by Calvin Evans
Many women had a natural affinity for navigation and practiced the science of navigation aboard ship for many years. What is not as well known is that navigation was taught in schools in many parts of New England and in other places along the Atlantic coast. Navigation was offered as a subject in the “female department” of Dukes County Academy on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1830s. The curriculum for girls included drawing, painting, projection and colouring maps. One of these New England women established a school of navigation in London, England. Miss Eliza Frame, a school teacher in Maitland, Nova Scotia, ran a quite remarkable school of navigation in that town. Donal Baird in his book Women at Sea in the Age of Sail tells the remarkable stories of Janey Congden Crowe, Helen (Smith) Grant and Bessie Hall, all Nova Scotia women who became successful navigators. There was said to be a female teacher in Bonavista, Newfoundland, who taught navigation in the late eighteenth century. Mrs. Makison, who had a dame school at Brigus, Newfoundland, may also have taught navigation. Miss Crib at King’s Cove is also alleged to have taught navigation in school. It is known also that navigation was taught in the Roman Catholic school at Bay Bulls in the early 1840s. Memorizing the points of the compass was routinely practiced in many Newfoundland schools up until at least the late 1930s. I actually experienced that exhilarating pasttime in my early years in school. From at least 1917, F. J. Doyle operated a Nautical School in St. John’s, and Capt. English, who was the Harbour Master, was one of his instructors. Before that time, it seems, examinations for Mates and Masters were conducted by the Board of Trade. There was a St. John’s technical school and a local examining board which conducted examinations and issued Mate’s and Master’s Tickets (certificates of competency) as well as engineer’s certificates of competency. The Nautical School appears to have taken over from the Board of Trade and also issued St. John’s ambulance certificates. In October 1920 fifteen men (no women) were sitting for examinations at the Nautical School, and Drs. Carnell and Murphy were supervising the first-aid examinations.
In addition to being navigators, women were also shipbuilders. Perhaps the most prominent of the shipbuilders was Georgina Macdonald of Prince Edward Island who built the 179-ton ship Corona in 1904. Soon after the launching, she sold 24 of the 64 shares to John A. Macdonald and Robert N. Anderson, and two years later she sold the ship.
A quite different relationship with the sea was established by Miss Ivy Wamboldt, a ward of Captain Archie Publicover of La Have, Nova Scotia. In the late 1920s, the E. P. Theriault came into possession of Captain Publicover. This three-masted vessel had been built at Belliveau Cove, Nova Scotia, in 1919, was 310 tons net and had cost $62,000 in total. When he acquired the ship, Captain Publicover registered her in Ivy Wamboldt’s name. Ivy held a Master’s Certificate which she had acquired in the West Indies. For a time at least, Captain Publicover served as her mate, but Ivy was owner and master. Captain Wamboldt’s many voyages from Nova Scotia to the West Indies during the 1930s are recorded in the newspapers of the day.
All these were women of strong character, shaped in part by the elements that surrounded them and bringing to their tasks an inner strength and grit and nerve that saw them bravely through anything that nature could put in their way.
CHAPTER THREE
Newfoundland Women
and their Ships
In the early years, Newfoundland was like a giant fishing station moored permanently in the western Atlantic Ocean, and several European nations used it to pursue a migratory fishery, arriving in the spring with crews and supplies, fishing and curing fish through the summer and sending collector ships back to Europe with the finished product through the late summer and early fall. The merchants of Bristol may have discovered the rich fishing grounds of Newfoundland as early as 1480, and for almost one hundred years fishermen from the western coasts of Europe were practically undisturbed in their pursuit of the fishery here. Settlement in the New Found Land was actively discouraged by the government of the day. One small concession was made, however, in that a small crew was sometimes left to winter on the island in order to protect and expand their fishing “rooms,” cut timber for wharves and fishing stages, build and repair small boats for the inshore fishery, and trap fur-bearing animals.
The Seventeenth Century
There were a few sporadic attempts by the British to colonize Newfoundland in the early years but these were limited to small groups of merchants. John Guy, on behalf of the London and Bristol Company, visited Newfoundland in 1608 and settled at Cupids in 1610 with a group of 39 settlers, thus becoming the first governor of Newfoundland. In 1612 he brought more settlers. Women were among these early pioneers. John Mason succeeded Guy in 1616 as the second governor of Newfoundland. He and his wife Ann spent about four years on the island. Ann is credited with being the first teacher in Newfoundland because she successfully taught an American Aboriginal to speak English. John and Ann Mason jointly authored a highly accurate description of the island in a book entitled A Briefe Discourse of the New-found-land. George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, established a colony at Ferryland in 1621 and appointed Edward Wynne as governor of the colony. In the second group of settlers which came out in 1622, there were seven women. But Wynne, in a letter to Calvert, asked for more, especially for “a couple of strong maids, that (besides other worke) can both brew and bake.” Contrasting with Edward Wynne’s statement that “women would be necessary heere” was Captain Wheler’s remark in the 1660s that “soe longe as there comes noe women they are not fixed.” The latter statement reflected a battle that was raging in England about whether Newfoundland should be settled at all. The seasonal migratory fishery had been pretty well restricted to men only, and there were many strong West Country advocates of the status quo. At the same time that settlement was being consciously retarded in Newfoundland, an advocate for settlement in the American colonies was writing: “A plantation can never flourish till families be planted with the respects of Wives and children fix the people on the soyle.” The presence of women was synonymous with settlement and community stability.
