Burin & Placentia Bay

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It is said that Father William Herron (b. 1784 St. Bridget of Killaly, Ireland, d. Oct. 18, 1838 Placentia, Placentia Bay, NL) [Canadian Biography Online], known as the Apostle of the Micmac, ministered the south coast from Burin, and walked across Newfoundland in 1820 with an Indian guide from Piper's Hole near Swift Current to Bay St. Georges (White 1970). Source: White, Tanya. 1970. Religious Life of the Communities in Home of Wooden Boats and Iron Men. Dunville: Women's Institute. Herron was appointed as parish priest to Placentia following the death of Father Andrew Cleary in 1829, serving as parish priest of Placentia, P.B. until his death in 1838. Prior to this appointment he served as curate to Placentia while residing at Burin, a base of his missionary operations to Hermitage and Fortune Bay among the Mi`kmaq and Newfoundland settlers there. Another version of the same event gives the point of entry into the interior as Notre Dame Bay. To date the identity of the Indian guide is unknown, pending further research. If the version that gives Piper's Hole as place of departure on the trans-Newfoundland trek is true, it is possible that Jean Michel Agathe or John Mitchell as mentioned in the 1914 NQ narrative Indian Scrape may have been the acting guide hired by Father William Herron. It is known that John Mitchell was in the local Piper's Hole watershed area, ca. 1819-1824, corresponding to the time period of the Father Herron trans-NL trek. It is possible that John Mitchell walked from Conne River to Piper's Hole to meet with Father Herron to accompany him as acting guide. It is known that Jean Michel (John Mitchell) was also residing at Piper's Hole during this time ca. 1819-1824 and may have married a Mountainerr (or Pi'tawkewaq) woman from this local extended kin group. The guide hired by Father William Herron may have come from one of the other NL Mc families as attested in the Burin RC parish registers of which include: Bask, Bernard [Pekitualuet], Brazil, Christopher, John [Baptiste/Sekaquet], Joseph, Lewis, Sylvester .

The last reference of the Pekitualuet patronym is in the Saint Pierre & Miquelon parish registers 1778. It is quite possible that the Louis Guggo Bigge (or Bigges?) listed in the 1808 Commander Thomas White Census of Bay St. George is the same as the Louis Hugo Pikteuaruel or Louis Beguiddavalouet (of Bernard Joseph Beguiddavalouet & Marie-Anne Gougou). In all probability the middle name Hugo is a variant or corruption of the family name Googoo/Gougou, with lenition or weakening of the word-initial velar stop [k] to [h]; cf. the Googoo surname spelt as Goohoo, not expected Googoo, as attested in the 1839-41 Bird & Street Bonne Bay Ledgers (Account Books). It is possible that Louis Guggo Bigge was in fact Louis Hugo Pikteuaruel (a variant of Pekitualuet), or Louis Beguiddavalouet (Pekitualuet). Furthermore, the other Indian or Mi'kmaq mentioned in the 1808 Thomas White Census was listed as de Lwett (sic.). Only two adult male Mi'kmaq were enumerated in the census. Only adult male heads of household as boat owners were included in the census list as eligible taxpayers. Local Mi'kmaq were excluded or exempt from this Greenwich Hospital tax (sixpence per annum) (Butt 2006:147-8) Source: Butt, Kirk. 2006. Early Settlers of Bay St. George. The Inner Bay. Boonen Books, Whitby, Ontario.

From this it appears that while the hereditary traditional NL-NS family name Pekitualuet may have died out, ca. 1778-1790 it is quite possible that variants of Pekitualuet from underlying or phonemic /peki-tu-alu-e-t/ may have survived, of which may include Bigge (sic.), as if reflecting underlying /pike-/, from root-initial pre-nominal morpheme peki- 'long', and de Lwett (sic.), as if reflecting the verb final complex -tualuet, sometimes transcribed in various historical sources as -dalouet. The Mi'kmaw family name de Lwett (sic.) may therefore be an approximation to orthographically render the last formative element or morpheme -tualuet of the patronym (Peki)tualuet [pegiduwaluwet] (broad phonetic transcription) from underlying or phonemic /peki-tu-alu-e-t/ (long-mouth whiskers/beard-(bushy)animal tail-VAI.AGR-3s.AI.PART) 'he who has a long (bushy) animal tail moustache or beard" Long Beard".

Note that as early as 1763 Saqamaw Jeannot Pekitualuet was also going by the last name Oulat (sic.), as a truncated version of his last name (Pekitu)aluet, dropping the word-initial stem morpheme peki-tu. On Sept. 6, 1763 Capt. Thompson met with a group of Cape Breton Mi'kmaq en route to St Pierre under the leadership of two Mi'kmaw chiefs Oulat [Jeannot Pekitualuet] and Bernard [Bernard Joseph Pekitualuet, son of former]. Source: Captain Samuel Thompson to Philip Stevens, Secretary to the Lords of the Admiralty, Apr. 16, 1764, Admiralty Registry, London 1/2590 #4. These two local Mi'kmaq Louis Guggo Bigge and de Lwett enumerated in Commander Thomas White's Census of 1808 were excluded from tax exemption perhaps due to their position as hereditary high-ranking chiefs or saqamaq. In addition to performing administrative functions, such as arbitrating disputes and allocating traditional family hunting territories, they were also often served as merchant middlemen.

