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© 2009 W. Gordon Handcock

Soe longe as there comes noe women

Origins of English Settlement in Newfoundland

W. Gordon Handcock

GL f BAL Global Heritage Press

SOURCE: W. Gordon Handcock, Soe longe as there comes no women, Origins of English Settlement in Newfoundland (1989, 2003), image reprint CD, (Milton, Ontario: Global Heritage Press, 2009)



All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, micro reproduction, recording or otherwise - without prior written permission of the author and GlobalGenealogy.com Inc.. Global Heritage Press is an imprint of GlobalGenealogy.com Inc.

Soe longe as there comes noe women

First printing by Breakwater Books, St. John's, Newfoundland, 1989 Second printing by Global Heritage Press Inc. Campbellville, Ontario 2003

National Library of Cañada Cataloguing in Publication

Handcock, W. Gordon So longe as there comes noe women : origins of English

settlement in Newfoundland / W. Gordon Handcock.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-894378-49-0

1. Newfoundland--Emigration and immigration. 2. Great Britain--Emigration and immigration. 3. Newfoundland--Social conditions--To 1900. I. Title.

JV7290.N4H35 2002 325'.242'09718 C2002-906078-8

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Fot Margaret, Suzanne, Sharon,Elaine

and Christopher



v . i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

SOURCE: W. Gordon Handcock, Soe longe as there comes no women, Origins of English Settlement in Newfoundland (1989, 2003), ¡' image reprint CD, (Milton, Ontario: Global Heritage Press, 2009) ¡

i i i i i i i


Contents

Preface 9 Introduction . . 13

I Background: The Magnet of the Cod

1 Early English Migrants 23 2 Beginningsof Settlement, 1610-1720 33 3 Migration Patterns and Dynamics 53

II Transitions: Making Fishing Communities

Out of Fishing Stations

4 Migration Trends to 1830 73 5 Population and Settlement Changes to 1830 91 6 Frontier Social Demography in Trinity Bay, 1753-1830 121

n i English Homelands: The Structure of Origins

7 Regional Source Areas 145 8 Out of South Devon: By Dartmouth and Teignmouth . 154 9 Out of Wessex: The Poole Effect . 184

IV Merchants and Migrants: Giving Credit

10 The Mercantile System of Settlement: The Case of Poole . . . . . 219 11 Quality, Occupation, and Class: Migrant Social

Characteristics 243

V Bonds Across the Sea

12 Migration Channels . .267

13 Summary 277

Notes . .282 Bibliography 316 Index 330



List of Figures

2.1 English Settlement in Newfoundland, 1675-1677 41

2.2 Newfoundland Settlement Patterns 42

3.1 Distribution of Men on Fishing Ships, 1675-1681 58 4.1 British Cod Production, 1710-1830 76 4.2 Men in the Migratory Sector of the

NewfoundlandFishery, 1700-1830 83 4.3 Numbers of Passengers Arriving in Newfoundland 86 5.1 Newfoundland Population Changes 97 5.2 Population Levels by District, 1740-1820 100 5.3 Súmame Survivals and Changes, 1675-1806 . .107 5.4 Conception Bay Settlements 1805 114 6.1 Trinity Bay Settlement 1801 123 6.2 Family Links in English Harbour, 1753-1801 127 6.3 Marriage Patterns by Origin Trinity Bay, 1760-1819 . . . . . . . . 131 6.4 Social Status at Burial Trinity Bay, 1760-1799 131 7.1 The English Homeland 149 7.2 Newfoundland Regional Emigration Fields

in Southwest England . .151

8.1 The MigrationBasinofDartmouth, 1770-1788 . . . . . . . . . . . 157

8.2 Distribution of Teignmouth Seamen by Residence, 1800-1801 159

8.3 Distribution of Teignmouth-Newfoundland Seamen by Residence, 1800-1815 161

8.4 The Migration Basin of Teignmouth, 1800-1815 162 8.5 South Devon-Newfoundland Cultural Heartland . . . . . . . . . 165 9.1 Recruiting Places and Networks of Poole Merchants 189 9.2 Distribution of Poor Law Remováis to and from

Poole, 1743-1801 200 10.1 Trade Networks: Poole Merchants 1786 . 221 10.2 Trinity Trading Links 223 12.1 Channels of Emigration . . . 273

6



List of Tables 2.1 Selected Branches of Poole-Newfoundland Taverner Family . . 48

2.2 Tavemers at Bay de Verde, 1675-77 51

3.1 Distributíon of Men in Fishing Ships by Ports of Origin and Destination in the West of England-Newfoundland Migratory Codfishery, 1675-1681 56

3.2 Migration on Fishing Vessels, 1675-81 66

5.1 Population Levels in Newfoundland by District, 1740-1820 . . . 102 5.2 Population Change Rates in Nfld. by District, 1740-1820 103 5.3 Number and Percentage of Property-Occupiers by

Birth, St John's District, 1794-5 108 5.4 Súmame Linkages in the St. John's District Between

1705 and 1794-5 109

5.5 The Nature of Tenure Claims to Fishing Rooms, Bonavista Bay 1806 . . 111

6.1 Number of Families by Settlement, Trinity Bay, 1753-1801 . . . . 122 6.2 The Documented Fate of the (1753) Setüers in the Trinity Area . 124 6.3 Structural Composition of Nuclear Families by Origin 1801 . . . 128 6.4 Age at First Marriage of Native-born Spouses,

Trinity, 1801-20 140 6.5 Principal Families by Settlement, Trinity Bay, 1753-1891 141 7.1 Distributíon of Nfld. Emigrants by Origin, 1755-1884 147 7.2 Population Size of Sending Parishes for Selected Counties . . . 148 8.1 Migration and Emigration to Newfoundland from South

Devon Parishes 167

8.2 Selected Characteristics of St. Nicholas Parish Emigrants . . . . 176

9.1 Recruiting Centres of Two Poole Merchant Firms 192

9.2 Parish Origins of Dorset Parish Apprentices in the

Nfld Fishery 194

10.1 Selected Extracts from Poole Merchant Wills 228

10.2 Major Poole Firms in Newfoundland, 1785-1825 231

11.1 Age Structure of English-Newfoundland Migrants . • 246

11.2 Occupational Structure of English-Newfoundland Migrants . .255

11.3 Occupational Background of English-Newfoundland Settlers . 258

12.1 British Origins-Newfoundland Destinations 269

12.2 Relative Acceptance and Absolute Difference Indices of Migration Channel .271

7



Key to Abbreviations

AAAG Annals, Associatíon of American Geographers ADM British Admiralty CO Colonial Office CNS Centre for Newfoundland Studies,

Queen Elizabeth II Library, MUN CSPC Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series,

American and.the West Indies BM British Museum BPP British Parliamentaiy Papers BT BoardofTrade DCB Dictionary of Canadian Biography DNE Dictionary of Newfoundland English EDRO East Devon Record Office, Exeter, Devon DRO Dorset Record Office, Dorchester, Dorset DVRO Devon Record Office, Exeter, Etevon GBHC Great Britain House of Commons (Reports) HAC Historical Atlas of Cañada, VoL 1 HRO Hampshire Record Office, Winchester, Hampshire MHA Maritime History Archives, MUN MUN Memorial University of Newfoundland NNM National Maritime Museum, London PANL Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador PRO Public Record Office, London, England SOFL Sodety of Friends (Quakers) Library, London SP State Papers SRO Somerset Record Office, Taunton, Somerset (U)SPG (United) Society for the Propagation of the Cospel,

London VCH Victoria County History Preface

8



Preface

The peopling of any new world región írom overseas is usually regarded as one of the most important cultural events in the human history of that región. It establishes the character and norms on which the región develops. Most contemporary Newfound-landers are descended from English settlers who occupied the island ca. 1610 to the mid-nineteenth century. An understanding of the process of their settling is of central importance in understanding the making of Newfoundland society.

The principal objective of this book is to reconstruct and explain the patterns of migration from (maiiüy) the southwest and southern regions of England to Newfoundland virtually from their inception in the early seventeenth century, and the related process of settlement formation that followed. Although these process es persisted for over three centuries, this book focuses on the critical period—the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries—which brought most of our English forebearers to the island.

The study of English migration to Newfoundland was first conceived as a possible topic for a Ph.D. in historical geography in 1971. Other contributing drcumstances included an invitation from Dr. Alan F. Williams to study under his tutorship at the University of Birmingham, England. Dr. Williams had formerly taught me as an undergraduate at MUN in the mid-1960s, and I had worked for him as a laboratory assistant. In 1971-72 he was at MUN as Acting Head of the Department of Geography. An informal seminar attended by my colleagues—Alan G. Macpherson, Michael Staveley, John Mannion, Chesley Sanger, and Alan Williams—in June 1972 reaffirmed English migration as an appropriate Ph.D. topic in terms of my background and ixaining. It certainly appealed to my instincts and emotions as well as my academic interests.

9



While much inspiration carne from colleagues and friends in geography, some of the more recent scholarly foundations on which one could build were laid by academics in cognate fields. The most impor tan t of these was a D.Phil. history thesis on the Newfoundland-West of England codfishery completed at Oxford University in 1968 by Keith Matthews. This work provided an excellent holistic statement on a wide range of historical relationships between the two worlds over several centuries. Matthews further opened avenues into which one could pursue more in-depth research, such as a fuller investigation of migration. In the early 1970s, Dr. E.R. Seary of the English Department at MUN was well advanced in his research on Family Ñames of Newfoundland (1977), and this involved many of the extant documentary sources on immigrant origins, the genuine stuff which a historical geographer can use to reconstruct and measure spatial patterns and processes. To a large extent this study was built on data from sources referred to me by Dr. Seary The appearance of C. Grant Head's Eighteenth Century Newfoundlandr the first work on Newfoundland in modern historical geography, appeared in 1976, and this work had both specific and pervasive influence on my research and writing. Foliowing Head in 1977 carne the publication The Peopling of Newfoundland, edited by John Mannion. This work included essays on population growth, migration, and settlement by colleagues as well as some of my own early findings on English origins and migrations.

Many people contributed to the completion of this book, but I owe the greatest debt to Alan Williams. From the time I began my formal studies in 1973 up until the research was completed, Alan gave wise academic counsel, constant encouragement, and valued ftiendship. Also, I owe special debts to the late Dr. Keith Matthews, Chairman of the Maritime History Group, MUN, who was always eager to discuss West Country-Newfoundland affairs and willing to give advice. Keith abo directed me to many documents such as the Dartmouth muster rolls and sixpences of Teignmouth seamen, but most impor tan t ly he f ine- tuned many of my ideas and interpretations during the course of some animated academic dialogues.

My colleagues Alan Macpherson, Chesley Sanger, and John Mannion at MUN read earlier drafts of the manuscript and offered generous advice which I have endeavoured to follow. I am also most grateful to Dr. George M. Story of MUN's English Department and

10



to John Mannion for editorial advice in converting a thesis manuscript into a book and for the encouragement to publish going back some years.

Among the many other scholars who were most generous with their help, encouragement, and advise, I am obligated to identify and thank the following: the late Professor Harry Thorpe, Heaci, Department of Geography, Biraiingham, who co-supervised my Ph.D. thesis; Dr. J.B. Harley, formerly of Department of Geography, Exeter University; Mr. H.J. Trump, retired historian, Exeter; the late Dr. E.EJ. Mathews, historian, Poole; Mr. H.F.V. Johnstone, historian, Poole; Professors Robert Ford and Ken Swindell, Department of Geography, Birmingham; Dr. Patrick O'Flaherty, English Department, MUN; Dr. Peter Neary, History Department, Western Ontario; Dr. R.E. Ommer, History Department, MUN; Dr. Shannon Ryan, History Department, MUN; Dr. Patricia Thornton, Geography Department, Concordia; Mr. David Shortall; Dr. Stephen Fisher, History Department, Exeter; Dr. Glenville Davis, History Department, Weymouth College; Mr. David Anderson, geographer, Lúton Polytechnical; Dr. Otto Tucker, historian and writer, St. John's; Dr. Cyril Poole, Principal, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Córner Brook; and Dr. Maurice Scarlett, geographer, MUN.

Dr. W.F. Summers first introduced me to the field of geography, encouraged me through an undergraduate (honours) degree, invited me to become the first gradúate (Masters) student in geography at MUN, and gave me a teaching position in 1970. I owe deep appreciation to him. I also thank Dr. Michael Staveley who, as Department Head in 1974, helped to arrange extended leave to complete my research in England, and I thank Memorial University for research leave during 1973-75 and for assisting with a number of grants. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (formerly Cañada Council) generously provided a Doctoral grant to support my research, and the Geography Departments at Biraiingham, Exeter, and MUN were most cooperativé and helpful.

The work incorporates data gathered from archival sources both in Newfoundland and England, and I acknowledge with thanks the help given by archivists and staffs of the Public Record Office and Society of Friends Library, London; the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Archives; the Dorset Record Office; the Hampshire Record Office; the Somerset Record Office; the Bristol Record Office; the Poole Central Library; the Devon Record Office; the East Devon Record Office; the Maritime History Archive, MUN

11



(formerly Maritime History Group Archives); and the Arts and Culture Centre Library, St. John's.

Other individuáis who must be thanked for helping with technical aspects of analysis and presentation include Dr. John Bucket, University of Exeter, for computer programming; Mr. Gary McManus, MUNCL (Cartographic Laboratory), for supervising the final drafting of maps and figures; Mrs. G. Rollins, Ms. Josephine Ryan, and Ms. Mary A. Walsh for typing; my daughter Sharon, and Mrs. Pat Warren, for their work on the Index; and the management and staff at Breakwater Books.

W. Gordon Handcock Department of Geography

Memorial University of Newfoundland

12



Introduction

Although Newfoundland was one of the oldest parts of North America to be discovered, exploited, and settled, it was one of the slowest of the New World Éuropean possessions in acquiring a well-established, permanent population. Historians have labelled this somewhat unique temporal condition the theme of 'retarded colonization'. This theme seeks to explain why the settlement process in Newfoundland lagged behind the development and pace of expansión in other New World areas. Keith Matthews traced the thesis back to Reeves' Histpry of the Government of the Island of Newfoundland (1793). It was then sustained by a series of nineteenth-century writers, especially Prowse.

In the present century the retarded colonization theme was taken up by university-based historians such as Field (1924), Newton (1930), Lounsbuiy (1934), McLintock (1941), Morton (1936), and Innis (1954). Much of their work was political in scope, and explanation for the slow growth of settlement was largely attributed to the opposition against settlement by West of England adventurers. After initial attempts at formal colonization had failed in the first half of the seventeenth century, the British government sought to restore and preserve Newfoundland as a fishery primaiily for the benefit of the residents of Britain and for the national purpose of a 'nursery of seaman'. Although in 1675 an order-in-council demanded Newfoundland settlers remove themselves from the island, the order was never enforced and indeed was withdrawn a year later. Because West of England merchants once opposed settlers, many earlier historians assumed that they were always opposed. Thus, as Matthews (1978) had reasoned, these older historians confused merchants" opposition to government as synonymous with opposition to settlement. Ñor did the merchants, because they once

13



opposed settlers, always remain ininücal towards them. Indeed, eighteenth-century merchants became the driving forcé behind settlement, since they controlled all the critical aspects of life: the importation of food and supplies, the marketing of staples, and the f low of capital. Matthews' work on the West of England-Newfound land fishery had emphasised the strength and importance of the relationship between settlers in Newfoundland and English merchants. He also maintains that trade strategies adopted by English merchants in Newfoundland were impelling influences on population growth and settlement development. From the new perspective, merchants now became the promoters of settlement rather than the inhibitors of it.

Grant Head 's work (1976) represents the first major contribution by a modern historical geographer. Head reconstructs the patterns of resource use and settlement form as they evolved in Newfoundland during the eighteenth century. The sluggish rate of settlement growth is explained with reference to the properties and limitations of the physical environment, the problems of survival and adaptation, and especially the critical importance of food supply from external sources. The essays in The Peopling of Newfoundland (1977) by MUN geographers focus on the spread of settlement in the nineteenth century but draw attention to a wide variety of factors and influences that affect population and expansión, such as demographic issues (Handcock, Staveley, Macpherson, and Thornton) and specialized economic activities (Sanger and Mannion).

In the context of recent developments in the historiography of Newfoundland settlement, this book examines the migration system and process which contributed to the growth of a permanent population. It explores the origins of English settlers, the conditions in the homeland areas from which they carne, the processes of recruitment, transfer, and absorption, the patterns of movement, and the social and economic characteristics of the migrants in both the homeland and Newfoundland settings.

The research was conducted in three phases. The initial phase involved the collection of data in Newfoundland to identify the temporal and spatial origins of English settlers. The primary source was the oldest extant parochial registers, which frequently recorded for individuáis named in marriage and burial registers their pre-migrational residence or place of birth. Similar data were gleaned from the social columns of early newspapers (marriage

14



notices and obituaries), wills, and tombstones. In all, about 2200 English immigrants were identified by their place of origin. Though this sample might seem thin in the context of the great numbers of English moving to Newfoundland over three or more centuries, the evidence is adequate enough to establish precisely the areas of origin and to show how these shifted spatially over time.

Armed wi th the knowledge of where 2200 English-Newfoundland emigrants had originated, I went to England to probé these places and to recover any information I could on the background and pre-migrat ional characterist ics of these Newfoundland settlers. In brief, I wanted to discover as much as I possibly could about those emigrants, to examine the circumstances of their leaving home, and to discover factors and reasons which might account for their transatlantic migration and their decisions to reside in Newfoundland. The second phase of the research uncovered numerous materials documenting migration linkages between the homeland areas, ports and parishes, and the Newfoundland fishery and settlements. Some documents, such as the Dartmouth muster rolls and Teignmouth register of seamen's sixpences, helped focus attention on the places from which migrants were fetched and drawn directly into Newfoundland fishery These provided the data for a detailed reconstruction of the migration hinterlands generated by two of the most important ports involved in the Newfoundland trade, which were also two of the main ports embarking emigrants to Newfoundland, namely Dartmouth and Teignmouth. Other important documentary sources imcovered in English archives included parish register collections, which were used to reconstitute families into which the English-Newfoundland emigrants were born, and especially apprenticeship indentures and settlement examinations (Poor Law Documents), which record details of individuáis who at stages of their life cycle participated in the Newfoundland trade. There were, surprisingly, also numerous personal documents such as wills, deeds, and adnünistration papers found in archives in Newfoundland, the West of England, and the Public Record Office in London.

Since migration and settlement in Newfoundland were so closely interwoven with the English migratory fishery, much of the extant information on recruitment, movement, and indeed the migrants themselves, are to be found in commercial and mercantile collections of the firms who carried on the Newfoimdland trade. These include the letter books, account books, and diaries of

15



English-Newfoundland merchant firms. For example, the Dorset Record Office holds the Lester-Garland Papers; records of a Poole-Newfoundland firm which span nearly two centuries of trade, and deal with four generations of entrepreneurs. These contain a wealth of information on the trade and settlement of Trinity Bay particularly and the northeast coast generally. Some of the diaries of Benjamín Lester were written in Trinity, Trinity Bay, in the 1760s and 1770s and monitor numerous facets of eighteenth-century life; meanwhile other parts of his diary up to 1801 were written in England. All his diaries relate to the Newfoundland trade. These, together with contemporary diaries 1765-79 written by his brother Isaac, a partner in the business, contain numerous entries on topics such as recruiting labour, migration to Newfoundland, and dealings with Newfoundland settlers. Other important mercantile papers discovered in England were the Fox Papers, the papers of a firm based in Teignmouth and Shaldon in South Devon and much involved in the Newfoundland bank fishery and Irish passenger traffic, and the Bird Papers relating to a Dorset firm trading to the west coast and Strait of Belle Isle. The collections yield insights into the mechanics of recruitment of servants, the transfer of passengers, and employment conditions in Newfoundland.

As discussed in some detail in Chapter 11, much of the archival research carried out in Dorset and Devon involved efforts to reconstitute the families of the individuáis included in the data set of 2200 Engl i sh-Newfoundland immigrants d rawn f rom Newfoundland parish records. The major objective here was to discover the pre-Newfoundland migrational characteristics of the migrants and their social structure. The approach yielded limited results, but the shortcomings caused by either the absence of relevant English parish records or the inability to identify Newfoimdland migrants in them were partly overcome by using data from surrogate sources which gave similar information. Especially useful were settlement examinations—documents which are essentially biographical profiles of the individuáis named in them. Important components of all settlement examinations were the place of birth, places of residence, types of employment, and marital status. Those which refer to a per iod of employment or residence in Newfoundland yielded very rich information.

By using parish registers on both sides of the Atlantic, wills, merchant papers, apprenticeship indentures, and especially settlement examination, it was possible to compile detailed

16



biographies of some individual migrants. In some cases also it was possible to produce histories of families which maintained an involvement with the Newfoundland fishery over several generations. More commonly, though, the different documentary sources shed light on the places of origin and the cárcumstances of discrete sets of migrants at different stages during the migratory interval. Ne vertheless, all of the gathered sources, both those dealing with named individuáis and those relating to families and groups, gave a remarkable amoimt of information. Also, each source helped to bring into focus some of the people who were keyed to the migration system and helped to iEuminate some aspects of the overall peopling process that I set out to describe. It must be considered, however, that much information can never be recovered.

At the outset it was intended to focus attention on the migrants and the source areas for a few decades, ca. 1780-1820, during which English emigration peaked. It soon became apparent, however, that a much longer temporal context was needed to provide a comparative base-line for the migration story as a whole. As mentioned abo ve, the long-drawn-out nature of the process was a characteristic feature of the settling of Newfoundland. Despite beginnings made in the early seventeenth century, effective permanent settlement was not achieved for nearly two centuries later. Additionally, like many frontier societies, Newfoundland settlements were marked by the advance and retreat of settlement, and by high rates of turnover in personnel before population stabilized.

Because of the temporal factor and the need to examine the process of immigration absorption, a third phase of research was undertaken. It was necessary to extend the analyses to population growth, migration changes and settlement formation. Trinity Bay was selected for a demographic analysis of frontier characteristics and an investigation on the mechanics of how immigrants were absorbed into the structure of an emerging resident population. Trinity Bay was not only one of the older settled regions, it also has the best set of documentary data on its eighteenth and early nineteenth-century population for any district in Newfoundland. These include nominal censuses, parish registers dating back to 1755, court records from 1753 onwards, as well as diaries written by Benjamín Lester, and the letter and correspondence of eighteenth-century missionaries. All of these help address aspects of the pioneer population. To a large extent also, the implanting of a resident

17



population in Trinity Bay and the temporal pattern of its subsequent growth mirrors that of Newfoundland as a whole.

In addition to a wide range of hitherto little-known or little-used dociimentary data employed in this work, the author was also obliged to consult the material consulted by other scholars who have dealt with English-Newfoundland affairs. The latter include the colonial papers, especially the Calendar of State Papers, the voluminous Colonial Office 194 series, and correspondence of the governors. Port books, journals, customs returns, homeland censuses, newspapers and contemporary printed accounts from both sides of the Atlantic also provided pertinent information.

The great mass of information and its essentially fragmented nature presented problems with respect to organizations, analysis and presentation. Wherever possible I relied upon the tried and tested techniques of historical geography, such as temporal reconstruction, time-series analysis, content-analysis and record-linking techniques. More importantly, a number of innovative techniques in historical demography and historical geography have been attempted in order to deal with such problems as the measurement of the extent of the English homeland, the migration process, the growth and spread of the different population sectors of the island, the rates of turnover in settler populations, family continuity, marriage patterns, social structure, mercantile trade and migration networks, and staple production. The statistical data are mostly summarized in the twenty-five maps and twenty-seven tables interspersed through the text, and much of the text is built around them.

The presentation adopts several approaches or modes of historical-geographic writing. Part I contains a reconstruction of the patterns of migration and settlement in the seventeenth century and is intended as a background, or a base-line cross-temporal, reference for changes which occur duiing the eighteenth century: Part II gives a spatio-temporal analysis of changes in migration, population and set t lement in the eighteenth century. It includes also a socio-demographic analysis of Trinity Bay which illustrates processes involved in the transformation of Newfoundland from a migratory fishery to a settled society. Part III shifts focus to the homeland areas and provides a structural analysis of the origins of both the migratory fishermen and Newfoundland settlers. The two major homelands—the South Devon Heartland and the Wessex (Dorsetshire with adjoining parts of Hampshire, Wiltshire and

18



Somerset)—are treated in detail. In Part IV the networks of Poole merchants of Newfoundland are developed. These networks were essentially the main conditioning factor influencing the patterns of migration and settlers. Merchants also played a key role in affecting the development of settlement through the credit (or truck) system, whereby erstwhile servants and sailors in mercantile employment were supported as planters or settlers. Part IV also presents findings on the socio-economic characteristics of Newfoundland migrants

The concluding section establishes the specific channels of movement from particular parts of the homeland to different districts in Newfoundland and analyses these patterns. Here we show the importance of Poole and Wessex (maiiüy Dorset) settlers in northeastern Newfoundland and west from Placentia Bay The earlier links between North Devon and the Southern Shore, and South Devon and St. John's, were also prominent. Conception Bay received settlers from all parts of the homeland, but some very specific links existed, such as Bristol to Harbour Grace.

Aside from the homelands and migration streams, another important theme dealt with in this book relates to the transient nature of the population, a feature common in most frontier societies. In the early period even the planters with their families sometimes returned to England, and rarely did servants last more than a decade in the fishery. The shortage of women in the Newfoundland population until 1800 was another important factor in the sluggish rate of population growth. In Newfoundland, too, settlement was advanced not so much through the trans-atlantic movement of females as through marriage of young servants to Newfoundland girls. Nevertheless, as it is illustrated from data in the nominal censuses and parish records of Trinity Bay, matrilineal descent and settlement continuity are important parts of the settlement process for a core of Newfoundlanders.

Throughout the research and writing, a conscious effort was made to adhere to a single main theme which focused on the migrants and migration. English migration was, after all, a large and complex subject, touching many other aspects of the Newf oundland story. It was always tempting to digress into discussion of impinging topics, such as the cod economy, the cultural landscape, and the English-Irish passenger and provisión trades, the political factors and so on, but these represent studies that others might fruitfully pursue.

19



PARTI

Background: The Magnet of the Cod

soe longe as there comes no women ihey are not fixed.

From report by Captain Francis Wheler, R.N., master of H.M.S. Tiger, 1684, concerning large

number of planters overwintering in Newfoundland, CO1 /55, 241.



CHAPTER1

Early English Migrants

The discovery of Newfoundland and its rich cod resources by Bristol men before 1500 initiated English participation in transatlantic migrations.1 Over the next two centuries more than forty English ports, mosüy those located between Bristol and Southampton, sent out fishing expeditions. The more prominent places involved were Bristol, Bideford, Barnstaple, Plymouth, Dartmouth, Teignmouth, Topsham, Exeter, Poole, Weymouth, London, and Southampton. The pattern of exploitation involved an annual spring transfer of a labour forcé for a few months of intense fishing and an autumnal retreat to the homeland.3 Several of the ports, especially Bristol and the major harbours in South Devon and Dorset, forged links which lasted nearly four centuries. As the migrations continued, Newfoundland was gradually t ransformed into a settled, self-perpetuating society. The geographic legacy of its English origins is one of the main features of Newfoundland7s demographic structure and cultural composition.

The Ship Fishermen The importance of the early summer migrations to Newfoundland lies in the development of a migration system that became an established mode of behaviour for a class of men in various districts of the West of England. The annually repeated and enduring visits also permitted the gradual acquisition of knowledge and experience necessary for survival, and henee permanent settlement, in the new environment. The early migration system of the ship fishery was exclusively adapted to a seasonal contact. Subsequently, however, structural changes in the system promoted casual overwintering and then more permanent links that gave rise to emigration and settlement.

23



The migratíons assodated with the English ship fishery are well documented and have been described in previous works.4 Here they need be recourited only in broad outline to establish the antecedents of later migrations.

It is generally well known that the English migratory fishery in Newfoundland was begun by Bristolians shorüy after the Cabotan voyages of discovery. Recently, however, Quinn has raised the possibility that Bristol ships actually fished in Newfoundland waters before 1497.5 The evidence for this is, however, rather scant and inconclusive. Additionally, there is little documentation to support the more traditional view that information returned to Bristol on the prolific stocks of fish by the Cabots gave immediate rise to a continuing migratory fishery by Englishmen. Indeed, it was not until 1575, when ousted from Icelandic waters where they had fished since the 1420s,6 that English fishermen bothered to send out more than four or five ships annually to Newfoundland, compared to over one hundred vessels normally sent to Iceland. By 1600 the English-Newfoundland fleet had increased to 150 vessels, and one source for 1615 asserts that 250 ships, employing 5,000 men and catching 120,000 quintáis of cod, were engaged in Newfoundland.8

Thus, in the space of a few decades Englishmen, mainly from the West of England, had established a firm foothold in Newfoundland, one which they never relinquished until it was well settled.

The ship fishery represented the initial English method of exploiting the cod. This method involved físhing from harbours on near-shore shoals and grounds and processing from fixed shore installations. For the English this mode of production only entailed the transfer of production techniques previously used by West of England fishermen on the coast of Iceland.9 Sailing ships were fitted out with food, fishing supplies, and a crew for a summer's adventure. In Newfoimdland a harbour or suitable landing place was chosen, the ship unrigged and moored or beached for the fishing season, and the company divided into boats' crews of about five persons each, with three or four men doing the actual catching on inshore grounds and two members, usually boys or yoimger men, ashore tending to processing and curing. The season also normally required considerable preparation for the fishery, such as wood cutting and construction of shore installations, boat repair and construction. The work cyde was usually completed between May and the end of September, and the harbours and coves were vacated until the following year.

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The ship fishery, with its seasonal migration, was the only mode of exploitat ion encouraged by the English Government in Newfoundland. The ancient method secured both the training and return of men suitable for naval service in national defence. Certain logistics of the trade also necessitated some migration, including the outfit and supply of the fishery from the British Isles and the marketing of the cod staple in southern Europe. Frequently uncertainties of future prospects caused by catch fluctuations, market conditions, labour conditions, war and international hostilities, and piracy encouraged or forced ship owners to adjust and regúlate their level of activity from one year or period to another.11 Indeed, migration was perhaps the only variable over which fish adventurers could exercise some direct control, but even during the more stable and peaceful periods the transatlantic fishery was attended by considerable chance factors of success or failure.

The annual migration, as early as the Elizabethan era, was "widely praised as a major contributor of trained seamen," and henceforth this function was incorporated as a most important objective of most statutes passed to govem the conduct of the fishery. The attempts to establish year-round settlements in Newfoundland during the early 1600s represent the first departures from the seasonal migratory system, but the rights and freedoms which the ship fishery had enjoyed were safeguarded in both the charters issued to the proprietors13 and, after the settlement schemes collapsed, in acts and statutes that perceived Newfoundland more as a fishery rather than a colony.14 Although the seasonal ship fishery continued to domínate English-Newfoundland relationships for a further two centuries, it underwent the first of a series of structural changes during the mid-seventeenth century with the development of a system known as the byeboat fishery.

Byeboatkeepers and Passengers Whereas fishing crews in the ship fishery were members of the ship's company, the byeboatkeepers were essentially break-away elements f rom this system who originated in the same source areas by the mid seventeenth century and migrated annually between England and Newfoimdland but as paying or working passengers on the sailing ships. In Newfoundland the byeboatmen fished on their own account.15 The byeboatkeepers by definition were migratory. Their status in the fishery, intermedíate between ship merchants and inhabitants (or planters), also caused them to be referred to as the fishing 'yeomanry'. Planters, or settlers who owned fishing premises

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and boats, were a third class which emerged in the seventeenth century to add a further structural change to the migration system. Although a clear distinction was made in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents between 'inhabitants7, or more commonly 'planters7, on the one hand and 'byeboatkeepers7 on the other, when one examines these adaptive forms more dosely, based upon either mobility, economic, or social criteiia there was, as the historian Keith Matthews noted, "little difference between the two groups/' Certainly from the point of view of mobility there was little difference. Ouiing the seventeenth century and throughout most of the next century settlers either spent only a few years in Newfoundland or, at least, returned quite regularly to England, whilst byeboatkeepers frequently opted to remain over winter on the island. In 1684 a Captain Wheler reported that "even in normal times at least half of the 'resident7 population returned to England for any one winter."16 Census data for the 1670s giving the household structure and status of Newfoundland inhabitants17 show that a relatively large proportion were 'masters7 without wives and famiües as well as individuáis who in previous or later sources were classified as "byeboatkeepers". For the 1670s, at least, if one adopts the marital status of inhabitants as a criterion for distinguishing between the two groups, the results assume only short-term validity: both the 'married' and 'unmarried' sectors exhibited qualities of a high degree of mobility and changing social status. Also within the migratory scheme both groups depended upon a constant supply of 'young men7 fetched annually from England and transported by the f i sh ing ships . Despite the blurred dis t inct ions between 'byeboatkeepers7 and 'planters7, at the broader scale and over the long term the categorization is quite convenient. Generally speaking, the propensity to migrate seasonally, to maintain their families in England, and to integrate the overseas fishery with homeland farming, trade work, or other maritime pursuits did hold true for the larger proportion of byeboatmen, while the inhabitants, settlers, or planters (terms used interchangeably) were more inclined to reside in Newfoundland.

Implidtly the innovation of the byeboat fishery initiated the carrying of paying passengers. According to a review of the Newfoundland trade in 1718 by the Board of Trade, it was judged to be "the first immediate cause of the decay of the fishing trade and of the disorders that ha ve depressed it ever since.7718 The report also claimed that the system was begun due to "the encouragement that was given to the transportation of passengers, by appointing a

26



Governor in 1650, and by granting a patent to Sir David Kirke in 1655." In that the byeboat fishery did not answer as well as the ship fishery the national purpose of training men for naval service, the system was opposed by some of the West Country adventurers, who claimed that the byeboat masters hired away the better servarás and, along with planters, usurped the better fishing rooms. In response, the charter of 1661 attempted to prevent the earrying of passengers and to destroy the byeboat fishery. The consensus among ship owners was, as might be expected, less than unanimous. The 1718 report observed that there were "refractory masters of ships, who could not be restrained from earrying passengers/' due to a lack of proper penalties. In 1676 a revised charter required "masters to give bond not to carry persons to Newfoundland , ,; however, the new regulations still had sufficient loopholes for evasión, and by the end of the century the rights of byeboatkeepers were confirmed, along with those of planters, in the Act of lOth and 11 th of William ID (1699).19 This act also enlisted byeboatkeepers in the naval nursery by obliging each master "to carry with him at least two fresh men in six viz: one man that hath made no more than one voyage, and one man who hath never been at sea before." The same act, however, upheld the principie of a migratory system both for fishing ships and byeboatkeepers, requiring them to send back each season their full complement of men (excepting deaths or accidents).

Servants The numerically most important body of migrants were a group always classed in documents as servants. Not only were servants the most used, they were also the most abused by both migrant employers and planters. On the one hand, servants were sought and transported in great numbers since the fishery had an intensive labour demand for a f ew months. On the other hand, after the fishing season the journey to market or the home port required only a sailing crew, and ¿he extra hands for many ships' masters represented now an unwanted burden to feed and transport. The consequence was that many were encouraged to remain, or simply abandoned, in Newfoundland at the end of the season. Though admonished to return all their servants—a clause inserted and repeated in all the charters and statutes—this rule, according to the Commodores' and Naval Governors' reports, was consistently violated by both ships7

masters and byeboatkeepers.20 Many annual reports of officers on the Newfoundland station carry details of abuses to servants, encouraged emigration and servants being cheated out of wages.

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Not surprisingly, there was a high propensity for stranded servants to leave Newfoundland for New England, an alternative made possible from the mid-seventeenth century onwards by the active trading established between the fledgling colonies there and the Newfoundland fishery

The servants ranged over a variety of roles and occupations from sailors to shoremen, including boatmasters, carpenters, sailmakers, and surgeons, but in the main included the backbone of the labouring forcé in fishing and processing for merchant companies, byeboatkeepers, and planters alike.

Throughout the seventeenth century and most of the eighteenth century, the influx of servants each year swelled the summer populations to extraordinary proportions, and among the winter populations male servants consistently outnumbered all other segments of the population, including masters, wives, and children. As far as can be judged, servants were almost exdusively youthful males, including both parish and prívate apprentices ofrather tender age but composed mostly of young men in the eighteen to twenty-five year age group, drawn from ports, market towns, and farming villages throughout the West of England. Servants engaged with merchants, ship owners, captains, byeboatkeepers, or directly or indirectly with Newfoundland colonists and inhabitants to serve for a season or longer periods. The wildly fluctuating population levels which one finds among the migrant and resident populations throughout the entire history of the transatlantic migratory fishery are mostly the direct result of fluctuations in the servant populations. Servants dominated both stream and counter-stream in the seasonal movements, had the highest turnover rates (inflow and outflow) from each sector of the cod production units and, in all respects, were the most mobile group.

While a long-term aspect of the migration system was the cycling of vast numbers of individuáis into Newfoimdland and out again within a short interval of a few years, often a single season, it also became the main, if not the exclusive, médium for the apprenticeship and training of seamen and fishermen who continued to work and live within the system as either migrants, inhabitants, or both. In brief, servitude was a prerequisite to becoming a seaman, a fisherman, and, most importantly, a boat master or a planter, and to the making of an immigrant.

Because short-term and long-term fluctuations in the early migratory fishery were governed by a wide range of factors which

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entailed much manipulation of manpower, regulations drawn up to govern the trade and to promote seamanship only codified and standardized what probably had been a normal practice in the ship fishery—namely, that a proportion of each ship's crew traditionally consisted of 'green men' or 'landsmen' never before at sea. For example, the (1699) Act relating to fishing ships required the captain to carry "one fresh or green man... for every five//; byeboatmen were ordered to have "two freshmen in six." Inhabitants were required to have two freshmen in six as well. These rules tended to promote both replenishment and turnover in the servant population. In other words, the migration system was constantly being recharged with new faces to overcome the high rate of attrition.

The New England Alternative The New England connection became a further spatial dimensión to the migration system, one that afforded a migration option—or a second-stage migration channel—to the stream counter-stream flows between England and Newfoundland, and also one that had an important irifluence in the growth of an inhabitant population in Newfoundland itself.21 In 1668 Captain Robinson asserted that "West country owners at the end of the year send their men to New England to save their passage home, by which fishermen are made scarce, and many serviceable seamen lost/'22 and the same claim persisted in official reports for more than a century after. Despite placing the New England ships under bonds not to carry away passengers from Newfoundland, it was no more possíble to prevent the exodus of servants to the American colonies than to secure the annual retum of all to England. New England captains became as deft in breaking the law as their West Country counterparts. Their evasive schemes included remaining behind after the Naval Commodores and other authorities had sailed for England, returning to Newfoundland harbours after pretending to have cleared for their home ports, embarking passengers in locations outside the main harbours, and even sending "them off headed up in hogheads.17023 One commonly cited estímate of out-migration from Newfoundland to New England is 1000 annually, a figure probably based upon observations of Commodores Passenger (1717) and Scott (1718), the former of whom claimed that "1100 went to New England the year before I carne," twenty-four while the latter noted that they "yearly carry away at least 1000 men/'2 5 These estimates, however, seem high, since they suggest that as much as 40 percent

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of the total annual British migrants were being drained out of the fishery.

The loss of manpower from the migratory fishery to New England was nevertheless very significant and clearly had a strong effect on turnover rates, as well as on recruitment practices and wage struetures by the early 1700s. Captain Passenger (1718) wrote that some of the older traders to Newfoundland complained that 'green men7 were difficult to recruit and that "by the New England trade carrying off such a number of men, that it is become a rare thing, to carry one man two voyages."26 The scarcity of servants was clearly one of the main reasons for the increased wages demanded by West Countrymen to serve in the fishery,27 probably a contributing factor to the replacement of the share system by monthly and seasonal wages,28 but most important of all, perhaps a major reason why fishing ships and other employers began to turn increasingly to southeastern Ireland as a source of cheap and abimdant labour.

Irish Provisioris and Passengers References to Irish involvement in the transatlantic migratíons to Newfoundland during the seventeenth century are scant and irregular, indicating that it lacked importance. Ireland had, however, become involved in another way, as Captain Story reported in 1681:

the trade of the Irish to Newfoundland is linen, clothing of all kinds, meat, cheese, butter, and all sorts of small merchandise. The ships likewise bring over many women passengers whom they sell for servants. A little after their coming they marry among the fishermen that live with the planters.2

Father Baudoin, a French priest who accompanied French forces raiding English settlements, in 1696 alludes to a few Irish servants among the English planters.30 Nevertheless, it was not until the period following the Anglo-French Wars that the annual reports of the Commodores begin to draw regular attention to the Irish. In 1720 Commodore Percey observed:

here are brought over eveiy year by the Bristol, Biddeford and Bastable ships great numbers of Irish Román Catholic servants, who all setüe to the southward in our Plantations.31

Both the provisions t rade and migration f rom Ireland continued to play an important role in the English fishery and in the growth of a permanent population in Newfoundland. By the mid-1700s Irish servants were being used by all employers in the fishery, migrants and inhabitants alike. Numerically they dominated both the seasonal migratíons and in many districts,

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particularly St. John's and the southern Avalon, the wintering populations. Governor Osborn's visit to Placentia in 1730 to settle disputes involved many masters and servants with Irish ñames: Connors, Hogan, Mahoney, Mallowney, Power, and Sullivan.33

While the Irish migration was basically English-controlled and fitted previously established patterns, many Irishmen soon became byeboatkeepers and planters also.

The merger of the Irish with the English in Newfoundland in the transatlantic migration itself completed the major spatial links in the system that peopled Newfoundland with these two ethnic groups. Until the American Revolution, the New England colonies continued to promote emigration from England through the Newfoundland fishery. By this time or shortly thereafter, inhabitant population levels on the island were larger than the summer seasonal migrants. Indeed, inhabitants now hosted the migrants to a large degree by employing most of them and were not dominated by them as previously. By becoming planters themselves and through intermarriage, large numbers of English and Irish servants were absorbed into the fabric of the inhabitant population. In response the year-round permanent population expanded at unprecedented rates of growth.

Women One component of a migrating group, and more particularly of the colonization process of any area, that requires special consideration is the source and origin of women. The seasonal migratory fishery was virtually a male domain, and the first documented evidence of females migrating to Newfoundland occurs during the early 1600s in association with the Bristol colonizing venture and the other proprietary efforts up to Kirke's time. It has been suggested tentatively by one writer that women formed part of the shore-crew working as cooks and salters (workers who spread salt on deboned codfish) in the early ship fishery, but there appears to be no documentary evidence to support this claim.34 From the time of the formal colonies established in the early 1600s to the end of the century, there is evidence to show that a small number of females did dweil in Newfoundland, and this provided the all-essential ingredient for an inhabitant population with a self-perpetuating capacity. Some planters, or inhabitant boatkeepers, brought their wives and families to reside, perhaps intending temporary residence, some married with the daughters or widows of previous inhabitants,35 and still others, as Captain Story suggested in 1681,

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brought "over... women passengers who a little after their coming... many among the fishermen that live with the planters.. ./ /36

Naturally, the presence of women and nuclear families became an important issue in the debate which raged in the 1660s and 70s over whether Newfoimdland should be settled with a government or retained as a migratory fishing base, even though, as Grant Head points out, "settlement was a fact."37 The anti-settlement advocates of the West Country in 1670 declared that the planters harmed the migratory effort by using "their womenfolk to debauch ignorant mariners/'38 Nevertheless, females were few in number and small in proportion to the whole population, and to dispel official concern about the future of winter populations in Newfoimdland, consisting mostly of single male servants, Captain Wheler astutely commented that "soe longe as there comes noe women they are not fixed."39

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CHAPTER2

Beginnings of Settlement 1610-1720

Settlement Schemes 1610-1660 Beginning with the efforts of the Bristol and London Company to establish a commercial colony in Cuper's Cove, Conception Bay, in 1610, and then proceeding through a series of proprietors who secured land f rom the same company, including Sir William Vaughan (1616), Bristols merchants (1617), Henry Cary (1620), Sir George Calvert (1620), and ending with Sir David Kirke (1637), permanent year-round settlement was attempted but all schemes failed, at least in terms of initial objectives and motivations. The reasons for these failures are detailed by others and need not be repeated here, except to review some of the basic problems of colonizing the i s l and . 1 Firstly, these va r ious exper iments demonstrated what most West Countrymen already knew from over a century of seasonal contact, experience, and possibly casual oveiwintering, that the environmental rigours of a long-drawn-out winter, a generally problematic climate, poor and scant soil resources, and the lack of other resources and marketable staples apart from salted dried cod and oil, presented a formidable challenge for survival. Newfoundland bore little resemblance to the homeland

o environmental experience of the colonists. Adapting to the new environment was a challenge that could only be solved by experience and knowledge gained from several centuries of seasonal contacte. Structural changes in the migratory fishery itself provided the final element to the problem of inhabiting Newfoundland. Secondly, the failure of the colonies appeared to demónstrate conclusively to the English government the advantages of promoting a free-fishery as before and of regulating trade towards the limited purposes of a naval nursery and homeland industry. The result was the development of a mercantilist policy discouraging

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inhabitants, which though it did not prevent permanent settlement from occurring, perhaps more through indifference than anything else at least added another dimensión to the other basic uncertainties of life in Newfoimdland. The political position on settlement also largely accounts for the slow development of local government, courts, schools, and churches—that is, the political, legal, and social institutions characteristic of a settled society.

In terms of the long-term relevance of the seventeenth-century attempts at colonies, one major reorientation did occur. A departure was made from the system of purely seasonal exploitation, and because of this the island was never the same. Permanent settlement, albeit on an individualistic basis, apparently did germinate from several colonies (see below) and other settlements grew and spread along the east coast, establishing in the process precedents and pioneering experience for further colonization. As far as one can determine, the process involved temporal linkage through replacement populations, the advance and retreat of settlement (settlement and abandonment), and a very limited generational succession assured by the arrival in Newfoimdland of females and the emergence of a small native-born population. The historian Cell noted that in 1652 there were people still living in Ferryland who had been there with Lord Baltimore in 1627. She suggests that "there must have been similar groups in Cupids Cove, Renews, and Harbour Grace." The documentation available to evalúate family links with these colonists is scant and indeed, except from the leading personalities involved in the various schemes, little is known of the social structure or the ñames of the settlers on which to test even probable kinship links with planters whom we find inhabiting Newfoundland in the last quarter of the century.

The volume of migration to the early colonies was small and confined to four or five harbours as against the thirty to forty harbours and coves visited by the contemporary seasonal men. The máximum number of winterers reported in two of the larger ventures included a population of sixty-two persons consisting of "fiftie foure men, six women and two children"3 at Cupids Cove in 1612 and "a hundred"4 with Lord Baltimore at Ferryland in 1625.

One of the few probable kinship links between the Cupids Cove colony and the settlers of Conception Bay during the 1670s rests with the namesake of the first governor, John Guy, whose brother Phillip and kinsman Nicholas accompanied him to Newfoundland from Bristol in 1610-12. While John and Phillip returned to Bristol,

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Nicholas, whose wife gave birth on March 27, 16135 to the first English child born in Newfoundland, apparently stayed on but had moved to Carbonear by 1631, when he was reported to be farming and fishing with some success.6 More than four decades later we find the Guy súmame in Carbonear (John Sr. and John J r.) and in Harbour Grace (Lewis), 1675. Censuses 1676-77 list Nicholas and John Guy as p lanters in Carbonear.7 Similarly, four of the eleven p lanters recorded in Ferryland in 1675 and four of eight in 1677 stemmed f rom Sir David Kirke's period, which ended in 1653; they included Kirke's widow and four sons.8 The continuity of the Kirkes in Ferryland extended into the 1700s, not by direct male descendants but through the marriage of Mary Kirke. Mary, an Irish servant, worked in Ferryland for the wife of Sir David Kirke and married her son, David Jr. David Jr. and Mary were taken to Placentia, where David died as a prisoner of the French in 1696-7.9 Two years later Mary, his widow, turned up in St. John's and married James Benger, a Protestant planter and mercantile agent, who apparently arrived in St. John's f rom Waterford in 1690. Mary n o w laid claim to the Tool plantation' at Ferryland. She brought her husband to Ferryland, and the Benger line continued there throughout the eighteenth century.11

Beyond these examples, however, it is impossible to d raw any definitive conclusions on Cell's speculation. The Kirke example does illustrate at least several social processes important for permanency. These include the transfer of property through females, the social situation of the widowed female who found herself stranded in Newfoundland and enforced by circumstances to seek through early remarriage some measure of security and, most importantly, the social interaction between the settled population and the migrating labour forcé. More than a half-century of settlement activity passed before comprehensive documentation on the size, structure, and distribution of the population in Newfoundland allows us to assess the relative success of efforts dur ing the seventeenth century. It is not until the 1670s that the spatial origins and relative importance of the migratory fishery both in the homeland areas and at Newfoundland destinations can be measured, associated, and compared with the developing permanent population. The censuses of the 1670s-80s become not only our main template against which progress and activity of earlier periods can be measured in any quantitative sense, but also the data bases against which to measure changes that occurred subsequently.

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Five censuses—for the years 1675,1676,1677,1681, and 168412

— provide a list of fishing ships, cargo or sack ships, the numbers of their crew by origin and destination, and the ñames of planters, their possessions and household composit ion by settlement in Newfoundland. These censuses, together with some less complete data on both migratory and settlement activity, contemporary commentaries on Newfoundland affairs, and the documentation associated with phases of the Anglo-French Wars in Newfoundland, 1696-1713, provide a wealth of information for reconstruction of this period. Additional sources of data are some nominal censuses for individual Newfoundland settlements in the early eighteenth century, petitions of planters suffering losses or seeking protection during the war, and a complete nominal census by settlement for the year 1708.

Although scholars have contended that the early colonies, including Cupers Cove (Cupids), were constantly inhabited, the late seventeenth-century documentation shows that only Ferryland, Renews, and Harbour Grace (BristoFs Hope), contained nuclear families. The 1675 census identifies a single occupant in Cuper's Cove, namely a 'Stephen Atkins' listed as the "keeper of Mr. Butler's cattle." The 1675-77 censuses show Mr. Butler residing at nearby Port Grave (Port de Grave), and it would seem he was availing of the improved but abandoned site of the Cuper's Cove colony for pasturage. The lack of any finn documentary evidence of residency in Cuper's Cove from the 1630s onward to the end of the century, including the five censuses of the 1670s-80s, the records of the French attacks of 1696-1708, and the census of 1708, support the conclusión of abandonment and repopulation later in the eighteenth century. At the same time Cuper's Cove was certainly used as a base by migratory fishermen. For example, the 1675 census of fishing ships identifies a crew of twenty in the Cove from Southampton, and the following year a ship from Dartmouth boasted a company of fifty men. Since summer fishermen needed essentially the same supplies—food, clothing, fishing gear, tools, and utensils—as year-round inhabitants, the discovery of artifacts dating in manufacture and use from the seventeenth century do not in themselves constitute a basis for asserting continuity of the oíd colony. Thus, whatever colonists from the Cuper's Cove plantation did blend into the later permanent populations of Conception Bay, their succession occurred in other settlements in Conception Bay, such as Carbonear, Harbour Grace, and Port de Grave, and not in Cuper's Cove itself.

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Spontaneous Settlements 1660-1720 Ironically, it is during the period when the English government was seriously debating the issue of year-round settlement and at one stage had dedded to erase and ban residence in favour of preserving and encouraging the traditional English-based seasonal fishery in Newfoundland, that the raw data on the characteristics of the settlers and the size and extent of settlement became available for detailed analysis. In July 1675, Sir John Berry, Commander of the English Convoy, arrived in St. John's bearing an order-in-council that all planters voluntarily remo ve themselves either home or to any of the other English plantations in the West Indies and New England.13 In the act of issuing the order "in all the harbours, bays, creeks, & C.," as far as "Capes Bonavista and de Race/' a detailed census of the 'planters' ñames with an account of their concerns' was taken, an exerdse repeated for the following two years, and subsequently in 1681,1684, and 1708.

The political consequences of the settlement debate have been adequately analyzed in other sources14 and need not be discussed here, except to recount briefly the main implications for ongoing and future settlement. The representations by Berry (1675-76) and others, especially John Downing and Thomas Oxford (1675-77), two planters in St. John's, on behalf of the Newfoundland inhabitants won sufferance to inhabit and fish as they had done previously.15 At the same time, the decisión to allow some inhabitants to remain in Newfoundland by rescinding the removal order was probably not so much a concession to the inhabitants themselves as it was to the need for some year-round English presence in Newfoundland. Although scattered thinly over the entire breadth of the English Shore, the winter settlers at least symbolized English sovereignty, espedally after 1662 when the French fortified Plaisance (Placentia) and began to encourage settlement in Placentia Bay. At the same time the French also commanded the summer fishery both in the northern and southern regions of the island. Although the anti-settlement advocates in England, led by the Western Adventurers, mostly of Plymouth, Dartmouth, Bideford, and Barnstaple, argued that the English fishery could be secured without settlement, there was by no means a consensus among the Newfoundland traders.16 Indeed, Berry argued that many of the 'chief western masters' whom he met in Newfoundland reasoned that the fishery would be destroyed:

if the habitants are taken off and the French left soldy in possession to enlarge their fisheries as they please, they wiil in a short time invest themselves of the whole at least of Ferryland

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and St. John's, where harbours are almost naturally fortifíed, to the disadvantage of trade, if not the loss of all.17

If the French fact did not earn for English inhabitants the right to reside in Newfoundland by 1676, it did intervene more directly in encouraging English tolerance of their own settlers on the island some two decades later, especially after the French had razed all English settlements in 1696.18 By 1697, the Council of Trade and Plantations conceded that settlement was at least of limited advantage to English interests. This conclusión was reached, ironically, at a time when most of the settler families who had been living in the Ferryland district and St. John's had been deported to Appledore and Daitmouth respectively,19 following capture by the French the previous fall. The council now argued "planters are convenient to preserve the boats, oars, stages, etc., and, in time of war, to protect the ports." However, still no expansive colonies were to be encouraged; thus it was recommended:

the number of these inhabitants left during the winter should be limited to 1,000, lest by the increase of their numbers they engross the fishery to themselves to the prejudice of our navigation.20

Grant Head has rightly argued that the popularly held view that it remained illegal to settle and occupy land in Newfoundland throughout the eighteenth century is erroneous.21 The right to property was actually sanctioned by the Act to Encourage the Trade to Newfoimdland of 1699. While the main objectives and clauses of this Act were intended to encourage and promote the migratory fishery, it did secure the tenure rights of inhabitants to property held in 1685 or before and to property not used as ships7 rooms between 1685 and 1698. Though the inhabitants gained concessions and limited rights to possess property, immigration and settlement were never encouraged, and after the seventeenth century the official policy toward settlers tended to be one of indifference or, at worst, as in Palliser7s time in the 1760s, one of discouraging inhabitants or reducing existing population levels.22 In the long term, however, English mercantilist policy as it affected Newfoimdland had the effect of prolonging both the colonization process and the migratory fishery. It added another obstacle, though clearly not an insurmountable one, however, to the more fundamental problems of survival on the island that were rooted in a harsh climate, a seasonally fluctuating and uncertain economy based on the codfishery, a problematic food supply, and the normal social

38



turbulence with pioneering settlement in the absence of the normal institutions of civilised life.

Implicit in contemporary English thought on colonizatíon was the perception, clearly articulated in the anti-settlement debate, that any place was unfit for permanent occupance unless its foundations were rooted in agricultura or, conversely, that viable communities could not be supported by staple trade alone, especially those as prone to fluctuation as the Newfoundland codfishery. Such negative attitudes toward the island were frequently voiced from Lord Balt imore 's t ime, who after a brief encounter with the Newfoundland environment decided in 1628 "to commit this place to fishermen that are able to encounter storms and hard weather," until at least 1793, when a Poole merchant, who offered the opinion that "independently of this country, or some other, no Trade or Fishery can be carried on in Newfoundland, the very idea is absurd," 24 then called upon the government to prevent inhabitancy and cause families on the island to be returned home. Typical environmental assessments stressed by the anti-settlement advocates during the period 1668-1698 are contained in the foliowing citations:

1668 the country is barren and rocky, is productive of no commodities as other Plantations, or affords anything of food to keep men alive.25 [Merchants, oumers, and masters.. .of the Western ports J

1675 Mr. Perrot of Dartmouth, quoting the proverb in the west (of England) "If it were not for wood, water and físh, Newfoundland were not worth a rush." [Council of Trade and Plantations]

1696 for there is no land fit to be manured for to bring forth anything fit for the support of mankind.27 [Mayor ofPlymouth]

1698 the Colony cannot subsist itself for it produces nothing. The country affords no subsistence to the planters....28 [Commodore Norris]

These evaluations are to some degree the antithesis of those expressed in some of the early tracts promoting colonisation,29 but do underscore the basic environmental difficulty of survival and help to explain why the island for so long attracted so few settlers. Indeed, on this account some difficulty lies in explaining why it was able to attract any families at all. But clearly a handful of the few hundred colonists brought out by the early promoters and a fraction of the hundreds of thousands who had taken part in the seasonal migratíons throughout the century opted for longer stays.

39



During the 1670s it is clear that most of the thirty sites documented as having at least one nuclear family, the smallest functioning unit of any permanent settlement, were planted by English settlers deriving from the source areas of the seasonal migrations 30 These settled sites were spread among the stations of the migratory fishermen, that is, along the east coast between Salvage in the north and Trepassey in the south (Figure 2.1). In that eight of these settlements contained only one nuclear family and twenty-four had less than five families, there was little to distinguish, by size and function, one settlement from another, or indeed one región from another. The largest, St. John's, which before 1700 was seldom occupied by more than thirty planters and fewer nuclear families, and Bonavista, Carbonear, and Oíd Perlican, boasting about a dozen planters each, were only the larger of a set of small settlements widely dispersed along some '80 leagues' of coastline.

As f ar as can be judged from James Yonge's sketches of planters' properties in Fermeuse, Renews, and Ferryland (Figure 2.2), as well as sketches and descriptions of planter locations in The English Piloí, houses and fishing rooms were dispersed within harbours among shore spaces (fishing rooms) used by the migratory fishermen. In the larger harbours most planters occupied to themselves small coves or islands, and still others had taken up residence in fishing stations outside the main ship harbours, exemplified in The English Pilot by a description of Toad's Cove (Tor's Cove), "where a Planter inhabits, a place for Boats to fish, but not for ships to ride" and of Bryanf s Cove in Conception Bay as "no place where ships use; one planter lives there, being a good place for catching of fish."31

The more prominent features of the population structure included: the overwhelming dominance of 'men servants' which normally comprised 75 percent or more of the total; the relatively high proportion of 'planters' without wives or children (in 1677 only 52.5 percent of the 160 planters were enumerated as the heads of nuclear families); the presence in most of the larger settlements (in 1675 including St. John's, Ferryland, Bay Roberts, Harbour Grace, and Bay de Verde) of widowed female planters; and finally, the extremely small number of females to support the growth of a 'native-born' population.

Everywhere, except in the northern district of Bonavista, where furring was carried on in the winter season32 and where some development had begun to occur in a salmón fishery,33 the planters relied mainly upon producing cod and cod oil (train oil) for the

40



Figure 2.1 English Settlement in Newfoundland, 1675-1677

jtSalvage '7

¿Bonavista

ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN NEWFOUNDLAND

1675-1677

Oíd Perlican

O 5 10 15 20 MI. -r-H—H—i—I—r» 10 20 30 KM.

St, John's

Bay Buüs

'Tors Cove

n u m b e r o f NUCLEAR FAM1UES

15-1

10-14 6-9 2-5

41



Figure 22 Newfoundland Settlement Patterns

42



overseas markets. From the census returns and eommodores' reports, it is evident that small amounts of garden produce and livestock, especially hogs, together with fish and seabirds, added but a small subsistence fraction to total food needs and that for the major dietary balance, as well as clothing, fishing equipment, and supplies, the planters had to depend upon external sources. These sources included England, New England, and Ireland: with England furnishing most of the manufactured goods and fishing equipment; Ireland some clothing and food; and New England livestock, but especially vast quantities of rum and molasses. The marketing of the English and Irish goods was conducted by West of England traders. Indeed, one of them, William Pollard of Bideford, had built a warehouse in Caplin Bay near Ferryland in the 1670s to supply inhabitants in his district (This property was plundered by a Dutch squadron in 1674). For the most part, planters bartered directly with fishing ships from the West of England and New England traders, predominantly the former which, despite being the main source of anti-settlement sentiments, were and continued to be the main and more reliable source of lifeline support for settlers. New Englanders developed a trade with Newfoundland by taking fish to the West Indies and in supplying planters with rum, molasses, sugar, and livestock.36

As discussed earlier, population links between the early colonies and those sites occupied a half-century later were very slight. Mobility and popula t ion turnover, resulting f rom in-migration and out-migrat ion, were clearly much more fundamental features of early settlement dynamics than continuity of the same settlers by natural increase and succession. An analysis of planter surnames taken at different time intervals for the same settlements and región reflect the dynamics of mobility in the planter populations or, conversely, the tendency toward relatively short terms of residence on the part of most planters.

Súmame sieving as a method of analysis is obviously a crude measure, limited to matching male surnames between censuses. The technique assumes also out-migration rather than mortality as the major factor of population change. In the absence of other information, however, it becomes the only technique available. In the single example of St. John's, James Yonge's census in 1669 ñames nineteen planters and 'interlopers' (byeboatkeepers).37 Berras census six years later records the same number, but only five of these bore the same surnames as the 1669 census. (These were Widow

43



Furze—Iikely the widow of Mr. Furze [1669]; William Bennet— possibly related to Goodman Bennett [1669]; Mr. Dennis Loony; Mr Nicholas Hopkings; and Mr Downing.) By 1681, we find that only one súmame, that of John Downing, the pro-settlement advócate, transcends the interval from 1669; ironicallv Downing died that same year returning from London, England. Similarly, in 1677, St. John's had twenty-seven planters identifíed and in 1681 twenty-nine planters. In this four year span, however, at least one-third of the 1677 planters disappeared and were replaced by eleven new planters. It is possible, indeed Iikely, that most of the new planters carne from the servants of earlier planters. The dynamics which were, at least in part, due to out-migration and replacement prevailed not only in St. John's but were equally apparent among the settler populations in all settlements. In some cases, settlements were abandoned temporarily or the settlers were completely replaced by another group within the span of a few years. It may be supposed that some of the out-migration and abandonment, especially during the 1670s, was heightened by the settlement debate, the hostility of some West Country fishermen who reportedlv took it upon themselves to implement the King's removal order, and the general climate of uncertainty which prevailed at this time.

These factors themselves do not explain the total replacement process. Some recent historical migration studies suggest that demographic turbulence was a prominent feature of all frontier regions, differing only one from another in the degree and rate of population mobility and turnover. Some of Newfoundland's seventeenth-century planters and inhabitants were merely erstwhile byeboatkeepers who remained for short periods to maintain possession of their fishing rooms. In 1698, a report stated that boatkeepers remain to keep possession of the most convenient rooms. Few either stayed or survived long enough to raise families of sufficient maturity to succeed or indeed aid them as servants in the fishery.

Population throughout the century had never achieved any substantial level (selected winter estimates include 1884 [1677], 2514 [1681], 2640 [1698], and 1130 [1705]) and, like the seasonal migrations, fluctuated greatly from one year to another due to mobility of the inhabitants who frequently returned home, many to retire there,41 while others took the option of migrating to New England. Migration added to natural changes, particularly mortality which was probably of high proportions due to environmental

44



hazards, alcohol, food shortages and imbalances, contributed to a swiftly changing population structure. While birthrates were probably very high, survival rates of children were unquestionably low. The nominal censuses for this period contain very few examples of planters sharing the same súmame. The tenuous and unstable character of settlement is clearly indicated by the presence of nuclear rather than the extended family in the surname structure of communities.

Added to the natural discomforts of life and the uncertain right to inhabit the island during the late seventeenth century was the extreme vulnerability of settlement to attack by either land or sea. This defencelessness was demonstrated repeatedly, but more especially in the period 1696-1708,42 when French forces virtually erased the inhabitant population. After these events the settling process in most regions had to begin again. The deportations by the French of men, women, and children in 1696 from St. John's and Ferryland43 clearly included most of the nuclear families in these two districts, and while some settlers around Carbonear and Harbour Grace spared themselves a similar fate by resorting to defence positions on small and steeply cliffed islands in the bay,44

their boats, homes, and possessions were abandoned to the enemy and destroyed, leaving most, if not all, bankrupt and destitute.45 In Conception Bay, the best-settled región in Newfoundland, it took three or four decades for planters to recoup their losses.

Alist of inhabitants' ñames taken in 1708,46 covering all English settlements, pro vides the most detailed source for surname analysis and to evalúate continuity of links with earlier periods (1670s and 1680s). For most settlements and districts this is the last source in such detail for nearly a century. Since it was a wartime period, the pattern of settlement shown for 1708 represents a temporary structure, aberrant to the normal peacetime distributíon. Some settlements such as Ferryland and St. John's were somewhat inflated in numbers because some families had resorted there temporarily for defence. Many settlers from the land-based settlements between Carbonear and Brigus had taken up residence on the islands of Conception Bay, such as 'Great Bell Isle', Tittle Bell Isle', TCelleys Island', as well as Carbonear Island and Harbour Grace Island, and likewise some settlers from Bonavista resorted to nearby Green Island. These migrations for defensive reasons, however, were mostly limited and localized movements, and most of the main sites of settlement recorded in the earlier censuses were still occupied. The

45



comparison of surnames for each district between the 1670s and 1680s and 1708 indicates that there was very limited continuity in the population. In the Ferryland district, a single súmame (Dibble) spanned the 1675-1708 period, and in St. John's among the fifty-two listed inhabitants in 1708, only two (Roberts, Tucker) shared ñames with the 1681 inhabitants, although another (Tapley) had been earlier listed as a 'byeboatkeeper'. In these two districts the French deportations apparently had the effect of virtually complete removal and turnover as few, if any, of the pre-war settlers seem to have returned. In Conception Bay, Trinity Bay, and Bonavista Bay, slightly more families seem to have persisted throughout the disruptions. For example, twelve surnames (33 percent) of those in Conception Bay (1675-77) survived to 1706-08, aided undoubtedly by their successful defence of Carbonear Island in 1696. (These were Batten, Buüer, Butt, Davis, Edwards, Garland, Guy, Pin [Pynn], King, Mugford [Mugwood?], Varder, Webber.) In Trinity Bay the twenty-eight surnames in 1675-77 and the twenty-nine there in 1708 can be paired for five families (Biddlecombe, Burt, Cárter, Corban, and Green). In Bonavista Bay the interval survivals from twenty-two listed in 1675-77 to twenty-three in 1708 included six surnames (Brent, Gantlett, Knight, Newell, Shambler, and lilley). According to the súmame evidence, inter bay movements account for only a small proportion of these changes, such as the Tavemer family moving from Bay de Verde, Conception Bay, to Trinity Bay in the 1677-1708 interval, and the migration of Thomas Newell from Trinity Harbour and George Talbot from English Harbour, each to Bonavista 1675-77; but only Newell was recorded at Bonavista (Green Island) in 1708.

A Transatlantic Extended Family: The Taverners Most of the settlers, or planters, in Newfoundland during the 1660s and 1670s had no links with the proprietary colonies. They were, as far as can be judged, mainly a set of independent fishermen who had chosen to estabüsh families and reside in Newfoundland for a few years. Some may have been encouraged to overwinter by migratory fishermen to act as caretakers for their goods and property. Others may have sought refuge from the political and religious turmoil in England during the period; still others may have preferred to stay in Newfoundland to catch fur during the winter, or for more personal reasons. Whatever the cause, the planters or inhabitants were still closely linked to and dependent upon the outside for food and markets, which mostly meant the ships of the West of England migratory fishing companies.

46



When possible, it is most instructive to follow the life histories of seventeenth-century planters to discover some of the choices and adaptations they made. From extant wills, for example, we discover that some planters named in earlier censuses and documents later retired to England, yet in the process left behind children, often married sons and daughters.47 Quite commonly also, families spent some time in the seasonal migratory fishery and other periods residing in Newfoundland. That is, they developed a type of dual residency. In some cases, as with the Taverner family,48 it is possible to examine a family which gave rise to distinct branches on opposite sides of the Atlantic, but which for a long period maintained cióse contacts. Members of each branch moved in opposite directions and spent portions of their lives in both England and Newfoundland

The Taverners In many ways the Taverner family was one of the more remarkable pioneer families to have established in Newfoundland, but was by no means unique. In the 1670s, apart from the Kirkes of Ferryland and Guys of Carbonear, they were one of the very few patrilinearly extended families resident in Newfoundland. As the censuses of 1675 and 1677 show, the Taverners were then resident in Bay de Verde.

Taverners residing in Newfoundland in 1708 included John Taverner of 'Bay of Verds', a boatkeeper who employed six servants, and Jacob Taverner of Trinity Harbour, who had four servants 49 Like most English settlers in Newfoundland, the Taverners suffered great property losses by French raids in the winter of 1696-97. In 1700, William Taverner acquired a fishing room in Trinity—a surviving drawing of which is the oldest extant of a property surviving for Newfoundland.50 In 1702, William was a planter in Trinity and had fourteen summer and six winter servants, but by 1708 he had moved to reside in Poole.51 His kinsman Jacob Taverner continued to be an inhabitant of Trinity and in 1728-31 became one of the first Justices of the Peace for the district but was removed in 1731 "on account of his being a Dissenter." He was also credited with starting, supervising the building of, and sharing most of the cost of a church completed in 173053 which was, ironically, taken over by the established Church of England.

From about 1700, the Taverner family had two distinct but related branches, one resident in Poole and another resident in Trinity. Both branches were intimately associated with seafaring and

47



Table 2.1 Selected Branches of Poole-Newfoundland Taverner Family

Maigaret Taverner, Planter, Widow 1675 Bay de Verde

James Nfld.

Planter 1682

William b. Bay de Verde

d. Poole, 1763 m. Rebecca

Nfld. Planter Bay de Verde

c.l675-99 Trinity 1700-06 Poole Mariner

Merchant 1707-1763

I John Mary~

m. Samuel White (1655-1720)

Poole-Nfld. Merchant - a Quaker

Jacob b.Bay de Verde d.Trinity 1751

Nfld. Planter, J.P. - a Dissenter

Robert m. Sarah

d. Poole 1748 Mariner

Abraham Nfld. Planter

to 1706 Poole resident

William and Rebecca, Bay de Verde/ Poole

Isaac 'writing master'

d. Poole 1719

Mary m. Woodford

Elizabeth m. John Corbin

Nfld. Planter Oíd Perlican

William Mariner

Poole

Sarah m. John Masters

of Silly Cove, Nfld. Poole-Nfld. Merchant

Mayor of Poole

Rachael m. Francis Lester4

'cooper' of Poole

2. Samuel White 1655-1720, Quaker, of Poole and Maiy Taverner of Bay de Verde, Nfld.

Joseph, 1685-1771 m. 1713 Eliz. Nickleson

m. 1736 Susannah Nichols of Bridport

Poole-Trinity Merchant

Estate devolves to nephew John Jeffrey

John Samuel, 1674-1747 1702 m. 1702, Sarah Tucker

of Weymouth Poole-Trinity

Merchant Estate devolves to

nephews Rolles and Vallis

Mary William, 1671-1749 m. 1703 Joan Bennet

of Weymouth Poole-Trinity

Merchant Grandfather to

John Jeffrey, son of daug. Joan

48



3. Jacob Tavemer, Planter, of Bay de Verde/Trinity -d. 1751

Benjamín 1713-93

m. Ann 1718-93 Trinity

Boatkeeper and Planter

daughters wed Wm. Moores 1774 Wm. Sweet 1773

Jacob 1719-71 m. Mary Trinity Planter

Andrew William d. 1762 Poole

m. Catherine Mariner Trinity

Planter and Mariner

Widow weds Richard Ash 1799,

daughter v/eds Wm. Whitewood

Luke Mariner

Joseph m. Jane Trinity

Mariner Planter

Hanna Mary m. Richard Cook

Susannah 1723-1799

n. Benjamín Lester

of Poole Merchant

4. Francis Lester, 1668-1737 of Poole, Cooper and Rachael Tavemer of Bay de Verde, Nfld.

John Isaac 1718-1778

m. Arny Bowles Poole-Trinity

Merchant

Benjamín 1724-1802

m. Susannah Tavemer of

Trinity 1723-1799

Nfld. Planter and Poole-Trinity

Merchant

Francis Rachael Sirjohn i A m y

1759-1819 b. Trinity d. Poole

m. George Garland 1753-1825

Poole-Nfld. Merchant

Benjamín Lester Joseph Gulston Francis Penton

(twins)

Lester George Bingley María John Bingley 1791-1875


Speaker of House of Assembly

1835

Amy George María Augustus 1793-1833


49



the fishery. In Poole, William Tavemer became a successful shipowner and merchant. In 1714-15 he gained a commission from the English government to explore and chart the coast of Newfoundland from Placentia Bay west to Cape Ray including St. Pierre and Miquelon,54 and in 1729 he undertook to explore the northeast coast and give an account of the French fishery "as far north as Cape Grotte, ye nothermost Cape in N.f land." Each of William's daughters married men involved in the Newfoundland fishery.56 Mary Tavemer married Samuel White; Rachel Tavemer married Francis Lester; Elizabeth Tavemer married John Corbin; and Sarah Tavemer wed John Masters. John Masters was bom in Silly Cove, Trinity Bay, raised in Poole, served an apprenticeship with William Tavemer, and in partnership with Michael Ballard became a merchant trading in Trinity imtíl he died in 1755. Samuel and Mary White were the parents of Samuel, Joseph, and William White, merchant shipowners and traders in Trinity. Francis and Rachel Lester were the parents of Isaac and Benjamin Lester who, during the late eighteenth century, also became leading merchants in Poole and Trinity. Other members of the Tavemer family57 served in various capacities as ship captains and agents for their kinsmen—the Whites and Lesters.

