Saint Mary, Antigua and Barbuda

Parish of Saint Mary^[1]
Parish of Saint Mary
Parish
	(from top: left to right) Jolly Harbour, Valley Church Beach, the Shekerley Mountains near John Hughes, Hermitage Bay
Country	Antigua and Barbuda
Established	January 11, 1692
Capital	Old Road
Largest city	Bolans
Government
• MPs	Molwyn Joseph, Kelvin Simon, Jamale Pringle, Anthony Smith
Population (2018)
• Total	8,141
Time zone	UTC-4 (AST)

Saint Mary, officially the Parish of Saint Mary, is a parish of Antigua and Barbuda on the island of Antigua. Saint Mary borders Saint John to the north, and Saint Paul to the east. Saint Mary is dominated by the Shekerley Mountains, and its northern border is largely defined by the mountains, and by Cooks Creek. The largest city in the parish is Bolans, home to the Jolly Harbour neighbourhood, and the parish church is located in Old Road. Saint Mary was created with the other five original parishes on 11 January 1692. It had a population of 7,341 in 2011, and 8,141 in 2018.

The only area in which the Antigua black pineapple can be produced is the Pineapple Belt, which includes Saint Mary. The settlements of Old Road and Urlings are located in the southern part of the parish, and Bolans and Jennings are located in the flat northern half of the parish, where the majority of Saint Mary's population is concentrated. The Shekerley Mountains shield most of the parish's land area from human population, leaving the remaining portion of the parish largely uninhabited. The remote community of John Hughes, which has less ties to the parish as a whole than to Swetes in Saint Paul, is one of the few settlements found inside the Sherkerley Mountains.

Along with four other parishes, Saint Mary was established on January 11, 1692, with the primary objective of providing for the parish church. The majority of the parish's agricultural lands, with the exception of the mountains, were formerly home to sugar mills. Numerous historical relics from the parish can still be seen today, including the Yorke's^[3] and Sawcolt's plantations.^[4]

^ http://laws.gov.ag/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/cap-304.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}
^ https://statistics.gov.ag/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2018-Antigua-and-Barbuda-LFS-Report.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}
^ "Yorke's – Antigua Sugar Mills". Retrieved 2023-10-14.
^ "Sawcolt's – Antigua Sugar Mills". Retrieved 2023-10-14.

[1] ttp://laws.gov.ag/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/cap-304.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}

[2] ttps://statistics.gov.ag/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2018-Antigua-and-Barbuda-LFS-Report.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}

[3] "Yorke's – Antigua Sugar Mills". Retrieved 2023-10-14.

[4] "Sawcolt's – Antigua Sugar Mills". Retrieved 2023-10-14.

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