The first of these three communities, St. Vincent is located in Holyrood Bay, at the eastern entrance to St. Mary's Bay. The town was earlier known as Holyrood after the bay, but since there were two towns in Newfoundland, with the same name, this Holyrood was renamed St. Vincent in 1910, to memorialize the Catholic martyr of the same name. The other Holyrood is in Conception Bay.

According to the material included in the ENL, St. Vincent's first appeared, as far back as the early part of the 16th century, on a Portuguese map as Porta da Cruz, but "was known by mariners as Holyrode [note the earlier spelling] as early as 1693.

Holyrood Pond empties into the bay at St. Stephen's, a town which earlier went by the name of Middle Gut. The town's name was changed in 1945 to honour Father Stephen O'Driscoll, from a local parish from St. Mary's, certainly giving the town a more pleasing name to the ear.

The third community, Peter's River is name after the river bearing the same name. It was reported bearing ENL that it was originally called "Riviere du Pierre by French migratory fishermen, a name which might also be translated as Rocky River".

In terms of the economy of the area, there were several viable industries in the area over time, as described in the ENL as follows:

Apart from the fishery, there was small-scale farming and logging on the shores of Holyrood Pond. There was a poultry farm near Peter's River in the 1920s and a sawmill at St. Vincent's in 1941. Some men from St. Vincent's found work in the coal mines of Cape Breton during the depression of the 1930s.

However, the shore fishery continued to be the mainstay of the three communities. Most of the catch was salted, but in later years some was sent to a processing plant at Trepassey. St. Vincent's was a difficult place for landing fish because of exposure to winds.

By the 1960s the fishery of all three communities was conducted from the community wharf at Peter's River. Cod and hake continued to be caught in the Pond and a marina was built to accommodate small boats.

With various resettlement programs occurring in the 1960s, the population of the area increase dramatically and in the early 1970s there were 593 people in St. Vincent's, 159 in St. Stephen's and 87 at Peter's River.

Unfortunately with the decline in the fishery, the population of all three communities have steadily dwindled. The population of the amalgamated town in 2016 was recorded as being only 313, reflecting a 7.9% decrease from the 340 recorded earlier in 2011.

Located along both sides of North West Arm in Rocky Bay, Hamilton Sound on the Northeastern coast of Newfoundland, the community was first named Rocky Bay, like a number of other Rocky Bays in the province.

According to the ENL sources, the town, whose residents were mostly Methodists, was renamed, on June 18, 1906 to honor Rev. Albert Carman (1833-1917) who was General Superintendent of the Methodist Church of Canada from 1883 until 1910. The population was 740 in 2016, a 0.4% increase over the 737 recorded 5-years earlier.

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/StVincents