What was the involvement of Jersey mariners in the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade?
it has been more than 400 years since the first Islanders crossed the Atlantic in search of pastures new. When the first Europeans reached Canada is unclear. By the beginning of the 16th-century Basque fishermen were travelling to the region to fish and, by 1580, around 10,000 European fishermen were making the transatlantic voyage to the area each year to fish for cod. Channel Island fishermen were among these and by the 1750s they had set up lucrative trade routes between Canada, Europe and America, establishing bases on the Gaspe Coast where they could salt and prepare the cod. The sea there is full of fish that can be taken not only with nets but with fishing-baskets. John Cabot after his voyage in 1497 It was easy to fish in the open sea for cod at any time of year, but fishing inshore was far more difficult. It was here that the Channel Island fishermen made their biggest catches during this period.
Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?
For neolithic farmers, travel over land was slow; on foot, as the wheel was unknown and the horse was not used as a beast of burden. As the land was heavily wooded, the easiest way to travel was on water; and because we know that the neolithic farmers settled Jersey when it had once more become an island, it is safe to assume that they had the skill to make some form of boat. In addition to this we know that they were also able to sail and navigate between the island and Armorica and over what is now the English Channel to the mainland.
What type of goods did Jersey merchants exchange for cod-fish?
fish, finance and slavery
They traded and implicated slavery for exchange of humans/codfish.
To what extend, has the island of Jersey benefitted from its constitutional relationship with Britain and the legacies of colonialism based on a slave plantation economy during the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)?
- 1763 Canada became British property.
- 1764 Charles Robin aged 21, youngest son of Philippe and Anne, nee d’Auvergne, of Robin Pipon and Co, sailed as their agent from Jersey in Seaflower, a 41 ton brig to explore the possibility of establishing a fishery there.
- 1765 Mr Munn , a Newfoundland historian, writes “But they ceased to occupy the prominent positions held by their forefathers, merchants of Jersey origin, during the eighteenth century when Jersey firms dominated at Havre de Grace up to the year 1765 when the Canadian fisheries commenced.
- 1765 onwards. As the French and Quebec merchants moved away from the Gaspé coast, Jersey firms moved to the probably more profitable fisheries off the Gaspé coast.
- 1765 Robin, Pipon and Company of Cape Breton Island founded. This firm established fishing posts as far north as Baie des Chaleurs, under the auspices of their kinsman, Charles Robin, who formed his own company in 1783.
- 1766 Charles Robin returned to the coast with 41 ton brig. About this time Robin, Pipon and Co established at Bay des Chaleurs.
- 1767 Charles Robin describes himself as agent for John Robin at Arichat, Coast of Acadia and Paspebiac. Agent for Coast of Canada for Robin, Pipon and Co. [aged] 23 years, salary £150 per annum.
- 1767 Charles returned with Recovery, the Seaflower and shallop Neptune.
- 1768 Jersey Chamber of Commerce makes provision to “relieve distressed families of seamen”.
- 1768 The Janvrin firm in existence by this date.
- 1766-1809 “The building of a commercial monopoly by this family (Robin) during that period is such that they can be called the biggest exploiters of this coast”.
- 1769 Chamber of Commerce takes successful action to relieve Jersey vessels requiring British Customs Clearance (Navigation Act).
- 1770 Jerseymen began to settle –not merely trade–on the Gaspé Coast. Janvrin arrived at Grande Greve.
- 1778 Charles Robin (then aged 36), returned to Jersey in the Bee, 16 guns, with 40 crew and 40 passengers.
- 1780s Clement and Company established a fishery at Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. This firm did not survive the two wars between 1793 and 1815.
- 1783 Charles Robin forms his own firm Charles Robin and Co.
- 1785 59 vessels left Jersey for Newfoundland with 957 seamen and 743 passengers.
- 1786 Firm of David de Quetteville founded at the Avalon Peninsula, engaged in the cod trade and owning fisheries. During the wars of 1793-1815, this company moved to the east coast and finally to Labrador. It was ruined by the Jersey bank crashes of 1873.
- 1789 Ship Elisha Tupper, 280 tons, built at Bel Royal for Janvrins, She was named after a Guernsey merchant.
