Benjamin Hayward

Capt. Francis Wheler, writing in 1684, said: "There is hardly a planter in the country but is a great deal worse then nothing and, although they are almost sure to loose, yet they must goe on." Capt. George Larkin in 1701 said of the inhabitants: "poor, indigent, and withal a profuse sort of people."

These learned gentlemen, whose job it was to deliver a true report of the Planters in Newfoundland, were obviously speaking of the Avalon area of Newfoundland and hadn't ventured beyond it. Had they visited Bonavista they would have encountered fishermen planters of the caliber of Benjamin Hayward who in his will of 1693 left, besides properties in Blashford, Hants to his wife, £100 to each of his five daughters. To put this in perspective a male servant back in England at this time would earn about £3 annually; a female servant far less. Benjamin Hayward then was leaving to each of his daughters more than they could earn in thirty years.