Profile
(Continuation of Chapter 5)
The Caymanas Church upto 1839
Rev'd Nicholas Sykes
Whatever understanding Bishop Lipscomb hadby this time of the implications of the anomalous position ofthe Caymans as to law and government for the establishment ofthe church there did not prevent him from searching, and one supposes,praying, for a new source of funds.
It was only a few months earlier that hehad consecrated the new, albeit very humble, church in GeorgeTown 5.29 [COMMENT 26] and he would be most anxious that the workthat had been started should not be aborted. The Bishop wouldbe prepared therefore to change his plan of action for the Caymanasif a new way forward could be found.
In Jamaica at the time, during the earlyapprenticeship period, the church was engaging in broad new fieldsof service to the newly emancipated but mostly still apprenticedlabourers. The need for the funding of catechists and schoolteachersas well as additional clergymen was greater than what the legislaturealong with grants from the British Parliament could support.
With the encouragement of the Bishop theseneeds were being partly addressed by the two main missionary societiesof the Church of England, the Society for the Propagation of theGospel and the Church Missionary Society. The CMS seems to haveorganised fairly self-contained missions, but the SPG operatedmore specifically as a resource for missionary work that was organisedby the Bishop.
Such "missionary work" was beingcarried out throughout Jamaica and records show that the SPG'sassociation with the Church of England in Jamaica increased considerablyin the period immediately following the emancipation of the slaves.5.30 [COMMENT 27] The historical records of the United Societyfor the Propagation of the Gospel (the present name for the SPGafter it merged with another missionary society) include a "missionaryroll", a list of names and brief details of service of thosewho were counted as SPG missionaries.
It appears that these may not have beensent from England directly by the Society, but were probably ormostly clergy appointed by the Bishop whose stipends were part-fundedby the Society. Significantly, the date for the first SPG missionariesin Jamaica is recorded on the roll as 1836, and of particularinterest is the inclusion in this list of the name David Wilson.5.31[COMMENT 28]
On the 14th January 1836 the Custos JohnDrayton presided at a meeting held at George Town which they calleda "Court of Sessions", consisting of the Magistratesand Representatives and a "large number of the principalinhabitants of the Island". The Custos put before them a"letter from the Rev'd J. McIntyre purporting that the LordBishop of Jamaica was most anxious to send a Clergyman, and desiredto know what stipend would be allowed from the Island". Aftera debate among about 45 voters whether the sum provided wouldbe £70 or £50 per annum the figure of £50 wasvoted by a majority of two or three. A resolution was passed tothis effect, the amount to be payable from the Public Treasuryquarterly.5.32 [COMMENT 29]
The question can be asked whether, if in1836 the Islanders felt that no more than £50 could be afforded,they had really engaged earlier to have paid the Rev'd T.C. Sharpe£100 annually, as Lord Sligo believed in 1834 that theyhad. 5.33 [COMMENT 30] Perhaps that had been an understandingat the time, or a suggestion made that was thought to have beenaccepted, rather than an actual engagement.
Presumably the Rev'd Mr. Sharpe would nothave moved to the Caymanas without the Bishop's prior assurance,yet he arrived just before the Magistrates and Representativesstarted to make resolutions and pass laws. The £50 votedis perfectly consistent with their failure (as the Governor sawit) to have afforded £100 for the Rev'd Mr. Sharpe.
The Bishop's approach at the beginning of1836 to the Caymanas authorities, when compared with his 1825approach as a freshly consecrated and appointed overseas bishop,seems to have changed, a change forged no doubt in the fires ofyears of difficulties and also with some personal knowledge ofthe Caymanas.
It was less assertive and more pastoral.The idea of ecclesiastical establishment was no longer the mainthought. Guaranteed provision for the clergy was no longer demandedas "necessary for the Bishop to know". In place of this,he merely conveyed that he was "most anxious" to senda clergyman and "desired to know" what stipend wouldbe allowed from the Island.
Unfortunately there is no certainty thatthe 1836 Caymanian record of what the Rev'd Mr. McIntyre's lettersaid actually quotes from the Bishop but the impression of itscharacter is strong. By the end of 1835 the Bishop would be wellaware of the failure in August 1835 of the British authority'splan to unite Caymanas to Jamaica for legislative purposes. 5.34[COMMENT 31] One of the factors delaying the re-starting of theCaymanas work may have been the desire to await the successfulimplementation of this plan.
As a result of its failure his earlier intentionto have two livings legislated for the Caymanas continued to bebeyond his powers and delayed indefinitely. The Establishmentof an ecclesiastical organization in the Caymanas, he must thenat least have suspected, was unattainable. However he could stilldraw upon the moral authority he possessed and use it for thecontinuation of the work and the pastoral care of his flock.
To cover some of the ground in Jamaica it had already proved necessaryto draw on the financial support of the missionary societies.To the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, therefore, theBishop turned for help with the Caymanas work.
It seems probable that by the beginningof 1836 the Rev'd David Wilson had been ordained a Deacon by theBishop and assigned to serve as an SPG Missionary in Grand Caymanas.5.35 [COMMENT 32] By placing the Caymanas work under the SPG missionaryscheme, the Bishop had the immediate benefit of half of the Curate'sstipend being secured from a source outside the Caymanas, andindeed outside his Diocesan responsibility.
The evident change of tone of his approachto the Caymanas authorities is entirely consistent with the changeof outlook that these circumstances would have generated. In theevent, the 1836 initiative was perhaps the most successful ofanything he had tried to do thus far in the Caymanas.
The Bishop's Caymanas strategy was not withoutrisk. The SPG's special help to the Jamaica Church at this timewas intended to help bridge the gaps between the state-fundedChurch's resources and the Church's need and desire to catechiseand make disciples of the huge population of newly apprenticedlabourers consequent on emancipation. It was a temporary measure,and the SPG's funds were not inexhaustible.
When an Island Curacy became vacant a curatewas transferred there from an SPG curacy wherever possible soas to conserve SPG funds. 5.36 [COMMENT 33] The SPG continuedto make grants until 1865. 5.37 [COMMENT 34] The overall intentionwas for the SPG to hand back to the host church by stages theresponsibilities it had adopted. The risk that the Bishop facedin using the SPG for the support of the Caymanas work was thatunlike in Jamaica there was no Island Establishment to which responsibilitiescould be handed back when the Society's support there was no longerpossible.
COMMENT 26 See note 5.17[COMMENT 14].
COMMENT 27 Letter dated 19 Oct 1995 to the author from Mrs.Catherine Wakeling, USPG Archivist.
COMMENT 28 The USPG Archivist refers for this informationto one of the society's histories, C.F Pascoe, Two Hundred Yearsof the SPG, SPG, 1901.
COMMENT 29 "Local Laws" (page 51). Meeting heldon 14th January 1836
COMMENT 30 See Lord Sligo's letter of the 13th Dec. 1834{CNNISSUE # 81}, pp. 59-60 (CO 137/194)
COMMENT 31 See Ch 2 pp. 24-26 above.
COMMENT 32 According to Mrs. Wakeling, the USPG Archivist,David Wilson is listed in the SPG Annual Report (printed probablyin the Spring) of 1836; he is listed as being on the Grand Caymanasin the Annual Reports for 1837 to 1839; and he is listed as beingin Westmoreland (Jamaica) in the Annual Reports for 1840 to 1843.In Pascoe's missionary roll (see above p. 65) Wilson's entry reads"Served Grand Caymanas 1836-1839 and Westmoreland (Jamaica)1840-1843."
COMMENT 33 According to the USPG Archivist. See also Evans,p. 26.
COMMENT 34 Evans, p. 30.
® To be continued