Colonel Ezekiel Gomersall Cherry Garden Great House
Ezekiel Gomersall (1663–1734) was a formidable figure in 18th-century Jamaica, serving as a Colonel of the Militia, a Member of the King’s Council, and the master of the Cherry Garden Estate. While best known for presiding over the trials of the infamous female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, he was also a dominant force in the island's military and economic life.
The Cherry Garden Estate
The Gomersall legacy is physically anchored in the parish of St. Andrew at the Cherry Garden Great House. Gomersall began assembling the estate in 1694. Over the next two decades, he aggressively expanded the property to approximately 300 acres through the annexation of adjacent parcels, transforming it into a premier sugar plantation.
His domestic life linked him to the influential Dickinson family. His first wife, Mary Dickinson, was the daughter of Captain Francis Dickinson (a conqueror of 1655) and the sister of Jonathan Dickinson. This marriage cemented a powerful trans-Atlantic alliance, with Gomersall frequently acting as the Jamaican agent for his brother-in-law's mercantile empire in Philadelphia.
Military, Political, and Judicial Authority
Gomersall held the highest offices available to a colonist. He served on the King's Council, a body that functioned as both the Governor's cabinet and the colony's Supreme Court of Appeal.
The Planter-Judge: Like many wealthy landowners of his time, Gomersall was not a trained lawyer but served as a powerful magistrate. His position on the Council and his social standing granted him the authority to preside over courts, issue warrants, and pass sentences—powers he exercised most famously during the pirate trials.
Militarily, he held the rank of Colonel of the Regiment of Horse for St. Andrew. In a colony perpetually on guard against French invasion and internal slave rebellions, the cavalry commander was a critical figure in the island's defense infrastructure.
The Pirate Trials (1720)
Gomersall’s most famous historical act occurred in his capacity as a Commissioner of the Vice-Admiralty Court. On November 28, 1720, he sat on the bench in St. Jago de la Vega (Spanish Town) to judge the case of Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
These women had been captured aboard the sloop of "Calico Jack" Rackham. Gomersall and his fellow commissioners found both women guilty of piracy and sentenced them to hang.
The trial over which Gomersall presided was filled with sensational testimony that captivated the colony:
- The Witness: The key testimony came from a victim, Dorothy Thomas, who told the court she knew the pirates were women "by the largeness of their breasts." She testified that Bonny and Read were more violent than the men, carrying pistols in both hands and urging the crew to murder her so she couldn't testify.
- "Fight Like a Man": While the male pirates (including Captain Rackham) had hidden in the hold too drunk to fight during their capture, the women had defended the ship. When Rackham was executed, Anne Bonny’s final words to him were recorded as: "If you had fought like a man, you need not have been hanged like a dog."
- "Pleading the Belly": Immediately after Gomersall pronounced the death sentence, both women "pleaded their bellies"—revealing they were pregnant. This ancient legal maneuver stayed their executions, as English law forbade killing an unborn child.
Other Notable Facts
- Battle with the South Sea Company: Gomersall was a vocal opponent of the South Sea Company's monopoly on the slave trade (the Asiento). Archives show him petitioning the British Board of Trade in 1717, fighting against the corporation that he believed was damaging Jamaica’s economy by diverting labor to Spanish colonies.
- The 1722 Survey: A rare surviving document from his tenure is a land survey map dated May 9, 1722, created by Henry Nelson. It details the exact boundaries of the 300-acre Cherry Garden estate, essentially the "birth certificate" of the property as we know it.
- The Inheritance: Gomersall died without surviving children. This lack of direct heirs is why the Cherry Garden estate passed to his nephew-in-law, Ezekiel Dickinson. Ezekiel was the son of Mary Gomersall's brother, Caleb Dickinson, ensuring the property remained within the Dickinson-Gomersall clan for another century.
Legacy and Death
Ezekiel Gomersall died on April 12, 1734, at the age of 70. He was interred inside the Kingston Parish Church, where his gravestone describes him as "one of his Majesty's Council and Colonel of the Regiment of Horse."
His estate, Cherry Garden, eventually passed out of the family line and was purchased in 1845 by George William Gordon. It was from this same house that Gordon would later emerge as a champion for the poor and a National Hero of Jamaica.