page_title: History of Saint Pierre and Miquelon
section_title: British possession
hierarchical_section_title: History of Saint Pierre and Miquelon / British possession
caption_attribution_description: English: Extract from a 1746 map depicting southeastern Newfoundland. In addition to crop for selection, image has had levels and colors adjusted to improve contrast.
context_page_description: The History of Saint Pierre and Miquelon is one of early settlement by Europeans taking advantage of the rich fishing grounds near Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and is characterized by periods of conflict between the French and British.
  There is evidence of prehistoric native inhabitants on the islands, but there is no record of native inhabitants at the time of European exploration. Europeans began to regularly visit from the early 16th century and their settlements are some of the oldest in the Americas. At first the Basque fishermen only visited the islands seasonally during the fishing season, by the mid-17th century there were permanent French residents on the islands.
  From the end of the 17th century, British attacks led to the French settlers abandoning the islands, and the British took possession from 1713 to 1763. The French then reclaimed them and settlers returned to live peacefully for 15 years. French support of the American Revolution led to a British attack and the deportation of the French settlers.
context_section_description: After they took control of the islands in 1713, the British changed the name of St. Pierre to "Saint Peter's". The British government commissioned two surveys of their new possessions between 1714 and 1716. A Newfoundland planter and merchant, William Taverner, surveyed the region west of Placentia Bay for the British Board of Trade. The British Admiralty asked Lieutenant John Gaudy to conduct a cartographic survey of the area in 1716.
  Some of the French settlers swore allegiance to Britain, and remained, and for a while ships from Saint-Malo continued to visit the islands. However, this trade was illegal and eventually ceased. Slowly British and Anglo-American merchants and settlers started to move to the islands. In 1722, the island of Miquelon was sold to Capt. Diamond Sarjeant, a Massachusetts resident, who sold 2/3 of Miquelon to Samuel Cutt of New Hampshire in 1756, and sold the remaining 1/3 of Miquelon to Robert Trail of Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1758.
  In the summer of 1763, after Britain had agreed to return the islands to French possession, James Cook mapped the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Cook wrote that:
  The Island is as subject to Fogs as any part in Newfoundland yes if we may credit the late Planters it is very convenient for catching and curing of Codfish.
caption: Excerpt from a 1746 English copy of a map originally prepared by Jaques Nicolas Bellin in Paris in 1744; showing "St. Peter's", Miquelon, Grand Colombier islands, and the "St. Peter's Bank" off the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland.
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