Sir
Thomas Warner, the progenitor of one of the Caribbean’s great colonial families, came out to the West Indies in the early years of the 17th century.
He had been born in 1575 in Parham, Suffolk, England, and as a young man he had
served as a captain in the bodyguard of King James I, which was a company of specially
chosen soldiers, whose duty it was to guard the King’s life. Later he was made
Lieutenant, or keeper of the Tower of London.
During
that period, many young men in England were eager to follow the great sea dogs
like Raleigh, Drake & Morgan to the Caribbean so as to make their fortunes,
and when his friend, Captain Roger North, thought of making a settlement in
Guiana, Warner decided to go with him. The settlement did not work out as
expected, and Warner instead settled at St. Christopher in the Leeward Islands
on the 28th January, 1624.
Despite
much initial hostility from the native Caribs of the island and the battles
between would-be French and Spanish settlers, Thomas Warner persisted in
his ambition to create a British settlement. Sir Thomas became the first
Lieutenant Governor of the Caribbean islands. He died in March 1649 and was
buried in St. Kitts’ middle island.
Warner’s
sons and grandsons established themselves in the British West Indies: Sir
Thomas Warner of Barbados, Col. Philip Warner, Governor of Antigua, William
Warner of Dominica, who was known as “Indian Warner” on account of his Carib
blood, and Col. Edward Warner, who arrived in Trinidad in 1807 and purchased
lands.
Charles
Warner, born in 1805, was the only son of Col. Edward Warner. Charles decided
to settle in Trinidad after a visit with his cousin Ashton Warner, who was
Chief Justice of Trinidad during the governorship of Sir Ralph Woodford
(1813 - 1828). Charles became one of the most prominent Attorney Generals in
the early history of Trinidad, serving from 1844 to 1870.
He
so influenced this period while in office, that “Warnerism” became a synonym
for the policy of local government. He married twice, once to Isabella
Carmichael, with whom he had six children, and to his second wife Ellen Rose
Cadiz, with whom he had twelve. He endowed St. Margarite’s church Belmont. He possessed lands at Belmont, where in fact the land holdings there were described as “the
lands of black Warner and white Warner”.
The
black Warners of Belmont were the descendants of Ashton Warner, born in
Savannah, U.S.A., in 1750. His grandson William, who lived in Dominica and died
in 1793, was reputed to have had four sons with Mildred Johns, a woman of African discent. One of their
sons, Ashton, came to Trinidad around the time that his namesake and relative
Ashton Warner was Chief Justice, and he purchased lands at Belmont, closeby his
cousin Charles Warner. Ashton married into the Zampty family of Belmont, who
were descendants of Sergeant Zampty of the 3rd West India Regiment,
which had been raised in Sierra Leone to do service in the Caribbean.
In
1873, Charles Warner built his home which he called "The Hall". The
building was a beautiful, two-storied property, where his children grew up.
Amongst them were Aucher Warner, who also became an Attorney-General of Trinidad,
and Sir Pelham Warner, who would later achieve international fame as a
cricketer. Streets in Belmont were named for them, as well as for other members
of the Warner family. Charles Warner died in 1887, and his grave can still be
visited in the Botanical Gardens on the grounds of President's House.
The
Hall at Chancery Lane comprised an entire city block. The house was situated in a splendid
garden, and included a swimming pool for the children to learn to swim and a
pond where they could sail their toy boats and where the morocoys could bathe.
The gardener had been brought from Germany! The Hall also had what was perhaps
the first tennis court in Trinidad.
Warner
lived in The Hall in an extravagant style, and one informant told me long ago
that his family was "very united".
In
1886, Charles sold The Hall to Don Carlos Siegert. It became the home of the
Siegert family for the next 34 years. Don Carlos kept race horses there and as many
as 11 carriages of various sizes in his stables. At that time, the main
entrance was from Chancery Lane. The ground floor of the house held a large
hall, hung with portraits of the Siegert family, who had come to Trinidad from
the town of Angostura in Venezuela (now Ciudad Bolivar), bringing with them the
secret of their now famous bitters.
In
1920, The Hall was brought by Charles Conrad Stollmeyer for $40,000. He and
others thought to convert the premises into a club. This was, however, not to
be, for a fire gutted the house. They were forced to sell the property to
the Anglican Church through Bishop Anstey. The main building of The Hall became
a guesthouse that was run by Mrs. Florence Rust. The buildings which opened on
Abercromby Street were converted into classrooms.
In
the 1950s, Trinidad witnessed many social and political changes. As historian Olga
Mavrogordato states in her book "Voices in the Street":
"In
1952, the entire property was taken over by the junior school of St. Hilary's
until 1966, when it moved to Monte Christo, St. Ann's, to make room for the
High School. Since that time, St. Hilary's has occupied the entire premises and
though many improvements and changes have been made, the family atmosphere of
old still remains and this is a happy school."
