Cambriol or New Cambriol was the name given to one of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
's early Welsh colonies established by
Sir William Vaughan (1575–1641). The area Vaughan had purchased from the
Company of Adventurers to Newfoundland in 1616 was all that land on the
Avalon Peninsula located south of a line drawn from Caplin Bay (now
Calvert) to
Placentia Bay
Placentia Bay (french: Baie de Plaisance) is a body of water on the southeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It is formed by Burin Peninsula on the west and Avalon Peninsula on the east. Fishing grounds in the bay were used by native people lo ...
(near present-day
Gooseberry Cove
Gooseberry Cove is a settlement in the Trinity Bay area of Newfoundland located on an area of land known as the Southwest Arm, which extends off the Trans Canada Highway on Route 204. It is neighbored by the communities of Butter Cove and So ...
).
Vaughan had called the area New Cambriol — "a little
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
" 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. ...
.
In his book ''The Golden Fleece'',
an
allegory
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
in praise of his colony, makes the following assertion concerning Cambriol:
History
Sir William Vaughan, a
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and colonizer, was deeply concerned with the prevailing economic conditions of Wales in the early 17th century and became interested in establishing 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 ...
in
Newfoundland.
In 1617–1618 he had obtained the services of
Richard Whitbourne and sent out settlers to his new colony, at his own expense, to establish roots there.
His naming of the area as Cambriol, was a gesture of good will for his native country Wales where he envisaged a new country for his fellow countrymen "''reserved by God for us Britons''"
and as eloquently portrayed in the verse by fellow colonizer
John Guy:
Vaughan had sent a number of settlers in 1617 with every good intention of making the maiden voyage himself and settling in his new colony with them. Because of ill health, Vaughan was not able to do so. Then in 1618 he requested Sir
Richard Whitbourne to take on the task of colonizing Cambriol and in return offered him
governorship
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
, which he accepted.
Two vessels were charter by Whitbourne to make the voyage. One of the vessels, which carried a crew of fisherman for the colony, was
waylaid by
pirates and was never regained. This was the first of many setbacks to the longevity of the colony. As evidence in Whitbourne's letter back to Vaughan in 1618 where he informs us:
Upon arrival at Cambriol, Whitbourne was not pleased with the progress of the original settlers and sent all but six back to Wales citing a complete lack of pioneering initiative and thorough laziness.
Withbourne was harsh and vitriolic in his description of the work the settlers had done in the year since they first arrived as can be seen in his correspondence to Vaughan:
With the loss of population, Vaughan was obligated to hand over the northern part of his colony (
Fermeuse
Fermeuse ( ) ( NST) is a town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The town had a population of 266 in the Canada 2021 Census.
The town is located on the eastern portion of the Avalon Peninsula approximately 80 kilometers south ...
area) to
Lord Falkland
Viscount Falkland is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. Referring to the royal burgh of Falkland in Fife, it was created in 1620, by King James VI, for Sir Henry Cary, who was born in Hertfordshire and had no previous connection to Scotla ...
and to
Lord Baltimore the area around
Ferryland
Ferryland is a town in Newfoundland and Labrador on the Avalon Peninsula. According to the 2021 Statistics Canada census, its population is 371.
Seventeenth century settlement
Ferryland was originally established as a station for migratory fis ...
.
Vaughan at New Cambriol
Vaughan did eventually arrive at his colony in 1622
and during his three or four years stay wrote ''The Golden Fleece'' in an effort to stimulate the colonists into hard work.
He returned to Britain to arrange publication of his work and returned to New Cambriol in 1628. The colony suffered terribly over the next few years due to harsh weather conditions and the constant destruction of property at the hands of the
French and other
Grand Bank
Grand Bank or 'Grand Banc' as the first French settlers pronounced it, is a small rural town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, with a population of 2,580. It is located on the southern tip or "toe" of the Burin Peninsula (al ...
fishermen
A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish.
Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...
.
Vaughan had returned to his native Wales in 1630 to settle his financial affairs and at the same time to convince his brother-in-law Sir
Henry Salusbury of
Denbigh and other "''gentlemen of Wales''" to join him in his colony at New Cambriol. Vaughan had offered grants of land but no one took him up on the offer.
Dissolution of colony
No other information is available to determine if Vaughan had returned to his colony New Cambriol after 1630, but his efforts to entice further colonization did not cease. In 1630 he published a medical handbook entitled Newlander's Cure,
whereby it contained advice for colonists on the preservation of health.
All efforts to increase colonization had failed and sometime between 1630 and 1637 the colony was abandoned. At that time Vaughan was nearly sixty years old and he had given up any further attempts of colonization. In 1637 the
Privy Council was informed of its failure and the failure of other colonies in
Newfoundland.
Then in 1637 Sir
David Kirke
Sir David Kirke ( – 1654), also spelt David Ker, was an adventurer, privateer and colonial governor. He is best known for his successful capture of Québec in 1629 during the Thirty Years' War and his subsequent governorship of lands in Ne ...
and his partners were given a
royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...
giving them possession of
Newfoundland with Kirke as
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 propert ...
. This charter superseded all other earlier charters granted to the earlier colonizers of the
Avalon Peninsula, as they were deemed to have been abandoned.
References
{{coord, 46.916, N, 53.231, W, display=title
European colonization of North America
Populated coastal places in Canada
Populated places in Newfoundland and Labrador
Populated places established in 1616
Welsh Canadian
Welsh emigration
Former English colonies
1616 establishments in the British Empire
1616 establishments in North America