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BERKELEY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY or, 
 CALIFORNIA*^ 
 
 PA. : 
 
 S>, 
 
 \ 
 
THE 
 
 HISTOKY OF GUEEJ^SEY 
 
 AND ITS BAILIWICK; 
 
 WITH OCCASIONAL NOTICES OF JERSEY. 
 
 BY 
 
 FERDINAND BROCK TUPPER, Esq. 
 
 AtTTHOE OF 
 
 "the life and COEEESPONDENCE of MAJOR-GENEEAL SIE ISAAC BEOCK, K.B." 
 
 AND "the CHEONICLES OF CASTLE COENET." 
 
 Autrefois on ecrivait rhi.stoire a I'usage du dauphin ; aujourd'hui c'est a I'usage du 
 peuple qu'il faut I'ecrire." — FMix Bodin. 
 
 GUERNSEY: 
 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN BARBET, NEW STREET. 
 
 1854. 
 
l)f\(.no 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In the Introduction to the second edition of his History of 
 Jersey, (1734,) the Rev. Philip Falle, alluding to a brief 
 description of Guernsey in Camden's Britannia, said : " They 
 who are not satisfied with those sketches, must have patience 
 till some gentleman of Guernezey (which cannot want able 
 hands for such service) shall take upon him to illustrate his 
 native country, as I have done mine ; including in his Account 
 Alderney, Sark, &;c., which depend on that greater island, as 
 members of the government and jurisdiction of it." Exactly 
 one hundred and twenty years have elapsed since Mr. Falle 
 thus expressed himself; and as his suggestion has hitherto 
 been unheeded, I have been induced to illustrate the annals 
 of my " native country." Mr. Falle's memory is highly 
 reverenced in Jersey, and there it will doubtless be objected 
 to me that I have not treated him with the respect he 
 deserves. I have indeed animadverted on some passages in 
 his history, because he himself did not hesitate to speak dis- 
 paragingly of men, to whom posterity has since done justice, 
 and especially because, according to his own biographer and 
 countryman, he passed through life " in strict conformity 
 with the opinions and the prejudices of his age." That spirit 
 of subservience extended to his work, which has otherwise 
 many merits, and betrayed him into a feeling of hostility 
 against all who differed from him in political opinion, or who 
 were not members of the Church of England, in which he 
 himself had risen, from humble beginnings, to dignity and 
 
 234 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 emolument. Nor is it easy to account for his studied omis- 
 sion of every incident in these islands during the Great Rebel- 
 lion ; as, in his first edition, (1694,) he observes, that " he 
 well remembers to have heard certain events, connected 
 with the civil wars, spoken of among his people, when the 
 past evil times were fresh in men's memories." 
 
 The following work is a sequel of the " Chronicles of Castle 
 Cornet," of which it is both an amplification and an abridg- 
 ment — an amplification as regards the general history of the 
 island, and an abridgment as relates to the Osborne corres- 
 pondence and Chevalier's Diary. Of that correspondence it 
 is necessary that I should repeat here, somewhat in brief, 
 the account which I have given in the Chronicles, of its acci- 
 dental discovery, and of the means by which I obtained it. 
 Having learnt that the lineal descendant of Sir Peter Osborne, 
 of whom repeated mention is made in the text, was the 
 present Sir George Osborn, Bart., of Chicksands Priory, 
 Bedfordshire, I applied to him for such documents relative 
 to the siege of Castle Cornet, during the civil war, as I hoped 
 were in his possession. In reply, soon after his father's 
 death, he informed me that he had as yet met with no papers 
 relative to Sir Peter Osborne and the gallant defence he 
 made ; but when he could put his library and MSS. in order, 
 he thought it probable that he might light on some matter 
 which would elucidate the subject. His letter was dated 
 February 17, 1849, and great was my delight when, on the 
 6th of April following, I received a large packet of papers, 
 with another letter from Sir George, who wrote : " Your 
 very interesting letter of the 20th ultimo should have met 
 with earlier attention, but that chance led me to an old bureau 
 in quest of some letters relating to Dorothy Osborn,' (after- 
 wards Lady Temple,) and embracing some matter mentioned 
 in Macaulay's Historical Essays, when, to my great gratifi- 
 cation, I found a large number of papers relating to Castle 
 Cornet and its defence by my ancestor, Sir Peter Osborne. 
 
 (1) A daasrbter of Sir Peter Otborne, and wife of Sir William Temple, tiie celebrated 
 diplomatist aod statesman. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 I have collected those that are most likely to be acceptable 
 to you, and which contain the most matter." 
 
 But I begged of Sir George Osborn to send me the re- 
 mainder of these papers, which he very kindly did, the whole 
 exceeding one hundred ; and, at my subsequent request, he 
 further allowed me to make any use of them that 1 thought 
 proper. 
 
 The receipt of the Osborne Correspondence made me 
 anxious to peruse Chevalier's Diary, or Chronicle, mentioned 
 also in the text ; having become aware of its existence through 
 the Rev. E. Durell's Notes on Falle's History of Jersey ; 
 and, after much delay and difficulty, I happily succeeded in 
 procuring the loan of it. This Chronicle is written in French, 
 and is extremely rare, never having been printed ; and, not- 
 withstanding the prolixity and tautology of the narration, it 
 is now invaluable : indeed, I cannot but express my surprise 
 that the States of Jersey have not caused a digest of it to 
 be published ; because it contains a faithful record of a period 
 of which the natives of that island have ever been, and still 
 are, justly proud. 
 
 I have not hesitated to reproduce from Mr. Duncan's 
 History of Guernsey such passages as I supplied to him, and 
 which he so handsomely acknowledged in his preface. But 
 at the time that work was pubhshed, (1841,) I knew very 
 little of the early records of the bailiwick, having previously 
 resided both in North and South America for many years, 
 and consequently had no opportunity of consulting docu- 
 mentary materials on the subject. 
 
 It has been my object not only to narrate the political, 
 commercial, and religious annals of the bailiwick, but also 
 to pourtray the great changes effected within two or three 
 generations, in the houses, furniture, hours, modes of com- 
 munication, public and private entertainments, &c., of the 
 islanders. In doing so, I may possibly give offence to some, 
 who, in their present affluence, are ashamed to look back on 
 the more primitive and lowly condition of their ancestors, 
 and who will perhaps consider such details as beneath the 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 dignity of history. But I should indeed be unworthy of the 
 task I have undertaken, if, regardless of the truth, I had 
 stooped to minister to the vanity or the weaknesses of any 
 class or family, and if I had not attempted to shew the 
 wonderful progress which all these islands, equally with 
 England and France, have made in wealth and civilization 
 since the commencement of the last century. Guernsey 
 especially rose and flourished with the funded system, and 
 is now mainly dependant on its continuance. 
 
 It will be seen by the Biographical Notices at the close of 
 this volume, that Guernsey, considering its very limited extent 
 and population, produced, in the course of about a century, 
 an unusual number of individuals distinguished in science, 
 Hterature, and arms. I have given these Memoirs because 
 Biography is not only the handmaid of History, but portrait 
 painting for posterity. 
 
 F. B. T. 
 
 St. Peter-Port, Guernsey, 
 August 15, 1854. 
 
 N.B. — All letters, &c., with [o] prefixed, were found among Sir Peter 
 Osborne's papers. 
 
QUEEN VICTORIA'S VISIT TO ALDERNEY. 
 
 On Tuesday evening, August 8, 1854, between five and six 
 o'clock, the Queen, with the Prince Consort, the young 
 Prince of Wales, Prince Alfred, Prince Arthur, and the 
 Princess Helena, and their suite, arrived within the new 
 breakwater of Alderney, in the royal yacht Victoria and 
 Albert, which was followed by three other steamers, viz. the 
 Dasher, Captain Lefebvre, (of Guernsey,) Black Eagle, and 
 Fairy ; the squadron having left Osborne at eleven o'clock 
 the same day. Colonel Le Mesurier, town major and com- 
 manding officer, immediately repaired on board the royal 
 yacht, and was honored with a command to dine with her 
 Majesty the same evening. Prince Albert, accompanied by 
 the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, and attended by 
 Major -General the Honorable C. Grey and Colonel the 
 Honorable C. B. Phipps, soon after landed, and the party 
 was received by Colonel Le Mesurier, Judge Gaud ion, the 
 jurats. Captain Jervois, R.E., &c. After inspecting the new 
 fortifications and the breakwater, the royal visitors returned 
 to the yacht. 
 
 On Wednesday morning, August 10, at nine o'clock. Judge 
 Gaudion, accompanied by five of the jurats, the officers of the 
 court, &c., proceeded on board the yacht to preserit a loyal 
 address from the States of Alderney to the Queen, who, on 
 receiving it, graciously stated that she felt great pleasure in 
 visiting their island. — A company of the royal artillery, and 
 the militia under Major Barbenson, were drawn up on the 
 breakwater ; and at half-past nine o'clock her majesty, with 
 Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, Prince Alfred, and the 
 Princess Helena, as also their attendants, landed under the usual 
 salute, and amid the enthusiastic cheers of the inhabitants. The 
 royal party, of whom the two young princes were dressed like 
 sailor boys, walked from the barge to a railway car, in waiting 
 at the top of the slip ; and, on entering it, the car was drawn 
 
Vlll QUEEN VICTORIA S VISIT TO ALDERNEY. 
 
 slowly by two horses along the railway as far as Corblets 
 barracks, where her Majesty alighted and repaired, in another 
 carriage, to Chateau I'Etoc, and thence drove to the Grandes 
 Folies, at Mannez, returning to the said railway, on which 
 she proceeded, as far as the entrance of Braye, where the 
 Queen, Prince Albert, and the three children entered a 
 phaeton, and drove to the town of St. Anne, going as far as 
 the church recently erected at the sole cost of the Rev. 
 John Le Mesurier, only surviving son of Lieut. -General Le 
 Mesurier, the last hereditary governor of Alderney.^ Her 
 Majesty entered the said church by the southern gate, and 
 remained there several minutes, expressing her satisfaction 
 of the edifice. On returning to Braye, the royal party 
 again got into the railway car, and, alighting at the upper 
 extremity of the slip, they walked down to the barges in 
 waiting. The embarkation took place at a quarter to twelve, 
 under a salute and the hearty cheers of the population. At 
 noon, the royal squadron was under weigh : the Fairy' went 
 direct to Cowes, while the three other steamers, passing 
 through the Swinge, coasted the south and east sides of the 
 island, and then proceeded through the Race for the Isle of 
 Wight. — Queen Victoria is not only the first sovereign, but 
 probably the first royal personage, who ever landed in Alder- 
 ney, and her visit will form a memorable epoch in the history 
 of that island, which, until the commencement of the break- 
 water in 1847, was almost separated from the rest of the 
 world. Her Majesty and Prince Albert particularly noticed 
 several Alderney women, attired in the ancient costume of 
 the island — the well known bonnet and bedgown; and they 
 commended the small Alderney cows, some of which were 
 purposely placed within their view. 
 
 (1) This church, having been designed by his parents, was erected by Mr. Le Mesurier, 
 in fulfilment of their purpose : it was commenced in 1847, and consecrated August 21, I860. 
 The Queen made some inquiries relative to the Rev, J. Le Mesurier : she was told that he 
 did not reside in Alderney, but in England ; and, on l>eing informed of his motive for 
 building the church, her Majesty said ; " A very noble act on his part." 
 
THE HISTOEY OF GUERNSEY 
 
 AND ITS BAILIWICK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 This work will probably appear, at first sight, one of supere- 
 rogation, because Dicey, Berry, Jacob, and Duncan, have 
 in turn published a History of Guernsey ; although the first 
 and third were under other titles ; and of an island so limited 
 in extent and population, it will be thought that nothing 
 more remains to be written. ^ But our researches have 
 supplied us with many materials, with which these authors 
 were evidently unacquainted or had overlooked ; and, in 
 point of size, Guernsey exceeds the celebrated island of 
 Ithaca, which, lying on the western coast of Greece, is very 
 rocky and mountainous, and only twenty-five miles in cir- 
 cumference. And yet Ithaca was part of the kingdom, and 
 long the residence, of Ulysses, whose adventures on his return 
 to it from the Trojan war form the subject of Homer's 
 Odyssey. Small as Guernsey is, she is not barren in interest- 
 ing historical incidents ; and both Jersey and herself have 
 records peculiarly their own, as well as a language, laws, 
 and institutions ; because they were in a manner isolated from 
 the rest of the world until towards the close of the last 
 century, or rather, until the extension to them of steam 
 navigation, in 1824, removed the barrier which had so long 
 checked the intercourse with England and other countries. 
 Notwithstanding the removal of this barrier, the natives, 
 especially in the country parishes, yet retain a distinct national 
 character ; and as the continental Normans were incor- 
 porated with France 650 years since, the islanders may be 
 
 (1) " Though HoUingshead, and Speed, and especially Mr. Camden, in his Britannia, 
 have each attempted a description of all these islands, they have done it so briefly, and 
 from such imperfect memoirs, that they can give but little satisfaction to an inquisitive 
 reader. Doctor Heylin is he who has wrote the fullest concerning them." — FaWe's Pre- 
 face, 1694. 
 
 B 
 
L HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 said to be the last remnant of that warlike people. There 
 exists in all civilized communities, even the smallest, a natural 
 desire to be fully acquainted with not only their own annals 
 and statistics, but those of their immediate neighbours ; and 
 we believe it to be the general opinion in the island that 
 another History of Guernsey is wanting. 
 
 The bailiwick of Guernsey consists of eight islands, of 
 which all, with the exception of the rocky islet of Burliou, 
 are inhabited ; viz. Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,* Herm, Jethou, 
 Lihou, and Brechou, or Isle des Marchands, near Sark. Cas- 
 tle Comet and the Casket rocks are also peopled. By the 
 last census, taken in 1851, the population of the bailiwick was 
 33,646 souls ; viz. Guernsey, 29,732 souls,^ or 1,238 per square 
 mile ; Alderney,^ 3,333 souls ; and Sark, 581 souls. Burhou, 
 which is separated from Alderney by the impetuous Swinge, is 
 interesting to the naturalist, as it is the haunt of the stormy 
 petrel, the bird better known to British seamen as " Mother 
 Carey's Chicken"— the only other spots in the British Isles 
 where it is said to be found being the Scilly Isles and the 
 Calf of Man. Burhou, Brechou, Jethou, Lihou, Brehon, 
 and other similar names, are of Celtic origin. 
 
 Guernsey is one of the Anglo-Norman or Channel Isles, 
 which are all situate in the bay of Mont St. Michel, and on 
 the coast, and in sight, of the "Cotentin,"^ a district of Lower 
 Normandy, deriving its name from the city of Coutances, — 
 the Constantia of the Romans. Guernsey is the second of 
 these islands in extent and importance, Jersey being the first, 
 and is about thirty miles in circumference, including the 
 windings of the coast ; nine miles in length ; and five miles 
 in breadth, with an area of a little above 24 square miles, 
 or 15,560 English acres. The land is elevated to the South, 
 and shelves to the North, and some of the bays and sea views 
 are of great beauty. In old charts, Guernsey appears as two 
 islands, the northern, or smaller, with the Close of the Vale, 
 
 (1) Captain Carteret, in his voyage round the world, (1766-9.) discovered a cluster of 
 islands in the South Seas, to which he gave the general name of Queen Charlotte's Islands, 
 distinguishing four of them by the names of New Jersey, New Guernsey, New Alderney, 
 and New Sark : they are situated in lat. 11° lO' S,, long. l64° 43' E. Captain, afterwards 
 Admiral, Carteret, was a native of Jersey, and a scientific officer. 
 
 (2) In the town of St. Peter- Port 17.047, and in the nine country parishes 12,685 souls, 
 exclusive of the garrison at Fort George, not enumerated. 
 
 (3) Previous to the commencement, in February, 1847, of the naval harbour of observa- 
 tion in Alderney, its population was scarcely 1,000 souls: by the census of 1841, it wm 
 1,038 souls. 
 
 (4) The Cotentin forms a peninsula in the North of D^p. de la Manche, its northeni 
 extremity being Cape La Hague, and its southern near Mont St. Michel. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. O 
 
 ( Clos du Valle,) being separated from the main land at high 
 water by a narrow channel, which was closed in 1803/ and 
 of which the eastern end was in St. Sampson's harbour, and 
 the western in Grand Havre, near the Vale church. The 
 island is divided into ten parishes, which, with Alderney and 
 Sark, constitute the twelve parishes of the deanery of 
 Guernsey, in the diocese of Winchester. The nearest part 
 of England is the Start Point, distant 57 nautic, or 66 statute, 
 miles ; and of France, Cape Flamanville, distant 24 nautic, 
 or 28 statute, miles. From St. Peter-Port, the only town, 
 which is in latitude 49° 33' N., and in longitude 2° 40' W. 
 of Greenwich, the islands and sea ports named bear and are 
 distant in English statute miles as follows, viz. Jersey, the 
 nearest point, S.E. 19| miles, and the pier of St. Helier, 29 
 miles ; Alderney, N.E. 21 miles, and the Caskets, N.N.E. 
 20 miles; Sark, E. 7| miles, and Herm, E.N.E. 3| miles; 
 Weymouth, IN". I E. 75 miles ; the Needles, N.N.E. i E. 90 
 miles; Southampton, N.N.E. | E. 113 miles; Plymouth, 
 N. W. I W. 92 miles ; and Falmouth, W.N.W. 120 miles ; 
 Cherbourg, E. by N. 42 miles ; St. Malo, S.S.E. 61 miles ; 
 and Granville, S.E. 62 miles. The average depth of water 
 in the neighbourhood of the islands is 35, and seldom exceeds 
 40, fathoms. The tide in Guernsey rises about 32 feet. 
 
 Alderney is in circumference nearly twelve miles, being in 
 length from East to West scarcely four miles, and in breadth 
 about 1| mile. It is distant from the Casket rocks nearly 
 seven miles, and from Cape La Hague, in Normandy, ten 
 miles, all statute. The strait which divides Alderney from 
 Cape La Hague is called by the French, Le Ras de Blanchard, 
 and by the English, the Race of Alderney, the tide running 
 through at the rate of six knots an hour. The harbour of the 
 Braye, where a naval station is now in progress, is on the 
 North side of the island ; and the old pier there, which was 
 built in 1736, was but a rude" structure, with one projecting 
 arm. The only town, called St. Anne's, is placed on a hill, 
 about half a mile from Braye harbour : in 1830, it consisted 
 of 255 houses, and contained 973 inhabitants, the trade of 
 Alderney being at that time, and up to 1846, in a state of 
 utter prostration ; but, since the commencement of the naval 
 station already mentioned, St. Anne's has risen like a Phoenix 
 from its ashes, and the population has more than trebled. 
 The island shelves to the N.E., and is intersected by deep 
 
 (1) The policy of closing the passage may well be questioned, as it appears to us that 
 it might easily have been deepened and converted into one long wet dock, with quays, 
 by means of a gate at each end. 
 
4 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 valleys, with a plain or table land ; but it is almost destitute 
 of trees, shrubs, and hedges. The rock scenery is, however, 
 very fine, and the air is remarkably bracing and salubrious. 
 When we visited Alderney in 1846, it struck us that the 
 lower classes not only spoke English with more fluency, and 
 with a better accent, but that in appearance they were more 
 English, than the peasantry of the other Anglo-Norman 
 islands — a peculiarity probably arising from the former living 
 chiefly in the town, and from the comparatively large English 
 garrison during the last war. 
 
 Sark is rather more than three miles in length, with an 
 average breadth of about one mile, and is about nine miles 
 in circumference. It is divided into two unequal portions, 
 called Great and Little Sark, which are connected by the 
 Coupee, a very singular and lofty narrow ridge, or natural 
 bridge, of about 300 feet long. Sark is a table land with a 
 few valleys, and has no declivity towards the sea, excepting a 
 trifling one at the northern extremity. Although there are 
 five landing places, there is no harbour where ships can lie, 
 and only one beach where boats and other small vessels can 
 be wintered. Altogether, Sark is a very remarkable spot, 
 and, with its caverns, its steep and variegated rocks, its pictu- 
 resque valleys and dells, its creux terrible, and its beautiful 
 clifi" and distant island scenery, it is perhaps the most romantic 
 and interesting island of the group, although its geometrical 
 area is only about three square miles. There is a border 
 village in Scotland called Sark, near a river of the same name. 
 
 Herm. — The name of this islet, which contains about 400 
 English acres, denotes, in old French, land deserted or uncul- 
 tivated, and from the same root is evidently derived the 
 French word ermite, and the English hermit.^ In the sixth 
 century, during the time of St. Magloire, a small chapel was 
 erected in Herm, which Camden states belonged to the Fran- 
 ciscan order of monks, and part of the walls are still standing. 
 Brother Claude Panton, hermit in the island of Herm, and 
 his brother saints, are said, in the " Dtdicace des Eglises,'' 
 to have been present at the consecration of St. Sampson's 
 church, Guernsey, in 1111. Herm and Jethou, together with 
 Sark, not only shelter the roadstead of St. Peter-Port from 
 about N.N.E. to E.S.E., but add considerably to the beauty of 
 the sea view as seen from Guernsey. 
 
 (1) "Herm, Hermes, ou Ernies. La coutume du Bourbonnais, Art. 331, dit que les 
 terres hermea et vacans sont au seigneur justicier. Ell entend par li les terres en friche, 
 qae ne sont occupies par personne. On trouve le mot Herma employ^ de la m^me 
 manidre dans la lol 4, C, de censibus, et dans une foule de chartes. V. le Glossaire du 
 droit Fran^ais, an motErmeB {Q.H.C)."— Repertoire Univenel et Raitonni de Jurisprudence, 
 par M. Merlin. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. O 
 
 The other three islands need not detain us, as they are too 
 small to require further notice here. 
 
 Of the history of Guernsey, which, unlike that of the sister 
 island of Jersey, has never yet appeared from the pen of a 
 native, nothing authentic or documentary, vrith perhaps two 
 or three exceptions, can be found anterior to the eleventh cen- 
 tury ; and its meagre annals previous to that period are based 
 chiefly on conjecture, with scarcely a ray of tradition. If 
 there ever were any early written chronicles, they were pro- 
 bably lost or destroyed during the incursions, ravages, and 
 massacres, of the North-men. The Rev. Doctor Ubele, vicar 
 of Alderney, now deceased, sought to establish, by a learned 
 disquisition in Berry's History, that these islands were visited 
 by the Phoenicians ^ in the course of their traffic with Britain ; 
 but is it not quite as likely that such traffic has been mis- 
 taken, from a similarity of names, for that of the Veneti, or 
 Venetians, a people inhabiting part of modern Britany, and 
 mentioned by Caesar as trading with Britain ? The existence 
 of cromlechs,^ (commonly known as Druid's Altars,) of Maen- 
 hirs, or detached upright stones, and of other Celtic remains, 
 proves that Guernsey was inhabited long before the Christian 
 era, having doubtless been first peopled from the adjacent 
 continent of Gaul, when it was yet immersed in the grossest 
 superstition and barbarism ; and celts,^ &;c., continue to be 
 occasionally discovered to this day."* Cromlechs, &c., have 
 also been found in Herm, but none in Jethou. The remains 
 of a stone circle at Little Sark — the quantity of fragments of 
 
 (1) The Phoenicians planted several colonies in the Mediterranean, particularly Car- 
 thage, and possessed a powerful fleet ; their capital cities were Sidon and Tyre ; [" Tyre> 
 the crowning city, whose mercliants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable 
 of the earth." — Isaiah xxiii. 8.] and, being subdued by Alexander, 33-2 years B.C., they 
 remained tributary to his successors and to the Romans. EzeUiel xxvii. contains a very 
 interesting record of the commerce and navigation of the Tyrians, but we much doubt 
 the latter having ever extended to Britain. In her tempestuous seas, sails of " fine linen, 
 with hroidered work from Egypt," would have been of little service. 
 
 (2) "The true form of a cromlech, or chamber of long triangular area with the only 
 entrance at the apex, is seen in the magnificent examples of Gavr' Innis, in the Morbihan, 
 those on the coast of Normandy, and in the Channel Islands."— Dr. Lukis. 
 
 (3) By " celt " is meant a wedge-shaped instrument, formed of various kinds of hard 
 stone. It has a cutting edge, regularly sharpened on both sides, and it is rounded and 
 pointed at the opposite end. About one hundred of these are yet preserved in Guernsey, 
 found in different localities, but chiefiy in or near places once occupied by the Celtic 
 tribes. The above are made of quartz, chert, flint, or agate, serpentine, greenstone, 
 porphyry, jasper, granular-porphyry, and granite. Those of indurated steatite and acti- 
 noliteschist often resemble the Indian jade hatchets. They vary in size from one inch to 
 twelve or thirteen in length. As this instrument, which is found in every country, difl'ers 
 so little in shape, its general adoption bespeaks a similar design and origin. Antiquaries 
 are not agreed as to its original use, or the manner of its being made serviceable. 
 
 (4) Frederick C. Lukis, Esq., Grange Road, has with great industry and research made a 
 collection of these Celtic remains, which does him the highest credit as an antiquarian 
 and a geologist, and to which every Guernseyman, who has it in his power, should con- 
 tribute, in the hope that the collection will long be preserved entire. 
 
b HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 pottery — several stone celts, known, as in Guernsey, by the 
 name of coins de foudre — the stone disc, or amulet, called 
 rouette des fetaux — all attest that Sark was occupied in 
 very early times, although it has no cromlechs. The primeval 
 or Pagan ages are divided by antiquarians into three periods, 
 viz. first, the stone ; secondly, the bronze ; and, thirdly, the 
 iron ; each betokening a different degree of civilization : * and 
 Guernsey has many remnants of the first period, which ' 
 belongs to a time before all authentic history, to a people who 
 lived precariously by fishing and hunting upon the sea coasts, 
 or along the large rivers of Europe. Alderney, considering its 
 extent, was particularly rich in remains of both the stone and 
 bronze periods, as several cromlechs, cists (pronounced kists) 
 or stone graves, celts, querns, and many fragments of pottery ; 
 as also a great variety of bronze instruments, including celts 
 or ferules, a kind of modern reap-hook, and spear heads, 
 have been discovered there.' But since the commence- 
 ment of the sea and land works, now in progress in Alder- 
 ney, several cists have been removed. Cromlechs were 
 sepulcliral, or tombs containing skeletons, implements of stone 
 or bone, vases of clay, and rude ornaments of amber or bone. 
 There are various opinions relative to the origin of the bronze 
 implements and weapons : some assert that they are all of 
 Phoenician* or Roman workmanship, and others contend 
 that they belonged to an early European Celtic population ; 
 but the fact seems to be that they were used, only in slightly 
 varying forms, by the different people of Europe m about the 
 same state of civilization, and that they were partly replaced 
 by iron, before the Romans had commenced their conquests. 
 Caesar tells us that, in his time, the Gauls made use of iron 
 chains and nails, and that the Britons armed their chariots 
 with iron scythes. Although Hesiod, who flourished about 
 900 years B.C., expressly states that brass, or bronze, was in 
 general use before iron was known ; and most of the arms 
 and implements found in Herculaneum, Pompeii, &;c., were 
 of bronze, while those of iron were comparatively very few ; 
 yet the sole use of bronze could not long have preceded the 
 
 (1) The author feels the greater interest In the subject from bavingr, In 1833, visited the 
 celebrated museum at Copenhagen, which contains innumerable specimens of the three 
 periods. 
 
 (2) •' Portions of dagrgers and swords were likewise found, and castingrs of copper, such 
 as spikes or nails, lumps of bronze metal in its raw state, and a large cake or ingot of 
 copper, weighing about twelve pounds, which, on being assayed, gave the following pro- 
 portions : twelve ounces of pure copper to the pound, three grains of gold, and four of 
 %i\wer."— Alderney Guide. 
 
 (3) If the bronze instruments found in Alderney be of Phoenician manufacture, it is, 
 we think, far more probable that they were brought thither from Marseilles through Gaul, 
 than by sea through the Straits of Gibraltar. Marseilles was a colony of the Phoenicians. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 7 
 
 discovery of iron, as frequent mention is made both of brass 
 and iron in the Old Testament.^ Doubtless iron was used in 
 Asia before it was known in Europe, and Mr. Layard, in his 
 recent excavations at Nineveh, exhumed remains of iron 
 armour, which had been worn by Assyrian warriors. While 
 on this subject, we may also add, that Layard found among 
 the ruins of Nimroud a bas relief, one of the figures on which 
 was a warrior clothed in a complete suit of mail of metal 
 scales, and whose head dress he thus describes : " On his 
 head was a pointed helmet, from which fell lappets, covered 
 with scales, protecting the ears, lower part of the face and 
 neck, the whole head dress resembling that of the early 
 Normans." Nations in all ages have been copyists of each 
 other, and it is no proof that the North -men were descended 
 from the Assyrians, whose empire terminated about 820 years 
 B.C., because the early Norman helmet was but a copy of 
 one which was in use nearly 2,000 years before the times of 
 RoUo, who founded the dukedom of Normandy. 
 
 We have said that Guernsey and Alderney were rich in 
 Celtic remains and we may add, that Jersey was once equally 
 so, as will be seen by a list of them in Falle's History, with 
 Durell's Notes, page 176. A very fine cromlech, better 
 known in Jersey as a Pouquelaye, was discovered in 1785 on 
 the commandino; height near St. Helier — on which heio;ht 
 Fort Regent now stands — and most unpardonably presented, 
 by the unanimous vote of the States of Jersey, to Marshal 
 Conway, the governor of that island. By him it was removed 
 with similar bad taste to his seat near Henley, in Berkshire, 
 and there re-erected ; but while displacing the stones in 
 Jersey, several were broken ! Thus, by a wanton act of 
 desecration, was the sister island deprived of a precious relic 
 of antiquity, which also lost a great part of its value by the 
 removal from its original position. We fear that the States 
 of Guernsey would have been quite as complaisant, as even 
 now they appear utterly indifferent as to the fate of many of 
 the Celtic antiquities in the island. ^ A sketch and ground 
 plan of this splendid cromlech, which was removed from 
 Jersey, are given in Baker's C^sarea, with a copious des- 
 cription. It was 64 feet in circumference, composed of 45 
 
 (1) " Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out o/the stone." (Job xxviii. 
 2.) The history of the Old Testament commenced about 1450 years B.C., and finished 
 about the year 430 B.C. 
 
 (2) Are we not justified in saying this from the fact, that as late as June, 1853, we found 
 the cromlech at Le R^e — "the far-famed" Creux des F^es — in use as a cow stable ? The 
 States of Guernsey ought long since to have purchased all the cromlechs in the island^ 
 with a view to their preservation. 
 
8 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 large stones, measuring 7 feet in height, 6 in breadth, 4 in 
 thickness, containing four perfect lodges, (or cells,) besides 
 one destroyed : the supposed entrance to it was apparently a 
 subterraneous passage, facing the East, and measuring 15 feet 
 in length by 4 1 in breadth, from the inside of the two outward 
 pillars, or stones. Baker describes also other Druidical re- 
 mains in Jersey, not sufficiently noticed by Falle ; and he 
 states that some years since a considerable number of Celtic 
 coins were discovered in that inland in a bank, the falling of 
 which disclosed them, " All have a head on one side, and 
 generally a horse on the reverse. Some of them are com- 
 posed of an impure silver amalgam, but the greater part of 
 copper blended with some other metal." Relative to Celtic 
 remains, Dr. Lukis, of Guernsey, observes, in his Memoir 
 on the Cromlechs of the Channel Islands, as read in London 
 before the Society of Antiquaries, in June, 1853 : " It is a 
 generally received opinion that the Celtae were the authors 
 and architects of these megaliths ; these are, however, found 
 universally distributed from Scandinavia to India ; and in 
 America, especially in the North. It must further be ob- 
 served, that the same types of construction and use are equally 
 universal, and that they are usually situated near the sea or 
 the vicinity of some extent of water. It is evident from the 
 universal distribution, likewise, of identical forms of the stone 
 implements accompanying them, that the cromlech-building 
 races sprang early from one central typical stock. Central 
 Asia and the site of Nineveh produce genuine Celtic relics J' 
 
 The worship of stones, whether memorial or sacrificial, lin- 
 gered so long among the Gauls, that, even after the intro- 
 duction of Christianity, it was slowly and with difficulty abo- 
 lished in remote and isolated spots. Thus the second Cfouncil 
 of Aries, held A.D. 452, put forth the following canon : 
 
 " Si dans le territoire d'un Ev^que des infid^les alluraent des 
 flambeaux, ou ven^rent les arbres, les fontaines, ou \es pierres, et 
 qu'ils negligent d'abolir cet usage, ils doivent savoir qu'ils sent 
 coupables de sacrilege." — Canon XXIII. 
 
 A Council of Tours thus expressed itself in the year 567 : 
 
 ** Nous conjurons les Pasteurs de chasser de TEglise tous ceux 
 qu'ils verront faire, devant certaines pierreSy des choses qui n'ont 
 pas de rapport avec les ceremonies de TEglise." — Canon XXII. 
 
 And even as late as the reign of Canute of England, in the 
 eleventh century, the following command was put forth : 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. \f 
 
 " We forbid idolatry — the worship of stones and of woods. 
 Gentilis est adoratis sine quis saxay arboris, lignare coluerit." 
 
 That Guernsey was known to the Romans, while they were 
 masters of Gaul, appears from the Itinerary,^ commonly, but 
 it seems erroneously, thought to be that of the emperor 
 Antoninus ; and it is the very generally received belief in the 
 island, that his testimony is confirmed by the traces of a 
 Roman encampment or fortification on the promontory of 
 Jerbourg, where three distinct entrenchments, one behind the 
 other, are supposed by many to be still visible. In the 
 opinion of others, there never was any such Roman triple 
 line of defence ; but in place thereof, one commanding em- 
 bankment, stretching quite across the isthmus, which is flanked 
 by nature with almost inaccessible cliffs. If the latter sup- 
 position be correct, as we believe it is, this single earthern 
 rampart was raised either by the North-men, or more proba- 
 bly by the natives, as a place of security from piratical inva- 
 sion. Of the Romans, the only memorials found in the island 
 consist of a little pottery and several coins. On the promon- 
 tory of Jerbourg, sixteen Roman brass coins, some of Anto- 
 ninus Pius, A.D. 137, and others ofCommodus, A.D. 180, 
 were exhumed as late as in the year 1848. But as Roman 
 coins passed current in Gaul, even after the Romans had left 
 it, those found in Guernsey may well have been brought over 
 by the islanders, and buried to secure them from the North- 
 men, The same remark applies to the pottery, and thus 
 these memorials afford no proof that the Romans formed 
 settlements in the island, although they very probably visited 
 it. In Jersey and Alderney, doubtless on account of their 
 greater proximity to Gaul, there are many more evidences 
 of their occupation by the Romans, such as arms, coins, and 
 pottery. In Jersey, the great earthen ramparts that existed 
 not many years since — one called La Petite Ccesaree, or 
 Caesar's Wall, near Havre de Rozel, and another at Diela- 
 ment — are supposed to have been the works of that people. 
 The former, which was once of considerable length, and about 
 24 feet in height, inclining to four feet at the top, with twelve 
 feet at the base, was doubtless a fortification, and probably 
 the work of the Romans: its name is not only a strong 
 evidence of this, but Roman bricks and tiles were found in 
 demohshing this immense rampart. Although Mont Orgueil 
 
 • (1) This Itinerary is more probably the abstract of a journal kept by some oflScer, who 
 visited different parts of the Roman empire. 
 
10 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Castle is of the Norman style of architecture, yet as there is a 
 part of it still called Le Fort de Cesar, it may be that a 
 Roman castle once stood on the present site. Grosnez castle 
 is also supposed by some to be a Roman work ; but so little 
 remains of it that no decisive opinion can be formed on the 
 point. In February, 1848, a jar of coarse earthenware, which 
 contained 400 brass coins of different Roman emperors, in an 
 excellent state of preservation, was dug out from the sub- 
 stratum, where it may have been lodged during the period of 
 the Roman settlement in that island. In Alderney, Roman 
 coins, tiles, pottery, &:c., have been discovered, and its occu- 
 pation by the Romans is easily accounted for from its vicinity 
 to the promontory of La Hague, which still retains their 
 earth works. In that promontory, Roman coins, arms, (fee, 
 have been frequently turned up by the plough ; and in the 
 neighbourhood of Jobourg, according to that indefatigable 
 antiquary of the " Cotentin," Monsieur de Gerville, the traces 
 of a Roman camp may yet be seen. 
 
 Having observed that cromlechs, &c., are still existing in 
 Guernsey, it may be well to add, that Druidism was peculiar 
 to the Celts, and that nothing resembling it was to be found 
 among the Gothic or Teutonic tribes. The Druids are said 
 to have consisted of three orders : the first were the Druids, 
 emphatically so called, who were the chief men, and consulted 
 by the kings in all important concerns ; the next were the 
 Bards, who were also prophets ; and the third were the 
 Philosophers, who studied the phenomena of nature, accord- 
 ing to some — according to others, they were the sacred musi- 
 cians and poets. The origin of Druid worship may be traced 
 to the East, afterwards diversified to suit the more northern 
 habits of the Celts. The Druids did not admit of idols, and 
 they believed in the immortality of the soul. The earliest 
 notice of the Celts places them, about the year 500 B.C., in 
 the neighbourhood of the Pyrenees, whence they were driven 
 by the Goths, or Germans, on the East, and the Aquitani on 
 the South, into that part of Gaul, where they were found in 
 the time of Caesar. The Celts were a people of an inferior 
 stature, swarthy in their complexion, with dark eyes ; and 
 hair short, coarse, and black. This description applies to 
 many of the peasantry in the most remote or southern parishes 
 of Guernsey, in whom Celtic blood is very manifest. History 
 records but little of the victories and conquests of the early 
 Celts, and they appear to have been unusually incapable of 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 11 
 
 instruction or advancement.^ In the introduction to the first 
 book of Caesar's Commentaries, Gaul is represented as divided 
 into three parts, and that part, which lies between the rivers 
 Marne and Garonne, was called Celtic Gaul ; that to the east- 
 ward of the Seine and Marne, as far as the Rhine, Belgic 
 Gaul ; and all the territory to the South of the Garonne was 
 inhabited by the Aquitani. 
 
 Caesar states, in his Commentaries, that that portion of 
 Celtic Gaul which lay between the rivers Loire and Seine, 
 and the country a little to the North of the latter, was called 
 by the inhabitants Armorica ; ^ it comprehended the western 
 parts of the present provinces of Normandy and Britany, the 
 name being derived from its situation on the coast, ar signi- 
 fying upon, or near, and mare, the ocean. The Armorici, 
 who consisted of at least eight distinct states, or tribes, under 
 different names, were a warlike, resolute, and intractable race ; 
 and the Romans experienced great difficulty in subjugating 
 them, which they finally did about fifty years B.C. Among 
 these tribes were the Unelli and Veneti. The Unelli inha- 
 bited the adjacent coast of Normandy, or the modern " Coten- 
 tin," {Constantinus,) their district being nearly bounded on 
 three sides by the sea, and they doubtless possessed these 
 islands. The Veneti dwelt in Britany, in the neighbourhood 
 of the present Yannes. (Venetia.) Caesar, in Book III., 
 gives a graphic description of the battles by sea and land with 
 the Armorici, and he thus speaks of the Veneti : 
 
 "This last state is by far the most powerful and considerable 
 of all the nations inhabiting along the sea coast, and that not only 
 on account of their vast shipping, wherewith they drive a mighty 
 traffic with Britain, and their skill and experience in naval 
 affairs, in which they greatly surpass the other maritime states ; 
 but because, lying on a large and open coast, against which the 
 sea rages with great violence, and where the havens, being few 
 in number, are all subject to their jurisdiction, they have most of 
 the nations that trade in those seas tributaries to their state." .... 
 *' For the ships of the Veneti were built and fitted out in this 
 manner : their bottoms were somewhat flatter than ours, the 
 better to adapt themselves to the shallows, and sustain without 
 danger the regress of the tides. Their prows were very high and 
 erect, as likewise their sterns, to bear the hugeness of the billows 
 and violence of tempests. The body of the vessel was entirely of 
 
 (1) The Highlanders of Scotland, the Welsh, and part of the Irish, are the only remains 
 now existing of the ancient Celts in the British dominions. 
 
 (2) " Universis civitatibus, quae Oceanum attingunt, quseque eorum consuetudine 
 ArmorJcse appeUantur, (quo sunt in numero Curiosolites, Rhedones, Ambibari, Caletes, 
 Osismii, Lemovices, Veneti, Unelli."— JDe Bello Oallico, Lib. VII. 75. 
 
12 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 oak, to stand the shocks and assaults of that tempestuous ocean. 
 The benches of the rowe^rs were made of strong beams of about a 
 foot in breadth, and fastened with iron nails an inch thick. In- 
 stead of cables, they secured their anchors with chains of iron,* 
 and made use of skins, and a sort of thin pliant leather, by way 
 of sails, either because they wanted canvass, and were ignorant of 
 the art of making sail cloth, or, which is more probable, because 
 they imagined that canvass sails were not so proper to bear the 
 violence of tempests, the rage and fury of the winds, and to 
 govern ships of that bulk and burden. Between our fleet and 
 vessels of such a construction, the nature of the encounter was 
 this, that in agility and a ready command of oars, we had indeed 
 the advantage, but in other respects, regarding the situation of 
 the coast, and the assault of storms, all things ran very much in 
 their favour; for neither could our ships injure them with their 
 beaks, so great was their strength and firmness, nor could we 
 easily throw in our darts, because of their height above us ; 
 which was also the reason that we found it extremely difficult to 
 grapple the enemy, and bring them to close fight. Add to all 
 this, that when the sea began to rage, and they were forced to 
 submit to the pleasure of the winds, they could both weather the 
 storm better, and more securely trust themselves among the 
 shallows, as fearing nothing from the rocks and cliffs on the 
 recess of the tide. The Romans, on the other hand, had reason 
 to be under a continued dread of these and such like accidents. 
 
 ** Caesar having taken many of their towns, and finding that 
 he only fatigued his army to no purpose, because he could nei- 
 ther prevent the retreat of the enemy, nor force their garrisons^ 
 to a surrender, resolved to await the arrival of his fleet,^ which, 
 being accordingly come up, was no sooner descried by the Veneti 
 than about 220 of their best ships, ^ well equipped for service, 
 and furnished with all kind of weapons, stood out to sea, and 
 drew up in order of battle against us. Neither Brutus,* who 
 commanded the fleet, nor the centurions and military tribunes 
 who had the charge of particular vessels, knew what course to 
 
 (1) Chain cables are an invention of the present century, but it would appear that they 
 were used nearly 2,000 years ago, of course for small vessels only. 
 
 (2) Csesar previously relates that the besieged, when reduced to extremity, brought 
 up their ships, of which they had always a great number in readiness, and, easily carrying 
 off their effects, withdrew into the nearest towns, where they again defended themselves 
 by the same advantages of situation as before. 
 
 (3) Csesar being informed by Crassus of the revolt of the Veneti and other states in 
 alliance with them, " and being then at a great distance from Gaul, ordered in the mean- 
 time that a number of galleys should be built on the Loire, a river which runs into the 
 ocean j and that mariners, rowers, and pilots, should be drawn together from the pro- 
 vince. These orders being executed with great dispatch, he himself, as soon as the season 
 of the year permitted, came to the Sirmy."— Commentaries. 
 
 (4) These appear to have belonged not only to the Veneti, but to their Armorican and 
 British allies ; and among them may have been some from these islands, Guernsey having 
 in very early times possessed an extensive fishery, especially of congers. 
 
 (6) This was Decimus Brutus, and not the same — " Tu, quoque, Brute / "—who stabbed 
 Cassar in the Senate House at Rome, 44 years B.C. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 13 
 
 take, or in what manner to conduct the fight; for they were no 
 strangers to the strength and firmness of the Venetian shipping, 
 which rendered them proof against our beaks ; and when they 
 had even raised turrets on the decks, yet, being still overtopped 
 by the lofty sterns of the enemy, the Romans could not with any 
 advantage throw in their darts ; whereas those sent by the Gauls^ 
 coming from above, descended with greater violence on our men. 
 In this exigence, a particular kind of instrument, used by the 
 mariners, proved of signal service in giving a favorable issue to 
 the combat. They had provided themselves with long poles, 
 armed at one end with long scythes, not unlike those made use of 
 in attacking the walls of towns. With these they laid hold of 
 the enemy's tackle, and, drawing off* the galley by the extreme 
 force of oars, cut asunder the ropes that fastened the sail yards 
 to the mast. These giving way, the sail yards necessarily came 
 down ; insomuch, that as all the hopes and expectations of the 
 Gauls depended entirely on their sails and rigging, by depriving 
 them of this resource, we at the same time rendered their vessels 
 wholly unserviceable. The rest depended altogether on the 
 valour of the troops, in which the Romans had greatly the advan- 
 tage ; and the rather, because they fought within view of Cassar 
 and the whole army, so that not a single act of bravery could 
 pass unobserved, for all the adjoining hills and eminences, which 
 afforded a near prospect of the sea, were covered with our men.* 
 
 "The enemy's sail yards being, as we have said, cut down, 
 and many of their ships singly surrounded by two or three of 
 ours at a time, the Romans used their utmost endeavours to board 
 them ; which the Veneti observing, and that we had already 
 made ourselves masters of a considerable part of their fleet, as 
 they could fall on no expedient to prevent so great a misfortune, 
 they began to think of providing for their safety by flight. Ac- 
 cordingly, they tacked about, in order to have the advantage of 
 the wind, when all of a sudden so dead a calm ensued, that not a 
 vessel could stir out of its place : nor could any thing have fallen 
 out more opportunely towards putting at once a final period to 
 the war ; for the Romans attacking their ships one after another, 
 took them with ease ; insomuch, that of all that vast number that 
 came out against us, but a very few, under favor of the night, 
 escaped to land, after a conflict that continued from nine in the 
 morning until sunset. 
 
 " This battle put an end to the war with the Veneti, and all 
 the nations on the sea coast ; for as the entire body of their youth, 
 
 (1) This description reminds us vividly of the naval battle of Algesiras, July 6, 1801, in 
 •which the English squadron under a Guernseyman, Sir James Saumarez, whose flag ship 
 was the C^SAR ! fought within sight of the garrison of Gibraltar. Six days later, when 
 the same British admiral left Gibraltar to encounter, with a very inferior force, the com- 
 bined French and Spanish squadrons, the whole population of the Rock crowded the walls, 
 batteries, and mole-head, to witness the scene, the band of the CJESAR ! playing " Come, 
 cheer up, my lads, 'tis to glory we steer ! " and the band of the garrison responding with 
 " Britons, strike home!" What Briton could hang back under such inspiring influences I 
 
14 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 and all those also of more advanced age, who were capable of 
 serving their country by their credit and counsels, were present 
 in the action, and as they had likewise drawn together their 
 whole naval strength ; such as survived this defeat, having nei- 
 ther any place of refuge whereunto to retire, nor means left of 
 defending their towns, surrendered themselves and their all to 
 Caesar's mercy. But he thought it necessary to proceed against 
 them with the greatest severity, that he might impress on the 
 minds of the Gauls for the future a mofe inviolable regard to the 
 sacred character of ambassadors.^ Having, therefore, caused all 
 their senators to be put to death, he ordered the rest to be sold 
 for slaves.'* 
 
 It will be seen by the preceding extracts that anterior to 
 the subjugation of the adjacent continent of Gaul by the 
 Romans, the people there, and the inhabitants of these islands, 
 must have possessed many more facihties in holding inter- 
 course with each other, and in passing to and fro in larger 
 vessels and in greater safety, than is now generally supposed. 
 After that subjection, the Romans could avail themselves of 
 the same facilities ; but we repeat, that there is no satisfac- 
 tory proof that they ever formed a permanent settlement in 
 Guernsey. It must be remembered, however, that Csesar 
 wrote according to the conceptions of his time, as the navy of 
 the Veneti and their aUies evidently consisted of what would 
 now be termed galleys or large row-boats, with masts and 
 sails, probably not exceeding some thirty tons ; and we know 
 that the harbour of Vannes is at present only capable of 
 accommodating small vessels. 
 
 After describing the subjugation of the Veneti, &;c., Caesar 
 proceeds to narrate the campaign of his lieutenant, Sabinus, 
 against Viridovix, the chief of the Unelli, whose territory, as 
 we have just said, was the modern " Cotentin." We give 
 Caesar's description at length, because it relates to the con- 
 quests of the Romans in the neighbourhood of these islands : 
 
 " During these transactions against the Veneti, Q. Titurius 
 Sabinus entered the territories of the Unelli, at the head of the 
 troops put under his command by Caesar. Viridovix was 
 invested with the supreme authority in these parts, and had been 
 appointed general-in-chief by all the states concerned in the 
 revolt : out of which he had drawn together a very numerous and 
 powerful army. Nay, but a very few days before, the Aulerci, 
 Eburovices, and Lexovii,^ having massacred their senate, because 
 
 (1) The Veneti and their allies had detained, and loaded with irons, the ambassadors, 
 or military officers, sent to them by Crassus, to solicit a supply of corn. This was Publius 
 Crassus, apparently a son of the rich Crassus. 
 
 (2) The Eburovices dwelt on the left bank of the Seine, and the Lexovii were between 
 them and the sea. The chief city of the Eburovices was the modern Evreux, in Upper 
 Normandy. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 15 
 
 they refused to engage in the war, had shut tlieir gates against the 
 Romans, and joined themselves to Viridovix. Besides all this, 
 he had very much strengthened his army by the great numbers 
 that flocked to him from all parts of Gaul; men of desperate 
 fortunes, or accustomed to live by robbery, whom the hopes of 
 plunder and love of war had drawn off from the daily labours of 
 their calling and the cares of agriculture. 
 
 *' Sabinus kept close within his camp, which was situated in a 
 manner every way advantageous ; while Viridovix, who had 
 posted himself at the distance of about two miles, daily drew out 
 his men, and offered him battle. This behaviour of the Roman 
 general not only drew on him the contempt of the enemy, but 
 occasioned also some murmuring among his own troops, and 
 filled the Gauls with so high a conceit of his fear, that they even 
 adventured to come np to his very trenches. The reason of his 
 acting in this manner was, that he thought it not justifiable in a 
 lieutenant, in the absence of the commander-in-chief, to hazard a 
 battle with so superior an army, unless on terms of evident 
 advantage. 
 
 *' Having confirmed them in this belief, that his reserve was 
 the effect of fear, he made choice of a certain Gaul, from among 
 the auxiliaries, a man of address, and every way qualified for 
 carrying on his design. Him he persuaded, by great rewards, 
 and still greater promises, to go over to the enemy, instructing 
 him at the same time in the part he was to act. This Gaul, 
 coming to their camp as a deserter, laid before them the fear of 
 the Romans, and the extremities to which Caesar was reduced in 
 the war against the Veneti : nor did he fail to insinuate that there 
 was great reason to believe Sabinus intended the next night pri- 
 vately to draw off" his army, and march to Caesar's assistance. 
 No sooner was this heard by the Gauls than they all cried out 
 vrith one voice that they ought not to lose so fair an occasion of 
 success, but go and attack the Roman camp. Many reasons 
 concurred to fix them in this resolution. Th.e reserve of Sabinus 
 for some days past; the intelligence from the deserter, confirming 
 their belief of his fear; the want of provisions, of which they had 
 taken no great care to lay in a sufficient stock ; the hopes con- 
 ceived from the Venetian war; and, in fine, that readiness with 
 which men are apt to believe what falls in with their expectations 
 and wishes. Urged by these considerations, they would not suf- 
 fer Viridovix and the rest of the general officers to dismiss the 
 council before they had obtained their consent for the taking up 
 of arms and falling on the Roman camp. The proposal being at 
 last agreed to, they provided themselves with fascines and hurdles 
 to fill up the ditch, and joyfully began their march, as to a certain 
 victory. 
 
 "The Roman camp stood on an eminence, which rose with a 
 
16 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 gentle ascent for the space of about a mile. Hither the Gauls 
 advanced with so much haste, in order to come on our troops 
 unprepared, that by the time they were arrived they had run 
 themselves quite out of breath. Sabinus having encouraged his 
 men, whom he saw eager to engage, gave the word of onset.* As 
 the enemy were very much encumbered with the loads of fascines 
 they had brought to fill the ditch, he ordered a sudden sally 
 from the two several gates of the camp ; and so well did it suc- 
 ceed, by reason of the advantage of the ground, the inexperience 
 and weariness of the Gauls, the bravery of the Roman troops, 
 and their ability acquired in former battles, that the enemy could 
 not sustain the very first charge of our men, but immediately 
 betook themselves to flight. The Romans, who were fresh and 
 vigorous, pursuing them under all these disadvantages, put great 
 numbers to the sword, and the rest being followed by the cavalry, 
 very few escaped the slaughter. Thus, at one and the same time, 
 Sabinus had an account of the defeat of the Veneti by sea, and 
 CsBsar of the victory obtained by Sabinus on land. All the several 
 states in those parts readily submitted to Titurius ; for, as the 
 Gauls are very prompt and forward to undertake a war, so are 
 they of a disposition that easily relents, and gives way to the 
 strokes of adversity." 
 
 The Armorici remained for a long time in quiet subjection 
 to the Romans ; but when the Roman power began to yield 
 to the ravages of the barbarians, they revolted against Con- 
 stantine, and regained their independence. Mezeray, in his 
 history of France, mentions a division of Gaul into provinces, 
 under Octavius Caesar, and a sub-division of modern Nor- 
 mandy into presidencies. " These ten nations," says another 
 French historian, " together with the inhabitants of the islands 
 lying near them, were known in Celtic Gaul by the name of 
 * The League of the Eleven Cities,' " and this appears to have 
 been in the time of the Romans. About the end of the fifth 
 century, however, in consequence of the turbulence and rest- 
 lessness of their dispositions, the Armorici submitted to Clovis, 
 whose reign commenced in the year 485, and their country 
 became a part of the new kingdom of France, dating from 
 Merovee, A.D. 451. It must be remembered that the 
 French were not the same people whom the Romans subdued 
 — they were of German extraction from the other side of the 
 Rhine, and it was they who drove the Romans out of Gaul. 
 When the Britons were subjugated by the Saxons, many of 
 
 (1) In a previous passagre, Caesar nays: "Q. Titurius Sabinus, at the head of three 
 legions, entered the country of the Unclli, Curiosolitae, and Lexovil, to find employment 
 for the troops that had been drawn together in those parts'."— A Roman legion, if complete, 
 consisted of about 4,000 men, including cavalry. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 17 
 
 them, and particularly a colony of the Welsh, settled in the 
 southern part of Armorica, and formed a powerful state : 
 hence the name of Lesser Britain, or Britany.^ On the other 
 hand, the Saxon Chronicle tells us that Wales was peopled by 
 men from Armorica ; but certain it is that there is so great a 
 similarity between the language of the Welsh and Bas- 
 Bretons, that the natives of either country understand each 
 other. The northern part of Armorica, after belonging to 
 the Franks, or German conquerors of Gaul, above 400 years, 
 was disjoined from the French kingdom by conquest, and 
 became Normandy, as will appear shortly. The Franks 
 were so called from their having formed, about the year 240, 
 a confederacy to fight for freedom ; and modern France finally 
 took its name from them. On the subject of Britany, Thierry, 
 in his Histoire de la Conquete de lAngleterre par les Nor- 
 mandsy (Paris, 1835,) says : 
 
 " De nombreux vaisseaux de fiigitifs Bretons aborclerent suc- 
 cessivement a la pointe la plus occidentale de rArmorique, dans 
 les cantons qui, sous les Romains et meme avant eux, avaient ete 
 appeles territoires des Osismiens et des Yenetes. D'accord avec 
 les anciens habitants, qui reconnaissaienten eux des freres d'ori- 
 gine, les nouveaux venus se repandirent sur toute la cote septen- 
 trionale jusqu'a la petite riviere qu'on nomme Coesnon, et vers le 
 sud, jusqu'au territoire de la cite des Venetes, aujourd'hui Vannes. 
 lis fonderent sur cette etendue de pays une sorte d'etat separe, 
 qui embrassa tous les petits lieux voisins des cotes, mais hors 
 duquel rest^rent les grandes villes de Vannes, de Nantes, et de 
 Rennes. L'accroissement de population de ce coin de terre occi- 
 dental, le grand nombre d'hommes de race et de langue celtiques^ 
 qui s'y trouv^rent ainsi rassembles sur peu d'espace, le preser- 
 verent de I'irruption du langage romain qui, sous des formes plus 
 ou moins corrompues, gagnait peu a peu toute la Gaule. Le 
 nom de Bretagne fut attache a ces cotes, et en fit disparaitre les 
 noms divers des populations indigenes, pendant que I'ile qui, 
 depuis tant de siecles, avait porte ce nom, le perdait elle-m^me, 
 et, prenant le nom de ses conquerants, comraen9ait a etre appelee 
 terre des Saxons et des Angles, ou, en un seal mot, Angleterre."^ 
 
 Caesar mentions in his Commentaries, Book VI., that Am- 
 biorix — a powerful and determined enemy of the Romans in 
 Gaul — being defeated and driven to extremity, counselled 
 his followers to provide for their own safety, " on which some 
 
 (1) Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, 1830. 
 
 (2) Celti, Kelti, Galati, nom xine les Romains et les Grecs donnaient aux populations 
 gauloises. 
 
 (3) Engel-seaxna-land, Engia-land, prononcez Engle-land; par corruption, England. 
 
 C 
 
18 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 took refuge in the forest of Arduenna, and some in the adjoin- 
 ing morasses. Those who Uved on the sea coast hid them- 
 selves in the islands formed by the tide at high water ; and 
 many, abandoning their country altogether, trusted them- 
 selves and their all to the faith of foreigners." Berry, page 
 41, after saying that he had "examined more accurately into 
 the Roman history than Mr. Falle or Mr. Dicey seem to 
 have done " ! comments on the passage just quoted, which, 
 however, he does not give, and observes : " The islands here 
 meant by Julius Caesar, as I have hinted in the Introduction, 
 were most probably those of Jersey and Guernsey ; their 
 proximity to the coast of France, and there not being any 
 other islands in the British Channel, confirm me in this opi- 
 nion .... I will therefore venture to call this the most 
 early mention made in history of the islands of Jersey and 
 Guernsey." ^ A more reckless venture was never made by 
 any historian ; as Ambiorix was joint king with Cativolcus of 
 the Eburones, a people of Belgic Gaul, inhabiting what is 
 now the country about Liege, on the West bank of the 
 Meuse ; and Caesar evidently refers to localities near the 
 Rhine, from which river the forest of Arduenna (now Ar- 
 dennes) mentioned by him, extended about fifty miles. More- 
 over, Jersey and Guernsey must have wonderfully changed 
 in their relative positions to the adjoining continent to make 
 them islands "formed by the tide at high water:" — the isles 
 of Chausey, or Le Boeuf, the latter now a mere group of 
 rocks, would have been a much more probable supposition, 
 if Ambiorix had commanded and fought among the Armorici, 
 or in the We&t instead of the East of Gaul. Speaking of a 
 long chain of rocks extending from Alderney to the Caskets, 
 Berry says (p. 295) : " It was on this dangerous part of the 
 coast where the young prince, the son of Henry I., was 
 shipwrecked and lost." This sad disaster occurred near Bar- 
 fleur, in Normandy, as an historian of Guernsey ought surely 
 to have known. With similar unpardonable inaccuracy, 
 Berry states, (p. 106,) that during the civil war Guernsey 
 held for the king, which it never did, and, " after a vigorous 
 defence, was at last forced to submit to the usurper" — mean- 
 ing the parliament, with which the island sided from the first ! * 
 And yet he had the modesty to palm on a goodly list of 
 subscribers a quarto termed by him " The History of Guern- 
 
 (1) Baker, in his Csesarea, copying Berry, has repeated this ridiculous supposition. 
 
 (2) We have only noticed Mr. Berry's most glaring errors : others are, that Celtic Gaul 
 was separated from Aquitaine by the Loire, instead of by the Garonne, page x. ; that 
 Edward HI. was justly called the English Justinian, instead of Edward I., page 231, &c. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 19 
 
 sey, containing an Interesting Account of the Island," and 
 this at the moderate price of three guineas, although the 
 work is any thing but what it professed to be, the only valu- 
 able parts being supplied by Mr. Henry Budd, and the late 
 Bailiff, Mr. Brock. Berry, moreover, contemplated (at page 
 298) compiling a History of Jersey, but that island was hap- 
 pily spared the infliction. It may appear ungenerous to 
 speak thus of a preceding historian ; but when we contrast 
 his description of the people of Guernsey with that of Mr. 
 Chenevix, an accomplished scholar and gentleman, who resided 
 here at the same time, it becomes our duty to expose the 
 secret of the defamatory tone^ of his " General Observations," 
 (page 298 et seq.) viz. his effects being arrested in June, 1813, 
 for house rent due to an Englishman, and his being impri- 
 soned, for two days, in September following, in the public 
 gaol of St. Peter-Port, for refusing to return an unpublished 
 map of Guernsey, which had been lent to him by a surveyor. 
 
 Du Moulin,^ whose history of Normandy was published in 
 1631, thus described the Cotentin : 
 
 *' Le Costentin, commG ie croy, est vne des Prouinces de Nor- 
 mandie la phis considerable; car si voiis regardez le terroirqu'on 
 y appelle le Closet et le voisinage de Montebourg, vous verrez 
 que e'est vn des meilleurs de France, foisonnant en bleds & autres 
 grains, & tellement gras, qu'il est impossible d'en sortir lors que 
 la pluye a este grande. Les herbages, ou (comme Ton dit) 
 riierbe croist du soir au matin, sont si ehargez de boeufs, qn'on 
 ne les peut voir sans admiration ; aussi on en tire toutes les sep- 
 maines vne grande quantite pour distribuer a la haute Normandie 
 & a la France : Les sidres y abondent & sont fort exoeilens, prin- 
 ci|)alement rescarlatin qui ressemble en couleur au vin paille, & 
 I'egalle presque en bonte. Le gibier s'y trouue en plus grande 
 quantite qu'en autres lieux, & par toute la coste on pesche tant 
 de poissons & de toutes sortes, que Ton les vend quasi pour rien ; 
 il est vray que celui des costes de Barfleur & Cherbourg est plus 
 gras & meilleur que celuy de la Hoojue & de I'Occident, & la 
 viande est a si bas prix a Montebourg & par tout ce pays, lequel 
 est bas de soy & arrose de la riuiere Douue, qu'on est fort bien 
 traite en vne hostellerie pour demy quart d'escu a chaque repas. 
 Le peuple y est assez delie, & neantmoins vers la Hague fort 
 
 (1) Harris, in his " System of British Geography," was misled by Berry; and Mr. Dun- 
 can, in reviewing' Harris' work in the Guernsey and Jersey Magazine, vol. ii., page 12.5, 
 says : " The first paragraph in this libel, to which we shall advert, seems from the mode 
 of expression to have been borrowed by Mr. Harris from that scamp. Berry, who had the 
 impudence to put forth a large quarto of twaddle and personal spleen as a History of 
 Guernsey." 
 
 (2) Du Moulin's history is a folio, commencing with the first irruptions of the North, 
 men, and terminating with the expulsion of king John from Normandy. 
 
20 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 rude, &c d'vn langage assez difficile ; il aime bien a boire, fait 
 raarehandise par terre et sur mer, a de bons pilotes qui font de 
 grands voyages, de bonnes laines & de bons draps, & pour places 
 d'asseurance, Constances, Carentan, Cherbourg, Vallongnes, & 
 Barfleur." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The island of Guernsey is of triangular form, whence it 
 perhaps derives its name, which is said to be a corruption of 
 Kemiow-e, the Celto-Breton word for an island of angles^ 
 In the Itinerary attributed to Antoninus, who governed the 
 whole of Gaul, Guernsey is called Sarnia^ and, in some copies 
 of that work, Sernia ; Alderney is mentioned by the name of 
 Arica or Aurica^^ and Jersey by that of CcBsarea. Accord- 
 ing to Cellarius,'* the Latin name of Alderney was Riduna ; 
 but Mr. George Metivier, of Guernsey, a profound etymologist, 
 thinks that it was Arinia, signifying the island of the Cape or 
 Point. The learned Mr. Poingdestre,^ of Jersey, who made 
 great researches into the antiquities of these islands, contends 
 that Guernsey was anciently called in Latin Vesargia, Veser- 
 
 (1) " Guernesey, une des iles anglaises, dont la forme est celle d'une harpe, a dgalement 
 emprunt^ son nom du celto-breton Kerniow-k ; et par corruption, Guernesey ; en fran9ais, 
 forra^ d'angles ou de comes." — Origines Gauloises, celles despltts anciens pevples de V Eu- 
 rope, par La Tour- D'Auvergne Cor ret, premier grenadier de la republique frangaise. 
 Troisikme Edition. A Hambourg, 1801. — The final ^ signifies, in celto-breton, island. 
 
 (2) Camden's Britannia, page 825. " Quae Antonio Sarnia, hodie Garnsey appellata." 
 
 (3) Holland's Translation of Camden's Britannia, pagre 224. " Alderney may seeme to be 
 that Arica which, in Antonine, according to the king of Spaine's copie, is reckoned among 
 the Isles of the British Sea." 
 
 (4) Christoph. Cellarii Nolitia Orbis Antiqui. Insulae circa Galliam CXLVI., p. 203. 
 Edit. L. I. C. Schwarz, Lips. 1731. " Inter Galliam et Britanniam plnres sunt, nee verd 
 nominatae ^ veteribus, quae Lugdunensi parti objacent, nisi quod auctor Itinerarii Mari- 
 timi, quod cum Antoniniano conjunctum est, plures Occani Britanniam et Galliam inter- 
 fiuentis, un& serie, sed indistinctS,nominat, at nemo facile ex iUius narrationediscreuerit, 
 quod huic nomen, quod illi conueniat. Has autem post Vectam, quae Britanniae proxima 
 est, enumerat : Riduna, Sarnia, Ccesarea, Baraa, Lisia, Andium, Sicdelis, Uxantisina, 
 Vindilis, Statu, Arica. £ quibus plerique putant, nominis inducti similitudine, quae nunc 
 Garsey sivc Jersey est, veterem Cacsareara esse: quae vero Gransey, major altera, esse 
 Sarnicam sivc Sarmium, quae Aldin& Editione est Armin. Caeteras inuestigare, et prisca 
 nomlna componere recentioribus, supra notitiam nostram est, et ab aliis expectandum, 
 qui mare illnd navigarunt, et obscuriorum insularum uomina, et situm, singular! curA 
 et industri& examinauerunt." 
 
 (5) Mr. Poingdestre held a fellowship of Exeter College, Oxford, and was ejected from it 
 for his loyalty by the parliamentary visitors. His skill in languages, his acquaintance 
 with the civil and Roman laws, and his other acquirements, introduced him into the 
 Secretary of State's Office, under Lord Digby, where he continued until the affairs of 
 Charles I. had grown desperate. He afterwards assisted in the defence of Jersey and 
 Elizabeth Castle against the " Rebels," as Fallc calls the parliamentary forces. After the 
 restoration, he was made lieutenant- bailly of Jersey, and died in that island at the great 
 age uf 83, in 1691> 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 21 
 
 gia, and Vesorgia, all written with a B instead of a V, as 
 JBesargia, Sec. ; and his authority is a donation of Childebert, 
 king of France, to Samson, bishop of Dol, in Britany, of 
 four islands, named Vesargia, Augia, Sargia, and Rima^ which 
 he takes to be Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and Herm ; Augia 
 being the name of Jersey before the Romans gave it that of 
 Csesarea. Alderney was not included in the grant, probably 
 on account of its being more distant from Dol. The oldest 
 French historians speak of these islands under the general 
 title of Les Isles de Coutances^ either because they belonged 
 to that diocese, or from their proximity to that city, whose 
 cathedral, which is considered one of the finest Gothic struc- 
 tures in Europe, commands from its lofty towers a view of 
 Jersey. In the royal mandates of the thirteenth and four- 
 teenth centuries, which are chiefly in Latin, Guernsey is spelt 
 Gernesey, Gerneseye, Gernesie, Gernezeye, and Jerneseye ; 
 and, by the old Norman historians, Grenezay and Grenezey. 
 Heylin calls it Garnzey and Guernzey ; and Camden, Garnzey 
 or Garnsey." According to the Dedicace des Eglises, Guern- 
 sey was known as " la bienheureuse isle sainte,'' the very 
 happy holy island, at the consecration of the Vale church, 
 A.D. 1117. Warburton, the antiquary, says that it derived 
 this name from the monks, who settled in the island towards 
 the close of the tenth century. Alderney was anciently 
 known as Aurigny, Origng, and Aurtne ; and Sark as Sercq, 
 and Cercq. 
 
 That Guernsey was visited by the fleets of the Danes and 
 Norwegians, whose first descent on the western coast of 
 France is stated to have been early in the ninth century, is 
 certain. According to some modern Danish authors, whose 
 testimony, however, must be received with caution, the North- 
 men were the chief, if not the only, navigators of their time ; 
 and as they were possessed of handsome ornaments and well 
 made swords, inlaid with gold and silver — moreover, as they 
 built vessels in which, so early as the ninth and tenth cen- 
 turies, they sailed across the Atlantic, and colonized Iceland 
 
 (1) Constantia Castra, now Coutances, appears to have been a great Roman station. It 
 possessed, in Falle's time, Roman remains, such as aqueducts, &c. 
 
 " Les empereurs entretenaient h. Bayeux, comme k Coutances, une garnison sddentaire 
 de Bataves et de Sufeves, enrdl^s au service de I'empire." — Goube, Histoire de Normandie. 
 
 Th6 chief town of the Unelli at the Roman conquest, was Crociatonum : on its site the 
 modern Valognes is erected. 
 
 (2) Camden says, " Garnzey, or Garnsey, formerly gave a title of Baron Guernsey, in 
 the second year of Her Majesty Queen Anne, to Heneage Finch, second son of Heneage, 
 late Earl of Nottingham, and Lord Chancellor of England." p. 1514. It is nowthe second 
 title of the Earl of Aylesford, as Baron Guernsey. 
 
22 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 and Greenland — in other words, visited America several 
 centuries before Columbus ; (i) it would seem that the much- 
 dreaded North-men, although Pagans and addicted to rapine 
 and cruelty, were not so uncivilized as is generally supposed. 
 In that age. Christians were often equally rapacious and 
 cruel. We learn from Wace, the Jersey poet, that the cele- 
 brated Danish chieftain. Hasting, landed on, and pillaged, 
 all the islands, in the year 838 according to one authority, 
 and 856 according to another : 
 
 En Auremen, en Guernesi, 
 En Sairc, en Erm, en Gersi.* 
 
 Soman de Sou. 
 
 As Hasting next invaded Touraine, where he put every 
 thing to fire and sword, it is probable that these islands were 
 subjected by him to the same barbarous treatment. 
 
 Vaice,^ or Wace, i.e. Eustace,^ was a native of Jersey ; he 
 was bom at the commencement of the twelfth century, was 
 partly educated at Caen, and died in England about the year 
 1180. He was the author of several poems, but his most 
 celebrated production is the " Roman de Rou," which contains 
 an account of the first incursions of the North-men into Eng- 
 land and France, and the history of Rollo and his successors, 
 down to A.D. 1106, being the sixth year of the reign of 
 Henry I. This poem contains 16,547 verses, partly in octo- 
 syllabic, partly in Alexandrine metre, and it is the most curious 
 literary monument that remains of the history and language 
 of ducal Normandy. A beautiful edition of " Le Roman de 
 Rou, et les Dues de Normandie" was published in two volumes 
 octavo, at Rouen, in 1827. 
 
 According to tradition, the northern freebooters, who were 
 termed, by the old French historians, Sarrazins, anglice 
 Sai-acens,* by way of reproach, established themselves in 
 Guernsey, where they erected a strong-hold, which was named, 
 probably after their leader, Le Chastel da Grand Jeffroi, or, 
 
 (1) Alderney, Guernsey, Sark, Herm, Jersey. In the Rouen edition. Erm is printed Erin, 
 with a foot note, " lieu inconnu." Erin is clearly a miscopy. 
 
 (2) " le di et diray que ie suis, 
 Vaice de I'isle de Gersui." 
 
 (3) The prefix of Robert to Wace is an unwarranted and modern addition ; he called 
 himself simply Mestre Wace, and in his time family surnames appear to have been chiefly 
 taken ftom localities, and usually confined to the landed proprietors. 
 
 (4) The Saracens were Moslems from Arabia, who, after conquering Spain, entered 
 France early in the eighth century, and extended their ravages with fire and sword as far 
 as Tours, which city they reduced to ashes. Charles Martel, the general of the Franks, 
 at length defeated them with great slaughter, A.D. 732, and compelled them to return 
 into Spain. Their name was subsequently transferred by the Crusaders to the Mahometao 
 occupiers of the Holy Land. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 23 
 
 The Castle of the Great Geoffrey ; and it appears to have also 
 borne the name of the Chastel of the Grand Sarrazin. This 
 castle was situated on an eminence nearly in the centre of the 
 island, and commanded an extensive view of the ocean and 
 of many of the landing places, as well as of the coast of Nor- 
 mandy : it subsequently gave the present name to the parish, 
 Catel, a corruption of " Chastel," pronounced vernacularly 
 K-a-te. On its site now stands the church of Sainte Marie 
 de Castro — St. Mary of the Castle — consecrated in the year 
 1203 ; but it is an error to suppose that the north wall of the 
 chancel and the transept are a remnant of the old castle walls, 
 as they certainly show no evidence of such antiquity, although 
 the masonry is very rude, being composed of large and small 
 stones put together without any order. In the angle made 
 by the chancel and transept, a projecting perforated stone 
 about the middle, and a bracket near the bottom of the wall, 
 are pointed out as the spot where the castle standard was 
 planted ! ! Two artificial earthen mounds still exist in 
 Guernsey, which are generally supposed to have been watch 
 stations, one in the parish of St. Andrew, called " La Hougue 
 Fouque," and the other in the parish of St. Martin, on the 
 road to the Forest, called " La Hogue Hatenai." Fouque is 
 probably derived from phuka, or spirit. Hougue, s. /., a 
 hillock or barrow. O. F. Hogue, s.f., elevation, colline. 
 Roquefort. — Base Latin Hoga, probably deducible from a 
 verb which signifies to throw wp, whence the old Norman 
 French Hague, French Hague, and Flemish Hagen. — 
 G. Metivier. — Mr. Poingdestre, of Jersey, already men- 
 tioned, wrote — in a MS. now in the British Museum — rela- 
 tive lo the Hogues in that island, as follows : 
 
 " The second kind of monument, and which I take to be next 
 to the Poquelayes in antiquity, are by ye Islanders called Hogues, 
 which are nothing else but round hillocks or eminences, raised 
 up with men's hands : the most part of them not much higher 
 than those which are to be seene in many parts of England, 
 thought to be sepulchers of eminent men slayne in battaille : 
 those in Jersey seeme to have beene made for a farre different 
 use, that is for specuJce, or hills to espye a farre off, from the 
 land into the sea, which necessity brought the Islanders to pro- 
 vide for theire security at the time, when the Danes, Vandtills,. 
 and other Northerne people, invested the coast of France, and 
 other southerly parts of Europe, not long after the time of Charles 
 the Great, to the end that the inhabitants, discovering theire 
 shipps a farre off, might have time to hide such things as they 
 desired to preserve. It may be objected that the sea is not seene 
 
24 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 from some of them, which is agjainst ray conjecture, but the 
 cause is the improvement made since those times of the jjround, 
 by the planting of trees and enclosing of ground, which have 
 quite changed the surface of the island, where as in antient times 
 it was all champain and open ground. Of these Hogues there 
 are two of more especiall notice," — viz. the Hougue-hye and the 
 Castell de Lecq. 
 
 Among the refugees from Britain who sought safety from 
 the ravages of the Saxons was Samson, bishop of St. David, 
 in Wales, Vertot fixes the date of his arrival in Britany in 
 the year 520, during the reign of Childebert,* son of Clovis. 
 Both these princes had embraced Christianity, and Childebert 
 estabhshed Samson at Dol, where he could only have been 
 a nominal prelate, as Mabillon expressly states that there 
 were no bishops in Britany, the bishop of Laon excepted, 
 before the ninth century.^ However, it is certain that St. 
 Samson, who was canonized, exercised full spiritual jurisdic- 
 tion in Dol and its neighbourhood, and that he established 
 Christianity in these islands, in which it appears to have been 
 introduced by his master and preceptor, Pyro, if we can 
 credit a passage from the Life of St. Samson, cited by Vertot.' 
 Other accounts state that St. Samson obtained an interview 
 with king Childebert at Paris, in 557, in which year his sig- 
 nature of " Samson, a sinner," is recorded at a synod held in 
 that city ;"* and that Childebert added Jersey, Guernsey, and 
 the isles contiguous,^ to the diocese of Dol, of which St. 
 Samson was bishop. Childebert, however, was dead, or at 
 least had ceased to reign, in the year 557. 
 
 (1) Childebert reigned from the year 511 to 649. 
 
 (2) " L'on appelait 6v6ques r^gionnaires des missionnaires revStus du caract^re ^pisco- 
 psJ, qui avaient droit de pr^cher et de conf^rer les sacrements dans une ^tendue de pays 
 d^tennin^e, mais qui n'avaient point de sl^ge. Ainsi, quoiqu'il y eOt des ^vdques h Saint 
 Brieux, Dol, et Saint Malo, ou plutdt Aleth, d&s le sixi^me si^cle, ces ^vfiques habitaient 
 dans des monast^res, et n'^taient point ^v^ques de Saint Brieux, Dol, et Aleth. Ces villes 
 n'ont m ^rig^es en ^vech^s que long- temps aprfes ; ce qui est certain au moins pour la 
 ville de T)o\."—Hi8toire des £v6que8 de Coutances, par M. Lecanu, Cur6 de Bolleoille, H 
 Coutances, 1839. 
 
 (3) "Erit autem non long^ ab hoc monasterio insul& qusedam nuper fundata h qnodam 
 egregio viro ac sancto presbytero, Pyro nomine, in quft insula et ego fui, apud quam, 
 inquam, Samson cohabitare \olehaA."—£tublia8ement des Bretons dans les Gaules, t. 2, 
 p. 348. 
 
 "These islands were then under the kings of France, who had lately embraced Christi- 
 anity ; and Childebert, son of Clovis, made a gift of them to St. Samson, for an augmentation 
 to his small diocese ; as we learn from D^Arffentrt', who affirms that he himself had 
 perused the writings of that donation. *A cest archevesque Childebert donna qnelques isles 
 et terres en Normandie; Rimoul, Augle, Sargie, et Vesargie, qui estoint isles en la coste ; 
 carje trouve cela aux vieilles lettres,' i.e. 'To this archbishop, Childebert gave some islands 
 and lands in Normandy ; Rimoul, Augie, Sargie, and Vesargie, which were islands on the 
 coast ; for so 1 find in old instruments and records.' "—Falle. 
 
 (4) Magdeburg Centurists. 
 
 (6) Life of St. Samson, by Baldric, bishop of Dol; MS.— M^moirc sur I'Origine des 
 Bretons, par I'Abb^ Gallet. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 25 
 
 Accompanied by his kinsman, Judual, duke of the nor- 
 thern Gallican Bretons, and a selection of monks from the 
 community of Pentale, in the future Normandy,^ St. Samson 
 is said to have landed in Guernsey at the only harbour then 
 used, as it was formed by nature ; and on the south side of 
 it he caused a chapel to be erected, which, being enlarged or 
 rebuilt in the year 1111, and raised to the rank of a parochial 
 church, was dedicated to his memory, and called St. Samson's, 
 a name which it still retains, and which is also that of the 
 harbour and parish. He was considered in earlier days as the 
 patron saint of Guernsey, and numerous miracles are ascribed 
 to him by his biographer ; but they are of too puerile a cha- 
 racter to require further notice. 
 
 St. Samson was succeeded in the abbey of Dol by his kins- 
 man, Maglorius, who was the companion of his exile from 
 Wales, and was also canonized. The name of this celebrated 
 saint seems derived to be from Mac Glor, or Mac Gloir, " a son 
 of glory." He had distinguished himself, in what was after- 
 wards Glamorganshire, as a disciple of the famous Hiltutus, 
 and he possessed that touching eloquence w^hich penetrates 
 and subdues the most obdurate hearts. Magloire appears 
 to have also visited these islands, and is said to have been very 
 successful in converting to Christianity Count Lojesco and 
 the insular Pagan garrisons in the French king's pay. About 
 the year 665, he founded a monastery in Jersey and another 
 in Sark, the latter being abandoned after his death, in conse- 
 quence of the ravages of the North-men. But a convent or 
 chapel bearing his name existed 800 years after his time, as 
 in the reign of Edward III. a pension was allowed to it by 
 the crown — " Conventui Sancti Maglorii in insula Sargiensi" 
 — to the convent of St. Magloire in the island of Sark.^ 
 There was formerly a tenement in that island called " La 
 Moinerie,'' or house of monks, which is supposed to have 
 been the site of the ancient monastery, and it is now that of 
 the seigneurie house. St. Magloire, who died at his monas- 
 tery in Sark,^ about the year 587, also built a chapel at the 
 
 (1) Ancient Acts of St. Samson. — M ^moires pour servir de preuves k I'Histoire de 
 Bretagne, tome i., col. 196. 
 
 (2) " Serck formait une paroisse avec Herms. Saint Magloire fonda dans Tile de Serck 
 un raonast^re, qui subsistait encore huit cents ans apr&s lui, c'est-h-dire, du temps 
 d'fidouard III. ; car k cette ^poque la couronne d'Angleterre lui payait une rente : Conven- 
 tui Sancti Maglorii in insula Sargiensi. L'^v^que de Coutances etait patron de cette 
 paroisse." — Histoire des Eveques de Coutances. 
 
 (3) •• I have since received a very circumstantial life of St. Magloire, composed about 
 the year 1319, in French rhymes, by a canon of the convent of St. Magloire, in Paris, from 
 a Latin original of the twelfth century. Both documents throw great light on the con- 
 version of the Channel Islands, and on the death of St. Magloire in the island of Sark, and 
 the preservation of his body in that island until it was removed to the priory of Lehon, 
 near Dinan, under the reign of the Carlovingians, and thence carried to Paris, for fear of 
 his being desecrated by the northern pirates."— itfonsjewr De Gerville, Valognes, 1848. 
 
26 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Vale, which has long smce gone to decay ;* but its site retains 
 the name of St. Malliere, or Maglere, not a corruption, be it 
 remembered, of the modern French, which the vernacular 
 language of Guernsey preceded by several centuries. When 
 Magloire established himself in Sark, he appears to have 
 been accompanied by 62 priests. That island was, we learn, 
 the property of Nivo, a nobleman, who chose it for his burial 
 place, and who at this time seems to have held hereditary 
 possession of Viss-Sargia,^ or West Sark, now Guernsey. 
 It is stated in the Latin Acts that when Magloire arrived at 
 Viss-Sargia, or Ghernereia, (Guernsey,) there were ploughs 
 at work, ships in the haven ; that it was fruitful in corn, 
 (dives frugum^ and that during the great famine of its mother- 
 land, Armorica, in the memorable year of distress and pesti- 
 lence, 586, many of the continental relatives of the islanders 
 were glad to avail themselves of the abundance in West Sark. 
 Of Magloire it is related on this occasion : " Une cruelle 
 famine reduisit les plus riches de la Bretagne Armoricaine a 
 la derniere misere, et plusieurs personnes, meme de qualite, 
 vinrent dans I'ile de Magloire chercher les aliments dont ils 
 avaient besoin." — The good prelate's supply must have come 
 chiefly either from his Jersey estate, (the seventh part of that 
 island,) or from the territory in Guernsey of his wealthy 
 friend, Nivo. 
 
 While on the subject of Magloire, it may be well to add 
 here that a chapel in Sark, bearing his name, was granted by 
 Wilham de Vernon at the close of the twelfth century, with 
 the land which had been occupied by Magloire, to the abbey 
 of Montebourg, built towards the year 1090 by his ancestor, 
 Richard de Reviers. Richard de Vernon confirmed, A.D. 
 1190, his father's donation and augmented it; the original 
 charter bearing liis seal being still extant. 
 
 In a learned work, entitled " De I'Etat Ancien et de I'Etat 
 Actuel de la bale du Mont-Saint-Michel et de Cancale, par 
 M. Manet, a Saint-Malo, 1829," the author seeks to prove that 
 the Channel Isles were once joined to " Cotentin," ou Pays 
 de Coutances ; in other words, to Normandy ; and he says : 
 
 " Ainsi est-il au-jourd'hui k peu pr^s demontre qu'il fut un 
 temps oil la Grande-Bretagne tenait a la Gaiile, I'Espagne k 
 I'Afrique, I'ltalie k la Sicile, et peut-^trc le Nouveau-Monde k 
 
 (1) This chapel was situated near the sea side, upon a point of land, on the N.E. corner 
 of the Clo8 du Valle. 
 
 (2) With slight variations of form, VISS, in all the Teutonic dialect?, denotes fair, calm, 
 serene, eventide, the west, vesper, hetpet. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 27 
 
 I'Asie. — x4iinsi est-il encore mieux constate que, par I'efFet 
 d'autres envahissements lents ou subits, mais beaucoup moins 
 considerables que les precedens, Jersey, Guernesey, Aurigny, 
 Batz, Ouessant, le Texel, Yerland, et une multitude d'autres 
 lieux dans I'Angleterre, la Bretagne, I'Aunis, la Saintonge, la 
 Flandre, la Zelande, la Frise, la Pomeranie, etc., ont subi 
 d'etrangers metamorphoses." (pp. 1, 2.) 
 
 " On tient, disent les savans auteurs du Dictionnaire de 
 Trevoux, article Jersey, que cette ile a fait autrefois partie du 
 continent du Cotentin." — " Les iles de Serck, de Guernesey et 
 d'Aurigny, ajoute M. Deric (^Hist. Eccl. de Bret., t. 1, p. 104, 
 et t. 11, p. 130,) appartenaient alors egalement a la terre ferme, 
 comme en font foi nos meilleurs geographes, et les Titres de 
 I'eglise de Coutances." (p. 30.) 
 
 " Ancienne jonction presumee de tout Varchipel Anglo-Nor- 
 mand au Cotentin. — D'abord, c'est une presomption fondee sur 
 les autorites les plus respectables, que, bien anterieurement a 
 I'envahissement de I'ocean sur nos cotes, au mois de Mars, 709, 
 detaille ci-dessus, Jersey, Guernesey, et en general tout le reste 
 de cet archipel Anglo-Normand, appartenaient a la terre ferme. — 
 C'est meme une tradition dans la premiere de ces lies (tradition 
 appuyee sur des tr^s-anciens manuscrits que nous avons lus,) 
 qu'encore au temps de Saint-Lo, mort le 21 Septembre, 565, 
 Jersey n'etait separe du territoire de Coutances, dont 11 depen- 
 dait pour le spirituel, que par un simple ruisseau, sur lequel 
 les habitants etaient tenus de fournir une planche a I'archi- 
 diacre de I'eglise-mere, lorsqu'il allait faire chez eux sa visite." 
 (pp. 123, 4.) 
 
 This convulsion of nature appears to have occurred in 
 March, 709 ; and although we do not believe its having 
 caused the disruption of these islands from Normandy, yet it 
 vras probably at this period that Vazon bay vras submerged, 
 and that the Hanois rocks were dissevered from the main 
 land of Guernsey. Geologists account for the upheaval and 
 subsidence of land by the increase or reduction of igneous 
 agency or subterranean fire ; and instances of the partial ope- 
 ration of the internal heat of the globe are not wanting. 
 Moreover, it is known that the bed of the sea is liable to 
 subsidence, and that the land and ocean have occasionally 
 exchanged places. Beneath the fine sand of Vazon bay, 
 which tradition states was once a forest, are found the debris 
 of the oak, the larch, the willow, and other trees, which had 
 remained unknown for ages, and were first discovered about 
 the year 1750. The deposit being found excellent fuel, the 
 peasantry regarded it as a God-send, and called it corban, 
 
28 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 or a gift, whence the present appellation of g or ban. Birds' 
 nests, nuts with the kernel, and a few earthen vessels, pieces 
 of copper, and celtic stone instruments, have also been found 
 among the vegetable remains, and occasionally trees so hard 
 that they could not be extracted. The Hanois rocks — a 
 dangerous ridge extending nearly two miles to the S.W. of 
 Guernsey — there can be little doubt once joined the land, 
 near which the traces of a road leading seaward are said to 
 be still visible ; and it is also stated that the hinges of a gate 
 could be seen not many years since on one of the rocks ! 
 The existence of both these indications has more probably 
 been handed down by tradition. Certain it is, however, that 
 in the year 709, Mont St. Michel, in Normandy, which stood 
 in the midst of the marshy forest of Sesciaciim, in French 
 Scissy, (signifying a barren, moorish wilderness, according to 
 its Gaelic interpretation,) six miles from the sea, became what 
 it is now : the woods were swallowed up, so that their site has 
 ever since been the dominion of waves and quicksands. The 
 disjunction at high water of the " Clos du Valle " from the 
 rest of Guernsey, as already mentioned, probably occurred at 
 this period, and not in 1204, as stated by Berry and Duncan, 
 if indeed it were ever fully connected with the main land. 
 The yeai* 811 was the period of fresh and considerable en- 
 croachments. 
 
 The Chronicler of the Abbey of Fontenelle, who was witness 
 of the effects, relates that from the 22d to the 29th of October, 
 842, the islands were visited by a violent earthquake, accom- 
 panied by subterranean rumblings, which threw down the 
 monument and houses, and also engulphed the sea shore of 
 the neighbouring continent of " Cotentin." 
 
 A memorable epoch is now before us, the foundation by 
 Rollo of the duchy of Normandy, which, although small in 
 extent, was great in renown, as it became celebrated not only 
 for its conquest of England, but for the exploits of the Tan- 
 creds of Hauteville* and other Normans in Italy, Sicily, and 
 Apulia. In these countries, the Tancreds* sprang from a 
 small village in the Cotentin : with no other auxiliaries than 
 courage and genius, gained battles, overturned thrones, mas- 
 
 (1) Hauteville is a village near the sea coast, and about five miles S.W. of Coutances. 
 
 (2) '• Cctte ann^e (1032) fut fertile en ^v^nemens honorablcs pour la Normandie. Tancriide 
 de Hauteville, vassal du due Robert, au Cotentin, envoya trois de ses flls, Guillaume-Her- 
 k-Bras, Drogues ou Drogon, et Humfroi, rejoindre les Normands ^tablis & Averse, dans la 
 Pouille. On cite, entre les gentilshommen qui les suivirent, Tristan-Citeau, Ranulfe et 
 Richard-de-Cariel j Robert-de-Grosmesnil, et Guillaume-de-Groult."— GowAe, HUtoire de 
 Normandie. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 29 
 
 tered the pontiffs of Rome, conquered with one hand the 
 Caesars of Constantinople, and with the other smote the 
 emperors of Germany, while they made even the sultans of 
 Babylon tremble on their thrones. This hne of heroes was 
 extinguished, after a duration of above two centuries, in the 
 year 1260, by the beheading of Conradin, at Naples, a youth 
 of only sixteen years of age. With one common origin and 
 language, it is very probable that some of the natives of these 
 islands were among the Norman adventurers, who followed 
 the fortunes of the Tancreds. 
 
 The Channel Islands having formed part of the dukedom 
 of Normandy, and now being the last remnant of the Anglo- 
 Norman possessions, it may not be out of place to relate here 
 briefly how the duchy was severed from the kingdom of 
 France. In the early ages, Denmark and Norway are said 
 to have been densely populated, and to have furnished what 
 is termed by modern writers, " the Northern Hive," swarms 
 from which established themselves in Britain, Gaul, and other 
 parts of Europe. Towards the close of the ninth century, 
 Rollo, a Norwegian chieftain, who had been condemned to 
 perpetual banishment by the king of Denmark, sailed up the 
 river Seine at the head of a large body of his countrymen, 
 and obtained possession of the city of Rouen, where, induced 
 by the beauty and fertility of the surrounding country, they 
 resolved on settling. Some authors date this event in the 
 year 876, others in 887 ; but certain it is that Hollo continued 
 de facto master of the capital and the neighbouring country 
 until the year 912, when Charles the Simple, king of France, 
 who was deposed in 922, unable to expel the invaders, de- 
 manded a conference with their chiefs. Accordingly, the 
 principal Norwegian adventurers met Charles, attended by 
 many of his barons, at St. Clair sur Epte, a town three 
 leagues from Gisors, where a treaty was concluded, by which 
 Charles ceded to the invaders all the country, with the towns 
 and strong places, between the river Epte and the sea : this 
 country they called Normandy, after their own name of 
 North-men, or Normans.^ The French king had a daughter, 
 named Gisele, whom he offered as wife to Rollo ; and the 
 latter, says an old historian, finding her of sufficient height, 
 married her : she died the same year without issue. Rollo 
 was forthwith invested with the ducal authority, and baptized 
 in the Christian faith, observes Thierry, in order that he might 
 
 (2) "Quam Northraanniam Nothmanni vocaverunt, eo qu6d de NorwegiS egressi 
 essent." (Script, rer. Northmannicar. Page 7.) 
 
30 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 be recognized by the other sovereigns. " Of all the northern 
 hosts who established themselves in other countries by con- 
 quest, those who gave their name to Normandy are they who 
 most rapidly advanced in civilization. Tliey seem imme- 
 diately to have grafted themselves upon the old Romano- 
 Galhc stock, and, adopting the language of the people whom 
 they subdued, thus to have qualified tlieir children, in the 
 first generation, for receiving the religion, manners, and arts 
 of Christendom. They seem also, like the Jutes, Saxons, 
 and Angles, who fixed themselves in Britain, to have disre- 
 garded maritime concerns when they had won a country for 
 themselves. — When William resolved upon claiming the 
 English crown, by virtue of Edward the Confessor's testa- 
 ment, the ships for transporting his army were to be built." ' 
 The Normans, adds Thierry, were not slow in extending their 
 territory on all sides : they invaded and conquered the coun- 
 try about Bayeux, which was still inhabited by an ancient 
 Saxon people, who preserved their German idiom amidst the 
 "Romanesque," or French Latin. This conquest was followed 
 by that of the peninsula of Coutances as far as Mont St. 
 Michel, now the " Cotentin ; " and thus the borders of Nor- 
 mandy were extended to Britany. The Bretons, who had 
 preserved their national independence of the Franks, whom 
 they hated, now became exposed to a double peril ; for the 
 Normans, after invading and devastating their country, sowed 
 divisions among them by their intrigues, and from that time 
 commenced the progressive decline of the liberties of Britany. 
 Some Norman historians, however, state that Charles at once 
 ceded the whole of Neustria, or the modern province of 
 Normandy,'' as an hereditary duchy to Rollo, on condition of 
 his renouncing Paganism, and, with his followers, being bap- 
 tized in the Christian faith ; and they add that Rollo insisted 
 on having Britany also, as he alleged that Normandy alone 
 was incapable of subsisting his followers, it having been re- 
 duced to sterility by his own ravages and those of liis prede- 
 cessors ; although it is now one of the most fertile provinces of 
 France. Hollo's demand was conceded, and the Count of 
 Rennes, which city is the capital of Britany, was compelled 
 
 (1) Southey'8 Naval History of England. 
 
 (2) William of Jutni^Res fixes the limits of the cession firom the river Epte to the borders 
 of Britany. " Mandans si Christianas cfficcretur, terram maritimam ab Eptee flumine 
 usque ad Britannicos limitcs, cum suft flliA nomine GIsU, sc cj daturum fore." 
 
 The little river Cotsnon separates Normandy from Britany, empty in^r itself into the tea 
 at Mount Saint Michael, which it leaves in Normandy, by the sinuosities of Its stream j a 
 circumstance which has grivcn rise to the distich, 
 " CoCsnon par sa folie 
 A mis le mont en Normandle." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 31 
 
 to do him homage, as was the Count of Dol. These state- 
 ments in some measure confute themselves, because it is clear 
 that if Charles were powerful enough to impose conditions in 
 favor of Christianity, Rollo could not have insisted on adding 
 Britany to Normandy, even if Charles were master of the 
 former province, which it does not appear he was. It was 
 only in 933 that Raoul, king of the French, by the terms of 
 a treaty still extant, surrendered the "Cotentin" to Duke 
 William, son of Rollo. ^ The rule of Rollo was so much 
 more mild and equitable than that of the Franks had been, 
 that many artisans and labourers came from France to become 
 his subjects : he established a rigorous police throughout the 
 duchy, enacted salutary and equitable laws, protected the 
 rights of person and property, and displayed the virtues of a 
 legislator as ably as he had those of a warrior. He was a 
 contemporary of Alfred, of England, to whom he was in no 
 way inferior, as he is described both by the French and 
 Norman historians as possessing great wisdom and energy of 
 character, with a noble mien and majestic stature. Such 
 were the fruits of his wise and vigorous government, that 
 Normandy soon became one of the most flourishing little 
 states of Europe ; and was thereby enabled in the following 
 century to achieve the conquest of England, which kingdom 
 thus became possessed of the Channel Islands. Rollo died 
 in the year 917, according to some historians ; in 931, accord- 
 ing to others ; and from him sprang a line of six ducal sove- 
 reigns singularly remarkable, without an exception, for their 
 capacity and prowess.^ The dukes of Normandy, to the Con- 
 quest, were as follow : 
 
 Dukes. Surnamed. Years of Accession. 
 
 1. Rollo 912 
 
 2. William I Longsword 926 
 
 3. Richard I Sans Peur 943 
 
 4. Richard II The Good 996 
 
 5. Richardlll 1026 
 
 6. Robert I The Magnificent 1028 
 
 7. WilHam The Conqueror 1035 
 
 And from William the Conqueror to John, the twelfth and 
 last duke of Normandy, who inherited no territory, and there- 
 
 (1) Chronicle of Frodoard, anno 931, 933. 
 
 (2) •' Nous devons cette remarque glorieuse k la m^moire de nos dues de Normandie, 
 que depuis Raoul — il ne s'en est pas rencontre un seul foible, lasche, ou meschant, non 
 pas seulement mediocre; mais tous ont est^ excellens eu toutes, ou en la pluspart des 
 qualitez requises en des Princes, capables de commander aux plus grands Estats de la 
 Terre."— Abr^g^ de I'Hist. de Norm. Liv. iv. p. 129. 
 
32 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 fore received the surname of Lack-land, (in French, " Sans 
 Terre,") as follow : 
 
 Dukes. Surnamed. Years of Accession. 
 
 8. Robert II Courte-Heuze 1087 
 
 9. Henry I * Beauclerc 1 106 
 
 ^Stephen! 1 135 
 
 10. Henry II» 1154 
 
 11. Richard I^ Coeur de Lion 1189 
 
 12. John* Lack-land 1199 
 
 The clameur de haro,^ in matters of trespass, derived from 
 the Normans, exists to this day in the Channel Islands, and is 
 stated by many writers to have been originally an appeal to 
 Rollo, the first and ^reat duke of Normandy, celebrated for 
 his strict and impartial justice : they add, that Haro is derived 
 from Aa ! or Ha ! an exclamation of suffering, and Ro, the 
 duke's name abbreviated ; the cry of Haro, a I'aide, mon 
 Prince ! signifying O Rollo, my prince, succour me ! Mr. 
 George Metivier considers this derivation a vulgar error, 
 and asserts that " centuries before Rollo's arrival, Hara, a 
 cry, Haro, Harou, Hareu, and if there be any other deriva- 
 tions from the Frankish verb Haran, to cry, or call, or hoot, 
 or summon, formed part of the vernacular tongue of all the 
 northern provinces of Gaul." The clameur de haro is tanta- 
 mount to a summary injunction to stay proceedings, and is 
 exercised by the person who conceives that his land is in- 
 fringed upon by another ; the party so infringing is bound to 
 respect the clameur, at his peril, and to desist until the matter 
 in dispute has been judicially decided. Historians mention a 
 remarkable instance of the efficacy of the clameur at the 
 interment of William the Conqueror in the great abbey of 
 St. Stephen, at Caen. When WiUiam built that abbey, he 
 pulled down several houses, and did not compensate all the 
 
 (1) King of Enrland. 
 
 («i Or the Interregrnam during the usurpation of the crown of England by Stephen, 
 count of BoUnrne, nephew of Henry I., and grandson of WiUiam the Conqueror. 
 
 (3) " Clamear de Haro, citation devant le jugc."— FrenrA Dictionary. 
 
 "Pour ia bonne pair et justice qu'il maintint en fa Duchif, aeasubjectt prindrentuneeoua- 
 tume, tant de ton xivnnt comme aprdz tn mart, quand on leur faiaoit force ou violence, iU 
 crioyent Aa-Rou, &c."— Chron. de Normand. ch. xxvi. 
 
 "Et en I'ann^ 1418, ia viile de Ro&en ^tant assieg^ par Henri, roi d'Angleterre, un 
 pr^tre fat depute pour lul fairo cette harangue, et an due de Bourgogne : Trea excellent 
 prince, et aeigneur, it m'ea enjoint de crier contre ttoua le grand Haro, qui aif^nifie Poppreaaion 
 quHla ont dea Angloia ; comme raporte Monstrelet." — Coutumea de Xormandir, par Baanage. 
 
 *' Et qudd illi qui clamant Harou, vet claroari faciunt, debent itliid Jiidicibus domini Regis 
 nanciare, et etiam apportare, et ipai Judicea secundum conquestuni vel clamorem debent 
 procedere, et non alUm, nisi sit In casti criminal!. Et si illi, qui nudiunt dictum clamorem 
 de Harou, ad dictos Judices non apportaverint, propter hoc in aliquo gravaminc non debent 
 permaoere* qaomodocanqae aliquo tempore usura fucrit." — i'/<tci<a coram Henrico 
 Sptgumel, ^e. Oemoreye, A.D. I3«4. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 33 
 
 owners. Ascelin, one of these, as the corpse was about to be 
 deposited in the vault, stepped forward and exercised the 
 clameur, saying- : "I appeal to Rollo, the father and founder 
 of our nation, who, though dead, lives in his lows.'' His 
 claim was immediately investigated and allowed, none offer- 
 ing him any violence for interrupting the ceremony ; but, on 
 the contrary, all respected the Haro. 
 
 These islands were doubtless quickly annexed by the Nor- 
 mans after their conquest of the " Cotentin," of which they 
 naturally formed a part ; and thus they were greatly benefitted, 
 as thenceforth there was a stop put to the further incursions 
 of the North-men, so much dreaded in that age. Had these 
 sea-rovers been disposed to invade and plunder their own 
 countrymen in Normandy, its dukes were powerful enough 
 to repel them. Moreover, the conversion of the Normans 
 to Christianity was attended with the happiest results, for as 
 soon as they yielded to the influence of its precepts, they relin- 
 quished their lawless habits, and advanced rapidly in civili- 
 zation. The monasteries and churches, which had been 
 ruined by their incursions, were quickly re-edified, and these 
 islands were certainly not neglected in the general restoration. 
 Long before the conquest of England, A.D. 1066, there ex- 
 isted not only the present parochial divisions in Guernsey, 
 but churches on their present sites ; as is proved by William 
 the Bastard's charter, which granted to the abbey of " Mar- 
 moutier," near Tours, about the year 1055, six churches, viz. 
 "ecclesia Sancti Petri de Portu ;" ecclesia Sancti Andree de 
 Patenti Pomerio ; ecclesia Sancti Martini de la Berlosa ; 
 ecclesia Sancti Marie de Tortavalle ; ecclesia Sancti Samsonis 
 Episcopi ; et ecclesia Sancti Trinitatis de Foresta. All these 
 churches have since been rebuilt ; as St. Sampson's, the oldest 
 now existing, is of the year 1111. The charter of Henry I., 
 son of the Conqueror, confirms his father's donations, and it 
 mentions the six churches by name, with the following addi- 
 tion relative to St. Peter-Port : " et quoddam molendinum in 
 cimiterio ejusdem ecclesie ;" that is, the water mill still exist- 
 ing at the bottom of the market. If we can credit Berry, 
 a copy of a mandate is still preserved in the abbey of Fonte- 
 nelle, in Normandy, by which Charlemagne, who was king 
 of France from the year 768 to 814, commanded the abbot 
 to visit Jersey and' Guernsey in the character of imperial 
 legate, so that Christianity must have gained ground among 
 the islanders. They had been under the see of Dol since 
 
34 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 about the year 550, but were transferred by one of R olio's 
 immediate successors, apparently duke Richard II. or III., 
 to the diocese of Coutances. When these islands became 
 under the latter diocese, they were included in the archdea- 
 conry of Beauteis, (from the small parish of Beaute on the 
 opposite coast,) the said archdeaconry consisting of the dean- 
 eries of Carentan, Beuteis, la Haye du Puits, St. Sauveur le 
 Vicomte, Barneville, Jersey, and Guernsey. The islands 
 were very early the favorite retreat of monks of several reh- 
 gious orders, probably on account of their seclusion. The 
 order of the Cordeliers appears to have been firmly esta- 
 blished in Alderney, Herm, and Guernsey. A seal was 
 found in the convent of the Cordeliers at Valognes, {Cro- 
 ciatonum) deposited there when the order was abolished. A 
 fac-simile of it may be seen in the " Journal of the British 
 Archaeological Association," for April, 1847, in a very inte- 
 resting article on the Antiquities of Alderney, by Mr. F. C. 
 Lukis, already mentioned. The legend is : 
 
 " Sigillum custodis insularum inferioris Normanise," 
 
 and the appropriate symbols are in accordance with the work 
 of sending the Gospel tidings to pagan lands — the cross car- 
 ried in a frail bark beyond the sea. 
 
 A fleet of North-men from Armorica, not of the Celtic or 
 Christian inhabitants of that country, and apparently from 
 Britany, in the year 918, went round the Land's End, entered 
 the Bristol channel,, wasted the Welsh coast, and, landing 
 high up the Severn, entered Herefordshire in force. Here 
 the natives gave them battle, and they were so beset that they 
 engaged to depart from the realm ; nevertheless, in going 
 down the Bristol channel, they landed twice with the intent 
 of revenging themselves for their defeat. In both descents 
 they were defeated with great slaughter, and the survivors 
 took refuge in one of the islands near, probably Lundy, where 
 many died from starvation. At length they escaped to the 
 Welsh coast, and in the autumn made their way to Ireland. 
 
 In the year 965, the Benedictine monks were put in pos- 
 session of the monastery of Mont St. Michel^ in Normandy, 
 by duke Richard I., who about the same time expelled its 
 previous tenants, the secular clergy, on account, it would 
 seem, of their dissolute conduct. The exiled clergy are stated 
 to have established themselves in the Vale parish, and to 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 35 
 
 have built there a monastery or priory, which, in memory of 
 their late residence, they named St. Michael of the Vale. 
 About the same time, the inhabitants are said to have fortified 
 an eminence near St. Sampson's harbour, on which now 
 stands Vale Castle, as a security against pirates, who however 
 could not have been the North-men ; as the latter, being 
 sprung from the same ancestors, were the unfailing allies of 
 the Normans. It will be seen in the sequel that the priory 
 of the Vale, then so called, was in ruins in the year 1406 ;' 
 but we have some doubt as to the period of its erection, be- 
 cause every Guernsey historian has erroneously stated that 
 the exiled clergy possessed themselves of lands in "the 
 Close" of the Vale, whereas it appears that anterior to the 
 charier of duke Robert, father of William the Conqueror, 
 about the year 1030, the monks had no possessions whatever 
 in Guernsey. This fact, moreover, goes far to disprove the 
 statement that the clergy exiled from Mont St. Michel settled 
 in the island, whose earliest annals are in truth shrouded in 
 much doubt and obscurity. Some portion of Vale Castle is 
 thought to be the work of the Normans, although certainly 
 not so ancient as the tenth century. The original structure 
 was named the Castle of St. Michael the Archangel. 
 
 DUKE KOBERT I. — 1028 to 1035. 
 
 This prince, who succeeded his brother Richard III., was 
 brave, liberal, and just. Having espoused the cause of his 
 two cousins, Alfred and Edward, against Canute of England, 
 who withheld that kingdom from them, Robert embarked at 
 Fescamp with his " noblesse and gendarmerie," intending to 
 land on the coast of Sussex ; but the day after sailing, a tem- 
 pest drove the fleet down the channel as far as Guernsey. 
 Robert was detained fifteen days on the island by the winds, 
 and as they were quite contrary for him to proceed to Eng- 
 land, he relinquished his intended descent, and commanded 
 the Count de Longueville,^ a brave man and great captain, to 
 range along the coast of Britany and pillage all he could 
 find, while he himself landed at Mont St. Michel, to con- 
 strain Alain to render him the homage which he owed.^ 
 
 (1) Speaking of this priory, Dicey says : " Some small part of the ruins whereof are at 
 this time to be seen '. " (1751) 
 
 (2) According to Du Moulin, who, however, appears to have been in error, as, in Robert's 
 time, there were no counts in Normandy out of the ducal family. The person named is 
 simply called Ravkl by the old historians, and he is supposed to have been an ancestor of 
 the chamberlains de Tancarville, 
 
 (3) Histoire G^n^rale de Normandie, par Gabriel du Moulin, cur^ de Maneual, a 
 Rouen, l63l. 
 
36 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 As the Guernsey fishermen had put out to the rescue of the 
 fleet, and piloted it into a bay, which has in consequence ever 
 since borne the name of VAncresse, or the place of anchorage, 
 Robert, in recompense to the inhabitants for this service, 
 is said to have left two engineers to finish the castle in the 
 Vale, and to erect such other defences as might be found 
 necessary to protect the islanders from the incursions of 
 pirates. According to Berry, these officers executed their 
 task so well that two other very strong castles were built in 
 the course of a few years, one at Jerbourg, which has long 
 since disappeared, and the other, which still partly exists, is 
 now known as Ivy Castle, its original name being Le Chateau 
 des Marais, from its situation in marshy land. It was doubly 
 walled, having a deep moat round the inner wall ; and the 
 original structure, with its angle towers, is still easily traced. 
 In the Inquest of Henry III., A.D. 1248, the marsh, on 
 which the castle stands, is named the Marsh d'Orgueil,* pos- 
 sibly from the castle standing in its midst, as the castle itself 
 is not mentioned. It was probably built on the rocky emi- 
 nence in the centre of the marsh from the facility of filling 
 the moat with water, as an additional means of defence 
 against pirates. There was, however, no castle erected at 
 Jerbourg at the same time, as the Foedera contains a mandate 
 in Latin to "Johanni de Roches," keeper of the isles of 
 Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and Alderney, headed De castro 
 vocato Girhurgh, in insula de Gerneseye, perficiendo, and 
 dated A.D. 1328, An. 2, Edw. III., or about three centuries 
 after duke Robert's visit to Guernsey. By this mandate,* 
 it would seem that the castle of Jerbourg had only recently 
 been begun to be built, (nuper inchoatum fuit ad construen- 
 dum,) and was not yet finished, although Edward the Second 
 had ordered that it should be completed out of the revenues 
 of the aforesaid isles. Des Roches was therefore commanded 
 to carry this order into execution.; but we think that the 
 castle was never worthy of the name, and that its chief de- 
 fences consisted of outer earthen embankments. The name 
 of Jerbourg is derived by some from that of the engineer left 
 in Guernsey by duke Robert, and who is said to have built 
 the castle there ; by others, from Cherbourg, which is sup- 
 posed to be a corruption of " Caesaris-Burgus ;" * but may it 
 not be far more correctly traced to the promontory of Jobourg 
 
 (I) At the Christmiw Chief Pieas of 1&66-7, the marsh and tunnel of Mont Orgueil are 
 named. In the castle was the chapel of " Notre Dame des Marais." 
 (8) This mandate is given in Dancan's History, p. 579. 
 (3) nurgut ; a castle, fort, or redoubt. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 37 
 
 in the Cotentin, opposite to Alderney, to which, in name and 
 locality, it bears a singular resemblance ? The following des- 
 cription of that promontory by M. de Gerville appears almost 
 to have been written for the Jerbourg of Guernsey. " Dans 
 la partie N. O. du promontoire pres du nez de Jobourg, j'ai 
 reconnu les traces d'un petit camp romain, connu sous le nom 
 de Castel de Johourg ; c'est un de ces camps- vigies {explora- 
 toria,) qui bordent nos cotes et semblent avoir ete destines a 
 surveiller les descentes des pirates saxons." ^ In the same 
 manner the island of Lihou probably takes its name from 
 cape Lihou, near Granville, as both are head-lands. 
 
 As we shall have to revert again to duke Robert's sojourn 
 in Guernsey, we give the following extract from Du Moulin 
 (p. 115) in proof of it : 
 
 " Pendant que Robert auoit encor les armes en main, il pense 
 a remettre ses cousins Alfred & Edward en possession de I'Angle- 
 terre, iniustement occupee par Kanut : mais auant qu'y apporter 
 de la violence, il tente par vn Ambassade si la douceur y pouuoit 
 rien ; Kanut ne veut ouyr parler de restitution : Parquoy suiuy 
 de sa noblesse et gendarmerie il s'embarque a Fescan ; sa flotte 
 couloit assez heureusement, quand vne tempeste s'efleua & la porta 
 en I'isle de Grenezay, oil les vents les arresterent quinze iours : 
 voyant le temps totaleraent contraire pour voguer en Angleterre, 
 il commanda de relascher, & a Rabel ou Tanel Comte de Longue- 
 uille & Chambellan de Normandie, homme valeureux & grand 
 capitaine, de courir la coste de Bretagne & piller tout ce qu'il 
 trouueroit, pendant que luy descendu au mont de S. Michel, 
 feroit vn gros de caualerie pour contraindre Alain k luy rendre 
 Thommage qu'il estoit oblige." 
 
 In the middle ages, the feudal system was at its height, 
 and, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, these islands appear 
 to have been reserved by the Norman dukes to be bestowed 
 as benefices on favoured subjects. Benefices were at first 
 usually granted for life only, but afterwards became heredi- 
 tary. A natural result of hereditary benefices was that their 
 possessors carved out portions to others to be held of them- 
 selves by a similar tenure, probably with additional servitudes. 
 The ceremonies used in conferring a fief were chiefly three — 
 homage, fealty, and investiture. Upon investiture com- 
 menced the duties which the vassal had agreed to perform ; 
 but the services of military tenure were in their nature so 
 
 (1) Recherches sur le Hague-dike et les premiers ^tablissements militaires des Normands 
 sur nos cdtes ; par M. de Gerville. The Hague-dike is an entrenchment, which enclosed 
 the nine parishes adjoining Cape La Hague, and formed a vast citadel and defence against 
 the North-men. 
 
38 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 'uncertain, that it is difficult to define or enumerate them. 
 Whoever held a benefice was bound to serve his sovereign in 
 the field. It is not within the province of this work to pursue 
 the subject further ; but he who wishes to study the baneful 
 efiects of feudalism on a small scale, may do so with advan- 
 tage in the bailiwick of Guernsey, in which this remnant of a 
 barbarous age still exists, although necessarily with many 
 modifications, in the second half of the nineteenth century ! 
 
 At the accession of duke^ Robert I., in 1028, Guernsey 
 was divided into two great fiefs, on which the seigneurs had 
 to pay the chefrente, called meslage. The fief of Niel, 
 vicomte de St. Sauveur, comprised the parishes of St. Samson, 
 St. Peter-Port, St. Andrew, St. Martin, the Forest, and 
 Torteval. The parishes of the Vale, Catel, St. Saviour, and 
 St. Peter-in-the-Wood, formed the fief of Ansquetil, vicomte 
 du Bessin, (or Bayeux,) part of which is now known as the 
 fief du Comte. This name is derived from its having be- 
 longed to the earls of Chester, into whose possession it came 
 through Reuoulf, vicomte du Bessin, who obtained the earl- 
 dom of Chester from Henry I., when Richard, the second 
 earl, kinsman of Renoulf, perished A.D. 1120, in the wreck 
 of La Blanche Nef, {Candida JVavis, the white sliip,) with 
 prince William, near Barfleur, leaving no issue. 
 
 Robert, soon after his departure from Guernsey, as related 
 above, compelled Alain, duke of Britany, to sue for peace, 
 which he obtained through the mediation of the archbishop of 
 Rouen, uncle of the two dukes or counts. The treaty was 
 signed in the abbey of Mont St. Michel; and, in honor of the 
 occasion, both dukes evinced their liberality to that abbey. 
 Robert gave the half of Guernsey, which had been held en fief 
 by the vicomte du Bessin, who for some transgression ap- 
 pears to have forfeited it. But duke William, on attaining liis 
 majority, restored the said fief to the vicomte du Bessin, son 
 and heir of the preceding; although, notwithstanding this 
 restitution, the abbey retained possession of the four churches 
 before named, with their tithes. 
 
 Nigel, or Niel, sieur de St. Sauveur, succeeded to the title 
 of vicomte du Cotentin, hereditary in his family since the 
 time of duke Richard, and continued to exercise it under 
 his successors, dukes Richard II. and III., and Robert. His 
 name figures frequently, and with honor, in the chronicles of 
 Normandy. Besides holding in beneficio a moiety of Guern- 
 
 (1) Before the Conquest, the Norman sovereigns styled themselves counts, thus: 
 CoMcs OBA : Dii Dux BT PRiNCKrs NoRMANNORUM ; but, after the Conquest, they relin- 
 quished the title of count, because it was then common among their Norman subjects. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 39 
 
 sey, he had in charge the castle in the Cotentin, quod dicitur 
 Hulme} This beneficiary or feudal fief in Guernsey appears 
 to have belonged to the title of vicomte du Cotentin, as 
 both reverted together to the ducal crown on the death of 
 the last seigneur de St. Sauveur, without heirs male. Nigel, 
 son and successor of the preceding, was one of the chiefs who 
 conspired against William ; and it was during the vicomte's 
 exile in Britany that William gave to the abbey of Marmou- 
 tier the six churches in Guernsey, in the fief of Niel, as 
 already narrated. The expression twice repeated in Wil- 
 liam's charter, in reference to Niel's possessions in the island, 
 " videor habere in meo dominio," is remarkable, inasmuch as 
 it demonstrates that the estates of the refugee, although se- 
 questered, were not forfeited — a fact proved by the charter 
 of Niel himself, by which he confirmed the donation of the 
 duke. Du Moulin speaks of him as "Neel, de St. Sauveur, 
 le viconte," and as " Neel, le viconte de Costentin," in his 
 catalogue of '^seigneurs' who accompanied William at the 
 Conquest : he is best known by the former title. 
 
 We have said that parish churches existed in Guernsey 
 anterior to the conquest, and it is well to add that the chapel 
 of St. Apolline, in the parish of St. Saviour, is the only one 
 standing entire of the ecclesiastical structures in the island 
 prior to that period. This chapel consists of a chamber about 
 27 feet long by nearly 14 feet wide, having a narrow square- 
 headed opening or loop-hole at the east end, a rude round- 
 arched or segmental doorway, and a narrow window on the 
 south side, besides a smaller segmental doorway and window 
 on the north side. The whole is covered in by a thick and 
 ponderous vaulted roof. Of the date of the erection of this 
 chapel, which was only capable of admitting thirty or forty 
 persons, nothing is known, but it is evidently of great anti- 
 quity, and is considered the oldest building in Guernsey. 
 
 The islet of Lihou was in early times occupied by monks, 
 who were attracted thither by its lonely situation, and it soon 
 acquired an air of sanctity which rendered it a safe and quiet 
 spot for the residence of a prior, or, as has been erroneously 
 said, of an abbess and her nuns. The period of the erection 
 of the priory and chapel is unknown, but it could not be 
 later than the eleventh century, although the Dedicace des 
 Eglises fixes the consecration of the chapel in 1114. Towards 
 the close of the last or eighteenth century this chapel was 
 
 (1) Stapleton's Norman Exchequer. 
 
40 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 entire, as regarded the walls and roof, the ornamental parts, 
 which were of Caen stone, alone being mutilated. But soon 
 after, during the revolutionary war with France, the lieute- 
 nant-governor, fearing that the building might be turned into 
 some use by the enemy, ordered its complete demolition, 
 which was effected by means of gunpowder. Sufficient ruins, 
 however, are left to indicate the chapel, which was vaulted 
 with stone, and consisted of a chancel and nave, with a square 
 tower on the north-east side of the nave. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 
 
 William was only eight years of age when his father, duke 
 Robert, died in his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, A.D. 1035 ; 
 and he did not succeed him without much opposition, on 
 account of his illegitimacy ; but the sinister bar in that age 
 was not insuperable in the succession to a throne. Mabillon 
 cites a charter in which William himself took the title of 
 Bastard : Ego Guillelmus cognomento hatardus, rex AnglicB. 
 This is the more surprising, as he would admit of no raillery 
 on his birth. One of his most powerful opponents was finally 
 his uncle, Mauger, archbishop of Rouen, son of duke Richard 
 II. by a noble Danish lady ; the Norman dukes long retaining 
 an utter insensibility to the influence of French female charms. 
 After William was quietly settled in his duchy, Mauger ex- 
 communicated him on pretence that his wife Mathilda was 
 too nearly related to her husband. This indignity from a 
 subject exasperated William much more than Manger's pre- 
 tensions to the dukedom ; and in the year 1055 the primate 
 was deposed and banished for life to the island of Guernsey, 
 where he is said by the Norman historians to have cohabited 
 with a young female of the name of Guille, by whom he had 
 several children. Insular tradition has fixed his residence at 
 " Saint," near Saint's Bay, in the parish of St. Martin. Du 
 Moulin narrates that "Mauger, thus justly deposed, was 
 banished to the island of Guernsey, near Coutances, where, 
 says Walsingham, he fell into a state of madness, and had a 
 miserable end. Others affirm that during his exile he gave 
 his mind to the black arts, {sciences noires,) and that lie had 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 41 
 
 a familiar spirit, which warned him of his death while he was 
 taking recreation in a boat ; on which he said to the boatman : 
 ' Let us land, for a certainty one of us two will be drowned 
 to-day,' which happened, for, as they embarked at the port of 
 Winchaut, he fell into the sea, and was drowntd. His body, 
 being found a few days afterwards, was interred in the church 
 of Cherbourg." 
 
 When William was twenty years of age, Guy, count of 
 Burgundy, claimed the duchy in right of his mother, Alice, 
 daughter of duke Richard II., and was supported by many 
 of the Norman barons ; among them Niel, de St. Sauveur, * 
 vicomte de Cotentin, and Renoulf, vicomte du Bessin, both 
 just named as possessing large fiefs in Guernsey. 
 
 In the emergency, William consulted M auger, archbishop 
 of Rouen, before mentioned, who recommended him to apply 
 to Henry, king of France, for assistance ; and accordingly the 
 duke repaired to Poissy, where the king was then residing. 
 Henry not only promised aid, but engaged to lead his troops 
 in person ; and William was, soon after his return, joined by 
 the French auxiliaries. 
 
 The combined forces advanced on Caen, where they learnt 
 that the malcontents were encamped at Val-des- Dunes. The 
 French under Henry, and the Normans under William, has- 
 tened forward in two divisions, and gained a complete victory, 
 A.D. 1047, The battle of Val-des-JDunes is memorable in 
 Norman history. Guy fled with the remnant of his cavalry 
 to his strong fortress of Briosne, where he was soon com- 
 pelled to surrender. William spared his life, but deprived 
 him of Vernon and Briosne, and thenceforward refused to 
 acknowledge him as one of his vassals : he also confiscated 
 the estates of the rebel barons. Niel, de St. Sauveur, 
 escaped into Britany ; and, three years later, having 
 rendered William a valuable service, he was reinstated in all 
 his possessions ; as appears to have been also the vicomte du 
 Bessin, at least as regards his feudal property in Guernsey. 
 
 In the year 1061, Guernsey is stated to have been attacked 
 by a new race of pirates, who, according to Berry, issued 
 from the southern parts of France bordering the Bay of Bis- 
 cay, and committed great ravages on the neighbouring coasts 
 of Britany. Duke William was at Valognes when he re- 
 ceived information of this attack, and he immediately dis- 
 patched troops under the command of his esquire, Sampson 
 
 (1) There are two St. Sauveurs on the opposite coast of Normandy; one eight miles 
 S.S.W. of Valognes, population 2,774, and the other six miles N. of Coutances, population 
 1,950 souls. 
 
42 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 d'Anneville, who landed at the harbour of St. Sampson. 
 Being joined by the inhabitants, who had sought refuge in 
 the castle of the Vale and other places of retreat, he defeated 
 the invaders with much slaughter. Duke William is also 
 said to have made large concessions of land in Guernsey to 
 d 'Anneville, as a reward for his valour ; and in the thirty- 
 ninth year of queen Elizabeth, (1597,) six royal commission- 
 ers ^ were appointed to examine the feudal tenures or manors 
 existing in the island, when Thomas Fachion, laid claim to the 
 fief d'Annh'ille, producing an extract from the Rolls of the 
 Exchequer of Rouen, dated in 1061, which certified that 
 duke William had granted, in fee farm, to the abbot of Mont 
 St. Michel, in Normandy, and to Sampson d'Anneville, one 
 half of the island of Guernsey, to be taken out of the western 
 side of the said island, and to be equally divided among 
 them. That such an extract was produced is certain ; but it 
 is utterly irreconcileable with the fact, as we have shown, 
 that, during the dukedoms of Robert and his son Wilham, 
 Guernsey was divided (a titre de fief) between the powerful 
 vicomtes of St. Sauveur and Bessin, (the latter better known 
 as vicomte de Bayeux,) who would not quietly have submitted 
 to this spoliation of their manorial rights. 
 
 The present fief of d'Anneville was doubtless named after 
 Sampson, and may have been conferred upon him : it is 
 situate in the parish of St. Sampson, and is the noblest tenure 
 in Guernsey. The seigneur ranks after the clergy, and is 
 bound, when the king visits the island, to attend him as liis 
 esquire. After various changes, the fief appears to have 
 been sold by king Henry III. to William de Cheney, and 
 was inherited by his descendant, Edmond de Cheney, warden 
 of these islands in 1366 : it afterwards descended by mar- 
 riage into the family of Willoughby, and continued m their 
 possession until 1509, in which year it was sold to Nicholas 
 Fachion, gentleman usher to ELenry VIII. The fief con- 
 tinued some years in the family of Fachion, long extinct in 
 Guernsey, and then passed into that of Andros, in whose 
 possession it now is. 
 
 The fief le Comte also belonged to the Fachions, and in 
 1630 was sold to Peter Priaulx by George Fachion. It 
 subsequently was long the property of the Le Marchants, 
 and now appertains to Mrs. Hutchesson, in right of her father, 
 Charles I^e Marchant. A great part of this fief lies in the 
 
 (1) The commissioners were Sir Thomas Leighton, knight, governor of Guernsey; 
 George Paulet, bailiff of Jersey; Louis de Vic, bailiff of Guernsey; Henry Smith, of 
 Guernsey ; Aniias de Carteret, of Jersey ; and John dc Vic, queen's procurour in Guernsey. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 43 
 
 Catel parish, and the seigneur is entitled to use a seal, which 
 has the appearance of great antiquity. It represents a knight 
 in armour, on foot, drawing a sword ; his head is surrounded 
 by a glory, and above his shoulders are the letters S. G. It 
 was probably intended to represent St. George, as it is near 
 the ruined chapel of that name that the court of the fief is 
 held. On a scroll surrounding the figure is the following 
 legend : sigill *=^^'* curie comit. The second word is 
 so obliterated, that it cannot be deciphered. 
 
 The only other feudal court entitled to a seal is the court 
 of the fief St. Michel. The seal represents the archangel 
 vanquishing the devil, with the legend Lanel. S. seneschal. 
 DU. Valle. 
 
 In an old MS. said to be a copy of an inquest drawn up 
 by Fressingfield and Ditton, who in 1309, during the reign 
 of Edward II., were sent over to the island to hold assizes, it 
 is asserted that in addition to the grants made to the abbot of 
 Mont St. Michel and Sampson d'Anneville, duke William I. 
 also bestowed a tenement in fee farm on John de Jerbourg, 
 who was appointed ducal cupbearer whenever the duke visited 
 Guernsey, and also chatelain, or keeper of Jerbourg. This 
 assertion is, however, disproved not only by Jerbourg forming 
 part of the fief of the vicomte de St. Sauveur, as already 
 mentioned, but by numerous writs to be found among the 
 records of the fourteenth century. The fief of Jerbourg 
 appears to have been conferred upon a remote ancestor of 
 the present family of De Sausmarez by Henry, tenth duke of 
 Normandy, afterwards Henry II. of England. In the 
 twenty-seventh year of Edward I., at a court of chief pleas 
 held in Guernsey, in the presence of the judges of assize, 
 Matthew de Sausmarez did homage for this fie£ When the 
 promontory was fortified in the reigns of Edward II. and III., 
 it belonged to the said Matthew de Sausmarez,^ or to his suc- 
 cessor of the same name, who was appointed hereditary cap- 
 tain, or chatelain of the place. The fief of Jerbourg was 
 subsequently incorporated with, or took the title of, that of 
 Sausmarez, by which latter name it is now known. Among 
 the privileges attached to the fief of Sausmarez, there was 
 one which deserves mention. Whenever the seigneur wished 
 to cross over to Jersey, his tenants were obliged to convey 
 him thither once a year, on receiving tliree sols in money 
 
 (1) A.D. 1325, Ann. 18, Edw. H. Gernesey. — " Plitum de quo waranto cora Hen. 
 Spigurnill & Willo de Demr justic. itinantibus ibidem tangen, libtates clam, p Matheum 
 de Saumaryse p totam. terram suam in Gerburgh plene plitatur hie cui adjudicatur dicte 
 libtates." — Abbreviatio Placitorum. 
 
44 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 and their dinner ; but it does not appear that they were 
 bound to bring him back. The fief of Sausmarez remained 
 in the family down to the year 1553, when it came into the 
 possession of John Andros, in right of Judith de Sausmarez, 
 his mother ; but in 1748 it reverted, by purchase, to the 
 descendants of the original proprietors, whose property it 
 is at this day. The above John Andros was the ancestor of 
 Sir Edmund Andros, who held the fief, as did his father 
 Amias, and both will be noticed ip the sequel. 
 
 In the year 1051*, duke William passed over from Normandy 
 to England on a visit to Edward the Confessor, and returned 
 after a short sojourn. In 1065, Harold, son of earl Godwin, 
 proceeded to Normandy, but with what object is doubtful : 
 the Norman chroniclers afl[irm that he was ordered by 
 Edward to inform William that he had named him, the 
 duke, as his successor to the throne of England. However 
 improbable this may be, Harold was wrecked on the coast of 
 Ponthieu, and seized by Guy, count of that province, who 
 incarcerated him in a fortress. When William heard of his 
 detention, he ordered Guy, who was his vassal, to release 
 Harold, which he did, and delivered him to the duke. At 
 this time William was engaged in a war with Britany, to 
 serve in which Harold cheerfully volunteered, in the chival- 
 rous spirit of that age : in command of a detachment of 
 Normans, the English prince attacked the besiegers of Dol, 
 and compelled them to retire. He then laid siege to Dinan, 
 which soon surrendered. For these services, William con- 
 ferred the honor of knighthood on Harold. 
 
 In January, 1066, Edward the Confessor died, and Harold 
 lost not a moment in seizing on the throne, notwithstanding 
 his promise to do all in his power to secure the sceptre for 
 William, after the demise of the king. When the duke 
 heard of the accession of Harold, he dispatched a messenger 
 to him to require the observance of the promise he had made 
 while in Normandy ; but Harold not only refused to do so, 
 but forthwith expelled from England all the Normans who 
 had enjoyed the protection of Edward. He further desired 
 the messenger to tell William that he acknowledged having 
 sworn to deliver up the English throne to him at the death 
 of Edward, but that such oath was not binding, having been 
 extorted by compulsion ; and moreover, that having been 
 chosen by the people, he could not transfer the sceptre to a 
 foreigner, without treason to his country. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 45 
 
 William now undertook the memorable invasion, to which 
 his barons were at first greatly opposed, as they disliked 
 crossing the sea, of which element they appear to have been 
 much afraid ; but they were won over, and, with the clergy, 
 contributed largely to the outfit. By a papal bull, the duke 
 was invested with the title of king of England ! It was read 
 in all the churches throughout the duchy, and the enthusiasm 
 of the Normans was soon raised to the highest pitch. Wil- 
 liam published his declaration of war in all the neighbouring 
 countries, and offered pay and pillage to every man who 
 would serve him with lance, sword, or cross bow. Numbers 
 flocked to his standard from near and far, from Maine and 
 Anjou, from Poitou and Britany,^ from France and Flanders, 
 from Aquitaine and Burgundy, from Piedmont and the banks 
 of the Rhine ; so that, in fact, the invading army was com- 
 posed of many nations. The rendezvous of the fleet and the 
 troops was at the mouth of the Dive, whence, after a deten- 
 tion of a month, a southerly breeze carried the Norman navy 
 to St. Valery, near Dieppe. The number of vessels com- 
 posing this armament is variously stated, some writers de- 
 claring that there were 3,000, while the Chronicle of Nor- 
 mandy gives 907 large vessels, besides small craft. Thierry 
 says that there were 400 large vessels and above 1,000 boats 
 of transport. Wace, on the authority of his father, who 
 served in the expedition, reduces the number to 609 ; but 
 this is evidently too low, as the detailed list of the vessels, 
 furnished by the different barons, gives 78 1 . Supposing each 
 vessel to carry fifty men, and this is a high estimate, there 
 must have been at least 1,000 vessels. That the ships were 
 of no great burthen may be inferred from the Bayeux tapes- 
 try, on which the process of ship building is represented ; the 
 vessels all appear very low in the hull, and the men are seen 
 drawing them to the sea by ropes. This very curious relic 
 of that age, which is still preserved at Bayeux, is supposed to 
 have been the work of William's queen, Mathilda, and her 
 female attendants. The fleet put to sea on the 29th of Sep- 
 tember, 1066, the day of the festival of St. Michael. The 
 vessel of William took the lead, the white consecrated banner, 
 given him by the pope, at its mast-head, and bearing a cross 
 on its ensign : she outsailed all the others, and on the follow- 
 ing morning dropped anchor off the coast of Sussex, to await 
 the arrival of her consorts. This vessel had been presented 
 to William by his queen ; its vanes were gilded — on its 
 
 (1) De Moulin states that there were above 5,000 Bretons in the expedition. 
 
46 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 crimson sails were painted three lions,' says Thierry, the arms 
 of the Normans — and at its head was the figure of a child, 
 armed with a bow and arrow, and ready to let fly. In the 
 day it was distinguished by its splendid decorations, and in 
 the night by the light at its topmast. The debarkation was 
 effected at Pevensey, near to Hastings, without any opposi- 
 tion. The archers landed first — then the knights, with their 
 horses — and, lastly, the mechanics and other followers of the 
 army, which consisted of 60,000 (?) combatants. A camp was 
 immediately formed and fortified with timber. Before the 
 battle, WilUam exhorted his men to take vengeance for the 
 massacre in England of the Danes, their kinsmen, which had 
 occurred more than three score years before, and for wliich 
 other Danes had speedily and signally revenged themselves. 
 The Danes, moreover, had subsequently become one people 
 with the Anglo-Saxons, by compact, or intermarriage and lan- 
 guage, whereas the Normans had abandoned the speech of 
 their ancestors, the North -men. But pretexts never fail 
 those whose end is conquest. The result of this invasion is 
 so well known, that it will suffice to add that Harold and his 
 two brothers nobly fell on the battle field ; and at nine o'clock 
 on the evening of the 14th of October, 1066, the victory of 
 Hastings was achieved. " The Normans," says Raleigh, 
 " grew better shipwrights than either the Danes or Saxons, 
 and made the last conquest of this land — a land which can 
 never be conquered whilst the kings thereof keep the domi- 
 nion of the seas." 
 
 Of the vast Norman fleet, only two vessels were lost, in one 
 of which was the astrologer ; (astrologue ;) and in consequence, 
 says Du Moulin, the duke took occasion to blame the men of 
 that profession, as predicting the good fortune of others, and 
 not foreseeing the evil which pursues themselves. The 
 carnage at the battle of Hastings has been variously estima- 
 ted. The MS. chronicle of De Thou states that 67,654 of 
 the English were slain ; but this is a miscopy or a wilful 
 untruth, as it appears that their numbers in the field did not 
 exceed 25,000 combatants. According to De Thou, of the 
 invaders 6,013 men were killed, while Ordericus Vitalis 
 raises the number to 15,000 men. Du Moulin gives the loss 
 as mentioned by these two authorities, but, evidently unable 
 to account for their manifest improbability as regards the 
 English, offers no computation of his own. Another Norman 
 
 (J) We rather thinW that the armorial bearings of Normandy at that time were two 
 lions, or leopards, pasaant, guardant. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 47 
 
 historian, Goube, boldly says, " that 67,000 Enghsh and 6,000 
 Normans perished in this meniorable combat, which lasted 
 above twelve hours " ! Thierry, more discreet, is silent on 
 the subject of the losses of either army. 
 
 William introduced the Norman feudal tenure into Eng- 
 land, and divided such part of it as did not belong to the 
 church, and was not reserved for himself, into 700 baronies or 
 great fiefs, which he bestowed on his friends and those who had 
 distinguished themselves in his service : these baronies were 
 sub-divided into 60,215 knights' fees, or smaller fiefs. No 
 Englishmen had any of the first, and few only were fortunate 
 enough to receive any of the second. 
 
 Du Moulin gives a " Catalogue des Grands Seigneurs 
 Normands" and " Seigneurs Normands," who accompanied 
 William ; and in these fists there occur the names of : 
 
 de Bailleul, de Beauchamp, de Carterays, de Gary, 
 du Chesne,' Corbet, de la Lande,^ de Lisle, 
 de La Mare, de Marey, des Moufins, des Ports, 
 des Preaux,3 le Sauvage, de Somery, and de Tra,cy. 
 
 Families bearing similar surnames, or nearly so, have long 
 been seated in Guernsey, or were anciently so ; but we ques- 
 tion de Somery being the same as de Sausmarez, which 
 signifies a salt marsh. There is, however, no documentary 
 evidence of these islands having furnished either men or 
 shipping for the conquest ; that they did so is very probable, 
 because it may be presumed that Niel, viscount of Cotentin, 
 one of the most powerful barons in the Conqueror's train, 
 induced, if he did not command, some of his numerous 
 tenants and vassals in Guernsey to follow him ; and, more- 
 over, the Guernsey fishermen were as good sailors as existed 
 in that age ; but the point cannot now be decided, and 
 must ever remain a matter of uncertainty. By the Domesday 
 Book,'* it appears that the bishop of Coutances was endowed 
 by the Conqueror with no less than 280 manors in England ! 
 Among the commissioners appointed to compile Domesday 
 Book, there are the names of Anquetil, Bouteiller, Le Clerc, 
 
 (1) Edmund de Cheneye, or Chesne, was bailiff of Guernsey from 1409 to 1412. 
 
 (2) John de la Lande was bailiff of Guernsey in 1350. 
 
 (3) Preaux is in the arrondissement of Rouen. In the Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. ii. 
 p. 889, there is an account of an embassy to Edward the Confessor, by the then possessors 
 of the castle and estate of Preaux. 
 
 (4) The Domesday Book contained a survey of all the lands in England, (excepting 
 Northumberland, the greater part of Cumberland, the northern part of Westmoreland, and 
 Durham,) made by the order of William the Conqueror. It consists of two volumes, 
 written in Latin, on parchment, commenced some time prior to its completion in 1086, 
 and now in excellent preservation at the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey. 
 
48 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 GifFard, Gille, De la Mare, Dumont, Normand, and De 
 Simon, which are still borne by native families of the Anglo- 
 Norman Isles. 
 
 From the catalogue in Du Moulin, just cited, we extract 
 the names of such of the chiefs who accompanied William in 
 the invasion, and whose names have since become English : 
 
 Mallet,^ de Basquerville,^ de Tancarville, du Puys,^ Desbiars,* 
 d'Aiibiorny,^ de Lacy, de Montfort, de St. Jean,^ du Bois, de 
 Roumilly,'' de Bernieres,^ du Tourneur,^ de la Haye,^*^ de Mon- 
 bray," de Mortemer, de St. Clair, de Harcourt, d'Evreux,*' 
 de Montpjommery, de Courtenay, de Vernon, Cardon,^^ d'Anvers, 
 de Hasting, de Camois,^'* de Hautains,'^ de St. Aubin, de Fienes, 
 de Turbeville, Gorges, de Spenser, de Brus,^^ Bouteiller, St. 
 Quentin, de St. Mor,^^ de St. Leger, de St. Vigour,^^ de Rivers, 
 de Ros, de Burnel, Biset, Basset, de Musgrave, de Mautravers, 
 du Chesne,^^ du Vesey, Bertran, Pigot, de Foliot, Talbot, de 
 Sanford, de Vaux, Besil, de la Rocheford,2° de Neville, de Percy, 
 de Greville, de Mandeville, de Bohon, de Rodes,^' Bourdon, 
 Hansard, Montaigu, de Grez,^^ de Pomeray, de Ferriere, de 
 Quincy, de Courey, and de Lestrange. Wake, who also accom- 
 panied William, was a Fleming, and a family of that name was 
 subsequently possessed of immense landed property in England. 
 
 The conquest of England, perhaps the most momentous 
 event in the middle ages, caused no change in the constitution 
 and government of these islands. William, who preferred 
 his title of duke of Normandy to that of king of England, 
 died at Rouen, September, 1087, in his sixty-third year : he was 
 buried in the abbey, named St. Stephen, built by himself, at 
 Caen ; and the following simple inscription is placed there 
 on his tomb, which we have at two distant intervals visited 
 with the greatest interest : Hic Sepultus est, Invictissimus 
 
 GULLIELMUS, CONQUESTOR, NoRMANI^ DUX, ET AnGLI;E REX, 
 HUJUSCE DOMUS CONDITOR, Qui OBIIT ANNO MLXXXVII. 
 
 It is difficult to estimate truly the character of the Con- 
 queror, because it has been so oppositely drawn by the Nor- 
 man and English historians ; and yet tliis was to be expected. 
 It is certain, however, that William greatly surpassed all 
 contemporary sovereigns in capacity for command, — in war 
 unquestionably, and probably in peace. None can deny his 
 courage, his sagacity, his vigour, and his vigilance ; and that 
 he overcame difficulties which long appeared insuperable. 
 He was in short the hero of his age. On the other hand, he 
 
 (1) } Malet. (2) Bagkervllle. (3) DupuU. (4) Desbarrea. (5) Daubeney. (6) St. 
 John. (7) Romilly. (8) Berneni. (») Turner. (10) Hay. (II) ? Mowbray. (12) Devereux. 
 (13) ? Garden. (I4) Camoys. (Ift' Hawtayne. (l 6) Bruce. (17) St. Maur, or Seymour. 
 (18) Vlgrors. (19) Chesney. (20) Rochfort. (21) Rhodes. («) ? Grey. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 49 
 
 was cruel and perfidious, and the excesses which he com- 
 mitted at Mantes and York cannot be extenuated ; but the 
 foulest blot on his memory is the execution of the English 
 nobleman, Waltheof. Under his tyrannic rule, lands, honors, 
 and power, were exclusively bestowed on the Normans, in 
 whose favor justice was usually outraged ; and the English 
 bore indeed a heavy yoke of bondage. William ordered that 
 all law pleadings and statutes should be in the Norman lan- 
 guage ; and, to prevent nightly meetings and conspiracies, 
 he instituted the curfew, or " cover fire bell," at the sound 
 of which, every night at eight o'clock, all fires and lights 
 were to be extinguished. In 1078, he finished the tower of 
 London, for the purpose of overawing the people. Accord- 
 ing to the spirit of his time, he was considered truly religious, 
 because he founded abbeys, and patronized the monks.' Wil- 
 liam was of tall stature, but very stout — the face full and 
 red — of an expression of countenance sufficiently disagree- 
 able, and which shewed without disguise the violence of his 
 passions. His personal strength was so great, that while on 
 horseback he easily Strang his bow, which even the strongest 
 man could with difficulty bend. On his death-bed, he repented 
 of some of his atrocities, and ordered all the reparation in 
 his power. It is perhaps some excuse for him that, accord- 
 ing to Ordericus Vitalis,^ the English were rude and almost 
 illiterate, and we know that severity often followed insurrec- 
 tion. A beautiful equestrian statue has recently been erected 
 to his memory at Falaise, in Normandy, his birth-place. 
 
 WilHam gave to the abbey of Mont St. Michel, in the 
 bishoprick of Coutances, the church of Alderney,^ with the 
 tithe and terr^ quatuor boum, or as much land as four oxen 
 could plough in one day ; and the church of Sark, with the 
 tithe, all the other revenues, and eighteen acres of land. 
 This grant is stated to have been in compensation for the fief, 
 comprising the four western parishes of Guernsey, restored to 
 the vicomte du Bessin, as already narrated. 
 
 (1) "II estoit grandement pieux, faisoit de grandes aumosnes, cherissoit les religieux ; 
 il donna presque a toutes les abbayes de Norniandie quelques reuenus de la mer." — 
 Du Moulin. 
 
 (2) Ordericus was an Englishman, who, when ten years old, passed into Normandy, 
 A.D. 1084, where he became professed in the monastery of Eu. 
 
 (3) " Aurigny, I'Arica de Ptol^m^e, ne forme qu'une paroisse. On croit qu'il y a eu un 
 couvent de filles au lieu nomm(5 Nunnery, c'est-^-dire, la Nonnerie, et Ton y montre des 
 mines qui ont dd lui appartenir. II y a eu une chapelle d^di^e k Saint Michel, auprfes du 
 cimeti^re, ou dans le cimeti^re de ce nom. 
 
 " Le chapitre de Coutances avait une partie des produits de Tile d'Aurignj', et I'on 
 poss^de encore I'acte d'une convention relative h leur partage, passee entre les officiers du 
 dit chapitre et ceux de Henri II., roi d'Angleterre, vers I'an \240."—Histoire des Eveques 
 de Coutances, par Lecanu, p. 227. 
 
 E 
 
50 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 The Conqueror left tliree sons, Robert, William, and Henry ; 
 to Robert, the eldest, he bequeathed Normandy ; to William, 
 England ; and to Henry, 5,000 marks of silver. When 
 Henry enquired what service the money could be to him 
 without an inch of land, his father replied prophetically: "The 
 day will come when you will unite the two portions of your 
 elder brothers, and when you will reign alone over the states 
 which I leave them," — a prediction which was fully verified. 
 
 EGBERT II.— 1087 to 1106. 
 
 Robert possessed all the courage and daring of his ancestors ; 
 but he was prodigal, thoughtless, and vacillating. Requiring 
 money to satisfy his wants, he applied to his brother Henry 
 for a loan, which was refused without some security, upon 
 which Robert proposed to sell the " Cotentin," containing 
 about one-third of Normandy, for 3,000 livres of silver. 
 Henry accepted this offer, and thus the Cotentin, with doubt- 
 less these islands, was transferred to him : he governed it with 
 wisdom and moderation, maintained order and peace, and 
 established public gratuitous schools, in which the young men 
 learnt the exercise of arms. 
 
 Henry, now styled Comte du Cotentin, passed over to Eng- 
 land in the summer of 1088 to claim of his brother William, 
 surnamed Rufus, the property of their mother, Mathilda. 
 Having obtained a portion of it, he returned to the " Coten- 
 tin ; " but it being intimated to his brother Robert, that his 
 only object in visiting England was to induce William to 
 invade the duchy of Normandy, Robert sent troops to all the 
 ports of the " Cotentin," when Henry was arrested, and im- 
 prisoned at Bayeux : he was set at liberty after some time. 
 
 The intrigues of Rufus, who aspired to Normandy, and the 
 misgovemment of Robert, reduced the duchy to a state of 
 lawless insubordination. The " Cotentin " alone was quiet 
 under the wise administration of Henry, who now meditated 
 avenging himself both on Robert, for his detention at Bayeux, 
 and on Rufus, for withholding some portion of his mother's 
 property. Henry fortified the towns of Cherbourg, Avranches, 
 Coutances, and Gavre : he exercised his troops, and the 
 malcontent Norman barons came to increase his ranks and 
 his court. But soon after, to thwart tlie views of William, 
 Henry found it expedient to assist Robert, and with that 
 purpose reached Rouen, the capital, on the 3d of November, 
 1090, the very day that the malcontents within had agreed 
 to give up that city to the adherents of William. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 51 
 
 The plans of William were thus disconcerted ; but Nor- 
 mandy continued to be the scene of domestic troubles. The 
 year following, an English army landed at Eu, and Robert, 
 unable to face it, obtained peace by giving up to Wilham 
 Cherbourg, Mont St. Michel, and many other strong for- 
 tresses. William, on his part, agreed to restore their English, 
 estates to all those barons who had been faithful to Robert. 
 The two brothers also reciprocally covenanted that in case 
 either should die without issue, the survivor should inherit 
 his territorial possessions. 
 
 This treaty was necessarily displeasing to Henry, for Cher- 
 bourg and Mont St. Michel belonged to him. Knowing 
 how little justice he could ^expect at the hands of his bro- 
 thers, he strongly garrisoned the Mount, and fortified his 
 other castles. The combined forces of Robert and William 
 entered the " Cotentin," and compelled Henry to seek shelter 
 in Mont St. Michel.^ Henry made a gallant defence, and 
 killed many of the besiegers in his sallies ; but, at the end of 
 fifteen days, want of water compelled him to surrender. He 
 retired into Britany, and thence into the French Vexin, 
 where he remained two years in exile and poverty. William, 
 having possessed himself of Mont St. Michel, returned to 
 England. 
 
 HENEY I. — 1106 to 1135. 
 
 In August, 1100, William was killed, whether accidentally 
 is doubtful, while hunting in the New Forest. Henry, hap- 
 pening to be of the party, immediately seized the crown of 
 England ; and thus was Robert a second time deprived of it by 
 a younger brother, who is known in English history as Henry 
 I., or Beauclerc. Robert soon after arrived from the Holy 
 Land in Normandy, where, after a few years, his government 
 became so distasteful, that his own subjects appealed to Henry 
 for redress. Accordingly, in 1106, Henry entered the duchy 
 with a numerous army, and completed its conquest. Robert 
 and his son William were made prisoners — the latter escaped 
 from confinement, and was subsequently killed in warfare at 
 Alost ; but the former, after being imprisoned in several 
 fortresses for twenty-seven years, died in Cardiff castle, in his 
 eightieth year. Robert was at first permitted to walk in the 
 neighbourhood, attended by guards ; but, having one day 
 seized a horse and attempted to escape, he was conducted 
 
 (1) Le Mont Saint Michel est assis sur un rocher dans la mer qui baigne les cdtes de la 
 Normanriie, h quatre lieues d'Avranches. II y avait une celebre abbaye, qui, sous le rhgne 
 de Louis XL, donna lieu k I'institution de I'ordre militaire de Saint Michel.— Gow^e. 
 
52 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 back to his prison, and, by the order of his own brother, 
 Henry, deprived of sight ! He endured his long and tedious 
 captivity with a dignity and resignation worthy of a better fate. 
 
 We have stated that, by the bequest of the Conqueror, 
 Normandy was severed from the sovereignty of England, 
 and it so continued for nineteen years, until both countries 
 were reunited by Henry I., in 1106. It was prince William, 
 the only legitimate son of Henry I., who was shipwrecked 
 and drowned in the year 1120, while on his passage, in the 
 Blanche Nef, from Normandy to England ; and thus all the 
 good fortune of the father was blasted in a moment. Truly 
 may it be said of this disaster : Nullam potentiam esse potentem, 
 — "that no power is powerful enough to preserve itself." 
 Henry never smiled again, and his own conscience must have 
 reproached him acutely for his cruelty to his brother Robert ; 
 for there are times when coward conscience will resume her 
 authority. The Enghsh historians, however, viewed the death 
 of prince William not only as a visitation of Providence for 
 the crimes of the father, but for the personal vices of the son. 
 The prince had openly manifested his dislike to the English, 
 and was wont to say that if ever he became king, he would 
 make the wretched Anglo-Saxons draw ploughs like oxen. 
 But the Caskets rocks, near Alderney, were not the scene of 
 the calamity, as is often supposed. It is the more singular 
 that this historical error' should have arisen, because Wil- 
 liam of Malmesbury correctly wrote : " The king's son set 
 sail from Barfleur just before twilight, and the carelessness 
 of the intoxicated crew drove the ship on a rock, which rose 
 above the waves not far from shore" The Blanche Nef 
 struck on a rock called the " Catte-raze," near Barfleur, 
 which uncovered only at low water. 
 
 Henry I. may be said to have been emphatically the sove- 
 reign of the Anglo-Norman Isles, because he ruled them 
 (probably) first as comte du Cotentin, next as king of Eng- 
 land, and, lastly, as duke of Normandy ; and it was perhaps 
 owing to his favor and protection that the three oldest churches 
 existmg in Guernsey were built during his reign, viz. St. 
 Sampson's, 1 1 1 1 ; the Vale, 1117; and Torteval, 1 130.' Al- 
 though nothing can excuse Henry for his treatment of his 
 brother Robert, yet he was eminent for his great learning, 
 his personal bravery, and the vigilance of his government. 
 He abolished the curfew bell, established a standard for 
 
 (1) Falle, in his first edition, fell Into the same error, but corrected It in the second. 
 
 (2) Rebuilt In I8l6. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERTSISEY. 53 
 
 weights and measures, and signed the charter which proved 
 the origin of the English liberties ; but, like his father, Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, his character has been very diiferently 
 estimated. English historians assert that Henry set at nought 
 his charters, and violated his promises to his people without 
 shame. " The Norman clergy in that reign," says the con- 
 temporary Eadmer, " were more wolves than shepherds. 
 No virtue nor merit could advance an Englishman." Mat- 
 thew Paris adds that to be called an Englishman was an in- 
 sult. Allowance, however, must be made for the outraged 
 feelings of the Anglo-Saxon or conquered race. 
 
 HENEY II.— 1144 to 1189. 
 
 Henry I. died in 1135 without surviving male issue, but 
 leaving a daughter, Mathilda or Maud, wife of Geoffrey Plan- 
 tagenet, count of Anjou.^ During the usurpation of the throne 
 of England by Stephen, count of Bologne, the Normans 
 were for several years distracted by the claims of the various 
 competitors for their duchy ; but in 1144, Rouen, which was 
 held for Stephen, capitulated to the count of Anjou, when 
 Normandy submitted to Mathilda, and their eldest son Henry 
 was acknowledged duke, the count reserving to himself the 
 regency during Henry's minority. In September, 1151, the 
 count of Anjou died ; and Henry, then nineteen years of age, 
 received the ducal sword, mantle, and tiara, in presence of 
 the barons of Normandy. During the contest between 
 Henry, who was the first of the Plantagenets of England, 
 and Stephen, the islanders, as Normans, adhered faithfully 
 to the former ; but from the period of his accession to the 
 English throne, in 1154, they have continued for seven 
 centuries sincerely attached to the British crown. This con- 
 nection has accordingly produced rights, immunities, and 
 privileges, of two distinct characters : first, those which be- 
 longed to the islanders, as Normans, before the conquest; 
 and, secondly, those subsequently conceded to them by the 
 sovereigns of England, and ratified by parliament. The 
 former regard the islanders as ancient subjects of Normandy, 
 the latter as British subjects. 
 
 Among the privileges enjoyed by the islanders, one of the 
 most important is their not being subject to the acts of the 
 British parliament, unless they are specially named therein. 
 
 (1) *' Surnomm^ Plnrite-Genest, h. cause de I'habitude qu'il avait de mettre en guise de 
 plume une branche de gen^t fleuri h son chaperon." Thierry. — Surnaraed Plantagenet, in 
 consequence of a custom which he had of wearing on his cap a sprig of broom in blossom^ 
 instead of a feather. 
 
54 HISTORY OF GUEEINSEY. 
 
 Moreover, to give any act of parliameot validity in these 
 bailiwicks, it must be transmitted to the Royal Courts of 
 Jersey and Guernsey, with an order from the sovereign in 
 council, when the bailiff and jurats examine it, to ascertain if 
 it trenches on their ancient privileges ; and if it do, they 
 forward a remonstrance to the throne ; but in no case does 
 the act acquire the force of law before it is registered on the 
 insular records, and thus time is obtained for the reconsider- 
 ation of any objectionable clauses. In this manner the Royal 
 Courts have a co-ordinate jurisdiction with the British legis- 
 lature in framing laws for the islands, and this privilege they 
 derive from their Norman origin. A similar rule obtained 
 before the revolution in the French provinces, whose local 
 parliaments possessed the right of verifying and registering 
 the royal edicts, and also of suspending them, if they mili- 
 tated against their privileges. 
 
 Henry II., king of England, and tenth duke of Normandy, 
 was possessed, in right of his father, of the provinces of Anjou 
 and Touraine ; in that of his mother, of Normandy and 
 Maine ; and in that of his wife, of Guienne, Poictou, Xain- 
 tonge, Auvergne, Perigord, Angoumois, and the Limousin. 
 On the death of his brother Geoffrey, who had been elected 
 count of Britany, Henry declared himself his heir, and, 
 enforcing his claim by the sword, a majority, if not the whole, 
 of the Bretons were compelled to submit to his usurpation. 
 When they revolted some years afterwards, he defeated 
 them in a pitched battle, and captured Dol after a short 
 siege. Thus, with these many provinces, Henry was pos- 
 sessed of about one-third of modern France, or a territory 
 extending from the Seine to the Garonne. — Guernsey does 
 not appear to have been affected by his domestic troubles, or 
 his consequent wars with France, as during his reign no less 
 than three churches were built in the island, viz. St. Saviour's, 
 the Forest, and St. Peter's-in- the -Wood. 
 
 According to an extract from an old register in the abbey 
 of Cherbourg, duke Henry II., before his accession to the 
 throne of England, made a grant of the island of Herm to 
 certain religious persons, with the privilege of fishing, &c. ; 
 and in this document, which was without date, and in other 
 respects imperfect, he was styled, Dux Normaniae et Comes 
 Andegarviae. (Anjou.) 
 
 It may be here cursorily mentioned, that in the year 1091 
 an earthquake in the " Cotentin,** and which extended to 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 55 
 
 these islands, threw down the copper cock of the cathedral 
 of Coutances, that cathedral having been built in 1056 ; and 
 that there was another earthquake more disastrous in 1161. 
 In 1095 commenced a famine of several years duration, which 
 terminated in 1104 by a frightful plague in the islands. In 
 1149 the famine was so great, that even the "seigneurs" 
 could with difficulty procure a few oats to make bread, while 
 the count of Anjou, regent for his son, duke Henry, caused 
 a butcher at Coutances to be hanged for seUing human flesh, 
 that of one of his parents, who had died of hunger. 
 
 A manuscript of the abbey of Moni St. Michel makes 
 mention, about the year 1150, of the chapel of St. Gregory 
 in the island of Guernsey. This chapel was evidently the 
 same existing at St. George, in the Catel parish, in the middle 
 of the last century, and in which the court of the fief le 
 Comte was held. In 1157, a clerk was instituted by the 
 abbot to the said chapel of St. Gregoire. In the twelfth cen- 
 tury the names of St. Gregoire and St. George were often 
 confounded . 
 
 CASTLE CORNET. 
 
 With the exception possibly of Gouray, now Mont Orgueil, 
 castle, in Jersey, no fortress in the Anglo-Norman islands 
 possesses a greater historical interest than Castle Cornet ; 
 and this interest is heightened by its picturesque appearance, 
 standing as it does in the sea, almost half a mile from the 
 pier and town of St. Peter-Port, and in bold relief of the 
 clear waters which encompass it. The tiny islet on which 
 this ancient castle is built is scarcely three quarters of a mile 
 in circumference ; and small and insignificant as this spot is, 
 nevertheless, for about five centuries, it served to protect the 
 only roadstead and town of the island from pirates and other 
 enemies ; as the erection of Fort George, which completely 
 commands Castle Cornet, was only begun in the year 1780. 
 The exact period of the commencement of the castle, which 
 in the lapse of ages has received very considerable additions, 
 is not known ; and we consider that every account, which 
 dates its origin anterior to the year 1 204, when Normandy 
 was wrested from John, is apocryphal. While Guernsey was 
 annexed to that duchy, there was no necessity for such a 
 fortress, as, although the Normans had frequent contests with 
 the Bretons, the scenes of those wars were chiefly in Upper 
 Normandy, of which Rouen is the capital, as Caen is of 
 Lower Normandy. The Rev. J. C. C. Ubele, D.D., of 
 Alderney, " in a very ingenious and learned Inquiry into the 
 
56 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Ancient Names of the Islands enumerated in the Itinerarium 
 Maritimum Antoniniamim," as given by Berry, says : " From 
 Jetliou the boat went to the fortress or Castle Cornet of 
 Guernsey." " That the fortress, now called Cornet, was ori- 
 ginally constructed by the Romans, is not denied " ! ! Now, 
 there is not the slightest proof that the Romans ever formed 
 a settlement in Guernsey, and much less that they erected a 
 castle in any part of it. The islet is said by some to have 
 been fortified about the year 1145, by Rodolphe de Valmont, 
 who was sent from Normandy by the count of Anjou, regent 
 for his son, duke Henry, afterwards Henry II. of England, 
 during Stephen's usurpation of the English crown, to place 
 Guernsey in a state of defence ; but de Valmont visited the 
 island as a justiciary to hold assizes, and was not a military 
 personage. The earliest mention in ancient records that we 
 can discover of the castle, under the name of Cornet, is in the 
 reign of Edward III. ; but the islet was undoubtedly fortified 
 above fifty years before his accession to the throne, in 1327. 
 The castle is mentioned, but not named, in an order of 
 Edward I., dated Windsor, March 2, 1275, authorising the 
 levy of certain dues on shipping, if a quay or pier were con- 
 structed, " inter castrum nostrum ibidem et villum nostram 
 de portu Sancti Petri," between our castle there and our 
 town of the port of Saint Peter." ' Many conjectures have 
 been hazarded by speculative or ingenious men, as to the 
 true etymology of its name of Cornet : by some, it is derived 
 from that of a guard-house existing in the twelfth century, 
 near to Rozel, in Normandy, called Cor Nez ; by others, 
 from the fanciful resemblance of the original construction to 
 a horn; (in French, "cornet;") but we conceive these 
 derivations to be utterly hypothetical. According to the 
 " Glossaire de la Langue Romane" (Paris, 1808,) the word 
 Cornet, from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries, signified 
 lieu retire, cache — a retired place, secluded, or which may 
 also bear the interpretation of a place of refuge ; and we 
 think it far more probable that the castle took its name from 
 that of the islet, which is said to have been called Cornet 
 before it was fortified. There formerly existed some manu- 
 script accounts, in French, of the dedication of the various 
 parish churches in the island, entitled "Xa Dedicace des 
 Eglises^"^ by which it appears that Sir Peter Cornet was 
 governor of Guernsey in the year 1312 ; and if these accounts 
 
 (1) The order is g^iven in Berry's History, p. 162. 
 
 (3) These manuscripts were printed and published in'Gucrnscy, in 1850. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 57 
 
 were not now believed to be of very doubtful authority, we 
 should rather derive the name of the castle from this func- 
 tionary. It is related in the Dtdicace, that at the conse- 
 cration of the church of St. Peter-Port, there were present 
 sixteen brothers of the name of Cornet, the sons of the same 
 father and mother. Probably this is also fabulous, and cer- 
 tain it is that the surname of Cornet, if it ever existed in 
 Guernsey, has long been extinct there. There was anciently 
 a family of the name of Cornet in the bailiwick and town of 
 Falaise, in Normandy ;^ and in the Exchequer Rolls of that 
 province, for the year 1198, membr. 9 recto & verso, the 
 names of Gervais, Luke, and Matthew Cornet occur. — Among 
 the charters belonging to the bishoprick and chapter of 
 Bayeux is found the sale of a house at Bayeux by William 
 Cornet and Cecilia his wife, in 1288. — Among the charters 
 deposited in the Archives du Calvados, occur the names of 
 Gervais, Gerard, Matthew, and Robert Cornet. — Hays Cor- 
 net was a nun in ihe priory of ViUers Canivet, founded in 
 1140 by Roger de Moubray.^ 
 
 The tower of Beauregard, which stood on an eminence 
 near the top of the steep street of Cornet, and commanded 
 the town of St. Peter-Port, is also said to have been raised 
 by the same Rodolphe de Valmont ; but it was apparently 
 built about the year 1350, after the strong hold of Jerbourg 
 had been captured, and when Edward III. ordered the towji 
 to be walled in. In a warrant or commission issued by that 
 monarch, in 1376, Thomas de Beauchamp, " chivaler," was 
 appointed " custodem castri nostri de Cornet, ac turris nostri 
 de Beauregard in insula de Gerneseye ; " and this is the first 
 mention we find of the tower. No remains of it exist at this 
 day ; but that it was maintained as late as the year 1460, 
 appears by a commission addressed by Richard Nevil, the 
 renowned earl of Warwick, lord of these islands, to John Le 
 Marchant, as captain of the tower, the locality of which still 
 bears the name of La Tour de Beauregard. 
 
 (1) We have searched in vain in the Foedera and other volumes of English printed old 
 records for the surname of Cornet, and doubt if it ever existed in England — certainly not 
 of any note. From the reign of Edward III. inclusive, there exists no trace of any family 
 of the name of Cornet being seated in Guernsey, so that, in the short period of fifteen 
 years, the sixteen brothers said to have been present at the consecration of the church of 
 St. Peter-Port, in 1312, must have disappeared from the island. 
 
 (2) We are indebted to John M^tivier, Esq., for this summary : having sojourned in 
 Normandy for the purpose, he has formed a very VEduable collection of documents relative 
 to the early history of Guernsey. 
 
58 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JOHN.— 1199 to 1216. 
 
 We devote a separate chapter to the reign of this detestable 
 monarch, and to that of his worthless son and successor 
 Henry III. ; because we conceive it is not fitting that the 
 annals of two such bad sovereigns should be intermingled 
 with the memorials of better men. Indeed, had history from 
 the earliest times been written more in the spirit of truth and 
 less in that of adulation, in reference to princes, their evil 
 passions might have been restrained, and their deeds would 
 be now less open to censure and reproach. It is, however, 
 perhaps some slight palhation for the wretched John, that he 
 lived in a barbarous age, in which kings seldom bore a rival 
 near the throne. 
 
 John was in Normandy when he heard of the death of his 
 brother Richard, (yoeur de Lion, who was mortally wounded 
 at the siege of a castle in Guienne, and whose rightful heir 
 was their nephew, Arthur, son of their deceased brother 
 Geoffrey, born prior to John. The young Arthur was duke of 
 Britany, in right of his mother, heiress of that duchy. But 
 Richard, when dying, declared John successor to all his domi- 
 nions. John hurried to Rouen, and, having secured Nor- 
 mandy, passed into England, and without opposition possessed 
 himself of the throne. Arthur, when only in his sixteenth 
 year, after marching into Poitou, laid siege to Mirebeau, 
 which town he captured ; but the castle defied his attacks, 
 until it was relieved bv John in person. A peace ensued, 
 but John basely violated it by imprisoning his nephew Arthur, 
 first in the castle of Falaise, and afterwards in the tower of 
 Rouen. Here he is said to have been stabbed to the heart 
 by John, April 3, 1203, while on his knees imploring mercy ; 
 and when tne Bretons heard of the murder of their duke, 
 they united in one generous burst of indignation. Constance, 
 the mother of the young prince, and the barons invoked the 
 aid of Philip, king of France, who cited John to answer for 
 his crime ; but the vile culprit, refusing to appear, was found 
 guilty by the French peers, and declared to have forfeited 
 not only Normandy, but all the other provinces which he 
 lield from the crown of France. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 59 
 
 Philip now quickly invaded Normandy at the head of a 
 powerful army, and, being supported by the Bretons, who 
 had already taken Mont St. Michel, Avranches, and the 
 country as far as Caen, the two armies formed a junction in 
 the neighbourhood of the last named city. The French pro- 
 ceeded from victory to victory, while John passed his time in 
 pleasure, until at last the only two places of note which re- 
 mained to the English were Chateau Gaillard and Rouen. 
 The former stood on an eminence overhanging the Seine, 
 whose waters flowed at its base, and it was considered the 
 rampart of Normandy. The defence was entrusted to the 
 earl of Leicester ; and so well did he resist every attack, 
 that the siege was finally converted into a blockade. At 
 length, Leicester was reduced to the greatest extremities from 
 the scantiness of provision ; and he applied to John for assist^ 
 ance. The king in reply thanked the earl and the garrison 
 for their courage, and earnestly entreated them not to capi- 
 tulate; adding, however, that if food failed them, then Lei- 
 cester was to follow the orders of Peter de Preaux and two 
 others. After a desperate resistance of six months, the earl 
 was compelled to surrender the castle, and the victors now 
 marched boldly to Rouen. The capital held out for a whole 
 year, during which the attacks were incessant and furious, 
 when a want of food drove the besieged to request a truce, 
 which Philip granted on condition that the city should sur- 
 render, if not relieved within thirty days. The Rouennais 
 sent deputies to England to inform John of their very despe- 
 rate condition : they found him playing at chess ; and such 
 was his unconcern, that he dismissed them until he had 
 finished the game ! Then his only answer was that he could 
 not relieve the city within the time specified, and therefore 
 he advised the besieged to make the best terms they could, 
 which they did. Thus the duchy of Normandy, ceded by 
 Charles the Simple in 912, was reunited to the crown of 
 France by Philip Augustus, in 1204, after a separation of 
 two hundred and ninety-two years. 
 
 The provinces of Touraine, Maine, and Anjou, had the 
 year previously been annexed to France, and the loss of 
 Poitou followed that of IN ormandy. Guienne alone remained 
 to England. Eleanor, the sister of Arthur, and a princess of 
 great beauty, became heiress to the duchy of Britany after 
 the murder of her brother. But her brutal uncle had carried 
 her a prisoner to England, and the ducal crown devolved on 
 her half-sister, the daughter of Constance by her third hus- 
 
60 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 band. The unfortunate Eleanor was kept immured for forty 
 years in a convent at Bristol, first by John, and next by Henry. 
 The loss of Normandy Proper effected a very great change 
 in the political condition of these islands, as, although geo- 
 graphically appertaining to that province, the natives preferred 
 the English connection, and thenceforth transferred their 
 hearty allegiance to the sovereigns of England. In eccle- 
 siastical matters, however, the islanders remained attached to 
 the diocese of Coutances, and thus their ancient connection 
 with the Cotentin was not entirely severed. — Falle ^ states that 
 the French, after getting possession of Normandy, attacked 
 the islands twice, and says : " But sure it is, that the ports and 
 landing places had been left too much exposed to descents, 
 which gave opportunity to the French to gain entrance into 
 the islands. Nevertheless, though they so far prevailed at 
 that time, they could not keep their ground. They were 
 beaten out again, and forced to retire with loss. They came 
 a second time, yet neither then could they maintain them- 
 selves against a people resolved to perish rather than fall 
 under their power. At the Pleas holden before the itinerant 
 judges sent to Jersey in Edward the Second's reign, it was 
 set forth by William JDemareys, the king's advocate, that a 
 certain king of France (meaning Philip Augustus) had disin- 
 herited John, king of England, of the dutchy of Normandy, 
 and had also twice ejected him out of these islands, &c. But 
 that the said king John had twice reconquered the said islands, 
 &c." Falle next mentions that John, on hearing of the 
 brave stand made by the islanders, and fearing that they 
 might be overpowered if the French returned in greater 
 force, not only sent over the necessary succours, but hastened 
 over in person that he might animate the people, and keep 
 up their courage. He was "very liberal of his favors to 
 them, visited the islands with ^reat care, viewed those weaker 
 places which had let in the French, and caused the same to 
 be fortified. He gave us a body of constitutions, which have 
 been the foundation of all our franchises and immunities to 
 this day, and may not improperly be called our Magna 
 Charta. But I find him again in Jersey in the fifteenth year 
 of his reign, i.e. three years only before his death, which I 
 take for a further proof of his care of us, continued to the 
 last." — Thus wrote Falle on very insufliicient authority, and, 
 
 (1) "An Account of the Island of Jersey," by the Rev. Philip Falle. — Falle observes, 
 page 37, that if these islands had been annexed with Normandy to France in the reigrn of 
 John, all the inheritance of the inhabitants would have been '* popery and wooden nhoea, 
 the wretched lot of our neighbour Normuru in their present state under the French." ! f 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 61 
 
 unable to account for John's energetic conduct relative to 
 these islands, he ascribes it to an interposition of Providence 
 in their favor, and not to his own willing credulity, as he 
 should have done. That the islands were attacked during 
 the reign of John there is evidence, not however to the ex- 
 tent of their double conquest and reconquest ; but that he 
 ever visited them is very doubtful. The Rev. Edward Durell, 
 in his notes on Falle, (No. 29,) candidly observes : " What 
 were the fortifications which king John raised in Jersey, I 
 know not ;" and certain it is that he erected none in Guernsey, 
 or in the smaller islands. Falle gives Matthew Paris as his 
 authority for stating that John visited Jersey only three years 
 before his death ; but Paris was the copyist of Wendover, 
 author of "The Flowers of History" — a work said to be 
 replete with exaggeration — and substituted Jersey for Guern- 
 sey. Roger of Wendover, whose work terminated in 1235, 
 the year of his death, mentions " that John had some dis- 
 agreement at Portsmouth with an immense number of his 
 knights, who complained that they had spent their money, 
 and asked for more from the treasury. This the king re- 
 fused ; but, flying into a rage, he embarked with his private 
 attendants, and after three days landed at Guernsey, whilst 
 his nobles returned home ; and the king, seeing himself thus 
 abandoned, was compelled to return to England himself." ^ 
 But even Wendover, if he could be trusted generally, may 
 have been mistaken, as Southey, writing on the same subject, 
 says that John, after sailing from Portsmouth, kept hovering 
 off for two days, in the vain hope that the troops would fol- 
 low him. Had the king crossed over to these islands, which 
 could well dispense with his odious presence, surely Southey 
 would have mentioned his doing so. The troubles in which 
 John was continually involved reduced him, in his later years, 
 to such extremities, that he was fain to conceal himself in the 
 Isle of Wight ; and it is incredible that he, who displayed 
 such utter indifterence at the loss of Normandy should so 
 exert himself to preserve these islands, which were a very 
 small and insignificant part of that duchy. It is, however, 
 due to him to add, that amid his many disputes with the 
 people and with his barons, he never neglected his navy ; 
 and, unpopular as he was generally, he preserved the good 
 will of the seamen, of whom as many as 14,000 are said to 
 have been on board the fleet which was collected at Ports- 
 mouth in 1205, for the projected recovery of Normandy. 
 
 (1) Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History, from the Descent of the Saxons to A.D. 
 1235, vol. ii., p. 274— London, 1849. 
 
62 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 During the reign of John, the islands appear to have occa- 
 sionally possessed small stranger garrisons, as, when strug- 
 gling for Normandy in 1203, he wrote to the bailiffs of Peter 
 de Pratel, the warden, from near Alen^on, on the 24th July, 
 to require the lords of fiefs, &c., to raise sufficient suras of 
 money to be deposited with Regnault de Carteret, for the 
 maintenance of soldiers and others required for their defence. 
 And on the 13th of the following month, he issued another 
 mandate to the said bailiffs, headed : " De auxilio in insulis 
 Gernesy k Jersey levando, ad sustendand' milites qui prae- 
 dictas insulas ab extraneis defendent," in which he fixed the 
 amount to be levied at one-fifth part of the revenues of the 
 islands. ^ 
 
 We have said that these islands were attacked during this 
 reign, as we now proceed to show. — Among the many fo- 
 reigners in the king's service was a notorious Boulognese or 
 Flemish adventurer, by name Eustache le Moine, (Eustace 
 the Monk,) whom the romancers of the time delight in de- 
 scribing as a nautical Robin Hood or Red Rover, and withal 
 an adept in sorcery. When he first entered John's service 
 does not appear, but by a writ tested at Gillingham, Novem- 
 ber 13, 1205, he seems to have then sent a prize into Sand- 
 wich. He remained in the king's service until the year 1212, 
 and soon after withdrew from it, siding probably with the 
 confederate barons. In October, 1214, he made an unsuc- 
 cessful attack on these islands, and fifty-four of his men, 
 among them his brother and his uncle, were made prisoners 
 in Sark. It is, however, not quite clear that Sark escaped 
 capture — if not, it was quickly regained. Of the prisoners 
 fourteen men at arms (servientes) were confined in Winches- 
 ter, and placed in the lowest dungeon, (in fundo carceris,) 
 while six knights were in the custody of the constable of 
 Porchester castle. On the repulse oi Le Moine, the king 
 wrote to the islanders, (militibus et probis hominibus insu- 
 larum,) thanking them warmly for their good service, and 
 telling them that he had released the hostages he had taken 
 from them, as he was fully assured of their fidelity. These 
 hostages were seventeen in number — among them John Le 
 Petit, William Malet, John Normand, and Richard Turgis — 
 and writs for their release were issued on the same day to no 
 less than seven parties in whose custody they were, viz. the 
 
 (1) A.D. 1203, Ann. 6. John.— Quod omnes Religiosi et Laid infra Insul' de Gerncscy 
 &c. dent quintam partem reddituam buorura unius Anni sivc feodurum ad sustendand' 
 Milites et ar qui eos defend' contra extraneos, apud Alenc' 13 Aug.— Calendarium Rotu- 
 lorum Patentium. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 63 
 
 prior of Wintoii, (Winchester,) the sheriff of Northampton, 
 the sheriff of Nottingham, the abbot of Gloucester, the mayor 
 of Winton, the prior of St. Alban's, and the abbot of Romsey. 
 This release occurred scarcely two years before the king's 
 death at Newark ; and that hostages should have been re- 
 quired by him disproves, we conceive, several of the preced- 
 ing statements of Falle. 
 
 The king's letter in Latin, just mentioned, is to the follow- 
 ing effect : 
 
 " At Havering, 2d November, 1214. 
 
 " The king to the knights and good men of the islands, &c. 
 We return you many thanks for the good and faithful ser- 
 vice you have so readily performed in furtherance of our 
 honor and service. We also return you your hostages, that 
 they may remain with you. Because we place entire confi- 
 dence in your fidelity. Testo, &;c." 
 
 After this attack on the islands, Eustache le Moine appears 
 to have been included in the treaty with the insurgent barons ; 
 but soon after, when Louis, son of the king of France, was 
 invited by them to assume the English sceptre, Le Moine 
 entered into that prince's service, and was actively engaged 
 in the naval operations which ensued. In the emergency, 
 king John committed the defence of the southern coast of 
 England to the warden of these islands, Philip d'Aubigny, 
 one of the ablest and most faithful of his adherents ; and in 
 the midst of more important cares, it is not surprising that 
 the islands were neglected. Of this neglect Le Moine seems 
 to have taken advantage by seizing and retaining them shortly 
 before the death of John, in October, 1216, as in the treaty 
 of peace between Henry III. and Louis, which followed the 
 naval victory off Sandwich, August 24, 1217, the latter en- 
 gaged to send orders to the brothers of Eustace (fratribus 
 Eustachii Monachi) to restore the islands to Henry, king of 
 England ; or otherwise the said brothers to be subject to cer- 
 tain heavy penalties named, such as the forfeiture of their 
 fiefs, lands, and moveables. See Foedera, vol. i., pars 1, page 
 148. Londini, 1818. 
 
 Falle was not happy in his narration of the reign of John, 
 whom he eulogizes for conferring "a body of constitutions" 
 on these islands, and which he gives in the Appendix of his 
 History under eighteen distinct clauses or heads, with the 
 following foot note : " The original of these constitutions of 
 king John is lost, but they are extant in an Inquest of his 
 
64 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 son Henry III., which recites and confirms them." In dis- 
 proof of this assertion, we must observe that the said Inquest 
 of 32 Henry III. still exists among the records in the Tower 
 of London, but only contains, with slight variations, the first, 
 second, and eighteenth clauses of Falle, not so numbered, the 
 remaining fifteen being wanting. The Inquest is written on 
 one skin of parchment ; and it is supposed by Mr. Hardy, 
 the learned antiquary, in whose immediate custody it is, that 
 another membrane, long since lost, may have been at one 
 time attached to it.^ Even admitting this to be the case, the 
 circumstance of the eighteenth clause following the second is 
 not accounted for, and leads one to suspect that the missing 
 fifteen clauses are interpolations. It is true that in the 
 Placita coram Henrico Spigurnel, &:c., 17 Edw. II. (A.D. 
 1324) the purport of most, if not all, of these missing clauses 
 is expressed in other words, with additional provisions, the 
 inhabitants of Guernsey having then urged that their laws 
 and privileges, as set forth in the said Placita, had existed 
 from time immemorial.^ Had they dated from John, it 
 would surely have been known, as he died only 108 years 
 before. But setting the preceding discrepancies aside, there 
 is great doubt whether the document in Latin, given by Falle 
 as " the constitutions of king John," ever emanated from that 
 monarch, and at most they appear to have been only a decla- 
 ratory enactment of a pre-existing system. Constitutionally, 
 the point is immaterial, the purport being the same ; but 
 historically there is this distinction, that if the " constitutions," 
 so yclept, be anterior to John, as we doubt not they are, they 
 date probably from the early part of the eleventh century ; 
 if otherwise, from the commencement of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, a difference in antiquity of about 200 years. Twelve 
 jurats or jurymen are very ancient, as, although Polydore 
 Virgil assei-ts that William the Conqueror first brought the 
 jury of twelve into England, it is clear from Ethelred's 
 laws that the institution existed there many years before the 
 conquest. Falle's document is a mere list of promiscuous 
 articles of polity and regulation, and bears on the face of it 
 no formality or style usually characterizing charters or sta- 
 tutes. It is headed, or rather superscribed : " Constltutiones 
 
 ()) See Report of the Guernsey Royal Commissioners of 1846, p. 293. 
 
 (2) " Et ipsi per quosdam servlentes dicunt quod ipsi et omnes antecessores eorum, 
 Insulani insulae prrcdictre, de lege et eorum consuctudine k tempore quo non extat 
 roemoria usitatis, habere consueveruiit duodecim Juratos de se ipsis, qui eligi debent per 
 mlnistros domini Regis et optimates patriae, cum opus fuerit, scihcet, post mortem unius 
 eorum, alter fidediguus loco ejus eligrl debet."— P/m« before H. Spigurnel, &c. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 65 
 
 et provisiones constitutce per dominum Johannem regem^ post- 
 quam Normannia alienata fuit" — " Constitutions and provi- 
 sions by the lord John, the king, after Normandy was alien- 
 ated ; " but the people for whom they were intended are not 
 named ; the place of emanation and the date are not given ; 
 and no seal is affixed. The original is not extant, and is not 
 known to have been ever in existence ; and Falle's copy, 
 which is not addressed to any authorities in or out of the 
 islands, bears the appearance of a compilation at an epoch 
 certaiiily posterior to king John's death. That he should 
 voluntarily grant free constitutions to these islands — he from 
 whom the celebrated Magna Charta was afterwards extorted 
 by the English barons — is somewhat incredible. Had he 
 done so, he would doubtless have referred to some pre-exis- 
 tent jurisdiction to be superseded, and would probably have 
 assigned some reason for the change ; but he did neither, and 
 we cannot but think that the greater part of Falle's document 
 is apocryphal, at least as relates to king John. 
 
 Duncan says, that " when Guernsey was a dependency of 
 Normandy, each fief had its court ; and once a year a general 
 cburt appears to have been held by the bailiff and four 
 knights, two of whom, with the bailiff, resided in the island, 
 the others coming from Normandy. The place of meeting 
 was in the Yale parish, at a place then, and still, called ' Les 
 Landes Si Marched where the public market was held ; and 
 afterwards at St. Anne's, near the King's Mills, in the parish 
 of St. Mary de Castro. At these assizes, the ancient laws 
 were proclaimed, and new regulations made in presence, and 
 by the advice, of the military and other tenants. These 
 regulations had force of law as soon as enacted, but political 
 ordinances of importance were regarded only as provisional 
 until they had received the assent of the duke. 
 
 " After the separation of the islands from the duchy of 
 Normandy, king John is said to have appointed twelve jurats 
 to replace the knights.^ They, with the bailiff, the tenants 
 in capite, and other principal inhabitants representing the 
 community, continued to hold pleas and pass provisional 
 ordinances three times a year." 
 
 The church of St. Martin was built in the reign of Richard, 
 Coeur de Lion, and that of the Catel in the reign of John. 
 These churches were respectable edifices for the age, and did 
 
 (1) So said from the Constitutions of king: John, at the Pr^cepte d' Assize, 5 Edw. III. 
 F 
 
66 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 credit to the islanders. — " Several copies exist of an act of chief 
 pleas concerning the reparation, or rather the erection, of a 
 bridge, now called Le Grand Pont, for the convenience of 
 the inhabitants of the parishes of the Vale and St. Sampson, 
 who complained ' that they had been greatly impeded and 
 damnified by the incursions of the sea, which had swept away 
 and destroyed the convenient passage which existed between 
 the said parishes, so that it was impossible to continue 
 religious processions or traffic one with the other, and im- 
 practicable to go to the parish of the Grand Sarrassin,' now 
 St. Mary de Castro. This act was passed by Nicholas De 
 Beauvoir, bailiff, John Le Gros, James Le Marchant, Peter 
 De La Lande, Robert De La Salle, Colin Henri, Rauf Meril, 
 Gautier Blondel, and Guilet Lefebvre, jurats, dated the 4th 
 of October, 1204, the very year in which Normandy was 
 united to the crown of France." — Duncan. 
 
 In the middle ages, the condition of the unprivileged classes 
 in Europe was one of great and general misery, and the 
 social state of the islanders must have been sufficiently wretch- 
 ed if it bore any analogy to that of the French at the same 
 period ; although, as it appears that the lower ranks in Nor- 
 mandy were among the first who enjoyed the least glimpse 
 of real liberty, the concession of it to them must have quickly 
 extended to the same classes in these islands. 
 
 It has been shewn that, in the eleventh century, Guernsey 
 was divided into two beneficiary fiefs ; and it is evident that 
 the possessors, both wealthy and powerful Norman barons, 
 never resided in the island. Next in rank to the barons — 
 and all who held lands immediately from the crown were 
 comprised in the order — were their higher tenants or vassals, 
 usually termed vavasseurs, and the chatelains, who held only 
 arrihe fiefs with fortified places. Of the vavasseurs and 
 chatelains, all of whom were either knights or esquires, or 
 the gentry in the modern acceptation of the term, there were 
 doubtless several resident in the islands, which have from 
 very remote times been considered frontier garrisons. The 
 classes, below those of gentle blood, were three, viz. the free- 
 men, the villeins, and the serfs. Even the first, being consi- 
 dered of ignoble birth, were held in little estimation, and by 
 the ancient laws of France were obliged to live under the 
 protection of some seigneur ^ who subjected them to many 
 tributes and to much oppression : a plebeian could not pos- 
 sess a fief. During seasons of famine, which were not unfre- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 67 
 
 quent, many freemen were compelled to exchange their liberty 
 for food, and to sell themselves and their families into a spe- 
 cies of slavery. The villein was obliged to remain upon his 
 lord's estate, and could not dispose of the land upon which 
 he dwelt ; nay more, the seigneur could reclaim him if he 
 strayed ; but he was only bound to fixed duties and pay- 
 ments The serf felled the timber, carried the manure, and 
 performed other menial employments for his lord. The 
 seigneur might take all belonging to his serf, alive or dead, 
 and imprison him at his pleasure, " being accountable," says 
 Beaumanoir, " to none but God." In France, the children 
 followed their mother's condition ; and the clergy inveighed 
 against the sinfulness of keeping Christians in bondage, al- 
 though they preached what they themselves did not practise, 
 the villeins upon church lands being the last who were eman- 
 cipated ! ^ But as civilization advanced in Europe, the manu- 
 mission of slaves became more frequent ; and it finally grew 
 into a custom that villeins might not only possess property, 
 but purchase their own redemption. As these islands were 
 anciently held by the feudal tenure, Guernsey being finally 
 divided into sixteen fiefs, of which six belonged to ecclesiastics 
 and ten to laymen, there can be little doubt, we think, that 
 a vast majority of the inhabitants were included in the three 
 degraded classes we have named ; although from their isola- 
 tion, their general occupation of fishing, and their Norman 
 origin, they were probably kept in a less grievous state of 
 vassalage than the same classes in France. In any case, the 
 present generation should rejoice that they live in happier 
 and better times. As in Normandy there were francs tenants, 
 or holders of terres libres, so there were in these islands ; 
 and in a mandate of Edward III., dated 1337, the liber e- 
 tenentihus are named between the militibus and ballivis. 
 Felix Bodin, who has justly been styled the French Sallust, 
 in his Resume de l'Histoire de France, thus speaks of the 
 social being of that country from the eleventh to the four- 
 teenth centuries : 
 
 (1) " II restait encore de nos jours des serfs de main-morte, k Saint Claude en Franche- 
 Comt^. Louis XVI. les a aflfranchis. lis appartenaient h. des moines ! "—Bodin. 
 
 The acute Hallam, in his " Middle Ages," very trulj- observes that the sole hope for 
 classical literature depended on the Latin language, which would probably have been lost 
 if three circumstances had not combined to maintain it, viz. the papal supremacy, the 
 monastic institutions, and the use of a Latin Liturgy. Through the first, a continued 
 intercourse vv^as maintained between Rome and the several nations of Europe, so that a 
 common language became necessary. The parochial clergy were very ignorant, and the 
 little learning which existed was among the monks, whose monasteries served as secure 
 repositories for books and manuscripts, which could scarcely have descended to us by any 
 other channel. Thus papacy and its concomitants, which Protestants are properly accus- 
 tomed to condemn, were eventually of the utmost advantage to learning and to the 
 establishment of a purer (and, we will add, of a more liberal) Christianity. 
 
68 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 *' Arretons-nous ici : c*est I'epoque inoyenne de la feodalite 
 pure, de ce regime odieux qui pesa sur la France pendant pres 
 de trois siecles, et qui reduisit Tesp^oe europeenne au dernier 
 degre de mis^re. Tout le peuple etait devenu serf ou esclave. 
 Sa condition etait peu difFerente de celle du betail. Chacun 
 pouvait frapper, mutiler, ou meme tuer son serf impunement, 
 sauf intercession du clerge. Presque tous les homnies libres 
 avaient renonce d'eux-rnemes a kur liberte, afin d'etre moins 
 vexes par les seigneurs. Mais ceux-ci jiigerent, pillerent, ran- 
 (jonnerent cruelleraent leurs vassaux. L*axiome feodal, Nvlle 
 terre sans seig^ieur^ s'etablissait : il n'existait done aucun asile 
 contre ces hommes, qui sans doute n'etaient pas nes j)lus mecbants 
 que d'autres, mais qui, dans ce desordre, etaient brigands par 
 etat : il fallait etre oppresseur ou opprime. Les gens d'eglise et 
 les seigneurs se pillaient tour a tour, et ruinaient le peuple. La 
 force pbysique ou I'autorite religieuse pouvait seule prevaloir. 
 La justice devait etre meconnue la o{l tous les difFerends se 
 jugeaient et tous les torts se redressaient a main armee. La 
 cavalerie, dont les Francs avaient presque ignore i'usage, 6tait 
 devenue, ainsi que le port d'arraes, le privilege exclusif des sei- 
 gneurs. Un noble et son cheval, converts d'une armure de fer, 
 faisaient trembler tout un canton. Les serfs, qu'on menait de 
 force a la guerre, combattaient a pied. Accables de corvees, de 
 tailles, de peages, de taxes de toute espece imposees par des hom- 
 mes de guerre ou d'eglise, humilies par des droits seigneuriaux 
 qui revoltent la pudeur et la nature, ils ne savaient auquel obeir, 
 et ne se battaient que pour river leurs fers. On appelait villains 
 ceux de la campagne, bourgeois ceux des villes et bourgs. Ni 
 les uns ni les autres ne pouvaient produire qu'au profit de leurs 
 seigneurs, qui venaient souvent vivre chez eux a discretion, avec 
 leurs hommeSy sergens et varlets ; ceux-ci etaient des aspirans k 
 la profession de chevalier ou homme d'armes. Les valets out, 
 com me on le voit, une origine assez noble. 
 
 " De leur cote, les seigneurs se battaient entre eux a outrance; 
 les declarations de guerre atteignaient les parens, les allies. Une 
 querelle de famille pouvait ensanglanter un pays pendant trente 
 ans. L'etat de guerre etait Tetat habituel ; tous les chateaux, 
 toutes les abbayes etaient des forteresses, ou plutot des repaires 
 oili cent mille tyrans se renfermaient avec leur butin : la France 
 etait un vaste champ de bataille. Enfin, ce carnage en perma- 
 nence finit par lasser la ferocite elle-m6me. On imagina, dans 
 un roncile, d'imposer k ces furieux ce qu'on appela la paix de 
 Dieu, puisqu*on ne pouvait I'obtenir des hommes. Les eveques 
 ordonn^rent des jeAnes et des penitences pendant lesquelles I'hu- 
 manite respira. Mais cette pnix, ainsi que la trdve de Dieu, 
 qui defendit seulement de combattre du Sainedi soir au Lundi 
 matin, tomba bient6t en desuetude. C'eCkt ete beaucoup qu'un 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 69 
 
 tel relache au brigandage. On voit quel etait cet odieux regime 
 feodal, veritable anarchic temperee par I'anatheme." 
 
 The following abstracts from the records in the time of 
 king John relate to these islands, and as such are interesting : 
 
 E Rotulis Chartarum. 
 1 John. — September 6, 1199. — Exchange effected between the 
 king and Vitalis de Villa of a rent of £50, granted him 
 by king Richard on the fisheries (esperquerie) of Guern- 
 sey, for a like rent to be taken in the j)ort of Beiarid.(?) 
 ,, May 5, 1200. — Grant of the islands to Peter de 
 
 Preaus, dated at Caen. 
 ,, Grant made to the abbey of Blanchelande of the pre- 
 
 bend of Cherbourg, in the island of Guernsey. 
 
 E Rotulis Liu. Patentium. 
 
 3 John. — At Morlaix, November 12, 1201. — That a reasonable 
 aid be sent to the king from the islands of Guernsey 
 and Jersey ; directed to Peter de Preaus, or his bailiffs 
 in those islands. 
 
 17 John. — Runemede, June 21, 1215. — The abbess of Wilton 
 is ordered to surrender to Eustace Le Moine his daugh- 
 ter, whom she has in her custody as his hostage. 
 
 E Rotulis Litt. Clausarum. 
 8 John. — Beaulieu, May 19, 1206-7. — The king orders G. de 
 Lucy and his other Jideles in the islands immediately to 
 send out the two galleys, having one knight and one 
 clerk, both discreet and well spoken men on board, to 
 meet the fleet, (navagium,) now coming from La 
 Rochelle, and to prevail if possible on the masters and 
 mariners to enter the king's service. 
 
 8 John.— Woodstock, May 13, 1206-7.— The bailiffs of Ports- 
 
 mouth are ordered to provide a smack (sernecum) for 
 the passage, by the king's orders, of brother Robert de 
 Hambeie and his attendants to the island of Gernes. 
 
 9 John. — Rokingham, August 12, 1207. — The custody of the 
 
 islands of G'ner, &c., which G. de Lucy held, is granted 
 to Philip d'Aubigny, during the king's pleasure. 
 „ Guildford, April 6, 1208. — Safe conduct granted to 
 
 Eust. Le Moine, until the feast of Pentecost, to come, 
 dwell, and return to and from England. 
 
 10 John. — 1208. — The wardens of the islands of Guernsey, 
 
 &c., are ordered to receive and protect Guy de Guivilt 
 and his men, whilst cruizing against the king's enemies, 
 15John.— Winton, July 20, 1213.— Philip d'Aubigny is or- 
 dered, out of the lands which belonged to Baldwin 
 
70 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Wake, in Guernsey, to assign 20 librates (And.) to 
 Thomas Daniis, bequeathed to him for his services by 
 the said Baldwin. 
 
 16 John. — Gillingham, December 8, 1214. — The king orders 
 P. Bishop of Winchester, to deliver the island of Sark 
 to Philip d'Aubigny, to whom the king has committed 
 its custody. 
 
 16 John. — Westminster, November 3, 1214. — Philip d'Au- 
 bigny is informed that the king sends him three galleys, 
 to be kept in his parts, according to his request. And 
 W. Archdeacon of Taunton, is ordered to deliver the 
 said galleys to the men of the said Philip, by whom 
 they are to be taken to the island of Guernsey. 
 
 HENEY III.— 1216 to 1272. 
 
 Henry, the eldest son of John, succeeded his father when 
 only in his tenth year ; and as in England his long and con- 
 fused reign was singularly barren in interesting events, so 
 there is little to relate of these islands in his time. Duncan 
 states that in this reign Castle Comet fell into the hands of 
 the French, through the negligence of the captain, " who had 
 failed to supply it with ammunition," (? arms and provisions, 
 as gunpowder was then unknown in Europe,) but that it was 
 soon recovered by the courage of the inhabitants. We be- 
 lieve, however, that this capture occurred in the following 
 reign, that of Edward I. Duncan also says that in the latter 
 end of king John's reign, Guernsey was afflicted with a great 
 mortality, when the Normans attempted to surprise it, but 
 were repulsed. 
 
 Having already made mention of the naval battle off 
 Sandwich, in the year 1217, we must add here that the Eng- 
 lish commander on that occasion was Phihp d'Aubigny, the 
 lord or warden of these islands. Falle, ever anxious to intro- 
 duce the loyalty and prowess of the natives, says that " the 
 fleet consisted of the shipping of the Cinque Ports, with such 
 additional strength as the islands could bring." But, as we 
 have shewn, the islands appear at this time to have been in 
 possession of Eustache le Moine, and, if so, could not have 
 sent any assistance to their warden. Eustache was found, 
 after a long search, concealed in the hold of one of the cap- 
 tured ships : he offered a large sum for his ransom, so that 
 his hfe might be spared, and likewise to enter the service of 
 Henry ; but, as he had rendered himself singularlv odious, 
 Richard, an illegitimate son of king John, killed him, and 
 sent his head to the young monarch as a brotherly offering. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 71 
 
 and as a proof of this important victory. Eustache had left 
 his monastery — hence his name of le Moine, or the Monk — 
 and, having dissipated his patrimony, afterwards " he became 
 a notable pirate, and had done in his days much mischief to 
 the Englishmen." 
 
 Henry, in the thirty-second year of his reign, A.D. 1248, 
 ordered an extent or inquisition to be instituted in these 
 islands, when Drogo de Barentin ^ was warden thereof : the 
 result was drawn up in Latin, and furnishes a good idea of 
 the state of Guernsey in the thirteenth century. By this 
 inquest, it appears " that one half of the island belongs to 
 the lord the king, and to lords and others who hold of him 
 in chief; and that the other half is divided between the 
 abbot of Mont St. Michel, in peril of the sea,^ and Robert de 
 Vere ; and that the quarter which Robert de Vere holds is 
 called La Terre da Comte. Also that those who held terres 
 villoines paid camparts ; that two hens were due on each 
 house, as also pesnage for hogs ; and if such pesnage, after 
 being declared and cried in the market place, should not be 
 paid before sunset, the owner forfeited the hog and five sols 
 tournois. — " If the lord the king should desire to send his 
 corn to Normandy, viz. between Mont St. Michel and Cher- 
 bourg, he shall in peace time find a vessel and a master, and 
 the said men shall find, at their own cost, the rest of the crew 
 for a fortnight ; but if delayed longer than a fortnight, they 
 shall then be kept at the lord the king's own cost ; and the 
 said mariners are to have the wastage of the corn in the 
 vessel." — The inquisitioners further add that the inhabitants 
 were accustomed, in time of peace, to take to Normandy or 
 elsewhere, at their pleasure, all their goods, live or dead 
 stock, as well the produce of the sea as of the land, for sale, 
 (except only the congers, during the esperkerie,^) and to pay 
 no duty on them. The season of the esperkerie continued 
 from Easter to the feast of St. Michael ; and " when the 
 merchants, who arm the esperkeries, and the fishermen, dis- 
 agreed" as to the price of the fish, two fishermen were chosen 
 on either side as appraisers. 
 
 We have said that after the loss of Normandy, these islands 
 
 (1) Probably the founder of an eminent Jersey family, long since extinct. Another 
 Drogo de Barentin was one of the Justices Itinerant in 1308; and a third, seigneur of 
 Rosel, was slain in the defence of Mont Orgueil, about 1340, 
 
 (2) This refers to the monastery of Mont St. Michel, in Normandy, known as that " in 
 periculo maris," evidently from the year 709. when it was nearly swallowed up by the sea. 
 
 (3) " Esperkerie was the drying season for conger and mackerel, derived from perques, 
 the perches or poles on which the fish was placed to dry." — Lieut. -Colonel de Havilland. 
 
72 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 remained attached to the diocese of Coutances, although its 
 suffragan was thenceforth an ahen to the crown of England. 
 Thus the abbeys of Mont St. Michel, St. Sauveur Lesset, 
 and Cherbourg, continued to enjoy the revenues they pos- 
 sessed in this bailiwick, which however appear to have been 
 sequestered in time of war. It is a great proof of the power 
 of the papacy in that age that a foreign, and probably hostile, 
 priesthood was thus allowed not only to administer to the 
 spiritual wants of the natives, but that the abbeys in Nor- 
 mandy were so long permitted to draw their insular revenues. 
 But it was a happy circumstance for the islanders that their 
 ancient dependence on the see of Coutances was not suddenly 
 severed, as it was evidently owing to the influence of the 
 bishop that the pope issued a bull enforcing the privilege of 
 neutrality granted to the islands by Edward IV. And this 
 dependence, doubtless, caused a more amicable and frequent 
 intercourse with the inhabitants of the Cotentin, at a time 
 when the communication with England was very limited. 
 From documents which have recently been collected in Nor- 
 mandy for the States of Guernsey, we are enabled to illus- 
 trate the ecclesiastical connection of the island with Normandy. 
 
 A.D. 121|. 3 Henry III. — Philip d'Aubigny, bailiff 
 (warden) of the isles, by order of the king, restores in full 
 the rights and possessions of the abbey of Mont St. Michel 
 in the island of Guernsey, and in addition grants to the said 
 abbey divers immunities and privileges. 
 
 A.D. 1238. 22 Henry III.— Henry de Trubleville, war- 
 den of the isles, replaces the abbey of Mont St. Michel in 
 possession of the priory of the Vale and of all other rights, 
 &c., in the isle of Guernsey, by letter dated at the castle 
 du Hornet, in the said island. 
 
 Letter of Richard, bishop of Avranches, to Edward, eldest 
 son of Henry III., containing "vidimus" of an inquest held 
 at Guernsey, 125 J, before Sire John de Gray, son and deputy 
 of Sire Henry de Gray, warden of the isles, which inquest 
 recognizes the right of the abbey of Mont St. Michel to the 
 varech and "adventures of the sea," viz. to the whole of the 
 varech of the isle of Lihou and at " Keuhou," and to a quarter 
 part of the said varech on the remainder of the island. 
 
 A.D. 1263. March 24.— Letter of Edward, eldest son of 
 Henry III., orders his bailiffs in the isles to be obedient to 
 Sire Kauf d'Aubigne and Sire William de Saumareis, his 
 justices, in the cause of the abbot and convent of Mont St. 
 Michel against William de Cheyne, knight, for the land 
 which the said William has acquired of Bauldoin de Vere. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 73 
 
 A.D. 1270. — Agreement between the abbot of Mont St. 
 Michel on the one part, and Hugues de Turbeville, knight, 
 baiUff (warden) of the isles, on the other part, witnesseth that, 
 in consideration of the good services of the said Hugues, the 
 abbot engages, if he gain his cause against the lady de 
 Cheney, to cede to him the moiety of the Terre du Comte.^ 
 
 A.D. 1270. London, May 23.— A letter of Edward, eld- 
 est son of Henry III., declares that the abbot of Mont St. 
 Michel, having at his request given his fisheries to farm to 
 the merchant of the said Edward, this concession was not to 
 prejudice the abbot's rights in times to come. 
 
 A.D. 1270.— ''Bair to William dit Estur of the land 
 which belonged to Hamelin Estur in Guernsey, for twelve 
 quarters of wheat, grande mesure, four loaves, and four capons, 
 annually. 
 
 A.D. 128f . — Letter of king Edward I., commanding the 
 royal justices going to the isles, to investigate, and do justice 
 to, the plaints of the abbot and convent of Mont St. Michel, 
 that their men of the isles refuse to render them campart^ 
 accustomed of ancient times, viz. of parsnips, onions, and leeks. 
 
 A.D. 1289. — Letter of Edw^ard I., transmitting to his bailiff 
 of Guernsey the complaint of the abbot and convent of Mont 
 St. Michel, that the king's people in the said isle levy a cus- 
 tom on the mackerel caught by the men of the said abbot, 
 contrary to his right, and to his great damage and prejudice. 
 
 A.D. 1307. — Letter of John de Newent, lieutenant of Sir 
 Otho de Grandison, warden of the isles, dated St. Peter-Port, 
 March 26, an. 30 Edw. I, restoring to the abbey and convent 
 of St. Sauveur Lesset the lands and possessions in the said 
 isles, which had been sequestered in consequence of the war. 
 
 A.D. 1347. — Letter of Rauf de Hermesthorp, lieutenant 
 of the isles, declaring that the annual pension of fifteen liv. 
 tournez, paid by the prior of the Vale to the prior of Lihou, 
 is in his opinion too small, as times have been and are. 
 
 A.D. 1364. — The abbot oi Mont St. Michel appears before 
 
 (1) In other words, the priest, having a bad cause, bribed the judge to cheat the widow. 
 
 (2) " The champart is derived from campi pars, a part of the profit of the land reserved 
 for ever, to be paid by the under-tenants to him who was the last owner of the fief, and 
 let it out to tenants, with the reservation of this duty upon it. . The first dukes of Nor- 
 mandy granted several parcels of land in the island to such as had served thera in their 
 wars, and granted likewise a very considerable part to some religious houses. These, 
 whether churchmen or soldiers, not being themselves skilled in agriculture, let out these 
 lands to tenants under them, reserving such rents and services as they thought most 
 convenient. Such was this champart, which is undoubtedly the most ancient duty ; and 
 such were the chefrentes, or rents reserved to the chief lord, which are the most ancient 
 rents, and these have been in use, at the least ever since Richard the First, duke of 
 Normandy, who sent monks from St. Michael de monte tumbd, and placed them in the 
 island, which was about A.D. 966, and possibly they may yet be of more ancient date."— 
 Warburton. 
 
74 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 I'abbe de la Luzerne, special commissioner of Edward III., 
 and names Denys Le Marchant, with several others, his at- 
 torneys in England and the islands. 
 
 A.D. 1480. February 27.— Letter of Geoffrey, bishop of 
 Coutances, instituting brother William Guyffart religieux de 
 Vabhaye de notre dame du Voeu, near Cherbourg, in the cure 
 of the prieure, or parish church, of Saint Tugual of Herm, 
 in the isles of Guernsey, dependent of the said abbey. 
 
 Henry, towards the close of his reign, although reduced to 
 the necessity of relinquishing his pretensions to Normandy, 
 which duchy had been lost by his father, yet in his treaty 
 with Louis, king of France, he look especial care that these 
 islands, which were the appanage^ of his son, prince Edward, 
 should be reserved to him, with the province of Gascony. 
 It appears by an inspeximus of the reign of king Henry I V. 
 that this prince Edward granted to William de Chesneye the 
 right of keeping a warren both in Jersey and Guernsey, by a 
 charter dated 9th of June, in the forty-fifth year of his father's 
 reign ; so that he held these islands by an independent autho- 
 rity before he became Edward I., as we have already shewn. 
 
 The extent of Henry III. says : " Sed tempore illo non 
 fuerunt castella in insulis ; " but in that time there were no 
 castles in the islands." It is not quite clear to what period 
 this passage refers, but certainly not earlier than the com- 
 mencement of the eleventh century. In the preceding reign 
 there were such castles ; as John, by an order dated the 14th 
 of November, 1212, directed Asculf de Suligny to deliver 
 the isle of Jersey and castle to Phihp d'Aubigny. There is 
 likewise, in 1223, a writ of Henry III., addressed to Philip 
 d'Aubigny, requiring him to deliver the islands of Jersey and 
 Guernsey, with the castles, to Geoffrey de Lucy. 
 
 When prince Edward was about to proceed to the Holy 
 Land, in the year 1270, he appointed his uncle guardian of 
 his children and estates, by an indenture, of which we extract 
 the heading and the first clause, as a specimen of Norman 
 French in the thirteenth century. 
 
 " JEdwardus primogeriitus concessit custodiam Jiliorum stiorum 
 
 domino Ricardo Regi Romanorum avunctdo stw, dum fuerit 
 
 in Terra Sancta. 
 
 *' Edward, fiz esne a 1* noble Rey de Engletere, a tuz ke ceste 
 lettre orrunt ou verrunt, saluz. 
 
 (1) The term apanage signified the provision made for the younger children of the kings 
 of France. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 75 
 
 *' Siche ke, par le otri e le assentement de I'avant dit Rey nostre 
 pere, avum ordine e establi de la garde de nos enfans, e de nos 
 chasteaus, e de nos terres, e de nos seignuries en Engletere, en 
 Gales, en Irlonde, en Gayscoyne, e des isles de Gernesie e de 
 Geresie, oue tute les apurtenances, ensement oue les issues des 
 terres, e de choses avaunt dites, en la forme desut escrite, ceo est 
 assaver." — Feeder a. 
 
 Of the seven witnesses to this indenture one is Rog' de 
 Soineri, proving pretty clearly that the de Somery, who ac- 
 companied William at the conquest, bore a different surname 
 to that of de Sausmarez. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EDWAED I.— 1272 to 1307. 
 
 At Henry's death, the sceptre passed from a feeble to a 
 vigorous hand, Edward having during his father's life dis- 
 played that great ability and courage which he afterwards 
 evinced in the conquest of Wales — a conquest, however, 
 more politic than just. As these islands had been the appa- 
 nage of Edward before he came to the throne, he probably 
 felt an additional interest in their welfare. 
 
 In the seventh year of his reign, Edward gave a public 
 seal to Jersey and Guernsey, the grant of which was ad- 
 dressed in Latin to the bailiff of each, and thus prefaced : 
 " Whereas our subjects (literally our men, homines nostri) of 
 the aforesaid islands have hitherto frequently sustained divers 
 losses and no small dangers, sometimes at sea by shipwreck, 
 sometimes on land by depredations and other risks of travel- 
 ling, for this reason especially that in these islands we have 
 had up to this time no seal, with which writs (or briefs — 
 brevia) of the men from those parts might be certified, or 
 their own transactions on the spot be facilitated," (expediri,) 
 &:c. — The original seal of Edward I. is now in the official 
 possession of Peter Stafford Carey, esq., the talented and 
 respected bailiff of Guernsey, and it corresponds exactly with 
 an impression in wax afiixed to a document bearing date in 
 1315. The seal is of metal, and the arms on it are three 
 
76 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 leopards or lions, passant guardant, badly executed : the 
 shield is surmounted by a sprig of laurel, but whether in- 
 tended for a crest or not it is difficult to determine : there is 
 no wreath under the sprig. ^ It is clear, however, that the 
 laurel, if a crest, was not granted as a crest of honor for the 
 relief of Mont Orgueil Castle by the Guernsey men, in 1467, 
 as is often supposed. Round the shield are the words, " S 
 BalHvie Insule de Gernereye." The public seal of Jersey 
 has, we believe, nothing resembling a crest. 
 
 In this reign, according to Dicey ,*^ the French attempted 
 to take Guernsey, but were repulsed : they, however, cap- 
 tured Castle Cornet, which was obliged to surrender for want 
 of arms and provisions, and it was soon after retaken by the 
 valour of the inhabitants. Edward issued an order to reward 
 such inhabitants of Jersey and Guernsey as had signalised 
 themselves in repelling their French invaders, and to provide 
 for the widows and orphans of those who had fallen.' To 
 effect these objects, the lands, rents, &c., which belonged to 
 fugitives and deserters, were escheated. "These fugitives 
 and deserters, as it appears from Riley, were persons who 
 held lands, both in the island and France ; and whenever 
 war broke out, they were in the habit of retiring to the con- 
 tinent and giving information as to the weakest points of the 
 coasts ; but when peace was restored, they used to return and 
 claim their rents, and the enjoyment of all such franchises 
 and liberties as belonged to permanently resident Guernsey- 
 men." Duncan adds " that all Edward's orders are replete 
 with royal justice, and prove the devoted loyalty of the inha- 
 bitants and the gratitude of the sovereign." There exists 
 indeed ample evidence of the sore evils and trials to which 
 the islanders were subjected for at least two centuries, in 
 consequence of their unswerving adherence to the British 
 crown after the loss of Normandy, and when England was 
 unable to afford them much protection. 
 
 The Rev. Edward Durell, in his notes on Falle, page 428, 
 
 (1) Little seems to be known at the Herald's College of the armorial bearings of the 
 English monarchs anterior to Richard I. ; ( J 189-1 199) but it is said there that William the 
 Conqueror and his three sons bore the arms of Normandy, " gules, two leopards pitssunt, 
 or;" and that £leanor of Aquitaine brought to Henry U. the arms of that province, 
 " gules, a lion passant (fuardant, or," which he added to his two leopards, converting 
 them then into lions, like that of Aquitaine, for uniformity's sake. But the abb^ de la 
 Rue, an eminent Norman antiquarian, was clearly of opinion that the ancient arms of 
 Normandy were neither lions nor leopards, but a composite imaginary animal, with the 
 head and mane of the lion, and the body spotted like the leopard, in French heraldic 
 language styled lions Irupardt's. In cither case, the arms of Normandy, up to Henry II., 
 were, we believe, composed of two animals only. 
 
 (2) Dicey's Historical Account of Guernsey. London, 1751. 
 
 (3) *• Previa facta de petitionlbus hominum Geres, et Gernes, retornatis in Concilio in 
 autampno an. "regnl regis Ed. xxili." — Ryley's Placita Parliamcntaria, In Appendice. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 11 
 
 says, most unaccountably : " The Foedera, vol. i., part 2, page 
 928, A.D. 1301, contains a list of the several English ports, 
 which were ordered to send their contingents to the fleet of 
 Edward, at Berwick, for the invasion of Scotland. It is 
 gratifying that our islands were in that list, and that they 
 were ordered to furnish ten vessels." ^ We have consulted 
 this list, and cannot discover in it any mention of these islands. 
 Mr. Durell can scarcely have mistaken Jern' (in other pages 
 Magna Jernemuth) or Great Yarmouth for Jersey, as that 
 port was ordered to send six vessels. Moreover, as only two 
 other ports, Lenn' (the mode»Tx Lynn) and Youghal, were 
 required to furnish three shfps each ; London, Bristol, &c., 
 only two ships each ; and many other ports only one ship 
 each, these islands could never have been ordered to send 
 ten vessels, especially to so great a distance. Indeed, we 
 much doubt if they then possessed one fit for the purpose. 
 All England was only required to supply fifty-eight, and 
 Ireland ten ships ; together sixty-eight ships. 
 
 Soon after Edward's accession, commotions arose in some, 
 if not in all, of these islands, whereupon John Wigger and 
 Rodolph de Brochton were, by a royal commission, dated 
 the 11th of October, 1274, empowered to inquire into the 
 conduct of the jurats and inhabitants ; and in case it should 
 appear that any of the said jurats had committed acts preju- 
 dicial to the royal prerogative, the commissioners were autho- 
 rized to eject and punish them, subject, however, to the king's 
 revision and pardon. The cause of these commotions is not 
 mentioned, but they appear to have been connected with the 
 royal prerogative, and to have arisen from the imperfect state 
 of the extents, or surveys, at that time, for, within a month 
 after the date of the commission, separate extents were drawn 
 up for Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark. It would seem that 
 the people of Guernsey justified themselves from every im- 
 putation of disloyalty, because the commissioners, observing 
 that the harbour of St. Peter-Port was insecure, so repre- 
 sented that insecurity to the king that, by an order already 
 mentioned, and addressed to the bailiffs and the principal 
 inhabitants, (Ballivo et probis hominibus,) he authorized the 
 levy, for a limited term of three years, of a duty of twelve 
 tournois on all ships laden, and of six tournois on all boats, 
 (duodecem et sex turonenses,) for the erection of a stone wall 
 
 (1) Mr. Durell's annotations are written with so much candour, liberality, and truth, 
 that this is evidently an unintentional error on his part. 
 
 (2) In the concluding passage, the order speaks of "Ballivus Insularum," so that he 
 was clearly the warden, or captain, and not holding the present office of bailifT. 
 
78 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 or pier between the castle and the town of St. Peter-Port. 
 Duncan, page 20, supplies the omission of the coin or money 
 with sols, and adds : " If these twelve sous tournois w^ere of 
 the same value as those mentioned in the extent of Sark, 
 under the name of sols tournois, it must have been a heavy 
 duty, since a quarter of wheat was therein estimated to be 
 only worth six of them." In this case, each boat paid fully 
 sixteen shillings of the present money, an evident impossibility, 
 and the duty was clearly twelve and six denarios, or deniers, 
 of which twelve were one sol ; in other words, one sol, and 
 half a sol, respectively. 
 
 Nor was this regard for the harbour the only act by which 
 Edward, who has been deservedly termed the English Justi- 
 nian, testified his good feelings towards Guernsey. He cited 
 Otho de Grandison ^ to appear before parliament to answer 
 for his unjust proceedings against the inhabitants, upon whom 
 he had imposed many additional burdens.'' The office of 
 lieutenant to the warden, and bailiff, appears to have been 
 held at this time by the same individual, as an order of 
 Edward was addressed to Peter Le Marchant, holding the 
 office of Lord Otho de Grandison in the island of Guernsey, 
 (Petro Le Marchant, tenenti locum Domini Ottonis de Gran- 
 dison in insula Gernesey,) and two months later the said 
 Peter Le Marchant was styled bailiff. These two offices, 
 however, have since been usually separated, as being incom- 
 patible with each other ; although, in the reign of James I., 
 Lord Carew, the governor, appointed the bailiff, Amias de 
 Carteret, as his lieutenant during his absence ; and in the 
 reign of queen Anne, Sir Edmund Andros, a native of 
 Guernsey, was invested with the joint commissions of lieute- 
 nant-governor and bailiff, as will appear in the sequel.^ 
 
 By an extent of the royal revenues in the bailiwick of 
 Guernsey, drawn up in the second year of this reign, the 
 annual income amounted to 900 livres tournois, Guernsey 
 
 (1) O. de Grandison accompanied Edward I., when heir apparent to the throne, to the 
 Holy Land, and was rewarded, soon after the king's accession, by large grants of land in 
 England and Ireland, and the lordship of these islands. In the l/th Edward I. he waa 
 sent as ambassador to Rome, and he was subsequently employed to negociate a treaty 
 with France. He died about I2th Edward II., leaving his brother his heir.— Dugdale'i 
 Baronage. 
 
 (2) " otho de Grandison, lord or governor of these islands in the reigns of Edward the 
 First and Edward the Second, forced an impost on congers salted for exportation, and It 
 amounted to four hundred livres tournois (fourteen of which s]>ecic made a pound sterling) 
 by the year, at only one penny tournois for every conger above ten pounds weight so 
 salted and transpoited. This was, however, an illegal act of an arbitrary governor, for 
 which his widow suffered severely in Edward the Third's time." (Dicey, page 172.) 
 
 (3) " The civil and military authority, according to the best information we can procure, 
 seems to have been first separated in the reign of Edward I., who issued his order, in the 
 year 1314, commanding the jurats to obey the bailiffs aopointed in each island by Otho de 
 Grandison."— B?rry, page I89. This passage must refer to Edward II. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 79 
 
 being rated at 765, Sark at 80, and Alderney at 55. It is 
 singular that Alderney was rated at less than Sark. 
 
 The seas were very insecure during the reign of Edward, 
 France having now raised a naval force. Six ships of war 
 were fitted out by England, and sent to Bordeaux for the 
 defence of the coast of (jascony. Two of these, as they sailed 
 along the coast of Normandy, before war had been declared, 
 were captured by the Norman navy, and several of the crews 
 hanged ; upon which the commander of the English fleet sailed 
 with the intention of revenging himself upon any Norman 
 ships he might fall in with. Meeting with none, he entered 
 the mouth of the Seine, and there captured six vessels, many 
 of whose men were slain. While he lay at anchor not far 
 from the land, a strong fleet of Normans came that way, 
 freighted with wine from Gascony, and the whole were cap- 
 tured with the loss of a third of their crews, and taken to 
 England. Thus reprisals were provoked by wrongs, and, 
 frequently falling upon the innocent, such reprisals were 
 avenged by fresh acts of violence. Piracies were general, 
 and often most audacious : a piratical squadron from Biscay 
 and Asturias carried off three ships from Southampton, and 
 there plundered the house of a brave man, who scarcely 
 escaped with life. And as these islands lay in the neighbour- 
 hood of these excesses, the inhabitants must have been in 
 constant dread of attack, and sorely exposed to invasion and 
 pillage. With England they could have had little or no inter- 
 course, and their trade must have been chiefly confined to the 
 neighbouring coasts of Normandy and Britany. 
 
 " It was a very ancient prerogative claimed by the bishops 
 of Coutances, that if the king, or guardian of the islands, 
 delayed six months in filling up a vacant benefice, the bishop, 
 in that case, had a right of appointing a curate, though king 
 Edward the First paid but little attention to it. In the 
 twenty -sixth year of his reign, having nominated Robert 
 Lyset to the rectory of St. Peter, the bishop of Coutances 
 refused to give him induction, on pretext that, by the lapse 
 of six months, the right of nomination had devolved upon 
 him ; on which the king sent him a mandate, commanding 
 him to induct his nominee, under the penalty of forfeiting 
 all he held within the royal dominions. There are some in- 
 stances of the rectors having been appointed by the pope, of 
 which we give the following example. His holiness having 
 appointed Peter Le Valleys to the rectory of St. Peter, and 
 
80 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 put him into possession, one Guillevin ousted him by force, 
 by pleading that he had authority from the patron so to do ; 
 but this intrusion was cancelled by an order from king 
 Edward the Second to Otho de Grandison, guardian of the 
 islands, to reinstate the papal nominee. 
 
 " While the Channel Islands remained under the episcopal 
 jurisdiction of Coutances, the bishop of that diocese appointed 
 a surrogate or substitute in Guernsey, who held the office of 
 dean, and united in his own person the offices of chancellor 
 and archdeacon, having power to give institution and induc- 
 tion, to pronounce sentence in cases appertaining to ecclesi- 
 astical cognizance, to certify wills, and to hold visitations. 
 He held the principal benefice of the island, and had a pro- 
 portion of tithes collected from the different parishes. He 
 took the fees of the ecclesiastical court, and the rents due to 
 the island of Lihou. When the religious houses were sup- 
 pressed, he received an allowance of 100 quarters of wheat, 
 paid him by the king's receiver, for his tithes. Those reli- 
 gious houses enjoyed all the predial tithes, for which some 
 of their members performed the cure of souls ; but the bulk 
 of the revenues belonging to them were paid to certain 
 monasteries and abbeys in France, on which they were depen- 
 dent, and of which they were branches. " ^ 
 
 The church of St. Andrew was built in this reign, A.D. 1284, 
 being the ninth which had been completed in 173 years, 
 during a period when the population of Guernsey was com- 
 paratively limited, and when the principal wealth of the 
 island was derived from its fisheries. 
 
 This chapter would by many be thought incomplete with- 
 out some mention of the legend of the Bailiff"s Cross ; and, as 
 the tale is very firmly and generally believed, we shall relate 
 it ; although it belongs rather to romance than to history. 
 
 Gaultier {Anglice Walter) De La Salle, who is said to have 
 been the bailift' of the island in 1284, resided on his estate 
 then called " La Petite Ville," and now bordering the high 
 road from Mount Row to St. Martin's. A peasant, Massy 
 by name, was proprietor of a cottage with a little land near 
 the bailifi"8 house, and possessed the right of drawing water 
 from a well on the bailiff's premises. The exercise of this 
 right annoyed the bailiff, who sought in consequence to pur- 
 chase Massy 's land ; but, not succeeding, he determined on 
 revenging himself. With this design, he concealed two silver 
 
 (1) Duncan's History of Guernsey, p. 324, 325. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 81 
 
 cups in one of his corn ricks, and accused Massy of stealing 
 them. The peasant was tried and convicted of the theft. 
 On the day appointed for the condemnation or execution, 
 the baiUff ordered his men to remove into a barn the rick 
 which he pointed out to them, and then left home for the 
 court-house. Happily, the men mistook their master's or- 
 ders, and commenced removing the wrong rick, in which they 
 soon found the missing plate. One of them ran instantly to 
 the court-house, in which the bailiff was sitting with the jurats, 
 and, rushing in breathless, he exclaimed: "The cups are 
 found ! the cups are found ! " The wicked bailiff, taken by 
 surprise, betrayed his guilt by replying ; " That was not the 
 rick I ordered you to remove." Accordingly, he was tried 
 and sentenced to that death which his victim had so narrowly 
 escaped. On his way to the place of execution, he stopped 
 to receive the Sacrament on the summit of the hill leading 
 from the Vauquiedor to St. Andrew's church, and where two 
 roads now intersect each other at right angles. The name of 
 the Croix-au-Baillif, or Bailiff's Cross, is supposed to be 
 derived from this circumstance, and is corroborated by a cross 
 rudely cut upon a large stone of granite close by, and at 
 present nearly embedded in the earth. But, on examining 
 the cross, we found it to resemble far more the capital letter 
 T, the upper arm being entirely wanting, — a fact not con- 
 firmatory of the legend.^ Certain it is, however, that the 
 supposed cross has been there from time immemorial ; but 
 whether it is as old as the thirteenth century, or whether it 
 was cut to commemorate the bailiff's presence, are questions 
 purely conjectural. The bailiff's estate being forfeited to the 
 crown, was thenceforward called " La Ville-au-Roi," a name 
 it bears to this day, and it is still liable to a feudal servitude. 
 Whenever the Cour St. Michel holds a chevauchte, the pro- 
 prietor is bound to furnish the peons, or esquires, with sweet 
 milk. In 1825, when the procession took place, the members 
 halted opposite the estate, and milk was abundantly served to 
 them in a large silver cup. The estate, which now belongs 
 to Mr. Thomas Le Retilley, a much esteemed jurat, offers at 
 present few traces of its former note ; its extent has been 
 greatly diminished, having in ancient times joined Les 
 Granges, on the Catel road, for many years in the possession 
 of the De Beau voir family. To the casual observer,, the 
 house of the Ville-au-Boi presents nothing remarkable ; but, 
 
 (1) It has been suggested to us that the T may have been intended to represent a 
 gibbet— if so, it must have been to hang two persons. 
 
82 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 on a closer inspection, the sculptured granite door-way, the 
 granite spiral staircase, and other parts of the building, which 
 have escaped the ravages of time, amply repay the observer. 
 Tradition has done a cruel and irreparable wrong to the 
 memory of a chief magistrate, if the legend be not true, and, 
 if fictitious, we trust that his manes will not rise up in judg- 
 ment against us for recording it.^ While on the subject of 
 bailifis, we may add that, in the thirteenth century, the same 
 individual was appointed by the warden to be not only his 
 deputy but the baihfF and receiver, which three offices were 
 held during pleasure, and seldom for any length of time. 
 Occasionally the same person filled these offices at one period 
 in Jersey, and at another in Guernsey. 
 
 EDWAED IL— 1307 to 1327. 
 Edward was so nearly allied to France by his marriage 
 with Isabel, daughter of one, and sister of three, of the sove- 
 reigns of that kingdom, that, during the greater part of his 
 reign, peace was maintained between the two countries, and 
 these islands happily ceased to be molested, unless by pira- 
 tical incursions. But, according to Falle and our later his- 
 torians, his copyists, they could scarcely have suffered more 
 from a French invasion than they did by the arbitrary and 
 illegal proceedings of the English justices itinerant, who 
 occasionally visited them. In consequence, so great was the 
 violation of the privileges of the inhabitants that no one was 
 sure of his property, and no prescription availed against the 
 unjust claims of the crown. If the proprietor established his 
 right, he was yet liable to be annoyed by a ruinous and vex- 
 atious appeal to the courts of Westminster, which issued 
 highly unconstitutional Quo Warrantos, compelling attend- 
 ance ; but this last named grievance, although often resisted, 
 was at length finally abolished by an order in council of June 
 22, 1565. Falle observes that this attendance on the English 
 courts was directly contrary to the fundamental constitution 
 of the islanders, which exempted them from the power and 
 jurisdiction of those courts. He might have added that in 
 that age such attendance was a grievous wrong, considering 
 the many dangers and delays attendant on all intercourse 
 with England. But we suspect that the islanders, generally, 
 suffered quite as much from the despotic rule of the warden, 
 Otho de Grandison, and the exactions of the seigneurs, as 
 from either "Quo Warantos*' or English justices itinerant. 
 
 (1) A ballad of this legend is given at great length in Dickens' Household Words, 
 ▼ol. ii., pp. 85, 86.— 1860. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 83 
 
 In those days the seigneurs enforced their rights with vexa- 
 tious pertinacity — rights which were as inconsistent with 
 justice and humanity as with individual Hberty, and which 
 bore great resemblance to the more modern ones of the slave- 
 holder. During the long and imbecile reign of Henry III., the 
 royal revenues in England, as well as in these islands, appear 
 to have been greatly diminished by tenants in capite alien- 
 ating without licence, and by ecclesiastics as well as laymen 
 withholding from the crown its just rights. The same parties 
 moreover claimed the privilege of holding courts and other 
 Jura Regalia, and greatly oppressed the people by enforcing 
 the laws of free chase, free warren, Sec. These feudal lords 
 were very clamorous about their rights, utterly regardless of 
 those of the people, who could not make themselves heard as 
 well as their oppressors, and whose only reliance was on the 
 impartiality and benevolence of the sovereign. 
 
 One of the first acts of Edward I., on his return from the 
 Holy Land, in the second year of his reign, was to correct 
 these abuses, and not (as erroneously asserted by Lord Coke, 
 2 Inst. 280 and 295,) to fill his exchequer with money by 
 unfairly depriving his subjects of their just rights. Before, 
 however, any specific remedy could be provided for the 
 correction of these abuses, evidence was required of their 
 nature and extent; and for this purpose Edward I., on the 
 11th October, An. 2 of his reign, appointed special commis- 
 sioners through whom the crown was furnished, by the means 
 of a jury upon oath, with the necessary information relating 
 to the alienated demesne lands of the crown and manors; 
 tenants in capite, and tenants in ancient demesne ; courts, 
 wrecks of the sea, free chase, &c. A few of these inquisitions 
 were not completed until the reign of Edward III. : those 
 relating to these islands were held in the reign of Edward 
 II., and the following is the heading of a patent or commis- 
 sion issued for Guernsey by the latter monarch, in 1324, to 
 Henry Spigurnel and other justices itinerant, who were 
 empowered to enquire into the alienation of the insular 
 crown dues. 
 
 Edwardus, Dei gratia, Rex Angliae, Dominus Hiberniae et 
 Dux Aquitaniae, dilectis et fidelibus suis Henrico Spigurnel, 
 Magistro Henrico de Clif, Johanna de Ifeld, et Willielmo de 
 Denum, salutem. Sciatis quod cum nuper, dato nobis intelligi 
 quod diversse terrae et tenementa, cum homagiis et servitiis, 
 advocationibus ecclesiarum et cappellarum, eschaetis, wreccis 
 maris, warrennis, chaciis, custumis makerellorum, esparkeria- 
 
84 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 rum, coungrorum, et aliis libertatibus diversis, quae ad nos 
 pertinent, et de jure pertinere debent, in insulis nostris de Ger- 
 nereye, Jereseye, Serk, et Aureneye, per quosdam homines et 
 habitatores insularum praedictarum, religiosos, et alios, tam tem- 
 pore domini Regis Henrici avi Regis nostri, quam tempore 
 domini Edwardi Regis patris nostri, et nostro, usurpata fuerunt 
 indebit^ et detenta, et alise diversse subtractiones libertatura et 
 jurium nostrorum in partibus illis, ac purpresturae similiter factae 
 fuerunt ibidem, in nostrum praejudicium et exbaeredationem nos- 
 tram manifestam. 
 
 In the " Placita de Quo Warranto, Temp. Ed. I. II. III.," 
 will be found the reports of causes tried in Guernsey and 
 Jersey by English justices, in the reign of Edward U. They 
 contain some curious matter, but are much too long for inser- 
 tion or even analysis here, the report for Guernsey alone 
 consisting of nine pages and a half folio, closely printed. 
 These placita, or pleas, were held at the close of the second 
 year of Edward II., (1308,) viz. first, before John de Fresing- 
 feld and William Russel, to hear complaints of divers persons 
 against the officers of the king and Otho de Grandison ; and 
 secondly, before the said John de Fresingfeld, Drogo de 
 Barentyn, and John de Dittone, when the several seigneurs, 
 ecclesiastical and lay, were summoned to establish their feudal 
 tenures and rights, and among them was Matthew de Saus- 
 mareys^ for his fief of " Gerebourg." A general default was 
 taken against the abbot of Mont St. Michel, in periculo 
 maris. In the proceedings, which are drawn up in Latin as 
 usual, the following names occur, viz. Robert Le Marchaunt, 
 and Cecilia his wife, and Nicholas de Cheney, as also Abbia de 
 Blancalanda ; Abbas and Prior de Wale ; (Vale) Insula and 
 Insuletta de Geyteho ; Prioratus de Lyho ; and Russemare. 
 
 The parishes of Guernsey are named as follows in the 
 said pleas of Quo Warranto ; William Des Mareys, on behalf 
 of the crown, having then laid claim to certain lands and rents, 
 " in parochiis Sci Petri in Portu, See Marie de Castro, Sci 
 Salvatoris, Sci Andr*, Sci Martini de Bellosa, Sci Samps', 
 Sci Petri de Bosco, de Wale,* Fortenal,* et Foresta." 
 
 The present church of St. Peter-Port was consecrated in 
 this reign, (1312,) and as it was the last of the ten parish 
 churches, so it was by far the largest and handsomest. It is 
 built in the form of a cross, and consists of a chancel, nave, 
 north and south aisles, and north and south transepts, with 
 a square tower at their intersection. This cathedral -like 
 
 (») In the assizes of 1331, spelt Saltmarea. (2) The Vale. (3) Torteval. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 85 
 
 edifice, which is well worth the attention of the antiquary 
 and stranger, is of the style of the later gothic of France 
 termed the flamboyant, and it is richly decorated in some 
 parts. " The mouldings and the canopies," says the Rev. 
 W. C. Lukis, "of the north porch and west door, which 
 are crocketed, finialed, and pinnacled, deserve especial notice. 
 The pillars of the south transept are octagonal, without 
 capitals, and the mouldings of the archivolt die away into 
 them. In the east wall of the transept is a granite piscina, 
 ogee-headed and trefoiled, with a shelf across it.^ In the 
 east walls of the north and south aisles are most elegant 
 piscinae, the canopies of which are crocketed, finialed, and 
 pinnacled, and the interior moulding of the arch and sides 
 formed of crumpled leaves and creeping animals. The 
 shelves consist of brackets of leaves, above which are two 
 niches, square-headed and trefoiled. In the south-east pier 
 of the north aisle, there is also a piscina. Against the south 
 pier of the chancel arch there was a stone pulpit, which was 
 removed during the repairs, in 1824, in consequence of its 
 extremely mutilated state." 
 
 In the year, 1308, Edward II. ordered, by mandate to 
 the guardian, Otho de Grandison, " that the men of the 
 islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and Alderney, shall not be 
 cited to appear before the bishop of Coutances, in causes of 
 which the cognizance appertains to the king." 
 
 Edward, towards the close of his reign, found it necessary 
 to engage in a war with France, and in a short time 120 
 Norman vessels were brought into England as lawful prizes. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EDWAED III. — 1327 to 1377. 
 
 This warlike prince was only fifteen when, through the 
 crimes of his mother and the successful efforts of her parti- 
 sans, he succeeded to his unhappy father's throne. Powerful, 
 however, as Edward became, in no preceding or succeeding 
 reign did probably the inhabitants of all the islands fare so ill 
 
 (1) At the period when the repairs were made, (1824,) a piece of carved oak was found 
 in the same wall, with the following inscription: "an: mill: cccc. xlvi. fut faite," 
 which probably refers to the date when this transept was erected. 
 
86 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 and suffer so much as in this ; for not only were they occa- 
 sionally ravaged, but Guernsey and Castle Cornet were at 
 least each once for a short time in possession of the enemy. 
 Edward found England at war with France, but it was 
 quickly terminated after his accession. 
 
 On the death of Charles IV., king of France, Edward III. 
 considered himself entitled to the crown of that country, in 
 right of his mother Isabel, sister to the three last kings ; but 
 he delayed preferring his claim for several years, while he 
 was young, and his attention was occupied with the affairs of 
 Scotland. The events of his wars with France are too well 
 known to require more than a notice of those which relate to 
 this history, or to the adjacent provinces of Normandy and 
 Britany, especially the former; and suffice it to add here, 
 that in the course of about twenty years Edward reduced that 
 previously powerful kingdom to an utter state of exhaustion. 
 
 In Le Precepte d' Assize^ of 5 Edward III., A.D. 1331, it 
 was ordered, among other regulations, that as it had been 
 customary from ancient time for the baihff and jurats to visit 
 and inspect the insular castles and other fortresses, they 
 should continue to do so ; the reason given being that Castle 
 Cornet is the protection (garde) and fortress of the isle of 
 Guernsey, and is detached from it, beset and surrounded on 
 all sides by the sea ; that, in consequence, it could not be 
 succoured by the men of the said isle, owing to which " the 
 said castle of Cornet, by the fault of the captain who com- 
 manded it, and the insufficiency of the munitions therein, by 
 a force and in truth was taken by the enemy," and soon 
 after was recaptured "through the prowess (prouesse) and 
 diligence of the lieges and inhabitants of Guernsey." This 
 capture evidently refers to that in the reign of Henry III., 
 as stated by Duncan, or to that in the time of Edward I., 
 mentioned by Dicey. 
 
 About the year 1336, the French, although bound by treaty 
 towards England, covertly afforded assistance to the Scotch ; 
 and Philip, king of France, aided David Bruce, the exiled 
 king of Scotland, with a well appointed fleet, in which David 
 embarked, and with which he mflicted much evil, not only 
 upon the Anglo-Norman islands, where he burnt, slew, and 
 
 (1) This term sigrnifles or embraces a declaration of the insuitu- rights and privileges 
 made before, and approved by, the Justices of assize. The Precepte d'Assize is given in 
 Berry, p. 3i7f translated from French into English. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 87 
 
 committed other enormities, but upon the Hampshire coast.* 
 Edward III., in a long manifesto against Philip, dated 1340, 
 thus speaks of Bruce's atrocities in Guernsey, where he 
 spared neither age nor sex : " Et insulam nostram de Ger- 
 nesey invadentes hostiliter, ecclesias, et aedificia singula redi- 
 gerunt in miserabilem cibum ignis, interficientes quos illuc 
 invenerant, aetati, sexui, vel ordini non parcendo." We 
 learn, moreover, from the continuator of Nangis, a French 
 annahst, that in 1338 certain " galleys ravaged Guernsey, 
 and set fire to the principal town, except a castle." This 
 exception must apply to some other castle than Cornet, pro- 
 bably the Vale, or that now known as Ivy Castle, as in the 
 same year a French admiral, Bahuchet by name, took Castle 
 Cornet and the islands of Guernsey, Sark, and Alderney, as 
 appears upon record in the Exchequer, thus : " Anno XII. 
 (1338,) Edw. III., Memorandum, quod in festo nativitatis 
 Beatse Mariae, captum fuit Castrum Cornet cum insula 
 Geners, Serk et Aulnerey, per Gallos, et in potestate Regis 
 Francise." In consequence, the inspection of Castle Cornet 
 by the bailiff and jurats, as ordered by Edward, had not the 
 desired effect. Falle, — who in the first edition of his History 
 of Jersey, published in 1694, erroneously fixed the loss of 
 Guernsey in 1 339, which date he found it convenient to omit 
 in the second editioUj published in 1734, — says, that until 
 this time Castle Cornet was thought impregnable, and he 
 adds that the French retained their conquest " three whole 
 years ;" but the following extract relative to the castle proves 
 the island to have been in possession of England in 1339 : 
 " Anno XIII. Edw. III. m. 32. (1339.)— Item, fait a remem- 
 bre que Monsieur Thomas de Ferrars ad empris d'envoyer 
 saunz delay un homme suffisant au chastel de Gerneseye, 
 
 (1) Mandatum de intendendo commissariis antedictis; in quo Rex iterum vendicat silii 
 dominium maris Anglicani. 
 
 [Extract.] 
 A,D. 1336. Rex, universis et singulis comitibus, baronibus, &c., salutem. 
 
 An. 10 Edw. III. Nuper, ut pro certo intelleximus, David de Bruys & nonnuUi alii 
 
 de Scotia, hostes nostri, & sibi adhserentes, copiosam navium & 
 
 Rot. Scot. galearum multitudinem, in diversis locis supra mare, & etiam in aliis 
 
 10 Edw. III. m. 3. locis & portubus exteris, congregari fecerunt, & mercatores & alios 
 in Turr. Lond. regni nostri per mare transeuntes hostiliter agredientes, tarn naves ac 
 bona & res ipsorum subditorum nostrorum quam quasdam alias naves, 
 prop& litora Insulae Vectae jacentes ancoratas, mercatoribus & marinariis, in dictis 
 navibus existentibus, nequiter interfectis, pluries ceperunt, & secum abduxerunt, insulas- 
 que nostras de Gernereye & Jereseye hostiliter etiam sunt ingressi, incendia, homicidia, 
 & alia mala & facinora, tarn ibidem quam supra mare, diversimod^ & inhumaniter 
 perpetrantes.— ii^mer's Fcedera. 
 
 " Rex Edwardus mandat quod homines eligantur, armentur, et in insulas Gernereye, 
 Jereseye, &c., mittantur, ad eas defendendum ab invasione sociorum Scotiae." I'lO Ed. 
 III. A.D. 1336.) RotuH Scotia, vol. i. p. 455. David II., son of Robert Bruce, returned to 
 Scotland from France, after an absence of nine years, and assumed the government, 
 Baliol having been expelled by the nobles. 
 
88 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 pour sursur les defautes et I'etat de meisme le chastel ; pur 
 pleinement certifier ent au conseil, et en moen temps de 
 trover gages a ceux qui y demeureront en garnisons illecques, 
 tant que la some de cent livres ; et le dit Monsieur Thomas 
 ferroit })ourvoir tote mancre de morte garnisture pur le dit 
 chastel, disore selon ce qui est requis par les messages du dit 
 chastel. Et I'Ercevesque Canterburie et le Tresorier sont 
 accordez, coment que serra fait a dit Monsieur Thomas trente 
 tonneaulx de pomadre,^ cinquante quintals de fer, deux quin- 
 tals d'acier, pur le meisme garniture ; et pur ceo que Guillaum 
 Pein,'^ un des juretz de I'isle de Gerneseye, est alors contre 
 defens a les enemy s ; soit brief mande au bailift' et jurez de 
 meisme I'isle de eslire un autre suffisant en son lieu, et de 
 seiser ses terres, biens, et chateaux en la main le roi a res- 
 pondre ent les issues. — Harl. MSS, No. 14:, p. 58.* 
 
 Falle adds also on the same subject, and on the sole autho- 
 rity of a very questionable manuscript : " The deliverance of 
 Guernsey vras too great an enterprise for those of Jersey to 
 go upon, on their own strength alone. But, hearing of a 
 fleet ready to sail from England vrith recruits for the king, 
 and of orders given to the commanders Regnault de Cobham 
 and Geoffrey de Harcourt to attempt in their way the reco- 
 very of the captive island, they raised a contribution of 6,400 
 marks for that service, went out and joined the fleet, arid 
 assisted in retaking both the island and the castle ; many 
 Jerseymen of note losing honourably their lives on that occa- 
 sion, as the Sieurs de Vinchelez, de Matravers, des Augrez, 
 de Garis, de la Hougue, Lempriere, and other leaders spe- 
 cially named, besides private adventurers." On this extract 
 we shall briefly observe ; first, that the attack of Cobham and 
 Harcourt occurred in 1344, or five years after the date ori- 
 ginally assigned by Falle for the capture of Guernsey, and 
 that this attack seems to have failed ; and, secondly, that the 
 sum of 6,400 marks was equivalent to fully £16,000* of the 
 
 (1) Poinadre (correctly pomade) is the old French word for cider. Mr. Bree supposed 
 pomadre, from the context, to mean gunpowder, and observes that he had found the word 
 no where else, except in a MS. record, *• reciting letters of pardon to several persons for 
 arrearages of debt due to the king, where, in one granted to Thomas de Brockhall, pur 
 trente et deux tonneaulx de pomadre, des queux il est charge de son account, di terns 
 que il cstnit assigne de faire divers purveyances ad opus le roi, en cont^ de Kent." — 
 Southey adds to this note, that "the signification of the word is altogether doubtful." 
 
 (2) This William Pein had probably lands in both Normandy and Guernsey, and if so, 
 he preferred his Norman possessions, as more secure and valuable. 
 
 (3) Bree's Sketch of this Kingdom, (England,) during the fourteenth century, printed 
 in 1791. 
 
 (4) This is the very lowest computation. Falle states that the livre tournois (libra 
 turonensis) was worth as much then as an English pound sterling was in his time, and, 
 allowing for the change in the value of money from Falle's time to this, the mark, which 
 appears to have passed in Jersey for at least one livre five sols, would now represent fully 
 4f2. lOs. sterling. But Mably {Obaervafiotu »ur I'Hutoire de France, tome ill.) says: 
 " Sous Philippe le Bel, les monnaies varioeot contiDuellement , et en 1305, le marc d'ar- 
 gent valoit huit livres dix sols." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 89 
 
 present money, a sum so improbable^ as to throw discredit on 
 the entire statement, which is somewhat confusedly dis- 
 proved by Duncan in his History of Guernsey.^ In 1379, 
 or forty years after the Jersey contribution, Bristol, a very 
 rich commercial city, gave 1,000 marks to Richard II., which 
 appears to have been thought a large donation, and we doubt 
 if Jersey then possessed a tithe, of the wealth of Bristol, 
 that island having at that time no harbour, and probably no 
 shipping and no trade. But, above all, as Edward was rising 
 into the zenith of his fame, having in 1340 gained a complete 
 naval victory near Sluys, he never would have allowed the 
 French to retain their conquest of Guernsey "three whole 
 years," viz., from 1338 or 1339 to 1341 or 1342. We doubt, 
 moreover, the Sieur de Garis being a Jersey man, that name 
 being then one of note in Guernsey. 
 
 We have dwelt the longer on the preceding statements of 
 the Jersey historian, because Inglis, in his " Channel Islands," 
 (London, 1834,) after saying that " the authority of Falle in 
 this matter is not recognised in Guernsey," observes that 
 " the general authenticity of Falle is an important corrobo- 
 ration of the truth of his assertion, although his authority is 
 neither Froissart, nor Sir Robert Cotton, nor Walsingham, 
 but is simply stated to be Ex. MMS." Now, in answer, we 
 prove in this chapter, from the Harleian MSS., that although 
 Guernsey and Castle Cornet were taken in 1338, they could 
 not have been long occupied by their captors, as both were 
 in the possession of England iu 1339 and 1340; while the 
 Foedera further shews that such possession was retained in 
 July, 1341, and June, 1342. If further evidence were want- 
 ing, it is furnished by the truce which Edward entered into 
 for nine months with Philip of France, on the 25th of Sep- 
 tember, 1340, and which truce, by the intervention of the 
 pope, was continued for two years longer. Its purport was 
 to this effect : " It is agreed, that if any of the confederates 
 or generals of the two kings shall lay siege to any towns in 
 Gascony or Aquitaine, or in Guernsey or Jersey, such sieges 
 shall be instantly raised after this truce shall have come to 
 their knowledge." ^ The castle must have been again sub- 
 
 (1) The Rev. E. Durell says, that, about 1750, in Jersey, '• payments to a considerable 
 amount were often made in Hards or small French copper. This must have been owing 
 to the poverty of the country." 
 
 (2) Duncan, at page 31, by an evident error in his own calculation, wherein he reckons 
 pence as shillings, makes 6,400 marks as equal to ^6*95,040 sterling. 
 
 (3) "Vn. Item, Est accord^ que, si par ascun des ditz Rois, par lour gentz, ou lour 
 allies, & coadjutours, ascun siege soit mys en Gascoigne, ou en le duche d'Aquitaine, ou 
 en altres isles de mier, en Gerneseye, ou Jerseye, ou aillours, les seiges se leveront si 
 tost com les trewes vendront ^ lour conissaunce." — Foedera. 
 
90 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 sequently captured, as it was regained by the vessels from 
 Bayonne, in 1345 ; and it is also very possible that Guernsey 
 was held by the enemy at the same time, as the Foedera 
 makes no mention of any of these islands from the 8th of 
 June, 1342, to the 28th of August, 1345. But, after diligent 
 research, we feel convinced that the " Memoir," relating 
 to the 6,400 marks, any effectual assistance afforded by the 
 Jerseymen, and the death of their leaders, was a pure fabri- 
 cation too willingly adopted by Falle, who, as he admitted 
 that the sum, said to have been raised, "must seem exor- 
 bitant," ought not to have given credence to the MS. account 
 without some authentic confirmation of its truth. 
 
 We have shewn that Guernsey was captured by the French 
 in 1338, and it is said, on private authority, that several of 
 the parishioners of St. Martin's, to the number of 87, conspired 
 to expel the enemy, whom they fought at " Mare-Madoc," 
 in the district of the " Hubits." The Guernseymen, being 
 defeated, embarked in the steep and sandy bay called " La 
 Petite Porte," near Jerbourg, and sailed for Jersey, where 
 they found refuge in the parish of St. Ouen. Among them 
 are mentioned John de la Marche, who was captain of the 
 parish, Peter de Sausmarez, James Guille, Peter Bonamy, 
 John de Blanchelande, and Thomas de Vauriouf ; but it is 
 strange that the inhabitants of the other parishes did not 
 unite with those of St. Martin's to expel the invaders, who 
 must have been so small in numbers for 87 men to attempt it 
 that the islanders collectively would have succeeded in doing 
 so. Philip, king of France, appears to have considered this 
 conquest of Guernsey as finally accomplished, as, in the 
 month of October, 1338, by a charter, he bestowed the island 
 on his eldest son John, " elder aisne fils Jehan, due de Nor- 
 mandie, eonte d'Anjou et da Meynne'' The said John ceded 
 also by charter " la seigneurie et baronnie de Ville de Guer- 
 nerrieu a son aime et ftal chevalier Robert Bertram^ sire de 
 Briquebee, mareschal de Franee^' one of the most distin- 
 guished commanders in that age of heroes and adventurers. 
 
 In March, 1338, Bahuchet, with his French galleys, also 
 landed a large force near Portsmouth, which town was almost 
 entirely burnt, after many of its inhabitants had been killed ; 
 but, having been captured with his fleet in the great naval 
 victory off Sluys, by Edward, in June, 1340, Bahuchet was 
 hanged at the main-yard, on account of the enormities which. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 91 
 
 " to say no more," he had permitted at Southampton. In 
 the battle off Sluys, piles of stones on deck formed a part of 
 the missiles. The archers of both nations used their cross 
 bows, as if they had been on land. Grappling irons for 
 boarding were employed, and the crews came to such close 
 quarters as to exhibit a succession of single combats. In the 
 Harleian MSS. there exists a proclamation, dated at Berk- 
 hampstead, August 3, 1340, to the sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, 
 (fee, to arrest, man, and victual ships in Portsmouth harbour, 
 and all the other ports and towns westward, to transport 
 Thomas Ferrars, knight, with his armed force, going to the 
 relief of Gerneseye, Gerseye, and Dureney, at that time in 
 danger from the enemy's fleet of galleys and ships of war ; 
 and in 1344, according to Sauvage's Chronicles of Flanders, 
 another French naval commander, Marans, (who was also 
 subsequently hanged, as a punishment for his numerous 
 cruelties,) captured five EngUsh vessels near the island of 
 Guernsey, and put to death all the English on board. — When 
 Edward was informed of the circumstance, he sent Geoffrey 
 d'Harcourt and Regnault de Cobham with 10,000 men to 
 attack the castle, which must have been again in the enemy's 
 possession ; they went and made many fierce assaults, the 
 garrison, consisting of 500 men, long defended themselves : 
 their " chastelain " was a stout knight and brave man, named 
 Nicholas Aliart. The number of the assailants, if not of the 
 defenders, is doubtless much exaggerated, especially as the 
 attack appears to have failed ; for in the following year, 1345, 
 the castle was regained by the " masters and admirals of the 
 galleys," (magistris & admirallis galearum,) last from Bayonne, 
 which town was then under the sovereignty of Edward, and 
 evidently of some importance, the said officers being assisted 
 by others of his faithful subjects (" per vos & quosdam alios 
 fideles nostros de guerr^ captum, &; in custodi^ vestra jam 
 existens.") By the king's order or warrant,^ dated 5th of 
 August, 1345, we learn the names of five of these command- 
 ers, viz. Peter Bernard, of Toulouse, (Tholosa,) of the ship 
 called the Katherine ; Peter de Benessa, of the ship called 
 La Dieu le Garde ; Raymond de Vallibus, of the ship called 
 La Navedieu ; Arnaldus de Caressa, of the ship called the 
 St. Mary, and Peter Darbins, (elsewhere Darby,) of the ship 
 called the St. Peter, pilots or masters (rectores seu magistri) 
 of Bayonne, with their ships, galleys, and other vessels. The 
 warrant adds that as these individuals had come to Edward's 
 
 (n Foedera, vol. iii., pars 1, p. 56. Londini, 1825. 
 
92 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 succour, to expel the French (ad expugnationem Gallicorum) 
 and other of his enemies, he took them under his special 
 protection and defence, (defensionem.) The king soon after 
 issued a command in Latin to these officers to deliver the 
 castle to Sir Thomas Ferrars, warden of the Anglo-Norman 
 Isles, and to return to Bayonne, or elsewhere. A copy of this 
 order, dated 28th of August, 1345, is preserved in the rolls 
 of the tower of London, headed, " De Castro de Cornet, in 
 insula de Gereseye nuper capto, Thomae de Ferrariis Hbe- 
 rando." ' It contains an assurance of indemnity for the 
 capture or retention of the castle, as well as a safe conduct to 
 Bayonne, the reasons for which we do not well comprehend, 
 as the captors were unquestionably either Edward's subjects 
 or his foreign auxiliaries. The necessity of an indemnity is 
 the more incomprehensible, because, only fifteen years pre- 
 viously, the chief of the captors, Peter Bernard, was a joint 
 warden of the isles, with Laurence de Gaillard, as will be 
 seen by the following entries in the " Abbreviatio Rotulorum 
 Originalium," temp. Edw. III., vol. ii., pp. 37, 50 : 
 
 (Ann. 4, Edw. III. A.D. 1330.) — "R. commisit Petro 
 Bernard de Pynsole, &; Laurencio de Galars de Baiona, cus- 
 todiam Insula. R. de Gerneseye, Jereseye, Serk, &; Aureneye, 
 & alia, insula, adjacencium hend' & regend' cum omnib. 
 pficuis, &c., qmdiu, &c., reddo inde p ann' quingentas libr'. 
 Ita qd, &c." 
 
 (Ann. 5, Edw. III. A.D. 1331.)— " Mand' est Petro Ber- 
 nard de Pynsole, & Laurencio du Gaillard, custodib. Insula, 
 de Gernereye, Jereseye, Serk, & Aureneye, qd molendinum 
 R. de Beauveir in dca Insula de Jereseye ad tram pstratum 
 est k consumptum p qd, &c., de firma insula, pdca. reparari 
 seu de novo construi fac'. Ita qd de decem marcis respon- 
 deat annuatim. Et de custub., &:c." ^ 
 
 Guienne and Gascony, of which Bordeaux and Bayonne 
 were the principal sea-ports, were then subject to Edward ; 
 and as Bernard and Gaillard were evidently master mariners, 
 either cruising in the channel or engaged in the conger fishery 
 of Guernsey, it would now seem that the king found it con- 
 venient, in 1330, to entrust the keeping of these islands to 
 them : they were doubtless dispossessed of their government 
 during the invasions of Guernsey, a few years afterwards, and 
 they appear to have returned in 1345 with a sufficient force 
 to recapture Castle Comet Although Laurence de Gaillard 
 
 (1) Tbe whole is griven in Duncan, p. 583, and in the Chronicles of Castle Cornet, p. 317> 
 It is taken from the Foedera, vol. iii., pars l, p. 67. 
 
 (2) See also Report of the Royal Commissioners in 1646, p. 303 and 334. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 93 
 
 was a native or inhabitant of Bayonne, there was unques- 
 tionably a family of his name seated in Guernsey in the four- 
 teenth century ; * it was apparently of Gascon origin, as is 
 that of de Garis,^ and we translate from the French the fol- 
 lowing notices*'' relative to them : 
 
 " A.D. 1313.— The fisheries of Saint Michel at Guernsey 
 are let for a term of five years to Michael de Gaillart and to 
 Peter de Garris, at the price of 15 sols tournois per hundred 
 of congers." — Bihle d'Avranches MSS. St. Michel. 
 
 "A.D. 1319. — The said fisheries are let for another term 
 of five years, and at the same price, to Peter de Gaillart and 
 Peter de Garris." — Ibid. 
 
 "A.D. 1336. — Thomas de Ferrars, warden of the isles, 
 presents WiUiam de Gaillart, ' clerc,' to the bishop of Cou- 
 tances, to be instituted to the parochial cure of Notre Dame 
 du Castel, then vacant." 
 
 "A.D. 1342. — The bishop of Coutances — in contempt (au 
 mepris) of the presentation made to him, on the part of the 
 king, of the person of William de Gaillart — having instituted 
 a stranger, residing in the enemy's country, to the cure of the 
 ' Castel,' king Edward III. commands the warden of the isles 
 to sequester the revenues of the said cure." 
 
 The conger and mackerel fisheries'* of Guernsey, in the 
 fourteenth century, were very extensive ; and the Gascony 
 merchants appear to have resorted to the island to purchase 
 conger, &:c., in the same manner as, two centuries later, the 
 EngHsh and other merchants resorted, and still resort, to 
 Newfoundland for codfish. In the document in Latin, styled 
 The Constitutions of king John, the twentieth article is as 
 follows : " At the same time, the salting of congers was 
 appointed to be between the festival of Michaelmas and Easter, 
 which the bailifis of our lord the king farmed out, as being 
 a fishery. And this regulation for the salting of congers was 
 first made on account of the fishermen, who carried fish to 
 the enemies of our lord the king." The duty paid to the 
 crown on salt congers and mackerel was called esperkeria, 
 and by the extent or king's rent roll of 1331, for Guernsey, 
 
 (1) The Dddicace des Eglises states that there were persons of the name of du Gaillard at 
 the consecration of the following churches: the Vale, in 1117; St. Pierre-du-Bois, in 
 1167 ; St. Martin, in 1199; and the Catel, in 1203. According to the same authority, the 
 name of de Garis appears also to have been common in Guernsey in the twelfth century. 
 
 (2) Garris, a town six and a half leagues S.E. of Bayonne. Peter de Garis was bailiflf 
 of Guernsey in 1325, and the name still exists in the island. 
 
 (3) We are indebted to Mr. John M^tivier for these notices. 
 
 (4) A.D. 1325. An. 18 Edw. II. — Gernesey : " Similiter libtates clam, p abbem de Monte 
 Sci Michis in piclo maris p piscacione congro. & mackrello. dicto abbi allocantur." — 
 Abbreviatio Placitorum. 
 
94 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 this duty appears to have been farmed out for 266 livres, 13 
 sous, and 4 deniers. Mackerel was caught between Easter 
 and Michaelmas. — Durell thinks it not improbable that 
 the conger fishery lasted until it was replaced by that of 
 Newfoundland, early in the seventeenth century. The 
 English justices itinerant sent over to these islands, 5 Edward 
 III., A.D. 1331, were furnished with no less than 64 items of 
 enquiry, among which are the following : 
 
 Item, de vendentibus pisces alibi quam loco statuto. 
 
 Item, de alienantibus, elongantibus, vel concedentibus pisces 
 regales, per quod domino Regi non respondeatur de parte sua. 
 
 Item, de salientibus congros contra statutum, vel alios ven- 
 dentibus contra statutum est, vel alibi ducentibus quam ad 
 esperkariam domini Regis. 
 
 Duncan, (p. 26,) on the sole and unsupported authority of 
 Mr. Thomas Le Marchant, who, during the middle of the 
 last century, wrote a Commentary on Falle's History, which 
 was never published, and which Duncan too implicitly fol- 
 lowed, dwells at some length on " a certificate signed by the 
 Royal Court of Jersey, under the seal of that island, and 
 addressed, in December, 1340, to John Le Marchant, wherein 
 the bailiff and jurats acknowledge his great services in de- 
 fending their island and castles against the enemy, who had 
 made several attempts upon the^n ; and they further admit 
 that, without his assistance, they would most probably have 
 been subdued." Having just accused Falle of blindly fol- 
 lowing a very questionable MS., it behoves us the more to 
 add, in justice to Jersey, that until the certificate under seal, 
 mentioned by Mr. Le Marchant, or a well authenticated 
 copy thereof, be produced, it will remain a matter of great 
 doubt that it ever existed. The services said to be therein 
 recorded are of themselves very improbable ; and it is 
 natural to suppose that the Le Marchant family, which has 
 maintained its rank and consideration since that time, would 
 carefully have preserved a document so honorable to one of 
 its ancestors. Falle, who very seldom gives dates, after 
 speaking of the capture by the French of Guernsey and 
 Castle Cornet, in 1338, says: "They fared not so well in 
 Jersey, being repulsed before Mont Orgueil Castle, yet did 
 a great deal of damage to the open country. In one of the 
 attacks upon the castle, the brave governor, Drouet (or 
 JDrogo) de Barentin^ seigneur de Rose/j was killed ; but his 
 place was supplied by ttenaud de Carteret^ a gentleman of 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 95 
 
 equal courage and valour." Here is no mention of Le 
 Marchant, whose services would have been required in Guern- 
 sey, his native island. We have shewn from the Harleian 
 MSS. that all the islands were threatened with an attack in 
 August, 1340 ; but there is no proof that any one island was 
 invaded, and here again Le Marchant's services and " great 
 military genius" were equally wanted at home. 
 
 During the long and somewhat chequered reign of Edward 
 III., the Anglo-Norman Islands were exposed to constant 
 invasions,^ as we have already observed, and their insecurity 
 at that period may be easily conceived when the character of 
 England suffered by the impunity with which its coasts were 
 insulted and ravaged by French, Genoese, and other adven- 
 turers. The Fcedera gives many examples of that insecurity, 
 viz. 1335, order to fortify the islands, which are endangered 
 by the appearance of a large hostile fleet — 1337, a commis- 
 sion to levy and train the inhabitants of Guernsey, Jersey, 
 Sark, and Alderney, to the use of arms, and to array them 
 in thousands, hundreds, and twenties ; (in millenis, centenis, 
 &: vintenis, ponendum ;) so that there was already a militia : in 
 this commission the burnings and slayings by the Scots in Sark 
 are particularly mentioned ^ — 1338, ravages of the French 
 in the islands — 1342, Thomas de Hampton, warden of the 
 isles, unable to make a remittance to the exchequer, in con- 
 sequence of their having been ravaged. And if the islanders 
 fared thus sadly while their gallant sovereign was attaining 
 the noon-tide of his manhood and the meridian of his pros- 
 perity, it is not surprising that Guernsey should, thirty years 
 later, be subjected to other invasions and their attendant 
 
 (1) "The old Chronicle of Flanders speaks of hostilities against the same island of 
 Guernsey, by the admirals of France and Castille, the year before king Edward died ; 
 but these came only as pirates and robbers, for the sake of plunder." — Falle. 
 
 (2) [Extract.] 
 
 De arraiando homines insularum Gernereye, Jereseye, Serk, fy Aureneye. 
 A.D. 1337. Rex, universis & singulis, archlepiscopis, episcopis, abbatibus, pri- 
 
 An. II. Edw. III. oribus, comitibus, baronibus, militibus, libere-tenentibus, ballivis, 
 
 ministris, & omnibus aliis fidelibus suis insularum suarum de Gerne- 
 
 Pat. II. Edw. III. reye, Jereseye, Serk, & Aureneye, salutem. 
 
 p. 1. m. 6. d. Quia datum est nobis intelligi quod quidam, Scotis, inimicis nostris 
 
 in Turr. Lond. adhaerentes, dictam insulam de Serk, & quasdam alias partes earum- 
 
 dera insularum, nuper hostiliter invaserunt, & incendia, homicidia, & 
 
 alia facinora diversa, ibidem inhumaniter perpetrarunt, & proponunt iteriim ibidem mala 
 
 consimilia perpetrare, nisi ipsorum militise viriliiis obvietur ; 
 
 Nos, de fidelitate & circumspectione dilecti & fidelis nostri, Thomse de Ferariis, quern 
 custodem insularum nostrarum praedictarum jam constituimus, confidentes; 
 
 Assignavimus ipsum Thomam, adlevandum & arraiandum omnes homines insularum 
 prsedictarum defensabiles, & in millenis, centenis, & vintenis, ponendum, & ad eos, henh 
 arraiatos, & armis competentibus sufficienter munitos, ducendum, pro salvatione & defen- 
 sione insularum prsedictarum, contra hujusraodi hostium incursis, si qui dictas insulas, 
 vel aliquam earumdem, invadere, vel gravare, praesumpserint, clam val palam ; &c. — 
 Rymer^s Fcedera. 
 
96 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 calamities, when, as if to wean him from the world, his even- 
 ing was overcast, and his star of victory was dimmed. 
 
 In July, 1341, Edward III. issued a declaration in Latin 
 to the islanders, which was prefaced thus : " The king to all 
 to whom, &c., health — Know ye that we, considering with 
 thankful remembrance how constantly and nobly our beloved 
 and faithful subjects of our islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, 
 and Alderney have ever heretofore continued in their alle- 
 giance to us and to our forefathers, kings of England, and 
 what they have endured for the preservation of the said 
 islands, and the maintenance of our rights and honour therein, 
 as well at the risk of their lives as by the expenditure of their 
 resources ; and desiring, in consequence, to distinguish them 
 by our gracious favor, we have granted," &c. — This grant 
 was a full confirmation for himself, his heirs and successors, 
 of all the immunities and privileges which the islands enjoyed, 
 and it must have been rendered doubly valuable to the inha- 
 bitants, by the testimony of this martial sovereign to their 
 loyalty and sufferings, — a testimony which forcibly reminds 
 us of that of queen Victoria, in 1848, or five centuries later, 
 when she commanded Sir George Grey " to express her 
 Majesty's deep sense of this new proofs of the loyalty and 
 attachment of her faithful and excellent people of Guernsey." 
 
 In the disputed succession to the dukedom of Britany, in 
 which Edward III. supported the count de Montfort, a fleet 
 of forty -six sail, few or none of burden, was collected at 
 Southampton, in 1342 or 1343,' to convey succours to the 
 adherents of the count in that province. Charles de Blois, 
 his brother and rival, aware of this armament, stationed Don 
 Luis of Spain,' a naval officer in his service, with thirty-two 
 large vessels,* having on board 1,000 men at arms, and 3,000 
 Genoese cross bowmen, off Guernsey, to intercept it. The 
 English were long on the passage, because of contrary winds ; 
 but upon approaching the island, they descried the enemy, 
 when the seamen pronounced them to be Genoese and Spa- 
 niards, and called upon the soldiers to arm quickly. The 
 
 (1) The erection of a tower, in the parish of St. Peter-Port, to commemorate the queen's 
 visit to Guernsey, on the 24th of Augrust, 1846. 
 
 (2) •' 1342, Don Luis, Sir Char. Grimaldi, and Sir Otho Doria, off Guernsey, to intercept 
 Sir Rob. of Artois and the Countess of Montfort— Encounter— no advantagre gained on 
 either sUle."— Knighton. Southey gives the year 1843. 
 
 (3) His real name was don Luis de la Cerda. 
 
 (4) Barnes, in his History of Edward III , calls them "Spanish carricks, high built, 
 and greater than any one of the English." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 97 
 
 Genoese, in that age, were as celebrated for the use of the 
 cross bow as the English were for the long ; * and the Genoese 
 and Spanish seamen were alike remarkable for their skill 
 and courage, in which qualities they were held by the English 
 to be superior to either the French or Scotch mariners. The 
 battle began towards evening, and raged fiercely ; but as the 
 night was dark and dismal, the combatants separated and 
 cast anchor, " remaining in their harness," and thinking to 
 renew the fight on the following morning. But about mid- 
 night there arose such a storm, " as though all the world 
 should have ended, the elements contending with as great 
 animosity as lately the two fleets had joined." The English 
 weighed their anchors, and, " bearing but quarter sail," got 
 safely into a little harbour, not far from the city of Vannes, 
 so that the wind was evidently from the north-east, while the 
 Genoese and Spaniards reached Rochelle, after losing two of 
 their ships with all on board. The circumstance of the two 
 fleets casting anchor, is a proof that they must have engaged 
 each other very near the shore.^ — We have introduced this 
 event here, because it accounts partly, we conceive, for Castle 
 Cornet being in possession of the enemy, as before related, in 
 1344 and 1345, as it is very improbable that Don Luis would 
 continue under sail about the rocky and dangerous coasts of 
 Guernsey, when, with so imposing a force, he coilid easily 
 capture the castle, and remain securely at anchor in the road- 
 stead to await the long expected appearance of the fleet from 
 England, which a scout or two, cruising outside, would enable 
 him to do. The war of succession in Britany^ endured for 
 some years ; and the castle, if taken by Don Luis of Spain in 
 1342 or 1343, could have been garrisoned and provisioned 
 from that province, until Charles de Blois and his Bretons 
 were dispossessed of it, two or three years afterwards, by the 
 vessels from Bayonne. After the naval fight off" Guernsey, 
 Don Luis soon refitted his fleet, with which he did much 
 damage upon the coasts of England, and intercepted the 
 communication between that kingdom and Britany. As 
 Guernsey is about midway between them, the advantage of 
 possessing its castle and roadstead for the latter purpose could 
 
 (1) " Les Anglais qui sont la fleur des archiers du monde. "—Comincs. 
 
 (2) For a detailed account of this naval fight near Guernsey, see Southey's Lives of the 
 British Admirals, vol. i. p. 278. 
 
 (3) The illustrious warrior, du Guesclin, constable of France, and a native of Britany, 
 distinguished himself in this war, and was long a victorious opponent of the English. 
 He was, however, foiled in his attack, in 1374, on Mont Orgueil, or Gouray castle, in Jersey. 
 
 H 
 
98 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 not fail to strike that inhuman ^ but indefatigable commander, 
 who died during the siege of Calais, in 1347, and who, while 
 he lived, was renowned for his courage, his enterprise, and his 
 bitter animosity towards the English. 
 
 In 1341, a force, consisting of 6,000 archers and 620 
 men at arms, under Sir Walter Manny, was dispatched from 
 England in all haste for the relief of the countess de Mont- 
 fort, then besieged in Hennebon, on the river Blavet, at that 
 time the strongest castle in all Britany, " standing," says 
 Froissart, " on a port of the sea, and the sea running about 
 it in great dykes." This English force on its way could 
 easily have recaptured Guernsey, had it been in possession of 
 the French, as stated by Falle — another proof that it was 
 not. When Charles of Blois had taken Rennes, he proceeded 
 to Hennebon, seeing that, if he could get the countess and 
 her son into his hands, the war would terminate. Accord- 
 ingly, he besieged both the town and the castle on all sides, 
 except where the castle was open to the sea, for he had no 
 ships. The place was well stored and well manned, but, 
 after a gallant defence, it was reduced to the last extremity, 
 and the garrison was on the point of surrendering when the 
 English succours, which had been delayed above forty days 
 by contrary winds, arrived just in time to save the countess 
 and the town. The English and the Bretons sallied out, and 
 destroyed the largest engine of the besiegers, who on the 
 following day joined Charles of Blois before Auray ; but as 
 he had with him a sufficient force for that service, he sent 
 Don Luis of Spain (de la Cerda) to besiege Dinan. On his 
 way thither, Don Luis attacked a castle called Comper, which 
 he took after a gallant defence, and put the garrison to the 
 sword. He next laid siege to Dinan, a place not otherwise 
 fortified than by a pahsade, by its lofty position on the river 
 Ranee, and by a marsh. Having failed in the first attack, 
 he got together some small vessels, which enabled him to 
 threaten it both by land and water. The craven-hearted 
 townsmen then called upon their young commander to sur- 
 render ; but, on his refusal, they butchered him in the market 
 place, and admitted the besiegers — thus showing that cruelty 
 is often allied to cowardice. Hostilities were continued in 
 Britany, with varying fortune, until the year 1345, when the 
 count of Montfort sailed from England with a considerable 
 force, and, after winning and sacking Dinan, hud siege to 
 
 (1) On his way to Rochelle, as Just related, he captured four ships of Bayonne. 
 liomeward buund from Flanders, and in the brutal spirit by which his exploits were 
 gpenerally sullied, he put ail on board to death.— FroiMor/ and Humes. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 99 
 
 Qiiimperle ; but, being seized with a burning fever, he died 
 soon afterwards, " leaving the management of his pretensions 
 to the conduct of his virago lady and his young son John." 
 On his death, most of the English force passed into Gascony, 
 where their presence was then more needed. In this war 
 many of the transports from England probably put into 
 Guernsey on their way, either wind-bound or for pilots, as 
 ev en now vessels bound to Britany from the North frequently 
 come in wind-bound, or call off the island for pilots. 
 
 In the year 1346, Edward, the most popular king that 
 England had had since the conquest, prepared a naval arma- 
 ment consisting of about 700 sail, of which fifty only were 
 large vessels ; and in this fleet were embarked 4,000 men at 
 arms, 10,000 archers, 12,000 footmen of Wales, and 6,000 
 Irish ; together, 32,000 men. It was now the end of June, 
 and the fleet sailed from Southampton, making down the 
 channel, as if its course was designed for Bayonne or Bour- 
 deaux, to relieve Aiguillon, then closely besieged. On the 
 third day, when far on their way, the whole fleet was driven 
 back upon the coast of Cornwall by a contrary wind. Six 
 days they lay there, and, on the wind becoming fair, set for- 
 ward again, only to be again driven back. The wind conti- 
 nuing adverse, Geoffrey d'Harcourt, already named, who 
 had been banished from France, took occasion to divert the 
 king from Gascony to Normandy, a province which had not 
 been the scene of war for nearly 150 years. " Sir," said he, 
 " the country of Normandy is one of the plentiful countries 
 of the world, and if ye will make thither, on jeopardy of my 
 head, there is none that shall resist you. The people of 
 Normandy have not been used to war ; and all the lords, 
 knights, and esquires of the country, are now with the duke 
 at the siege before Aiguillon. And here, sir, you shall meet 
 with great towns that are not walled, whereby your men 
 shall have such winning, that they shall be the better for it 
 twenty years hence ; and thus you may proceed, without any 
 hinderance, till you come to the great city of i^aen. I be- 
 seech you, sir, put some confidence in me in this matter, for 
 I know that country well." Edward, — whose plans were 
 not maturely fixed, and who looked on Harcourt as his friend, 
 calling him cousin — readily inclined to this counsel, and bade 
 the pilots steer for Normandy. On the 11th July, the whole 
 fleet arrived safely at the roadstead of La Hogue St. Vast,^ 
 
 (4) In this roadstead or bay, which lies a few miles S.E. of Cherbourg, Sir George 
 Rooke burnt thirteen French ships of war, which had escaped thither after the battle of 
 La Hague, (Cape,) in 1692. 
 
100 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 near Barfleur, within a few leagues of St. Sauveiir le Vi- 
 comte, Harcourt's rightful heritage, of which he had been 
 unjustly deprived. Edward's determination of carrying 
 the war into the enemy's country, instead of waiting for 
 it on his own shores, was bold and politic, because the 
 French king had formed a like design ; and, besides his own 
 ships, was daily expecting a powerful squadron from Genoa. 
 The English speedily reduced Caen and Lower Normandy 
 on the south of the Seine, and then marched on the left bank 
 of that river towards Paris, burning St. Germain and St. 
 Cloud. Next came the famous victory of Cressy, one of the 
 most signal that has ever been achieved. From the time of 
 his landing in Normandy, Edward had determined upon 
 laying siege to Calais, then a place of great strength ; and 
 on the last day of August he pitched his camp before it, well 
 knowing that the French could not relieve it after the defeat 
 they had just sustained. Calais was defended with the same 
 gallantry and perseverance with which it was attacked, but 
 was at length compelled to surrender. 
 
 The two following letters,^ which were written in French, 
 relate to the campaign of the English in Normandy. The 
 first is taken from a copy of the " Chronicle of Lanercost," 
 in the British Museum, and is singularly corroborated by the 
 second, which moreover describes other circumstances omitted 
 by Edward, and is curious from the comparison drawn be- 
 tween the size of the different Norman towns mentioned and 
 those in England. 
 
 Kin^ Edward III. to William le Zouch^ archbishop of Yorh, 
 
 " Edward, by the grace of God, king of England and of France, 
 and lord of Ireland, to the honourable father in God, W. by 
 the same grace, archbishop of York, primate of England, health. 
 As we know well that you are desirous to hear good news of us, 
 we inform you, that we arrived at the Hogue, near Barfleur, the 
 12th day of July last past, with all our forces well and safe, 
 praise be to God ; and remained there to disembark our forces 
 and horses, and the provisions of our forces, until the Tuesday 
 next following, on which day we removed with our host towards 
 Valognes, and took the castle and town; and then on our route 
 we rebuilt the bridge of Ove, which was broken by our enemies, 
 and passed it, and took the castle and town of Carentan : and 
 from thence we kept the direct route towards the town of Saint 
 Lo, and found the bridge Herbert, near that town, broken to 
 prevent our passjige, and we causeii it to be rebuilt, and the next 
 
 (1) From Jones' " Recollections of Royalty." London, 1828. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 101 
 
 morning took the town ; and we proceeded direct to Caen 
 without stopping one day from the time of our departure from 
 the Hogue until our arrival there; and then on our taking up our 
 quarters at Caen, our people began to besiege the town, which 
 was strongly garrisoned, and filled with about one thousand six 
 hundred men at arms, and more than thirty thousand armed 
 commoners, who defended it very w(?ll and ably ; so that the 
 fight was very severe, and continued long ; but, thanks be to God, 
 the town was at last taken by assault, without loss of our people. 
 There were taken the count of Eu, constable of France ; the 
 chamberlain Tankerville, who was for the time styled marshal 
 of France ; and about one hundred and forty other bannerets and 
 knights, and a great number of esquires and rich burgesses ; and 
 several nobles, knights, and gentlemen, and a great number of 
 the commons, were slain. And our fleet, which remained near 
 us, to burn and destroy all the sea coast from Barfleur to the 
 ** fosse" of Colleville,^ near Caen, have also burnt the town of 
 Cherbourg and the ships in the harbour ; and of the enemy's 
 large ships and other vessels above one hundred or more have 
 been burnt either by us or by our people. Therefore, we pray 
 you devoutly to render thanks to God, for the success which he 
 has thus granted us, and earnestly entreat him to give us a good 
 continuance of it; and that you write to the prelates and clergy 
 of your province, that they do the same, and that you signify 
 this circumstance to our people in your neighbourhood to their 
 comfort ; and that you laboriously exert yourself to oppose our 
 enemies, the Scots, for the security of our people in your vicinity, 
 by all the means in your power, so that we rely entirely on you : 
 for, with the consent of all our nobles, who evinced a great and 
 unanimous desire that we should do so, we have already resolved 
 to hasten towards our adversary, wherever he may be, from one 
 day to another as well as we can ; and we trust firmly in God 
 that he will protect us well and honourably in our undertaking, 
 and that in a short time you will hear good and agreeable news of 
 us.^ Given under our privy seal, at Caen, the xxxth day of 
 July, in the twentieth year of our reign in England. [1346."] 
 
 From Robert de Avesbury^s Sisforia de Mirahilihus Gestis 
 Edwardi III. 
 
 " Be it remembered, that our lord the king and his host landed 
 at Hogue de St. Vast the xiith day of July, and remained there 
 until the Tuesday next following, (July 18th,) to disembark his 
 horses, to rest himself and his men, and to provide provisions, (et 
 fourner payn.) He found at the Hogue eleven ships, of which 
 eight had castles before and behind, the which were burnt. And 
 
 (1) QoUeville is a small port near the entrance of the river Orne. 
 
 (2) On the 26th of August following, Edward gained the battle of Cressy. 
 
102 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 on the Friday, whilst the king remained there, some troops went 
 to Barfleur, and expected to have found many people, (gentz,) 
 but they saw none ; and they found there nine ships with castles 
 before and behind,^ ij good craiers,^ and other smaller vessels ; 
 the which were also burnt: and the town was as good and as 
 large a town as the town of Sandwich ; and after the said troops 
 were gone, the sailors burnt the town, and many good towns and 
 houses (manoirs) in the neighbourhood were burnt. And the 
 Tuesday (July 18th) that the king left he went to Valognes, and 
 remained there the whole night, and found sufficient provisions. 
 The next day he proceeded a long journey as far as the bridge of 
 Ove, which those of the town of Carentan had broken down, and 
 the king caused it to be rebuilt the same night, and passed it the 
 next day, and proceeded as far as the said town of Carentan, 
 which is not more than about an English league from the said 
 bridge : the which town is as large as Leicester ; where he found 
 an abundance of wines and provisions; and much of the town 
 was burnt, notwithstanding all the king could do.' And on 
 Friday the king came to and slept in a village (villes campestres) 
 on a river, which it was difficult to cross; (mal k passer;) and 
 those of the town of St. Lo broke the bridge, and the king 
 rebuilt it and passed the next day, he and his host, and took up 
 his quarters adjoining the town ; and all belonging to the town 
 began to fortify it, and collected many armed men (gentz 
 d'armes) to defend it, who waited for the arrival of the king ; 
 and they found in the said town full one thousand tuns of wine 
 and an abundance of other goods ; and the town is larger than 
 Lincoln. The next day (Sunday, July •23d,) the king proceeded 
 on his march, and slept at an abbey, and his host in the villages 
 around him ; and the soldiers of the host committed inroads 
 (et chivacherent les gentz del ost) all the day, robbing and 
 destroying within about v or vj leagues, and burnt many places. 
 And the Monday the king removed, and took up his quarters in 
 villages ; and the Tuesday also: and on Wednesday (July 26th) 
 at the hour of nones,'* he came before the town of Caen, and was 
 informed that a great number of armed men were in the town ; 
 and the king arrayed his fine and numerous battles,* and sent 
 some persons to the town to examine it," and they found the castle 
 
 (1) " Ove chastiels devant et derere.*'— It is scarcely necessary to state, that the ships 
 of war in the fourteenth century had elevated places in the bow and stern, called castles, 
 which contained the fighting men. •• Fore-castle " is still used to describe the fore part 
 of a ship. 
 
 (2) A "craier," or "crayer," was a small vessel, but whether for war or merchandize 
 docs not exactly appear,— most probably the latter. See Ducanf^e. " Volumus quod 
 centum naves vocatjc Pessoneras et Creyeris et alise minutisc naves," &c. 
 
 (3) Et fust mult de la ville arz p*r rien qe lo roy purroit faire. 
 
 (4) A houre de none. Roquefort explains " none" to be the ninth hour of the day, i.e. 
 three after noon ; and which agrrees with the meaning of the English word '* nones." 
 
 (5) Et le roy fist arraier ses bataiUes bcals et grosses. 
 
 (6) "A la ville des veer," in Johncs's copy, but *'h la ville de les veer," in the 
 Harleian MS. 200, f. 99b. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 103 
 
 fine and strong, in which were the bishop of Baions, (Bayeux) 
 knights, and troops, (gentz,) who defended it. And towards the 
 river the town is very fine and very large ; and at one end of the 
 town is an abbey, as noble as possible, where William the Con- 
 queror lies buried; and it is surrounded by walls and enmbattled 
 towers, (tours battaillis,) large und strong, in which abbey there 
 was no one. And at the other end of the town, another noble 
 abbey of ladies ; and no one remained in the said abbeys, nor in 
 the part of the town towards the river as far as the castle ; and 
 the inhabitants were in the town on the other side of the river, 
 where were the constable of France and the chamberlain de Tan- 
 kerville, who was a very great lord, and many troops, to the 
 amount of five or six hundred, and the commons of the town. 
 And our people of the host, without permission or order, 
 attacked the bridge, which was well fortified with bretages and 
 walls, and they had nmch to do, as the French defended the said 
 bridge bravely and behaved very well until they were taken ; ^ 
 and then were taken the said constable and chamberlain, and to 
 the amount of one hundred knights, and one hundred and 
 twenty, or one hundred and forty esquires, ; and a great many 
 knights, esquires, and other people of the town were killed in 
 the streets, houses, and gardens ; but no one could ascertain 
 how many were persons of consequence, (gentz de bien,) because 
 they were so stripped that it was impossible to recognise them ; 
 and no gentleman of ours was slain, excepting an esquire who 
 was wounded, and died two days afterwards.^ And there were 
 found in the town, wines, provisions, and other goods and chattels 
 innumerable; and the town is larger than any town in England, 
 excepting London. And when the king quitted La Hogue, 
 he left about two hundred ships which went to Rothemasse, 
 (Rouen) and proceeded and burnt the country two or three 
 leagues in land, and took many goods and brought them to their 
 ships ; and then they went to Cherbourjy, where was a good 
 town and a strong castle, and a fine and noble abbey, and they 
 burnt the said town and abbey ; ^ and all on the sea coast was 
 burnt from Rothemasse as far as Hostrem (?) on the haven of Caen, 
 extending to twenty-six English leagues, and the number of ships 
 which were burnt is sixty-one of war, with castles before and 
 
 (1) Saunz assent & saunz arraie assaillerent le pount que fust mult bien aflForce des 
 bretages, et barrer, et avoient mult affeare, et les Fraunceys defenderent le dit pount 
 fortment, et a eaux porteront mult bien devant qil poel estre pris sour eaux. Roquefort 
 explains "bretages" to be fortresses, citadels, parapets, strong places, moveable towers 
 of wood to attack and defend places, &c. 
 
 (2) Froissart, in his description of the taking of Caen, mentions that the inhabitants, 
 who had taken refuge in the garrets, flung stones, benches, and other missiles, upon the 
 English, by which they killed and wounded, he says, upwards of 500 of the besiegers , 
 which so enraged Edward that he commanded the inhabitants to be put to the sword 
 and the town burnt ; but on the remonstrance of Geoffrey d'Harcourt, he revoked his orders. 
 
 (3) This was doubtless the abbey which enjoyed certain revenues in the bailiwick of 
 Guernsey, as already mentioned. 
 
104 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 behind, and twenty three craiers, besides other smaller vessels, 
 many laden with from twenty-one to thirty tuns of wine. And 
 the Thursday after the king^ arrived before Caen, those of the 
 city of Baions (Bayeux) offered our lord the king that they 
 would render to him themselves and their town, and perform 
 homage to him ; but he would not receive them upon any terms 
 whilst it was in their power to do him harm." ' 
 
 St. Peter-Port. — The first mention that we find of the 
 town of St. Peter-Port^ is in the middle of the eleventh 
 century, when duke William, afterwards the Conqueror, 
 granted the church to the abbey of Marmoutier, as already 
 narrated ; so that the church, if not the town, existed anterior 
 to that time. As a protection against pirates and other hos- 
 tile invaders, the town appears to have been walled in in 
 the latter half of the fourteenth century, Edward III. having, 
 in 1350, issued an order to John Mautravers, warden of the 
 isles, sanctioning the levy of a duty on merchandize of four 
 deniers in the livre, towards the payment of a strong wall, 
 with which St. Peter-Port was to be enclosed, to serve as a 
 place of refuge to the people, instead of the fortification of 
 Jerbourg, which had been stormed and ruined by the enemy. 
 This accounts partly for the extreme narrowness of the old 
 streets in the lower town. 
 
 It appears by Buchon's Froissart, I. 304, 5, (Paris, 1836,) 
 that in 1355 or 1356, Edward III. with 200 men at arms 
 and 4,000 archers, embarked at Southampton for Normandy, 
 intending to go to Cherbourg, where the king of Navarre 
 was awaiting him. Having been driven into the Isle of 
 Wight by stress of weather, the day after his departure, he 
 remained there fifteen days, and when he sailed again he was 
 unable to reach Cherbourg, so contrary was the wind ; but he 
 landed on the island of Guernsey, on the coast of Normandy. 
 When he had been on the island fully seven weeks, he heard 
 that the king of Navarre had agreed with the kingof France, 
 and that peace was sworn to between them. Edward, in 
 consequence, returned with all his navy to Southampton. — 
 So relates Froissart, and we wish that we could establish the 
 noblest of the Plantagenets as a temporary resident in the 
 island, notwithstanding the total silence of our insular histo- 
 
 (1) i The original is, " meas il ne Icz voleit resceure pour ascuns enchesouns, ct tanq' 
 les purreit salver de damage." 
 
