Methodist Personalities K...

 

Kaye, Robert WM TP 1796-1861

Was PM Travelling Preacher 1833-4 in Douglas Circuit. Master joiner which trade he seems to have returned to. Married Eleanor Cosnahan, 10 Aug 1826 after an elopement. Had 10 children.

Keig, Thomas PM LP 1833-1896

Prominent Primitive Methodist, Curry (who married one of his daughters) gives a brief biography.
Few have influenced Manx Primitive Methodism more favourably during this period than Thomas Keig. As a boy he was associated with our Society at Newtown, and became a member at the age of seventeen. In 1851 he came on full plan as a local preacher. He was then only eighteen. For business reasons he removed to Douglas, where he joined Wellington Street Society. It was in connection with Loch Parade, however, that his principal work was done. He was one of the founders, a trustee, designed the chapel, and superintended the building. He was for many years the choirmaster. His great forte lay in teaching, and under his care there flourished a theological class to which many young men owe their first impulse to a life of reading and thinking.

Mr. Keig possessed the artistic temperament to a high degree, which was well balanced by his scientific studies. His hobby of photography became his profession. He devoted himself to the study of astronomy and became so proficient as to be to be accepted a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He designed and constructed his observatory and moulded and built his own telescope.

His interests were wide, and his mind roamed over large fields of literature: theological, Biblical criticism, travel, exploration, and the best fiction.

He sought to make himself a worthy citizen, and for a quarter of a century was on the governing board of the town of Douglas. His aim was to make Douglas a clean, healthy, and.attractive town, and, as far as one man can, Mr. Keig succeeded.

He was associated with all the latest improvements: the Loch Promenade, the pulling down of the slums, and the making of new thoroughfares like Victoria Street, and the building of artisan dwellings.

The worth and work of Mr. Keig's life were fittingly recognised by his townsmen by making him the first.Mayor of Douglas, which honour, sad to relate, he enjoyed for only a brief period of six weeks. He was smitten with a fatal disease, and passed away amid-general lamentation. His funeral was one of the largest the Island had ever seen. All work was ceased, and the streets of Douglas and the roads to Braddan were lined with sympathetic spectators who had come from all parts of the Island to.pay their last respects.

Said one of his colleagues who had known him all his life, " I have never known a perfect Christian, but the man who has come nearest, to my knowledge, was Thomas Keig." He was a great Manxman; greater than anyone knew. No one could more effectively efface himself. A great heart who was always caring for others and fighting their battles

The insular position of the Island limits the Manxman's influence, but Mr. Keig was well known throughout the Manchester and Liverpool Districts, chiefly by his contributions to the Ministerial Association meetings.

We must not omit our tribute to Mrs. Keig [Sarah Sandford], to whom Mr. Keig owed so much. A woman of many noble gifts and rare culture, she threw herself into all her husband's interests, and for forty years was his companion and helpmeet.

Kelly, John PM LP

Report in Manx Liberal 1837:

DEEMSTER'S COURT, DOUGLAS, JUNE 12. Little business of real interest came before the Court this day, but some which afforded a little merriment. The case to which we allude was that of John Kelly, alias the Weeping Prophet, a Methodist local preacher, residing at the Union Mills, versus John Cain, bookbinder, of Douglas The 'reverend plaintiff' accused the defendent with having called him a liar in the market-place of this town, but unluckily for his Reverence it came out in evidence that he himself had been the aggressor, in first using the Billingsgate term, and that the defendant had only re-turned the elegant compliment by way of retaliation. Kelly, it appeared, had been a rigid Tee-totaller, but deserted the brotherhood, assigning as a reason that he found an occasional glass a useful auxiliary to his pious labours. His Honour, after bestowing an admonitory lesson upon the devout professor of religion, dismissed the action with costs, to the no small chagrin of this uncultivated expounder of the gospel.

John Kelly, along with John Cain had been noted as founder members of the Rechabites in 1836 so the argument may have fairly bitter.