Douglas

by

Neil Mathieson

These pages are a tidied version of the draft for a book by Neil Mathieson held in the manuscript collection at the Manx Museum - MS 09284 - which appears here with permission of the Manx National Heritage Library and Archives, Kingswood Grove, Douglas - it consists of some 80 or so pages - mostly typescript though in parts with considerable editing and/or insertions in pencil - the pages are numbered and my prettified version mostly follows this order though in a couple of sections it is not entirely clear as to where the paragraph belongs.

Internal evidence would indicate a date of 1961 as for the final editing though I suspect some parts date from the late 1950s..

There are three putative chapter headings given - Introduction, The Historic Background, The Georgian town, Early Victorian days, Under Civic Administration, together with an substantial list of probable index items though the majority of the actual text does not indicate to which section it belongs.

I have added more descriptive names to the main sections and added further sub-headings to ease comprehension.

It is obviously somewhat incomplete and needing further revision in parts - some dates are left blank to be filled in later - as was the style of the time, references are somewhat sparse - many were crossed through in the manuscript as it seems they were not to be included in any final text.- I have however included these together with a few larger sections crossed through in the draft (these sections are indicated { } I have also filled out some of the missing references, added some maps based on the 1849 Plan by Sherwood and a few illustrations - more to be added in future.

There were a number of footnotes however expanding or clarifying certain statements - in some places I have moved these to follow the referencing text..

Mathieson had produced a handlist for the large collection of papers donated by the Duke of Atholl (known as the Atholl Papers or APs) arising from the Atholl connection as Lords of Man and then Governor covering the period 1735 to 1830. He also produced indices to the early Manx Newspapers from 1790s through to c.1850 - thus he had a good background knowledge of developments in the Town. It also provides a good hook on which to hang some of my own work based on a study of the South Side Sales for the period 1702-1847.

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2016