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[From Manx Soc vol 1 Sacheverell's Survey c.1692]
The Norwegians had thus held possession of the Isle of Man for rather more than three hundred years. They have left there more lasting tokens of their presence than in perhaps any other part of the British Isles. Many of their laws and institutions abide still, as remarkably instanced in the ceremonies of the Tynwald Hill, and in the legislative body, the House of Keys. We have Castle Rushen still looking almost as fresh as in the day of its foundation; and the only ruins and monuments of any great note-as Rushen Abbey, Peel Castle, the Nunnery, St. Trinians, the Runic crosses--were reared in their day, and still testify to their ancient sway. Unlike the Normans in England, however, they do not seem to have given any portion of their language to the people though they have left it in the nomenclature of very many places overspreading the more ancient British names.
In Rymer, vol. ii. page 492, we meet with the following interesting document - "Litters hominum Insula de Man, qui se ponuat in protectionem Regis, Anno 18 Ed. I., 1290. Universis Sanctae Matris Ecclesia; filiis præsentes literas visuris vel audituris, omnes homines Insulam de Man inhabitantes, salutem. Cum magnificus Princeps Dominus Rex Angliae illustris, Insulam prædictam in manus suas suscepit ad protegendum et defendendum, quae nuper extitit desolata et mal-tis miseries occupata, defectu protectionis et defensionis, et nos subjectioni et do-minationi suae (ejus?) volumus subjici, et præceptis suis (ejus?) obedire, et sibi (illi?) tanquam domino nostro in omnibus respondere; de cætero promitti mus sub peens duarum millium librarum argenti. Si coutingat nos, aliquo modo, contra dominum suum (nostrum?) intersurgere sen delinquere, vel ali-quem de ruis (illius?) foris facere ac gravare malitiose ; quas plenarie salveri promittimus et protestamur absolute. Et super praemissis observandis obligari volumus et concedimus omnes possessiones nostras ubicunque inventae fuerint, insimul cum corporibus postris quibuscumque poenis prout sibi placuerit, capi-endas et cohercendas, omnibus juris remediis secularibus, et gentium consuetu-dinibus post positis et nobis minime valeturis. In cujus rei testimonium præ-sentibus sigillum nostrum commune apposuimus.-Dat. spud Abbatiam de Russyn, in Insula prædictâ, A.D. 1290." The following is a translation of the above : :- " A letter of the men of the Isle of Man, who place themselves under the protection of the King, in the 18th year of Edward 1., 1290. To all the sons of Holy Mother Church who shall see or hear these present letters, all the men inhabiting the Isle of Man send greeting. Whereas the Most Noble Prince the illustrious Lord King of England has taken into his own hands, for protection and defence, the aforesaid Island, which has lately been left desolate and oppressed with many miseries, from lack of defence and protection. And whereas we desire to place ourselves under his rule and government, and to obey his injunctions, and to answer in all things to him as our Lord. We henceforth engage ourselves under a penalty of two thousand pounds of silver which, if it shall happen that we in any manner rebel against his rule, or become delinquents, or injure or maliciously afflict any of his subjects, we promise and absolutely protest we will fully pay. And to the observance of the aforesaid premises we wish to bind ourselves, and grant all our possessions, wherever they may be found, together with our bodies, in such penalties as he may please, to be taken and held, all secular remedies of law and the rights of nations being set aside and by no means availing us. In testimony whereof we have affixed to these presents our common seal.-Given at the Abbey of Rushen, in the aforesaid Island, in the year 1290."
On this instrument no doubt the Sovereigns of England grounded their claims to the Isle of Man, and the power of making grants of it to whomsoever they pleased, and hereby the Manx people cancelled all previous engagements betwixt themselves and their Norwegian rulers as respects the terms of tenure of their lands and secular privileges whatever, under the penalty of two thousand pounds of silver, on breach of contract. it would be worth while ascertaining what sum the Earl of Wiltshire (Scrope) paid the Earl of Salisbury (Montacute) for all these privileges; is yet we only know that it was a " large sum of money." It is deserving of notice, that no rights of Holy Mother Church were herein made over to the Kings of England, though they afterwards presumed to give or sell the patronage of the Bishopric, &c., and Henry VIII. and Elizabeth seized on the lands and revenues of Rushen Abbey. Are we to assume from the above that the House of Keys had a common seal, or was it the seal of the Abbey of Rushen which was affixed to this document ? The seal itself is said to be in existence.
In the Calendar of Patent Rolls, Anno 20 Regis Edwardi Primi, 15th July, 1292, we have a document, "De querelis hominum Insulae Man" (the House of Keys?) "audiendis et terminandis," a translation of which I have printed in my Story of Rushen Castle and Rushen Abbey, p. 6. In this document the King appoints his "beloved and faithful Nicholas of Salgrave Senior, Osbert Spaldington, and John of Southwell, his justices of the peace to hear and determine the complaints all and singular of the persons of the Isle of Man." The following is the translation referred to :- "For hearing and determining the complaints of the men in the Isle of Man (Kiare-as-feed). The King to his beloved and faithful Nicholas of Salgrave Senior, Osbert Spaldington, and John of Southwell, sendeth greeting, Know ye that we have assigned you our justices to hear and determine the complaints all and singular of the persons of the Isle of Mann, complaining of whatsoever trespasses and wrongs are to them done, as well by any of our baililfs and ministers as others in the Island, and to do full and speedy justice to the parties thereof, according to the law and custom of that place. And therefore we command you that on certain days and places, within the said Isle of Man, you hear and determine the said complaints in form aforesaid, saving, &c.; and we likewise command our Keeper of the said Island that on certain days, &c., in the said Island, he cause to come before you so many and such.-In testimony, &c. The King at Berwick, the 15th day of July, 1292."
See ante Note 67, and infra Note 76.
See Rotuli Scotiae, Memb. 5, Nov. Castr., Jan. 5, Anno 1292 :-" De Insula Man restituendi Johauni, Regi Scotiae. Rex et Superior Dominus regni Scotia, dilecto et fideli sno Waltero de Huntercombe, custodiam terrm de Man, salutem. Quia de gratia, nortra speciali reddidimus dilecto et fideli nostro Johanni de Balliolo, Regi Scotiae, talem seisinam terror de Man, cum pertinentibus qualem Alexander, ultimus Rex Scotia antecessor suns (ejus ?) cujus haeres ipse est habuit de eadem terrâ die quo obiit, salvo jure nostro et alterius cujuscumque, et salvis nobis et heredibus nostris exitibus wardis maritagiis releviis esceatis finibus amercia-mentis arreragiis firmarum et reddituum dua tempore seisinae nostrae ejusdsm terror acciderunt. Et salvis nobis et heredibus nostris cognitoribus, placetoribus, et attactoribus, quibuscumque de ballivis et ministris nostris ibidem de tempore praedicto una cum cognitione transgressionis impositm Duncano de Malcoly, et judiciorum super eisdem reddendorum executoribus et similiter quod omnia judicia seisinae nostrae temporeper ballivos et ministros nostros in eadem terra reddita tene-autur executentur, demandentur. Vobis mandamus qua tenus praefato Regi seisinam terror praedictae cum suis pertinentibus in formic praedictâ liberam faciatis salvo jure nostro et alterius cujuscumque.-Teste Rege apud Nov. Cast-super-Tyneham, quinto die Januarii." Translated thus:-" Concerning the restoring the Isle of Man to John, King of Scotland. The King and Lord Superior of the Kingdom of Scotland, to his beloved and faithful Walter Huntercombe, Governor of Man, greet ing. Whereas, of our special grace, we have restored to our beloved and faithful John Balliol, King of Scotland, such seizure of the Isle of Man, with its appurten-ances, as Alexander, the last King of Scotland, his predecessor, and whose heir he himself is, had of that Island on the day he died ; saving our rights, and those of any other, and saving to us and our heirs the revenues, wards, heritages, reliefs, escheats, fines, amercements, arrears of farms and rents which were due at the time when we had seizure of the same land; and saving to us and our heirs any recognitions, decrees, and attachments of our bailiffs and magistrates at the time aforesaid; together with cognizance of the charge laid against Duncan Malcolm, and of the judgments delivered upon the same; and in like manner that all the judgments delivered in the aforesaid time of our seizure, by our bailiffs and magistrates, in the same land, be held executed and demanded. We enjoin you more especially that you cause to he made over to the said King seizure of the aforesaid land, with its appurtenances, in form aforesaid, saving our rights and those of any other. -Witness the King at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the 5th day of January."
I have stated in my story of Rushen Castle and Rushen Abbey, page 20, that the "history of the Isle of Man immediately subsequent to the Scottish conquest, and for the next fifty years is somewhat complicated," and I have endeavoured to arrange it in the Catalogue of the Kings of Man given in the Appendix to that book. But I have been led to the conviction, from documents which have since fallen in my way, that I have erred in one or two points from following too closely the statements of Sacheverell, Chaloner, and Camden, in reference to this period. In order to point out the inaccuracies, it may be well here to compare the statements of Camden and Chaloner with the text of Sacheverell. I will first quote Camden, from the English version of 1673 folio page 213, where we read-
"When Alexander the Third, King of Scots, had gotten into his hands the Westerns Islands, partly by way of conquest and in part for ready money, paid unto the King of Norway, hee attempted the Isle of Man also, as one of that number, and through the valiant prowesse of Alexander Stewart, brought it under his dominion; yea, and placed there a petty King or Prince, with this condition, that hes should be ready alwaies at his command to serve with ten ships in his warres at sea. Howbeit, Mary, the daughter of Reginald, King of Man, (who was become Liege Man of John, King of England) entered her suit for the Island before the King of Rugland ; but answer was made unto her that she should demand it of the King of Scots, for that he then held it in possession. And yet her grandchild, John Waldebeofe (for the said Mary married into the house of Waldebeofe) sued for his ancient rights in Parlia-ment, holden in the 33 yeere of King Edward the First, before the King of England, as the superiour Lord of the Kingdome of Scotland. But none other answer could he have than this (if I may speake the words out of the very authenticate Records ` Sequatur coram Justiciariis dc Banco Regis,' &c., that is, let him sue before the Justices of the K. Bench; let him be heard, and let justice be done. But that which he could not obtaine by right Sir William Montacute, his kinsman (for come he was of the race of the Icings of Man) wonne by his sword. For with a band of English mustered up in hast he drove all the Scots out of the Iland. But being by this warre plunged deeply in debt, and not having to make some paiment thereof, he mortgaged it for seven years, to Antonie Bec, Bishop of Durham, and Patriarch of Jerusalem, and made over the profits and revenues thereof unto him : yea, and soon after the King granted it unto the said Antonio for tearme of life. Afterwards King Edward the Second passed a grant thereof unto his minion, Piers Gaveston, what time as he created him Earle of Cornwall; and when the said Piers was rid out of the way, bee gave it unto Henry Beaumont, with all the demaine and regall jurisdiction thereto belonging. But shortly after the Scots under Robert Brus recovered it. . . . Afterward, about the yeere of our Lord 1340, William Montacute, the younger, Earle of Salisbury, wrested it by strong hand and force of armes from the Scottish; who, in the yeere of our Lord 1393, as Thomas Walsingham saith, sold for a great summe of money Man, with the Crowne thereof unto Wm. Strope." Camden makes an error in saying that the same Montacute who conquered the Isle from the Scots in 1340, sold it to Sir William Strope.
After Camden, comes James Chaloner. In his Treatise of the Isle of Man, printed by John Streater, 1656, and appended to King's Vale Royal of Cheshire, page 15, he says:-" William Montacute, Knight, deriving an interest in blood from the said Mary (de Waldeboof) took this Isle by force of armes from the Scots; but by reason of the great charge he was at in subduing it, he was constrained to mortgage it to Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, and Patriarch of Jerusalem, for the space of seven years. Then William Montacute, the younger, possessed the same."
