HMAP Dataset 6 Newfoundland, 1675-1698 Supporting Documentation A sketch by Edward Barlow of the sack ship Real Friendship in 1668. Barlow was a mariner aboard her on a voyage from London to Tenerife. The following year, while loading fish in Newfoundland, the vessel caught fire and was lost. From Edward Barlow, Barlow's Journal of His Life at Sea in King's Ships, East & West Indiamen & Other Merchantmen from 1659 to 1703. Transcribed by Basil Lubbock (London, Hurst & Blackett, Ltd, 1934) I, 143. source: http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/17fishery.html Summary Dataset Title: Newfoundland, 1675-1698 HMAP Case Study: Newfoundland and Grand Banks Large Marine Ecosystem: 9: Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf Subject: Fishermen, settlers and cod catches in 17th-century Newfoundland Data Provider: Peter Pope Memorial University of Newfoundland St John’s, Newfoundland Canada e-mail: ppope@mun.ca Data Editor: Michaela Barnard, MHSC, University of Hull m.g.barnard@hull.ac.uk Extent: 1,676 records Keywords: population census; History of Marine Animal Populations; fishing effort; cod fishery Citation: (a) The dataset: please cite as follows: P. Pope, ed. ‘Newfoundland, 1675- 1698' in M.G Barnard & J.H Nicholls (comp.) HMAP Data Pages (www.hull.ac.uk/hmap) (b) Supporting documentation: please cite as follows: P. Pope, ‘HMAP dataset 6: Newfoundland, 1675-1698, Supporting Documentation’, in M.G Barnard & J.H Nicholls (comp.) HMAP Data Pages (www.hull.ac.uk/hmap) Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the HMAP Data Pages team at Hull for their guidance in compiling the datafiles and constructing the database. Contents Page 1. Newfoundland and Grand Banks Case Study: 1 Objectives 2. Quantitative Data for the Seventeenth-Century 2-9 Newfoundland Fishery 3. Primary Sources Utilised for Dataset 6 10-15 4. Geographical Divisions 16 1. Newfoundland and Grand Banks Case Study: Objectives This HMAP case study is designed to enhance knowledge and understanding of the interaction of human societies and the marine environment through analysis of the relationship between levels of cod catches and fishing effort in the ‘Newfoundland fishery’ from the late 1660s to the early nineteenth century. It seeks to attain this goal by: * extending the chronological range of previous analyses by assessing rates of catch-per-unit-effort in the second half of the seventeenth century, before the English Colonial Office commenced collecting annual census statistics in 1698 (see dataset 6); * broadening the spatial scope of previous investigations by disaggregating the historical data pertaining to the British Newfoundland fishery, 1698-1833, into regional divisions, and analysing them to identify the factors that explained the spatial development of the fishery over time. 2. Quantitative Data for the Seventeenth-Century Newfoundland Fishery The late seventeenth-century colonial bureaucracies of Great Britain and France compiled a surprising number of censuses of the residents and migratory crews who fished for cod along the shores of Newfoundland. The information was politically useful because the settlement of the English Shore, on the east coast of the Avalon Peninsula, and of France’s colony of Plaisance in Placentia Bay to the west, were contested at the time (Figure 1). Perhaps more to the point, the Newfoundland fishery was an enormous industry with significant impact on European trade. A curious little notebook kept by Secretary of State Sir Joseph Williamson provides an index of the attention Europeans paid to Newfoundland. For a few years, between 1674 and 1677, he summarized, in his rapid, elliptical and elusive hand, the paper and committee work he had to digest regarding British interests in the Americas. He devoted a few pages each to Surinam, Nevis, Barbados, the Leeward Islands and New England; but his précis of the state of debate on Newfoundland takes up most of his notebook.1 In the larger scheme of things, colonial bureaucrats, like Secretary Williamson, were conscious of Newfoundland’s strategic position as a kind of sentry post at the northern gateway to the Americas. Their curiosity was, in this sense, simply pragmatic. On the request of a committee of Privy Council, British naval commodores at Newfoundland filed an intermittent series of “Replies to Heads of Inquiry” from the mid-1670s into the 1690s, which have survived in Colonial Office papers at The National Archives, in the General Series, CO 1.2 The most detailed cluster between 1675 and 1684, and provide censuses of both the fishery and inhabitants.3 The Newfoundland and West Indian censuses of 1673 to 1684 together form a rich cluster of data, gathered for the Committee for Trade and Plantations, in its third incarnation.4 These remarkable sources, unparalleled in England itself until 1801, reflect the increasing interest of the Privy Council in colonial issues. Similar considerations led France’s colonial bureaucracy to take repeated censuses of the recently-established French settlements on Newfoundland’s south coast between 1671 and 1711. Unfortunately for those interested in the broader aspects of fisheries history, the French did not take censuses of the cod fishery as an industry in the detail pursued by some of the Royal Navy officers posted to Newfoundland between 1675 and 1698. Nor were migratory and resident sectors of the industry compared in the same series of records, as they were by the British officials. Other records do give us a sense of the scale and distribution of France’s fishing effort in Newfoundland waters -- but these are not censuses and require a broader interpretative framework. Even with respect to the English Shore, the surviving “Replies to the Inquiries” of Britain’s increasingly inquisitive colonial bureaucracy have statistical limitations. Many are simply head counts, providing only the number of planters and ships’ crews fishing, with their boats, fishing rooms and stages, train vats and so on, in whatever harbours the British naval commodore or his lieutenants had managed to visit during the summer in question. There are internal