A biographical sketch of Charles Lutwidge (1722-1784), receiver and surveyor-general of the Isle of Man post-Revestment, compiled from Burke's Landed Gentry (1858) and family records. Details his family lineage, positions in customs and revenue, and his controversial role implementing anti-smuggling laws after 1765. Notes connections to Whitehaven merchant families involved in tobacco and coal trade.
A genealogical and biographical compilation derived from Burke's Landed Gentry (1858) detailing Charles Lutwidge's family lineage, positions, and role in implementing anti-smuggling measures following the 1765 Revestment. The note contextualizes his authority as receiver and surveyor-general of the Isle of Man and his controversial influence over Treasury policy post-Revestment.
A biographical essay on Sir Wadsworth Busk, Manx Attorney General (1774-post-1792), covering his background, legal career, appointment to office, role in post-Revestment governance and the 1777 legislation, and personal life including his wife's tragic death in 1776. Includes discussion of his political alignment with Westminster interests and his contributions to Manx constitutional development.
A biographical sketch of Sir Wadsworth Busk, Manx Attorney General appointed in 1774, nine years after Revestment. Covers his legal career, family tragedy, role in post-Revestment Manx constitutional and legal reform, and his influence in mediating between Westminster interests and Manx concerns. Includes unpublished family letters and references to contemporary assessments of his character.
A glossary of ecclesiastical and chronological Latin and Norman-French terms found in medieval charters and historical documents. This reference work is essential for interpreting 13th-18th century Manx legal documents, many of which use Latin feast-day designations and calendar terminology. Relevant to understanding dating conventions in Revestment-era administrative records.
Following the Revestment of 1765, the defence of the Isle of Man passed to the British Crown, and drafts from English line regiments were stationed on the Island. The garrison was based primarily at the barracks in Castletown, with soldiers performing duties previously carried out by the Lord's own garrison forces.
Their spiritual provision was an afterthought. Governor Edward Smith wrote to Lord North in October 1783 asking, among other things, for a chapel in Castle Rushen intended for the use of the troops barracked within the Castle, and for a royal portrait to go with it.
The Island's own forces came to matter more than the drafts. The Manx Fencibles and the Volunteers were raised for the French wars, organised in battalions under Lieutenant-Governor Alexander Shaw as Major Commandant with William Cunningham as first Major, and the captains included John Taubman, C. Heywood, Thomas Christian, John Frissell and George Quayle. Major Taubman carried the sword before the Duke of Atholl in the Tynwald procession, and he and the Lieutenant-Governor pressed the Home Office to date the Fencibles' commission from 24 August 1798. A separate corps of Yeomanry Cavalry was raised in 1796 under Thomas Gawne.
The garrison was called on for civil duties too. When a ship was wrecked and the officers of the port judged they could not keep the cargo from being plundered, they applied to the Lieutenant-Governor for a corporal's guard of Fencibles.
Medieval motte. The site is one of a small number of potential mottes constructed on the Isle of Man. While others appear to have originated as natural features which have been subjected to artifical enhancement, this site would appear to be wholly manmade.
The site's name appears to be derived from the Manx word meaning a 'steep slope' or 'cliff', which aptly describes the artificially steep sides of the mound which is its chief feature. The mound is only about 3m higher than the surrounding groundlevel, and its flat top is about 20m across. It is surrounded by a ditch and bank which are most obvious on the south-east side and have been damaged and obscured by the road to the south-west. Waterlogged ground to the north ensures that the base of the ditch is always wet.
The site has never been investigated: no evidence has been found to show what may have been constructed on top of the artificial mound, and no artefacts have been found that might answer the question of its age.
P.M.C. Kermode recorded a circle of white quartz and 'mound' at this location on an annotated 1:10560 scale map showing antiquities in the area. The plot is shown as a parcel of unimproved ground on the 1870 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map, but is now improved and ploughed.
A turf covered mound with a diameter of 7.0 metres and in the south up tp 0.6 metres high. The top has been slightly scooped out and many stones are exposed on the top and in the sides. One large stone slab, 0.5 metres by 0.3 metres by 0.3 metres, is prostrate on the top. It is probably a cairn.
The site of a possible prehistoric burial cairn. It is a rather irregular ditchless mound with an approximate diameter of 10.0 metres and height to the southeast of 0.4 metres. It has a considerable content of both large and small stones, many of the latter being piled on the top of the mound. The larger stones, which are mainly quartz blocks, are exposed in the sides and at the base. The small stones may represent field clearing. One large stone is on edge on the top of the mound, it measures 0.8 metres by 0.5 metres by 0.1 metres thick. The mound lies on land falling to the northwest.
Bryan Kneale RA (19 June 1930 - 19 September 2025) was a sculptor born and educated in Douglas, the brother of screenwriter Nigel Kneale, who moved from painting into welded metal sculpture during the 1950s after winning the Rome Prize in 1948. In 1974 he became the first abstract sculptor elected a Royal Academician, taught sculpture at the Royal College of Art from 1963 to 1995, and served as Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy from 1982 to 1990; his public sculpture Capt Quilliam won the Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture in 2007, and he was appointed MBE in 2019.
Extract from George Buchanan's 16th-century History of Scotland (A.D. 1577), describing the Isle of Man as part of the Western Isles (Æbudæ), its etymology, geography, and historical nomenclature. Includes editor's note on Hector Boethius's confusion of Man with Anglesey. Relevant as foundational historical and geographical context for understanding Man's position between Ireland, Scotland, and England.
Extract from George Buchanan's 16th-century History of Scotland describing the Isle of Man as one of the Western Isles (Æbudæ), with etymological notes on its names (Eubonia, Mevania, Manin) and basic geographical data (24 miles long, 8 broad). Establishes early modern geographic and linguistic understanding of Man's position relative to Ireland, Scotland, and England.