Now, though it is possible to make these two authors agree in the main with the facts of history; yet, when we come to Sacheverell, and take the interpretation he has given of them, fixing the dates of the events more particularly, and, above all, adding, as he has done, from what he calls Manx Tradition, the marriage of the Sir William Montacute, who conquered the Isle from the Scots, and was crowned King in 1344, to Mary, daughter of John Waldebeof, and great granddaughter of Mary, the last of the family of Goddard Crovan, we begin to find ourselves in difficulty, especially as he further tells us that it was this Sir William Montacute who mortgaged the Island for seven years to Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, whose character and conduct he then proceeds to detail
The remarkable anachronism which we here note is, that Anthony Beck had been dead some thirty-three years before the conquest of the Isle of Man from the Scots by Sir William Montacute, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, in 1340. With regard to this point, the following quotations from amongst many others may suffice. Peter Heylin, in his Catalogue of all the Bishops which have governed in the Church of Evgland and Wales since the Conversion of the Saxons, together with the Honorary Offices which they or any of them enjoyed in the Civil Government (London, 1709), gives, under the head of Bishops of Durham, page 76, the following item :-" Anno 1283, Bishop 42nd, Anthony de Beck, Archdeacon of Durham, Patriarch of Jerusalem; succeeded Anno 1311 by Richard Kellowe.' Again, in Willis's History of Cathedrals, vol. i. page 255, under the head of Archdeacons of Durham, we have-" Anno 1274, Anthony Bek held it. He was made Bishop Anno 1283;" and at page 239 we read-"Anthony de Bek, or Beak, Archdeacon of Durham, succeeded (Robert de Insula ) being elected July 5, 1283, and consecrated Jan. 9 following. He was a man of vast power and wealth, and by that means obtained of the Pope the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and of the Iling the Principality of Man. He died March 3, 1310" (Godwin says March 28, 1311), "and was buried in the Cathedral, behind the altar, being the very first Bishop that presumed to lie in the church, on account of the interment of the holy St. Cuthbert " In Beatson's Political Index (Edinburgh, 1786), page 164, we have the entry-" Anno 1283. 42nd Bishop, Anthony de Beck, Archdeacon of Durham, Patriarch of Jerusalem. He had also from the King the Principality of Man. Anno 1311 : 43, Richard de Kellaw." Again, Bishop Godwin (Richardson's Edition de Praesulibus, page 743) says of Anthony Beck-" This turbulent prelate obtained from the King, either by prayers or price, the Principality of the Isle of Man, and held it for life."
In Surtees' History of Durham we have a large account of Anthony de Beck, who is stated to have been titular King of Man for five years, having got his title from Rd. II., to compensate him for two large estates, which Ed. I. had wrested from him, and given to two principal families, from whom Edward II. could not recover them.
Further, we have in Rymer's Foedera, vol. 2, p. 1058, 35 Ed. I., a "scire facial to Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, to slew cause why he should not render the Isle of Man." The following is the stire facial issued to Anthony Beck, in the 35th year of Ed. L, if the date given in Rymer be correct. Rymer, vol. ii. page 1058, Anno 1307, Ed. I. :" Super Insula de Man in manum Regis resumenda. Res Vice-Comiti Northumbriae, salutem. Quia per inspectionem Rotulorum et ali-orram memorandorum quae toram consilio nostro scrutari et diligenter examinari fecimus, nobis constat, quod plures de antecessoribus nostris, quondam Reges Ang-liae, de terra de Man seisiti fuerunt, ut de jure sue, et quod nos similiter seisiti fuimus de eadem (exitus et proficientia inde percipiendo) quousque nos de gratia nostra speciali seisinam terræ illius talem, videlicit, qualem Alexander, quondam Rex Scotiæ, habuit de eadem, Johanni de Balliolo, nuper Regi Scotiæ (salvo semper jure nostro et hæredum nostrorum), fecimus liberari. Tibi præcipimus quod stire facias venerabili Patri Antonio, Dunelmensi Episcopo (qui prædictam terram modo tenet ut dicitur) per duos liberos et legales homines de balliva tua, quod sit toram nobis a die Sancti Michaelis, in 15 dies ubicumque, &c. Ostensurus si quid pro se habeat vel dicere sciat, quare terram illam in manum nostram ut jus nostrum, resumere minime debeamus. Et habeas ibi nomina illorum per quos præfato Episcopo stire feceris, et hoc breve.-Teste Rege apud Caldecotis, 28 die Junii. Per Consilium."
Translation of the above scire facias to Anthony Beck, concerning the Isle of Man, to be rendered into the hands of the King :-" To the Vice-Count of Northumberland, greeting. Whereas, by the inspection of the Rolls and other memoranda, which we have caused to be investigated and diligently examined in presence of our Council, it appears to us, that many of our predecessors, formerly Kings of England, were seized of the Isle of Man as of their own right, and as we, in like manner, were seized of the same, for the receiving thence the revenues and profits, until we of our special grace did grant such seizure to be rendered of that landto wit, such as Alexander, formerly King of Scotland, had of the same, to John Balliol, late King of Scotland (saving always our rights and the rights of our heirs). We direct you to call upon the Venerable Father Anthony, Bishop of Durham, who now, as it is said, holds possession of the aforesaid land, by two legal gentle. men of your district, to show cause why he should not appear before us, within fifteen days from Michaelmas, wherever we may be, in order to show what reason he has, or what he is able to say, why we ought not by all means, to resume that land into our own hand and right. And you are to have there the names of those by whom you shall call upon the said Bishop to show cause, and that speedily. -Witness the King at Caldecot, 28th day of June. In Council."
I feel some little doubt as to the correctness of the dates of the above. In a note in Train's history of the Isle of Man, vol. i. page 145, mention is made of the above scire facias, as extant in the Rotuli Scotiæ, under the date of 31 Edward I, But it will be observed that our author refers to a " memorable extract in Mr. Prinn," stating that in the 35th year of Ed. I. (1307) the King seized the Island for his own use, and this agrees with the date in Rymer.
With regard to the last two authorities, Godwin and Surtees, I would observe that, as Edward II. did not come to the throne till 1307, if Anthony Beck held the Island by grant from that King, since he died in 1310, or 1311 at the latest, he could not have held it, as Surtees states, for five years; also, if he obtainecl a grant from Edward II., he must have previously been in possession of the Island in some way in the 35th year of Edward I.-i.e., in 1307, as I have before said. It is, at any rate, plain, from the date of the death of Anthony Beck, that the Sir William de Montacute, first Earl of Salisbury, after he had conquered the Island from the Scots, and had been crowned King in 1343, could not, according to Sacheverell's statement, have made a mortgage of it to that prelate, who had then been dead thirty-two years, it least.
With respect to the statement of Sacheverell-that Edward III. not only gave Mary Waldebeof his protection, but married her to Sir William Montacuteit is to be noticed that Camden makes no mention of the marriage of Mary with Sir William, but simply says that he (Sir William Montacute) "was come of the race of the Kings of Man," which might be by descent from Aufrica de Connaught, daughter of Goddard II.; though he also says that he mortgaged the Island to Anthony Beck, and that his son, Sir Wm. Montacute, the younger Earl of Salisbury, about 1340, wrested it from the Scotch, and in 1392 sold it to Sir William Scrope. Chaloner, also, makes no direct mention of the marriage of Mary de Waldebeof into the Montacute family, but leads us almost to infer it, when he says that Sir William Montacute, deriving an interest in blood from the said Mary, took the Island from the Scots, and mortgaged it to Anthony Beck and that then Sir William Montacute, son of the aforesaid William, and Earl of Salisbury, possessed the same. He afterward says that, in 1393, by purchase, it came into the hands of Sir William Scrope, without mentioning the name of the person from whom it was purchased, though the inference seems to be that it was from that Sir William whose father, having wrested it from the Scots, mortgaged it to the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
I believe that this confusion arises from all these authors being either unaware of, or passing over in silence, a fact which has only recently come to my knowledge-viz., that there were three Sir William Montacutes, the second of whom was the first Earl of Salisbury. Burke, in his Extinct Peerages, says that Sir Simon Montacute married Aufrica de Connaught, and died in 1316, after being crowned King of Man (of which we have no evidence), and that, his son, Sir William, second Earl of Salisbury, sold the crown to Sir William Scrope, and died in 1397; all which is incorrect. But Burke makes no mention of Mary Waldebeof, though giving other names for the wives of these members of the Montacute family.
Again, in Milles' Catalogue of Honor, page 1041, we read-" William de Montacute, a Great Baron, and Lord of the Isle of Man, was created Earl of Salisbury, by King Edward the Fourth" (Third?) "in the 11th year of his reign, 18th of March, 1337. . . . . Katherine, eldest daughter and at length coheir of William Graison, a Burgundian, was wife of Wm. Montacute, first Earl of Salisbury, and died in 1348. . . . . His father, William Mon-tacute, was son of Sir Simon Lord Montacute, who being descended of Drogo" (branched out of the line of the Kings of Man), " did marry Aufric, Queen of Man, daughter of Fergus, Lord of Galloway, and widdow of Olavus, King of Man" (in reality, daughter of Olave the Second, and sister of Magnus.-EDITOR). "Whereupon the Royalty of that Island devolved to this William -Montacute, Earle of Salisbury, who, recovering it from the Scots, received the seigniory of that Island, with the crown, from the same King, and was stiled by the people, with the approbation of Edward the Third, King of Man."
"Whereupon the Royalty of that Island devolved to this William Montacute, Earle of Salisbury, who, recovering it from the Scots, received the seigniory of that Island, with the crown, from the same King, and was stiled by the people, with the approbation of Edward the Third, King of Man."
Again, Milles says, in his Catalogue of Honor- William Montacute, or Mentague (eldest son and heir of William), 1343, was the second Earl of this house, Lord of the Isle of Man, and one of the Knights of the first folindation of the Orcler of the Garter . . . . . This Williain did sell the Isle of Man to William de Scrope, Vice-Chamberlain to Richard the Second, the Lord of which Island in ancient times was called King of Man, and was crowned with a golden crown. . . . . Elizabeth' (one of the daughters and coheirs of John Lord Mohun, of Dunster Castle) " was wife of William Montague, second Earl of Salisbury. . . . He" (Sir William Montacute) " died without issue, the 20th of Richard the Second, 1396, leaving John" (son to his brother, Sir John Montague) " to be his heir and successor in the kingdom."
If we are to admit the statements of Sacheverell respecting the marriage of Mary do Waldebeof into the Montacute family, and that of Camden, Chaloner, and Sacheverell as to the mortgage of the Island to Anthony Beck, in order to reconcile them with what we find in these other authors, I think we must have recourse to some such explanation as the following-viz., by supposing that the first Sir William Montacute, not Earl of Salisbury, conquered the Isle from the Scots at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and mortgaged it to Anthony Beck, who being compelled to surrender it by Edward I., received afterwards a grant of it for life from Edward II., and died in possession. Of the actual date of the marriage of Mary into the Montacute family (if it really did take place) we at present have no evidence; and there is the insuperable difficulty in the way of her marriage with the first Sir William, in that her great-grandmother, Mary, daughter of Reginald, could not have been married to Sir Simon do Waldebeof much before 1270, for in all accounts she is stated to have been carried away as a child from the Isle of Man, with all the insular records, after the death of her uncle, Magnus, in 1265, and then married to the Earl of Strathern, before she married Sir Simon do Waldebeof. Train says, that in a MS., preserved in Castle Rushen, but which I could never see or hear of there, she is styled Countess of Strathern and Queen of Man. I would observe, however, that the name of a " Maria nobilis mulier regina de Man, comitigsa do Stratherne," appears in a deed signed at Perth, in 1292, in the house of the Predicant Friars. She is stated in the Ragman Roll to have been the daughter of Alexander de Ergadia, Lord of Lorn, and widow of Reginald, King of Man. She was second wife of Malise, Earl of Strathern, and in 1320 she entered into a conspiracy against Robert Bruce for which she was attainted. Through her we can trace the interest in the Isle of Man which seems to have been claimed by the families of Ergadia, Comyn, and Beaumont. For Alexander de Ergadia, Lord of Lorn, married a daughter of John, called the Red Comyn, who was slain by Bruce in the Dominican Church of Dumfries, and Henry de Beaumont, Lord of Man, married the daughter and coheir of Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan.
It is just possible that a Mary do Waldebeof, daughter of John Waldebeof, may have been one of the wives of the second Sir William Montacute, first Earl of Salisbury, who conquered the Isle from the Scots in 1340.
Another difficulty not to be overlooked is the fixing a date for the conquest of the Isle by the first Sir William Montacute. In order that this may appear, it may be well to make a review of Manx history for the fifty years succeeding the Scottish conquest of the Island, in 1270.
