From Isle of Man Natural History & Antiquarian Society, vol VIII, no.2
THE RADCLIFFES OF ANDREAS
By Constance Radcliffe, BA

When the Stanleys became established as Lords of Mann in the fifteenth century,
many members of Lancashire families came in their train, some taking their
surnames from their place of origin, for example, Skillicorn, Halsall, and
Radcliffe. Whatever their early status, there is no doubt that one of the first
Radcliffes on the island was connected with the Stanleys, as shown on the
obscurely-worded inscription now preserved-in Arbory Church, where it was
installed about 1530:
INTYLL HYS TYM GOD HAYS GEFYN SYCH GRACE
until his time God has given such grace
HE LABORYT BESALY HO
he laboureth busily. Honour (and)
BLOUD THE BEST CUYN OF THE CHYLDE FUN IN
blood the best scion of the child found in
THE EAGLE NEST
the eagle('s) nest
~THOMAS RADCLYF ABBOT
According to Canon Quine, this was a tribute from the Abbot of Rushen to his
kinsman Sir Robert Radclyf who married into the House of Stanley, which had
earlier been saved from extinction by the finding of a child in these improbable
circumstances. "Mulvey Dawson", a member of the Ballaradcliffe family, has
written that a Thomas Radcliffe, youngest son of John de Radcliffe, descendant
of the manor of Radcliffe, Lancashire, married Mary Stanley, who died giving
birth to a son Henry. Thomas then entered Furness Abbey as a monk, soon becoming
Abbot of Rushen through the influence of his father-in-law, Sir John Stanley.
Thomas was the last Abbot of Rushen, and his son Henry was with him as a monk at
the Dissolution in 1540. Adapting quickly to secular life, Henry married the
heiress of the estate of Balley Hastyn (one of the Andreas Treens) a Miss
Machellie or Kelly, thereby bringing its name to Ballaradcliffe, one of the
quarterlands of Ballahestine Treen. Whether the Andreas Radcliffes are all
descended from a monk of Rushen Abbey or not, the Liber Assedationis confirms
that the original owners of Ballaradcliffe were the Machellies, and that the
Radcliffes first entered there in the middle of the sixteenth century. In
another version, recorded by Goodwin in his genealogical notes, three Radcliffe
brothers came (by some undisclosed means) to three estates on the island in the
sixteenth century. One settled at Gordon, (Patrick) another at Knockaloe, and
the third at Ballaradcliffe. Goodwin also gives a more factual account of the
activities of Thomas, the last Abbot, who, as a quid pro quo for the loss of his
power and prestige, accepted the lease of two estates in the Treen of Gordon
(Knockaloe Mooar and Gordon),and is entered for them in the Liber Assed of
1539.
[continues]

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