The Isle of Man
Government & Administration
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The Island is not part of the United Kingdom but is an independent nation whose head of state happens to be the reigning Sovereign of England. The Island has it's own Parliament, the Keys, and does not elect any members to Westminster. However, for purely practical purposes, the Government of the United Kingdom maintains certain functions, such as Defense and Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Insular Government. The range of activities performed by Westminster was formerly much greater.
The House of Keys consists of 24 elected members. It's history can be traced back to Norse times and it lays claim to be the oldest, continuous Parliament in the world, pre-dating the British Parliament at Westminster by several centuries. Today it's most colourful function is Tynwald Day, held each year in June, at Tynwald Hill in St. John's, at which time all legislation passed in the past year is proclaimed in Manx and English.
The Established Church (The Church of England, Anglican or Episcopalian) is the diocese of Sodor and Man. The name Sodor is a corruption of Sudrey, the Southern Isles, and harks back to the Norse times when the diocese was in the archdiocese of Nidaros (today's Trondheim) in Norway. Originally the diocese embraced parts of Ireland and most of the islands off the west coast of Scotland. Today the diocese consists solely of the Isle of Man and comes under the Archdiocese of York.
The Island is divided into six Sheadings. The origin of the word sheading and the date at which it came into use are obscure and still the subject of debate. The possible meanings are:
Although the Oxford English Dictionary accepts "ship division" modern scholarship tends more towards "a sixth part".
Whatever the origin, it seems likely that the sheading corresponded to the original chief tribal units of the Island. The boundaries of Sheadings became more clearly defined during Norse times and were substantially those of today. The Sheadings are divided into parishes.
The parishes were for long the basis for military and civil organization. It seems as if there were originally sixteen each with a frontage on the sea (the present Marown and Santan once being one). As the parishes were established the church became the centre and most parishes have the prefix Kirk (usually abbreviated to KK in documents) derived from the Norse kirkja meaning church. There were numerous keeills or chapels in each division and the one selected to act as the parish church seems to have been the one most convenient at the time. Occasionally the choice was for reasons of tradition or special sanctity, as in the case of Maughold and Santan, which has resulted in a parish church which is now inconvenient for the parish as a whole.
The parish was subdivided into treens, an area of about 200 to 400 acres. Once of great importance in land matters the division is hardly known today. Each treen was further sub-divided into quarterlands (or kerroo in Manx) a term still in use today.
It seems likely that in early days the treen represented the area of land occupied by a tribe or family group. In Norse times it is believed that each treen had the duty to supply four fully equipped men for the war galleys, one from each quaterland. In early christian days it seems to have been the custom to build a chapel or keeill in each treen which was maintained by the owner of the estate.
There is one more administrative division that has a bearing on land documents. The sheadings are grouped into two divisions known as the North Side and the South Side. The original boundary between the two divisions followed the line of the water parting. The North Side consisted of the sheadings of Glenfaba, Michael and Ayre, the South Side of the sheadings of Garff, Middle and Rushen. Looking at the map it could be argued that a more logical designations would have been West Side and East Side.
Each division once had its own capital, chief and law officers. Castletown became the capital for the south and Peel for the north. When the Island became a really united kingdom Castletown became the only capital until it was displaced by Douglas in 1869. An interesting hold over from the two primary divisions is that today there are still two Deemsters, or chief law officers, originally the Northern and Southern Deemster but now known as the First (Northern) and Second (Southern) Deemster.
In 1796 an administrative decision blurred the original significance of North and South when it was enacted that for legal purposes the northern district would include Michael, Ayre and Garff while the southern district would include Glenfaba, Middle and Rushen. At the same time Onchan was moved from the Garff sheading to Middle sheading and Marown was moved from Middle sheading to Glenfaba sheading. This resulted in a fairly neat boundary running east-west across the middle of the Island. North Side was now definitely North of South Side. When looking for land documents one has to remember this change in boudaries.