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The Editor
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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
Since 1575, the long-established practice of appointing a Surgeon to the Household of the Lords of Man, has been recorded in their archives. Dr. William Fowler came to Castletown, the old capital of the Island, in that year, attached to the household of the fourth Earl, and with additional responsibilities for the health of the Castle Rushen Garrison and the prisoners in the Gaol. The records of appointment continue in almost unbroken succession until 1755, when Governor Basil Cochrane asked the second Duke of Atholl, Governor of the Island from 1751 to 1761, for permission to invite Thomas Gillespie to practice as a surgeon, not only for the Lord's Household, but also for subscribing private patients, as there was no-one on the Island 'who knew anything of the matter' of medicine.
After the revestment of the sovereignty of the Isle of Man In the Crown of Britain in 1765 Thomas Gillespie was appointed Surgeon to the Household of the British-appointed Governor and the post and its salary were officially revived in 1772, from which date an almost unbroken and ongoing record survives.
There has been no consistent attempt up to now to find out the number and evaluate the status and proficiency of the medical practitioners of the Island. David Craine, in his essay 'Early Manx Doctors' Manannan's Isle, Douglas, 1955, gives an interesting but incomplete account, largely from Court records, civil and ecclesiastical, of both the Manx native herbal doctors and the few incomers claiming some professional training, abroad in the sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The records of Douglas courts however, which contain detailed depositions from examining doctors, have not been examined, maintaining a misleading impression of the overall Island standards at a time of considerable social and professional progress in the developing towns.
The evidence of the first printed local Directories and the Manx-published newspapers gives a picture of a society in much greater conformity with the developing patterns of British medicine. The first 56 years of Manx National Heritage's newspaper indexes, from 1793 to 1849 hold details of 89 self- styled medical practitioners, qualified and unqualified, operating on the Island, a large and favourable base for the development of medicine on the Island in pace with the reforms of Britain, particularly the need to raise professional standards by training and to exclude the many unqualified practitioners by registration. The doctors listed in Pigot's Directory of 1824, five at Douglas, four at Castletown, one at Ramsey (there were no doctors at Peel) were the most esteemed and respected, J.N.Squire in Douglas being the 'late House Surgeon of the Windsor Royal Dispensary'. By 1843, having faced serious epidemics of cholera, tackled the problems of poverty, especially in the towns - 'the gratuitous attentions of unwearied beneficence of Messrs. Garrett and Oswald', for example, having aided the vital work of the Friendly Societies as their surgeons and worked for a Dispensary and Hospital, a medical establishment existed.
The Manx Sun of 1 April 1843 reported the meeting of medical gentlemen in Douglas with a view to establishing a 'Medical and Philosophical Society'. It is understood that they adopted measures to present to the local legislature, hereafter, a Bill for their examination to regulate the practice of medicine on the Island. Also the the subject of establishing a preparatory school for the surgical instruction of Manx youth, is said to be in contemplation . The first meeting of the society was held at Castletown on 27 October 1843 attended by several doctors from different parts of the Island, including a contingent from Douglas. An election for vacancies on the Committee was held, members delivered several interesting papers and cases were laid before members of the society.
The record of the Annual Meeting of the society published in the Manx Star for 29 March 1844 confirms their professional commitment and the healthy state of both membership and finances. Held at the British Hotel, Douglas at3 p.m. the meeting, which included in its business the circulation amongst members of British medical journals and the decision to start the society's library and to print the names of members and the Rules of the Society, before seriously contested elections of officers, was followed at at 6'o'clock, by an excellent dinner, with wines of the first quality.
In August 1844 under the aegis of the Society a bill was drawn up entitled 'An Act for the better regulation of the practice of medicine, surgery and pharmacy; and for the licensing of apothecaries, chemists, and druggists...' to be controlled by a medical board of six qualified practitioners appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, and adopted for passage through the House of Keys. [Mona's Herald, 13 August 1844]
Contrary to the expectations of the profession, the bill was not applauded as a major modern reform of a backward-looking muddle of unqualified practitioners, but opposed throughout the Island on the grounds of its adoption by an undemocratic assembly, the self-elected House of Keys, at the height of the franchise reform movement (see the Northern Association to secure the representation of the people in the legislature by ballot, 1844 - 47), and also the widespread opposition of the parishes in public meetings throughout the Island. The Mona's Herald of 10 September 1844 reported that 'out of seventeen parishes, fourteen have adopted efficient and energetic measures to prevent the passing into law of this outrage upon the liberty of the subject, this measure for the establishment of quackery - this scheme to pick the pockets of the public, under the pretence of establishing a medical board for the Island'.
The principle of freedom of choice of consultation from time- honoured unqualified practitioners against the proposed 'closed shop' approach of the bill was an important part of the Struggle. The resolution of the Parish of Arbory was typical. that the people of this Isle have from time immemorial enjoyed the right and privilege of consulting, in case of illness or accident, any person, in whose medical skill or knowledge they might place confidence, without any restraint whatever and that in the opinion of this meeting, to abrogate any ancient right or privilege, except in case the well being of the community at large requires such abrogation, |s uncalled for and unnecessary, and therefore a wanton and unwarrantable encroachment on public liberty'.
The bill was abandoned shortly afterwards. The further progress of the society, which had claimed to embody the highest contemporary ideals of the medical profession and to have a reforming mission, lapsed until 1896 when on the 4th of November 'at its first meeting after reconstitution' Dr. Haviland delivered a lecture, 'Medical geography as an aid to clinical medicine'. A medical registration act was passed by Tynwald in 1899.
M.N.H.L., Isle of Man newspapers ut supra; Public Record Office, General Registry, Libri Juramentorum
Eric Vernon, 'Surgeon to the Household', Journal of the Manx Museum, vol. VII,
no. 88, 1976,pp. 197 - 200:
David Craine, Manannan's Isle, (Douglas, 1955)
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor |
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