Cuper's Cove, on the southwest shore of
Conception Bay
Conception Bay (CB) is a bay on the southeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The population (in 2011) of people living in municipalities (or unincorporated census subdivisions) located along the coast of Conception Bay was 90,490 making it on ...
on
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
's
Avalon Peninsula
The Avalon Peninsula (french: Péninsule d'Avalon) is a large peninsula that makes up the southeast portion of the island of Newfoundland. It is in size.
The peninsula is home to 270,348 people, about 52% of Newfoundland's population, according ...
was an early
English settlement
''English Settlement'' is the fifth studio album and first double album by the English rock band XTC, released 12 February 1982 on Virgin Records. It marked a turn towards the more pastoral pop songs that would dominate later XTC releases, wit ...
in the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
, and the third one after
Harbour Grace, Newfoundland (1583) and
Jamestown, Virginia
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James (Powhatan) River about southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was ...
(1607) to endure for longer than a year. It was established in 1610 by
John Guy on behalf of Bristol's
Society of Merchant Venturers
The Society of Merchant Venturers is a charitable organisation in the English city of Bristol.
The society can be traced back to a 13th-century guild which funded the voyage of John Cabot to Canada. In 1552, it gained a monopoly on sea trading ...
, who had been given a charter by King
James I of England
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the Union of the Crowns, union of the Scottish and Eng ...
to establish a
colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
on the island of Newfoundland. Most of the settlers left in the 1620s, but apparently a few stayed on and the site was continuously inhabited.
The community is currently known as
Cupids
Cupids is a town of 699 people (per the 2021 Census) on Conception Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It has also been known as Coopers, Copers Cove, Cupers Cove, and Cuperts. It is the oldest continuously settled official British colony ...
.
Site selection
In the early sixteenth century the island of Newfoundland was frequented by seasonal fisherman from many
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an countries. The competition was tough to be the first to sail to the rich fishing grounds around the island and indeed the rest of North America. The island had some obvious advantages over the rest of North America as a site to establish an English colony. The island was very familiar to fisherman and explorers, especially the bays and coves on the
Avalon Peninsula
The Avalon Peninsula (french: Péninsule d'Avalon) is a large peninsula that makes up the southeast portion of the island of Newfoundland. It is in size.
The peninsula is home to 270,348 people, about 52% of Newfoundland's population, according ...
where many would set up temporary shelters as they prosecuted the fishery. The merchants and owners of the vessels that made those trips to Newfoundland had recognized the importance that the strategic location that Newfoundland had placed on establishing a permanent settlement.
Time was ripe for a permanent settlement in Newfoundland. Given the failure of
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...
to establish a colony at
Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island () is an island in Dare County, North Carolina, Dare County, bordered by the Outer Banks of North Carolina, United States. It was named after the historical Roanoke (tribe), Roanoke, a Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the ar ...
in 1584 and the successful settlement at
Jamestown in 1607 and on learning that
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fre ...
had sailed into the
St. Lawrence
Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roma ...
to initiate the settlement of
New France
New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...
, pressure was mounting to lay claim to the resource rich New World. King James was told that the
French had made attempts to over-winter in Newfoundland and it was only a matter of time before a successful colony would be established by the French and lay claim to the island.
Kevin Major
Kevin Major (born September 12, 1949) is a Canadian author who lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador with his wife. He writes for both young people and adults, including fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, and plays.
Major was born a ...
, ''As Near to Heaven by Sea: A History of Newfoundland and Labrador'', 2001,
In 1607 Bristol's ''
Society of Merchant Venturers
The Society of Merchant Venturers is a charitable organisation in the English city of Bristol.
The society can be traced back to a 13th-century guild which funded the voyage of John Cabot to Canada. In 1552, it gained a monopoly on sea trading ...
'' which included Sir
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...
