SIR THOMAS HISLOP: 1804-1811
Major-General Sir Thomas Hislop was appointed in 1803 but took office in 1804. His main task was to prevent a counter-attack by the Spaniards, for it was a time when the Venezuelan War of Independence was beginning to simmer. Hislop was the governor in whose administration Fort George was constructed, through the work of the African ex-slave, Jonas Mohammed Bath. The major-general would be also known for being the governor who was here when the Great Fire of Port-of-Spain in 1808 completely destroyed the town. What distinguishes his administration was that his country home, to which he retreated after the great fire, and which was called “Belmont House,” later gave its name to a whole area which adjoins it.

SIR WILLIAM MUNRO: 1811-1813
Lieutenant-General Sir William Munro was sent here specifically to look into the question of land grants and land ownership affected by the British conquest of 1797, and to some extent, by the great fire of 1808. Munro stayed here only two years, making way for the longest serving British governor.

SIR RALPH WOODFORD: 1813-1828
Sir Ralph Woodford is one of the two best-remembered Governors of Trinidad. Also, the 15 years he spent here is the longest term of any of the British governors of this island. He was the governor responsible for the changed shape of the Port-of-Spain waterfront from what the British invaders had seen in 1797 to what it looked like in 1828 when he left it. That was due to a number of land reclamations which he directed, and which went beyond his time. The effect of this was the making of South Quay, the first port or wharf to which trading vessels like schooners and lighters and those of similar draught could come. (Those reclamations continued until the late 1830s, after which a better port was fashioned, and because of the growing trade a lighthouse was built in 1842). The reclamations also led to the little Spanish Fort, a battery-en-barbette which was on an off-shore rock when the British came, being brought right up to the mainland. This was Fort San Andrés. Woodford was also the governor who bought the abandoned sugar estate (Paradise Estate) that is now the Queen’s Park Savannah and laid it out “for the recreation of the townsfolk and for the pasturage of cattle.” He went to live on the neighbouring Hollandais Estate, which he bought the same year, 1817, renovating the estate house, which he called St Ann’s. On the premises of St Ann’s he established Botanic Gardens to beautify the surroundings.

Relating to Port-of-Spain itself, when Woodford came here in 1813 the town was hardly touched since the fire of 1808. It can be said that he rebuilt it, tastefully, having his gardener plant ornamental trees in what is now Woodford Square, and along Marine Square, today’s Independence Square. He replaced the public institutions and brought in new ones, and was also responsible for the establishment of the two big churches - Trinity Church and the Church of the Immaculate Conception, both of which became cathedrals. On the other hand Woodford had a very poor record on slavery and sided with the sugar planters against any move towards abolition. He died at sea in 1828, just off Jamaica, on his way to England.

SIR LEWIS GRANT: 1829-1833
A very little known British Governor and one who came here expressly to bring a new system of government, a government whose chief feature was a Legislative Council. This change in government was in preparation for the Abolition of slavery and meant to ensure that the British Government was able to impose its will in such matters. Sir Lewis Grant was responsible for the construction of the first Treasury Building, which occupied the self-same site as the present one. He used part of its premises as Government House, being the first governor to leave the Botanic Gardens since Woodford went there in 1817. Sir Lewis’ administration preceded that of the governor who presided over Emancipation and the Abolition of Slavery.

SIR GEORGE FITZGERALD HILL: 1833-1839
Sir George Fitzgerald Hill was the governor who presided over the abolition of the last of the slavery days in Trinidad. Sir George came here in 1833, at the advanced age of 71, and the tumultuous period from Emancipation in 1834 up to the Abolition in 1838 quite exhausted him. He had the unique distinctions of reading both the emancipation and the “abolition” proclamations from a window in the Treasury Building, where Government House was located at the time. He was already 78 years old, and the fatigue proved too much for him. He died on March 8, 1839, seven months after the abolition, and his grave can be seen as the first one from the west in that little cemetery in the Botanic Gardens, Port-of-Spain. His wife, Lady Hill, had died in November 1836, and she was the one who, on her death-bed passing, had asked to have her “eternal rest” in the Botanic Gardens.