 (2) St. Peter-Port is mentioned in a patent, An. 33, Edward I. (A.D. 1306,) in the 
 '• Calendarium Rotulorum Patentium," thus : " Kaiuginm pro villa de Sancto Fetro porta 
 ip insula dc Gerncscy." Kaiagium signifies quay dues. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 105 
 
 rians on the subject; but, had Edward come to Guernsey^ 
 and remained seven weeks, tradition would doubtless have 
 recorded the royal visit, while, moreover, the wind that would 
 have brought the king from the Isle of Wight to Guernsey 
 would have taken him to Cherbourg. In the king's speech 
 to Parliament, in November, it is said : " The king went in 
 the fleet from the Thames towards Guernsey and Jersey," 
 and this appears to be the only foundation for the statement 
 of Froissart, as we find that Edward was forced by contrary 
 winds. into Portsmouth, whence he went to Calais. — Falle, 
 without giving his authority, and in contradiction to that we 
 have cited, says that Edward, on this occasion, " put to sea 
 from the Thames, with a royal navy, steering directly for 
 Jersey." With its safer roadstead, it is more probable that 
 the king, having due regard to the security of his navy, would 
 rather have come to Guernsey. In the same manner Falle 
 lays claim to duke Robert, whose visit to Guernsey has al- 
 ready been described, and who, he says, " in his passage met 
 with such tempestuous contrary winds, as forced him with 
 his fleet into Jersey, as Gulielmus Gemmeticensis, or as Wal- 
 singham and others have it, into Guernezey ; tho' I rather 
 think into the former, because 'tis added .that from thence he 
 afterwards sailed to Mont- Sainct- Michel, to which Jersey is 
 much nearer than Guernezey." ^ But Fescamp, in Nor- 
 mandy, where Robert embarked, is " much nearer" to 
 Guernsey than to Jersey, and persons at sea do not usually 
 go out of their way to seek shelter from a storm ; besides, the 
 testimony of Du Moulin, whom we have quoted at length in 
 a preceding chapter, and of other Norman historians,^ con- 
 firmed by insular tradition, is decisive on the subject."* We 
 should have stated also that Robert gave the islet of Jethou to 
 his Guernsey pilot, as a reward for his services. 
 
 (1) A.D. 1313, 1314. By an account roll, headed "Valor prioratCis de Vallia de Anno 
 Domini m.ccc.xiiij," it appears from the following entry, " Item pro expensis familie 
 regis, XX, lib," that the family of Edward II. had been entertained by the prior of the 
 Valle, or Vale. 
 
 (2) We quite concur in the following remark of the Rev. E. Durell : " What was for- 
 merly observed of Poggio, a Florentine, who was remarkable for the praises of his 
 countrymen and the vituperations of their enemies, that he was a good patriot, but a bad 
 historian, may be strictly applied to Mr. Falle. It is unpleasant to speak thus of an author 
 so highly respected by his countrymen, and whose veracity and honesty are in most 
 instances unquestionable."— Ahier, a Jerseyman, if we understand him correctly, accuses 
 Falle of bad faith in interpolating the words, "et est adjacens Pago Constantino," after 
 Augia, to prove his argument. (See Falle, p. 3.) 
 
 (3) " II " [Robert] "fist vnepuissante armeequ'ilembarqua i Fescamp. Mais le destin, 
 qui reseruoit cette conqueste ^ son successeur, s'opposa h. sa route. Les vents contraires 
 le ietterent k I'Isle de Grenezey, & s'opiniastrerent de sorte k le combattre, qu'apres vne 
 attente de plusieurs mois, il fut contraint de relacher." — Inventaire de fHistoire de Nor- 
 mandie. A Roven, l646. 
 
 (4) Had Mr. Durell consulted Du Moulin, or any other ancient Norman historian, he 
 might have spared himself a long and somewhat inaccurate Note, No. 23, on this point, 
 in Falle's History of Jersey. 
 
106 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 In 1372, five years before the death of Edward III., Sir 
 Owen of Wales, with 4,000 men from Normandy, according 
 to Froissart, and only 3,000 men, according to Buchon, in- 
 vaded Guernsey, and popular tradition has named this invasion 
 " La Descente des Aragousais," or people of Arragon,^ who 
 appear to have constituted a large portion of the invading 
 force. The enemy are supposed to have landed during the 
 night opposite the pond of the Grande Mare^ and, finding 
 water in their front, to have remained stationary until day- 
 light, which delay saved the island. The first encounter with 
 the Welsh commander took place near the Houguette, in the 
 Catel parish, w^hen the islanders were defeated with a very 
 severe loss, and retreated in the direction of Castle Cornet. 
 Froissart states that the governor, Rose, " assembled with his 
 own and them of the isle, a body of 800 men," and fought a 
 severe battle, " which endured for a long time ; howbeit, 
 finally the English were defeated, and more than 400 slain on 
 the field of battle." This loss refers to the action in or near 
 Vazon Bay, and even if the killed include both sides, the 
 number seems much exaggerated, although, as the combatants 
 then fought hand to hand, many more fell than in modern 
 warfare. A subsequent battle appears to have been fought 
 on some high ground, which now forms part of the upper 
 town, and which maintains to this day the name of " La 
 Bataille ;" ^ this stand being probably necessary to gain time 
 until the recession of the tide enabled the governor. Rose or 
 Rous, and his men, to reach the castle. The " Rouge Rue," 
 (red road) on the hill leading west of St. John's church, is also 
 said to derive its name from the blood spilt there during a 
 second or third engagement on this occasion. Speaking of 
 Castle Cornet, Froissart relates that Evan " laid siege thereto, 
 and made several assaults ; but the castle was strong, and 
 well provided with good artillery, so that it was not easy to 
 be won. Then the French king sent his letters to the said 
 Evan, who lay at siege before the castle of Cornet, of which 
 siege the king was well informed, and also that the castle 
 appeared to be impregnable ; therefore, the king commanded 
 him, after the sight of his letters, to raise his siege and depart, 
 and enter into a ship which the king had sent him for that 
 purpose, and so to sail into Spain, to King Henry, to get of 
 
 (1) "The Arragon, a little stream which falls from the Pyrenees Into the Ebro, first 
 gave its name to a condtry, and gradually to a kingdom."— GiA*on- 
 
 (2) Between St. John and Havilland streets, New Town, is a lane called " Battle Lane," 
 and it was about or near this spot that the subsequent ciic'initn is said by traditioato 
 have occurred. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 107 
 
 him barks and gallies, and his admiral and men-of-war, to 
 come and lay siege by the sea to the town of Rochelle. 
 When the said Evan saw the king's message and command- 
 ment, he obeyed thereto, and broke up the siege, and gave 
 leave to his company to depart, and dehvered them ships to 
 bring them to Hartleur, and he himself entered into a great 
 ship, and took his course towards Spain. Such was the ter- 
 mination of the siege of Cornet, in the isle of Guernsey." ^ 
 
 This extract from Froissart leaves the reader in doubt as to 
 the exact duration of the siege, and the description of the 
 artillery with which the castle was provided. The siege 
 probably continued several weeks, as the intercourse between 
 Guernsey and France, and England, must have been very 
 tedious and uncertain in those days, even far more so than 
 history tells us it was three centuries later. But the mention 
 of the word " artillery" suggests a brief critical inquiry into 
 its interpretation. When we remember that gunpowder = 
 was first employed in war in the fourteenth century, about 
 the year 1330, and that cannon is said to have been first 
 used by the English at the battle of Cressy, in 1346, the 
 natural inference is, that Castle Cornet must have been a 
 fortress of great consequence to have been so soon afterwards 
 furnished with artillery, if written in its modern sense.^ That 
 it was not so, however, we incline to believe, and think that 
 Froissart's artillerie meant arrows, not cannon, as, when he 
 speaks of cannon and mortars, he describes them as " can- 
 nons," " espingalles," " grand engins." In another passage, 
 he writes : " Then the king made all his navy to draw along 
 by the coast of the Downs, every ship well garnished with 
 bombards, cross-bowers, archers, springalles, and other artil- 
 lery, whereby the French host might not pass that way." In 
 his account of the siege of Ypres, eleven years after the 
 attack on Castle Cornet, he mentions deux tonneaux pleins 
 d' artillerie, which can only mean two casks full of missile 
 weapons, and there is little doubt that he used the term 
 
 (1) Speaking of this attack. Berry says, p. 84 : "The Guernsey breed of horses, (which 
 certainly differ much in form from most others,) it is imagined, was derived from those 
 left behind by the enemy." (!) This extract is a worthy pendant to Jersey and Guernsey, 
 being islands formed by the tide, as mentioned by Caesar : it is not likely, and it certainly 
 does not appear, that Sir Owen had any cavalry. The Guernsey horses owed their pecu- 
 liarity to coarse food, exposure to weather, and, above all, to constant " breeding in." 
 
 (2) The antiquity of gunpowder is unknown. We are taught to believe it an invention 
 of the fourteenth century, when it was perhaps introduced into Europe from the East ; 
 but there are good grounds for ascribing the discovery to a period much more remote. 
 
 (3) " Nor was the legion " (Roman) '« destitute of what, in modern language, would be 
 styled a train of artillery. It consisted in ten military engines of the largest, and fifty-five 
 of a smaller size; but all which, either in an oblique or horizontal manner, discharged 
 stones and darts with irresistible violence."— GiAion. 
 
108 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 artillerie, not in its present acceptance, but as the translators 
 of the Bible used it : " And Jonathan's lad gathered up the 
 arrows, and came to his master." " And Jonathan gave his 
 artillery unto his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to 
 the city." (1 Sam. xx. 38, 40.) Southey, in his Naval History, 
 observes that " it is remarkable there should be any doujjt 
 concerning the first use of cannon, and that the introduction 
 of such deadly instruments should not be distinctly specified 
 by the writers^ of that age." ' He adds, that " Froissart's use 
 of the word bombard is not sufficient proof" of such intro- 
 duction. As regards artillery in Castle Cornet, it appears by 
 the Precepte d' Assize of 5 Edward III., A.D. 1331, already 
 quoted, that the bailiff and jurats of Guernsey were required 
 to see that the castles and fortresses of the island were pro- 
 perly repaired, " and provided and furnished with soldiers, 
 cannon, (canons,) gunpowder, (pouldres de calnon,) and other 
 harnesses and habiliments of war." Thus cannon and gun- 
 powder are distinctly specified about the period they are 
 known to have been first used in war ; but it is evident that 
 the terms were substituted for arms, when the Precepted' As- 
 size was recited and verified in the year 1441 ; or, they may 
 have been substituted later in the French copy of 1693, nei- 
 ther the original nor the recital, both of which were doubtless 
 in Latin, being in existence. When Edward III., in 1328, 
 ordered the castles in these islands to be supplied with vic- 
 tuals, arms, and other necessaries, for their security, the royal 
 mandate concluded thus : " Mandavimus enim vicecomitibus 
 nostris London', quod centum & viginti targeas, centum arcus 
 balistos ad pedem, & viginti arcus balistos ad troll' ; necnon 
 vicecomiti nostro Sutht', quod ipse centum milia de parvo 
 Talshid & duo miha carbonum buscaj, in eorum ballivis emi 
 & provideri, & usque Portesmuth' cariari faciant, pro muni- 
 cione castrorum predictorum, &; vobis, vel attornato vestro in 
 hac parte, liberari. 
 
 Holingshed's account of Evan's invasion is as follows : 
 " Edward III. 47, A.D. 1373. [apparently a misdate.] About 
 the same time, the French king sent 4,000 men to the sea, 
 under the guiding of one Yvans, a banished Welsh gentleman, 
 the which, landing in the isle of Guernsey, was encountered 
 by the captain of that isle, called Sir Edmund Rous, who had 
 gathered 800 men of his own soldiers, together with them of 
 the isle, and boldlie gave battell to the Frenchmen ; but in 
 the end the EngUshmen were discomfitted, and 400 of them 
 
 (1) Barbour, a Scottish historian, states that cannon were used by Edward HI. in his 
 expedition against Scotland, A.D. 1328. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 109 
 
 slaine, so that Sir Edmuud Rous fled in the castell of Cornett, 
 and was there besieged by the said Yvans, till the French 
 king sent to him to come backe from thence, and so he did, 
 leaving the castell of Cornett and Sir Edmund Rous within 
 it as he found him." — Holing shed' s Chronicles, first published 
 in 1575, and from the reprint of 1809. 
 
 Of this Owen of Wales we learn that a year after his 
 invasion of Guernsey, it was reported in England that he was 
 about to infest the English coast with a powerful squadron, 
 and to burn and lay waste the country. In consequence, the 
 earl of Salisbury was appointed to guard the Channel, and 
 with a strong fleet he sailed from Cornwall directly for St. 
 Malo, where finding in the haven seven large Spanish car- 
 racks, he burnt them all. Probably the strength of the 
 intended invasion consisted in these carracks, for it was not 
 heard of afterwards. A few days after Edward's death, the 
 crews of a combined French and Spanish squadron, in which 
 was " the brave Welsh adventurer," Sir Owen, made a de- 
 scent on the coast of Sussex, and burnt the town of Rye, 
 where they slew men, women, and all they found. They 
 afterwards landed in the Isle of Wight, and burned several 
 towns there. They burned Portsmouth also, and next Dart- 
 mouth and Plymouth. Coasting back again, they made an 
 attempt upon Southampton, but were repulsed and chased to 
 their ships. After burning Hastings, and making a vain 
 attempt on Winchelsea and Rottingdean, they returned to 
 France, satisfied with the booty they had acquired, and the 
 devastation they had committed. So that other places besides 
 Guernsey had sad cause to remember " Sir Owen of Wales," 
 and England herself in that age appears to have been scarcely 
 less defenceless. " In the moneth of Septembre, [1368] king 
 Charlys mannyd and vittailyd certeyne gallies and other 
 shippes, and sent them into Way Is, & so to have entry d into 
 Englonde ; but they retourned wath lytle worship, notwith- 
 standynge that he had n noblemen of Walys, named Owan & 
 James Wynne, whiche made to hym fast promesse of great 
 thynges, by reason that they were enemyes unto the kynge of 
 Englonde." — {Fahyan in Carol, v.) Froissart narrates that 
 while Evan was blockading Mortain, in Poitou, there came 
 to him John Lambe, a Welsh squire, " who was scarcely a 
 gentleman," and who, on his departure from England, was 
 instigated by some English knights to murder Evan. Lambe 
 had landed in Britany, and continued his journey thence to 
 Poitou. On approaching Evan, he fell on his knees, and said 
 
1 10 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 in Welsh, that he; had left Wales to see and serve him. Evan, 
 not harbouring the least suspicion, received Lambe kindly, 
 and made him his chamberlain. Evan " was a valiant 
 knight, a good man, and the son of a prince of Wales, whom 
 king Edward had caused to be beheaded." In his infancy 
 he served as page to PhiHp, king of France : he bore arms 
 under king John, and was at the battle of Poitiers, but for- 
 tunately escaped, " otherwise death would have soon followed 
 his captivity." While Evan was dressing one morning, 
 Lambe plunged a short Spanish dagger into him, on which 
 Evan, who was nearly naked, fell down dead, and the assassin 
 escaped into the castle of Mortain. Thus two of the invaders 
 of Guernsey, Eustache le Moine and Evan of Wales, came 
 to violent ends. Lambe was subsequently recompensed for 
 this treacherous murder, as appears by the Fcedera, under the 
 head of payments made in 1381 for the war in Aquitaine, as 
 follows : " Item, paie le xviii jour de Septembre a Johan 
 Lambe & a ses deux compagnions, en recompensacion &: 
 regarde, si bien de les bons & agreables services qu' il a fait a 
 monsieur le prince, que Dieu assoile, & fera au roi q'ore est, 
 come de la mourt de You de Galles — C francs." 
 
 The first mention that we have discovered of these islands 
 being possessed of shipping of any burden, is in the reign of 
 Edward III., who, in a mandate headed " De Navibus ares- 
 tandis^' and dated "A.D. 1370," in the forty-fourth year of 
 his reign, commanded ships in the several ports named to be 
 impressed for his service, and in which mandate the islands 
 are included thus ; " Johannes Cok et BernardMS Seint Johan 
 in singulis portnbus et locis maritimis in insidis de Gernesey, 
 Jereseye, Sark, et Aureneye jam existentes, Sfc, et usque 
 portum de Sutharnptoii, See'' — The next mention is in the 
 time of Henry V., the hero of Azincourt, when the Mary, of 
 Guernsey, Geoffry Capelle, master, was included in the enu- 
 meration of a fleet of two hundred and thirty-eight sail, 
 employed by that monarch to transport himself and his army 
 from England to France, The enumeration is given in the 
 " Rotuli Normaniae," vol. i, which work also contains a 
 certificate of Henry, dated September 1, 1417, at the royal 
 abbey ^ of St. Stephen, in Caen, granting certain privileges 
 to the commander of a Dutch vessel, which had formed one 
 of the fleet, and it appears that a similar certificate was 
 given to the said Ca[)elie. The surname is now extinct in 
 
 (1) This was the abbey founded in Caen by William the Conqaeror, in the church of 
 which he was buried, and where his tomb may be seen. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. Ill 
 
 Guernsey, but from it was evidently derived " Les Grandes 
 Capelles " and " Les Petites Capelles," two estates so called 
 to thi3 day in St. Sampson's parish. 
 
 As after the loss of Normandy, in 1204, the islands conti- 
 nued under the laws and customs of that province, so consi- 
 derable confusion and vexation arose, chiefly owing to the 
 justices itinerant from England being strangers to the insular 
 institutions. In consequence, commissions of inquiry were 
 issued to investigate the complaints and the privileges of the 
 islanders, and the most remarkable of these commissions were 
 those of 32 Hen. III., of 17 Edw. II., and 5 Edw. III., the 
 first and last especially. Had John really given a body of 
 Constitutions to the islands, the English justices would have 
 known better how to proceed ; and it was only the Precepte 
 d' Assize which is said to have produced order and consistency 
 in the administration of justice. 
 
 Having quoted the Precepte d 'Assize of 5 Edward III., 
 A.D. 1331 — in which year, as we have shewn, two Gascon 
 naval commanders were joint wardens of the isles, — it may 
 be well to explain here, as its history is not generally known, 
 that the earliest authenticated copy of this document is in 
 French, and dated in September, 1693 ; all the records of the 
 Royal Court anterior to 1527 ^ having been lost or destroyed, 
 or, as some suppose, carried off by the monks, which is very 
 improbable. The Precepte d' Assize, or declaration of rights, 
 according to the copy, is a recital, as collated by the Royal 
 Court on the 30th of September, 1441, of the usages, liberties, 
 and ancient customs of the isle of Guernsey, " of all the time 
 whereof memory of man is not to the contrary," approved of 
 by the justices errant in the said island, in the fifth year of 
 Edward III., and set forth in an instrument called the Extent. 
 The Extent, or I'Estente, of Edward III., said also to have 
 been compiled in the year 1331, is a survey and valuation of 
 the island, and refers chiefly to the revenues and property of 
 the crown. Certain dues on foreign vessels casting anchor 
 are therein mentioned as producing, with some trifling others 
 in the same article, 160 livres in time of war, and nothing in 
 peace. These dues imply a privilege of neutrality, which 
 certainly did not exist in 1331. There is no copy of the 
 Extent in Latin ; and that in French, at the greffe, was collated 
 in 1818 with the most ancient copies, by two of the jurats, the 
 
 (1) The oldest document existing in the "greflfc," or registry office, is dated January 
 20, 1527. 
 
112 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 said jurats believing it to be authentic. The two royal com- 
 missioners, Ellis and Bros, who visited Guernsey in 1846, to 
 inquire into the state of its criminal law, observe in their 
 Report, that " a document was produced to us, regarded as 
 of very high authority in Guernsey, styled the Precepts d' As- 
 size We thought it necessary, from the importance 
 
 attached to this document by the Royal Court, on our return 
 to England, to search among the records in the custody of 
 the Master of the Rolls for the documents referred to. The 
 record of the pleas before Sir Henry Spigurnell and William 
 Denon, in the seventeenth year of Edward II., still exists 
 among the records of the public record office ; but we have 
 not been able to trace the connection between those proceed- 
 ings and the Precepte d' Assize We also caused 
 
 search to be made for the document referred to in the Prt- 
 cepte d 'Assize, and there called the Extente of the King ; 
 but the record is missing." The royal commissioners further 
 add : " The Extente and Precepte d 'Assize are, however, 
 recognized in the Approbation des Lois, (to be presently 
 mentioned,) and there directed to be kept and inviolably 
 observed, ' tant pour V election, estat, et direction des justi- 
 ciers et autres officiers de sa majeste, que aussi pour les droits, 
 rentes, revenus, services, hommages et suittes de Court, apar- 
 tenants et dues a sa majeste en cette dite isle de Guernezey.* 
 And the Precepte d' Assize, whatever its origin, has always 
 been regarded as authority in questions touching the juris- 
 diction of the Royal Court and the limits of the power of the 
 bailiff and the governor, as representing the crown." 
 
 In the early times, and up to Henry VH., (1485 to 1509,) 
 it was usual to appoint only one " custos," or warden, for all 
 the isles, and when the government of Jersey and Guernsey 
 was separated, the warden of each was styled captain, and 
 finally, governor, which last title was fixed by an order in 
 council, June 15, 1618. Occasionally, however, " custodes," 
 or wardens, appear to have been appointed to each of the two 
 bailiwicks, as in a commission from Edward III., A.D. 1373, 
 William de Asthorpe was appointed " custos " of Guernsey, 
 Sark, Alderney, Herm, Castle Cornet, and the tower of Beau- 
 regard, Jersey not being included ; and the same omission 
 occured in the following year, when Thomas de Beauchamp 
 was named as custos. The term " custos " is used in the 
 most ancient documents, and it is written thus : " Dominus 
 rex habere consuevit unum custodem insularum," but in the 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 113 
 
 thirteenth century the warden was occasionally styled " bal- 
 livus." In several mandates of Edward I. and II., the words 
 are " Edwardus rex, &:c., dilecto et fideHssimo custodi insula- 
 rum;" and in a commission of Edward III., A.D. 1374, 
 Thomas de Beauchamp is constituted " capitaneum et cus- 
 todem insularum," &:c. The title captain is mentioned by 
 Cowel in his dictionary, thus : " We have captains in Gearsey, 
 Guernsey, the Isle of Wight, &;c." The first wardens appear 
 to have enjoyed the whole of the revenues, without deduc- 
 tion ; but in the reign of Edward III. John des Roches, 
 about A.D. 1328, had a fixed allowance of only £40 a year.^ 
 (quadraginta libras per annum.) Subsequently, in the same 
 reign, the "custos" received the whole revenue, and paid a 
 certain amount of it into the king's exchequer, besides main- 
 taining the royal castles, &;c. ; (castra R. &;c. sustentent ; ) thus 
 we find four wardens successively bound to pay fifty marks 
 a year each.^ Soon after, William Stury, by indenture dated 
 in 1354, agreed to pay 200 livres a year ; (c.c. li. p. an.) and 
 his successor, Edmund de Cheney, had to pay first, 300 livres, 
 (libras,) and next, 230 marks. The revenue was then com- 
 paratively large, much having been alienated by succeeding 
 sovereigns, especially in Jersey, by Charles II. during his 
 necessities, while in exile. After the separation of the two 
 governments, the garrison was maintained in each island by 
 the captain or governor, who usually enjoyed the whole 
 revenue ; but in the reign of Charles II. the castles were 
 placed under the Board of Ordnance, and the governors were 
 exempted from maintaining the garrisons. Lord Hatton 
 was the last governor of Guernsey who appears to have 
 appointed the officers, and paid them and the troops ; and he 
 was also the last who resided in Castle Cornet. The powers 
 of the wardens were once very great, and often arbitrary, as 
 is proved by the complaints made against Sir Thomas Leigh- 
 ton, in the reign of James I. The governor, from the time 
 of James II., was a mere sinecurist, who enjoyed the insular 
 crown revenues without any equivalent ; and the office was 
 very properly abolished in 1835, General Sir William Keppel 
 being the last who held it. The emoluments, then worth 
 from £1,500 to £1,800 a year, have since been given in part 
 to the parochial rectors, to schools, increase of salary to the 
 crown law officers, &;c. 
 
 (1) We are not quite certain whether these were livres tournois j although, from the 
 smallness of the sum, we suppose that they were not. 
 
 (2) '^ Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium." (1810.) Falle is again at fault in saying of 
 two of these wardens, Thomas de Ferrars and Thomas de Hampton, that they "were 
 charged each with 500 marks." 
 
 I 
 
114 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Edward III., in the fiftieth year of his reign, (A.D. 1376,) 
 granted Alder ney once as a separate government, thus : " R. 
 commisit Thome Porteman de Salesbury mercatori custodiam 
 Insule de Aurenaye juxta Insulam de Gerseye hend' usq, ad 
 term' trium anno, reddo inde R. p ann' viginti libras tarn 
 tempore pacis qm guerre salvis R. feodis militum, &c. Ro. 8. — 
 Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium. 
 
 In the year 1352, an. 26 of Edward III., John Maltravers, 
 or de Mautravers^ (misspelt Mantaners by Berry) "was 
 constituted governor of the isles of Guernsey, Jersey, Alder- 
 ney, and Sark," and nine years afterwards " he founded the 
 hospital of Bowes, in the island of Guernsey, and shortly 
 after died, viz. the 38 of Edward III." (Bank's Dormant 
 and Extinct Baronage of England. London, 1808.) Bowes, 
 evidently so spelt for Bosq, was probably the hospital of St. 
 Julien, which anciently existed near the Tourgand, or Truchot. 
 
 It was in this reign, after a lapse of nearly three centuries, 
 that it was ordained, at the suit of the commons, " that men 
 of law should plead their causes and write their actions and 
 plaints in the English tongue, and not in the French, as they 
 had been accustomed to do ever since the Conquest ; and 
 that schoolmasters should teach their scholars to construe 
 their lessons in English, and not in French." — Holingshed. 
 This enactment extended only to England, but certainly the 
 time has arrived that such inhabitants of Guernsey as cannot 
 express themselves freely in French — and fully two-thirds of 
 the natives cannot — should be permitted to speak in English, 
 in the States or insular parliament. It is surely a gross act 
 of injustice and oppression to compel a parishioner to serve 
 as a constable or douzenier, and deprive him of the highest 
 privilege of either office, that of being sent as a deputy to the 
 States, because he cannot address that body in French. It 
 is a mockery to call an assembly deliberative, in which all 
 the members cannot deliberate, and in which a vast majority 
 think in one language and speak badly in another. Sir 
 Charles Lyell, referring in his North American travels to the 
 legislature of Louisiana, says : " In the House of Representa- 
 tives, English is spoken exclusively ; but in the Senate many 
 were addressing the house in French, and, when they sat 
 down, an interpreter rose and repeated the whole speech over 
 again in English." That the Anglo-Saxon or dominant race 
 should submit to such an inconvenience proves their respect 
 
 (1) Pardon of John de Mautravers of all offences against the peace of the late kin^. 
 r 1320.)— itywier, U- 760. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 115 
 
 for the freedom of debate and the rights of the members, and 
 contrasts very favorably with the exclusiveness and illiberality 
 of the States of Guernsey, the more so as nine-tenths of the 
 members perfectly understand English. Again, in the par- 
 liament of Canada both English and French are indiscrimi- 
 nately spoken; and as a jurat, recently deceased, addressed 
 both the Royal Court and the States in English for several 
 years, it is insulting, as well as unjust, to deny the same 
 privilege to the constables and douzeniers, many of whom in 
 birth, education, and fortune, are fully equal to the jurats. 
 The difficulty of finding competent jurats increases every 
 day, and assuredly some are now chosen, not for their intel- 
 ligence or capacity, but because they profess to speak French ; 
 while a gentleman, who may have been educated in an Eng- 
 lish public school and university, and have attained the degree 
 of M.A., is ineligible because he will not stultify himself by 
 voting in monosyllables, or speaking in broken French ! The 
 question is, however, but one of time ; and the insular autho- 
 rities might as well endeavour to stay the spread of the English 
 language in North America and Australia as to prevent its ul- 
 timate admission into the States and Royal Court of Guernsey. 
 
 We give the following digest of three mandates issued in 
 Latin during this reign, as they faithfully illustrate the eccle- 
 siastical government, and the mode of providing for the 
 defence, of these islands during the fourteenth century. 
 
 In a mandate from Edward III., dated York, June 3, 1327, 
 the king informed Otto de Grandison, guardian of the islands of 
 Guernsey, Jersey, Bark, and Alderney, that, *' having received 
 fealty from Nichola, abbess of the Holy Trinity of Caen, (Cado- 
 mo,) in Normandy, for the lands and tenements which she holds 
 of us in the aforesaid islands, and which at the death of the last 
 abbess we took into our hands, and have (now) restored them to 
 her. We therefore command you to deliver to the said abbess, 
 or to her proctor or attorney, the aforesaid lands and tenements, 
 with all their appurtenances, saving every one's just claims." 
 
 By another mandate, dated at Clipston, August 30, 1328, 
 directed to John de Roches, guardian of Guernsey, &c., the 
 king, having *' heard that the bishops, abbots, priors, and other 
 men of Normandy, who hold (lands) of us by homage, fealty, 
 and other services, assert that they owe no (such) homage and 
 fealty to us, except where their predecessors paid them to our 
 ancestors at the time the aforesaid islands were parts of Nor- 
 mandy," — his majesty ordered that the said homage, &c., should 
 be paid without delay, and continue to be exacted as long as it 
 was his royal pleasure. 
 
116 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 By another mandate, dated Westminster, April 22, 1373, 
 addressed "To all and singular the viscounts, mayors, bailiffs, 
 ministers, and other lieges, in whatever towns and ports between 
 Southampton and Plymouth;" the king having "appointed Wil- 
 liam de Asthorpe, knight, (chivaler,) governor of the islands of 
 Guernsey, Jersey, &c,, and John Coke, esquire, (armigerum,) to 
 go to the aforesaid islands with as much speed as possible, for their 
 preservation and defence," most strictly enjoins and commands 
 the said viscounts, &c., " to supply the same William and John 
 with the utmost celerity, and at their own cost, with such barges 
 (bargeas) or other vessels beneath the burden of twenty casks, ^ 
 or tons, (infra portagium viginti doliorum,) as may be sufficient 
 and necessary for the passage of themselves, their men and 
 horses, their victuals and harness, (hernesiorum,) and to be ready 
 to answer their requirements. Provided always that no barges, 
 or vessels, or other ships appointed for the conveyance of John, 
 king of Castile and Leon,^ (Johannis Regis Castellae et Legi- 
 onis, ) or any other lords, shall be taken away under colour of 
 these presents " for the purpose aforesaid. 
 
 In the " Placita Coronae," or pleas of the crown, held 
 before the justices itinerant in St. Peter-Port, 5 Edward III., 
 A.D. 1331, are given "Nomina Ballivorum, Praepositorum, 
 Bedellorum, Juratorum, et Sects torum curiae Insulae de 
 Gernereye," viz. the names of the bailiffs, provosts, beadles, 
 jurors, and followers of the court.^ (literally.) 
 
 The bailiff was Thomas de Esterfeld ; the provost, Nicholas 
 Bernard, and the beadle, (sergeant,) Nicholas Collochit. There 
 had been six bailiffs since the last assizes, among them Peter le 
 (de) Garrys. Among the twelve jurats were John Nichol, 
 (NicoUe,) R. de Wike, (de Vic,) Matthew de Saltraares, (Saus- 
 marez,) and R. de Bello Campo. (de Beauchamp.) Among the 
 four wardens since the last assizes were Petrus Bernard de Pyn- 
 sole and Laurentius Gaylard. (Gaillard.) Among the provosts, 
 since the last assizes, were Dionisius (Denis) Marchaunt, John 
 dc la Marche, Matthew de la Rue, and Radulphus le Provost. 
 
 The "Sectatores Curiae" were Episcopus Custanciensis,* Abbas 
 de Monte Sancti Michaelis, Abbas de Mermoustre, (Marmoutier,) 
 Willielmus de Cheyny, Abbas de Blanca Landa, Abbas de Cruce 
 Sancti Leufridi, (St. Leufroy,) Abbas de Longnes, Abbatissa de 
 Cadamo, (Caen,) and Matheus de Saumareys. 
 
 The two first jurors in each parish were styled " Elcctores 
 
 (1) It is dfficult to understand the motive for this limitation. 
 
 (2) This appears to have been John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, " time-honoured 
 Lancaster," who assumed the title of king of Castile, in right of his wife. 
 
 (3) The ecclesiastical and lay seigneurs, owing suit to the king's court. 
 
 (4) The bishop of Winchester is now evoked at the court of chief pleas in the place of 
 the bishop of Coutances. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 1^17 
 
 Juratorum," by which it would appear that they only were 
 members of the states of election, and not the whole of the jurors 
 or douzainiers, as now. Among these parochial jurors were : 
 in St. Sampson's: W. de la Capelle, M. Blondel, P. Maugyt/ 
 and M. de Port ; the Forest: P. Poitevin, J. Le Mesurier, and 
 R. Tourgys; St. Peter-in-the-Wood : R. Corby n, J. de Lisle, R. 
 Falle, (? Falla,) and G. Rougier ; St. Martin: J. Corbyn and 
 W. le Carpentier; Catel : R. de la Court and J. Blondel; 
 Torteval: R. Brouard, J. le Clerc, and R. Simon; St. Saviour: 
 R. Henry, N. Nicolle, P. David, and G. Alexandre ; St. 
 Andrew : R. Corbyn ; Vale : T. Hamelyn, R. Mainguy, and M. 
 Gosselyn ; St. Peter-Port : J. de la Cour, and R. Tourgys. 
 
 Many of the family names mentioned in the Extent or 
 Survey of Edward III., (1331,) already noticed, are extinct 
 in Guernsey, and those which remain, or existed recently, are 
 as follow : 
 
 Alexandre, Anquetil, Allye, (? Allez,) Bailleul, Blondel, Bre- 
 haut, Brouard, de Beauchamp, Caree, (Carey,) Corbin, David, 
 De Garis, De Lisle, De Beauvoir, De Havilland, de la Mare, 
 de la Court, de la Rue, de Moulpied, du Moulin, (? Moullin,) 
 du Mont, Fallaize, Guilbert, Gosselin, Hamelin, Hallouvris, Le 
 Roy, Le Marchant, Lucas, Le Messurier, Le Hardy, (Hardy,) 
 Le Lacheur, Le Prevost, Le Huray, Le Roux, Le Clerc, Mainguy, 
 Marquis, Martin, Nicolle, Ollivier, Poitevin, Rose, Renouf, and 
 Vidamour. 
 
 Edward III., in order to cancel a royal debt to one of his 
 subjects, granted him the wardenship of these islands on 
 certain conditions, as will appear by the following indenture : 
 
 Indentura de custodia insularum de Gernereye, Gereseye^ Serh, 
 ^ Aureneye. 
 
 * ^'V'JI^'^^.r Ceste endenture faite entre nostre seignur le Roi 
 
 An. 28 Edw. III. ,, ^ ^ . -ix7-ii- c. i^ x 
 
 — d une part, et monsieur William Sturv d autre part, 
 
 ^^^"^^^s^^'ijy.iii. tesmoigne: 
 
 in Turr. Lond. Que le dit William ad empris la gard des isles 
 
 de Gernereye, Gereseye, Serk & Aureneye, pur 
 terme de trois annz, commenceant le second jour d'Averill 
 preschein avenir, a ses propres custages es totes choses, & recei- 
 vera a son oeps toutz les profitz, issues, & revenues des dites isles, 
 durant le terme susdit, rendant a nostre dit seignur le Roi CCli. 
 par an h. son escheqer : 
 
 Et outre nostre seignur le Roi ad grante de sa grace especiale, 
 que la dite ferme lui soit allowe d'an en an au dit escheqer, en 
 
 (1) Originally Mainguy, but long spelt Maingy. In 1840, one branch of this family, 
 by the queen's royal license, changed their names to Maingay. 
 
118 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 partie de satisfaction des dette?, queles il saura monstrer par 
 cleres evidences, que nostre seignur le Roi lui doit, jus a la 
 summe de CCCClxvi. li. xiii s. iv d. 
 
 En tesmoignance de quele chose, a Tune partie de ceste enden- 
 ture demorante devers le dit monsieur William, nostre seignur le 
 Roi ad fait mettre son grant seal, & a Tautre partie de meisme 
 Tendenture devers nostre dit seignur le Roi, le dit monsieur 
 William ad mis son seal. 
 
 Don' a Westmonster le xx. jours de Marz, I'an du regne nostre 
 dit seignur le Roi, c'estassavoir, d'Engleterre vyntoytisme, & de 
 France quinzisme. 
 
 Per ipsum Regem & concilium. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RICHAED IL — 1379 to 1399. 
 
 Richard, who was the son of the Black Prince, was but 
 eleven years of age when he succeeded to the throne of 
 his grandfather, Edward III. His reign was one continued 
 scene of discontent and trouble ; because, like Edward II., he 
 was entirely influenced by worthless favorites. In the first 
 year of this reign, says Duncan, the kings of France and 
 Castile entered into a confederacy, the object of which was 
 to devastate these islands, as well as the Isle of Wight, by 
 every possible act of destruction. To carry this barbarous 
 design into effect, the king of Castile bound himself to furnish 
 20 galleys, each of them to have on board 10 men at arms, 
 30 cross-bowmen, and 180 mariners, exclusive of officers, to 
 be maintained at the joint expense of the allied kings, who 
 were to share the plunder equally. But it does not appear 
 that the design was ever carried into execution. " Richard 
 granted a charter to these islands in 1394, as a reward to the 
 inhabitants for their good behaviour and fidelity, that they 
 should be for ever freed, in all parts within the kingdom of 
 England, from all sorts of tolls, exactions, and customs, in 
 the same manner as his majesty's liege subjects of the said 
 kingdom, provided the islanders should continue to well and 
 faithfully behave themselves for ever." — Berry, n. 89. 
 
 In this reign, A.D. 1386, the young king of France deter- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 119 
 
 mined on the invasion of England, so as to obtain vengeance 
 for all the calamities which the English had brought upon 
 his kingdom. He was encouraged thereto by the absence of 
 John of Gaunt, who, with a strong body, was engaged in an 
 expedition against Castile, and, above all, by the dissensions 
 which prevailed in England. Accordingly, preparations were 
 made upon the most extensive scale, and the invading force 
 was appointed to rendezvous at Sluys, in early times the 
 most flourishing port upon the Flemish coast. Here 60,000 
 men were to be embarked ; and the constable of France sailed 
 from Treguier, in Britany, to join the armament with a fleet 
 of 72 ships, but, being dispersed in a gale near the river 
 Thames, several of them were captured by the English 
 cruisers, and the constable was glad to reach Sluys with the 
 remainder. And as the winter was approaching, the French 
 embarkation was deferred until the spring, when the expedi- 
 tion at Sluys was abandoned. Another was, however, pro- 
 jected ; and this time the principal preparations were made 
 at Treguier, near Morlaix, where the constable assembled 
 4,000 men at arms and 2,000 arbalisters, while an equal force 
 was got ready at Harfleur, in Normandy. The day of depar- 
 ture was fixed and close at hand, when the whole scheme was 
 suddenly frustrated by the duke of Britany. We have in- 
 troduced these projected invasions to shew how very insecure 
 these islands must have been at that period, and to express 
 our surprise that the constable did not possess himself of 
 Guernsey on his voyage from Treguier to Sluys, as it lay in 
 his direct track, and could not have offered him any effectual 
 resistance. These islands have indeed, on more than one 
 occasion, owed their safety rather to the negligence or supine- 
 ness of the French than to their own strength, or to the 
 protection of England. 
 
 " Anno 14, i^^. 2, m. 30. (1392.)— The king hath granted to 
 the men of the isles of Guernsey, Jersey, Sarcke and Aureney, 
 that they, for the space of eight years, shall be free of all manner 
 of tolls, exactions, and customs within the realm, as his liege 
 people and denisons are." — Harl. Manus. No. 21, p. 179. 
 
 HENRY IV.— 1399 to 1413. 
 
 Sir John de Lisle, knight, was appointed warden of Guern- 
 sey in 1405, during the reign of Henry IV., as appears by 
 Nicholas' " Acts of the Privy Council," published in 1834 ; 
 and there is a letter from him, dated at Castle Cornet, July 
 30, (apparently,) 1406, to the council, in which he repeats 
 
120 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 that the castle is on the point of falling, and ruinous through 
 default of the timber, as he had previously certified. He 
 asks permission to take the timber from a house called the 
 Priory of the Vale,^ which was in a state of ruin, to assist in 
 repairing the castle, as he could procure no kind of timber 
 either from Normandy or Britany, or any other part, on 
 account of the war. This letter is written in old French, and 
 is, we believe, the most ancient extant, dated from the castle, 
 " escrit au dit chastel Cornet," &:c. It is singular that in no 
 history or account of Guernsey is the name of Sir John de 
 Lisle 2 included among the governors, and we have discovered 
 many other omissions. 
 
 Falle states, without, as usual, giving any date, that in the 
 reign of Henry IV. a bloody battle was fought between an 
 English and French fleet, in which the former lost forty ships 
 and above 2,000 men in killed and prisoners. And he adds : 
 *' When by that victory the enemy had cleared the sea of the 
 English, they fell upon the islands ; and though, for want of 
 being provided with things necessary for a siege, they could 
 do nothing against the castles, they wrought all the mischief 
 and damage they were able to the inhabitants. And this is 
 all I find in this reign that particularly concerns us." This 
 naval battle, which occurred in 1403, and after which the 
 greater part of the prisoners were thrown overboard, did not 
 permanently clear the sea of the English, as, in 1405, the 
 French applied to the king of Castile for naval aid, which he 
 granted by ordering forty ships and three galleys to be sent 
 with all speed. Pero iNino, afterwards Conde de Buelna, a 
 man of high birth, and who had previously distinguished 
 himself in the Mediterranean, was appointed to the command 
 of the galleys, then lying in Santander ; and happily his 
 share in this expedition has been preserved by his standard 
 bearer, who accompanied him, and wrote the history of his 
 master, one of the most curious chronicles of its kind.' It 
 mentions that, in MOS,"* the French and Spanish squadrons 
 made descents on the coast of Cornwall and Portland, cap- 
 
 (1) •' A small portion of the monsistery of St. Michael, at the Vale, is still standing, and 
 is converted Into a farm house. There are buttresses of two stages supporting the south 
 wall, and segmental arches in other parts of the house."— iZeo. W. C. Lukis. (1841.) 
 
 (2) A very respectable family of this name has been, for several centuries, resident in 
 Guernsey. The mothers of two distinguished Gucrnseymcn, — Major-General Sir Isaac 
 Brock, K.B., *' the Hero of Upper Canada," and Dr. MacCulloch.the celebrated geologist, 
 — were de Lisles of this family. Sir John de Lisle was from Hampshire. 
 
 (3) Cronica del Conde D. Pero Nino. Only one edition of this work was ever published. 
 
 (4) Id this year, the Anglo-Norman Islands were seized into the king's hands, upon the 
 fflxeti of Edward, duke of York, to whom they belonged.— i^ymer. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 121 
 
 tured Poole, &c., and afterwards wintered in the Seine. The 
 year following, Nino, who had reaped little profit from his 
 adventures, and had learnt that galleys were not suited to the 
 tidal harbours and rough seas of the British Channel, easily 
 persuaded the Breton lords to join him in an expedition 
 against Jersey — a rich island, says his chronicler — where he 
 might gain much honour, and moreover levy a large contri- 
 bution. In two days, a force, well equipped for such service, 
 was embarked ; in a few hours it reached the island, and of 
 Spaniards, Normans, and Bretons, there were not less than 
 1 ,000 men at arms, exclusive, it appears, of ill-armed men. 
 They landed that evening on a small islet, which had a chapel 
 on it dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the space which 
 separated it from the land was left dry at low water. ^ At 
 daybreak the next morning, when the tide was falling, the 
 trumpets sounded, and the invaders crossed the sands. The 
 Jerseymen, who, by the Spaniard's account, were about 3,000, 
 besides 200 horse, came on bravely ; the struggle was fierce 
 and bloody ; so much so, that in the opinion of the chroni- 
 cler, who was an eye witness, few on either side would have 
 been loft alive, if the " receiver-general," ^ a brave man, who 
 defended a white banner with the cross of St. George, had 
 not been mortally wounded. He could not be borne from 
 the field, and many of the Jerseymen fell around him ; but 
 the banner was at length beaten down ; and having, it 
 seems, lost their commander in the " receiver," the islanders 
 took to flight, when the invaders were in no condition to 
 pursue them, so many were hurt, and so wearied were they 
 all. The battle was fought upon a fine sand about half a 
 league in length, doubtless the bay of St. Aubin, while the 
 islet 3 was apparently that on which Elizabeth Castle now 
 stands, and on a rock near w^hich St. Helier resided in a 
 solitary cell.* The invaders being informed that there were 
 
 (1) "In this reign" [Henry II., 1154 to 1189, king of England and eleventh duke of 
 Normandy] " began the declension of the abbey of St. Holier, in Jersey, once the glory 
 of this island. I mentioned before how it was founded by a Norman nobleman, in honour 
 of the martyr of that name. It stood on the same plot where now is the lower ward of 
 Elizabeth Castle, and was, if not a magnificent, yet a handsome fabric, as one might judge 
 from part of the church yet in being within my remembrance ; and if there be truth in 
 the tradition, that all betwixt the castle and the town, which the sea now overflows, was 
 then rich meadow land, the situation must needs be very delightful."— FaWe. 
 
 (2) " Llamabule el Receveur; 6 yo le vi yacer entre mis pies, € finabaso yh., y non podian 
 con el andar adelante ; tanto era el apretamiento de la gente." — Cronica, p. 156. 
 
 v3; In digging for the foundations of the vast pier lately built at St. Holier, earth was 
 discovered under the sand, and it was evident that the whole space between the town and 
 Elizabeth Castle had been once under cultivation ; many stumps and branches of trees, 
 and even filberts, being found embedded in the earth, which was carted by individuals for 
 gardening purposes, or for laying over the soil. 
 
 (4) Mr. J. P. Ahier, of Jersey, thinks that the islet, with the chapel, was that on which 
 the present tower of St. Aubin is built. 
 
122 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 five strong castles in the island well garrisoned, finally agreed 
 to accept a ransom of 10,000 crowns of gold and depart, so 
 states the chronicler : as much of the ransom as could be 
 immediately raised was paid, and four hostages were given as 
 security for the rest, which was afterwards paid by the Breton 
 merchants. Both Falle and his annotator Durell were mani- 
 festly ignorant of the existence of the Spanish clironicle, and 
 of the details it contains relative to this invasion : we feel, 
 therefore, the greater pleasure in narrating, although briefly, 
 the gallantry and devotion of the Jerseymen on that occasion ; 
 and as many in these islands will naturally wish to peruse a 
 fuller account than our limits admit of, we refer them to 
 Southey's Naval History, London, 1833, vol. ii., pp. 38-45, 
 where the subject is narrated at length. Some allowance, 
 however, must be made for the evident quixotism of the 
 chronicler, who wrote in the spirit of exaggeration so common 
 in that age, when, in dealing with numbers, romance appears 
 to have been the rule, and truth the exception. Indeed, in 
 all times men have been prone to magnify the numbers of 
 their opponents so as to enhance their own gallantry. As 
 the French in this reign were occasionally masters of the 
 channel, it is probable that they made descents also on 
 Guernsey, although we have seen no other evidence than 
 Falle's to that effect. Dicey, probably on the authority of 
 Falle, says : " In Henry the Fourth's reign, these islands 
 were pillaged in a most inhuman manner by the French." 
 
 HENRY v.— 1413 to 1422. 
 
 Of the short reign of Henry V., beyond the mere fact of 
 his employment of a Guernsey vessel, as already narrated, 
 we find little relating to these islands. When the religious 
 houses were suppressed, and the priors aliens banished from 
 these islands by Henry, who was at this time engaged in war 
 with France, the property of the latter fell into the hands of 
 the king, and became part and parcel of the demesnes of the 
 crown. A composition was then entered into between the 
 governors and the rectors, by which the latter obtained cer- 
 tain small proportions of the tithes confiscated. 
 
 It was durmg this reign — when Henry, profiting by the 
 discord which prevailed among the French nobles, had ob- 
 tained possession of Coutances, Avranches, and other places 
 on the adjacent coast, with the exception of Cherbourg and 
 Mont Martin — that James Mauger, of Somerhuse, (?) now 
 Soraraeilleuse, in the parisli of the Forest, arrived with his 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 123 
 
 people from Guernsey at the little port of Agon, and captured 
 by escalade the castle of Mont Martin, near Coutances, on 
 the 24th of June, 1419. The seigniory of Bosques, in Nor- 
 mandy, was in consequence conferred by the king on Mauger, 
 who established himself there ; and, as an additional recom- 
 pense for his exploit, the following grant of arms was made 
 to him and his heirs, viz. argent, the cross of St. George, 
 gules, quartering in the first and fourth his paternal arms ; 
 that is to say, argent, two chevrons sable ; and in the second 
 and third, the arms of Bosques, argent, a lion sable. These 
 particulars are derived from a MS. belonging to the cathedral 
 of Coutances ; but in the first place, we incline to think that 
 this Mauger" was a refugee Norman, and not a native of 
 Guernsey ; and in the second, according to Goube's Histoire 
 du DucM de Normandie, the English, in 1417, were masters 
 of all Lower Normandy, with the exception of Cherbourg, 
 which surrendered after a siege of three months, in 1418, 
 through the treachery of its governor, who might have held 
 out above a year. In July, 1418, the English laid siege to 
 Rouen, which surrendered by a treaty signed on the 18th of 
 January, 1419 ; and the following year, 1420, a solemn em- 
 bassy reached that city to offer the throne of France to Henry 
 of England. Unless, therefore, the year given as that of the 
 exploit of Mauger be a miscopy for 1417, which is very pos- 
 sible, the entire incident is open to much doubt. Evreux has 
 now a clock tower, built during the domination of the English, 
 about 1419, so completely were they at that time masters of 
 all Normandy. As early as 1415, they had taken Harfleur, 
 after a memorable siege of forty days. 
 
 HENRY YL— 1422 to 1461. 
 
 With Henry VI., who was an only son, and not nine 
 months old when his gallant father died, commenced the civil 
 war in England, known by the name of the War of the Roses. 
 The merchants of Guernsey during his reign, " being much 
 obstructed in their trade by the officers of the customs in 
 England, in violation of their privileges, a complaint was 
 forwarded to his majesty, on which, in the year 1443, he sent 
 express and peremptory orders to the collectors and comp- 
 trollers of the ports of Plymouth, Poole, and Southampton, 
 and of all creeks and rivers appurtenant to the same, forbid- 
 ding them to exact from the inhabitants of the island any 
 other toll or custom than was paid by those of other free 
 ports, in conformity with their ancient privileges and liberties. 
 
124 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 The reasons assigned by the king are sufficiently curious to 
 warrant the insertion of the following paragraph : 
 
 "We have been informed by the humble representations of our 
 beloved inhabitants of the island of Guernsey, which island is one 
 of the free ports of this our realm, that, whereas all the inhabit- 
 ants of our said free port are bound to serve us, as well on the 
 day of our coronation, as also to accompany us and conduct us 
 whenever it is expedient for us to cross the sea, and go into 
 foreign parts, with all the power and forces they can raise, and 
 also attend us at such times as may be required for the space of 
 six weeks at their own expense, in consideration of which our 
 royal progenitors (whom God absolve) anciently granted and 
 confirmed to the inhabitants of the said island," &c. &c. 
 
 During the reign of Elizabeth, this charter was entered 
 on the records of Dover Castle. It is evident from the obli- 
 gatory duties described, which compelled the inhabitants to 
 carry the king over the sea, and assist at his coronation, that 
 these were all the services required from them out of the 
 island, which exactly accords with the spirit of the earl of 
 Anjou's grant, by which they are exempted from serving 
 abroad, unless to follow the duke of Normandy to recover 
 the English crown. It is not improbable that the cause of 
 their being obliged to attend at the coronation, after the loss 
 of Normandy, was to keep up the king's claim on that duchy, 
 for lord Coke says, that a seizin of the Anglo-Norman 
 Islands is a good seizin in law of the whole province. 
 
 The first thirty years of this reign were marked by the 
 languid progress and final ignominious failure of the second 
 war for the re-establishment of the Plantagenets in France, 
 conducted by Henry V. with so much success as to conceal 
 its impolicy and iniquity. Generally, however, the countries 
 between the Loire and the Seine were the theatre of active 
 warfare. " France, to the north of the Loire, had become 
 one vast solitude ; the country was deserted, and there were 
 no men but in forests or fortresses ; even the cities were 
 rather quarters for soldiers than dwelling places of the inha- 
 bitants. The cultivation of the soil was abandoned, except 
 around the walls, under the ramparts, and within sight of the 
 sentinel in his tower. As soon as an enemy was discovered, 
 the alarm bells were rung, the labourers flew into the town ; 
 the very cattle had learnt a sort of instinct which taught them 
 to take to flight. Theft and robbery were of necessity the 
 only occupations of houseless wretches." — Barante. Du 
 Moulin gives the names of 119 gentihhommes^ who in the 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 125 
 
 year 1423^ defended Mont St. Michel so well that the English 
 could not take it. Among these names we find le Sieur R. 
 Roussel, le Sieur R. de Beau voir, le Sieur Francois Hamon, 
 le Sieur G. Le Viconte, le Sieur T. Benoist, le Sieur P. du 
 Moulin, le Sieur R. de Bailleul, le Sieur J. Thomas Guerin, 
 le Sieur G. de la Mare, le Sieur Guillaume Artur, le Sieur J. 
 le Carpentier, and le Sieur Jean le Brun ; all names now ex- 
 isting in the Anglo-Norman islands. In the years 1448-9, 
 Normandy, which the Plantagenets had never ceased to look 
 upon as their inheritance, was wrested from them, as was 
 Gascony in 1451. The people of Guienne, which province 
 had belonged to England for three centuries, shewed a desire 
 of obtaining English succour ; and Talbot, a renowned cap- 
 tain, who had fought at Azincourt, was sent to Bordeaux to 
 their aid, in the eightieth year of his age. He died at the 
 battle of Chatillon, like a brave soldier, and the surrender of 
 Bayonne, in 1453, completed, with the exception of Calais, 
 the expulsion of the English from France ; thus closing a 
 contest which had, in some degree, been waged for a century. 
 During the fatal struggle between the houses of York and 
 Lancaster, which for thirty years deluged the kingdom in 
 blood, and nearly annihilated the ancient nobility of England, 
 the earl of Warwick, who was governor of Calais and high 
 admiral, espoused the cause of the former. When the civil 
 war had broken out, and the duke of York had taken the 
 field, Warwick came from Calais to his aid, bringing with 
 him a body of old soldiers accustomed to the wars of Guienne 
 and Normandy ; but, on the eve of a battle, in Shropshire, 
 October, 1459, the greater part of these men deserted the 
 Yorkite camp during the night, and went over to the king. 
 In consequence, the duke fled to Ireland ; and Warwick,^ 
 says Holingshed, with the earl of March (afterwards Edward 
 IV.) and a select company, could find no safer course than 
 to escape into Devonshire, and embark at Exmouth for 
 Guernsey, in a ship which a certain squire, by the name of 
 John Dynham, purchased for them at the price of 1 10 marks. 
 At Guernsey they recruited themselves, and sailing from 
 thence to Calais, were there joyfully received at a postern by 
 their friends.' This visit of the earl of March is confirmed 
 
 (1) According to Girard's Histoire du Mont St, Michel, (Avranches, 1843,) this defence 
 occurred in 1434. 
 
 (2) Richard Nevil, earl of Warwick, the most conspicuous personage of that turbulent 
 age, and who bore the name of " king maker," quarrelled with Edward IV. after his eleva- 
 tion to the throne, and was killed at the battle of Barnet, in 1471. Warwick was lord of 
 these islands, his " receiver " in Guernsey being Thomas Guille, a copy of whose accounts 
 may yet be seen. 
 
 (3) Southey's Naval History of England, vol. ii., p. 104. 
 
126 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 by a report of Sir Thomas Leighton, knight, and other com- 
 missioners of queen Elizabeth, dated November 21, 1597, 
 which report states that in the parish of St. Sampson, Guern- 
 sey, there are certain lands called the " Franc Fieu GalHcien," 
 on which the tenants pay " nothing besides," the said lands, 
 by common report, having been exempted (affranchies) by 
 king Edward IV., in acknowledgment of the services which 
 the possessors, being seafaring persons, had rendered him in 
 transporting him to the said island. As this visit accounts in 
 a great measure for the interest taken by the latter sovereign 
 in these islands, it seems strange that no Jersey or Guernsey 
 historian, excepting Warburton, has mentioned it. 
 
 It was near the close of this unfortunate reign that the 
 French, in 1461, obtained possession, through treachery, of 
 the castle of Mont Orgueil, in Jersey, which, with the six 
 adjoining parishes, remained in their power during six years, 
 until the accession of Edward IV. The other six parishes 
 were bravely maintained by the Jerseymen, headed by Philip 
 de Carteret, seigneur of St. Ouen, who secured the castle of 
 Grosnez, situated to the west, as Mont Orgueil is to the east, 
 of the island ; and frequent skirmishes occurred between the 
 contending parties. The manor house of St. Ouen was 
 doubtless another means of defence, as it appears that a moat 
 of considerable width can still be traced round the house, with 
 other indications of a fortification. 
 
 The oldest charter that is preserved entire, which Guernsey 
 holds from the English crown, under the great seal, in its 
 records, is that of Henry VI. ,^ and contains an inspeximus of 
 the charters of Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV. and 
 v., and it begins thus : " Henry, by the grace of God, king 
 of England and France, and lord of Ireland : To all those to 
 whom these presents shall come, greeting. We have seen 
 the letters patent of the lord Richard, late king of England, 
 the second after the conquest, made in these words : 
 
 " Richard, by the grace of God, king of England and 
 France, and lord of Ireland, to all those to whom these 
 letters patent shall come, greeting : 
 
 " Know ye, that we, considering the good behaviour, and 
 good fidelity, which we have found from day to day in our 
 liege and faithful nations, and communities of our islands of 
 Guernsey, Jersey, Serk, and Alderney, have, of our special 
 grace, granted for ourselves and heirs, (as far as in us lies,) 
 
 (1) According to Duncan, in the Guernsey and Jersey Magazine, I.. 363 ; but the charter 
 is not preserved at the Greffe, or Rcg^istry Office, of Guernsey. This charter doubtless 
 once existed, or may still exist. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 127 
 
 to the said nations and communities, that they, and their 
 heirs and successors, shall for ever he free and acquitted in all 
 our cities, boroughs, markets, and trading towns, fairs, mart 
 towns, and other places, and harbours, within our kingdom of 
 England, from all sorts of tolls, exactions, and customs, in 
 the same manner as our faithful and liege subjects are in our 
 kingdom aforesaid ; provided, however, that our said nations 
 and communities, and their heirs aforesaid, shall well and 
 faithfully behave themselves towards us, and our heirs afore- 
 said, for ever'' 
 
 This charter of Henry VI. was confirmed by the Parlia- 
 ment of England in the following words : " Cum assensu 
 Dominorum Spiritualium et Temporalium in parliamento 
 nostro apud Westmons, anno regni nostri primo : With the 
 assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in our parliament 
 held at Westminster in the first year of our reign." And it 
 may be well to observe, as the distinction is important and 
 worthy of notice to all who study legal and political antiqui- 
 ties, that the islanders were, anterior to the year 1394, 
 considered as Norman subjects, enjoying as such, previously 
 to the charter of Richard II., independent rights, liberties, 
 and privileges ; and that the charter of Richard admitted 
 them to participate in the immunities of English subjects, 
 which they of course could not claim de jure by virtue of 
 the institutions of Normandy. 
 
 EDWAUD IV.— 1461 to 1483. 
 
 The singular privilege of neutrality possessed by these 
 islands in time of war, for at least two centuries, cannot be 
 traced higher than the reign of this monarch, although it is 
 believed by some historians to have existed before his time ; 
 certainly not, however, in the fourteenth century, as we have 
 shewn. Moved by the calamities to which the islanders were 
 subjected from their proximity to France, and which he had 
 probably witnessed while in Guernsey, that monarch conceded 
 this neutrality to them, and solicited of the Pope to enforce it 
 with the anathemas of the church. Accordingly, Pius IV., 
 by a bull dated March 1, 1483-4, or a year after Edward's 
 death, confirmed the privilege, and threatened to excommu- 
 nicate all persons who should molest the islanders in any 
 way. The insular clergy were also instrumental, through 
 their suffragan at Coutances, in procuring this confirmation, 
 which enabled them to maintain a more easy intercourse with 
 that see. To give it every possible effect, the bull was pub- 
 
128 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 lished at Coutances in the usual form.* This bull'^ made 
 especial mention of the church of St. Peter-Port,' thus prov- 
 ing its consideration at that early period, as it was the only 
 church in the islands so named. Indeed, it is evident that 
 Guernsey, owing to its fisheries, especially the conger, to its 
 greater commerce, and to its better roadstead, was long 
 deemed the most important of these islands,'' although she is 
 now indisputably second to Jersey, which has about double 
 her trade and population. This privilege of neutrality com- 
 prehended not only the harbours but the seas, within sight of 
 the islands, " as far as the eye of man can reach," and it 
 appears to have been generally respected, as several instances 
 can be adduced of the restitution of vessels captured from the 
 islanders, and even from strangers in their havens, as also of 
 French vessels being protected, while in the islands, from 
 English cruisers. On the other hand, there are occasional 
 proofs, up to the year 1689, when the neutrality ceased, of its 
 being disregarded ; and although the original privilege was 
 confirmed by subsequent British sovereigns, we incline to 
 think that it was continued more as a truce between the 
 Normans and Bretons and the islanders, for their mutual 
 advantage and convenience, than as a tacit compact between 
 England and France, especially after the separation of the 
 islands from the bishopric of Coutances, in the year 1568. 
 
 Camden mentions the privilege, though by a mistake he 
 applies it to Guernsey only : he says, Veteri Regum Angliee 
 privilegio, perpetucB hie sunt quasi inducice ; et Gallis, aliisque, 
 quamvis hellurn exardescat, ultro citroque hue sine perieulo 
 venire, et commercia secur^ exercere, licet ; i.e. " By an ancient 
 privilege of the kings of England, there is here a kind of 
 perpetual truce ; and how hot soever the war be, the French, 
 and others, have free liberty to come hither to trade, and to 
 depart again in safety." ^ 
 
 Mr. Selden introduces the privilege as an argument in 
 support of his hypothesis of the dominion of the sovereign of 
 England over the narrow seas, thus : Neque enim facile con- 
 jectandum est, undenam originem hahuerit Jus illud induciarum 
 
 (ly Lccanu'a Histoire des Ev^ques de Coutances. X Coutances, 1839. 
 
 (2) This bull is given in the Appendix, No. viii., of Falle's History of Jersey. 
 
 (3) Tradition states that this church was originally designed as the cathedral of these 
 islands. 
 
 (4) The harbour of St Sampson, the only natural one in these islands, doubtless con- 
 tributed also to that importance. 
 
 " Guernsey was reckoned, though the most distant from France, the most considerable 
 of all the islands, on account of the safety and convenience of its harbours, and the quan- 
 tity of fish on Its coast."— C«»ar*o, or the Island of Jersey. London, 1840. 
 
 (5) De losal. Britan. p. 855. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 129 
 
 singulare ac 'perpetuum, quo Cjesare^, Sarniae, cceterarumque 
 Insularum Normannico Littori prcejacentium incolce, etiam in 
 ipso mari fruuntur, flagrante utcunque inter circumvicinas gen- 
 tes hello, nisi ah Angliae Regum dominio hoc Marino derivetur : 
 i.e. " It is not easy to conjecture whence first sprung that 
 singular right (or privilege) of perpetual truce, which the 
 inhabitants of Jersey, Guernezey, and the other islands adja- 
 cent to the coast of Normandy, enjoy in the midst of the sea, 
 notwithstanding any war betwixt the neighbouring nations 
 round about them, unless it be derived from this maritime 
 dominion of the kings of England." ^ 
 
 Falle says : " Even strangers have acknowledged this pri- 
 vilege, and entered it into their books of navigation and 
 commerce. Thus the anonymous author of Les Us et Cou- 
 tumes de la Mer, printed at Rouen, 1671, speaking of prizes 
 taken at sea, says that a prize is not good, si elle a este faite 
 en lieu d'asyle ou de refuge, comme sont les isles et mers de 
 Gerzay et Grenezay, en la coste de Normandie ; ausquelles 
 les Francois et Anglois, pour quelque guerre quil y ait entre 
 les deux couronnes, ne doivent insulter ou courre Vun sur V au- 
 tre, tant et si loin que sestend V aspect ou la veue des dites 
 isles, i.e. 'if the prize be made in places of security and 
 refuge (places exempted and privileged) as are the isles and 
 seas of Jersey and Guernezey, on the coast of Normandy ; 
 where the French and English, whatever war there be betwixt 
 the two crowns, ought not to insult, or in a hostile manner 
 pursue, each other, so long and so far as they have the said 
 islands in prospect and in view.' " (Part III. Art. XXI. § 6.) 
 
 The bull of Pius IV., already mentioned, speaks of the 
 advantage which these islands afforded as places of shelter 
 for vessels in distress, and of their conveniences for the pro- 
 secution of trade ; but the Rev. E. Durell thinks that the 
 strongest reason for the concession of this state of neutrality 
 was the very limited commerce of those times, and in conse- 
 quence that the privilege excited little jealousy among the 
 contending powers. In the year 1523, temp. Henry VIII., 
 during the war between England and France, a Guernsey 
 vessel, taken in the Channel by a privateer of Morlaix, was, 
 by order of count de Laval, governor of Britany, released 
 in consequence of this privilege. The order provided for 
 the release only of the islanders, and the restitution of their 
 effects ; while the English who were on board, and their 
 merchandize, were declared good and lawful prize. The 
 
 (1) Mare aausum, Lib. H. Cap. XIX. et iterum Cap. XXIL 
 K 
 
130 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 motive of William III. for not continuing the privilege to 
 the islands appears to have been his apprehension that it 
 would open a channel of communication between James II. 
 and the Jacobites in Britain and Ireland. 
 
 Sir Richard Harliston, vice-admiral of England, coming to 
 Guernsey, in the year 1467, with a squadron of the king's 
 ships, Philip de Carteret sent to inform him of the great 
 difficulty he experienced in preventing the French from sub- 
 duing the whole of Jersey ; whereupon, according to Falle, 
 the admiral left his ships in Guernsey roads, and hastened 
 privately to de Carteret, who was at his manor of St. Ouen. 
 It seems strange that the admiral should thus leave his squa- 
 dron, and run the risk of being captured on the passage ; 
 but Falle adds, that after a consultation with de Carteret as 
 to the best means of recovering Mont Orgueil Castle, he 
 returned to Guernsey. Soon after, he sailed over with his 
 ships to Jersey and blockaded the French by sea, while the 
 islanders invested the castle by land. After a defence of 
 nineteen weeks, the garrison, unable to obtain any relief from 
 the opposite coast of Normandy, and being in a state of 
 famine, surrendered ; and Harliston was rewarded with the 
 governorship of Jersey. The only Jersey man of note who 
 seems to have fallen, was Reginald Lempriere, seigneur of 
 Rosel, and he was slain in a sally of the besieged. If the 
 Jerseymen assisted at the recovery of Castle Cornet, temp. 
 Edward III., as Falle pretends, the Guernsey men appear, 
 with far more certainty, to have returned the favor at the 
 reduction of the castle of Mont Qrgueil, although that histo- 
 torian has failed to notice their assistance, both in men and 
 money. On the other hand, Duncan has erroneously cited 
 a f)atent, as extant under the great seal of England, in proof 
 of this assistance ; for the document in question does not at 
 all bear the interpretation given by him to it, as in a spirit of 
 ^* fairness and truth we proceed to shew. 
 
 Speaking of the reduction of this castle from the French, 
 Duncan says, at page 37, that the Guernsey men " had a 
 considerable share in the honour of its recapture," and that 
 Edward IV., in the first [ninth] year of his reign, " not only 
 confirmed the patent of king Richard II. in favor of the 
 inhabitants of Guernsey, but greatly enlarged its provisions, 
 in consideration of the great dangers they had encountered, 
 and the heavy losses they had sustained at the reduction of 
 Mont Orgueil Castle, which charter was afterwards confirmed 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 131 
 
 by those of queen Elizabeth and king Charles II." And to 
 these remarks he appends a foot note, as follows : " Henry 
 VII., when earl of Richmond, visited Jersey, and he men- 
 tions the courage and zeal of the Guernsey men in his charter ; 
 and a patent under the great seal of England is extant which 
 names ten Guernseymen and five Jerseymen, who most dis- 
 tinguished themselves at the recapture of Mont Orgueil Castle : 
 John Perrin, John Fyot, William Duport, J. Rougier, Thomas 
 De Havilland, Lawrence Carey, William Maingy, Reynold 
 Agenor, Richard Cosins, and Nicholas De Lisle, of Guernsey ; 
 Peter Le Serkais, Peter Tehy, John De Soulsmont, Nicholas 
 Le Petit, and John Le Moigne, of Jersey." 
 
 Happily, in the month of April, 1851, the original patent 
 of Edward IV., and evidently that alluded to by Duncan as 
 above, was accidentally discovered among some other docu- 
 ments in the possession of Mrs. Hutchesson, eldest daughter 
 of the late Charles Le Marchant, Esq. This very valuable 
 insular record came to light through the indefatigable histo- 
 rical researches of Mr. Edgar MacCulloch, jurat, and is in an 
 excellent state of preservation, the seal being as perfect as if 
 affixed yesterday. The patent is in Latin, and the following 
 is a correct summary of its contents. 
 
 Edward, having learned from the information of the inha- 
 bitants of Guernsey and Jersey, that they had expended the 
 sum of 2833 libras, 6 solidos, and 8 denarios^ (livi-es, sols, 
 and deniers,) in the recovery of Jersey and Mont Orgueil 
 Castle from the enemy, to their great impoverishment, grants 
 to ten Guernseymen, viz. John Peryn,^ John Tyaut, William 
 Duport, Jordan Rogier, Thomas de Haveillant, (Havilland,) 
 Lawrence Caree, (Carey,) William Mangy, (Maingy or 
 Mainguy,) Renovet Agenor, Ralph (^ousin, and Nicholas De 
 Lisle ; and to five Jerseymen, viz. Peter Le Serkees, Peter 
 Tehy, John de Souslemont, Nicholas Le Petit, and John Le 
 Moigne ; the privilege of exporting from England to Guern- 
 sey and Jersey, in vessels subject to his majesty, goods and 
 merchandize of the staple of Calais, the duties on which 
 would, in any one year, amount to £160 ; or of importing 
 into England goods subject to duties to the same amount. 
 
 (1) These Latin denominations apply equally to pounds, shillinp and pence ; but as the 
 sum advanced was so great, and as accounts were then kept in the islands in French 
 money, we feel convinced that livres, and not pounds sterling, were meant. A livre in 
 that age would represent at least a pound sterling now. ^ 
 
 (2) *• Et viron ce temps-Ik [A.D. 1533] mourut Jean Lempriere, seigneur de Rozel, la 
 succession duquel parvint h Edouard Perrin, fils de Dominique Perrin, de I'ile de Guer- 
 nesey, k cause de sa femme, scEur et prochaine heriti^re du dit Jean Lempriere, en son 
 vivant seigneur de Rozel, comme devant est dit." — Chroniques de Jersey. Guernsey, ]832. 
 
132 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 These goods were to be exported from, or imported into, the 
 ports of Poole, Exeter, and Dartmouth ; and the privilege 
 was to last for six years, reckoning from the 20th of January 
 preceding the date of the grant, and to continue after the six 
 years, if it should please the king, until the sum of £2,000 
 was remitted. The duties thus remitted were to be retained 
 by the patentees before named, for the use of all the inha- 
 bitants of the said islands ; and if the duties so remitted did 
 not amount, in any one year, to the full sum of £150, they 
 might in that case make up the balance in another year. 
 There is also a proviso, that the goods exported from the 
 islands shall be the property of the patentees, or other inha- 
 bitants of the said islands. The grant is by authority of 
 parliament, and dated in Michaelmas term, in the ninth year 
 of the reign of Edward IV. (A.D. 1470.) 
 
 Thus the patent makes no mention whatever of the great 
 dangers encountered by the Guernsey men, or of the ten 
 Guernsey men and the five Jersey men who most distinguished 
 themselves at the siege : it is therefore quite evident that 
 Duncan was misled by those who formerly had access to the 
 document, and who so singularly misconstrued, or wilfully 
 misrepresented, its purport. There is, however, very little, 
 if any, doubt that the Guernseymen, perhaps in no great 
 numbers, joined Sir Richard Harliston's squadron, when he 
 sailed from Guernsey to co-operate in the reduction of Mont 
 Orgueil Castle, although the evidence to that effect is rather 
 corroborative than conclusive ; their descendants claimed, in 
 a petition to Lord Carew, about 1610, to have "helped" the 
 people of Jersey in the recovery, and that claim is mentioned 
 in some of the royal charters ; while Durell, in his Notes on 
 Falle, (No. 41, p. 296,) candidly acknowledges that at least 
 one Guernseyman was engaged in the siege, thus : " It ap- 
 pears from an original grant of Sir Richard Harliston, dated 
 September 15, 1479, now in the possession of Mrs. Symonds, 
 of Trinity Manor, that he gave corn and money rents, the 
 former to the amount of 8 qrs. 7 cab. 2s., and the latter to 
 12 groats, 13 sous, 6 deniers, to Perrotine Famget, relict of 
 Philip Johan,^ of Guernsey, for the services he had rendered 
 during the siege for the recovery of Mont Orgueil Castle 
 from the count de Maulevrier. This fact, so honourable to 
 the island [? Jersey or Guernsey] and to Harliston, is not 
 mentioned by any of our historians, or rather chroniclers." 
 
 We have said that the garrison of the castle was starved 
 
 (1) Probably Jehan, which sarname is still existing in Guernsey. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 133 
 
 into a surrender, and therefore we cannot discover that any 
 great credit was due to the besiegers, whether aided by the 
 Guernseymen or not. He who was entitled to the most merit 
 was unquestionably Philip de Carteret, because he prevented 
 the French from obtaining possession of half the island for 
 about six years ; and notwithstanding it is very uncertain 
 whether he ever obtained any reward from the crown for so 
 acceptable a service. His son married the only daughter and 
 heiress of Harliston, who is said to have borne her husband 
 twenty sons.^ This lady and her husband suffered much 
 persecution from the govei-nor and bailly of Jersey ; and 
 Durell observes that " the history of Margaret de Harliston," 
 the wife of Philip de Carteret, " as detailed in the Chronicles 
 of Jersey, wants only the pen of some Walter Scott to give 
 it all the interest of one of the tales of olden times." Har- 
 liston, who was a Yorkite, was also unfortunate in his later 
 years, for, being induced to believe that the person known in 
 the annals of England by the name of Perkin Warbeck was 
 really the duke of York, younger son of Edward IV., he 
 went over to the duchess of Burgundy, who was in Flanders ; 
 but on the failure of Warbeck's enterprise, Harliston remained 
 at the court of that princess, having a few years previously 
 lost his g'overnment of Jersey. A tower built by him in 
 Mont Orgueil Castle long bore his name. 
 
 EDWAED Y. to HENEY YIII. — 1483 to 1547. 
 
 The fate of the two sons of Edward IV., whose sins were 
 visited upon his children, is one of those disputed points of 
 history which will never be cleared up, although the proba- 
 bility is that they were put to death in the tower by order of 
 Richard III., the last of the Plantagenets, whose usurpation 
 endured only from 1483 to 1485. He granted a charter to 
 Guernsey, in which were confirmed all the concessions of 
 preceding monarchs, and he would have been most worthy of 
 the crown, says Southey, had it rightfully devolved to him. 
 Indeed, his character and person are so differently described 
 by different writers, that it is very difficult to form a correct 
 judgment of either the one or the other. 
 
 The earl of Richmond, (afterwards Henry VII.) on his 
 flight to Britany, landed in Jersey, whether designedly, or 
 
 (1) It is generally said that when Charles II. visited Jersey in his exile, a lady, of the 
 name of De Carteret, presented to him her twenty sons, as ready to engage in his service ; 
 and it is added that each of these sons had a sister, so as to make the hearer believe that 
 there were twenty sisters also, whereas there was only one. This anecdote, which evi- 
 dently relates to Margaret de Harliston, is however an anachronism, as all the sons were 
 probably dead at least a century before Charles went to Jersey. 
 
134 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 driven in by contrary wind, is uncertain. From Britany, 
 Richmond embarked, in 1483, with a fleet of forty sail in his 
 first attempt against the usurper ; but the ships were dis- 
 persed by a terrible tempest, some being driven into Nor- 
 mandy, and others compelled to return to Britany. The 
 earl himself, with only one other bark, arrived off the entrance 
 of Poole, and, finding no support there, he proceeded to 
 Normandy. The tempest had been his preservation, for if 
 he had effected a landing after the failure of his confederate 
 the duke of Buckingham, whose head was struck off in the 
 market place of Salisbury, it is probable that he would also 
 have lost his life. Early in August, 1485, Richmond em- 
 barked again at Harfleur, and in a few days landed at Milford 
 Haven with about 5,000 men ; when the victory of Bosworth, 
 and the death of Richard, placed him on the throne, which he 
 filled from 1485 to 1509. Soon after his accession, he granted 
 to Jersey thirty -three articles for the better administration of 
 the existing laws ; and he likewise conferred a charter on 
 Guernsey, in the preamble of which are recorded the services 
 of its inhabitants, some twenty years antecedently, in the 
 expedition to Jersey under Sir Richard Harliston. During 
 his reign, and that of his son and successor, Henry VIII., 
 (1509 to 1547,) the islands remained unmolested. When the 
 latter sovereign introduced the reformed religion into Guern- 
 sey,^ he completed the work commenced by Henry V., and 
 vested in the crown all the tithes of foreign priors and abbots 
 not yet so appropriated. In the fourth year of Henry VIII., 
 (1513,) the parochial school of St Peter-Port was founded 
 by the free gift of Thomas Le Marquant (doubtless Le Mar- 
 quand) and Janette Thelry, his wife, who conveyed "a cer- 
 tain house and garden, being and lying within the said parish, 
 to the northward of, and near to, the chapel of St. Julien, 
 therein to keep and hold a school for the time to come." 
 And they endowed the school with two quarters of wheat 
 rent for the maintenance of a master, who was to teach each 
 scholar, every evening before going home, an anthem of our 
 lady the virgin, the l)e Profundis^ and an Ave Maria, for 
 the repose of the souls of the donors. 
 
 (1) L'h^r^sie faisait dc grands progr^s dans les ties de Jersey, Gnernesey, Serck, Henna 
 et Aurigny, qui devaient bientAt faire schlsme avec leur antique ^glise. Le diocese de Dol 
 8'attribue, mais ii tort, la possession primitive de ces lies, sous le pr^texte qu'elles furent 
 convcrties par Saint Maglolre, ^vCque de Dol. Quelques historiens de Jersey sont dans le 
 mf me sentiment, et ajoutent qu'elles ne furent adjointes au diocese de Coutances que par 
 les dues de Normandie ; mais outre qu'il ne reste aucun souvenir de cette pr^tendue 
 adjonction, 11 est vrai que Guillaumc le Conquerant, ni aucun de ses predi^ccsseurs, 
 n'avaient le droit de ravir k un dioct*se une portion de son terrltoire, pour la donner h. un 
 autre : I'^gllse seule peut faire de tels changemcnts.— i/w/otre dea Ev^quea de Coutances. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 135 
 
 EDWAED y I. — 1547 to 1553. 
 
 In 1549, two years after the accession of Edward VI., the 
 French, with a squadron of eleven galleys containing troops, 
 seized on the little island of Sark, at that time nearly deserted, 
 as the monks and friars, who had been its principal occupants, 
 had retired to France about the year 1349. Having garri- 
 soned the island with nearly 400 men under Captain Bruel, 
 they sailed over to Guernsey in the night, hoping to surprise 
 it ; but Captain Winter's ships, then lying in the roadstead, 
 fired into the enemy, as did the artillery at Castle Cornet. 
 The roaring of the cannon roused the townspeople, and news 
 of the attempted invasion was hastily spread through the 
 country. The whole population was quickly under arms, 
 and a division of the enemy, which had landed under cover 
 of the darkness, was bravely repulsed and driven to their 
 boats. This ill success, however, did not deter them from 
 trying their fortune in Jersey, where they met with a similar 
 reception, being obliged to retire, and having sustained a 
 heavy loss in the two actions. The English government, 
 having notice of the intended attack, had sent over Captain 
 Winter with 800 men to reinforce the islanders. The capture 
 of Sark was probably the cause why Sir Leonard Chamber- 
 layne, governor of Guernsey, caused some additional works 
 to be raised on Castle Cornet. In the Chroniques de Jersey,^ 
 it is stated that the French garrison of Sark, getting tired of 
 its seclusion, nearly all left the island in the course of five or 
 six years, although they had erected two fortresses, one at the 
 north, near the Eperquerie, in Great Sark, and the other near 
 the Coupee., in Little Sark, the site and form of the latter 
 being still very distinct. Heylin and Southey observe that 
 when Sark was taken, it had only a poor hermitage, with a 
 little chapel appertaining to it, the isle itself serving as a 
 common to the people of Guernsey for breeding their cattle. 
 
 In this reign, differences arose among the English Protest- 
 ants, because the Lutherans continued crucifixes and images 
 with tapers and priestly vestments, while the Calvinists sought 
 to eradicate them as the remains of popery ; and the death of 
 Edward probably prevented a nearer approach in the Angli- 
 can church to that of Geneva, both in ceremonial and disci- 
 pline. During the persecutions of Mary, the Protestant 
 clergy took refuge in Germany and Switzerland, and were 
 kindly received by the Calvinists ; but the Lutheran divines 
 
 (r " Chroniques de Jersey," par George S. Syvret. Guernesey, 1832, 
 
136 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 both neglected and insulted them. When the accession of 
 EHzabeth recalled the exiles, the Calvinists were mortified 
 to find that the queen was not their friend, and that the 
 Lutherans were to be in the ascendant. 
 
 MARY.— 1553 to 1558. 
 Sark was recovered in this reign by a singular stratagem, 
 of which there are some variations in the relation ; but that 
 of Sir Walter Raleigh best accords with popular tradition. 
 Sir Walter states that Sark could never have been recovered 
 by strong hand, having cattle and corn sufficient for as many 
 men as were requisite for its defence, and being so inaccessible 
 that it might be held against the Grand Turk ; yet, by the 
 ingenuity of a gentleman of the Netherlands, it was regained. 
 Anchoring off the island with one ship, he pretended that the 
 merchant, who had freighted it, had died on board ; and he 
 besought permission of the French to bury him in consecrated 
 ground, in the chapel, offering them in return a present of 
 such commodities as he had with him. This request was 
 granted, on condition of the Flemings not landing armed 
 with any weapon, not so much even as a knife ; which being 
 assented to, a coffin, containing, not a corpse, but swords, 
 targets, and arquebusses, was put into the boat. The French, 
 who, says Southey,^ were some thirty in number, received the 
 mourners on their landing, and searched every one of them 
 so narrowly, that they could not have concealed a penknife. 
 The coffin was drawn up the rocks with some difficulty. 
 Part of the French, meanwhile, took the boat of the Flem- 
 ings, and rowed to their ship to receive the promised com- 
 modities ; but, as soon as they got on board, they were seized 
 and bound. The Flemings on shore, after having carried the 
 coffin into the chapel, shut the door, and, taking out the 
 weapons, fell upon the French, who ran down to the beach, 
 and called to their companions on board the vessel to return 
 to their assistance ; but when the boat landed, it was filled 
 with Flemings, who, uniting with their countrymen, recap- 
 tured the island. It is proper however to add, that accord- 
 ing to the Chroniques de Jersey just cited, Sark was retaken, 
 
 (1) "Raleigh's Hist, of the World, book iv. eh. 2, s. 18. Hakewell's Apologj', 258. 
 Heylin's Survey, 296. ' Thus,* says Sir Walter, • a fox-tail doth sometimes help well to 
 piece out the lion's skin, that else would be too short.' The archdeacon calls it a strata- 
 gem, ♦ in his judgment matchable to any that ever yet he heard of.' And Peter Hcylin 
 says it is ' to be compared, if not preferred, unto any of the ancients, did not that fatal 
 folly reprehended once by Tacitus still reign amongst us, quod Vetera extoUimtis, recentium 
 incuriosi.* It was, however, no new stratagem ; nor ought any stratagem ever to be 
 recorded with approbation, in which the generosity or the humanity of an enemy has 
 been abused." — Southey. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 137 
 
 not by stratagem, but by some Dutch ships, which came to 
 Guernsey to make war on the French ; and sending their 
 boats in the night with a few Guernseymen, as guides, the 
 crews landed on Little Sark, and surprised the Frenchmen 
 asleep in their beds. — This second account is more probable. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, Sir Hugh Paulet, governor of Jersey, 
 in order that the French might not return to Sark, caused 
 the fortresses to be razed to the ground, and again was the 
 island left uninhabited. In spite of this, however, the French 
 thought it worth making one more attempt to regain an island 
 which might prove of future advantage to them in the Chan- 
 nel. The seigneur of Glatney, in Normandy, seeing how it 
 had been lost by Captain Bruel without any defence, and 
 that the island was without inhabitants, preferred a petition 
 to the king of France, that, if it were granted to him and to 
 his heirs, he would colonize it at his own expense. The grant 
 was made, and a number of persons were sent by the seigneur 
 of Glatney to the isle of Sark to inhabit it ; but his scheme 
 was defeated ; for, not long after, war broke out between the 
 queen of England and the king of France, in consequence of 
 which the new settlers returned to their country, leaving the 
 island as they found it. 
 
 The commencement of Mary's reign was advantageous to 
 Guernsey, for she had not been six months on the throne 
 when, on the inhabitants representing the scarcity of provi- 
 sions and other necessaries, a royal patent, dated 18th of 
 December, 1553, was issued, permitting them to import a 
 sufficient quantity from England, as well for the island as for 
 Castle Cornet, without payment of any export duty. The 
 queen also confirmed the privilege of neutrality by an in- 
 speximus of the bull of pope Pius IV. During the short 
 reign of Edward VI., the English Protestant Liturgy, trans- 
 lated into French, was used in the churches, and the mass 
 abolished in the islands ; but the former was suspended, and 
 the latter revived, under Mary, by whom the re-establishment 
 of popery in England was unquestionably acceptable to great 
 numbers, if not to a majority, of the people, who had been so 
 averse to the reformation that German troops are said to have 
 been sent from Calais to impose protestantism upon them. 
 We cannot discover in what spirit the reformed religion was 
 at first received in the bailiwick of Guernsey ; but this much 
 we know, that the dean and parochial clergy, and the Royal 
 Court, appear to have been the too submissive instruments of 
 Mary ; and it is probable that, as in England, the change 
 
138 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 was far more acceptable to the lower than to the higher 
 classes, the latter of whom have in all times, and in all coun- 
 tries, ever looked upon their consequence as bound up with 
 the ancient state church establishment. 
 
 It was in this reign, on the 18th of July, 1556, that a 
 mother and her two daughters were burnt for heresy in St. 
 Peter-Port, Guernsey, and their cruel fate, with that of an 
 infant martyr, has obtained a melancholy historical celebrity. 
 One of the daughters was married to a minister, named Massy, 
 who had fled the island in these dangerous times, and at her 
 execution she was in the last stage of pregnancy. In the 
 anguish of her torments, she is said to have brought forth a 
 living male child, who was instantly snatched from the flames 
 by one of the by-standers, and, on the command of the bailiff, 
 cast into them again ; " so that pretty babe," remarks Heylin, 
 " was born a martyr, and added to the number of the holy 
 innocents." — The women were condemned by the ecclesias- 
 tical court, the sentences of which the civil court was bound 
 to execute. As the whole of this atrocious proceeding has 
 been denied by some Roman Catholics, while others have 
 urged " that the mother, by concealing her pregnancy, was 
 the real cause of her child's death, which, however, happened 
 previously to the burning of its body by the executioner," 
 it is necessary to add, that the judicial sentence still exists in 
 the archives of the Royal Court of Guernsey ; but, if one act 
 of brutality can justify another, it is some slight extenuation 
 that, scarcely three years before, the great Protestant re- 
 former, Calvin, was the cause of Michael Servetus being 
 burnt alive for Arianism,^ and that this was the age of reli- 
 gious persecution, which ever engenders cruelty. Suffice it to 
 add, that Sir Isaac Newton was an Arian, and that Constan- 
 tine the Great — who is said to have seen a cross in the sky, 
 with an inscription in Greek, signifying " Bij this conquer'' (?) 
 — first persecuted the Arians, and afterwards inclined to their 
 opinions. There must have been sufficient evidence of the 
 pregnancy, and certain it is that no woman would conceal it 
 in such an extremity. Foxe, in his " Ecclesiasticall Histo- 
 rie," London, 1641, gives many interesting documents rela- 
 tive to this " tragicall, lamentable, and pitifull historie," and 
 thus describes the execution : " The time then being come 
 when these three good servants and holy saints of God, the 
 innocent mother with her two daughters, should suffer ; in 
 
 (I) "Thus the death of Servetus has weighed down the name and memory of Calvin,"— 
 UalUim. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 139 
 
 the place, where they should consummate their martyrdom, 
 were three stakes set up. At the middle post was tho mother, 
 the eldest daughter on the right hand, the youngest on the 
 other. They were first strangled, but the rope brake before 
 they were dead, and so the poor women fell in the fire." 
 He next relates that " Perotine," (Massy,) who was then 
 great with child, "did fall on her side, where happened a 
 ruefuU sight," the birth of the infant, who was quickly snatch- 
 ed from the flames, and " laid upon the grasse. Then was 
 the childe had to the prevost, and from him to the bayliffe, 
 who gave censure that it should be carried back againe, and 
 cast into the fire." Foxe distinctly mentions that the poor 
 women were confined in Castle Cornet, " commandment 
 being given to the king's officers to go to the castle to fetch 
 the said women, to hear the sentence against them." After 
 the death of Mary, in 1558, the inhuman dean, James Amy, was 
 committed to prison, and dispossessed of his living, while the 
 bailiff and jurats sued for and obtained the pardon of queen 
 Elizabeth. The ecclesiastical sentence is in Latin, the judicial 
 one in French ; and the latter states that the poor women 
 " sont condampnees et adjugies de estre bruslees et arses au 
 jour d'huy, jusques a consumation de cendre, au lyeu accous- 
 tumey, avvecqz conffiscation de tons leurs biens-meubles et 
 heritages a la main de notre sire le roy et la roigne, accordant 
 et selon I'effect de une sentence delyvree en justice de p. 
 monssieur le doyen et les cures, le xiiije. jour du moes de 
 Juillet, en I'an susdit, en laquelle ils ont estey aprouvees 
 heretiques." Doctor Heylin says, in reference to this frightful 
 tragedy : " Katharine Gowches, a poor woman of St. Peter- 
 Port, in Guernsey, was noted to be much absent from the 
 church, and her two daughters guilty of the same neglect. 
 Upon this they were presented before James Amy, then dean 
 of the island, who, finding in them that they held opinions 
 contrary to those then allowed, about the sacrament of the 
 altar, pronounced them heretics, and condemned them to the 
 fire. The poor women, on the other side, pleaded for them- 
 selves, that that doctrine had been taught them in the time of 
 king Edward ; but if the queen was otherwise disposed, they 
 were content to be of her religion. This was fair, but it 
 would not serve ; for by the dean they were delivered unto 
 Helier Gosselin, then bailiff, and by him unto the fire," &:c. 
 It has been doubted whether an infant could be born alive 
 under such circumstances, but we are assured by competent 
 medical authority that the case is very possible. 
 
140 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 In July, 1558, during Mary's life, lord Clinton put to sea 
 with a stout fleet, and, landing 7,000 men in Lower Britany, 
 took the town of Conquet, near Brest, but soon after re-em- 
 barked. On the return of the fleet to England, it was joined 
 by a squadron of thirty Spanish ships, when the admiral was 
 induced to attempt the taking of Brest ; but arriving on the 
 coast of Britany a second time, he found the whole of the 
 country in arms, and was constrained to abandon the enter- 
 prize. On his passage from England to Britany, lord Clinton 
 came by Guernsey, and there took on board many of the 
 inhabitants as pilots, mariners, and others, of whom he after- 
 wards made a favorable report. 
 
 Heylin, speaking of Alderney, says: "The chief house 
 herein belongeth unto the Chamberlains, as also the dominion 
 or the farm of all the island, it being granted by queen 
 Elizabeth unto George, the son of Sir Leonard Chamberlain, 
 then governor of Guernsey, by whose valour it was recovered 
 from the French, who in queen Mary's days had seized upon 
 it." We have been unable to ascertain any particulars of 
 this capture beyond the fact, that about the year 1610 the inha- 
 bitants of Guernsey, in their petition to lord Carew, claimed 
 to have assisted in driving the French from Alderney, whence 
 they brought some hundred prisoners to Guernsey, where 
 they were kept for a long time in prison. 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 ELIZABETH.— 1558 to 1603. 
 
 Elizabeth received the tidings of her accession to the throne 
 at Hatfield, where she had resided for several years in mild 
 custody, but under the watchful eye of a guard. Having 
 thus been schooled in adversity, nothing can excuse her after 
 her unwomanly treatment of Mary. Her long and otherwise 
 glorious rule was, however, very beneficial to these islands, 
 and the more so as she had scarcely any war with France. 
 In the first year of her reign, she confirmed the ancient privi- 
 leges of Guernsey in an inspeximus of several charters granted 
 by her royal predecessors ; and soon afterwards she issued a 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 141 
 
 patent to the same effect, the most ample that had yet been 
 conceded, wherein the privilege of neutrality is distinctly 
 expressed to extend as far as the eye can reach from any of 
 the islands. Elizabeth's charter was also confirmed by par- 
 liament in the following words, which conclude it : " Per 
 ipsam reginam, et de data proedicta, auctoritate parliament! : 
 By the queen herself with the sanction of parliament at the 
 above-mentioned date." 
 
 Many of the Protestant ministers in France, flying from 
 the cruel persecutions of the civil wars in that country, during 
 the reign of Elizabeth, took sanctuary in these islands ; and 
 their education and preaching being very superior to those of 
 the officiating clergy, the new discipline, which was similar to 
 that of Calvin, at Geneva, and which they practised, was 
 quickly introduced by them into St. Peter-Port, in Guernsey, 
 and St. Helier, in Jersey, whence it soon extended into the 
 rural parishes of both islands. Queen Elizabeth, by an order, 
 in the year 1565, sanctioned the innovation in the two town 
 parishes only, " provided always that the residue of the 
 parishes in the said isles shall diligently put apart all super- 
 stitions used in the said diocese, (Coutances,) and so continue 
 there the order of services ordained and set forth within this 
 realm." This permission was the more extraordinary because 
 the queen was personally averse to the simple worship of the 
 Presbyterians, and retained in her own chapel not only images, 
 but the crucifix with lighted tapers before it, although the 
 ecclesiastical visitors of 1559 were ordered to have all these 
 symbols removed from the churches.^ To the marriage of 
 the clergy, Elizabeth manifested so decided a repugnance, 
 that she never would repeal the statute of her sister Mary 
 against it, and it was only in the first year of James that it 
 was rescinded. In consequence, the Protestant bishops and 
 clergy, who married by connivance or by an ungracious per- 
 mission, were justly irritated at seeing their children treated 
 by the law as illegitimate. Elizabeth, after being sumptu- 
 ously entertained by archbishop Parker at Lambeth, thus 
 took leave of his wife : " Madam (the style of a married 
 lady) I may not call you ; Mistress (that of a single woman) 
 I am loath to call you ; but, however, I thank you for your 
 good cheer." — A dislike to innovation and dissent is perhaps 
 natural to an established clergy ; and Falle, who from the 
 
 (1) "Those who have visited some catholic temples, and attended to the current Ian- 
 guage of devotion, must have perceived, what the writings of apologists or decrees of 
 councils will never enable them to discover, that the saints, but more especially the Virgin, 
 are almost exclusively the popular deities of that religion."— Ha/Zawi. 
 
142 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 poor rector of St. Saviour, Jersey, became a prebendary of 
 Durham, and incumbent of the richly endowed living of 
 Shenley, near St. Alban's, * thus states the result in Jersey of 
 Elizabeth's permission : but great allowance must be made 
 for his high church bias : 
 
 "I am ashamed to say how the queen's gracious concession 
 was abused. The establishment in the other churches, so ex- 
 pressly fenced and guarded by her royal command, was daily 
 undermined. The people were taught to dislike in it, now one 
 thing, and then another. By degrees the very native clergy 
 suffered themselves to be led away with prejudices against it, or 
 perhaps to comply with what they could not help. So that in 
 few years all church order appointed by authority was subverted 
 throughout the island. The like was done in Guernezey, whither 
 a duplicate of the same letter as above, mutatis mutandis^ had 
 been sent to as little purpose. They who had it in their power, 
 and whose duty it was, to have checked these novelties, to wit, 
 the governor in each island. Sir Amias Paulet, in Jersey, and 
 Sir Thomas Leighton in Guernezey, were the most forward to 
 encourage them ; whether out of principle, or affectation of 
 popularity, or a mean view of self-interest in the suppression 
 of the deaneries,^ which of course must fall with the establish- 
 ment, I will not determine. Perhaps all these might concur 
 together. And now every thing being ripe for a thorough change, 
 and new laws for an ecclesiastical regimen, excluding episcopacy 
 and liturgy, ready concerted and prepared, a synod of the 
 ministers and elders of all the islands was called to meet at the 
 town of St. Peter-Port, in Guernezey; where, in presence of 
 both governors, those laws received the sanction which such an 
 assembly could give, and were set forth under this title: Police 
 et discipline eccUsiastique des eylises reformees h isles de Jersey 
 et de Guernezey^ Serk^ et Oriny, arrestees et conchies d'un 
 commun accord par messieurs les gouverneurs des dites isles, et 
 les ministres et anciens, assembles an synode tenu Guernezey, 
 au nom. de toutes les dites eglises, le 2Se jour du mois de Juin, 
 Van 1576: i.e. *The ecclesiastical polily and discipline of the 
 reformed churches in the islands of Jersey and Guernezey, 
 Serk, and Oriny, unanimously concluded and agreed upon by 
 the governors of the said islands, and the ministers and elders, 
 
 (1) The fulsome dedication of his History of Jersey to William III. grives rise to the 
 suspicion that Mr. Falle owed his English preferment to fawning: and (lattery. 
 
 (2) " The deans had an allowance out of the tithes, which was a drawback upon the revenue' 
 So much saving, therefore, thfre would he to the governors by the suppression of the deaneries.*^ 
 
 To this remark of Mr. Falle, Mr. Durcll adds : "John Pawlet, a brother of Sir Hugh 
 Pawlet, was the last catholic dean, and died in 1565 ; so that from his death to the esta- 
 blishment of Mr. Bandinel into that ofhce, there had elapsed a space of almost sixty years. 
 Dr. Shebbeare has adopted the same opinion, that it was from a motive of economy that 
 the governors encouraged the suppression of the deaneries. There are, however, no 
 good reasons nor any documents remainiug to warrant such a suppositioD.*' 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 143 
 
 assembled at the synod held at Giiernezey, in the name of all the 
 said churches, on the 28th day of the month of June, in the 
 year 1576/ 
 
 *' Thus were we drawn to depart from that union with the 
 Church of England, which was our happiness and our g:lory, to 
 let in presbytery ; of which after a time we grew no less weary 
 than we were fond of it before, as will be shewn by and by." 
 
 In 1563, two years before the date of Elizabeth's permission 
 just mentioned. Sir Francis Chamberlayne, governor of Guern- 
 sey, had allowed the clergy to appoint elders and deacons, 
 and form themselves into a consistory, which met every 
 Thursday, the governor, bailiff, and some of the jurats, being 
 members of it. Warburton says : 
 
 " An alliance was made between them and the consistory of 
 Jersey, of which Mr. Amias Paulett, then governor of Jersey, 
 was a member ; and it was agreed between them, that a synod 
 should be held, at least once every year, in each island alternately, 
 for the regulation of the affairs of the churches in both islands. 
 The first of these synods was held in Guernsey, on the 28th of 
 June, 1564, of which John After, who had the title of dean of 
 Guernsey, was a member, but did not preside, nor had he any 
 other power or authority than the rest of the synod ; nor does it 
 appear that he performed any sort of ecclesiastical function in the 
 island as a minister. The probate of wills he retained, and there are 
 yet some to be seen under the seal of his office ; and the same course 
 was continued till Mr. John De Vic's time, who was the king's 
 procureur, about the year 1607. On the 1st of September, 1564, 
 by the desire of the governor of Jersey, and others of that 
 island, Nicholas Baudouin [who came from Normandy, and was 
 one of the first, and for some time the only presbyterian minister] 
 was, by the consent of the consistory of Guernsey, permitted to go 
 for two months to officiate in Jersey, where it seems at that time 
 they had never a minister; and Adrian Saravia, a Fleming, settled 
 as an assistant to Baudouin, in the parish of St. Peter-Port, 
 Guernsey. The revenues of the church of that parish were taken 
 into the hands of the consistory, to be by them distributed for 
 the use of the church. A synod held in Guernsey, on the 22d of 
 September, 1567, did depute some of their members to attend the 
 bishop of Winchester, and so did a synod, held on the 1st of June, 
 1568, at which time they call him their bishop, although the order 
 for uniting the island to the see of Winchester bears date the March 
 after. In their synod, held in 1567, they took upon themselves 
 to impose, not only pecuniary mulcts and fines, but corporal 
 punishment upon such as should be found guilty of several crimes 
 there mentioned ; but being better advised, in the synod held on 
 the 12th of September, 1569, they ordered that all crimes should 
 
144 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 be first punished by the civil magistrate, and then the church 
 shall take order; and that no pecuniary fines should be imposed 
 by the consistory. In the same synod they ordered, that the 
 articles of that and former synods, concerning church govern- 
 ment, should be drawn up in form and presented to the bishop of* 
 Winchester, by the dean of Guernsey, in the name of all the 
 islands, and, together with these articles, those of the government 
 of the French reformed churches in London. At a synod held 
 in Sark, in 1570, they again made an order, that although the 
 civil magistrate should neglect the due punishment of ofi'enders, 
 yet the church shall proceed against them. Whereupon Nicholas 
 Carey, the younger, a member of the consistory of Guernsey, 
 absented himself from their meetings ; and being summoned to 
 show his reasons, gave this for the cause : that they trenched 
 upon the civil jurisdiction ; in which he persisting, was discharged 
 from being a member of their consistory. At a synod held on 
 the 14th and loth of September, 1575, they made an order that 
 a minister, not having a sufficient maintenance for himself and 
 family from one parish, may receive a pension from another; 
 that, in the country parishes, children may be baptised on the 
 week days, provided there be first a sermon, according to the 
 appointment of Jesus Christ. Matthew xxviii. In the consistory of 
 St. Peter-Port, November 13, 1578, they order that there shall not, 
 at any time, be an assembly of the people for prayers only ; but 
 whensoever they assemble there shall always be a sermon. In 
 the synod held in Guernsey, June 20, 1576, a complete form of 
 ecclesiastical discipline was agreed upon, to be observed in all 
 the islands, perfectly agreeable to the presbyterian way. And 
 the same discipline was again reviewed and confirmed in another 
 synod, in October, 1579." 
 
 The queen — well knowing that the islanders had incurred 
 the enmity of the French court by the retreat which they 
 afforded to great numbers of Protestants from France, in- 
 cluding some of the highest rank — strengthened both 
 Jersey and Guernsey by additional fortifications. In the 
 former island, an upper ward and other works were added to 
 the unfinished castle, which took, and still bears, her name ; 
 and in the latter, a new battery was ordered to be erected 
 on the north-east part of Castle Cornet. Her majesty ex- 
 horted her faithful subjects in Guernsey to continue, according 
 to custom, their labour in the carriage of stone, sand, and 
 other necessaries, at convenient days and times, to strengthen 
 the fortifications of the castle. This important work was not 
 completed until the 12th of August, 1594, when an early day 
 was appointed for its consecration ; and Sir Thomas Leighton, 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 145 
 
 governor, the bailiff and jurats, the clergy, and other principal 
 inhabitants, were present. The company being assembled, 
 they commenced the ceremonial with prayer, and specially 
 implored God's protection for the safety of the castle ; after 
 which the governor named the new works, the " Royal Bat- 
 tery," which name was followed by a general discharge of 
 cannon. Other works were also erected by the preceding 
 governor. Chamberlain, or Chamberlayne ; and it is evident 
 that anterior to Elizabeth, the castle, was a fortress of com- 
 paratively little strength. " In her time," according to Hey- 
 lin, " such improvements were made to Castle Cornet, that 
 for strength and beauty it yielded to none throughout the 
 queen's dominions." 
 
 Nor was the vigilance of Elizabeth limited to Guernsey 
 only, whose security depended upon that of the adjacent 
 islands ; therefore, in order to prevent Sark from being again 
 surprised by the enemy, as it had before been from want of 
 inhabitants, she granted it, in 1564, to Helier de Carteret, 
 seigneur of St. Ouen, in Jersey, to be held by him and his 
 heirs in perpetuity, at a yearly rent of 50 sols tournois, on 
 condition that he let it out in forty different tenements, that 
 there might be at least as many men to repel any sudden 
 attack. Accompanied by his wife, Avho appears to have been 
 a woman of great courage and capacity, the seigneur removed 
 to Sark ; and as there was no house to receive them, they 
 contented themselves with the ruins of a little chapel, until 
 one, covered with fern, was constructed. Their suite, con- 
 sisting chiefly of husbandmen and servants, proceeded to clear 
 and cultivate the ground, which was overspread with thorns 
 and brambles. Every thing required was brought from 
 Jersey with infinite toil and trouble, there being no harbour 
 in Sark. The original grantee — who was probably thus re- 
 warded for the services of his ancestor in defence of Jersey, 
 exactly a century before — sold, in 1567, for a trifling rent, to 
 his "very dear friend," so termed in the deed of sale, Nicholas 
 Gosselin,^ of Guernsey, the lands of Beauregard in Sark, 
 with the right of sporting, on condition that he caused four 
 men to reside on the said lands as long as he, the said Gosselin, 
 and his heirs remained on the island. For several generations, 
 the de Carterets held the seigneury ; and the capitulation 
 made by the royalists of Jersey, in 1651, expressed "that it 
 shall be left to the parhament's good pleasure to allow the 
 
 (I) The said Nicholas Gosselin was one of the clerks of the council to queen Elizabeth, 
 and sworn, in 1565, a jurat of the Royal Court of Guernsey. He married Peronelle, 
 daughter of Louis Lempri^re, bailiff of Jersey. 
 L 
 
146 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 seigneur of St. Ouen to compound for the island of Sark." 
 In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Sark passed iuto 
 the family of Milner, bishop of Gloucester, from whom it was 
 purchased, in 1730, by Mrs. Susanna Le Gros, through whom 
 by marriage it vested, in 1738, in tlie Guernsey family of 
 Le Pelley. Peter Le Pelley, the seigneur, and late jurat of 
 the Royal Court of Guernsey, was drowned with the boat's 
 crew, in sight of the people of Sark, just after he had impru- 
 dently embarked for Guernsey in a gale, on the 1st of March, 
 1839. In 1852, the seigneury was transferred by purchase 
 to Mrs. T. G. Collings, of Guernsey, and is now the property 
 of her only son, the Rev. W. T. Collings, M. A. Sir Philip 
 de Carteret — appointed bailiff of Jersey in 1626, which office 
 he held at the commencement of the civil war — was born at 
 his father's residence, in Sark, in February, 1583-4 : he was 
 educated at Oxford, and, in point of family and fortune, was 
 the first personage in Jersey. He died while besieged in 
 Elizabeth Castle, in August, 1643, aged fifty-nine, and his 
 wife expired at Mont Orgueil Castle, in January following. 
 
 In 1563, Elizabeth founded a school in St. Peter-Port, out 
 of which has grown Elizabeth College. In the year 1826, the 
 present huge structure bearing that name, so disproportionate 
 to the limited extent and requirements of the island, was 
 commenced; and in very bad taste, as, in place of the build- 
 ing being covered over with cement, it should have been 
 made smaller, and faced with the fine blue granite of the 
 island, cut for the purpose. The style should, moreover, 
 have been Elizabethean, in compliment to the founder. The 
 property with which the original school was endowed belonged 
 to a fraternity of Cordeliers ; ' but the period at which that 
 religious institution was abandoned is doubtful, for it is not 
 clear whether it escheated to the crown, when the priors 
 aliens were banished by Henry V., or by virtue of the acts 
 of parliament passed during the reigns of Henry VIII. and 
 Edward VI., by which the Roman Catholic establishments 
 and lands were forfeited to the crown. The church of the 
 Cordeliers, or grey, or mendicant friars, stood opposite the 
 entrance of the Cimetiere des Freres, on the ground now 
 occupied by stables, and seems to have been used for a few 
 years as the school-room of Elizabeth, as well as the residence 
 
 'I) " Richard H. y fnnda un couvent de Cordeliers, Ih oii est maintenant le CoU^Re 
 Elisabeth ; c'est realise de ces religieux qui sert rt'eglise paroissiale k la vilie. LVv»»que 
 de Porphyre, Guillaume Chevron, y coDf^ra les ordres en 1497."— '^it^oire des Eviquea de 
 Coutancet. This extract is incorrect. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 147 
 
 of the master. Besides the temple or church, and a ^Tant of 
 land which was anciently " encompassed by a cloister," eighty 
 quarters of wheat rent belonging to the crown were assigned 
 to the school. The college has at present (1853) annual 
 prizes to the amount of £114. 12s., and two exhibitions, viz. 
 the Queen's of £30, and lord de Saumarez's of £15 — together 
 nearly £160 a year ; and yet, notwithstanding these advan- 
 tages, the number of scholars has of late years averaged only 
 about 100, and is now rather less. This is the more singular, 
 because Inglis wrote, in 1834 : '• Elizabeth College, under its 
 present management, offers advantages for the instruction of 
 youth, not perhaps to be found in any public seminary else- 
 w^iere." There has been no essential change in the system of 
 education since that time, and the college stands high, we 
 believe, both at Oxford and Cambridge ; but there are now 
 far fewer strangers in the island, and the natives, whose chil- 
 dren are not intended for the university, complain that classics 
 are too much the rule, and other acquirements the exception. 
 —It is indeed to be regretted that living languages and the 
 physical sciences are not more taught in every seminary. 
 
 The following is a summary of the regulations, passed 
 September 27, 1563, for the establishment of the school : 
 
 " 1. The school to he called the School of Queen Eb'zabeth. 
 
 "2. The church and cemetery of the Cordeliers, with twenty- 
 six perches of ground on the north side, and thirty perches on the 
 south side, ^iven for the building of the school. 
 
 "3. To the westward of the church, it is ordered that there 
 be a playground for the pupils, and to the eastward, a garden 
 for the master. 
 
 *'4. A marble statue of the queen, with the arms of England, 
 to be placed over the gate.^ 
 
 *'5. The free use of the public wells and pumps guaranteed to 
 the school. 
 
 *' 6. Ei*ihty quarters of wheat rent assigned to the master. 
 
 '*7. Defines the duty of the master, and enumerates his qua- 
 lifications. 
 
 *'8. The school is open at seven in the morning during sum- 
 mer, and at eight in winter ; to close at eleven. 
 
 *'9. Afternoon school from one to five. 
 
 ** 10. If the master neglect his duties, after having been three 
 times warned by the dean, or if he be guilty of crime or immo- 
 rality, he is to be dismissed by the governor or his lieutenant, 
 and another master appointed in his stead. 
 
 (1) The aims only appear to have been placed over the gate. 
 
148 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 " 11. Pupils inadmissible, unless they can read perfectly and 
 repeat the catechism. 
 
 ** 12. When a pupil is presented for admission, the master is 
 to exhort him and his parents to pray for queen Elizabeth. 
 
 " 13. The pupil shall be warned before his friends of his duty 
 towards the master, and to avoid idleness, negligence, and too 
 great an indulgence to play. 
 
 " 14. If the scholar be incorrigible, the master, having called 
 together his relations, is to bring him before the dean, who is 
 ordered to reprimand him severely ; and if, after having been 
 three times reprimanded, he does not amend his conduct, then he 
 is to be expelled from the school." 
 
 The first master of Elizabeth school was Dr. Adrian Saravia, 
 a native of Artois, and of Spanish extraction : having em- 
 braced the Protestant faith, he was driven from his country, 
 and sought refuge in Guernsey. He afterwards settled in 
 England, where he obtained a canonry of Canterbury, as well 
 as the friendship of the judicious Hooker, whom he attended 
 on his death-bed. In consequence of his superior attain- 
 ments, Dr. Saravia was among those to whom, in the reign 
 of James I., was entrusted the task of preparing what is to 
 this day the authorized translation of the Bible. He died in 
 1611. — Another eminent master of Elizabeth school was Dr. 
 Isaac Basire, said to have been born in Jersey in 1607 ; but 
 the place of his nativity is doubtful, as is that of his early 
 education. His first public employment was in the office 
 just mentioned, in Guernsey ; subsequently to which he be- 
 came officiating chaplain to the bishop of Durham, who gave 
 him the rectory of Stanhope and the vicarage of Egglescliff, 
 both in the county of Durham. He obtained other high 
 preferments, and was made chaplain to Charles I., with whom 
 he was shut up in the castle of Carlisle during the siege of 
 that city, and suffered confinement for some time in Stockton. 
 In 1646, he travelled through Syria and Palestine ; and, on 
 his return to Europe, was made professor of divinity in Tran- 
 sylvania, where he remained seven years. During his stay 
 of several months at Aleppo, he had frequent conferences 
 with the patriarch of Antioch, and there he translated the 
 Church Catechism into Arabic. In 1652, he was at Jeru- 
 salem ; and in Palestine he preached the doctrine of the Cross, 
 and proclaimed the Gospel to the benighted Jews. On his 
 arrival at Constantinople, he was invited by the French Pro- 
 testants to become their minister, with a liberal stipend ; but, 
 as they wore Calvinists, and he a zealous Anglican, he appears 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 149 
 
 to liave declined the charge. After the restoration, he was 
 recalled by Charles II., who made him his chaplain, and 
 reinstated him in the preferments he had lost, of which the 
 prebend of Durham was the principal. He wrote some reli- 
 gious pieces and an account of his travels ; and, dying in 1676, 
 was buried in the yard of the cathedral of Durham, where 
 a tomb was erected over his grave, with a Latin epitaph. 
 
 Duncan, on very insufficient authority, observes, "that 
 private affection, as well as public policy, might have induced 
 Elizabeth to exercise so much kindness to Guernsey, she 
 being very closely connected with the ancestors of the ])resent 
 Carey family, so numerous and respectable in the island," 
 because her mother's sister, Mary Boleyn, was married to a 
 Carey, who " was raised to the honor of knighthood ; but, 
 after Anne Boleyn was beheaded, Carey lost his title and per- 
 quisites, and became a poor man." Duncan adds, that 
 " when EHzabeth came to the throne, she did not forget her 
 cousins," one of whom, " Nicholas Carey, was appointed 
 receiver of her majesty's rents in Guernsey, and one of the 
 commissioners for the erection of the grammar school which 
 she endowed." — "This fact," says Duncan, "is worthy of 
 being recorded, as the Careys are the only family in the 
 island which can connect themselves with the blood royal of 
 England ; nor can there be any doubt on the point, as the 
 arms of the Careys are quartered with those of EUzabeth in 
 Westminster Abbey." Now, as the author of this work is 
 nearly related to one branch of the Careys of Guernsey, he 
 feels the more called upon to state, with a due regard to 
 historical truth, that they never had the most distant connec- 
 tion with the blood royal of England — not more so, in fact, 
 than any Irish cottier of the same name. The similarity of 
 the arms, if true, proves nothing, as every one knows how 
 easily these are assumed ; and probably every Howard in 
 the world considers himself entitled to bear the same coat as 
 the duke of Norfolk. We have shewn in the third chapter 
 that a de Cary was one of the Norman seigneurs who accom- 
 panied William at the Conquest ; and we have little doubt 
 that the ancestor of the Careys of Guernsey came over to the 
 island direct from Normandy. There was a Caree in Guern- 
 sey in the year 1331, or above two centuries anterior to 
 Elizabeth ; and thus the name was usually spelt until the 
 reign of Henry VII. Indeed, there were Carees, or Carey es, 
 or Careys, in the island much earlier, if we can credit the 
 
150 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Dedicace des Eglises, already quoted, it being therein men- 
 tioned that a Careye, captain of the parish, was present at the 
 consecration of the church of Torleval,^ in the year 1130! 
 But as no two old copies of the Dedicace agree, there were 
 probably many interpolations of names by persons wishing to 
 establish the antiquity of their families in Guernsey. Falle 
 says that the queen, well knowing the temper of the French, 
 "resolved to enlarge her royal care" of these islands, and he 
 extols her concern for the security and tranquillity of Jersey ; 
 so that her " kindness" was not confined to Guernsey. The 
 two appointments which Nicholas Carey held were doubtless 
 made by the governor, without the slightest suggestion of, or 
 reference to, his royal mistress. So far from any Guernsey 
 family being connected with royalty, or even with nobility, 
 until the recent creation of the barony of " De Saumarez," 
 the naked truth is, that the upper classes belong to what in 
 England would be termed the middle orders of society, be- 
 cause fortunately the equal division of property pi-events that 
 marked difference of rank which exists in Great Britain and 
 Ireland. The Anglo-Normans should be proud of this com- 
 parative equality, as surely that state of life is most favorable 
 to virtue and happiness which is not exposed to the tempta- 
 tions either of great wealth or of extreme poverty. The poet, 
 Cowley, who was secretary to lord Jermyn, governor of 
 Jersey, and who visited that island during the civil war, is 
 said to have intended the followhig lines for the small landed 
 proprietors of these islands : 
 
 " Fcelix, quera misera procul ambitione remotum, 
 Parvus A(/er placide, parvus et Jlortus alit. 
 Prffibet Affer quicquid frugi Natura requirit, 
 
 Jlortus habet quicquid luxuriosa petit ; 
 Cfetera sollicitse speciosa iucommoda vitse, 
 
 Permittit Stultis quaerere, habere malis." 
 
 In April, 1565, the bishop of Coutances obtained an order 
 from the lords of the council, addressed to the governor, 
 bai iff, and jurats of Guernsey, requiring in the queen's name 
 payment of all such dues and sums of money as aught liere- 
 tofore to have been paid to him. This prelate, who claimed 
 these payments, as well in right of his abbey of Lessey (? St. 
 Leufroy) as of his bishopric, sent an agent with instructions 
 
 (1) Accordlngr to the Dedicace, this church wa.« erectert hy Philip de Carteret, a noble 
 gent'eman <>f Jersey, in consequence of a vow made by him at sea in a storm, that if his 
 life were spared, he would bu:ld a church wherever he landed. Having safely reached 
 Rocquaiiie Bay, in the present parish of Torteval, at midnight. Septeniber 13. 1129. he 
 fulfilled bis vow, and the church was consecrated November 1, 1130. There was, however, 
 a church at Torteval about the year 1055, as we have shewn in Chapter II. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 151 
 
 to apply to the governor for their recovery, and the governor 
 referred him to the baihff and jurats. They summoned 
 John After, the dean, to appear and answer to the bishop's 
 claims. When the dean appeared, the agent protested 
 against him, as having no right to the deanery or to the 
 rectories of St. Martin and St. Peter-in-the-Wood, both of 
 which he held by the queen's appointment, without the 
 necessary authority from the bishop of Coutances. The 
 dean replied that he had sworn obedience to the queen of 
 England, and her laws in matters ecclesiastical — that he 
 had renounced the pope and all foreign jurisdiction — and 
 that he held the deanery and the two rectories by episcopal 
 authority through the bishop of Winchester, who appears at 
 that time to have possessed some power over the spiritual 
 affairs of the island, although the order for annexing it to 
 that see is of later date. The dean then declared that if the 
 agent of the bishop of Coutances would, in his master's 
 name, take the oath of fidelity to the queen, promise to obey 
 her in matters ecclesiastical, and renounce the pope and his 
 adherents, he would acknowledge the authority of the said 
 bishop in the island ; and he added, that he was ready to 
 give any further answer that might be required of him. 
 Thus the matter ended, and the bishop lost his dues. That 
 he should have obtained such an order is the less surprising, 
 because, as Hal lam truly states, " as for the higher classes, 
 they partook far less than their inferiors in the religious zeal 
 of that age. Henry, Edward, Mary, Elizabeth, found an 
 almost equal compliance with their varying schemes of faith. 
 Yet the larger proportion of the nobility and gentry appear 
 to have preferred the catholic religion." 
 
 About the year 1567, disputes arose between the captain, 
 Francis Chamberlayne, and the Royal Court, which were 
 submitted to the queen in council, and by that board referred 
 to the bishop of London and Richard Onslow, the solicitor- 
 general, who " harde what eche partie coulde alleadge for 
 themselves." On receiving a report of the hearing, their 
 Lordships ordered : 
 
 '* Firste, it is by their lordshippes thoughte necessarye that, 
 before all other thinges, the said capitayne, baylief, and juratts, 
 forgettirige all pryvate or publick qiierrells, shall reconcile them- 
 selves, and joyne toj^ether in all good fryndshipp and concorde, 
 whereby they maye with the more com modi tie eche of them at- 
 tende their sevrall chardgs. In which case also speciall respecte 
 
152 ' HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 is to be had that the said capitayne, as the quenes majesties prin- 
 cipal! officer there, be cheefely reprarded, obeyed and estemed, in 
 suche degree as to the })lace he holdeth doth belonge, and enjoye 
 suche rights, priviledges, and other duties, as other capitaynes 
 Iioldinge his place have heretofore lawfully had and enjoyed .... 
 It is also further ordered that the bay lief and juratts of the said 
 isle maye lawfully at all tymes when neede shall require visitte 
 the state of the castels and forlificacions there, in suche forme 
 and for suche purposes and intents as be comprised and declared 
 in their libertres and priviledges, having in the doinge thereof 
 good regarde by all gentill meanes to exhorte, advise, and per- 
 swade the quenes majesties lovinge and obedyent subjects there 
 to contynue their endevour and good wills for the transportinge 
 and careadge of stone, sande, and other necessaries, at convenyent 
 dayes and tymes, as heretofore of late they have done, to the 
 furlheraunce of the fortificacion of the said castell and good 
 suretie of those isles." 
 
 The other points of dispute, which are too numerous to 
 be mentioned here, were disposed of seinatim, some it appears 
 by as pecies of compromise. 
 
 An order in council, dated Richmond, October 9, 1580, 
 disposes of several complaints preferred by part of the 
 inhabitants ; one of which was that the governor, Sir Thomas 
 Leighton, exacted more "custome" on the wares and mer- 
 chandize of strangers than authorized by the " petite 
 coutume." In the succeeding year, Sir Thomas Leighton was 
 the complainant, as will be seen by the following extracts 
 from the order in council of July 30, 1581 : 
 
 "Whereas heretofore, uppon complainte exhibited unto their 
 lordships by Sir Thomas Lcyghton, knight, capten of her majes- 
 ties isle of Gernezey, conoprning sondrie disorders committed and 
 maintained by the baillife & rertaine of the jurates of the sayd 
 isle to the greate prejudice of her majesties right and service, it 
 pleased their lordships to sende for Wm. Beauvoyr, baillife; 
 Nicholas Martin and Henrie Beauvoyr, jurates ; their sayd lord- 
 ships, havinge att several I times heard what both parties could 
 alledge, uppon good deliberacion for the endinge of all matters 
 in variance and establishing of good peace and unitie in the siid 
 isle, have thought meet to take suche order in certaine points 
 which were in controversie between them, as followeth : 
 
 ** Ffirst, whereas, about a year sithe, uppon the repaire hither 
 of certaine inhabitants of the said isle, as populer procurers, to 
 complaine against the sayd Sir Thomas Leyghton, (allbeit the 
 same were without cause, as it then appeared, in that they were 
 punished for the same,) it pleased their lordships to sett down 
 certaine orders meete to be observed in that i8le,"&c. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 153 
 
 " And finallie, forasmuch as Wm. Beauvoyr, now late baillife, 
 Nicholas Martin & Henrie Beauvoyr, j urate?, have, bothe in their 
 owne name and in the name of the rest of the sayd isle, arrainst 
 whom Sir Thomas Leyghton exhibited his complainte, declared 
 before their lordships that they are sorie to have geven anie cause 
 of displeasure unto their sayd capten against them, and that they 
 all meane to doe better hereafter, and so to behave themselves as 
 they trust to geve him no just cause of offence : hereuppon their 
 lordships have earnestlie required the said capten to remitte that 
 which is past, and to staye his further proceeding in the prcofe 
 and triall of any faultes wherewith he hath chardged them or 
 may chardge them, and to receave them to his former favour ; 
 whereto, att their lordships' requeste, he hath yelded : there- 
 uppon, with some good admonitions so to demeane themselves 
 hereafter as that there may be no just cause by them offred of 
 anie further complainte, the above named baillife and jurates 
 were dismissed, and licenced to depart and retorne home. 
 
 ** And, last of all, whereas the sayd William Beauvoyr, late 
 baillife, Nicholas Martin and Henry Beauvoyr, jurates, have of 
 their owne free will &c accorde made suite unto their lordships 
 that they might be discharged of their sayd offices of baillife & 
 jurates, and that by their lordships' appointment some others 
 might be chosen to supplie their places; their lordships' pleasure 
 hereuppon was that, by letters from hence, so much sholde be 
 signified unto the inhabitants of the sayd isle, requiring them to 
 proceade to the election of others in their roomes, according to 
 the custome and manner of the sayd isle." 
 
 At this distance of time, it is difficult to ascertain which 
 party was in the right ; but it is evident that Sir Thomas 
 Leighton possessed more influence with the privy council 
 than his opponents in (juernsey, and in England the claims 
 of justice are too often subservient to those of interest. It 
 is singular that the inhabitants were required to elect not 
 only two other jurats, but also to appoint a new bailiff.* Sir 
 Thomas Leighton is said, however, to have been guilty of 
 many exactions on the natives, and to have so grossly im- 
 posed upon strangers as to drive them from the island. As 
 an instance of his general conduct, it may be stated that 
 several French vessels, belonging to Havre-de-Grace and St. 
 Brieux, and of the burden of from 20 to 150 tons, laden with 
 corn, salt, wine, &c., were, in violation of the queen's charter 
 granted but a few years before, seized by him in the road- 
 stead, and detained for a long time, under the pretext that 
 the cargoes were Spanish property. This infraction of the 
 
 (1) Thomas Wigmore, an Englishman, succeeded William de Beauvoirin 1558, and was 
 probably appointed bailiff by Sir T. Leighton, or through his influence. 
 
154 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 privilege of neutrality might have been attended with serious 
 consequences, if the Royal Court had not taken the matter in 
 hand ; for although the repeated remonstrances of that body 
 did not induce the governor to release these and other ships, 
 he was subsequently compelled to do so by different orders 
 in council, dated in April, May, June, and July, 1587. 
 
 In 1568, the Anglo-Norman islands were finally separated 
 from the bishopric of Coutances, and transferred to that of 
 Winchester ; but they appear to have been previously at- 
 tached not only to the diocese of Exeter, but to that of 
 Salisbury, as Warburton says that " when king John was 
 dispossessed of Normandy, he brought them under the bishop 
 of Exeter's jurisdiction for a short time ; but they were soon 
 restored to the bishopric of Coutances, and so continued until 
 the reign of Henry VII., when, by a bull of pope Alexander 
 VI., of the 5th of November, 1496, they were again separated 
 from Coutances, and annexed unto the diocese of Salisbury, 
 but afterwards re-attached to Coutances, and so remained till 
 queen EHzabeth transferred them to the see of Winchester, 
 about the year 1568." 
 
 It was after the events we have just narrated that the 
 Roman Catholics in Guernsey, in turn, became the victims of 
 Protestant persecution, as if cruelty in any shape could ever 
 be acceptable to the Creator, or advance the cause of genuine 
 Christianity. The Royal Court, on the 1st of October, 1571, 
 issued an ordinance, commanding the delivery of all popish 
 idols and books, under heavy penalties ; and on the 25th 
 of April, 1573, one Richard Girard was flogged through the 
 town for upholding mass ; while by an ordinance, dated the 
 22d of January, 1593, all strangers were ordered to profess 
 the established religion within a given period, or quit the 
 island. In England, there were numerous executions of the 
 Roman Catholics ; and, what was worse, the common law was 
 set aside by the privy council for the infliction of torture, so 
 that the rack was constantly used in the Tower towards the 
 close of Elizabeth's reign. 
 
 It is a proof of the scrupulous regard paid by the sove- 
 reigns of England to the privileges of Guernsey, that when 
 the island books of law, compiled by the governor and the 
 Rxjyal Court, were presented for her majesty's approbation, 
 the lords of the privy council expressed themselves in the 
 following t«rms : " The lords of the queen's most honorable 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 155 
 
 privy council, after having seen, heard, and considered the 
 contents of this book, signed by Sir Thomas Leighton, captain 
 and governor of the island of Guernsey, and by the bailiff 
 and jurats of the said isle, have ratified and approved, and 
 do ratify and approve, the laws and customs therein contained, 
 to be practised and observed in the said isle of Guernsey, 
 saving always to her majesty, and her heirs and successors, 
 the power to add thereto, and correct the same, according to 
 her pleasure : and also all prerogatives, profits, rights, and 
 pre-eminence, belonging to her said majesty, her heirs and 
 successors, without prejudice nevertheless to the ancient and 
 just privileges granted heretofore to the inhabitants of the 
 said isle. Done in her majesty's privy council, the 27th day 
 of October, 1583." 
 
 Notwithstanding the efficient government and great power 
 of Elizabeth, piracy was openly carried on in the British 
 Channel, at least for some years after her accession ; so that 
 at that time there could have been very little intercourse 
 between England and these islands. An instance of this 
 piracy exists in the seizure of part of the crew of the John, 
 of Sandwich, wrecked on the coast of Guernsey in 1565. 
 The men confessed their guilt, and were lodged in the prison 
 of Castle Cornet till her majesty's pleasure was known. On 
 the 25th of September, 1566, Elizabeth sent her orders, 
 which were, after noticing that the commander and principal 
 officers of the pirate had escaped in a pinnace, and that the 
 ])risoiiers were deceived by representations made to them that 
 the voyage vvas purely commercial, as also that they had been 
 some time in custody : " You shall cause two or three of 
 them, such as you shall think most culpable and fittest for 
 example, to be executed out of hand^' — wdiile the remainder 
 were directed to proceed to England, and sue for their pardon. 
 The authorities in Guernsey appear, however, to have been 
 more merciful than their royal mistress, and to have been 
 satisfied with the execution of one of the prisoners, as on the 
 23d of November they pronounced the following sentence : 
 " Forasmuch as it appeareth by the circumstances of the pro- 
 cess maintained against thee, Richard Higgins, that you have, 
 among others your consorts, pirates, confessed divers and 
 sundry piracies, namely, upon Flemish fishers and other mer- 
 chants, as well upon the coast of England as upon the coast 
 of Spain, and minding to persevere in that most horrible and 
 detestable life, have resisted to the uttermost of your power 
 
156 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 the queen's majesty's ships sent to call back and impeach you 
 and your consorts' most wicked enterprises against the glory 
 of God, the queen's majesty's honour, and the public peace 
 between her majesty and her highness' most dear friends and 
 allies : we, Francis Chamberlain, esq., captain and governor 
 of this island of Guernsey, with the advice of, &;c., ordain that 
 you, Richard Higgins, shall be pinioned by the officer of 
 justice, and by him be led from this place to St. Martin's 
 Point, near the full sea-mark, and there, by the same officer, 
 be hanged and strangled till thou be dead." 
 
 In 1560, the queen granted the island of Alderney in fee 
 farm to George, son of Sir Leonard Chamberlain, and bro- 
 ther to Francis Chamberlain, then governor of Guernsey ; 
 but her rights in the former island were then so little known, 
 that commissioners were appointed by her majesty to inquire 
 into their extent. This inquiry not having been made, Sir 
 Thomas Leighton, governor, and Thomas Wigmore, baihff of 
 Guernsey, were named in 1585 as commissioners to hear and 
 determine causes between John Chamberlain, holding in fee 
 farm from the crown, and the inhabitants of Alderney. In 
 1590, the said John Chamberlain disposed of all his right 
 and title to that island to Robert, earl of Essex, his heirs, &c., 
 for the term of one thousand years ; and, by an act of the 
 Royal Court of Guernsey, dated 1st of April, 1601, and 
 granted on the representation of the queen's procureur, that 
 Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, had been executed for high 
 treason, {leze mnjeste,) and thereby forfeited all his estates, 
 goods, and revenues, the prevost, or sheriff, was ordered to 
 proceed with the said procureur to the island of Alderney, 
 there to seize the property belonging to that unfortunate 
 nobleman. This property had, however, probably never come 
 fully into his possession, for in 1607 Wilham Chamberlain 
 was again the occupant, either in right of the old grant or of 
 a new one. That right seems to have expired with this per- 
 son, as, after his death, the name of Chamberlain is no more 
 mentioned in the records of Alderney. 
 
 The Spanish armada, consisting of 130 large ships, with 
 19,295 soldiers, 8,450 mariners, 2,088 galley slaves, and 
 2,630 great pieces of brass, having completely refitted, after 
 being damaged in a storm, sailed from Corunna on the 12th 
 of July, 1588, with orders to keep along the coasts of Bri- 
 tany and Normandy ; but the admiral, who was instructed to 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 157 
 
 repair to Calais, and there wait for the prince of Parma, 
 steered direct for England, in the hope o^ surprising and 
 destroying the English fleet in Plymouth. The first land 
 which the Spaniards made was the Lizard ; and, mistaking it 
 for the Ram's Head, they stood out to sea for the night, by 
 which means the fleet in Plymouth, which was quite unpre- 
 pared, was saved. On Tuesday, the 23d July, the Spaniards 
 were abreast of Portland, with the wind at north, the ships, 
 says Camden, having " lofty turrets like castles ;" and many 
 of them were doubtless seen from Alderney, as the armada, 
 with wings spread about seven miles, sailed slowly along up 
 the Channel, closely followed by the English, who attacked 
 and captured the stragglers. In the EngHsh fleet, the largest 
 ship (the Triumph) was of 1,100 tons ; in the Spanish, there 
 were only three larger than the Triumph ; but, although the 
 former outnumbered the latter by nearly sixty sail, its ton- 
 nage amounted to not one half of that of the enemy. 
 
 It now appears strange that so small a supply of artillery 
 for the additional defence of i ^astle Cornet as one demi-cannon 
 and two demi-culverins could not be furnished without a 
 royal warrant, which is still extant ; but Elizabeth's exchequer 
 was small, and in her time cannon were costly, being chiefly 
 of brass. " Very many pieces of great ordnance of brass 
 and iron she cast," says Camden, " and God," (?) " as if he 
 favored what she undertook, discovered a most rich vein of 
 pure and native brass, which had been long time neglected, 
 near Keswick, in Cumberland, which abundantly sufficed for 
 that use, and afforded brass to other countries also." The 
 queen likewise presented to Helier de Carteret, for the de- 
 fence of Sark, two demi-culverins, weighing 29 cwt. each ; 
 two sakers, weighing 16 cwt. each ; and two falcons, weighing 
 9 cwt. each, all new and complete, with 50 iron balls, and 
 200 lb. of powder. 
 
 On Thursday, the 18th of August, 1597, two of the resi- 
 dents in that sea-girt fortress. Castle Cornet — Mr. Isaac Dau- 
 beney and Master Walter St. John — were drowned at the 
 little island of Herm under very melancholy circumstances, 
 as appears by the evidence, in French, given on oath at the 
 inquest before the Royal Court in Guernsey ; but as no less 
 than twenty-nine witnesses were examined on the occasion, 
 we must greatly condense the details. Herm was at that time 
 kept as a preserve for the governors, and was stocked with 
 deer, pheasants, and partridges. 
 
158 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Mr. Peter Carey, jurat, and subsequently lieut.-governor 
 for a short period, deposed that on the invitation of the gover- 
 nor, Sir Thomas Leighton, he went with him to Herm to 
 hunt (c/msser) the deer ; Masters Thomas Leighton, son of 
 the governor, Walter St. John,' Peter Carey ,'^ son of the 
 deponent, and Samuel Cartwright,' accompanying them, as 
 did Mr. Daubeney and others, with several of the governor's 
 servants. On their arrival. Sir Thomas Leighton, the depo- 
 nent, and some of the servants, proceeded to hunt the deer, 
 leaving the four young gentlemen, just named, with their 
 tutor, {j)t(lagoyue^) Mr. Daubeney, who remained with them 
 all the morning, and made them do their lessons until nine 
 o'clock, after which Mr. Blake, the music master, made them 
 sing {chanter) until ten o'clock. The governor then caused 
 Mr. Daubeney to say prayers, and soon after they all sat 
 down to dinner ! Having dined, and while still at table, the 
 youths asked permission to bathe, but Sir Thomas refused 
 them twice or thrice : however, on their continuing their 
 importunities, he at last consented, on condition that some 
 grown-up persons went with them. Upon this the four lads, 
 accompanied by Mr. Daubeney and two attendants, proceeded 
 to the beach on the eastern side of Herm, young St. John 
 outstripping his companions, and entering first into the water. 
 About an hour afterwards, one of the servants came to inform 
 Mr. Carey that Mr. Daubeney was drowned ; and upon Mr. 
 Carey going to tell the governor, he found him fast asleep in 
 his tent, as he had arisen at one o'clock, a.m. Mr. Carey 
 pulled the governor by his cloak two or three times before he 
 awoke, and then begged his excellency's pardon for disturbing 
 him, as he did so to inform him that Mr. Daubeney was 
 drowned ! In that age the grand gouverneur was looked 
 upon in Guernsey with as much awe and reverence as is 
 now the emperor of Russia or the sultan of Turkey, each in 
 his respective dominions. " Drowned," said the governor, 
 " alas ! " {noye^ deist-il, heias !) and, beginning to rise, they 
 heard that St. John was drowned also ; upon which the 
 governor was seized with such grief, that he became quite 
 astounded and lost, (etonne et esperdu.) Mr. Carey inquired 
 where the bodies were, and, being told that the tide had car- 
 ried them off, he ran to the beach with four of the governor's 
 
 (1) Doubtless a brother-in-law of lady St. John, who was a daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Leightdii, and a brother of Lucy St. John, whn married Sir Allan Ap>ley. 
 
 (2) Father of Peter Carey, who, bein{c a parliamentarian, was confined in, and escaped 
 from, Castle Cornet with Messrs. De Beauvoir and De Havilland, in l6»3. 
 
 (3) Doubtless the sod of the celebrated presbyterian chaplain of Castle Cornet. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 159 
 
 servants, and calling to the crew of a boat which was near — 
 the governor's shallop being at Jethou — they picked up the 
 bodies and took them to Castle Cornet, the governor accom- 
 panying them in his shallop. 
 
 By the evidence of Mr. William Taylor, gentleman, {gen- 
 tilhome,) porter of the castle, it appears that having called the 
 governor two or three hours before daylight, according to his 
 orders, he asked him if the young gentlemen were to go to 
 Herm, and was answered in the negative ; but, on passing 
 their door, while on his way to send the boat to the town for 
 Mr. Carey and some boatmen, he saw Master St. John, who 
 was at the door in his shirt, and who asked him if it were not 
 time to go to Herm. On the porter telling him that he was 
 not to go, he said that the governor had given him leave the 
 evening before, and the youths began to dress themselves. 
 Upon this, the porter informed the governor of their wish to 
 go with him ; and Mr. Daubeney, who was near, promising to 
 take their books and make them do their lessons, if they 
 went, the governor consented. 
 
 One of the attendants deposed that when young St. John 
 began to swim, he was quickly carried away by the tide, 
 upon which Mr. Daubeney, who was an excellent swimmer, 
 undressed himself and swam to the youth, whom he requested 
 to get on his back : this St. John did, but suddenly Mr, 
 Daubeney rolled over and disappeared. St. John then called 
 the attendant to come to his aid, which he attempted to 
 do, (?) and was nearly drowned himself in endeavouring to 
 save him. (?) 
 
 Thus the boating party, which had left the castle early in 
 the morning with all the joyous anticipation of coming plea- 
 sure and delight, returned in the afternoon in grief and an- 
 guish with the corpses of two of their companions, who had 
 been so suddenly, and now so unaccountably, deprived of life ; 
 for it is difficult to comprehend how Mr. Daubeney perished, 
 unless possibly from cramp, if he were the excellent swimmer 
 he is described. Judging from the governor's retinue of 
 chaplain, tutors, porter, visitors, servants, &:c., his household 
 at the castle seems to have been one of baronial hospitality 
 and extent, although the hours kept would be considered 
 unreasonably early by any labouring peasant of the pre- 
 sent day. 
 
 The following act of the Royal Court of Guernsey, trans- 
 lated from the French, is curious : 
 
160 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 " The 27lh day of the month of August, 1597, before Louis 
 De Vic, bailiff; present, Nicholas Martin, sen., William Beau- 
 voir, Andrew Henry, Jt>hn Aiidros, John de Sausniarez, Peter 
 Beauvoir, Peter Careye, John Effart, Nicholas Martin, jun., 
 Georcre Guille, and Leonard Blondel, jurats. 
 
 *' Seeing; that Mr. the Governor,^ the viii day of the present 
 month, had informed the court (/a justice) that he had heard of 
 Mr. Henry Smyth that Eleazar Le Marchant, some lime pre- 
 viously, (a jotirs passes) had told him that he had heard of 
 James Beauvoir that Nicholas Careye had said to the said Beau- 
 voir, about two years previously, that on the approaching death 
 of her majesty he would be one of the first to pull the said Mr. 
 Governor by the ears out of his castle. Information and due 
 examination by every means, (to search and ascertain the truth 
 of this,) made at the instance of the officers of her majesty, and 
 the whole duly and maturely considered, it is the opinion of the 
 said jurats that the said Nicholas Careye is not found convicted 
 of the information (^delation) given against him." 
 
 The Royal Court had previously, on the 8th and 9th of the 
 same month, sat twice to examine witnesses on this subject ; 
 and by the testimony of these witnesses it appears that Mr. 
 Carey had been a prisoner in Castle Cornet, and that he w^as 
 excited with wine when he made use of the dreadful threat 
 imputed to him by the governor, who had heard it fourth 
 hand two years after ! Verily, the Royal Court was most 
 complaisant and obedient to sit thrice on such an accusation ; 
 but that body had previously felt the governor's power, and 
 the law of evidence in England at that time was equally faulty. 
 
 The ordinances of the Royal Court of Guernsey — the old- 
 est commencing in 1527, and of which a selection' was pub- 
 lished in 1851-2 — present very curious illustrations of the 
 arbitrary and multifarious powers exercised by that body at 
 the periods of enactment, and prove that in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries the inhabitants generally possessed very 
 limited conceptions of political economy and freedom ; other- 
 wise, enjoying as they did the happy privilege of electing 
 their own magistrates, they never would have submitted to 
 such despotic legislation. The court defined the hours for 
 selling meat, fish, &c. ; it affixed the prices of corn, beer, 
 cider, wine, oil, candles, &c., and even the wages of mecha- 
 nics ; and it appears to have viewed strangers with a most 
 
 (1) sir Thomas Lei^hton. (2) Edited by Robert MacCuIloch, Esq., advocate. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 161 
 
 jealous eye. The following examples, translated from the 
 French, will be confined to the sixteenth century only : 
 
 *' October, 1534. — That no one shall engross any merchandize 
 or victuals coming to the island, until they have been three days 
 on the beach, (^gallei/,) and that those who have bought the mer- 
 chandize shall deliver it to each person who may wish to have 
 some at the price affixed during the discharge, under a penalty 
 of 10 livres. 
 
 " That no one shall keep more than one dog in his house, under 
 a penalty of 5 sols, excepting those who have a right to do so. 
 
 " That no one shall lodge any stranger to live in the island, 
 under a penalty of W sols, unless as a servant. 
 
 *' October, 1535. — The exportation of corn from the island 
 prohibited, under a penalty of 10 livres; and of fat cattle, under 
 penalty of forfeiture. 
 
 "April, 1537. — It is ordered by justice that no servants, as 
 well those of the magistrates as of the gentlemen and incumbents, 
 (cures,) shall go sporting, (chasse,) unless in the presence of their 
 masters, under a penalty of 10 livres, and excepting the children 
 of the jurats and gentlemen. 
 
 " October, 1537. — The prevost to have the superintendence of 
 all boats arriving in the island, as well from Jersey as Normandy 
 and other ports, and he shall visit the said boats, and write down 
 the names of all on board : he shall keep the rudder until their 
 departure, and see that each passenger returns from whence he 
 came, nor shall they go without his leave. 
 
 " May, 1546. — It is ordered by justice that no vessels or mari- 
 ners shall go out of the island until the vessels, which are away, 
 return, which vessels are in England. 
 
 "October, 1546. — All those who have had the plague, or who 
 have any one ill in their house, shall not frequent public places, 
 such as the church, &c., unless after the parishioners have been, 
 under a penalty of Ix sols. 
 
 " September, 1566. — Each in his parish shall assist on Sun- 
 days at the sermons and prayers, as well in the morning as in the 
 evening, under penalty of being punished at the discretion of 
 justice. 
 
 " October, 1575. — Divine service shall be performed in each 
 country parish on Wednesdays, where there is a minister ; and 
 one person at least from each house, capable of hearing and com- 
 prehending, shall assist at such service, if there be no reasonable 
 excuse : the same in the town on Wednesdays and Fridays, 
 under a penalty of 5 sols fine, half to the queen and the other half 
 to the poor ; and the shops in the town shall be closed during 
 the said service on Wednesdays, under the like penalty. 
 
 "St. Michael, 1581. — All adulterers shall be imprisoned three 
 weeks, and on each Saturday during the three weeks shall be put 
 
 M 
 
162 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 in the cage, from nine o'clock, a.m., until dark, and on the last 
 Saturday shall receive, in the " quarre- fours" of the town, 
 twenty-four lashes, until blood be drawn ; and those convicted of 
 fornication shall receive the same punishment, excepting that they 
 shall have only twelve lashes before the cage. (Women con- 
 victed of the same offences received the same punishment, the 
 whipping being inflicted on the first Saturday.) 
 
 " No one shall drive a cart through the streets of the town on 
 a Saturday, from nine o'clock, a.m., to three o'clock, p.m., under 
 a penalty of 5 sols fine for each offence. 
 
 "No one to take strangers as servants, to employ them at sea, 
 under a penalty of xx ecus soil, to her majesty. Item, no one in 
 future to take any stranger to live with him, without first receiv- 
 ing the permission of the queen's receiver, under a penalty of x 
 livres ; and such strangers shall profess the religion (Protestant) 
 in half a year after their arrival at latest. 
 
 Synopsis in English of a few of the acts of the colloquy, 
 (collogue,) or conference, of the ministers (Calvinist) and elders 
 of the churches of the island and bailiwick of Guernsey, held 
 with the authority of the governor, commencing August 2, 
 1585, and ending September 24, 1619. The synopsis is 
 taken from a complete and very able digest of the said acts, 
 made by the late James de Sausmarez, Esq., of the Inner 
 Temple, barrister at law. The arbitrary nature of many of 
 these acts should be a lesson to those who may feel inclined 
 to entrust secular power to the clergy, as all past experience 
 has proved that 
 
 " 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey," 
 
 where the laity is under priestly domination. 
 
 "At a * colloquy' held before the governor, the bailiff" and 
 jurats, the minister of the town, and the elders of the other 
 parishes, six French ministers, who had taken refuge in the island 
 from the disturbances in France, are received and assigned to the 
 different churches. (August 31, 1585.) 
 
 " Interments in the town church forbidden, with exception in 
 favor of the governor and his family. Governor, bailiff*, and 
 jurats, to confer with chefs de families for converting into a 
 cemetery the ground formerly known as the Cimetilre desFrhres, 
 (1586.) 
 
 " Resolved by colloquy, (at which were present the governor, 
 bailiff*, and four jurats, and twenty * des plus notables chefs de 
 families de la paroisse,') that there should be morning and evening 
 prayers in the town church. (1586.) 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 163 
 
 " St. Martin's stated to be the richest parish in the island. 
 (1586.) [^Probably as regarded its ecclesiastical revenueJ] 
 
 *' Governor issues * une billette,' requiring inhabitants to be 
 present at church at the commencement of the sermon, and to 
 be reorular in commnnicatinor. (1586.) 
 
 "Proposal made by Mr. Thomas Dickenson that service should 
 be performed in English at Castle Cornet. (1586.) 
 
 " Prayers for the dead, and praying in churches, apart from 
 the congregation, forbidden. (1587.) 
 
 " Sir Thomas Leighton's letter, complaining of charges pre- 
 ferred against him to council, (November 10, 1587,) and reso- 
 lution of colloquy thereupon. 
 
 *' Offer of Adrian de Saravia, S. T. P., of Leyden, to serve the 
 ministry, accepted. (1587.) 
 
 ** Colloquy submit to the court eight ordinances to be enforced. 
 Governor recommends that the same should be submitted to the 
 next Chief Pleas, and that the fines levied should be applied, half 
 to the poor and half to the pier. (1587.) 
 
 " St. Saviour's church to be closed, on account of ' la supersti- 
 tion qui s'y commet.' (June, 1589.) 
 
 " ' Billettes' to be obtained from the governor and published 
 in the parishes, for banishing from the island such as refuse to 
 hear the Word of God and neglect communicating ! (December, 
 1589.) 
 
 " Letter from M. Cosmo Brevin, minister of Serk, * pleine 
 d'injures et de rebellion.' Consistory of Serk ordered to make 
 reparation. (1590.) 
 
 " Touching the baptism of a six months' child. (1590.) 
 
 " Marriages between cousins german pronounced unchristian, 
 &c.* Cases of incestuous marriages considered. (1591.) 
 
 " Cartwright (minister of Castle Cornet) and Snape (minister 
 of the castle of Jersey) sent to effect a reconciliation between the 
 churches of both islands. (September, 1595.) 
 
 " Upon opposition made to a marriage proposed to be cele- 
 brated, parties referred to the douzaine to decide whether the 
 marriage be expedient to the parish. (1596.) 
 
 ** Governor proposes that the synod of the two islands should 
 not be held at Serk, but that the ministers of Guernsey should 
 sail for Jersey on the 4th of September; (1695;) the expenses of 
 the voyage to be borne by all the parishes. 
 
 *' Proceedings at synod read at colloquy. Each parish to 
 reimburse its deputy x sterling for his expenses. (1596.) 
 
 ** Cartwright" submits three propositions to the colloque, viz. 
 **1. Touching the education of two youths for the ministry. 
 
 (1) It is much to be regretted that the colloquy did not possess the power of pronouncing 
 such marriages illegal, as they are productive of both mental and corporeal disease, and 
 their deteriorating effects are very visible in these islands. 
 
 (2) The last colloque at which Cartwright's name appears was in September, l6oi. 
 
164 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 " 2. For a fast, in consequence of the disturbances in Ireland. 
 **3. The admissibility to the Sacrament of an Englishman 
 charged with incontinence ; resolutions thereon. Snape 
 to be written to. (1599.) 
 
 " Appeal to the colloquy of Jersey to send over ministers to 
 Guernsey, where there were too few to perform the duty. Mr. 
 Milet thereupon lent for three months, and is appointed to St. 
 Saviour's. (1602.) 
 
 " Elders of parishes enjoined to seize dangerous books : " Vita 
 Christi" and others, which have been sold by pedlars from Nor- 
 mandy. (1602.) 
 
 " No stranger to be received in any parish without a certificate 
 of good conduct from his last place of residence. (1602.) 
 
 ** Ministers to keep a list of persons neglecting to communi- 
 cate. (1602.) 
 
 '* Commissioner from Geneva presents his credentials. A 
 collection ordered to be made in aid of the town and church of 
 Geneva. (1603.) 
 
 " Voyage to Jersey to attend synod resolved upon. The 
 governor, being prevented by illness from attending, appoints 
 Amias de Carteret,^ seigneur of Trinity, his substitute. (1605.) 
 
 ** Deputies appointed to attend Chief Pleas, to request that no 
 court be held on days appointed for colloquy, and to request 
 attendance of bailiff and governor. Claim of jurats, as such, to 
 be exempted from attending colloquy, rejected. (1604.) 
 
 *' Collection ordered for relief of Southampton, visited with 
 plague. (September, 1604.) 
 
 " Mr. Leighton, in the name of the governor, presents Mr. 
 Bradley to the church of the Castle, (Catel,) who promises 
 faithfully to discharge the duties thereof, and to elect elders and 
 deacons to serve the said church. (1605.) 
 
 ** Monsieur Peter Painsec appointed to preach at St. Andrew 
 and the Castel, and to enjoy the revenues of both parishes as paid. 
 He refuses to officiate in the town parish until his salary has been 
 paid — is informed that there has been ' taxe faicte' for payment 
 thereof, and is exhorted to comply — persists in refusing. The 
 colloquy remonstrate with him, and threaten suspension ; governor 
 quits the assembly. Painsec persists in his refusal, and cites as 
 an authority the police of the French church, which the colloquy 
 rejects; and he finally acknowledges his error. Text of scripture 
 assigned him whereon to preach on Sunday following, and to 
 express his penitence. (1605, 9.) 
 
 ** Mr. Simon Heme (having been found competent in the Eng- 
 lish language) appointed to the Castle (Catel) in the absence of 
 Mr. Bradley ; but to receive only ^13 sterling yearly, until he 
 is qualified to perform duty in the French language. (1606.) 
 
 (I) AmiasdeCarteret was bailiff of Guernsey. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 165 
 
 " The town parish without a minister ; ministers to preach 
 there in turn. Mr. Heme to preach in Engh'sh on Sunday even- 
 ings. (1606.) 
 
 " Litigants not to receive Sacrament until their dijfferences are 
 settled. (1606.) 
 
 " Notice sent from Jersey, of a synod to be held in May fol- 
 lowing. (1606.) Governor to be informed thereof, in case he 
 should have any subject to propose. (1606.) 
 
 "Expediency of receiving a dean referred to the synod, as a 
 question affecting the interests of both islands. (1606.) 
 
 "Complaint from Alderney that the people there are without a 
 pastor — exhorted to patience — ' nous ne sommes pas dieux,' &c. 
 (1607.) 
 
 " In the general dearth of ministers, resolved that the Vale and 
 St. Sampson's, * pour leur grande importance,' shall be first 
 provided. (1607.) 
 
 " Simon Masons sent to serve the island of Alderney, being 
 invited thither, his life and doctrine being approved of by H. M. 
 commissioners. (November, 1607.) 
 
 " Mr. Thomas Milet, lent by Jersey, appointed to parishes of 
 St. Martin's and St. Saviour's ; parishes to furnish him with a 
 horse on Sundays. (1608.) 
 
 " Mr. Milet, (or Millet,) seeking to return to Jersey, is arrested 
 by order of the governor. (1609.) 
 
 " On refusal of parishioners of St. Martin's to receive Mr. 
 Heme (or Hearne) as their minister, alleging their inability to 
 understand him, colloquy overrule their objection, whereupon 
 they appeal to the synod. (1609.) 
 
 " A person convicted of having been present at a mass whilst 
 abroad, to make acknowledgment of his error. (1610.) 
 
 " Letters addressed to colloquy to be opened only in presence 
 of two ministers or three elders. (1610.) 
 
 " A general fast ordered with the consent of the magistrates, 
 in consequence of the great drought, and as an act of humiliation 
 for the sins of the people. (May 24, 1611.) 
 
 "A fast ordered in consideration of the bloody flux, the long 
 drouorht, &c. (June, 1612.) 
 
 " Monsieur le lieutenant proposes a fast, but the colloquy think 
 right to postpone it, the people being * si mal dispose.' (1614.) 
 
 " A fast ordered, in consequence of the mortal diseases which 
 prevail; * messieurs de justice' requested to give public notice 
 thereof. (September, 1615.) 
 
 " The custom of having the head covered during divine service, 
 and particularly during the administration of the Sacrament, re- 
 probated. (1618.) 
 
 " Upon information received that a dean had been appointed 
 to Jersey, coUoque to devise means* to prevent a similar appoint- 
 ment in Guernsey. (October, 1618.) 
 
166 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 " Upon request from Jersey that Guernsey would unite in 
 petitioning the crown against appointment of the dean, it is deter- 
 mined to communicate with * messieurs de justice,' and to pray 
 the interference of the States. (December, 1618.) 
 
 " Peter Le Marchant charged with absenting himself from 
 church and the communion, and living * en payen et epicure,' 
 deemed worthy of excommunication ; but inasmuch as he had 
 never communicated, the case is referred * au magistral.' (1619.) 
 
 *' Hilary Gosselin cited before colloquy for not having received 
 the Sacrament for three years. (1619.) 
 
 " A fast to be proclaimed, in consequence of the wars and 
 rumours of war. (March, 1619.") 
 
 [Note. — The last colloquy mentioned was held on the 24th of September, 1619. 
 — ^A tract, entitled " Police et Discipline Ecclesiastique pour le Reglement des 
 Eglises de G-uemse, Gerse, Sark, et Origni, comme elle a ete faite au synode 
 tenu k Guemse, le 18e Juin, 1576."— Cottonian MSS. Caligula E vi. 106, 324.] 
 
 PIER OF St. PETER. PORT. 
 
 The present pier having been virtually commenced in this 
 reign, — although there appears to have been previously a short 
 slip or jetty, — a narrative of its origin, progress, and comple- 
 tion, will be best given here under one head, commencing 
 however with a brief notice of the insular havens in the 
 thirteenth century. 
 
 In the so-called Constitutions of king John are these words 
 in Latin : " Item, it is ordered for the preservation and secu- 
 rity of the islands and castles, and principally as the islands 
 are near and in the neighbourhood of the dominion of the 
 king of France and of other enemies, that all the havens of 
 the islands be well guarded ; and our lord the king orders 
 that guardians of the havens {custodies portuum) be appointed, 
 to the end that no damage may come, either to him or to his 
 subjects." 
 
 In the Inquest of Henry III., (A.D. 1248,) already cited, 
 it is said also in Latin : " Moreover, the said jurors declare 
 by their faith, and on their oath, that if the fishermen of this 
 island (Guernsey) be permitted to go and come with their 
 fish and other products from and to whatever harbour they 
 choose, and without license and inspection, our lord the king 
 and his subjects will incur every year great losses ; the islands 
 will be almost lost ; the havens will be worth nothing ; tlie 
 king's dues on the fishery will be entirely lost ; the preroga- 
 tives of the king will be diminished ; and the possessions of 
 his enemies will be benefitted and subsisted by the products 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 167 
 
 of the island : and thus the isles and dominions of the king 
 will be deprived of their products, and will remain uninha- 
 bited, {et vacuce remanehunt.) It is difficult to comprehend 
 at this time the object of this declaration, because, although 
 the king might be deprived of his dues on fish, a very unfair 
 source of revenue, the fishermen, who in those days formed a 
 large majority of the inhabitants, would thereby be benefitted. 
 The j urors, however, were probably not fishermen, and they 
 evidently knew nothing of the advantages of free trade, which 
 is the less surprising, seeing that even now it is occasionally 
 maintained that the market people should be prevented from 
 selling their fish for exportation until the inhabitants have 
 been supplied ! 
 
 From the reign of Edward I., whose grant of certain 
 dues for the erection of a sea wall has been previously men- 
 tioned, to that of Ehzabeth, there appears to be nothing 
 relating to the pier, with the exception of the Extent of 
 Edward III., which makes mention of dues on shipping and 
 merchandize. But in the year 1563, Elizabeth authorized 
 the bailiff' and jurats of Guernsey to levy a reasonable toll, or 
 petite coutume, on the goods of strangers brought to the island, 
 for the erection and maintenance of a pier, the repair of bul- 
 warks, the supply of ammunition, &:c., and exclusive of the 
 rates levied among the inhabitants for these purposes. The 
 ordinances passed at the Court of Chief Pleas exist only from 
 1533, and the earliest mention therein of a pier (chaussee) is 
 in 1566-7, which was probably the old slip or jetty. The 
 petite coutume was accordingly raised ; but, being either mis- 
 appropriated, or applied to other objects, the queen, seventeen 
 years later, in 1580, reproved the bailiff' and jurats in the fol- 
 lowing severe terms : 
 
 " Whereas there has been heretofore a certain petty custom 
 given by her majesty, to be levied upon strangers, to the inha- 
 bitants of the island, towards making a certain pier, or chaussee, 
 before the town of St. Peter's-Port, which was begun ten years 
 ago, and has ever since been left off" and not gone further; which 
 the bailiff" and jurats, having notwithstanding ever since, for the 
 most part of the ten years, intermeddled with the said custom so 
 appointed to be levied as aforesaid, for which they have given no 
 accounts to the parishioners of the said town : the bailiff and 
 jurats shall be called before the captain for an account of the said 
 receipt, and so much as shall be found remaining in their hands 
 not employed for the uses aforesaid shall be converted to the 
 advancement of the said work ; and the said custom shall be 
 
168 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 continued, and other contributions levied by the consent of the 
 generality of the richest sort of the inhabitants, and a further 
 charge for that purpose laid upon strangers, in such convenient 
 and moderate sort, as they may not alienate their minds from 
 resorting thither, as they have accustomed, with their merchan- 
 dize, until the work be ended." 
 
 The following year, the Royal Court not only raised the 
 new duties, but appointed the constables of St. Peter- Port to 
 receive them, and obliged these officers to render an account 
 before they were discharged from their office. 
 
 In his Britannia, (London, 1590,) Camden gives the pre- 
 ference to Jersey, on account of its extent and fertility ; but to 
 Guernsey, in regard to the security of its haven, and the as- 
 semblage of merchants who frequent it. He says : " This 
 haven is situated nearly at the eastern extremity of the island : 
 there is an arm erected towards the south, representing a 
 half-moon. The little town of St. Peter-Port, which is Ion 
 and narrow, is seated and borders on this haven, which is wel 
 provided with fortifications, and the merchants abound as 
 soon as there is war." ^ 
 
 When the States of Guernsey sent deputies to congratulate 
 James I. on his accession, and to solicit a confirmation of 
 their privileges, the twelfth article of their requests was as 
 follows : 
 
 " They humbly crave allowance of the petit custom by his 
 majesty and your lordships, whicli they have enjoyed heretofore 
 for the reparation of the pier and other public works." 
 
 These requests were referred to the procureur du roi and 
 other personages, with orders to report thereon, and they 
 returned the following answer to the twelfth article : 
 
 " It is true that we find the pier a matter of great use, and 
 commodious to the merchants that trade thither, but withal of so 
 great charge and burthen to the isle as of necessity craves help 
 for maintenance ; wherefore, though the work is almost accom- 
 plished, that which is already done cannot be kept up, nor that 
 added which as yet remaineth to be done, without some such 
 petit custom, or imposition, upon such merchandizes as are brought 
 into the isles, for the ease of the country. We think it therefore 
 reasonable that in this point they be eased by the allowance of 
 these customs, according to the same rate they have been formerly 
 used and levied." 
 
 (1) In extremft fer^ ad ortum parte, sed australi latere, lanato sinu portus admittitur: 
 cui assidct oppidulum Sancti Petri, loDg& plate&,»ed augustft, prod actum ; bellico apparatu 
 plenum, & mercatoribus cum bellum ingruit frequentissimum 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 169 
 
 And the lords of council, in their report to the king, ad- 
 mitted the twelfth article, in the following terms : 
 
 "Their lordships do yield their consent to this demand for so 
 necessary a work, that they shall be eased therein by the allow- 
 ance of those customs, at the same rates as they have been for- 
 merly used and levied." 
 
 In 1684, Mr. James de Beauvoir, des Granges, one of the 
 jurats, and superviseur of the pier for that year, represented 
 to the Royal Court " that it was necessary for the good of 
 the island and the commodiousness (comrnodite) of the pier, 
 to build the north arm ; which he was authorized to do. But 
 the troubles in the reign of James II., and the wars of Wil- 
 liam III. and Anne, caused the arm only to be commenced, 
 i.e. heaps of large stones being deposited eastward. After 
 the peace in Anne's reign, the merchants, who suffered con- 
 siderable losses by tempests, either when their vessels were in 
 the pier, or when they were at anchor outside, for w^ant of a 
 northern arm, made voluntary contributions for its erection ; 
 and at length, at different periods, with the assistance of part 
 of the proceeds of the petite coutume, la neuve chaussee, so 
 called long afterwards, was completed. Mr. William Le 
 Marchant, of I'Hyvreuse, a jurat, who, in 1750, published a 
 history of the pier, from which we have condensed the pre- 
 ceding details, says, that it was then one of the safest and 
 most commodious in Europe ; and he adds, that Sir Thomas 
 Leighton^ took great interest in its erection — hence doubtless 
 the order of Elizabeth in 1580, just cited. Mr. Le Marchant 
 states also : " If tradition can be relied upon, Mr. Amias de 
 Carteret, lieut. -governor and bailiff of Guernsey at the com- 
 mencement of the century 1600, ruined himself by his gene- 
 rosity in advancing this good work." In January, 1632, the 
 Royal Court ordered that " sieur Jean Fautrat" should cause 
 to be removed from the harbour " Le Rondin," sunk therein, 
 in default of which she was to be sold to the highest bidder to 
 be taken to pieces : this was many years anterior to the erec- 
 tion of the north arm. 
 
 Like Caesar, whom we quoted in Chapter I., Mr. Le Marchant 
 wrote according to the conceptions of his time, the present 
 pier being only adapted to the small vessels which then fre- 
 quented it. It has only one quay birth suitable for a ship of 
 300 or 400 tons, and that one, from the unevenness of the 
 ground and exposure to S.E. gales, any thing but desirable. 
 
 (1) In 1750, one of the steps of the pier bore the initials of Sir Thomas Leighton, 
 " T. L., 1589." 
 
170 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Such ships require a wet dock, which should be undertaken 
 as soon as the first section of the new works, ^ commenced 
 August 24, 1853, is completed, and the several piers named 
 the " Harbour of the three Queens." 
 
 The present pier, a tidal one, is situated in front of the 
 town ; and the entrance of it, which is 565 yards to the north- 
 west of Castle Cornet, is 68 feet wide at bottom, by 80 feet at 
 top ; the length of the harbour is 520 feet, and the width 320 
 feet, being an area of 3| acres. The depth at the entrance is 
 15 to 16 feet average neap, and 23 to 24 feet strong spring 
 tides — at the western quays, 8 feet less. In low or dead 
 neaps there are only 12 feet at the entrance, and 4 feet only 
 at the quays. The harbour is fully sheltered from twenty- 
 two points of the compass ; partly, but not dangerously, open 
 on four points ; and completely open from the remaining srx 
 points, between S. and E. S. E. 
 
 An ordinance passed at the Chief Pleas of April, 1624, 
 enacts " that the small house at the end of the pier shall be 
 rendered secure at the pubhc expense," so that the prevost 
 might confine therein criminals whom, through the approach 
 of night or bad weather, he was prevented from conducting 
 to Castle Cornet. Thus there must previously have been 
 such a building on the south arm. 
 
 From 1740 to 1755, about 5,000 livres tournois, equal to 
 £3,571. 8s. 6d. sterling, are said to have been expended on 
 the north pier, and on the repairs of the south pier. 
 
 The western quays were built from 1775 to 1779, and seven 
 persons, whose tenements bordered on them, refused to pay 
 their proportion of the cost : they were only brought to the 
 exercise of reason by being prohibited any access to the quays 
 through their own doors, and after the lapse of some years 
 they understood their true interests, when they paid their 
 quota, — it is to be hoped, with compound interest. 
 
 The arch over Cow Lane {la Rue des Vaches) was built in 
 1783, and the western quays were thus connected with the 
 south pier. 
 
 The slips of the south pier were constructed in 1819, and 
 the light-house erected on the south pier was first lighted on 
 the 28th of February, 1832. 
 
 (1) Guernsey Isgjeatly indebted to the present lleatenant-grovernor — lieutenant-general 
 Sir John Bell. K.C.B.— than whom the island never had a more able or popular one j and 
 to Peter Stafford Carey, esq., bailiff, for the effectual exercise of their official influence 
 in furtherance of these new works, which have been so \oDg and so ardently desired by 
 the commercial classes. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JAMES.— 1603 to 1625. 
 
 171 
 
 No sooner had Elizabeth expired, March 24, 1603, than 
 there were courtiers riding furiously to convey the first intel- 
 ligence to the new king ; and the race was won by Sir Robert 
 Carey, afterwards created Earl of Monmouth, and the son of 
 lord Hunsdon, the queen's first cousin, whose fortune she had 
 made ! Carey reached Edinburgh on the 26th of March, 
 with wonderful expedition in those days, forgetting the obli- 
 gations of his family to the queen, in his anxiety to announce 
 her death to her contemptible successor. — How many peer- 
 ages have been earned by similar truckling and discreditable 
 influences ! 
 
 " The reign now commencing," says Sir James Mackintosh, 
 " is the basest and most barren in English history. Peace 
 abroad was but national ignominy." And yet that clerical 
 courtier, Falle, thus speaks of the king : " King James I. 
 was a most pacific prince, who, having little left him to do 
 for us in the way of military defence, turned his thoughts to 
 the better settling of religion in these islands, and bringing 
 them to a conformity to the Church of England, which he 
 happily effected in Jersey — a work doubtless more acceptable 
 to God, and which will perpetuate his name among us no 
 less than if he had environed this island with a wall of brass — 
 a work of all others the most congruous to his peaceful reign." 
 
 Having described the introduction of Presbyterianism into 
 Jersey and Guernsey, we shall here briefly narrate, according 
 to Dr. Heylin,^ the causes of its downfal in the former island. 
 The rector of St. John's parish being dead, the colloquy ap- 
 pointed "oneBrevin"^ (so called by Heylin) to succeed him, 
 and carried their point, although the governor. Sir John 
 Peyton, who by his patent held the presentation of all the 
 livings in Jersey, the deanery excepted, protested against the 
 nomination. Soon afterwards, the governor, and Marret, the 
 procureur du roi, forwarded several complaints to council 
 
 (1) Some allowance must be made for his religious opinions, as Hallam says : " Heylin, 
 a bigotted enemy of every thing puritanical, and not scrupulous as to veracity." 
 
 (2) M. Cosmo Brevin, we believe, a Frenchman, previously minister of Sark, and father 
 of Dr. Daniel Brevin, dean of Lincoln.— See digest of colloquy, ante. 
 
172 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 against the colloquy, declaring that that body had usurped 
 the patronage of all the benefices in the island, and praying 
 the king to grant them such a form of discipline and church 
 government as would prevent the repetition of similar abuses. 
 In consequence. Sir Robert Gardiner and Dr. James Hussey 
 were sent over to Jersey as commissioners, in 1607, when the 
 clergy contended that their right of appointments to the mi- 
 nistry, and their exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, had been 
 confirmed to them by his majesty. While the questions at 
 issue were pending, disputes occurred between the clergy and 
 the laity; and the Royal Court annulled the sentences pro- 
 nounced by the consistory, which was moreover accused of 
 holding secret and treasonable meetings. About the year 
 1612, the parish of St. Peter becoming void, Sir John Peyton 
 presented it to a clergyman named Messervy, who had re- 
 sided some time at Oxford, and was patronized by Dr. 
 Bridges, bishop of that city. The colloquy refused his admis- 
 sion, chiefly on account of his having been ordained by that 
 prelate, as to accept Messervy seemed to them almost an 
 acknowledgment of episcopacy. The new incumbent, how- 
 ever, notwithstanding the warmest opposition, enjoyed the 
 emoluments of the hving. In another complaint to the king 
 in council, it was stated that the inhabitants generally were 
 discontented with the Presbyterian discipline, and that they 
 preferred the Anglican form, whereupon both parties were 
 commanded to appear at court. Marret, the procureur, and 
 Messervy, the rector of St. Peter, were furnished with a 
 petition in favor of episcopacy ; and on behalf of the Presby- 
 terians were deputed Bandinel, (afterwards dean,) De la Place, 
 rector of St. Mary, and two other ministers, who were in- 
 structed not to assent to any change. 
 
 On their arrival in London, the king referred both parties 
 to the council, which ordered the case to be heard before the 
 archbishop of Canterbury, lord Zouche, and Sir John Her- 
 bert, then principal secretary of state. The cause was pri- 
 vately argued before them by the deputies, who so contra- 
 dicted each other that it became impossible for the judges to 
 ascertain the real facts. At length, De la Place was given 
 to understand that if episcopacy were revived, he would cer- 
 tainly be the new dean, and " being fashioned into this hope," 
 (says Heylin,) " he speedily betrayed the counsels of his 
 fellowes, and furnished their opponents at all their enterviews 
 with such intelligence as might make most for their advan- 
 tage." The Presbyterian deputies now disagreeing among 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 173 
 
 themselves, the disputants were finally informed that the 
 office of dean in Jersey would be revived ; that the book of 
 (Common Prayer in French would be again used in the 
 churches, with some discretion in particular passages ; " that 
 Messervy should be admitted to his benefice ; and that so 
 they might return unto their charges." 
 
 But the ministers " being somewhat backward in obeying 
 this decree," the council intimated to them, through Sir Philip 
 de Carteret, that they should make choice of three among 
 themselves, and return their names to the board, when his 
 majesty would select one as dean. This intimation caused 
 great perplexity, not so much from dislike to the office, but 
 because those who aspired to it would not name another, and 
 thereby prejudice their own chance. But David Bandinel, 
 rector of St. Mary, either having, or pretending to have, 
 some business in London, was recommended by the governor ; 
 and by letters patent, dated March 8, 1619, was invested 
 with the office of dean. The ministers, who had six months 
 allowed them to deliberate, generally submitted to the new 
 discipline ; but De la Place, disappointed in not receiving 
 the promised deanery, retired in disgust to Guernsey, where 
 he obtained a benefice. The canons, &;c., of James I. were 
 definitively established in Jersey by royal letters patent, dated 
 June 30, 1623. "Thus did the Church of England," says 
 Falle complacently, " like an indulgent mother, take us again 
 into her bosom, after we had for half a century estranged 
 ourselves from her, and been under a presbytery." 
 
 Although Jersey was thus brought under the polity and 
 ritual of the Church of England, Guernsey maintained the 
 Presbyterian form and discipline for about forty years longer. 
 Heylin assigns a plausible reason why the king did not at- 
 tempt a conformity of both islands at the same time, which is, 
 that had he done so, the ministers of both united would have 
 formed a most formidable opposition ; whereas one island, 
 being brought to conformity, might induce the other to follow 
 the example. But the reason rather seems to be that the 
 people of Guernsey, being more unanimous in favor of Cal- 
 vinism, gave James no opportunity for intermeddling with 
 their ecclesiastical affairs. It is alleged by Berry as another 
 reason that Sir Thomas Leighton, who had been instrumental 
 in the introduction of Presbyterianism, was opposed to any 
 change ; but as he died about fifteen years before James, and 
 moreover as he was very unpopular, his influence must have 
 ceased with his life. 
 
1 74 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 The States of Guernsey, ignorant, we trust, of James' despi- 
 cable character, sent a deputation to congratulate him on his 
 accession, and to soHcit a confirmation of the insular privi- 
 leges, which the king ordered to be examined, and ratified by 
 his royal charter, dated the 15th of June, 1606. In the 
 following year, the last Extent or estimate of the revenue of 
 the crown in Guernsey and its dependant islands was made 
 by the royal commissioners, whose decisions still form part of 
 the laws of the bailiwick. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, who was governor of Jersey from the 
 year 1600 to 1603, on condition of supporting the insular 
 establishment and remitting £300 a year to the Exchequer, 
 is said to have introduced the Newfoundland cod fishery into 
 that island.^ In the report of the royal commissioners, Con- 
 way and Bird, in 1617, Raleigh was charged with having 
 embezzled " 130 pounds of the king's munition of powder 
 at two several times, for the use of a ship in which he adven- 
 tured to Newfoundland." He resided in Jersey in 1602, 
 and kept the inhabitants on the alert with the fear of a 
 Spanish invasion, possibly from the Netherlands. It was 
 during his government that a public register was established 
 for real ])roperty in Jersey, where his greatness of mind was 
 very perceptible. Raleigh was beheaded in 1617, during 
 this reign ; and whatever doubts may be entertained of his 
 guilt or innocence, there can be none of the wickedness of his 
 conviction, as indeed of almost every conviction at that time. 
 His son, Carew Raleigh, who was born in the Tower, became 
 governor of Jersey in 1659, during the protectorate, and 
 died in 1666. 
 
 In consequence of certain representations made to king in 
 council by deputies from Guernsey, relative to the government 
 of the isle, that body issued an order, dated Greenwich, June 
 9, 1605, of which we give the first article at length, as shew- 
 ing how completely the inhabitants were placed at the mercy 
 of Sir Thomas Leighton, who was governor of the island for 
 the long period of nearly forty years — 1570 to 1609 — and 
 who had long been most distasteful to them : 
 
 ** Ffirst, for answere to their proposicion touchinge the autho- 
 ritie of the governor for commirting of men to prison in that isle: 
 it is thought meete the governor shall not be restrayned to com- 
 
 (1 ) Sir Walter Raleigh is also said to have introduced tobacco into Jersey, and to have 
 enjoyed his pipe while the " States " were sittinfc, when be was generally present. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 175 
 
 mitt any islander to prison upon such cause as he shall thincke 
 to have justlie deserved imprisonment : but, forasmuch as everie 
 particular or private offence which deserveth restraint doth not 
 admitt the laying on of irons, putting; into the dungeon, or longe 
 imprisonment, it is therefore thought fitt that no person shall be 
 restrayned or kept in prison by the committment of the governor 
 longer tyme than the space of ifower and twentie howres ; nor be 
 laied in irons, nor put into the dungeon, unlesse the partie stand 
 charged with some such matter as is of higher nature than a 
 private offence, and may concerne him in his loyaltie to the king's 
 majestie's person, or to the state ; in which case the bailiffe and 
 jurates (if the matter be such as may without daunger be imparted 
 to so many) are to be made acquainted with the cause of his 
 committment ; but, if the governor shale finde it daungerous or 
 inconvenient so farr foorth to reveale it as to acquaint them or 
 any of them with it, it ought to be left to his discrecion how to 
 proceede both for the tyme and manner of imprisonment and for 
 reteyning the cause private to himself: alwaies to be regarded 
 that the governor committ not to prison the bailiffe, or any of the 
 jurates, unlesse it be for some such great cause concerning the 
 king's majestie or the state, as is before mentioned." 
 
 It was further ordered, that although the " captaine may, 
 for the better guard of the isle, make from tyme to tyme pro- 
 vision of armour, weapon, and such hke furniture," yet he 
 shall not " impose any assessment or tax thereby to charge 
 the inhabitants for the said provision, without conference had 
 with the bailiffe and jurates, and by their consent and agree- 
 ment." — The captaine (i.e. governor) was to have the nomi- 
 nation of the gunners, whose payment by the islanders was 
 not to be greater than anciently accustomed. — The islanders 
 seeking not to be burthened as heretofore with the mainte- 
 nance of the fortifications of Castle Cornet, they were not 
 relieved therefrom, but told to complain " of further burthen 
 than is convenient and necessary should be exacted of them 
 therein ;" and as to the retynue (garrison) of the said castle, 
 it was " left to the discretion of the governor to make choise 
 of such able persons of the islanders as shall be thought fitt 
 from tyme to tyme to be in readynes for the better defence 
 of the same," but such service was to " be equallie appor- 
 tioned in the generalitie." — The islanders requesting to be 
 authorized and allowed to visit the castle as they have done 
 in times past, were answered that "if they shall make re- 
 quest to the governor to see the state of the castle, it is not 
 to be doubted but in friendlie manner the governor will 
 admitt them to vew the same in such sorte as hetherto alwaies 
 
176 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 hath ben accustomed." — A " demand for encrease of wages 
 to the bailiffes" was referred to commissioners to be sent to 
 the island, provided "the same may be donne without en- 
 crease of charge to his majestie, or taking the same out of 
 the governor's entertainment and allowance." — '"And to their 
 demand that the baiHffe may be nominated by the king him- 
 self, and not by the governor, it is answered, that in regard 
 alwaies heretofore the baiHffe hath been nominated by the 
 captaine," their lordships saw no reason for any change.^ — 
 " To the request that the governor may not take from the 
 inhabitants muttons or any victuale," otherwise than such as is 
 due, it was answered, " that the governor shall content himself 
 with 100 muttons by the yeare," to be paid for at the market 
 value ; and that he should continue to receive " such a quan- 
 tity of butter to be served by the countrey as heretofore hath 
 usuaHie bin yealded." — " Concerning the provisions brought 
 into the isle," it was ordered, " because it is meete that the 
 castle be alwaies sufficientlie furnished of all such commodi- 
 ties as the governor shall finde needefull, therefore the pre- 
 emption of any of the said commodities ought to be yealded 
 unto him ; but not any advantage of taking at a lower rate 
 against the will of the seller." — "To their demand, that the 
 sallerie of congers may be duly practized according to the 
 first institution thereof, it is answered, that the resolucion 
 hereof is to be referred to the book of Extent made anno 
 quinto. Edward 3, whereupon the lordships of the counsell 
 did determine this question in the year 1583." — It was fur- 
 ther ordered, that if any person, residing within the castle 
 (Cornet) and under charge of the governor, offended " against 
 the course of justice of the isle, either civile or criminall," 
 the Royal Court " was to demand the offender at his handes 
 upon the laying open and unfolding of the cause ; and if the 
 governor refused to deliver him up, the court was to apply 
 to the counsell board for remedie," although forty days were 
 required to elapse, in hope of amicable adjustment. 
 
 To examine further into the preceding and other complaints, 
 not only against Sir Thomas Leighton, but also against the 
 bailiff and jurats of Guernsey, two royal commissioners. Sir 
 Robert Gardner, knight, and James Hussey, doctors of the 
 civil law, were sent over in 1607, to inquire into and finally 
 determine all disputes between the authorities and the inha- 
 bitants, both in Guernsey and Jersey. Most of the com- 
 
 (1) The prerojfative of appointing the bailiff was reserved to the crown by an order in 
 council of May 87, 1674. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 177 
 
 plaints made from Guernsey appear by the report of the said 
 commissioners to have been well founded, and among them 
 we find the following. The inhabitants complained that the 
 governor,^ " of his own authority, erected a martial jurisdic- 
 tion, to the prejudice of the ordinary jurisdiction granted by 
 royal charter to the bailiff and jurats," and that he " hath 
 constrained, these late years, a great many of the best inha- 
 bitants of this isle, under the degree of justices, to keep watch 
 at the castle, sometimes in their own persons, being not able 
 to procure any other to do it for them, howbeit the said 
 parties were of weak disposition, and not used to such dis- 
 commodities and travels ; at least wise, to hire others at great 
 price, almost every one refusing to do that service, except 
 only the soldiers of the garrison, because of the hard and 
 dangerous course held by the governor and his officers, in 
 the performance of the said watch ; which service hath been 
 raised upon the people beyond all reason, being not bound to 
 the same by any extent of the king's rights and duties that 
 can be shewed." The complainants prayed to be exempted 
 from this burdensome service ; and as the governor reaped 
 all the profit of the government, which profit was very great 
 in so little a country, that he should stand to all that was 
 requisite for the safe keeping of Castle Cornet. The commis- 
 sioners decided, that as " the governor hath a sufficient num- 
 ber of soldiers in the castle, or allowance for the maintenance 
 of them, to watch and ward in the castle in time of peace," 
 he should not compel the inhabitants to do that service, 
 " except it be in time of war, or in time of foreign prepara- 
 tions for war against his majesty, or any of his subjects," and 
 then not without consulting the bailiff and jurats as to the 
 men fitted by their valour and discretion for such service, 
 from which the jurats and gentlemen were to be exempted, 
 unless they refused to find a substitute The inhabitants 
 further complained that they were constrained to carry the 
 corn due to the king over to the castle, whereas, ever before, 
 they delivered it into the king's granary in the town ; and 
 the commissioners ordered that only 200 quarters of corn be 
 yearly delivered into the castle, for a certain provision, and 
 400 quarters in the time of necessity, and the rest to be 
 delivered in St. Peter-Port. They complained also that Sir 
 Thomas Leighton compelled them to ship themselves to make 
 war against pirates, although some were altogether unmeet 
 
 (1) It'is due to Sir T. Leighton to observe, that he was absent during the visit of the 
 royal commissioners : he was represented by Peter Carey, esq., jurat, and his lieutenant. 
 
 N 
 
178 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 for such actions, and none bound to such service. Moreover, 
 that the governor commanded many chargeable and useless 
 fortifications in the isle ; and their prayer, that they might 
 not be forced to serve out of the isle, or castle, or to erect 
 such fortifications, was deemed reasonable by the commis- 
 sioners. Other complaints were that the governor constrained 
 the people to carry to the castle, in boats and carts, stones, 
 wood, fuel, earth, &c., without any payment, imprisoning 
 those that refused ; and further, " to provide him at the castle 
 with beds and sheets, together with coverletts," the same 
 being an innovation. These arbitrary exercises of power 
 were ordered to be greatly modified. The inhabitants further 
 complained " that the governor taketh, as well from the inha- 
 bitants as strangers coming into the isle, beer and wood, 
 almost at such price as pleaseth him," &;c. ; and it was or- 
 dered that, as Castle Cornet required to be always furnished 
 with such commodities as the governor deemed needful, 
 among which were beer and wood, he should have a pre- 
 emption or preference of them at such price as the seller 
 might agree upon. " They complain that the said governor 
 will not suffer the men of the isle to marry any other wives 
 than such as are born subjects of our sovereign, without his 
 leave, for which the husband must pay a fine, and sometimes 
 a yearly tribute and rent ;" and, in depriving the governor of 
 this exaction, the commissioners remarked, " that both in 
 time of peace and war, the inhabitants may lawfully and 
 freely have trade, traffic, and commerce, with strangers, and 
 strangers with them, and also that they are more nearly 
 situated to Normandy and France (with whom they have 
 especial and daily intercourse) than they are with his majes- 
 ty's dominions." — "They complain that the governor hath 
 removed and turned out of their benefices sundry ministers 
 of the Word of God ; some of them born in the isle, and 
 brought up at the charges of the inhabitants, without any 
 lawful cause proved against them ; leaving the parishes 
 destitute of mmisters, whereof some remain at this day un- 
 provided." This gross act of injustice and tyranny being 
 fully proved, the commissioners " do therefore think meet 
 that the governor should forbear to do the like hereafter" ! 
 
 The inhabitants of Aldemey having also sundry complaints 
 to make, sent over two deputies, who appeared before the 
 royal commissioners, at St. JPeter-Port, November 30, 1607, 
 and alleged " that their island hath been destitute of a minis- 
 ter these sixteen years past, by reason there is no maintenance 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 179 
 
 allowed for one, the lord or fee farmer" [Mr. Chamberlain] 
 " of the said isle taking- and enjoying all the tithes, with the 
 house and ground belonging to the parsonage," and that the 
 people were obliged to repair to Guernsey to have their 
 marriages celebrated and their children christened. In con- 
 sequence, they had lately, " at their extreme charges, — (consi- 
 dering their miserable and poor estate,)" maintained a young 
 man, with his wife and children, a whole year in Guernsey, 
 to prepare himself for the ministry, and they prayed that he 
 might have either a part of the said tithes, or "a certain 
 pension" therefrom, and that the parsonage and grounds 
 might be restored. The commissioners ordered that Simon 
 Masons, a native of Southampton, and probably the young 
 man just mentioned, should repair to Alderney as a minister, 
 with a salary of £20 sterling, English payment, yearly, and 
 the enjoyment of the parsonage house, with the garden ground 
 appertaining. The people, moreover, complained that they 
 were ordered " to furnish unto John Chamberlain and his 
 heirs, for the provision of his house, yearly, three score mut- 
 tons or lambs, paying for every mutton two shillings, and for 
 every lamb thirteen pence ;" which order the commissioners 
 confirmed, adding, however, " but because the inhabitants 
 are very poor, and their deputies say that they were drawn 
 to this agreement against their will, we promise to deal with 
 Mr. Chamberlain, in England, for the alteration of the same, 
 or else to acquaint the lords of his majesty's privy council 
 therewith." — The inhabitants also complained that " a certain 
 isle, called Burhou, which they were wont to enjoy time out 
 of mind," was withholden from them ; but the commissioners 
 ruled that the said isle belonged to those who held Alderney 
 in fee farm. They further complained that they were com- 
 pelled to furnish, twice a year, " a boat, and therein to carry 
 whatsoever it shall please the said Chamberlain or his farmers 
 to appoint, from Alderney to Guernsey ; " and the commis- 
 sioners decided that this exact;ion was illegal. 
 
 The garrison of Castle Cornet must at this period have 
 been very sijaall, as Dicey says : " There formerly used always 
 to be in Castle Cornet fourteen soldiers in time of peace, 
 besides the lieutenant, the marshall, the porter, the sutler, the 
 master gunner, the smith, the carpenter, the boatmen, and 
 the watchman. And in time of war, twenty-eight. Besides, 
 the governor may command out of the island such number of 
 the ablest and most expert soldiers he shall think to make 
 
180 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 choice of, who are to have a soldier's coat given them every 
 year, and are to serve whenever they shall be required. 
 
 " These soldiers were called the castle retinue, and were 
 bound to repair thither whenever called upon ; especially 
 upon any alarm. But for many years past, by omissions or 
 otherwise, that retinue of soldiers, and coats allowed them, 
 are out of practice ; and the castle is principally garrisoned 
 and defended by soldiers sent over from England." 
 
 And Dicey adds : " For services to be done, it was like- 
 wise the custom for all such as had carts or boats, two days 
 in the year, to carry stone, sand, or other materials, for the 
 building or repairs wanting to the castle, whenever they 
 should be required. 
 
 " Such as were able to keep carts and did not so attend, 
 were obliged to find others ; and such as were not able to 
 keep any, were obliged to work themselves. — All strangers 
 were likewise obliged, on proper notice, to work four days." 
 
 George Lord Carew, of Clopton, to Amias de Carteret, bailiff of Guernsey. 
 
 ** Forasmuch as it hath pleased God to take your late governor, 
 Sir Thomas Leighton, from this world into a better; and his 
 majesty having been pleased to bestow upon me the government 
 he had in Guernsey, I have been moved to desire you (in respect 
 of certain rents are paid weekly for mills and other tenements, 
 let out by the said Sir Thomas during his life) that you will 
 give notice to all the parishes of the said isle, that all such 
 rents, from the day of his death, may be reserved to the king's 
 use ; and if in any other thing, you can shew me a favor, in the 
 preservation of things may be prejudicial to his majesty,^ I will 
 be ready to requite it with thanks, and remain, &c. 
 
 " Court Whitehall, 5th of February, 1609. 
 
 [Endorsed.] 
 
 " Letter rec. 1609, March 23, from my L. Carew, governor." 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 [Extracts.] — "Touching the minerals of Serke, it shall suffice 
 if a trial be made any time before midsummer. I will hereafter 
 consider of the boorer (boorier) you speak of; but let not that 
 hinder your proceeding .... Divers of the jurats and others 
 of his majesty's officers having recommended Peter Gosselin unto 
 me, I have, upon your certificate, chosen him to be greffier. I 
 pray you, and such of the jurats as you shall think meet, to take 
 view of the late ruins about the castle, and under your hands to 
 certify what reparations are fit to be done, with an estimate what 
 
 (1) The crown revenues in Guernsey were enjoyed, not by the king, but by the gover- 
 nor, who at this time appears to have maintained the insular establishments, and was 
 perhaps bound to pay a certain sum into the exchequer. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 181 
 
 the charges thereof, and the scarping of rocks, (by which there 
 is danger of a surprise,) will amount unto, wherein I desire that 
 expedition may be used, to the end I may inform the lords of 
 the council with the same, and get it repaired this summer. 
 
 ** You have my leave for to come to England, and I am content 
 that seigneur Sausmarez^ supplies your place during your absence. 
 
 " From Court, this 12th of February, 1610." 
 
 [o] 
 
 " George Lord Carew, of Clopton, master of the ordnance 
 within the realm of England, vice-chamberlain to her majesty, 
 governor and captain-general of the isles of Guernsey, Alderney, 
 Sark, &c.," being called upon "to give my personal attendance 
 as well upon the queen's majesty as upon the office of the ord- 
 nance in England, and for some other important causes of mine 
 own, my purpose is, with the first conveniency I may, (by God's 
 permission,) to pass into that realm." His lordship accordingly 
 left Amias de Carteret,^ esquire, bailiff of Guernsey, his lieute- 
 nant-governor, with numerous conditions, reservations, and in- 
 structions, dated at Castle Cornet, the 9th day of August, 1610, 
 from which we extract the following : 
 
 "Moreover, I do in like manner reserve unto myself the placing 
 and displacing of all the officers and soldiers of the garrison in 
 Castle Cornet, the list of whose names and number, in a particular 
 muster roll delivered unto you under my hand, is specified. 
 Nevertheless, over all the soldiers, * drome,' bellman, bellwatch, 
 and boatmen, you shall have full ])ower (if any of them shall 
 carry themselves undutifully towards you, or neglect their duties 
 in their particular places,) to discharge or punish the offenders, 
 and to place some other sufficient man to serve in his room that 
 is discharged, until I shall provide .another of mine own election 
 to supply bis place. (But, concerning the porter and gunner, I 
 do only give you power to suspend them if they offend, until I 
 be certified of their offences, the determining whereof I reserve 
 unto myself.) 
 
 " Albeit, for the increase of tillage, which will advance the 
 common good of this isle of Guernsey, a further liberty for trans- 
 portation of corn, than hath been accustomed, is meet to be 
 granted : nevertheless, I do require you to foresee that no immo- 
 derate carrying away of corn may be admitted, but licensed in 
 such a temper as the greedy desires of particular men, for their 
 private gains, may not leave the isle destitute. And that provi- 
 sionally you be thus far * respective ' of my particular, that when 
 it shall appear unto you that corn, without detriment, may be 
 
 (1) Thomas Andros, seigneur of Sausmarez, St. Martin's, son-in-law of Araias de Car- 
 teret, and father of Amias Andros, afterwards bailifif. 
 
 (2) Amias de Carteret was seigneur of Trinity manor, in Jersey, and we believe a native 
 of that island. As the emoluments were trifling, it is strange that he was bailiff of 
 Guernsey. 
 
182 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 spared, then such corn as shall remain in my garner ^ may be 
 first vented, which is a right belonging to the governor. 
 
 " Further, I do require you, that the orders made by my pre- 
 decessor. Sir Thomas Leighton, and subscribed with his hand, 
 now remaining in Castle Cornet, may be duly observed by those 
 that are of the garrison, until such time as you shall receive 
 others under mine own hand. And especially, I pray you be 
 careful that no soldier be suffered to go into the island, otherwise 
 than upon his day of liberty. And that none be permitted to lie 
 out of the castle any night, except it be by your license. 
 
 *' That you have a regard of the safe keeping of all his majes- 
 ty's munitions, and especially to be careful of the powder, that 
 none immoderate waste be made of it. And when it lightens, 
 that you command the gunner, or some other of the soldiers, to 
 hang either some old sails or blankets before the windows and 
 doors of the powder room, that the store may be secured.' And 
 to command the gunner to make a journal of expense of the 
 powder, and at no time, but upon occasions, (for the which good 
 reasons may be given,) that he do presume to make a shot but by 
 your direction. 
 
 " Upon any intelligence of danger, or attempt to be made upon 
 the island, you are to lodge within the Castle Cornet, and to 
 send for such supplies out of the country as in such causes is 
 accustomed. And also to command the inhabitants of the same, 
 under their several captains, (according to the accustomed direc- 
 tions in former times,) to repair with their arms to the several 
 rendezvous, and to be vigilant that the enemy take no land, inas- 
 much as in you lieth. 
 
 "More, for that of late times the exercise of arms is much 
 decayed in these islands, I do pray you to take (as often as in 
 your discretion it shall be thought meet) general musters of all 
 the able men, as also of their weapons ; and that their captains 
 do train them as heretofore hath been accustomed. And whereas 
 also every several parish hath been accustomed to maintain gun- 
 ners and ordnance upon landing places, I do require you to see 
 that their duties herein be not neglected ; and likewise that due 
 watches be kept, and beacons erected, when time of danger re- 
 quire it. 
 
 " I do pray you to oversee the keeper of the isle of Erme, 
 (Herm,) that no wilful or negligent waste be made of the deer, 
 pheasants, or conies there. And of the deer and pheasants, in 
 your discretion, kill what you please ; being confident that you 
 will endeavour their preservation and increase as much as myself. 
 
 " For the provision of your table, I do give you out of Erme 
 
 (1) The governor received the great tithes as part of his perquisites. 
 
 (2) Had a similar precaution been taken in )672, when the castle was much injured by 
 the explosion of the powder magazine, the accident might have been prevented. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 183 
 
 (for so long as you are my lieutenant) after the rate of two hun- 
 dred couple of conies per annum. 
 
 *' I do likewise ^ive you, for the provision of your own table, 
 carps without any certain limitation, praying you so to favor the 
 pond, as that the increase may not be decayed. 
 
 *' I do also desire you to be careful that the breed of swans, 
 brought into the island by Sir Thomas Leighton, and cherished 
 by him, may not be destroyed. Of them yearly you may take 
 for your own use as many as you please, and unto John de 
 Quetteville,^ what you may spare, I pray you to bestow upon 
 him : your moderation in both I am sure will be such as the 
 game will be maintained. 
 
 " My predecessors, the governors, have ever accustomed to be 
 careful that none in the country should keep greyhounds to 
 destroy the hares, nor shoot at fowl, without their license, which 
 laudable custom I pray you observe, wherein I do not wish you 
 to restrain any man of quality, but the baser people, whose time 
 spent in labour is proper to their calling. And, in like manner, 
 not to permit any man to take partridges, of which game this 
 island is almost destitute.^ 
 
 *' Finally, for so much as this isle of Guernsey is a frontier 
 upon a potent monarch, and that the preservation of the said 
 island from incursions and hostile invasion chiefly consisteth in 
 order and discipline, 1 do require you to cause the inhabitants of 
 the island to keep and observe the military orders which my 
 predecessor, Sir Thomas Leighton, established since the happy 
 entrance of his majesty that now is to the imperial crown of 
 England, the copy whereof I received from yourself, until you 
 shall receive new orders subscribed with my own hand." 
 
 Lord Carew to Amias de Carteret ^ bailiff of Guernsey. 
 
 [Extract.] — "The mineral earths which I brought from Sark, 
 Guernsey, and Jersey, upon trial *flied' to smoke : the lead ore 
 of Sark holds only lead, but in small assayes so uncertainly as 
 no judgment certain can be made of it ; wherefore, I have written 
 to John de Quetteville to send me a hogshead of the same ore,* 
 and I pray you to speak to your nephew to permit him to dig for 
 it, unto whom and to yourself I recommend my best affections. 
 
 " Savoy, this 20th day of May, 1612." 
 
 From the same to the same, 
 [Extracts.] — "Whereas I * writt' to you by my servant Leche 
 
 (1) The governor's receiver. 
 
 (2) Deer, pheasants, swans, and partridges, have long since disappeared from Guernsey 
 and Herm. Hares have been occasionaily re-introduced into Guernsey within a few 
 years, but they are soon destroyed. 
 
 (3) In 1835, a company was formed to work the mineral lodes of Sark, which exhibited 
 traces of silver, lead, and copper. A quantity of silver lead ore was raised, but not suffi- 
 cient to pay the cost ; and, after a loss|of about ^6*40,000, the works were abandoned in 1848. 
 
 At Herm, also, a copper lode was worked, and abandoned after a small outlay. 
 
184 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 that I intended to be with you in Guernsey this spring. I do still 
 continue in the same mind, but cannot set down any certain time, 
 by reason of my lord Lisle his sickness, who is at this present not 
 able to wait upon her majesty : as soon as he shall be recovered, 
 I am resolved to come thither. In the mean season, I will take 
 order that Castle Cornet may be supplied with those things which 
 for the present are most chiefly to be desired .... Lastly, the 
 project which Leche hath acquainted me withal, to wit, a suit 
 which you and the jurats (having first obtained the consent of 
 the inhabitants there) intend to make to his majesty for a license 
 to raise a certain small imposition upon such wines as shall be 
 spent in the island, to endure for a few years only, till such time 
 as the island, which (as I understand) is very poor, may be fur- 
 nished with some public treasure, to be employed in the provi- 
 sion of things needful for the defence of the same. I do hereby 
 certify you that I do very well like thereof, and will (when I 
 shall be more particularly informed therein, which you may do 
 by setting down the nature of the project in writing to be sent 
 unto me) be ready to yield you my best furtherance for the ob- 
 taining of that which doth so much [tend] to the public good of 
 the island. 
 
 " From the Court at Greenwich, 17th April, 1616." 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 **My heart is at ease when I hear of no discord in the isle of 
 Guernsey, and I thank you that all is in the good temper as now 
 it stands, wherein I may not forget to commend your discreet 
 carriage and moderation, otherwise it would not be as it is at 
 present, and for the same I render you many thanks. Although 
 I need not put a spur to your foresight and diligence, yet it is 
 my part not to be void of care, and especially in these trouble- 
 some times, when our neighbours in France are in combustion ; 
 wherefore, I pray you to be vigilant in the place you hold, and, 
 if any fears or dangers represent themselves unto you, that you 
 would give me timely notice of it to prevent the same, and also 
 that you would from time to time advertize me of news of France, 
 which many times comes to you before we can receive it here. 
 I am sorry that the heat between the governor of Jersey and the 
 bailiff* there is grown to so great a flame : it will in the end prove 
 ill for both parts, and in the present a general disquietness to the 
 whole island. When Philip Carteret took his leave of me, I said 
 some things unto him concerning you which I leave to his report : 
 what I said I then thought, and do now think, and will evermore 
 remain towards you as I then professed, which shall in actions be 
 
 (1) Sir John Peyton and John Herault, bailly. The latter died in 1626 ; and the Rev. E. 
 Durell, in speaking of him, says : " He died poor, and no monument was erected to per- 
 petuate his name ; but his memory has survived as that of one of the ablest and most 
 public spirited magistrates, whose virtues ever reflected honour on the high oflice of bailly 
 of Jersey."— See Durell's Notes on Falle, p. 409. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 185 
 
 made manifest when you shall have occasion to make use of my 
 friendship. Touching the ecclesiastical government in the islands, 
 I can say nothing more than you have heard, until his majesty's 
 return, at which time I conceive his intention for the church 
 government there will be renewed. I could be glad to be fur- 
 nished from you what your opinion is in the same. I moved his 
 majesty (for the ease of the island) that some of the inhabitants* 
 children might be brought up at school, in some of his colleges, 
 whereby they might be freed for charges, whereunto he graciously 
 assented ; wherefore, if there be any that you desire should be 
 preferred to be the king's scholars, such as you shall recommend 
 unto me I will do my endeavour to get them placed. And so 
 with my best affections unto yourself, I rest your constant friend. 
 " Savoy, the 9th of April, 1617. 
 
 [Endorsed.] 
 
 " Letter rec. 1617, May 6, from the L. Carew, my governor." 
 
 [George Carew, earl of Totneas, whose patent was in reversion, 1 Jacob. I., 
 1603 ; he lived tiU S. Carol. I. Warburton, 41. 
 
 Totness, in king Charles I.'s time, gave the title of earl to George Lord 
 Carew, of Clopton, son of Dr. George Carew, dean of Windsor. — Gibson'' s 
 Camden. 
 
 " The inheritance of the Cloptons descended in our time to two sisters, coheirs, 
 one of whom married to Sir George Carew, a famous knight, (vice- chamberlain 
 to her most serene majesty queen Anne,) whom king James created baron 
 Carew, of Clopton, and whom, if for no other reason, I cannot omit for the 
 great respect he paid to venerable antiquity." — Gfibson's Camden in Warwick- 
 shire, 503. 
 
 Lord Carew appears to have resigned his government of Guernsey in 1620.] 
 
 Habitual intemperance, gout, and vexation, produced in 
 James what was called a tertian fever, of which he died in 
 March, 1625, in the sixtieth year of his age, and the twenty- 
 third of his reign in England. 
 
 Michael Drayton, the poet, published, in 1613, his " Poly- 
 Albion," or a description of England. In the opening of the 
 first canto, it contains the following : 
 
 " The sprightly muse her wing displays, 
 
 And the French islands first surveys. 
 
 ********* 
 
 Thus scarcely said the muse, but hovering whUe she hung 
 Upon the Celtic wastes, the sea-nymphs loudly sung : 
 O, ever happy isles, your heads so high that rear, 
 By Nature strongly fenced, which never need to fear ; 
 On Neptune's watery realms, when ^olus raiseth wars. 
 And every billow bounds, as though to quench the stars. 
 Fair Jersey, first of these, here scattered in the deep, 
 Peculiarly that boasts thy double-horned sheep ; 
 Inferior not to thee, thou Chiernsey ! bravely crowned 
 With rough embattled rocks, whose venom-hating ground 
 
186 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 The hardened emeril i hath, which thou abroad dost send ; 
 
 Thou Ligon^ her beloved, and Sark^ that doth attend 
 
 Her pleasure every hour, as Jethou, them at need, 
 
 With pheasants, fallow deer, and conies thou dost feed ! 
 
 Ye seven small sister isles and sorlings, which to see 
 
 The half-sunk seaman joys : or whatsoe'er you be ! 
 
 From fruitful Aureny^ near the ancient Celtic shore, 
 
 To Ushant and the Seams,^ whereas those nuns of yore 
 
 Gb,ve answers from their caves, and took what shapes they please, 
 
 Ye happy islands set within the British seas." 
 
 Ancient hours of tlie Royal Court. — "At the Chief Pleas 
 held on the 4th of October, ]624, it was ordered that, for the 
 future, the court should assemble at half-past nine on every Mon- 
 day, and the advocates are directed to deliver their causes to the 
 bailiff or his lieutenant on the previous Saturday before sunset, 
 otherwise their causes will not be heard ; and it is further ordered 
 that the Saturday's court shall rise at one o'clock after mid-day, 
 without being obliged to sit later, however important the case 
 may be.'* 
 
 CHAELES L — 1625 to 1649. 
 
 Although the reign of Edward III. was very eventful to 
 these islands, that of Charles I. is the most interesting in their 
 annals, and the more so as Jersey and Guernsey espoused 
 different sides during the great rebellion. Happily, we have 
 obtained materials in exemplification of that stirring period, 
 which were unknown to any previous Guernsey historian : 
 we allude to the recently discovered correspondence of Sir 
 Peter Osborne, who was resident lieutenant-governor and 
 governor of Guernsey for twenty-five years — 1621 to 1646 — 
 as well as to the MS. chronicle of John Chevalier, who was 
 an inhabitant of St. HeHer, Jersey, of which parish he was 
 vingtenier, or tithing man, and who kept a diary from the 
 years 1 643 to 1 650, in which he described many of the inci- 
 dents of the civil war relating to both islands. 
 
 Charles, -who was second son of James I., by Anne, 
 daughter of the king of Denmark, and grandson of the 
 equally unfortunate Mary, the Scottish queen, was born in 
 Scotland, in 1600, and, on the death of his elder brother 
 Henry, he became Prince of Wales. In 1625, he succeeded 
 his father, and soon after commenced hostilities against Spain, 
 although his kingdom was filled with dissensions, owing in 
 a great measure to the mal-administration of Buckingham, 
 and the discontents of the puritans. These dissensions were 
 
 (1) Emery. (2) Probably Lihou. (3) Alderney. 
 
 (4) Isle of Semo or Sein, where the nine priestesses, so much feared by the Gauls, were 
 said to reside. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 187 
 
 moreover increased by his marriage with Henrietta Maria, 
 a Roman Cathohc, and daughter of the renowned Henry IV. 
 of France. Her brother, Louis XIH., having renewed the 
 persecution against his Protestant subjects and laid siege to 
 Rochelle, their strongest hold, a war ensued between the two 
 nations. Two parliaments were called, but as the members 
 murmured about grievances, and would grant no supplies, 
 they were quickly dissolved. In consequence, Charles com- 
 menced raising funds by means of loans, benevolences, and 
 ship money, which increased the hostility against him ; and 
 the puritans, in attacking the hierarchy and form of worship, 
 made the people believe that popery and arbitrary power 
 were to be introduced by the king and the bishops. But the 
 grievance which was perhaps the most felt was the revival of 
 monopolies, which were granted to an extent truly appalling. 
 An unsuccessful expedition under Buckingham, to reheve 
 the Protestants at La Rochelle, when the duke was disgrace- 
 fully repulsed in his descent upon the isle of Rhe, in 1627, 
 embarrassed the king's affairs still more ; and he was com- 
 pelled to call another parliament, which, after voting the 
 supplies, passed a bill, in which the rights of the subject were 
 defined : this act, after some demur, was confirmed by Charles. 
 In consequence of Buckingham's descent upon the isle of 
 Rhe, the French threatened to retaliate upon these islands; 
 and in a recent work — " The Court and Times of Charles /., 
 London, 1848," — we find among the correspondence the fol- 
 lowing extracts relating to their intended invasion : 
 
 " London, 6th June, 1627. — The next following uj)on adver- 
 tisement sent hither from Guernsey that there are 4,000 men at 
 the town of Coutance, which is near unto Jersey, and 7,000 at 
 Newhaven,^ ready with boats and arms to set upon those islands ; 
 which they had by several advertisements from that coast of 
 Normandy, and out of confession of three spies which they ap- 
 prehended, there was present order taken for the sending of four 
 ships of war for the guarding of the said islands. 
 
 " London, 27th June, 1627.— My lord of Derby (Danby) or 
 Sir Peter Osborne, his lieutenant of the castle of Guernsey, is 
 shortly to be sent with ten ships for the guard of those islands, 
 which are much threatened, and in danger of their neighbours. 
 
 " London, 6th February, 1627-8.— The isles of Jersey and 
 Guernsey are in some fear and danger. 
 
 " London, December 5, 1628. — The earl of Danby is with all 
 expedition to hie himself to his charge at Guernsey ; for news is 
 come to the court that the French king intends, ere long, to 
 
 (1) We believe Newhaven to have been the present Havre-de-Grace. 
 
188 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 invade it and Jersey ; for which he prepares some flat-bottomed 
 boats. 
 
 " London, December 10, 1628. — Since my writing of ray last 
 letter the last week, there are come advertisements hither from 
 both the islands of Jersey and Guernsey that there are great 
 numbers of ships and shallops newly come to Newhaven and 
 other parts of Normandy, with an intent, as they are informed, to 
 invade them ; and that, to the same end, great numbers of soldiers 
 also are flocking to those parts. Whereupon the council is taking 
 order to provide, as speedily as they can, for the safety of those 
 islands, which it was ever suspected that the French would cast 
 their design upon, to be revenged of the attempt made upon the 
 Isle of Rhe, whensoever opportunity should be offered, both in 
 regard of the facility of that enterprise (those islands lying so 
 near that province) and of their old pretences upon them, as 
 being members of Normandy. 
 
 ** London, December 12, 1628. — It hath been misdoubted by 
 his preparation of shipping and flat-bottomed boats, that the 
 French king will have somewhat to say to Guernsey and Jersey ; 
 but some think he hath a gjreater design. 
 
 " London, December 17, 1628. — To prevent the danger threat- 
 ened to the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, whereof I informed 
 you by my last, my lord of Danby is appointed to repair thither 
 — I mean to his government of Guernsey — with four good ships 
 which shall serve for the guard of both the islands, and is within 
 a few days to take his journey thither ; although, for my part, I 
 am persuaded that he might well spare that labour for any dan- 
 ger that is really intended to those places, because I do not 
 conceive that the king of France hath in himself any desire to 
 exasperate matters any farther with this state; and though he 
 had, yet that he could not do it at this time, when, as by our last 
 advertisement, we are informed he is farther off* an accomodation 
 with the Spaniards about the matters of Italy than he was before." 
 
 The earl of Danby, at that time governor of Guernsey, 
 represented to the king the necessity of sending a naval 
 squadron not only for the protection of these islands, but also 
 to annoy the French traflfic by sea between Britany and 
 Normandy. In this necessity Charles concurred, and an 
 order was issued accordingly. The secretary of state, lord 
 Conway, also wrote to the bailiff* and jurats of Guernsey on 
 the 12th of August, 1627, to assure them, in the king's name, 
 that his majesty would ever continue his gracious protection, 
 as his predecessors had done, "as he greatly esteemed that 
 portion of his inheritance, and the unspotted faith and duty 
 of his subjects in the islands." 
 
 But, as we have just said, Charles* pecuniary difficulties 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 189 
 
 and troubles with his English subjects had already begun, and 
 this misguided monarch was unable to afford immediate assist- 
 ance. It happened fortunately, in the meanwhile, that the 
 French, "pleased that the jealousies and quarrels between 
 king and parliament had disarmed so formidable a power, 
 carefully avoided any enterprise which might rouse either the 
 terror or anger of the English, and dispose them to domestic 
 union and submission."^ At length, however, "it was 
 thought good to send the earl of Danby with a considerable 
 supply of men and arms, and ammunition, to make good 
 those islands, by testifying and assuring them against all in- 
 vasions. This order, signified to his lordship about the begin- 
 ning of December, anno 1628, he cheerfully embraced the 
 service, and prepared accordingly. But neither the ships, 
 money, nor other necessaries, being at that time brought 
 together,"^ the squadron only sailed from Portsmouth in 
 March following. His lordship, " being deserted by his own 
 chaplaines in regard of the extremity of the season, and the 
 visible danger of the enterprise,"* Doctor Heylin engaged 
 to accompany him in that capacity ; and the happy result of 
 his visit was a publication in 1 656, entitled, " A survey of the 
 two islands, Guernzey and Jarsey, with the isles appending, 
 according to their politie and formes of government, both 
 ecclesiasticall and civill." INFow that steamers easily perform 
 the passage between Portsmouth and Guernsey in nine hours, 
 and that, in moderate weather, with almost as much certainty 
 as a journey of the same distance by land, a smile cannot fail 
 of being excited at the fears of the poor chaplains, who 
 shrank from accompanying the earl in his perilous under- 
 taking ! The survey has become so extremely rare, that 
 copious extracts from it relative to the passage across and to 
 all the islands, in the author's own orthography and quaint 
 language, cannot but prove interesting, the more so as the 
 description of the passage from England is the earliest extant. 
 Witchcraft or sorcery, of which mention is made by Heylin 
 in the succeeding extracts, appears to have been a very dan- 
 gerous vocation, as in the year 1563 three persons were 
 burnt for the offence ; in 1570, two ; and from that period 
 to 1605, eight more on similar accusations. Berry says, that 
 between the years 1598 and 1634 no less than nine women 
 and two men were burnt in Guernsey for sorcery ! The 
 Rev. Thomas Le Marchant, minister of the Established Pres- 
 byterian Church of Guernsey, who, in 1662, was deprived of 
 
 (1) Hume. (2) Heylin. 
 
190 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 his livings of the Vale and St. Sampson, because, from con- 
 scientious motives, he refused to sign the act of uniformity, 
 compiled an able work on the laws and customs of Normandy, 
 as used in the Royal Court, which was first printed in 1826 : 
 in it he wrote with a forethought and benevolence which do 
 credit to his memory, that former bailiffs and jurats, most of 
 them illiterate men, had established "a new species of inqui- 
 sition against poor simple persons, whom the credulity and 
 superstition of the ignorant regarded as sorcerers, instituting 
 against them proceedings as strange as they were rigorous ; 
 and often attributing the effects of nature, whose causes they 
 were incapable of fathoming, to witchcraft or satanic agency, 
 they have condemned them by dozens to be hanged and 
 burnt. And, forasmuch as these poor creatures persisted in 
 maintaining their innocence, they have, from a dread lest the 
 people should believe their words and entertain a sinister 
 opinion of their judges, invented a species of cruelty which 
 not even barbarians practise, which is, that after sentence of 
 death has been pronounced on these pretended sorcerers, the 
 said judges, in order to justify their own proceedings and to 
 compel these poor wretches to confess their guilt, have imme- 
 diately, before the execution of the sentence, caused them to 
 be put to the torture in a manner so cruel, that to some they 
 have torn off limbs, and to others they have lighted fires on 
 their living bodies." — Humanity now shudders at the thought 
 of such wanton barbarity as this ; and as a cell or a dungeon 
 in Castle Cornet then formed the only prison of the island, 
 how many an innocent creature must have passed its portals 
 to the torture and the faggot, which were both applied at the 
 south-western foot of the hill on which formerly stood the 
 " Tower of Beauregard," and very near the present pump 
 at the Bordage, in the town of St. Peter-Port.* 
 
 (1) Sir Matthew Hale, while presiding as lord chief baron at the trial of two anhappy 
 women, who were indicted at the assizes at Bury St. Edmunds, in the year 1665, for the 
 crime of witchcraft, is reported to have told the jury, " that he made no doubt at all 
 that there were such creatures as witches," and the women were found guilty and exe- 
 cuted. The conduct of Hale, on this occasion, has very justly been the subject of much 
 sarcastic animadversion, although not to profess a belief in sorcery and witchcraft, was 
 in those days considered, if not irreligious, as bordering on infidelity. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 191 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM HEYLIN'S SURVEY. 
 
 The extracts from Heylin, already alluded to, will form the 
 subject of a separate chapter : he sailed from Portsmouth. 
 
 " On Tuesday, March 3, [1629,] about ten in the morninf^, we 
 went aboard his majesties ship called the Assurance, being a ship 
 of 800 tun, furnished with 42 pieces of ordinance, and very well 
 manned with valiant and expert sailors ; welcomed aboard (after 
 the fashion of the sea) with all the thunder and lightning which 
 the whole navy could afford from their severall ships. Our whole 
 navy consisted of five vessels, that is to say, the Assurance, spoken 
 of before ; two of his majesties pinnaces, called the Whelps ; a 
 catch of his majesties, called the Minikin ; and a merchant's ship, 
 called the Charles, which carryed the armes and ammunition for 
 the use of the islands. Aboard the ships were stowed about 400 
 foot with their severall officers, two companies whereof, under 
 the command of coUonell Pipernell (if 1 remember his name 
 aright) and lieutenant-collonell Francis Connisby, were intended 
 for the isle of Giiernzey ; the other two, -under the command of 
 lieutenant-collonell Francis Rainford and captain William Kil- 
 legre, for the isle of Jarsey. The admirall of our navy (but in 
 subordination to his lordship when he was at sea) was Sir Henry 
 Palmer, one of the admirals of the narrow seas ; all of them men 
 of note in their severall wayes, and most of them of as much 
 gallantry and ingenuity as either their own birth or education in 
 the school of war could invest them with. The sea was very 
 calme and quiet, and the little breath of winde we had made us 
 move so slowly, that the afternoon was almost spent before we 
 had passed through the Needles, a dangerous passage at all times, 
 except to such only who, being well skilled in these sharpe points 
 and those dreadfull fragments of the rocks which so intituled 
 them, could stear a steady course between them : Scylla and 
 Charybdis in old times, nothing more terrible to the unskilled 
 mariners of those dayes then those rocks to ours. Being got 
 beyond them at the last, though we had got more sea roome, we 
 had little more winde, which made us move as slowly as before 
 we did, so that we spent the greatest part of the night with no 
 swifter motion then what was given us by the tide. About three 
 of the clock in the morning we had winde enough, but we had it 
 directly in our teeth, which would have quickly brought us to 
 
192 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 the place we had parted from if a great miste, arising together 
 with the snn, had not induced our mariners to keep themselves 
 aloofe in the open sea for fear of falling on those rocks wherewith 
 the south side of the Wight is made unaccessable. About two of 
 the clock in the afternoon, the winds turning somewhat eastward, 
 we made on again, but with so little speed and to so little pur- 
 pose, that all that night we were fain to lie at hull (as the 
 mariners phrase it) without any sensible moving either backward 
 or forward, but so uneasily withall, that it must be a very great 
 tempest indeed which gives a passenger a more sickly and un- 
 pleasing motion. For my part, T had found myself good sea- 
 proof in my voyage to France, and was not much troubled with 
 those disturbances to which the greatest part of our landmen were 
 so sensibly subject. On Thursday morning, about daybreak, 
 being within sight of Portland, and the winde serving very fitly, 
 we made again for the islands. At eleven of the clock we disco- 
 vered the main land of Normandy, called by the mariners Le 
 Hagge. About two in the afternoon, we fell even with Aldernie 
 or Aurnie; and about three discerned the isle of Jarzey, to which 
 we were bound, at which we aimed, and to which we might have 
 come much sooner then we did had we not found a speciall enter- 
 tainment by the way to retard our haste ; for we were hardly got 
 within sight of Jarsey but we descried a sail of French, consisting 
 of ten barks laden with very good Gascoyene wines and good 
 choyce of linen, (as they told us afterwards,) bound from St. 
 Malloes to New-Haven for the trade of Paris, and convoyed by 
 a Holland man of war for their safer passage. These being 
 looked on as good prize, our two whelpes and the catch gave 
 chace unto them, a great shot being first made from our admiral's 
 ship to call them in. The second shot brought in the Holland 
 man of war, who very sordidly and basely betrayed his charge 
 before he came within reach of danger ; the rest, for the greatest 
 part of the afternoon, spun before the winde, sometimes so neer 
 to their pursuers that we thought them ours, but presently tacking 
 about when our whelpes were ready to seaze on them, and the 
 catch to lay fast hold upon them, they gained more way then our 
 light vessels could recover in a long time after. Never did duck 
 by frequent diving so escape the spaniell, or hare by often turning 
 so avoid the hounds, as these poor barks did quit themselves by 
 their dexterity in sailing from the present danger. For ray part, 
 I may justly say that I never spent an afternoon with greater 
 pleasure, the greater in regard that I knew his lordship's resolu- 
 tion to deal favourably with those poor men if they chanced to 
 fall into his power. But at the last, a little before the close of 
 the evening, three of them being horded and brought under lee of 
 our admirall, the rest were put to a necessity of yeelding, or 
 venturing themselves between our two great ships and the shoar 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 193 
 
 of Jarsey, to which we were now come as near as we could with 
 safety. Resolved upon the last course, and favoured with a stronor 
 leading gale, they passed by us with such speed and so good 
 successe, (the duskinesse of the evening contributing not a little 
 to a fair escape,) that though we gave them thirty shot; yet we 
 were not able to affirme that they received any hurt or dammage 
 by that encounter, with as much joy unto myself (I dare boldly 
 say) as to any of those poor men who were so much interested in 
 it. This chase being over, and our whole fleet come together, 
 we anchored that night in the port of St. Oen, one of the prin- 
 cipal! ports of that island, the inhabitants whereof (but those 
 especially which dwelled in the inland parts) standing all night 
 upon their guard, conceiving by the thunder of so many great 
 shot that the whole powers of France, and the devill to boot, were 
 now falling upon them, not fully satisfied in their fears till by the 
 next rising of the sun they descried our colours. 
 
 ** On Friday, March the 6, about nine in the morning, (having 
 first landed our foot in the long boats,) we went aboard his 
 majesties catch called the Minikin, and, doubling the points of 
 La Corbiere and of Noirmont, we went on shoar in the bay of 
 St. Helier's, neer unto Mount St. Aubin, in the parish of St. 
 Peter ; the greatest part of which day we spent in accommoda- 
 tions and refreshments, and receiving the visits of the gentry, 
 which came in very frequently to attend his lordship. You need 
 not think but that sleep and a good bed were welcome to us, after 
 so long and ill a passage ; so that it was very near high noon 
 before his lordship was capable to receive our services, or we to 
 give him our attendance. After dinner, his lordship went to 
 view the fort Elizabeth, (the chief strength of the island,) and to 
 take order for the fortifying and repair thereof; which having 
 done, he first secured the man of war and the three French barks, 
 under the command of that caslle, and then gave leave to Sir 
 Henry Palmer and the rest of the sea captains to take their plea- 
 sures in forraging and scowring all the coasts of France which 
 lay near the islands, commanding them to attend him on the 
 Saturday following. Next he gave liberty to all the French 
 which he had taken the day before, whom he caused to be landed 
 in their own countrie, to their great rejoycing, as appeared by 
 the great shout they made when they were put into some long 
 boats at their own disposing, the three barks still remaining un- 
 touched in the state they were, save that some wines were taken 
 out of them for his lordship's spending. On Sunday, March 8, 
 it was ordered that the people of the town of St. Helier's should 
 have their divine offices in that church performed so early, that 
 it might be left wholly for the use of the English by nine of the 
 clock, about which time his lordship, attended by the officers and 
 souldiers, in a solemn military pompe, (accompanied with the 
 
194 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 ^orernours of the town and chief men of the island) went toward 
 the church, where I officiated divine service accordinsf to the 
 prescript form of the Church of England, and after preached on 
 those words of David, (Psalm xxxi. 51,) viz. " Offer unto God 
 thanksgiving," &c., with reference to the good successe of our 
 voyage past, and hopes of the like mercies for the time to come. 
 The next day we made a journey to Mount Orgueil, where we 
 were entertained by the Lady Carteret ; (a daughter of Sir Francis 
 Douse, of Hampshire;) and after dinner his lordship went to 
 take a view of the regiment of Mr. Josuah de Carteret, seignieur 
 de la Trinity, mustering upon the green upon Havre de Bowie, 
 in the parish of St. Trinitie. On Tuesday, March the 10, his 
 lordship took a view of the regiment of Mr. Aron Misservie, 
 colonel ; and on Wednesday, March the 11, went unto St. Oen, 
 where we were feasted by Sir Philip de Carteret, whose regiment 
 we likewise viewed in the afternoon. The souldiers of each regi- 
 ment very well arrayed, and not unpractised in their armes ; but 
 such as never saw more danger then a training came to. On 
 Thursday, his lordship went into the cohu, or town hall, attended 
 by Sir John Palmer, the deputy-governour. Sir Philip de Car- 
 teret, the justices, clergy, and jurors of the island, with other the 
 subordinate officers thereunto belonging ; where being set, as in a 
 parliament or sessions, and having given order for redresse of 
 some grievances by them presented to him in the name of that 
 people, he declared to them in a grave and eloquent speach the 
 great care which his majesty had of their preservation in sending 
 men, money, arraes, and nmmunition, to defend them against the 
 common enemies of their peace and consciences, assuring them 
 that if the noise of those preparations did not keep the French 
 from looking towards them, his majesty would not fail to send 
 them such a strength of shipping as should make that island more 
 impregnable then a wall of brasse ; in which regard he thought 
 it was not necessary for him to advise them to continue fathfull 
 to his majesties service, or to behave themselves with respect and 
 love towards those gentlemen, officers, and common souldiers, 
 who were resolved to expose themselves (for defence of them, 
 their wives and children,) to the utmost dangers; and, finally, 
 advising the common souldiers to carry themselves with such 
 sobriety and moderation towards the natives of the countrey, (for 
 as for their valour towards the enemies he would make no ques- 
 tion,) as to give no offence or scandal I by their conversation. 
 This said, the assembly was dissolved, to the great satisfaction of 
 all parties present ; the night ensuing and the day following being 
 spent for the most part in the entertainments of rest and pleasures. 
 *' The only businesse of that day was the disposing of the three 
 barks which we took in our journey, the goods whereof having 
 before been inventoried and apprized by some commissioners of 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 195 
 
 the town, and now exposed to open sale, were for the most part 
 boucrht, together with the barks themselves, by that very Holland 
 man of warre whom they had hired to be their convoy, which 
 gave me such a character of the mercenary and sordid nature of 
 that people, that of all men living I should never desire to have 
 any thing to do with them, unlesse they might be made use of 
 (as the Gibeonites were) in hewing wood and drawing water for 
 the use of the tabernacle ; I mean, in doing servile offices to some 
 mightier state, which would be sure to keep them under. 
 
 *' On Saturday, March the 14, having spent the greatest part 
 of the morning in expectation of the rest of our fleet, which found 
 better imployment in the seas then they could in the haven, we 
 went aboard the merchant's ship, which before I spake of, not 
 made much lighter by the unlading of the one haife of the ammu- 
 nition which was left at Jarsey, in regard that the two hundred 
 foot, which should have been distributed in the rest of the ships, 
 were all stowed in her. Before night, being met by the rest of 
 our fleet, we came to anchor neer St. Pier-Port, or St. Peter's- 
 Port, within the bay of Castle Cornet, where we presently landed ; 
 the castle divided from the town and haven by the inter-currency 
 of the sea, in which respect we were fain to make use of the castle 
 hall instead of a chappell, the way to the town church being too 
 troublesome and uncertain to give us the constant use of that, and 
 the castle yeelding no place else of a fit capacity for the receiving 
 of so many as gave their diligent attendance at religious exercises. 
 
 " On Monday, March the 16, our fleet went out to sea againe, 
 taking the Charles with them for their greater strength, which to 
 that end was speedily unladen of such ammunition as was designed 
 for the use of that island. [Guernsey.] 
 
 " The whole time of our stay here was spent in visiting the 
 forts and ports, and other places of importance, taking a view of 
 the severall musters of the naturall islanders, distributing the new 
 come souldiers in their severall quarters, receiving the services of 
 the gentry, clerpy, and principall citizens; and, finally, in a like 
 meeting of the States of the island, as had before been held in 
 Jarsey. 
 
 *' Nothing considerable else in the time of our stay but that 
 our fleet came back on Wednesday, March 25, which hapned 
 very fitly to compieat the triumph of the Friday following, being 
 the day of his majesties most happy inauguration, celebrated in 
 the castle by the divine service for that day, and after by a noble 
 feast made by him [Lord Danby] for the chief men of the island, 
 and solemnized without the castle by 150 great shot, made from 
 the castle, the fleet, the town of St. Peter's-Port, and the severall 
 islands, all following one another in so good an order, that never 
 bels were rung more closely, nor with lesse confusion. 
 
 "Thus having given your lordship a brief view of the course 
 
196 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 of our voyag^e, I shall next present you with the sight of such 
 
 observations as I have made upon those islands at my times of 
 
 leasure ; and that being done, hoise sail for England. 
 
 ****** 
 
 " And, certainly, it could not be but an eyesore to the French 
 to have these isles within their sight, and not within their power ; 
 to see them at the least in possession of their ancient enemy, the 
 English ; a nation strong in shipping, and likely, by the oppor- 
 tunity of these places, to annoy their trade ; for if we look upon 
 them in their situation, we shall find them seated purposely for 
 the command and empire of the ocean, the islands lying in the 
 chief trade of all shipping from the eastern parts unto the west, 
 and in the middle way between St. Malos and the river Seine, 
 the only trafick of the Normans and Parisians. At this St. 
 Malos, as at a common empory, do the merchants of Spain and 
 Paris barter their commodities, the Parisians making both their 
 passage and return by these isles, •which, if wel aided by a smal 
 power from the king's navy, would quickly bring that entercourse 
 to nothing, — an opportunity neglected by our former kings in 
 their attempts upon that nation, as not being then so powerfull 
 on the seas as now they are, but likely for the future to be hus- 
 banded to the best advantage, if the French hereafter stir against 
 us. Sure I am, that my lord of Danby conceived this course of 
 all others to be the fittest for the impoverishing, if not undoing, 
 of the French, and accordingly made proposition by his letters 
 to the councell that a squadron of eight ships (viz. five of the 
 whelpes, the Assurance, the Adventure, and the Catch,) might 
 be employed about these islands for that purpose — an advice 
 which had this summer took effect, had not the peace between 
 both realms been so suddenly concluded. 
 
 *' Of these, four only are inhabited, and those reduced only 
 unto two governments ; Jarsey an entire province, as it were, 
 within itself, but that of Guernzey having the other two of Alder- 
 ney and Serke dependant on it. Hence it is that in our histories, 
 and in our acts of parliament, we have mention only of Jarsey 
 and of Guernzey, this last comprehending under it the two others. 
 The people of them all live as it were in libera custodian in a 
 kind of free subjection, not any way acquainted with taxes, or 
 with any levies either of men or money ; in so much that when 
 the parliaments of England contribute towards the occasion of 
 their princes, there is alwayes a proviso in the act, *That this 
 grant of subsidies, or any thing therein contained, extend not to 
 charge the inhabitants of Guernzey and Jarsey, or any of them, 
 of, for, or concerning any manners, lands, and tenements, or 
 other possessions, goods, chattels, or otlier moveable substance, 
 whi(di they the said inhabitants, or any other to their uses, have 
 within Jarsey and Guernzey, or in any of them,' &;c. These 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 197 
 
 priviledges and immunites, (together with divers others,) seconded 
 of late dayes with the more powerfull band of religion, have been 
 a principall occasion of that constancy, wherewith they have per- 
 sisted faithfully in their allegiance, and disclaimed even the very 
 name and thought of France ; for howsoever the language which 
 they speak is French, and that in their originall, they either were 
 of Normandy or Britagne, yet can they with no patience endure 
 to be accounted French, but call themselves by the names of 
 English Normans ; so much doth liberty, or at the worst a gentle 
 yoak, prevail upon the mind and fancy of the people. 
 
 "To proceed unto particulars, we will take them as they He in 
 order, beginning first with that of Alderney, an island called by 
 Antonine Arica, but by the French and in our old records known 
 by the name of Aurigny and Aurney. It is situate in the 49 
 degree between forty-eight and fifty-two minutes of that degree, 
 just over against the cape or promontory of the Lexobii, called at 
 this time by the mariners the Hague, distant from this cape or 
 promontory three leagues onf}', but thirty at the least from the 
 nearest part of England.* The aire healthy, though sometimes 
 thickned with the vapours arising from the sea : the soil indif- 
 ferently rich, both for husbandry and grasing. A town it hath 
 of well near an hundred families, and not far off an haven made 
 in the manner of a semi-circle, which they call Grabble. The 
 principall strength of it are the high rocks with which it is on 
 every side environed, but especially upon the south ; anil on the 
 east side an old block-house, which time hath made almost unser- 
 viceable. The chief house herein belongeth unto the Chamber- 
 lains, as also the dominion or fee farme of all the island, it being 
 granted by queen Elizabeth unto George, the son of Sir Leonard 
 Chamberlain, then governour of Guernzey, by whose valour it 
 was recovered from the French, who in queen Maries dayes had 
 seized upon it. Neer unto the fort or block-house afore men- 
 tioned, a great quantity of this little island is overlaid with sand, 
 driven thither by the fury of the north-west winde. If we believe 
 their legends, it proceeded from the just judgement of God upon 
 the owner of those grounds, who once (but when I know not) 
 had made booty and put unto the sword some certain Spaniards, 
 there shipwracked. 
 
 " Four leagues from hence, and to the south-west and by west, 
 lyeth another of the smaller islands, called Serke, six miles in 
 circuit at the least, which yet is two miles lesser in the whole 
 compasse then that of Alderney •, an isle not known at all by any 
 name amongst the antients, and no marvail, for till the fifth of 
 queen Elizabeth, or thereabouts, it was not peopled. But, then, 
 it pleased her u.ajesty to grant it for ever in fee farme to Helier 
 de Carteret, vulgarly called seigneur de St. Oen, a principall 
 
 (1) Alderney is only sixteen leagues, S. by E., from Portland. 
 
198 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 gentleman of the isle of Jarsey, and grandfather to Sir Philip de 
 Carteret, now living. By him it was divided into severall estates, 
 and leased out unto divers tenants, collected from the neighbour 
 islands ; so that at this day it may contain some forty housholds, 
 whereas before it contained only a poor hermitage, together with 
 a little chappell appertaining to it, the rest of the ground serving 
 as a common unto those of Guernzey for the breeding of their 
 cattell. For strength it is beholding most to nature, who hath 
 walled it in a manner round with mighty rocks, there being but 
 one way or ascent unto it, and that with small forces easie to be 
 defended against the strongest power in Christendome — a passage 
 lately fortified by the farmers here, with a new platforme on the 
 top of it, and thereupon some four pieces of ordinance continually 
 mounted. In this island, as also in the other, there is a bailiff 
 and a minister, but both of them subordinate in matter of appeal 
 unto the courts and colloquies of Guernzey. 
 
 " Two leagues from Serke, directly westward, lyeth the chief 
 island of this government, by Antonine called Sarnia ; by us and 
 the French known now by the name of Garnzey, or of Guernzey, 
 situate in the 49 degree of latitude, between the thirty-nine and 
 forty-six minutes of that degree, eight leagues or thereabouts from 
 the coast of Normandy, and well neer in an equall distance from 
 Alderney and Jarsey. The forme of it is much after the fashion 
 of the isle of Sicily, every side of the triangle being about nine 
 miles in length and twenty-eight in the whole compasse. In this 
 circuit are comprehended ten parishes, whereof the principall is 
 that of St. Peter's on the sea, as having a fair and safe peer^ ad- 
 joyning to it for the benefit of their merchants, and being honoured 
 also with a market, and the Plaidery,^ or court of justice. The 
 number of the inhabitants is reckoned neer about twenty thousand,' 
 out of which there may be raised some two thousand able men ; 
 although their trained band consists only of twelve hundred, and 
 those, God knows, but poorly weaponed. The aire hereof is very 
 healthfull, as may be well seen in the long lives both of men and 
 women ; and the earth said to be of the same nature with Crete 
 and Ireland, not apt to foster any venemous creature in it ; out 
 of which general affirmation we may do well to except witches, 
 of whom the people here have strange reports; and if an ox or 
 horse perhaps miscarry, they presently impute it to witchcraft, 
 and the next old woman shall straight be hal'd to prison. The 
 ground itself, in the opinion of the natives, more rich and battle 
 then that of Jarsey ; yet not so fruitfull in the harvest, because 
 the people addict themselves to merchandise especially, leaving 
 
 (1) The pier cannot have been safe, as the present north arm was not built until nearly 
 a century later. 
 
 (2) Although the seat of justice has been removed upwards of fifty years, the neigh- 
 bourhood of the old court house is still called the Plaiderie, or Place of Pleading. 
 
 (3) Guernsey did not then contain half that number. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 199 
 
 the care of husbandry unto their hindes. Yet bread they have 
 sufficient for their use ; enough of cattell both for themselves and 
 for their ships; plenty of fish continually brought in from the 
 neighbour seas ; and a lake on the north-west part of it, neer unto 
 the sea, of about a mile or more in compasse, exceeding^ well 
 stored with carpes, the best that ever mortall eye beheld for tast 
 and bignesse. 
 
 " Some other isles yet there be pertaining unto this government 
 of Guernzey, but not many nor much famous. Two of them lie 
 along betwixt it and Serke, viz. Arme and Jethow, whereof this 
 last serveth only as a parke unto the governour, and hath in it a 
 few fallow deer, and good plenty of conies. The other of them 
 is well neer three miles in circuit, a solitary dwelling once of 
 canons regular, and afterwards of some fryers of the order of St. 
 Francis, but now only inhabited by pheasants, of which amongst 
 the shrubs and bushes there is said to be no scarcity. The least 
 of them, but yet of most note, is the little islet called Lehu, 
 situate on the north side of the eastern corner,^ and neer unto 
 those scattered rockes, which are called Les Hanwaux, apper- 
 taining once unto the dean, but now unto the governour. Famous 
 for a little oratory or chantery, there once erected and dedicated 
 to the honour of the Virgin Mary, who by the people in those 
 times was much sued to by the name of our lady of Lehu. A 
 place long since demolished in the ruine of it, sed jam iieriere 
 ruincB, but now the mines of it are scarce visible, there being 
 almost nothing left of it but the steeple, which serveth only as a 
 sea marke, and to which as any of that party sail along they 
 strike their top-sail. Tantum religio potuit suadere, such a 
 religious opinion have they harboured of the place, that though 
 the saint be gone, the wals yet shall still be honoured. 
 
 *' But, indeed, the principall honour and glory of this island, 
 I mean of Guernzey, is the large capaciousnesse of the harbour,^ 
 and the flourishing beauty of the castle ; I say the castle, as it 
 may so be called by way of eminency, that in the Vale, and those 
 poorer trifles all along the coasts, not any way deserving to be 
 spoken of. Situate it is upon a little islet just opposite unto 
 Pierport, or the town of St. Peter on the sea, to which and to 
 the peere there it is a good assurance, and takes up the whole 
 circuit of that islet whereupon it standeth. At the first, it was 
 built upon the higher part of the ground only, broad at the one 
 end and at the other, and bending in the fashion of an home, 
 whence it had the name of Cornet. By Sir Leonard Chamber- 
 lane, governor here in the time of queen Mary, and by Sir Thomas 
 Leighton, his successour, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, it was 
 improved to that majesty and beauty that now it hath, excellently 
 
 (1) The islet of Lihou is situate due west of Guernsey. 
 
 (2) The roadstead is evidently here meant. 
 
200 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 fortified according to the moderne art of war, and furnished with 
 almost an hundred piece of ordinance, whereof about sixty are of 
 brasse. Add to this, that it is continually environed with the 
 sea, nnlesse sometimes at a dead low water, whereby there is so 
 little possibility of making any approaches neer unto it, that one 
 might justly think him mad that would attempt it. And cer- 
 tainly it is more then necessary that this place should be thus 
 fortified, if not for the safety of the island, yet at the least for the 
 assurance of the harbour, — an harbour able to contain the greatest 
 navy that ever sailed upon the ocean, fenced from the fury of the 
 winds by the isles of Guernzey, Jethow, Serke, and Arme, by 
 which it is almost encompassed ; and of so sure an anchorage, 
 that though our ships lay there in the blustering end of March, 
 yet it was noted that never any of them slipped an anchour. 
 Other havens they have about the island, viz. Vazon, I'Ancresse, 
 Fermines, and others ; but these rather landing places to let in 
 the enemy, t?ien any way advantageous to the trade and riches of 
 the people. A place not to be neglected in the defence of it, and 
 full of danger to the English state and trafick, were it in the 
 hands of any enemy. 
 
 " Upon the notable advantage of this harbour and the conve- 
 iiiency of the peer so neer unto it, which is also warranted with 
 six peece of good canon from the town, it is no marvell if the 
 people betake themselves so much unto the trade of merchandise. 
 Nor do they trafick only in small boats between St. Malos and 
 the islands, as those of Jarsey ; but are masters of good stout 
 barks, and venture unto all these neerer ports of Christendom. 
 The principal 1 commodity which they use to send abroad are the 
 works and labours of the poorer sort, as wastcotes, stockins, and 
 other manufactures made of wooll, wherein they are exceeding 
 cunning ; of which wooll to be transported to their island in a 
 certain proportion they lately have obtained a licence of our 
 princes. But there accreweth a further benefit unto this people 
 from their harbour then their own trafick, which is the continuall 
 concourse and resort of merchants thither, especially upon the 
 noise or being of a war 
 
 ** And now at last, after a long passage and through many 
 difficulties, we are anchored in the isle of Jarsey, known in the 
 former ages and to Antonine the emperor by the name of Cesarea ; 
 an island situate in the 49 degree of latitude, between the eighteen 
 and twenty-four minutes of that degree ; distant five leagues only 
 from the coast of Normandy, forty or thereabouts from the neerest 
 parts of England, and six or seven to the south-east from that of 
 Guernzey. The figure of it will hold proportion with that long 
 kind of square which the geometricians call oblongtim: the 
 length of it from west to east, eleven mUes ; the breadth, six and 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 201 
 
 upwards ; the whole circuit, about thirty-three. The aire very 
 healthy and little disposed unto diseases, unlesse it be unto a 
 kinde of ague in the end of* harvest, which they call les settembers. 
 The soil sufficiently fertile in itself, but most curiously manured, 
 and of a plentifull increase unto the barn ; not only yeelding 
 corne enough for the people of the island, but sometimes also an 
 ample surplusage, which they barter at St. Malos with the Spanish 
 merchants ; the countrey generally swelling up in pretty hillocks, 
 under which lie pleasant vallies, and those plentifully watered 
 with dainty rils or riverets, in which watery commodity it hath 
 questionlesse the precedency of Guernzey. 
 
 *' Both islands consist very much of small inclosure, every 
 man in each of them having somewhat to live on of his own ; 
 only the difference is, that here the mounds are made with ditches 
 and banks of earth cast up, well fenced and planted with several 
 sorts of apples, out of which they make a pleasing kinde of sider, 
 which is their ordinary drink ; whereas in Guernzey they are for 
 the most part made of stones, about the height and fashion of a 
 parapet, a matter of no small advantage in both places against 
 the fury of an enemy, who in his marches cannot but be much 
 annoyed with these incombrances, and shall be forced to pay 
 deerly for every foot of ground which there he purchaseth. 
 
 " For other strengths, this island is in part beholding unto 
 nature, and somewhat also unto art: to nature, which hath 
 guarded it with rocks and shelves, and other shallow places very 
 dangerous ; but neither these nor those of art so serviceable and 
 full of safety as they be in Guernzey. Besides the landing 
 places, here are more and more accessible, as namely, the bay of 
 St. Owen and the havens of St. Burlade, Boule, St. Katharines, 
 with divers others. There is indeed one of them, and that the 
 principall, sufficiently assured on the one side by a little block- 
 house, which they call Mount St. Aubin, and on the other by a 
 fair castle, called the fort Elizabeth. The harbour itself is of a 
 good capacity, in figure like a semi-circle or a crescent, and by 
 reason of the town adjoyriing known by the name of the haven of 
 St. Hilaries. On that side of it next the town, and in a little 
 islet of itself, is situate the castle, environed with the sea at high 
 water, but at an ebb easily accessible by land ; but yet so natu- 
 rally defended with sharpe rocks and craggy cliftes, that though 
 the accesse unto it may be easie, yet the surprizall would be diffi- 
 cult. It was built not long since by our late queen of famous 
 memory, at such times as the civill warres were hot in France 
 about religion, and the king's forces drawn dow^nwards towards 
 Normandy : furnished with thirty pieces of ordinance and up- 
 wards, and now, upon the preparations of the French, there are 
 some new works begun about it for the assurance of that well. 
 On the east side, just opposite and in the view of the city of 
 
202 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Constantia, there is seated on an high and craggy rock a most 
 strong castle, and called hy an haughty name Mount Orgueil, of 
 whose founder I could learn nothing, nor any other thing which 
 might concern it in matter of antiquity, save that it was repaired 
 and beautified by Henry V. It is for the most part the inhabita- 
 tion of the governour, who is captain of it ; stored w ith about 
 some forty pieces of ordinance, and guarded by some five and 
 twenty wardours : a place of good service for the safety of the 
 island, if perhaps it may not be commanded or annoied by an 
 hill adjoyning, which doth equall if not overtop it. 
 
 "This island, as before we noted, is some thirty-three miles in 
 compasse, comprehending in it twelve parishes, whereof the prin- 
 cipal! is that of St. Hilaries, a town so called from an antient 
 father of that name, and bishop of Poyctiers, in France, whose 
 body they suppose to be interred in a little chappell neer unto the 
 fort Elizabeth, and consecrated to his memory ; but of his buriall 
 here they have nothing further then tradition, and that unjusti- 
 fiable, for St. Jerome telleth us that after his return from Phrygia, 
 whereunto he had been confined, he dyed in his own city ; and 
 we learn in the Roman martyrologie, that his obit is there cele- 
 brated on the 13th of January. The chief name the which this 
 town now hath is for the conveniency of the haven, the market 
 there every Saturday, and that it is honoured with the cohu or 
 sessions house for the whole island. The other villages lie scat- 
 tered up and down, like those of Guernzey, and give habitation 
 to a people very painfull and laborious; but, by reason of their 
 continuall toyle and labour, not a little affected to a kinde of 
 melancholy surlinesse incident to ploughmen : those of Guernzey, 
 on the other side, by continuall converse with strangers in their 
 own haven, and by travailing abroad, being much more sociable 
 and generous. Add to this, that the people here are more poor, 
 and therefore more destitute of humanity ; the children here con- 
 tinually craving almes of every stranger, whereas in all Guernzey 
 I did not see one begger. 
 
 ** A principall reason of which poverty I suppose to be their 
 exceeding populousnesse, there being reckoned in so small a 
 quantity of ground neer upon thirty thousand living souls, a 
 matter which gave us no small cause of admiration ; and when 
 my lord of Danby seemed to wonder how such a span of earth 
 could contain such multitudes of people, I remember that Sir 
 John Paylon, the lieutenant-governor, made him this answer, 
 viz. * That the people married within themselves like conies in a 
 burrow ; and further, that for more then thirty years they never 
 had been molested either with sword, pestilence, or famine.' 
 
 "A second reason of their poverty (add also of their numbers) 
 may be the little liking they have to trafick,' whereby as they 
 
 (I) The Jerseymen have now a much grreater "liking to traffic," and are a much more 
 commercial people, than the Oueruseymeo. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 203 
 
 might have advantage to improve themselves and employ their 
 poor, so also might that service casually diminish their huge 
 multitudes by the losse of some men, and diverting others from 
 the thought of marriage. 
 
 ** But the main cause, as I conceive it, is the tenure of their 
 lands, which are equally to be divided amongst all the sons of 
 every father, and those parcels also to be subdivided even ad infi- 
 nitum. Hence is it, that in all the countries you shall hardly 
 finde a field of corne of larger compasse then an ordinary garden, 
 every one now having a little to himself, and that little made 
 lesse to his posterity. This tenure our lawyers call by the name 
 of Gavel-kinde ; that is, as some of them expound it, Give all- 
 kinne, because it is amongst them all to be divided, for thus the 
 law speaking of the customes of Kent, in the 16 chap. De 
 prcerogativa Regis. Ibidem omnes hceredes masculi participa- 
 hant hcereditatem eorum, S^ similiter fcemince ; sed fcemince non 
 participabunt cum viris : a tenure which on the one side hath 
 many priviledges, and on the other side as many inconveniences. 
 
 " For first, they which hold in this tenure are free from all 
 customary services, exempt from wardship, at full age when they 
 come to fifteen years, and, if they please, they may alienate their 
 estates either by gift or sale, without the assent or knowledge of 
 the lord ; but which is most of all, in case the father be attaint of 
 felony or murder, there is no escheat of it to the lord, the whole 
 estate, after the king hath had diem annum. Sf vastum, descend- 
 ing on the heires. Et post aanum ^ diem terrce Sf tenementa 
 reddentur^ ^ revertentur proximo hcsredi cui dehuerant descen- 
 disse, si felonia facta non fuisset ; so the lawyers. 
 
 " On the other side, by this means their estates are infinitely 
 distracted, their houses impoverished, the king's profits in his 
 subsidies diminished, and no little disadvantage to the publick 
 service in the finding of armours for the wars ; whereupon as 
 many gentlemen of Kent have altered, by especiall acts of parlia- 
 ment, the antient tenure of their lands, and reduced it unto 
 knight's service, so is it wished by the better sort of this people, 
 and intended by some of them, that their tenure may be also 
 altered and brought into the same condition, a matter of no little 
 profit and advantage to the king, and therefore without difficulty 
 to be compassed. 
 
 " By this tenure are their estates all holden in every of the 
 islands, except six only, which are held in capite, whereof four in 
 Jarsey and two in Guernzey, and those called by the names of 
 signeuries. The signeuries in Jarsey are, first, that of St. Oen, 
 anciently belonging to the Carterets, and that of Rozel, bought 
 lately of Mr. Dominick Perin by Sir Philip de Carteret, now 
 living ; thirdly, that of Trinity, descended upon Mr. Joshua de 
 Carteret in the right of his mother, the heir generall of the 
 
204 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 L'Emprieres ; and, fourthly, that of St. Marie, vulgarly called 
 Sammarez, descended from the Paines unto the family of the 
 Du Maresque, who now enjoy it. Those of Guernzey, as before 
 I said, are two only, viz. that of Anneville and that of De Sam- 
 marez, both which have passed by way of sale through divers 
 hands, and now at last are even worne out almost to nothing : 
 the present owners. Fashion and Androes, [Andros] both of them 
 English in their parentage." ^ 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CHARLES I.— 1625 to 1649. (Continued.) 
 
 In the year 1627, the insular charters were again confirm- 
 ed, and a large quantity of provisions of different kinds was 
 permitted to be imported from England, probably for the 
 use of Castle (hornet, as Guernsey, with its population of 
 about 8,000 souls, could not then require them, at least to 
 any extent. A treaty of peace between France and England 
 having been signed on the 14th of April, 1629, the islanders 
 were relieved from all fear of invasion. 
 
 The following " reasons," which have no date or signature, 
 were probably written in England, about the year 1630, after 
 the earl of Danby's visit to the Anglo-Norman Islands. The 
 Anglican discipline had been, we repeat, re-introduced into 
 Jersey a few years before ; the first Protestant dean, Bandinel, 
 being sworn into office in April, 1620, when the presbytery, 
 which had existed in that island for half a century, was abo- 
 lished. But the Calvinistic form of worship, as used in the 
 French church in London, was retained in Guernsey. These 
 " reasons" are given, because, in the next chapter, it will be 
 seen that Presbyterianism was one of the influences which 
 prompted the people of Guernsey to side with the parliament 
 during the civil war. They may, moreover, strike the reader 
 as containing indubitable evidence that the French Protes- 
 tants unwisely abused the toleration granted to them in the 
 year 1590 by Henry IV., in the celebrated edict of Nantes ; 
 
 (1) Doctor Heylin'8 Survey was addressed and dedicated to the Lord Marquessc of 
 Dorchester. Heylin was eight days iu Jersey, and nearly three weeks in Guernsey, 
 viz. from March 14 to April 2, 1629. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 205 
 
 and as affording some slight palliation to Louis XIV. for the 
 revocation of that edict in 1685, the more so as only twenty 
 years before, (1665,) when a war had broken out between 
 England and France, and the latter power designed to get 
 possession of these islands by surprise,^ the lady of Marshal 
 Turenne, a Protestant zealously attached to her religion, gave 
 information of the project to the Rev. Daniel Brevint, of 
 Jersey, who w^as afterwards prebendary of Durham and dean 
 of Lincoln. In consequence of this private intelligence, Sir 
 Thomas Morgan, a brave and experienced commander, was 
 sent from England with the necessary force to counteract the 
 design, which was abandoned as soon as the French court 
 was aware that its intentions were no longer secret. 
 
 [o] 
 
 *' Reasons given by my Lord of Dariby against the alteration 
 of the discipline of the Church, now settled in the isle of 
 Guernsey. 
 
 *'The uniformity of the islanders with those of the French 
 church keeps such a correspondency and association between 
 them, that those of the religion^ esteem them a part of themselves. 
 
 ** Whereupon they have continued intercourse and intelligence, 
 giving the islanders notice of all practices and designs against 
 them. 
 
 " And out of the same respect, they make alliances and marry 
 their children with the islanders, sending into those islands great 
 part of their stocks, joining in commerce and trade with the 
 merchants there, and out of their mutual interest are much the 
 more careful of their safety and welfare, even to enrich the place. 
 
 " In time of any general or particular danger of those of the 
 religion in France, they fly over thither and live there secure till 
 they may return, as lately many were received there with all 
 manner of good usage, both by his majesty's special command 
 unto me, and several letters from the lords of the council to the 
 same effect. 
 
 " Besides, in former times, persons of great quality have 
 retired themselves and families into that island, as the Prince 
 of Conde ^ and his lady, who lived there more than a year; and 
 divers of the chiefest and most famous ministers of the religion, 
 who placed themselves there and followed their functions, which 
 they would not have done, but that the discipline agreed with 
 theirs practised in France. And it was always thought greater 
 
 (1) See Notice of General Lambert, in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 (2) Protestants appear thus to denominate the reformed religion in that ag'e, as Lord 
 Clarendon, alluding to it, says : "in the city of Nismes, which is one of the fairest in 
 the province of Languedoc, and where those of the religion do most abound," &c.— 
 History of the Rebellion. 
 
 (3) The leader of the Huguenots in France, born in 1530, and slain in 1569, at the battle 
 of Jarnac. His memoirs of his own times were printed after his death. 
 
206 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 wisdom rather to entertain in tliose islands French fugitives of 
 quality and reputation, than to admit of them hither. 
 
 "Their strictness is such that no papists of any nation will 
 dwell, or is permitted to inhabit, there, which the better secures 
 them to the crown of England. 
 
 " Moreover, it may well be thought dangerous to give a 
 general discontent unto the inhabitants, who are by ancient 
 institution obliged, and particularly assigned, to guard the castle 
 [Cornet] that commands the only harbour to succour and secure 
 all those Norman islands, which must else necessarily be well 
 manned with English soldiers, to his majesty's great charge; 
 because it is not possible to send any seasonable aid out of 
 England in defence of the place, upon all appearance of danger, 
 standing so near to sudden attempts from France. And to trust 
 the natives after we have given them this discontent, by altering 
 the form of their discipline so affected by them, and long en- 
 joyed, were not consonant to that rule of state whereby this 
 crown hath held those islands these niany years. 
 
 *' These considerations, with divers others, were thought of 
 such consequence in queen Elizabeth's days, that there being 
 deans in both the islands, it was held fit to lay down that form 
 of church government, and to suffer them to live under the same 
 discipline with those of the religion of their neighbours. 
 
 " In the days of king James, of happy memory, when secre- 
 tary Calvert much pressed to have had a dean in Guernsey, his 
 majesty was then satisfied with these reasons, and would not 
 suffer any alteration to be made. 
 
 ** There can no prejudice come thereby to the present govern- 
 ment of our church, against which no man is suffered to speak; 
 and all the English come to the castle, [Cornet,] where service 
 and sacraments are celebrated after the manner here. 
 
 *'To these reasons I presume to add, that the time itself is no 
 way meet for this alteration, in the respect of the troubles in 
 Jersey, under the now dean, which will make those of Guernsey 
 the more averse. 
 
 ** Lastly, there being many old ministers in Guernsey, if they 
 die, we shall not know from whence to supply them with others, 
 for out of France they will not come to us, and here we can find 
 few or none." 
 
 After the reformation, and during the time that the islands 
 were under a presbytery, as well as subsequently, the natives 
 who were designed for the ministry were sent to study among 
 the Protestants in France, and particularly at the college of 
 Saumur, a town situate on the Loire, between Tours and 
 Nantes. But the advantage which the young students de- 
 rived from being accustomed to preach fluently in French 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 207 
 
 was thought to be counteracted by their acquiring opinions 
 and principles not in accordance with those of the Church of 
 England, and it became therefore desirable to provide other 
 means of instruction. But the change was more easily pro- 
 posed than executed, and the matter remained in abeyance 
 until archbishop Laud came into power, when it so happened 
 that an estate, comprising two gardens and seven houses in 
 London, together with 123 acres of meadow and pasture 
 land, and 205 acres of wood, in the county of Buckingham, 
 escheated to the crown. The primate, who was beheaded on 
 Tower Hill in 1644, anticipating the courtiers, prevailed on 
 Charles I. to endow, out of this property, three fellowships at 
 Oxford, one in each of the three colleges of Exeter, Jesus, 
 and Pembroke, for the benefit of students from Jersey and 
 Guernsey, born in the said islands, to be held by them alter- 
 nately. In June, 1635, the endowment was carried into 
 effect, the king reserving to himself the first presentation, 
 and the alternation to proceed in this order, viz. that to 
 whichsoever of the two islands the first presentation should 
 fall, the other island should come in for the next two turns, 
 and so on, in continued rotation for ever. After a suitable 
 residence in the university, the fellows were required to 
 return to their respective islands to serve God in the church, 
 if becoming situations offered. But these fellowships have 
 occasionally been enjoyed by laymen, although, as Falle very 
 justly observes : " None, therefore, but they who, from the 
 beginning, design to enter into holy orders, are regularly eli- 
 gible into those places. 'Tis an abuse, and a contradiction to 
 the will of the royal founder that any should enjoy them, 
 who have in view and are in pursuit of other professions." 
 Another abuse has arisen from the mode of nomination, which 
 is vested in the dean and jurats — the former naming sepa- 
 rately and the latter conjointly, thus forming as it wei'e two 
 distinct nominations. When the dean and jui-ats differ, which 
 is often the case, a contest ensues, which generally ends by a 
 compromise ; and although the clashing is of constant recur- 
 rence, the legal question has never yet been decided whether 
 the dean possesses an equal vote with all the jurats. The 
 natural presumption is that he does not, while, on the other 
 hand, it is a matter of great indifference to the islanders gene- 
 rally, as the jurats usually combine to nominate the son or 
 near relative of a jurat. It is singular that the baihff has no 
 vote. Notwithstanding that the three fellowships now pro- 
 duce nearly £500 a year — viz. Jesus, about £230; Exeter, 
 
208 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 about £150 ; and Pembroke, above £100, all yielding more 
 during the high rents of the war — it is very doubtful whether 
 they have really benefitted these islands, as from their com- 
 mencement they have been a source of intrigue, partiality, 
 and litigation, the deans being equally open to the charge of 
 favoring their own relations. How much to be regretted is 
 it that, where private interests' are concerned, public men 
 should so often throw aside all the obligations of conscience 
 and duty. 
 
 While on this subject, we shall add that in the year 1678, 
 Dr. George Morley, bishop of Winchester, founded five 
 scholarships in Pembroke College, Oxford, three for natives 
 of Jersey and two for natives of Guernsey, under the title of 
 " Bishop Morley's Scholars." These scholarships are now 
 very trifling endowments, because the original grant of £10 
 a year each has i*emained stationary, notwithstanding the 
 decrease in the value of money. They are nominated in the 
 same manner as the fellowships, with the addition of the 
 bailiff's vote, and cannot be held longer than ten years. The 
 college deducts eighteen pence for each week of non- resi- 
 dence, which reduces the value to about £7 a year, with a set 
 of rooms worth £5 or £6 more. Bishop Morley was a 
 munificent prelate, and a great benefactor to his see of 
 Winchester : he died in 1684. 
 
 Having dissolved his third refractory parliament, as stated 
 in chapter IX., and, being now externally at peace, Charles 
 adopted strong measures to raise supplies, the most offensive 
 of which was the tax called ship-money, for the ostensible 
 purpose of providing a navy, which was indeed required, as 
 Algerine pirates had become bold enough to infest the Chan-* 
 nel, and the Dutch were rapidly acquiring a maritime pre- 
 ponderance. He did not, however, act thus without legal 
 advice and precedent ; but the times were altered, and expe- 
 dients, which had been complied with in the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, were now thought tyrannous. Hampden earned an 
 imperishable name by his resistance to this tax ; and another 
 storm gathered when the king attempted to force upon the 
 Scotch the English Liturgv and Church Ceremonies, which 
 they abhorred. This occasioned the solemn league and cove- 
 nant ; and the covenanters, as they were called, took up 
 arms. Charles marched against them with an army, but 
 found it necessary to enter into a negociation, and the troops 
 were disbanded. In the spring of 1640, liis affairs were so 
 
FIISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 209 
 
 disturbed that he called a parliament, which, taking into con- 
 sideration the public grievances, was also hastily dissolved. 
 The bearing of the covenanters compelled him to raise ano- 
 ther army, which, meeting with a check near the Tyne, 
 retreated into Yorkshire ; and the king, with the advice of 
 his council, summoned another parliament. This assembly, 
 known by the name of " the long parliament," from its en- 
 during thirteen years, met in November, 1640, and proved 
 the ruin of the king, but the safeguard of the liberties of the 
 people. It declared ship money illegal, abohshed the arbi- 
 trary star chamber, and retrenched the royal prerogative. 
 In the meantime, the Irish Roman Catholics, taking advan- 
 tage of the confusion in England, committed dreadful out- 
 rages and massacres in Ireland,^ which were afterwards 
 frightfully revenged by Cromwell. They pretended to act 
 under the king's authority, and to that effect shewed a com- 
 mission with his name and seal, which was a forgery ; but, 
 nevertheless, it had a fatal effect in prejudicing the minds of 
 the people against him. The public ferment continued, and 
 was heightened by the king, who went to the House of Com- 
 mons, where he took possession of the speaker's chair, and 
 demanded the persons of five members whom he had accused 
 of high treason. The house broke up in indignation at this 
 breach of its privileges ; the city militia was mustered for its 
 protection ; and the king retired to Hampton Court, whence 
 he went northwards, and on the 22d of August,^ 1642, erected 
 the royal standard at Nottingham. The first battle was 
 fought on the 23d of October following, at Edge Hill, in 
 Warwickshire ; but it was a drawn one. So ignorant were 
 both armies of the art of war, that they were within six miles 
 of each other before they were aware of their mutual ap- 
 proach, and, what is now scarcely credible, they had been 
 ten days within twenty miles of each other without knowing it. 
 Charles marched towards the capital ; but, instead of enter- 
 ing it as he might have done, he proceeded to Oxford, where 
 he established his head quarters, and thus enabled the parlia- 
 ment to recover from its alarm, and to concentrate its forces. 
 
 Sir Peter Osborne to Amias Andros, Seigneur of Sausmarez. 
 [Extract. J — '* Instead of a courtesy I have done you an ill 
 tarn, for I see that I have put you into a trouhlesome office. 
 
 (1) From October, 1641, to September, 1643, lord Clarendon says that 40,000 Protestants 
 perished in Ireland : other authors estimate the deaths much higher. 
 
 (2) It is singular that various authors assign diflferent dates, from the 22d to the 25th of 
 August, inclusive, to this memorable transaction ; but Warburton proves the event to 
 have occurred on the 22d. 
 
 P 
 
210 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 But I meant you well, and in time we shall do well enough, and 
 overcome all. If the times were settled that we might know 
 whither to go for redress, these insolencies would be soon re- 
 pressed. For the law is so clear that no colour of defence is left 
 for them. I have asked advice. Mr. Bailiff can inform you 
 what the lawyers' opinions are. It will not be long before I 
 return, and I thought to have been in Guernsey by this. But 
 some particular occasions stay me awhile. 
 " June 17, 1642." 
 
 We append the following curious narration of the form of 
 homage done in person by one of the seignetirs of the island 
 to the king, as extracted from the journal of Sir John Finett, 
 when he was master of the royal ceremonies : 
 
 " One Monsieur de Sammares (father to Amias Andros, mar- 
 shall of the ceremonies,) dying in Garnezey, where he had beene, 
 by ancient descent, one of the seingneurs (as they are there styled) 
 of that island. His sonne was to doe his homage for his teneure 
 there, to the king, as duke of Normandy, and by the procure- 
 ment of the earle marshall and lord chamberlaine earle of Pem- 
 broke, obtained the discharging of that duty to his majesty in 
 person, which had beene done by his father before him to the 
 governor in the island, though of ancient times wont to be done 
 by his ancestors to the king himselfe (as it was now heere in 
 England.) 
 
 *' The manner of it being thus : 
 
 " His majesty, the 6th of June, 1637, (being a sermon day,) 
 as he passed to chappell, tooke his seat in his chayre under the 
 state in the presence chamber, the sword borne before him by the 
 earle of Northumberland, and the great lords and officers of state 
 attending ; when the gentleman mentioned (wayting at the pre- 
 sence doore) was fetched thence, by and between the earle of 
 Arundell, earle marshall of England, and the earle of Pembroke 
 and Montgomery, lord chamberlaine of his majesties household, 
 through a guard of the band of gentlemen pentioners ; and after 
 three reverences, laying downe his sword and cloake, all in 
 forme, (as had beene before prescribed by garter king of arms, 
 Sir John Burrowes,) he kneeled downe at the foot of his majesty, 
 and with hands closed betweene his majesties hands, pronounced 
 these words in French : 
 
 ** * Sire, — Je demeure vostre homme a vous porter foy et hom- 
 mage contre tons.' 
 
 ** To which the king read this answer, sett downe also in 
 French : 
 
 ** ' Nous vous acceptons, advouant tons vos legitimes droits et 
 possessions, relevant en cette teneure de nous; sauf pareillement 
 ^ nous nos droits et regalitez.' 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 211 
 
 " This said, the seigneur de Samraares, (by which name he was 
 thenceforth to be called,) quitting his ordinary appellation of 
 Andros, receiving the honor of a kisse from his majesty, rose up, 
 and, with most humble reverence reassuming his cloake and 
 sword, departed." 
 
 The following document is given in the original orthography : 
 it is without date, but it appears to be in the handwriting of Sir 
 Peter Osborne, and was probably written about 1630, the account 
 being brought down to that year : 
 
 TJie Anwual Charge of the Government of Guernsey, [o] 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 To the garrison, for a whole yeare 188 00 00 
 
 To the officers 017 06 08 
 
 For keeping of the chiefe pleas of the royall court and ") ^q^^ q^ , q 
 
 of the inferior courts ) 
 
 The ministers' wages 030 00 00 
 
 £239 11 06 
 
 The annuall charge in execution of justice, for the diet 
 of the prisoners that are criminalls, and execution of 
 them when any are condemned, is uncertayne, coming > 010 00 00 
 sometime to more, sometime to less, but one yeare I 
 
 with an other may be valewed about )• 
 
 And for this last particular the governour hath the forfaicture of theyre 
 land and goods, if they have any. 
 The revenue as it hath beene accounted for these severall yeare : 
 
 Anno. £ s. d. 
 
 1622 1204 10 05 
 
 1623 1218 05 11 
 
 1624 1162 06 05 
 
 1625 1239 01 10 
 
 1628 1160 15 02 
 
 1629 1187 08 10 
 
 1630 1189 19 05 
 
 £8362 08 00 
 
 The medium thereof, one yeare with another 1194 12 06 
 
 Out of which deduct the annuall charge 0239 00 00 
 
 Eemaynes for the medium £0955 12 06 
 
 Particulars not reckoned : 
 
 The isle of Arme. — The isle of G-ethow. — Duties upon salt. — Wardships. — 
 Eeleifes. — Wracks. — The greate pond full of fayre carpes. 
 
212 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CHARLES I.— 1625 to 1649. ( Continued.) 
 
 The commencement of the civil war, that deadly struggle 
 between kingly despotism and limited monarchy, and the 
 battle of Edge Hill, in October, 1642, in which Englishmen 
 fought against Englishmen, were succinctly described in the 
 last chapter ; and we now proceed to narrate the events 
 which occurred in Guernsey during that long and stirring 
 epoch. It is not generally understood that Guernsey, and, 
 through her example, Alderney and Sark, from the first 
 espoused the cause of the parliament ; while, astonishing as it 
 must now seem. Castle Cornet was held for the king during 
 the entire contest of nine years ! Lord Clarendon, who 
 ought to have known better, because he resided in Jersey 
 above two years during this troublesome period, and there 
 wrote some portion of his celebrated " History of the Rebel- 
 lion," speaks of Guernsey in the following singularly confused 
 and ungrammatical sentence : " The isles of Guernsey and 
 Jersey, and Scilly,^ were reduced ; the former [first] presently 
 after the battle of Worcester; and the other" (we suppose 
 that he is alluding to Jersey) " after the king's return to 
 Paris." 2 Moreover, as Charles II. did not reach the French 
 capital until fully two months after the battle of Worcester, 
 lord Clarendon is also at fault in stating that Guernsey, 
 meaning Castle Cornet, surrendered before Jersey, as Eliza- 
 beth Castle, the last possession of the royalists in that island, 
 was evacuated by them four days before the evacuation 
 of Castle Cornet. In these erroneous relations, he has 
 been followed by Hume'* and other English historians, who 
 have equally failed to mention the resolute and protracted 
 defence of the castle ; and therefore it shall be our endeavour 
 
 (1) The isles of Scilly surreodered to the parliament in June, l66l —Jersey and CasUe 
 Cornet In December following. 
 
 (2) Oxford edition, A.D. 1707. 
 
 (3; " With eqnsd ease were .Fersey, Guernsey, Scilly, and the Isle of Man, brought under 
 subjection to the republic ; and the sea, which had been much infested by privateers from 
 these islands, was rendered safe to English commerce. The countess of Derby defended 
 the Isle of Man, and with great reluctance yielded to the necessity of surrendering to the 
 enemy. This lady, a daughter of the illustrious house of Trimouille, in France, had, 
 during the civil war, displayed a manly courage by her obstinate defence of Latham- 
 House against the parliamentary forces ; and she retained the glory of being the last 
 person in the three kingdoms, and in all their dependent dominions, who submitted to the 
 victorious Commonwealth." — Hume. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 213 
 
 to repair this cruel injustice to Sir Peter Osborne and his 
 successors, as their chivalrous fidelity to their sovereign, with 
 that of their little garrison, deserves indeed to be recorded. 
 Happily we can do so without any blush of humiliation for 
 our parliamentarian ancestors, because the time has arrived 
 when it is generally admitted that the people were fully jus- 
 tified in their resistance to the king ; and when, after the 
 lapse of above two centuries, the nation renders due homage 
 to the patriotism and courage of Eliot, Pym, Hampden, and 
 the other leaders who secured to it its present constitutional 
 liberties. 
 
 As the sister island of Jersey was maintained for the king, 
 by Sir George Carteret, during the whole war, with the ex- 
 ception of only eight months in 1643, when it was subject to 
 republican rule, it may appear strange that Guernsey should 
 have sided with the parliament. In Jersey, however, there 
 was a strong party adverse to Charles, a party which num- 
 bered nearly one third of the native inhabitants, and was 
 headed by Michael Lempriere, of Maufant, a jurat, of an 
 ancient and affluent family, who was bailiff during the Com- 
 monwealth ; the dean Bandinel, and his son, also a clergyman, 
 and other gentlemen of note. The estates and seigneuries 
 are much larger in that island than in Guernsey ; and as the 
 Carterets not only possessed many of them, but had long 
 enjoyed the principal offices of dignity and emolument, their 
 influence was all-powerful. Sir George Carteret undoubtedly 
 deserves great credit for the able and effectual exercise of 
 that influence in support of the king ; but it is now a question 
 whether he did not espouse the royal cause as much with a 
 view to preserve the boundless and unconstitutional authority 
 of the Carterets, as from a feeling of loyalty. He well knew 
 that they would be shorne of that authority by the parliament. 
 In Guernsey, no family possessed any thing like their influ- 
 ence, because in a small island, with almost equal laws of in- 
 heritance, a powerful family cannot long exist ; and although 
 there was also a party for the king, no one, like Captain 
 Carteret, was influential enough to sway the inhabitants to 
 either side. In consequence, as their religion was at that 
 time the Presbyterian, they naturally inclined to the parlia- 
 ment, which was warmly supported in England by the Pres- 
 byterians ; and, moreover, the arbitrary government of Sir 
 Thomas Leighton- may have been remembered to the preju- 
 
 (1) •• Sir Thomas Leighton,— governor of the isle of Guernsey, well versed in matters of 
 state, as well as the army,— sent into France afterwards, in 1591, of special trust, to advise. 
 
214 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 dice of royalty. Besides, most of the parochial clergy were 
 French Calvinists, who had sought an asylum in the island 
 from the cruel persecutions of their own sovereign, and who 
 doubtless inculcated republican principles. Added to these 
 influences, was the more frequent intercourse with England 
 and other countries,^ as the commerce and navigation of 
 Guernsey were then as superior to those of Jersey as the 
 commerce and navigation of Jersey are now superior to those 
 of Guernsey. In this last view we are borne out by Heylin, 
 who visited these islands only twelve or thirteen years before 
 the civil war, and who wrote very favorably of the inhabitants 
 of Guernsey, notwithstanding that he was an Anglican divine, 
 and that they were decided Presbyterians. 
 
 The king appears to have been well aware of the Presby- 
 terian feeling in Guernsey, as, in a letter dated at Oxford, 
 9th of December, 1642, he said : " The great distractions and 
 calamities which this our kingdom of England now suffers 
 by the falsehood and disloyalty of some factious and ambi- 
 tious spirits, who have dispersed untruths of our person and 
 government, make me anxious to prevent the like in other 
 parts of my dominions ; and, understanding that this ill spirit, 
 now brought upon our kingdom, begins to be hearkened to 
 in our island of Guernsey, and chiefly upon a false report 
 supposed to have been raised by one Monsieur des Granges, 
 ( Peter de Beau voir, 2) whom we have known under a better 
 character ; and hearing also that our present governor, the 
 earl of Danby, is put out of charge, and the Lord Viscount 
 Scudamore installed into that office, in consequence of which 
 many of our subjects there begin to cast off their subjection 
 and obedience, not only to him and his deputies, who are our 
 royal lieutenants, but even to the law of the island. This 
 information has moved us to write our letters, and direct 
 them jointly to you, both our governor and deputy, and our 
 bailiff' and jurats, strictly requiring you, that you make known 
 
 the earl of Essex in his action there, — and author of ' Les Loix, Coustumes, et Usages de 
 I'isle de Guernesey, diff(5rentes du Coustumier dc Normandie, d'antiennet^ observ^es en la 
 dite isle,' a fair copy whereof, in eight sheets folio, is in the Harleian Library."— iVo^em 
 the Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 1, p. 92. 
 
 (1) The unfortunate carl of Strafford, who was executed in 1641, writing from Dublin, 
 in 1639, to Lady Clare, his mother-in-law, and speaking of his two daughters, says : 
 " Nan, I think, speaks French prettily .... The other also speaks it, but her maid being 
 of Guernsey, the accent is not good." 
 
 (2) The name of this ancient Guernsey family, second to none in wealth and station, 
 became extinct in J8IO, on the death of Osmond de Beauvoir, Esq., when his large pro- 
 perty was inherited by distant relatives. Another member of this family, the Rev. Peter 
 de Beauvoir, of Dowuham Hall, Essex, whose ancestor, from Guernsey, appears to have 
 settled in England in the seventeenth century, died in 1821, leaving real and personal 
 property worth nearly three quarters of a million sterling ; and being without a single 
 heir male of his own name, this immense sura went to a friend or very distant relative, 
 who took the name of Oe Beauvoir, and was afterwards created a baronet. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. ZlO 
 
 to our loyal subjects in that island, that, as we ever have had 
 most especial care to preserve the Protestant profession of 
 the Christian religion, with your ancient government, among 
 you, your liberties, persons, and properties, as settled by the 
 laws and customs of your island, so shall we ever preserve 
 them from all innovations or alterations whatsoever, whereby 
 you may enjOy the blessings of tranquillity under us, as here- 
 tofore under our predecessors." But,, notwithstanding this 
 explicit assurance of the falling monarch, that he would effect 
 no change in the existing religion of the islanders, they knew 
 that he was thus tolerant only from necessity, and they there- 
 fore felt the same distrust of him as did the people of England, 
 a vast majority of whom considered his notions of prerogative 
 to be so high and uncompromising, that they could place no 
 faith in his protestations. — The liberty of conscience is the 
 first element of liberty, and we conceive that any resistance 
 to the slightest violation of that liberty is not only justifiable, 
 but obligatory and meritorious. 
 
 The Presbyterian discipline, as we have stated, was intro- 
 duced into Guernsey in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and 
 the affection for it, in the time of Charles, will appear from 
 the fact that when the military chaplain, who accompanied 
 the reinforcements sent with Lord Danby, in 1629, applied 
 to De La Place, then all-powerful among the parochial 
 clergy, for leave to perform divine service in his church, 
 De La Place assented only on the express condition that 
 neither the Liturgy should be read, nor the communion ad- 
 ministered. In consequence of these reservations, says Doctor 
 Heylin, when any one wished to receive the sacrament, he 
 was ferried over to Castle Cornet, where the ceremony was 
 performed in the great hall. During the rebellion and the 
 protectorate of Cromwell, Presbyterianism remained in full 
 vigour in Guernsey ; but after the restoration of Charles II., 
 the act of conformity was enforced, and the office of dean 
 revived. But these changes were not effected without much 
 opposition, as the following extract from Le Roy's diary 
 proves : " September 24, 1662. — There arrived in this island 
 a company of 100 soldiers, with a major, captain, and oflicers, 
 in consequence of some opposition to the act of uniformity, 
 to which the clergy would not conform, and they resigned 
 their benefices, viz. Mr. Le Marchant, at the Vale and St. 
 Sampson ; Mr. Perchard, at St. Pierre-du-Bois ; Mr. More- 
 head, at St. Saviour ; Mr. de la Marche, at the Catel ; and 
 Mr. Herivell, at the Forest and Torteval. Mr. Peter de 
 
216 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Jersey, having left the town, was established by the dean at 
 St. Andrew's, and Mr. Picot sent to Alderney, minister as 
 before." The Guernseymen were too weak to stand by their 
 religion as did the Scotch at the same time ; and reluctantly 
 and gradually they were induced to adopt the service and 
 discipline of the Church of England, though, as recently as 
 1755, the dean was obhged to have recourse to the civil 
 power to enforce the reading of the Litany ; and to this day 
 the surplice is not used in some of the parish churches. — We 
 have travelled somewhat out of our subject to prove that the 
 bias against Charles and for the parliament emanated rather 
 from a religious than a political feeling, although the Norman 
 institutions of the island are essentially democratic and re- 
 publican, and generate feelings of independence, which quickly 
 resent the slightest attempt at oppression. 
 
 It appears by a missive from Sir Peter Osborne to the 
 inhabitants of Guernsey, dated Castle Cornet, December 10, 
 1644, that during the civil war many Anabaptists, Brownists, 
 and other sectaries, came over to Guernsey "in troops to 
 settle their residence" in the island ; and he warned the inha- 
 bitants that "though you should drive them hence, as I 
 understand you intend, besides the infection they will leave 
 behind, you may be most assured they will speedily return 
 like crows to your corn." We learn from Edwardes' Gan- 
 graena, part 3, 1646, that "there is one Collier, a great 
 sectarie in the west of England, a mechanical fellow, a great 
 dipper, who goes about Surrey and other counties preacliing 
 and dipping. He makes baptizing the children of the faith- 
 ful not only to be vain, but evil and sinful ; yea, the commis- 
 sion of baptizing children to come from the devil, or Anti- 
 Christ, or both As concerning that Collier whom you 
 
 speak of in your book, I could give you a large relation, as 
 how he was banished out of Guernsey (he and many more 
 of his followers whom he had seduced) for their heresies 
 and turbulent behaviour." That these sectarian preachers 
 
 fained many converts in Guernsey is confirmed by Doctor 
 aghtfoot, who, speaking of an assembly of divines at West- 
 minster, in 1644, says : 
 
 " August 8. — Mr. Pahner reported a business sent ns by my 
 lord admiral, concerning a preacher in the isle of Guernsey, against 
 which there were articles exhibited : 
 
 **1. — That he did abjure the church discipline there esta- 
 blished. 
 *'2. — Saying it was worse than s y. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 217 
 
 **3. — He refuseth to administer the sacrament of the Lord's 
 
 Supper, and Baptism, &c. 
 **4. — That in 1655 there shall be a perfect reformation, and 
 men shall do miracles, &c. 
 " The preacher himself, one Mr. Thomas Picot, is sent hither 
 prisoner by my lord admiral. 
 
 *' September 17. — The first thing done to-day was, that the 
 deputy of the colloquy of Guernsey came in, and broujj^ht a peti- 
 tion against Picot, the Anabaptist preacher, mentioned before. 
 
 " September 19. — There was also mention of Picot, the Ana- 
 baptist ; and a message was also sent that he might be stopped, 
 and not go for Guernsey, as he was about." * 
 
 We believe that the Mr. Thomas Picot, just mentioned, was 
 the Mr. Picot who, in 1662, was " sent to Alderney, minister 
 as before." If so, he had probably become an Anglican. 
 
 When the civil war commenced. Sir Peter Osborne, knight, 
 was deputy governor of Guernsey, having been so appointed 
 above twenty years before by his wife's brother, the earl of 
 Danby, who was still the governor. Sir Peter resided at 
 Castle Cornet, where he is stated to have kept himself much 
 aloof from the islanders, because, probably, he disliked their 
 religious and political opinions ; and his place of residence, 
 inconvenient at all times for any social intercourse between 
 him and the gentry, must have increased the estrangement. 
 In 1642, about ninety of the inhabitants, many of whom soon 
 after warmly embraced the cause of the parliament, trans- 
 mitted to that body numerous articles of complaint, in French, 
 against Sir Peter Osborne, most of which bear the impress of 
 the animosity which already existed between the two parties ; 
 the more so as, in a declaration made some years afterwards 
 to Cromwell, the lieutenant-governor is said to have possessed 
 great influence in the island ; and in his letter to the earl of 
 Warwick, dated June 22, 1644, it will be seen that he 
 ascribes these complaints to a few mutinous spirits, and states 
 that the people generally were in his favor. The complain- 
 ants alleged that Guernsey, being a frontier, required a 
 governor expert in military affairs, which Sir Peter was not ; 
 that Castle Cornet being a very important place, and enlarged 
 in bastions with artillery, more than six-fold since the time 
 that only fourteen soldiers were ordained for its garrison in 
 time of peace, Sir Peter had not augmented the number of 
 soldiers ; that there was a great collection of arms in the 
 
 (1) Lightfoot's Works, vol. xiii. 8vo,, 1824. 
 
218 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 castle, sufficient, it was said, for 1,500 men, besides almost 
 eighty pieces of cannon, with what design was not known, as 
 there were only twelve or fourteen soldiers ; that Sir Peter 
 had employed the king's grants for fortifying the castle very 
 uselessly, and, in place of erecting dwellings for the soldiers, 
 he had made promenades and maisons de plaisance, so that 
 there was not accommodation even for fourteen soldiers ; and 
 that he so hated the inhabitants generally, two or three ex- 
 cepted, that he had come several voyages (we suppose from 
 England) without quitting the castle or entering the island, 
 which, if he did enter, it was by lanes and bye-places. 
 
 About the same time, several of the persons who had 
 signed the complaints against Sir Peter Osborne, addressed 
 others to him against John de Quetteville, bailitf or chief 
 magistrate of the island, who was accused of having used 
 " most scandalous and opprobrious language against the high 
 court of parliament," in these words : 
 
 1. — That now it was held up but by 'prentices. 
 
 2. — That they should be curried. 
 
 3. — That it was strange such fellows should undertake 
 to rule. 
 
 4. — And to show the venom of his spleen against the Com- 
 monwealth, he said the wars of Ireland would last these 
 twenty years. 
 
 5. — That he hath accused the parliament to take five 
 pounds for every petition that they received, which money 
 the said de Quetteville saith that they employ in a collation. 
 
 6. — That they are but two or three left in the parhament, 
 and that it should be presently dissolved. 
 
 De Quetteville was moreover charged with violating his 
 oath and taking bribes, an usurper ; that he was a man of an 
 obscene and wicked life ; and as articles were to be exhibited 
 to the parliament against him — as he held his office of bailiff, 
 durante bene placito, during the governor's pleasure — Sir 
 Peter was requested to suspend him, until the parliament 
 might have leisure to vindicate its own honor. Sir Peter 
 doubtless declined to comply with this request, as it probably 
 emanated from that spirit of faction which, under the guise of 
 principle and truth, too often lends itself to calumny and 
 falsehood. The two principal authorities were royalists, and 
 whether guilty or not, it was expedient to effect their removal. 
 Mr. de Quetteville, being subsequently convicted of malig- 
 nancy to the parliament, was ordered to be seized and sent to 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 219 
 
 England ; and he appears to have been long imprisoned in 
 Hurst Castle, so often seen by the islanders on their passages 
 to or from Southampton. Here also Charles I. was confined 
 for three weeks in December, 1648; and " Hurst Castle is 
 now," says Eliot Warburton in his Memoirs of Prin, e Rupert, 
 " a gloomy ruin of what was once a gloomier fortress." 
 " Every thing here was dismal, the apartments, the air, and 
 the fort. The stony walk was but a few paces broad, yet in 
 length two miles : the uninterrupted view of the opposite Isle 
 of Wight, and the ships of all dimensions daily under sail, 
 formed the solitary amusement of the king." — Disraeli. 
 When Charles was told that he was to be removed from 
 Carisbrooke Castle, he said: "To what place?" "To the 
 castle." — The castle is no castle. I am prepared for any 
 castle ; but tell me the name." " Hurst Castle." — " Indeed ! 
 you could not have named a worse ! " 
 
 Sir Peter Osborne does not appear to have come into open 
 collision with the civil authorities of Guernsey until some 
 months after the king had drawn the sword in England, as 
 both he and they evidently watched the course of events 
 there, and hesitated at striking the first blow. Sir Peter 
 seems to have lived in a state of blockade and seclusion in 
 the castle towards the close of the year 1642 ; but it is not 
 until the beginning of 1643 that we discover any evidence of 
 a decided rupture between him and the jurats. On the 2d 
 of February of that year,^ three of the latter were informed 
 by one of the constables of St. Peter -Port, that Captain 
 (afterwards Sir George) Carteret was then in the castle with 
 Sir Peter Osborne, having arrived at noon from the west of 
 England with arms and ammunitions of war, which he in- 
 tended to employ against the parliament, and that it was 
 believed he was going to France for a further supply. When 
 the bailiff, de Quetteville, was told of the circumstance, he 
 treated it with much lukewarmness, simply observing, it is 
 said, that if application were made to him for an order to 
 arrest Carteret, he would grant it. This answer greatly dis- 
 pleased the three magistrates, who thereupon ordered the 
 sheriff to repair to Castle Cornet, and to command Sir Peter 
 Osborne, in their name, to deliver up the person of Carteret, 
 
 (1) The civil and legal year in this century commenced on the 25th of March, and the 
 historical year on the 1st of January, as now; so that, according to the former, this was 
 the 2d oi February, l642 ; but we shall throughout adopt the latter. Berry aud Duncan, 
 in their Histories of Guernsey, use both styles indiscriminately, which is a source of 
 much discrepancy and confusion ; for instance. Berry dates the execution of Charles I. 
 on the 30th of January, 1648; Duncan, on the 30th of January, 1649, and yet both are 
 correct. Again, by the new style then in use in some parts of Europe, Charles was 
 beheaded on the 9th of February, l649. 
 
220 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 which demand was of course refused. On the 1 1th of March, 
 1643, the court assembled, there bemg present, John de 
 Quetteville, jun., bailifi*; John Bonamy, James Guille, Peter 
 de Beauvoir, Josias Le Marchant, (du Houmet,) Thomas 
 Carey, Michael de Sausmarez, John Brehaut, and John 
 Carey, jurats. 
 
