About Revestment1765.com
This site started as a practical problem.
I was asked to teach a short history module to students about smuggling and the Isle of Man, but faced two problems. Firstly the scant material available about the Island during that period of history wasn't really very accessible and secondly, it felt wrong to simply label my Manx ancestors as a collection of smugglers. So, over the course of the next few years I began to research more and more about that gap in my understanding of Manx history, and the more I researched the more I realised how little I knew about perhaps the most important event in the Island’s history.
The Revestment is what made the Island what it is today, yet it simply wasn’t taught in school, there were no accessible books explaining it and how it shaped Manx life from then until now. For example, people today describe the Isle of Man as a Crown Dependency, but how many people realise that term was only really created in 1973 when the European Community was being formed? Or even why the Governor is even on the island, or why the new laws are read aloud on Tynwald day? The more I looked the more I realised not only I didn't know but wasn't taught to the children growing up here.
Initially I just began to pull all of what I learned together in a book — The Crime of Crown Dependence. But the research kept outgrowing the manuscript in ways that a printed book could never contain. Every person, every place, every event connected to a dozen others. The endnotes alone ran to over two thousand primary sources. I needed somewhere to put it all, somewhere a reader could follow the threads as far as they wanted to go. And to present it in a way that today’s digitally focused society could recognise and access.
So I built this site. What had begun as a digital companion to a book quickly became something much larger than that. The database now holds nearly three thousand records — people, places, events, laws, folklore, traditions, language, emigration, military history — all cross-linked with thousands of connections between them. There is a bespoke Manx-English translation tool. There are educational resources for use in and out of school. And it will continue to grow, telling more and more of the stories of this wonderful island nation.
The book is written, and tells the story of the Revestment in compelling and revealing detail, this digital companion is now an equal partner to that, and one that will contonue to develop and grow.
The site is built on Omeka S, a scholarly platform developed by George Mason University for presenting historical material in a way that is both rigorous and accessible. Unlike WordPress or premade template websites, this one has been built from scratch, all with the goal of turning facts and data into understandable and accessible information. The academic rigour is still there, but I've tried to find a way that is perhaps more friendly than a cold encyclopedia yet still has a tremendous level of interconnectivity between everything. I hope you enjoy it.
Steve
What this site is trying to do
The Isle of Man already has outstanding heritage resources. Culture Vannin works tirelessly to maintain and promote Manx culture — the language, the music, the traditions that make this island distinct. Manx National Heritage cares for everything from objects and archives to ancient monuments, buildings, landscapes, and collections, and provides searchable access to newspapers, photographs, and museum collections through iMuseum. Frances Coakley’s Manx Notebook is an extraordinary archive — over twenty thousand files of transcribed records, biographical entries, and historical material built up over decades. All three are invaluable, and between them they serve researchers, learners, and Manx speakers in ways this site does not try to replicate.
What this site tries to do differently is bring the whole narrative together in one place. Every record — whether it is a person, a place, an event, or a tradition — tells its own story in full, and links seamlessly to everything around it so you can understand the context. Follow a person to the places they lived, the laws they shaped, the chapters of the book that describe them, the primary sources that document them. The connections are already made. And where other resources can take you deeper — an archive, a language resource, a museum collection — the links are there too.
The ambition is to be the front door to Manx history: the place where someone who knows nothing about the Isle of Man can arrive, start exploring, and think, “I had no idea this happened — and there’s so much more here.” The more this resource can work alongside what Culture Vannin, Manx National Heritage, and the wider Manx heritage community are already doing, the better it will serve the island.
Where it is going
This site launched with the material gathered during several years of research for the book — over two thousand primary sources and three thousand linked records. But it is only the beginning.
The next phase involves expanding the descriptions and context for every record on the site, drawing on open-source material and newly transcribed archival collections. A project is underway to transcribe the Bridge House Papers — the letter books and business records of George Quayle & Co. of Castletown, held by Manx National Heritage — which will open up a rich seam of eighteenth-century Manx commercial and social history. Further transcription projects will follow as resources allow.
The Education & Activities section will grow to include teaching resources for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3, family activities, and materials for home educators — because this story should have been taught all along.
A programme of short digital publications is planned, beginning with The Trial and Execution of Illiam Dhone and Godred Crovan: A Potted History, designed to be accessible introductions to episodes in Manx history that deserve a wider audience.
The long-term goal is to work in partnership with Culture Vannin, Manx National Heritage, and other Manx institutions to bring this history to life in a way that is approachable, well-sourced, and genuinely useful — to researchers, to teachers, to visitors, and to Manx people who want to understand the story of their own island.
About the author
My name is Steve Babb. I grew up in Laxey and live in Onchan with my wife and children. My family has been on the island for generations — my grandmother was Freda Newby, and the Newby family ran Newbys Newsagents in Laxey for over a hundred years before it passed to my father. We had been living in the UK, but we moved back for our children to be born and grow up here. Some things matter enough to come home for.
I have ADHD and anxiety disorders. I mention this because I am neurodivergent and I want to inspire anyone who thinks a project like this is beyond them. In building this site I have learned a great deal about my own neurocapacity — not how to work around it or accommodate it, but how to accept it and find patterns and techniques that fit with the way my brain actually works. If this project encourages one other person to do the same, that matters to me.
I have spent several years as official documentarian for Tynwald, the world’s oldest continuously sitting parliament, which gave me first-hand familiarity with the constitutional system this project describes — not as historical text, but as a working institution. Before that, my career spanned twenty years in business consultancy across government, utilities, and financial services.
For the past decade I have worked in education, both in teaching as well as designing and delivering resources in partnership with schools, colleges, and universities on the island and in the UK.
Alongside this I have for many years successfully run my own media company, having worked with clients such as local newspapers, radio stations, BBC, and ITV, and importantly as the official photographer for the Office of Tynwald. I am a former deputy chair of the Isle of Man branch of the Royal Television Society, a former local politician, and served as transition manager of Kensington Arts for the Isle of Man Arts Council. I maintain close ties with Manx LitFest, Manx National Heritage, Culture Vannin, and the Office of Tynwald.
Beyond this site and The Crime of Crown Dependence I have also written an academic monograph on British constitutional history in the long eighteenth century, which is currently under review with Liverpool University Press.