Port Royal

Port Royal. 1. A naval station of Jamaica, stands on the Palisades, a narrow spit that protects the harbour of Kingston. Once the. finest town in the West Indies, it is now a mere collection of workmen's huts; but it contains Admiralty House with its gardens, and well-fitted shops and sheds for the repairing of ships of war. 2. A Cistercian abbey founded in 1204 at Yvette, near Marly, eight miles S.W. of Versailles. Here in 1608 Marie Arnauld, La Mere Angelique, started her conventual reforms; and a few years later a branch was established in Paris, which under the influence of the Abbe de St. Cyran became the headquarters of Jansenism. Port Royal des Champs was then occupied by Antoine le Maitre and a few companions; but ultimately the Paris house was suppressed, and nuns only were tolerated at Marly until 1708, when the place was closed and pulled down.