423 
ISLE or MAN. 
without either licence or the publication of banns. Even 
the prohibited degree of affinity was never fettled by an aft 
of Tinwald ; and to the prefent time no other legal difa- 
bilities exilt. The marriage-ceremony is according to the 
proteftant church, and feveral of the regulations obierved 
in England were, at this time, adopted here. No perlon 
can be married till he has received the facrament, except 
by fpecial leave of the ordinary ; nor any one, except a 
widow or widower, under twenty-one years of age, with¬ 
out the confent of the father or guardian, or, in default of 
thefe, of the mother, except by the publication of banns 
for three fucceffive Sundays, which, if not objefted to, 
implies their confent. If the father is dead, and the mi¬ 
nor is unable to procure the confent of his guardian or 
mother to the propofed marriage, he may petition the go¬ 
vernor for leave; and, if the governor deems the objedtion 
of the guardian or mother infufficient, he may grant leave 
accordingly. Aliens may not marry till they have refided 
three months on the ifland. 
When banns have not been publiffied, a licence from 
the bifliop or his deputy is always neceffary; the folemni- 
zation mull be by a minilter; and at the parifh-church of 
one of the parties, unlefs the bilhop grant a fpecial li¬ 
cence, under his own hand and leal, to marry clfewhere. 
The coll of a licence is a Britiffi crown ; of a fpecial li¬ 
cence forty (hillings. Thefe fums being moderate, banns 
are not very frequent. A refidence of three days renders 
the party a parifhioner. 
Man and wife, baron and fane, are not fo completely 
united into one perfon by the Manks as by the Englifh 
law. All property, except landed eftates of inheritance, 
they poffefs in common, with this difference, that the huf- 
bancl may bequeath his fhare of the property to whom he 
will; the wife, if (he makes a will at all, may leave tlie 
property only to her children by the prefent hufband. I( 
(lie has none, fhe cannot make a will. On the death of 
the hufband, the widow enters upon her (hare ot the pro¬ 
perty ; on the death of the wife, not having made a will, 
the hufoand enters upon the whole. In cafes o( treafon 
or felony, only the criminal’s (hare becomes forfeited. A 
father is obliged to maintain his children till they attain the 
age of fourteen years. At this period terminates all legal 
obligation between them. A child at this age may de¬ 
mand any legacy and depart; but, if he is entitled to any 
inheritance from the mother, and nevertheless remains at 
home, the father is entitled to the intereft or ufe of the 
money as a compenfation for his maintenance. But chil¬ 
dren, thus entering upon their property at the early age of 
fourteen, are not permitted to difpofe of any part of it till 
they are twenty-cne years old, except in cafes of abfolute 
neceffity, approved of by the governor. A child is not 
confidered to be difinherited, unlefs the legacy of fixpence 
be left to him. Illegitimate children cannot inherit; but 
the intermarriage of the father and mother, within three 
years of the birth of a natural child, will render that child 
legitimate. A father may appoint a guardian. If he ne- 
glefts to do fo, and leaves a widow and one child, the fa¬ 
ther’s kindred have the cuftody of the child till it is four¬ 
teen years old. If there are two children left, the mother 
takes care of the eldeft, and may, by will, appoint a guar¬ 
dian ; the fecond child is to be taken care of as an only 
one would be. A guardian mult not, except in cafes of 
extremity, let the lands of a minor for a longer term than 
his minority. 
There are no bodies corporate in the Ifle of Man, ex¬ 
cept thofe which are necefi'arily fo in virtue of the office, 
and are foie corporations; as, the bifliop, parfons, vicars, 
churchwardens, and fome others. They are rendered fo 
by holding, in perpetuity, a truft infeparable from the 
office. 
All the lands of Man belonged, formerly to the lord. 
