(Paper given to the Society in Dec.1979)
In the early days when communications by sea in small boats was the most convenient form of transport between the western coasts and islands of the British Isles this island had little to do with the mainland of Britain but a great deal of communication with those western coasts and isles of the north-west, and it was inevitable that some of the closest ties should develop with that outpost of Scotland only sixteen miles from the Point of Ayre, Galloway. Those ties existed from very early Christian times and the late Canon John Quine, vicar of Lonan, one of the most learned historians that the Manx Church has produced, contended that both St. Patrick, who is regarded as the special patron of Mannin as well as Ireland, and St. Ninian of Galloway were probably born here, St. Patrick as the son of a Roman officer, one of a group in West Britain who used this island as a recreation centre - our first summer visitors, in fact - and who had a summer residence here. and St. Ninian who appears in an early record as Mancennus which probably means that he was of Manx blood., though, as is often the case with personalities of the 4th century, little is known of his early life before he made a pilgrimage to Rome as a young man and trained for the priesthood in the monastery of St. Martin of Tours. Later he was consecrated as a bishop by Pope Damasus, returned to the British Isles and founded a monastic community at Whithorn in Galloway modelled on that of St. Martin.
His church at Whithorn was one of the first to be built of stone instead of wood and clay like the early Celtic churches and, as it was whitewashed it became known as the Candida Casa, the name it still bears. The community was organised on the same system as that of St. Maughold's monastery: a central church, community buildings for work and general purposes with adjacent gardens and,,-around these, small "beehive" huts for the individual monks where they slept, prayed and meditated for part of the day and night.
This system was an adaptation to Christianity of the ancient Celtic Bardic practices and was followed for several centuries by the Celtic Church and may well have been brought to Galloway by Ninian from his native Mannin which was visible almost continuously from his retreat on the Mull. Also, there are the remains in the parish of Marown of a community similar to that at Whithorn and believed to be of approximately the same date: St. Trinian's chapel and around it on the southern-facing slopes of Greeba the remains of hut dwellings and stone pathways which may have outlined a very early Way of the Cross. Later legends have grown around this site of which the best known, the story of the bold tailor and the Big Buggane who always demolished the church roof, is probably a folklore adaptation of real historical 'Viking raids ' which demolished the peaceful monastic community. There is no complete historical record of what eventually happened to that community, only slight references and antiquarian researches but St. Ninian is still sufficiently venerated in his native island to have a modern church dedicated to him. In medieval times and later there was frequent intercourse between the Manx and the Gallovidians, much of it amicable but some quite the reverse and in the 18th and 19th centuries "The Trade", as the very profitable business of smuggling was known, was carried on in close co-operation between Mannin, especially Ramsey and the North, and ports like Kirkcudbright, where part of the harbour is still known as Manxman's Lake. There would be no barrier to conversation between the two peoples for a Gaelic dialect almost identical with Manx was spoken in Galloway until the late 19th century and there has been some talk of reviving it in recent years, In the 12th century people would not be aware of any more difficulty in talking with a Gallovidian than with a follow Manxman certainly there should be less difference than can be heard today in the speaking of English by a Cockney and a Yorkshireman.
And besides sharing language and religion with the Gallovidians, the Manx of medieval times often intermarried with them, especially the ruling classes. In the 12th century the Lord of Galloway was a chieftain named Fergus, a native Celt who spent some time at the Court of King Henry I of England and took Henry's daughter back to Galloway as his bride. He seems to have lived on friendly terms with the Kings of Mann and the Isles and in 1102 his daughter, Aufrica, contracted a marriage with the heir to the Manx throne, Prince Olaf, son of Godred Crovan, coming to Ramsey for the marriage. And it is claimed that the modern descendants of this marriage can still be found in the North of the island as Kerruishes, who can claim to be the lineal descendants of Fergus. Their name appears in the Manx Statute laws for 1422 as Mac Fargus and the changed form known today has come about through the fact that F is a weak consonant in Manx Gaelic and would not be sounded after the prefix Mac , while the initial G in Fergus would in Manx be first aspirated and later elided altogether. Later forms of the name in the Manx records are Mac Karrous, Mac Ruish and finally the form we use today, Kerruish, the patronymic of the present Speaker of the House of Keys, Sir Charles Kerruish, Captain of the parish of Maughold.
