The Church of England Cemetery is located on Causeway Extension in the town of Burnt Islands, NL. It is a grassy, fenced cemetery on a sloping piece of land containing about eight gravestones and an equal number of wooden markers. The municipal heritage designation includes all the fenced area of cemetery land, and the gravemarkers and grave plot boundaries within it.
Formal Recognition Type
Municipal Heritage Building, Structure or Land
Heritage Value
The Church of England Cemetery has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Burnt Islands because of its historic, aesthetic and spiritual value.
The Church of England Cemetery has historic value for its association with the community’s settlers, the majority of whom were members of the Church of England. The first known settlers to the community were the family of Benjamin and Francis Kippen. In a census dated 1836, they are listed as the only family living in Burnt Islands. Their daughter Susan Sitland is buried in the Church of England Cemetery. Many families of Keepings now reside in Burnt Islands and the name is believed to be derived from Kippen.
The cemetery also has historic value as one of the oldest known cemeteries established at Burnt Islands. The earliest death date appearing on extant gravemarkers at the cemetery is 1860, a little over twenty years after the first settlers were recorded in the community.
The cemetery has further historic value because its headstones contain historic and genealogical type information, and because they may be considered artifacts on the community’s landscape. Most of the gravemarkers record death dates between 1860 and 1899, and the materials of the headstones coincide with these dates. There are also a number of white-painted, wooden cross gravemarkers in the grassy, fenced cemetery and one plot marked with an iron fence.
The Church of England Cemetery has aesthetic value due to its prominent placement along one of the main roads in the community and its ocean-side setting.
The Church of England Cemetery has spiritual value due to its association with the Church of England religion in Burnt Islands.
Source: Town of Burnt Islands Regular Council Meeting Motion 09-150 September 2, 2009.
Character Defining Elements
Those elements which contribute to the site’s historic, aesthetic and spiritual values including:
-style, placement and materials of gravemarkers;
-grassy groundcover;
-extant iron fencing on plot;
-existence of fencing to contain the site;
-location of site, and;
-its association with the Church of England religion.
Notes
Surnames on the extant gravemarkers at the cemetery include Framp, King, Newman, Sitland and Tweedell. Of these names, only King is still common in the community.
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