[Proc IoM Nat History & Antiquarian Society vol 6 no 1 pp46/63 1960]

THE GOVERNORS DURING THE ATHOLL LORDSHIP

NEIL MATHIESON, F.S.A.Scot.

DURING the twenty-nine years (1736-1765) for which the Dukes of Atholl were Lords of Man there were four Governors who administered the Island for them. They were James Murray, Patrick Lindesay, Basil Cochrane and John Wood.

When the tenth Earl of Derby died, on the 1st February, 1736, he left no children, and his Lordship of Man passed to James, second Duke of Atholl, who would appear not to have contemplated such a possibility, for had he done so he would surely have had more knowledge of his new possession than is shown in his letters, which the present Duke has so kindly made available for examination in the Manx Museum.

His first task was to find someone to govern it for him, and for this responsible duty he selected

James Murray (1736/1744)

This gentleman, who had served as a Captain in Lord Tullibardine's Scots Regiment in the Dutch service, was a cousin of Sir William Murray of Clermont, to whose baronetcy he later succeeded. When he left Liverpool to take up his new appointment he appears to have regarded the Isle of Man with feelings somewhat akin to those felt by Capt. Cook as he approached the shores of Tahiti later in the century. 'As we steered into the bay at Douglas', he reported to the Duke, 'I observed a great many people come out upon the beach, but from information given me at Liverpool I had expected them to be more impertinently inquisitive than they proved to be. They flocked about us and asked who I was, but the Major-General said that if I would show proper authority from Your Grace he would obey my orders'.

This Murray refused to do until he had seen the Bishop, but next day, after he had done this, he produced his Commission and asked that arrangements be made for the Keys and the principal Officers to meet him at Castletown in four days' time. At this meeting he had his Commission read and told them that he would be sworn in as Governor that afternoon, when all the present Officers who were willing to acknowledge the Duke of Atholl as the rightful Lord and to take the usual oaths might do so, and be confirmed in their offices.

This they all did, with the exception of Mr. Quayle, the Comptroller who declared that while he had the greatest regard imaginable for the Duke of Atholl he begged to be excused. A few hours later ever, he came and prayed to be forgiven, saying that he had been ill-advised. Murray, thinking it would look better if acceptance of the new rule was unanimous, agreed to overlook his hesitancy and arranged for him to take the oath next morning. He was also influenced by the thought that Quayle, if not appointed, might gather a following amongst the people, some of whom ' influenced by stories spread by friends of the Derby family ' appeared to disapprove of the change of rulers.

There are references to these people in a number of Murray's earlier letters, but they do not appear to have come out into the open except on one occasion. This was when they made very merry and fired off cannon on receiving a letter from the late Governor, Horton, saying that Sir Edward Stanley, the new Earl of Derby, was undoubtedly Lord of Man also. When taxed with this they answered cheerfully that they could see no harm in firing off some of his own powder to his health ' an excuse which was accepted rather than cause trouble.

It does not seem that the new Earl made such a claim openly at this time. It was just that an agitation ' nowhere clearly discernible, but originating in Lancashire ' was evident. Murray complained bitterly that he could get no reliable news of events in that county which would enable him to contradict the rumours which were being circulated in the Island. It 1s possible that he may not have felt altogether satisfied that his employer was securely in possession, for it was well known that he had come to his Dukedom only because of the attainder of his elder brother, and who knew what legal problems this raised, and whether the Derby claim might not have some foundation?

That there were grounds for was known by the fact that in July 1738 the Earl of Derby did indeeed petition the King and ask that the Duke of Atholl might be ordered to yield the island up to him, and it was not until 1751 that the Court of Chancery dismissed his claim.

Knowing that the people love a show, Murray arranged to have the new ruler's accession proclaimed in style. So as soon as he had taken the oath, which he did standing on a certain white stone in the pavement, and holding a white wand, while five guns fired a salute, he took his place at the head of a procession of all the Officers, still carrying what he calls my white stick in his hand. Before him marched a guard of thirty soldiers, who led the way to the Town Cross, where they were drawn up. Beer and punch were then distributed to all, and various toasts were drunk all — all tossed down to the booming salutes of the cannon of the joyful crackle of musketry.

