Sophia Morrison

Sophia Morrison (24 May 1859 – 14 January 1917) was a Manx cultural activist, folklore collector and author. Through her own work and role in encouraging and enthusing others, she is considered to be one of the key figures of the Manx cultural revival. She is best remembered today for writing Manx Fairy Tales, published in 1911, although her greatest influence was as an activist for the revitalisation of Manx culture, particularly through her work with the Manx Language Society and its journal, Mannin, which she edited from 1913 until her death.

Early life Sophia Morrison was born in Peel, Isle of Man, as the third of nine children to Charles Morrison (1824–80) and his wife Louisa (née Crellin) (1830–1901). Her father was a well-respected merchant who owned a fleet of fishing boats and was responsible for the building of Athol Street in Peel. The 1881 census recorded Sophia Morrison as living at 7 Athol Street, but it is possible that she lived at the other family houses on the street during her life, including numbers 11 and 15.

Morrison attended the Clothworkers' School in Peel and took up music studies with her relative and friend, Edmund Goodwin. In receiving honours from Trinity College of Music, Morrison was the first person on the island to pass a music college examination. What made Morrison distinct from collectors such as Moore was that she would collect folklore from people directly, often going on field trips with friends such as Josephine Kermode, better known by her writing name, Cushag. It was with Roeder that Morrison co-authored Manx Proverbs and Sayings in 1905. From this book comes the telling preface, by both authors, which is a good statement of Morrison's belief in the importance of folklore:

Something of the national character, somewhat of the history of a people, much of its manners and customs, may be gleaned from its folk lore. I make, therefore, no further apology for introducing this collection to the public. I feel sure that it will be welcomed, not only for its intrinsic interest, but as showing what treasures of Manx lore may still be unearthed by research among the people, if only the opportunity be seized before the passing away of the older generation.

Her most successful work in this area is Manx Fairy Tales, first published in 1911. Unlike other works in this area at that time, Morrison's book managed to gain wide appreciation from both scholars and the public. This balancing of both the purist and the populist approaches to cultural heritage was essential for Morrison; in bringing Manx culture to a wider audience, it could be both preserved and reinvigorated. This leaning of the book towards the popular audience can be seen in both the book's title (since superstition traditionally means that the word 'fairy' is never used on the Isle of Man) and in the near complete absence of Manx language or strong dialect. However, despite such concessions, and the minor changes to stories to present them in a better written form, they were well received by the people of Peel and its environs from whom the stories were originally collected.

The popularity of Manx Fairy Tales was boosted by its second edition in 1929 when illustrations were added by Archibald Knox, Morrison's friend who had earlier illustrated the journal, Mannin. To this edition of Manx Fairy Tales were also added five new stories, which were collected from published written sources, including the significant ones of 'The Moddey Doo', 'Magnus Barefoot' and 'The Buggane of St. Trinians'. It is this edition of the book which is still in print today.

Manx Language Despite coming from an English-speaking home, Morrison was a fluent Manx speaker, thanks to her contact with people such as the fishermen of Peel who she came to know well through her father. At a time when the Manx language was going into a steep decline, Morrison began to take special interest in learning and preserving the language. With O. Joughin and William Cashen, Morrison set up Manx language lessons in Peel, which would soon become a feature of most towns across the island.

In March 1899 she was a founding member of Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh (The Manx Language Society), where she served as Secretary from 1901 until her death. She was to be described as "the mainspring of all the Society's activities" by P. W. Caine.

The journal was a focal point for the Manx cultural movement, comprising pieces covering a wide range of cultural concerns: music, folklore, oral history, history, politics, biographies of significant Manx people, natural history, Manx Gaelic and original pieces of poetry, prose and theatre. The journal successfully raised the profile of Manx culture, both by the quality of the contributions and by the international calibre of those appearing in the journal. Significant figures published in Mannin include: T. E. Brown, John Ruskin, Archibald Knox, W. H. Gill, A. P. Graves, George Borrow, Josephine Kermode, P. M. C. Kermode, William Boyd Dawkins, Mona Douglas, Edward Forbes, William Cubbon and W. Walter Gill.

Like A. W. Moore's The Manx Note Book before it, Mannin made a significant and lasting impact on Manx culture, both as a store of writing and as a focus point for those enthused by Manx culture. But unlike Moore's earlier publication, and perhaps unlike other Manx journals that followed, Mannin is notable for the extension and continuation of Manx culture and literature, rather than just its preservation. The quality of Manx-centered literature published in the journal stands out in the history of a literature of the Isle of Man, including, as it does, perhaps all of the most important writers and thinkers of the period (except for Hall Caine, whose absence from such Manx cultural circles is noteworthy).

The last edition of the journal came in May 1917, when the ninth edition was published after Morrison's death, finally edited by her protégée, Mona Douglas. This final edition included a number of pieces commemorating Morrison and her importance to the Isle of Man and its culture.

Theatre

The group was significant in promoting a sense of Manx identity, both through the plays performed and in the dialect used. It is perhaps unique in Manx history in being able to run a successful theatre group through plays written by local authors. Chief amongst the Manx authors who found their outlet in the Peel Players were Christopher R. Shimmin, Cushag and W. Clucas Kinley.

She produced a calendar of T. E. Brown quotations with Alice Mallt Williams (1912), masterminding the T. E. Brown day in the island's schools (wherein each pupil received a picture of the Manx poet), Her folk music collecting was much more purist than W. H. Gill who was prone to arrange the tunes for popular taste, but this did not dint Gill's respect for her opinion of his work. She was also instrumental in setting up Manx singing classes across the island.

Morrison was central to the idea of the Isle of Man as a Celtic nation, culturally tied to Ireland, Scotland and Wales more closely than England. Although its ambiguous relation to England made the Isle of Man unique (and perhaps something of an outsider) amongst the other nations of the pan-Celtic movement, Morrison ensured that there was a Manx presence at pan-Celtic gatherings, including going herself to the Pan-Celtic Congress in Dublin in 1901 and in Caernarfon in 1904.

Death

Morrison suffered from increasing deafness, neuralgic headaches and severe problems with her eyes in later life, undergoing operations on the island and in Manchester for the last of these. She died on 14 January 1917, in Peel, from cancer of the intestine.

She was buried in the family grave in Peel Cemetery. Her coffin was carried from her home in Atholl Street to the hearse and then to the graveside by members of the Peel Players; J. J. Joughin, Christopher R. Shimmin, Caesar Cashin, and Charles Henry Cowley. In the edition of Mannin that followed her death, P. W. Caine was to write:

No heavier blow has ever befallen the cause of Manx nationality than was sustained on January 14th last, when Miss Sophia Morrison, the secretary of the Manx Society and the editor and proprietor of Mannin, passed from mortal ken.

At Miss Morrison’s funeral, in Peel churchyard, an old friend of hers, and a devoted lover of the old tongue, made the remark, "There's a light gone out to-day that will never be lit again". Let those who honoured her pay her memory the sincerest tribute possible by falsifying this gloomy prophecy. May she become one of those to whom the scriptural phrase may truly be applied: "T'ad ec fee veih nyn seaghyn; as ta nyn obbraghyn geiyrt daue". ("They rest from their labours; and their works do follow them".)