Times of the Islands Summer 2016

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
Those were her words as she handed me a stiff,
yellowed, folded piece of paper. It turned out to be parchment
and I very gingerly opened it up to find a land grant
for a Salina near Hawk’s Nest on Grand Turk in the name
of Jeremiah Denis Murphy from 1881!
“I know we would be most interested!,” I said to Ann,
struck by the magnitude of this piece of parchment. We
had recently opened a new exhibit on Jeremiah Denis
Murphy, an Irish hard hat diver and salvager who resided
on Grand Turk from the mid-1850s until his death here in
1895. This piece of paper was further proof that Jeremiah
was indeed a true resident of the island. Ann and I made
a date to meet for lunch when she would tell me all about
finding this incredible document.
She was off and I hurried to the back office to take
another, longer look at it. Again I carefully unfolded the
brittle parchment, taking note of the green ribbon and
red wax seal attaching a map of the Salina to the Grant,
and began reading the beautiful calligraphy:
“Victoria by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain, and Ireland, Queen, defender of the faith,
and so forth . . .” and on it goes about how Jeremiah Denis
Murphy will pay a yearly sum of 20 shillings for the use of
the Salina near Hawk’s Nest. It is signed by Henry Moore
Jackson, Commissioner “in and over our said islands” on
April 20, 1888. Now I was greatly looking forward to find
out how Ann had come across this document.
We met a few weeks later and the story, or what
there is of it, came pouring out. It’s not hard to get
Ann talking—she has many a good tale and she is,
after all, Irish! Ann Dempsey arrived on Grand Turk on
May 25, 1964, the young bride of the new Magistrate
Finbar Dempsey. Finbar had come to replace the recently
deceased Magistrate Camiade. He remained magistrate
for the next 5 1/2 years, often travelling by boat (Ann
said it was known as the “Vomit Comet”) to the different
islands to hold court. In those days, Ann was busy
with a growing family and involvement in the Women’s
Federation, which did things like weigh newborn babies
and get together at Dillon Hall to sew aprons and potholders
for sale at the Anglican Christmas Bazaar.
A highlight of those years was Queen Elizabeth’s visit
in 1966. “Did you meet the Queen?” I asked innocently.
Ann laughed and said, “But Nikki, I had lunch aboard the
Royal Yacht Britannia!”
When Finbar resigned his post he opened the first
An excited Ann Dempsey shows her amazing find. How many other
such discoveries still slumber in the bottoms of forgotten boxes?
legal practice in the Islands. Ann explained how interest
was just beginning in and around Grace Bay. (In fact, it was
a number of years before development started in earnest
on Providenciales.) In the late 1980s they built an office
in downtown Grand Turk. When they closed that office in
2009, all the current files were sent to the Providenciales
office and what was left was brought to their house on
the Ridge. There they remained, untouched until now.
Finbar passed away in 2014, and Ann is just now
going through old papers. At the bottom of one of the
boxes, which contained old Christmas cards and such,
was a brown file with the name “Camiade” written across
it. In it were legal notes and receipts and a folded, brittle,
yellowed parchment which turned out to be the land
grant for Jeremiah Denis Murphy.
“I don’t know how it got there. I can only imagine that
when Finbar took over Camiade’s office he gathered some
of the things laying about and put them in this file. Why
did Camiade have this land grant? And why Camiade’s
file is among old Christmas cards is a mystery.” Ann gave
me a big smile and said, “You’re going to have to call this
article ‘A Lucky Find’ because that’s really what it is.”
Yes, Ann, it really is a lucky find. Thank you for
finding it. The museum plans to have this document professionally
framed by an archivist. It will proudly hang in
our exhibit of the extraordinary Jeremiah Denis Murphy,
hard hat diver, salvager of the HMS Rhone and the sunken
city of Port Royal, and owner of a Salina near Hawk’s Nest.
a
58 www.timespub.tc