Located at the "middle" of the tip of the Burin Peninsula, the community of Lawn is spread around a small harbour with very lush vegetation.

It was this verdant valley that inspired Captain James Cook to name it "Lawn Harbour" (formerly Laun). Why not? Sounds plausible.

Others, however, suggest that it was named by a Frenchman who named it after seeing a doe caribou, thinking it was a donkey or l'ane. A brief history of Lawn is outlined in the ENL:

A family tradition holds that Lawn was first permanently occupied in the late 1700s by Michael and Joseph O'Connor of County Cork, Ireland.

By the first official Census in 1836, "Laun" had a population of 107. According to the Journal of the House of Assembly for 1851, two portions of the settlement had by then become known, separately as "Great and Little Lawn."

Great Lawn (which was permanently settled in the late 1800s and survived long after the smaller serdement to the east had been abandoned) was at first mainly a base for the summer fishery.

It became one of the best inshore fishing harbours on the Burin Peninsula throughout the later 1800s and early 1900s.

In addition to the cod and capelin fishery, a salmon fishery was carried on, first by bar nets set across the entrance of two small rivers and then by schooners after the mid-1800s.

Herring and sealing fisheries were also carried on there and by 1891 a lobster factory employed eight people. By 1874 the community had 279 people, the Edwards, Murphy, Pike, Strang, Terrant and Walsh families comprising a large portion of the population.

An increase in population to 503 inhabitants between 1921 and 1935 reflected the opening of the fluorspar mines in St. Lawrence.

The early 1950s saw the construction of a fish plant at Lawn which operated sporadically for several years before being turned into an abattoir and meat-processing plant in the 1970s.

Partially as a result of the community's being designated a growth centre for resettled people from the islands of Placentia Bay, the population had increased to more than 1,000 by 1971.

In 2016, the population of Lawn was recorded to be 624, a decrease of 7.1% from the 672 residents enumerated in 2011.

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/Lawn