[From IoM Times 4 Jan 1936]

The Graves in Rushen

Until November last, when the old roof was taken off and replaced, the parish church of Rushen was in practically the same form as it had been since 1775. In that year a reconstruction took place, and a stone bearing the names of the then vicar and wardens is to be seen over the church door. Leaving out the probability of a religious setttlement of some sort having existed on this site in the dawn of Celtic Christianity, a definite territorial church can be proved as far back as 1249. King Reginald of Mann was killed by the knight Ivar and his accomplices in '" a meadow near the Church of Holy Trinity in Rushen."" The church from ancient times has been dedicated not only to the Holy Trinity, but to Christ, and Mr. J. J. Kneen has pointed out that the day on which the king was killed was three days before the great feast of Corpus Christi. The correct name of this church is still " Kirk Christ, Rushen," and the only other Manx church dedicated alike to Christ and to the Trinity is Kirk Christ, Lezayre, or the Church of Christ in the Ayre.

Another early description of the church, written in 1408, is " Ecclesia Sancti Trinitatis inter prata," " the church of the Trinity between the meadows."' The land adjoining the church is the Rowany, which name is a corruption of Edremony, meaning "' between marshes.

But the origins and history of Rushen Church have already been discussed in a pamphlet issued by the late Canon Leece - much of the matter having been provided by Canon Quine - and in newspaper articles by Mr. J. J. Kneen. The present writer seeks to confine himself to the burial grounds. The oldest graves to be found now. with one notable exception, are contemporaneous with, or slightly earlier than, the church in its present form.

This exception is the grave of Robert Jackson, who died on October 4th, 1657. The stone is very strong and solid, rectangular in shape, and the inscription is carved in large capitals. It lies flat upon supports, is close to the dial, and altogether is a very notable monument.

After Robert Jackson's interment, there is a blank until 1732, when, as is noted by John Feltham in the list of Manx monumental inscriptions which he made in 1798. there was a burial in the family of Daniel Callister. of Ballacreggan. Mr. Feltham also recorded a stone bearing the date 1671 and the name John Maddrell. but this cannot be seen now. There is existent a gravestone dated 1745, and another dated 1747; and into the outer wall at the east end of the church has been built the inscription which covered the grave of Mrs. Alice Gawne, of Ballagawn, who died in 1749.

The Gawnes, as every Manxman knows, have for generations been one of the most influential families in Rushen. Originally seated in Ballagawne, they acquired Ballachurry,. Kentraugh, and many other estates. The rail of the principal Gawne vault is level with the high-road going up to the former Boys' School; another earlier set of Gawne graves stands immediately above it. In the chancel of the church is a remarkably fine tablet, carved by the celebrated sculptor Francis Chantrey, commemorating Edward Gawne, who died in 1837. The inscription says :-

" He filled the office of captain of this parish for the space of forty years, and during the greater part of that period was a member of the House of Keys. In discharging the duties of these and other public stations, he was actuated by a regard to the welfare of his country, and enabled by a singularly vigorous and active mind to be eminently useful in advancing its interests. He was an affectionate husband and kind father, and a faithful friend. He was a liberal benefactor to the poor, a zealous promoter of their temporal comfort, and for many years a principal supporter of the Sunday school connected with this church.
Heaven sends us friends to grace the present scene. Removes them to prepare us for the next."

There may have been this side to the picture, but it is by no means the popular version of the character of "Neddy the Brewer." He is a traditional figure still, to the exclusion even of his brother Thomas, the Deemster who was dismissed. One seems to detect the note of apology to the community, of appeal for a kindlier verdict, in the motto placed over a gateway at Kentraugh ,

"Judge not your fellow man's condition, Until you be in his position."

Happily the Gawne name was to be redeemed in the next generation. " Gawne Mooar's " son. Edward Moore Gawne. the last speaker of the self-elected House of Keys, was an intensely kind, honourable and gracious gentleman. The statement on his tablet, also within the church, that " this good man lived in the fear and love of God," seems to have been justified. His wife, who was a daughter of Colonel Murray, of Mount Murray, and therefore a cousin of the Duke of Atholl, was equally benevolent, and the window erected to her memory represents her in the character of Dorcas, the woman who was full of good works.

The speaker's eldest son, Edward Gawne. a young Army officer, died at the age of 33. The grandson, Mr. Edward Brian Gawne, also a member of the House of Keys, died in 1932, and is buried in a newer part of the churchyard. His monument takes the form of a St. Andrew's cross; in the centre is the word " God," and converging to the sacred name are the words " Truth," "Right," "*Love," " Wisdom." On the base are the phrases: '" I am protected; I am used; I have no fear; " and " Sincere faith and pure charity lead to God."

Completing the story of the Gawne memorials, the font in the church is a commemoration of Colonel John Moore Gawne, killed in the South African War.

Enclosed within the same railing as the earlier series of Gawne graves, is the resting place of William Qualtrough, of Kentraugh. Kentraugh did not pass by marriage, and the contiguity of the graves merely means that this space in the parish burial ground was part of the property of the Kentraugh quarterland. This family of Qualtrough was mighty in its day. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, successive Wiliam Qualtroughs were Deemster - this man was an active helper of " Illiam Dhoan "' in the 1651 rising - Attorney-General, and members of the House of Keys.

William Qualtrough and Jenkin McQualtrough were among the representatives of the " Commons of Mann," the " xxiiij of the land,"' who joined with the Deemsters in declaring the law in the years 1419 and 1430. Less exalted, but not less noteworthy, was another succession of Qualtroughs which continues to this day - the hereditary line of parish clerks. Evan Qualtrough of Surby became clerk and schoolmaster in 1757, and held the two offices for 42 years. His son, Thomas Qualtrough-grandfather of Mr. E. J. Qualtrough, an inspector of the National Health Insurance Society - became school-master in 1832 and clerk in 1838. and died in 1864. Richard Qualtrough, a nephew of Thomas, immediately succeeded him as parish clerk, and retained the office until 1901 - two years before his death-when he was followed by his son Evan, who has been parish clerk ever since. Another son is Mr J. J. Qualtrough. J.P. For the greater part of the interval between Evan Qualtrough's death and Thomas Qualtrough's appointment the duties of both offices were performed by John Coole (1799-1823). But there is a gravestone inscription to the memory of Edward Qualtrough, '" school mr.", who died in 1841 at the age of 68, and the parish register shows that weddings were witnessed in the period 1826-1834, usually by Thomas Costain, who seems definitely to have been parish clerk, and occasionally by John Qualtrough, who is assumed to have been school-master. The school, by the way, was kept at the time in what is now part of the churchyard close to the lych-gate.

It is interesting to learn that at the time Mr. Richard Qualtrough became parish clerk, the post was filled by popular election, and when the parishioners were asembled for this purpose, candidates were expected to give displays of their capabilities in singing and reading aloud.

Three successive Qualtroughs were harbour-masters at Port St. Mary. The last of thein. Mr. Thomas Qualtrough - a very picturesque son of the sea - died a few years ago at the age of 91.

The same Christian name has frequently been used in a family from generation to generation. Among the Qualtroughs of Corvalla, the recurrent male name was Joseph. This family is represented to-day by (among others) Mr. Joseph D. Qualtrough, H.K.; up to two years ago it was also represented by Mr. Joseph Qualtrough, Receiver-General of the Isle of Man and a member of the House of Keys and Legislative Council successively for 35 years.

May one mention yet another branch of the " Colcheraghs" ? The Qualtroughs of the Port St. Mary estate exercised a considerable influence in the village, and one of them, the late Mr. Henry James Qualtrough, J.P., made a contribution of £500 towards the cost of the present church improvements. Another influential Rushen family were the Clucases of Ballakilley. They were formerly in occupation of the Port St. Mary estate, and prior to any date upon which they can be traced by the aid of gravestones, there was a family named Clucas in Ballakilpheric, or, as it was officially named in the eighteenth eenturv, Ballakilpatrick. Of John Clucas of Ballakilley, who died in 1853, it is written upon a memorial tablet that " His time and energies were always readily devoted to the interests of this parish. He was mainly instrumental in 1836 in procuring the release of the Crown impropriate tithes to the individual landowners, and his unceasing labours during the visitations of cholera in 1832 and 1849 will long be remembered." Next came Mr. John Thomas Clucas, captain of the parish, member of the House of. Keys, and earlier on Government Secretary and Treasurer, who until his death in 1887 was one of the Island's leading men. His son and successor. Mr. J. Donald Clucas, J.P.. is the present captain of the parish, and during a period of thirty years served in the House of Keys and the Legislative Council.

One would like to know more about the flat stone covering a vault to be seen immediately before one reaches the gate. The name, which can only be seen in a favourable state of the light, is John Quaile, and the date can be deciphered as MDCCLXXV - 1775. A coat of arms is carved above the inscription, and it is to be inferred that these particular Quayles were people of consequence.

