Colonel Moody

Colonel Moody and his officers bought up the titles of the French who were leaving. The English fisherman who later came to reap the rich harvest of Placentia fish complained that they had to pay heavy rents to their new owners. This was one reason for placing Placentia under the Governor of Nova Scotia. Another reason was, the legality of the settlers was not recognized in any other part of Newfoundland at this time. Legal questions arose out of the French fishing premises which were not settled until 1729 when the first naval governor of the island was appointed.

The Biscayne and the French Basque thought that they could still fish at Placentia and came here in 1715 only to be told by Moody, then Lieutenant-Governor, that he had no orders to allow the Spanish or the Basque to fish at Placentia and he ordered them away.

Colonel Moody had a very difficult time in governing Placentia because it was not on the trade route of the British sack ships. No trading ships came and, the garrison and the civilian population were in danger of starvation. Moody was the only person with credit, and he developed a monopoly in trade with the New England ships that still continued to come. Moody gave the lack of rum for his soldiers as one of his reasons for starting the trade. Rum was a necessity in this time, and he wrote "water thawed from ice would have infallibly killed most of them". So the governor's credit was pledged and Moody between his rents and his business became a very wealthy man. His soldiers continued to suffer and in 1717 Moody wrote to London saying that in four years no new uniforms had come to his men and they were almost naked.

There was trouble between the governor of Nova Scotia represented by Moody and the fishing admirals. Each claimed jurisdiction over the fishery, the home government supported the admirals which made it difficult for the Lieutenant-Governor. Reports of Moody's trading ventures were sent to London and on April 17, 1719 Lieutenant-Colonel Gledhill was appointed as commander of the fort and Lieutenant-Governor of the town.


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Source:
McCarthy, Michael, "A History of Plaissance and Placentia 1501-1970" pages 75-76.