Memorial Day at The Rooms.

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

July 1, 1916

Memorial Day at The Rooms.
Date: Sunday, July 1st, 2018
Time: 12:00pm – 5:00pm

NA 3106 Opening of the Newfoundland Memorial Park, Beaumont Hamel, France

July 1st is a time for celebration for the people of Canada, in Newfoundland and Labrador, the day has a more somber meaning.

Memorial Day commemorates the participation of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont-Hamel, France.

On July 1, 1916, 801 members of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment fought in that battle and only 68 answered the roll call the next morning.

“We here in Newfoundland have felt the effects of the war… The dreadful reality of war has come to too many families throughout the land. And there are very few districts in the Island which are not mourning… sons lost on the field of battle. The war is an all absorbing topic, it is never absent from our thoughts. It is like some dreadful nightmare that we cannot shake off. Our prayers and desires are for a speedy end of the war, for an early peace, but for a peace at the same time, which will render impossible another such world calamity as that which we are suffering now.” (Source: Edward Patrick Roche, 1918 – 107‑2‑6)

Shortly after the Great War, the Government of Newfoundland purchased the ground over which the 1^st Newfoundland Regiment made its heroic advance on July 1. Much of the credit is due to Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Nangle. As Director of Graves Registration and Enquiry and Newfoundland’s representative on the Imperial War Graves Commission, he negotiated with some 250 French landowners for the purchase of the site. He had a leading part in planning and supervising the erection, at each of the five Newfoundland Memorials sites in Europe, of a statue of the noble caribou, the emblem of the Regiment, standing facing the former foe with head thrown high in defiance.

Memorial Day at The Rooms.
Date: Sunday, July 1st, 2018
Time: 12:00pm – 5:00pm

Cost: Free Admission

Spend some time in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Gallery to meet descendants of the men and women who served their country 100 years ago. Hear their stories and share your own.

Join us in the theatre for a free screening of When the Boys Came Home – a documentary retracing the footsteps of the Blue Puttees from the streets of St. John’s to Gallipoli, France, Belgium and home again. When the Boys Came Home reveals the workaday and internal battles that the Royal Newfoundland Regiment’s Blue Puttees waged after the First World War.

With free admission for the day, we hope many will join us in Memorial Day commemorations with a visit to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Gallery.

Recommended Archival Collection: What do we have in the ‘Rooms Archives’ on this subject? Type Newfoundland Regiment in the search bar here: http://gencat1.eloquent-systems.com/webcat/request/DoMenuRequest?SystemName=The+Rooms+Public&UserName=wa+public&Password=&TemplateProcessID=6000_3355&bCachable=1&MenuName=The+Rooms+Archives

Lest we Forget!

Mysterious Iceberg off St. John’s

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

June 24, 1905

“Our Lady of the Fjords”

Mysterious Iceberg in St. John’s Narrows, T.B. Hayward. June 24, 1905

On June 24, 1905 T.B. Hayward a St. John’s artist and photographer pointed his camera in the direction of a mysterious iceberg off the Narrows of St. John’s, and snapped a picture of what is likely the oldest known photograph believed to be a depiction of a supernatural Christian presence.

The photograph in question depicts what many people believe is a clear picture of a wondrous iceberg showing the figure of the Virgin Mary in the narrows off St. John’s. How similar to a statue the original iceberg looked is unknown. The photographer (T.B. Hayward) was really a painter of Newfoundland scenes, particularly marine scenes. His method was to photograph a scene and then paint the photograph.

The Catholic Archbishop, in St. John’s, Michael Francis Howley, who saw the iceberg from the steps of the Basilica Cathedral, was so impressed by the extraordinary iceberg that he wrote an article published in The Tablet, the Catholic Diocesan newspaper for Boston describing the iceberg as the “Crystal Lady.” He also endorsed the sale of postcards and photographs that were produced by Hayward for mass production.

Archbishop Howley perceived the iceberg to be a sacred sign, so moved by the sight that he composed a sonnet in honour of the frozen statue entitled “Our Lady of the Fjords.” In the sonnet, he refers to the glistening ice figure as “a shimmering shrine – our bright Atlantic Lourdes. The sonnet was published Newfoundland Quarterly in 1909.

