Penny, I think you have hit the nail on the head, this topic was of great interest to the late Rev. Rex. Kissack, a great worker for Manx genealogy studies. Unfortunately I couldn't get too involved at the timem, but look at Rex's second book, the one on the MacIsaacs.

My current SPECULATION and it is little more at the moment, is that on either one or both of his campaigns into these waters, (around 1313-15) Robert Bruce must have had to come to agreements with those that supplied his naval force and soldiery. He received great support over many years frrom one of the branches of Somerled's descendants, and one speculates that they must have been keeping alive some sort of claims or aspirattions to have property rights in the IOM. There is a record which Rex found that John of Islay (i.e.. later Macdonald Lord of the Isles) held the advowson of Malew later in the 14th century, but I am sceptical if it is a Manx parish. A further clue is that the three treens in Baldwin show signs of being the subject of a partition - there is Baldal Brew, Baldal Cryste and Baldal Regnilt. Theoretically this might indicate a three-way partition of former royal lands. THe Brew suggests that one third might be reserved as part of a property endowment for a Deemster; the Regnilt would allude to one of the principal ancestors of the Macdonalds, while the Chryst could allude to another line of Bruce supporters. We then have the issue of the three or four very distinctive surnames which are acattered on large farms on the IOM in the earliest Lib Asseds. The Macisaacs sit in here, with their large farms in Ballaugh and Rushen. The other families include Lamont and Olyner, possibly Creer, although their farms were less valuable. As well as the distinctive names, there are a whole raft of Patronymical style names, many plausibly connected to either Western Highland or Hebridean chiefs or more likely their clansmen and septs. These include some of the 'big' Manx names such as Christian, Cannell, Callister, Cowley, all of whom can plausibly claim some sort of nexus with the names ocurring in the lineage of the former Kings of Man and later Lords of the Isles.THen there are the Kneales who were incredibly important in Andreas, and probably connect with the Macneils who were chieftains on the mainland coast opposite Skye
The present way i am thinking is that there were a number of chiefly and royal estates on the Island of Man which must have been siezed into the hands of supporters of Baliol.
They were then acquired by Bruce as spoils of his victory, and these could have been available to reward either chieftains who backed the campaign, or actual clansme n who rowed the ships of war. We have patches of \land on the Island which were potentially available for division into regular farms, not the peculiar Manx holdings of more ancient origins. The two best examples are the Port Erin Port St. Mary area and the Andreas side of the Lhen Trench. Here the earliest rental reccords show big patches with names of Highlands and Islands style names for the tenasnts. MacCurry (Currie) MacNele (Macneil).then the mysterious MacBrew..

On making contact with the Western Isles genealogy centre, they say that their surnames had not really got going in 1313/1315 but it sstrongly looks like someone started to record the names of tenants on the Manx land records,and this might have formalised the names of aat least this part of the population.

The genetic rese1arch may help us with John Creer's project as the obvious place to get stuck in. It would be very interesting irf we could get tests done on say 4 or 5 different lines of Cannell or Christian to see are they onee genetic lineage.,

NGC