This family traces its origins to a Huguenot (French protestant) emigré called David Bernard, who fled from France to England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and in 1688 made his way to Jamaica, where his descendants became plantation owners and participated in the civil government and the militia. A later David Bernard (1757-1804), who had interests in the Bona Vista, Eden and Hermitage estates in St James' parish in Jamaica, alongside three brothers, married Judith Bow...
