Arthur William Moore (1853-1909) was a Manx historian, antiquary and politician who served as Speaker of the House of Keys from 1898 until his death. He is best known for his comprehensive works on Manx history, including *A History of the Isle of Man* (1900) and *Manx Worthies* (1901), as well as his collections of Manx ballads and folklore. His writings remain a foundational reference for the study of the Island's history and culture.
Abraham de la Pryme (1671-1704) was a Yorkshire antiquary and diarist whose journal contains observations on a wide range of historical and topographical subjects. His connection to the Isle of Man relates to his writings on trade and customs in the Irish Sea region.
David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty (1871-1936), was a Royal Navy admiral who commanded the Grand Fleet during the latter stages of the First World War. He had a connection to the Isle of Man through his residence and visits to the Island.
Archibald Knox (1864-1933) was a Manx artist and designer born at Cronkbourne, near Tromode, the fifth of seven children in a Scottish family who had emigrated to the Isle of Man. Trained at the Douglas School of Art, where he also taught from 1884, he developed a lifelong fascination with the Island's carved Celtic and Norse stone crosses, studying them on expeditions with the antiquarian Canon John Quine. Together they restored the derelict church of Old Kirk Lonan, and Knox founded the League of St German in 1896 to campaign for the restoration of Peel Cathedral. From 1897 he designed for the Silver Studio and Liberty & Co. in London, producing around 4,000 pieces for the celebrated Cymric silverware and Tudric pewter ranges, work that bridged the Arts and Crafts, Celtic Revival, Art Nouveau, and Modernist movements. Liberty kept their designers anonymous, so Knox's name remained largely unknown during his lifetime despite his designs achieving international recognition. He returned permanently to the Isle of Man in 1913, becoming the Island's lead designer, creating war memorials, gravestones, shop fronts, interiors, furniture, and watercolours. His remodelling of Cadran Cottage in Douglas (c.1910) was listed as a Registered Building in 1996. His illuminated manuscript *The Deer's Cry*, based on St Patrick's Lorica, is held by Manx National Heritage. He was added to the Manx Patriot's Roll of Honour in 2019.
During the First World War, Knox also worked at Knockaloe internment camp, where he ran the censorship department from November 1914 until October 1919. As one of the camp's civilian staff, the blue staff, rather than a military guard, he oversaw the inspection of internees' letters and parcels. By his own account his department handled more than 1.2 million parcels over the course of the war, with some 2,500 arriving from Germany on an average day, and he recorded the internees' attempts to smuggle forbidden items past him, among them newspapers concealed inside tins labelled as preserved meat. His censorship work is confirmed by Manx National Heritage and the Archibald Knox Forum, though it is not mentioned in the Manx Museum's exhibition of his work.
Arthur, Prince of Wales (1486-1502), was the eldest son of Henry VII and heir to the English throne. His connection to the Isle of Man is through the Stanley family, who held the lordship of Mann; his maternal grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, had married Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, linking the Tudor dynasty to the Lords of Mann.
Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (1735-1811), served as Prime Minister from 1768 to 1770. His government oversaw the early aftermath of the 1765 Revestment Act, during which the Crown purchased the lordship of Mann from the Duke of Atholl and sought to suppress the Island's smuggling trade.
Basil Cochrane served as an auditor and signatory on the Isle of Man's revenue abstracts during the mid-eighteenth century, appearing regularly alongside John Quayle in the annual accounts from 1744 to 1758. He was part of the small administrative class that managed the Atholl lordship's finances in the period before the Revestment of 1765.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an American polymath, diplomat and Founding Father. His connection to the Isle of Man relates to the broader political context of the Revestment era and the American colonial dispute, with correspondence in the Island's archives touching on transatlantic trade and the rights of self-governing territories.
George Murray (1784-1860) served as Bishop of Sodor and Man from 1814 to 1827. He oversaw the diocese during a period of significant social change on the Island, including the expansion of Methodism and the ongoing debates over land tenure and governance that followed the Revestment.
Brian Stowell (1936-2019) was a Manx language activist, author and broadcaster who played a central role in the revival of the Manx language during the late twentieth century. He was a fluent Manx speaker who produced a substantial body of work in the language, including novels, short stories and regular newspaper columns, and served as Manx Language Officer for Culture Vannin.
