A seventeenth-century planter's house at Ferryland, Newfoundland (CgAf-2, Area D)

• Main Author: Crompton, Amanda J.
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2001
• Subjects: Canada; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/1413/; https://research.library.mun.ca/1413/1/Crompton_AmandaJ.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/1413/3/Crompton_AmandaJ.pdf

This thesis examines the remains of a domestic structure and a well dating to the late seventeenth century in Ferryland, Newfoundland, Canada (CgAf-2, Area D). The aims of this research are to date the house and the well, and to understand the relationship between the two features. The dwelling remains were further examined to explore the range of activities that took place there, and to resolve the socio-economic position of the individuals who lived there. Some attention is also paid to exploring the larger trade network in which the residents of this house participated. The house's structure is reconstructed as far as possible, and is compared with contemporaneous examples. -- This thesis analyses the ceramic, glass, clay tobacco pipe, and metal finds from the collection. The results of this analysis have demonstrated that the well was constructed sometime after ca. 1660, and fell out of use between 1770 and 1790. The house was constructed shortly after 1673, and was destroyed in an attack by French forces in 1696. It was a substantial timber-framed structure. The planters who lived there were year-round residents, whose main economic focus was participating in the cod fishery. The planters were most likely a family-based household, employing servants who probably lived in the house with them. All available evidence indicates that the Area D planters were firmly entrenched within the middling ranks of local society.