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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
Manx authorities, A.W.Moore and B.E.Sargeaunt, are at variance over the dates and nature of this company of non-native Manx recruited volunteers. A Public Record Office document in the Castle Rushen Papers, published in the Journal of the Manx Museum, records a company of fifty soldiers, from the evidence of their surnames all first generation incomers to the Island, led by four expatriate officers, including Colonel Thomas Dawson, their commandant and Thomas Whaley, a notable Regency buck who settled for a while in Douglas, which met every Sunday.
There are no official records of their operations, nor of their date of disbandment which is probably 1802 but it is unlikely that they played any active part in any peace-keeping activities directed either to external or internal dangers and were never involved in the settlement of any Manx disorder in a period before the scarcity of corn and tithe problems provoked serious rioting.
Although this military group does not conform to the specifications of association, it is retained because of the interest of the descendants of the members
'Some historical Documents' no.94 'The Stranger Volunteer Company formed at Douglas under Colonel Dawson' J.M.M. vol ii no.41 (1934) pp.219-220
A.W. Moore, History of the IOM (1900) vol.ii, pp 639, 640;
B. E. Sargeaunt: A Military History of the Isle of Man (1947) p.37
see also in Athol Papers AP_X22(2nd)-25
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
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