[2] The Oke family were well established in Sherborne, England, residing there for at least three centuries,[3][4][5][6][7] primarily in The Green (upper end of Cheap Street),[8] at Barton Farm (Kitt Hill, aka Kithill),[9][10][11] at Newland House (now "The Manor House" and current location of the Town Council Archived 2 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine), along Westbury Street at Primsley Manor in the vicinity of Knapped Hall (Knappid Hall)[12] and by 1630 they were also well-settled in near-by Sturminster Newton.
After moving to Bath, Somerset, he became a corn merchant and had difficulty paying tax on the portion of Durnford property he inherited in Sherborne[36] while trying to support his family of 5 young children and first wife, Dinah.
He was appointed to command the La Moye signal station Archived 26 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine in Saint Brélade parish (Island of Jersey), where he died 1 March 1812.
[54] However, employment opportunities rebounded with development of seal hunting and increased demand for fish to supply Europe after The Battle of Waterloo and defeat of Napoleon.
The body was transported among passengers on a packet boat to Harbour Grace, where the crime occurred, then hung in chains, decomposing on a gibbet until disgusted citizens cut it down.
He served as one of two banner bearers on July 26, 1830, in the formal procession and ceremony to deposit a time capsule of coins and bottled newspapers into the cornerstone of the new courthouse building.
[70] Despite the major wealth from the colony being derived from cod and seal, there were no lighthouses protecting ships off the coast until the 19th century, making these industries dangerous for merchants and crew and unpredictably hazardous for everyday travelers commuting to Newfoundland outports.
[73] According to Molloy,[74] "A mechanic by trade, Robert Oke was an excellent choice for the isolated lighthouse situated on the rocky island that lay just off the entrance to Harbour Grace harbor.
It used parabolic reflectors to magnify the illumination of lamps fueled by sperm oil and alternated red and white light, a pattern designed for greatest effect by Robert Stevenson.
[84] Oke held this position only through 1847 as the general consensus was that local communities were complicit and reliant on the sale of fish to the French, the Act having the unintended consequence of driving up the price paid.
[93] Oke also weighed in on building materials, such as firmly advising against the continued use of lower-cost iron towers as not suitable for Newfoundland, citing the example of Cape Race Lighthouse in 1856 whose living quarters he deemed uninhabitable due to condensation and hoarfrost.
On 18 August 1832, a fire burned through a large portion of Harbour Grace where Oke had relocated, leaving the family, now with 8 children (8 mo to 16 y of age), homeless.
Although the intent of the fort was military defense of the harbor, maintaining the light was critical for safe navigation along the coast and into the major international port at St. John's[permanent dead link].
[81] During 1863, Oke reported several concerns regarding gunners of the Royal Artillery stationed at the fort who were responsible for discharging the foghorn when Cape Spear was shrouded, including positioning the gun, whose forceful blasts were damaging the lighthouse windows and were likely to harm the lighting apparatus.
[99] One documented example of the military's lax handling of explosives described a detonation so powerful that the blast wave propelled keeper Sheppard from a chair to the other end of the room.
[106] On 8 July 1892, Sheppard docked the station's boat at Queen's Wharf (St. John's, NL), where it burned to its waterline as the Great Fire of 1892 swept through the city and he found another means of escape.
Sheppard was a veteran of the WW1 campaign in Turkey, serving from 19 y of age with The First Five Hundred of the Newfoundland Regiment in the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli and was later wounded in the Battle of the Somme (Beaumont-Hamel, France).
John suggested the site for the first civil airport in North America[119] (now the oldest surviving operational airstrip in Canada), from which aviators such as Amelia Earhart embarked across the Atlantic Ocean.
[101][127] Austin Innot Oke (1827–1887) was an agent for the S.S. Lady Le Marchant,[128] the first steam-packet to operate on Conception Bay,[129] which established communication between Harbour Grace, Carbonear, Brigus and Portugal Cove on 11 October 1852.
[130] The 115-foot schooner-rigged steamer was named for Margaret Ann, wife of the former governor of Newfoundland, Sir John Le Marchant (British Army officer, born 1803).
[131] Later, the vessel joined the United States Revenue Cutter Service as Miami and after a short stint touring federal officials along Mid-Atlantic waterways via its two-cylinder oscillating steam engine,[132] President Abraham Lincoln employed it to conduct a reconnaissance that led to the surrender of Norfolk and destruction of the Confederate battleship, USS Merrimack.
[139][140][141] After Oke's death, Austin was promoted as "Mechanician of Lighthouses" for all of Newfoundland,[142][143] worked as an inspector on behalf of the superintendent, oversaw new construction on site, and trained keepers.
1863), was an engineer on board the S.S. Erik,[146] a wood steam whaler that was torpedoed on 25 August 1918 by the German submarine SM U-156, and sunk 70 miles off Gallantry Head, St. Pierre (NL); all crew survived.
Later he worked for Job Brothers & Co., Limited as chief engineer on the sealing ship, S.S. Neptune,[154] commemorated on a postage stamp[permanent dead link], issued September 24, 1975.
Matilda Langdon Julia Oke (1831[155]-1909) married James Halliday, a storekeeper for the merchant P. Rogerson & Son, and moved to Woodside, Queens, Long island.
The carriage factory was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1892 but was rebuilt and expanded to produce boxcars for R. J. Reid (Hall's Bay line)[permanent dead link].
[165][166] The business was known for its artistic carriage painting[167] and for constructing the dog-cart presented by the children of Newfoundland, accompanied by the dog Bouncer,[168] to the Duke & Duchess of Cornwall and York (George V) during their royal visit to the colony in 1901.
Charles C. Oke was a Second Lieutenant in the Newfoundland Infantry, nicknamed "Safety Catch" for his expertise in musketry,[175] and was credited, despite his weakened state during recuperation after Gallipoli, with rapid response in attempted rescue in London of two drowning nurses, whose canoe had overturned.
[189] The lives of those aboard and the livelihood of the merchant class depended on safe navigation afforded by lighthouses to avert reefs and rocky capes along the often foggy coastline.
In addition to maintaining existing structures and upgrading lighting apparatus, he selected the site, drew up plans and supervised construction of at least 8 lighthouses, 6 of which were completed in his lifetime.