If romance gathers around any tombstone in this churchyard , it is surely around that of Mr. William Milner. Mr. Milner was a Manchester man, and manufacturer of a famous make of safes; but he had a residence in Port Erin, and was a wonderful friend of the Port Erin people. He exerted himself unceasingly to procure for the fishermen a pier behind which their boats could shelter; he also built the Falcon's Nest Hotel, gave money for the erection of St. Catherine's Church, and was a liberal supporter of local Methodism. There is a Milner memorial window in the church; but his greatest monument is the noble tower which crowns Bradda Head.

The phrase " perished at sea" is distressingly common . Rushen's population is pre-eminently maritime, and the perils of the deep were vastly increased during the Great War. Numerous gravestones in the newer part of the churchyard are reminders of ships-of-war and merchant vessels which were sunk in action or were torpedoed. Occasionally the shores of Rushen received the bodies of men lost in the torpedoing of ships in the Irish Sea, and memorials to these men have been erected by the Imperial War-Graves Commission-for example, " to Sailor V. Perrello, of the S.S. 'Seagull," and Second Steward T. Buckley, of the S.S. ' Barrister,' both of whom perished in the year 1918.

Everyone has heard of the wreck of the Manx herring fleet off the Dougias pier on September 21st, 1787. At least six graves in Rushen are referable to that disaster-those of Henry Gell . John Shimmin, Robert Watterson, Nicholas Moore, Thomas Corrin and John Moore.

One single tombstone, a conspicuous object in the older portion of the graveyard, commemorates the twenty-nine men who lost their lives in the explosion of the brig Lily, on the 28th December, 1852. The story is well-known; first the ship was lost on the terribly dangerous rock called Kitterland, in the Sound of the Calf, and then, while a party of local men were salvaging the cargo, a quantity of gunpowder which the ship had carried, blew up. and killed every man save one. All the names are given, and it is added that the victims left twenty-two widows and seventy-seven orphans.

Yet another memorable tragedy of the sea was the foundering of the " Elian Vannin" in the Mersey in December. 1909. One of the victims, John Thomas Kinley, is commemorated in Rushen churchyard. He was a brother of Captain Crawford Kinley, shore superintendent for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

But often enough the sea took toll of one or two men at a time. For instance, Thomas Corkill and William Mcllvorrey perished at sea on the 29th July, 1779. Both are described as natives of Ballaugh, but it is strange to find the name of Anne McYlworrey (" spinster") with a date in 1767. One had supposed the name Mcllvorrey (the modern form of which is Morrison; to be exclusive to the parish of Ballaugh, but Mr. J. J. Kneen records the place name Ballamollavory as having been found in Rushen in 1703.

Here are some other memorials to drowned sailors :-
James Brown, 1859.-" And the sea gave up the dead which were in it."
James Cottier, son of Thomas and Ann Cottier, 1789. God sent a wave to set him free From sorrow, sin and misery.

This young man - he was under 25-belonged to the formerly well-known family of Cottiers of the Rowany, from whom are descended in the female line the Rowany's present occupiers, the Clagues. There was another Rowany, held for many generations by a family of Gawnes.

John Watterson, of Port St. Maries, 1801. The unusual form of place-name will be noticed; it was probably never correct, but merely a personal fancy. The name Pert Iron, an earlier form of Port Erin, is fairly common.

Edward Gale, drowned near the Calf on October 21st, 1899.

He has gone, the rough billows have swept him away.
The waves of the ocean are the tomb of his clay,
No marble or cross can be placed on the spot.
But while we shall live, he will ne'er be forgot.

The Chicken Rock lighthouse was in process of being built in the year 1869. During its erection the captain of the Northern Lighthouse Commissioners' steam tender , the Terrible, died. His name was Wiikie. and his gravestone was subscribed for by the ofiicers and crew of the ship, together with the men employed on the work. Captain Wilkie's was the second interment to take place in that particular addition to the graveyard, the first being that of a youth accidentally killed while working on Port St. Mary quay.

Several light keepers and members of light keepers' families, are buried in Rushen. One of them. William Primrose, settled in Port St. Mary, and Primrose Terrace is named after him.

The acquisition of the last portion of the burying-ground on the side of the road opposite to tlie church, is fresh in the public memory. The first burial in it was that of William Halsall, a youth who lost his life on the 12th August, 1930. through the sinking of the yacht " Puffin '" during a regatta held in Port St. Mary bay. A carved yacht appears on his gravestone. It was at another Port St. Mary regatta that Mr. Edward Kneen. coxswain of the lifeboat, was firing a maroon when it exploded and brought about his death.

