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In the year 1830 the Chaplain of St Matthew’s was the Rev. Robert Brown, who, by virtue of this office, was also Master of the Grammar School and occupied the Master’s house in New Bond Street . This name perpetuates the memory of former bonded stores - in fact there were large cellars under the Schoolmaster’s house, and their rent provided part of his salary. Though not far from harbour or sea, the house was surrounded by a network of insanitary alleys, all of which were demolished in the clearances of this part of Douglas in the 1930's. |
In this house, which also no longer exists, on 5th May 1830, Thomas Edward Brown was born , 6th child and 4th son of chaplain Robert Brown and his wife Dorothy. He was baptised by his own father in old St. Matthew’s Church (as had his father and many of his ancestors). He was named after his godfathers - the Rev. Thomas Howard, Vicar of Braddan, and the Rev. Edward Craine, vicar of Onchan.
In 1832, when Thomas Edward was just 2 years old, the Rev. Thomas Howard took over charge of St. George’s Douglas, and transferred the Rev. Robert Brown from St. Matthew’s to Braddan, where he was nominally curate, and two years later was inducted as vicar.
65 years later funds were being raised for a new St. Matthew’s Church, The following is an extract from one of his letters at the time penetrated with affection for the old plain edifice and its memories:
"I was baptised there; almost all whom I loved and revered were associated with its history… “The only church in douglas where the poor go” - I dare say that is literally true. But I believe it will continue to be so… I postulate the continuity…"
In another letter at the time he wrote:
"As I pass it, I feel as if I saw a dear old mother, sweet in her weakness, trembling at the approach of her dissolution, but not appealing to me against the inevitable, rather endeavouring to reassure me by her patience, and pointing to a hopeful future"
He was very much involved with the fund raising for the new church and in 1897 shortly before his death wrote the following, and probably his last, poem to aid that fund