In Trinity, the Tavemer family descended from Jacob Tavemer, who resided there until he died in 1748.58Jacob raised seven children to adulthood. He bestowed some of his property on the West Side of Trinity Harbour to his son-in-law Benjamin Lester. In 1753, four of Jacob's sons resided in Trinity and had their own separate fishing properties.59 Benjamin, Jacob, and Andrew Tavemer resided on the West Side of Trinity Harbour, but Joseph Tavemer lived on the North Side. Local marriage registers record the nuptials of two of Tavemer's grandsons, including Joseph, son of Andrew, bornin 1761 and married in 1784; and William, son of Benjamin, bom in 1757 and married in 1796.60 The census of 1801 lists Joseph, Benjamin, and William Tavemer as occupiers of fishing rooms in Trinity.61 These three represent the surviving Newfoundland male branch of the Tavemer family. The 1801 male adults of Taverners in Trinity were at least the third generation stemming from Jacob.

As the census data and Lester diaries show, the Taverners were Newfoundland planters who engaged in the inshore fishery, woodcutting, boat building, and sealing. Some of them went occasionally to Poole to visit relatives and friends, and some of the Tavemer boys in Trinity were apprenticed to the overseas shipping

50



Table 2.2 Taverners at Bay de Verde 1675-77

Children Planter's Ñame Male Female Men Boats Stages

Margaret Taverner 0 1 10 2 1 William Taverner & wife 1 1 10 2 2 Andrew Taverner 0 0 18 3 1 Robert Taverner 0 0 10 2 1

1675 (CO1/35)

Ñames of Men Rooms Hoggs Quintáis Inhabitants Wives Sons Daughters Servt Boats Flakes Each Boat

WilliamTaverner 1 1 2 18 3 3 6 240 Andrew Taverner - 10 2 2 5 220 John Taverner - 10 2 2 10 250

1677 (COl/41)



trade in Poole merchant employ. Meanwhile, many of the Taverner females intermarried with men from the agents, sea captains, mariners, and fishing servants who carne into Trinity. Elizabeth Taverner of Trinity married, in 1763, Captain Wm. Whitewood of Poole, who was first a sea captain for Joseph White and later for the Lesters. She also resided and later died in Poole. Catherine Taverner, widow of Andrew, married Captain Richard Ash, another master mariner for Lester; and Sarah Taverner wed, in 1789, Philip Coates of üfracombe, Devon, who became first an agent for merchant Thomas Stone, and later for the firm of Sleat and Read. Between 1763 and 1801 there were nine marriages at Trinity involving Taverner females, and apart from those mentioned the males bore the surnames of Cook, Pinhorn, Sweet, Moores, and Hitchcock—ñames that are all represented among the inhabitant population of Trinity Bay in 1801.

In 1715 an astute observer of the Newfoundland scene had said that the planters of the island were relatives of the seasonal migratory adventurers and carne from the same places. The Taverner case illustrates these relationships and also gives insights into some of the varied demographic and social links between the migratory community and the planter community. Among these is the important intermarriages between the local Newfoundland females and the fishing servants from overseas. This became one of the most common means of family formation in the early stages of settlement. Perhaps more important, though, is that the Taverner story demonstrates how processes initiated in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuiies resulted in enlarged permanent communities later on. And in this respect it is important to emphasize that the Taverner family was not at all unique in its role in Newfoundland at this time. The Taverners, especially the descendants of Jacob Taverner, were only one of about ten to twelve families who formed the demographic cornerstone of a community at Trinity by the beginning of the nineteenth century. Likewise, in other districts, other planter families played a similar role to the Taverners by developing transatlantic links that persisted for well over a century and had similar consequences in spawning a permanent Newfoundland branch. In this respect we may draw attention to the Carters of Dartmouth and Ferryland, and the Conception Bay families of Butt, Da vis, Garland, Penny, and Pike.

52



CHAPTER 3

Migration Patterns and Dynamics

Ports Seasonal migrations before the 1670s from the various English ports cannot be measured with any precisión. There is sufficient shipping information, though, to conclude that many of the forty ports participating in the codfishery during the period 1570-1670, such as Bristol, had reached their peaks and declined. Except for the Channel Island ports and London, outliers to the main areas involved in the seasonal migrations, the Newfoundland codfishery was based and sustained along the coast of the West of England between Southampton and Bristol. Nevertheless, each port, harbour, and creek that sent ships had its own unique relationship with the Newfoundland fishery. Indeed, when the maritime histories of the respective ports are compared in this respect, we find highly variable patterns of rise and decline, as well as different factors affecting involvement in the summer migrations. These factors included local environmental conditions, alternate trade opportunities in trade and commerce, and changing functions. Perhaps, however, the most important factor affecting whether a port entered the Newfoundland fishery, stayed with it, or left, and the level of involvement, was the entrepreneurial response of shipowners and traders to the perceived opportunities in Newfoundland.

Some por ts had a very brief one-time f lourish in the Newfoundland fishery; others participated infrequently. In other ports the seasonal migrations, once started, continued but declines and increases were punctuated by fluctuating patterns over long periods. Also at the national scale, the rank orders of port participation altered radically over the long term. Thus Bristol, Plymouth, Dartmouth, and Poole were each, at different stages, the leading port (as measured by number and total tonnage of ships.

53



number of men employed, and fish produced and exported). At different times also the above ports, along with Bideford and Barnstaple, ranked second.

Bristol Primacy can be attributed to the city and port of Bristol in initiating the seasonal fishery in Newfoundland, perhaps before the voyages of the Cabots in attempting to establish the first colony in 1610, and probably in utilizing Irish labour extensively in Newfoundland.1

Despite enduring migration links and transatlantic mercantile activity spanning more than three centuries, it cannot be argued that Bristol ei ther benefi ted to any significant degree f rom its Newfoundland trade or played any major role in the long-term development of Newfoundland. These conclusions can be reached when one examines; (1) the local importance of the Newfoundland trade relative to other overseas ventures in Bristol throughout the period 1700-1830; (2) Bristol7s level of migration and commerce in Newfoundland over the same period compared with other major ports such as Teignmouth, Dartmouth, and Poole; (3) the evidence of migrant and immigrant origins from different ports and hinterlands; and (4) the comparative importance of the merchants of the ports in the economic and social history of both their respective localities and in Newfoundland.

Whatever preeminence Bristol may have held during the early phases of the fishery was lost by the end of the 1500s to ports such as Dartmouth, Exeter, Barnstaple, Plymouth, and Poole. Indeed, according to historian Gillian Cell, one of the chief motives behind the decisión to start a company and to plant a series of colonies in Newfoundland by the merchant community in Bristol in the early 1600s was a desire to restore the city's falling trade position, particularly to achieve a more favourable advantage in the cod trade, perhaps even a monopoly. Cell argued:

these Bristol men could not but be aware that their city, despite its long-standing links with the island, now lagged behind other lesser ports in the exploitation of the fishery. A chartered company combining local expertise with London wealth, might be the means of restoring Bristol's lost eminence.2

After their initial failure in Cuper's Cove, the Bristol merchants split with the main company and anchored their Newfoundland aspirations in 1617 wi th a small colony in Harbour Grace, optimistically and romantically named TJristol's Hope'.3 The alleged success of this colony cannot be documented, at least not in terms of

54



any phenomenal growth or the reassertion of Bristolian influence. In 1676 Harbour Grace (which included Bristors Hope) contained only four planter families and in the period 1675-77 men on Bristol ships accounted for less than 1 percent of the total Newfoundland migratory adventure. While Bristol flourished and grew as a port,4

this prosperity during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was nourished by a widespread European, African, and New World plantations network, including the slave trade, the importing of sugar, tobacco, and wines, and the export of manufactures such as woollen goods, copper and brass, glass, nails, and tobacco pipes. In the supply trade at least, Bristol, through the distribution agencies of other ports such as Poole and Dartmoutih, continued to exact some commercial advantage from the island and maintained its migration links in Conception Bay into the nineteenth century.5 In 1696 the Mayor of Bristol claimed "the trade of this city lies at Harbour de Grace and the places adjacent...."6 For more than a century after, Harbour Grace endured as the main centre of Bristors fishery and trade. Also, Harbour Grace was the Newfoundland settlement most fostered in its population growth by a significant proportion of Bristolian immigrants.7

Origins and Destinations In the period 1675-81, as calculated from the annual average of men carried by fishing ships (Table 3.1), it can be seen that migratory activity was based in three main source regions: North Devon (17.5 percent), South Devon (62.1 percent), and Southern England (Dorset and Hampshire), mainly Dorset (15.1 percent); and further that a handful of ports such as Dartmouth (42.4 percent) and Bideford (17.5 percent), togéther with Poole, Plymouth, and Teignmouth sharing another 25 percent, had developed as the main sponsors of English seasonal migration. Compared with previous levels of migration, one of which occurred in 1644 when 270 fishing ships with 20,000 men were reported,8 the 1676-81 average of less than 4,000 men marks a period of extreme contraction. Nevertheless, the seasonal migration levels still exceed greatly those of both earlier and later periods, particularly the Civil War period after 1644 and most years of the Anglo-French wars over the tum of the century ? The ports Ksted, and their absolute and relative importance (Figure 3.1) allow some further inferences on the spatial dynamics which characterized this aspect of English labour mobility.

Firstly, many of the smaller ports and creeks which sent ships to Newfoundland in the early years, including Sidmouth and creeks

55



Table 3.1 Distribution of Men in English Fishing Ships by Ports of Origin and

Destination, 1675-1681

A.ORIGINS Annual Average A nnual Average

Region/Port Numbers Percentages

North Devon Bideford 559 14.0 Bamstaple 143 3.5

Bristol 33 0.8 South England

Poole 354 9.0 Weymouth 137 3.5 Southampton 92 2.4 Lyme Regis 11 02

South Devon Exeter 17 0.4 Teignmouth 244 6.0 Topsham 123 3.0 Brixham 14 0.3 Dartmouth 1709 42.4 Plymouth 407 10.0

Channel Islands 128 3.1 London 25 0.6 Others 37 0.8 (Fowey, Waterford, Dublin, Shoreham)

Total 4033 100.0

B.DESTINATIONS Annual Average Annual Average

Region/Harbour Numbers Percentage

Southern Avalon Trepassey 196 5.0 Renews 195 5.0 Fermeuse 221 5.5 Aquaforte 127 3.3 Capelin Bay 73 1.8 Cape Broyle 123 3.0 Isle Despair 44 1.1 Toads Cove 13 0.3 Brigus South 20 0.5 Bauline 12 0.3

56



Table 3.1 (cont'd)

Región/ Harbour Number Percentage

St. John's Witless Bay 123 3.0 Bay Bulls 173 4.3 Petty Harbour 131 3.2 St. John's 878 22.0 Torbay 155 4.0 Bell Island 80 2.0

Conception Bay Harbour Main 15 0.4 Brigus 26 0.6 Cupids 17 0.4 Port de Grave 22 0.5 Bay Roberts 62 1.5 Harbour Grace 128 3.2 Carbonear 153 4.0 Bay de Verde 137 3.5

Trinity Bay Oíd Perlican 135 3.4 Silly Cove 30 0.7 New Perlican 26 0.6 Bonaventure 105 2.6 Hearf s Ease 11 0.3 "Innity 134 3.4 Salmón Cove 10 0.2 English Harbour 15 0.4 Catalina 12 0.3

Bonavista Bay Bonavista 395 10.0 Keels 22 0.5 Salvage 14 0.3

Total 4033 100.0

Source: Calculated from data contained in censuses of the Newfoundland fishery 1675, 1676,1677,1681, in CP 1 Series, Public Record Office (PRO)

along the Exe estuary such as Kenton, Exmouth, Dawlish, and Starcross, were no longer represented. Historical geographer E.A.G. Clarke has attributed the decline in those cases mainly to the silting up of their respective harbours and the increase in size of sailing ships used in the Newfoundland fishery.10 As a result the

57



Figure 3.1 Distributíon of Men on Fishing Ships, 1675-1681

ENGLAND

Bonavista ?

One square represents one percent of men on fishing ships.

DESTINATION« • ORIGINS

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Newfoundland trade tended to gravitate to the deeper estuarine sites, such as Topsham and Teignmouth.

Secondly, we fínd the relative and absolute decline of activity in the ports of Barnstaple, Plymouth, and Southampton. When the Plymouth surgeon James Yonge, famed for his meticulously detailed descriptions of the fishery in Newfoundland during the period 1663-1670, visited Barnstaple in 1674 he observed that the port "was lately a place of very great trade...but Bideford has stolen it all away since the river has grown shallow"; in Bideford he commented, //rThey trade mostly to Newfoundland, thence to Portugal and the Straights. They send a few (ships) to Virginia, New England, West Indies, Ireland, many to Wales, and Bristol.../'11 Similarly, by the 1670s Plymouth and Southampton, which respectively in 1641 and 1636 had each portrayed a chief economic dependency on the Newfoundland fish trade,12 developed other major pursuits. Plymouth7s diminished role in the Newfoundland fishery stemmed from its selection and growth as a naval base in 1675, while Southampton, which in any case was more involved in the marketing of fish than in active production like Bristol, began to develop a widespread colonial trade in which the Newfoimdland component diminished.13

Thirdly, the dominance of South Devon and the strong current of migration from this región throughout the century (1570-1670), and for more than a century later, more espedally from the ports of Teignmouth, Topsham, and Dartmouth, established one of the major migration channels of seasonal fishermen which preceded emigration and also conditioned later ethnic settlement patterns in Newfoimdland. And finally, our analysis of late seventeenth-century migratory activity demonstrates the existence and persistence of a further migration stream from the ports of Dorset, headed by Poole and Weymouth, which though of relatively small proportions at this stage, increased considerably in the opening decades of the following century

While South Devon furnished the lion's share of the migrants in the ship fishery, it also initiated and became the main source area of byeboatmen and henee of English passenger traffic. A census of byeboatkeepers for St. John's, the main ha rbour of the byeboatfishery taken in 168014 shows that of440 servants, 50 percent were employed with masters from Teignmouth; a further 34 percent carne from Dartmouth; and the remainder were spread among parishes in Torbay, includrng Stokeinteignhead, Brixham, St. Mary

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Church, and Tormoham (later Torquay). A petition from over 800 so-called 'Newfoundland men ' in 1635 lying in the Torbay región15—between the Teign and the Dart—establishes this as a major source of manpower for the ship fishery, the byeboatfishery and, in the eighteenth century, the banker fishery. From this región generations of men engaged in the overseas venture; the región also provided a large proportion of those who chose to settle in Newfoundland, making it, in turn, a cultural hearth of English Newfoundland origins.

Recruitment Hinterlands Most of the evidence on early migration origins comes from port books, customs registers, and other sources which most often attribute the numbers involved to the respective ports. The ports, however, were mainly focal points in the organization of a migration system and certainly not the only source of the migrants. Indeed, in most cases, the majority of migrants carne from villages and towns in the adjacent countryside. Merchants and shipowners involved in the Newfoundland trade probably attracted migrants to the ports for employment in Newfoundland ships (as they were known to do later), but if and when those voluntarily coming into the ports did not meet demands, then manpower was recruited. Once the Newfoundland fishery was well established, its employment prospects probably became well known, and parish officers, overseers of the poor, and the trastees of charities made frequent use of it to apprentice or indenture their poor.

The migration basins, or recruitment hinterlands, from which the fishery mobilized its labour forcé, extended beyond the ports, took in inland market towns and intervening farming villages, hamlets, and homesteads. The spatial extent of these hinterlands before the early eighteenth century, however, can be only vaguely reconstructed from references which have survived in a few legal papers and parish records. One such source is a set of depositions and legal examinations connected with Newfoundland voyages covering the period 1622-44 in Southampton.16 Here one can find p laces of res idence , excluding po r t s , associa ted w i t h English-Newfoundland migrants from the inland market town of Ringwood, Hampshire, and from Corfe Castle and Hamworthy in Dorset and Stoken Tinney (Stokeinteignhead) in Devonshire. A similar source in Dorset for the period 1626-172417 indicates that migration was occurring from a scatter of places county-wide,

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ranging from Studland to Bridport, from Litton Chiney to Poole, and from Portland to Broadwinsor.

Apprentices One of the main sources of inf ormation of migration origins in Dorset for the seventeenth century (though clearly incomplete and of a specialized type) exists in the survdving apprenticeship indentures of boys placed out by parishes to the Newfoundland fishery. Examples of these 'poor apprentices' exist for some twelve parishes, including Poole, Weymouth, Lyme Regis, Bothenhampton, Bridport, Dorchester, Powerstock, Charmouth, Allington, Blandford (Forum), Corfe Castle, and Portland.18 Supplementing the supply of apprentices to the fishery, as other trades and occupations, were a number of prívate charities established by benefactors for the relief of the poor and the binding of pauper apprentices. More often than not, the trades intended were imspecifíed and sums of money were made available to apprentice children at the discretion of the charity trustees. In several instances, however (involving charities in the parishes of Beaminster, Sturminster Newton, Shaftesbury, and Weymouth), conditions of the charity specified that boys be placed at sea or apprenticed as 'mariners'. In seventeenth-century Dorset this almost unexceptionally meant the Newfoundland fishery. In 1682, Francis Tucker of Beaminster left a farm, the revenue of which was willed to place "three or four boys y early, one whereof if not two to be sent to sea/ '1 9 The most outstanding of these charities was founded by William Williams in 1621. Williams, a clothier, of Blandford Forum, left £3000 for the purchase of land, the annual rent of which was to be applied in part for binding boys to the 'sea service' at the rate of two a year in sequence and successively from Blandford Forum, Shaston (Shaftesbury), and Sturminster Newton. As far as the records of this charity cover, the boys placed from these three in land marke t t o w n s in Dorse t were invar iab ly sent to Newfoimdland shipowners, traders, and merchants at Weymouth but mostly in Poole.20

Throughout the seventeenth century, the Newfoundland fishery in Dorset was no trivial pursuit but ranked highly as a commercial activity and, along with the manufacture of doth, agriculture, and other local trades and occupations, became both an alternative source of employment and a complementary activity to local opportunities. To both parish officers and charity trustees, the overseas fishery was one of several options available whence they could discharge regularly their orphans, illegitimate children, and

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other 'paupers'. Additional to the special charities were a large number of 'open' trade endowments (charities in which the trustees could elect the trade or occupation of an apprentice) from which merchants and shipowners could avail of cheap labour and often a cash bonus. Many such trade charities existed in Dorsetshire inc luding Bere Regis, Blandford Forum, Bridport , Carne Winterborne and Cerne Abbas, Chardstock, Charmouth, Corfe Mullen, Dorchester, Hilton, Hinton St. Mary, Lychett Minster, Lydlinch, Melcombe Horsey, Moreton, Netherbury, Pimperne, Piddletrenthide, Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Stinsford, Symondsbury, Weymouth, and Yetminster—in brief, covering the length and breadth of the county 21

The apprenticeship of boys in Newfoundland ventures are also reasonably well documented for the period 1593-1630 in Bristol.22

At least sixteen apprentices were bound to masters connected with the Newfoundland colony at Cuper's Cove between 1600-1612, and were probably part of the labour forcé mobilized in Bristol to build the colony One example lists "John Ingland of Mangotsfield,, whose indenture, dated May 30, 1610 to John Guy, the colones first governor, occurred just before Guy's departure from Bristol for Newfoundland . Similar indentures for Dar tmouth 2 3 and Southampton24 provide continuing proof that the apprenticeship system was widespread throughout the West Country and marked the means by which many youths began a career in the Newfoimdland trade. As time went on, some parish boys were apprenticed directly to Newfoundland planters. As an example, in 1669 Nicholas Dennett "son of Nicholas, deceased, late of Southton (Southampton) was bound to John Bickonell of Oíd Perlican" for ten years.25 At any given time, however, apprentices formed but a small and the most youthful segment of the labour used in the Newfoundland fishery. The bulk of servants employed even as 'green men' were usually of riper years and engaged privately on a seasonal basis for shares or wages. Whereas apprentices were often bound to mariners and fishermen at ages nine to fourteen years to work for their board and victuals and for a specified period (often seven years) or until a given age (twenty-one years or twenty-four years), most fishing servants entering the fishery were young men who had already served indentureship terms in other trades at home and thus averaged to be five to ten years older than those apprenticed directly into the fish trade.

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© 2009 • W. Gordon Handcock

In other seventeenth-century documents, Newfoundland migrants are given place-origins (outside the ports themselves) in South Devon at Paignton, Stokeinteignhead, St. Mary Church, Berry Pomeroy, Ashprington, Torbryan, Cockington, and Ipplepin26— rural parishes which undoubtedly, as they did a century later, formed part of the recruiting hinterlands of Dartmouth and Teignmouth.

Recruiting While it may be supposed that once the Newfoundland trade was established on a relatively continuing basis at any of the ports, men who wished to engage as servants or fishermen resorted to these ports and bargained with employers and shipowners, we actually have little evidence on recruiting routines for the earlier periods. Some employers (ship captains and byeboatkeepers) resided outside the port areas and probably recruited in their home areas. In this report on passengers (byeboatkeepers) in St. John's Harbour in 1701, George Larkin pro vides a rare glimpse of one method of encouraging migrants. With reference to Captain Arthur Holdsworth of Dartmouth, who that year brought out 236 passengers from South Devon, he writes:

I am credibly informed that this very person, and one or two more that constantly use the Newfoundland trade, in the beginning of the year make it their business to ride from one Market Town to another in the West of England on purpose to get...passengers....27

The route taken by Holdsworth likely included market towns such as Totnes, Ashburton, and Newton Abbot and thus also integrated the surrounding rural communities that normally resorted to these towns. Market towns provided a ready-made communications-information network that generated firstly migration to the ports, thence transatlantic to the fishing outports in Newfoundland. The market towns not only provided an important link for the active recruitment efforts, but also from earliest times supplied the fishing ships with much of the food, clothing, and specialized fishing gear and equipment, particularly leather goods, and ropes, nets, twines, and sail cloths. 8 Since it is unlikely that seventeenth-century recruiting varied from practices of the eighteenth century, one can infer that suppliers of goods, who in many cases would tend to be leading parish officers, provided the contact for the employer who needed labour or, conversely, for manufacturers and suppliers to seek and recommend for

63

SOURCE: W. Gordon Handcock, Soe longe as there comes no women, Origins of English Settlement in Newfoundland (1989, 2003), image reprint CD, (Milton, Ontario: Global Heritage Press, ^2009)


employment 'men and boys' from their local región. Thus when William Williams, the clothier of Blandford Forum in Dorset, established his charity in 1621 in aid of both clothiers and the supply of boys to the sea, he was probably only seeking the perpetuation of two functions he had been supporting in his active business life.

Pattems of Migratory Activity There are few data sources until the late 1600s which can be used to measure the pattern of migrat ion and territoriality among participating regions and ports. We are aware that the English fishery was contained mostly between Cape Bonavista and Cape Race, and that there was a high level of fishing activity in St. John's plus a few other harbours (Petty Harbour, Renews, Fermeuse, and Bay Bulls) visited by the surgeon James Yonge, 1663-1670. But we know little of the distribution of seasonal fishermen by origin. We also know little about the distribution of settlers. These concems, however, can be addressed by a spate of quantitative and qualitative information in documents which appear in the 1670s, including census data 1675-1681 referred to earlier. Many of these documents were generated by the debate on the issue of a free and open fishery—lobbied for by a group of West of England Merchants (Westem Adventurers). The Adventurers objected to a colony with a settled government proposed by other parties, including some settlers already in Newfoundland and some Londoners 29 Much of this information is contained in the Calendar of State Papers (Colonial, 1661-77). Another source of data on fishing and settlement comes from The English Pilot, published in 1689, but containing data on Newfoundland harbours and settlements on the English Shore gathered in 1677.30

Calculated from the annual average of men engaged, Table 3.1 shows that during the period 1675-81 the English migratory fishery in Newfoundland was spread over some thirty-five fishing harbours between Trepassey on the south and Salvage to the north, or marginally beyond Cape Race and Cape Bonavista, the traditional 'English Shore'. With more than one-fifth of all migrants, St. John's (described by Southwood in The English Pilot as "an excellent good Harbour...and the chiefest in the New-found-land for the Number of Ships used and employed in Fishing") was clearly the main centre of the fishery.3* St. John's and the adjacent harbours of Quidi Vidi, Petty Harbour, Bay Bulls, and Torbay, together received almost 40 percent of the total migration. Outside the St. John's district, one can recognize four distinct regional groupings: the Southern Shore of the

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Avalon Península (Cape Spear to Cape Race), where ten harbours and coves comprised the fishing stations of about 25 percent of the ship fishermen; Conception Bay, which received 14 percent; and Trinity and Bonavista Bays to the northwards, each sharing slightly smaller proportions.

The analysis of spatial associations through migration between regional origins and destinations (Table 3.2) and between individual ports in the homeland and harbours in Newfoundland (Figure 3.1) permits more detailed observation of two important facets of any migratory system, that is, the patterns of convergence and of divergence. In other words, we can observe and measure the degree to which the fishery was de jacto an open, or free, fishery among competing ports as well as the spatial biases in the system, or more simply the territorial patterns of migrants at destinations. From Table 3.2, for example, one can see that South Devon sent migrants to all fishing districts. Meanwhile, Conception Bay received migrants from all regional origins except North Devon. While South Devon men were distiibuted over all regions, the majority (5047 or 54 percent) spent their summers on fishing stations in or near St. John's. In Trinity Bay, the southern English (mainly Poole) fishermen held preeminence, and the Southern Shore was dominated by seasonal migrants from North Devon. At this time, Bristolians were concentrated solely in Conception Bay, and the North Devon contingent fished only on the Southern Shore. The Channel Islanders, though only 3 percent in total, were well spread out but strongly represented in certain harbours (Trinity, English Harbour, Salmón Cove) of Trinity Bay.

Figure 3.1 indicates that the wide distribution of the South Devon men was almost entirely due to the widespread use of Newfoundland harbours by Dartmouth fishing ships, which in this period were dispersed among some nineteen harbours between Bonavista and Renews, encompassing almost the entire English Shore. Although Dartmouth men were absent in Trinity Bay, they dominated the migratory fishery in the St. John's district, in Conception Bay, and at Bonavista. The Plymouth ships frequented fewer of the same harbours used by Dartmouth ships, whereas the Teignmouth men used only St. John's. The remaining South Devon ports of Topsham, Brixham, and Exeter utilized the rniddle harbours of the Southern Shore, converging upon the southern end of the Dartmouth domain. In the case of the other ports, the regional distinction by origin was much clearer, with the southern English

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Table 3.2 Migration on Fishing Vessels 1675-811

Fishing District

Southern 2

England South

Devon3

Men by Región oí Origin Channel North Islands Devon4

Bristol London Other Total

Destina tion

Bonavista Bay 32 7 641 95 - - - 1063 Trinity Bay 1133 126 324 - - - 79 1662 Conception Bay 366 1654 27 - 160 137 202 2546

St. John's 25 5047 - - - - 13 5085 Southern - 1945 20 2487 - 50 24 4526

Total 1851 9413 466 2487 160 187 318 14882

íTotal men on fishing ships from censuses 1675-6-7 and 81 (COI series), 2Includes men from Southampton, Poole, Weymouth, and LymeRegis. 3Exeter, Brixham, Teignmouth, Topsham, Dartmouth,and Plymouth. 4 Bideford and Barnstaple.



ports, primarily Poole, distributíng their fishermen around the main harbours of Trinity Bay and, as mentioned, the North Devon men confined to the more southerly embayments of the Southern Shore.

When James Yonge visited Renews and Fermeuse in 1663 he observed that the fisheries of these two harbours, then the most southerly of the English fishery, attracted the North Devon fishermen, and with reference to Fermeuse he stated, 'The harbour we were in was very much esteemed for a good fishing place...the Barnstaple men prefer it above any."32 By 1675-81 Bideford and Barnstaple had pushed the frontier of their fishery further south to Trepassey while retaining their stronghold in Renews and Fermeuse, and indeed Bideford, now the second largest port in the scheme, frequented six harbours south of Ferryland.

Local knowledge of fishing grounds, weather signs, sea conditions, and other circiimstances, and the tradition of frequenting the same harbours and coastal regions most assuredly strengthened the tendency towards discrete territorial división among participating regions. The Bideford merchants admit this disposition in a petition in 1705-06:

many years...have sent from this port forty to fifty ships yearly on a fishing voyage to Ferryland and ye ports adjacent in Newfoundland...our fishermen are unacquainted with fishery in St. John's or any of the northern harbours there not being Room for our ships and boats should we send tihem thither....

Meanwhile, the fishery was neither so rigid ñor fixed as to prevent spatial adjustments as the changing distribution of the Dartmouth men at different times clearly demonstrates. From the Newfoundland perspective most fishing harbours were shared, especially those which combined safety of anchorage, abundance of shore space, and proximity to reliable inshore fishing groimds, such as St. John's, Carbonear, and Ferryland. Patterns of convergence of fishermen were also apparent in places such as Bonavista and Bay de Verde, where relative location advantages of nearby rich summer fishing groimds outweighed their site disadvantages as natural harbours. Despite being two of the more popular fishing places, Bonavista was described in 1675 to ha ve a "road very foul" and Bay de Verde to be "a small, dangerous cove."34

The overall regional core-periphery patterns shown in Table 3.2 and Figure 3.1 override the small complexities. Thus, whereas in 1676,127 ships with over 4400 men made a Newfoundland voyage, in 1684 only 43 ships with 1495 men participated. In the latter year,

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contraction by origins was universal, yet the relative proportions of men sailing from the major ports were maintained. By destination, contractions both at the core (the St. John's area) and from the peripheries of the English Shore were also well marked. The South Devon fishery, headed by Dartmouth, centred upon St. John's and vicinity, dominated still in Conception Bay, but in 1684 had withdrawn from Bonavista and most of the Southern Shore. From the southern English ports, only Poole sent some ships (all to Trinity Bay and Bay de Verde), and as before the reduced North Devon contingent carne to the southernmost harbours but now only to three: Aquaforte, Renews, and Fermeuse.

Rationale The main intention of this introductory review of migrants, early settlers, and settlements, and the migratory patterns and trends associated with the early English fishery in Newfoundland, has been to demónstrate that all the major components of a migration system, spatial and demographic, which at later stages had the effective impact of converting Newfoundland into a settled society, were initiated or well established before or during the seventeenth century. More than forty ports, mainly in the West of England, were participating in seasonal migrations. Some of these, especially Bristol and major ports in South Devon and Dorset, forged links which endured upwards of four centuries. In the process, Newfoundland was transformed from a seasonal fishery, from an economic extensión, or a resource appendage of these ports and their respective hinterlands, into a settled, self-perpetuating society. The process of transformation was, however, extremely protracted, taking more than a century to be effectively accomplished after 1720. The transition to a settled society forms the subject matter for the following section.

The migratory fishery and emigration from England to Newfoundland constituted two types of migration systems. But the two systems were closely interrelated, or stated another way, one system evolved into the other. Basic components of any migration system include movers from an area of origin to an area of destination, reverse movers—or counter-stream migrants—and alternative—or second-stage movers—from destinations to other destinations. The latter may be exemplified by the servants who carne to Newfoundland to work in the fishery and then moved on to New England.

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The development and maintenance of vested interests in specific parts of Newfoundland by the different homeland regions became an essential part of the migration system since it conditioned opportunity paths of movement and established the functional and spatial basis of transatlantic social, as well as economic, interactions. Most importantly, the pattern of origins of seasonal movements suggests the probable origins of most individuáis who, at given times, were designated 'settlers', 'planters7, or 'inhabitants'. Similarly, as an adjunct primarily to the South Devon seasonal migrations, the byeboatkeepers shared the same harbours as the South Devon fishing ships on which they took passage, with St. John's as the nodal area, and peripheral diffusion into Conception Bay and along the Southern Shore.

The importance of establishing the geographic extent and functional hinterland regions of migratory activity for the seventeenth-century Newfoundland migrants may be rested upon three contentions. We define thereby the particular areas in which seasonal migration and later transient or semi-permanent residence in Newfoundland became a regular social practice and a traditional habit, or an example of what one scholar (Peterson) suggests is an important relationship between the trails blazed by 'pioneers7 and those that follow. He contends that once migration "becomes a style, an established pattern,77 it tends to continué, preceding emigration. Thus, migration becomes the principal condition for further migration, and initial emigration for further emigration. A second reason in the case of Newfoundland is to dispel an erroneous conclusión, prevalent in some litera ture, that Newfoundland migrants and settlers originated in the coastal margins, villages, and ports of the West of England, or as a writer concluded recenüy with reference to Devonshire "within a mile of salt water.77 Migratory activity, in fact, had penetrated some twenty to twenty-five miles into the inland regions of Devonshire and Dorsetshire from the early seventeenth century and was perpetuated imtil the colonization process had been completed some two centuries later. Boys were being apprenticed from places such as Sturminster Newton and Shaftesbury in North Dorset under local charity auspices as early as the 1620s. These two towns were over twenty-five miles from Poole, the nearest port, and migration from such places to Newfoundland continued until the 1870s. A third reason for reconstructing migration patterns and origins of settlement in the seventeenth century is to provide a baseline for the story of English origins as a whole. It is against the background developments of the seventeenth

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century that changes in the foHowing periods can be measured and compared. It is also the time írame in which we can identífy many of the migrants and settlers by ñame, probé their origins, the great transition in their lives, and their ultímate destinies. These were the pioneers who blazed the trail for others.

For the historical geographer who wishes to study migration in a spatial framework, areas of origin and areas of destination provide the most convenient framework.3 6 Within this framework, migration, defined as the physical transition of individuáis from one society or setting to another, 7 can be analyzed at national, regional, or local scales. Indeed, each scale of analysis or level of generalization pro vides its own unique insights into the migration process. At the national and regional scales one can perceive thebroader patterns of movement and group behaviour. At the local scale an investigator can focus on small communities, social classes and, most importantly, the behaviour of individuáis. The latter is most important since voluntary migration and emigration are essentially features of individual choices and of personal motivations and struggles.

Associated with the s t ructural design of origins and destinations in studying migration mechanisms is the notion of the 'migration field'. One definition states that "migration field is technically the area from which a destination place draws its migrants/'38 In the case of Newfoimdland migratíons, one kind of destination was the port of embarkation, but the area from which ports draw their migrants can be conveniently called also a 'migration basin' or 'migration hinterland'. Other types of des t ina t ion were ind iv idua l set t lements , or distr icts in Newfoundland itself. The migration field, basin, or hinterland are thus merely more generalized parts of source areas. Much of the emphasis of this study is based upon the origins end of the migration field, and analysis is attempted at several different scales, and from the perspective of several types of destinations.

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PARTII

Transitions: Making Fishing Communities

Out of Fishing Stations

He entered into a ship, and sat in the sea, and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

St. Mark 4:1



CHAPTER 4

Migration Trends to 1830

The more significant developments in Newfoundland during the eighteenth century with respect to resource development, population growth, settlement expansión, and the supply trade have been detailed both chronologically and spatially in other works.1

These developments either modified the migration system or were the result of changes in the system itself and are thus worth review. Some of the more fundamental causes which affected English migration in the decades after the Anglo-French Conflict, 1696-1713, were the following: the coastal expansión of the English fishery into nortihern and southem regions previously occupied by the French; the growth of settlement in both oíd areas (the English Shore) and new areas of activity; the gradual development of a more diverse economy including winter activities; further innovations in the cod fishery, especially offshore banking; and the shift in emphasis from a migratory to a settler fishery In addition, these changes were accompanied by further structural changes and shifts in the basic migration system at origin. These, too, affected patterns of population growth and altered the ethnic structure of different Newfoundland regions and the island as a whole.

Territorial Expansión The spatial distribution of British fishing and settlement activity in the 1720s differed little from that of the 1670s. However, by the third decade of the century there began, as Grant Head has detailed, "a striking upward trend of total activity" which included: growth and expansión in the districts of the traditional English shore; expansión northwards, first in the 1720s into Notre Dame Bay (Fogo and Twillingate), and after 1763 into districts north of Cape St John, including the coast of Labrador; expansión southwards and westwards, initially after the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) into St. M a r / s

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Bay, Placentia Bay, and St. Pierre, and after 1763 into Fortune Bay and districts westward. At the same time the British fisheries had won concurrent fishing rights within the remaining portions of Newfoundland that remained to the French,2 at whose expense all the other territorial gains had been made.

Since it had already become an established feature for settlement to follow in the wake of seasonal migratory activity,3 the territorial additions in themselves are not only important in understanding the actual peopling process but are also significant in the development of regional differentiation among the settlers who colonized them. For example, as will be discussed in detail later (Chapter 10), the territorial additions to the English migratory scheme during the eighteenth century were almost exclusively resource regions added by adventurers from Poole, and this fact in itself explains why most of the English pioneers and settlers in the new northern, southern, and western regions of Newfoundland carne from Dorsetshire and adjoining coimties, not from Devonshire.

Resource Exploitation: Migratory and Inhabitant Sectors Since the British government offered no encouragement to the establishment of a permanent or resident population, the growth of such a population (which in 1832 carne to be granted colonial status) must be explained by other factors. From the political perspective these include the inability of British officialdom to enforce an anti-settlement policy and to remove those who settled, the loopholes in the various acts which permitted settlements, as well as simple official indifference until the stage was reached when wholesale population removal was not at all practical.4 From ano the r perspective, since the popula t ions exploit ing Newfoundland resources, primarily the codfish, were divided into two basic sectors, the British-based migratory fishermen and the Newfoundland-based resident fishermen, the struggle of migrants against inhabitants or 'a fishery' against 'a colony' can be conceptualized as an economic struggle over the control of resources both as it relates to exploitation (producing the fish) and marketing. More simply, the right to inhabit Newfoundland can be seen to increase as inhabitants gained a greater production control over the marketable staples and excluded by degrees the seasonal adventurers from Britain.

Although the shift from a predominantly migratory fishery to a sedentary-based fishery was a protracted and historically complex

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process, it occurred mairüy within the eighteenth century. This shift has been generally summaiized from the data given in Figure 4.1, showing the total production of salted cod over the period 1710-1830, and the proportions of cod produced by the migratory sector and inhabitant sector. The graph trend lines show that cod production as a total British venture increased from Iess than 350,(X)0 quintáis before the 1740s to over a half million quintáis by the 1760s, and to 850,000 quintáis in the 1780s from 600,000 in the 1770s. These production levels are given in five year nmning-means which disguise the wildly erratic production yields year to year but show the main temporal trends of fish production. In comparing the two main producing sectors, it can be seen that the migratory fishermen enjoyed the main share of the fish produced during the early half of the eighteenth century and at times (1730s and 1740s) commanded upwards of 75 percent of the total. During the second half of the century, the balance of production tended to be equally shared with inhabitants. As a general rule, wartime conditions, especially the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), caused a serious decline in the migratory effort, giving the production edge to inhabitants, whereas the revitalized migratíons in intervals of peace temporarily won back the upper hand for the seasonal visitors.

As Figure 4.1 shows, however, the crucial turning point for Newfoimdland inhabitants as the main cod producers coincides with the Napoleonic War Period. After 1805, inhabitants consistently produced well over 90 percent of all the cod, and although a slight resurgence of the migratory effort occurred around 1820, the revival was short-lived and quantitatively insignificant. From the early 1800s total cod product ion in N e w f o u n d l a n d reached unprecedented heights, and although the basis for permanent settlement rested upon precarious foundations,5 the island's population responded by growing at unprecedented rates.

The production of salted dried cod and cod oil was, in all regions, the basis of settlers7 economy, but the eighteenth century saw the development of other commercial activitíes, particularly the salmón and seal fisheries.6 In some localities ship-building and fur trapping also added economic diversity. Trinity Bay (Trinity, New Harbour, Hearfs Content) and Conception Bay (Harbour Grace, Carbonear, Brigus, Cupids) were the two main districts (and harbours) for shipbuilding in the eighteenth century, but some vessels were constructed in most of the other major harbours (St.

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Figure 4.1 British Cod Production, 1710-1830

Total and percentage by sector 1000 100

1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830

All valúes calculated in 5 year means

John's, Placentia, Mortier). Meanwhile, the fur trade to the north beyond Bonavista was reported to have an annual valué of £500 by an account written in 1681. This source further explained "the planters go a furiing about the middle of September, and take no provisions with them but bread and salt, finding beavers, otters and seáis enough to feed on...."8 An even earlier reference to the fur trade north of Bonavista (1677) is given in The English Pilot. The main species trapped included fox, wolf, beaver, marten, and muskrat. When the English moved into the southem regions, especially Fortune Bay, and westward after 1763, they were soon to discover that a winter cod fishery was feasible which was often more productive than the summer fishery They also found rich stocks of herring.9

As in the case of the cod fishery, production figures for salmón, seáis, and furs in the official returns indícate patterns of extreme variation for one year to the next. For example, according to these returns, salmón catches seldom exceeded 1000 tierces annually until

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the 1740s. Between 1750 and 1775 the annual average yields were about 2000 tierces, and between 1785 and 1833 over 3000 tierces.10

As the English shore in Newfoimdland extended northward, a marked though fluctuating increase in seal skin and seal oil production can be traced in the figures given in the annual schemes of the fishery. Head has observed, "It was a northern industry, and expanded northwards...Bonavista in the 1730s, Twillingate in the 1750s, and Labrador in the 1770s." In the early 1800s in good years (e.g. 1805) seal skin production reached over 150,000 and in average years exceeded 100,000.11 In 1819, 300,000 seáis were taken and in 1830 and 1831 the industry yielded over 500,000 pelts.12

The newer activities and industries, especially the seal fishery in the northern districts which was carried on in winter and spring, added an important supplementary income to support a year-round population. Salmón were taken in nets in most coastal regions2 and supplemented the income of fishermen who were primarily cod producers. However, in some regions such as Notre Dame Bay, along the coast of Labrador, and the west coast of Newfoimdland (Bay St. George, Bay of Islands, and Bonne Bay), some small groups of early settlers obtained their livelihood as salmoniers and ñirriers.13 These pioneers weired the spawning rivers in spring and ran fur traplines into the interior river basins during the fall and winter. Most of these are identified in various mercantile papers. Some of the prominent sumames of furriers-salmoniers in their respective regions include Brake (Bay of Islands); Gillingham, Hodder (Gander Bay); Peyton, Miller (Exploits River); and Rowsell (Hall's Bay).

The Changing Migration System From the embarkation end of the migration system, the most fundamental spatial shifts during the eighteenth century, measured against the previous periods, were: the emergence of Southeastern Ireland as a source area of labour in the seasonal fishery, and consequently as a homeland for a new cultural and ethnic group in both the transient and permanent sectors of the island's population; the decline and demise of seasonal migrations from North Devon; and the rise of Poole as the main port of migratory activity. Despite these changes, however, many of the previously established patterns of migration prevailed. South Devonshire continued to send out the larger proportion of the English migrants and maintained its traditional contact with St John's and neighbouring harbours, especially Torbay, Petty Harbour, Bay Bulls, Bell Island, and Portugal

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Cove. Similarly, men of Dorset held control of the fishery in Trinity Bay in both the migratory and sedentary sectors, whereas Conception Bay continued to attract a mixed collection of seasonal and longer term sojourners, some from South Devon, others from Dorsetshire, Hampshire, Bristol, and the Channel Islands. The most notable spatial change on the English Shore from the previous century was, of course, the withdrawal of the North Devon migrants from the Avalon's 'Southern Shore7. The Southern Shore was, however, taken over by men from South Devon and by Irishmen who, entering the fishing and seasonal migrations first as servants with English fishing vessels and crews, quickly adapted to the established exploitation modes and statuses—Irishmen became sailors, boatkeepers, fishermen, and settlers, and a few, fish merchants and shipowners.

While the Newfoundland fishery remained in the eighteenth century (what it had been previously, at least in theory) a common property resource, open to exploitation by any British subjects, no group of adventurers took advantage to the same extent as did the shipowners and traders of Poole in pioneering and establishing persistent economic activities in the coastal frontiers to the north and the south. Expansión northwards by English fishermen and settlers into Bonavista Bay had occurred, at least sporadically, in the late seventeenth century and went as far as Greenspond. In 1702, English settlements to the north of Bonavista were reported at Keels, Salvage, Barrow Harbour, and Greenspond, "Where" it was claimed, "is a Noble Salmón Fishery/'14 By 1728-32 the fishery had been pushed into the Fogo-Twillingate districts in Notre Dame Bay. The movement northwards was sponsored mainly by adventurers from Dorset ports,16 who dearly took the advantage to use their harbours and settlements in Trinity Bay and Bonavista to stage experiments in the exploration of coastal areas and resources that lay immediately to the north. Some of the late seventeenth-century settlers at Bonavista and Trinity (mostly of Dorset origins) had begun venturing to the north, some in the winter to trap fur, others in the summer to catch salmón, and still others to catch cod when yields failed to the southwards. It seems likely that these new exploiters were also the initial explorers on whose local geographical knowledge or, at least, trade success other adventurers followed. By the mid-1700s Poole merchants controlled and directed seasonal migrations and trade with planters and, in most respects, commanded resource exploitation from Carbonear on the south coast north to Cape St. John.17

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Since Bideford and Barnstaple fishermen traditionally used the major harbours of the southern part of the English Shore, where they dominated the fishery until the Treaty of Utrecht, one could assume they were in the best situation to take advantage of the removal after 1713 of the French físheries in Trepassey, St. Mary's, and Placentia Bay, as well as in St. Pierre and other districts westward.18 Despite this, however, these North Devon men were rather slow off the mark, and though some traders from Bideford began to fish farther westward and did eventually begin to use Placentia Bay with regularity during the late 1720s, the earliest references to English activity on this coast are to ships from Poole and Guernsey.19 After British occupation, Placentia itself was garrisoned by soldiers under the command of a Colonel Samuel Gledhill, who for almost a decade used his authority and soldiers to control fishing and commerce to the discouragement of many regular migratory fishermen.20 In the meantime, William Taverner, as mentioned earlier, a native-born Newfoundlander then residing in Poole, in the summer of 1714 undertook to survey and chart the south coast of Newf oundland to provide information on harbours, fishing grounds, and other resources. The lack of knowledge of this región, he claimed, "deters the English from sending their ships to fish and trade there/'21

Taverner's view was not entirely accurate, for on his mission he encountered several other Poole traders in St. Pierre.22 It is not known how Taverner's survey may have influenced the traders of his home port to use this coast; Poole ships, however, remained as the more important seasonal visitors throughout the eighteenth century. After Gledhill's day, Poole also moved into Placentia and shared it with Bideford.23 Similarly, when St. Pierre was restored to the French in 1763, Poole traders moved out and relocated in Fortune Bay. From here they beean extending their exploitation tentacles even further westward 2

Although the initial motivation for moving into the southern areas was to seek suitable harbours and reliable inshore cod stocks, as others discovered by pushing the frontiers northward the southern pioneers found other resources which could be exploited commerdally. For example, John Masters, a native-born Newfound-lander but in 1723 residing in Poole, formed a partnership with Phillip Watson to "build houses and warehouses for curing," having acquired salmón fishing rights to Salmonier and Colinet Rivers in St. Mary's Bay and on Biscay Bay River near Trepassey.25

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Whereas North Devon ports—Bideford, Barnstaple, and occasionally Appledore and Northam—commanded between 20 and 30 percent of the migratory activity early in the eighteenth century, their trade declined rapidly, especiaUy between 1730 and 1763. The North Devon ports suffered serious losses in the Seven Years' War. Matthews maintains North Devon had no sedentary fishery to rely upon in war-time and thus after 1763 was uriable to participate in the revival of the fishery.26 By the 1770s only an occasional ship was sent out. In fact, when William Saunders of Bideford with an establishment in Placentia, transferred his English headquarters, 1780-83, to Poole,28 it probably marked the end of direct migratory activity from North Devon. It also ended North Devon7 s opportunity to contribute to Newfoundland7s inhabitant population. The small number of North Devonshire settlers in Newfoundland at the time either disappear or were absorbed into the fabric of Irish immigrants, who became the main inheritors of the settlements in which these English planters had resided, i.e., primarily the districts between Ferryland and Placentia.

Although migratory activity from the traditional English source areas increased in volume at t imes in the 1700s to unprecedented heights, it actually contracted by the number of port outlets. Migration from Bristol continued at a low and generally declining volume from seventeenth century levels and ceased altogether from North Devon. Channel Islanders continued to exploit the fishery but shifted their destination directions. Shipping data show that in the 1670s the Channel Islanders were using Trinity Bay and Bonavista Bay; later and up to the American Revolution they resorted mairdy to Conception Bay. After 1783 they moved to the Burin Peninstila and Fortune Bay. In South Devon, Plymouth's involvement waned and went the way of Bideford and Barnstaple; Topsham maintained a small share mainly in harbours between Ferryland and Trepassey.30 For the most part, migration from South Devon focused and revolved around entrepreneurial participation in the Teignmouth estuary, Torbay and Dartmouth. In Dorset shipowners and traders at Weymouth, after a heyday in the 1730s, faded out of fishing voyages to Newfoundland by the 1780s, leaving Poole as the only major migration outlet from Dorset.

Dynamics of Seasonal Migrations—Patterns and Flows One of the most important themes in the demographic history of Newfoundland is the lengthy duration of seasonal and temporary movements of fishermen labourers to and from the same localized

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source areas in the south and southwest of England. The volume of personnel moving in given years and periods fluctuated greatly and, as suggested above, was only one of the few factors that could be regulated and adapted to changing fortunes and conditions. Although seasonal migrations and the growth of a permanent population in Newfoimdland were interrelated, there was no clear temporal relationship between them. In other words, the growth of the inhabitant population, though spawned primarily from temporary migrations, cannot be associated in time with the higher waves of the seasonal movements.

In the first quarter of the eighteenth century seasonal migration remained at a relatively low level, initially because of the Anglo-French War, and then for a decade because of a period of poor fish y i e l d s T h e prolonged failure of the inshore cod fishery encouraged exploration of new areas in search of cod stocks and also innovation in fishing methods. Dorsetshire migrants responded by expanding the inshore fishery northwards and southwards, whilst others (Devonshiremen) began to expeximent fishing offshore on the Grand Banks. In 1715 it was reported that "small shalloways, sloops and other kind of vessels" were being sent "to the Banks for fish, and when loading is caught to come in and cure the...."32 This was the beginriing of the English barik fishery.

The bank experiments were successful, and even when the inshore fishery recovered, as it did in the 1730s, the bank fishery was continued. According to Grant Head, "the technology of the bank fishery followed that of the inshore fishery" except that it required fishermen to remain at sea for a week or more in larger boats, 'bankers'.33 To be preserved, the cod had also to be lain in heavy salt until it could be landed for curing. Throughout the eighteenth century the bank fishery tended to take the place of the ancient ship fishery, although no clear distinction was made in the official census returns until the 1790s. Until that time, both vessel types were enumerated simply as 'fishing ships'. As suggested earlier, the bank fishery distinguishes the main frontier of expansión by fishermen from South Devonshire—Topsham, Teignmouth, and Dartmouth— and was carried on primarily from the harbours within the oíd core area of the English Shore, that is, from Conception Bay south to Trepassey.34 Actually, the bankers paralleled the byeboatfishery in geographical origins and destinations, with the exception that the former were inclined, for obvious reasons, to operate out of and land their fish for curing in the larger or 'ship' harbours such as

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Carbonear, Harbour Grace, Bay Roberts, St. John's, Bay Bulls, Ferryland, Cape Broyle, Fermeuse, Renews, and Trepassey. Meanwhile the byeboatkeepers, because of their smaller boats and scale of operations, made additional use of smaller coves and shelters such as Petty Harbour, Quidi Vidi, Torbay, Mobil, Bauline, and Brigus South.

British fishing ships and bankers together enjoyed three main periods of expanded activity—the late 1740s, 1763-74 (peace interval), and the 1780s (Figure 4.2). At these stages, employment and seasonal migration seldom fell below 2000 fishermen and servants annually, and occasionally reached over 4000. Although the bankers themselves were mainly from South Devon, a large proportion of the servants they employed, especially the shoremen curing the fish, were Irish, brought out as passengers. This emphasis may explain to some degree why Irish settlers carne to domina te the larger harbours of the eastern Avalon immediately adjacent to the Grand Banks, from which most bankers operated. In 1771, for example, 149 (49 percent) of the total 160 bank ships were based between St. John's and Trepassey.35

The flow of byeboatkeepers also emanating from the South Devon area followed the same temporal rhythms as those of the fishing ships and bankers; pulsing in periods of successful fishing and peace, dwindling in wartime. Of course, this was a natural consequence of the dependence of the byeboat fishing crews upon the fishing ships for passage. The traffic in byeboatkeepers, in fact, proved to be one of the more profitable ventures for shipowners. By Keith Matthews' reckoning, the passenger trade was at times as profitable to the South Devon shipowners as the fishery they conducted.36 According to the CO194 statistics, the byeboatfishery seldom involved annual totals of less than 2000 men after 1740. During the 1750s their numbers ranged between 4000-6000 and in the early 1770s reached levels of over 7000. After the American Revolution, and up to 1789, the number of byeboatmen ranged annually between 2500 and 5000 37

Two events a f te r 1789 sent the byeboatfishery into a deciineírom which it never recovered. Firstly, record fish production in the late 1780s glutted a market that could not absorb it and this, combined with inferior quality (especially from the bankers), caused pnces to drop and sent many merchants, shipowners, and boatmen (migratory and sedentary) into bankruptcy. Those who could do so either reduced or withdrew their capital. Numerous fishing ships

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Figure 4.2 Men in the Migratory Sector of the Newfoundland Fishery, 1700-1830

z tu 5

A. MEN IN B YE BOATS

M

more than 2 years gap

1700 1720 1740. 1760 1780 1800 1820

B. MEN ON FISHING SHIPS

MEN ON

BANKERS

/L k

1790 1810 18 30

17 OO 1720 1740 1760 1780 1800 1820

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and shore rooms, many recently built, were offered for sale in West Country newspapers. Secondly, the beginning of the war with France brought to a low ebb the two-way seasonal commuting patterns. The byeboatfishery was clearly hardest hit, as it never recovered. Some byeboatmen decided to stay on in Newfoundland during the war period and become inhabitants, though there is no method of calculating the number who did make this transition. In the Teignmouth area, where many of the byeboatkeepers of the 1770s and 1780s can be individually identified,39 most of them either retired from the fishery or acquired shares in bankers.40 A mere handful of byeboatkeepers are recorded arriving in Newfoimdland in the early 1800s, and by 1805 this mode of migration had run its course and was no longer a part of the migration system.41 In the years that followed, South Devon bankers continued to bring out passengers as servants in the fishery, but most now sought employment with inhabitants. The source areas of labour remained the same; the organization of the fishery had changed.

Passengers It is diffícult, if not impossible, to calcúlate the precise annual flow of personnel from Britain to Newfoundland at any period, since the categories of movers are too vaguely defined. Basically, migrants were of three types: mariners or seamen, who sailed the fishing, banking, and supply vessels and who were employed on monthly wages—at least for the voyage; fishermen, who carne either as members of a ship's or banker's company or as byeboatmen (masters and servants) and servants of inhabitants; and finally other passengers. Since men who signed on with a ship's company often agreed for an outward and return passage, some byeboatmen doubled as sailors; and sailors, whüe in Newfoimdland, often worked as boatmasters or fishermen. To add simply one group to another (as they are categorized in the annual Schemes of the Fishery) would not totally solve the problem. A separate return reported by the Commodores and Naval Governors gives the number of 'passengers7 arriving in Newfoundland on various vessels (Figure 4.3), but the numbers probably only refer to paying migrants who, at least for most of the eighteenth century, were mainly comprised of byeboatkeepers, their servants, and servants arriving to be employed in the inhabitant fishery. Up until the 1790s, the number of passengers fluctuated with similar temporal rhythms of byeboatmen, but at higher levels. For example, the number of byeboatmen in the early 1770s varied between 2800 and 7000, and

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over the same period passenger totals ranged between 5800 and 7500. The difference can be explained by inhabitant labour demands. The upsurge in passenger traffic in the period 1810-15, shown in Figure 4.3, was somewhat anomalous compared with earlier episodes, since this was a marked emigration not only of servants seeking work with inhabitants but also of families of fishermen such as former byeboatmen who were about to stake their immediate future on the island.

Winter Servants Although the bulk of the passengers arriving in Newfoundland throughout the eighteenth century apparently returned home the same year, there was always a residue of servants who remained from one season to the next and collectively formed the most numerous sector of the wintering population. Some small proportions were employed by inhabitants to cut wood, build boats, trap fur, and in increasing numbers late in the century, to go on sealing voyages. For the most part, the wintering servants were unemployed—they worked for their diet (dieters) or lived on their summer wages. They lived in the homes of inhabitants, the cookhouses and bunkhouses of the f ishing ships and byeboatkeepers, or in any crude shelter they could construct or find. Official reports in the early eighteenth century consistently suggest that many were abandoned by their summer employers who, contriving to save the return passage, cut them loose at the end of the fishing season or encouraged them to hire to planters and New Englanders who still peddled supplies to Newfoundland. The same reports also suggested that many servants were brought into debt by both migratory men and inhabitants who retailed supplies, and especially rum, to them in quantities that left them in debt and obliged toremainbehind.By the 1760s,however,ithadbecomefairly common to hire servants for more than a single season—for two summers and one winter, or even longer periods. Although the Act of William II (1699) in support of the 'nursery of seamen' admonished the Newfoundland masters to return all servants and passengers, it was never possible ñor practical to enforce. During war periods especially, many servants saw Newfoundland as a refuge from the naval press gangs at home and employers, recognizing the problem of recruiting, encouraged their servants to overwinter.

Single men in the winter population outnumbered planters, females, and children combined from the 1740s until the 1770s. In

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Figure 43 Numbers of Passengers Arriving in Newfoundland

Numbers

i1 i • ! » n i 1 1 1 r 1 i > 1700 1720 1740 1760 1780 1800 1820

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1764, Governor Palliser thought that 10,000 such men were lost to the service of England contrary to the Acts made to manage the fishery. He also alluded to the social problems associated with winter idleness:

for they (a very few excepted) ha ve no employment during the winter, but live a most Savage, Detestable wick'd Life, spending their time in Idleness, Debaucheries and Excesses, and running in Debt on their next years wages.43

Thus, whether they stayed by necessity or choice, the presence of migrant servants in Newfoundland presented not only a political problem in maintaining the island as a fishery, but also social problems for the small and unorganized inhabitant communities. Some members of the servant class continued to intermarry with the daughters of inhabitants and thus became inhabitants themselves. As we have seen, marriage was one of the more important mechanisms by which individuáis were transferred from the migratory to the inhabitant sectors of the population. This general factor was recognized by Richard Routh in 1786. He argued that fishermen who remained in Newfoundland did so "on account of the Connection they form in marriage."44

Over most of the eighteenth century, male servants comprised more than half of the total winter population in all districts and settlements. The greater proportion of these servants were weakly rooted on the island, and turnover rates were undoubtedly very high over the span of a few years. The presence of young, robust, often 'masterless' men, often living in wretched and starving conditions, with unlimited access to rum and virhially no access to female company, combined with the lack of restraining institutional and legal influences, naturally created the setting for behaviourial norms which were condemned by contemporary observers, especially the few early missionaries stationed in Newfoundland. Drunkenness, theft, even occasional mob rule, rape, and murder, did occur with some frequency,45 and there was little to prevent such from happening.

It seems that English migration was relatively well-regulated, answering specific labour demands at given times. Most English servants were apparently hired and had foreknowledge of their roles, wages , and employers before they embarked for Newfoundland. In contrast, it seems that migration from Ireland went unregulated, virtually from the time when Irishmen began to

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be employed in significant numbers until Palliser's time in the 1760s.

Irish Migration As was noted earlier, Irishmen were initially noted arriving in Newfoundland in some numbers by 1720, mainly on the ships of Bristol, Bideford, and Barnstaple.47 The Bristol ships probably took them into Conception Bay, and the North Devon vessels to the southern Avalon and Placentia. In 1729 Commodore Beauclerk reported their arrival in both substantial and unregulated numbers, and forming a large majority of the wintering population:

so numerous that in many places there remains during the winter time nine of these Iiish Román Catholics to one English man.... The masters of the ships from Ireland bring them for the lucre of their passages.48

By 1732, Irish servants were added to the South Devon contingents as Governor Clinton observed some ships:

from Dartmouth, Tinmouth, Topsham, Bristol, etc...leave Britain with just a sailoring crew...proceed for Ireland and load with provisions, soap, candles, linen and woollen goods and great numbers of Irish Román Catholics....49

By mid-century, Irishmen were being transported on vessels from all English ports. In the annual returns of incoming passengers, which from 1753 desígnate major origins (England, Ireland, and Channel Islands), those arriving from Irish ports—mainly Waterford, Cork, and Youghal—normally comprised over 50 percent, and at times their proportions reached levels of 70-75 percent.50 More importantly, Irishmen soon established themselves as boatkeepers in both the migratory and sedentary modes, began to domínate the inhabitant populations of St. John's, the Southern Shore, and Placentia districts, and became a very substantial minority in Conception Bay.

These trends can be traced in the official returns, especially in the wintering populations of Protestants (mainly English) and Román Catholics (mostly Irish) which are distinguished after 1754.51

Missionary reports to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel also contain statistics on the main religious communities.52 In 1788, missionary figures include: for St. John's-2140 Papists (Román Catholics) and 890 Protestants; for Conception Bay-2690 Papists and 3917 Protestants. In 1790 Rev. Mr. Harris reported on Placentia that 'The place is very small and abound with Román Catholics...in winter about 2000. Protestants do not exceed 100." In 1795, Cole's

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statistics for the Ferryland district totalled 1536 Catholics and 394 Protestants, and for Bay Bulls-547 Catholics and 134 Protestants.

Up to 1800, more Irish appear to have migrated to and settled in Conception Bay than in any other district in Newfoundland, even though the región between St. John's and Placentia has been traditionally thought of as the main región of Irish settlement. It is clear that by the end of the eighteenth century the southern Avalon had become the Irish Shore7. In other districts, such as Trinity Bay, Bonavista Bay, Notre Dame Bay, and Fortune Bay, although Irish labour was employed to some extent, and there was at least one interval (1764-75) when Irishmen dominated among wintering population, only small and scattered Irish communities emerged compared to those which developed on the Avalon. Off the Avalon, the more prominent Irish communities sprang up in Ulting Harbour, Fogo, King's Cove, Gooseberry Islands, Bonavista, St. Lawrence, Lawn, and Harbour Bretón.

By the late eighteenth century most of the settlements on the Avalon Península were in vaiying degrees mixed Anglo-Irish communities. Some of the larger Irish communities developed side by side with larger English concentrations as in St. John's, Harbour Grace, and Carbonear. Meanwhile, the English-Irish ratio in places such as Brigus, Torbay, Petty Harbour, Bell Island, and Portugal Cove was more equally balanced. In some places (Harbour Main, Placentia, Ferryland, Trepassey) the Irish now formed a large majority, but very few dwelt in Port de Grave and Bay Roberts.

Irish migration added a very important dimensión to the Newfoundland settlement process, not only because of the additional numbers, but also because it was a strengthening socio-cultural and demographic forcé to a permanent population. The meeting of English and Irish migrants in Newfoimdland, particularly in St. John's, Conception Bay, Ferryland, and other southern districts, brought together two cultural groups into a co-operate venture which was somewhat unique, considering their traditionally hostile relationship over many centuries. The earliest paiish records of marriages in these districts indícate that though the u sua l ethnic biases of spouse selection prevailed, mixed English-Irish marriages were common.53 Indeed, it was probably through intermarriage with the earlier but few English families on the southern Avalon that the incorning Irish migrants, by degrees and ascription to Román Catholicism in the upbringing of children, became the culturally dominant group.54 Some evidence of this

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exists in the survival of distinctive Devonshire surnames on the southern Avalon in communities that have long been predominantly Román Catholic. Perhaps one of the most important f eatures of Irish migration was the fact that compared with English migration, single Irish females carne to the island in greater numbers, and while most married their own countrymen, many wed Englishmen or native-born Newfoundlanders of English extraction.55 As immigrants, the Irish flowed into and occupied districts and settlements pioneered by English planters, and either, as on the Southern Shore, absorbed the English into their cultural fabric by religious conversión or through replacement processes, as in some settlements around St. John's and Conception Bay, gained numerical domination.

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CHAPTER 5

Population and Settlement Changes to 1830

Compared with the population growth of other early colonies in North America, the peopling of Newfoundland was desultory in the extreme. After initial settlement experiments it took the island two centuries before it hosted a permanent population of 10,000, a level the Massachusetts colony attained in about two decades.1 The first settlement in Virginia was started three years earlier than the initial enterprise in Cuper's Cove, but whereas in the late 1790s Virginia had a population of one miliion,2 Newfoundland's total population was less than 20,000. These contrasts merely illustrate the comparative inefficiency of the migration system, since hundreds of thousands of migrants (potential settlers) had crossed the Atlantic to the island, yet the immigration intake remained a mere trickle for this two-hundred-year period.3 Nevertheless , this scanty immigration, however small, remains one of the more central and salient themes of Newfoundland's historical geography and cultural history. From a purely demographic viewpoint, the most important event in the colonization process was the arrival of females.

Female Migration As far as can be determined, the migration of females to Newfoundland began with the early seventeenth-century coloniz-ation ventures. Thereafter, however, the process by which they arrived is only vaguely and sporadically documented. Although the number of females present in the inhabitant population is recorded in most of the annual returns, only occasionally are indications given of their migratory tendencies or their structural composition by origins. In 1805, for example, 196 passengers from England included 5 females, and among 583 Irish passengers were 76 females.4 From

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such disparate references, it seems that f emales did constitute a small fraction of the general migration flows. In 1677 the total female population consisted of 94 wives, 130 daughters, and 13 women servants,5 comprising only 12 percent of the inhabitant population, a proportion that was not significantly altered until well into the next century, even as population levels moved upwards. Among the winter population, the mean ratio of adult females per 100 adult males did not reach twenty until the 1780s.6 By 1805 there were about forty females for every 100 males, and by 1830 males still outnumbered females more than two to one.7 In other words, Newfoundland7 s population was still very much of the Klondyke type when the island finally achieved oífiáal recognition as a colony in 1832.

Although no clear quantitative breakdown on the origin and derivation of the female population in Newfoundland during the early 1700s is possible, it would seem that at least three basic processes had contributed. These included: (a) movers from the British Isles as part of nuclear families (wives, daughters, or collaterals); (2) movement of unrelated women and girls as servants in the fishery, military, etc.; (3) female descendants of the above. The latter was the main source for marriages being formed by the 1790s.

One of the few official comments on female migration occurs with reference to a proclamation of Govemor Palliser in 1764. He demanded the masters of vessels to return "great numbers of poor women...by vessels arriving from Ireland, who become distressed and a charge to the inhabitants.778 According to the official staüstics, however, there was no marked increase in the female population in Palliser's time from a decade earlier, at least not in the St. John7s area. When Sir Joseph Banks carne to St. John's in 1766 and attended a ball given by Palliser, he observed that "the want of ladies was so great that my washerwoman and her sister were there by formal invitation."9 In 1805, a renewed concern over women arriving on the island was voiced by Govemor Gower, who exhorted district magistrates to implement Palliser7s regulation of four decades earlier. Gower asserted that there were "considerable numbers of married women...annually brought from the British Dominions in Europe to settle in the Island.../7 though he was probably only referring to a proportion of the eighty-one female passengers who had disembarked in St. John7s that year. Meanwhile, the annual returns for Gower7s period show that in St. John's the number of mistresses (wives and widows of settlers) had increased some

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eight-fold from Palliser's era and that female servants (unmarried girls over fifteen years) had tripled as well.10

As is characteristic of most long-distance migrations, once females had arrived in Newfoundland they were much more inclined than males to remain. Similarly, more of the indigenous females were inclined to marriage and lifelong residence in their home areas than their male counterparts, who as fishermen or sailors frequently migrated intemally or joined one of the migratory streams assodated with the fish and island-supply trades.1 Many of the men who brought wives to Newfoundland during the eighteenth century were undoubtedly fishermen who probably intended only temporary residence but often stayed to raise a family, or died before they had acquired sufficient capital to retire home. While most widows remarried quickly, a few operated fisheries by hiring servants, others gained a living by renting fishing rooms12 or, as many poor women in England did, attempted to subsist as laundresses, cooks, boarding-house keepers, domestics, or operators of public houses (taverns).14

Perhaps one of the more important mechanisms to affect the settlement process was, as illustrated by the Tavemer family, the development of the transatlantic extended family (Chapter 2). Clearly, like some of the Taverners, other early immigrant families spent only the main portion of their working and child-rearing phases of life in Newfoundland before retiring to England or elsewhere. Anthony Varder, a planter in Concept ion Bay (1675-1708),15 retired to Bedminster, Somerset, by 1714, but left a plantation in Bay Roberts to his daughter 'Anne Rork' and another at Port de Grave to a second daughter /Elizabeth Brady7, wife of Jacob Brady of Bristol.16 Similarly, when Richard Mullins, a former 'boatkeeper' in Western Bay, Conception Bay, and his wife retired in 1762 to Sturminster Newton, Dorsetshire, they had at least three daughters married and living in Newfoimdland, as well as several grandchildren.17 The surnames of their sons-in-law (Curtís, Perry, Snelgrove) survived in Conception Bay up to 1805 and persist there stül. Other examples of this process taken from wills indude Sarah Richards of Bristol, widow, who in 1772 left her properties in Newfoundland to her sons and daughters,18 and Joseph Bower Jr. also of Bristol, who bequeathed his plantations in Harbour Grace to his daughter, Mrs. Susannah Roberts (Heighington).19

As new coastal areas were added to the English fishery, a few families always followed the migratory fishermen and began to

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establish the roots of an inhabitant population. For example, the English fishery first moved into the Fogo and Twillingate districts between 1728 and 1732, and the first statistics on the population there in 1738 indícate that at least twenty families had already taken up residence.20 Between 1713 and 1763, St. Pierre on the south coast hosted an English fishery and a small settlement. In 1762 the Governor's returns enumerated a total population of 320 persons, including twelve mistresses, two women servants, and forty c±iildren. By treaty (1763), St. Pierre was returned to the French, and the English settlers ordered to remove. Apparently most simply moved into nearby Fortune Bay, for the first winter census of this district was of similar structure and size as the last reported population of St. Pierre.21

The migration processes which brought females to newly settled districts were probably analogous to one of the few well-documented frontier thrusts, namely that of George Cartwright7 s five voyages to the coast of Labrador between 1770 and 1786.22

Although Cartwrighfs attempt to establish a fur trade and salmón fishery in a hitherto unoccupied district met with failure and no permanent settlement resulted, his pioneering effort does illustrate the role of females in such an enterprise. On his first trip to Labrador (1770), for example, Cartwright brought as part of his company his common-law wife and housekeeper. In addition, he called at Fogo to hire some tradesmen (carpenters, a blacksmith, and some furriers) and also took into employ the wife of his blacksmith. After a return visit to England he embarked for Labrador, biinging again his housekeeper and a maid-servant he had recruited in London. After calling at Plymouth he dismissed the 'maid7 for bad behaviour but engaged another when his ship called into Waterford. Within two months after she arrived in Labrador, the Irish maid-servant had run off to many the agent of a rival company. On his third outward journey (1774), Cartwright again called at Plymouth and "hired a joiner, two men and a couple of women servants/7 In his journal dated October 1, 1774, he wrote /7at one o7clock this afternoon, I married William Bettres to Catherine Gourd (one of the maid-servants whom I brought from Plymouth, the other returned with Captain Scott).../7 On a later passage Cartwright also records that one of his chief employees and later his partner Robert Collingham took his wife to Labrador. When Cartwright went bankrupt in 1786, Collingham apparently moved to a new employment in Trinity Bay, where are recorded to Robert and

94



Hannah Collingham the baptisirt of two children, one in 1788 and another in 1794.

Throughout the course of the eighteenth century, as it became more common for merchants or their agents, clerks, and tradesmen, to overwinter in Newfoundland, it became more and more common for such men to bring their wives and families and to employ female domestics in the same way as families of similar status did in England. Similarly, the establishment (after 1762) of customs houses, courts of law, and military postings, gave rise, particularly in St. John's, to a growing bureaucracy and resident officialdom, of whom it was complained in 1793 that its members "employ a number of female domestics; these many with the residents and settle at St. John's, so that a number are annually carried out to replace them...."24 The cumulative effects of female immigration, natural increase, and retainment in Newfoundland became quite apparent in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century as sex ratios of female to male began to merge and the population began to assume more the norms of an established and settled society.

Female Populations—An Index of Permanence Since it is evident that all sectors of the Newfoimdland population were to some degree migratory up until the nineteenth century, it is illusoiy to discuss the growth of a permanent population, as most scholars have, by simply using total wintering populations as the single parameter.25 Iñ any colonizing context, the number of women and children may be regarded as an index of the more stable and permanent population, since it is axiomatic that these categories have implications for the germination, perpetuation, and continuity of a population and its social capacity to absorb subsequent immigrants (intermarriage).

