List of governors of Newfoundland and Labrador

Last updated October 07, 2024

The following is a list of governors, commodore-governors, and lieutenant governors of Newfoundland and Labrador. Though the present day office of the lieutenant governor in Newfoundland and Labrador came into being only upon the province's entry into Canadian Confederation in 1949, the post is a continuation from the first governorship of Newfoundland in 1610.

Proprietary governors of Newfoundland, 1610–1728
Governors of Plaisance, 1655–1713
Lieutenant-governors of Placentia, 1713–1770
Commodore-governors of Newfoundland, 1729–1825
Civil governors of Newfoundland, 1825–1855
Colonial governors of Newfoundland, 1855–1907
Governors of the Dominion of Newfoundland, 1907–1934
Commission governors of Newfoundland, 1934–1949
Lieutenant governors of Newfoundland, 1949–1999
Lieutenant governors of Newfoundland and Labrador, 1999–present
See also
Notes
References
External links

Proprietary governors of Newfoundland, 1610–1728

#	Name	Colony	Term start	Term end
Governors under James I (1610–1625):
	John Guy	Cuper's Cove	1610	1614
	John Mason	Cuper's Cove	1615	1621
	Robert Hayman	Bristol's Hope	1618	1628
	Sir Richard Whitbourne	Renews	1618	1620
	Sir Francis Tanfield	South Falkland	1623	1626
	Edward Wynne	Ferryland	1621	1625
Governors under Charles I (1625–1649):
	Sir Arthur Aston	Avalon	1625	1627
	The Lord Baltimore	Avalon	1627	1629
	The Lord Baltimore ^{[n 1]}	Avalon	1629	1632
	William Hill	Avalon	1634	1638
1.	Sir David Kirke	Newfoundland	1638	→
Governors under Oliver Cromwell (1649–1658):
1.	cont...		←	1651
2.	John Treworgie	Newfoundland	1653	→
Governors under Richard Cromwell (1658–1660):
2.	cont...		←	→
Governors under Charles II (1660):
2.	cont...		←	1660

Governors of Plaisance, 1655–1713

#	Name	Term start	Term end
Governors under Louis XIV (1655–1713):
	Sieur de Kéréon	1655	1660
	Nicolas Gargot de la Rochette	1660	1662
	Thalour Du Perron	1662	1663
	Lafontaine Bellot	1664	1667
	Sieur de la Palme	1667	1670
	Sieur de la Poippe	1670	1684
	Antoine Parat	1685	1690
	Louis de Pastour de Costebelle	1690	1691
	Jacques-François de Monbeton de Brouillan	1690	1701
	Joseph de Monic	1697	1702
	Daniel d'Auger de Subercase	1702	1706
	Philippe Pastour de Costebelle	1706	1713

Lieutenant-governors of Placentia, 1713–1770

#	Name	Governor from	Governor until
Lieutenant-Governors under George I (1713–1727) (Subject to Governor of Nova Scotia and Placentia):
1.	John Moody ^[1]	1714	1717
2.	Martin Purcell (governor)	1717	1717
3.	Samuel Gledhill ^[2]^[3]	1717	1729
Lieutenant-Governors under George II (1727–1760):
1.	Henry Cope ^[4]	1736	?1742
1.	Otho Hamilton ^[5]	1744	c.1764
1.	Joseph Goreham ^[6]	1770

Commodore-governors of Newfoundland, 1729–1825

The Commodore-Governor was a British Royal Navy official who was commander of the annual fishing convoy which left England each spring to fish off Newfoundland and was charged with protecting the convoys from harm. He was also responsible for various administrative and judicial functions, including assisting the fishing admirals in maintaining law and order and compiling the annual report on the fishery for the English government. By 1818, the colony had a significant enough permanent population to justify having a resident governor.

