West Indies Cricket Fans

socafighter wrote:This is a history lesson for AFRO ....this is my history of my Family in Trinidad .
My family last name was Rambert , thus the Village name .


Rambert Village's French-Scottish history
By Louis B Homer South Bureau
T&T Express newspapers
Story Created: Aug 2, 2010 at 1:18 AM ECT

RAMBERT village, a small village on the outskirts of San Fernando has a history that includes the Scottish and French occupation of the Naparimas during the 18th century.
The Rambert sugar estate (from which the village got its name) was part of the larger holdings of Palmiste Estates.
It was the former home of John Nelson Bicaise, the only known Trinidadian slave trader.
His father, Frenchman, Louis Bicaise, was owner of La Ressource Estate, and upon his death his body was interred in a tomb at Hermitage.
The tombs of John C Augustus (1882-1969), a former curator of the Botanical Gardens in Port of Spain, and his wife, Kathleen Maude Augustus (1883-1943), are located at Pond Street.
They tell the story of the influence of Scottish and French occupation of the area during the period when sugar was king.
The village was named after the Rambert family from Scotland, who owned several large sugar holdings in the Naparimas, and the Scottish influence on the estate was strong enough to have some of its senior employees adopt Scottish surnames.
Richardson McLeod, 95, was one of the residents who opted for a name change.
He was born in Cedros, and moved to Rambert Village with his mother who was originally from Canaan, Tobago.
He recalled that in the early days "Rambert Village was a large cocoa and coffee estate and the owners reared scores of zebu bulls which were used to transport sugarcane. Those slaughtered were sold as beef. "
He remembered when Palmiste was like the capital of the Naparimas.
"There were large estates with cocoa and sugar and it even had factories for making sugar. Nobody ever thought such industries would have collapsed," he said.
But they did when the prices of both sugar and cocoa fell.
Many foreigners who had worked on the estates were buried in unmarked graves on the estates.
McLeod said, "In those days, many people were buried on the lands they owned. The cemeteries were used to bury people who belonged to the poorer class."
McLeod said one of the tombs in the area that people were afraid of was one in which Louis Bicaise was buried.
A villager named Mathura, in explaining the mystery behind the Bicaise tomb, said, "There was a spring close to the tomb which had water flowing from it all year round. But one day an unclean person washed his face with water from the spring and since then it dried up."
Bicaise came to Trinidad from Martinique and while here, married Marie Rose Rambert from Scotland.
They had purchased 250 acres of land known as La Ressource Estate.
The couple had six daughters and four sons, the historians have recorded.
John Nelson, though not the eldest, was the most popular son.
He was sent to England to further his studies, but abandoned his studies and opted for employment as a slave trader.
Prof Chris de Wilde, of the University of Belgium, in the course of his research on the Bicaise family, stated, "John Nelson failed to qualify as a professional because of his inability to pursue academic studies, so he accepted employment with a slave trader in West Africa."
De Wilde, who visited Trinidad in 2005, said, "John Nelson operated his trade in the Rio Pongo, off the coast of Guinea. From this trade he made millions, but due to mismanagement of the business and an attack by the French security forces, he was forced to close the trading station. He died penniless on the banks of the Rio Pongo River."
Ashook Balkaran, of Hermitage Village, said his grandfather had worked as a labourer on La Ressource Estate.
"In the early days of sugarcane cultivation the estate at Rambert was used as a depot to weigh farmers' cane. There was a large scale in the village, two Chinese shops, one owned by Fung and the other by Henri, and the junction was the centre of all activities."
He said there were several wooden barracks in which the labourers lived, but they were dismantled.
For the greater part of the 19th century, Rambert Village was totally involved in agriculture.
In 1919, there was a change in the economy when a company called Trinidad Friendship Development Company leased 240 acres of land belonging to La Ressource Estate.
The idea was to begin exploratory drilling for oil in the village. The venture, however, was not successful and the investors moved their equipment to Fyzabad, leaving the villagers to continue their livelihood as small sugarcane farmers.