Origins of the Collymore Family Name

The name: Collymore

The land lying within the perimeter formed by Bay Street, Fairchild Street, River Road, and Jemmotts Lane belonged, around 1660 to Captain Robert Collymore, the builder of Saint Michael's parish church in 1665 and Katherine Collymore, his wife.

In December 1668, they sold the entire parcel containing 55 acres to Thomas Pargiter, a former merchant of London, for 100,000 pounds of muscovado sugar, the currency of the period.

Thomas Pargiter, incidentally was a second cousin of John Washington, the great-grandfather of the first president of the United States of America, George Washington. He came to settle in Barbados around 1656, served on the Vestry of Saint Michael, and sat in the House of Assembly during the session of 1666. Pargiter died in 1671 and his estate passed to his son, Thomas Pargiter the Younger.

Collymore Rock

Origin due to the name of [the] landowner: Collymore and the presence of large rocks in the area cleared to build roads.

It is the first part of Highway 6 on leaving the city area of the capital, Bridgetown.

In the Saint Michael Vestry Minutes of 1724 [there is] a complaint that Collymore Rock was impassable for wagons due to large rocks.

Source: Personal communication with Warren Alleyne and his book: Historic Bridgetown. The Barbados National Trust Publishers, 1978.

This information supplied to James L. Collymore (1998), courtesy of Beverly Kirton, et al.

Page updated on October 30, 2022 2:33 PM