Branch, Newfoundland and Labrador
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Town of Branch is an incorporated community on the
Cape Shore The Cape Shore is a region on the southwestern portion of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Often confused or conflated with the Southern Shore (a rural district with strong Irish-Newfoundland heritage stretching south ...
of
Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
and had a population of 177 (as of the 2021 census).


Geography

It is located on St. Mary's Bay and can be accessed via Route 100 or Route 92. Nearby communities include
Point Lance Point Lance is a town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2016, Point Lance Road was voted Worst Road in Atlantic Canada by the Canadian Automobile Association's Worst Roads list. Demographics In the 2021 Census of P ...
and St. Bride's, Newfoundland and Labrador.


History

The first settler was Thomas Nash, a fisherman and boat builder from Callan in
County Kilkenny County Kilkenny ( gle, Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the cou ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
, who in 1765 arrived in Caplin Bay (Calvert) on the Southern Shore. During the winter, they weren't allowed to get ready for the fishery as year round settlement was discouraged by the British. They had nothing to do, so Nash and his sons, decided they'd build a boat. They didn't have material enough to finish the boat, sail 'er, so when the spring came, they covered her with boughs. The first fishing admiral that came in, he was the boss in the settlement for that year. He found the boat. Nash had to hide in the woods to avoid being caught. He was first arrested, but eventually rewarded for his skill in adapting to his new homeland."''We had nothing to do during the winter so we decided to build the boat''." Nash told the admiral. So the admiral said to him, "''I know you're not allowed. But,"I think, you're the kind of person that should get to settle out here, industrious." So "Write down what you need to finish your boat and if it's aboard this vessel you can have it."'' The skipper gave him whatever he had aboard was necessary to finish the boat. And he said, ''"When I go back to England, I'll report it and I might get something done for you."'' So when he went back to England he brought back Nash a grant of all the shoreline of Calvert. The next year Nash got the boat going and he left Calvert to go fishing up at Cape St. Mary's, up around St. Mary's Bay. They put into Branch one time and the salmon were so plentiful, that he thought that this would be a better place to fish. During the fall of 1787. Nash was described as "an old planter" of the community. Voter lists indicate that Thomas and Tobias Nash lived in the section of Calvert known today as the Point. Oral tradition indicates that the Nashes left Calvert for Branch. He first moved to Mosquito Island in Placentia Bay in 1789 after a relative, Rev Pat Power ran afoul of Bishop O'Donnell and arrived the next year in Branch, along with an English friend. Thomas had five sons, Walter, Tom, Andy, Toby, and Paddy, and two daughters, Nora and Nellie. His two brothers Toby and Walter, joined him in Branch in 1795.


Demographics

In the
2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...
, Branch had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


References

* ''Letter Book of the Colonial Secretary's Office'', vol. 3, 1759–65, P- 352, V0l- 5, 1771–74, P. 180, PANL; Newfoundland Sessions Court Records, Ferryland, 1789–94, case of Sept. 15, 1770, and case of Sept. 20, 1790, PANL; Cyril J. Byrne, ed., Gentlemen-Bishops and Faction Fighters: The Letters of Bishops O'Donel, Lambert, Scallan and Other Irish Missionaries (St. John's: Jesperson Press, 1984), pp. 62–64, 90-91; John J. Mannion, card files. *''A Place to Belong – Community Order and Everyday Space in Calvert, Newfoundland'', Gerard Pocius. *''Irish Settlements in Eastern Canada'', John J. Manion.


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Branch, Newfoundland And Labrador Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador