How Portmore got its name

THE COMMUNITY website

www.portmore.org receives hundreds of questions about Portmore each year. One of the most frequent questions is, how did Portmore get its name?

Most of modern Portmore is built on a vast property called ‘Portmore’. The property stretched between Passagefort Drive in the north to Port Henderson Road in the south. The great house for the property stood somewhere in the middle of modern Independence City. It was destroyed long ago.

The early English owners of the

property called it the ‘Salt Pond Penn’ or ‘Dawkins Salt Pond Penn’. Using slave labour, the property raised cattle and sheep. It also produced corn, grass and cut wood. In the early days, it produced salt – hence the name.

Most of the property was useless for agriculture and was left untouched. It never made much for its owners – the Dawkinses of Over Norton, Oxfordshire. In the second half of the 19th century, the Dawkinses officially renamed the property to ‘Portmore’ in honour of their ancestors who had married into the family of the Earl of Portmore from Scotland. The property was sold to the United Fruit Company of the United States at the turn of the 20th century. They grew bananas on the fertile northern corner.

SOLD AGAIN

Eventually the land fell into the hands of Caymanas Estates. The latter sold the property to the Portmore Land Development Company on November 2, 1967 for £175,280 pounds, 14 shillings and 4 pence. The developers held a groundbreaking ceremony for Phase One of their Portmore project on 1970. Hence the name ‘Portmore’ was applied to the development and not just to the lands they purchased. This is the source of the name ‘Portmore’ which spread to include all adjacent properties.

In 2003, the borders of Portmore were agreed to with the parish council. It covered Hellshire, Greater Portmore, Gregory Park, Braeton communities, and the original property.