The Carters By Fred Carter The person who got me enthusiastic about the Carter name was my father, Kenneth Carter. I can understand why he was so proud of the Carter name – he was the only male heir left in his grandfather’s, Captain Charles Robert Carter, branch of the family to carry on the name. I feel I owe it to my father to write up our family history, or at least endeavour to describe and relate what has been handed down to me and what I have managed to collect through research. However, it might be of interest in the beginning to explain somewhat the early migration and origin of some of the people who came to our shores so many years ago. In this respect I have to acknowledge the resilience, fortitude, courage and dedication to family which must have prevailed to take such a major step in pioneering a settlement on the small, isolated island of Greenspond and other islands close by, such as Ship Island and Newell’s Island in Bonavista Bay. Each member of the family must have endured many hardships in their quest to carve for themselves a new lifestyle under the most primitive conditions. “West Country ports and market towns, with their adjacent villages, provided the main source of recruitment for settlers, seamen, fishermen, merchants, and most of the manufacturers needed in the fishery.” (Taken from introduction to Keith Matthews’s Name Files, Maritime History Archive, MUN). “The English came predominantly from the ‘labouring poor’ of the larger towns and villages; they were mainly artisans, craftsmen, and labourers.” (From English Migration to Newfoundland by Dr. W. Gordon Handcock) After England defeated France in a European War in 1713, the two nations agreed upon a settlement in which the Treaty of Utrecht, despite strong opposition both in Newfoundland and England, gave the French the whole coastline in Newfoundland from Cape Bonavista north to Cape Bauld and down the west coast as far as Pointe Riche, near Port au Choix, to fish exclusively in this area and to erect temporary buildings on this shore for the whole purpose of conducting their fishing operations. The English were excluded from occupying any part of this area of coastline, with the exception that they could settle three miles from the coast. This was a major concession to the defeated party, which caused much consternation in Newfoundland and England, and was a matter of extreme contention until the French Shore was once again returned to Newfoundland in a declaration of the British Parliament in the early 1900s. The remarkable part of the situation which I have no explanation for is the fact that English settlers occupied and fished in Greenspond and the Bonavista Bay area during the period of time when the French had control of this coastline, North of Cape Bonavista, and did so without any confrontation from the French. I have read reports that the French warships patrolling the coast would often visit Greenspond without creating any problems for the settlers. The Carters, for example, declared that they had built their premises and settled on Ship Island in the year 1725. They were not necessarily the first family there, but they could have been sailing into the place in the summertime in the late 1600s, when the area was reported to be fished by the English in the migratory fishery which saw English fishermen transported to Newfoundland in the spring of the year and then return to England in the fall. The Carters and others might have been the first permanent year-round settlers in the area. Greenspond Island, at the time of the first settlers, was covered with a substantial growth of forest, according to reports, but this was quickly used up for fuel and materials to build homes and fishing premises. The limited amount of topsoil on the island was also eroded by the elements necessitating settlers bringing soil, if they wanted to have kitchen gardens, from the mainland to build up their land. In Lovell’s Directory for 1871, I came across the following entry: “Greenspond – An island on the north of Bonavista Bay. The Island is so thoroughly barren that soil for house gardens had to be brought from the main land. This is a good fishing station and a large business is done here. The harbour is safe but small. During the time of the spring seal fishery great numbers of seals are often washed upon the shore. It is a post town and port of entry. Distant from St. John’s by overland route, weekly, 183 miles, and by steamer fortnightly 100 miles. Fare $6.00. Mail fortnightly. Population 1073.” In 1805, a British Navy Captain sailed around the coast of Newfoundland compiling a register of persons in the many different coves and bays who had built fishing premises in those places and established permanent residences there. These property owners were known as planters. On Ship Island, Benjamin and Joseph Carter were contacted on property known as “Ben Carter’s Room”; they said that the property was theirs by right of inheritance and had been built by the Carter family 80 years before, which would have been 1725. Although some reports say that the Green and the Pond families were the first to settle in Greenspond, and therefore that is possibly how the place got is name, I am convinced through research that this was not the case. Rev. Frank Cluett, in the Encyclopaedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, volume 2, page 731, says another suggestion about how Greenspond got its name is “That the name derived from the fact that at the time of its first settlement that harbour basin, a salt water pond, was surrounded by a forest of evergreens, long since laid waste.” “Green’s Room” on Ship Island was registered in the name