Everything about Sir David Kirke totally explained
Sir
David Kirke (c.
1597 –
1654) was an adventurer, colonizer and governor for the king of
England. Kirke was raised in English occupied
Dieppe, in
Normandy.
In 1627 Kirke's father and several
London merchants formed a company to encourage trade and settlement on the
St. Lawrence River.
France and
England were at war (see:
Thirty Years' War) and the Kirke family took it upon themselves to expel the French from
North America
Kirke and his brothers captured
Tadoussac in 1628 and demanded that
Samuel de Champlain surrender
Quebec to the English. When his demand was refused he captured a
French supply fleet near
Gaspé.
Kirke returned in 1629 and received the French surrender of Quebec but was ordered to return the colony to the French in 1632 as King
Charles I of England had agreed to return France's territories after
Louis XIII paid his wife's
dowry. As a consolation, Kirke was
knighted in 1633 and in 1637 he and his partners were given a
royal charter giving them possession of
Newfoundland with Kirke as
Proprietary Governor. This charter superseding an earlier charter that granted the
Avalon Peninsula of the island to
George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore as Baltimore was deemed to have abandoned his colony.
Kirke took possession of
Ferryland ejecting
William Hill, who had been proprietary governor on behalf of
Cæcilius Calvert, who had succeeded as
Baron Baltimore on the death of his father. Kirke as governor of Newfoundland soon came into conflict with the fishing merchants of western England, who were intent on preserving their control of the Grand Banks fisheries by excluding settlement from the island. Using the labours of about 100 colonists, erected forts at
Ferryland,
St. John’s, and
Bay de Verde, and collected tolls from all fishing vessels. Kirke was recalled to
England in 1651 on charges of violating the charter and not handing over taxes he'd collected on behalf of the government. He was found not guilty. Calvert, meanwhile, went to court to challenge Kirke's charter and his seizure of the
Province of Avalon and Kirke was imprisoned and is thought to have died in jail.
In return for capturing
Nova Scotia and Quebec for the English in 1628, Sir David Kirke was granted a Coat of Arms. His arms were long since forgotten but were rediscovered and were adopted as the official
Coat of Arms of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1928.
|width="25%" align="center"|Preceded by:
William Hill
|width="25%" align="center"|
Governor of Newfoundland1638 –
1651
|width="25%" align="center"|Followed by:
John Treworgie
Further Information
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