Ann Hulan

Ann Searle Hulan (c. 1756 – 27 September 1848) was an early Newfoundland colonist, and regional matriarch. or Fortune Bay, or on Jersey. One account claims she was the daughter of a couple named Searle/Serle/Cyril who had emigrated from Jersey in the Channel Islands,

A "Nannie Hulan" from the Channel Islands is said to have settled at Second Barachois River (now McKay's) in 1762. This was likely Ann Hulan, who reported to William Epps Cormack in the 1820s that she remembered James Cook's survey of St. George's Bay in 1767.

Her family's move to the area was likely precipitated by a vacuum in the local lucrative salmon fishery: French fishing fleets had left the area at the start of hostilities during the Seven Years' War in 1756.

Ann married a John (or James) Hulan in 1771. His non-Anglicized name has also been given as Jean Heulin, of St. Peter, Jersey. Following the court of enquiry, Hulan was the only person allowed to bid at her schooner's auction. one of the first and largest on the west coast of Newfoundland, noting her as an experimental farmer. Her work as an agriculturalist was long lasting: three of the varieties of potatoes Hulan developed were still in use up to the 1960s, including the Early Fortune, "a moist, good tasting potato," possibly named after Fortune Bay. and Ohio by 1910.

Legacy In 1835, she was visited by missionary Edward Wix, who wrote, "The recollection of this cheerful old lady is unimpaired, and carries her back to the history of the island for the greater part of a century, and this a most interesting portion of the history of Newfoundland."

Hulan has been described as a notable figure in Newfoundland history and folklore, and the only female fishing admiral in Newfoundland history. and "the mother of the settlements."

Hulan is regarded as the progenitor of all the Huelen/Hulan families in Newfoundland, and by the twentieth century, the Hulan name was common in western Newfoundland. Journalist Don Morris noted, "There are still many families of Huelen-Hulan on the West Coast and I imagine that most of the present generation of that family can trace their roots to that singular widow of long ago – Mrs. Anne Huelen." Of her, Cormack wrote, She is indefatigably industrious and useful, and immediately or remotely related to, or connected with, the whole population of the bay, over whom she commands a remarkable degree of material influence and respect.