Ketch Harbour, Nova Scotia find out more about the Ketch Harbour Area Residents Association (KHARA) at ketchharbour.org. The community has been an important fishing spot for well over two hundred years. It is situated close to the City of Halifax at a time when most travelled by boat. A fisherman's catch could be easily transported to Halifax by water for sale in the city's markets. This convenience made it one of the earliest spots to be settled following the colonization of Halifax in 1749. By 1752, seventy-five people lived in Ketch Harbour. Within ten years it was known as Catch Harbour and a number
Jack Ketch at the execution of Lord Russell, the Duke of Monmouth, and other political offenders." Because of his botched executions, the name "Jack Ketch" is used as a proverbial name for death, Satan, and executioner. Ketch took office in 1663, succeeding the late Edward Dun, to whom he had been apprenticed. He is first mentioned in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey for 14 January 1676, although no printed notice of the new hangman occurred until 2 December 1678, when a broadside appeared called "The Plotters Ballad, being Jack Ketch's incomparable Receipt for the Cure of Traytorous Recusants and Wholesome Physick