Torbay Community Profile 2010
beautiful HISTORY History of Torbay
town.torbay.nf.ca
Our town has an incredible history. Many Canadian towns have a recorded history of a couple hundred years. Torbay, however, has a history dating back to the 1500’s. Our shores have been influenced by wars, historic events, the rise and fall of the fishery, and most recently, an economic and population boom. As for our name, it comes from an area of the same name in Devonshire, England, first mapped almost 400 hundred years ago by John Mason. An extract from Bishop Field’s Journal states: “Indeed, there seems to be a little colony of Devon folk in Torbay.”
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The community of Torbay experienced three French Campaigns, the first as early as 1696. These invasions contributed to the eventual construction of the Torbay Battery in 1781. The census of 1677 indicated residents from “Tarr-Bay”, Newfoundland. By 1794 the population totaled 108 English settlers and 99 Irish settlers. Colonel William Amherst and his troops landed in 1762, on their way to recapturing the capital city of St. John’s from the French. This event was officially recognized in 1978 when the first Mayor of Torbay, William Manning, unveiled a stone monument and plaque at the present-day Veterans’ Memorial. A storied history for a beautiful town.
A snapshot of days gone by – young girls on the beach, circa 1950.
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