Historical Notes on Ferryland

Authorities differ on the derivation of the name Ferryland. It has been written as Forilon, Foriland, and considered by some as a corruption of Veralum which was the ancient name of St. Alban's in England. It was first visited by French fishermen as early as 1504 and used by them as a base for summer fishery. It was these who called it Forillon, which meant "standing out or separated from the mainland" and thus aptly described the peninsula now know as the Downs.

The French abandoned their east coast resorts early in the sixteenth century and went each summer to the south coast where fishing began a month earlier. Englishmen then came and built temporary quarters at Ferryland, and so a century passed until Sir George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, applied in 1621 for a royal charter to colonize a portion of Newfoundland. In 1622 he received a grant of part of the southeastern peninsula, with quasi-royal jurisdiction. He named his province Avalon.

Captains Powell and Wynne were sent out to Ferryland as Baltimore's agents to supervise construction work. Wynne thus described the progress made up to late autumn of 1622; "The range of buildings was forty four foot of length and fifteen foot of breadth, containing a hall, entry, cellar, four chambers, kitchen, staircases and passages. A face of defense was raised to the water sideward." After Christmas there were added a parlour fourteen feet long and twelve feet broad, a lodging chamber, a forge, salt works, a well sixteen feet deep, a brew house, a wharf, and a fortification " so that the whole may be made a pretty street." Land was cleared and in the spring wheat, barley, oats, beans peas, radishes, lettuce, turnips, cabbage, carrots and kale were sown. Baltimore spent forty thousand pounds on his colony, but profits were slow of realization and he tardily began to suspect that all was not well. He came out with his family in 1627.

In his letters to King Charles I he complained of raids by French Men of War and requested protection by British ships. Lady Baltimore found the vigorous climate too severe for her frail health and in 1629 she and her son Cecil left Newfoundland for Virginia. Her husband decided to abandon Ferryland and obtained a grant of land in Virginia, whither he and many of the colonists removed.

Sir George Calvert's province in Newfoundland had been named Avalon. Around this name centres the most beautiful legend in our island story. It carries us back to the beginning of the Christian Era, and to the occupation of Britain by Roman legions. It was Joseph of Arimethea who first preached the gospel in Britain. At Glastonbury in Somerset, he built a church, and, in time, a great monastery was erected there. It was there the tomb of King Arthur was found in 1191. Glastonbury was surrounded by fens and was called the Isle of Avalon. among the ruins of this hallowed spot, there blooms twice a year a hawthorn tree still known as the sacred thorn. Tradition tells us that Joseph carried with him to Britain a staff from the veritable tree whence the crown of thorns that Christ carried at the Crucifixion. The disciple planted the staff at Avalon, where it lives and flowers each may and Christmastide.

Lord Baltimore, who was a graduate of Oxford, was thoroughly versed in English legend. He envisioned an Avalon in the far west, where, like Joseph of old, he would build a shrine of faith amid the darkness of heathen lands. he brought missionaries with him who, like Arthur's knights were pledged:

"To reverence the king as if he were their conscience, and their conscience as their king. To break the heathen and uphold the Christ."

We quote the following from Archbishop Howley's Ecclesiastical History of Newfoundland:

"Calvert seems to have been so thoroughly imbued with this idea of establishing Christianity in the New World, that it lends a tinge to each incident of his enterprise. thus we find that he gave the name "Ark of Avalon" to the principal ship, and that of "The Dove" to her pinnace. On a coin which he had stamped is a thorn with the motto "Spina Sanctus" (Sanctified by the thorn). It shows on the obverse side a harp of lyre, surrounded by a wreath of bay leaves and bearing the inscriptions, beneath the lyre "Orpheus" and above, the Greek legend "The air is the best" (Ariston men Aer). there is a mitre, crosier and cross, and a shield with a thorn and oak. on the margin are the words "Pro Patria et Avalonia".

