Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/121

§. 4. firt, the ile of Man is a ditinct territory from England and is not governed by our laws; neither doth any act of parliament extend to it, unles it be particularly named therein; and then an act of parliament is binding there. It was formerly a ubordinate feudatory kingdom, ubject 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 iland by right of conquet; and dipoing of it to the earl of Northumberland; upon whoe attainder it was granted (by the name of the lordhip of Man) to ir John de Stanley by letters patent 7 Hen. IV. In his lineal decendants it continued for eight generations, till the death of Ferdinando earl of Derby, A. D. 1594; when a controvery aroe concerning the inheritance thereof, between his daughters and William his urviving brother: upon which, and a doubt that was tarted concerning the validity of the original patent, the iland was eied into the queen’s hands, and afterwards various grants were made of it by king James the firt; all which being expired or urrendered, it was granted afreh 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 retraint of the power of alienation by the aid earl and his iue male. On the death of James earl of Derby, A. D. 1735, the male line of earl William failing, the duke of Atholl ucceeded to the iland as heir general by a female branch. In the mean time, though the title of king had long been diued, the earls of Derby, as lords of Man, had maintained a ort of royal authority therein; by aenting or dienting to laws, and exerciing an appellate juridiction. Yet, though no Englih writ, or proces from the courts of Wetminter, was of any authority in Man, an appeal lay from a decree of the lord of the iland to the king of Great Britain in council. But, the ditinct juridiction of this little ubordinate Rh