Hi Joan,

Found a reference on the Kissack website:

http://www.kissack.co.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=29

We catch a glimpse of Mark, Robert and Mark`s son John (known as John-Vark) in a case of 1768, which also lifts the curtain on contemporary Manx horse-trading and treatment of animals. The deal was a `swapp` in which William Crow traded th e unhappy horse in question plus 7/- `boot` to Mark in exchange for a mare. But the very next day, as John-Vark with William Crow`s son were bringing in a load of peat from the mountain, the horse fell at a place called by the long-forgotten name of Top o the Mealey. Resort was made to a sailor who had skills in curing horses with oil, but in vain. Pages of evidence survive on man`s inhumanity to man in selling a horse in suspected distemper, without ever a word of concern for the poor creature itself.
----------------------------------

And there appeared to be an early "Mealey" family residing on the island in the 18th & 19th centuries. See:

http://www.lawsons.ca/biography/00467-bio.html

James Lawson was baptized at St. George's, Douglas on the 21st of October, 1781. He married Ann Moore at Lonan Parish Church on the 4th of January, 1806, when the witnesses were Richard Mealey and Thomas Quark.
------------------------

And "Mealey" burials:

http://www.lawsons.ca/burials/m_02.html
Burials:
MEALEY, Blanche Elizabeth 53 Mau 22 Jun 1935
MEALEY, Margaret child Bra 17 Jul 1794
MEALEY, Mona 27 Mau 17 Aug 1945
MEALEY, Stephen Bra 3 Jun 1750
MEALEY, Thomas Henry 61 Mau 4 Jun 1943

Greg Kaighin