|
 |
1708 – Bishop Wilson instrumental in
having St Matthew’s built.
1761 - Bishop Wilson’s successor,
Mark Hildesley, realised that St Matthew’s was becoming
woefully inadequate. Work started on new chapel of ease
to Kirk Braddan at Oates Land
1765 –Revestment Act returned
sovereignty to Britain. Widespread island problems
1775 – Bishop Richmond revived chapel
project.
1778 – Organ purchased from Dublin
(possibly first organ in a Manx Church)
1780 – Bishop Richmond died. New
chapel completed on 24th November 1780.
1781 – St George's consecrated on
29th September 1781.
1784 – First burial in churchyard.
1786 – First marriage at St George's –
of the first chaplain, Rev Crebbin
1833 – Organ rebuilt.
1828 – Internal improvements
(galleries, vestry, altar pulpit, reading desk and
Bishop's Throne)
1844 – Plans to enlarge church, due
to increase in Douglas' population. Not acted upon.
1847 – Rearrangement of internal
layout gave 200 extra seats
1852 – Two widows given by High
Bailiff and Vicar General.
1864 – Major structural work. Church
extended eastwards, with new chancel, organ chamber,
reredos and vestries.
1865 – Large window given by Henry
Bloom Noble.
1872 – New font given by Miss Moore.
1878 - St George's became parish in
its own right.
1880 – Church redecorated. Pilasters
added. Floor tiled, gas lights added.
1882 – St George's became temporary
pro-cathedral.
1898 – All Saints (as a curacy to St
George's) opened.
1909 – Major improvements. Church
extended to the east, re-roofed, vestries added.
1910 – Window donated in memory of
Samuel Harris
1922 – North aisle Memorial Chapel
constructed.
1934 – Church hall completed.
1957 – St Barnabas' closed, and
parish merged with St George's.
1999 – Ring of 10 bells installed,
subsequently increased to 12
2003 – New
Harrison & Harrison Organ installed.
2007 – Major
re-ordering of the interior: Removal of 130 seats in the
nave to create free space.
Chancel
extended westwards to accommodate a nave altar, with
matching pulpit and font.
Lady Chapel
enlarged, refurbished and an aumbry installed.
EARLY HISTORY
The history of St George’s church,
particularly in its beginnings, has been inextricably
linked with the social and economic history of Douglas
and the Isle of Man, as well as the Island’s association
with Britain.
Early in the eighteenth century the
Bishop of Sodor and Man, Thomas Wilson, was greatly
concerned that Douglas had no church. In 1708 he was
instrumental in having St Matthew’s built in the market
place alongside the quay in what was then the main
population and trading area of the town. Wilson, who
strongly condemned the smuggling and running trade in
the Isle of Man, did not foresee the prosperity that
this ‘trade’ would bring and the increase and spread it
would cause to the population, then about 800, of the
Island’s largest town.
By 1761 Bishop Wilson’s successor,
Mark Hildesley, realised that St Matthew’s was becoming
woefully inadequate for the town whose population had
now increased to approximately 2,000. He preached an
earnest sermon in favour of church extension in
Douglas. At the same time, the gentry and the merchants
of the prospering town - a result of the ‘trade’ - had
ambitions. They were finding St Matthew’s crowded and
unsuitable for their spiritual and social needs. On 26
October 1761 Philip Moore, Hugh Cosnahan, William
Quayle, Peter John Heywood, John Christian, James Oates,
Richard Joynes, John Joseph Bacon, John Finch, John
Clarke, Robert Black and Robert Caesar requested an
interview with Bishop Hildesley to discuss the need for
‘a more commodious place for the public worship of God
in this town’. These gentlemen proposed that St
Matthew’s should be dissolved by an Act of Tynwald to
enable the Bishop to ‘make sale or otherwise dispose of
the same and the site thereof to defray the expenses
attending the erection’ of a new chapel. They proposed
that the stipend for the chaplain of St Matthew’s and
the emolument for his position as master of the Douglas
Day School should be transferred to the new chapel.
They also proposed that the owners of pews in the old
chapel, on transfer, should receive equal accommodation
in the new. They further proposed that a burial yard
should be purchased. As a result of this meeting, plans
for the new chapel went ahead, but not at the demise of
St Matthew’s; it survived.
A prime site, at Oates Land on the
hills to the north of the growing town and reached by a
rough road, was given as a gift by Philip Moore of the
Hills estate. Many people had undertaken to subscribe
to the erection of the new chapel, and by the end of
1761 the list of promises totalled £712. Additionally,
firm monetary donations had been ‘made by sundry well
dispos’d persons’. The Bishop had appointed trustees to
raise further subscriptions. One of these trustees was
Dr Richard Betham, the Crown’s customs officer in the
Isle of Man who later became the father-in-law of
Captain William Bligh of the ‘Bounty’
fame. On the strength of all this support, work began
on the new chapel-of-ease which would ecclesiastically
belong to the parish of Kirk Braddan.