And it is curious that the present Captain of the adjacent parish of Lonan also bears a name originally associated with Galloway and this time also with St. Ninian and the monastery of Whithorn; Quilleash, which is believed to have a Roman origin, its early form in the records being Mac Felis, a Gaelicised version of Felix. Ecclesiastical records show that when St. Ninian founded his Whithorn monastery he brought with him from the continent a Roman architect to design the Candida Casa, and this man's name was Felix. Later he is said to have brought his use of stone to this island in the erection of the original monastic church at Greeba and the construction of the stone-paved pathways on the Roman pattern. his descendants migrated to Lonan where they are found in the 1511 Manorial Roll as Mac Felis, while the present form of the name is due, like Kerruish, to the exigencies of Manx Gaelic in respect of the consonant F and the changes caused by aspiration and elision over the years of usage by Manx speakers. It is interesting, too, that there is a tradition in the Quilleash family that they were originally French. In folklore and oral tradition the term "French" is apt to mean anything foreign, so this may well be a far-off echo of the just claim to continental origin through that early progenitor, Felix of Rome. Today there is less intimate association between Mannin and Galloway but many Manx families can still claim connections with the Province, including my own, for the Manx Douglasses are said to have descended from a cadet of the Galloway clan who came to the island in the 18th century in the Militia, was able to integrate easily because he spoke Galloway Gaelic, married a Manx wife and founded a building firm.
MONA DOUGLAS.
George Woods, on his tour in 1811, found 'tolerable' accommodation for the night at an inn at Ballaugh, where his bill for a supper of cold mutton with a pint of ale, a glass of brandy, bed and breakfast amounted to 1/6, which he thought reasonable.
1784 price list............
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Dinner |
8d. |
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Tea and coffee |
4d. |
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Pint of wine |
9d. |
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Pint of ale |
2d. |
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Quarter of oats |
2d. |
One of the projects of our society has been to share in a survey of Lezayre churchyard and individual members have interested themselves in their local graveyards.
Miss A. McHardy, assisted by Miss L. Kneen of Peel, has also interested herself in some 10 gravestones in the grounds of Atholl St. Methodist Chapel, Peel.. She reports:-
"On November 1st 1979 I returned to check my list. Two obelisks in front of the chapel wore easily read, and my earlier notes of the inscriptions wars correct but to my dismay I found that the gravestones at the side of the chapel had become less easy to read".
The very existence of these stones alerts our society to something they may not have suspected before, viz. that not every burial on the island is to be found in the books either of one or other of the parochial records or of the Borough Cemetery at Douglas. We knew of the Quaker Burial ground in Maughold. Could other chapels on the island besides Peel have graves in their grounds?
These graves were, of course, known to the Committee of Inquiry into the state of the Island's Graveyards, 1869, which records :-
"In Peel, on Thursday May 13th the Committee inspected a place of burial in Atholl St. belonging to the Wesleyan Methodists in which there appear to have been, between the years 1845 and 1866 nineteen interments, none since 1866. The Trustees in whom the Property is invested signified that they had no wish to extend the use of the Burial Place - the contrary rather; and that in the first instance it was done only in the necessity of the case before the new Parochial Burial Ground was provided".
It also says,- "The Graveyard at the Church in Peel and likewise that within the walls of the old Cathedral should be absolutely closed without delay". When one considers that the "necessity" had arisen in 1845, 25 years before, one can only wonder how the Parish really did dispose of its dead for nearly a whole generation. And whether other parishes had like crises in the mid-18th century and how they faced them.
Miss McHardy's report reads.-
"The first stone at the front of the chapel has the following
inscription. "The Reverend Lancelot Railton, born it Barnard Casttle
on 23rd June 1811, died at Peel 10th Nov.1864. Margaret Railton, born
at Edinburgh on Oct 10th 1814, died at Peel 10th Nov 1864. Erected by
many friends in memory of a faithful pastor and his devoted wife
whose remains together await the resurrection of the blessed. In the
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." (At the foot of this
stone is the name of the mason, Wm Corran).
"The second stone has the following inscription: "Jane Crellin, age 48 yrs died August 30th 1851, the wife of John Moore of Ballalig, also Jane Moore daughter of the above, age 20 years, who died on Oct 18th 1864. Also John Moore, husband and father of the above who died March 2nd 1884, aged 85 years.
"The inscriptions on the six gravestones at the side of the chapel read as follows:
Grave 1. Erected to the memory of Mary the beloved wife e of Capt. William Norman, late of H.M. 69th Regiment, who departed this life March lst 1852.
Grave 2........ Joseph Watson Stubbs.... who departed this life on May 21st 1851, age 6 months.
Grave 3. In memory of Joseph Stubbs Esq, MD, who departed this life on May 30th 1858. He was much respected and died in this town(?) where he preached(?)... on this space of soil ...of his profession.
Grave 3. Also Sarah, widow of the above, who died in cont. Douglas on Nov 19th 1876
Grave.4. .......Thomas King in memory of his father John King of Peel, who departed this life on the 4th day of April 1857 age 68 yrs.
Grave 5. This stone is almost smooth-...... Nathaniel Pickels aged 19 yrs....... 1851.
Grave 6. This stone is broken and not easy to read. Henry John Ollason age 70 yrs ?1856? Peter Ollason..... Teacher ... Wesleyan Sunday School... died May 6th 18?1.
There are two other gravestones around the corner of the school-room under the window. They are both very thickly moss-covered. The farthest one is the grave of Alfred John Kermode, age 2 yrs, who died on Dec 23rd 1852, and Francis Cowley age 9 months, who died on April 24th 1862.
I found it impossible to read anything on the other stone."
Miss McHardy had been able to add some personal details of the
above families, The census of 1851 for Peel alludes to.-
117 Douglas St:-. Joseph Stubbs, 46 yrs, surgeon, born England. Sarah
Stubbs, wife age 46 yrs, born England, John Porilius, visitor, 31
yrs, born England.
110 Douglas St:- Joseph Stubbs, age 23, Surgeon's assistant, born
England. Rachel Stubbs wife9 age 22 yrs, born England. Joseph W.
Stubbs, age 6 months
Bridge Sts- Joseph King, grocer, age 63 yrs, born Peel. Anne King, wife, age 58 yrs, born Andreas.
This does not account for all of the 19 interments recorded in 1869. Of the 14 names, two, Sarah Stubbs and John 1;Iocrj died in 1876 and 1894 respectively so that there must be seven others unrecorded. There is, of course, one gravestone which can tell us nothing of the grave's inmates. The fact that the 1869 report implies that burials started in 1845 suggests that it is the earlier ones that elude us.
The-greatest human interest naturally surrounds the grave of the
Railtons. He had been minister of the Chapel since 1861, and. the
contemporary newspaper reads-.
'His last public service was on October 31st, when he appeared in
his. usual health. The visits of Mrs Railton to the sick were very
frequent, and no case of distress reached her ear, and required
assistance, wthout finding har willing and ready to hasten to the
abode of sorrow. It was on one of these missions of mercy that she
was infected with fever and laid prostrate, also communicating the
disease to her husband. All that medical skill and untiring kindness
of friends could accomplish was cheerfully performed, but without
success, and each died in great peace - Mr Railton on the 9th aged
53, and his wife the day following, aged 50 years." She was the
sister of the Rev. George Scott, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and one of
their sons, J.S. Railton, was to become a distinguished Commissioner
of the Salvation Army.
Local tradition has added that they died of cholera. Yet was this really so? There is no name given to the cause of Death. It is simply said that Mrs Railton was "infected with fever", which was communicated to her husband. Nor does the newspaper that carries this account anywhere suggest a cholera epidemic. In fact, it carries 13 death notices for the period Oct 27.to Nov 14, including the Railtons, and of these 7 had been off the island. And there been an epidemic we should have expected more than 6 deaths on the island to be recorded in a fortnight. And would there have been "a large assemblage in Atholl St. for the funeral?"
