William's Harbour: Located on the south side of Granby Island at the mouth of Alexis Bay, about 35 km east of Port Hope Simpson, Williams Harbour was known as a summer fishing station for fishermen wintering either at Port Hope Simpson or at Rexon's Cove.

According to ENL contributors, the harbour was most likely visited by migratory English fishermen from the late 1700s.

The first family to settle in the area was a family of "Inuk named Samuel Kibenook (in 1993 a common family name of Port Hope Simpson, usually spelled Kippenhuck)".

History reports that they were soon joined by Kippenhuck's son-in-law, William Russell, "an Englishman who has married an Esquimaux wife, and as a consequence has the cleanest house and the tidiest children on the coast" "Esquimaux", in this quotation, refers to a member of a people that inhabited northern Canada, Greenland, Alaska and eastern Siberia that Algonquins called "Eskimo" or "eaters of raw flesh".

They prefer to call themselves today as "Inuit" or "the people. It is probable that community was named after William Russell, and since that time the majority of residents of the Harbour have home the family name Russell.

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/WilliamsHarbour