[2] The town was founded in the 18th century and named after Peter Beckford, a slave owner who settled the Roaring River Estate.

[citation needed] To the south of the town's main junction lies the neighborhood locally called "Carawina" which was the original name given to the plantation which predated it.

According to an estate record proved in 1723, the original owner of the land that would be called Carawina was Rowland Williams of Glamorgan west of present-day Cardiff.

Today Petersfield is a one street town with a community health centre at one end and a cemetery at the other.

It is the home of many of the workers at the Frome Sugar Estate as well as many other business people with interests in the nearby coastal cities of Savannah La Mar, Negril and even Montego Bay to the North.