Our Lady of the Fjords

Hail Crystal Virgin, from the frozen fjords
Where far-off Greenland’s gelid glaciers gleen
O’er Oceans bosom soaring, cool, serene
Not famed Carrara’s purest vein affords
Such sparkling brilliance, as mid countless hordes
Of spotless glistning bergs thou reignest Queen
In all the glory of thy opal sheen
A Shimmering Shrine; Our bright Atlantic Lourdes.
We hail thee, dual patront, with acclaim,
Thou standest guardian o er our Island home.
To-day, four cycles since, our rock-bound strand.
First Cabot saw: and gave the Baptist’s name:
To-day we clothe with Pallium from Rome.
The first Archbishop of our Newfoundland!

Contemporary Newfoundland author Wayne Johnson says his father grew up in a house blessed by water from this iceberg, which they called the “Virgin Berg.” Johnson wrote about the iceberg in his book Baltimore’s Mansion.

The timing of this wondrous iceberg, this Marian apparition appearing in the St. John’s Narrows was quite significant.

June 24 on the Christian calendar is the Feast of St. John the Baptist. On June 24, 1497 John Cabot “discovered” Newfoundland, it is the feast day of the patron saint of the R.C. Basilica Cathedral and the Anglican Cathedral in St. John’s and the namesake for the capital city, St. John’s.

Recommended Archival Collection: What do we have in the ‘Rooms Archives’ on this subject? The Rooms has hundreds of photographs of icebergs. Type “iceberg” in the search bar here: http://gencat1.eloquent-systems.com/webcat/request/DoMenuRequest?SystemName=The+Rooms+Public&UserName=wa+public&Password=&TemplateProcessID=6000_3355&bCachable=1&MenuName=The+Rooms+Archives

Recommended Reading: Kodak Catholicism: Miraculous Photography and its Significance by Jessy C. PAGLIAROLI : Canadian Catholic Historical Association (CCHA) , Historical Studies, 70 (2004), 71_93

Recommended Archival Collection: Very few photographs of Thomas B. Hayward have been identified. If you are aware of other photographs and sketches created by Thomas or his father J. W Hayward the Rooms Provincial Archives Division would love to hear from you.

Art, Forgery and Prison Romance

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

June 15, 1880

Hall Ceiling Painted by Pindkowsky, Government House

On June 17, 1880, the Carbonear Herald a local Newfoundland newspaper reported on the conviction of Alexander Pindikowsky, a young artist and fresco painter, convicted for forgery. He was sentenced on June 15, 1880 to fifteen months at her Majesty’s Penitentiary.

The St. John’s newspaper, The Royal Gazette reported:

“Pindinkowsky was ordered within five days of his release to quit the country (Newfoundland) for life, in default of which, on his return to the country at any time, he is to receive further imprisonment.”

Pindikowsky (also Pindikowskie) arrived in Newfoundland in 1879 as a professional artist and fresco painter. He was hired by the Anglo American Telegraph Company to give art instruction to interested employees and their wives at Hearts Content Cable Office.

He was arrested on March 10, 1880 and charged with attempting forge two cheques in the name of E. Weedon, Esq. of Hearts Content, Trinity Bay.

The Polish artist’s talents as a fresco painter were brought to the attention of the authorities at the Penitentiary and they were soon put to official use, in return for a remission of five weeks on his sentence. He was set to work designing and painting frescos, to relieve the drabness of the state rooms of Government House.

Governor John Hawley Glover (1876-1885) was so delighted with the frescos that he suggested to Prime Minister William Whiteway that the prisoner Pindinkowsky also decorate the ceilings of the two legislative chambers of the Colonial Building. Seeing an opportunity the Presentation Sisters at Cathedral Square in St. John’s who were in the process of working on their chapel and drawing room invited the talents of the young artist.

Each day Pindinowsky was brought from the penitentiary to his place of work until the frescos were complete.

It could be said that this is one of the first documented cases of a prison rehabilitation program in Newfoundland and Labrador.

ROMANCE IN GOVERNMENT HOUSE

Researcher and historian, John O’Mara in his research on Government House in St. John’s discovered that Pindikowsky was also a romantic. In his research he discovered the face of a woman subtly painted into the ceiling of government house. Some believe her to be one of the maids at government house. She could possibly be Ellen Dormody the mother of Pindikowsky’s first child, Johanna Mary Ellen Pindikowskie, who was baptized at the Roman Catholic Cathedral (now Basilica) on May 1, 1882.

