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[From Manx Soc vol 1 Sacheverell's Survey c.1692]
The family of the Sacheverells is very ancient. The visitation of 1509 derives it from Patrick Sacheverell, Lord of Hopwell, in the time of Edward I. Thoroton, however (Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, page 50), commences the pedigree five generations earlier, with John Sacheverell, who married a coheiress of Fitz-Ereald. The family possessed at one time many lordships in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire-chiefly at Barton, near Nottingham. at Morley. and at Ratcliffe-on-Soar. Their manor-house at Barton has long since been pulled down, and the property sold to the Clifton family. Robert Sacheverell to whom our author dedicates his book, and whom he styles his "kinsman, and head of his family," was the son of William Sacheverell, Esq., of Barton, who was a Member in several Parliaments, and a Minister of William III. He represented Derbyshire from 1661 to 1680, and Nottinghamshire from 1680 to 1690. He died in 1691. This William Sacheverell married first Maria, eldest daughter of William Staunton, Esq., in the county of Nottingham, by whom he had five sons and four daughters - viz., Henry, William, Radulph, Mary, William, Elizabeth, Jane and Catherine. Of these, Henry, Radulph, both the Williams, and Catherine died young, in their mother's lifetime. She herself died on the 19th of August, 1664. Her only surviving son, Robert (to whom this work is dedicated), married Elizabeth Staunton, daughter of William do Staunton, and by her had one only child, Elizabeth, married to Edward Pole, of Radbourne, an ancestor of the present Edward Sacheverell Chandos Pole, Esq., who is thus the representative of the family on the female side; the male line becoming extinct in Henry, nephew of the above Robert, who died in 1724, aged 15. Robert, the head of the family, died in 1714.
On the death of his first wife, Mary, William, the father of the above Robert, married Jane. Newton, daughter of Sir John Newton, Baronet, of Barascote, county Gloucester, by whom he had one son, William, who may have been our author, who would in this case have been half-brother to the Robert whom he names as his kinsman. This William married Alicia Sitwell, by whom he had two sons, William, who died A.D. 1723, aged 16, and Henry, who died A.D. 1724, aged 15, both without issue. There are many and interesting monuments of the Sacheverell family in the parish church at Ratclilffe, and the church of Morley, near Derby, is almost filled with them. There are also several in Barton Church we have the following monuments:- At the north-east end, on the ground, one of alabaster, with this inscription, for William Sacheverell, son of the above-mentioned William Sacheverell, of Morley.-"Hit jatet corpus Gulielmi Sacheverelli de Barton, in comitatu Nottinghamiensi, armigeri, Gulielmi Sacheverell de Barton predicto, armigeri, et Janae, secundæ thalami sociae, Johanni Newton, Baronetto, Lincolniensi, prognatæ filii natu maximi. Uxorem Aliciam, prius in coolum regressam ipse, sibi non suis feliciter, secutus est, quinto die Septembris, A.D. 1715." Another monument in the same church, to Mary Sacheverell, the wife of the first-named William Sacheverell, has the subjoined inscription :-" Hie jatet corpus Mariae Sacheverelli filiæ natu maximae Gulielmi Staunton, nuper Staunton, in comitatu Nottinghamiensi, armigeri, uxoris Gulielmi Sacheverell de Morley, in comitatu Derbiensi, armigeri, hujus Manerii Domini qui ex eâ susceperat Henricum, Gulielmum, Radulphum, Mariam, Gulielmum, Elizabetham, Jocosam, Robertum, et Catherinam. Es quibus quatuor filii cum unâ filiolâ matre adhuc Superstite nec non acerbam Supradicti Henrici primogeniti hit itidem sepulti mortem supra quam ferre valuit, deflente, supremam diem obierunt. Maria vero, Elizabetha, Jocosa, et Roberto in vivis relictis, ipsa decimo none die Augusti Anno Domini MDCLXXIV. vitam cum morte commutavit." There is good reason for believing that the sculptor has inserted an X too much in the last-named date, and that it ought to read MDCLXIV. In the chancel of Barton Church, on the south side, is a monument for Henry Sacheverell; and on the south-east end one for Radulph, or Ralph, Sacheverell. There are also others in the same church. I have not been able to connect with this family the famous Dr. Henry Sacheverell, son of the Rev. Joshua Sacheverell, rector of St. Peter's Church, Malbro', and Prebendary of Sarum, who was tried for high crimes and misdemeanours (see vol. iii, p293 of Celebrated Trials), and who is mentioned in a note to Dr. Johnson's Life of Addison, page 77 of Murphey's edition of Johnson's Works, vol. x., 8vo., London, 1801. He may have been a descendant of one of the fourteen children of Radulph Sacheverell, the great great grandfather of the William presumed to be our author, of which children we have no pedigree. The family was Dorsetshire, and lived at Eaststoke. Dr. Henry Sacheverell had a considerable estate left him at Callow, in Derbyshire, by George, son of Valence Sacheverell, Lord of the Manor of Newhall, Warwickshire and who was a natural son of Henry Sacheverell, of Barton. The arms of the. Sacheverell family are, "Argent on a saltire, az., five water-bougets or:' For the pedigree appended at the end of the Notes, I am indebted, partly, to Thoroton's History of Nottinghamshire, and more especially to the kindness of the Rev. Samuel Fox, rector of Morley, and also to the valued labours of the Rev. George Dodds, D.D., rector of Great Corringham, Lincolnshire. For further details, consult Harl. Collection, British Museum-1082, fo. 77.b ; 1093, fo. 78.b; 1400, fo. 356, 3.b; 1431p fo., 8 ; 1555, fo. 63 (a. b.); 6125, fo. 4.b; 6128, fo. 109.b.
The young nobleman here referred to was probably James Lord Strange, son of William, ninth Earl of Derby, by Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Ossory, and granddaughter of James, Duke of Ormond. He died at Venice, on his travels in the twentieth year of his age. He had been pupil to Thomas Wilson, afterwards the Apostolic Bishop of the Isle of Man. The following story is related of him :-One day, as he was about to set his name to a paper which he had not read, Mr. Wilson dropped upon his finger some hot sealing-wax. The sudden pain made him angry, but his tutor soon pacified him by observing that he did it in order to impress a lasting remembrance on his mind never to sign or seal any paper he had not first read and examined. In him the male line of the House of Derby, descended from the famous James seventh Earl, beheaded at Bolton, may his father survived him two years, be said really to have terminated, the 9 and his uncle James, tenth and last Earl, did not die till 1735.
The above-named William Sacheverell. On the supposition that he was the father of our author by the second wife, we can comprehend the force of the observation, "to whose prudence and conduct, during my minority, I in so great a measure owe my well-being."
In the present edition the errata have been corrected.
The celebrated author, Joseph Addison, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. See page 17 of the text.
The work of James Chaloner, Governor of the Isle of Man from 1658 to 1660, is printed as an appendix to King's Vale Royal of Cheshire, published in 1656.
It is entitled A Short Treatise of the Isle of Man, digested in Six Chapters. The work is very scarce, and will be printed by the Manx Publication Society in due course. Chaloner was at first appointed in 1652, along with Robert Dinely, Esq., and the Rev. Jonathan Witton, a commissioner under Lord Fairfax, for governing the Isle of Man.
Probably Mr. Blundell, of Crosby, who retired to the Isle of Man in the time of the Commonwealth. See page 2 of A Compleat History of the Isle of Man, by John Seacome, appended to his Memorials of the Ancient and Honourable Home of Stanley, quarto edition, 1740. Seacome's history seems almost a reprint of Sacheverells Account of the Isle of Man, without acknowledgment unless we suppose that both Sacheverell and Seacome printed word for word from Mr. Blundells MS. In the preface to my Isle of Man. its History, Physical, Ecclesiastical, Civil, and Legendary, page 10, 1 have given my reasons for believing that the MS. now in possession of Mark Hildesley Quayle, Esq., Clerk of the Rolls, in the Isle of Man, is the work referred to by Sacheverell, or in other words, is the identical MS. of Mr. Blundell. It is hoped that permission will be granted to the Manx Publication Society to print this MS. The references in the margin of it are very full and valuable, and may throw great light upon some difficult points in the history of the Isle of Man at the time of the Scotch conquest. See below, Note 77.
William Camden, author of the Britannia, was born in the Old Bailey, May 2nd, 1551. His father Sampson, was a painter; his mother, one of the ancient family of the Curwens, of Cumberland. The first edition of his great work came out in 1586, dedicated to Lord Burleigh. In four years it ran through six editions, and in 1607 he put to it his last corrections. Gibson, in his edition, 1695, made large additions from Chaloner, and many passages are almost word for word with our author. I am led, therefore, to suspect that Sacheverell had Gibson's edition with him, as well as Blundells MS., when he wrote his account. The first portion of Camden's account of the Isle of Man is said to have been drawn up by John Merrick, Bishop of the Isle from 1577 to 1599; the latter portion is taken chiefly from the Chronicle of Man and the Isles, written by the Monks of Rushen Abbey, up to the year 1270 (the time of the Scottish conquest), and continued a few years longer probably by the Monks of Furness; Abbey. See below, Note 89.
Usher. The question as to the origin of the title of "Bishop of Sodor and Man" is discussed Note 87 infra.
See Note 87 infra.
The Isle of Man is undoubtedly subject to violent storms of wind, but by no means is its air, as our author states (page 11), " by reason of its northerly situation, sharp and cold." Its mean annual temperature is actually higher than that of any country in Europe of the same degree of latitude ; and the mean winter temperature is as high as that of the Isle of Wight and the South coasts of England.
It is important to notice this statement of our author. The Canons of the Manx Church are part of the Statute Law of the Isle of Man, and I am not aware that any of them have been formally repealed, though it seems difficult to reconcile with them some Acts of the Legislature passed in late years. Mr. Train, in his History of the Isle of Man, seems to accuse Bishop Wilson of undue severity in the exercise of church discipline; and to support his views, misquotes the remarkable words of Lord Chancellor King in reference to the good Bishop's ecclesiastical code. The Lord Chancellor states that if the ancient discipline of the Church were lost elsewhere, "it might be found in all its purity in the Isle of Man:" Mr. Train, for the word "purity," has substituted "pomp." A woeful change took place in the character of some of the Bishops shortly after the Lordship of the Isle passed from the Stanley family; even the excellent and pious Hildesley was not altogether free from Latitudinarian views.
Lord Chief Justice Coke. See Coke's Fourth Institide, cap. lxix,
This is still true in reference to the Manx portion of the Insular community. But, though there is a law compelling every master of a ship who brings paupers to the Isle, to carry them away again free of cost and which has often been put in force in the memory of many living, the number of foreign beggars has very largely increased in late years. There is no poor-law in the Isle of Man, and the Manx, generally speaking, think it a disgrace to allow their poor relations to subsist on charity. For the aged and infirm some provision is made by the weekly offertory in the churches.
See infra page 29, and Note 56.