Conceptually, one can define the permanent population for Newfoundland as that part of the winter population which comprised the adult females (F), with an equal number of adult males (M), together with children (C), or more succinctly by 2F + C. The difference between this population and the total winter population can then be defined as the transient, semi-permanent population, i.e., the excess males, the sector most inclined to migrate elsewhere and most subject to higher turnover. These categorizations are made possible from the enumeration units used by the Commodores and Naval Governors in compiling their annual population returns on Newfoundland. Analysis of the population

95



data in this source, however, must consider additional problems, including the accuracy of these censuses. For the most part, the population data are mostly estimates and have other serious flaws both in their compilation and in the enumeration irnits used from one year to another. It can be argued that aggregation at the regional or district level, the elimination of years in which the censuses are incomplete, and the use of smoothing techniques (such as calculating ruruiing-means in time-series) in order to reduce or spread the effects of extreme anomalies, represent the more suitable solutions for employing these data for analysis. Transformation techniques cannot amend original errors of these, or any, statistics, but one can proceed on the assumptions that real long-term trends in a population, even if estimated, will be reflected in the estimates themselves, and that the trend of a series of estimates is more accurate than any individual estímate. Naturally, the absolute margin of error in estimating a population is likely to increase as the population itself increases.

Long-term population trends for Newfoundland as a whole are isolated in Figure 5.1. These trends are shown in ten year running-means, according to the socio-demographic formula:

¿ E 2 ( F f ) + C t = E t ¿ = 1 , . . . . , » 1U t=i

Addit ional ly , the valúes derived are plot ted in semi-logarithmic scale so that changing growth trends and absolute valúes (population levels) can be compared temporally for the two main sectors—the permanent population and the excess male or semi-permanent population—within the overall changing levels of winter populations.

While the original statistics are characterized by short-term fluctuations, the generalized trends, shown in Figure 5.1, indicate that the permanent population crept slowly upward during the first half of the eighteenth century and that the semi-permanent population increased in a similar trend until about the period of the American Revolution, when there was a clear separation of growth patterns. Then, and especially after the 1780s, the permanent population expanded and grew very rapidly, and even continued to increase its rate of growth from about 1805 until 1830. In absolute terms, however, the permanent population, as defined above, did not exceed 10,000 until the French War period, but doubled before

96



Figure 5.1 Newfoundland Population Changes

97



the end of the war in 1815 and doubled again before 1830 when it reached a level of 40,000.

If we apply valúes calculated for Figure 5.1 to one of the standard formulas used to measure rates of population change, i.e.,

for three of the major breaks in the rate 7 (Pi - Jo) 1()0 of popu la t ion growth, it can be

Jo general ized that in the interval 1713-1750, a period of relatively slow

growth, the annual rate of increase was 4.7 percent; between 1750 and 1785, the permanent population advanced at an annual rate of 5.7 percent; and the rapid exponential expansión between 1785 and 1830 occurred at an average rate of 12 percent per annum. The general importance of these temporal variations is that without significant inmigration, one seldom íLnds in any society growth rates from natural increase alone that exceed 3-4 percentage annual increase.28

If it can be reasoned that a colonizing population achieves demographic maturity and social stability when the sexual balance is approximately evenly distributed, Figure 5.1 shows that this condition had not been attained as late as the 1830s, since excess males still accounted for about 25 percent of the normal winter population. Figure 5.1 also shows that as a separate sector, the transient winter population hovered about 5,000 from the 1760s on and actually increased to almost 10,000 from 1810 to 1825. As the Newfoundland codfishery in the intervening period shifted emphasis from a migratory to an inhabitant fishery, these young men comprised a labour forcé employed mainly by Newfoimdland residents. Their presence not only still constituted an importan! economic dimensión, but also an important socio-cultural element, as many continued to be absorbed, mainly through inter-marriage, into the demographic fabric of the island. Indeed, in the 1830s there still remained in the southem, western, and northern regions new frontiers yet to be effectively settled.29

Regional Patterns of Population Growth The analysis of population changes by regions or districts, using the same parameters, techniques, and assumptions as in the previous section reveáis some interesting similarities and variations. In Figure 5.2 the temporal pattern of population levels is shown in decadal averages for the total winter and permanent sectors of the population over the entire period between 1740 and 1830. Only in

98



the St. John's district did population trends match those of Newfoundland as a whole. Perhaps the most remarkable variation occurred in Coneeption Bay, where the permanent population experienced a sustained increase throughout most of the eighteenth century. In fact, a 'take off ' phase of population growth in Coneeption Bay occurred two to three decades earlier than in most districts and over half a century earlier than some. By the 1740s the permanent population in Coneeption Bay averaged over 50 percent of the total winter population and by the 1770s this proportion reached over 75 percent (Figure 5.2). Meanwhile, the district also contained about 35-40 percent of the total populat ion in Newfoundland and, together with the other districts of the oíd 'English Shore', carried 80 percent of the total population. Compared with Coneeption Bay and St. John's, the growth of a permanent population in Trinity Bay and on the South Shore was relatively slow, though both districts exhibit a markedly increased growth after 1790, paralleled to some degree in the new districts added to the English fishing and settlement domain during the earlier course of the century.

The relatively rapid and early growth of a resident population in Coneeption Bay is supported by other evidence (súmame survival and continuity). Contemporary observations of missionaries and officials also noted that the district was the most populous bay in Newfoundland.30 It was, of course, the district in which two of the early formal colonies were ventured, though admittedly with little impact on the growth of permanent settlement. It was also the only area where settlers raised a successful defence against the French raids in the period 1696-1713. From a demographic viewpoint, its primary place in establishing settlement, and the inertia this gave, probably account for its relatively early population growth. This conclusión is supported to some degree by the fact that more seventeenth century-surname survivals can be documented among inhabitants of Coneeption Bay than for any other part of the English Shore. Environmental attractions also probably aided the process as well. It is worth noting that settlement growth occurred mainly in a limited portion of the western side of the bay between Carbonear and Harbour Main. Here settlement was focused upon a set of sites which, by cióse proximity to each other and by fishing and farming conveniences combined, is unrivalled in the Newfoundland

31 context. A series of narrow parallel penínsulas provided the harbours, coves, and shelters, which attracted fishermen and early settlement, and yet no single settlement was removed from another

99



Figure 5.2 Population Levels by District, 1740-1820

100



by distances of more than two or three miles. Thus, unlike settlements elsewhere, the early colonists in this section of Conception Bay were not isolated in winter or indeed at any time. During the French raids, the settlers from several communities around Carbonear were able to protect themselves by uniting in common defence. Their cióse proximity, added to ethnic diversity, also provided greater opportunities for intermarriage among communities and ethnic groups than would have been possible in any other district. For example, Channel Islanders, Devonshiremen, Dorsetshiremen, Bristolians, and other Englishmen were among the earliest settlers in Conception Bay, and the district also hosted, as discussed above, one of the earlier, larger influxes of Irish immigrants. Relatively strong Irish communities had begun to grow in settlements such as Harbour Grace and Harbour Main as early as the 1750s. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, though Conception Bay remained predominantly English by origin and Protestant by religión, Irish communities in Harbour Grace, Carbonear, and Brigus and now almost totally Irish settlements such as Harbour Main, rivalled in size any of the Irish settlements on the Southern Avalon.

Regional Population Growth Rates One of the main problems in using the population data contained in the annual schemes of Governors' returns is the changing spatial units used to compile (or perhaps more accurately to estímate) the structural categories and population totals. In some years these data were compiled by individual settlement and in other years by district or settlement groups. Thus, the only reasonable way these statistics can be used comparatively is by aggregation within districts that are (as much as possible) consistent spatial units. In the St. John's area, for example, Petty Harbour, Torbay, and Quidi Vidi were enumer-ated separately in some years; in other years all three were aggre-gated, or St. John's and Petty Harbour were reported separately from Torbay.

Therefore, the only solution to make temporal comparisons was to accept the larger spatial units (district totals) and to aggregate consistently from the sub-units of other years. This solution was used in the construction of Figure 5.2 and in Table 5.1. Because of the numerous censuses available and their questionable accuracy, it was decided to transform the data into generalized measures by calculating population levels in decadal means, and to represent the spatial variations in population changes as the annual rate of change

101



Table 5.1 Population Levels in Newfoundland by District, 1740-1820

Average Permanent Population by Decade1

District

1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s

St. John's

440 786 808 1103 1446 2278 4519 7775 10,914

Conception Bay

466 1065 2338 3429 3839 4859 6166 9133 13,345

Trinity Bay

319 542 776 904 1056 1291 1396 2393 3,624

Bonavista Bay

193 215 268 120 448 783 1323 2778 3,273

Notre Dame Bay 81 99 240 121 253 320 861 1463 2,099

SouthernAvalon/Trepassey/St. Mary's 300 340 428 477 808 1008 1259 1651 1,668

Placentia/Burm-Mortier/Oderin 377 466 630 430 628 632 915 1553 2,812

St. Pierre

44 102 68 (ceded to France 1763)

Fortune Bay

99 - 152 453 825 1142 1,671 lCalculated from CO194 returns, using the formula: £ (2F -f C)

N

between the mean population of one decade and the next. The average population levels by decade and district are given in Table 5.1. The rates of population change, from the data in Table 5.1, are shown in Table 5.2.

The results given in Tables 5.1 and 5.2, as with all eighteenth and early nineteenth-century data from the annual returns, must be treated with caution. Since, however, these statistics provide the only basis for inferences on the regional growth of population in this period, they cannot be ignored, and here we are attempting to

102



Table 5.2 Population Change Rates in Newfoundland by District, 1740-1820

Average Annual Rate of Population Change1

1740/ 1750/ 1760/ 1770/ 1780/ 1790/ 1800/ 1810/ 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820

District

St John's 5.9 0.3 3.1 2.7

Conception Bay 8.6 8.2 3.9 1.2

Trinity Bay 5.4 3.6 1.5 1.6

Bonavista Bay 1.1 2.2 -7.7 14.1

4.6

2.4

2.0

5.7

7.1

2.4

0.8

5.4

Notre Dame Bay 2.0 9.3 -6.6 7.7

Southern Avalon/Trepassey/St. Mary's 1.2 2.3 1.1 5.4

2.4 10.4

2.2 2.2

Placentia/Burin/Morier/ Oderin 2.1 3.0 -3.7 3.8 11.6

FortuneBay

2Calculated from data in Table 5.1 using the formula: where r = annual rate of change, m - the number of years, n = population size at the end of a period (decade) and t = the population size size at the beginning of a period.

11.5

3.7

62

5.8 3.5

4.0 3.9

5.5 4.2

7.7 1.7

5.4 3.7

2.7 0.1

5.4 6.1

3.3 3.9

r

V = 1 - 1 x 100

measure in a general way the spatio-temporal interplay of natural increase and migration. While these dynamic factors of population change cannot be totally separated, it can be assumed that major departures from normal natural rates of change will indícate the temporal influence of out-migration or in-migration. For example, annual change rates over 3 percent are extremely high and seldom encountered except for declines in small populations which are affected by disease, epidemics, floods, war, or other sudden catastrophic events. Numerically, of course, high rates in small populations are less significant than lower rates in large populations,

103



and small populations are more subject to decline drastically in the face of natural or man-made adversíty.

Even in separating the permanent sector of the population and transforming the data into highly generalized form, it is still evident that all regions of Newfoundland experienced erratic ups and downs in population growth. Regionally, St. John's, Trinity Bay, and especially Coneeption Bay appear to ha ve grown most as the result of in-migration between the 1740s and 1760s, but population growth was clearly arrested during the 1770s, mainly due to disruptions caused by the American Revolution. As Grant Head has shown, the shortage of food supplies caused by the American embargo on exports to Newfoundland, and the increased costs of food from other sources, caused great distress in Newfoundland.33 In addition, American privateers attacked and harassed fishing and shipping activities, particularly on the offshore banks and in the outlying settlements such as Catalina, St. M a r / s Bay, Mortier, Twillingate, and the coast of Labrador. As Table 5.2 shows, population growth rates during the period of the American Revolution decreased, and in Notre Dame Bay, Bonavista Bay, and the Southern districts, population levels declined drastically, as apparently many families left the island. By contrast, the Napoleonic War era appears to have produced the opposite effect. The St. John's district doubled in population from the 1790s to the next decade, with an annual growth rate of over 7 percent, and Notre Dame Bay's permanent population also more than doubled, growing over the same period at over 10 percent. Between the 1780s and 1820s, the inhabitant population base levels in some districts (Fortune Bay, Placentia-Burin, Notre Dame Bay, Bonavista Bay, Coneeption Bay, and St. John's) increased in múltiples ranging from four- to ten-fold, and all districts at least experienced a two-fold increase.

Population Contínuity and Change One of the more recent trends of migration research, particularly in the investigation of frontier movements, has been á shift in emphasis f rom the purely statistical analysis of censuses, such as that presented in the foregoing, to the analysis of biographical data drawn from sources such as parish registers, wills, diaries, nominal censuses, and directories. This latter approach permits the researcher to focus upon the migrants themselves and their behaviourial patterns rather than the places through which they passed or in which they resided. While the new emphasis does not negate the valué of censal and intercensal statistical analysis, the conventional

104



approach often neglects such basic features as population turnover, circulation, replacement, family and community formation processes, which are important underlying processes to measure if one is to understand the growth and development of frontier regions.34

Basically, intercensal statistical analysis assumes, when calculating natural increase rates and measuring population changes, that a genealogical bridge spans the time interval, and this assumption is one which biographical data can support or refute. The striking fluctuations which are apparent in all structural categories of winter population by settlement and district, and in Newfoundland as a whole, may not only be accounted for by the inadequacy of the data, but may also portray an inconsistent officialdom measuring a fluctuating society. Newfoundland settlements were for extended periods occupied by a rootless, shifting, and migratory work forcé which responded to the speculative fortunes of the codfishery and ancillary winter activities. Meanwhile, these populations were forced to respond to migratory impulses, which in turn were conditioned by external, political and economic forces over which they had little or no control. In the case of early settlers such external forces ranged from the availability and cost of basic food, clothing, labour, and equipment supplies, 5 the price of fish as determined by merchants based mostly in Britain,36

and the individual and collective decisions of entrepreneurs who operated the supply and market linkages, to the political aífairs of the mother country, especially her involvement in the international community

All of these factors had feedback effects upon settlers and communities. The interplay of such forces appears to accoimt for much of the demographic turbulence and structural change one observes in winter populations un til the early nineteenth century. Meanwhile, it must be recognized that the power or inclination to respond to a changing social, economic, or political milieu was by no means constant for all individuáis, families, or communities. In fact, and perhaps in general terms, Commodore Berry underscores this argument when, after issuing his removal order to the inhabitants of Newfoimdland in 1675, he reported that "they promised obedience, but the greatest part are too poor to remove unless his Majesty will send a ship for them, and at least they must be put on the Parish (i.e. Poor Law Relief) wherever they come/'37

Almost a century later, a missionary in Trinity Bay observed, 'The

105



Rich yon see by my notes go to England. The Rest that stay Dissipate through the woods for subsistence on Venison, Hunting and for getting fire (wood), and Building Boats with their servants."38

Surnames and Occupiers of Property—A Measure of Patrilineal Continuity Two of the characteristics of a stable population, at least in traditional societies, are that surnames tend to be perpetuated from one generation to another and, correspondingly, that agnatic networks or patrilineal extended families tend to develop. These features can be measured partially by the continuity and frequency of common surnames. The analysis of regional surname structures and the comparison of probable patrilines between the late seventeenth- and early nineteenth-century periods can be undertaken for the St John's district, Conception Bay, Trinity Bay, and Bonavista Bay using nominal censuses of settlers.38

By 1805 Conception Bay planters can be divided into 420 different patrilineal groups,39 but only thirty-one (7 percent) can be matched with those in the bay a century earlier (Figure 5.3) and only eight surnames were perpetuated from the seventeenth century Among the surnames in 1805,224 (53 percent) were represented by a single patrilineal unit; however, by this time Conception Bay seems to have achieved some considerable relative stability inits inhabitant population. The growth of the extended family was alluded to by William Newman, a Dartmouth merchant in 1793, when he remarked that he supplied "a hundred families,/ in Conception Bay, "who have not a servant among them." Newman stated:

the resident fishery is...carried on by natives with their families; the Fishermen in the boat are part of that family; and the Fish is cured, when brought on shore, in general by their wives and children....41

In brief, the inhabitant population had grown sufficiently that fish production units consisted mostly of kin groups operating in a shared venture and división of labour.42 At least in the older settlements of the bay the family system of labour had largely supplanted the practice of hiring imported servants.

The grouping of 'occupiers of fishing rooms' in Conception Bay (1805) by surname and first ñame subunits shows that eleven families (Butler, Butt, Clark, Dawe, French, Kennedy, King, Mercer, Moore(s), Parsons, Penney), each represented by more than ten units, were probably the more expansive patrilineal groups, and at least f o u r of these (Butler, Butt , King, and Parsons) had

106



Figure 5.3 Súmame Survivais and Changes, 1675-1806

420

Conception Bay

36

12 — » - " •

1675-77 1706-08

Shaded area re presen ts Sumantes carriedforward to the next period.

1805

Trinity Bay

1675-77 1708 1753 1801

79

Bonavista Bay

22 23

1675-77 1708 1806

107



Table 53 Number and Percentage of Property-Occupiers by Birth, St John's

District, 1794-951

Newfoundland British Born Born Immigrants Migratory Total

Settlement No. % No. % No. % No.

St. John's 61 10.3 423 71.7 107 18.0 591 Quidi Vidi 6 14.6 30 73.1 5 12.3 41 Petty Harbour 16 30.2 37 69.8 0 - 53 Torbay 9 18.4 40 81.6 0 - 49 Bell Island 6 46.2 7 53.8 0 - 13 Portugal Cove not given - - - 34

CO199/18

seventeenth-century parentage in the district. For most of these major families it is also possible to recognize a core or lióme' settlement of attachment. For example, although in 1805 fourteen families surnamed Butler were distributed among five settlements, ten resided in Port de Grave, where the ñame was recorded in 1675-77 and 1708. Similarly, the Butts resided mainly in Crocker's Cove; Clarks and Penneys in Carbonear; Dawes in Port de Grave; the French and Mercer families in Bay Roberts; and Parsons in Harbour Grace 43

In the St. John's district, including the neighbouring harbours of Quidi Vidi, Petty Harbour, Torbay, Bell Island, and Portugal Cove, a nominal census of 'occupiers of properties' taken during the winter 1794-95 not only allows súmame comparison with those taken earlier in the century, but also distinguishes between those who were native-born and immigrants (the latter identified by number of years' residence in the country).44 In St. John's Harbour among forty-seven different surnames for the sixty-one 'native-born' occupiers, only three families (Marshall, Roach, and Sheppard) qualified as probable descendants of settlers there in 1705-08, and as Table 5.3 shows, the 'native-born' total accounted for only 10 percent of the resident population, the balance being recent immigrants (72 percent) and absent seasonal occupiers (18 percent).

As Table 5.4 shows, súmame continuity in St. John's differed little from the smaller harbours nearby, though these harbours were among the earliest used by the English summer fishermen and byeboatkeepers, and some of the earliest to be settled. The only two

108



Table 5.4 Súmame Linkages in the St. John's District Between 1705 and 1794-951

I II No. of unique surnames No. of (surnames) iri I

of native-born matching those in 1794-5 1705-8

III No. of probable

extended families in 1794-52

St. John's

Quidi Vidi

48

6 (Marshall, Roach, Sheppard)

0

6

0

Petty Harbour 8

Torbay 7

Bell Island 4

Portugal Cove no data

1 (Chafe)

0

0

1 (Earle)

(Angel, Chafe, French)

2 (Bradbury, Goss)

2

(Kent, Squires)

0

S

JCO199/18 and CO 194/3,4 censuses, 2Includes native-born occupants with same súmame.



surnames showing a century7 s longevity were Chafe at Petty Harbour, and Earle in the Bell Island/Portugal Cove district.46 Not only were the 1794-95 res idents (the heads of families) overwhelmingly of first generation immigrant derivation, but also there were, among the 'native-born', few patrilineally extended families. In Petty Harbour, only the Angel, Chafe, and French families, in Torbay the Goss and Bradbury surnames, and on Bell Island Kent and Squires, each represented by two 'occupiers' or more, might qualify as probably extended (Table 5.4).

Population turnover and replacement, however, at least in the male sector, is nowhere better demonstrated than in St. John's Harbour. Though always acclaimed the chief commercial centre and most populous settlement in Newfoundland, in 1794-95 only 10 percent of the property occupants were 'native-born', and only six patrilines (Barnes, Bryan, English, Power, Vinicombe, and Wood) out of an indigenous set of forty-eight were extended.

The Register of Fishing rooms compiled in 1806 for Bonavista Bay furnishes similar surname evidence as for Conception Bay (1805) and the St. John's district (1794-95). Although spanning a century from the previous nominal census (1708) and thus not as closely time-spaced as one would wish, it is the only surviving document which permits assessment of continuity in the population. The generalized comparison and intercensal changes of surnames in Figure 5.3 illustrate that six surnames out of twenty-two for the period 1675-77 bridged the interval to 1708 when Bonavista Bay had twenty-three planter surnames; but only four of the latter were represented among seventy-nine surnames recorded in 1805 (Newell, Skeffington, Shambler, and Walkham). Two of these (Newell and Shambler) appear to be of seventeenth-century origin. While obviously, either through mortality or out-migration, most of the earlier settlers' surnames disappeared as elsewhere in Newfoundland, the ñames of many of the initial inhabitants in Bonavista Bay survive as geographical place ñames, currently in use in the many islands, coves, harbours, tickles, and reaches within the bay.47

Among the seventy-nine Bonavista Bay surnames recorded in 1806, sixty-four were represented singly and only four surnames (Burry, Brown, Dyke, and Green) could be assigned to more than two settlers. The inference of recent immigration or first-generation occupancy for most of these settlers is supported by other information recorded in the original document.

110



Table 5.5 The Nature of Tenure Claims to Fishing Rooms, Bonavista Bay, 18061

No. of Fishing Rooms Acquired By

cutting & clearing purchase inheritance other (lying Total rooms Settlement by occupant void) occupied

Greenspond 9 7 7 - 23 Pinchard's Island 4 - - - 4 Pouch Island 1 - - - 1 Tickle Cove 1 - - - 1 Newell's Island 1 - - - 1 Gooseberry Islands - - 1 - 1 Vere (Fair) Islands 1 1 - - 2 Grouf s Island - - 1 - 1 Barrow Harbour 2 - 1 - 3 Salvage 3 - - - 3 Fiat Islands 1 - - - 1 Keels - 1 4 - 5 King's Cove 7 - 2 1 10 Red Cliff Island - - 1 - 1 Bonavista 13 5 8 2 28

Total Number 43 16 24 3 85 Percentage 50.5 18.8 28.2 3.5 100

lRegister of Fishing Rooms, 1806 PANL



Apart from the ríame and residence, the occupants of fishing rooms were asked to speüfy the 'nature of their claims' and the length of time in possession. Claims were made under four headings: (1) cut and cleared out of the wilderness (by the occupant); (2) purchased from a previous occupant; (3) inheritance; and (4) renting. Among the eighty-fíve fishing rooms or properties for which these data were recorded, only 28 percent were inherited, which provides us with a rough level of second-generation continuity (Table 5.5). Similarly, by 'years of occupancy/ thirty-three rooms (39 percent) were said to come under the tenure of their occupants after 1800. Only seven rooms had claimants who asserted an occupancy of twenty years or more. The oldest family fishing rooms were claimed by Joseph and Benjamin Cárter of Ship Island, near Greenspond, who asserted inheritance rights going back eighty years (ca. 1725), and William Kean, Esq. (then retired to England and renting a room to Thomas Street of Poole), who also claimed a property on Ship Island 'originally built by Kean's family7 eighty years earlier.

Throughout most of the eighteenth century, official returns would have us believe that fishing activity and population in Bonavista Bay accounted for little more than the combined totals of Bonavista and Greenspond.48 The evidence of settlement for 1806 (shown in Table 5.5) indicates that settlements such as Salvage, Keels, and Fair (Vere) Island had fewer families residing then than they had in 1675-77. Indeed, even while Greenspond and Bonavista were continuously occupied by persons designated as 'planters7 or 'inhabitants7, these were evidently rooüess and mobile and only less migratory than others by degrees of time and frequency. Comparatively, the process of establishing a permanent and stable population in Bonavista Bay49 appears to have lagged behind Conception Bay by at least fifty to sixty years, or by two to three generations (see Figure 5.3).

The district of Trinity Bay, by sequence of English occupancy, population growth, and development, lay intermediately between Conception Bay and Bonavista Bay. It lagged behind the former but progressed faster than the latter. The parade and continuity of surnames in Trinity Bay over the eighteenth century, however, can be measured more predsely than for any other district, since in addition to the 1675-77 and 1708 nominal censuses, we also possess a screening document for 1753 and another for 180150 (Figure 5.3). From the súmame structures it can be seen that patrilineal lines in the second half of the eighteenth century had grown much stronger

112



both absolutely and proportionately than in the earlier half. Thus, whereas only seven surnames (Green, George, Legg, Pottle, Sweet, Sooley, and Taverner) bridge to 1753 out of 29 in the bay in 1708,48 surnames from 99 in 1753 were represented among some 217 su rnames in the district in 1801. Meanwhile , the late eighteenth-century additions of some 169 surnames still formed 78 percent of the 'occupiers' of property enumerated in 1801, indicating that immigration at least in the male line, was still a very prominent factor in the evolving social fabric on which Trinity Bay was being founded.

Settlement Growth and Expansión Most of the harbours, coves, and islands which formed the sites for inhabitant colonies on the English Shore were inhabited almost continuously from the late seventeenth century. Most, however, as súmame changes indícate, were focal points which saw a succession of 'inhabitant' families, hosts of sojourners with highly variable terms of residency, and which therefore were subject to permutations in terms of origin. As in the seventeenth century, the major concentrations of seasonal activity in the next century identified the prime locations for inhabitant clusters. Similarly, in the oíd areas the major features of settlement growth in the eighteenth century included the increase of fishing rooms and dwellings and growth of population in the more convenient and commodious harbours, sites of prolonged usage by both seasonal fishermen and inhabitant populations, and diffusion into other sites less favoured, or occupied in earlier periods only temporarily, if at all.

As was noted above, the earliest and most rapid growth of permanent population occurred in Conception Bay and, more specifically, within the twenty to twenty-five mile sector on the southwestern side of the bay, between Carbonear and Harbour Main —an area which for its compactness of fine harbours, settlement sites, and relatively favourable soils is unrivalled in Newfoundland. These factors help explain why a permanent population burgeoned here earlier than in other districts.

In 1774, based on the properties mapped by Michael Lañe, the Carbonear-Harbour Main coast contained seventeen settled sites, whereas the rest of Conception Bay had only ten settlements.51 Of the latter only Bay de Verde ranked in a dass size with settlements such as Carbonear, Harbour Grace, Bay Roberts, Port de Grave, and Harbour Main. In 1805, occupied properties were described for sixty

113



Figure 5.4 Conception Bay Settlements 1805

CONCEPTION BAY SETTLEMENT

1805

ONE SQUARE REPRESENTS 4 FíSHING ROOMS

óc Verde

Iw Potftt o

Lowr Islirná tove&

W^iX-iMMMMM^. i 1

B»rnt ?olBt¿ B

E»í 1 Isl»nd°B HortNern

Oaker P1tt C«ve«m»rac

Western 0ay» Core»!

A4a«*s CoveoSn BlackheidoME

?tuTl«jf*s Core o a»

8ro*d

BMH3

*trry*s toveD0

SsIwor Cov*eD

Cío**'4 C-0*«j»B Fresíwat-er^BB.c

Crccfcer's Cove 0 ,

Ci rbonear So trtH®'

J*a*Jt«tt*« SSSSBSSSo ««rboor wmmmmwwmmm

Btterfcurjyp bjj ©Bryant'sCv tt*rt>Ottr Srscp Sotttlf®* 8m55O Ulan* Spoon * r « 4 ^ ^ « ^ C c o o p e r - s Hd

. ítertíiern Cove4>«e Juggler's Cove Mint Co>eo»WD _ ¿ Ribb*s__Hol_e_ Srecn Hesd0*"""*' '

Port de 6rave ,:«Burnt Head D c

tupiéy&SEmi tribus.

T»ri's Sut» 1

CoUíer Cafs CoveF

85 JtltHug** : :Bacon Cove ¿ • O

GREAT EEU-f ISLE oPortugjtl

Cove

•o&ro*d Cove

C »tJ>¿*ber?*1ns r^oW* ñutís

fmtá *fvxt r»

Sa l»

iChapp-el's Cove D«arbo»r Cove®

"itoiy Road

114



settlements in the Coneeption Bay plantations book, including all of those mapped by Lañe in 1774. Whereas Lañe mapped properties (fish stages) ranging from eight to eighteen at the larger settlements (Carbonear, Harbour Grace, Port de Grave, Harbour Main, Bay de Verde), the number of properties occupied in the same locations in 1805 ranged from 50 to 125. Harbour Grace, Carbonear, and Port de Grave were clearly the most populous settlements, followed by Bay Roberts, Bay de Verde, Harbour Main, Brigus, and Western Bay. The proliferation of settlements in the interval 1774-1805 was characterized by the movement of planters into more marginal coves and sites where fishing rooms could be built, including the virtually harbourless stretch on the southeastern side of the bay (Figure 5.4).

The rights claimed to property in Coneeption Bay in 1805 fell into five categories: cut and cleared; deeded by gift or inheritance; lying void; purchased (from previous occupants); and rented. The 'cut and cleared7 or 7cut out of the woods7 category referred to a claim under the Act of William El (1699) which permitted planters to stake out properties (not used as migratory ships7 rooms) to build wharves, stages, flakes, etc., for a fishery. 'Lying Void' alludes to properties abandoned or neglected by previous occupants for at least a year, and in 1805 under the tenure of a subsequent party. As a general rule, the title 'cut and cleared' signáis the more recent extensions of settlement, whilst properties held by inheritance claims represent the older and more permanently occupied properties or portions of settlements. The larger settlements, with over forty fishing rooms (plantations) occupied, included Bay de Verde, Harbour Main, Harbour Grace, Carbonear, Bay Roberts, Cupids, Port de Grave, Brigus, and Western Bay. Bay de Verde, always a prominent inshore fishing harbour, had the highest number (twenty-one) and proportion (37 percent) of properties occupied by claims of Tying void' possession, but also had a high proportion (over 60 percent) of properties which were 'inherited or purchased' by its 1805 occupants. Most of the other large settlements also had a high proportion of 'inheritance' and/or 'purchase' claimants. For example, Harbour Grace, Carbonear, Port de Grave, Brigus, and Bay Roberts had 'inheritance' properties of the respective proportions of 40,31,59,45, and 54 percent of all described. Concomitanüy, these same settlements represented in absolute terms the more important sites of recent setüer attraction. In 1805, for example, in Carbonear there were 50 fishing rooms which had been newly 'cut and cleared'; Harbour Grace contained 35, Port de Grave-29, Cupids-18, Brigus-12, and Bay Roberts had 12.

115



Combined with súmame analysis, the evidence of settlement growth patterns in Conception Bay from the tenure of properties in 1805 illustrates two importan! facets of the demographic structure in this formative period. FirsÜy, the district contained a relatively high proportion of native-born who were a generation or more removed from iriitial immigration. Almost 40 percent of all the fishing rooms in the bay had been inherited. Some 64 percent of these rooms were transmitted patrilineally (father to sons), while 12 percent had been acquired through marriage (from fathers-in-law). Smaller proportions were claimed by matrilineal rights (8 percent), by widows (3 percent), and by grandchildren, nephews, etc. Secondly, Conception Bay in 1805 also contained a relatively high proportion of very recent immigrants and settlers. Over 32 percent of the 1805 properties, or some 350 units of those described, had been carved out of the wilderness and built upon by their current occupants; and a further 256 rooms (25 percent) had been bought from previous owners. The same conclusión, for a recent rapid influx of immigrants, is supported by the nominal evidence: over half of the occupiers in 1805 had unique surnames. Additionally by number of years of occupancy, some 297 properties (30 percent) in 1805 had been occupied within the previous five-year period, and 65 percent within the previous two decades, between 1785 and 1805.53

Compared with Bonavista Bay, Trinity Bay, or other districts, settlement in Conception Bay at the beginning of the nineteenth century had achieved not only much higher population levels but also much more generational depth and demographic maturity. The number of fishing rooms in single settlements such as Port de Grave, Harbour Grace, or Carbonear exceeded the total of all properties in Bonavista Bay and, in fact, in 1805 there were more properties continuously occupied in Conception Bay for over thirty-five years (that is, since before 1770), than all types in Bonavista Bay, and the number of new fishing rooms 'cut and cleared' between 1800 and 1805 in the former exceeded the latter some four-fold.

Emerging Settlement Hierarchies Although all districts lagged behind Conception Bay by varying time spans, the process of settlement growth, extensión, and diffusion tended to follow similar spatial patterns. The more spacious harbours, which combined the site features of shelter and shore conveniences for stages and flakes with relative locational advantages of reliable fishing grounds, water, and wood, or other resources such as seal and salmón runs, became the major

116



settlements and regional centres.54 In the eighteenth century such sites began to attract the attention of merchants and traders as locations to build warehouses, stores, and other fixed capital buildings. In their respective districts Ferryland, Trepassey, St. Mary's, Placentia, Burin, Little St. Lawrence, Harbour Bretón, Trinity, Bonavista, Greenspond, Fogo, and Twillingate functioned like Harbour Grace and Carbonear in Conception Bay, that is, as the earliest and chief settlements around which dependent settlements sited in smaller coves and shelters developed. Other small and more peripheral coves, headlands, islands, and river estuaries at the bay bottoms became increasingly used as resource bases and were settled; however, the main loci of growth were the older harbours and fishing locations in the mid- and outer bay areas, at least up to the early nineteenth century. Over the whole settling period, most migrants arrived in the older and larger settlements and were more inclined to reside there than to pioneer settlement in the secondary and more marginal sites. The latter appear to have been settled at later stages mainly by subsequent generat ions of native Newfoundlanders.

The initial development of a settlement hierarchy, at the district level, can be detected by the mid-eighteenth century, and this pattern was rapidly reinforced in the last half of the century when some English merchants became increasingly drawn into a sedentary supply trade and reduced their own production efforts. In Conception Bay the división between mercantile centre and primary producing settlements, and their interdependent relationship, was not as weü-defined spatially as in most districts, since Harbour Grace and Carbonear both emerged as major supply and collection centres,55 and even Bay Roberts, Brigus, and Cupids attracted a merchant or two who imported and retailed supplies.56 Conception Bay was also dose enough for local settlers to avail of supplies from St. John's, and merchants in the latter were controlling much of the provisions trade in the bay even before the American Revolution.57

Trinity Harbour in Trinity Bay although Iong recognized as one of the most excellent natural harbours in Newfoundland and

58 certainly the most capadous ship harbour on the northeast coast, attracted relatively little migratory activity and few settlers until the 1740s. By comparison, stations on the headlands—Bay de Verde, Oíd Perlican, and Bonavista—were less convenient than Trinity as shelters, but relatively much better situated to exploit the summer inshore cod runs. The English Pilot, for example, rated 'Bay Verds'

117



(Bay de Verde) "a bad place and hazardous for Ships to ride" but "by reason of the great plenty of Fish...makes Fishing-Ships desire the more.../' Meanwhile, Bonavista reportedly had a "bad" road and Oíd Perlican an "indifferent" road. Earlier these places were also more favoured than Trinity for settlement. Although Trinity had been proposed early in the century as the site "most fit to fortify" and most convenient to afford winter protection for the inhabitant population of Trinity Bay as well as to secure boats, fishing gear, provisions, salt, and fish left over from one year to the next it was near mid-century before a small fort was placed on Admiral's Point to secure the harbour defensively.

The real and sustained ímpetus for the emergence of Trinity as a centre of commercial and trade activity carne with decisions by a succession of Poole entrepreneurs to make use of the harbour to build stores, warehouses, wharves, dwellings, and other structures and to use the harbour for receiving incoming supply ships, bank fishing ships, and for transshipping cod, oil, salmón, furs, and timben61 By the 1760s the commercial linkages of Poole through Trinity included a supply and marketing network that extended not only to all other settlements in Trinity Bay but also to most of the settlements from Bay de Verde on the south to Fogo Island on the north.

Throughout Newfoundland, merchant headquarters became dominant regional centres where imports and migrant servants were redistributed throughout the merchants' territories. These centres also attracted to them the first community institutioris such as churches, schools, and courts. The communities that resided in the centres created by mercantile capital were not the only ones dependent upon the indispensable connections that merchants provided to the outside world. There were many other dependent places lower down the settlement system. For example, in Placentia Bay, Placentia developed a supply function similar to that of Trinity, and an observer commented in 1772 that if Placentia were to fall, it would immediately "...destroy the Fishery (at least for one year) of Twenty Harbours/'62

As planter populations increased, more primary-producing settlements were added to the settlement network, usually first as casual or seasonally occupied settlements. Internal seasonal migrations between summer fishing stations and winter quarters in the woods (a form of transhumance) evidently became a widespread phenomenon.63 In some districts such movements were relatively

118



localized and involved families who, seeking better shelter and fuel supplies, travelled a mile or two from exposed shores to reside in neighbouring woodlands. In other districts the seasonal adjustments tended to follow bay-mouth to bay-bottom patterns or combined elements of both short- and relatively long-distance movements. In Trinity, Bonavista, and Notre Dame Bays it is clear that the occupance of bay-bottom sites by winterers preceded their year-round occupation. The settlement diffusion process between 1750 and 1820, however, was mostly characterized by the founding of new fishing settlements, and these were almost always initially occupied by one or two planter families who took possession of and cleared fishing rooms, constructed wharves, stages, and flakes, and built small wooden-studded houses, or tilts, for dwellings.

Whether they resided in single-family or group settlements, most settlers were in similar circumstances. They operated in the inshore fishery with one or two boats crewed with servants from England and Ireland. A supply of servants and youngsters was fundamental for any measure of fishing success, and in the case of any planter, the demand for imported servants lasted until the 'native-born7 population was large enough to provide family labour. In eighteenth-century Newfoimdland, it would seem that few planters, settlements, or even districts were able to meet from the indigenous population the demands of the labour-intensive summer fishery. By the end of the century it is evident, though, that Conception Bay had reached the demographic stage that precluded the need for external labour.

By the early 1800s, Conception Bay residents were also heading a considerable annual exodus of families into a northern fishery, north of Cape St. John and on the coast of Labrador, where Governor Gower in 1805 reported they caught and husbanded codfish in the same manner as on their own shores.64 In 1805 over 100 vessels were taking this northern excursión, of which some seventy-five went from Conception Bay and most of the rest from St. John's. Meanwhile, these same vessels were beginning to be increasingly employed in the spring (March-April) on sealing voyages to the ice floes on the northeast coast. In 1804-1810,100 schooners or more, based in St. John's and Conception Bay, were venturing annually to the ice for seáis.66

The exploitation of these résources, to some extent, can be seen as a response to growing population pressures upon the local resource base. The rise of the seal and the Labrador fisheries was very

119



rapid, and both industries carne to play a vital role in the lives of communities in Coneeption Bay until the present century67 In this respect, Coneeption Bay only led the development, for as their respective populations grew there was scarcely a settlement along the northeast coast which did not particípate in either the summer seasonal migrations to Labrador and/or the annual spring seal hunt. The feedback effect of exploiting these non-local resources was that Coneeption Bay and other districts began to support larger populations than would have been possible from their local resources. Concomitantly, the migrations northward lead to internal colonization in that many of the settlers in the northern península, the Straits of Belle Isle, and on the coast of Labrador stemmed from parental roots in Coneeption Bay, the St. John's area, and Trinity Bay.

120



CHAPTER 6

Frontier Social Demography in Trinity Bay 1753-1830

The transition toward a permanent population during the late eighteenth century, and the major demographic processes in volved in the transition, can be analyzed most completely from the documentary source materials for Trinity Bay, particularly for Trinity Harbour and its nearest out-harbour dependencies: Salmón Cove, English Harbour, and Bonaventure. Apart from nominal censuses of family units for 1753 and 1801,1 which provide the basis for súmame and structural analysis of the population at these years, parish registers of baptisms, burials, and marriages, from Trinity Harbour and nearby communities, are complete from 1757 onwards.2 These allow us to iink biographical data and vital events, forward from 1753 and backward from 1801. The parish data are particularly useful in exploring the mechanics of family formation, the role of both females and males in extending family linkages, social interaction patterns between the migratory and inhabitant sectors of the late eighteenth-century district populations, and the migratory behaviour of sub-sectors of the population within, and in and out of, the study area (Trinity Bay). Other supplementary sources include court records 1753-74/* which provide ñames, occupations, and place-name evidence for individuáis involved in civil disputes and as court officials; ñame lists from the Trinity-written portion (1761-64, 1767-71) of the diary of a Poole merchant (Benjamin Lester);4 and wills of erstwhile Trinity planters.5

Settlement and Population Growth 1753-1801 According to the census of 1753, Trinity Bay contained 147 wintering family units divided among some ten settlements (Table 6.1). By 1801 the number of families in these ten settlements had increased to 249,

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Table 6.1 Number of Families by Settlement, Trinity Bay 1753-1801

No. of Wintering Families Settlement 1753 1801 Change(+or-)

from 1753

Trinity Harbour 67 103 +36 Oíd Perlican 22 57 +35 Hearfs Content 14 25 +11 New Perlican 6 16 +10 Salmón Cove 17 13 -4 Silly Cove 3 17 +14 Hearfs Ease 3 -3 (Oíd) Bonaventure 4 6 + 2 English Harbour 6 12 +6 Fox Island 5 -5

Total 147 249* +102 *Older settlements

New Settlements** New Harbour 10 New Bonaventure 9 Turk'sCove 5 Rider's Harbour 6 Hant's Harbour 5 Hearfs Delight 4 Ireland's Eye 2 Shoal Harbour 2 Ship Cove 2 Catalina 1

Total Total 1801 Total Change from 1753 (102 + 46)

** Settlements appearing between 1753 and 1801.

though there was an absolute decline in at least one settlement (Salmón Cove) and an abandonment of two others (Hearfs Ease and Fox Island),6 though it is probable that the families had moved to winter quarters elsewhere in the bay. As Table 6.1 shows, the increase of some 100 families (occupiers) in the older settlements is mostly explained by the growth of Trinity Harbour, Oíd Perlican, Silly Cove,

46 295

+46 +148

122



Figure 6.1 Trinity Bay Settlements 1801

123



Table 6.2 The Documented Fate of the (1753) Settlers in the Trinity Area1

Number of Settlers resident buried between surviving disappeared

Settlement in 1753 1757 and 1801 in 1801 before 1801

Trinity Harbour 67 26 1 40 English Harbour 6 4 - 2 Bonaventure 4 1 - 3 Salmón Cove 17 11 - 6 Fox Island 5 3 i 2 1 Total/Percentage 99 45 2 52 1Census data and parish registers. 2Resident (1801) in Salmcm Cove.

Hearfs Content, and New Perlican. Ten new settlements which carne into existence after 1753 added another forty-six families by 1801. Place ñame ref erences in the parish registers of Trinity and in Lester's Diaries indicate that some of these settlements (New Harbour, Hant's Harbour, Rider's Harbour, Ireland's Eye, and Catalina) were occupied at least temporarily in the 1760s as summer fishing stations, and Shoal Harbour in Southwest Arm at the bottom of the bay was one of several sites commonly used for winter quarters by wood-cutters and furriers. According to Lester, winter wood-cutting crews frequently went 'up the sound', and he specifically identifies sites such as Rocky Brook, Milton, Bull Arm, lickle Bay, and Chapple as places of activity.

In Trinity Harbour and vicinity, the fate of family heads recorded in 1753 and their kinship links with the families residing in the same area in 1801 can be inferred with reference to the parish register. The burial records indicate that at least twenty-six (or 38 percent) 1753 planters in Trinity Harbour died locally before 1801.6

The same source ascribes a similar fate to four out of six settlers in English Harbour in 1753, one of four in Bonaventure, and eleven of seventeen in Salmón Cove. Only one of the initial settlers, Robert Clark of Trinity Harbour, was stül livrng in 1801; thus, other factors (intra-migration and out-migration) have to explain the high proportion of those disappearing. As Table 6.2 shows, forty family heads (60 percent) had left Trinity before 1801.

Intra-bay migration of families 1753-1801 was clearly temporary (seasonal) and mostly localized (short-distance). A few surnames disappear from some settlements and were established

124



elsewhere later. The Rowe family moved from Trinity (1750s) to Hearf s Content (1801). The only snrnames in 1801 which were found across the bay were Ash (Trinity, Oíd Perlican), Green (Trinity, Oíd Perlican, Hearfs Content), Moores (Trinity, Hearf s Content), Newell (Trinity, Hearfs Content), Pinhorn (Trinity, Silly Cove), Piercey and Read. None of these surnames, however, match those disappearing from the Trinity area between 1753 and 1801.

Some of the planters in Trinity in 1753, such as Rev. Mr. Lindsay, Captain Joseph Bools (Bowles), Benjamín Lester, and Wm. Green, retired home to England, whilst others, such as John Black and Patrick Keen, are mentioned in Lester's diary in the 1760s as planters on Gooseberry Islands in Bonavista Bay. More general explanations of migratory tendencies for the 1760s and early 1770s are afforded by the observations of Rev. James Balfour in his letters to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. After about three years in Trinity in response to the petition of 'seventy subscribers' asking for a missionary, Balfour lamented in 1767 that "a great many of them are either Bankrupt, Dead, Or gone from the Country/'7 Several years later he wrote that while he was adding new members to his congregation "the fluctuating situation of their Lot in Life continually remo ves a few every year to other parts of the World, so that my number remains between fifty and sbcty/'8 and in another place he noted that his parishioners "often remove to better their Fortune in some other Harbour of the Land: besides the

9

transmigration of Individuáis either to Great Britain or America."

Patrilines and Matrilines The termination of patrilines (male surnames) in the Trinity Harbour area 1753-1801, either through mortality or lack of documentation, does not mean that these erstwhile settlers lacked demographic impact upon the intervening and 1801 inhabitant population. The specific biographical information which is available shows that among the fifty-one surnames which apparently vanished from Trinity, English Harbour, Bonaventure, and Salmón Cove after 1753, at least twelve families perpetuated themselves through the marriage of females into new patrilines. Thus, while the surnames of Archer, Bound, Crowcher, Cárter, Hussey, Pike, Reedman, Shambler, and Welsh disappear (without burial explanation), the marriage registers record nuptials of eleven females bearing one or other of these surnames. Similarly, another ten females who married between 1753 and 1801 were apparent descendants from three 1753 patrilines (Gillett, Morley, and Waterman), surnames seemingly lost

125

SOURCE: W. Gordon Handcock, Soe longe as there comes no women, Origins of English ' Settlement in Newfoundland (1989, 2003), image reprint CD, (Milton, Ontario: Global Heritage Press, 2009)


before 1801 by mortality.10 More composite portraits of 1753-1801 family linkages, including intervening generations (sons and daughters of the former), allow us to conclude that matrilineal (female) bridges were much stronger than patrilines. In Trinity Harbour, the analysis of the structural patterns of 111 nuclear families recorded in 1801 for the relative importance of 'native-born' females and 'native-born7 males shows that the females (as wives or heads of family units) were included in seventy (60 percent) of these families, whereas their indigenous male counterparts were components in only forty families (37 percent). Collectively, the demographic impact of the 1753 population— despite the interim losses—was such that it contributed through descendants to eighty (77 percent) of family units residing in Trinity in 1801.

In the settlement of English Harbour, a small outport with a strong association with Trinity economically and socially, the 1753 census listed six planter families, of which one (Pottle) was apparently a patriline of early century descent. As Figure 6.2 shows, by 1801 only three surnames (Batson, Jones, and Pottle) were retained. Intermarriage with local females and matrilocal residential attachment had introduced at least twelve new surnames. Of these, Higdon and Hancock had Pottle matrilineal origins; Bugden, Kember, Miller, and Sweetland had married Batson females; and Penney, Wells, Ivany, and Barnes had maternal links with the Jones family of 1753. Robert Rowle and John Crowcher, two other 1753 settlers, vanish from the record, whilst a third, Thomas Harris, died in English Harbour in 1765, his widow in 1770, ostensibly without surviving progeny. As Figure 6.2 shows, some surnames found in the 1753-1801 interval (Lockyer, Hart, Sweet) either termínate through mortality of the family head(s) or occur elsewhere in Trinity Bay subsequently. Additional to these, the parish records revea! a few trarisients. These did not appear in the census sources but were residentially linked to English Harbour by the parish register. These were John Loveless-1786, Joseph Hiscock-1786, and John Wareham-1784.

A retrospective reconstruction of origin of the nuclear families in Trinity Harbour in 1801, shown in Table 6.3, was attempted based upon the following technique; each occupier named was placed into one of two broad categories—'native-born7 or 'immigrant7.11 Based upon this binary classification, it was found that forty-nine (44 percent) were 'native-born7 and sixty-two heads (56 percent), 'immigrants7. When the analysis was broadened to include the origin

126



Figure 6.2 Family Links in English Harbour, 1753-1801

PLWTERS' 1753 1763 1773 NAÍ-tES/

1783 1793 1801 NWES OF pfoperty OCCUPIERS

JAMES POTTLE (Christchurch, Hampshire) widouer 2s, 5d.

1760 1762 1765

BAFNCT BATSTOtJE (Datson) —«• married 2$, 5d.

lockyer 1768 POTTLE

t(V

Bvñaen TTm

WILLIAM JONES married — 6 daughters

TH0MAS HARRIS rrarried <mmm 2 d

TU0M&£ CPCWCHER married l s , 4d.

ROBERT BOWLE, m ' ™

George Ivany

> -II 1770 (widow)

Wi 1 ] iam rOTTlX fc Sons

Mi 11er 1790

Thorras Hancock

Denjamin Hiqdon

John BAXSTONE

(not reoorded) Hn. Swectland

(resident in Trinity)

Upartners «r —I

John Bugden

Matthew Kember

George Hi l ler

Partners Wn. Wells 1

George Bamea ton. Penney

i Sons

George Ivany 6 Sons

II - burial of married male

S - no further data

# - female marriaqo

A - male marriage

(súmame in Oíd Perlican)

SOURCE: W. Gordon Handcock, Soe longe as there comes no women, Origins of English' Settlement in Newfoundland (1989, 2003), image reprint CD, (Milton, Ontario: Global Heritage Press, 2009)


Table 6.3 Structural Composition of Nuclear Families by Origin, 1801

Family Type by Origin

Settlement Trinity Harbour English Harbour

No. % No. %

Native-born spouse(s) Native male/

25 23 6 43

immigrant female Immigrant male/

16 14

native female Immigrant-born

45 40 8 57

spouse(s) 25 23

Total 111 100 14 100

status of spouses, assigning each to 'native-born' or 'immigrant' status,12 it was possible to place the families of 1801 into four groups: 'native-born7 family units (23 percent); families formed by 'native-born' males and 'immigrant' females (14 percent); the predominant family type of 'immigrant' males united with 'native-born' females (40 percent); and the exclusively 'immigrant' family (23 percent). The structure of families in English Harbour, however, was limited to two classes: the 'native-born' family in six units (44 percent), and the 'immigrant male-native female' in eight conjugal units (56 percent).

Basically, the differences in origin between Trinity and English Harbour reflect differences in social pattern and interaction one could expect in a mercantile trade centre and a smaller fishing settlement. Thus, apart from the planter-fisherman, family types which both kinds of settlements attracted, Trinity was also the residence of merchants or their factors, clerks, tradesmen, a clergyman-surgeon, a custom's officer, which explains its greater variety of family types, particularly the high proportion of ' immigrant ' families. It is evident, however, that the main component in family formation was the inter-marriage of 'immigrant' males with local females. This trend during the eighteenth century mostly reflects the imbalance between British male servants and native-born males in competition for the limited number of females available as wives. It may also reflect the fact that

128



an 'immigrant7 male had a better social status than the native-born and was a more appealing spouse.

In 1753, 67 planters in Trinity Harbour employed some 260 Engüshmen and 159 Irishmen as winter servants but had only 96 male children, 78 female children, and 21 female servants among them. Likewise, 6 English Harbour settlers employed 84 male servants but had only 5 sons among them. In the winter of 1800-01, Trinity hosted 324 'dieters or servants', most of whom (272) were employed in three Poole mercantile establishments. Lester engaged 150 servants that winter, John Jeffrey had 22, and Thomas Street-100. Meanwhile, only 10 families in Trinity and 2 in English Harbour were employing one or two wage servants, and most families seem to have shifted to operating on the family fishing system as had occurred in Conception Bay.

In Trinity, as elsewhere, the number of wintering male servants fluctuated greatly. In 1753,1350 men were employed in Trinity but 900 left when the season ended. The downward trend in 'imported' servants for Newfoimdland generally can be seen in the changing ratio of 'Masters7 to 'servants7 between 1766 and 1791. Ihus, whereas in 1766 the ratio was about 1:7, in 1785 it was 1:4 and in 1791,1:3. The trend toward family fishing units is also indicated by the (1801) census which nominates some 'occupiers7 collectively, such as Kember and Bugden (brothers-in-law); Wm. Penney and sons; Wells, Jones and Co.; Geo. Ivany and sons.

The reconstruction of family formation profiles around particular settlements disguises several broader features of the populating process which can be illuminated by extending the analysis both spaüally and temporally. It is evident, for example, that the settlements in Trinity Bay to some degree formed a single functional socio-economic unit and, on a still broader scale, that the district was a demographic frontier linked to the labour-recruiting hinterland(s) of Poole merchants. The analysis of marriage patterns for 'native-born7 individuáis of the same súmame, for example, illustrates some elements of the broader scaled demographic complexity, and underscores especially the important role of indigenous females. In 1753, James Ivany, a settler from Ringwood, Hampshire, was a married inhabitant with five daughters residing in Salmón Cove. He subsequently christened three sons (1759-64) and another daughter (1759). James Ivany, 'husband to Mary7, died in 1766. The parish register records sixteen marriages of Ivany7

females from 1758 to 1801 to male spouses as follows: two (Vallis,

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Royal) from Somerset; one (Lambert) from Dorsetshire; one (Canfor) from Ireland; five native males from English Harbour, Oíd Perlican, and Bonaventure; and seven from origins unspecified. The latter were surnamed Long, Legg, Galton, Moors, Spencer, Wells, and Richards, of which only Legg, Moors, and Wells were natives of Trinity Bay In the same interval, six marriages of Ivany males involved unions with females from Trinity, English Harbour, and Bonaventure and residential attachment in 1801 in the latter two settlements. Most of the other more stable eighteenth-century patrilines produced a similar female-male imbalance in local marriages recorded. Among the more prominent were Batstone (Batson), Barrett, Barnes, Codd, De Grish, Gillett, Green, Goldsworthy, Hiscock, Jones, Jeans, Keats, Pottle, Pinhorn, Parrott, Sooley, Taverner, Verge, and Waterman. Collectively, the parish registers record nuptials for ninety-seven females for these twenty surnames (including Ivany) from 1757 to 1801 but for only thirty-one male marriages.13 This sexual disparity in native marriage patterns cannot be explained by major differences in birth or in mortality, but only by the differing migratory tendencies, that is, the greater propensity of young men to migrate elsewhere and the greater inclination of local females to marry early and reside locally.

Since local marriages, especially between immigrant males and native females, played such an important role in family formation in Trinity Bay in the late eighteenth century, an analysis of the male-female components over the period 1760-1819 has the merit of demonstrating the changing patterns of family formation as the resident population increased and matured. Figure 6.3 provides such an analysis of all marriages recorded in Trinity by decade for this period. In 1760-1819 over 85 percent of the male spouses were /immigrants/, but even at this stage 'native-born' females were party to 62 percent of all local marriages. As the century advanced, the relative proportions of 'native-born' marriages increased for both sexes; the absorption of 'immigrant' males, however, clearly remained an important component into the nineteenth century. In 1810-19, for example, among 102 marriage unions, forty-two (41.2 percent) still involved males mostly from Dorsetshire, Somerset, and Hampshire, with smaller proportions from Devonshire, Ireland, and other British backgrounds.

The source origins of the small numbers and proportions of 'immigrant' females, apart from those from Ireland, are more obscure. In the marriage registers, 'immigrant' Irish females were

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Figure 6.3 Marriage Patterns by Origin Trinity Bay, 1760-1799

Figure 6.4 Social Status at Burial Trinity Bay, 1760-1799

MALE

TOTAL

Vv *

^ ^

mmmmmmm 1760 1769

1770 1779

1780 1789

1790 1799

1800 1809

FEMAIE

1790 1799

160 v> UJ

140 O

120 «

- 1 0 0 3

80 £

6 0 tt UJ

4 0 «

20 x

1810 1819

TOTAL 160

</> </>

140 O <

120 óc 120 cc <

•100 s 8 0 u.

O

•60 cc IU

•40 «o S 3

•20 Z

NATIVE BORN

FEMAIE

SECTOR

OAUOHTERS OF PLANTERS

WIVES A WIOOWS OF PLANTERS

1760-69 1770-79 1780-89 1790-99

Source: Trinity Parish RegisUr, PAÑI.



usually distinguished or clearly recognizable by their surnames, whereas other females were assumed to be immigrants (from outside Trinity Bay) if they could not be linked with a patriline or nuclear family documented earlier inside the bay. Among all marriages involving 'immigrant7 females between 1760 and 1820, there were apparently three main external components. These included Ireland, 'other Newfoundland' districts, and an 'undistinguished' ethnic component. The latter most likely include the few English female domestics brought into Trinity Bay by merchants and leading planters.14 As accurately as can be determined, Ireland and 'other Newfoundland districts' each contributed about 30 percent of these exogamous (outside) females, while the 40 percent balance carne from the 'undistinguished' ethnic source.

As Figure 6.3 shows, females involved in marriages from the 1760s onward were increasingly of 'native-born' stock. Nonetheless, it must be recalled that one of the main contributing components to the structure of Trinity Harbour's 1801 families was marriages contracted externally, either from the immigration of nuclear families or by native males who found wives outside the district. In 1753 the only female servants recorded in the district were those in the household of the principal inhabitants and planters of Trinity and Oíd Perlican. Twenty households in both places each had a single female servant.

Ethnic Origins While there were years in the mid-eighteenth century when Irishmen made up the larger proportions of summer and occasionally of winter populations, most settlements in Trinity Bay and the district as a whole developed a strong English-Protestant identity. In 1801 only 12 families out of 111 in Trinity Harbour were Román Catholic (Irish). Meanwhile, this minority community was still the largest of its type in Trinity Bay. No other settlement had more than three Irish families, and at least seven settlements, including Ireland's Eye, were exclusively Protestant. The official statistics, together with those provided occasionally by missionaries during the 1760s and early 1770s, show that even when the Irish-Catholics either balanced or exceeded the English-Protestants among winter populations, it was mainly male Irish servants employed by Protestant masters that contributed to these structures. In 1764 the Reverend James Balfour reported 490 Protestants and 425 Román Catholics resident in Trinity Harbour. The number of Catholics increased greatly in the wintering population in the late 1760s, to the point that the harbour apparently

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abounded with young, masterless men. In 1766 an order of Governor Palliser was proclaimed at Trinity demanding masters of ships to return "every passenger...brought from Europe last spring... provided they are not ship'd to remain in the country/'15 The preamble to the order stated that some were "unemployed the whole season...without means of paying their passage home...," and causing "frequent robberies/' It also alludes to their efforts to survive by "subsisting in the woods" and asserted that "certain masters of ships arriving from Ireland were accessary to those grievances by bringing to the harbour an unusual number of passengers/7 Fifteen vessels were placed under bond to comply, of which twelve belonged to Poole owners. The problem of superabundant Irish servants was not immediately allayed. Balfour reported in 1767 that "Necessity" obliges the Irish here to mob" and in 1768 that the area was so incumbered with Numbers of White Boys that have lately come from Ireland that the Honest and Industrious can hardly live.7'16 In 1771 he wrote "we are now strangers to the former sorts of Riotings, that have been here/'17 The statistics provided by Clinch, Balfour's successor, over the period 1788-1806, show that Protestant servants now outnumbered Catholics, with the wintering numbers of the former varying between 250 and 400 and the latter remaining fairly constant about the 200 mark.18

According to the census of 1801, the use of Irish servant labour was then almost exclusively confined to those directly employed by Poole merchants. Thus, whereas in 1753 Irishmen were engaged both as seamen and as winter servants by virtually all planters, boatkeepers, and merchants alike, of the 147 Román Catholics employed in Trinity in the winter of 1801, fifty were engaged by Benjamin Lester, fourteen by John Jeffrey, twenty by Thomas Stone, ten by Thomas Street, and six by Samuel Rolles (or collectively 100 by Poole merchants and their agents). Lester also employed sixteen Irishmen in New Harbour and four each at Oíd Perlican and Silly Cove, while Street had four on his premises in Hearf s Content. Altogether, the total population of Trinity Bay in 1801 consisted of 241 Román Catholics and 1488 Protestants, and the vast proportion of the former were, as previously, single 'servants or dieters7. After 1800 there was a slight increase in the number of Irish-Catholics settling in Trinity Bay. These were part of the major influx of Irish migrants that arrived in Newfoundland in the period 1810-25. The chief sources of evidence for this slight upsurge were the Anglican marriage registers of Trinity, which record five marriages of Irish-immigrant females 1810-19, the largest number for a decade

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since the 1780s, and the Román Catholic registers of King's Cove, Bonavista Bay, which show that a priest stationed there from 1815 included Trinity Bay as part of his regular missionary circuit, which also extended as far north as Fogo Island.19

Apart from the Anglican missionaries stationed in Trinity Harbour intermittently from 1729, the only significant Protestan! influence in Trinity Bay during the eighteenth century was John Hoskins, a schoolteacher and Methodist preacher who stationed himself in Oíd Perlican 1774-84.20 It was probably through the initial influence of Hoskins that Methodism in Trinity Bay became most strongly concentrated on the Oíd Perlican side of the bay. As far as the English migrants and settlers themselves were concerned, it is impossible to determine what proportions prior to migration carne from nonconformist, Dissenting, and Established church back-grounds. Indeed, the difference, if it could be calculated, may be somewhat irrelevant, since it seems that the subsequent geographical patterns of religión both in Trinity Bay and in Newfoundland generally were strongly influenced by intemal factors such as the presence or lack of early missionaries and latter-day (post-settlement) missionary efforts made by different religious groups to establish or re-establish congregations. In most districts, settlers went unvisited by missionaries for decades and even generations. Certainly, some of the early settlers (Taverners) and some of the eighteenth century Poole traders and merchants (Jeffrey, Linthorne) were Dissenters,21 some (White, Vallis, Rolles, and Mifflen) were Quakers,22 and others (Lester, Stone, and Street) were Anglicans. Except for the merchants who chose to reside for a period in Trinity themselves, and their chief agents who were normally selected from their kinfolk, there is little evidence of the religious background of settlers, though most were clearly from the Established church. Occasionally during his period of office, Balfour complained of the lack of support he received from the merchants, as in 1770 when he wrote: "the rich are Quakers, Presbyterians and Román Catholics, and will not help to repair the Church."23

The merchants, possibly for logistical reasons, showed some biases in recruiting either in England or Ireland, but most recruited from both, and some, such as Benjamín Lester, John Jeffrey, and Thomas Street, employed Irishmen as well as Englishmen in virtually all capacities—as agents, seamen, tradesmen, sailors, and fishermen. It is likely, however, that merchants had a much stronger ethnic preference for English-Protestant boatkeepers seeking to

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become credit-dealing planters, and influenced the development of the ethnio-religious structure of the district in this way.

Social Conditions Balfour's observations on the social and moral conditions among his people painted a rather bleak picture, though his comments are frequently biased and exaggerated. On his arrival he wrote, "Poor Creatures heredare in a manner in a original state of nature or if you please little better than savages."24 Most of the epistles he penned from Trinity over the next decade up to 1774, before moving to Harbour Grace, were also filled with despairing portraits of both the socio-economic conditions and the aberrant behaviourial norms of his people. A poor fishery in 1767, he noted, ruined "the richest of them and the miseries of the Poor are Inexpressible,"25 and in 1768 he wrote, 'This is ye most Laweless Place in the whole Island...and the wretchedness of the Poor is a most shocking consideration to any Person, that is endued with humanity/ /26 In other letters Balfour describes the inhabitants as faithless, dispirited, miserable, wretched, "notorious for swearing and drinking...all manner of wickedness/' deceitful, and prone to sexual laxity and promiscuous attitudes. He lamented that frequently marriages were not solemnized, that both men and women sometimes separated to cohabit with other spouses, and that he had great difficulty in persuading families of the need for baptism or marriage. In 1774 he wrote that he had lately married "six couples that lived in a lawless manner7' only by "not exacting the usual Fees for my trouble/'27

While most of his impressions, perhaps somewhat overdrawn to arouse his superiors7 awareness of his own plight, were formed in Trinity itself, his comments after visiting Bonavista and settlements across the bay were no more favourable. Of the latter, for example, he describes one settlement (Scylly Cove) as "a most barbarous and lawless place/7 another (New Perlican) in which families were "in a state of war with each other/7 and Hearfs Content where settlers

28 were "ignorant but better disposed than in the other places/'

The images of a rugged life, of strong tendencies toward unrestrained individualistic behaviour due to the absence of normal social and legal institutions, of the fluctuating economic situation, and of other human stresses are not unlike those described for other Newfoundland districts being pioneered in the eighteenth or early nineteenth centurie^29 or indeed those foimd in studies of other American frontiers. Court records of civil disputes in Trinity

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District (1753-1774) indicate that petty offenses were the main source of grievances and mostly involved servants employed in the fishery: either of masters charging servants with neglect of duty or of servants who sought restitution for violations of their employment contracts (unpaid wages or other abuses). Servants as either plaintiffs or defendants entered into over 65 percent of the 160 cases heard in the period. Among the complaints, debt claims accounted for 47 percent; neglect of duty, 16 percent; theft, 12 percent; personal assaults, 10 percent; property disputes, 6 percent; and drunkenness and misbehaviour, 4 percent. These distributions tend to reflect what was paramount in the lives of the people, but it is difficult to say to what extent the patterns reflect social conditions. Four cases, all in Balfour's period, involved couples charged with 'open lewd' and adulterous livrng, and nine instances of 'Sabbath Breaking', all by Irishmen, probably was the empirical basis for some of his more general remarks.

Balfour lea ves the impression that virtually all the inhabitants were of a single demoralized class caught up in a hopeless poverty. Certainly the merchants, their agents, and tradesmen lived in relative comfort and planters such as the Taverners of Trinity, the Joneses, and Pottles of English Harbour and the Warrens of Oíd Perlican prospered. Despite the frequent depressions, the codfishery had a remarkable resilience and held enough prospects (real or perceived) to retain some families permanently. Likewise, there appears to have been no shortage of individuáis who opted for a period of residence in the place of earlier planters who at different times retired from the district with variable fortunes or were forced into servitude or out-migration through bankruptcy.

The Trinity-written portions of Benjamin Lester's diary covering in part Balfour's period convey quite different impressions of life from those of the latter. For example, whereas the missionary intimates that local migration from places such as Trinity Harbour into the wooded areas was mainly to escape the climatic rigours of the harsh winters ("The Winter Season is so Inclement and Ghastly, beyond any description that I can give of it, that it is each ones Cares chiefly sometimes to preserve themselves from being burnt with Frost.,/31), Lester's observations on the same issue suggest that the seasonal movement was a normal adaptation to exploit different resources. He, as well as other merchants, regularly suppüed wood-cutting crews, furriers, and planters who moved from summer

136



fishing stations (the main settlements) to winter quarters in woodcutting and furring areas.32

In the 1760s and 1770s, the exploitation of cod was still heavily prosecuted by the British-based migratory sector. Most of the cod and oil was produced by banking vessels in Trinity and elsewhere by inshore fishing crews under direct employment of the merchants. By the end of the century the fish production shifted almost exclusively to the inhabitants, a shift that owed much to the American Revolution War and the Napoleonic wars, which inhibited the transatlantic seasonal movements. Thus, when George Garland of Poole inherited part of Lester's trade in 1801 and gained complete control of the firm in 1805, his business had evolved into a trade of direct dealings with planters. Garland clearly defined the role he and other merchants had assumed to a parliamentary committee in 1817. He stated that the merchant "supplies all the necessaries of life, and implements for the fishery...engaging to pay for the same in fish and oil"; and that they (the merchants) were "attending to those parts of the trade which were strictly commercial, such as procuring the needful articles of provisión, clothing, implements...." On the other hand, he remarked, "the planter was solely occupied in the catching and curing of fish and preparing the oil, for which his laborious habits peculiarly fitted him...." Garland also stressed that the newer mode of trade had superseded the former (migratory) so that the "quantity of fish caught by the servants of merchants is extremely trifling; whilst that caught by the planters and their servants, is equal to the demand of every market in the world."34

In 1822 W.E. Cormack visited Trinity Bay and described the settlement of Bonaventure, an outport near Trinity. He captured the relationship between a small dependen! fishing community and its merchant suppliers quite nicely:

The inhabitants of Bonaventure, about a dozen families gain their livelihood by the cod fishery. They cultívate only a few potatoes, and some other vegetables...amongst the scanty patches of soil around their doors; obtaining all their other provisions, clothing, and outfit for the fishery, from merchants in other parts of Trinity Bay...giving in return the produce of the fishery, viz, cod fish and cod oil. They collectively catch about 1,500 quintáis or 300 tons of cod fish...and manufacture from the livers of thé cod fish about twenty-one tons of oil.... The merchants import articles for the use of the fisheries from Europe and elsewhere to supply such people as those, who are actually engaged in the operation of the fishery.35

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His descriptíon not only echoes Garland's comments from a slightly different perspective, it also establishes the main trade patterns and relationship with merchants which had evolved in numerous other settlements where the inhabitant population had begun to consolídate after a prolonged period of pioneering 36

Actually, Cormack could have drawn a similar picture of English Harbour, Salmón Cove, Hant 's Harbour, or scores of other settlements throughout the island.

Mortality and Age-at-Marriage Patterns The availability of local women was clearly a critical factor in influencing permanent settlement in Trinity Bay. A marked characteiistic of the early structure of the inhabitant population, and indeed of the population up to the early nineteenth century, was the large proportion of 'bachelor' planters and boatkeepers, but especially servants. The differential between adult males and females is clearly indicated by the ratio of local burials of the two sexes. As Figure 6.4 shows for the decade 1760-69, thirty-seven burials were recorded in Trinity for individuáis who could be classed

37 as 'adult, male planters'. By contrast, only fourteen burials were recorded for 'wives and widows'3 8 In the two decades following, the mortality gap between the sexes narrowed considerably; however, in the period 1790-99, there were still twenty-eight burials of male planters compared to nineteen for married females.

The most outstanding statistic of the burial record, however, is the preponderance of single male servants. They accounted for over 40 percent of all interments between 1760 and 1800. By far the major i ty of these servants were employed by the Poole merchants—especially Benjamin Lester, who had no less than seventy-five servants buried in Trinity Harbour in four decades. Nine others belonged to Joseph and Samuel White and a further forty to Thomas Street and John Jeffrey (White's successors). By occupation, these servants ranged from agents and captains to boy apprentices, and the cause of death, where recorded, was most commonly 'drownings' and sporadically smallpox, excessive use of alcohol, starvation, and murder. In the interval 1760-99 there were twenty-one drownings, six accidental killings, and two murders. Other masters linked to servant burials were mostly planters and smaller traders such as John Moors of Trinity (who buried six servants); William Pottle of English Harbour (who interred five); and the Jolliffes of Poole (who buried seven). Between 1760-99 twenty-eight other masters each buried a single servant; five

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employers lost two servants each; four others lost three servants; and an Irishman (Mallowney), a farmer, four.

Like other parish records, the specific information in the burial registers is extremely varied and thus not suitable for measuring features of social demography such as life expectancy, infant mortality or mortality rates, and cause of death, with any precisión, since ages were only occasionally recorded. However, the registers do reflect some aspects of demographic and social conditions and thus support inferences of a general qualitaüve nature which are probably historically valid. Thus, the number of burials by social status, as shown in Figure 6.4, at least generally establish changing structures in the demographic patterns for the period considered. Other general mortality characteristics which can be inferred from the burial registers for planter families are: a high rate of infant and child mortality; a relatively even spread of deaths among persons of all age-sex groups up to fifty years of age; and despite the reported strong inclination towards external retirement, the inclination of a relatively large proportion of inhabitants to remain beyond the age of fifty years. In the period 1760-99, of sixty-two burials where the age given was over fifty years, male-females divided into a 34-28 ratio. Further división showed that twenty-eight individuáis survived beyond their seventieth year, ten achieved octogenarian longevity, and at least two inhabitants reportedly lived to the age of ninety-one (Mary Cárter 1786, Wm. Powell 1773).

The rapid remarriage of widows represents another feature that can be supported by linking information from the burial records (of male spouses) with the subsequent remarriages of their widows. Of course, not all widows remarried; however, among those who did (for which the registers document some fourteen cases), at least half remarried within a year from the burial date of their previous husbands and twelve re-wed within a three-year interval. The propensity toward an early remarriage was probably a tendency encouraged by two realities: the scarcity of marriageable females, and the necessity for the youthful widow with young children to seek economic security. Two other significant consequences of the shortage of females were: the apparently high incidence of 'ülegitrmate' births,39 and the propensity of females to marry at an early age.

