The MacAlexanders of Michael
According to both JJ Kneen
in The Personal Names Of the Isle of Man, and Arthur Moore
in Surnames of Celtic Origin, The name Callister first
appears on the records of the Island in 1606, during Adam's lifetime.
Actually it was at least 20 years earlier. I have found a William
MacAlexander in 1583, who suddenly became William Callister in
1584. But it's probably true that Adam was the first in our immediate
family to become a Callister. We first find him on the land records
(spelled with 2 l's, in 1601.
Before it was Callister,
the researchers say, our family name was Mac Alexander, or Son
of Alexander..which is confusing until we learn that the scribes
who kept the records were Englishmen writing in Latin. Mac Alexander
is the English translation of the name as recorded in Latin.
But the Manx language is
a form of the Gaelic (the language of the Celts). The most common
Gaelic forms of Alexander were Alasdair and Alastair. The most
common patronymic form of the name is Mac Alister, or Mac Callister.
It's obvious this was our family's name. Only as written did it
become Mac Alexander.
Language is always evolving.
In Adam's day the Manx began to abbreviate the names that began
with the Mac prefix. Probably like the Irish they were under pressure
from the English to Anglicize their names.
The Island became a place
where names begin with C's and k's and Q's: Cowley and Corlett,
Kinvig and Quayle...and Callister. The language was "Q" Celtic
like the Gaelic of Ireland and Scotland, and the sound of the
hard "c" is all that's left of the Mac patronymic which was once
so widespread.
So instead of Alister our
name became Calister, and the record keepers stopped translating
it as Alexander. Had it really been Alexander, our name would
have been shortened to Calaxender or Calshander.
Adam was one of the first
to shorten his name to Callister. Started in his father's generation.
Not just in his immediate family. The earliest parish records
from the beginning of the 17th century don't list any Mac Alexanders
or Mac Alisters on the island, but the entries suggest 10-15 families
named Callister of Calister. As the records are somewhat incomplete
they may have been twice that many. Talk about Murdach and Margaret,
William, Thomas and John"s.
Adam must have been born
about 1575-1580 because his children were born between 1605 and
1620 and he died in 1633. He married Mabel Caine, and had six
children, all of them born in the Parish of Michael.
Their oldest boy, Hugh,
died when he was only 20. Margaret married a man named Quayle,
had four children, and died in 1658. Our ancestor, Gilbert, had
three boys and one daughter with his first wife, Jane Corlett,
and after her death he married a second woman whose name we don't
have, and had a daughter and two more sons, including our ancestor,
Dollin.
The high taxes and oppressive
polices of the Island's rulers made life difficult, but Adams
family did own land. Elaborate. Robert was his heir and left land
at Orrisdale to his son, Adam, who also managed to pick up (again)
Rencullin, and Balyfaden and a number of Intacks : The 4 towns).
How did he get it? Relationship with Margaret.
No doubt the family lived
off the land, raising cattle and crops, and probably making their
own clothing. (Conditions on the Island in the 17th century are
described in detail in a future chapter.)
Prior to 1598 there were
no parish records (of births, deaths, marriages, or wills) kept
on the island, so beyond that it becomes more difficult to trace
our lineage. But there are land records from the 16th century
that identify Mac Alexanders in the Parish of Michael at that
time, and court records from the 15th century which suggest that
a member of the family owned land in Michael as early as 1417.
Before we examine these
records it would probably be helpful to discuss the nature of
land ownership on the island. Celtic society was tribal in nature,
and the land originally belonged to the tribe. The Island's six
"Sheadings" probably corresponded originally to the chief tribal
units, according to RH Kinvig in The Isle of Man, although
the name came later during the Viking era, along with the division
of the Sheadings into Parishes.
From very early times the
land was also divided into smaller units of land which became
known as treens. Varying in size from 200-400 acres, he
treens were cultivated areas originally occupied for agriculture
and pasture by individual families or tribes. In time the treens
were subdivided into four quarterlands or kerroos.
Land ownership was originally
absolute, according to Canon EH Stenning, in Isle of Man,
and passed down from one generation to the next. But under
the Vikings and then the English Kings, ownership became subordinate
to the rights of the reigning monarch.
Godred Crovan, who established
a Viking dynasty in 1057, laid claim to the whole island, and
apportioned it among the Manx who had assisted him, on the condition
that they not claim hereditary rights. The treaty ceding Man to
the Scottish King Alexander III in 1266 had a similar provision.
And the English King, John Stanley, took away the rights of some
churchmen who didn't appear at his request to swear loyalty to
him in 1422.
But neither the Scottish
monarchs nor the early English lords actually lived on the Island.
And even though the English tried to institute a feudal system,
says Stenning, the Manx "clung tenaciously to their quasi-customary
freehold". paying the Lord's rent and performing their duties
as law and custom required, but steadily maintaining their hereditary
rights to the land.
The treens and quarterlands
had names, which often came from a family who lived there. Often
the name was preceded by "balla" which means homestead or
farm.
A quarterland in treen
of Grauffe in parish of Lonan named Ballacallister. Kneen says
"main seat of this family" but this is wrong as they were already
established in Michael.
No land records exist for
1417 when the name Mac Alexander first appears on the island records.
But William Mac Alexander, the first of the clan to be mentioned
anywhere, lived and must have owned land in Michael Parish where
our family originated.
William was a member of
"the Keys" in the early 1400's, during the rule of the English
King John Stanley II, and participated in the writing and framing
of many of the laws that have since governed the Island. The laws
passed and codified during this period have been described by
Stenning as the Manx Magna Charta.
The "Inquest of 24 Keys"
was a council established originally by the Viking King Godred
Crovan to represent the freemen of the Island when he created
the government for his Kingdom of Man and the Isles about 1079
AD. The members were chosen by election from among the land owners,
and were described as "the eldest and worthiest of all the land."
The meeting of the Tynwald
court, which had its roots in a Scandanavian ceremony called the
"Al Thing", was an annual event held at Tynwald Hill, a central
meeting point on the Island. Accompanied by much ceremony and
pageantry, it coincided with the Midsummer celebration, and was
eagerly awaited by the populace.
During the stormy period
between 1266 and 1405 when the Scottish and English Kings were
fighting over the Island the court didn't meet on a regular basis,
but it was revived during the early years of the Stanley regime.
The first Lord Stanley
never visited the Island, but sent his son and heir to meet with
the local leaders and the younger, Stanley, who became King in
1414, took an active interest in the Island's affairs, and asked
to be instructed in the ancient customs and laws.
Lord Stanley was still
consolidating his power, and in 1417, had to put down a rebellion
against the first governor he appointed. We don't know the rebels
grievances, or where William's sympathies lay, but that was the
same year he was chosen as a member of the Keys, and unlike the
Viking Kings of old, Lord Stanley reserved the right to veto any
member he objected to.
The election may have coincided
with Stanley's visit to the island when he demanded from Tynwald
an assurance that it's members realize any uprising against him
was punishable by death, and in which case the "indentures" which
the new members of the Keys received probably would have included
an agreement to support his rule..
The court proceedings were
recorded in Latin, but some of them have been transcribed and
tell us more about the events of the day, but not so far the role
of William Mac Alexander which must largely be inferred.
Kneen's book tells that
that William's Indenture was in 1417, and that he was a member
of the Keys at a court held in Tynwald in 1429, and also one held
at Castle Rushen in 1430. Kneen, Kinvig, and Stenning all describe
the proceedings of other courts in which he would also have been
a participant.
William would have been
there as well in 1422 when there was another revolt against the
new governor, John Walton. He was holding court at Kirk Michael,
less than a mile from the "Mac Alexander" quarterlands. The rebels
interrupted the proceedings, and chased Walton and his officials
into a church where they attacked him with shillelahs.
Stanley immediately came
to the island and convened a court at the hill of Reneurling,
(also known as Cronk Urleigh of Eagle Hill), near Kirk Michael,
where he summoned all "the tenants and commons" and tried the
rebels.
They were convicted of
disturbing the proceedings of the court after it was "fenced",
and also of attacking the officials on hallowed grounds, and sixteen
men were sentenced to be "drawn by wild horses, hanged, and beheaded."
Some who repented were spared, but Kneen says the ringleaders
"suffered the full penalty of the law." Among the rebels were
a Cowley and a Cannell.
In 1423 Lord Stanley summoned
a Tynwald court at Castle Rushen (ie. his "Deemster"
(Judge) and 224 "faithful Keys" says Stenning), at which a lengthy
review was made of Manx laws and customs, and they were set down
in writing.
There wasn't another court
held until 1429. when a number of new laws were made: Trial by
battle was abolished, and trial by jury established. No man's
goods could be confiscated except by order of lawful authority.
Every man was responsible for his wife's debts. And fixed standards
of weights and measures were to be enforced.
It is not clear how the
Keys had been choosen in 1417. But in 1430 there was an election
in which "all the commons" chose six men from each Sheading to
represent them, and out of the 36, there were 24 selected (by
the King?) as Keys.
