Royal commission appointed to investigate the government, revenue and constitutional arrangements of the Isle of Man after Revestment.

The Commissioners arrived on the Island on 21 September 1791. On the second day after their arrival Lieutenant-Governor Shaw convened the two branches of the Manx legislature at Castle Rushen to receive them. The Duke of Atholl was also present. After the Commissioners read their instructions and explained how they intended to proceed, the Keys withdrew to their own house and appointed a committee to attend the inquiry.

Henry Dundas’s instructions required the Commissioners to examine the former and present state of the Island, with particular attention to the operation of the 1765 Revestment legislation. They were authorised to pursue any additional lines of inquiry which appeared likely to illuminate the condition of Manx government.

Their report was dated 21 April 1792. It was organised under four broad heads: the allegations of the Duke of Atholl; the revenue; the constitution of the Island; and matters concerning the administration of justice and government.

The inquiry drew heavily on oral and written evidence from Manx office-holders. Sir Wadsworth Busk, Attorney-General, supplied detailed accounts of the legislature, courts, magistracy and police. Other witnesses described customs, revenues, official salaries, courts, landholding, juries and the operation of government before and after 1765.

The resulting report became one of the fullest surviving contemporary descriptions of Manx constitutional and administrative practice in the eighteenth century.