The trustees were entirely
responsible for the construction of the chapel, ordering
timber, stones and other items, employing workmen,
receiving progress reports, gathering in money and
making arrangements to ensure strict economy. An
overseer was employed to superintend the work. Whilst
no architect’s plans of the chapel are known to exist,
it seems that the design was possibly based on St James’
in Whitehaven of which the overseer had been instructed
to make a copy drawing. Building stone was hauled in
carts from Bank’s Howe on the northern outskirts of
Douglas and the Nunnery Howe on the nearby southern
hills of the town. Limestone was burnt in a kiln
situated in the chapel grounds. A schooner was
chartered to bring timber to the Island from Riga in
Latvia. Construction work went on for the next four
years, with the roof and part of the internal timber
work finished. At this stage all the money collected
had been spent.
Then in 1765 came disaster. The Isle
of Man, with its low customs duties, was ideally centred
in the Irish Sea for use as a base for legitimately
receiving goods in large ships and dispatching them in
smaller ones, to be then smuggled into neighbouring
secluded British harbours. The Island believed itself
to be outside the jurisdiction of Britain. But it
became obvious that the British Government would have to
take some drastic action against this ‘trade’ which was
so adversely affecting the Imperial coffers. It made a
proposal to John Murray, third Duke of Atholl and feudal
lord of the Isle of Man, ‘for the Purchase of the Isle
of Man, preventing that pernicious and illicit Trade
which is at present carried on to the great diminution
and detriment of the Revenues of this Kingdom’. The
Revestment Act of 10 May 1765 returned the sovereignty
of the Isle of Man to the British Crown, importantly
together with control of the customs duties. The Act
dealt a blow not only to smuggling but to legitimate
trade in general. The merchants of Douglas were
devastated. ‘The sale of the Island,’ wrote one of the
chapel trustees, ‘which put a period to our opulence,
put a period to everything that depended upon it.’
Concern about their businesses resulted in many of the
people who had pledged financial support for the new
chapel to withdraw their offers. The building work was
brought to a stop with outstanding debts. The Island
suffered directly after Revestment. Few legal
importations were made, smuggling into the Island
became prevalent, the trading towns became almost
deserted, the rents of houses and lands fell to
one-third of their former value, and very many of the
Manx people were obliged to leave the Island to ‘seek
their bread in foreign lands’.
It was Bishop Richard Richmond who
revived the chapel project ten years later in 1775. He
appointed new trustees to again open subscription and
donation lists to compound the old debts and finance the
new work. The appeal was even successfully extended to
Britain where £418 1s 0d was received from numerous
wealthy persons, including three archbishops, thirteen
bishops, the Duke and Duchess of Atholl, six other
dukes, six earls and others of the nobility and gentry.
All this success meant that the work could be resumed in
1776 with a more extensive scheme proposed.
During its construction the chapel
was presented with a silver communion service marked
‘Douglas’s New Chapel 1777’. Tradition has it that its
donor was John Murray, fourth Duke of Atholl. The
service consists of two chalices, one large paten, two
small patens, a flagon and a spoon, and is engraved with
the sacred initials ‘I H S’, the cross and three nails
set in a halo.
Before the chapel could be finished a
fresh calamity occurred. Bishop Richmond died in 1780.
His estate was insolvent, and the money collected for
the chapel could not be distinguished from his private
finances. The unfortunate trustees had already given
money to the Bishop on personal bonds. As the building
was almost completed, they were now committed too far to
stop. They agreed to pay any accounts themselves,
though, not unnaturally, they thought ‘it just and
reasonable that we shou’d charge interest until we shall
be reimbursed’.
Accounts rendered in the latter
stages of the construction reveal some interesting
facts. Deal boards cost 1s (5p) each, nails 10d (4p)
and 2s per hundred, sprigs 4d per hundred, brass curtain
rings 3d per dozen, stock locks 2s each, a hand lock 9d,
white and yellow paint 6d per lb., linseed oil 6d per
pint, turpentine 10d per pint, a paint brush and pot 8d,
a large sweeping brush and stall 1s 10d, crimson duffoil
10s per yard, long lawn 2s 10d per yard, dark green
cloth 6s 6d per yard, a tablecloth 7s 9d, tape 1/2d and
1d per yard and fine large-post paper 1s 6d per quire.
The wages of carpenters were 1s 6d per day and cartage
for the use of a horse was 5s per day. John Ware & Son
were paid 6s 8d for advertising the seats. John Ware
was the printer who published some parts of the Manx
Bible and the Manx Hymns.
