As a department of government, the Jamaica Archives & Records Department started in 1955 with the establishment of an Archives Section in the Island Records Office and the appointment of Mr. Clinton Black as government archivist, the first such appointment in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

However the Department can trace its roots back to 1659 (only 4 years after the English invaded Jamaica and captured the island from the Spanish) when the Office of Island Secretary was established in Spanish Town and the first Island Secretary appointed.

In 1879 the Island Secretary Office was abolished and its records and most of its functions transferred to the Island Records Office which was established under the Island Records Law of that year. Most of the surviving records of the Island Secretary Office are now in the custody of the Jamaica Archives & Records Department, so Jamaica can be said to have a history of record keeping dating back to the start of the British occupation of the island