In 1827, three ships carried Manx emigrants to Ohio: the Chile, the Curler, and the Ocean. The Cleveland Herald of 3 August 1827 reported about 200 immigrants from the Isle of Man. The northern parishes of Ballaugh, Jurby, Kirk Michael, and Lezayre bled the most — parishes where the herring economy had mattered most, where the collapse of the harbours had been felt most acutely, and where the agricultural land was thinnest. Moore fixed 1824 as the date at which the Manx labourer reached his lowest depth of misery. The 1827 ships sailed three years later. The people who left were not adventurers. They were families — the Corletts and the Cannells and the Sayles and the Kellys — doing what the Keys' petition had described: removing themselves and their families to seek a livelihood, because the island that had sustained their ancestors could no longer sustain them.
Annual festivals organised by the Cleveland Manx community from 1853 onward. The festivals brought Manx families together from across the settlements in Cleveland, Newburgh, and Warrensville, sustaining the communal bonds that the emigration had carried across the Atlantic.
From 1880 onward, Manx families from across northern Ohio gathered annually at Cottage Grove Lake for a community picnic. The picnic drew families from Cleveland, Newburgh, Warrensville, and the wider settlements, maintaining the social bonds that had sustained the community since the first arrivals in the 1820s.
In 1779, the Archbishop of York asked Manx people to contribute to the relief of Anglican clergy displaced by the American Revolution — the revolution provoked, in part, by the same fiscal overreach that had impoverished the Manx. The Bishop of Sodor and Man replied that his clergy's preferments and his congregations' circumstances could not afford such generosity. Forty-eight years later, Manx people were emigrating to the very republic the revolution had created, because the island the Archbishop had asked them to subsidise was no longer able to sustain them. The chapel that could not afford to help the displaced clergy was now itself being displaced.
The Christians settled in New Kent County, Virginia. Robert Christian of Cedar Grove became Chief Magistrate of New Kent County, described as “Washington’s devoted friend.” His granddaughter Letitia married John Tyler, who became the tenth President of the United States. Whether the family originated on the Isle of Man is a question the primary sources have not yet answered. A separate line of research connects the Augusta County Christians — Israel Christian, Colonel William Christian of the Fincastle Resolutions, and their kin — to the Jurby parish Christians through Dollin Christian, son of the Reverend John Christian, vicar of Jurby, who died “on the coast of Virginia” around 1745. The Cedar Grove line and the Augusta County line have not been connected to each other in primary sources. The full research is documented on the companion page.
In Cleveland and the surrounding townships — Newburgh, Warrensville, and the small settlements along the lake — Manx emigrants formed what later accounts described as a community bound by their own Gaelic language, which they used almost exclusively with each other. City censuses counted ninety-five Manx-born residents of Cleveland in 1846, a hundred and forty-eight by 1848, though most of the Manx settled outside the city proper. Eventually, the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History recorded, there were over three thousand Manx and their descendants. Kinvig, writing in 1954, noted that the Manx use of their own language had given them a reputation for clannishness.
Initiated in 1922 when Joe Kelly and Edward Callister of the Cleveland Manx community met with Willie Craine during a visit to the Isle of Man. The medal is awarded annually at the Manx Music Festival (Yn Chruinnaght or the Guild) in Douglas. It represents the enduring connection between the Cleveland Manx community and the cultural life of the homeland, the diaspora reaching back across the Atlantic to support the traditions it had carried with it.
The tradition holds that the Cottier family of Lezayre accompanied the Christians to Virginia around 1655, and that two Cottier daughters married the two Christian brothers before departure. The primary evidence rests on two entries in Nugent’s Cavaliers and Pioneers: a “Jno. Codier” appearing as a headright alongside Anne Christian in a 1658 Potomac patent, and a “Jno. Cotier” in a 1662 Lancaster County patent. Both names are traditionally read as Cottier — a distinctively Manx surname. The 1658 pairing of a Christian and a Cottier in the same patent is the closest the primary record comes to the tradition. However, the Pearlman genealogical research demonstrated that the Cottier-Christian marriages occurred in a later generation in Virginia, not before departure from Mann. No independent evidence places a Cottier family in Lezayre at the right date, and no ship record or departure record has been found for either family.
