Select Quayle Miscellany
- Quayle and Manx Surnames
- George Quayle and the Peggy
- Thomas Quayle and the Manx Breed of Cattle
- Manxmen in Ohio
- John Quayle and the Mormon Call
- An Adventurous Quayle Family
- Dan Quayle and the Media
Quayle and Manx Surnames
There were 8,870 heads of household recorded in the Isle of
Man census in 1881. The following were the five leading family
names at that time:
| Name |
Number |
|
| 1. |
Kelly |
409 |
| 2. |
Quayle |
267 |
| 3. |
Cain |
243 |
| 4. |
Corlett |
236 |
| 5. |
Christian |
187 |
At that time, the Isle of Man accounted for 60 percent of all the Quayles in the United Kingdom. Another 25 percent were to be found in Lancashire and the balance of 15 percent elsewhere.
George Quayle and the Peggy
The Nautical Museum at Castletown on the Isle of Man holds as its main attraction the 18th century yacht named Peggy. Built in 1789, its was the love of George Quayle, a lively and inventive man. The Quayle family of Bridge House and Crogga were a prominent Manx family then living in the capital of the island, Castletown. The Peggy, named after George Quayle's mother, was launched into Castletown harbor in 1791. From this harbor she saw many years of smuggling and trade. In 1796 she sailed to England and then was brought over land to Lake Windermere to participate in a regatta. She barely made it home through rough seas.
Not long after George Quayle's mother died, he locked the
Peggy up in her boathouse for
the last time. There she would lay for almost a hundred years until
re-discovered in 1935, still in the boathouse. George
Quayle had led such a life of mystery that none would dare enter his
boathouse or rooms until his last family member had died. The
boathouse had been bricked up and forgotten before being rediscovered
by workmen.
Thomas Quayle and The Manx Breed of Cattle
Manx cattle became extinct about 1815. Manx people called them boaghans. A description of
these animals was made by Thomas Quayle in his General View of Agriculture in the Isle of
Man, written in 1812 for the British Government in London.
"The original Manx breed of cattle were low,
deep-chested, hardy animals, of a dingy black, often with the ridge of
the back and ears brown or wholly of a dark brown color, having seldom
white or light colored spots. They were short jointed, but not
full at the hind quarter. The horn was very thick at the root and
rather curving upwards. They gave rich mills, but in small
quantities. They were easy to feed and to fat, although not of
early maturity. It would seem a breed well adapted to the climate
and the then state of culture.
From the influx of a variety of other breeds, this
original race is disappearing."
Manxmen in Ohio
It was in 1826 that the first Manxmen arrived in what was
then called the Western reserve in Ohio. Three Manx families had
started off on this pioneering journey. After a voyage of seven
weeks in a sailing vessel, they landed in New York and thence made
their way visa the Erie Canal and Lake Erie to Cleveland, then a small
town of only six hundred inhabitants.
Warrensville was selected as the most desirable place to
buy farms; and soon the area was swarming with Manxmen. Almost
every farm for miles around was owned by a Manxman.
Quayles were not among the initial families which
came. But they soon arrived. Thomas Quayle, who afterwards
became a noted shipbuilder on the Great Lakes, arrived with his parents
in a party of fifty Manx people in 1827. He married Isabelle
Kelly, a Manx lady, three years later. Then came Robert Quayle,
considered, because of his work with Manx festivals, to be "one of the
most poplular Manxmen who ever lived in Cleveland." John Quayle
married a Mary Corlett there and John K. Quayle an Agnes Halbeall.
John Quayle and the Mormon Call
The first Manx Mormon emigrants departed from Liverpool
on the Rochester in
1841. They included John Quayle and his wife Catherine.
Their son Thomas was to recall forty years later:
"When the missionary John Taylor told my father that in
America a farm could be had for the clearing and fencing of the land,
he was greatly interested. He inquired more deeply into the new
religion and found it to his liking. He invited the missionaries
to stay in our house and became the first and firmest convert in our
parish. John's conversion led rapidly to his emigration. However,
his wife Catherine was an unhappy emigrant, upset by the pressures from
the missionaries to leave.
There are three things that I can remember about our
departure: my mother's tears, my father's hopes, and the lights of
Liverpool Quay."
John Quayle's reaction was not uncommon. Most
British Mormon converts were poor. As Nauvoo was made to sound
like the Garden of Eden they eagerly responded to the call to
emigrate. And the 1840's was the hungry decade, with poor
harvests, potato famine, and industrial depression.
An Adventurous Quayle Family
Sons Daniel and John left England to work on the Panama Canal. They subsequently became US citizens.
Dan Quayle and the Media
Throughout his time as US Vice President, Dan Quayle was widely criticized in the media for being an intellectual lightweight. His way with words in fact contributed to a general impression of incompetence.
Dan Quayle's most famous blunder was when he corrected William Figueroa's correct spelling of "potato" to "potatoe" at an elementary school spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey. The following were some of his verbal statements which the press picked upon:
"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change."
"It isn't pollution that is harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
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