[taken from Chapter 1 Manx Worthies, A.W.Moore, 1901]

HENRY CORLETT (b. 1735, d. 1801),

became an academic student in 1753, and was, in the following year, staying at Bishop's Court with the aged bishop, to whom he was a great comfort in his last illness. So serious was then the difficulty of finding suitable men to become clergy, owing to the fear of losing the impropriate tithe, that the bishop was compelled to give CORLETT, though then only 19 years old, a licence, which was worded as follows: " We do tolerate^{+ .}you to read the prayers and service of the Church as by law established, as also to read an Homily or some other practical or instructive book, as you shall be directed by the Vicars General of the Isle for the time being in such churches or chapels as you shall be desired by the said Vicars General, to whom we require you to give All due obedience." He was appointed Vicar of German in 1761 by Bishop Hildesley, and he held that living till his death in 1801 He was among the few clergy in the Isle of Man who showed any active friendliness towards the Wesleyan Methodists. In 1775, he assured John Crook, one of the earliest preachers in Man. that he would give him the right hand of fellowship and he desired him to make use of his house as if it were a brother's. In 1777, he told John Wesley that he would gladly have asked him to preach, if it had not been that the bishop had forbidden him to do so, but, 21 years later, he seems to have fallen out with John Crook, and to have stated his intention of preaching against the Methodists. In 1781, he greatly increased his congregations by preaching Bishop Wilson's sermons to, them in Manx. He translated the Book of Exodus into Manx, and superintended the publication of the " Christian Monitor " in the same language.

+ The word " tolerate," which is curious, shows that the bishop would evidently not have made such an appointment if he could possibly have helped doing so.