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The Editor
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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
A Friendly Society of considerable specialisation, the Sisterly Society was a female-organised, mutual benefit association solely for the insurance of working women. Unlike the Female Association its original rules of association survive, its meetings are reported in the local newspapers and the activities of its leaders are often traceable through the property transactions, common to most Friendly Societies, by which they protected and increased their reserve funds. Run by an all-female committee of president, two stewardesses, one secretary salaried at £2 per annum, a committee of seven members and two wardens, with one male officer, the surgeon, with an unspecified salary determined annually at the anniversary meeting, all resident in Douglas, the Society offered membership to females from 15 to 30 years old residing within two miles of Douglas, of good character and 'free from any infirmity of body.' Once balloted for at the monthly meeting and approved, the new members paid a 5s. admission fee and thereafter a monthly payment of 9d.
After two years the fully-paid up member, if 'rendered incapable of following her calling by sickness or accidental misfortune (not to be understood to extend to any incapacity arising from a state of pregnancy) was entitled to 5s. per week for the first 12 weeks, and afterwards 3s. per week till her health be restored.' A member 'visited by sickness, lameness, &c., so that she cannot follow her usual employment', a great problem in an age without public transport, would, on writing to the stewardesses, be visited, the necessary first step to receiving benefit, if agreed.
Pregnancy being generally a repetitive and inevitable occurrence for married women it was perhaps considered neither appropriate nor expedient as an occasion for benefit, considering the pressure of other calls on the club's funds and the possibility of being helped by other, more specific lying-in charities. A moral judgment on pregnancy outside marriage ruled that any member having an illegitimate child after becoming a member would be excluded from the society. In amelioration of this stance, exclusion was not extended to members who had had 'the misfortune of having such a child prior to her admission in the Society, provided that the same disgrace does not happen to her after becoming a member.' If married and a member of three years standing, the death of either marriage partner entitled the survivor to a sum of not more than £5 to the widower and not more than £3 to the widow. a considerable measure of equality for a female Worker.
An anniversary meeting was held on the 1st of May every year. At this point the society diverged markedly from the male clubs, who set much store on the public display of marching in regalia with musical accompaniment to church services and the enjoyment of public dinners. The atmosphere of conviviality cementing the bonds of the male clubs is completely absent. The Sisterly Society met at its usual meeting room at 7o'clock solely for the purpose of of examining the state of the society's funds on pain of 1s. fine for absence.
An appreciation of the Society, printed in the Manx Advertiser of 14 June 1821, in its sixth year, recalls that 'Copying the benevolent views so prominent in the many useful institutions, formed by the male sex for the relief of the working classes, in this town, a number of respectable females established this society in 1816, that their members might enjoy similar benefits.
'Owing to the diffidence natural to the female character, this institution has been but little known, a circumstance to be regretted, as there is no doubt had it been better known it would have been more generally patronised by ladies of rank ' 'tis therefore the united desire of the members, that the nature of their compact, and the state of their funds be made known to the public; - as they conceive that all well-inclined females will feel interested in the support of a society so beneficial in its consequences to their sex. A few ladies of distinction have kindly yielded their patronage from the commencement, by being honorary members, while other respectable inhabitants of the town have taken an active part from the best motives ..... 'The funds are in a flourishing state, there being upwards of a hundred pounds at interest, although a great deal has been paid to the sick; so that the members have the pleasure of looking forward to an independence when sickness or the infirmities of age renders them unable to work. Had a society of this kind been formed fifty years ago, there would not be so many aged women seen going about the streets wretched paupers; they would now be enjoying the comfort of timely Savings.'
'As there can be no doubt of the excellence of this institution, It is sincerely hoped it will be more universally patronised by ladies of respectability, and that it might be more resorted to by those for whose benefit it was established.' The registered deeds of property transactions in the Isle of Man, starting in the late seventeenth century and ongoing, provide the names of some of the early presidents and senior stewardesses, who, for example, lent money by deed of mortgage on the security of property. Thus in May 1823, Frances Bridson, President, and Ann Lewin and Elizabeth Kelly, Stewardesses, lent £80 at 6% interest to Mrs. Esther Faragher on the security of a house in Duke Street, Douglas. The study of these records, combined with exhaustive genealogical research may well be able to establish some information on the relative social status and origin of the women who ran this eminently rational and efficient society, quite outside the realm of contemporally accepted female philanthrophy. The first Manx recorded agency by which the neglected underclass of working women were able to obtain some measure of economic security.
The question of the origin of the society, whether Manx-inspired or an import from England, remains to be answered
The records of the Workington Sisterly Society, at the Carlisle branch of the Cumbrian Record Office, which was founded in 1793, under the patronage of Mrs. Isabella Curwen, the wife of John Christian Curwen, MP and MHK, show similarity in many ways, but with a male display and conviviality in its public engagements quite absent from the Isle of Man Society. Although it is tempting, given the undoubted political influence of John Christian Curwen in the Island, to look for a Cumbrian inspiration, it is more likely to be derived from one of the high percentage of female Friendly societies of the North-West or Midlands, especially connected with the textile trade, or one of a similar number of female societies also found in the West Country, Scotland and London , as described in Anna Clark's Struggle for the Breeches; Gender and the making of the British Working Class, (California) 1997, pp.35 -39.
M.N.H.L. Isle of Man newspapers, ut supra et passim;
Rules and Orders to be observed by the Isle of Man Sisterly Society, instituted
First day of May, 1816, Douglas, 1830 [noted as re-printed - MM D126/3(b)];
Registered Deeds, 1680's-1911.
Anna Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches, Gender and the making of the British Working Class,(California),1970 -pp.34 -39
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor |
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