Cadwallon ap Cadfan (d. 634) was King of Gwynedd in north Wales, known for his alliance with the pagan Mercian King Penda against Edwin of Northumbria. His connection to Manx tradition relates to the period of British and Irish influence in the Irish Sea region before the Norse settlement of the Island.
Caesar Bacon (1791-1876) was a Manx-born soldier who served as an ensign in the 23rd Light Dragoons at the battles of Quatre-Bras and Waterloo, where he was slightly wounded. He rose to the rank of major before retiring to the Isle of Man in 1818, where he became a member of the House of Keys, captain of the parish of Santon, and a justice of the peace, and was noted for his improvements to agriculture on the Island.
Caesar Parr was a Peel man who publicly accused Charles Lutwidge, the Crown's customs enforcer on the Isle of Man, of being "an Egregious Smuggler" following the 1765 Revestment. Lutwidge sued him for slander, but the case collapsed when Parr prepared his defence. The episode illustrates the tensions between the Island's established community and the new customs regime imposed after the Crown's purchase of the lordship.
Captain George Dowe commanded the Whitehaven customs sloop Sincerity. In August 1750, he lured Captain Matthias Christian, the Commander at Ramsey, aboard his vessel and presented pistols to his breast, threatening to blow his brains out and to batter his house to the ground. The episode illustrates the violent reality of customs enforcement in the Irish Sea before the Revestment.
James Cook (1728-1779) was a British navigator and explorer renowned for his three voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean. His connection to the Isle of Man relates to the broader context of eighteenth-century British naval exploration in which Manx sailors participated.
Captain John Quilliam (1771-1829) was a Manx-born Royal Navy officer who served as first lieutenant aboard HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. When the Victory's wheel was shot away during the battle, Quilliam and the master steered the ship from the gun room by tiller, and he is credited with personally repairing the damaged steering gear. He was later elected to the House of Keys and retired to Kirk Michael, where his tombstone describes him as "the uncompromising defender of the rights and privileges of his countrymen."
Captain Matthias Christian served as Commander at Ramsey on the Isle of Man, a member of the prominent Christian family of Milntown in Lezayre. In August 1750, he was lured aboard the Whitehaven customs sloop Sincerity by Captain George Dowe, who presented pistols to his breast and threatened to destroy his house.
Captain Murray served as a customs searcher at Peel, responsible for inspecting incoming vessels for contraband during the period of the Island's smuggling trade.
Charles I (1600-1649) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625 until his execution. His conflicts with Parliament over royal prerogative, taxation, and religion drove the three English Civil Wars. James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, was among his most committed supporters, and the Isle of Man remained a Royalist stronghold until 1651, two years after the King's death. Charles was tried by a High Court of Justice and executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649.
Charles II (1630-1685) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1660 until his death. Following the execution of Illiam Dhone (William Christian) by order of the 8th Earl of Derby in 1663, Charles II's Privy Council ruled that the Act of Indemnity extended to the Isle of Man, ordered the restitution of Christian's estate, and punished those responsible for the execution. His reign also saw the restoration of the Stanley family's lordship of Mann.
Charles II (1630-1685) was the eldest surviving son of Charles I. After his father's execution he was crowned King of Scots at Scone in January 1651 and marched south into England that summer. James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, sailed from the Isle of Man to join him, fighting at Wigan Lane before reaching the King at Worcester. The campaign ended in total defeat on 3 September 1651. Charles escaped to France; Derby was captured and executed at Bolton. Charles was restored to the English throne in 1660, and the consequences of that restoration for the Isle of Man - the return of the Stanley lordship, the trial and execution of Illiam Dhone - shaped the Island for generations.
Charles Lutwidge (1722-1784) was a Cumberland magistrate and customs official appointed by the Lords of the Treasury to implement the anti-smuggling laws that accompanied the 1765 Revestment of the Isle of Man. He wielded almost unchecked influence on Treasury policy in the Island for several years after the Revestment, and Lieutenant-Governor Smith described his impunity as a "Curse to the Isle of Man."
Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby (1628-1672), was Lord of Mann and son of James Stanley, the 7th Earl, whose execution by Parliamentarians in 1651 he sought to avenge. In 1662, governing the Island entirely from Lancashire through his appointed officers, he ordered the trial and execution of William Christian (Illiam Dhone) for treason. Christian was shot at Hango Hill on 2 January 1663. The Privy Council of Charles II subsequently ruled the proceedings unlawful.