It is known that Jeannot Pekitualuet after ceding rights to chieftainship may have died in Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) ca. 1804. At present it is not known where Jeannot and his sons died and were buried. It is quite possible that Saqamaw Jeannot along with one of his sons may have sought refuge and sanctuary among the mixed Montagnais-Pi'tawkewaq extended kin group from the Piper's Hole-Black River watershed area. ca. 1790-1810, residing at the ancient Indian village of Pike Place (Pikkwe'katik), Indian Cove (L'nuey Wanney/Walney), after the Pekitualuet line ceded hereditary title to the Googoo, Michel and Peck partilines. Both may be buried in the ancient Roman Catholic Indian burial ground located near the ancient village of Nukamkia'ji'jk. The Bernard or Peki-/Pike- brothers may have subsequently married into local Anglo-Irish families from the Piper's Hole River area.

It is also possible that the Mc family name Peck, as attested in Codroy, NL and Whycocomagh, NS, is somehow related to the surname Bigge (Pike?), or Peki, perhaps derived through truncation or shortening of Peki- to Peck /pek-/. The Peck family of Cape Breton shows up ca. 1790 at roughly the same time that the Pekitualuet family name disappears here in NL, to be replaced by Bernard from Bernard Joseph Pekitualuet, with dropping of Pekitualuet and inversion of Bernard Joseph to Joseph Bernard. Note the ascension of Grand Chief Francis Peck (1792-1818). Chief Joseph Bernard (1880-1900) b. 1818 Bay St. Georges, with a connection to Piper's Hole, P.B., may be named after his paternal grandfather. Note also the baptism of Michael Peck of James Peck and Helen Polet, in 1848 at Havre Aubert, Iles-de-la-Madeleines (Magdalen Islands), with sponsors Francis Feroce & Celeste Polet (Martijn 1986:187). James Peck and Helen Polet are listed as sauvages errands (wandering Indians) in the Registres paroissiaux de Notre-Dame-de-la-vistation de Havre Aubert (Martijn 1986:187). Source: Les Micmacs aux iles de la Madeleine: visions fugitives et glanures ethnohistorique, pp. 163-194 in Charles Martijn, 1986, Les Micmacs et la mer, Recherches amerindiennes au Quebec. Note also the baptisms of Charles Peck of Jean/John Peck & Marie Pualette (sauvages) (born 1845/03/04, bapt. 1845/06/04) & Jacques [James] Peck & Helene Paulette [Polet] (sauvages) (bapt. 1845/06/04), both at St. Michaels Church, Margaree, Cape Breton, N.S. [Bras d'Or Mi'kmaq First Nations Homepage].

The Mi'kmaw surname Peck or Bigge (Pike) [from Pikituaruet, Pekitualuet, Pikteuaruel/Piktenauret] should not be confused with the Newfoundland family names Peck (later Pike), and Pike (or its many variants) of English derivation or origin from Christchurch, England to Trinity and English (British) Harbour T.B., ca. 1740-60. Geo. (George) Pike father of (John) Richard Pike, who married an unknown Indian? woman from Piper's Hole-Black River, PB, may be the son of Geo. (George) Peck & Catherine Bettice (fr.Eng. Baptiste), both of Trinity, Trinity Bay (Trinity Anglican). The English family name Bettice should not be confused with Mc family name Battista/Battiste/Bettis (from Fr. Baptiste).

The remnants of this extended kin group formerly residing at the seasonal winter encampment of Piper's Hole (Nukamkia'ji'jk), allows us to reconstruct with some accuracy a population census for this group ca. 1862. This reconstruction is based on written historical records and does not include other families for which the records have not been found to date.

1. Lewis John (of Peter John & Mary Brazil) & Esther Poulet
2. Joseph Bernard & Hann Ann John (of Peter John & Mary Brazil)
3. Joseph (Joe) Brazil & Anne Bask [Mary Jeddore, b. 1862 Piper's Hole, d. 66 years of age, Conne River, F.B., wife of John Denny Jeddore? (NL Vital Stats, Return of Deaths, 1928)]
4. John Barrington (perhaps from the place names Barrington Passage, NS, the Irish family name Barrington/Ballenton of Greenspond, or the family name Berntim (sic.) listed in the Alexander Murray census of Conne River 1869-1871)
5. John Martin & Mary Harriet (Pike/Pique/Peck)