In examining the marriage age of early settlers on the Strait of Belle Isle for the period 1850-79, Thornton found considerable age disparities between males and females and suggested that they

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Table 6.4 Age at First Marriage of Native-Born Spouses, Trinity 1801-20

Males Females Age-Group No. % No. %

Under 15 - _ 12 14.7 16-20 4 7.0 43 52.4 21-25 16 28.0 19 23.3 26-30 17 29.9 4 4.8 31-35 14 24.6 3 3.6 36-40 4 7.0 1 1.2 over 40 2 3.5 - -

Total 57 100.0 82 100.0

Age range 19-44 14-36 Age mean 26.7 19.4 Modal age (#) 25(7) 16,19 (11 each)

reflected the lack of potential wives, in that males tended to be considerablv older than their spouses.40 Data from Trinity marriages (1801-1820) 1 indicate that the same phenomenon prevailed there. As data in Table 6.4 show, the average age of eighty-two females at first marriage in Trinity (1801-20) was 19.4 years compared to 26.7 for males.

Twelve females married before they were fifteen years oíd, but the marriage age for females was bi-modal at sixteen years and nineteen years, whereas native-male ages ranged from nineteen to forty-four years and had a modal measure of twenty-five years at first marriage. Compared with British standards of the time, age at first marriage in Trinity Bay was about the same for males but much lower for females.42 Generally speaking, as in Thornton's study, the age-at-marriage patterns reflect unbalanced sex ratios during the period before the inhabitant population achieved a balance between age groups.

Patrilines If it can be assumed as a general principie that a Consolidated, stable population tends to have a strong patrilineal-patrilocal character and that a chief indicator of its stability is a high degree of súmame persistence from one period to another, it is safe to conclude that

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Table 6.5 Principal Families by Settlement, Trinity Bay 1753-1801

Settlement Principal Surnames

Trinity Harbour

English Harbour

Bona ven ture Salmón Cove

Riders Harbour Fox Island Oíd Perlican

New Perlican Heart's Content

Silly Cove New Harbour

*Indicates súmame occurs in other settlements.

Trinity Bay in the early nineteenth century was still in a phase of transition. Among the 217 patrilineal units present in 1801, only about one-quarter (those specified in Table 6.5, and selected on the basis of eighteenth century longevity and /o r relatively high frequency counts in baptisms, marriages, and burial records) would seem to have become securely rooted. In quantitative terms, the number of surnames which appear in 1753 and disappear after was only a small proportion of the total number of family patrilines which were recorded in the interim up to 1801 in parish, court, and other sources and which also disappear by 1801. Despite the marked fluidity of surnames, it becomes clear that the residual minority of surnames which did establish provided the main demographic base upon which the inhabitant population expanded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Barnes, Clark, Clothier, Etheridge, Goldsworthy/ Gillett, Harris, Hiscock/ Jeanes, Lambert, Moores, Morley, Newell, Pinhorn/Ryan, Spurrell, Stone, Sweet, Tavemer, Hbbs/ Walters, Waterman, Verge, White Batstone (Batson), Hart, Higdon, Ivany/ Jones, Pottle Bailey/ Ivany/ Miller, Shambler, liller Bailey/ Day, Goldsworthy/ Hiscock/ Ivany/ Oldford, Spragg/ Tibbs* Foster* Foster/ Spragg* Barrett, Bursey, Gooby, Green, King, March, Norris, Strong, Warren Hefford, Matthews, Snook, Seward Comby, George, Hopkins, Legge/ Pitcher, Rowe, Sooley Legge/ Piercey/ Pinhorn* Thorn(ton)

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More patrilines were evidently established in the three decades after 1800 than had been entrenched or were becoming established at the turn of the century. The single most important immigration mechanism remained what it had been previously: the absorption of /immigrant/ males into the inhabitant population through inter-marriage with native females. The origin of these male immigrants remained constant with those of the eighteenth century. Thus, one fínds in the marriage registers for 1802-20 that most exogamous males were identified as previously from Poole and other Dorsetshire parishes such as Sturminster Newton, Bere Regis, Lychett Minster, Portland, Oborne, Weymouth, and Bridport. Others carne from Hampshire, especially Ringwood and Christchurch, and still others from Somersetshire parishes such as Crewkerne, Martock, Yeovil, and East Coker, source areas whence the eighteenth-century patrilinies shown in Table 6.5 derived. Similarly, the early nineteenth-century newcomers intermarried mainly with the female descendants of the earlier settlers, into the patrilines listed in Table 6.5.

By the 1830s, the inhabitant population of Trinity Bay was a well-established, self-perpetuating biological entity and had assumed some of the traditional characteristics of a patrilineal-patrilocal society. Indeed, by this time Trinity Bay was apparently becoming a labour supply area rather than a labour demand area, and natives of the bay were being attracted to the littoral frontiers of settlement in the Strait of Belle Isle and Labrador.

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PART m

English Homelands: The Structure of Origins

The full story of these Devonian settlers overseas, the motives that lead them to emigrate, their numbers and whence they were drawn has yet to be written.

Comment on settlers of "Devonian origin" in Newfoundland, W. G. Hoskins, Devon, 1954, p. 207.



CHAPTER 7

Regional Source Areas

Overview In European migration overseas, particularly those which, as in the case of Newfoundland, resulted in the foimding of new settlements, the geographical origins of migration activity require careful reconstruction at national, regional, and local scales. Only then can one begin to investígate and imderstand the processes involved in the transfer, the mechanics of movement, and the behaviourial and socio-economic characteristics of the migrants themselves. According to cultural geographer Wilbur Zelinsky, migration origin establishes the cultural parentage of each New World región and the basic human framework, underlying all else, on which the colonized región grows and develops.1

Until recently, the literature on Newfoundland origins assumed two basic generalizations: firstly, that immigrants stemmed from Southwest England, Southeastern Ireland, and the Channel Islands, areas associated with the Newfoundland fishery; and secondly, that the migration structure of the Newfoundland population by religious affiliations indicated their source areas of forebears. The latter may be called the Tocque formula' expressed in the dictum:

The Román Catholics are Irish and the descendants of Irish; the Episcopalians, Methodists and Congregationalists are English and the descendants of English and Jersey* the Presbyterians are principally Scotch and their descendants. While there was little reason to doubt the validity of these broad

generalizations, the empirical data used to support them was rather scant and based mainly upon qualitative ráther than quantitative assessment. Little was written on the origins structure of different N e w f o u n d l a n d districts or the dis t r ibut ional pa t te rn in Newfoundland of immigrants from different origins.

145



The origins set obtained from screening all of the oldest extant source materials3 in Newfoimdland contains almost 2200 English entries. Most entries (88 percent) specified origins below the national scale, that is, by county or parish, which for analytical purposes were assumed the geographical unit(s) of origin. For example, the subset of English parishes defined by Newfoundland marriages and deaths of immigrants involved over 600 separate units, which with time held as a constant permits a detailed mapping of the 'emigration field' in England both for the whole of Newfoimdland and for each Newfoundland región.

Emigration Fields: National and Regional The homeland areas of English emigrants are detailed in Table 7.1 and Figure 7.1. It can be seen that most English settlers in Newfoimdland carne from those counties of England, primarily Devonshire, Dorset, Somerset, and Hampshire, which for several centuries had engaged in the migratory fishery. Within the broad limits of a triangularly shaped zone with apexes at Plymouth, Bristol, and Portsmouth (a zone accounting for about 80 percent of English emigration) it is possible to further define two major sub-regions. These were the South Devon región consisting of about eighty parishes compacted mostly within a line drawn between Plymouth and Exeter and all areas coastwise to the east; and the whole of the county of Dorset with lateral extensions across the adjacent county boundaries into Hampshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire. The latter región is largely co-spatial with the general región the novelist Thomas Hardy called 'Wessex', and this term is useful for our purposes.

The geographical grouping of source origins in South Devon between Plymouth and Topsham but par t icular ly around Dartmouth and Teignmouth, as well as the important emigrant contributions of the ports themselves, supports fírnüy the migratory fishery-settler hypothesis. Indeed, the relationship between migration intensity and place origins is consistent with the roles played by the respective ports in Newfoundland during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As the leading English port in the Newfoundland trade over this period, it is not surprising that Poole ranked also as the major emigration centre or that labour demands in Poole generated migration opportunit ies that encompassed most of Wessex (Dorsetshire, West Hampshire, and South Somerset). The lack of evidence for any significant emigration from North Devon from the late eighteenth-century period onward

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Table 7.1 Distribution of Newfoimdland Emigrants 1755-1884

by Origin (non-Irish)

National Origins English Regional Origins

England 89.3 Devon 35.2 Bristol 2.5 Scotland 8.0 Dorset 29.0 London 2.8 Wales 0.5 Somerset 7.9 Liverpool 1.7 Channel Islands 2.2 Hampshire 8.2 Other 10.1

Cornwall 1.3 Total 100.0

is also consistent with the decline and demise of Bideford and Barnstaple as entrepots of Newfoundland trading activity. The small but consistent Newfoimdland trade connection from both Bristol and London produced a small and consistent trickle of emigration from these two ports, and the Channel Islanders added another component input to Newfoundland demography, which like those of Bristol, London, and Liverpool, though less than 3 percent, was still apparently larger than the contribution of the county of Cornwall or the whole of Wales (Table 7.1).

Figure 7.1 and Table 7.2 show that emigrants derived from a variety of place sizes in relatively even distributions, and though ports such as Poole, Dartmouth, Teignmouth, Bristol, Plymouth, and Torquay furnished the majority, both inland market towns and rural farming villages also contributed significantly. In South Devon, emigration occuired from the same ports and parishes that supplied the byeboatmen and banker fishermen. Thus the villages and towns around both Teignmouth and Dartmouth, and especially those settlements located between the Teign and Dart rivers and between Dartmoor to the west and Torbay to the east, formed a major cultural heartland. In this región villages such as Stokeinteignhead, Paignton, St. Mary Church, and Torbryan, and towns such as Totnes and Newton Abbot, established traditions of migration to Newfound-land from the earliest days of the seasonal fishery and initial settlements, and this tradition persisted into the last half of the nineteenth century. Permanent emigration from these villages was small as well as protracted, and was based on individual choice depending on factors such as marriage in Newfoundland. Thus, while many yoimg men traditionally followed the sea in the Newfoundland fishery for a year or two, few remained for any

147



Table 7.2 Population Size1 of Sending Parishes for Selected Counties

Population Size Devon Dorset Somerset Hampshire Average

ova-5000 14 32 15 12 18 2501-5000 27 23 33 58 35 1000-2500 29 20 27 24 25 less than 1000 30 25 25 6 22 lBased upon the census of Great Britain, 1801

sustained period of time before opting for other employment and consequently for residential alternatives at home or in other colonies. Even as Newfoundland's inhabitant population began to grow rapidly dming the period 1780-1820, the growth process did not involve any substantial emigration from the major source areas and as such had little demographic impact on the homeland. The movement was of much more significance to Newfoundland because of its previous small population base.

Thus, while the Devonshire and Wessex contributions to the ethnic composit ion of Newfound land ' s popula t ion were particularly signifícant, Newfoundland itself as a settlement area contributed little in any statistical sense to depopulation of these homeland source areas, and certainly provided no major solution on any general scale to such problems as overpopula t ion , unemployment, or decaying industries. Only in the most general way can emigration to Newfoundland be related to the decline of the cloth industry, agricultural distress, dedining wages, and other features of socio-economic depression which affected the migration source areas between 1750-1850.4 Emigration to Newfoundland remainpd in the nineteenth century basically what it had always. been. TTie usually involved recruitment into the codfishery as a servant, placement with an employer—either migratory or inhabitant—from whom the skills of economic survival were transmitted, and eventually, often circumstantially, through an interim marriage in Newfoundland, a commitment, whether rationalized or not, to reside.

Figure 7.1 shows that only in Dorsetshire did emigration occur county-wide. This was clearly a Poole-centred emigration field, which had one major sub-region in the immediate Poole area with western extensions reaching into central Dorset (the Chalk Downs—a sheep-raising district) and the Isle of Purbeck

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Figure 7,1 The English Homeland



(heathland—quarrying district), and an eastern counterpart reaching to Christdiurch and Lymington in Western Hampshire, skirting the edge of the New Forest to include Ringwood. Outside this región, a second major source area followed a line of market towns and intervening villages northward through Blandford Forum into the vale of Blackmoor (a dairying/doth manufadniring district), where it assumed a northwest/southwest orientation encompassing parishes in north Dorset and south Somerset. Somewhat contiguous with this región was a third sub-region centred upon Bridport in Dorset and Crewkerne in Somerset (a rope, net, and sailcloth manufacturing district). Migration f rom Weymouth, with most of westem Dorset, apparently waned with the decline of Weymouth's Newfoimdland trade during the eighteenth century and thus, like North Devon, did not figure very significantly in emigration.

The series of maps comprising Figure 7.2 define sub-regional emigration fields within the major source areas associated with Newfoundland regional destinations. In this analysis, spatial coverage by destination was generalized from the parochial register sources by deriving the destination regional units from the aggregation of several adjacent parishes, and in some cases, especially the earlier registers where missions covered broad areas, by subdivisión. With each región retained as a constant, the emigration field was mapped from the locations of all place origins specified from 'immigranf marriages and deaths in that región. Generally the emigration field, except that of the St. John's and Conception Bay región, have spatial patterns similar to the whole of Newfoimdland. The emigration fields of Trinity Bay, Bonavista Bay, and Notre Dame Bay are very similar and can be associated essentially with the same set of widespread place origins throughout Dorset, southem Somerset, and westem Hampshire. By slight contrast, the south coast of Newfoundland, primarily Fortune Bay westward, can be linked more closely with emigration from north Dorset and south Somerset parishes, as can westem regions of Newfoundland, such as Bay of Islands, Bonne Bay, and the Strait of Belle Isle.

Viewed as an outward movement, one can suggest that migrational opportunities created a spatial convergence around Poole which extended landward up to a forty mile radius and that from Poole migrants were distributed in a wide range of migration channels to Newfoundland destinations. Thus, three young men

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Figure 7.2 Newfoundland Regional Emigration Fields in Southwest England

Ol

SOUTH COAST NORTHERN NEWFOUNDLAND

SOUTHERN LABRADOR

NEWFOUNDLAND REGIONAL EMIGRATION FIELDS

IN

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND

75 Mi '00 f M ' * Km. 120 140



who shipped out of Poole from, say, Stunrdnster Newton might find themselves disembarked in Newfoundland respectively at Trinity, Twillingate, and Btuin; or conversely, three youths respectively from Christchurch, Sturminster Newton, and Bridport might equally ha ve found themselves employed together either in Bonavista, Burin, or Oíd Perlican. Such micro-scaled permutations of both emigration and irnmigration become apparent when one examines either the destinations assoáated with a single place origin or the origins of a single Newfoundland settlement. Poole natives, for instance, are found among the immigrants of over forty Newfoundland settlements, including ten settlements in Trinity Bay, five in Bonavista Bay, eight in Coneeption Bay, eight on the south coast, and five in Notre Dame Bay. Christchurch natives range over the same destinations, settling in at least twenty-six settlements, and Sturminster Newton natives were absorbed into the demographic fabric of at least twenty-five communities, making relatively substantial inputs into Fogo and Twillingate in Notre Dame Bay, Carbonear in Coneeption Bay, Grand Bank on the Burin Península, and Bonne Bay on the west coast. Conversely, Carbonear, Twillingate, Trinity, and Grand Bank were each characterized by various mixtures of settlers who carne from Poole, Sturminster Newton, and Bridport, or from Christchurch and Ringwood, together with others whose origins lay in rural parishes of Dorset, and still others who were born in Devonshire, Hampshire, Somerset, and in Ireland.

The protracted nature of migration and emigration were equally as characteristic of micro-scale (place to place) movement patterns as of regional movement. In the settlement of Twillingate, for instance, one document asserts that a Poole pioneer, "Mr. Thomas Fizzard was the first person that ever drove a nail at Twillingate or settled there of an Englishman which was in the year 1732/' Poole and Dorsetshire natives as both migratory fishermen and planters in Twillingate are thence intermittently documented up to the 1870s. The genealogical history of Trinity, Bonavista, Greenspond, Fogo, and many other Newfoundland settlements follow parallel patterns of social growth and development to that of Twillingate in that Poole-Dorsetshire immigrants were both the leaders and the followers, or the pioneers and the laggards, in the colonization sequence.

An analysis of the spatial dimensions of the emigration field, based upon marriage and burial data primarily from the nineteenth

152



century, documents fairly accurately the middle phases of migration intervals and probably most accurately the ending stages. Few of the pioneering families in any región were recorded locally in marriage registers, since the unions would have occurred elsewhere—in the British Isles or in older settled regions of Newfoundland—or, perhaps more prevalently, were common-law arrangements. In the absence of clergy, the Fishing Admiráis, Naval Officers, or other persons who could read apparently performed marriages by established church (Church of England) rites, but in some cases it was reported that the ceremonial aspects of marriage were dispensed with. With the arrival of the first missionary in the district,6 a common feature of some of the earlier parish records is mass baptism and marriage including members from several generations of extended families. Commonly, parents with children for baptism were themselves baptized and their marriages solemnized within a few days, and in some cases grandparents were baptized concurrently with their children and grandchildren. Despite their deficiencies, the nineteenth-century parish registers and newspapers provide a spatial overview of homeland origins in suffícient detail to probé further into the out-migration process. In other words, they allow us to examine migration to Newfoundland as a process generated within the major source areas either previous to, or concurrently with, settlement growth in Newfoundland.

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CHAPTER 8

Out of South Devon: By Dartmouth and Teignmouth

Ports and Entrepreneurs From the mid-eighteenth century migration activity in South Devon was organized mainly from Teignmouth and Dartmouth, to a lesser extent from Topsham (though apparently with little immigration impact), and from Brixham and Torquay While the entrepreneurs and adventurers in these ports to some degree competed along parallel lines in shipping, passenger traffic, the byeboatfishery, the banker and ship fisheries, and in the growing settler supply trade, it is possible to detect a different degree of trading emphasis among them. In the 1780s, Dartmouth merchants, especially the opulent families of Newman, Holdsworth, Hunt, Teage, and Roope were largely specializing in the settler supply trade of Conception Bay, St. John's, and Ferryland districts. The mercantile list also included merchants such as Sparkes, Hutchings, French, Graves, and Stokes in St. John's; Ougier in Bay Bulls; Studdy, Drew, and Griffin in Ferryland; and Tremblett in Harbour Bretón.1

Between 1789 and 1815, some of the richer merchants (Holdsworth, Teage, and Roope) lost commercial interest in Newfoundland, and many of the others went bankrupt.2 One significant exception was Robert Newman and Company.3 This fírm; originally rooted in St. John's with outreaches to places such as Petty Harbour, by the 1770s had also opened up a trading post at Little St. Lawrence on the Burin Península. Subsequently, their trading territory was extended to Burin, Harbour Bretón, Little Bay, Hermitage Cove, Pass Island, Sagona Island, Round Harbour, and Gaultois, along the south coast.4 About 1806 Newmans transferred their main English base to London but still consigned some shipping f rom Dartmouth to their Newfoundland establishments.

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MeanwMe, other Dartmouth families were becoming more closely identified with, and an integral part of, the expanding resident merchant community in St. John's.

Until the rise of the clay (kaolín) trade in the mid-eighteenth century the Newfoundland fishery had been Teignmouth's principal maritime trade. These two activities then dominated local commerce until the port developed as a seaside resort in the nineteenth century.6 Clarke maintains that Teignmouth had few advantages over other ports in its trade with Newfoundland.7 It had a poor and undeveloped hinterland and produced no outstanding articles of t rade or manufacture to encourage an export trade. While shipowners in the estuary in the eighteenth century like those of Dartmouth and Poole, took part in the provisions trade of the Newfoundland fishery, the Teignmouth men were more exclusively involved in the fish and supply carrying trade for merchants of other por t s and in the banker and byeboat fisheries. Among Newfoundland trading firms in the late eighteenth century, Teignmouth merchants are noteworthy mainly for being among the small or middling class of Newfoundland entrepreneurs.8 Despite this, Teignmouth ships clearly played a very significant role in emigrat ion processes in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century period, not only for emigration from South Devon but also for Irish emigration.

Most of the documentary sources extant for ports engaging in the Newfoundland fishery and trade are contained in official government materials (port books, custom's materials, ships' registers) which record numbers of ships and tonnage, ownership, crew numbers, and trade items. Generally speaking, these sources provide a very weak basis for inferences on migration activity beyond the limits of the ports themselves. But the ports were only the focal points about which migration was organized. Their respective hinterlands or 'migration basins' furnished the lion's share of the seamen, fishermen, and other migrants that embarked from them, and thus it is these 'fetch and draw7 areas that need empirical reconstruction to understand how migration was affected by different ports. In the South Devon región, migration basins linked with Dartmouth and Teignmouth can be reconstructed in reasonably complete detail from the birth places/residences of the labour forcé serving on Newfoundland fishing and trade vessels for several important stages of the migratory interacción with the island. Dartmouth muster rolls (crew lists) for 1770-76 and 1788, for

155



instance, list by ship the birth place and/or residence, ñame, age, and occupation or rank, of all men returning to the port following voyages to the fishery For the local Devonshire-born, this source contains information on 1470 individuáis for 1770-76, and 846 for 1788.9 The majority of these servants and mariners were returning home, either directly f rom Newfound land or f rom the Newfoundland salt-fish markets of southem Europe. Similarly, the Exeter Register of Seaman's Sixpences10 for 1800 provides data on the parish of residence for 1132 Teignmouth seamen for all inward-bound ships, including ships arriving from Newfoimdland, and the same source for 1800-15 provides place of residence for 934 Devonshiremen disembarked in the Teign estuary directly from Newfoundland. Although, conceptually, such movers constitute the counterstream of migration flows, reverse or counter movement was one of the salient features of the migratory system under review.

The Migration Basin of Dartmouth Despite the numerical differences in data sets, a comparison of the distribution of the origin of Dartmouth mariners in 1770-76 and in 1789 reveáis no major changes for the contributing parishes. Proportionate distributions viewed either from the receiving end (the percentage of men in Dartmouth by parish of origin) or from the sending end (the number of seamen from each parish expressed as a percentage of parish population [1801]),1 indícate that the migration basin was relatively stable. In 1770-76, Dartmouth, Brixham, and Newton Abbot furnished respectively 17 percent, 9 percent, and 7 percent of the total seaman population, and in 1788 these same places supplied proportions that varied from these figures by less than one percent.12 The most extreme variations were 1.2 percent for the parish of Harbenton and 2.3 percent for Salcombe. The stability of the spatial pat tem in Dartmouth's seafaring hinterland for the two periods indícate that it is reliable to use the data set of either period separately, or of both periods collectively, to reconstruct the main spatial features of the port 's maritime community.

The collective origins of seamen (1770-88) as given in Figure 8.1 show that Dartmouth drew manpower from all places over a continuous zone westwards to Plymouth and northwards to Exeter, a pa t t em of origins that co-varies with the Newfoundland emigration field shown in Figure 7.1. The more detailed quantitative analysis in Figure 8.1 reveáis that the main body of the maritime labour forcé was raised in a core area skewed northwards along

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Figure 8.1 The Migration Basin of Dartmouth, 1770-1788

157



coastal parishes fringing Torbay, including Brixham, Paignton, St Mary Church, and Torquay, and thence inland through the parishes of Kingskerswell and Abbotskerswell to the area around the town of Newton Abbot. Around this 'core7 area,13 including most of the parishes of the South Hams, the inland parishes west to Dartmoor and north to Teignmouth and the Exe estuary supplied more limited numbers and proportions of mariners, but still sufficient, to be classed within a migration 'domain' of Dartmouth's influence. Still farther afield, the migration 'sphere' of the porf s community can be seen to extend to parishes located in the seafaring central and northern parts of the county With reference to Figure 8.1 and the locational association of mariners by status, the places (parishes) located within the core area boundary accounted for some 60 percent of the ordinary seamen, 70 percent of the captains, 78 percent of the mates, and 68 percent of the mariners listed as 'youngsters', apprentices, or boys, the green men of the fishery In the class of maritime tradesmen—ship carpenters, fish splitters, salters, and cooks—54 percent were identified with parishes within the core, and 94 percent had residential association within the boundary of the migration 'domain'.

Since the muster rolls for 1770-76 distinguish between birth place and place of residence for each person, it is possible to examine internal migration within Dartmouth's own hinterland or catchment area. This distinction reveáis that moves between birth place and place of residence were related to over 50 parishes among 112 identified within the whole migration basin. The total of movers from one parish to another was comparatively small compared with the stability component (persons maintaining residence of birth place). Similarly, out-movers and in-movers in individual places were so evenly balanced that only in the case of Dartmouth was there a net gain over five persons.1 Thus, whereas 135 persons were documented as born in Brixham, 134 mariners claimed Brixham as their place of residence; 14 mariners apparently had left Brixham to reside elsewhere (mainly Dartmouth), but some 13 others had chosen to move to Brixham from other parishes. As might be expected the main place to gain from internal migration was Dartmouth, where about one-third of the 361 seafarers residing there were born within the porf s migration basin.

Another useful feature of the Dartmouth muster rolls for 1770-76 is that they distinguish the birth place of seamen who had come to reside in Dartmouth from outside the county Among them

158



Figure 8.2 Distribution of Teigmnouth Seamen by Residence, 1800-1801

159



were a few Irishmen and a handful each from Dorset, Somerset, 15

Hampshire, and the Channel Islands. The most conspicuous group among the non-Devonshire-born, however, were some thirty-one native Newfoundlanders, hailing from birth places such as St. John's, Ferryland, and Bay Bulls. These men (like some of the Taverners discussed in Chapter 2) had apparently joined the transaüantic migration tradition from the destination end. Included were men in the rank of seamen, bosuns, mates, and captains, who had been engaged by Dartmouth shipowners.

The Migration Basin of Teignmouth It has been shown that the orbit of Dartmouth's maritime community was sufficiently extended to explain migration opportunity from the whole South Devon región. Throughout the eighteenth century, however, Topsham and Teignmouth were also major entrepots of Newfoundland migratory activity. Indeed, in the development and expansión of the byeboatkeeper and banker fisheries, Teignmouth was probably the leading port for both shipping and recruitment. Most importantly, the Teignmouth estuary (particularly Teignmouth and Shaldon) maintained a relatively strong commercial interest in the bank fishery until mid-nineteenth century, long after the Newfoundland trade from Topsham had ended.1

Figure 8.2 based on data on residence of all seamen 1800-01, and Figure 8.3 of Newfoundland seamen 1800-15, define two distinct migration basins for Teignmouth. It is clear that Teignmouth employed mariners drawn from a more spatially restricted area than Dartmouth and also that its entire manpower area was enveloped by that of Dartmouth. In comparing Figures 8.2 and 8.3, it is evident that the Newfoundland seafaring community using Teignmouth was also nested spatially within the more general maritime labour pool,17 or in other words, the mariners who used Teignmouth in the English coastal t rade resided in the same parishes as the Newfoundland sailors and fishermen. Indeed, they were frequently the same individuáis, who alternated as opportunity offered between transaüantic voyages in the same, or different, ships and coasting between Teignmouth and destinations such as London, Liverpool, or Swansea.

The core, domain, and sphere zones of Teignmouth's migrational hinterland, using comparable measures of migration intensity as for Dartmouth, are shown in Figure 8.4. This reveáis that most parishes within Teignmouth7 s main field of attraction (core and

160



Figure 8.3 Distribution of Teignmouth-Newfoundland Seamen by Residence,

1800-1815

161



Figure 8.4 The Migration Basin of Teignmouth, 1800-1815

162



domain), particularly those south of the Teign river, had comparable degrees of affíliation with Dartmouth. It also shows that the main landward source of seamen supply for both Dartmouth and Teignmouth was the Newton Abbot area. In 1770-76 Newton Abbot supplied 6.6 percent of the seamen for Dartmouth and in 1788, 7.5 percent. Similarly in 1800-15, Newton Abbot residents comprised 8.8 percent of the Newfoundland seamen disembarked at Teignmouth.

In ofñcial sources, much of the maritime activity attributed to the port of Teignmouth was actually spread among several places in the Teign estuary, including the parishes of East Teignmouth and West Teignmouth, the parish of St. Nicholas (the villages of Shaldon and Ringmore), Newton Abbot, and the rural villages of Bishopsteignton, Stokeinteignhead, and Combeinteignhead. A petition of nineteen Newfoimdland bank-ship merchants from Teignmouth in 1804 actually bore the ñames of ten shipowners who resided in Shaldon, Ringmore, and Stokeinteignhead.19 In supporting their petition—against press-gang activity—Govemor Gower of Newfoundland claimed that the merchants of Teignmouth were the only remnants of the English bank fishery and that this fishery could not be pursued practically without skilled fishermen, most of whom "generally engaged in husbandry about the country near Tdgnmouth/'20 There is little doubt that the 'country7 to which the govemor was referring included the rural parishes falling within the seafaring core of Teignmouth's hinterland—parishes such as Abbotskerswell, St. Mary Church, Coffinswell, and Paignton, as well as those closer to the Teign estuary such as Combeinteignhead, Stokeinteignhead, and Bishopsteignton.

Most of the rural farming settlements around the Teign Valley have a documented assodation with the Newfoundland fishery that spans upwards of three centuries. One of these is the parish of Stokeinteignhead, a village south of the Teign estuary and about a half-mile inland from the coast. It was probably typical for both the longevity and the traditional aspects of the epic Newfoimdland migration. The local burial registers21 contain references to parishioners drowned at sea in Spain (1580), in Ireland (1582), and in Newfoundland (1587).22

In 1632, John Payne, 'Mariyner', of 'Stoke linney', was master of a Newfoundland sack-ship out of Southampton, crewed partially by sailors from his home parish, which was captured by the famous Devonshire pirate, John Nut t 2 3 In 1674, two further deaths occurred to Stokeinteignhead-Newfoundland migrants. These were "Cliffe

163



Wm. att St. Joans in ye Newfoundland" and "Ford, Gilbert att Torbay in ye Newfoundland."24 In 1680, "John Tapper of Stockentany Head") was recorded among "Byeboatkeepers in St. John's Harbour."25 Tapper operated two boats and employed ten servants.

Among the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century materials relating to shipowners, cod-oil importers, master-mariners, and seamen, Stokeinteignhead families such as Batten, Blackaller, Bowden (Boden), Drew, Elliott, Mardon (Martin), Pitts, Row, Seward, Stephens, and Tucker (common ñames in Newfoundland) occur with a high degree of regularity. In 1770-76, Dartmouth Musters identify seventeen natives of Stokeinteignhead: three captains, a mate, and thirteen seamen.26 One sailor, John Sellman, bore the same ñame as a local man drowned at Newfoundland in 1604. In 1788, no less than six of eight parishioners at Dartmouth were captains and mates. While many of the men went to sea from Dartmouth, Stokeinteignhead, along with Combeinteignhead, Abbotskerswell, and other parishes in the area were also closely tied to maritime activities in Teignmouth and Shaldon. In 1800-15, f i f ty-s ix seamen re tu rn ing to t he Teign estuary f rom the Newfoundland fishery asserted residence in Stokeinteignhead, thirty-one others hailed from Combeinteignhead, and twenty-three from Abbotskerswell.27

Newfoundland parish registers enter into the chronological documentation of Stokeinteignhead in 1763. That year Elias Cock and William Davis, both of /Stokmtinhead ,

/ were buried in St. John's. The subsequent records contain a sprinkling of burial and marriage references to the Devon parish up to 1888, the last of which recorded the burial of Mrs. Mary Jane Ellis, aged forty-eight years.28

A Cultural Heartland In Figure 8.5 the data previously used to describe separate migration basins for Teignmouth and Dartmouth are combined in a single South Devon index of migrational intensity. Figure 8.5 was computed from the Dartmouth muster rolls for 1788 and from Teignmouth's 1800-15 Newfoundland seaman list, which specified origin for a set of 1,754 individuáis.29 A breakdown of the distributíon pattern, given in Table 8.1, shows that the main centres of migration were in rank order: Teignmouth, Dartmouth, Newton Abbot, St. Nicholas Parish (Shaldon and Ringmore), and Brixham. Each of these places accounted for more than 5 percent of all individuáis. The secondary centres (those in the 2-5 percentage cíass)

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Figure 8.5 South Devon-Newfoundland Cultural Heartland

165



were the basically rural-agricultural parishes of St. Mary Church, Stokeinteignhead, Paignton, Kingskerswell, Denbury, Combein-teignhead, Bishopsteignton, and East OgweU. Collectively, these thirteen places provided 65 percent of the origin set, although the total distribution by origins encompassed ninety-one parishes within the county

When, as in Table 8.1, we compare the places and parishes furnishing seamen for the trading and banking vessels of Dartmouth and Teignmouth in rank order with a similar ranking of Devonshire place origins taken from Newfoundland parish registers and newspapers (i.e., of Newfoundland immigrants), it can be seen that seven places occur prominently in both lists. These are Dartmouth, Teignmouth, Newton Abbot, St. Nicholas, Kingskerswell, Brixham, and St. Mary Church. The main difference between the two data sets of origins is that Exeter, Tormohum (Torquay), Plymouth, and Ashburton along with the rural parishes of Broadhempston, Staverton, Torbryan, Ipplepin, and Abbotskerswell are foremost as emigration source areas. Basically the differences are minor and could be explained for the most part by data limitations. It seems safe to conclude that all of the ports, towns, and parishes included in Table 8.1 were part of the cultural heartland of South Devonshire-Newfoundland origins (Figure 8.5). Plymouth and Exeter appear to have been important outliers of settler origins; otherwise the main cultural heartland or emigration source area was defined by Teignmouth on the north and Dartmouth on the south, and between them the Torbay coastal parishes of Brixham, Paignton, and Tormohum and also a landward extensión westward from Babbacombe Bay to Ashburton (or the borders of Dartmoor), but encompassing particularly the rural parishes of Kingskerswell, Ipplepin, Torbryan, and Staverton near Newton Abbot.

Among the more important statistical associations that can be made with this major source area (including Plymouth and Exeter) shown in Figure 8.5 are: that it (1) supplied about 79 percent of the Newfoundland seamen crewing the ships of Dartmouth and Teignmouth; (2) accounted for 77 percent of the documented source origins of Devonshire-Newfoundland settlers; and perhaps, most importantly (3) produced forty-seven (89 percent) of fifty-two Devonshire females who are known to have emigrated to Newfoundland. There seems little doubt from the long-term evidence that this core-area was the historical-geographical pivot, or cultural core, in South Devon that sequentially bred most of the

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Table 8.1 Migration and Emigration to Newfoundland from South Devon

Parishes

Percentages

Rank Migrants (Dartmouth Rank Emigrants (from order & Teignmouth Seamen) Order Nfld. source material)

% % 1 Teignmouth 13.5 1 Dartmouth 11.2 2 Dartmouth 9.0 2 Teignmouth 8.2 3 Newton Abbot 8.0 3 Plymouth 7.0 4 St Nicholas 7.5 4 Tormohum 6.0

(Shaldon & Ringmore) (Torquay) 5 Brixham 5.0 5 Newton Abbot 5.0 6 St. Mary Church 3.8 6 St. Nicholas 4.8 7 Stokeinteignhead 3.6 7 Exeter 4.7 8 Paignton 3.5 8 Ashburton 3.0 9 Kingskerswell 2.8 9 Kingskerswell 2.8 10 Denbury 2.5 10 Broadhempston 2.8 11 Combeinteignhead 2.1 11 Staverton 2.6 12 Bishopsteignton 2.1 12 Brixham 2.6 13 EastOgweíl 2.1 13 St. Mary Church 2.0

14 Abbotskerswell 2.0 15 Torbryan 2.0 16 Ipplepen 2.0

Total 1-13 65.5 Total 1-16 67.7 Total other parishes 34.5 Total other parishes 32.3

100.0 100.0

seamen and fishermen of the ancient ship fisheiy, gave rise first to the byeboatkeeper system and later to the English bank fishery>and furnished a major share of both early and latter-day Newfoimdland inhabitants. A petition dated in 163530 is claimed to have contained the ñames of 800 'Newfoundland men' (migratory fishermen) in the Torbay area, from the parishes of Paignton, St. Mary Church, Churston Ferrers, Brixham and neighbourhood, and, if accurate, must have included virtually the entire working population. Some reports in the Milles manuscript,31 dated between 1747and 1756, and containing information from local clergy on economic aspects of Devonshire parish life, draw special attention to the role of the overseas fishery as a source of wealth and employment. Townstall

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par i sh in Dar tmouth "drives a considerable t rade wi th Newfoundland/' West Teignmouth confessed its main commerce was "ships to Newfoundland," and a report from Newton Bushell (Abbot) stated that an excellent market was held every Saturday and prospered, "specially in the winter, when the fishermen are come home from Newfoundland" The incumben! of St. Mary Church stated his parishioners were engaged in "husbandry besides ye Newfoundland trade" and also that "their common dyet is mutton, beans and Newfoundland cod salted." The vicar of Kingswear asserted that his small town of fifty to sixty houses possessed "Inhabitants...chiefly bred to ye Sea...in the King's service or the Newfoundland trade." Brixham meanwhile had a home fishery but also five to six vessels "fitted out...yearly for the Newfoundland fishery," as well as "several people that go there and keepe boats for fishing (byeboatkeepers)." Other clergy in Cockington, Dittesham, Churston Ferrers, and Torre Mohum also acknowledged the Newfoundland fishery as an industry that employed their working men.

The Local Economy Apart from the maritime activities which were of most direct importance to the socio-economic lif e of the settlements of the Dart and Teign estuary and in Torbay, the parochial reports in the Milles manuscript provide some detailed insights into local economies within the Newfoundland cultural hearth. Most of the rural parishes reported a mixed farming economy as their basic means of support, with land-use divided into variable amounts of arable, pasture, and meadow. Arable land was cultivated in wheat, barley, peas, and oats, in parishes such as Staverton, East Ogwell, Torbryan, and Abbotskerswell; most parishes claimed to raise some livestock (bullocks, swine, and sheep) which were sold in the market towns of Ashburton, Denbuiy, Newton Abbot, and Totnes. Horses were raised for market near Ashburton and Newton Abbot. Cider production was widespread. Abbotskerswell reportedly had "an orchard to every tenement in proportion to its size" and produced "good cyder"; Kingskerswell produced 400-500 hogsheads "cyder... good and sweet"; Staverton claimed to have 200 acres of orchaids making 2000 hogsheads of cider annually, while Coffinswell, Churston Ferrers, and Cockington yielded 200-400 hogsheads of "good quality." Paignton was said to be "famous for cabbage plants", especially a winter-maturing variety which were shipped "in great

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Quantitys...to Newfoundland/ ' Paignton also shipped eider to London and some to Newfoundland.

When the Milles report was compiled, domestic cloth manufacturing was still of some importance in the South Devon región, though there are signs that the industry was beginning to decay. Whereas the Milles document alludes to some 'serge' manufacturing at Ashburton, a woollen manufacture in Berry Pomeroy and in Highweek (Newton Abbot), from Ashprington it was reported there "were clothiers formerly now none." Stirling, writing in 1830, states that whereas in 1770 Newton Abbot was "mostly inhabited by weavers," by 1822 the cloth industry had totally disappeared.

Generally, the Milles manuscript portrays a picture of relative economic prosperity for the mid-eighteenth-century period. After 1790 reporters like Marshall (1796), Fraser (1794), and Vancouver (1808) were highly critical of South Devon farming for failing to keep pace with progress elsewhere in the country, and Marshall especially asserted that the low level of wages among the rural population had dispirited labourers and reduced them to poverty. He dedared "many of them are druriken, idle fellows." The decline of the domestic cloth industry certainly intensified the pressure on the agricultura! labour market or, conversely, in the case of men who followed the sea and the Newfoundland fishery particularly, made it more difficult and less attractive for individuáis to combine farm labour at home with seasonal employment at sea, or to reintegrate back into homeland employment after spending a few years as a fisherman or mariner.

The evidence of origins indicates that market towns and rural areas in South Devon had cióse migration links with Newfoimdland. In the foliowing sections we explore the historical association of Newfoimdland with selected local source areas within the South Devon hearth.

Newton Abbot and Environs The market town of Newton Abbot—before 1800 more commonly known by two sepárate settlement ñames: Newton Bushell (parish of Highweek) and Newton Abbot (parish of Woolborough)—seems to have been the main inland recruiting centre for shipping seamen in South Devon, and this association probably explains its prominence as a centre of migratory activity. Aaron Thomas, while in Newfoundland in 1794, noted that among the passengers who

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"engaged themselves in the Fishing season.... The Principal part of these men carne from Newton Bushell in Devonshire, and its environs/' In 1809 another repórter visiting the town claimed that some "Sixteen Captains of Ships which sailed to Newfoundland... resided with their families at the place/7 and that /7at the Season appointed for hirine there have been 1200 Sailors assembled in the town, to be hired.77 Since the total population of the town was only about 2500 people, it seems obvious that a large proportion of these seafarers must have come from the town7s adjacent rural villages.

Not only did shipowners and merchants at Teignmouth, located some six miles away, and Dartmouth, about fifteen miles distant, make use of Newton Abbot7s taverns and inns,35 fairs, and market gatherings to contact and recruit, the town itself also gave rise to some of the merchants and seafarers who resided in those ports and still others who while trading out of Teignmouth or Dartmouth maintained residence in Newton Abbot itself. Over the period 1780-1836 such local families included Alsop, Babb, Coysh, Crews, Eales, Farley, Heath, Henley, Lethbridge, Penson, Pinsent, Quick, Tessier, Vallance, and Way. Babb, Heath, and Penson became Newfoundland shipowning families in Teignmouth; Farley, Pinsent, Vallance, and Way were more closely linked with the Dartmouth maritime community. In the documentary evidence provided by nominal lists of Devonshiremen participating either as shipowners, master mariners, byeboatkeepers, or seamen, these Newton Abbot families were clearly the more prominent, and indeed most of them established a family lineage in Newfoundland over the same period. Newfoimdland parish registers document burials or marriages for some twenty-five Newton (Abbot or Bushel) natives over an interval from 1755 to 1878, ranging from the burial of William Margary in 1755 to the marriage of one William Quick in 1878. This same source indicates temporal intervals (earliest entry/last marriage) for the town7s adjacent rural parishes as follows: Kingskerswell (1763-1854); Ipplepin (1763-1858); Combeinteignhead (1774-1848); Abbotskers-well (1800-48); and Staverton (1773-1853).

Teignmouth and Environs As mentioned above, much of the Newfoundland trade, shipping and migration activity in official source references attributed to Teignmouth was associated with St. Nicholas parish, particularly Shaldon, a small village of about 700 population on the south side of the estuary opposite Teignmouth. In terms of place of residence for owners registering ships in Teignmouth 1786-1837^ (mostly

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Newfoundland bankers and sailing brigs), some 177 owners resided in Teignmouth and 111 others were parishioners of St. Nicholas (Shaldon a n d Ringmore). Newton Abbot (Highweek and Woolborough par ishes) p r o d u c e d fo r ty sh ip owners , Stokeinteignhead had twenty-two, Bishopsteignton-eleven, and smal le r n u m b e r s were d i s t r ibu ted by res idence among Combeinteignhead, Ideford, Tormohum, Kingskerswell, and other South Devon parishes. In linking ñame evidence from ship registers 1786-1837with Exeter Customs Books' (1743-1800) records of cod-oil importers and other lists (parish registers, Poor Law documents), and references to captains, and mates in seamen's rolls, two striking aspects become apparent. Firstly, it is possible to recognize a small but persistent group of famüies such as Bartlett, Bibbens, Brine, Butler, Hayman, Clapp, Goss, Penson, and Warren in Teignmouth and the Bulley, Boden, Fox, Harvey, Mortimer, Row, Squarey, and Stigings fami l ies of Shaldon who participated consistently throughout the byeboat and banking phases of the Newfoundland fishery. Secondly, the fluidity of surnames among shipowners, master mariners, and especially seamen between one period and another indicates that the fishery had an exceptionaüy dynamic character and a very high rate of turnover in personnel of all status types. These two features of migration and trade—persistence or tradition and fluidity of personnel—can be best demonstrated using data sources for St. Nicholas and rura l par i shes such as Combeinteignhead.

Combeinteignhead The evidence for migration from Combeinteignhead, a farming parish of about 500 persons in 1801 situated on the south side of the Teign Valley between Newton Abbot and St. Nicholas parish, can be grouped into at least six categories. These indude some twenty-four individuáis who imported cod-oil into Teignmouth 1743-89; six seamen in 1770-76 and five in 1789 on Dartmouth ships and thirty Newfound land seamen on Teignmouth ships 1800-15; five individuáis who owned shares in Teignmouth-based ships 1786-1837; thirteen 'mariners' who had children baptized locally 1813-1837; seven emigrants (burials /marriages in Newfoundland 1774-5187); and three individuáis examined in Poor Law examinations who testified they were born in this parish and had spent time in the Newfoundland fishery. In all sixty surnames were identified, but only five occurred in two lists or more, which suggests

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that the parish personnel involved in the fishery was highly transient.

Clearly the two most important families to have been drawn into the Newfoundland fishery from Combeinteignhead were the Jobs and Bulleys. The Jobs were related bv marriage and kinship to other local families (Poole and Bulley). Both Poole and Bulley imported cod-oil into Teignmouth as early as the 1740s; whilst Bulley (originally f rom Kingskerswell) apparent ly moved to Combeinteignhead after marrying a local girl in 1766 38 In 1788 were recorded among the owners of the 115 ton brig Sally John Job 'Combin t inhead , cooper ' , Samuel Bulley 'Merchant , Combintinhead', Elias Rendel, 'Mariner, Combintinhead', and John Stephens, 'Stokentinhead, ship-builder'.39 John Job was apparently the grandson of Robert Poole (cod-oil importer 1748-4^'40 and became the son-in-law of Samuel Bulley, whose daughter he married in 1790. In 1794, John Job, 'cooper', in partnership with Samuel Bulley and Elias Rendall Jr., all now of West Teignmouth, registered as owners of the seventy ton brig Nymph. Between 1796-1806, Bulley and Job were each designated "merchant of West Teignmouth" in the registries of eight addit ional ships.42

Meanwhile, the winter census of 1794-95 for St. John's records John Job as owner-occupier of a waterfront property on the south side of the harbour , among at least ten other Teign estuary merchants—Abraham Hingston, Stephen Harvey, William Whiteway, George Squarey, William Codner, and Jos. Baker of Shaldon; Thomas Gotham, John Duniam, and George Bulley of Teignmouth; and Robert West of Bishopsteignton. In 1805, Bulley and Job were shown by the registry of the brigantine Edgell to be in the process of shifting their English base to Liverpool. Two of the owners, "John Job and Samuel Bulley, the younger, of West Teignmouth, Merchants" were "residing in Liverpool," while Thomas Bulley, another shareholder according to the register "at present resides in Newfoundland." In 1810, their brig Anna, originally registered in Exeter in 1800, was also transferred to a Liverpool registry.43

Among other Teign valley men, such as William Underhay, Abraham Hingstone, Stephen Harvey, Robert Boden, John Codner, and Elias Rowe, John Job of Combeinteignhead/West Teignmouth was a member of the Grand Jury appointed in St. John's in 179444

and was one of twelve St. John's merchants petitioning for convoy protection for ships in 1800.45 Cod-oil imports and land tax

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assessments46 show that Jobs and Bulleys can be linked oiiginaíly in Combeinteignhead simultaneously with the Newfoundland fishery and a local class of yeoman farmers. They later emerge in the status of merchant shipowners, first in Teignmouth and then in Liverpool. In the nineteenth century T3ulley and Job7 became one of St. John's leading mercantile houses, and their successor Job Brothers and Co. Ltd. was active in the fish business up to about a decade ago.

SL Nicholas Parish As a locus of migratory activity, a community of seafarers, and a source origin of emigrants associated with Newfoundland, it is doubtful whether any settlement in England was so intensely involved as the parish of St. Nicholas, especially the village of Shaldon. Whereas most other settlements and ports during the eighteenth century had some diversity of local economy, of which the Newfoundland fishery was simply one component, Shaldon village (like Kingswear opposite Dartmouth) was literally created by the overseas Newfoundland fishery and, until it became a popular holiday-retirement resort in the mid-nineteenth century, was virtually an English-based Newfoundland colony. Originally, Shaldon and Ringmore were part of the parish of Stokeinteignhead but became a separate parish in 1671 when the Clifford family purchased a parcel of land from the Carews and built St. Nicholas Church. The local parish registers of St. Nicholas are extant from 1716.47

Using the ñame lists of parishioners available in these local registers and in land tax assessments,48 it is possible to link over sixty separate train-oil importers with St. Nicholas over the period 1743-81,49 most of whom were either byeboatkeepers or banker fishermen. Some of the local families that appeared persistently in these operations included the Baker, Bowden, Card, Champion, Collins, Drew, Fox, Howard, Mardon, Row, Rugg, and Stigings families—patrilines with long-standing parishioner status. At various intervals and most commonly through intermarriage with the daughters of local seafarers/fishermen, new surnames were added to the parish. Thus, for example, among the main shipowners resident50 in StNicholas around 1800, we find at least eight who had married in. These were Blackaller (1798), Boden (1778), Dunley (1770), originally from Stokeinteignhead; Ashford (1769) and Bennett from Combeinteignhead; Codner (1780) from Kingskers-well; and Clapp (1798) and Drew from West Teignmouth.51 Among the leading shipowning families, the traditional element is perhaps

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best illustrated by the f act that Thomas Bulley, Robert Boden, Giíbert Clapp, John Dunley, William Fox, Stephen Harvey, John Mortimore, Thomas Stigings, and Nicholas Wilking were all Newfoundland shipowners and merchants, who were each followed in succession by a son beaxing an identical ñame qualified for a time by 'Júnior' or 'the Younger'. Of course, numerous other individuáis who followed the previous seafaring generation carried the same surnames but Christian ñames of their grandfathers and úneles—such as Daniel, Samuel,52 and William Codner, who succeeded as merchants in the Newfoundland trade following their father John, who died in 1799.

Together with a handful of ship-builders, men such as Thomas Tucker who built ships in 'Shaldon-Green' 1806-26, Arthur Owens, a shipbuilder in Ringmore 1815-8, and John Stephens of Stokeinteignhead who built ships in Ringmore, 1786-1811,53 the larger merchant / shipowners of St. Nicholas (Bulley, Codner, Harvey, and Row) clearly formed the more affluent sodo-economic dass in their community. Only slightly less affluent, based upon their relative ranking as shipowners, were the Boden, Clapp, Fox, Rendall, and Wilking families.

Numerically, however, a larger sodal dass consisted of a group of families headed by men in contemporary documents called 'master-mariners', the skilled seamen who captained fishing bankers and sailing brigs across the Atlantic. Many of these captains were the younger sons and kinfolk of the oldér shipowners, and most were part owners of the ships they commanded. While some sea captains retained residential preference for Newton Abbot or for rural villages where their roots were, most of them were either raised in the ports or took up residence in places such as Teignmouth, Shaldon, or Dartmouth. In 1801,100 mariners on Teign estuary ships were recorded as residents of St. Nicholas, yet the total population of the parish was only 585. Another 123 mariners residing in the parish (Newfoundland migrants returning between 1801 and 1815) induded no less than thirty master mariners. Among the most prominent of these were members of the Bulley, Fox, Harvey, Mortimer, and Squarey families, all St. Nicholas natives. In the same seamen lists, however, one finds numerous individuáis who appear to have been in-migrants to St Nicholas. Thus, among our 123 (1801-15) migrants, only 38 (32 percent) bore ñames of individuáis previously baptized in the parish who would have been suffidently mature (ten years or older) to be employed as sailors for the years stated.

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In many respects the population dynamics and mobility of St. Nicholas parish correspond to those ocoirring in eighteenth century and early nineteenth century Newfoundland. Although there was a basic core of local extended families for whom the fishery had become a traditional way of life, it is also obvious that economic fluctuations, together with (in the case of St. Nicholas) Poor Law residential restraints and requirements, created conditions under which many families and single seamen residing in the parish at any given time were transients while participating in the sea trade. They were either recent in-migrants or future out-migrants.

A sorting of all surnames associated with marriages performed in the parish 1721-1837 produced a set of 331 patrilines. Among these, however, only 101 surnames (30 percent) could be linked to more than a single marriage. An analysis of source-origins of extra-parochial (exogamous) spouses married in St. Nicholas between 1721-1836 shows that Stokeinteignhead provided 25 percent, Teignmouth 12.8 percent, Newton Abbot 10.3 percent, Combeinteignhead 6 percent, and St. Mary Church 3.4 percent. These marriage migration indexes show that parishes on the neighbouring south side of the Teign river were the main places of social interaction with Shaldon and Ringmore.

Table 8.2 records the ñames, dates of events (marriages or burials), and selected pre-migrational data (date of baptism, ñame of father, place of residence, and occupation) reconstructed for some twenty-seven St. Nicholas emigrants to St. John's, Newfoundland. As the data show, the interval of marriage/burial documentation spans the years 1758 (burial of John Rugg, a byeboatman) to 1880 (burial of Élizabeth Waymouth, wife of Richard, a shoemaker).

Despite the relatively small number of documented emigrants (probably several times less than the actual number) one can recognize several socio-economic facets of the migration process. Thomas Bennett, married in St. John's 1847, was apparently the son of Thomas of Ringmore village who married Mary Hingston in St. Nicholas 1796 and to whom 1799-1813 five children (including in 1807 a son Thomas) were christened. While Thomas Sr. (aged seventy-one, 1840) and Mary Bennett (aged eighty-three, 1855) died in St. Nicholas, there is no further local evidence for Thomas Jr. Thus, one can reasonably conclude that Thomas Bennett Jr., was the same person who married Eliza Cadwell at St. John's in 1846.

Assuming that other St Nicholas emigrants have been assigned accurate background data, we can infer that emigration transected

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Table 8.2 tg Selected Characteristics of St. Nicholas Parish Emigrants On

1 2 Event Pre-migration data - St. Nicholas

Bennett, Thomas m 1846 b 1807 s, Thomas, Ringmore, merchant

Cooke, Henry m 1864 b 1828 s, Robert, Ringmore, carpenter

Coysch, William m 1842 b 1816 s, John, Shaldon, shoemaker/mariner

Goldsworthy, Mary m 1849 b 1829 d, William, Shaldon, mariner

Hannaford, William m 1849 b 1823 s, William, Shaldon, cooper

Hepditch, Richard d 1851 b 1817 s, David, Shaldon, mariner

Knight, William Skinner m 1855 b 1827 s, James, Shaldon, masón

La vis, William d 1766 no data prob. s, Richard, boatkeeper

Langdon, John m 1821 b 1796 s, William, Shaldon, cooper

Maddock, Catherine m 1860 - no data

Maunder, William d 1771 - no data

Medland, Richard m 1840 b 1808 s, Richard, Shaldon, mariner

Moddicott, George Codner m 1847 b 1824 s, William, Shaldon, shipwright

Moddicott, William Codner m 1853 n,d, prob. s, William, Shaldon, shipwright

Payne, Capt. William d 1856 b 1814 s, William, Shaldon, mariner

Prideaux, Captain Thomas m 1846 n.d. prob. s, Thomas, Shaldon, joiner

Rendall, Elias m 1824 b 1797 s, John, Shaldon, merchant



Rendall, William Jr.

Rendall, Sarah

Ruggjohn

Squarey, Geo

Squarey, John

Tucker, Thomas

Tucker, James

Tucker, Eliza (widow) (formerly Eliza Stephens)

Warren (Mrs, John McBride)

d 1854

d 1758

d 1820

m 1845

m 1832

m 1855

d 1854

d 1860

Waymouth, Elizabeth d 1880 (formerly Elizabeth Payne) (82 years)

b 1789 s, John, Shaldon, merchant

b 1791 d, John, Shaldon, merchant. m 1815 m Robert Cárter of Dartmouth, merchant;

(child bapt. St John's, 1816; residing in Ferryland)

b 1727 s, Thomas, boatkeeper

b 1795 s, George, Shaldon, mariner

b 1822 s, John, Shaldon, mariner

b 1806 s, Thomas, Shaldon, shipwright

b 1826 s, Thomas, Shaldon, shipwright

d of William, Stokeinteighnhead; m John Tucker, shipwright, 24; daughter Mary Ann, baptized 1826; no other data)

n.d. d, Thomas, Shaldon, mariner (data in newspaper obituary)

m 1830 m Richard Waymouth, Shaldon, shoemaker

Event in St. John's, year; m = marriage; d = burial. 2Event and year: b = baptism; m = marriage; relationship tofather: s = son; or d- daughter; ñame offather; residence; occupation.



all social classes within the parish: merchant, artisan, tradesman, and fisherman/sailor. It is apparent also that emigration was a highly selective individualist ic process, occurring mainly through marriages in Newfoimdland for males. Interestingly, too, the females documented migrated mostly as part of a nuclear family or after marriage in England. For example, Elizabeth Waymouth, Sarah Rendall, and Eliza Tucker each moved to St. John's after marrying in St. Nicholas, whilst Maiy Goldsworthy (daughter of William, a mariner) almost certainly arrived in St. John's as part of a family migration of William and Susanna Goldsworthy (nee Harvey). The latter couple married in 1825, baptized four children 1825-32, including Mary 1829, and no further data relative to their residence in St. Nicholas occurs up to 1862. Two other emigrants—Thomas and James Tucker—seem to be the eldest and youngest children of Thomas, a Shaldon shipwright, who baptized eleven children 1806-26, all of whom seem to have survived. In fact, no other events are recorded for this family; thus the whole family probably emigrated. It is likely that another Tucker family, that of John Tucker, shipwright, also emigrated, with his wife Eliza and daughter Mary Arme sometime after 1826.

Negative documentation (lack of information on residence) is obviously a tenuous basis on which to establish inferences. However, it seems probable that other families—Cooke (carpenter), Hannaford (cooper), Moddicott (shipwright), and Waymouth (shoemaker)— also emigrated to Newfoundland; by contrast, burial records show clearly that the parents of other emigrants (Coysch, Knight, and Skinner) were stül residents of St. Nicholas at the time of their (the parents) decease.

The Fox Family of Shaldon Some of the more detailed insights into shipping activities and migration from Shaldon can be gained from the surviving account and letter books of Captain William Fox covering 1800-16. Captain Fox was born in Shaldon in 1749, son of William Fox, who was then a byeboatkeeper in the Newfoundland codfishery The younger Fox married Sarah Thomas of St. Nicholas in 1776 at which time he was designated a 'mariner'. By the 1780s he had become a sea captain, as well as part owner of the brig Aurora in partnership with Thomas Row, Merchant, and Mary Luckem, widow, both of St. Nicholas.56 Subsequently in 1793, he commanded the brig Britannia, which he jointly owned with Row and Richard Westlake of Bishopsteignton, mariner. In 1794, he was designated 'merchanf in

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the registry of the brigantine Priscilla, now in partnership with Thomas Row and Richard Morrish of St. Nicholas, mariner. In 1796, Row and Fox acquired the brigantine Cognac, to which partnership was added in 1800 the ñame of William Fox Jr.(the third Wm.), 'mariner7. In 1803, the Cognac carne under solé Fox ownership, with Thomas Fox, a younger son of William, endorsed as a part owner in 1805. William Jr. (baptized in 1782) and Thomas (1787) were clearly following the established tradition.57

From 1800, William Fox Sr., as his accounts and letters indicate, resided in Shaldon and managed his shipping affairs. These records deal with his direct interest in the operation of six different ships—Endeavour, Cognacf Hope, Three Williams, and two separate vessels named Good Intent In 1801, the eider Fox joined with two other Shaldon entrepreneurs, Thomas Stigings and Richard Ashford, and purchased the brig Endeavour valued /7at 700£ as she lay at Shaldon green7 and the Good Intent purchased at Plymouth, /7both to be employed yearly on the Banks of Newf(ound)l(an)d.7758 With these two ships, the partnership lasted from 1801-05, when the company was dissolved. Other documents in the Fox papers deal with the operation of: the brig Cognac 1802-10, originally owned by the Fox family but admitting into partnership in 1807 Stephen Harvey, "mariner of St. Nicholas77, Fox7s son-in-law through the latter's nuptials in 1805 with Sarah Thomas Fox; the Sncrw Hope 1806-07, owned by Thomas Row and William Fox; the brig Good Intent, owned by William Sr. and Jr. with William Causely of Ideford, 'yeoman7, and Thomas Wills of St. Nicholas, 'ship-builder7, a vessel registered in 1812 but captured on June 28, 1813, on the coast of Newfoundland by the American privateer Snap Dragón; and the brig Three Vñlliams purchased by the Fox family in 1809.

The ledger accounts (though not complete) deal with costs of suppl ies purchased , t ransporta t ion and communicat ion, recruitment of men, ship repairs, and other expenditures. In reference to recruiting crews, Fox records amounts spent under headings "expenses to Newton (Abbot) ab(oüt) Men77 and to 7/Wm. Champion for going in ye country to give notice to ye people77

(presumably seamen and passengers). In 1803 he records, 7/To 60£ to Insur(ance) on George Squar /s Effects at and from Teignmouth to St John7s, Newfld,77 an apparent reference to either a byeboatkeeper or possibly the household migration of a family. Certainly with the entry /7By freight of Goods and six men passages to Newfld, rec7d of John Squary/7 Fox documents in 1804 one of the last migrations of a

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byeboatkeeper erew, for this system seems to have ended about this time. Expenditures in St. John's, 1809, on the brig Cognac include accounts with James Mtilledge for candles, Walter Baine and Co. for canvas, J. & R. Biine for beef, Miller, Fergus & Co. (Bay Bulls) for board, Richard Hammond (blacksmith), Wm. Branscombe (blockmaker), and one Snelgrove (sailmaker). These purchases indicate some of the ship-service functions which were establishing in Newfoundland.

In his letters 1816-7 Fox establishes clearly that his brother Thomas, his son Thomas, his son-in-law Stephen Harvey, and his daughter Sarah were, at least temporarily, all resident in St. John's. Thomas Fox, Jr., was evidently commanding a ship to South European fish markets, from there to Liverpool and Ireland, and thence was involved in the Irish passenger trade to St. John's. Brother Thomas, a shipwright, was offered the advice to remain in St. John's, as William adds in a letter to his son, dated August 17,1816:

I have written your Unele Thos advising him not to think of coming home this year as I do not think he would earn £20 in a twelve month if he was here now. Ifs a fact that many good shipwrights have no employment here and are also starving for want and no prospect of it being better. This you may tell him.

Teignmouth and the Early Nineteenth-Century Irish Passenger Trade References to Irish passenger traffic in the Fox papers illustrate in some detail what is evident in other sources—that South Devon ships from Dartmouth, but particularly Teignmouth, were much involved in the speculative transportation of great numbers of Irish migrants arriving in Newfoundland in the early decades of the nineteenth century. In May 1816, for instance, one of Fox's ships, Three Williams, was consigned from Teignmouth to Liverpool with a cargo of clay. The captain, Anthony Fox (a nephew of William Sr.), was advised to obtain freight there for Newfoundland. Meanwhile, the Goodlntent had already anived in St. John's with passengers from Waterford and Fox, in a letter to his son Thomas, expressed hope "you will get clear of your passengers/' and later reüef that "you have got clear of all your passengers except two or three/' Another of Fox/s letters to a Waterford merchant in January 1817 observed, "My friends Messrs. Parker, Bulley and Job (St. John's) inform me they sent you from St. John's Newf'd forty-two Bail Note for men and women passengers from Waterford to St. John's amounting to £279."

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The bail notes refer to the general practice by shipowners of taking secuiity on relatives or property in Ireland against passenger

. fares to Newfoundland. Fox noted that "I understand they selected such notes as they thought there was no probability of recovering at NewfTd" and urged his agent Richard Fogarty to "every exertion to recover them in Waterford."59 Public notices carried in the Newfoundland Mercantile Journal in 1816 illustrate that the practice of speculating in Irish passengers was widespread.60 The notices, addressed to Irish passengers who had arrived in St. John's, warned those who had not paid their fares that their "passage notes...will be forwarded to Waterford and payment enforced from securities there." Among the f irms placing such warnings were íhe Teignmouth-Shaldon firms of John and Robert Brine, Thomas Row, Thomas Bulley and Co., Samuel Codner and Co., and Stephen Harvey and Co. Row's notice of October 12,1816, actually bore the ñames of fifty-nine offending passengers, among whom were seven females.

Between 1810 and 1812, South Devon ships landed some 3000 men, 376 women, and 88 children in St. John's.61 The owners induded Bulley, Codner, Job, and Row of the Teignmouth-Shaldon area, Alsop of Newton Abbot, and Drew of Dartmouth. Another partial list shows that 5 vessels from Teignmouth disembarked 150 men and ten women and children May 5-7,1825.62 Official statistics indicate that in 1815,6709 passengers landed in Newfoundland, with some 5876 (88 percent) of these from Ireland, and that over the period 1811-16 Mshmen accounted for over 80 percent of almost 20,000 passengers arriving on the island.63 This period marked the peak of Irish emigration to Newfoundland. Although numbers of Irish passengers fell from 2635 in 1816 to less than 500 the next two years, their demographic impact on Newfoundland in the period 1815-20 is well documented in Román Catholic marriage records by the large numbers of marriages involving Irish-born males and females.64

No precise calculations can be made regarding the number of Irish passengers that were transported by different ports and firms. Neverthdess, Teignmouth merchants contributed significantly in this emigrant traffic throughout the 1820s and probably exacted as much or more commercial advantage from it as they did from bank fishing and the transport of cargoes. Irish passengers arriving in Newfoundland varied between 248 in 1822 and 1583 in 1830, but averaged dose to 1000 annually for the 1820s, whereas English passengers averaged about 200 per annum for the same intervaL

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Temporal Aspects of Migration and Emigration The period over the Napoleonic War period marked a major turning point in the nature and character of the migration activity that had for centuries linked South Devonshire with the Newfoundland fishery. During the war, not only did seasonal migrations decline drastically in both the byeboatfishery and passenger flows on bahk vessels, the former mode of exploiting cod faded out altogether, and while there was a slight resurgence of bank fishing out of Teignmouth and Torbay in the early 1820s this activity as a direct fishery also failed to recover to anywhere near the levels it had been in the late eighteenth century. Whereas there were 187 banking vessels fishing in 1792, the numbers fell to 115 in 1795 and to 38 in 1801.66 Whereas, however, only fifteen of the vessels in 1792 were Island'-based, sixty-two of the fewer vessels in 1795 were owned by Newfoimdland residents, and in 1801 only seventeen bankers crossed the Atlantic.67 The changing structure and composition of the banking fleet, once the mainstay of the South Devonshire migratory effort, was partly the result of the greater tendency of their owners dur ing the war to leave their crews and ships in Newfoundland and of island residents to enter this mode of fishing. The shifting of the management of trade from Teignmouth and Dartmouth to places such as Liverpool, but especially to St. John's, had other consequenees. Tradesmen such as blockmakers, sailmakers, shipwrights, and blacksmiths, as well as master mariners and seamen who would have previously found fairly regular employment in Teignmouth or Dartmouth, were in relatively greater demand in Newfoundland, and tradesmen on the island in these various capacities at the outbreak of the war were more inclined to remain until dangers of capture at sea ended.68 In these respeets, conditions during the war period, particularly in St. John's, clearly only accelerated trends which had already begun and which were somewhat inevitable in the historical process of change.

Many of the families in the Teign Valley-Newton Abbot area, which in eighteenth century documents can be associated with the byeboat and banker fisheries—families such as Alsop, Bond, Bulley, Carnell, Codner, Fox, Goss, Harvey, Job, Parker, Pinsent, Quick, Rendall, Row, Tessier, Warren, Waymouth, Whiteway, and Winter— established patriline branches in the St. John's district, mostly in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century periods. Among agents and factors residing in St. John's in the Napoleonic war period were: Robert West of East Teignmouth, Edmund Beard of

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Stokeinteignhead, Abraham Hingston, George Bulley, Samuel and John Codner, John Rendall, Stephen Harvey, William Whiteway, and William Boden from St Nicholas, Nathan Parker of Combeinteign-head, and John Brine and John Butler of West Teignmouth. In the early nineteenth century some of these same individuáis became leading social, political, and commercial figures in St John's and in Newfoimdland affairs. Samuel Codner of Shaldon led a movement in 1803 to establish charity schools and in 1823 founded the Newfoundland School Society69 In 1805, John Bond, aged sixteen years, of Kingskerswell went to St John's as a clerk to Samuel Codner. Later he became a merchant in St. John's. One of his sons, Robert Bond, became Prime Minister of Newfoundland and another

70 son, George, a Methodist clergyman.

Whereas the trade and migration ties between Teignmouth, Dartmouth, and Newfoundland declined from the 1820s, the passenger traffic itself continued beyond mid-century. Occasionally, some particular labour demand encouraged a slight upsurge, as in April 1847, when the brigantine Nancy carried "upwards of sixty passengers—mostly masóns, carpenters, etc" to St. John's to help rebuild the town after a disastrous fire that winter. 1 In the!830s, Michael Rowell of Bishopsteignton, Boden and Howard of Shaldon, Clapp, Bibbens, and Rendall of Teignmouth, Eales of Newton Abbot, and Mudge and Goodridge of Torbay continued a commercial shipping interest in Newfoundland, and the Warren family of Teignmouth still fitted out ships for the fishery in the 1850s.72 The historian Prowse recalls the folk memory of the Devonshire migratíons as it was fading out after more than three centuries. He commented:

The late Hon Stephen Rendall (a native of Coffinswell, Devon) has often told me that even when he carne to the Colony in 34, hundreds of Sturdy Devonshire lads carne out every spring to Roweü's, Boden's, Bulléis, Mudge's, Job's and many others on the South Side (of St. John's)...to Torbay, Bay Bulls, Petty Harbour....)73

Rendall had also informed Prowse that "every lábouring man about Coffinswell had been a servant in Newfoundland" and that the "regular place for sh ipping was at Newton Abbot." Undoubtedly, some of the young men of Rendall's recollection were among those whose marriages were recorded in St. John's during the 1840s and 50s.

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CHAPTER9

Out of Wessex: The Poole Effect

When the source areas of Newfoundland emigrants, drawn from parish registers and other sources, were analyzed, it was found that 30 percent derived from Dorsetshire. Another 16 percent carne from Hampshire and Somersetshire in roughly equal proportions (Table 7.1). When the parish origins of these migrants are mapped (Figure 7.1) we see that the Hampshire emigrants are almost all from West Hampshire and the Somerset emigrants from South Somerset. It is further evident that these source areas are really spatial extensions of a migration basin centred upon Dorsetshire and that the región comprised of Dorset-South Somerset-West Hampshire was a unified migration basin or hinterland. What do we cali this migration región? In his novéis, Thomas Hardy was faced with a similar problem for almost the same identical territory. He invoked the ancient Saxon ñame of South Wessex, or more simply 'Wessex7, which subsequently gained popularity as the practical provincial definition for the district in which Hardy found a unity of custom and tradition. The fact that Newfoundland origins reconstructs Hardy's 'Wessex' almost as precisely as he describes the settings of most of his novéis and short stories may not simply be coincidence. The Wessex región had a unity of identity and communication, and migration to Newfoundland was an expression.

Apart from the Newfoundland parish registers, documents on out-migration from Wessex include the mercantile papers of Poole firms, English parish records (including Poor Law documents), and a wide variety of miscellaneous collections, prívate papers, wills, and deeds which allude to individuáis as migrants or residents in Newfoundland. The mercantile papers, mainly the Lester diaries and Slade ledgers, provide a main source of information on merchant recruiting practices, employment in the fishery, and on

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some of the essential operative forces which characterized migration activity, while the other two data sources provide selected information on individual migrants (their origins, personal characteristics, and careers) either prior to, during, or after an involvement in the Newfoundland fishery.1

The Port of Poole As a main emporium of Newfoundland fishing voyages, Poole itself was, like Dartmouth and Teignmouth, largely a community of merchants and traders, sea captains, mariners, and maritime-related tradesmen. Studies in Poole's history2 revea! that commerce in the Newfoundland fishery spanned the Elizabethan to Victorian eras, that the fisheiy raised the status of the town to a major port in southern England, and that the fortunes of the town and its population varied with the fluctuating fortunes, the success-failure cycles, of the Newfoundland fishery and trade.3 Over the same period, the overseas trade was recognized not only as the main economic activity of Poole but also as a chief commercial enterprise of Dorsetshire as a whole.4 The fisheiy encouraged local industries, especially the cloth manuf actining of the North Dorset or Blackmoor Vale district and the rope, net, and sailcloth industries of the Bridport district, and employed annually hundreds, occasionally thousands, of Wessex men as sailors and fishermen.5

This chapter reconstructs and examines migration activity associated with Poole and the Newfoundland fishery in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries from two perspectives. The first part of the chapter focuses upon evidence contained in merchant papers, parish collections, and a miscellany of other prívate and public documents from archives in Poole, Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, the Public Record Office, and Newfoundland. The second part is based upon the conclusions of the first, and attempts to summarize descriptively the migration and emigration associations which the more important sub-districts within Wessex forged with Newfoundland.

Manpower Recruitment in the Newfoundland Fisheiy In Chapter 3 it was shown that men and boys from all parts of Dorsetshire were engaging in the Newfoundland fishery in the seventeenth century. Even if knowledge of the employment opportunit ies associated with the seasonal fishery was not widespread at the time, this situation changed during the eighteenth century, not only because the fishery became an established part of

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the economic life of the región, but also because of the increased demand for manpower on the part of Poole shipowners. In prosperous and peaceful periods, men and boys voluntarily flocked into the port during winter and early spiing to sign on as sailors, fishermen, or servants with one of the merchant shipowners. This practice became as much of an annual event in Poole as the yearly hiring of farm labourers was at local county fairs. Even as there developed in Poole a self-perpetuating community of mariners and fishermen who were preoccupied with the Newfoimdland fishery, so also there were Newfoundland seafaring communities of varying size residing in most of the county towns and villages. These communities consisted of sea captains, seamen, boatsmasters, f ishermen, occasionally a shipowner or a merchant, even Newfoundland planters—groups of individuáis who used the fishery as their main means of livelihood, but who maintained their domiciles and families outside Poole. They resided among, and were an integral part of, their respective local parishes and settlements.

