Axe
Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum
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| Object Name: | Axe |
| Classification: | man-made artefact |
| Category: | Tools and Equipment for Materials |
| Sub-category: | Forestry Tools and Equipment |
| Discipline: | history local history material culture social anthropology social history anthropology |
| Material: | iron wood |
| Technique: | cast handcrafted carved |
| Accession Number: | 998.1 |
| Origin-Province: | Newfoundland and Labrador Pre-Confederation Newfoundland |
| Origin-Continent: | North America |
| Use-Province: | Newfoundland and Labrador Pre-Confederation Newfoundland |
| Use-Country: | Dominion of Newfoundland Canada |
| Culture: | North American |
| Geo Cultural Area: | North America |
| Cultural Context: | hunting woodworking |
| Latest Production Date: | c 1809 |
| Period: | Early 19th century |
| Description: | The surviving portion of the axe includes most of the iron head and part of the wooden handle. The blade itself widens as it extends, and is badly rusted. Layers of the axe are beginning to delaminate due to rust. |
| Narrative: | The axe is most notable for being the weapon used in the murder of Joseph Rendall and Richard Cross in 1809 by John Pelley. The murder occurred before the community of Cow Head was settled, when the area was known as Shallow Bay. The most definitive account comes from the court deposition of Sarah Singleton, the sister of the murdered Cross. When her brother did not return from a trapping expedition on time, she became concerned and set out from Rocky Harbour with John Paine to look for him. The pair encountered Pelley at the house of Joseph Rendall, where he denied having seen Cross and maintained that Rendall had gone into the woods to trap. The next day, Singleton and Paine found some of her brother's belongings near Rendall's cabin, and became suspicious of Pelley. They returned to Rocky Harbour to gather more people and went to Shallow Bay to confront Pelley, at which point he confessed to murdering both men with the axe. Pelley was apprehended, brought to St. John's, tried, and then hanged for his crime. |
| History of Use: | The axe was originally used to chop firewood by furriers who trapped around Shallow Bay, later known as Cow Head, in the early decades of the nineteenth century. |
| Height: | 4 |
| Length: | 25.5 |
| Width: | 15.5 |
| Unit-Linear: | cm |
| Quantity: | 1 |
| Number of Components: | 1 |
| Component Part Names: | axe |
| Institution: |
Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum
 Facebook-Dr. Henry N. Payne Community Museum
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| Institution City: | Cow Head |
| Institution Province: | Newfoundland and Labrador |
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