What Ladies and Gentlemen Ate for Dinner: the Analysis of Faunal Materials Recovered from a Seventeenth-Century High-Status English Household, Ferryland, Newfoundland

Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-57470-6 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-57470-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. •+• Canada WHAT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN ATE FOR DINNER: THE ANALYSIS OF FAUNAL MATERIALS RECOVERED FROM A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HIGH-STATUS ENGLISH HOUSEHOLD, FERRYLAND, NEWFOUNDLAND. by ©EricTourigny A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Archaeology Memorial University of Newfoundland October 2009 St. John's Newfoundland Abstract This thesis presents an analysis of the faunal remains recovered from various deposits associated with a complex of buildings known as the Mansion House from the seventeenth- century fishing settlement of Ferryland, Newfoundland. These buildings were built sometime between 1623 and 1625 by English settlers to serve as the residence of their colonial sponsor George Calvert (later the first Lord Baltimore). The complex included a two-storey main residence built of stone, an enclosed cobblestone courtyard and two auxiliary stone structures, one of which contained an 8 by 8 foot cellar. Calvert only resided in Ferryland for a little more than a year before leaving the colony. The Mansion House eventually came to serve as the residence of Newfoundland Governor Sir David Kirke and his family in 1638. Kirke built another house for himself sometime in the 1640s. The size, quality and location of the Mansion House meant that it would have been highly valued property even after the departure of the Governor and archaeological evidence suggests a high-status occupation during the second half of the seventeenth century. The discovery of the Mansion House, its well defined context and connection to high status individuals provides the opportunity to explore food consumption patterns of a high-status household of the early colonization period in seventeenth-century North America. The goal of this thesis is to describe the diet and foodways of the Mansion House's former inhabitants. The results are then compared to faunal analyses of other assemblages in Ferryland. An abundance of faunal remains were recovered from the Mansion House in a fairly well preserved state relative to the low numbers and the poor condition of faunal remains normally recovered in Ferryland. This is believed to be a direct result of the limestone used in the ii construction of the stone buildings having an effect on the pH levels of the soil and allowing for better preservation. Information on the local natural environment and historical foodways of the English in the seventeenth century is used to guide the interpretations of the faunal remains. Results show that the residents of the Mansion House during the second half of the seventeenth century enjoyed meals primarily based on the consumption of mammals (both wild and domestic) and fish with a regular inclusion of birds. The Mansion House inhabitants appear to have consumed more beef than residents in other areas of the site as well as certain species of birds. These and various other differences found between the Mansion House assemblage and the other areas of the site are related to differential preservation conditions and to the limitations imposed onto the residents of the community by the seasonal cod fishery and the important role it played in the everyday lives of Ferryland residents. in Acknowledgements I am indebted to a number of people who have helped me throughout the research process and making things just that much easier. I am most grateful to my supervisor Dr. Barry Gaulton whose seemingly endless knowledge of the history and archaeology of Ferryland has helped me properly develop and execute this research project. Thank you Barry for keeping an open door to your office, always being willing to discuss any question that I might have and for the speedy returns on the various drafts I handed in over the past couple of years. I could not have asked for a better supervisor. Much of my time during the research portion of this project was spent in the lab making comparisons with faunal reference collections. I'd like to thank my lab partners Stephane Noel and Lindsay Swinarton who, although involved in each their own research projects, were always willing to help with any problematic identifications, and discuss zooarchaeological research methods and other subjects in effect making the data collection experience an even more enjoyable one. I would like to thank the Canadian Museum of Nature in Aylmer, Quebec for providing me with access to their reference collection and to Dr. Khamal Khidas for his hospitality at the museum. Dr. Alicia Hawkins from the Laurentian University Anthropology Department generously loaned a few reference specimens without which me and other students at Memorial University would never have been able to complete as much research as we did without requiring travel. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Tighe family for their donation to the reference collection and to Justin, Anne, Sarah, Russell, Kris, Kristina and Kiefer for their help with building the collection. Donna Smith and the employees at the Colony IV of Avalon Foundation kindly helped when initially retrieving the Ferryland collection and Dr. Cathy Mathias generously donated some highly valued lab space for me to use. I thank you all. A special thanks to Dr. Lisa Hodgetts for providing me with access to her database of results from her analyses of faunal materials from other locations in Ferryland and for the advice she provided throughout my research. Thanks to Drs. Vaughan Grimes, Matthew Betts and Peter Whitridge for providing advice on various research methods used in this project. Thank you to Dr. Jim Tuck who provided me with a few figures that were used in this thesis. This research was made possible thanks to fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and from the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER). An ISER research grant helped me build a usable faunal reference collection at Memorial University and a research grant from the Joseph R. Smallwood Foundation gave me the opportunity to travel to the Canadian Museum of Nature. Money received from the Provincial Archaeology Office of Newfoundland and Labrador allowed for the purchase of needed lab equipment. I'd like to thank all of my fellow graduate students here at Memorial University's Department of Archaeology for their friendship and support and for all the conversations we had about archaeology and various other subjects; I have learned a lot. Finally, I would like to give a special thanks to Mom, Dad, and Sophie for always giving me their love and support. v Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi List of Figures viii List of Tables x Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Research Questions 2 1.2 Organization of the Thesis 4 Chapter 2: Geography and Ecological Background 7 2.1 Location and Geography 7 2.2 Geology and Geological History 8 2.3 Climate 11 2.4 Flora 14 2.5 Fauna 16 Chapter 3: Historical Context and Theoretical Approach 23 3.1 Historical Background 23 3.1.1 George Calvert 25 3.1.2 David Kirke 28 3.1.3 Ferryland after David Kirke 31 3.2 Life in Ferryland 32 3.3 Seventeenth-Century English Social Structure 35 3.3.1 Social Structure in Ferryland 37 3.4 Consumption Theory 40 3.5 Seventeenth-Century English Agriculture and Foodways 43 3.6 Food Preparation Equipment 52 3.7 Food in Ferryland: Historical Evidence 53 3.8 Catching and Processing Cod in Seventeenth-Century Ferryland 57 3.9 Foodways of the Elite in Colonial North America 59 Chapter 4: The Mansion House and its Archaeology 63 4.1 A History of the Mansion House

Load more