John David Archer Abstract

"Smoky, Noisy, Bloody, Violent, and Smelly": Ferryland’s Mansion House Kitchen

This project is aimed at gaining an understanding of the construction and use of the kitchen associated with George Calvert’s mansion house in Ferryland, Newfoundland and the daily life of its inhabitants. Built some time in the 1620s and possibly used until its destruction in the French raid of 1696, the kitchen would have served the mansion house under several different domestic occupations during both the Calvert (1621-1638) and Kirke (1638-1696) eras. Through an analysis of the kitchen’s seventeenth-century artifacts, this project will explore how these changes may have affected the use of the structure and the daily life of its inhabitants. An architectural analysis of the kitchen’s remains and a comparison with other sites in England and North America will shed light on why seventeenth-century Ferryland had a detached kitchen, bringing an Old World practice into a New World setting