Page Five

When James Pitts arrived in Lance Cove, sometime between 1780 and 1794, he had his own ship and a load of lumber, brought from British America, with which to build his house.  This beautiful old house was not dismantled until around 1944.  While it was being taken down people stopped to admire the manner in which it had been constructed.  All the framework  was skilfully jointed and the "up-rights" let into the sills and rafters by means of mortise and tenon.  The space around the door and window boxes, as well as the roof, underneath the shingles, was weatherproofed with sheets of birch rind.  The workmanship in this house set the standard for others that were soon to follow and is indicative of the purposiveness of the little community that became established there.  Given, this talent, the spirit of adventure, tall trees and an ocean at their doorstep, what is more natural than that those first settlers should have turned to ship building.  The tradition of Lance Cove is rich with stories of how they did just that.

James and Ann Pitts had three children.  The first was John, who was born in 1783.  He built a large house right in the centre of Lance Cove where the remains of its rock foundation can still be seen (1969).  The old cemetery on the cliff side tells some of the sad story of this man's life.   He died in 1825, to be followed the next year by his wife and teenage daughter.

The next child was James, born in 1784.  He also built a large house in Lance Cove,  just across the road from his father's house.  After the death of his brother and sister in law, he took their remaining children and his own, thirteen in all, and with his wife, removed to St. John's.  The subsequent deeds of this man and those of his famous sons are already well recorded.

The youngest son, William, was born in 1787.  He is the well known "Captain William" who carried on his father's plantation in Lance Cove until his death in 1869.  Captain William built several vessels in his shipyard on the beach, cleared a considerable amount of land and operated a successful farm.  It is said that he even succeeded in growing wheat. The upper north-east corner of Lance Cove, property occupied in the later years by Mick-Tom Hammond, was known as the old wheat farm.   On August 9th, 1848, a notice appeared in the Royal Gazette to the affect that Captain Pitts had started manufacturing bricks at Bell Island.  This brickyard was located upon the hill on the east side of the cove where its ruins can probably still be seen.  Some of the clay used was obtained locally, but most was brought in  Pitts's vessels from Trinity Bay.

Captain Pitts and his wife^11a, Ann, shared his father's home where their three children, John, Frances and Elizabeth were born.  Neither John nor Frances ever married but continued the old homestead until their deaths.  John appears to have lacked the initiative and drive of his father, so that brickyard and the shipyard were abandoned.  Lovell's Directory lists him as a farmer in 1871.  He died in Lance Cove sometime between 1880 and 1890.  Frances (Fanny) died January 21st, 1913, at the age of 82 years.  She was the last of her name in Lance Cove and the last to be buried in the old cemetery.  Much of the information we have about the early years of Lance cove comes down to us by way of her.  It seems a pity that she should be lying in an unmarked grave.