Alexander, King of Scotland, being killed by a fall from his horse in 1285, Edward I. of England, as is well known, took upon himself to decide the title to the Scottish Crown, and gave it in favour of Balliol. He also (Rolt, on The Sale of the Isle of Man, London, 1773, pages 25 and 26) claimed the sovereignty of the Isle of Man for himself, and in 1290 he took possession of it, as we have seen above, Note 74, at the request of the inhabitants, receiving a surrender of it from one Richard do Burgo ; and by letters patent, 4th June of the same year, he gave the Island to hold to Walter do Huntercombe. We further read-" Rotuli Scotiae, 1291, Anno 19 Ed. I. Odo, clericus, habet litteras de præsentatione ad Ecclesiam Sancti Santani, in Man, vacantem per mortem Dofnaldi, nuper rectoris ejusdem et ad donationem Regis spectantem, ratione terra- de Man in manu Regis existentis. Et diriguntur litterae Sodorensi Episcopo. Teste Rege apud Berwick-super-Twede, xvi. die Junii.-Roulandus, capellanus, habet litteras Regis de præsentatione ad Ecclesiam Sancti Patricii de Dureby, vacantem, et ad donationem Regis spectantem ratione terra- de Man in manu Regis existentis. Et diriguntur litteræ Episcopo Sodorensi. Teste (ut supra).-Alanus de Wygeton habet litteras de præsentatione ad Ecclesiam Sancti Carber, in Man, vacantem, et ad donationem Regis spectantem ratione terra- de Man in manu Regis existentis. Et diriguntur litteræ ad Episcopo Sodorensi. Teste Rege (ut supra)." Translation of the foregoing documents:-
Rolls of Scotland, 1291. Ode, clerk. has letters of presentation to the Church of St. Sauton, (St. Anne) in Man, vacant by the death of Donald, the late rector thereof, and in the gift of the King, on account of the land of Man being in the King'shand. And letters are directed to the Bishop of Sodor. Witness the King at Berwick-on-Twede, xvi. day of June.-Roland, chaplain, has letters of presentation from the King to the Church of St. Patrick in Jurby, vacant, and in the King's gift, on account of the land of Man being in the King's hand. And letters are directed to the Bishop of Man. Witness the King at Berwick-on-Twede, XVI. day of June.-Alan of Wighton has letters of presentation to the Church of St. Cairbre" (Kirk Arbory), " in Man, vacant, and in the gift of the King, on account of the land of Man being in the Kings hand. And letters are directed to the Bishop of Sodor. Witness the King at Berwick-on-Twede, xvi. day of June."
There is no doubt, also, from the extract before referred to, Note 74, from the Patent Rolls, 20th Edward I., that in the year 1292, July 15, he was exercising authority as King at that time in the Isle of Man. In the year 1293 the King frees Duncan M'Toryn of his outlawry in the Isle of Man by the following instrument, he having been informally accused of misconduct and breach of the peace -" Rotuli Scotia-, 1293. Utlagaria Donckani Mactoryn adnullatur. Rex et Su-perior Dominus Regni Scotia-, omnibus ballivis et fidelibus suis ad quas, &c., salutem. Quia inspectis et diligenter examinatis toram nobis et consilio nostro recordo et processu habitis coram dilecto et fideli nostro Waltero de Huntercombe, nuper ballivo nostro Insulae prædictæ utlagaria promulgata in Donckanum Mac-toryn, per judices curiarum tentarum in eadem Insula, per præfatum ballivum nostrum, pro quibusdam transgressionibus per praedictum Donckanum contra pacem nostram factis ut dicebatur et sibi per eundem ballivum nostrum impositis, in eisdem recordo et processu error invenitur manifestus, utlagariam illam de ditto consilio nostro, penitus adnullamus nolentes quod idem Donckanus, occasione ut-lagariae praedictae per quoscumque de cetero occasionetur, gravetur in aliquo, seu molestestur. In cujus rei, &c.-Teste Rege apud Westmon., xxviii. die Junii. Per Regem et Consilium." Translation :-" Rolls of Scotland, 1293. The outlawry of Dunkan M'Toryn annulled. The King and Lord Superior of the King of Scotland, to all his bailiffs and faithful subjects to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Inasmuch as, in our council, the record and process had in presence of our beloved and faithful Walter Huntercombe, lately our bailiff in the Isle of Man aforesaid, having been examined in respect of the outlawry pronounced against Dunkan M'Toryn, by the Judges of our Courts of trial, in the same island, through the aforesaid our bailiff, because of certain transgressions done by the aforesaid Dunkan against our peace, as it was said, and inflicted on him by the same our bailiff, in the same record and process is discovered a manifest error. We therefore entirely annul that outlawry of our said Council, requiring that the same Dunkan, by occasion of the said outlawry, shall not be injured in any respect, or molested by any persons hereafter.-In testimony whereof, witness the King at Westminster, 28th day of June. By the King in Council." King Edward I. died in July, 1307. Within the period, however, of the year following Edward II. made a grant of it to Piers Gaveston, as Lieutenant; then to Henry Beaumont, with Gilbert de M'Gaskill as his Lieutenant. In 1307 Sacheverell states that, dispossessing Henry de Beaumont, " Edward II. granted custody of the Island to Gilbert de MacGaskill, who was allowed £1,596 0s. 10d. for his expenses,, being £1,215 0s. 4d. for cost of defence against the Scots, and £386 17s. 6d. furnished by him for provision to the Governor of Carlisle." However (according to the MS. stated by Train to be preserved in Castle Rushen), in 1308 Robert Bruce is said to have recovered the Isle of Man to the Scots, and to have given possession of it to Randolf, Earl of Murray, his nephew; but, if this was the case, that he was soon driven out again, appeaxs by the fact mentioned in the Chronicon Manniae, that in 1313, " Robert Bruce anchored at Ramsa, with a numerous fleet, on the 18th of May, and on the Sunday following went to the Monastery of DubhGlas, where he spent the night. On the Monday following he laid siege to the Castle of Russin, which Dungawi Macdowal held out against the aforementioned King till Tuesday after the Festival of St. Barnabas, when Robert took the fortress." We also find (Rymer, Foedera, vol. iii. pp. 223-238) in 1310 Gilbert de M'Gaskill again mentioned as having custody of Man under Anthony de Beck. It is also said that the Scots planned a winter invasion of the Island. Hence they must have been driven out in 1309. If the above be correct (which I doubt), it is just possible that the first Sir Wlliam Montacute got the Island from the Scotch, after it had been seized by Bruce in 1308 ; that Bruce, having again gained possession in 1313, it was held by the Scotch till wrested from them by the second Sir William Montacute, first Earl of Salisbury, about 1340. But the first Sir William Montaciite would hardy have found in 1309 a mortgagee in Anthony Beck, who at that time was actually holding a grant of it for life from the King. If, however, we could only obtain evidence that the Scots had actually regained possession of the Isle of Man between the 20th year of Edward I., when he was undoubtedly (as above shewn) holding it, and the 35th of the same King, when we find him issuing a scire facias to Anthony Beck, to show cause why he should not render the same; or, if we consider that the Scots, having possession of it in 1392, under Balliol, retained it on his abdication, 1296,-we might perhaps more fully clear up the difficulty, by supposing that the first Sir William Montacute conquered the Island from the Scots at the be,-inning of the 14th century (say in the year 1301-2), and that he then mortgaged it to the Patriarch of Jerusalem (who was obliged to deliver it up to Edward I., though he afterwards got a grant of it from Edward II.) ; and the actual marriage of Sir William Montacute with Mary de Waldebeof might have taken place any time before 1320, when the said Sir William Montacute died. Such a supposition would be sufliciently explanatory of the statements of Camden, Chaloner, and Sacheverell, and would account for the most of the errors into which they have fallen, and which I had copied from them. If, however, this supposition be proved incorrect, we can still fall back on the right which Sir William Montacute had to the Crown of Man by descent from Aufrica de Connaught, in virtue of which he might have granted a mortgage of the Island to the belligerent Bishop of Durham. We should not overlook the circumstance stated by Camden, that, in the 33rd year of Edward I., John Waldebeof sued for his ancient right in Parliament, and that this might be at the time when Anthony Beck was holding.it as mortgagee from Sir William Montacute. In Rymer's Foedera, vol. iii. page 238, Gilbert de M'Gaskill, as we have seen, is mentioned as having custody of Man in 1310, and is also stated to have previously held the Island as seneschal for the Bishop of Durham. We have the following document in Chaloner, showing how Henry Beaumont became possessed of the Isle of Man in the time of Ed. II. (Chaloner, page 13) :-" Rex omnibus ad quos, &c., salutem. Sciatis quod pro boro servitio quod dilectus consan-guineus et fidelis nester, Henricus de Bello Monte, nobis hactenus impendit, dedimus ei et concessimus pro nobis et haeredibus nostris, totam terram pos-tram de Man, habendam et tenendam ei Henrico ad totam vitam suam de nobis et hæredibus nostris, libere, quiete, bene, integre, et in pace; cum omni do-minio et justitia regali, una cum feodis militum, advocationibus ecclesiarum et domorum religiosarum, libertatibus, liberis consuetudinibus, escoetis, et omnibus aliis ad prædictam terram, spectantibus seu spectare volentibus, quoquo mode per servitia quæ domini terræ prædictæ Regibus Soothe inde facre consueverunt.-In cujus rei, &c., teste Rege apud Novum-Castrum-super-Tynum, primo die Maii, 1308. Per ipsum Regem." Translation of the above grant to Henry Beaumont :-" The King to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know ye that, for the good service which our beloved and faithful cousin, Henry Beaumont, hath hitherto rendered to us, we have given and granted to the said Henry for the term of his life, for ourselves and our heirs, freely, quietly, well, safely, and in peace, to have and possess all our land of Man, together with the entire lordship and regal justice, as well as with knight's fees, the advowson of churches and religious houses, the liberties, free customs, escheats, and all other things pertaining to the aforesaid land, or seeming to pertain, in whatever manner, by the service which the Lords of the aforesaid land were accustomed thence to render to the Kings of Scotland.-In testimony whereof, witness the King at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the first day of May, 1308. By the King himself."
To make the documents referring to this complex period complete, I give here the mandamus by Ed. I. to Balliol, to appear, with Aufrica de Connaught, in the King's Bench, to answer respecting her claim to the Isle of Man : " Rotull Scotiae, 21 Ed. I., 1293. Rex Scotiae citatur ad respondendum in curia Regis Anglim, super appellatione Aufricm, haeredis Magni, quondam Regis Mannim. Reg et Superior Dominus Scotim dilecto et fideli suo Johanni eadem gratia Regi Scotim illustri, salutem. Aufrica, consanguinea et horrede, ut asserit, Magni, quondam Regis Mannim, accepimus exponents quod cum ipsa ad veram praesentiam accessisset asserens terrain de Man esse jus et haereditatem suam, et vos requisivisset in-stanter et pluries quod ipsam in jure suo curaretis audire et super petitione sua quam faciebat de terra praedictâ sibi facere jus et justitiae complementum, offerens se paratam docere de prædicto jure suo in forma debits, secundum legem et con-suetudinem partium illarum, vos supra dicta sibi facere ut dicitur contra justitiam denegatis ; proptereaque praedicta Aufrica, a juris defectu sea justitiae denegatione a vobis, ad nos, ut ad Superiorem ipsius Regni Scotim Dominum, appellavit petens et supplicans per nos in vestri defuturam sibi justitiam exhiberi secundum quod rations superioritatis dominii, quod in eodem regno habemus, ad nos dinoscitur pertinere. Verum cum justa petentibus non sit denegandus auditus, et in exhi-benda justitia simus omnibus debitores, vos adjornamus quod sitis toram nobis a die Sancti Michaeli in xv. dies ubicumque tune fuerimus in Anglia, responsuri praedietae Aufricae, super premissis et facturi et recepturi quod justum fuerit, quern diem eadem Aufricm assignavimus toram nobis ad faciendum et recepiendum similiter in eisdem quod justitia suadebit.-In cujus, &c., teste Rege apud West-mon., xv. die Junii. Et mandatum est Vicomiti Northumbriensi quod praedictas literas, &c." Translation:-" Rolls of Scotland, 21st Ed. 1., 1293. The King of Scotland is cited to appear in the Court of the King of England, on the suit of Aufric.a, the heiress of Magnus, formerly King of Man. The King and Lord Superior of Scotland to his beloved and faithful John, by the same grace, the illustrious King of Scotland, greeting. Aufrica, the kinswoman and heiress, as .she asserts, of Magnus, formerly King of Man, we have heard, setting forth that when she had come herself into your presence, asserting that the land of Man is her right and inheritance, and had asked of you instantly and oftentimes that you would take care to listen to her, as respects her right, and upon her petition which she made concerning the aforesaid land, that you would render to her right and full justice, offering to give proof of her aforesaid rights in due form, according to the law and custom of those parts, you unjustly denied to render to her those things aforesaid, contrary to justice. Wherefore the aforesaid Aufrica, through defect of law or denial of justice on your part, has appealed to us, as Lord Superior of the King of Scotland himself, seeking and supplicating that by us should be exhibited the justice wanting on your part to her, according to what, by reason of the royal superiority of government which we have in the same kingdom, she perceives pertains to us. But, since a hearing is not to be denied to those seeking their rights, and we are debtors to all in the administration of justice, we call upon you to appear before us within fifteen days after Michaelmas, wherever we may then be in England, to answer to the aforesaid Aufrica, upon the premises, and to do and promise whatever shall be just, which same day we have appointed to Aufrica to do and promise before us in like manner in those things which justice shall direct.-In testimony whereof, witness the King at Westminster, the 15th day of June."