, Sir
Percival Willoughby
Sir Percival Willoughby (died 23 August 1643) of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire was a prominent land owner, businessman, and entrepreneur involved during his lifetime variously in mining, iron smelting, and glass making enterprises in Nottinghamsh ...
and
John Slany John Slany, Slaney or Slanie, etc. (died 1632),Will of John Slany, Merchant Taylor of London (P.C.C. 1632, Audley quire). was an English merchant and ship builder of Shropshire origins who became Master of the Merchant Taylor's Company in 1620, and ...
, had formed the
Newfoundland Company
The London and Bristol Company came about in the early 17th century when English merchants had begun to express an interest in the Newfoundland fishery. Financed by a syndicate of investors John Guy, himself a Bristol merchant, visited Newfoun ...
with shares selling at £25. The Newfoundland Company had then petitioned the King
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
, seeking approval to establish a colony in Newfoundland. John Guy visited the island in 1608 to scout possible locations for a settlement, selecting Cuper's Cove as his preferred location. The
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
accepted his petition on 2 May 1610
issuing a
charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
to the
Earl of Northampton
Earl of Northampton is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created five times.
Earls of Northampton, First Creation (1071)
* Waltheof (d. 1076)
* Maud, Queen of Scotland (c.1074–1130/31)
*Simon II de Senlis (1103–1153)
* Simon II ...
(Guy's patron).
In 1610 John Guy, his brother Phillip, his brother-in-law
William Colston
William Colston ( fl. 1610–1612) was an Englishman and one of the first settlers in the colony at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
He was almost certainly a native of Bristol, England, and travelled to Newfoundland in 1610 as ...
and 38 colonists had set sail from Bristol aboard three ships.
[ D.W. Prowse, ''A History of Newfoundland'', 1895, ] In August 1610 they made landfall in the area Guy had visited two years earlier to set about building a settlement.
Site construction (1610—1611)
John Guy had landed at Cuper's Cove in August 1610 and is described in a letter from John Guy to Sir Percival Willoughby from Cuper's Cove,
["Cupers Cove – Early English Settlement"](_blank)
/ref> 6 October 1610 where it states in part:
The colonists all male were made up of masons, carpenter
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...
s, blacksmiths
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
and other apprentices to build fortifications and dwellings to prepare for the coming winter. The charter had stipulated that the settlers of Cuper's Cove were not to interfere with the operation of the migratory fishery in any way. It wasn't deemed a problem, for the Cuper's Cove area was not considered prime fishing grounds, but certainly over winter they would have time to prepare for the next year fishing season and they would be the first on those grounds.
Guy and his colonists began clearing the area and by May 1611 the colony consisted of a dwelling house and a store house contained within a . x . enclosure, a second dwelling house, a work house and a forge
A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to th ...
. Within the confines of the settlement were two saw pits and a wooden defense works upon which three cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
s were mounted.[William Gilbert, ''Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation: Journeys Through Time'', 2005, Pamphlet]
One of the first items of construction was to dig a cellar, which in recent excavations has determined it to be roughly . across with a maximum depth of seven feet, walled-up with flat stone and back-filled with rubble. The dwellings were made of cobble
Cobble may refer to:
* Cobble (geology), a designation of particle size for sediment or clastic rock
* Cobblestone, partially rounded rocks used for road paving
* Hammerstone, a prehistoric stone tool
* Tyringham Cobble, a nature reserve in Tyr ...
and flagstone
Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other con ...
floors with some areas covered by wooden timbers and floor boards. The end of the first winter, a mild winter, the report back to England was very optimistic where Guy notes that the months of October and November are both warmer and drier than in England.[Guy's letter to John Slany.]
The livestock they had brought from England had thrived and had added to their numbers.
The colonists built, along with the dwellings and support structures, six fishing vessels and a twelve tonne bark, ''Endeavour.'' Fortifications were by means of a palisade
A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade.
Etymology
''Palisade' ...
wall of local cut poles sixteen feet long set upright all around the perimeter of the settlement. The fortress was completed by the summer of 1612 to defend the plantation against the pirate Peter Easton
Peter Easton ( – 1620 or after) was a pirate in the early 17th century. The 'most famous English pirate of the day', his piracies ranged from Ireland and Guinea to Newfoundland. He is best known today for his involvement in the early En ...