One of our chief documentary sources on recruitment practices resides in the diaries of Isaac and Benjamín Lester covering the period 1765-1801. Generally, the allusions and references to manpower sources in the diaries tend to be recorded most frequently at times when there were difficulties in securing servants and special efforts had to be exerted in hiring them. Indeed, the negative evidence may be more significant on balance than the positive. The diaries of both individuáis tend to record the more significant daily events of a business firm in the Newfoimdland fishery, and among these the annual spring clearing of ships for the island with their crews and passengers was a very busy but nonetheless routine event. More often than not, the authors record the sailing of one of their vessels, usually note the captain's ñame, but offer no hints as to where the crew members and passengers originated. Occasionally their comments on such days were limited to notations such as "shipping men all day," spending the day "getting the passengers and trunks on board" or "our people coming in from all quarters."

In studying the diaries, the basic questions—where, when, and how personnel were recruited—were asked of entries in the diaries and then compiled into lists of places. The hiring season normally began in January and lasted until early Jirne when the seasonal ships cleared Poole for Newfoimdland. Supply ships were dispatched throughout the year but these carried only sailing crews. Considerable circulation of crews resulted from the discharge of

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sailors on incoming ships and the hiring of seamen for vessels outward bound. This linked the coastal and Newfoundland trades together.

Ref erences to recruiting methods establish quite clearly that the Lesters commonly used messengers and business contacts (both suppliers and customers) to establish communication with potential servants. "Sent Brixey and Porter out twice into the countay today for men" or "sent Thomas Bishop to Bridport to get men and boys for the land [Newfoundland]." The messengers were usually captains, Newfoundland agents, or other employees attached to their Poole counting house. With an obvious reference to the labour-broker type of contact, Isaac wrote John Pelly of Christchurch on April 2, 1768, "to ship men for £11 and two summers and a winter," and he noted August 17,1775, that he had requested of the Wimborne Minster grocer, Joseph Eaton, "to look out fo r youngsters." Among the more prominent clients and customers who secured men for the Lesters were Bird and Colbourne (clothiers of Sturminster Newton); Colfax (a rope, net, and twine dealer in Bridport); Sheave (a tanner who purchased their sealskins and supplied the firm with leather in Sherborne), and Christopher Cobb (an apothecary dealer in Ringwood). When, because of war and the presence of press gangs around Poole, men failed to come into the port, messengers were sent on horseback from one town to another gathering a few recruits here and there. These recruits were often hidden in the Lester country estáte called Post Green at Lychett Mirister, six miles outside Poole, and secreted aboard after ships had cleared port.8 In February 1776 while Thomas Bishop went to Bridport, Wimborne, Wareham, and Puddletown seeking men and boys, a Captain Waterman was visiting Ringwood and Lychett Minster. A reconstruction of messenger recruiting circuits from all specifics given in the Lester diaries is shown in Figure 9.1. The Lesters effectively canvassed the whole Wessex area gathering together servants and sailors for their Newfoundland trade.

Other methods of recruiting are referenced, as in 1769 when Isaac Lester "met with three poor young fellows on the Road and ordered them to cali here, when I carne home shiped them to go in the Two Sisters."9 On another occasion his brother Ben had met with the Mayor and Justices of Poole "about taking some Parish boys."10

Other entiles show parents and guardians offering their wards directly: "James Hutchen's wife brought Crokers two sons this morning to go in the Jos[eph] and Benjamín7,11 and "Charles Pearce's

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wife looked in this evening about her son going over [to Trinity] with Ben...."12

Securing men was one problem, retaining them was often another. On one occasion Isaac Lester noted that "John Slade our neighbour is mean enough to ship our people after they have agreed with us, and conceal them. He or his son is at ye door all day and watches to see who goes in or out of our house and nabbes them and gets them into his house,"13 and on another occasion that "three of our people carne in today and Bill Spurrier shipt them."14

Controlling servants' behaviour prior to embarkation was a perennial headache.15 Frequently, servants ran off with their wage advances, shipped themselves to other merchants, or were so drunk that they delayed the sailing of a ship or failed to embark altogether.

While the Lester diaries yield some of the better insights into the active recruiting procedures and problems, the Slade collection is probably a better source in giving an overview of servant status, wages, and shipping terms. Occasionally the individual accounts of Slade servants include references to labour brokers who had advanced wages, clothing, and personal effects at origin.16 As his ledgers show, in 1786-87 Slade employed thirty-three servants (mostly sailors) on monthly wages, fifty-six men on seasonal wages, thirty-two servants who shipped for two summers and a winter, eight individuáis for three summers and two winters, two youths for four summers and three winters, as well as eight apprentices with longer terms. That same year, wage deductions were paid from servants' accounts to Bird and Colbourne of Stuiminster Newton, to Mr. Sleat of Christchurch, to Baker, Wright, and Smith of Wareham, and to a Mr. Rideout of Ringwood. These deductions represent expenses and premiums paid to Slade's business associates who had recruited the servants, advanced wages, supplied clothing, or even paid the servants' outward passage fare.

An attempt to reproduce the spatial pattem of recruiting from both the Lester diaries (1765-1801) and the Slade ledgers (1783-1820) is shown in Table 9.1. The most remarkable feature is the prominence of the same market towns in both documents (Sturminster Newton, WImborne Minster, Christchurch, Ringwood, and Wareham). Lesters apparently recruited more actively in Wimborne Minster and Bridport. The relatively high frequency counts of men secured from the 'West Country7 (meaning Devon) in the Lester diaries refer almost exclusively to banker crews.17 Whereas Lesters crewed their Trinity-based banking ships almost exclusively with Devonshire

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Figure 9,1 Recruiting Places and Networks of Poole Merchants



men drawn from Torbay, Teignmouth, and Exmouth, by employing a captain who in turn recruited his own seamen locally, they hired mostly Dorsetshire and Hampshire men for their inshore fishing crews and as servants for their planters. The most frequently cited reference to securing the latter simply stated 'in the country7 or some variation of this phrase, which meant they had sent a man somewhere outside Poole to secure them.

To some degiee, the differences in the frequency of references in Table 9.1 can be explained by temporal factors and the different scale of operation and trading emphasis of the Lesters and Slades. The Lester diaries, for example, cover an earlier and longer interval. In the 1760s and 1780s, the firm made extensive use of banking ships marined with Devonshire crews to harvest codfish. In 1787Benjamín Lester owned eight bankersm employing eighty-seven men, but the firm's total Newfoimdland fleet numbered about twenty ships. Slades in the eighteenth century operated at a much smaller scale, did not become involved in the Grand Banks or offshore fishery, and concentrated more exclusively on the seal and salmón físheries and the inshore fisheries of Notre Dame Bay, harbours to the northward, and on the coast of Labrador.

The Poor and Unsettled Insights into homeland social and economic conditions for the period ca. 1760-1830 are contained in collections such as registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials, apprenticeship indentures, settlement examinations, accoimt books of Overseers of the Poor, and other related documents which give information on all classes of people in each parish. Under the Poor Law, for example, each parish was charged with supporting its poor and empowered to tax the wealthier parishioners for the purposes of apprenticing pauper children, setting the poor to work, and maintaining their families.18

Although indigent parents might attempt to seek useful trades in, which to place their children, this duty was often assumed by the parish ofñcers—Church Wardens and Overseers of the Poor—and their decisions were legally binding.

The Newfoimdland fisheiy was widely used throughout the coimty of Dorsetshire by parish ofñcers as an alternative to local employment placements in agriculture and trades such as tailoring, shoemaking, and carpentry, in which to bind their pauper children. Dorsetshire was predominantly agricultura! in character then as now.20 Such industries as it possessed in the eighteenth century were

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largely supplementary to agriculture and depended mostly on the labour of women and children.21 Thus, there were few alternatives

22 young men could find without leaving the county altogether.

Indentures in the Dorset Record Office provide evidence that at least twenty-seven parishes placed boys out to Poole merchants, mariners, and planters in the Newfoimdland fishery. Generally, parishes offered a cash bonus with each boy, provided him with clothing and a sea chest. In Poole itself, the Newfoundland fishery was the obvious choice and preference for apprenticeship, and indeed as late as 1834 it was noted "the children of paupers are apprenticed to masters of Newfoundland vessels...at a proper age.../'23 As Table 9.2 shows, the evidence, though patchy, suggests that boys were apprenticed into the fishery from parishes throughout the county and over a considerable time interval. Lesters, for example, took parish apprentices from Poole, Sherbome, West Lulworth, Marnhull, Puddletown, Blandford Forum, Holwell, and Hooke and transferred most of them to Trinity Bay.

The ñame evidence in subsequent records permits one to trace a few parish apprentices who moved to the status of masters and became Newfoundland settlers. On May 6,1741, John and Thomas Dampier "sons of John Dampier, shoemaker" of Sherbome, were placed out by parish officers to "Robert and William Cleaves," mariners of Poole, for seven years.24 Cleeves were shipowners associated with the fishery on the south coast of Newfoundland.25

Some twenty-three years later, another Thomas Dampier, aged twelve years, son of Thomas, was bound by Sherbome parish officers to serve John Lemon "mariner of Poole" and charged to learn the art of "mariner and fishermen."26 Lemon evidently took the younger Dampier to Trinity, where the local registers show that on November 7,1787, one "Thomas Dampier of Sherbome, Dorset," wed a local girl, Ann Sweet, and the census of 1801 shows him to be an owner-occupier of a Trinity fishing room.27 Charles Saint, of Wimborne Minster, originally went to Bonavista as a parish apprentice to Thomas Bass, but by 1806 was also an owner-occupier of a fishing room.28 Some three decades later, he was appointed guardian to the daughter of James Oakley "native of Wimborne Minster, now of Bonavista, Island of Newfoundland."29

Apart from the actual indentureship papers, we find other réferences to Newfoundland apprenticeship hidden in the Overseers of the Poor Account Books. For example, those extant for Wimborne Minster 1700-1827 contain thirty-five entries on expenditures of

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Table 9.1 Recruiting Centres of Two Poole Merchant firms

Number of References Place Ñame Lesters (1768-1801) Slades (1783-1820)

Somerset Wincanton 5 Queen Camel 1

Hampshire Ringwood 16 13 Christchurch 13 8 Fordingbridge 4 1 Portsmouth 3

Dorset Abbotsbuiy 1 Beaminster 2 Bere Regis 1 Blandford Forum 3 Bridport 13 -Canford Magna 1 -Corfe Castle 1 2 Dorchester 3 2 East Lulworth 2 Lychett (Minster) 9 Milton Abbey 1 Morden 1 2 Puddletown 3 Sherborne 1 1 Sturminster Newton 20 37 Wareham 5 11 Wimborne Minster 22 3 Wool . . . - 2

Devon/West Country Axminster 1 -West Country 20 Exeter 1 -Exmouth 3 Teignmouth 1 Torquay 2

Unspecified 'in the country' 25 'on the road' 2

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binding boys to the Newfoimdland fishery, including the following verbatim:3

1732 "Paid Mary Bond her Child's Passage to Newfoundland" (£4) 1765 "Pd Wm. White for taking Woodrow's and Harvey7s boys

apprentice to NFld." (£1-17) 1788 "Expenses apprenticing 3 poor boys of the (poor) House to

Nfld/' (£6-6) 1802/3 "Cloaths for Joshua Penny's Boy and William Wheeler going

to Newfoundland" (£10-1) 1811 "Allowce to Mr. Butt for fitting out 2 Parish Boys to Newfdld"

(£4-4) Similarly, from the Poor Accounts of the North Dorset parish of

Marnhull, twenty-five miles from Poole,31 we íind: 1701 Apprentice bound out

"Geo Kendall...to his master £5, chaige when he went to sea 4s, Cloathing £2-9-3, shoes 3s, hatt 3s, 2 shirts and 2 cravetts 8 /6"

1769 'To Thos Sanger for going and expenses to Pool with Robt. Stacey £0-3-0"

32 and from Holwell, another rural parish in North Dorset:

1748 "Pd Mr. Isaac Lester in Pool for Robt. Galpin, John Creasey and George Frampton £3-3 Journey to Pool on this occasion 16/0 5 extraordinary journeys to Gillingham and Shaston and John Creasey who "ran away from his master"

1766 "Clothing Sam Haskett for Newfoundland 2 journey and man to Poole" £1-10

As mentioned earlier, the charity fund established by William Williams in 1621 requíred that three boys be placed into the sea service each year successively from Blandford Forum, Sturminster Newton, and Shaftesbury, and the evidence from indentures and accounts shows that the boys were placed consistently with the Poole-Newfoundland traders.33

Judging from the facts available in the Slade ledgers and settlement examination documents, direct apprenticeship as a method of initial entry into the Newfoundland fishery probably involved less than 10 percent of the migrants. Among the 150-200 servants which Slades normally engaged in a year during the 1780s and 90s, the firm seldom took any more than five-ten apprentices at a time. Further proof that apprentices did not comprise a large sector of Newfoundland migrants is given in settlement examinations (examined below). Indeed, most servants and young men entering the mercantile service had already served an

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Table 92 Parish Origins of Dorset Parish Apprentices in the Newfoundland

Fishery

Parish/Place No. of extant Period (earliest and inderi tures last dates)

St James/Poole 80 1695-1833 Allington (East) 1 1698 Beaminster 1 1697 Blandford Forum 83 1654-1819 Bridport 4 1623-77 Broadwinsor 1 1769 Brickland Newton 1 1812 Canford Magna 6 1729-1820 Corfe Castle 8 1704-1810 Dorchester 3 1646-1721 Fordington 2 1738-47 Leigh 2 1704-65 Lulworth, East 1 1758 Lulworth, West 2 1767 LymeRegis 4 1664-1729 Marnhull 10 1701-69 Moreton 1 1773 Netherbury 1 1796-97 Parkstone 1 1764 Powerstock 2 1646-1721 Portland 1 1651 Poyntington 1 1758 Puddletown 6 1765-91 Sturminster Newton 6 1723-1835 Weymouth 2 1641-1690 Wimborne Minster 13 1714-1811 Wrnterbome Monkton 1 1760

Newfoundland Destinations Linked with Dorset Parish Apprentices

Bay Bulls 9 1747-66 St John's 3 1745-95 Placentia (Bay) 5 1738-89 Fortune Bay 1 1777 Carbonear 3 1777-1835 Bradley's Cove 1 1812 Brigus 1 1785 Trinity 30 1736-95 Bay de Verde 1 1793 Twillingate 1 1810

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apprenticeship or worked locally in agriculture or in a trade before they voluntarily shipped themselves across the Atlantic

Settlement examinations represent some of the best sources of information on migration that survive from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 5 although, like most parish records, they are fragmentary and incomplete. Those which survive provide some of the more intímate personal accounts of migratory fishermen and servants who followed the sea and the Newfoimdland fishery for some part of their work life. For example, we learn that Henry Batson of Wimborne Minster, aged seventy-one years in 1810, was nine years oíd when his father first took him to Newfoundland,36 and George Short, born in Hooke, Dorset, but examined at Wimborne in 1762, testified he went to sea first in service to "Bernard Batson, planter then resident in Newfoundland" having been hired by Isaac Lester of Poole on Batson's behalf "for two summers and a winter."37

William Aplin of Broadwinsor was thirteen years when he eloped from a ropemaker in Crewkerne, Somerset, to whom he had been apprenticed at seven years, and went to Newfoimdland. Robert Brewer, born in Chard, Somerset, but examined in Cerne Abbas, Dorset, had had a career involving an apprenticeship to a Chard parishioner, from whom he 'eloped' to go to Newfoimdland for two years,38 and Joseph Rawles of Worth Matravers likewise deserted his employment with a yeoman of Corfe Castle for a voyage to Newfoundland.39 George Brine of Poole was apprenticed by his father to Thomas Brine of Blandford St. Mary in carpentry. He served five years, worked as a journeyman for three years, then went to Newfoundland "in the service of Mr. Street," later returning to work for his oíd master.40 Similarly, John Foster of South Perrott, Somerset, lived and worked with his únele, a buteher, and at "eighteen years went to Newfoundland for two summers and a winter" before returning home to resume his oíd trade.41

As with parish apprentices, a few settlement examinants— having been to Newfoundland and returned home—returned to the fisheiy later. This was the case of Matthew Abbot, a labourer, born in Wimborne Minster about 1722 and examined in Poole iñ 1758. At that stage he testified that at eleven years of age he hired as a servant over a six year span (1733-1739) with two different masters and then moved to Christchurch. There he was hired by one James Perkins, "to serve him in Newfoundland" and "went accordingly," aged seventeen, and was examined on his arrival back in Poole, aged thirty-six. Two years later, Trinity parish records show that a

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Matthew Abbot intermarried with Grace Gillett, a daughter of Richard Gillett, formerly of Christchurch, but in 1760 a married planter in Trinity In 1761-1764, Matthew and Grace Abbot presented three children for baptism. Grace Abbot "aged thirty-one years, spouse to Mr. Matthew77 died in Trinity in 1771 and "Matthew Abbot Sr., aged seventy-two years" was also buried there in 1794. His son Matthew Abbot Jr., baptized in 1761 and married in Trinity in 1792, was in 1801 owner-occupier of a fishing room and married with three sons.43

In the settlement examinations we also find instances of the Newfoundland-born returning to the ancestral homes of their parents or relatives. William Bidé with a wife and four children arrived in Poole in 1787 and on examination declared himself to have been born in Twillingate, Newfoundland. The magistrates determined his legal place of residence to be Lymington, Hampshire, "the home of his father" who had settled in and died sometime earlier in Twillingate.44 Bridget Hill, a widow with a seventeen- year-old daughter and an eleven-year-old son, arrived in Poole in 1790 and stated she had married Daniel Hill, formerly of Netherbury, Dorset, at Burin, Newfoundland, eighteen years ago 45 Similarly, Catherine Coombs, a widow, testified that she was born in Burin and married William Coombs of Bridport, Dorset. When he died in Newfound-land, she had left her eldest son John in the island and taken her other five children to Poole, whence the parish officers transported her to Bridport.46 Joseph Mansfield, a planter with an account in the Slade ledgers up to 1786 when a notation stated that he "Being blind (had) gone to his parish," arrived in Poole, was examined, and ordered removed with wife Mary and four children to Sherborne, January 1, 178747

Baptismal, marriage, and burial records kept by Dorset clergy frequently add further strands of evidence to migration ties with Newfoundland. In the parochial registers for Abbotsbury, Charminster, Bishop's Caundle, Poole, Shapwick, Sherborne, Wareham, Wimborne Minster, and Ringwood are examples of persons either Newfoundland-born or erstwhile residents who had returned to either marry, baptize children, or die. In 1797 Jonathan Griffen "from Newfoundland" baptized six children aged four to twelve years in Ringwood, where the marriage register also records in 1780 the nuptials of "George Skefiington of Bonavisty [Bonavista] in Newfoundland and Jane Friar of Ringwood."48

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Wills and the Well-to-do A further supplementary source on kinship, migration, and social relationships is contained in wills written on both sides of the Atlantic during the migratory interval, by residents of Wessex with relatives in Newfoundland, by natives of Wessex residing on the island, and by purely migratory persons. Samson Mifflin, a sea captain and agent to Joseph White, a Quaker merchant of Poole and Trinity, in his will of 1759 described himself as "late of Warminster, Wiltshire, now of Poole, mariner, nowbound to Newfoimdland/7 He willed his main estáte to his brother Solomon and also fifty pounds to "...god-daughter, Mary the daughter of Joseph RandaU Sr. in Bonavista.7749 The Randall family of Poole as agents, captains, and fishermen also had cióse ties with the Whites of Poole and were planters in Bonavista during the early 1700s50 In his will of 1771, James Randell of Poole, mariner, left £400 in trust to his 7/sister Jane, wife of Solomon Mifflin." In 1803 Solomon Mifflin was "still a planter in Bonavista and apparently the progenitor of the Mifflin patriline in Newfoundland.51 Stephen Knight of Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire, migrated to Newfoundland, married an Oíd Perlican girl (March), and became a leading early nineteenth-century merchant in St. John7s in the firm of Parker, Knight, and Bulley. In his will, written in 1812, he left £200 to an apprenüce, Charles Fox Bennett, also of Shaftesbury, who later became an eminent entrepreneur in Newfoimdland and also a Prime Minister. Knight indicates in his will that his chief heir and daughter, Ann, was then attending school in England.52

Other Newfoundland-related wills in the Dorset Record Office and/or Public Record Office include those of the following:

Wm. Green (1753) "formerly of Wimboum, now of Trinity.../7

Nathaniel Brooks (1758) /7late of Bay Bulis...now of Poole" Edward Handy (1761) "of Bradford Abbas near Sherboume... now residing in St. John's77

Richard Stanworth (1786) "of Poole...now of Greenspond7' Wm Salmón (1801) 'late of Bonne Bay...nowof Sturminster Newton" Henry Creasy (1803) "formerly of Sturminster Newton...late of Bonne Bay.../' Hezekiah Guy, a salmón fisherman and furrier in Twillingate 1760-1807 who identifies himself as "formerly of Sturminster Newton, now of Twillingate"53

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George Small (1811) 'late of Ibberton...Dorset, now of Odering, orAuderin" Wm. Warren Salmón (1813) "of Marnhull, Dorset Jate of Bonne Bay"54

John Jenkins (1816) "of Poole...residing in Trinity" Joseph Weatherall (1816) "of Hinton St. George, Somerset, now residing at Trinity...." John Culi (1817) "of East Lulworth...now residing in St. John's" Most of the extant apprenticeship documents, settlement

examinations, parish records, wills, deeds, administrations, mercantile papers, and other documentary sources which address some aspects of the migration process fall within a time frame between 1750 and 1830. The nominal censuses of England for 1851 and 1861, however, also speáfy Newfoundland-born persons as residents of many Dorset parishes including Poole, Canford Magna, Belchalwell, Sturminster Newton, Marnhull, Bridport, Holwell, Bradford Abbas, Caundle Bishop, Sherborne, Hinton St. Mary, Bloxworth, Wimborne Minster, Hampreston, Winterborne Zelston, and Stiirminster Marshall, as well as Christchurch, Holdenhurst, and Ringwood in West Hampshire.56 Among these returned migrants we find children who had been sent home for schooling, orphans returned to the care of relatives, wives and widows of English-born males, grandchildren, nephews, and nieces of the head of household. While most of these are recorded simply as Newfoundland-born, some have place-specific origins such as Fogo, Trinity, Burin, and Greenspond, the Poole-Newfoundland mercantile centres.

A Resettlement System One of the more complete data sources on which a reliable migrational hinterland for Poole can be reconstructed for the eighteenth century exists in Poor Law removal orders.57 The removal orders themselves represent the judgement of Magistrates on the legal place of residence of persons examined under the Acts of Settlement.58 The geographical pattern of removal activity (shown in Figure 9.2) corresponds closely to the places of origin of Newfoimdland migrants shown in Figure 5.1.

In the eighteenth century, the Newfoundland fishery was not only the main basis of economic support in Poole but also the root cause of most of its local social problems.59 Pauper remováis from Poole highlight some of these problems, especáally the personal poverty and distress which stemmed in large measure from the

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fluctuating circumstances of the fishery. Many mariners employed by merchants and traders brought their wives and families into Poole and rented rooms. Others married local girls. Normally men employed on monthly wages made arrangements with merchants to allow regular payments to their families.60 Frequently, however, seamen were drowned, became imemployed, failed to retum, neglected their families, or carne home penniless. For these and other reasons, their dependents were forced to seek parish relief and subject themselves, if suspected of being illegal residents, to a settlement examination. In many of the removal orders of married women, it was noted that the husband was "gone from her and now abroad beyond the sea/7 or "hath deserted her and is now abroad by sea/7 which then, almost invariably, meant the overseas fishery. Cases involving the abandonment of wives and families resulted in remováis to the parishes of Bere Regis (1770), Puddletown (1773), Weymouth (1773), Melcombe Regis (1775), Radipole (1779), East Allington (1772), Christchurch (1775), Abbotsbury (1787), and Topsham, Devon (1771). Death of a mariner spouse was linked with remováis of wives and children to Corfe Mullen, Lyme Regis, Sturminster Newton, Marnhull, and Chissel, Portland. Over 68 percent of remováis from Poole involved a married woman, widow, or single female as the principal person. In the twenty-nine remováis related to unmarried females, five were asserted to be pregnant, presumably by transient seamen; single females were scrutinized carefully by local authorities as potential problems should they bear illegitimate children who might become chargeable to the parish.Removals to Poole tended to have the same characteristic features as those from the port and consisted principally of single females and married females or widows and the families of mariners being returned home.

No single data set used in this chapter, for reasons of fragmentation and erratic survival, could be used individually to support f i rm conclusions on the migration basin of Poole. Cumulatively, however, and together with data from Newfoimdland parish registers, one can reconstruct the spatial dimensions of migration to Poole and outward to Newfoimdland. It is also evident that migration opportunities and the tradition of migration were established with the Newfoimdland fisheiy through Poole over a geographical area that was both broader and more diffuse than through Teignmouth or Dartmouth. Indeed, compared with the Devonshire ports, migration from Poole was more evenly spread across the local network of central places and market towns. Outside

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N> Figure 9.2 Distribution of Poor Law Remováis to and from Poole, 1743-1801

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Poole itself, the fishery clearly generated a labour demand/supply area that reached landward up to a radius of twenty-five to forty miles but drew strongly from towns such as Christchurch and Ringwood in Hampshire, and Wareham, Wimborne Minster, Blandford Forum, Bridport, and Sturminster Newton in Dorset, as well as from towns and villages in south Somerset. Most of these sub-districts had their own special links with Newfoundland and are thus worth further consideration. In the following sections we examine migration association with Newfoundland from the perspective of various sub-districts within Wessex.

From Around the New Forest In the early eighteenth century, Christchurch, a town located on the sea coast at the confluence of the rivers Stour and Avon, was described by Defoe as a "very considerable poor place."61 The site possessed a very poor harbour "owing to shallowness, silting up and sand barriers" and had little success in developing any commerce apart from a small coastal trade. This trade, together with a local fishery for salmón, eels, and lampreys, and 'smuggling7, was for centuries one of the chief industries of the place.62 Against the local background, it is not surprising that many men from this town at a very early stage established the tradition of walking the seventeen miles across the heathlands to Poole to go out to Newfoundland in the fishery, or that the migratory fishery in turn gave rise to a considerable locally resident TMewfoundland7 community. To some extent, the overseas fishery may explain Defoe7s reference to its otherwise inexpHcable size, for he noted that there was no visible local economy. It is evident that both Qiristchurch and Ringwood men, and others from the New Forest area of Hampshire, were involved in Newfoundland voyages in the seventeenth century.63 As mentioned also, in 1714 a charity was established by one Jolm Clingan in Christchurch to apprentice local children as mariners. The charity trustees were charged to lease out Clingan7 s estáte and that from the proceeds "as many poor children of the parish as the funds would allow77 should be bound, each with a premium of five pounds, with special regard to the sea service. The charity stíll survives, and undoubtedly, as with William William7s endowment in Dorsetshire, its inception and objective represent the wish of an individual to continué an established practice.

Lesters and Slades as well as other Poole merchants maintained cióse associations with personnel in the New Forest district. The Lester diaries reveal that some of their ships7 captains—Jqhn Bartlett

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(1772), Wm. Brixey (1767-69), Capt. Waterman (1776), John Gregory (1768-79), Thomas Gaylor (1786-87), and at least one of their Newfoundland agents, Thomas Read (1792-1801), were residents of Christchurch. Lesters also regularly purchased groceries and other goods from Christchurch dealers such as Pelly, Sleat, Smith, and Triggs. Sleats of Christchurch, millers, manufacturers, and suppliers of sea biscuit, also dealt with Slades and supplied servants or, at least, advanced fares and clothing to passengers who travelled to Newfoimdland on Slade ships. Sleat is named, for example, in the Slade ledger accounts of such individuáis as John Buckle (1785-86), John Craze (a seasonal servant of Slade 1796-97 at £20), and Thomas Blandford (a seasonal servant in 1801-02 at £20, and a passenger in 1809-10).

When one of his ships was ready to sail for Trinity on Apiil 22, 1771, Isaac Lester noted he "sent John Bartlett to Xchurch this morning to cali the people in there...sent Phile [his servant] out to see for the Xchurch people he mett James who told him to go to Ha ven shoar and meet the ship and Phile went there to send them off, but they never come.... Coming home he overtook them coming to town...."

Christchurch natives are documented among the early settler populations of some thirty Newfoundland settlements but occur most prominently as immigrants in Trinity, Oíd Perlican, Greenspond, Twillingate, Fogo, Bay de Verde, and Carbonear, that is, distributed throughout the trading domains of Poole merchants (Chapter 10). In Trinity Bay, burial records spedfy Christchurch as the native-place of individuáis such as Andrew Brock (1768, aged fifty years), Mr. James Bugden (1771, aged fifty-nine years), George Tilly (1772, servant to John Moores), Richard Sparkes (1773, thirty-one years), Thomas Hewitt (1774, servant to Mr. Lester), and James Potüe (1781, eighty years), whilst marriages involved John Bugden (1771), James Gooby at Oíd Perlican (1773), and Stephen Hookey (1774). Other Trinity Bay surnames linked with Christchurch roots in wills and other sources include Burry, Bursey, Coombes, Cram, Dean, Emberley, Gillett, Hopkins, Kirby, Lockyer, Moores, Reid, Sweet, and Waterman. In the early nineteenth century, Greenspond and other Bonavista Bay settlements were attracting some numbers of Christchurch settlers, a process probably given a fíllip when about 1802 Thomas Read, formerly Lester's agent in Greenspond and in Trinity, established a trading firm in partnership with R.W. Sleat of Christchurch and built an establishment in

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Greenspond.65 At the peak of their trade in the early 1820s, Sleat and Read operated six ships, several of which they built in Greenspond; thereafter their trade declined and had ceased by 1828.66

Perhaps the most noteworthy Christchurch family to settle in Newfoundland was founded by John Peyton in Notre Dame Bay67

Like some of the other early settlers from the New Forest district, the Peytons tended to specialize as trappers, furriers, and salmón catchers in Notre Dame Bay and consequently carne into cióse, and sometimes violent, contact with the dwindling remnants of the native Beothuck. The Beothucks resided in the central river basins and migrated to exploit resources along the river valleys and estuaries leading into Notre Dame Bay. John Peyton Sr., was a well-established salmonier, furrier, and woodsman in the district by 1781, operating his main base in the bay and river of Exploits at 'Lower Sandy Poinf described as a "house and stores upon the sloping bank of the river and a long wharf, built on piers, extended from the shore out to the deep water/'68 Until he died in 1829, Peyton headed a salmón and furring business in the Exploits River basin, but also returned frequently to Poole, Wimborne, and Christchurch, where he married and raised a family. His son, John Jr, bom at Christchurch in 1791, was schooled in Wimborne and in 1811 accompanied his father to Newfoundland, where he, too, involved himself in the salmón and fur trade in the Bay of Exploits, but later resided mostly in Twillingate, where he served as Justice of the Peace and Stipendary Magistrate for a lengthy period until his death in 1879 6 9

Most of the trade affiliations, migratory links, and emigration patterns that can be documented for Christchurch can also be identified for Ringwood. This market town lay six miles north of Christchurch and was sited on the river Avon at the westem fringe of the New Forest area. Ringwood dealers furnished supplies including beer, cloth, vegetables, cooperage equipment, as well as fur traps, to Poole merchants. In the 1760s and 70s, Lesters dealt with Ringwood men such as Henry Goss (a cloth dealer), Simón Lannis (a cooper), Abraham Lañe and Mr. Mansfield (grocers), Joseph Fryer (a brewer), Mr. Christopher Cobb (an apothecarv and grocer), and Mr. Veal (a supplier of traps and beams). John Slade had commerdal dealings in Ringwood with Thos. Clark, Christopher Cobb, Abraham Jacobs, and John Roberts, who also sent out fishing servants.71 Like Christchurch, Ringwood also produced some shipowners and merchants who traded from Poole. Moses Kittier, a

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brewer, was also a shipowner trading into Notre Dame Bay until he went bankrupt in 1789. Other Ringwood firms included Wm. Clarke and Capt. Wm. Handcock, who were active on the northeast coast of Newfoundland 1754-1794, and William Gosse, who formed a partnership with William Fryer of Wimborne Minster and Robert Pack (as Newfoundland agent) of Poole, in one of Poole's larger Newfoundland companies, in 1815-37. Using the ñame Fryer, Gosse and Pack and based in Carbonear, this company in 1824 operated twelve vessels (1747 tons) and were in this respect second among Poole merchants only to the trade of George Garland.73

Ringwood and other New Forest settlers were among the earliest pioneers in northeastern Newfoimdland and were mainly responsible for initiating the salmón fisheiy and furring. George Skeffington,74 the first person to establish a commercial salmón fishery north of Bonavista in the early 1700s, apparently carne from Ringwood, as did the Shamblers of Trinity and Bonavista Bay (1675-1708).75 Later Ringwood emigrants span a marriage-migration interval from 1770 to 1859 and can be linked to residential attachment in at least sixteen settlements, including four settlements each in Conception and Trinity Bays, and three each in Bonavista and Notre Dame Bays.

Ringwood and Christchurch together account for over half of the documented origins of Hampshire settlers in Newfoundland. Nevertheless, the whole región west of Southampton waters, together with Portsmouth, Southampton, and the Isle of Wight, also contributed some migrants to the ongoing fishery and emigrants to the growing inhabitant population. As elsewhere, labour sources were somewhat tied to trade dealings with the fish merchants in Poole. Portsmouth victuallers had a regular coastal trade with Poole and sold cordage and ropes.76 Some of the vast amounts of bread and flour required by the Poole merchants carne from the Isle of Wight. The Lester diaries allude to pinchases of guns (fowling and sealing pieces) from a Fordingbridge gunsmith, and to dealings with a fish hook supplier in Southampton. Another source indicates that Lymington occasionally exported some salt to the fishery In the parish of Boldre near Lymington, the notes of the incumbent cúrate (1811-17) indicate that eleven boys born between 1797 and 1803 had "gone to Newfoundland."77 The patterns followed by other West Hampshire migrants as set t lers in Newfound land are distributionally similar to those of Ringwood and Christchurch, that

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is, spread mainly among the sett lements of nor theastern Newfoundland.

Wimborne Minster and Wareham The parish officers of the market town of Wimborne Minster, six miles north of Poole "over a sandy wild and barren country," as local pa r i sh records witnesseth , made cont inuous use of the Newfoundland fishery over the period 1690-1812 to apprentice pauper boys to a useful trade. Some boys were sent to Carbonear, Placentia, Fogo, Twillingate, and Bonavista; others found themselves in Trinity Bay and White Bay. Newfoundland records (1754-1885) meanwhile have Wimborne natives being married in St. John's, Carbonear, Harbour Grace, Bonavista, Gooseberry Islands, Trinity, Bay de Verde, Greenspond, Fogo, Twillingate, and Change Islands. In other words, the patterns of settlement documented on one side of the Atlantic are confirmed by evidence from the other side.

Except for its market town functions, Wimborne Minster in the eighteenth century was mainly dependent upon the woollen industry. In 1793 Claridge claimed that "1000 women and children [were] engaged in knitting worsted stockings."78 Lester's business contacts in the town included Mauger (Major), Tory, King, Eaton, and Haskell, dealers from whom they purchased groceries and clothing. Before Wm. Fryer struck out into the Newfoundland trade with Gosse of Ringwood and Pack of Poole, the Torys constituted Wimborne7 s main locally resident ship-owning family, who sometimes traded under the ñame style 'Wimborne Co7. In 1760 two ships, the James and the Umdon Trader, owned by the 'Wimborne Co.7, arrived in Poole from Newfoundland with fish, oil, and furs, and in 1762 another reference cites 'Tory of Wimborne...his sloop arrived 22 July with oil and c. from Green7s Pond."79 Benjamin Lester's diary refers to "the Brig belonging to the Wimborne People with Oile and passenger" arriving home at Poole in 1768; in 1785 "Mr. N. Tor / s Brig arrived from White Bay..."; and in 1788 "Mr. Netlam Tory from Square Islands, Labrador...28 days." The Slade ledgers bear testimony that "Messes Richd and Netlam Tory" were trading in St. Leonard7s Harbour (Labrador) in 1774 and at Battle Harbour (Labrador) over the period 1784-89, where they engaged in both the cod and seal fisheries. Netlam Tory died in 1790 and left a respectable fortune.80 His brother Richard, a grocer and partner in the Newfoundland trade, continued to stake passengers and planters for a period through other Poole firms, but ceased to operate ships. After the Torys other Wimborne families, such as Fryer, Oakley, and Drew,

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and William King upheld the commercial ties of the town with Newfoimdland.

Until he went bankrupt in 1789-90 Samuel Spratt of Wareham, a market town on the Frome River at the head of Poole Bay, was accounted among the leading Newfoundland merchants of Poole. Spratt was a brother-in-law of John Slade and a concurrent Newfoundland merchant, though the former traded into St. Mary's and Placentia Bay while the latter favoured Notre Dame Bay.82 In the 1740s Spratt was a planter-boatkeeper in Placentia, but sold his property there in 1759 and moved to Mortier Bay.83 By 1785 he was supplying settlers in Great St. Lawrence, in Oderin, Buiin, and Mortier, where he competed with Spurriers, a few small Jerseymen, and Newmans of Dartmouth.84 His properties offered for sale in 1791 induded, according to the Sherborne Mercury "three capital, convenient and well situated Fishing Rooms, in Placentia Bay"; the íirst, at Mortier, "consisting of a modem built dwelling house...five large store-rooms, three stages, with flakes for ten boats fish, with cook rooms and other convenient buildings, a large garden, convenient pasturage for cattie, a burying ground, and ten shallops, with bait skiffs and all their tackle and apparel."85 The other two properties at Burin and Oderin had the same variety of structures and capital assets. They were purchased by Joseph Garland of Poole and apparently later acquired by a Poole firm, Harrison, Slade, and Company.

From the Blackmoor Vale The two Dorset manufacturing industries that apparently benefitted most from supplying the migratory fishermen and Newfoundland settlers were the cloth industry of the Blackmoor Vale in North Dorset and the rope, net, twine, and sailcloth industry of Northwest Dorset. The main centres of the cloth industry, Shaftesbury and Stalbridge, but more particularly Sturminster Newton, also figured prominently as source origins of migrants and settlers alike. Until the Napoleonic War Period, clothiers of Sturminster apparently supplied the bulk of cloth materials for sailors and fishermen. While no definitive study has been addressed to the history of the cloth industry in North Dorset,87 it is clear that clothiers in this district began to specialize in the production of a heavy, coarse flannel, known as 'swanskin' or 'swansdown', which was tailored especially for the use of mariners and fishermen voyaging across the Atlantic, as early as the late sixteenth century. The 'swanskin' industry survived at least tmtil about 1820. In 1791 Claridge claimed that the

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© ' 2009 W. Gordon Handcock

'swanskin' manufactured in Shaftesbury, but chiefly in Sturminster, employed 1200 people making 4000-5000 pieces annually,89 but Stevenson in 1812 noted some considerable decline as the "manufactory of Swansdown" then employed "sometimes 700 or 800 people" and observed that this was much less than formerly.90

As mentioned earlier, the cióse relationship between the maritime community and the cloth trade is best illustrated in the charity established by William Williams in 1621. His will specified that funds be made available yearly to apprentice boys "to the sea service" and also to aid "clothiers, serge-makers, linen-weavers and felt-makers" in Stiuminster, Shaftesbury, and Blandford Forum. In Sturminster parish records we find, as of May 1732, how parish offices spent these funds. For the apprenticeship of Richard Spencer and John Bingham, each bound for seven years in the service of David Durell, mariner of Poole (employed by the Lesters), the parish furnished each boy "2 jackets, 2 pr. of breches, a great coat, 3 shirts, 2 pr. of troucers, 1 hatt, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of stockings, 2 handkerchs, knives, combs, capps, bed and piilows, a large blankett."91

Isaac Lester's diary, 1769-77, identifies three Sturminster clothiers (Bird, Colboume, and Haskett) from whom he regularly bought blankets, shirts, and broadcloth (swanskin). His diary alone contains over thirty entries mentioning the Bird family, and typically these relate, as on February 28, 1776, that "Young Joseph Bird of Stumiinster brought some swanskin and blanket here today..."; and on March 26,1776 "Mr. Joseph Bird come in today with some goods and brought in a boy...." On April 1,1767, Lester wrote, "the people come in from Stuiminster about three o'clock sent them onto the Sally immediately at Brownsea. James Warren went down and took a list of people on board and found eighty, of our own people and passengers sixty or seventy...."

When the cloth industry of the Blackmoor Valebegan to decline, in the face of strong competition from the industrializing central and northern regions of England, the major cloth merchants, Bird and Colbourne, then became directly involved in the Newfoimdland fishery as shipowners, and all four of the male members of another clothier familv (Forwards of S turmins te r ) emigrated to Newfoundland. Two settled at Grand Bank, another at Carbonear, and the fourth went to Notre Dame Bay. Indeed, in the period 1800-20 some considerable numbers of individuáis from Sturminster and the Blackmoor Vale district settled in Newfoimdland, though the

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tradition of using the fishery was now, of course, several centuries oíd and seasonal migration continued until the 1870s.

By place of marriage, we can link Sturminster natives with over twenty-five Newfoundland settlements, but they were strongly represented in Fogo and Twillingate, Carbonear, and especially the district of Fortune Bay and westward to Rose Blanche. A very similar pattern of migration tendencies exists for other settlers ¿rom the Blackmoor Vale-South Somerset district, where the opportunity to get to Newfoundland was apparently closely linked with Sturminster Newton as a recruiting centre.

Whereas Colbournes of Sturminster traded to Twillingate over the period ca. 1808-32, Joseph Bird opened up establishments in Bonne Bay in 1808 and Forteau shortly after.93 The letter books of the firm for 1836-43 show that as well as supplying his own establish-ments and planters, Bird also recruited and shipped 'youngsters', sailors, fish-splitters, coopers, smiths, and sawyers for Newman7 s establishment (formerly of Dartmouth, then of London) in Fortune Bay, and also acted as a social corresponden! between settlers in different parts of Newfoundland and their relatives in the North

94 Dorset/South Somerset región. Newman ' s letters to Bird commonly include requests such as:

Will you look out for a good carpenter and a splitter and also a cooper. In the fall... endeavour to ship splitters for the next year as they are diffícult to be got. We also want ten youngsters for Planters at20-40 pounds for three summers and two winters....95

And Bird's letters to Newman (the labour broker to the patrón) indicate:

Will be shipping of the youngsters tomorrow...1 have had an apprenticé for a smith who will be here tomorrow hope the Capt. will have doaths & c for the youngsters.96

From Around Bridport Like Sturminster clothiers, Bridport manufacturers of ropes, nets, twines, and saildoth devdoped a spedal niche in the growth and development of the Newfoundland fishery.97 Bridport supplied most of these products not only to Dorset migrants and merchants in the Newfoimdland trade but also to those of Devon, Bristol, and the Channel Islands. According to the ledger books of Joseph Gundry, the two major customers were Newfoundland fishermen and the British Navy.98 In ordering supplies, it was common for dealers, as Newman & Co. did in 1815, to ask their supplier, Mr. Joseph Gundry, "to ship some hard boys that have bone and health

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for three summers and two winters." The young recruits for the fishery carne not only from Bridport but also, as Newfoundland parish registers indicate, from neighbouring villages such as Beaminster, Bothenhampton, Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Corscombe, Netherbury, Powerstock, and Symondsbury.

While migration patterns from the Bridport area can be associated mostly with Poole trading patterns and districts on the northeast and south coasts, there was a more marked propensity for movement from the Bridport area toward St John's, particularly in the nineteenth century. This departure from the general directions of other Wessex migrations can be explained by the fact that, as the volume of direct trade to Newfoundland from Poole declined, Bridport rope and net manufacturers opened brokerage agencies in St. John's and shipped cargoes directly to the island from Bridport; at least one cordage and twine dealer (Hounsells) developed a major mercantile house in St. John's."

Other Dorset Origins Although the quantitative evidence indicates that Poole, followed by Bridport, Sturminster Newton, Wimborne Minster, and Wareham, were the main centres of labour supply and emigration to Newfoundland, all parts of the county of Dorsetshire contributed manpower to the fishery and the inhabitant population of the island. The proportions deriving from the Isle of Portland, the coastal areas of West Dorset, and indeed the more maritime margins of the county, were much smaller than those of the inland market towns and villages. Even though Weymouth had a direct trade with Newfoundland until the mid-eighteenth century, there is little evidence that it fostered any significant development of an inhabitant population. As a source area, the Weymouth-Portland district was apparently less important than the central Chalk Downs: the Cerne Abbas district, and the settlements around Puddletown, Bere Regis, Corte Mullen, and Blandford Forum. As elsewhere, and if examined at the local scale, migration patterns were temporally drawn out, spatially diffuse, and highly individualistic. For example, among five Corfe Mullen natives whose maniages are recorded in Newfoundland, the time interval spanned 1782-1843, and two occurred in Carbonear, with one each in Harbour Grace, Bonaventure, and Fogo. Similarly, marriage migrants from the Cerne Abbas district are recorded from 1762 to 1858 and are linked with destinations in Trinity Bay, Coneeption Bay, Bonavista Bay, Bay St. George, and the Strait of Belle Isle.

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From South Somerset The cloth industry and proximity to recxuiting centres in North Dorset probably account for the relative importance of migration links between South Somerset and the Newfoimdland fishery The sailcloth industry, a specialized branch of the cloth trade which was centred in South Somerset towns such as Crewkerne, East Coker, Castle Cary, Yeovil, and Milborne Port,100 supplied its products to shipowners of Poole and Devonshire ports, and served as a communications link for shipowners who required men, and for men who looked to the sea for employment. At the same time, it is likely that Poole business contacts in Bridport, Sherborne, Sturminster Newton, and Shaftesbury in North Dorset recruited Somerset men, and that young men from Somerset towns were as aware of the opportunities in the fisheiy as those from Dorsetshire itself. In Sherborne, a market town within a mile of the Somerset border, local tanners made use of hides and seal skins imported into Poole and supplied leather goods to the merchant houses,101 and local parish officials sent parish apprentices into the sea service at Poole.102 In 1779, after Benjamin Lester had advertised for a 'salmón catcher7 to go to Newfoundland, he received an application from a man in Queen Camel, Somerset. Thereupon he asked Joseph Bird of Sturminster Newton for a letter of reference.103 Further evidence that South Somerset lay within the recruiting sphere of Sturminster Newton is provided by a letter from a South Petherton woman who wrote Bird concerning any information he might have relating to the death of her son in Grand Bank, Newfoundland,104 and the settlement examination of Wm. Milner. Milner of Somerset stated in his testimony, "when I was fifteen or sixteen years oíd I bargained with Mr. Bird of Sturminster Newton to go to Newfoundland in his employ for three years and a half for thirty-three pounds and my victuals and lodging."105

An early nineteenth-century document relating to poor travellers passing through Blandford Forum on their way to Poole and seeking employment in Newfoimdland included individuáis from such Somerset places as Wincanton, Westhatch, Sturton, Crewkerne, Meniott, Westover, Yeovil, Castle Cary, Bridgwater, Templecombe, Cheriton, and Frome. Another later source illustrates still another variation of migrational activity. This source recalls in the words of one Henry Haskett of Marnhull (a rural parish near Sturminster) his experience on the South Coast of

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Newfoundland in the employ of Newmans of Dartmouth. He writes:

A man called Phillip Francis who lived at Hinton St Mary advertised in the Western Gazette for men to go to Newfoundland for Newman, Hunt and Company. Forty-two men went, these five from Marnhull: Harry Lewis, Tom Curtís, Alfred Drew, Albert Hann, Henry Haskett. There were already several Marnhull men out there.

Haskett further recalled that they left Marnhull, went to Yeovil in Somerset, where they were joined by more men, then walked to Dartmouth and embarked ship for Newfoundland.108

Some Somerset men, such as the Pittmans of Crewkeme, became ships7 captains and agents in the employ of Lesters of Poole,109 and at least five male Pittmans from Crewkeme married in Trinity Bay.110 Other Somerset natives are recorded elsewhere among the pioneers of individual settlements. For example, the Genges of Hardington near Yeovil, were accounted the initial settlers at Anchor Point in the Strait of Belle Isle, while Robert Eastman was a pioneer settler in Rose Blanche on the South Coast. Eastman7s narrative was related by Bishop Feild in 1850. Feild states that Eastman had come from Yeovil about 1823,7/first as a sailor.77 He had been employed six to seven years at Harbour Bretón, had saved about £60, and was about to return home when he was persuaded into the employ of one Gillam of Channel. Eastman married Gillam7s daughter. When Feild met him, he had been living and fishing at Rose Blanche about eight years and had a family of five daughters and one son.111

The evidence of marriage-migrations from Somerset to Newfoundland indicates that in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century period, the main patterns of movement were directed toward Conception, Trinity, and Bonavista Bays. During the mid- and late nineteenth century, the direction of movement shifted more toward Fortune Bay, the south and west coasts, and the Strait of Belle Isle. The main sending places included Crewkeme, Castle Cary, Milbourne Port, East Coker, Wincanton, Yeovil, and Chard; however, by origin Somerset settlers in Newfoimdland carne from over sixty separate parishes.

Timing the Wessex Departures In general, out-migration from Wessex (the Poole basin) associated with the growth of a permanent population in Newfoundland, tended to shift direction temporally f rom one district of

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Newfoundland to another in rhythm with the shifting demand for servant labour in the fishery. Most of the earlier Poole-sponsored settlers fused into the inhabitant populations of Conception Bay and Trinity Bay In the opening decades of the nineteenth century, Bonavista, Notre Dame Bay, and Fortune Bay began to grow more rapidly, but by mid-century, emigration from Poole was directed more strongly to the southern, western, and northern regions. In Newfoundland as a whole, the greatest volume of Wessex emigrants settled during the first three decades of the nineteenth century. The reasons and motivations for the relative rapid growth of permanent population during this period are diffícult to explain by any single set of factors without oversimplification. For instance, one might propose that a prime cause was the improving socio-economic conditions in Newfoundland. Balanced against that contention we have evidence of poverty, out-migration, frequent depressions, high costs of food and other basic needs, a high degree of isolation, and other hardships, including an unsympathetic officialdom. Similarly, it could be argued that settlement in Newfoundland became a more attractive alternative in the early 180Qs for many migrants because of deteriorating socáo-economic conditions in the homeland areas caused by agricultural depression, land reform, the collapse of the cloth industry, and the expanding homeland population. Against this argument one can adduce evidence to show that the volume of outward migration, at least to Newfoundland, was much less in the early nineteenth century than it had been at times in previous periods, supposedly more prosperous, and we have little evidence of mass or group movement associated with a particular depressed area or decaying industry.

The problems of employment and gaining a livelihood in the homeland area were a part of the overall changing milieu, and for many young men who entered the maritime fishing labour forcé in the early nineteenth century there was diminished attraction for them, as compared with their earlier counterparts, to return to the home parishes and find employment in either agriculture or local trades. An equally if not more important part of the changing socio-economic milieu was that the fishery in the early nineteenth century had become an almost totally sedentary operation, and migration opportunities were governed by labour demands of Newfoundland planters and the merchants who supplied them. Whereas previously most servants were engaged for a single season, by the late eighteenth century (espeáally in war periods) it had become common to hire them for longer periods and to require them

212



to work and reside one, two, three, or more winter periods as well as the summer seasons. The longer the work term, naturally the more inclined any individual would be to find a wife, to adapt to his new environment, and to become a resident plantar. These probabiüties increased both because of the changing structure and pattern of employment and because of the changing demography in Newfoundland, especially the increase in the number of females.

The decline and collapse of the cloth industry in South Somerset and the Blackmoor Vale certainly caused a considerable decline in local employment and income. Even in an advanced state of decay, the 'swanskin' industry in Sturminster Newton provided income for weavers, spinners, fullers, and clothiers in over half of the 300 household units enumerated in the town in 1801.112 Indeed, apart from the cloth industry, the only other forms of employment were labourers in husbandry7 and artisan trades (shoemakers, butchers, smiths, etc.). The demise of cloth-making in Sturminster itself did not occasion any great rush of men into the Newfoundland fishery. For example, among the resident population in the town in 1801, numbering some 1406 persons, only about thirty-five can be documented as possible settlers in Newfoundland. Of these thirty-five, and according to their own or parental occupational background in 1801, only seven were from the cloth trade, including three weavers, three sons of a clothier (Forward family), and one son of a fuller. Other occupational backgrounds were represented by thirteen migrants who were in 1801 labourers in husbandry7, five butchers, and a grazier, miller, carpenter, sawyer, baker, daiiyman, and a yeoman. In Marnhull, four ¿liles from Sturminster, where as elsewhere throughout the Blackmoor Vale, weaving and spinning had importance as a cottage industry, the census enumerator in 1821 did note in his return that the population of his parish had failed to increase significantly from 1811, and he attributed this to "the number that have Emigrated of late years from this Parish to Newfoundland and other Places/'113

In his very authoritative study using Poor Law records, Body asserts that the deterioration of social and economic conditions in Dorset generally, and in the Blackmoor Vale in particular, began during the 1780s and got steadily worse over the next half-century.114 He maintained that as the county experienced a rapid population increase from about 1787, wages of agricultural labourers became fixed at poverty levels. Subsequent increases in food prices in the 1790$ forced many families, even those with employment, to

213



-I-jC

seek parish relief. Body further argued that the collapse of cottage industries more than offset the agricultura! boom in the French War period and that this period itself was marked in 1799-1802 and 1808-11 by severe depression caused by crop failures, food shortages, and increasing prices.116 He also suggests that the agricultural prosperity of the French War period was something of a myth, since it was only landowners and large farmers who benefitted, the former from increased rents and the latter from increased prices for produce. Living conditions of the great mass of people, particularly families dependent upon agricultural labour, actually worsened in that wage increases did not keep pace with living costs.117

The post-war depression in Dorset hit hard at all dasses. Wartime rents and taxes prevailed, forcing numerous small farmers into bankruptcy, and parish officers found it difficult to raise funds to support those seeking relief.118 Poor Law relief expenditure, amidst agrarian distress which continued into the 1830s, grew even faster than the population as the result of increasing imemployment and inadequate income.119 In most parts of the county, landowners attempted to improve the profitabihty of agriculture by increasing the size of farms they let and consolidating holdings, which led to complaints such as that from the dergyman in Marnhull in the 1820s that large farm units meant fewer dwellings to accommodate farm workers.120 He stated it was the condition of every parish that there were not enough buildings to house the labouring poor, "which is the case of Marnhull, and they stow so thick it is not wholesome." In his memory, he observed, that whereas the population "increased more than 200...the houses have decreased near twenty-nine."121

Many Dorset migrants had gone to Newfoundland and remained on the island during the French and Napoleonic Wars. After the peace widespread, albeit short-lived, depression hit the fishery, but by 1820 a recovery had begun and by 1824 the trade from Poole was nearly as active as it had been in the more prosperous of the war years. Among the Poole merchants now were Bird and Colbourne of Sturminster, two former clothier families. The influence these entrepreneurs had in sponsoring out-migration from their local area is recalled in the Reminiscences of Sturminster Newton by a writer believed to be Robert Young, a dialect poet. He describes how in his young days (he was bom circa 1811) the poor labourer worked from six in the morning until six at night and earned six shillings a week if he were single and seven shillings if he were married. He also noted that "very many young men were employed

214



by the two merchants Bird and Colbourne, who owned ships trading between Poole and Newfoundland. some of the men settled in the

122 colony...others returned home...."

After the 1820s, migration to Newfoimdland diminished by degrees but continued until the 1870s. Letters from recruiting agents in Sturminster Newton to various employer clients 1836-41 show that the fishery still had an appeal attractive enough for many young men to volunteer their service.123 One letter in 1838 states, "the youngsters are now coming in [to Sturminster]...will yoü have the goodness to inform me if you want many this season...";124 another in 1839 notes "will be shipping off the youngsters tomorrow,"125 and in 1840 another letter states:

I sent off as many lads as I could muster and in the evening filled up the places of the deserters. There are two youngsters for two summers...Short, Lock, Taylor and Hoskins are shipped also the two smiths, also a man who has been out before and shipped @£21 for 18 months asa sawyer...126

In 1841, a letter written to Thomas Street Bird at Poole by his solicitor in Sturminster reads in part, "Lots of boys and men today and yesterday called as candidates for Newfoundland and are anxious to know when they are likely to be put into commission."127

In the 1830s-40s, migration from Poole was directed mainly toward the frontier areas of Newfoundland, to establishments along the south coast, west coast, and in the Strait of Belle Isle. The volume of migration was governed by the labour demand situation in these developing regions, in the same way as it had been previously governed by labour demands in other districts. The decline and cessation of migration was both a function of declining direct mercantile activity from Poole and the growth of an inhabitant population. Newfoimdland became increasingly, and finally totally, able to furnish labour demands in the fishery from the native-born population.

A further important element in the process of decline was the position St. John's attained as the main entrepot of supply and marketing for the whole of Newfoundland, supplemented by the development of a network of resident outport merchants, many of them formerly the agents or descendants of individuáis who worked for Poole mercantile houses. During the Napoleonic War period and throughout the early nineteenth century, St. John's mercantile houses and others based in Conception Bay, replaced gradually the British houses in the overseas commerdal links. In the early 1800s St. John's

215



surpassed both Poole and Dartmouth in size of population and commercial dealings. Mercantile establishments and properties, ships and other capital assets of commerce, which were previously sold, purchased, or transferred among entrepreneurs in England, were now more commonly oífered for auction or sale and purchased in St. John's. As St. John's developed as the main commercial, political, and cultural centre of Newfoimdland, its direct shipping links with Britain became more strongly focused upon ports such as Liverpool, Glasgow, and London and, not surprisingiy, these places figure more prominently in middle and late nineteenth-7century marriage-migrations to St. John's than the source areas of the ancient and traditional English-Newfoundland migratory fishery

Summary The Wessex source area was almost exclusively a migration hinterland created by the port of Poole. In order to sustain their Newfoundland fishing bases, establishments, and settlers, Poole merchants recruited labour and generated migration opportunities over the whole of Dorsetshire and across the boundaries of adjacent counties. Some Poole merchants favoured the market towns and rural areas a short distance away (Wareham and Wimborne Minster and the New Forest district of Hampshire); others recruited more heavily in the industrial towns such as Bridport, where they also purchased fishing nets, twines, and ropes; in Sturminster Newton in the Blackmoor Vale, where cloth goods were manufactured; and in sailcloth manufacturing towns of South Somerset.

In the mid-1700s Poole emerged as the leading port involved in the Newfoundland fishery and trade. A consequence of this role was that most of the outlying región and late eighteenth-century frontiers that were exploited by Poole merchants were dominated by migrants from Wessex. As elsewhere the seasonal migration patterns become main conditioning factors upon settlement and cultural patterns that form it. In the following chapter we examine the role of Poole merchants in the settling process.

216



PARTIV

Merchants and Settlers: Giving Credit

With respect to the population of the island, and the increase of residents, this seems to me an evil, if it is one, that cannot be so easily cured, I repeat, that the merchants which pretend so much zeal against resi-dents have been and still are the principal encouragers ofresidency; the resident boat-keepers are the hens that lay them their golden egges....

John Reeves testimony (Third Report) 1793

1 take the líberty of naming the principal merchants of Poole...Mr. Lester's immense fortune is known to the public in general; next to him Messrs. Saunders and Sweetman are also kncrum to be very respectable and opulent in the trade. Messrs. Spurrier and Son are known to have succeeded to an eminent degree also; and Messrs. Jeffery Street. Messrs. Clarke, Waldron and Young, and Joseph Garland & Co have also suc-ceeded.... It is well known that all the great fortunes at Poole, Dartmouth and other towns, have been made in the Fishery. The late Joseph White, Esq. died at Poole worth £130,000, in the year 1772; John Green, Esq. £40,000 D.1791, Young Green, Esq. £20,000 D.1788; Mr. John Slade, £70,000 D.1792.

Richard Routh (Third Report) 1793



CHAPTER10

The Mercantile System of Settlement: The Case of Poole

During the late seventeenth century, Poole traders were firmly entrenched in the northern sector of the English Shore. They controlled the fishery in Trinity Bay and were beginning expansions northwards into Boriavista Bay. In the overall scheme of the fishery, Poole's share among EngHsh ports, until several decades into the next century, fell short of 10 percent. By the end of the Seven Years' War, however, Poole commanded some 35 percent of the total trade and had outshipped Dartmouth and other competing ports. In 1770-74, Poole maintained one-third of the ship tonnage involved in the Newfoundland trade, whereas Dartmouth retained a quarter, though collectively South Devon ports held 47 percent. In 1787-92, Poole's share of shipping was around 35 percent, compared with 31 percent for Dartmouth and 47 percent for Dartmouth, Teignmouth, Topsham, and Plymouth combined.1 One important difference, however, was that a large proportion of the Devonshire shipping consisted of fishing vessels (bankers) whereas Poole's fleet consisted more exclusively of larger supply vessels (sack ships) used to furnish settlers supplies and to ship cargoes of codfish and other staples to the markets.2

On evidence contained in port books, Matthews claimed that Poole took the lead in planter supply as early as 1714, and while other ports were exporting Httle more than salt, "here [in Poole] merchants dispatched cotton goods, nets, stockings, oats, bread, beef, pork, nails, wheat, cordage, pease, bacon, leatherware, hardware, cabbage, and woolens," items which do not begin to appear in cargoes sent from Exeter and Dartmouth until the 1730s. In 1731, Poole sent thirty-three supply (sack) ships to Newfoundland, compared with seventeen from Dartmouth, fifteen from Bideford, her two chief

219



rivals, and itemized export lists show that Poole was the leading port in furnishing Newfotmdland with bread and biscuits, salt, neis, lines, cordage, twine, malt, oatmeal, beer, tobacco, garments, narrow line, lead, leather, blanketing, sail cloth, and shirts.4

In the eighteenth century, Poole merchants not only led the van in establishing a growing supply trade with settlers but also took the lead in building a series of trading establishments, acquiring landed property, and promoting regalar trade with planters in Trinity Bay, Bonavista Bay, Notre Dame Bay, Placentia Bay, and Fortune Bay, as well as parts of Conception Bay.5 By 1782, the larger Poole establishments were valued at over £60,000, and some of them were then merely in the stage of early expansión. Such establishments consisted of wharves, warehouses, general stores, dwelling houses, servants' quarters and cookhouses, workshops for coopers, blacksmiths, and sailmakers; some had shipyards, small farms for livestock and gardens, cemeteries, and even privately-constructed defensive works.

Poole Mercantile Establishments Figure 10.1 illustrates the locational pattern of headquarters and general trade networks which Poole had established by 1785 and id en tifies the main merchant families associated with their development in each región. The main trade headquarters were located in the better sheltered and more spacious ship harbours/ These sites functioned as supply and collection depots to which individual firms consigned their incoming supplies, passengers, and servants, and from which they dispatched their outgoing vessels laden with codfish, oil, salmón, timber, and other staples to markets overseas. As Figure 10.1 shows, some merchants, such as Benjamín Lester and the firm of Jeffery and Street with headquarters in Trinity, had also built sub-estabiishments which replicated at a reduced scale the physical structures and functional roles of their main depots.8

Contemporary with these firms, other Poole entrepreneurs—John Slade in TwilHngate and Fogo; Green and Pike in Carbonear; Wm. Spurrier in Burin; Clarke, Waldron, and Young in Harbour Bretón; Spratt in Great St. Lawrence; Neave in Little Placentia; and Saunders in Great Placentia—were creating and supporting what were essentially settlements of their design, patronage. and investment, that is, mercantile colonies.

The development of mercantile establishments as regional centres and the chief settlements within different districts tended to

220



Figure 10.1 Trade Networks: Pooie Merchants 1786

221



follow similar patterns and to produce similar cumulative influences, the most important of which was fíxed settlement. The roles merchants played in sponsoring and directing migration and in supporting residence can be best illustrated with reference to specific firms, merchant centres, and districts.

Trinity Harbour and Dependencies One of the principal sites of Poole's Newfoundland trade was Trinity Harbour. By the 1760s, Trinity had become the major supply port for Trinity Bay, and indeed the principal supply port for the northern región of Newfoundland.9 Although the harbour was used by a succession of Poole ship owners, the main entrepreneurs who promoted its growth as a commercial centre were the Whites and Lesters. Joseph White, a Poole Quaker, died in 1771 with a fortune acquired from his Newfoimdland trade reputed to be valued at £130,000. His properties, ships and trade shortly after fell into the hands of his nephew, John Jeffery. and one of his former Newfoundland agents, Thomas Street. The Lesters (Benjamín and Isaac) had social roots in Trinity Bay and gained considerable experience in the Newfoundland trade as mariners and planters before becoming by the 1760s one of the principal mercantile houses.11 Until he died in 1778, Isaac Lester, the eider brother, resided in Poole and directed the organization of the supply trade, seasonal labour migrations, and shipping and acted as general overseer between the production, supply, and marketing sectors of a transatlantic trade. Meanwhile, Benjamín Lester, who had married a local planter's daughter (Taverner), spent most summers and occasionally a winter in Trinity, where he oversaw fishing (inshore and offshore), logging, shipbuilding, which the firm conducted on its own accoimt with servants, and a retail truck trade with inhabitants. In 1778 and until his death in 1801, Benjamín Lester took over the Poole end of the trade and employed agents to manage his business affairs in Newfoimdland, which became increasingly those of a commerce with inhabitants. In the period 1785-89, the Lester House owned eighteen to twenty vessels, was shipping out upwards of 60,000 quintáis of fish annual ly (8-10 percent of total Newfoundland production), and was supplying 2500-2700 inhabitants.12 Lester's chief competitors in Trinity, Jeffery and Street, were reported to ''ship near 50,000 quintáis and ha ve in proportion the same number of people dependan! upon them."13

Benjamín Lester 's diary, kept dur ing his sojourn in Newfoundland during the 1760s and early 1770s,14 provides

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Figure 10.2 Trinity Trading Links

MOVEMENTS TO AND FROM TRINITY 1761-1770

Trinity Trading System

NOTRE DAME

Fogo*» Twillingate ^ Yihingf,

Harbour-

f" Gander Bay

Number of voyages

V Fewer than 10 \ 10-19 \ 20-49 X^50-100

Cree rispo r>

<=y Gooseberry Islands

BONAVISTA

Catalinas

Rider'sí Har

Long Beach

Ticklef Bay

'"Heartsl Ease /

'Hant's Harj rSüly Cove /

PNew Perlican /Heart's J Contení

Harbour Grac<

^ New Harbour

¿<?r 'St. John's\

Islands

Jí

1 Source: Lesier Diaries

MüNCL

223



detailed insights into the functional aspects of a merchant firm and a mercantile centre not available in any other document Among the chief and more regular items Lester chronicled in his journal were the movement of ships, fishing boats, and planters to and from Trinity, predominantly his own establishment there. The typical kinds of entries include:

January 9, 1762. ''David Bayley and wife [Bonaventure] hear brought sundry goods of me with promise of more dealings—"; Feb. 4, "Mr. PotÜe from English Hr...."; Feb. 20, "scáft from Silly Cove.../'; May 18, "Macguire from Tilting Hr/'; May 22, "a boat from B'vista with a letter from Capt Randell../'; June 6, "Capt. Shepphard and Capt Webb from Ireland with 150 passengers"; June 13, "arrived Capt. Mt. Glover, Capt. Wm. Taverner and Wm. Doble from New England/' To reconstruct the geographical patterns of flow between

Trinity and other places, each reference of movement in Lester7 s diary from 796 entries was recorded by its origin or destinational terminal. These movements are summarized in Figure 10.2 and many be classed in three groups: (i) movements between Trinity and settlements or resources exploitation sites within Trinity Bay; (ii) movements between Trinity and other Newfoimdland districts; and (iii) international movements, primarily links with Poole and the Mediterranean-Southern European fish markets.

As the graduated flow lines in Figure 10.2 illustrate, Trinity generally and Lesters, in particular, had trade links with all sites within the district and exceptionally strong ties with nearby English Harbour, and Oíd Perlican and Silly Cove across the bay. Other evidence (including references in Lester's diary) indicates that their chief rival, Joseph White (and later Jeffery and Street), had a stronger commercial influence than the Lester house in Hearf s Content, Hant's Harbour, and Catalina, though there was considerable territorial overlap in the trade areas of the two firms.15 As also shown in Figure 10.2, Lester's diary documents type (ii) connections with settlements along the coast from Bay de Verde north to Fogo Island. During the period, Lester also had fíxed establishments with agents and clerks stationed to the northward in Bonavista, Greenspond, and Tilting Harbour, and was sending fishing vessels into the offshore banks, and was outfítting summer crews for the coast of Labrador.

During Lester's era in Trinity, both his firm and their competitors, which induded White and a number of smaller Poole traders (Jolliffe, Churchill, and Lemon), conducted simultaneously a direct migratory fishery and a planter supply trade. Lester assigned

224



inshore fishing crews under boatsmen to fishing rooms owned by the firm in Silly Cove, Oíd Perlican, and other sites in the bay and distributed others to Bonavista, Greenspond, and Tilting Harbour. The disembarkation of passengers from Poole and Ireland, their diffusion to various masters and stations, movement between resource areas, fishing expeditions to and from the Grand Banks, as well as the continuous arrival and despatch of food and supplies, typify the normal summer interactions which unravelled at Tiinity. During the fall and winter, he equipped woodcutting crews, usually headed by a shipwright, which moved into inlets at the bottom of Trinity Bay—Tickle Bay, Bull Arm, Chapple Cove, and around Random Island (Figure 10.2)—to secure timbers for boat and ship construction and supplied settlers who engaged in the like activities as well as furring and sealing. Similar patterns of seasonal movement (transhumance) and similar work routines were evidently being repHcated at Bonavista, Greenspond, and Tilting Harbour.

The Mercantile System and Residency As Figure 10.1 shows, by the 1780s, Poole merchants had command over most of the northern and southem regions of the island. They were also expanding into the remaining frontiers, northward and westward. In these districts, settler populations were in an early phase of growth, and it seems that one of the chief reasons was the increasing inclination of merchants to adopt the strategy of becoming regular suppliers and marketing agents. Chief Justice Reeves in 1793 put this position bluntly when he informed the British Government that despite efforts, acts, and regulations to maintain Newfoundland as a fishery and to discourage residency,16 the island "has been peopled behind your back." "The westem merchants, and those of Poole," he argued, "while appearing to be zealous against residents, have been, and still are, the principal encouragers of residency...."17 The residents were to Reeves the "hens that lay their [the merchants'] golden eggs, so long as they are successful and are able to pay their way, no merchant...ever wishes to remove them."

Grant Head has shown that population levels in eighteenth-century Newfoundland fluctuated with and were generally controlled by the availability of imported foods.1 In the circumstances of individual planter families, a crucial factor of survival depended upon having a regular supplier. In governing the amount of food suppües they imported, and deteimining to whom and at what price the goods would be sold or advanced on credit, the merchants were effectively in a position to support settlers or to

225



reduce their numbers. In 1765, Govemor Palliser had portrayed inhabitants as "no better than the Property or Slaves of the Merchant Suplyers to whom by Exorbitant high Prices on their Goods thev are all largely in Debt, more than they can Work out during Life." in 1786, however, another observer, Routh, stated that some planters were "independent who buy of, and sell to whom they please," but that "in general the planters are dependent upon the Merchants from Great Britain who supply them with necessaries and servants for the purpose of carrying on the fishery and take their Fish and oil for payment."21

In 1793, Justice Reeves drew a further distinction between merchant-settler relationships in the Poole-dominated districts and those in St John's and Conception Bay. Whereas the supply trade had been for some time monopolized in St. John's by "five or six merchants" of Dartmouth, Reeves noted that a very active competition now existed with new adventurers from Liverpool, Glasgow, and Waterford, "sufficient to raise the envy of Dartmouth," and that a similar situation prevailed in Conception Bay " where the population is larger, and there is less dependence and connection between merchants, boatkeepers, and servants." By contrast, for Trinity Bay and other outlying regions he stated "the merchants there are few: everyone knows his own dependants."22

Merchants and Properties Even though considerable ambiguity existed with respect to the legal title to land, especially after Palliers's Act in 1776, this detened neither merchants ñor settlers from building and converting to prívate property the ancient fishing ship rooms or building on unoccupied shore spaces. Reeves stated "they sell, lease and mortgage the same as in any other part of the King's Dominions,"24

and John Bland, magistrate in Bonavista Bay, who surveyed properties in his district in 1806, asserted that the gradual abandonment of fishing rooms by migratory ships and "their progressive possession and improvements by adventurers and planters have so confused and blended this sort of property that it is now impossible to say which were once ship's rooms. The remembrance of there things have passed away."25

In 1801, Benjamín Lester was proprietor of some forty-eight dwelling houses in Trinity Bay, while Jeffeiy and Street (now trading separately) owned twenty-seven others. A document related to Lester's estáte following his death shows that these Trinity

226



properties and those listed by Bland in 1806 were merely a small fraction of his total Newfoundland holdings.

