Bristol's Hope: After the failure of the settlement at Cuper's Cove, it has been reported that some of the Bristol Merchants split away from the original group and set their hopes and aspirations on a new, smaller colony near Harbour Grace which they "optimistically" and perhaps, "romantically" called "Bristol's Hope".

The date given for the beginning of the "new" colony is believed to be 1617. While "Bristol's Hope" was the name chose, in fact the community had been known by a number of other names, the most common being "Mosquito".

According to the Baccalieu Trai Tourism Association's website "Around the Bay" Mosquito was settled as far back as 1583, and that "the legendary Princess Sheila was said to have settled there with her husband Gilbert Pike in 1603.

From Wikipedia comes the "legend" of Princess Sheila The family legend first appeared in print in a 1934 article on Harbour Grace by William A. Munn. It states that Sheila lived in the early 17th century and was from the recently dispossessed Gaelic nobility in Connacht.

Catholic education being illegal in Ireland, she was sent to France to a convent school where her aunt was abbess. On the voyage there or back her ship was captured, first by a Dutch warship, and then by an English privateer captained by Peter Easton on its way to Newfoundland.

En route Easton's lieutenant Gilbert Pike and Sheila fell in love they landed at Harbour Grace, were married by the ship's chaplain, and settled firs in Mosquito (now Bristol's Hope) and later in Carbonear.

Munn's 1934 version states that Sheila and Gilbert's firstborn was "the first white child in Newfoundland", predating John Guy's 1610 colony at Cupids.

The community of Mosquito had nothing to do with the pesky insect (as it does ir Nipper's Harbour), as one might think at first glance. In a very interesting document by Robert J. Connolly written in 1980, entitled "Bristol's Hope" (his home at birth available on the Conception Bay's museum website, the origin of name of the community is explained:

In his "Ecclesiastic History", Archbishop Howley wrote that the name is derived from "musket", a form of firearm introduced into the British Army about that time, and a word then in use for a gun. Witness the name of Carbonear where that town got its name because in the long ago, it was garrisoned by a regimen o Carbineers - soldiers armed with the carbine, a rifle then in use.

Connolly continues on to trace the evolution of the name: Ancient maps have various spelling for the name of this sheltered settlement. Thorton's map (1689) records it as Musketto; Bellin's map (1744) gives it as Mesketto, while in the same year (1977) Tavener's "British Pilot" lists the name as Musketto" or "Muskets".

Again, a prominent newspaper, printed and published at Harbour Grace: "The Weekly Herald", in its issue of March 13, 1844, shows that name as Musquitto". And to cite just one more authority previous to the 20th century, a school report of 1870 uses the spelling "Musquito". Finally, in this time of the writer's boyhood, the accepted spelling was always "Mosquito".

According to Connelly: History also affirms that John Guy wished Harbor Grace to be known as Bristol's Hope, and indeed the name so appeared on Mason's Map, 1625, but happily such was not to endure.

Hence, to quote the late W. A. Munn, "the name Bristol's Hope which was given to the plantation with Harbour Grace as headquarters in 1617, was resurrected in the year 1910 by the Nomenclature Committee, as it was thought appropriate for the village of Mosquito, during the celebration of the Guy Centenary, commemorating the earliest colonization.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/BristolsHope