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“Take special care..."“Take special care that thou delight not in wine . . . for it transformeth a man into a beast, decayeth health, poisoneth the breath, destroyeth natural heat, brings a man’s stomach to an artificial heat, deformeth the face, rotteth the teeth, and to conclude, maketh a man contemptible, soon old and despised of all wife and worthy men; hated in thy servants, in thy self and companions, for it is bewitching and infectious vice.” |
In 1702, your average mariner guzzled seven gallons of beer a week....Even if they drank only the weaker, "small beer", variety that would constitute a fairly substantial intake of alcohol |
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Sixty-five of the 420 families in Newfoundland in 1726, kept public houses..."Commodore Bowler, commander of the Newfoundland convoy and temporary Governor (1724-27) estimated that sixty-five of the 420 families in Newfoundland in 1726, kept public houses with “forty-six of them in St. John’s and vicinity, ten at Ferryland, four at Bay of Bulls, four at Trepassey, and one at Bonavista.” |
St. John’s families used alcohol to grease the wheels of courtship...Henri de la Chaume, a young Frenchman visiting Newfoundland in 1882-83, wrote about how St. John’s families used alcohol to grease the wheels of courtship. Shocked at the man-chasing young women, he learned that with the ratio of four women to every man (at least among the upper classes), the girls had great difficulty getting engaged. When La Chaume showed up at a house, the parents invited him into the parlour, produced the port and sherry and left the young couple alone to ‘get to know one another.’ |
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Publican Augustus McNamara operated a tavern on John Renelle's property between Noble's Cove and the Engine House, St. John's.He had a novel way to pay for his subscription to the Gazette in barter. He offered to fiddle for his newspaper. This was recorded in the subscribers list to the Gazette. His subscription, and we can assume his fiddling, started on Nov. 1, 1810. |
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Out-Takes from the Award Winning BookBottoms Up: A History of Alcohol in Newfoundland and Labrador: After several years of research and work, not everything could be included in the book. The following are some of those interesting bits:.
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