There is lately come among us one of Mr Whitfield's Disciples, who has taken upon him to pray & preach publickly; but as he is discountenanc'd both by the Civil & Military Power, & has not one Follower, 'tis to be hop'd he'll soon find his attempt fruitless. We have not, I thank God, as yet been troubled with that Enthusiastick Spirit, which has rag'd so violently in other parts of America.

The story of Newfoundland's Methodist origins as depicted by nineteenth-century denominational historiography, notably in the influential panoramas of T. Watson Smith and William Wilson, was a rather idyllic affair, which linked the Newfoundland pioneer Laurence Coughlan harmoniously both with Methodism's founder John Wesley and the island's subsequent Wesleyanism. Most historians have taken over wholesale or in part this nineteenth-century portrayal of harmony and continuity. Upon a close examination of all relevant sources, however, the story appears to be more complex than our Victorian predecessors publicly admitted and in dire need of revision and re-telling -- this time in all of its colours, shades, and contours and free from the polemical concerns of an age that was preoccupied with denominational self-definitions and differences.