Putting the query to Miss McHardy whose special research centres
on the medical services of our Island, her answer was concise:-
"There was no cholera in the Island in 1864. The outbreak before that
date was in 1849 at Creagneish and Port St.Mary, nowhere else. The
next outbreak (brought into Peel by a fishing-boat, the Annie from
Ireland) was in October 1866. There were only a few cases and only in
Peel. There is often some reason in rumours. In those days Typhoid
Fever and its like was often called "English Cholera", but I doubt if
this disease would have been the cause of death of the husband and
wife at about the came time, and I very much doubt if the wife could
have seriously been thought the cause of infecting her husband and,
if she had, he would not have died at the time he did. The cause of
their illness was almost certainly typhus Fever which in those days
was usually called just "fever" (There was an out-break of Typhus
Fever in 1837, 1853 and 1866). But it was always a common cause of
death in nurses and doctors, and nearly always called simply "fever".
Scarlet Fever killed many people about this period but it was almost
always differentiated as Scarlet Fever.
Of course even doctors themselves mixed up Typhoid and Typhus, even as late as 1880. But the important point in the Railton case is that the "fever" was contracted from a sick person with the disease. This makes the diagnosis of Typhus much more likely."
It seems likely that Henry John Ollason, buried in Atholl St., was also a minister. Miss McHardy has also listed the burial places of other nonconformist ministers and their families. William Wilson, Methodist Preacher, buried St. George's, Douglas, June lst 1789, is the earliest. The Rev. John Colquhoun died in 1807, John Braithwaite in 1822 (for 32 years a Wesleyan Minister), Alexander Inglis in 1836. Jemimah Ann, daughter of Jeremiah Pontefract, Wesleyan Preacher, lies in St. German's (1835, aged 3 months). In the same year in German, the Rev John Morris ('Independent Minister, aged 37 years'). Jeremiah Pontefract buried a son of 5 months in German in 1838. Elizabeth E.N. Aitken, aged 16, daughter :of the Rev. Robert Aitken, was buried at Marown in 1847.,
In 1804 the Rev. Samuel Haining came to the Island to the independent Chapel in Atholl St, Douglas, where he christened his family: James (Feb 1809), Thomas (Apl 1810), John (Aug 1811), Jane and Samuel (twins July 1813), Isabella (Aug 1816), -Anna (Jan.1819), Arbuthnot, a dau. (Jan 1821), Alexander and Charles Johnston (twins, July 1822), William (June 1827). Several were also buried there: Thomas (1848), Jane (1850), Alexander (1852). Samuel and his wife Jane are buried in St. George's, she in 1843, he 1846 aged 67. In St. George's lies also a retired minister, 'Rev. Edward Parsons, for 48 years the faithful pastor of the assembling in Salem Chapel, Leeds, Yorkshire,' His grave is located, near the gate, in front of Hillary's tomb.
R. K.
[see Peel Burials]
Letter to the Editor of the Manx Advertiser. Sir, at this time, .When the whooping cough is not only so prevalent but so fatal, you cannot do a greater benefit to Society than by publishing the following receipt for the cure of that distemper It has cured many thousands in different parts of England, even in the most desperate cases and has never failed, except whore the infant was absolutely incurable.
Dissolve two grains of Emetic Tartar in a four ounce phial of springwater and give from a dessert to a tablespoonful in the morning following according to the age and strength of the child.
It will make the patient extremely sick but that must not be minded as the object is to bring off that quantity of phlegm with which, on such occasions, the stomach is overloaded and is the real cause of the disorder. N.B. As Emetic Tartar alone can perform this, the public are particularly cautioned not to be prevailed upon to suffer any other kind of emetic to be submitted in its stead.
