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Our Coveduck Origins
Historical
analysts have used many sources in the preparation of our history such as the
Domesday Book, the Rasman Rolls (129)-1296). the Curia Regis Rolls, The Pipe
Rolls, the Hearth Rolls, pariah registers, baptismals, tax records and other
ancient documents and found the first record of the name Coveduck, in
Lincolnshire, where they were seated from ancient times. The
Surname Coveduck, was found in archives, the name was sometimes revealed as
Cobbledick, Cubbledick, Cubbeldick, Cupeldik, Cubbeldyke, Cuppleditch,
Cupeldicke, Cubbeldik, Cobeldyk, Copoldike, Copoldick, Copoldyke, Cobledicke,
and these changes in spelling occurred even between father and son. It was not
uncommon, for example, for a person to be born with one spelling
variation, married with another, and for yet another to appear on his
gravestone. Scribes spelt the name the way it sounded as it was told to them.
From century to century spellings changed.
In Newfoundland; 1708 John Cabbaduck or Capbaduck; 1760, John Coveduck; 1784 Wm Cobbeduck; 1786 Mary Covedock; 1789 Stephen Coveduc; 1807 Peren Coveyduck; 1807 Sera Coviduck; 1848 John Coverduck; 1871 Charles Cobbaduc; 1871 John Cobbiduck; 1808 Amy Cobodoc; 1814 Elizabeth Covenduck; 1814 Stephen Coperduck; 1816 John Cobbydock; 1817 Francis Covyduck: 1817 Margerth Covydough; 1820 Ann Copyduck; 1830 Mary Coppyduck; 1851 Rebecca Cobyduck; 1865 Selina Bertha Coveydoc; 1896 Annie Cobeduck The family name Coveduck was found to be descended
from the Saxon race. The Saxons were a fair skinned people led by the brothers
General/Commanders Hengist and Horsa, who settled in England from about the
year 400 A.D. They settled firstly on the south east coast, coming from the
Rhine Valley. They spread north and westward from Kent and during the next
four hundred years forced the Ancient Britons back into Wales and Cornwall to
the west, Cumbria and Scotland to the north. The Angles held the eastern
coastline, the south folk in Suffolk, the north folk in Norfolk. Under
Anglo/Saxon five-century rule the nation divided into five separate kingdoms,
a high king being elected as supreme ruler. Alfred the Great emerged in the
9th century as the Saxon England,
by 1066, was ably led by Harold, King of the Saxons and was enjoying
reasonable peace and prosperity. The Norman invasion from France under Duke
William of Normandy, and their victory at the Battle of Hastings, found Saxon
land owners to be forfeited of their land. William, with an army of 40,000,
drove north, wasting the northern counties. Both rebellious Norman nobles
and Saxons fled over the border into Scotland. Those Saxons who
remained were restive under Norman rule, and many moved northward to the
midlands, Lancashire and Yorkshire where Norman influence prevailed less. The family name Coveduck emerged as a notable English family name in the county of Lincolnshire, where Robert de Cubbeldick was registered in 1242, Johannes de Cupeldik in 1273, and John de Cupeldicke in 1276.
The name continued to flourish in 14th
century Lincolnshire. Roger de Cubbeldik was recorded in Lincolnshire in 1313,
Roger de Cobeldyk in 1320, and Alon de Cubheldyk in 1323. By the 17th century
the name was established in Devonshire, where Ambrose Cobledicke was
registered in 1642. Notable amongst the family at this time was Roger de
Cobeldyk, a prominent landholder in 14th century Lincolnshire. The
next two or three centuries found the surname Coveduck flourishing and
contributing greatly to the culture of the nation. During the 16th, 17th and
18th centuries England was ravaged by religious conflict. Protestantism, the
newly found political fervour of Cromwellianism, and the remnants of the Roman
Church rejected all but the most ardent followers. As each group gained power
during these turbulent times many were burnt at the stake but many more were
banished from the land, losing their titles, estates and status. Many families
were freely "encouraged" to migrate to Ireland, or to the
"colonies". Some were rewarded with grants of lands, others were
indentured as servants for as long as ten years. In
Ireland they became known as the "Adventurers for land in Ireland".
