Thought I would make a post & query about when the first Vokey's came to Newfoundland as I have seen several comments about this recently. I would love to hear from anyone else who might have further thoughts, ideas or information on this perplexing question.
Unfotunately I haven't been able to date, after nearly 30 years of tracking the family history, to confirm exactly when the Vokey family came to Newfoundland.
There is various Barrett family histories that are on the web and circulating that state that a Sarah Vokey married a John Barrett back in the 1690's. I have tried many times to get someone to explain the source of that data but to date nothing has surfaced to show how this was determined. So there is no proof at this point that the Vokey's were in Newfoundland that early or that this Sarah who married John Barrett was even a Vokey!
There is a period in Newfoundland records from the first half of the 1700's where the records are scarce and far between and the ability to actually confirm facts from this period is quite hard but with time you can piece things together.
The earliest known Vokey to date I have is Philip Vokey being born in 1755 based on his age at his death. No birth record has been confirmed or found to date, in Newfoundland or overseas.
A few other facts I have found is that I know that Philip had a sister Sarah Vokey, who married John Coombes, and lived next door to Philip Vokey when he lived in Upper Island Cove before he came to Spaniard's Bay.
And searching throught the Harbour Grace Surrogate Court records has also produced a record for a Mary Vokey dated in the 1780's. This Mary Vokey owned land in Port-de-Grave. Could this be Philip's mother, his sister or possibly the spouse of a brother to Philip? None of this I have been able to figure out to date.
My greatgrandmother, Martha Vokey, always said that her family were Jerseyman and this has been a common theme in the family history. Vokey is not a Jersey Isle name and the name would have been changed either because of an Anglicanisation of the name or alternatively a new spelling based on how the church and courts would have recorded the name in these early years. Our family would probably have been illiterate and would only know how to say their name as opposed to actually write it. When doing research on Jersey I have, I think, confirmed that the original family name would have been Voquer. Pronounced in French this would sound like Vokey to an English ear. In addition we see Voquez and other similar spellings in the early records in Newfoundland, so again staying in line with the verbal pronunciation of the name in French.
When did these Voquer's come to Newfoundland? Based on the history of the fisheries of Newfoundland, we can assume our family persecuted the fishery on an annual basis, sailing in during the fishing season but then returning to Europe in the winter months. Like other annual fisherman, with time they decided to settle permanently in Newfoundland and other family members came with them from Europe. The question is when did the Voquer's finally decide to stay. The only small hint I have to date is only some family folklore that said the will of Philip Vokey (born 1755) was written at the top "I Philip Vokey, late of Jersey Isle,..." but this will was lost years ago and I have no way of proving this folklore or not. The will of Philip's eldest son William Vokey states he was of Newfoundland.
The existence of Philip's sister Sarah in Newfoundland, and also the existence of Mary Vokey in Port-de-Grave in the 1780's, leads me to take an educated guess that possibly Philip was born in Newfoundland in 1755. Philip first registered land was in Port-de-Grave, the same place where Mary sold land in the 1780's. It is possible that he first settled where he was born and later moved to Upper Island Cove and then finally settled in Spaniard's Bay in the early 1800's. Alternatively, he could have been born in Jersey and came to Newfoundland with his parents and siblings at a younger age and grew up in Newfoundland. Either theory could work unless we can prove the Vokey's in Newfoundland earlier than 1755!
So at this point I lean towards believing that Philip was probably born in Newfoundland, probably in Port-de-Grave but this is just a feeling I have given the facts to date.
Like I said above any thoughts, ideas or further information on this would be interesting to add to the debate.