Speaker of the House of Keys

The Speaker of the House of Keys is the principal officer of the House of Keys, the lower house of the Isle of Man legislature. The Speaker is elected from the membership of the house at its first sitting after an election. He is responsible for controlling the procedure of the House and for authoritative interpretation of its standing orders. He sets the business of the House and authorises the order of business of the House for each sitting.

The Speaker is an impartial member of the House and only votes on motions where the division of votes is exactly half in favour and half against. He then votes in favour of the status quo.

All Speakers from 1750 to 1898 were either members of the Moore or Taubman families or married into them. Until 1866 the Keys was non-elected.

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The Isle of Man Purchase Act 1765

The Isle of Man Purchase Act 1765 (c. 26), also known as the Act of Revestment purchased the feudal rights of the Dukes of Atholl as Lords of Man over the Isle of Man, and revested them into the British Crown.

The Act gave effect to an earlier contract between Charlotte Murray, Duchess of Atholl, and the Government of the Kingdom of Great Britain, represented by HM Treasury, to sell the Atholls' feudal rights over the Island to Great Britain for a sum of £70,000. The authority to conclude a contract for the purchase was given under a Private Act of Parliament in 1726, but as an Act of Parliament of 1609 had conferred the feudal rights over the island upon the Atholls, primary legislation was required to terminate those rights.

The Act came into force upon the granting of Royal Assent on 10 May 1765. The payment to the Duchess of Atholl was to be made no later than 1 June 1765.

The Act did not go as far as had been proposed: for a period there had been plans to merge the Isle of Man into the English county of Cumberland. This had met with fierce resistance from the inhabitants, led by the then Speaker of the House of Keys, Sir George Moore.

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