 The baihff stated that he had convened them, in conse- 
 quence of the receipt of an order from the lords of the parHa- 
 ment of England, tending to the good of his majesty's service, 
 the interests of the parliament, and the conservation of the 
 island ; which order he was commanded to communicate to 
 Sir Peter Osborne, knight, the lieutenant-governor, to the 
 court, and to the States of the island : that he had already 
 forwarded it to Sir Peter Osborne, but had had no satisfactory 
 answer. On this point he requested the advice of the court. 
 After the matter had been duly discussed, the sheriff was 
 ordered to wait on the lieutenant-governor, and to desire him, 
 in the name of the court, to have the States convened on 
 the following Wednesday, to take the parliamentary order 
 into consideration 
 
 On the return of the sheriff, he reported that he had been 
 to the castle to deliver the message of the court ; that at the 
 great gate he had met the portier and three soldiers, whom 
 he desired to make known to his excellency the purport of 
 his errand. The portier soon came back, and said that he 
 did not believe that he (the sheriff) had been sent by the 
 bailiff and jurats, no more than he had been on the former 
 occasion, when he pretended to be authorized, and coined a 
 falsehood. On this the sheriff shewed the portier his written 
 instructions, and desired him again to announce his presence 
 to his excellency. The portier demanded that they should 
 be read to him, which the sheriff refused, having no such 
 authority. The portier then went a second time, and, on his 
 return, asked in what place, and before what jurats, the sheriff 
 received his instructions. He answered, at the court house, 
 and before all the jurats. On this the portier said, that if the 
 court desired to make any communication to him, they must 
 send one of their own members. 
 
 The same month, 22d March, the government of the baili- 
 wick of Guernsey, including Alderney and Sark, was provi- 
 sionally vested by the parliament in the twelve jurats of the 
 Royal Court, as commissioners, of whom Peter de Beauvoir, 
 des Granges, was appointed president ; and thev received 
 instructions at the same time for their guidance, of which the 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 221 
 
 following was the fiist article : " You shall seize upon the 
 person of Sir Peter Osborne, knight, deputy-governor of the 
 island of Guernsey, and upon the castle now in his custodie ; 
 and you shall send him in safe custodie to the parliament, to 
 answere such offenses, contempts, and other misdemeanors, as 
 shall be objected against him." 
 
 But this order was more easily given than executed, for 
 when the jurats attempted to negociate with Sir Peter, he 
 would listen to no terms of accommodation, and threatened to 
 batter down the town, firing several cannon over and into it, 
 to the great terror of the inhabitants, many of whom at once 
 forsook their houses, and retired into the country. In a letter 
 to the parliamentary committee in London, the commissioners 
 explained the impossibility of complying with their instruc- 
 tions, observing that Sir Peter Osborne kept himself strong 
 in the castle, daily adding to its fortifications ; that he would 
 not look at any order issued by the parliament, and they 
 concluded thus: "We cannot expect any more messages 
 from Sir Peter, who obstructs all shipping from entering into, 
 or sailing out of, the harbour, even the fishing boats. Nor 
 will he allow strangers to go to sea ; and if this blockade 
 continues, it will be the utter undoing of the inhabitants of 
 this island." And yet this blockade continued nearly nine 
 years, to the great prejudice and loss of the islanders, from 
 which it may be inferred that the parliament refrained from 
 seriously bombarding the castle, lest they should injure it, 
 and vainly hoped that, by cutting off all supplies, they would 
 starve the gallant little garrison into a surrender. 
 
 The siege of Castle Cornet commenced on or about the 4th 
 of March, 1643, but throughout that year the islanders were 
 left nearly defenceless, and without ships to protect their 
 trade from the cannon of the castle, which received its scanty 
 supplies from Cornwall, Jersey, and St. Malo. In conse- 
 quence, it would appear that the Guernseymen began to 
 falter in their allegiance to the parliament, as on the 2d of 
 June we find the earl of Warwick, high admiral of England, 
 thus reproaching them : 
 
 "Gentlemen, — I am something amazed, after so long a 
 patience and such good evidences given of your affection for 
 the maintenance of so just a cause ; — I say, I am amazed you 
 grow remiss and seem to neglect and draw back, as if it were 
 an indifferent or dangerous thing to defend yourselves, your 
 liberties, and your properties, and, what is of greater conse- 
 quence, your religion and the purity thereof, against traitors, 
 
222 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 papists, atheists, and the like, who have laboured, and daily 
 do labour, to enthral our liberties and religion, and to bring 
 us into slavery to themselves, and to the devil, by the dark- 
 ness of errors and pernicious heresies v^^herewith they obfus- 
 cate the Christian air we live in. If this be the main design 
 with you, what a shame, what a reproach will it be for you 
 and your posterity, after having begun so well and shewed 
 the way to Jersey ; and having suffered longer than they with 
 loss of your houses, and such boldness as has made you odious 
 to your enemies, if you now yield to those enemies, after so 
 many protestations and humble petitions made to the high 
 and honourable court of parliament ; and after receiving such 
 favourable orders, provisions, supplies of all sorts, and ex- 
 penses from them and this kingdom ; will you now make 
 yourselves ridiculous to your enemies, and be guilty of so 
 foul an apostacy ? Consider what I have done for you. Do 
 you think to subsist against the authority of parliament and 
 the power of this kingdom ? Certainly, if you attempt this, 
 you will repent too late : but I hope better things from you. 
 1 advise and exhort you, therefore, to unite yourselves one 
 with the other, and with my lieutenants in all your councils 
 and endeavours, and judge by what I have already done, 
 what I will continue to do, if God permits it, and when the 
 time of the year is favourable, unless you be wanting to your- 
 selves. And so praying God to increase and strengthen your 
 valour and resolution, as may be for his glory and your good, 
 with my kind salutations to you all, I rest your very assured 
 friend." 
 
 This cutting letter produced the desired effect, and Guern- 
 sey stood firm to the parliament ; but soon afler, in October, 
 the islanders complained to Lord Warwick of their calamitous 
 state, and informed him that the castle had within a few days 
 received supplies from France and England ; a large shallop 
 having come from France, and two ships from England, one 
 of them commanded by Captain Bowden, who had by trea- 
 chery obtained possession of the persons of three of the parlia- 
 mentary commissioners, viz. the jurats Peter de Beau voir, 
 Peter Carey, and James de Havilland. Bowden, then hold- 
 ing a parliamentary commission, had quitted the island fifteen 
 days before for Dartmouth. There he was induced by Prince 
 Maurice to attach himself to the king's party, and he bound 
 himself by an oath to return to Guernsey and seize the lieute- 
 nant-governor, Russell, and the parliamentary commissioners, 
 by a stratiigem. Bowden doubtless relied on the lukewarm- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 223 
 
 ness of many in St. Peter-Port towards the parliament, and 
 on the general affection of the country people for the king. 
 Anchoring to the south of the castle, he sent his boat on shore 
 at Fermain Bay, with a letter to Russell and the commis- 
 sioners, requesting them to come on board, as he was too ill 
 to land, to consult with him on matters of great importance. 
 On receipt of this letter, the lieutenant-governor sent a Cap- 
 tain Sippins^ on board the George, of Dover,'^ (Bowden's 
 ship,) to receive information from England, and to request 
 Bowden to capture a vessel which had arrived from Wey- 
 mouth, laden with stores for the castle, and which was then 
 anchored near Brehon, out of the reach of the land batteries. 
 Sippins was detained on board the George, and Bowden sent 
 his boat again to Fermain Bay, with the same coxswain and 
 crew, and wdth a second letter to the same purport as the first, 
 adding, that he would capture the king's vessel off Brehon 
 without difficulty. De Beauvoir, Carey, and de Havilland, 
 happened to be dining with the lieutenant-governor; and, 
 after consulting together, they agreed to go off to Bowden's 
 vessel, which they did from Fermain Bay, in a boat belonging 
 to the island. They were received with open arms by Bow- 
 den, who conducted them into his cabin, where they found 
 two other naval commanders, Jones and Simpson, in the 
 king's service. The three officers, who appear to have been 
 originally merchant captains, strongly urged the jurats to 
 co-operate with them, first by offers of advantage, and next 
 by threats of punishment ; but they remained true to their 
 duty, and notwithstanding were treated with every courtesy 
 and respect. 
 
 Bowden next determined to steer for Jersey, in the hope 
 of entrapping the parliamentary authorities there by the same 
 stratagem ; but the lieutenant-governor of Guernsey had 
 previously dispatched a boat to put them on their guard, and 
 the George returned to Guernsey, anchoring under the can- 
 non of Castle Cornet. Sir Peter Osborne insisted on the 
 three prisoners being delivered into his hands, as their deten- 
 tion in the castle would facilitate the reduction of the island. 
 Against this Bowden and Simpson strongly remonstrated, 
 for the prisoners had promised them fifty jacobuses if they 
 
 (1) Captain Sippins appears to have joined Bowden in his design, as, according to 
 Whitelock's Memorials, the former was condemned to death in October, 1644, by a parlia- 
 mentary court martial, " for endeavouring to betray Guernsey ; " but he was reprieved at 
 the desire of Major-General Skippon, and ultimately pardoned. 
 
 (2) In the narrative in Duncan's History, this vessel is called the Bramble, which 
 TJowden had probably previously commanded, and had exchanged for the George, at 
 Dartmouth. 
 
224 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 would land them at Dartmouth. Sir Peter, however, was 
 determined ; and on the following day sent his boat for the 
 prisoners, who, between nine and ten at night, were brought 
 to the eastern side of the castle, and compelled to ascend a 
 ladder thirty-two feet high to reach the ramparts, where they 
 were received by the porter, attended by forty armed men, 
 and ten to twelve who were unarmed, among them the sons 
 of Sir Peter Osborne, his chaplain, and Mr. Amias Andros, 
 a Guernseyman, adhering to the king. They were then con- 
 veyed to an apartment in the underground dungeons, the 
 lowest but one in the fortress, and for bedding were given 
 three old pillows and three filthy coverlids. Indeed, their 
 treatment appears to have been unnecessarily rigorous, and 
 they complained particularly of their diet, which was, how- 
 ever, perhaps as good as that of the garrison. The rain 
 water they drank was saturated with lime, owing to a cannon 
 ball, fired from one of the land batteries, having knocked 
 jmrt of the wall into the cistern. But the second night after 
 their incarceration, the porter left them twenty bundles of 
 cotton to sleep upon ; and a few days subsequently, Captain 
 Darell, lieutenant to Sir Peter Osborne, and who was con- 
 nected with the island, his wife being a De Beauvoir, lent 
 them comfortable bedding and covering. Having resolved 
 to attempt their escape, the three prisoners, on the 23d of 
 November, commenced cutting a hole through the floor with 
 their knives,' to enable them to obtain some old cotton match 
 which was in the dungeon beneath ; and on the 30th, after 
 much labour, they succeeded in drawing up some with a 
 tenter hook, which they luckily found in their room. This 
 cotton they twisted into three ropes, one to descend from the 
 window to the base of the dungeon, another to be used in 
 dropping down the first wall, and the third to serve for their 
 descent down the last wall. At length, on Sunday, the 3d of 
 December, 1643, after a close confinement of forty -three 
 days, they succeeded in effecting their escape, by dropping 
 into the dungeon beneath, the door of which they opened by 
 bending the cramp iron of the lock; and, descending the first 
 and second walls of the castle, they ran along the western 
 beach without being challenged. It was low water, and 
 when they reached the passage to the town, a sentry saw 
 them, and instantly gave the alarm, crying out : " Fire ! fire ! 
 the prisoners are escaping." The cannon appear at first to 
 have missed fire, but were at length discharged, some with 
 
 (I) The knife used by Mr. P. Carey on thia occasion Is still preserved by his descendants. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 225 
 
 balls, others with grape shot, which fell around the fugitives 
 without striking them. Having reached the steps of the 
 south pier, they were recognized, and the news being carried 
 to the church at the close of afternoon prayers, the whole 
 congregation rushed out to congratulate them on their happy 
 deliverance. A full narrative of their imprisonment has been 
 preserved, which causes us the more to regret that another 
 as copious of the defence of Castle Cornet was not written by 
 one of the gallant cavaliers engaged in it, and treasured with 
 similar religious care by his descendants. That narrative was 
 written by Mr. Peter Carey, and we give the following ex- 
 tract, as it may serve to trace the place of imprisonment : 
 
 " From thence," (the ramparts which they ascended,) " we 
 were taken into the hall, where Sir Peter saw us to his con- 
 tent, viewing us with Captain Darell from the balcony which 
 looks into the hall. After this, we were lodged in one of 
 the deepest dungeons, under the lower ditch ; a place so 
 subterranean and humid, that our hair became wet ; and 
 from thence we were unable to see light, but through the 
 keyhole. The next day, which was Thursday, at two o'clock 
 in the afternoon, a great quantity of old wet match, which 
 was in the chamber above, was removed into that which we 
 occupied. That being done, we were all three placed in it. 
 [the upper chamber.] In our new apartment, we had only a 
 small window to look through, which had a north-east aspect.'* 
 
 The following order was evidently directed against the 
 parliamentarians in Guernsey : 
 
 " Translation of the order of the queen regent of France,^ pro- 
 hibiting the traffic of the isles, without their governors* passes. 
 
 " It is ordained unto all captains and governors of the maritime 
 towns of Picardy, Normandy, and Britany, to the lieutenants and 
 other officers of the admiralty, unto whom it shall appertain, not 
 to permit any of the inhabitants of the isles of Jersey and Guern- 
 sey, or otherwise called Gerge and Greneze, to transport any 
 victuals or any other provisions and merchandizes out of this 
 kingdom, unless they have a pass from Sir Philip Carteret and 
 Sir Peter Osborne, governors of the said isles, his. majesty com- 
 manding to the said captains and governors of the maritime towns 
 to cause the said ordinance to be carefully executed. At Paris, 
 the 20th of May, 1643." 
 
 The Earl of Warwick to the inhabitants of Guernsey. 
 " Gentlemen, — I received a letter from you lately, by which I 
 do understand your good will and affection toward me, for which 
 
 (1) Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIW. -Pseudo Mastix, p. 66. 
 
226 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 T heartily thank you, and take very kindly from you, and shall 
 be ready at all tinnes to endeavour to deserve your kind expres- 
 sions therein. 
 
 " I have been informed that Captain George Carteret hath 
 procured an order from the State of France, that none of the in- 
 habitants of your island, nor that of Jersey, should have any 
 trade or commerce in any part of France without they had Sir 
 Peter Osborne or Sir Philip Carteret's hands to licence them 
 thereunto, which licence hath made me the more careful to permit 
 this corn and wool, being one hundred and four score quarters of 
 wheat and rye, and forty todds of wool, to be transported unto 
 you. I have granted some other warrants to others to do the 
 like for your island and Jersey. I shall desire you, gentlemen, 
 that this my favour may not any way be misused, by suffering 
 either of the said governors, or any that do adhere unto them, to 
 have any share of this corn or wool. 
 
 " The guns for battery, which you sent for, are in readiness, as 
 I am informed, and I believe would have been with you long 
 ere this, if it had not been for the contrary winds that have blown 
 so long that way ; and in expecting of them, and the gentlemen 
 that come with them, I have forborne writing to you all this time. 
 
 " I am sorry to hear that Sir Peter Osborne is so resolutely 
 bent against you ; I doubt not but you and the rest of the good 
 people there will make such resistance against him as may return 
 to your praise and honor, for that you fight in the defence of 
 God's cause, which is your religion and the liberty of your 
 country. 
 
 ** I desire to hear from you as often as you can, and in parti- 
 cular how you have disposed of all the corn and other necessaries 
 which I have of late permitted to be brought to your island. 
 And that you will let me understand wherein I may do you, or 
 any of the inhabitants there, any favour or courtesy, which I 
 shall be very ready as 
 
 *' Your assured loving friend, 
 "On board the Prince Royal, at "Warwick. 
 
 St. Helen's Point, June 27, 1643. 
 "To my very loving friends Mr. Le Grange, (de Beauvoir,) 
 
 Mr. Havilland, Mr. Marchant, and the rest of the gentlemen 
 
 and inhabitants of the island of Guernsey." 
 
 On the 16th of September, 1643, Sir Peter Osborne was 
 summoned by the ptwliamentarian lieutenant-governor, Rus- 
 sell, and in his reply he said : " For the surrender of this 
 castle without his majesty's pleasure, signified under his royal 
 signature, or by the Right Honorable the Earl of Danby, — 
 these islands being no ways subordinate to other jurisdiction, 
 but to his majesty alone, as part of his most ancient patri- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 227 
 
 mony enjoyed by those princes, his glorious predecessors, 
 before that, by claim or conquest, they came to have interest 
 in the crown of England, — no summons, by virtue of what 
 power soever, hath command here, nor can make me deliver 
 it up to any but to him by whom I am trusted and to whom 
 I am sworn, that have never yet made oath but only to the 
 king. And God, I hope, whose great name I have sworn by, 
 will never so much forsake me but I shall keep that resolu- 
 tion (by yourself misnamed obstinacy) to maintain unto my 
 sovereign that faith inviolate unto my last." — This reply is as 
 remarkable for its truth and felicity as for its loyalty, the 
 Anglo-Norman Islands being only subject to the sovereigns 
 of England, as dukes of Normandy ; and the people consider- 
 ing themselves rather as the conquerors than the conquered. 
 
 At this time — and in the year 1680, as appears by a sketch 
 of the town and harbour of St. Peter-Port, discovered in 
 the British Museum, in 1851, — only the south pier is depicted, 
 with very little quay, and the houses were built principally 
 on the sea side, to which they were confined, with the excep- 
 tion of the eastern part of Fountain street, and perhaps of 
 Berthelot street : in consequence, nearly the whole of the 
 town was exposed to the cannon of Castle Cornet, and in a 
 series of resolutions passed by the parliament, in November, 
 1647, we find : " And whereas divers of the inhabitants have 
 sustained great loss by Sir Peter Osborne's beating down their 
 houses with shot from the castle, and have been at great 
 charges in making fortifications against the said castle;" it 
 was ordered that they be reimbursed out of the surplus of the 
 island revenue. We doubt if the inhabitants of St. Peter- 
 Port then numbered 3,000, as the entire population of 
 Guernsey was about 8,000 souls. In the year 1615, there 
 were only 347 houses in St. Peter-Port, and 1,008 houses in 
 the country parishes, total 1,355 houses, which, at an average 
 of five and a half persons per house, would give a population 
 of 7,342 souls. Even as late as the year 1727, the popula- 
 tion of the island was only 10,500, and of the town scarcely 
 4,500 souls. In 1745, the town was still confined to the sea 
 side and its immediate vicinity, as in an engraved sketch of 
 St. Peter-Port, taken in that year from Castle Cornet, by an 
 engineer officer, afterwards General Bastide, there is scarcely 
 a house to be seen to the westward of the present Cornet 
 street. High street, Pollet, and Glatney ; Fountain street not 
 being visible from the castle. 
 
228 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 In August, 1643, twenty-three " Articles for the Garrison 
 in His Majesty's Castle Cornet" were issued by Sir Peter 
 Osborne, of which the eight first were as follow : 
 
 " 1. — Imprimis, that no soldier do reveal the secrets of the 
 house or conceal any thing that may tend to the disservice of the 
 king and prejudice of the castle, or may concern the safety and 
 honour of the governor, upon pain to be shot to death. 
 
 "2. — Item, that none be found absent from the place of watch 
 appointed to them, until they be relieved by order, or drawn off 
 by command. And that all men, at a time of alarm, shall repair 
 to the place appointed them to that end; neither that any be found 
 sleeping upon their watch, upon pain of death. 
 
 " 3. — Item, that none shall be found to put off their clothes in 
 the night, so long as the water shall be passable on foot between 
 the castle and the town, upon pain of severe punishment, at the 
 governor's discretion. 
 
 " 4. — Item, that all soldiers keep their arms clean and service- 
 able, having their ** bandellers" * always filled with powder and 
 bullets, and match ready, upon pain of imprisonment. 
 
 " 5. — Item, that any soldier, by day or night, who shall discover 
 any people either to come in boats at high water, or otherwise at 
 low water, by the sight of fire, or by hearing them so coming, 
 shall presently cry aloud Arm, Arm, Arm, and discharge their 
 muskets withall, although undiscerned by them, upon pain of death. 
 
 " 6. — Item, that no swearing, cursing, or any evil words tend- 
 ing to discord or quarrel, be so much as heard amongst the sol- 
 diers in the house, upon pain of paying to the poor man's box two 
 pence at the first fault, and imprisonment, at the governor's dis- 
 cretion, if he persist. 
 
 "7. — Item, that none draw blood one of another, or strike 
 within the house, upon pain of the loss of his or their right hand. 
 
 *' 8. — Item, that whosoever shall presume to make offer to 
 strike his officer, shall lose his hand ; and whosoever shall strike 
 his officer, shall be shot to death." ^ 
 
 In the king's letter, from Oxford, dated December 9, 1642, 
 Viscount Scudamore is named as having been appointed 
 governor of Guernsey by the parliament, in place of the earl 
 of Danby, a royalist ; but Lord Scudamore does not appear 
 to have exercised his appointment, and in June of the follow- 
 ing year the government of both Jersey and Guernsey was 
 
 (1) Bandoleers— in French bandouliire8—imsi\l wooden cases, each containiDgr a charge 
 of powder for a musket. 
 
 (2) It was only tn 1718 that a clause in the mutiny bill enabled courts martial to punish 
 mutiny and desertion with death, such crimes having been previously only cog^nizable 
 as capital offences by the civil magihtrate. Hut Macau lay states that when war was 
 actually raging in the kingdom, a mutineer or dc.-.erter might be tried by a military 
 tribunal, and executed by the provost-martial. No standing army existed in England 
 before the civil war. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 229 
 
 conferred on the earl of Warwick, who nominated Robert 
 Russell as his lieutenant in Guernsey, and Leonard Lydcott 
 as his lieutenant in Jersey. Lord Warwick himself at the 
 same time received a long string of parliamentary instructions 
 for his guidance, and was ordered to take care that the Pro- 
 testant religion was maintained in the islands ; to seize the 
 persons of Sir George Carteret and Sir Peter Osborne, with 
 their adherents, sending them in safe custody to England ; 
 and strictly to prevent the islanders from assisting the rebels 
 in the county of Cornwall, or from holding any intercourse 
 with them. But, as we have already intimated. Lord Warwick 
 had not a sufficient force to comply with these instructions. 
 
 Soon after his arrival in Guernsey, in 1643, Russell levied 
 taxes upon the inhabitants for the public charges, and thereby 
 caused great discontent. But Russell was resolute, and sent 
 a company of soldiers into the parish of St. Saviour^ to enforce 
 the collection, when two of the parishioners were killed and 
 one was wounded. Upon this the islanders rose in arms, and 
 compelled Russell to promise that he would in future be 
 guided in his proceedings by the States and Royal Court — 
 he also apologized for the occurrence at St. Saviour's, and 
 declared that he had ordered the soldiers not to fire unless 
 they were attacked. Sir Peter Osborne endeavoured to take 
 advantage of this outbreak ; and, according to Mr. Peter 
 Carey, would in all probability have obtained possession of 
 the island, had not his letters providentially been intercepted 
 before they were circulated among the inhabitants. Jeremie, 
 in his unfinished history of Guernsey, mentions that the two 
 guns, used by the people in their insurrection against Russell, 
 were buried by them in the street opposite to his residence, 
 near the top of Fountain street : this seems improbable, as 
 cannon were then very scarce, and much wanted ; but it is 
 certain that two guns were taken up on the spot mentioned 
 not many years since, and embedded in the front wall of a 
 house adjoining, where they may still be seen. 
 
 On the 9th of August, 1643, the Royal Court passed an 
 ordinance to the following effect : " Considering the extreme 
 necessity we stand in for means of defence against the inva- 
 sion of our enemies, strict prohibition is given this day to all 
 the inhabitants in no way to leave the island, on the penalty 
 of having their goods seized and apphed to the public use in 
 the manner the authorities may deem fit, excepting the deal- 
 
 (1) Jeremie (afterwards Sir John) states that the soldiers were sent to St. Saviour's to 
 enforce an order against Mr. Leonard Blondel ; and he adds, that Mr. James Gaille, of 
 St. George, commanded the islanders when they rose against Russell. 
 
230 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 ers in stockings, who are in the habit of going to Paris for 
 the conducting of their business in this place, such dealers 
 having the liberty of leaving, but no others." Thus it is 
 evident that the parliamentary islanders were very apprehen- 
 sive of a royalist invasion, and moreover that the chief, if not 
 the sole, trade of Guernsey consisted in the knitting and 
 exportation of woollen frocks and stockings. 
 
 About the month of September, 1643, Sir Peter Osborne 
 deputed Amias Andros, seigneur of Sausmarez, already men- 
 tioned, to Prince Maurice, then in the west of England, to 
 represent the distressed state of Castle Cornet, and to urge 
 the necessity of men and supplies being sent for its defence. 
 Mr. Andros was also instructed to recommend to his highness 
 that not less than 500 men should be sent for the reduction 
 of Guernsey, and to secure it from a second revolt. He was 
 also to ascertain " what account" the royalists in England 
 made of the island " for a retreat in extremity, and press the 
 likelihood of it." And although it was very proper to offer 
 a general pardon, yet Sir Peter conceived " it meet for the 
 king's honour not to be without limitations, and exceptions of 
 some principal authors of these troubles, for the terror and 
 example of future times." Accordingly, Mr. Andros was to 
 deliver the names of those " that are to be excepted out of 
 the pardon, to be brought to their trial. That is to say, all 
 the commissioners ; Bonamy, the jurat ; John Bonamy, his 
 son ; L*Espine, that was constable ; Picot, the minister ; » La 
 Place, governor of Sark ; Girard, of the Catel parish ; and 
 John Le Febvre and Colas Guille, of St. Martin's." 
 
 When the Guernseymen, in March, 1643, declared openly 
 for the parliament, and commenced the siege of Castle Cor- 
 net, their example was quickly followed in Jersey, where the 
 people were at first either lukewarm for the king, or tamely 
 permitted a minority of native parliamentarians to rule them. 
 Leonard Lydcott, Lord Warwick's lieutenant, arrived in that 
 island on the 29th of August following, duly empowered to 
 exercise the functions of his office. Although Mont Orgueil 
 and Elizabeth Castles were still vigorously defended for the 
 king, Lydcott had been informed that the majority of the 
 Jerseymen were secretly attached to the interests of the par- 
 liament, and he looked forward to a speedy termination of 
 the contest. But he found the feelings of the people so 
 generally in favor of Charles, that the arrival of Captain 
 Carteret from St. Malo, on the 19th of November, with two 
 
 (1) Evidently the Anabaptist minister, already mentioned. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 231 
 
 or three small vessels, was the signal for the precipitate 
 departure, on the 21st, of Major Lydcott, Michael Lempriere, 
 and a few others, for England, while many of less note 
 escaped as they best could, in bpats to Guernsey. From this 
 critical period to the end of the war — no less than eight 
 years — Carteret retained Jersey in its allegiance to the king. 
 The Jerseymen, who had not eluded punishment by flight, 
 felt the full weight of Carteret's vengeance, for he imprisoned 
 all those who had been most active in favor of the parha- 
 ment ; and as soon as the commissioners appointed by Charles 
 arrived in the island, he imposed upon them heavy fines, 
 while the property of the fugitives was confiscated and sold. 
 Little anticipating this sudden change of affairs, the parlia- 
 ment had previously given to Jersey and Guernsey each six 
 pieces of artillery, viz. two demi-cannons and four culverins, 
 all of brass, with fifty barrels of gunpowder and a propor- 
 tionate supply of cannon balls, &;c. ; also 300 muskets, and 
 drums, wheelbarrows, shovels, and spades ; the whole taken 
 from the Tower of London. 
 
 While Captain Carteret was at St. Malo, he caused two 
 pataches ^ to be built there to carry supplies to the castles of 
 Jersey and Guernsey. One of these pataches, being laden 
 with provisions for Castle Cornet, was treacherously delivered 
 by the crew, composed of three Englishmen, to the parlia- 
 mentary authorities in Guernsey ; and " thus," observes 
 Chevalier, " was Captain Carteret ill served and betrayed at 
 the commencement." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHARLES I.— 1625 to 1649. (Continued.) 
 
 On the 7th of February, 1644, the earl of Marlborough ^ 
 anchored near Castle Cornet, with four royalist ships of war, 
 mounting each from thirty -four to sixteen guns, when Sir 
 Peter Osborne and he agreed to summon Guernsey ; but the 
 islanders threatened to fire upon the boat which conveyed the 
 letter. The earl, " seeing the obduracy of the people," fired 
 
 (1) Patache, a cutter, a pinnace, an armed tender. 
 
 (2) "The earl of Marlborough, who was general of the artillery."— C/arendon. 
 
232 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 a broadside into the town, as a parting salute, and proceeded 
 on with his vessels to St. Catherine's bay, in Jersey, where 
 Captain Carteret and he determined on preparing a force to 
 attack Guernsey ; but, in consequence of long continued bad 
 weather, and the lukewarmness of the Jerseymen, the enter- 
 prize was relinquished. The two commanders then went 
 together to St. Malo, and the squadron was laden there with 
 provisions and warlike stores for the king's use in England. 
 On his arrival in Guernsey, the earl addressed the following 
 letter to Sir Peter Osborne : 
 
 The Earl of Marleburgh to Sir Peter Osborne, [o] 
 
 "Sir, — I am sorry to hear of your distress by Captain Andrewes, 
 (Andres,) and wish it were as much in my power as my will to 
 relieve you. I am come out with much ado and with ordinary 
 preparation, and was fain to give extraordinary promises to my 
 men to come hither; other way had I none, they going out upon 
 shares without any wages, and therefore grumbling at every 
 minute's stay. I promised them some supply from you, of such 
 things as I wanted, namely, powder and swords. The truth is, I 
 extremely want both, having but twenty-four barrels for thirty 
 guns : if your store be reasonable of both, I hope you will spare 
 some of either. If you can, it will encourage my men to stay 
 somewhat the longer, and secure my riding here the better from 
 the parliament ships,^ which, with the first wind, I believe, will 
 seek me out. 
 
 " I have sent this afternoon to Colonel Carteret, at| Jersey, to 
 see what he can do towards the getting of men, and expect an 
 answer to-morrow. 
 
 " I have sent you as much as my boats can well stow, and mean 
 to-morrow to send you what else I can spare without the over- 
 throw of my voyage; but I hope it may prove enough till more 
 come. If Colonel Carteret can do nothing, I could wish Captain 
 Andrewes might be despeeded for the court for the gaining of a 
 peremptory order for the sending over some men. 
 
 ** Sir, I beseech you to believe me one that will be ready to 
 serve you to my uttermost ; and if I shall not answer your long 
 expectation of mine arrival, impute it not to any unwillingness in 
 me, but to the necessity which does enforce me to comply with 
 those men that, as long as I have occ^asion to use them, must be 
 humoured beyond reason in many things. 
 
 "We had a dispute to-day concerning summoning the island — 
 the difference was that Captain Andrewes propounded the exemp- 
 tion of some particulars out of the pardon : my commission goes 
 
 ~ (1) "March, l644.— The parliament ships chased the earl of Marlborough; but he, 
 though two to one, did not thiult fit to fight with them."— fVhitetock's Memorials. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 233 
 
 for all. But, I beseech your mind in writing by this bearer, and 
 let rae know in what farther service you will please to command, 
 
 *' Your humble servant, 
 " The Road, this Monday night." " Marleburgh. 
 
 When the siege of Castle Cornet had endured about a year, 
 Russell and his captains, on the 22d of February, 1644, com- 
 municated to Sir Peter Osborne ^ an ordinance of the parlia- 
 ment, that whosoever should declare for it before the 1st of 
 March ensuing, should have their lands, goods, &;c., which 
 were sequestered, wholly restored to them, otherwise they 
 should be sold for the parliament's use. They further offered 
 him liberty safely to depart with all his officers and soldiers, 
 and all things appertaining to him or to them, for England or 
 elsewhere, adding : " This denied, believe us you will never 
 obtain the like." The gallant cavalier returned an unqua- 
 lified defiance to this proposal, in the following letter : 
 
 Sir Peter Osborne to the Parliamentary Officers in Guernsey, [o] 
 
 *' Gentlemen, — Far be from me that mean condition to forfeit 
 my reputation to save an estate that, were it much more than it is 
 not, would be of too light consideration to come in balance with 
 my fidelity, and in a cause so honorable, where there is no shame 
 in becoming poor, or hazard in meeting death. Example is not 
 always a safe rule ; precedents must be clear of all exceptions. 
 The reasons I gave in my former answer for my resolution, which 
 I must still hold, will acquit me of being seduced. Whosoever 
 hath the confidence to do it, I can make no such declaration. 
 For I have weighed my grounds and know them true, and shall 
 let you know that nothing else, by the grace of God, can work 
 change in me. When I fall so low as to desire a treaty, it shall 
 be in your power to refuse me what you please; but, in the mean 
 time, I entreat you to consider against whom you serve and for 
 whom — against your lawful and gracious king, and for these 
 islanders, faithless and unthankful. Let those who lead you, 
 mislead you not still, and make you return without merit and too 
 late, which I wish you may seasonably prevent, promising you 
 my best assistance to make your peace for you all to your most 
 advantage, as your true-hearted countrvman and your loving 
 friend. * "P. O. 
 
 " Castle Cornet, February 23, 1643-[4.] " 
 
 The estate was that of Chicksands priory, in Bedfordshire, 
 which had belonged to his family since the year 1576 ; and 
 although Sir Peter wrote to the king, in October following, 
 
 (1) •• Sir Peter Osborne and Sir Thomas Fansh awe for deserting the parliament, whereof 
 they were members, were discharged of their offices, which were conferred upon others." 
 — Wkitelock's Memorials. 
 
234 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 that it was sequestered ; yet it is gratifying to know that it is 
 still in the possession of his hneal descendant, Sir George 
 Osborn,^ the sixth baronet. Sir Peter Osborne also firmly, 
 but civilly, rejected the advances of Lord Warwick, who, with 
 many arguments and promises, endeavoured in this year to 
 prevail upon him to surrender the castle. It appears by a 
 certificate of the royal court that, in March, 1644, a house in 
 St. Peter-Port was in ruins, and " damnified " to the extent 
 of £230 sterling, " by the shooting and battering which Sir 
 Peter Osborne, knight, has, for a long continuance of time, 
 made against it with his ordnance from the castle." This 
 house belonged chiefly to Mr. Peter Carey, one of the jurats 
 who had escaped from the castle, and who was very active in 
 the parliamentary cause. 
 
 In the early years of the war, though the parliamentarians 
 were by far the stronger party in Guernsey, yet the royalists 
 were formidable, and plotted several secret conspiracies. One 
 of these was detected by the imprudence of an individual, 
 who, when intoxicated, disclosed the designs of Sir Peter 
 Osborne, and revealed the names of his principal partizans, 
 the ringleaders of whom were seized and sent to England. 
 In February, 1644, we find Mr. Peter Carey, in a letter to 
 the earl of Warwick, begging that some vessels might be 
 sent to quell " a mutiny on the part of the common people 
 against the lieutenant-governor and those well affected to- 
 wards the parliament, which mutiny still continued, and, 
 unless speedily repressed, threatened to terminate in very 
 serious consequences." This mutiny was soon after quelled ; 
 but our impression is, that, although a great majority of the 
 upper classes and townspeople were parliamentarians, the 
 peasantry generally were attached to the king, and hence 
 arose the unseemly treatment which the latter experienced at 
 the hands of the soldiery, by whom they complained to Crom- 
 well " they had been kept under like slaves, affronted, threat- 
 ened, beaten." In this impression we are confirmed by Sir 
 Peter Osborne's "missive," in 1644, already quoted, in which 
 he said, that " forasmuch as divers seditious persons, inha- 
 bitants of the town of St. Peter- Port, stirred up with ambition 
 and covetousness, have sought, by troubling the peace and 
 quiet of the inhabitants of this island of Guernsey, to make 
 themselves great," &c., " whose wicked proceedings the gene- 
 rality of the country, as I am well assured, have in detesta- 
 
 (1) It does not appear why Sir Peter Osborne's descendants dropped the final e, which 
 was formerly considered as a mark of aristocracy, and Sir Peter always used it. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 235 
 
 tion." The family of de Sausmarez, whose ancient fief at 
 St. Martin's had passed by marriage into the hands of Amias 
 Andros, was probably for the king, as its name is not mixed 
 up in any of the occurrences in Guernsey at this period, and 
 some of its members are said to have contributed towards the 
 necessities of Charles II., when he visited Jersey. The sei- 
 gneur of the Fief le. Comte at that time, Peter Priaulx,^ was 
 also a royalist ; and James Le Marchant, jurat, is stated by 
 a descendant to have remained in Guernsey that he might 
 promote the royal cause, which he did so openly, that pro- 
 ceedings were instituted against him by order of the long 
 parliament, and it was with difficulty that he effected a preci- 
 pitate retreat into Normandy. 
 
 In May, 1644, Captain Carteret and his relative, the sei- 
 gneur of St. Ouen, resolved on trying to surprise the island 
 of Sark, then in possession of the Guernseymen, who, during 
 a greater part of the war, maintained it with a garrison of a 
 captain and thirty soldiers. The Carterets were the more 
 anxious to succeed, because the revenues of Sark chiefly 
 belonged to one of them. Monsieur de St. Ouen, and they 
 accordingly equipped four shallops, which left Jersey well 
 armed and manned ; Captain Lane having two of the shallops 
 with the chief command, and Captain Chamberlain the other 
 two. The weather not being favorable, the two commanders 
 lost sight of each other on the passage, and did not arrive 
 together, or at the appointed rendezvous. Captain Lane, 
 who had the best boats and seventy-two men, found himself 
 near the land, and, on being hailed by a sentinel on shore, 
 answered that he came from Guernsey ; but the guard, which 
 consisted of only three men, fired two muskets, and then 
 took to flight, while Lane, supposing that Captain Chamber- 
 lain had gone back, stood off and returned to Jersey. 
 
 In the mean time. Chamberlain had reached another part 
 of Sark, and landing with his men, they seized and disarmed 
 first the guard, and next the captain in his bed, neither mak- 
 ing any resistance, as they were surprised. During the same 
 night, they also made prisoners of nearly all the men on the 
 island, and possessed themselves of the cannon, powder, &c., 
 expecting that Captain Lane would arrive in the morning to 
 their support. But when daylight came without any succour, 
 the courage of Captain Chamberlain and his men fell as that 
 of the Sark people rose, on the latter ascertaining the small 
 
 (1) The Fief le Comte remained in the Priaulx family from 1630 to 1722, and in the 
 latter year it came into the possession of the Le Marchants, as related in Chapter III. 
 
236 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 number of their assailants, who were only thirty-two men, 
 and that there were no vessels near to assist them. The 
 men being still prisoners, the women set fire to the beacon, 
 as a signal to Guernsey ; but as the light was not seen, the 
 Sarkese fired two or three cannon, when the Guernseymen, 
 supposing that something wrong had occurred, dispatched 
 promptly an armed force, by which Chamberlain and his men 
 were captured without resistance, and brought with their two 
 boats to Guernsey. This easy capture and recapture of Sark, 
 the account of which we have condensed from Chevalier, does 
 not accord with Sir Walter Raleigh's opinion of its strength, 
 as narrated ante : the island is doubtless, however, naturally 
 almost inaccessible. We suspect that Chamberlain did not 
 get possession of Little Sark, where probably the beacon and 
 cannon were fired ; and it is singular that he did not escape 
 in his boats when he saw the Guernseymen coming. One 
 would almost infer from this that " he had caught a Tartar" 
 instead of a Sarkman, and that the latter would not let him 
 go. Captain Chamberlain, on his arrival in Guernsey, was 
 strictly confined in irons, and Sir George Carteret afterwards 
 tried hard to exchange him for other prisoners, especially for 
 an English captain imprisoned in Castle Cornet ; but the 
 Guernseymen would on no account release him, inasmuch as 
 he was a brave man, and was well acquainted with their 
 island, having been reared among them. He escaped once, 
 and was going to Castle Cornet when he was recaptured, 
 and chained in a cell in the town. At length, after a close 
 confinement of nearly two years and a quarter, a boat came 
 from Cherbourg expressly to aid in his escape ; and, with the 
 assistance of the Norman crew, he made a hole in the wall 
 and filed off his fetters when he got to the boat, and was taken 
 to Cherbourg.* 
 
 The 4th of July, two Guernsey pataches arrived in the 
 neigbourhood of Jersey, one carrying five cannon and the 
 other only one : they captured five boats, of which four were 
 coming from Chausey with vraic ; these four they took to 
 Guernsey, and released the other. 
 
 Sir Peter Osborne to King Charles I. [o] 
 
 ** May it please your most sacred majesty. 
 **I should not assume the boldness to offer this into your royal 
 
 (1) " November 24, l653.— Letters that the French picharoons do much mischief on the 
 coast near Jersey: that Captain Chamberlain, an old pyrate, sent a letter to Colonel 
 Hean, (Haines,) governor of Jersey, that if the Jerseymen would not contribute towards 
 his maintenance, he swore by tiie heavens that he would throw as many of them as he 
 did meet with Into the bottom of the Bea.."—Whitelock'a Memorial*. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 237 
 
 liaiids, had I well known unto whom else to address myself. 
 For this long siege hath kept me, if not wholly ignorant, at least 
 in much uncertainty of English affairs, and who, under your 
 majesty, have the managing of business now. I therefore most 
 hnmbly desire this presumption may by your majesty be thus 
 graciously excused ; the extremities, which I forsee we may 
 shortly be reduced unto, pressing me to give the advertisement in 
 time, lest peradventure the remedy may come too late. For 
 unless we can be furnished with a speedy and complete supply, 
 during this season that makes the road unsafe for ships to lie 
 upon us, hereafter, when they are like to return, it will grow 
 very difficult, if not impossible, to relieve this castle. Whilst I 
 had the ability and credit to subsist, I strove upon my own 
 strength against all necessities, the best I could. But now, 
 unable longer to struggle with them, become too many for me, I 
 am forced to crave assistance that I may uot fail your majesty's 
 expectation for want of succour, which I shall never do for want 
 of truth. Of the importance of this place there will need no 
 other argument than the pursuit of those who, with such expense 
 and diligence, seek to be masters of it. In whose resistance how 
 much I have already endured these twenty months, I willingly 
 am silent in, lest I might seem to complain myself of that which 
 I esteem my honour, and value as a happiness, if, by any 
 sufferings of mine, I may have done your majesty the least 
 service. For my estate in England, it remains either sequestered 
 or disposed away from me; which I mention with no other end 
 but only to make it appear in what need I stand of further help, 
 having nothing left to serve your majesty with, but with uiy life, 
 which likewise upon all occasions I shall, by the grace of God, 
 be most ready to lay down, to approve myself to the last, 
 
 "Your majesty's most humble 
 
 and most loyal subject, 
 "From your majesty's fort, " Peter Osborne. 
 
 Castle Cornet, October 3, 1644." 
 
 Sir Peter Osborne — writes Chevalier in 1644 — who had 
 taken refuge in Castle Cornet, seeing that his victuals were 
 consuming, sent his wife to St. Malo to forward him provi- 
 sions from thence. In this way, much of his money was 
 spent, and he wrote on the subject to the king, who caused 
 supplies to be sent to him, and also requested Captain Carteret 
 to take care that the place was not neglected, his majesty 
 engaging to repay him. In consequence, Captain Carteret 
 sent from time to time a boat w ith provisions, as they were 
 required. He sent his galley also to carry provisions, and to 
 convoy the other boats that went with her. She went twice, 
 and the second time bad a warm engagement with the 
 
238 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Guerseymen, who attempted to intercept her, because a sol- 
 dier had escaped from the castle into Guernsey, where he 
 gave information that the garrison was in great want of 
 provisions, and that, unless some quickly arrived, it must 
 necessarily surrender. A strong force was in consequence 
 placed round the castle, so that the boats dared not approach 
 it. Upon this. Captain Carteret sent his galley the second 
 time, imder Captain Bowden, to carry provisions and to 
 convoy two other boats similarly laden. Three days before 
 they left Jersey, it was known in Guernsey that these boats 
 were coming, and the Guernseymen surrounded the castle 
 with shallops and boats, to prevent its receiving the expected 
 supplies. The galley and one of the boats left Jersey as the 
 night was setting in, and the other boat some time after. As 
 the galley came near the castle, she was perceived by a 
 patache, which fired a gun as a signal, and she and all her 
 companions gave chase. The galley was surrounded on 
 all sides, and a patache came within pistol shot : from her 
 Captain Bowden received a musket ball, which cut the han- 
 dier attached to his shoulder. Being thus pressed, he ordered 
 the helmsman to keep away, so as to bring his gun to bear on 
 the patache ; the gun was loaded with grape shot, and it was 
 discharged across a shallop, when great cries were heard from 
 the enemy, who at once saved themselves, and did not again 
 come to the attack. There were thirty-six men, gallant and 
 well armed, in the galley, and they plied their assailants so 
 well with musketry, that the latter dared not approach too 
 near ; and in spite of the Guernseymen, they reached the 
 castle safe and sound, without one killed or wounded. The 
 boat also arrived two hours after, having encountered or seen 
 nothing. Nevertheless, the two vessels were not out of dan- 
 ger, as the Guernseymen fired upon them from three batteries 
 on shore, and there was only one little creek at the back of 
 the castle, where the guns could not reach them, and into 
 which the two vessels were taken. The galley, after her 
 escape, and while near the castle, received a shot which did 
 some damage, but without injuring any person on board : in 
 the combat she received shots through her sails. 
 
 The second boat, which left Jersey after the galley, could 
 not arrive that night, the tide failing lier ; she was pursued 
 by a patache, and compelled to run for the coast of Nor- 
 mandy, where she remained two or three days on account of 
 contrary winds. The people in the castle thought she was 
 taken, and were astonished one niglU to hear the men call to 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 239 
 
 them, they having experienced no obstacle on their passage, 
 excepting from a shallop at the back of the castle, and which 
 the boat passed before she was perceived. On the shallop's 
 crew seeing her, they weighed anchor and pursued, but it 
 was too late. 
 
 The lieutenant, Russell, finding that the castle was victu- 
 alled, and that there was no remedy, withdrew most of the 
 vessels which blockaded the castle, and even some paliamen- 
 tary ships went to England, for they were at great charges 
 in Guernsey, thinking to starve the garrison. Two parlia- 
 mentary ships and some frigates had passed the summer in 
 protecting the island, and in the endeavour to prevent supplies 
 being conveyed into the castle. But all in vain — the Guern- 
 sey people were extremely harassed, {fatigue) their lieutenant, 
 Russell, having made them great promises, and said that in 
 a short time the castle must surrender if no supplies reached 
 it : the better to encourage them, he promised them a sum of 
 money if they captured the galley, and prevented the convey- 
 ance of provisions to the garrison. In this fond hope they 
 had spent a great deal of money in providing vessels and 
 men, the least of the latter having eight sols a night. If 
 they had succeeded, the garrison would have been in immi- 
 nent danger, as they were at their last biscuit when the 
 galley and boats arrived. However, the castle was victualled 
 towards the end of August, and as winter and bad weather 
 were then approaching, the beleaguering vessels could no 
 longer remain in safety. In consequence, all through the 
 following winter, boats went with the supplies to the castle, 
 and returned as freely, the only vessel which remained at 
 anchor on the bank having at last gone to England and left 
 the passage free. 
 
 A.D. 1645 — In February, an armed patache, with thirteen 
 men belonging to Guernsey, was surprised and taken by two 
 boats sent wi|h soldiers for the purpose from Castle Cornet. 
 This patache anchored constantly at night near the castle, 
 with the design of capturing the boats which brought it pro- 
 visions from Jersey ; and being seen one evening at anchor 
 under Herm, the soldiers went in search of her. When the 
 boy, who alone was keeping watch, perceived them, he called 
 the captain, and he came on deck armed ; but it was too late, 
 as the boats were close alongside. The captain, Joseph, who 
 was an Englishman, and two of his men, fought bravely, 
 wounding two or three of their assailants ; but the captain 
 
240 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 being badly wounded in the arm by a pistol shot, the patache 
 was captured and sent to Jersey. 
 
 On the night of the 3d of May, a boat left Jersey, laden 
 with provisions for Castle Cornet, and was becalmed all that 
 night and the next morning, when, being seen from Guernsey, 
 she was captured by a patache sent for the purpose, and 
 brought into that island. The Guernseymen thereupon made 
 great rejoicings, and fired the guns of the town, batteries, and 
 vessels, merely for the capture of a small boat of six tons and 
 hve men, without any means of defence. This was their first 
 exploit, and their first prize of the boats which carried provi- 
 sions to Castle Cornet. 
 
 The 10th of May, Captain Carteret sent his galley with 
 provisions for Castle Cornet, fearing to send boats, on account 
 of the one which had been captured, as just related. The 
 galley was well manned and armed, because there were two 
 frigates at Guernsey, sent by the parliament, and three shal- 
 lops, all to prevent supplies being conveyed into Castle 
 Cornet. As soon as the galley appeared, these vessels got 
 under sail, and pursued her as a pack of dogs pursue a hare. 
 The shallops came first, thinking to take the galley, and both 
 sides fought bravely, but neither could the shallops take the 
 galley nor prevent her reaching the castle, where she dischar- 
 ged her provisions in safety. She received three or four shots 
 in her sails, and Captain Bowden was slightly burnt in the 
 face by the bursting of a swivel ; but there were none killed or 
 wounded. When she was near the castle, a cannon shot 
 from the shore cut one of her oars in two, upon which Sir 
 Peter Osborne fired seven cannon shot into the town. The 
 next night, the galley left the castle for Jersey, and was 
 pursued by the frigates, which could do nothing, as the 
 galley both rowed and sailed, and went twice as fast as they. 
 Sir P. Osborne prepared ten cannon to fire upon the town, m 
 case the inhabitants fired upon the galley as she left the castle. 
 
 In the years 1644 and 1645, Sir Peter Osborne complained 
 of the conduct of Colonel Carteret,* who at first refused to 
 send him any, or at least sufficient, supplies from Jersey for 
 the use of Castle Comet, without some assurance and bond 
 for the payment ; and these complaints seem to have been 
 the better founded, because the colonel had already com- 
 menced those privateering expeditions against the parlia- 
 mentary merchant shipping, by which he became individually 
 so much enriched ; thus we learn from Chevalier's Chronicle 
 
 (i; The naval captain became a militia colonel during: the civil war. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 241 
 
 that, in one cruise, in 1644, Captain Bowden, who had acted 
 so traitorous a part in Guernsey, brought him some 5,000 
 livres from the sale of his prizes. This backwardness on the 
 part of Colonel Carteret was, however, flatly denied by the 
 king's three commissioners in Jersey, and Chevalier certainly 
 does not confirm it ; but they probably were not aware of a 
 bond being sought from Sir Peter Osborne, who, on the other 
 hand, did not perhaps sufficiently bear in mind that the 
 colonel had not a very large insular revenue wherewith to 
 maintain his own garrisons ; that the boats with provisions 
 ran great risk of being captured ; and, above all, that Jersey 
 did not then produce food enough for its own inhabitants, as 
 during the civil war it was occasionally in a state of famine. 
 Thus it is likely that the altercations were not without faults 
 on both sides ; for if Colonel Carteret were avaricious and 
 calculating. Sir Peter was rendered, by his difficulties and the 
 constant wants of his soldiers, somewhat exacting and queru- 
 lous. A bitter feud was the result, as will be shewn by the 
 next two letters. 
 
 Colonel Carteret to Sir Richard Browne, [o] 
 
 " Havinge lately received and sent away an express to courtt, 
 with letters I then received from my Lord Jermin, adresed unto 
 the Lord Digby, for hasteninge of such orders and directions 
 from his majestic as are requisitt for the preservation of this place 
 in the king's obedience, I hope your honor will pardon rae if I 
 now presume to represent unto you the just apprehension I have 
 of the loss of the castle of Guernzey, which hath hythertoe bene 
 preserved, (through God's blessinge upon ray indeavors,) as may 
 be collected by the probabillities heare insueinge. 
 
 *' Whilste my lady Osborne remained at St. Mallo, she would 
 never be ruled in what concerned the releife of that castle, which 
 made her undertakings in that behalfe to prosper accordingly, 
 they miscarryinge for the most parte. And when she left St. 
 Mallowes to goe to the Par : by whome she is since restoored to 
 her ffbrmer livelyhood, it was not without suspicion that she 
 went to harken to overture for the delivery of the castle into ther 
 hands, sundry messengers havinge past toe and fro betweene her 
 and Sir Peter aboute that time. 
 
 '* Since which noethinge I have done for the succor of that 
 place hath bine aceptable unto him, one while findinge fault with 
 the provisions I send thethier, though the choyce of all I could 
 gett ; another while refusinge those very things for which I was 
 spoken to in his name, as beere, pease, &c. ; and sometimes againe 
 seekinge to tye me to imposibillities with fearefull threats, he 
 breakes up all the vessells I send thethier, and keepes my men to 
 
 R 
 
242 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 serve him against there wills in steed of his owne, which he turnes 
 upon my hand after much sufFring, without money or cloathes : 
 he conceales all his designes and intentions from me, and gives 
 out when he sends any body one way that they are to goe another; 
 wittness his eldest sonne who, being thought to be at Paris, is 
 now discovered to be in England, where if he succeed noe better 
 in his designe then he did the last time, (sic) And now very 
 lately that a small boate laden by him with provisions went at 
 noune day directly to a parliament shipp on purpose to be, as it 
 was, taken. A kinswoman of Sir Peter's (Mrs. Davers^) came 
 hither from him three dayes agone ; I was at the watter side 
 when she landed, to send a boate with provisions for the castle of 
 Guernzey, which she was not willinge should be let goe, (though 
 the wind and tyde served,) till she had spoken with Capt. Darell : 
 she brought me nether letter nor message from Sir Peter, nor 
 tould me any part of her minde, ether for stay heare or departure 
 hence, which made me send soune after to Capt. Darell, desire- 
 inge him the wind was faire, that the shallop she came in might 
 be returned that night with some of the provisions I have heare 
 in readines for that castle, which she had noe souner notice of 
 but she imbarqed her selfe secretly therein for St. Mallo, notwith- 
 standinge there was another vessell bound for that place at the 
 same time, wherein she might have bine well acomidated. I 
 have since heard that she intends thence to take passage for 
 London. I thought it my duety to remonstrate to your honor 
 how necessarrye it is for his majesti's service, that a provisional! 
 order or commission be speedily direct to Captain Nathaniel 
 Darell, lieutenant-governor of Guernzey, or to Mr. Andrewes,* 
 native of the isle, (who hath bine in the castle ever since the 
 rebellion,) athorisinge them to use all possible meanes for the 
 continuance of that place, which is of excedinge great import- 
 ance, in regard of the strength and amunition in it, and the situ- 
 ation of it, in his majesti's obedience. Or els for avoydinge of 
 umbrage, which I alsoe submit to your lord's best judgment, that 
 the said order be conditionall in case it should please God to take 
 away the said Sir Peter, that then Captain Darell should be in- 
 trusted with that place, and Mr. Andrewes, if the said Captain 
 Darell should deceass, and nether of them to leave the castle, but 
 upon very urgent occassions : whensoever you shall be pleased to 
 honor me with your commands, the spedier conveance will b'e 
 by the way of Paris.* 
 
 ** To Sir Richard Browne. 
 
 "Jersey, ffeb. 4th, 1645." 
 
 (1) The name of Danvers appears then to have been sometimes spelt Davers. 
 
 (2) Amias Andres, seignear of Sausmarez Manor, St. Martin's, Guernsey. 
 
 (3) When Mr. Peter Carey was deputed to proceed to London, in 1645, the baillfT and 
 jurats, in their instructions to him, said : " Being in London, pray write to us by way of 
 France, and all other opportunities." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 243 
 
 A copy of this letter was sent to Sir Peter Osborne, pro- 
 bably without the knowledge or sanction of its author, and 
 the following is his indignant and triumphant refutation of 
 the cruel charges and inuendos brought against a gallant 
 man, whose lengthened trials and sufferings ought, one would 
 think, to have shielded him from such imputations ; although 
 it is due to Sir George Carteret to add that his suspicions 
 may have been aroused by the circumstance of Lady Osborne 
 being a sister of Sir John Dan vers, a very influential par- 
 liamentarian. 
 
 Sir Peter Osborne to {ajyparently) Sir Richard Browne, [o] 
 
 At my wive's coming to St. Malo, she was wholy guided by 
 Sir G. Carteret, whome she reposed much confidence in, and so 
 desired to oblige, that she receaved him and his whole family 
 into her house, till by reason of her losses sustayned, and the 
 indirect dealing she found, she was forced to seeke other assis- 
 tance ; being in great danger to have been soone exhausted, and 
 disabled to give us the succour which yet she still got the meanes 
 to do. For when her mony was spent, and plate sold, she made 
 no difficultie among strangers to ingage her self in a great debt 
 for the reliefe of this castle, till her credit at last fayled. In these 
 straights and our great extremity, she had made a shift to send 
 us to Jersey a seasonable releife, where, committed to Sir George's 
 trust, it lay two months, wasted and untransferred, whilst we were 
 starving, brought from little to less, and in conclusion for bread 
 to foure biscuits a man for a weeke ; the rest of our provisions 
 growing no less scant. That where as our number was parted 
 into three devisions, we coulde alowe those only at night a little 
 porrage, that were then to have the watch, the other two devi- 
 sions going without any thing, supperless to bed. Nor could 
 my son Charles, sent thether of purpose to hasten away those her 
 provisions, (none other expected of Sir George,) procure them to 
 be sent before his returne to St. Malo, desirous to have comforted 
 his mother with that good newes. So that, oppressed with trouble 
 and greife, she fell into a desperate sicknes, that her self, and all 
 those about her, feared her life. Of the condition that we were 
 now in, the parliament had from our enemies continuall adver- 
 tisement, and imployde vessell after vessell, with all the shalupes 
 the islanders could set forth, to ly day and night upon us ; and 
 they conceaving it a good tyme agayn to summon me, T receaved 
 a letter to that purpose from the Earle of Warwicke in very fayre 
 termes, to which I lykewise made a civill answere ; but such as 
 was agreeable with my allegeance to his majestic, and that left 
 him hopeles of working any change in me. I have both the 
 letters to produce when tyme serves. In the middst of these 
 
244 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 distractions and miseries, my wife sick, without monye, frends, 
 and hope, was driven to embarke her self for England in a ship 
 of Holland, so far from recovery that she scarce felt the amend- 
 ment of two dayes. Nor could that, her compelled departure, 
 give suspicion of her going to harken to overtures for the surrender 
 of the castle, which she with so much carefulnes, and expense to 
 the uttermost of her meanes and credit, had so long preserved, 
 and who had one of her sonns then at Bristoll in his majestie's 
 service, and at her going away furnished an other ^ whome she 
 also sent to the king: her eldest being left with me to runn the 
 bassard of my fortunes, lyke to be ill enough. And though I 
 doubt not but this will appeare sufficient to wash off these mali- 
 ciously invented slanders, my holding of this castle ever synce, 
 now ten months more, with much sufferings and extremity, and 
 without all taynt of disloyaltie, that must needes in this tyme 
 have broken out, will shewe the clearness of my innocence, and 
 the impudence of his untruthes. 
 
 " Synce her going, Sir George hath from tyme to tyme deluded 
 us with promises, and hassarded us with delayes, that I have 
 beene constrayned to send boate upon boate, till left at last with 
 out any to send upon what urgent necessity so ever, so that we 
 wanted men to performe the duty of our watches. And when at 
 length he thought good to supply us with something, it was 
 allwayse with a scarce hand, nothing answerable to our wantes, 
 and the charge of our men that lay there, and who could not be 
 dispatched, that the reckonings he makes in his bills ariseth to a 
 strange proportion in extraordinaries to his majestie's great charge ; 
 and yet this his castle unsupplyed, we having for this twelve 
 month, and above, never been able to allow our souldiers more 
 than one biscuit a day, and a little porrage for theyre supper; 
 and have beene forced for necessity to use the stuff sent us to 
 make candles, and to dress our boates, to frye the poore John,* 
 limpits, and herbes we eate in the best mess, though we concealed 
 it from them, and made no complaint, and lived thus about three 
 weekes. The provisions, though ill conditioned, carry the prices 
 of the best, yet have I not returned back any thing he sent, how 
 faultie so ever. In so much that, secure of that, he hath not for- 
 borne to put againe upon us the sortes we have found fault with, to 
 vent and issue out to us, what he could not else tell how to dispose 
 of. Nether Captain Darell nor any of myne admitted to see the 
 choosing, putting up, number or weight, of what he sent, he still 
 saying * cross me not,' * let rae alone,' and much displeased if 
 any sought to looke into it. 
 
 " His next charge is, that with fearfull threates I seeke to tye 
 
 (1) In a marginal note, and in a different hand, is the following: " This son n hath 
 synce beene killed in this service." His christian name was Cliarles. 
 
 (2) " Poor John," hake dried and salted, a corruption of pauirre gem, the French term 
 for this fish.— (JIfo/one.) When Jersey surrendered to Blake, sixty thousand weight of 
 " Poor John " were among the stores of Elizabeth CasUe. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 245 
 
 him to impossibilityes. I knowe not what may appeare fearfull 
 to his apprehension. If he can make proofe of these menaces 
 by my letters, I shall be much ashamed of my folly. Nor do I 
 seeke impossibilityes, credibly informed that many in Jersey 
 have contributed greate sumes for this place by expres name, 
 though theyre service and merit be concealed, and the monye 
 converted to other uses.^ 
 
 " For the breaking up of all the vessells he sends, he knowes 
 very well, from the report and viewe of his owne people, that I 
 never brake up any, but such as his and our enimies shot, and 
 foule wether made utterly unserviceable. But if it had been so 
 as he wonld have had it understood, as done of purpose, our 
 extreme want of firing would have excused me, and cast the 
 blame upon him, that was continually informed of it, and yet 
 nether sent us coale, having plenty, nor that which was our owne, 
 which he kept a twelve moneth, while we were forced to pull 
 downe all that was combustible about our houses, to burne our 
 timber, which I now much want, and at last, which I was ex- 
 ceedingly troubled to be reduced to do, to burne our carriages 
 for our ordnance that were good and serviceable, and our tables 
 and our dores, &c. 
 
 ** Whereas he sayth I turn my soldiers upon him with out 
 monye or cloathes. I part with none willingly, but onely such 
 as, with our hard diet being sick, would have perished heere. 
 And I hope it will be held reasonable that I should ridd myself 
 of the sick for our owne safety and theyre preservation. And 
 lykewise, that all places under his majestie's obedience should be 
 open to receave and releive such as have undergone so much, of 
 whose miserable sufferings I need no witness, having the testi- 
 mony of my accuser, though he sayth it to make me seeme the 
 more uncharitable to send them without monye and cloathes, that 
 have nether to give them, and he well knowes it. 
 
 " The rest of his charges are so frivolous that I conceave them 
 unworthy the replying to, as namely, that in so great necessity I 
 should be consenting to the yeelding up of a good shalupe to our 
 enimies (and no small boate as is pretended) laden with provisions 
 that we stood in neede of, and were hardly gotten for us by my 
 Sonne, together with the loss of a surgeon that had already 
 receaved a good part of his wages, and whome I much solicited 
 for, to quit me of one that I had then in mistrust, loosing with 
 all divers provisions bespoken for my owne particular and health, 
 which I can not looke to have procured for me agayne. A sub- 
 tilty that my greate wantes, emptie purse, and distance from 
 frends, was not lyke to permit to come into my imagination, 
 
 (1) In a letter dated Jersey, 6th June, l645, Thomas Wright, who was one of the defen- 
 ders of Castle Cornet, informed Sir Peter Osborne that a private collection of upwards of 
 j^'SOO had been made in Jersey for Castle Cornet, but that Sir George Carteret said the 
 money was given for the relief of his castles. 
 
246 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 much less to suffer me to put in execution that curious invention. 
 As lykewise, that my sonn, charged to be guilty of all this, is not 
 sent to Paris as was thought, and where he might be safe, but by 
 Sir George's industry discovered to be in England, the same 
 whome I now send with this my answere. 
 
 " I come now to the last charge, being agjaine brought to the 
 uttermost, not above a fortnight's bread left, and dispayring of 
 supply from Sir George, I was driven to seeke all shifts to 
 help my self, and therefore sent Mrs. Davers, my wives kins- 
 woman, (that hath had her part in all our miseries,) to St. Malo, 
 with my apparell and some trunks of linnen left in her custody, 
 to make tryall what she could instantly get in provisions for us 
 upon that pawne or sale ; which busines she so well despatched 
 that in sixe days she came back to Jersey, in theyre viewe chased 
 by a pyrate, and narrowly escaping by running with great dan- 
 ger among the rocks. Yet, at her comming away the next day, 
 she could not obtayne of Sir George one seaman of his (for she 
 requested no more) the better to man her boate, in case she met 
 with the same man of warr or any other, whereof those parts 
 were then full. The hassard of the loss of our provisions and the 
 best shalupe I had, and which then brought me the greatest 
 supply that I ever receaved in such a boate, nothing at all 
 moving him, nor the danger and entreaty of a gentlewoman, nor 
 the aspersions cast upon her (convinced of untruthe by her re- 
 turne) working any remorce in him by way of compensation, to 
 have afforded her that small courtesye. 
 
 ** In conclusion, touching the advice he gives for the preven- 
 tion of my supposed disloyaltie, so certayne in his apprehension, 
 that one of those courses must instantly be taken. If his majestic 
 can be brought to have my truth in jealously, after so long proofs 
 of it, I silently, with all obedience, submit to his royall plea- 
 sure, though most loath, I must confes, to have such a marke 
 of his disfavour and diffidence stampt upon me, as may in sorrowe 
 close up those dayes which, in these long and many sufferings, 
 I had the comfort and hope should have found a joyfull end in 
 his service. 
 
 ** Castle Cornet, June the 18th, 1645." 
 
 The two preceding letters are literal transcripts of the 
 copy, with the exception that the abbreviated words, cus- 
 tomary at that period, are mostly given at length, for the 
 greater convenience of the unpractised reader in old writing. 
 To the simple and touching appeal of Sir Peter Osborne, it is 
 due to him to add here, in further refutation of these unme- 
 rited suspicions against his honor and fidehty, that on the 
 31st of December, 1645, Lord Warwick again wrote to him 
 from London, exhorting the injured cavalier to deliver up the 
 castle, and assuring him that, if he would submit to the par- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 247 
 
 liament, he should have all his estate and exchequer place 
 restored. Moreover, his letters to Amias Andros, which are 
 given in the " Chronicles of Castle Cornet," and vt^hich vrere 
 written in all the confidence of friendship, without a suspicion 
 of the charges which Sir George Carteret a few months sub- 
 sequently brought against him, assuredly afford no proof that 
 the author was plotting with his wife for the surrender of the 
 castle, although the difficulty he experienced in obtaining 
 provisions and fuel, the latter especially, — the king being 
 unable to assist him on account of his own necessities, — and 
 the constant straits to which he was reduced, would almost 
 have excused his going over to the parliament. Prince 
 Charles appears to have been so convinced of his innocence, 
 that he wrote to Sir George Carteret from Liscard, on the 
 21st of July, 1645 — we are particular throughout in giving 
 dates, as they are the landmarks of history^ — and com- 
 manded him to send supplies to Sir Peter Osborne, that were 
 intended for Castle Cornet, immediately away, and to give 
 him all other assistance. 
 
 The following copy of a letter was found among the papers 
 of Sir Peter Osborne ; it is not addressed, but, from the con- 
 text, it was evidently intended for Sir George Carteret, and 
 dispatched before any knowledge of the complaints which the 
 latter had made against him to Sir Richard Browne. We 
 give the exact orthography of the copy : 
 
 " Sr — The feare you have least the king's service heere may 
 suffer by delayes, is a consideration so noble, that I am now most 
 glad to see you take it into your thoughts ; it being a mischeeffe 
 and disease we have beene long, long sick of, and miserably have 
 languished under. But for the better advancement of his ma-tis 
 (majesty's) service, I wish yt, (that) to have made this supplye 
 more compleate, you had not omitted in some proportion the 
 most necessarye, which is biscuit ; for, with that and water, we 
 could yet make a shift to live : not to intertayne our ly ves for 
 any self respects, but onely in this important place to serve the 
 king with them, which els, the greate and tedious sufferings in 
 all manner of extremityes that we have, these two yeares and 
 above, endured, would long agoe have made us weary of, and 
 willing to have changed for a quiet grave. Whether it be our 
 fortunes to be kept in a still consuming state, or to be preserved 
 and saved, we shall soone fynde by the course taken for us here- 
 after, and in the meane tyme will not fayle with patience and 
 fidelity to performe our dutyes. 
 
 " May ye 11, 1645. "Your hble. servant. 
 
 (1) In consulting Clarendon and later historians, we have experienced great diflSculty 
 in ascertaining the periods of the occurrences which they narrate. 
 
248 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 " I heare you have taken a vessel! fraught with good Newcastle 
 coale, whereof we stand in great want, and desire we may be 
 furnished out of that, and not from the remaynder of your former 
 prise, good for little or nothing. 
 
 " I referr the reward of these men to yo-self, (yourself,) who 
 best know how to please them : and having no experience, am 
 loath to make ignorantly bargaynes for the king." 
 
 We learn by a letter from Mr. Peter Carey, dated June 2, 
 1645, " that there are eight or ten ships and pataches, which 
 do not move out of the road, being appointed for the conser- 
 vation of the isle." 
 
 In September, 1645, the ship HoUandia, of Flushing, of 
 400 tons, and carrying thirty soldiers, (? seamen,) anchored 
 in Guernsey roadstead, windbound from St. Malo. The 
 master declared on oath, before the lieutenant-governor, that 
 he had been informed at St. Malo, that the royalist fleet, with 
 partly French soldiers on board, was to attack the island, 
 which, when reduced, would afford shelter to the king's ves- 
 sels ; and that, as it was midway between the coasts of 
 England and Britany, the royal cruisers could avail them- 
 selves of every opportunity to put to sea, and capture the 
 parliamentary ships, having a safe retreat in case of pursuit. 
 This intelligence created great consternation among the au- 
 thorities, who immediately deputed Mr. Peter Carey, the gen- 
 tleman already named as having escaped from Castle Cornet, 
 to proceed to London for assistance to repel the meditated 
 attack, and to urge the necessity of a squadron being sent to 
 Guernsey. Mr. Carey sailed with a contrary wind on board 
 a galley, commanded by Captain Williams, and arrived at 
 Portsmouth on September 19th : quickly mounting on horse- 
 back, the usual mode of travelling in those days, he reached 
 London late in the evening of the 20th. There, Lord War- 
 wick presented him and his credentials to the committee of 
 parliament, which resolved to reappoint his lordship governor 
 of Guernsey and Jersey for another year, and gave Mr. 
 Carey a letter to the vice-admiral, desiring him to furnish the 
 vessels prayed for, to the extent of his ability. They further 
 empowered Mr. Carey to require two hundred muskets for 
 the use of the island. Lord Warwick also gave him a letter 
 to the vice-admiral, in which, after mentioning that the house 
 of peers had ordered that a convenient number of ships 
 should be sent for the defence of Guernsey, he said, " to 
 which I shall only add my particular desire that, from time 
 to time, as there shall be occasion, you will be careful of that 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 249 
 
 island, the preservation of it in the parliament's power being 
 of much importance. For this end, you will spare as many- 
 vessels as you can conveniently, until the danger lately re- 
 presented be over, for which end I also hope to obtain an 
 order for land soldiers to be sent from hence." Mr. Carey, 
 who displayed great activity and zeal in the important trust 
 confided to him, left the metropolis on the 2d of October, by 
 water, for Gravesend. Landing there, he instantly started 
 for Canterbury, where he slept that night. Early on the 
 following morning, he reached Dover Castle, where the vice- 
 admiral was residing, and to whom he presented his letters. 
 After a conference of two hours, that ofiicer granted him 
 seven vessels, which number Mr. Carey declared to be indis- 
 pensable ; and, at once embarking on board the Nicodemus, 
 she sailed for Portsmouth to procure a pilot, which port she 
 reached on the 4th of October. The squadron set sail that 
 evening, and arrived in Guernsey on the following day. 
 With the exception of the Nicodemus, the squadron remained 
 until the plan of the royalist marine was rendered abortive, 
 and the danger had passed away ; but it is surprising that, if 
 the crews were not strong enough to attack Castle Cornet, 
 they did not succeed in intercepting every supply for the 
 garrison, as, according to Chevalier, (post,) the vessels re- 
 mained at anchor on the bank part of the winter. In the 
 instructions given to Mr. Peter Carey for his guidance in the 
 mission just mentioned, was the following : 
 
 " 3. — That the parliament will order what shall be done of the 
 prisoners, who are detained in the helfrey,^ either to be sent over, 
 or released upon caution. Many of them have not been the chief 
 actors in the late commotions,^ as you may represent, but are 
 silly fellows, who have great families." 
 
 In the following letter. Sir Peter Osborne gives a simple 
 but touching description of the disinterested sufferings and 
 losses which he and his family had sustained in the royal 
 cause, and he very justly complains of the underhand treat- 
 ment which he had experienced in Jersey, where his soldiers 
 appear to have been instigated to bring frivolous accusations 
 against him : 
 
 Sir Peter Osborne to the King^s Commissioners, in Jersey, [o] 
 
 " Noble gentlemen and my honorable friends, — I present you 
 with my most humble thanks for what you have already so 
 
 (1) The belfrey was a building in the churchyard of St. Peter-Port, commonly called 
 " Le Cimeti^re des Soeurs." 
 
 (2) We are not quite sure whether the date of Mr. Peter Carey's letter, February, 1644, 
 was not that of the civil year, in which case the mutiny mentioned ante in this chapter 
 occurred in l645. 
 
250 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 carefully done, and what you have been pleased to oblige your- 
 selves unto for the time hereafter. But I beseech you withal to 
 consider whether our state can abide long delays, that it may not 
 languish under promises; your solicitation of the lieutenant- 
 governor ' is principally needful, this place depending immedi- 
 ately upon his hand and will, who hath it in his power to expose 
 us to hazard, whereby, if misfortune befall us, some blame may 
 peradventure happen to reflect upon those that may not be faulty 
 neither. 
 
 " Whereas you have been let to understand that we are fur- 
 nished with arms more than our present use requires : the truth 
 is, that our store is no more than enough, having no smith able 
 to mend those out of order by casualty and negligence of soldiers, 
 nor stocks to supply when any are broken. I beseech you there- 
 fore, to excuse me if I dare not part with any, after so much 
 waste, and whilst we remain in the same dangers, though most 
 desirous to gratify yon therein. I could spare you a few corse- 
 lets,^ if they may do you service. But our pikes are too heavy, 
 useful upon a wall only, and we may have employment for them 
 ourselves. 
 
 *' And now, I pray, give me leave, for his majesty's service to 
 add a few lines, briefly to complain myself without your offence. 
 The power and extent of your commission, understood amiss by 
 my company, hath produced dangerous effects, and heartened 
 them in much disobedience, possessed with an opinion that you 
 have authority to command and dispose of this place and of me 
 as you please. By your letter, you seem to assume no such 
 thing, but to disclaim it rather. I therefore entreat you to 
 declare yourselves in that particular to my soldiers there, that 
 unawares you be not made authors of the mischief that may 
 chance unhappily to come upon it. 
 
 " Disorders in some of them are grown so high, that guilt 
 being never void of fear, they have framed articles against me, 
 addressed, as I hear, to Sir George and to you, seeking their 
 security in the change of their commander, which, as I am like- 
 wise informed, are both received and sent for England. My 
 case is most hard, after such trials and proofs of my truth without 
 all exception, that soldiers and mean persons should be heard 
 against me, their governor, of whom should be always presumed 
 the best, and my accusers at least with sharpness rebuked, if not 
 punished. It is not possible, in so long and hard extremities of a 
 three years' siege to keep men without discontents, that have 
 neither clothes, nor pay, nor meat, — drinking water, with but one 
 meal a day, I wanting the means to give them better allowance, 
 and to make our provisions last the longer to hold out this place. 
 
 (1) sir George Carteret. 
 
 (2) Corselet, a light armour for the fore part of the body. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 251 
 
 What they have endured I could not remedy, and have myself 
 suffered the same as well as they, and beyond the example of any, 
 during these troubles, which I may the rather presume to say 
 that I speak it of miseries, and to justify my actions only, and 
 not to boast. But I have the innocence that gives me peace and 
 assurance to despise these calumnies, having my confidence pla- 
 ced in God and the king, whom I have truly served, without 
 consiileration of the ruin of myself, my wife, my children, and 
 my house ; of whose princely goodness I nothing doubt, nor he 
 (I hope) of my integrity. Put upon the necessity of his majesty's 
 service to write you this, let it not, I beseech you, incense nor 
 bring me into displeasure with you, or diminish your care of the 
 safe transportation of our relief, nor retard your dispatch. The 
 specious pretences of my accusers, to continue in their duty to the 
 king, are not to be believed, disproved with their demeanour 
 toward me, by his majesty's authority, in command over them. 
 For my desires, be pleased to permit that I refer you to Captain 
 Darell, who hath order to wait on you with my important re- 
 quests; and accept, I pray, the tender of my humble service, 
 most respectfully presented by 
 
 " Your most humble servant, 
 " Castle Cornet, Oct. 30, 1645." " P. O. 
 
 This being the season, says Chevalier, in vrhich Captain 
 Carteret was accustomed to victual Castle Cornet, he did his 
 best to supply it, and sent three boats laden with provisions, 
 which left together. The smallest arrived safely, another 
 was driven away to the coast of Normandy, and the third 
 returned to Jersey on account of contrary winds, and because 
 her provisions were wet. Afterwards, boats were prevented 
 for a long time going to the castle by contrary winds, and in 
 the meanwhile there arrived at Guernsey seven parliamentary 
 frigates, which anchored on the bank near the castle, and 
 remained there part of the winter, coming occasionally near 
 Jersey, and convoying the vessels which traded between 
 England and St. Malo ; they were also intended to protect 
 Guernsey, and to prevent Castle Cornet being victualled. 
 
 On the 22d of December, Captain Carteret sent two boats 
 laden with provisions for Castle Cornet, which left on Monday 
 evening, and arrived safely the same night : having discharged 
 their provisions, they started before daylight to return to 
 Jersey, and arrived the following day, bringing with them 
 Monsieur de Saumares (Andros) and one of the castle gun- 
 ners, who came to see their wives, who were in Jersey. Two 
 days before the departure of these boats, Captain Carteret 
 had sent another boat, of the burden of nine or ten tons, laden 
 
252 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 with supplies for the said castle, viz. coal, cider, wine, bread, 
 pork, pease, turkeys and other poultry, codfish, mutton, and 
 the meat of a fat ox, which (Captain Carteret sent to Sir Peter 
 and the garrison, for their Christmas. When this boat was 
 near the castle, her crew perceived seven or eight vessels at 
 anchor also near it, and supposing them to be parliamentary 
 vessels, they were seized with fright and returned to Jersey ; 
 but these vessels were Dutch, homeward-bound, which had 
 there anchored to await a fair wind. The boat, however, 
 arrived safely at the castle on the 3d of January, and dis- 
 charged her lading in open day, before the castle gate. Sir 
 Peter walked outside near those who were unloading the 
 coal, and a great many persons were on the pier of Guernsey 
 observing them, but they did or said nothing. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CHARLES I.— 1625 to 1649. (Continued.) 
 
 A.D. 1646. — On the 15th of January, writes Chevalier, Sir 
 Peter Osborne's chaplain arrived in Jersey, to inform Captain 
 Carteret tliat he had received a summons from the earl of 
 Warwick, whose messenger was a Jerseyman, by name Charles 
 Marret, one of those whom the commissioners had adjudged 
 to death because he was king's receiver under Major Lydcott, 
 and also for having been in arms against the king's party in 
 Jersey. Having arrived in Guernsey to accomplish his 
 mission, Marret went half way to the castle in a little boat 
 bearing a white flag, when Sir Peter sent his boat to meet 
 her, and the messenger delivered his letters. He had brought 
 two bottles of wine with him, one Spanish, the other claret, to 
 give to those who came to fetch his letters, which they drank 
 to the health of the king and the parliament, and that of each 
 other. . The bottles bemg empty, the castle men went back 
 to fill them with the same kind of wine, to shew that they had 
 also Spanish wine and claret, and they returned to drink to 
 the health of each other as before, while Sir Peter read his 
 letters. After he had read and considered them, the messen- 
 
 fer was informed that he would shortly send his answer. Sir 
 *eter then assembled the entire garrison, officers and soldiers, 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 253 
 
 and informed them that he was summoned to surrender the 
 castle, and to deUver the keys to Lieut.-Governor Russell ; 
 that he was asked to go to London, where he would be 
 received by the parliament and replaced in possession of his 
 estate in England ; and that the said officers and soldiers 
 were to receive their pay, past and present, with other similar 
 advantages promised in the letters, to induce the garrison to 
 render the place. After having read these letters and deli- 
 berated together, Sir Peter inquired of his lieutenant, captains 
 and soldiers, if they were still determined to stand by him 
 and support him in holding the castle for the king : the 
 greater part answered that they were so resolved, and to shed 
 their last blood for that purpose. Some of the soldiers, who 
 were tired of so long a detention, without being able to move 
 out, would have wiUingly consented to the surrender, seeing 
 that they were promised their pay ; but the greater part were 
 resolved, with Sir Peter, not to yield either to gifts or to 
 promises. Sir Peter sent a copy of his letter to Captain Car- 
 teret, requesting him in all haste to victual the castle for a 
 year, and to send him some fresh soldiers, as also two of his 
 gunners, who were then in Jersey to see their wives. Captain 
 Carteret dispatched promptly boat after boat, with supplies 
 and fresh men, who left on the 25th of January. In one of 
 the boats, which left eight or nine days after. Monsieur de 
 Saumares, (Andros,) of Guernsey, returned to Castle Cornet, 
 for he adhered strongly to the king ; he was in Jersey when 
 Sir Peter was summoned. The boats all arrived safely, and 
 returned on the 8th of February. And on the 12th, Captain 
 Carteret sent two more boats with provisions from St. John's, 
 which went and came back in safety. Sir Peter Osborne 
 wrote to Milord Warwick, and sent his letter by the same 
 messenger, who was in Guernsey awaiting it. 
 
 On the 25th of February, Captain Carteret sent a boat of 
 five tons burden with supplies to Castle Cornet. The Guern- 
 seymen did not prevent 'the boats from thus going and return- 
 ing, and there was only a small parliamentary frigate of six 
 guns for the protection of their island. The preceding sum- 
 mer they had repaired their houses, which Sir Peter had 
 previously battered and injured with cannon shot, and which 
 they were now again inhabiting. The fear of being can- 
 nonaded from the castle prevented their offering any obstruc- 
 tion to the provision boats, and having only a smalf frigate of 
 six guns to defend them, they were humbled during the last 
 two or three months of the winter. 
 
254 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 On the 19th of March, Sir George Carteret sent a boat 
 with provisions to Castle Cornet ; she was only of the burden 
 of three tons, and was six weeks on passage, on account of 
 contrary winds. She arrived one Thursday, during the night, 
 when the provisions were discharged. The next morning, 
 the Guernseymen, seeing this boat, with another which had 
 also come with provisions, before the castle gate, fired cannon 
 both on them and on the castle ; and the boats, being pierced, 
 were compelled to retire to the back of the castle, out of the 
 fire of the battery ; but they were able to return to Jersey at 
 the end of two days. The whole of Friday, the 20th of 
 March, the land batteries did not cease firing on the boats 
 and castle, and the interior of the latter was greatly damaged, 
 the roofs of the houses and part of the ramparts being injured, 
 and chimnies knocked down ; but the garrison had none 
 killed or wounded. The Guernseymen did this previously to 
 attempting the castle by assault, for they published through 
 the town that the inhabitants of the houses within reach of 
 the castle should leave them and retire to Fountain street, 
 which was out of the reach of the cannon. All the winter 
 they had allowed the boats with provisions to discharge before 
 the castle gate, without hindrance ; and whether they had 
 orders from the parliament of England to act thus, or whe- 
 ther they had been reprimanded for allowing the castle to be 
 victualled or otherwise, it was not known. 
 
 To return to Sir Peter Osborne, who was in the castle and 
 heard the balls whistle past his ears. When he saw that the 
 Guernseymen were not content with firing on the boats, but 
 that they attacked him also, he allowed them to go on for a 
 little time, and then, as if awaking suddenly, he paid them off 
 in their own coin with several discharges of cannon on the 
 town, in which there were balls of 36 lb. each. These dis- 
 charges did great damage to the inhabitants, by the injuries 
 which their houses sustained, the more so as the preceding 
 summer they had repaired the damages which Sir Peter had 
 done them at the beginning of the troubles, by firing above a 
 thousand cannon shot upon the town. This time the castle 
 fired seventy-eight cannon shot upon the town, as was re- 
 ported by the Jersey boats' crews then in Guernsey. And 
 the land batteries then fired double that number on the castle 
 and on the boats. 
 
 Sir Thomas Fanshawe to Sir Peter Osborne, [o] 
 ** Sir, — I am commanded by the prince to come to this place, 
 and by the help of Sir George Carteret to convey unto you such 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 255 
 
 provisions as might for the present be gotten. I came by the 
 way of St. Malo, where I fortunately met with Mrs. Danvers, 
 who told me what you had most need of in the castle, which I 
 have provided, (being six months'* victuals,) by the hands of such 
 as have been your agents upon the like occasion heretofore. I 
 am likewise commanded personally to attend you with a letter 
 from his highness, a copy of which I have sent you ; but finding 
 the passage to be at the worst, this time of moonshine and so dead 
 a calm, I have deferred my journey till a darker time ; but that 
 no time might be lost because the year grows high, I have thought 
 fit with the soonest to give you an account of what T have to say. 
 His highness, that your good service and his majesty's affairs 
 might not be neglected, has sent me hither to look after fit sup- 
 plies of all kinds, which you shall stand in need of, and that shall 
 be in his power to give you, upon my solicitation on your behalf, 
 which I shall very much rejoice to do. But with all, he endea- 
 vours the speedy reducing of Guernsey. Now, I am to ask you 
 from him what you can advise towards the efiecting of this. I 
 am likewise, upon his highness' commands, to tell you what dis- 
 course I have had with Sir George Carteret concerning the same, 
 who propounds two ways, either by a considerable force of ships 
 and men, if he can get them, to invade the island, or else to come 
 with a lesser number and surprise the town, where he believes to 
 be the persons of the best and most men of quality in that island, 
 upon which he conceives the whole island will yield. To accom- 
 plish either of which he must enter by the castle, and if there be 
 occasion, upon any blow received, he may secure the remainder 
 of his forces there, without which, he says, he cannot possibly 
 undertake the work. It is true there is this open objection against 
 it, that such forces as shall so come in will be able to master the 
 castle if they be so disposed, so as you shall not be assured to 
 give that account of your command and trust which his majesty 
 hath imposed in you. Against this I can say no more, but that 
 if his highness shall command (notwithstanding this objection) 
 any of these proceedings, it may be you may think fit to allow it 
 as a discharge of that obligation. I do clearly and candidly deal 
 with you. I do not know of any such resolution in the prince to 
 do this ; but do believe it is possible this may prove to be the 
 case. Sir George Carteret does seriously and solemnly profess 
 (and I have reason to believe him) that he will cordially join 
 with you in all things which shall be most for the advance of his 
 majesty's service in that island ; and, sir, upon so long an under- 
 standing of you as I have had, I can assure myself of all that can 
 be done by you towards that end. Sir, I shall desire your parti- 
 cular answer to this letter, with any thing more which shall best 
 conduce to the taking of Guernsey, and that you would inform 
 me how and when I may be likely to have the best passage to 
 
256 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 wait upon you, being to return, if it please you, speedily back 
 again. Sir, I am extremely sensible of the great suffering which 
 you have had. I have sent word from St. Malo to his highness, 
 how you were lately summoned from my lord of WarwicR, and 
 your answer to it, which I know will be welcome to him. Hav- 
 ing no more to trouble you with at this time, I rest, sir, 
 
 "Your very affectionate friend to serve you. 
 ** Thos. Fanshawe. 
 " Jersey, 25th [? March] 1646. 
 
 ** Sir, I have sent you a letter from your eldest son, whom I 
 left well at Falmouth. 
 
 " Sir, — Captain Darell being very desirous to go to you, I 
 have desired [him] to stay for the speedy conveyance of those 
 provisions which are coming from St. Malo to you ; when that is 
 done, he will be with you, or sooner, if you will command him 
 away." 
 
 On the 2d of April, as we learn from (chevalier, Sir Thomas 
 Fanshawe left Jersey in the night for Castle Cornet, in a 
 shallop commanded by Captain Bowden, being sent by the 
 Prince of Wales to reconcile the differences between Sir Peter 
 Osborne and Sir George Carteret. Sir Thomas was a knight 
 of the Bath, bearing the red ribbon, and he had a brother 
 who was secretary to the Prince of Wales. 
 
 On their arrival at the castle, they found the garrison in a 
 state of mutiny, and Sir Peter shut up in his house with two 
 pieces of cannon pointed against the door, to prevent his 
 leaving the house, and the porter of the castle a prisoner. 
 The cause was, that Sir Peter had struck the gunner and 
 others with the flat of his sword ; and notwithstanding that 
 the skin was not cut, they were greatly irritated, as they 
 would not submit to correction, saying that they all suffered 
 for the same cause and in the same quarrel. Sir Thomas 
 was much astonished, and reproved them prudently, shewing 
 them mildly that they were guilty of a great fault, seeing the 
 importance of the fortress which they held for the king, and 
 which might have been lost, had they been attacked while 
 thus divided. He thus brought them to reason, and re-united 
 them in concord, telling them in an amiable and familiar 
 manner that he was sent by the prince to thank them for 
 their good and faithful service to the king. Sir Thomas re- 
 mained six days at the castle, and he promised Sir Peter that 
 provisions should be sent to him, as also wine for himself and 
 his friends, as their only beverage was water. After many 
 conferences. Sir Peter told Sir Ihomas that he was resolved 
 to keep the castle for his majesty with his last breath, and all 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 257 
 
 the garrison said the same. Sir Thomas, seeing this resolu- 
 tion, begged of them to live in amity with each other ; he 
 then took his leave of Sir Peter and of every one individually, 
 and returned safely to Jersey, having, both in going and re- 
 turning, passed close to the parliament ships, which were at 
 anchor near the castle, the crews of which either did not, or 
 pretended not to, see the shallop. 
 
 Early in 1646, Sir Ralph (created Lord) Hopton, while 
 commanding the king's army in the west, was driven into 
 Cornwall, when the consternation of the royalists was such 
 that, in March, the Prince of Wales passed from Pendennis 
 castle, near Falmouth, with his council, including Sir Edward 
 Hyde and Lord Colepepper, to the isles of Scilly ; but, not 
 being considered safe there, he embarked on the 16th of 
 April for Jersey, where he landed on the following day with 
 his suite. ^ The prince had not quite completed his sixteenth 
 year, and was therefore the more easily influenced by Sir 
 George Carteret, who seems again to have urged the removal 
 of Sir Peter Osborne from his government, as Sir Peter 
 arrived in Jersey on the 29th of May, having transferred his 
 command to Sir Baldwin Wake, and bid a final adieu to the 
 castle, in which he had been besieged about three years and a 
 quarter, and after having been the resident lieutenant-gover- 
 nor and governor of Guernsey twenty-five years. It must 
 have been, however, some consolation to this devoted royahst, 
 under his present ill-treatment, to remember, that, fifteen 
 months before, he had received a letter from king Charles, 
 dated Oxford, January 23, 1645, in which that sovereign, 
 under his own sign manual, graciously acknowledged his 
 " eminent deservings ; " and, moreover, that Sir Edward , 
 Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon, had written to him from 
 Pendennis castle, on February 13, 1646, that they had the 
 castle much at heart, and were thoroughly satisfied with his 
 services. He was indeed the inspiration and the mainstay of 
 this protracted defence, and, having set the example, it was 
 followed by his successors. On the 16th of June, 1646, 
 prince Charles also signed a document on parchment, declar- 
 ing that he approved of his conduct, both in defending Castle 
 Cornet and in resigning his government to accommodate the 
 king's affairs ; in other words, to gratify Sir George Carteret, 
 who in Jersey was too powerful and too useful to be denied 
 any favor. The prince, moreover, promised to reward him 
 
 (1) Including Lord Hopton, who, after disbanding his troops in pursuance of a capitula- 
 tion, joined the Prince of Wales in Scilly, and accompanied him to Jersey. 
 
 S 
 
258 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 at a convenient season ; but, as he died before the restoration, 
 the only recompense awarded to his family for his distin- 
 guished services appears to have been the grant of a baro- 
 netcy to his son. His intercourse in Jersey with Sir George 
 Carteret could not have been agreeable to either ; and after a 
 residence of about ten weeks in that island, he retired to St. 
 Malo, where he was residing three years later, (1649,) still 
 exerting himself in the royal cause. At the close of that 
 year, we lose all trace or mention of Sir Peter Osborne, as 
 the transient remembrance and ungrateful requital of his ser- 
 vices — the separation from his wife and children — and his 
 daily increasing necessities appear to have combined to induce 
 him to proceed to England, to enter into some composition 
 for the remainder of his estate. In parting with this noble 
 cavalier, we feel as if taking leave of an old friend, and cannot 
 but regret that he did not survive to enjoy in his own person 
 the fruits of his loyalty, always supposing they had been such 
 as would have consoled him for his constancy and sufferings. 
 It is very singular that no mention is made of him by Lord 
 Clarendon in his history. That in public life he was an able 
 man, is proved by his correspondence. We have no means 
 of ascertaining his private character, but his grateful and 
 generous feeling is well exemplified in the following letter to 
 the wife of his friend, Amias Andros : 
 
 ** Good Mrs. Samares, — Your welcome letter is come safely to 
 my hands, whereby I understand )^our happie arrival into these 
 parts, escaped from the ill usage of your enemies. The comfort 
 you have given me by the short account you have made of my 
 wife and poore family, I humbly thank you for, of whose state I 
 have remayned long doubtful. That great God, who keepeth us 
 both, is able with his blessing to make a little enough. Amongst 
 your kindred in Jersey, I can not doubt but you will find assis- 
 tance and courtesey. Yet least your virtuous constancie and 
 goodness for her and me (for which I hold myself much obliged) 
 may do you prejudice, I beseech you favour me so much to 
 accept of this inclosed, which I present unto you with my best 
 respects and thankfullness. But \_sic'] you finde my estimation 
 there so little valewed, that it proves to you of no use, complaine 
 of the change of my fortune and not my good will. Forbeare, I 
 pray, to looke for an answere to the 1 [latter] part of your letter, 
 and have the patience not to expect your husband yet. 
 
 " Your most humble servant, 
 " Castle Cornel, Oct. 30, 1645. " Pet. Osborne. 
 
 "Prizing every courtesie of yours, and assured of the true hart 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 259 
 
 it comes from, I am verry sorry that I have not the glass you 
 mention. 
 
 " To my worthy friend, 
 " Mrs. Elizabeth Andrewes,^ Samares, at Jersey." 
 
 Sir Peter Osborne was born in the year 1585, so that he 
 was about thirty-five when he first came to Guernsey, and 
 fully fifty-seven when the siege of Castle Cornet commenced : 
 he was a person of good family and influence, and holding 
 the office of treasurer's remembrancer of the exchequer, as 
 also possessing a landed estate in England, it seems strange 
 to us that he should have accepted a post which involved a 
 frequent, if not a constant, residence in Castle Cornet, cer- 
 tainly not a desirable abode, on many accounts, to a man of 
 interest and fortune. But Sir Peter appears, by Warburton, 
 to have obtained, 19 James I., (1621-2,) the reversion of the 
 governorship of Guernsey, in the event of the death of his 
 brother-in-law, the Earl of Danby,^ who died in 1643, and 
 consequently he succeeded him in that appointment, as, in his 
 commission in 1646 to Sir Baldwin Wake, knight, he styles 
 himself " governor of his majesty's island of Guernsey." 
 His grandfather, Peter Osborne, Esq., (born 1521, died 1592,) 
 was also treasurer's remembrancer of the exchequer as well 
 as keeper of the privy purse, in the reign of Edward VI. 
 This Mr. Osborne was a man of great understanding, active 
 and zealous for the reformation, and was imprisoned in the 
 reign of Mary. In that of Elizabeth, he was in much esteem 
 with Lord Burleigh, and was one of the high commissioners ^'■ 
 for ecclesiastical affairs. He married twice, and by his first 
 wife. Miss Blyth, had twenty-two children. He purchased 
 Chicksands priory, the present seat of the family, of which 
 the most remote ancestor authenticated was Peter Osborne, 
 of Burleigh, in Essex, who died in 1442. Sir Peter, who 
 was son of Sir John Osborne, knight, married Dorothy, 
 daughter of Sir John Dan vers, of Dantzey, county of Wilts, 
 (by Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of John Nevil, Lord 
 Latimer, by his wife, Lady Lucy, second daughter of Henry 
 Somerset, Earl of Worcester.) Dorothy, Lady Osborne, was 
 sister to Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby, privy councillor to 
 
 (1) Mrs. Andros was Elizabeth Stone, sister of Sir Robert Stone, knight, cupbearer to 
 the queen of Bohemia, and captain of a troop of horse in Holland, Amias Andros, her 
 husband, was related to the Carterets, his mother being- a daughter of Amias de Carteret, 
 seigneur of Trinity Manor, Jersey, and bailiff of Guernsey. 
 
 (2) This Earl of Danby left no issue male, and Macaulay, in his History of England, 
 third edition, vol. i., page 224, speaking of the reign of Charles II., says : "The chief 
 direction of affairs was now entrusted to Sir Thomas Osborne, a Yorkshire baronet, who 
 had in the House of Commons shewn eminent talents for business and debate. Osborne 
 became lord treasurer, and was soon created Earl of Danby." 
 
260 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Charles I. and knight of the Garter. The earl, in 1632, 
 gave the botanic garden at Oxford, which lies on the east 
 end of the city, and opposite to Magdalen College, having 
 purchased five acres of land of that college, and enclosed 
 them vi^ith a wall. He also settled an annual revenue for 
 the maintenance of the garden, which he furnished with a 
 great variety of plants and herbs, chiefly for the use of the 
 medical students. Sir Peter Osborne had nine children, 
 among whom John, first baronet, created 1660-1, and Doro- 
 thy, married to the renowned Sir William Temple. He died 
 in 1653, less than two years after the surrender of the castle, 
 aged about sixty-eight, and was buried in Campton church, 
 county of Bedford. We cannot tell how he acquired the 
 grant of knighthood, which in his day might be purchased 
 with money at a reasonable rate, it having been from very 
 early times a source of revenue to the sovereign. Among 
 the forty councillors of state in the first year of the Common- 
 wealth, 1649, one of whom was " Lieut. - General Oliver 
 Cromwell," we find the name of Sir John Danvers,* knight, 
 already mentioned, who probably assisted his brother-in-law, 
 Sir Peter Osborne, to recover his estate of Chicksands priory, 
 which was founded about A.D. 1150, by Pain de Beauchamp. 
 Of this priory it appears that the two quadrangles and clois- 
 ters are yet entire, and have been converted into a modern 
 mansion. 
 
 As the name of Sir George Carteret ^ occurs so often in 
 this narrative, in connection with that of Sir Peter Osborne, 
 a somewhat copious notice of him will not be misplaced here. 
 Little certain is known of his early life. He was the nephew 
 and son-in-law of the elder Sir Philip Carteret, lieutenant- 
 governor and bailiff of Jersey, to whom he was appointed 
 successor by the king, on the 3d of October, 1643. Captain 
 Carteret (observes Falle in his History of Jersey, quoting 
 from Lord Clarendon) was comptroller of his majesty's navy, 
 and a man of great eminency and reputation in naval com- 
 mand. He stood so well, in the opinion even of the parlia- 
 ment, for true honor, courage, and abilities, that when they 
 committed the fleet to the Earl of Warwick in opposition to 
 the king, the two houses had cast their eyes upon him for 
 vice-admiral. But he knew better what became him than to 
 
 (1) " For his affection and adhering to the parliament," Sir John Danvers was deprived 
 of the estate of his brother, the Earl of Danby, by the will of the latter. 
 
 (2) The original name was de Carteret, Sir George, we believe, was the first who 
 dropped the " de." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 261 
 
 accept of an employment from them, unless the king had 
 judged it expedient for his service. Unhappily, his majesty 
 did not judge it such, nor would consent that one of his 
 servants should so far countenance their undutiful proceedings 
 as to be any ways concerned with them, which the noble 
 historian laments as a most fatal error. For, to use his own 
 words, " if Captain Carteret had been suffered to have taken 
 that charge, his interest and reputation in the navy was 
 [were] so great, and his diligence and dexterity in command 
 so eminent, that, it is generally believed, he would, against 
 whatsoever the Earl of Warwick could have done, have pre- 
 served a major part of the fleet in their duty to the king." 
 Durell, in his Notes on Falle's History,^ throws doubts on 
 this statement, believing that, in 1642, Captain Carteret was 
 only about twenty-three years of age, when he could scarcely 
 have acquired that high professional distinction which would 
 have induced the parhament to offer him the second com- 
 mand, with the rank of vice-admiral. The reverend anno- 
 tator, therefore, conceives that the high character thus given 
 to Captain Carteret was rather what he justly deserved at a 
 later period of his life, than the consequence of any thing he 
 had yet done when the troubles commenced. But, as he was 
 then already comptroller of the navy, we think that he must 
 have been several years older, and especially as Durell himself 
 mentions that Carteret died at an advanced age, when, ac- 
 cording to his own belief, he could only have been sixty-two 
 or three. In Baker's Csesarea, it is stated that at his death 
 Sir George Carteret was nearly eighty years of age. 
 
 During the eight or nine months, in 1643, that the parlia- 
 ment was in possession of Jersey, with the exception of Mont 
 Orgueil and Elizabeth Castles, Captain Carteret resided at 
 St. Malo, where he was employed by the king to sell the 
 prizes captured from the parliamentarians, with the proceeds 
 of which he supplied the castles in Jersey with provisions, and 
 the royalists in the west of England with ammunition. 
 
 (Colonel Carteret, as he was then styled, was created a 
 baronet in May, 1645, and he undoubtedly was an extraor- 
 dinary man, who rose during the civil war to the highest 
 eminence. He possessed much energy of character, and a 
 mind capable of forming and executing great designs ; for 
 there is something chivalrous, nay, almost romantic, in a 
 gallant commander posting himself on a small island, and 
 
 (1) The Rev. Philip Falle's History of Jersey, with Notes and Illustrations, by the Rev. 
 Edward Durell, M.A. Jersey, 1837. — We consider Mr. Durell's annotations far more 
 valuable than the history. 
 
262 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 there boldly upholding the falling cause of his sovereigns, 
 always faithful to them under every reverse of fortune, and 
 inflicting great mischief on their enemies. This he did for 
 above eight years, and it at length required the presence of 
 Blake, the first naval officer of that age, with a large land 
 force, to compel him to surrender. And when obliged to 
 capitulate, he managed matters with so much address, and 
 obtained such favorable terms, that one might almost suppose 
 he had himself dictated the articles to the conquerors. Thus 
 far his character was that of a hero and a statesman ; but 
 historical truth compels us to reverse the portrait, and we do 
 so with regret, as it is always an ungracious task to expose 
 the failings of eminent men. His own countryman, who 
 therefore cannot be suspected of any national bias, the Rev. 
 Edward Durell, M.A., rector of St. Saviour, Jersey, in his 
 interesting and valuable notes already mentioned, two or three 
 incorrect ones excepted, animadverts with much severity on 
 some reprehensible traits in the character of Carteret, who, 
 he observes, used unduly his high office as a means of aggran- 
 dizing and enriching himself and his family. His loyalty, he 
 justly states, was not that of an Aristides, as, by his preying 
 on English commerce, he carried off about £60,000, a very 
 large sum at that period, and part of which ought, we think, 
 freely to have been devoted to the relief of Castle Cornet, as 
 surely he was not carrying on war with the parliamentarians 
 on his own private account. After making every allowance 
 for the exasperation of civil discord, Durell says that there 
 was something particularly vindictive in his nature ; and cer- 
 tainly his treatment of Sir Peter Osborne, now come to light, 
 is a nirther confirmation of this blot on his character. Durell, 
 who however speaks highly of his merits as a commander, 
 adds, that " his rapacity, his avarice, his despotism, and his 
 cruelty, have escaped general reprobation, by having been 
 officiously withheld from the press, and the knowledge of 
 posterity." Moreover, the deposition of Captain Darell, 
 given in the " Chronicles of Castle Cornet," is very discre- 
 ditable to him, as he refused to return, agreeably to his pro- 
 mise, an acknowledgment or bond of Sir Peter Osborne for 
 supplies furnished to Castle Cornet, and which had been 
 entrusted to him for perusal only. He retired to France after 
 the reduction of Jersey, where lie never permanently resided 
 afterwards, and at the restoration he was re-appointed comp- 
 troller of the navy. In the first parliament after that event. 
 Sir George was chosen member for Portsmouth ; but in 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 263 
 
 October, 1669, he was expelled the house, for issuing money, 
 as treasurer of the navy, without legal warrant; in 1673, he 
 was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty ; and in 1676, 
 one of the commissioners of the board of trade. He w^as a 
 proprietary governor of a province in North America, and 
 gave to it its present name of New Jersey. He died in 
 England in 1681, at an advanced age. A few months after 
 his death, his grandson. Sir George Carteret, who had suc- 
 ceeded him in the baronetcy, was created Lord Carteret ; ^ 
 and his male posterity, after running a distinguished course 
 among the Enghsh nobility, became extinct in the person of 
 Robert, Earl Granville, in 1776. Like Sir Peter Osborne, 
 Sir George (^arteret also lost a son. Sir Philip Carteret, in 
 battle ; he was the father of the first Lord Carteret, and fell 
 in the same ship and engagement against the Dutch, in 1672, 
 in which his father-in-law, the Earl of Sandwich, was slain. 
 
 Amias Andros, having actively participated, and been 
 very confidentially employed, in the defence of Castle Cor- 
 net, is also well entitled to a brief biographical notice. 
 His ancestor, whose original name appears to have been 
 Andrews, corrupted in Erench to Andros, was from North- 
 amptonshire, and became connected with Guernsey by being 
 lieutenant to the governor. Sir Peter Mewtis, and by mar- 
 rying, in 1543, Judith de Sausmarez, who brought the fief 
 or manor of Sausmarez, at St. Martin's, into the Andros 
 family. His descendant, Amias, was marshal of the cere- 
 monies to Charles I., in 1632; and in August, 1645, many 
 of the garrison of Castle Cornet, probably induced thereto by 
 their sufferings, and it would seem with the ungenerous 
 concurrence of Sir George Carteret, sought to get him ap- 
 pointed as their commander. Mr. Andros was nominated 
 bailiff of Guernsey, in 1651, but he only entered into that 
 ofiice in 1661, after the restoration. He was father of Sir 
 Edmund Andros, who was knighted in 1681, and was gover- 
 nor of New York and New England before the revolution 
 of 1688, and after that event governor of Virginia and 
 Maryland.^ Amias Andros, seigneur of Sausmarez, keeper 
 
 (1) The eldest son of the first peer was the celebrated Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl 
 Granville. He went ambassador to Sweden in 1719, and was twice secretary of state, as 
 well as twice viceroy of Ireland. He was an agreeable companion, and a great encourager 
 of learned men. He died in 1763. 
 
 (2) Sir Edmund Andros, in his government of New York and New England before the 
 revolution, incurred the dislike of the colonists, and is represented as " a man who 
 disgraced superior talents by the unprincipled zeal and activity with which he rendered 
 them subservient to the arbitrary designs of a tyrant ! " — " His friend and colleague, 
 Randolph, boasted that, in New England, Andros was as arbitrary as the Grand Turk." 
 
264 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 of the castle of Jerbourg, and hereditary cupbearer to the 
 king, in Guernsey, (the two last mere honorary offices,) as 
 also major-general of the militia — a rank never given before 
 or since in the island — died in 1674, aged sixty-four years, 
 and was interred in the ])arish church of St. Martin, in which 
 a monument exists to his memory and that of his wife, who 
 is therein stated to have shared in the troubles and exile to 
 which her husband was exposed for many years. Two of 
 Amias' brothers, military officers, were slain,^ one in the ser- 
 vice of the king of Bohemia, son-in-law of James I. of Eng- 
 land, and the other in 1644, during the civil war. 
 
 Chevalier writes, April 17, 1646 : " The Prince of Wales 
 arrived in Jersey [from Scilly] this day, (Friday,) in a frigate 
 of about 160 tons burden, and mounting 24 guns, accom- 
 panied by two smaller vessels, one of six and the other of 
 four guns. The frigate was named * The Black Proud 
 Eagle,' and commanded by Captain Wake. On their pas- 
 sage, only three small vessels were seen near Guernsey, 
 steering towards the coast of Britany. The prince, his six 
 ministers, noblemen and persons of quality, and guards, with 
 their several attendants, numbered about three hundred. No 
 salute was fired either by the frigate or the castle, and no 
 flags were hoisted, excepting that the frigate had the royal 
 ensign on her bowsprit, as fortune having been adverse to 
 the new comers, it was thought that their visit was not one 
 for rejoicing." The prince left Jersey on the 25th June, after 
 a sojourn there of sixty-nine days : he embarked in Captain 
 Bowden's frigate, and landed in Normandy the same evening. 
 
 On the 12th of May, two of the prince's frigates left Jer- 
 sey to convoy to Castle Cornet, a vessel of above fifty tons 
 burden which was laden with provisions, and carried also Sir 
 Baldwin Wake, whom the prince had knighted in Elizabeth 
 Castle, and appointed as Sir Peter Osborne's lieutenant, so as 
 to relieve Sir Peter, and bring him to Jersey to recruit 
 himself after so long a captivity, he having been besieged in 
 the castle nearly four years. Sir George and he did not 
 a^ree, which was the reason why Sir Baldwin was sent in 
 his place. But when the frigates and vessel came near 
 Guernsey, they were chased back by the parliamentary fri- 
 
 But, " after the British revolution, Andros conducted himself irreproachably as governor 
 of Virginia." He died in London, in 1715, at a very advanced age. — See Grahatne's 
 History of the United States of North America, vols. i. ii. from which the above extracts 
 are taken. 
 
 (1) Their uncle, Lieutenant John Andros, was mortally wounded at La Rochelle in 
 1^4» and died fifteen days afterwards. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 265 
 
 gates pursuing them nearly to Elizabeth Castle. The vessel, 
 after landing her provisions and some men to reinforce the 
 garrison, was to be broken up to serve as fire- wood. On the 
 14th of May, the prince and his council judged it expedient 
 to send four frigates to convoy this vessel and two boats with 
 provisions, viz., the frigate of 24 guns, which had conveyed 
 him to Jersey, Milord Digby's frigate of 12 guns, and the two 
 Dunkirk frigates, one of 25 and the other of 24 guns, which 
 Milord Colepepper had brought to Jersey. Sir Baldwin 
 Wake was captain of the prince's frigate, with Captain Bow- 
 den ^ under him, for the passage to Guernsey. They left on 
 Thursday, towards sunset, and were some four hundred men 
 in these four frigates, all resolved to carry the provisions to 
 Castle Cornet, or not to return. They sailed all night, but in 
 the morning the wind calmed, and a fog arose, which pre- 
 vented their seeing very far. Nevertheless, in passing near 
 Sark, they were perceived : and two guns were fired from 
 Herm, as a signal to a large ship of 800 tons and 40 guns, 
 which protected Guernsey. Her guns were of brass, and the 
 greater part double culverins.^ The Guernseymen had a 
 shallop between Sark and the castle, the crew of which, 
 seeing the frigates, fired a gun to prepare the parliamentary 
 ship and the batteries on shore. The ship, which was at 
 anchor on the bank, got under sail, but, owing to the fog, she 
 could discover nothing, and knew not which way to steer. 
 The Jersey frigates, notwithstanding, brought the vessel and 
 two boats to Castle Cornet about sunrise, the people on shore 
 not perceiving them until they were near the castle, when the 
 land batteries fired upon them, which the castle returned, 
 each side doing their best. The large ship, hearing the 
 cannonade, approached the castle, and the frigates gave her 
 each a broadside, which she returned, killing five or six of 
 their men, besides wounding many. She then pursued them 
 to near Sark, but finding that they outsailed her, she returned 
 to her anchorage on the bank. It was not known whether 
 she sustained any loss. As the frigates were coming to Jer- 
 sey, the crews saw the castle and the town firing upon each 
 other ; the former, with its new governor, firing above a 
 hundred cannon shot, which the latter fully returned. 
 
 (1) Captain Bowden appears to have been employed on every occasion of difficulty in 
 supplying the castle, and he must have been a bold man, as, had he been captured, he 
 would probably have been hanged as a traitor. 
 
 (2) This reminds us of the line in the old sea song on the battle of " La Hogue," in 1692, 
 than which song later poets have perhaps produced nothing finer : 
 
 " Let fly a culverin, the signal for the line." 
 
266 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 The prince sent some pistoles by Sir Baldwin Wake for 
 the soldiers, who had received no payment for a long time, so 
 that the meanest had two pistoles and a half. This encou- 
 raged them greatly, a pistole being ten francs. 
 
 On the 5th of June, the great ship of 800 tons and 40 
 guns, and two little frigates, came from Guernsey to the coast 
 of Jersey ; and, as they doubled the Corbiere, the two Dun- 
 kirk frigates were leaving the roadstead of St. Aubin on their 
 return home, the Prince having dismissed them. While they 
 were saluting Elizabeth Castle, the three vessels appeared 
 before it, coming down under full sail, when the two Dunkirk 
 frigates went along the rocks of St. Clement and La Roque, 
 and anchored under Mont Orgueil castle. The parliamen- 
 tary frigates did not pursue them, but remained above two 
 hours before Elizabeth Castle, knowing well that the prince 
 was there, and making their bravadoes in his sight. After 
 capturing three fishing boats and despoiling the crews, they 
 returned to Guernsey. 
 
 In the beginning of August, Sir Baldwin Wake discovered 
 an English soldier, who thought to escape from Castle Cornet, 
 and carry away a boat laden with provisions. He was in- 
 formed against by a prisoner, to whom he had said, as a 
 secret, that he would open his prison door, and that a boat 
 was coming with provisions from Jersey, into which they 
 would throw themselves, and go to Guernsey. The governor 
 gave the prisoner his liberty, and imprisoned the traitor, who 
 was put to the torture. In the end he confessed such a 
 design, upon which Sir Baldwin consulted his council, by 
 whom he was condemned to be shot, so as to cause a fear and 
 terror among the rest of the garrison. Three musketeers 
 were chosen to execute the sentence, viz., an Englishman, a 
 Jerseyman, and a Guernseyman, who fired upon him at the 
 distance of about a perch, and he was killed outright. 
 
 On the 2d of December, there arrived in Jersey a boat 
 laden with about twelve tons of provisions, which Sir Peter 
 Osborne had sent from St. Malo to Sir George, to be for- 
 warded to Castle Cornet, viz. bread, beef, pork, pease, codfish, 
 rice, three hogsheads of gruel, and two hogsheads of wine. 
 Sir Peter sent also in this boat the aged porter of the castle, 
 who had quitted it with him, and always remained with him : 
 he sent also with the porter one of his men, named Mr. Ray, 
 and the two were to go to the castle with the provisions, and 
 to bring thence the effects of Sir Peter to St. Malo. Sir 
 George did his utmost to forward the provisions and the two 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 267 
 
 passengers at once ; but the Bretons, who had brought them, 
 would not take them on to the castle, fearing the cannonades. 
 Sir George was therefore obliged to insure their boat against 
 accidents. They went on the 8th of December, and arrived 
 safely, but they did not discharge their cargo before the gate, 
 because the castle people told them that a boat, which had 
 arrived three days before them, had been fired upon while 
 unloading before the gate. They went in a creek at the back 
 of the castle, just wide enough to receive their boat, and 
 discharged there. But on leaving in a clear moonlight, they 
 were perceived from the shore, and three cannon shot were 
 fired at them without doing any damage : they returned safe 
 and sound to Jersey on the 12th of December. 
 
 This boat brought the effects of Sir Peter and the porter, 
 and carried them to Sir Peter at St. Malo, viz. beds, linen, 
 table furniture, stoves, chandeliers, and trunks, some of which 
 were so heavy that it required six men to carry each of them 
 on board the boat. The said porter was old, being nearly 
 eighty years of age. They remained together at St. Malo, 
 waiting patiently the issue of affairs. Sir Peter had sent his 
 wife to England before he left Castle Cornet, she having 
 remained some time at St. Malo, and from thence taken pas- 
 sage to England, where she was well received, for she was of 
 a high origin, (car elle etait sortie de grande parente,) and 
 Sir Peter also, both being of noble and ancient families. She 
 was enabled afterwards to assist her husband, his estate being 
 sequestered by the parliament, because he was on the king's 
 side, and kept the castle well and faithfully. 
 
 Sir George Carteret had sent to Castle Cornet, a boat of 
 six or seven tons burden laden with provisions, which left three 
 days before the Breton boat freighted by Sir Peter. This 
 (Jersey) boat arrived during the night : the next morning, 
 the Guernseymen, — seeing her lying between the castle and 
 the town, and within reach of their battery, — wishing to give 
 a proof of their prowess and skill, discharged a volley of 
 cannon at the boat, which they repeated as if on an enemy's 
 squadron of vessels of war. The boat received ten or twelve 
 cannon balls, which pierced her through and through ; but 
 there was no one on board. She was hauled up very high 
 near the castle gate, which was the reason why they fired 
 upon her. After this day she was not fired upon, and in the 
 night her crew repaired her, and came to Jersey. 
 
 Sir Baldwin repaid the Guernseymen with interest, pointing 
 and discharging forty pieces of cannon on the town, after the 
 
268 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 departure of the boat. There were at this time three parHa- 
 mentary vessels at anchor on the bank, which vessels did not 
 prevent the boats with provisions passing to and fro, as they 
 were lately arrived. If the Guernseymen had allowed the 
 boats to go and come freely and peaceably, the town would 
 not have been fired upon ; but they commenced, and Sir 
 Baldwin finished. And what gave the castle people more 
 courage was that they were victualled for a long time, and 
 were reinforced by fresh men who had come from the castle 
 of Pendennis,' so that the garrison amounted to ninety men. 
 The day that the Guernseymen fired on the boat, they fired 
 also on the castle, together above 120 cannon shot, so that 
 they damaged the houses and roofs, but killed or wounded 
 none. When they had done. Sir Baldwin Wake gave them 
 a parting volley, reserving himself for another time ; and on 
 the following Sunday he cannonaded them so rapidly and 
 furiously that the report was easily heard in Jersey, and the 
 smoke seen. The Guernseymen returned the same, both 
 sides doing their best. Before Sir Baldwin was governor of 
 the castle. Sir Peter had acted a different part towards the 
 town, firing on it night and day, and causing it great havoc : 
 the Guernseymen did the same on the castle, which was 
 greatly damaged. 
 
 A.D. 1647. — Colonel Russell wrote, January 26, to Sir B. 
 Wake at Castle Cornet, to inform him that by certain intelli- 
 gence lately received from England, he was assured that the 
 Scottish army had returned home, and that the king was 
 confined at Holmely House, near Northampton. In conse- 
 quence, he recommended him to treat, as many had done, 
 rather than continue a prey to certain ruin. In reply the 
 next day, Sir Baldwin said, " that being bound by the laws 
 of God, and my sworn allegiance to my sovereign lord and 
 master the king, and my duty to his royal highness, engageth 
 me to let you know that no misfortune whatsoever shall make 
 me fail or alter in my resolution in preserving this place." 
 
 While Castle Cornet was thus steadily maintained for the 
 king, the island became a prey to intestine discord and party 
 feuds ; and the bitter hostility of the two rival factions pre- 
 sented a miniature resemblance of the hatred which existed 
 between the cavaliers and the round-heads in England. One 
 party, apparently the king's, was supported by a majority of 
 
 (I) After the surrender of Pcudcnnis Castle, near Falmouth, thirty-nine of the garrison 
 came to Jersey. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 269 
 
 the jurats and other members of the States ; the other con- 
 sisted of Peter de Beauvoir, the bailiff ; Peter Carey, then the 
 sheriff; (both prisoners together at Castle Cornet in 1643,) 
 and the douzaine of St. Peter-Port. The first open attempt 
 against the bailiff's authority was made in March, 1647, when 
 Mr. de Quetteville, who had been imprisoned by the parlia- 
 ment in Hurst Castle, laid claim to that office by virtue of a 
 commission which he held from Charles I., dated as far back 
 as 1631, and disputed the legality of the appointment of 
 De Beauvoir by the Earl of Warwick. This bold step can 
 only be accounted for by the lukewarmness or weakness of 
 Russell, or by the confidence of the native royalists in their 
 strength. The Court, having previously named John Carey 
 as judge delegate, to preside during the differences between 
 the two bailiffs, ordered De Beauvoir to deliver up the official 
 seals, and upon his refusal each party carried its complaints 
 to England. De la Marche went to London, pretending 
 to be a deputy sent by the States to obtain the remodeUing 
 of the existing provisional commission, so as to include a 
 majority of his friends. Gosselin, then the friend of De 
 Beauvoir and Carey, was also in the capital to watch the 
 movements and circumvent the designs of his competitor, 
 who attempted to prevail on parliament to order several 
 Guernseymen to appear personally at Westminster, there to 
 give evidence ; and, as few could have borne that expense, 
 he hoped by this manoeuvre to suppress a portion of the testi- 
 mony that militated against his own views. The Royal Court, 
 alarmed at these proceedings, promulgated a declaration to 
 the effect, that the inhabitants were exempt from personal 
 attendance out of the bailiwick, citing several orders in coun- 
 cil passed in the reign of Elizabeth and her successors, to wit, 
 of the 21st of June, 1565, the 9th of October, 1580, the 9th 
 of June, 1605, and the 27th of June, 1627 ; and they then 
 specially appointed Mr. Peter Carey, their attorney, to defend 
 the rights and privileges of the island before parliament. 
 This active parliamentarian^ soon arrived in London and pre- 
 sented a statement to the council, in which he enlarged on 
 the important services already rendered by the provisional 
 commissioners in Guernsey and the losses they had sustained, 
 and concluded with praying that they be retained in office. 
 Notwithstanding the critical state of the nation, and the vital 
 importance of the affairs then under discussion in both houses 
 
 (1) Had Mr. Carey thought himself connected with royalty, he doubtless would have 
 espoused the cause of the king, as did Lucius Gary, Lord Falkland. 
 
270 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 of parliament, the deputies were, it would appear, heard often 
 at great length, and with much attention. Gosselin, in a 
 letter of the 20th of May, and others of a subsequent date, 
 mentions several interviews with the speaker of the House of 
 Commons, and adds, that long debates had taken place on 
 matters relating to th* island. Carey was, to a certain extent, 
 successful in the object of his mission. 
 
 On the 3d of November, 1647, the lords and commons 
 assembled in parliament passed a series of resolutions for the 
 regulating and well ordering of the affairs of Guernsey, 
 Alderney, and Sark, in consequence " of the great sufferings 
 of the well affected inhabitants of the town and island of 
 Guernsey, and the adjacent isles of Alderney and Sark, for 
 their adherence to the parliament, against the open and 
 avowed enemies thereof." At the same time four members 
 of the House of Commons, viz. Edmund Ludlow, John 
 Weaver, John Birch, and John Harrington, Esqs., or any 
 two or more of them, were constituted commissioners, and 
 authorized to hear and examine the complaints and griev- 
 ances of the said inhabitants. The first of these commission- 
 ers, Edmund Ludlow, was the celebrated republican, and one 
 of the members of the high court of justice which condemned 
 Charles I. to the scaffold. On the death of Ireton, he held 
 the command of the army in Ireland, but was deprived of it 
 for opposing the usurpation of Cromwell. He died in exile 
 at Vevay, in Switzerland ; and his Memoirs, which are 
 curious and accurate, were printed after his decease. We 
 know not whether he was one of the commissioners who 
 came over to Guernsey. 
 
 When the commissioners reached the island, Henry de la 
 Marche exhibited articles of complaint against Colonel Rus- 
 sell ; and Peter Carey was called upon to declare whether the 
 complaints were true or false. Mr. Carey stated that Russell 
 had seized part of the property of individuals named by De 
 la Marche, without consulting the provisional commissioners, 
 the jurats ; that he had received the whole revenue of the 
 island, and applied but very little of it to the public service ; 
 that he levied taxes on the inhabitants contrary to law, which 
 had caused the insurrection of the year 1643, and induced 
 some to favour the views of Sir Peter Osborne ; that he had 
 seized prizes brought into the island, and disposed of them 
 according to his pleasure ; that the soldiers on guard at his 
 residence were paid by the inhabitants ; that he had refused 
 to pay for services he had agreed upon, in consequence of 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 271 
 
 which those appointed to watch Castle Cornet had neglected 
 their duty ; that he had refused his passport to those who 
 wished to proceed to London, and there lodge their com- 
 plaints ; and that he had only made one attempt on the 
 castle, and that most unsuccessfully. 
 
 These serious charges being fully substantiated, Russell 
 was recalled, and the powers of his successor were controlled 
 by the presence of, it seems, four parliamentary commissioners. 
 That successor was Colonel Alban Coxe ; but Russell re- 
 turned again about a twelvemonth afterwards, and was rein- 
 stated in his former office. The spirit of faction, however, 
 continued, and the commanding influence of De Beauvoir 
 and Carey appears to have excited the enmity of De la 
 Marche, Gosselin, and Dobree ; so that a long series of recri- 
 minations and impeachments arose between them and other 
 individuals. Carey was first impeached, but he proved his 
 innocence. Joshua Gosselin, just mentioned, a jurat, next 
 proposed seventeen articles of impeachment against Mr. de 
 Beauvoir, who was a bosom friend of Mr. Carey ; ^ and as 
 the charges were much more serious, they were carried before 
 the council of state. De Beauvoir was accused of causing 
 several persons to be imprisoned for refusing to pay a tax of 
 £660 sterling, illegally levied ; of adjudging debts to be paid 
 by some of the inhabitants to the governor, (Russell,) and of 
 sequestrating their estates, which the governor applied to his 
 own use ; of counselling the said Russell to seize divers of the 
 inhabitants, and compelling them to ransom their estates by 
 sums of money which were delivered up to the governor ; of 
 causing the dismissal of Mr. de Quetteville, bailiff, that he 
 might succeed to that office ; of not administering justice 
 impartially ; of abusing parliament in petitioning for the 
 office of bailiff, and not mentioning that he was suspended, 
 and that the former bailiff, then living, claimed the office ; 
 and of compelling " the poor people of the isle to lose their 
 time in law sillts, by making unusual speeches, uttered to 
 please his own vanity, and not for the despatch of business, or 
 the good of the people, who often lost whole days on matters 
 which ought to be terminated on the first hearing." 
 
 In reply to this impeachment, De Beauvoir sent a detailed 
 justification to the council of state, answering each charge 
 separately. He observed that the articles were signed by 
 
 (1) Mr. Carey left behind him an interesting but unconnected account in MS. of the 
 proceedings in Guernsey during the civil war, a copy of which we have consulted ; but 
 some allowance should certainly be made for his recital of the part he took in the transac 
 tions of this eventful period, especially as that account was evidently written for his 
 justification and that of his party. 
 
272 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Mr. Gosselin only, and that, with respect to the delay in law 
 suits, he despatched as many as three hundred cases in one 
 day, which, he quaintly added, was as much as could well be 
 done ! In answer to a charge of being a railer, and public 
 calumniator in open court, abusing every court day some one 
 of the people, magistrates and parochial officers, and tole- 
 rating the same conduct in his relations and friends, he stated, 
 " that knowing drunkenness to be the capital sin of Guernsey, 
 whenever he had occasion to address the people, he repre- 
 sented to them what a foul and beastly thing it was to see the 
 officers of justice drunk." Whether he alluded to the jurats, 
 or to the court or parochial officers, does not appear ; but, 
 although such an accusation is very discreditable, great allow- 
 ance must be made for the assertions of a judge standing on 
 his defence, especially as his replies, in some cases, partake 
 more of recrimination than of refutation, and as he seems 
 to us to have been a man of an imperious and intriguing 
 character, and not always mindful of the truth. 
 
 Among the reasons given by De Beauvoir why his accuser 
 (Gosselin) had rendered himself unworthy of holding any 
 magisterial office, was this : " Because he is an avowed enemy 
 of the government of England, having declared that he wished 
 to see a king on the throne." This charge, wliich might 
 have been of essential service to Gosselin some years after- 
 wards, he then resented as an atrocious calumny, and quoted 
 instances of his inviolable fidelity to the Commonwealth. 
 How he managed at the restoration to acquit himself of this 
 short-sighted line of defence does not appear, but he doubtless 
 easily changed sides, and then became as staunch a royalist 
 as he had before endeavoured to prove himself a zealous 
 republican. 
 
 Whether in consequence of another complaint to the com- 
 missioners, or from the late impeachment, Mr. de Beauvoir 
 was deprived of his appointment as bailiff, and the jurat 
 Bonamy was named judge delegate. But this arrangement 
 was of short duration, for, in 1653, tlie twelve jurats were 
 directed to fulfil the duties of bailiff in rotation ; and by the 
 same order, five of the jurats, viz. James Guille, John 
 Blondell, John Brehaut, Thomas Carey, and Peter Brehaut, 
 were discharged " by reason of their great age and infirmity 
 of body ; " and the States were " required to proceed to the 
 election of five other fit persons in their stead." In February, 
 1655, however, Peter de Beauvoir was re-established a third 
 time as bailiff, and so continued until the restoration. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 273 
 
 About the period of these impeachments, another singular 
 proceeding took place, which arose from a complaint made 
 by Mr. Bonamy against James Le Marchant, the jurat, 
 already mentioned. A petition being presented to parliament 
 by the former, in which he stated that he had been insulted 
 in the discharge of his duty by the latter, and that he could 
 attribute this conduct to no other cause than his own zeal in 
 favour of the Commonwealth, his case was referred to the 
 States, with an order to institute an instant inquiry into its 
 truth. That body therefore met, and Le Marchant, who 
 was in heart a royalist, finding that he could no longer evade 
 the decision of the members, fled from the island. 
 
 It is an extraordinary circumstance, which proves in some 
 measure the strength of the friends of the old government, 
 that although the bishops were, in England, deprived of their 
 right of sitting in the house of peers ; although the episcopal 
 form of church government was abolished, and the clergy 
 prevented from interfering in lay assemblies, they still con- 
 tinued members of the States of this island. An attempt was 
 indeed made to remove them, but it proved abortive. 
 
 We return again to Chevalier's Chronicle for a few occur- 
 rences in this year. (1647.) 
 
 On the night of the last day of March, Sir George sent a 
 boat to Castle Cornet with letters and supplies for Sir Bald- 
 win Wake, none having gone since the 29th of January, 
 The boat belonged to St. Malo, and was of the burden of 
 from two to three tons. She returned to Jersey during 
 the night of the 6th of April, and reported that the land 
 batteries and the castle no longer fired on each other, that 
 they had not interchanged shots for some time, and that 
 even their provisions had been discharged before the gate of 
 the castle, without interruption from the batteries ; that there 
 were only two or three ships of the parliament on the bank, 
 and several English vessels at anchor, which were waiting for 
 convoy, and which these ships were to escort to England. 
 
 May 7. — On this day, two boats (one of seven and the 
 other of six tons,) which had gone on the 29th of April with 
 provisions to Castle Cornet, returned with a fine clear moon. 
 They did not attempt to discharge before the gate of the 
 castle, as they feared being seen and cannonaded from Guern- 
 sey. They went therefore behind the castle in two little creeks, 
 and discharged their provisions as formerly. The next day, 
 the Guernseymen having perceived them in the creeks, seeing 
 only their masts, because their hulls were screened by the 
 
274 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 rocks, nevertheless fired two cannon shots from the land 
 batteries, one of which passed between the mast and the 
 rigging of one of the vessels, and the other between the two 
 masts, without doing any damage. These boats were well 
 tossed in the creeks by bad weather and contrary winds. 
 While they were awaiting a fair wind, a large ship of 500 
 tons and mounting 40 guns arrived on tlie bank, and sent her 
 boat to the castle for a pilot for St. Malo ; but there being 
 none there, the crew went on to the pier of Guernsey, where 
 they obtained a pilot. In returning to their ship, they passed 
 by the castle, and brought as a present to Sir Baldwin Wake 
 a quarter of veal and one of mutton from Guernsey. They 
 mounted by a ladder to the top of the walls, because the 
 castle entrance was blocked up ; but the Guernsey pilot re- 
 mained outside. The Flemings offered their services to Sir 
 Baldwin, and told him that he had only to speak if he wanted 
 any thing from on board their vessel ; on which Sir Baldwin 
 thanked them, when they took their leave and departed. 
 
 August 23. — This day Sir George sent a small boat to 
 Castle Cornet, laden with provisions and necessary refresh- 
 ments ; she arrived happily, and landed at the said castle 
 some barrels of biscuit, beer, pease, pork, &c., and returned 
 to Jersey at the end of two days, not having been molested 
 by those on shore or at sea, notwithstanding there were two 
 parliamentary frigates anchored on the bank. 
 
 To the townsmen the unparalleled defence of Castle Cornet 
 must have been attended with much excitement and no little 
 peril, as the marks made by shot, from the guns of the castle, 
 on the walls of the ancient church * of St. Peter-Port, appear 
 to have been still visible during the last century ; and it is 
 said that a gentleman, who was walking in front of the old 
 court-house, at the Plaiderie, was killed by a cannon ball, his 
 fate being the more cruel because he was a zealous royahst. 
 At that eventful period, the eastern side of the Pollet was 
 not built, and there were no houses between the court-house 
 and the castle, so that the former was exposed to the shot of 
 the latter. Tradition states that the court-house was con- 
 stantly fired at, and this is confirmed by the fact that about 
 thirty years since, while workmen were enij)loyed in removing 
 an old hedge on the estate of the Cotils — then the property 
 of the late John E. Tupper, Esq., and now of his son, which 
 
 (1) Consecrated Auj^ust 1, 1312. — " InquUitio de certis libcrtatib, pro eccl'ia Sancti 
 Petri in Insula Gernesey." An.45. Edw. Ill, (A.D. I37l.)—Ca(endanum Itiquis' post mortem. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 275 
 
 hedge adjoined the southern side of " the New Ground," or 
 public walks — some twenty cannon balls, one we believe of 
 181b., and many of which we have seen, were dug out of the 
 earth into which they had evidently penetrated when fired 
 by the garrison at the court-house, which stood in a direct 
 line between the Cotils (anglice, Cliffs or Hills) and the castle. 
 Castle Carey now stands on part of this estate, and cannon 
 balls have been within a few years occasionally discovered on 
 breaking up the grounds of the Cotils. 
 
 In 1849, we were fortunate in obtaining a copy of an old en- 
 graving of Castle Cornet, as it existed in 1672, or a few years 
 after the siege — a copy which very few in the island, like 
 ourselves, had ever heard of or seen. This engraving ap- 
 pears to have been taken from a painting in the possession of 
 the Earl of Winchilsea, whose ancestor, the seventh earl, 
 married the sister and heir of William, the last Viscount 
 Hatton, and thus became possessed of the painting. On a 
 comparison with the present fortifications, it will be found 
 that, in the lapse of nearly two centuries, the castle has 
 undergone surprisingly little change, and that its main fea- 
 tures have been preserved. But, unfortunately, a very fine 
 and lofty keep, or donjon^ which stood on the highest part, 
 where the signal post and flag staff" now stand, and added 
 considerably to the commanding effect and beauty of the 
 fortress, has disappeared, having fallen when the southern 
 part of the castle was destroyed by the explosion of the pow- 
 der magazine, in December, 1672, as will be related in the 
 sequel. The " gayabe," or watchman, stood all day on this 
 donjon, and when he saw any ship coming near the island, he 
 struck two strokes on a large bell ; when a boat came towards 
 the castle, only one stroke. The keep was sometimes styled 
 the tower, and it was the citadel wherein, in former times, the 
 besieged made their last efforts of defence. " Camden's 
 Britannia," edited by Bishop Gibson, second edition, 1722, 
 says of Castle Cornet : " It made a better figure before its 
 upper walls and buildings, which were very high and noble, 
 with a lofty tower seen above all the rest and carrying the 
 standard, were blown up by lightning. As to its strength, it 
 remains the same in the main, the powder having had little 
 or no effect on the ramparts and batteries, which lay lower." 
 — Also : " For therein resides, for the most part, the gover- 
 nour of the island, with a garrison, who on no account will 
 suffer either French, or women, to come into it " The pre- 
 
 (1) " Donjon Tunicula, partie la plus haute, la plus forte d'un chateau, faite en tour." 
 
276 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 sent generation is more gallant, and ladies will not find the 
 gates of the castle barred against them. 
 
 Alderney. — By a commission dated November 3, 1643, 
 Colonel Russell appointed Peter Le Febvre, seigneur de 
 I'Epine, as his lieutenant in Alderney, and instructed him to 
 take especial care not only " that God be duly served, and 
 that the Gospel be regularly preached," but " that all Papists 
 and Roman Catholics be expelled, and that no one who has 
 manifested the slightest leaning towards their superstition be 
 suffered to remain in the island." This is another proof of 
 the conjunction of outward form and intolerance so common 
 in that age ; and if the example were given by the church of 
 Rome, it was too often followed by her opponents, even when 
 there was no political necessity. Russell himself appears to 
 have been a weak fanatic, as when the Guernseymen rose in 
 arms, in 1644, against his illegal taxation, they stipulated that 
 the Brownists, by whom he was guided and surrounded, 
 should be sent off in a vessel about to sail for England. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHARLES I.— 1625 to 1649. (Continued.) 
 
 It will be assisting the reader to narrate in brief the events 
 of the civil war, from the battle of Edge Hill, in 1642, to the 
 execution of the king. The campaign of 1643 was one of 
 chequered fortune on both sides, although the royal arms 
 were successful in the west — in the middle of this year, the 
 parliament resolved to call the Scotch covenanters to their 
 aid, and the following winter they marched into England, 
 12,000 strong. In 1644, the battle of Marston-Moor, in 
 which about 25,000 men were engaged on each side, was 
 ruinous to the king's cause, as was in a less degree the second 
 battle of Newbury, although here victory and defeat were 
 nearly balanced. A treaty was entered into at Uxbridge ; 
 but as the parliament insisted upon the abolition of episco- 
 pacy, to which Charles would not consent, hostilities were 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 277 
 
 reoewed. The battle of Naseby,^ on the 14th of June, 1645, 
 decided the civil war against the king, who displayed great 
 courage on this occasion, but lost his artillery, baggage, and 
 cabinet. He fled first to Leicester, pursued by Fairfaix; 
 thence into Wales ; and on the 29th of August arrived at 
 Oxford, then one of the strongest places in the kingdom ; 
 but, on the approach of Fairfax and Cromwell, he threw 
 himself, in May, 1646, under the protection of the Scotch, 
 who disgraced themselves by delivering him to the parlia- 
 ament, on the 30th of January, 1647. The ill-fated monarch 
 was kept in close confinement at Holmby House, in North- 
 amptonshire, until a detachment of the army forcibly conveyed 
 him away to the head quarters, and thence to Hampton 
 Court, where he was treated with some respect, as the par- 
 liament and the army were at variance, the former being 
 chiefly Presbyterians, and the latter Independents. The king 
 effected his escape from Hampton Court in November, 1647, 
 with an intent to quit the kingdom ; but he was taken and 
 detained in the Isle of Wight. Here another negociation 
 was opened, but it failed ; and the army and parliament con- 
 curring to bring him to trial, he was condemned, in January, 
 1649, to suffer as a traitor. Only three days were allowed 
 him to prepare for death ; and on the scaffold, before his 
 palace at Whitehall, he evinced much fortitude, piety, and 
 resignation. In his domestic life, Charles was a fond husband 
 and father, but its extreme purity is considered doubtful or 
 exaggerated ; his public character has been very differently 
 estimated, but if its distinctive traits were, as many have 
 thought, and still think, despotism and duplicity, much allow- 
 ance should be made for the arbitrary times in which he lived 
 — when, by sovereigns and courtiers, monarchy was believed 
 of divine right — and for the manifold defects of a kingly 
 education. This belief is well exemplified in the answer of 
 Charles, when the death of Lord Northampton was com- 
 mended to his sympathy : " Is it not enough that he has died 
 for his king ? " Selfish and unfeeling as this answer will now 
 appear, it must not be judged by the present standard. 
 
 1648. — On the 10th of January, Sir Baldwin Wake in- 
 formed Sir Peter Osborne, who was still at St. Malo, that 
 
 (1) " But, after his defeat at Naseby, his affairs were, in a military sense, so irretriev- 
 able, that in prolonging: the war with as much obstinacy as the broken state of his party 
 would allow, he displayed a good deal of that indifference to the sufferings of the kingdom 
 and of his own adherents, which has been sometimes imputed to him." — Hallam. Mr. 
 Hallam next proceeds to state that as the sea was yet open to him, Charles should have 
 sought an asylum in France, or, still better, in Holland. 
 
278 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Castle Cornet had lately met with great misfortunes in the 
 loss of boats and provisions : and although Sir George Car- 
 teret seemed very careful of the garrison, and of himself 
 especially, their condition was " very mean, having neither 
 butter nor oil with fish or pudding, bread ten weeks, flesh a 
 month, fish and wheat answerable to our flesh, coal in very 
 good proportion." In April, the queen and the prince sent, 
 from St. Germain en Laie, through Lord Jermyn, to Sir 
 Peter Osborne, a bill of exchange of 300 pistoles, (3,000 
 francs,) for the relief of Castle Cornet, to be employed as 
 Sir Baldwin Wake should desire. In August, we find the 
 last named officer in England, whither he had gone appa- 
 rently for the purpose of obtaining men for the reduction of 
 Guernsey, and supplies for Castle (>ornet : he writes that 
 Lord Ormonde had offered men out of Ireland, and that the 
 prince had allowed him £800 sterling in the richest sort of 
 indigo for the maintenance of the garrison until March fol- 
 lowing ; the indigo, which was " a staple commodity," he 
 was endeavouring to sell at Newhaven, in Sussex, but, being 
 only able to obtain half its worth, he preferred keeping it. 
 
 While the Presbyterians were uppermost in England, the 
 naval affkirs went on smoothly. The Earl of Warwick was 
 entirely devoted to them, as were all the officers appointed by 
 him ; and every summer a strong squadron was fitted out, 
 by which the trade of the nation was tolerably protected. 
 But, in 1648, when the Independents came to prevail, it was 
 resolved to remove the Earl of Warwick from his command, 
 notwithstanding the services he had rendered ; and his re- 
 moval was so displeasing to the seamen, that in the summer 
 of that year, those on board the parliamentary fleet lying in 
 the Downs declared for the king, and, after setting Colonel 
 Rainsborough, the new admiral, and such officers as adhered 
 to him, on shore, they sailed over to Holland, where the 
 Prince of Wales then was. The prince, taking the command, 
 sailed soon after with nineteen vessels, of which seven or 
 eight were Enghsh, from Helvoetsluys for the coast of Eng- 
 land, where he took many rich prizes ; but, being foiled m 
 his other attempts there, he returned late in August to Hol- 
 land, whither he was followed with a superior fleet by the 
 Earl of Warwick, who had been reinstated, and who induced 
 the English seamen to serve again under the parliament. Sir 
 Baldwin Wake recommended the prince to proceed to Guern- 
 sey with his ships, as did Sir Peter Osborne early in September 
 from St. Malo, but his advice arrived too late. Had the 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 279 
 
 prince come to Guernsey, in place of returning to Holland, 
 the island would doubtless have immediately surrendered ; 
 and thus, having possession of its pier and roadstead, he vt^ould 
 have been enabled very seriously to annoy the parliamentary 
 trade and the southern coasts of England. 
 
 As it was foreign to this history to introduce more of Sir 
 Peter Osborne's correspondence than we have done, it may 
 not be amiss to recapitulate briefly a few of the most striking 
 facts which the letters contain. 
 
 Of Charles I. it is stated, that he requested Sir Peter to 
 hold out to the last, observing to his son : " I cannot name 
 particulars, but I assure you I shall reward this good service 
 of your father ; " and only fifteen months before his execu- 
 tion, when Sir Peter, through his son, solicited his majesty's 
 commands, the unfortunate monarch replied : " I can give 
 no commands, for now I am commanded ; but when I shall 
 be in any condition to employ his loyal affections, he shall 
 know that he is a person I have a very particular regard to : 
 commend me to him, and tell him I am beholding to him." 
 When a proposition was made to the king to convey Guernsey 
 to France for a sum of money, he declined it, as he did ano- 
 ther to permit the French to reduce the island for him ; 
 doubtless because he thought that they would never willingly 
 restore it. In October, 1647, when Charles said that he was 
 commanded, and felt himself at the mercy of his opponents, 
 the royalists appear by the above mentioned correspondence to 
 have placed their chief dependance on his fortitude, and his 
 constancy to his principles and friends, which even then were 
 considered so immoveable that the very mention of his name 
 seems to have caused an awe in the two houses of parliament. 
 It was the knowledge of these qualities which doubtless led 
 the parliamentary chiefs to believe that no faith could be 
 placed on the slightest concession of the resolute but infa- 
 tuated monarch, and that the liberties of England, as well as 
 their personal safety, could only be secured by his death. 
 
 That there were occasional murmurings and discontents 
 among the soldiers in Castle Cornet was not surprising, when 
 we learn that, after a three years' siege, they were without 
 clothes, or pay, or meat ; drinking water, with but one meal 
 a day ; not having received " one penie of pay these three 
 years." In one letter, we find " the escape of a soldier run 
 from us to the enemy ; " in another, that a combination, to 
 escape to the enemy with a boat and provisions, had been 
 discovered, " and the author of it, as he well deserved, had 
 
280 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 been shot to death ; " and in a third, that by the bursting of 
 a piece of ordnance, the gunner and his mate had been killed, 
 " necessary men that must needs be suppHed." — " We have 
 not any kind of medicine in the castle," wrote Sir Baldwin 
 Wake, and the garrison surgeon at that time was a French- 
 man, whose professional skill may be fairly estimated by his 
 salary of only ten pence a day ! even although that sum 
 represented a far higher value than at present. 
 
 Of Sir Baldwin Wake,' beyond the mention made of him 
 in these pages, we have been able to ascertain but little, the 
 present baronet of that surname being unable to supply us 
 with any information on the subject ; but as it appears by 
 Debrett's Baronetage, edition 1840, that the third son of 
 Sir Baldwin Wake, of Clevedon, county of Somerset, created 
 a baronet on the 5th of December, 1621, was also named 
 Baldwin, this son may have been the worthy successor of 
 Sir Peter Osborne, the more particularly as his eldest brother, 
 the second baronet, raised a troop of horse for Charles L* 
 Lord Clarendon speaks of him once in the following terms, 
 when the Prince of Wales was debating, early in 1646, on his 
 removal from Pendennis Castle, near Falmouth, to Scilly : 
 " In the end, having advised Baldwin Wake to cause the 
 frigate belonging to Hasdunck, and the other ships, to be 
 ready upon an hour's warning," &c. ; and he seems to have 
 been both a naval and mihtary officer, a common practice in 
 that age. His answer {ante) to Colonel Russell's letter, urg- 
 ing him to surrender the castle, in January, 1647, is very 
 honorable to him. He appears also to have been generally 
 upon bad terms with Sir George Carteret, notwithstanding 
 that, in January, 1648, he wrote that Sir George was very 
 careful of him. Early in September, 1648, Sir Baldwin was 
 in England, but he must have resumed his charge the same 
 month, as there is a letter from him, dated " Castle Cornet, 
 to Prince Rupert, September 14, announcing his safe arrival 
 in this important place ; dispatches an officer to give Prince 
 Rupert information concerning it." * His stay did not pro- 
 
 (1) R. commisit Thome Wake de Lyddell custodiam Insula. R. de Guerneseye Jeresejre 
 Serk & Aureneye & alia. Insula, eisdem Insulis adjacencium bend* & regend' &c. usq 
 festum Sci Michis reddo quingentas libr. Ita qd, &c. Edw. IW.—Abbreviatio Rotulorum 
 Originalium. 
 
 Baldwinus Wake, Edw. I., Anno 10, (A.D. 1282,) is mentioned in the Calmdariutn Jnquit* 
 post Mortem as possessing about 155 manors, &c., in different English counties. 
 
 (2) Among the knights who attended Charles II. to Jersey, in September, 1649, and 
 arrived with him the same day, we find in Chevalier's Chronicle the name of Sir E. Wake. 
 
 (3) Warburton'B Memoirs of Prince Rupert, vol. i. page 634.— In this volume we also 
 flod the following abstract, " Legge, Colonel, Castle Cornet, to Prince Rupert, January 15, 
 [1048 or 9,] after his long imprisonment is allowed to remain within twenty miles ; whcn> 
 ever he gets a pass, will be ready to go into any place wherever Prince Rupert can 
 employ liim." Wc have endeavoured in vain to procure a copy of Colonel Lcgge's letter. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 281 
 
 bably extend beyond the following spring ; if so long, as 
 Chevalier relates that he went to seek the prince, who gave 
 him money, and that he never returned, his subsequent fate 
 being unknown. His command could not, therefore, have 
 exceeded three years, and for some months the castle was 
 evidently left in charge of another officer. His successor was 
 Colonel Burgess, and during this singular siege the period of 
 each command was about as follows, viz. 
 
 Sir Peter Osborne, March 3, 1643, to May 28, 1646 3 years 3 months. 
 
 Sir Baldwin Wake, May 29, 1646, to May, 1649 3 „ „ 
 
 Unknown, about May, 1649, to Oct. 26, 1649 „ 5 „ 
 
 Colonel Burgess, Oct. 26, 1649, to Dec. 19, 1651 2 „ 2 „ 
 
 Total Syears lOmonths. 
 
 1649, February 22. — On this day, says Chevalier, there 
 arrived in Jersey a frigate of the parliament, named the Heart, 
 signifying in French Le Coeur ; she was considered the second 
 fastest sailing vessel in England, and it was she that had taken 
 a small frigate belonging to Sir George Carteret. The Heart 
 mounted ten guns. After the death of the king, part of the 
 crew, seeing how the parliamentarians had laid their sangui- 
 nary hands on the person of their sovereign, resolved to go 
 over to the Prince of Wales, holding the parliament in hor- 
 ror ; and they only awaited a favorable moment to eflPect 
 their purpose. One day, when they were at anchor in the 
 Downs, the captain and some of the crew went ashore, and 
 did not return that night. The royalist party at once availed 
 themselves of this opportunity, and sent those on shore in the 
 ship's boat who would not join them, having seized them 
 while asleep. They then immediately set sail for Jersey, with 
 a fine north-east wind. The frigate's crew consisted of 
 seventy or eighty men, of whom only twenty-two had secretly 
 resolved to take her to that island. The master was named 
 Collin, and him they made their captain ; among them was 
 the surgeon and the boatswain. Being arrived then opposite 
 Elizabeth Castle, and not knowing the entrance to the road- 
 stead of St. Aubin, they fired a gun as a signal for a pilot, 
 having no boat on board to come on shore for one. The 
 people of the castle seeing them tack, perceived that they 
 were strangers, but no one would venture on board, fearing 
 that she was a parliament ship designing to entrap them, and 
 perhaps to carry them away. At all hazards, however. Sir 
 George sent a Httle boat to them with three men of the castle, 
 
282 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 who were joyfully received on board, and allowed to take the 
 frigate to the roadstead. In entering, she saluted the fort 
 with nine guns, which the castle returned with five. Having 
 anchored, the master (now the captain) proceeded to the castle 
 with two or three of the principal officers, and, on leaving, 
 the ship saluted them with three guns. Sir George received 
 them with a hearty welcome, when they recounted their 
 doings, and said that they had come voluntarily to serve the 
 Prince of Wales, not approving of the manner in which 
 affairs were conducted in England. They offered their ser- 
 vices to Sir George, as well as the charge of the frigate, and 
 he at once appointed the said CoUin as her commander. Men 
 were immediately sent on board to prepare the ship, so that 
 she might proceed to Guernsey to endeavour to capture the 
 frigate which had taken the vraicking boats at the Pierres de 
 Lecq, and before the adhesion of this frigate to the prince, 
 now called by his loyal subjects Charles II., was known. 
 On the same day, Sir George also sent on board Captain 
 Skinner and Captain Bowden with abpve fifty men, so that 
 with her own crew the frigate had nearly eignty men, and, 
 at about seven o'clock in the evening, they set sail on the 
 very day of their arrival in Jersey. All that night tliey kept 
 on a wind, so as to get to windward of Guernsey, and in the 
 morning came round, as if arriving from England. Having 
 reached the bank, they saluted the town as they were accus- 
 tomed to do when they had been to convoy vessels to or from 
 St. Malo, and the townspeople knew her at once to be the 
 Heart. There was a frigate at anchor near Fermain, under 
 the guns of the land batteries, which was the one they were 
 in search of. Her crew, observing the Heart salute the 
 town, weighed anchor, that they might learn the news from 
 England. The Heart, while pretending to furl her sails, kept 
 drifting with the view of drawing the other frigate beyond the 
 reach of the land batteries, which having accomplisned, and 
 being now within musket shot, she hailed and fired a gun, 
 followed by a shower of musketry. On this the Guernsey 
 frigate made all sail towards the land ; but it was too late, 
 the Heart calling to her crew to strike, and firing incessantly 
 upon them with small shot. They called out : " We are on 
 your side ; " " We are from Guernsey ; " " We are for the 
 parliament." And the others answered : " We are for Charles 
 II. ;" " Strike for Charles II." The Guernseymen continued 
 making for the land, but the Heart had drawn them so far 
 that they could not escape her ; and seeing that they would 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 283 
 
 not strike, she ran her bowsprit into their rigging, by which 
 manoeuvre the head of their mainmast was broken and the 
 mast dismantled. At the same instant the Heart's crew 
 jumped on board, and became masters of the Httle frigate, 
 which had only thirteen men, the captain, (EfFard,) who was 
 a Jerseyman, and the remainder being on shore. Many 
 musket shots were fired at the prize ; but, although several 
 bullets lodged in her sides, she had none killed or wounded. 
 Her thirteen men were sent below, while the captors repaired 
 the sails to take her to Jersey ; of the prisoners, ten were 
 Guernseymen and three Jerseymen. This frigate was one of 
 those which the parliament had given to Guernsey to cruise 
 against the Jerseymen, and prevent their conveying supplies 
 to Castle Cornet. She had four guns, and was well armed 
 with muskets, carbines, pistols, swords, (fee, and was victualled 
 for six weeks for the twenty-two men who composed her 
 crew. She was the second of the three frigates given by the 
 parhament to Guernsey. The largest was commanded by 
 Captain Bonamy, of Guernsey, and the smallest by (captain 
 Lempriere, of Jersey. Bonamy was in England with his 
 frigate, and that of Lempriere was in St. Sampson's harbour ; 
 otherwise the latter would also have been captured and 
 brought to Jersey, the more as no suspicion was entertained 
 of the Heart. The two Jersey captains (EfFard and Lem- 
 priere) had sided with the parliamentarians at the commence- 
 ment of the troubles in Jersey, and had fled from the island 
 with the rest. When the commissioners came here, they 
 condemned them to death in their absence, and ever after- 
 wards they did their worst to the Jersey people, avenging 
 themselves on those who were not to blame. The prize was 
 called the Scout. Of the three Jerseymen on board. Sir 
 George sent two to the old castle, (Mont Orgueil,) and the 
 third entered the Heart to go cruising. Part of the Guern- 
 seymen also entered in the frigates, and the others were sent 
 to France, Sir George giving each " a piece of eight " to assist 
 them in returning home. — To return to the Guernsey frigate. 
 She was taken at about ten in the morning, in sight of the 
 garrison of Castle Cornet, who, being ignorant of the cause, 
 were greatly surprised to see a parliament frigate capture a 
 Guernsey one on the same side, the more as they recognized 
 the Heart, which they had often seen at anchor on the bank 
 near the castle. But when they observed both vessels steer- 
 ing for Jersey, they suspected that there had been some 
 stratagem. The two vessels arrived in Jersey at four o'clock 
 
284 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 the same day, and saluted the castle, the Heart with nhie 
 guns returned by five, and the Scout with three guns returned 
 by one. The former anchored in the Great Road, and the 
 prize was taken under St. Janne, which is the harbour of 
 Elizabeth Castle ; she was quite new, having been built the 
 preceding year, well equipped, and ready to sail to prowl 
 about Jersey and Chaussey, and to cruise for the vessels which 
 traded with St. Malo ; but she was prevented. Thus Captain 
 Effard lost his frigate, his commission, his clothes, and his 
 honour, for being so negligent in remaining so long ashore. 
 As to his men, when captured, they were as poorly clad as 
 one could see, and had not a sous in their purse ; but other- 
 wise they were powerful, robust, and determined men, refusing 
 to surrender and strike their sails, until compelled by force. 
 
 March 2. — Sir George sent the Heart frigate to cruise with 
 a crew of about eighty men, English and Jerseymen, on 
 Friday evening, the 2d of March ; and the next evening 
 she returned to Jersey with two prizes, viz. a Guernsey vessel 
 of thirty tons burthen, laden with Bordeaux wine and earthen- 
 ware, and an English vessel of sixty tons burthen, bound from 
 St. Malo, with a ballast of oysters in the shell for London, 
 where she belonged. These oysters, as well as the cargo of 
 the Guernsey vessel, were landed at JElizabeth Castle. 
 
 The Prince of Wales to Sir George Carteret, Bart. 
 
 Charles P. — Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. We 
 having some time since conferred the command of his majesty's 
 fleet upon our right dear and right entirely beloved cousin, Prince 
 Rupert, he hath, by his great industry and endeavour, brought 
 the same in a condition to be ready to set sail with the first oppor- 
 tunity, and hath instructions from us to put in at Jersey, and to 
 endeavour the reduction of Guernsey, if he shall have means to 
 attempt the same with probability of success. We entreat you, 
 therefore, not only to give him your best advice in that parti- 
 cular, but all the assistance you may, in case he shall think fit 
 to make any attempt upon the said island of Guernsey. 
 
 Given under our hand and seal, the 11th day of January, 
 [1649,] in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of the king our 
 royal father. 
 
 To our trusty and well-beloved Sir George Carteret, bart., 
 lieutenant-governor of the island of Jersey.* 
 
 Prince Rupert sailed from Helvoetsluys on the 21st of 
 January, 1649, with a squadron of eight ships, very weakly 
 manned, and passing through the straits of Dover with a 
 
 (1) From Warburton's Memoirs of Prince Rupert, vol. iii., page 881. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 285 
 
 Strong north-east wind, quickly arrived at the rendezvous, 
 Kinsale, in Ireland, where the prince first heard of the king's 
 death on the 30th of January. Part of the squadron was 
 dispatched to relieve the Scilly Islands, but Prince Rupert 
 never came to Jersey ; and after being blockaded nearly all 
 the summer in Kinsale, he set sail early the following winter 
 for Portugal, proceeding thence to the Mediterranean. 
 
 Whitelock, in his Memorials, July, 1649, says : " Letters 
 that 500 Irish were landed at Jersey, designed (as was ima- 
 gined) to second the plot for surprising Weymouth, Portland, 
 and other garrisons." Among them doubtless Guernsey. 
 
 Charles II. was at the Hague when his father was executed ; 
 but the Dutch, fearing the Commonwealth of England, were 
 soon anxious for his departure. Whither to go he knew not, 
 but at length he proceeded to St. Germain. Here he ex- 
 pected to hear daily of the taking of Dublin, which was in 
 possession of the parliament, and was besieged by the Marquis 
 of Ormonde. Being finally disappointed, Charles resolved 
 on spending the winter in Jersey, because, says Lord Claren- 
 don, " as the king had received no kind civility from France 
 since his last coming, so it was notorious enough that his 
 absence was impatiently desired by that court, though he had 
 not been in any degree chargeable to them." Charles, hoping 
 to receive in Jersey better news from Ireland, to enable him 
 to proceed thither, sent to his brother-in-law, the Prince of 
 Orange, '' that he would cause two ships of war to ride in the 
 rode before St. Maloes," to be at his disposal. " These ships 
 did wait his pleasure there accordingly." But, on hearing of 
 Cromwell's successes in Ireland, the king dismissed these two 
 Dutch ships. Falle, after mentioning that Charles in his per- 
 plexity determined on coming to Jersey, adds, without giving 
 the day, month, or year : " It was in autumn that his majesty 
 came to us, and he staid with us till the spring following. As he 
 found us the same dutiful people, so we him the same easy, 
 humane, affable prince ; which perhaps needed not be men- 
 tioned, it being the known character that distinguished him 
 all his life. None were denied access to him, neither did he 
 disdain invitations and entertainments from our little gentry, 
 whom of himself he would sometimes honour with a visit at 
 their habitations, as he rode about the island ; with all parts 
 of which he grew so well acquainted, that (having some skill 
 in the mathematicks) he drew a map of it with his own hand, 
 intending no doubt to keep the same in remembrance of a 
 
286 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 place where he had enjoyed more peace and quiet than 
 hitherto any where else within or without his dominions. The 
 map at present is, I know not how, got into the Hear Van 
 Aldershelm's Cabinet of Curiosities at Leipsic, in Saxony, 
 where it is shewn to travellers.^ At his first being here, he 
 had given order for the construction of a fort, to be in the 
 nature of an outwork to Elizabeth Castle, w^hich finding now 
 perfected, he would have it called by his own name, Charles' 
 Fort. It has been since incorporated with the castle, by 
 enclosing with walls and ramparts a long shp of ground which 
 parted them." 
 
 On Monday, 17th of September, 1649, writes Chevalier, 
 Charles II., king of England, arrived happily in Jersey for 
 the second time,' having come the first time on the 17th of 
 April, 1646. He was in Holland when the fatal blow was 
 inflicted on his father, and then came to join his mother, the 
 queen, in France. The two Dutch ships, which had brought 
 Sir George Carteret from St. Malo, were held in readiness in 
 the roadstead to go for the king, but were detained by con- 
 trary winds, and there only went for his majesty the privateer 
 of Captain Sedlethon, a new vessel of Captain Barnet, and a 
 Fleming, who had come to Jersey to get a commission to 
 cruise against the parliament ships. These three vessels, 
 mounting but three guns each, were accompanied by sixteen 
 or eighteen boats. Captain Bowden had had the honour of 
 carrying the prince from Jersey to France, and he now had 
 the honour of bringing him, as king, from France to Jersey. 
 Captain Bowden commanded a barge of eighteen oars and 
 two swivels, well armed also with muskets, carbines, pistols, 
 and swords, which had been built for the prince when he first 
 visited Jersey, and she was sent to convey the king on board 
 Captain Sedlethon's privateer, which was intended for his 
 reception. The king, with his brother, the Duke of York, 
 and a few noblemen, embarked on board the barge at Cou- 
 tainville, a place on the coast of Normandy, about two leagues 
 from Coutances ; and as the sea was smooth and the wind 
 favorable, his majesty preferred crossing ' in the barge, which 
 was of only four tons burthen, and was escorted by the three 
 vessels. The royal party arrived happily at four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, when his majesty was saluted by the two Dutch ships 
 in the roads with twenty -seven guns from one, and twenty- 
 
 (1) Dr. Brown's Travels, p. 172. 
 
 (2) Charles II. at this time was only nineteen years of age. 
 
 (3) The distance across was about twenty-seven English statute miles. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 287 
 
 two guns from the other ; and the three vessels which had 
 escorted the king fired three guns each. When his majesty 
 entered EUzabeth Castle, it saluted him with twenty-one 
 guns and a volley of musketry, and Fort Charles fired three 
 guns. The king, his brother, and some of the lords remained 
 at the castle. When the evening came, bonfires were lighted 
 all over Jersey on the heights within sight of the castle ; and 
 soon after the cannon were fired by all the twelve parishes, 
 as also volleys of musketry, and the bells were rung every- 
 where until midnight, the whole in great rejoicing, to cele- 
 brate the arrival of our sovereign lord the king, Charles II., 
 among us in this his island of Jersey, and who possesses only 
 this poor island, Scilly, and the Isle of Man. Guernsey, on 
 the contrary, has rejected her king, his ordinances and com- 
 mands, having turned to the stronger side, according to human 
 appearances ; while Jersey has obeyed the voice which says : 
 " Fear God, honour the king." In Guernsey, there is only 
 the castle which holds /or the king, the which is separated 
 from the land, and the Guernseymen have done their best to 
 prevent its being victualled, thinking by famine to reduce it 
 for the parliament. 
 
 September 18. — The day after the arrival of the king, the 
 boats, which had brought his attendants and baggage, returned 
 to fetch the horses and carriages : there were 120 horses, three 
 coaches, and two waggons. On this day also there came two 
 parliamentary frigates, sent from Guernsey, where the salutes 
 for the king's arrival had been heard ; these frigates came 
 almost within gun shot of Elizabeth Castle to spy and discover 
 what vessels there were in Jersey. 
 
 September 19. — The day following, which was Wednesday, 
 the two frigates returned, with four other frigates and two 
 large ships, before the castle, to shew themselves, so that the 
 king, the Duke of York, and the lords in attendance, might 
 see the bravadoes which they made. They were ships which 
 had arrived in Guernsey on the Monday that the king arrived 
 in Jersey, and had been sent from England to protect Guern- 
 sey, because they feared that the king would send forces to 
 reduce it. Shortly before these ships came tacking in front of 
 the castle, the boats arrived there with the coaches, and Cap- 
 tain Sedlethon, who was the convoy, came behind, ranging 
 along the land close to the rocks ; the frigates fired some 
 guns at him, which he returned, both without effect, as they 
 were not within cannon shot. They anchored at night under 
 St. Ouen's, and returned the next day to renew their brava- 
 
288 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 does before the castle ; nevertheless, they could do nothing 
 against the vessels which had escorted the king. 
 
 It is surprising that Falle, in his History of Jersey, the first 
 edition of which was published only forty -five years after the 
 second arrival of Charles in that island, did not enter more 
 into detail relative to his sojourn there, as such details could 
 then have been easily obtained. Happily, the omission has 
 been in some measure supplied by Chevalier, a most minute 
 and industrious chronicler. Charles is said to have left a 
 gold stick and a gold spur with the family of De Carteret, to 
 be used whenever any member of the royal family visited 
 Jersey : he left also a brace of holsters, a horse cloth, a pair 
 of gloves, and a table cover, at the house of Mr. Ehas Duma- 
 resq. The last of his name, who held these relics, was an old 
 lady, who died in the summer of 1840. 
 
 " The king, with the Duke of York, about the beginning 
 of September, repaired to the isle of Jersey. After he had 
 * settled' the affairs of that island, he had an eye upon redu- 
 cing the island of Guernsey, which was then under the parlia- 
 ment's power ; but Castle Cornet, the chiefest fort thereof, 
 was under his authority. A very gracious declaration, after 
 several insinuations, was sent into the island ; but it proved 
 ineffectual, for Russell, the governor for the English Common- 
 wealth, had got 500 fresh men into it." — Baker s Chronicle. 
 
 By a commission from " Thomas Lord Fairfax, lord general 
 of all the land forces under the pay of the parliament in 
 England, Wales, and in the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, 
 and in the town of Berwick," dated October 22, 1649, Colonel 
 Alban Coxe^ was appointed governor of Guernsey "in the 
 absence of the present governor, Colonel Russell," and was 
 required " to make his present repair to the said island." 
 In another commission of the same date from Lord Fairfax, 
 Colonel Coxe was authorized "from time to time, so often 
 as occasion shall require, to call courts martial of commission 
 officers under his command, (yourself being president,) and 
 according to the laws and ordinances of war, to proceed to 
 sentence and execution against such as shall offend against 
 the said laws and ordinances, provided that if the sentence of 
 the court shall extend to the taking away of limb or life, that 
 in such case you suspend the execution until you have trans- 
 mitted the proceedings of the court sealed up to the judge 
 advocate of the army, and my pleasure known therein." 
 
 (1) These and the following particulars relative to this officer are extracted from his 
 papers and letters in the British Museum. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 289 
 
 October. — At this time it pleased the king, with the advice 
 of his council, to give Milord Percy the government of Castle 
 Cornet, to take care of it and to aid Sir George, so that 
 nothing might be wanting for its supply. Milord Percy sent, 
 with the king's authority, a lieutenant-governor, whom before 
 going the king knighted ; he was called Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Burgess,^ and he left in the night on the 25th of October, in 
 a new shallop, which was well laden with provisions, and 
 arrived the same night. She was very welcome, and the 
 garrison and crew rejoiced together, drinking healths and 
 firing several cannon. The shallop returned to Jersey on 
 the night of Saturday the 28th, bringing from the castle six 
 men ill with scurvy ; they had their legs, and even their 
 faces, swollen for want of fresh victuals and good beverage. 
 The said castle was neglected through the hatred which existed 
 between Sir George and Sir Baldwin Wake, who had pre- 
 viously been the governor, and had gone to seek the prince, 
 who gave him money ; but Sir Baldwin never returned, and 
 it is not known what became of him, whether he was drowned 
 or otherwise. — Chevalier. 
 
 John Bradshawe, President of the Council of State, to Colonel Alban Coxe. 
 
 " By several informations, we are satisfied of the great neces- 
 sity that the forces^ under your command, appointed for Guernsey, 
 should with all expedition be transported thither. We therefore 
 desire you to make your present repair to Weymouth,* to hasten 
 their embarking; and for what remains to be done for your 
 victual here, or any other provision, we desire you to leave the 
 care thereof to some other here, by whom it may be dispatched 
 and sent about by sea to meet you there, for we would not have 
 you lose so much time as to attend yourself about it. 
 
 " Signed in the name and by order of the council of state 
 appointed by authority of parliament. 
 
 " J. Bradshawe, President. 
 /* Whitehall, November 10, 1649." 
 
 From, the same to the same. 
 
 " By late letters received from Guernsey, we see how neces- 
 sary it is that all possible expedition should be used for the 
 transportation of those men into Guernsey which are appointed 
 thither under your command. The treasurers have been spoken 
 with, who inform me they have furnished the money. We there- 
 
 (1) Colonel Burgess was the officer who surrendered the castle, in December, 1651. 
 
 (2) These forces consisted of five companies, each of one hundred privates, exclusive of 
 officers and non-commissioned officers. 
 
 (3) Weymouth appears to have been then considered, as it is still, the best port of com- 
 munication between England and these islands. 
 
290 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 fore desire you to lose no time, but forthwith apply yourself to 
 Colonel Popham/ and upon conference with him for your better 
 dispatch, to repair to the place where the shipping is ready for 
 you, and transport yourself and men without any further delay. 
 " Whitehall, November 12, 1649." 
 
 Colonel Alban Coxe to President Bradshawe. 
 
 " My Lord, — I suppose it may be imputed to my slowness 
 that I yet remain here, and therefore am bold to give your honor 
 this short attempt, that I may continue my reputation with your 
 lordship and that thrice honorable council whom you represent. 
 
 " My Lord, — Our provisions and other necessaries have been 
 long a ship board ; nothing to do, if the wind come fair, but get 
 aboard ourselves; and it was Saturday last, about twelve at noon, 
 before the ship I was enforced to hire here (which carries our 
 provisions and one company) could get out of the harbour into 
 the road ; the wind then coming fair, I presently sent order to 
 march on Sunday morning, by five of the clock. The companies 
 were here and ready to embark ; but the weather being foul and 
 the wind contrary, I was enforced to remand them back to their 
 quarters. I shall be diligent in the performance of the States' 
 weighty service, and endeavour at all times to improve myself, 
 my lord, &c. 
 
 " Melcomb Regis, December 18, 1649." 
 
 " Enacted in the States, [of Ouernsey,'] the ^th of January, 1649. [1650.] 
 
 " The Colonel Cox, Esq., governor of the island of Guernsey, 
 having represented to the States (convened for the hearing of his 
 commission) that it was needful that lodging and accomodation 
 should be presently provided for five companies of soldiers, sent 
 by the parliament in this island,' and desiring that three of them 
 should quarter in the town and places adjacent, one in St. Mar- 
 tin's and places near it, the rest in the Castel, St. Sampson, and 
 the Vale ; it hath been ordained and resolved, that the quartering 
 of the said soldiers shall be made according to the desire of the 
 said governor, without prejudice to the "wright'* {sic) of the 
 said parishes for the time to come ; and because that the parishes 
 of St. Saviour, St. Peter, Torteval, Forest, and St. Andrew, are 
 for the first time freed of the said lodging, it is ordered that the 
 constables of the said parishes shall presently furnish as many 
 beds, with their appurtenances, as they are bound, according to 
 
 (1) After the execution of the king, one of the earliest acts of the council of state was 
 the removal of the Earl of Warwick from the post of high admiral, and the appointment 
 of Blake, Dean, and Popham, to command the fleet. 
 
 (2) •* 1650, January 10. — The ship which carried the souldiers unto Guernsey, returned 
 to the general rendezvous of the ships at Stokes Bay." — "January is. Letters that the 
 forces landed in Guernsey wanted accommodations of beds, &c., and were fain to lye in a 
 church ever since they were landed." — ** That two frigates of the prince prepared from 
 Jersey to attempt Guernsey, hearing of the parliament's souldiers there, were presently 
 diverted."— WAi/e/ocAf'* Memorials. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 291 
 
 the rates and proportion of the number of soldiers that they should 
 have lodged, according [to] the list delivered them this day for 
 the purpose, which beds they shall bring in town to-morrow at 
 noon, part of them to serve in the town for the surplus of their 
 number, and the rest for the parishes above named ; for the per- 
 formance of which the said constables are commanded not to fail 
 in the time above said, as they shall answer to their peril to the 
 said governpr. 
 
 " It hath been ordained this day that the English shilling, 
 being worth twelve pence sterling, shall go in this island for 
 twelve sols tournois in payment and receipt, and other species of 
 English money to (sic) proportion ; being prohibited and defended 
 to all inhabitants and strangers to refuse it to the said price upon 
 pain to answer the infraction of the said ordinance, which shall be 
 published, that none should pretend cause of ignorance." 
 
 Colonel Roger Burgess to Colonel Alban Coxe. 
 
 " Sir, — As concerning the castle, [Cornet,] I am here entrusted 
 by his majesty to keep it to whom of right it belongs, and for 
 whom I will keep it against all power whatsoever that shall 
 oppose it. This is my absolute resolution, so that you may sur- 
 cease from any further message of this nature. 
 
 ** I rest vour servant, 
 
 " January the 9th, 1649." [1650.] ' " Roger Burgess. 
 
 Colonel Russell, writing to the council of state, in pursu- 
 ance of its orders of November 10, 1649, requiring him to 
 give an account of the state of Guernsey, said, that in July, 
 1643, he took upon him the government of the island, and 
 found the people ready for any impression ; but, since the 
 king's death, he had " been as a lambe amongst wolves at the 
 mercy of the islanders," some he won over, others he awed, 
 but many of late had been seduced by a few factious spirits, 
 which, for the securing of Guernsey, had made him importu- 
 nate for soldiers. He adds, that the revenue and casual pro- 
 fits had been employed in the service of the parliament, and 
 found all deficient ; and yet he wanted not accusers, as if he 
 had enriched himself by the island, whereas indeed it had 
 impoverished him : that since the comii^ of the commis- 
 sioners the remedy had been in effect worse than the disease, 
 as the revenue was immediately suspended, and two of them, 
 viz. IMr. Wall and IMr. Frith, had acted with and for the 
 mutineers, who had assembled the States without orders from 
 him or the court, released persons imprisoned by him, at- 
 tempted to seize packets, &c. " The chief managers of that 
 faction here are not above seven, viz. IMr. Bonamy, IMr. J. 
 
292 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Carey, Mr. Gosselin, Dobree, Andrew Monamy, Mr. de la 
 Place, and Mr. Charles de la Marche ; the rest are venal 
 instruments, as Henry de la Marche and Mr. Haviland : 
 this I shall assert upon my life and honour, that had not I im- 
 portuned, and the parliament speedily sent, forces, the island, 
 through the divisions, had been possessed by the enemy." . . . 
 " The chief actors in the last meeting were Mr. Bonamy and 
 Mr. Gosselin, whom I had sent up had my power equalled 
 my authority, and Colonel Coxe affirmed his authority did 
 not look backwards. I shall conclude all in a word — for 
 near seven years' service they have rewarded me with dis- 
 obedience and ingratitude ; and now they contend not what 
 power they obey, but that they may enjoy universal liberty." 
 Russell, who by his own shewing was in the wrong, as 
 otherwise the two commissioners and Colonel Coxe would 
 have supported him, concluded his statement as follows : 
 
 *' My opinion I humbly present : 
 
 ** 1. That the forces intended for the * straights' ^ should first 
 attempt Jersey, that being of most consequence in rela- 
 tion to England and France. It may done ohiter or in 
 the way and suddenly, the islanders being more terrified 
 by a good fleet than a great army. 
 
 "2. Guernsey castle will hardly be taken till then. 
 
 "3. Should Rupert's ships escape and leave their men in 
 Jersey, the place would be invincible. 
 
 " 4. And my humble desire is, that the said chief mutineers 
 may be sent for to answer their misdemeanours before 
 your honours." 
 
 When, in 1644, the islanders rose in arms against Russell, 
 as mentioned in Chapter XII., he engaged by a written agree- 
 ment, dated November 22 of that year, that as it was reported 
 he had sent to England for troops, he declared and protested 
 that he had not done, or would not do, so. He appears to 
 have been as incapable as he was mercenary and faithless. 
 
 December 15. — On Friday night, the 14th and 15th of 
 December, the king and his council dispatched in great haste 
 a boat laden with provisions for Castle Cornet, having learnt 
 that the last boat sent by them had been wrecked and broken 
 to pieces against the rocks near the said castle ; but the crew 
 and a part of the provisions were saved, as were the remains 
 of the shallop, which was of the burthen of seven tons ; and 
 all saved was taken to the castle. With the remains of this 
 
 (1) This apparently alludes to the fleet under Blake and Popham, which was sent to the 
 Mediterranean in pursuit of Prince Rupert. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 293 
 
 shallop and other timber, a boat of four tons burthen was 
 constructed, with which some of the garrison went twice dur- 
 ing the night to the little island of Herm, the only resident 
 on which was a farmer, with his wife and children, who 
 tended the cattle which the Guernseymen sent there to fatten. 
 The first trip, they killed some cows, which were cut up in 
 quarters and carried on board the boat, and then taken to 
 Castle Cornet. The second trip, they brought away three or 
 four head of horned cattle, so that in the two trips they took 
 nine head of oxen, cows, and young beasts. The farmer had 
 orders from the Guernseymen to make them a signal with 
 fire, if he were molested by any one ; but the men in the boat 
 made him promise not to make the signal until they had 
 reached the castle the second time, or otherwise they would 
 return and carry him to Jersey, as they had done once before. 
 This he promised to do, and only made the signal when he 
 thought they had arrived at the castle. The Guernseymen, 
 seeing the signal, went over to Herm with their pataches, but 
 too late. The said boat came to Jersey with the hides of the 
 cattle and the dog of the farmer ; the crew had left Jersey 
 with their shallop, which was quite new, on the 26th of 
 November, and they returned to Jersey on the night between 
 the 14th and 15th of December, which was the same night 
 that the last boat left Jersey for Castle Cornet ; but they did 
 not perceive each other. The last boat arrived safely, and 
 discharged her provisions without being incommoded by any 
 one ; she returned on the 19th instant. These two boats, 
 being at anchor in the haven of Elizabeth Castle, were both 
 knocked to pieces by bad weather during the night of the 
 23d of December.^ — Chevalier. 
 
 " December, 1649. — Letters from Guernsey complaining 
 of the want of ships for securing that island, and relating the 
 French news." — Whitelock's Memorials. 
 
 From two documents which have very recently come to 
 light, it would appear that the islanders attributed the con- 
 tinued resistance of Castle Cornet, in some measure, to an 
 absence of zeal or capacity in the parliamentary officers in 
 Guernsey, as about the year 1650, Captains Bonamy, De 
 Havilland, and Guille, with fourteen lieutenants and sergeants 
 of the different militia companies, which were not then em- 
 
 (1) At this period there was no harbour at St. Helier, and, according to Chevalier, the 
 Jersey shipping, employed in the Newfoundland trade, wintered in his time at St. Malo, 
 for want of a safe harbour in that island. Mr. Dumaresq, who wrote in 1685, says : " There 
 Is a small pier unfinished under the castle walls, (Elizabeth's,) at the east end, by a sally 
 port, where the castle boats are usually kept, and where greater vessels may be safe, but 
 the entrance is narrow and dangerous, though good enough for boats." 
 
294 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 bodied into regiments, signed a memorial or remonstrance to 
 Major Harrison, the acting lieut.-governor, setting forth that 
 they had certain information of the feebleness of the garrison 
 of Castle Cornet, as much from the few soldiers therein as 
 from their sickness, and want of food, ammunition, and lodg- 
 ing, in consequence of which they were reduced to despair, 
 and rendered incapable of standing an assault ; that the re- 
 monstrants, moreover, had ascertained, by the way of France, 
 that great preparations were making in Jersey to relieve the 
 castle with men, provisions, ammunition, and vessels of war. 
 The remonstrants, therefore, with the consent of a sufficient 
 number of the inhabitants, who volunteered to effect the 
 reduction of the castle, requested permission to make the 
 assault, and to be furnished with the ladders which had been 
 sent for that purpose from England ; in which case they 
 bound themselves to storm the castle in a few days, to the 
 end that the troubles and inconveniences, which the inha- 
 bitants had so long sustained, might cease, and that their zeal 
 and affection to the parliament might be manifested. This 
 assault, we believe, is that mentioned in the second document 
 before us, from which we make the following extracts : " That 
 the storming of Castle Cornet was undertaken the first week 
 of April last, to the loss of the liberties, lives, and health of 
 many soldiers, which for certain had avoided so great an evil, 
 had they had as careful, vigilant, and understanding com- 
 manders as they were obedient and courageous soldiers." .... 
 " The truth is, that Castle Cornet was in great distress, and 
 unable to abide a storm, by reason of the paucity, weakness, 
 and manifold discouragement of the soldiers therein. This is 
 true, by the relation of divers men from the said castle in- 
 forming the same things at several times, as they were taken 
 in boats upon the sea, or as they escaped and rendered to the 
 island, and besides, by the very confession of the castle men, 
 at and after the time of the storm. But the opportunity was 
 neglected for many weeks, which sore vexed the inhabitants, 
 who saw the parliament's service and their own deliverance 
 neglected ; wherefore, with real intentions and in great num- 
 bers, they offered and prepared themselves to subdue their 
 long, cruel, and very insensible enemy ; whereupon the com- 
 manders over soldiers were ashamed, and resolved to venture 
 upon the castle, yet in such a manner that they suffered boats 
 to depart the island, whereby the Jerseymen had intelligence 
 of their design and preparations, and therefore sent relief to 
 the said castle tliree or four days before the said storm. And 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 295 
 
 besides, the said commanders shortened and weakened the 
 parliament's ladders that they were unfit for service." — The 
 document proceeds to state that the attack was made at night 
 and at an improper time of tide, so that, by the desertion of 
 the boatmen who ferried the assailants over, the latter were 
 unable to return after the attack had failed. It next denies 
 an assertion, which might prevent further attempts, that the 
 castle, with three score men, could keep out three thousand, 
 "it being ordinary for those that are beaten to extol and 
 magnify their enemy, that their disgrace may seem the less." 
 " And, in truth, Castle Cornet is strong but little, and is com- 
 manded by the island, and the houses therein may be beaten 
 down to the ground, and breaches made in the wall And 
 some sides and parts of the castle are without flankers and 
 considerable strength. Besides, if it be not accessible by 
 land, many boats may pass soldiers with equal, if not with 
 better, speed." And, evidently in allusion to the military 
 authorities, the document concluded thus : " God and the 
 parliament send better men into Guernsey than those which 
 hitherto have had the managing of affairs therein." 
 
 We can nowhere discover what was the numerical strength 
 of the garrison of Castle Cornet while it was defended by 
 Sir Peter Osborne ; but, judging from implication and from 
 the difficulty which he experienced in obtaining provisions, 
 we doubt if it ever exceeded three score, or at most four 
 score, men at arms, of all ranks. Under Sir Baldwin Wake, 
 in December, 1646, the garrison, according to Chevalier, 
 amounted to ninety men, while we learn from Le Roy that 
 the number was reduced to fifty-five men, when the castle 
 surrendered five years afterwards. The islet, even with its 
 probably additional tanks, appears now incapable of supply- 
 ing more than one hundred men with water, a want of which is 
 so much to be dreaded by a beleaguered garrison, as indeed 
 it was by Sir Baldwin Wake in the summer of 1646. In the 
 following instructions as to the best means of reducing Guern- 
 sey, it will be seen that Sir Peter states that the castle was 
 then rendered incapable of lodging more than three score 
 soldiers, or of holding provisions for as many men as would 
 be thought requisite by a coup de main to surprise the town. 
 These instructions are without date, but they appear to have 
 been written in March or April, 1646, and to have been 
 addressed either to Lord Colepepper or to Lord Jermyn, in 
 Paris, as we gather from Mr. John Osborne's letter to his 
 father, dated St. Malo, March J^ of that year. 
 
296 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 [o] 
 " The number of men required for the reducing of this island, 
 and to secure it reduced, can be no fewer than eight hundred 
 men, furnished with able officers, expert pylots, and good land 
 guides ; no considerable partie lyke to appeare for the king ; if 
 any do, it wil be feare that brings them in, rather than love. 
 Let not this number be thought too greate, since the busines is 
 not with the islanders alone, but backt with the parliament of 
 Engl., that will not loose theire footing they have gotten heere. 
 
 " The best place for landing is, in my opinion, the shore under 
 the windmill of the Vale, somewhat to the right hand of the 
 hougue called Boulevert La Pere. It lyes between the towne 
 and the castle of the Vale. But it is a shore full of rocks, and 
 will not admit ships to come neere, insomuch that all must be 
 done with shalupes. For the guard of this place, there is onely 
 one peice that lyes upon it to impeach a landing. 
 
 " The tyme can not be prescribed, but must be referred to 
 honest and good pylots, if such may be found ; the wyndes, and 
 especially the tydes, that runne strongly heere, being in that 
 matter of cheife consideration. 
 
 " But the event of this attempt being uncertayne, least all be 
 hassarded at once, the principal! thing requisite to be first done 
 is to have this castle well and plentifully supplyed in all kindes 
 for a twelvemonth, and to put in threscore men for the increase 
 of the guarison, and to give opportunity for the releife and refresh- 
 ing of those that have languished under the miseries of so long a 
 seige ; that so this important fort may be sure to be kept safe for 
 his majesti till an other essay, in case the first attempt fayle. 
 
 ** That a considerable and sufficient sum be made over hether 
 for the payment of the souldiers that have not receaved one penie 
 of pay these three yeares, of which they growe now dispayrefull, 
 and to encourage the fresh men that shall be put in, as lyke wise 
 to hyre boates, and reward such as bring provisions, and for 
 other services. 
 
 ** Now, in answer to your lordship's further demands, I con- 
 ceave that, from the castle may be given but small assistance to 
 the reducing of the island, it chiefly serving to command the 
 rode and the entrance into the peire, and made now uncapable to 
 lodge more than threscore souldiers, or to hold provisions for the 
 Bustentation of so many men as may be thought meete by saly to 
 surprise the towne, the lowe water not allowing more for the 
 attempt and the retreate than two hours, and not alwayse so much. 
 ** The ships necessary for this business may be estimated best 
 by the number of the men they shall be appoynted to transport, 
 and the ships there enemies may have here to encounter them, 
 or may be lyke to increase upon the alarme given in England. 
 **Tlie action would [? should] be wholly committed to English, 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 297 
 
 both for commanders and souldiers. The islanders never lyke to 
 submit to the French,^ it being also dangerous to do it by that 
 nation that pretend a clayme, and therefore to be suspected they 
 will not yeild up there conquest, but keepe what they get. And 
 the naturall animosity betweene the islanders of Guernsey and 
 Jersey is so well knowne, that I believe it would make those, 
 that might els yeild, more obstinate to resist to the uttermost any 
 of Jersey that shall endeavour to reduce them, * for I knowe 
 'one^ who hath suffered for the king's cause, and whose hart is 
 
 * his, hath solemnly protested that his hart is so agaynst those of 
 'Jersey, that, if they should attempt it, he would returne into 
 ' Guernesey to joyne and dy with his countrimen in theyre re- 
 
 * sistance.' ' 
 
 " At one and the same tyme (for it must be then about high 
 water) some ship, under the command of a resolute and good 
 seaman, would [should] be designed to run directly within the 
 peere, (exposed to the hassard to come of [off] as she can,) that 
 may amaze and distract those of the towne, and give the more 
 liberty to the landing of the men under the wyndmill of the Vale. 
 In lyke manner, another ship, under a brave and expert com- 
 mander, to be appoynted at the same instant to runne into the 
 harbour at the castle of the Vale, which, being altogether put in 
 execution, with the blessing of God, will carry the business. 
 
 " Lastly, that consideration be had of provision and victuall 
 for the souldiers to be kept in garrison to master the islanders, 
 and for the resistance of such forces the parliament will certainly 
 send, for in respect the island is not able of itself to feed so many 
 mouths that will be then put upon them to nourish besydes in- 
 habitants. 
 
 Endorsed : ** My father's directions how to reduce the island." 
 
 The animosity between the sister islands, referred to in 
 these instructions, although certainly any thing but natural, 
 doubtless existed, and at this time must have been increased 
 by pohtical differences. That animosity has happily long 
 since disappeared, because, in consequence of a more frequent 
 intercourse, the islanders are better known to each other, 
 although perhaps there always was, and is still, a spirit of 
 rivalry between them. As Guernsey has outlived her com- 
 mercial superiority, partly because, as IMr. Inglis expresses 
 
 (1) Captain Marryat, in the "King's Own," says: "But, Debriseau, are you not a 
 native of Guernsey, which is part of the British dominions ? " — " Bah ! it's all one, mon 
 ami ; we islanders are like the bat in the fable, beast or bird, as it suits us, — we belong to 
 either country ; for my part, I have a strong natural affection for both." Sir Peter Osborne, 
 it seems, thought otherwise, and assuredly this little sally at the national indifference of 
 the Anglo-Norman Islanders is more humorous than just. 
 
 (2) Mr. Amias Andros was probably the individual alluded to. 
 
 (3) The passage in inverted commas is crossed out in the rough draft of these instruc- 
 tions, and was evidently omitted in the fair copy. 
 
298 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 it, " there is less work and more play than in Jersey ; less of 
 the business of life and more of its elegancies ;" and to this 
 remark we regret to add, that the former island rivals many 
 Roman Catholic countries in the number of its holidays and 
 idle processions ; while Jersey, since the peace of 1815, has, 
 much to her credit, taken a very decided start of Guernsey ^ 
 in navigation and trade, enterprise and prosperity, notwith- 
 standing she is more embayed, has a less secure roadstead, and 
 possesses fewer natural capabilities for the contruction of a 
 pier, — art thus triumphing over nature ; and as it is only since 
 the plying of steamers, and the presence of a far greater 
 number of British residents, that Jersey is becoming more 
 English than Guernsey^ — it may not, therefore, be thought 
 invidious to conclude that the reason why the Guernseymen 
 of the civil war would have fought against the Jerseymen 
 with greater obstinacy, was, that they considered them as 
 more French than themselves, and as less advanced in com- 
 fort and civilization. In this conclusion we are borne out by 
 Heylin, already quoted, as also by the late Mr. Chenevix, an 
 acute observer, who resided in these islands during the years 
 1814-15, and who, in his Essay upon National Character, ob- 
 served : " Among the islands depending upon England, the 
 character of none are more worthy of notice than those of 
 Jersey and Guernsey. The former is more warm and fertile, 
 and slants towards the south ; the latter is poorer, and its grand 
 declivity fronts the north. Jersey is more vain — Guernsey 
 more proud. Both retain traces of their former French con- 
 nection, particularly among the lower orders, but Jersey by 
 much the most : both have acquired many characteristics of 
 their modern British dependence, but Guernsey more than 
 Jersey. — Jersey is the France, Guernsey the England, of 
 these islands ; and few countries unite so much affluence and 
 prosperity to so large a stock of morals and simplicity as the 
 latter." And Dicey, who wrote in 1751, says : "The people 
 [of Guernsey and Jersey] in their original language ahke 
 also ; but in their customs and manners, the inhabitants of 
 Guernsey come nearer the fashions of the English." Speak- 
 
 (1) The author of this history endeavoured, in 1837, to explain the causes of this changre 
 in the fourth volume of the Guernsey and Jersey Magazine, under the head of " Commerce 
 of Guernsey." In 1851, he paid a short visit to Jersey, and was astonished at the immense 
 improvements •which had been made in the environs of St. Holier since the year 1840. 
 The present rising greiieration will scarcely believe that in 1820, when he first visited Jersey, 
 St. Peter-Port was a far gayer and a more bustling and commercial town than St. Holier, 
 part of the Newfoundland trade being then carried on from St. Aubiu. 
 
 (2) We, however, greatly question whether becoming more English be desirable for 
 either Island, as English manners and habits have generated, and will continue to gene- 
 rate, an English scale of expenditure, quite Incompatible with their equal laws of inhe- 
 ritance. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 299 
 
 ing of Guernsey, in 1834, Inglis said : "In fact, the people 
 of all ranks are more English." As the members of an 
 ancient but decayed family love to look back on the import- 
 ance and respectability of their ancestors, so Guernseymen 
 may perhaps be excused if they still cling to the by-gone 
 better days of their forefathers. 
 
 1650. — On Saturday, the 2d of February, the boat which 
 the king had sent on Thursday with provisions for Castle 
 Cornet, returned safely to Jersey, bringing (^olonel Burgess, 
 who came to speak to his majesty and to receive his com- 
 mands. In leaving Guernsey, they were pursued and attacked 
 by a patache, sent on their track by the Guernseymen ; this 
 patache had a small cannon and two swivels, with some twenty 
 men on board, and that of Jersey had only eleven men, who 
 defended themselves valiantly, fighting for three hours en 
 braves, and by good fortune had none killed or wounded ; 
 they did not know whether the Guernseymen had any or not. 
 However, by their courage they escaped the clutches of these 
 rebels to their king. — Chevalier. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 13th of February, the king of England, 
 Charles II., left Jersey, between nine and ten in the morning, 
 for France, on his way to Holland, according to his promise 
 to the Scotch commissioners, who had arrived in Jersey on 
 the 6th of December last. The king embarked in his barge 
 from Elizabeth (>astle, to go on board Captain Amy's frigate, 
 which awaited him in the roads. The Duke of York and 
 Sir George Carteret attended the king to the frigate ; and 
 when she was ready to get under sail, the duke took leave of 
 his brother, the king, upon which they embraced each other 
 tenderly three times, with tears in their eyes. The duke and 
 Sir George returned to the castle, the frigate having got 
 under weigh for France, with a fresh south-west wind, but no 
 salute was fired either from the castle or the frigate. The 
 king arrived happily on the coast of Normandy at three 
 o'clock ; he had sojourned in Jersey four months and twenty- 
 six days, which made one hundred and forty-nine days, having 
 left on the one hundred and fiftieth day of his arrival. The 
 king, at his departure, appointed the Duke of York governor 
 of Jersey, and Sir George his lieutenant ; my Lord Jermyn 
 having ceded the government to the duke by an agreement 
 between the king and himself. The king also gave to the 
 duke the government of Castle Cornet and of the island of 
 Guernsey, when it should please God to place him on the 
 throne. — Chevalier. 
 
300 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 The preceding mention of Lord Jermyn's name induces 
 us to notice a charge of treachery which has been brought 
 against him by Berry. — This nobleman is accused of lending 
 himself to a design of the French, in 1646, to take possession 
 of both Jersey and Guernsey by means of 2,000 men, to be 
 sent from France for the ostensible purpose of reducing the 
 latter island for the king of England ; and, as a reward for 
 his perfidy. Lord Jermyu was to receive a dukedom and 
 200,000 pistoles. To counteract his reported intrigues for 
 this object, an association was entered into in Jersey by Lord 
 Capel, Sir Edward Hyde, Sir Ralph Hopton, and Sir George 
 Carteret, the articles of which are given in the Clarendon 
 State Papers, II., 279. Whitelock also mentions that there 
 was an intention of selling these islands to France, and Mr. 
 John Osborne, writing from Rouen, about October, 1646, to 
 his father. Sir Peter, said : " It is secretly whispered here, 
 but it is publicly talked of in Paris, that both the islands are 
 to be delivered to the French, and my Lord Jermyn is to be 
 made duke and peer of France. This intelligence I have 
 from a very good friend of yours and mine when I was in Sr. 
 (sic.) Now Dunkirk is taken, if they should have the islands, 
 they would be masters of the whole Channel from east to west, 
 and there would be nothing wanting for an invasion, which 
 they already promise themselves. These considerations do 
 enforce me to make a step to Paris, being I am so nigh ; not 
 that I will discover any knowledge of it, but only to inform 
 myself of the truth, which is so probable that I am only 
 troubled to seek out a remedy." It is very probable that 
 Lord Jermyn may have proposed to reduce Guernsey by 
 means of French troops ; but all reasonable proof of a trai- 
 torous motive on his part appears to us to be wanting : more- 
 over, it may well be doubted that the French government, 
 notwithstanding its great anxiety to seize on these islands, 
 would have ever promised him so enormous a sum, at that 
 day, as two millions of francs, especially when it is remem- 
 bered that the act of treachery could not be accompHshed 
 without a war with England, which Cardinal Mazarin was 
 not disposed to undertake at that time. In any case, Lord 
 Jermyn may have been only the passive instrument of the 
 queen of England,* as Lord Clarendon insinuates that a cri- 
 minal intimacy existed between them, and of which there is 
 now no doubt. Although Lord Jermyn's character is drawn 
 by Clarendon with no friendly hand, yet he certainly was 
 
 (1) Princess Henrietta Maria of France, daugtiter of the renowned Henry IV., and wife 
 of Charles I., whose evil genius she was in many respects. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 301 
 
 more instrumental in the preservation of Castle Cornet than 
 any of Charles' courtiers, and it was to him that Sir Peter 
 Osborne, while at St. Malo, looked chiefly for funds for that 
 purpose. Lord Jormyn was afterwards Earl of St. Albans. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CHAELES I.— 1625 to 1649. (Concluded.) 
 
 The execution of the misguided and unfortunate Charles,* on 
 the 30th of January, 1649, was a great political error, as was 
 proved, only eleven years after, by the Restoration ; his close 
 imprisonment or his continual exile would have tended far 
 more than his death, which made him a martyr, to perpetuate 
 the Commonwealth ; and the dreadful lesson was lost even 
 on his two sons and successors, who merited his fate far more 
 than himself. On the decease of the king, no serious im- 
 pression had been made on Castle Cornet, although Russell 
 had been removed, partly for his single unsuccessful attack 
 upon it. Thus Mr. Peter Carey said : " The deponent knows 
 but one attempt the said lieutenant-governor made against 
 the castle, which had a very bad success ; during which at- 
 tempt the said lieutenant told the deponent he stood at a rock 
 called " La Vermiere, which is between the island and the 
 castle." It was, however, subsequently assailed at least once or 
 twice ; and in an assault about May, 1650, the parliamentarian 
 Major Harrison's "resolute and gallant party" were taken 
 prisoners by the garrison of the castle.^ On this subject. 
 Dicey, whose descriptions, it must be admitted, are sometimes 
 exaggerated and marvellous, says : 
 
 *' Castle Cornet, it must be observed, is an invincible place, 
 situated upon an inaccessible rock, having little or no avenues to 
 it. In the time of the grand rebellion, it held out a tedious long 
 siege, yet was never taken, although assaulted with the utmost 
 vigour two several times, by Oliver's forces, when the soldiers in 
 it were most of them sick with the scurvy ; but, after all attempts 
 
 (1) Hallara, speaking of the escape of Charles from Hampton Court, says, that "he 
 might probably, with due precautions, have reached France or Jersey." But he was 
 unfortunately persuaded to go to the Isle of Wight. 
 
 (2) " May 31, 1650.— Letters from Guernsey that Major Harrison had besieged the castle, 
 and made 150 shots at it."— Whitelock's Memorials 
 
302 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 to have taken it proved ineffectual, and in which great numbers 
 were slain, the gallant cavaliers who defended this impregnable 
 fortress withstood the enemy with the bravest intrepidity, and 
 underwent many hardships, until their provisions were wholly 
 spent ; when they were forced to surrender upon honorable terms*; 
 not before they had obtained the sum of £1,500 sterling, to secure 
 themselves, when marched out, from farther distress by Crom- 
 well's party. 
 
 " This castle stands before the town and harbour, east by south, 
 and commands all the road and avenues in that part of the island, 
 where the channel is very narrow and dangerous. In this castle 
 the governors usually made their residence, and received the 
 respects of all captains, commanders, and masters of ships, before 
 they went into the island." 
 
 In England, the royal cause was irretrievably undone to- 
 wards the close of 1645 : in September of that year, Bristol, 
 a very important place, was somewhat discreditably rendered 
 by Prince Rupert, and in a few months after, every stronghold 
 had also submitted to the parliament, with very few excep- 
 tions, the last being Oxford, which capitulated on the 24th of 
 June, 1646, after two months' siege ; yet Castle Cornet ad- 
 hered unflinchingly to Charles, notwithstanding these conta- 
 gious examples and defections, and amid sufferings which 
 might well have excused an honorable capitulation. That 
 such a capitulation would have been fully justified appears 
 by an order from the king, dated Newcastle, June 18, 1646, 
 to such garrisons as still held out for him in England, in 
 which order he requested the several loyal governors "to 
 make their compositions upon the best terms they may ; for 
 the truth is, I cannot relieve them." We know not whether 
 Sir Baldwin Wake, who three weeks previously had suc- 
 ceeded Sir Peter Osborne in the command of Castle Cornet, 
 ever saw this royal order ; but certain it is, that he did not 
 take advantage of it, and the siege was continued for three 
 years longer, until the execution of Charles, when it will 
 naturally be supposed that so astounding an event would 
 have been followed by the immediate surrender of the castle, 
 or at least towards the close of the same year, when there 
 were about eight hundred republican soldiers in Guernsey ; 
 but the little garrison still resolutely persisted in its hopeless 
 defence, and the parliament found sufficient employment in 
 bringing the refractory Scotch and Irish to obedience : it was 
 not, therefore, until nearly three years after that execution, 
 when the fortunes of Charles II. had been effectually over- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 303 
 
 thrown at the battle of Worcester/ September 3, 1651, that a 
 fleet, under the celebrated Blake, conveying a strong land 
 force, was dispatched to effect the reduction both of Jersey 
 and Castle Cornet.^ Blake had, in the previous month of 
 June, subdued the Scilly Isles, which were held by Sir John 
 Granville for Charles II., and the privateers of which, like 
 those of Jersey,^ inflicted much loss upon English commerce. 
 Castle Cornet capitulated on Monday, the 15th of December, 
 the same day on which Elizabeth Castle, in Jersey, was eva- 
 cuated ; and thus Castle Cornet had the honour of being the 
 last spot, not only in the Anglo-Norman Islands, but in all 
 the British European dominions, which surrendered to the 
 parliamentarians, as the garrison, consisting of about fifty-five 
 men, stipulated to hold it until Friday, the 19th of December. 
 That day must indeed have been one of general rejoicing in 
 St. Peter-Port, as even the royalists in heart doubtless breath- 
 ed more freely at the thought that they had at last got rid of 
 such disagreeable neighbours, although to the inhabitants of 
 either party it must have been an affecting sight to witness 
 the emaciated and ill-clad garrison emerging from that strong- 
 hold, which they had so long and so faithfully defended, and 
 wending their way across the rugged passage which at low 
 water separates the fortress from the town. And, surely, 
 none could behold this little band of gallant men lay down 
 their arms without a thrill of respect and sympathy. The 
 articles of capitulation, dated December 15, were highly favor- 
 able to the besieged, whose gallant resistance had indeed well 
 merited the consideration of their enemies. The first article 
 was an agreement for the suspension of hostilities and the 
 delivery of the castle four days later to Colonel John Bing- 
 ham ; the officers and soldiers of either party keeping in the 
 mean time their respective guards and quarters. The second 
 is curious, as denoting the mode of military surrender at that 
 period : " That Colonel Roger Burgess, governor of the said 
 castle, with all the officers and soldiers appertaining to the 
 
 (1) After the battle of Worcester, a reward of ^1,000 was offered for the apprehension 
 of Charles, who was thus described : " For the better discovery of him, you may take 
 notice of him to be a tall man, about two yards high, his haire a deepe browne, more to 
 black, and hath been (as we heare) cut ofT since the destruction of his army at Worcester, 
 so as now it is not very long," 
 
 (2) " 1651, November 24.— Letters that the enemy in Castle Cornet, in Guernsey, were 
 besieged, and very high ; but the inhabitants of Guernsey island were generally the 
 parliament's friends."—" December 29. Letters that Cornet Castle in Guernsey island was 
 surrendered to the parliament upon articles." — Whitelock's Memorials. 
 
 (3) " March 30, 1648. — Letters from St. Malloe, in France, advising that a pyrate about 
 Jersey had made prize of a vessel of the parliament's, going for Ireland with cloath and 
 apparel for 6,000 soldiers." — "Order for a letter to the parliament's agent in France to 
 desire the king to seize the pyrate, and restore the ship."—WhUelock's Memorials. 
 
304 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 said garrison, shall have liberty to march forth with their 
 arms, and all their wearing apparel of whatsoever kind, drums 
 beating, ensigns displayed, bullet in mouth, and match 
 hghted AT BOTH ENDS, into the island of Guernsey, there to 
 lay down all their arms, except their swords, and those they 
 shall be permitted to wear, enjoy, and take away ; and the 
 said governor, and the commissioners to this treaty, shall each 
 be allowed one case of pistols." ^ The third and fourth arti- 
 cles provided that Colonel Burgess, with his officers and sol- 
 diers, should be supplied with the necessary provisions, accord- 
 ing to their respective ranks, for the full space of twenty days, 
 whether on shore or on ship board, without any charge ; that 
 such as desired to repair to England, Jersey, or France, should 
 be transported thither with safe convoys and with all conve- 
 nient speed, no oaths or engagements being imposed upon 
 any of them for three months from the day of their arrival in 
 England or Jersey ; and that all or any of them should be at 
 liberty to sell their estates within three months, and withdraw 
 themselves, " with their goods and families, out of any of the 
 parliament's quarters." The fifth and sixth articles stipulated 
 for an act of indemnity for Colonel Burgess and his garrison, 
 for any acts committed by them by sea or land against the 
 Commonwealth of England from the year 1640, and that they 
 should be at liberty to repair to their several estates and 
 counties, and there abide if they pleased without any restraint, 
 all sequestrations against any of their estates being " forth- 
 with declared void, without any composition whatever." The 
 eighth article was as follows : " That Colonel John Bingham 
 shall well and truly pay, or cause to be paid, to Colonel Roger 
 Burgess, or his assigns, the just and entire sum of £1,500 
 current EngHsh money, on Thursday, the 18th of this Decem- 
 ber, at or in the house of Mrs. Carey, widow, (that being the 
 appointed place of meeting,) and that in consideration of the 
 great civility showed by the said Colonel Burgess and his 
 garrison to Major Harrison's resolute and gallant party, that 
 became prisoners in the assault thereof." The ensign, Thomas 
 Cromwell, mentioned in the tenth article, was probably a rela- 
 tive of the Protector. 
 
 Thus Castle Cornet was maintained for king Charles and 
 his son, by the endurance and heroism of its garrison, during 
 the long period of nearly nine years, or the whole of the civil 
 
 (1) At the surrender of Bftton Rouge, in West Florida, to the Spaniards, in September, 
 1779, the Britisli troops claimed to march out " with drums beating, matches lighted 
 AT HOTH ENDS, colours flylog, &c. ; but the BULLET IN MOUTH had then apparently ceased 
 to be considered au honorable compliment by the vanquished. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 305 
 
 war — a defence which, with the fabulous exception of ancient 
 Troy, we believe to be unparalleled, and which now appears 
 almost incredible. It is true that the modern art of attacking 
 fortified places was then in its infancy, and that the island 
 possessed few or no heavy battering cannon ; but when it is 
 considered that this isolated and diminutive fortress stands on 
 a barren rock, to which there is only access at noon and mid- 
 night for a few days in every month, and that it is almost, if 
 not quite, within hail of St. Peter-Port, one cannot but admire 
 the inviolable constancy and resolution of Sir Peter Osborne, 
 his successors, and their companions in arms, who, for the 
 space (we love to repeat it) of nine weary years, maintained 
 this solitary place of exile, shut out as it were from the world, 
 cheered by little or no intercourse with their friends or rela- 
 tives, without prospect of relief, almost abandoned by the 
 sovereign for whom they suffered in his extremity, and sub- 
 jected to every possible trial and privation ! ! Surely, these 
 devoted soldiers had achieved for themselves and their country 
 a name and fame which ought not to have exposed them to 
 the wilful ignorance or culpable neglect of contemporary his- 
 torians. Lord Clarendon, above all, shares in this reproach, 
 because he must have been cognizant of the noble defence we 
 have narrated ; and yet we will not do him the injustice to sup- 
 pose that, in his unpardonable silence, he was influenced by the 
 sinister reports of Sir George Carteret, with whom, while in 
 Jersey, he was in daily and most friendly intercourse, and 
 whose gallant resistance to the parliament he has related at 
 some length. Hume, as we have shewn in a foot note, states 
 that the Countess of Derby, in her defence of the Isle of Man, 
 *' retained the glory of being the last person in the three 
 kingdoms, and in all their dependent dominions,^ who sub- 
 mitted to the victorious Commonwealth :" this he evidently 
 did to gratify the noble family of Stanley ; but we learn from 
 " Whitelock's Memorials"^ that that island was surrendered 
 about the 1st of November, or nearly seven weeks before 
 Castle Cornet. We have no wish to detract from the merits 
 of the courageous countess, whose husband was executed for 
 his loyalty, in 1651 ; but we cannot, with any regard to truth, 
 permit the Isle of Man to claim an honor which belongs 
 
 (1) Hume is here also incorrect, as Barbadoes, the Leeward Islands, and Virginia, sur- 
 rendered to the parliament several weeks after the Isle of Man. 
 
 (2) "1651, November 8.— Letters that the whole Isle of Man, with all the forts and 
 castles in it, were surrendered to the parliament's forces." — "November 10. Letters of 
 the particulars of the taking of the Isle of Man, the summons sent to the Countess of 
 Derby, and her soldiers deserting of her, and the articles of rendition of it to the parlia- 
 ment, without a shot or blow struck. That they had there great store of arms, and ammu- 
 nition, and ordna.nce." —Whitelock'a Memorials, folio edition. London, l682. 
 
 W 
 
306 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 unquestionably to Castle Cornet ; and even had it been other- 
 wise, we hold that there was much more glory in the defence 
 of a small sea-girt fortress under the circumstances we have 
 described. By this surrender, Gfiernsey was at length re- 
 lieved from the calamities to which it had been subjected 
 during the civil war. The occupation of Castle Cornet by 
 the royalists had kept St. Peter-Port in a continued state of 
 siege, above ten thousand cannon shot having, it is said, been 
 fired into the town ; while the Jersey privateers preyed upon 
 the external commerce of the islanders. What little shipping 
 trade there was, was chiefly carried on at St. Sampson's har- 
 bour, although some of the Norman boats ventured to the 
 Piette. Even as late as the 16th of May, 1650, we find the 
 jurats writing to Bailiff de Beauvoir, who was then in London, 
 as follows : " We also entreat you to procure us some good 
 vessels of war to protect our roadstead, for Jersey is full of 
 frigates, (? privateers,) and the trade of the island will be 
 entirely destroyed if we have not this protection, and then 
 we shall be in the abyss of misery.^ Not a few of the towns- 
 people, exposed to the guns of the castle, were forced to 
 remove into the country, which, from the existing troubles 
 and the exactions of an unpaid and licentious soldiery, became 
 nearly uncultivated. Indeed, the poverty of all classes was 
 finally so great, that the States, or insular parliament, by an 
 unanimous decision, were under the necessity of enacting that 
 no debts of any kind should be sued for, except arrears of 
 house and ground rents, and this for a whole year. At this 
 distance of time, it appears inconceivable that the castle could 
 be supplied, if the parliamentarians had exercised ordinary 
 vigilance, as it now seems that two or three rowing gal lies, 
 well manned and armed, could easily have captured the boats 
 coming in "the dark moons" from Jersey with provisions. 
 And the bad weather, which would have kept these gallies in 
 port, would have equally prevented the boats from crossing 
 over. But war in that age lacked the science and the vigour 
 of the present, partly because the belligerents were mere 
 novices in the more modern art of providing the necessary 
 funds for it, at the expense of posterity. 
 
 (1) Extracts from Whitelock's Memorials, 1651 : — February 21. Letters that several 
 merchantmen have been taken on the western coast by the Jersey pyrates. — February 26. 
 Letters that two Dutchmen, laded with salt, came to an anchor within half a Icagrue of 
 Dartmouth castle : that presently after two Jersey pyrates came up with them, cut their 
 cables, and carried them away : that the castle shot at them, but could not reach them. — 
 March 1. Letters of Jersey pyrates very bold upon the western c"ast. — March 6. Letters 
 of several ships taken by the pyrates of Jersey.— March Ih. Of the want of fregats upon 
 the western seas to keep in the pyrates of Jersey.— March 17. Of the Jersey pyrates 
 taking: several merchant ships, and none of the parliament fre^ts to help them.— March 10. 
 Letters of pyraci^ committed by those of Jersey. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 307 
 
 English historians give all the credit to Blake ' for effecting 
 the reduction not only of Scilly and Jersey, but of Castle 
 Cornet ; and although he or some of his officers may have 
 appeared before the castle, we can discover no evidence to 
 that effect, or still less that his ships attacked it. Jersey 
 having surrendered, it is clear that Castle Cornet was become 
 untenable ; and the garrison, with immediate starvation star- 
 ing them in the face, had no other alternative than to capitu- 
 late : this however they did, not with Blake or his captains, 
 but with the parliamentary lieutenant-governor of Guernsey, 
 who probably never would have agreed to pay the little gar- 
 rison so large a sum in those days as £1,500, had the castle 
 been threatened by a strong naval force. 
 
 A passing mention has been made of the surrender of Eli- 
 zabeth Castle, and as it is a sister fortress of Castle Cornet, 
 although larger, being situate about three quarters of a mile 
 from the main land, and accessible also on foot at low water, 
 a brief description of it, and the details of its reduction by the 
 parliamentary forces, may not be unacceptable. 
 
 Until the erection of Fort Regent, which took its name 
 while George IV. was regent, Elizabeth Castle was, as Mont 
 Orgueil ^ had previously been, the principal fortress of Jersey. 
 The islet on which it is built is about a mile in circuit. The 
 castle was first designed in 1551, in the reign of Edward VI., 
 and, to defray part of its cost, all the bells in the island, re- 
 serving only one to each church, were ordered to be taken 
 down and sold ! In 1586 and the years following, the upper 
 ward, which properly is queen Elizabeth's castle, was erected, 
 every householder in the island contributing four days' work 
 towards it. The lower ward is the castle of king Charles I. 
 begun 1626 : Charles' Fort was added during the civil war. 
 Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon, resided twenty- 
 six months in Elizabeth Castle, occupying a small house, (says 
 Durell,) that stood in the lower ward, adjoining the chapel, 
 both which buildings have long since disappeared. But 
 Chevalier states that he built a handsome house of three 
 stories in the castle. One of these houses long retained the 
 name of La Maison du Chancelier, and in it he compiled a 
 
 (1) " Blake sailed from Scilly with the fleet to Jersey, where he arrived in the month of 
 October, and reduced it by the end of the year; as he did likewise Cornet Castle, which 
 was the only place that held out for the king in Guernsey ; and thus secured the sove- 
 reignty of the sea, in this part of the world, for the parliament." — Campbell. 
 
 (2) The first mention that we can discover of this castle is as follows: " A.D. 1372. 
 An. 46 Edw. III. Rex dilectis sibi Edmundo Rose, constabulario castri nostri de Gurry in 
 Insula de Jereseye," &c. — Edmund Rose resided in Guernsey. The earliest mention of 
 Castle Cornet under that name is in the Extent of Edw. III., An. 5, A.D. 1331. 
 
308 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 part of that work which was formerly pronounced the noblest 
 history in the English language, although we conceive it to 
 be written too much in the spirit of party, and wonder that 
 it does not even mention such an eminent parliamentarian as 
 Colonel Hutchinson. Moreover, as we have adduced one 
 proof of its erroneous narration relative to Guernsey, so many 
 instances of its inaccuracy, perhaps excusable enough in so 
 voluminous a work, may be seen in Lord Ashburnham's Vin- 
 dication of his ancestor, the faithful attendant of Charles I.^ 
 Clarendon unquestionably drew, with a masterly hand, the 
 characters of those who acted a leading part in the stirring 
 but troublous times of the great rebellion, and yet few will now 
 approve of his concluding delineation of Cromwell : " In a 
 word, as he was guilty of many crimes against which damna- 
 tion is denounced, and for which hell fire is prepared, so he 
 had some good qualities, which have caused the memory of 
 some men in all ages to be celebrated ; and he will be looked 
 upon by posterity as a brave, wicked man." Such was the 
 Protector as pourtrayed by Clarendon ; but, assuredly, the 
 dark shades of the picture have not been confirmed by pos- 
 terity ; and, happily, recent and more impartial historians, 
 untrammelled by contemporary animosities or prejudices, 
 have done justice to the superior mind and vigorous admi- 
 nistration of Cromwell. And when Clarendon thus anathe- 
 matized the character of the man who made England feared 
 to the uttermost boundaries of Europe, he must have known 
 that Charles II., in 1654, offered £500 a year, and knight- 
 hood, to any one who would destroy Cromwell by "pistol, 
 sword, or poison, or otherwise," as appears in a proclamation 
 given by Thurloe ; and the exiled monarch was only stopped 
 in this guilty and cowardly course by the declaration of his 
 intended victim, that if any attempt to assassinate him should 
 fail, he would make an exterminating war of it, and destroy 
 the whole of the royal family, as he had instruments to exe- 
 cute his purpose whenever he required them. And the dread 
 of this retaliation, with so unprincipled an opponent, was a 
 better security to the Protector than his guards In the tra- 
 vels of Sir Philip Skippon, knighted by Charles II. at White- 
 hall, in 1674, and son of the well known parliamentary major- 
 general, it is related that the secretary of the republic of 
 Switzerland constantly took off his hat whenever the name of 
 
 (1) Mr. Forster, in his admirable Life of John Pym, exposes tlie " falsehoods, careless- 
 ness, disingenuousness, and meanness," of Clarendon in his history. Brodie, Hallam, 
 Macintosh, fiC, are also very severe on the noble historian, who seceded from the popular 
 to the king's party. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 309 
 
 Oliver Cromwell was mentioned, and this several years after 
 his death, holding his memory in the greatest veneration, as 
 the patron and protector of the reformed religion, calling 
 him, " Olivarius beatae memorise." ^ No such mark of respect 
 was ever paid to the memory of Charles II. or to that of 
 Clarendon's own son-in-law, James II. — But, to return from 
 this digression : 
 
 On the 20th of October, 1651, about four score sails, which 
 were but part of the fleet under Blake, appeared in sight of 
 Jersey, and on the same day came to an anchor in St. Ouen's 
 bay, which is quite open to the prevailing westerly winds, 
 and therefore very dangerous to vessels riding there. But 
 the sea was unusually smooth at that advanced season, which 
 was considered an unfavorable omen by the islanders, who 
 were further depressed by a report that the king was a cap- 
 tive at the mercy of his enemies ; so that it required all the 
 authority of Sir George Carteret to prevent many from laying 
 down their arms. On the 21st and 22d of October, the fleet 
 got under weigh and made a feint of landing troops at dif- 
 ferent points, that they might thereby distract and tire the 
 militia ; and on the night of the 22d, Major-General Haines 
 succeeded in landing a strong body of his men, after having 
 experienced a vigorous resistance. The next day he was in 
 possession of the open country, and the fort of St. Aubin 
 yielded almost as soon as summoned, its example being fol- 
 lowed by Mont Orgueil, on the 27th of October. The fleet 
 had a most narrow escape, as on the 23d a furious storm 
 from the west arose ; and had not the landing of the troops 
 enabled the vessels to obtain shelter, the greater part would 
 probably have perished, as did a large ship, which was dashed 
 to pieces against the rocks, and not one of the three hundred 
 men on board was saved. 
 
 Elizabeth Castle, to which Sir George Carteret retired, was 
 resolutely defended : the garrison consisted of 340 men, and 
 was supplied with provisions for eight months. After a 
 peremptory summons from the parliamentary commander, 
 and such an answer from Sir George as became him, cannon 
 were pointed against the castle. The artillery could not be 
 brought nearer than St. Helier's hill, a distance of about three 
 quarters of a mile, and all the injury done in many days, from 
 the continual fire of twelve 36-pounders, amounted to only 
 
 (1) "All the reformed churches scattered over Roman Catholic kingdoms acknowledged 
 Cromwell as their guardian. The Huguenots of Languedoc, the shepherds who, in the 
 hamlets of the Alps, professed a Protestantism older than that of Augsburg, were secured 
 from oppression by the mere terror of that great name." — Macaulay. 
 
310 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 the beating down of some parapets, which were soon replaced 
 with turf. It was now far in November, and intelligence 
 arrived that the king, after escaping from the battle of Wor- 
 cester, had succeeded in reaching Fescamp, in Normandy, on 
 the 22d of October, the very day that the landing in Jersey 
 was effected. At length the parliamentarians drew up on the 
 hill two large mortars, from which they fired shells of thirteen 
 inches in diameter and two inches thick into the castle ; and 
 one, breaking through two strong vaults, set the powder on 
 fire, destroyed the provisions, and killed outright forty sol- 
 diers of the garrison, besides armorers, carpenters, and other 
 workmen. Sir George sent his chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Durell, 
 afterwards dean of Windsor, to France, to inform the king of 
 this misfortune ; and his majesty, in answer, desired Sir 
 George to act according to his own discretion, advising him 
 rather to accept honorable terms of capitulation than to pro- 
 tract a defence which must ultimately prove unavaihng. As 
 the castle was still tenable, no breach having been made, and 
 no appearance of an assault. Sir George concealed the king's 
 message, and the siege continued. But, as the number of the 
 garrison daily lessened by death and desertion, and as there 
 was no possibility of procuring recruits or supplies, he called 
 a council of officers, and laid the king's letter before them. 
 They determined to yield to necessity, and the castle was 
 given up on the 15th of December, after enduring a siege of 
 about seven weeks. Sir George Carteret's usual good for- 
 tune did not desert him on this occasion, as he obtained a 
 very advantageous capitulation, by the first article of which 
 he was granted a full indemnity for his previous conduct, was 
 even exempted from paying any composition for his property 
 like many other royalists, and was confirmed in the quiet en- 
 joyment of all his possessions. He was moreover permitted 
 to go to and from France without any hindrance ; and one of 
 the vessels moored near the castle was placed at his disposal 
 for his own passage. The besiegers must have considered 
 the castle to be almost impregnable, or they would scarcely 
 have granted such favorable terms to an adversary who had 
 so httle claim to their indulgence. Sir George went to Paris 
 to give the king an account of his gallant defence, and re- 
 mamed with his family in France, " under many mortifica- 
 tions," (relates Lord Clarendon, but which we doubt,) " by 
 the power and prosecution of Cromwell, till his majesty's 
 happy restoration." 
 
 We have lingered long in the narration of those interesting 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 311 
 
 events of which the Channel Islands were the scene during 
 the civil war, because those events have been not only imper- 
 fectly, but, what is worse, unfairly described. If Jerseymen 
 exult in the part taken by the majority of their ancestors 
 during that great struggle, the people of Guernsey need not 
 be the less proud that their forefathers ranged themselves on 
 the side of civil and religious liberty. In Jersey, the conduct 
 of the leading parliamentarians — Lempriere, Dumaresq, and 
 Herault — contrasts most favorably with that of Sir George 
 Carteret, their principal opponent ; and he who studies the 
 history of that momentous period without partiality or preju- 
 dice, will find his best sympathies enlisted in the cause of 
 constitutional freedom — will feel no little contempt for those 
 who, in humble imitation of the ass kicking at the dead lion, 
 could treat with indignity the mouldering remains of such 
 men as Blake, Ireton, and Cromwell.* 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH. — 1649 to 1660. 
 
 On the advent of Cromwell to supreme power, a declaration 
 was drawn up and presented to him, explaining the wretched 
 condition of Guernsey. This declaration commenced by ex- 
 hibiting the great poverty of the inhabitants, only one twen- 
 tieth part having any substance, and of these only two or 
 three persons had £200 per annum, not ten £100 per annum, 
 and not thirty £50 per annum. Mr. P. de Beauvoir, des 
 Granges, is spoken of as " a man of strange temper and 
 disposition, who, from his aspiring desire to be bailiff of the 
 island, and ever since he was ousted by council on complaint 
 of articles, has left no stone unturned to reinstate himself in 
 the said office." The island is described as then containing 
 a population of about 8,000 souls, and among the most inte- 
 resting matter at the present day is the following : 
 
 " The land is subject to manifold dues, not elsewhere levied in 
 such a manner; but, in such a miserable place as Guernsey, all 
 
 (1) " Cromwell was no more ; and those who had fled before him were forced to content 
 themselves with the miserable satisfaction of digging up, hanging, quartering, and burn- 
 ing the remains of the greatest prince that has ever ruled England." — Macaulay. 
 
312 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 ploughed land pays tithe, and also a most grievous custom, called 
 cam part. This cam part is the twelfth of every sheaf of the field, 
 to which the generality of the island is subject. Cam part is of 
 two sorts : some belong to the state, and produce, one year with 
 the other, ^1 sterling. Others are the property of individuals, 
 and amount, one year with the other, to one hundred and seventy 
 livres ten sous tournois. 
 
 " The ground is let at a very high and dear rate. An acre of 
 Guernsey measure being but about one third of the English acre, 
 yields commonly of yearly rent three bushels per acre.^ 
 
 " Poverty compels the inhabitants to sell their lands, and of all 
 the price their inheritance is sold at, as many times thirteen as 
 there are numbered, so much is pretended to be the right of the 
 governor. Hence it comes to pass that there is an universal dis- 
 couragement from ploughing and improving the island, two thirds 
 being covered with fern and furze ; and those who do cultivate 
 the land act from sheer necessity, and not from the hope of profit, 
 as there are deducted from the increase of the fields, chief rents, 
 homages, services, tithes, and cam part, which amount to one 
 sixth of the value, and on some estates to one fifth. Rent must 
 also be added to the expense of vraicking, dunging, ploughing, 
 weeding the ground, reaping and thrashing the corn. It gene- 
 rally happens that every other year the husbandman is behind 
 hand, and holds not his principal ; and in a bad year, every one 
 is a loser. Hence it arises that the island is commonly in great 
 distress, and the countryman in a mean condition, more especially 
 in a bad year, when he has not sufficient corn to pay his rent and 
 supply himself with food. Such are the constant causes of poverty 
 within, to which may be added the exactions of the governor. 
 
 " Since the year 1642, a mass of evils, like a flood, have over- 
 flowed the island and all that was left good in the condition 
 thereof. The inhabitants, for declaring themselves in favour of 
 the parliament, and remaining faithful to it, have lost their ships, 
 their traffic, and their trading; their harbour and port have been 
 closed and shut up by the rebellion and revolt of Sir Peter 
 Osborne, in the castle called Cornet. The inhabitants, during 
 the heat and danger of the war, were in continual fears, services, 
 and watchings, commonly twice a week, sometimes thrice; they 
 had frequent alarms from Jersey, from Castle Cornet, from Nor- 
 mandy, from Britany, and from the king's ships; they were 
 always in arms, as in a garrison, a frontier place remote from 
 England ; they constructed fortiflcations and several other works 
 for their defence, and were at their own charges for reducing 
 and keeping Sark. They have paid for the maintenance of fri- 
 gates to prevent relief being given to the castle, for beds, candles, 
 
 (1) In 1652, wheat rents were affixed at seven livres, or ten shilHogs the quarter of four 
 bushels, and thus land was let at seven shilllnfcs and six pence per vergee. Two verg^et 
 and a half are as nearly as possible equal to one English acre. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 313 
 
 fire for the soldiers, and divers other disbursements, amounting 
 to above thirty thousand pounds. But what grieved the island 
 most, being an evil undeserved, was the filling it with soldiers, 
 though for seven years before, by the mercy of God, and the 
 faithful endeavours of some active inhabitants, they had preserved 
 themselves and the island in obedience to the parliament ; and 
 when the king was put to death, and his party and interests were 
 brought low in England, there was no reason to fear for the inha- 
 bitants, who were then kept under like slaves, aff'ronted, threat- 
 ened, beaten; their orchards robbed, their trees cut down, and 
 their sheep stolen. The parliament promised that the soldiers 
 should be no charge to the inhabitants, yet they took no notice 
 that the island was almost undone and could not bear the burden. 
 In England, soldiers pay for their bedding, fire, and c^andle, or 
 else are quartered at inns and alehouses; but the soldiers extorted 
 this entertainment from us. In this particular the island has paid, 
 in five years, above seven thousand two hundred pounds.^ 
 
 " Touching the fidelity of the inhabitants. The fidelity, invio- 
 lable affection, and adherence to the crown and state of England 
 from the conquest, appear from the acknowledgment, approbation, 
 esteem, and special commendation of several kings, queens, and 
 of the late parliament, which have been communicated from time 
 to time to the inhabitants of Guernsey, as it appears by the records 
 of Edward II., Richard II., and Henry IV. 
 
 " Parliament, on the 23d of March, 1643, did commend the 
 faithfulness of the inhabitants, and did heartily thank them for 
 the same ; and, as a token of the confidence they reposed in the 
 fidelity and manhood of the said inhabitants, they committed the 
 government of Guernsey and the management of affairs to twelve 
 of the inhabitants. And indeed all the inhabitants have been 
 most loyal and obedient in all their services, to their great expense 
 and to the great dangers and perils of their persons, for the crown 
 and state of England. King Edward III., in the fifteenth year 
 of his reign, praises them for their constancy and magnanimity 
 in preserving the island, and acknowledges their great losses and 
 perils of body. They suffered and overcame many evils in the 
 reign of Richard II. The strong castle of Mont Orgueil, in 
 Jersey, was taken by the French ; Guernsey men recovered it, 
 whereof several princes make honourable mention. 
 
 " The island of Sark has been twice lost : the Guernseymen 
 recovered it, and during the civil wars have for a long time kept 
 a garrison there at their own expense. Castle Cornet has revolted 
 thrice, by the perfidy of the captains and governors. Sir Peter 
 
 Cl) In May, l650, the jurats urged Bailiff de Beauvoir, who was then in London, to 
 represent to the lords of parliament the necessities and poverty of Guernsey, and to 
 beseech them "to provide pay and provisions for- their soldiers, and also, if they judge 
 proper, to remove some of them, as their expenses are too heavy, and, with the blessing 
 of Providence, the island may maintain its independence as well with a portion of them 
 as with all of them." 
 
314 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Osborne was the last, who, with thousands of great shot, battered 
 the houses of St. Peter- Port about the ears of the inhabitants ; 
 but, notwithstanding all the mischief he did, neither his promises 
 nor threats could move the inhabitants from their affection and 
 loyalty. On the two former occasions, the inhabitants recovered 
 the said castle. 
 
 "They also humbly crave the renewal and increase of some of 
 their privileges, viz. for wool and calves' skins. Also, as the 
 licenses are given, not only for the use of the bailiff and jurats, 
 but also for the inhabitants, they humbly crave to have the dis- 
 posal of them. 
 
 " Castle Cornet, as it is at this day, and as it has been for many 
 years, commanded by a governor and lieutenant-governor, and 
 other officers, with private soldiers, provisions, ammunitions of 
 war, building of platforms, walls, works, and dwellings, with 
 such repairs as the governors have from lime to time thought 
 convenient for themselves, or for the place, will be found to have 
 cost annually three thousand pounds sterling to this state. It 
 cannot be presumed that this state should undergo so great a 
 charge in maintaining the said castle, if it were not represented 
 as useful and serviceable, either for repelling a foreign enemy, or 
 retaining the islanders in their duty : in both which cases it is 
 humbly conceived the said castle is altogether useless, and that 
 we shall endeavour to make appear by reason and experience. 
 
 " As to matter of defence against invasion, it should be remem- 
 bered that there are several places in the island, distant from the 
 said castle some three, some four, some five miles, so that no 
 cannon from thence could hinder an enemy from landing at plea- 
 sure : then the said castle is surrounded by the sea, except one 
 hour, or thereabouts, in a fortnight's time, so that the soldiers 
 from within the castle cannot sally out into the island by land, 
 nor by boats, there being no shelter for them about the castle, 
 and they would be at the mercy of such guns as might be planted 
 upon the harbour and places adjacent. 
 
 "And it has been observed during the late troubles, that ships 
 did securely ride in the roadstead out of command of the castle, 
 from which many thousands of shot were cast away without 
 annoying them ; neither did it hinder the soldiers and others 
 from coming into the island. 
 
 " As to the curbing the inhabitants of the island, if there were 
 cause, it may be considered that the islanders are a great deal too 
 numerous to be mastered by the ordinary guard of the castle in 
 open field ; and all that can be done by the guns from the castle 
 can but batter some houses in the town ; an island of this extent 
 not being likely to be awed by a castle remote from it, as has 
 been proved by the experience of nine years. 
 
 " It may be further observed, that the islanders have never 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 315 
 
 deserted the English interest, as may more at large appear by 
 the different charters granted by the several kings and queens of 
 England from time to time, and by their constant fidelity to the 
 stale and to your highness. Besides, there is no likelihood that 
 an island, consisting wholly of Protestants, and enjoying very 
 large privileges, should turn towards any of the neighbouring 
 princes, whose subjects are so vassalized in their consciences and 
 estates. Again, their political interests fasten them to England, 
 without the commerce whereof they can have no leather or wool 
 for their manufactures. 
 
 *' It has likewise been observed that, during nine years of the 
 late wars, the said castle having revolted, (although the governor 
 had great influence and exerted it to the utmost,) yet he was not 
 able to seduce the islanders, nor face them in the field ; but, on 
 the contrary, the inhabitants besieged the castle, and would in all 
 probability have reduced it in a month's time, if they had been 
 furnished with such mortar pieces and grenades as were used for 
 the reduction of Elizabeth Castle, in Jersey, a stronger place than 
 this, and twice the distance from the land ; and yet it was reduced 
 in less than six weeks. 
 
 " It may be further considered, that if an invasion of the island 
 were attempted, it is very likely that not only the governor and 
 the soldiers would retire into the castle, but most of the principal 
 islanders would crowd into it with them, and strive to save the 
 best of their goods there, to the discouragement of the rest and 
 the loss of the whole ; whereas, were this castle reduced to a block 
 house, and some of the expenditure of war, and some of the public 
 revenue employed to fortify the island, the castle would be as 
 serviceable as it is now, and the island much the stronger. 
 
 " These things being so, it remains to be unfolded how the said 
 castle came to be of that consideration with our late princes, it 
 being anciently no better than a block house. First : Queen 
 Elizabeth was persuaded by one Chamberlayne, captain there, to 
 enlarge it with a platform : next, one Leighton found a necessity 
 for girding it with a stone wall ; after him, the Lord Carew, and 
 then the Earl of Danby, (whose deputy was Sir Peter Osborne,) 
 not being content with the revenues of the island, have, from 
 time to time, made it their business, through friends at court, 
 (under pretext of augmenting or repairing the works for the 
 safety of the island and the honour of the nation,) to draw great 
 sums of money out of the exchequer, as would be manifest if the 
 records were searched, and that for the enriching themselves, as 
 is clear by the testimony of many persons yet living, who remem- 
 ber that the said governors have constantly made the poor inha- 
 bitants bestow their labour on the said works for little or nothing:." 
 
 This appears to have been the age of complaints against 
 the different insular functionaries, both civil and military : 
 
316 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 we have already noticed those against Sir Peter Osborne and 
 Bailiff De Quetteville, who were royalists ; and we now ex- 
 tract the following from a " Copy of some Articles written 
 by Nathaniel Whit, Receiver of Guernsey, against Colonel. 
 John Bingham," the parliamentarian officer to whom Castle 
 Cornet was surrendered in 1651. These charges do not ap- 
 pear to have been attended to, as Colonel Bingham was 
 governor of Guernsey until 1660 : 
 
 " That the said Colonel John Bingham hath often cheated the 
 state by false musters, making one muster in five or six months, 
 and yet sending up rolls (to the commissary of the musters) of 
 monthly musters, as if they had been constant musters taken 
 according to the practice of the army ; also by mustering men 
 absent in England, Ireland, and elsewhere, upon particular occa- 
 sions, and that for five or six months together ; there being no 
 real muster made here from the latter end of November, 1651, to 
 the 8th of March following, nor from that time till July follow- 
 ing, 1652, and from July, 1652, to the beginning of December 
 following. 
 
 "That the said Colonel Bingham hath converted to his own 
 use six months' additional pay, at 3s. 6d. per diem, allowed by 
 the establishment to the eldest captain in the said garrison, that is 
 to say, from the 23d August, 1652, to the 7th February following. 
 
 " That the said Colonel Bingham, about the 22d of March, 
 1652, carried with him to England four brass guns, and converted 
 them to his own use. 
 
 " That the said Colonel Bingham, about the 18th of March, 
 1652, sold six iron guns to an inhabitant of the said island, and 
 gave him a pass under his own hand to transport the same for 
 St. Malo. 
 
 " That the said colonel hath mustered and taken constant pay 
 for one Mr. Thomas, chaplain or minister to the said garrison, 
 who hath been absent thence ever since the month of June, 1652, 
 until 1653, and hath all that time served in the town of Wareham, 
 in Dorsetshire ; and no cause made known unto the said garrison, 
 unless it be that the said colonel and minister divide the pay 
 betwixt them." 
 
 If Mr. Whit can be believed, the colonel was guilty of 
 several other malpractices, such as converting the revenue of 
 the island to his own use ; seizing the cargo of a Dutch ship 
 wrecked on Guernsey, " to the value of £400, or thereabouts," 
 on which cargo he would neither pay salvage to the poor 
 people, nor make restitution, " as is said ; " appropriating to 
 himself from Castle Cornet, after its surrender, several articles 
 which belonged either to the state or to some of the inhabit- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 317 
 
 ants ; and, lastly, carrying away with him on his departure 
 " about twenty-three or twenty-four slabs of unwrought tin, 
 which he had taken out of the Adventure frigate, of Plymouth, 
 pretending confiscation, for that the same had payd no duties 
 in England, part whereof belonged to one Mr. John Mervin, 
 an English merchant ;" although it appeared by a certificate 
 from the Court of Exchequer that the said tin had been 
 regularly cleared. — The last charge was as follows : 
 
 "That the said Colonel Bingham, about the 22d of March, 16-53» 
 before his departure for England, left with his ensigne a dormant 
 letter, to be exhibited in court and presented by the said ensigne 
 to the lieutenant-bay lifF and the rest of the jurats a month after 
 his departure, whereby he ordered that all legall proceedings in 
 courte against some particular persons, as well resident in the 
 island as absent, should be stopt, to the great breach and violation 
 of the lawes and customs of the said island and the great dissatis- 
 faction of the peaceable people thereof; thinking by his interest 
 in parliament, the greatness of his friends and allies, so to overawe 
 such as were under him, that he should never be called to an 
 accompt either for this or any thing contained in the precedent 
 articles/' 
 
 However selfish and parricidal Cromwell may have been 
 in procuring the downfall of the Commonwealth, in April, 
 1653, and in causing himself to be declared Protector, his 
 usurpation of unlimited power has this excuse, that his do- 
 mestic government possessed many merits, and that his foreign 
 policy was worthy of England and of his own commanding 
 genius. Berry wrote as if, during the civil war, Guernsey 
 sided with the king ; and, copying Falle, speaks, in his pon- 
 derous history, of the calamities and sufferings of these islands 
 " under the usurpation," which he says " were now governed 
 by the most arbitrary tyrants and fanatics ; the established 
 religion was trampled under foot ; the soldiery (a frantic herd 
 of sectaries of all sorts) at free quarters, without check or con- 
 trol, committing every sort of outrage, turning the churches 
 into guard-houses and stables ; property of all kinds in a 
 state of sequestration, compositions for estates exacted, and 
 every kind of oppression licensed without restraint." As 
 regards Guernsey and its dependant islands under the pro- 
 tectorate, these assertions are ridiculously untrue, especially 
 as relates to the established religion of the inhabitants, which 
 was only " trampled under foot" after the Restoration ; and 
 the Rev. Edward Durell, in his Notes on Falle, (No. 59,) 
 states that " Cromwell's conduct towards the inhabitants [of 
 
318 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Jersey] seems to have been particularly lenient." He adds, 
 that Sir George Carteret, after Major Lydcott's departure 
 from Jersey, in 1643, " did not treat his adversaries with the 
 same moderation, the chief of whom were driven into exile, 
 and their property confiscated, while those who remained 
 were subjected to heavy fines and long imprisonments." In- 
 deed, we believe that no man's character was ever more 
 cruelly maligned and misrepresented than that of Cromwell ; 
 and that these islands were not oppressed during his admi- 
 nistration, will appear by the following extracts from Burton's 
 Diary : 
 
 " October 6 and 7, 1654, were wholly spent upon the distribu- 
 tion of the number of members to serve in future parliaments. 
 We agreed with the instrument in the whole number of four hun- 
 dred, Jersey and Guernsey being left out, because not governed 
 by our laws, but by municipal laws of their own, and we differed 
 but little in the particular distributions. 
 
 *' January 8, 1656. — Resolved, that the islands of Guernsey, 
 Jersey, and Wight, be left out of the bill for excise. Mr. Bond 
 and Mr. Downing said : * These isles are poor, and were never 
 charged in any time, not so much as with customs. All kings 
 and queens are careful of the poor people.' " 
 
 The Protector, who is said to have felt deeply the loss of 
 his constant and sincere friend the Earl of Warwick, so often 
 mentioned in these pages, died on the 3d of September, 1658, 
 which day was the anniversary of his great victories of Dunbar 
 and Worcester. " Cromwell had the virtues and affections of 
 private and domestic life. As a son, husband, father, friend, 
 his heart was full of tenderness, generosity, and faith ;"' and 
 surely these excellent qualities should extenuate in some de- 
 gree the failings of his political career. Soon after his death, 
 at which period the garrison of Guernsey consisted of only 
 one company of foot, the islanders transmitted to his son and 
 successor, Richard, a petition, in which, after supplicating the 
 confirmation of their privileges, they begged of his highness 
 to extend to them (of course on payment) the same allowance 
 of wool from England as had been granted by his father to 
 the inhabitants of Jersey, because the population of Guernsey 
 had so much increased that more than 6,000 persons earned 
 their living by making worsted stockings and other woollen 
 articles. In consequence, 1,000 tods of wool were the least 
 quantity required, which quantity, equally divided, was only 
 4 J lb. each m a year. That the population had much in- 
 
 (1) History of England, continued from Sir James Macintosh. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 319 
 
 creased is very improbable, and the petitioners had evidently 
 forgotten that four or five years before, it had been repre- 
 sented to Cromwell as amounting to about 8,000 souls, which 
 makes the statement of the number of persons employed in 
 the woollen manufacture utterly incredible. 
 
 Castle Cornet possesses other attractions besides those of a 
 purely military character, as the antiquarian may wander over 
 it with profit, and its summit presents, on a clear day, a variety 
 of prospects such as few can behold without pleasure and 
 admiration ; for on the west is seen the pier and hilly town 
 of St. Peter-Port, with queen Victoria's tower and the eastern 
 coast of Guernsey ; on the north, the roadstead, Vale Castle, 
 and Belgrave bay, with Alderney and the Casket rocks and 
 light-houses in the distance ; on the east, the islands of Sark, 
 Herm, and Jethou, and the coasts of Normandy ; and on the 
 south, Fort George, Doyle's pillar, and the island of Jersey, 
 with frequently a little flotilla trawling for flat fish on the 
 bank, or catching mackerel. — In the castle the governors 
 long resided and held their miniature courts, possessing as 
 they did almost sovereign sway over the seven inhabited 
 islands and islets of the bailiwick. And among the by-gone 
 inmates of this sea-girt fortress, whether as guests or state 
 prisoners, are some whose names are still remembered — the 
 chaplains Cartwright and Bradshaw, Burton, General Lam- 
 bert, and Lucy St. John, the wife of Sir Allan Apsley, and 
 the mother of Mr. Hutchinson, who wrote the well known 
 memoirs of her husband. Colonel Hutchinson. A condensed 
 notice of each will satisfy curiosity. 
 
 Thomas Cartwright, an eminent puritan divine, was born 
 in Hertfordshire, in 1535, and educated at St. John's College, 
 Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship, which he after- 
 wards exchanged for one of Trinity. In 1567, he proceeded 
 B. D. and became a popular preacher. His opinions were 
 adverse to the hierarchy, and he was complained of by Arch- 
 bishop Grindal, in consequence of which he was hindered of 
 his doctor's degree, and deprived of his fellowship ; he then 
 went abroad, and was chosen minister to the English mer- 
 chants at Antwerp, and afterwards at Middleburg. On his 
 return to England, he endeavoured to subvert the ecclesiastic 
 order, and to establish the Genevan discipline. He also wrote 
 several pieces on that side, which were answered by Doctor 
 Whitgift. Cartwright was imprisoned, but obtained his liberty 
 through Lord Burleigh and the Earl of Leicester, the latter 
 
320 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 of whom appointed him master of his hospitals at Warwick, 
 where he died in 1603, aged sixty-eight. He wrote a Har- 
 mony of the Gospels in Latin, printed at Amsterdam in 1647 ; 
 a Commentary on the Proverbs, and other works. To these 
 details from the Biog. Brit, we are enabled to add, that 
 Cartwright was late in life chaplain of Castle Cornet, and 
 that he was in Guernsey in the years 1591, 5, 7, 9, and in 1601. 
 He evidently possessed great influence in the island, as the 
 people were decided Presbyterians ; and at a synod of the 
 ministers and elders of all the islands, assembled at St. Peter- 
 Port, in 1597, Cartwright and Snape affixed their signatures 
 next after the governors of Jersey and Guernsey, and before 
 the other ministers. That courtly historian, Falle,^ speaking 
 of "a faction" in England which had imbibed the Geneva 
 discipline, says : " Nothing could please that party more than 
 to hear of what was done in these islands. It raised their 
 hopes, and made them more insolent. As with people em- 
 barked in the same cause, they must needs now open a cor- 
 respondence with us. To that end, Cartwright and Snape, 
 two fierce incendiaries, and noted leaders among them, were 
 dispatched hither, whom the governors entertained with great 
 kindness, making the first chaplain of Cornet (>astle, and the 
 other of Mont Orgueil, to each of which posts a competent 
 salary was annexed. In what year precisely they came, and 
 how long they staid, I cannot say." To have spoken of 
 Cartwright as a fierce incendiary reflects no credit on Falle, 
 who in ability seems to have been much his inferior, as Cart- 
 wright greatly distinguished himself in the disputations held 
 at Cambridge, on the visit of queen Elizabeth, in 1564 ; and 
 in 1570, his reputation caused him to be appointed the Lady 
 Margaret's professor of divinity. Such was his popularity, 
 that on his preaching at St. Mary's, it was necessary to take 
 out the windows. Moreover, he was sincere, disinterested, 
 and charitable ; and it is acknowledged that he was treated 
 with great severity.' 
 
 Bradshaw, a puritan instructor, was recommended by Cart- 
 wright to Sir Thomas Leighton, with whom he was abiding 
 
 (1) Falle was born in Jersey in 1655, and edncated at Exeter College, Oxford. He pre- 
 sented his valuable collection of books to that island, and died unmarried, at Shenley, 
 when nearly ninety years of age. 
 
 (2) " The ostensible founder of this new school [Puritanism] was Thomas Cartwright, 
 the Lady Margaret's professor of divinity at Cambridge. He began, about 1570, to inculcate 
 the unlawfulness of any form of church government, except what the apostles had insti- 
 tuted, namely, the Presbyterian. A deserved reputation for virtue, learning, and acute- 
 nes?, an ardent zeal, an inflexible self-coDfldence, a vigorous, rude, and arrogant style, 
 marked him as the formidable leader of a religious faction. In 1572, he published bis 
 celebrated Admonition to Parliament, calling on tliat assembly to reform the various 
 abuses subsisting in the church." — Hallam. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 321 
 
 at Castle Cornet, as tutor to his children. " Thither Brad- 
 shaw addressed himself, and, through God's goodness, arriving 
 safe there, was with all kinde and courteous entertainment 
 by them received. And indeed such was Mr. Bradshaw's 
 demeanour, wheresoever he came, that he left behind him a 
 grateful memory — not unlike tlierein to musk or civet. The 
 which (sweet scent) continued after his departure thence, not 
 among the French ministers alone in that island, but also 
 among such of the old garrison soldiers, on whom Master 
 Cartwright's ministry had had some efficacious and gracious 
 work, who — as Sir Peter Osborne, who had afterwards the 
 government of that place, hath been known to relate — would 
 be oft talking of one Master Bradshaw that had lived some 
 time there, and speak with much affection of him." — Clarke s 
 Lives. 
 
 Henry Burton, another celebrated puritan divine, was born 
 at Birdsal, in Yorkshire, in 1579, and, like Cartwright, edu- 
 cated at St. John's College, Cambridge, but took his degree 
 of B. D. at Oxford. He was afterwards clerk of the closet 
 to prince Henry and to prince Charles, of which appointment 
 he was deprived for a libel against the bishops. After this 
 he obtained the rectory of St. Matthew, Friday Street, in 
 London ; but, for some seditious and schismatical libels, he, 
 Bastwick, a physician, and Prynne, a lawyer, were prosecuted 
 in the Star Chamber, in 1637, and sentenced to a fine of 
 £5,000, the loss of their ears, the pillory, branding on the 
 cheeks, and close imprisonment for life ! ^ Garrard, writing 
 to Lord Wentworth, said : " Some few days after the end of 
 the term, in the palace yard, two pillories were erected, and 
 there the sentence of the Star Chamber against Burton, Bast- 
 wick, and Prynne, was executed : they stood two hours in 
 the pillory ; Burton by himself, being degraded in the high 
 commission court three days before ; the place was full of 
 people, who cried and howled terribly, especially when Burton 
 was crept." ! Burton was confined in Castle Cornet ; Bast- 
 wick, in Scilly ; and Prynne, at Mont Orgueil, in Jersey. 
 These barbarities did not end here, as Lilburne and Wharton 
 were condemned, the former to a fine of £500 ; the latter to 
 the same fine, clipping, and the pillory, for printing and pub- 
 
 CO •' Henry Burton, formerly chaplain to the king, when Prince of Wales. He thought 
 proper to assail the prelates of the church — of whose characters he must have been pretty 
 well informed— as ' blind watchmen, dumb dogs, ravening wolves, anti- Christian mush- 
 rooms, robbers of souls, limbs of the beast, and the factors for anti-Christ ; ' and as may 
 naturally be supposed, the whole hierarchy, with Laud at their head, assisted each other 
 in hunting him down, and in worrying him when he was down."— TA« Court and Times 
 of Charles I. 
 
322 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 lishing one of Burton's libels ! Sir Peter Osborne does not 
 appear to have been very strict in his treatment of Burton, 
 who by his sentence was to be debarred of the use of pen, 
 ink, and paper ; and yet he found means, while in the castle, 
 to write an answer to " Bishop Laud's Relation of his Con- 
 ference with Fisher." He likewise wrote there some other 
 controversial pieces, but could not get them printed. And 
 yet the Rev. John de la Marche, the rector of St. Andrew's, 
 Guernsey, at this period, relates that from the chamber in 
 Castle Cornet, in which Burton " was buried alive," the sun 
 or moon could not be seen on any day of the year ; that the 
 partition of the chamber was of earth ; and that it was the 
 same in which he himself had been kept prisoner in 1633. 
 After an imprisonment of about three years, the three victims 
 of the Star Chamber, Burton, Bastwick, and Prynne, were 
 recalled by the parliament, in 1640; and, on landing in Eng- 
 land, were not only received with acclamations, but attended 
 by crowds to London, which city they entered in triumph, 
 with rosemary and bays in their hats, and their way in many 
 places strewed with flowers. Previously to the departure of 
 Burton from Guernsey, he was entertained by the island 
 clergy, who warmly sympathized with him. He was restored 
 to his living, and died in 1 648. 
 
 John Lambert was descended from an ancient family in 
 Yorkshire, in which county he was born in 1619 ; and in 1639 
 he married Frances, daughter of his neighbour, Sir W. Lister, 
 then in her seventeenth year, and said to have been a most 
 elegant and accomplished woman. Lambert was in the law at 
 the commencement of the civil war, during which he greatly 
 distinguished himself. After Cromwell's death, such was the 
 influence of Lambert, that Charles was recommended by some 
 to secure his services by the offer of marrying his daughter ; 
 but no actual overtures appear to have been made on either 
 side.* At the Restoration, he was tried and condemned, but 
 was pardoned, and exiled to Guernsey.'* Mrs. Hutchinson, 
 
 (1) Lord Hatton, an old royalist, suggested this ptoposition in the following terms: 
 ** The race is a very good genileman's family, and kings have condescended to marry sJib- 
 jects. The lady is pretty, of an extraordinary sweetness of disposition, and very virtnonsly 
 and ingenuously disposed ; the father is a person, set aside his unhappy engagement, of 
 very great parts and noble inclinations. — Clarendon State Papers, 59*2. Yet, after all, Miss 
 Lambert was hardly more a mis-alliance than Hortense Maucini, whom Charles had asked 
 for in vain."— Ha/Zawi. 
 
 (2) •• November 17, 1661.— Arrived at Castle Comet, John Lambert, general of the secta- 
 rian rebels in England, enemy of the king, and prisoner for life." — Le Roy. Peter Le 
 Roy, who. In previous entries in his diary, had spoken with all due respect of Oliver 
 Cromwell, and " Son AltcsbC Monsieur Richard, flis du susdit Ollivier," now abused the 
 parliamentarians, having doubtless, like many of his superiors, easily changed sides when 
 royalty became In the ascendant. Peter appears then to have been as general a Christian 
 name in Guernsey as Philip is now iu Jersey. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 323 
 
 in her Memoirs, speaking of the imprisonment of her husband 
 and other parliamentarians, in the Tower, in 1663, says : 
 " Warrants were signed for carrying away most of the pri- 
 soners ; some to Tangier and to other barbarous and distant 
 places : among the rest. Colonel Hutchinson was designed to- 
 the Isle of Man." At that time, the Anglo-Norman Islands 
 were doubtless thought quite as "barbarous and distant" as 
 the Isle of Man, and it was probably on that account that 
 General Lambert was banished to Guernsey. Hume says 
 that " General Lambert survived his condemnation nearly 
 thirty years, and that he lived contented in Guernsey, forget- 
 ting all his past schemes of greatness, and entirely forgotten 
 by the nation. He died a Roman Catholic." But English 
 historians are all at fault in stating that Lambert ended his 
 days in Guernsey, as, after being confined there five or six 
 years, he was removed, in 1667, to the fortified island of St. 
 Nicholas, at the entrance of Plymouth, where he died in 
 1683, aged about sixty-four, after a total confinement of 
 above twenty years ! He is said to have been the first person 
 who introduced the Guernsey lily into England, and, during 
 his residence in Guernsey, to have amused himself with culti- 
 vating flowers, and copying them with his pencil — an art 
 which he had acquired from Baptist Gaspar. By a royal 
 warrant, dated Whitehall, February 17, 1662, Mrs. Lambert, 
 with her three children and three maid servants, was per- 
 mitted to come to and remain in Guernsey with her husband, 
 " under the same confinement he himself is, untill our further 
 pleasure be known ;" and by another warrant, dated Novem- 
 ber 18, 1662, and addressed to Lord Hatton, the governor, 
 " Collonell Lambert" was allowed to reside on the island as 
 long as his comportment was worthy thereof, evidently in place 
 of being confined in Castle Cornet, as he had previously been. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, in her husband's memoirs, states that her 
 mother, Lucy St. John, before her marriage, accompanied 
 her brother's wife. Lady St. John, who was a daughter of 
 Sir Thomas Leighton, to Guernsey. There Lucy St. John 
 " went into the towne, and boarded in a French minister's 
 house, to learn the language, that minister having beene, by 
 the persecution in France, driven to seeke his shelter there. 
 Contracting a deare friendship with this holy man and his 
 wife, she was instructed in their Geneva discipline, which she 
 liked so much better than our more superstitious service, that 
 she would have been contented to have lived there, had not a 
 powerful passion (attachment) drawn her back." (to England.) 
 
324 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson adds, that her mother was not kindly treated 
 by her uncle, with whom she resided after her return from 
 Guernsey, " whereupon she left his house with a resolution 
 to withdraw herself into the island, where the good minister 
 was, and there to weare out her life in the service of God." 
 But while deliberating, she was induced by Sir Allan Apsley 
 to marry him. These French Calvinist clergymen, whom 
 Falle doubtless considered as incendiaries, certainly appear to 
 have possessed great influence with their fair hearers. 
 
 Until the year 1811, Castle Cornet served as the common 
 gaol or prison of the island, offenders being condemned by 
 the Royal Court to imprisonment there, often en basse fosse, 
 i.e. in an underground dungeon, which was exceedingly damp 
 and unwholesome, and may yet be seen. The following 
 ordinance of that body, which does not appear to have been 
 the more lenient for its sour puritanism, will perhaps induce 
 the reader to think that the punishment often exceeded the 
 offence: "4 Oct. 1602. Seeing the incontinence which is 
 daily committed by many young men, who, before marriage, 
 get their betrothed with child, to the great dishonour of the 
 glory of God, scandal of the church, and infamy of the par- 
 ties, it is ordered by justice, that any young men so offending 
 shall be constituted prisoners at Castle Cornet, en basse fosse, 
 for fifteen days on bread and water." — But the prison was 
 difficult of access in bad weather, and its inconvenience was 
 complained of as early as 1607. In March, 1552, some 
 Roman Catholic priests were confined in Castle Cornet, as 
 appears by a metrical * complainte ' written by them whilst 
 in prison, in which they lament the destruction of the images, 
 sacred vessels, and vestments, and the hardships to which 
 they were exposed by the persecutions of the rectors, then in 
 possession of their benefices. A corrupt copy of this poem is 
 preserved in the Register of St. Saviour's church, under the 
 date of 1638. Their offence was probably non-conformity to 
 the Anglican Service Book, which Edward VI. had ordered 
 to be used in the Channel Islands ; though, in the same 
 order, he very strangely allowed the islands to remain under 
 the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Coutances. During the 
 revolutionary war, it was customary for the inhabitants — 
 all of whom between the ages of sixteen and sixty were en- 
 rolled in the militia — to be taught military exercise on the 
 Sunday. Several of the Wesleyans, deeming this practice a 
 desecration of the sabbath, refused to conform to it, and were, 
 in consequence, repeatedly fined and imprisoned. One of 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 325 
 
 them was incarcerated during four months at Castle Cornet, 
 in a miserable cell which was part of the time exposed to the 
 wind, there being no glass frame to the windows, and where 
 some of his companions in captivity were common felons ! 
 Mr. Warburton, a herald and celebrated antiquary in the 
 reign of Charles II., wrote, in 1682, a treatise on the history, 
 laws, and customs of Guernsey ; and, relative to the prison 
 and gaoler, he said : " The portier of Castle Cornet is the 
 keeper of all prisoners whatever, whether for debt, or crimi- 
 nals. He has been always appointed by the governor, but 
 gives security to the bailiff and jurats for the safe keeping of 
 such prisoners as are by them committed to his custody. 
 The Extent of Edw. III. says : ' Dominus rex habet unum 
 janitorem castri, qui percipit per diem XII fortse monetae.* 
 But his salary is now as the governor thinks fit to allow him ; 
 besides which, he receives a customary duty of some small 
 quantity of wine, salt, and earthen pots out of all ships un- 
 loading any of these commodities in the island. His fee, at 
 the entrance of a prisoner for debt, is 2d. ; for keeping him, 
 2d. per diem ; and likewise 2d. per diem for his bread and 
 drink, if the portier provide it for him.' If a prisoner for 
 debt has liberty to go into the town, he is to pay the portier 
 4d. per diem, and allow the diet of a man to attend him ; if 
 he goes beyond the town, 8d. per diem, with the diet of a 
 man to attend him as a keeper. If such a prisoner has not 
 wherewithal to pay the portier's fees, the person at whose suit 
 he is imprisoned is obliged to pay them. There have been 
 anciently several places in the island where prisoners have 
 been kept ; but it is now time out of mind^ that there has 
 been no other prison than such rooms in Castle Cornet as the 
 governor has thought fit to assign for the portier's use. — The 
 executioner is provided by the governor, and has no certain 
 salary ,2 but receives only what the governor thinks fit to 
 allow him." 
 
 (1) The allowance of a prisoner for subsistence is now (1854) Qd. per diem : this more 
 than quadruple increase is not owing to the proportionally increased value of wheat, as 
 from the year 1677 to 1686, inclusive, the current price of wheat was affixed at 7 livres, or 
 lOs. per Guernsey quarter, equal to ^l. 5s. per Winchester quarter ; and in 1850, wheat 
 was af&xed in the same manner at 10 livres 3 sols, or l4s. 6d. per Guernsey quarter. 
 
 (2) The executioner has now l5s. a week, besides 2s. 6d. lodging money, and certain 
 fees when his services are required, which happily is but seldom. This appointment ia 
 almost a sinecure, and it ought to be abolished. 
 
326 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 CHARLES II. — 1660 to 1685. 
 
 The islanders bad suffered so much from the exactions of the 
 parliamentarian soldiers who were sent to it towards the close 
 of the civil war, not during the protectorate, that they joyfully 
 proclaimed Charles II. at the Restoration, May 29, 1660, 
 although probably with many misgivings as to the treatment 
 they would experience at his hands, for having sided with the 
 Commonwealth. They also sent a deputation to congratulate 
 his majesty on his accession, and expressed every contrition 
 for their past conduct ! The deputies, elected by the States, 
 were Sir Henry De Vic, Bart., Amias Andros, of Sausmarez, 
 bailiff of Guernsey, Captain Darell, and William De Beau- 
 voir ; and upon their petition setting forth that the inhabitants 
 acknowledged their great guilt, for which they implored his 
 majesty's pardon, a mil and effectual pardon was ordered to 
 pass the great seal, in which it was stated, that Sir Henry 
 De Vic, knight and baronet ; Mr. Amias Andros, as above ; 
 Edmund Andros, his son ; Charles Andros, brother of the 
 said Amias ; and Nathaniel Darell,* also as above ; ** had, to 
 their great honour, during the late rebellion, continued invio- 
 lably faithful to his majesty, and consequently had no need to 
 be included in this general pardon." Henry De Vic, a native 
 of Guernsey, was employed by Charles I. in treating with 
 the celebrated Duke de Rohan and the French Protestants 
 for the relief of La Rochelle.' De Vic, who married a 
 daughter of Sir Philip Carteret, Bart., of Jersey, and pro- 
 bably owed his rise to the interest of his father-in-law, was 
 subsequently " Resident for king Charles I. nearly twenty 
 years in Brussels, afterwards Chancellor of the most noble 
 order of the Garter." He shared in the exile of Charles II., 
 and was by him created a baronet in 1649, by letters patent, 
 dated at St. Germain, in France, September 3 ; but the title 
 has long been extinct, as for many years has been in Guernsey 
 the name of this ancient family, one of which was bailiff, 
 or chief magistrate of the island, in the year 1596. 
 
 (1) This evidently was not Captain Darell, Sir P. Osborne's lieutenant, but his son, 
 afterwards lieutenant-governor of Guernsey. 
 
 (2) Continuation of Sir James Mackintosh's History of England. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 327 
 
 We have expressed our conviction that the people of Guern- 
 sey boldly sided against Charles I. more from a religious thaii 
 a disloyal feeling, for they had previously, as they have since, 
 been remarkable for their attachment and adherence to the 
 sovereigns of England, as Dukes of Normandy ; and it has 
 been shewn that, though adhering to the parliament, many were 
 royalists, while others repented themselves of the transfer of 
 their allegiance. It must, however, be borne in mind, that 
 the Genevese church was then much imbued with republican- 
 ism. But, judging by the conduct of the unprincipled Charles 
 and of his priest-ridden brother James, it would seem that the 
 Guernseymen had properly appreciated the character of the 
 Stuarts, who were, for a long series of years, as remarkable 
 for their misfortunes as for their total disregard of the lessons 
 of adversity. 
 
 After the troubles, commissioners were appointed by the 
 king to draw up a report for settling the affairs of Guernsey 
 and the other islands within its bailiwick : they were, Sir 
 George Carteret, vice-chamberlain, and the gallant defender 
 of Jersey ; Sir Hugh Pollard, governor of Guernsey ; Mr. 
 John Ashburnham, of the bed chamber ; and Colonel Ash- 
 burnham, cofferer of his majesty's household. " In conse- 
 quence of their report," says Duncan, "the privy council 
 issued an order, of which the following is the substance : 
 His majesty left the privy council to decide whether he should 
 renew the charters of the island ; he appointed certain gen- 
 tlemen to the office of jurats ; ordered the ancient pier dues 
 to be continued, and required the governor to draw up an 
 account of all recent appropriation of those funds ; ratified 
 the judicial proceedings of the island ; commanded the erasure 
 of all deeds on the registry recorded against the government 
 of his present majesty or his predecessor ; directed that a new 
 Extent, or rental of his majesty's revenue, should be drawn 
 up by the bailiff and jurats ; ordered those who had seized 
 and sold his majesty's goods to be proceeded against ; com- 
 manded the oath of allegiance and supremacy to be adminis- 
 tered throughout the bailiwick, with the same formalities as 
 in England ; empowered the bailiff or his lieutenant to pass 
 all contracts for the sale of land, in the same manner as was 
 practised before the wars, and granted a free pardon to all 
 who had supported the rebellion. In reference to Alderney, 
 the king consented that a brief, passed in the eighteenth year 
 of the reign of James I., should be renewed for constructing a 
 fort in that island ; and he further directed, that until the fort 
 
328 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 was complete, six soldiers and one serjeant from each of the 
 garrisons of Jersey and Guernsey should be sent to Alderney 
 by the respective governors of those islands. 
 
 " The provisions of this order clearly shew that the king 
 retained little or no resentment against the islanders for hav- 
 ing sided with the parliament and the protector, and that he 
 was disposed to grant a generous amnesty for the past. But 
 the dismissal of certain jurats, and the appointment of others, 
 without the form of an election, was highly unconstitutional. 
 When the governor. Lord Hatton, however, dismissed subse- 
 quently two of the jurats who had incurred his displeasure, 
 his majesty ordered that * all elections of jurats should for the 
 future be made according to the charter and ancient custom 
 of the island.' The court, anxious to prove itself deserving 
 of the royal favour, faithfully enforced the commands of his 
 majesty; and on May 15, 1661, the names of Oliver and Richard 
 Cromwell were erased from the public registry : the court fur- 
 ther ordered that all contracts, passed during the usurpation 
 under the seal of the island, should be deemed null and void, 
 and directed that all such contracts should be renewed within 
 a year, counting from Michaelmas day next ensuing, under 
 the penalty of their being considered invalid and illegal." 
 
 We have already mentioned the losses which the civil war 
 inflicted on the island, and no stronger proof can be given of 
 the poverty and distress to which it was reduced, than the 
 circumstance that, shortly after the Restoration, the States of 
 Guernsey resolved to present a petition to Charles, praying 
 that Guernsey might be united to England, and that acts of 
 parliament might from that period have the force of law 
 here. This short-sighted proposition was favourably received 
 by the council, whose answer, which was registered on the 
 insular records in October, 1663, was to the effect that parlia- 
 ment would take the matter into consideration as soon as the 
 importance of the affair, and the multiplicity of other business, 
 would allow them to do so. 
 
 In giving the few following extracts from a copious diary 
 or journal kept by Peter Le Roy, in French, it is necessary 
 to add, that he was born in Guernsey about the year 1600 ; 
 that he was schoolmaster of the Catel, and next of St. Mar- 
 tin's parish ; and that he was sworn greffier or registrar of 
 the feudal court of Sausmarez, St. Martin's, October 10, 1657. 
 Some of his notices are very characteristic and amusing : 
 
 " December 19, 1651. — The garrison of Castle Cornet, amount- 
 ing to about fifty-five men, surrendered with composition, and 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 329 
 
 marclied out of the said castle with their commander ; the said 
 castle having held and resisted ao^ainst the island for the space of 
 eight years and nine months, or thereabout, during which time 
 there were more than 30,000 cannon shots* fired on the town. 
 
 ** January 18, 1657. — There were three lords (seigneurs) of 
 England sent prisoners to Castle Cornet.^ 
 
 "February 28, 1659-60. — Major Henry Wanseye replaced 
 Colonel Bingham as governor ; and the next day the royal court, 
 the clergy, and the town douzaine, went to wait upon him at 
 Castle Cornet. On the 19th of March, the States of the island 
 met in the town church, when the said governor presented his 
 commission. 
 
 *' May 31, 1660. — Charles II. proclaimed in Guernsey, in pre- 
 sence of Captain Sharp, the lieutenant-governor ; Mr. Peter Carey, 
 lieutenant-bailiff; the jurats, clergy, &c., with ringing of bells ; 
 half companies of the most expert of the militia under arms, 
 feu du joie, and great rejoicings. The proclamation was read by 
 Abraham Carey, the prevost, in six places, viz. before the Plai- 
 derie, at the Grand Carrefour, before Berthelot Street, before the 
 cage, at the church door, and on the pier. 
 
 "February 6, 1663-4. — Mr. Darell, the lieutenant-governor, 
 caused Mr. John de Quetteville, lieutenant-bailiff, in consequence 
 of some difference between them, to be removed from his seat of 
 justice ; and the Wednesday following, the said lieutenant-gover- 
 nor sent him to prison at Castle Cornet,* after which Mr. John 
 Brehaut was made judge delegate, and Mr. Peter Carey his 
 assistant. 
 
 "February 17,1663-4. — My Lord Hatton arrived in this island, 
 as * grand gouverneur,' with his brother and two of his sons. 
 As soon as Lord Hatton landed at Castle Cornet, he liberated 
 Mr. de Quetteville from prison, and the Monday following all 
 the justices were ordered to appear before the said governor at the 
 castle, where were constituted prisoners Mr. Peter Carey and Mr. 
 William de Beauvoir, du Houmet, and Mr. James de Havilland, 
 and the greffier (registrar) suspended. After being kept in prison 
 eight or nine days, they were liberated under bail, remaining 
 suspended until the case was decided.""* 
 
 (1) This appears to be an exaggeration. 
 
 (2) These were doubtless either some of the republican leaders hostile to Cromwell, or 
 royalists J as, in the autumn of 1656, among the former. Vane was imprisoned in Caris- 
 brook castle, Rich in Windsor, and Harrison in Pendennis castle. Among the latter. 
 Lord Willoughby, of Parham, John Ashburnham, and others, were committed to the Tower. 
 
 (3) For this stretch of power. Captain Darell, jun., was displaced by Charles II. from 
 bis office of lieutenant-governor j and Mr. William De Beauvoir was ordered to pay j6'15, 
 and Mr. Peter Carey £b, to Mr. de Quetteville.— (Vide Duncan's History, p. lOQ.) 
 
 (4) This entry is ambiguous, and it is doubtful whether Mr. de Havilland and the greffier 
 were committed to prison, or only suspended from their offices. 
 
330 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Captain Water house, Lieut. -Governor of Guernsey , to A. Andros, Esq. 
 
 [Extracts.] — "Yours by Sir Philip Carteret and others I have 
 received. Seeing a frigate lying under Sark in a storm, the next 
 morning I sent Lomer in his shallop to see what they were : it 
 proved to be the governor of Jersey, with Sir Philip. I have 
 done him right as unto his possession of Sark, where his brother 
 now is. I have sent a brace of bucks, one unto the governor, 
 the other unto Sir Philip Carteret. This day I had the States 
 assembled to recall Du Houmet's [W. de Beauvoir] commission 
 by them. Gosselin presented a letter from Du Houmet to him 
 as judge delegate, which made me produce yours in the assembly, 
 and Mr. Havilland read so much as concerned Du Houmet's 
 actings. Mr. Havilland and Mr. Quetteville, and Mr. John 
 Sausmarez, and Mr. James Marchant, read theirs. The result 
 of all was, that a letter of thanks should be written unto Sir 
 George de Carteret, for his great favors unto this people, and one 
 other unto Sir Henry De Vic, yourself, and Mr. Darell, giving 
 you power to act in their behalf; and a tax speedily to be laid, 
 whereby to supply you with dust : in the mean time some of the 
 jurats, the ministers, and others, have lent about sixty pounds 
 sterling, which will be immediately returned unto you. 
 
 " Castle Cornet, August 25, 1660." 
 
 Major Walters to Lord Hatton, 
 
 [Extracts.] — " Since my last, T have found some trouble about 
 one Marchant, once a minister in this island. Mr. Dean ^ was 
 pleased to communicate the conditions of the man to me, and his 
 sense of them, upon which I conveyed him to the castle, where, 
 with such reasons as were given, the lieutenant-governor' resolved 
 to keep him prisoner; at which he, exclaiming with open mouth, 
 protested boldly for one night ; and the next day petitioned the 
 jurats for justice, pretending he was imprisoned by a court mar- 
 tial. This day, the jurats take this business into debate : what 
 the result will be, or how Mr. Darell will carry himself, I know 
 not. But, whatever they do, I believe here is matter against him, 
 and such as, if proved, will call him to London, there to answer 
 with the hazard of his neck. Yesterday, Mr. Dean, Mr. d'An- 
 ville,' and the lieutenant-bailly,'' acquainted me with ill things of 
 him, which, if they prove, your lordship shall be acquainted 
 with. But this man's apprehension is not sufficient : Bonamy 
 and Monamy, Eleazar Marchant, Peter Careye, James Marchant, 
 and Havilland, must be made exemplary, or no quiet will ever 
 be established here. They are so confident of your not coming, 
 that they conclude all is their own. All those who are honest are 
 in very great apprehension, and wish infinitely for your presence. 
 
 " Guernsey, July 18, 1663." 
 
 (1) John de Sausmarez, rector of St. Martin's, and afterwards canon of Windsor. 
 
 (2) Captain Darell. (3) Charles Audros. (4) John de Quetteville. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 331 
 
 The minister alluded to in the preceding letter was the 
 Rev. Thomas Le Marchant, a sturdy Presbyterian, and a 
 talented author, of whom we have already spoken with much 
 regard, because we respect the scruples, even if mistaken, of 
 a clergyman who, rather than violate his conscience, resigns 
 his benefice, and perhaps gives up his bread. This excellent 
 man, after taking his degrees at Cambridge, passed some 
 years at the academy at Caen, where he enjoyed the friend- 
 ship of the learned Bochart and Huet, who corresponded 
 with him on his return to Guernsey. In the king's warrant, 
 dated Whitehall, September 30, 1667, it is ordered that 
 " whereas Thomas Le Marchant hath been a long time pri- 
 soner in the Tower," on his entering into recognizance of 
 £1,000, " that he shall not at any time presume to go to the 
 island of Guernsey, unless he hath special license from his 
 majesty so to do, and shall behave himself for the future as 
 a dutiful and loyal subject," &c., " the said Thomas Le Mar- 
 chant be, and he is hereby, discharged from his imprisonment." 
 In a letter, in French, dated Guernsey, August 8, 1662, the 
 dean informed Amias Andros, bailiff, then at Westminster, 
 that on that day Mr. Le Marchant had resigned to him his 
 parishes, (St. Sampson's and the Vale,) rather than be exa- 
 mined relative to the accusations which were brought against 
 him, and that he had given security to the lieutenant-governor 
 of 1,000 escus for his good conduct in future. The dean 
 adds, that the jurats had so well taken the thing in hand, that 
 no one in the island dared say a word against episcopal 
 government, all the upper classes being Episcopalians, and 
 only the common people being otherwise. Writing to Amias 
 Andros in Guernsey, dean de Sausmarez, under date of West- 
 minster, March 9, 1664, says : " Thomas Le Marchant will 
 soon have that which he has long merited, and his boastings 
 (vanteries) will no longer have their course." And on May 
 13, 1665, the dean says: "Thomas Le Marchant is in the 
 Tower, and will continue there until ' le prophete du creux 
 Robilliard soit accompli.'" — Mr. Le Marchant married 
 Olympe Roland, by whom he had three sons, of whom Elea- 
 zar was afterwards bailiff of Guernsey, and one daughter, 
 wife of Peter Priaulx, seigneur du Comte, and subsequently 
 of four other husbands. 
 
 From the copy of a Letter^ in the handwriting of Amias Andros. 
 ^ *' Tuesday, the 1st November, (1664,) my Lord Hatton made 
 his solemn entry in his governnaent in great pomp and magnifi- 
 
332 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 cence. He came from the castle [Cornet] in a barge purposely 
 made for that object, and had for his guard twenly-four soldiers 
 with halberds, who marched before him ; twenty others who had 
 carbines, who came after in blue ' casaques ;' and twenty-six 
 gentlemen marched before him bareheaded in the midst of the 
 halberdiers; and before him marched his secretary, who had on 
 both sides of him two footmen, who carried two patents, the one 
 for the government, the other for his instructions ; and in this 
 equipage they marched to his palace and throne; and behind him 
 at a distance marched his two sons and his brother; Mr. Clement, 
 the marchant ; next came the justice, pell-mell with the soldiers 
 without taking notice of them. Being come to the church gate, 
 he was harangued by Mr. Janon, accompanied by several minis- 
 ters. Being come to his palace, he went up by an ascent on the 
 right hand, and the justice by another on the left, where in the 
 midst was a chair of state, raised one foot above that of the bailly, 
 and above his chair, " a state," under which was also his son on his 
 right hand. And after he had caused his patent and instructions 
 to be read in Latin and French, he caused one douzenier for each 
 parish, together with two constables and two treasurers for each, 
 to be sworn. And of all these, there will not be found twenty-six 
 conformists but are of the most violent against the ecclesiastical 
 government, and the same against monarchy. After that he 
 displayed a book, which contained about two quires of paper, in 
 the which was written what he had to say to the people ; and 
 being fallen upon the justice, [the jurats,] defamed them, by all 
 ways and means imaginable, to the people, calling them factious, 
 rebels who made factions against the king ; and moreover made 
 cabals to deliver the island to foreign princes ; that they were 
 thieves, who robbed the king and held the poor people at * lands ;' 
 that it was to the poor people he would do good, and many words 
 to that purpose ; and that all those who had appeared against 
 their governors had been ruined, and that they should take care 
 not to fall into the like faults. 
 
 " After he had insisted upon these things above an hour, he 
 began to draw out of their graves those that have been dead near 
 two hundred years, to declaim against them in this public assem- 
 bly, and *cau8'd' all the acts of court, which he had intelligence 
 were in the rolls one hundred years since, to the disgrace of baillys 
 and jurats ; but the night intervening, he retired, remitting the 
 rest to another time. And the most of the inhabitants of the 
 island were in *armes* from six in the morning till six in the 
 afternoon, and were ranked in order, from his landing place to 
 his palace, as he causes it to be called. The Friday, 11th Novem- 
 ber, he summoned Ch. A. [Charles Andros] and his counsel to 
 be in the castle at two in the afternoon, to hear his report betwixt 
 him and P. Priaulx, for the Fief le Conte, and, being come in the 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 333 
 
 hall, caused the report to be read before above sixty persons ; and 
 after, he began to give to the king's procureur, or attorney, the 
 most bitter injuries that can be thought on, and next fell upon 
 Ch. A., calling him foul-mouth, infamous cabalist against the 
 king, traitor, and that he ought to throw himself at the king's 
 feet to demand him pardon ; to which he answered : 
 
 "That it was not in the power of any man to impose upon him 
 any stain of disloyalty against his king, having served him faith- 
 fully, and often exposed his life for his service ; that in case he 
 could prove the least disloyalty against him, that he would cause 
 him to be punished by the severest extremity the laws would 
 allow; that, for his part, he would not plead the act of oblivion^ 
 for any fault that he had committed against his sovereign ; that 
 he had rather lose his life than his honor. Many other injuries 
 he received, too long to be here recited. And those present at 
 all this were Tho. Marchant ; I. de Quetteville ; Mathew Heri- 
 vel ; Will. Marchant ; Natha. White ; Peter Priaulx, Marchant's 
 son-in-law; Elear. Marchant, brother to Thomas; and many 
 others who were sent for to be present at this 
 
 " I make you judge of the state wherein we are reduced : our 
 honor and reputation being taken from us by the dirt and filth 
 thrown upon us, by calumnies and unjustifiable injuries ; our 
 ancestors drawn from their graves, and brought upon the stage ; 
 our judges and magistrates being rendered infamous in the ears 
 of the common people; our jurisdiction abject and despised, and 
 almost in a downfal ; our liberties enslaved ; our laws broken ; 
 our privileges lost ; our lives and goods exposed to the mercy of 
 some persons; — this is the sad condition we are reduced into. 
 Pray endeavour by all means to bring a remedy to all those evils 
 with which we are at present infolded, and to employ all your 
 friends, and the interest you have for the good of your country, 
 and advise a course to be taken in it. I think it would be sea- 
 sonable to endeavour with the soonest to have an order from his 
 majesty to cause four or five persons to be called over to give an 
 ample relation of all passages hero, who may without fear inform 
 of truth of things ; and if that may be obtained, pray delay not 
 to give us notice of it by the way of France, and by all the most 
 expeditious ways. If that may not be obtainfed, endeavour to 
 find some other expedient to have us come, for it will be impos- 
 sible for us to come out of the island without his majesty's own 
 order. The merchants cannot go after their trading" 
 
 [From the context, it is evident that this letter was addressed by Mr. Amias 
 Andros to Sir Henry De Vic, Bart., who appears to have been consulted on 
 all the public affairs of the island, relating to which we have before us five 
 letters of his, three in French and two in English. Writing from Windsor, 
 June 16, 1670, to the bailiff and jurats of Gruernsey, Sir Henry says : " Au 
 
 (1) In that Act it was declared that Mr. Charles Andros had been inviolably faithful to 
 the king.— See ante. 
 
334 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 reste comme je suis dans un aage trop advance pour une vie de cour, et a cet 
 effet je me suis retire en ce lieu pour y estre plus a repos et a mon aise, j'ay 
 peur pour raffection que j'ay a notre pauvre pays de pourvoir aux occasions 
 qui se pourroient rencontre en mon absence qu'il n'y fust faute de moy, et 
 comme je ne cognoisse qui soit plus capable a tons esgards d'y supplier, j'ay 
 prie le Major Andros de vouloir que je le feisses mon depute, pour en mon 
 absence y pouvoir paretre et agir. Cela ne m'empesclier [a] pas pourtant de 
 faire un tour en cour, quand 1' affaire sera d'importance, et quo ma sante le 
 pourra permettre," &c.] 
 
 Although the inhabitants of Guernsey had opposed the 
 arbitrary government of Charles I., the reign of his son — 
 thanks evidently to the influence of Sir George Carteret, Sir 
 H. De Vic, and Amias Andros — was auspicious to the island, 
 as he not only confirmed its privileges generally, but, in 1668, 
 granted it a charter, in which were recited the various con- 
 cessions of his predecessors. Moreover, many complaints 
 having been made against Lord Hatton, the governor, who, 
 among other charges, was accused of having sold to the 
 French some brass guns,' which he had taken from Castle 
 Cornet, he was recalled by the king, in February, 1665, in 
 consequence of tliis violation of his duty, and also of his 
 arbitrary interference with judicial authority;^ and Colonel 
 Jonathan Atkins was appointed to command during the absence 
 of that nobleman, whose son Christopher, Lord Hatton, had the 
 reversion of the post. The provisional governor was strictly 
 charged to maintain the privileges of the islanders. In 1666, 
 Guernsey was placed in a posture of defence, the French 
 having then some design on the islands, and which design 
 was frustrated by the secret communication of the lady of 
 Marshal Turenne, as related in Chapter XL It was at this 
 time that the captain of the isles of Chausey (Vaucour) was 
 detected in Guernsey when tampering with some of the 
 inhabitants, whom he suspected of disaffection, and parti- 
 cularly with General Lambert, already mentioned. But 
 the general, it seems, preferred any government to a French 
 one, and therefore having made a free discovery, Vaucour 
 was apprehended, and, as a convicted spy, suffered death. It 
 may have been this discovery which procured for Lambert 
 the favor of his removal to England. 
 
 (1) We know not whether Lord Clarendon, who died In exile at Rouen, in 1673, alludes 
 to this accusation, when speaking of Sir Christopher (afterwards Lord) Hatton in his 
 history, he says : " Sir Christopher Hatton, a person of great reputation at that time, 
 which in a few years he found a way to diminish." 
 
 (2) Colonel Atkins, writing to Amias Andros, in April, 1667, says : " But to make our 
 disturbance the greater, which doeth not a little amaze the people, my Lord Hatton has 
 sent to his small correspondents that he is recovered, and will soon pursue his busincsse, 
 and doubts not very shortly to return hither, which makes the people in a very unsettled 
 coDdition, they fearing it more than the coming of the Ifrcnch." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 335 
 
 Colonel Atkins to Amias Andros, Esq. 
 
 [Extracts.] — "The other day a ship laden with goods from 
 St. Malo to a very considerable vahie, a great part thereof coarse 
 canvass and some money therein, came here upon the accompt of 
 Mr. Carey, and others his associates. An Irishman came master 
 of her, who it seems had bought some pistols and carbines to 
 make some profit thereof." [Colonel Atkins having been in- 
 formed by two merchants of a rival association that there were 
 arms on board for conveyance to Ireland, caused the vessel to be 
 unloaded, when * only six case of pistols and seven carbines' were 
 found.] " I trouble you with this relation, to let you see that 
 our jealousies one of another still remain. Bui I do not find the 
 price of stockings is at all advanced by these [merchants] more 
 than the other, nor that they keep their word with me, and lay 
 out but very little money to buy them, but rather drive another 
 kind of trade with woollen cloth and other commodities. But I 
 am glad to be content with any thing that portends subsistence, 
 for I do every day more and more see the necessities of the people 
 increase, so that if we cannot continue this little trade, and pro- 
 cure leave to import our commodities into England, you may 
 well judge the consequence there, and how miserable we shall 
 soon be. 
 
 *' I find they are very suspicious in England we grow very 
 rich, and the emulation is great against us upon that accompt. 
 It were well if we found it so, but I am sure I do not ; but most 
 men novv-a-days are so apt to prefer their own interests to the 
 king's, that they think we do the same, which I am sure we have 
 not done ; but I need not declare this to one that knows it. 
 
 " We are very busy in making preparations for our summer's 
 trial : we are getting up our works forth at Fermain and '* Mer 
 Peroin," have our stores of biscuit in every parish of the island 
 ready : some ammunition and arms would much encourage us, 
 which we hope your solicitations will obtain. 
 
 " P.S. — Commend me to Mun :^ tell him they are fitting out 
 the privateer as fast as they can.^ I encourage it all I may, but 
 some others seem concerned that it will take as they suppose 
 from them. I should not care if there were ten more. I am for 
 ruining the enemy, let us fare as we can. 
 
 " Castle Cornet, February 23, 1666." [7] 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 [Extracts.] — "I was a little surprised when by yours of the 
 16th February, which came to my hands the 3d int^tant, as also 
 by one from your son from Portsmouth, I was advertised of his 
 
 (1) Edmund, afterwards Sir Edmund Andros. 
 
 (2) The fitting out of this privateer now seems a violation of the privilege of neutrality, 
 unless she were intended to cruize solely against the Dutch. 
 
336 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 so sudden departure for the Barbadoes expedition But 
 
 since he must go, I am glad he goes in so honorable a place as 
 major. ^ Ever since I received your letters, which 1 sent pre- 
 sently to your lady, I have been shut up in the castle by such 
 stormy weather, and such cold winds, and so much snow, as the 
 most concludes hath never been seen here before; and I believe 
 the French will find they have made a little too much haste with 
 their fleet, for that part which is out from Brest hath had this 
 whole week such weather as will make them fit to go in again, 
 
 for they cannot avoid to be extremely tattered and disabled 
 
 At last, Colonel " Kingsbey," the agent for the prizes, is arrived, 
 for such is his title in the letter written to us from the lords com- 
 missioners. I doubt the time is much spent of getting prizes this 
 year, and I believe the employment will hardly answer his nor 
 their expectations, notwithstanding the great benefits imputed to 
 us, which I am sure is yet in embryo. But I hope they will be 
 so just as to pay us for what we have done, and those officers that 
 have acted with us for them. 
 
 "Castle Cornet, March ^%, 166". 
 "To his honored friend. Amice Andros, Esq., his majesty's bailiff 
 of his island of Guernsey, at his lodging over against the 
 White Nag in James' Street, Covent Garden, London." 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 " Castle Cornet, March 25, 1667. 
 " Sir, — Tis so latelie that I writt to you, that I shall not have 
 much now to say to you ; but I cannot omitt to relate how bravelie 
 the men of St. Martyn's have behaved themselves at sea. They 
 have brought in a prize of sixty tun, a flie boate belonging to 
 Amsterdam, that is laden with wine, ptum,* figs and rosin, and 
 is without dispute cleere prize. They likewise encounterd with 
 another at sea, of nyne or ten guns, with their two guns, of which 
 they were fayne to borrow one of mee ; but receivd so much 
 damage in their hull, sayles, and rigging, and having ffive of their 
 twenty-ffive men hurt, they were forcd to leave her; but man- 
 fully after this tooke the same they brought in, which had like- 
 wise two guns. I have given you this relation that you may see 
 your countrymen will fight. I beseech you present my service 
 to Mr. Deane, [Sausmarez,] Mr. de Haviland, and Mr. Martin, 
 and desyre them they will this tyme accept this letter as to them 
 all. Your good lady is well, and so are the rest of your relations, 
 and all theirs. Forget mee not to all our friends, nor with which 
 assurance I am. Sir, your wary affec. freind and serv. 
 
