Nicholas Guy (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1612 – 1631) was one of the first settlers at the London and Bristol Company's Cuper's Cove, colony in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

, and was the father of the first English child born in Newfoundland and subsequently all of the country of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Most likely born in Bristol, England, Nicholas Guy was a member of the first group of settlers to journey to Newfoundland for colonization. In the winter of 1612 - 1613 there were sixty-two people were living in the colony, and during that winter eight deaths were recorded and one birth, a boy born to Nicholas Guy and his wife on 27 March 1613. It is believed that Guy relocated to the sister colony of Bristol's Hope when it was established in 1618. Sometime before 1630 Guy had moved again to Carbonear to fish, farm, and trap furs, on land belonging to Sir Percival Willoughby. A letter written by Guy to Willoughby on September 1, 1631Middleton Manuscript, Mi x 1/57, University of Nottingham indicates that Guy had become Willoughby's agent in the development of his land, which consisted of the northern part of the peninsula between Conception and Trinity bays. The Guy family remained the predominant planter family in Carbonear throughout the seventeenth century. The 1677 census lists both Jonathan Guy (probably Nicholas's son) and Nicholas Guy (likely Jonathan's son) living there with their families. Jonathan owned, among other things, four dwelling houses, two boats and a vegetable garden and kept seven head of cattle, eleven sheep and 3 hogs. Nicholas had one dwelling house and two boats and kept six head of cattle and 4 hogs. Although unproven, it is likely Guy was a close relative of John Guy, the first Governor of Newfoundland.

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

Nicholas Guy's letter to Sir Willoughby

English emigrants to pre-Confederation Newfoundland People from Bristol {{Canada-bio-stub