History Of Point Lance
 
                    The first settlers, from whom virtually all subsequent
                                residents of Point Lance have descended, were Careens from
                                southwestern Ireland.  However, the first person to have
                                lived in Point Lance was Tommy Dunn, from Placentia. Mr.
                                Dunn never formed a permanent settlement but lived there
                                only during the summers while he fished.  Around 1820
                                Phillip and Ned Careen, who worked as "shore-men" for
                                the Sweetmans, merchants of Placentia, moved to Point
                                Lance as part of the Sweetmans plan to raise cattle along
                                the Cape Shore to feed Irish labourors and fishermen in
                                Placentia.  Phillip and Ned Careen, cleared and farmed the
                                land which belonged to the Sweetmans, but they later
                                purchased it for the sum of sixty pounds in gold.  Phillip
                                Careen later married Agnes Viscount and they had six sons
                                and fours daughters.  All the Careens of Point Lance today
                                are direct descendants of this one family.  The settlers of
                                Point Lance continued to farm for many years, since it was
                                initially settled as a farming community, even though they
                                lived on the doorstep on one of the richest fishing grounds in
                                Newfoundland.  Ned and Phillip Careen were still living in
                                the community in 1869.  The Careens did not begin fishing
                                for cod in earnest until their second generation around the
                                1850's.  From then on fishing became the main source of
                                income for many of the people living in Point Lance.  The
                                people living here also continued on with farming.  A lot of it
                                was for personal consumption but the sale of cattle and sheep
                                was a great boost to a family's income.