Jersey`s maritime historian, the late John Jean lists, from local newspapers and almancs, the following firms engaged in the Newfoundland trade: Jersey Sailing Ships, (Chichester: Phillimore and Company, 1982)
- 1790 Pierre Mallet, with the vessels Liberté, (69 tons), Magdaleine, (38 tons), Mary, (60 tons) and, in partnership with Fiott, Angelicque.
- 1790 J and C Hemery, with the vessels Jenny, (54 tons), Resolution, (70 tons) and Queen, (144 tons).
- 1790 [James] Poingdestre and [Aaron] de Ste Croix, with the vessels Success, (110 tons) and Vine, (129 tons); the latter owned also in partnership with Robinson, with whom Poingdestre also owned Corbet, (68 tons), in the same trade. De Ste Croix also owned with Ingouville Kenton, (113 tons). Of these vessels, Poigdestre and de Ste Croix had owned the Success from 1783. De Ste Croix was the son of Jean de Ste Croix, one of the founder members in 1768 of the Jersey Chamber of Commerce, who was the owner in that year of a 30 ton ship. This firm is known to have started in business trading with Newfoundland. They tansferred their interest, however, from Newfoundland cod to Honduras mahogany and were soon Jersey`s leading traders in Honduras mahogany. Note: This firm has often been needlessly confused with that of Messrs. F and G de Ste Croix, originally trading from 1838 as Gautier de Ste Croix, see below.
- 1790 Pierre Le Brun [St Aubin?], with the vessels Prudent, (57 tons) and Nancy, (64 tons).
- 1790 Brun Benest [St Aubin], master and owner, with the vessel Preference, (59 tons).
- 1790 Francis Janvrin, with the vessels Peirson, (90 tons), Neptune, (131 tons), Cornhill, (192 tons) and Elisha Tupper, (280 tons). His brother, Philip Janvrin, owned in 1790 Industrie, (68 tons) and in 1792 Anne, in the same trade.
- 1790 Mathew Gosset, with the vessels Angelicque, (42 tons), Kingfisher, (57 tons) and Hercules, (161 tons).
- 1790 Geo. Rowcliffe, with the vessel La Concorde, (126 tons).
- 1790 Jacques Remon, from a long-standing family of St Aubin merchants, with the vessel Beaver, (38 tons).
- 1790 Philip Ahier, with the vessel Anne, (45 tons).
- 1790 Edouard du Heaume, with the vessel Jupiter, (58 tons).
- 1790 Jean Kirby, or Kerby, with the vessel Gaspé.
- 1790 Jean Roissier, master and owner, with the vessel Providence, (72 tons).
- 1790 Jean Le Vesconte, with the vessel Lynx, (183 tons).
- 1790 Francis Amy, with the vessel Good Friends, (58 tons).
- 1790 Jean Le Feuvre, with the vessel Friendship, (51 tons).
- 1790 Edward Coombes, with the vessel Betsy, (77 tons.
- 1790-1792 Charles Robin, with the vessels Expedient, (49 tons), Peace, (72 tons), Bacchus, (80 tons), Paspébiac, (133 tons), St Lawrence, (145 tons), Major Pierson, (172 tons), Hilton, (178 tons), St Peter, (210 tons), which fleet of eight vessels was Jersey`s foremost, with the Janvrins in second place. By 1800, however, David Lee in The Robins in Gaspé, 1766 to 1825, (Ontario: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1984), 63, states that Robin had only four ships, which demonstrates the fluctuations in fortune experienced, in times of war, by those engaged in this trade.
- 1790 Missed by John Jean in the above list, David de Quetteville had, in that year, the 126 ton vessel Swift engaged in the Newfoundland trade: Almanach Historique (1790). In 1792, he had two vessels so engaged.
- 1790 Also missed by Jean, Thomas Anquetil, a master/owner and Merchant, had the 71 ton vessel Two Friends in the Newfoundland trade, sailing there from Jersey in the spring of 1790: Ibid. He was in partnership with his brother, Francois Anquetil.
- 1792 Former Wool merchant, Philip Nicolle, enters the Newfoundland trade in cod. In 1821 he owned fishing posts and 5 ships; in 1828 he owned 18 ships and added banking to his interests. The effect on trade of the American Civil War was said to have caused this firm to withdraw in 1863 from banking and from most of their fisheries. The firm was largely replaced by de Gruchy, Renouf and Clement.
