[Appendix D(13) 1792 Report of Commissioners of Inquiry]

N° 13.

PETITION of Mr. JOHN COTTEEN, Gaoler, &c. of the Isle of Man

[In Lieutenant-Governor SHAW’S Letter of the 9th of November 1791.]

To the Honourable His Majesty’s Commissioners of Inquiry.

The humble Petition of John Cotteen, Gaoler of Castle Ruihen,

Sheweth,

THAT Castle Rushen is the only gaol in this isle where criminals, debtors, and others, are imprisoned ; and your petitioner would therefore submit, that the office of Gaoler thereof is an office not only of importance to His Majesty and the community at large, but an office of great trust and responsibility.

That there are no fees or perquisites whatever which appertain to the said office ; and the annual salary was many years ago fixed at the moderate and inadequate sum of twelve pounds British.

Your petitioner doubts not, but when the said annual salary was originally fixed, that the same was considered as an ample and proper allowance ; but your petitioner would submit, that the same was so fixed when money was at the least of double its present. value, and when no part of the government was so handsomely provided for as at the present.

Your petitioner conceiving that the said annual salary ought to be augmented and increased, humbly begs leave to state his case, in the hope that the same may, through your recommendation, be augmented accordingly, and your petitioner shall pray, &c. &c. &c.

JOHN COTTEEN.

This petition is from a very worthy and deserving man ; and the facts, as let forth in it, appear to me founded in truth and justice. I beg leave to recommend the case accordingly.

ALEX. SHAW.

[fpc - He was still asking for a rise in 1806 !]