A History of Kirk Maughold
J.W. and C. K. Radcliff
The Manx Museum and National Trust
Douglas, Isle of Man, 1979
p. 86 One of builders of Christ Church, Dhoon (consecrated 1855) was John Looney.
pp. 268-9 in the Farms and Families chapter
Looney Crowcreen (or Looney Yack)
In the form Lowny, this surname is found in Maughold Register
from the beginning (1647), and there was a family of Looneys on the croft
Bwaillee Losht, below Ballafayle Kerrush, in the seventeenth century. The fact
that John Looney was “of Ramsey” in 1748 does not preclude the possibility of
him being a Maughold man, although we must admit that we have not yet found his
baptism in Maughold. His wife Margaret Kevin belonged to one of the Scottish families
who came to Ramsey in the eighteenth century to engage in business, and even in
her later years was a determined and masterful woman. On John’s death in 1770,
she married William Creetch of Ballachrinck, whom she also survived. In 1791
she settled her goods on her youngest son Ewan and his wife Mary Taggart, who
were to keep her “and live with their loving mother during her natural Life,
and to content her with a Decent Living as becometh a loving mother in her old
age”. This settlement was accepted as part of her will in 1798; and she had
also inserted a clause that if Ewan and Mary disagreed with her, she could go
anywhere else she pleased, taking her goods with her!
By her marriage to John Looney, she had nine sons and one
daughter, and from six of these sons are descended all the Looneys of Maughold
at the time of the 1841 Census, and subsequently. The Parish Register often
refers to them as “Yack” (Jack) after their original ancestor. The eldest son
William was described in his father’s will as a “poor pitiable object”, and it
was the second son Daniel (1745-1826) who lived in Crowcreen after the parents’
deaths. The third son John (1748-1835) bought the intack Boshin and other land
near what became the Hibernian., the inn first opened by his son John and his
wife Rachel. The fourth son, Thomas, (c. 1750-1826), a shoemaker, bought part
of Ballagilley. The sixth son Robert (Robin) (1751-1826) bought East
Ballaterson (the White House) from an old established family of Callows, and
after the White House was sold to Thomas Quayle and his son John, in 1832,
Robin’s eldest son John and his family were farming from Croit ny kennipey (the
present Sexton’s house). The eight son, Patrick (1764-1816), was a stonemason,
a trade also followed by sons Patrick and Simeon. The youngest and favorite son
Ewan (b. 1766), for a long time tenant of Ballaglass, was the father of Joseph
later owner of Crowcreen and Magher e kew, of John who farmed the croft on the
lowers Ballaskeig Beg; and of George who was farming 30 acres of Ballagilley in
1851.
Sad to say, there have been no Looneys farming Maughold since
the War, although there are many descendants and relations of the family,
bearing different surnames, resident in the parish.
Chapter 11 Inns and Hotels
The Brumish Veg., Hibernian, and Folieu Inns
p. 214-215
…we do know that there were two innkeepers in Maughold in 1841,
William Kissack of Ballagorry Beg, and Rachel Looney at the Hibernian.
[Footnote: No doubt so-called after Rachel herself, who was nee’ Redhead and
was of Irish extraction.]
The Hibernian was the first of several inns whose existence
arose out of the improvement of the main road from Ramsey to Douglas and the
consequence increase in traffic. Their principal purpose was to serve travelers
rather than the local population, for indeed it would be difficult to say where
the biggest concentration of people in Maughold lay. From time to time the
number of travelers varied and so the fortunes of the inns was not constant. The
available evidence suggests that innkeeping did not provide a particularly good
living in Maughold in the nineteenth century….
[The 1851 Census]…indicates that there was no licensed house in
the parish in 1851. Even the Hibernian, so popular in the 1830s, was in
temporary abeyance.
The Hibernian was first mentioned in Pigot’s Directory of 1837. The
licensee was the most famous of all the Maughold innkeepers, the redoubtable
Rachel Looney. A description of her in 1834, when she was about 47, reads:
“She was an odd figure, dressed in a blue petticoat of some sort
of cloth or flannel, surmounted by a man’s pilot jacket a good deal too long in
the sleeves. To obviate the inconvenience this would have caused, the cuffs
were turned back, displaying a large pair of muscular hands and wrists quite
out of proportion to her size, as she was considerable below the middle height…When
going into Ramsey she rode a large raw-boned carthorse on which what did for
duty for a saddle was a sack thrown across the animal’s back from which straw
might be seen sticking out. I then saw her come out exactly as before except
that instead of a sunbonnet on her head she wore a man’s hat of rough beaver.”
(Quoted by Miss M. Douglas in the Manx Star, Jan 1974)
From this description, it is easy to believe that she had a man’s
strength and a story which we have heard recently confirmed it. She employed
some men to build an extension to the house, and when they ran short of stone,
assured them that a supply would be ready on the following day. In order to
obtain this, she is said to have spent the whole night carrying stones down off
Barule in her brat (apron). But if she had the strength and resolution of a
man, she was also an excellent caterer , as Miss Mona Douglas has written:
“But if costume was of the country style at the Hibernian,
amenities were exceptionally good for that period. The inn had its own brewery
and also a museum and an excellent library for residents.
Weddings were occasions of great gaiety in those days and often
included a party of anything from 50 to 100 folks. The only honeymoon was
usually the wedding day itself, on which the whole party went for a long drive
after the wedding ceremony and then had dinner at an inn.
At the Hibernian, Rachel, as she was called generally, would be
in her element providing for a weeding party arriving from Ramsey or Kirk
Maughold or even from Laxey or Douglas.
She would sever a substantial meal, which often included such
delicacies as fresh salmon, pigeon pies, lobster salad, roast duckings, lamb
and beef, succulent vegetables grown by herself, puddings, light pastries,
jellies and fresh fruit (all of these are from an actual menu).”
By 1841, on account of financial difficulties on the island,
Rachel’s husband John Looney had emigrated to Australia, where she followed him
in 1843….In the 1880s the house ceased to be licensed, but it is still a well-known
private residence and landmark on the road, and has given its name to the
crossroads when it stands and the little group of houses surrounding.
Transcribed by Teresa McVeigh
4 Mar 2018
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