1826 Sayle/Watterson

Extract

Reprinted from The Pioneer Families of Cleveland 1796-1840. Vol I. by Gertrude van Rensselar Wickham 1914 pp311/2 - see later comment.

1826 SAYLE

The Rev. John Sayle was a distinguished clergyman who was famous throughout the Isle of Man for his eloquence and scholarship. He translated much of the Bible into the Manx language. When nearing his seventieth year of life he came with his wife, Catherine Kinley Sayle, to Ohio. They were of a party of emigrants from, or near Douglas, Isle of Man, who settled in Newburgh on Union street, or in Warrensville, just over the Newburgh line.

The Rev. John Sayle lived but six years after his arrival here. He fell a victim to the cholera epidemic of 1832. His wife survived him 26 years, and died at the advanced age of 98.

Children of John and Catherine Sayle:
Ann Sayle, m. William Watterson.
Thomas Sayle, removed to Northfield, O.
John Sayle, d. unmarried. .

 

1826 WATTERSON

William Watterson and Ann Sayle, daughter of Rev. John and Catherine Kinley Sayle, were married in Douglas, Isle of Man, and immediately after the ceremony accompanied a party of Manx men who, in 1826, emigrated to Newburgh and Warrensville. With them came Mrs. Watterson's aged parents. The journey was often delayed and very tedious, taking nearly three months to accomplish.

Mr. Watterson settled on a farm of 80 acres. His first son was the second child born in the Manx settlement. The Watterson family numbered ten sons and a daughter. Three of the former served throughout the Civil War, one losing his life in action, the other two badly wounded. Three of the family graduated at Western Reserve College, one of them at the head of his class.

The record of these sons not only indicates the high mentality of the parents, but also heroic self-sacrifice, without which the liberal education of their children could not have been accomplished.

Mrs. Watterson was an ideal mother. M. G. Watterson, the sole survivor of the family, says that without exception she was the tenderest-hearted woman he ever knew; tender, not only to her own children, but to all who needed affection and sympathy.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Watterson died within a few weeks of their eightieth birthdays, and only eight days apart. They rest in Woodland Cemetery.

Children of William and Ann Watterson:
John J. Watterson, m. Margaret Crennell.
William J. Watterson, m. Sarah Ruggles.
Sarah Watterson, m. Perry Payne.
Harrison Dunton Watterson, m. Elisabeth Akers of England.
Moses G. Watterson, m. Helen Farrend. The latter was a graduate of Western Reserve College; was county treasurer for six years, and president of the Board of Education, four years. In the latter part of his business life he was president of a bank.

Comment

John Sayle is obviously not one of the translators of the Manx Bible which was done by many of the Island churchmen under Bishop Hildesley and first published 1771 when John Sayle was 11!. He was however an early Wesleyan Local Preacher. In the 1813 Plan he is shown as 4th in seniority in the Ramsey Circuit which means that he became a Local Preacher sometime in the period 1790-92. He was asked, in 1799, to assist in the production of a new edition of the Manx translation of Watt's and Wesley's Hymns - the 'Lioar dy Hymnyn as Arraneyn Spyrrydoil' that was published in Douglas in 1799 by T Whittam, and it is this that was misremembered by his family.

His name was at the head of the manifest - as this was almost certainly filled in at Liverpool it helps fuel my suspicion that this large party of emigrants was co-ordinated (if not organised) via the Methodist chapels.