Pennington Letter - 1766?

Introduction

The Manx Museum holds a typewriten supposed transcript of a letter from a J Pennington to his father - dated at the head of the transcript as "Douglas 2nd April 1764" - no provenance is given other than it was donated in the late 1960s, along with a few other unrelated items, by a private individual.

It was produced as the only example the Museum held under that name of that period, the writer was not identified but as this period is important in Manx history and as the writer held some strong views on the Manx clergy of the period, it was was worth preserving.

The 1764 date is obviously a mistranscription as the facts quoted by the writer, for example the sum of £75000 paid to the Duke of Atholl for the Sovereignity of the Island were not even agreed, let alone known, at that date - discussion of the 'late Act' indicates a date no earlier than mid 1765 and probably later.

However some initial examination of the Calendared Papers of the UK Home Office for the period 1766-1769 indicates a significant disagreement between the Governor John Wood and a young military Officer Major Pennington who had been left in charge of the troops moved to the Island in case of trouble at the Revestment. So far no trace of such an event has been found in the Manx records

This young officer may be putatively identified as John Pennington, eldest son of Sir Joseph Pennington, and later 1st Baron Muncaster - his father, who also appears in the DNB, had some connection with the Customs as he is a member of a small committee, who in 1764 were asked to investigate the accounts of corrupt practices within the service by which high duty goods were obtained on the Island and run, by the custom cutters to Great Britain and Ireland. This connection of his father at a high level in the English Customs would explain his son's enthusiasm to inform his father.

John Pennington had transferred to the 2nd Regiment in 1765 as a Major having joined the army as Ensign in 1756 (Officer promotion in those days was by buying commissions) - this regiment was transferred from Ireland to the Island at the time of the Revestment, initially camped near Douglas until some companies were moved to a newly built barracks in Castle Rushen. He left the army a few years later with the rank of Lt-Col and took up politics. He restored Muncaster Castle down the coast from Whitehaven in Cumbria, the then ruined ancestral family home - the Pennington family were major landowners and it is very likely that Charles Lutwidge, also based in Whitehaven would have known the family if not the Major.

Text

Douglas, Isle of Man
2nd April, 1764[sic 1766?]

My Dear Sir

You will very possibly be greatly surprised at receiving so long an epistle from me after having heard from me so lately and I believe will feel yourself much more so when you enter upon the subject of it. Truly I should not have troubled you with it but from a report which prevails that there is now in agitation a scheme for further purchase of what the Duke of Atholl still posses here. As I am resident upon the spot and having by that means had the opportunity of acquiring some lights in this matter that may possibly be of use, I have taken the liberty to send you what I have been able to collect with regard to it. In whatever light you view it in, the measure is a most proper and feasible one, on the part of the Duke it is natural to suppose he would be glad of the opportunity of disposing of an estate, so remote and detached from his other possessions, whose value is at present declining apace since the suppression of the late illicit trade, and where he is subjected to great expense of management, the abuse of stewards and other frauds. On the part of the Government it will be attended with infinite advantage as I hope I shall clearly show in the course of my letter, It was this consideration induced me to write it and you will make what use of it you think proper.

The purchase of this island was unquestionably a project of manifest utility to Great Britain and Ireland but whoever hath access to observe the present state of things here must be sensible that it both been carried into execution in an imperfect and inaccurate manner for it is by no means ascertained with any tolerable degrees of precision what the King hath purchased or what the Duke of Atholl hath reserved, or in other words what of right belongs to the Lord of the Isle and what to the Lord of the Manor,

The late Ministry considered the several charters granted by the Crown to the Lords of Man, as the proper ground whereon to fix the division, and the Act of Parliament passed for the purpose conveys to the Crown all contained in those Charters except what the Duke hath expressly reserved. But they did not consider that there existed here a legislature whose Acts in matter of property and Police within the Island were certainly obligatory upon the Inhabitance, nay, even upon the Lord of the Manor himself, as he gave his consent to them. Now this Legislature by a succession of Statutes hath greatly altered the situation of things from what it was at the time those Charters were granted ... hath mixed and blended the Royal and Manorial rights (being then in the same person) in various ways and hath raised upon those Charters a superstructure of Laws and Regulations which as they could not be abolished without destroying the rights of private property ought therefore to have been taken into consideration and have been altered and adjusted in every instance where they affected the rights of the purchasers; from the neglect of this a world of Disputes must accordingly arise betwixt the King's Officers and those of the Duke, as also betwixt the former and those appointed by the Legislature with respect to the Right of the Bay — furnishing the Services due to the Lords garrison, the funds established for the support of the Harbour and innumerable others which would be a most tiresome task to regulate by particular decisions, as new claims and contests will be perpetually starting up in much a perplex'd and entangled affair. I'll just give you a few instances of the awkward situation in which the internal Government and Police of the Isle now stands, since the above purchase,

By the laws of this Island ... agreeable indeed to the Tenor of the Feudal law in all countries — no landholder can dispose of his lands without the consent of the Sovereign which prerogative being now vested in the Crown the Duke of Atholl's tenants cannot dispose their estates without being first empowered to do so by the King of Great Britain - the same persons who are the Kings Judges in Chancery and at Common Law here are ex officio Judges of the Duke's Court Baron with which certainly, at things now stand, I should apprehend they ought not to have the least concern — but what is a more striking circumstance than any yet mentioned there subsists at present in this Isle a Legislature where of the representative body is formed wholly of the tenant's of the Manor. This representative body, like the House of Commons in Great Britain, hath the privilege of imposing internal taxes upon Lords, Houses and Persons. Yea, even upon the Lord of the Manor himself, yet the Lord of the Manor hath no share in the Legislature, nay, not so much as a single vote in the choice of any of its members — But besides these inconsistencies and alterations I before mentioned there is another circumstance I must beg leave to observe, and which will be matter of great surprise to you that it should have escaped a Minister of Mr. Grenville's penetration who piqued himself upon providential care of the revenue — it is this — the Isle of Man being an hereditary estate in the family of Atholl which having besides a considerable interest in Britain and a British Peerage, it is natural to suppose they will always consider this Isle as a District within which they have the title to recommend Officers preferable to any other persons. At present these pretentions are not exerted for very proper and obvious reasons but it would be the height of absurdity to suppose they never will be exerted : On the contrary, nothing is more natural than to imagine that family will acquire a sort of exclusive right to fill all offices within the precincts of their own estate as this is no more than what the leading man of every County or Borough presumes he is entitled to within the sphere of his interest. How it cannot be supposed that Officers appointed on such recommendation whether natives or otherwise would exert any great degree of severity against vassals of their patron and if they should connive at a Clandestine trade for the benefit of the Island it would be extremely difficult as you must often have experienced for the Superintending Officers of Gt. Britain to check or detail then in such a remote and detached place and amongt a people so remarkable as the natives here are for their attachment to each other.

Have reckoning upon probable appearances one could not be surprised if in 30 or 40 years time the illicit trade of this Island should revive tho' perthaps in different shape and if it should not once more become an intolerable nuisance to the revenue of Gt. Britain — from this view of things I cannot help speaking that the scheme of the purchase of thie Island appears to have been left greatly imperfect nor does there occur any effectual method of completing it otherwise than the Government purchasing the whole of the Manor of the Isle as well as its Feudal Sovereignity and jurisdiction and why a Minister of Mr. Grenville's sagacity and experience in business should stop short and choose to purchase the latter without the former cannot be well explained — certainty it could not proceed from a principle of Economy well understood. It is true by purchasing the Lordship of the Isle, the Government attained the object they had in view, namely the depriving the smugglers of the advantage they had derived from making it the repository of their contraband goods, but yet this was only a contingent advantage, for the sugglers still drive on their illicit trade from the coast of France etc. only with more risk and hazard — whereas in purchasing the Manor they would have purchased a real estate which estate as things happen to be circumstanced might have been sold again so as to have indemmified the Government even in a considerable part of the price of the Lordship. I beg you would indulge me in entering into a detail of this mtter for I am fully convinced I can make it clear to you that if the Government had pursued this measure they would have saved a very considerable sum and even yet I am persuaded the opportunity is not altogethor lost. I'll suppose that instead of £75000 given for the Feudal Soverignity and jurisdiction of the Isle of Man £120000 had been given to the Duke of Atholl for the resumption of his Charters without any reserve whatever and it is not improbable that sum, nay a lesser, would have been accepted. Now what the Duke hath reserved according to the Schedule annexed to the Act of Purchase, consisting of lands, rents, impropriated tithes fines and casualties deducting the £100 paid yearly into the Exchequer amounts to about £1500 British per annum. It cannot be supposed the Government would have thought it worth their while to retain such an estate under their management and levy the rents as a private gentleman would do, therefore I shall suppose it was set to sale and that the lands fines tithes etc taken together were sold only at 30 years purchase. Here then is £45000 reimbursed for the Manor and for the remaining £75000 the Government would have had the Sovereignity as at present but free from all claims and disputes together with the perpetual advowson of the Bishopric and all the Church livings.

But from what I have been able to collect relative to this matter from the most Intelligent persons there is reason to suppose the Manor might be sold for double the sum or for upwards of 60 years purchase, and when you see the following state of the matter it will probably appear to you that this conjecture is not altogether chimerical. For in the first place — the tenure of the lands of thie Isle is extremely vague and uncertain nor does any tenant well understand upon what footing he possesses his estate, In ancient times the Barony was parcelled out in farms and a tenant was placed in each farm upon the condition of having annually a quantity of grain and other provisions for the use of the Lords garrisons, so long as such tenants continued to pay their rent they were never ejected and the eldest son was allowed to continue in the farm upon the same terms his father had held it. But if any Tenant became poor or insolvent his farm of course encheated to the Lord and Steward of the Manor was obliged to put another Tenant in possession of it which was done by delivering him a Straw and enrolled his name in the Court Book in place of the former tenant. This kind of Simple Tenure which was a species of Copyhold continued uninterrupted till about the year 1643 when the Earl of Derby endeavoured to abolish the Tenure of the Straw and to sell his lands upon leases for three lives after the manner of the Family Estate in England; on this footing things stood from thence to the year 1703 when the people of the Island, dissatisfied with thelr leases, made proposals to the Earl of Derby upon paying a General Fine at that time to have their leases converted into a Customary Tenure paying alienation Fine on the succession of each new Tenant, the proposals ware consented to and an Act of Tynwald called the Act of Settlement passed to confirm them, but unfortunately it was discovered afterwards that the Earl of Derby at the time of passing the Act was bound by a contract of Marriage by which the Lands of Man were previously settled on the heirs of that Marriage on the footing thay stood at the time of making the contract. Hence it was argued that the Earl of Derby might bind himself by such Act, he could not bind his successors - and hence the tenants of the Barony live in perpetual apprehensions lest the Lords of the Manor attempt on some occasion or other to abolish the Act of Settlement and restore the Lease Holdings, and I am told some years age they were threatened with this change. It is true there is a term of Proscription fixed by law at 21 years but it is ackowledged at the same time that prescription does not operate against the Lord of the Manor.

Secondly - there is a law here which I beforementioned, that no land can be alienated without the previous consent of the Lord of the Isle or of his Governor and Counsel empowered to represent him in this instance. Now in a number of purchases this circumstance hath been neglected and hence the title of such land is unperfect and liable to be questioned.

Thirdly there is reason to suspect that the boundaries ef the several estates not having been accurately ascertained all such properties as border upon waste lands or commons have encroached upon these greatly beyond their original limits so that if this matter was scrupulously examined a great many would be found in possession of land thay have not the least title to and therefore would gladly purchase a new Charter to be confirmed in the possession of such acquisitions.

Fourthly - all the lands are charged with certain suits and services both to the Lord of the Isle and Lord of the Manor which are extremely burdensome and vexatious with respect to the Lord of the Isle.

The Feudal or Military tenure subsists here unabated in a general measure of its original rigour. Hence the tenants are obliged to the severe military services of watch and ward, to serve when called upon in the garrisons of Peel and Castle Rushen to perform all works and to furnish carriages necessary for the repairs ef the Lords castles and forts insomuch that they might have been employed in building the barracks lately erected by which a great sum might have been saved to the Government and to the Lord of the Manor there are also peculiar boons and services due similar to these in most other manors and fully as oppressive as little relief hath yet been granted to the tenants in these matters with regard to the tithes the strict and rigid manner of levying then renders then yet more oppressive than the services.

Lastly under the present tenure all lands are under entail in this respect that no person can grant a lease for a longer term than his own life because his heir-at-law has a right to enter upon the estate not withstanding any such contract. Hence the rent of lands are kept low and improvements in Agriculture are greatly neglected as no farmer will pay out money in so precarious a lease.

Now all these circumstances considered you will easily discern how benefical it would be to land holders of this Island to have their Estates set upon a clear and secure tenure exempt from tithes oppressive servitude and restrictions of entail: the benefit in such case would indeed be very great : the value of all such lands would be instantly done and the improvements of agriculture would go on at a rapid rate - I suppose then agreeable to the former hypothesis and the Government having purchased the Manorial rights of the Island should set then to sale upon the Terms of converting the tenure of the land from Customary to Freehold by Charter under the Crown. There is not the smallest reason to doubt that in his present situation every Tenant who pays five shillings Lords rent upon a farm land worth £30 per annum, (for the customary rents in general are very low) would pay £5 or upwards for such advantage — nay I am most creditably informed by persons well versed in the affair and who are thoroughly acquainted with the inclinations of the people that they would go much higher to attain these amenities,

I foresee that you will naturally object that if the rents of the Manors would turn out so valuable to the Government they must be of equal value to the present proprietor. But give me leave to observe to you the Duke of Athol possesses under entail by which means he is restrained from alienating any part (except the impropriated Tithes) and no Tenure his Grace would fix could be clear and valid against his successors, His Grace therefore or heir successors if disposed to proceed with severity, which I dont suppose is the case at present, might no doubt attempt to reduce the present tenure of the land holders but it is the British Parliament alone which can fix them secure in a future one.

The most unprofitable part of the purchase no doubt would be the Church livings and which must necessarily be attached to the Manor; of these there are, besides the Bishoprick, 17 in the Island not exceeding one with another £60 per Ann. and the Bishoprick is commonly esteemed £500 per Ann. At the common rate Perpetual Advowsons are sold they would cost the Government upwards of £700. But here even a person who was not very scrupulous with respect to the Hierarchy would be apt to point out an advantage to the Government. He would allege that there was no necessity for a Bishop in this Isle to superintend 17 Parishes only; that it ought to be annexed to the Diocese of Carlisle and a Chancellor or Rural Dean would be sufficient to regulate their spiritual matters.

That the Manx Clergy who are at present extremely illiterate would be improved by being obliged to take Orders at Carlisle as they would find it requisite to acquire some qualifications at least for their function and if their spiritual jurisdiction in matter of property was totally abolished no greater blessing could befall the Island. In such case the lands and tithes of the Bishoprick etc., might be sold for near £30,000 which would be upwards of £20,000 clear to the Govermment.

Upon the whole I am confident that with proper management economy the Goverment might draw near £100,000 from the sale of the Manor and nevertheless leave the people of the Island in a far better situation than before, I know you will be apt to imagine this is the saving of a young Prefecture, but I assure you I am not singular in this opinion and I have taken pains to draw my information from the most intelligent persons here — however I find I have exceeded greatly the ordinary bounds of a letter and shall trepass upon your patience no longer at present than to beg you to believe me, my dear Sir,

Your most affectionate and dutiful Son, J. Pennington.

Notes

He would appear to have spoken to those with knowledge of the land tenure. Also there was some worry about the tenures, a letter from the Duke of Atholl to John Quayle in June 1766 accuses Mr Betham, the London appointed Collector at Douglas as having started the rumour which he strenuously denies.

References

MM AP 40B-19 is a copy of the examining committee of the Customs showing his father as a member.

DNB -