Early Residents of Cooper’s Head, Bishop’s Cove

 Written by Randell Mercer, Feb 3, 2018  -   The Upper Island Cove Family Roots Project 

Cooper’s Head is located at eastern end of the community of Bishop’s Cove, Conception Bay, NL.  Immediately to the east, it adjoins the community of Upper Island Cove.  Today there is a seamless transition of homes as you travel from Bishop’s Cove, through Cooper’s Head, to Upper Island Cove.  But if we take ourselves back to an earlier time, the late 1700s, one would have had to pass through an uninhabited wooded area as he/she travelled between these two fishing communities, from Cooper’s Head at the east end of Bishop’s Cove (aka Bread & Cheese Cove) to Spoon Cove, a small inlet at the western end of Upper Island Cove.  There would obviously have been a ‘horse & cart’ path connecting these two neighboring communities.  However, prior to 1801 no residence had been erected in this space. This small expanse, between the two communities, had no easy access to the sea, due to the steep shoreline along this reach of Conception Bay.

On the Bishop’s Cove side of this wooden area, at Cooper’s Head, we do know that Nicholas Quilty acquired in 1780 a grant of land from the Crown to cut and clear. The property was recorded, in the Plantations Book 1805, as Plantation #741, Cooper’s Head. By 1805 there were two homes erected on the Quilty Plantation.  The small cove or inlet below Cooper’s Head is locally known as Quilty’s Cove (one would assume after namesake, Nicholas Quilty).

There was a second plantation registered at Cooper’s Head, Plantation # 740. Owner Matthew Menchions (aka Menchin, Menchington) acquired this property from Isaac Smith in 1801, which at the time no buildings had been erected.  By 1805 there were two homes present on the Menchions Plantation.

 

What do we know about these earliest residents and neighbors at Cooper’s Head?   

The Quiltys were of the Roman Catholic faith, while the Menchions were Church of England congregants. We also know that both the Quilty and Menchions families resided there at least until 1835, given that the 1835 Voter List for Bishop’s Cove record John Quilty (son of Nicholas) and Matthew, Thomas, John, and Jonathan Menchions (all offspring of Matthew). Some of the Menchions descendants continued to reside in this area up to the present, while others have dispersed both near and far.

 

What do we know regarding the relocation of the Quilty descendants of Cooper’s Head?

I have yet to see any information on Nicholas’s place of origin. Based upon the land grant of his plantation, he had arrived at Bishop’s Cove by 1780 or earlier. By 1805 he (or he and his offspring) had built two homes on his Cooper’s Head property. I have not been able to identify the name of his spouse(s) or determine the exact year of his death. However, it is likely that his death occurred in the 1820s at Cooper’s Head.  (Note his name does not appear in the 1832 voter list nor 1835 voter list for Bishop’s Cove, whereas the names of his son, John and grandson, William Bryan (aka Byrant, Brien) are on both voter lists)

Original land grant provides the measurements of the Nicholas Quilty Plantation – 256 yds east to west by 200 yds north from the highwater line, specifying that it bordered the property of Mathew Menchions on the west, woods to the east and north, and the seashore of Conception Bay to the south.  In the appendum to the Will of Nicholas Quilty, he leaves his plantation to his son, John. This 1825 document specifies the plantation measurements to be 216 yds east to west by 180 yds north to south, specifying that it bordered on the west by Thomas Bryant's room, on the east by James Morrissey's room, on the north by the woods and on the south by the salt water. This suggest that Nicholas subdivided the original plantation to the west, 50yds from Matthew Menchions boundary, and titled it to Thomas Bryan (or aka Brien). This makes sense given Thomas Brien was married to Mary Quilty, daughter of Nicholas; that is to say Nicholas’s son-in-law.

The presents of James Morrisey, a property owner to the east in 1825, as indicated in the appendum to the Will of Nicholas Quilty, suggests that Morrisey acquired an acreage of uncleared land after 1805. An interesting aside is that, sometime about 1839, The Newfoundland and British North America Society for Educating the Poor (from London, England and whose Chairman was a Lord Bexley) purchased land from James Morrisey to build the first local community schoolhouse, a facility known as the Baxley Hill School to be shared by both the communities of Upper Island Cove and Bishop’s Cove. The area adjacent to this school later became the site of the second Upper Island Cove Anglican cemetery, known as Bexley Hill Cemetery.

It appears that John was the only son of Nicholas Quilty. He inherited most of the original Quilty Plantation at Cooper Head in 1825, and all subsequent offspring are the ancestors of the Cooper Head Quiltys. Most likely, there were many. In October 2008, a Quilty Family researcher, Patricia Byrne posted on an ancestry message board that she wasResearching John Quilty from Bishop's Cove, Cooper's Head or Island Cove married to Jane Golehar/Galahar/Galway/Gallher/Goldhart. I have 10 children listed for this couple and would like to obtain info on John and Jane's families, names of their parents and siblings. Plus, any information on their children especially Johanna Quilty married to William Ford of Island Cove.”

From my own research, it is clear that the Cooper Head Quilty descendants had relocated to other areas of the province by the mid-1800s through two primary paths. Some relocated to Horse Cove Road (part of modern day Paradise, NL), while others relocated to Tilton, NL, and later on from there to Highlands (located in the western NL).


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