Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A judge; one who pronounces sentence or doom; specificallythe title of two judges in the Isle of Man who act as the chief justices of the islandthe one presiding over the northernthe other over the southerndivision. Compare
doomster .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A judge in the Isle of Man who decides controversies without process.
from WiktionaryCreative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
judge ; one who pronouncessentence ordoom . - noun A
judge on the Isle of Man.
Etymologies
from WiktionaryCreative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Ransom with life the deemster who would doom me dead.
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And this I can say with the less hesitation as I rely on the power of a deemster.
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On entering into officethe deemster took an oathwhich is sworn by all deemsters to this daydeclaring by the wonderful works which God hath miraculously wrought in six days and seven nightsthat he would execute the laws of the island justly "betwixt party and partyas indifferently as the herring's backbone doth lie in the midst of the fish."
The Little Manx Nation - 1891 Hall Caine 1892
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Once moreno inquest of a deemsterno judge or jurywas necessary to the death-sentence of a man who rose against the king or his governor on his seat on Tynwald.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891 Hall Caine 1892
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A deemster riding from Ramsey to Peel might find his way stopped by a noisy claimantwho held his defendant by the lughaving dragged him bodily from the field to the highwayto receive instant judgment from the judge riding past.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891 Hall Caine 1892
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He played with his clergy as long as they had anything to loseand then he played with a deemster and lost five hundred pounds himself.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891 Hall Caine 1892
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If anything is needful to complete the picture of wretchedness in which the poor Manx people must have existed thenit is the knowledge of what manner of man a deemster was in those dayswhat his powers wereand how he exercised them.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891 Hall Caine 1892
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On such occasionsthe deemster invariably acted on the sound old legal maximonce recognised by an Act of Parliamentthat suits not likely to bear good costs should always be settled out of court.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891 Hall Caine 1892
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But these laws down to the time of the second Stanley existed only in the breasts of the deemsters themselvesbeing therefore called Breast Lawsand thus they were supposed to be handed down orally from deemster to deemster.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891 Hall Caine 1892
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Or at midnightin his own homea deemster might be broken in upon by a clamorous gang of disputants and their witnesseswho came from the pot-house for the settlement of their differences.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891 Hall Caine 1892
minerva commented on the word deemster
To this purposethe custom in the Isle of Man is a very good one –
‘If a single woman there prosecutes a single man for a rapethe ecclesiastical judges impanel a jury; andif this jury finds him guiltyhe is returned guilty to the temporal courts: whereif he be convictedthe deemsteror judgedelivers to the woman a ropea swordand a ring; and she has it in her choice to have him hangedbeheadedor to marry him.’
Anna Howe to Clarissa HarloweClarissa by Samuel Richardson
January 42008
qms commented on the word deemster
A visitor mocking things Manx
Learns quickly contrition and thanks.
He'll write to the deemster,
"I pray youesteemed sir,
Forgive my impertinent pranks."
January 132016