III: IN WOODS ATLAS
Almost exactly a century after Thomas Arthur Corlett had done his precise work over the new parish church Wood's Atlas appeared in 1867. It has been called the Manx Latterday Doomsday Book. Its title page is less apocalyptic 'A New Atlas & Gazetteer of the/ Isle of Man consisting of/ Seventeen Highly finished Maps/ compiled from original and authentic sources, describing the/ Civil and Ecclesiastical Boundaries of each parish and the boundaries of the several/ baronies freeholds -.and quarterlands, as well as the boundaries of the several farms as they are now held in possession. Appended is an elaborate and comprehensive reference table, showing the names of every proprietor of land in the Island, with the manorial description and extent of land hold by him'. The preface calls the work a 'desideratum', and admits it is long overdue. It accordingly offers us a further point of insight into the population of the parish, and a means of measuring changes in the fortunes of its families.
Its tally of the acres, roods and perches held by each owner shows that Lezayre had then almost 11,000 acres under such ownership. Of this, roughly some 5,600 were Intack, or land that had been claimed out of curragh or mountain, in contradistinction to the Treens and Quarterlands as found in the earliest surviving, editions of the Liber Assedationis and the Liber Monasterium. This last area divides itself into the 4000 acres of the 32 quarterlands of the Lord's land, and the 1300 or so acres of the 10 Abbeylands - a distinction which by 1867 had only historical bearing.
It is not easy to be precise about the size of the population of Lezayre in 1867. In 1861 it had been returned as 2520; in 1881 it would be put at 2369, but the 1871 census gives the figure of only 1620, a mere increase over 1751 of some 200. Females exceeded males by 509 and there were 340 houses in the parish.
The Atlas lists some 600 holders of land. Some 130 held less than one acre; another 430 or so occupied between one and one hundred acres; while 22 had holdings of over 100 acres. E.C. Farrant tops the list with 498 acres, followed by Caesar Bacon with 481, and the Rev. W.B. Christian with 428. Then 'John Corlett & Others' (334), Mary Corlett (312), Wim Crowe (221), Goldie Taubrnan (220), John James Quayle (214), Richard Teare (197), John P. Harrison (168), V;m Callister (163) J.J.M. Corlett (163), John Cleator (160), Henry La Mothe (139), F.B. Clucas (131), P.T. Cunningham (129), Nicholas Quayle (115), J.S.G. Taubman (115), Jas. McWhannell (103), John R. Teale (127), Robt. Maddrell (112), and Thomas Cartwright (100). In addition to the general holdings, the Atlas shows two holders of Common Lands. One was W.F. Moore who had 632 acres of Park Llewellin; the other Mary Corlett with 385 acres of Dreemgel.
If this last be added to her other 312 acres listed above, Mary Corlett must have been about the largest landowner in the parish. Interestingly enough I believe she was the widow of Thomas Arthur Corlett, the grandson of our own 18th century informant, and a man whose name appears in a most unpopular aura in the story of the Sulby Cossacks and their modern-style demos against the enclosure of the upland commons. Those 22 names possessed about 45% of the parish between them.
My rough count shows me that those 600 holdings were in some 146 different surnames. (I calculated that of Thomas Arthur Corlett's 18th century lists showed about 131).
In my last article I grouped those family names into three areas - the line of Sulby Glen in the west, the line of the Ramsey-Michael road across the centre, and in the east, the area north and south of Ramsey between the mountains and the sea. In the west we found the quarter-lands held in 26 family names. 19 of these still appear in Wood's Atlas:- Caley, Christian, Corlett, Cowley, Curphy, Fayle, Garrett, Harrison, Kelly, Kermode, Kewin, Kewish, Killip, Kinrade, Kneale, Kneen, Moore, Quayle, Teare. Gone are- Corris, Cottier, Cowle, Kewley, Knickle, Oates, Stephen, to be replaced by other names, some what I would call aboriginal Manx - Boyde, Cain, Callister, Cannell, Cannan, Cleator, Clucas , Corkill, Cowell, Craine, Cretney, Kaighin, Keig, Lace, Mylchraine; and by others, Allen, Angliss, Cunningham, Daugherty, Green, Jackson, Lloyd, McRedie and Southward, non-Manx, but having some among them well on the way to indigenisation. In the more populous eastern zone, in the 1760s the quarterlands were in the hands of 29 family names, of which 18 reappear:- Callow, Christian, Corlett, Cottier, Crowe, Curphey, Garrett, Gawne, Gill, Goldsmith, Kneale, Kneen, Martin, Moore, Quayle, Teare, Vondy and Wattleworth. .missing are:- Clague, Corkill, Corteen, Cowle, Howland, Llewellin, Quark, Quine, Strachan and Woods. Fresh names are very numerous (57), most of them quite small holdings in the Ballachrink area, clearly representing the Ramsey suburban overspill. Some 22 are aboriginal Manx, e.g. Brew, Caley, Callister, Cannan, Carran, Casement, Clucas, Corliss, Corris, Craine, Crye, Faragher, Kennish, Kerruish, Maddrell, Mylchreest, Qualtrough, Quilliam Shimmin, Skillicorn, Watterson. Others are Airey, Atkinson, Beaumont, Betson, Brunditt, Cartwright, Gee, Gibb, Gilmour, Hay, Henderson, Henry, Kent, Kenyon, King, Lane, Lawton, McDonald, Mawby, Metcalf, Midwood, Monk, Nelson, Sutherland, Thelluson, Thomson, Tyson, Walker, Waller. And in between are a significant group of a few families whose prosperity had made them part of Manx life, Cottiman, Farrant, Goldie, Goldie-Taubrnan, and Taubman.