inconsistencies within the British censuses, mutual contradictions among them, and other reasons to doubt that they actually included all participants in the fishery. The most detailed data on the English Shore, for 1675 and 1677, were collected during the one period in the seventeenth century characterized by overt official hostility on the part of the London authorities to settlement in Newfoundland.5 In this context, some inhabitants would surely have deliberately evaded official notice. This was also a period of conflict with certain Westcountry migratory fishing interests and one which immediately followed the damaging Dutch raids of 1673 - events which would have tended to disperse residents (and perhaps migratory crews as well), making them harder to enumerate. Finally, none of the censuses covers every known fishing station. The “Replies to Inquiries” remain pivotal, nevertheless, as a mass of data for a crucial decade. We can, for example, estimate participation along Newfoundland’s English Shore between 1675 and 1684 because the “Replies” report the number of boats and men committed to the fishery, both by planters and ship-based migratory crews. (The English did no actual fishing from ships in this period). Some of these fisheries censuses also give figures either for catches or for catch rates, expressed in quintals per boat. Despite the wealth of information in these sources, the use of figures taken directly from the “Replies to Inquiries” is problematic for a number of reasons.6 Failure to verify the geographic scope of coverage can lead to serious error. Some researchers have assumed that the varying scope of the “Replies” reflects spatial variation in fishing effort from year to year but internal evidence in the documents themselves suggests this is not so. In fact, what we have to deal with is spatial variation in data collection. This poses no insoluble interpretive problem, as long as we comprehend the annual data in the “Replies” as more or less extensive samples, rather than as reports of the universe of fishing boats and quintals of salt cod taken on the entire English Shore from Trepassey in the south, to Bonavista Bay in the north. Another, less resolvable, interpretive problem was raised by one of the naval census-takers himself. In 1680, Captain Sir Robert Robinson observed that crews underestimated catches and thought that the reported catch rate of 180 quintals per boat likely underestimated the true rate of perhaps 250 to 300. Other evidence suggests that planters also underestimated catches. Hence, we should probably understand the surviving English figures as minima, under-reporting true catches. For the purposes of the “History of Marine Animal Populations” project (HMAP), Jeannie Howse and Peter Pope transcribed and digitized twenty accounts of the seventeenth-century Newfoundland fishery. Each reports the number of boats and men fishing out of Newfoundland harbours, belonging to either the resident “planter” fishery, the ship-based migratory fishery, or the small-scale migratory “bye-boat” fishery, consisting of crews which came to Newfoundland to fish seasonally, as passengers on “fishing” ships.7 Most are nominal censuses, giving the names of resident fishing masters and of ships’ masters, with the name of the ship, its home port and tonnage. Catches are sometimes reported, as quintals of dry salt cod, together with information about shipments of train oil and wet-salted “corfish.” The presence of such crucial information is noted here, together with comments on the geographical extent of coverage. The first official survey of the British fishery was taken in 1675, by Captain Sir John Berry, of HMS Bristol. Berry compiled careful nominal censuses, by harbour, of both planters and of ships fishing.8 He included bye-boats (at St John’s) in his ship list. Coverage is wide geographically, though harbours north of Bonavista are not mentioned. Overlapping and slightly inconsistent returns survive for the following year, 1676. Captain John Rich, of HMS Blackmore, submitted a summary return which gives total figures for resident and migratory participation and catches.9 Captain Russell of HMS Reserve apparently travelled to the north, for he submitted nominal censuses of ships between Salvage, in Bonavista Bay, and Petty Harbour, near St. John’s, as well as for planters between Bonavista and Petty Harbour.10 His reports do not, unfortunately, include catch rates and his manning figures for the planter fishery are suspect, as they are invariably a 5:1 multiple of the numbers of boats recorded for each production unit. Captain John Wyborne also filed a nominal report on the planter fishery, for almost the whole English Shore, between Trepassey and Bonavista, as well as a nominal report on the ship fishery between Trepassey and Bay Bulls which gives catch rates and prices for dry and wet-salted fish.11 In 1677, Captain Sir William Poole of HMS Leopard, collected nominal censuses which provide some of the best data in the “Replies to Inquiries” on both planters and migratory crews, although the documents are somewhat scrambled, as they have come down to us in the Colonial Office records.12 Poole includes catch rates and his geographical coverage is very good, though Bonavista seems to be missing from the ships’ data.13 Data for the 1680s is similarly varied in quality. Captain Sir Robert Robinson of HMS Assistance concentrated his attention on St John’s in 1680 and a nominal census of bye-boat keepers survives, with catch rates, for that harbour, as well as a nominal list of ships at St John’s and nominal list of inhabitants of St John’s and Quidi Vidi (an adjacent cove). Robinson also estimated the number of men and boats in the ship-based fishery at Petty Harbour, Bay Bulls, Witless Bay, Bay de Verde, Old Perlican and New Perlican, and filed a brief summary of the resident and ship fishery, including catch figures, for the English Shore, which seems to include some data from harbours besides those reported in detail.14 Captain James Story of HMS Antelope provided much better geographical coverage in his report for 1681, combining, in