In
the latter eighteenth and the middle nineteenth century the efforts of Quaker
preachers in the Isle of Man solicited favourable comment from the conservative
and reforming Victorian newspapers alike, which can be contrasted with their views
on the roughly contemporary arrival of Mormons on the island. Even in attendance,
the scant provision of education in the Isle of Man of the 1630s, further delineated
between parishioners income with distinct levels of payment for reading on the
one hand and reading and writing on the other. Inversely, the bilingualism of
early Methodist preachers was one of the factors that allowed it to prosper in
Man. Actual or relative illiteracy also negated the point of disseminating radical
pamphlets, which had been effective in stimulating dissent in England
and Scotland throughout the middle to latter seventeenth century.
The
courts of law were held in the Lord's name and the right of appeal from which
lay ultimately to him as the supreme legal authority in the island. In this capacity,
he had the power to impose the death penalty, to banish offenders from the island,
to mitigate their punishment or to pardon them.' He also held myriad coincident
rights, the most salient being that he was the landholder from whom practically
all inhabitants held their land. In reality, therefore, the Earl allowed Spiritual
Laws to take precedence, at least on a parochial level, as if they were equal
if not superior to Civil Law, because they were more yielding to his purposes.
As such, they were vulnerable and pliant to the Earl's threats, who forged verdicts
by the removal of their members and pressure on juries, reflected in measures
proposed by the Keys in 1673
to prevent this kind of tampering and emphasising the ascendancy of Statute Law.
Executive
strength was also more concentrated in Man because the island was without the
barriers of significant distance or mountains, lakes, forests, large marshes and
wide rivers to hinder reports by informers and a rapid response by officials.
In the 1660s, ecclesiastical authority became more pronounced when the Earl appointed
the disciplinarian Bishop Barrow to the office of Governor, the chief officer
in the island that wielded the power of the Lord in the Earl's customary absence.
It would have been of little comfort to the Quakers that, in his own words, he
acted the part of Governor only in outward appearance, yet did not cease to pray
daily for them. Significantly, the rebellions of 1643
and 1651 occurred
when most of the Seventh Earl's troops had left the island. Although the Earl's
rule was partly upheld by tradition and feudal loyalty, parishioners were perhaps
more obedient or at least circumspect due to fear incurred by their obvious vulnerability.
England saw
flourishing political dissent throughout the seventeenth century. Puritans were
interested in new forms of non-hierarchical Church structure and this inevitably
informed their views on state. Their strengthening parliamentary voice hastened
disputes with the monarchy from the late 1620s onwards. In 1628, a formal petition
was delivered to King Charles the first, by which the English Parliament sought
to delimit royal prerogative. In 1640, the so-called Roots and Branch Petition
drew the connection between religious and constitutional dissent, demanding the
abolition of episcopacy and listing twenty-eight grievances from the proliferation
of indecent clergy, licentious books and Sunday sports to the increasing influence
of popery. Nevertheless, this turbulent philosophical context and the essential
commonality of expression in Protestant beliefs were crucial in providing for
the rise of dissenting religious movements in England during subsequent decades.
Nevertheless, this turbulent philosophical context and the essential commonality
of expression in Protestant beliefs were crucial in providing for the rise of
dissenting religious movements in England during subsequent decades. Hence, biographies
of early English dissenters highlight the shared experience of a Puritan upbringing.
Thus, Quakers, like their Puritan forbears, placed emphasis on preaching in a
straightforward, forthright manner understandable to the commonality. Many Puritans
also considered that learning did not equate with religious devotion or the ability
to inspire piety. The absence of the spirit, they likewise conceived, negated
the validity of Sacraments. Like Puritans, Quakers subscribed to the belief that
absolute authority could not be attributed to one human being, '...neither King
in the state, the father in a family, not the minister in the church. Both adherents
cherished Gospel law over secular law. However, perhaps the most influential factor
in the religious formation of prospective separatists was the Puritan emphasis
on exacting religious observance.
However,
emotional release from the terrors and anxiety surrounding Predestination, which
Quaker preachers so richly harvested in England, was limited in Man due to the
nominal effects of civil war and a less dogmatic approach to religion. For many
in England, religious fears, heightened by personal and societal upheavals, were
catalysed by the experiences of war.
The Religious Society
of Friends, or Quakers as they became known, were one of many movements that arose
in search of fresh revelation, responding to the millennial uncertainty fuelled
by rapid social change, war, class antagonism, absolutist philosophies and rigid
practices of religious orthodoxy in the 1640s
and 50s. In fact, many of early Quaker converts came from Seeker and General
Baptist congregations, partly as the latter were filled with fears about the validity
of their baptisms and divided by the necessity of particular ceremonies. During
the formative years of the majority of Manx Quakers, the Bishop of Sodor and Man
was continually absent from the island, pursuing livings in English diocese. Partly
for this reason, the Earl of Derby decided not to appoint a Bishop between 1644
and 1661.
Why was Maughold the home to the principal Manx Quakers?
The propinquity of 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. According to the Calendar of State Papers, court records,
Presentments and wills, it appears that the initial movement in Maughold first
peaked in 1662 at approximately 40 men, women and children, reaching similar perhaps
more converts in the early 1670s
of between 40-50, until it rapidly declined after 1700. 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.
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. Man shared some of the circumstances
that led to dissent elsewhere such as recent conflict with landowners, the absence
or neglect of the Church of England and economic fluctuations which resulted in
increased hardship. That non-conformist creeds did not prosper in the same way
is seemingly remarkable as English Quakerism, although influential in Bristol
and London was most persuasive in rural areas and Man was overwhelmingly rural
in land-use and mode of living. Thus, in 1665 the most prominent Quakers were
exiled to Whitehaven and then on to Dublin
and London. The absence of centralised government based on the French model made
implementation of the penal code in its entirety practically impossible. In Cumbria,
Durham, London and Bristol, Friends preached largely unobstructed with persecution
by a local magistrate frequently moderated by the central authority. Differing
structural and procedural responses to persecution may also explain the chasm
between English Quaker success and Manx failure. Inversely, the bilingualism of
early Methodist preachers was one of the factors that allowed it to prosper in
Man. Actual or relative illiteracy also negated the point of disseminating radical
pamphlets, which had been effective in stimulating dissent in England
and Scotland throughout the middle to latter seventeenth century. Churchwardens'
opposition to nonconformists derived from prosaic motives. The four Churchwardens,
elected from their particular parish every four years, were charged with presenting
transgressors to the courts, whose punishment was determined by sitting ecclesiastics.
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.
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.
Having been in communion
with many radical congregations throughout their religious wanderings, it was
inevitable that many of their convictions were shared, even anticipated by Anabaptists,
General Baptists, Antinomians, Seekers, Ranters, The Family of Love and Grindletonians.
Quakers disregarded any philosophical caveats, rejecting all Sacraments. In this,
it has been claimed, Quakerism was the final expression of Anabaptist creeds in
their purest form.
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