Shoal Harbour Methodist Church/Cemetery

Paul Tilley’s Clarenville History Shorts

The Shoal Harbour Methodist Church and Cemetery; Scholar John Tilley’s Headstone and Thomas Godden’s Headstone

The Shoal Harbour Methodist Cemetery

The Shoal Harbour Methodist Cemetery (cataloged in heritage registries and historical records as the Shoal Harbour United Church Old Cemetery) is the oldest known burial ground in the Shoal Harbour and Clarenville area. 

Designated a Municipal Heritage Site by the Town of Clarenville on July 22, 2008 (Motion 08-108), the site is formally recognized by Heritage NL and the Provincial Archaeology Office for its exceptional historical, spiritual, aesthetic, and archaeological significance.

The Shoal Harbour Methodist Cemetery

Official Designation & Boundary Specifications

• Provincial Archaeology Borden Number: DbAI-02 (assigned by the Provincial Archaeology Office).

• Formal Recognition Type: Municipal Heritage Building, Structure or Land.

• Civic Location: Don Tilley's Field, off Shoal Harbour Drive, Shoal Harbour, Clarenville, NL.

• Heritage NL Registry Reference: Heritage NL Municipal Heritage Site Designation.

• Designated Boundary Definition: The municipal heritage designation legally encompasses the entire cemetery area defined by the remnants of the historic wire fence, plus a protective buffer zone of three metres, extending as far south as the natural embankment situated immediately southeast of the burials overlooking Random Sound.

"Scholar John" and the First Church

Prominent pioneer John Tilley—locally remembered as "Scholar John" because he taught himself to read and write—migrated to Lower Shoal Harbour from Hants Harbour in 1848 alongside his wife Elizabeth (Bursey) of Old Perlican, drawn by the region's abundant timber.

The Tilley’s were foundational to the settlement's early survival and civic development:

• Industry & Enterprise: After constructing an initial log dwelling, the family built a water-powered sawmill. Their operations expanded into fox farming, coopering, blacksmithing, market gardening, and fishing.

• First in Fish Canning: John Tilley & Sons became the first enterprise to commercially can salmon in Newfoundland. Tilley submitted a sample tin to an international fisheries exhibition, winning a bronze medal inscribed: "Warranted to keep free from taint and to retain its purity and nutritious quality, in any climate for many years."

• Civic & Spiritual Ministry: As one of the earliest licensed Justices of the Peace authorized to solemnize marriages in Newfoundland, Scholar John frequently conducted church rites, baptisms, and weddings during the 1830s and 1840s when no resident missionary or minister was available (he even officiated the marriage of his own daughter).

In 1866, Scholar John, his sons Aaron and Moses, and his son-in-law David Palmer built Shoal Harbour’s first Methodist Church at the front of what is now the cemetery grounds. 

The wooden chapel served the congregation until 1892, when it was destroyed by fire. Because the church records were lost in the blaze, the surviving stones, fragments, and archival photographs of the cemetery represent the only vital surviving record of the community's earliest pioneers.

Notable Burials in the Shoal Harbour Methodist Graveyard

The site serves as the final resting place for several prominent early settlers:

• John and Elizabeth Tilley: The pioneering couple who established the area’s first permanent year-round European homestead.

• Thomas Godden (or Gadden): A veteran of the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. His grave marker is still on the site and distinguished by a hand-chiselled local slate stone bearing the simple inscription "Thos Godden," standing as a rare piece of early naval history in the region.

The Lost Headstone of John and Elizabeth Tilley

While the physical monument has since disappeared from the landscape, an archival photograph of the headstone dedicated to John and Elizabeth Tilley provides an enduring record of nineteenth-century burial customs, craftsmanship, and pioneer faith.

Carved in high-relief lettering beneath an arched crown, the face of the marble slab reads:

SACRED

TO THE MEMORY OF

JOHN & ELIZABETH TILLY  (Note the name is sometimes spelled without the e) 

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE;

THE FORMER JULY 9ᵀᴴ 1871

THE LATTER JULY 28ᵀᴴ 1868

Following Victorian memorial convention, the carver used the formal phrasing "the former" and "the latter" to distinguish the passing of husband and wife resting together. Elizabeth (1789–1868) died in mid-summer 1868; John (1789–1871) followed three years later in July 1871.

