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The 1851 Religious and Educational Censuses of the Isle of Man:
OLD DISSENT The small group of Maughold Quakers had been effectively suppressed by Earl Charles prior to the arrival of Bishop Wilson in 1698, who soon seems to brought any remaining members back into the established church. Subsequent attempts to convert the Manx met with polite indifference. Though well established on the neighbouring coast, especially in Lancashire, dissenting sects were a late introduction on the Island with two main sects, the Congregationalists and the Presbyterian, establishing themselves in Man from the early 19th Century - the Unitarians briefly established themselves towards the end of the 19th Century but were not present in 1851, Baptists too only established their first church in the 1880's well after the census though Johnson in his guide of 1850 refers to a Baptist congregation meeting in Douglas in 1850 and there is reference in Mona's Herald 21 of 1849 to a rented room in the Oddfellows' Hall Athol Street (later the Courthouse) being used for services - the 1851 census also included a Thomas Burneys, who describes himself as Lodging-house Keeper and Baptist Minister.
Once in a way a cart as rough as the roads might give him a lift for a mile or two, but there were no snug railways, or even engineer planned highways in those days in the land of the three legs. So far, the Island had got its priests from Ireland. About 1837, it was attached to what is now the English Diocese of Liverpool, and Father McGrath was the first priest to come from England. He was a most worthy priest, and hard-working in his own peculiar apostolic fashion. He served the whole Island for about twenty-one years, and his great piety and charity, together with his charming simplicity, are talked of to this day. Here ends the ancient history and the dark ages of the Catholic Church of the Little Man Island. There was a brief interval, during which several priests came to the Island, but of anything they did for Ramsey. Possibly they did not stop long enough to do anything for Ramsey worthy of special record.
The Firbolgs are reckoned amongst the first adventurers of the English Channel who colonised the area near Lough Erne Ireland and a number of years later (A.D. 254) the migration of a colony of Irish Cruithneans from Ulster to Man is registered by Tighernach. The Church of St. Maughold, in Ramsey, stands on the ground which forms part of the entire district called Maughold. The saint, whose memory is thus stamped of the Isle of Man, lived towards the close of the 5th century. in early life he was a bandit chief. Being converted by St. Patrick the great Apostle of Ireland, he desired by a life of penance to atone for the sins of the past.
The growth of dissent from the established church has been rapid in the Isle of Man. " The Reformation," says Bishop Wilson, in his History, " was begun something later here than in England, but so happily carried on, that there has not, for many years, been one papist a native of the Island, nor indeed are there dissenters of any denomination, except a family or two of Quakers, and even some of these have been lately baptized into the church." In 1776, the Methodists, who directed their attention particularly to the Celtic portion of our people, in Cornwall and Wales, finding in their disposition to religion and to religious excitement, unregulated by education,—for as yet the education of our Celtic population was almost entirely neglected, —the utmost encouragement, obtained a footing in the Isle of Man. In the towns, the line of demarkation is more strongly marked.
Congregationalists, who have their roots in 16th Century England, took their name from the substitution of 'Congregation' for 'Church' by these English reformers. Each Congregation was independent in the management of its own affairs hence the common epithet 'Independents' with some chapels known as 'Independent Chapels'. Congregationalism really began on the Island with the appointment of Samuel Haining as Minister in 1808. In the yeare 1804, the Rev. Samuel Haining, then a student at Edinburgh, visited the Island to ascertain the state of religion, and to try what could be done to establish a Christian society regulated by New Testament principles. He preached throughout the Island for a few weeks, and then returned to finish his studies. Application was made to him by some who had heard him preach to come amongst them, and, being advised by Christian friends to do so, he complied, and laboured in the different parts of the Island. A church was formed in Douglas on Congregational principles, consisting of eight members, and he was ordained to the pastoral care of the church on the 15th August, 1808. Four places of worship were occupied before a chapel was built, which was begun in 1811, and opened for worship in the month of January, 1813.
Nightingale in his Lancashire Nonconformity, 1893, gives the most detailed history available concerning the Congregationalists. SOME sixty or seventy miles of broad sea lie between the Isle of Man and the Lancashire coast, yet its name has become a household word in this county. Thousands of busy Lancashire toilers, set free for a brief season from the mill, the office, and the exchange, find their way each yeare to its quiet glens, climb its mountains, make merry upon its charming bays, and come back to life's duties charged with new supplies of vigour and healthfulness, which a visit to the Isle of Man always ensures. That fact alone makes the insertion of the story of Manx Congregationalism in the " History of Lancashire Nonconformity " not altogether inappropriate. The Congregational churches of the Island are, and have been almost from the beginning of their existence, a part of the Lancashire Congregational Union. Before proceeding, however, to give their story, the reader will probably welcome a brief account of the general ecclesiastical history of the Island.
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