Manx Quakers maintained that, as the priesthood did not merit respect, partly because they lacked spiritual authority, they should not receive funding from the laity. The most obvious division between the clergy and the people was that of language. Gaelic speech arrived in Man around 500 AD and was in continuous use, despite four centuries of Scandinavian rule between the 9th century and 1266. Manx Gaelic, one of the Goidelic Insular-Celtic languages, (comprising Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx), and derived from Old Irish, continued in parallel with Irish until the thirteenth century and with Scottish Gaelic until the fifteenth century, since then developing more distinct features, while preserving archaisms from the Old Irish period. At the time of the first Manx Quakers James Chaloner noted 'few people speak the English tongue."' A more incisive observer commented that ',...very few but understand our English, especially all the gentry, all in the towns, and such of the country as frequent their town market, and fairs, but these speak it as a foreign and different language from their own, or as the vulgar Welsh speak English.' Common practice decreed that ministers, if they could understand or would speak Manx, translated from the English as they read.
In the 1660s, Bishop Barrow's solution, partly dictated by the fact that he was not aware of any printed material in Manx and reinforced by general prejudice against Celtic tongues, was to set up schools in every parish to teach English. However, this meant there was little creative stimulus for the language in which the laity naturally thought, the provision of which coincided with a spiritual renaissance in the eighteenth century. Perhaps this was because Manx Quakerism's anti-hierarchical ideologies were never that clear cut, reflecting early English Quakers acceptance of the fact that those 'great to the outward' were important in fostering the movement's survival.
The Manx were initially reluctant Protestants, perhaps due to the influence of neighbouring areas such as Carlisle and the Lakes, the rural parishes of Lancashire and Borders, which remained largely Catholic and the Catholic sympathies of the Third Earl of Derby. Consequently, fear of Catholic intrigue or beliefs do not appear to have been a feature of Manx life between 1580 and 1700. In contrast, 'five or six generations of English Protestants had been brought up to believe that popery was the work of the Devil and that religious pluralism was a recipe for sinful strife.' In order to try and enlist the sympathy of the ordinary citizen in their arguments against episcopacy in England and Scotland, Puritan proselytisers utilised this widespread hatred of Popery. All that we hear of Ramsey tends to show that it had scarcely recovered from its practical destruction by the sea about 1630.
Maughold, jutting out towards the then Quakers strongholds of Cumberland and Lancashire on the north east of Man, was more likely to receive lay preachers because of it's relative proximity.
The conservative trends in Manx history may help explain why the relatively conventional creeds, if not effects, of Methodism were to infuse Manx political and spiritual life in the later eighteenth and nineteenth century. Though reminiscent of Quakerism in some its beliefs and practices, Methodism claimed to be a movement within the Church of England. Early Methodists were careful to maintain and emphasise this connection and the continuity in their practices, notably by retaining the Sacraments. Moreover, like other parish churches, 'every quarterland farm had a sitting place ... with other places, usually in the gallery, allotted to intack holders and cottages.'
Quakerism never converted many outside Maughold, with less than thirty followers between all other parishes. This is perhaps why, even in its early inception, rarely did Manx Quakers marry within the movement and if they did marry Quakers they were not Manx residents. It is likely that there were Quaker meetings in Malew and the town of Ramsey, but if there were any records they do not appear to have been delivered to Quaker clerks by their Manx correspondents. Difficulty in determining numbers arises from the fact that Quakers were not baptised in the parish register and without other sources, it is problematic to determine how many children were born into the movement. It is also troublesome to distinguish between Quakers and other 'sinners' in the Presentments, because they are often listed together for the same transgressions. The accepted practice that there need only be one representative of every household in attendance at Church likewise considerably disguised the level or actuality of non-conformity. There was also a reluctance by fellow parishioners to report Quaker activities, combined with the fact that Quakers were astute in not displaying their faith openly and only conforming to the extent strictly necessary.
In fact, on the basis of Presentments, it appears that most of the Quakers must have irregularly attended church to preserve them from censure, as had long been the practice of religious heretics like Muggletonians and Familists. There was never a popular campaign against the Quakers in the Isle of Man or more specifically Maughold, partly because they were never particularly isolated from orthodox society.