CHAPPELL VALLEY. 



The modem name of James Valley and James Town is 

 seldom found in the old records. The Fort or Castle was 

 called Fort James after James IL, in whose reign it was 

 enlarged and improved, but the valley in the records is 

 named Chapel Valley — from a small chapel built by the 

 Portuguese on their discovery of the island. This chapel is 

 described by Captain Cavendish, the first English dis- 

 coverer, who visitea the island on June 8, 1688. It is not 

 certain whether the same site was used for the present 

 church, or whether even any part of the original building 

 was there when the East India Company obtained the 

 island, but that the building used as a church in 1711 was in 

 a ruinous state is plain from a record, which says : — 



7th April, 171 1. The Churchwardens made a petition "That 

 whereas our Churchyard at the Fort is very small, and hardly room 

 to dig a grave for rocks and graves already digged, also our yard 

 wall is very bad and irregular . . . that we may inlarge our yard 

 backwards by cutting the water in a new course near the hill and 

 have liberty of ranging the front wall with the street." Governor 

 Roberts answered the churchwardens, " That it is commendable 

 in them to promote the putting that piece of rubbish called the 

 churchyard in order, it's for the credit of the island, and we advise 

 you to repair the church or it will tumble down in a little time . . 

 people will be apt to say that at this island the old proverb is true 

 about settlements, that where the English settle they first build a 

 punch house, the Dutch a fort, and the Portuguese a church." 



Matters had not improved in 1732, when we find on Sep- 

 tember 30 another letter from the Churchwardens to the 

 Governor on 



the ruinous condition both of the Chappie in the country, and the 

 Chappie at the Fort, the former of which has lain level with the ground 

 for two or three years past, and the latter is so much out of repair 

 that it's shameful a place set apart for the celebration of Divine 

 Service, and in the open view of all strangers, especially of the foreign 

 nations, etc. But after we had proposed to rebuild the Chappie 

 in the country, it was objected that the poverty of the people was 



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