DCHP-1 Online
by(e)-boat keeper Nfld, Hist. 
See 1793 quote.
- 1765 No Inhabitant of Newfoundland, no By-Boatkeeper . . . shall, on any Pretence whatsoever, go to the Coast of Labradore.
- 1793 The private boat-keepers here spoken of, or bye boat-keepers, as they otherwise were called, are described as persons who, not being willing or able to buy a share in a fishing ship, hired servants in the west of England, and carried them as passengers to Newfoundland, where they employed them in private boats to catch and cure fish; and when the season was over, they brought them back to England, or permitted them to take service with the planters, or on board the ships.
- 1842 Bye-boat keepers were persons who went out to Newfoundland to keep boats for a fishing voyage.
- 1765 No Inhabitant of Newfoundland, no By-Boatkeeper . . . shall, on any Pretence whatsoever, go to the Coast of Labradore.