Thomas Wilson was from Trinity College, Dublin, and became domestic
chaplain to William, Earl of Derby, and preceptor to the Earl's son, who
died young. While he held this position, the Bishopric of Sodor and
Man became vacant, and it was offered to him. He declined it, thinking
himself unworthy of so high a trust. The Bishopric continued vacant.
Perhaps the candidates for it were few; certainly the emoluments
were small; perhaps the patron was slothful--certainly he gave little
attention to the Church. At length complaint was made to the King that
the spiritual needs of the island were being neglected. The Earl was
commanded to fill the Bishopric, and once again he offered it to his
chaplain. Then Wilson yielded. He took possession in 1698, and was
enthroned at Peel Castle. The picture of his enthronement must have been
something to remember. Peel Castle was already tumbling to its fall, and
the cathedral church was a woful wreck. It is even said that from a
hole in the roof the soil and rain could enter, and blades of grass were
shooting up on the altar. The Bishop's house at Kirk Michael, which
had been long shut up, was in a similar plight; damp, mouldy,
broken-windowed, green with moss within and without. What would one give
to turn back the centuries and look on at that primitive ceremony in
St. Germain's Chapel in April 1698! There would be the clergy, a
sorry troop, with wise and good men among them, no doubt, but a poor,
battered, bedraggled, neglected lot, chiefly learned in dubious arts
of collecting tithes. And the Bishop himself, the good chaplain of Earl
Derby, the preceptor of his son, what a face he must have had to watch
and to study, as he stood there that April morning, and saw for the
first time what work he had come to tackle!