Spaniard's Bay is a town in the

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Newfoundland and Labrador 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 populatio ...

. It is located on the northwest side of Conception Bay and consists of Vokey's Shore, Northern Cove, Mint Cove, Green Head, and Goddenville. The name Spaniard's Bay came from the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

and Portuguese fishermen who frequented the port in the 16th century and 17th century, and were referred to by the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

as ‘

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern nation-state of Spain. Genetically and ethnolinguistically, Spaniards belong to the broader Southern a ...

’. Occupation of the area was seasonal at first, as with most of Newfoundland, but gradually English fishermen began to make permanent homes in Spaniard's Bay around 1776. American Traders were visiting Spaniard's Bay before 1776 and they exchanged

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is often aged in barrels of oak. Rum originated in the Caribbean in the 17th century, but today it is produced i ...

, and

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for

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. By 1805, there were 400 people living in the area; according to the 1871 Lovell's Directory, the population would rise to 1,182 in less than 70 years. The majority of the settlers were English and had

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

origin, but there was a strong Irish population. By the end of 1991, the population would be close to 2,200. The initial settlement at Spaniard's Bay centred on Mint Cove and Northern Cove. Some of the people living in Mint Cove before 1800 were Jonathan Sheppard, John Warford, Timothy Collins, and William Chipman. William Gosse and Robert Gosse, Jr. had a dockyard in Northern Cove in 1790, while Thomas Noseworthy and William Porter were living at Green Head in 1796. The Smith and Barrett families occupied Bread and Cheese Cove ( Bishop's Cove), with the Smiths claiming to have been in possession of the land since 1625. There were 400 people in 38 families occupying 36 registered properties in Spaniard's Bay. Some of the family names included Peddle, Kelly, Neil, Besom, Brown, Forter, Phelan, Seymour, Vokey, Butt, Baggs, Baker, Larry, and Menchions. Recently the new family name of Cutler has been added to the list of Spaniard's Bay settlers, originating from the Kleinburg region of Southern Ontario. There is a site at Spaniard's Bay listed on the

Canadian Register of Historic Places The Canadian Register of Historic Places (CRHP; , ), also known as Canada's Historic Places, is an online directory of historic places in Canada which have been formally recognized for their heritage value by a federal, provincial, territorial ...

: the Mark Gosse Residence, number 6039.

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

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, Spaniard's Bay 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

Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador Populated places in Newfoundland and Labrador 1705 establishments in the British Empire {{Newfoundland-geo-stub