St. Matthew’s Parish ~ A Few Historical Details
Introduction
There are intriguing references in various documents to Christian sites pre-dating "Old St. Matthew’s". There is a record from 1408 regarding the "Monastery of the Blessed Mary of Douglas". Possibly the "Fairy Ground" in the vicinity of the modern bus station formed part of the site of a fair held outside this church. In 1640 farmers and cotters were assessed for the building of a chapel in Douglas. The registers of the Parish of Braddan between 1702 and 1704 show that there was a chapel in Douglas licensed for preaching and Baptisms but not Holy Communion. In 1703 the Manorial Roll refers to "the chapell" and "the old chapell" (Weekly Times, March 2nd 1940). This was probably the chapel dedicated to St. Martin, thought to have been on the site now occupied by the M.E.A. yard. Until the clearances of the 1890s a lane ran diagonally from James’ Street to North Quay close to the entrance of Heywood’s Lane (which can be identified as part of the M.E.A. yard). This was recorded as St. Martin’s Lane in plans of 1833 and 1834 .
Old St. Matthew’s
On 21st September 1708 Bishop Wilson dedicated the new chapel. The following is Bishop Wilson’s prayer on that occasion, as quoted in the 1913 St. Matthew’s Patronal Festival:-
And now, O God, we humbly beseech Thee, since Thy name is recorded in this place: let Thine eyes be open, and Thine ears attentive to the prayers that shall be made in it. May the inhabitants of this town never provoke Thee, by any wickedness, to withdraw Thy presence from this House, which we have dedicated to Thy honour; but may they, in all their necessities, have this place to flee unto, this House of Defence nigh at hand. May Thy Sabbaths be here remembered and devoutly kept; may Thy Sacraments be here administered and received with great devotion; may the youth be instructed and the aged put in mind of their duty, and all made living temples of the Holy Ghost! That Thou mayest bless us, and that we may in return honour Thee. "For Thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power:for Thou hast created all things, and forThy pleasure they are and were created". Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men, for ever and ever, Amen.
St. Matthew’s remained a chapel of ease in Braddan parish until 1879. By this time several other churches had been established to serve the growing town of Douglas and all were now parishes in their own right. T.A. Taggart was both the last chaplain and the first vicar of St. Matthew’s. One of his major concerns seems to have been to ensure that the church was freely available to the poor of Douglas. To this end he abolished pew rents. A lot of the old church seems to have been filled with private pews, including one for the Duke of Atholl. The following is quoted from "Manx Memories and Movements" by Samuel Norris:-
St. Matthew’s church then stood on the site of the present fruit and fish market in Douglas. The public market square adjoined. Old fishwives stood daily with their stall leaning against the outside wall of the old church, their wares and goods open to the sky and the elements. .... The old church was full of memories of Douglas of a by-gone day, when the neighbouring houses were the homes of the aristocracy; when smuggling was the chief "trade" on which the quay-dwellers prospered; when revenue officers chased the smugglers through the narrow lanes near-by, and the latter oftimes found a safe asylum within the church itself ...
A New Church. In 1895 an appeal was launched on 28th May by T.E. Brown to raise money for the new church:- ... "We only propose to build part of the church, but to build it thoroughly, sincerely, honestly. It will be for future generations to continue the work..... The work so far will consist of nave, aisles and the first storey of the tower.".... 3,200 in the Parish at the last census .... 155 communicants on Easter Day 1895 .... during the last 17 years 3,180 have been baptised and 680 confirmed ... the oldest penny bank in Douglas was established in St. Matthew’s Parish 16 years ago .. Young Men's Friendly and Girls' Friendly Societies have been formed ...Church of England Temperance Society is in full activity .. a flourishing Band of Hope exists... The cost of the site for the new church is £5,000 and will be large enough for a mission room and a new church. For the old site £2,500 has been allowed. Altogether there remains to be raised £2,000 .
It is indicative of the vast numbers of people who lived in this area in those days, that a new church was required, especially as St. Barnabas’ had been built not very far away in 1832, also to serve the poor of Douglas (it had 1,200 seats, 500 of which were to be reserved for the poor). In those days there would have been little difference between these churches, as Samuel Norris writes of St. Matthew’s "Its ritual then was very low church...".
The foundation stone for the nave was laid by Sir West Ridgeway, Governor of the Island in August 1895. The building was opened by and under licence of the Bishop of the Diocese "to be entirely free, open and unappropriated for ever..." on 10th August 1897. Unfortunately, there are no further details of the occasion in the church scrapbook in the museum. These details are from "The History of St. Matthew’s" by H.S. Taggart (which can be viewed on the isle-of-man.com website) and the programme of the grand bazaar held in "The Pavilion", Douglas on 26th, 27th and 28th October 1897. From a newspaper report of the opening service the following can be ascertained:-
There was a procession of wardens, sidesmen and clergy from the old church. Clergy from all over the island attended and the choir was augmented by those of several other churches. The first hymn to be sung in the new church was "All people that on earth do dwell" and the text for the Bishop's sermon was Haggai ii, vs 9.
In the programme for the bazaar in October 1897 is a poem written for the occasion by T. E. Brown ("Our Mother sits on Douglas Quay...") . T. E. Brown was the son of a chaplain of old St. Matthew’s and as mentioned above he launched the appeal for funds for the new church in 1895. It is interesting to note that the edition of the "Examiner" following that which reported on the bazaar carries the notice of T. E. Brown’s death and the memorial service which was held in St. Matthew’s church. Surely the ode to St. Matthew’s must have been one of the last poems (if not the last) he ever wrote.
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St. Matthew's Church Douglas Isle of Man