Rufus Guinchard and Emile Benoit: two Newfoundland fiddlers

R ufus Guinchard (1899-1990) and Emile Benoit (1913-1992) are perhaps the two most famous fiddlers from Newfoundland.Both men worked, lived, and played on the island's west coast until the 1970s when they were 'discovered' by the folk revival movement and brought to play in the capital, St John's.The rocky island of Newfoundland lies in the North Atlantic as the most easterly land mass of North America (see Figure 1).Newfoundland was England's oldest colony and both Guinchard and Emile were born citizens of Newfoundland, as the island did not become part of Canada until 1949.Rowe states in A History of Newfoundland and Labrador, that there is evidence of habitation by native groups such as the Dorset and Thule Inuit, the Maritime Archaic, and then the Beothucks, dating back at least 4900 years. 1 He suggests that European visitations may have started as early as the fi�h or sixth century AD with the voyages of the Irish Abbot St Brendan. 2 However, the first archaeological proof is a Viking se�lement dating from about 1000 AD at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of the island ('L'Anse au Meadow' on map, see Figure 1).Under the patronage of King Henry VII of England, John Cabot is the next recorded 'discoverer' of the island on 24 June 1497.3 Se�lement by Europeans gradually ensued.The first European se�lements, known as outports, were sca�ered along the rocky coastline.Many of these outports, ranging in population from perhaps fi�y to a few hundred people, still exist.In general terms, the majority of the se�lement on the Avalon Peninsula was Irish and English.The English also extended along the east coast in Trinity and Bonavista Bays as well as a li�le on the Great Northern Peninsula.Although the entire west coast was once known as the French Shore, the French primarily occupied the south coast, Placentia Bay and the lower west coast.The town of Placentia was, at one time, the French capital of Newfoundland.There is a small Sco�ish community in the Codroy Valley on the southern west coast.Today, descendants of the original English, Irish, and French se�lers are spread all over the island.The result is that a French or English surname or place-name does not necessarily represent the greatest cultural influence on the person or community.

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