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February 12, 1833
A Witness to Roman Catholicism’s growth in Newfoundland
On this day, February12, 1833 Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming, Bishop of St. John’s officiated at the funeral of Father Thomas Anthony Ewer at Harbour Grace.
Father Ewer volunteered for the Newfoundland missions in 1789. Upon his arrival he was appointed to the new parish of Ferryland. At the time Ferryland Parish included “near 2,500 people . . . in ten different harbours in the space of about seventy miles.”
By 1796 Ewer had completed an elegant chapel and house at Ferryland. At Bay Bulls he had much success in bringing Anglicans to Roman Catholicism. In fact, so strongly Catholic did the entire district become that in 1796 the Anglican clergyman, Samuel Cole (with whom Ewer was on good terms), had to leave Ferryland for lack of support.
In 1806 Ewer exchanged parishes with Father Ambrose Fitzpatrick, moving from Ferryland to Harbour Grace.
He is regarded as the founder, in 1814, of the Harbour Grace Benevolent Irish Society, a charitable association. In his time chapels were built throughout the parish – at Bay de Verde, Port de Grave, Carbonear, Harbour Main, Northern Bay, Cupids, and Brigus. In the 1820s Ewer spent over £5,000 in erecting at Harbour Grace a new house and a magnificent wooden church, probably then the colony’s largest building.
In 1796. Ewer, became vicar general, an appointment he held until his death. He thus administered the vicariate (usually from St John’s).
His 44 years in Newfoundland had witnessed Roman Catholicism’s growth from the religion of a barely tolerated minority to that of a powerful and well-organized majority.
He was buried on this day – February 12, 1833.
Archival fonds: Reverend Thomas Ewer fonds
Recommended Reading:
Centenary volume, Benevolent Irish Society of St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1806–1906 (Cork, [Republic of Ire., 1906])
M. F. Howley, Ecclesiastical History of Newfoundland (Boston, 1888; repr. Belleville, Ont., 1979).
For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca
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Larry Dohey
Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s
P.O. Box 1363
St. John’s, NL
A1C 5M3
709-726-3660
E-mail: archives@nf.aibn.com
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