JAMAICA:(Redirected from SPANISH TOWN.) Largest island in the
British West Indies. It has a total population of 644,841
(1901), of whom about 2,400 are Jews. When England conquered the
island in 1655, a considerable number of Jewish inhabitants was
found there, known as "Portugals," under which name the
Sephardic Jews concealed their true faith from Spanish
persecution. Jews settled in Jamaica during the century
preceding Cromwell's conquest. The proprietary rights of the
family of Columbus to Jamaica were recognized in 1508 and 1538,
and passed to the female Braganza line in 1576. The friendship
which subsisted between Columbus and the Jews continued with his
descendants, and as their proprietary rights excluded the
Inquisition and prevented the inclusion of Jamaica in the
bishopric of Cuba, unavowed Jews were enabled to live in Jamaica
in comparative safety, even during the Spanish period.
Clarendon's "State Papers" refer, under date of 1623, to some of
these Portuguese as yearning to throw off the Spanish