The graves can be identified of three vicars-Nicholas Christian, who died in 1782: William Corrin. 1824-1859; and the lovable Charles Henry Leece, who. after serving the parish for thirty years, died at Lezayre in 1930. Canon Leece's name is honoured by a tablet in the church. The Rev. William Corrin is understood to have been the original of T. E. Browns "Pazon Gale" and it is a pity that his tombstone should be almost completely obscured by the luxuriance of a shrub which was planted to adorn it. One can simply read the last line of the epitaph, the famous quotation from Goldsmith's description of the good clergvman -

He ne'er had changed, or wished to change, his place.

Another good man, worshipping in a different manner, was Edward Gale, a Wesleyan local preacher for 62 years Of Christopher Bell, of Surby, who died in 1852, it is recorded that for many years he conducted the Sunday school in the parish with zeal and fidelity.

The Rev. Daniel Nelson, first of a family of Manx parsons, was buried in Rushen in 1797. His father was John Nelson, of Ballakilley, and his mother belonged to the family of Callisters of Ballacreggan, which has been previously mentioned.

Rushen contains two descriptions in Manx. Two are quite modern. Under the name of Mr. Evan Crebbin. master mariner, appear the words " Ec aasn farraghtyn. chadley sheeoil" ("At rest for ever, sleeping peacefully"). The epitaph upon Mr James Maddrell, baker, of Liverpool and of the Corvalley, and two of his sons, is "Derry"n vardran, as skeayley ny bodjallyn " (""Until the dawn, and the dispersing of the clouds '"). Then there is a much older one which was noted same years ago by that Celtic enthusiast, the late Mr. E. E. Foumier d'Albe, of Brittany, on the tombstone of Eleanor, wife of Thomas Keig, of Port St. Mary.

Kys ghoghe shin aggie dy chur sheese
Nyn girp syn oaie gys fea,
Road Chie corp ooasle Yeesey Chreest.
T'er yannoo maynrey jeh.

This is a verse from the Manx translation of Dr. Watts' hymn. "' Why do we mourn departing friends."

It is natural that in a populous parish like this, bearers of almost every surname in the Manx collection should be found. But there are names which really preponderate. When walking through the older churchyard especially, one finds oneself amidst a population of Qualtroughs. Wattersons, Maddrells, Crebbins. Gawnes. Gales-with the variants Gell and Gill, and in one case Geill - Collisters. Moores. Keigs and Keggens. Taylors. Nelsons. Hudsons and Hudgeons, Kermodes, Kneens, Taubmans and Turnbulls. Some of these names are Manx by origin, and some, though of long standing and well diffused, are imported. The first Turnbull, for example, is described on his grave as a native of Northumberland. Taylor and Preston have been long enough on the Island, and particularly in the southern parishes, to suggest that they were introduced from Lancashire in the time of the first rulers of Man who belonged to the house of Stanley.

An imported surname only found in Rushen is Clugston. On the evidence of these graves it goes at least as far back as 1830. On the tombstone of James Clugston. of Port Erin, who died in 1857, there is an inscription in verse which begins as follows :-

A warmer heart, more generous hand,
Beat not nor toiled on Erin's strand.
The kindly neighbour, cheerful friend.
Aye ready unbought help to lend.
Long as the race he served survive.
Shall memory of James Clugston live.

At the foot of these lines appeared the initials " W. M." It is easy to suppose that the tombstone was erected by tht fishermen's friend. William Milner.

Woodworth is a Rushen name of very long standing. Its first appearance in this churchyard is in 1764; but the name Woodwort turns up in the burial register of Malew in 1683, and the Manorial Roll compiled in 1703. the year of the Act ot Settlement, shows that in 1643, when the great Stanley set up a new- system of land tenure, a Thomas Woodward was entered for lands at Rhenwyllan. Rushen. Early documents such as the Malew registers, refer several times to persons named Wattleford: and Donald Waterforth was concerned in the rising against the Governor at the Michael Tynwald in 1422. Woodworth and Wattleworth would not at first sight appear to have the same source: but one of the Woodwards of Rhenwyllan has been identified with a man who appears in another document as Wattleford. The subject has been examined by Mr. J. J. Kneen.

With the farm name ol Ballakillowey there is naturally associated the surname of Lowey. Joney. wife of Thomas Lowey of Ballakillowey. was buried at Rushen in 1804. The name McGillowy - son of the person dedicated to a certain saint of the Celtic church - occurrs in the Memorial Roll of 1511.

