.
 HomePort S.S. Neptune which was
              first Captained by Hon. Edward White
Pitts Family History - Newfoundland 
Search HomePort 
.
Pitts Family - Newfoundland
Pitts Memorial, has various meanings to Newfoundlanders, depending on their generation. To younger ears, it refers to the arterial highway approaching St. John's from the South Side Hills - Pitts Memorial Drive - while an older generation can recall Pitts Memorial Hall, which stood next to Holloway School, between Military Road and Long's Hill as a focus of school, youth group, and community activities in the city, during the early decades of the 20th Century.

While appreciation for the generosity of Hon. James Stewart Pitts, is the initial motivating factor for the Pitts Memorial name, the Pitt's name continues to be commemorated in Newfoundland for good reason.  Hon. James' business interests began with a fisheries supply firm, and flourished through major investments in secondary industry. Appointed a director of the Bank of Nova Scotia, he was a major investor in mining operations on Bell Island and shareholder of sealing ships.  His politics were equally diversified, starting as a Tory in the 1880's, by 1898 he was supporting Robert Bond's Liberals. Accommodating to the political realities of the time, his career spanned two decades, with cabinet postings during most of that period.
 
When Hon. James Stewart Pitts died in 1914, he had no descendants. After ensuring the needs of family were met, his will dedicated a solid portion of his wealth to support a number of worthy causes in Newfoundland. At a time when most men were happy to work for a dollar a day, his estate was valued at nearly a million dollars - a massive fortune.  His choice to invest a large portion of his wealth in organizations that would serve the needs of Newfoundlanders, was progressive, and thus his selfless acts were an example of philanthropy in the colony which  encouraged others to dedicate their personal resources towards improving conditions in Newfoundland. The final estate settlement, upon the death of his wife, enhanced the resources of his extended family, as was the custom, yet he had the vision to embrace the needs of the broader community as well as providing a means for his relatives to carry on his generosity. His father's will (William Pitts) likewise provides genealogical information.
 
While Hon. James was among the best known of the Pitts family, he was not the first to live in Newfoundland. 
E J Pratt, the poet, was quick to point out to an interviewer in 1958,  "that he could trace back to a generation of Newfoundlanders, Joseph Pitts, who was here in 1678." Pratt went on to tell of the 15 year old seaman in Newfoundland waters who was chased and captured by pirates along with his shipmates on the high seas. The harrowing tale of his next fifteen years in slavery and travels throughout North Africa, the Middle East and his eventual walk across Europe to freedom is a part of Newfoundland history, which is seldom told, despite being first published in England in 1704, in a genre now called slave narratives, and continues to be retold in modern works on the Algerian slave trade. While Joseph Pitts documented his travels from Newfoundland to Mecca in great detail, and it continues to receive scholarly attention, any connection to E J Pratt is difficult to document. Recent research indicates that both the father and grandfather of James Pitts were named John Pitts and the grandfather would have lived at the same time as Joseph, the captured fisherman, who was thus not a direct ancestor of the Newfoundland Pitts descendants.

Coming from the very same area of Devon, as young Joseph Pitts, but seventy years later, James Pitts arrived about 1751 in Newfoundland, and to this man, Pratt’s connections are clearly known, as this was his mother's grandfather. The emigrant
was born at Kennford near Exeter in 1735, establishing a family of three sons and finding success as a planter at Lance Cove. Sometime between 1780 and 1794 he built a large house there and expanded his interests into shipbuilding and a brickyard. Owning a square mile of land, he appears to have played a lead role in developing a prosperous new community on Bell Island.  Lance Cove historian Lloyd C. Rees indicates that, “the story of James Pitts and his adventurous exploits is by far the most interesting chapter in the early history of Lance Cove.” James Pitts Sr. was the great-grandfather of the St. John's philanthropist, James Stewart Pitts,

A story is told of one return trip to England, in which a Mr. Pitts from Bell Island in 1810 purchased three tall case clocks in Exeter, for family members and the clockmaker was so impressed with the family's apparent success and confidence in the colony, that he decided to give life in Newfoundland a try himself. The fledgling clockmaker, named Benjamin Bowring visited Newfoundland in 1811 and when he also found the Newfoundland conducive to business, moved there in 1813, establishing the family firm which bears his name. One of the three original clocks remained for many years in the offices of a Pitts descendant, Campbell Macpherson while he was General Manager of Royal Stores. A card inside the clock tells the story and confirms the purchase by William Pitts, likely the son of James Pitts Sr.  The card indicates that the purchase was made for James, William and John Pitts. Likely a posthumous purchase from the Estate of James Pitts Sr. for his three sons being carried out by William while there on business, five years after his father's death. The typed card tucked inside the clock was apparently added later, ensuring the story remained of how the Bowring name came to Newfoundland, encouraged by the prosperous experience and positive descriptions of Mr. Pitts.