Thirdly there is the central, Abbeylands block of 12 quarterlands running along the Michael road between Lezayre church and Sulby village. In 1600 these lands were held under 12 family names. 7 of these are still found in 1867, yet their combined holdings have shrunk to less than 150 acres, a bare 12.5%, of the whole. Kinrades had some 70 acres, Cottiers and Killips about 20 each, Kissacks and Skillicorns 14 each, Garretts 5, Curphys less than one. In 1600 these families held between then half the whole area, the Kissacks alone holding some 12%.
Instead the Abbeylands now consisted of 64 holding in 52 hands sharing 38 surnames. Half the whole was held by 4 names, Caesar Bacon (284 acres), John Cleator (160) P.T. Cunningham (106), and Jas. McWhannell (103). Others were Barker (7), Caley (24), Callister (37), Christian (12), Clague (8), Corkill (34), Corlett (130), Corris(3) Cottier (21), Cowley (34), Craine (20), Cudd (11), Curphey (1), Gale (2), Garrett (5), Gill (60), Kelly (11), Kelvin (1), Killip (21), Kinrade (68), Kissack (14), Lamothe (25), McKneale (1), Prescott (1), Quayle (6), Quirk(48), Stephen (24), Stevenson (10), Skillicorn (14), Teare (49), Tellett (71), Wade.(10), Ward (1), Wall (6).
The pu:rwse of these little articles has been to try and plot the fortunes of Manx families as they first appear in our surviving documents through the following generations. I would hazard a fourfold distinction in Manx families considered under their surnames. First there are what I call the aboriginal Manx family, ie, with a name clearly traceable to the names predominantly of the mac- type, that are found in the earliest records, and which may well derive from the clan era. A small, second category is of names not of the above form, but found just as anciently in our records. The third and fourth class are of names of no recognisable Manx origin., the third category containing families indigenised,by long persistence, and the fourth that of the strangers who have always settled among us.
On this basis it is possible to say that of the 146 (or so) names of land-holders in 'Wood's Atlas, half would be of category one, 8% in category two, some 12% in thre and about one third were new residents of the day. The Bacon's had displaced the Garretts, and the Farrants had succeeded to the Curphys, both to hold places in the top 22, alongside other lower category names, such as Cartwright, Cunningham, Goldie, Harrison, Lamothe, McWhannell ,and Taubman, to possess some 2000 acres of the parish. But nearly 2700 still remained with Callister, Cleator, Clucas, Corlatt, Crowe, Christian, Kneale, Maddrell, Quayle and Teare. The Corletts alone held nearly 1600 acres. Yet it is a graph whose line shows the decline of the crofter and the life of the land, and well might T.E. Brown be writing 'Old Manx is dying in the tholtans'. An ominous picture. Perhaps Latterday Doomsday Book is not so far out after all. R. KISSACK
.
Mr H.S. Cowin whose services to the I.O.M. Natural History & Antiquarian Society have been long and distinguished, was an early student of Manx genealogy, and his researches into his mother's family are given here in resume. This family can boast of finding its name in an Ogham inscription in the boundary wall between Ballaclague and Bemakin Friary about 1890, transliterated as 'Maqi Liag'. No one has dared to date the inscription more precisely than between the fifth nnd ninth centuries.
The earliest volume of the Manorial Roll records Patric MacClewage at Ballaclague and it is from this point that the traceable line begins.
The property passed from Patrick to his son Thomas in 1551 and then to Ffinlo, Thomas' son in 1578, both names being entered as 'Cloag'. Thence it passed to William, Ffinlo's son, and this is the first entry as 'Clague'". (He was an M.H.K. from 1649 to 1656).
Willian had four sons: Thomas, who inherited the farmhouse of Ballaclague, Edward, William and Nicholas, who occupied crofts on the farm. Patrick the son of Nicholas occupied his father's croft, the name being preserved in the Manx field-name Crot Patrick. Edward's son Henry (from, whom, Mr. Cowin descends), inherited his father's croft, which continued to be called Crot Harry. His son Charles married Anne Kewin of Ballachrink, Arbory and it was during his life, in 1759, that the new church of St. Columba was completed and dedicated after months of delay, on November lst. The slates for the roof had been lost when the schooner carrying them had been in-wreck off the Calf of Man " and Charles claimed 8/2 for saving timber that had nearly been washed away. He was at the time one of the churchwardens, and later the owners of Ballaclague made a generous gift of three fields to the church.
William's eldest son, Thomas married Ellen Kewley and occupied the main farmhouse. They had twin sons born in 1662. One, William, died at an early age and Richard inherited the farm, in 1703. He had one son, John, and two daughters, both of whom married into the Harrison family of Ballakindrey. John Clague married Eleanor Tyldesley of the Friary but died in 1737 at the early age of 44, his share of Ballaclague passing to his son Richard, but on the death of John's father (Richard) in 1745, two thirds of the property passed through marriage to the Harrisons of Ballakindrey. Reverting to the personal line in 1781, Charles (son of Charles Clague and Anne Kewin) became part-owner, and farmed Ballaclague, living in the main house. He married Jane Radcliffe and had five sons, Charles, James, William, John, Henry and three daughters.
A new farmhouse was built by William on part of Crot Chalse on the main road. William also owned Ballanorris, his brother Henry becoming its tenant. Shortly after the old farmhouse was renewed by the Harrisons.
Henry of Ballanorris married Elizabeth Cregeen, the niece of Archibald Cregeen, who had begun his vocabulary of the Manx language in 1818. He was helped by the Rev. John Harrison, then part-owner of Ballaclague, who in the same year became Vicar of Jurby and it was in 1838, after 20 years of careful labour that the work was published. Henry had two daughters and one son, John, born in 1842. Graduating, via parish school, the Old Grammar School, Castletown, and King William's College, as L.R.C.P. at Guys Hospital in 1873, he returned to practise among his own people. He was a physician of almost uncanny gifts and a person of a great many interests, the Manx Languages folklore, folksongs, theology and music. On his daily visits to the people of the south he was able to record. old folksongs and tunes passed from mother to babe. He was a familiar figure in his high dog-cart, smoking a pipe and driven by his coachman, Charles Clague, who was also his second cousin. In the Museum there are 300 tunes preserved, and 24 volumes of his notes on language customs, folklore, folk medicine and religious speculation. He composed the well known hymn tune 'Crofton'. He died in 1908.
William Clague of Ballaclague married Elizabeth Moore ard had 8 children, one of whom, John, became a grocer and seedsman in Douglas. Marrying Frances Cannell, they had 9 children, all girls, of whom Eleanor was Mr. Cowin's mother. Three of William's sons emigrated to America and the remaining one, Charles, formed Ballaclague and lived in the new farmhouse built on the old site. He and Anne Comish his wife had no children, and when he died at 63 in 1898 the long line of Clagues farming Ballaclague for quite l,000 years, came to an end. H.S. COWIN
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