ROTULI PARLIAMENTORUM.
"Petition of John de Waldehoef to Edward I., as claimant of the Isle of Man".A.D. 1301, 33 Ed. I. Ad petitionom Johannis de Waldeboef, petentis terram de Man, cum insulis adjacentibus, tanquam verus heres earundem, pro so quod Reginaldus, quondam Rex ejusdem terre de Man, obiit seisitus de eadem, a quo descendebat jus cuidam Marie, filie ejusdem, que fait uxor Johannis de Waldeboef, que quidem Maria alias prosequebatur jus saum toram Rege Anglie et fuit tune ei responsum, quod prosequeretur jus saum toram Rege Scocie, eo quod terra illa tune temporis tenebatur de ipso Rege Scocie, que obiit in prosequendo jus saum; de qua quidem Maria descendebat jus cuidam Wilhelmo, filio et heredi, predicts Marie, et ab ipso Wilhelmo descendet jus Johanni de Waldeboef, filio et heredi predicti Wilholmi, qui nunc petit, etc.
(Translation.)
On the petition of John de Waldeboef, seeking the land of Man, with the islands adjacent, as the true heir to them, in that Reginald, formerly King of the said land of Man, had died seized of the same, from whom the right descended to a certain Mary, daughter of the same, who was the wife of John de Waldeboef, which said Mary at another time prosecuted her right before the King of England, and the answer to her then was, that she should prosecute her claim before the King ol Scotland, in that the said land was at that time held by the said King of Scotland, which Mary died in the prosecution of her right; from which said Mary the right descended to a certain William, son and heir of the said Mary, and from this William the right descended to John cle Waldeboef, son and heir of the aforesaid William, who now petitions, &c,
Responsio.-Ita responsum est,-Sequatur toram Justiciariis de Banco Regis, et audiatur, et fiat justitia ; et mittatur ista petitio dictis Justiciariis, sub magno sigillo Regis.
Answer.-It is thus answered,-Let it be prosecuted before the Justices of the King's Bench, and let it be heard, and let justice be done ; and let the said petition be sent to the said Justices, under the King's Great Seal.
ROTULORUM ORIGINALIUM IN CURIA SCACCARII.
Edward II. resumes possession of the Isle of Man, A..D. 1310.
(Translation.)
The king to his beloved and faithful Henry do Belle Monte, or his lieutenant in the land of Man, greeting. Since on the 16th day of March, in the third year of our reign, we, of our own mere will, have, by our letters patent, granted to the prelates, earls, and barons of our kingdom to choose certain persons from among themselves to regulate the state of our household and of the kingdom aforesaid, and have granted to those so chosen full power to regulate the state of the household and kingdom aforesaid, as in the letters, &c., and the venerable Father R., Archbishop of Canterbury, and other prelates, earls, and barons chosen for this purpose, by virtue of our letters aforesaid; amongst other ordinances which they have made and published upon the premises, and which we have already accepted and confirmed, have ordained that all grants which since the said 16th day of March we have made of castles, towns, lands, and tenements, balliages, wards, marriages, escheats, and remissions whatsoever, as well in Gascony, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, as in England, be revoked. Upon that, we have thought fit to resume into our hands the said our land of Man, which since the a£oresaid 16th day of March we have given and granted to you, to be guarded by our beloved and faithful Gilbert Makaskel, so long as it shall please us; and have commanded it to be delivered to him and to our beloved and faithful Robert de Leiburn, constable of our Castle of Cockermouth. We command you to cause the land afore. said, &c., to be delivered without delay to the said Robert, to be further delivered to the aforesaid Gilbert.
CARTA THOMAE RANULPHI, COMITIS MORAVIAE DE INSULA MANNIAE. Robertus, Dei gratia, Rex Scotorum, omnibus probis hominibus totius terre sue, clericis, et laicis, salutem. Sciatis nos, etc., confirmare Thome Ranulphi, Comiti Moravie, et Domino vallis Amandie, nepoti nostri carissimo, pro homagio et servitio sno, totara Insulam Mannie, cum pertinentibus, una cum quadam alia insula eiden adjacente, quæ vocatur Calfis, cum pertinentibus; tenendam et ha bendam eiden Theme et heredibus suis, de nobis et heredibus nostris, in feodo et hereditati, et in liberam regalitatem, sine aliquo retinemento, libere, quiete, plena-rie, et honorifice, cum advocationibus ecclesiarum et monasteriorum, et cum omni-bus et singulis articulis et querelis ad Coronam nostram Regiam spectantibus. Ac cum omnibus modis aliis libertatibus, commoditatibus, asiamentis, et justis perti-nentibus suis, in omnibus, et per omnia, tam non nominatis quam supra predictas insulas inclusis, una cum regali administratione et justitia, facienda de omnibus hominibus predictas insulas inhabitantibus, jam de omnibus hominibus episcopatus ibidem quam de coeteris hominibus aliis quibuscunque, tam infra tempus vacantis Episcopatus quam extra; ita quod nulli ministei nostri infra predictas insulas se de cetero in promissis intromittant. Salvo nobis et heredibus suis patronatu sedis episcopalis ibidem et ejusdem status in omnibus anis ; inveniendo inde nobis et heredibus nostris, dictus Thomas et heredes sui, sex naves annuatim, quilibet vi-ginti-sex remorum, cum hominibus et victualibus sex septimarum, cum inde fuerint rationabiliter premoniti. Et faciendo personalen appresentiam ad Parliamenta nostra et heredum nostrorum, infra regnum nostrum tenendam, per rationabiles quadraginta dierum summonatioues. Et reddendo nihilominus nobis et heredi-bus nostris annuatim, ad Festum Penticosti, apud Inverness, centum marcas sterlingorum, nomine albe firme, tantum modo pro omnibus aliis terrenis servitiis, exactionibus, consuetudinibus, sen demandis que de predictas insulis, cum perti-nentibus exigi proterint ant demandari a quocunque. Nos vern et heredes sui pre-dictas insulas, cum pertinentibus suis in omnibus et predictum est eiden Thome et heredibus suis, contra omnes mortales, warrantizabimus, acquitabimus, et plenarie defendemus. His testibus venerabilibus in Christo patribus, Wilhelmo, Joanne, Wilhelmo, Davide, et Davide, St. Andrie, Glasquensis, Dunkeldensis, Moraviensis, et Sodorensis ecclesiarum, Dei gratia, Episcopas; Duntan, Comite de Fife; Patri. cio de Dunbar, Comite de Marchie ; Malisio, Comite de Stratherne ; Hugon, Comite de Ross; Waltero, Seneschallo Scotiæ ; Jacobo, Domino de Douglas; et Gilbert de Haya, Constabulario nostro, Militibus, apud Bervicum-super-Twedanm,, vicessimo die Decembris, anno regni nostri nonodecimo.
CHARTER OF ROBERT BRUCE TO THOMAS RANDOLPH, EARL OF MORAY, A.D. 1313.
Robert, by the grace of God, King of the Scots, to all honest men of his land, clergy and laity, greeting. Know that we, &c., have confirmed to Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, and Lord of Annandale, our dearest nephew, for his homage and service, the whole Island of Man, with appurtenances, together with a certain other island adjacent thereto, which is called Calf's, with appurtenances. To have and to hold to the said Thomas and his heirs, of us and of our heirs, in fee and heirship, and for a free royalty, without any restraint, freely, peaceably, fully, and honourably, with the advowsons of churches and monasteries, and with all and singular actions and complaints to our Royal Crown appertaining; and with all other kinds of liberties, conveniences, easements, and just appurtenances, in all, and through all, as well as unmentioned as mentioned, without the aforesaid islands, together with Royal government and justice, to be administered over all men inhabitiug the aforesaid islands, as well as over all men of the Bishopric there, as of all other men whomsoever, as well as during the time of the vacant Bishopric as without. So that no minister of ours may from henceforth enter upon the Premises within the aforesaid islands. Save and except to us and our heirs the patronage of the Episcopal See there, and its government in all other respects. Sending for us and our heirs, the said Thomas and his heirs, six ships annually, each of twenty-six oars, with men, and provisions for six weeks, after a reasonable warning; and making a personal appearance at the Parliament of us and our heirs, to be held within our kingdom, by reasonable summonses of forty days; and rendering, moreover, to us and to our heirs annually, at the Feast of Pentecost, Inverness, a hundred marks sterling, by the name of white-mail, only in lieu of all earthly services, exactions, customs, or demands which may be required or demanded by any person in the aforesaid islands, with appurtenances. And we and our heirs will warrant, acquit, and fully defend the aforesaid out islands, with their appurtenances, in all things as aforesaid, to the said Thomas and his heirs, against all people. These being witness: -the Venerable Fathers in Christ, William, John, William, David, and David, by the grace of God, Bishops of the Churches of St. Andrew, Glasgow, Dunkeld, Moray, and Sodor ; Duncan, Earl of Fife; Patrick of Dunbar, Earl of March; Malise, Earl of Strathern; Hugh, Earl of Ross; Walter, Seneschal of Scotland; James, Lord of Douglas; and Gilbert do Hava, our Constable, Knights, at Berwick-uponTweed, the 20th day of December, in the 19th year of our reign.
This is a mistake of Sacheverell for Edward II. From the documents now brought forward, I would venture to suggest the following arrangement of events and the chronology connected with the Isle of Man for about 120 years after the Scottish Conquest :-
1270.-Conquest of the Isle of Man by the Scots, under John Comyn and Alexander Stewart of Paisley, in the Battle of Ronaldsway (Chronicon Manniae gives the date 1275). Alexander placed successively, as Governors therein, McManus, Allan, Maurice Okerfair, Brennus, and Donald.
1290.-On the death of Alexander, 1285, in consequence of the confusion of the agairs in Scotland, the Manx are in great distress, and place themselves under protection of Ed. I. of England. Rymer, vol. ii. page 492. See document above, Note 76, letters patent to Walter de Huntercombe to hold the same.
1291.-Edward I., exercising his claim in the Isle of Man, presents Allan of Wygeton to the benefice of Kirk Cairbre, Odo to Santon, and Roland to Kirk Patrick of Jurby. Mary do Waldebeof sues for her right before Edward I., at Perth.
1292.-Edward I. appoints Nicholas Salgrave, and Osbert Spaldington, and John Southwell his justices, for hearing and determining the complaints of the Isle of Man. (Rotuli Scotim, Anno 20 Ed. 1. See above, Note 74.) Edward I., at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Nov. 5, orders John de Huntercombe to surrender the Island to John Balliol, King of Scotland.
1293.-The King of Scotland is cited by Edward 1, at Westminster, June 11th, to appear and answer in the King's Bench against the claim of Aufrica de Connaught. (Rotuli Scotiae.) Outlawry of Duncan M'Toryn removed.
1296.-Balliol deposed and thrown into prison by Edward I. The Scots continue in possession of the Isle. Balliol died in France, A.D. 1304.
1304.-Petition of John de Walelebeof to Edward 1. as claimant to the Isle of Man; ordered to be heard in the King's Bench. (Rotuli Parliamentorum.)
1305.-Aufrica de Conaught makes over her rights in the Isle of Man to Sir Simon do Montacute (Sacheverell). Sir William Montacute prosecuting the claim of his mother, Aufrica de Connaught, wrests the Island from the Scots, and mortgages it to Authony Beck, Bishop of Durham.
1307.-Scire facim issued to Authony Beck, to show why he was holding the Isle of Man. Eclward 1I. makes Piers Gaveston his Lieutenant; then grants the Isle to Henry Beaumont, with Gilbert do M'Gaskill as his Lieutenant.
1309.-Anthony Beck gets a grant of the Isle of Man for life from Edward II., and Gilbert de M'Gaskill acts as his seneschal.
1310.-Edward II. resumes possession of the Isle of Man, and delivers the same to Gilbert do M'Gaskill. (Rot. Orig. in Curia Seaccarii.) The Scots plan a winter invasion of the Island. Gilbert de M'Gaskill maintains his position.
1312.-Patent of Edward II. securing the kind treatment of the Manx-"quod homines Insulm do Man bene tractentur." (Rotuli Scotiae, Anno 5 Ed. II.) Dismissal of Sir Henry de Beaumont, who had been Lord of Man till 1310. (Rotuli Parliamentorum ; see also Chaloner, page 15.)
1313.-Robert Bruce lands at Ramsey. Besieges and takes Castle Rushen. (Chronicon Manniae) Charter to Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, to hold the Isle of Man under Robert Bruce. (Rot. Orig. in Curia Seaccarii.)
1316.-A band of Irish, under Richard de Mandeville, ravage the Isle of Man. (Chronicon Manniae.)