It is from this list that
we know Wil
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liam Mac Alexander represented
the Sheading of "Kirk" Michael. The Sheading includes the parishes
of Ballaugh and Jurby as well as the parish of Michael, but there
was only one family on record in Ballaugh 85 years later, and
none in Jurby so it is probable that William's lands were those
adjoining the Bishop's Court in Michael where we know the family
later lived for hundreds of years..
Another list of the Keys
from that period, but without a date, (1430?) again lists William
Mac Alexander as a member, and also a Donold Mac Alexander. There
is no indication where Donold lived.
We don't know anything
else about either William of Donold. Probably they were mature
men when they became members of the Keys. William must have been
at least 35 in 1417, and was probably at least 50 by 1430. As
members of the Keys they were both landholders and respected members
of the Island community.
From the size of the family
as we know it at the beginning of the 16th and 17th centuries
it may be safe to speculate that it was still very small in William's
day. Could he have been was the progenitor of the Mac Alexanders
of Michael, and Adam's great, great, grandfather? We don't have
enough evidence to say. But he was probably the grandfather of
at least one of the three landholders of 1515. And the record
suggests that Adam was the grandson of one of them, whose name
was also Adam.
The Manorial Rolls (of
rent payments to the Lord) were first kept in the Southern parishes
in 1511, and in the North in 1515. These records until the early
1600's, were written by hand in Latin. But a translation of the
earliest records was compiled by the Reverend Theophilus Talbot,
and published by in 1924.
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Talbot lists four quarterlands
"owned" by Mac Alexanders in Michael in 1515. In Orestall (Orrisdale)
an Adam McAlexander together with a William McFayle paid 15 Shillings
for one tenement (house?) and one quarter of land "demised to
them" (of which Adam paid 14s, 6d, and McFayle paid only 6d),
and Donald McAlexander and the Widow of Patric McAuartag with
William McGillrea paid 15s, 8d for two tenements and one quarter
of land.
Gibbon McAlexander with
William McTere paid 18s for three tenements and one quarter of
land in Rencullyn (Rencullin) and also 14s for one tenement and
half a quarter in Balyfadyn.
In the same parish, a Donald
McAlexander also paid 6d for the use of "waste" lands, (which
were lands at higher elevations generally suitable only for grazing),
and under Cotages (cottages) we find that Calycrist Ine Alexander
(the female form of the name) had a house with a small garden
for which she paid "the four jurors" 6d, and a William Mc Alexander
had a house for which the rent was 4d.
Why so many of the McAlexander
holdings are held jointly with others is an interesting question.
Intermarriage is one possible explanation. More likely they were
"drafted". Kinvig says when there were not enough "vagrant" servants
(which included farm laborers), then the tenants paying a lower
rent had to serve those paying a higher rent, "rather than that
the lord's land should fall into decay."
There is a map which shows
the quarterlands owned by the Mac Alexander in Michael, which
were located on the coast near the Northern tip of the Parish.
Altogether there were 2-300 acres owned by the family in the adjoining
treens of Orestal, Rencullyn, and Balyfaden.
Orestal and Rencullyn are
separated by a creek of small river, which divides into two branches.
One of them runs into the Bishop's Court, and the other into Balyfaden
which adjoins Renculllyn on the island side. The three treens
form a semi circle around the Bishop's court and Bishop's Demense
or barony, a large parcel of land owned by the Church which straddles
the border with the adjoining parish of Ballaugh. Some of our
ancestors would later move onto the church lands.
The land was no doubt grassy
and green, with virtually no trees except perhaps along the creek.
There was sand and gravel in the soil near the coast. According
to Moore, in fact, Orestal may have originally meant "Gravely
Bank Dale". Rencullyn was all one farm. Orestal was divided into
four quarterlands. Those held by the family included Ballamanaugh
where Adam later lived, which means Monk's Farm, and Kiondroghad,
(also written Kioneroughad). or "Bridge End."
The other two quarterlands
in Orestal were owned by the Corlet family, much intermarried
with ours, which also had at least three Dollins and an Adam and
a Gilbert between 1570 and 1670.
The entire parish is about
51/2 miles long, and four miles wide, and the parish church where
the village of Michael now stands is about a mile south of the
family holdings and the Bishop's court.
Moore says that when the
Manorial Rolls were begun there were "not more than a hundred
(place) names recorded, and that quarterland names weren't added
to the rolls till early in the following century". The maps depict
the Mac Alexander holdings much as they were in 1511-15,. Even
the " partners" listed on the Manorial Rolls are shown alongside
the Mac Alexanders on the maps.
There is a list attached
to Talbots's translation of the Manorial Rolls known as Appendix
K. It's title is "Names of the Farms and Intacks In the Seeral
Treens and Parishes, AD 1511-15", but a caption underneath says
it was "Extracted from the Lord's Composition Book of Charles,
the 8th Earl of Derby, AD 1703.