It is clear that Pindikowsky banishment from the country was withdrawn, he decided to stay in Newfoundland. In 1882 he was advertising his services in a local newspaper, as a fresco painter.

The Athenaeum, established in 1879 with it’s 1,000 seat theatre, that was central to much of the musical activity of the city hired him. He painted some very fine murals on the interior walls of the building. Unfortunately the theatre and his work were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1892.

Pindikowsky left St. John’s for the ‘Boston States’ in approximately 1882 followed a year later by Ellen Dormody. She is recorded as travelling from St. John’s to Boston on the SS Colan (or Coban) in 1883.

Life in Boston was unsettled they fist settled in Malden, Mass in 1885 where he is listed in the city directory as a painter then Brockton, Mass, in the city directories of 1887, 1888 and 1889, back to Malden for 1890, then in Newport, RI where he was listed in the city directory as a painter in 1897 and later back in Brockton, Mass.

It appears that he died between 1887 -1906. His wife is listed in the Brockton city directory as a nurse and a widow in 1906.

Ellen Dormody the wife of Pindikowsky would have felt very at home in the Boston area. The Commonwealth of Boston census for 1885 reports that 2851 Newfoundlanders had settled in the city and surrounding towns. That number had grown to 7,591 Newfoundlanders by 1895. The census for Boston in 1915 reports that 13,269 residents of the Boston area claimed Newfoundland as their place of birth.

The ‘Boston States’ and Newfoundland have many connections.

Recommended Archival Collection: What do we have in the ‘Rooms Archives’ on this subject? Take a look at some of the photographs of the interior of Government House – 100 years ago – Pindikowsky is responsible for the ceilings. Type Government House Interior in the search bar here: http://gencat1.eloquent-systems.com/webcat/request/DoMenuRequest?SystemName=The+Rooms+Public&UserName=wa+public&Password=&TemplateProcessID=6000_3355&bCachable=1&MenuName=The+Rooms+Archives

Recommended Reading: Art, Love and Savagery: Carolyn Moran. Flanker Press, St. John’s, 2016.

Recommended Website: http://www.heritage.nf.ca/govhouse/govhouse/tour2.html

Recommended Visit: To see the work of Alexander Pindikowsky both Government House and Presentation Convent are available to the public by appointment. The Colonial Building is undergoing extensive renovations and is closed.

Last Body from the Titanic Recovered

ARCHIVAL MOMENT
June 6, 1912

Photo Credit: The Rooms Provincial Archives Division, A 9-42, SS Algerine

On June 6, 1912, the last body of those that had died on the Titanic was delivered to Halifax, Nova Scotia for burial. The body had been recovered by the steamer Algerine, out of St. John’s, Newfoundland, the last of four ships chartered by the White Star Line to search for bodies in the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic.

The Algerine was a cargo and passenger ship (and part-time sealer) owned by Bowring Brothers Limited ofSt. John’s. She sailed under the command of Captain John Jackman. Also aboard were chief officer Richard B. Giles and undertakers Andrew Carnell from Carnell’s Funeral Home and a Mr. Lawrence the undertaker with Lawrence Brothers.

The White Star Line owners were receiving constant criticism from families wanting to bury and mourn their loved one’s. To show that they were attempting to recover the bodies and that these bodies were being treated with respect and dignity the chartered ships each had an undertaker.

The Algerine left St. John’s on Thursday, 16 May 1912 loaded with ice and salt for the preservation of the bodies and coffins. While her search persisted for three weeks, she recovered only one body, that of Saloon Steward James McGrady (Body number 330). His remains were brought back to Halifax on 6 June and trans-shipped to Halifax aboard the steamer Florizel. He was buried in Halifax on June 12, 1912, the last victim of the Titanic disaster to be buried.

Recommended Archival Collection: At the Rooms Provincial Archives Division or the virtual exhibit: One Hundred Year Later: Titanic in the Archives: http://www.exhibits.therooms.ca/titanic/default.asp

Recommended Museum Exhibit: Here, We Made A Home
Where: Level 4, The Elinor Gill Ratcliffe Gallery is home to a number of artifacts linked to the Titanic including the Titanic Life jacket.

May snow has healing powers

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

May Snow

Where is the May Snow?