The formal colonies continued somewhat tentatively in Newfoundland. Lord Baltimore’s colony at Ferryland was enlarged and became the Province of Avalon in 1623. Edward Wynne was replaced by Arthur Aston as governor in 1625 and Lord Baltimore finally came to Ferryland in 1627. The next year he brought his wife to Avalon. So dreadful and interminably long was the winter that it is believed that Lady Baltimore persuaded her husband to abandon the venture for something in the warm south. He applied for Maryland but died before the grant was awarded in 1632. The charter for the Province of Avalon was assumed by Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, George’s son, but he became preoccupied with the venture at Maryland and ruled Avalon through a series of governors until about 1637.
In that same year Sir David Kirke was awarded a charter for the entire island of Newfoundland, and he became governor of the colony on behalf of the Company of Adventurers to Newfoundland. In 1638 he arrived in Ferryland with about 100 colonists. His tenure was marked by the fiercest possible controversy with both French settlers and West Country merchants. As a result he was recalled to England in 1651 and placed in prison. Though he was eventually released from prison, it is highly unlikely that he ever returned to Ferryland. However, his wife Lady Sara Kirke did return and carried on the family fishing business for several years after her husband’s death.
In Lady Sara Kirke we meet the first of our women shipowners in the Atlantic region. One of the informational history boards at present-day Ferryland states: “She rightfully deserves the title of British North America’s first woman entrepreneur.”
It is impossible to determine in what year Lady Kirke became a plantation owner or shipowner. She had first arrived in Ferryland in 1638. As the wife of the governor it is unlikely that she was having a “hands-on” involvement in the fishery in the early years. However, since she was carrying on an active fishing and supply venture according to the census of 1675, it ma
y be safely concluded that she was a plantation owner, a shipowner and a boatowner from about 1643, if not before. She was not the only woman at Ferryland. Her sister, Lady Frances Hopkins, a political refugee whose husband was William Hopkins of Newport, moved to Ferryland in 1643 with the support and commendation of King Charles I. Lady Hopkins also appears in the 1675 census as a plantation owner pursuing an active fishery. Among the adults at Ferryland at the time of the census were Lady Kirke’s four sons: George (and wife), Philip, David II, and Jarvase (or Jarvis). They were all separate plantation owners. In Renooze (Renews) there was a cousin, John Kirke, and in Caplin Bay a Jer. Kirke, possibly Jarvis, with a second plantation. The Kirkes were a durable family, due probably in no small part to the Lady.
Their fortunes continued to be beset with troubles. Lady Kirke was replaced as first lady by Mrs. John Treworgie when the latter’s husband was appointed governor in 1653. Lord Baltimore then contested the charter given to the Kirkes in 1637, though his counter claim was not recognized until 1660. Lady Hopkins went to England in that same year to present a petition to King Charles II concerning affairs in the island with specific reference to encroachments by the French and their continual military threat to English plantations. Lady Kirke took advantage of her sister’s visit to the king to present a petition, signed by the principal inhabitants of the area, “praying” that her son George be made governor of Newfoundland. Coincidentally, Governor John Treworgie had just completed his term. No action was taken on the latter recommendation. Finally, in 1661, Lady Kirke was forced to surrender title to all property claimed by Lord Baltimore. Though she continued to live in the house that her husband had built, she was required to pay rent for it to Baltimore’s agents. Lady Hopkins returned once more to England to protest against the treatment of the Kirkes by the government of the day, but without success.
From this historical record it may be determined both that these were strong-willed, determined women who thrived in adversity and that the fishing and supply venture they were pursuing was a very lucrative business.
Sir John Berry’s census of 1675 covered the east coast of Newfoundland, from Trepassey in the south to Bonavista in the north. The census records for Ferryland indicate that Lady Kirke had sixteen male servants, one female servant, one dwelling house, one lodgings house, four boats, one stage (for “making”/curing fish), one storehouse, four rooms (i.e., four large separate spaces on or near the shore for fishery work), one train vat (fish oil), and that she caught the allowable quota for the year, 150 quintals of fish (a quintal is 112 pounds). Her sister, Lady Hopkins, employed thirteen male servants, one female servant, had one dwelling house, two lodgings houses, three boats, one stage, two storehouses, one train vat, three rooms, and had also caught 150 quintals of fish. George and David Kirke II had plantations that were slightly larger than their mother’s and aunt’s.