#	Name	Term start	Term end
Governors under George II (1729–1760):
3.	Henry Osborn	1729	1730
4.	George Clinton	1731	1731
5.	Edward Falkingham	1732	1732
6.	Robert MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry	1733	1734
7.	FitzRoy Henry Lee	1735	1737
8.	Philip Vanbrugh	1738	1738
9.	Henry Medley	1739	1740
10.	Thomas Smith	1741	1741
11.	John Byng ^{[n 2]}	1742	1742
10.	Thomas Smith (second time)	1743	1743
12.	Sir Charles Hardy	1744	1744
13.	Richard Edwards	1745	1745
14.	James Douglas Bt	1746	1746
15.	John Bradstreet	1747	1747
15.	Charles Watson	1748	1748
16.	The Lord Rodney	1749	1749
17.	Francis William Drake	1750	1752
18.	Hugh Bonfoy	1753	1754
19.	Richard Dorrill	1755	1756
20.	Richard Edwards	1757	1759
21.	James Webb	1760	→
Governors under George III (1760–1820):
21.	cont...	←	1760
22.	Thomas Graves	1761	1763
23.	Sir Hugh Palliser	1764	1768
24.	John Byron	1769	1771
25.	Molyneux Shuldham	1772	1774
26.	Robert Duff	1775	1775
27.	John Montagu	1776	1778
28.	Richard Edwards	1779	1781
29.	John Campbell	1782	1785
30.	John Elliot	1786	1788
31.	Mark Milbanke	1789	1791
32.	Sir Richard King Bt	1792	1793
33.	Sir James Wallace	1794	1796
34.	William Waldegrave	1797	1799
35.	Sir Charles Morice Pole Bt	1800	1801
36.	James Gambier	1802	1803
37.	Sir Erasmus Gower	1804	1806
38.	John Holloway	1807	1809
39.	Sir John Thomas Duckworth GCB	1810	1812
40.	Sir Richard Goodwin Keats	1813	1816
41.	Francis Pickmore	1817	1818
42.	Sir Charles Hamilton Bt	1818	→
Governors under George IV (1820–1825):
42.	cont...	←	1825

Civil governors of Newfoundland, 1825–1855

#	Name	Term start	Term end
Governors under George IV (1825–1830):
43.	Sir Thomas John Cochrane	1825	→
Governors under William IV (1830–1837):
43.	cont...	←	1834
44.	Sir Henry Prescott	1834	→
Governors under Queen Victoria (1837–1855):
44.	cont...	←	1841
45.	Sir John Harvey KCH	1841	1846
	Robert Law (colonial administrator)	1846	1847
46.	Sir John Le Marchant	1847	1852
47.	Ker Baillie-Hamilton	1852	1855

Colonial governors of Newfoundland, 1855–1907

#	Name	Term start	Term end
Governors under Queen Victoria (1855–1901):
48.	Sir Charles Henry Darling	1855	1857
49.	Sir Alexander Bannerman	1857	1864
50.	Sir Anthony Musgrave	1864	1869
51.	Sir Stephen John Hill KCMG CB	1869	1876
52.	Sir John Hawley Glover KCMG	1876	1881
53.	Sir Henry Berkeley Fitzhardinge Maxse KCMG	1881	1883
52.	Sir John Hawley Glover (second time)KCMG	1883	1885
54.	Sir William Des Vœux	1886	1887
55.	Sir Henry Arthur Blake KCMG FRGS FRCI	1887	1889
56.	Sir John Terence Nicholls O'Brien	1889	1895
57.	Sir Herbert Harley Murray	1895	1898
58.	Sir Henry Edward McCallum	1898	→
Governors under Edward VII (1901–1907):
58.	cont...	←	1901
59.	Sir Charles Cavendish Boyle KCMG	1901	1904
60.	Sir William MacGregor CB KCMG	1904	1907

Governors of the Dominion of Newfoundland, 1907–1934

#	Name	Term start	Term end
Governors under Edward VII (1907–1910):
60.	Sir William MacGregor (continued)CB KCMG	1907	1909
61.	Sir Ralph Champneys Williams CMG	1909	→
Governors under George V (1910–1934):
61.	cont...	←	1913
62.	Sir Walter Edward Davidson KCMG CBE	1913	1917
63.	Sir Charles Alexander Harris	1917	1922
64.	Sir William Allardyce KCMG	1922	1928
65.	Sir John Middleton	1928	1932
66.	Sir David Murray Anderson KCB KCMG MVO	1933	1934

Commission governors of Newfoundland, 1934–1949

#	Name	Term start	Term end
Governors under George V (1934–1936):
66.	Sir David Murray Anderson (continued) KCB KCMG MVO	1934	1935
67.	Sir Humphrey T. Walwyn KCSI KCMG CB DSO	1936	→
Governors under Edward VIII (1936):
67.	cont...	←	→
Governors under George VI (1936–1949):
67.	cont...	←	1946
68.	Gordon MacDonald	1946	1949

