Circular No 487

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 5 March 2011 No.487

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Dear Friends,

This week I shall dedicate to some soccer information that has been sent to me from players.

We are missing names, please look at the photos and make the necessary additions and corrections.

In this issue I am including interesting information on the formation of Trinidad as regards to the movements of slaves after United States independence and latter.

Also about names, and formation of living areas within the island.

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Newsletter for past alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 29 of December 2001. Circular No.7

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Dear Friends,

Your Xmas e-mail was welcomed, I am glad for your letters.
Xmas gone now comes the best part for us adults, the New Years Eve and after the eve thru the midnight toast. Vine and dance??? Pier One dance hall for those in TT with a cruise in the balmy Caribbean???

Thank you for your support sending in new names for the msb old boys list.

I am on the lookout for all the names with e-mail address!! Specially with family members that went to the mount. I need for each the Form V graduation date to place their names in the correct class list.

Although I have been part of the new Web restart (May 2001), I have taken up the secondary job to assist Anthony in keeping the Class 1960 informed and if possible communicated, with the circulars and while Anthony makes time, because of his job.

The research necessary for the other classes I am going to leave to other charitable souls, although I am going to keep and update the other class’s lists if the From V graduation date is known, also I am keeping a general list of those whose graduation date is not known.

This list shall be sent in January after it has been revised, at this time it has about 250 names.

All known oldboys with e-mail address shall receive the circulars, to promote our page or the geocities page in making. We even have support from another web coordinator in TT from another school.

God Bless

Ladislao

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Photo: msb school 1
Article: Msb 09 6407 mount inside
Column: wvb 011223 the bride
http://MSBclassof1960.freeservers.com
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Soccer Teams
...4 MARCH 2011
From: Nigel Boos nigelboos@eagles-wings.ca

Rawle,

Here is an up-to-date photograph album of our MSB Football Teams, insofar as I've got pix.

Obviously, many are missing, but at least they show our involvement in the sport.

The Abbey School had a complement of just about 160 boys at any one time, if I remember, a tad smaller, I'd say, than the Student population of either QRC, CIC or Presentation College, San F'do.

Nigel

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On 2011-03-03, at 5:45 AM, R Bol wrote:

What a wonderful pictorial gallery!!! Where are these people now, I wonder?? Uve helped out alot, Nigel, a lot! In the QRC photo, there is Royce

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On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 6:07 AM, Nigel Boos <nigelboos@eagles-wings.ca> wrote:

Since I wasn't a QRC boy, but went instead to the Abbey School at Mt. St. Benedict, here are contemporary 1958 Soccer Teams from the Mount:

St. Francis 1958 Team:

Sorry - I don't have a similar picture of the 1958 St. Lawrence Team.

The closest I can come, with a full picture of the complete College side is this one from 1953

1953 MSB Team:

And here's another, of our 1965 Team, on tour in Guyana:

And I wonder - why am I sending you this stuff - It has nothing to do with the Merikens. Ah well . . . . . .

Nigel

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On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 10:32 AM, R Bol <rcb9.rouge@googlemail.com> wrote:

Living isolated in England 4 so long, my mind is often a blank, filled up slowly. I seem to remember a Nigel Boos...from CIC? And even Dr Waldrond...from QRC?

TC

Rawle

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On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 9:22 AM, Franz Lambkin <delamo@tstt.net.tt> wrote:

Nigel & Rawle

I do recall both Nigel Boos and Dr. Kermit Waldrond at Amoco.

Dr. Waldrond was the first black Division Manager at Galeota.

The 'villain' in the Lambkin - Lampkin issue my father Calvin.

The 'b' thing originated in Trinidad.

I don't know the full details but it had to do with the pronunciation.

As a young soldier, no one had time to pronouns the 'p' and even when it was, it still sounded like a 'b'.

It was further perpetuated by a stubborn Registrar of Births one, Nanette Alexander, who always choose to spell the name phonetically. (and in those days they had power.)

By the way when you arrive in T & T, walk with your wining bone.

