Letter from George Quirk, Water Bailiff of the Isle of Man, to James Clarke discussing contemporary political tensions on the island, including disputes between the House of Keys and the Governor over parliamentary procedure, the Gaol Delivery question, and a proposed High Road Bill. References memorials to the Privy Council and House of Commons, and mentions resignation of General Cuming from the Keys.
Letter from George Quirk, Water Bailiff of Isle of Man, to James Clarke (likely a government official) detailing internal political tensions on the island in 1824. Discusses memorials from the House of Keys challenging the Lieutenant Governor's authority, disputes over Gaol Delivery court membership, disagreements on highway legislation, and factional divisions. Written in the post-Revestment era, it illuminates continued constitutional friction between the Manx legislature and British-appointed executive.
A confidential letter from George Quirk (Castletown) to James Clarke reporting on Isle of Man political affairs in 1824, including the House of Keys' petition against the Duke of Atholl, the Petition presentation, governance disputes, proposed legislation (Registry, Highroad, Coroners' Bills), and tensions between the Keys and the Duke's administration. Provides contemporary insight into post-Revestment constitutional friction.
A detailed letter from George Quirk (Castletown) to James Clarke (presumed Home Office official) dated 22 April 1824, discussing tensions between the House of Keys and the Duke of Atholl, the Keys' petition against the Duke, disputes over legislative bills (Registry, Highroad, Jail Delivery), and broader constitutional conflicts. The letter provides insights into post-Revestment governance, local political factionalism, press suppression, and the Keys' growing institutional power.
Water-Bailiff of the Isle of Man at the time of the 1792 inquiry.
The oath appointed for the Water-Bailiff was administered to George Savage, Esquire, at Castle Rushen on 25 March 1789, by virtue of a constitution from the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury dated 5 February that year, and sworn before Richard Dawson. The commissioners of inquiry examined him at Douglas on 4 and 11 October 1791, and again in late September, and printed his constitution among their appendices. He told them that no criminal case had come before him while he had been Water-Bailiff.
A George Savage also appears in the same report as Acting Collector at the Port of Peel, and established tidesman, boatman and extra riding officer there, appointed to the collectorship in September 1766 by Charles Lutwidge, and examined at Douglas on 11 and 12 October 1791. Whether this is the same man later promoted, or a relative of the same name, the report does not say.
George V (1865-1936), King of the United Kingdom and Lord of Mann from 1910 to 1936.
Manx company law took its modern shape in the first year of his reign. The Companies (Consolidated) Act of 1910, cited as 1 George V, drew the earlier statutes together: the Act of 1817 requiring bankers to be registered and regulating notes payable on demand, and the Act of 1865 which admitted the principle of limited liability. Under that principle the most a shareholder could lose in a company failure was the amount of the shares subscribed, where before every shareholder had been answerable for a portion of the whole debt.
His reign saw the Island used extensively for the internment of civilian prisoners during the First World War, most notably at the large camp at Knockaloe, near Peel.
George VI (1895-1952), King of the United Kingdom and Lord of Mann from 1936 to 1952.
He came to the throne without waiting for legislation. On one contemporary view of the constitutional position, the throne fell vacant the moment Edward VIII signed the Deed of Abdication, and the Duke of York succeeded by law at once, so that he could be proclaimed King in the Dominions immediately and before either the United Kingdom Parliament or any Dominion parliament had acted.
During the Second World War the Isle of Man was again used for the internment of enemy aliens, with camps established at Douglas, Ramsey, Peel, and Port Erin and Port St Mary.
Customs officer and author of the first substantial description of the Isle of Man in English.
He came to the Island on revenue business. When the Commissioners of Customs sent officers to the Isle of Man, and the Island's government sent agents to England to concert arrangements that would be mutually advantageous, Waldron's appointment followed. It was suspended on 25 September 1713.
The book made his name, and it was published after his death. A Description of the Isle of Man, with some Useful and Entertaining Reflections on the Laws, Customs, and Manners of the Inhabitants was printed in 1731 for the widow and orphans, by subscription, in folio, at two guineas, and dedicated to William O'Brian, Earl of Inchiquin. It formed part of The Complete Works, in Verse and Prose, of George Waldron, Gent., late of Queen's College, Oxon. A later edition of 1744 carried a fuller title promising the Island's antiquity, history, laws, customs, religion and manners, its animals and minerals, and authentic relations of apparitions of giants that had lived under the castle.
What it preserved was the folklore. Waldron is the source of a great many of the Manx fairy tales, traditions and customs still current, and later collectors quote him directly. His account of Hunting the Wren describes how, on the 24th of December towards evening, all the servants had a holiday, went not to bed all night, but rambled about until the bells rang in all the churches.
The Manx Society reprinted him as volume XI of its series in 1862-63, edited with an introductory notice and notes by William Harrison, and listed a fresh edition from the 1731 folio among works it hoped to publish.
Personal letter from George Washington to Burwell Bassett discussing agricultural conditions in Virginia during the drought of 1765, recent burgess elections in which Washington was elected for Fairfax County, and Governor Fauquier's prorogation of the Virginia Assembly. Provides contemporary perspective on colonial electoral politics and the political climate following the Stamp Act crisis.
