Catherine Matthews (Brake) Crocker (1815 - 1880)

Born 1815 in Bay of Islands, Newfoundland Colony

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 20 Jan 1880 at about age 65 in Trout River, Newfoundland

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Biography

This profile is part of the Blanchard Name Study.

She is noted in the 1872 report on Head of Protestant Households, Trout River, as Mrs Crocker (CE). "From B of I. Her husband was from England. she is mother & mother-in-law of all the place."^[1]

Her tombstone notes that Catharine was the "wife of George Crocker", and that she "died Oct 31, 1882, aged 72 y'rs 5 mos"^[2].

Account of Bishop Feild

Friday, August 3d.—We went on shore directly breakfast to visit a family who had returned from the fishery yesterday evening. The man is a Brake, brother to the Brakes mentioned before. The mother is a Micmac Indian from St. George's Bay. She appeared a notable, sensible woman, and she assured me she could repeat the Lord's Prayer and Creed in her own language, with other prayers. Her father, she said, was Captain Jock. Four of their children -were baptized with the conditional form. The mother assured me the baptism among her people was precisely the same.^[3]

We then rowed down the Sound to Deep Cove, another settlement of Brakes. Two families reside there. One only we found at home, and these just returned from the fishery. With them was an old roan named Crocker, who reported himself as resident at Trout River, a settlement on the coast, about twenty miles to the eastward of the Bay of Islands. He also comes from Dorsetshire, but has been many years settled in this country, and has brought some land into cultivation, and keeps many sheep and pigs. He was the first settler at Trout River, is married to a sister of the Brakes, and has nine children, whom, and his place, he was very desirous we should see. Several, also, of the inhabitants of the Bay of Islands are now fishing at his settlement. I determined, if possible, to pay them a visit. At Deep Cove three children were baptized, with the morning service.

Research notes

Most family trees have her as the daughter of William Blanchard and Elizabeth Joe (who was Mi'kmaq).^[4] But some family trees have her as the daughter of Ralph Edwards Brake and Jane Matthews.^[2] But the Feild description seems clear.

Sources

1. ↑ NL GenWeb, Names of Protestant Families In Bonne Bay and on the Coast from Trout River Down. A list and commentary compiled from the Revered U.Z. Rule based on 1872 data.Trout River. Diocesan Synod of Western Newfoundland Archives, contributed by by an Alexander (Sandy) Payne. Accessed 2017.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Find A Grave, database and images, accessed 23 April 2018), memorial page for Catherine Carolyn Brake Crocker (12 May 1810–31 Oct 1882), Find A Grave Memorial no. 166765905, citing St.Simon & St.Jude Anglican Cemetery, Trout River, Northern Peninsula Census Division, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada ; Maintained by Patricia Strickland (contributor 48086633)
3. ↑ Project Canterbury, Church in the Colonies. No. XXV. A Journal of a Visitation in the "Hawk" Church Ship, On the Coast of Labrador, and round the Whole Island of Newfoundland, in the year 1849. By Edward Feild, Lord Bishop of Newfoundland. London: The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, July, 1850.
4. ↑ Loader / Loder Genealogy Pages, Blanchard, Catherine Caroline. 1810 - 1882. Don Loder. Accessed 2023.