[From Home Office File HO 98/68 ]

Extract of a letter from Lt Govr Smelt to under secretary of State Beckett 17 May 1813

- in response to a long letter of complaint, accusations etc from Duke to Sidmouth

The correspondence in 1805 relative to the Government House (which the Duke of Atholl complains he has never seen &c) consisted of one letter from Lord Hawksbury dated 17th June of that year, which I received when in London, granting pecuniary aid for the repairs of the Government House, in compliance with the prayer of my memorial to His Lordship.

I had previously received His Lordships verbal instructions in regard to the place of my residence, and the line of conduct I was to pursue in the Government of the Island, and it was at His Lordships suggestion that I waited on the Duke of Atholl (to whom I had not the honor of being known) previous to my departure from town [London] for this Island.

I remember distinctly stating to His Grace in that interview, that His Majesty's Government, had assigned the Government House at Castle Rushen for my residence and had granted £350 for the purpose of putting it into proper repair. The Duke of Atholl appeared much displeased, and immediately produced and read to me a report from the Ordnance Store Keeper of the Isle of Man, representing the House as being in a state of total decay and not worth the expence of repairing. His Grace at the same time described the House and its situation and pointed out the inconveniences I should experience by residing in it.

Upon my arrival at the Isle of Man soon afterwards, I was made acquainted with some circumstances which led me to suspect the correctness of the report made to the Duke of Atholl concerning the House. I therefore directed a minute inspection of it by experienced artificers, and upon their report that all the essential parts of the structure were perfectly sound and capable of lasting five hundred years, the necessary repairs and alterations were begun upon.

The Duke of Atholl came to the Island soon after, and expressed much displeasure on learning from me, that the repairs of the Government House were in a state of forwardness.

He told me, there was no necessity for my living in Castle Rushen, or even in the town of Castletown, that the Lieut Governor might live in any part of the Island he pleased, and that he would obtain from Government the addition of one hundred pounds per annum to my salary, to enable me to find another residence. His Grace concluded with telling me that the repairs of the House must be discontinued. I informed his Grace that I had been instructed to reside in Castle Rushen: that my residence in any other part of the Island would occasion the removal of the Seat of Government from Castletown, in respect to which I had reason to believe there was no intention on the part of Government to make any alteration, and that I should feel myself bound to apply the money which had been granted by Government, to the purpose for which it was intended, unless I received fresh instructions from the Secretary of State.

The Duke of Atholl then told me that this matter should be settled up stairs, and I think it probable that he did write upon this subject to the Secretary of State and that his letter may be found in the Office dated in August or September 1805.

The next part of the Duke of Atholls statement I cannot notice without being guilty of tiresome repetion, and on the subject of correspondence "not fit to meet the public eye." I explained myself long ago to Lord Sidmouth.

The Duke of Atholl afterwards recurs to the Government House, and states the inconveniency he found in passing rhrough the Castle yard or Goal [Gaol] as he calls it, whenever business required his attendance at the Chancery Court.

I sincerely regret that His Grace should have experienced such inconvenience, but I did every thing in my power to obviate it. I repeatedly solicited His Grace to accept of every accomodation which the House afforded, but in vain. He preferred the accomodation of what he stiles a miserable Inn (which is certainly not far distant) rather than accept the convenience of the Government House unless I turned out my family and furniture into the street in the most inclement season of the year.

The passage through which His Grace passed to the Chancery Court was until a few years ago the only entrance to the Government House, the door of which opened into it.

James Earl of Derby who built the House between the years 1643 and 1648 and occupied it as his family residence, had no other entrance. Lieut. Governor Dawson a few years ago broke out a shorter communication with the town, which is now practised.

One Gable of the Government House is formed by what was once an appendage of (though separate from) the Antient Castle. Between that and the House a communication was subsequently opened to the Court Room, but that communication was not included in the original plan and construction of it. From the use of this communication the Duke of Atholl alledges he was excluded, notwithstanding I offered him every accomodation, and I must positively deny that I ever gave any judge or any other person a private key to the door which opens to the Chancery Court, as the Duke of Atholl has asserted.

It is stated also that the road to the office where the legal records are kept has always been till now, through the Government House.

It is certainly possible to get to that part of the walls of the Castle where the Rolls office is situated by creeping through one of the Drawing room windows, but this I should conceive to be a very inconvenient way of going to the Rolls Office, and as I never heard that it was practised as such, I have always considered this communication with the walls to have been provided as the means of escape from the House, in case of Fire, or any other emergency.

His Grace asserts further that Governor Smith always took possession of the House on his arrival, and that Lieut. Governor Shaw in like manner gave it up to him.

In my letter to Lord Sidmouth of the 9th December last, I enclosed the copy of a letter from Lieut. Governor Dawson to Lord Sydney dated 30th September 1786 which explains the former of these instances so satisfactorily, that more need not be said upon it. I have since learned that Lieut Governor Shaw upon one occasion only, gave up the House, his furniture and stores, for the use of the Duke and Duchess of Atholl, and for doing which, he was remunerated, but the Duke of Atholl did not demand the House of Lieut Goveror Shaw as a matter of right.

With his Graces strictures on the Atorney Generals opinion I have no concern, and shall refrain from all remarks upon them, supposing the Attorney General a more competent interpreter of acts and orders than I am. I cannot however omit adverting to a passage which appears to bear on my self. His Grace says "mere personal inconvenience as affecting himself is however the least part of the consideration in a question of this sort. The public notoriety of it, and consequent effect of such an exhibition if the state of the Government is a much more serious subject of consideration and form no good ground of a triumph not very well concealed on the part of those who produced it".

What His Grace means by public notoriety I am at a loss to know, ecept it be the notoriety of his proceedings with relation to the Government House.

It cannot be supposed that I should be forward in publishing the vigorous and degrading comments he has laid upon me to quit my place of residence. I was indeed much mortified and hurt, but I was generally silent. On the other hand there were many of the Duke of Atholls party at Douglas, who knew and boasted of His Graces purpose, before he came to Castletown to carry it into effect.

That His Grace stiles the "consequent effect of it", refers I suppose to the disinclination His Majesty's Government expressed to turn my family and my effects into the street at such a season and in a town where we could scarcely find shelter.

I made a representation of my case, in the full persuasion that my Sovereign would not permit an old and fathful servant to be degraded and disgraced, and the issue answered my expectations. But I expressed no triumph; nor do I believe that the Duke of Atholl can seriously think that I did so, when he recollects the patient and respectful manner with which all my intercourse with him (as Governor of this Island) has been conducted. With the same spirit of forbearance I shall abstain from making any observations on the threatening Paragraph with which the Duke of Atholl concludes his statement to Lord Sidmouth

and I have the honor &c

C Smelt Lieut Governor Isle of Man

Notes