"Combining archaeological analysis with historical research, Peter E. Pope examines the way of life that developed in seventeenth-century Newfoundland, where settlement was sustained by seasonal migration to North America's oldest industry, the cod fishery." "Pope gives special attention to Ferryland, the proprietary colony founded by Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, in 1621, but later taken over by the London merchant Sir David Kirke and his remarkable family. The saga of the Kirkes provides a narrative line connecting social and economic developments on the English Shore with the rise of metropolitan merchants, the development of proprietary rivalries, and competition with the French, who temporarily dispersed the English planters at the end of the century. Yet, as Pope argues, the substantial archaeological remains of settlement point to the importance of seventeenth-century developments and their underpinnings in the Atlantic economy - a role that made possible the quick revival of English Newfoundland in the eighteenth century."--Jacket.