bethany, b. ABT 1893 in Buxton.
Parents
Henry Brown, b. 1841 in Chapease, d. 2 Apr 1936, buried in Kensington Family plot. He married Sarah Jane McFarlane, b. 23 June1854 in Middle Buxton, d. 21 Jan 1900 in Muirbouse, buried in Kensington Family plot. Common law - Rebecca Wilson and Miah Christie.
Grand Parents
Gt grandfather John Brown, b. ABT 1805, d. 20 Feb 1895 in Buxton, St Ann, buried in family plot. Samuel McFarlane, b. in Middle Buxton.
Great Grand Parents John McFarlane. He married Jessi Ann Christie.Jessi Ann Christie, b. 1805 in Buxton, d. 13 Mar 1901 in Buxton.

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