Methodist Personalities K...

 

Kaye, Robert WM TP 1796-1861

Was PM Travelling Preacher 1833-4 in Douglas Circuit. Master joiner which trade he seems to have returned to. Married Eleanor Cosnahan, 10 Aug 1826 after an elopement. Had 10 children.

Keig, Thomas PM LP 1833-1896

Prominent Primitive Methodist, Curry (who married one of his daughters) gives a brief biography.
Few have influenced Manx Primitive Methodism more favourably during this period than Thomas Keig. As a boy he was associated with our Society at Newtown, and became a member at the age of seventeen. In 1851 he came on full plan as a local preacher. He was then only eighteen. For business reasons he removed to Douglas, where he joined Wellington Street Society. It was in connection with Loch Parade, however, that his principal work was done. He was one of the founders, a trustee, designed the chapel, and superintended the building. He was for many years the choirmaster. His great forte lay in teaching, and under his care there flourished a theological class to which many young men owe their first impulse to a life of reading and thinking.

Mr. Keig possessed the artistic temperament to a high degree, which was well balanced by his scientific studies. His hobby of photography became his profession. He devoted himself to the study of astronomy and became so proficient as to be to be accepted a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He designed and constructed his observatory and moulded and built his own telescope.

His interests were wide, and his mind roamed over large fields of literature: theological, Biblical criticism, travel, exploration, and the best fiction.

He sought to make himself a worthy citizen, and for a quarter of a century was on the governing board of the town of Douglas. His aim was to make Douglas a clean, healthy, and.attractive town, and, as far as one man can, Mr. Keig succeeded.

He was associated with all the latest improvements: the Loch Promenade, the pulling down of the slums, and the making of new thoroughfares like Victoria Street, and the building of artisan dwellings.

The worth and work of Mr. Keig's life were fittingly recognised by his townsmen by making him the first.Mayor of Douglas, which honour, sad to relate, he enjoyed for only a brief period of six weeks. He was smitten with a fatal disease, and passed away amid-general lamentation. His funeral was one of the largest the Island had ever seen. All work was ceased, and the streets of Douglas and the roads to Braddan were lined with sympathetic spectators who had come from all parts of the Island to.pay their last respects.

Said one of his colleagues who had known him all his life, " I have never known a perfect Christian, but the man who has come nearest, to my knowledge, was Thomas Keig." He was a great Manxman; greater than anyone knew. No one could more effectively efface himself. A great heart who was always caring for others and fighting their battles

The insular position of the Island limits the Manxman's influence, but Mr. Keig was well known throughout the Manchester and Liverpool Districts, chiefly by his contributions to the Ministerial Association meetings.

We must not omit our tribute to Mrs. Keig [Sarah Sandford], to whom Mr. Keig owed so much. A woman of many noble gifts and rare culture, she threw herself into all her husband's interests, and for forty years was his companion and helpmeet.

Kelly, John PM LP

Report in Manx Liberal 1837:

DEEMSTER'S COURT, DOUGLAS, JUNE 12. Little business of real interest came before the Court this day, but some which afforded a little merriment. The case to which we allude was that of John Kelly, alias the Weeping Prophet, a Methodist local preacher, residing at the Union Mills, versus John Cain, bookbinder, of Douglas The 'reverend plaintiff' accused the defendent with having called him a liar in the market-place of this town, but unluckily for his Reverence it came out in evidence that he himself had been the aggressor, in first using the Billingsgate term, and that the defendant had only re-turned the elegant compliment by way of retaliation. Kelly, it appeared, had been a rigid Tee-totaller, but deserted the brotherhood, assigning as a reason that he found an occasional glass a useful auxiliary to his pious labours. His Honour, after bestowing an admonitory lesson upon the devout professor of religion, dismissed the action with costs, to the no small chagrin of this uncultivated expounder of the gospel.

John Kelly, along with John Cain had been noted as founder members of the Rechabites in 1836 so the argument may have fairly bitter.

Kermode, Robert Kelly

Report in Isle of Man Examiner, January 20, 1900:

DEATH OF MR. R. K. KERMODE.

