Branch, Newfoundland and Labrador

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Branch
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settlement_type = Town
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pushpin_label_position = left
pushpin_map_caption = Location of Branch in Newfoundland
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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = CAN
subdivision_type1 = Province
subdivision_name1 = NL
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population_as_of = 2001
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population_total = 318
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timezone = Newfoundland Time
utc_offset = -3:30
timezone_DST = Newfoundland Daylight
utc_offset_DST = -2:30
latd = 46
latm = 53
lats = 00
latNS = N
longd = 53
longm = 58
longs = 00
longEW = W
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area_code = 709
blank_name = Highways
blank_info = Highway 100
Highway 92
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footnotes = The Town of Branch is an incorporated community on the Cape Shore of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and has a population of 318 (as of the 2001 census). It is located on St. Mary's Bay and can be accessed via Route 100 or Route 92. Nearby communities include Point Lance and St. Bride's.

First Settler

The first settler was Thomas Nash, a fisherman and boat builder from Callan in County KiIlkenny Ireland, 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 tradi¬tion 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.

Branch Factoids

-In 1836 there were only three fishing boats on the entire Cape Shore, all of them in Branch.

-The massive stone hearth was the focal point of the whole house, in Branch, where an extra bench was placed along the rear wall. As many as 15 people could sit around the centrally-placed open fire. Indeed some settlers regarded the "chimney corners" almost as a separate compartment within the kitchen-living room.

-The road from Placentia to St. Brides was completed in 1844 and extended to Branch before 1850

-Both in Branch and St Brides the distinctive kin-group clusters are commonly referred to as "squares." Since land inheritance was and is almost exclusively patrilineal, and residence patrilocal, each square is designated by the common surname of its occupants, e.g., "Nash's Square" or "Young's Square"; Only rarely was land sold. The kin-group clusters with their common surname have become more populous with each generation.

-In Branch and, in one or two cases, in St Brides, dwellings were disposed linearly or grouped compactly around an open space. St Brides and Branch are the only settlements on the Cape Shore where several nuclear families originally settled, and several kin-group clusters have evolved;

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 Nfld”Gerard Pocius

Irish Settlements in Eastern CanadaBy John J. Manion