.
Settlement expansion (1612–1613)
The plantation continued development and by 8 September 1612 a dwelling for Henry Crout Henry Crout ( fl. 1612 – 1617) was a settler and explorer, most likely from Devon in the English West Country. He became an investor in the London and Bristol Company and acted as Sir Percival Willoughby's agent and guardian to his son Thomas at t ...
and his ward Thomas Willoughby had begun. By the spring of 1613 at least sixteen structures were built on the site. Much of the land had been cleared for the planting of crops and to allow livestock to pasture.
John Guy had stayed at the colony during the winter of 1610 to 1611 and had returned to England in the autumn of 1611. Four of the colonists had died during the winter of 1610 to 1611. In the spring of 1612, Guy had returned, this time with more adventurers and livestock. Guy, an alderman
An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...
and sound churchman, had also brought with him a clergyman, Rev. Erasmus Stourton Erasmus Stourton (1603, Narborough, Leicestershire, Narborough, Leicestershire, England – November 1658, Walesby, Lincolnshire, Walesby, Lincolnshire, England) was a clergyman and early settler to the Province of Avalon, Colony of Avalon, Colony o ...
.
During the winter of 1612 to 1613 sixty-two people were known to be at the plantation. That winter eight deaths were recorded, all apparently from scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Early symptoms of deficiency include weakness, feeling tired and sore arms and legs. Without treatment, decreased red blood cells, gum disease, changes to hair, and bleeding ...
. There was also a birth recorded, the first English child born in Newfoundland and what is now Canada. The child was born to Nicholas Guy
Nicholas Guy (fl. 1612 – 1631) was one of the first settlers at the London and Bristol Company's Cuper's Cove, colony in Newfoundland, and was the father of the first English child born in Newfoundland and subsequently all of the country o ...
and his wife on 27 March 1613.
Beothuk contact
No mention of the natives of Newfoundland, namely the Beothuk
The Beothuk ( or ; also spelled Beothuck) were a group of indigenous people who lived on the island of Newfoundland.
Beginning around AD 1500, the Beothuk culture formed. This appeared to be the most recent cultural manifestation of peoples w ...
, is made in the petition of the charter of the Newfoundland Company, a fact that had helped speed it through Privy Council. There was a brief notation in the charter that stated explicitly any contact with natives would be to convert them to Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
. Guy had assumed that the natives had long since left Conception Bay
Conception Bay (CB) is a bay on the southeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The population (in 2011) of people living in municipalities (or unincorporated census subdivisions) located along the coast of Conception Bay was 90,490 making it on ...
, but he knew that they lived not far away. One reason for his construction of the bark ''Indeavour'' was to explore nearby Trinity Bay and to make contact with the Beothuk.
Two failed attempts to make contact with the Beothuk overland (see article on Henry Crout Henry Crout ( fl. 1612 – 1617) was a settler and explorer, most likely from Devon in the English West Country. He became an investor in the London and Bristol Company and acted as Sir Percival Willoughby's agent and guardian to his son Thomas at t ...
and construction of Crout's Way) Guy had readied his bark and one of his newly constructed fishing vessels to set off in search of the Beothuk at Trinity Bay. In October 1612, Guy, Crout and seventeen others set sail in both vessels in search of the Beothuks. They had entered Mount Eagle Bay ( Hopeall) on October 22 and two days later they found several Beothuk houses in a place they called ''Savage Harbour'' located at Dildo Arm. They found a path leading to a freshwater pond that proved to also be a campground for the Beothuk.[Guy's journal October 26 - November 10, 1612]
A modern excavation at this site called Russell's Point has yielded many artifacts of this campsite.
John Guy and his party eventually did meet with the Beothuk at a Bull Arm
Bull Arm is a natural Arm (geography), arm of approximately 10 miles in length and average of 1 mile wide located at the Isthmus of Avalon on the Avalon Peninsula in the Canada, Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Newfoundland ...
, where they shared gifts and a meal. The Beothuk had lit a fire to express their willingness to trade and they also produced a white flag made from a wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...
skin.