The new Governor and his party then marched back to the Castle, where there were more toasts to be honoured. Murray had to drink them all, and after four hours of it he was decidedly of the opinion that he had had enough. 'Lord what a terrible thing it is to be a great man,, he wrote to the Duke, 'I have swallowed more wine in a week than would serve most men for a year, and yet could not save a glass without disobliging someone — a thing not to be done at this time, though a month or two hence I may become more saucy'. And true enough, before long he was giving orders that his wine, on such occasions should be little more than coloured water. The drinks provided were certainly of the type to test the strongest head. For the more important guests there was a hot one known as 'shrub' which, while potent, was simple, being being nothing more than neat brandy flavoured with sugar and lemon. For less exalted but just as thirsty individuals there was 'bumbo', which was composed of rum, water, sugar and nutmeg - a mixture by no means to be despised. And of course there was plenty of ale, brewed in the Castle brew-house by a woman who was paid two shillings for acting as brewer and dealing faithfully with the malt and hops purchased locally.

One of Murray's first tasks was to give the Duke some information about his new domain. It was, he assured him, far from being disagreeable.

The people, though all in poverty and full of complaints, were deeply religious. They adored their Bishop (Bishop Wilson), and the better sort all respected him. In his opinion, Murray added, this affection and respect was thoroughly deserved. The many tales of the Bishops severity, which he had heard in Liverpool, were, he thought, untrue, for he found him good-natured, cheerful and dignified, and decidedly not, as the Derby faction maintained, a rascal and a villain.

The lead mines ' of whose existence he understood that the Duke had heard ' had been worked some years ago to good advantage,but no work was now being done at them. This he promised to take in hand, and did so but the subject is a complicated one, and as I have dealt with it at some length in a paper which appeared in Vol.V of our Proceedings there is no need to mention it again here.

Having sent off all this and much more information he lost no time in getting down to work; taking control firmly, but with as

He gave a Ball in the Castle; and found the local ladies, of whom he had invited eighteen, to be more elegant than he had expected He opened the proceedings by dancing a minuet with the daughter of Mr. Murray, a prominent Douglas merchant, and was very pleased with his own performance, telling the Duke 'I wish you had had the pleasure to see me strut, and feed your female subjects with many gracious compliments.' He held out until three in the morning when 'some prudes, to my secret joy' declared it to be time to break up the party. Longing for his bed he pretended, like a good host, to dissuade them; but finding, to his dismay, that he was in danger of doing so, he took Miss Murray by the hand and led her downstairs to her chair. Unfortunately only two ladies followed them, while the rest of the company, to whom he had to return, went on dancing, with more life than ever, for another hour. The non-dancers, who were entertained in an adjoining room, were put in charge of 'an honest half-pay Officer who obeyed his orders as a good officer ought to do, and to the entire satisfaction of his company', so that while they were well entertained all was decent and orderly.

A man bred to the camp rather than the court, Murray enjoyed neither social functions nor excessive drinking, but, as his account shows, he knew how to do his duty. Shortly afterwards he had to give another example of this when he was called upon to entertain some Irish gentlemen who came to look at the Island. 'Lord knows', he wrote, 'I wish them all far enough, but there's no getting over old custom'.

Some of his duties were certainly not enjoyable. He found, for instance, that he was expected to preside at the Sheading courts where, as all the proceedings were in Manx, he often sat for eight hours at a time, an uncomprehending figure of authority, or, as he described it 'a mere cypher'.

One of his first major worries was the arrival of Mr. Brownill ' the former Comptroller ' who brought with him the Will of the late Earl of Derby and authority to settle his affairs. The Ecclesiastical Court granted him probate, but only after some discussion as to the rights of the Dowager Countess, which they wished to treat in accordance with Manx law while Brownill maintained that such law was applicable to the people of the Island only, and not to the Lord of it.

Brownill's request for the contents of the Treasury put the new Governor in a quandary. 'For God's sake let me have some positive directions', he implored the Duke. He had come, he said, prepared to keep the peace in the Island a task of which he felt himself capable — but he was no lawyer, nor had he the advice of one; and when the Duke's instructions appeared to run contrary to the demands of Brownill, 'a devlish, subtle, cunning attorney', he did not know what to do for the best.

And to get money out of the Treasury in actual practice was no easy matter. It was defended by four locks, the keys of which were held by different men who had to be gathered together from wherever they happened to be before the door could be opened.

After being a month or more at Castletown, Murray found time to visit Peel, where he stayed in the Castle at the Porter's house, which was in good condition in every respect except for its furniture. The Cathedral lacked a roof, but the famous vault beneath it was 'as dismal, dark and damp as the Spiritual Court could wish' though he thought the place not so bad as it had been represented.

He suggested that the Duke would find the Castle a most agreeable place in which to spend a summer, though the town was in no respect as good as either Castletown or Douglas.

Anticipating a possible visit from the Duke, he warned him that the Sword of State, which he would need when he attended Tynwald, was rusty and had a very shabby scabbard. 'Order another one', he advised him, 'never mind what it is made of so long as it glitters'. Obviously a practical man, Governor Murray, with an eye to the essentials.

By and by he began to learn the tricks of the smuggling trade; how ships with tobacco, loaded from Bond in England, would anchor on the Manx coast while they transhipped their cargo into wherries which promptly ran it back to England: and how brandy, seized in the Island because it had not paid even the small Manx duty, was returned to the importer on Payment of a merely nominal fine rather than allow the confiscation of it to hamper a trade that brought in a revenue which, though small, was by no means negligible. But when it was hinted to him that the turning of a blind eye on such practices Would be to his advantage, he threatened to put the next man who made such a suggestion in irons.

The Duke did not pay his hoped for visit [sic ? there was a ducal visit in 1736], and Murray ' lacking friends and news from home, for letters came but seldom to such distant place, as the Island then was cannot have had a happy time during the winter of 1736-37 when, to quote his own words, he 'passed lonely hours by his fireside, brooding on dismal apprehension', while the sea-wind howled round the Castle walls and the rain cascaded from the roofs,

As the years passed he became more accustomed to his duties. The Atholl rule was firmly established, and entertainments, when he gave them, as no doubt he sometimes did, were no longer events to be written about

By 1740 war with France had broken out, and he was worried about the shortage of arms should the Island have to be defended. He found that in the whole of it there were not thirty firelocks fit for service, and feared that any Privateer who ventured to land a few men might, as he expressed it 'rummage the Island from end to end'.

He discovered that there was much to be done, and little in the Treasury with which to do it. History has a habit of repeating itself.

In 1744 Murray was recalled to his post at the Treasury, from which he had been absent for eight years; and to follow him as Governor the Duke appointed

Patrick Lindesay (1744/1751)

of the family of Lindesay of Kirkforthar in Fife, who had been an officer in the army, and also Lord Provost of Edinburgh. His wife, who came to the Island with him, was a daughter of the Earl of Crawford.

Lindesay, like the other early Governors, found great difficulty in getting letters to and from the Duke, so that he, like them, had frequently to act on his own responsibility. In his day letters were sent when any opportunity offered, generally by way of Liverpool. But it was nothing unusual for a letter to lie at that port for several months before someone was found to carry it across. Delays of three or four months were common, and on one occasion it was six.

Mr. Seacome ' an adherent of the Derby family and a Liverpool alderman, who wrote a well-known history of the Island' [?in history of the Stanley family] was for many years responsible for the collection and despatch of correspondence at Liverpool. In 1745 he was sending it by one Woods, the Master of a regular trader to the Island, who was somewhat difficult to deal with, being churlish, indolent and neglectful. He lived but a few doors away from Seacome's residence, but to that old gentleman's annoyance could seldom be induced to let him know the dates of his comings and goings.

Lindesay found that when the Duke was in Scotland the quickest way to get in touch with him was to use the boats which plied more or less regularly every week between Ramsey and Galloway. Letters sent in this way went through John McCulloch, a merchant of Kirkcudbright, who was always willing to help, but pointed out that there might be unavoidable delays through bad weather, contrary winds or short nights in summer. That his boats evidently preferred to make the passage in darkness gives us a pretty broad hint as to the nature of their cargoes.

It was during Lindesay's term of office that Prince Charles Stuart commonly called the Young Pretender, landed in Scotland. He arrived in August 1745, and on the 14th September the Duke, who was then in Edinburgh, wrote and instructed Lindesay to secure any of the Prince's followers who might try to enter the Island. He accordingly issued orders that the Militia should be ready to assemble at an hour's notice and resist any attempt at a landing: that watches should be doubled and admonished to be vigilant : and that any stranger arriving who appeared to be in any way suspicious should be brought before him.

Lindesay, like the Duke, was a staunch supporter of the Hanoverian regime. It may be recalled that the Duke, with his father, had adhered to King George during the rising of 1715, when his brothers, supported by their clansmen, had been out on the opposite side. It was due to this that he had succeeded to the title, as his brother William, the eldest son, had been attainted of his activities in the Stuart cause, and was thus debarred from succeeding.

The Murrays and their supporters, like many other families in Scotland, were divided in opinion as to which King they should support, but Lindesay had no doubts on the question. He declares in one of his letters that the Stuart's ideas of government 'have a frightful sound in the ears of freemen who have tasted the sweets of civil liberty'.

With Duke and Governor both of that opinion it was well that when he escaped from the disaster at Culloden the Duke's brother, the famous Lord George Murray — that brave and loyal supporter of his Prince — fled to Holland, and not to his brother's island of Man, where his arrival would have presented an awkward problem.

The battle of Culloden — or Drumossie Moor, as the Highlanders called it — was fought on the 16th April 1746, but news of it, coming from Glasgow by way of Dublin, did not reach the Island until the end of the Month. When it did arrive there was great rejoicing; with salutes and bonfires, fiddling and much drinking for three days and nights.

Some of the rejoicers, in an unpleasant exhibition of religious rancour, added to their happiness by breaking the windows of such Roman Catholics as they could get at in Douglas, the only place in the Island where there were any.

The vicar of Marown, who in the course of a private argument, was so incautious as to say that he considered Prince Charles to be the rightful King, was suspended by the Bishop, But Lindesay thought this punishment, which 'took nothing out of his pocket' was much too slight. What really worried him was the fear that news of it might reach England, and give rise to an impression that the Island was not entirely loyal. And he pointed out that there was no Manx law under which a person could be punished for treason against the King. Against the Lord, yes, but not the King.

The point about the Island's loyalty was emphasized on another occasion, when it was stated that in neither 1715 nor 1745 did a single Manxman join either the Old or the Young Pretender, while many fought on the other side.

It was well for the Island that the Highlanders did not attempt a landing, for Lindesay reported that the Militia, though loyal, were ill-armed and of poor spirit. Two nameless fugitives managed to struggle to the Manx shore, but the shelter they hoped for was denied them, and in the place where they had thought to find refuge they were seized and handed over to the scant mercy of the English authorities. Two Scottish packmen were also arrested, but they managed to establish their innocence of any warlike doings.

Soon after — as if wild Highlanders loose in his Island was not trouble enough for a Governor — he was asked to round-up and return to her guardian a wayward young Irish girl of thirteen named Mahon who had landed in it and was living with a man named Currey by whom she had been abducted or, more probably, with whom she had eloped, from Churchill, Co. Monaghan. As she was headstrong and at the same time highly connected, the matter was one of some delicacy. He had her, with her husband and his accomplices, lodged in Castle Rushen until an escort came to take them to Ireland. But the aggrieved guardian, once he knew them to be safely caged, was in no hurry to have the case brought to Court, and left them for four months to reflect on their conduct, and, incidentally, to annoy Governor Lindesay, who could not see them starve but complained that he had no funds from which to buy food for them.

In 1747 a suggestion was made by the Duke's brother, Lord John Murray, who was serving in Holland, that a regiment should be raised in the Island to serve the Prince of Orange as mercenaries in the Dutch service. But Lindesay advised against this as labour was already so scarce that much of the agricultural work had to be done by the women, and, in any case, he was certain that the scheme was not one which would appeal to Manxmen. These he had found to be well-bodied men: larger, on the average, than working men in England or Scotland; probably because while they were better fed they did less work. But, while willing to serve at sea, none of them had any notion of being soldiers.

The labour shortage was such that, while working shorter hours they were accustomed to getting at least as good wages as were paid in England or Scotland. As an instance of this, men digging potatoes in the Manx fields were paid eightpence a day, though they worked for less than nine hours, whereas in Scotland, where they worked at least twelve hours, the rate was lower.

A small item of interest, but worth noting, is the statement in a letter dated August 1750 that Mount Strange, the ruins of which stand on a little mound beside the sea and opposite to King William's College, was then in good enough condition to need but a few repairs for it to be a suitable residence for the Customs officer of Derbyhaven.

Another is the note by Lindesay that when a man named Brideson was executed in 1747 he was hanged by a hair rope 'in accordance with the ancient custom of the Island'.

About this time there arose an outcry from the Manx traders, or, to be more precise, the traders in the Manx ports — for many of them were not natives — about the English Revenue cruisers which were making seizures within the territorial waters of the Island, and even in the harbours, while two of their commanders went so far as to threaten to land men to break into and search the merchants' cellars and warehouses. This put these gentlemen into such a state of alarm that some of them informed Lindesay that, as business was so risky they would give it up unless he would agree to reduce the duties which they paid. This story did not impress Lindesay, for the duties were by no means high and he probably felt that they were merely trying to take advantage of the situation. It was his business to uphold the Lord's old-established rights and at the same time to protect the merchants as well as he could. But that was No reason why he should be bluffed into allowing the Lord's revenue to be reduced so that merchants, whose trade though risky was doubtless remunerative, should be able to make it even more so.

Some of these merchants traded in a fairly big way. In 1763, for instance, when the Douglas firm of Thompson and Tanson failed, they had liabilities of £20,000.

A case typical of what went on was that of Capt. Dow, who commanded the Revenue Cutter 'Sincerity', and, according to Lindesay, was 'an ignorant, low-bred Highland fellow who got his promotion for his work as a spy in 1745'. One day in June 1750 he was lying in Douglas Bay when a boat arrived which he ordered his men to board and search, they tound no dutiable good but there were a few passengers, from whom they took what money they had and some letters alleged to be orders from customers in Ireland for goods to be smuggled across to them from Douglas

While this was going on, a large Dutch ship named the 'Hope', laden with tea and East India goods from Rotterdam, sailed in. Dow at once sent his mate to search her, but the Dutch captain threatened to throw him overboard if he did not instantly leave the ship. So the mate, making a virtue of necessity, rowed back to the 'Sincerity' while the Dutchman rehoisted his sails and headed north, pursued by Dow, who followed him into Ramsey bay, where the Dutch skipper deliberately ran his ship aground, under the impression that the Revenue officers had no rights of search except at sea. Dow thought differently, however, and sent a boat with ten armed men who boarded her and began to remove the hatch-covers. While doing this they were astonished to find themselves surrounded by a much larger party led by Capt. Matthew Christian, the Captain of the Port, who, presenting his pistols at them, forced the Revenue men to submit. Then, as the ship began to float on the incoming tide, he sailed her — and them — into the harbour, where she was promptly unloaded.

Christian's justification for this high-handed action was that one of the passengers from whom money had been taken in Douglas had obtained a warrant for the arrest of Dow's men as robbers, and this having been placed in Christian's hands it became his duty to serve it.

The Manx authorities, disturbed by the threat to their revenue, and urged on by the merchants — who were accusing Dow of every known crime from petty larceny to piracy — had the prisoners taken to Castletown, where they were released on parole. But when, shortly afterwards, their ship sailed into Derbyhaven, they were hurried back into the Castle lest they should attempt to rejoin her.

Dow, now somewhat short-handed, left after a brief stay, and in due course laid a complaint before the Privy Council, who demanded an explanation of such treatment of one of His Majesty's crews.

It may be added that before he left Ramsey he had induced Capt. Christian to visit him on his ship. Here, after first threatening to shoot him, and then to bombard his house and take him to England in irons, he forced him to sign a bond that he would appear at Carlisle Assizes and stand trial for interfering with a King's officer in the execution of his duty.

In the early days of 1750 Governor Lindesay, finding himself to be suffering from a most painful complaint, which at times incapacitated him, went to Edinburgh for treatment, as there was not at this date anyone in the Island to whom he could apply with confidence for medical advice. Five years later, however, Governor Cochrane, finding no surgeon who, as he expressed it 'knew anything of the matter' started a subscription, and when it reached a sum sufficient to provide £60 a year he induced Mr. Gillespie,'who by all accounts is fully qualified for his business', to come and settle in the Island in return for that sum and such fees as he might be able to obtain. He was evidently a success, for when John Quayle, the Comptroller, fell from his horse shortly afterwards it is noted that 'Mr. Gillespie did him great service' which, combined with a course of drinking goat's whey 'soon', as he wrote to a friend, 'rescued me from the jaws of Kirk Malew, and enabled me to get about'.

In Governor Lindesay's case however even the best products of Edinburgh medical schools were unable to effect a remedy, and he asked to be allowed to resign.

In his place the Duke, in May 1751, appointed

Basil Cochrane (1751/1761)

who was a son of the Laird of Ochiltree (Ayrshire) and a brother of the eighth Earl of Dundonald. Aged about fifty at the time of his appointment, he had served as an officer in the army of General Cope, and had been captured when that army was routed by the Highlanders at Prestonpans in September 1745. His salary was fixed at £200 per annum.

That he was a man not to be trifled with when he felt himself to be in the right is shown by his treatment of the Keys. This body, called upon to give a verdict on an appeal in a case which concerned the Stevenson estate of Balladoole, refused to do so, and adjourned. Cochrane, declaring that they had not the right to procrastinate, demanded their verdict without delay. When they refused to resume their sitting he confined them to Castletown until they did so, and refusing to be intimidated by threats of appeals to the Duke, and even to the King, insisted that ay, do as he ordered. They stood out for three days, and then, finding his will stronger than theirs they came to him, giving a good reason for their refusal; he accepted it and allowed them to go home, feeling, no doubt, that their new Governor was a man who intended to govern.

Shortly afterwards, however, they tried their strength again, when Mr. George Moore their 'Chairman or foreman' as Cochrane calls him — the title of Speaker not at that date having come into use — called them together on his own authority and without the usual precept from the Governor, At this meeting, held in an inn at St Johns, the members were asked by Mr. Moore to pass an address of loyalty to the King upon his accession. This address he proposed to take to London and to present in person. Many of the members, however, being doubtful of the legality of a meeting called in such an irregular manner, refused to agree to the proposal, and it failed to obtain a majority. Mr. Moore, not to be outdone, took the address to the homes of the individual members and there persuaded them, one by one, to sign it.

Cochrane, feeling that Moore was suffering from megalomania, and that his brain had again begun to give way (as he declared it had done on a previous occasion) was placed in a dilemma. He had hesitated to act himself because he could find no precedent, but if Moore really went to London, as he proposed to do, the Secretary concerned would think it very strange that such an address should come forward through other than the usual channels, and might imagine that the Duke and his Governor did not approve of the sentiments expressed in it. So, to cover himself, he wrote to Mr. Secretary Pitt explaining how the Keys had taken into their own hands, and done in an irregular manner, something which — had they not forestalled him — he, who had served in arms the King's grandfather and great-grand- father, would have been happy to do on behalf of himself and everyone else in the Island.

Moore, to give him his due, told Cochrane at the time what he had done, and later informed the Duke, asking his advice as to how he and Mr. Murray, who was to accompany him, should go about matters when they got to London.

The real trouble was that the Keys had had their dignity ruffled by not being given a more prominent part at the rejoicings on the King's accession, and they — or their Chairman — had seized what they considered a good opportunity to assert themselves. Their effort was successful to the extent that though Lord Mansfield gave it as his opinion that an irregular address was the same as no address, and, in any case, few such documents ever actually reached the King, it was eventually transmitted through the good offices of the Earl of Holderness (one of the Secretaries of State) and was in due course printed in the Gazette, along with one from the Bishop and Clergy, which had been sent to the Duke, who arranged for it to be presented by the Archbishop of York.

But, though firm in his dealings with the Keys, Cochrane was certainly not heartless, as he showed in the case of the old schoolmaster of Ramsey. Learning that efforts were being made to dismiss this man from his post, and finding that he was, as he reported to the Duke's secretary 'an old man of a fair and good character, but fast dropping ito his grave' he felt it was a cruel and barbarous thing that he should not be allowed to die in peace and quietness, and therefore rode over to see the Bishop and arrange for the poor man's last days to be passed in peace.

A serious incident which occurred in his term of office was due to the fishing-boat owners of Whitehaven. These men controlled a fleet of large boats known as 'busses' which they sent to fish for herrings in St. George's Channel. This competition greatly annoyed the Manx fishermen, who declared that when the Whitehaven men said they were in St. George's Channel they were, as a matter of fact, within a few miles of the Manx coast, and so poaching on their preserves as these waters were the property of the Lord of Man, where no boat which did not obey his rules and pay him dues had any right to be. So, suddenly jealous for their Sovereign's rights, a fleet of some hundreds of the smaller Manx boats, each with six or seven men on board, bore down one day on four of the lumbering 'busses' which they found at anchor about seven miles from Langness, and with their nets down — a further breach of the Manx rules. They cut and destroyed their nets; forced them, with menaces, to up-anchor and depart; and threatened that the same, or worse, treatment would befall them if they came again.

The Governor was not in the Island at the time, but the Water Bailiff, when appealed to apologised for the too great enthusiasm of his countrymen, declaring however that though their actions were wrong, and would be punished if repeated. they were, nevertheless, right in principle. If the busses fished within three leagues of the Manx coast they must pay the accustomed dues, including tithe to the clergy, and obey Manx laws and customs —which laid it down, amongst other things, that they must not fish on Sundays or while at anchor.

This further incensed the Whitehaven men, already much annoyed, who answered that as British subjects, they had the right to fish in any part of the British seas, which they intended to do, if necessary under the armed protection which the Admiralty would provide for them.

