There is no historical evidence to support Bishop Fleming ever creating the pink, white and green flag. The first published record of the now popularly accepted legend was in a Catholic church archdiocese newsletter during the provincial flag debates of the 1970s, and was not presented as fact at that time. The Newfoundland Natives' Society flag is believed by some historians to have consisted of a green spruce tree on a pink background with two clasped hands and the word "philanthropy" eventually added, though there is no hard evidence to support that this flag ever really existed, that it was ever abandoned, or that the pink, white and green tricolour was ever adopted by the society The NNS was not a Catholic or Protestant society but a nationalist group formed specifically to promote the advancement of careers and interests of native-born Newfoundlanders, no matter what their ethnic origin or religious affiliation. Its first president, elected by members of the society in 1840, was a Roman Catholic physician by the name of Dr. Edward Kielly. From its early days, it served as a vehicle to allow Newfoundland-born Roman Catholics who opposed Bishop Fleming's political influence to work alongside Protestant reformers (then affiliated with the "Tory" party) and was openly opposed by Fleming. Available history indicates that the society actually used a tricolour flag of red, white and green, raising the speculation that it was this flag that symbolized peace between the Irish Catholics and English Protestants within the society since red and white was a more fitting representation of the red and white Tudor Rose of England, and the society itself being expressly non-denominational.