The giant cedar trees that lined one of the bays of the south-western peninsula gave rise to this village. They named the bay after the cedars and called that shore after the Spanish name for cedars, which is Cedros. The Cedula of population of the 1783 that led to the development of th 'Bay of Cedars'. The coast linen by the giant cedars saw its first settlers in 1786.

Because of the distance of Cedros from the Capital, the settlement may have been largely left alone, although cedars must have provided useful timber for the caravels. The Sapinards called the surrounding region "Quemada", which means "burnt" and this points to the little-recorded fire which ahd swept a large part of the south-western penninsula. (Names like Rancho Quemado certainly emerged from this incident).

By, 1849, Cedros was in full development. The indentured East Indians, who came here in 1845, were being introduced. Those were original grants under the  Cedula of population. In 1849, all the giant cedars may have been hewn down, however Lord Herris named the entire region around the village, the Ward of Cedros. The main settlement that had developed along the old bay of cedars was called Bonasse although this is what people refer to as Cedros. The name Bonasse is hardly used today.

Cedros was one of the most productive areas in Trinidad. The land is fit for surgar and coffee but, cocoa and later coconuts were tried and these florised too. The British tried sugar cane in the early days of sugar. Bananas were being tried out extensively. But it was coconut that was to become the most important crop. By 1870, Coffee, as a crop had become non-existent.

Cedros, because of its produce, had become one of the chief ports of call of the round-island steamers.

By the 1870s the education of the children in the Cedros area was now occupying the minds of the authorities and in 1874 the Government built the first school in the district, under the school master Phillip Vincent. 

From the Spanish days right down to this period, the 1880s, the predominant language spoken in Cedros was Spanish. This came about, no doubt, becauseof its early Spanish settlers. The Spanish influence was still so stong around this period that in order to carry out his job as the Clerke of the peace John Jocob Thomas, had to teach himself Spanish. 

But these and many other aspects of the old Cedros have vanished without a trace. There are still large coconut estates in the Cedros area, but agriculture today, in Cedros, plays a much smaller part than formerly. Fishing plays a big part in Cedros today. The fishing industries there involves about three- quarters of the population. Although fishing in cedros is a thriving industry, the caost is so near Venezuela - about eight miles - that the fishermen are often plagued with disputes about territorial waters.

Oddly enough, there are much fewer people in Cedros now than there were a century ago when its estates were still florishing. As compared to the population of 2,920 revealed by the statistics of 1881, in 1960 the population was 1,538 and there was an even further decline in1970, when the population was 1,131. The present population of cedros is given as 1,568. 

Referance Books:

Towns and Villages of Trinidad & Tobago  by Michael Anthony

Atilla's Kaiso: A short history of Trinidad calypso  by Raymond Quevedo

West Indian & their Language  by Peter A Roberts

Calypso & Society in Pre-Independance Trinidad  by Gordon Rohlehr

British Historians and the West Indies  by Eric Williams