Matthias Howell 1808–1907 – Genealogical Records

Sources

Genealogy Event 1
Event Type: Birth
Event Date: 1808
Event Place: Carbonear, Nf., Can.

Genealogy Event 2
Event Type: Custom Event
Record Source: PER ED. CHAFE: Dear Matt, Found the following deaths for you: Died 22 Febr uary 1907WB, Matthias Howell, aged 99 years Matthias Howell was born at Carbonear and orphaned at a yo u ng age.Moved to Western Bay to live with his uncle Olive r Penny. Convertedto the Catholic Church on Jan 4, 1840. FROM HEDLEY PENNEY'S HISTORY OF WESTERN BAY: Oliver Penney, who came from the south side of Carbonear , w as nextto arrive as a settler. He took his claim nex t to William Lundrigan .The object of each settler was t o get a slice of the water front forth e purpose of fishin g and also as significant evidence to prove"who wa s her e before whom". Oliver Penney had in addition to his twoso ns, Jame s and Robert, a nephew, Mathias Howell, whom he to ok andraised to manhoo d subsequent to the death of his si ster and herhusband of Carbonear. After the death of their father, Oliver (or the first sett l er of thePenney's) which took place on January 8, 1818 , Robert and M athiasboth carried on at the fishery as usu al, but in joint partnershi pand off-season they both unde rtook the building of a schooner - thecapaci ty of which w as about twenty-five tons - for the purpose andprosecutio n o f the herring fishery - an up and coming industry being carried on at wid e magnitude on the south and west coast s of theIsland during the fall an d winter months. Havin g completed thebuilding of their schooner, they bot h deci ded that they would go tothe seal hunt with a view to earn ing money enou gh to offset thepurchase of a suite of sail s, chains and anchors for thei r ship;they also decided th at they would not go in the same ship, but take alternat e chances in two vessels. The time came when they both sail edand i n just under one month Mathias and the ship in whi ch he sailedwas back agai n in Harbour Grace with a full l oad of seal pelts; andthe ship and cre w which Robert ha d sailed were never heard of again.With the loss of Rober t , her husband, this placed his widow in avery precariou s and complex situatio n with two small children,Elizabet h Ann (Betsy Ann) and John B. (grandfathe r of yours truly) ,but with the sale of their schooner, which they suc cessf ullycompleted, it could keep them for a while at least. Fi nall y shemarried John Perry, Philip'S Son, Who Proved Him Self A Father To Hertw O Children And Raised Them To Manho Od And Womanhood. James, theelder of O liver's two sons, o ccupied and lived on his father'sestate - and being twen t y years older than Robert - carried on atthe fishery a s he hitherto ha d done. John Perry, guardian andstep-fath er of the deceased Robert's two child ren, began at once through legal channels the complete appraisal of the w hole o f the lateOliver Penney's estate. The whole of the estate , now bein g shared tothe most minute detail and each allo tted to its rightful heir , JohnPerry, the guardian, too k over and occupied the children's part until they becam e of age, at which time John B. Penney married One Sarahha Lfyar D Of Ochre Pit Cove, Took Over His Ancestral Possessi Ons Andbuilt His Hom E Upon His Allotted Half And Raised H Is Family Whichconsisted Of Thir Teen Children. Those rais ed to man and womanhoodare as follows: Robert (f ather an d writer of this document), RichardH., George T., Willia m H., Eliza beth Ann (Betsy Ann), Susanna, AbramB., Mark E mbury, Ph.D., and John; th e four others having died prematurely. Matthew(sp?) and John Howell are shown in Western Bay in 1 8 71 byLowell's directory. At that time, Lowell's show s n o Howells inNorthern Bay. When he married Alice O'Reilly, He Was Given Land In Weste R N Bay N.by her father Patrick. CARBONEAR Carbonear (inc. 1948; Pop. 1976, 5,026). A town on the wes t side of Conception Bay, 116 km (72 mi) by road from St . John's. Acc ording toE.R. Seary (1971) the name of the c ommunity proba bly comes fromeither the Spanish word carbo nera, which,amo ng other things, means afemale who makes o r sells charcoal , or from one of a number ofFrench words , the most likel y of which being; Charbonnier orCarbonnie r, two family nam es or La Carbonniere, a place name. People from the Channe l Islands were among the first settlers . It isfirst mentio ned in connection with raids by pirate s in 1614. In 1679pr oposals by William Downing and Thoma s Oxford to fortify Carboniere'' were put forth on behalf of the inhabitants a n d thefortification of *Carbonear Island qv was carried o ut . The Frenchattacks of 1696-1697 resulted in the burnin g o f the settlement andthe destruction of twenty two hous es ; however, Carbonear Islandrepulsed the attack. In 1.10 5-1 705 the town was again burnt by theFrench (with the lo ss e stimated at $200,000), and again the Islanddefended i tsel f successfully. The French raided the area again in 1672 an d this time were successful in occupying the Island f or a short period of time. Added to the various raids an d attack s of theseventeenth and eighteenth centuries wer e attack s by Americanprivateers in 1775. Carbonear appears in the earliest census and was constitut e d as oneof the six Judiciary districts in Newfoundland i n 1729. The census of1675 lists Carbonear a s having eleve n adults, sixteen children,eight boats and thirty servants . The Judiciary district extended fromB ay de Verde to Cap e St. Francis. The district was allotted two ofthe first J ustices of the Peace: William Py nn and Charles Garland. In 1755 Roman Catholics were convicted for saying the Mass a nd havingconfession and a t about the same time Governor D orrell wrote theHarbour Grace magistrates ordering them t o suppress Roman C atholicservices and to exile Roman Cath olic priests. In c. 1765 the Rev.Laurence Coughlin qv cam e to H arbour Grace and in the same year theprincipal inha bitants of Harbour Grace, Carbonear and Mosquito sign ed a bond for the other inhabitants of the Bay to contribu te

Genealogy Event 3
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 22 FEB 1907
Event Place: Western Bay, Cb, Nf., Can.