Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor
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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
It is difficult to establish with any great certainty the progress made by the Orange Order in setting up benefit lodges in the Isle of Man because of the infrequent and minimal accounts in the newspapers, the complete absence of surviving records of their operation on the Island and their failure to lodge either in the memory of the living or in the annals of the Manx National Heritage Folk Life Survey. The earlier group below are from a period of much anti-Catholic agitation, in Douglas particularly and to a lesser extent, in the rest of the Island.
The second are from an ostensibly less troubled time, with less Protestant
propaganda in the newspapers, when Catholics were beginning to take their place
in public life. From time to time, however an account of the Orange ethic would
be published, which defined itself merely on the sectarian basis of its Protestant
committment and its anti-Catholicism.
The Douglas Orange Lodge opened in 1850 (Manx Sun 22 June 1850) is known
as no. 1044, the De Bentley Lodge, with 130 members, (Manx Sun 28 August
1852 presumably organised by G.F.A. de Bentley, Esq., G.M.C. de Bentley, Esq.,
of Ellenbrook, Braddan, near Douglas, Thos. W. C. de Bently, Esq., Gordon House,
Peel and B.P. Boughton, Esq., Strathallan Crescent, Douglas. The Lodge publicised
its high moral tone in the Manx Sun of 19 April 1851 and in 1854 appointed
Dr. Spittal to the post of surgeon (Manx Sun, 4 March 1854).
The Manx Sun of 28 August 1852 also describe the opening of the Cranmar
Lodge, no.1095. at Mr. Curphey's Temperance Hotel, Douglas which 'enrols upwards
of 40 members', 'the second lodge opened on this Island.
Grand Earl of Eldon Lodge, No.1 Castletown
District Loyal Orange Lodge, 91. Meets third Wednesday, February, May, August
and November. District Secretary, W.T.Pickett, 32 Allan Street, Douglas.
Total Abstainers Orange Lodge, 736
Ellan Vannin, 750. Meets second Wednesday. Secretary, J.K. Corris, 28 Allan
Street.
Star of Mona, 764. Meets fourth Thursday. Secretary, W.T. Pickett, 32 Allan
Street.
Royal Black Preceptory Knights of Mona,406. Meets second Thursday, W.C.Clucas,
41, Circular Road.
Female Loyal Orange Lodge, 6. Meets third Tuesday, Secretary, Mrs. J.Connor,
3 Allan Street.
Juvenile Female Lodge, 57. Meets third Wednesday. Superintendent Miss Simpson,
43 Peel Road.
Juvenile Male Lodge, 42. Meets fourth Wednesday. Superintendent, A.Cooper, 18
Hope Street.
NB. Mr. Pickett is District Secretary, to whom all communications should be
made.
...
...
The earlier groups of "Orange Boys" are recalled by High Bailiff Laughton in Chapter 7 of his Reminiscences of 1916 - the same 'Orange mob' and their threat to hang the Pope &c outside Roney's shop is recalled in the anonymous 1896 article on Old Douglas,
The meeting of the "Grand Lodge of the Loyal Orange Institution in Douglas" on the 4th July is recorded in the events of 1907
The 1908 Isle of Man Examiner Annual has entries for the second group, excluding the two female lodges.
Robert Curphey whose death in September 1909 was noted in the Manx Quarterly as a prominent member of the Orange Society in Douglas as well as a Wesleyan Methodist.
Un-named representatives of the Orange Lodges were included in those present at the opening of the Villa Marina in 1913.
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor |
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