“May Snow” is something that none of us are keen to welcome but it is a phenomena that we have all known.

William Shakespeare, like the rest of us was not keen on ‘May Snow” in ‘Love’s Labour Lost’, he wrote:

“At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows. (1.1.105)”

But if we get snow we might as well make the best out of it.

In this province our ancestors and government insisted “May Snow” should be bottled and used as a remedy to cure sore eyes.

A brochure printed by the government of Newfoundland in 1955, titled “Historic Newfoundland and Labrador” stated:

“Many old people testify to the efficiency of this strange cure.”

The “Dictionary of Newfoundland English” observed:

“Snow from the first snowfall in May would be collected because it was supposed to have healing powers. It would be used to cure sore eyes. It was called May water.”

J. K. Crellin, in his book “Home Medicine: The Newfoundland Experience” offers a suggestion for those unhappy with their complexion. Crellin in his research discovered that one’s complexion would be improved by soaking one’s face in the first snow in May month.

Snow is associated with purity and innocence as in the expression “as pure as the driven snow.”

Another expression that is deeply rooted in the folklore of many communities in Newfoundland and Labrador is the expression

“A snowfall in May, will take freckles away.”

It was not uncommon for the young Irish girls to bathe their faces in May snow water with the wish and the prayer that their freckles would disappear. The expression is countered by another wonderful old Irish saying

” A face without freckles is like a night without stars”

Let us embrace our weather, take it as it comes. Let’s bottle this May snow. It truly is good for sore eyes!!

Recommended Website: Environment Canada: http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/nl-24_metric_e.html

The crowded sidewalks of St. John’s

Archival Moments

15 May 1879

Photo Credit: The Rooms Provincial Archives. A -2-35. Water Street, St. John’s, looking east.

On May 15, 1879 the Colonial Government of Newfoundland declared that they had had enough of the businessmen on Water Street obstructing the natural flow of pedestrian traffic on the sidewalks of the historic street. It appears that the businessmen were hindering traffic by placing their wares in “boxes, barrels, and packages” on the sidewalks.

To show that they saw this as a very serious matter, constables dragged before the Police Court in St. John’s “forty two (42) representatives of the business houses on Water Street.” The parade of businessmen to the Police Court included according to the local St. John’s newspaper, The Evening Telegram, “men in the highest social and commercial positions in the country.”

The Telegram continued:

“It was certainly unique to see so many of our leading civilians arraigned at the bar of justice, and we must confess that our feelings were truly indescribable when we entered the court room and glanced around.”

The Evening Telegram reporter seemed to be enjoying the spectacle observing with some embellishment that:

“There they were, men in the highest social and commercial positions in the country, philanthropists, merchant princes and politicians of the first order; constrained by the omnipotent mandate of the presiding genius of the magisterial bureau. In short they were there on a charge of violation of the following the Municipal Regulations Act.”

The particular act that they were dragged before the courts to answer too was the regulation or act that read:

“Any person who shall place or deposit on any sidewalk in any of the said places, except in transit, any boxes, barrels, packages, or any other matter or thing, so as to obstruct free passage on the said side walk, shall for very offence forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding twenty five dollars.”

Water Street, St. John’s was the hub of the cultural, social and economic activity in St. John’s in the 18th – 20th century.

In 1877, just two years before this mass arrest of the business leaders of St. John’s, Rochfort’s Business Directory, the “Business and General Directory Containing Classified Lists of Business Men of St. John’s” gave a detailed listing of all trades on Water Street and reported that there were on the historic street many different kinds of enterprises.

Some of the businesses on the historic street included: 3 Photographic studios, 8 Auctioneering houses, 4 Bakeries, 2 Blacksmiths, 3 Boarding houses, 15 Boot and Shoe Makers, 15 Butcher Shops, 3 China and Glassware Dealers, 4 Confectioners, 2 Coopers, 2 Dentists, 1 Distiller, 28 Drapers, 2 Engineers, 2 Furniture Dealers, 31 Grocers, 3 Hairdressers, 3 Harness Makers, 11 Hardware Dealers, 2 Hotels, 2 Joiners, 3 Leatherware Dealers, 4 Lumber Merchants, 32 General Merchants, 6 Millinery, I Painter, 2 Plumbers, 2 Pump and Lock Makers, 6 Stationers, 1 Stonemason, 19 Tailors, 7 Tin, Sheet and Iron and Copper Workers, 8 Watchmakers, and 50 Wine and Spirit Retail Stores.

