Robert Fargher
Robert Fargher was arguably the leading reformer of his day.
Born in Maughold in August 1803, he worked for a few years as a secretary in London, before returning to the Isle of Man in his late teens to become an apprentice at his uncle’s conservative newspaper, the Manks Advertiser. Soon afterwards, Fargher became involved in the Methodist Revivalist movement. As his views became more radical, his work for the Advertiser grew distasteful to him, so in 1833 he persuaded William Walls, a fellow printer, to start up a new newspaper with him, which they named the Mona’s Herald.
The Mona’s Herald was designed to be ‘the organ of political reform, nonconformity, and temperance.’ Fargher used it to criticise the Manx establishment relentlessly, and particularly the self-elected House of Keys.
Fargher was called before the House of Keys a number of times, most often for his clashes with George W. Dumbell, lawyer, Member and Secretary of the House of Keys, as well as one of the partners of the failed bank Isle of Man Joint Stock Bank. The publication in the Mona’s Herald of three anonymous ‘letters to the editor’ in the 1840s and 50s resulted in a series of acrimonious libel actions taken against Fargher by Dumbell, each time leading to Fargher’s imprisonment in Castle Rushen. Each time, Fargher created trouble for the authorities by refusing to leave, despite the fact that the money for his fine had been quickly raised by well-wishers. He continued to write articles for the Herald from his prison cell.
In addition to his rousing editorials in the Mona’s Herald, Fargher was responsible for the organisation of the 1838 petition for an elected House of Keys, and he was part of a public delegation set up in the 1853 to represent the Island’s interests in London.
Fargher died on 12th August 1863, and as such did not live to see his dream of a freely elected House of Keys fulfilled. It is, however, a testament to his revolutionary thinking that one of the arguments used by Fargher in 1844, namely that the Keys should not be allowed financial authority due to its status as an unelected body, was later used by Governor Loch in 1866 to ensure electoral reform.
Left to right: detail of the masthead of the Mona's Herald, 1833; Robert Fargher; Liberty of the Press motif
