Ham’s Bay is estate 32 in St. Croix’s Northside A Quarter. Based on appearances on historic maps, the windmill was likely built in the 19th century and remains is in good condition. Uniquely, this windmill has only 3 openings. The estate was named for the nearby bay.
The area of Ham’s Bay was settled in the French period and in cotton cultivation by 1750 in the Danish period. The 1766 and 1767 annotated Beck maps plus the Zöllner manuscript copy all place an animal mill in the southern portion of the estate by the gut. None of the other Beck variants include any sugar manufacturing machinery.
The 1799 Oxholm map depicts an animal mill at estate 32 without including a name. By 1856, Parsons includes a windmill at Hams Bay Estate. All of the 20th-century topographic maps indicate a windmill at Hams Bay.
In 1750, ownership attributed to William Merts. All the Beck variants attribute ownership to John Farrington, which persists through 1791.
McGuire geographic dictionary of the Virgin Islands (p.90) notes the estate Locally always called “Hamsbay.”