1327.-Treaty between Robert Bruce and Ed. Ill., that if "war should be levied in Ireland against the King of England, or in the Isle of Man against the King of Scotland, neither of these Kings should assist the enemies of the other." (Robertson's Political Index, p. 102.)
1329.-Martoline, almoner to Murray, Regent of Scotland, sent to take care of religion and morals in the Isle of Man.
1333.-Edward III., May 30th, at Tweedmouth, orders possession to be taken of the Isle of Man by William Taylor, of Carlisle, and William M'Stephen. (Rymer, Foedera, vol. v. p. 558.) The same year, June 8, he gives the Isle of Man to Sir William Montacute, to hold for one year, from the Feast of St. Michael; to pay the proceeds thereof into the Exchequer.
1334.-Edward Balliol presents himself to Edward III., and swears fealty to him for Scotland and the isles adjacent.
1338.-Appointment of Edmund Mactoryn, Escheator of Ireland, to expel the Scots from the Isle of Man, and to seize it from Richard de Mandeville, who had entered the Island with a multitude of Scotch felons. (Rot. Pat. et Clans. Canechariae Hiberniae.)
1340.-John de Ergardia, who had married a daughter of the Red Comyn, and had been driven from the Island by Bruce in 1313, regained his possessions.
1342.-Permission of Edward III. to the men of the Isle of Man to enter into truces with the Scots. (Rotull Scotiae.)
1343.-Sir William Montacute the Second (created 1337 by Edward III. first Earl of Salisbury), having defeated the Scotch, obtained possession of his ancestral throne, and was crowned King of Man. He was grandson of Aufrica do Connaught, and great-grandson of Olave II., of the race of Goddard Crovall. He may have married for his first wife Mary de Waldebeof, great-granddaughter of Reginald, last Norwegian King but one of Man, and brother of Aufrica de Connaught. Mary was also great-great-granddaughter of Olave II.
1344.-Sir William Montacute (the Third), second Earl of Salisbury, and son of the above William, succeeded his father as King of Man.
1354.-Conventions respecting the deliberations of David Bruce, that Sir Edw. de Balliol, and all others allies of the King of England, be comprised in certain truces. (Rotuli Scotiae).
1357-Solemn truces entered into with the messengers of Scotland, as a respite from the sufferings of war both by sea and land. (Rotuli Scotiae.)
1393.-The above Montacute sold the Island to Sir William Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire, and died in 1397, without issue.
The Montacute family took a leading part in all the great events of the 14th century, and was continually engaged in the wars against the Scots. The Patent Rolls and the Rotuli Scotice contain many documents respecting them. The first Earl of Salisbury seems truly to have been a man of blood, but in consequence of the high favour which he obtained with Edward III., he managed to escape the consequences of his crimes. In the first year of Edward III. we meet with, in the Patent Rolls, a "Pardonatio concessa Wilhelmo de Monte Acuto, de omnibus murdris," &c. The whole family appears to have been strongly imbued with Lollard principles, and yet, singularly enough, the first Bishop of Man, consecrated at Rome, was William Russell, 1348, in the time of the second Earl of Salisbury, by Pope Clement VI.; also the Bishopric of Sodor and Man was separated in the same Earrs life, 1380. His nephew and successor, John, suffered for Lollard principles. In the behest of Edward III. (1377) we have a document entitled "De Capiendo Katherinam de Monteacuto momalem de Bungay Apostatam." The following is a copy of the first grant of the Isle of Man to Sir William Montacute, first Earl of Salisbury, by Edward III., Anno 1333 (Rymer, vol. iv. p. 562):-" Super custodia Insulae de Man. Rex omnibus ad quos, &c., salutem. Sciatis quod commisimus dilecto et fideli nostro Wilhelmo de Monte Acuto custodiam Insulge de Man, eum pertinentiis, habenduin usque ad Festum Sancti Michaelis proximo futurum, et ab coclem festo per tinum annum proximum sequentem, reddendo inde nobis per annum ad seaccarium nostrum extentam inde factum vel faciendam.-In eujus, &c., teste Rege apud Twedemouth, octavo die Junii. Per ipsum Regem " Translation :-" The King to all to whom these presents may come, greeting. Know ye that we have committed to our beloved and faithful William de Moutacute the custody of the Isle of Man, with its appurtenances, to hold the same to next Michaelmas-day, and from that date for one year next following, on rendering thence to us for one year into our treasury the profits thence arising or to arise.-In testimony whereof, witness the King at Twedemouth, the eighth day of June. By the King himself." We have further, under date Anno 7 Ed. III. (1333), a document in the latent Rolls, in which it is said-" Rex relaxavit Wilhelmo de Monte Acute totum jus suum in Insula de Man." It was this, no doubt, which led to his entering with state upon the throne of his ancestors, and being solemnly crowned King of Man, A.D. 1343. The same is given in Rymer (vol. iv. p. 574) thus :-" Anno 7 Ed. III. (1333). Rex omnibus ad quos, &c., salutem. Sciatis quod de assensu Prælatorum, Comit-um, Baronum, et aliorum magnatum, nobis assistentium remisimus relaxavimus te omnino pro nobis et hæredibus nostris, quietum clamavimus, dilecto et fideli nostro Wilhelmo de Monte Acute totum jus et clamium quod hakemus, habuimus, vel, aliquo modo, habere proterimus in Insula de Man, cum suis pertinentibus quibuscumque ; ita quod nec nos nec hæredes nostri seu quivis alius nostro nomine aliquid juris, vel clamii in Insula prædicta de coetëro exigere poterimus vel vendicare.-In cujus, &c., teste Rege spud Topcliff, nono die Augusti. Per ipsum Regem." Translation:-" A.D. 1333. The King to all to whom these presents may come, greeting. Know ye that, by the consent of the Prelates, Lords, Barons, and other nobles, our assessors, we have remitted, surrendered, and altogether on our part, and that of our heirs, assigned peaceful possession to our be-loved and faithful William de Montacute of all the rights and claims which we have, have had, or in any way could have, in the Isle of Man, with all its appurtenances whatever; so that neither we nor our heirs, nor any any other in our name, shall be able to exact or dispose of any right or claim in the aforesaid Island.-In tes-timony whereof, witness the King at Topcliff, the ninth day of August. By the King himself."
The right of Henry IV. to make such a grant to Sir John Stanley appears somewhat questionable. Let us inquire into the case. It is well known that Henry, Duke of Lancaster (afterwards Henry IV. of England), soon after his landing, in 1399, beseiged Bristol Castle, which, not being able to hold out more than four days, the garrison surrendered at discretion. Amongst the prisoners was Wm. Scrope (the Earl of Wiltshire, who had purchased the crown of Man from Montacute) and two others of Richard the Second; Council, and extremely obnoxious to the people. Without any form of trial, Henry ordered them to be immediately beheaded. Notwithstanding the Act 34 Ed. III. chap. 12, which inhibited the escheators from claiming lands on the ground of treason surmised in persons then dead ' who had not been attainted in their lifetime, Henry set up in opposition the military judgment, or Council of War, which had condemned these persons to death, and proceeded at once to deal with their property as that of persons under attainder, forfeited to the Crown, and subsequently, as appears by the proceedings in Parliament the 19th of November of that year, obtained the sanction of both Lords and Commons to legalize these acts. He had, however, previously, on the 18th October, given and granted the Isle of Man to Henry Perey, Earl of Northumberland, by the following patent (Calendarium Rotulorum Patent, quiuta pars de anno Regis Henrici Quarti.) II Rex concessit Henrico de Percy, Comite Northumbriae, in feodo, Insulam, Castram, Pelam, et dominium do Man, eum omnibus insulis, maneriis, &c., una cum patronatti Episcopatus dietse Insulae, cum libertatibus, per servitium portandi diebus coronationis Regis et haeredum suorum ad sinistrum humerum, sive sinistros humeros Regis, seipsum per aut sufricientem et honorificum deputatum suum, illum gladium nudum quo cinciti eramus quando in partibus de Holderness, applicuimus vocatum ' Lancastre Sworde,' durante processioneettoto tempore solemnizationis coronationis supradictoe." Translation Ist year of King Henry IV. The King has granted, in fee, to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, the Island, Castle, Peel, and domain of Man, with all the islands, manors, &c. (thereto belonging), together with the patronage of the Bishopric of the said Island, together with ample liberties, by the service of carrying, on the day of the coronation of the King and his heirs, by the hand of himself, or some sufficient and honorable person, his deputy, at the left shoulder or left shoulders of the King, that sword naked with which we were girded when we landed in the parts of Holderness, called the ' Lancaster Sworde,' during the procession and whole time of the solemnization of the coronation aforesaid." It is well worthy of note, that in this illegal document we meet for the third time with the grant of the patronage of the Bishopric. It is very clear that in the ancient times the clergy and people of the Isle of Man had elected their Bishop, and such in truth is the theory, though not the practice, of the Church in the present day. That such a grant of patronage to Percy was even in those days not looked upon as correct, seems indicated by the fact that in the charter (given by Camden) of the 19th Nov., 1399, issued with the sanction of the Lords and Commons, no mention at all is made of the Bishopric, and only the Lords Temporal are mentioned as consenting to the charter. Nor even in the charter of the Isle to Sir Jno. Stanley (given by Train, vol i. p. 119) is there any mention made of the patronage of the Bishopric. It had been omitted in the grant made by Henry IV. on 4th October in the 6th year of his reign referred to by our author, and which is thus set forth in Rymer, Foedera, vol. viii. p. 410:-"De insula de Man concessa. Rex dilecto et fideli suo Wilhelmo Stanley, Chivaler, vel ejus locum tenenti in Insula de Man, salutem. Lacet nuper per litteras nostras patentes commisimus vobis ac fideli et dilecto Johanni Stanley, Chivaler, Insulam, Castrum, Pelam, et dominium de Man ac omnia Insulm et dominia eidem Insula de Man pertinentia una cum regaliis, regalitibus, franchisis, et libertatibus, ac omnibus aliis proficiis et commoditatibus in dictis litteris nostris specificatis ad opus nostrum salvo et secure quaediu nobis placuerit custodienda,&c.-TesteRege, quarto die Octobris." Translation -."Concerning the grant of the Isle of Man. The King to his beloved and faithful William Stanley, Knight, or his Lieutenant in the Isle of Man, greeting. Although we lately, by our letters patent, entrusted to our beloved and faithful John Stanley, Knight, the Castle, Peel, and Domain of Man, and all the islands and domains belonging to the same Isle of Man, together with the royalties, regalities, franchises, and liberties, and all other profits and commodities specified in the said our letters for our good, safely and securely to have custody during our pleasure, &c.-Witness the King, on the fourth day of Octo'ber." The patent however, to Sir John Stanley, Anno Regis 1Ieurici quarti (Calendarium Rotulorum Pat ) does include the patronage of the Bishopric in the very same words as the patent to Henry Percy, above given. Sir John Stauley, the second who succeeded the first Sir John in 1414, seems to have profited by the hint thus given to his father by his liege lord, and forthwith, on his coming to the Island in 1417, he proceeded (in the manner so well pointed out by our author) to summon the whole church and state in " his land of Man," to receive the decrees of as absolute a monarch as ever wielded a sceptre, and without any reference whatever to any "salvo semper jure nostro et haeredum nostrorum" on the part of the King of England. The grant of King Henry he evidently interpreted in the widest possible sense Heretofore the Kings and the Lords of Man had been vassals to the Crown of Norway, Scotland, or England; but Stanley seems to have acknowledged allegiance to none ; any reservation of a superior court of appeal in the English sovereign never entered into his acts. He was every inch a king. The very act of questioning his rights or murmuring aganst his enactments was treason, with the penalty of hanging and drawing. Sanctuary was to avail none; the guilty party was to be dragged from the horns of the altar and handed over to the civil power. The Bishop himself could not appeal to York or to King Henry; and so firmly does Stanley seem to have established his power in this respect that it was not till 1677 (more than 250 years after) that any question was raised upon it and appeal allowed from the Bishop of Man to York and proceedings taken therein; and even after that time we find Sacheverel " writing, " the Lord is stiled Metropolitan and Chief of the Holy Church, and there lies no appeal to the Arches of York." It was reserved to the apostolic Bishop Wilson to prove the unsoundness of such a doctrine, and on appealing to Caesar 'to vindicate his office, have his appeal heard, and judgment given in his favour." As the Acts of Sir John Stanley will be printed separately by the Manx Society in a subsequent volume, there is no need to make quotations from them in this place. Sacheverell, in the text, has given the spirit of them very faithfully. He must justly be regarded as the great Napoleon and Autocrat of Man.
John Letherland is mentioned by our author (page 77 infra) first on the catalogue of Governors and Lieutenant-Governors since Sir John Stanley, 1417.