In January 1775, Colonel William Christian chaired the committee that produced the Fincastle Resolutions, rejecting Parliament’s claim of unlimited power over the colonies. The Resolutions were addressed to Patrick Henry. Christian later married Patrick Henry’s sister Anne and served as a Colonel in the Revolution. Whether his family originated on the Isle of Man is a persistent tradition but unproven. His father Israel Christian appears in Augusta County records from around 1749 as a merchant. A Manx probate record from 1751 places Dollin Christian — son of the Reverend John Christian, vicar of Jurby — dying “on the coast of Virginia” around 1745. If Israel was Dollin’s son, the constitutional instinct that drove the Fincastle Resolutions may trace back to a Manx Deemster’s bench. The chain is plausible but the connecting evidence has not been found.
In 1927, a century after the first major wave of emigration, Manx Americans organised a homecoming visit to the Isle of Man. The homecoming marked a turning point in the relationship between the diaspora and the homeland, demonstrating that after a century of settlement in America the connection to the island remained strong. It was one of several organised homecoming visits that would continue through the twentieth century, including a major visit in 1952. The 1927 homecoming helped build the momentum that led to the founding of the North American Manx Association the following year.
The first International Manx Convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio, in August 1928. John E. Christian was elected chairman of the new organisation, and the Manx Choral Society performed at the event. The convention marked the founding of the North American Manx Association as a successor to Mona's Relief Society, transforming what had been a Cleveland-based welfare organisation into a continent-wide cultural heritage body.
In 1888, four Christians served simultaneously as judges in Virginia: Joseph Christian on the Supreme Court of Appeals, George L. Christian on the Husting Court of Richmond, J.H. Christian on the County Court of Charles City County, and Thomas Christian on the County Courts of Middlesex and Matthews Counties. Whether the instinct to adjudicate came from a Manx Deemster’s bench or from somewhere else entirely, the pattern is striking. The Christian family had served as Deemsters on the Isle of Man since 1408.
The headright system was the primary mechanism for acquiring land in colonial Virginia from 1618 until approximately 1700. Under the system, any person who paid the cost of transporting an emigrant to the colony received fifty acres of land. A settler who paid his own passage received one headright; a wealthy planter who paid for the passage of labourers, servants, or family members received fifty acres per person transported. The system was designed to solve the colony's chronic labour shortage while simultaneously distributing land. Headright records are among the most important sources for early colonial immigration, because they name the people transported. In the absence of passenger manifests, which were not systematically kept before the nineteenth century, headright patents often provide the only evidence that a named individual arrived in Virginia. When a 'Richard Christian' appears as a headright in Captain Samuel Mathews's 1643 Rappahannock patent, or a 'Thomas Christian' patents land independently on the Chickahominy in 1657, these headright entries are the colonial record of their arrival. The system produced a society of large landowners and working poor. A planter who imported sixty labourers could claim three thousand acres. The land was free, but the annual quitrent to the Crown was not, and the land had to be settled and cultivated within three years or the patent lapsed.
The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History recorded that eventually there were over three thousand Manx people and their descendants in the greater Cleveland area. Most settled outside the city proper, in surrounding townships — Newburgh, Warrensville, and the small settlements along the lake. The community was bound by their own Gaelic language, which they used almost exclusively with each other, giving them what Kinvig described as a reputation for clannishness and allowing him to speak of an unmixed descent to the present day, when the sixth generation had been reached.
Under Manx law, leaving the Isle of Man without the Governor's licence was a criminal offence. The statute provided that 'if any inhabitant of the Island, not being a licensed trafficker, shall transport himself from it without special license from the governor, whether it be in his own boat or in the boat of a neighbour, he shall be proceeded against as a felon, and his goods and property confiscated to the Lord.' A replacement law of 1736 imposed a ten-pound fine on any ship's master who carried a person off the island without the Governor's licence, 'besides paying the debts which such person did owe at the time of his departure.' Train, writing in the nineteenth century, noted that 'this act, although not yet repealed, has fallen into disuse.' The pass system meant that Manx emigration, whether to the colonies or anywhere else, required official permission. Those who left without it risked forfeiture of everything they owned. This makes the question of how Manx people reached the American colonies more complex than simple economic migration: they needed either the Governor's consent, a willingness to risk felony, or passage through an English or Irish port where they were not known. The system also helps explain why so few departure records exist for Manx emigrants in this period.