one census, data on planters, ships and bye-boat keepers between Bonavista and Trepassey. His crewing figures often seem to be estimates based on the conventional 5:1 ratio of men to boats. On the other hand, Story does provide catch data for some locations, as well as a number of interesting observations on the fishery.15 The reports filed by Captain Daniel Jones of HMS Diamond, in 1682, resemble Robinson’s data for 1680, providing a nominal list of bye-boat keepers at St John’s and Petty Harbour, with the number of men and boats employed and a similar nominal list of planters at St John’s and, in a separate census, in Witless Bay, Bay Bulls, Petty Harbour, St. John’s, Bay de Verde, Old Perlican, New Perlican, Scilly Cove, Hants Harbour, Heart’s Content and Trinity.16 In 1684, Captain Sir Francis Wheler of HMS Tyger filed a careful nominal list of ships between Renews and Old Perlican, giving men, boats and catch by ship, as well as a summary of ships’ men, boats and catches, by harbour, between Renews and Bonavista. He also filed a non-nominal report for the same wide area on the number of planters - reporting men, boats and total catches, by harbour. Some of Wheler’s manning estimates look a little pat, too often exactly five times the boats reported fishing, but he seems, generally, to have been well informed.17 The last of the censuses of the British fishery at Newfoundland, extant in the CO 1 General Series, was taken by Captain Thomas Crawley of HMS Reserve, in 1692. It relates only to the resident or planter fishery but gives figures for men, boats and catches, by harbour, between Renews and Bonavista.18 We have similar censuses of the French resident fishery in Placentia Bay in the 1680s and 1690s. These “Recensements” of Plaisance and its outliers, particularly the nominal census of 1687, can be used to estimate the limited scale of the French resident fishery.19 At this time, there were about forty-two “habitant” households, employing about 475 men and likely over 100 boats in Placentia Bay, who would have expected to dry at least 20,000 quintals of fish annually.20 The lack of wider estimates in the French records means we must turn to other kinds of evidence, to obtain some sense of the size and distribution of France’s migratory fishing effort at Newfoundland. (Spanish Basque or Portuguese participation in this period appears to have been insignificant, compared with the size of French and British efforts). The French took naval censuses, in 1664 and 1686, which Laurier Turgeon has used to calculate vessel and tonnage figures for the French Newfoundland fleet.21 Anne-Helène Kiribirou, of Université Laval in Quebec, re-transcribed Turgeon's photocopy of the 1686 naval census, for HMAP, extracting all entries that either specifically mention a ship at Newfoundland or that might include a visit to Newfoundland.22 We have, in these figures, a way to estimate French participation in the Newfoundland fishery, by comparing these data with the surviving statistics for British shipping at Newfoundland. British figures for catch and fleet tonnage (for 1677 and 1680) suggest that ships fishing together with the “sack” (i.e. cargo) ships transported at least 0.75 metric tonnes of processed fish for every freight tun of shipping.23 The French shipping statistics suggest that about fifty percent of their effort was directed towards the Grand Banks, predominantly by crews from Normandy, some of whom made two trips a year. Taking into account the fact that Banks fish were shipped wet rather than dry-salted, and assuming that the French fishery was as efficient as the British fishery in transport, the 1686 tonnage figures for the former imply a total French live catch in Newfoundland waters, including the Grand Banks, of about 140,000 metric tonnes. That, in turn, would mean that the live catch taken by the French inshore fishery and dry salted, predominantly by the Bretons and the Basques, must have been well in excess of 70,000 metric tonnes - twice the known annual British live catch of about 35,000 metric tonnes, taken inshore and mostly dry-salted, in this period.24 How was this enormous French effort distributed? Or, to put it more simply, where did the French fish and how many men and boats were involved? The best early data we have for answering these questions are not censuses, comparable to the English “Replies to Inquiries” but surveys of harbours regularly used by French fishermen, with a normative indication of how many men and boats could be expected to use the fishing harbours listed. At least three such “gazetteers” of the seventeenth-century French fishery have survived in France’s Archives des Colonies. They pertain to different parts of Newfoundland and between them describe most of the shore stations used by the French in this period, although there are unfortunate omissions. Information from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century surveys and shipping censuses can help with some of these lacunae. For 1662, we have a document which lists fishing harbours on the south coast of Newfoundland, in the region then known by the French as “Le Chapeau Rouge,” today’s Burin Peninsula, on the west side of Placentia Bay. The document, from a copy of 1680 in a register of the Admiralty of Saint-Malo, originally signed by bourgeois of that commune, is an extract from a submission to the Parlement of Brittany, in response to an official inquiry regarding the Newfoundland fishery. It survives in the Archives des Colonies, and was transcribed for HMAP by Kiribirou, with the assistance of Pope, from the microfilm copy at the Archives Nationales in Quebec [ANQ].25 The survey lists fishing stations from Ramea, on Newfoundland’s southwest coast, to Audierne and Pesmarcq in Placentia Bay and even, perhaps, Fox Harbour at the northern “bottom” of the bay. It omits the eastern side of Placentia Bay, including the major fishing station of Plaisance itself, probably because this area was dominated by Basque interests, rather than by the Breton masters and merchants who prepared the document and who themselves fished to the west. The list estimates