As such, the need for gardiens (year round inhabitants engaged by the French to protect their gear and premises in the winter) arose and by 1800 at least one family had settled at Conche. According to John Dower (aged 38 in 1859), his father James herbert Dower, was "the first man who came to Conche, I believe, about sixty years ago or more that is, c. 1790... for some years he was about the only person. The next settler was a man by the name of Joyce". According to Patrick O'Neill, Joyce was a native of County Galway, Ireland. Other early settlers included John and Thomas Casey; Pat Carroll, a native of Gowran Village, County Kilkenny, Ireland; John Bromley, a native of Jersey, Channel Islands; an Irishman from the Southern Shore or South Coast of Newfoundland, who came to Conche via Conche Fishot; Martin Flynn, a native of Northern Ireland who was keeper of the French rooms; and a Kearsey, also a native of Ireland. By 1857 the first census of the community listed 101 inhabitants (sixteen families), all Irish Roman Catholics, but the settlement was much larger during the French fishing season. In 1858 Conche had nine areas assigned to the French: these had a population of 244 migratory French fishermen, and it was one of 51 harbours which had a Roman Catholic Chapel "erected ...by the French Captaine" which was visited by a priest who lived at Cape Rouge. According to O'Neill a Captain Alano operated a large room on a point which still bears his name, and that the priest and chapel were attached to this room, which was later the site of a Roman Catholic church built by the permanent residents of Conche. Relations between the French and Irish settlers were ambivalent. The settlers served as protectors of the French property and George Casey reports that many of them were bilingual. The population grew rapidly and by 1867 a school was reported operating in Conche. Although there were concurrent fishing rights on the French Shore, the settlers, who were allowed to settle at Conche by the French, complained frequently that the French infringed on their lucrative salmon fishery. The French Admirals repeatedly warned the gardiens about their incursions into French fishing territory and English captains frequently investigated complaints and incidents on behalf of both parties. A typical report was a Captain Hamilton's dispatch in July 1864: