Hi,

Many thanks for your efforts, but I think the Onchan option is unlikely because it IS Onchan. The Brown family were farming in the north of the island in Bride and Andreas (my guess is mostly tenant famrers of large farms, becasue of the number of moves). Arthur who was born in 1863 would have started his apprenticeship about 1877.

From stories handed down in the family, his entire career from his training thru to his own business was confined to Peel and Ramsey. I believe he served his apprenticeship in Ramsey, and then moved to Peel in 1883 to open his own business (an obituary says 1881, but he would only have been 18, and in any case letterheads from the business are quite specific 1883). The orig business was 4/6 Market Place Peel, which was retained until the early 1900s, but about 1900 he took over Glasgow House on the Market Place in Ramsey, (on the corner of the site of the present swimming baths which are shortly to be replaced). He undoubtedly knew a draper William dawson, who was in business in Ramsey in 1881 and I believe he trained with Dawson, but that is not certain.

many thanks

Robert