| The colonization of
Newfoundland was attempted in 1583 by England but was not successful. In 1637 all of Newfoundland was transferred to an Englishman
of Scottish descent, Sir David Kirke, who became the colony’s first
governor and its actual founder. The
arms of the present day Newfoundland are those of Kirke.
Before
1707 the quasi-legal trade between Virginia and Scotland through
Newfoundland became a major factor in the development of the colony, and
many Scots were attracted to it as settlers.
Between 1740 and 1794 a Graham, a Duff, a Campbell and a Wallace
were governors of Newfoundland. In
1824, a Scottish physician, William Carson, led a movement that caused
Parliament to recognize Newfoundland as a British colony.
He was speaker of the Assembly in 1837. In
1946 Sir George Gordon MacDonald became governor of Newfoundland, and in
1949 guided the colony into the Canadian confederation as a province. |
This page created on 4th June, 2001