Post colony use
Captain John Mason was appointed the new Proprietary Governor
A proprietary colony was a type of English colony mostly in North America and in the Caribbean in the 17th century. In the British Empire, all land belonged to the monarch, and it was his/her prerogative to divide. Therefore, all colonial proper ...
of the colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
in 1615, but he too grew tired of disputes with fishermen and with the difficulties of the terrain, and abandoned the colony in 1621 for New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
.
Patuxet
The Patuxet were a Native American band of the Wampanoag tribal confederation. They lived primarily in and around modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, and were among the first Native Americans encountered by European settlers in the region in th ...
tribesman, Tisquantum (better known as Squanto
Tisquantum (; 1585 (±10 years?) – late November 1622 O.S.), more commonly known as Squanto Sam (), was a member of the Patuxet tribe best known for being an early liaison between the Native American population in Southern New England and t ...
) was brought here by Sir John Slany John Slany, Slaney or Slanie, etc. (died 1632),Will of John Slany, Merchant Taylor of London (P.C.C. 1632, Audley quire). was an English merchant and ship builder of Shropshire origins who became Master of the Merchant Taylor's Company in 1620, and ...
in 1617 and worked with Captain John Mason, governor of the Newfoundland Colony. While being here, he encountered a ship's captain by the name of Thomas Dermer
Thomas Dermer (c. 1590 in Plymouth, England – died in the summer of 1620, in Virginia) was a 17th-century navigator and explorer. Thomas Dermer explored the eastern coastline of America from 1614 to 1620. He was associated with John Smith (e ...
, who had worked with both Sir Ferdinando Gorges
Sir Ferdinando Gorges ( – 24 May 1647) was a naval and military commander and governor of the important port of Plymouth in England. He was involved in Essex's Rebellion against the Queen, but escaped punishment by testifying against the m ...
and Captain John Smith
John Smith (baptized 6 January 1580 – 21 June 1631) was an English soldier, explorer, colonial governor, Admiral of New England, and author. He played an important role in the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first pe ...
. After staying for many months at this site, Squanto thought he would be able to return home to the modern-day American state of , but Dermer took him back to London to meet Gorges and ask for permission about the trip to Squanto's homeland. He eventually found a ship bounding for his homeland, but later discovered that his tribe had been all wiped out by an unknown disease.
There is some evidence that an unorganized settlement remained here possibly into the eighteenth century before finally being abandoned, although the cove remained a popular location for visiting fishermen. Cuper's Cove is now known as the Town of Cupids.
Names and Details of the Original 39 Colonists
* William Colston
William Colston ( fl. 1610–1612) was an Englishman and one of the first settlers in the colony at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
He was almost certainly a native of Bristol, England, and travelled to Newfoundland in 1610 as ...
, brother-in-law of John Guy
* Richard Fletcher, master pilot
* John Guy
* Philip Guy, brother of John Guy
* John Morris, died 1 February 1610
* Thomas Percy, died 11 December 1610
* Thomas Stone, died 13 April 1611
* Marmaduke Whittington, died 15 February 1610 of smallpox
See also
* List of communities in Newfoundland and Labrador
This article lists unincorporated communities of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Incorporated towns and cities are incorporated municipalities and can be found on List of municipalities in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Newfoundla ...
* Bristol's Hope
Division No. 1, Subdivision I is an unorganized subdivision on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is in Division 1 and contains the unincorporated community of Bristol's Hope.
Bristol's Hope
Bristol's Hope is the mod ...
* British colonization of the Americas
The British colonization of the Americas was the history of establishment of control, settlement, and colonization of the continents of the Americas by England, Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. C ...
References
External links
Newfoundland and Labrador Museum
Baccalieu ''Crossroads for Cultures''
{{coord, 47, 32, 43.52, N, 53, 13, 55.27, W, region:CA-NL_type:city, display=title
Populated coastal places in Canada
Populated places established in 1610
1621 disestablishments in North America
Former English colonies
1610 establishments in the British Empire