Bristol’s Hope is an unorganized subdivision on the

Avalon Peninsula The Avalon Peninsula () is a large peninsula that makes up the southeast portion of the island of Newfoundland in Canada. It is in size. The peninsula is home to 270,348 people, about 52% of the province's population, according to the 2016 Ca ...

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is in Division 1 and contains the unincorporated community of Bristol's Hope.

Bristol's Hope

Bristol's Hope is the modern name of a community in the province of

. It is located on

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 ...

between Carbonear and Harbour Grace. The place names Musket's Cove and Mosquito have been used since about the 1630s to refer to the area now called Bristol's Hope (Seary 1971: 63). The community was renamed in 1904 to commemorate the 1617 outpost of that name, an offshoot of the John Guy colony established at Cupids, ten miles away, in 1610 (Dale 1981a). The Plantation of Bristol's Hope was the second English colony in Newfoundland established by the Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers. It was a "sister" colony to

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 ...

, established in 1618 with a land grant from 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 Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 unti ...

, and was settled by some of the colonists from Cuper's Cove.

Robert Hayman Robert Hayman (14 August 1575 – November 1629) was a poet, colonist and Proprietary Governor of Bristol's Hope colony in Newfoundland. Early life and education Hayman was born in Wolborough near Newton Abbot, Devon, the eldest of nine c ...

was the colony's only

Proprietary Governor Proprietary colonies were a type of colony in English America which existed during the early modern period. In English overseas possessions established from the 17th century onwards, all land in the colonies belonged to the Crown, which held ul ...

as this colony only existed until about 1631 before being abandoned. Although some accounts have the original colony centred at present-day Harbour Grace, the Plantation itself was much larger and included the modern location. According to the 1677 Newfoundland Census, there were two households with permanent residences in "Musketa" consisting of thirteen family members and twenty-three servants. When the region came under attack from the French in 1697, their records list "Mosquit" as having "3 planters, 5 boats, and 2500 codfish". The current population is fewer than 200 people. Possibly the settlement's most famous native-son was General Sir Henry Pynn, who fought under

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

against Napoleon, and was the first native-born Newfoundlander to be knighted. His ancestor was one of the leaders in the successful defence of Carbonear Island against the French under D’Iberville in 1697.

References

* Dale, J. Ralph. 1981a. "Bristol’s Hope." ENL, I. St. John's: NBP. 264-265 * * SMALLWOOD, J.R. 1941. "Newfoundland 1941 Hand Book". Gazetteer. St. John's. Newfoundland and Labrador subdivisions {{Newfoundland-geo-stub