Be prepared to 'Take Ah Wine On A Thong Ting' and 'Wine To The Side'.

These two ditties are the front-runners in the Road March race.

Nigel yuh missing playing mass (and not attending Mass) in the Catholic band.

The church bringing a band this year.

Wayne Berkeley is the designer.

It is expected to be in excess of 6000 players

Sincerely

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On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 10:39 PM, Nigel Boos <nigelboos@eagles-wings.ca> wrote:

Actually, Rawle,

I doubt that Gabe has ever even HEARD of Franz Lamb(p)kin a.k.a. Delamo.

I believe that you must have mistaken Dr. Kermitt Walrond for Dr. Gabriel Ferdinand.

So, if / when you bounce into Franz, please extend greetings to him from both Dr. Walrond and myself, rather than from Gabe and myself.

And do take a photograph or two.

It'll be a nice memory for us all, i'm sure.

Regards,

Nigel

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On 2011-02-26, at 5:28 PM, R Bol wrote:

Nigel & Gabe,

Hopefully, I will be able to pass on your greetings in person to Franz, as on Tues, all being well, I'll be in T & T to play French sailor, but please do not tell my late Mum, or else is ....licks !!!!

TC

Rawle

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On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 3:46 AM, Nigel Boos <nigelboos@eagles-wings.ca> wrote:

Gabe,

From the attached correspondence, you will gather that there's been some interesting conversation between a few of us re. the advent into Trinidad of a number of freed ex-slaves ex-soldiers of the American War of 1812 into Moruga and Princes Town area.

These soldiers were given land which to this day carries the name of the companies with which they fought - e.g. "5th Company Village", "6th Company Village" and so on.

However, out of this melee, one Rawle Boland has emerged (see recent email) who claims connection to the Ferdinand family.

I wondered whether you might know of such a connection, and in this regard, I'd invite you to correspond directly with Rawle.

Who knows? You might find some long lost family.

At any rate, you should have some fun doing the research.

Best.

Nigel

P.S. When are you returning? Regards to Shanti.

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From: R Bol
Date: Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 9:12 AM
Subject: Re: About 5th & 6th Company Villages, New Lands and Hard Bargain

Interesting, but not entirely accurate.

Most of the slaves who were either forced when "liberated" by the British, or volunteered to fight on their side for their freedom during the 1776 War of US independence, ended up in Nova Scotia, where the racism they suffered was such that they eventually persuaded the Colonial Office to ship them back to Africa under Paul Cuffie, where they were instrumental in founding Freetown and Sierra Leone, together with poor blacks from England who were persuaded to leave England for Africa (Sierra Leone) with the inducement that they would be accompanied by 60 prostitutes!

The American slaves in Trinidad, whose experiences were similar, in that they were either forced or volunteered to fight for Britain, were not taken to south Trinidad until after the 1812 War, in which Britain tried but failed to re-capture the US, its most significant achievement being to set Washington ablaze.

The American blacks in Liberia began arriving there in the 1820's.

Like Mc Donald Bailey, Darcus Howe and others I could mention, I happen to be a descendant of the "Merikens", which is how they were called in Trinidad.

My father and his family were from New Grant and inter-married with others from Hard Bargain etc.

In fact, the land originally given to "us" was traditionally handed down from generation to generation, but this was broken about twenty years ago, when my Aunt Vivi, the last of her generation, who was childless, chose to leave the lot to her late sister's daughter, Bunny (Williams), my first cousin, who had lived with her for years in England, virtually as her daughter. This caused a furious family row, which I gave a wide berth.

Inter-marriage was common.

Aunt Vivi's older sister, my aunt Dora, married Kenneth Cooper of Cooper's Pharmacy on the Coffee.

We are also related to the Coopers, who were also from New Grant.

As a result, De Lamo (Franz Lampkin) is related to me through his mother (the recently deceased Beryl Cooper) and through his father (Calvin Lampkin, late of Venezuela), who was one of the brothers of my mother (Marjorie "Cora" Lampkin), the Cora coming from her grandmother from Portugal, who was married to her grand father, Alexander Thomas Dudley Robertson of Edinburgh, Scotland, and St Vinvent.