of Thomas Green, my great-great-great-great-grandfather, who stated he had purchased it two years before, in 1803. Thomas Green, who died in 1828 at the age of 74, stated in his Will which he made on December 29, 1818 that he was from Christchurch, Hampshire, England. In the case of the Ponds a fishing room called “White’s Room” was registered in the 1805 Listings, which was originally built by claimants John White and Edward Pond. They stated they had built it in 1804. In the Church of England baptismal records for 1814 to 1820 there were no Pond births registered. On April 12, 1830 Saul Carter was baptized at Greenspond at age 74, which makes his year of birth 1755 or 1756. It appears, therefore, that Saul was born in Greenspond rather than in England, because, if born in England, he would have most certainly been baptized over there. Of all the fishing rooms registered in the Greenspond/Ship Island/Newell’s Island area “Kean’s Room” and “Ben Carter’s Room both on Ship Island, were the earliest built, in 1725. From the above, it can be surmised that the Carter family was one of the earliest settlers in the Greenspond area. There is some speculation that the family had moved north from Old Perlican in an attempt to get away from raids by the French who were settled in Placentia. These raids took place in the late 1600s and early 1700s and resulted in much pillaging and destruction. In 1675, Sir John Berry of the Royal Navy had travelled the coast completing a census record for the government. In it, he listed planter John Carter at Old Perlican with four boats, 20 men and 1 fishing stage. There were no females listed. According to Judge Daniel Prowse’s account in his book, A History of Newfoundland, the French attacked and ransacked as far as Bonavista: “The French, after their various raids between 1696 and 1713, never remained in possession of any part of the English settlements. They simply swooped down on peaceful English settlements like birds of prey, harried them, and then flew away to their nests in Placentia.” From the above we can see that life in these areas of Newfoundland was miserable and unbearable, and it was most likely that some of the families involved would decide to move away to safer harbours, or move back to England. Cliff Andrews believes that John Carter possibly moved his base of operations north to Greenspond. In May 2001, while listening to the CBC, I heard an interview with Robert Barrett of Old Perlican during which he stated that his ancestors had bought the property he lives on in Old Perlican from William Carter of Poole, England, in 1714. He said it was William Carter who got the grant of land from the Queen and his son, John, would come to Newfoundland to operate the fishing business. The Carters were there from 1600s to 1705 and then went back to England and never returned, Barrett said. There was mention of the property deed written on sheepskin, one of the oldest documents in Newfoundland, and which was in possession of the Museum in St. John’s. I discovered this deed was stored in the Provincial Archives in the Colonial Building and, because of its frail condition, was not available for viewing. However, I did get a transcribed copy of the deed in Nimshi Crewe’s file, including a Xerox copy of the signatures on the deed. The deed was signed and sealed March 11, 1711 (1712) by Mary Carter, Roger Carter and John Carter and reads at the beginning “Mary Carter, widow, and relict of John Carter, late of the town & country of Poole, Planter, deceased, Roger Carter, eldest son of the said John Carter, deceased, for and in consideration of the sum of twenty pounds, lawful money of Great Britain …” The property was sold to John Barrett, also of Poole, who already owned property adjacent to the Carter plantation. From the above it can be assumed that the censuses taken in 1675 and 1681 showing “John” Carter as a planter in Old Perlican were correct but by 1711, when the plantation was sold to Barretts, John Carter, the planter, was dead and the property belonged to his widow and two sons. Robert Barrett may be correct in stating that the Carters never returned to England in 1705, but it is possible that the same Carter family relocated to Greenspond. While I was serving in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and came home on leave before going overseas, my grandmother (who was a Meadus then) said to me: “Fred, if you ever get to England, don’t forget to look up your people there, they came from Christchurch.” I never forgot that, but when I eventually got to England, I did not follow up on it, because I didn’t have a clue as to how to go about doing that. Since getting involved in family history later in life, I learned that many families in Greenspond, viz., the Meadus, Green, Burry and Lockyer lines, all originated in Christchurch, so therefore Grandmother may have been correct in stating that our Carter ancestors were also from there. She must have heard it passed along by word of mouth through the generations. I would like to note, however, that Poole, in the county of Dorset, and Christchurch, in the county of Hampshire, or Hants as the English call it, were located very close to one another, in adjacent harbours. Over the years with changes being made in County lines, or borders, Christchurch has now become a part of Dorset County. Kenneth Carter, 1899-1981, son of Kenneth and Elizabeth (Hapgood) Carter of Ship Island. Photograph taken in Newcastle-in-Tyne, England, during World War I. (Photo courtesy of Fred Carter) To be continued
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 10:59:08 +0000
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