They were government sponsored Protestant settlers who "undertook"
to keep their faith, being granted lands previously owned by the Catholic
Irish for only nominal payment. They were also known as the
"Undertakers". No record of this family migrating to Ireland was
found, however this does not preclude the possibility of individual migration.
These
unsettling times were disturbing and the New World beckoned the adventurous.
They migrated, some voluntarily from Ireland, some by Army service, but mostly
directly from England, their home territories. Some also moved to the European
continent. Members of the family name Coveduck sailed ahoard the armada of
small sailing ships known as the "White Sails" which plied the
stormy Atlantic. These overcrowded ships were pestilence ridden, sometimes 30%
to 40% of the passenger list never reaching their destination, their numbers
decimated by sickness and the elements. Many were buried at sea.
John Cabot, sailing from Bristol in 1497 appears to have made landfall at Bonavista and claimed the whole country for Henry VII. Three years later Gaspar Corte-Real, ranging the North American coasts, discovered and named Conception Bay and Portugal Cove, and was appointed Portuguese governor of Terra Nova. In 1527 the little Devonshire fishing ships were unable to carry home their large catch, so “sack ships “ (large merchant vessels) were employed to carry the salt cod to Spain and Portugal. An act cf 1541 classes the Newfoundland trade with the Irish, Shetland and Iceland fisheries. In 1578 the number of vessels employed in the fishery was 400, of which only one-quarter were English, the rest being French and Spanish Basque. In 1650, or about a century and a half after its discovery, Newfoundland contained only 350 families, or less than 2000 individuals, distributed in fifteen small settlements.
Historic documents provide illuminating insights of early life in Newfoundland, commonly termed the “senior colony” of Great Britain. The earliest account in 1585 described how Sir Bernard Drake a kinsman of the famous Maritime adventurer Sir Francis Drake, attacked and captured a fleet of Spanish fishing ships in St John's. Six hundred prisoners were taken and shipped to Devonshire England, to be imprisoned in Exeter Jail. Sir John Gilbert, relative of Sir Humphrey who had founded England's first colony two years earlier was instructed to feed them on an allowance of three pence a day and the fish in there ship. In the event most of them died in jail of typhus as did many of their jailers and lawyers. The Dawe property at Ship Cove has been occupied since 1595; the oldest registered land claim in Newfoundland, and making Dawes the oldest documented European family in Newfoundland. Gerald Andrews in his book, Heritage of a Newfoundland Outport, The Story of Port de Grave, 1997, details information about the, DAW(E) and MORGAN families of Port de Grave, Coley's Point and Bay Roberts. "Port de Grave is one of the oldest fishing winter stations in Newfoundland. A document at the Registry of Deeds suggests that the DAW (later DAWE) family had occupied land at Red Beach, Ship Cove since 1595. The original DAW family may have been a fisherman-guardian who remained in Port de Grave throughout the year to protect and maintain the fishing rooms of the Western Adventurers. Oral tradition in the DAW family maintains that their earliest ancestors actually met and advised John GUY when he was exploring a site to establish his colony in the early 1600s.
