Petersfield, Jamaica
Petersfield is a small town in Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica. It shares its name with five other places in Jamaica.
The town was founded in the 18th century and named after Peter Beckford, a slave owner who settled the Roaring River Estate. Petersfield was a dormitory community for workers on that estate.
To the south of the town's main junction lies the neighborhood locally referred to as "Carawina." The records of Carawina being operated as a plantation go as far back as 1759. At that time the first recorded owner of Carawina was Joseph Williams. In 1764, John Wedderburn of Ballendean was listed as an associated planter of the estate. This is the same Wedderburn who was a litigant in the Knight v. Wedderburn court case.
Today Petersfield is one street town with a community health centre at one end and a cemetery at the other. It is the home of many of the workers at the Frome Sugar Estate.
The reggae artist Winston Hubert McIntosh was born in Petersfield, and later on, when he lived in Jamaica's capital Kingston, he changed his name to Peter McIntosh.
