Tickets and Checks (Post-1830), Douglas, Pier Inn, J[ames] Birtless (sic), brass Twopence, legend around value, rev. plain, edge grained, 25mm, 5.18g (Mackay 139; Ford –; Cain –; Guard). Small rim fault at 1 o’clock, otherwise very fine and extremely rare
£300-400

Provenance: N.B. Todd Collection [acquired 1965].

James Wilson Birtles (1831-68), b. Liverpool, moved with his family to the Isle of Man c. 1845 and was apprenticed as a seaman in 1847. He married Mary Johnson in June 1852, daughter of Samuel Johnson, a Douglas bookseller. The Birtles emigrated to the gold fields of Bendigo, Australia, but were back in the Isle of Man by 1856, when they took over the Pier Inn on the North Quay. Directories for 1861 and 1863 confirm that he was still the proprietor, but the building was acquired by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co in 1867