Spaniard's Bay is a town in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Newfoundland and Labrador 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 ...

. It is located on the northwest side of Conception Bay and consists of Vokey's Shore, Northern Cove, Mint Cove, Green Head, and Goddenville. The name Spaniard's Bay came from the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

and

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fishermen who frequented the port in the 16th century and 17th century, and were referred to by the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

as ‘

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance peoples, Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of National and regional identity in Spain, national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex Hist ...

’. Occupation of the area was seasonal at first, as with most of Newfoundland, but gradually English fishermen began to make permanent homes in Spaniard's Bay around 1776. American Traders were visiting Spaniard's Bay before 1776 and they exchanged

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Phili ...

, and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

for

cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

. By 1805, there were 400 people living in the area and according to the 1871 Lovell's Directory, the population would rise to 1,182 in less than seventy years. The majority of the settlers were English and had

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

origin, but there was a strong

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population. By the end of 1991, the population would be close to 2,200. The initial settlement at Spaniard's Bay centred on Mint Cove and Northern Cove. Some of the people living in Mint Cove before 1800 were Jonathan Sheppard, John Warford, Timothy Collins, and William Chipman. William Gosse and Robert Gosse, Jr. had a dockyard in Northern Cove in 1790, while Thomas Noseworthy and William Porter were living at Green Head in 1796. The Smith and Barrett families occupied Bread and Cheese Cove (

Bishop's Cove Bishop's Cove is a town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador situated in Spaniard's Bay on the Avalon Peninsula. History Originally called ''Bread and Cheese Cove'', the cove was renamed for the Rev. John Inglis, an Anglican b ...

), with the Smiths claiming to have been in possession of the land since 1625. There were 400 people in 38 families occupying 36 registered properties in Spaniard's Bay. Some of the family names included Peddle, Kelly, Neil, Besom, Brown, Forter, Phelan, Seymour, Vokey, Butt, Baggs, Baker, and Menchions. Recently the new family name of Cutler has been added to the list of Spaniard's Bay settlers, originating from the Kleinburg region of Southern Ontario. There is a site at Spaniard's Bay listed on the

Canadian Register of Historic Places The Canadian Register of Historic Places (CRHP; french: Le Répertoire canadien des lieux patrimoniaux), also known as Canada's Historic Places, is an online directory of historic sites in Canada which have been formally recognized for their her ...

; the Mark Gosse Residence, number 6039.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Spaniard's Bay had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

References

Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador Populated places in Newfoundland and Labrador 1705 establishments in the British Empire {{Newfoundland-geo-stub