Description of Historic Place

Old House Cove General Cemetery is located on Old House Cove Road on the North Island of Twillingate, NL. It is a grassy, fenced cemetery on a piece of land overlooking the waters off Twillingate. The municipal heritage designation includes all the fenced area of cemetery land and the gravemarkers within it.

Heritage Value

Old House Cove General Cemetery has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Twillingate because of its historic and aesthetic values.

Old House Cove General Cemetery has historic value as one of the older cemeteries in Twillingate and because its approximately 16 headstones contain historic and genealogical type information and may be considered artifacts on the community’s landscape. The earliest death date appearing on extant gravemarkers at the cemetery is 1806 and the latest dates from 1897. The materials of the headstones coincide with these dates. It is possible that earlier burial places are now unmarked and that the cemetery was used as a burial place for over a century. Surnames appearing on the gravemarkers include Adams, Blackmore, Colbourne, Creasen, Guy, Noble, Parsons and Rideout.

Old House Cove General Cemetery has additional historic value due to its association with prominent early families in the community. Several of the people buried in the cemetery were listed as planters in 1806, including Philip Adams, Joseph Colbourne and Thomas Guy. The wills of Jane Adams and John Colbourne showed that they had monies vested in West Country merchants firms. Lydia Colbourne and Deborah Colbourne had inherited substantial amounts from predeceased relatives, and Lydia had been left part of her mother Ann Clark’s book collection in 1838. As books were relatively rare in this period, as was literacy, it can be assumed that she came from a relatively well-to-do family.

Old House Cove General Cemetery has aesthetic value due to its picturesque setting. Located on Twillingate’s North Island, the cemetery provides a spectacular view of the undulating northwestern shore of New World Island and the smaller islands that dot its shores.

Source: Town of Twillingate Regular Council Meeting Motion 09-128 July 20, 2009.

Character-Defining Elements

Those elements which contribute to the site’s historic and aesthetic value including:
-style, size, placement and materials of gravemarkers;
-grassy groundcover;
-existence of wooden fencing to contain the site, and;
-dimensions and location of site.