François
Local Service District



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3 CHURCH RD
François, A0N 2K0


Newfoundland Tourism Region : Central


Francois: Francois (according to information presented in the ENL is sometime spelt as "Fransway", the same as the way it is pronounced) is further to the west of McCallum, past Dragon Bay and Hares Ears Bay, however its ferry service is out of Burgeo (linking Burgeo to Grey River and on to Francois).

While it is known that both English and Jersey ships took shelter in the natural land-locked harbour at Francois as far back as the 1700s, when Captain James Cook charted the area in 1765, he did not note the presence of any fishing stages there, however, by the early 1800s permanent settlers had started to live on this rugged section of the coast.

The ENL listing includes a number of references to the topography of Francois: "Bay Francois... a curious place," (Rev. William Marshall, 1839) .... "Rocks hundreds of feet above the east side of the harbour could wipe out that part of the settlement if there was a land slide" (Fishing Communities of Newfoundland: 1952, Vol. I) .... "During strong winds, the wind funnels down steep cliffs surrounding the settlement and enters with great force and tends to blow ships off the wharf when docking" (Sailing Directions Newfoundland: 1980, p. 173).

Accessible mainly by boat in the summer or snowmobile in the winter (or helicopter all year round), the most recent census (2016) reported a population of 89, a 21.9% drop from the 114 of 2011.

There were 54 permanent dwellings recorded. According to Wikipedia contributors, resettlement has been rejected as recently as 2013.

Even though it is very small, there was, when I visited (in 2008) a post office, a general store, a small museum, a church and a school, all accessible by pathways made of concrete or wood.

Michael Crummey wrote the following about Francois in 2014: I've always thought of this community [Francois] as a microcosm of Newfoundland's place in the world before Confederation: singular and inaccessible and largely unknown.

Francois, and hundreds of other outports like it, are the crucible in which the distinct linguistic and cultural character of Newfoundland was formed....

It's a sad fact of life that the disappearance of these and other outport communities won't alter much about the world at large.

The GDP won't change, the oil boom will carry on pumping money into provincial coffers, the northeast Avalon will continue to be swallowed by cookie-cutter suburbs.

In almost every way we quantify such things, their absence will make no difference. But the loss we're facing is real, if subtler and harder to measure.

It may be true that we won't be poorer without them. But we will be, intangibly and inevitably, something less.

The town's name would appear to be French, however it should be noted that it is spelt without the cedilla found in the French word françois.

Research on the derivation name of the town was unsuccessful. None of the earlier settlers had the name Francois (please refer to http://kyrldol.tripod.com for an incredible collection of information about the early settlers of Francois); and no one could be found who gave the town its name.

The following from the website, Surname Database, gives an excellent history behind the name, Francois, which can be used as a first or last name (www.surnamedb.com), however, nothing hinted at why the name might be chosen for this particular community:

This is a name of Roman-Latin origins. It derives from "Franciscus", which was originally both an ethnic name used to describe a "Frank", later to be known as a "Frenchman", and a personal name of the 5th century a.d., which means "a free man".

In the latter days of the Roman Empire, the Romans were permanently at war with the Franks. It may be that at this time the name was used as a derogatory term by the Romans, for somebody who claimed to be a free man.

Be that as it may the later surname, which dated from the 12th century, became hugely popular world wide, there being over two hundred spellings!

These range from the English Francis, the French Francois and Frances, the Spanish and Italian Francisco and Francie, to the diminutives Franzel (Germany), the Italian nickname forms Scotti (!), Ciccolini and Zecchi, to the patronymics Francesconi (Italy), Franssen (Germany), Franson (England), and the Polish Franciskiewicz.

The popularity of "Franciscus" it is said, was due in large measure to the fame of St. Francis of Assisi (1187 - 1226), however the name was also associated with the Knight Templars (Crusaders) of the 12th century.

The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of Hugo Francus, which was dated 1135, in the register of Oseney Abbey, Oxfordshire, England, during the reign of King Henry 1, known as "The Lion of Justice", 1100 - 1135.

Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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/Francois



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