Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor
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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
A harvest-time initiative backed by the Manx Government to mitigate the destruction of scarce food crops on the Island was noticed in the Editorial column of the Manx Advertiser of 8 August 1812. 'Subscription papers under the sanction of the Honourable the Lieutenant - Governor, the Deemsters and Speaker of the House of Keys (who have all become subscribers) have been sent to each town and parish, which, it is expected, will furnish the means of offering such rewards for the destruction of the most mischievous birds, and their eggs, as will in 2 or 3: years effectually remove the nuisance. The quantity of food taken by the birds annually, 'the largest proportion to the earliest crops of grain.......... if preserved would be equal to the sustenence of many hundred human beings'. A growing body of Manx improving agriculturalists, allied since 1802 with John Christian Curwen's Workington Agricultural Society, were at this point available to help the Government at a time of economic crisis.
The report in the Manx Advertiser of 10 October 1812 of the calling of a public meeting, and on 31 October 1812, of the appointment of an impressive committee of four notable persons from the Douglas area - Senhouse Wilson, the Receiver General, Colonel Steuart of Villa Marina, the son of the noted Cheshire architect, George Steuart,and John Moore of the Hills House, with Mark Wilks, Vice-President of the Agricultural Society, as Secretary, and a group of supporters paying annual subscriptions ranging from a maximum of £2 to no less than half a crown, are the last known recorded acts of this society,which may or may not have gone into action. Mark Wilks left the Island in April 1813 to become Governor of St. Helena, where 'he succeeded in winning the the devotion of the Islanders there' by, among other things 'his improvements in agriculture'.
Isle of Man newspapers, ut supra
A.W.Moore, Manx Worthies (Douglas, 1901) pp. 154 -157 [Mark Wilks]
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor |
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