Beyond Cleveland itself, Manx emigrants settled in the surrounding townships of Newburgh and Warrensville, and in small settlements along the lake. These communities replicated the parish structures they had left behind — organised around worship, centred on families who knew each other, using the Manx language freely among themselves. Pastor Cannell held services in Manx in his own log house. The communities they built in Ohio were organised around the same chapel networks that had spread Methodism across the island.
The departures continued through the 1830s and 1840s, and the press notices accumulated like entries in a parish register of the dying. Seventeen parishioners of Ballaugh in 1835. Several families from Kirk Michael and Ballaugh in 1837, and a week later, some hundred individuals chiefly from Ballaugh. In 1840, five carts laden with emigrants' luggage arrived in Douglas from the north of the Island. In 1842, no fewer than a hundred and ninety emigrants chiefly from Jurby and Ballaugh were about leaving the Island for the United States — a vessel from Liverpool chartered for the express purpose of taking them out. The northern parishes bled the most because they had the least.
The Primitive Methodist Conference of 1837 reported losing thirty-eight members by removals to England, America and elsewhere. Thirty-eight out of seven hundred and fifty — five per cent of the entire Manx Methodist membership in a single year. The chapels that had given Manx people a structure for community were bleeding members to the same emigration that was draining the parishes. The chapel networks may have helped organise the departures: the 1827 ships carried Local Preachers, the communities they founded in Ohio were organised around worship, and the intelligence that flowed back to Mann followed the same networks that had spread Methodism across the island.
One of three ships that carried Manx emigrants to Ohio in 1827. The Chile was chartered by the Corletts of Orrisdale and carried about thirty-six passengers. The Corletts were a long-established Manx family — when they chartered a ship to Ohio, a family that had farmed Orrisdale for generations was uprooting itself.
The largest of three ships that carried Manx emigrants to Ohio in 1827. The Ocean carried roughly a hundred and twenty-nine passengers — its handwritten manifest suggests a ship that did not normally carry passengers, pressed into service for this particular human cargo. The party was headed by John Sayle, sixty-seven years old, a Wesleyan Local Preacher who had helped produce the 1799 Manx hymn translation. With him travelled Patrick Cannell, seventy-two, another Local Preacher.
A persistent tradition holds that William and Jonathan Christian left the Isle of Man for Virginia around 1655, accompanied by the Cottier family of Lezayre. A.W. Moore published the tradition in Manx Worthies, drawing on correspondence from Judge Joseph Christian of Virginia in the 1880s. The Christian surname does appear in the Virginia colonial records from the 1640s onward — a Richard Christian as a headright on the Rappahannock in 1643, a Thomas Christian patenting land on the Chickahominy in 1657, an Anne Christian and a “Jno. Codier” together in a 1658 Potomac patent (the name traditionally read as Cottier). But the specific brothers the tradition names — William and Jonathan — do not appear in the Virginia land patents at all. No ship record, no departure record, and no Manx parish register entry connects any of the colonial Virginia Christians to the Isle of Man. The tradition may preserve a genuine memory. The evidence that would prove it has not been found.
Thomas Christian is recorded in the Chickahominy Patent in Virginia in 1657. He was a member of the Christian family of Manx origin who settled in colonial Virginia, forming part of the broader pattern of Manx emigration to the American colonies during the seventeenth century.
In 1827, Thomas Kelly wrote home from Ohio. His letter, published in the Manx Sun on 18 March 1828, was both an invitation and an indictment. He reported that a labouring man could earn in two days enough to keep a family of seven or eight for a week, and that the girls did not work in dunghills like slaves as they did on the Island. He named names — McCrone, the Duke of Atholl's chief tithe proctor. Every comparison between Ohio and Mann was a silent accusation of what Mann had become. Kelly dropped into Manx twice in the letter, the habits of a bilingual mind writing to people who would understand both languages. He recorded that on the first night thirty-three Manx people were in his house, and that Manx was spoken in plenty. The letter was read aloud, as such letters always were, and published in the newspaper — read again in homes and chapels across the northern parishes.