the number of men who could reasonably be expected to use each of the harbours surveyed. The fact that the manning figures are almost invariably multiples of five strongly suggests that the survey is actually based on an estimate of the number of boats which could use these harbours efficiently: in total, about 325. By the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the French lost the use of Newfoundland’s south coast, so the 1660 survey may be the only surviving attempt to quantify their activities on the Chapeau Rouge. We have better information for the Petit Nord, the eastern side of Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula, including adjacent areas of the Strait of Belle Isle, to the north, and of White Bay, to the south. A report of 1640, prepared by the Parlement of Brittany, estimates fishing activity along this coast in terms of the number of men potentially exploiting each of the reported harbours between Degrat in the Strait of Belle Isle to la Scie, east of White Bay.26 A similar, slightly later, and somewhat more detailed survey was prepared in 1680 by a couple of dozen Breton mariners, who identify themselves as “captains and masters of ships...of St Malo.” Like the slightly earlier, south coast, Chapeau Rouge survey, and the Petit Nord survey of 1640, it survives in France’s Archives des Colonies, and was transcribed for HMAP by Kiribirou, with the assistance of Pope and Turgeon, from a microfilm copy in ANQ.27 It consists of a commentary on the observance of regulations in the cod fishery together with a brief description of the fishing rooms in each harbour surveyed, with an estimate of the number of men normally employed. Again, this seems to be based on an estimate of the number of boats which could reasonably be employed at the specified fishing rooms, since once more the manning levels are generally multiples of five. The document suggests that a total of over 4,800 men could potentially be employed in the migratory fishery on this coast, based probably on the use of some 960 boats. Hence French participation in the dry fishery along the Petit Nord alone was comparable in scale to the whole British fishery at Newfoundland, migratory and resident. Some of the place name readings need further work, although it is already obvious that the document is extremely valuable from the point of view of historical geography or of historical archaeology, because of the attention given specific fishing rooms. This survey does not include the fishing stations south west of the Strait of Belle Isle, notably Ferrolle, Port au Choix, and Port au Port, which were dominated by the Basques. It also ignores the northeast coast, east of La Scie. This was the “no-man’s land” territory of Notre Dame Bay, which had become the refuge of Newfoundland’s native people, the Beothuk.28 This part of Newfoundland was, consequently, under-utilized by both French and British fishers at this time and the lack of data regarding crews fishing in that area may well reflect an absence or near-absence of effort. The same assumption cannot be made for the area that was not surveyed on the west coast. As with the east side of Placentia Bay in the 1662 survey, this represents an important data gap for French participation in the late seventeenth-century inshore cod fishery. Detailed data for the northeast and west coasts have survived in Archives des Colonies in the form of reports prepared by French colonial administrators in 1764 and 1765.29 These actually resemble the British fishing censuses in that they report the name, home port, tonnage and crew of ships actually fishing, by harbour, with the number of boats used together with an estimate of how many boats might use each potential fishing post, were it fully occupied. Geographical coverage is excellent, from Bonavista and along the north east coast (in 1765), around the Petit Nord, and down the west coast as far as Port au Port, together with data on St Pierre and Miquelon, which had just been restored to the French by the Treaty of Paris in 1763.30 One of the most useful things about these postwar surveys is that they contain extracts from Captain’s reports which provide a summary of activity in each of the occupied harbours, including the activities of English and Irish settlers in some and of British migratory fishers in others. A briefer summary report for 1784, with similarly wide geographical coverage, survives in the same series of Archives des Colonies and provides shipping tonnage, number of men and boats actually in each harbour and an estimate of how many more boats could be based in each harbour.31 A more detailed nineteenth-century survey of the French fishery offers some valuable comparative data, particularly for the detailed 1680 survey of the Petit Nord. This document survives in the records of the Chambre de Commerce of the Basque port of Bayonne and was transcribed for HMAP by Kiribirou with the assistance of Pope, from a microfilm copy in ANQ.32 The document describes itself as a “tableau indicatif” of Newfoundland harbours between Cape Ray, northward around the west coast and the Great Northern Peninsula to Cape St John, at the eastern limit of White Bay - in other words, the “French Shore” of the period after 1783, in which France had British permission to carry on seasonal fisheries.33 This includes the harbours of the Petit Nord surveyed in 1680 and, as in the earlier survey, the 1832 document provides an estimate of participation by harbour, this time directly in terms of the number of boats. It is interesting to note that the 1832 survey almost invariably identifies the same fishing rooms as the 1680 survey, although its estimate of participation is often significantly higher. Because the later survey is much more legible, it is a useful guide for making sense of difficult place names in the earlier document. Finally, the later survey covers the west coast harbours of Ferrolle, Port au Choix and Port au Port, which were already in use in the seventeenth century, though not included in the 1680 survey, even if reported in 1764 and 1765. By making the gross assumption that the