iv.

a portion of the community might by possibility be disposed to manifest towards the decisions of those appointed for their go

vernment.

That trifling inaccuracies may have found their way into this first edition, and escaped my most attentive revision, is not only possible, but probable. And as it is to be recollected, that the greatest portion of the Statute Laws of the Isle of Man have not been hitherto correctly printed, and that the present edition has been in a great measure taken from manuscript copies, I have some pride in anticipating that the inaccuracies which may be discovered in it, will not exceed a few typographical errors; and that such will in no respect either confound the meaning, or interfere with the true construction of the passages wherein they may be found.

Notwithstanding that my undertaking was commenced under the most flattering patronage-patronage continued to the moment of its completion-yet, obstacles, which the peculiar situation of the island rendered it difficult to surmount, and by which the expence of printing has been considerably augmented, have occurred to render a protracted publication unavoidable; a circumstance, however, which I am persuaded neither the public or the subscribers will ultimately have cause to regret, as, in consequence, they now have THE ONLY PERFECT EDITION OF THE LAWS OF the Isle of MAN, which has ever been offered for the general information of the public.

ISLE OF MAN, AUGUST, 1821.

MARK ANTHONY MILLS.

Ordinances and Statutes

OF THE

ISLE OF MAN,

PREVIOUS TO THE REVESTMENT.

In this Book ensueth diverse Ordinances, Statutes, and Customes, presented, reputed, and used for Laws in the Land of Mann, that were rattifyed, approved, and confirmed, as well by the honourable Sir John Stanley, Knight, KING and Lord of the same Land, and diverse others his Predecessors, as by all Barrons, Deemsters, Officers, Tennants, Inhabitants, and Commons, of the same Land,

OUR DOUGHTFULL AND GRATIOUS LORD, this is the Constitution of old Time, the which we have given in our Days, how yee should be governed on your Tinwald Day. First, you shall come thither in your Royal Array, as a King ought to do, by the Prerogatives and Royalties of the Land of Mann. And upon the Hill of Tynwald sitt in a Chaire, covered with a Royall Cloath and Cushions, and your Visage into the East, and your Sword before you, holden with the Point upward; your Barrons in the third degree sitting beside you, and your beneficed Men and your Deemsters before you sitting; and your Clarke, your Knights, Esquires and Yeomen, about you in the third Degree; and the worthiest Men in your Land to be called in before your Deemsters, if you will ask any Thing of them, and to hear the Government of your Land, and your Will; and the Commons to stand without the Circle of the Hill, with three Clearkes in their Surplisses. And your Deemsters shall make Call in the Coroner of Glanfaba; and he shall call in all the Coroners of Man, and their Yards in their Hands, with their Weapons upon them, either Sword or Axe. And the Moares, that is, to Witt of every Sheading. Then the Chief Coroner, that is the Coroner of Glanfaba,

B

shall make Affence, upon Paine of Life and Lyme, that noe Man make any Disturbance or Stirr in the Time of Tinwald, or any Murmur or Rising in the King's Presence, upon Paine of Hanging and Drawing.. And then shall let your Barrons and all other know you to be their King and Lord, and what Time you were here you received the Land as Heyre Apparent in your Father's Days. And all your Barrons of Man, with your worthiest Men and Commons, did you Faith and Fealtie. And in as much as you are, by the Grace of God, now King and Lord of Man, yee will now that your Commons come unto you, and shew their Charters how the hould of you. And your Barrons, that made no Faith nor Fealtie unto you, that they make now.

And if any of your Barrons be out of the Land, they shall have the space of Fourty Days. After that they are called in to come shew whereby the hould and clayme Lands and Tenements, within your Land of Man; and to make Faith and Fealtie, if Wind and Weather served them, or els to cease their Temporalties into your Hands. And then to proceed in your Matters, whatsoever you have there to doe, in Fellony or Treason, or other Matters that touch the Governance of your Land of Manne. First, that Watch and Ward be kept through your said Land as it ought, upon Pain of Life and Lyme; for whosoever fails any Night in his Ward, forfeiteth a Wether to the Warden; and to the Warden the seacond Night a Cowe; and the third Night Life and Lyme to the Lord.

And to charge all Manner of Men within your said Land to be ready at your Calling, upon Paine of Life and Lyme, And then to ordaine and proclaime, that neither Vessell nor Boat take any Man out of this Land, upon pain of Forfeiture of his Vessell and Goods, and restoring the Man into the Land again, he paying the Debts he oweth unto the Lord. But if it be the Shipmen or Merchants that to Day come into the Land, and pass again at the next Wind; and noe Man that is resident within the said Land without a special Lycence. Alsoe, when you send your Lieutennant into your Land of Man, and cometh thither received as Lieutennant, in setting of Lands Courts, houlding and all other Governances we give for Law, that all his Deeds be firm and stable, and what Man offendeth to him be punished, as they that offend to the Lord.

