It is likely that St. John's Harbour was familiar to English fishermen as early as the mid-1500s. When English navigator Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland in 1583 as England's first possession in the Americas, the ceremony took place in St. John's.
In 1605 English colonists began to settle permanently in the area. Settlement was vigorously opposed by merchants and fishermen in England, however, who feared that the colonists' year-round fishing of local waters would pose a threat to English fishing interests. Permanent settlement in Newfoundland was tolerated by the British government after about 1780; however, it remained prohibited by British law until 1811.
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