In 1497, explorer
John Cabot led an expedition from England in an attempt to reach the
Spice Islands in the
East Indies. He is said to have reached what is now known as
Bonavista. The English established their first permanent settlement at
Cuper's Cove in 1610.
Sir George Calvert was later given a large land holding on the peninsula in 1619 from
William Vaughan, whose previous colony of
Cambriol failed. The initial colony of
Ferryland grew to a population of 100, becoming the first successful permanent settlement on
Newfoundland island. In 1623 Calvert was given a
royal charter extending the royal lands and granting them the name
Province of Avalon "in imitation of Old
Avalon in
Somersetshire wherein
Glassenbury stands, the first fruits of Christianity in
Britain as the other was in that party of America". Calvert wished to make the colony a refuge for Roman Catholics facing persecution in England. In 1625, Calvert was elevated to the
Peerage of Ireland as the 1st
Baron Baltimore. A series of crises and calamities led Lord Baltimore to quit the colony in 1629 for "some other warmer climate of this new world", which turned out to be
Maryland, in the Chesapeake Bay Colony. His family maintained agents to govern Avalon until 1637, when the entire island of
Newfoundland was granted by charter to
Sir David Kirke and
the 3rd Marquess of Hamilton. In 1696, during
King William's War, the French destroyed many English villages in the
Avalon Peninsula Campaign. They had settled along the St. Lawrence River and from the Atlantic coast to Quebec and Montreal. During
Queen Anne's War,
Commodore John Leake of the
Royal Navy led an
expedition aimed at capturing French ships around the peninsula and burning French settlements. The expedition was largely successful. During this same conflict, the French attempted to besiege the fortified English port of
St. John's, but
were unsuccessful. They later returned and
captured the town, burning it to the ground. In the late eighteenth century, the longstanding rivalry between Great Britain and France erupted again in the
Seven Years' War. It was fought in the North American colonies as well, where it was known to British colonists as the
French and Indian War. The
Battle of Signal Hill was fought on the peninsula in 1762. In this engagement, British soldiers and artillery under the command of
William Amherst drove the French occupants of St. John's from
Signal Hill and into
the town's fort, where they soon surrendered. ==See also==