The chapel was finally completed on
24 November 1780. The size of the chapel, big enough to
seat 1,300, was more impressive than its architecture.
There was a single roof, the marks of which can still be
seen in the tower. A semicircular apse at the east end
contained the chancel, with an ‘ear’ in which the
chaplain’s family sat. At the west end it had a
dominant plain square tower with little ornamentation.
However, the interior was well made and had correctly
proportioned fluted wood columns, lead Ionic capitals,
Renaissance cornices and woodwork.
It is clear that the congregation was
to be drawn largely from the wealthy classes of
Douglas. Early seating plans reveal that the pews were
mostly purchased for twenty years or auctioned on a
seven year lease. This income was crucial in continuing
to clear debts and finance the building of the chapel.
Only some thirty seats were reserved free for the poor;
the majority of the poorer worshippers of Douglas were
to be left at St Matthew’s. Later plans show that pews
were reserved for the Lord Bishop, the Duke of Atholl,
the Governor-in-Chief, the Lieutenant Governor and
members of the military serving at the Douglas fort and
stationed in nearby barracks (hence the nearby Fort
Street and Barrack Street).
The new chapel, now called St
George’s, was consecrated by the new Bishop, George
Mason, on 29 September 1781. It has been suggested that
the choice of patron saint may have been a compliment to
the Bishop. The consecration ceremony was followed by a
meal for distinguished guests. The bill for the
proceedings included 21 bottles of red port wine: two
guineas (10p each bottle); 19 dinners: £1 8s 6d in all
(8p each person); and porter and ale: 9s. On the same
day as the consecration, the first baptism in the chapel
took place, that of John, son of Thomas and Isabel
Cannell.
The Bishop had appointed the first
chaplain of St George’s, the Rev Charles Crebbin, who
was also vicar of Santon. The Bishop reserved to
himself this right, but it was challenged by the vicar
of Braddan, the Rev Thomas Woods. Woods considered
that, as St George’s ecclesiastically belonged to the
parish of Kirk Braddan, he should make the appointment
and had consequently nominated his nephew the Rev Julius
Cosnahan. The matter was referred to the Metropolitan
Court of York. But the lengthy suit was never completed
due to the death of both the Bishop and the vicar of
Braddan.
Interestingly, the first marriage at
St George’s was that of the Rev Crebbin to Miss Jane
Callow on 25 October 1786. The Rev Crebbin’s original
annual stipend was £80. Later records show that the
chaplain received £100 per annum, the organist £15, the
clerk £10 and the sexton £5.
ORGAN
The merchants of Douglas, finding
themselves not permanently ruined by the 1765 Revestment
Act, set up another subscription list some years later
to help the chapel by making ‘a present to it of an
elegant organ’. William Crebbin, one of the trustees,
had an acquaintance in Dublin named John Parkinson.
Parkinson knew a William Ruxton who had for sale an
organ which had belonged to ‘a musical society which
subsisted here’. It was known that the Messiah
had been first performed by Handel in 1742 in Dublin.
Tradition has had it that this organ was linked with
Handel’s rehearsals for that performance, but this is
almost certainly not so as its installation was
seemingly not completed until after his performance and
departure from Dublin.
The organ was purchased in November
1778 for £100 (Irish) and shipped to the Island in early
1780 at a cost of £12 8s 0d, to be fitted in the west
gallery of the now nearly completed St George’s. It was
rebuilt by Michael Heathcote at a cost of eleven
guineas. It stood more than twelve feet high by nine
feet wide, and included an open diapason, a stopped
diapason, a principal, a flute, a sexaquialter, a
cornet, a clarion bass, a trumpet treble and a hautboy.
The organ is said to be possibly the
first organ to be installed in a Manx church. It became
a great centre of attention, so much so that the farmers
and their families who came into Douglas for the
Saturday market would stay overnight to the Sunday to
hear ‘tuneful notes of praise pealing forth from a piece
of mechanism so marvellous in their eyes’. At this time
there was amongst the military personnel stationed in
Douglas a private soldier ‘gifted with a bass voice that
Lablanche himself might have envied’, and the combined
attractions of the organ and the primo basso drew
such congregations that the church was often filled to
overflowing.
One of the chapel’s later organists
was Charles Barrow, maternal grandfather of Charles
Dickens and a fugitive debtor from England, who lived in
Douglas from 1810 until his death in 1826.
In 1833 the organ was rebuilt and a
second manual and pipes were added. When the chancel
was rebuilt in 1864, a new organ, retaining some of the
original pipes, was installed by the London firm of Gray
& Davidson. In 1885 a new organ screen was erected in
memory of the late wife of the Rev Beauchamp George. In
1893 the organ was again rebuilt, this time by Alex
Young of Manchester, and a third manual was added. In
1952 a new organ with an electric pneumatic action,
console and blower was built by Jardine of Manchester,
possibly still retaining some of the original pipes. In
2003 a new organ and pipe-work, built by Harrison and
Harrison in their specially designed workshop just
outside Durham, were installed.
