The Irish Immigrants on the Cape Shore
Placentia was one of the major destinations for this seasonal
Irish movement, yet no permanent Irish settlements were
established on the Cape Shore in the beginning of the 19th
century. By this time a Waterford merchant family the Sweetmans
controlled the Placentia fishing trade and annually transported
hundreds of Irish men, some of whom stayed on during the winter
to cut timber for boat building.
Local folk tradition on the Cape Shore asserts that most of the
Irishmen who first settled there fished for Sweetmans and worked
as winter men before settling down.
John Lambe, a company planter at Point Verde,
began farming in Big Barrasway with his family as early as 1782. By
1800 he worked fifteen acres of land, probably the oldest farm on the
Cape Shore. It was subsequently acquired by Sweetmans, who used their
winter crews to extend the clearings. They placed one of their
servants, Patrick Keefe, there as manager, sometimes with as many as
ten young labourers. Keefe eventually acquired the farm. John Skerry
of Mooncoin first came to Placentia in 1768 as a migratory fisherman.
He worked with Welsh, Saunders and Sweetman and settled with his family
from Kilkenny in Ship Cove in 1794. He was later joined by two other
Mooncoin men who married Skerry's daughters. Patrick's Cove, then known
as Devil's Cove, was settled around 1804 by Bartholemew McGrath from Country
Tipperary, Ireland and his wife Catherine Ryan. The first permanent settler
in Cuslett in the early 1800's was Walter Manning. Around 1820, Philip
and Ned Careen from County Tipperary became the first permanent settlers
of Point Lance. The original settler of Branch came from Calvert on
the Southern Shore of Newfoundland. Thomas Nash from Callan in County
Kilkenny, came to Newfoundland in 1765 and settled in Calvert. He then
moved with his family to Mosquito Island in St. Mary's Bay and from there to
Branch. He was accompanied by an English Protestant named Kingspear. Kingspear
converted to Catholicism and changed his name to Kerry. Later two of Nash's
friends from Ireland, Nick Power and Bill English, joined him in Branch.
James Coffey was the first settler in Angel's Cove.
In 1794 four men who were ship wrecked at Cape St. Mary's on the Southern tip of the Shore,
wandered along the coast for four days without seeing a single
settlement. The first indication of permanent settlement appears
in 1802 when John Skerry a fisherman with Sweetman, petitioned
for land in Ship Cove, ten miles from Placentia. Genealogical
data suggests that a few immigrant Irish families settled on the
Cape Shore before 1810, initiating a trickle of migration that
endured until the late 1830's. In 1836 fifty-four families
were recorded but close to half of these were second generation
Cape Shore people.
Along the 50 mile stretch from Point Verde to Branch there were
no non-Irish Settlers, apart from the 30 English inhabitants
in the more populous settlement of Placentia.
The farmers along the Cape Shore were too distant from St. John's
to peddle goods there, nevertheless trading links with the city
were established early. According to local tradition, dry cattle
the most numerous type of livestock in the area in the mid 19th
century were driven every fall to be sold in St. John's. Despite
the rugged terrain along the coast, a road from Placentia to St.
Bride's was opened in 1844 and before 1850 was extended to Branch
in St. Mary's Bay. There were no resident merchants on the Cape
Shore. The Sweetmans' business at Placentia had
declined by 1850, so the Irish traded with the merchants in St.
John's.
Surnames found on the Cape Shore are Brennan, Campbell, Careen,
Coffey,Connors, Conway, Corcoran, Dohey, Downey, Doyle, English, Foley, Griffin, Judge, Linehan,
Lundrigan, Mahoney, Manning, McGrath, Mooney, Morrissey, Murphy, Nash, O'Keefe, O'Reilly, O'Rourke,
Power, Tobin, Quigley, Roche, White and Young.
Sources:
Mannion, Dr. John J., "Irish settlements in Eastern Canada", 1974.
"Society and Settlements in a Newfoundland Harbour: Plaisance/Placentia 1675-1725"
"Irish Merchants Abroad: The Newfoundland Experience, 1750-1850."
Our Cultural Heritage - A Short History of the Cape Shore Area.