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Name
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Wilson's Episcopate
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Description
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Bishop Thomas Wilson served the Island for fifty-seven years, from 1698 to 1755. He arrived to a ruined diocese with nothing and spent his life rebuilding it. He refused every English living offered to him because his Manx parishioners needed him. He built schools. He established parochial libraries in every parish. He supplied reading spectacles. He published the first book in Manx. He maintained clergy education at his own expense. His ecclesiastical courts operated a parallel legal system alongside the civil courts. He went to prison defending his right to minister in the language his people understood. He died at ninety-two, buried at Kirk Michael in a coffin made from the elm tree he had planted in the churchyard when he first arrived. Nearly the whole population of the Island attended his funeral.
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Active Period
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1698-1755
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Type
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Bishop
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Education
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Language
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Source
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Train
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Keble
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Moore
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DNB
