Early history based on Baccalieu: Crossroads for Cultures.

Later history based on information from the Bay Roberts Heritage Society Inc.

European fishermen were visiting Bay Roberts as early as the 1500s. Fishermen from Brittany and Normandy in what is now France fished the waters off the coast of Bay Roberts in the early 1500s and named the harbour Baie de Robert. They established onshore fishing rooms where they dried and salted (made) codfish. These fishermen came to the area because of its large harbour, and flat rock beaches that they used for curing fish.

Evidence of these European people can be found in community place names such as Priaulx Hill and in nearby names such as Spaniard's Bay and Port de Grave.

By the late 16th century, Bay Roberts had become part of the English Shore. Some French, Spanish and Portuguese fishermen still visited the area but they were out numbered by fishermen from the English West Country.

Over time, some of these West Country fishermen began to settle in the area. Some sources say the Frenchs arrived as long ago as 1634 and the Earles and the Badcocks in the 1660s.

In the 1675 Berry census, Bay Roberts is called "Bay of Roberts." Berry records only two planters in Bay Roberts. One was Anthony Varder who lived there with his wife and four children. The other one was a widow named Jane Clay. The 1677 census says between them they employed 19 servants, owned six boats and kept 34 cattle, 22 sheep and 13 hogs. Families like the Parsons, Mercers and Bishops arrived later. Settlers from the Channel Islands arrived in the 1700s.

Artifacts on Land and in the Harbour

These early settlers left behind archaeological evidence of their way of life. Clay pipes and other artifacts have been found in places like Mercer's Cove. At least one ship was lost in Bay Roberts harbour during the early days of English settlement. A large numbers of ceramic vessels have been recovered from the harbour. Many of these are complete or almost complete. They include storage jars from the West Country and jars from Spain and Portugal.

French Attacks

Like many settlements in Conception Bay, Bay Roberts was destroyed by the French during King William's War (1689-1697). When the French arrived in 1697, Abbé Baudoin, chaplain for the French troops, called the town “Baye robert .“ He says the French captured 10 servants, 3 planters and 3 boats there and took 1500 codfish. By the time Abbé Baudoin and Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, the leader of the French arrived, many of the people who lived in Bay Roberts had probably escaped into the woods or to Carbonear Island.

In the spring of 1705 during Queen Anne's War, Jacques Testard de Montigny led the French to once again burn communities in Conception Bay, including Bay Roberts.

Fortunately, the effects of the French attacks did not last long, and Bay Roberts was built again.

Settlers in Juggler's Cove and French's Cove

Immigrants from West Country England and Ireland moved into the various communities such as Jugglers Cove, French's Cove and Coley's Point during the 1800's. These communities gradually merged into what is known today as Bay Roberts. The approximate population at that time was 1000. By 1833. The population was 1253.

Early Town Development

Business development began with Robert Pack, founder of the firm of Pack, Gosse, and Fryer.

The appointment of Robert Badcock as constable on September 25, 1730 signaled the beginning of justice for the Bay Roberts area. Stocks and a jailhouse were constructed for the punishment of criminal offenders. The construction of a one-room school also took place with one male teacher in charge.

In 1791, there were 30 members of the Wesleyan Church in Bay Roberts under the charge of George Vey . The Church of England was also active, since first St. Matthew's Church started in 1824 and was consecrated in 1827 to replace an earlier Church in Mercer's Cove.

The first Society for the Propagation of the Gospel missionary in charge of the Bay Roberts mission was Rev. Oswald Howell in 1837.

The Newfoundland School Society (later known as the Newfoundland and British North American School Society and the Colonial and Continental Society) established a school in Bay Roberts in 1829 under Mr. and Mrs. Lind. The first president of the Newfoundland Teachers Association, formed in 1890, was James Bancroft, who was teaching in Bay Roberts. He was instrumental in forming the Association St. Mark's Anglican School in Shearstown dates back to 1867. (The original building has been incorporated into the present school, making it the oldest school in the district. Sadly, the old building was destroyed by fire in 2002.)

A medical conference held at Whitbourne on September 10, 1896. One of the papers delivered was read by Dr. J. K. McLeod of Bay Roberts.

By the 1900's Bay Roberts was regarded as a wholesale and distribution centre for Conception Bay and Trinity Bay, and major businesses included cooperage (barrel making) and shipbuilding. William Dawe was the best-known cooper, having produced 7800 butter tubs in one year. Mr. J. Bowering was a renowned shipbuilder, who produced 50 ships a year for merchants and the Hudson's Bay Company for use in the fishing and sealing industries. However, the economy depended to a large extent on the fishing industry, as merchants owned between 60 and 70 ships which were used by the local fishermen.

The first combined passenger and mail flight in Newfoundland, made by Major F. S. Cotton on February 24, 1922 was between St. John's and Harbour Grace. Before reaching Harbour Grace, the plane touched down at Clarke's Beach and Bay Roberts.

French's Cove

At the turn of the 20th century, French's Cove in Bay Roberts East was a bustling fishing community. Today a photo hardly leaves any evidence that anyone ever lived there. However, the remains of root cellars and rock walls are in fairly good shape and have been reconstructed as part of the development of the Bay Roberts East Shoreline Heritage Walk.