There are, however, records naming one Michael Blundell as Lieutenant-Governor in 1407. He appears to have acted for the first Sir John Stanley to whom the Isle was granted by Henry IV.
See Note 48, supra. That the ceremony of the proclamation of the laws of the Isle of Man on Tynwald Hill should be continued to the present day, after all the vicissitudes and changes of hands through which the Island has passed, is a most remarkable political phenomenon. It speaks strongly for the excellency and durability of the Manx national code. The phenomenon appears deeply to have altected the learned and candid foreigner, Professor Worsaae, of Copenhagen, on his visit to the Island, and he writes thus of it in his account of the Danes and Norwegians in the British Isles :-" It is indeed highly remarkable that the last remains of the old Scandinavian Thing which, for the protection of public liberty was held in the open air, in presence of the assembled people, and conducted by the people's chiefs and representatives, are to be met with, not in the North itself, but in a little island far towards the West, and in the midst of the British Kingdom. The history of the Manx Thing Court remarkably illustrates that spirit of freedom and that political ability which animated the men who in ancient time emigrated from Norway and the rest of the Scandinavian North."
See above, Note 79. The last year in which Sacheverell was Governor of the Isle of Man the bishopric became vacant by the death of Baptist Levinz, and continued vacant for five years, when Dr. Sharp, Archbishop of York, complaining to King William that a see in his province had long been vacant, the King urged the subject on the Earl of Derby, and threatened to fill up the vacancy himself! It was in consequence of this threat that Thomas Wilson, to use his own words, was "forced into the Bishopric," he having previously declined to undertake so great a charge. The proceeds of the Bishopric for the last year of the vacancy were devoted by the Earl of Derby to building St. Mary',s Chapel in Castletown, as appears by an instrument issued to the Commissioners appointed to manage the revenue in the Isle of Man dated at Knowsley, the fourteenth day of February, A.D. 1697-8.
The power is not strictly exercised. When one of the Keys dies or retires, the remaining 23 elect two gentlemen of property whom they present to the Governor for his choice, and he determines which of the two shall sit in the House. Probably this satisfies the ancient law as given below by Sacheverell, that, "without the Lord's will, none of the 24 Keys to be."
The history of the Derby family in connection with the Isle of Man is best obtained from Seacome's Memorial of the ancient and Honourable House of Stanley. At the time Sacheverell wrote there was some prospect of the people of Mona being governed as they had been under the honorable house of Derby. But the death, first of James, Lord Strange, son of William, Earl of Derby, in 1700 (see Note 2, above), then of the only and infant son of James, 10th and last Earl of that family, and lastly, of James himself in 1735, put an end to the hope of our author here expressed, and transferred the Isle of Man to the Atholl family, Amelia Sophia (youngest daughter of James Lord Strange) having married John, the third Earl of Atholl: and their great grandson John, third Duke of Atholl, having married his cousin, Charlotte Baroness Strange, their great-granddaughter, sold his rights in the Isle of Man to the British Crown, by the Act of Revestment, in 1765, excepting his manorial rights, the patronage of the Bishopric and benefices, the mines, minerals, and treasure-trove. These last wore purchased from his son John in 1825. The sum paid by the British Crown was £416,114.
Thomas Wilson had been Bishop of the Isle of Man only four years when this eulogium was passed upon him by Sacheverell, and he was then only 39 years of age, having been born at Barton, in Cheshire, in 1663. His future course,,however, in an episcopate extending over a period of 59 years, fully justified Sacheverell's praise and hopeful anticipations. To him the Manx owe their magna charta, the Act of Settlement passed in 1703-4.
See infra page 91. He was fellow of Eton and uncle to the famous Dr. Isaac Barrow, master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was one of the Sword Bishops of the Isle of Man, so called from their holding the office of Governor along with that of Bishop. Bishop Barrow purchased, out of moneys collected in England, from Charles, eighth Earl of Derby, a long lease of the impropriate tithes of the Abbey third, and with these impropriations increased the salaries of the poorer clergy. A balance of £600, remaining in his hands, he set apart to endowing a mastership of his proposed academic institution, the origin of King William's College, Castletown, which institution he endowed from the Estates of Ballagilley and Hango Hill.
The title under which the Bishop of the Isle is inducted (and which is given also in the Act for assuring and establishing of the Isle of Man in the name and blood of William, Earl of Derby, A.D. 1610) is, "Bishop of the Isle of Man, of Sodor, and of Sodor and Man." I presume the title, as far as the term Sodor is included, is simply given to make assurance (legally or illegally) doubly sure. The Bishopric of Man is the oldest existing Bishopric of the British Isles, having been established by St. Patrick in 447, in which St. Germanus was first Bishop. In 838 Pope Gregory the Fourth instituted the Bisopric of the Sudereys, consisting of thirty Islands (Norse, Sudoer, or Southern Islands, contrasted with the Nordoer or Nordereys, the Northern Isles ie., the Orkney and Shetland Isles). In the year 1098, Magnus Barefoot, as we have already seen, conquering them and the Western Isles, united the Bishopries into one, making the joint title of the Sudereys and Man, or Sodor and Man. This arrangement continued till near the close of the 14th century, or nearly 300 years, when, on the death of John Duncan, in 1380, the English being in possession of the Isle of Man and the Scotch of the Sudereys, the people and clergy of Man elected, it is said, Robert Waldby for their prelate, and the people and clergy of Iona and the Western Isles elected a person of the name of John for the Bishopric of Sodor. The Scotch do not seem to have used the term Bishop of Sodor, but called him Bishop of the Isles. The English seem, then, to have transferred the name Sodor to the little Isle on which the Cathedral of St. German stood, viz., Holme Sodor, or Peel, as appears in the above named Act for assuring and establishing of the Isle of Man in the name and blood of William, Earl of Derby, A.D. 1610.
Our author writes much about the Druids, but without adding to our stock of information or moving the cloud which hangs over their origin and history. It is daily becoming more evident that many of the monuments ascribed to them were the works of other hands than theirs, and that many must be traced to the religion of odin. The stone circles formerly presumed to be their temples, turn out, many of them at least, to be of Scandinavian origin, oft' times the burying-places of the Vikings; and their altars of sacrifice and cromlechs are the cap stones of cists of a Pagan period, which may or may not have been connected with their religion. The old derivation of their names from the Greek (Jpvs) druid, an oak, will hardly now satisfy etymologists. There appears a stronger inclination towards the more indigenous name of trowys, wise men. Yet if we allow (as we are almost compelled to allow) the eastern origin of this sect so strongly pointed to in their ceremonies and institutions, we may be disposed to look with favour upon any derivation connecting their name with the East itself. Pocock, in his India in Greece, whilst tracing in the ancient names of places the sources of the iinmigration from the East into Europe, has pointed to the probability that the name Hebudes, anciently given to the Western Isles, may be nothing more than Hi-Budhes, or Islands of the Budhists; and the Druides, the Druopes, or Chiefs of the Duras or Draus, a river of Tibet, and pes (Sanserit) chiefs. Those who have witnessed the bonfires lighted up on the mountains of Mona on old Midsummer eve will perhaps have suggested to them the Boal-tyn, or Baal's fire, and see some connection still subsisting between ourselves and the eastern fireworshippers. I have in a previous note (Note 22, page 10) pointed to the same origin for the name of the Isle of Man. [fpc Cumming here appears to be less sceptical than usual]
This ancient MS. was doubtless the Chronicon Manniae, written by the monks of Rushen Abbey. It commences with the Norman conquest of England and terminates with the Scottish conquest of the Isle of Man, when it was probably conveyed to the Abbey of Furness for security. There were, however, subsequent additions to it. Camden, who used it for his Britannia, at the date 1226 says "That which followeth was written in another hand and of a later character." This latter portion carries the history down to 1316. But the MS. used by Camden (and which he says he gives word for word) seems to have been condensed from that used by Johnstone in his Cron Normanicae, which has also given the portion omitted by Camden pertaining to the Bishopric of Man and the Isles, da tempore Godred Crouan et aliquanto tempore ante." This portion gives a list of bishops down to 1376, ending with John Dunkan, a Manxman, the last true Bishop of Sodor and Man.
Wymund (called also Hamund, Reymund, and Vermundus), a monk of Savigny and Furness, was consecrated by Thomas II., (Thomas Turstan) Archbishop of York, A.D. 1113, deposed and died in 1151. He married a daughter of Somerled, Thane of Argyle. See Registrum Sacrum Anglicae,'and Haile's Annals of Scotland. Matthew Paris says, "Post conquestum Norvegorum, A.D. 1098, binae secles Sodor et Man in unum coaluertint et primus ' epise'opus fuit Wymundus sive Wermundus." I am disposed to believe that at first the consecration of the Bishops of Man and the Bishops of Sodor, or the Isles, whilst under the Norwegians, was made at Tronjem (Droutheim), and that the Archbishops of Nidrosien was the metropolitan. The influence of the Abbey of Rushen seems, however, to have been always exercised in drawing the Island toward's Rome, and in almost every case where an Abbot or Monk of Furness was elected Bishop of Sodor and Man, he managed to get his consecration at York. We have a remarkable instance of this in a document from amongst the Harleian MSS. of the British Museum, (Harl. MSS., 1808. p. 57) which is printed in extenso in the Monasticon Anglicanum, entitled " Recognitio Olavii Regis Manniae et Insularum," it appears also in the Registry of York Cathedral, under the heading " Littera Regis Insularum quod Episcopus suns consecraretur apud Eborum," of which the following is a translation:-" Olave, by the grace of God King of the Isle, to Thurstan, by the same grace Archbiqhop of York, health and prayers in Christ. The fame of your sanctity reaching everywhere throughout the world, as also the illustrious praise of your predecessors, which your notable virtue both in public and private actions, permits to be in no hidden corner, and have not a little rejoicecl us also. We therefore praise the goodness of the Almighty King, rendering thanks to Him for what the Lord has vouchsafed to do amongst you, inasmuch as He has exalted you above all your neighbours in dignity and sanctity. Furthermore, we notify you that Eudo, the Lord Abbot of Furness, a monastery from which we are not far distant by sea, upon our hearing the report of the religious sanctity of the same place by a threefold petition, by our persuasion, engaging with much confidence in a difficult journey with diligence and arduous toil, and with profitable labor for the extension of the Church, by God's blessing came even to us. Also, by our decree and the choice of the people, it has been determined amongst us that a Bishop should be chosen from the number of his fellows to have the oversight of the propagation of Christianity in the Islands of the Gentiles. Wherefore we entreat you, and humbly implore the favour of your good will that by imposition of your hands that may be ratified which, by the common consent, has been sought to be egeoted to the glory of God and the good of our own souls, viz., that our Bishop elect, as speedily as it can be done, may be advanced to the grade of a Bishop under the seal of your-authority, for the love of God and us. The Lord Abbot, therefore, relating to us such wonderful and holy things concerning you, and declaring that he neither will nor can go to any other person than yourself his Father, being filled with great joy for all these things, we render thanks to the utmost of our ability to our God. Farewell to your Holiness in the Lord." I am disposed to consider the above document as having reference to the election and consecration of Wymund by Thomas Thurstan. There is, however, this difficulty of dates. Olave 1. (Olave Kleining, or the Dwarf) according to the generally received chronology, did not really come to the throne till A.D. 1114, though as a minor (as we have seen above, Note 59) he succeeded Lagman in 1111, and he did not endow the Abbey of Rushen (an offset of Furness) till A.D. 1134. It is right, however, to refer to the fact above stated, that the Chronicon Manniae gives 1075 as the date of the death of Lagman, and 1102 as that for Olaves coming to the throne. A further difficulty arises from the circumstance that Eudo de Sourdeval was not Abbot of Furness; till 1134, when he succeeded Ivo, or Evan, who was first Abbot in England after the removal of the Abbey from Amounderness. It appears, therefore, highly probable that the " Hamondus filius Joli' (of the Rushen Chronicle, and Sacheverell), who was Bishop in the days of Goddard Crovan, was not the. same person as the Vermundus or Wymundus of Matthew Paris and others said to have been the first Bishop of Sodor and Man. Sacheverell says it is not certain by whom Wymund was succeeded. His successor, however, was John, a monk of Seez or Sais, in Normandy, consecrated 1151 by Henry M'Murdoch, Archbishop of York. See Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum. Their successor, Gamahel, was consecrated by Roger, Archbishop of York, 1160.
Christian, A.D. 1190, was a native of Argyle. He was perhaps Bishop of Whithorn 1154-86.
The Rushen Chronicle says--" Being a monk, he was, for his mildness, gravity, and eminent qualities, raised to the episcopal dignity, and died at a very advanced age, and was honourably interred apud Fontanas" (i.e., Fountan's Abbey).
