History and Faith Entwined

St. Peter’s Anglican church in Twillingate, consecrated in 1831 but lasting only 11 years due to poor construction and growing congregation, led to the construction of a new church. On November 6, 1839, Reverend John Chapman and congregation members laid the cornerstone for St. Peter’s. Three years later, on December 11, 1842, the first service was held in the incomplete structure, delayed Evensong service due to a lack of lighting.

Construction continued for two more years, with the spire placed on September 14, 1844, and full completion by November 2, 1844, with an 880-seat capacity. On July 3, 1845, Anglican Bishop Edward Feild consecrated the church, costing around £1000, mostly covered by the local congregation, except for £100 from two English religious societies and £10 from the Newfoundland church.

Gifts from Poole, England, included a complete set of communion plates and brass fixtures donated by R. Slade and John Slade, featuring the Ten Commandments, creed, and Lord’s prayer.

In 1862, a bell was added to celebrate a bountiful seal harvest, and in 1884, a chancel and additional seating for 1000 were erected. The Slade plaques were placed beside the chancel window.

St. Peter’s Church earned Heritage Structure status from the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador on April 18, 1998.

St. Peter’s Anglican Church houses a relic tied to the remarkable 1862 Great Seal Haul. Twillingate was a vital hub for the sealing industry due to its strategic location where seal herds frequently approached the shore on ice flows.

In March 1862, a significant seal catch occurred, with the initial contact happening on March 10th, but resulting in the loss of five men as the ice drifted offshore. However, four days later, favourable winds from the northeast pushed the seals and their ice pans back within reach of Twillingate sealers. Some even recovered previously marked seal pelts from the earlier strike.

It’s said that many individuals earned around £100 each from this haul, which included roughly 30,000 seals. Notably, a woman ventured out to support her family when her husband was too ill for the work. This marked Twillingate’s largest seal harvest at the time.

As a token of gratitude, the town’s residents commissioned a bell from England to be placed in St. Peter’s Church tower, where it remains today. The bell bears the inscription “In memory of the great seal haul of 1862” and was funded with profits from the Great Haul. It chimed for the first time on Christmas Day in 1863. In subsequent years, the proceeds from another abundant seal harvest played a significant role in the town’s and the colony’s recovery following the 1894 bank crash, as Newfoundland vessels harvested nearly 300,000 seals in the spring of 1895.