The particulars of this document compiled by Lester's executors specify nineteen fishing rooms in thirteen different settlements in Trinity Bay (seven at Trinity); one room at Bay de Verde in Conception Bay; seven rooms in Bonavista Bay (three at Bonavista and two each at Barrow Harbour and Greenspond); and one room each at Fogo Island, Twillingate Island, and Venison Island at Labrador. Most of these properties had capital buildings, as at Venison Island, where the rooms contained "a dwelling house, a fisherman's house, a stage, a store, a cookroom and a cooper's shop." Bland's survey of Bonavista Bay put Lester in possession of four fishing rooms in Bonavista, two others in Greenspond (one by purchase twenty years previously, another by lease from Samuel Rolis of Poole), and two fishing rooms in Barrow Harbour. Of the latter, one was described as having a "stage with a capacious storehouse for fish...built to accommodate vessels sent thither to load/7 and the other containing "a storehouse with a rigging loft to accommodate vessels...to load and refit/'28 Thomas Street in Bland's survey owned properties in Greenspond and Bonavista, whilst another Poole firm, Sleat and Read, a partnership of Moses Sleat of Christchurch and Thomas Read (the latter until 1801 one of Lester's Greenspond and Trinity agents) had acquired by purchase a property at Greenspond. Lester, Jeffery and Street, as well as other Poole firms, owned properties and trading posts to the northward. John Slade of Poole, meanwhile, had major trading establishments by 1789 in Fogo and Twillingate and had employees distributed among some ten other sites in the northeast coast and on the coast of Labrador.29 His Newfoundland trading empire, which he passed on to his nephews in 1792, is merely summarized in his will as "my fishing rooms, plantations, warehouses, stages, Salmón Brooks, SeahngPosts...in Newfoundland and on the coast of Labrador...boats and crafts...ships and vessels/'30

The wills of other late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Poole-Newfoundland merchants give some additional insights into the type of Newfoundland properties and capital assets which had been acquired and were being transmitted to heirs and successors. Selected extracts from these wills are given in Table 10.1. These show that merchants had complex capital assets. Ownership of properties, ships, and other trade assets was almost always transferred within the same families. Lester divided his expansive trade between his

227



te 00

Table 10.1 Selected Extracts from Poole Merchant Wills

Merchant YearWill/ Probate

Newfoundland Proper ties / Loca tion

Chief Benefactor(s)

Saunders, William 1787/88 Saunders, Thomas 1797-1810

Street, Thomas 1805/05

White, Joseph 1771/71

Green, John 1785/90

Green, Young 1784/88

Neave, Moses 1791/95

"lands, houses and plantations"/Placentia Bay "estáte, right, title & interest of and in the Nfld. trade, all my plantations, Rooms, Stores, Houses, Lands"/ Placentia Bay "ships, vessels, stock-in-trade, goods, chattels" / Trinity & Bonavista Bays

"plantations, houses, stages and other buildings, lands and premises" / Trinity, Bonavista, and Notre Dame Bay

"several plantations and fishing rooms and the stores thereon, the rooms situated at Carbonear and the harbour adjoining,. .in Bay of Conception" "lands, plantations and premises"/Conception Bay

"my plantations, fishing rooms, houses, buildings, lands and hereditaments sitúate at Little Placentia, Freshwater and elsewhere in the Island of Newfoundland"

brother, Thomas son-in-law, Michael Sweetman

sons Mark & John— sold to Robert. Slade, Sr, of Poole, 1805 jointly for 14 yrs to James Randall, Joseph Randall, Peter Street, Wm. Monday, & Thos Street son John

sons Young & Thomas son George,



Jolliffe, Wm.

White, Samuel

Slade, John

1759/62

1795/7

1759/62

1795/7

1792/3

Slade, Thomas 1816/16

Lester, Benjamín 1801 /02

Lester, Sir John 1805/05

Garland, George 1824/26

vo

"all my plantations a Bay de Verde in Newfoundland and boats, stages and buildings" "whole of my.. .plantation at Fogo and to the northward.. .with all my boats, stages and buildings" "plantation at Trinity Harbour in Nftd."

"all my houses, plantations, stages, and other buildings hereditaments and premises... in the Island of Nfld. in North America -.. ships, boats, crafts, goods and effects"/ Trinity & Bonavista Bay "all rights, titles and claims to all my fishing rooms, plantations, warehouses, stages, Salmón Brooks, Sealing Posts... in Nfld. and on the coast of Labrador... boats and crafts... ships & vessels" "plantations, rooms, storehouses, flakes, lands and my estates,.. ships, brigs, sloops, schooners, boats crafts, fishing implements..." "plantations, warehouses, rooms, wharves, ships, vessels, boats, crafts... in Island of Nfld"/ Trinity, Bonavista, Notre Dame Bay, Coast of Labrador "my part share and interest in plantations, houses, warehouses, fishing rooms, flakes, ships, vessels" to be sold "my plantations, rooms, storehouses, flakes, lands, and estates.., in the island of Nfld. and coast of Labrador" ships, brigs, schooners, boats, crafts, implements

son James

son Peter

daughter-in-law Ann Jolliff nephews Samuel & John Rolls, Samuel Vallis & Samuel White nephews John, Thomas, David, Robert Slade, cousin Geo. N.Allen cousin Robert Slade, with nephew William Cox son John Lester & son-in-law Geo. Garland Benjamin Linthorne, Geo. Garland (Trustees) sons John Bingley and Geo. Garland



son, Sir John Lester, and son-in-law, George Garland, in 1802. After Sir John's death in 1805, his share of properties was bought by Garland, who then extended his properties and trade in Trinity Bay and on the northeast coast, to become perhaps the largest and wealthiest of all Poole merchants. In 1824, his trade fell to his sons, John Bingley and George Jr. In Carbonear, the land and properties shared between Tike and Green' of Poole in the early 1780s were held by John and Young Green' 1784-90, passed on to their sons, but then carne into the hands of George and James Kemp. In 1805, Kemps had fishing rooms in Carbonear, Brigus, and Musketto. One room in Carbonear contained a wharf, three flakes, a cookroom, four houses, four stages, and another in Brigus had a dock for building vessels, a stage, two flakes, a wharf, two houses, a cookroom and three stores.3

Apart from the Lester properties, few detailed descriptions of the buildings comprising mercantile establishments survive. However, in the bankruptcy sale of Spurrier's Newfoundland esta tes we have a rare synoptic description, carried in the newspaper Newfoundlander, July 1820, which gives some of the structural dimensions and functional variety of a larger firm's holdings. In Burin, Spurrier's Newfoundland headquarters, was advertised "an expansive dwelling house" (72' x 19' x 26') with two parlours, eight bedrooms, a large office, kitchen, store room, diary, closets, a kitchen for servants, a pumphouse, and a coal house. This dwelling was the local residence of the company's agent, his family, and servants. Among the buildings were a counting house, a cellar (32' x 170 with a storeroom over it, a smith's forge (29y x 20' x 17'), a salt store (100' x 30' x 27'), a cooper's shop (42' x 217 x 240 with a loft, a fish store (70' x 30' x 230, "a large or Principal Store, within are apartments for fish and provisions77 and a large shop, a pitch house, two large stages (with sail lofts, new lofts, and working shops), a carpenter7s workshop (48' x 200 x 1970 adjoining a dock for vessel construction, a cookroom (71' x 19' x 16'), a tanner7s house, a cow house (40' x 18' x 16'), and three small dwellings formerly occupied by servants and families. Other properties included two flakes which reportedly could each spread 600 quintáis of dry fish, a beach for drying fish, vegetable gardens, a fowl house, a meadow 205 yards by 112 yards with a farmhouse and a large pond, and three batteries (erected at Spurrier's expense) mounting nine guns.

As Spurrier 's sub-establishment on Barren Island, the advertisement describes a dwelling house, a fish store, a provisions store with shop and a sail loft, a fish stage with a loft, a salt store,

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Table 10.2 Major Poole Firms in Newfoundland 1785-1825

Location of Newfoundland Headquarters

1785 1805 1825

Twillingate Slade (John) Slade (John & Co.) Colbourne Slade (Robert & John)

Fogo Slade (John) Slade (John & Co.) Slade & Cox Greenspond - Sleat & Read Sleat & Read Trinity Lester (Benjamín & Co). Garland (George) Garland (John Bingley & Geo

Tr V

(Jeffery & Street (Street bankrupt 1805) jr.y

formerly White) (Slade, Robt.) Slade (& Kelson) Carbonear Green & Pike Kemp (George & James) Fryer, Gosse & Pack

Gosse & Chancy

Little Placentia Neave (Moses & Joseph) Neave (George & Co.) Neave & Penny Great Placentia Saunders (William) Saunders (Thomas) Sweetman (now of

& Sweetman Waterford, Ireland) Burin Spurrier (William) Spurrier (William) Spurrier (Xopher) Great St. Lawrence Spratt Garland (Joseph & Co.) -

Harbour Bretón Clark, Waldron & Young Clark & Waldron Clark (S&J) Bonne Bay - - Bird (Joseph) from 1809

Source; DRO, St. James Parish, P227, Rate Books,



smith's forge, carpenter's shop, cooper's shop, three tenements for tradesmen, a wharf, a flake, and beach. Properties of similar description and variety at Isle of Vallen and Oderin, two other of the firm's trading depots, were also offered for sale.

Most of the long-lasting Poole firms were well-founded by the 1780s and were able to maintain a stronghold upon the trade and commerce of their respective districts up to the 1820s, after which their supply-marketing functions were replaced by island-based firms, mainly in St. John's and Conception Bay. The collapse of Spurrier's was reputedly the greatest bankruptcy of any Poole fírm. Some of the other chief houses wound down their trade tacitiy. Garlands dedined from the 1830s onward and became inactive in the 1840s. One by one, the others eased out of the Newfoundland trade. The Slades of Poole, however, survived until the early 1870s.32

Table 10.2 lists the principal Poole family firms conducting trade in Newfoundland by using the system of fixed establishments, resident factors, and employees at three stages over the interval 1785-1825. Though the terminal dates of this period do not mark the beginning or end in the sequence of development processes, it was the main period in which Poole mercantile districts experienced their rapid growth and consolidation of planter population, the decline and virtual demise of the Poole migratory fishery, the expansión of island activities such as shipbuilding, the seal fishery, and salmón fishery, and the growth and elaboration of a network of primaiy-producing, mercantile centred settlements or, in brief, the implanting and shaping of the basic patterns of human and cultural geography.

Merchant-Settler Relationships: The Truck System While the merchants were actively supporting the creation of permanent settlements, there is little evidence to indícate that any of them had actually planned colonies with long-term futures. The adjustments and regulation of trade were made by individual entrepreneurs who staked a vested interest in the resident fishery. Certainly the problems of maintaining long-distance direct fisheries, especially in wartime, offered indirect encouragement to a resident fishery, mostly to firms with fixed establishments and able to supply the residents. In 1793, Reeves stated that "the most profitable way in which a merchant at Newfoundland employs his capital...to be in a supply of boatkeepers with everything necessary to fit them for sea/

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Keith Matthews has mainta ined that the dependen t relationship that began to develop between planters as primary producers and the merchants as suppliers offered some reciproca! security for both parties. The planter could coimt on being "supplied both summer and winter/7 and the "merchant gained some certainty.. .could calcúlate both his expenditure and the amoimt paid for fish/'34 At the same time, the truck system provided some solution to the persistent problems of periodic cycles of depression caused by war, market conditions, and variations in staple yields. Since merchants could support settlers in unprofitable periods and recoup losses in more prosperous ones, the staking of planters on the credit system was thus a critical component in a Newfoimdland survival scheme 35 Matthews7 further view was that, given the particular set of circumstances on the island, no other system could have worked to produce residency. Grand Head arrived at a similar conclusión in analyzing the eighteenth-century sources and distributíon system of inhabitant food suppües which depended very heavily upon imports controlled by the mercantile houses 36

One of the earliest references to the truck or credit system operated by merchants to support planters is contained in a report written in 1715. In it, Captain James Smith states:

the usual way of trading with the planters is thus, they are supplied with all materials for fishing, provisions, wearing apparel and other necessaries from the ships, which arrive in the spring, and when the fishing season is ended, they deliver fish to the valué if the debt contracted....37

With the growth of fixed establishments throughout the century, the system of supply and marketing became more regularized. For those who lacked independent capital, the credit system of the merchants was the only means settlers could receive patronage and support.There were no immigrant societies or charitíes; there was no system of parish or government relief. There was simply the credit system—that, and personal charity as might have existed in families or among friends and acquaintances.

Justíce Reeves maintained that resident boatkeepers (planters) emerged from the class of individuáis who had "little or no property beforehand, and depend every season upon the merchant for their outfit and supplies during the voyage." "They were," he said, "common fishermen who, having had some success, aspire to become boatkeepers and are then set up as such by some merchant who means to make a profit by the advance and hazard."38 John

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Jeffery was convinced in 1793, however, that Newfoimdland was simply a fishery of merchants, not of inhabitants.) "The merchants/' he stated, "supplies the resident boatkeepers with Fishermen, with provisions, with cloathing...as if the concern was entirely their own and receive in return, as payment, the product of the voyage.../'39

George Garland, in 1817, reviewed the process of sedentarization of the fishery, and the growth of the class of persons "denominated Planters" as being the result of "servants or sailors, who had chosen to remain in the island after the period of their servitude had elapsed...."40

The pivotal position merchants occupied in the migration and settlement support systems can be assessed somewhat generally from the immediate effects on the inhabitant population, when the principáis of firms either made short-term adjustments to the scale of their trade operations or went bankrupt. Some of the same firms that during the Napoleonic Wars had expanded their dealings with resident boatkeepers had raised passage fees, probably to prevent people from returning to England, had encouraged their own agents, tradesmen, and servants, to overwinter, had complained of labour shortages and the wage levels servants demanded, and yet had amassed considerable fortunes during the period, were among the first who after the war moved quickly to reduce their trade when Spain and Italy placed heavy duties upon saltfish imports.41 In response to poor market prospects, the volume of imported food supplies was reduced, credit dealings with planters were limited, and much of the population drawn to the island by a prosperous fishery a few years earlier were left destitute.42 The merchants now complained of labour redundancy and overpopulation. In 1817, Garland suggested 5000 people "superfluous population" be removed 43 Garland himself anticipated market problems early in 1816 and in correspondence with his Trinity agent left instructions to discharge some of their employees and servants, to offer their positions to others at lesser wages, to sell as much fish in St. John's at the best prices offered, to barter fish for goods rather than bilis of exchange, and to "keep as many Planter Ballances as you can on your books." In 1816-17, the 'Winter of the Rowdies', fix>m Conception Bay carne reports that planters and their servants were reduced to starvation as scores of "dealers (were) discarded from oíd established houses" as well as "planters...accustomed to receive their supplies from Saint John's and others, who...failed or withdrew themselves from the business."45 The same year, disastrous fires in

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St. John's, a severe winter, and the failure of the seal fishery, magnified distress even further.46

A petition to the Governor from merchants on the western side of Placentia Bay and Burin in the fall of 1817 indicated that due to a fishing failure many planters were distressed and in debt, "unable to pay for supplies," and the merchants pleaded that due to their own losses they "have not in their power to advanee provisions and dothing" for the next winter.47 This was the same district where less than two decades earlier merchants complained that irihabitants were illegally emigrating to Nova Scotia and the United States and that the loss of labour was a "serious grievance to them."48 In 1821, the bankruptcy of Harrison, Slade, and Co. and George Moulton of Poole, combined with the contraction of trade by Spurriers, reportedly left half of the planters and servants of the Burin-Mortier area "without any regular supplies...without the means of support"49 Governor Hamilton in reply to a petition for relief from the residents expressed his regret, noted that similar distress prevailed elsewhere, and took the opportunity to emphasize the hardline official view. He wrote, "a resident population in this Island (was) never encouraged by British Government who always wished for the annual return of fishermen. ..those who have chosen to reside there must take consequences." Hamilton also indicated that some 180 persons had recently left Burin and expected "many more will follow/'50 Population returns of Burin recorded 1113 persons in 1821, including 173 adult females and 289 children. The nextyear's returns reported 971 persons, with 152 women and 312 children, but in 1823 the population had recovered to 1019, including 169 women and 320 children.51 Spurrier's bankruptcy in 1829 appears to have reduced population levels again as the 1830 figures give a total population of 842, with 150 women and 242 children.52 Alternating expanding and contracting population levels, in-migration and out-migration, occurred with as much periodic regularity in the nineteenth century as previously and in accord with the changing fortunes of merchants and the fishery. The main difference is that such fluctuations in later intervals occurred in populations which were of larger size and more firmly rooted, at least socially and demographically if not economically. Indeed, as we saw in Trinity Bay, by the early 1800s some substantial proportion of the island7 s population was now native-born.

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The House of Slade The growth of settlement along the north shore of Conception Bay from Carbonear to Bay de Verde in Trinity Bay, Bonavista Bay, Notre Dame Bay, along the western side of Placentia Bay (Burin, Oderin, Mortier), in Fortune Bay and Bonne Bay, as already noted, can be associated in time and place with the Newfoundland trading histories of specific Poole merchants and firms. Both the migration and settlement processes were primarily merchant-directed and supported. Individuáis who became settlers in Trinity Bay and Bonavista Bay were transported and supplied mainly by Lesters and Garlands, Whites, Jeffery and Street, Sleat and Read, and Robert Slade of Poole. Some of these same firms also were party to the settlement of Bonavista and Notre Dame Bays; in the latter, however, especially Twillingate, the main entrepreneur and settlement patrón was the Slade Family

A contemporary of Benjamín Lester, John Slade, the son of a Poole masón, was born in 1719 and like many Poole youth, grew up in the tradition of the Newfoundland fishery. During the 1740s he capta ined ships between Poole, the f ish markets of the Mediterranean, Ireland, and Newfoundland and in 1753 became a sh ipowner on his own. Much of his early experience in Newfoundland acquainted him with the Notre Dame Bay región, and in the 1760s he build a trading establishment in Twillingate. Between 1764-1770 Slade owned and operated three or four ships (ranging between 40 and 80 tons, averaging 60 tons) and deployed fishing crews in Twillingate, Fogo, and Tilting Harbour and occasionally northward of Cape St. John. To a far greater degree than most Poole traders, Slade7s interest in Newfoundland was directed toward exploiting furs, salmón, and seáis, which were more abundant in this district than in areas southward, and furnished staples marketable in England. By the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Slade was firmly established at Twillingate and had sealing outposts on the coast of Labrador and a growing supply and staple-collection system in Notre Dame Bay. His shipping, thought modest compared to Lester's, who had fifteen to twenty ships in the early 70s, consisted of five vessels between 30 and 120 tons and averaging 93.54 His larger brigs plied the Atlantic to the fish markets, mainly Alicante and Oporto, to Poole with oil, seal skins, salmón, and furs, always returning with supplies. The smaller ships (schooners) provided coastal linkage between Twillingate and his various outports dependencies.

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During the American Revolutionaxy War, Slade suffered trade reverses from privateers, but survived and expanded trade rapidly after 1783, especially when he opened up a new establishment in Fogo. Fogo had recently witnessed the bankruptcy of Jeremiah Coghlan, a Bristol merchant55 Like Benjamín Lester, Slade returned to Poole in the late 1770s to direct an established overseas business and entrusted activities in Newfoundland to agents. Until he died in Poole in 1792, with an estáte conservatively estimated to be worth £70,000 earned from "many years extensive and lucrative trade to Newfoimdland and Labrador,"56 his business in Newfoundland was supervised by his nephews and heirs, John, David, Thomas and Robert Slade 57

The ledgers of John Slade and Company from 1783 onwards show that under the credit or truck system the firm was annually staking the ventures of some 90-100 planters with supplies, food and clothing against their cod, oil, salmón, and fur production.58 Mean-while, the firm employed some 150-200 servants yearly, including blacksmiths, coopers, carpenters, bookkeepers, and clerks, as well as seamen and fishermen. In 1787-88, Slade collected from his planters some 2200 seal skins, 200 tierces of salmón, 400 bundles of hoops, 32 tons of seal oil, 2000 gallons of train (cod) oil, 3000 quintáis of fish, 24,000 wooden staves, 15,000 feet of board, 32 sets of oars, 30 Ib. of beaver skins, 25 furs (fox, otter, and marten), and sundry other items. In variable quantities these staple items were collected yearly By 1814-15, the Slade house in Notre Dame Bay was trucking with some 145 planter families which, based upon the number of 'masters' for Fogo, Twillingate, New World Island, Bard Islands, and Joe Batfs Arm shown that year in the governor's return (totalling 214), was 65-70 percent of the district's total population.

Since the Slade ledgers detail individually all persons employed or conducting business dealings, as source materials they provide our eariiest and most complete record of genealogical information(names, occupations, and other personal data) of settlers in the Twillingate-Fogo areas. For example, over the period 1783-92, the accounts contain information on some 956 individuáis. Even over this period, it is possible to observe examples of individuáis appearing first as apprentices or servants who later became planters. If we examine the additional ñames from over 1000 personal accounts in the ledgers between 1793 and 1821, the collations reveal that at least 103 persons, foimerly the servants of Slade, were subsequently dealing with the firm as planters 59 One of the more

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outstanding features of the Slade ledgers, however, is not the persistence but the large number and high proportion of txirnovers of ñames, particularly among servants, who pass through the accoimts within the span of a few years. It was possible, of course, for servants to work for employers not supplied by Slade, or to move to another area.

Next to the Slade ledgers, the most complete nominal evidence of settlers in the Notre Dame Bay district covers the interval 1816-23 and comes from the baptismal registers of two early AngHcan missionaries: Rev. John Leigh (1816-19) and Rev. T.G. Laughorne (1819-23).60 These registers give 143 planter surnames divided among the settlements of Twillingate, Fogo, Joe Batf s Arm, Hening Neck, Tizzard's Harbour, Bard Islands, Exploits, Merritfs Harbour, Change Islands, Little Harbour, Dog Bay, Morton7s Harbour, Burnt Islands, and White Bay.61 No less than 86 percent of these baptismal surnames are previously recorded in the Slade ledgers, even though the ñame recordings in the ledger aceounts were limited to intervals for 1781-1792 and the years 1796-97,1801-02, and 1814-15.

Combining the evidence from both sources, it was possible to trace individuáis such as John Adams, John FareweÜ, Edward Hillier, and Daniel Decker, from the status of servant to that of planter. Adams appears initially in 1783-85 as a servant employed by Slade on seasonal wages. Between 1792 and 1815, he had yearly credit dealings with the firm, and in 1821 he is recorded as a 'planter7, residing in Joe Batfs Arm. On August 21 that year were baptized there children to John and Dinah Adams and Dinah Adams, an adult, undoubtedly his native-born spouse. In 1786-87, John Farewell was engaged by Slade for two summers and a winter at £15. He spent £9 of his wages on personal items and received the balance in the fall of 1787. Advancing then to a resident boatkeeper and dealer with the firm, in 1817 he was designated a 'planter7 óf Twillingate, married with at least one child. Similarly, Edward Hillier, another married planter of Twillingate in 1823, was apparently the same person who had served an apprenticeship with John Slade in 1785-86, worked as a seasonal servant 1787-1801, and then ventured out on his own account. Daniel Decker (Dicker) likewise apparently advanced from an apprenticeship with Slade (1785-86) to a seasonal servant (1801-02), and then to a planter (1814-15). Like John Adams, he appears to have wed a native girl, for on August 8, 1821, were baptized 'Elizabeth Decker7, an adult and to "Daniel and Elizabeth Decker7, planter, Joe Batfs Arm, four children.

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While it is clear that the Slade family was the main patrón of settlement in Notre Dame Bay generally, and more especially in Twillingate, and had the most durable mercantile house in the district, the firm did not have a trade monopoly. Lesters and their heirs, the Garlands, also had a contemporary presence on Fogo Island, and there was a succession of other traders (mostly from Poole) to offer some competition.62 Similarly, the Slade ledgers do not cover the full interval of English settlement in Fogo and Twillingate, or indeed, the earlier phases of the firm's own activity. Up until 1782, Jeremiah Coghlan of Bristol had a substantial trade based in Fogo, and his firm, along with the Lester establishment in Tilting Harbour, probably supported much of the earlier inhabitant population of the Fogo district. Benjamín Lester employed an Irish agent and servants in Tilting Harbour in the 1760S64 and, along with Slade, moved into Fogo with the demise of Coghlan.65

Among the welter of information in the Slade ledgers, it is possible to identify settlers who were of independent stature. Over the period 1783-92, accounts identify small company traders and partnerships such as Wm. Brown and Co., Thomas Burk (shipowner and captain), John Burt and Co. (bankrupt 1791), John Creasy (salmón catcher, in partnership with John Slade Jr., 1787), Clarke and Handcock (shipowners from Ringwood, Hampshire, out of Poole), John Colbourne, Andrew Connors, Patrick Flinn (schooner owner, Tilting Harbour), John Forster and Co., Robert Forsythe (formerly agent to Coghlan, owner of three ships), Head and Ellsworth, Hezekiah and Robert Guy, John Himt and Co. (trappers, salmón catchers, and lumbermen), Roger McGrath (schooner owner, Tilting Harbour), Miller and Peyton (furriers, salmón catchers), Osmond, Oake and Ashford (furriers , f i shermen, lumbermen, and boatbuilders), Wm. Rideout and Son (lumbermen and boatbuilders), Ward and Rowsell (salmón catchers, furriers and sealers), and Henry Symes and Co. (boatbuilders, lumbermen)66 Some of these, such as Clarke, Colbourne, Connors, McGrath, and Symes, were supplied primarily by Slade since their annual trade accounts in the 1780s normally ranged between 100 and 500 £s. Others such as Forsythe, Guy, Peyton and Rowsell seldom bartered, but delivered items such as furs, salmón, seal skins, or seal oil for bilis of exchange and purchased supplies by bilis.

John Slade not only created a trade in Notre Dame Bay that was maintained by his heirs and their descendants well into the latter half of the nineteenth century, but also gave rise (mainly through his

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nephew heirs) to a small dynasty of Slades who remained active among later Poole-Newfoundland traders.67The ñames of the firms, though different, sometimes comprise the same individuáis. More frequently though, they represent different persons of another generation bearing the same ñames. Whereas some of the Slades' descendants traded in Twillingate, Fogo, and on the coast of Labrador (Battle Harbour), in the traditional Slade districts, others at later intervals during the nineteenth century had trading interests in Greenspond, Trinity and Trinity Bay, Carbonear, and the Burin-Mortier area. One Robert Slade acquired mercantile premises in Trinity Harbour about 1805 and, replacing Jeffery and Street, became the chief commercial rival there of the Garlands.68 In 1822. the Slade fírm in Twillingate went under the ñame Slade and Co. In Poole rate books that year, the firm of John and Robert Slade owned eight ships totalling 900 tons and were assessed on £1400 of exports and imports, Slade and Cox were rated on 800 tons of shipping (seven vessels) and trade of £1000, whilst Robert Slade (of Trinity) had six ships of 800 tons and exports and imports valued at £1400. The ratios of ships tonnage/valué of exports and imports for other chief Newfoundland traders in Poole in 1822 were respectively: Christopher Spurrier 1600/3500; George Garland 1800/3500; Fiyer, Gosse and Pack 1500/3500; Harrison, Slade, and Co. 1000/3000; John Colbourne 900/1400; Joseph Bird 500/400; Sleat and Read 800/2000.

The chief competition to the Slade family in Twillingate for several decades in the early nineteenth century was provided by the Colbournes. As discussed earlier, the Colbourne family stemmed from Stiirminister Newton in Dorset and was previously associated with the cloth industry. In the 1780s, one of the family, John Colbourne, became a leading planter in Twillingate, dealing regularly with Slades, but died in 1805.70 Subsequently, the Slade ledgers carry an account for Elizabeth Colbourne and Sons. Colbourne's account with Slade for supplies in 1786 amounted to £112, in 1792 to £257, and in 1801-£263, making him one of the larger of Slade's customers. John Colbourne was probably the father of Thomas Colbourne, planter of Change Islands, to whom two children, William and Sarah, were baptized in 1821.71

When the cloth trade finally collapsed, other members of the Sturminister Newton Colbournes who had previously enjoyed a flourishing trade with Poole merchants became more directly involved with the Newfoimdland trade. Thus, in 1808, one Thomas

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Colbourne was renting a store in Strand Street in Poole and was rated on £300 of exports and imports/2 By 1813, the valué had increased to £900 and by 1824 to £1400. In 1824 the firm, now under the ñame John Colbourne, owned 800 tons of shipping in six vessels, or about 300 tons less than Robert and John Slade, with whom they competed in Twillingate. Like the Slades, Colboumes dealt through Twillingate with planters around the district until the 1830s when they went bankrupt. The Slades, however, continued trade for almost another four decades.73

During their period, the Colboumes undoubtedly reinforced what Slades were achieving over a much larger span of time: the implanting of a settler population predominantly of Wessex origin, with a considerable proportion coming from Poole itself, from Sturminister Newton and vicinity, and the Christchurch-Ringwood areas of West Hampshire.

Based upon origins taken from parish registers and other documents, one can argüe convincingly that in Notre Dame Bay 'Wessex7 accounts for 92 percent of the English settlers. Wessex immigrants were also oveiwhelmingly dominant in almost all districts where Poole merchants controlled trade over the period 1760-1830, making up 87.5 percent of the English setting in Bonavista Bay, 86 percent in Trinity Bay, 70 percent on the south coast, and 70 percent on the west coast. The one exception to the Poole merchant-Wessex settler relationships occurred in Placentia. There the erstwhile Poole merchant firm of Saunders and Sweetman preferred to utilize much more Irish labour, with predictable consequences for the settlement that followed from this. 5

The commercial strength of Poole in Newfoundland began to weaken in the 1820s. By then, many of the principal merchants in the Newfoundland trade like the fishermen were island residents. St. John's had already emerged during the late eighteenth century as Newfoundland's principal city. Among the St. John's firms were some of English origin, originally operating from Dartmouth and Teignmouth. But a large number of firms were now controlled by Scots, who had moved into the Newfoundland supply and earrying trade after 1775.76 Other firms had Irish principáis. The commercial links that once extended directly from harbours and regions controlled by ports such as Poole increasingly became focused on St. John's. St. John's in turn traded more directly with Liverpool, Glasgow, and London than the older English ports of the Newfoundland fishery. As St. John's outgrew Dartmouth and Poole,

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it replaced their commercial roles and facilities, but this process was not complete until the Slades at Twillingate collapsed in the 1870s. Meanwhile, the rise of St. John's as the commercial emporium marks the beginning of a phase in Newfoundland history in which a traditional style of life emerged based upon a famüy-kin fishery and the main currents of population movement involved out-migration to the mainland and internal migration.

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CHAPTER11

Quality, Occupation, and Qass: Migrant Social Characteristics

The data used to reconstruct the source origins of Newfoundland migrants and settlers also provide the departure points needed to examine their personal characteristics and attributes in their pre-migration settings. Dartmouth muster rolls contain information on the age-structure of migrants actively employed in the Newfoundland fishery Settlement examinations, apprenticeship indentures, and other parish records provide further insights into social status, occupational background, and other qualities of persons who either migrated to Newfoundland at some stage in their life cycle or, more importantly, settled on the island. The place of birth and dates associated with English-Newfoundland immigrants also permit the genealogical reconstruction of movers in their pre-migrational setting. By discovering some of the general attributes and qualities of the participants in the English-Newfoundland fishery, we also attempt to arrive at a fuller understanding of the cultural background and parentage of Newfoundland's inhabitant population.

Age Structure Table 11.1 presents the age structure of migrants drawn from four separate source materials. The table displays by five-year age cohorts: the distribution of 791 Dartmouth seamen for the year 1788;1

the age at embarkation of 257 Devon and Dorset settlement examinants who had been to Newfoundland in the period 1750-1830;2 and the age upon arrival in Newfoimdland of eighty-six persons according to data in nineteenth-century newspaper obituaries and burial registeis.3 Table 11.1 also shows the age given

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in the apprentice indentures for 145 Dorset parish children who were bound directly into the Newfoundland fishery.

The data in Table 11.1 suggest that migrants possessed the age eharacteristics of movers involved in most long-distance migration streams. They were predominantly youthful and disproportionately single and male.4 Except for rare and exceptional instances of children arriving as part of a nuclear family and perhaps, more commonly, sons who went to sea with their fathers and older kinsmen, the youngest migrants were probably Dorsetshire parish apprentices. In Dorset parish, boys were apprenticed into the sea service and Newfoundland fishery equally as they were indentured to local farmers and artisans, as young as they were. As Table 11.1 shows, nearly 70 percent of the apprentices sent to Newfoundland were bound in the age range of twelve to fourteen years and over 85 percent were indentured before they were fourteen years. Beyond this limit it seems that most young men who went into the fishery bargained with employers as covenanted servants for wages and working terms that ranged from two summers and a winter up to four or five years less a winter, depending on their age difference from twenty-one years, the legal age when most indentured persons were released from a master. In the parish of Sturminster Newton, four orphaned brothers—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Roberts— placed in care of the parish workhouse in 1823, each "went to Newfoundland" sequentially: Matthew in 1825 at sixteen years; Mark and Luke both in 1831, respectively aged seventeen and fifteen years; and John in 1833 at twelve years. Meanwhile, two sisters were apprenticed to local farmers in Dorsetshire.5

Parish apprentices represented a very distinctive type of migrant and, as we have seen, accounted for less than 10 percent of the total migrating personnel. A more-balanced picture of the age-structure of Newfoundland migrants as a whole is provided by the data for Dartmouth seamen and setüement examinants. The distribution of Dartmouth crews by age-group, shown in Table 11.1, not only gives a reasonably accurate división of a seafaring population at a particular point in time (1788), but also portray a logical age pattern of the working population which one could expect to have found in the Newfoundland fishing trade from any port, from all ports, and at any time interval during its history. The labour forcé using the fishery was in a constant state of flux, transition, and tumover in personnel. The Dartmouth data include the ages of some 70 'first voy age migrants7 who were variously

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labelled as 'boy7, 'youngster', 'first trip' or 'voyage', or lieader, youngster' (the latter to denote boys employed to behead codfish in Newfoundland), as well as of men of variable seafaring experience up to the oldest participants. The main inferences to be drawn from the ages of these seamen are that about 17percent wereimdertwenty years of age and that about the same proportion were over thirty-five years. Most importantly, the mainstay of the labour forcé was clearly composed of persons in the age cohort of sixteen to thirty years. Evidently less than one in ten persons remained active beyond the age of forty, and those who did were primarily captains, mates, and skilled tradesmen such as fish-splitters who commanded higher wages and were in continuous demand.

Supporting the conclusión that the vast majority of partidpants entered the fisheiy initially in the age span of sixteen to twenty-five years are the biographical data of 257 Devon and Dorset migrants drawn from their settlement examinations. When testifying, most examinants gave their ages, frequently stated the age at which they first went to Newfoundland, or gave suffídent details of their movements, occupations, and periods of employment that their ages would be calculated with reasonable accuracy and correlated with different movements. Indeed, the settlement examinations indícate that not only did most migrants join the fishery initially as single young men but also that most opted out of the fishery within a decade. When Henry Bulley, aged twenty-three years and born in Kingskerswell, Devon, was examined in Combeinteignhead in 1837, he testified that he was "bound apprentice to Mr. Thomas Bennett of St. Nicholas to go to sea for three years," at the age of sixteen years. John Osbourne of Abbotskerswell, Devon, however, affirmed that he had served an apprenticeship to a yeoman of his home parish and afterwards, at the age of twenty-one, went to sea "in the Newfoundland trade in which service except in the winter season he had been ever since/' that is, until 1818 when he had married in Combeinteignhead and the parish officers tested the legality of his residence there. Like Osbourne, some 80 percent of the 257 settlement examinants daimed to have served local apprenticeships or worked as covenanted servants with country farmers or tradesmen before they joined the Newfoimdland migrant stream, and over 95 percent crossed the Atlantic before they were twenty-five years oíd.

The evidence of the age at which movers took up residence in Newfoundland is very scant. The age of eighty-six persons, drawn

245



^ Table 11.1 Age Structure of English Newfoundland Migrants1

Q

Dartmouth seamen, Devon-Dorset settlement Immigrants 1788 examinants, 1750-183022

Age Group No. % No. % No. %

5 & under _ _ . 1 1.1 6-10 - - 14 5.4 2 2.3 11-15 23 2.9 39 15.2 8 9.2 16-20 115 145 69 26.8 23 26.8 21-25 242 30.6 122 47.5 29 34.1 26-30 175 22.0 9 3.5 14 16.2 31-35 89 11.2 3 1.2 6 7.0 36-40 74 9.4 1 0.4 1 1.1 41-45 29 3.7 - - 1 1.1 46-50 25 3.2 - - 1 1.1 51-55 7 0.9 - - - -

56-60 10 1.3 - - - -

61-65 2 0.3 - - - -

Total 791 100.0 257 100.0 86 100.0



Table 11.1 (cont'd) Dorset Parish Apprentices

Age at Indenture

Years 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

No. 1 5 18 32 36 31 10 8 2 - 2

% 0.7 3.4 12.4 22.1 24.8 21.4 6.9 5.5 1.4 - 1.4

Total No. 124 Percentage 100.0

1.BT6,98/5 Muster Ralis, PRO 2. various parish collections DRO, DVROand EDRO 3. obituaries nineteenth-century Newfoundland newspapers, PANL



from nineteenth-century 'immigrant7 obituary notes, however, does suggest that about half (51 percent) arrived or settled on the island between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five years and that only about 10 percent took up residence after the age of thirty-five years (Table 11.1). Since these data are so limited and biased toward well-to-do individuáis in certain places (St. John7s, Harbour Grace, etc.) and probably toward the more elderly surviving sector of the immigrants (the more likely to have had obituary notices published in newspapers), their valué is somewhat doubtful. Interestingly, nevertheless, the date set contains a sub-set of twelve females, ten of whom apparently immigrated into Newfoundland between the ages of nine and twenty years. These limited data can be combined with fragments of information from other sources to supplement what little is known of female migration. In Dorsetshire, the single extant example of a female parish apprentice being bound directly to a Newfoundland master is recorded for 'Elizabeth Bazely7, a sixteen year oíd, indentured by the parish officers of Poole to John McDonald, merchant of St. John7s, in 1794.7 As has already been suggested, most English females moved to Newfoundland either at an early stage after marriage to a migrating male or as a child or domestic of a migrating nuclear family. Significantly, however, there is more substantive evidence showing that young children were transported back to England to be baptized than that showing their out-migration to Newfoundland. Among the very infrequent instances of officially-documented references to children and females among passenger totals are the figures given for some ships arriving in St. John7s in 1810-12.8 Among 971 passengers in 1810 were 132 'women7 but only 22 'children7; in 1811,1213 passengers included 128 'women7 and 59 'children7; and in 1812,1671 passengers were divided among 1541 men, 116 women, and only 14 children. Most of these passengers arrived on English ships that had called at Msh ports; thus, apart from judging that the proportions of females and children from whatever sources were very small, we cannot anaiyze the origin/age-structure relationships from these statistics in any further detail.9

Marital Status Mercantile papers and letters show that it was fairly common for firm agents, factors and tradesmen, and ships' captains to carry their wives and famil ies to Newfound land and to have them overwintering there during periods of their employment. At the same time, it was not unusual for merchants themselves, as well as

248



their employees, to marry local Newfoundland women and decide later to either reside on the island or remove to England or elsewhere. According to the sequence of life-cycle events recorded in over 257 Devon-Dorset settlement examinant profiles, men seldom went to sea or into the Newfoundland fishery for the first time after they had married. Thus, among the 257 Newfoundland migrants, only fifteen or 5.8 percent, stated that they had joined the trade after marriage. Seven individuáis (2.7 percent) married in Newfoundland, but 178 (69 percent) took local county wives. Marriage was one of the main reasons why a man was subjected to a legal (settlement) examination as well as one of the prime reasons many men decided to cease seafaring and re-establish themselves in the homeland area. Some small proportions of men continued to serve as mariners or fishermen after marriage, but few seem to have endured beyond a decade. According to the length of stay in the Newfoundland fishery, 58 percent of the settlement examinants asserted employment periods (up to time of their examination) of five years or less; 78 percent had less than ten years7 experience, and only twenty-seven persons (10 percent) had been in the fishery for fifteen years or more. Most migrants who settled in Newfoundland carne single and married in Newfoundland; or had been married in the homeland after working in Newfoundland and then brought their families. Additionally, the prevalence of these two patterns was a function of soc io-economic status. Thus, Newfoundland marriage and subsequent residence was a predominant pattern for men who arrived on the island as sailors or servants in the fishery whereas men who held the rank or status of merchants, merchant agents, artisans, military officers, civil servants, and leading (independen!) planters were more inclined to bring out wives.

Occupational Background and Social Status The bonds of attachment and channels of social mobility that linked the Newfoundland fishery and the established society of Devonshire and Wessex (mainly Dorsetshire) were evidently very complex. As in Britain generally, the social structure of the southern and western counties during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century was stratified and grouped hierarchically largely on the basis of economic and occupational pursuits. The more stable and traditional classes were rooted primarily in agriculture, with the land-owing gentry (small in number and largely hereditary in character), yeomen and husbandmen (farmers), labourers and cottagers, and a pauper peasantry forming the higher to lower social

249



classes, and numerically, the cohorts of a social pyramid. On a slightly different scale of social ratings were tradesmen and artificers, all of whom were regarded as below the status of the landed gentry but above the rank of labourers and the peasantry. The classes involved in trade, manufacture, and commerce were spatially oriented toward market-town residency or, as was the case of the Newfoundland trade community, inclined to residency in the ports.

Most of the date which can be used to reconstruct the occupational structure and background of Newfoundland migrants within the spectrum of the English homeland are essentially personalized fragments of biographical information. Different sources yield different perspectives depending upon the documents examined. Wills of migrants, at one extreme, provide useful information mainly for merchants, captains, and tradesmen, but yield little information for the larger mass of migrants who became sailors, fishermen, and Newfoimdland settlers. At the other extreme, parish apprenticeships mostly provide data for orphaned and pauper children and thus document another spedal set and class of migrant.

The main social junctions between the Newfoundland fisheiy and the homeland areas hinged around the seafaring communities and families which resided mainly in places such as Teignmouth, Shaldon, Dartmouth, and Poole. These were places wherein dwelt families who over many generations followed the sea in the fishery. In the Teignmouth-Shaldon area, families such as Ashford, Babb, Bickford, Bulley, Codner, Cornish, Harvey, Mudge, Pinson, P rowse, Row, Squarey, Stephens, Tapley, and Whiteway are found among the ranks of shipowners, mariners, boatkeepers, and fishermen in the Newfoundland trade for over two centuries. In the Torbay-Dartmouth area, ñames such as Cárter, Congdon, Dodd, Evans, Godfrey, Goodridge, Griffin, Henley, Hutchings, Hutton, Lee, Luscombe, Marshall, Martin, Matthews, Morry, Perriman, Phillips, Pope, Rich, Seally, Searle, Soper, Squires, Sparkes, Storey, Tremblett, and Way were some of the f amilies for whom the fishery became the normal trade to which sons and grandsons followed earlier generations in their life-cycles as a matter of class tradition and hereditary succession. The more temporally durable Poole families associated with the fisheiy as shipowners, captains, mariners, or fishermen included successions in the families of Anstey, Corban, Durrell, Etheridge, Frampton, Gale, Gould, Harrison, Hooper, Keats,

250



Knight, Linthorne, Newell, Pike, Randell, Tavemer, Vallis, White and Wise.

The extreme fluctuations and vacillations in the fishery, as well as within the personal circumstances of the personnel involved, created the conditions for a highly volatile, altemately expanding and contracting, maritime community. This affected all ranks and occupational classes of particápants from the merchant to the parish apprentice. In a detailed study of the dynamie and continuity patterns among English-Newfoundland merchants in the eighteenth century, Keith Matthews has shown that among forty-seven who were active in 1785, only twelve were involved before 1750.11 The 'new adventurers7 which had emerged had risen mainly from the previous ranks of sea captain and merchant agent. Matthews found also that about half of the merchants active in 1785 had, either for reasons of death, bankruptcy, financial setbacks, or pursuit of other roles, withdrawn by 1800. Over the same period, however, a set of new entrepreneurs aróse from a variety of small 'native' (Newfoundland) and 'fishing7 (British) merchants to take their place.12 For the most part, the dynamie component of the merchant class included individuáis who emerged during prosperous periods and were unable to withstand the characteristic cycles of depressions. Balanced against these merchants, however, were families who had accrued or inherited trade capital and were able to adopt strategies to reduce their trading activities in periods of depression without eoing out-of-business, and to expand when prospeets improved.

The biographical traits of the principáis who built up the better capitalized and more stable firms in Poole and Dartmouth were remarkably similar. Frontier merchants such as Benjamin Lester, John Slade, Thomas Street, William Spurrier, John and Young Green, Samuel White of Poole, and their eighteenth-century Dartmouth contemporaries, the builders of the Newfoundland trading firms associated with the Newman, Holdsworth, Roope, and Hunt families, captained ships across the Atlantic and to the fish markets, spent some winters on the island in the capacity of company agents or factors, and later retired to attend the direction and supervisión of their trade at home. While residing in Newfoimdland, such individuáis held the status of 'chief inhabitants7 and usually accepted appointments to serve as civil magistrates, naval or customs officers, and Justices of the Peace. In both Poole and Dartmouth, Newfoundland merchants dominated political affairs

251



both at the local and national levels in holding and/or controlling the election of persons to the offices of Mayor and Members of Parliament. Most of them also invested in landed property and country-estates and forged status links for themselves and heirs with the local landed gentry and professional classes.

The role of N e w f o u n d l a n d agent for firms wi th f ixed establishments was mostly passed to younger brothers, sons, nephews, or sons-in-law, who were sent to the island to gain the appropriate experience. After he retired to Poole in 1778, John Slade entrusted activities in Newfoundland to three nephews, each of w h o m had acquired first-hand trade experience with him. In 1795, Benjamín Lester Garland, aged seventeen years, was sent to Trinity by his father and instructed "to see, remark, learn and endeavour to understand everything and everybody in his grandfather's business."14 The temporary company agent in Trinity was advised that "he be given every opportunity to learn the business...and.. .all possible advice about and insight into the different Branches of the Trade../' and that he should be taken on a cruise "that he may see the nature of the Business at the Outports." George Garland also advised his son that while in Trinity he should ''continué to learn navigation of Mr. Pitman,"15 a captain f ormerly in the Lester employ w h o had taken up residence in Newfoundland. Benjamín Lester Garland lost any desire to return to Newfoundland after being captured at sea in 1800 and spending almost a year in a French prison in Bordeaux.16 Over the period 1800-1807, Joseph Watts Garland, a nephew of George Garland, served as company agent in Trinity, until the latter could persuade two of his younger soñs, John Bingley and George Jr., to take an interest. His intentions are outlined in a letter written in 1807 when he states:

You will of course have heard of my sending of my son George to Ñfld. and I am now anxious to find a situation for John for a couple of years in town in some Coimting House where he could be made useful to his employers as well as himself to be instructed in a Counting House business.... I intend John to manage my business in part as well as to have a part here when capable....

By 1819, George Garland Jr. and John Bingley Garland had become major shareholders in the firm of George Garland and Sons. After their father's death in 1825 they became principáis of the company, with John Bingley acting as Newfoundland agent. In 1832, he was elected to represen! Trinity Bay in the Newfoundland legislature and appointed the first speaker of the House of Assembly,

252



18 but retired to Poole a f ew years laten Robert Pack, the son of a Poole sea captain, married and took up residence in Carbonear as agent to the firm of Fryer, Gosse and Pack, and also became a member of the first House of Assembly for Conception Bay.19 Charles Cozens of Blandford Forum took service with Kemps of Poole at Brigus, became an independent local merchant, and also represented Conception Bay in the Newfoimdland Assembly of 1832.

To some degree, the expansión of a civil service and the growth of legal and political institutions21 offered opportunities and attractions which made a prolonged residency in Newfoundland more attractive to individuáis with formal education backgrounds and trade training. Such persons had gone to Newfoundland initially to serve as agents, derks, bookkeepers, or ships' captains. Literacy was itself a strong propellant to occupational mobility and advancement in trade, position, and status. In the homeland areas, literacy and formal education were attributes afforded mainly to the children of the more privileged and to a random minority of children from working and peasant classes who were schooled under the patronage of charity benefactors and schools. Mostly, however, the apprenticeship of children to a useful trade at an appropriate age was the accepted norm of training and education. Although we ha ve no qualitative way of deteimining which migrants and immigrants could read or write, the proportions were clearly very small. Indeed, mercantile firms sometimes had difficulty in securing persons of adequate literacy, with writing and ciphering ability, to serve as clerks and bookkeepers. In 1807, for example, Ledgard, Gosse, and Chancy of Poole sent two youngsters to Carbonear on the brig Success "for shop and counting house/' They apologized to their agent that "they are both very young and small" by added "are very quick with their Pen and understand accounts very well. , /22

For most immigrante and settlers, employment opportunities in Newfoundland were limited to roles in the catching, processing and marketing of codfish and in the supply of goods and services to a fishing community. The techniques of catching and curing codfish were unique enough in Newfoundland that there were few trades or occupational skills which one might acquire in local English trades which were transferable to the Newfoundland setting. Migration and apprenticeship in the conduct of the fishery was an essential prerequisite to becoming either a successful fisherman or planter in Newfoundland. Naturally, any prior experience which one had in local Devon or Dorset fisheries, the coastal trade, the naval service,

253



or other overseas trades was also useful in the Newfoimdland milieu, and tradesmen such as carpenters, coopers, shipwrights, sailmakers, blockmakers, and blacksmiths, possessed skills that were always in demand and provided occupational niches in the immigration process.23 One of the most highly regarded specialists in a fishing crew, that of a fish-splitter, was somewhat analogous to that of a skilled butcher, and no doubt a butcher could easily adapt as a fish-splitter24 Mostly, however, the adaptive skills of fishing, fuiring, and sealing were transmitted by those of prior experience in the places of exploitation, from masters to their servants and apprentices. Dorsetshire apprenticeship papers speáfied various roles for the boys bound into the fishery Some boys were bound to serve "in the Newfoundland trade as mariner and fisherman"; others were exhorted to learn "the Art, Business or Employment of a Mariner" or "Newfoundland affairs." JohnHealy of Sherborne was charged to acquire the "art or mystery of seafaring, fishing and cuiing fish," and John Evans of Poole was urged "to learn the art or Trade of Ketching , m a k e i n g and t o w i n g and sav ing of Newfoundland fish" as well as "all other things belonging to the art or Trade of a planter."

The best source of material providing an overview of the range of occupational backgrounds of migrants prior to their joining the fishery and of the main occupational junctions between the Newfoundland maritime community and local English trades and industries is contained in settlement examinations. In these, one finds a wide variety of personal adaptations which exemplify larger scaled processes. In the ancient migratory tradition, for example, it was customary for summer fishermen and their servants to combine the fishery with winter employment in farm labour or trades in England. Thomas Leaman, a blacksmith from St. Mary Church in Devon, asserted that he went to Newfoundland every summer from the age of fifteen years until he was twenty-one. Before he was examined in 1802, however, he noted that he had spent some years in Newfoundland and others in England.25 In 1779, John Foot of Newton Abbot described himself as a 'Mariner and Thatcher', a trade combination that was not unusual for the period.

The analysis of biographical traits, including the occupational class of each mover prior to entering the Newfoimdland fishery, was aided by using a Fortran computer programme to sort and list variables related to the 257 Newfoundland settlement-examinant migrants as d r a w n from D e v o n and Dorsetshire archival

254



Table 11.2 Occupational Structure of English-Newfoundland Migrants

1 2 3 Trade Before Migration After Migration Percentage

General/ No. % No. % Change specific

Cloth/ woolcomber 3 1.2 3 1-2 -

Mari time related/ ropemaker 1 0.4 - - -0.4 sailmaker 1 0.4 1 0.4 -

shipwright 11 4.3 12 4.7 +0.4 Artisans

blacksmith 4 1.6 3 12 -0.4 butcher 3 1.2 1 0.4 -0.8 carpenter 2 0.8 2 0.8 -

glazier 1 0.4 - - -0.4 potter 2 0.8 1 0.4 -0.4 shoemaker 6 2.3 6 2.3 -

tarmer 1 0.4 - - -0.4 tailor 4 1.6 1 0.4 -1.2 thatcher 1 0.4 1 0.4 -

Agriculture labourer 157 60.9 111 42.2 -18.7 farmer, yeoman 1 0.4 4 1.6 +1.2

Mari time/ seaman 27 10.5 84 31.9 +21.4 fishermaxi 24 9.3 9 3.5 -5.8 merchant 2 0.8 - - -0.8

Other/ military etc 7 2.7 21 8.0 +5.3

Source: DRO DVRO, Settlement Examinations from Parish Collections

ryr

collections. The computer coding technique involved a breakdown of the verbal testimony given in each document into life-cycle sequences and listing and classifying for each migrant variables related to occupation before going to Newfoundland, age and marital status upon going to Newfoundland, and age, marital status, and occupation upon leaving the fishing trade or at the time of examination. As a statistical base, it is impossible to judge how vaMd or representative the settlement examination migrants were among all migrants over the migration interval or at any point in time. AJI

255



that one can be confident of is that the population in the set comes from a proper time frame (1750-1830), from the proper spatial units, and is related directly to the migration process under investigation. Desp i t e the l imitations, the information in the sett lement examinations at both the personal and aggregate scales yields biographical portraits showing how employment and migration in Newfoundland fitted into the life-cycle patterns of a relatively large number of individuáis, and the reciprocal relationship between the Newfoundland fishery and homeland industries and occupations.

The procedure fol lowed to classify pre-Newfoundland occupations involved assigning each person to a sub-group or trade based upon the following divisions: each person who had served an apprenticeship or had been employed previously was classifíed by his last trade or job; persons who were apprenticed or initially employed as mariners or fishermen were assigned to these trades. Similarly, post-Newfoundland occupations were assigned by the job or trade which each examinant either testified he had initially engaged in after returning from Newfoundland, or the occupational group with which he was identifíed at the time of his examination. The most difñcult occupation to assign related to labourers, as they were variously termed 'labourer or husbandry', 'agricultural labourer', or simply labourer'. Since many agricultural workers lived in towns, and conversely many general labourers resided in rural villages, no clear distinction could be made by place of residence or employment. Consequently, it was decided to group labourers of all varieties into a single occupational cíass. The occupational range and distribution of Newfoundland migrants, before migrating (column 1) and after returning home (column 2), as calculated from 257 Poor Law Settlement Examinations, are shown in Table 112.

After visiting Newfoundland in the late eighteenth century, Aaron Thomas formed the opinion that:

the Countys of Devonshire and Dorsetshire supply the greatest number of hands for the Newfoundland Fishery s y early than all the rest put together.... Lads from the Plow, Men from the Threshing Floor and persons of all sizes, Trades and ages and from the Manufaetorys flock annually, in the Spring, to Newfoundland...the hope of returning with Six or Ten Pounds in their pockets is the consideration which induceth many to leave their Native Country for a few months and viset [síc] the LandofFish.27

256



Judged against the pre-Newfoundland ocaipations shown in Table 11.2, Thomas's observations were quite perceptive and reasonably valid.

Although most of the migrants (61 percent) elected the fishery as an alternative to labour work, some 15 percent carne from artisan trades, such as blacksmiths, butchers, shoemakers, tailors, and shipwrights. Among the settlement examinants, the fishery was the first occupation in life for some fifty-three persons (20 percent); however, these were mostly apprentices. Nevertheless, this statistic corresponds identically with the proportion of 'green men7

demanded by statutes governing the fishery as a nursery of seamen.28 The comparison of p r e - N e w f o u n d l a n d wi th post-Newfoundland occupational distributions (column 1 in Table 11.2 compared with column 2) and the proporüonal changes in distribution (column 3) show that most migrants reassumed their original trades and occupations after being in the Newfoimdland trade. Otherwise, the main impact of the Newfoundland trade experience, as shown by the great losses and gains in Table 11.2, column 3, was the conversión of tradesmen and labourers to seamen and mariners. In this occupational mobility one detects the functioning of the time-honoured national objective of the Newfoundland fishery as the nursery of British seamen. In fact, some of the migrants actually detailed the terms of naval service or impressment to serve on man-of-war they had experienced as part of their biographical testimony 29

Occupational Background from Parish Registers The data set of occupational backgrounds shown in Table 11.3 was reconstructed by l inking persons married or buried in Newfoundland with parish registers in the specified source areas in England. The technique employed to produce the date followed family reconstruction. Lists of immigrants were assembled by their parish parishes of origin. Using the available English parish records of births, marriages, and burials, mainly those centralized in the archives of Dorset and Devon, an attempt was made to find a relevant baptismal record for each individual, ñames of parents and their marriage date, and the occupation of the parent (usually father). The technique involved select ive scanning and w a s very time-consuming but necessary for Newfoimdland immigrants since they were thinly drawn over a lengthy temporal span and from some 250 parishes in Devon, Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and Somerset. Some of the parishes had no records covering the relevant pre-migration

257



N> Oí 00

Table 11.3 Occupational Background of English-Newfoundland Settlers

Origin

Trade

General/ specific

1 Dorset-Somerset-

Hampshire (Wessex) South Devon

3 Total

No. % No. % No. %

Cloth/ 17/ 8.1/ 1 / 0.6/ 18/ 5.0/ clothier 3 - - - 3 draper 1 - - - 1 flaxcomber 4 - - - 4 fuller 1 - - - 1 glover 1 - - - 1 spinner 1 - - - 1 weaver 5 2.2 i - 6 woolcomber 1 - - 1

Maritime related/ 1 / 0.5/ 16/ 10.3/ 17/ 4.7/ blockmaker - - i - 1 roper - - 3 - 3 sailmaker - - 2 - 2 shipwright 1 - 10 6.4 11 3.0



K> OI VO

Artisan/ 47/ 22.7/ baker 3 blacksmith 3 butcher 7 carpenter 8 cooper glazier masón 7 miller 3 sadler 1 shoemaker 9 tanner tailor 3 wheelwright 1 wagoner 2

Agricultura/ 96/ labourer 89 farmer 7

Maritime/ 42/ seaman 34 fisherman 4 merchants 4

Other/ 5 /

Total 208

3.4 3.9

3.4

46.2/ 42.8

3.4 20.3/

16.3

2.2/

40/ 25.7/ 87/ 23.8/

3 2

13 3 4 4

4.3 1 2 2

28/

66/

5 /

156

8.3

18 10

60

6

18.0/ 11.5 6.4

42.2/ 38.4

13.8 3.2/

124/

108/

10/

364

3 6 9

21 3 4

11 3 1

3.8 1 5 3 2

107 17

94 4

10

5.7

3.0

154.0

34.0/ 29.0

29.7/ 25.6

2.8/



period; and other places, such as the city of Exeter (with over thirty parishes), were simply too complex to attempt to sean for the small n u m b e r o f e m i g r a n t s w h o spec i f i ed the ci ty a s the i r p re -Newfoundland residence. In addition to these limitations, some of the other parish origins have incomplete registers, other parishes possess registers which still he housed in chests unde r altars, in vestries, and in the homes of clergy, which have yet to be yielded to the custody of county archives. To some extent, however, the absence of the original registers was overcome by making use of Bishop's transcripts, published transcripts, a n d / o r typescripts. The Devon and Cornwall Society, for example, possesses bound typescripts of several hundred Devonshire parish registers housed in the Exeter Central Library. These include records of some forty-six parish origins of Newfoundlanders, but as wi th the origináis, some are more complete than others for the relevant time span.

Further limitations in using parish registers were encountered in the reconstitution process for parishes which h a d relevant temporal records. The occupation of a male spouse at marriage or of a father inbaptismal entries was only infrequently noted before 1813, w h e n this information was required.3 1 Thus, frequently i t was possible to find the baptismal record of an immigrant, the marriage of parents, and baptisms of other siblings, but the reconstruction yielded only ñames and dates. In instances where the baptismal span for children, of w h o m one or more emigrated to Newfoundland, encompassed a periods up to or beyond 1813, it was possible to assign the individual(s) to an occupational background.

The reconstruction technique used for each individual involved following a series of discrete steps or guidelines similar to those used by genealogists and historical demographers. For immigrants w h o marr ied in Newfoundland, all persons baptized wi th the same s ú m a m e were recorded up to fifty years before the date of marriage in the English parochial registers. Similar recordings were made f r o m marriages and burials in the same surnames. For immigrants bur ied in Newfoimdland for w h o m no Newfoundland marriage w a s found, source-origin recordings were extended back seventy years where possible. The final step involved selecting from mass s ú m a m e evidence family units which by nominal and age criteria fitted the more-probable pre-migrational units of the Newfoundland immigrant. Even at this stage, the results ranged f r o m complete reconstruction to pardal reconstruction (baptisms but no marriage records, etc.), to instances where the proper surnames were found

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but no person matching the immigrant, and to rarer cases where the súmame itself could not be located. The incomplete categories may be explained by numerable possibilities, including: that the place of origin recorded in Newfoundland was the legal place of residence, acquired under the English Poor Law, and not the place of natality and/or baptism; that the immigrant was part of a migrating family in the homeland area; or that the immigrant was not baptized or was baptized in another parish. Equally possible was that the individual belonged to a non-Conformist or Dissenter family. Since most of the extant non-parochial registers have been microfilmed, these were also consulted to supplement data from the Anglican registers.32

Initially it had been anticipated that family reconstruction would yield an empirical database to examine out-migration at English source areas (paiishes) from a variety of demographic perspectives (family size, status, and occupational background). It was also assumed that this might be accomplished using a limited number of paiishes or a small study area. This approach was rejected as unrealistic as well as inappropriate, not only because of reconstruction problems but also because the documented emigration to Newfoundland was so small, relative to English parish population base levels, extended over such a lengthy time period and was drawn from such a large number of parishes. Similarly, the decisión to select for reconstruction emigrants linked with a single Newfoundland district (such as Trinity Bay) rather than to treat N e w f o u n d l a n d as a whole appears to have only marginal advantages. Thus, for example, when one was attempting to reconstitute the familial background of two or three immigrants from a parish who married in Trinity Bay, it was deemed equally appropiiate to repeat the process for one or two others from the same parish who many have married in Bonavista Bay or some other district. Conversely, since out-migration from English parishes and in-migration to Newfoimdland destinations were evidently, by most migration standards, so individually selective—both temporally and spatially—the decisión to experiment with reconstruction over a broad study area and produce some aggregate results was found to be the better alternative to pursue.

Generally speaking, and apart from the inferences on parental occupation, the family reconstruction approach produced little data on which one could base any firm general conclusions. In the circumstances of some individuáis, it was possible, with the support of evidence from apprenticeship indentures and settlement

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examinations in the same parish, to isolate a probable social factor that influenced the migration of these persons. Dlegitimate and/or orphaned children were, for example, identif ied in family reconstructions for Newfoundland (marriage/burial) immigrants from Bridport, Sherborne, Milton Abbas, Combe Keynes, Wimborne Minster, Hinton St. Mary, Stalbridge, Symondsbury, Stiimünister Newton, Mamhull and Poole in Dorsetshire and Ringwood in Hampshire, and it is likely these movers were subjected to an apprenticeship by local parish ofñcers. The proportions of such immigrants among the total reconstituted was, however, very small.

The data in Table 11.3 included the parental occupations of 364 Newfoundland immigrants reconstituted for each of the two major basins of migration. Column 1 gives the occupational data in the Wessex district (Poole migration basin), assembled from the registers of Poole, Weymouth, the towns of Sherborne, Cerne Abbas, Wareham, Dorchester, Blandford Forum, Bridport, and Wimborne Minister in Dorset,33 Ringwood in Hampshire, and Crewkerne in Somerset,34 along with thirty-two rural parishes. These units yielded occupational distributions for 208 immigrants, or for about 24 percent of the total documented Newfoundland settlers from this región. In the South Devon homeland, 156 immigrants (22 percent) were classified from the parish records of Dartmouth, Brixham, Teignmouth, St. Nicholas, Tormohum, and Topsham, the towns of Newton Abbot and Ashburton, and eight rural parishes.35 The occupational typology (Table 11.3) generally follows the categories u s e d in parish registers wi th modif icat ions and grouping adjustments comparable to those used in Table 11.2

Essentially the main assets of the statistics in Table 11.3 are that they furnish primary and independent data to describe the range or variety of occupational backgrounds from which the Newfoundland settler population sprung, albeit toward the end of the emigration period; and that they allow one to assert summary statements, at least quaütative, if not quantitative, based on inferences regaiding patterns or tendencáes of certain occupational and social classes to become part of the cultural fabric of Newfoundland's human geography.

In broad terms, the occupational class range of immigrants in Table 11.3 bears a high degree of comparability with that of the migrants in Table 11.2. Whereas the Newfoundland experience tended to involve an occupational adjustment by migrants (settlement examinations) from English land-based occupations

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(trades and agricultural labour) to post-Newfoundland employment in maritime occupations, the propensity to settle in Newfoimdland —while strongly associated with the agricultural and labouring classes—was also closely linked with the t radesmen class. By occupational origin, Newfoundland settlers sprang f rom three major sub-groups. These were: a maritime tradesman group, largely the descendants of mariners, fishermen, and ship-service artisans who had emerged largely as the result of a continuing migratory fishery and trade that focuses upon exploiting the Newfoundland cod; a labouring class, mainly from agriculture; and a general t radesman group, including especially carpenters, shoemakes, blacksmiths, butchers, and masons (Table 11.3). Some variations between the immigrants born in the Wessex district (column 1) and those from South Devon (column 2) may be partly explained by biases in the sources used in the reconstruction. For example, the seventeen c lo th - t rade immigrants , wi th one exception, carne f r o m the Sturminster Newton district of North Dorset. More generally, the variations between the two areas seem to reflect a valid historical variation, one that mirrors the spatial differences of specialization between the two areas in the Newfoundland fishery. We have previously noted that South Devon ports collectively maintained the greater share of shipping and migratory activity, dominated the byeboatkeeper and offshore bank fisheries, and produced by far the larger seafaring community. This, it is not surprising that a larger sector of Newfoundland immigrants, as shown in Table 11.3, had parental roots in maritime occupations in South Devon than in Wessex, or conversely, that in purs ing the deve lopment of a sedentary fishery and winter-oriented activities in Newfoundland , Poole adven tu re r s d r e w into their migra t ion n e t w o r k larger componen ts of immigrants from parental backgrounds of the agricultural and tradesmen classes.

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i i i i i i i

SOURCE: W. Gordon Handcock, Soe longe as there comes no women, Origins of English Settlement in Newfoundland (1989, 2003), i image reprint CD, (Milton, Ontario: Global Heritage Press, 2009) 1


PART V

Bonds Across the Sea

And so he brought them unto the haven where they would be.

Psalm CVII, 30.

The Unes are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

Psalm XVI, 7.



i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

SOURCE: W. Gordon Handcock, Soe longe as there comes no women, Origins of English Settlement in Newfoundland (1989, 2003), 1

image reprint CD, (Milton, Ontario: Global Heritage Press, 2009) 1

i i i i i i


CHAPTER12

Migration Channels

Transactíon flow analysis, as developed by Savage and Deutsch1 in econometrics and applied to migration studies in geography by Roseman,2 is a very useful technique to summarize the main channels of migration discussed in the previous chapters. It permits us to draw all the strands of the migration system together into a coherent general overview. Indeed, one of the most difficult problems in a migration study that involves múltiple origins and múltiple destinations is to relate the two together simultaneously. For example, in one of the main data bases, of approximately 2200 migrant origins and destinations, collected for this study from Newfoundland parish registers and newspapers, the subset of origins included more than 600 separate English parishes and the subset of destinations over 200 Newfoimdland settlements. In reality, each individual movement between a point of origin and a destination constitutes a migration channel. However, to avoid an analytical maze and to reduce the total data base to a comprehensible pattern, it was necessary to identify the main or more salient channels of migration flows by aggregating origins and destinations into larger, more manageable, but stíüLl realistic, units. Transactíon flow analysis helps to manipúlate the data and identify the larger or more significant flows between pairs of places such as those represented in Table 12.1. When we apply the 'transactíon flow' model to the matrix of English origins (rows) and Newfoimdland (columns) in Table 12.1 (using percentage distributions of origins and destinations) we are given a more objective definition and description of migration channels than is possible by simply inspecting the statistics.

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Main Channels of Migration Transactíon flow analysis is based upon an 'indifference model', which assumes that the proportion of total migrants from any origin present at any destination will be equal to the proportion of all migrants at that destination. For example, in Table 12.1 we observe that Trinity Bay received 14.6 percent of all the migrants in the data set; thus, the indifference model assumes that each of the origins areas will send 14.6 percent of their migrants to Trinity Bay Any variation from this proportion, calculated by the difference between observed valúes and expected valúes, produces measures of 'salience', which can be presented as relative or absolute Índices. The Relative Acceptance (RA) index is Formula computed by where Aij is the observed A ~ E number of migrants from origin i to RAij = v^ v

destination /, and Eij is the expected v

number calculated from the 'indifference model'.

The Absolute Difference (D) index is found from Dij = Aij - Eij. The measures of salience are indicated by the positive valúes of the two índices; and the greater the positive valúes the more strongly channelled or directed are the movements. The positive measures of salience calculated from the data in Table 12.1 are presented in summary form in Table 12.2. The interpretation of the results contained in Table 12.2 must be conditioned by three important reservations: firstly, the use of a statistical model assumes reMability of the data set; secondly, the small numbers of observed valúes in certain origin/destination sub-sets yield measures that would be substantially altered by the addition of small numbers of similar data; and thirdly, the analysis is entirely one of spatial interaction between English origins and Newfoimdland destinations. Temporal variations have been collapsed into a single cumulative unit.

The RA índices indícate (i) that some of the numerically less important source areas of migration (Channel Islands, Bristol, London, and Scotland) produced more strongly directed flows than the more important areas (Devon, Dorset) and (ii) that emigration from Wessex districts (Dorset, Somerset, and Hampshire, the Poole migration basin) dominated movements in all regions of significant English settlement outside St. John's and Conception Bay. The D índices, in assessing the absolute measures of salience within particular migration paths, permit further quantitative evaluation and generalization. These índices show the particularly strong bias towards the St. John's district as the main destination of Devonshire

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Table 12,1 Island of Newfoundland/British Origins and Newfoundland Destinations

Newfoundland Destinations St. John's Coneeption Trinity Bonavista Notre Northern South West Total

Bay Bay Bay Dame Nfld. Coast Coast by Or; British Origins Bay Labrador English

Devon 493 111 25 6 - 10 25 2 672 Dorset 90 122 134 69 36 11 83 15 560 Somerset 27 26 46 14 1 9 21 5 149 Hampshire (IW) 24 34 70 25 9 4 3 5 174 Cornwall 16 4 - - 1 2 - - 23 Bristol 14 29 - 2 - - - - 45 London 40 10 2 - - - - 1 53 Liverpool 23 4 3 - 1 - - - 31 Other English 120 33 15 7 1 2 10 3 191

Scottish Edinburgh 8 1 - - - - - - 9 Glasgow 13 5 - - - - - - 18 Greenok 13 4 - 1 - - - 18 Other Scots 92 18 8 3 1 1 2 - 125

Wales 7 1 2 1 « - - „ 11 Channel Islands 10 14 - - 1 3 12 5 45

Total by destination 990 416 305 128 51 42 156 36 2,124

Source:PANL: Parish Registers, Newspapers



men, Scots, and 'other English7 emigrants; they also show the attraction of Conception Bay for Bristolians which, as discnssed earlier, was a migration focused almost exclusively upon Harbour Grace. Like the RA Índices, the absolute measures (D índices) support the geographical diversity of destinations which prevailed in the migration channels from the Dorset-Somerset-Hampshire basin.

Clearly the most remarkable feature revealed in Table 12.2 is the degree to which migration channels tenninating in Conception Bay reflect the same balance and diversity as in the w h o l e of Newfoundland. Indeed, except for the Channel Islands, the measures between predicted and observed flows were evenly matched (a salience measure of less than 0.5) so that the nuil hypothesis can be accepted for all other origins, that is, the balance of migration is precisely what the model predicts. As we have seen earlier, however, a closer internal analysis of settler origins in Conception Bay demonstrates some striking local differences. Whereas Dorsetshire settlers appear prominently in places such as Carbonear and Brigus, and together with those of Somerset and Hampshire provenance settled between Carbonear and Bay de Verde, Devonshire men and Channel Islanders (mainly Jerseymen) tended to concéntrate in Harbour Grace, Port de Grave, Bay Roberts, Cupids, Bell Island, and Portugal Cove. It must also be recalled that Irishmen settled in Conception Bay in proportions not all that s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f ferent f rom their overal l proport ions in Newfoundland and in complex structural patterns similar to the English.