The Christian name Samuel is not often met with in the Isle of Man, but many generations ago it seemed to become fashionable in this part of the Island. One finds it among the earlier gravestones, among certain families in which it has been preserved ever since- Keggen. Taylor, Watterson. and so on. Later it spread into other families - by marriage connection, probably - and it is still comparatively common.

A surprising female Christian name is that of Salisbury. Salisbury Lowey, alias Taubman, died at the Lingague in 1801. The late Archdeacon Gill, then editing the parish registers of Malew, stated that this name used to be frequently given to women.

There is in Rushen one instance of the use of the nickname. A stone facing the church door marks " John Crebbin's (Timmy) burying-ground." A Timothy Crebbin died at Cregneish in 1895-about l00 years after the " John Timmy" who was obviously his ancestor.

In the latter half of the eighteenth century there was a fashion of decorating the head of a gravestone with the device called the hexafoil. or pattern of six leaves. Mr. P. M. C. Kermode believes the hexafoil to be derived from the early Christian symbol, the Chi-Rho. the first two letters in the Greek name of Christ. But patterns nearly as common in Manx graveyards are the fourleaf, the eight-leaf, the spokes of a wheel, and the rays of the sun. On one stone in Rushen, belonging to the Keggins of Ballahane, the wheel is carved in the centre, and on each side are the head and wings of an angel.

The following epitaphs may be considered a little out of the common :-
William McComb, of Ballahine, who died in 1832.

Stranger. I leave it on this stone,
Sin was the whole I called my own;
My righteousness was freely given
By Him who took my soul to Heaven.

Two infant sons of William Shimmin, who both died in 1832.

That pretty blossom see,
Decaying on the walk;
A storm came sweeping o'er the tree
And broke its feeble stalk.

Isabella Callister, who died in 1849 at the age of 29.

Just in the prime of life, you see,
It pleased the Lord to call for me;
O reader, therefore do beware,
For you are sure my fate to share.

John Cubbon. who died in 1879.

Farewell, my wife and children dear,
I am not dead, but sleeping here;
My days were short, my griefs the less,
I'm gone from earth to happiness.

The first two lines are repeated over and over in every churchyard whose monuments are in the English language; but not so the last two. Robert Quayle. who died in 1874 at the age of 16.

And art thou gone? In hurried haste
Thy brief career is run;
Thy little pilgrimage is past:
Farewell ! farewell, my son !

Ann Roberts, wife of John Joyner. who died in 1861.

I was a stranger in this land.
And met with friends sincere,
But now with Jesus Christ I stand.
And wait to meet them there.

The lady may have been a stranger, but the name of Joyner is met with early in Manx documents, and has only recently become obsolete.

One of the best among many fine examples of sculpture in the newer part of the churchyard is a copy of the famous Braddan runic cross. It is slender and tapering, and adorned all down its face with a pattern of dragons' heads. It commemorates the Lace family - of whom Mr. John Dale Lace, once a gold magnate in Johannesburg, is a member - and their connection by marriage. Dr. Stanley Williams, a physician highly respected and liked in Port St. Mary and district.

Three modest but affecting memorials were erected by the Howe Methodist Sunday School to members who died young. Two of them take the form of an opened Bible. A stone was placed over the remains of "Ada" by her schoolfellows at the Rushen Higher Education School. With these may be grouped the memorial to William Henry Gell. - erected as a mark of esteem by his colleagues in the White Star Line oflices. Liverpool."

Mr. George Chetwynd Griffith, who died at Port Erin in 1906. had a very adventurous career. He was a journalist and author, and wrote novels which had considerable vogue in their day. He was also an extensive traveller, and used to tell friends that he had been six-and-ahalf times round the world, and had discovered the source of the Amazon river system. Among other notable ' strangers " who spent the last portion of their lives in Rushen may be mentioned Mr. George Curtis. Deputy Inspector-General in the Royal Navy: Mr. Edwin Jones, a judge of county courts in Lancashire: Mr. Charles Hodgkinson, Chief Constable of Oldham: and the modesta nd kindly gentleman Mi-Herbert C. Chadwick. curator of the Marine Biological Station at Port Erin.

Rushen churchyard contains a dial set upon the square top of a pedestal about three feet high, and dated 1829. The numerals run from I to VIII in one direction, and from IIII to XII in the other. It was thought useless to set down the hours during which there was no sun to make the dial serviceable.

		Rushen ;
Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor © F.Coakley , 2020