The village was first settled by migratory fishermen and then by colonists. The colony was first proposed in 1610 by the
London and Bristol Company, which had previously started an
English colony at
Cuper's Cove, but settlement was delayed by the presence of the
pirate Peter Easton. In 1615, the territory was sold to
William Vaughan who initially sent settlers to Aquaforte. Around 1617, Governor
Richard Whitbourne moved six remaining colonists to Renews, but they had left by 1619. Vaughan soon sold land that crossed the
Avalon Peninsula, including Renews harbour to
Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland who named the territory
South Falkland. According to a popular local legend (unsubstantiated), the
Mayflower landed at Renews in 1620, where it picked up water and supplies before sailing on to
Plymouth Rock. A battery was established there in 1755 and was manned consistently from thence until 1815, during the Napoleonic Wars. In the summer of 1839, Methodist Missionary William Marshall estimated the population of Renews to contain roughly 900 Catholics and 50 "entirely destitute" Protestants.
Loyola Hearn, Canada's former
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, is from Renews. ==Cappahayden==