Alsoe, whosoever is borne and resident within your Land of Man, though he had paid his Debts and Farme, he ought

not to goe out of your Land without a speciall Lycense; and if he doe, the Law is told you in the Governance Tyn wald. But if he goe himself away with any Boat of his own, or if he steale any Mans Boat, he is a Fellone; and if it so may be found, he forfeiteth his Goods, whose Tennant soever he be. Alsoe, whosoever occupieth any Parcell of Land, within your Land of Man, with Cattle or with Manure, (except he be any of your Tennants Inlaynes) he ought to pay the value of that which he occupieth without Quest setting or Farm taking, at or Farm taking, at your List by your Law.

Alsoe, whosoever is sett by Enquest sworn, whether he be poor or rich, he shall pay it if he have any Goods that occupieth the Land of the Lord, either in Herbage or Manure. And if he have no Goods in time of setting, the Quest shall pay for him, for putting him in the Rowles that hath noe Goods; and then he to be put in service, or else to take vs. in a Farme, and to find Sureties of Payment by our Laws of Manne. Alsoe, whereas it is said, that the Porter of your Castle, your waged Yeomen within your Garrison Dwelling, should beate your Tennants when they be brought to Prisson, and taketh of them more than their Fees, that ought not to be redressed before your Deemsters, but before your Constable withing your Garrison in which the Fault is so committed, by our Law of Manne.

Alsoe we give for Law, that a Castle Maze be paid out of five Maze of Herrings in a Boate taken, and Halfe a Maze out of two Maze and a Halfe in a Boate gotten, as oft as they goe to Sea and gotten soe; and that is our Law by Custome and Usage; and the Lord to pay vjd. for a Maze thereof, provided that the Bringers of the first Maze shall for the same have iij s. iiij d.

Alsoe touching the Carriage of your Turves, all your Tennants of your six Sheadings ought by our Laws, to carry your Turves to your Places, as pleaseth you to have them, with all other Carriages, Suite, and Servises, that are needyou within your Land of Man, for it is Use and Custome of longe Time.

full to

Alsoe it is Use and Custome of long Time, that the Moars of every Shedding, pay two Marks of Office Silver Yearly to the Lord; for it hath been used in divers Lords Days, and soe we now give for Law to be paid.

Alsoe it is our Law, that no Coron. arrest a Man for

Debt

owinge, unless he have a speciall Warrant from the

Lord or his Lieutenant; but in Points of Fellony, or deli

vering of Servants, or for Surety of the Peace, with many other Points that belong unto his Office, he ought to do these by vertue of his Office without Warrant.

Alsoe, whatsoever Enquest the Lord or his Lieutenant taketh to sett his Land by their Oathes, there ought noe Man to falsiefie them, for whosoever doth he forfeits iij. to the Lord, if it may be proved or knowne.

Also it is lawfull to any of the Lord's Councell to stirr or move any Man to doe that may profit the Lord truely.

Aisoe, for as much as the Riseing was made at Kirk Michaell upon the Lieutenant that represents the King's Person, his Officers, and his Men, those that the Lieutenant saw rise over him there without Craveing of Law, is this, that the be first drawne, and hanged, and quartered, and their Heads stricken off, and sett upon the Castle Tower over the Burne, another Quarter at Halland Towne, and the Third Quarter to be sett up at Ramsey, and the fourth at Douglas.

The Court of all the Tennants and Commons of Man, holden at Kirk Michaell, upon the Aill of Reneurling, before our doughtfull Lord Sir John Stanley, by the Grace of God, King of Mann and Th'isles, the Tuesday next after the Feast of St. Bartholomew, in the Year of our Lord God 1422.

1

IN the which Court the Bishop of Mann was called to come to doe his Faith and Fealtie unto the Lord, as the Law asketh, and to shew by what Claime he houldeth his Lands and Tenements within the Lordship of Mann, the which came and did his Faith and Fealtie to the Lord. The Abbott alsoe of Rushen, and Priors of Douglas, were called to doe their Fealtie, and to shew their Claimes of their Houldings, Lands and Tenements, within the Lordship of Man; the which came and did their Fealtie to the Lord. The Prior of Withorne, in Galloway, the Abbott of Furnace, the Abbott of Bangor, the Abbott of Saball, and the Prior of St. Beade, in Copeland, were called in and came not; therefore they were deemed by the Deemsters, that the should come in their proper Persons within xl days, and if they came not, then to loose all their Temporalties, to be ceised into the Lords Hands in the same Court.

It is ordained and proclaimed that all the Watches and Wardes upon the Ports and Coasts of the Sea be well and