Province of Avalon

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Province of Avalon
1610–1696
Flag of England.svg
Flag
Dominionofnewfoundlandlocation.PNG
Mapof ferryland.jpg
Status English colony
CapitalFerryland, Newfoundland
Common languagesEnglish
GovernmentConstitutional monarchy
LegislatureLords Proprietors
Historical era Colonial Era
1610
 Destroyed by New France in the Avalon Peninsula Campaign
1696
CurrencyPound sterling
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Flag of England.svg Colony of Avalon
Newfoundland Colony Flag of England.svg

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 all the land that lay between Ferryland and Petty Harbour.

Contents

History

The Avalon Peninsula was one of the first European-inhabited areas in North America. In 1497 the Bristol Guild of Merchants financed a voyage by John Cabot to Newfoundland, where he is reported to have landed at Cape Bonavista. [1] Breton, Basque, and Portuguese fishermen spoke of "a land of codfish". [2] They were familiar with the Avalon Peninsula where many would set up temporary shelters to dry fish.

The London and Bristol Company

In the early 17th century English merchants began to take an interest in the Newfoundland fishery. The Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers established the London and Bristol Company (the Newfoundland Company) in 1608 [3] and sent John Guy, to locate a favourable location for a colony. [4] The first permanent English settlement was established at Cuper's Cove in 1610. [5]

The company was granted a charter by James I on 2 May 1610 giving it a monopoly in agriculture, mining, fishing and hunting on the Avalon Peninsula. [6] They retained exclusive rights until 1616 when the Crown began to grant lands to others. [7]

Lord Baltimore

Sir George Calvert acquired a large land holding on the peninsula and hired an agent Captain Edward Wynne to set up headquarters in Ferryland. The initial colony grew to a population of 100, becoming the first successful permanent settlement on Newfoundland island. In 1620 Calvert obtained a grant from Sir William Vaughan for all of the land that lay north of a point between Fermeuse and Aquaforte to as far north as Caplin Bay (now Calvert) on the southern shore of the Avalon Peninsula.

In 1623, Calvert was given a Royal Charter extending the Royal lands and granting them the name the Province of Avalon "in imitation of Old Avalon in Somersetshire wherein Glassenbury stands, the first fruits of Christianity in Britain". [8] The charter created the province as a palatinate in which Calvert had absolute authority. Calvert wished to make the colony a refuge for Roman Catholics facing persecution in England. In 1625 Calvert was elevated to the Peerage of Ireland as The 1st Baron Baltimore.

A series of crises and calamities led Calvert to quit the colony in 1629 for "some other warmer climate of this new world", which turned out to be Maryland, though his family maintained agents to govern Avalon until 1637, when the entire island of Newfoundland was granted by charter to Sir David Kirke and The 3rd Marquess of Hamilton (who was later created The 1st Duke of Hamilton). Lord Baltimore's son, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, fought against the new charter, and in 1660 gained official recognition of the old Charter of Avalon, but never attempted to retake the colony.

The site of the colony was designated a National Historic Site in 1953 [9] It was also designated a Municipal Heritage District in 1998. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore English peer (1605-1675)

Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, was an English nobleman, also often known as Cecilius Calvert, who was the first Proprietor of the Province of Maryland, ninth Proprietary Governor of the Colony of Newfoundland and second of the colony of Province of Avalon to its southeast. His title was "First Lord Proprietary, Earl Palatine of the Provinces of Maryland and Avalon in America". He received the proprietorship after the death of his father, The 1st Baron Baltimore, for whom it had been intended. Cecil, Lord Baltimore, established and managed the Province of Maryland from his home, Kiplin Hall, in North Yorkshire, England. As an English Roman Catholic, he continued the legacy of his father by promoting religious tolerance in the colony.

Avalon Peninsula Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland

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John Guy was an English merchant adventurer, colonist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1624. He was the first proprietary governor of Newfoundland Colony, the first attempt to establish a colony on Newfoundland.

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 longer than a year. It was established in 1610 by John Guy on behalf of Bristol's Society of Merchant Venturers, who had been given a charter by King James I of England to establish a colony on the island of Newfoundland. Most of the settlers left in the 1620s, but apparently a few stayed on and the site was continuously inhabited.

