Point de Bute Methodist Cemetery was established in 1788 on land donated by Yorkshire settler William Chapman and his second wife Jane. It is the burying place of many of those who came to this area as part of the Yorkshire immigration and their descendants. Aulac Point de Bute Cemetery is located in Westmorland County and has approximately 1015 interments to date.
In the cemetery at one time stood the
First Methodist Church in Canada - a stone building with thatch roof. Built in 1788, this was 96 years before the Methodist Church of Canada was formed, in 1884. Long gone, it is not known how long the church remained here. The nearest Methodist church today is in Sackville, 6 kilometres to the west.
The church would have been the work of the Reverend William Black. In 1779 William Black, born in England November 10, 1760 but raised in Nova Scotia, was converted to Methodism and commenced evangelizing in the Maritimes, becoming the
First Methodist Preacher in Canada, according to the plaque at the site. However, it should be pointed out that the First Methodist Preacher in what is now Canada was
Laurence Coughlan, a Catholic converted to Methodism who was active in Newfoundland in the period between 1766 and 1773, building a church in Blackhead, Newfoundland in 1769. Coughlan is regarded as a founder of the Methodist Church in Newfoundland. In the eighteenth century New Brunswick was a part of the Colony of Canada, while Newfoundland was a separate colony, becoming an Dominion in 1907 and not becoming part of Canada until 1949.
See a very complete biography of
Reverend William Black at Biographi Canada.
Gracing the entrance to the cemetery is a large and heavy stone memorial archway, dedicated in 1925, designating this site as one of the most important for the history of Methodism in Canada.
Affixed to the arch are three bronze plaques, two on the front and one on the rear of the arch, transcriptions from which follow:
Reverend William Black Plaque, on right side front of archway:
To the Glory of God
And In Memory of the
Reverend William Black
The First Methodist Preacher in Canada
Who Began His Ministry
In This Community
• in 1781 •
He Turned Many To Righteousness and He Lives
Forever in The Church Which He Established
1760 - 1834
Plaque on left side front of archway, dedicated May 30, 1925:
Methodism began in Canada in 1772
with the arrival in Amherst,
Point de Bute, and Sackville of
settlers from Yorkshire, England.
Near this spot, the first Methodist
church in Canada - a stone building
with thatch roof - was erected
• in 1788. •
Plaque on left side rear of archway:
Point de Bute Cemetery
Founded September 18, 1788 through the generous donation of
land to John Wesley, London, England, by Wm. and Jane Chapman.
Over the years the Cemetery has been expanded through the
kindness, co-operation and generosity of the following members
of the community.
Joseph and Mary Chapman c. 1868
John and Jane Robinson 1902
Gideon and Eliza Carter 1903
John and Carthel Robinson 1958
Erica Fassauer
Alwin and Penelope Zerb 1986
Wm. R. Trueman in memory of his wife Helen 1986.
"One generation shall praise Thy name to another."