Such lack of interest in the Isle of Man, a cause of bewilderment in 1811, has continued to prevail. Resident antiquarians, full of Victorian fervour, endeavoured to secure the ‘light of catholic publicity’, vaunting the significance of ‘local peculiarities of the most interesting and important nature’:

These pretensions notwithstanding, historians have yet to display academic interest. Recent developments in historiographical theory and practice offer some encouragement. Feminist historians have noted that the Isle of Man was the first to extend the parliamentary franchise to female property owners. However, after this pioneer exercise in 1881, the Island was to be notoriously backward in its gender politics. Postmodern perspectives offer more promise as historical fashion favours small-scale reconstruction of the marginal, liminal and idiosyncratic. Historians, however, have still to discover the little Manx nation, surely an ideal case-study. With devolution on the political agenda, British history has given way to ‘four nations’ history, but the Isle of Man, a Crown dependency constitutionally outside the United Kingdom, is excluded still – Irish historical ‘revisionism’ has challenged the myths surrounding the Act of Union, but no such reassessment has been undertaken of Manx revestment in the British Crown in 1765.