John Peyton (fisherman)
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John Peyton Sr. (1749–1829) was an English-born fisherman and trapper in the Colony of Newfoundland.[1]
He was born in Christchurch, Dorset and came to Newfoundland in 1770.[2] He lived in Fogo, where he was employed in cod fishing, until around 1775.[3] He later spent his summers at Exploits and then his winters at Lower Sandy Point on the Bay of Exploits. He fished for salmon and was involved in the fur trade; he also owned his own schooner. In 1788, Peyton married Ann Galton. His wife and children remained at Dorset in England until 1812. Both his wife and daughter died that year and Peyton subsequently brought his son John to Newfoundland to join him as a partner in business. In 1819, he took part in an expedition led by his son John Peyton Jr., which ended with the capture of a Beothuk woman named Demasduit[4] and the killing of her husband Nonosabasut, who was attempting to negotiate her release.[5] The last known living Beothuk, Shawnadithit, spent five years as a servant in the Peyton household. Peyton Jr. was tried for the killing of Nonosabasut and was found not guilty by the jury, with the judge concluding that "... (there was) no malice on the part of Peyton's party to get possession of any of (the Indians) by such violence as would occasion bloodshed."[1][6]
Peyton Sr. was accused of violence against the Beothuks in retaliation for the theft of supplies from his fishing stations.[1] In a significant incident in the winter of 1781, led two other men in an expedition up the Exploits River, to recover fishing gear and other material believed taken by the Beothuk.[7] According to Peyton Sr. after three days, they came upon a Beothuk encampment (of likely 30 to 50 people); he and his men fired on the Beothuk, killing some and wounding others, with the exact number of victims unknown. There was at least one uninjured survivor, and Peyton Sr. is recorded as having beaten an injured Beothuk to death with an animal trap.[8][9][10] The surviving Beothuk who were able fled, and Peyton and his men collected what furs, skins and gear they could carry and left. Though those Peyton Sr. told about the encounter believed he did not tell them the full details of what occurred.[7] John Bland, the magistrate at Bonavista, recommended that he be expelled from the Bay of Exploits.[1]
Peyton died in the Bay of Exploits in 1829.[1]
Family
His grandson, Thomas Peyton, later served in the Newfoundland assembly.[2]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Handcock, W. Gordon (1987). "Peyton, John". In Halpenny, Francess G. (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. VI (1821–1835) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
- 1 2 "Peyton family fonds". Archives Canada. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015.
- ↑ Marshall, Ingeborg (1998). A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 243–. ISBN 077351774X.
- ↑ McGrath, Patrick Thomas (November 27, 1911). Newfoundland in 1911, being the coronation year of King George V. and the opening of the second decade of the twentieth century. p. 49. Retrieved Nov 27, 2022 – via Wikimedia Commons.
- ↑ "The Rooms commits to dropping Mary March from museum name". CBC News.
- ↑ "Let's cleanse the landscape of the name of a Beothuk killer". CBC News.
- 1 2 Hewson 1988, p. 33.
- ↑ Hewson 1988, p. 34.
- ↑ Adhikari 2023, pp. 125–126.
- ↑ Harring 2021, p. 86.
Works cited
- Adhikari, Mohamed (2023). "'Now We Are Natives': The Genocide of the Beothuk People and the Politics of 'Extinction' in Newfoundland". In Jacob, Frank; Göllnitz, Martin (eds.). Genocide and Mass Violence in the Age of Extremes. De Gruyter. pp. 115–136. doi:10.1515/9783110781328. ISBN 978-3-11-078132-8. ISSN 2626-6490.
- Harring, Sidney L. (2021). "'Shooting a Black Duck': Genocidal Settler Violence against Indigenous Peoples and the Creation of Canada". In Adhikari, Mohamed (ed.). Civilian-Driven Violence and the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples in Settler Societies. Routledge. pp. 82–109. ISBN 978-1-003-01555-0.
- Hewson, John (August 1988). "The Pulling and Liverpool Manuscripts" (PDF). The Newfoundland Quarterly: Aspects. pp. 26–36. Retrieved 2 April 2026.
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