NOTE II.-PAGE 31.

POPULATION OF THE ISLE OF MAN

AT DIFFERENT PERIODS, Exhibiting the INCREASE SINCE THE YEAR 1726.

"These accounts are made up with regularity and exactness in general, though Governor Shaw conceives that from some superstitious motive many of the people do not like to give in the whole number of their families."-Feltham, p. 188.

In the year 1824, when the Duke of Atholl was about to dispose of all his remaining privileges and immunities in Man to the British Government, it was ascertained, by an account then taken, that the gross rental of the Island amounted to about £70,000 sterling. The present rental of the Island is said to be about £100,000.Lord Teignmouth's Sketches; vol. ii. p. 414, London edit. 1836.

CHAPTER II.

WELSH KINGS FROM A.D. 517 TO 919.

Various opinions as to the etymology of the Name of the Island—Shown to be derived from the Celtic language—Mannanan-Beg-Mac-y-Leirr regarded by the Manks as the founder and legislator of their kingdom-Not a brother of Fergus II., king of Scotland, as stated by some authors—That he was the son of an Irish prince equally improbable-Apparently identical with Mainus or Finnan, descendants of Fergus I.-Early Manks History defective-Gallovidians and Picts, defeated by the Romans, take refuge in the Isle of Man-The Manksmen assist the Gallovidians against the Romans, and fight bravely-Voadicia raises an army in ManShe is taken prisoner in Galloway, and put to death by the Roman Captain, Cerealis, and her troops defeated-Brule, a Scot, Governor of Man-Maelgwyn Gwynedd, prince of North Wales, defeats the Scots in Man, and takes possession of that Island—His son, Rhun, defeated there by Aidon, king of Scotland, who establishes his nephew in Man, with the title of Thane-He is slain, and Beli, prince of North Wales, succeeds to the sovereignty of Man-Cadwallon defeated by Edwin, king of Deria, who conquers and takes possession of the Isle of Man-Cadwalader succeeds his father Cadwallon-Retakes and retains the Isle of Man-North Wales divided by the law of Gavel-Kind-Cynan Tindaethwy obtains peaceable possession of the Isle of Man-Mervyn Vrych marries Essyllt, daughter of Cynan, and in her right succeeds to the sovereignty of Man-The name of Mona formerly applied to Anglesea, now confined solely to Man-A hostile fleet from Mona enters the river Boyne-Rodri Maur succeeds his father in the sovereignty of Man, and being sovereign of all Cambria at his death, these dominions are, by the laws of Gavel-Kind, partitioned -His son, Anarawd, inherits the Isle of Man as his part-At the demise of Anarawd the dynasty of the Welsh kings of Man closes, having extended over a period of nearly four centuries.

ETYMOLOGISTS are not agreed respecting the derivation of Man, as applied to the Island described in the preceding chapter. It was called Monoeda, by Ptolemy; Monabia,

by Pliny; Menabia, by Bede; Eubonia, by Gildas; and Menaw, by the Welsh.' Cæsar mentions an island called Mona, that lies midway between Britain and Ireland." Tacitus relates the circumstance of the army of Paulinus Suetonius coming from the mainland to Mona, the infantry in flat bottomed boats, and the cavalry by fording the passage and swimming their horses. The army under the command of Agricola crossed without the assistance of any vessels, and so frightened the inhabitants of Mona, by the boldness of such conduct, that they immediately sued for peace.

3

A learned dissertation, tending to prove that Cæsar alluded to the Isle of Man, and Tacitus to Anglesea, was published in the eighteenth century. Mona was the ancient name of both islands, which some suppose to be derived from the Saxon word Mon, signifying isolated, to which Cæsar gave the Latin termination; but it has more the appearance of being derived from the Celtic language, a circumstance hitherto overlooked by all the learned expounders of that little word."

It should be observed, that in analyzing proper names in any language, much must, of necessity, be left to conjecture; some of them are quite obvious; others, from being corrupted in pronunciation and then written in a corrupted form, are altogether obscured. The Manks, in writing their dialect of the Celtic, give the letters the same powers as the English. The Gael of Scotland, on the other hand, combine theirs ingeniously, to denote the va

1 Anderson's Royal Genealogies, fol. 773.

2 Cæsar de Bello Gallico, lib. v, chapter xv; Pliny, book iv, section xvi.

3 Life of Agricola, Annals, book xiv. Sections xiv and xviii, evidently apply to Anglesea.

4 Brown's Dissertation about the Mona of Cæsar and Tacitus, London 1707, p. 152. 5 Owen's Dictionary; Lambard's Typographical Dictionary, p. 103; Harrison's Description af Britain, p. 37.

