SIR HENRY MACLEOD: 1840-1845
Sir Henry MacLeod, an Irishman, was the most “British” of all the British governors to come to Trinidad. The first thing he did on his arrival was to abolish Spanish laws, the retention of which had been agreed upon by Abercromby and Chacón at the capitulation in 1797. The abolition of Spanish laws meant the abolition of the Cabildo, and led to the introduction of English laws and trial by Jury/ It also led to the Ecclesiastical Ordinance which overthrew the Roman Catholic Church as the State Church. Therefore he may well be considered the governor who made the most far-reaching social changes in Trinidad. For the Cabildo he substituted a town councils for both Port-of-Spain and for San Fernando, which in both cases cleared the way for City Councils.

LORD HARRIS: 1846-1851 and 1852-1854
Lord Harris is considered the finest governor ever to have come to Trinidad. Whereas Woodford, who had arrived in 1813 and died in 1828, had few other places except Port-of-Spain to be concerned with, Harris came at a time when Trinidad had begun its development and so the whole island became his special project. Harris arrived in April 1846, and apart from the development of the island, and the settling of the East Indian indentured labourers who began arriving the year before, there are several things which make him and his administration noteworthy.

In 1849 he divided the island into counties and wards in a bid to spur on development, and in 1851 he used the money from ward rates to inaugurate a system of primary education through “ward” schools. In 1851 he also encouraged the spread of knowledge by setting up the first public library - and this was in the Government Buildings (The Red House). In August of the same year he started the inland postal service. He was also successful that year in getting water in pipes to supply the main section of Port-of-Spain. Harris came to the end of his term in 1851, and returned to England only to be sent back again in 1852. He continued unfinished business here until he was transferred to Calcutta in February 1854.

SIR CLIVE ELLIOTT: 1854-1857
Little-known governor, Admiral Sir Clive Elliott, was in his day one of the most controversial of British governors Coming after Harris, as well as in the midst of a cholera epidemic, his administration was not a distinguished one. Maybe it can be said that Elliott did not stay long enough to do much, except duties of little consequence such as the laying of the foundation stone of the Port-of-Spain Colonial Hospital in 1858.

But what marked Elliott, unfortunately, was his personal campaign against Archbishop Vincent Spaccapietra, and this left an unhappy blot on his administration. The archbishop, a hero of the cholera epidemic of that year, had tried valiantly to help the sick and destitute, even constructing the convalescent home, L’Hospice, to give refuge to the homeless, But Sir Clive Elliott was adamant that this Catholic figure, who was not a British national, should not get paid out of the colonial chest. The British Government did not see anything amiss in this matter, and in fact may have wanted just a little more help for the archbishop, but Elliott was unrelenting, and in fact resigned over the dispute.

SIR ROBERT KEATE: 1857-1864
It seems odd to say that what marked the government of Governor Robert Keate was the accomplishment of his attorney general, Charles William Warner. For Keate was regarded, especially by the Roman Catholics, as operating at the behest of this attorney-general. And not simply an attorney-general but father of the famous cricketer, Sir Pelham Warner. Charles William Warner was known for his very strong bias against Roman Catholics in a period which saw the high noon of religious conflict in Trinidad, when a man like Louis de Verteuil could be made a count by Rome just for being a stout defender of Roman Catholics, who he led, and who was also working hard to inaugurate a *college to give Catholic boys their own place of learning.

Warner had begun his career under Governor Sir Henry MacLeod, the one who had truly ignited the religious war by toppling the Roman Catholic Church as the State Church. Warner, thus encouraged, had risen fast and he flourished under Keate, who, apart from being arch-Anglican, had married one of his relatives. Anyway, in Keate’s administration Port-of-Spain was very quiet so far as development was concerned. It’s development was mainly in its northward move, and by then it had only got so far as - yes, Keate Street, the southern fringe of the Queen’s Park Savanna. This street was bordered on the west by First East Street (later Dundonald Street) and ran just south of where the **Victoria Institute was built three decades later and then south of grounds now called ***Memorial Park, areas all of which were part of the old Peschier sugar estate that is now the Queen’s Park Savanna.

* College of the Immaculate Conception
**The Victoria Institute is now the National Museum.
***Section of the Queen’s Park Savanna facing Frederick Street, where the War Memorial is erected.

SIR JOHN MANNERS-SUTTON: 1864-1866
Although Governor Sir Robert Keate spent more than the usual 5-year term here, the end of his administration must have taken the Colonial Office by surprise because John Manners-Sutton, who seemed marked for Australia, was sent to Trinidad instead. Manners-Sutton spent two years here before he was on his way again, this time to Australia. The Paradise Lands in San Fernando were in development in Manners-Sutton’s time and a grand new east-west street running southerly from Cipero Street to Broadway was given the name: “Sutton Street,” as a tribute to this governor. Manners-Sutton left in April and in May came the Administrator Edward Everard Rushworth, whose name is remembered in the next east-west southerly-running street: Rushworth Street. Rushworth was an immediate favourite, but did not remain more than a few months. In November came the successor of Sir John Manners-Sutton.