liament is binding there[u]. It was formerly a subordinate
feudatory kingdom, subject to the kings of Norway; then to king John
and Henry III of England; afterwards to the kings of Scotland; and
then again to the crown of England: and at length we find king Henry
IV claiming the island by right of conquest, and disposing of it to
the earl of Northumberland; upon whose attainder it was granted (by
the name of the lordship of Man) to sir John de Stanley by letters
patent 7 Hen. IV[w]. In his lineal descendants it continued for eight
generations, till the death of Ferdinando earl of Derby, _A.D._ 1594;
when a controversy arose concerning the inheritance thereof, between
his daughters and William his surviving brother: upon which, and a
doubt that was started concerning the validity of the original
patent[x], the island was seised into the queen's hands, and
afterwards various grants were made of it by king James the first; all
which being expired or surrendered, it was granted afresh in 7 Jac. I.
to William earl of Derby, and the heirs male of his body, with
remainder to his heirs general; which grant was the next year
confirmed by act of parliament, with a restraint of the power of
alienation by the said earl and his issue male. On the death of James
earl of Derby, _A.D._ 1735, the male line of earl William failing, the
duke of Atholl succeeded to the island as heir general by a female
branch. In the mean time, though the title of king had long been
disused, the earls of Derby, as lords of Man, had maintained a sort of
royal authority therein; by assenting or dissenting to laws, and
exercising an appellate jurisdiction. Yet, though no English writ, or
process from the courts of Westminster, was of any authority in Man,
an appeal lay from a decree of the lord of the island to the king of
Great Britain in council[y]. But, the distinct jurisdiction of this
little subordinate royalty being found inconvenient for the purposes
of public justice, and for the revenue, (it affording a convenient
asylum for debtors, outlaws, and smugglers) authority was given to the
treasury by statute 12 Geo. I. c. 28. to purchase the interest of the
then proprietors for the use of the crown: which purchase hath at
length been completed in this present year 1765, and confirmed by
statutes 5 Geo. III. c. 26, & 39. whereby the whole island and all
it's dependencies, so granted as aforesaid, (except the landed
property of the Atholl family, their mane