The Lance Cove family living in the big house on Pitts' Hill included the sons of the pioneers Ann and James Sr.- William (1787-1869) who married Ann Juer (1794-1869), John (1783-1825) who married Elizabeth Picco (1786-1826), and James Jr. (1784-1870) who married Elizabeth's sister, Frances Bartlett Picco (1786-1864). When John Pitts drowned in Conception Bay, and Elizabeth died the next year, their children moved in with their double cousins, and grow up together as a combined family following a move to St. John's.  William Pitts' branch of the family remained on Bell Island. The will of James
 
One can imagine that a house full of young women growing up with just one brother might have been the centre of a bit of attention in St. John’s. While I don’t know if all the Pitts girls had extremely dark eyes, I do know that my own mother (Jean White),
when growing up in St. John’s, was told the dark eyes ran in the Pitts family, and that dark brown eyes were always attributed as being “Pitts eyes”, for any child who inherited the trait. Looking over old albums and  faded pictures of children with beautiful big dark brown eyes that never seem to fade, I assume that these are the eyes she spoke of.

From this St. John's combined family many Newfoundland families have a connection to the Pitts family. Like their mothers who married brothers on Bell Island we discover double marriages of descendants in the next generations to brothers or cousins including men of the Ayre, Knight and Ebsary name. Marriages in the early generations also included surnames Duder, Coyell, Parsons, Stone, Cowan and Dickenson. Additional surnames today including Pratt, Rowe, White, Lilly, O'Neill, Gentleman, Francis, Puddester, Macpherson, Porter, Butler, Noseworthy, Cook, Carnell, Godden, and Shepherd to mention only a few.

Among the stories of heroic sacrifice in Newfoundland's history few exceed the loss suffered on July 1, 1916 in a few brief morning hours at Beaumont Hamel during WW I. Among the many Newfoundlanders who gave their young lives for freedom that tragic morning, were three great-great-grandchildren of Ann and James Pitts Sr. - Gerald Ayre, Eric Ayre and Bernard Pitts Ayre.

While stories survive and the memory of his descendants continue in various forms - high on a cliff-top cemetery on Bell Island where he is buried, the memory of James Pitts, the Lance Cove
pioneer, could have disappeared forever. While storms and winds had left his grave intact for almost two centuries, the old stone could not withstand vandalism in recent years. Broken fragments of the headstone were retrieved by a concerned resident, from the bottom of the cliff, all that remained in 2004, of the historic marker for a family patriarch, and a Newfoundland pioneer.

Luckily, another son of Lance Cove, Lloyd C. Rees who has long been interested in the rich history of Bell Island, transcribed all stones in the graveyard in 1968 when the full inscription of James Pitts' headstone was still intact. His research
publishing as website An Outport Revisited - Lance Cove led Pitts descendants to make contact with each other and Lloyd Rees, and to learn of the destruction of their ancestor's gravestone.

Determined to set things right, the efforts of Lloyd Rees and others grewn to see that the inscription for James Pitts headstone be returned to Lance Cove. On July 27, 2005 a dedication ceremony marked the return to Bell Island of this inscription in a replica headstone - the 200th anniversary year of his passing. The re-dedication was documented with photographs and a speech.

This inscription could have been lost for all time without the preservation and concern of individuals like Lloyd Rees.  While vandals motives might confound, we can be thankful for individuals who have taken time to mend and repair and to record cemetery inscriptions of strangers, while they still exist. Out of respect to James Pitts Sr. and the industrious spirit he represents, the words of his inscription - a piece of Newfoundland heritage - has now returned to Lance Cove once again.


Here lies ye body of  James Pitts who died
ye  30 April 1805 Aged 70 years

Farewell my wife and children three
Who in this life never more shall see
Here I shall rest and evermore remain
Until the day we all shall meet again
When me you left I thought of your returning
Alas my  hopes are fled and you are mourning
So farewell friends and aquaintence all
Pas by this tomb in friendship call
Look on the same without grief or fear
As my choice is to be buried here.

He was born at Kenford in Devonshire.

On the reverse a short dedication reads -

This replica, placed on the
200th anniversary of his passing
is dedicated to James Pitts,
and to fellow pioneers who
sleep here in unmarked graves.

May they rest in peace.





Do you have information that could be helpful in correcting or adding to the contents of HomePort ?  We appreciate your comments, suggestions and additions.
 
HomePort Quick List Pitts@HomePort Search HomePort Send e-mail to: HomePort

.