Church of England in Merasheen
The French Catholic heritage in Merasheen is well known and anecdotally it is understood that a French church built of stone once stood on what is now known as Moore’s Meadow, near the present day fish plant area. Ancient church law forbade a Christian burial in a place where no church existed so the number of tombstones in the old French graveyard at the opposite end of the community provides evidence of a church building (Ennis, p 27).
The first documented evidence of an Irish Catholic church is some time between 1831 and 1835 when Father Edward Troy built a church and presbytery in Merasheen (Howley p 265), but the location of the church isn’t known. In 1835, Bishop Michael Fleming visited and confirmed 98 people in the Catholic faith, 29 being converts from other denominations (Howley, p 323).
Most likely the first Church of England resident of Merasheen was George Best (1793-1836), from Milburnport in the county of Dorsetshire, who was part of a merchant’s group arriving in 1812. George purchased land mainly on the West side of Little Merasheen from Louis Ennis, a Catholic of French descent, who’s family had been given a land grant by France. Years later a portion of that land was purchased by the Catholic Church for a new church and presbytery from George’s grandson Samuel Best (1852-1924) (Ennis, p 17-18). Construction of St. Joseph’s church began in 1916 on “church hill” on the land purchased from Sam Best.
The first resident Church of England missionary for the Placentia Bay mission was appointed in 1842. St. Paul's, Harbour Buffett became the headquarters of this mission in 1848 with responsibility for all Placentia Bay residents of the Church of England faith.
On September 28, 1913, the Church of England parsonage at Harbour Buffett was destroyed by fire. The parsonage fire destroyed the baptism records of the parish pre 1890 and the marriage and burial records pre 1911.
The Church of England population grew to 16 in the 1857 census and a church and school was built “Northeast from Ab Best’s house, looking West from Walsh’s present cabin” (Ennis, p 35). In the Coastal Pilot published in 1893, it notes that “the church seen in the entrance to the harbour, bearing about NE by E ¼ E” would place it near Best’s Beach. Could that have been that church?
By 1924 it appears the Anglican church building no longer existed as burials were in Tack’s Beach where the parish church was located and that practice continued until resettlement. In those intervening years between 1857 and 1924 and the documented existence of an Anglican church, it follows that there were Anglican burials.
Before resettlement, the uneven ground in the meadow near Mac Best’s stable was considered by some local residents as a former graveyard but whether that has any basis in fact remains a mystery. If there is an unmarked cemetery there, it seems right to recognize its historical significance and perhaps mark it with an appropriate plaque and cross.
I welcome your comments!