“THE NOMENCLATURE OF GEORGETOWN.” 
AN INTERESTING BIT OF HISTORY. 
Mr. R. O. H. Spence, Chief Clerk of the Department of Lands and Mines, 
Georgetown, writes to the Editors under date 31st May, 1911, as follows :— 
Anent the statement by Mr. Luke M. Hill, in his interesting paper on “ The 
Nomenclature of Georgetown, ’ published in No. 1, Volume I, New Series of 
Timehri, January, 1911, to the effect that Mr. Thomas Cuming, the former pro- 
prietor of Cumingsburg or Plantation La Bourgade, made a free gift to the town 
of the plots of land known as the Militia Parade Ground, and the Promenade 
Gardens, at the time this estate was laid out by him in streets and lots in 1807, 
I would crave your indulgence to state the following facts which may be of assist- 
ance to the historian in years to come, which came to my knowledge a few years 
ago, in the course of official investigations with regard to what is now known as 
the Promenade Gardens to the north of Middle street and the Parade Ground 
to the south of Middle street, between Carmichael street and Waterloo street :— 
The old portion of the Promenade Gardens consisting of ten lots and the Parade 
Ground also consisting of ten lots all lymg immediately adjacent to Middle street, 
were originally known as the “ Parade Ground,” and in 1848, as can be seen on 
reference to C. R. Player's General Plan of Georgetown of that year founded on 
Hilhouse’s chart of 1824, the Government Observatory stood in the centre of the 
ten lots to the south of Middle street, that is, in the open space now called the 
Parade Ground. 
Major General Hugh Lyle Carmichael, acting Governor of Demerara and Esse- 
quibo, informed the Court of Policy, on the 30th October, 1812, that he had 
“thought proper to accept the proposal of the Honourable Thomas Cuming to 
grant the occupancy of sixteen lots (in the Cumingsburg District and shown on 
the General Charts, sub-numbers 116 to 123 and 144 to 151 inclusive) as a place 
for parade, and if it should be thought proper afterwards for certain consider- 
ation, for public buildings, and that he had directed the land to be converted 
into a Parade Ground and would pay for it out of the King’s Chest .” 
Mr. Thomas Cuming died at Elgin, Scotland, a short time after this and his Will 
dated 5th November, 1812, was deposited and proved in the Registrar’s Office, 
Georgetown, on the 26th June, 1813. No mention whatever is made in this Will 
of the * Parade Ground. ” 
Four more adjacent lots were evidently added to the sixteen above referred 
to, and on the 11th April, 1817, Charles Wilday (who was also Clerk to the Court of 
Policy at the time), special attorney of the heirs of Thomas Cuming, deceased, 
appeared before A. Dalzell and H. Halket, Counsellor-Commissaries of the 
Honourable Court of Criminal and Civil Justice of the Colony of Demerary and 
Essequibo and “declared to cede, transport and in full and free property, to 
make over to, and on behalf of the Colony of Demerary twenty lots of land, 