With so many businesses being located on Water Street vying for the attention of the same customers it was not surprising that they should position their products on the sidewalks to try and lore customers into their shops!!

Do you have any problems navigating the sidewalks in St. John’s?

Recommended Archival Collection: City and Town Directories held in archives give incredible insights into the business life of Newfoundland communities. A few of the directories that should be consulted when doing research are Hutchinson’s Directory of Newfoundland (1864); Lovell’s Directory for Newfoundland (1871); McAlpine’s Directory for Newfoundland (1871); and Rochfort’s Directory of Newfoundland (1877).

Recommended Museum Exhibit: At the Rooms: Here, We Made a Home The Elinor Gill Ratcliffe Gallery – Level 4.

“Be Sober and Watch” – Take “The Pledge”

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

May 12, 1985

The Pledge Card

On May 12,1985 the members of the Total Abstinence and Benefit Society (TABS) met in St. John’s and dissolved the Society by a resolution of its members. The society had been formally established in St. John’s by the Revered Kyran Walsh in 1841.

It was not the first movement to introduce the philosophy of temperance in St. John’s and by extension the rest of the Newfoundland.

Edward Wix the Church of England Missionary had helped organize a temperance society which met almost every month between 1833 and 1838 and published the Newfoundland Temperance Journal.

Members of the TABS enrolled under the society’s motto of “Be Sober and Watch”, and had taken “the pledge” to abstain from alcoholic beverages.

The words of the famous “pledge” which members took was:

“I pledge myself with the Divine Assistance that as long as I shall continue a member of this Society I will abstain from all intoxicating liquors unless for medical or religious purposes and that I will discountenance intemperance in others.”

The society was a well established sponsor and host for numerous literary and musical and theatrical events. The logic of the society was to provide a good alcohol free venue to counter the appeal other entertainments.

In the 1930’s TABS was very optimistic about their future building their new hall at 344 Duckworth Street in, St. John’s, at the time the largest Art-Deco style building ever erected in the city. The building is best remembered as the Capital Theatre (Henry Street entrance) and CBC Radio Building.

When the Society was dissolved in 1985 the Registration Books, Minute Books and other related material was deposited in the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese.

Recommended Archival Collection: At the Rooms Provincial Archives explore: MG 599: Sons of Temperance, Twillingate; the collection consists of minutes of meetings, re: list of officers, parades, general business and MG 1009: Sons of Temperance, St. John‘s Division No. 3: Minutes of the Sons of Temperance for 1865-1867 beginning with the inaugural meeting. Minutes include lists of officers including ages and occupations of members, resolutions, finances, quarterly reports, membership fees, expenditures, etc.

Recommended Song: Murphy Broke The Pledge (Irish Descendants) based on the Johnny Burke Ballad, Murphy Broke the Pledge [1851-1930] of St. John’s, NL (1894). This variant arranged by the Irish Descendants (Rollin Home, 1998) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAUzJmUkC7A

The stories of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians during the First World War

Photo Credit: CIBC senior vice-president and Eastern Canada region head Sylvain Vinet (left) and The Rooms director Anne Chafe at the launch of the companion catalogue for the exhibition of the same name, “Beaumont-Hamel and the Trail of the Caribou.” – Juanita Mercer

The stories of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians during the First World War at The Rooms’ are now available in print.

The award-winning exhibition, and now this publication, both document the effects of the First World War on the province — on those who fought, on the families and communities left behind, and on the politics, economy and future of the province.

“May the force be with you.” Newfoundland and the Force of Music

Photo Credit: American composer John Williams in 1952 at the Atlantic Films studio on Prescott Street in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Behind Williams are Ralph Blei, sound engineer, and Margeurite Reid, scriptwriter. (The Rooms Provincial Archives Division, A 68-51 / AFE)

“May the 4th be with you.” What started as pun affectionately shared by fans has become a complete Star Wars holiday: Star Wars Day, a special once-a-year celebration of the galaxy far, far away.

Fans of the movie franchise are celebrating because Friday is May the Fourth, which sounds like the famous line from the movie, “May the force be with you.”

What would Star Wars be without Newfoundland influenced music?

