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© F.Coakley ,
2002
This transcription of various enquests taken into accusations of lax administration was given to me by Michael Crellin — as far I know a full transcription has never appeared in print. It gives the names of many of those involved and is probably the earliest record of the soldiers. Note however how many names refer to Lancashire — the Stanley Lord had moved his own forces to guard his interests in his newly acquired Kingdom.
Extracts were used by the indefatigable John Quayle, Clerk of the Rolls, in his 18th Century Book of Precedents, now in Manx Museum [MM MS510C] — from which extracts were printed in the unpublished documents series.
Sacheverell almost certainly used this parchment roll as the basis for his comments re John Coate, the over-zealous Comptroller who provoked the problems, before the Lord's Lieutenant, Henry Byron, was sent over to sort it out - one result was the further codification of the Laws of Mann which were promulgated at Tynwald in 1429.
I have split it into convenient sized sections — mostly at natural breaks — and attached a a somewhat free rendition into modern English - the formulaic 'puttes him to enquest' I have translated as 'pleads not guilty'. The transcription does not attempt to give the line structure of the original though the marginal comments are shown alongside the relevant paragraph - the marginal numbers are most likely by John Quayle as they correspond to those in his printed extracts (not having seen the parchment I can't confirm it but Quayle's handwriting is normally distinctive). Marginal comments are in latin - possibly the work of the clerk for ease of finding the accusation, some comments would however appear to postdate the enquest as they refer to decisions made off Island. The first part of the roll would appear to be damaged so there are a few gaps in the transcription.
The parchment would appear to have been originally an inventory reused to act as a note of the enquest. It would appear from the names that the sections given here as parts 2 and 3 pre-date that of the main enquest (parts 4-10). The first part appears to be taken at the Peel (Peel Castle) - the present town of Peel is generally referred to as Holmtown, further depositions were taken at Castle Rushen. John of Fasakerley was Lieutenant of Mann around this period, but is reported in the dated portion of 1428 as having been sent away and replaced by two Captains. Hence it appears that John Cote had provoked an earlier enquest, the result of which was unacceptable to some party with the result that Henry of Byrom was sent over as Lieutenant in 1428 and he convened the later enquest - the roll gathering together the record of the earlier and later enquests.
The feast of St Michael the Archangel, 29th September, was the start of the financial year and thus it is likely that the clerk, Lord's officers etc would all need to be present.
Notes:
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