THE Ancient Ordinances AND STATUTE LAWS OF THE ISLE OF MAN: Carefully copied from, and compared with, the Authentic Records. TOGETHER WITH COPIOUS EXTRACTS FROM THE SEVERAL BRITISH STATUTES WHICH HAVE REFERENCE THERETO. PUBLISHED UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF The Right Hon. Lord SIDMOUTH, one of His Majesty's Principal His Grace JOHN, Duke of ATHOLL, Governor in Chief, His Majesty's Two Deemsters, "The House of Keys, and Gentlemen of the Manks Bar, &c. &c. BY MARK ANTHONY MILLS, Esq. Douglas: PRINTED AT THE PHOENIX PRESS 1821. Preface. IN the compilation of the following Work, comprising, at large, the Ordinances and Statutes of THE ISLE OF MAN, from the earliest period of which any record is extant, down to the present day, due care has been taken to preserve the antient or thography of the Original Manuscripts, from whence copies have been extracted with greater accuracy, and committed to the press with more circumspection, than has hitherto been adopted by any preceding publisher of Manks Laws. The APPENDIX will be found to contain a valuable collection of copious extracts from such British laws as have reference to the Isle of Man; the selection of which has been attended with considerable labour, and may be looked upon as an Index to the British Statutes, so far as they relate to the Island. In fact, it will afford a series of information equally important to the Private Gentleman, the Merchant, the Farmer, and Public Officer, as to those who belong to that Profession of which I have the honor to be a Member. And, upon the whole, it is presumed, that the Work has been got up with such attentive consideration, as will entitle it to be recognised in the Law Courts of the Isle of Man as one of legal reference, to which more than ordinary authority may be attached. For this reason, it is, therefore, as well as from the general contempt in which fulsome Dedications are held, that I have not offered my Book to the particular patronage of any of the distinguished personages who have honoured me by their approbation of my labours-nor prefixed to it any comment on either the antient or present jurisprudence of the country; for, besides the carelessness with which the introductory observations of a compiler or author are perused, some disadvantage might accrue from any lengthened dissertation on the general tendency of the laws of a country, when preceding a Compilation of its Statutes and Ordinances-by the conflicting constructions of the less learned, and the consequent speculative disrespect which so large |