Even fo lately as the fixteenth century, no perfon could 
fell, or in any manner alienate, his land, by whatever ti¬ 
tle acquired, without a licence, either from the lord, or 
from three of liis principal officers. The occupiers of the 
foil were termed the lord’s tenants, and all were fubjeft 
to the payment of a fine or rental. James earl of Derby 
endeavoured, in the year 164.3, to make all the tenures 
leafehold, either for three lives or twenty-one years; and 
appointed four commifiioners to compound with the 
holders, and make agreements in the belt manner they 
could. His conduct gave rife to a warm contelt between 
the fovereign and the landholders, which terminated in 
1703, the former agreeing forhimfelf and fuccelfors to give 
up all title to the land, fo long as the latter paid him the 
fines and rentals, agreed between them individually and 
the earl’s commifiioners, in and after the year 1643. The 
lord’s dues were thus made incontrovertibly fixed, how¬ 
ever much the land might at any future time be improved, 
and the value of it increafed. The term of a leafe mu ft 
not exceed twenty-one years; and a mortgage, if not re¬ 
deemed within five years, renders the parties liable to the 
fine of alienation. 
In 1777 an aft was palled, confirming this aft of fettle- 
ment, the preamble of which breathed an air of greater 
freedom than had till then prevailed. Eltates became on 
the death of the owner the property of the eldeft fon ; or, 
if there was no fon, of the eldeft daughter ; and herein 
did the law of Man differ from that of other feudal na¬ 
tions. The courage of the female inhabitants, to whom 
a fignal viftory was once attributed, was perhaps the foun¬ 
dation of this cuftom, extant at the prefent time for eftates 
remaining entailed, and for thofe of perfons dying inteftate. 
The ilie was divided into fix hundred portions, called 
quarterlands; but, according to Feltham, the prefent num¬ 
ber is feven hundred and fifty-nine; all other eftates ap¬ 
pear to be allotments out of, or encroachments upon, 
thefe. In the pofleffion of land, no diftinftion is made 
between natives and aliens. A title to land may be ac¬ 
quired by the fentence of the court of law, or by occu¬ 
pancy, as well as by defeent, devife, or purchafe. Every 
landholder has a right by prefeription, or immemorial 
cuftom, of feeding his flieep or cattle upon the commons, 
their number being in proportion to the quantity of land 
which he holds. Every inhabitant poflefles the fame right 
of quarrying (tone for his own ufe; and alfo, on the an¬ 
nual payment of one halfpenny to the lord, a fum not now 
demanded, of digging peat upon the mountains. In cafes 
of treafon or felony, eltates, real as well as perfonal, are 
forfeited to the lord. 
A title to things perfona! may be acquired by prero¬ 
gative, by forfeiture, by defeent, by devife, by purchafe, 
by aftion at law, by occupancy, by marriage, by cuftom, 
by gift, by exchange, by diftraint for rent, or by execu¬ 
tion fubfequent to the judgment of a court. A few of 
thefe heads require fome explanation. All wrecks not 
claimed within a-year and a-day, and all mines, are the 
lord’s by his prerogative. Forfeitures of felons’ goods 
were made to the lord, except goats to the queen, and 
certain perquifites or fees to the coroner and deemlter, 
never to the bilhop, or other barons, even when they held 
their own courts. The right of treafure-trove has been 
transferred from the lord proprietor to the king of Eng¬ 
land ; but no cafe relative to felons’ goods has occurred 
fince the re-veltment. Game belonged to the lord by 
his prerogative. The killing of a hawk, heron, hart, or 
hind, without his licence, fubjefted the party to a penalty 
of 3I. one half to the lord, and one half to the informer; 
the (hooting of a pigeon, partridge, or groufe, to a penalty 
of il. Thus a pigeon is accounted game; but a hare is 
not fo. A licence for a year may generally be obtained 
by application to the proper officer, and the payment of the 
fee of half-a-crown. 
A widow becomes entitled, on the death of her huf¬ 
band, to half the real and perfonal eftate, entails excepted, 
poflefled by them, whether he has made a will or not. If 
he dies inteftate, the children, or the reprefentatives, in¬ 
herit the other half in equal portions; and if there are no 
children, or their reprelentatives, the next of kindred in 
equal degree, reprelentatives among collaterals, after bro¬ 
thers 