Lieutenant governors of Newfoundland, 1949–1999

#	Name	Term start	Term end
Governors under George VI (1949–1952):
69.	Sir Albert Walsh	1949	1949
70.	Sir Leonard Outerbridge CBE DSO	1949	→
Governors under Elizabeth II (1952–1999):
70.	cont...	←	1957
71.	Campbell Leonard Macpherson	1957	1963
72.	ρ Fabian O'Dea QC	1963	1969
73.	Ewart John Arlington Harnum OC	1969	1974
74.	Gordon Arnaud Winter OC	1974	1981
75.	William Anthony Paddon OC	1981	1986
76.	James McGrath PC	1986	1991
77.	Frederick Russell OC CD	1991	1997
78.	Arthur Maxwell House OC FRCP	1997	1999

Lieutenant governors of Newfoundland and Labrador, 1999–present

#	Name	Term start	Term end
Governors under Elizabeth II (1999–2022):
78.	Arthur Maxwell House OC FRCP	1999	2002
79.	Edward Roberts CM ONL QC	2002	2008
80.	John Crosbie PC OC ONL QC	2008	2013
81.^{[† 1]}	Frank Fagan CM ONL	2013	2018
82.	Judy Foote PC ONL	2018	→
Governors under Charles III (2022–present):
82.	cont...	←	2023
83.	Joan Marie Aylward	2023	Present

↑ Colour denotes living former lieutenant governors

Notes

↑ The Lord Baltimore became the de facto Governor of Avalon upon the death of his father, the first Baron Baltimore.
↑ John Byng's elder brother, Robert Byng, was the great-great-grandfather of The Viscount Byng of Vimy, who served as Governor General of Canada from 1921 to 1926.

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Captain Edward Falkingham was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served for a time as Governor of Newfoundland and Comptroller of the Navy.

Île-Royale was a French colony in North America that existed from 1713 to 1763 as part of the wider colony of Acadia.

Admiral John Montagu (1719–1795) was an English naval officer and colonial governor of Newfoundland.

Richard Dorill was a naval officer and colonial governor of Newfoundland, died in Bath, England.

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Events from the year 1727 in Canada.

Major Otho Hamilton was a military officer of the 40th Regiment of Foot who served on the Nova Scotia Council and as Governor of Placentia.

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The Newfoundland Station was a formation or command of, first, the Kingdom of Great Britain and, then, of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. Its official headquarters varied between Portsmouth or Plymouth in England where a squadron of ships would set sail annually each year to protect convoys and the British fishing fleet operating in waters off the Newfoundland coast and would remain for period of approximately six months based at St. John's Harbour. In 1818 the station became a permanent posting headquartered at St John's. It existed from 1729 to 1825.

References

↑ "Biography – MOODY, JOHN – Volume II (1701-1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
↑ "Biography – GLEDHILL, SAMUEL – Volume II (1701-1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 22, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
↑ "Biography – COPE, HENRY – Volume III (1741-1770) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
↑ "Biography – HAMILTON, OTHO – Volume III (1741-1770) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
↑ "Biography – GOREHAM, JOSEPH – Volume IV (1771-1800) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".

External links

Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador. "Profiles of Governors". Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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[Term2-9] Colour denotes living former lieutenant governors

[Baltimore-1] The Lord Baltimore became the de facto Governor of Avalon upon the death of his father, the first Baron Baltimore.

[Byng-8] John Byng's elder brother, Robert Byng, was the great-great-grandfather of The Viscount Byng of Vimy, who served as Governor General of Canada from 1921 to 1926.

[2] "Biography – MOODY, JOHN – Volume II (1701-1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".

[3] "Biography – GLEDHILL, SAMUEL – Volume II (1701-1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".

[4] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 22, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[5] "Biography – COPE, HENRY – Volume III (1741-1770) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".

[6] "Biography – HAMILTON, OTHO – Volume III (1741-1770) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".

[7] "Biography – GOREHAM, JOSEPH – Volume IV (1771-1800) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".

[n 1]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[n 2]

[† 1]

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