Torbay is a town located on the eastern side of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.The town is located 12 km north of the capital city of St. John's and is part of the St. John's Metropolitan Area. Due to the Torbay's close proximity to St. John's, the town's population is quickly growing. According to the 2011 census the population was 7,397, up 17.8% since 2006.HistoryThe name Torbay comes from Torbay, Devon, England and was first mapped in 1615 by John Mason. It comes from the old Anglo-Saxon "Tor" which means "a rocky hill". Both places are geographically similar with wide-open bays that face in a northeasterly direction. An extract from Bishop Feild's Journal states, "indeed there seems to be a little colony of Devon folk in Torbay." John Nutt, the pirate, settled here with his family from Devon.The community of Torbay experienced three French campaigns, the first of which occurred in December 1696. These invasions contributed to the eventual construction of the Torbay Battery in 1781, which was manned by 25 troops from the 71st Regiment and Royal Artillery. The ordnance was eventually withdrawn in 1795.