Mr Robert Kelly Kermode, pharmaceutical chemist, of Castletown, one of the best known and most highly respected residents in the South of the Isle of Man, died on Saturday morning after an iliness which had only extended over a few days. On the intelligence of Mr Kermode's decease spreading, great grief was manifested among all classes of the community and much sympathy was expressed with his bereaved family. Possessing considerable ability and a thorough knowledge of his profession, Mr Kermode built up a lucrative business in Castletown with branch shops at Port Erin and Port St. Mary, his name and fame as a chemist and druggist not even being confined to those places. His memory will remain green in the hearts of many people in the town and neighbourhood, but by none will he be more greatly missed than by the poor, to whom he was a friend indeed, as he supplied them with medicine free of charge, accompanying in necessitous cases the gift of medicine with a more substantial present. His charity was large and widespread, but it was of a very unostentatious description, as Mr Kermode believed in giving effect to the scriptural injunction, "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth."

He was of a most retiring and unassuming disposition, and although he was chosen as a Town Commissioner in 1891, and served until 1894, he was only too glad to get free as soon as his term was up, and did not again seek re-election. He was also some years ago a member of the School Board, and had been for the last twenty years a Member of the Poor Relief Committee.

His principal work lay in the church to which he was attached, viz, the Wesleyan Church, having held the highest offices in the church at Castletown and being ever ready at all times to assist in anything that had for its object the furtherance of the work of the Wesleyan Methodists, being also one of its most liberal supporters. At the same time he was ever ready to assist any other church ; and no good cause ever appealed to him in vain.

Mr Kermode was born on September 24th, 1846, thus he was in his 54 th year. He leaves a widow and six children - three sons and three daughters, the eldest daughter being the wife of the Rev Smith T. Parr.

Mr Kermode was born in Castletown in 1846. He served his apprenticeship with the late Mr Wm. Cowin. of Arbory-street, after which he went to Birkenhead, where he remained three years, graining considerable experience in his profession. In 1872 Mr Kermode commenced business on his own account in the premises now in the occupation of Mr Swales, jewller. Malew-street, and in 1877 he removed to the premises which he had erected in Malew-street. where he carried on a most successful business up to the time of his death.

THE FUNERAL. The funeral took place on Tuesday, leaving the residence of the deceased, Malew-street, at 11-30, and was attended by a large concourse of friends from all parts of the Island. The Rev J. Waterhouse, and the Rev F. R. Smith, former ministers or the Castletown Wesleyan Circuit (who crossed from England the previous day), the Rev C. H. Floyd, chairman of the Isle of Man Wesleyan District, and the Rev Joseph Gibson, superintendent of the Castletown Circuit, officated. The hymn "O God, our help in ages past" was given out verse by verse and sung in Malew-street, the cortege slowly moving to the Wesleyan Church in Arbory-street, of which the late Mr Kermode was a member and office-bearer. Here the lesson was read by the Rev J. Waterhouse and Rev J. Gibson, and an appropriate address given by the Rev F. R. Smith. As the remains were leaving the church the organist (Mr Wicksey) played beautifully the solemn " Dead March." Outside the church the profession to Malew Churchyard was headed by the Metropolitan Brass Band, of which the late Mr Kermode was a trustee. Tbe band played appropriate music, and the remains were carried all the way by devoted friends of the deceased. A short service was also held at the graveside, conducted by the Rev Mr Smith and Rev Mr Waterhouse, and all that was mortal of this good man was consigned to the cold grave amid the sincere regrets of everyone who was present. The funeral was almost a public one, all classes and conditions of men joining in it.

BEAUTIFUL ADDRESS BY THE REV F. R. SMITH.

The Rev. F. R. Smith delivered an address, in the course of which he said : I could find it in my heart to congratulate you all to-day. You are doing yourselves great honour; you are honouring the dust of a good man. We are of different races, of different creeds and different social grades, but here to-day we endorse the one article of the universal creed, viz., the supreme excellence of character. Some of you had dealings with our departed friend in business; he went down to his grave with fingers that are unspotted, and you know it. He was a loyal and interested citizen, keenly sympathetic towards everything that affected the welfare of the town in which he lived and the Island to which he belonged. What he was to this church, only now that he is gone will it be discovered. What he was in his home we may not speak of here. This man was my friend. The dearest friends I have are in this little Island, and this was one of them. His friendship was of itself a liberal endowment and a sweet inspiration, and now it will become a stimulating and purifying memory. Yea, 'Tis better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all. Mr Kermode was a man of lovely disposition, of high principle, of scrupulous honour, and of chivalrous selflessness ; he was of a delicate modesty that beautified and heightened every other grace of his character. Yes, this was a man take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again. Is there anyone here who did not see these excellencies in our friend ? Possibly. Men there are who cannot appreciate a great symphony, but that is not the fault of the music. Those only can measure the virtue's of this man who have something like them in themselves to measure with.