Above the inscription, a circular medallion features a hand with an index finger pointed toward the sky—the "Hand Pointing to Heaven" (or The Upward Way). Beneath the dates, the lower portion of the slab features an evocative four-line stanza:

"Their languishing head is at rest,

Its thinking and aching are o'er;

This quiet immovable breast

Is heaved by affliction no more."

These lines were originally written by Charles Wesley and first published in his 1746 collection Funeral Hymns; this verse was widely embraced throughout 19th-century Newfoundland. Iit spoke directly to the physical toil, sickness, and wear of coastal pioneer life, framing death not as defeat, but as a merciful end to mental and physical strain. The lines draw their theological depth from the bible:

• Revelation 14:13: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."

• Job 3:17: "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest."

The Headstone of Thomas Godden

Thomas Godden: The Veteran of Random Sound

Thomas Godden (recorded in regional tradition and oral histories interchangeably as Gadden or Gooden) represents one of the most intriguing historical links between Napoleonic naval history and the 19th-century settlement of Trinity Bay, Newfoundland.

Laid to rest in the Shoal Harbour Methodist Cemetery, Godden is remembered in local heritage records as a veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805). While documentary records of his early life remain sparse, his physical memorial and his placement among the founding families of Shoal Harbour provide substantial insight into his role and stature in the frontier community.

Historical Context: The Royal Navy & Newfoundland

During the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815), the British Royal Navy drew heavily upon men from England’s West Country (Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire) as well as the migratory fishery workforce in Newfoundland.

• Naval Service & Trafalgar: Thousands of merchant seamen, migratory fishermen, and local mariners were recruited or taken by the Impress Service (press gangs) to man the British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson. At the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805, hundreds of men aboard the British ships of the line had direct ties to the Newfoundland trade or were native-born Newfoundlanders.

• Post-War Settlement: Following the Treaty of Paris and the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, thousands of discharged naval veterans returned to civilian maritime life. In Newfoundland, the post-1815 era saw a major transition from migratory seasonal stations to permanent family settlements along Trinity Bay, Random Island, and the inner reaches of Random Sound.

Veterans who had served in the Royal Navy brought seasoned seamanship, boat-handling skills, discipline, and knowledge of rigging and navigation—traits that made them invaluable pioneers in Newfoundland’s rural outports.

Life and Stature in Shoal Harbour

By the mid-19th century, permanent settlement in Shoal Harbour was spearheaded by early pioneers, most notably John Tilley (died 1871) and his family, who cleared land, built fishing and mercantile premises, and established the area's first Methodist chapel (consecrated c. 1866).

Godden’s resting place is marked by a distinctive headstone made from locally sourced slate: Unlike the imported marble markers found on neighbouring plots, Godden’s marker was crafted from slate, quarried either locally along Random Sound/Smith Sound. 

The stone bears the hand-chiselled inscription “Thos Godden”. The deep, deliberate carving into raw slate required specialized tools, considerable physical effort, and time, indicating that his neighbours and family held his service and memory in high regard.  The marker has weathered more than a century and a half of harsh Atlantic winters and coastal exposure, remaining readable while several soft marble monuments in the same cemetery fractured or eroded over time.

Desecration, Loss, and Archival Memory

Despite the historical importance of the Shoal Harbour Methodist Cemetery, most of its headstones have vanished. As newer denominational cemeteries opened across the area, the original Shoal Harbour site fell out of active use. Over decades of brush encroachment, wooden crosses rotted, and stones tumbled.

A particularly jarring chapter occurred when the nearby Shoal Harbour School (now the site of New Life Church) expanded its recreational grounds. According to persistent local oral history, broken markers and flat tablets from the neglected graveyard were salvaged and used as makeshift bases on a neighbouring baseball diamond.

The Tilley and other markers disappeared from the site. Because the physical stone no longer stands in the soil where they were laid to rest, archival photographs, transcriptions, and oral accounts carry paramount importance. They remain the primary evidence of our town’s origins, ensuring that the resting place of its founding family is not lost to obscurity.  Today, only three stones are visible in the cemetery.

Headstone 1/3

Visible Inscription: 

Jesus, we lay our bodies down 

Free from all doubt and fear 

And indeed when the last trumpet shall sound 

We meet thee in the air

Headstone 2/3

Visible Inscription: 

Illegible

Headstone 3/3

Visible Inscription: 

Thomas Godden