PRINCIPAL
CHANGES
St George’s was closed for a time
during 1828 whilst certain internal improvements were
carried out. These included work on the galleries and a
new vestry, as well as a new altar place, Bishop’s
throne, pulpit and reading desk.
In 1844, with Douglas’ population
having mushroomed to about 9,000, various options for
structural alterations to enlarge St George’s were
considered but not acted upon. They included the
possible construction of wings to the existing galleries
and the erection of a gallery at the west end of the
church which would have been reached by an exterior
staircase. These various proposals were ‘principally
for the accommodation of the poor’.
By 1847 a
rearrangement of the interior layout of the chapel gave
nearly 200 extra seats for the poor. However benevolent
the proposed and actual improvements were intended to
be, the class segregation system continued to be very
prevalent.
It was not until 1864, with the
population of Douglas now further increased to
approximately 13,000, that any major structural
alterations were processed. The old semicircular apse
was pulled down and the church extended eastwards to
contain a chancel, a reredos, vestries and organ
chambers. The only stained glass in the church up until
this date - two large windows given in 1852 by the High
Bailiff and Vicar General, Samuel Harris, in memory of
his father who had been a trustee - were
reset in the
new chancel. In 1865 a large central window was
presented by Henry Bloom Noble, Douglas’ greatest
benefactor. The white Caen stonework of the reredos was
by Charles Swinnerton and the tablets were decorated by
John Nicholson; both men were from Douglas. A new font
was provided in 1872 by Miss Moore; the original font
was deposited with the Manx Museum some years later.
When in 1863 Governor Henry Loch had
taken up his appointment in the Isle of Man on behalf of
the Lord of Man (the British Crown), he was immediately
determined that the Island should equip itself for the
recently established tourist industry which was
replacing low customs duties as the main source of
fiscal income. One of his immediate efforts was
directed towards the provision of deep-water landing
facilities for steamers at Douglas through the
replacement of the breakwater and the construction of
Victoria Pier. The new harbour at Douglas made it the
principal port of the Isle of Man, so much so that in
1869 it became the Island’s new capital, taking over
from Castletown. The redesign of lower Douglas was a
major priority for Loch. He inaugurated the building of
Loch Promenade on land reclaimed from the foreshore.
Over the next few years terraces of hotels were erected,
with the sale of the plots paying for the construction
of the promenade. Associated with the promenade work,
the construction of Victoria Street provided a link
between old Douglas and its new uptown suburbs. This
new main thoroughfare, leading from Loch Promenade and
connecting with Prospect Hill, passed close to St
George’s church which was now in the centre of a busy
commercial and residential Douglas. Here, private
residences such as those in Mona Street and Albert
Street were being converted into holiday accommodation,
thereby considerably increasing the church’s summer
congregations.
The recognition of the importance of
Douglas was reflected on St George’s, which became a
parish in its own right and achieved church status on 28
January 1878. In 1880 a considerable sum of money was
collected for repairs and redecoration of the church.
The chancel was richly ornamented with pilasters, the
aisles and chancel were tiled, gas fittings were
installed (the remains of which still exist), new stone
window frames replaced the rotten wooden ones and three
of the side aisle windows had stained glass installed.
St George’s became the temporary pro-cathedral of the
diocese of Sodor and Man in 1882. All diocesan and
national services were held there, including
enthronements of the Lord Bishops.
In 1892, due to the difficulty
experienced in accommodating the large congregations
which were swelled by holidaymakers, the Rev Robert
Baron began holding the Sunday morning service outside
in the churchyard during the summer months.
At a diocesan conference in 1897 it
was decided that a new church was needed to serve the
population of the new upper part of Douglas. All
Saints, on Alexander Drive, was built as a curacy to St
George’s and was opened in 1898. Difficulties regarding
freehold prevented a permanent church being consecrated,
but did not prevent the licensing of a temporary
church. All Saints ‘temporary’ church would eventually
be replaced by a new permanent church in 1967.
An extensive scheme of renovation for
St George’s had been decided upon in 1896. £1,500 was
raised at a very grand and profitable bazaar held at the
Palace on Douglas promenade the following year. But it
was not until 1908, prompted by Bishop Thomas Drury,
that the matter of renovation was taken up in earnest
with further money raising schemes in place. It appears
that Bishop Drury was planning that St George’s would
become the cathedral church of the diocese.
Considerable extensions and improvements were made
during 1909-10 when the church was closed for several
months. It was extended again at the east end to
contain a new narrower chancel constructed four feet off
the ground to carry the extension over existing graves.
It was re-roofed with separate roofs for the nave and
the two galleries. Additional vestries were provided.
