Pilley's Island

History

The island is known to have been frequented by the Dorset and the Beothuk. In 1880, James P. Howley "obtained possession of the mummified body of a Red Indian boy, found in Dark Tickle near Pilley’s Island" from a Jabez Tilley of Sops Arm; the body was exhibited in St. John's and then donated to the St. John’s Museum. Distant from the best fishing grounds further out the Bay, no settlement was recorded at Pilley's Island until the opening of a pyrite mine in 1887. Some early boat-building had taken place at Spencer's Dock, to the west of Pilley's Island Harbour. The island is thought to have been named for one of the seasonal visitors. While some have been known to spell it as "Pelley's Island", this is incorrect. Local tradition says that Richard Rideout was the first European settler at Pilley’s Island. The earliest families on Pilley's Island came from Twillingate, Change Islands and Herring Neck. Some of these families had earlier come to the western part of the Bay to work a copper mine at Tilt Cove. In the 1860s, Captain Philip Cleary staked a mineral claim at Bumblebee Bight, hoping to develop a copper mine, though the island's orebody was chiefly pyrite. In 1885, Maine and Lewis Mills of New Brunswick bought the claim and the next year the company began mining. Tradition says that prior to the opening of the mine there were at least two families living on the island; however, church records have no record of births, deaths or marriages at Pilley's Island until 1887. By 1891, when the mine was in full production, the population was 411. In 1889, the mine was acquired by the Pyrites Company Ltd. of England. Under new management, the mine was modernized, becoming the first Newfoundland mine to be equipped with electric lights, among other improvements. With…