As GUY sailed into Conception Bay in 1608 he saw a small shallop and hailed it. The skipper said that he was Abe DAW from Ship Cove and he had been fishing there for 13 summers. After some discussion he advised GUY to go to Cuper's Cove to investigate that site. By
the mid-1600s, Port-de-Grave had become a leading area in the evolving
resident small boat fishery established by “planters’ from West Country,
England. The French destroyed it in 1697 and 1705. 1750-1850 Port-de-Grave was
the commercial center for the region with a population of 1400. After World
War II and Confederation, the local inshore fishery grew rapidly. By the
mid-70s it had one of the major inshore multipurpose fishing fleets in
Newfoundland along with three fish plants Cupids
Newfoundland (established in 1610) is the first official English colony in the
New Found Land. It is the second official English colony in North America
(following Jamestown, Virginia in 1607). In Canada, France established its
first colony at Port Royal (Nova Scotia) in 1605, followed by Quebec in 1608. A strong link between New
England and Newfoundland comes in the person of Captain John Mason. Mason was
the second governor of the Cupids colony and held the position between 1615
and 1621. After he left Newfoundland, Mason went on to establish the colony of
New Hampshire. In 1679, five sack ships from Ireland were reported in Newfoundland; three from Waterford, one from Yougal and one from Dublin. In 1681, it was reported that Irish traders were bringing goods and: a great many women passengers whom they sold for sevts. A little after their coming they married among fishermen that lived with the planters and being extreamly poor contracted such debts as they were not able to pay.
The
original settlers were inhabitants of the proprietary colonies who chose to
remain in Newfoundland and were joined by a few other immigrants. In 1680 a
census counted 1,700 people scattered along the English Shore between
Bonavista to Trepassey. At the end of the 17th century the government conceded
that a small permanent population was desirable, and sanctioned a limited
right to property. But immigration and settlement were never encouraged. After 1690, the troubled times in Ireland forced many of its young men to flee the country in search of a prosperous life away from the famine and oppressive landlords that controlled much of Ireland. Many more came on prisons ships to work the plantations as a sentence for crimes they had committed during the famine, When the Newfoundland fishing convoy stopped at Waterford to pick up provisions, there were plenty of "Irish Youngsters" willing to serve for two summers and a winter in the Newfoundland fishery. Many of them married planters' daughters and never returned to Ireland. By 1696, there was a growing Irish presence in various Newfoundland communities. Gerald Andrews in his book, Heritage of a Newfoundland Outport, The Story of Port de Grave, 1997, wrote "The first recorded Irish connection with Port de Grave, Conception Bay, NL occurred in 1699 when the fishing ship, "May Flower", appeared in the Harbour from Waterford, Ireland. "Irish Family Names recorded (1700 - 1900): in Port de Grave and Bareneed were Bowes, Brien, Burke, Butler, Coveduct, Cowley, Croke, Curlew, Dawson, Delaney, Dunn, Dwyer, Efford, Fitzgerald, Forestal, Gahan, Hennebury, Hennessey, Kavanaugh, Kehoe, Kennedy, Kenny, Lannan, Loveless, Macarthy, Mullowney, Reardon, Reilly, Roach, Skehan. In 1706, after the French destroyed much of the property in Port de Grave a party of soldiers were sent from St. John's and found 31 men wintering in Port de Grave. Among them was John DAWE. There is also evidence in the Fisherman's Plantations Book that Plantation # 90 was owned by George DAW and that it had been owned by his ancestors for 160 years. This establishes that fact that 1595 was the date of possession. The first DAW planter documented in a Newfoundland census was Stephen DAW at St. John's in 1706. The first recorded Coveduck that I have found in Newfoundland was John Cabbaduck or Capbaduck of Bay Dr Verdes in 1708 (Co194.4) who was a planter on the Anthony Plantation. The second wave: Family arrivals in Port de Grave as recorded by Gerald Andrews 1725 -1770 are: 1725 Taylor, 1727 Tucker, 1731 Hussey, 1735 Kennedy, 1745 Warford, 1755 Efford, 1758 Petten, 1759 Lear, 1760 Coveduct, 1764 Kelligrew, 1768 Batten, 1771 Sheppard." In 1745, Nicholas DAW occupied a large section of land to the west of the Anthony Plantation in Upper Ship Cove. He was followed by Samuel DAW in 1757. There is some evidence that Samuel and Nicholas may have been members of the old Daniels Hole DAW family.
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by Excerpt
from, Heritage of A Newfoundland Outport, The Story of Port de Grave by Gerald
W. Andrews. Pages 38 & 39 are maps. The following is from pages 37 &
39. Page Created 06 June 2001
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Our Family Roots 
