Perhaps there were almost as many reasons for women owning ships as there were women involved in the business. Fathers, seeing their daughters' potential for life on the sea, encouraged them and even on occasion put their daughters' careers ahead of their sons'. Husbands and families needed the expertise and the labour of wife and mother, so she became involved in the family enterprise in order to ensure survival. There is evidence, too, that some women were role models for other women, and this is particularly apparent in some south coast communities of Newfoundland, where there were concentrations of women shipowners, and at Saint John, New Brunswick, where women modeled share-purchasing for succeeding generations. The women of New Brunswick were daring speculators. Their money was almost always invested in new large ships, and many of these were built to be sailed across the ocean to Europe and sold for a quick return on investment. This same pattern was also true of Prince Edward Island women but on a much more limited scale.
We must not underestimate the initiative of women themselves in buying ships and shares in ships. The ship, as the workhorse of its day, as a major means of transportation, as a great carrier to distant and exotic ports, represented adventure, romance, security and profit for those who invested in them. Women were drawn to the sea as much as men were. Many women must have liked everything that had to do with the sea as much as men did. Many of them were members of fisher families, of merchant families, of lumber-producing families, and the ship was vital to their way of life. Many women had money, and it was a natural act to invest their money for profit.
There was also another reason why women owned ships: to protect the family's assets. The husband may have gone into debt to a merchant and as a result registered the ship in his wife's name until the economic situation changed. In Quebec, many women
had a civil contract in addition to the religious marriage, and by this contract their goods and assets were legally separate from their husbands' goods and assets, so that if the husband went bankrupt or fell on hard times the family could live on the wife's assets until the husband recovered financially. A businessman may have divided the family's assets by registering some of the ships in his wife's name without any particular involvement in the firm's affairs by his wife. The latter appears to have been a practice of some merchants and may have been a hedge against possible bankruptcy. It is difficult to identify such cases from the skimpy information given in the ship registers, but I would wager that these instances are the exception rather than the rule.
Was women's ownership real? The evidence suggests a resounding “Yes.” Apart from the few instances cited previously, the records show that fewer than 100 women in the five Atlantic provinces inherited a ship and sold it within one or two years, opting not to carry on the venture. The vast majority of women held on to inherited ships and pursued the business, several for many years. Quite apart from that, women were active in buying ships or even in having ships built for their ventures. I have a copy of the bill of sale dated May 30, 1872, in which Cecilia Brown, widow of Stromness in the County of Orkney, executress to the late William Carpenter Brown, bought 16 shares in the 131-ton brigantine
Annie,
which had been built in Murray Harbour in Prince Edward Island in 1867. Cecilia paid 331 pounds 15 shillings sterling for the shares and held them for 14 years, her agent selling them on behalf of her estate when she died in February 1886. So women's ownership was real and is thoroughly documented.
Other appropriate questions are: How did women buy ships? Where did they get the money? Many women had their own money, especially those who came from well-to-do merchant or planter families, and many of these brought this money into their marriages. The wills of Newfoundland women and the Crown Lands Registry, both of which I have searched, reveal that many women were rich in lands, houses, property and bank accounts. Grace Anderson's will of 1856 leaves 230 pounds sterling to
her niece. The will of Catherine Mahar, widow of St. John's, in 1884 refers to three dwelling houses, a shop on Water Street, and property on Forest Road, and makes provision for her grand-children's “maintenance and education” until they marry or become of age. The will of Ellen Dawe in 1885 refers to six houses, which she leaves to various family members, and additional property and annual financial provision for her grandchildren. Mary Ann Voisy, widow, in 1912 left four houses, two of these with two tenements each. And Martha Nichols' will of 1918 states that “my money in the Bank is intended by my wish when I part this world for my husband and children, my husband to draw right away signed by myself⦠Also money left me in any other way my wish is for my husband and children to have it.”