But to return to my black roots, of which I am hugely proud, my New Grant Grand-father was Neptune Boland, the Neptune coming to him we think from his "Neptune" relations, we suspect, who are still in New Grant.

American slaves, who had been largely devoid of surnames, either adopted names like Hercules, Jupiter, Mars (which, incidentally, was Spike Lee's name in one of his films which he got on raising the matter with his grand-mother, who recalled having a crazy uncle called "Mars" and Spike Lee later found out that one of his ancestors was Mars Woodall).

My research, including at the Library of Congress in Washington, is ongoing as regards the surname "Boland", which is probably the corruption of the name of a US slave owner, by ancestors, who were virtually, if not wholly, illiterate and is strikingly close to Bolden, as I have discussed with Guy, with whom I played for Maple, and ""Bollin", Bollins" and "Bollings" of Trinidad.

My Venezuelan cousins are now Lamkin, because the Spanish tongue couldn't cope with the "p" after the "m" in Lampkin!

Interestingly, Boland appears regularly as a first name in our local Indian Community, a reflection, perhaps, of the fact that, after they began to arrive from 1845, some were in and around the "Meriken" territory.

Indeed, my father's birth certificate show him as being born in Hindustan Road, New Grant, the "Hindustan" name having been acquired over time!

The new arrivals from India, who knew nothing about blacks and were clearly non-racial regarding them then, would have looked up to the Meriken slaves, who cut a dash by regularly wearing their British soldier uniforms.

The head of my New Grant family, for example, was referred to as "Cappen" (captain, whether he was one or not) Boland!.

And in the same way that my first name Rawle came down to me from Bishop Rawle (his surname) of Plymouth, England, who became Lord Bishop of the Anglican Church in T & T in the 1880's and was highly regarded by his congregation, Boland as a first name must have commended itself to the newcomers from 1845.    

TC

Rawle

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On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Paul Alcala <pablonus@gmail.com> wrote:

This refers to the arrival of shiploads of freed black soldiers from the USA, in 1776, after the American Revolutionary War. These were former slaves of the Southern States who fought alongside British troops - and lost.

They were given options - to migrate to Canada, to return to Africa or to emigrate to one of the British Caribbean islands.

Those who returned to Africa founded the country now known as Liberia (= "Freedom", I guess) and they were known (and still are known) as "Merikens".

Those who came to Trinidad settled in the Moruga / Princes Town area. The land given to them by the Governor became known as "Fifth Company Village" and "Sixth Company Village", depending on the company of soldiers (from the War) with whom they had fought.

As time went on, the Fifth Company Village (or perhaps it was the Sixth) grew too large for the land size given to them.

They requested more land and were granted some more by the Governor.

This village became known as "New Grant".

The other village, be it the Fifth or the Sixth, similarly requested more land and were granted another piece.

This land is today known as "New Lands Village, in Guayaguayare.

Incensed at the copy-cat action of their fellow villagers, the first village, once more, be it the Fifth or the Sixth, requested another piece of land, but by this time the Governor was becoming annoyed by these continual demands.

He therefore decided to put a stop to this and granted the villagers a piece of land which was nothing more than a swampy bog.

Some families moved in, and actually made a go of it, living on cascadoux, coscarob and conchs.

However, whenever a young man invited a young woman to come to his home to set up house, the dowry he had to pay for her was quite substantial, or even excessive.

Perhaps it was a cow, or some goats, or whatever.

But in any case, the dowry was considered expensive and therefore, the place was given the name, "Hard Bargain", a name which is still recorded today on the map of Trinidad. Hard Bargain is slightly to the east of Williamsville, in S. Trinidad.

(From an email by Nigel Boos)

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Ladislao Kertesz at kertesz11@yahoo.com,

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Photos:

Mount inside No. 10 page 7
58UN0001SOCCER, St. Anthony´s team
58UN0002SOCCER, St. Francis team
53UN0001FOOTBALL, Early team