Stalls were built for the Bishop, the Archdeacon and the
four canons. The cost of renovation was £6,413. The
architects and builders were James Cowle & Sons. At
this time a new pulpit, in the form of a cross, was
given in memory of Captain William Kermode, one time
Commodore of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. The
church was reopened on 5 May 1910 when Bishop Drury
dedicated it in the presence of Archbishop Lang of
York. The population of Douglas was now approximately
21,000.
The various men’s clubs associated
with the church had played football in the late 1800s,
but it was not until 1919 that St George’s Association
Football Club was founded. During its early years the
club’s famous battle cry of ‘Fine day and the vicar
out!’ centred around the Rev William Charles Jordan, an
amateur England international who played for West
Bromwich Albion.
The present church hall at the end of
Hill Street was built as a community centre and Sunday
School and was completed in 1934.
The movement of population further
away from the lower Douglas area caused a decline in the
support of St Barnabas’ in Fort Street, so the church
was closed in 1957, and the union of the benefices and
parishes of St George’s and St Barnabas’ occurred.
In 1969 the whole church interior was
redecorated. Dykes Bower, Church Architect for
Westminster Abbey, was invited to suggest the best
scheme. He recommended reverting as far as possible to
the original Georgian style of decoration. The walls,
the pillars and the old pitch pine organ screen at the
rear of the church were painted off-white with the slabs
and flutings picked out in gold leaf.
For all but its recent history, the
church’s main source of income was raised by worshippers
and supporters paying pew rents. By the late 1930s this
income was about £150 annually, in the 1960s it stood at
about £75, and was finally ended in 1982.
WINDOWS AND
MEMORIALS
The original Harris windows still
remain in the chancel along with the Noble central
window which is now flanked by two windows donated in
1910 in memory of her parents by the daughter of Samuel
Harris and his wife.
In 1922 a memorial chapel was
constructed in the north aisle in memory of the men of
St George’s who fell in the Great War. A memorial
volume records their names. In 1929 the chapel’s oak
panelling, floor and marble tiling were given by Frank
Cowin in memory of his father, William Cowin, a
churchwarden for sixteen years. In the same year a
matching baptistry together with a font and cover were
given by Arthur Cooper, another churchwarden.
In the memorial chapel is a
stained-glass window, again in memory of churchwarden
William Cowin. The next window in the north aisle is in
memory of Eleanor and Philip Elliott who devoted their
lives to charitable work in the town of Douglas.
Captain Francis Rhodes Hartwell RN, son of the Rev
Francis Broderick Hartwell, is commemorated in the next
window. The next memorial window is for Laurence
Adamson, formerly Her Majesty’s Seneschal (collector of
Crown rents on the Island), who died in 1877. The final
window is dedicated to Frederick Peter Johns.
In the baptistry is a memorial window
to Mrs Aitken, widow of John Hobson Aitken, Chief Clerk
and Treasurer of the Isle of Man. The next window in
the south aisle is in memory of the Rev Beauchamp
George’s first wife, Annie. Another window is erected
to the memory of Rowley Hill, Bishop of Sodor and Man,
who died in 1887. The next window is dedicated to John
Curphey, Clerk and Scripture Reader for 45 years. The
final window is in honour of the Diamond Jubilee of
Queen Victoria. A portrait of the Queen is seen in the
upper portion of the window.
Over the nave door, where the
original organ was sited, is the organ screen memorial
to Annie George.
In the west porch is a war memorial
plaque brought from St Barnabas’ church. The
characteristic lettering on this plaque is by Archibald
Knox, the Manx artist of international standing who also
famously produced Celtic influenced Art Nouveau designs
for Liberty’s of London. The arms of the Duke of Atholl
were once emblazoned on a shield in the porch.
In the north gallery is a memorial
tablet to the Manx scientist and naturalist Edward
Forbes who was born in 1815 in a house on the site of
the present Douglas Town Hall. He was the foremost
authority of his day on botany, geology and marine
zoology. He was elected president of the Geological
Society in 1853, an office never held by so young a man,
but he died in 1854. The upper part of his memorial
tablet is triangular and has a pendent decoration
somewhat resembling foliage, and enclosed in the apex is
Professor Forbes’ portrait. Also in this gallery is a
curious wall tablet to the memory of Jane De La Pryme
with her age changed from 22 to 44 without any sign of
concealment.
There are many other plaques, tablets
and memorials on walls around the church.
BELLS
Claims for expenses for the new
chapel incurred between July 1781 and September 1782
included a bill for £4 12s 10d from John Smith,
blacksmith, for ‘stocking’ the bell.