Several women in Newfoundland were sawmill operators and held timber and mining licences, and even licences for a salmon fishery. Mary Winsor, widow of James J. Winsor, merchant of St. John's and Exploits, Burnt Islands, after her husband's death in 1889 became a co-partner with David Lewis in the very large sawmill at Dominion Point, Peterview, and continued in this capacity until the mill closed in 1892. That mill had been in existence since 1869 and was the catalyst for the settlement of the entire Botwood area. Thomas Raymond Murphy started a sawmill at Glenwood in 1927, and when he died in 1942 his wife Katherine partnered with Zipporah Steele, the local telegraph operator; they operated the mill until 1966 when they sold it. Prior to her marriage, Katherine had been a bookkeeper at the Crosbie Hotel in St. John's for 17 years.
Mrs. Martha Cottman, “a subject of Great Britain,” in 1751 applied for a grant of the North-east Arm of Placentia to carry on a salmon fishery “and the more effectively to complete the same.” The record continues: “â¦that she desires the property of the grounds from the West Side of the two Islands commonly called Salmon House Island and Crasous Island and for half a mile around the same⦠and the peaceably and quiet possession of the same without the least hindrance or molestation in the enjoyment thereof.” She was covering all the bases! E. Brown, J.P., awarded Martha Cottman the grant “by virtue of the power and authority to me given by
Admiralâ¦Drake.” The widow of Joseph Hornett (probably Ann) held a licence for a salmon fishery on the Campbellton River from at least 1861 to 1875, inheriting it from her husband and passing it on to her son. It is probable that Charlotte Rhodes, widow of Richard Rhodes of St. John's, who was awarded 29 acres, 3 roods, and 8 perchas of land at Salmon Brook, Northwest Arm, Clode Sound, on January 3, 1898, at a cost of $8.95, was also intending to pursue a salmon fishery.
Women were also awarded mining licences. Mary J. Verron, widow of Placentia, sometime before 1883, was awarded a licence “to Occupy and also to dig, mine and work, all and every the ores, mines and minerals contained in the Track, Piece and Parcel of land⦔ On October 12, 1883, Mary transferred by deed one half of her interest in the licence to Daniel J. Henderson, Gentleman, of St. John's. The record continues: “We grant them all the minerals with the exception of goldâ¦one square mileâ¦South-east Arm of Placentia.” In 1895 they jointly held 45 acres, including Verron's Island, so obviously Mary had the distinction of naming the island after herself. In 1901 Elizabeth Browning of Rogue's Harbour was granted mining licences at South-West Arm (Point Leamington) and Seal Bay, Notre Dame Bay. Selina S. Sullivan of Presque, Placentia Bay, “acquired certain mining rights from the estate of C. F. Bennett on the West side of Placentia Bayâ¦she has now applied for a Fee Simple mining grantâ¦at Red Cove and Great Boniaâ¦(and) on Presque Arm, St. Kyran's.” This was in 1904. Annie Oxley in 1920 held seven mining licences in the Nichollsville, District of St. George, area. She was now applying for a grant in fee simple (given ownership of the land with unrestricted rights of disposition), and it was noted that she had spent more than $6,000 on each site and had “fully complied (with the terms of) the grant.” It is noted further that she was a native of Washington in the County of Durham, England. It appears that she may have been the widow of John J. Oxley. Annie Oxley was also a joint holder of a timber licence, as described later. In 1923 two women, Elizabeth M. Tobin and Mary A. Tobin of St. John's, “did obtain a 99-year lease for two mining locations between Frost's
Cove, Moreton's Harbour, and Western Head, North-west Island” and pledged to spend $6,000 on the project.
And then there were timber licences. On June 22, 1908, Jane Taylor of St. John's was awarded 136 square miles in several areas around Sandy Lake and near Mount Seemore, Seemore Lake and Birchy Ponds. She sold the licence just six months later, on December 9, 1908, to Frank A. Begent. William H. Taylor of St. John's was also buying timber licences at the time and may have been a relative of Jane. One of six names involved with a timber licence at Crabb's River Island from Bay St. George when the licence was sold in 1906 was that of Annie Oxley. The names of John J. Oxley and William H. Taylor appeared on the sale document. Annie Hender was a partner with Samuel J. Foote in a timber licence at St. George's River in the District of St. George's on June 18, 1918. The area consisted of 40 square miles, bounded on three sides by the Reid Newfoundland Co. and on the fourth side by the St. George's River.
