Letter from William Crawford to George Washington detailing land surveying activities in Pennsylvania and Virginia territories, the progress of the Mason-Dixon line, Indian land rights disputes, and opportunities for private land acquisition west of the Allegheny Mountains. The letter provides contemporary perspectives on colonial expansion, Indian relations, and boundary disputes relevant to understanding the broader constitutional and commercial context of the 1765 Revestment period.
Signatory to the Keys' Resolution of March 1765 appointing commissioners 'to preserve the inherent and Constitutional Rights of the People of this Isle, as much as in them lies.' A name that appears only here, on this document — a man about whom the records say nothing else, who shows up for this one act and then disappears back into the parishes.
A 13th-century petition to the English Crown recorded in the Rotuli Parliamentorum, in which William de Twynham of the Isle of Man seeks royal redress against Justice Duncan Matkory and his son for alleged unlawful seizure of goods worth fifty marks. The record demonstrates early legal interaction between Manx residents and English royal justice, and the Crown's involvement in Isle of Man governance.
A 13th-century parliamentary record documenting a dispute between William de Twynham of the Isle of Man and Justice Duncan Matkory over goods valued at fifty marks. The record shows the King's response to defer judgment pending investigation by the King's Keeper of Man, illustrating early medieval Manx legal jurisdiction and the Crown's oversight of Manx affairs.
The soldier whose shot killed Illiam Dhone at Hango Hill on 2 January 1663. Only one soldier's shot took effect. M'Cowle is reported to have been rewarded with a grant of land in the north of the Island for doing his duty. It was said that blankets were spread on the green under Christian's feet, that not a drop of blood should be spilt onto Manx earth when he fell.
English nobleman who received Edward III's grant of the lordship of Mann. He rebuilt Castle Rushen after the damage inflicted by Robert the Bruce's invasion.
Extract from William of Malmesbury's 12th-century chronicle covering Norse succession and Magnus of Norway's conquest of the Orkney and Mevanian (Hebridean/Manx) islands circa 1098. Provides medieval historical context for Norse control of the Irish Sea islands and early medieval governance structures relevant to pre-Revestment Manx history.
Extracts from William of Malmesbury's 12th-century chronicle (composed c.1125) covering Norwegian dynastic succession and Magnus's expeditions against the Orkney and Mevanian (Isle of Man) islands in 1066 and 1098. Provides medieval context for Norse control of the Isle of Man and its strategic importance in the North Sea and Irish Sea region.
Prime Minister who forced through the 1805 measure granting the Duke of Atholl £3,000 per annum in additional compensation. The money came from Manx revenue.
Listed as a husbandman on the indicting jury at Illiam Dhone's trial. An English-origin family settled in Kirk Andreas, associated with the Stanley administration — one Charles Wattleworth transcribed the Kirk Andreas parish register under direction of the chaplain to the Earl of Derby.
Extract from Draper's 'House of Stanley' (1864) covering the life and tenure of the 9th Earl of Derby (d. 1702), his appointment of Dr. Thomas Wilson as Bishop of Sodor and Man in 1698, and the Earl's modest involvement in Isle of Man governance. Includes genealogical details of the Derby family and accounts of Wilson's influence on the Earl's financial and personal affairs.
Bishop Thomas Wilson served the Island for fifty-seven years, from 1698 to 1755. He arrived to a ruined diocese with nothing and spent his life rebuilding it. He refused every English living offered to him because his Manx parishioners needed him. He built schools. He established parochial libraries in every parish. He supplied reading spectacles. He published the first book in Manx. He maintained clergy education at his own expense. His ecclesiastical courts operated a parallel legal system alongside the civil courts. He went to prison defending his right to minister in the language his people understood. He died at ninety-two, buried at Kirk Michael in a coffin made from the elm tree he had planted in the churchyard when he first arrived. Nearly the whole population of the Island attended his funeral.
Bishop Thomas Wilson published the first book in Manx, Coyrle Sodjeh, in 1707. He began with the catechism, moved to Coyrle Sodjeh, and kept going, book by book, because a people who spoke Manx deserved to pray in Manx. His successor Hildesley continued the work: the complete New Testament in 1767, the full Bible in 1772. The 1765 Manx Prayer Book was both a monument and a marker: it preserved the language in print and marked the moment after which no institution on the Island would fight for the language the way Wilson had fought for it.
Bishop Wilson established a library in every parish on the Island, stocked with books in Manx and English, and supplied reading spectacles so the people could use them. The libraries were part of Wilson's comprehensive programme of education and spiritual care. They were not maintained after Wilson's successors lost the resources to stock them. The libraries represent what the Revestment interrupted: an institutional commitment to the education and cultural life of Manx people, funded by the resources of the diocese and sustained by a bishop who believed his people deserved the means to read.
The Isle of Man granted property-owning women the right to vote — decades before Westminster. The Island that had been treated as constitutionally insignificant led the British Isles in democratic reform.
Chapter 4 from John Wood's comprehensive 1811 Account of the Isle of Man, detailing Manx property law, land tenure systems, and inheritance customs. Covers the evolution of landholding from feudal obligations to the Lord through the 1703 settlement and 1777 confirmation act. Documents the distinction between entailed and purchased estates, commons rights, game laws, and widow's rights—all fundamental to understanding post-Revestment property administration.
A systematic account of Manx civil law and court procedures circa 1811, detailing the jurisdiction of various courts (High-bailiff, Deemster, Common Law, Chancery, Admiralty, Exchequer, Ecclesiastical), rules governing trespass, damages, arrest, debt, and legal fees. Includes illustrative ecclesiastical court records and commentary on Manx legal privileges protecting debtors and foreigners. Directly relevant to understanding Manx constitutional and legal structures in the pre-Revestment and post-Revestment periods.
Chapter 3 of Wood's 1811 Account of the Isle of Man, examining the constitutional and legal framework governing personal rights, liberty, property, and social obligations. Compares Manx law with English precedent (Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus), discusses labour laws, marriage regulations, guardianship, and inheritance practices. Highly relevant to understanding post-Revestment governance and Manx constitutional distinctiveness.
A historical survey of early Isle of Man from legendary times through the reign of Godred Crovan, drawing on traditional sources and earlier chronicles. Wood critically examines the reliability of early Manx tradition, discusses Norse and Scottish influence, and traces the genealogy of the Orry dynasty. Provides contextual background on pre-Revestment Manx sovereignty and constitutional status.
Chapter 7 from Wood's 1811 Account of the Isle of Man covering heraldry, military establishment (Manks Fencibles), and religious institutions. Discusses the bishopric of Sodor and Man, ecclesiastical patronage reserved to the Atholl family under the Act of Revestment, and religious toleration on the island. Includes historical notes on the origin of the Sodor title and contemporary Methodist and Quaker presence.
A topographical and historical account of Peel and Kirk Michael parishes, including descriptions of Peel Castle, its ecclesiastical buildings, local legends (the mauthe doog ghost), Tynwald Mount, and Kirk Michael church with its Runic cross. Originally published in 1811, this work provides contemporary observations on the post-Revestment state of key Manx landmarks and their condition after the loss of the smuggling trade.
