Revestment 1765
The companion website to Revestment: The Crime of Crown Dependence — the story of what Parliament did to the Isle of Man
A History That Should Have Been Told
In 1765, the British Parliament purchased the Isle of Man from the Duke of Atholl. They called it "revestment" — the return of sovereignty to the Crown. But for the Manx people, it was something else entirely: the destruction of their economy, the beginning of a century of emigration, and the start of a constitutional relationship that would strip them of self-governance for generations.
This is the story that isn't taught in Manx schools. This website accompanies the book with primary sources, scholarly endnotes, and teaching materials for those who want to learn — and teach — what really happened.
Explore
📚 Teaching Resources
Activity packs for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3. Smuggling ships, Tynwald Hill, primary source analysis — materials for schools and families.
📜 Primary Sources
The documentary evidence — Treasury Papers, Atholl Papers, the 1792 Commissioners' Report, parliamentary debates. The sources that tell the story in the words of those who lived it.
🔖 Endnotes
The scholarly apparatus behind the book. Every claim documented, every quotation sourced, organised by chapter for readers who want to go deeper.
📷 Gallery
Photographs from Tynwald Day — the ceremony that has continued for over a thousand years. The parliament still meets. The people still come.
"The Inhabitants in a manner reduced to the utmost Extremity of Despair are daily removing themselves & families & going to Foreign Kingdoms to seek a Livelihood."
— The House of Keys, 1771