fishery in these different regions grew in parallel with that on the Petit Nord itself, we might use the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century figures, appropriately discounted, to make a preliminary estimate of seventeenth-century participation rates in this otherwise undocumented western area. This would leave only the Placentia Bay west region, around Plaisance, unaccounted for, in our quest for quantitative data on the later seventeenth-century European fishery at Newfoundland. Since this was, in all other respects, the best documented part of Newfoundland in the period, British or French, we can hope that the missing data might be plausibly reconstituted from other records.34 When we have specific evidence of catches, these data support the contemporary rule of thumb that five men could process, in an average season, 200 quintals of fish, or perhaps a bit more on the south coast, with its longer season. Hence, if we can reconstruct European effort in the Newfoundland fishery, resident and migratory, in the later seventeenth century, we will not be far from a better estimate of total catches. 3. Primary Sources Utilised for Dataset 6 The data assembled in HMAP Dataset 6 were extracted from the following Colonial Office (CO) records held in The National Archives, Kew, London, UK: 1. Berry Planters Census, 1675 (CO 1/35 f. 150 -156) "In New Found Land A list of ye Planters Names w:h an accot of their Concerns from Cape de Raze to Cape Bona vista." Nominal census of Planters in Newfoundland, 1675. Listing by community, from Renews northward, includes names of planters, wives, number of children (male and female), number of men employed, number of boats, stages and trainvats employed. (146 records) 2. Berry Ship Census 1675 (CO 1/35 f. 137-148) "In New ffound Land A list of shipps making ffishing Voyages wth: Boatkeepers wch: comes Passengers on their own account; and what shipps bound to fforraigne Marketts: ffrom Cape de Raze to Cape Bonavista" Census of Fishing Vessels in Newfoundland, 1675. Listing by community, from Renews Northward, includes names of Ship Masters, ship names, Port of Origin, burdon, number of guns, men, boats, and the number of stages and trainvats used. (202 records) 3. Rich Fishing Ships, St. John's, 1676 (CO 1/39 p. 60) "By Virtue of his Maj.ties Letters pattents under the greate Seal of England for the encoragmt. of ffishery att Newfoundland, wherein are Severall rules And orders Sett downe, for ye better regulating thereof, and whereas itt is Expressed in the ffowerteenth Article of ye Said Letters pattents, requiring all Admirals of ye Several harbours to Keepe yearly a journal, of their proceedings, in the respective harbours, of the Number of Shipps, boats, persons, Staiges, and trayne ffatts, and to give Accompte, there of, att their returne into England, Unto his Maj.ties Councell for forraigne plantations,: I John Rich Comand.r, of ye shipp Blackmore. of Dartmouth, had ye ffortune to bee this last fishing Season, Admiral of the Harbour of St: Jons, and in pursuance of Said order, I have here under Sett down as nigh as I could calculate, a list of ye whole, 1676" Census of Fishing Vessels in St. John's, 1676. Lists Captain's name, ships name, number of boats and crew. Also reports an aggregate boat figure for Planters in St. John's. (22 records) 4. Russell Ship Census, 1676 (CO 1/38 f. 222-224) "From Salvadge to Petit Harbour An Accompt of what Ships have made ffishing Voyages This Yeare at Newfoundland 1676. Capt. Russell's Accompt." Census of Fishing Vessels from Petty Harbour to Bonavista. Includes Ship Masters' names, Port of Origin, and number of men and boats employed. Does not include ship names. Also includes aggregate figures for his and Wyborne's accounts. (70 records) 5. Wyborne Fishing Ships (CO 1/38) "An Accompt of the Shipps Fishing in Newfoundland Between Trepasse and Bay of Bulls 1676" Census of Fishing Vessels from Trepassey to Bay Bulls. Includes Ships Names, Captains' names, Port of Origin, Tonage, number of guns, men, and boats, quintal catch per boat (dry salted fish) and price, hogshead of train per boat and price, catch per boat of wet salted fish and price, the number of stages and trainvats employed, and Port bound. Also includes an aggregate for each community. (54 records) 6. Wyborne Census of English Inhabitants, 1676 (CO 1/38 ff. 239 - 242) "The names of the English Inhabitants with the number of Boats & men; and their Wives & children. From Bonavant to Tripassey" Nominal census of Planters in Newfoundland, 1676. Listing by community, from Renews to Salvage, includes names of planters, wives, number of children, and number of men and boats employed. (142 records) This census lists effort only, but in comments at the end of the list Wybourne states that the catch was 'about 150 Cantles' per boat. This average was used for all of the planters, with a couple of exceptions. The last page of the census is an aggregate of 10 communities between Trepassey and Bay Bulls, listing the total catch for each community. There are some small mistakes when compared to his list of Planters, which have been corrected and noted where made, but where possible those aggregate numbers were used to calculate the catch per Planter. Wybourne lists Bauline East in the aggregate with 3 boats, but there is no mention of it in the listing of Planters, while at the same time his aggregate figures for Witless Bay report 5 boats, and his nominal listing ascribes 8 boats to 6 planters. It is likely that for some reason the listing has the two communities together under Witless Bay. In the case of Calvert, he ascribes 8 boats to the 6 Planters in his nominal list, yet in the aggregate figure, he only reports 3 boats, with just 390 Quintals caught. We are assuming that this is an error, and have ascribed the 8 boats with the minimum catch of 150 quintals each. And lastly, Wyborne's census duplicates, and adds to, Russell's census (Russell Census, 1676 (CO 1/38 ff. 237 - 238)) which has not been included in this collection. Any differences, between the two documents, are noted within the Wyborne information. 