Mistaken Point is the original location of the first documented Ediacaran, Aspidella terranovica (which gets its specific name from Newfoundland).

In 1497, explorer John Cabot led an expedition from England in an attempt to reach the Spice Islands in the East Indies.

Sir George Calvert was later given a large land holding on the peninsula in 1619 from William Vaughan, whose previous colony of Cambriol failed.

His family maintained agents to govern Avalon until 1637, when the entire island of Newfoundland was granted by charter to Sir David Kirke and the 3rd Marquess of Hamilton.

In the late eighteenth century, the longstanding rivalry between Great Britain and France erupted again in the Seven Years' War.

In this engagement, British soldiers and artillery under the command of William Amherst drove the French occupants of St. John's from Signal Hill and into the town's fort, where they soon surrendered.