Page Nine

 

It would appear that the Kennedys arrived in Lance Cove from Carbonear sometime shortly after 1800. His application to governor R.G. Keats for permission to erect a fishing room in Scrape Cove, Government Memorandum, November 21, 1814, shows that William Kennedy was a settler in Lance Cove at that time. He was baptized in Harbour Grace in 1776. Also, in the Colonial Records for September 1814, a Kennedy is listed with Hiscock as having a fishery in Lance Cove as well as having 4 acres of land under cultivation. Scrape Cove (the Scrape) is a tiny cove just to east of Lance Cove that can be approached from land via a steep pathway down the cliffside. Thomas Lahey and his family were residents there in 1814, though, according to the census records, not engaged in the fishery. This hardy old son of Erin is buried in the old cemetery where it is said a headstone once marked his resting place.  Unfortunately, this stone has since disappeared.

William married Ann Kent, likely a relative of James Kent. According to local tradition they settled just up over the hill in the place subsequently known as the glebe. All of their seven children, except Edward (Ned), found marriage partners in Lance Cove; however, all settled there.  John William married Ann, a daughter of George Hiscock, and Mr. Hiscock gave him half of all his property, including a portion of his fishing room. The Kennedy property is bounded on the south west side of Lance Cove by a steep cliff known as Kerry Head, a name which is a memorial to the land of their origin. This Irish family prospered well in the early years as fishermen and farmers.

The two Kennedy brothers, assisted by the Reeses, and the Kents, built at least one schooner.  The story is told of how John William went to St. John’s to obtain certain needed fishing equipment and provisions on credit.  He was having little success with this venture until it occurred to him to mention that he was master of his own schooner, a vessel that had a fine reputation in the Labrador fishery.  When this was declared, he reported that he could have obtained almost anything he cared to ask for.   William Jr., a grandson of William, became well known in the district as a skilled wharf builder.  He built a wharf at Lance Cove, one at Portugal Cove, and several others around the bay.   Being a good Irishman and supporter of the Liberal cause, he was given the honour of dispensing the local road grants, a position that carried with it some degree of special status in the local political circle.  Political patronage was the order of those days, and Lance Covers were not ones to underestimate the blarney in buttering up the dispensers of election time largesse.  Mrs. Kennedy ran the polling booth from her home at election time.   When the Liberal candidate, J.P. Fox, accompanied by Murphy and Furlong, came to Lance Cove for a public meting during the 1897 elections campaign, they met Kennedy with a group of men who were working on the wharf.  The politicians reported that those were the hardest group of men in the district to please.  Though not intended, this is a tribute to the resourcefulness of those rugged old characters. 

William Stoyles (Stiles), 1800-1882, a young runaway doctor to-be arrived in Lance Cove when he was still probably only in his teens.  On Dec. 9, 1822, he married Mary Kent, daughter of William and Jane (Hiscock) Kent. William was an Englishman and son of a well-to-do Devonshire yeoman.  He had been studying medicine when he fell victim to the lure of adventure and soon found himself heading across the broad Atlantic, schoolbooks still in his possession, on board one of captain Pitts’s sturdy little brigs.  Captain Pitts gave him a small parcel of land at the top of the hill; there William and Mary made their home and brought up a fine family.  The Stoyleses, down through the years, were successful farmers who kept many sheep and cows.  William adopted the faith of his Roman Catholic wife and their descendants have been a credit to the best traditions of the old pioneers.   William died at the age of 82 and is buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery in Lance Cove.  His wife, however, lies sleeping with the old pioneers on the cliff side.

 

 

 

 

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