All this was duly reported to the Duke, who very sensibly that while he believed his rights to be as stated he thought it best not to try and enforce them in this instance, and as the 'busses' were much more powerful than the Manx boats they had best be left alone.

ln 1760 there were a number of applications for naturalization from merchants who wished to start business in Douglas, The one which caused the most trouble to the Governor came from Messrs, Abraham Vienna, Solomon da Costa and Jacob Osorio, These three Jews, who had extensive connections with many of the principle cities of Europe, promised that if they were allowed to commence business in Douglas they would bring many well-laden ships there from Amsterdam, Bordeaux and other ports with tea, wines and spirits. But when the Duke submitted their application to the Council in the Island, although it had received powerful backing from several traders in Liverpool they reported against it, on the grounds that the natives would resent such people being admitted. In this way a good chance to increase the trade of the Island was lost through provincial small-mindedness and fear of competition.

Cochrane, like both his predecessors, was much troubled by the problem of how to remit funds to the Duke. Banking facilities, in the modern sense of the word, did not exist, and the safest way was to send Bills. This entailed finding someone in the Island who had money owing to him from a person in England or Scotland and who, in return for cash handed to him from the Manx Treasury would instruct his debtor in England to pay a similar sum — less a small commission — to the Duke. But people with large sums owing to them from 'across' were not numerous in the Island, and Cochrane had, on one occasion at least, to take horse and ride about seeking for such a one.

At times the 'Attorney-General or some other reliable person' was given the cash to take across in a fishing-boat, or any vessel which happened to be sailing. He would then take it to London or Dunkeld, or perhaps purchase Bills with it in Liverpool. But the most general method was to entrust the cash to the captain of one of the regular trading vessels, that 'honest, careful, good man Cap Lace' as Cochrane calls him, frequently undertaking the task. This trusty messenger, who received only 1/4 of 1 per cent. for his trouble, handed the money to Messrs. J. Tarleton & Co. in Liverpool, who arranged for its transfer to London. But sending cash in this way was a risk which the Governor did not care to accept without definite instructions from the Duke, for ships were often lost, the sandbanks of the Mersey estuary proving fatal to many of them. As it happens, however, though much more was carried across in this way I find no record of any of it having ever been lost.

In February 1760 Cochrane found two things to report. The first was the opening of a new trade, when a ship arrived from Bordeaux with 1,200 hogsheads of claret for transhipment to the West Indies.

The second was that Admiral Thurot was rumoured to be about to attempt a landing on the Island.

But in a few days he had the happiness of reporting that this threat had vanished with the Admiral's defeat by Capt. Elliot. He had, however, to be very firm in refusing the request of the English officers that the large body of troops captured in the French ships should be landed in Ramsey: They were fine-looking troops, he reported, and he feared that once on shore there would be no way of controlling them.

In March 1759 the British Treasury wrote to the Duke making the first suggestion that the Island should be re-vested in the Crown, a suggestion which had been made in the English press some five years earlier, and which, after six years of negotiations came to pass in 1765. When they made their final offer to the Duke in 1764 they were not acting without good reason, for after making extensive enquiries they had before them a clear and detailed statement of how the smugglers operated and the losses they caused to the British revenue, variously estimated as being between two hundred, and three hundred and fifty thousand pounds per annum.

These cold, official reports show that the romantic stories which novelists have based on 'the running trade' as it was commonly called have ample foundation. The large cargoes of dutiable goods landed in the Island from Continental ports, and from the West Indies, went mostly to Scotland, Ireland and the adjacent coast of England. To the west coast of Scotland they were carried in wherries of seventy or eighty tons, well manned and fast. For the Clyde and the Solway Firth the boats used were open ones of four or five tons, owned in the Island, and having a crew of eight or nine men. They generally chose the darkest and roughest of nights for their trips, and being of light draught their masters who knew the coast well, would sometimes escape capture by sailing close inshore where a pursuing Revenue cutter dared not follow them.

Cargoes for Ireland generally went in wherries built at Rush, Dublin. These were prime sailors and, though quite open, sailed to the north of Ireland and landed their cargoes on the west coast. The value of the cargoes they carried is not, of course, known, but seizures of goods from the Isle of Man, made off the Irish coast, were reported by the Dublin Customs in 1764 to amount to about £10,000 a year.

At places on the Solway Firth or the Clyde coast where landings were usually made the farmers and the lower classes generally were in league with the smugglers being given a share of their profits — and assembled in numbers whenever a boat, directed by signal fires, was known to be coming in. The goods were quickly landed, loaded to waiting horses, and sent by unfrequented paths to northern England where they were distributed by shopkeepers, carriers and others. The owners of these pack-trains, if intercepted, did not hesitate to fight in defence of their cargoes, and to behave generally in the most desperate and lawless manner. It was found by experience that foot soldiers, sent for the purpose, were too slow to intercept the convoys once they had started inland, and the only hope the Revenue authorities had of capturing them was in the employment of parties of Light Horse specially detailed for the task.

In the earlier days the usual custom of the smugglers was for men from the Island to buy goods and take them across at their own risk, hiding them under the sand or amongst rocks until they could find buyers. As the trade developed, however, it got into the hands of people in England who joined together to send to the Island an agent who bought the goods and arranged for delivery at an agreed place and time. Though cargoes were occasionally captured, it was reckoned that a profit was made so long as a third of the total got through.

The British revenue also suffered losses in two other ways. Firstly there were, in addition to the cargoes which came direct to the Island, those landed in England and re-exported under drawbacks, ostensibly for a foreign destination, but which got no further than Douglas, from where they were smuggled back to Britain.

The second was through the Liverpool-owned slavers, bound for Africa, which called at Douglas to pick up stores and trade goods imported from abroad, which, had they been obtained in England would have paid duty on their arrival there.

Other, though smaller losses, were caused by the smuggling to England of ale brewed in the Island, and the fact that boats having landed a cargo in England did not return empty, but brought with them wool, which should have paid an export tax, to be loaded into the next French vessel which arrived in Douglas.

While it is not surprising therefore that the British Government felt it necessary to protect their interests, it is equally understandable that the Duke found it difficult to comprehend why he should be deprived of the duties collected; in his name. as the Derbys had collected them — on cargoes transhipped in Manx ports.

Cochrane, with all these matters of moment to worry about, missed the company of a sympathetic wife to whom he could let off steam, for he was a bachelor, who complained that 'though several charming, fine women have visited the Island, none of them, to my great misfortune, would agree to stay as Governess'.

His period as Governor aas enlivened by a feud with George Moore of Ballamoore (later Sir George Moore, S. H.K.), who claimed that his patriotic efforts to further the trade of the Island in various ways were impeded by the Governor. Cochrane, on the other hand, asserted that Moore's so-called 'patriotic' efforts were made entirely for his own benefit, and were, in fact, not legitimate, as they were largely smuggling ventures. Sometimes, indeed, he doubted his sanity while he was distressed by his efforts to get the Keys to oppose the coming of non-Manx traders, who, as Cochrane thought, while they encroached on what Moore considered as his private preserve, brought many benefits to the Island and a considerable contribution to the Duke's revenue.

Moore was also prejudiced against Roman Catholics, perhaps because some of the 'foreign' merchants to whom he objected were of that religion. Cochrane thought the number of Catholics to be increasing little, if at all, while he found them singularly quiet and unobtrusive, so that there was in the Island 'less noise about religion' than in any part of His Majesty's dominions.

In August 1753 he had a severe attack of Scurvy, which threatened his eyesight and caused him to lose the use of both his hands and feet. The simple cure for this unpleasant disease not being known at that time, he went to Edinburgh for treatment but it was not until the end of the year that he was able to report his recovery.

He resigned in 1761, when he was appointed one of the Commissioners of Excise for Scotland.

Even after he left the Island however the Duke, who had thanked him warmly for his services, continued to consult him on Manx affairs.

He was followed as Governor by

John Wood (1761/1765)

whose home was at Carse, near Dumfries. He was a protege of the Duke of Argyll, and arrived in July 1761, after having resigned a commission as a captain in the army to take up the appointment.

In October 1764 he was on leave in Scotland, staying near Dumfries and his journey back took a long time. He had arranged for a pilot boat from Liverpool to pick him up at Kirkcudbright, but it took her a fortnight to get there, and another two weeks to reach Ramsey.

His service under the Atholls was to last but a short time however, for in February 1765 the arrangements for the transfer of the Island to the Crown were Concluded. The Government did not appoint a new Governor nor tell Wood that he was to retain the position — which he actually did until 1777. He was, therefore, for a while, in the difficult position of having to continue to act without whether or not he was supposed to be doing so.

The Duke, in his final letter to him, wrote 'I have directed Mylrea to apply to you for the several Swords of State, in order that one of them may be re-delivered to you as His Majesty's Governor... Though the Sovereignity of the Isle is now alienated from Us we cannot be divested of our natural affection for the people ... and We recommend the welfare of them to your consideration ... assuring you that the Isle of Man may upon all occasions find a zealous advocate and patron in Us'.