Possibly this maybe from gâl, a foreigner. The Northmen were termed.Dubh Gâls and Fin Gâls , i.e., Black Foreigners and White Foreigners.
See infra Note 22, on the " name of the Isle of Man."
It may be well to note here that the name Sodor, about which there has been much foolish controversy, is nothing more than a Corruption of the name Suderey, or Southern Islands. See more fully infra Note 87.
The Comes was the Norwegian Jarl, whence our English title Earl was derived
The Vikings (Vik-ings, not Vi-kings), who over-ran the Western Isles, though exercising the rights of independent sovereigns in the countries they possessed, were but vassals of the Scandinavian monarchs, and (as we shall see in the history of the Kings of Man) were not infrequently called in to do homage to their liege lords in those countries whence their ancestors had set out on their predatory expeditions.
The Ecclesiastical Barons were - the Bishop of Sodor and Man, the Abbot of Rushen, the Prioress of Douglas, the Prior of Whithorn (or St. Trinion), in Galloway, the Abbot of Bangor, the Abbot of Saball, the Abbot of Furness, and the Prior of St. Bede, in Copeland. In the days of Sir John Stanley, these Barons were called on to do homage in their proper persons to him, as Lord of the Isle, and the temporalities of those who refused to appear, and to do faith and fealty, were adjudged as forfeited to the Lord.
When Sacheverell wrote, the patronage of the Bishopric was in the Stanley family. It was purchased, together with the advowsons of fourteen benefices, from the Atholl family, in 1825, by the British Government, for the sum of £100,000. The total sum paid by the British Government for the Manorial Rights, Customs, Revenue, &c., was £340,000, which included
|
Customs Revenue |
£150,000 |
|
Rents and Alienation Fine |
34,000 |
|
Tithes, Mines, Quarries, &c |
132,114 |
|
Patronage of Bishop, &c |
100,000 |
|
£416,114 |
On an ancient cross in the wall of the churchyard of Kirk Michael we find the name of the Island spelt in old Runic characters, " Maun." It is thus evident that the broad sound was given to the a in Mãn, and the o in Môn, or Mona; and this explains, in some measure, the various orthographies of the name of this little Island. I am of opinion that the name anciently given to it, in common with Anglesey, had to do with the reputed holy character of the Isle, as the Isles Druidamm, the abode of the holy wise men; and that it has the same connection with the Sanscrit root, Man, in reference to religious knowledge, as our word Monk, so also Moonshee, and the names of ancient lawgivers, as Manu, a- of Brahma, Menu, Minos, and Menes. The b in the term Eubonia, under which it is mentioned by some ancient writers (as Gildas), is due simply to the interchange of certain consonants, as m, b, and v, in the Celtic languages.
The natives call it Ellan Vannin-Isle of Man; or more commonly, Ellan Vannin veg veen -Dear little Isle of Man. The following is a synopsis of the various epithets under which it has been described:-
Caesar and Tacitus Mona.
Ptolemy.. Monaoida, Monarina, and Monanesos.
Pliny. Monabia.
Orosius. Menavia.
Bede. Menavia Secunda.
Gildas. Manau, and Eubonia.
Norwegians. Maun.
Britons. Menow.
Manx. Mannin, or Ellan Vannin.
English. Man, or Mann.
The idea is borrowed from Gildas, who terms it the " navel' of the Irish Sea or from Camden, who says-" More northward lieth that Mona whereof Caesar maketh mention, in the midst of the cut, as he saith, between Britain and Ireland."
This phenomenon in natural history often adverted to, if correct, may probably be traced to certain geological considerations affecting both Ireland and the Isle of Man. There is no doubt that in former times England, the Isle of Man, and Ireland, were connected with the Continent of Europe by an upraised gravel terrace, which has subsequently been in part removed by the action of the sea, though considerable traces of it still remain. Presuming on the distribution of various animals from specific centres, and that the separation of the Isle of Man and Ireland took place earlier than that of England from the Continent, we can understand how certain races of reptiles might find their way into England, and be stopped in their further progress westward. The late Professor Edw. Forbes, in a paper which he kindly communicated to me, and printed in Appendix 5 to my Isle of Man: its History, &c., has ably shown how the flora of the Isle was influenced by the same geological conditions.
There is now only one Vicar-General. The change was made but a few years ago (1847), and is the last subtraction made from the weight of the Church in the Council of Government of the Isle. The present Vicar-General is also a layman.
Le More, or the Moar, is a Manx parish officer, whose chief duty is to collect the Lord's rents and escheats, fines on alienation, waifs, estrays, and deodands. This office of Moar falls upon the proprietor of each quarterland in the several parishes by rotation, such rotation being certified by the Setting Quest at a Court Baron held each year.
Skyhill, near Ramsey, the scene of an interesting event in Manx history. See Antiquitates Celto-Nortraniae, p. 7.
In the ancient map of the Isle of Man, 1595, " performed by Thomas Durham;"and given by Camden, Chaloner, and in Bleau's Atlas, we notice the existence of lakes in the northern district. The lake of Mirescogh, or Myreshaw, was the most important, and as late as 1505 we read of a grant of one-half of the fishery of it being made to Huan Hesketh, Bishop of Man, by Thomas, Earl of Derby. In Johnstone's Antiquitates Celto-Normaniae, page 49, we find mention made of three islands in this lake, one of which was a state prison, the scene of a notable miracle, detailed by the Monks of Rushen in the Chronicon Manniae, page 39.