Demographer Everett Lee found that there was sufficient empirical evidence for regularity in migration studies dealing with migration streams to conclude that "migration tended to take place within well-defined streams not only because of the dictates of opportunity and available transport, but also because migrants follow the flow of information established by earlier migrants/'3 A similar but more explanatory view is contained in geographer James Vanee7 s observation that in the settlement of eastern North America a system of mercantilist trade and exploitation preceded and later conditioned paths of emigration and settlement.4 In the particular circumstances of Newfoundland, we have seen in Chapter 3 that some of the migration channels that determined later English settlement patterns were already evident by the late seventeenth century and were based upon seasonal trade patterns established by

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Table 12.2 Relative Acceptance and Absolute Difference Indices of Migration

Channels

Migration Channel Origin Destination

Channel Islands Bristol Somerset Hampshire Dorset Somerset Hampshire Hampshire Somerset Dorset Somerset Dorset Liverpool Scotland Channel Islands Dorset Somerset Dorset Hampshire Devon Cornwall London Other English Devon Dorset Somerset Hampshire Cornwall London Liverpool Other English Scotland Dorset Hampshire Devon

RA D Index Index (ranking) >0.5

South Coast 3.0 9 (15) Conception Bay 2.6 21 (10) N. Nfld. /Labrador 2.0 6 (16) Trinity Bay 1.9 46 (4) Notre Dame Bay 1.7 23 (9) West Coast 1.5 3 (22) Bonavista Bay 1.5 15 (12) Notre Dame Bay 1.2 5 (21) Trinity Bay 1.2 25 (8) Bonavista Bay 1.1 36 (6) South Coast 1.1 11 (13) South Coast 1.0 42 (5) St. John's 0.7 10 (14) St John's 0.7 47 (3) Conception Bay 0.7 6 (17) Trinity Bay 0.7 54 (2) Bonavista Bay 0.7 6 (18) West Coast 0.7 6 (19) West Coast 0.7 2 (24) St John's 0.6 180 (1) St John's 0.6 6 (20) St John's 0.6 16 (11) St John's 0.5 31 (7) Conception Bay <0.5 Nuil hypothesis Conception Bay accepted Conception Bay Conception Bay Conception Bay Conception Bay Conception Bay Conception Bay Conception Bay N. Nfld./Labrador N. Nfld./Labrador N. Nfld. /Labrador



English merchants from South Devon (Dartmouth, Teignmouth), Poole, and Bristol to particular regions of coastal Newfoundland. The latter included the districts of St. John's, Conception Bay, and Trinity Bay. The territorial expansión of the English Shore throughout the eighteenth century represented additions to the coastal trading tenitories of merchants based in Poole. Those frontier districts were settled primarily by Dorset, Somerset, and Hampshire pioneers upon and around established mercantile posts. The role of the port of Poole in shaping the ethnic structure of Newfoimdland settlements is expressed not only through the spatial spheres and effects of its merchants' activities or its status as the chief centre of English emigration but also in the more complex origin-destination channels of migration flows generated from Dorset, Somerset, and Hampshire (Table 12.2).

The main emigration streams derived from the Índices in Table 12.2, together with some of the minor streams, are used in the construction of Figure 12.1. Figure 12.1 presents a graphic synthesis of the main geographical links and migration patterns at a regional scale by origin and destination. It translates into a general transatlantic perspective a pattern of human geographical movement of considerable historical complexity and significance both for the areas that sent and, more especially, for the areas that received.

Other Channels of Migration Among the less important channels of migration numerically were those from Cornwall, London, and Liverpool to St. John's and two from the Channel Islands, of which one focused upon Conception Bay, the other upon the southern and western districts of Newfoundland. Cornish emigration may be largely linked with the outlying zones of labour recruitment from South Devon. Except on a small scale in the seventeenth century and sporadically during periods of expanded activities in the eighteenth century, Cornish ports did not develop any significant trade in the Newfoundland fishery, though places such as Falmouth a n d F o w e y were consistently used by South Devon and Poole ships as havens on outward and inward passages across the Atlantic.

London was involved in the English fishery from earliest time and played an important role in helping Bristol to establish the first formal colony. For the most part, London provided shipping in the supply and carrying trades of the fisheiy. Much of this trade was

272



Figure 12,1 Channels of Emigration



more complementary to, and not competitive with, as asserted by some historians, the commerce of Devon and Dorset in that many westem merchants frequently chartered London vessels to ship supplies and take fish to market or consigned their own vessels to and from London. Other fish merchants formed partnerships with Londoners and still other West Country entrepreneurs established a commercial residency there. Most of the ma jor Poole and Dartmouth firms maintained accounts with London banks and dealt regularly with a wide variety of business clients. Much of the Newfoimdland production of cod-liver and seal oil (train oil) was marketed in London. Merchants such as the Lesters of Poole usually visited London every winter for political and social purposes and bought goods ranging from ships, anchors, and iron to millinery products for their N e w f o u n d l a n d dealers. Similarly, London-based merchants and their agents called regularly at Poole and Dartmouth seeking commercial dealings with Newfoundland traders and adventurers.

In brief, the direct and indirect associaüons of London with Newfoundland, quite apart from the obvious political ones, were many and complex. John Downing, a leading planter in St. John's between 1669 and 1681, and a chief spokesman on behalf of settlers against anti-settlement legislation, was a Londoner. Marriage and burial records document fifty-three London natives in a span from 1795-1887, and f orty of these occurred in St. John's. Ten of the thirteen others were linked with Conception Bay. London was also the source area or at least the centre of training, appointment, despatch, and correspondence for the earliest missionaries and school teachers sent to Newfoundland by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and other missionary groups.

Direct shipping between Liverpool and Newfoundland was established by 1769, and up to 1793 the number of ships fitted out and cleared each year ranged between five and eleven. An additional ship or two also went yearly from nearby Chester. Undoubtedly, the development of a vested interest by Liverpool shipowners in the Newfoundland trade was encouraged by the growth of a brisk coastal trade in kaolin (china clay) from the hinterlands of Teignmouth (Bovey Basin) and Poole (Isle of Purbeck) destined for the Staffordshire potteries through Liverpool. Many of the ships engaged in this trade during the winter months were banking vessels and supply ships, which were consigned outwaid from Liverpool to Newfoundland with spring and summer cargoes of salt from

274



Chester or provisions and passengers from Liverpool and southern Irish ports (Waterford, Cork, and Youghall). The direct trade ties with Liverpool were particularly strengthened during the Napoleonic War period when some of the major Teignmouth and other South Devon traders established factor-agents in Liverpool and began to use the port as their main source of supply In the nineteenth century, Liverpool became the main emporium of English trade, supply, and shipping in Newfoundland, and in the period 1842-63 the main embarkation port of emigrants.5 For example, among 1361 offícially documented English emigrants embarking for Newfoundland in this period, 808 (60 percent) sailed from Liverpool. Newfoundland marriage listings show Liverpool origins spanning 1775-1888 and mainly occurring in St. John's, though with a significant minority recorded also in Harbour Grace.

'Other English7 migration streams were associated with a widespread set of geographical locations. Many of the individuáis emigrating from outside the main source areas were clearly persons who arrived in Newfoundland to assume specialized roles or occupations. Missionaries and clergymen, for instance, can be identified in parochial records with places such as Warwick in Warewickshire, Boreham in Sussex, Thornton Rush in Yorkshire, Madeley in Shropshire , and Macclesf ie ld in Cheshire . A sergeant-major carne from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a school teacher from Eckford in Roxburghshire, a medical doctor from Oxford, and merchants from Birmingham, Lapworth, and Southport.

One of the more distinctive of the smaller channels of migration was rooted in the Channel Islands, mainly Jersey. Indeed, the Channel Island migratory fishery forms the subject matter of an investigation by historical geographer Rosemary Ommer. The participation of Channel Islanders in seasonal fishing voyages to Newfoundland began about 1600 and endured imtil about 1890. Although they seldom commanded more than 2 or 3 percent of the migratory fishery and were prone to shift from one exploitation frontier to another, just as in Devon and Dorset, the fishery for Channel Islanders became a chief commercial pursuit, a major source of employment, and an integral part of Channel Island life. The patterns of migration with Newfoundland are perhaps as well documented by the small groups of settlers left behind by the seasonal migrations as by other evidence. In the late seventeenth century the Channel Islanders were using Bonavista and Trinity Bays; a few planted there around Trinity. In the mid-eighteenth

275



century period, Jerseymen were found fishing mainly in Conceptíon Bay, and some of them settled in communitíes such as Harbour Grace, Bay Roberts, Brigus, Cupids, Port de Grave, and Portugal Cove. Their descendants today can be recognized from such distinctive surnames as Anthony, Besson, Curnew, Fillier, Gushue, Greeley, LeDrew, LeMessurier, Nicole, Picco, Perchard, Renouf, Tippett, Vey, and Vokey. Most of these patrilines were established in Conceptíon Bay before 1775.

Between the period of Queen Anne's War and the American War of Independence, Channel Islanders were also active in the southern districts of Newfoundland, including Placentia, Burin, St. Pierre, St. Lawrence, and Fortune Bay. Subsequent migrations of Channel Islanders after 1783 shifted more prominently to the southern and western regions of Newfoundland and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In these new areas, a liberal sprinkling of the earlier settlers bore Channel Island surnames common with those of Conceptíon Bay as well as others, which in settlements such as St. Lawrence, Lawn, Grand Bank, Harbour Bretón, and Jersey Harbour are seldom matched by patrilines of English or Irish extraction. In the western regions of Newfoimdland, for example, families such as the Alleys, Hulans, Messerveys, and Renoufs of Bay St. George, the Paines and Majors of Bonne Bay, and the Cabots, Lareys, and Langleys of the Strait of Belle Isle remain from among the initíal pioneers of their respective regions. The parish registers of Rose Blanche on the southwest coast record for the late nineteenth-century Jerseymen such as Roy, Major, Purket, Amey, Jones, and LeFevre who married in the Rose Blanche-La Poile district. These young men most likely were transported by Nicolles, one of the last surviving Jersey firms in Newfoundland who operated trading establishments in Fortune Bay and at La Poile. It would appear, however, that Channel Islanders did not establish any settlements where they comprised the majority of famil ies . Those w h o settled in Newfoundland evidently spread themselves thinly throughout the inhabitant population and were integrated into communitíes of other ethnic origins. On the southwest coast Channel Islanders, along with migrants from Somerset and Dorsetshire, helped to complete the final chapter of one of the most enduring migration sagas in the history of European overseas expansión and settlement in the New World.

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General Summary

The transformatíon of Newfoundland from a fishery of seasonal exploitation by transient English fishermen into a self-perpetuating Engl ish se t t lement f o l l o w s an immense ly complex set of circumstances. This study represents a search for a better grasp of the general processes underlying the historical-geographical complexities with emphasis on the creation of a transatlantic migration system and on the maintenance of the role played by that system at both ends of the process. In the English source areas, the ports and their hinterlands, migration into the Newfoundland fishery became, from the sixteenth century onward, a traditional mode of behavioural activity Until the seventeenth century the contacts were temporary and seasonal; then began a lengthy period of tentative attachment characterized by the ebb and flow of migratory 'inhabitants7 or 'residents7. Until the late eighteenth century, Newfoundland remained suspended and wavering between a frontier of exploitation and one of settlement. In spatial terms, settlement in Newfoundland can be seen as an extensión of exploitation strategy both by the fishermen and by the entrepreneurs who controlled supplies and the marketing of staples. While the merchants yielded the production of codfish to inhabitants, and gradually phased themselves out of direct production, they continued to control access to resources through a credit system. More importanüy, merchants continued to be the main pivots in the migration system, and the hinterlands from which they recruited labour for their Newfoundland planters became catchment basins for the continued flow of emigrants. The mercantíle headquarters developed not only as commereial outposts designed to manipúlate the mechantes of trade but also as fixed components of a spatial system for the movement of people and their absorption into a settlement system.

277



The mercantilist system which promoted and supported settlement had a more ancient histoxical root but developed most significanüy from mid-eighteenth century onwards, when a set of entrepreneurs from the major ports in the Newfoundland fishery, Dartmouth, Teignmouth, Bristol, and Poole, built elabórate trading posts to serve and supply a growing dientele of fishermen families. The mercantile posts became major centres for sustained contact with primary producing settlements of fishermen-planters, the l o d for trans-shipment of goods and supplies and for the inward and outward movement of migrants, and the locations that attracted the sett lement of tradesmen, missionaries, and in some cases, government offidals.

A merchant-sponsored migration to Newfoimdland from two major English-source areas, or migration basins, South Devon and the Wessex hinterland of Poole (Dorset-West Hampshire-South Somerset) continued, but with shifting proportions and directions, from the sixteenth century until the late nineteenth century when labour demands in the fishery were adequately supplied by the native-born population in all districts of the island. I h e transatlantic migrations changed the human geography on both sides of the ocean, most radically in Newfoimdland. In the English homeland areas, the Newfoundland fishery gave rise and continuity to maritime-oriented families and thus created a subculture which interacted with land-based groups assodated with agricultural and trades occupations. By occupational origin, the Newfoundland settler population sprang, in fact, from three main backgrounds— from the maritime sub-group which the Newfoundland fishery had created; from an agricultural sub-group which furnished raw recruits to the fishery; and from a sub-group of tradesmen and artisans. While initial motivation for migrating to Newfoundland may be a matter for some speculation, factors such as fortune, adventure and escape, tradition, and migration as an agency for institutions (the parish, the merchant firm, the churches, and government) dearly played some role.

The dedsions of individuáis to remain and setüe permanently in Newfoundland appear to have been strongly related to marriage on the island. The vast majority of migrants over the entire migration interval arrived in Newfoundland as single men. Some small numbers of men, usually after a period in the fishery, brought wives and families and established the demographic foundations of permanent settlement, but most migrants who settled on the island

278



married daughters and female servants of older settlers. In the seventeenth century the female population, deriving from the early formal colonies and independen! settlements by nuclear families, was too small to support any significant growth of a native-born population. Apart from that there was considerable demographic disruption caused by the attacks of the French, settler expulsions, and a strong tendency for settlers to remove themselves and their famihes after a brief stay. In the eighteenth century, the permanent population began to grow most rapidly in Conception Bay, due to an inertia created by several factors; early settlement, the ability of settlers to defend themselves against French conquest and expulsión; and a relatively favourable set of geographical factors for settlement growth. In the late eighteenth century all districts in Newfoimdland experiences a rapid rate of population growth and immigrant absorption, due mainly to the increase in the native-born female population and a small but significant migration of single females, mainly from Ireland.

Events and conditions associated with the Napoleonic Wars greatly promoted the establishment of a permanent population. Many of the mercantile functions previously maintained in England as part of the seasonal migration system were transferred to N e w f o u n d l a n d . Merchants expanded their deal ings wi th inhabitants, enlarged their establishments, and began to maintain more employees year-round and for longer terms of employment. Families on the island at the outbreak of the war were inclined to remain for the duration, and agents, ships' captains, tradesmen, and boatkeepers, intending to maintain several years7 residency, took their wives and children. During the period 1810-16, and following a period of labour shortage which caused wage levels to soar, the island experienced a great influx of migrants, mainly from Ireland. Though most returned home or moved on to mainland colonies, a large number of the Irish females married locally and settled soon after arrival. As local parish registers show, English migrants continued to be absorbed into the population up to and beyond the middle of the nineteenth century, but in dwindling numbers.

A development that proceeded roughly parallel with the establishment of fixed trading systems by English-based merchants was the evolution of a resident merchant class, particularly in St. John's and Conception Bay. By the outbreak of the Napoleonic War, the resident brokers in the island-supply and market trade were competing strongly in the districts near St. John's with the South

279



Devon and Bristol traders and indeed were beginning to penetrate into the outlying districts dominated by Poole. During the nineteenth century, the mercantile links, from St. John's and Conception Bay strengthened and multiplied into the outports and eventually replaced those that over several centuries had been held by English ports. By then, however, the migration process was virtually complete and the cultural patterns of settlement had become permanently impiinted. Newfoimdland had also entered a new phase of its demographic history, characterized by internal migration, selective emigration, and radically different patterns of social change.

Further Study Geographical systems of interest to historical geographers are made up of extremely large numbers of parts and sub-parts, relationships and sub-relationships, and over time these parts and relationships become increasingly more numerous. In order to understand the geography of particular places and time periods of the past, it is necessary to discover more of the social control mechanisms in operation and the spatial impress of these mechanisms as well as the impact of ecological, political, and technological forces. As an empirical contribution to our understanding of a migration system in a particular spatial content, the present study represents but one of many possible approaches from the range of possible states which any sys tem possesses . At the same time, many important components and relationships require the extensión of historical enquiry in new directions.

The role of the Newfoundland fishery as a first stage in the creation of channels between the English source areas of Newfoundland origins and the colonies of the North American mainland needs more detailed empirical investigation. These studies would involve archival investigation in places such as N e w England, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island and could employ the biographical-geographical techniques of analysis and record linkage used in this study. Another logical extensión from the present study would investígate internal migration and settlement within Newfoimdland, from older established districts such as Conception Bay and Trinity Bay into the nineteenth century littoral frontiers of English expansión, and assess the importance of these internal m o v e m e n t s against the migrations from the British Isles. Quantitatively it is evident that nineteenth century emigration from South Devon and the Poole hinterland to other parts of the British

280



Empire far outweighed the importance of that to Newfoundland. From the other end of the migration spectrum, the mechanisms and process of these movements beg some attention. Perhaps, more importantly, the f i n d i n g s of this s tudy—part icularly the identification of homeland areas—establish the framework for a wide range of comparative studies into socio-cultural systems on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Notes

Chapterl 1See G .J. Marcus, The Conquest of the North Atlantic, (Woodbridge,

Suf folk: The Boydell Press, 1980), chapter 22, for a good summary of English voyages of discovery and especially the role of BristoL

Gillian T. Cell, English Enterprise in Newfoundland 1577-1660, (Toronto: 1969), 132-44. Other good studies documenting port involvement in the Newfoundland fishery indude E.A.G. Clarke, 'The Estaurine Ports of the Exe and Teign...1660-1860" , (Ph.D. thesis, London, 1957); Keith Matthews, "A History of the West of England-Newfoundland Fishery" (D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University, 1968); and C.Grant Head, Eighteenth Century Newfoundland (Toronto: 1976).

^.N.L. Poynter, ed., The Journal (Longmans: 1963), 124-38, has a detailed account of early fishing methods in the ship fishery. See also Head, Eighteenth Century, 1-8.

4See n. 2 above. ^David Quinn, England and the Discovery of America, 1480-1631

(London: 1973), 14,85-86. Marcus, The Conquest, 132-43, recounts the English fishery in Iceland. 7 Cell, English Enterprise, shows the unimportance of England

compared to France, Portugal, and Spain in transaüantic adventures until ca. 1576.

^ c h a r d Whitbourne, Discourse and discovery of Newfoundland... (London: 1620).

9Marcus, The Conquest, 147-49. 10Head

, Eighteenth Century, 1-8. 11Matthews/,A History of the West of England," contains the most

comprehensive temporal analysis of fluctuations in the fishery over four centuries.

•to

Head, Eighteenth Century, 38.

282



13PRO, Patent Roll, 8 Jas 1, pt viii, Charter of Bristol and London Company. Also patents to Sir Geo. Calvert, 31 December 1622 and 7 April 1623, and to Marquis of Hamilton, Earl of Pembroke, Earl of Holland, and Sir David Kirke, 13 November 1637.

14These include The Western Charter 1633/4; PRO, Patent Rolls, 12 Charles 11, pat. 17, no. 30 and 27 Charles 11, pt. 2, no. 1Z See also Cell, English Enterprise, 112-13, for details. Amended versions were issued in 1661,1670, and 1676. See Matthews/'A History of the West of England/' 133-36; also D.W. Prowse, A History of Newfoundland (London: 1896), 155 for 1661 charter and 192 for 1676 charter.

15Terms related to the byeboat fishery (byeboat, byeboat fishery, byeboatkeeper, byeboatmen) are defined in DNE with examples. For additíonal discussion of byeboatmen, see Head, Eighteenth Century, 63; Matthews/'A History of the West of England/7 162-70; and Clarke/The Estaurine Ports," 1190.

16CO1/55,241. 17See e.g., CO1/35 Census 1675; CO1 /38 Census 1676, and CO1 /55

Census 1684. 18CSPC 1718, no. 794, and Acts of the Privy Countil, Colonial Series

(London: 1812), 277. 19The (1699) revised charter governed Newfoundland throughout the

eighteenth century. See Head, Eighteenth Century, 38. 20CSPC, 1671, no. 212,257; 1681, no. 689,294; 1684, no. 1907,708; 1701,

no. 64,28; 1720, no. 260,176-7; 1729, no. 940,506; 1735, no. 119,70. Also Acts of the Privy Council (1718 Report).

21Head, Eighteenth Century, 111-29, and Matthews/'A History/' 278-83, give accounts of New England and Newfoundland links.

^CSPC, 1668,559; see also n. 20 above. 23Ibid., 1771, no. 164,77. 24Ibid., 1718, no. 626,317. 25Ibid., 1718, no. 751,391. 26Ibid., 1718, no. 626,315. 27Ibid., 1715, no. 646, 312. Captain Kempthom reported "A boat's

master six or seven years agoe would ask no more for the season than twelve or fourteen pounds, and now 'tis a common demand to ask twenty, twenty-five and sometimes thirty, and the same to other servants in proportion."

28For early wage system of shares see Cell, English Enterpríze, 15-18. By 1735 only Bideford and Barnstaple went on shares. CSPC, 1735, no. 119, 69.

29CSPC 1681, no. 212,105-6.

283



Alan F. Williams, Father Baudoin's War (Memorial University of Newfoundland: 1987), 65.

31CSPC, 1720, no. 260,177-8. 32Head, Eighteenth Century, 88-91,97. 33CSPC, 1730, no. 422,263-8.

Russell, Dartmouth, 1950,84. 35CSPC, 1668, no. 1730, 559, contains a petítíon for a minister to be

sent to Newfoundland//to christen, bury, many and instruct them...." 36CSPC, 1681, no. 212,106. 0 7

Head, Eighteenth Century, 48. See also chapter 11 for a review of central issues in the early debate over settlement

38CO195/1,41. 39CO1/55,241.

Chapter 2 1Detailed accounts of the early proprietary colonies are found in Cell,

English Enterprise, chapters IV and V, and Head, Eighteenth Century, 31-35. Head, Eighteenth Century, 41-48, but see especially A.G. Macpherson,

"Perceptions of the Newfoundland Environment," chapter 1 in Macpherson and Macpherson, eds., The Natural Environment of Newfoundland (Memorial University of Newfoundland: 1981).

Cell, English Enterprise, 69. 4Ibidv 93. ^ i d . , 69. ^ i d . , 78-79. 7CO1/35,38,41. ®IbidvC01/41. Q

Williams, Father Baudoin, 33. 10CSPC, 1708, no. 1378,686-8. Lady Kirke died at Ferryland 1683; CO

194/4,189. See 'Tool Plantation," figure 2.3. 11PRO, Will of John Benger of Ferryland, probated 1793 (9 Dodwell

1793). 12CO1/35; 1/38; 1/41; 1/47; and 1/55. 13CSPC, 1675, no. 550, 226-7 (Order-in-Council), no. 628,259-61, no.

665-6,275-7, and no. 769,329-30. 14Head, Eighteenth Century, chapter EL 15CSPC, 1676, no. 1120, 486-7; no. 1160, 504-5; for restraining order

against removal of setüers see CSPC: 1677, no. 101,39-40. 16IbicL, 1677, no. 101,20. 17Ibid., 1675, no. 769,329-30.



18Wffliams, Father Baudoin, gives a metículously detailed account of the French campaign.

19CSPC, 1699, no. 586,305-7; no. 583,303-4. Williams, Father Baudoin, 55-56.

20CSPC, 1697, no. 583,303-4. 21

Head, Eighteenth Century, 146. ^Matthews/'A History/' 411-12. See also Keith Matthews/'Historical

Fence Building: A Critique of the Historiography of Newfoundland," NQ (74)i, 21-30, for a synoptic assessment of the settlement debate as treated by historians.

23Cell, English Enterprise, 94-95. 24First Report on the State ofthe Trade to Newfoundland (1793). Testimony

of John Jeffrey, 396-7. 25CSPC, 1668, no. 1732,560-1. 26Ibid., 1675, no. 447,179. 27Ibid., 1696, no. 442,249. 28Ibid., 1698, no. 990,551. 29

Whitbourne, Discourse. 30CSPC, 1715, no. 179,77. 3177ie English Pilot (1689), 14-15. 32CSPC, 1681, no. 212,106. 33CO194/4,458-67. ^CSPC, 1681, no. 212,106-7. 35Ibid., 1675, no. 495,197. 36Head, Eighteenth Century, 100-101. 37Poynter, The Journal 119. 38CSPC, 1681, no. 1461,76. 39Ibid., 1676, no. 1120,486; 1677, no. 100,39. 40Ibid., 1698, no. 9901,551. 41PRO, Wffis of Anthony Varder, planter, Conception Bay 1675-1708,

but in 1714 'of Bedminster, Somerset'. Varder left plantations (físhing rooms) in Bay Roberts and Port de Grave to his children (128 Aston, 1714); Thomas Pike 1703-04 left 'plantation' at Carbonear to sons Thomas and John (13 Bennett, 1708).

42Prowse, History of Newfoundland, Appendices to chapters IX and X carry detailed accounts of French raids 1696-7,1702, and 1703-1708. See also Williams, Father Baudoin.

43CSPC, 1697, No. 586, 305-6. 230, "Men, women and children" arrived at Dartmouth from St. John's on January 10,1697. CSPC: 1697,115 reports 150 at Appledore from Ferryland.

285



44Williams/ Father Baudoin; also Prowse, History of Newfoundland, 220-22.

45CO194/415 (1706) and 116 (1710). The latter reports/The present condition of the inhabitants is very deplorable.../'

46Ibid., 253-6. 47See n. 41 ábove. 48Handcock/Th.D. thesis," 51-56; also Handcock, "A Biographical

Profile" (Memorial University of Newfoundland: 1980), 58-63. 49CO194/4,253-6. 50Copy in possession of the author, courtesy of RJ.F.H. Pinsent,

Horrabridge, Devonshire, who has the original. See also Williams, Father Baudoin.

51Handcock,"Biographical Profile," 59. 52CSPC, 1731, no. 278. 53SPG, Lambeth-Fulham Newfoimdland (1731), Inhabitants of Trinity

Bay to Bishop of London. MCO194/5,109,260-2; CSPC, 174, no. 1714,30-2; 1716, no. 44,13-5. 55CO194/8,283-4; CSPC, 1729, no. 928,496. 56Handcock, "Biographical Profile/' See sections on Taverner, Lester,

Masters, and White families. 57PRO, Poole Taverner Wills include Elizabeth 1795; Isaac 1719; Mary

1768; Mary 1771; Robert 1748; Robert 1749; and Robert 1769. 58Handcock,"Biographical Profile," 58-63. 59PANL, GN5/4B, "Mastrs of famalys nams" (1753) in Northern

District 1 Minutes (Court Records 1753-1774). Trinity (St. Paul's Anglican Church, Parish Records,

1753-1867) on microfilm. 61Ibid.,"Census Returns Trinity Bay Both Sides 1800-01." 62DRO,

"Diary of Benjamín Lester," in Records of the Lester and Garland Families, E2, F3, D365. Chapter3

1CSPC, 1720,260,177-8. 2 Cell, English Enterprise, 74.

^ i d . , 87. ^ . E . Minchinton, "The Port of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century," in

McGrath, ed., Bristol in the Eighteenth Century (Newton Abbot: 1972). ^Head, Eighteenth Century, 103-106. 6CSPC, 1696, no. 449.

286



287 PANL, see Harbour Grace (Church of England) Marriages and

Burials 1776-1871. o

Acts ofPrivy Councü: 1718 report, contains summary of fishing ships 1574-1716.

Q

Number of men / sh ips for selected years 1676—129/4556; 1701—75/2000; 1702—16/411; 1710-49/2802.

1 0darke, 'The Estuarine Ports/' 253,262-66,280,290-92,304-305. 11Poyriter, The Journal, 144. 12Handcock, "Ph.D. thesis," 26. 13J.S. Davis, Histcny of Southampton (London: 1883). 14Sir Robert Robinson's report in CO 1 /46.22. 15

CSP Domestic, Charles. 1 no. 37,41, áted in M.M. Oppenheim, The Maritime History of Devon (Exeter: 1968), 36-37.

Anderson, ed., The Book ofExaminations and Depositions 1622-44, 4 vols. (Southampton: 1929-36); also "Apprentices of Southampton," in Southampton Record Society Pub, 1968,71, 95.

17 Pope Transcri-pts, especially Vol. IX.

18DRO, see card index of apprenticeship indentures; other indentures

are contained in parish and borough collections or are cited in Poor Law documents.

19E. Boswell, The Civil División ofthe Country of Dorset (London: 1795). 2aThe

will and accounts of William Williams' Charity were examined in the Town Clerk's Office, Blandford Forum. The documents are now in the Dorset Record Office, Dorchester (DRO).

21 Boswell, Civil Divisions, Appendix "Abstract of Returns of

Charitable Donations in Co. of Dorset . . summarize the different charities sponsoring apprenticeship for "Poor Persons.../' See Handcock,"Ph.D. thesis," n. 84, p. 61.

22Bristol Apprentices 1593-1630, Bristol Record Office; also Abstracts of Bristol Apprentice Books 1600-30. For list see Handcock,"Ph.D. thesis/' n. 85, p. 62.

^ D R O , Dartmouth Borough Archives, contains seven apprentices 1620-1672.

24See n.16 above.

^"Apprentices," p.90, n.16. In 1675-77 Bickonell was still residing at Oíd Perlican.

26See Matthews, "A History ofthe West of England," 175,180; Prowse, History of Newfoundland, 157,167.

27CSPC, 1701, no. 756,430-1. 28Matthews, "A History of the West of England," 10-12. 29

Matthews, "Historical Fence Building."

287



30The English Pilot, the fourth book (London: 1689). 31Ibid., p. 14; CSPC, 1675,466 contains an appraisal of St. John's as "the

best port in the whole land.../' 32Poynter, The Journal, 55. 33CO194/3,368. ^CSPC, 1675,466. 35W. Petersen, "A General Typology of Migration," American

Sociological Review, no. 23 (1958), 258. ^ . S . Lee, "A Theory of Demography/' Demography, no.3 (1966),

47-57. nn

C. Goldscheider, Population Modernization and Social Structure, (Boston: 1971), 14.

. Brown, et al., "Migration, Functional Distance and the Urban Hierarchy/' Economic Geography, no. 46 (1970), 474.

Chapteré 1See Head, Eighteenth Century; Matthews, "A History of the West of

England." HAC, Píate 25, vol. 1, see 'The Expanding British Shore Fishery"

prepared by the author. ^ h i s

is evident in statistics collected by Naval Officers and Governors in 'Schemes' or 'Returns' of the Fishery (CO194 series). As new districts get added to the returns, these invariably include small numbers of planters, women, and children.

^ANL, Letter Books—Colonial Secretary, petition Jime 7,1808. ^Head,

Eighteenth Century, 217-21, details erratic fluctuations of fish prices, supply prices, and labour costs 1760-1810

^Tbid., 223-27. 7Ibid., 277. 8C01/47,f . l l6v. 9CO 194/40, 22-3. Captain Crofton 1797 observed of Fortune Bay,

"peculiar advantages by the Cod Fishery contmuing all the Year," and also "the great quantity of Herrings' in April and May."

10CO194 retums. 11C. W. Sanger, "The Evolution of Sealing and the Spread of Settlement in Northeastern Newfoundland," in Mannion, ed., The Peopling of Newfoundland (Toronto: 1977), 136-51, gives a good resume of sealing.

i ? PANL, "Account of the Salmón Fishery, 1810," in Duckworth Papers.

13BM, Ms. 38,352; PANL, Slade Ledgers 1783-1821; PRO, Bird Papers, Chancery, 108, Masters Exhibits, vol. 69-71.

14CSPC, 1706,708.

288



15CO 194/9,221-4, and CO194/10,100. 16CSPC, 1702,349; 1703,110-1. 17CO194/15, "An Estímate of Shipping at the Sundry Fishing Places

in and about Newfoundland" 1763. The exception to a Poole/Dorset monopoly on the northeast coast was a Bristol merchant, Jermiah Coghlan, who had an establishment in Fogo, 1764-82

18CSPC, 1713,258-60. 19CO194/5,257. 20Head, Eighteenth Century, 59-60. 21CSPC, 1714, no. 1714,30-2. 22Ibid., 1714,56-7, Petition of William Cleeves of Poole. 23Most of the Poole and Bideford traders can be identifíed from

different sources. See Handcock, "Ph.D. thesis," n. 34, p. 94. Poole traders included Cleeves, Weston, Spratt, Turner, Broom, Neave, Clark, Waldron, Young, Alien, Linthorne, Keates, and Spurrier; Bideford traders were Chappell, Hooper, Walsh, Saunders, and Viguers. Saunders eventually moved to Poole.

24CO 194/5, 201 ñames inhabitants losing property (1763) when St Pierre was ceded to France. See also GB "Second Report" (1793): Testimony of John Waldron, 409-10.

^CSPC, 1723, 354; also PRO: will of John Masters, 1755 (Paul 67). In his will Masters bequeathed "lands, houses, buildings, brooks and fisheries culled the Salmón fishery in or about the Bay of St. Mary's..." to nephew Thomas Keates of Poole.

26Matthews, "A Histoiy of the West of England," 389-90. 27GBHC, "Second Report" (1793), 425: An Account of Ships and

Shipping 1769-92. 28ADM 1 /47, GB 1; also BT 6 87/84. 29Head, Eighteenth Century, 91-92. 30Clarke, 'The Estuarine Ports," 1150. 31

Head, Eighteenth Century, 63-65. 32CSPC, 1715,309. 33Head, Eighteenth Century, 74. ^ i d . , Figure 7-4. 35CO194 returns. 36Matthews, "A Histoiy of the West of England/' 415. 37CO194 returns. 38GBHC, "First Report" (Wm. Newman's testimony), 392-93; and

"Second Report" (Aaron Graham), 435-36. The whole House of Commons Inquiry in 1793 related to the collapse of the fishery, 1788-91.

289



39EDRO; "Exeter Customs Account Books 1699-1828/' See ñames of 'train' oil importers. Most of them were byeboatmen.

40GBHC, "Second Report" (Aaron Graham's comments), 436. 41CO194 returns. 42In 1788 the category of 'dieters' was introduced into CO 194 returns

to distinguish lodgers from working winter servants. 43CO194/16, Talliser's Act' 15 Geo. m, introduced in 1775 attempted

to encourage men to return to Europe by requiring employers to deduct 40s from each man's wages to procure passage home.

44BT 5/3, January 25,1786. Testimony of Richard Routh. 45These impressions are perhaps exaggerated. See USPG: Calendar of

Letters 1721-1793, vol. 5,1972, letters from Newfoundland missionaries. 46Prowse, History of Newfoundland, 325; Matthews, "A History of the

West of England," 411-12. 47CSPC, 1720,260,177-8. 48Ibid., 1729,506. 49Ibid., 1732,148. 50

CO 194 returns; Head, Eighteenth Century, 91 and figure 5.5. 51Ibid., "CO 194 statistics." 52USPG, "Calendar of Letters 1721-1793," vol. 5; also letters from

Newfoundland missionaries in Archives of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, London.

53PANL; see marriage records of Church of England Cathedral, St. John's, 1755 onward, and Román Catholic Basilica registers, 1793-1836.

^See V. Dillon, 'The Anglo-Irish Element in the Speech of the Southern Shore of Newfoundland," M.A. thesis in English, (Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1968) 23; and T. Nemec, "Trepassey 1505-1840 A.D.: The Emergence of an Anglo-Irish Newfoundland Outport," NQ 69,4 (1973), 17-28.

55Nemec, 'Trepassey/7 20-22.

ChapterS 1J. Dexter, "Estimates of Population in the American Colonies,"

Proceedings of the Amalean Antiquarian Society, N.S., vol. 5 (1889), 22-50. 2Ibid.

Handcock, "English Migration to Newfoundland," in Mannion, ed., The Peopling of Newfoundland (Toronto: 1977), 15-44.

4CO194/45. Statistics. 5CO1 /41. Census of 1677. 6CO194 returns; Handcock, "English Migration," 19. 7Ibid.

290



8CO194/16, n. 35. Palliser, Naval Governor, 1764-68, recognized that settlement could not be prevented. He nevertheless took measures to re-establish the fishery to English control and to limit winter population. See Prowse, History of Newfoundland, 318-22.

9J. Banks, Journal of a Voyage to Newfoundland," (1766). 10CO194 returns; Handcock, "English Migration," 19. 11BT98/l-3 and PRO 5. Thirty-one seamen on Dartmouth ships,

1770-76, were native-born Newfoundlanders.

e.gv CO199/18 "occupiers and proprietators of fishing rooms" in Conception Bay.

13PANL," Ledgers of John Slade & Co., Fogo, 1782-92 "(P7/A6), contain examples.

14See, e.g., Nemec, "Trepassey," 23. 15CO 1/35, CO 1/38, CO 1/41, and CO 194/4 censuses. 16PRO; will of Anthony Varder of Bristol, 1714. 17Ibid., wills of Richard Mullens, 1762; Anne Mullens, 1765. 18Ibid., will of Sarah Richards, 1772. 19Ibid., will of Joseph Bower Jr., 1793. 20CO194 returns. 21Ibid. 1764 winter returns for "Harbour Britain, Grand Bank and

Fortune" include eighteen mistresses, two female servants, and twenty-one children.

22G. Cartwright, A Journal of Transactions and Events... on the Coast of Labrador, 3 vols. (Newark 1792); see alsoTownsend, ed., Captain Cartwright and His Labrador Journal (Boston: 1911); DCB, G.M. Story, "George Cartwright," V (Toronto: 1983), 165-67.

23PANL, Trinity (St. PauTs) Parish Registers.

24GBHC, "First Report" (1793), 405. Testimony of Peter Ougier. ^See, e.g., Matthews, "A History of the West of England," and Head,

Eighteenth Century, 80 and Figure 52. 26For

fu r the r discussion on the ' index of residency' see Handcock/'English Migration/' 19-20.

27 Clarke, Population Geography (Pergamon: 1972), 146.

28Ibid., 154. 29RA. Thornton, 'The Demographic and Mercantile Bases," covers

the settling process in the Strait of BeÚe Isle. W.E. Cormack, "A Journey," (1822), noted only a few families living between Port aux Basques and Fortune Bay.

o n

L.A. Anspach, A History of the Island of Newfoundland (London: 1819). 31Head, Eighteenth Century, 13-14.

291



32Clarke, Population Geography, 127-28. 33Head, Eighteenth Century,, 196-201. Handcock, "Ph.D. thesis," n. 54,

p. 143. ^See discussion in J.C Hudson, "Migration to an American Frontier/'

AAAG, 66,1976,242-65. 35Head, Eighteenth Century, 100-32. 36Ibidv 218-20. 37CSPC, 1675, no. 628,259-60. 38SPG B6/160, November 9,1764. Letter of Rev. James Balfour. 39CO199/18, "Plantations Book of Conceptíon Bay," 1804-07. 40CO 1/35 (1675); CO 1/38 (1676); CO 1/41 (1677). Ñames include

Batten, Butler, Butt, Davis, Garland, King, Parsons, and Pynn. Horton, Palmer, Terry, and Webb also occur in 1805 and were in the bay 1675-77 but are not recorded 1706-10. Earle is another súmame in the bay in the 1690s.

41GBHC, " Report/' Wm. Newman's testimony, 394. 42L P. Anspach, History, 429 passim. 43Additional extended patrilines (four to nine units) in 1805, together

with their main settlements, include Cupids (formerly Cuper's Cove): Anthony1, La Dros1 (Le Drews); Brigus: Antle, Percey, and Roberts; Port de Grave: Andrews, Batten, Morgan, Porter, Snow, Taylor, and Warford; Bay Roberts: Badcock, Bradbury, Delaney2, and Snow; Harbour Grace: Pynn, Sheppard; Carbonear: Ash, HoweÚ, and Pike; Crocker's Cove: Dean, Kennedy2; Bread and Cheese (in Spaniard's Bay): Gosse, Smith; Devil's Cove: English2; Broad Cove: King. Additional surnames of four to nine units but distributed in more than one settlement included Baker, Barrett, 2 2 2 2 Bishop, Bryan , Bussey, Churchill, Colé, Connell, Costelloe , Dalton , Delaney2, Earle, Fowlow, Garland, Harvey, Hickey2, Hussev, Janes, Jones, Johnson, Keating2, Kelly2, Marshall, Martin, Mahony , McCarthy2, McDonald2, Mulcahy2, Mullowney2, Murphy2 Noel, Noseworthy, Pedcüe, Picco1, Power2, Richards, Sauires, Sullivan , Stevens, Thistle, Tucker, Walsh , Wells, and Whealon (1 denotes Channel Islander; 2 Irish; the balance were English).

44PANL, "An account of Inhabitants residing in the Harbour and District of St. John's 1794-95" (ffle no. 700.8).

45C0194/3, 439 a(1705), "Inhabitants of St. John's..." petítions; CO 194/3,470 (1706), "List of Inhabitants of St. John's and Petty Harbour"; CO 194/4,10 (1706) "traders and inhabitants of St. John's places adjacent...," and CO 194/4,253-6, Census of 1708.

46CO 194/4, Census 1708 includes John Chafe of Petty Harbour and John Earle of Portugal Cove.

47Some Bonavista Bay nomenclature which appears to be linked with seventeenth-century settlers include Bayley's Cove (John Bayly—Bonavista 1675); Knight's Cove (John Knight—Bonavista 1675);

292



Newman's Cove, Sound, and Point (Robert/Wm. 1675); Shambler's Cove (James 1675/Samuel 1708); Tilley's Head, Hill, and Point (Wm. 1675/Richard 1708); King's Cove (John/Wm. 1708); Pitt's Soimd Island, Sound Reach, and Pond (John 1675); Keat's Island (John 1675); Buckley's Cove, Point, and Cove Pond (John 1675); Pinchard's Island (John 1681); Traverse Brook (Ralph 1681). One local tradition suggests Greenspond derived from two early settlers (Green and Pond).

48CO194 returns. 49A.G. Macpherson, "A Modal Sequence in the Peopling of Central

Bonavista Bay, 1676-1857," in Mannion, ed., The Peopling of Newfoundland (Toronto, 1977), concluded that the majority of snmames up to 1857 were established between 1810 and 1836.

50PANL, "Mastrs of famalys ñames" 1753 in GN/5/4B Court Records 1753-74; "Census Returns Irinity Bay Both Sides 1800-1." Ms.

51Head, Eighteenth Century, 167, fig. 7.7. Lañe was Capt. James Cook's surveying assistant in charting the coast of Newfoundland, 1762-67. In 1768 Lañe succeeded Cook to complete the mapping of Placentia Bay, parts of the east coast, and southern Labrador. See W. Whiteley, James Cook in Newfoundland 1762-1767 (St. John's: 1975), 22-23.

52CO 199/18. Number of fishing rooms by settlement Bay de Verde 57; Harbour Main 48; Harbour Grace North 113; Harbour Grace South 14; Carbonear 103; Cupids 41; Bay Roberts 61; Port de Grave 123; Brigus 47; Western Bay 56; Bryanf s Cove 41.

c o

CO 194/18, Length of tenure and period occupied, percentages based upon 1072 properties:

Length of Tenure (Years) Period Occupied Percentage 0-5 years 1800-05 29.8 6-10 years 1795-99 14.6 11-15 years 1790-94 10.0 16-20 years 1785-89 10.7 21-25 years 1780-84 9.5 26-35 years 1770-79 12.9 36-45 years 1700-09 7.3 over 45 years pre-1760 5.2

54Head, Eighteenth Century, 181-87 and Table 7.10. 55BT 6 87/84 (1785) shows the chief merchants of Conception Bay as

follows: Carbonear—John and Young Green; Mr. Pike of Poole; Harbour Grace—Clements, Danson, and Thomey of Bristol; Bay Roberts—Newman and Roope of Dartmouth; "several merchants of Jersey and Guernsey."

56CO199/18. Brigus (G. & j: Kemp of Poole), Bay Roberts (Kemps and Newman), and Cupids (Pinsent and Newman) were the main local suppliers.

57GBHC, "First Report," (1793), 7.

293



58The English Pilot (1689), 16, rated Trinity "the best and largest Harbour in all the Land...."

59Ibid., 15-17. 60CSPC, 1702, no. 5.29; 1703, no. 158; 1705, no. 1220. Petitions from

Poole. 61W.G. Handcock, The Origin and Development of Trinity up to 1900 (St.

John's: 1981). 62CO194/30,121. 63Philip E.L. Smith, "In Winter Quarters," Newfoundland Studies 3 ,1

(1987),l-36, provides a very full treatment of transhumance in Newfoundland.

^CO194/45,23. See also Head, Eighteenth Century, 221-23. é5Head, Eighteenth Century, 223, esp. table 10.5. 66CO 194/45,27-8. 67W.A. Black, 'The Labrador Floater Codfishery," AAAG 50 (3),

267-93, for seal fishery; also see C. W. Sanger, "Evolution of Seaüng," 145-50.

Chapter6 !PANL, "Mastrs of famalys nams" 1753 in Court Records, and

"Census Returns Trinity Bay Both Sides 1800-1." The 1753 source gives ñames of family heads, and the number of "mistresses of famaly, wooman sarvants, male children, femal children, English men sarvants, Irishmen sarvants, boats kept...." The 1801 source specifies 'Ñames of Occupiers' of houses and fishing rooms, "proprietators, of property, marital status of occupiers, numbers in family (men, women, children, boys, girls, servants or dieters)...."

2Ibid., Church of England Parish Registers (St. PauTs). The main limitations of the parish records are their accuracy and completeness. Early missionaries made irregular visits to most settlements in Trinity Bay and performed baptisms and marriages which are entered in the Trinity registers. Frequently couples wishing to marry or have children baptized carne to Trinity. Families in English Harbour, Salmón Cove, and Bonaventure had access to Trinity year-round, and most of those dying in these places were interred at Trinity. In the absence of resident clergy, laymen kept the burial registers and recorded prívate marriages and lay baptisms.

3Ihid./ Court Records 1753-74; 1775-1821, GN/5/4B. 4DRO, "Lester Diaries," Papers of the Lester and Garland families,

D365. 5See, e.g., PRO wills of Wm. Green, Wimborne, Dorset (Pinfold 300,

1754); B. Lester of Poole (Kenyon 123,1802); S. Mifflin of Poole (Lynch 434, 1760); T. Warden of Cranborne, Dorset (Simpson 489, 1764); W. White, Wimborne, Dorset (Quidall 84,1766); J. White of Poole (Tevor 362) 1771;

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John and Mary Sweet (Fountain 402,1792); S. White of Poole (Exeter 285, 1797).

6Six died in the period 1753-59; 11 in the 1760s; six in the 1770s; one in 1785; and two in the 1790s. The eldest surviving were Wm. Powell (1773, ninety-one years oíd); Jonah Newell (1799, seventy-one years); Benjamin Taverner (1793, eighty years); and Geo. Morley (1766, eighty-four years).

7SPG, B6,172, Nov. 5,1767. ^ i d . , 190 October 10,1771. 9Ibid., C/CAN/PRE 38a. 10CO 194/4, "Census 1708" ñames two planters at English Harbour,

James Pottle and James Goodridge. An extant headstone in Trinity records James Pottle, native of Christchurch, Hampshire.

11'Native-born' status was assigned to each (1801) family head for whom a previous baptism was recorded or for whom an earlier patriline existed (in the 1753 census, Lester Diary or Court Records). Immigrant' status was given to an individual whose external origin (Dorset, etc.) was specified in the source materials or for whom no previous records established a probable native patriline.

12 If married couples were wed in Trinity, the same criteria as in note

11 was applied to the female spouse. If a family unit was documented only by having children baptized prior to the 1801 census, the female spouse was assumed to be an immigrant. Single-parent families (widowers, widows, etc.) were classifíed as a complete unit.

13Mal e-female numbers in local marriages were: Surtíame Male Female Batstone 1 10 Barrett 0 5 Bames 3 11 Codd 0 3 De Grish 0 3 Gillett 1 3 Green 2 3 Goldsworthy 1 3 Hiscock 2 4 Ivany 6 15 Jones 2 4 Jeans 0 3 Keats 1 3 Pottle 1 6 Pinhorn 3 5 Parro tt 1 3 Sooley 1 5 Taverner 2 7 Verge 0 5 Waterman 3 6

14Head, Eighteenth Century,, 169-71 and table 7.9.

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15PANL, "Court Records, 1753-74/' GN/5/4B, October 1, 1766, Proclama tion of John Cartwright, Surrogate, to Govemor Palliser.

16SPG, B6,176 (1767), 174 (1768). 17Ibid., 190 (1771). 18Ibid., Missionary Reports 1783-91,1792-1802. 19PANL, King's Cove (Román Catholic) Marriages, 1815-1855. 20CNS, Letter of John Hoskins to Rev. Charles Wesley 1781. Also P.

Neary and P. O'Flaherty, eds., By Great Waters (Toronto: 1974), 57-60. 21PRO, Poole Protestant Dissenter Registers: Presbyterian 1760-1837

and Independent 1741-1801. ^ O F L , Dorset and Hampshire Marriage (Digest) 1658-1837. 23SPG, B6,185, November 13,1770. 24Ibid., 158, October 23,1764. 25Ibid., 172, November 5,1767. 26Ibid., 176, October 29,1768. 27Ibid., 200, October 27,1774. 28SPG, C/CAN/PRE 38b, October 15,1772. OQ

E. Wix, Six Months of a Newfoundland Missionary4s Journal (London: 1836); Bishop Feild's Joumals, Church in the Colonies, No. X (London: 1846); and J. B. Jukes, Excursions in and about Newfoundland (London: 1842).

30Hudson, "Migration," 260-61. 31SPG, B6, October 24,1765. 32Philip EX. Smith, "In Winter Quarters," Newfoundland Studies 3 ,1

(1987),l-36. -JO

GBHC, Report on Newfoimdland Trade 1817, Testimony of George Garland, 4.

^ i d . , ^ 35W.E. Cormack, "Narrative of a Journey Across the Island of

Newfoundland in 1822," in Howley, The Beothucks, 133. G.M. Sider, Culture and Class in Anthropology and History

(Cambridge, 1986). 37

Persons denoted by the title 'Mr/, 'planter', 'boatkeeper', or 'Sir/ 38Denoted by 'wife of', 'spouse to', 'relict of', or 'widow of'. 39In the baptism record 1763-1800 there are 120 entries in which only

the mother's ñame is given or in which the mother and 'reputed' father have different surnames.

40Patricia A. Thomton, "Newfoundland's Frontier Demo- graphic Experience. The World We Have Not Lost," Newfoundland Studies 1,2 (1985), 153-54,156, tables 1A and IB.

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41This period was selected since the marriage registers are more detailed than previously in spedfying ñames of parents of the native-born spouses. Also the baptismal records from 1791 gave both birth and baptismal dates. The age at marriage was computed only for individuáis for whom a birth date could be found.

42E.A. Wrigley, 'Tamily Limitation in Pre-Industrial England," The Economic History Review, 2d. ser. 19 (1966): 87-93. For the parish of Colyton, Devon, Wrigley determined for the period 1720-1769 the age of first marriage for males 25.7 years and for females 26.8. Thornton's figures for the Strait of Belle Isle 1850-1879 were 26 years and 22.1 years respectively.

Chapter 7 1W. Zelinsky, The Cultural Geography ofthe United States (Prentice-Hall:

1973), 5. o

Philip Tocque, Newfoundland as it was and it is in 1877 (Toronto: 1878), 366.

o

See bibliography for parish registers and other sources scanned. Economic depression in the West of England during the eighteenth

and nineteenth centuries is treated in Taylor (1966), de L. Mann (1971), Body (1965), and Hoskins (1935).

5NMM: GRV/106. G. Davis, Poole, to James Cook, 1764 (dted in Head, Eighteenth Century, p. 61, n.8.

^ANL. Examples occur in the registers of Greenspond (1815-), Fogo-Twillingate (1816-24), also in baptism performed by Bishop Field in western and northern Newfoundland 1849-50.

Chapter 8 1PRO, BT 6; 87/84. List of traders in Newfoundland 1785; BT6; 87/2

Petition of Dartmouth Merchants 1784. 2K. Matthews, "The West Country Merchants in Newfound- land,"

Newfoundland Historical Society Lecture (1968) ^ a r g a r e t A. Chang, Newfoundland in Transition: The Newfoundland

Trade and Robert Newman and Company 1780-1805, M.A. thesis, (Memorial University, 1974).

^ i d . , 64-65. 5PANL, "Newman-Hunt Papers," 1780-96 and 1796-1806, indudes

ledgers and letter books of Robert Newman and Co. ^ . J . Trump, Westcountry Harbour (Teignmouth: 1976), 71-73. 7Clarke, "The Estuarine Ports," 1056,1189,1191. ^Matthews, "West Country Merchants," 10-12. 9PRO, BT 98/1-3 Muster Rolls, Dartmouth 1770-76 and BT 98/5

Muster Rolls, 1788. The author gratefully acknowledges pennission of the

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© , 2009 W. Gordon Handcock

late Dr. Keith Matthews to use his transcript compilations of seamen by parish.

10Ibid., BT 167/38-40 "Exeter Register of Seamen's Sixpences 1800-1837"; also in MHA: on microfilm.

11Migration intensities were calculated by two methods: the number of men by parish as a proportion of the total seafaring population, and the number of men by origin expressed as a proportion of its local population (using the 1801 census).

121770-76 to 1788 migration intensity ratios, n. 11 (first method) were for Dartmouth 17.0: 17.7; for Brixham 9.2:10; and for Newton Abbot 6.6: 7.4. The only other place supplying over 5 percent in either period was Paignton (5.2: 5.1).

13The terminology—core, domain, sphere, outlier—in this section is adapted from the general model for culture areas developed by Meinig: 1965, 191-220. Core area refers to the centralized zone of migratory concentration (over five persons per 100 population); the domain includes parishes (2-5 percent) of less intense migration; the sphere includes parishes (under 2 percent) but contiguous to the domain or core; outliers refer to spatially detached parishes with low migration intensities.

14In 1770-76,243 seamen were Dartmouth born and residing locally but 361 seamen were identified as Dartmouth residents. Three seamen had left Dartmouth to reside elsewhere but the port had gained 121 seamen from in-migrants.

1SThe numbers of mariners of non-Devon origin were: Dorset 13, Somerset 3, Hampshire 7, Ireland 7, Newfoundland 31, Channel Islands 7, Cornwall 11, London 3, and Wales 3.

16Clarke, 'The Estuarine Ports," 928-29; Handcock, "Ph.D. thesis," 213, n. 20.

17 PRO, BT 167/38-40. These papers indude crew lists of men on each

vessel, master's ñame, of what place (registry), and whence arrived. The 1800 lists begin with ship arrivals from June 24, 1800. Crew lists were transcribed for some 200 ships in-bound to Teignmouth up to the end of 1801 and sorted alphabetically by ñame and parish. A similar sorting was made for all vessels arriving at Teignmouth from Newfoundland for the period 1800-15.

18Clarke, 'The Estuarine Ports," 1188,1193-97. 19CNS, D'Alberti Transcripts, MUN. Letter from Teignmouth dated

November 11,1804. 20Ibid., December 24,1804. Gower to Admiralty. 21

Stokeinteignhead Parish Registers 1538-1838, transcripts in Devon and Cornwall Record Society, Exeter City Library, Devon.

^ " I n this yeare about August died Thomas Kirton alias Lake in his Newfo imdland voiage." In 1604, another parishioner, John

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© , 2009 W. Gordon Handcock

Sellman, "was drowned in the ptes of Newfoundland about this time of the year" (Apiil), and in 1606 a similar fate befell 'Thomas Kelbe" w h o "died this yeare as he was sailing toward Newfoimdland about April in the beginning of ther Voiage."

^Anderson, Book of Examinations, 16. 24See n. 21 above. ^CO1/46,811. 26//Dartmouth Muster Rolls/' n. 9 above. In 1770-76 Dartmouth

captains hailing from Stokeinteignhead included Wm. Mortimore, Thomas Payne, and John Wilkings; in 1788 they were Joseph Drew, John Sparke, Isaac Sparke, and Thomas Voysey.

27"Exeter Register," n. 10 above. 28PANL, Anglican Cathedral Registers, St. John's, 1752-1888. 29

The technique involved summing the numbers of seamen for Dartmouth 1788 and Newfoundland seamen of Teignmouth 1800-15 and expressing the numbers by parish of origin as a proportion of a total migrating population. The composite index derived allows comparison with data origins from Newfoundland parish register sources.

30CSP Dom. Charles I, CCV11, 47 cited in Oppenheim, The Maritime History ofDeuon (1968), 37.

OI

Dean Milles Manuscript, Parochial Retums. The origináis are deposited in the Bodlein Library, Oxford, from which the author obtained a microfilm copy. The returns contain answers to a questionnaire sent to local clergy by Jeremiah Milles, preceptor of Exeter Cathedral. Where documented the replies are dated between 1747 and 1756.

32D.M. Stirling, History of Newton Abbot (Newton Abbot 1830), 63. 33J.M. Murray, ed., The Newfoundland Journal of Aaron Thomas

(Longmans: 1968), 33,173. 34J. Greig, ed., The Farington Diary, vol. V, 1795-1821 (London: 1925),

259. 35Prowse, History of Newfoundland, 298. 36Register of Ships 1786-1834, Custom's House, Exeter. 37DVRO, Combeinteignhead Parish Register (Bishop's Transcripts). 38Ibid., February 10,1766, marriage of Samuel Bulley of Kingkerswell

and Joanna Wood. 39"Register of Ships/' February 2,1788. 40EDRO; 'Town Customs Account Book," 1748-49. 41DCB; K. Matthews, "Samuel Bulley," voL 5 (Toronto: 1983), 119-20. 42"Registerof Ships," 1786-1834. 43Ibid. uD'Alberti Transcripts, October 29,1794.

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45Ibidv September 16,1800. 46DVRO, "Land Tax Assessments, Combintinhead/' 1780-1831. 47DVRO, St. Nicholas Parish Registers, 1528A. 48Ibidv "Land Tax Assessments, St. Nicholas PaIish/, 1780-1836. 49EDRO, "Town Customs." 5 a Ihe Register of Ships 1786-1837 identifies 111 individual shipowners

resident in St. Nicholas. In rank order (by frequency of total references) were the surnames of Row (62), Harvey (60), Bulley (54), Codner (51), Boden (34), Clapp (34), Wilking (28), Fox (26), Whiteway (25), Rendell (21). Surnames occurring ten to twenty times in the ships' registers included Bennett, Dunley, Drew, and Howard.

51DVRO, ñames and dates from St. Nicholas marriage registers, 1528A.

52DCB, W.G. Handcock, "Samuel Codner," vol. 8 (Toronto: 1986). 53"Register of Ships," 1786-1834. 54DVRO, "TheFoxPapers." 55Ibidv "St. Nicholas Parish Registers." 56"Register of Ships," n. 36 above. 57Ibid. 58DVRO, "The Fox Papers." 59Ibid., Letter to Richard Fogarty, January 8,1817. 60PANL. See Newfoundland Mercantile Journal: October 12, 1816,

advertisements placed by John and Robert Brine; Thomas Row; Thos. Bulley and Co.; Samuel Codner and Co.; Stephen Harvey and Co.; other notices were placed October 9, 1816, by Patrick Morris, a Waterford-St. John's merchant, and October 26 by Cunningham, Bell and Co., a Scottish-St. John's fírm, all advising Ir¿h passengers to settle their travel obhgations.

61PANL; Letter Books Colonial Secretaiy's Office, 21 (1809-11),157; 22 (1811-12), 24,297. These papers list ships, captains, numbers of passengers (men, women, and children), disembarking in St. John's.

62CO194/71, pt. 2, "A List of Passenger Vessels and Passengers... at St John's," May 5-7,1825.

63CO194 returns. ^ A N L ; see RC. St. John's Basílica, Marriages 1793-1836, P8/A/15. 65CO194 returns. 66CO194/21,48. 67Whether 'island'-based or 'British'-based refers to their outfitting,

or wintering, area. In 1806 an Exeter custom's collector commenting on Teignmouth's Newfoundland trade noted that "of the vessels engaged therein very few return to Teignmouth, the small craft... being laid up in

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Newfoundland... the large vessels proceeding... to France, Spain, Portugal and the Mediterranean with Irish...." Custom's House Letter book, Exeter, 1806:171 cited in Clarke: 1956,1191.

68PANL; Newman's Letter Books: see June 29,1794, letter to agent at St. Lawrence—"if war continúes we will have most of your Bank Crews remain the Winter...."

69Handcock, "Samuel Codner," in DCB. 70EDRO; Devonshire Families Resident Abroad: 1901, 3 vols. This

collection contains letters addressed to Sir Roper Lethbridge 1901 in response to newspaper advertisements requesting descendants of Devon emigrants to write family histories. See nos. 18, 58, 86,136,147,164,173, 198,269—replies from descendants of Devon-Newfoundland emigrants.

71 Trump, Westcountry Harbour, 66.

72Ibid., 64-65.

73Prowse, History of Newfoundland, 297-98.

Chapter9 1 There are no extant muster rolls or crew lists of mariners for the

eighteenth and early riineteenth centuries giving places of birth and residence for Poole ships in the Newfoimdland trade as we possess for Dartmouth and Teignmouth.

2See, e.g., E.F.J. Mathews, "Econorrdc History of Poole 1756- 1815," Ph.D. thesis, (University of London, 1958); F.W. Mathews, "Poole and Newfoundland," The Poole and Parkstone Standard, (1936); B.C. Short, Poole the Romance of Its Later History (London: 1932); J. Sydenham, The History of the Town and County of Poole (Poole: 1839); VCH Dorset, vol. 2,1908.

Mathews, "Economic Histoiy," 53-76. 4VCH Dorset, 357. ^ i d . , 344-53,360-62.

"Lester Diaries" in records of the Lester and Garland families, D365.

7Ibid., Isaac Lester, April 4,1769, and February 2,1776. Brixey, Porter, and Bishop were sea captains.

^ i d . , March 20,1776. 9Ibid., April 22,1769; also Februaiy 2,1771, "Whittle here with two

boys he met on the road." 10rbid., March 3,1773. "ibid., March 3,1775. 12Ibid., April 5,1771. 13Ibid.

, March 5,1776. Slade lived next door to Lester in Thames Street, Poole. 14Ibid., April 4,1771.

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March 10, 1769, "some of our Banker people run away... obliged to get more in their room;" March 20,1770, "two of our people in Wimborné left behind;" April 5,1771, . .got some of the men and put one in Bridewell;" and February 2,1775, "two of my boys ran away... sent them to Bridewell."

16PANL, "Slade ledgers, Fogo/' 17Isaac Lester: February 22,1768, "sent John Barry Westward to ship

men at Torr Key"; March 7, 1765, "John Barry carne from West Country today about shipping men"; February 3,1771, "Geo. Woollen come here this evening from the West getting men"; and Benjamín Lester: March 19, 1788, "Capt. Pudner carne up from West Country"; March 1,1786, "ships ready... waits for the West Country men"; March 3,1786, "Caleb Wooland carne up with West Country men... got them all on board...." Other Poole merchants—White, Jeffrey, and Street, Spurrier—also used Devonshire banker fishermen. See Isaac Lester, February 3,1771.

18G.A. Body, "The Administration of the Poor Laws in Dorset 1760-1834 with Special Reference to Agrarian Distress" Ph.D. thesis, (Southampton, 1965.)

19DRO; see Index of apprenticeships. One of the more complete

collections exists for Blandford Forum, formerly part of Borough Records, Town Clerk's Office, Blandford Forum, now in Dorset Record Office. The main trades into which boys were bound were tailoring, carpentry, shoemaking, and maritime trades. In Sherbome P155/OV9, DRO, among ninety-two male indentures forty-six were bound out to mariners, but no other trade took more than six. These were shoemakers and husbandry. Smaller numbers became cloth workers, chimney sweeps, innkeeper servants, etc. Mathews (1958: 28) notes that of sixty-five Poole boys (1751-80) twenty-five became sailors; nine cordwainers; thirteen innkeepers; five hairdressers; and one each a baker, shipwright, blacksmith, basketmaker, and gardener. Girls in Poole and throughout Dorset were mostly apprenticed as domestics, a trade known as 'housewifery7.

2ftrhe agr icul tura l theme and the role of fa rming in the

socio-economic life of the county are central themes in most published histories and academic studies of Dorsetshire. See especially Taylon 1970, Bettey: 1974, VCH: 1908; Kerr, 1968; and Kerr: 1956-62. Defoe's tour through Dorset in the 1720s, Claridge (1793), and Stevenson (1815) offer detailed reports on agriculture in Dorsetshire by contemporary observers. See also various reports of Parliamentary committees on agricultural themes: agricultural distress July 8,1820, minutes of evidence of the committees on agricultural depression (1820), labourers' wages (1824), the state of agriculture (1837), agricultural customs (1848), the employment of women and children in agriculture (1843), published in British Parliamentary Papers (BPP) series on 'Agriculture' (vol. 1-8), Irish University Press, and the BPP series on the Toor Law7, especially Dorsetshire section, e.g., "Third Report of D.O.P. Okeden," 1834 (vol. 8). See also Okeden: 1930 and Endacott 1938.

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21Body, "The Administration," 36-41. 22B. Kerr, Bound to the Soil (London: 1968), 107. 23BPP, Okeden, "Appendix to First Report from the Commissioner on

the Poor Laws," 16A, 1834. 24DRO, P155/OV9. 25CSPC, 1714, n. 126, 56-57. Capt. Wm. Cleeves was fishing admiral

in St. Pierre in 1714. 26DRO,P155/OV9. 27PANL, 'Trinity Parish Registers—St. Paul's" and Census of Trinity

Bay 1800-01. 28DRO, P204/OV97 and PANL, Register of Fishing Rooms, Bonavista

Bay. 29

Ibid., will of James Oakley, surgeon, 1843. 30Ibid., P204/OV 1-8. 31Ibid., P32/OV3,1699-1793. 32Ibid., P186/OV2,1741-70. 33See Hutchins (1870, 236) for a copy of Williams' will; DRO,

"Williams and other charity accounts 1637-1750" contain indentures. See also DRO, P157/CW1, 1722-1848, for Sturminster Newton boys bound under Williams' charity.

^ A N L , "Slade Ledgers." 35Poor Law documents which usually give the place of birth,

geographical movements, employment, and other personal details summoned before magistrates who attempted to determine the legal place of residence under the Acts of Settlement. For Acts of Settlement see Rose, 1971, 28-30. While over 2000 such documents are deposited in the Dorset Record Office (DRO), only about eighty (less than 4 percent) involved persons with a Newfoundland experience.

^ R O , P204/OV91,1810. 37Ibid., 1763. 38Ibid., P58/OV89,1789. 39Ibid., P22/OV21,1779. 40Ibid., P44/OV4,1809. 41Ibid., P34/OV7,1784. 42Ibid., P204/OV91,1758. 43PANL, Trinity Register and Census of Trinity Bay 1800-01. 44DRO, P227/OV11,1789. 45Ibid., 1790. 46Ibid., 1789. 47PANL, "Slade Ledgers/' DRO, P227/OV7, Removal Orders.

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48HRO, Ringwood Parish Register; PRO, will of Joseph Skeffington of Bonavista (58 Machen), 1789.

49PRO, will of Samson Mifflin, Poole/Newfoundland (434 Lynch), 1760.

50Ibid., will of Joseph White (362 Trevor), 1771; will of Robert Randell, sailmaker, Poole (308 Seymour), 1745; Joseph Randell the eider of Poole, Gent. (78 Secher), 1767; James Randell of Poole, mariner (134 Haseltine), 1804; and William Randell of Poole, carpenter (153 Effingham), 1817.

51PANL, "Register of Fishing Rooms," 1806. 52PANL, "Trinity Register," July 21, 1793, Stephen Knight of

Shaftesbury, Dorset (sailor), to Ann March of Oíd Perlican; PRO, will of Stephen Knight, Shaftesbury/Newfoimdland (662 Bridport), 1814. Knight left his Oíd Perlican properties to his kinsfolk, the Marchs.

53PR O, will of Hezekiah Guy, Süimünster/Newfoundland (297 Lushington), 1807. PANL, accounts of Hezekiah Guy occur in Slade Ledgers, 1783-1806. He is also mentioned heading a salmon-sealing crew on the coast of Labrador by George Cartwright in 1770-71. In 1792 G.C. Pulling in (BM Manuscript ADD 38, 352) mentions "Isakiah [sic] Guy a staunch Planter who resides at Twillingate [sic]...." Robert Guy, Hezekiah's brother, also settled in Notre Dame Bay, and the two are the probable progenitors of the Guys in that district today.

54The illegitimate son of William Salmón by Jane Warren. 55DRO; occasionally, wills and other legal documents cite a relative

or heir living in Newfoundland. In 1671 George Talbot appeared at Swanage Manorial court for "his son being in Newfoundland." D37/4. Richard French of Great Canford, Labourer, 1767, willed land to his "second son Richard French, now in Newfoundland." See other miscellaneous references in file on Newfoundland, DRO.

56PRO; census of Great Britain 1851 and 1861. Returns for Dorset and Hampshire are on microfilm. A copy of Dorset returns is held also by the reference section, Dorset County Library, Dorchester, Dorset

The idea of 'settlement', that each person belonged to some particular parish, was brought into the poor-law system in 1662 (13 and 14 ch. 11, cl2). The effect of this Act was to make every person who moved outside his/her home parish liable to be forcábly returned there, unless a new 'settlement7 could be gained elsewhere. For further details see Rose: 1971, 28-30, and for the appiication of the law in Dorset, see Body: 1965, 116-36.

58DRO, P227, Removal Orders. Those extant for St. James Parish, Poole, 1740-1801, include seventy-one removal orders involving 157 persons sent from other parishes to St. James and 122 remováis affecting 494 persons from Poole.

59See Borough and County of the Town of Poole, Calendar of Local Archives, Poole Central Library, vol. 2 (1968) includes several ordered

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transportatíons to Newfoundland and summaries of petty civil disputes among Poole merchants, seamen, and servants. See also vol. 3 (1970) and vols. 4 and 5 (1972) for civil disputes, debts, etc., many involving Newfoundland migrants. A more general statement of the effect of the fishery on social conditions in Poole is provided by the ruling of the court in the case of Fryer, Gosse, and Park versus the Parish of St. James, Poole, reported in the Dorset County Chronicle and Somersetshire Gazette August 12, 1824. On the grounds that they (the partners and co-partners) were not inhabitants of the parish, it was argued that the firm should not be rated for the relief of the poor. The solicitor for the parish maintained that "great numbers of paupers" became chargeable to the parish on account of the shipping interest and that "surely it ought to contribute something towards their maintenance" when it increased the amount of the Poor Rates so much. The court agreed and confirmed the rate.

60See, e.g., PANL, "Slade Ledgers," and DVRO, 'The Fox Papers." 61Daniel Defoe,ATour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724-6)

(Penguin: 1971), 205-206. 62D. Taylor, The History of Christchurch (Lymington: 1954), 16-17.

Smuggling was an activity associated wi th all of the English-Newfoundland ports, particularly in items such as rum, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and molasses, which Newfoundland fishery and supply ships purchased from their contacts with New England and the West Indies. The West Indies was also a market for Newfoundland dried codfish. Other smuggling involved spirits and wines from the fish markets of Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean. Mathews (1958: 96-122) regarded "the smuggling trade important enough to include it as a part of his economic history of Poole."

Anderson, Book of Examinations. 64Taylor, History of Christchurch, 148. 65See DRO, "Lester-Garland Papers," D365, for references to Read;

also PANL,"Register of Fishing Rooms, Bonavista Bay, 1806." ^Some details of the trade of Sleat and Read are contained in DRO,

Poole Rate Books, P227 CW4-5, OV5; Poole Port Books 1813-19, abstracts of inward and outward shipping, documents possessed by the late Dr. E.F.J. Mathews, Poole, and Outward Clearance Book, Trinity Customs 1809-16, Maritime History Archive, MUN.

67DCB, W.G. Handcock, 'John Peyton," vol. VI (Toronto: 1987), 580-81. 68F.W. Rowe, Extinction: The Beothucks of Newfoundland (Scarborough:

1977), 62-70, 'The Peyton Expedition" See also Howley, "TheRedlndians," 1915, and PANL, "Slade Ledgers," for attacks of the Peytons.

69PANL, Harbour Grace Standard, 1879, obituary of John Peyton Jr. Other family details in DRO, P227, Poole Parish Registers, and P204, Wimborne Minster Registers.

70DRO, "Lester Diaries" (Isaac), D365.

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71 PANL, "Slade Ledgers" from bilis of exchange and servants' accounts.

72See Letter Book of Ledgard, Gosse and Chancey 1807-11, National Maritime Museum, London. This was the original ñame of the firm.

73DRO, Poole Rate Books, P227, CW4-5, OV5. 74CO194/4,458-67. 75CO1/35,38,41, and CO194/3; PANL, Trinity Parish Registers. 76DRO, "Lester Diaries," D365. 7 7

Mr. Jude James, Lymington, pers. comm., from notes abstracted from the census or register compiled by Rev. Henry Comyn, cúrate of Boldre, Hampshire, 1811-17. The boys who went to Newfoundland were surnamed: Keeping, Hampton, Gale, Heath, Hopkins, White, Hervey, Smith, Crouch, Gregory, and Chase [sic].

78J. Claridge, General View of Agriculture of the County of Dorset (London: 1793), 40.

79Sir Peter Thomson's joumal 1760-64. The original of this diary is in possession of Mr. H.F. V. Johnstone, Poole, who kindly permitted the author to xerox a copy. For details of Peter Thompson's career see Beamish, et al., 1976, 55-62.

80See PRO, will of Netlam Tory, Wimborne Minster, merchant (Bishop 311,1790). Torys were also related to the Millers of Poole and Wimborne. Hariy Miller was a furrier-salmonier in Notre Dame Bay and a partner with John Peyton.

81DRO, "Lester Diaries," and PANL, "Slade Ledgers" and "Newman-Hunt Papers."

82Some of the Slades also resided in Wareham. See PRO, will of James Slade (John's brother) of Wareham, malster and brewer (Collins 220) 1780. John Slade took several of his brothers' children into the Newfoundland trade. Other Newfoundland merchants from the Wareham-Isle of Purbeck district included the Hydes of Ame and the Garlands of East Lulworth.

83DetaiIs of Spratt's career are found in DRO, "Lester Diaries," Placentia Court Records (3 vols., 1757-1802); and Letter Book of Saunders and Sweetman (vol. 1, 1788-1804), Arts and Culture Centre Library, St. John's, Newfoundland. Spratt was Justice of the Peace in Placentia 1757.

^BTÓ, 87/84 January 24,1785. o c

Sherbome Mercury, January 17,1791, Dorchester Library, Dorchester, Dorset.

