Twillingate | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Twillingate

Twillingate, NL, incorporated as a town in 1962, population 2269 (2011c), 2448 (2006c). The Town of Twillingate is located on Twillingate Islands, Notre Dame Bay in northeast Newfoundland.

Twillingate, NL, incorporated as a town in 1962, population 2269 (2011c), 2448 (2006c). The Town of Twillingate is located on Twillingate Islands, Notre Dame Bay in northeast Newfoundland. It was a summer base for hunting and fishing for the Beothuk as it had been for an earlier aboriginal people, the Dorset Eskimos. Twillingate, from the Breton place-name Toulinguet, was a French fishing station until the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713. It became England's most northerly fishing settlement in the 1730s and was settled principally by migratory fishermen brought by merchants based in Poole, Eng, in particular the firm of John Slade.

A strong resident merchant class developed a local fishery and in the 19th century Twillingate became one of Newfoundland's largest centres for the Labrador cod and seal fisheries. The modern town, now linked by causeway to insular Newfoundland, is regional centre for smaller communities in the area.