Rothesay House

In 1905 a merchant by the name of Willis Davis sold a piece of land to another merchant, Ernest Simmons. It was located on Water Street, Harbour Grace on the island of Newfoundland.

Mr. Simmons constructed a three storey dwelling house on part of the land (now owned by his daughters Amy and Grace) and sold another parcel to Elizabeth Trapnell Munn, whose husband was Robert Stewart Munn. The purchase price was $400.00. The Munn's started construction of their three storey home in 1906. It was designed in the Victorian Style which was popular in the day.

Robert Munn's family came from Rothesay, Bannatyne and Bute, Scotland. John Munn (1807-1879) was a merchant and politician, the son of Stewart and Isabella (fisher) Munn. His wife was Naomi (Munden), whose father was Azariah Munden (1813-1889), one of the leading sealing schooner captains of such vessels as the "Commodore" and Vanguard." He sailed his father's famous "Four Brothers" for many years. From 1845 to 1872 he ran the Harbour Grace business of Punton and Munn - one of the largest Newfoundland fishery concerns - the firm having been started in 1833 with Captain William Punton. They started a shipyard in the town in 1838 and their stone offices are still standing on Point-of-Beach. John Munn represented the Conception Bay District as its Conservative member in the Amalgamated Legislature from 1842 until 1848. In 1855 he was appointed to the Legislative Council and he resigned in 1869 to play a leading role in the unsuccessful Confederate campaign. The business was reorganized in 1872 as John Munn & Co. with John's son William Punton Munn (names after is late partner Captain Punton) and his brother's son, Robert L. Munn being at the helm. By 1886 the firm employed between eight and nine thousand people in Newfoundland and Labrador.

John Munn returned to England and died at Southport, near Liverpool, in 1879. One of his clipper ships was named "Rothesay" and she was one of the twenty one vessels (with 613 men) that Munn's sent to the seal hunt in the 1850's. The "Rothesay" was built in Harbour Grace by Michael Kearney in 1848.

William Punton Munn and his wife Flora (Clift) had a son named John Shannon, born in 1880 (d.1918) who married May McCowen. He inherited his father's share of John Munn and Co. when his father died 2 years after his birth. His mother remarried Edgar R. Bowering and then she herself died in 1898 while John Shannon was still a minor. The young man became heavily involved with Bowering Brothers Ltd. and in 1918 he was a Director when both he and his daughter Betty lost their lives in the wreck of the S.S. Florizel on February 23rd. As a tribute, Bowering Bros. donated property (known as the Shannon Munn Memorial) to the Church of England Orphanage in St. John's and erected the Peter Pan Statue in Bowering Park as a lasting memorial to Betty. The Munn family also donated Shannon Park to the citizens of Harbour Grace.

Archibald Munn was born in Rothesay, Scotland in 1814, marrying Elizabeth Ellis. He came to Harbour Grace to work with his uncle, John Munn, staying there until 1859 when he and Michael Carroll went into the fishing business themselves at King's Cove and Labrador. He retired from the fishery and in 1871 and bought the Harbour Grace Standard newspaper from the estate of the late William Squarey, the paper's founder. When Archibald died in 1877 his sons James and John continued to publish the paper.

Robert Stewart Munn was born in Bute, Scotland in 1829, the son of Dugald and Elizabeth (Stewart) Munn. He married Elizabeth Munden (sister to Naomi) and they had two sons, Robert and William Azahiah. R.L. Munn came to Harbour Grace in 1851 and by 1872 he and his cousin, William P. Munn, were running the firm. After his cousin's early death in 1882 Robert was the sole director of the concern, which by then had become the largest supplier to the Labrador fishery. He experienced financial problems (particularly after the collapse of the Labrador fishery in 1885) and the Union Bank (of which he was a Director) refused to extend credit.

R.L. Munn was elected a Member of the House of Assembly for Harbour Grace in 1889 and 1893. In 1894 his firm was a victim of the Newfoundland Bank Crash and he died the same year.

William Azariah Munn was born in Harbour Grace in 1864 to Robert Stewart and Elizabeth (Munden). He was educated at Rothesay Academy and Merchiston Castle College in Scotland, his wife was Ethel McNab. Upon completing school he worked with his uncle Stewart Munn at his Montreal importing business, returning to Harbour Grace in 1893 to join John Munn and Co. Unfortunately, this only lasted for one year and he and his brother Robert were forced to start fresh in the fishery supply area under the name W.A. Munn & Co. The new company was innovator in the production of Cod Liver Oil.

Munn was later appointed agent of the Lloyds of London and in 1911 and established the Newfoundland Marine Insurance C. He was also an author of some renown, publishing "Wineland Voyages" in 1914 which pointed to L'Anse aux Meadows as the most likely site for Norse explorers along with a history of Harbour Grace, in serialized format for the Newfoundland Quarterly between 1934 and 1939.

His brother, Robert Stewart, the builder of Rothesay House, was named after the family's ancestral home in Scotland. He, his wife, Elizabeth (Trapnell) and family lived in this house from 1908 until they relocated to Montreal during World War II. He was instrumental in the formation of the Newfoundland Historical Society.

In 1942 the property was sold to Arthur G. Godden, a prominent businessman in the town for the sum of $6,000.00. The Godden family lived there until the property was sold in 1995 to Daniel Beniot and Byde Warford, who are responsible for much of the residence's restoration. In 1996 Rothesay House was sold to Ron and Terrlynn Brazil. In 1998 Rothesay House was bought by Lloyd & Maxine White. Lynn & George Butler currently own and run the Rothesay House Inn.