The fonds consists of the accumulated business records of the firm J.W. Hiscock Sons Limited which operated a fish business at Brigus with branch operations at Smokey Labrador and Trout River on the island's west coast. The majority of the records cover the period from the 1940s through to the 1980s with the earliest material being from 1907.
The fonds contains financial records including ledgers, journals, banking records, fishermen's accounts, fish books giving the amount and value of each fisherman's yearly catch, customer orders, inventory records and statements on account for all areas of operation including Labrador, Gooseberry Cove, Grand La Pierre, Hr. Mille and Little Hearts Ease; Hiscock's accounts with Harvey & Company Limited and Beothic Fish Processors; general correspondence files containing invoices, plant output summaries, payroll statements, records of employment and saltfish inspection certificates; Newfoundland Fish Trades Association circulars, Bulletin published monthly by the Fisheries Council of Canada and Memo published by the Fisheries Council of Canada and other published material from various fishery related organizations and government agencies; labour records of the firm's store employees and its fishermen as well as fishermen's earning records including earning summaries which include incomes by species caught; Insurance records relating to the firm's own insurance policies and its insurance sales as agent for W.A. Munn & Co.; fish collection books containing the quantity, grade and price of fish purchased from individual fishermen, fish shipment records documenting the quantity and cull for individual shipments, plant output reports compiled by the Canadian Salt Fish Corporation listing the production and markets for each shipment; expense accounts for the firm's vessels Mary Ruth, Harriet and Vivian and Lady MacDonald and a salt barge used for storage; records of the sale of coal; Records of the firm's membership and affiliation with the Newfoundland Associated Fish Exporters Limited (NAFEL); income and expense records for the firm's Blueberry Division; files relating to the Newfoundland Department of Fisheries Gear Subsidy Program, many of which were later seized as part of an RCMP investigation into that program.
Two photographs which were in this fonds have been removed and are filed in MHA photograph file PF-308. The fonds is arranged in eleven series: Financial records, 1907-1982; General office files, 1930-1980; Newfoundland Fish Trades Association circulars and enclosures, 1960-1968; Labour records, 1940-1979; Insurance records, 1950-1976; Fish purchase and shipment production books, 1950-1980; Vessel records, 1946-1976; Coal sales records, 1941-1963; Published material; Accounts, 1910-1921, 1949-1976; Miscellaneous records 1912-1917, 1944-1978.