The Newfoundland fisheries and Jersey connections
The Newfoundland fisheries and
Jersey connections
Jersey Harbour is a small community in Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, about 3 km northeast of Harbour Breton
Jersey's involvement in the fishing industry of the Gaspé peninsula of New Brunswick, Canada, is extremely well documented, but it was to Newfoundland that adventurous, sea-faring Jerseymen first headed in the 16th century, and they and their descendants were to have a major influence on the cod fisheries based on Canada's offshore province
16th century
There are records of Jersey-based ships and their crews operating from Newfoundland as early as 1562 and within 21 years the island had been taken over in the name of Queen Elizabeth.
Some Jerseymen travelled to Newfoundland every spring, returning to the their home later in the year. They could expect to earn several times their winter incomes as Jersey farmers, from their expeditions across the Atlantic.
Some decided to settle in Canada, the earliest including the Clements at Burgeo and Sablon (Labrador): the Fruings at Blancs Sablons (Labrador), Nicolles at La Pouile and Jersey Harbour, de Quettevilles at La Pouile and Sablon, Le Feuvre at Burin, and Syvret at Ile Vert.
When he first visited Jersey after his appointment as Governor, Sir Walter Raleigh (also "Ralegh") learned that at the end of the 16th century islanders were saved from starvation by the arrival of a cargo of fish from the colony, and he encouraged more young Jerseymen to cross the Atlantic to find the work which was not available to them in their home island.
Their involvement in the Newfoundland fishing industry was to last over 300 years.
Derivation of names
Some Newfoundland historians believe that Jerseymen who ventured across the Atlantic to fish off the island's shores had a much greater influence than has hitherto been suggested. The first two articles linked to below put forward these arguments, one going as far as to suggest that Newfoundland was not discovered, as the history books state, by John Cabot, nor was its capital named after him; instead, Jersey fishermen got there first and gave Jersey place names and family names to many Newfoundland towns and coastal areas.
Further articles
- Were many Newfoundland place names associated with Jersey?
- Newfoundland's 'Jersey Men'
- A note on Jersey and Newfoundland
- Excerpts from the 1848 diary of the Bishop of Newfoundland
- Jersey references from a dictionary of Newfoundland English
- Jersey Harbour
- Jersey merchants at Burgeo
- Jersey emigrants to Newfoundland