A replacement bell for St George’s
arrived on the Island by the steamer Queen of the
Isle on 8 February 1842. It was three feet in
diameter and weighed ten hundredweight, and was placed
in the steeple ‘no doubt to the infinite satisfaction of
the congregation in lieu of the miserable apology for
the “churchgoing bell”, with which they have been so
long annoyed’.
On 19 April 1891 new tubular bells at
St George’s were dedicated by Bishop John Bardesley.
Captain John Caesar Quayle, the then church treasurer,
reported:
We are rejoiced at the very hearty
response which has been made to the appeal in connection
with the proposed peal of tubular bells. Mr Johnson,
who has taken much kindly interest in raising the
necessary funds may well feel gratified at the results
of his efforts. We must not expect that a peal of
tubular bells, costing £280, be equal to some of those
old peals of bells which are to be found in both city
and country church. A peal similar to those some of us
are accustomed to would cost £1,500 to £2,000; and if we
had them, we would probably very soon bring our old
tower to the ground. These we are getting will be very
nice indeed and will come with a great pleasant sound to
the many lovers of St George’s Church, and I’m sure we
will never regret getting them.
A single church bell was installed in
the tower in 1957 in memory of Edward Ewart John Corkill
by his church and Masonic friends.
The present bells were installed in
December 1999 as a Millennium project. The existing
bell was incorporated as the sixth bell in what was
initially a new ring of ten. As there was so much space
in the tower, the new ring of ten was designed as the
back ten of a ring of twelve as it was inevitable that
some day the ring would be augmented. Sooner than
anticipated the church received two unexpected
donations, and the ring was augmented to twelve by the
addition of two trebles in the early part of 2001. At
the same time, two ringers donated the cost of replacing
the 1957 bell with a new bell with the result that St.
George’s has a homogeneous ring of twelve modern bells.
CHURCHYARD
The original consecration order of
1781 expressly condemned and prohibited the practice of
burying within the chapel building. A burial area
within the churchyard was, therefore, an early part of
the scheme. But the churchyard remained unenclosed for
many years, no legal title to the land having been
established. In 1809 John Moore - who had married into
the Moores of the Hills family, the original owners of
the site - granted title to the land in exchange for two
seats in the chapel and a family plot in the
churchyard. The churchyard was to be enclosed by a wall
no less than five feet high.
St George’s churchyard was
essentially the ‘field of the stranger’. Most Manx
people who died in Douglas had a right to burial in the
parishes of Braddan or Onchan. There are, of course,
many Manx interments in St George’s, but the majority of
names to be seen on the tombstones are English. They
include retired half-pay officers, doctors, shopkeepers,
artisans and impoverished gentlefolk escaping their
creditors. They had flocked to the Island because of
its low taxes and cost of living and found their last
resting place in St George’s. Descent from the nobility
is not infrequently claimed on the headstones, and at
least fifty graves are those of persons with military
titles or linked to the same. These were the leaders of
‘polite society’ in Douglas. There are a number of
graves of nonconformists and catholics in the
churchyard.
Whilst the chapel had been
consecrated back in 1781, the churchyard had not.
Bishop Mason had refused to do so because of loan
repayment problems. Although notice was given a number
of times in the Manx Advertiser during the latter
part of 1825 that Bishop George Murray was planning to
consecrate the churchyard, it did not happen. Despite
the churchyard being on unconsecrated ground, burials
took place there up until 1862. At this time, Bishop
Horatio Powys had had a number of private and public
rows with the chaplain, the Rev William Hawley, and the
wardens of St George’s over various issues, including
the continuing churchyard debts. He consequently
refused to allow any more burials. A meeting of seat
holders was held to protest. They subsequently
discussed the matter with the Bishop, and as a result he
consecrated the ground on 7 July 1862 and burials
continued.
The first burial - of Matthias Kelly,
a shipbuilder - took place on 9 April 1784. The grave,
near the south-west corner of the church, is marked by
an elaborate and interesting headstone which was erected
on 21 October 1841. As well as giving details of the
interments, it also gives a brief local history,
‘contrasting the state of the Isle of Man then, to what
it is now’. There are inscriptions in Greek, Latin and
Manx. Above the lettering there is a pictorial
representation, illustrating a text in Manx, of the
Judgement Day: ‘Bee’n cayrn er ny hellym, as bee ny
merriu troggit seose’ (‘The trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised’).
On its reverse side the stone refers
to the coming of cholera. Victims of the cholera
epidemics that hit the Island in 1832 and again in 1833
lie under a large open space in the grassed area north
of the churchyard, marked by a small plain cross bearing
simply the words ‘Cholera 1832-33’. This mass grave
contains the bodies of 34 and 86 victims of the disease
for the two years. The cholera outbreaks were later
vividly described by T E Brown, the Manx national poet,
in The Doctor:
For, if it’s the cholera that’s in,
You’re wantin’ all your strength to begin
And courage to that. Aw, ye better belave
Or send the clerk to dig the grave.
