You can see John Looney's 1860 will if you go to Ian Radcliffe's will site and click on what should be that will. It brings up Ann Radcliffe 1860 instead. But if you change the end of the url from "1860_008" to "1860_049", you'll get the correct will. Ian sent me this clue by email and I imagine he'll fix it when he gets a chance.

John Looney has left all of his estate to Thomas Callister of Port y Vullyn, who I think is a neighbour. There's a petition Thomas Callister v "Next of Kin of John Looney", who are identified as John Christian and Edward Christian.of the Town of Ramsey. The witnesses of the will, who also gave pledges, were Evan Christian of Lewaige and Edward Christian of Ballaterson, Maughold. The latter two were both proprietors and farmers of large farms of over 200 acres, easily found on the census's. The two next-of-kin John & Edward are trickier to figure out, as there's more than one of each to pick from.

I believe this 1860 will eliminates the John 1783 s/o Thos Looney & Isabella Moore. This John had at least one brother (Ewan) alive in 1860 and a sister or two, and I don't see any Christians anywhere in his family. Surely the next of kin would be his siblings.

On the other hand, the John 1781 s/o John Looney & Margaret Christian is a strong candidate. John was the only son of an only son who died when he was 2 years old. So there are no Looney relatives except distant. The 1798 burial of Margaret Looney als Christian appears to be his mother, so he's orphaned by the age of 17. It's reasonable to think that he was brought up by his mother's relatives, and they put him into the Tailor trade.

I spent quite some time trying to trace the Christians, and the two witnesses/pledges have different parents and don't appear to be directly related to each other. Both seem quite prominent, and were first-born heirs from their respective families. The next-of-kins John C & Edw C might be first or second cousins of John Looney, perhaps children of an unknown brother (or two) of his mother. John Looney's mother Margaret Christian would be at least a generation older, given she died 62 years before the will and John Looney was nearly 80 when he died.

Bottom line, I think Averil has the two Johns 1781 and 1783 the wrong way around. The unseen 1868 will of Jurby John, the schoolmaster, would help if he mentioned a Looney relative. He's very old and long removed from Maughold, with perhaps all his sibs dead by then, so it's a bit of a long shot.

I've spent way more time than I can afford to get to this point. I'd be interested if anybody can add to this. It's been a wonderful/frustrating genealogy detective puzzle to figure out.