Cape Island is the name of both an island and a former community in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Cape Island is situated off the eastern tip of Cape Freels in Bonavista Bay, along the northeast coast of the island of Newfoundland. A small fishing community was settled in the late 18th century by fishermen and trappers from nearby settlements such as Greenspond and Bonavista.
The 1836 Census of Newfoundland show that there were 100 people living at Cape Island during this time. The inhabitants made their living through small-boat inshore cod fishery, catching capelin, and participating in the seal hunt. However, with an already fluctuating population, a decline in the inshore fishery and changes brought on by salt and fresh-frozen processing resulted in the resettlement of the community. Between 1948 and 1950 the community of Cape Island was abandoned.[1]
According to the 1836 Census, 98 of the 100 inhabitants at Cape Island belonged to the Church of England and two were Roman Catholic. When the population was 69 in 1857, 65 of them were of the Church of England.[2] Although Cape Island never had a Church of England church, ministers would visit the community on occasion for services, marriages, baptisms, and burials. For example, Rev. Nathanial Coster, the first resident Church of England minister in Greenspond, visited Cape Island in June 1831 and 1855. The Rev. Julian Moreton mentions Cape Island and the visits he made there in his journal from 1855 to 1859. The Rev. Goodacre Cragg also visited Cape Island, for example in 1865, he conducted 12 services at Cape Island.[3] By the 1860s Methodism had come to Cape Island; in 1869, 28 of the 82 people in the community were Methodist. By 1874, there were 31 people belonging to the Church of England, while 63 were Methodist. The first church on Cape Island was a Methodist church built in the 1870s.[4]
| 1836 | 1845 | 1857 | 1874 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 100 | 79 | 69 | 94 |
| Houses | 11 | 9 | 9 | 12 |
| Church of England | 98 | 79 | 69 | 31 |
| Methodist | 0 | 0 | 0 | 63 |
| Total fishing boats | 9 | 9 | 10 | 5 |
| Fishing rooms | n/a | n/a | 5 | 9 |
| Seal nets | n/a | 29 | 27 | 35 |
| Seals caught | n/a | n/a | 46 | 290 |
| Potatoes produced | 276.5 (bushels) | 39 (barrels) | 140 (barrels) | 115 (barrels) |
| Cod fish cured | n/a | n/a | 1150 qtls | 1440 qtls |