[From Atholl Papers - AP X42-35]

[I have split the long single paragraph into sections to ease reading]

Extract from a letter of Mr Sidebotham an Officer of the Customs in the Isle of Man dated the 9th November 1747

I gave your Honours an Account of the reception I met with from the Governor of this Island when I waited on him with the Instructions I received from your Honours with his Maj:s Order of the 18th June last concerning the Quarantine which Order is not yet so punctually observed and complied with by the Duke of Athols Officers here as his Maj:s Orders of the same Nature formerly were and ought to have been, but as with them in this, as in all other Affairs concerning his Maj:ty, they seldom paying due respect to any thing offered them which comes from your Honours Hands,

there has been a very Extraordinary Affair transacted here on the 23d Ult by one John Quayle who holds several Employments under the Duke of Athol viz his Comptroller, Clark of the Rolls, one of his Collectors & Waterbailiff, and this Gentleman took upon him, there being some Suspicion of an Information of a Cargo of Debenture Tobacco being landed here, to order one John Sexton an Englishman to be called before him, whom he examined upon Oath in order to discover whether he was the Informer, and with an Intent if he had found him to be such, as I suppose to punish him; so that if this Method be permitted to be used by the Duke of Athol's Officers here, it will utterly deter any person tho' never so well affected to his Maj:ty to make any discoveries of that Villanous Practice, for they would perplex and harrass such informers by Imprisonment at least upon some fictious & pretended Debt, with a design of detaining them here in this island and to prevent them making out the Information.

I have to inform your Honours, that there was a proposal sometime ago made here by the Representatives of the People of this Island called the 24 Keys, and then offered to Mr James Murray who was then Governor of this Isle, as also Receiver Genl of his Maj:'s Customs in Scotland to be passed into a Law for the preventing of Tobacco to be exported out of this Isle, which proposal was calculated with a design of preventing debenture Tobacco being imported into this Isle, but Mr Murry consulting his then Master the Duke of Athol's Interest more than the Interest of his Maj:ty who was then also & still is his Master pass'd it by without any Manner of Notice, and so it hath lain Dormant ever since. I could not procure a Copy of it till now, & it is with the greatest difficulty I at last obtained it, for it was no sooner proposed but it was immediately quashed, & never intended to be brought to light by any of those concerned for the Duke of Athol, it being one of the best Branches of the said Duke's Revenue, as it pays a larger duty here than any other Commodity, such a Number of Cargoes thereof yearly landed here clandestinely, for altho' there are two positive orders or Laws made in this Isle, that no sort of Goods or Merchanadizes are to be laden or unladen either before Sun rise or after Sun sett, under Penalty of being Forfeited, which is frequently put into practice with respect to all Goods & Merchandizes, excepting Tobacco, yet that Commodity is such a favourite that it is permitted by the Duke's Officers to be landed in the night, and at no other time for fear of the Villany being discovered.

On the 24th of last Month a Sloop belonging to Milford called the Betty, Burthen about 35 Tons, Oliver Lewhellin Master was suffered to ship six Barrels of Salt here at the Port of Douglas, tho' there is a positive Law here in this Island that no person whatever shall take above two Barrels of Salt for their ships store off this Island under the Penalty of three Months Imprisonment besides a fine of Thirty Pounds.

Notes

The document from which this extract is taken would be expected to be found in the T 1 series of Treasury papers but though there is a 1750 report by Peter Sidebotham a Customs Official stationed on the IoM relating the affair involving Capt Dow, I have not found any original. The 2nd Duke of Atholl had several friends within British Government who passed various items to him relating to activities on the Island so not unusual to find such preserved within the Atholl Papers. This extract however is one of a number of documents sent by British Treasury with a request that such practices cease.

Peter Sidebotham (a decidedly non-Manx name) is noted as a witness to sales of property in Peel in 1736 & 7; a marriage to a Mary Birkett at Marown in 1742 (no children found) and a burial in Braddan in April 1751 - there is an administration decree, noting that he was a HM Customs official, which includes a number of small claims but no wife is mentioned.

The John Quayle referred to here, noted by Murray who appointed him temporary Clerk in 1736 as the only one fit to match Mr Brownill the comptroller of the last Derby Lord, was father to the John Quayle who succeeded to the Clerkship in 1755 on the death of his father and who was in post at the Revestment and for many years afterwards.

James Murray was prior to his appointment as Governor in 1736, Receiver General of Scottish Customs - it would appear that the dispute between him and the Keys over the toleration of the Tobacco trade led to Murray leaving the post in 1744 - his original appointment would appear to have been agreed as a leave of absence from the Scottish Treasury as he notes in February 1737 [AP_X9-17] that Treasury expect him to return on the 1st of March. Sidebotham's comments would imply that Murray did return to Goverment service post 1744.