Much of our knowledge of daily life in outport Newfoundland in the late 18th and early 19th century comes from the pens of visitors. They were typically missionaries, explorers, naturalists, and geologists whose work brought them to outlying communities not often visited by outsiders or even the local government.

An Account of Sack Ships trading in Ferryland and Caplin Bay, 1676

'The Inventory of the estate of Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore' by William Peasley, John Langford, and Thomas Fludd, dated February 1, 1633.

Considerable uncertainty surrounds our understanding of daily life in Newfoundland during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.