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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
As the earliest records of the Society date only from 1897, the first basic preconditions for entry, youth, good health, and residence in Castletown, and the exaction of an entrance fee and monthly payments, are inferred by their historian, Robert Curphey. The status of craftsman/tradesman for member !s suggested by the Society's name. By 1897 the mature society had withstood the cyclical financial crises implicit in the financial structure of a mutual insurance society more than a generation old, having in 1861 employed an actuary to advise on essential reforms, and its members included most of the leading business men of the town. However the competition for members by the modernised, affiliated Castletown Loyal Hope and Anchor Lodge of Oddfellows, founded in 1859 and the loss of reserves in the failure of Dumbells Bank in 1900 seriously weakened the society, which struggled on to celebrate its centenary on the second of March,1913 and dissolved itself in the July following.
M.N.H.L., Isle of Man newspapers, passim
R.A.Curphey, 'The Castletown Artificers Friendly Society', ProcsIOMNHAS vol. VII, no. 2, (1966-68) pp. 164-180
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