T 1/483/276 - Petition of Merchants 1769

[noted as Read 26 March 1771]

Isle Mann February 8th 1769

My Lord

I have the honour to aquaint your Lordship, that the keys of this Isle (in consequence of their application to me) have been assembled; and addressed me to transmit the inclosed Petition to the King, with my warmest Recommendations.

The principal Gentlemen and Merchants had also a Meeting, in order to concert some Scheme for the Repeal of certain restrictive clauses in the late Acts of Parliament relative to this Island, and for opening a Commerce which may afford Employment to the Inhabitants and bring a revenue to the Crown, to answer the several Purposes of Government. They have prepared a Memorial to be laid before the Lords of the Treasury and I have the honour to enclose to your Lordship the Articles of their Request and a copy of their Reasons offered in support of them.

Upon this occasion I must, in justice to the People, represent them as most loyally attached to his Majesty's Person & Government, both in Church & State. And tho' a very few (I believe not one in a Thousand) for want of other Employment may have continued the illicit Trade; yet it is contrary to the general Sense of the People and upon proper Encouragement, it is hoped will be entirely at an End. And may I beg leave to observe, that unless this or a similar Plan be adopted I am afraid the Revenue of this Island will never answer the Intention of Governmence and the State of the People will become truely deplorable.

Should this application or any Part of it, meet with the approbation of his Majesty or ministers, it would make me extreme happy to be enabled to give the People the earliest accounts.

I have the honour to be with the greatest respect &c John Wood

Petition

To the King's most Excellent Majesty

The Petition of the Keys of Your Majesty's Island of Man, on behalf of themselves and the Inhabitants thereof.

Most humbly showeth

That your Majesty's Subjects in this Island have ever been distinguished for their unshaken Loyalty to Your Majesty's Person and Government, and for their Zeal in that Protestant Religion.

That however obnoxious the Trade of this Island may have been in its Proprietary [days ] to Your Majesty's Revenues, it was no sooner vested in the Crown of Great Britain,than a due Observance was paid to the Laws of the British Legislature, and we were happy to find ourselves under the immediate Care of Your Majesty's Paternal Government.

That the restraing Laws which the Wisdom of Your Majesty's Parliament thought expedient to lay us under were calculated to prohibit a Trade, which now no longer subsists, but we are thereby unhappily secluded from every kind of profitable Commerce, & are subjected to such peculiar Hardships as no other Part of Your Majesty's Dominions has the Misfortune to labour under. From hence our Distress [ ] infinite and daily increases; no circulating Cash improves our Lands, or give due Encouragement to infant Manufactures; our young People destitute of Employment, are abandoning their Homes, & seeking a Livelyhood in Foreign Parts, by which our Herring & other valuable Fisheries must go to Decay; our Harbours, the constant Refuge of Ships in Distress trading in this Channel, by which many Vessels and Hundreds of Lives have been yearly preserved, are becoming ruinous & unsafe for want of timely Reparations; the Value of our Lands daily decreasing and the Rents of our houses in the trading Towns have lately fallen above £15,000 a year; so that this Island, from its Nature & Situation, capable of affording many Advantages to Your Majesty's Empire, must without some reasonable Relief, gradually become a Desart: And, as a further Addition to our Distress, so as to extinguish totally all circulating Cash, the Regiment of Infantry & the two Troops of Cavalry, which Your Majesty was graciously pleased to send hither, have since been replaced, and their Numbers reduced to four Companies only; altho' by the publick Speech of His Exvellency our Governor on resting the Jurisdictions of this Island in Your Majesty, he was pleased to signify that Your Majesty had graciously condescended to send us Troops for our Protection; and that our Riches might increase by a Circulaion of their Money at a time when our Commerce was no more.

In Remedy of these Grievances, we most humbly supplicate Your Majesty to take our present distressful Situation unto your Royal Consideration, that we may be allowed such Privileges and Indulgences as the rest of our fellow Subjects, in the like Circumstances & Situation, have the Happiness to enjoy: And your Petitioners shall ever pray &c.

Dated at Castletown this 2d Day of Febry 1769

George Moore Willm Murray John Frissell John Taubman Wm Callow Philip Moore Tho Gawn Richd Ambrse Stevenson John Caesar Tho Moore Thos Radcliffe Hugh Cosnahan Wm Cubbon Thos Fargher Wm Qualtrough Jon Clucas John Moore Wm Stevenson

Notes