Mount Pearl - History

History

Mount Pearl dates back to 1829, when Commander James Pearl and his wife, Lady Anne Pearl, arrived in Newfoundland with a crown grant of one thousand acres (4 km²) of land, a reward for Commander Pearl’s 27 years of distinguished service in the Royal Navy. In 1830, Commander Pearl built a house upon the most elevated section of his estate and named it Mount Cochrane in honour of then-governor Sir Thomas Cochrane. After the governor left Newfoundland, Pearl renamed the site Mount Pearl. Pearl was made a Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order of Hanover and received the honour of Knight Bachelor from Queen Victoria. He died suddenly at his Mount Pearl estate on January 13, 1840, at the age of 50 years. In 1844, Sir James Pearl’s wife, Lady Anne, moved to London, England. John Lester, who had come from Devonshire, England to work for James Pearl, continued working the Pearl Estate, leasing it from Lady Anne Pearl for another 14 years. In her Last Will and Testament, she left John Lester 100 acres (0.40 km2) of land called “Anna Vale”, (present day Glendale) which he later sold. The Pearl estate eventually came into the hands of Andrew Glendenning who worked it as successful farmland well into the 1920s. John Lester purchased other land (124 acres opposite the Pearl Estate on Brookfield Road) from Edward Dunscomb and later inherited another 50 acres (200,000 m2) on Old Placentia Road (present day Admiralty Wood) from Pearl’s sister, Eunice Blamey. John Lester died in 1893 leaving his estate called “FairMead” to sons Ashton and James. Fairmead is the site of Lester’s Market today.