# Manx Primary Source Archive — Transcription

**Source image:** `20260219_142447.jpg`  
**Transcribed:** 2026-02-25 19:26  
**Method:** Automated (Claude Batch API — claude-opus-4-6)

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" the Nature as well as value of every Branch of the Revenue
" of this Island, before you can form any Judgment of the price which
" ought to be paid for it, or can Determin what part of my Poſſeſſions in
" this Island, it may be neceſſary or Expedient to Purchase, in Order to
" obtain the benefit for which such Purchase is intended" —

Having received this Second Letter, as well as the first, in Scotland, my
Incapacity to give it any Answer upon the Spot obliged me to deny
myself that pleasure till my Return to my House in Town, which I
have Anticipated with that view before my usual time, in hopes to
have found some Lights amongst the late Dukes Papers, for my late
Enjoyment of the Island has not yet Supplyed me with any, which
might have Enabled me to give your Lordships some Satisfaction —
— But I am Sorry to acquaint your Lordships with my Disappointment,
and that so far from finding myself in a Capacity to furnish the particular
Accounts called for with the Precision and Accuracy your Lordships
seem to require, I have not, as yet, received a Single Account from the
Island since my Acceſſion to it, and am Informed it will be some time
before the Ordinary Returns from thence can be Closed, even to the
late Dukes death — What has been in my power I have performed, I
have Intimated to my Officers in the Isle your Lordships Expectations,
and have directed them to Frame, and Transmit me by the first opportunity
the several Accounts according to your Lordships requisition in
which, I am perswaded, they will not give the least delay, but will
be equally happy with myself in giving your Lordships the
earliest Satisfaction

But your Lordships will give me leave to repeat my former
Ideas and to expreſs my hopes that our Treaty may not be for a
Partial Purchase; that, If I must Part with my Poſſeſſions, it
may be the Entirety, and not any Dismembred branches of my
Revenue, or even the whole of them, Separate and distinct from