Not only was the Manx language looked down on, he suggests, but so were the people: “Some who had been asked for donations towards the work refused, on the basis that the Manx were ‘nothing but a nest of smugglers, and can have no religion’. Parts of the Old Testament survived a shipwreck in 1771, when an article in the Newcastle Courant recorded that “the sloop from Douglas in the Isle of Man with 16 passengers bound for Whitehaven was drove ashore near Harrington Harbour and broke upon the beach; and the goods, parcels et cetera belonging to the Gentlemen on board were entirely lost except a manuscript copy of the Bible in the Manx language which has been above three years in translating and preparing for the press by the clergy of the island and now printing at Whitehaven.” “Wilson…