Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor
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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
An extract from the London newspaper "The Register of the Times," reprinted in the Manx Advertiser of 11 November 1815 is the only record of this remarkable society. The Register , a paper, in the issue copied, concerned with the work of British philanthropic societies, examined their structures and management, and recommended to their philanthropic readers the methods of successful societies 'for general imitation' and those 'containing the best regulations for the government of persons desirous of forming similar associations.
The society, known only to the Register through its receipt of the Second Annual Report of the Female Association in the Isle of Man from un-named donors, was praised for 'demonstrating the great good that may be accomplished with slender means, when judiciously directed' and 'the Ladies of Douglas' were specially honoured for the gratification felt by the reporters 'at finding, in so remote a part of the United Kingdom [sic] an association, which instead of following, seemed to set an example; instead of receiving, to give an impulse to the enlightened and refined portion of their sex in other parts, for the formation and general conduct of similar associations.
The principal object of 'this benevolent association' was to raise subscriptions and donations for supplying the most necessitous children with different articles of apparel, many not being able to attend a school from want of such necessaries, and for the purchase of books and tracts, as rewards to the girls for industry and good conduct.' Two Ladies of the Committee, in practical pursuit of these ends, attended the the school (un-specified) together, in rotation, daily, for one week in this way 'they maintained a regular interest and attention to its welfare, by inspecting the general business of the school, particularly the needlework, and to supply the children with work, of which their earnings are appropriated to their own benefit. They cut out the work to be done, and instruct the girls to do the same. They are also taught to to mend their own clothes, an art in which poor people are so generally so deficient. The girls being thus under the continual superintendance of the Ladies Committee, become patterns of industry and good conduct, a credit to the institution, and useful members of society.'
The Register piously reflects on the salvation of so many 'from the paths of vice and infamy' and concludes with the hopes that the next annual report of the association would 'present a longer list of subscribers, and that every Lady in the town and vicinity of Douglas, who feels an interest in the welfare and honour of her sex, will inscribe her name among the many amiable patronesses of this institution, recorded in the Annual Report before us', and an archrallying call to the 'Gentlemen of Douglas' to outnumber the Ladies in the proportion of at least two to one. in the next list of donations and subscriptions. The Register extract gives a tantalisingly unclear and incomplete picture of the Douglas-based, female-organised work of charity for female beneficiaries. Is the school visited by the Ladies daily under the association's control or not? If not, what are its origins? More important, are any of the officers, perhaps a secretary or treasurer, male? Does the association merely fit into the still common pattern of middle class female active philanthropy in spheres of 'proper' female domestic concerns, or has it any wider significance?. It seems likely that it reflects the first, class-restricted pattern. Regrettably without the discovery of their obviously professional and business-like report and the valuable information of its lists of subscriber's and 'many amiable patronesses' it is impossible to work further on its organisation and significance.
Isle of Man newspapers, ut supra
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor |
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