A George Wilks stands at the centre of the Manx counterfeiting case of 1723.
The Deputy Governor sent men to search John Wilks's house on the day the information was laid. The searcher told George Wilks that he had authority to search him on suspicion touching the counterfeit pence, and Wilks replied that he was at liberty to do so. Watching him as he searched, the officer judged that Wilks had a counterfeit penny about him, and on a narrow search found it hidden in the back of his breeches. Wilks acknowledged that he had run or made it himself, both to the searcher at the time and openly in court afterwards, saying that he had done it to try his flasks and see how they would cast, and to try the metal. At the same house the searchers took up the pot for running metal, the flask or mould, and a piece of copper. He was ordered into close prison until further order.
The trial went the other way, and the court punished the jury for it. Three of John Wilks's apprentices, Thomas Taubman, David Curlett and John Wattleworth, swore that they knew nothing directly or indirectly of the making of the pence, and that although they usually worked with John Wilks and his father they had seen no cause for suspicion. On 21 May 1723 the jury of indictment acquitted the accused, giving their verdict according to their best judgements and signing with their marks. A second body of jurors, John Wattleworth and Thomas Stevenson among them, said they would rather impute the verdict to the misunderstanding of that jury than to wilful error, and recommended them to the Worshipful Court to be favourably used in their fine and punishment. At the Debt Court held on 10 October 1723 the court fined the Grand Jury twenty shillings apiece and declared them incapable of passing on any jury or inquest in future.
Gerhard Bersu (1889-1964) was a German archaeologist who was interned on the Isle of Man during the Second World War as an enemy alien. During his internment, he conducted pioneering excavations of Viking and Celtic sites on the Island, including the round house sites at Ballacagen and Ballanorris, which transformed understanding of the Island's prehistoric settlement.
21 November 1918. HMS King Orry, a Manx Steam Packet vessel serving as an Armed Boarding Vessel, was given the place of honour as sole representative at the surrender of the German fleet at Scapa Flow. Admiral Beatty awarded the Manx vessel this distinction.
There are 4 columns of 104 names listed alphabetically. "Second World War 1939-1945." Followed by 4 columns of 24 names listed alphabetically. Underneath is the following inscription: "They shall grow not old, as we are left to grow old, / Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn, / At the going down of the sun, and in the morning / We will remember them." The memorial is located in temporary storage at a farm in the parish of German.
101 names listed alphabetically; First World War.
25 names listed alphabetically; Second World War.
Runic style cross made of Woolton sandstone, with two inlaid slate plaques either side. This sits upon a 3 tier plinth, with 4 inlaid slate plaques on each side of the upper tier.
The memorial was unveiled on Thursday 20 April 1922 by the Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, Sir W. Fry. The memorial was dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Sodor and Mann. The officiating clergy were the Vicar (the Rev. W. Newton Hudson, M.A.), the Rev. S. Greenhalgh, chaplain of Cronk-y-Voddy, the Rev. C.A. Cannan, B.A., chaplain of St John's and the Rev. T.R. Kneale, M.A., Rural Dean of Peel. The mound on which the monument was erected was guarded by coast guards, under Petty-Officer Miller. During the unveiling, the ex-servicemen were drawn up under Lieutenant Stanley Kelly and Petty-Officer Andrew Hannah. One of the Union Jacks which veiled the monument was sent by the children of Peel, New South Wales to the children of Peel, Isle of Man, in 1908. Two wreaths were placed on the monument, one on behalf of the parishioners (formally placed on the cross by Mrs Cleator, who lost a son in the war) and one from the Scouts and Guides (laid by a Cub and Brownie who had lost a father and brother respectively). The sculptor of the memorial was Mr T.H. Royston of Douglas.
106 names listed alphabetically, by district; First World War and Second World War.
The memorial consists of a marble plaque on a stone plinth.
It was unveiled on 11 November 2010 by Miss Dhoona Leece and dedicated by Canon Malcolm Convery. The memorial was sponsored by the Parish Board and cost £1,000. It was sculpted by Dennis Quaye, stonemason. It was decided to erect a central memorial in St John's village as it was felt that the men from German parish were not who fell in both wars were not recorded elsewhere in the area. It is placed beside a busy road and footpath so that it can be easily observed by persons passing by.
The site known as "Giant's Grave" no longer survives as the stones of the monument were reportedly removed and used to build the boundary wall alongside the road here. It is not clear what form any monument took, however, as it is also reported that there were possible early medieval lintel graves found here. No trace of a monument has been found at this location.
This site has been described as the remains of a cairn with two quartz blocks 7.4 m apart in line, northwest to southeast. The northwestern stone was 0.5 m high with sides of 0.6 by 0.4 m. The southeast stone was irregular in shape, 0.6 m high with sides of 0.5 by 0.6 by 0.8 m. There was no trace of a mound or cist.
Mr Shimmin, the occupier, said his brother dug possibly in the hollow near the northeast stone and 'found an axe and an old gun. There's lots in it'. There is a feeling that the area between the stones was a burial ground and had not been ploughed.
Megaw was not impressed either with the stone or the site in general. The impression was obtained that the stones did not form part of an antiquity.
