1901 Isle of Man Census: Was Manx to be heard in Douglas?

Abstract

The 1901 Census was the first to ask the ‘language question’ regarding the population of the Isle of Man. Basic statistics of the number of Manx speakers remaining were produced in the years following but it was to be 100 years before the details could be viewed.

Some more detailed analysis has been made of smaller parishes and villages of the Island, where Manx may be supposed to have remained longer, and known Manx native speakers but there appears to have been no analysis of the census data from Douglas, a much larger and more complex population. Whereas, for example, Cregneash had a population of 92 in the 1901 census, occupying just over three pages of one district of Rushen civil parish, Douglas comprised 25 districts across two parishes; one district alone in lower Douglas had a population of over 1000.

This paper will follow the census enumerator through the streets of Douglas, seeking out those who were identified as Manx speakers in 1901, looking at their distribution in the town by location, age, occupation and birthplace.