 "J. Atkins." 
 
 (1) There is a letter from Colonel Atkins, dated Castle Cornet, January 26, 1666, [? 1667,] 
 addresHcd " To my much esteemed friend, Ensign Andros," so that his advancement 
 had been very rapid. 
 
 (2) P*tum, the true native American, and Guernsey and Jersey, word for French pbtun, 
 toubuc or tobacco. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 337 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 " Castle Cornet, Nov. 18, 1667. 
 
 " Sir, — It is a rare tliinor now to heare from Enjjland, and (is 
 as hard a matter to send thither, for St. Malo's is the place they 
 all send to, and now they have no need of us, they give us a goe- 
 by : wee are verry desyrous to heare how things goe in England, 
 of which we are very ignorant. Wee heare of your disagree- 
 ments, for which we are very sorry ; and your attempts uppon 
 great ones doeth somewhat startle us ; for since wee have peace, 
 wee pray now for unitie ; — wee conserve it still amongst our 
 selves, and if some unexpected change doe not alter us, wee are 
 well inough. Your lady is well and all yours ; but your brother 
 Danville hath beene very ill, but recovers againe. I am glad 
 you have assurance of Muns [Edmund Andros] being well. Wee 
 have had such stormie weather as never man see ; our merchants 
 have receivd some damage thereby, but the Jersie men much 
 more. Tis very long since wee receivd any letters from England. 
 Heere are two vessells come from Hampton, bound for Jersie, 
 who say that Fiott put out from the Isle of Wight three days 
 before them, with whom I heare my letters are : wee hope they 
 are put into some port of the west. Present mee to all our freinds. 
 My humble service to Sir George Carterett and Sir Henry De 
 Vic. Without alteration, I am. Sir, 
 
 " Your freind and servant, 
 
 "J. Atkins. 
 " For his honored freind, Amias Andros, Esq. 
 
 bayliffe of his majesti's island of Guernzey." 
 
 Sir Henry De Vic, Bart., to Major Edmund Andros. 
 
 " I did write unto you upon Thursday last what was my sense 
 touching the election of a jurat, since which time I hear that my 
 Lord Hatton hath written unto my Lord Arlington, and no doubt 
 hath represented the passages in the late election with the disad- 
 vantage that may be, in order that either he may be made umpire 
 and have the casting voice, or else that he may obtain his former 
 design of having his friend, Mr. William Marchant, to be made 
 a jurat.^ I confess that by that I have understood and seen that 
 the said election hath been but too tumultuous, and that tumult 
 hath proceeded from the insolent behaviour of de Grange [Mr, 
 de Beauvoir] his party, which was so great as I wonder less how 
 your father should be mistaken in one voice, which to remedy, 
 the expedient I did propound in my last I think may suflBce, and 
 if it be not approved, methinks this other may be taken ; that 
 
 (1) Mr. William Le Marchant was elected a jurat in 167 1. We observe that, in the 
 seventeenth century, gentlemen of the first families vrere much more anxious to obtain a 
 seat on the bench than they are now, because the magisterial duties were then compara- 
 tively very light. 
 
 Y 
 
338 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Mr. Dean and Mr. Havilland, one of the jurats, who are here, 
 and are both of them electors, niay be admitted to give their 
 voices as if they were present there. I pray yon acquaint my 
 Lord of Arlington with this letter, to prevent those inconveniences 
 that might otherwise arise 
 
 " For Major Andros, at the Earle of Craven, 
 his house in Drury Lane. 
 
 " Windsor, this 12th August, 1671." 
 
 On the death of the first Lord Hatton, in 1670, his son. 
 Lord Hatton, succeeded him as governor of Guernsey. He 
 was far from following in his father's footsteps, as he steadily 
 promoted the prosperity of the island, and watched over its 
 interests ; but, after a residence of two years, an awful cala- 
 mity befell him and his family, by which he lost his mother 
 and his wife. On the 29th of December, 1672, the magazine 
 of the castle was exploded, as we shall narrate in the words 
 of Dicey, who, it will be seen, relates some very extraordi^ 
 nary escapes, which savour rather of the marvellous : 
 
 " On Sunday night, about twelve o'clock, the day abovemen- 
 tioned, the magazine of this castle was blown up, with the powder 
 in it, by thunder and lightening. The night was very stormy and 
 tempestuous, and the wind blew hard at south-west, to which 
 aspect the door of the magazine exactly fronted ; and the thunder 
 bolt, or clap, which accompanied this dreadful calamity, was 
 heard to come circleing (or, as it were, serpentining) over the 
 platform, from the south-west. In an instant of time, not only 
 the whole magazine was blown up in the air, but also all the 
 houses and lodgings of the castle ; particularly some fair and 
 beautiful buildings, that had just before been erected at great 
 expence, under the care and direction of the Right Honourable 
 the Lord Viscount Hatton, their then governor, who was at the 
 same time within the buildings of the castle ; all which buildings* 
 were, with many others, reduced to a confused heap of stones, 
 and several persons buried in the ruins. 
 
 " In the upper part of the castle, at a place called the New 
 Buildings, was killed by this accident the Right Hon. the Lady 
 Dowager Hatton, by the fall of the ceiling of her chamber, which 
 fell in four pieces, one of them upon her breast, and killed her 
 on the spot. 
 
 " The Right Honourable the Lady Hatton, wife to the gover- 
 nor, and daughter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Thanet, 
 was likewise destroyed in the following manner: her ladyship, 
 being greatly terrified at the thunder and lightening, insisted 
 
 (1) These buildinffs appear, by the engraving before mentioned, to have been erected on 
 the southern summit of the islet, and adjoined the liecp, or tower. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 339 
 
 (before the magazine blew up) upon being removed from the 
 chamber she was in to the nursery, where, having caused her 
 woman to come also to be with her, in order to have joined in 
 prayer, in a few minutes after that noble lady and her woman 
 fell a sacrifice, by one corner of the nursery room falling in upon 
 them, and were the next morning both found dead. 
 
 " In the same room was also killed a dry nurse, who was found 
 dead, having my lord's second daughter fast in her arms, holding 
 a small silver cup in her hands which she usually played with, 
 which was all rimpled and bruised ; yet the young lady did not 
 receive the least hurt. This nurse had likewise one of her hands 
 fixed upon the cradle, in which lay my lord's youngest daughter, 
 and the cradle almost filled with rubbish ; yet the child received 
 no sort of prejudice. Besides these, one Ensign Covert ; Mr. 
 William Prole, the Lord Hatton's steward ; and a considerable 
 number of other persons, were all destroyed by the same accident. 
 
 ** Having given this account of those who perished, I shall 
 briefly mention some of those also who escaped, and were most 
 miraculously preserved in this extraordinary and uncommon 
 disaster. 
 
 " First, the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Hatton, their 
 governor, who at that time had his appartment in a very neat 
 convenient house, which his lordship had built him, about two 
 years before this affair happened. This house stood north by east 
 from the magazine, and very near it. His lordship, at the time 
 it blew up, was fast in sleep, and was actually, by the explosion, 
 carried away in his bed upon the battlements of a wall, which 
 was battered by the sea, between rugged precipices, just adjoining 
 to his house, and was not awaked but by a shower of hail that 
 fell upon his face, and made him sensible where he was : this, no 
 doubt, must appear very extraordinary, but is averred to be fact. 
 A most miraculous preservation indeed, in as much as that the 
 house wherein his lordship was so taken away was razed to the 
 very ground, nothing of it being left standing but the door case. 
 From those battlements on the wall, his lordship was conveyed 
 by two blacks (who among other servants attended him) to the 
 guard-room of the castle, under the deepest affliction, to know 
 whether his lady had escaped, or what was become of her, offering 
 a thousand pounds to whomsoever should bring her alive to him ; 
 but no news could be learned of her ladyship's fate until it was 
 clear day, when she was found crushed to death, in the manner 
 before related. 
 
 "Under his lordship's appartments was a chamber belonging to 
 the lieutenant of his company of foot, who, by the violence of the 
 shock, was carried out of his room, part of which fell in, and he 
 was tumbled in a very extraordinary manner into an entry on the 
 ground floor, but received no manner of hurt. 
 
340 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 " At the upper buildings of the castle were several appartments, 
 and people in them all, particularly the Lord Hatton's two sisters; 
 (one of whom I imagine to have been the late Countess of Not- 
 tingham,) the ensign of my lord's company, and his wife; with 
 several other persons. Upon my lord's two sisters fell, or rather 
 glanced, a beam, both ends of which happened to be between 
 them in such a manner, that although they were both together 
 before it fell in, yet they could not afterwards get at each other, 
 but were pulled out of their room through a hole, made on pur- 
 pose in a partition wall, and neither of them received any sensible 
 hurt, nor did any others in those apartments receive any harm, 
 notwithstanding several of the rooms fell in, wherein many of 
 them at that time were fast in sleep ; and some of the floors were 
 in heaps of rubbish about them, as they lay in their beds." ' 
 
 We have been favored with a copy of the original manu- 
 script, from which Dicey compiled the preceding narrative, 
 and, according to an endorsement on the manuscript, evi- 
 dently in his own handwriting, it appears that he was indebted 
 for the details to Mr. Dobree, " a very ingenious worthy 
 gentleman, a native of Guernsey, and a considerable mer- 
 chant of London." Dicey has omitted the following occur- 
 rence, which is given in the manuscript : a Sergeant Cotton 
 was blown in his bed over a high wall, and within a few 
 inches of the mouth of a well ; when he recovered conscious- 
 ness, he knew not where he was ; but as several ammunition 
 beds were burning about him, he got out of his bed, and en- 
 deavoured to pass through the sally port. Being unable to 
 do so, he proceeded to the south point, w^here he was disco- 
 vered by the sentinel, who challenged him to stand. But as 
 the sergeant continued to approach, the sentinel thought that 
 he was a ghost, " nevertheless, standing upon his punctilios, 
 made ghost to speak, who, knowing him by his voice, settled 
 his spirits, and so the sergeant did bid him to come to help, 
 at which sayings the centinell was much surprised, having 
 heard nothing of the blow, for the wind carried it away from 
 him." — Dicey states that a considerable number of persons 
 were destroyed by the explosion, but the manuscript mentions 
 that only seven were killed, besides several others hurt or 
 wounded. This number is confirmed by the register of burials 
 in the parish of St. Peter-Port, which register gives their 
 
 (1) "11 arriva en ce temps-lh un accident au ch&teau do Gernsey dans la Manche, oik le 
 tonnerre ^tant tombd dans le maKrasin, mit le feu & 200 tonneaux de poiidrc, qui lirent 
 sauter le chflteau, sans que le commandant, qui dtait couch^ alors, eat d'autre mal que 
 d'avoir ^t^ enlev^ en I'air par la violence de la poudre. On dit aussi que Ton trouva sous 
 les ruines un enfant vivant, pendu h la mamellc de sa m&re, qui ^tait morte et ^cras^e." — 
 Histoire Uninerselle, Leyden, 1703.— The quantity of powder named is doubUess greatly 
 magniOed. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 341 
 
 names and other particulars in French, and, translated lite- 
 rally in English, is as follows : 
 
 "'Madame' Elizabeth de Montagu, widow of the late Lord 
 Hatton, governor of this island, having been killed in the ruins 
 and rubbish of the 'donjon' of Castle Cornet, which was struck 
 with a clap of thunder, and blown up by the gunpowder therein, 
 on Monday, the 30th of December, 1672, about one o'clock in 
 the morning, having been embalmed, her bowels were deposited 
 in the church on Tuesday, the 31st of the said month. 
 
 " ' Madame' Cecile deTufton, wife of my Lord Hatton, having 
 been killed by the same accident, and being embalmed, her bowels 
 were deposited in the church with those of her mother-in-law, on 
 the said 31st of December. 
 
 " Mr. William Prole, steward of my Lord Hatton, having been 
 crushed in the same ruins, was interred in the church, 31st De- 
 cember, 1672. 
 
 " Miss Eleanor Plott, having been crushed in the same manner, 
 was interred in the church the same day, 31st December, 1672. 
 
 " Mrs. Catherine Willis, Lady Hatton's nurse, having been also 
 crushed in the same ruins, was interred in the church the same day. 
 
 "Judith Pointing, having died of the same accident, was in- 
 terred in the church the said day, 31st December, 1672. 
 
 " Mr. Richard Covert, ensign in the company of Captain 
 William Sheldon, lieutenant-governor, having been also crushed 
 in the same ruins, *vas interred in the church the first day of the 
 year, Wednesday, 167^.'* 
 
 This dreadful catastrophe filled the inhabitants of Guernsey 
 with grief and consternation, for Lord Hatton, by his paternal 
 government, was already much endeared to them, as were his 
 wife and mother, " on account of their eminent piety, sanc- 
 tity, and good example." The royal court, " considering 
 the greatness of the loss as a proof that the wrath of God was 
 extremely excited against the inhabitants, in consequence of 
 their iniquities ! and that it was their duty to humble them- 
 selves before him, to implore his pity, and to supplicate him 
 to stay his judgments," appointed Wednesday, the 15th of 
 January, as a day of fast and humiliation, when all the inha- 
 bitants were expressly commanded to assemble in their several 
 parish churches. The court also issued an order, forbidding 
 all persons to purchase timber or any other article from the 
 castle. The king immediately sent over some engineers to 
 repair the damages, and put the fortress in a state of security ; 
 on which the royal court, at the request of the governor, 
 ordered the constables to send thirty men daily to the castle 
 to grub up the foundations, affixing a penalty of fifteen sols 
 
342 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 per day on those who refused to comply. From this period, 
 Castle Cornet ceased to be the residence of the governors ; 
 and in winter, it must certainly have been a very lonely and 
 inconvenient one, although the necessary buildings had been 
 erected for their accommodation. But while the governors 
 resided at Castle Cornet, they were enabled to diversify the 
 scenes of their lonely residence by an occasional excursion to 
 Herm, to shoot deer, pheasants, or rabbits ; or to fish at the 
 Grande Mare ; or to shoot over the Clos du Valle, Guernsey 
 containing a great many hares at that period, and long after- 
 wards. In those days the intercourse with England was very 
 rare and uncertain,^ as may be inferred from one of Colonel 
 Atkins' letters, just given ; and we find him also writing, in 
 April, 1667, to Mr. Amias Andros, then at Westminster, as 
 follows : " Notwithstanding that the winde hath been so long 
 at north-east, that we have almost forgot what other winds 
 were used to blow, yet have we [not] heard from you nor 
 received any newes from England, but by some letters which 
 Captain Ffox hath got about Brooke's prize." — North-east 
 winds are now as prevalent in April as they were then, and 
 even nearly fifty years later the communication with England 
 was as slow, as intelligence of the death of queen Anne, on 
 the 2d of August, 1714, was first received in Guernsey six 
 days afterwards by a vessel from St. Malo. Now, the even- 
 ing mails from London, unless prevented by strong adverse 
 winds, regularly reach Guernsey by steamers from Southamp- 
 ton three times a week, by eight or nine o'clock the next 
 morning, which would have been considered a miracle by 
 our ancestors, who, when they went to London, a century 
 and a half ago, which they did rarely, are said to have made 
 their wills, lest they should never return. The human mind 
 is apt to dwell on the past, as affording more real happiness 
 than the present, and to consider this as a degenerate age ; 
 but surely the existing certainty and rapidity of communica- 
 tion by sea and land do not confirm the impression. There 
 was, however, formerly we believe less anxiety and less cove- 
 tousness, at least in Guernsey, because there was more domes- 
 tic economy. To how many may not now be applied Cicero's 
 reproach to Catiline : " Alieni appetens, sui profusus." 
 
 By an order in council, dated June 11, 1670, the privilege 
 of the States to elect a sheriff was confirmed, it having been 
 
 ( 1 ; Wc find that a letter written by Sir Peter Osborne, in London, to Mr. Thomas Andros, 
 in Guernsey, dated May 28, 1621, only reached the latter on the 2l8tof June following; 
 and that another letter from Mr. Amias Andros, bailiff, dated Guernsey, December 26, 
 1664, containing complaints against the first Lord Hatton, only reached tlie secretary of 
 state, Ucory Bcouct, on the 2d of February foUowiug. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 343 
 
 proved that they had enjoyed this right from immemorial 
 custom. In 1678, Guernsey was again threatened by the 
 French, and some troops were sent over for its protection, 
 with an order, dated February 2 in that year, and addressed 
 to the bailiff and jurats, to provide quarters for the troops, 
 and prevent any discord among them ; and also to take care 
 that they daily pay for their quarters — a proof of the king's 
 good feelings towards the inhabitants, for it is the first example 
 on record concerning the payment of soldiers. In this reign. 
 Castle Cornet was placed under the control of the ordnance, 
 to which department it has since remained attached, being by 
 it repaired or enlarged, and provided with stores and ammu- 
 nition. This change was a great relief to the islanders, who 
 were previously subjected to many charges and duties on its 
 account ; and the former governors were accused of making 
 the poor inhabitants bestow their labour on the castle for little 
 or nothing. 
 
 Speaking of the Habeas Corpus Act, which was passed 
 into a statute in 1679 — a statute which, although eminently 
 remedial, introduced no new principle or conferred no new 
 right upon the subject — Hallam says : " The court of king's 
 bench had already been accustomed to send out their writ of 
 habeas corpus into all places of peculiar and privileged juris- 
 diction, where this ordinary process does not run, and even to 
 the island of Jersey, beyond the strict limits of the kingdom 
 of England ; and this power, which might admit of some 
 question, is sanctioned by a declaratory clause of the present 
 statute. Another section enacts, that 'no subject of this 
 realm that now is, or hereafter shall be, an inhabitant or re- 
 siant of this kingdom of England, kc, shall be sent prisoner 
 into Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Tangier, or into 
 ports, garrisons, islands, or places beyond the seas, which are, 
 or at any time hereafter shall be, within or without the domi- 
 nions of his majesty, his heirs or successors,' under penalties 
 of the heaviest nature short of death which the law then 
 knew, and an incapacity of receiving the king's pardon." 
 And, in a foot note, Hallam adds : " The court of king's bench 
 directed a habeas corpus to the governor of Jersey to bring 
 up the body of Overton, a well known officer of the Common- 
 wealth, who had been confined there several yeais. — Siderfins 
 Reports, 386. This was in 1668, after the fall of Clarendon, 
 when a less despotic system was introduced." In implying 
 that the Habeas Corpus Act was extended to these islands at 
 or before that period, Hallam was mistaken ; and Overton 
 
344 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 was clearly a state prisoner sent from England, and placed in 
 the sole custody of the governor of Jersey : had it been other- 
 wise, and the writ of the court of the king's bench been 
 directed to the royal courts of Jersey and Guernsey, it 
 certainly would have been disregarded, being a violation of the 
 privileges of the islanders, as will be shewn in the sequel. 
 
 Falle, in the introduction of his History of Jersey, thus 
 describes the value of these islands : " For these islands are 
 to be considered as a frontier or advanced guard towards an 
 ennemy's country. And such places do always, in the very 
 nature of them, suppose and infer a charge for forteresses 
 and garrisons. Should the French, by the conquest of these 
 islands, (which God forbid,) extend themselves into the Chan- 
 nel, they would repine at no expence laid out upon them. 
 And then England might possibly, in few years, see another 
 Dunkirk rising out of the sea." And to this passage he adds 
 the following note : " Let this that follows serve for a proof 
 of what the French might do here if they were masters. To- 
 wards the end of the reign of king Charles II., some able 
 engeneers, with the Lord Dartmouth, were sent to take a 
 more perfect view of these islands ; and on that side of Guer- 
 nezey which lies to the north-west, and looks into the Channel, 
 they found and pitched upon a place excellently fitted by 
 nature for the construction of a mole and bason, wherein a 
 fleet of capital ships might lye.^ A draught was made of the 
 port, and an estimate brought in of the charge. But the 
 work remained without execution by reason of the bad state 
 of the exchequer at that time ; and the king lived not to 
 resume the same when his affairs were in a better condition. 
 Such a place as this in the Channel, to be a station for large 
 men of war, the French would purchase at any rate, having, 
 in all their coast from Dunkirk to Brest, none but havres de 
 maree, i.e. tide harbours, wanting a sufficient depth of water 
 for such great ships. — (From the Memoirs of the Sr. de 
 Samarez.") 
 
 JAMES II.— 1685 to 1689. 
 
 This bigoted sovereign was not long in attempting to sub- 
 ject Guernsey to his religious opinions. Roman Catholic 
 soldiers were quartered in the island, and a governor of the 
 same persuasion was appointed : mass was performed, and 
 the design of supplanting Protestantism was apparent. Such 
 a scheme was very odious to the inhabitants, and they gladly 
 
 (I) Grand Havre, or Great Harbour, near the Vale church. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 345 
 
 seized the first opportunity of defeating it. On the other 
 hand, James appears to have been solicitous to define and 
 secure the judicial prerogative of the royal court, for in June, 
 1687, he ordered a letter to be written to Charles Macarty, 
 Esq., described as captain of a company in the Earl of Litch- 
 field's regiment, and commander-in-chief in Guernsey. The 
 letter cautions Macarty, who from his name was probably an 
 Irish Roman Catholic, " that the articles of war do not in 
 any manner empower a court martial or military officer to 
 punish any offenders, except such as are in his majesty's pay 
 as soldiers, nor take cognizance of any inhabitant of Guernsey 
 for injuring a soldier, further than to cause him to be pro- 
 ceeded against by the law of the place, the articles of war 
 in Guernsey authorizing only the trial and punishment of 
 offences or quarrels that happen between soldier and soldier, 
 and not between a soldier and an inhabitant, which offences 
 are to be judged by the civil magistrate only." 
 
 During the quiet which followed the Restoration, the 
 manufacture of stockings, &;c., in the islands increased, and 
 James, on petition, granted annually 4,000 tods of wool for 
 Jersey, 2,000 for Guernsey, 400 for Alderney, and 200 for 
 Sark, all to be shipped from the port of Southampton. He 
 also appointed William Steevens to reside in Guernsey to 
 sign and seal certificates of the landing of commodities, and 
 perform the same duties as had been introduced into Jersey 
 by an order in council, dated the 17th of December, 1679. 
 
 WILLIAM AND MAEY.— 1689 to 1702. 
 
 At the time of the Revolution, the Guernseymen were, as 
 they now are, eminently Protestant, this feeling having doubt- 
 less been strengthened by the dreadful punishment inflicted 
 on the three poor innocent women and the infant, as related 
 in the reign of Mary. Thus it is, happily, that intolerance 
 and cruelty usually defeat themselves, and serve only to con- 
 firm the victims of religious persecution in their opinions. 
 
 On being informed of the landing of the Prince of Orange 
 at Torbay, in November, 1688, the civil authorities of Guern- 
 sey, without waiting the issue of his enterprise, concerted 
 measures with the senior Protestant officer of the garrison to 
 secure the island to his cause ; to disarm the Catholics, who 
 formed a considerable part of the soldiery ; and to confine 
 the lieutenant-governor, whose political principles were doubt- 
 ful. They fixed on the day when the officer, with whom 
 
346 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 they had concerted the plot, was to command in rotation ; 
 and on that day the chief captain of the town mihtia, accom- 
 panied by most of his corps, seized upon and disarmed the 
 Cathohc officers and soldiers in St. Peter-Port, notice thereof 
 being immediately given to the commander at the castle, by 
 a signal previously arranged. He then quickly drew out the 
 garrison, which being assembled on the parade, the Protest- 
 ants, with their muskets loaded with ball, marched out of the 
 ranks ; and facing about, presented their pieces at their com- 
 rades, compelling them to lay down their arms. This inci- 
 dent is noticed by Campbell and other authors, who are of 
 opinion that from it arose the king's unwillingness to rely any 
 further upon his navy, in which he had previously placed 
 much confidence, the seamen having gained the principal 
 credit on this occasion, although in truth it was entirely due 
 to the Protestant spirit of part of the miHtary and of the inha- 
 bitants. And considering the cruel and vindictive character 
 of James II., it must be admitted that this was a very bold 
 undertaking, as it would assuredly have proved of serious 
 consequence to its promoters and to the island, had that blood- 
 thirsty monarch continued on the throne. 
 
 Two or three years after the accession of William and 
 Mary, an invasion of these islands was much apprehended ; 
 and the Earl of Peterborough, uncle of the celebrated com- 
 mander of that title, was sent with troops for their protection. 
 In 1692, Guernsey was twice visited by large British squa- 
 drons, as on the 14th of April, Rear-Admiral Carter, who, a 
 few weeks after, was killed at the battle of La Hogue,* was 
 ordered to sail with twenty-four ships to the islands of Jersey 
 and Guernsey, " and there taking pilots, to proceed to the 
 coast of France, near St. Mallo, and cruise forty-eight hours ; 
 longer than which time it was not thought convenient that he 
 should stay, unless he found an opportunity of doing service. 
 From thence he was to sail to ' Cape de Hague,' and to stand 
 as near in to Havre-de-Grace as the safety of the ships would 
 permit ; and if no service could be done there, to return forth- 
 with to Spithead, if he judged it not for the security of the 
 islands to continue longer on the French coast, in which case 
 he was to send the earliest advice he could of his intentions." ' 
 On the 3d of July, Admiral Russell, with the same English 
 
 (1) If the battle was named after the Cape, as is probable, It was correctly La Ha^ue ; 
 if after the roadstead of La Hogue St. Vast, where thirteen French ships were burnt, its 
 Engliiih name is correct. 
 
 (2) Burchett'8 Transactioiis at Sea, from 1688 to 1697. London, 1703. i-iul 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 347 
 
 and Dutch fleet with which, on the 19th of May, he had 
 fought the battle of La Hogue, almost in sight of Guernsey, 
 arrived in the roadstead of that island, " where he was con- 
 strained to anchor, for the weather being thick, the pilots 
 would not venture over to St. Mallo ; nor was there a little 
 reason to suspect their judgment ; but that which gave the 
 admiral the greatest uneasiness was the account he received 
 from two captains, who had long used the trade, that there 
 was not good ground for more than forty ships to ride : so 
 that he called a council of war, to consider whether it might 
 be most proper for the whole fleet to go over, or to send a 
 detachment to view the place ; and they came to the follow- 
 ing resolution, viz. that part of the fleet should proceed off of 
 St. Mallo, and bring an account whether the whole, or what 
 numbers thereof, might ride there. Accordingly, Vice-Ad- 
 miral Rooke was sent with a squadron, in conjunction with 
 Vice-Admiral Callemberg, who commanded the Dutch de- 
 tachment." ^ The remainder of the fleet must soon after have 
 left Guernsey, as it was forced by bad weather into Torbay, 
 " where the admiral did impatiently expect the return of Sir 
 George Rooke." ' On the 13th of July, the latter officer, 
 who in 1704 took Gibraltar, returned from St. Malo, and 
 made a report in five articles, of which the first was as fol- 
 lows : " The ground is flat and even from Guernsey to Cape 
 Farrel, [Frehel,] shoaling a fathom or two every two or three 
 miles, all the way over to the Cape. The ground is gene- 
 rally very rough, and in some places rocky, especially near 
 St. Cymbre." ^ [Cesambre.] The liability of the Anglo- 
 Norman Islands to attack at this time will be better under- 
 stood by remembering that France, under Louis XIV., was 
 then by far the strongest European power by land, and that 
 during the long reign of that monarch, (1643 to 1715,) prior 
 to the battle of La Hogue, she had at sea no superior. That 
 naval victory would probably otherwise have afforded little 
 subject for exultation, seeing that the combined English and 
 Dutch fleets amounted to ninety-nine ships of the fine, while 
 the French had only sixty- three, some of which were detached 
 before the engagement. And notwithstanding this enormous 
 disparity of force, the French admiral, whose fleet was several 
 leagues to windward, did not hesitate to bear down on his 
 opponents, probably however in the belief that the English 
 
 (1) Burchett's Transactions.— In this work we find the Jersey and Guernsey, ships of 
 war. These names, with that of the Aldemey subsequently, have long disappeared from 
 the Navy List ; but surely they would be more appropriate than the Arrogant, Growler, 
 or Jasper. 
 
348 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 admiral, who was a secret adherent of James, would either 
 pass over to his old master, or offer no effectual resistance.^ 
 
 "The fear of invasion was not removed till 1692. In 
 that memorable year, John Tupper, Esq., of Guernsey, at 
 some personal expense and risk of capture, passed either 
 through, or in sight of, the French fleet, and promptly con- 
 veyed to Admiral Russell, who commanded the combined 
 English and Dutch fleets, lying at St. Helen's, intelligence 
 that the French admiral, Tourville, was in the Channel. As 
 a reward for this patriotic service, Mr. Tupper was presented 
 by William and Mary with a massive gold chain and medal, 
 which are now in possession of his heir male ; and his des- 
 cendants are permitted to bear them as an honourable aug- 
 mentation to their arms and crest. The famous naval battle 
 of La Hogue was the result of Mr. Tupper's information — 
 a battle which annihilated the French marine, and relieved 
 Guernsey from all immediate alarm of hostile aggression." — 
 Duncan. The tradition in the family, relative to this medal 
 and chain ^ is, that the aforesaid John Tupper, being in Lon- 
 don after the battle, was sent for by a king's messenger, and 
 on reaching the secretary of state's office, he was told that the 
 king had expressed a wish to see him, to thank him in person 
 for the good service he had rendered his majesty, and that the 
 king had given orders that the medal and chain should be 
 presented to him. 
 
 The military preparations required to repel the expected 
 invasion were accompanied by grievances to the inhabitants 
 of Guernsey, who complained to the king, August 8, 1689, 
 " that they were compelled to raise a general tax to provide 
 quarters for such officers and soldiers as cannot be lodged in 
 public houses, and among them, for divers inhabitants who 
 have enlisted as soldiers, and have habitations of their own ; 
 also that they were much oppressed by the soldiers not paying 
 their landlords for the arrears due for their diet, the consta- 
 bles not being called upon, as has been the custom, to see the 
 accounts adjusted and cleared between the landlords and 
 
 (1) " Russell, though compelled to win the battle of La Hogue against his will, took 
 care to render his splendid victory as little advantageous as possible."— //a//am. 
 
 (2) Similar medaln in silver, without the chains, are supposed to have been bestowed on 
 the captains in the fleet, as five are known to be still in existence in England. The 
 obverse bears the effigies of William and Mary, and the reverse represents a ship of the 
 line engaging the French admiral, Tourville, in the " Royal Sun," with other ships in the 
 distance, under the singular legend of " Nox Nulla Skcuta Est; " and on the Exergue, 
 •• PvoN. Nav. Int. Ano. kt Fr. 21 Maii, 1692."— See Hunter's Orders of Knighthood. 
 
 In February, 1854, queen Victoria presented to Captain Gaspard Le Marchant Tupper, 
 Royal Artillery, and a lineal descendant of the aforesaid John Tupper, an engraving of 
 herself, handsomely framed, *• as a token of her majesty's appreciation of his attention in 
 executing two drawings for her majesty," by request, of views of the camp at Chobham. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 349 
 
 soldiers at the removal of quarters." This complaint was 
 referred to Viscount Hatton, the governor, and the privy 
 council afterwards granted such redress as the case required. 
 
 About the year 1699, a battahon of six companies of the 
 royal regiment of fusileers having arrived in the island, three 
 companies were quartered at Castle Cornet, and the other 
 three in the town, the latter chiefly in private dwellings, there 
 not being room in the public houses to receive them, in con- 
 sequence of which the inhabitants incurred a weekly expense 
 of £4 for their quarters. The States presented a petition to 
 the king on the subject, and his majesty being informed that 
 the barracks in the castle could nearly hold the four com- 
 panies ordered to remain in the island, commanded that they 
 should be lodged in the barracks, with the exception of 
 twenty-four men who were to be distributed among the public 
 houses, until new barracks were built. Three soldiers of this 
 regiment were convicted of coining and uttering false French 
 half-crowns, and one of them suffered death, the other two 
 being pardoned by an order in council of 21st December, 1699. 
 
 The whole of this reign was auspicious to Guernsey, as 
 although at its commencement the islands were deprived of 
 their ancient charter of neutrality, yet the privilege appears 
 to have been so little valued that its loss did not draw forth a 
 single murmur or remonstrance from the inhabitants, who 
 doubtless considered the withdrawal as amply compensated 
 by the faculty of fitting out privateers and making war on 
 the commercial marine of France. So great was their suc- 
 cess, that 1,500 prizes are said to have been made by Jersey 
 and Guernsey during the reigns of William and Anne. This 
 number may seem exaggerated, but the prizes were, doubtless, 
 chiefly small French coasters ; and we are confirmed in this 
 opinion by a commission, now before us, granted by George, 
 prince of Denmark, lord high admiral, and bearing date the 
 11th of June, 1702, to Captain Edward Browne, of the ship 
 " called the Two Brothers, of the burthen of about four tons, 
 to set forth in warlike manner the said ship called the Two 
 Brothers, under his own command, and therewith, by force of 
 arms, to apprehend, seize, and take the ships, vessels, and 
 goods, belonging to France or Spain," &;c. This mighty pri- 
 vateer we presume to have belonged to Jersey, and no doubt, 
 with many others of the same description, was sent forth to 
 wage war on the enemy's coasting trade. Whatever may 
 now be thought of the morality of this mode of warfare, cer- 
 tain it is that at that time, and for above a century later, the 
 
350 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 islanders of all ranks pursued it, on the breaking out of a 
 war, with the greatest avidity, so as to make or enrich many 
 a family. Privateering was at its height during the French 
 revolutionary wars commencing in 1793, and especially when 
 Spain was drawn into the contest against England, the rich 
 argosies from Mexico and Peru offering a temptation which 
 many could not resist. It was the number of privateers at 
 'this period which caused Edmund Burke to observe, that these 
 islands alone might rank among the naval powers of Europe ; 
 and whatever may have been the motive, they unquestionably 
 contributed their full share to that naval pre-eminence which 
 is the chief dowry of Great Britain. — To return to William. 
 A few months before his death, the people of Guernsey, in an 
 address, dated November 8, 1701, testified their great obli- 
 gations to him, and expressed their inviolable fidelity to his 
 government. The vaunted privilege of neutrality was already 
 forgotten ; and William, having prevented the introduction of 
 popery into the island, where it was held in the greatest hor- 
 ror, was undoubtedly much beloved by the inhabitants. 
 
 At the close of the seventeenth century, it is evident that 
 the people of these islands were just beginning to emerge 
 from that state of indigence which had long been the heritage 
 of their ancestors. Thus Lord Carew, in 1616, spoke of 
 Guernsey as being very poor ; and after the civil war, the 
 inhabitants complained, apparently with truth, of great dis- 
 tress and penury ; two thirds of the island, they said, being 
 covered with fern and furze. It was only, as we have just 
 shewn, in the reign of William III. that privateering brought 
 wealth and commerce to the islands. That wealth was the 
 commencement of a great social change, as, anterior to its 
 introduction, the highest classes, with very few exceptions, 
 could only provide for their children by callings, such as now 
 would be thought to degrade their more aristocratic descend- 
 ants. Commissions in the army and navy, and employment 
 abroad, were then unobtainable ; the parochial clergy were 
 held in so little estimation that the livings were usually filled 
 by Frenchmen ; the fees of the advocates were trifling ; 
 medical practitioners there were none ; and thus in the best 
 families the young men had no other resource than one to 
 cultivate the smaU patrimonial estate, another to enter into 
 some local retail business, and a third to command one of the 
 few vessels belonging to the island. This was the natural 
 result of the very limited extent of Guernsey and of its equal 
 laws of inheritance, as certain it is that a landed gentry, in 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 351 
 
 the English sense of the term, cannot long exist where estates 
 are divided at every generation. In consequence, the Anglo- 
 Norman, however well born, who fondly pictures to himself 
 his ancestors of the seventeenth, or even of a great part of the 
 eighteenth, century, as living in the same ease and indepen- 
 dence as the fundholder of the nineteenth, will be egregiously 
 mistaken ; but the comparison is equally applicable to those 
 English families which are descended from the younger sons 
 of the cavaliers who fought at Naseby, or witnessed the 
 Restoration ^ How poor the islands were in the early part 
 of the seventeenth century will appear by the following letter ^ 
 from Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry De Vic, before mentioned : 
 
 Henry De Vic, Esq., to Lord Conway. 
 
 "St. Martin, [Isle of Rhe,] Aug. 7, 1627. 
 
 " I know your lordship is not unmindful of our poor islands, 
 notwithstanding, I will make bold to recommend them to your 
 lordship's accustomed care. I know the lords are sensible of 
 their present condition, but not answerable to their present misery, 
 which these troubles between us and France have so augmented 
 by the interruption of their small trade, that I protest to God, I 
 know not which way they can avoid their utter ruin, unless some 
 means be used from England to prevent it by some relief. All 
 the money they had heretofore in the islands came out of France, 
 from their traffic of stockings, which being now cut off, unless 
 some way be found out that may set the poor people on work as 
 that did, I see not how they can live. For it must be by manu- 
 facture that they shall subsist, the islands affording no commo- 
 dities of their own to vend abroad, and having no shipping to 
 transport foreign commodities from one kingdom to the other. 
 If the governor be permitted to bring over money into England, 
 as he usually doth for his annual rents there, I do not think there 
 will be any money at all left in the island. If I speak more 
 sensibly of this than I ought, your lordship will excuse it upon 
 the affection that I owe, and which I will bear as long as I live, 
 unto my country. One thing more I have to recommend unto 
 your lordship, and that is, Sir Philip Carteret's business, on whose 
 side you shall find, upon examination, more justice than hitherto 
 hath been conceived of his cause.' As for myself, your lordship 
 
 (1) It is indeed certain that the progress of wealth and civilization has been quite as 
 great in England, since the Restoration, as in these islands, and probably more so in Scot- 
 land and Ireland. Macaulay's History of England furnishes many proofs of these changes 
 
 (2) From Lord Hardwicke's State Papers, vol. ii., p. 44. 
 
 (3) What his cause was we are unable to discover, but Sir P. Carteret was very despotic 
 if a tithe of the charges, brought against him by the Jerseymen, in 1642, were correct. — 
 See Falle's History of Jersey, with Durell's Notes, pp. 311, 314. 
 
352 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 will be pleased to think upon me, when occasion serves, as one 
 that will always be your lordship's most humble and most devoted 
 servant. ♦* Hen. De Vic." ^ 
 
 The following are some of the ordinances of the royal 
 court during the seventeenth century : 
 
 " September, 1605. — It is ordered that artisans and labourers 
 shall take per day as follows, and shall not take more, under 
 penalty of 60 sols tournois fine, half to the king and half to the 
 informer. 
 
 " Ship carpenters, 9 deniers sterling, if maintained by their 
 masters, (aux despens des maitres,) and 18 deniers if not so 
 maintained. 
 
 " Common carpenters, 5 deniers, and 10 deniers, as above. 
 
 " Stone cutters and master masons, 5 deniers, and 10 deniers, 
 as above. 
 
 " Common masons, 4 deniers, and 8 deniers, as above. 
 
 " Roofers of slate, 5 deniers, and 10 deniers, as above. 
 
 " Roofers of straw, 4 deniers, and 8 deniers, as above. 
 
 ** Gardeners, the best, 4 deniers, and 8 deniers, as above. 
 
 " Labourers, common, 3 deniers, and 6 deniers, as above. 
 
 " The said artisans and labourers shall be subject, from Sep- 
 tember to March, to commence their work before sunrise and to 
 continue it until dark ; and from March to September, to com- 
 mence their work at five o'clock, a.m., and to continue it until 
 seven o'clock, p.m., under the penalty before named. 
 
 " April, 1611. — The pound, weight of Guernsey, to contain 
 eighteen ounces, weight of Rouen ; and all articles sold by weight 
 to be sold by the weight of Rouen. 
 
 *' October, 1615. — All tavern keepers to inform the lieutenant- 
 governor of the name and quality of the strangers lodging with 
 them, in twenty-four hours after their arrival, under penalty of 
 being imprisoned twenty-four hours in a dungeon (en basse fosse) 
 for the first time, and for the second the same penalty, and not 
 allowed to keep a tavern ; and this on account of the great trou- 
 bles of which there is an appearance in France. 
 
 "April, 1618. — Interest reduced from 10 to 8 per cent, per 
 annum, and in October, 1623, from 8 to 6 per cent. 
 
 "October, 1625. — Mr. John de Quetteville (Jurat) undertakes 
 to bring into the island, in the month of March next, a paviour to 
 pave the streets of the town, with whom he is to agree according 
 
 (1) Henry De Vic was sent by Charles I. to Bordeaux, in 1626, to order the English 
 merchants trading there to return forthwith, and to send home all their ships. In 1662, 
 he became comptroller of the Duke of York's household, with a salary of j€"400 a year. 
 He died in 1672, leaving two children, viz. Charles, who married his cousin, Rachel Briard, 
 and Margaret, wife of John, Baron Frecheviile. Sir Charles died young in Guernsey, 
 when the baronetcy became extinct. In a painted window at the church of Stavely, in 
 Derbyshire, there was, and probably still is, an escutcheon containing two coats impaled : 
 I, FrechevlUe ; 2, De Vlc, or, three galtraps and chief sab. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 353 
 
 to the price usually given in England, exclusive of his passage 
 from and back. 
 
 " May, 1661. — It having pleased the sacred majesty of our 
 sovereign 'sire' the king, by advice of his very honorable privy 
 council, to command that the names of Oliver and Richard 
 Cromwell, and other tyrants and usurpers, inserted in the public 
 registries of this island, be erased and cancelled, — the court, in 
 rendering humble obedience to the said commandment, has or- 
 dered and orders that the names of the said tyrants and usurpers 
 be erased, &c. &c. 
 
 "January, 1684. — All foreigners to leave the island in six 
 weeks, and no strangers to reside without permission of the go- 
 vernor. The clergy ordered not to marry a native to a stranger 
 or a stranger to a native, without informing the governor, as 
 prescribed by the ordinances of the royal commissioners." 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The narrative has now reached the commencement of the 
 eighteenth century, and as our object in undertaking this 
 work was chiefly to supply the many deficiencies of preceding 
 historians, in regard to the early annals of Guernsey and to 
 the civil war, we care not to relate all the local events, often 
 of little present or future interest, which occurred from the 
 accession of Anne to that of Victoria, especially as during 
 that long period the island was exempt from hostile attack. 
 It therefore only remains to us to select, from a mass of 
 materials, the most striking or memorable incidents from 
 the year 1700, and to describe them as concisely as possible. 
 
 ANNE.— 1702. GEGHaE I.— 1714. 
 
 The reigns of Anne and George I. require little other 
 notice than that, under the former sovereign, impressment of 
 sailors, not actually inhabitants of the islands, was enforced in 
 Jersey and Guernsey, in 1707 ; and that the latter, in 1717, 
 confirmed the ancient right of the islanders to import freely 
 their produce and manufactures into England : surplus pro- 
 duce there was probably none, and the manufactures consisted 
 of woollen stockings or frocks. Although the royal court 
 
354 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 directed the sheriff and constables to seize all stranger sailors, 
 and empowered them to break open the doors of any house 
 in which they suspected they were secreted ; yet the inhabit- 
 ants, much to their credit, threw every obstacle in the way of 
 impressment — a practice which, we conceive, can only be 
 justified in cases of early prospective or actual invasion. 
 
 Edmund Andros had succeeded his father Amias as baihff 
 in 1674, with power to nominate a lieutenant during his long 
 non-residence : he was also a colonel of dragoons, and after 
 his return from his successive North American governments, 
 he was constituted lieutenant-governor of Guernsey by 
 Queen Anne, who dispensed with his executing the office 
 of bailiff, and accepted Eleazar Le Marchant as lieutenant- 
 bailiff; the said Le Marchant being empowered to execute the 
 office of bailiff, and, in case of absence or illness, to appoint 
 a deputy, as long as Sir Edmund remained lieutenant-gover- 
 nor. Against this monopoly of power, James de Beau voir 
 and eight of the jurats protested, but in vain, the queen being 
 recommended by the lords of council to dismiss their petition, 
 and to confirm the authority of Eleazar Le Marchant. 
 
 GEORGE IL — 1727 to 1760. 
 
 The douzaine of St. Peter-Port having, in May, 1727, peti- 
 tioned council against two acts of the royal court, dated in 
 1717 and 1720, by which the standard weights had been 
 altered, and represented that the weights were a branch of 
 the royal prerogative, his majesty in council declared the said 
 acts null and void, and fixed the standard of weights to con- 
 sist of eighteen ounces to the pound, as it remains at this day. 
 — In 1731, another order in council, relative to certain dues 
 for the support of Greenwich Hospital, was sent to Guernsey 
 and Jersey for registry, and it contaiiTed a clause of great 
 constitutional importance, as it enacted that, " for the future, 
 whenever any act shall be passed in the parliament of Great 
 Britain relating to the said islands of Guernsey and Jersey, 
 printed copies of such acts shall be transmitted by the board 
 of his majesty's privy council, as soon as conveniently may 
 be, to the royal courts of the said islands, signifying to 
 them, at the same time, his majesty's pleasure to register and 
 publish the said acts, and cause the same to be carried into 
 execution." — In 1735, it was decided by another order in 
 council that real estate in England was not taxable in Guern- 
 sey for poor rates. 
 
 In May, 1737, the little islands of Herm, Jethou, and 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 355 
 
 Lihou, with the pond of the Grande Mare, near Vazon Bay, 
 now marshy ground, which pond contained the wonderful 
 carp described by Heylin, were leased out to individuals on 
 fee farm rents, for terms of sixty-one years, renewable every 
 twenty-one years, at a fine certain of three years reserved 
 rent. By the order in council which authorized these leases, 
 the governor. Major- General Sutton, was instructed to "in- 
 sert a saving- clause of the right of the inhabitants of Guernsey, 
 and also of Sark, to go upon the coasts of the small islands 
 to fish and also to cut vraic, and to fetch from thence stones 
 for building and other uses, in the same manner they have 
 hitherto done." And the lords of the committee further 
 reported to his majesty, " that as to the oyster bank men- 
 tioned in the governor's memorial, it does not appear to them 
 that the same was a part of your majesty's demesne," and in 
 consequence the governor was not empowered to grant any 
 lease thereof. This oyster bank was doubtless that now ex- 
 isting to the south-east of Castle Cornet, on what is called 
 the Great Bank. In the year 1837, a premium was offered 
 for oysters from this bank, with the view of affording em- 
 ployment to the fishermen in winter, and upwards of 60,000 
 were dredged from it ; but, owing to the depth of water, it 
 was found that the oysters w^ould not bear competition with 
 those from France, and the fishery was discontinued. The 
 Great Bank, which is two miles long by about half a mile 
 broad, is the resort of turbots, brilles, soles, Sec. ; and on it the 
 parliamentary vessels usually anchored during the civil war, 
 out of the reach of the guns of Castle Cornet. 
 
 The islet of Herm was long kept as a game preserve for 
 the governors,^ who had also the exclusive right of shooting 
 in the Close of the Vale. (Clos du Valle.) Thus, on the 8th 
 of September, 1716, we find the royal court authorizing the 
 king's receiver, Mr. Peter Martin, to hold an inquest for the 
 purpose of discovering the persons who had killed stags, 
 roebucks, and pheasants, on the island of Herm, and also 
 who had been sporting in the Clos du Valie, contrary to the 
 ordinance. We have often heard from an old gentleman, 
 now deceased, who remembered when the two last deer on 
 Herm were killed, about the year 1773, that the stags were 
 in the habit of swimming from thence to the Vale, a distance 
 of rather less than two miles at low water, to feed, and then 
 returning ; always taking the proper tide each way. 
 
 On the 3d of October, 1744, a large fleet, under the com- 
 
 (1) See Lord Carew's Instructions to Bailiff de Carteret, in Chapter IX. " 
 
356 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 mand of Sir John Balchen, returning from Gibraltar to Eng- 
 land, was dispersed by a violent storm, and several ships 
 suffered considerably. Sir J. Balchen's flag ship, the Victory, 
 of 110 guns, was separated from the rest of the fleet on the 
 4th, after which she was never seen or heard of more. It is 
 generally supposed that she struck upon the Caskets, as 
 repeated signals of distress were heard by the inhabitants of 
 Alderney ; but it blew so violently that it was impossible to 
 give her any assistance. Thus perished the finest first-rate 
 man of war in the world, one of the best admirals in the 
 British service, eleven hundred sailors, and a considerable 
 number of volunteers, many of whom were of families of 
 distinction.^ 
 
 In 1755 commenced the war with France, known in Eng- 
 lish history as the seven years' war. Early in the following 
 year the French made great preparations for the invasion of 
 Guernsey and Jersey, collecting troops at Granville and St. 
 Malo for that purpose, and reinforcements were sent from 
 England to these islands. In June, 1756, the command of a 
 squadron of ships, to be employed in their protection, was 
 conferred on Captain, afterwards Lord, Howe, who received 
 instructions to take possession of Chausey and its islands, on 
 which an Irish brigade in the service of France was stationed ; 
 to harass the enemy by every possible means ; and to destroy 
 the coasting trade between the northern and western pro- 
 vinces. The squadron consisted of six frigates and two 
 sloops, together with four transports for the conveyance of 
 troops ; and such was the expedition with which the arma- 
 ment was prepared, that on the 13th of July, Howe proceeded 
 from Jersey for Chausey with four companies of General 
 Blockland's regiment, and one company of invalids from 
 Guernsey. The French commandant, when summoned to 
 surrender, at once gave up the place, on being permitted to 
 retire with military honours to Granville ; and Howe, finding 
 that it would require time and expense to put the works in 
 a proper state of defence, as also at least 500 troops for their 
 garrison, determined to destroy them, which was effectually 
 and speedily done. And having ascertained that the French, 
 in consequence of the blow thus opportunely struck, had 
 abandoned their designs on the Anglo-Norman Islands, and 
 withdrawn their troops towards Brest and other distant ports, 
 he left a part of his squadron to annoy the coasting trade, 
 and returned to Plymouth towards the end of the year. 
 
 (1) CarapbeU's Lives of the Admirals. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 357 
 
 As in the year 1628 the French threatened to retaliate the 
 descent of the English on the Isle of Rhe by an invasion of 
 the Channel Islands, so in 1758 they also threatened them in 
 retaliation of the unsuccessful attempt, made under Sir John 
 Mordaunt, to destroy the docks, arsenal, and shipping, at 
 Rochefort during the preceding year. But Mr. Pitt, then 
 prime minister, resolved that England should be the attack- 
 ing, rather than the attacked, party. With this view, and in 
 the hope of inducing the French government to withdraw a 
 portion of its forces from the continental war, two fleets 
 sailed on the 1st of June, 1758, — one of seventeen sail of the 
 line and several frigates, under Lord Anson, from Spithead, 
 to blockade Brest, where a considerable naval armament was 
 in a forward state of preparation — the other consisting of the 
 Essex, of 64 guns, four ships of 50, three frigates of 36, three 
 of 32, and three of 28 guns, besides eleven sloops, bombs, and 
 fire ships, thirty store ships, cutters, and tenders, and one 
 hundred sail of transports, from St. Helen's, the whole under 
 the command of Commodore Howe, who hoisted his broad 
 pendant in the Essex. In this fleet were embarked three 
 regiments of guards and other infantry, amounting to fifteen 
 battalions, 400 artillery, 540 light horse, together about 13,000 
 fighting men, sixty pieces of cannon and fifty mortars, com- 
 manded by the Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 Lord Anson stood away west, while Commodore Howe 
 steered athwart the Channel, with the wind at south-east. 
 Notwithstanding the season of the year, the night proved so 
 tempestuous that one of the store ships rolled away her masts. 
 The following morning, they made Cape La Hague, and that 
 night anchored in the race of Alderney. On the 3d, about 
 noon, one of the transports struck upon a rock, near Sark, 
 and was lost ; but the troops on board were saved. On the 
 4th, Commodore Howe anchored within three leagues of St. 
 Malo. Next morning, before break of day, he weighed and 
 stood into the bay of Cancalle, so called from a village of that 
 name, near which ten companies of grenadiers landed the 
 same evening with little opposition, although there were in 
 the village seven companies of foot and three troops of horse, 
 who retired to St. Malo. The entire disembarkation was 
 completed on the 6th ; and on the 7th, at dawn, the army pro- 
 ceeded towards St. Malo in two columns, and after a march 
 of six miles encamped about a mile from the town. The 
 same night, at low water, the piquets made their way, close 
 under the walls, to the harbour, where they found a 50 - gun 
 
358 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 ship, two 36-gun frigates, upwards of twenty privateers, and 
 seventy or eighty merchant ships, to which they set fire with 
 combustibles provided for that purpose ; and the magazines 
 of pitch, tar, and other naval stores, shared the same fate. A 
 dreadful scene of conflagration ensued, as the flames raged 
 the whole night, without the least attempt from the garrison 
 to extinguish them, or to molest the English. Preparations 
 were now made for laying siege to the town ; and in the 
 meanwhile a battalion of guards marched to Dol, about 
 twelve miles up the country, where they remained one night, 
 and returned next day. A party of light horse penetrated a 
 few miles further, and fell in with the French videttes, two of 
 whom they took and brought prisoners to Cancalle. But 
 the duke, having received advice of a large force of the 
 enemy collected to cut off" his retreat, and being informed 
 that the siege would occupy a month, he returned with the 
 army on the 10th to Cancalle, where the troops were re- 
 embarked. The fleet sailed from Cancalle on the 16th, and 
 was driven back by contrary winds. On the 22d, the ships 
 sailed again, and next day passed Jersey and Guernsey, the 
 design being to attack Cherbourg or Havre ; but the weather 
 prevented every attempt made to land near either port, and 
 the whole fleet arrived at St. Helen's on the 1st of July, just 
 one month after their departure from that anchorage. 
 
 On the return of this expedition, so unproductive of any 
 advantage either to the nation or the persons employed in it, 
 part of the troops were sent to Germany with the Duke of 
 Marlborough, who was pretty well sickened with his late 
 cruize, as were the other officers of rank. The remainder of 
 the army, under Lieut. -General Bligh, an officer nearly worn 
 out with age, of no talents, but of unquestionable bravery, 
 embarked again on board of Howe's fleet, which sailed from 
 St. Helen's on the 1st of August, and anchored in the bay 
 of Cherbourg on the 6th. Next morning the ships weighed, 
 and brought up in the bay of Marais, two leagues west of 
 the town, where a more secure landing could be effected. 
 On the 7th, at two, p.m., the grenadiers and guards landed 
 under cover of an incessant fire from the fleet, and were 
 opposed by nearly 3,000 men posted behind the sand banks. 
 The enemy was attacked with such vigour that they quickly 
 fled in great confusion and with considerable loss, leaving 
 behind tnem two brass cannon, while of the English about 
 twenty men only were killed or wounded. The remainder 
 of the infantry being disembarked, the troops marched to the 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 359 
 
 village of Erville, and there pitched their tents for the night. 
 On reconnoitring the nearest fort, called Querqueville, the 
 following morning, it was found deserted, so that the light 
 horse were now landed without interruption, and the army 
 proceeded in two columns towards Cherbourg, which they 
 entered on the 8th, without firing or receiving a single shot, 
 the town and all the forts being abandoned by the French 
 troops. The inhabitants, relying on a promise of protection, 
 remained in the town, and received their hostile visitors with 
 hospitality, but, to the disgrace of British discipline, their 
 confidence was abused, as no proper means were taken to 
 restrain the licentiousness of the soldiery, until the complaints 
 of the sufferers reminded the general of this part of his duty. 
 
 The English proceeded to demolish the basins, and two 
 piers forming the entrance into the harbour, which had been 
 constructed by Louis XV. at a vast expense ; the batteries, 
 forts, and magazines of the port, as well as those along the 
 coast, were also destroyed. While the engineers were thus 
 employed, the light horse were sent to scour the country, and 
 to reconnoitre a French camp at Valognes, four or five 
 leagues from Cherbourg. The demolition being completed, 
 the army, on the 16th of August, marched to Fort Galet, and 
 there embarked without molestation. Twenty-seven ships 
 were burnt in the harbour ; one hundred and seventy-three 
 pieces of iron ordnance and three mortars were rendered use- 
 less ; and twenty-two brass cannon were sent to England, 
 when they were exhibited for some time in Hyde Park, and 
 drawn through the city in triumphal procession. 
 
 As General Bligh was instructed " to carry a warm alarm 
 along the coast of France, from the easternmost point of 
 Normandy, as far westward as Morlaix inclusive," he consi- 
 dered that Granville ought to be the second object of attack ; 
 but as 1 0,000 of the enemy had assembled in Normandy, the 
 design on that town was abandoned. Morlaix would next 
 have been attempted, had not advices been received from 
 England that a strong force was prepared at Brest to oppose 
 any descent on that j)art of the coast. The general and 
 commodore, therefore, thought that they should best fulfil the 
 king's instructions by landing the troops in the bay of St. 
 Lunaire, rather more than one league west of St. Malo, and 
 marching them against that town. The fleet accordingly left 
 Cherbourg on the 18th of August, but, owing to contrary 
 wands, it was the 3d of September before it reached St. 
 Lunaire. Next day the troops landed without opposition, 
 
360 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 and encamped on an eminence. Four days were spent in 
 deliberations on the feasibility of an attack upon St. Malo, 
 and it was finally determined to be impracticable. Three 
 hundred grenadiers were in the meantime detached to destroy 
 the shipping in the harbour of St. Briac, which was done ; 
 but instead of finding 150 vessels, as reported, the number 
 proved not to exceed fifteen. The boisterous state of the 
 weather having rendered it dangerous for the fleet to remain 
 in St. Lunaire bay, it was resolved that the troops should 
 march overland to the bay of St. Cas, about three leagues to 
 the westward of St. Malo, and that the ships should proceed 
 thither to receive them. The troops had to make a detour 
 to reach the village of Gildau, where the river they must 
 necessarily pass was fordable at low water, and they marched 
 so leisurely that they were nearly four days reaching the 
 place of embarkation. In fact, the general intended to re- 
 main at Martignon on the way, so as to create all the alarm 
 he could, and compel the enemy to call off troops from Ger- 
 many, had he not there learnt from some deserters that the 
 French were encamped within two leagues of him in great 
 force, and that they meant to give the English battle the 
 next morning. It afterwards appeared that they amounted 
 to upwards of 10,000 men, under the command of the Due 
 d'Aguillon. Nevertheless, General Bligh continued so totally 
 unapprehensive, that he ordered the usual drums, prepara- 
 tory to a march, to beat the next morning at three o'clock. 
 The drums beat accordingly, and the army marched in a 
 single column towards St. Cas, which is about a league from 
 Martignon. If the troops had marched in two columns, they 
 would have reached the beach in half the time. The French 
 followed, but did not attempt to molest the embarkation until 
 they saw they might successfully attack the i-ear guard of 
 1,400 grenadiers, who alone remained on the beach. They 
 then brought their field pieces to bear, and a shocking car- 
 nage ensued, as, when the English retreated to their boats, 
 they were insufficient to receive even half the number on 
 shore, so that about seven hundred men were either killed, 
 drowned, or taken prisoners : among the slain were Major- 
 General Drury, Lieut. - Colonel Wilkinson, and Sir John 
 Armitage, a volunteer. As the boats approached the shore, 
 many of the seamen were killed or wounded, and the rowers, 
 hesitating to proceed, lay upon their oars. Howe, observing 
 this, and perceiving the cause of their backwardness, jumped 
 into his barge, rowed into the midst of the fire of shot and 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 361 
 
 shells, and, standing upright in his boat, waved to the seamen 
 to follow him : his example so animated their drooping spirits, 
 that no one now thought of shrinking, but all strove to pick 
 up the poor soldiers, who were swimming or wading into the 
 sea. This disaster was attributed to the want of military 
 knowledge and experience in the English general, as he fool- 
 ishly gave ear to those about him, who talked of marching 
 through France witli a single company of British grenadiers. 
 He was the only sufferer on the return of the expedition, 
 although he had effected much more than his predecessor, 
 the Duke of Marlborough. The cold reception he met with, 
 and an intimation that he would not be received by the king, 
 determined this unfortunate but high-minded veteran to re- 
 sign a commission which he could not retain with honour. 
 — We have dwelt the longer on these occurrences, because 
 they are rendered locally interesting by the vicinity of the 
 scenes of action to these islands, which, it need scarcely be 
 added, remained unmolested during the reign of George 11.^ 
 In May, 1756, the lieutenant-governor, Sir John Mylne,^ 
 Bart., detained a Swedish vessel laden with iron, &c., and 
 bound to St. Malo, which had put into the roadstead for a 
 pilot ; whereupon the master sent a summons in his own name 
 to the lieutenant-governor, requiring him to appear the same 
 day before the royal court, that he might see him, the said 
 master, protest against all damages arising from his detention, 
 such being then the usual way of summoning in the island, so 
 that the protest might be recorded. The matter was com- 
 municated in such a manner to council, that their lordships 
 reported " that the conduct of the court cannot but be looked 
 upon as unwarrantable and derogatory to his majesty's royal 
 authority, vested in the commanding officer of the island, as 
 likewise a contemptuous proceeding against his majesty's 
 command." The court, moreover, was informed of his ma- 
 jesty's dissatisfaction at its proceedings, and was commanded 
 not to presume to act in the like manner for the future, but 
 that in all cases where it might have any doubt with regard to 
 the conduct of the commanding officer, it was to send over a 
 representation of the fact, that his majesty might signify his 
 pleasure thereupon. — We have before us the rough draft of 
 a letter in answer from the court to the lords of council, from 
 which we make the following extracts ; but we know not 
 whether the letter, which commenced by expressing the 
 
 (1) Barrow's Life of Howe.— Campbell's Lives of the Admirals. 
 
 (2) Sir John Mylne was captain of an independent company of invalids in Guernsey, 
 in 1783. 
 
362 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 amazement of the court, and concluded by praying for in- 
 quiry and redress, was transmitted, or attended to : 
 
 " What will your lordships think when we openly declare and 
 solemnly affirm, that in this accusation presented to your honour- 
 able board, there is not one single word of truth, nor even the 
 least shadow of grounds to colour the same ; so far from it, that 
 Sir John, a day or two after he had made the said arrest, con- 
 sulting about and desiring the advice and concurrence of this 
 court on several proposals, among others he mentioned the above- 
 said arrest which he had made, to which the court made answer : 
 * That it was a thing which did wholly and solely belong to his 
 province, that this court had nothing to do with it, and that he 
 might act therein as he thought most fit/ 
 
 ** If Sir John can make out any more than what we have thus 
 informed your lordships, we may indeed be at a loss how to 
 answer it; but we are well satisfied he cannot. In all this, my 
 lords, this court has been meerly passive, as it is allways in cases 
 of like nature, barely attesting or recording that a protest has 
 been made, without any adjudication whatsoever, being the ordi- 
 nary style of this court, constantly practised ever since our first 
 records. 
 
 *' And now, my lords, if the premises are entire truth, — if this 
 court did never summon Sir John Mylne, — if this court had 
 never threatened him with any costs or damages whatsoever, 
 if he did not release the ship, as we do solemnly affirm it to be 
 true, — how shocking must it be to your lordships that any one 
 should presume to impose on your lordships such monstrous 
 untruths, which have brought on us those heavy censures and 
 sensible reflections contained in your lordships' letter above men- 
 tioned, to which, we humbly beg leave to say, we have given no 
 room for." 
 
 During the middle of the eighteenth century, although the 
 population of Guernsey was scarcely 1 1 ,000 souls,^ the means 
 of subsistence, or at least of employment, seem to have been 
 inadequate to the maintenance of the inhabitants, so that 
 emigration was resorted to at that early period : thus, about 
 the year 1752, this advertisement appeared in Boston, N.A. : 
 " To be sold, Guernsey boys and girls, for a term of time, on 
 board the sloop Two Brothers," — evidently to pay their 
 passage across the Atlantic. At that time, the children of 
 the lower orders in Guernsey were wont to say that if they 
 were disobedient, their parents would send them to Boston. 
 
 (1) "IS F^v. 1727.— Habitants trouv^s se raonter en nombre Jk 10,500, dont la ville en 
 faisait 4,500, de sortc qu'allouant un denerel de grain la semaine k chacun pour sa sub- 
 sistence, il nous faut annuelleinent ai,000 quartiers de bled."— E*tracted from the Or^t. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 363 
 
 Alderney. — During the civil war, the island was subject to 
 the lieutenant-governor of Guernsey ; but, after the Restora- 
 tion, Charles II. granted it, with all its profits, to Edward de 
 Carteret, James de Carteret, and Clement de Constein, gen- 
 tlemen, who at once made over their grant to Sir George 
 Carteret, and from that period Alderney became a govern- 
 ment independent of that of Guernsey. In 1683, the title to 
 the island was disposed of for a certain consideration by the 
 trustees of Sir George Carteret, deceased, to Sir Edmund 
 Andros and dame Mary, his wife, to whom and to their heirs 
 Charles II. regranted it for ninety-nine years, from April 28, 
 1683, under a reserved rent of thirteen shillings per annum. 
 Sir Edmund, dying in 1713 without issue, bequeathed the 
 island to his nephew, George Andros, who also died the same 
 year ; and his rights devolved on his infant daughter, Anne : 
 she died in 1721, when her aunt, Anne Andros, wife of John 
 Le Mesurier, succeeded her, and thus brought the govern- 
 ment into the family of Le Mesurier, in which it remained 
 above a century. In 1763, the grant was renewed to another 
 John Le Mesurier for a second term of ninety-nine years ; 
 and from that period the governor resided usually on the 
 island. In 1825, the last hereditary governor of Alderney, 
 Major-General Le Mesurier, surrendered his patent to the 
 crown for a valuable consideration, and the island has since 
 formed part of the government of Guernsey, as it generally 
 did in ancient times. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 aEOEGE III.— 1760 to 1820. 
 
 During this reign, which was the longest in English history, 
 these islands emerged from a state of comparative poverty 
 and seclusion to one of prosperity and importance, however 
 evanescent ; because, as regards Guernsey, the causes which 
 produced such beneficial effects have chiefly passed away. 
 It was only, however, after 1824, when a steamer from South- 
 ampton and another from Portsmouth first commenced ply- 
 ing weekly, that strangers can be said to have visited these 
 islands in summer, or made them their permanent residence, 
 
364 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 very few coming over before that time, unless on business, or 
 as belonging to the garrison and squadron. In this chapter, 
 we shall shew accurately what the condition of Guernsey was 
 about the year 1775, when it would seem that the spirit of 
 improvement began to develope itself, owing to the addition 
 made to the garrison, and the increased intercourse with 
 strangers during the first American war. Little, however, 
 was done to embellish the town, or to facilitate the commu- 
 nication with the country, until the commencement of the 
 present or nineteenth century. 
 
 About the year 1 768, of the eight rectors in the ten parishes 
 of Guernsey, one was an Englishman, Dean Crespin, of French 
 extraction, six were Frenchmen, and one was a Swiss, so little 
 inducement had the natives to accept church preferment in 
 the isl^,nd at that period. A Guernseyman, the Rev. Joshua 
 Le Marchant, fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, was soon 
 after appointed rector of St. Peter-Poi-t. At present, the 
 eight rectors are natives of Guernsey. 
 
 In 1775, the town of St. Peter-Port extended northerly 
 to the Long Store, southerly to the lower half of Hauteville, 
 and westerly from Fountain street to Country Mansell, in- 
 cluding the Bordage and Mill street. Pedvin street was not 
 built, and the present market place was a garden. Berthelot 
 street existed almost as it is now, but Smith street was com- 
 plete only on the north side, the south reaching only to the 
 pump ;^ and from thence to the upper part of Berthelot street 
 and New Town, the land was in fields and gardens. Indeed, 
 a gentleman, lately living, remembered shooting a woodcock 
 where the gaol now stands. The houses in Park street, 
 Mount Durant, Mount Row, New Town, Canichers, Paris 
 street, &:c. &;c., with very few exceptions, have been erected 
 since. The principal streets were paved, but there were nei- 
 ther public lamps, nor sewers, nor flagged footpaths. The 
 lower part of Fountain street was so narrow, and the houses 
 on each side projected so much at every story, that the in- 
 mates could almost shake hands across. High street was 
 nearly as narrow and unsightly. The parish cTiurch was the 
 only place of worship in St. Peter-Port, and there was neither 
 a dissenter nor a chapel in town or country. 
 
 From Lord De Saumarez's house, at the top of Smith 
 
 (1) The proprietor of the field from the pump upwards oflTered about this time to throw 
 back the hedge for a mere trifle, so as to widen Smith street considerably, but "the 
 wisdom of our ancestors" refused the offer, and hence the narrowness of this principal 
 outlet of the town. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 365 
 
 street, to the church of St. Mary de Castro, there were only- 
 eight houses bordering on the road. St. James's street and 
 Candie road were miserable lanes, only wide enough for a 
 cart, and without footpaths ; the Grange road was eqilally 
 narrow, but it had a wide footpath. The house on the Grange 
 road, a little above and facing Doyle road, was built by Mr. 
 William Brock for his summer residence only, his winter one 
 being in High street, about half a mile distant ; and when 
 Mr. Henry Brock built Belmont, he was told that the roof 
 would be blown away by the westerly gales, and that he 
 might as well erect his house on Rock Douvre. St. Peter- 
 Port possessed some large houses, but throughout the island 
 the generality were small and mean, with low and dark 
 rooms, and to obtain shelter they were buried as much as 
 possible. The furniture, even in the best, was poor and defi- 
 cient, and many a gentleman's parlour was uncarpeted, hav- 
 ing only a sanded floor. ^ 
 
 The present site of Fort George and its outskirts contained 
 some of the finest corn fields in the island. Government 
 house was then situated at the top of Smith street, as at this 
 moment ; but two or three years previously, it was that now 
 called the haunted house at the Tour de Beauregard, between 
 Cornet street and the Bordage. The garrison consisted of 
 four companies of invalids, who were quartered at Castle 
 Cornet, as there were no barracks ; but many of the soldiers 
 were permitted to live in town, and serve as porters. One 
 entire and two half regiments of foot, as also two more 
 companies of invalids or veterans, were soon after added to 
 protect the island during the American revolutionary war. 
 
 The royal court held its sittings in a mean detached build- 
 ing at the Plaiderie, now used as a store, and the public 
 records were kept in the private house of the greffier, while 
 two cells at Castle Cornet constituted the public prison, both 
 for debtors and criminals ; but an insolvent debtor, or bank- 
 rupt, was a rara avis in those days. The meat and vegetable 
 markets were held on Saturday only, in High street, from 
 the church to the corner of Berthelot street ; and fish was 
 sold in the afternoon, as it was chiefly caught by the town 
 fishermen, very httle being brought in from the country 
 
 (1) The author well remembers, about the year 1804, a gentleman of an ancient Guernsey- 
 family residing in his own house in High street, St. Peter- Port, in which house he usually 
 sat in a small front parlour, with a sanded floor and little furniture ; and yet he was a 
 jurat, and the second richest man in the island, if not the first. Three of his sons became 
 general officers, — one a jurat, another the dean of Guernsey, and another receiver-general, 
 while one of his daughters was the wife of a distinguished major-general, who was slain 
 in the Peninsula, and the mother of a baronet. 
 
366 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 parishes. The New Ground existed as a public promenade, 
 having been purchased by the parish in 1764; but, having 
 already described the state of Candie road, we need scarcely 
 add that the avenue from the town to the New Ground was 
 most wretched. There was only one master in EHzabeth 
 College, which was held in the house now occupied by the 
 vice-principal, but lately much enlarged. A theatre was 
 fitted up in a store near the hospital, and a small company of 
 actors came over every three or four years to perform in it. 
 
 The shipping of the island consisted of one ship, three or 
 four brigs, and a few sloops and cutters. The square-rigged 
 vessels (none of which were copper-fastened or sheathed) 
 were usually employed in bringing tobacco and staves from 
 Virginia, rum from the island of Santa Cruz, and brandy and 
 wine from Cette and Salou. Wines were occasionally re- 
 ceived to be stored for account of English merchants, and 
 re-shipped when required. There were no pipe carts, and 
 pipes of wine and spirits were conveyed singly on sledges, or 
 slides, drawn by two oxen and four horses. Hogsheads were 
 occasionally slung to poles and carried by porters. Bills on 
 London or Paris were seldom seen, as the trade was very 
 limited, and the incomes of the gentry were chiefly derived 
 from their " rentes." The money in circulation was English 
 and French gold, but principally guineas and six livre pieces ; 
 and local bank notes did not exist. There were three or four 
 small breweries and a few insignificant manufactories of rope, 
 tobacco, and candles, but no iron foundries, distilleries, &c. ; 
 and many articles, now made here, were imported from 
 Southampton and Bristol. Soap came chiefly from Mar- 
 seilles. The town parish was assessed at 47,360 quarters, 
 paid by 399 individuals, averaging 118 quarters each. The 
 island possessed neither a newspaper,^ nor a printing press,' 
 nor a single hot or greenhouse, and the inhabitants did not 
 appear to be very partial to physic, as there were only three 
 medical practitioners, and not a druggist. 
 
 The fish caught round, and the fruit grown in, the island, 
 were consumed by the inhabitants at a cheap rate, because 
 there were no steamers to carry either away. — The steamers 
 have certainly enhanced the expense of living in Guernsey. 
 
 (1) The first newspaper, a small quarto sheet, printed in the island, was in French, and 
 appeared in 1789 : the first, in English, was published in 1803. 
 
 (2) In the Harlcian MSS. there is a letter from Mr. Walsingham to the Lord Burleigh, 
 dated at Vernon, in France, May 25, l.^;!, in which he " desires that a Book of Common 
 Prayer, translated into French, (of which he has seen some printed in Guernsey,) may be 
 sent to him to shew to monsieor." We think that Walsingham was in error as to the 
 place of printing. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 367 
 
 There was no government packet, or post-office, and the 
 communication with the metropolis was carried on by the 
 small Southampton traders, which crossed very irregularly. 
 During the American war, some of the London newspapers 
 were sent to Brixham, to be forwarded by the cutters from 
 thence, as these vessels could reach the islands with a south- 
 westerly wind, which was directly adverse from the Needles. 
 A retired shipmaster, who was nearly fifty years in the South- 
 ampton trade, mentions that, about the year 1788, when he 
 first commenced, a cutter, which then made eight voyages to 
 and fro in a year, was considered to have been actively em- 
 ployed ; but that he himself, long afterwards, made twenty- 
 nine voyages, or fifty-eight passages, in the same period in a 
 smart cutter. He adds, that one of the traders between 
 Jersey and Southampton only made four voyages a year, her 
 sails being always unbent at Southampton. 
 
 The principal families resided chiefly in High street, with 
 a few in Cornet and Smith streets, and the Pollet : they 
 usually dined at one, took tea at four or five, and supped 
 substantially on meat or fish at eight or nine o'clock. These 
 early hours extended, in some measure, even to company ; 
 and, notwithstanding, the inhabitants maintained a constant 
 social intercourse, as the money which is now spent in general 
 entertainments, few and far between, and in carriage hire, 
 w^as then devoted to more frequent, genuine, and rational 
 hospitality. It must be added, however, that the convivial 
 meetings of the gentlemen, who had few amusements or intel- 
 lectual resources, were often stained by hard drinking. The 
 public assemblies were held weekly in a large room at the 
 bottom of the Pollet ; and the ladies were not the less happy, 
 or the less lovely, because they walked to parties in hoods 
 and pattens: indeed, it was not until after the peace of 1815 
 that hack carriages were introduced. 
 
 The language of all classes in their own families was, with 
 few exceptions, either French or Guernsey French, chiefly 
 the latter ; but the upper classes could speak English, as they 
 were generally educated in England, where these islands 
 were then as little known as the Orkneys are now. 
 
 The roads throughout the island were only wide enough 
 for a cart, but the greater part had a narrow high footpath, 
 and when two carts met, one had to go into a field, or in a 
 recess called gensage, to allow the other to pass: the roads were, 
 moreover, extremely rough, and often flooded in winter. Those 
 who resided in the distant parishes, and remember the diffi- 
 
368 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 culties of communication with the town, might now parody 
 the well known distich of the highlands of Scotland : 
 
 Had you seen these roads, ere a credit to our soil, 
 
 You would hold up your hands, and bless General Doyle. 
 
 In consequence, the inhabitants of the country had so little 
 intercourse with each other, or with the town, that their 
 parishes could be discovered by their different accents. It 
 must be confessed, however, that the lanes formed a most 
 agreeable shady walk for pedestrians in summer, as the high 
 hedges on either side were planted with trees, and covered 
 with wild primroses, violets, and harebells. Carriages were 
 almost useless, as excursions were made on foot or on horse- 
 back, and the few which existed were gigs, substantially con- 
 structed without springs. It was about this time that Lieut.- 
 Governor Irving introduced the first four-wheel close carriage, 
 with a pair of horses, seen in the island. 
 
 Thus, in 1775, Guernsey was comparatively unimproved, 
 badly cultivated, and without easy means of comnmnication, 
 either externally or internally. We have said that parties 
 met at an early hour, and even as late as the year 1796, at a 
 ball and supper given by the gentlemen of the island, at the 
 assembly rooms in St. Peter- Port, to Major-General Small 
 and the officers of the garrison, on the 18th of January, to 
 celebrate the queen's birth-day, "the company" was requested 
 " to assemble at six o'clock." — The late king, William IV., 
 while Prince William Henry, visited Guernsey twice, the 
 first time as a midshipman in the Hebe frigate, and the second 
 in command of the Pegasus, of 28 guns. On the latter occa- 
 sion a ball, apparently without a supper, to prepare which 
 there probably was not time, was given to him by the Guern- 
 sey gentlemen, on the 7th of June, 1786, the entire cost for 
 nearly two hundred persons present being only £36. 4s. 8d., 
 or 14s. 6d. per head for the fifty gentlemen who subscribed, 
 as we learn by a copy of the account:^ twenty-five years 
 later, balls and suppers given to the naval and military offi- 
 cers cost about £500 ! so great was the sad change effected 
 in a few years by a large garrison and squadron, and a greater 
 intercourse with strangers.' 
 
 (1) The items were : tea and coffee, <6'4, 188. ; fourteen pounds of wax candles, jgi. Ifls. ; 
 lemons and supar for punch and negus, 19s. 3d. ; twelve packs cards, gs. ; two pair gloves 
 for his royal highness, 3s. ; one set of fish for quadrille, lost, 9s. fid. -, wine, &c., 467. lis. 6d. ; 
 confectionery, jtQ- 38. 8d. ; music, j6'4. 138. ; breakage, iss.fid. ; corkage on six dozen and 
 nine bottles of wine, at 3d., ^1 . Os. 3d. ; rooms and attendance, j6'3. 38. ; total, jesd. 4s. 8d. 
 
 (2) The natural consequence of this senseless extravagance has been that the inter- 
 change of public parties, then annual, between the garrison and the inhabitants, has 
 ceased for some years. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 369 
 
 In reviewing the state of Guernsey nearly eighty years 
 ago, we must not forget that both England and France, the 
 pioneers of European civilization, were then very far behind 
 what they now are in roads, buildings, equipages, literary grati- 
 fications, and the other comforts and elegancies of life. The 
 steam engine has since given an impetus to every species of 
 improvement, which might otherwise have lain dormant for 
 another century. — One of our informants remembered, when 
 he was at school at Southampton, in 1775, that the stage 
 coaches, of which there were only two, set out from thence 
 for London at four o'clock, a.m., and only reached their 
 destination at nine o'clock, p.m. Even more than thirty 
 years afterwards, the coaches were thirteen or fourteen hours 
 performing the same distance. Now, the journey is performed 
 in less than three hours by rail ! — Speaking of the mode of 
 living in the capital of Scotland, in 1745, Chambers' Edin- 
 burgh Journal of March 1 , 1 845, says : " The accommoda- 
 tions possessed by families of good figure were generally 
 limited to three or four rooms, not more than one of which 
 would be unfurnished with a bed. Of the middle ranks, 
 most lived in bed-rooms. Arrangements now deemed in- 
 dispensable for cleanliness and delicacy were unknown." 
 
 In 1775, there arose between the bailiff", William Le Mar- 
 chant, and ten of the jurats,^ serious differences, which were 
 referred by both parties to the privy council, of which the 
 printed report fills no less than 257 pages. The bailiff — 
 who is still remembered as a magistrate of great ability,^ but 
 of imperious and violent temper — having, of his sole autho- 
 rity, and without the knowledge of the jurats, ordered the 
 greffier, Joshua Gosselin, not to register the contracts passed 
 before the courts of St. Michael and Le Comte, his injunction 
 was complied with ; and thus a custom, established for nearly 
 two hundred years, was suppressed. In February, an appeal 
 was brought before the royal court by a tenant of the Fief le 
 
 (1) John Quille, of St. George, John de la Mare, Charles Andros, Thomas Dobr^e, 
 Richard de Beauvolr, Nicholas Dobr^e, Nicholas Reserson, Peter de Jersey, Elisha Tupper, 
 and John Carey. 
 
 The author will perhaps be excused for quoting:, in memory of his grandfather, the 
 following extract of a letter, dated February 24, 1775, to ten of the jurats, from the bailiff, 
 who had recently met with some reverses of fortune : " Vous deviez cependant, si je dois 
 la censer de vous, decider autrement de ladroiture de ma conduite, puisque vous n'ignorez 
 pas, que si j'etois pour ^tre influx dans les devoirs de ma charge, j'en ai, en cette occasion, 
 tons les motifs, par la consideration de votre confederation puissante, des coups que j'ai 
 re9u de la fortune, qui abattent ordinairement I'esprit et le coeur, et plus encore des services 
 ^minens que j'ai, dans ces malheureuses conjonctures, re9U de quelques-uns de vous, 
 nommement de M. Tupper, h. qui moi et ma famille auront une obligation ^ternelle." 
 
 (2) While a jurat, Mr. Le Marchant published a clever work, intituled " The Rights and 
 Immunities of Guemsev." 
 
 2a 
 
370 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Comte, when the bailiff declared that he was fully resolved 
 not to permit that or any other cause of the same nature, 
 which had been first tried by the said two feudal courts, to 
 be decided by the royal court, as those feudal jurisdictions 
 exercised an undue authority, vexatious to the inhabitants 
 and repugnant to law. Although this might have been true, 
 the jurats present naturally remonstrated at their not being 
 consulted ; and, as if to widen the breach, the bailiff told them 
 in a letter, " that on any action being introduced before the 
 court, which he thinks contrary to law, dishonest, or deroga- 
 tory to the king's authority, he has the sole right of rejecting 
 it." This difference produced other contentions, which were 
 the more unfortunate because the government was at that 
 time occupied with matters of momentous importance — the 
 commencement of the American war of independence. The 
 bailiff, persisting in his determination, ten^ of the jurats ab- 
 sented themselves from the court, a measure which nothing 
 could justify, and particularly as they had not yet received an 
 answer to their appeal to his majesty in council. In conse- 
 quence, the bailiff and jurats were ordered, by an order in 
 council of March 10, 1775, to resume their duties in the 
 manner they had been accustomed before the differences 
 arose, without prejudice to their rights, " until the matter of 
 the said differences shall have been heard, and his majesty's 
 determination thereupon be signified." This order was obeyed 
 accordingly ; but the bailiff would not give way, and the 
 jurats wrote on the subject to the lieutenant-governor, Irving, 
 who declined interfering. Soon afterwards, October 7, the 
 dissentient jurats solicited of his majesty to accept of their 
 resignation, that there might be no longer any interruption of 
 justice, and on the 17th of May, 1776, their prayer was 
 granted ; but the electors evidently siding with them, re- 
 elected the whole, as appears by an order in council, dated 
 July 12, 1776, requiring them to be sworn in; the bailiff 
 having refused to declare them duly elected. But four of 
 these re-elected jurats, viz. T. Dobree, R. de Beau voir, N. 
 Dobree, and J. Carey, refusing to serve again, and imploring 
 his majesty to order the States to proceed to a new election, 
 such election was so ordered. The new jurats were, John 
 Carey, Thomas Dobree, James Hubert, and Peter Falla. 
 
 By another order in council, also dated July 12, 1776, 
 Lieut.-Governor Irving was directed, with the assistance of 
 
 (t) The two reraaioingr Jurats were Laurence Fiott and Daniel De Lisle, the seniors on 
 the bench, and both elected in 1742. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 371 
 
 any two persons he miglit think proper, to examine into the 
 ancient usages and customs of the island as regarded the 
 disputes subsisting between the bailiff, royal court, and greffier. 
 The lieutenant-governor having taken Peter de Jersey, jun., 
 and John Carey, jun. Esqs., to his assistance ; and they having 
 examined the several witnesses on each side, and made their 
 reports to council, their lordships decided that the bailiff had 
 no right to refuse to register, or to order the greffier not to 
 register, any of the contracts which came from the feudal 
 courts of the island, or to take upon himself to admit or 
 reject causes which came from the said courts, without the 
 concurrence of the jurats. By the same order in council, 
 dated December 11, 1776, it was further ruled : 
 
 ** That the royal court hath the right to make ordinances to 
 regulate the exportation and importation of provisions ; but that 
 the permission to sell provisions brou^^ht by foreigners into the 
 island is to be given by the bailiff, and if he refuses to give such 
 permission, the reason of such refusal may be examined by the 
 royal court, and the bailiff's refusal be controlled thereby. 
 
 ** And, lastly, that the bailiff hath no right to give permission 
 to strollers, musicians, or other persons, to make publick exhibi- 
 tions in the island, without the concurrence of the jurats, but that 
 such permission ought to be given by the royal court." 
 
 During the American revolutionary war, two attempts 
 were made by the French on Jersey, and happily both 
 proved unsuccessful. The first was in 1779, w^hen on the 1st 
 of May the prince or count of Nassau, with nearly 3,000 
 men and about fifty flat-bottomed boats, convoyed by five 
 frigates and some armed cutters, appeared in sight of the 
 island early in the morning, .and attempted a debarkation in 
 St. Ouen's bay. But the enemy was so vigorously received 
 by one wing of the 78th regiment and the militia, that after a 
 most feeble attack, and an equally spiritless attempt to land 
 in St. Brelade's bay, they relinquished the enterprise, with 
 very little loss on either side. 
 
 The vessel, which was immediately dispatched to England 
 with the intelligence, fell in with Admiral Arbuthnot, who 
 was bound to New York with a squadron of ships of war, 
 and an immense convoy of about four hundred sail, with 
 reinforcements, stores, &c., for Sir Henry Clinton. He at 
 once ordered the convoy to wait for him at Torbay, while he 
 proceeded with the squadron to the relief of Jersey, where 
 he however arrived too late, as the French had retired ; and 
 their ships intended to cover the landing, were soon after- 
 
372 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 wards destroyed in the bay of Cancalle, in Britany, by Sir 
 James Wallace, with a 50-gun ship, two frigates, and two brigs. 
 
 In the attack just described, the Baron de Rullecourt was 
 second in command, and another invasion being planned, to 
 be under the orders of that officer, who was of a bold and 
 fiery temper, about 2,000 troops were collected at Granville, 
 with a sufficient number of transports, and some privateers 
 for their protection : the rewards of his success were to be the 
 rank of general, the order of St. Louis, and the government 
 of Jersey. On Christmas night, 1780, a fire was discovered 
 blazing between Rozel and La Coupe, in Jersey : it continued 
 burning for about eight minutes, when it was answered by 
 another on the coast of Normandy. These preconcerted 
 signals were made at a time when no British ships of war 
 were on the station, so that the island had at least one traitor 
 within, as well as national enemies without. 
 
 Notwithstanding the tempestuous weather which then pre- 
 vailed, Rullecourt's impatience was so great that he embarked 
 the troops, and put to sea. The consequence was the disper- 
 sion of his fleet of small vessels in a storm, by which ten of 
 them, with fully half the troops, were driven back to France, 
 and never rejoined him ; while he, totally ignorant of their 
 fate, sought shelter with the remainder among the islands of 
 Chausey, which lie between Normandy and Jersey. Profit- 
 ing by the first fair weather, he set sail again on the 5th of 
 January, 1781, and, with the aid of a traitorous Jerseyman, 
 who had formerly lived at La Roque, and was an experienced 
 pilot, reached Jersey with barely 1,000 men, at eleven o'clock, 
 p.m. His vessels were driven by the current to Le Banc du 
 Violet, at the south-east corner of the island, some three 
 miles from St. Helier ; and although this was not the spot 
 intended for the debarkation, the troops were ordered to 
 land : about 600 got on shore, two of the vessels being 
 wrecked with the gunners and musicians, most of whom 
 perished, and the remainder kept on board the other vessels 
 by the tide. No alarm was given ; and as the blame for this 
 gross negligence has generally been imputed to Lieut. -Gover- 
 nor Corbet, we think it but common justice to him to give the 
 following extracts from his defence at the court martial : 
 
 "The * chef de garde' was intoxicated, and neglected to fix 
 his centinel on the battery, which in situation so perfectly com- 
 mands the shore, that no such noise as the landing of troops, even 
 at a much greater distance than where the French landed, could 
 escape the ear of any man who was awake.'* — "He sent no tide 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 373 
 
 patroles, which my general orders strictly enjoined, and which 
 the immediately preceding reports of the performance of that 
 duty led me to be assured were uniformly obeyed. He quitted 
 his guard himself before the day, and suffered his men to follow 
 his example, in disobedience to the standing orders, which direct 
 the night guards not to quit their posts till relieved an hour after 
 it is light." — '*By this neglect of an inferior officer of militia, the 
 landing was secretly effected, and the market place of St. Helier's 
 filled with the enemy's soldiers soon after the day began to dawn, 
 without the least alarm from any quarter." — '* No judgment or 
 diligence in those who command can avert the consequence of such 
 gross negligence and disobedience in those who are to obey." 
 
 A surprise arising from negligence^ was indeed the only 
 chance of the invaders, as there were about 1,900 British 
 regulars and probably an equal number of militia on the 
 island, so that in fact the attacked, when collected together, 
 were certainly six to one to their assailants ! We estimate 
 the force of the regulars as follows : 
 
 Wing of ?8lh, Highlanders 350 men. 
 
 ,, of 83d Regiment 350 „ 
 
 95th Regiment 700 ,, 
 
 Six Independent Companies 400 ,, 
 
 One Company of Artillery , . .100 ,, 
 
 1900 men.2 
 
 Rullecourt, leavhig about 100 men in the boats and in the 
 adjoining redoubt of Grouville, so as to secure a retreat in 
 the event of a reverse, proceeded to St. Helier with the rest 
 of his troops, avoiding the shore, that he might not be disco- 
 vered at any of the guard-houses ; and having reached the 
 market place, the sentinel there was killed, and the guard 
 surprised : one man, however, escaped and ran to the general 
 hospital, in which was quartered the wing of the 78th. The 
 lieutenant-governor was in bed when first informed of the 
 enemy's presence, and he was quickly taken prisoner, although 
 he appears to have had time to escape, as he dispatched two 
 messengers to give the alarm to the regulars, who were quar- 
 tered in different parts of the island. 
 
 (1) In the Guernsey and Jersey Maprazine for Jane, 1837, is a long account of the 
 "French attacks on Jersey in 1779 and 1/81," under the signature of "An Old Jersey 
 Militiaman," who candidly says: "A small party of militia, who guarded a redoubt at 
 this place, thought themselves so secure, and were so shamefully remiss in their duty, as 
 to be seized asleep by the enemy, who were thus for several hours upon the island without 
 the slightest alarm being given." 
 
 (2) The garrison in Guernsey at this time consisted of a wing each of the 78th and 83(1 
 regiments, (a singular arrangement,) 96th regiment, six independent companies, and one 
 company of artillery. 
 
374 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 At break of day, the inhabitants were astonished to find 
 the market place filled with French soldiers ; and well tliey 
 might, as not even a gun had been fired. Major Corbet was 
 conducted to the court house, and informed by RuUecourt 
 that resistance was useless, as he had landed 4,000 men ; that 
 the British troops near La Roque were prisoners ; and that 
 he had two battalions in the vicinity of the town. RuUecourt, 
 then producing articles of capitulation, required Major Corbet 
 to sign them, and said that, in default of instant compliance, 
 he had orders to burn the town, with the shipping, and put 
 the inhabitants to the sword. The lieutenant-governor at first 
 refused, in consequence of his being a prisoner ; but at last, 
 to avert the threatened destruction, he and the fort major, 
 Hogge, signed the capitulation ; the king's solicitor-general, 
 Durell, the constable of St. Helier, La Cloche, and other 
 Jerseymen, firmly and nobly refusing to do so. 
 
 RuUecourt now conceived himself to be master of the 
 island, as at his bidding Corbet sent orders to the English 
 troops not to move from their respective barracks, and after- 
 wards to those on the heights to bring their arms to the court 
 house. Corbet also ordered Captain Aylward, the command- 
 ant at Elizabeth castle, to surrender that fortress; but his 
 orders were happily disobeyed ; and at length the chief part 
 of the regulars and the militia, having assembled near the 
 town, advanced under Major Pierson, of the 95th, the next 
 in command. Separating into two divisions, the British 
 pressed forwards towards the market place, where the action 
 was soon decided ; for RuUecourt being mortally wounded, 
 the next senior officer, seeing the hopelessness of resistance 
 with such a disparity of numbers, requested Major Corbet to 
 resume his authority, and to accept of the surrender of the 
 French as prisoners of war. But this success was unfortu- 
 nately damped by the fall of Major Pierson, who was shot 
 dead in the market place. This was the first essay in arms 
 of this young officer, who was only twenty-four years of age : 
 he was interred within the parochial church of St. Helier, in 
 which a monument was erected to his memory at the cost of 
 the island, in grateful recognition of his services. The next 
 in command to Major Pierson was Captain Campbell, of the 
 83d ; and thus, with so large a force of regulars, there was 
 only one regimental field officer. The remains of RuUecourt 
 were buried in the churchyard of St. Helier, and the prisoners 
 were in a few days sent to Plymouth. 
 
 During the engagement in the town, the redoubt at Grou- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 375 
 
 ville, which mounted four guns, was gallantly retaken by 
 part of the grenadiers of the 83d regiment, with fixed bayo- 
 nets, and without firing a shot. Thus the whole of the French 
 engaged were either killed or taken prisoners ; but it is due 
 to Rullecourt to add that, once on shore, he appears to have 
 conducted his desperate enterprise with great skill and reso- 
 lution : his death and that of his youthful opponent remind 
 us of the fall of Montcalm and Wolfe. Major Corbet was 
 tried by a court martial, held at the Horse Guards, in May, 
 1781, when "the court, having duly considered and weighed 
 the evidence given in support of the charge against the pri,- 
 soncr, Lieut. -Governor Moses Corbet, with that produced by 
 him in his defence, are of opinion that he, the said Moses 
 Corbet, is guilty of the whole charge exhibited against him ; 
 and doth adjudge that he be therefore superseded in his 
 command of lieutenant-governor of the island of Jersey." 
 But he is said to have received a pension ; and this lenient 
 sentence proves that he was not guilty of treachery, as has 
 often been, and is still, asserted. His faults were in signing 
 the capitulation while a prisoner, and in sending orders to 
 the troops afterwards : for signing that capitulation, Fort- 
 Major Hogge is said to have died of grief two years later. 
 
 The casualties on both sides were as follows : 
 British, at La Roque, or the redoubt of Grou ville. — Regu- 
 lars: killed 7, wounded 8. In St. Helier : regulars killed, 
 1 oflBcer and 4 rank and file ; wounded, 1 sergeant and 27 rank 
 and file. Militia: killed, 4 rank and file; wounded, 3 officers 
 and 26 rank and file. Total, reoulars, killed 12, wounded 36; 
 militia, killed 4, wounded 29. Grand total, killed 16, wounded 
 65. The casualties among the officers were : 95th regiment, 
 Major Pierson killed ; east regiment of militia. Lieutenants God- 
 fray and Aubin, and Ensign Poignand, wounded. Mr. Thomas 
 Lempriere, aide-de-camp, and Mr. Amias Lempriere, merchant, 
 were also wounded. 
 
 French, at La Roque : killed, officer 1 ; rank and file, 20 ; 
 wounded, officer 1 ; total, 22 ; so that no quarter appears to have 
 been shewn there. In St. Helier : rank and file, killed, 57 ; 
 wounded, 73; total, 130. Grand total, killed, 78; wounded, 
 74; together 152, exclusive of 417 prisoners ; the entire French 
 loss on the island being 569 men. 
 
 Thus this very insignificant French force w^as only rendered 
 formidable by its landing and march to St. Helier being 
 effected during the darkness of a long winter's night, and 
 the uncertainty which prevailed in regard to its numbers : 
 
376 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 had that force appeared by day-light, we are satisfied that the 
 Jersey militia alone would have defeated it ; otherwise it cer- 
 tainly would be useless to embody any militia in these islands ; 
 and, therefore, we hold that there was no subject either for 
 boasting or exultation in the failure of this fool-hardy and 
 ill-concerted invasion. 
 
 A cutter from Jersey brought to Guernsey the startling- 
 intelligence that the French were in possession of the former 
 island, and that the latter might also be attacked on the fol- 
 lowing day. An officer of the Guernsey militia wrote in his 
 journal: "January 6, 1781. — News that Jersey is attacked 
 by the French, who have actually landed ; great alarm here ; 
 the militia under arms all night." — Lieut.-Governor Irving 
 instantly adopted the necessary measures for the defence of 
 Guernsey, and proclaimed martial law. The night was passed 
 in a state of feverish excitement ; but the next day, another 
 vessel arrived with the glad tidings that the invading force 
 had been defeated : then cheer succeeded cheer, the bands 
 played merrily, the bells were rung, martial law terminated, 
 and both the regulars and militia were dismissed. 
 
 The first attack on Jersey in 1779 probably suggested the 
 erection of additional fortifications in Guernsey, as Fort 
 George dates its commencement in 1780. The promontory 
 of Jerbourg, so strong by nature, would have been the best 
 site, had it not been too distant from the town. Castle Cornet, 
 and the roadstead. 
 
 The governor of Cherbourg, about the period of the at- 
 tempted conquest of Jersey, in 1779 or 1781, wrote of the 
 Anglo-Norman islands as follows : 
 
 [Translation from the French.'] 
 "These two islands [i.e. Guernsey and Jersey] are the despair 
 of France at the breaking out of each war, through their remark- 
 ably active privateers, which always commence by capturing a 
 great number of vessels, and destroying all communication and 
 commerce between the channel ports, before France can adopt 
 any precautionary measures to protect her coasting marine by 
 vessels of war. The habit of encountering the dangers of the 
 sea renders the natives very brave ; they have well disciplined 
 regiments of militia, excellent marksmen, and who alone are 
 almost capable of repulsing any enemy who might descend on 
 their shores. Animated by a true sense of their own interest, 
 their attachment to the English government is devotedly loyal. 
 Good neighbours during peace, closely united by the contraband 
 trade, which enriches them, with the inhabitants of the neigh- 
 bouring coasts of Normandy and Britany, they become formida- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 377 
 
 ble enemies when war is declared, or rather, ihey are always in a 
 state of warfare, now against the custom-house officers of the two 
 kingdoms, now against the French commercial marine. A popu- 
 lation of this character greatly enhances the natural strength of 
 these islands." 
 
 It has been shewn in Chapter IX. that an order in council, 
 dated June 9, 1605, gave authority to the governor of Guern- 
 sey to imprison ])ersons for twenty-four hours at his discre- 
 tion ; and the following is an instance of the exercise of that 
 authority. In December, 1783, Mr. Thomas Knight, a mer- 
 chant of Bristol, arrived in the roadstead in a vessel belonging 
 to himself, the Rainbow, John Roach master : the vessel 
 carried a pendant, and it seems that the orders of Lieut.- 
 Colonel Basset, the commander-in-chief, to take it down, 
 were disregarded. In consequence, Mr. Knight, while trans- 
 acting his business in the town of St. Peter-Port, vras arrested 
 by an officer and soldier, whereupon he demanded to be 
 carried before the bailiff, and his request was complied w^ith. 
 The bailiff, William Le Marchant, being informed of the 
 cause of the arrest, told the officer that he knew of no autho- 
 rity in the commander-in-chief to issue such orders, much 
 less to enforce them by seizing and imprisoning any British 
 subject on such a pretence. The officer replied that he would 
 communicate the bailiff's opinion to Lieut. -Colonel Basset, 
 and ordered the soldier to take Mr. Knight as a prisoner to 
 the guard-house, upon which Knight claimed in vain the 
 protection of the bailiff; and from the guard-house in the 
 town he was removed to Castle Cornet. 
 
 The bailiff having assembled the court, that body sent the 
 crown officers to represent to the colonel that the said arrest 
 and imprisonment w^ere subversive of the rights of the subject 
 and of the privileges of the island, in order to induce him to 
 set Mr. Knight at liberty. The colonel answered", " that any 
 person who disobeyed his orders, he had a right to imprison 
 for twenty-four hours ; that he had confined Mr. Knight for 
 having hoisted his pendant, contrary to his (the commander- 
 in-chief's) orders ; and that he considered this affair as a 
 private dispute between him and Mr. Knight : " the crown 
 officers having informed him "that the court did not con- 
 sider it as a private affair, but an infringement on the rights 
 of the subject, and a violation of the rights and privileges of 
 the inhabitants of this island," Colonel Basset replied, "that 
 he did not mean to infringe the rights of the people, but that 
 he was authorized to act as he had done, and would support 
 
378 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 or enforce his authority, and that the court might complain 
 of him if they pleased." 
 
 On receiving these answers, the court decided : first, that 
 from time immemorial vessels in the roadstead had been per- 
 mitted to carry a pendant when no king's vessel w^as present, 
 and therefore that the commander-in-chief exercised a vexa- 
 tious right, unknown to his predecessors ; secondly, that the 
 pretension of the commander-in-chief that he had the right to 
 imprison for twenty-four hours any person who disobeyed 
 his orders was illusory, (i/lusoire,) such right never having 
 been exercised within the memory of man by any of his 
 predecessors, excepting in very grave cases, and for which 
 they were answerable ; and, thirdly, that as regarded the 
 reparation claimed by Mr. Knight, the court, considering 
 that Colonel Basset was not amenable to it for the present, 
 would certify the claim, so that it might be referred to the 
 wisdom and justice of the sovereign. The court further re- 
 solved to represent the entire matter to his majesty in council, 
 which was done on the 13th of December ; and on April 20, 
 1784, their petition was transmitted to Lieut. -Colonel Basset, 
 who was required forthwith to return his answer thereunto 
 in writing. That answer appears to have been satisfactory, 
 the matter dropping there ; and as the Algerine order in 
 council has never been repealed, it is clear that any individual 
 in Guernsey is still liable to be imprisoned for twenty-four 
 hours, at the discretion of the lieutenant-governor, although 
 he would be a bold officer who would now exercise such 
 an authority, the existence of which at this day is a disgrace 
 to constitutional government. 
 
 On the 24th of March, 1783, the inhabitants of Guernsey 
 were startled by a very daring mutiny at Fort George, in 
 the 104th regiment, consisting entirely of Irish, and number- 
 ing there about six hundred men, for they were not joined 
 by the grenadier company, which was quartered at Vale 
 castle, under Captain Fenwick. The mutineers had been 
 quartered during the winter in the citadel, and though con- 
 stantly troublesome to the country people, they had been 
 kept in tolerable discipline until a few discharged men of 
 the 83d regiment arrived from Portsmouth, and related the 
 impunity with which they, and the soldiery in England gene- 
 rally, had set the laws at defiance. The* men of the 104th 
 were thus prompted to insist with their officers that the gates 
 should not be shut, that they should have liberty to go where 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 379 
 
 they pleased, and, it being peace-time, that they should do no 
 more duty. Lieut. -Governor Irving appeased the outbreak 
 by imprudently granting these demands, and quiet was pre- 
 served for a few days ; but, on the 24th, while the officers 
 were seated in the mess-room after dinner, they were alarmed 
 by the whisthng of musket balls among them, which came 
 through the door and windows. To avoid the shots, they 
 were obliged to creep on their hands and knees, and were 
 some time in this situation, until the sergeant-major advised 
 their running oft*, which they did, the gates being fortunately 
 open, and, though fired at, they all escaped unscathed, ex- 
 cepting two, who concealed themselves in a coal-hole. This 
 attack was known in the town about eight o'clock, p.m., and 
 at first it was feared that the 18th regiment, or Royal Irish, 
 would join the mutineers, or at least refuse to act against 
 them ; but, to its honor, the 18th turned out to a man, while 
 the militia artillery and infantry of the town immediately 
 assembled to assist in suppressing the revolt. The three 
 country regiments were ordered to patrol their own districts, 
 and to hold themselves in readiness to join the main body. 
 At near midnight, Lieut.-Governor Irving proceeded against 
 the mutineers with the 18th regiment, under Major Mawbey, 
 a company of regular artillery, the militia artillery, and the 
 town regiment, the last under Colonel George Lefebvre. On 
 arriving near Fort George, without beat of drum, the 18th 
 regiment, with the town grenadiers and light company, four 
 pieces of artillery, and two howitzers, lined the front under 
 cover of a low hedge, at about one hundred yards distance : 
 four of the battalion companies of the town regiment guarded 
 the avenues on one side, and the other four were in reserve. 
 A summons being sent into the fort, a parley ensued ; but 
 the mutineers declared that they would on no account' lay 
 down their arms, and several straggling shots were fired. 
 Messages continued till about four o'clock the next morning, 
 when the lieutenant-governor, being on the field admonishing 
 some of the deputies, a fire was opened upon him and part of 
 the line, which was returned. Soon after, the four militia 
 companies in reserve were ordered to the right, to occupy a 
 commanding position, when the mutineers, seeing themselves 
 surrounded, and hearing that the whole force of the island 
 was marching against them, quitted the fort, and piled their 
 arms, probably under the assurance of pardon, as no example 
 appears to have been made.' On the 7th of September, at a 
 
 (1) My father was a young subaltern officer in the grenadiers of the town regiment of 
 militia on this occasion, and I have often heard him relate the part taken by that regiment 
 against the mutineers, and how readily the men marched up to Fort George.— F. B. T. 
 
380 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 convocation of the States, the thanks of that body were pre- 
 sented to all who were engaged in suppressing the mutiny, 
 and one hundred guineas were voted to be distributed among 
 the men of the Royal Irish, and of the regular artillery. 
 
 Although the Reformation was introduced into these islands 
 by Henry VIII., it does not appear to have been legally esta- 
 blished in Jersey until the year 1548, or the second of Edward 
 VI., and such was probably the case in Guernsey. Two years 
 later, April 15, 1550, Edward confirmed the authority of 
 the Roman CathoHc bishop of Coutances over the Protestant 
 islanders! In 1565, the Anglican was superseded by the 
 Calvinist discipline ; and in turn, about a century later in 
 Guernsey, the Church of England prevailed, and Presby- 
 terianism was forcibly suppressed by Charles II., who lived 
 and died a Roman Catholic ! The affection of the people of 
 Guernsey for Calvinism gradually died away, so that Dicey, 
 in 1750, said : " Dissenters they have none." A great change 
 has since taken place, as now (1854) nearly half the popu- 
 lation are dissenters. The first who established themslves 
 in Guernsey were the quakers or friends, their society being 
 formed in the island in 1782, by Claude Gray, who had been 
 a Roman Catholic ! The Methodists made their appearance 
 in these islands in 1783, and in 1786 Dr. Adam Clarke was 
 sent over to them by John Wesley, as a preacher : he was 
 subjected at first, both in Jersey and Guernsey, to the most 
 violent personal indignities, which more than once endanger- 
 ed his life ; and his reception was very discreditable to the 
 islanders, who had forgotten that their grandfathers had pro- 
 fessed a different religion to themselves. In 1787, Mr. Wes- 
 ley himself, then in his eighty-fifth year, visited " the French 
 islands," as he or his biographer called them ; and the follow- 
 ing extract from the Life of this eminent and excellent man, 
 descriptive of his voyage and sojourn,^ is interesting : 
 
 " On Monday, August 6, 1787, Mr. Wesley, with Dr. Coke 
 and Mr. Bradford, set off from the Manchester Conference to 
 visit the French islands. On the 11th, they sailed from South- 
 ampton, but contrary winds and stormy weather obliged them to 
 
 (1) An anecdote, in connection with the visit of Mr. Wesley to Guernsey, may be worth 
 recordingr- Mr. Wesley waited on Mr. Le Marchant, as rector of the town parish, and was 
 courteously received. Another rector, not a native, who happened to be present, and 
 who felt probably not very kindly disposed towards the visitor, said somewhat abruptly, 
 as Mr. Wesley was approaching. " Who is tills fellow ? " " Fellow of Lincoln" (the college 
 at Oxford, in which Mr. Wesley had actually held a fellowship,) was the rector's ready 
 reply. To this instance of good-natured tact Mr. Wesley was fond of alluding. The little- 
 minded country rector has long since been forgotten, but the name and memory of John 
 Wesley will live as long as the world endures. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 381 
 
 fly for refuge, first into the port of Yarmouth in the Isle of 
 Wight, and afterwards into that of Swanage. On the 14th, they 
 expected to reach the isle of Guernsey in the afternoon ; but the 
 wind turning contrary, and blowing hard, they were obliged to 
 sail for Alderney. But they were very near being shipwrecked 
 in the bay. Being in the midst of rocks, with the sea rippling 
 all around them, the wind having totally failed. Had they con- 
 tinued in this situation many minutes longer, the vessel must 
 have struck on one or other of the rocks. So they went to 
 prayer, and the wind sprung up instantly, and brought them 
 about sunset to the j)ort of Alderney. 
 
 " At eight the next morning, Mr. Wesley preached on the beach, 
 near the place where he lodged ; and, before his hymn was ended, 
 had a tolerable congregation. Soon after he had concluded, the 
 governor of the island waited upon him with very great courtesy; 
 after which he, with his company, sailed for Guernsey. 
 
 ** On his arrival, he went into the country, to the house of 
 Mr. De Jersey, a gentleman of fortune,^ whose vvhole family have 
 been converted to God. At five the following morning, he 
 preached in a large room of Mr. De Jersey's to a very serious 
 congregation ; and, in the evening, to a crowded audience in the 
 preaching house in the town of St. Peter. On the 18th, he and 
 Dr. Coke dined with the governor, who studied to shew them 
 every mark of civility. On the 20th, he sailed for the isle of 
 Jersey. Mr. Brackenbury received him on his arrival, and in 
 his house he frequently preached to exceeding serious congrega- 
 tions. * Even the gentry,' observes Mr. Wesley, speaking of his 
 visit to this island, * heard with deep attention. What little things 
 does God use to advance his own glory I Probably,' continues 
 he, * many of these flock together, because I have lived so many 
 years ! And, perhaps, even this may be the means of their living 
 for ever ! ' — In the country, he preached in English, Mr. Bracken- 
 bury interpreting sentence by sentence ; and even in this incon- 
 venient way of speaking, God owned his word. Being detained 
 a considerable time by contrary winds, the assembly room was 
 offiered him, in which he preached to very large congregations, 
 and to the profit of many. 
 
 ** On the 29th, the wind still continuing to blow from the 
 English coast, he returned to the isle of Guernsey, where the 
 winds, or rather a kind Providence, detained him till the 6th of 
 September. Hardly a gentleman or lady in the town of St. Peter 
 omitted a single opportunity of attending his ministry. So uni- 
 versal and steady an attendance of the rich and the gay, he never 
 before experienced. During this visit, he was favoured with 
 singular powers of elocution ; and delivered a series of discourses, 
 
 (1) Mr. Henry De Jersey, of Mon Plaisir, was an agent de cour, or law agent, and a 
 substantial farmer, rated in 1787 at 200 quarters, which represented a capital of ^€'4,000. 
 
382 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 peculiarly suited to his hearers. On the 6th, a ship sailed for 
 Mount's Bay, in Cornwall ; and, the wind not permitting him to 
 sail for Southampton, he took his passage in it, and on the next 
 day landed at Penzance. 
 
 " There is now a surplus of native preachers in the French 
 islands, several of whom have visited France, and have formed 
 societies there ; so that there is a prospect of the work of God 
 spreading in that large and populous kingdom." ^ 
 
 111 1792, when Austria and Prussia declared war against 
 France, a rumour prevailed that Guernsey would fit out 
 privateers to capture French vessels. In consequence, the 
 merchants of the island drew up a circular letter, which they 
 addressed to the merchants of the maritime towns of France, 
 and of which the following is a copy. It received sixty-two 
 signatures, and did credit to the character of its authors : 
 
 " Gentlemen, — The merchants of the island of Guernsey, hav- 
 ing taken into their consideration the calumnious rumours now 
 in circulation, which declare that they are about to avail them- 
 selves of the favourable opportunity now presented of enriching 
 themselves at the expense of France, by arming privateers under 
 the colours of her enemies : 
 
 "Considerintj that the number of vessels suited for such a pur- 
 pose at their disposal, the known activity of the inhabitants in 
 the late war, and the advantageous locality of the island, seem to 
 justify such a suspicion, if it were not formally disavowed : 
 
 "Considering, moreover, that an armament against France 
 would be as criminal at this day, (as it might compromise the 
 mother country,) as it was formerly lawful, and a proof of their 
 attachment to the mother country, when involved in war : 
 
 ** The merchants have resolved to repel so odious a calumny 
 by a formal declaration of their sentiments : they renounce every 
 prospect of advantage and all interested considerations, which 
 might be easily but infamously acquired by any attack on the 
 commerce of their neighbours. They solemnly bind themselves 
 not to engage, directly or indirectly, in any hostile armament 
 against France, so long as she is at peace with England. — Dated 
 Guernsey, 2d of May, 1792." 
 
 During the winter of 1793-4, an expedition, consisting of 
 several frigates, the requisite number of transports, and eight 
 regiments of infantry, under Lord Moira, arrived in the road- 
 stead, where they took on board another regiment of infantry, 
 forming part of the garrison. These troops were intended to 
 make a descent on the coast of France, in support of the 
 royalists ; but, owing either to the boisterous season of the 
 
 (1) Life of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., by the Rer. H. Moore. London, 1824. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 383 
 
 year, or to some other cause, they returned soon after to 
 England, without accomplishing their original object.^ 
 
 On the 7th of June, 1794, a British squadron, consisting 
 of the 36-gun frigate Crescent, the 32-gun frigate Druid, 
 and the 24-gun frigate Eurydice, with two or three armed 
 luggers and cutters, the whole under Captain Sir James 
 Saumarez, of the Crescent, sailed from Plymouth for Guernsey 
 and Jersey, with orders to ascertain, if possible, the enemy's 
 force in Cancalle bay and St. Malo. The next morning, at 
 daAvn of day, the British ships, when about twelve leagues 
 to the N.N.W. of Guernsey,^ and with a fresh N.E. breeze, 
 fell in with a French squadron, composed of two cut down 
 74s, or rasees, each mounting 54 guns, two 36-gun frigates, 
 and one 14-gun brig. On discovering the decided superiority 
 of the enemy, who had 100 guns and 3,556 pounds in weight 
 of metal more than the three Enghsh ships. Sir James ordered 
 the Eurydice, which was a dull sailer, to proceed to Guernsey, 
 then in sight, while the Crescent and Druid, following under 
 easy sail, engaged and kept at bay the French squadron. 
 When the action commenced, the English small craft returned 
 to Plymouth. At eight o'clock, a.m., the Eurydice being so 
 far in shore as to run no risk of capture, the other two British 
 frigates made all sail for the Hanois ; but the French head- 
 most ship gained so fast upon them, that Sir James tacked in 
 the Crescent, so as to save the Druid, and stood along the 
 enemy's line. The French commodore now made sure of 
 capturing the Crescent ; but Sir James, having an experienced 
 Guernsey pilot on board, John Breton by name, ordered him 
 to steer the ship through a narrow passage between the rocks, 
 which had never before been attempted by a king's ship ; and, 
 defying his pursuers to follow him, he reached the roadstead 
 in safety, to their no small surprise and vexation. While 
 passing through the passage. Sir James inquired of the pilot 
 if he were sure of the marks, and was answered : " I am 
 quite sure, sir, for there is your house, and there is mine." 
 
 Major-General Small, the lieutenant-governor, who with 
 the garrison and inhabitants had witnessed this masterly es- 
 cape, issued a general order, highly laudatory of the prompti- 
 tude and skill displayed by the officers and men of the three 
 
 (1) The oyster banks to the southward and eastward of Castle Cornet were so broken 
 up by the anchors of the transports, which drove upon them, in a northerly gale, that 
 they were soon after dredged for a short time. 
 
 (2) Duncan, following James in his Naval History, erroneously says that the British 
 fell in with the French squadron " off the island of Jersey." 
 
384 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 ships, particularly of the Crescent, whose captain, it was add- 
 ed, was a native of the island, in sight of which he had evinced 
 so much presence of mind and nautical experience. 
 
 During the horrors of the French revolution, a vast num- 
 ber of royalists fled from their own country to escape the 
 deadly persecutions which threatened them, and not a few 
 found an asylum in these islands, where they were received 
 with hospitality and kindness, which several gratefully re- 
 turned, when in their power, after the restoration of the 
 Bourbons, in 1814. Many were men of noble family. 
 
 Sunday Drilling of the Militia. — From the Life of Wilberforce. 
 ** It was the natural consequence of his public character that 
 those who were in any difficulty, especially if it was connected 
 with religion, applied at once to him as the redresser of their 
 wrongs. The Sunday drilling, which had just been introduced 
 into the Channel Islands, was most offensive to the religious prin- 
 ciples of the Wesleyan Methodists; and their refusal to conform 
 to the appointment of the local government subjected them, in 
 many instances, to fine and imprisonment. They appealed to 
 Mr. Wilberforce, and, whilst still at Broomfield, he had seen 
 Mr. Dundas upon the subject, and procured the promise of his 
 interference in their cause. He now heard from Dr. Coke, that 
 not only were these oppressive measures still maintained, but that, 
 on the 18th of October, [1798,] at the States meeting of the isle 
 of Jersey, it was determined to proceed to banishment against 
 those who refused to perform this military duty. To appeal 
 against this bill he moved hastily to London ; and having reached 
 Broomfield on the 10th of November, *went on the 13th to town 
 on the methodist business,' but found that * neither Pitt nor 
 Dundas were come.' Within a few days, he convinced Mr, 
 Dundas of the injustice of such a needless violation of the rights 
 of conscience ; and after some delay succeeded in getting ' the 
 Jersey methodists' cause decided in their favour — * banishment 
 bill assent refused.'" 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1799, two divisions of Rus- 
 sian troops, which had been engaged, in conjunction with the 
 English, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie and the Duke of 
 York, in the ill-fated expedition to Holland, undertaken by 
 the British and Russian governments for the re-establishment 
 of the Prince of Orange, were landed in Guernsey and Jer- 
 sey ; the introduction of foreign troops into England being 
 prohibited by the Bill of Rights. The entire force was under 
 the command of General Viemenil, — a Frenchman, who, on 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 385 
 
 the restoration of the Bourbons, was created a field-marshal, — 
 and consisted of about 10,000 men, of whom 6,000 were quar- 
 tered in Guernsey, on Delancey Heights, part in the barracks 
 already erected there, and the remainder in temporary wooden 
 buildings. A disease, contracted by exposure to the marshy 
 grounds of Holland, and still hngering among them when 
 they arrived here, carried off some hundreds, who were buried 
 in a small enclosure at the foot of the hill on which stands 
 Vale castle, where their graves are still to be seen. Their 
 conduct towards the inhabitants was at first peaceable and 
 orderly, although they were excessively fond of ardent spirits; 
 and, having plenty of money, they indulged in them freely, 
 swallowing immense quantities in a raw state at one draught. 
 But previously to their embarkation, one of the soldiers was 
 committed for a rape, of which the evidence was, however, 
 insufficient to convict him ; and in June, 1800, while the 
 transports were in the roads to convey them to Russia, ano- 
 ther, who was stealing vegetables on a farm which had 
 frequently been plundered by them before, was fired at and 
 wounded by the proprietor. This so exasperated the whole 
 division, that fears were entertained of their revenging them- 
 selves on the inhabitants generally ; and as the British gar- 
 rison was very small, it required all the tact and conciliation 
 of the lieutenant-governor, Sir Hew Dairy mple, of Cintra 
 memory, to prevent an outbreak. The influence of their 
 general, Sedmoratzky, was also exerted to the same purpose, 
 and the troops embarked ; but the guns at Castle Cornet 
 were kept shotted to prevent their relanding.^ 
 
 The Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III., being on 
 an aquatic excursion, landed in Guernsey in 1765, and was 
 hospitably entertained by Mr. Matthew Saumarez,^ father of 
 the first Lord de Saumarez, at his large house, near the 
 Plaiderie. The duke's son, bearing the same title, also visited 
 the island in September, 1817, in the Tigris frigate, from 
 Weymouth, and remained a few days, being received with 
 every mark of loyalty. At either period, the visit of the 
 sovereign was as little anticipated as that of a steam vessel. 
 
 (1) The anniversary of the Emperor Paul's birth occurring whilst they were here, 
 they celebrated it with great pomp, the officers giving a grand ball in honour of the day, 
 to which the principal inhabitants and the English officers in the garrison were invited. 
 The ball was given at the assembly rooms, which were splendidly and fantastically deco- 
 rated, whilst the market place, and the avenues to it, were, as if by magic, transformed 
 into a beautiful parterre, the walks of which were thickly strewed with fine sand : the 
 whole, being brilliantly illuminated at night, had a very imposing and pleasing appearance. 
 
 (2) Mr. Saumarez, and several other passengers, were drowned in March, 1778, on their 
 passage from Guernsey to Weymouth ; the vessel having been upset in a squall near Port- 
 land, and only one boy saved. 
 
 2b 
 
386 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 GEORaE III.— 1760 to 1820. (Concluded.) 
 
 In the year 1800, Mr. Stiles was sent over to Guernsey by 
 the British government, in the capacity of commissioner, with 
 a view to the suppression of the ilHcit trade, which was then 
 very extensively carried on from Guernsey and Alderney 
 with England and Ireland, and had been more or less so 
 for about a century. On the 15th of December, the royal 
 court replied to several interrogatories submitted to that body 
 by Mr. Stiles, and the answers are so descriptive of the state 
 of the island at that time that we give them entire : 
 
 ** First Question. — What is supposed to be the number of inha- 
 bitants of this island, exclusive of strangers? 
 
 ** Answer. — Upon an exact census, the number in each parish 
 is found to be : 
 
 St. Peter-Port 8,450 
 
 St. Mary De Castro . 1,453 
 
 St. Martin 1,132 
 
 St. Pierre-du-Bois.. 1,130 
 St. Saviour 933 
 
 Vale 842 
 
 St. Andrew 675 
 
 St. Sampson 652 
 
 Forest 552 
 
 Torteval 336 
 
 Total population, 16,155, exclusive of sailors in his majesty's 
 service, privateers, and merchant vessels ; also of strangers not 
 permanently settled, who may amount to 2,000 or 3,000. 
 
 " Second Question. — What number does the militia consist of, 
 and at what age are they required to bear arms, and what duty 
 do they perform ? 
 
 " Answer. — The militia consists, according to the last estimate, 
 of 3,158 men, and 455 lads' from fourteen to sixteen years of age, 
 which is the age at which they begin to be trained ; and the duty 
 performed by the militia is to keep watch at different posts round 
 the island, and to be ready to attend with their arms and accou- 
 trements at any rendezvous assigned to them by the commander- 
 in-chief and their officers, to be disciplined and reviewed, and on 
 any sijjnal of alarm. 
 
 " Third Question. — What foreign trade is in general carried 
 on to, and from, the island, and how has the war affected it? 
 
 " Answer. — The foreign trade carried on by the inhabitants is 
 in the importation of wines, brandy, and fruits from France, 
 Spain, Portugal, Madeira, and Italy ; rum from the West Indies; 
 tobacco and grain from America ; and fish from Newfoundland. 
 
 (1) These numbers are either an error in the copy or a gross exaggeration. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 387 
 
 The exportation is in such brandies and wines to America, Quebec, 
 and the West Indies ; laro^e quantities of these liquors are intended 
 to be exported to Great Britain and Ireland ; the tobacco is des- 
 tined for Hamburg, Embden, and the Baltic, exclusive of what 
 is sold to smugglers. We subjoin the exact particulars of such 
 trade. Many brandies are exported to Madeira and America. 
 At the first place they are bartered for wines, which are carried 
 to the West India Islands, and again bartered for rum and other 
 produce, which is sometimes carried to Quebec in exchange for 
 provisions to be carried to Newfoundland, and there bartered for 
 fish, which is shipped to Portugal and the Mediterranean, whither 
 we also export cargoes of pilchards from Cornwall, for account of 
 the inhabitants who have large concerns in that fishery ; the 
 brandies carried to America are bartered for corn, rice, and 
 staves, and brought hither. Several assorted cargoes, and espe- 
 cially prize wines, are annually exported direct to the West India 
 Islands, where they have entry, and some to those islands which 
 only admit those goods from England, where they are accordingly 
 first landed, and also to Quebec, and there they are bartered for 
 wheat and flour, which are imported into this island, or for pro 
 visions which are carried to Newfoundland, and there bartered 
 for fish for the above named markets, or these islands. 
 
 " But a great part of our trade consists in the deposit of jLroods 
 brought hither, to be regularly re-imported into Great Britain 
 and Ireland, from France, Spain, and Portugal ; this occupies 
 our warehouses, built at great expense, and gives bread to coopers 
 and labourers, and freight to many of our own and British vessels 
 in the legal transportation of such goods to all parts of the United 
 Kingdom ; and the freights paid here for the goods are a consi- 
 derable source of circulation and benefit to the island, as it is 
 calculated that above one quarter part of the amount of such 
 freight is paid in the island in wages to the crews, and in provi- 
 sions, repairs, and necessaries for the vessels, and otherwise laid 
 out here in the purchase of different articles, most of which are of 
 British manufacture. We also beg leave to observe, that many 
 of the tobaccos brought hither are purchased by such masters of 
 neutral ships, as adventures, when bound to their own country, 
 besides what is bought here by the crews. And, in the year 
 before the war, the quantity of manufactured tobacco brought 
 hither by the French amounted to above £150,000, which they 
 smuggled back into Normandy and Britany. In this manufac- 
 ture, many indigent boys and girls are employed. 
 
 "The whole of this deposit trade facilitates the operations of 
 the fair trader in the United Kingdom, as the merchants order 
 their goods by parcels as they want them, and for such ports as 
 may be most advantageous. But Hamburg has, during the 
 whole year, carried away about one half of the deposit trade of 
 
388 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 brandies designed to be re-imported intoGreat Britain, and wbich 
 might be limited to this island instead of throwing the profit to 
 foreigners, and indeed to the advantage of the mother country* 
 as it would keep considerable sums at home, favour the rate of 
 exchange with the continent, and not leave British property ex- 
 posed to the chance of events, and to sequestration and confisca- 
 tion in foreign ports. The quantity of goods, however, exported 
 from this island must, in a great measure, be known to you, and 
 it must be very considerable, as the three undersigned have alone 
 shipped, since the 1st of October, 3,325 pipes, and 983 hogsheads 
 of brandy and wine, and the war has generally increased the 
 several branches of trade. 
 
 '^ Fo2trth and Fifth Questions. — What jiumber of privateers 
 have been fitted out this war, and what is the number at present ? 
 What number of persons have been generally employed in such 
 privateers ? 
 
 ^''Answer. — There have been thirty-five fitted out this war, 
 carrying 250 guns and 1,716 men, and there are at present twelve 
 privateers, carrying 148 guns and 670 men ; but had the salvage 
 been one half, there would have been double that number, for the 
 French having had little or no trade this war, the only encourage- 
 ment has been the chance of recaptures, and of prizes from the 
 Spaniards ; and the value of our captures, which last war ex- 
 ceeded £900,000, has not been probably miK^h less this war, 
 without, however, enrichfng the inhabitants in the same propor- 
 tion, because a great part of the value consists in recaptures, and 
 the expense of privateers is more considerable. We have also, 
 since your departure, been particularly indebted to our privateers 
 for sending in three prizes with 500 tons of Spanish wheat, which 
 has preserved us, we really believe, from a state of scarcity, 
 which, without that supply, would have bordered upon famine. 
 
 " Sixth Question. — What manufactures are carried on in the 
 island ? 
 
 " Answer. — The knitting of stockings, waistcoats, &c., for 
 which 2,000 tods of wool are allowed to be exported from Eng- 
 land ; and some English persons have lately erected a glass house, 
 intended chiefly for the blowing of bottles, and where the fire is 
 also applied to the making of salt. Another manufactory for 
 salt has been set up and substituted for our ancient salt pans, 
 since when other ancient and very extensive salt pans have been 
 converted into arable fields, and been sown this year for the first 
 time with corn. There are also several manufactories of tobacco 
 for the consumption of the island, part of which is also sold to the 
 masters and crews of neutral vessels, as well as to the smugglers, 
 
 "We cannot conclude without observing, that if ten to twelve 
 thousand guineas are every week carried by smugglers to the 
 continent, of which there is no doubt, it is so far from being the 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 389 
 
 case here, that money is, and has been so scarce for a lonoj time, 
 that g*overnment has paid a premium of 2J and 3| per cent, for cash 
 to pay the garrison. The merchants and tradesmen do the same. 
 (Signed) *' Robert Poruet Le Marchant, Bailiff, 
 
 ** Daniel De Lisle Brock. 
 
 " William Le Marchant." 
 The illicit trade was not effectually suppressed until the 
 year 1805, when the " act for the better prevention of smug- 
 gling" was extended to these islands by the British legislature. 
 Previous to its suppression, this trade was carried on in cut- 
 ters and luggers of from 80 to 130 tons register, built at 
 Hastings, Mevagissey, Polperro, and other English ports, 
 and the greater part were owned in England, as the inha- 
 bitants confined themselves chiefly to the sale of goods to the 
 smugglers ; and, on the outbreak of a war, either purchased 
 these vessels, or fitted out their own as privateers, for which 
 they were admirably adapted. The smuggling crews were 
 almost entirely English, well acquainted with their own and 
 the Irish coast, and almost every man of whom was the heau- 
 ideal of a British sailor : active, daring, and prodigal of their 
 dangerous gains, they forgot, in the pleasures of the day, the 
 risks of the morrow, the favourite season for their vocation 
 being the winter. As the simplicity and morality of the island- 
 ers at and after that stirring period were remarkable, it will 
 naturally excite surprise how either could exist in, or in the 
 neighbourhood of, a sea port which was long frequented by 
 the crews of smugglers and privateers ; and yet it is an un- 
 doubted fact that both existed in a higher degree than at this 
 moment. We can only account for the apparent anomaly by 
 attributing the cause to the greater prevalence of the French 
 language among the lower classes, which prevented their 
 having much social intercourse with the stranger seamen. 
 It should also be remembered that the mass of the inhabit- 
 ants, especially those living in the country, had no partici- 
 pation or interest whatever in the illicit trade. 
 
 On the renewal of hostilities between Great Britain and 
 France, in 1803, Lieutenant- General Sir John Doyle was 
 appointed to the then responsible situation of lieutenant-gover- 
 nor of Guernsey. He at once proceeded, with a zeal which 
 nothing could check, to place the island in a complete state 
 of defence. Breastworks were raised round the coast, bat- 
 teries were erected in every bay, the citadel of Fort George 
 was strengthened, and the insular militia was brought to a 
 
390 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 state of discipline and perfection which it had never yet at- 
 tained. A tract of land containing about 300 English acres, 
 known as the Braye du Valle, which was overflowed by the 
 sea at high water, was recovered in 1803 from its dominion, 
 at the expense of government ; and although at first, to all 
 appearance, little better than a bed of sand, yet when publicly 
 disposed of by order of the crown, it produced no less than 
 £5,000 ; and by draining and judicious husbandry, corn now 
 grows, cattle graze, and many farm houses stand, where, at 
 the commencement of this century, rolled the billows of the 
 Atlantic. This, however, was not the only benefit conferred 
 on the island during the long administration of this excellent 
 officer and good man, whose memory is justly dear to the 
 islanders. At his intercession, the money obtained from the 
 sale of the Braye du Valle was devoted by government to 
 the formation of new roads, one of the greatest boons ever 
 conferred on Guernsey — a measure which encountered the 
 most ignorant opposition, especially from those most bene- 
 fitted, (the country people,) and was only carried by a rare 
 combination of tact and perseverance in the character of 
 Sir John Doyle. These new roads were commenced in 
 1810, and the two first constructed were, one from St. Peter- 
 Port to Vazon, by the Rohais, La Houguette, &:c. ; and the 
 other from the town to Le Ree, by St. Martin's, the Forest, 
 Plaisance, &:c. The length of these two roads was about 
 eleven miles, and the estimated cost was £8,773. By an 
 order in council, dated August 15, 1810, Sir John Doyle 
 was authorized to draw bills on the treasury for a sum not 
 exceeding £5,000, to be applied to the completion of the 
 new military roads leading to Vazon and Le Ree. 
 
 In the spring of 1803, it was apprehended that Napoleon 
 Bonaparte had a design on these islands, in consequence of 
 the great preparations making at St. Malo ; and Rear-Admi- 
 ral Sir James Saumarez, Bart, and K.B., was appointed to 
 the command of the naval station, of which Guernsey was 
 the rendezvous, on account of its roadstead : the squadron 
 consisted of six frigates and six brigs and cutters, which were 
 chiefly employed in blockading the French coast between 
 Havre de Grace and Ushant, and especially in watching 
 Cherbourg, Granville, and St. Malo. In July, the Minervey 
 46-gun frigate, Captain Jahleel Brenton, one of the squadron 
 stationed off Cherbourg, got aground in a fog within reach of 
 the batteries, and after a protracted resistance, during which 
 eleven men were killed and sixteen wounded, was compelled 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 391 
 
 to surrender. A considerable flotilla of gun vessels having 
 assembled at Granville, Sir James Saumarez proceeded thither 
 in September, in the Cerberus, 32, with the Charwell, 18, 
 Captain Philip Dumaresq; Kite, 18, Captain Philip Pipon ; 
 (both captains, natives of Jersey;) the Sulphur and Terror, 
 bombs, and the Eling and Carteret, cutters. On the 14th 
 and 15th, the town and port were bombarded for several 
 hours with shells, the fire of the ships being returned by the 
 batteries on the heights and the gun vessels at the entrance 
 of the pier. The enemy's flotilla is said to have been much 
 damaged ; but, although Sir James, before commencing the 
 bombardment, humanely sent a flag of truce to announce it 
 to the commandant, with a request that he would remove the 
 women and children, yet the inoffensive inhabitants appear to 
 have been the principal sufferers, if not in life, at least in pro- 
 perty. Such is generally the case, and assuredly this mode 
 of warfare is abhorrent both to religion and humanity. The 
 flotilla at Granville was intended for Boulogne; and, being 
 delayed in going to the latter port until late in the year, owing 
 it is said to the damage received in the bombardment, many 
 are stated to have been lost in a storm in and near the Race 
 of Alderney. — In December, the Shannon was wrecked in 
 a gale, under the batteries of Cape La Hague, and the Grap- 
 pler was lost at Chausey, the crews of both vessels, which 
 belonged to the squadron, being made prisoners. 
 
 The successes of the French revolutionary armies on the 
 continent, together with the threats of an invasion of England 
 itself, excited apprehension in the minds of the British go- 
 vernment for the safety of the Anglo-Norman Islands, and 
 their garrisons were gradually augmented until about the 
 year 1805, when that for Guernsey was definitively fixed at 
 4,000 infantry, and one company of artillery. For their 
 accommodation, barracks were successively erected at Am- 
 herst, near the New Ground, Delancey Heights, Lancresse 
 Common, Le Ree, Richmond, Grand Rocque, and Jerbourg. 
 Martello towers were also built to protect the principal land- 
 ing places, and remain now as monuments of the ignorance 
 of the art of military engineering at that day, the wide part 
 of the loop-holes being outside instead of in, so as to give 
 every possible facility to the enemy to throw in his shots. 
 
 In 1809, the Duke of Brunswick Oels, son of the ill-fated 
 Duke of Brunswick, who was mortally wounded at the battle 
 of Jena, in 1806, arrived in Guernsey with part of his corps 
 of " Sable Yagers," their chief having been abandoned by 
 
392 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Austria, when she succumbed to Napoleon, and compelled to 
 escape from the continent. Their uniform was black, in 
 memory of his father's death, to revenge whose misfortunes 
 and ill-treatment was the determined purpose of the son, so 
 that the lace of the cavalry, and that of the officers of the 
 infantry, was disposed like the ribs of a skeleton, and the 
 chakoes of both cavalry and infantry bore on the front a 
 death's head, with the cross bones underneath. These troops 
 were stationed at Delancey barracks, and the duke himself 
 resided here some time. He is known to have repeatedly 
 remarked, that he never had met with a people who appeared 
 so happy and contented as those of Guernsey ; and it is stated 
 that, shortly before the battle of Waterloo, where he gallantly 
 fell, he intimated his intention of revisiting the island. 
 
 Cromlech at VAncresse, — In the year 1811, a large crom- 
 lech was accidentally discovered, completely buried by the 
 drift sand, on an eminence near the beach at I'Ancresse, in 
 Guernsey : it is 45 feet in length by 15 feet in width, and 
 nearly 8 feet in height within the area at the western end, 
 whence it gradually contracts on each side and at the top, 
 towards the eastern end. This space is covered by five larger 
 and two smaller blocks of granite, which are not in contact : 
 the western block is computed to weigh about thirty tons, it 
 being nearly 17 feet long, 10| wide, and 4 J thick ; and it 
 was probably placed there by means of rollers. The second 
 block is 16 feet long, the third smaller, and so they gradually 
 diminish to the seventh. This fine cromlech was left filled 
 and most imperfectly explored until the year 1837, when, 
 after considerable labour, it was cleared of sand, and its 
 primaeval contents exposed, at the expense and through the 
 antiquarian zeal of F. C. Lukis, Esq., before mentioned. 
 On the floor were then found two layers consisting of human 
 bones, urns of coarse red and black clay, stone and clay 
 amulets and beads, bone pins, (fee, the layers, like those of 
 cists, being separated by flat fragments of granite : the lower 
 stratum was laid on a rude pavement on the natural soil. 
 The remains were deposited in a singular manner : the un- 
 burnt bones occupied either end of the floor, the middle third 
 being allotted to those which had been submitted to the ac- 
 tion of fire ; not a vestige of charcoal was to be detected 
 with them. The bones of individual skeletons were heaped 
 together confusedly, and each heap surrounded by a small 
 ring of round flat pebbles ; the urns, which were of remark- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 393 
 
 ably rude shape and material, being near or within the rings. 
 Some heaps consisted, as it were, of parents' and children's 
 ashes mingled together, for within the same ring of pebbles 
 were the bones of persons of all ages : an unusual quantity of 
 bones of very young children were found. The lower stratum 
 only contained the burnt bones, among which hkewise a few 
 tusks of the boar, perhaps worn as trophies of the chase, and 
 consigned to the lire with the hunter's dead body. Four 
 flat discs, from six to twelve inches in diameter and one in 
 thickness, and formed of the same ware as the urns, were also 
 found, and doubtless served as lids to some of the urns, which 
 had broad flat edges : as these lids are furnished with central 
 handles, it may be inferred that the urns were replenished 
 from time to time, the cromlech being a hollow vault or cata- 
 comb. In no instance was the urn used to contain the ashes 
 of the dead, and it was doubtless filled with liquid or food at 
 the time of sepulture : about 150 urns were removed from this 
 cromlech — some were quite entire, and of those broken many 
 have been restored. As time and ages elapsed, and, possibly, 
 as all memory of the departed became lost, their remains 
 were removed to make room for others ; those so removed 
 were placed in the intervals between the props, and were lost 
 to sight ; but further space being again required, many cart 
 loads of limpet shells, and a little yellow clay, were strewn 
 upon the original deposit ; and flat stones, as already said, 
 were placed over all to form a new floor.^ 
 
 During the reign of George III., two natives of the baili- 
 wick, Peter Perchard and Paul Le Mesurier, were lord 
 mayors of London, and the latter was also member of parlia- 
 ment for Southwark. — Another native, Peter Carey Tupper, 
 British consul for Valencia and member of the supreme junta 
 of that kingdom before he was twenty-four years of age,^ 
 highly distinguished himself during the war in Spain, from 
 1808 to 1814, and is honorably mentioned in Napier's history 
 and in the Duke of Wellington's despatches.-'' — It is also cre- 
 ditable to the mihtary character of the little island of Guern- 
 sey, that of the five British generals killed in action in 1812, 
 two, whose names follow in the obituary of the Annual Army 
 
 (1) "Observations on the Celtic Megaliths, by ,F, C. Lukis, M.D.," Arch^ologia, 
 vol. XXXV., accompanied by sketches of the exterior and interior of this great cromlech. 
 
 (2) Born in June, 1784, and died at Madrid in 1825, aged forty. 
 
 (3) We have perused a volume in MS. of Mr. Tupper's despatches to the different British 
 authorities in England and Spain, descriptive of the war on the eastern coast of the Penin- 
 sula : a selection of these despatches would well repay publication, as many are very 
 interesting.— Marshal Suchet, in his Mdmoires, makes mention of Mr. Tupper's exertions. 
 
394 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 List for 1813, were Major-General LeMarchant, 6th dragoon 
 
 fuards, at the battle of Salamanca, and Major-General Sir 
 saac Brock, K.B., 49th foot, in America.^ And yet, ante- 
 rior to the year 1775, very few of the natives entered either 
 the army or the navy, probably from want of interest, and 
 subsequently also from finding sufficient occupation at home ; 
 thus the first Guernseymen who attained the rank of general 
 and admiral respectively were John Tupper, created a major- 
 general October 12, 1793, and the late Lord de Saumarez, 
 created a rear-admiral of the blue January 1, 1801. — Peter 
 Paul Dobree, another native of Guernsey, succeeded Dr. 
 Monk, late bishop of Gloucester, as regius professor of Greek 
 at Cambridge, in 1823 : an office which, he used to mention 
 with pride, had been held by another native, the learned Dr. 
 Duport. While on this subject, we may add that a Guern- 
 seyman, the Rev. Dr. J. A. Jeremie, was appointed regius 
 professor of divinity at Cambridge in 1 850. The island had 
 previously given a professor to the university of Oxford, 
 Dr. William de Beauvoir, of Pembroke College, who was 
 elected professor of medicine in 1729, and died the year fol- 
 lowing. In his funeral sermon, the preacher observed that, 
 " like the beautiful lily of his native island, he had flourished 
 among them but one year." 
 
 In 1813, the bailiff, Mr. (afterwards Sir Peter) de Havil- 
 land, presented a petition to the Prince Regent in council, 
 praying that he and the crown law officers of Guernsey might 
 be allowed the same salaries as those, holding similar appoint- 
 ments in Jersey, had received since the year 1797, the con- 
 stitutions, laws, and usages of the two islands being the same. 
 In support of this claim, Mr. de Havilland stated, among 
 other allegations, that the salary of the baihff in 1331 was 
 thirty livres tournois, while that of the governor was two 
 hundred livres tournois, both per annum : that the said salary 
 of thirty livres was recorded in 1439, and that it had ever 
 since continued at the same amount. This petition was ac- 
 cordingly granted, the salaries being for the bailiff" £300, the 
 procureur £100, the comptroller £50, and the greffier £40 
 per annum, to commence on the 1st of January, 1814, and to 
 be paid out of the crown revenues of the islancl. In Septem- 
 ber, 1813, the royal court assembled to consider the order 
 in council, and the Jurats unanimously resolved to petition 
 
 (1) The other officers were Major-G«nerals Bowes, Craufurd, and McKlnnoo, who all 
 fell in Spain. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 395 
 
 against that part of it which gave a salary of £300 a year to 
 the bailiff; but their petition was rejected, and very properly, 
 although the bailiff, being removeable at pleasure, is perhaps 
 not sufficiently independent of the crown. In Jersey, the 
 fees of the bailiff are so much higher and more numerous, 
 that the appointment is said to produce £800 per annum, 
 while in Guernsey it is now scarcely worth £400 a year ; and, 
 with the very onerous duties attached to the office, which 
 requires much talent and labour, and a competent knowledge 
 of at least two languages, (French and English,) there is no 
 judicial functionary in the British dominions who is so under- 
 paid as the bailiff of Guernsey.^ The salary of the procureur, 
 or attorney-general, has since been raised to £200, there being 
 now no comptroller, and that of the greffier to £60 per annum. 
 
 A principle of the highest constitutional importance was 
 decided by the privy council, in 1813, in consequence of the 
 royal court having attempted to levy taxes on the parishioners 
 of St. Peter -Port without their consent. On the 1st of 
 November, 1810, that body, which has contrived to concen- 
 trate within itself nearly all the insular government — being 
 ever omniscient, (?) and, hke Aaron's rod, ever omnivorous — 
 passed an ordinance, by which great alterations, at the esti- 
 mated cost of about £1,500, were to be effected in Cornet 
 street, and the constables were ordered to advance the neces- 
 sary sums, to be afterwards repaid to the parish, wholly or in 
 part, by lotteries. In March ensuing, a parish meeting was 
 held to consider the ordinance, when the constables were 
 expressly enjoined not to advance the parochial funds for 
 any work whatever, without the previous consent of the 
 parishioners ; and the constables and douzeniers were more- 
 over authorized to defend the parish rights, in the event of 
 coercive measures being adopted by the royal court, which 
 did not now attempt to enforce its ordinance : it was suffered 
 to lie dormant, but was not rescinded. 
 
