[From Atholl Papers - AP 136(2nd)-29]

Peel asks for help to build a new church

To His Grace the Most Rev The Lord Archbishop of York Metropolitan of the Diocese of Sodor and Mann and the other Most Rev The Lords Arch Bishops and the Right Rev The Bishops and Dignitaries of the United Church of England and Ireland.

The humble Memorial of the Inhabitants of the Town of Peel and the Parish of Kirk German in the Diocese of Mann.

Sheweth

That your Memorialists are Members of the Established Church of England and zealously attach to her doctrines and discipline.

That the Church in which your Memorialists have been accustomed to assemble for public worship is at present in so ruinous and delapidated a state as to be no longer fit for the purposes of divine service.

That your Memorialists feel an earnest desire to erect in its room a suitable Building for the accomodation of the extensive population of the Town and Parish which they inhabit.

That for want of such accomodation many of the Parishioners are in a great measure excluded from the Orthodox Worship of the Established Church which your Memorialists cannot help regarding as highly injurious to the Interests of piety and morality and greatly to be depreciated by all the friends of "pure and undefiled Religion".

That your Memorialists have it in contemplation to apply to the Legislature for an Act empowering them to rebuild their Parish Church on a more extensive scale, and also allowing them the use of a Chapel called St John's Chapel which is with the precincts of the Parish and in good repair. if your Memorialists had the power of procuring a competent subsistence for an officiating Minister at this Chapel and also of erecting a new Parish Church they would esteem it a peculiar blessing to themselves and to their offspring but when they feel the narrowness of their circumstances and the heavy expences which would attend these undertakings they almost despair of being ever able to accomplish their wishes, as the present means of the majority of the inhabitants of the Town of Peel scarcely extend beyond "food to eat and rainment to put on".

That the principal dependance of your Memorialists is upon the Herring fishery, which at best is a precarious and fluctuating traffick, and for several years past your Memorialists have found it very unproductive, the shoals of Herring having deserted in great part the side of the Isle in which Peel is situated, in consequence of which the families of your Memorialists have not for a length of time drawn their accustomed benefit from the blessings of the Seas,

That your Memorialists impressed with a grateful sense of the generous aid and assistance which the Diocese of Mann has experienced in former instances from the liberal donations of the Most Rev the Lords Arch Bishops and Dignitaries of the British Church they are emboldened and encouraged to apply to the same benevolent source on the present occasion and they confidently hope that their application will not be in vain. They rest assured that the Guardian and Protectors of the noble fabrick of the Established Church will not suffer the slightest dilapidation in any part of the venerable pile without stretching forth the hand of piety and commiseration to repair the breach.

Under these impressions your Memorialists earnestly entreat that their case may be taken into tender consideration, and such aid and assistance afforded as may contribute to provide them a suitable and commodious place of worship and your Memorialists will never cease to implore the blessing of Heaven on the persons, the labours, and undertakings of their generous Benefactors.

Peeltown Febry 19th 1813

James Gelling Vicar of German
Hugh Clucas High Bailiff of Peel
Jas Cowll Captn of the Parish of Kk German
+ abt 50 signatures

Notes

No support was obtained though it may explain the taking of a census for Peel and Kk German in 1816.