- 1798 Janvrin worked first for Robin and then started his own business at Grande Greve, North Coast. Admiral Ph. d’Auvergne proposed that naval vessels convoy Jersey ships for Newfoundland trade to Longitude 300 West.
- It should be noted from John Jean`s list, above, as augmented, the part played by families of Huguenot origin, in Jersey`s 18th century commercial expansion. These included the Gossets, Hemerys, Fiotts, Anquetils and Pierre Mallet who, from his surname, might be mistaken as being of Jersey stock, and afterwards the Le Croniers and Amirauxs, among others. Furthermore, John Jean`s list of forty-two Jersey ships engaged in the Newfoundland trade in the years 1790-1792, represents a mere `drop in the ocean` in comparison to Jersey`s 19th century involvement in the trade.
- 1766-1842 Jersey profited by the British conquests in Canada. It almost transformed the Gaspé coast between these years into a Jersey colony.
- 1806 4,000 tods of wool were imported into Jersey.
- 1819 Firm of Philip Godfray and Peter Duval founded at Bonaventure Island and elsewhere, with fisheries. Forced to close by creditors in 1838.
- 1820 William Fruing in Gaspé employed by C Robin and Company. He married Jane Alexandre at Miscou. Fishermen signed against the Americans.
- 1821 First permanent shipyard of Geo. Deslandes, set up in Jersey.
- 1822 Firm of William Le Brocq junr. and Company formed, in the New Brunswick carrying trade.
- 1822 Firm of Le Vesconte and de Carteret, otherwise de Carteret and Le Vesconte, founded at Arichat and elsewhere, in Cape Breton Island, owning both fisheries and trading vessels. Isaac Le Vesconte was also a shipbuilder; Peter de Carteret became, furthermore, a Jersey banker.
- 1826 Firm of F and J Perrée founded at Point Saint-Pierre, Gaspé, where his fishery adjoined in the 1830s that of Abraham de Gruchy. The Perrées sold to their agents, Collas, in 1851.
- 1827 Abraham de Gruchy starts trading with Gaspé.
- 1829 Philippe Robin wrote of W. Fruing that “his valuable presence” was replaced by “my nephew John Gosset”.
- 1830 Recorded that “a Jersey company Les Fandouines was formed which would dominate the fishing industry at Shippagan for a long time”. W. Fruing signed a petition.
- 1830 Firm of John Le Boutillier founded at Gaspé Town, with fisheries along the north coast of Gaspé. This firm and that of his cousins, David and Amy Le Boutillier, became prior to 1873, Jersey`s third largest combined shipping concern, behind only that of the Robins and Nicolles. John Le Boutillier became insolvent in 1873, following Jersey`s bank crashes in that year. His firm was taken over by cousins, Le Boutillier Brothers.
- 1830 William Fruing (Robin’s orphan protege) chief agent for Robin at Paspebiac.
- 1831 Firm of Philip Le Vesconte founded. Closed in 1863 [John Jean].
- 1832 Firm of William Fruing and Co formed, in the fisheries, at Miscou. A brother-in-law Capt. Joshua Alexandre was manager at Caraquet.
- 1834 Firm of R. and E. Falle founded at Burin, Newfoundland, in the fisheries, based upon Jersey Shipping lists. However, J. Jean has 1826 and G.R. Balleine 1832.
- 1835 William Fruing, son of William, bought 36, La Colomberie, St. Helier.
- 1836 Janvrins owned three branches, plus Grande Greve.
- 1836 Abraham de Gruchy at Point Saint-Pierre, Gaspé, with “large fishing establishment”, sold in 1854 to John Fauvel, a former Robin mamager; and fishing posts in Malbaie and Newfoundland.
- 1837 1,200 vessels used the port of St Helier to carry the trade of the Island.
- 1838 David Le Boutillier founded, with his brother Capt. Amy Le Boutillier, Le Boutillier Brothers. Jersey almanacs` description of this firm as “Le Boutillier and Company” between the years 1847 and 1860, has resulted in its being confused frequently, even by the maritime historian, John Jean, with “J. Le Boutillier”, above. This firm, which had numerous fishing `posts,` took over, in 1873, the John Le Boutillier firm but became bankrupt, following Jersey`s 1886 bank crashes.
- 1840 The heirs of John, Francis and Brelade Janvrin withdraw from the cod trade.