It gives the names of every
quarterland on the Island by treen, as well as listing the Mills,
Abbey Lands, Cotages, and "Intacks", which appears to refer to
small public parcels adjoining quarterlands which were sometimes
also farmed by the holders oof the quarterlands.
Appendices F-K were added
to the other documents by William Cubbon of the Manx Museum, who
edited the collection before it's publication in 1924. Appendix
K was included because it contained a list of the names of the
Treens and Quarterlands which were missing from the Manorial Rolls,
and apparently would have been basically the same as they were
in 1511-15.
Since the information comes
from a composition book dated 1703, the Adam referred to is the
grandson of out ancestor, and the son of his heir, Robert, who
was the brother of our ancestor Gilbert.
Cubbons also made the maps
in Kneens's Place Names of the Isle of Man.
Under the parish of Michael
we find that 4d was paid by "Adam Callister for a Parcel of Intack
adjoining to his Quarterland in the Four Towns" with a note in
parenthesis that "Adam Callister owned land in Ballafadeen, Oristall,
and Rencullin Treens", which would appear to be the parcels earlier
described as belonging to Adam, Donald, and Gibbon and their "partners"
in 1515.
Elsewhere on the Island,
the Manorial rolls show that in the Parish of Balylaugh (or Ballaugh)
which adjoins Michael, there was a William Mac Alexander who was
one of the four jurors, and who paid 21s for two tenements and
one quarter of land. William also paid3d as an "amercement".
On the south side of the
island, in Conchan, a Donald McAlexander paid 8s for one tenement
and one quarter of land in the treen of Alia Begod, while in Slekkby
John McAlexander, John Cristalson, and the Wife (widow?) of William
Cristalson paid 4s6d for two tenements and one quarter of land,
and in Horadre, Patric McAlexander with his Son paid 14s for one
tenement and one quarter of land. Donald McAlexander was also
the Officer of the Lord's Moar that year, and paid 8s100 3/4d
for the Moar.
In Braddan, which adjoins
Conchan on the side opposite Lonan, there was still another Donald
McAlexander, who paid 11s6d together with Michel McKewne for three
tenements and one quarter of land. Also in Braddan there was another
John McAlexander who paid with John Fryssyngton, 11s.6d. for 2
tenements and a quarter of land.
We can get some idea from
these lists how large the family was in 1511-15, and how it was
distributed. If all the McAlexander families on the Island were
accounted for there would have been only about ten families.
The population of the Island
at that time must have been fairly small. Kinvig says the population
200 years later (in 1727) was only an estimated 14,400, with 80%
of the people living on the land. Douglas was the largest town
with a population of 810. Michael was still just a village. Probably
the population in the early 1500's was close to the same figure..
It's difficult to extrapolate
population figures backwards from 1727. Growth was not as constant
as it is today. Population growth everywhere was slow because
of a high death rate. Kinvig says sanitation was bad and diseases
such as smallpox and cholera rampant. Example[es. A plague had
reduced the population of Europe by a third in 1348-49. There
was a plague in London in 1606.
Nine families is too
low a figure for the number of families in 1515, but may not have
been too far off., All the men in the family would not have inherited
land, but the spread of landholders into adjoining areas indicates
they were wealthy enough at that time that those how didn't inherit
land were able to purchase some of their own.
But the existence of
more than one tenement on a quatererland suggests that in addition
to the partners previously described there was often more than
one household on a quarterland.
The total number of
tenements listed is 18. At least 5 of them were probably inhabited
by the "parftners", leaving 12 which may have been inhabited by
MacAlexander families or individuals. Or servants' quarters. This
does not include the two "cotages" mentioned in Michael Parish
which were probably inhabited by individuals rather than families.
Estimate of families raised to 12-15.
Whatever the number, it's
not unreasonable to believe that all of the Mac Alisters/Mac Alexanders
on the Island in 1515 still knew how they were related. But by
Adam's day, three generations later, there were probably at least
three times that many, and as they spread out across the island,
the threads that held the larger family together were probably
disintegrating.
It could, of course, be
argued that the disintegration of the original family happened
much earlier, but I don't think so.
Both Kneen and Moore agree
that the family name did not originate on the Island, but came
from Scotland or Ireland, and my research into the MacAlister
clan of Scotland and Ireland, the most likely source of the family,
supports the theory that our ancestors probably moved to the Island
during the 14th century. This would mean the family could have
been on the Island for only a generation or two prior to William's
election to the Keys, and would still have been fairly small up
until Adam's day.