86DRO, "Lester Diaries" (Benjamin), January 31,1791, "Mr. Garland bought Sam Spratts rooms £2660."

87 VCH (Dorset), vol. 2,1908,360-62; see also de Mann, 1971, and Def oe, 1971, for reference to the cloth trade.

306



88 See petition of 'James Yonge, of Sturymmster... clothier/' dated July 6,1578, cited in Hutchins, "History," 1870, 345. Yonge sought relief from duty on cloth sold to mariners going 'beyond the seas'.

89Claridge, General View, 39. Stevenson, General View of Agriculture of the County of Dorset

(London: 1812), 488. 91DRO, P71/OV1,1721-1751 and CW1,1722-1848. 92See DRO, wills of Ambrose Forward, clothier (1816, DA53), and

John Forward, yeoman (1827, DA39). The former had three sons, Charles, George, and John, who settled in Newfoundland respectively in Notre Dame Bay, Carbonear, and Grand Bank The latter had one son, Ambrose, and he settled in Grand Bank. The decline of the cloth industry in Sturminster Newton is well documented in the work performed for cloth merchants (Bird, Colbourne, and Forward) by inmates of the Work House. See DRO, P71/OV46-7, 1800-33. This source shows that no spinning or weaving was performed after 1816. Indeed, Colbourne's last mention was in 1809; Bird's in 1814; Forward's in 1816. Pigott's directory (1822) notes the "cloth industry is now entirely annihilated".

Q O

According to evidence supplied by Thomas Street Bird, his father, Joseph Bird, built a trading establishment at Bonne Bay in 1808. See Mannion, Handcock, and Thomton in Mannion, ed. (1977), index Bird.

94PRO, Masters' Exhibits cl08/69-71 (Bird Papers) 1824-44, and PANL, "Newman-Hunt Papers."

95PRO, "Bird Papers," July 6,1836. 96Ibid.,

February 26, 1839. Similar letters were written every year 1837-44. Ironically, however, while Bird supplied Newman's establishment with men, he himself recruited some experienced fishermen from Conception Bay through the agency of George Forward. Forward sent these men to the Strait of Belle Isle.

97VCH (Dorset), 344-53, and J. Pahl, "The Rope and Net Industry of Bridport," Proceedings, Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (81-4,1959-62), 143-54.

98DRO, Gundry Papers, 1780-1824. "Prowse, History of Newfoundland, 280,459. 100y C H ( S o m e r s e t ) / v o l l l r 1 9 1 1 / 423-25. 101DRO, "Lester Diaries" (Isaac), D365. 102Ibid., P155/OV9,15, and D204/SC77. 103Ibid., "Lester Diaries" (Benjamin), December 1,1779. 104PRO, "Bird Papers," Letter to Ruth Fost, May31,1838. Bird advised

Mrs. Fost to write to Mr. Hickman or Mr. Forward in Grand Bank for information concerning her son's estáte.

105DRO, P186/OV22,1840.

307



106Ibíd., P166/OV4-6, "Register of Poor Travellers... 1819-26/' This source gives ñames, ages, marital status, parish or home, whence carne, whither going, occupation, cause of traveiling of persons relieved by Parish Officers in Blandford Forum.

107E. Roscoe, ed. TheMarn'U Book (Gillingham: 1952),.146. Newman's agent, Phillip Francis, was originally recruited by Bird. See Bird Papers, Accoimt of Youngsters Expenses sent March 11,1849, to Newman and Co.

108Ibid., 146. 109DRO/' Lester-Garland Papers," D365. 110PANL, Trinity Registers. inFeild, "Journals/' 1850,24-25. Feild also records Dorsetshire settlers

residing in Burnt Islands (27), Bay of Islands (44-45), Trout River (49), Red Bay (67-68, 71), and in Twillingate (107). In Twillingate he visited "an oíd couple named Colbourn," whose daughter cannot be persuaded to go to England.

112

DRO, "Population Returns for Sturminster Newton Castle March lOth, 1801," 175. This enumeration contains the ñames, status, and occupation of all persons by household.

113ibid„ "Account of the Population... of the Parish of Mamhull... 1821." Addendum of Questions and Answers in p. 32.

114Body, "The Administration of the Poor Laws," 58-59, and chapters 19 and 20.

115Ibid., 56,263-67. 116Ibid., 271-80. 117Ibid., 30-32. 118Ibid., 30. 119Ibid.,262. 120Ibid., 32-35 and citation of Rev. Harry Place in H.C. and I.

Brocklebank, MarnhulI Records and Memories (Gillingham: 1940), 13. 1 ?i

Brocklebank, Mamhull 13. Rev. Mr. Place died about 1828. 122DRO,MR44. 123Ibid., "Bird Papers," 1836-44. 124Ibid., Bird to Newman & Co., February 15,1838. 125Ibid., Bird to Newman & Co., February 26,1839. 126Ibid., February 27,1840. 127Ibid., February 3,1841.

Chapter 10 *The proportions were calculated from a number of men on ships

1675-81 (Table 3.1) and 1708, CO 194/4, 258; quintáis of codfish shipped

308



1763, CO 194/5, 202; and tonnage of shipping by port 1770-4, 1787-92, Second Report (1793) Appendix 6(A) 425.

o In 1787 Dartmouth sent 106 ships of 10,555 tonnage, i.e., averaging

100 tons each. Teignmouth and Topsham sent 37 ships averaging 97 tons each, whereas Poole sent 84 ships of 10,451 tons (averaging 125 tons). The average ship tonnage for Dartmouth, Exeter, and Poole in 1792 were respectively 90,83, and 120.

^íatthews, "A History of the West of England," 367-68. ^ e a d , Eighteenth Century, 103-106, table 6.3. ^ R O , BT6, 87/84, "The Principal fishing settlements at

Newfoundland. .January 24,1785. ^Ibid., 30/8/34, Petition of Poole Merchants, September 1782" 7Head, Eighteenth Century, 184-85, table 7.10. 6J?or a more detailed account of Trinity see HAC, Gordon Handcock

and Alan Macpherson, 'Trinity, Eighteenth Century," vol. 1, píate 26. Handcock, "The Poole Mercantile Community and the Growth

of Trinity 1700-1839," NQ LXXX (3), (1985), 19-30. 10PRO, see will of Joseph White (362 Trevor, 1771) and Third Report

(1793), 443, testimony of Routh on White's estáte. 11W.G. Handcock, A Biographical Profile of Eighteenth and Early

Nineteenth-Century Merchant Families and Entrepreneurs in Trinity, Trinity Bay (St. John's: 1980), 71-135, 'The Lesters."

12 PRO, BT 5 /3 "Answers to Questions... trade and fishery at

Newfoundland" by Richard Routh, January 25,1786. 13

See n. 12 above. 14DRO, "Lester Diaries" (Benjamin) D365. The portions of B. Lester's

diary written in Newfoundland cover December 1761-December 1762, January-June 1764 (F2); May-December 1767, July-November 1768, May-December 1769, May-December 1770 (F3). Further details of residence in Newfoundland are found in Isaac Lester's Diaries 1765-78 (F4-7).

15PANL, "Census Returns Trinity Bay Both Sides 1800-1," lists property owned by Lesters and Jeffrey and Street

16Anti-settlement legislation was passed in Statute 10 and 11 Wm. 111 c 25 (1699), Statute 26 Geo. m c 21 (1775), and the 'Amending Acf 26 Geo. m c 26 (1786). Merchants united against 'Palliser's Acf (1775) and sought more favourable legislation towards settlement. See Matthews, "Historical Fence Building," 24.

17GBHC, Third Report (1793), 481 in Testimony of Reeves, 463-82. Strong anti-merchant opinions were also voiced by Richard Routh, a custom's officer (1793, 442-52), and former Governor Sir Hugh Palliser (1793,440-42).

18Ibid., 480.

309



19Head, Eighteenth Century, chapter 6 and especially chapters 8 and 9 and 233-36.

20CO194/16. 21BT 5/3, January 25,1786, n. 10. ^GBHC, Third Report (1793), 480. 23Matthews, "Historical Fence Building," 24. 24GBHC, Third Report (1793), 478. 25D'Alberti Transcripts, Bland to Gower, June 18,1805. 26PANL, "Census Return Trinity Bay... 1801-02." 27PRO, Court of Chancery, August 8, 1810, and order 1812; copy in

PANL, "Nimshi Crewe Collection," P4/13, box 5. 28PANL, Register of Fishing Rooms. 29DCB, W.G. Handcock, "John Slade," vol. IV (Toronto, 1979), 711-14. 30PRO, will of John Slade of Poole, Merchant (Dodwell 618,1793). 31 CO 199/18, Conception Bay Plantations Book. 32DCB, Handcock, "John Slade." 33GBHC, Third Report (1793), 480. 34Matthews, "A History of the West of England," 177-78. 35This viewpoint is supported by Reeve's comments, Third Report

(1793), 481. 36Head, Eighteenth Century; 209-14. 37CSPC, 1715,179. 38GBHC, Third Report (1793), 476. 39First Report (1793), 396. 40Report on the Newfoundland Trade (1817), 468. 41These firms induded: George Garland, George and James Kemp

and Co., Job and Bulley, Newman and Hunt. See Testimony in 1817 report, also DRO, "Lester-Garland Papers" F21 (1794-1815) Out-letter book, and F23 (1816-1826) Out-letter book, especially letters of instructions to Trinity agents—April 20,1816; May 8,1816; March 10,1817; April 11,1817; and May 10,1818.

42GBHC, Report on the Newfoundland Trade (1817), 473-79. For further details of distress see CO 194/59,138-41,144,187, and secondary accounts in Head (1976) 237-38 and Prowse (1895) 404-406.

43Ibid., Report (1817), 479. 44DRO, "Lester-Garland Papers," D365, F23, Garland to David

Durrell, May 8,1816. 45GBHC, Report (1817), 475-77. 46In the winter of 1816 St. John's experienced a fire that burnt 120

houses and caused a loss of £100,000. CO 194/57, 7. In November 1817

310



another conflagration swept through the waterside storehouses, destroyed 130 houses and left £500,000 of damage. CO194/59,138-42. See also Head (1976:237-38).

47D'Alberti Transcripts, October 31,1817. 48Ibid., October 22,1799, Waldegrave to British Government 49Ibid., October 26,1821, Stephen Lawler to Sir C. Hamilton. 50Ibid., November 5,1821, Letter of Sir C. Hamilton. 51Ibid., October 4,1830, letter from Burin; also CO 194 returns. 52CO194 returns. 53DCB, W.G. Handcock, ''John Slade," vol. VI, 711-14. 54DRO, "Lester-Garland Papers" (D365) especially the diaries of Isaac

and Benjamín Lester 1762-1801 provide many of the personal and business affairs of John Slade and other Poole merchants. The Lester diaries contain information on Slade's career in Newfoundland 1762-77. From 1782 the "Slade Ledgers" (P7/A6) in four volumes, 1782-84, 1784-86, 1787-88, 1789-92, provide detailed trade information and settler accounts for northeastern Newfoundland (Slade Ledgers, PANL).

55BT 87/84 January 24, 1785; also DCB, W. Whiteley, "Jeremiah Coghlan, vol. VI (Toronto, 1979).

56 Western Flying Post; or Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury, February 27, 1792, and Third Report (1793), 446.

57PRO, will of John Slade. 58PANL, "Slade Ledgers," P7/A6. A dealers' list from the accounts

has been compiled for the years 1783 to 1792 by Mr. G. Horvarth, formerly a student in history at Memorial University. Additional ñames for 1796-97, 1801-1802,1809-10,1814-15,1820-21 were compiled by the author.

59The Slade Ledgers distinguish clearly between servants employed by the firm by listing their terms of employment and wages. Planters are distinguished mainly by their credit dealings, though some customers received bilis of exchange. Some of the planters' servants are named in their masters' accounts.

60SPG, C/CAN/NFL 3, 35, "Baptisms solemnized in the Parish of Twillingate... in the years 1816,17,18,19,21,22,23." Copy in PANL.

61Ibid. The baptismal ñames were compiled by surnames and compared with those from the Slade Ledgers.

62BT6,87/84January 24,1785, identifies Jeffrey and Street as suppliers in Fogo. Other eighteenth-century traders in northeastern Newfoimdland were Tory of Wimborné Minster, Dorset; Clarke and Handcock of Ringwood, Hampshire; Wm. Jolliffe and Thomas Nickleson both of Poole.

63Earliest documentation of the English fishery in Fogo and Twillingate suggests that it was initiated between 1728 and 1732. Co 194/9, 221-4, and CO 194/10,100. John Slade was established as a Poole merchant

311



by 1758. See petition of Poole merchants in CO 194/21 (1758). Numerous references to Slade as a merchant in Twillingate are found in the Lester Diaries (D365).

64DRO, Lester Diaries (Benjamin). In the 1760s Lester identified Mr. Macguire, Michael Fitzgerald, Wm. Ryan, Mr. Welsh, and Peter Quinland among his dealers in Tilting Harbour. In 1768-69 Wm. Ryan of Waterford was his Tilting Harbour agent.

65BT6, 87/84 January 24,1785. 66The information in brackets was taken from individual accounts in

the Slade Ledgers. Occupations (furriers, salmón catchers, lumbermen) were indicated by the products sold or bartered to Slade. Most dealers delivered only dry codfish, oil, and sealskins. Some of the same ñames occur in documents related to English contacts with the native Beothuck Indians. These indude John Peyton, Mr. Clarke (merchant at Fogo), partner with Mr. Hancock, Harry Miller, Thomas Rowsell, Isakiah (Hezekiah) Guy, and Mr. Creasy. See BM add. manuscript 38, 352, "A few facts by G.C. Pulling respecting the native Indians of the Isle of Newfoimdland/' 1792. Also Howley (1915).

67 DRO, Church and Marshalsea Rates and Overseers of the Poor

Accounts, P227. See also Beamish et al (1794; 277-78) for further details of the Slade family. The latter source notes, 'There were too many Slades of Poole in the early nineteenth century to try to cover them all, or, for that matter always to keep the many 'Robert Slades' distinguished/' Thus, when one Robert Slade died in 1835 "this left only three Robert Slades/' The firm styles induded: John Slade and Co.; Robert Slade; Robert Slade Sr.; Robert Slade Jr.; Slade and Cox; Harrison, Slade and Co.; John Slade; Thomas Slade and Co.; Robert and John Slade; Thomas Slade Sr. and Co.; Robert, Thomas and James Slade; Robert and James Slade; Harrison, Slade and Seager; Slade, Biddle and Co.; Thomas Slade Jr.; Executors of Thomas Slade Sr. (Wm. Cox and Thomas Slade Jr.). These different Slade firms were rated as shipowners in Poole 1800-37.

Handcock, The Merchant Families and Entrepreneurs of Trinity in the Nineteenth Century (St. John's: 1981), 90-91.

69DRO, P227/OV4, Poor Rates and Accounts, and PANL, "Slade Ledgers."

70PANL, will of John Colbourne of Sturminster Newton, "now

residing at Twillingate, Fishing planter," proved September 18,1805. 71

See n. 60 above. 72DRO, Church Rate Accounts, P227/CW4,1801-18 (1808). 73Various members of the Slade family contributed to the

establishment of Churches in Fogo and Twillingate and held nineteenth-century political offices. Among inhabitants subscribing for the construction of a a church in Fogo in 1803 were John Slade and Co. (£20) and Lester and Co. (£20). Thomas Slade, Esq., and David Slade, Esq., of Fogo

312



were members of the Beothuck Institute in 1827 as was James Slade of Twillingate (Howley, 1895:185-86). J. Slade was a member of the House of Assembly for Fogo in 1842. In 1845 John Slade bought brass chandeliers and wall sconces discarded from St. James Church in Poole and presented them to St. Peter's Church, Twillingate.

Handcock, "Patterns of English Migration to Newfoundland with special reference to the Wessex Area," Newfoundland History 1986, Shannon Ryan, ed. (St. John's, 1986).

S e t t e r book of Saunders and Sweetman, Arts and Culture Centre library, St. John's, Newfoimdland.

76Jeffrey A. Orr, "Scottish Merchants in the Newfoundland Trade

1800-1835: A Colonial Community in Transition," M.A. thesis, (Memorial University, 1987). Chapter 11

1PRO, BT6,98/5, Muster Rolls, 1788. 2DRO, DVRO, EDRO, Settlement Examinations. The data in these

examinations were programmed and computerized by Dr. John Buckett of the University of Exeter, whose assistance the author gratefully acknowledges.

^ANL, various newspapers.

4See E. G. Ravenstein, 'The Laws of Migration," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 48 (2), 1885, 167-227; also E.S. Lee, "A Theory of Migration," Demography 3, (1966), 47-57.

^DRO, P71/OV47, contains "A List of the Ñames of Persons in the Poorhouse...," with age and dates of entry and leaving. The Roberts family entered the house May 18,1824.

6Combeinteignhead Parish Records (settlement examinations), deposited with the churchwarden, Combeinteignhead, Devon. This coÜection contains sixty-one examinations dated between 1768-1837.

7DRO, P227/OV15. Other females were indentured as domestics into the households of 'mariners7.

^ANL, Letter Book of Colonial Secretary's Office, vol. 21, 1809-10, 157, and vol. 22,1811-12.

^Handcock, "English Migration," in Mannion (ed.) The Peopling of Newfoundland, 1977,32-33.

10W.A. Armstrong, ed., Population Economy and Society in Pre-Industrial England (Oxford: 1972), 198.

nK Matthews, "The West Country Merchants in Newfoundland," Newfoundland Historical Society Lecture, (St. John's: 1968), 7.

12Ibid., 10-11. 13Ibid., 9-11.

313



14DRO, D365, F21, Out-letter book, 1794-1815. George Garland to Mr. Way, Trinity, February 14,1795.

15Ibid., George Garland to B.L. Garland, June 23,1798. 16Ibid .; see letter to B.L. Garland in Bordeaux Piison, January 15,1800;

also letter to B.L. Lester, Esq., December 6,1811, regarding his inheritance; B.L. Garland changed his súmame to 'Lester' in accordance with the will and inheritance conditions made by his grandfather, Benjamin Lester.

17 Ibid., George Garland's letter to E. Mullen, dated September 24,

1807. 18DRO, "Lester-Garland Papers," esp. G. Garland's Letter Books,

D365, F38, and F41. 19DCB, Keith Matthews, "Robert Pack," vol. VIE (Toronto, 1985),

673-74. 20Mathews, "Poole and Newfoimdland", 83. Cozens was originally

employed as a cooper. His brother John also migrated to Newfoundland. In 1832 Charles Cosens (sic) married Sarah Seymour in Blandford Forum and took her to Brigus.

21 See K. Kerr, "Social Composition of the Newfoimdland Civil Service

During Its Formative Years, 1825-32," paper presented to Atlantic Cañada Studies Conference, Fredericton, 1976.

22 Letter Book of Ledgard, Gosse and Chancey. Letter dated March 20,

1807. Similar letters referring to problems of finding derks and bookkeepers are found in the "Newman-Hunt papers," PANL, and "Lester-Garland papers," DRO.

occupations given for residents in the census 1794-95 show that St. John's possessed as great a variety of tradesmen as one would find in a comparably sized English sea port. The number of tradesmen and craftsmen listed (with the number of immigrants in parentheses) included: coopers eighteen (17), ship captains ten (7), carpenters thirty-one (24), blacksmiths ten (9), sailmakers four (2), blockmakers three (3), glaziers one (1), watchmakers three (3), tailors twenty-two (22), bakers four (4), shoemakers six (6), butchers four (4), barbers three (3), publicans twenty-six (24), gardeners two (2), accountants five (5), and fiddler one (1). Other information on tradesmen can be found in the Slade, Lester-Garland, and other mercantile papers.

24An excellent description of the work of fishermen is provided by Yonge in 1670 (Poynter, ed. 57). The 'spilter' or 'splitter' deboned codfish before it was salted and sundried. Yonge noted that some splitters handled nearly five hundred fish in a half-hour.

Combeinteignhead, Settlement Examination, January 1,1802; n. 6. See n. 2 above. The technique of programming the settlement

examinations involved coding the migrants' testimony. Each migrant was coded by súmame, christian ñame, sex, year of birth, place of birth, place

314



of examination, occupation at time of examination, and status (marital) at time of examination. A sepárate coding was made for each migrant by life-cycle sequences in which all geographical moves, occupational changes, social status changes were recorded for childhood years (up to nine years), apprenticeship age (ten to twenty-one years), adult single and adult married phases, or until the time of examination. This approach permits one to compare individuáis at similar stages in their lives.

27 Murray, ed., The Newfoundland Journal, 173.

28See, e.g., 10 and 11 William m, cap. 25, 1699. Clause 10 required "masters of ships take every fífth man a green man."

29DRO, P34/OW, Wm. Hoare's testimony; P70/OV12 Thomas ElHs. 30Family reconstitution techniques for parish registers are detailed in

E. A. Wrigley, ed., An Introduction to English Histórical Demography (London, 1966).

31J. C. Cox, The Parish Registers of England (London: 1910), 2-5, 11, reviews regulation governing parochial records.

32 EDRO, Devonshire Non-Parochial Registers (on microfilm); PRO,

Dorsetshire Non-Parochial Registers. 33DRO, Parish Registers. 34SMO;HRO. 35DVRO, EDRO, and Exeter City Library (Devon and Cornwall

Record Collection), Parish Registers.

Chapter 12 !R. Savage and K.W. Deutsch, "A Statistícal Model of the Gross

Analysis of Transaction Flows," Econometrica 39 (1960), 59-66. 2C.C Roseman, "Channelization of Migration Flows from the Rural

South to the Industrial Midwest," Annals AAG 60 (1), 140-46. 3E. Lee, "A Theoiy of Migration," 47-57. ^.E. Vanee, Jr., The Merchant's World: The Geography of Wholesaling

(Prentice-Hall: 1970), 69. Emigraticm, Appendices to Reports of the Colonial Land and

Emigration Commissioners, vol. 10-14,1842-63. 6R. Ommer, "From Outpost to Outport: The Jersey Merchant

Triangle," Ph.D. thesis, (Department of Geography, McGill University, 1979).

y

C.R Fay, Channel Islands and Newfoundland (Cambridge: 1961).

315



Bibliography

Primary Sources - Manuscripts 1. Deposited in London Archives Public Record Office (PRO). CO 1, Colonial Papers, General series 1574-1757. CO 194, Colonial Office Correspondence, Newfoundland, 1696-1922. CO 199, Newfoundland Miscellanea, 1677. BT1,5,6. Papers of the Board of Trade. Records of the Chancery. c66 Patent rolls; Master's Exhibits. cl08, The Bird Papers 1822-44. PCC Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Wills. Census División: Censuses of Devon, Dorset, and Hampshire 1851 and

1861 (microfilm); Protestant Dissenter Registers (Dorset). British Museum (BM). Add. Ms 38,352. National Maritime Museum. Letter Book of Ledgard, Gosse and Chancey, 1807-11 Society ofFriends Libran/ (Quaker). Dorset and Hampshire Marriage, Digest, 1658-1837. United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG). A and B series of letters, and C/CAN/PRE and C/CAN/NFL series.

2. Deposited in Devon Archives

East Devon Record Office (EDRO), formerly Exeter City Archives. Parish Collections, Settlement Examinations, for Chudleigh, Dartington,

üsington, and Staverton. Devonshire Families Resident Abroad, 1901,3 vols. of letters. Dartmouth Borough Archives.

316



Milles Parochial Returns (microfilm). Non-Parochial Registers (microfilm). Topsham Wharfinger Joumal. Town Customs Account Books. Wills, deeds, leases... for Stokentyrihead 1603-1873. Devon Record Office (DVRO), Exeter. Parish registers (baptisms, maniages, burials). Deposits

catalogued—70A, 462A, 608A, 1323A, 1528A, 1857A, 1859A, 1955A, 2016A, 2202A, 2203A, and 2217A.

Bishop's transcripts of parish registers for Abbotskerswell, Hennock, Kingskerswell, Kingsteignton, and Wolborough.

Settlement examinations from parish collections catalogued—70A, 73A, 342A, 462A, 995A, 1180A, 1249A, 1579A, 1843A, 1981A, 2160A, 2165A, and 2217A.

The Fox Papers 1801-17, letters and accounts. Land Tax Assessments, Combintinhead 1780-1831. Wills Dd 4317,4324,4326, and 474M/T1-11. Exeter City Libran/ Parish registers (transcripts of the Devon and Cornwall Record Society):

Ashburton, Dartmouth (St. Petrox, St. Saviour's, and Townstall), Paignton and Teignmouth, East and West.

Newspapers. Trewmarís Exeter Plying Post 1768-1837. Exeter Customs House. Register of Ships 1786-1837. Churchwarden, Combeinteignhead Parish.

Apprenticeship indentures and settlement examinations. Torbay Borough Archives, Torquay Apprenticeship registers and settlement examinations for Churston

Ferrers, Paignton, St. Mary Church, and Tormohum. Useful guides to specific Devonshire archival collections are contained in

the following: Devon and Cornwall Record Society, list of parish register transcripts, 1966; Devon Newspapers, a finding list, 1973; Parish Registers (EDRO), 1972; Parish Registers (DVRO), 1974; and Torbay Borough Archives, 1973.

3. Deposited in Dorset Archives Dorset County Museum, Dorchester. Pope Transcripts. Parish Registers, typescripts—Cattistock, Puddletown, and Spettisbury. Dorset Record Office (DRO), Dorchester.

317



Accounts, letters, diaries, and mercantile papers—Records of the Lester and Garland Families, D365; Joseph Gundry and Co., D203.

Index of wills collection. Index of apprenticeships indentures collection. Index of catalogue references to Newfoimdland, miscellaneous. Parish registers (baptisms, marriages, burláis), deposits catalogued

under p—5,11,20,22,27,28,29,32,33,34,35,37,38,51,56,57,63, 64,68,70,71,77,78,87,91,93,98,107,113,137,146,155,165,173, 175,178,182,186,188,193,196,197,204,205,208,213,220,223,227, 231,243,250,253, and 259.

Overseers of the Poor, documents in parish collections catalogued under P/OV: apprenticeship indentures in p—11,18,21,22,34,35,51,57, 58,70,71,86,102,155,161,162,191,198,204,227, and 245; settlement examinations in p—11,21,26,32,34,44,57,58,70,91, 155,162,166,186,191,204,206, and 227; accounts in p—32,63,71, 137,166,204, and 227; and removal orders in P227/OV12 (Poole).

Church Wardens' Accounts in parish collections catalogued under P/CW. p—71,175, and 227.

Other documents in parish collections: "Account of the Population the Parish of Mamhull... in the Parish of Mamhull... 1821," P32, and "Population returns for Sturminster Newton Castle March 20th, 1801," P71.

Borough Records: Blandford Forum, Lyme Regis, and Weymouth. Dorset Record Society Collection. Reminiscences of Sturminster Newton by an unknown writer, aged 97 (c.

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318



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329



Index Abbot Matthew 195-6 Abbot, Matthew Jr. 196 Abbotsbury 1%, 199 Abbotskerswell 157-8,

163-4,166,168,170, 245

Adams, Dinah 238 Adams, John 238 Alicante 236 Alley family 276 Allington 61 Alsop family 170,181-2 American Revolution

31,137 Amey family 276 Anchor Point, NF 211 Angel family 110 Anglo-French Wars,

(1696-1713)30,36,73 Anstey family 250 Anthony family 276 Aplin, William 195 Appledore 38,80 Apprentices 61-2,

190-1,193-5,201,254 Aquaforte, NF 68 Archer family 125 Ash family 125 Ash, Capt. Richard 52 Ashburton 63,166,

168-9,262 Ashford family 173,250 Ashford, Richard 179 Ashprington, Devon

63,169 Atkins, Stephen 36 Avalon Península, NF

89 Avon River 201,203

Babb family 170,250 Babbacombe Bay 166 Baine, Walter & Co. 179 Baker family 173 Baker, Jos. 172 Baker, Wright, & Smith,

of Wareham 188 Balfour, Rev. James 125,

132-6 Ballard, Michael 50 Baltimore, Lord

(Calvert) 34,39 Bank fishery 81-2,179,

182,190 Banks, Sir Joseph 92 Bard Islands, NF 237-8 Bames family, T.B. 130 Barnstaple, Dev. 23,37,

54,59,67,79-81,88 Barren Island, NF 230 Barrett family, T.B. 130 BarrowHr.,NF 78,229 BarÜett family 171 Bartiett, John 201-2 Bass, Thomas 191 Batson, Bernard 195 Batson, Henry 195 Batstone (Batson)

family, T.B. 126,130 Batten family 46,164 Battle Hr., Lab. 205,240 Baudoin, Father 30 Bay Bulls, NF 64, 78,

82,154,160,197 Bay de Verde, NF 40,

46-7,67-8,113-15, 202,205,224,229, 236,270

Bay of Islands, NF 77, 78

Bay Roberts, NF 40,82, 89,93,108,113,270, 276

Bay St. George, NF 77, 210,276

Bayley, David 224 Bazely, Elizabeth 248 Beaminster, Dor. 61,209 Beard, Edmund 182 Beauderk, Comm. 88 Bedminster, Som. 93 Belchalwell, Dorset 198 Bell Island, NF 78,89,

108-10,270 Benger, James 35 Bennet, William 44 Bennett family 173 Bennett, Charles Fox

197 Bennett, Goodman 44 Bennett, Mary 175 Bennett,Thomas 245 Bennett, Thomas Jr. 175 Bennett, Thomas Sr. 175 Beothucks 203 Bere Regis, Dorset 62,

199,209 Berry Pomeroy, Devon

63,169 Berry's census, 1675 43 Berry, Commodore (Sir

John) 37,105 Besson family 276 Bettres, William 94 Bibbens familyl71,183 Bickford 250 Bickonell, John of Oíd

Perlican 62 Biddlecombe family46

330



Bidé, William 196 Bideford, Devon 23,37,

43,54-5,59,67, 79-81,88,219

Bingham, John 207 Bird farnily of

Sturminster 187, 207,215

Bird and Colbourne 188 Bird Papers 16 Bird, Jos. 207-8,210,240 Bird, Thomas Street 215 Birmingham 275 Biscay Bay River, NF 80 Bishop's Caundle,

Dorset 1%, 198 Bishop, Thomas 187 Bishopsteignton, Dev.

163,165-6,171-2, 178,183

Black, John 125 Blackaller family of

Devon 164,173 Blackmoor Vale 185,

206-8,213,216 Bland, Magistrate John

226-9 Blandford (Forum)61-2,

64,191,193,200-01, 207,209-10,253,262

Blandford St. Maiy 195 Blandford, Thomas 202 Bloxworth, Dorset 198 Boden family 171,183 Boden, Robert 172-3 Boden, William 182 Body,G.A.213 Boldre, Hampshire 204 Bonaventure, NF 209,

224 Bonavista, NF 40,45-6,

65,67-8,76-9,81,89, 112,117,152,191, 196,197,204-5,212, 224-5,229

Bonavista Bay, NF 46, 65,78,89,104,106, 110,112,116,152, 202,204,210-11, 219-20,226,229,236, 241,275

Bond 182 Bond, George 183 Bond, John 183 Bond, Mary 193 Bond, Robert 183 Bonne Bay, NF 77,152,

197-8,208,236,276 Bools (Bowles), Capt.

Joseph 125 Boreham, Sussex 275 Bothenhampton 61,209 Bovey Basin, Devon 274 Bowden (Boden)

familyl64,173 Bower, Joseph Jr. 93 Bradbury family 110 Bradford Abbas 197-8 Brady, Elizabeth 93 Brady, Jacob of Bristol

93 Brake family, Bay of

Islands 78 Branscombe, Wm. 180 Brent family 46 Brewer, Robert 195 Bridgwater, Som. 210 Bridport 61-2,185,187,

196,198,200-1, 208-10,216,262

Brig(s): Anna172 Aurora 178 Britannia 178 Edgell 172 Endeavour 179 Good Intent 179,180 Hopel79 Nymph 172 Sally 172 SnowHopel79 Three Williams 179, 180

Brigantine(s): Cognacl79 Nancy 183 Priscilla 178

Brigus South, NF 82 Brigus, NF 45,75,89,

100,101,115,230, 253,270,276

Brine family 171

Brine, George 195 Brine, John 182 Brine, John and Robert

179,181 Brine, Thomas 195 Bristol 19,23-4,31,

33-4,53-5,59,62,78, 80,88,93,208,237, 239,268,271-2,278, 280

Bristol Merchants 33 Bristol's Hope, NF 36,

54 Bristolians 24,65,100

101,269,270 Brixey, Captain 187 Brixey, William 202 Brixham, Dev. 59,65,

154,156-8,164, 166-7, 262

Broadhempston 166 Broadwinsor 61,195 Brock, Andrew 202 Brooks, Nathaniel 197 Brown family 110 Brown, Wm. & Co. 239 Bryanfs Cove, NF 40 Buckle, John 202 Bugden family, T.B.

126,129 Bugden, James 202 Bugden, John 202 Bull Arm, NF 225 Bulley family of Devon

171-2,182,250 Bulley & Job, 172 Bulley, George 172,182 Bulley, Henry 245 Bulley, Samuel 172 Bulley, Samuel Jr. 172 Bulley, Thomas 172,173 Bulley, Thomas & Co.

181 Burin Bay, NF 104 Burin Península, NF 81,

152,154 Burin, NF 117,154,196,

198,206,220,230, 235,236,240,276

Burk, Thomas 239 Burnt Islands, NF 238

331



Burry family 110,202 Bursey family 202 Burt family 46 Burt, John & Co. 239 Burton Bradstock 209 Butler famly 46,106-8,

171 Butler, John 182 Butler, Mr. 36 Butt family 46,52,106-8 Butt, Mr. 193 Byeboatfíshery 59,84,

182 Byeboatkeepers 25-7,

46,59,82,84,164

Cabot 276 Cadwell, Eliza 175 Calvert, Sir George

(Baltimore) 33 Carne Winterborne 62 Canfor family 130 Canford Magna 198 Cape Bonavista, NF 64 Cape Broyle, NF 82 Cape Grotte, NF 50 Cape Race, NF 64 Cape Ray, NF 50 Cape Spear, NF 65 Cape St John, NF 73,

79,119,236 Caplin Bay, NF 43 Carbonear Is., NF 45-6 Carbonear, NF 35,40,

45,67,75,79,82,89, 99,100-1,107-8, 113-15,117,152,202, 205,207-9,220,230, 236,240,253,270

Card family 173 Carew family 173 Carnell 182 Cárter family 46,52,

125,250 Cárter, Benjamín 112 Cárter, Joseph 112 Cárter, Maiy 139 Cartwright, George 94 Cary, Henry 33 Castle Cary 210-11 Catalina, NF 104,123-4,

224 Causely, William 179 Cell, Gillian 34,54 Cerne Abbas, Dorset

62,195,209,262 Chafe family 109-10 Chalk Downs, Dorset

148,209 Champion family 173 Champion, William 179 Change Islands, NF

205,238,240 Channel Islanders 65,

80,100-1,147,270, 275-6

Channel Islands 78,88, 145,159,160,208, 268,270,272,275 migration from 80, 275 port53 surnames 276

Channel, NF 211 Chapple (Arm), NF 124 Chapple Cove, NF 225 Chard 195,211 Chardstock, Dorset 62 Charminster, Dor. 196 Charmouth, Dor. 61-2,

209 Cheriton, Somerset 210 Chester 274 Chissel (Portland) 199 Christchurch, 142,149,

150-2,187-8,195-6, 198-204,229,241

Churchill, Mr., Poole trader 224

Churston Ferrers 167-8 Clapp family 171,173,

183 Clapp, Gilbert 173 Claridge, C. 205,206 Clark(e) family 106,

107,108 Clark(e), Robert 124 Clark(e), Thos. 203 Clark(e), William 204 Clarke & Handcock,

Ringwood traders 239

Clarke, E.A.G. 57,155 Clarke, Waldron &

Young, Poole merchants 220

Cleaves, Robert 191 Cleaves, William 191 Cliffe, William 164 Clifford family 173 Clinch, Rev. John 133 Clingan, John 201 Clingan's Charity,

Christchurch 201 Clinton, Governor 88 Cloth industry 169,

205-7,210,213 Coates, Philip 52 Cobb, Christopher of

Ringwood 187,203 Cockington, Devon 63,

168 Codd family 130 Codner 173,182,250 Codner, Daniel 174 Codner, John 172,174,

182 Codner, Samuel 182-3 Codner, Samuel & Co.

181 Codner, Wm. 172,174 Coffinswell, Dev. 163,

183 Coghlan, Jeremiah,

mcht. of Bristol 237, 239

Colbourne family of Sturminster 187, 207-8,214,240,241

Colbourne, Elizabeth & Sons 240

Colbourne, John 239-41 Colbourne, Thomas

240-1 Colé, Miss. 89 Colfax, Mr. of Bridport

187 Colinet River, NF80 Collingham, Hannah 95 Collingham, Robert 94 Collins family 173 Colonization: 13,37-9

debate on 35-7

332



early efforts at 33 passim from Bristo 154

Combe Keynes 262 Combeinteignhead

163-6,170-2,182,245 Conception Bay, NF19,

33-4,36,40,45-6,52, 55,65,68-9,75,78, 81-2,88-90,93, 99-101,104,106,110, 113,115-17,119-20, 129,150,152,154, 204,210-12,215,226, 229,232,234,236, 253,268-72,276,279

Congdon 250 Connors family 31 Connors, Andrew 239 Cook family 52 Cooke family 178 Coombes family 202 Coombs, Catherine 196 Coombs, Wm. of

Bridport 196 Corban (Corbin) family

46,250 Corbin, John 50 Corfe Castie 60-1,195 Corfe Mullen 62,199 Cork, Ireland 88,275 Cormack,W.K 137-8 Cornish 250 Cornwall 147,272 Corscombe 209 Corfe Mullen 209 Coysch family 170,178 Cozens, Charles 253 Cram family 202 Craze, John 202 Creasy, Henry 197 Creasy, John 193,239 Credit (truck) system

137,232-3 Crewkerne, Som. 142,

150,195,210-11,262 Crews family 170 Crocker's Cove, NF

107,108 Crowcher family 125 Crowcher, John 126

Culi John 198 Cupers Cove (Cupids),

NF 33,36,54,62,91

Cupids (Cove), NF 34, 75,270,276

Curnew family 276 Curtís family 93 Curtís, Tom 211

Dampier, John 191 Dampier, Thomas 191 Dart River 147 Dartmoor, Devon 147,

158,166 Dartmouth 23,36-8,

52-5,59,62-3,65, 67-8,81-2,106, 146-7,154-6,158, 160-3,166-8,170, 173-4,180-3,185, 199,206,208,211, 216,219,226,241, 243-4,250-1,262, 271-2,274,278

Dartmouth merchants 154

Dartmouth muster rolls 15,155,158,164,243

Da vis family 46,52 Dawe family 106-8 Dawlish, Devon 56-7 De Grish family 130 Dean family 202 Decker (Dicker), Daniel

and Elizabeth 238 Defoe, Daniel 201 Denbury, Devl65-6,168 Dennett, Nicholas 62 Devon(shire) 16,69,74,

130,146,148,166-7, 170,190,199,208, 210,219,243,245, 249,253-4,256-60, 268,273-5

Devonshiremen 81, 100-1,156,170,270

Dibble family 46 Dittesham, Devon 168 Doble, Capt. Wm 224 Dodd 250

Dog Bay, NF 238 Dorchester 61-2,262 Dorset(shire) 16,18-9,

23,55,59-61,64, 68-9,74,78-9,81, 130,142,146,148, 150,159-60,184-5, 189-90,195-6,198, 200-1,206,208-9, 213-4,243-5,248-9, 253-4,256-7,262, 268,272-6,278

Dorsetshiremen 100, 101

Downing, John 37,44, 274

Drew, mcht, Dartmouth 154,164, 173,181,205

Drew family of Devon 164,173

Drew family (Wimborne) 205

Drew, Alfred 211 Duniam, John 172 Dunley family 173 Dunley, John 173 Durrel, David 207 Durrell family of Poole

250 Dyke family 110

Eales family 170,183 Earle family 109,110 East Allington 199 East Coker, Som. 142,

210,211 East Ogwell, Devon

165,166,168 East Teignmouth 163,

182 Eastman, Robert of

Yeovil 211 Eaton 205 Eaton, Joseph of

Wimborne 187 Eckford,

Roxburghshire 275 Edwards family 46 Elliott family 164

333



Ellis, Mrs. Maiy Jane 164

Emberley family of Poole 202

Emigration fíelds: 146-7,150,152,182 of Poole 150,184,185

English coastal trade 160

English Harbour, NF 46,65,121,124-6, 128-30,136,138,224

English Shore, NF 64, 65,68,73,79,82,99, 113,219,271,272

Etheridge family 250 Evans 250 Evans, John 254 Exe estuary 56-7,158 Exeter 23,54,65,146,

156,166,172,219, 258-60 Customs Booksl71 Register of seaman's sixpensesl 56

Exmouth, Devon 56-7, 189-90

Exploits River, NF 78, 203

Exploits, NF 238

Fair (Vere) Is., NF 112 Falmouth 272 Farewell, John 238 Farley family 170 Feild, Bishop 211 Female(s):

and permanence in population 95 in population 92-4 migration 31-2, 91-2 migration processes 94

Fermeuse, NF 40,64, 67,68,82

Ferryland District, NF 38,46

Ferryland, NF 34,36-7, 40,43,45,52,67, 80-2,89,90,117,154, 160

Fillier family 276 Fizzard, Thomas 152 Flinn, Patrick 239 Fogarty, Richard 180 Fogo Island, NF 118,

134,229 Fogo, NF 73,79,89,94,

117,152,198,202, 205,208-9,220,229, 236-40

Foot, John 254 Ford, Gilbert 164 Forster, John& Co. 239 Forsythe, Robert 239 Forteau, Labrador 208 Fortune Bay, NF 74,

76-7,80-1,89,104, 150,208,212,220, 236,276

Forward family of Sturminster 207,213

Foster, John 195 Fowey 272 Fox family of Shaldon

171,173,179,182 Fox Island, NF 122 Fox Papers 16,179,180 Fox, Capt Anthony 180 Fox, Capt. William 178 Fox, Sarah Thomas 179 Fox, Thomas 179,180 Fox, Thomas Jr. 180 Fox, William 173,180 Fox, William Jr. 179 Frampton 250 Frampton, George 193 Francis, Phillip 211 Fraser 169 French family 106,108,

110 French, mcht,

Dartmouth 154 French:

in Plaisance (Placentia) 37 raids on English settlements 30,45

Friar, Jane 196 Frome, Somerset 210 Frome River 206 Fryer family of

334

Wimborné 205 Fryer, Gosse and Padk,

mchts, Poole 204, 240,253

Fryer, Joseph 203 Fryer, William 204-5 Fur trade 76-7 Furze, Mr. 44 Furze, Widow 43

Gale 250 Galpin, Robert 193 Galton family 130 Gander Bay, NF 78 Gantlett family 46 Garland family 46,52,

138,232,236,239, 240

Garland, Benjamin Lester 252

Garland, George, mcht. Poole 137,204,230, 234,240,252

Garland, George and Sons 252

Garland, George Jr. 230,252

Garland, John Bingley 230,252

Garland, Joseph 206 Garland, Joseph Watts

252 Gaultois, NF 154 Gaylor, Thomas 202 Gengesof Hardington,

Som.211 George family 113 Gillam family 211 Gillett family 125,130,

202 Gillett, Grace 196 Gillett, Richard 196 Gillingham, Dorset 78 Gillingham family, G.B.

78 Gillingham & Shaston

193 Glasgow, Scotland216,

226,241 Gledhill, Colonel

Samuel 79,80



Glover, Captain Mt 224 Godfrey family 250 Goldsworthy family 130 Goldsworthy, Mary 178 Goldsworthy, Susanna

178 Goldsworthy, Wm. 178 Gooby, James 202 Goodridge family of

Devon 183,250 Gooseberry Islands, NF

89,125,205 Goss family 110,171,

182 Goss, Henry 203 Gosse 205 Gosse, Wllliam 204 Gotham, Thomas 172 Gould 250 Gourd, Catherine 94 Gower, Govemor E. 92,

119,165 Grand Bank, NF 152,

207,210,276 Grand Banks 81-2,190,

225 Graves, mcht,

Dartmouth 154 Great Bell Isle, NF 45 Great Placentia, NF 220 Great St. Lawrence, NF

206,220 Greeley family 276 Green family 46,110,

113,125,130 Green and Pike, mchts,

Poole 220 Green Island, NF 45-6 Green, John 251 Green, John & Young,

mchts, Poole 230 Green, Wllliam 125,197 Green, Young 251 Greenspond, NF 78,

112,117,152,197, 198,202-3,205, 224-5,229,240

Gregoiy, John 202 Griffen, Jonathan 196 Griffin, mcht,

Dartmouth 154,250

Guernsey, C.I. 79 Gulf of St Lawrence

276 Gundry, Joseph of

Bridport 208-96 Gushue family 276 Guy family 35,46-74 Guy, Hezekiah 239 Guy, John 34, 62 Guy, John Jr. 35 Guy, John Sr. 35 Guy, Lewis 35 Guy, Nicholas 34,35 Guy, Phillip 34 Guy, Robert 239

Hall's Bay, NF 78 Hamilton, Gov. 235 Hammond, Richard 179 Hampreston, Dor. 198 Hampshire 18,55,60,

78,129-30,142,146, 150,159-60,184, 189-201,204,216, 239,257,262,270, 272

Hamworth, Dorset 60 Hancock family 126 Handcock, Capt. Wm.

204 Hann, Albert 211 Hannaford family 178 Hanf s Harbour, NF

123-24,138,224 Harbenton, Devon 156 Harbour Bretón, NF 89,

117,154,211,220, 276

Harbour Grace Island, NF5

Harbour Grace, NF 19, 34-6,40,45,54-5,75, 82,89,93,100-1,108, 113-15,117,135,205, 209,248,269-70, 275-6

Harbour Grace (Bristol's Hope) 36

Harbour Main, NF 89, 99,100-1,113-15

Hardington 211 Hardy, Edward 197 Hardy, Thomas 146,184 Hariis, Rev. Mr. 89 Harris, Thomas 126 Harrison 250 Harrison, Slade, & Co.

of Poole 206,235,240 Hart family 126 Harvey family 171,182,

193,250 Harvey, Stephen 172-3,

179-80,182 Harvey, Stephen & Co.

181 Haskell 205 Haskett of Sturminster

207 Haskett, Henry 210-11 Haskett, Sam 193 Hayman family 171 Head and Ellsworth 239 Head, Grant 14,32,38,

73,81,104,225,233 Healy, John 254 Hearfs Content, NF 75,

122-5,133,224 Hearfs Ease, NF 122 Heath family 170 Heighington 93 Henley family 170,250 Hermitage (Cove), NF

154 Herring Neck, NF 238 Hewitt, Thomas 202 Higdon family 126 Highweek (Newton

Abbot) 169,171 Hill, Bridget & Daniel

196 Hillier, Edward 238 Hilton 62 Hingston, Abraham

172,182 Hingston, Mary 175 Hinton St. George,

Somerset 198 Hinton St. Mary, Dorset

62,198,211,262 Hiscock family 130 Hiscock. Joseph 126

335



Hitchcock family 52 Hodder family 78 Hogan family 31 Holdenhurst,

Hampshire 198 Holdsworth, mcht.

Dartmouth 154,251 Holdsworth, Captain

Arthur 63 Holwell 191,193,198 Hooke, Dorset 191,195 Hookey, Stephen 202 Hooper family 250 Hopkins family 202,215 Hopkins, Nicholas 44 Hoskins, John 134 Hounsells of Bridport

209 Howard family 173,183 Huían 276 Hunt, mcht.

Dartmouth 154,251 Hunt, John and Co. 239 Hussey family 125 Hutchen, Mrs. James

187 Hutchings, mcht,

Dartmouth 154,250 Hutton 250

Ibberton, Dorset 198 Iceland 24 Ideford, Devon 171,179 Ilfracombe, Devon 52 Ingland, John 62 Ipplepin, Devon 63,

166,170 Ireland 30,43,59,88,

119,130,132-3,152, 163,180,224-5,236

Ireland's Eye, NF123-4 Ireland, southeastern 78 Irish immigrants 80 Irish Shore (southern

Avalon), NF31, 88-90,100-1

Irish: 239,241,275 migration 30-1,88, 90 ñames 31 passenger trade 180

passengers 30,181 provisions 30 Teignmouth ships migration 181

Irishmen 88,129,133-4, 159-60

Isle of Portland, Dorset 209

Isle of Purbeck, Dorset 148,274

Isle of Vallen, NF 231-2 Isle of Wight 204 Ivany family 126,130 Ivany, George & Sons

129 Ivany, James 129 Ivany, Mary 129

Jacobs, Abraham 203 Jeans family 130 Jeffery 134 Jeffery and Street,

mchts, Poole 220, 224,226,236,240

Jeffery, John 129,133-4, 138,222,234

Jenkins, John 198 Jersey 275-6 Jersey Harbour, NF 276 Jerseymen 206,270,276 Job family 172,182 Job Brothers & Co. Ltd.

173 Job, John 172 Joe Batf s Arm, NF

237-8 Jolliffe, Poole merchant

138,224 Jones family 126,130,

136,276

Kean, William 112 Keats family 130,250 Keels, NF 78,112 Keen, Patrick 12 Kene/s Island, NF 45 Kember & Bugden 129 Kember family 126 Kemps, mchts. Poole

253 Kemp, George & James

230 Kendall, George 193 Kennedy family 106 Kent 110 Kenton, Devon 56-7 King family 46,106,205 King's Cove, NF 89,134 King, William 206 Kingskerswell 157-8,

165-6,170-3,183,245 Kingswear, Devon

167-8,173 Kirby family 202 Kirke, Mary 35 Kirke, Sir David 27,33,

35 Kirkes of Ferryland, NF

47 Kittier, Moses 203 Knight family 46,178,

251 Knight, Stephen 197

Labrador 73,77, 94, 104,119,142,190, 205,224,229,236-7, 240

Labrador fishery 119 Lambert family 130 Lañe, Abraham 203 Lañe, Michael 113 Langley family 276 Lannis, Simón 203 Lapworth 275 Larey family 276 Larkin, George 63 Laughorne, Rev. T.G.

238 Lawn, NF 89,276 Leaman, Thomas 254 Ledgard, Gosse, &

Chancy, mchts. Poole 253

LeDrew family 276 Lee family 250 Lee, Everett 270 LeFevre family, C J. 276 Legg(e) family 113,130 Leigh, Rev. John 238 LeMessurier family,

C.I. 276

336



Lemon, John 191 Lemon, Poole trader

224 Lester family of Poole

52,124,129,134, 137,187,190,195, 201-3,205,207,211, 222,224,229-30,236, 239,274

Lester diaries 123, 124-5,136,184, 186-8,190,201, 204-5,207,222,224

Lester, Benjamin, mcht. Poole 16-17,50,121, 125,133-4,138,190, 210,220, 222,226, 236-7,239,251

Lester, Francis 50 Lester, Isaac 50,187,

188,193,202,222 Lester, Rachel

(Tavemer) 50 Lester, Sir John 230 Lester-Garland papers

16 Lethbridge family 170 Lewis 35 Lewis, Harry 211 Lindsay, Rev. Mr. 125 Linthorne, trader, Poole

134,251 Little Bay, NF154 Little Bell Isle, NF 45 Little Harbour, NF 238 Little Placentia, NF 220 Little St. Lawrence, NF

117,154 Litton Chiney 61 Liverpool 147,160,

172-3,180,182,216, 226,241,272,274-5

Lock 215 Lockyer family 126,202 London 23,33,44,53,

147,154,160,169, 208,216,241,268, 272-4

Long family 130 Loony, Dermis 44 Loveless, John 126

Lower Sandy Point, NF 203

Luckem, Mary 178 Lulworth, East 198 Luscombe family 250 Lychett Minster 62,142,

187 Lydlinch, Dorset 62 Lyme Regis, Dorset 61,

199 Lymington, Hampshire

149-50,196,204

Macdesfíeld, Ches. 275 Macguire, Mr. 224 Madeley, Shrop. 275 Mahoney family 31 Majors of Bonne Bay

276 Mallowney family 31,

139 Mangotsfield 62 Mansfíeld, Joseph 196 Mansfíeld, Mr. 203 Mardon (Martin) 164,

173,250 Margary, William 170 Marnhull, Dorset 191,

198-9,210-1,213-4, 262

Marshall family 108, 169,250

Marshall, W. 169 Martock 142 Massachusetts colony

91 Masters, John 50, 80 Matthews family 250 Matthews, Keith 13,26,

83-4,219,233,251 Mauger (Major) 205 McDonald, John 248 McGrath, Roger 239 Mediterranean 236 Melcombe Horsey 62 Melcombe Regis,

Dorset 199 Mercer 106,108 Merchants:

and Newfoundland property 226

and settlers 232 of North Devon 80 of South Devon 170-1,182 Poole 184-5,226-32

Merriott, Somerset 210 Merritf s Harbour, NF

238 Messervey family 276 Mifflen family 134 Mifflin, Samson 197 Migrants:

age structure 243-8 in parish records 196 in Poole remo val orders 198 in settlement examina tions 196 in wills 197 marital status 248 occupations 249 social status 249

Migration patterns (1675-81) 64

Migration basin: 60 of Dartmouth 156 of Poole 198 of Teignmouth 160

Migration channels: 267 in early fishery 55

Migration origins: around Bridport 208 Blackmoor Vale 206 Combeinteignhead 171 English homelands 18,145 in early fishery 55 New Forest 201 Newton Abbot 169 of apprentices 61, 69,190 South Devon and Wessex 146 South Somerset 210

St Nicholas 173 Teignmouth 170 Wimborne and Wareham 205

337



See also Emigration fíelds and Trinity Bay

See also Emigration fíelds and TrinityBay

Migration systems 68 Migration: 23

changes in 18c system 78 of ship fishermen 23,53-8 of Channel Islanders 80-81 of Irish 88-9 processes for females 92 seasonal patterns 81 to New England 29 to the early colonies 34

Migratory fisheiy: early24 resource exploitation by 74,93

Milborne Port, Somerset 210-11

Miller family 78,126 Miller and Peyton 239 Miller, Fergus & Co.

(Bay Bulls) 179 Milles manuscript 167-9 Milner, William 210 Milton Abbas 262 Milton, NF 124 Moddicott family 178 Moore(s) family 106,

125 Moores 52,202 Moores, John 202 Moors 130 Moors, John 138 Moreton, Dorset 62 Morley family 125 Morrish, Richard 178 Morry family 250 Mortier Bay, NF 206 Morder, NF 76,77,104,

206,235-6,240 Mortimer family 171 Mortimore, John 173 Morton's Harbour, NF

238 Moulton, George of

Poole 235 Mudge family 183,250 Mugford (Mugwood)

family 46 Mulledge, James 179 Muffins, Richard 93 Musketto, NF 230

Napoleonic Wars 137, 182

Neave, mcht. Poole 220 Netherbury, Dorset 62,

196,209 New England 28-31,37,

43,59,68,224,280 migration to

New Forest, Hampshire 149-50, 201,203-4, 216

New Harbour, NF 75, 123-4,133

New Perlican, NF 122-4 New World Island, NF

237 Newcastle-upon-Tyne

275 Newell family 46,110,

125, 251 Newell, Thomas 46 Newfoundland School

Society 183 Newman 154,206,208,

211,251 Newman & Co, mcht,

Dartmouth 208 Newman, Hunt & Co,

Dartmouth 211 Newman, Robert & Co.

154 Newman, William 106 Newton 61,193 Newton Abbot, Devon

63,147,156-8,163, 166,168-71,174-5, 179,181-3,254,262

Newton Bushell 167-70 Nicole family 276 Nicoles, mcht, Jersey

276

Norris, Commodore 39 245

North Dorset 69,185, 193,206,208,210, 263

North Shore, Coneeption Bay, NF 236

Northam, Devon 8 Notre Dame Bay, NF

73,77,79,89,104, 119,150,152,190, 203-4,206-7,212, 220,236-8,241

Nova Scotia 235,280 Nutt, John 163

Oakley family of Wimborne 205

Oakley, James 191 Oborne, Dorset 142 Oderin (Auderin), NF

198,206,231-2,236 Oíd Perlican, NF 40,62,

117-8,122,125,130, 132-4,136,151-2, 197,202,224-5

Ommer, Rosemary 275 Oporto 236 Osborn, Governor 31 Osbourne, John 245 Osmond, Oake &

Ashford 239 Ougier, mcht,

Dartmouthl54 Owens, Arthur 174 Oxford 275 Oxford, Thomas 37

Pack 205 Pack, Robert 204,253 Paignton, Devon 63,

147,157-8,163, 165-7,169

Paines of Bonne Bay 276 Palliser, Governor 38,

87,92,133,226 Parker, Bulley & Job 180 Parker, Knight, &

Bulley 197 Parker, Nathan 182

338



Parrott family 130 Parsons family 106,108 Pass Island, NF 154 Passenger, Commodore

29-30 Passengers 25-6,30,

84-5 Payne, John 163 Pearce, Mrs. Charles

187 Pelly, Mr. John of

Xchurch 187,202 Penney family 106,126 Penney, Wm. & Sons

129 Penny 52,107-8 Penny, Joshua 193 Penson family 170-1 Percey, Commodore 30 Perchard family 276 Perkins, James 195 Perriman family 250 Perrot, Mr. of

Dartmouth 39 Perry family 93 Peterson 69 Petty Harbour, NF 64,

78,82,89,101,108-9, 110,154

Peyton family (Exploits) 78

Peyton, John 203 Peyton, John Jr. 203 Peyton, John Sr. 203 Philips family 250 Picco family 276 Piddletrenthide, Dorset

62 Piercey family 125 Pike family 52,125,251 Pike and Green 230 Pimperne, Devon 62 Pin (Pynn) family 46 Pinhorn family 52,125,

130 Pinsent family 170,182 Pinson250 Pitman, Mr. 252 Pittmans of Crewkerne

211 Pitts family 164

Placentia Bay, NF 19, 37,50,74,79,104, 118,220,206,235-6

Placentia, NF 31,76-7, 80,88-9,117-8, 205-6,241,276

Plaisance (Placentia), NF37

Plymouth 23,37,53,55, 59,65,81,94,146-7, 156,166,179,219

Plymouth, Mayor of 39 Pollard, William 43 Pool Plantation at

Ferryland, NF 35 Poole family 172 Poole 19,23,39,48-9,

50-5,59,61,65-9,74, 78-81,112,118,129, 133,137-8,142, 146-8,150,152,155, 172,185-7,189-191, 193,195-9,201, 203-5,209-12,214-6, 219-20,222,224-5, 229-230,232,235-7, 240-1,248,250-4, 262-3,271-4,278,280

Poole Bay 206 Poole, Robert 172 Poole:

recruitment of labour 185 trade 185 trade areas 118 traders and merchants 134

Poor Laws 15,105,171, 175,184,190,213, 256,261

Pope family 250 Population (Trinity

Bay): ethnic origins 132 growth 121 social conditions 135

Population: "take-ofPgrowth Conception Bay 99 continuity and change 43,104

females in 91 fiuctuations 28 growth rates 101 long-tenn trends in 96 regional growth 98 seasonal 28 structure 40 tumover 28

Port de Grave, NF 89, 93.107-8,113-15, 270,276

Port Grave (Port de Grave), NF 36

Porter, Captain 187 Portland, Dorset 61,

142,199,209 Ports in early fishery

53-5 Portsmouth 146,204 Portugal 59 Portugal Cove, NF 78,

89.108-10,270,276 Post Green estáte,

Lychett Minster, Dorset 187

Pottle family 113,126, 130,136

Pottle, James 202 Pottle, Mr. 224 Pottle, William 138 Powell, William 139 Power family 31 Powerstock, Dorset 61,

209 Prince Edward Island

280 Privateer:

Snap Dragón 179 Properties:

Bonavista Bay 110 Conception Bay (1805) 106,115

Prowse family 250 Prowse, D.W. 183 Puddletown, Dorset

187,191,199,209 Purket family 276

Queen Carne!, Som 210 Quick family 170,182

339



Quick, William 170 Quidi Vidi, NF 64,82,

101,108 Quinn, David 24

Radipole, Dorset 199 Randall, James 197 Randall, Jos. Sr. 197 Randall, Mary 197 Randell family 197,251 Randell, Captain224 Random Island, NF 225 Rawles, Joseph 195 Read family 125 Read, Thomas, mcht,

Xchurch 202,229 Recruitment 60,63,169,

186-8,192,215 in Newfoundland fishery 185

Reedman, Thomas 125 Reeves, Chief Justice

225-6,232-3 Reid family 202 Rendall 174,182-3 Rendell, Elias 172 Rendell, Elias Jr. 172 Rendall, Hon. Stephen

183 Rendall, John 182 Rendall, Sarah 176,177,

178 Renews, NF 34,36,40,

64-5,67-8,82 Renouf family 276 Resource Exploitation:

migratory and inhabitant sectors 74

Rich family 250 Richards family 130 Richards, Sarah of

Bristol 93 Rideout, Mr. of

Ringwood 188 Rideout, Wm & Son 239 Rider's Hr, NF 123,124 Ringmore, Devon

163-4,171-5 Ringwood, Hamp. 60,

129,142,149-50,152, 187-8,196,198,

200-1,203-5,239, 241,262

Roach family 108 Roberts family 46 Roberts, John 203,244 Roberts, Luke 244 Roberts, Mark 244 Roberts, Matthew 244 Roberts, (Heighington),

Mrs. Susannah 93 Robinson, Captain 29 Rocky Brook, NF 124 Rolles 134 Rolles, Samuel of Poole

133,229 Roope of Dartmouth

154,251 Rork, Anne 93 Rose Blanche, NF 208,

211,276 Roseman, C.C. 267 Round Harbour, NF 154 Routh 226 Routh, Richard 87 Row 164,171,173,174,

182,250 Row, Thomas 178,181 Rowe family, T.B. 125 Rowe, Elias 172 Rowell, Michael 183 Rowle, Robert 126 Rowsell family 78 Roy family, CX 276 Royal family 130 Rugg family 173 Rugg, John 175

Sagona Island, NF 154 Saint, Charles 191 Salcombe, Devon 156 Salmón Cove, Trinity

Bay, NF 65 Salmón fisheiy 77 Salmón, William 197 Salmón, William

Warren 198 Salmonier River, NF 80 Salvage, NF 40, 64, 74 Sanger, Thomas 193 Saunders 220 Saunders & Sweetman

241 Saunders, William 80 Saunders, Mr. of

Placentia 220 Savage & Deutsch 267 Scotland 268 Scots 241,269-70 Scott, Captain 94 Scott, Commodore 29 Seal fishery 77 Seally family 250 Searle family 250 Seaward family 164 Sellman, John 164 Servants:

in fishery 27 winter 85

Settlements: Anglo-Irish 89 as mercantile centres 118 formal schemes 33 growth & expansión 113-6 hierachies 116-20 in Trinity Bay 23-7 on island defence sites 45 site characteristics 40 spontaneous 17c 37

Shaftesbury, Dorset 61-2,69,193,197, 206-7,210

Shaldon, Devon 16, 160,163-4,170-5, 178-9,183,250

Shambler family 46, 110,204

Shapwick 196 Shaston (Shaftesbury)

61 Sheave, Mr. of

Sherbome 187 Sheppard family 108 Shepphard, Capt. 224 Sherbome, Doiset 62,

187,191,196,198, 210,254,262

Ship building 75 Ship fishermen 23

340



Ship Island, (GTond) NF112

Shoal Harbour, T.B. 124 Short 215 Short, George 195 Sidmouth, Devon 55 Sffly Cove, NF 50,224-5 Skeffíngton family 110 Skeffington, George

196,204 Skinner family 178 Slade 190,201-2,232,

240-2 Slade and Co. 240 Slade and Cox 240 Slade collectíon 188 Slade Family 236,

239-40 Slade ledgers 184,188,

193,202,237-9 Slade, David 237 Slade, John 188,206,

220,229,236-7,239, 251-2

Slade, John and Robert 240-1

Slade, John Jr. 239 Slade, Robert 236-7,240 Slade, Thomas 237 Sleat and Read, mchts,

Xchurch 52,203, 229,236,240

Sleat, Moses 229 Sleat, Mr. of Xchurch

188,202 Sleat, R.W. 202 Small, George 198 Smith, Capt James 233 Smith, Mr. of Wareham

202 Snelgrove family 93,

180 Snelgrove 93,180 Somerset 19,93,146,

150,159-60,184,195, 198,210-11,257,262, 268,270,272,276

Somersetshire 184 Sooley family 130 Soper family 250 South Coast, NF 211

South Devon(shire) 16, 18-19,23,55,59,63, 65,68-9,78,81-4,88, 146-7,154-5,160, 164,169,171,180-1, 219,262-3,271-2, 275,278-9,280

South Hams, Devon 157,158

South Perrott, Som. 195 South Petherton, Som.

210 South Shore, C.B, NF 99 South Somerset 146,

184,208,210,213, 216,278

South Wessex 180 Southampton 23,36,

53,59-60,62,163,204 Southeastern Ireland

145 Southern England 55 Southern Shore, Avalon

Pen, NF 19,64-5, 68-9,78,89-90

Southport 275 Southton

(Southampton) 62 South West Aim, T.B.

124 Southwest England 145 Spain 163 Sparkes family 250 Sparkes, merchant 154 Sparkes, Richard 202 Spencer, Richard 207 Spratt 220 Spratt, Samuel of

Wareham 206 Spumers, mchts, Poole

206,232 Spurrier properties 230 Spurrier, Bill 188 Spunier, Christopher

240 Spurrier, Wm. 220,251 Square Is., Lab. 205 Squarey family 171,

174,250 Squarey, Georgel72,179 Squarey, Johnl79

Squires family 110,250 St John's 19,31,37-8,

40,43-6,59,63-5, 67-9,76-8,82,89-90, 92,94,99,101,104, 106,108,110,150, 154-5,160,164, 172-3,175,178-9, 181-2,198,205,209, 215-16,226,232,235, 241-2,248,268, 271-2,274-5,279

St Joans (St John's) 164 St Lawrence, NF 89,

276 St. Lenoard's Harbour,

Lab. 205 St. Mary Church, Dev.

59,63,147,157-8, 163,165-8,175,254

St Mar/s Bay, NF 73, 80,104,206

St. Mary's, NF 79 St. Nicholas 163,164,

166,170-1,173-5, 178,182,245,262

St. Pierre and Miquelon 50,74,79-80,94,276

Stacey, Robert 193 Staffordshire 274 Stalbridge 206,262 Stanworth, Richard 197 Starcross, Devon 56-7 Staverton, Devon 166,

168,170 Stephens family 164,

250 Stephens, John 172,174 Stevenson, W. 207 Stigings family 171,173 Stigings, Thomas 173,

179 Stinsford, Dorset 62 Stirling, D.M. 169 Stokeinteignhead 59,

63,147,163-6,171, 173-5,182

Stoken Tinney 60,163 Stokes of Dartmouth

154 Stone, Thomas 52

341



Storey family 250 Story, Captain 30-1 Stour River 201 Straights 59 Strait of Belle Isle, NF

16,150,210-11,215, 276

Street, Mr. 195 Street, Thomas of Poole

112, 222,229,251 Studdy, Dartmouth 154 Studland 61 Sturminster Marshall,

Dorset 198 Sturminster (Newton),

Dorset 61,69,93, 150-2,187-8,193, 197-201,206-11, 213-16,240-1,244, 262-3

Sturton, Somerset 301 Sullivan family 31 Surnames:

analysis 43 Bonavista Bay 110 Channel Islanders 276 Conception Bay 106 continuity of 106 St. John's area 108 Trinity Bay 112-3

Swansea 160 Sweet family 52,202 Sweet, Ann 191 Sweetland family 126 Symes, Henry & Co.

239 Symondsbury, Dor. 62,

209,262

Talbot, George 46 Tapley family 46,250 Tapper, John 164 Taverner, Catherine 52,

79,113,130 Taverner family 46-7,

50,52,93,134,136, 222,251

Taverner, Andrew 50 Taverner, Benjamín 50 Taverner, Elizabeth 50-2

Taverner, Jacob 47,50 Taverner, John 47 Taverner, Joseph 50 Taverner, Mary 50 Taverner, Rachel 50 Taverner, Sarah 50,52 Taverner, William

47-50,224 Taylor 215 Teage 154 Teignmouth estuary 81,

156,160,163-4,168, 172,174

Teign River 147,161-3, 175

Teign Valley 163,171-2, 182

Teignmouth 16,23, 54-5,57-9,63,82, 146-7,154-6,158, 160-4,166-8,170-5, 179-83,185,189,190, 199,219,241,250, 262,271-2,274-5,278

Teignmouth Register of seamen's sixpences 15

Templecombe, Som. 210 Territorial Expansión 73 Tessier family 170,182 Thomas, Aaron 169 Thomas, Sarah 178 Thornton Rush,

Yorkshire 275 Thornton, P.A. 139-40 Tickle Bay, NF 124,225 Tiggs202 Tilley family 46 Tllly, George 202 lilting Hr, NF 89,

224-5,236,239 Tippett family 276 Tizzard's Hr, NF 238 Toad's (Tor's) Cove,

NF40 Tocque formula 145 Topsham, Devon 23,

57-9,65,81-2,146, 154,160,199,219, 262

Torbay 59-60,81,147,

157-8,167-8,182-3, 189-90,250

Torbay, NF 64,78,82, 89,101,108,110,164

Torbryan 63,147,166, 168

Tormohum (Torquay) 60,166,171,262

Torquay 60,154,157-8 Torre Mohum 168 Tory family of

Wimborné 205 Tory, Netlam 205 Tory, Richard 205 Totnes, Devon 63,147,

168 Townstall, Dartmouth

167 Transhumance 118 Tremblett 250 Tremblett, mcht,

Dartmouth 154 Trepassey, NF 40,64,

67,79-82,89,117 Trinity, NF 51,52,188 Trinity Bay, NF 16-19,

46-7,50-2,65-8,75, 78-9,81,89,94,99, 104-6,112-13, 116-126,128-38, 140-2,150-2,191, 196-8,202,204-5, 210-12,219-20,222, 224-6,229-30,235-6, 240-1,252,261, 271-2,275 age at marriage 18c, early 19c 138 family profiles 129 Irish servants 129 marriage 140 matrilines 130 mortality 18c 138 patrilines 125,140 settler origins 126, 130,132 settlements 121-5 social conditions 18c 135 winter servants 129

Tucker family 46,164

342



Tucker, Eliza 176,177-8 Tucker, Francis 61 Tucker, James 178 Tucker, John 178 Tucker, Thomas 174,178 Twillingate 196,229 Twillingate Is., NF 229 Twillingate, NF 73,77,

79,94,104,117, 151-2,196-7,202-3, 205,208,220,236-40, 242

Underhay, William 172 United States 235

Vale of Blackmore, see Blackmore Vale

Vallance family 170 Vallis family of Poole

129,134,251 Vancouver 169 Varder family 46 Varder, Anthony 93 Vaughan, Sir William 33 Veal, Mr. 203 Venison Island, Lab. 229 Verge family 130 Vey family 276 Virginia 59,91 Vokey family 276

Wales 59,147 Walkham family 110 Ward and Rowsell 239 Wareham 187-8,196,

200-1,206,209,216, 262

Wareham, John 126 Warminster, Wilts. 197 Warren family 136,171,

182-3 Warren, James 207 Warwick,

Warewickshire 275 Waterford, Ireland 88,

94,180,226,275 Waterman family 126,

130,202 Waterman, Captain

187,202 Watson, Phillip 80 Way family 170,250 Waymouth family 178,

182 Waymouth, Eliz. 175-8 Waymouth, Richard 175 Weatherall, Joseph 198 Webb, Captain 224 Webber family 46 Wells family 126,130 Wells, Jones & Co. 129 Welsh family 125 Wessex 18,19,146,148,

184-5,187,197,209, 211-12,216,241,249, 263,268,278

West Country 27,29, 32,44,62,84,188, 274

West Countryman 30, 33

West Dorset 209 West Hampshire 146,

184,204,241,278 West Indies 37,59 West Lulworth 191 West of England 13-15,

23-4,28,43,53,68-9 West Teignmouth 163,

172-3,182 West, Robert 172,182 Western Adventurers

37,64 Western Bay, NF 93,115 Western Hampshire

149-50 Westhatch, Som. 210 Westlake, Richard 178 Westover 210 Weymouth 23,59,61-2,

81,142,150,199, 209,262

Wheeler, William 193 Wheler, Captain 26,32 White mcht of Poole

134,197,222,236, 251

White Bay, NF 205,238 White, Joseph 50,52,

138,197,222,224 White, Mary 50 White, Samuel 50,138 White, Samuel: son of

Samuel 50 White, Solomon 197 White, William 50,193 Whiteway 182,250 Whiteway, Wm. 172,

182 Whitewood, Capt. Wm.

51-2 Wilking, Nicholas 173 Williams, Wllliam 61,

64,193,201,207 Wills, Thomas 179 Wiltshire 18,146,197 Wimborne Co. 203,205 Wimborne (Minster)

187-8,195-6,198, 200-1,204-5,209, 216,262

Wincanton 210-11 Winter 182 Winter servants 83 Winterborne Zelston,

Dorst 198 Wise family 251 Woodrow family 193 Woolborough (Newton

Abbot) 169,171 Worth Matravers,

Dorset 195 Wright, Mr. of Wareham

Yeovil, Somerset 142,210-11

Yetminster, Dorset 62 Yonge, James (surgeon)

40,43,59,67 Youghal, Ireland 88,

275 Young, Robert of

Sturminster214

Zelinsky, Wilbur 145

343
