Ferryland is a town in

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 ...

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 ...

. According to the 2021

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 cultu ...

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

, its population is 371.

Seventeenth century settlement

Ferryland was originally established as a station for migratory fishermen in the late 16th century but had earlier been used by the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, and

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

. By the 1590s it was one of the most popular fishing harbours in Newfoundland and acclaimed by Sir

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 rebelli ...

. Ferryland was called "Farilham" by the Portuguese fishermen and "Forillon" by the French—it later became anglicized to its current name "Ferryland." (This should not be confused with the Forillon National Park in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, which still keeps its French name.) The land was granted by

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 re ...

to the London and Bristol Company in the 1610s and the vicinity became the location of a number of short-lived

English colonies The English overseas possessions, also known as the English colonial empire, comprised a variety of overseas territories that were colonised, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the former Kingdom of England during the centuries before the Ac ...

Cuper's Cove Cuper's Cove, on the southwest shore of Conception Bay on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula was an early English settlement in the New World, and the third one after Harbour Grace, Newfoundland (1583) and Jamestown, Virginia (1607) to endure for lo ...

, Bristol's Hope, and Renews and adjoined the colony of

South Falkland South Falkland was an English colony in Newfoundland established by Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland, in 1623 on territory in the Avalon Peninsula including the former colony of Renews. Cary appointed Sir Francis Tanfield, his wife's cousin, to ...

. In 1620 the territory was granted to

George Calvert George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (; 1580 – 15 April 1632), was an English politician and colonial administrator. He achieved domestic political success as a member of parliament and later Secretary of State under King James I. He lost m ...

, 1st

Baron Baltimore Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore, County Longford, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1625 and ended in 1771, upon the death of its sixth-generation male heir, aged 40. Holders of the title were usually known as Lord Baltimo ...

who had obtained the holdings from William Vaughan. Calvert appointed Edward Wynne 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 '' metropolitan state' ...

which became the first successful permanent colony in

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 ...

growing to a population of 100 by 1625. In 1623, Calvert's grant was confirmed and expanded. The Charter of Avalon was granted to Lord Baltimore by James I. Dated 7 April 1623 it created the

Province of Avalon The Province of Avalon was the area around the English settlement of Ferryland in what is now Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada in the 17th century, which upon the success of the colony grew to include the land held by Sir William Vaughan and a ...

on the island of Newfoundland and gave Baltimore complete authority over all matters in the territory. That same year Baltimore chose Ferryland as the principal area of settlement. In the 1660s, the colony was attacked by the Dutch. The town was destroyed by New France in 1696 during the Avalon Peninsula Campaign of

King William's War King William's War (also known as the Second Indian War, Father Baudoin's War, Castin's War, or the First Intercolonial War in French) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand Alli ...

. Virtually forgotten for centuries, excavations of the original settlement began in earnest in the late 1980s and continue to this day.

Historic designations

The site of the 17th-century

Colony of Avalon The Province of Avalon was the area around the English settlement of Ferryland in what is now Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada in the 17th century, which upon the success of the colony grew to include the land held by Sir William Vaughan and ...

was designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

in 1953. It was also designated a Municipal Heritage District in 1998. The Historic Ferryland Museum was designated a Municipal Heritage Site in 2006.

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

, Ferryland 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.

Gallery

File:FerrylandMansion 2011.jpg, Excavated foundation of mansion house. File:James Yonge's map of Ferryland, ca. 1663..jpg, Map of Ferryland in 1663 Image:Mapof ferryland.jpg, Map of Ferryland in 1693

References

External links