Toco originally referred to as Punta Galera. (The name “Galera", which name Christopher Columbus gave to the southeastern point, and which was erroneously transferred to this one).

The village centre which lies about two miles to the west. It was here, that an English force under Sir Henry Colt came ashore in 1631 without the knowledge of the Spanish authorities and tried to found a settlement. They were expelled by the Dutch who landed south of here in 1637, and who formed a close alliance with the Amerindians in the area. Shortly after expulsion of the English by the Dutch, the Spaniards expelled the Dutch.

About a century later Capuchin priests from Spain came on the scene, and founded a mission a little to the west of where the village centre it today. The mission was for the conversion of the Amerindians. These native people, thought to be of the Carib tribe, are the ones who gave the name “Toco,” to the area, but the meaning of “Toco” is not clear. Incidentally, the area of the mission referred to is known as Mission Village.

The Amerindian Mission was still intact when the British entered in 1797.

The position of that mission was a little way inland, on the west of Toco Bay and there was another such mission south of the peninsula, at a place called Cumana. These two missions were linked by a track known today as Anglais Road (Anglais the French word for English). Undoubtedly this road derived its name from the English settling party of 1631.

The development of Toco came a few years after 1783, when a cedula encouraging Caribbean French immigrations to settle in Trinidad came into effect. The Spanish Governor, Jose Maria Chacon, granted six parcels of land, which we know as Toco today. One of these original settler families, D’Godet, flourished well into the 19th, century. Other settlers in the area were Monique, Ponne, Traille, Narcise, and Rotan.

The French settlers in 1797 Toco had just one sugar mill in the district. It was cotton that seemed to be the major crop, and there were as many as 59 cotton mills. The French settlers numbered just 28, and their working force mounted to 158 slaves and 62 free blacks. The Amerindians were listed as 155 at that time.

The Toco Population, turned the village into a depot of produce. It was extremely difficult to get the produce out of this inaccessible place, for it was a district with no roads leading out of it. When Governor Ralph Woodford started the round island steamer service in 1818, Toco received great priority. As a result, the village prospered, not only because of its frequent contacts with Port-of-Spain, but also because of its frequent communication with Tobago, through the steamer service.

The Catholic Church made it a parish in 1830. A new church dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption was re-built at Mission Village, just where the Capuchins had set up the first church in Toco.

Land ownership at Toco changed after Lord Harris created ward boundaries in 1849. Ward rates were to be collected for the sake of development, but despite the fact that Toco was in dire need of road and other services, the landowners of Toco refused to pay ward-rates. Because of this, in 1852 no fewer than 64 Toco estates were put up for sale.

Most of Toco’s labouring force continued to come from Tobago. By the 1880s, when all the original settlers and ex-slaves had passed away, Toco was populated almost entirely by people from Tobago. In 1862 the headmaster Arthur Taylor opened the school, with 40 pupils on roll.

In the census of 1871 Toco Ward had 806 residents, and this population in 1881 had rose to 1,443. Although this figure included the population of settlements like Sans Souci, Matelot, and Cumana, almost a century later (at the census of 1970) the population for Toco village was 956. The population for 1980 was 1,311.

This dependence on Tobago for workers reduced with the first road into Toco from Sangre Grande was completed. This road went into use around 1930, and ended Toco’s isolation by land for the rest of Trinidad.

Agriculture in this once green and productive region has come almost to a standstill. The young workers, who are not employed out of the village, turn to many casual Government projects. However the quiet way of life is still retained by many of the villages

  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