the

~ STEVENSONS ~

of Balladoole, Isle of Mann

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Special thanks to Stevenson researcher Lindley Wilmot, who submitted the following from a clipping from the Isle of Mann Weekly Times dated April 8, 1950.

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The Stevensons of Balladoole, in the parish of Arbory, are among the oldest landed families in the Isle of Mann, and have a descent comparable with that of the Christians of Milnown, in the parish of Lezayre. The name Balladoole means estate of Dougal, a Celtic name which surves in Scotland as macDougal, and in the Isle of Mann as Cooil ( not sure of the spelling as the document is xeroxed) or as Coole, a prefix of Mac, meaning sorr, shortened in the Isle of Mann C, K, Q, and when this shortening took place the initial resonant of the main word had to go. Another form, in Scotalnd is MacDowall.

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THE MACDONALD'S Sommerland's family split into the MacDougals, and MacDonald's, and further divided the Isles. The MacDonalds styled themselves "Kings" or Lords of the Isles. In what has labled the football period in the history of the Isle of Mann, when possesion was disputed by the Kings of England and Robert Bruce and his succesors - the luckless, and being the ball kicked out between parties, the MacDougals exercized a considerable influence. The story is terribly tangled, and not likely to be straightened out but, the present writer inclines to the union that for a short time the MacDougals were actually the land's rulers.

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In or around the year 1930 a number of papers were found in the Castle Rushen, including a parcel of fragments from Manorial Rolls. They were undated and scarcely legible, and the seventh of them which related to Balladoole or Ballakeighan, which adjoins it, bore the date of 1511. It has therefore been argued that documentary proof exsists of six generations of Stevensons of Balladoole before the first complete Manorial Roll which survives was complied.

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THE FIRST STEVENSON

The Stevensons are the first mentioned in 1302. The Abbot of Rushen and the Prior of St. Bees disputed the possesion of the lands of Maughold, and the case was heard before a court whic included Gilbert Makstephan Reginald MacStephan, Corners of the island. In 1417 Reginald Stevenson as a member of the House of Keyes which concurred with Sir John Stanley's commissioners and the Deemster in forbidding the ecclestial barons to give snactuary to Lord's tenants accused of crime. In the Manorial Roll of 1511 Thomas Steveson and John Stevenson were listed as Corners. They would function in the nothern and southern side of the Island. The modern forms of Macaskel, namely Caystile and Castell which seems to have virtually died only in the present generations, were peculiar to the North. and particulary to the Bride. Macaskel then, would be corner for the North and MacStephan for the South.

People named their children in compliement to royalty in those days as they do now, and Reginald MacStephan, or his father or grandfather, was probably named after King Reginald I, who died in 1228, or Reginald II, who died in 1249. One stops short only at the final step of bringing the Stevenson lineage back to the early part of the thirteenth century.

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THE FAMILY SEAL

The Stevensons had a seal; the arms figured on it are described as "Party per pale, gules and ermine, a saltire counter charged." A 'modern' copy of the seal existed in 1837, when the 'Mona's Herald" newspaper reported the finding of a similar seal which had been dug up among the turf somewhere on the Manx mountains.

The discovery had taken place about seventy years earlier, and the seal had passed into various hands until Mr. G. H. Woods, well known in Manx life at theat time sent it to a London antiquity. This gentleman reported it to belong to the ancient family of Fitzstephn.

The earlier specimen was given back to the Stevensons, who had not known of it's exsistance and it is in Sir Ralph's possesion now.

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WOOD'S CONNECTION

The family bore the name Woods for a generation or two, and reverted to Stevenson by letters of patent. George Augustus Woods was Speaker of the House of Keys, he got married twice, and his sons did not get on well with stepmother, that is another matter of local tradition, and went to Canada.
The eldest, William Baring Woods, came back after his stepmother's death. He was returned to the first elected House of Keys in 1867, as W.B.Woods, but by the time of the next election, in 1874 he had become W.B.Stevenson. He lost his seat for Rushen in that yeat but was later elected for Castletown. He was captain of the parish for Rushen, and afterwards captain of Arbory, and a Justiceof the Peace. Sons of his were, Mr. William Augustus Stevenson, also a member of the Keys, and Surgeon General Henry Wickham Stevenson, who returned to the Islands bearing the decoration of Companion of the Star of India. Both were captains of the parish of Arbory. Mr. Stevenson lived for some time at Ballakeighan, and at West Hill, Castletown. The Surgeon-General, whose death was recent, was Sir Ralph's Father and had another son who was killed in WW1.

Several branches of the family, some called Stevenson, and some called Woods live in Canada. The present occupant of Balladoole , Colonel Collin, descends from a marriage of one of the Stevenson's daughters in the middle of the 19th century.

Five years hence, it is contemplated that Sir Ralph Stevenson will retire from his diplomatic career, and a Stevenson will live in Balladoole again.

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