Date Published:
January 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Sir David Kirke

Kirke, Sir David (1596-1653), adventurer, was born in Dieppe, France, in 1596, the son of a Scottish merchant. In 1627 he was given by Charles I of England command of an expedition against Canada, and in 1629 he captured Quebec. He was knighted by Charles I in 1633, and in 1637 he was appointed governor of Newfoundland ; but in 1651 he was recalled by Cromwell's Council of State, on suspicion of complicity with the royalists. He died in 1653, probably in an English prison, where he was detained at the suit of Lord Baltimore, who laid claim to Newfoundland. His wife, sister, and children were still living at Ferryland, in Newfoundland, in 1673, and his son at Renewse in 1680. See H. Kirke, The first English conquest of Canada (London, 1871), and L. D. Scisco, Kirke's memorial on Newfoundland ( Can. hist. rev., 1926).

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE. Ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. III, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 396p., p. 341.