John Greenhalgh, of Brandlesome, who governed and maintained tranquillity in the Isle of Man from 1640 to 1651. See his character as given by the great Earl of Derby in a letter to his son, published in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, and a curious history of his portrait in my Story of Rushen Castle and Rushen Abbey, page 39.
The Laughtown, Loagtyn, or Lugh-dhoan (lugh, mouse, and dhoan, brown), is the name given to a peculiar breed of Manx sheep, having a dirty-brown fleece, formerly common on the Island, but now almost extinct.
See Chaloner's Description, page 21. -
The red deer have long since disappeared from the Island. That they were formerly plentiful, there can be no doubt; the old laws have often reference to them, and they are frequently represented on the Runic crosses scattered over the Isle. The magnificent species of deer cervus megaceros. or Irish elk, once occupying the Island became extinct at a much earlier date. Fine fossil specimens are found in deposits of shell marl, and gravel pits in many parts, but especially in the Curragh in the Northern district.
This is a mistake of Sacheverell The name Arbory has nothing to do with the word arbor, a tree, as he imagines, but is a corruption of the name of St. Cairbre, a disciple of St. Patrick. In the old map of the Island before referred to, we find the name of the place within Kirk Kerebrey. In the Rotuli Scotiae, 29th year Ed. I., amongst the presentations to benefices in the Isle of Man we read-" Alanus do Wygeton habet litteras de presentatione ad Ecclesiam Sancti Carber, in Man vacantem, et ad donationem Regis spectantem regione terrae de Man in manu Regis existentis ; et dirigantur litterae Episcopo Sodorensi. Teste Rege apud Berwick-super-Twede, xii. die Jun." By an easy transition Kirk Cairbre, or Kirk Kerebrey, has passed into Kirk Arbory. So the name of another parish, Kirk Conaghan, or Kirk Conchan, is now generally given Kirk Onchan.
The district about Brada Head was formerly the great mining ground of the Isle of Man, and was then for a long time neglected, more attention being paid to the neighbourhood of Foxdale and Laxey. Lately the Mine Haugh, in the parish of Kirk Arbory, has been reopened, with considerable promise. There is hardly any portion of the British Isles so rich in silver, lead, zinc, copper, and iron as the Isle of Man.
See ante Note 6. Though the climate of the Isle of Man is damp, and the sky very much overclouded, the mean annual fall of rain is not more than 26 inches. The mean annual temperature is 48.7890 Fahrenheit; mean winter temperature 41.953'; mean summer temperature, 55.694. See, for tables of temperature, &c., my Isle of Man : its History, &c., page 364, &c.
The Manx version of the Bible was completed under Bishop Mark Hildesley, who received the last portion of it on Saturday, Nov. 28th, 1772. On the following Monday he was seized with the palsy, and died on the 7th of the ensuing month. The Manx Bible was first printed in one vol. 4to., and in three vols. 8vo., between the years 1772 and 1776, by Ware, at Whitehaven. The Manx Prayer. book was first printed by Oliver, in London, in the year 1765. The work of printing was aided by very large grants from the venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
It hardly needs to be noticed that the Manx belongs to the Gaelic division of the Celtic language, and approaches to the Erse and Gaelic as spoken in Ireland and the North of Scotland so far as to enable Manxmen generally to understand a person speaking slowly in either of those languages. I am not aware that there is now any great distinction between the dialects of the North and South of the Island, and it appears far from improbable that in another generation the Manx, as a spoken language, may altogether die out; I doubt whether at the present time there are any persons on the Island who know no English.
The date 947 was found on an old oak beam in taking down some portion of the Castle not many years ago (1815), and has been fixed on as the period of the erection of some portion of the venerable edifice. Whatever doubts may be thrown upon the character of this inscription, and the time when it was placed upon the beam, none can exist as to the great antiquity of the building itself in which it was found ; and the tradition that it was commenced by Guthred, in the middle of the 10th century, seems grounded on many probabilities. It is mentioned in all the earliest records.
Named, as it would appear from the following document in the Rolls Office, isle of Man, in honour of his noble Countess, Charlotte do la Tremouille. Liber Scaccar, 1645, Castle Rushen :-" Be it recorded that James, Earl of Derby, Lord of Man, being in his Lordship's fort in St. Michael's Isle, the 26th of April, 1645, the day twelvemonths that the House of Latham, having been besieged close near three months, and gallantly defended by the great wisdome and valour of the illustrious Lady Charlotte, Countess of Derby, by her Ladyship's direction the stout soldiers of Latham did make a sallie, and beate the enemie round out of all their works, saving one, and miraculously did bring the enemie's great morterpiece into the house, for which the thanks and glorie is given unto God; and my Lord doth name this fort Derby Fort."
Though Sacheverell's work was printed in 1702, at which time James, the tenth and last Earl of Derby of that line, had succeeded to the Isle of Man, it is most probable that he here refers to William the ninth Earl (elder brother of James), and who died in 1702, having been Lord of the Isle from 1672. Chaloner, writing in 1653, says (page 52 of his Description)-" At Ramsey there are a few guns mounted;" and-" It were to be wished that some fortification were made about the Point of Ayre, which the Earl of Derby, in the time of the late troubles, did perform, but now neglected and ruined."
The probability or possibility of finding coal is very small. All the known rocks of the Island, excepting the glacial drift, lie beneath the coal measures of Great Britain. It is just possible, though far from probable, that the gravels and sands of the Northern portion of the Island may rest upon some of the higher portions of the carboniferous series, outliers of the Whitehaven coal-field.
Feltham has copied this piece of scandal. The well of St. Maughold is, however, still held in much veneration by the natives, and at the beginning of August a visit is made to it, and bottles of water are carried away and preserved for sanatory purposes.
See previous Note 25.
The depression of the land below the surface of the sea, and its subsequent re-elevation, will probably account for this phenomenon. In the South of the Isle of Man we find on the sea shore, betwixt high and low water mark, the remains of ancient forests. This is a proof of submergence. At the same time, we have evidence that at another period the sea occupied (relatively with the land) a higher level than it now does, from the circumstance that there are water-worn caves at an elevation of from 12 to 15 feet above the present high water mark.
The famous Earl of Derby dwells upon this fact in his letter to his son, printed in Peek's Desiderata Curiosa-" When I go,' said he, "on the mount you call Barrule, and, but turning round, can see England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, I think shame, so fruitlessly to see so many kingdoms at once, which no place, I think, in any nation that we know under heaven can afford such a prospect of and to have so little profit by them."
The barrows and stone circles in the Isle of Man are very numerous, and their contents point to various periods of inhumation. Some of them contain large stone cists, in which the body appears to have been placed in a sitting or kneeling posture; others contain several smaller cists, in which the ashes have been placed after cremation. Others, again, are occupied with :a series of urns, placed, as described by Chaloner, with their mouths downward upon a bed of sand, and filled with calcined bones. See Chaloner's Description, page 10. The latest are probably the burying-places of heathen Northmen. See Worsaae's Danes and Northmen in England, pages 42-3.
The Tinwall, or Tynwald Hill, called in Manx Cronk-y-Keillown (ie., the Church of St. Johns Hill), is situated almost in the middle of the Isle of Man, on the road from Douglas to Peel, three miles from the latter place. It is a pyramidal mound, said to be composed of earth brought from each of the parishes of the Island. The circumference of it at the base is 240 feet, and it rises by four stages, or circular platforms, each three feet higher than the next lower. The platform at the top is four yards in diameter. The name is derived from the Danish, Thing-völlr - the field of judicial assembly. For an account of the ceremonies of the Tynwald Hill, see my Story of Rushen Castle and Rushen Abbey, page 7, and most modern histories of the Isle of Man.
Fairy Hill, in the parish of Kirk Christ Rushen, is well worthy the attention of the antiquary. It appears to have been undisturbed hitherto, and if carefully opened under the inspection of proper parties, might afford valuable information as to the primitive inhabitants of the Isle. The date of the death of the Reginald mentioned by our author evidently precludes the idea that his remains lie buried underneath it. In fact, it is distinctly stated in the Chronicon Manniae (page 36) that he was buried in St. Mary's Church, Rushen. The barrow had then long given way to the ordinary mode of Christian burial. The magnificent Runic monument (the largest in the Island) which stands not far from the spot, would have been a far more probable record of the event. But I believe that even that is of a date 200 years earlier than Reginald. Reginald was the second son of Olave II. He succeeded (May 5th, 1248) his elder brother, Harald, who was drowned in returning from Norway in the same year. Reginald was murdered on the 30th of May, 1248, in a meadow at the west end of Trinity Church,Rushen. The murderers of Reginald are stated in the above chronicle to have been "the Knight Ivar and a party of assassins." This Ivar was an illegitimate son of Godred II., and brother to Reginald the usurper, and therefore uncle (illegitimate) of this Reginald whom he murdered. His chief accomplice in the deed was Harald, son of Godred Don, and grandson to the usurper Reginald, as appears by the following document, preserved in Rymer's Foedera, vol. i. page 586:- ",Anno 1255 Hen. 3. Pro Magno, Rege Manniae, cingulo miltiae decorate. Magnus, Rex Manniae, quem Rex Angliae nuper in festo paschali cingulo militiae decoravit habet litteras Regis do protectione simplices duraturas quamdiu Regi fidelis extiterit. Et mandatum est omnibus Ballivis et fidelibus Regis ad quos, &c., quod Haraldum filium Gothredi, et Juar" (Ivar) " et complices eorum qui Reginaldum quondam Regem Manniae fratrem praedicti Regis nequitur interfecerunt non permittant in partibus suis ab aliquibus receptari.-In cujus, &C., teste Rege apud Westm., 21 die Aprilis."
The following is a translation of the above interesting document:-" 1255, ,40th Henry III. For Magnus, King of Man, decorated with a military belt" (admitted to the order of Knighthood). " Magnus, King of Man, whom the King of England lately invested (at Easter) with a military belt, has simple letters of protection from the King, to continue in force as long as he shall continue faithful to the King. And it is enjoined on all bailiffs and faithful subjects of the King, to whom these presents shall come, that they do not permit Harald, the son of Godred, and Ivar, and their accomplices, who wickedly slew Reginald, formerly King of Man, and brother of the aforesaid King, to be received by any persons in their parts.- in witness whereof, the King at Westminster, the 21st day of April."
This Harald, son of Godred Don, seized the kingdom in 1250, but was cast into prison by Haco, King of Norway. Ivar seems to have formed a connection with the widow of Magnus, the younger brother of the Reginald whom he had murdered, and took up arms in her behalf against the Scots, who invaded the Isle in 1270, under the command of John Comyn and Alexander Stewart of Paisley. Ivar fell in battle against them, on the field of Ronaldsway, with 537 of the flower of the people.
In this respect they may truly be said to have been succeeded in office by the two Deemsters, or Judges of the Isle of Man (officers existing at the present day), respecting whom the earliest records make mention, and who, up to the time of Sir John Stanley, appear to have kept the laws of the Island locked up in their own breasts, hence the term "breast law." After Sir John Stanley's time the laws were reduced to writing, but the Deemsters have ever been considered the true exponents of them.
Hector Boetius makes a statement, followed by Bishop Spotiswood and others, that " Cratilinth, the Scottish King, A.D. 277, was very earnest in the overthrow of Druidism in the Isle of Man and elsewhere, and upon the occasion of Dioclesian's persecution, when many Christians fled to him for refuge, he gave them the Isle of Man for their residence, and erected there for them a stately temple, called Sodorense Fanum, and wherein Amphibalus, a Briton, sat first Bishop." Both this story and that concerning Mordaius, a King of Man, said to have been converted to Christianity, appear to have been mere legends, as stated by our author, and fully discussed in the MS. from which he borrows. See Note 87 infra.
The legend of Mannanan Mac-y-Lheir is very fully given in an old Manx ballad of the beginning of the sixteenth century. He is there said to have been a great magician, who, by covering the Isle with mists, prevented the access of foreigners. By his arts he could make one man on a hill appear as if he were a hundred. See Train's History, vol. i. page 50. The Druids called the god of the sea Mannanan: may not this circumstance, in connection with the prevalence of Druidism in the Isle of Man, account for the above legend ?
The story of St. Maughold, Machaldus, Macfield, Magharde, Machilla, or Machutus, as he is variously styled, originally the captain of a band of Irish kerns or freebooters, but converted to Christianity by St. Patrick, is well known. The headland near Ramsey, upon which he is said to have been cast ashore in a coracle, or wicker boat covered with hides, still bears his name.
The Annals of Ulster state that A.D. 503 there was war in Man, under the conduct of Aodan, or Aydun. We read in Annales Cambriae-" Cxl. Annus. Belluin contra Euboniam, et disposetio Danielis Bancorum." Again in the Annales of Ulster, A.D. 581, we read " War in Man by Aodan M'Gabhran, when he was victorious." It is also mentioned by Rowland, in his Monastic Antiquities, that Maelgwyn, nephew to Arthur, conquered the Island from the Scots, and, as an acknowledgment of his valour, was admitted amongst the Knights of the Round Table. This appears the more probable story. A line of Welsh Princes ruled in the Isle of Man from the seventh to the beginning of the tenth century, when the Northmen over-ran the Western Isles and Man.
The Manx still term the "milky way" Yn rhaid Ree Gorree (the road of King Orry), according to the legend that when Orry landed at the Lhane in the North of the Island, with a fleet of strong ships, when he was asked whence he came, he pointed to the direction of the milky way. Orry (probably Erik) is generally considered a Dane, though most likely of Icelandic origin. He is said to have instituted the Kiare-as-feed (the four-and-twenty), or House of Keys, the Lower House of the Insular Legislature, which thus dates back to at least the middle of the tenth century. In the Statute Book, under date 1422, we read-" The Taxiaxi" (or House of Keys, so called either from teagasage, elders, or taicse-aicse, trespass pledges) " were twenty-four freeholders-to wit, eight in the out-isles, and sixteen in your land of Man; and that was in King Orry's days."
The seal to which he refers as formerly in the custody of Mr. Camden, is not improbably one of the two which still exist attached to charters of Harald, King of Man, A.D. 1245 and 1246, amongst the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum (drawings of which are in the Manx Publication Society's possession). The ships in these two seals are of different forms. That for the year 1246 is adopted on the covers of the Society's volumes; it closely resembles a modern Manx herring boat. On the obverse of both seals is a lion. The ship with a single mast frequently occurs on the monuments of the Lord of the Isles in Iona, and there is one on the tomb of Lachlan MaeFing-one (Lachlan Mackinnon), date 1489, which very closely corresponds with the description here given by Sacheverell, of " a ship in her ruff sables" (as it ought to be printed), i.e., a ship with her sails furled. The present arms of Man (consisting of three bended legs, conjoined at the thighs, and spurred) were introduced by Alexander III., upon the Scottish conquest, in 1270 ; and we find them on a cross of the fourteenth century, erected at the gates of the churchyard of Kirk Maughold. Macon, or Hacon, son of Harald, King of Dublin, was King of Man in 973. His motto, "Rex Manniae et Insularum," is placed on the cover of the Society's Books.
Sacheverell (or the author from whom he borrows) is evidently at fault here. The line of succession after Macon was Goddard, brother to Macon, A.D. 986; Reginald, his son, 996, whose nephew, Suibne, came to the throne in 1004, and was succeeded by his son Harald in 1034. After whom came Goddard, son of Sygtrig, King of the Danes in Dublin, A.D. 1040, whose son Fingall, coming to the throne in 1076, was slain along with Sygtrig, in 1077, by Goddard Crovan, in a battle at Skyhill, near Ramsey See Chronicon Manniae under the above date.
This tenure, by which the Manx held their estates, was known under the name of " the tenure of a straw." This was at length altered, through the exertions of the good Bishop Wilson, by the "Act of Settlement," proclaimed at Tynwald Hill, on 6th June, 1704, which has been termed the Manx "Magna Charta."
Sacheverell is entirely wrong in his dates. Lagman did not come to the throne till 1104, and he died in the Holy Land 1111. Camden has copied from the Chronicle of Rushen, which states that Goddard Crovan reigned sixteen years, though they give the date of Goddard Crovan coming to the throne as 1068 ; but the Annals of Ulster state, A.D. 1073-" Sigtryg M'Olave and two O'Brians killed in the Isle of Man;" and A.D. 1095-" Godred Mananach (of Man), King of Gala, died; and A.D. 1102-" Magnus;, King of Denmark (Norway), came with a great fleet to the Isle of Man, and made peace for one year with Ireland;" then A.D. 1103-"Manus (Magnus), King of Denmark (Norway), killed in UIster, with the loss of most of his men:'
The Antiquitates Hibernicae make matters more complicated by stating, Anno 1076, " Godredus Crovan, Rex Dublinii, neenon Manniae et Hebridum Insularum Obiit in Ila Insula, Ptolemei Epidio. Successit ei, in Regimine Manniae et Hebri. dum, filitis ejus Lagmanus;" and then they put down under date 1095 - "Moriertachus O'Brien, Rex Hiberniae, Dublinium, eum exercitu pervenit ac inde expulit Godfridum Meranach' (Godredum Mannanach) "regulum;" also, "Anno 1103 Magnus Rex Norvegiae Manniâ, et Orcadis expuguatis, foedus temporarium percussit eum Moriertacho O'Brien, Rege Hiberniae, sed anno sequenti (dum in Ultonia exploratorem egit) ab Ultoniensibus improvise interceptus interiit."'
The Chronicles of Rushen state that Magnus, King of Norway, Magnus Barfôd, or Barefoot (so called from his wearing the highland dress), reigned in Man six years. As he overran the Isle in 1098, this would give the date 1104, as I have above mentioned, for Lagman's accession to the throne. Perhaps the solution is this :-In A.D. 1093 Magnus Barefoot made his first terrific invasion upon the Western Isles and Man, whence he expelled Goddard Crovan, who died in Isla, in 1095. Magnus Barefoot, on his return to Norway, left, as his viceroy in Man, Outher, against whom the Southern Manx rebelled, and appointed Macmarus in his room. A battle was fought at Stantway, in Jurby, as narrated by our author, and both Macinarus and Outher were slain. At this juncture, A.D. 1098, Magnus Barefoot returned from Norway, and reoccupied the throne of Man for nearly six years, being slain at Moichaba in 1104, and then Lagman succeeded his father, Goddard Crovan, on the throne.
Though it is stated by Sacheverell that Macmarus, mentioned in the foregoing Note, founded the Abbey of Rushen in 1098, its real founder must be looked on as Olave I., third son of Goddard Grovan, who succeeded Lagman in A.D. 1111, and who, according to the Rushen Chronicle, gave, in 1134, to "Ivo, or Even, Abbot of Fulness, portion of his land in Man towards building an Abbey in a place called Russin." The whole of this passage in Sacheverell would require to be rearranged to make it consistent with historical facts, as shewn in the previous Note.
I am not aware that this old law of the Isle of Man has ever been repealed, yet the distinction in heritage between the females of the North and South of the Island does not appear at the present day to be strictly observed. Though not absolutely repealed, it is virtually so by subsequent Acts of the Legislature.
For the accession of Olave, and the correct arrangement of the chronology, see Notes 59 and 60 above.
The Abbey third, valued at rather more than £1,000 per annum, is now in the possession of the British Government and private parties, who purchased the impropriations from the Duke of Atholl. The share now enjoyed by the British Government, and paid to the Consolidated Fund, amounts to £525 per annum. Have the poor of the Isle of Man and the parochial schools no claim upon this fund ?
The daughter (illegitimate) of Olave the First married to Somerled, Prince of Argyle, was Ayla; their posterity contested the Kingdom of the Isles continually with the legitimate descendants of Olave, and succeeded at one time in obtaining possession. The true date of Goddard the Second's accession is 1154.
See Note 29 ante.
John de Courey, Earl of Ulster, on account of his extraordinary strength, shown in cleaving with his sword a helmet faced with mail, in presence of King John, had the privilege granted for himself and heirs of remaining covered before the King. By his wife, Aufrica, he had a son and heir, named Myles.
We may date from the time of Reginald, the usurper, the claim which John and subsequent English monarchs set up to fealty from the Kings of Man. Reginald, knowing that his claim could not be recognised in Norway, threw himself on the protection of the King of England, as stated by Sacheverell in the text. It would appear, from the following document in the Calendar of Patent Rolls, of the 6th year of King John, that when this King quarrelled with Reginald, he gave the custody of the Island to one William de Burgo, and it is probable that the De Burgo family claimed a continuous title to the Isle, from the circumstance that Ed. I., in 1290, when taking possession of it at ' the request of the inhabitants, received a surrender of the same from one Richard de Burgo.