7. Poole Census, 1677 (CO 1/41 ff. 157 - 166) "A particular Accompt of all ye Inhabitnts and Planters living in every ffishing Port or harbour on Newfoundland from Cape Bonavista to Cape Race, with ye numbers of Boats Stages Trainfats houses beachrooms Cattle etc belonging to them" Nominal census of Planters of Newfoundland, 1677. Listing by community, from Trepassey to Bonavista, includes names of planters, wives, sons, daughters, male and female servants, number of Dwelling houses, store houses, servant lodgings, boats, stages, trainvats, fishing rooms, horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, gardens, pastureland, and the amount of quintals of fish per boat. (163 records) 8. Poole Ships, 1677 (CO 1/41 f. 168 - 172) "A particular Accott: of every ffish shipp in each Bay or Harbour" "And of every Sactshipp and whither bound" Census of Fishing Vessels from Trepassey to Bonavista. Includes Ships Names, Tonage, Captains' names, Port bound, tonage, number of men, guns, boats, stages, trainvats and rooms and houses employed, and quintal per boat catch figures. Also included in Poole's list is a census of the Sack Ships in each community, these Sackships are not included in this collection. (110 records) 9. Robinson Inhabitants of St. John's and Quidi Vidi, 1680 (CO 1/46 f. 25) "An accot of ye Inhabitants in St Johns Harbour & Quitevidi - there unto belonging w.th their names & what wives & Children they have as also their men & women Servants & boats thy Employ" Nominal census of St. John's and Quidi Vidi, 1680. Includes Planters names, wives, number of sons, daughters, female servants, male summer and winter servants, and boats. (39 records) 10. Robinson Fishing Ships (St. John's), 1680 (CO 1/46) "The names of ye ffishing Shipps in St Johns Harbour their Burthen Number of men, Gunns, Boats they keep, Kentalls of ffish they Catch Traine they make & fatts they use" Census of Fishing Vessels in St. John's, 1680. Includes Name of Vessel, Captains' name, Port of Origin, Port bound, tonage, number of men, guns and boats, quintals of fish caught, hogsheads of train made, and the numberof vats employed. (14 records) This is one of two listings of Fishing Vessels in St. John's compiled by Robinson. On comparison this one only includes those not found in the other document (Robinson Census of Fishing Ships, St. John's etc, 1680 (CO1/46 f. 27)). 11. Robinson Census of Fishing Ships, St. John's etc, 1680 (CO1/46 f. 27) "An Acct of ffish Ships in St. Jones & the other parts of Newfoundland" Census of Fishing Vessels in St. John's, Renews, Reynolds, Torbay and Petty Harbour, 1680. Includes Captains' names, Vessel names, number of men, boats and guns, Port bound, Port of Origin, and amount of Quintals of fish caught. (23 records) This is the second of two listings of Fishing Vessels in St. John's compiled by Robinson. Any differences with the other listing (Robinson Fishing Ships (St. John's), 1680 (CO 1/46)) is noted within the records. 12. Robinson ByeBoats of St. John's (CO 1/46 f. 22) "An accot. of ye Byboatkeepers in St Johns Harbour each of those keeping Stages, ye Number of Men and Boats they keep & Employ what quantity of ffish they Catch what Traine they make & how many ffatts they have to doe it" Census of ByeBoat Keepers of St. John's, 1680. Includes name of ByeBoat Keeper, port of Origin, number of men employed, boats, quintals of fish caught, hogsheads of train made, and number of vats emplyed. (42 records) 13. Anon Census, 1680 (CO ?, f. 121) "A list of all the Planters and Inhabitants in the English Ports &c in Newfoundland. Anno 1680" "An Account of Shipps which have Fished in the English Ports &c in Newfoundland Anno 1680" Aggregate listing for the whole of Newfoundland. Includes Planters, Fishing Vessels and Sack Ships, the latter of which has not been included here. The Planters figures include: number of planters and family, number of male (winter and summer) and female servants, cattle, boats, stages, Quintals of fish caught, and hogsheads of train made. The Fishing Ship figures include: number of Ship Masters, ships, tonage, men, boats, stages, quintals of fish caught, and hogsheads of train made. (2 records) 14. Story Census, 1681 (CO 1/47 f. 113 - 122) "An account of what fishing Shipps Sackships Planters & boat keepers from Trapasse to Bonavist & from thence to faire Island the Northward part of Newfoundland" Nominal census of Fishing Vessels, Planters, ByeBoat Keepers and Sackships in Newfoundland. Community listing of Fishing Vessels include Captains' names, Ships' names, port of Origin, number of boats and men, Port bound and in some instances quantity of fish caught. Listings for Planters include Planters' names, wives, number of children, boats and servants. Listings for Boat Keepers include BoatKeeper, and the number of boats and men employed. Only those Sackships that show effort have been included, and identified as such in the notes. (369 records) 15. Jones Fishing Ship Census, St. John's, etc., 1682 (CO 1/49 f. 193 - 194) "An Accompt of ye ffishing Ships in ye Harbour of St. Johns: in Newfoundland" Census of Fishing Vessels in St. John's, Petty Harbour, Bay Bulls, Witless Bay, Bay de Verde, Old Perlican and New Perlican. Includes Captains' names, Ship names, Port of Origin, and the number of men, boats, stages and vats employed. (32 records) 16. Jones Planters of St. John's, etc. 1682 (CO 1/49 ff. 196 - 197) "An accompt of ye: Planters belonging to St Johns Harbour" Nominal census of St. John's, Petty Harbour, Bay Bulls, Bay de Verde, Witless Bay, Old Perlican, New Perlican, Winterton, Hants Harbour, Heart Content, and Trinity, with aggregate figures for Quidi Vidi. Includes Planters' names, servants, wives, children, boats, stages and vats. (92 records) 17. Jones ByeBoat Keepers of St. Johns, 1682 (CO 1/49 f. 19) "An accompt of y:e Boatkeepors belong to St Johns Harboure" Nominal census of the Boatkeepers of St. John's and Petty Harbour. Includes Boatkeepers' name, and the number of boats, men and stages employed. (47 records) 18. Jones ByeBoat Census, Southern Shore, 1682 (CO 1/49) Aggregate listing of ByeBoat Keepers and Fishing