Nicholas de Meaux, Abbot of Furness, " consecratus ad Ebudas ubi tunc, per quadraginta annos Episcopus non fuerat exquo Nemavus in vivis erat' (Chronicon Islandicum Langebeck). According to the Monasticon (vol. vi. p. 1186) he was consecrated by the Archbishop of Drontheim; yet the following document in the Haxleian MSS. (Harl.MSS.1808, fol. 57b), though in an imperfect condition, might lead us to infer otherwise, and that he was consecrated at York. It is entitled " Supplicatio Regis Oreadum Decano et Capitulo Eborum." The translation runs thus:-" To the Dean and entire holy conclave of brethren of the venerable and holy Church of York ; Olave, by the grace of God, King of the Isles, whatever to the contrary and evilly, by a brother's choice, is pretended. Diligently understanding the letter of your fraternity, we both perceive what is contained in it, and also concerning the community of your prayers and fellowship, and your service; and if we cannot render the thanks which we ought, still do we endea. vour unceasingly to render what we can, in all anxiety, towards you, to the honour of God and the dignity of your mother, the Church, which, as you ought by no means to diminish, consider diligently how you should labour, all hindrance and delay being put aside, to send back to us our elect Nicholas, consecrated by the hands of your Archbishop ; otherwise, which God forbid, the mutual spiritual devotion of love, which we promised for your exaltation, by a decree passed by the sanction of our united clergy and laity, shall perish for ever without hope of reparation.
" Moreover, the clamor or unjust complaints of the Furnensians do not hitherto move us, nor the quarrel which they seem to have, because this thing is done rather than another, not according to the Lord or men. But do ye honorably receive our ambassadors, intimating to you nothing else than what you have heard; having so received them, send them back without delay, together with our bishop. Farewell."
It must be borne in mind that at this time (see above note 67) Reginald was usurping the sovereignty of the Isle of Man, and Olave, the rightful king, was an exile in the Isle of Lewis; and yet, exile as he was, he claimed and exercised his right in the share he had with his people in the election of a Bishop of the Isles, in opposition to Reginald and the Monks of Furness Abbey.
To understand the opposition of the Monks of Furness, we must refer to a bull of the 4th year of Pope Celestine III., dated at Rome, 1195, in which we meet with the following passage :-" We do, by our Apostolic authority, confirm the liberty which the Kings of the Isles, Olave, and Godred his son, granted to the Monastery of Furness, of appointing the Bishop of Man, as fully empowered in their original grants." The election, therefore, of Nicholas, by the sanction, as it would seem, of the entire clergy and laity, without reference to the clamour of the Furnensians, could not but be distasteful to them, though it was an election of one of their own body. Supposing that the Dean and Chapter of York rejected the supplication of Olave, we can understand how it came to pass that Nicholas was consecrated by the Archbishop of Drontheim, as stated in the Monasticon. Nicholas held the Bishopric till the year 1216. He died whilst on a visitation, and was buried at Benchor, or Bangor, in Ireland. The Abbot of Bangor was a Baron of the Isle of Man, and had possessions in it, which were confiscated by Sir John Stanley.
It is related of Reginald, in the Chronicon Manniae, that, being on a visitation of the churches, he arrived at the Lewis, where Olave then was. And when Olave would have detained him at a sumptuous banquet, he refused, saying-" I will not partake with thee, brother, till the Church hath annulled thy illicit marriage. Art not thou sensible that thou art wedded to the cousin of the woman who is now thy consort " Olave could not resist the truth; convening, therefore, the clergy, Bishop Reginald divorced Joan, the daughter of a nobleman of Kintire, from Olave, who then married Christina, the daughter of Ferquard, Earl of Ross.
In A.D. 1219 a Bishop of Man, perhaps this John M'Harfare, was elected by the Monks of Furness, and consecrated by the Archbishop of Dublin, but could not get possession, owing to the hostility of the King. Honorious III. charged Pandulf and the Bishop of Carlisle to see him righted, and in 1224, May 15th, allowed him to resign, retaining the episcopal insignia (see Vatican Papers and Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum). 'John, a Bishop of Man, is found in 1230 attesting a deed of Archbishop Walter Grey (Le Neve). Jerewas is Jarrow, in Northumberland.
Simon was of Argyle. His statutes are given in Ward's Ancient Records of the Isle of Man, and in the Monasticon Anglicanum. He was consecrated at Bergen, by Archbishop Peter, of Drontheim, A.D. 1236, according to the Registrum Sacrum, Anglicanum, though the date usually given is 1230. He commenced the building of St. German's Cathedral, at Peel. The date of his death is given in the Chronicon Manniae, Feb. 23, 1247 ; this, however, seems doubtful, as we find in 1244, Feb. 15, Pope Innocent IV., at the request of the Monks of Furness, gave authority to the Archbishops of York, with consent of the Archbishops of Drontheim, to consecrate a Bishop of Man. It appears, by the Chronicon Manniae,, that after the death of Simon the bishopric was vacant six years.
Laurence the Archdeacon was sent to Norway, for Royal assent and consecration, A.D. 1247. The latter, in consequence of some informality in the election, was delayed. In the Paisley Chartulary, under date A.D. 1253, we find a charter of Stephen, Bishop of Sodor, and administrator of Lismore, Argyle.
The performance of the ceremony of consecration in the Papal presence seems to indicate that the Church of Man had now surrendered her liberties, and henceforth the sanction of the Roman Pontiff was deemed necessary to the making the bishops whenever the English or Scotch had possession of the Isle. After the Scottish conquest of the Island, the monarch of Scotland, Alexander, seems to have claimed the right of nominating the successor to Richard, and Bruce even included the patronage of the Bishopric in his grant of the Isle to Randulph, Earl of Moray.
Mark was a Gallovidean, consecrated in Norway, by John Archbishop of Drontheim. Thirty-five canons were made by him in 1291. See Monasticon.
This appears to be the "Alanus de Wygeton" of whom mention has before been made, as having letters of presentation to the living of Kirk Cairbre (Kirk Arbory) from Edward I., in 1291. Probably Onanus, or Inanus, was another person, and bishop in 1298, and after him in 1303, Mauritius. Allan was consecrated A.D. 1305, by Jorund, Archbishop of Drontheim, who died Feb. 13th, 1321. After him Gilbert M'Lellan was consecrated, in 1321, by Eiluff, Archbishop of Drontheim. The Chronicon Manniae states that he ruled two and a half years, and like his predecessor Allan Gilbert was buried at Rotheay, in Bute. Bernard de Linton was elected in 1328, and consecrated at Norway, 1329.
Thomas was also consecrated at Norway, A.D. 1334. He ruled 18 years, and was buried at Scone, in Scotland, Sept. 20, 1348. A silver bracelet of "Thomas, by the grace of God Bishop of Man," was dug up, in 1855, in a garden near Rathmines, Dublin; now in possession of Capt. Ed. Hoare, of the Cork Rifles.
It will be observed that Sacheverell is not quite correct in stating that he was the first that shook off the yoke of the Archbishop of Drontheim. (See Note 98 supra.) The Chronicon Manniae, however noting that he was the first Bishop of Sodor consecrated by the Apostolic See, adds, all his predecessors were wont to be consecrated and confirmed, by their Metropolitan "Nidorensis Episcopus." He was consecrated in 1348, when Montacute was King of Man. Under the Montacutes, therefore, we notice that the Manx Church became most closely united to the Apostolic See.
John Duncan, 1374, was consecrated at Avignon, by Simon Langham, Bishop of Preeneste, along with eight others, on the festival of St. Catherine, in the Monastery of the Predicant Friars. He died in 1380, the last of the true Bishops of Sodor and Man No Manxman since his time has been Bishop of the Isle of Man [not so post 1880]. His election was by the Church of Man itself, and he was the last so elected. In 1390 we find one John Sodorensis Episcopus, having a sufragan commission from the Bishop of Salisbury (Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum, and Rymer).
Robert Waldby Adurensis, i.e., of Aire, in Gascony, ought not, according to the Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum, to be in the list of Manx Bishops. In 1425, July 20th (Wadding Annalae Minores) we read of one John Burgelin, a Franciscan, as provided, but it is doubtful if he were ever in possession. Also, one Richard Pulley is mentioned in the Manx Statute Books in 1430, as having held a visitation in 1429. His statutes are in the Monasticon. In 1449 John Green, vicar of Dunchurch, in Warwickshire, was Bishop, and in 1452 was made a suffragan of Lichfield. He died that same year, and in 1455 Thomas Burton, a Franciscan, was made Bishop (Wadding); then in 1458, Thomas, of Kirkham; and in 1480, Richarel Oldham, Abbot of Chester, who died Sept. 19, 1486, and was buried at Chester. It is unaccountable how Sacheverell should have omited all these Bishops, inserting the name of one, who to say the least, is doubtful.
The date of John Sprotton is 1402.
It may seem strange that Sacheverell should have split up Hugh, Huan, or John Hesketh into two bishops. The various ways, however, in which the Christian name was pronounced and spelt has originated error in others besides Sacheverell. For instance, Heylin in his MS. catalogue of the Manx Bishops in the British Museum, gives the date of his death as 1510, and he is followed in this by (I believe) all writers. Yet it is quite certain that he was alive in 1520, and most probable that he was still Bishop of Man in 1532. For William Cole, the Cambridge antiquary, in his MSS. collections tells us (vol. xxvi., p. 24) that Huan Hesketh was living in 13 Henry VIII., 1521, at which time Thomas, Earl of Derby, appointed amongst others Sir Hugh Hesketh, Bishop of Man, to be one of his executors. Wolsey was appointed supervisor of the will, and is in it called Lord Chancellor; as he was made Lord Chancellor in 1516, this proves that Huan Hesketh was alive after 1510. Again, Huan Hesketh had a brother Richard, "learned in the law," and said to have been attorney-general to King Henry VIII. This Richard by his will, dated 15th August, 1520, appoints his "trusty brethren Hugh, Bishop of Mann, and Thomas Heaketh, Esq.," executors. The will was proved November 13,1530. But still further in the Lex Scripta of the Isle of Man, under date July 31, 1532, we meet with an indenture between the Right Reverend Father in God, John, Bishop of Sodor and the Isle of Man, and the Right Honourable Edward, Earl of Derby. Thereisnodoubt that in Manx orthography Huan and John are one and the same. Hence we argue that Huan Hesketh (called also Blackleach in Le Neve) was Bishop of Man from 1487 to 1532, that is 45 years at least. He may have been Bishop ten years longer until 1542, when Thomas Stanley was consecrated. Even then, long as he would have exercised the episcopal office, he would not have attained to the length of the episcopate of Thomas Wilson, who was Bishop of Man from 1697 to 1755. In the Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. i., p. 718, we have a charter from Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby and Lord of Man, dated March 28, 1505, giving and granting to Huan, Bishop of Sodor, a confirmation of the church lands, tithes, possessions and liberties which had ever been granted by his predecessors, the Kings and Lords of Man, to the Church and Bishop of Man. A tardy acknowledgment of the injustice done to the Church of Man nearly one hundred years before by his ancestor, Sir John Stauley II.
Between Hugh Heasketh and Robert Ferrier, Thomas Stanley was consecrated Bishop of Sodor and Man in 1542. He is said to have been an illegitimate son of Edward Stanley, let Lord Monteagle, of Hornby Castle, County Lincoln, (Brown Willis's History of Cathedrals). The statute of 33rd King Henry VIIL dissevering the Isle of Man from Canterbury and annexing it to the province of York, being passed at the commencement of his episcopate, he not complying (as it is said) with the measure, was deprived in 1545. After the See had been occupied by Robert Perrier and Henry Mann (the latter of whom died in possession), Thomas Stanley was restored by Mary in 1556, and continued quietly to exercise his episcopal functions in the time of Elizabeth. It is not quite certain how long he continued Bishop after the restoration. Seacome, in his History of the Ancient and Honourable House of Stanley (page 49), speaks of him as a legitimate son of the 1st Lord Monteagle, and further states that on his father's death, becoming Lord Monteagle, he resigned his bishopric, also that he married Ann, daughter of Sir John Spencer, of Althorp, in the county of Nottingham, and by her was greatgrandfather of William, Lord Monteagle, so noted in the history of the gunpowder plot. Seacome gives no date. Bishop Thomas Stanley was at any rate a wealthy pluralist. According to Brown Willis he had a dispensation from the Pope to hold his preferments, especially the rectory of Wigan. He was pastor of Badsworth in Yorkshire, of Berwick, and rector of Winwick, in Lancashire, and North Meols (now Southport). With such emoluments, no wonder he indulged in much luxurious living, and hence we meet with the following amusing paragraph respecting him in a letter of Bishop Pilkington of Durham, to Archbishop Parker, probably 1564 :-" The Bishop of Man (Thomas Stanley) liveth here at his ease, and as merry as Pope Joan.-To the Hon. and Rev. my Lord Archbishop of Canterbury." (Correspondence of Archbishop Parker, Parker Society, p. 222.) (See also Baine's Lancr., vol. iii. p. 100).
