The Power and Murphy family names have existed in Newfoundland since the late 1700’s or early 1800’s. They most likely came from Waterford or Wexford, in Southeast Ireland. Most of the Irish that came to Newfoundland were fishermen and initially settled on the Avalon Peninsula, within 100 miles of St. John’s.
The fishing industry off Newfoundland was involved in bringing some Irish people to this Atlantic colony as early as the 1700s. Fishing vessels from ports in England stopped at Waterford, in Ireland, to take on food supplies and Irish workers before heading for the fishing season on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. After a few years, some Irish fishery workers put up rough houses in Newfoundland and stayed during the winters, rather than going home at the end of each fishing season. Permanent settlements developed on the Avalon Peninsula in the southeastern part of Newfoundland. The first of these settlers were mainly Catholics from the south of Ireland. By the year 1835, approximately 35,000 people of Irish origin had settled in Newfoundland.
Click here to read another interesting article about the history of the Irish in Newfoundland.
Power History
Although the Power family has lived in the Little Bay/Marystown area for quite some time, we do know that they originally came from the area of Placentia, on the East side of Placentia Bay. This is the same side of the bay, and near the same area, that Bridget Murphy’s family came from and stayed in. In fact, we believe that John Thomas Power’s father (Thomas) was born in Placentia and his Grandfather (Maurice) was born in Dunnville. Our Power family moved to the Marystown area some time between 1868 and 1892.
Hutchinson’s Newfoundland Directory of 1864-1865 lists the following names in Greater Placentia:
- Power, Maurice, boatkeeper (NE Arm)
**I suspect that this Maurice Power is the Grandfather of John Thomas Power.
Murphy History
Our Murphy family has pretty much lived in the general Placentia area as far back as we can find (so far). We know that they started off as one of the earlier Irish families in Newfoundland, living on one of the Iona (Rams) Islands as fishermen. It is known that the early Irish first settled on the various islands in Placentia Bay, eventually moving and settling on to the mainland. The natural progression for the Murphy’s was Long Harbour/Arlington Heights or Ship Harbour. We then see our Murphy family moving a little further south to the Placentia area, specifically Dunnville, sometime after 1909.
The folllowing paragraph describes the early history of the Murphy families on Newfoundland:
* Crawley’s Island, Sibleys Cove and The Bottom: The Community which is now known as Long Harbour & Mount Arlington Heights was historically made up of three communities. The earliest settled site within Long Harbour was Crawley’s Island, where the Murphy and King families settled in the early 1800s. As with many of the other pioneering families, the Murphys and Kings came to Long Harbour from the Ram Islands (later renamed Iona) off the mouth of Long Harbour. The Bottom of Long Harbour was settled in the early 1800s. Earlier, families from the Rams and from nearby coves such as Bald Head, Mooney’s Cove and Trinny Cove had maintained winter houses in this part of the harbour. Early settlers included the Griffiths, Hammond, Whelan, Ledwell, King, Murray, Power and Northover families. Sibley’s Cove, on the mainland opposite Crawley’s Island, was also settled in the early 1800s by the Keating, Burke, Bruce, Nolan and Kelly families. In the 1950s many of the inhabitants of Crawley’s Island and the Rams were resettled here. Today Sibley’s Cove is known as Mount Arlington Heights, although many residents still refer to it as “The Cove”.
It is both interesting and ironic that the Murphy’s ended up in Dunnville, which is the same place the Power family appears to have come from, as far back as 1840.
Hutchinson’s Newfoundland Directory of 1864-1865 lists the following names on Ram’s (later Iona) Islands:
- Bruce, David, planter
- Fitzpatrick, Michael, trader
- Murphy, John, trader
- Murphy, Michael, fisherman
- Murphy, Patrick, fisherman (** I suspect that this is the Grandfather of Bridget Mary Murphy)
- Young, Martin, fisherman
Click here to read more about our Power family.