Ships on the Southern Shore, 1682. Fishing Ship records were considered to be too fragmentary to include. (7 records) 19. Wheeler Planter Census, 1684 (CO 1/55 f. 257) "the Answere to the first Article is the Number of ye. English Planters Inhabiting the Et.erne Coast of Newfound land betweene Cape Race In the Lattd. of 46d:90l and Cape Bonavista in 48d:50l wth: the Number of Servants Imployed by them this Summer and Generally every Yeare wth: the Quantaty of ffish they have taken beginning att Cape Race & soe to ye. No.ward wth: ye. Distance from one Port to another." Aggregate Census for 1684. Includes community listings of the number of men, women, children, servants, boats and the quantity of fish caught. (21 records) 20. Wheeler Fishing Ships Census, 1684 (CO 1/55 f. 254) "An accot: of the ffishing Shipps imployed at each Port in Newfound land wth theire Number of Men Boats & Quantaty of ffish taken Likewise th' Number of Men & Quantaty of ffish taken by the Boate Keepers being part of ye. men brought over by ye ffishing Shipps wth: theire Victualls upon ffraight and soe Adventure upon theire owne Score and goe home at ye end of the Season." Nominal Census of Fishing Ships from Renews to Old Perlican. Includes Ships names, Captains' names, tonage, number of men, guns, boats, and stages, quintals of fish caught and Port of Origin. (43 records) 21. Crawley Planters Census, 1692 (CO 1/68 ff. 271 - 272) "An accompt of the Number of the Inhabitants Quantity of fish and Traine made in Newfoundland and for what Places Shipped in the year 1692" Aggregate Census from Renews to Bonavista. Community listing includes number of boats, men, women, children, stages, and servants, quantity of train made and shipped, quantity of fish made and shipped, number of ships taking produce, and where the fish and train was shipped. (37 records) 4. Geographical Divisions (a) Regions For the purposes of this dataset and dataset 5, the coast around Newfoundland has been divided into 10 regions into which the respective Grounds have been ordered (database REGION field) as follows: Nfld1. St.John’s Area Petty Harbour (47° 28´N 52°43´W ) to Cape St.Francis (47°49´N 52°49´W) Nfld 2. Conception Bay Cape St.Francis (47°49´N 52°49´W) to Grates Point (48°10´N, 52°56´W) Nfld 3. Trinity Bay Grates Point (48°10´N, 52°56´W) to Cape Bonavista (48°42´N, 53°05´W) Nfld 4. Bonavista Bay Cape Bonavista (48°42´N, 53°05´W) to Cape Freels (49°13´N, 53°33´W) Nfld 5. North Coast Cape Freels (49°13´N, 53°33´W) to Cape St.John (50°01´N 55°30´W) Nfld 6. White Bay Cape St.John (50°01´N 55°30´W) to Cape Bauld (51°40´N 55°25´W) Nfld 7. West Coast Cape Bauld (51°40´N 55°25´W) to Cape Ray (47°38´N, 59°20´W) Nfld 8. South Coast Cape Ray (47°38´N, 59°20´W) to Lamaline (46°52´N 55°48´W) Nfld 9. Placentia Bay and St.Mary’s Bay Lamaline (46°52´N 55°48´W) to Cape Race (46°39´N 53°04´W) Nfld 10. Southern Shore Cape Race (46°39´N 53°04´W) to PettyHarbour (47° 28´N 52°43´W (b) Grounds Estimated co-ordinates are given in the LAT & LON fields for the notional seaward centre of GROUNDS fished. The entry ‘Ground Centre’ indicates that a precise fishing point is not known, but the Lat/Lon represents the notional centre point of the ground fished. 1Great Britain, The National Archives (TNA), CO 1/34 (16), Joseph Williamson, “Newfoundland,” 1675, 24-57 and 69-73. For an invaluable transcription see Calendar State Papers Colonial (CSPC) for 1674. 2After 1696 such records survive in the CO 194 series of outletters from Newfoundland. 3The Council for Trade first asked for information in 1671: TNA, ADM 2/1, William Blathwayt, “Heads of Inquirys...,” March 1671. 4On the Council for Trade and the Council for Foreign Plantations (1660), Council for Trade and Plantations (1672), the Lords of Trade and Plantations (1675) and the Board of Trade (1696), see R.B. Pugh, The Records of the Colonial and Dominions Offices (London, 1964), 4-5. On censuses of Barbados, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands, see Richard Dunn, Sugar and Slaves, the Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713 (New York, 1973). 5Peter E. Pope, Fish Into Wine: The Newfoundland Plantation in the Seventeenth Century (Chapel Hill NC, 2004), ch. 7. 6Peter Pope, “Early Estimates: Assessment of Catches in the Newfoundland Cod Fishery, 1660-1690,” in Maritime Resources and Human Societies in the North Atlantic Since 1500, ISER Conference Paper, no. 5 (St John’s, 1997), 9-40. 7Keith Mercer, “The Rise of the Newfoundland Bye-Boat Fishery, 1660–1684” (Unpublished M.A. thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002). 8TNA, CO 1/35 (17 i and ii), John Berry, “A List of ships makinge Fishinge voyages; with Boatkeepers which comes Passengers on their own account, and what shipps bound to Forraigne Marketts: From Cape de Raze to Cape Bonavista” and “A list of the Planters Names with an account of their Concerns from Cape de Raze to Cape Bonavista,” 12 September 1675, 137-148 and 150-156, with other copies in CO 1/35 (16) and the British Library, Egerton 3340. 9TNA, CO 1/39 (29), John Rich, “...List of the whole, 1676,” 60; also in CO 1/38 (80), 221-221v. 10TNA, CO 1/38 (81), Captain Russell and John Wyborne, “From Salvadge to Petit Harbour, An Accompt of what Ships have made Fishing Voyages this Yeare at Newfoundland 1676,” 223-224. 11TNA, CO 1/38 (89), John Wyborne, “The names of the English Inhabitants with the number of Boats & men, and their Wives & children,” 239-242. 12TNA, CO 1/41, William Poole, “A particular Accompt of all the Inhabitants and Planters living in every Fishing Port or harbour on Newfoundland from Cape Bonavista to Cape Race with the numbers of Boats Stages Trainfats houses beach roomes Cattle etc belonging to them,” “Account of Fishing & Sackships from Trepassy to Cape Broyle,” and “A particular Account of every Fish Shipp, in each Bay or Harbour And of every Sack shipp, and whither bound,” 10 September 1677; (62 iv, vi, vii), 157-166; (62 viii), 167-172; (62 ix CHECK), 168v-170. 13Further research in TNA is needed to establish whether this is an error in copying, filing, binding, or in Poole’s original survey. 