Edward Wynne was Proprietary Governor of the Ferryland colony from 1621 to 1626. Born in Wales, he was appointed by Sir George Calvert, to establish the colony, and in August 1621, he landed at "Ferryland" with 12 men. By November of that same year, the colonists had completed a large dwelling, and then by Christmas, had added a stone kitchen. In 1622, a second group of colonists led by Daniel Powell was sent to the new English Colony, bringing the population to 32, including seven women. Within a few years, the Colony had housing, a forge, a warehouse, sawmill and wharf. In 1623, the Colony became the Province of Avalon when Calvert's grant was confirmed by King Charles I of England, growing to a population of 100 by 1625. Wynne was dismissed that year, probably because he lacked the skills to govern a growing Colony of that size and because Calvert himself wanted to govern the colony directly.

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Sir William Vaughan was a Welsh writer in English and Latin. He promoted colonization in Newfoundland, but with mixed success.

London and Bristol Company

The London and Bristol Company came about in the early 17th century when English merchants had begun to express an interest in the Newfoundland fishery. Financed by a syndicate of investors John Guy, himself a Bristol merchant, visited Newfoundland in 1608 to locate a favourable site for a colony. Upon his return to England 40 people applied for incorporation as the Tresurer and the Companye of Adventurers and planter of the Cittye of london and Bristoll for the Collonye or plantacon in Newfoundland. The company was known as the London and Bristol Company or simply the Newfoundland Company.

Calvert is a local service district and designated place in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador in the Southern Shore region of the province. It is 72 kilometres south of the provincial capital St. John's, 7 kilometres south of Cape Broyle, and 3 kilometres north of Ferryland. The population in 2001 was 355, a decline of 17% since 1996.

Renews–Cappahayden is a small fishing town on the southern shore of Newfoundland, 83 kilometres (52 mi) south of St. John's.

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Cambriol or New Cambriol was the name given to one of North America's early Welsh colonies established by Sir William Vaughan (1575–1641). The area Vaughan had purchased from the Company of Adventurers to Newfoundland in 1616 was all that land on the Avalon Peninsula located south of a line drawn from Caplin Bay to Placentia Bay. Vaughan had called the area New Cambriol — "a little Wales" in the New World. In his book The Golden Fleece, an allegory in praise of his colony, makes the following assertion concerning Cambriol:

This is our Colchos, where the Golden Fleece flourisheth on the backes of Neptunes sheepe, continually to be shorne. This is Great Britaines Indies, never to be exhausted dry.

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Division No. 1, Subdivision I is an unorganized subdivision on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is in Division 1 and contains the unincorporated community of Bristol's Hope.

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References

  1. "John Day letter to the Lord Grand Admiral, Winter 1497/8", The Smugglers' City, Dept. of History, University of Bristol
  2. "European fishermen in Newfoundland" . Retrieved 7 September 2007.
  3. ""Charter of the London and Bristol Company. Earl of Northhampton and Associates." Volume III 1701–1705: The Labrador Boundary Dispute Documents". Heritage.nf.ca. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  4. Ross, Andrew; Smith, Andrew (2011). Canada's Entrepreneurs: From The Fur Trade to the 1929 Stock Market Crash: Portraits from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto Press. ISBN   9781442662544.
  5. "The Cupids Colony and John Guy". Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  6. Naylor, R. T. (2006). Canada in the European Age, 1453–1919. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 56. ISBN   9780773575462.
  7. Chambers, Anne Lorene (1997). Married Women and Property Law in Victorian Ontario. University of Toronto Press. p. 34. ISBN   9780802078391.
  8. Kevin Major, As Near to Heaven by Sea: A History of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2001, ISBN   0-14-027864-8
  9. Colony of Avalon National Historic Site of Canada . Directory of Federal Heritage Designations. Parks Canada . Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  10. Colony of Avalon Special Preservation Area Municipal Heritage District . Canadian Register of Historic Places . Retrieved 8 July 2012.

Coordinates: 47°01′21″N52°52′45″W / 47.0226°N 52.8791°W / 47.0226; -52.8791