Tom Brown was born in 1830. His
father, the Rev Robert Brown, held the curacy of St
Matthew’s which was situated in the narrow streets of
Douglas where defective water supplies and insanitary
conditions made it a breeding ground for disease. In
1832 Tom’s godfather, the Rev Thomas Howard who was
vicar of Kirk Braddan, moved to St George’s. He offered
Robert Brown the curacy of Braddan, well out of town in
the open countryside. This turned out to be an
extremely fortuitous move in view of the cholera
epidemic that would hit the Island later that year.
During the dreadful cholera
outbreaks, over 200 related deaths occurred in the
Island. The victims and the survivors were nursed
through the care and love of those who risked their own
lives. One name that shines out above all others was
Eleanor ‘Nellie’ Brennan (1792-1859). She had been left
an orphan at the age of 16 and survived by taking in
washing and through her strong Christian faith. When
the cholera epidemics took their hold she paid daily
visits to the victims’ homes as well as the cholera
hospital on the outskirts of the town to nurse, clean
and feed the patients. She was a great believer in
hygiene. Although unable to read or write, she was
appointed the first matron of the new hospital in Fort
Street in 1850. Nellie is buried in a simple grave on
the south side of the churchyard.
A further link with the cholera
epidemic and St George’s was made when Margaret Squibb,
a wealthy widow and a victim of the 1833 outbreak, left
her property in Mucklesgate (the earliest surviving
recorded street name in Douglas) and Cambrian Place to
St George’s to be used as a home for widows.
Near to the cholera burials are many
unmarked burials of unknown drowning victims whose
bodies were washed ashore. There is only one memorial,
a simple cross similar to the cholera one, in memory of
the victims of the shipwreck of the Minerva in
1809.
Another grave linked with the sea is
that of the campaigner Sir William Hillary (1771-1847),
who was the founder of the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution. He argued for the building of the Tower of
Refuge on Conister Rock in Douglas bay as a place of
refuge for victims of shipwrecks (the total cost of the
tower was £255, of which £181 was obtained by public
subscription and Hillary paid the balance). He also
called for the reform of the unfair import licence
system that operated in the Island. In later years
Hillary lost most of his money in a bank failure. His
tomb is near the east end of the church, on the side of
the entrance path.
Pierre Henri Josef Baume (1797-1875)
was a rich refugee from France who had lived a very
unusual early life, including possible incest, murder
and infanticide. He had been an international courier
and double-agent, but in his latter years lived as a
miser and recluse in The Arches on South Quay. When he
died he left his fortune of £50,000 in trust to be used
for educational and charitable purposes in the Island.
His grave is covered by a magnificent monument and is
also near the east end of the church.
Members of the clergy of St George’s
buried in the churchyard include Francis Broderick
Hartwell, William Hawley, Beauchamp George, Robert
Benjamin Baron (who, according to his headstone, was
‘known to many as Great Heart’) and Charles
Vincent Stockwood, Archdeacon of Man. Thomas Crellin,
the bellringer and organblower at St George’s for 35
years, has a memorial on the south side of the
churchyard which is very tiny but distinctive as it is
surmounted by the stone figure of a bell. Other burials
connected with the church include its first sexton,
James Cunningham and one of its choirmasters, J. B.
Mason.
Head teachers of St George’s School
(also variously known as the Douglas Daily and Sunday
School, the National School, the Lancastrian School and
St George’s National School), James Cretney, Miss Ann
Crellin and Henry Nicholls, are also buried in the
churchyard. The original school was erected (at a cost
of £1,120) in Athol Street in 1810 and was supported by
voluntary contributions. Its 1841 annual report notes
that there were 160 boys and 160 girls attending the
school to be taught reading, writing and arithmetic.
The boys were additionally taught geography ‘as may be
useful to them in after life, should they be called, as
many of them are, to visit other and distant lands as
seamen or otherwise’. The girls learnt needlework ‘and
are thereby fitted to fulfil their stations, as useful
members of families, or even if necessary to earn a
livelihood for themselves by that means’. With the
school overflowing, another one in Barrack Street was
opened in 1839 for younger children directly connected
with the church.
St George’s is the only church in Douglas to have a
churchyard attached to it. It contains many interesting
graves. The Isle of Man Family History Society has
compiled a detailed list of the remaining decipherable
monumental inscriptions.
