Branch Come Home Year

August 9-19, 2007

Information About Branch From...

Mrs. Agnes (Mooney) Singleton

Submitted By: Marina (Power) Gambin

 

The following information (which is word for word as she wrote it) was sent to me in the early 1970s by my Great Aunt Aggie (Mooney) Singleton who was born in Branch and later married in St. Joseph’s, St. Mary’s Bay.

 

Aunt Aggie lived to be 99 years old. She would have been born in the mid 1800s.

 

So, in the words of Great Aunt Aggie Singleton:

 

For your information, I do not vouch for any of this I write being actual fact. We will call it hearsay.

 

John Skerry, an Irish emigrant, one of Sweetman’s fishermen, had settled in Ship Cove. His wife Alice Barry, who claimed to be the aunt of the Irish patriot Kevin Barry, came to join him in Newfoundland. When John Power settled in Branch, he married John Skerry’s daughter Catherine.

 

At that time, Branch had a few settlers, some of Lord Calvert’s staff, Lord Calvert being called home to quell an uprising in Ireland, where he was shot. From their speech and manner, those people seemed to be the kind that serviced the gentry, also the names Nash, English, etc.

 

There are two distinct Nash families in Branch. The Nash that produced Patrick Nash and Thomas Nash came from Rameau (?) .He (?) was married to Nelly Walsh from Salmonier. When he died, Nelly married a Rourke from Mall Bay. Their descendants are the Rourkes we now have.

 

We also have two distinct families of Powers or “Poors”. The second family were called the Irish Poors. They came from Killarney as Mrs. Kitty Nash, one of the Irish Poors, often told me of the beauty of her homeland.

 

A dissertation on our Irish ancestry naturally begins in Ireland, in this case at Passage in the county Waterford, where a fine and clever family of farmers lived on their own land and were very comfortable.

 

Well, in Gladstone’s first and second ministry, he introduced measures which were the cause of distress all over Ireland, such as the Irish Land Act, and he meddled with church affairs. The Waterford farmers didn’t relish having a landlord

sent to overrule them and share in the produce from their labors.

 

There were secret meetings and organizations, like the “Irish Brotherhood”, generally called “The Fenians”, a word meaning “for ourselves”. Their defiance of the new laws soon landed them in prison.

 

They were to be sent to the colonies. The day of their transportation came, and a surprised bailiff with his guards found an empty prison, their guards as well as the prisoners had vanished. Where or how this happened will never be known.

 

Text Box: For five years, there is no record of them. However, a lot of men turned up around Placentia Bay in fishing boats. Names of Power and McGrath and Reilly. One of these settled in Branch, a John Power. But I am sure a Fenian would do well to change his name. In those days, retribution was a reality. As Mr. Sweetman’s young Irish emigrants enter into our history, more or less, I must now say that about this time (1869-1890), an Irish merchant, intrigued by stories of the fishery in Newfoundland, saw hopes of enriching himself, gathered a great crew of Irish youngsters to fish during the summer and to remain in Newfoundland during the winter cutting timber and building boats for the fishery. Those young men never meant to return to disturbed Ireland. Neither did they intend to build boats for the fishery. They felt they were entitled to a winter’s food after working all summer for Mr. Sweetman. I hesitate to mention an old rigamarole of how they spent the winter. However in every crowd there is found a wag and a clown, so here is how. “Monday is Sunday’s brother. Tuesday is such another. Wednesday is a day to fast and pray. Thursday is pork and duff day. Friday is too late to begin. Saturday is a half holiday again.” Probably, they did not work. The Guernsey men couldn’t stand the Irishmen. I hear they crossed the river and did a good winter’s work and earned a passage home to Guernsey. Thus, we have in Placentia, the Jerseyside. The Irish names scattered along the Cape Shore are mostly the descendants of these peoples. At Patrick’s Cove, we have the McGraths, again our relatives. James Coffey came from Cork. He had lived a good day’s walk from Cork Harbour where he brought farm produce every week. He often sold to a ship’s captain, with whom he later came to Newfoundland. After some years and much knocking about, James Coffey built a house in a cove on the Cape Shore, which he named Angles Cove ( decidedly not Angels Cove), the cove being on an angle. One of Sweetman’s crew members, being a very skilled farmer, had got himself a large tract of land in Patrick’s Cove, and in a short time had cows and sheep and pigs as well as the production of vegetables. This man, McGrath, had quite a family, two or three sons and four daughters. James Coffey married McGrath’s daughter Catherine. Mary McGrath married Paddy McGrath from St. Mary’s (no relation). Bridget married Stephen Davis who settled in Barrisway, St. Mary’s Bay. Ellen married the son of John Power of Branch. The sons remained on the farm and their descendants are still doing very well. James Coffey being my grandfather and Catherine McGrath Coffey my grandmother leaves your children in the fifth generation to the Coffeys and McGraths of the present day. This is only for your information, Marina. I don’t think it would be of general interest. Interesting Facts About Branch From Aggie Singleton Do you know . . . 1. Branch, named East Branch, long ago because there is so many branches from its source up country at Cuslett, Golden Bay, Pt. Lance, all flowing to the sea. ??? 2. The “Splink” was a natural wonder. Was named the “Sphinx” by John Power. I often sat on the beach by it trying to decipher the cracks and seams of that great slate. Some primitive hand surely had carved out shapes of animals and people and birds, even a thing like our airplanes - boats with men at the oars. ( I was broken-hearted to know some wretch had put dynamite to it and blown it to pieces.) That great wonder! 3. That big castle-like rock commonly known as the Hajers, was named after a big house in Ireland owned by a man named O’Hara. He had big ears and some wag called the house Hares Ears. 4. “Carey’s Spout”. That spring, icy cool in the middle of the cliff beneath the Easter’ Cove Meadow, “Carey’s Dock” just below. People said it was blest. If it was anywhere else one would hear more about it. 5. In the wood below Red Cove Pond, a place called “Dick’s Path”. An old fellow lived there. At one time, my father fenced the meadow where the remains of Dick’s old place remained. A beautiful meadow with a river running through it. Just below that, my father found the remains of a girl who had strayed away. A Mary Brennan. You may like to know these things about Branch.