Added by you! John Guy

John Guy, a merchant from Bristol, established in 1610 the first English settlement in what is now Canada, at Cuper’s Cove (now Cupids) on the coast of Newfoundland’s Conception Bay. Appointed governor of the settlement by the London and Bristol Company, Guy arrived at Cuper’s Cove with a party of 39 men in August 1610. In the spring of 1612, sixteen women joined them. By the following winter, the population had climbed to 62, despite scurvy and pirate attacks. The colonists fished, farmed, explored for minerals and traded furs with the Beothuk, the now extinct Aboriginal people of Newfoundland and Labrador. By 1616, Guy had been replaced as governor. Back in Bristol, he served first as mayor and then as the town’s representative to the House of Commons. Guy’s efficient leadership at Cuper’s Cove established a model that would prove successful at other early Newfoundland settlements.