KIRK MICHAEL. the road to which lies through a romantic and solitary dell, watered by a rapid stream, and environed by steep and wild mountains. This valley continues for a considerable length. In it are scattered cottages and corn mills, which, with the cattle on the sides of the hills, present altogether one of the most beautiful scenes of retired landscape that can be imagined. Of those venerable priests and legislators of the Island, the Druids, there are several other vestiges existing in the Isle of Man. As priests, they were deemed sacred; as legislators, politic; and as philosophers, enlightened and humane; while the whole nation paid them the veneration due to them as the ministers of GOD, and as the magistrates of the people.
The Druids after long supporting their power and influence, were obliged to fly from the ferocious sword of the Romans to Anglesea. Followed thither by the universal conquerors, they made a noble stand; but being defeated, their king, Caractacus, was carried in chains to Rome, and the whole race nearly exterminated. A few, however, escaped and took refuge in the Isle of Man, where they were generously received lay their brethren, and found once more an asylum from their enemies. Here they planted new groves, encreased the number of their temples, and governed the people, till about the close of the fourth century, when the light of Christianity broke upon this Isle, and gave them an opportunity of embracing a religion, Rich, in purity and sublimity, infinitely exceeded their own.
In the early days — say from the tenth century on to probably the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, the Parish of Michael, or "Kirk Michael" as it was then called, must have been a very important place for two main reasons, the first being that in those early days sittings of Tynwald were regularly held there, and, secondly, that the official residence of the Lord Bishop was in the parish.
Kirk Michael, at which place there is a very good inn, is an extensive village. Before the entrance of the cemetery is a lofty square pillar of blue stone, covered with sculpture, curiously involved from top to bottom. This relic of antiquity is supposed to have been erected in honor of a Norwegian hero. The inscription is Runic; and, according to Bishop Wilson, no country furnishes more of this hieroglyphic kind of writing than the Isle of Man. In the Manorial Records, " Kirk Michaell Town" is often referred to in describing property situate in the Village. Undoubtedly the old Parish Church was built on the site of a still older Treen Church and burial ground, probably the most important Treen Church of the parish, as many traces of early Christian burials have been found in the old burial ground, and the name by which the surrounding ground was known by old people was "Cronk-y-Keilleig" ("the hill of the Church enclosure").
The position of the Church — unlike many old parish churches — is in the centre of the village and population, and is situate on the Treen of Lyre, the headman or chieftain of this treen or tribal division being the leading chieftain of the parish, and probably of a very large district to the north of the present parish boundary. The Church — which by the way is large enough to accommodate about 650 persons — was to be of sufficient dimension to afford a pew for each quarterland, and a pew or pews in the accustomed proportion for intacks, mills and cottages within the parish, the pews to be at least eight feet in length.
About a mile from Kirk Michael stands the episcopal residence. Possibly founded by Bishop Simon (d. 1247) though earliest surviving portion is the tower dating from end of 14th Century. Many Bishops added to this core - by the end of the 17th Century a late mediaeval chapel stood to the east of the tower and a hall to the west, the chapel lay half in Ballaugh and half in Michael, for in it the 'respective Parsons and Vicars severally officiate divine service, the one at the one side or end of the said chapel, and the other at the other'. Bishopscourt was sold into private hands in 1979, so ending more than seven centuries of association with the Diocese of Sodor and Man: one of the earliest divisions of Scandinavian settlements in Celtic regions. That there were Bishops in Man from the earliest dates is clear from the little we know about the early Celtic church. Later there were Bishops of Man under the christianised Norse.
The dedication is to St. Michael and All Angels, the date of the patronal festival being 29th September. The family pew of the Lord Bishop is in the chancel, as is also the pew allotted to the Vicarage. To the older generation, the outstanding feature of the entrance to the Parish Church and Burial Ground was the fine old Runic Cross, which stood in a circular base in the centre of the circular drive to the entrance gate.
The changed political climate, moved Norway away from the Archbishop of Lund (and prior to that Hamburg-Bremen) and created what must have been the most far flung see of its time as it covered Norway, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroes, the Shetlands and Orkneys as well as the Sudreys of which Man was the southernmost island. The see of the island is styled Sodor and Man. It has likewise been alleged to have been taken from a village, in the Isle of I-Columb-Kill [Iona], where the bishop of the Western Isles had formerly his residence, or from Peel Isle in which are the remains of the Cathedral and the Bishop's palace; and which some say, obtained the appellation of Sodor after the English conquest.
It appears from the best authorities, however, that during the time the Norwegians were in possession of the Hebrides and Man, they divided them into two parts, distinguished by the appellation of the Sudereys and Norderys, or the islands lying south or north of their ideal line of demarcation. Afterwards a bishoprick of the isles was formed; but Man, as being the ancient see, retained the title of Sodor, from the Sudereys, though its prelate lost all jurisdiction over the division of the isles so called. In this derivation Mavor was correct, the name Sodor being derived from diocesus Sodorensis the latinised form of diocese of the Sudreys from the Scandinavian Suðreyjar, the South Islands (i.e. the Hebrides as viewed from Norway).
The Kingdom of Man which may be considered to have started when Gødred Crovan consolidated a kingdom there in 1079, and to have have formally ceased in 1266 when it was ceded to the King of Scotland following the Battle of Largs in 1263. Mull, Islay and Kintyre (the lighter shaded regions on the map) had already been lost to Scotland by 1156. The Abbots of Bangor, Sabal, Whitehorn and Furness were barons of the Island. Under the Druids, of whom this was a principal seat, and was called Sedes Druidarum, and Insula Druidarum.
The bishoprick of Mann is one of the oldest in the British dominions; it has existed as a separate see for 1400 years; it claims, therefore, all the reverence due to great antiquity, and an uninterrupted course of separate and independent jurisdiction. It has maintained this jurisdiction through a great variety of changing circumstances in the government and possession of the island. The bishop, moreover, is chosen by a different process from that which prevails in respect to Carlisle, the see to which it is proposed to annex it; for whilst the Bishop of Carlisle is that appointed by virtue of a congè d'élire issued to the chapter, there is no such chapter in the Isle of Mann, and the bishop is nominated directly, by the Crown.
EVERY Parish has stored in its Iron Chest materials for a History that would in many cases prove of more than merely local interest. The Registers as they were formerly kept are full of little pieces of information and notes by contemporaries which to any one who would know about the former times are simply invaluable. The Bishoprick of the Isle of Mann has now but seventeen parishes, and in Bede's time, the whole Island had but the measure of three or four hundred families. Curiously enough the Baptisms continue yearly "in the Parliament's time," though sadly fallen off in numbers; but 'the Burials Register is an entire blank from 1653 to 1663; the Marriages continue regularly from 1656, but as a sign of disturbed times we find against 1658 "none maryd " and only three couples in 1659, and those all between the 16th and 22nd of November.
Disasters of another kind far more fatal than the fishing devastated the Parish at intervals; severe epidemics of smallpox are recorded in 1684, 1704, 1725, 1732, 1764, 1772; and in 1623, 1629, 1639 the deaths were very numerous, though no special note was made of the cause.
THE ISLE OF MANN TO BE ANNEXED TO CUMBERLAND.— On the 26th February, 1767, Sir George Moore, Speaker of the House of Keys writes Bishop Hildesley, "At the Treasury, a Memorial from the Comrs of the Customs here was read, recommending the annexing of the Island to Cumberland.