The Crown Lands Registers contain many references to women purchasing property, lands and houses. These were widows, spinsters and married women. One was a shopkeeper, another a seamstress. Two or more women purchased land together. Women purchased with husbands and with men other than their husbands. I was constantly surprised by the number of women noted in these transactions.
It is not surprising then that when James Evans, merchant of Adam's Cove, died in 1919, his wife formally announced that she would carry on the business. The following notice appeared in the
Evening Telegram
on October 18, 1919: “Notice is hereby given that the business carried on during his lifetime by James Evans, late of Adam's Cove, merchant, deceased, will be continued by his widow, Mary Ann Evans, who will be responsible for all the debts due or to become due in respect of said business and to whom all persons indebted to the said business are required to make immediate payment. Dated October 17, 1919. Eastern Trust Co. Administrators Cst.a. of the Estate of James Evans, deceased.” This was a substantial business in Conception Bay dealing with large cargoes of
lumber and coal, as well as a wide range of general merchandise, and there are many references to it in the newspapers of that period.
And so, back to ships. Some women bought or were given as little as one share in a new ship that was being built, and this share was used to produce a profit for the individual involved. That invested money usually grew, though sometimes there were losses. When I lived in Grand Bank in the mid-1960s I talked several times with Charles Forward, one of the principals involved in the firm of Forward and Tibbo. Mr. Forward was then an elderly man and he liked to talk about the fishing business on the Grand Banks and his successes in concert with his partner Felix Tibbo. Their wives, Mary Florence Forward and Eleanor Tibbo, were also shipowners. Mr. Forward showed me both his and his wife's personal financial record books. Mary Florence was then deceased. Their records were entirely separate and Mr. Forward described to me in detail how his wife had divided her financial holdings among family members, friends and charities in preparation for her impending death, and how he had already done the same thing in his separate will. I am sure that the same thing was true of Eleanor and Felix Tibbo and countless women in Grand Bank and in the entire Atlantic region.
We should not underestimate the initiative of women even in poorer families in making and saving money towards the survival of the family. Like many a woman in Newfoundland, my mother had a special container for “egg money,” and all earnings from selling eggs, milk, cream, berries, and special baking went into this container. My mother-in-law loaned such money to young people going away to find work and was always repaid. These small earnings in families often made the difference between survival and poverty. A recently published book,
Egg Money Quilts
by Eleanor Burns, pays tribute to three of the author's female forebears and their industry and initiative in using “egg money” to meet family needs.
Women with money bought ships and shares in ships, but they also became mortgagees, securing loans for others to buy ships and charging interest to make a profit. The fact, for example, that women were sometimes designated “co-partners in trade” emphasizes the reality that women had money, made money and shared in the profits from fishing and trading ventures.
It would be appropriate at this point to consider the law and practices that governed women's inheritance of property, particularly during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. There appears to have been some erosion of rights in practice from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, which is ironic in view of the fact that it was a British queen, not a king, who ruled through much of the period under study.
In his thesis,
Economic and Social Relations of Production on the North-East Coast of Newfoundland, with special reference to Conception Bay, 1785-1855
, Sean Cadigan quotes some examples which seem to reflect a pessimistic view of how women actually fared in cases where they inherited property from their husbands. He writes: “Widows usually inherited little property from their husbands' estates. Those who did, like Mary Sheppard in 1788, were not allowed to alienate what little women did inherit from the husband's patriarchal line.” It is true that many husbands' wills tended to disinherit the wife from the estate in the event that she remarried, but perhaps because of the preeminence of the family as an economic unit and the wish to guarantee that it would remain so in law; also, if the wife remarried, she joined another economic unit which might in some cases have been in competition with her children's. I would interpret differently some of the examples Cadigan gives because many widows seem to have been adversely affected by contentious, quarrelsome sons and stepsons or sons born of other marriages. Even in Mary Sheppard's
case, she was obligated only to pass on her late husband's “goods” to her son Adam after she died, but Adam died before she did, so “the watch and feather bed,” which Adam had apparently taken, were to be returned to Mary and “the said Adam's Heirs to pay the sum of 6 pounds to said Petitioner for the use of what goods he enjoyed during his Life and which belonged to his Mother⦔