The Gaspé Connection – Charles Robin and St Aubin’s Atlantic Legacy

< Alan Le Rossignol, Secretary of St.Aubin's Boat Owners Association, writes:- Born in St Aubin, Jersey in 1743, Charles Robin saw opportunity across the Atlantic. Inspired by declining prospects in Newfoundland and tales of abandoned French fisheries in North America, Robin and his family – including their relatives, the Pipons – formed the Robin Pipon Company in 1765. Their early ventures took them to Cape Breton and, by 1766, to the Gaspé Peninsula. That year marks the founding of Charles Robin and Company – one of Canada’s oldest commercial enterprises after the Hudson’s Bay Company.

In 1767, Robin arrived at Paspébiac, a small Acadian settlement on the Baie des Chaleurs. Recognising its natural advantages for fish-drying and small-boat landing, he established it as his company’s headquarters. Robin was a driven and energetic entrepreneur, building relationships with Acadian and Indigenous fishermen, trading goods for dried cod, and extending operations up and down the Gaspé coast.

Robin’s methods were meticulous. He recorded every transaction and correspondence – many of which survive today in archives in Jersey, Canada, and the UK. Over time, he created a self-sufficient operation: importing workers and materials from Jersey, building ships, and setting up coastal stores where fishermen received supplies on credit and repaid with fish – the “truck system,” abolished in England only in 1831.

The workforce was a mix of local Acadians, Québécois seasonal workers, and Jerseymen – often younger sons with limited inheritance prospects at home. Many came out as teenagers and, in early years, required Robin’s permission to marry.

Despite wars, trade disruptions, and harsh winters, Robin’s operation flourished. During wartime, his ships even sailed under French colours to avoid capture. Loyalist arrivals in 1784 brought land disputes, but Robin navigated this too – famously walking 300 miles to Quebec in winter to lobby for favourable fishing laws.

Between 1792 and 1824, Robin’s firm built 16 ships and exported over 15,000 quintals of cod annually to Spain, Portugal, Italy, and South America. He never married, but left the company in the hands of his nephews. By the early 19th century, Paspébiac had become a bustling hub, with storehouses, cooperages, forges, sail lofts, and boarding houses – a company town supporting the fish trade.

Although Robin left Paspébiac in 1802, the firm continued for over two centuries, evolving into Robin, Jones & Whitman. A triangular trade route developed: cod to the Americas, sugar and rum to Europe, and manufactured goods back to Canada.

The dry cod market faded in the 20th century, and a fire in 1964 destroyed many original buildings. But the legacy lives on: Paspébiac’s remaining structures form the Site Historique du Banc de Paspébiac, and some historic homes built by returning Jerseymen still stand in St Aubin – quiet witnesses to a remarkable transatlantic story.