Hi Chris

Kay refers to the article in the 24th June 1909 edition of the Methodist Recorder. I particularly like this extract:

"Mrs. William Clegg of Liverpool is in her 89th year and is a lifelong Methodist. Converted as a girl on the Isle of Man she has been a loyal and devoted member of our church for nearly 80 years. Her grandfather and grandmother belonged to the first generation of Methodists. The latter, indeed, heard Wesley preach and afterwards spoke to him."

Mrs William Clegg was Catherine Clague b 1820, sister of James Clegg b 1825, shipwright of Liverpool. We don't know whether the grandmother who spoke to John Wesley on one of his visits to the Isle of Man in 1777 and 1781, would have been a maternal grandmother (Catherine Carin b 1763) or a paternal grandmother (Catherine Kermod b 1760). When the article was written in 1909 it seems unlikely that Catherine's daughter (who looked after her mother in her old age) would have fabricated the story. I imagine that it had passed down through the generations and that they would have enjoyed relating it.

This might account for the fact that there were several Methodist local preachers in the descendants of Thomas Clague b 1790 and Esther Kneen b 1792. Esther had a younger brother, Richard Kneen b 1803 of Croit e Caley, Rushen, who was himself a local preacher, as were several of his descendants. This might suggest that it was more likely to have been Catherine Carin who met John Wesley rather than Catherine Kermod, not that it matters.

Are you researching just James Whitehead Clegg and his children, or previous generations also ? If your client would like to see a lovely photograph of Thomas Clague and Esther nee Kneen (taken circa 1863 in Douglas), my email address is:

faircork-tree (at) yahoo dot co dot uk

Jean