In 1767, Felix McCARTHY, an Irish merchant at Harbour Grace was caught out in
a scheme to avoid paying the wages of fishing servants by hiring an
insolvent debtor, Thomas ENGLISH, as a fishing master and supplying him with
a craft and provisions for the fishery. At the end of the season the fish
went to McCARTHY for past debts and the insolvent master was unable to pay
his crew. The crew petitioned the governor and he, seeing through the
scheme, ordered McCARTHY to pay the men's wages and their passage home to
Ireland. The governor also ordered that if McCARTHY or his agent did not
provide the men's passage home, then the five men were to quarter themselves
on McCARTHY or his agent for the winter, and McCARTHY was to see that the
men had sufficient food. The men involved were: John FOWLER, Matt KENNEDY,
John MEAD, William NUGENT, Maurice WALSH, Morgan SHERRIDAN