Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor
HTML Transcription
© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
The updated 1869 edition of the rules of the Society is the earliest surviving copy available at present. These record a standard form of Friendly Society organisation, with the usual range of formal and celebratory duties in a period of financial stability achieved by the periodic judicious alteration of fees according to age from the generally flat rate fees of the original constitution. Thus in 1859 this club of a largely rural parish boasted 196 members. By 1877, however, although 100 members walked in procession to the church for the usual Whit Sunday anniversary celebrations, a speaker remarked on the lack of young members,now more attracted to the Oddfellows where for young job-seekers, membership was transferable from the Island to the Unity's clubs in England.
In 1879 the Society was still active and listed in the 1879 Medical Aid and Poor Relief Commission Report. This is the last record of the Club's existence. No archives of the society have survived and the conclusion of the History of Kirk Maughold is that 'having served its declared purpose during a period of much distress and social change, it ceased to exist late in the last century.'
Rules and Orders of the Friendly Society of Kirk Maughold which was instituted the seventh day of May, 1814, (Douglas, 1869) [MM D126/3(w)]
J.W. and C.K. Radcliffe, A History of Kirk Maughold, (1979) pp.192-197
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor |
||