Coroner of Rushen Sheading who discovered George Wilks's counterfeit pennies in a house search. Reported the matter because he was 'sworn to my Lord' and 'obliged to make a discovery.' Note the family name — Tubman/Taubman — which would appear in the Island's affairs for generations.
Governor who heard the petition of the Grand Jurors fined for improperly acquitting George Wilks. He reduced the fines from twenty shillings to five shillings and sixpence, ruling their error was 'the effects of ignorance & misunderstanding the law, and not willfull error.' The system was merciful enough to forgive them.
Of Kirk Braddan. Petitioned Bishop Wilson within two months of his arrival in 1698. Hampton's wife had been convicted of lamb stealing and sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. Hampton asked for a licence for a second marriage 'in consideration of his motherless children.' Wilson gave him 'liberty to make such a choice as may be most for your support and comfort.' Wilson's first case — pastoral, practical, humane.
Offered the verdict on Wilson's achievement that placed the Island's ecclesiastical life in a larger context: 'If the ancient discipline of the church was lost elsewhere, it might be found in all its pomp in the Isle of Man.'
A soldier in the Lord of Mann's garrison and also the slater who kept Castle Rushen in repair. The whole establishment across the entire Island numbered perhaps fifty men. A garrison made of neighbours — tradesmen who happened to draw garrison pay.
Issued orders on 4 June 1765 for deployment of troops from Ireland to the Isle of Man. By 28 June, Hale's Light Dragoons had reached the Island. The 2nd Queen's Royal Regiment of Foot followed.
Listed 'the proposing the American Tax, and the purchase of the Isle of Man' as twin achievements of the Grenville ministry. Parliament was asserting its authority over its dependencies, and the Island and the American colonies were processed together, in the same session, by the same ministry.
His assessment of Grey Cooper's speech survives in the Atholl Papers: 'No performance at the Bar of the House of Commons has been mentioned with so universal and high applause as Mr Cooper's since Ld Mansfield left that Bar.'
London lawyer hired by George Moore in 1766 to prepare the Manx case for the Treasury. Weeks of delay followed. The document Rolt produced emphasised 'the prerogatives of the Lord rather than the rights of the people.' He later wrote a history of the Island in 1773.
Filed a petition regarding illegal seizure of seas in November 1765, the same month as the Ramsey fishing boat seizure. Also advanced money alongside John Taubman for harbour repairs — still petitioning the Commissioners for repayment twenty-six years later in 1791.
The only Deemster sitting at Illiam Dhone's trial. Asked the Keys for advice when Christian refused to come to the bar. The Keys — seven of twenty-four replaced by the Earl's order — declared Christian 'att the mercy of the Lord of the Isle for liffe and goods.'
Military officer who directed the twenty-four Keys regarding legislation during the post-Revestment period, as reported by Bishop Richmond to the Duke of Atholl in 1776.
Stood in the House of Keys in 1890 and said something that deserves to outlast the debate it was spoken in: 'We had a House of Keys ages before the House of Commons was in existence.' A statement of fact. A hundred and twenty-five years of Crown administration, and still the institutions persisted.
Remembered the way the language died in the domestic space: 'the old folks would talk Manx when they did not want the children to understand.' The image that captures what the Revestment ultimately cost — not revenue, not harbours, but the thread between generations. The grandmother who could not be understood by her grandchild.
Soldier on the indicting jury that returned the treason charge against Illiam Dhone. Halsall is a Lancashire place name near Ormskirk, directly in Stanley territory. The Castle Rushen teachers' guide confirms many garrison soldiers were from Lancashire. Not a Manx neighbour — a Lancashire man.
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.
Brought six tons of coal from Liverpool to Douglas in September 1748, because the Island needed fuel as much as it needed profit. The coal boats came and went alongside the brandy ships without anyone finding the juxtaposition remarkable.
Filed a petition against William Cashin for assault on 27 May 1765 — ten days after the Revestment payment was completed. Social order disrupted at the point of transfer.
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.