The renowned American composer of Star Wars, John Williams said he has many fond memories of his two years in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the first time he had ever travelled outside the United States of America. He found Newfoundlanders to be friendly and welcoming, and many of his Air Force buddies became lifelong friends.

He also became well-known in St. John’s for being able to arrange many kinds of music and songs for the Air Force Band.

In 1952, Williams came to the attention of Atlantic Films, a Newfoundland production company which had been commissioned by Premier Joey Smallwood to make Newfoundland tourism films.

His initiation in film was in Newfoundland. Williams has said after his experience in Newfoundland he developed and refined his musical composition style, and returned to the United States to work in Hollywood film orchestras.

Williams’ scores for the Star Wars movies count among the most widely known and popular contributions to modern film music.

Other contributions of John Williams include: Jaws and Superman and Schindler’s List and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

May the force be with you.

Watch and Listen: In 1952, John Williams came to the attention of Atlantic Films, a Newfoundland production company which had been commissioned by Premier Joey Smallwood to make Newfoundland tourism films. Watch this film that John William’s arranged the music for : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Yd3o-_00w

Body dropped on the doorstep of the magistrate

Archival Moment

29 April 1834

Photo Credit: Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of executed criminals were hung on public display to deter other criminals

On the evening of 29 April 1834, a large crowd gathered in Harbour Grace to cut down the gibbeted body of Peter Downing a convicted murderer.

Downing was convicted in early April for the brutal murders of a school teacher (Mr. Bray) , his infant son and a servant girl. For his crimes Downing was sentenced to be hanged, dissected and gibbetted.

For much of the month of April the people of Harbor Grace were forced to look on the gibbeted body of Downing.

The residents of Harbour Grace, approximately one thousand, had had enough, they removed the partially decomposed body of Downing, paraded it through the town, past the Court House, and dropped it on the doorstep of a magistrate, Dr. Stirling, along with a note, signed by anonymous which read:

Dr. S. This is your man you were the cause of bringing him here take and bury him or Look Out should you be the cause of allowing him to be put up again we will mark you for it, so do your duty and get him out of sight.

truly a friend,

Anonymous Carbonear

Dissection and gibbeting were punishments that had long been established in England and her colonies for crimes of traitors, murderers, highwaymen, pirates, and sheep stealers. The intention was that the body of Peter Downing would be left as a grim reminder and would stay on the gibbet for a year or more until it rotted away or was eaten by birds. Gibbeting was formally legalised in Britain by the Murder Act of 1752.

Gibbeting was not generally accepted by the people in Newfoundland. Many were offended by the sight and odor of a decaying body, others believed that the decaying bodies spread disease, others felt that being hung by the neck till dead was enough, even a criminal should meet his Creator in his full body.

In Harbour Grace, Dr. Sterling heeded the content of the note from the angry citizens. The decayed body of Peter Downing was buried immediately at the Court House, and no attempts were made to have the incident investigated or the body gibbeted again.

In Newfoundland “gibbetting” is well documented. In St John’s, Gibbet Hill, a small peak close to Signal Hill, takes its name from the practice. The location was very intentional. Anyone looking towards Signal Hill would see the ‘gibbeted bodies.” A reminder to heed the laws of the colony!

Newfoundland for a number of years held the dubious distinction of being the last place in the British Empire to proceed with gibbetting. The last man believed to be gibbetted in England was William Jobling on August 21st 1832. The last man in the British colonies was likely John McKay, in 1837. He was gibbeted on a tree near Perth, Tasmania.

Recommended Archival Collection: At the Rooms Provincial Archives take some time to explore the records of the Office of the Colonial Secretary. This office served as the official repository for Newfoundland state records and as the registry for varied legal and statistical documents, the collection includes extensive holdings relating to all aspects of Newfoundland political, economic, community and social life. In particular take some time with GN 2/2 this series consists of correspondence, reports, petitions, and records related to the operations of government in Newfoundland. The records include summaries of court cases.

Recommended Reading: Plebian Collective Action in Harbourt Grace and Carbonear, Newfoundland, 1830 – 1840, Linda Little (1984) . Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Recommended Activity: Visit Gibbet Hill in St. John’s, imagine the horror the gibbetted bodies struck in the hearts of the citizens of St. John’s as they stared at the decaying bodies overlooking their town.