CLERGY
| |
Chaplains |
|
|
|
| |
|
Charles
Crebbin |
1781 |
|
| |
|
John Christian |
1817 |
|
| |
|
Benjamin
Philpot |
1827 |
|
| |
|
Thomas
Howard |
1832 |
|
| |
|
Francis Broderick Hartwell
|
1836 |
Member of the House of
Keys 1825-27 |
| |
|
Edward
Forbes |
1847 |
|
| |
|
William Hawley |
1859 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Vicars |
|
|
|
| |
|
Henry
Armstrong Hall |
1877 |
|
| |
|
J. E.
Beauchamp George |
1880 |
|
| |
|
Robert
Benjamin Baron |
1891 |
|
| |
|
John
Campbell |
1907 |
|
| |
|
Robert Daniel
Kermode |
1908 |
|
| |
|
William
Charles Jordan |
1919 |
|
| |
|
J.
Talbot-Easter |
1925 |
|
| |
|
Charles
Vincent Stockwood |
1927 |
|
| |
|
J. White |
1948 |
|
| |
|
Percival
Charles Halls Matthews |
1953 |
|
| |
|
David A.
Willoughby |
1980 |
|
| |
|
Brian H. Partington |
1996 |
|
| |
|
Brian Smith |
2005 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
SOURCES
Books
-
Clague, E., and Moore, C, The
Ball Keeps Rolling - One Hundred Years of the Isle
of Man Football Association, (1990)
-
Cringle, T., Here is the News,
An Illustrated Manx History, (1992)
-
Cringle, T., Here is the News,
A Chronicle of the 20th Century, (1999)
-
Forrest, K. A., Manx
Recollections - Memorials of Eleanor Elliott,
(1894)
-
Fraser, M., In Praise of
Manxland, (1935)
-
Gelling, Canon John, A History
of the Manx Church 1698-1911, (1998)
-
Gill, W. W., editor, Isle of Man
Natural History and Antiquarians Society,
Proceedings, vol v, no ii, P. W. Caine.
Early history of St George’s
Church, Douglas, (1946-50)
-
Moore, A. W., A History of the
Isle of Man, (1900, reprinted 1977)
-
Kniveton, Gordon N., Forster,
Robert E., Kelly, Robert, Slack, Stuart, and Cowin,
Frank, Douglas Centenary, 1896-1996, (1996)
-
Qualtrough, J. K. and Scatchard,
W. J., That Island, (1965)
-
Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, T.
E. Brown - Poems, (1952)
-
Slack, S., Streets of Douglas
- Old and New, (1996)
-
Stenning, E. H., Portrait of
the Isle of Man, (1958)
-
Stowell, B., Labours of Love -
A Manx Story, being a Memorial of Eleanor Brennan,
(1859, reprinted 1988)
-
Thwaites, W., History and
Directory of the Isle of Man, (1863)
-
Webber, D. T., An Illustrated
Encyclopedia of the Isle of Man, (1997)
-
Winterbottom, D., T. E. Brown
- His Life and Legacy, (1997)
-
Johnson’s Illustrated Guide,
(1858) - MNHL Ref: F67 J5/8
-
The Manx Church Magazine,
(June and July 1891)- MNHL Ref: L6/MC/1
-
Quiggin’s Guide,
(1836) - MNHL Ref: F67 Q2/1
-
St George’s Church Organ
Appeal, (2002)
Academic Studies
-
Bazin, F., PhD Thesis, Music
in the Isle of Man up to 1896, (1995)
Manuscripts, Manx National
Heritage Library
Anon., History of St
George’s Parish, (circa 1911-19)
Cowin, H. S.,
Bi-centenary of St George’s Church, (1981)
Craine, L., St George’s
and St Barnabas’ Church, Douglas, Isle of Man,
(1974)
-
Anon., Notes and extracts on
St George’s Church, Douglas - MNHL Ref: MD41,
Accession No: 5934
-
Crebbin, C., Rev, Letters - MNHL
Ref: 10321
-
Gawne, C. W., St George’s
Church, a ‘draft’ history, (2000) - MNHL Ref:
MD41, Accession No: 5934
-
Gell, Canon, Papers - MNHL Ref:
9507 (Box 3 of 18)
-
Oates, Edith, Papers - MNHL Ref:
1989/1-28C
-
Short, Thomas Vowler, Bishop of
Sodor and Man, St George’s, Douglas, (1844) -
MNHL Ref: MS1219A
St George’s Church records
Various original and copied records
covering parts of the history of the church. 1897
Bazaar programme - coloured front cover and many photos
inside. Previously in boxes in vicar’s vestry, now in
Manx National Heritage Library.
Newspapers
-
IOM Weekly Times,
30 January 1932, ‘The graves in St George’s
churchyard’
-
IOM Weekly Times,
7 January 1933, ‘The early history of St
George’s Church’
-
Manx Advertiser,
15 September and 3 November 1825, public notice
-
Manx Advertiser,
19 June 1828, editorial
-
Manx Liberal,
12 February 1842, report
-
Manx Sun,
12 February 1842, report
-
Manx Sun,
July 1863
-
Manx Sun,
18 November 1865, restoration report
|
|