6 H. Lhuyd's Description of Britain, folio 17. It is remarkable that there is no mention made of the Isle of Man in the Saxon Chronicles.

rious and very peculiar sounds of their primitive and expressive speech. The Manks call their Island "Mannin," “In” being an old Celtic word for "Island;" therefore, "Meadhon-In" (pronounced "Mannin") signifies literally "The middle Island." May this not be the true derivation of the name?

66

The Manks suppose their Island to have derived its name from Mannanan-Beg-Mac-y-Leirr,* who, they say, was the father, founder, and legislator of their country.2 He is thus described in the Statute Book of the Island: Mannanan-Beg-Mac-y-Leirr, the first person who held Man, was the ruler thereof, and after whom the land was named, reigned many years, and was a paynim-he kept the land under mist by his necromancy. If he dreaded an enemy, he would cause one man to seem an hundred, and that by art magic.'

This personage is stated to have been the son of a king of Ulster, and a brother of Fergus II, the restorer of the Scottish monarchy ;3 but it is known to every person conversant in Scottish history, that Erich, the father of Fergus II, was not an Irish king. He lived from his boyhood an exile in Denmark, where he died, leaving only one son, Fergus, who afterwards ascended the Scottish throne. Long before that period, the Manks had assisted the Gallovidians in their wars against the Romans, consequently this assertion has no foundation in history.*

1 "Y or I" likewise in the Celtic language signifies "an island."-Goodall's Introduction to the History and Antiquities of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1773, p. 13. The definition given by the Monk of Chester out of Gildas is more amusing. "The Isle of Man is seated in the navel of the sea, as it were in the very midst of all that the kings of Great Britain do command, even as the heart of a man is seated in the midst of his body. The comparison will hold very fitly, for the heart of a man is encompassed in a bag of water, called the pericardium, and therefore the heart of man may truly be called the Isle of Man."

* Appendix, Note i.-"Traditionary Ballad."

2 M.S. Record preserved in the Castle of Rushen.

3 Sacheverell's Account of the Isle of Man, London, 1702, p. 20.

Hollinshead's Chronicles of Scotland, edition 1805, vol. i. p. 147; Anderson's Royal Genealogies, London, 1736, p. 754.

helin

That he was a son of Alladius, who was of royal blood, and that his own name was Orbsen, but called Mannan from his country, and after the manner of those ages, Lear, or "God of the sea," from his skill in navigation, I think equally improbable. Lear, in the Gælic, signifies the sea" only, not the God of the sea, as Toland would wish his readers to believe.'

66

It is, I think, much more probable that the great magician and legislator owned identity with Mainus the son of Fergus I. king of Scotland; or else with his descendant Finnan, king of Scotland. Mainus ascended the Scottish throne, B.C. 290, fifteen years after the death of his father; his uncle Feritharis having, in the interim, wielded the sceptre. He had, it is probable, after the custom of that age, received his education in the Isle of Man. The traditionary character ascribed to Mannanan Beg agrees in many respects with that recorded of king Mainus:"He was the establisher and cultivator of religion, after the manner of the Egyptians. He instituted several new and solemn ceremonies. He caused great stones to be placed in the form of a circle; towards the south was one mighty stone far greater than all the rest, pitched up in the manner of an altar, whereupon the priests made their sacrifices in honour of their gods. To the goddess of hunting, he instituted a monthlie sacrifice, by reason whereof this use was taken, that so soon as any of them got sight of the new moon, next after her change, he saluted her, which custom remained among them many hundred years.

King Finnan succeeded his father Josina, B.C. 134. In the character of legislator, he is recorded to have ordained

'Toland's History of the Druids, London, 1726, p. 66.

2 In the General Atlas, folio, London, 1721, he is, seemingly by mistake, called the brother of Fergus I, king of Scotland.

3 Boetius, book ii, p. 15; Dr. Macpherson, p. 314; Grose's Tour in Scotland, 4to, London, 1786, vol. ii, p. 206; Hollinshead's Chronicles of Scotland, Arbroath edition, 1805, vol. i, p. 51.