An expert on Manx law backs the belief that Daniel Davison is the youngest ever MHK elected – with one caveat.
Davison was elected for Glenfaba and Peel in last week’s election, at the age of 18.
Peter Edge, a Professor of Law at Oxford Brookes University and a respected commentator on constitutional history, says: “At 18, he has been reported variously as the youngest ever person to be elected to the House of Keys, and the youngest MHK in history,
“These are different claims, and I am more confident of one than the other.”
In a blog on last week’s election, Edge (pictured, above) adds: “There are many ways of understanding ‘elected’ – for instance, MLCs are appointed through election by the House of Keys, but their role is often criticised on the basis of their being unelected.
“If we take the general meaning of ‘elected by the general public’, I think Davison is the youngest person to be elected as an MHK.”
Age of Majority
Elections to the House of Keys were introduced by the House of Keys Election Act 1866 but candidacy was limited to property-holding males of full age. Before 1971, the age of majority (full age) was 21.
“So even though finding the ages of candidates and MHKs is not always straightforward, I am confident that no one younger than 21 was elected between 1866 and 1971,” says Edge.
In 1971 the age of majority was changed to 18, but there have been no 18-year-olds since then, until now.
“Whether he will be the youngest ever MHK is a little less clear,” Edge adds.
Politics Was a Family Business
“Before 1866 MHKs were elected mainly by other MHKs, and there were definitely political families with multigenerational expectations of joining the Keys.
“Records of the unelected Keys are much less accessible than those of the modern Keys, but I think we can find at least one person, from a prominent Manx family, appointed at the age of 21.”
That was John Christian Curwen, born in 1756, and according to A. W. Moore’s “Extracts from the Journals of the self-elected House of Keys, entered the Keys in 1777, sitting as a member for 51 years.
Says Edge: “It is possible he was appointed to the Keys before he was 21, but his signature does not appear in any of the 1777 legislation, and so being appointed very soon after he turned 21 seems likely.
“If so, there may have been a norm of only appointing MHKs who had reached the age of majority, which pre-1971 was 21.”
He concludes: “I cannot be categorically sure, without a substantial project to find the ages of everyone appointed to the Keys before 1866, but I think it very likely that Davison will also be the youngest person to serve as an MHK.”