14TNA, CO 1/46, Robert Robinson, “The names of the Fishing Shipps in St. Johns Harbour their Burthen, Number of men, Gunns, Boats they keep, Kentalls of Fish they catch, Train they make & fatts they use,” “An Account of the Byboat keepers in St Johns Harbour each of them keeping stages, the Number of Men and Boats they keep & Employ what quantity of Fish they catch what traine they make & how many Fatts they have to doe it,” “An Account of the Number of stages, Roomes, Trainfatts, ships, & Men, used & Imployed In St. Johns and Baye of Bulls in Newfoundland, allso the number of houses Planters & Inhabetants,” “An Account of the Inhabitants in St Johns Harbour & Quitevidi thereunto belonging with their names & what Wives & Children they have as also their men & women Servants & boats they Employ,” “A List of Fish ships in Snt. Jones & the other parts of Newfoundland,” 16 September 1680, (8 i, ii, iii, iv, v), 21, 22, 23v-24, 25, 26v-27; and CO 1/46 (79), Anon., “A List of all the Planters and Inhabitants in the English Ports etc. in Newfoundland. An Account of Shipps which have Fished in the English Ports Etc in Newfoundland. A List of Ships which goes for Sacks out of English Ports Etc in Newfoundland,” 1680, 154v-155, also in CO 1/46 (78), 152-153 and British Library Add mss 15898, 138. 15TNA, CO 1/47 (52 i), James Story, “An Account of what fishing Shipps Sack shipps Planters Etc boat keepers from Trepasse to Bonavista & from thence to faire Island the Northward part of Newfoundland,” 1 September 1681, 113-121v. 16TNA, CO 1/49 (51 vi, viii, ix), Daniel Jones, “An accompt of the Fishing Ships in the Harbour of St. John’s in Newfoundland...,” “An accompt of the Boatkeepers belong to St. Johns Harbour,” “An accompt of the Planters belonging to St. Johns Harbour...,” 11 October 1682, 193, 195, 196-197. 17TNA, CO 1/55 (56 iv and vii), Francis Wheler, “An account of the Fishing Shipps imployed at each Port in Newfoundland with theire Number of Men Boats & Quantaty of Fish taken Likewise the Number of Men & Quantaty of Fish taken by the Boate Keepers being part of the men brought over by the Fishing Ships with theire Victualls upon Fraight and soe Adventure upon theire owne Score and goe home at the end of the Season” and “...Number of the English Planters Inhabiting the Easterne Coast of Newfoundland betweene Cape Race In the Lattitude of 46d:30 and Cape Bonavista in 48d:50 with the Number of Servants Imployed by them this summer and Generally every Yeare with the Quantaty of Fish they have taken beginning att Cape Race & soe to the Northward with the Distance from one Port to another,” 27 October 1684, 253-254 and 257. 18TNA, CO 1/68 (94 iii), Thomas Crawley, “An accompt of the Number of the Inhabitants, Quantity of fish and Traine made in Newfoundland and for what Places Shipped in the yeare 1692,” 15 October 1692, 272. 19Eleven censuses for Plaisance and, in some cases, smaller French settlements like St Pierre, Fortune and Grand Bank, survive for the period between 1671 and 1711. These are mostly nominal and can be found in France, Archives Nationales, Archives d’Outre Mer G1, vol. 467, transcribed in NAC, MG1 and published in Fernand-D. Thibodeau, “Recensements de Terreneuve et Plaisance,” Mémoires de la Société Généalogique Canadienne-Française 10 (3-4) (1959), 179-188; 11 (1-2) (1960), 69-85; 13 (10) (1962), 204-208; 13 (12) (1962), 245-255. 20Pope, Fish into Wine, table 7.2. 21Laurier G. Turgeon, “Colbert et la Pêche Française à Terre Neuve,” in Roland Mousnier, (ed.), Un Nouveau Colbert, Actes du Colloque pour le Tricentenaire de la Mort de Colbert (Paris, 1985), 255-268. 22Bibliotechque de la Chambre de Commerce de Dunkerque, ms 19. 23On sack ships, see Peter E. Pope, “Sack Ships in the Seventeenth-Century Newfoundland Trade,” in Year Book of the Northern Seas (1999), 33–46. 24Pope, “Early Estimates.” 25France, Archives des Colonies [AC] CIIC, vol. 1, P. Duhamel et al., [Reply to the Parlement of Bretagne] “Extrait du Registre (establi) à l’admiraulté de Sainct Malo,” 18 April 1662, 6-8v; copy in Archives Nationales de Québec [ANQ], ZF1-8/1, microfilm 4M00-1202A; also in National Archives of Canada [ANC], microfilm 498. 26AC, F3, vol. 54, “Arrest de la Cour de Parlement de Bretagne ... Sur les Reglemens du Navires et Gallays aux Partyes de terre Neuve,” 31 March 1640, 248-251v. Pope identified this document only as this article was being written and it is not yet transcribed. 27AC, CIIC, vol. 1, Jan Birard (?) et al., “Nous soussignés capitaines et maistres de navires…De St Malo...,” 4 April 1680, 59-66; copy in ANQ ZF1 8/1, microfilm 4M00-1201A; also in NAC, microfilm 498. 28Ralph T. Pastore, “The Collapse of the Beothuk World,” Acadiensis, 19 (1) (1989), 52-71. 29AC, C11F, vol. 3, Anon. “Extrait des declarations des Capitaines des navires qui ont été employés en 1764 a La pesche de La molue sur La Côte de terreneuve...,” “Etat de la Pesche de la morue sêche à la côte de Terre neuve pendant l’Année 1765” and “Extraits des declarations des Capitaines de navires qui ont été employés en 1765 a La pesche de La morue sèche sur la Côte de terreneuve...,” 1765, 270-283v, 249-250 and 253-269. James K. Hiller, of Memorial University’s Department of History, has prepared an abstract of the 1764 fishing census. 30J.K. Hiller, “The Newfoundland Fisheries Issue in Anglo-French Treaties, 1712-1904,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 24 (1996), 1-23. 31AC, C11F, vol. 5, Anon., “Etat des havres TNApres à des Etablissements pour la pêche de la morüe...,” 1784, 98-106v. 32Archives de la Chambre de Commerce de Bayonne, Carton I 7 (“Pêche à la morue”) no. 5, Anon. “Marine. Pêche de la morue,” 1832; copy in ANQ, ZF 5/4, microfilm 4M00-1539A; also in NAC microfilm F. 862. 33Hiller, “The Newfoundland Fisheries Issue.” 34Nicholas Landry, “’Qu’il Sera Fait Droit à Qui Il Appartiendra’: La Société Delasson-Duccarrette à Plaisance, 1700–1715,” Newfoundland Studies, 17 (2001), 220–256. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ HMAP Dataset 6: Newfoundland, 1675-1698 HMAP Data Pages: http://www.hull.ac.uk/hmap 16 HMAP Data Pages: http://www.hull.ac.uk/hmap