The Families

The dynasties whose names run through Manx history — ruling, trading, governing, and enduring across centuries.

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The Dynasties

A Small Island, a Long Memory

On an island ten miles wide and thirty miles long, the same names appear generation after generation — as Deemsters, as members of the Keys, as merchants, as soldiers, as governors. The Christians served from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth. The Moores dominated mid-eighteenth-century commerce. The Stanleys held the lordship for over three hundred years.

These family stories are not about genealogy for its own sake. They are about how power, land, and influence moved through an island small enough that everyone knew everyone — and how the Revestment of 1765 disrupted those patterns in ways that lasted generations.

The Ruling Dynasties

Lords of the Island

1405–1736
The Stanley Dynasty
Lords of Mann for over three centuries. Sir John Stanley received the grant from Henry IV in 1405; it was made inheritable to the heirs of his body. The Stanleys held the island through civil war, rebellion, and the execution of Illiam Dhone. When the male line ended, the lordship passed through Charlotte de la Trémoille to the Murrays.
1736–1765
The Atholl Dynasty (Murray)
Lords of Mann from 1736, inheriting through the female Stanley line. James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl, appeared at his first Tynwald ‘with a splendour never before witnessed in the Island.’ His daughter Charlotte sold the sovereignty to the Crown in 1765 for £70,000.
“The same names, generation after generation — as Deemsters, as Keys, as merchants, as soldiers. On an island this small, the families were the history.”
The Great Manx Families

Governing, Trading, Enduring

1408–1800s
The Christian Family
The longest-serving governing family in Manx history, producing Deemsters from 1408 and members of the Keys across every generation. John McCristen served as Deemster in 1408; his descendants would serve in every century that followed. Illiam Dhone — William Christian — was shot at Hango Hill in 1663. The Virginia branch produced judges and revolutionaries.
1700s–1800s
The Moore Family
The dominant mercantile and political family of mid-eighteenth-century Mann. George Moore of Ballamoore was Speaker of the House of Keys and the most documented private individual of his era. His Letter Books are the most important primary source for the Revestment period.
1700s–1800s
The Taubman Family
An old Castletown merchant family intertwined with the Moores, Christians, and Quayles. John Taubman was George Moore’s political lieutenant and successor as Speaker of the Keys — but where Moore fought the Revestment, Taubman exploited it.
1700s–1800s
The Quayle Family
At the administrative heart of pre-Revestment Mann. John Quayle held the post of Clerk of the Rolls — the Duke’s principal administrative officer — and the family name runs through the records of the Keys and the courts.
The Outsiders

The Lutwidges — A Whitehaven Family

Not all the families in this story were Manx. The Lutwidges of Whitehaven lobbied the Treasury to buy the island’s sovereignty and end the running trade that competed with their own business. Their memorial to the Treasury was one of the documents that set the Revestment in motion.

fl. 1750s–1780s
The Lutwidge Family
A Whitehaven merchant family whose trajectory embodies the conflict of interest at the heart of the Revestment. They lobbied for the purchase that destroyed Manx commerce — and one of their own, Charles Lutwidge, was later appointed to enforce the very customs regime they had demanded.
The Garrison Families

Generations of Service, Swept Aside

The Lord of Mann maintained his own garrison — Manx men, serving Manx officers, defending their own island. When the British regulars arrived after 1765, these families lost not just their livelihoods but their place in the island’s military tradition.

pre-1765
The Brew Family
Manx garrison family who served across four generations in the Lord of Mann’s military establishment. Their service ended abruptly at Revestment.
pre-1765
The Killey Family
Manx garrison family, father and son, who served in the Lord of Mann’s military establishment. Displaced by the British garrison after Revestment.
pre-1765
The Quayley Family
Manx garrison family whose generations of service were swept aside when the British Crown took control.
pre-1765
The Corin Family
Manx garrison family who served in the Lord of Mann’s military establishment. Their displacement after Revestment is part of the broader story of Manx institutional loss.
 

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The families were the island. Explore the merchants who traded, the lords who ruled, and the emigrants who carried these names across the Atlantic.

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