Pat. de anno sexte Regis Johannis :-" Rex reddidit Will. Burgo, terrain suam de Mannoia de fortaliciis ac totam terrain suam in desmon et wardam suam quam habet extra Dublinium, excepto Connect," &c. I do not feel sure that the word `- Mannoia" in the above stands for "Mannia," Man, but it looks like it. In the same Patent Rolls, Anno tertio Regis Henrici Tertii, i.e. A.D. 1219, we meet with "Salvus conductus pro Reginaldo, Rege Manniæ;" again, in the 14th year of Henry III., A.D. 1230, we have "Protectio pro Rege Manniæ, qui Regi fecit homagium." No doubt this was at the time when Olave, having conquered his illegitimate brother Reginald, was desirous of securing the favour of the King of England; and hence it was that when Olave was about to visit the Court of Norway, he sought a safe conduct in his journey from Hen. III.,as we read in Rymer, vol. i. page 363:-" 1236. De protectione pro Olavo, Rege Manniæ, ad partes Norwegiæ prefecture. Rex omnibus Ballivis et fidelibus suis praesentes litteras inspecturis, salutem. Sciatis nos succepisse in protectionem et defensionem nostram, homines, terras, res redditus et omnes possessiones dilecti fidelis nostri Olavi, Regis Manniæ et Insularum, qui pro negotiis suis ad partes Norwegiæ de mandato Regis Norwegiæ profecturus est. Et ideo vobis mandamus quod homines, terras, res, redditus, et omnes possessiones ipsius Regis Manniæ et Insularum, mann teneatis protegatis et defendatis nullum ei inde inferentes," &c., &c. "Et si quid ei inde fuerit foris factum," &c.-" Teste Rage apud Merewell, vicessimo quarto die Maii." The following is a translation of the above :-" 1236. Concerning a protection for Olave, King of Man, proceeding to Norway. The King to all his Bailiffs and faithful subjects who shall see these present letters, greeting. Know ye that we have taken under our protection and defence the men, lands, revenues, and all the possessions of our beloved Olave, King of Man and the Isles, who is about to journey to Norway on his own affairs by order of the King of Norway. And on that account we enjoin you that you regard, protect, and defend the men, lands, revenues, and all the possessions of the said King of Man and the Isles, allowing no damage to him thereupon," &c. "And if any damage shall happen to him, then recompense shall be made.-Witness the King at Merewell, the 24th day of May."
In the subsequent year, 1237, Anno 21 Regis Hen. III., in the Patent Rolls, we have another " Protectio pro Olavo, Rege Manniae."
Again, under date 1246, in Rymer we meet with a safe conduct from Hen. III. for Harald, King of Man :-" Haraldus, Rex Manniae, habet litteras de conductu in veniendo ad Regem in Angliam, ibidem morando, et incle redeundo, et durent litteroo ad Pentecostem, anno, &c., tricessimo.Tests Rege apud Westmonasterium, nono die Januarii." Translation:" 1246. A safe conduct for Harald, King of Man. Harald, King of Man, has letters of safe conduct in coming into England to the King, and there abiding, and thence returning. The said letters shall last until Pentecost, in the thirtieth year of our reign.-Given by the King, at Westminster, on the ninth of January." To his successor, Reginald, in 1249, Anno 34 Hen. III., December 28th, the King grants in like manner a safe conduct to come into England. See Rymer, vol. i.page 451 :"Anno 34 Hen.III., 1249. For the King of Man. The King to all to whom these presents may come, greeting. Know ye that we have granted permission to our beloved and faithful cousin Reginald, the illustrious King of Man, to come and confer with us in England, and to transact with us what he ought. And we therefore command you that to the said King coming to us into England, staying there, or returning, you should do, or permit to be done, no loss, injury, molestation, or damage, or even to his attendants whom he may bring with him. And if any injury shall be done them, without delay that recompense shall be made. In witness whereof we subscribe these letters, to continue in force to Michaelmas, in the 34th year of our reign.- Witness the King at Westminster, the 28th day of Dec." And in the 37th year of Hen. III., A.D. 1253, in the Patent Rolls we meet with" Salvus conductus pro Magno, hærede Manniæ. Magnus, hæres Manniæ et Insularum, cum familia sua, habet literas Regis de conductu in eundo per potestatem Regis versus pantes Norwegiæ et inde redeundo," &c. "Teste Rege apud Merton, 30 die Aprilis." See also Rymer, vol. i. page 489 ; and for the last protection to this Magnus, in 1255, see above Note 49. This Magnus, youngest son of Olave II, was the last male of the legitimate race of Goddard Crovan, and last of the Norwegian Kings of Man.
See last Note, " De protectione pro Olavo, Rege Manniae."
It seems not unlikely that the beautiful Runic monument on the wall of the churchyard of Kirk Michael, containing the figure of a harper, and inscribed with later Manx Runes, and only Gaelic names, may have something to do with these two sons of Nell, or Niel, Dufgall and Malmor, who fell in the quarrel at Tynwald Hill; at any rate, it is singular that the three names, Niel, Dufgall, and Malmor, do occur on this monument, and not on any other in the Isle of Man, as far as I am aware. The inscription on this monument (somewhat imperfect, and in parts almost illegible) I have given in my Runic and other Monumental Remains of the Isle of Man, page 34, as-" Nial : Lumkun : Raisti : Crus : Thana : Eftir : Mal Murn : hustra Sina : Dotir : Dufgals : Kona : Os: Athisi : Ati"-- i.e., " Niel Lumkun raised this cross to Malmor, his foster-mother, daughter of Dufgall, the Keen, whom Athisi had" (to wife). Professor Munch has read the first word " Mal," instead of "Nial," "Lufkals" for "Dufgals," and for "Fustra Sina" gives "Fustra sin ok," translating (though with some doubts) -" Mal Lumkun and the daughter of Lufkal, the Keen, whom Athisi had" (to wife), "raised this cross after Malmor, his foster-father." Possibly the reading may be-" Nial Lumkun : raisti : Grus : thana : eftir : Mal: Muru : fastra: son : ok : dotir. Duf-gals : Kona; bs : Athisi : sti :" and trau slated-" Niel Lumkun and the daughter of Dufgall, the Keen, whom Athisi had to wife, erected this cross to Malmor, his step-son." If this have reference to the Malmor who fell in the quarrel at the Tynwald Hill, along with Dufgall, we can understand why the daughter of Dufgall should join with Niel in erecting the monument to him. The term fustra, occurring on Manx Runic monuments seems applicable to various connections.
See ante Note 49.
See ante Note 67.
See Rymer, vol. i. page 586, and Note 49 supra.
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