EWER (Yore), THOMAS ANTHONY, Roman Catholic priest, Franciscan,
and vicar general; b. c. 1750 in Dublin, son of John Ewer and
his wife Catherine, and brother of William Yore (Ewer), later
vicar general of Dublin; d. 5 Feb. 1833 in Harbour Grace, Nfld.
Thomas Anthony Ewer’s parents “enjoyed a considerable degree of
affluence” and could send him to a Latin school at an early age.
Inclined towards religious life, Thomas eventually entered St
Isidore’s College, Rome, and was ordained a priest on 19 Jan.
1776. His next years were spent at Franciscan houses in Bohemia
at Prague, and in France at Nimes and Avignon; for a time he was
lecturer in philosophy at St Isidore’s. In 1782 he returned to
Dublin to become curate of Rathfarnham, and in 1787 he was made
guardian of the friary of Clane, in County Kildare. That same
year, having volunteered for Newfoundland, Ewer was sent for by
the prefect apostolic, James Louis O’Donel*. Upon arrival in
1789, he was appointed to the new parish of Ferryland. This was
a difficult