The Klondyke Causeway

The Klondyke, a causeway that connects Coley's Point and Bay Roberts, was once considered to be a "gold mine" to local families that were paid to complete it in 1897. Before the construction of the Klondyke, passengers and freight were ferried from Water Street in Bay Roberts to Coley's Point. In the 1890's, a petition sent to government for the construction of a causeway was turned down due to lack of funds. Two Coley's Point women went from door to door with a petition and a public meeting held shortly thereafter resulted in the decision that the residents would build the causeway themselves. Construction began in the winter months. Rock and gravel were carried to the site in hand-barrels, by horse and sled, and by hand. Men cut a channel through the ice and dumped the rock into the open water. When the Labrador fishery failed in 1897 and many families faced severe hardship, the government agreed to pay the men, women and children who worked on the construction of the causeway $1 a week to finish the work. Their wage was enough to buy one barrel of flour or one keg of molasses - a welcome relief for people facing a winter of hunger. One store owner in the area (reportedly Mrs. Bursell) likened the project to the Klondyke Gold Rush and, thus, the causeway got its name - The Klondyke.

Since 1996, Bay Roberts has celebrated the construction of the Klondyke and the unique bond between the two communities in the annual Klondyke Days festivities.

The Bay Roberts Guardian (Weekly Newspaper) 1909-1949

The founder of the Guardian was the late Charles Edward Russell, who was born at Bay Roberts in 1877. In 1909 he bought a small printing plant from Harris and Wesley Mosdell, two Bay Roberts boys, who for a number of years published a weekly newspaper called The Bay Roberts Outlook. (Their office office was situated on the site where Bay Roberts Seafoods Ltd. now operates - formerly R. Churchill). Charles moved the plant farther west on Water Street, and on 09 July 1909, the first issue of the Guardian rolled off the man-power-driven press. (Incidentally, part of this printing equipment was acquired from the late (Magistrate) Jabez P. Thompson, who printed a newspaper called The Vindicator at Brigus, around the turn of the century.)

Just after the founding of The Guardian in Bay Roberts, the Western Union Cable Company of New York became interested in acquiring a site in Conception Bay for their Atlantic Cable Relay Station. The Guardian was instrumental in persuading the promoters into selecting Bay Roberts as their site.

The Guardian also played a very conspicuous part in reporting events of the two world wars, chiefly the events pertaining to the many local volunteers in the various services. Many headlines read: "Killed in Action", "Died of Wounds", "Missing in Action at Sea", and so on. Also on the lighter side were the reports of receptions on the occasion of homecomings and letters to loved ones at home, and the happy news of the Armistices.

Other events that made interesting headlines were: "The Loss of the Swallow" which was an account of the loss of the Coley's Point fishing vessel, The Swallow, owned and mastered by John Bowering and his crew, all from Coley's Point, who were driven to sea in the Atlantic during a hurricane in September, 1915. After many days adrift they were rescued from their sinking vessel by a passing ocean liner and brought to England, and after being given up for lost, they arrived home on Christmas Eve that same year. [Click here for an article by John Russell with further information on the Guardian]

The Western Union Cable Station

The Western Union Cable Company brought the outside world to Bay Roberts in 1910. Eventually, ten trans-Atlantic cables were landed here -- among them the fastest in the world at that time -- and hundreds of employees, both local and world-wide, passed through the doors of the Bay Roberts station. The brick building was erected as a relay station on the connection from England to North and South America. During two world wars, it necessitated a company of army personnel to guard the property from possible enemy action . Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt had a private line on the link through Bay Roberts station.

Incorporation

The Town of Bay Roberts was incorporated in 1951 after Premier Joseph Smallwood suggested that if the Town had its own council, it could take care of paving its own roads. In the time since its incorporation, Bay Roberts has seen many changes. In the past fifteen years, the number of services has greatly increased from two main businesses to a town whose economy depends upon its service industry. Bay Roberts has become the main business centre for a large part of Trinity and Conception Bays. Vast improvements have also been made in the area of recreation with the modernization of the swimming pool and the development of the ball fields and tennis courts.

Famous Citizens

Rev. R. T. Lowell, who served in the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel missionary in the period 1843-1847, was an American and a brother of the poet James Russell Lowell. Rev. Lowell, the son of a Unitarian clergyman, was born in Boston, graduated from Harvard University, and was ordained a priest of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in 1843, the same year in which he started his ministry here. He is the author of the book, "New Priest in Conception Bay.", the setting for which is the village of Peterport, the fictional name by which he referred to Bay Roberts.

The first Newfoundlander to enlist in the Newfoundland Regiment was L. T. Stick on September 18, 1914. Mr. Stick, who resided in Bay Roberts, later became the first Member of Parliament for the district of Bonavista-Trinity Conception.

Ted Russell was born in Coley's Point. He wrote about the Newfoundland experience as he saw it. He is recognized as one of the first and foremost writers to use Newfoundland outport settings and characters as personifications of themes which, while appearing to be local, are actually universal in their scope and appeal

Award-winning Canadian playwright David French, author of Saltwater Moon, Leaving Home, and Of the Fields Lately, was also born at Coley's Point.

He is currently Writer in Residence at the University of Western Ontario .