1868 O/S plan showing location at junction of Queen St and North Quay
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
The Protestant, nonsectarian mission of the Bethel Union to the seamen and
people of Douglas was founded in 1848. The British Government assisted with
the provision of a disused brig in which services were held which lay at the
Tongue in Douglas Harbour. The mission later moved to a building near the harbour
which acted as a centre from which the Missionary visited the sailors in port
and the sick and dying in Douglas, and where the members were ministered to
by a Sunday school, a Band of Hope,and a branch of the British Women's Temperance
Association.
The fiftieth report, for 1897, records the work of the Town Missionary in some detail.
'Total number of visits paid during the year, 4,730. Of these 740 have been paid to vessels in the harbour, to sick and dying. 1,434; ordinary visits, 2,556.
Number of visits at which Scriptures were read, 1,338.
Number of indoor and outdoor meetings held, 624; with an average weekly attendance at all the meetings of about 650.
Number of tracts, &c., distributed 11,000.
Number of deaths brought under the notice of the Missionary, 80 - many of them leaving a bright testimony and going home triumphantly.
Number of hours worked in the Mission, 2490.'
1868 O/S plan showing location at junction of Queen St and North Quay
The Bethel mission hall was condemned as unsafe in 1897 and the congregation moved to the former Unitarian church in Circular Road, Douglas, where the Mission remained until its closure in 1964
M.N.H.L., Isle of Man newspapers, ut supra;
Annual Reports, 1897-1933,
see Cubbon, Bibliography,
vol. i, p.187.
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor |
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