We may well ask, what reformation of religion was made in the Isle of Man during his episcopate, as he was Bishop in the days both of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. The evidences of any true reformation are very meagre. There is the dissolution and plunder of the Abbey of Rushen occurring in this period. (See my Story of Rushen Castle and Rushen Abbey.) We find also in the articles of injunction issued by Edmund, Archbishop of York, 10th October, 3rd Elizabeth, the Bishop of Sodor and Man was included in the persons to whom they were to be sent. These articles had reference" ad deponenda et diruenda sollaria cellaria et sustentacula illa quae vulgari hujus regni Angliae lingua,' roods lofts,'appellantur. ' But Bishop Stanley, like Gallio, cared for none of these things. He "lay at his ease," an admirable example of episcopal non-interference when innovations were proceeding in his diocese. Nor did his successor, John Salisbury, seem much more active in the matter of reformation; and it is not till 1594, in the last year of Henry, Earl of Derby, who had obtained from Elizabeth the spoils of Rushen Abbey, and during the latter part of the episcopate of John Merrick, that we find exhibited at a Tynwald Court certain articles to be inquired of at the next consistory court, amongst which the following occur :--.-'Item. That they take order that the Queen's Majesty's injunctions be read in their churches.-Item. That they inquire of and present all such as carry bells or banners before the dead, or pray upon the graves of the dead.-Item. That they inquire and present if there be any person or persons within this Isle that refuse to come to church to hear divine service or receive the blessed sacrament of the Lord's Supper."
Robert Ferrar or Ferrier, who had been chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer, in 1533, is found subscribing as Bishop of Sodor in 1545. He was translated to St. Davids in 1546, and was imprisoned during the reign of Edward VI., for his Lutheran opinions; and on Mary's accession was condemned as a heretic, degraded, and burnt at the Market Cross, Caermarthen, March 30, 1555. Burnet mentions his consecration as taking place in 1548. [fpc: probably an error in reading his title]
Sacheverell is sadly incorrect in this period of his history. Henry Mann, D.D., and Dean of Chester, had the royal assent to his nomination on January 22, 1546. In St. Andrew's, Undershaft Church, city of London, is the following epitaph on him:-" Henry Mann, Doctor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, sometime Bishop of Man, which Henry departed this life October 15, 1556, and lieth buried under this stone." (See Brown Willis's History of Cathedrals, p. 367.)
John Salisbury, LL.B., suffragan Bishop of Thetford, Dean of Norwich, and Chancellor of Lincolli, and Archdeacon of Anglesea, was nominated to this see in 1569. He died in 1573, and was buried in Norwich Cathedral (Brown Willis). On his death either the Bishopric was vacant four years, or, as some state, James Stanley, son of Lord Monteagle, was nominated Bishop. Should this latter be the case, we are the better enabled to understand the mistake of Sacheverell in putting Thomas Stanley after Salisbury, and also the statement of Seacome (p. 49) respecting a Thomas Stanley, son of Edward, first Lord Monteagle and Bishop of Man, resigning the Bishopric on the death of his father, when he succeeded to the family estates. There can be no doubt, however, respecting the appointment of John Merrick A.D. 1577 ; for in the Insular Statute Book, we read-,' At a Tynwald Court held in July 13th, in the year 1577, near the Chapel of St. John, before the Right Honourable Henry, Earl of Derby, his barons and clerks, council, and assembly of the Island, John Merrick was called in and sworn Bishop according to the law." He, like Thomas Stanley, was a Sword Bishop, ie., he was Governor as well as Bishop. He died in 1599. The imperfect list of Sacheverell for this century ought to be corrected thus
Huan or John Hesketh Consecrated A.D . 1487
Died 1542 (?)
Thomas Stanley Consecrated 1542
Deprived by Henry 1545
Robert Ferrier Consecrated 1545
Translated to St. David's 1546
Henry Mann Consecrated (under Henry VI.) 1546
Died in possession Oct. 17 1556
Thomas Stanley Restored by Mary 1556
Died in possession 1569
John Salisbury Nominated 1569
Died 1573
James Stanley (?) Appointed 1573
Resigned 1577
John Merrick Sworn Bishop and Governor 1577
Died 1599
William Forster, D.D., Fellow of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, and Prebendary of Chester, ought to come in after John Phillips. He was consecrated A.D. 1638, held a court at Douglas, October, 1634, and died in the beginning of 1635.
See Note 37 supra.
Samuel Rutter landed at Ronaldsway, September 21, and on the 24th came to Castle Rushen, and was installed October 8, 1660 (Marown Parochial Register). He had previously been Archdeacon many years, during the civil wars. In the second siege of Latham House, Mr. Rutter, acting as chaplain to the garrison, managed also the correspondence. A story is told of a dog about whose neck he used to tie despatches, and then being driven out of the house, the dog betook himself to the house of a friend three miles of, who had been instructed where to look for the papers. In like manner, when the answers were obtained, the dog, being beaten back again into Latham House, communicated the desired information to its inmates. This continued for some months till the dog was shot by the enemy. The great Earl of Derby was much attached to Mr. Rutter, and makes frequent mention of him in his letters to his children and wife, and to his eldest son he writes-" He is a man for whom you and I may both thank God." His epitaph, written by himself, was found 1846 on a brass plate in a well in Peel Castle, the plate having been formerly stolen from his tomb in the Cathedral. It runs thus:-" In hae domo quam a vermiculis accepi (confratribus meis) spe resurrectionis ad vitam, jaceo Sam., permissione divini, Episcopuis hujus Insulea. Siste lector-vide et ride Palatium Episcopi 1 Obiit xxx die mensis Maii, 1663."
John Lake was translated to Bristol A.D. 1684, and again translated to Chichester, 1685. On the 8th June, 1688, he was committed, with six other bishops, to the Tower, by James II., for petitioning him against the publication of the -Declaration for Liberty of Conscience. He died 1689.
The ancient arms of the Bishopric are said to have been "Azure, St. Columba, at sea in a cock-boat, all proper, in chief, overhead a blazing star, or." (Train vol.ii.,p.81). If these were the arms of the Bishopric of Sodor and Man, and not of the Isles or Sodor alone, I should rather interpret the figure as St. Maughold in his wicker-boat, covered with hides.
Since the year 1846 there has only been one Vicar-general, and he a layman.
Trinity Church belonging to (Manx, lah, towards) the Sheading of Ayr, contrasted with Trinity Church in the Sheading of Rushen. Though dedicated in honor of the Holy Trinity, both churches and the parishes are called Christ's, as Kirk Christ Rushen and Kirk Christ Lezayre.
See Note 34, p. 14, above.
Braddan is derived from St. Brendinus, one of the early Bishops.
Marown is St. Rooney, as Malew is St. Lupus.
Kirk Arbory from St. Cairbre. See Note 34, p. 14, above. I do not know on what authority Sacheverell states it to be dedicated to St. Columbus.
Considerable dispute has arisen as to the origin of the name given to these chapels. They are named treen chapels, and Manx tradition attributes their original institution to St. Germanus as in the following translation of an old ballad of 1520 :-
To each four quarterlands a chapel he made,
For the people to meet in and pray,
He built German Kirk in the Castle of Peel,
Which remaineth to this day."
As there were seven hundred and seventy-one of these quarterlands, the total number of chapels can hardly have been less than 193, or 11 to each parish. Venerable Bede states the population of the Island in his time not to have exceeded three hundred families (Ecclesiastical History, book ii., chap. 9). This would have given more than one chapel to two families, supposing their erection at that early date and in the same number. This seems very improbable, yet we may observe that many of them were so small that they could hardly contain more than 15 persons or three families. I measured one at Chibber-Vondey, near Grenaby, (which is a fair specimen of the rest) and found that it measured only eight feet in length by four-and-a-half feet in width inside, or an area of 36 square feet. In the parish of Marown (the central parish) there are even now the remains of four of these chapels, one at Ballacrink, another at Ballaquinney. moar, a third at Ballalough, and a fourth at Ballingan, to which we may add as ancient places of worship the parish church, and that of St. Trinian's, the latter in ruins. It should be observed that the quarterland, on an average, consists of about 100 acres, more or less. If we divide 89,458, the number of acres at present cultivated on the Island and paying tithe by 771, the number of quarterlands, this would give about 116 acres to each quarterland. The term quarterland, as well as treen, is of uncertain origin; the former may have something to do with a payment anciently made to the Sovereign. The Manx tree signifies three, and hence Cregeen, in his Manx Dictionary, has stated that treen means a portion of land dividing tithe into three. If so, it may have to do with that arrangement made by Olave I., who divided the tithes of the Isllnd into three parts, one for the bishop, another for the clergy, ahd the third for the Abbey of Rushen. So that each of these treen divisions would pay a certain sum, the third of the tithe of 400 acres, to the priest officiating in the little oratory belonging to it. At present the amount of tithe paid to the parochial clergy on 89,468 acres is £3,292 12s., about £1 upon every 27 acres, or 9d. per acre- i.e., £15 to each treen. No doubt in ancient times the tithe was a proportionally larger sum, and if one priest served three chapels there would have been sufficient maintenance for him. At the present time there is upon the Island about one clergyman to every four treens, but the population has now largely increased that there is only one to every thousand souls. The Abbey Lands were not divided into treens, and this seems to point out that treen was an ecclesiastical division. The term treen has been also derived from the Manx stroans, streams, and supposed to indicate a portion of land between two streams or river boundaries. The derivation te or jeih reene (ten sureties) has also been proposed by the Rev. W. Mackenzie, and it has been argued that each treen consisted of ten families and each parish of ten treens. As there are six sheadings in the Island, each sheading would thus contain about 30 treens. If we could once fix the meaning of the term treen, that of quarterland would immediately follow, as being a quarter or fourth of a treen.
This was at Mirescogh, in Lezayre, and was given as an offering to the Venerable Sylvanus, Abbot of Rieval, on the occasion of his performing (by direction of Vivian, Cardinal Legate of the Apostolic See) a canonical marriage between Godred II. and Fingala, daughter of M'Lauchland, 1176. Here Sylvanils built a monastery. In after times, however, the donation was transferred to the Abbey of Rushen, and the monks transplanted thither. (See Chronicon Manniae, page 22.)
Banchor, St. Bede, Sabal, and Whithorn, or St. Trinian.
The history of the Manx Church is full of interest, and though the Bishopric of Man be now the smallest in the British Isles, it has the honor of being the most ancient, and of having enjoyed an uninterrupted succession of Bishops from the first introduction of Christianity till now, not experiencing a break even at the Reformation, as we have seen that Thos. Stanley was Bishop in Henry VIII., Mary, and Elizabeth's days. The See was vacant at the time of the Commonwealth, and Rutter, who had been Archdeacon, was subsequently appointed to it. The Manx Church possesses and exercises the privilege of meeting in convocation without license, let, or hindrance, and therein discussing freely her wants and grievances, without fear of the penalties of praemunire. It is a privilege which has never been in abeyance; and further, the canons drawn up in her synodical meetings have received (what those of the Church of England have not) the sanction of the Legislature, and are part of the Statute Law of the Isle. The famous constitutions of Bishop Wilson, 1703, are particularly decisive on this point. They were enacted without any authority previously obtained from the civil power, and would have had all the force of canons binding on the clergy had they never been accepted by the Legislature. The following words at the end of those constitutions place the subject in a very distinct light:-" Now, forasmuch as some of the orders and constitutions in this synod agreed to, are such as do require the authority of the civil power to make them effectual to the ends they are designed," &c. The words also of the Governor, Council, and Keys are "We approve of and consent to them as far as concerns the civil power." And if any doubt could exist before as to the power of the Manx convocation to legislate for the Church of Man, it has been completely cleared up by the following clause, -which also occurs at the end of the constitutions :-"And for the better government of the Church of Christ, for the making of such orders and constitutions as shall from time to time be found wanting, there shall be (God willing) a convocation of the whole clergy of the diocese on Thursday in Whitsun-week, every year." May it be long ere the Church of the Isle of Man, by any suicidal Act, surrenders these her happy privileges.
Those who desire to learn the present state of Iona, and to have a full account of its ecclesiastical and monumental remains will do well to consult Graham's Antiquities of Iona, published by Day and Son, London. The narrative of Sacheverell's voyage thither, though printed with his description of the Isle of Man, it is not thought desirable in the present edition to illustrate with Notes.
"That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force on the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona" (Dr. Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands).
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