Index to Transcribed Home Office Documents - 1765-1840

The UK National Archives [TNA] includes two large files under the SP 48 heading as part of a much larger collection of State Papers. These files are the two collections referred to in the Calendared papers as Isle of Man Books 1 & 2 covering the period 1760 to 1783 - whereas all of Book 1 was calendared, less than one third of Book 2 has so been. As the period of direct Rule from the Treasury between 1765 and the early 1780s is poorly served by surviving records on Island, these books provide a valuable additional resource e.g. Governors Wood and Smith as well as Lt-Governor Dawson wrote many letters to the Secretaries of State but no copies of these letters remain on Island. As mentioned some of these are referenced and summarised in the Calendared Papers but many remain unindexed. Post 1783 such reports to the current Secretary of State, together with other documents, are held in files HO 98/63-82 - e.g. HO 98/63 covers period 1784 to 1791. The first six volumes HO 98 series of files are bound documents, often tightly bound with some loss of text in the binding, unnumbered pages but generally in date order and uncalendared, later files are boxes of unnumbered loose papers for which any intended order is easily lost.

Though the wording and spelling is that of the original, I have in places altered the capitalisation common in documents of this period - I have in a few places added punctuation and occasional italicisation to clarify the text. Though the identification of the document is that needed to call out the document when at the archives, the brief description is my own. At present none of these documents is digitised though there is a microfilm for the SP 48 files but not the HO 98 series. The Notes section appended to the documents is my own comment and cross-linkage to other documents.

The Governor from 1763 through to his death in 1777 was John Wood, who was kept in post, though seldom paid, by London, he was succeeded by Governor Smith who was seldom on Island, placing there a Lieutenant Governor - for much of this period this was Lt. Governor Richard Dawson. Treasury's control of the Revenues was by their appointment of Charles Lutwidge as Receiver General until his death in 1784 - he too was seldom on Island after the initial few months of 1765/6 spending most time in Whitehaven and London.

Smith was followed in 1793 by James 4th Duke of Atholl as Governor-in-chief until 1830, in retrospect an unwise appointment by Westminster - Lieutenant Governors were Alex Shaw(appointed to replace Dawson in 1791) and then Cornelius Smelt from 1805 until 1832 after which only Lieutenant Governors were appointed.

A finding aid to the 2000 or so papers in the non-calendared SP 48/2 and HO 98/63-82 files is in course of preparation

The following list indicates those currently transcribed

The pages in HO 98 files are unnumbered but, if bound, arranged in date order (other than enclosures of earlier dated documents)

 

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