It can be concluded from census evidence and other historical data that Lady Kirke operated her fishing business for approximately 40 years and that Lady Hopkins had operated hers for 30-plus years. From the Berry census it can be concluded that women in several communities were boat-owners from at least the mid-1600s. Boats would have been used to carry on an inshore fishery. Boats are generally distinguished from ships in that the latter are “of considerable size,” and boats are generally open vessels, i.e., undecked. If the Kirkes owned ships (as seems likely from the number of servants they employed), these would have been registered in a British port since there was no registration of ships in Newfoundland at this early period. Ships built by English planters or merchants in Newfoundland during the seventeenth century would have been registered in a British port. In any event, if the Kirkes owned ships, these would have been anchored in the Ferryland harbour or tied to a wharf and not used to pursue an inshore fishery. Since the Kirkes were now established settlers they probably sold their fish and oil to collector ships operating out of England.
Other women were arriving in Newfoundland in the early 1600s; for example, Elizabeth Matthews was in Bay Bulls in 1641 and Margery Burt was in the same place in 1651. Mrs. Gilder was involved in the fishery business in 1663, place unknown. There were at least nine other women boat-owners listed in the 1675 census in six other communities between Bonavista and Trepassey: Joan Clay at Bay Roberts; Margaret Taverner at Bay Verds (Bay de Verde); Sarah Edwards at Tarr Bay (Torbay); Emma Horton, Barbara Horton and Joan Hibbs at Harbour Grace; and Widow Long (or Lony), Widow Sertall and Mary Furze at St. John’s. All of the women are clearly designated as widows except Margaret Taverner of Bay Verds. She was in fact a married woman who resided in Bay de Verde and operated a fishing room there because her husband William was ill at home in Poole. Her sons Andrew and Robert operated fishing establishments there also. The Taverners had been in Bay de Verde from the 1650s. Other women reputed to have been involved in the fishery business were: Emelin Garland in 1675; Widows Wood, Holmen and Gresham in 1676; Lucy Guy and Widow Hanan in 1677; and Widow Roberts in 1681. Also in 1681 there is mention of Widow Bearns living in St. John’s with two children, two boats and ten servants. The English population along the east coast in 1675 totaled 1,367 of which 114 were planters. If women in charge of fishing plantations are counted among the planters, they represent about ten percent of the group, which is quite remarkable. The censuses of 1675 and 1681 demonstrate also that widows employed an average of thirteen servants on their plantations compared with an average of nine for all plantations.
A petition was sent from Ferryland to King William III on November 27, 1696, describing continuing French aggression against the settlers, the destruction of 12,000 pounds sterling in property, and the banishment by the French of the entire population of 150 persons. The petition was signed by 40 men. Lady Kirke and Lady Hopkins had long since died or departed; George Kirke had moved to St. John’s sometime after the 1675 census; David Kirke II was imprisoned by the French at Placentia, where he died in 1696 or 1697. Following the destruction of several English settlements by the French in 1697, there was at least a tacit tolerance by the British of their own settlers along the east coast and some modest efforts made to supply a military presence for defense purposes. When the British government passed the Act to Encourage the Trade to Newfoundland in 1699, its main thrust was still to promote the existing migratory fishery, but it also included the right to property which had been held in 1685 or before.
After David Kirke II died in 1696 or 1697, his widow Mary married the St. John’s merchant James Benger in 1699; she then claimed the Ferryland plantation, and they established a business there which they operated for many years. Mary Kirke’s decision to remarry was one option for a widow, and it was an option that was taken by many widows, though widows were not as likely to remarry as widowers. Gordon Handcock writes in his book Soe longe as there comes noe women: Origins of English Settlement in Newfoundland:“The (Mary) Kirke example does illustrate at least several social processes important for permanency. These include the transfer of property through females, the social situation of the widowed female who found herself stranded in Newfoundland and enforced by circumstances to seek through early remarriage some measure of security and, most importantly, the social interaction between the settled population and the migrating labour force.”
The main reason for remarriage was economic; it was clear that husband and wife working together formed a strong economic unit. However, many widows were not prepared to surrender the independent status of being head of a household, particularly if the wife and husband had already built up a viable economic unit which she understood and was nearly in control of by virtue of the fact that she almost certainly had more schooling than her husband and had probably kept the accounts, handled the money and been involved in marketing the product. Peter Pope in his thesis The South Avalon Planters 1630 to 1700 writes: “By becoming planters themselves, Newfoundland widows were adopting a male role, but this was not as anomalous as it may seem, within the context of a patriarchal society. Women’s econo
mic functions were not completely distinguished from men’s in Newfoundland any more than they were in pre-industrial Europe; furthermore English women had an acknowledged right to assume male roles under certain circumstances.”
Women in Newfoundland during this period functioned in a male-dominated, patriarchal society, but those who were involved with plantations enjoyed a higher status than housewife. To quote Peter Pope again: “Newfoundland planters’ wives participated at least as fully in economic power as women anywhere in the seventeenth century. In other words, they were powerful relative to their sisters elsewhere, in a century in which women were powerful, relative to their great-granddaughters.” These women were not confined to shore activities but were involved in more substantive duties such as curing, processing and marketing fish. Yet these duties would not have excused them from the normal female activities of the day such as baking, brewing, and the care of livestock and kitchen gardens. Depending on the size of the business there were likely female servants to assist with these duties, but the wife or widow would have been an overseer. A wife, in fact, was expected, according to English custom, to act in her husband’s place if he became ill or was away at sea.