Eights years after Baltimore vacated Ferryland, Sir David Kirke took over the property under charter from the Crown. Kirke was born in Dieppe, France, the son of a London merchant and a French mother. Because of religious troubles he came to London and he and his brother were given a commission by King Charles I to outfit warships to prey on French commerce. Kirke made possible the colonization of Nova Scotia by Sir Alexander Macdonald, and captured eighteen French sail bound for Quebec. That town was forced to capitulate in the following year, 1629. Peace was proclaimed between England and France, and Kirke was ordered to restore the booty which he had taken. To recompense him for the losses thus sustained, he was given a grant of Newfoundland. He established his headquarters at Ferryland. Kirke, like Baltimore, was a staunch loyalist and during the struggle between King and Parliament he offered Charles a refuge at Ferryland. He fitted out a fleet a ships manned with heavy guns to make an invasion of England in conjunction with Prince Rupert of the Rhine. the plan did not eventuate, and the victorious Parliament called to England to answer the charge of rebel. As he had not actually taken part in the war, he was allowed to return to Newfoundland, but as a precaution Oliver Cromwell sent a British fleet to take every gun out of Ferryland. Kirke died there in 1655, and was buried on the Downs. The place of his tomb is unknown to this day.

Nothing remains of the costly mansion in which Baltimore and Kirke once lived in vice regal splendor. The latter had repaired and improved the huge brick building and had added towers when it was proposed to house the King of England. The building was partly destroyed by the Dutch in 1673, when they sacked the town. Its proximity to the sea and exposure to winter storms reduced the mansion to a heap of ruins. It was later used as a stone quarry for fishermen.

[ Above quotation from: Christopher Oates webman@wordplay.com ]

The information given below was extracted with permission, by the folks at Wordplay bookstore in St. John's from the Newfoundland Historic Trust book, written in 1978 entitled "Ten Historic Towns"

Holy Trinity Church (Ferryland)

Originally called the Holy Family Church, the name was changed in the 1920s. The Church's cornerstone was laid in 1863 and the finished structure consecrated in 1865. It is the last surviving one of a group of five stone churches that were erected during the episcopacy of Bishop Mullock. A very simple example of rural Gothic, the Church's style (despite its late date) is more likely to be, like the Anglican Church in Harbour Grace, an example of the survival of the Gothic forms rather than their revival.

The Church was constructed with the assistance of the local people and from stone quarried at Stone Island at the mouth of Calvert Harbour. The incongruous brick tower is a later addition to the structure. The iron statues, which make the Church's entrance so impressive, were salvaged from a ship bound for Trois Rivières which ran aground at Ferryland in 1926.

Lighthouse (Ferryland)

Opened in September of 1871 this lighthouse is the work of William Campbell, a St. John's contractor, and Thomas Burridge, a St. John's mason. A two-storey, double dwelling it was designed to accommodate the lightkeeper, his assistant and their families. The tower is a masonry structure sheathed in iron and holds a fixed dioptric light supplied by Stevenson's of Edinburgh.

Freebairn/Coffey House (Ferryland)

This is a somewhat unusual house in Newfoundland being built half of stone and half of timber. Its date of construction is undetermined but it is erected on what was once the Tessier property. Peter and Lewis Tessier came to Newfoundland from Newton Abbot, Devonshire, and conducted a large mercantile business in St. John's at the end of the 19th century. They were descendants of Baron de Tessier who fled the excesses of the French Revolution to settle in England. Peter Tessier married a daughter of Robert Carter of Ferryland. Their son, Charles, built an elaborate estate, Germondale, on Waterford Bridge Road. It was demolished in the early 1970s. Peter Tessier may have constructed a stone house on the Ferryland property as a country retreat. It is thought the timbered upper section was added around the turn of the century, possibly by Dr. R. Jardine Freebairn who owned and occupied the place until his death 8 September 1934 at the age of 71 years. A native of Bronhill, Dumbartonshire, Scotland, Freebairn spent much of his life as a medical doctor in Ferryland where he also acted as magistrate. A daughter, Jessie, married Hedley Bret of St. John's.

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