Ten Historic Towns Brigus Information
With its substantial houses, its full gardens, its trees and remarkable dry-stone walls Brigus is one town in conception Bay that has a strong sense of the past, a past which at one time was very prosperous. It is uncertain when the place was first colonised but there were plantations there soon after John Guy settled Cupids in lfilO. The name has been spelled Brigue, Breackhouse and Brighouse. The place was burned by Bois-Briand, one of d'lberville's lieutenants, in 1695. It is a tradition that when the enemy were leaving Brigus the barking of a dog led them back to Frog Marsh where they found an additional seven houses which were destroyed.

In the early decades of the 19th century the building of sailing ships and the Labrador fishery made the community one of the most prosperous in Conception Bay. By 1839 the population reached two thousand. The wealth of Brigus was also based in part on sealing and for years Brigus seal hunters were among the foremost in Newfoundland. The introduction of steam was a staggering blow that brought about the decline of the place after the prosperous years that began in the 1830s and lasted until the 1870s. The historian Rev. Philip Toque wrote of Brigus, "the Mundens, Normans, Perceys, Whelans, Bartletts, Roberts' and Wilcoxs reside here, who are some of the richest planters in Newfoundland . . . Brigus is well cultivated and for the extent of the population has a large number of good residences."

Though set in somewhat bleak hills, Brigus has been a favored spot of artists in the Twentieth Century because of the Nature of its houses and their gardens. It is one of the few towns on the Avalon Peninsula which has retained and preserved many of its older houses although some are irretrievably lost. Rockwell Kent, the American author, artist and illustrator, and A.E. Harris, artist, both lived in the cottage out on the cliffs now know as "Kent Cottage".

The name of Brigus is forever linked with the many arctic explorers of the Bartlett family. Captain John Bartlett was with the American explorer Hayes. Captain Robert Bartlett led Admiral Peary to the discovery of the North Pole. Captain Abram Bartlett was one of those who rescued the Greely expedition when it was lost and at death's door. Captain Isaac Bartlett saved Captain Tyson and his crew after they were shipwrecked and drifted 1500 miles on an ice-berg.

In 1972 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada erected a monument on Bishop's Beach to honour Captain Bob Bartlett. It consists of three stylized steel sails representing a ship and is in the area of a historic tunnel built around 1880 by Captain Abram Bartlett to provide a deep water berth for his ocean-going vessels because Brigus harbour was too crowded with ships at the time.


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