T 1/483/279 - Memorial of the Keys 1771

Isle Man 4th Febry 1771

My Lord

I have the honor to transmit to your Lordship the Memorial lately presented to me by the Keys of this Island. To avoid a Repetition of the particulars which attended my former Representation upon the Subject to my Lord Rochford, I beg leave to refer your Lorship to my Letters of the 8th Feby 1769 & the 11th April 1770. In Answer to which, my Lord Rochford was pleased to signify in his Letter of the 10th March 1769 his Majestys good Intentions towards the people of this Isle with assurances that their request would receive proper Consideration, when it came before the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury - and further in his Lordship's Letter upon the same Subject on the 30th June 1770, he mentions his having transmitted to the Lords of the Treasury an abstract of my Letter, relative to the position of the Inhabitants of this Isle with regard to their Trade.

May I therefore now beg leave to recommend to your Lordship the unhappy Case of this People whose Situation is truly deplorable.

I have the honor to be &c

John Wood

Memorial

To his Excy John Wood Esqr Governor in Chief & Captain General of this Isle.

The Memorial of the Keys of Mann Humbly Sheweth

That in the Month of Febry 1769 your Memsts on behalf of themselves & the Inhabitants of this Island addressed & waited on your Excy with their most humble & dutiful petition to his most Sacred Majesty setting forth the miserable & distress'd State of this Isle, shut out from all Manner of Commerce foreign & domestick & subject to such peculiar Hardships as no one part of his Mtys Dominions hath the misfortune to labour under, & humbly beseeching that they might be allowed such Privileges & Indulgences as the rest of their fellow Subjects in the like Circumstances & Situation have the Happiness to enjoy.

That your memorialists have ever since comforted themselves & the Inhabitants with his Royal Assurance in hopes that when more important Matters were adjusted, the great Distresses of 25,00 loyal Protestant Subjects might one time or other become an object of Consideration.

That yet so it is, nothing has been done in so much that the Inhabitants in a manner reduced to the utmost Extremity of Despair are daily removing themselves & families & going to Foreign Kingdoms to seek a Livelihood: the Houses and Buildings in the Several Towns uninhabited & going to Decay, their Infant Manufactures declining for Want of Circulating Cash; everything in in an apparent State of Desolation.

That it would be endless to ennumerate the many uncommon Hardships imposed on the people & inhabitants of this Isle by several late acts of Parliament, whereby they are not only deprived of all Manner of Commerce, but of Ships & Vessels are laid under an absolute Restraint from taking the least Article of Stores & Provisions in any one part of this Island under the Severest of Penalties.

That since this Island became vested in the Crown several of its Inhabitants have attempted to establish small factories & carry on different branches of business but here so many obstructions and Difficulties to encounter, that they are by no means able to bring any one thing to Perfection. That several have been at great Expence in erecting Buildings & getting proper hands for the making & [exporting?] of Red Herrings, a Branch of Business never before attempted. But to their great disappointment are not able to effect their Purpose as the Laws of Great Britain now stand, for as their fisheries are very precarious & uncertain, at best but of a short Duration & many years fail altogether, the Inhabitants are so unhappily [as] instanced, that by a late Act of Parliament they are prohibited from shipping, even upon bond, in their fishing vessels any the least quantity of salt to handle & cure their fish, either on the coasts of this Isle or in their neighboring Kingdoms. Nor are they allowed to export their Salt Fish or Provisions when cured into any part of Great Britain or any of his Majesty's Plantations abroad.

That your Memorialists in order to obtain some mitigation & Relief from the said Penal Statutes have been for these 5 years past at great Expence in sending Commissioners to London to solicit the affairs of this Isle, but to no effect or purpose & being now destitute of Funds, & without a Representative or Friend in the Great Council of the Nation, have no other Recourse, but by laying some of our Grievances before your Excy: whose Goodness of heart ever attentive to the Welfare of these People cannot but be sensibly affected by their Distresses.

Most Humbly imploring your Excellency to represent & lay their calamitous Situation before the Throne of their most gracious Sovereign that the People & Inhabitants of this Isle may be put on the same footing with the Islands of Guernsey & Jersey under the like Circumstances or obtain such other Relief as shall be found conducive to the State of the Good, & Welfare of this Isle, and your Memorialists will for ever your Excy pray &c

At our Meeting in Castletown Jany 8 1771

Richard Tyldesley, Tho Moore, Wm Callow, Hugh Cosnahan, Philip Moore, Thos Radcliffe Wm Stevenson, Wm Qualtrough, Wm Cubbon, George Moore, Jno Taubman, Richd Ambse Stevenson, Tho Fargher, Jno Caesar

Notes