 In August and September, 1811, the royal court endea- 
 voured to compass its object by indirect means, as it ordered 
 the constables to advance the necessary sums for paving the 
 Truchot and for work in Pedvin street. Another parish 
 meeting was convened, when the decision of that in March 
 was confirmed ; and as both constables obeyed their consti- 
 
 (1) The present bailiflf, Mr. P. Stafford Carey, is the first English barrister who has 
 held the appointment, having been previously recorder of Dartmouth and judge of the 
 borough court of Wells; so that his object in seeking it must have been not emolument, but 
 a desire to be the chief magistrate of an island in which his ancestors had been settled, and 
 filled the chief offices for many centuries. 
 
396 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 tuents, they were charged with disobedience by the royal 
 court, which arbitrarily imprisoned them in the public gaol ! 
 
 The whole question was then submitted to council, and its 
 decision was in favor of the parishioners, it being clearly 
 shewn that although the court could order repairs to be 
 made, it could not originate any new work, and that it was 
 not empowered to levy money on the inhabitants, by States 
 or parochial tax, without their consent. The following ex- 
 tract from the order in council, dated August 28, 1580, was 
 adduced as decisive of the point : " Whereas they (the inha- 
 bitants) complain that there is a greater tax laid upon them 
 by the bailift' and jurats for the tenth of their calves, pullets 
 and lambs, than in former times it has been accustomed ; it is 
 ordered that the said taxations, laid upon the inhabitants in lieu 
 of tithes, shall be propounded to the generality, as in like 
 cases has been accustomed, and after the same being by them 
 allowed, her majesty shall be moved to yield confirmation." 
 
 In the year 1813, the sea, which had in early times swal- 
 lowed up large tracts of land, threatened, from the defective 
 state of the coast defences, to overflow the low lands on the 
 western side of the island ; and the sum required to avert the 
 danger was estimated at above £10,000, which the country 
 parishes, subject to this charge, were unable to raise. The 
 finances of the States were also in a very depressed condition, 
 as, with a debt of £19,137, and an annual charge for interest 
 and ordinary expenses of £2,390, the entire revenue, arising 
 from the harbour dues, publicans' licenses, &c., was only 
 £3,000 a year, thus leaving only £610 for unforeseen outlays 
 and improvements. It must moreover be remembered, that 
 antecedently to the new roads first undertaken by Sir John 
 Doyle, in 1810, very little had been done in the way of im- 
 provement ; the island being, as we have shewn, comparatively 
 in a state of nature. Under these disadvantages it was re- 
 solved to introduce indirect taxation, and on a petition from 
 the States, that body was authoriz(?d by an order in council, 
 bearing date July 23, 1814, to raise one shilling per gallon 
 on all spirituous liquors consumed in the island for the term 
 of five years. It is only to be regretted that this impost had 
 not been levied fifty years earlier, as, with the large garrison 
 and squadron, it would have produced in that period some 
 £300,000, a sum which, if properly expended, while felt by 
 no one, would have effected incalculable good. The average 
 receipts of the impot during the first five years — 1815 to 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 397 
 
 1819, inclusive — were only £2,278 a year, owing probably 
 to the quantity in store in 1814 not being correctly given ; as, 
 since 1820, the amount received has frequently exceeded 
 £6,000 a year. In 1850, it was £5,861. 1 Is. 7d. In Decem- 
 ber, 1851, the dues for the construction of the new piers were 
 iirst levied, chiefly as follows, viz. six pence per gallon on 
 wine, six pence per ton on shipping, and one shilling per ton 
 on goods, coals, &:c. 
 
 In the spring of 1814, the war between England and 
 France ceased — a war which, with one short intermission, 
 had continued since 1793, or for eighteen years ; but the 
 peace only dates from 1815, when the crowning victory of 
 Waterloo sent Napoleon a captive to St. Helena. The peo- 
 ple of Guernsey had been so long strangers to repose that 
 they hailed its return with unbounded joy, as we well remem- 
 ber, little foreseeing that the artificial prosperity, which the 
 war had engendered, would cease, and be the ruin of many 
 who had calculated on its continuance. Although provisions 
 were enormously dear ; flour varying from £5 to £7. 10s. 
 the sack of 2J English cwt. nett ; meat being at Is. to Is. '3d., 
 and butter at 2s. 3d. to 2s. 9d. the pound,' and other articles 
 in proportion, yet war prices were accompanied by more than 
 corresponding profits. The farmer was eminently prosper- 
 ous, and the mechanic and labourer obtained constant and 
 remunerating employment. The merchants were generally 
 successful ; and, as their capital increased, became more con- 
 fident and enterprising. A large local trade was created by 
 the supply of the garrison, which usually consisted of about 
 four thousand men, with two general officers and a numerous 
 staff", and of the squadron, composed occasionally of some 
 twenty pendants, under a rear-admiral, who resided in St. 
 Peter-Port, and had his flag flying in the roadstead. Even 
 Alderney was governed by a general officer, and garrisoned 
 by a whole regiment. The upper ranks in Guernsey exer- 
 cised a liberal but simple hospitality, and maintained a con- 
 stant social intercourse with the officers of either service. 
 The assembly rooms, opened twice a week, were crowded, 
 and the theatre was every winter often filled almost to suffo- 
 cation. In many of the streets were nightly heard sounds of 
 music and dancing issuing forth from the various public 
 houses, and the labour of the working classes was sweetened 
 by these and similar enjoyments. Indeed, the welfare was 
 
 (1) These prices were, moreover, nearly 10 per cent, higher than at present, because 
 there was a premium of about 5 per cent, on cash instead of one on bills on London, 
 varying of late years from 34 to 5 per cent. 
 
398 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 general, and there was little local want or poverty to repress 
 this exhilarating state of existence. The sudden change 
 caused by the peace will be described in Chapter XXIII. 
 
 In March, 1818, Captain N. Dobree, R.N., a very fine 
 young man, and nephew of the late Admiral Lord de Sau- 
 marez, was drowned, with three other natives of the Catel 
 parish, in gallantly attempting to save the crew of a foreign 
 vessel, wrecked on the rocks in front of Cobo bay. 
 
 Having already said that in 1775 no government packet 
 came to Guernsey, we cannot better close the reign of George 
 III. than by shewing at a rapid glance the mode of commu- 
 nication with England during his time, and four years after- 
 wards. The first packet established by government between 
 England and these islands was in 1778 : she was a cutter, 
 which, soon after the war broke out with France, was re- 
 moved from the station between Dover and Calais, and plied 
 as often as practicable from Southampton ; but when peace 
 took place in 1783, she returned to her former station. Ante- 
 cedently and subsequently, letters for the islands were ad- 
 dressed to the care of agents at Southampton, who paid the 
 postage, and forwarded them by the traders — small sloops 
 of some fifty tons, and for the sailing of which from South- 
 ampton passengers were often detained there a week or more, 
 especially during strong contrary winds. And even while 
 the packet ran, the letters were sent by her in the same man- 
 ner through the agents, as neither Jersey nor Guernsey had 
 a regular post-oflSce. During the two wars with France, 
 commencing in 1778 and 1793, the Southampton traders 
 frequently came under convoy ; and the dilatoriness and 
 uncertainty of the intercourse, both for correspondence and 
 passengers, will be apparent from the circumstance that a 
 
 fentleman, not long deceased, was nearly three months on 
 is passage from Southampton to Guernsey, in the summer 
 of 1793. The trader in which he embarked reached Cowes 
 in a few hours, and the next day was joined by the convoy 
 from Portsmouth. They weighed anchor and sailed several 
 times, but never got beyond Yarmouth, being baflfled by 
 contrary winds and calms. At length a fair wind came, and 
 they reached Guernsey, to the great relief of the passengers. 
 In 1794, two post-office packets, both cutters of about 
 eighty tons, commenced running weekly from Weymouth to 
 Guernsey and Jersey : they sailed alternately on the Saturday 
 / 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 399 
 
 evening, and, with a fair wind, reached Guernsey the next 
 morning.. In 1811, a third cutter was added, and from that 
 time until 1827 the packets pHed twice a week, leaving Wey- 
 mouth on the Wednesday and Saturday evenings. They 
 were frequently from thirty-six to forty-eight hours reaching 
 Guernsey, sometimes twenty -four hours from Guernsey to 
 Jersey, and in winter the reception of two or three mails by 
 the same packet was no uncommon occurrence. The Ches- 
 terfield, packet, on her passage from Weymouth, was captured 
 by a French privateer, about the year 1811, and carried into 
 Cherbourg, with some of her crew and passengers killed and 
 wounded. The cutter. Sir Francis Freeling, is supposed to 
 have foundered in a violent gale, in September, 1826, on her 
 passage from Weymouth, to Guernsey. — The author of this 
 history was very glad to get back to Weymouth, in Christmas 
 week, 1810, on his return from school, after being out fifty- 
 four hours, and drenched in his berth, the packet having 
 shipped a sea off the Caskets, which filled her cabin, swept 
 her decks, and carried away her two boats, bulwarks, &c. 
 Had the packet been a steamer, she would have arrived in 
 Jersey several hours before the terrific gale commenced 
 
 During the greater part of the war with France, from 
 1803 to 1814, the communication between Southampton and 
 Guernsey was maintained chiefly by three cutters of about 
 eighty tons each, which had no fixed days for sailing, but 
 crossed as often as their cargoes and the winds permitted. 
 These cutters ran the whole war without loss or capture, 
 excepting one, the Brilliant, which was taken by an American 
 privateer and dispatched for Cherbourg ; but the prize mas- 
 ter, mistaking Alderney for the French coast, gave charge of 
 the helm to a seaman of the Brilliant, who wisely kept up the 
 deception, and steered the cutter into the harbour of Alder- 
 ney, where she was immediately recaptured. A passenger 
 never embarked in these traders without a bottle or two of 
 wine and a basket of provisions, as the passage frequently 
 extended to two days and nights, and often longer, sometimes 
 to five and six days : he was considered fortunate if he were 
 not more than thirty hours at sea. 
 
 GEOEaE lY.— ]820 to 1830. 
 
 In 1820, a petition was presented to the bailiff, Sir Peter 
 de Havilland, requesting the States to impose dues on all 
 French vessels arriving in Guernsey, equal to those paid by 
 English vessels in France. That magistrate refused to sub- 
 
400 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 mit this request to the States ; and in 1824 the application 
 was renewed, the bailiff then being Daniel De Lisle Brock. 
 The petitioners represented that antecedently, in time of 
 peace, the trade between the island and the neighbouring 
 coasts of France was carried on by Guernsey vessels, but then 
 it was the reverse, French vessels reaping all the advan- 
 tage of the traffic ; that some years before, the States of 
 Jersey, with the sanction of the king in council, had adopted 
 the law proposed ; and further, that parliament had passed 
 an act, authorizing the levy of duties on all foreign vessels 
 arriving in Great Britain and Ireland, proportioned to those 
 which English vessels paid in such foreign countries. It 
 appeared that in France English vessels paid 3s. 6d. per ton. 
 Mr. Brock, in his answer, strongly advised the petitioners to 
 abandon their object, but promised to submit their petition to 
 the States, should they persist in it. He shewed the folly of 
 instituting any comparison between a large country like 
 France and a small island like Guernsey, whose prosperity 
 was dependant on free trade. He said that, far from follow- 
 ing the example recommended, he hoped that the island 
 never would know prohibitory duties and fiscal restrictions ; 
 and he humorously added, in allusion to a remark that 
 Guernsey ought to follow the example of all civilized coun- 
 tries, that it reminded him of the traveller, who, seeing 
 a man hanging on a gallows, congratulated himself on 
 having reached a civilized country. He explained that the 
 proposed duties would prevent vessels from coming to the 
 island to land or dispose of part of their cargoes, and that the 
 ruin of the entrepot trade would be the consequence. These 
 arguments, however, produced no effect on the country dou- 
 zaines : they persisted in their demands, which were, in fact, 
 an indirect attempt to exclude French provisions ; and on 
 their petition being submitted to the States, it was very pro- 
 perly negatived. The good policy of this rejection will be 
 apparent from the fact, that the French vessels, which carried 
 on the trade for a few years after the peace, have long since 
 been driven out of it by Guernsey vessels, the weekly sup- 
 plies from St. Malo bemg now received by two Guernsey 
 cutters, to which the French people themselves give a prefer- 
 ence ; and, moreover, that EngHsh statesmen, with a truer 
 idea of the advantages of free trade, have removed many 
 of the clogs on foreign commerce and shipping in England. 
 
 In November, 1825, the Greek brig of war Cimoni, on her 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 401 
 
 return from England to Greece, was wrecked on Alderney, 
 whence the crew was conveyed to Guernsey. The nature of 
 their reception will be seen by the following letter from 
 Captain Miaulis, son of the celebrated Greek admiral of that 
 name, to the Greek deputies in London : 
 
 [Translated from the GreekJ] 
 
 "Gentlemen, — Being on the point of quitting England, I con- 
 sider myself obliged by duty to express the sincere gratitude I, 
 my officers, and crew, entertain towards the inhabitants of Guern- 
 sey in general, and particularly towards the lieutenant-governor, 
 Sir John Colborne,^ and the family of Mr. Tupper,^ resident in 
 that island, for their most generous and benevolent conduct 
 towards us. 
 
 " If any thing can possibly alleviate the misfortunes of those 
 who are shipwrecked on a foreign coast, far from their native 
 country, unacquainted with the language of the people among 
 whom chance has thrown them, it is the meeting with men of 
 liberality and humanity. Such, we thank Heaven, has been our 
 lot ; and we can assure the inhabitants of Guernsey that, whilst we 
 live, their conduct will remain indelibly engraven on our hearts. 
 
 " You will oblige me and my officers by giving publicity to 
 this letter. Treatment like that we met with should not remain 
 unrecorded. ** Yours, &c. 
 
 " Demetrius Andreas Miaulis." 
 
 The following paragraph also appeared in a Portsmouth 
 newspaper of the 31st of December, 1825 : 
 
 "This morning, sailed the Aurora, for Hydra, having on board 
 forty of the crew of the Greek brig of war Cimoni, lately wrecked 
 on the isle of Alderney, from whence they were taken to Guernsey, 
 where they received the greatest kindness and attention from the 
 lieutenant-governor. Sir John Colborne, and the inhabitants, who, 
 in addition to having provided them with food, clothing, and 
 lodging, whilst on the island, raised for them a most liberal sub- 
 scription, and gave <£5 to each of the crew on their leaving 
 Guernsey. We are requested to state that, for the kindness they 
 have received from the governor and inhabitants of Guernsey, 
 they feel the deepest gratitude, and beg to return their most 
 grateful thanks. It is perhaps impossible to express the high 
 sense they entertain of the kindness they experienced better than 
 
 (1) The present Lieut. -General Lord Seaton, G.C.B., &c. Sir John, who was highly 
 esteemed and respected in Guernsey, relinquished its government for that of Upper Canada, 
 the most western harbour of which province he named Port Sarnia, in honour of this 
 island. 
 
 (2) A few months later. Lieutenant E. W. Tapper, of the Sybille frigate, and a member 
 of this family, was mortally wounded on Sunday, June 18, 1826, in action with Greek 
 pirates, near the island of Candia, the Sybille having forty- four officers and men killed and 
 wounded in her boats on that occasion. 
 
 2c 
 
402 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 in their own words, which were: 'The people of Guernsey be- 
 haved to us like angels, not like men/ " 
 
 Sir John Doyle revisited Guernsey in 1826, and was re- 
 ceived by the inhabitants with warm demonstrations of attach- 
 ment and regard. .A public dinner was given to him ; and 
 he had the pleasing opportunity of seeing the monumental 
 column at Jerbourg, which had been erected during his ab- 
 sence, by the States of the island, in grateful remembrance of 
 his administration. He died in 1834, aged seventy-eight. 
 
 WILLIAM IV. — 1830 to 1837. 
 
 In 1832, one of the most ancient and vital privileges of the 
 Anglo-Norman Islanders — that of being tried solely in their 
 own local courts, and not impleaded out of the islands — was 
 placed in peril, by an attempt being made to extend the 
 Habeas Corpus Act to them ; and the attempt naturally caused 
 great apprehension. On the 1st of June in that year, a peti- 
 tion was presented to the House of Commons by the parish of 
 St. Pancras, in Middlesex, setting forth at great length that 
 John Capes — a beadle of the said parish, having proceeded to 
 Guernsey with James Streep, his wife, and two children, and 
 William Locker, all paupers chargeable to the said parish — 
 was detained in the island because he refused to take back 
 the said paupers, whereupon the petitioners presented a me- 
 morial to the privy council stating the detention ; " and it 
 appearing that the only remedy they had was by a formal 
 appeal, which would be attended with considerable delay and 
 expense, they applied to the lord chief justice of England for 
 a writ of Habeas Corpus to bring before him the said John 
 Capes, which his lordship was pleased to grant." In March, 
 the writ was accordingly served on the deputy-sheriff, by 
 whom Capes was detained ; but, as he made no return thereto, 
 the lord chief justice issued a warrant for his apprehension, 
 which warrant was executed in May by one of his lordship's 
 tipstaffs, who was himself taken into custody for a short time, 
 and not permitted to bring the said deputy -sheriff from the 
 island. In consequence, the petitioners prayed the assistance 
 of the house for procuring the return of Capes, and for ren- 
 dering the Habeas Corpus Act efficient. 
 
 The said James Streep and William Locker appear to have 
 been born in Guernsey, while their fathers were serving as 
 soldiers in the island during the war ; and the parishes of 
 St. Peter-Port and the Vale, which were thus sought to be 
 charged with their maintenance, refused to receive them on 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 403 
 
 the plea that they had not acquired a legal settlement; the 
 insular law being that the children of strangers, although 
 born in the island, acquire no settlement unless they reside in 
 it until they are of age. — Indeed, when we state that upwards 
 of 50,000 British troops were successively quartered in 
 Guernsey alone from 1793 to 1814, it must be evident that 
 the maintenance of their necessitous offspring, who chanced 
 to be born in the island, would be attended with ruinous 
 consequences to the inhabitants ; and as well might Gibraltar 
 or Malta be similarly charged. 
 
 The lord chief justice having doubtless represented the 
 contempt or denial of his authority to government, the royal 
 court was directed by an order in council, dated June 11, 
 1832, to register an act passed in the fifty -sixth year of 
 George III., viz. " An act for more eifectually securing the 
 liberty of the subject." A similar order was sent at the same 
 time to Jersey, when the royal courts of both islands resolved 
 to suspend such registry until the result of their representa- 
 tions on the subject was known ; and at a meeting of the 
 States of Guernsey convened for the occasion, the bailiff and 
 king's procureur were deputed to proceed to London to make 
 such representations ; tlie bailiff and king's advocate of Jersey 
 also proceeding thence for the same purpose. 
 
 Capes, the beadle, having, in March, given a pledge that 
 he would not leave the island, remained at large in Guernsey 
 until the early part of August ; but, as he withdrew that 
 pledge, and refused to give bail that the paupers should not 
 become chargeable therein, he was committed to gaol, where 
 however he remained only four days, from the 3d to the 7th 
 of August. — Two days after his release, and before it was 
 known in London, Mr. Hume, M. P. for Middlesex, who 
 had presented the petition from St. Pancras, again brought 
 forward the detention of Capes before the House of Com- 
 mons ; and, having expressed an intention of moving an ad- 
 dress to the king for his liberation, he was informed by the 
 hon. George Lamb, the under secretary of state for the 
 home department, " that the authorities from Guernsey were 
 then in London, and that they had written to the island for 
 the man's discharge," when the matter dropped. Mr. Lamb, 
 wishing to prevent a further discussion on the subject, as well 
 as, doubtless, perceiving the injustice that was attempted to 
 be inflicted on these islands, not only in compelling them to 
 maintain paupers who had acquired no legal settlement, but 
 in depriving them of their very dearest privilege — thus en- 
 
404 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 forcing one wrong by another more cruel — had previously 
 recommended, in a private interview with Mr. Brock, bailiff 
 of Guernsey, that Capes should be immediately released and 
 permitted to leave the island. Tho beadle embarked for 
 England accordingly, accompanied, however, by the paupers 
 he had brought with him in December ; but their mainte- 
 nance, during a sojourn of about eight months on the island, 
 was not exacted. Although it will be seen from this state- 
 ment that the question was got rid of by a species of com- 
 promise, and was not finally determined : yet the islands 
 undoubtedly gained their point, as they neither became 
 charged with the paupers, nor acknowledged the dependance 
 of their courts on those of Westminster, nor registered the 
 Habeas Corpus Act when directed to do so by an express 
 order in council. 
 
 In a letter to the president of council, the deputies from 
 the islands, when returning home, stated that one of the 
 clauses in the Act of Habeas Corpus " would not apply to 
 prisoners about to be tried in Jersey and Guernsey, where no 
 assizes are proclaimed, and no judge of assize is sent, so that 
 under the other provisions of the act a prisoner might imme- 
 diately before his trial, nay, during the trial itself, obtain a 
 writ, and thus impede the course of justice. Such a measure 
 would, no doubt, be often had recourse to, when all other 
 chances of avoiding punishment failed ; and the criminal 
 jurisdiction of the royal courts would be nugatory." 
 
 In October, 1832, Guernsey was visited by a short but 
 very malignant attack of Asiatic cholera, which excited much 
 consternation, and carried off, in a fortnight, about 100 per- 
 sons, chiefly in the town of St. Peter-Port, and among the 
 lower classes. A noble subscription of £1,558 Is. 5d. was 
 raised by the inhabitants, and other individuals connected with 
 Guernsey, for the relief of the indigent families of the victims. 
 In Jersey, this dreadful epidemic appeared upwards of two 
 months before it visited Guernsey, the first case occurring on 
 the 6th of August, and it there raged about ten weeks, during 
 which period it attacked 787 persons, and proved fatal to 341. 
 The neighbouring islands of Alderney, Sark, Herm, and 
 Jethou, nappily escaped the pestilence.^ The preceding sum 
 was distributed as follows, strangers as well as natives, who 
 died in Guernsey of the cholera, partaking in the benefit: 
 
 (1) In the summer of 184g, cholera ag«in appeared in three of these islands, and the 
 deaths thereby were about as follows : Jersey, 300 { Guernsey, 80 ; and Alderney, 10. — 
 In Guernsey, j^7S8. IBs. "d. were raised for the families of the victims. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 405 
 
 Twenty-three widows, so made by the cholera, £10 each, . . £230 
 
 Sixty-four orphans, under 16 years of age, invested in ") ^^j^ ^ ^ 
 
 the Savings' Bank for their benefit, £10 each ] " 
 
 Fifteen orphans, above 16 years of age, £5 each 75 
 
 Relief to casual sufferers 455 4 6 
 
 Balance invested in Gruernsey States' securities, at 3'^') -.g^ -,f> ■,-, 
 
 cent, per annum interest.... j 
 
 £1,558 1 5 
 
 " In giving this statement," says Duncan, " it is proper to 
 add, that the prominent features in the Guernsey character 
 are a warm spirit of charity ; strict frugaUty, occasionally 
 bordering on parsimony ; and extreme punctuahty of pay- 
 ment." And in speaking of the case of Streep and Locker, 
 the same author observes : " The parochial authorities of 
 Guernsey, in common justice we are bound to state the fact, 
 do, from pure motives of benevolence and humanity, volun- 
 tarily take on themselves the maintenance of many widows 
 and children of Irish and other paupers, who die in the 
 island, such widows and children having no legal or acces- 
 sible place of settlement." Mr. Duncan, be it remembered, 
 was an Englishman, who resided in Guernsey for a few 
 years ; and if the inhabitants are charitable at home, they 
 are certainly quite as liberal for objects abroad. — In the year 
 1815, they, at that time, almost entirely native, and not 
 exceeding 20,000 souls, raised above £1,500 for the gallant 
 men who fell at Waterloo. In 1822, the same inhabitants 
 subscribed about £700 for the relief of the Irish, " while," 
 according to Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, April 18, 1840, 
 " the land proprietors of one of the Irish counties, where the 
 distress was experienced, could only raise £100." In 1831, 
 upwards of £600 were again collected in Guernsey for the 
 same purpose, and the following remarks appeared in an 
 Irish newspaper, the Ballina Impartial, on the subject : 
 "While with due gratitude we acknowledge the contribu- 
 tions transmitted from England, through the central com- 
 mittee, we feel ourselves especially bound to notice the 
 transcendent liberality of the people of Guernsey. That 
 island, though not exceeding thirty miles in circumference, 
 has, in proportion to its extent, done more on behalf of the 
 famishing poor of Mayo, than any other place from which 
 relief has been furnished." In 1845, nearly £400 were 
 subscribed in Guernsey, for the sufferers by the fire at Que- 
 bec; and, in 1846, £45 were collected in one congregation for 
 the sufferers by the fire at St. John's, Newfoundland. Du- 
 
406 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 ring the famine in Ireland, of 1846-7, caused by the potatoe 
 blight, Guernsey nobly stood forward with a subscription of 
 nearly £3,000, besides a quantity of old clothing, for the 
 relief of the starving: people there. — It moreover appears 
 from a list given in Duncan's History, pages 367-9, that 
 above £4,000 were annually raised in the island, in 1840, for 
 religious and philanthropic institutions. 
 
 The system of parochial taxation which obtains in Guernsey 
 is peculiar to the island, as all property, whether personal or 
 real, in or out of the bailiwick, is assessed for local wants, 
 with the sole exception of real estate in England and Jersey, 
 as contributing there to the maintenance of the poor. In 
 1833, several of the wealthy parishioners of St. Peter-Port 
 sought to overthrow this system, in an appeal to council, in 
 the celebrated case of Carre William Tupper, esq., and others, 
 versus the constables of the said town. The case may be 
 briefly summed up thus : the appellants contended that an 
 ordinance passed by the royal court in April, 1821, by which 
 the annual tax had been raised, was illegal and inoperative, 
 as not having been sanctioned by council ; and, moreover, 
 that there was no law in Guernsey authorizing the assessment 
 of British and foreign funds for parochial wants. The res- 
 pondents answered, that the judgment of the royal court of 
 the 23d February, 1833, by which the appellants had been 
 sentenced to pay their proportion of the tax, was conformable 
 to the ancient laws and customs of the bailiwick ; and also, 
 even supposing that the present mode of rating required 
 modification, which they denied, the law could not be altered 
 by the royal court in its judicial capacity ; but that such change 
 or modification must be obtained by application to the legis- 
 lative authorities of the island ; and, in the event of redress 
 being denied, by an appeal to council. — Part of this argu- 
 ment, however, was a mockery, seeing that the same body, 
 which had passed the ordinance in 1821 in its legislative 
 capacity, had decided on it judicially in 1833. Suffice it to 
 add, that the lords of the privy council decided against the 
 appellants, whose expenses amounted to nearly £2,000, in- 
 cluding £600 paid by them for the costs of the parish, which 
 were taxed at that sum, and yet the parish was a loser by 
 nearly £200 ! Thus the long established system of taxation 
 was happily confirmed, as all property, whether real or per- 
 sonal, should contribute to the maintenance of the poor ; but 
 we conceive that the cost of the lamps, pavements, and tun- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 407 
 
 nels in St. Peter-Port, should be paid by a house rate, espe- 
 cially as many proprietors of houses, who reside out of the 
 parish, are exempted from a burthen which so much enhances 
 the vahie of their property. 
 
 The memorable corn questions of the year 1821 and 1835 
 now claim our attention. In 1821, an act of parliament was 
 passed at the instigation of the landed interest, which prohi- 
 bited the importation of foreign corn into the Channel Islands 
 whenever its entry for consumption was prohibited in the 
 United Kingdom ; and the royal court of Guernsey was com- 
 pelled, after much demur and a long delay, to register this 
 act, the consequences of which would have proved fatal to 
 the prosperity of the island, and caused its depopulation to a 
 great extent, had not the obnoxious clause been repealed the 
 following year through the exertions of Mr. Brock, the bailiff, 
 and Mr. James Carey, jurat, who were deputed by the states 
 to represent them on this vital question. 
 
 In 1834, it was generally asserted by the agriculturists in 
 the west of England, that the privilege of importing corn, the 
 growth of the Anglo-Norman Islands, into the United King- 
 dom, free of duty^ had been abused ; and Mr. Weston, the 
 collector of the customs at Weymouth, was sent over to 
 investigate the charge ; but, on inquiry, he could not substan- 
 tiate it. By some mistake in including all the corn, native 
 and foreign, exported from Guernsey, not only to England, 
 but to other countries, although the foreign wheat sent to 
 England was cleared in Guernsey, and paid duty in England 
 as such, the commissioners of customs stated in a report to 
 the board of trade, that " it would appear that the quantity 
 of wheat annually exported from Guernsey to the United 
 Kingdom has exceeded the quantity grown in the island by 
 upwards of 2,000 quarters." In consequence of this singu- 
 larly erroneous statement, Mr. Baring, the president of the 
 board of trade, brought a bill into parliament, in 1835, to 
 deprive the islands of this, their ancient privilege ; and depu- 
 ties were named by both States to proceed to London to advo- 
 cate its continuance, the one for Guernsey being Mr. Brock, 
 the bailiff, and the two for Jersey, Colonel Le Couteur, and 
 Mr. Le Breton, the attorney-general. Owing to their re- 
 monstrances, a select committee of the house of commons 
 was appointed to inquire into the matter, before whom it was 
 triumphantly proved that Guernsey, in place of exporting 
 2,000 quarters more than she grew, had only exported, of her 
 
408 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 own growth, 539 quarters out of 4,595 quarters annually 
 grown ! The bill was therefore withdrawn ; but it was 
 thought at the time, by many in these islands, that as the 
 privilege excited the jealousy of the landed interest in Eng- 
 land, and as it was of so little value to the inhabitants, its 
 voluntary relinquishment would have been the better policy, 
 the original intention of the grant being clearly perverted 
 the moment that the consumption exceeded the production, 
 and that foreign corn was required to replace the native 
 wheat exported. The committee, already alluded to, pub- 
 lished a very long report, dated the 17th of June, 1836, from 
 which we extract the concluding paragraph : 
 
 '* Upon a careful consideration of the whole subject, your 
 committee see no reason to believe that the privilege possessed 
 by the Channel Islands, of freely importing their produce into 
 this country, has been made use of to any material extent, as a 
 means of introducing foreign corn ; and they feel bound to add, 
 that it is strenuously denied by the deputies from the islands, that 
 it has thus been abused even in the smallest degree, and that their 
 assertion has not been opposed by any direct proof; and your 
 committee are therefore of opinion, that it would not be expedient 
 to abrogate or infringe those privileges which are now enjoyed 
 by the inhabitants of these islands, and which were conferred 
 upon them in consideration of the signal services which, at 
 various periods of our history, they have rendered to the crown 
 and people of this country." 
 
 The abolition of the corn laws by Sir Robert Peel in 1846 
 has since set the question at rest, for as long as corn and 
 other agricultural produce are admitted into England duty 
 free, or nearly so, the privilege, which the islands still enjoy 
 of importing their products into that kingdom free of duty, 
 becomes of none effect. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 VICTORIA.— 1837. 
 
 In April, 1842, Major-General William Napier, C.B., the 
 celebrated historian of the Peninsular War, was appointed 
 lieutenant-governor of Guernsey ; and as the inhabitants felt 
 proud at having an officer of his distinguished literary repu- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 409 
 
 tation placed over them, they received him with more than 
 usual cordiality, deference, and respect. We may add here 
 that Mrs. Napier,^ who was a niece of the celebrated Charles 
 James Fox, was from first to last an especial favorite, honored 
 and esteemed by the upper classes for her talents and social 
 virtues, and endeared to the poor by her charities. For 
 about a year, matters went on smoothly, although it was 
 quickly seen that the new lieutenant-governor possessed 
 great vivacity of temper, which was ascribed to the continual 
 suffering caused by very severe wounds and hard service : he 
 spoke in public, as he wrote, well and fluently ; extolled the 
 appearance and discipline of the militia ; and praised the 
 mode of administering the laws and institutions of the island. 
 But in the summer of 1843, differences unhappily arose be- 
 tween him and the royal court, which continued and kept 
 the inhabitants for above four years in a state of feverish 
 excitement and discontent. These differences occurred too 
 recently to be described with historical impartiality ; but as 
 this work would be incomplete without some account of their 
 origin and progress, we shall narrate the leading facts a& 
 dispassionately and accurately as we can. 
 
 In June, 1843, General ISTapier — having been informed 
 that a Frenchman of bad character, named Du Rocher, was 
 then residing in Guernsey — directed one of the constables 
 to arrest him, in order that he might be expelled from the 
 island, the charge against him being not only that he had 
 committed bigamy in Jersey, but that he had written, we 
 believe, threatening letters to his victim there from Guernsey. 
 Du Rocher, hearing that the police was in search of him, 
 obtained an asylum under the roof of Mr. Orchard, an Eng- 
 lish resident, in whose family he was French preceptor, and 
 there remained concealed. Le Conte, another Frenchman, 
 an occasional gardener and servant of Mr. Orchard, was em- 
 ployed by his master to execute commissions for Du Rocher ; 
 and the police, ascertaining this, questioned him, when he 
 returned evasive but respectful answers. Du Rocher left 
 the island in August; and the lieutenant-governor caused 
 Le Conte to be imprisoned, on the plea of his having " an- 
 noyed the constable in the execution of his duty," his sole 
 offence being that he had refused to betray a fellow-country- 
 man and his master's secrets. On being released the next 
 morning, the constable, by order of his excellency, informed 
 
 (1) Mrs. (now Lady) Napier is the daughter of the Hon. General Fox, and the grand- 
 daughter of the first Lord Holland. She has inherited the appearance and the talents of 
 her race. 
 
410 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Le Conte that he must leave the island, a few days being 
 allowed him to settle his affairs, and he obeyed quietly, mak- 
 ing no appeal to the civil power ; while the constable, who 
 chanced to be a militia inspector in receipt of government 
 pay, did not, as is customary, report the case to the bailiff 
 and the crown officers. Mr. Orchard was more culpable than 
 Le Conte ; but, beihg an Englishman, he was not molested. 
 This expulsion, becoming known through the local press, 
 created much ferment, and was warmly condemned as harsh 
 and cruel. The royal court — having ascertained from the 
 constable that he had acted under the orders of the lieutenant- 
 governor, and conceiving that both had exceeded their autho- 
 rity — sought a friendly and constitutional conference with his 
 excellency on the subject. When, accordingly, the magis- 
 trates attended by appointment at his private residence, they 
 were received with studied formahty : on reaching the house, 
 a sergeant's guard saluted them, and, on being ushered in 
 between the sentries on each side of the entrance, they were 
 shewn into a room which was vacant. After a short time, 
 the folding doors of the adjoining room were thrown open, 
 and the lieutenant-governor was discovered in his full uni- 
 form, and seated, with a small table near him, on which was 
 his military hat ; in the back ground were the fort-major, 
 and the constable as militia inspector, both in uniform ; the 
 government secretary ; and the guests of the house, Mr. Roe- 
 buck, M.P. for Bath, and Mr. Pophara, who certainly had 
 no business there ; at a respectful distance in the rear were 
 the procureur and comptroller, who had preceded the court 
 by half an hour. All, with the exception of the lieutenant- 
 governor, were standing, and the room was without a seat, 
 save that occupied by him ! The bailiff, on entering, went 
 forward towards his excellency, who rose to receive him ; 
 and the rest of the court, following the bailiff, made their 
 obeisance to the lieutenant-governor, he and all remaining 
 standing. On the bailiff adverting to the subject of the inter- 
 view, the lieutenant-governor interrupted him by saying that 
 he would only communicate with the court through the bai- 
 liff, and would not allow the jurats to take part in the confer- 
 ence. Some demur being expressed at this, the bailiff was 
 told that he and his colleagues had better return to the court- 
 house ; and after they had considered the matter, another 
 interview might take place. The bailiff then proposed that 
 they should retire for a few minutes into another room to 
 consult in private ; and there the magistrates unanimously 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 411 
 
 decided to reject the lieutenant-governor's terms, as contrary 
 to all precedent. So unusual and offensive a reception only 
 served to widen the breach between the lieutenant-governor 
 and the royal court ; while the native inhabitants, almost to 
 a man, took part with the latter, conceiving that the insult thus 
 offered to the highest civil authority was a general one. 
 
 Next came the case of Fossey. On new year's evening, 
 1844, a party of nine soldiers of the 48th depot casually met 
 on the highway, and most violently assaulted, an Englishman, 
 named Clark, as also his wife. The injuries sustained by 
 Clark were such that his medical attendant at first declared 
 upon oath before the royal court that he could not answer- 
 for his life, which however in a few days he pronounced out 
 of danger. Fossey was the only culprit who could be iden- 
 tified ; and on Saturday, January 20, he was condemned to 
 tivo months' imprisonment, whereof the first and last fortnight 
 solitary and on bread and water. The next day, without 
 making the slightest inquiry of the bailiff or the law officers 
 of the crown. General Napier wrote to Sir James Graham, 
 the home secretary of state ; and the result was a free pardon 
 from the queen, " in consideration of some circumstances 
 humbly represented unto us." On receipt of this pardon, in 
 place of having it first verified and recorded by the royal 
 court, as customary, Major-General Napier proceeded, ac- 
 companied by his staff, to the gaol on the 15th of February, 
 and demanded the instant liberation of Fossey. The gaoler 
 hesitating to comply without consulting his superior, the 
 sheriff, the lieutenant-governor threatened to effect the re- 
 lease by military force, and for that purpose dispatched an 
 officer to Fort George for troops, whereupon the gaoler sub- 
 mitted and liberated the convict. Not satisfied, however, 
 with this submission, Major-General Napier prosecuted the 
 gaoler before the royal court for disrespect of her majesty's 
 warrant, when the gaoler was unanimously acquitted. 
 
 These two acts of Major-General Napier drew forth two 
 petitions from the royal court to the sovereign in council, 
 which were supported by a humble memorial of the inha- 
 bitants. The court prayed that in any conference with the 
 lieutenant-governor the jurats should, as heretofore, take 
 part ; that any alien domiciled in Guernsey, not being a dan- 
 gerous person, and charged only with a private offence, 
 should not be liable to be deported without trial ; and that 
 Major-General Napier should be directed to regulate his 
 future government of the island conformably to its laws, cus- 
 
412 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 toms,and chartered rights ; as also that he should not exercise 
 martial jurisdiction contrary to the usual course of justice, 
 except in time of war, or for the prevention of some imminent 
 danger. But the wide-world reputation of Major-General 
 Napier as an author was such, and his interest with the go- 
 vernment was so great, that it was quickly seen that a small 
 and powerless community like that of Guernsey had under- 
 taken an almost hopeless task in endeavouring to prove that 
 he had been wanting in common judgment and discretion; 
 for throughout these and the subsequent differences Sir James 
 Graham identified himself with the lieutenant-governor, and 
 now insisted that the complaints against one of his subordi- 
 nates should in the first instance be made through him as 
 secretary of state for the home department, and not to the 
 privy council. Lord Wharncliffe, the president of that body, 
 however, over-ruled this pretension, and agreed to receive 
 the petitions and memorial, thereby acknowledging the an- 
 cient rights of the islanders to lay their grievances directly 
 before council. But by some official contrivance, Major- 
 General Napier, who was the party accused, was taken out 
 of the cause, and the crown substituted in his place, which 
 proceeding rendered it very difficult, if not impossible, for the 
 lords of council to enter into the real merits of the points in 
 dispute ; moreover, during the whole of the hearing of the 
 cause, which lasted five days, Sir James Graham found time 
 to be present, and that he influenced the judgment there was 
 little doubt. By that judgment, January 13, 1845, their 
 lordships ruled that the lieutenant-governor had the right of 
 deporting aliens without the consent of the royal court, but 
 that the jurats were entitled to take part in any conference. 
 As regards the case of Fossey, it was decided that the gaoler 
 ought to have discharged the prisoner on the production of 
 the royal pardon ; but that as the gaoler was not the servant 
 of the lieutenant-governor, the latter " was not warranted in 
 enforcing obedience to the writ by the threat of military or 
 other force." This judgment, to obtain which the island was 
 saddled with heavy expenses, gave very limited satisfaction : 
 in our opinion, it was of little consequence whether the jurats 
 could speak in a conference or whether the queen's pardon 
 required to be verified by the royal court, but it signified 
 much that an unoffending alien should not be lightly deport- 
 ed, in time of profound peace, at the whim or caprice of any 
 one man, albeit the lieutenant-governor of Guernsey — an 
 appointment held in the last century by officers of humble 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 413 
 
 rank and pretensions ; and we should sadly belie our liberal 
 principles, we should indeed repudiate our ardent love of 
 general liberty, if we did not warmly and indignantly protest 
 against the decision of council on this memorable occasion. 
 That decision was a worthy pendant of the vile one which, in 
 the reign of James I , authorized the governor to imprison 
 for twenty-four hours without accountability, " it not being 
 then thought meet that he should be restrained to commit 
 any islander to prison upon such cause as he (the governor) 
 should think to have justly deserved imprisonment"! 
 
 The statement in answer to the two petitions from Guernsey 
 was signed by J. A. Roebuck and H. Waddington, but the 
 conclusion bears unmistakeable evidence of its being written 
 by the author of the Peninsular War — it is as follows : 
 
 "Thus, when the lieutenant-governor receives the bailiff and 
 jurats in form, he treats not so much his sovereign with respect 
 as them with disrespect. 
 
 " But when he does not class the royal court with all others, 
 and does not thereupon require it do what its sovereign com- 
 mands him, by his name of oflSce, to do forthwith, he still treats 
 them with disrespect. 
 
 ** If he refuse the aid of soldiers to the civil authorities, when 
 they ought not to require it,^ he gives way to riot, and inflicts the 
 violence of unrestrained mobs on the inhabitants. 
 
 *' But when unaided, and obstructed by a civil functionary 
 bound to obey him, he talks of requiring the aid of soldiers, 
 he recurs to martial law. 
 
 " When he legally executes a legal and royal warrant, as di- 
 rected thereby, he alters and abolishes existing legal forms. 
 
 " But when he has recourse to law, he is far from acknow- 
 ledging the irregularity of his conduct, and perseveres in wrong. 
 And when, as legally required, he forthwith sets free a pardoned 
 prisoner, he infringes the privileges and liberties of the island. 
 
 " From this latter charge the character and habits of the lieu- 
 tenant-governor will defend, if the law did not justify, him ; for 
 he, with others, has endured much in war, that the liberties of all 
 might not be overwhelmed ; and now he is endeavouring to libe- 
 rate the numerous English inhabitants, and those, he hopes not 
 few, natives of Guernsey, who do not view the acts or expressions 
 of the royal court without concern, from the miserable servitude 
 of vague and undefined law. Nor have the pursuits of the lieu- 
 tenant-governor, in time of peace, rendered him insensible to the 
 early history of a warlike people, nor uninterested in, and un- 
 ci) Previous to General Napier's arrival, the constables occasionally required and 
 received the aid of the garrison in securing offenders ; but he issued an order, by which 
 the troops were not to be so employed without his express sanction. 
 
^^, ,„- 
 
 414 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 mindful of, the claims of their descendants, over whom his sove- 
 reign has placed him. 
 
 ** But if there were no associations in history, nor connection 
 between the English and Norman races, the lieutenant-governor 
 would not require any other motive for performing his duty than 
 that such was his duty. For this reason, in defence, not in dis- 
 regard of liberty, he has asserted his rights as the representative 
 of the sovereign of Guernsey, while he has denied what he thought 
 were undue claims of the royal court, and he has thereby sub- 
 jected himself to (he trusts, a temporary) misunderstanding, and 
 to the hasty and passing condemnation of some whose good word, 
 in favour of these his legitimate exercises of authority, will not be 
 refused, when reflection shall have had its opportunity, and the 
 decision of her majesty in council shall have settled the questions 
 in dispute." 
 
 Major-General Napier was not a man to retrace his steps 
 or to make the slightest concession, and it soon became evi- 
 dent that there could be no peace or cordiality between him 
 and the civil authorities. But, nothing worthy of mention 
 occurred until Monday, May 20, 1844, when her majesty's 
 steam frigate Dee arrived early from Portsmouth, bringing a 
 queen's messenger, who immediately landed and delivered 
 his despatches to the lieutenant-governor. A few liours later 
 another steam frigate, bearing the awful name of Blazer, also 
 anchored in the roadstead, her decks being crowded with 
 troops ; and the next morning her majesty's brig Nautilus 
 arrived with more troops, as did the Atalanta steamer on 
 Wednesday ; the entire number consisting of about 600 men 
 of the depots of the 23d, 42d, 97th, and 2d battalion rifle 
 brigade, from Parkhurst barracks, in the Isle of Wight. 
 Never shall we forget the amazement of the inhabitants at 
 this large accession of force ; some supposing that England 
 had suddenly declared war against France, and others that 
 the troops were to guard Daniel O'Connell, who was to be 
 incarcerated in Castle Cornet, as Burton and General Lam- 
 bert had been ; but it afterwards transpired that they had 
 been hurriedly dispatched to quell an insurrection of the 
 islanders against the lieutenant-governor, and moreover that 
 a wing of the 49th regiment at Winchester had received 
 orders to hold itself in readiness for the same purpose ! ! 
 General Napier publicly denied all previous knowledge of 
 the coming of these troops ; but certain it is that his repre- 
 sentations, although they may have been misunderstood, were 
 the cause of their being sent. — On the 15th of May, a young 
 gentleman of the Cutei parish died, and on the 20th, just as 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 415 
 
 the funeral was about to leave the house, a post mortem 
 examination of the corpse took place, either by order or at 
 the request of the lieutenant-governor, who it seems had 
 received private information that the deceased had been poi- 
 soned, lest he should divulge a conspiracy which had been 
 formed to assassinate Major-General Napier ; but the result 
 proved that he died from natural causes. In consequence of 
 this information, the militia was prevented from assembling 
 as usual to celebrate the queen's birth -day on the 24th of 
 May, lest a chance bullet or ramrod might do the work of 
 the conspirators; and yet the lieutenant-governor rode or 
 walked about unattended, and had no guard at his private 
 residence. — Soon afterwards three country gentlemen, two of 
 them officers of the militia, were placed on their trial before 
 the royal court, by orders of Sir James Graham, for a parti- 
 cipation in the alleged conspiracy, when, after a searching in- 
 vestigation, they were fully acquitted, Major-General Napier, 
 it was asserted, having previously attempted to stifle all 
 inquiry into this vile accusation. In the mean time, the 
 " army of occupation," as we called it, left the island after 
 the stay of about a month ; and never was an expedition 
 dispatched from any country on a more ridiculous errand, 
 the authorities in England, and we believe the lieutenant- 
 governor himself, being heartily ashamed of it. Indeed, we 
 may safely assert that the militia of Guernsey, with whom 
 General Napier was at first highly popular, would rather 
 have formed a rampart of their dead bodies for the security 
 of his person than entered into any design against his life. 
 
 Next came the grand demonstration of the islanders, which 
 was held on Tuesday, July 2, on the New Ground, and at 
 which from 12 to 13,000 persons assembled to vote certain 
 resolutions, of which the first was as follows : 
 
 *' 1. That imputations having been recently thrown upon the 
 loyalty of the inhabitants of this island, an humble and dutiful 
 address be presented to her most gracious majesty, expressive of 
 the sorrow which has thereby been occasioned to the said inha- 
 bitants, and assuring her majesty of their devoted and unaltered 
 loyalty to her majesty's person and government." 
 
 This and the other resolutions were carried by acclamation, 
 and during the proceedings, which occupied about two hours, 
 not only were some excellent speeches delivered by both 
 natives and strangers, but there was in the vast assemblage 
 an intensity of feeling and a spirit of devotion which proved 
 beyond all doubt that the people of Guernsey were sincerely 
 
416 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 attached to the British crown ; while the triumphal arches, 
 festoons, flags, and various mottos and devices, also testified 
 to their unswerving loyalty. The meeting was presided over 
 by the venerable General Sir Thomas Saumarez, and the 
 address, signed by 5,684 adult males, was taken to London 
 by himself; but as there was no prospect of an early levee, 
 it was presented to the queen through Sir James Graham, 
 who declared that he was not aware of any imputation of 
 disloyalty having been cast upon "the inhabitants generally ! 
 In August, " the suspension of the militia parades and re- 
 views, which had taken place in pursuance of an order ema- 
 nating directly from her majesty," was removed, having lasted 
 about three months ; and the several regiments, by command 
 of the secretary of state, assembled on the 12th, at Fort 
 George, to fire a feu de joie for the birth of an infant prince. 
 In September, the States of Guernsey voted an address to 
 the queen, for the purpose of vindicating the inhabitants from 
 the imputations of disloyalty and sedition wliich had been 
 cast upon them ; and, in acknowledging its receipt. Sir James 
 Graham directed his secretary to say, that " he had never 
 failed to entertain the strongest and most confident reliance 
 in the general loyalty and good feeling of the people of 
 Guernsey." If so, why were 600 men sent over a few months 
 previously? — the garrison and the militia would surely have 
 been able to put down a few seditious spirits, had there been 
 any, which we confidently deny. 
 
 Such was to Guernsey the eventful year of 1844 ; and 
 although it was evident that there could be no peace as long 
 as Major -General Napier remained in the island, yet his 
 government was continued for three years longer ! It would 
 be tedious to describe all the heart-burnings during that time ; 
 and therefore, passing over the lieutenant-governor's quarrels 
 with three of the jurats as personal to themselves, and other 
 minor acts, we shall only mention the dismissal of Captain 
 Guerin, of the 1st or east regiment of militia, in December, 
 1845, on the plea that it was not expedient for the public 
 service that he should continue to hold a commission. When 
 that officer asked for the reasons of his dismissal, which re- 
 duced him to the ranks, they were refused him ; and his 
 appeal to Sir James Graham to the same eifect was made in 
 vain ! Sir James, however, issued an order that no officer in 
 the militia in any of these islands should be dismissed in future 
 " without the express sanction of the secretary of state ;" thus 
 significantly condemning the dismissal just mentioned. This 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 417 
 
 order was kept secret in Guernsey until May, 1848, when it 
 was published by Major-General Bell. In a case in Upper 
 Canada, almost parallel to that of Captain Guerin, in 1836, 
 shortly before the outbreak there, an officer of the militia was 
 dismissed by Sir Francis Head, whereupon that officer made 
 an appeal to Lord Glenelg, the colonial secretary of state, and 
 Sir Francis was commanded to reinstate him ; his lordship at 
 the same time observing, " that every consideration must 
 yield to the irresistible claims of justice ;" whereas Sir James 
 Graham in effect declared that every consideration must yield 
 to the claims of favouritism ! And yet the Canadian officer 
 was supposed to be disloyal, and had told Sir Francis Head, 
 after his dismissal, that his statements were " altogether un- 
 true;" but, on the other hand, Canada was strong, and 
 Guernsey was weak and defenceless. Two lieutenant-colonels 
 and five captains of the Guernsey militia, prefering to carry 
 a musket to holding their rank under so degrading and pre- 
 carious a tenure, resigned their commissions when they found 
 that all redress was denied to Captain Guerin : one of these 
 officers was Lieut.-Colonel Henry Tupper, who had lost two 
 brothers, four uncles, and three first cousins, by the bullet, 
 and two brothers in the wave ; total, eleven near relatives 
 prematurely cut off", and many of them in the public service. 
 Whether on account of these claims we know not, Lieut.- 
 Colonel Tupper was not made to serve as a private as long as 
 Major-General Napier remained in the island, on the plea 
 that the uniforms in store were too small for him, but after 
 his departure one was quickly found ; and when Major- 
 General Bell first reviewed all the militia on the New Ground, 
 private Henry Tupper was the right hand grenadier of the 
 1st or east regiment ; in other words, le premier grenadier, 
 not of France, but of Guernsey. We mention this exemp- 
 tion from service for about two years in justice to General 
 Napier, conceiving it to be honourable to him, especially as 
 Mr. Tupper was his warm opponent. Suffice it to add, that 
 one of the first acts of his successor, we believe at the request 
 of Sir George Grey, was to reinstate with the same rank 
 Captain Guerin and the seven officers who had resigned — a 
 second tacit condemnation of the dismissal of Captain Guerin. 
 At length, in June, 1846, Lord John Russell succeeded 
 Sir Robert Peel as premier ; and in this change of ministry 
 Sir James Graham was replaced by Sir George Grey, whose 
 grandfather, the first Earl Grey, was governor of Guernsey 
 from 1797 to 1807. It soon appeared that General Napier 
 2d 
 
418 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 had lost his influence at the Home Office ; but he remained 
 in the island until the close of the following year, when 
 it is understood that his written and oral communications 
 became so offensive to Sir George Grey, that the latter in- 
 sisted on his removal with the Duko of Wellington, then 
 commander-in-chief. He was accordingly succeeded, early 
 in 1848, by Major-General Bell ; but many of his opponents 
 in Guernsey were not sorry to learn that his removal had 
 been softened by the colonelcy of the 27th regiment and a 
 knight commandership of the Bath — distinctions which his 
 undying history and gallant services unquestionably merited. 
 When General Napier first arrived in Guernsey, it was our 
 hope that, as he was a liberal reformer, he would suggest and 
 promote the necessary changes in the ^feudal and worn-out 
 institutions of the island, and, above all, that he would seek 
 to give the people their just influence in the States, or insular 
 parliament, seeing that the royal court and clergy are all 
 powerful in that assembly, and the people powerless.^ This, 
 indeed, would have been a work as worthy of his genius as 
 the expulsion of Le Conte and the dismissal of Captain Guerin 
 were beneath it ; the one would have made all lovers of 
 constitutional freedom in the island his friends, as the other 
 made them his uncompromising adversaries. It is painful' to 
 write thus of the government of an officer whose peninsular 
 history has afforded us so much enjoyment, whose colloquial 
 powers we have listened to with pleasure, and, above all, whose 
 "fighting" family has done the state so much service ; but to 
 have said less than we have would have been a pusillanimous 
 evasion of our duty as an historian. 
 
 In September, 1844, Mr. F. C. Lukis — in examining the 
 remarkable cromlech of Du Tus or Du Hus,' situate near 
 Paradis, in the Vale parish, Guernsey — discovered, on opening 
 one of the compartments, two skeletons " in a vertical kneel- 
 ing posture," placed " side by side, but in opposite directions." 
 " The teeth and jaws were well preserved, and denoted an 
 adult rather than an old age." " The skeletons appeared to 
 be about the same size, and were those of men." Mr. Lukis 
 adds : " The perfectly regular position of a person kneeling 
 on a floor in an upright posture, with the arms following the 
 
 (1) The States of Deliberation are thus composed : royal court, 14 ; rectors, 8 ; deputies 
 of the douzalnes, 15 ; total, 37. 
 
 (2) The more so, as when Mr. Brock, the bailiff, died, General Napier evinced, in a 
 manner as creditable to his feelingrs as it was gratifying: to the family of the deceased, an 
 anxious desire to pay every respect to his memory. 
 
 (3) See Archaeological Journal for April, 1845. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 419 
 
 direction of the column, pelvis, and thigh bones, and gra- 
 dually surrounded by the earth, in like manner as may be 
 conceived would be done were persons buried alive, will give 
 an exact representation of this singular discovery." 
 
 Visit of Queen Victoria, in 1846. — On Sunday evening, 
 August 23, at about six o'clock, a squadron of four steamers, 
 one of them bearing the royal standard, was descried from 
 St. Peter-Port off Jerbourg point, and soon after these ves- 
 sels cast anchor in the roadstead. The squadron, which had 
 left Plymouth in the morning, consisted of the royal yacht 
 Victoria and Albert, with her tender the Fairy, and the Black 
 Eagle and Garland. On board the first, commanded by Cap- 
 tain Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence, were her majesty. Prince 
 Albert, her consort, and the young Prince of Wales and 
 Princess Royal. A royal salute was quickly fired from Fort 
 George, and the news of the queen's arrival spread with the 
 rapidity of lightning, penetrating even into the churches and 
 chapels, then filled with their respective congregations. The 
 heights and piers were soon crowded with spectators ; and 
 at dusk the houses in sight of the royal yacht were illumi- 
 nated. In the mean time the lieutenant-governor, Major- 
 General Napier, went on board the Victoria and Albert, when 
 her majesty's commands were conveyed to him through Lord 
 Alfred Paget. On his return to the pier, shortly before nine 
 o'clock, he announced to the assembled crowds that the 
 queen, desirous of seeing her subjects in Guernsey, and of 
 giving them an opportunity of seeing her, would land at nine 
 o'clock the next morning, proceed in her carriage to take a 
 cursory view of the island, and re-embark at eleven. This 
 announcement was received with enthusiastic cheers ; and 
 many retired only to spend the night in hurried preparations 
 for the morrow ; the militia officers especially being engaged 
 in warning their men. Indeed, few allowed themselves their 
 usual rest ; and in the country every man, woman, and child, 
 who was able to move, was on foot at daybreak ; while the 
 town was alive at a very early hour with persons busily at 
 work in decorating the streets and houses with flags, crowns, 
 garlands, mottos. Sec. The vessels in the harbour and road- 
 stead were dressed in their gayest attire, as were the signal 
 staffs at Castle Cornet and Fort George. 
 
 At half-past seven, a.m., the royal court met and prepared 
 an address of congratulation and homage, which was presented 
 to her majesty on landing, it being previously intimated that 
 
420 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 as none of her ministers were on board, the queen would not 
 answer the address until after her return to England. 
 
 The five militia regiments assembled under arms at Choisi 
 at six o'clock, not a single man, who was able to attend, 
 being absent. The depot of the 27th regiment was stationed 
 at the south slip, where the royal standard was erected, and 
 furnished the guard of honor ; and next to them were the 
 militia, who continued the Hne through High and Smith 
 streets, and up the Grange road, the troops together amount- 
 ing to about 2,500 men. But the most interesting part of 
 the preparations was an assemblage of some seventy young 
 ladies, belonging to the principal families, who, mostly arrayed 
 in white and carrying in their hands baskets of flowers, were 
 stationed close to the landing place, and presented a group 
 of great beauty and attraction. 
 
 The queen and the prince embarked in the royal barge a 
 few minutes before nine, under a salute from Fort George, 
 and were accompanied by Lord A. Fitzclarence, steering ; 
 Lord Alfred Paget ; the Viscountess Jocelyn ; Hon. Miss 
 Napier ; Sir James Clarke, her majesty's physician ; and 
 G. E. Anson, Esq., Prince Albert's secretary. The day was 
 every thing that could be desired, fine and clear, so that the 
 sea and land views were seen to advantage ; and as the barge 
 was pulled towards the pier, some thirty pleasure boats under 
 sail followed her, the wind being easterly : this and the land- 
 ing* were the most striking parts of the spectacle. Her 
 majesty was received by the authorities, and as she stepped 
 on shore the young ladies before mentioned commenced sing- 
 ing the national anthem, accompanied by the band of the 
 27th depot. The queen, leaning on Prince Albert's arm, 
 walked on carpeting to her carriage, the young ladies strew- 
 ing flowers at her feet, and she was followed by her atten- 
 dants and the authorities. 
 
 As the royal barge approached and entered the pier, the 
 queen was greeted with loud demonstrations of joy and gra- 
 titude : the guns at Fort George were still firing, the church 
 bells were ringing, the several bands were playing the national 
 anthem, and thousands of voices were sending forth hurrahs 
 of delight, her majesty and the prince cordially acknowledg- 
 ing by bows and smiles these marks of enthusiasm and wel- 
 come. Never before had so inspirating a scene been witnessed 
 in Guernsey, and never before was a sovereign received with 
 warmer proofs of afiection. But had there been more time, 
 
 (1) A handsome stone, with an inscription, now commemorates the spot where the 
 queen landed. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 421 
 
 the salutes should have been given from Castle Cornet, as 
 all salutes were during the last war, when the sound boomed 
 over the waters and was heard throughout the town. The 
 seemingly stifled report of some small cannon at Fort George 
 ill accorded with the vociferous but respectful acclamations 
 of the islanders ; and the truly exciting scene of the royal 
 landing and embarkation would have been rendered still 
 more imposing — and yet most imposing it was — had the 
 fair queen of these isles been saluted from the fortress which 
 recalls so many deeds of gallantry, and is pregnant with so 
 many historical associations. 
 
 The queen and prince, with Lady Jocelyn and Miss Napier, 
 having entered the first royal carriage, a barouche drawn by 
 four horses, and the attendants in another royal carriage, the 
 royal party proceeded round the south side of the town church 
 up High street. Smith street, the Grange road. Petite Marche, 
 (now Queen's road,) down what is now Prince Albert's road, 
 and up Colborne road to Fort George, being every where 
 greeted with loud cheers. The royal cortege then continued 
 through the fort, passed Sausmarez manor and St. Martin's 
 church, the Ville au Roi, Mount Row, and the Grange, back 
 to the south pier, at the steps of which, near the light-house, 
 the queen entered the royal barge at about- half-past ten, the 
 fall of the tide preventing her embarking where she had 
 landed. Both piers and Glatney esplanade were lined by 
 the 27th depot and the militia, and as the barge was pulled 
 off, the guns of Fort George again saluted, the bands struck 
 up " God save the Queen," and the assembled multitudes, 
 gentle and simple, expressed their feelings in loud and con- 
 tinued cheers, which were recognized by her majesty in a 
 manner which seemed to declare that she believed and appre- 
 ciated their sincerity. The royal squadron left the roadstead 
 soon after eleven, a.m. ; and, passing through the Swinge, 
 Alderney at the same time greeting the queen with a salute, 
 arrived at Cowes the same evening before nine o'clock. The 
 royal children did not land ; but while the queen was on 
 shore, the Prince of Wales fished and hooked a whiting, the 
 first tenant of the deep he had ever caught. 
 
 On entering High street, the queen and prince appeared 
 agreeably struck with the profuse display of decorations tloei'e, 
 and with the numberless happy faces which were beaming 
 welcome on them from the houses. On approaching Fort 
 George, the prince seemed delighted with the beauty of the 
 surrounding scenery, and he inquired the names of the islands 
 
422 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 in sight. When the coast of Normandy and Cape La Hague 
 were pointed out to him, he spoke to the queen, who appeared 
 equally delighted at seeing the cape from which a great naval 
 battle takes its name. Although Edward IV. and William 
 IV. came to Guernsey before they ascended the throne, we 
 believe that Queen Victoria is the first reigning sovereign of 
 England who ever landed on the island. King John's visit 
 being, as we have shewn, more than doubtful. The royal 
 presence was so unexpected, that no preparations were made 
 for it, and consequently the demonstrations of joy, of devo- 
 tion, and of loyalty, were spontaneous and imperfect, but 
 there was a hearty good will among all, an evidence of grati- 
 fication which could not be mistaken ; and if her majesty's 
 reception was less costly and ceremonious than that of Jersey, 
 ten days later, its deficiencies were more than compensated 
 by its cordiality. The people of Guernsey felt doubly grate- 
 ful to the queen for appearing among them at a time when, 
 in consequence of difierences with the lieutenant-governor, 
 imputations had been cast upon their loyalty ; and the wound- 
 ed feelings of the islanders, from 600 armed men being sud- 
 denly sent over in 1844 to dragoon them into submission, 
 were soothed from the moment her majesty landed.* 
 
 It was considered very significant that, when Major-General 
 Napier went on board the yacht on Sunday evening, he was 
 not received by the queen, whereas in Jersey her majesty on 
 arrival received Colonels Dixon and Le Breton, as the repre- 
 sentatives of the lieutenant-governor, Major-General Sir Ed- 
 ward Gibbs, who from wounds and infirmities was incapable 
 of going off in person. It was probably Sir George Grey, 
 who suggested to the queen that her presence in Guernsey 
 would test the charges of sedition and disloyalty which had 
 been so cruelly brought against its inhabitants. 
 In the afternoon, the following order was issued : 
 "The lieutenant-governor, Major-General Napier, is happy to 
 be able to communicate to the royal artillery, to her majesty's 
 27th regiment, to the royal Guernsey militia, and to the inhabit- 
 ants generally, that her majesty, at the moment of re-embarkation, 
 personally expressed to the lieutenant-governor her pleasure at 
 the reception she had met with, and her entire satisfaction with 
 the arrangements made. 
 
 (1) "Our sovereign came with healing in her hand. The rays of kindness shed from the 
 royal presence, have dissipated all the clouds that lowered on our land. The insult of 
 the Btx hundred soldiers is eflaced ; the tales of conspiracy and disaffection, got up by mise- 
 rable slanderers, are sent back with contumely to the bosom of their authors ; truth, so 
 long and so iedulously concealed, has been brought to light by the sovereign herself; and 
 Guernsey once more stands erect in the presence of its queen, rejoicing in the recognition 
 of its fidelity, and smiling with scorn on its baffled enemies."— Giternset/ Star, Sept. 2, 1846. 
 The editor of the Star and author of this extract is an English gentleman. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 423 
 
 "These are nearly her majesty's words, and the lieutenant- 
 governor feels that it would be presumptuous to add any thing 
 bevond his congratulations upon such a distinguished honour. 
 
 ■** Havilland Hall, August 24, 1846." 
 
 On Monday, the 31st of August, the inhabitants of Guern- 
 sey were assembled on the New Ground, in virtue of an 
 invitation to that effect issued by the lieutenant-governor, 
 when his excellency read to them the following letter : 
 
 " Whitehall, August 28, 1846. 
 
 " Sir, — I have the honour to inform you that I have received 
 the queen's most gracious commands to take the earliest oppor- 
 tunity of expressing to you, as lieutenant-governor of Guernsey, 
 her sense of the affectionate loyalty with which her majesty was 
 received upon the occasion of her late visit to that island. The 
 feelings of attachment and devotion to her majesty's person and 
 government, so conspicuously exhibited upon that occasion by 
 the inhabitants of Guernsey, have been, I am commanded to 
 assure you, peculiarly gratifying to her majesty ; and I am to 
 request that you will, as lieutenant-governor of the island, make 
 known these her majesty's sentiments to her faithful subjects there. 
 
 *' I beg to offer you my congratulations upon your having wit- 
 nessed the loyal demonstrations which have called forth this 
 gracious expression of her majesty's sentiments, and imposed 
 upon you a duty which, upon every account, must be gratifying 
 to your feelings. ** I have the honour to be, sir, 
 
 ** Your obedient servant, 
 " Major-General Napier, &c. &c." ** G. Grey. 
 
 The inhabitants of Guernsey being naturally desirous of 
 commemorating her majesty's visit, as just narrated, a sub- 
 scription was set on foot for that purpose ; and on the 9th of 
 December, 1846, a meeting of the subscribers was held in 
 St. Peter- Port, when it being reported that the contributions 
 amounted to nearly £ 1 ,200, it was unanimously resolved to 
 erect a tower on the spot occupied by the New Ground mill, 
 the site having been gratuitously offered by the heirs of the 
 late Peter Mourant, Esq. The Victoria Tower has since been 
 erected, at a cost of above £2,000. — The following letters best 
 continue the subject, and are well worthy of being preserved : 
 
 " Government House, Guernsey, May 27, 1848. 
 
 " Sir, — I cannot deny myself the pleasure of acquainting you 
 with certain proceedings which took place here this day, being 
 that fixed for the celebration of her majesty's birth-day. 
 
 *^ The corner stone of a very handsome tower, to be erected in 
 
424 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 commemoration of the queen's most welcome visit to Guernsey 
 in the year 1846, and to be called the Victoria Tower, was laid 
 by me in presence of the bailiff, and all the island authorities, 
 militia, and a very large proportion of the island population. 
 
 " I cannot in adequate terms describe the spirit of loyalty and 
 good feeling which appeared to pervade the whole assemblage, 
 nor do I believe that within the wide range of her majesty's 
 dominions there exists a more loyal and well-disposed people. 
 
 " New colours were afterwards presented by me, in her majes- 
 ty's name, to the four infantry regiments of the royal Guernsey 
 militia, and were received with every demonstration of gratitude 
 and attachment to her crown and person. 
 
 ** I do not venture to expect that any notification of these pro- 
 ceedings should be laid before the queen ; but there is so great 
 and striking a difference between the mere passing of a loyal 
 address by a corporate or other small body of men, and the spon- 
 taneous, enthusiastic expression of the same feeling by many 
 assembled thousands, that I cannot but hope the events of this 
 day will indirectly, if not otherwise, be brought within her ma- 
 jesty's knowledge. 
 
 " To you, sir, as well as to myself, they possess a real interest 
 which will, I trust, render it unnecessary for me to offer any 
 apology for having thus addressed you on the occasion. 
 " I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 (Signed) ** John Bell, Lieut.-Governor. 
 ♦* The Right Hon. Sir G. Grey, Bart., &c. &c." 
 
 " Whitehall, May 31, 1848. 
 " Sir, — I have had the honour of laying before the queen your 
 letter of the 27th instant, conveying to me the gratifying account 
 of the proceedings which took place in Guernsey on the occasion 
 of the celebration of her majesty's birth-day. 
 
 ** I am commanded to express to you her majesty's deep sense 
 of this new proof of the loyalty and attachment of her faithful 
 and excellent people of Guernsey ;* and I am to state that it will 
 afford her majesty great satisfaction to be able, on some future 
 occasion, again to visit the island. 
 
 ** I have the honour to be, sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 ** George Grey. 
 ** Major-Gencral Bell, &c. &c., Guernsey." 
 
 In September, 1846, two royal commissioners, T. F. Ellis 
 and T. Bros, Esqs., barristers at law, arrived in Guernsey 
 from Jersey, having been appointed by the queen to inquire 
 
 (1 ) We have the best reasons for believing that these were the queen's own words to the 
 secretary of state, when her m^iesty directed him to acknowledge the conununication of 
 JMajor-Gencral Bell. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 425 
 
 into the criminal laws of the Channel Islands. Their report, 
 minutes of evidence, records, &c., relating to the bailiwick, 
 occupy no less than 390 folio pages ; so that it is utterly 
 impossible for us to give even a digest of the same, which 
 however is the less material as very few of their recommend- 
 ations have as yet been carried out, or seem at present likely 
 to be. The following extracts from the report are interesting : 
 
 "The criminal law of Guernsey is derived from sources similar 
 to those pointed out in our first report, as the origin of the criminal 
 law in Jersey ; namely, first, the customary law ; secondly, the 
 charters ; thirdly, the orders of the sovereign in council ; fourthly, 
 the ordinances of the local legislature ; fifthly, certain statutes of 
 the realm. 
 
 "The royal court claim and have exercised, from the beginning 
 of the fifteenth century, the right of acting as a legislative body 
 at certain courts, called Chefs Plaids. The royal court consists 
 of the bailiff and twelve jurats. The Chefs Plaids are held three 
 times in the year : on the first Monday after the 15th January ; 
 the first Monday after Easter week ; and the first Monday after 
 the 29th of September. The bailiff and at least seven jurats, 
 with the procureur and controle de la reine, constitute these courts. 
 The governor, also, has the right to be present ; the crown vassals 
 attend to do homage ; and one of the constables of each parish is 
 also bound to appear, by virtue of an ordinance of the Chefs 
 Plaids made in the early part of the present century. The law 
 is, in fact, always proposed by the law officers of the crown. 
 The enacting power rests with the bailiff and jurats alone, after 
 hearing the conclusions of the law officers; if the votes be equally 
 balanced, the bailiff has a casting vote, besides his original vote. 
 But the constables have the right of making observations in favour 
 or disapproval of any proposition submitted to the court. Private 
 individuals also, whose interests are likely to be affected by the 
 proposed law, may be heard in person or by counsel against it. 
 The governor possesses no veto ; but, in the event of any provi- 
 sion affecting his rights or duties, it is usual to submit it to him 
 for his approval prior to its being proposed ; and, although his 
 consent is not necessary to its enactment, it would probably, in 
 the absence of such consent, be disallowed by the privy council 
 on his complaint. The laws so passed are called Ordonnances. 
 They take effect by the mere power of the royal court without the 
 intervention or approbation of the lords of your majesty's privy 
 council, or the assent of your majesty's governor in the island, or 
 the concurrence of the general body of the people. 
 
 "The origin of a power so extensive is not clearly ascertained, 
 nor the limits within which it can be lawfully exercised accurately 
 defined. We were referred to an article contained in an order in 
 
426 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 council, of the date of 1568, as the earliest recognition of this 
 right by the crown. 
 
 **The jurats, in an answer transmitted to the privy council on 
 the 10th of January, 1737, thus define the powers of the royal 
 court : * We never pretended to be invested with the power and 
 authority of making laws, and it is what neither we nor our pre- 
 decessors before us ever assumed ; but we beg to acquaint your 
 lordships that this court has always, as well by the nature of our 
 constitution as by virtue of sundry charters from the crown, and 
 other express orders in council, deemed itself authorized and 
 empowered to make regulations, and set down such rules and 
 methods as were necessary for enforcing and putting in due exe- 
 cution the laws of the island.' The practice, however, has greatly 
 exceeded these limits. 
 
 " It has already been stated that all laws, exceeding the limit 
 within which the ordinances of the royal court are confined, re- 
 quire the confirmation of your majesty in council. This extends 
 to laws passed by the States of the island, as distinguished from 
 ordinances of the royal court in Chefs Plaids. 
 
 " The history of the States is involved in much obscurity. It 
 is probable that they originally were constituted on the model of 
 the Trois Etats in Normandy ; the bailiff and jurats corresponding 
 with the noblesse ; the rectors of the parishes answering to the 
 clergy ; and the douzaines, an elected body in each parish, repre- 
 senlins: the Tiers Etat. 
 
 "We have described at length the legislative functions of the 
 court, sitting in Chefs Plaids. Powers so extensive and undefined 
 appear to us inconsistent with the legislative powers exercised 
 over the bailiwick by your majesty in council, and irreconcileable 
 with any tiling like popular principles. 
 
 " According to the theory of the Guernsey constitution, the 
 jurats may on one day, sitting in a court of Chefs Plaids, make 
 an ordonnance without the consent of your majesty, against the 
 will of the functionary representing the crown in the island, and 
 without consulting the body of the States ; and, on the next, sitting 
 as a court of justice, may proceed to put their own construction 
 on it and to execute the law of their own making, without their 
 decision, in any matter of criminal law, being capable of review 
 by any superior authority. It would be consistent with the due 
 exercise of the legislative power that the States should frame laws 
 for the island, subject to your majesty's concurrence. But it is 
 contrary to the ordinary exercise of your majesty's high prero- 
 gative that the legislative power, which in Guernsey resides in 
 the crown, should be delegated to one of the three estates of the 
 island so as to render that body capable of enacting laws without 
 your majesty's concurrence. This power of the royal court in 
 Guernsey could have had no legal origin except from a grant by 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 427 
 
 the sovereign. It seems to us doubtful whether it must not, from 
 its nature, be referred to usurpation. But, at any rate, we sub- 
 mit to your majesty that it would more properly be confided to 
 the whole body of the States, and that it ought not to be permitted 
 to rest in the royal court. ^ 
 
 *' In suggesting the changes which we think expedient, it is our 
 desire not to interfere unnecessarily with existing institutions 
 which long habit has rendered congenial to the inhabitants, and 
 which their want of intercourse with other countries causes them 
 to value, in our opinion, above their real worth. We are anxious 
 not to offend even the prejudices of a people who are devotedly 
 attached to your majesty's person and government, who are for 
 the most part satisfied with the existing state of things, and who 
 do not feel the force of many of the objections which strike us as 
 of the greatest moment. The island does not as yet present the 
 same party struggle which exists in Jersey. The population of 
 Guernsey is much smaller, the influx of strangers less, the course 
 of life more stagnant,^ the intelligence of the people less active, 
 and their influence on the local government of the island less 
 direct. These causes present a reason for non-interference which 
 does not exist in the former case, and induce us to suggest a 
 remedy less complete, than that which we have suggested in our 
 first report. We think, however, that certain alterations are 
 imperatively required. 
 
 " In the constitution of Guernsey, the political power resides 
 almost exclusively in the same individuals who are entrusted with 
 the administration of justice. The bailiff and jurats possess the 
 legislative, and, to a great extent, the executive power, as well as 
 the judicial ; so that it becomes impossible to propose any change 
 in the constitution of the royal court, which shall not involve a 
 considerable alteration of the political institutions of the island. 
 We are thus compelled to propose changes which extend beyond 
 a reform of the criminal law of Guernsey, and yet are necessarily 
 suggested by the consideration of the constitution of the tribunals 
 entrusted with its administration. 
 
 " We recommend that legislation by the court in Chefs Plaids 
 should be entirely abolished. We suggest that the enactment of 
 local laws, for the future, should be confided to the States of 
 Deliberation with the assent of the lieutenant-governor, as the 
 representative of your majesty. 
 
 "The court in Alderney consists of a president, called the 
 
 (1) We entirely concur in this suggestion of the royal commissioners, especially if the 
 States were made more popular. 
 
 (2) This stagnation is, we conceive, in some measure owing to the little direct influence 
 which the people exercise in the initiating and enacting of the insular laws : thus the 
 new harbour works, now at last in the course of erection, were not undertaken when they 
 were most called for and most required, and when their cost would have been much less 
 felt than at present, because the commercial classes, who offered to be taxed for them, 
 had no voice in the matter. 
 
428 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 jndge, and six jurats, two crown officers, called, as in Guernsey, 
 the procureur and controle, the g;reffier and the prevot. 
 
 ** The judge receives his appointment from your majesty.^ The 
 six jurats are elected for life by the rate-payers of the island : if, 
 from infirmity, they desire to resign, they apply to the States of 
 Alderney, who transmit the application to the royal court of 
 Guernsey, which decides upon it. The procureur, controle, and 
 greffier, also receive their appointments from the crown. The 
 prevot is an officer named by the States of the island : he formerly 
 held office for a year only ; but, within the last four or five years, 
 the Alderney court of Chefs Plaids have passed an ordonnance 
 making the office perpetual. The prevote consists of twelve 
 persons; these serve for twelve years, if they live so long ; but, 
 in case of death, the place is filled up. The twelve hold, in rota- 
 tion, the office of deputy prevot for one year. 
 
 "There are also two constables and two deputy constables, 
 chosen by the court. They are annual officers, the two who have 
 been chosen as deputy constables for one year, becoming constables 
 for the year following. 
 
 " The procureur has an annual salary of £40. The controle 
 has no salary ; and that office at present is not filled up, the 
 procureur being the only advocate in the island. 
 
 "The jurisdiction of the court of Alderney, in matters of a 
 criminal nature, is confined to a preliminary investigation into 
 the fact of crime. It may examine, and, if satisfied that the 
 charge is without foundation, may dismiss the complaint; but it 
 possesses no power of trial or punishment. When an offence is 
 committed in Alderney, the party charged is apprehended by the 
 constable, and brought before the judge and at least two jurats. 
 The witnesses are examined, and the interrogatoire of the prisoner 
 taken by the court. The examinations are then reduced to wri- 
 ting ; and, if the court is of opinion that there is sufficient evidence 
 to put the prisoner on his trial, an act of court is made referring 
 the matter to the royal court in Guernsey. This mode of pro- 
 ceeding is provided by an order in council of the 21st of June, 
 1585, which directs that the jurats of Alderney * shall refer 
 criminal causes to the royal court, as was always the custom.* 
 The prisoner is committed to the custody of the prevot of Alder- 
 ney, whose duty it is to convey him to Guernsey. 
 
 ** The court of Alderney also has the power of making local 
 ordonnances, in the nature of police regulations, and for the repair 
 and maintenance of the highways, obedience being enforced by a 
 fine. The ordonnances must be made either at a court of Chefs 
 Plaids or at a meeting of the States. These are constituted of 
 the same members ; but the States meet whenever there is occa- 
 
 (1) The jadge has a salary of j^l50 a year, which is certainly insufficient, now that 
 Alderney, from its naval station and fortifications, has become of so much importance. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 429 
 
 sion ; the Chefs Plaids only twice in the year, on the first Monday 
 after Michaelmas and the first Monday after the 15th of January. 
 The body consists of the judge, the six jurats, the crown officers, 
 and the douzaine, which last is a body of twelve, elected by the 
 rate-payers of the island for life, or until they obtain permission, 
 for infirmity, to be discharged. The governor also has the right 
 of being present ; and, when he cannot attend in person, he 
 deputes some one who takes the oaths as lieutenant-governor for 
 the occasion. 
 
 " The constables in Alderney are mere officers of police, and 
 have no place in the court sitting in Chefs Plaids, nor in the States. 
 
 "The judge, and at least two jurats and seven douzeniers, with 
 one of the crown officers, must be present to constitute the court. 
 The enacting power resides with the jurats alone, the bailiff, in 
 case of an equality of numbers, giving a casting vote. The crown 
 officers and the members of the douzaine are, however, both con- 
 sulted. The course is, upon a measure being proposed, for the 
 judg^e, first, to ask the opinions of the crown officers. After they 
 have been heard, the opinion of the douzaine is aj^ked through 
 the |>resident, who is the senior member; after which the jurats 
 decide on the proposition, which thereupon becomes law, and is 
 binding on the inhabitants of Alderney. 
 
 " An appeal against its enactment lies to the royal court in 
 Guernsey, which has power to annul an ordonnance of the court 
 of Alderney. It is however contended, in Alderney, that the 
 Guernsey court has no power to make an ordonnance binding on 
 the inhabitants of Alderney, and that no one can be summoned 
 before it for the breach of an ordonnance made by the court in 
 Alderney, the jurisdiction of the Guernsey court in such case 
 being only appellate. 
 
 '* Besides the making of ordonnances, the taxes for the relief 
 of the poor are raised, and the value of the wheat rents for the 
 year are fixed, at the court of Chefs Plaids. 
 
 " At present, the court at Sark consists of the seneschal or his 
 deputy, who is the judge of the court ; the prevot, who acts in 
 the threefold character of procureur, serjeant, and prevot ; and 
 the greffier. These officers are all appointed by the lord, and 
 sworn in before the royal court in Guernsey. 
 
 ** The seneschal of Sark has complete jurisdiction in the case 
 of petty offences, having the power of punishing by way of fine 
 to the amount of three livres tournois, and by imprisonment to 
 the extent of three times twenty-four hours. In all cases which 
 require a severer punishment, he is bound to send the case before 
 the royal court in Guernsey. 
 
 "The island is divided into forty tenements held of the lord, 
 which, by letters patent of the 9th of James I., were made rnca- 
 
430 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 pable of partition. The holders of the forty tenements, with the 
 lord, the seneschal, the prevot, and the greffier, now constitute 
 the court of Chefs Plaids in Sark. The lord must be present in 
 person, or by some one authorized to appear for him. The senes- 
 chal or his deputy presides. No one has a vote at the Chefs 
 Plaids who is not a tenant. 
 
 '*Ordonnances are passed there for roads, and rates are im- 
 posed for the maintenance of the poor and other purposes of local 
 taxation and police. After the project has been dii?cussed and 
 adopted by the votes of the majority of the tenants, the seneschal 
 requests the assent of the lord to its enactment. If it is given, 
 the ordonnance is registered, and has immediately the force of 
 law. If, on the contrary, the lord withholds his consent, no 
 registration takes place ; but the majority of the tenants may 
 appeal to the royal court of Guernsey, who claim the right of 
 compelling the registration of the ordonnance, and thus giving it 
 the force of law. There seems reason for doubting whether this 
 power resides in the royal court, as it is denied that the royal 
 court, sitting in Chefs Plaids, can make an ordonnance to bind the 
 inhabitants of Sark. It is, however, not disputed that it possesses 
 the power of reviewing ordonnances made by the court of Sark, 
 and annulling those which are contrary to a known superior law. 
 
 " The Chefs Plaids also appoint two police officers, namely, a 
 constable and a vingtenier. Each office is held for a year, the 
 vingtenier of one year becoming the constable of the year fol- 
 lowing." 
 
 Two Earthquakes in Guernsey, — On Friday, December 22, 
 1843, at 3h. 63m. p.m., a loud rumbling noise was heard in 
 every part of the island, accompanied by one or two shocks, 
 which lasted about four seconds. Persons out of doors felt 
 the earth heave under them, in some cases so violently as to 
 compel them to lay hold of the nearest object for support. 
 The banks and hedges appeared to be in motion, and in the 
 houses the furniture was rocked. Buildings were distinctly 
 seen to heave and shake, as well as the pier walls of St. Peter- 
 Port and the massive quay of St. Sampson's harbour. The 
 vane of the town church was violently agitated, and the bell 
 struck twice. The inhabitants, unaccustomed as they are to 
 such convulsions of nature, did not at first attribute the shock 
 to its real cause. No damage was done beyond the fall of a 
 few tiles, bricks, &c. The shock was felt precisely at the 
 same time in Jersey and Sark ; and the sea was during the 
 greater part of the day in an unsettled state, although the 
 weather was then, and had been for some days, quite calm. 
 The crews of two vessels, which were beating about the roads, 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 431 
 
 distinctly felt the shock, as did some persons, in a fishing boat 
 at anchor, about half a mile to the southward of the island. 
 On Friday, April 1, 1853, at lOh. 30m. p.m., a strong 
 shock was also felt throughout the island ; to some the effects 
 being like a violent gust of wind, and to others like the rolling 
 of a heavy carriage, or the distant detonation of electricity. 
 Many who were in bed, but awake, felt an upheaving, and 
 heard the rattling of the furniture ; while others asleep were 
 awoke by the concussion, and, springing up, rushed alarmed 
 out of their rooms. The height of the barometer was 29.40, 
 and rising at the time ; the night fine and starry : and there 
 was no previous indication of the forthcoming phenomenon. 
 The shock was felt at about the same time at Jersey, South- 
 ampton, Portsmouth, Coutances, Caen, Rennes, Nantes, &c. 
 
 Having in Chapter XX. described the state of Guernsey 
 about the year 1775, we must not conclude the general his- 
 tory of the island without a brief notice of its aspect and 
 condition in 1854, whereby will be seen at a glance the won- 
 derful changes which have occurred in the short space of 
 eighty years — changes evidently greater than in several pre- 
 ceding centuries — so altered are the habits and manners of 
 the natives of all ranks. Now, the usual dinner hour of the 
 upper classes is from four to five o'clock, and for company 
 an hour or two later ; while they go to balls at nine or ten 
 o'clock, hours at which their great grandfathers returned 
 from them. Excellent roads intersect the island in all direc- 
 tions ; and private and hack carriages and pair, or with one 
 horse, are very common ; even the country people coming to 
 market on Saturdays in their one-horse chaise. The com- 
 munication with England and France by steamers is so easy 
 and certain, that the inhabitants think much less of a trip to 
 London or Paris, or on the Loire and Rhine, than they did 
 formerly of a passage to Southampton or St. Malo : thus 
 many go annually to Vichy, in the south of France, and to 
 the baths in Germany, for the benefit of their waters. A 
 passenger who leaves Guernsey at nine o'clock, a.m., reaches 
 London, via Southampton, at ten o'clock the same evening. 
 
 Among the modern public buildings in St. Peter-Port are 
 the court-house ; gaol ; meat, fish, and vegetable markets ; 
 the college ; the churches of Trinity, St. James, and St. 
 John's ; Bethel chapel ; Victoria tower ; and the militia 
 arsenal. The hospital has also been considerably enlarged. 
 The assembly rooms were built by private subscription in 
 
432 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 1782. The old town, although from the solidity and dura- 
 bility of the houses not susceptible of much change, has been 
 greatly improved within the present century, and a few of 
 the streets have flagged footpaths. In the island, there are 
 some five and twenty dissenting chapels ; so that sectarians 
 lack not. — There are three newspapers ; two in English and 
 one (Gazette) in French ; (the Star published three times and 
 the Comet twice a week ;) many printing presses ; and several 
 booksellers, who sell English publications at a lower price 
 than in London. — In 1775, there was not a single hot or 
 green-house ; now there are some hundred graperies and 
 conservatories. — The islanders are kept alive by the presence 
 of nine physicians, fifteen surgeons, three dentists, and eleven 
 druggists ! And yet there was formerly so little inducement 
 for medical men to practise in Guernsey, that, on the 12th of 
 October, 1632, the States granted "to Mr. Samuel de la 
 Place, minister of the church, and exercising the profession 
 of medicine in this island, the annual sum of twelve quarters 
 of wheat, as a pension, to be paid by all the parishes according 
 to the accustomed rates ; " and, for above a century subse- 
 quently, the few resident practitioners were chiefly Frenchmen 
 of low origin and very doubtful professional ability. In the 
 early part of the present century, scarcely a medical man 
 kept either horse or vehicle ; and when a countryman re- 
 quired his attendance, which was rarely, he brought his own 
 nag for the use of " Monsieur le Docteur." 
 
 High street and Fountain street have been widened : the 
 houses in the former have been converted into shops, and the 
 descendants of those who once occupied them have removed 
 to "the w^est end," or into the country. The town of St. 
 Peter- Port has more than doubled in extent and population, 
 and the streets, shops, and many private dwellings, are lighted 
 with gas ; but unfortunately there are now some 150 houses 
 untenanted and to be let, because since free trade has been 
 wisely adopted in England, the strangers, who lived in 
 Guernsey for the sake of cheapness, have returned home : it 
 was about the year 1825 that they commenced coming over 
 as residents, and about 1850 that the majority left the island. 
 But many are still induced to come over and remain for the 
 mildness of the climate, especially during the winter months. 
 
 In contemplating some of these changes, we cannot but 
 regret that the early habits and the economy of former years 
 have not been more preserved, as late hours and costly enter- 
 tainments, few and far between, have destroyed sociability. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 433 
 
 Large houses, several servants, and costly furniture, are ill 
 adapted to our limited area, depressed commerce, and equal 
 laws of inheritance ; ^ and it is painful to think that many old 
 families will struggle in vain to preserve a respectable station. 
 The islanders have, in their style of living, copied too much 
 from England ; but a soiree a la Fran^aise would become 
 them more than champagne dinners and suppers, which often 
 partake quite as much of ostentation as of hospitality. Very 
 gloomy anticipations are generally entertained as regards the 
 future prosperity of the island ; and, casting aside the tram- 
 mels of custom and bad example, it were wise to return to 
 the more rational visiting of the last century. There has, 
 however, been a great change for the better in the disappear- 
 ance of inebriety ; and any individual guilty of excess at 
 parties, would now be scouted from all genteel society. 
 Happily, intellectual have in a great measure replaced sen- 
 sual enjoyments ; and he who loves to dwell on " the wisdom 
 of our ancestors" should remember that on most points we 
 possess all their wisdom, with much more experience ; for we 
 Jive in an age unparalleled in the great advances which have 
 been made in every branch of human enterprise and science. 
 
 From the MS. of a Guernsey jurat, now deceased, written 
 in 1839 or 1840, we extract the following : 
 
 " A few alterations in things within ray recollection, that is, 
 within sixty years, or since 1780, when I was twelve years old, 
 and first went to school in England. 
 
 ^'' Dress for Men. — Powder was universally worn, with a tail 
 or a club, which I found most troublesome. Cocked hats, except 
 for boys, who sometimes wore round. Buckles, which by kicking 
 made my shins very sore. Short breeches with knee buckles, 
 often leather with top boots. No Wellington trousers or boots ; 
 no morning frock coats; although the body coats were much 
 longer than the present ones, and waistcoats were much longer 
 than they are now made. No black or coloured cravats. 
 
 ^^ Dress for Women. — Powder universal, commonly of the 
 reddish cast, with high head dresses. (The powder tax of Pitt 
 did more for the beauty and the ornament of women than all the 
 mantua-makers and hair-dressers in the world.) Hoops in com- 
 mon use, when dressed out. Long waists, and uncovered bosoms 
 and arms. High heels to the shoes, which made the women shock- 
 ing walkers. More silk than cotton dresses. Chintzes common." 
 
 ** Shipping. — The merchant ships are much larger and finer 
 
 (1) One of the follies of the times is a needlessly expensive funeral, by which a family 
 is often put to inconvenience. In North America, the relatives and friends usually attend 
 without being supplied with hat- bands and gloves. 
 
 2e 
 
434 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 now than at that period, and they were tlien never coppered. 
 The king's ships are perhaps even more improved, and the 
 sailing of both has kept pace with these improvements; but there 
 was a class of vessels which, when a boy, were my admiration, 
 and I could never cease gazing upon them — I mean the cutters 
 and luggers, — the Resolution, cutter privateer, with many others : 
 the Alarm, lugger, was also a beauty ; and the smugglers, with 
 their athletic crews, who looked and lived like gentlemen. How 
 many happy hours they have made me pass, by merely looking 
 at them. That hardy race is gone by, and is, it would seem, 
 extinct; for even the present luggers and cutters^ are no more to 
 be compared to them than the old ships of war to the present 
 ones. — Smuggling, with all its faults, had its advantages too, as 
 it created and kept up a bold and active race of seamen. 
 
 *'*' Improvements. — The great improvements in my time are the 
 recent ones of steam-boats, railroads, gas, and so many in the 
 comforts of life, produced by the instrument of steam, that it is 
 impossible to enumerate them. Small windows, low roofs, and 
 small apartments were the chief evils of dwelling houses ; but 
 they had one convenience which I now always miss — fixed seats 
 to the windows. In furniture, no sofas, and most uncomfortable 
 chairs with straight backs. No silver forks, knives bad, small 
 spoons, and very small tea cups, though more frequently of real 
 China than are now to be found. Bread, shocking in the island. 
 The white wines drank were Mountain and Lisbon ; good Port ; 
 little good Claret, and no Champagne. No hot-house fruits, or 
 evergreens ; but beautiful flowers in abundance, — I think more 
 so than at present; and fruit, I should say, was also more abun- 
 dant — peaches, nectarines, golden pippins, and codlins : the two 
 last are nearly extinct. 
 
 *' Society. — There was much more conviviality than at present. 
 As a proof of this, the number of clubs, especially of the ladies. 
 Cards were more in fashion, and the hours of meeting conduced 
 more to society. We dined at one, and I believe that two or 
 three was the dinner hour for company. The New Ground and 
 the Pier, of a Sunday, were much more brilliant than they are 
 now, notwithstanding our mighty improvements. Our public 
 walks are so deserted that one would often be tempted to believe 
 there was no one left in the island. The many clubs then in the 
 country for gentlemen are another proof of the difference of the 
 times. I believe our ancestors were happier and wiser than 
 ourselves, notwithstanding our boastings and the march of intel- 
 lect which we so modestly assume." 
 
 (1) In 1840 there were no luggers, and the writer appears to have forgotten the 
 modern cutter yachts, which are very handsome vessels. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 435 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 * COMMEECIAL AND STATISTICAL. 
 
 Notwithstanding that Guernsey possesses the only natural 
 harbour, (St. Sampson's,) and the best roadstead in these 
 islands, her commerce and navigation appear to have been 
 extremely limited up to the close of the sixteenth century, 
 because neither one nor the other could long exist to any 
 extent without the necessary facilities, such as piers, quays, 
 slips, kc. ; and the pier of St. Peter-Port was only com- 
 menced about the year 1580. Anterior to that period, the 
 chief occupation of the inhabitants was farming and fishing, 
 and they led an almost patriarchal life : the island produced 
 sufficient food for their own consumption, while the conger 
 and mackerel fishery, in early times a staple branch of com- 
 merce, and, after its decline, the knitting of woollen stockings, 
 frocks, (fee, enabled them to supply their few external wants. 
 We cannot reconcile the statements of Henry De Vic and 
 Heylin, relative to the shipping of Guernsey early in the 
 seventeenth century. The former, in August, 1627, wrote as 
 follows : " For it must be by manufacture that they shall 
 subsist, the islands affording no commodities of their own to 
 vend abroad, and having no shipping to transport foreign 
 commodities from one kingdom to the other." — On the other 
 hand, Heylin, who visited the islands in March, 1629, says, 
 with " the conveniency of the peer, which is also warranted 
 with six peece of good cannon from the town, it is no marvell 
 if the people betake themselves so much unto the trade of 
 merchandize. Nor do they traffic only in small boats between 
 St. Malo and the islands, as those of Jarsey, but are masters 
 of good stout barks, and venture into all these neerer ports of 
 Christendom." This is a palpable contradiction as regards 
 Guernsey ; but as De Vic, who was a Guernseyman, was 
 soliciting some favor for the islands from the English govern- 
 ment, his object was perhaps to prove them more indigent 
 than they really were. After mentioning that the poorer 
 sort were "exceeding cunning" in the manufacture of wool, 
 which was the principal export, Heylin, as will be seen in 
 Chapter X., expatiates on the benefits to the island of the 
 
436 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 privilege of neutrality. On this last point, he evidently copies 
 Camden, as they both restrict the privilege to Guernsey only, 
 whereas it certainly extended to Jersey. We cannot discover, 
 however, that the privilege was attended with much benefit 
 to the commerce of Guernsey ; and although maintained by 
 the royal court and respected by the sovereign in council, it 
 appears to have been very dependent on the caprice or cupi- 
 dity of the governors — especially of Sir Thomas Leighton — as 
 is proved by several acts of the royal court and orders of the 
 lords of the council, from 1586 to 1667. Thus, we learn by 
 a decision of the royal commissioners, in 1607, " that in 
 November, 1594, George Paulet, then lieutenant here, by 
 order from Sir Thomas Leighton, did arrest a ship of St. Malo, 
 coming from Newfoundland, laden with fish and train oil, 
 supposing the same to belong to her majesty's enemies, which 
 ship was afterwards, by the bailiff and jurats, ordered to be 
 released ; and yet, notwithstanding, the said lieutenant would 
 not release the said ship and goods, until Robert Bowlin 
 entered into bond in the sum of 500 crowns, with condition to 
 procure a discharge for the said ship and goods from the lords 
 of the council within four months. Whereupon the inhabit- 
 ants, finding the arrest of the said ship to be prejudicial to 
 their ancient privileges and liberties, employed Andrew Har- 
 ris, jurat, to procure a discharge as well of the said ship as of 
 the said bond, which discharge was granted by the lords, 
 bearing date April 30, 1595." — Returning to the privilege 
 of neutrality, it must be remembered that in those days there 
 were numerous free ports in Europe, which taking no share 
 in the wars, possessed all its advantages ; for instance, the 
 towns and cities of the celebrated Hanseatic league, and the 
 free and commercial states of Italy. Falle mentions that du- 
 ring the greatest heat of the war about La Rochelle and the 
 isle of Rhe, (1627,) the hosiers of Paris and Rouen had free 
 access to these islands, and carried oft* many bales of stock- 
 ings, as those of Coutances continued to do, down to the reign 
 of Charles II. And yet during the civil war* and after the 
 Restoration, the islanders had already commenced privateer- 
 ing, which they continued with so much success, as before 
 related, after the revolution of 1688. 
 
 In 1680, the description, name, and burthen in tons, of the 
 vessels belonging to Guernsey were as follow : ' 
 
 (I) Mr. Peter Carey deposed that Colonel Rnssell, the parliamentary lieutenant-governor 
 of Quernoey, had given commissions to sea captains ; tliat he seized on the prizes brought 
 into the island, and disposed of them according to his pleasure. 
 
 (8) The list before us gives also the names of the owners and masters ; of the latter, a 
 few appear to have been of the best families. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 437 
 
 ***Pinke' Society, 120; *barke' Providence, 70; pinke 
 John, 50; ketch St. Peter, 40; total, 280 tons, or 70 tons aver- 
 age: these four vessels English built, and then at Newfoundland. 
 
 *< Pinke Palm Tree, 100; pinke — , 80; pinke Robert, 60; 
 barke Elizabeth, 30; ketch Mary, 25; double shallop David, 8; 
 and hoy Success, 8 ; total, 311 tons, or about 44 tons average, 
 and these seven vessels also English built. 
 
 " Barke Hopewell, 30; barke Peter, 30; barke William, 20; 
 barke — ,18; barke Adventure, 15; and barke William, 10; 
 total, 123 tons, or 20J tons average : these six vessels, and also 
 *a ship called the Charles,' of which the tonnage is not given, 
 French built." 
 
 Grand total, exclusive of the Charles : seventeen vessels of 
 the united burthen of 714 tons, or 42 tons each, average, the 
 vrhole probably not carrying more than one modern ship 
 of 500 tons. 
 
 Previous to the cessation of the privilege of neutrality by 
 William III. in his order in council of August 8, 1689, the 
 internal trade of Guernsey, was confined to the import and 
 knitting of wool, while the external consisted of a very small 
 share in the New^foundland fishery, and the employment of a 
 few vessels to and from the neighbouring ports of England 
 and France. At this time, about 6,000 pair of stockings 
 average are calculated to have been made weekly in Jersey, 
 half at least of the population there depending upon the 
 manufacture ; and allowing half that number for Guernsey, 
 or 150,000 pair per annum, at one pound of wool for three 
 pair, 2,000 tods of wool were required yearly for the stocking 
 manufacture in the latter island alone. Living frugally on 
 their small estates, or on their " rentes," or engaged in some 
 retail business in St. Peter- Port, the upper ranks had little 
 inducement to enter into extraneous commerce, for which 
 their habits unfitted them. These "rentes," being usually 
 paid in kind, it happened subsequently in good harvests that 
 the large holder knew not how to dispose of the wheat, and 
 he occasionally sent it to Spain, as was the case about the 
 year 1750, when Mr. Carey, of the Vrangue, agreed with 
 those who owed him wheat " rentes" to exchange them for 
 money " rentes " at seven livres, or ten shillings per quarter. 
 These "rentes" in 1811 and 1812 would have been other- 
 wise payable at twenty-eight livres, or £2 per quarter. 
 
 The commerce of Guernsey, in any way worthy of the 
 name, dates its origin from the reign of William and Mary, 
 when the English merchants came over, to purchase the 
 
438 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 French goods captured by the privateers, and particularly 
 brandies, which met with a ready sale. When peace was 
 restored, new ideas of trade gradually developed themselves 
 among the inhabitants, who had now acquired some capi- 
 tal. The funding system, perfected by William III., gained 
 ground in England, and that money, which the government 
 acquired easily, was spent unsparingly. As a natural con- 
 sequence, the duties were increased to meet an increased 
 national expenditure, and at every increase the temptation to 
 evade these duties became stronger. The English smuggler 
 resorted to Guernsey for his cargoes of spirits, tobacco, tea, 
 and other highly taxed commodities, for which he found a 
 ready and profitable sale on his own coast ; and it cannot be 
 a matter of surprise if the inhabitants were induced to import 
 and keep in store the goods constantly in demand. Another 
 lucrative branch of trade also arose from the entrepot, or 
 deposit, of wines, spirits, and other foreign goods destined for 
 legal entry into Great Britain and Ireland ; because, as the 
 duties, which often far exceeded the original cost of the goods, 
 were exacted on importation, the merchant was compelled to 
 have recourse to some secure deposit, whence he could receive 
 his goods as he sold or required them. Wines, particularly, 
 as they improve with age and care, were sent hither for that 
 purpose. Thus Guernsey was to the British merchants what 
 the bonding warehouses now are ; and immense vaults and 
 stores were in consequence constructed, which, being durably 
 built with stone, will long remain as sad monuments of gone- 
 by prosperity. 
 
 With these advantages the trade of the island slowly but 
 progressively increased ; but, until the commencement of the 
 first American war, in 1775, it appears to have been confined 
 chiefly to importing and selling spirits, &:c., to the English 
 smugglers, and to receiving goods in deposit, as the insular 
 shipping then consisted of only four or five square-rigged 
 vessels, and a few sloops and cutters. From this time, how- 
 ever, it began to augment rapidly, owing to a combination of 
 favourable circumstances in quick succession, and which in a 
 few years raised the commercial prosperity of Guernsey to 
 the highest pitch — far higher than she will probably ever 
 attain again. To defray the enormous expenditure of the 
 wars commencing in 1775 and 1793, new and higher duties 
 were levied by the British government ; and as the temptation 
 to smuggling increased, so this island became a larger deposi- 
 tory of goods than ever. Many privateers were also fitted 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 439 
 
 out, and proved very successful. Moreover, the disturbed state 
 of France, during the revolution, naturally induced the ex- 
 portation of goods from that country to a place of security ; 
 and vrines, brandies, &c., were brought over to Guernsey in 
 such quantities, that the vaults and warehouses, numerous 
 and capacious as they are, were totally inadequate to their 
 lodgment, so that some cargoes were stored in fields, under 
 temporary coverings. A single merchant received, for account 
 of one firm in London, 2,491 hogsheads and 17 cases of Claret 
 and Hermitage, by American vessels from Bordeaux, in 1795. 
 About the same time the pier of St. Peter-Port was frequently 
 crammed to the very mouth, and there were some twenty 
 or thirty vessels in the roadstead waiting to enfer. 
 
 Although this island was greatly benefitted by the illicit 
 trade, yet it was far less injurious to the United Kingdom, 
 than if carried on from the continent, w^hither the smuggler 
 would otherwise have resorted for his supplies, and paid for 
 them in specie. Many a cargo of brandy, then imported 
 into Guernsey, was purchased with one of Bi'itish pilchards 
 or codfish ; and, above all, the smuggling vessels, with their 
 daring crews, were, on the breaking out of each war, con- 
 verted into privateers ; and while they enriched the islands, 
 as well as England, proved a serious annoyance to the enemy. 
 These palliating circumstances, and a knowledge that smug- 
 gling from the continent could not be prevented unless by 
 strictly guarding the British coast, probably induced the 
 government to pause in suppressing the traffic from these 
 islands, as its attention w^as frequently drawn to the subject. 
 " In 1709, an order in council was obtained by the island, 
 which repealed former orders procured, ex-parte, by the 
 commissioners of customs, tending to establish their ofiicers 
 in this island. In 1717, an authentic act of the States of 
 Guernsey, dated 6th March, proves that the lords of the 
 treasury, wishing to establish custom-house officers in the 
 island, judged it necessary to obtain the consent of the States, 
 which were then moved to take the proposal into considera- 
 tion, and unanimously rejected it. In 1720 and 1722, other 
 attempts were made by the commissioners of customs ; a 
 deputy was sent over by the island, and again prevailed in 
 council. In 1767, an order in council did, for a short time, 
 impose restrictions on the trade of the island," ^ as did another 
 in 1771 ; but, on a representation of their inutility and inex- 
 pediency, the Government was soon induced to allow them 
 
 (I) Appendix to the Rights and Immunities of Guernsey, 1805. 
 
440 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 to remain dormant; although in 1767, the registrar's office, or 
 custom-house, was estabhshed in Guernsey with the follow- 
 ing appointments and salaries : 
 
 A registrar £60 
 
 A waiter and searcher £40 
 
 Two boatmen, and to keep a boat £50 
 
 £150 
 And in Jersey : "■— ~ 
 
 A registrar £60 
 
 Two waiters and searchers, each £40 £80 
 
 Two boatmen, and to keep a boat £50 
 
 £190 
 
 In Chapter XXI., the suppression of the illicit trade in 
 1805 was briefly noticed. — By the act of parhament for the 
 purpose in that year, and by another passed in 1807, such 
 regulations and restrictions were enforced as, without touch- 
 ing on the legal commerce of the islanders, attained the 
 desired object. Every opposition was, naturally, at first 
 offered to these enactments — the late Bailiff Brock, then a 
 jurat, was sent to London as a deputy of the States, to pro- 
 test against them — and it was urged that they were not only 
 subversive of our most sacred rights and charters, repeatedly 
 confirmed by different sovereigns since the conquest, but that 
 they were impolitic and inexpedient. But the moment it 
 was perceived in the island that the government was deter- 
 mined to effect the suppression, the merchants resolved to 
 discountenance the traffic ; and the royal court completed by 
 its ordinances what the acts of parliament, sent over with and 
 confirmed by orders in council, had begun. These acts and 
 orders were framed with as much regard as possible to the 
 privileges of the island ; their provisions extended only to 
 goods and ships at sea, or afloat ; they altered nothing on 
 shore ; the civil jurisdiction, police, and laws of the island, 
 remained intact. The chief feature of the new acts was, that 
 they extended the laws for the suppression of smuggling 
 generally to the distance of one hundred leagues from the 
 United Kingdom, instead of a few leagues from the coast, as 
 before ; and thus brought the Anglo-Norman Islands, with 
 respect to all goods afloat, within the operation of those laws. 
 
 At the same epoch, another measure conspired to deprive 
 Guernsey of both the particular branches of trade which 
 she had so long enjoyed. We have said that the acts of 1805 
 and 1807 effectually suppressed the illicit traffic ; and, by the 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 441 
 
 introduction of the bonding system, the island ceased, in a 
 great measure, to be the depository of goods for legal import- 
 ation into the United Kingdom. But, although nearly the 
 whole continent of Europe was closed to British commerce 
 by the French decrees and English orders in council, yet the 
 presence of a large garrison and naval squadron, both of 
 which required extensive supplies, rendered these commercial 
 deprivations comparatively innocuous to all classes at the 
 time. Fortunately also, the Peninsula was soon after driven 
 into a war against France, and its ports, as well as those of 
 its immense colonial possessions, were opened to British en- 
 terprize, when our merchants were not slow in availing them- 
 selves of the advantage. Many of their vessels were most 
 profitably employed, from 1808 to 1815, in carrying codfish 
 from Newfoundland to Spain, where, owing to the destruction 
 and waste of the armies, it rose from fifteen shillings, its usual 
 peace price, to sixty shilHngs nett per cwt. From Spain, 
 these vessels usually took a cargo of wine, brandy, &:c., to 
 Rio de Janeiro, or the River Plate, returning home with 
 sugar, coffee, and hides ; and so lucrative was this traffic 
 occasionally, that upwards of £9,000 were cleared by a brig 
 of about 150 tons burthen, in one of the circuitous voyages 
 we have described. We must add, however, that she ran 
 without insurance and without convoy, — an immense saving, 
 when it is considered that the risk from American privateers 
 was so great as to raise premiums to 15 and 20 per cent, for 
 a voyage across the Atlantic, without convoy. The Guernsey 
 vessels, sailing well, usually ran without convoy, and very 
 few were captured ; but when insured, the high premiums 
 were a great drawback to their profits, as few of the voyages 
 in those days were unprofitable. 
 
 The island was also greatly benefitted during the last three 
 or four years of the war, by what was termed the license 
 trade, Napoleon then relaxing his anti-commercial decrees, 
 and permitting various goods to be exported from, and im- 
 ported into, France, in vessels under a neutral flag. His 
 chief motive was to obtain Peruvian bark and other drugs, 
 of which his armies were in great need ; and although the 
 British government refused at first to allow of their exporta- 
 tion, yet they willingly sanctioned the traffic in many other 
 goods, and at last removed their prohibition as to drugs. 
 Guernsey was the principal mart of this licensed interchange 
 of commodities between two nations, which had been for 
 nearly twenty years waging war against each other, " almost 
 
442 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 to the knife;'' and although the traffic was carried on amid 
 many restrictions, risks, and difficulties, constantly varying 
 as the caprice, or jealousies, or wants of either power prompt- 
 ed, yet it was very lucrative ; and it was of essential service in 
 introducing corn into the island, which at the time was much 
 wanted, the Baltic ports being closed against it. 
 
 On the proclamation of a general peace, in 1815, a new era 
 may be said to have arisen in the commerce of Guernsey, as 
 the successive artificial supports, which had given it existence 
 about the year 1700, and afterwards sustained it for upwards 
 of a century, were then suddenly withdrawn. During the 
 previous forty years, with two short intermissions. Great 
 Britain had been engaged in wars such as the world before 
 never saw, such as the mind of man in anticipation could 
 have scarcely conceived, and such as, for the credit of huma- 
 nity, it is devoutly to be hoped, will never be seen again. 
 But, as we have shewn, these expensive wars were highly 
 beneficial to the Channel Islands, and enriched Guernsey in 
 particular, although not entirely to her permanent advantage, 
 as we shall attempt to prove in the sequel. This was indeed 
 a heart-stirring period, a time of high excitement, as the tide 
 of wealth was constantly on the flow ; and all classes, with 
 perhaps the exception of those who lived on limited incomes 
 in the funds, partook of the joyous influence. 
 
 The return of peace, however, at once changed the scene, 
 and at first affected so deeply the interests of all classes, de- 
 pendent on trade for a subsistence, that many gloomy fore- 
 bodings were entertained for the future, not only as to the 
 commercial, but as to the general prospects of the island. 
 The immediate removal of the garrison, excepting one regi- 
 ment, and of the whole squadron, excepting a solitary cutter, 
 deprived numbers of employment. The failure of the corn 
 harvest throughout Europe, in the years 1816 and 1817, in- 
 creased the distress of the lower orders, and associations were 
 formed for their relief. Many, aided by previous savings or 
 charitable assistance, were compelled, for three or four years 
 successively, to emigrate to the United States of America in 
 island vessels fitted up expressly for their accommodationJ; 
 and, settling as much as possible together, they have since 
 named their circuit of abode " Guernsey County," which is in 
 the State of Ohio. Stores and vaults, which, during the war 
 had been constantly filled, now became almost worthless ; 
 many who had purchased houses and other buildings in the 
 town at a high rate, in wheat rents, were unable to pay them 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 443 
 
 in consequence of the scarcity of corn, and were ruined ; * the 
 insular shipping, consisting of fast saiUng vessels of compa- 
 ratively small burthen, lost much of its value ; and several 
 large capitalists retired from business, preferring to invest 
 their properties in public securities, especially the French 
 funds, which then yielded an annual interest of about 8 per 
 cent. Fortunately, the foreign trade sustained no serious 
 check during this period, and the island vessels continued to 
 be advantageously employed, meeting for three or four years 
 with but little opposition from the commercial marine of the 
 continent, which had been, in a great measure, destroyed 
 during the war, and could not be immediately replaced. And 
 happily the depression, which all sudden unfavorable transi- 
 tions will create, yielded by degrees to time and to more 
 encouraging circumstances. The accumulated earnings of 
 former prosperity remained, and it was gradually seen that 
 sufficient employment could be found for the labouring 
 classes, as the island was susceptible of numerous improve- 
 ments, which, in the natural desire of taking fortune at the 
 flood, had been delayed or overlooked. Shipbuilding was 
 introduced ; the stone trade increased ; numberless dwelling 
 houses were erected in the town parish, for the accommoda- 
 tion of natives and resident strangers ; large sums were ex- 
 pended in public works ; and, above all, a great reduction 
 took place in the price of corn and other provisions. The 
 facilities of steam navigation soon after caused an influx of 
 visitors during the summer season, and the money spent by 
 them here was, and is still, of essential benefit to the trading 
 classes. Thus, if on the one hand the commercial prosperity 
 of Guernsey sustained a serious check on the cessation of the 
 illicit trade and of the war, it must be admitted, on the other, 
 that, since the peace of 1815, the general appearance of the 
 island has altered vastly for the better, and those who remem- 
 ber it before that time, as we do, must be struck with the 
 change. The country is every where dotted with new sub- 
 stantial cottages ; its narrow and almost impassable lanes 
 have been converted into excellent roads ; the land is better 
 cultivated, and has greatly enhanced in value ; and the breed 
 of cattle, horses especially, is much improved. 
 
 (1) We would earnestly caution others to take warning from their fate, and not to pur- 
 chase any building payable chiefly in wheat rents, as the day may return when they will 
 be fixed at 40s. the quarter, instead of 15s. to 17s. 6d., as of late years. A paternal legis- 
 lature would interdict all sales of buildings on such terms, in the same manner as it 
 renders all gambling transactions illegal. The system applicable to land is good, but 
 defective and often cruel in regard to buildings. To make the rent of a house dependent 
 on the price of wheat, tends in many cases to deprive the proprietor of the means of pur- 
 chasing bread for his family during a scarcity of corn. For instance, wheat rents were 
 affixed in 1852 at 17s., and in 1853 at 27s., per quarter. 
 
444 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 The shipping of Guernsey engaged in the foreign trade, 
 which was chiefly Hmited to Havannah, Brazil, and the River 
 Plate, was as follows : 
 
 In 1813 26 vessels 4320 tons or 166 tons average. 
 
 1823 35 „ 5748 „ ,,164 
 
 1833 35 „ 6236 „ ,,180 
 
 1834 37 „ 6631 „ ,,180 
 
 1837 24 „ 4832 „ ,,201 
 
 Up to 1833, these vessels were usually laden on account 
 of the owners, who merely gave orders and paid commissions 
 on bolh the outward and homeward cargoes, excepting when 
 the former consisted of potatoes and bricks, the only export 
 from the island : this was clearly a forced trade, which be- 
 came a losing one as soon as the continental merchants 
 embarked in it, and sold their own imports of coffee, sugar, 
 &c., thus saving the heaviest commission, " pickings," &c. 
 The carrying of codfish terminated with the peace of 1815, 
 and from about 1834, when there were serious losses by the 
 sudden fall of colonials, many of the Guernsey vessels were 
 employed on freight, for which however they were ill adapt- 
 ed, as being of little burthen from their size and sharpness : 
 indeed, they were always much too small for profit. Up to 
 1835, the island vessels were constantly engaged in carrying 
 wine, brandy, &c., from the Mediterranean to the Brazils and 
 the River Plate ; but this trade gradually declined, and has 
 now entirely ceased. The race of speculative merchants, such 
 as carried on business in Guernsey during, and several years 
 after, the war, may be said to have become extinct about the 
 year 1845, a large commercial establishment at Rio de Ja- 
 neiro, the partners in which held two-ninths of the shipping 
 engaged in the foreign trade in 1836, having been abandoned 
 in 1842. Fortunately, several small capitalists in Guernsey, 
 about 1835, turned their attention to freights in the supply of 
 London with fruit from the Azores, Spam, Lisbon, &c., and 
 built many fast schooners in the island for that purpose. They 
 also availed themselves of another resource in the coal and 
 stone trade, the former of which, during the days of insular 
 prosperity, appears to have been overlooked. Previous to 
 1815, there were only two colliers belcniging to Guernsey ; 
 but the number graciually increased, and the island is now 
 almost entirely supplied with coal by its own shipping. Ano- 
 ther advantage has moreover arisen of late years from three 
 or four London houses sending their wines to the islands to 
 be stored and bottled, and reshipped when fit for use, as they 
 save thereby the heavy advance and 'uiterest of the duties : 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 445 
 
 this trade reminds one of the entrepot of the last century, and 
 not only gives considerable employment to many, but renders 
 the stores in St. Peter-Port of more value. 
 
 We have mentioned elsewhere that the commerce and 
 shipping of Guernsey were formerly as superior to those of 
 Jersey as the commerce and shipping of Jersey are now 
 superior to those of Guernsey ; and as the change must ap- 
 pear singular to those unacquainted with the cause, we shall 
 endeavour to explain it ; although it is certainly natural that 
 Jersey, being the larger and more populous island, should 
 take the lead. But that is no reason why Guernsey has at 
 present scarcely a vessel engaged in the carrying or freight 
 trade of Brazil, the River Plate, and Havannah. Nature 
 has, however, given one advantage to Guernsey over Jersey, 
 in its better roadstead and nearer proximity to England, in 
 consequence of which numberless yachts from Cowes, Ply- 
 mouth, &c., visit the former island every summer, and there, 
 taking in their supplies of wines, spirits, groceries, tobacco, 
 &c., greatly benefit the dealers in those articles, as also the 
 hotel and livery stable keepers, pilots, (fee. 
 
 In saying that the wealth acquired, during the wars between 
 1775 and 1815, was not altogether permanently advantageous 
 to Guernsey, we meant that it was unfavorable to the exercise 
 of patient industry, and that it engendered habits incompatible 
 with the successful prosecution of peaceful and legitimate com- 
 merce. While the merchants of Guernsey were engaged in 
 importing tobacco from Virginia, and spirits from various 
 countries, for the supply of the illicit trade, those of Jersey 
 were employed in establishing fisheries in North America ; 
 one trade, as we have shewn, suddenly passed away, but the 
 other will probably continue as long as Great Britain pos- 
 sesses the supremacy of the seas. The former entailed a 
 higher rate of wages and a more expensive mode of living ; 
 the latter was originally established, and is still continued, by 
 the greater cheapness of labour and the less cost of produc- 
 tion. This advantage extends its beneficial influence to every 
 other commercial undertaking ; and, in consequence, Jersey 
 not only possesses her grand staple, the North American cod- 
 fishery, but the oyster fishery on the French coast, and the 
 Honduras and African trades ; and, above all, she is largely 
 engaged in shipbuilding, not only for native account, but for 
 Liverpool. In none of these sources of employment can 
 Guernsey be said to participate in any way, and she certainly 
 will be excluded from them all, until her mechanics and trades- 
 
446 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 men labour on the same terms as those in the sister island. 
 Thus Liverpool has recently lost much of its shipbuilding, and 
 even of the repairs of vessels, because the carpenters there 
 refused to work under much higher vrages than were paid 
 in other English ports. 
 
 In Jersey, those engaged in building, navigating, and sup- 
 plying ships, are satisfied with a smaller profit than evidently 
 obtains in Guernsey, and they reap the benefit by larger sales 
 and more constant employment. The wages of carpenters 
 and seamen generally are fully 10 per cent, less in Jersey 
 than in Guernsey, and a vessel can be built and equipped for 
 about £2 sterling per ton less in the former than in the latter 
 island. In consequence, between the years 1832 and 1835, 
 several vessels for the foreign trade were built in Jersey for 
 Guernsey owners. And, after what we have stated, the fol- 
 lowing amounts of tonnage, in five different periods, can be 
 no matter of surprise : 
 
 JERSEY. 
 
 In 1807 76 vessels 6655 tons 736 men 88 tons average. 
 
 1817 79 „ 8167 „ 587 „ 103 
 
 1827 182 „ 16583 „ 1658 „ 91 
 
 1836 232 „ 20864 „ 2048 „ 90 „ 
 
 1853 363 „ 33273 , 2892 „ 92 „ 
 
 GUERNSEY. 
 
 In 1807 114 vessels 10450 tons 940 men 91 tons average. 
 
 1817 64 „ 6825 „ 390 „ 106 
 
 1827 75 „ 7879 „ 580 „ 105 
 
 1836 86 „ 9486 „ 668 „ 110 
 
 1853 135 „ 16207 „ 1048 „ 120 „ 
 
 The reason of the Jersey average tonnages being less is, 
 that many of the vessels are small cutters engaged in the 
 oyster fishery. A great number of the Guernsey vessels are 
 employed in the stone and coal trades, which accounts for the 
 large increase in tonnage ; but these vessels are of inferior 
 value, many being old, and none coppered. They, however, 
 equally require shelter, and the increased tonnage is another 
 argument in favor of the new pier works in Guernsey, which 
 have now many opponents, chiefly among the upper classes, 
 who forget that to stand still, while our neighbours are going 
 ahead, is to retrograde, and to check all enterprize and industry. 
 
 In Jersey, in June, 1854, there were nmeteen vessels on 
 the stocks, admeasuring together 5,853 tons, or 303 tons 
 average. Among them were two ships building for Liver- 
 pool account, one of 2,200 tons, and the other of 1,050 tons ! 
 
 (1) In June, 1854, Jersey possessed s66 vessels, adraeasurinc 34,979 tons. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 447 
 
 the remaining vessels were for Jersey. The builder of the 
 said two large ships had three other vessels on the stocks, 
 admeasuring together 900 tons ; so that one builder alone, 
 Mr. F. Charles Clarke, had five vessels, admeasuring 4,150 
 tons, or 830 tons average ! 
 
 In Guernsey, in June, 1854, there were only four vessels 
 on the stocks, admeasuring together 1,050 tons, or 262 tons 
 average. If the pier works now in progress provide good 
 building yards, with the necessary facilities for landing heavy 
 timber, and, above all, if the Guernsey shipwrights be wise 
 enough to work at the same rate as those in Jersey, ship- 
 building may gradually increase, when Guernsey possesses 
 a more sheltered pier with deeper water, as she will ere long, 
 besides a better roadstead,^ than Jersey. Indeed, the pier of 
 St. Helier, perfect as it is as a piece of workmanship, is very 
 badly situated, being open to the south-west and the billows 
 of the Atlantic, and liable to fill with sand from having a 
 sandy bay in front. The people of Jersey deserved a better 
 site for a pier, because they have done every thing in their 
 power to foster their trade and navigation. 
 
 Shipbuilding in Guernsey may be said to have commenced 
 in 1815, as previously to that period only four or five small 
 cutters or luggers had been built in the island, and even large 
 vessels were often sent to England for repair. JNothing but 
 a forced trade and large profits could have overcome such 
 disadvantages. From January 1, 1815, to October 1, 1837, 
 the recapitulation of decked vessels built and launched in 
 Guernsey was as follow : 
 
 Ships. Tons. Brigs. Tons. Schooners. Tons. Cutlers. Tons. 
 
 To Dee. 31, 1827 4.... 915 . ...26 . ...4821 . ... 3.... 283 . ...31 . ...1021 
 
 From Jan. 1,1828. ...3.... 766.... 6 . ...1176 . ...19 . ...1788 . ... 7.... 302 
 
 7 1681 32 5997 22 2071 38 1323 
 
 making a total of ninety -nine vessels, admeasuring 11,072 
 tons, or 112 tons each average. The nineteen schooners were 
 chiefly built from 1 835, for the English fruit trade. 
 
 Stone trade commenced about the year 1760, when large 
 pebbles only for paving were shipped from Grand Harbour 
 and La Perelle Bay for England ; and seven or eight years 
 after, English stone cutters came over to prepare the regular 
 paving stones. For many years the trade was very limited, 
 but it began increasing soon after the peace of 1815, and it 
 
 (1) On the 27th of July, 1839, there were fifty or fifty-one French vessels, chiefly chasse- 
 mar^es, in the roads and pier, taking shelter during westerly gales, and it is well knowq 
 that no French crew puts iu without purchasing British woollens, tobacco, rum, &c. In- 
 deed, the coasters often call here expressly for that purpose. 
 
448 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 received a considerable addition a few years after, when spalls 
 or unbroken stone for macadamizing were first required. The 
 trade is almost exclusively carried on from St. Sampson's 
 harbour, between which and St. Peter-Port an omnibus was 
 first established in 1837. — The late Bishop Watson, in his 
 Chemical Essays, made a comparison of the weight of Guern- 
 sey paving stone and Aberdeen granite, and the difference of 
 greater weight in favor of the former was above 19 lbs. in the 
 cubic foot. In 1819, the duty was rescinded in England on 
 stone from these islands, and vessels laden solely with it were, 
 by the Act of 6th of Geo. IV., exempted from the obligation 
 of taking pilots. In 1854, the price per ton for spalls or 
 unbroken stone was 2s. 4d., and for road metal or small 
 broken stone 4s. 9d., both on board ; and the average freight 
 to London for some years has been about 7s. 6d. per ton. In 
 1830, the shipment was about 30,000 tons, and in 1853 it had 
 risen to 1 13,321 tons, requiring, at 200 tons each, about 
 550 vessels, nearly all of which unload in the Thames. 
 
 Manufactures. — The principal articles now manufactured 
 are flour, biscuit, cordage, soap and candles, bricks, and to- 
 bacco and snuff". There are three or four breweries, and 
 there were also about as many distilleries for the extracting 
 of spirits from potatoes for the English market ; but the dis- 
 tillation appears to have been unprofitable. The first manu- 
 factory of Roman cement was established in 1819, and the 
 first iron foundry, of which there are now two, in 1828. 
 Previously to this period, all cast-iron goods were imported 
 from England. Gas was first introduced in 1830, the manu- 
 factory at the Amballes being completed in that year. Dur- 
 ing the last war, much of the flour consumed in the island 
 was imported from Southampton, as, although there were 
 many wind and water mills, wheat could not be got from the 
 continent. These mills being found inconvenient and uncer- 
 tain, the first steam engine for the grinding of wheat was 
 erected in 1833, and there are now four steam mills of from 
 twelve to eighteen horse power each, one of the establish- 
 ments combining both steam and water power. A few years 
 since, the manufacture of flour from foreign corn, both for 
 home consumption and export, became a valuable source of 
 local employment, although the millers complained that in 
 the British colonies no favor was shewn to flour manufactured 
 in these islands over that manufactured in Hamburg, Copen- 
 hagen, &c., the same duty being levied on both. Free trade 
 lias apparently put a stop to the export of flour. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 449 
 
 Potatoes. — For several years the export from Guernsey 
 was considerable, as will be seen by the following returns to 
 the 10th of October in each year : 
 
 1833-4 92,296 bushels. 
 
 1834-5..... 51,480 „ 
 
 1835-6 95,954 „ 
 
 1836-7 227,303 bushels. 
 
 1837-8 237,170 „ 
 
 1838-9 267,733 „ 
 
 1839-40 376,160 bushels! ! 
 
 But, after 1840, the export gradually diminished, and almost 
 ceased with the potatoe blight in 1846. In 1853, the import 
 exceeded the export. 
 
 In Chapter XXI. we described the mode of intercourse 
 with England during the long reign of George III., since 
 which time steamers have almost entirely superseded sailing 
 vessels both for the mails and passengers, although at first 
 their introduction was stoutly opposed by the mariners and 
 pilots of the old school, who asserted that no steamer could 
 make way against a strong contrary wind and tide, or live in 
 such seas and weather as she must necessarily encounter in 
 crossing the Channel. The first steam vessel ever seen in 
 Guernsey was the Medina, of about 100 tons, which arrived 
 from Southampton on the 10th June, 1823, after a passage of 
 fifteen hours ; and, as will be easily imagined, the pier and 
 the various eminences were crowded, so as to have a view of 
 her as she came in. A second steamer, the Royal George, of 
 387 tons, reached the island on the 6th of September, in the 
 same year, with Sir John Milley Doyle, on his way to Spain. 
 
 In 1824, two steamers of about sixty horse power, the 
 Ariadne and Lord Beresford, commenced running weekly 
 for the summer, the former from Southampton and the latter 
 from Portsmouth, at a main cabin fare of a guinea and a 
 half. The Ariadne left Southampton, on her first trip, at six 
 o'clock, a.m., on the 8th of June, arriving in Guernsey at 
 seven o'clock, p.m., or in thirteen hours, and in Jersey at 
 eleven o'clock the same evening. With this single exception, 
 the Southampton steamers left that port at six and seven 
 o'clock, p.m., for years, so as to approach the islands on the 
 following morning. In 1825, the Lord Beresford ran also 
 from Southampton, and eight or nine years after both she 
 and the Ariadne were replaced by the Lady de Saumarez and 
 the Atalanta, vessels of greater size, power, and speed, which in 
 1840 ran each twice a week during the summer, at a reduced 
 fare of a guinea. In 1835, a winter communication with 
 2f 
 
450 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 Southampton was, for the first time, maintained once a week 
 by one of these steamers. 
 
 In 1826, the Sir Francis Drake, which still runs, (1854,) 
 commenced plying between Plymouth and the islands during 
 the summer months. Another steamer also plied from Tor- 
 quay in summer, for three or four years, up to 1852. 
 
 In 1827, a few years after the introduction of mail steamers 
 on the Holyhead, Liverpool, and other stations, the three 
 Weymouth sailing packets were replaced by two steamers, a 
 third being added in 1828. They plied as before, twice a 
 week, leaving on the Wednesday and Saturday evenings. 
 The steamers from Weymouth were discontinued in April, 
 1845, and replaced by contract steamers from Southampton, 
 from whence the first regular mail reached Guernsey on Sun- 
 day morning, the 27th, and continued three times weekly, 
 instead of twice as previously. As these contract steamers 
 left Southampton at seven o'clock, p.m., they usually arrived 
 in Guernsey at four and five o'clock, a.m., or in the dark in 
 winter. This being found both inconvenient and dangerous, 
 and causing a delay of twenty-four hours in the receipt of the 
 London mail, the steamers have, since June 30, 1848, left 
 Southampton at midnight with the London mail of the same 
 evening, occasionally performing the passage to Guernsey in 
 seven hours and a quarter ! Previous to the last named 
 period, the mail steamers arrived in, and returned from, these 
 islands on the Sunday, thus causing a very unnecessary dese- 
 cration of the Sabbath ; but, on the petition of the inhabitants, 
 the days of arrival were changed from Sundays, Wednesdays, 
 and Fridays, to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, the 
 packets returning on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. 
 
 It would be tedious to pursue the subject further, by giving 
 a detail of the various steamers which have plied between 
 Guernsey and Brighton, Shoreham, or London, and have been 
 withdrawn ; but in summer a steamer usually runs between 
 Jersey, Guernsey, and London. Since about the year 1848, 
 a small steamer has plied between Alderney and Guernsey : 
 when the communication between the two islands depended 
 on sailing vessels, an interval of a month in winter often oc- 
 curred before a passenger could proceed from one to the other. 
 
 The tenure of real estate in the Channel Islands is peculiar 
 to them, it partaking of the double nature of mortgage and 
 freehold : thus. A, preferring to sell his land to cultivating it 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 451 
 
 himself, gives it to rent, as the term is, to B, who usually pays 
 as much as he conveniently can in money, and for the re- 
 mainder of the purchase binds himself to pay annually a 
 certain number of quarters of wheat. The money payment 
 is a security to A that B shall faithfully farm the land, and 
 pay the wheat rents regularly ; if ^ fall in arrear, then A, by 
 a process called saisie, may eject him permanently, and B 
 forfeits the money he paid on entering into possession. These 
 remarks apply to the heirs of A and B in perpetuity. As 
 soon as the contract is passed, A ceases to be the proprietor 
 of the land, which belongs solely to B, as long as he pays 
 the rents due upon it. These rents can be paid or exacted in 
 kind ; ' but, as a money payment is often preferred by both 
 parties, the average price per quarter, during the current year, 
 is affixed by the court of Chief Pleas, at Easter, and thus 
 the value of wheat in Europe may be correctly ascertained 
 for several centuries. " Experience has proved," says Dun- 
 can, " that under this tenure, a spirit of industry and economy 
 is generated, producing content, ease, and even wealth, from 
 estates which, in other countries, would hardly be thought 
 capable of affording sustenance to their occupants." Owing 
 to this tenure, the land in Guernsey, altogether amounting to 
 about 15,500 English acres, is greatly subdivided, twenty 
 such acres, equal to fifty Guernsey vergees, being considered 
 a large estate ; and although corn, cattle, poultry, &;c., are 
 admitted duty free, the occupying proprietor, whose land 
 would let at £4 sterling the English acre, usually prospers, 
 and is enabled to pay the wheat rents due on his little farm. 
 But if the island were partitioned into thirty farms of 500 
 acres each, the result would quickly be a vast diminution in 
 the produce and the ruin of the tenants, if they paid the 
 above mentioned rent. And what is worse, numberless small 
 proprietors, now happy and contented in conscious indepen- 
 dence, must either emigrate or become servile and discon- 
 tented daily labourers.^ The law of primogeniture, we need 
 scarcely add, prevails to a very limited extent,^ although it 
 
 (1) In November, 1809, the royal court decided that rents were payable in wheat, the 
 growth of the island, which was a physical impossibility, Guernsey not then producing a 
 tithe of the rents due ; but happily this decision was overruled by king in council, who 
 ordered that rents might be paid in foreign wheat. — See Duncan, p. 473. 
 
 (2) Macaulay, in his admirable history, states that more than a seventh of the popula- 
 tion of England, in the seventeenth century, derived their subsistence from little freehold 
 estates. He speaks highly of these small landholders, and observes that those who culti- 
 vated their own fields and enjoyed a modest competence, •' then formed a much more 
 important part of the nation than at present." 
 
 (3) By the law of 1840, the eldest son, out of certain boundaries in the town of St. Peter- 
 Port, gets from fourteen to twenty- two perches of land, or on the average about one-fifth 
 of an English acre ; and, as he has the choice, he naturally selects the spot on which the 
 house and offices stand. 
 
452 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 would doubtless be better if the eldest son were entitled to 
 the whole estate, when not exceeding eight or ten English 
 acres, as soon as his brothers and sisters became of age, and 
 on payment of the widow's dower. The system of landed 
 tenure which obtains has been recommended for . Ireland, 
 where the population amounts to scarcely three hundred souls 
 to a square mile, and yet the peasantry are miserable and 
 disaffected, while the islanders are happy and loyal, and sin- 
 cerely attached to the British government. Agrarian outrage 
 and murder are unknown ; and sure we are that the intro- 
 duction of a similar system of tenure in Ireland, with some 
 modification, would do more for its well-being and pacifica- 
 tion than all the measures of coercion which have been, or 
 can be, framed for the repression of outbreak and crime in 
 that unhappy country. The landlords are as much the vic- 
 tims of the present system as their wretched tenants ; because, 
 having no visitable neighbours, no society within many miles, 
 they are necessarily absentee, and seek that recreation abroad 
 which they cannot find at home. If land were divided among 
 the children, until the estate was reduced to fifty or a hundred 
 acres, and then to be always the inheritance of the eldest son, 
 there would be a resident proprietary, and the persons inte- 
 rested in the preservation of order would be increased ten, or 
 perhaps twentyfold. Guernsey aftords a living proof that 
 the evils of Ireland are not irremediable, — that the poor need 
 not be annually passed through a fiery furnace ; but, unless 
 the laws of entail and primogeniture be repealed, or greatly 
 modified, in the latter country, there can be no permanency 
 in her regeneration. If in Guernsey there be no powerful or 
 wealthy landed aristocracy, — if, in met, there be, in the Eng- 
 lish sense of the word, no aristocracy at all, most of the upper 
 ranks deriving their wealth from, or being still connected 
 with, commerce, — there is, what the philanthropist will value 
 much more highly, an absence among the natives of that 
 squalid want and misery which unhappily still exist in so 
 many parts of Great Britain and Ireland, and which, we con- 
 ceive, may in some measure be traced to class legislation. 
 
 Wheat rents, when not paid in kind, are affixed in livres 
 tournois, fourteen of which are equal to £1 sterling ; so that one 
 livre of twenty sols is worth Is. 5^d. How great the varia- 
 tions have been in the value of wheat, the following decennial 
 table will shew, in Guernsey quarters of four bushels, two and 
 a half such quarters being about equal to the Enghsh im- 
 perial quarter : 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 453 
 
 
 Liv. 
 
 Sols. 
 
 
 Liv. 
 
 Sols. 
 
 
 Liv. 
 
 Sols. 
 
 1610 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 1700 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 1790 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 1620 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 1710 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 1800 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 1630 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 1720 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 1810 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 1640 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 1730 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 1820....... 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 1650 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 1740 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 1830 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 1660 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 1750 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 1840 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 1670 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 1760 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 1850 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 1680 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 1770 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1690 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 1780 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 In the years 1811 and 1812, rents were affixed at 28 
 livres, or £2 sterling. But in 1834 and 1835, they were as 
 low as 8 livres 15 sols, or 12s. 6d., (or about £1. 10s. per 
 EngHsh quarter,) being the lowest rate since 1769, in which 
 year they were at 8 livres tournois. 
 
 The gradual accumulation of wealth in the town and parish 
 of St. Peter-Port will be seen by the following details : 
 
 *' The first tax list existing in the constables' office is dated in 
 1715, the constables and douzeniers of the parish of St. Peter- 
 Port, duly authorized by the chief pleas, having, on the 8th of 
 March, proceeded to raise 500 livres tournois (£35. 14s. 3d. 
 sterling,) to purchase powder, matches, and other ammunitions 
 of war, required for the magazine of the said parish. The inha- 
 bitants were then assessed at 16,531 quarters, on which 7J deniers 
 (about one half-penny) per quarter were levied. The highest 
 rates were those of Thomas Le Marchant, Peter Etienne, (Ste- 
 phens,) and John De Sausmarez, bailiff, assessed at 500 quarters 
 each, — -a large property in those days, and the lowest rate was 
 five quarters. This tax list is signed by John Bouillon and 
 Daniel Painsec,^ constables, Richard de Jersey, Nicholas Carey, 
 John Mauger, Abraham Monamy, James De Havilland, John 
 Dobree, A. Le Messurier, Nicholas Dobree, Joshua Gosselin, 
 John Tupper,^ Thomas Gosselin, Henry De Jersey, James Per- 
 chard, and John Bovvden, douzeniers. 
 
 "The next tax list also bears date in 1715, the inhabitants, 
 on the 21st of March, having been duly assessed for 700 livres 
 tournois, to pursue the cause ajjainst Mr. William Le Marchant, 
 relative to I'Hyvreuse, before king in council. 
 
 "The third tax list is dated in 1720, when 1,000 livres tour- 
 nois were levied for the repair of the guard-house at Fermain, 
 the rent of the guard-house at Belgr^ve, the purchase of powder, 
 and other parochial wants. The inhabitants were this year asses- 
 sed at 17,648 quarters, Thomas Le Marchant, sen., paying on 
 600 quarters, the highest rate. 
 
 (1) A singular conjunction of names, both now extinct, as well as that of Monamy. 
 
 (2) The individual to whom the gold medal was presented by William and Mary, as 
 related at page 348. 
 
454 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 " The fourth tax list is dated in 1724, the constables and dou- 
 zeniers having, on the 14th of December, proceeded to raise 
 4,000 livres tournois (£285. 14s. 3d.) for the relief of the poor. 
 The inhabitants were, now assessed at 23,200 quarters, and the 
 rate was 3 sous 6 deniers (three pence sterlinor) per quarter. 
 The highest amounts were : Nicholas Dobree, Thomas Le Mar- 
 chant, and Peter Carey (de la Brasserie,) rated at 600 quarters 
 each. This is not stated as being the first tax raised for the poor ; 
 but, having made reference to the account books in the hospital, 
 we find that it was so, as will appear by the following extract from 
 the account current of the collectors for that year, viz. ' Pour la 
 premiere taxe levee sur les habitants de la dite paroisse, le 14 de 
 Decembre, 1724, pour la subsistence des dits pauvres.' The 
 oldest account of the collectors, now existing in the hospital, is 
 dated in 1634, when, and previously to 1724, the poor were 
 relieved by rents and money bequeathed for that purpose by 
 charitable individuals, contributions at the communion table and 
 church door, and fines exacted by the royal court. They appear 
 also to have been relieved as the pauvres honteux now are, as the 
 hospital was not built till 1742.^ 
 
 ** From 1724, the inhabitants of St. Peter-Port appear, by the 
 books in the constables' office, to have been annually assessed 
 as at present, with occasional intermissions, for the various paro- 
 chial wants; and we now proceed to give details of the assessments, 
 every ten years, commencing with 1730. 
 
 ** In 1730, the inhabitants raised 4,000 livres tournois on 
 20,878 quarters, charged at 3 sous 10 deniers per quarter, and 
 payable in four instalments. The highest amount paid was by 
 Peter Stephens and son, rated at 600 quarters. 
 
 " In 1740, the assessment for the poor was also 4,000 livres 
 tournois on 21,894 quarters, at 3 sous 6 deniers per quarter. 
 The highest tax was that of Thomas Le Marchant, rated at 600 
 quarters — the lowest tax was five quarters. 
 
 *' Of 1750 there is no record ; but in 1751 we find that 4,000 
 livres tournois, payable in two instalments, were again raised for 
 the poor, * in the hospital,' on 25,278 quarters, at 3 sous 2 deniers 
 each. Thomas Le Marchant was taxed at 800 quarters, the 
 highest rate, and the lowest was still five quarters. 
 
 ** In 1760, two taxes were raised, viz. 4,000 livres tournois for 
 the soldiers* quarters, cleaning muskets and bayonets, a new 
 pump, &c., and 5,0()0 livres tournois for the hospital, both on 
 33,312 quarters, rated at 2 sous 6 deniers for the former, and 3 
 sous for the latter. This is the first year in which we observe any 
 taxes of four figures ; James and John Le Ray_ being rated at 
 1,200 quarters, and William Brock and his sons at 1,000 quar- 
 
 (1) The iodividuals who had charge of the poor were styled "Diacres" until 1663, 
 eince which period they have boroe the title of " CoUecteors des Pauvres." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 455 
 
 ters. Of single individuals, the highest assessments were Thomas 
 Le Marchant and James Le Marchant, rated at 700 quarters 
 each. No inhabitant was rated this year under 10 quarters, as is 
 the case at present. 
 
 " In 1770, the inhabitants were assessed 6,000 livres tournois 
 for the poor, on 44,155 quarters, at 2 sous 9 deniers per quarter, 
 and payable in two instalments. The entries of four figures this 
 year, in one line, are as follow, viz. John Carey, and widow 
 John Le Ray, 1,600 quarters; William Brock, sen., 1,350 
 quarters; heirs of William Brock, jun., 1,300 quarters; widow 
 and son of Peter Stephens, 1,260 quarters ; John Brock, jun,, 
 1,100 quarters ; and Thomas Carey and children, 1,000 quarters. 
 
 " In 1780, three assessments were made, viz. 1st of March, 
 10,000 livres tournois, on 61,930 quarters, at 3 sous 3 deniers 
 each, for parochial debts and other public expenses ; and 1st of 
 December, 8,000 livres tournois,. on 61,925 quarters, at 2 sous 
 9 deniers each, for the same purpose ; and 6,000 livres tournois for 
 the poor, also on 61,925 quarters, at 2 sous each, together 
 24,000 livres tournois, (£1,714 5s. 8d. sterling,) and the 
 rate 8 sous (nearly seven pence) per quarter. The individuals 
 highest rated on the 1st of December, were John Carey, 1,950 
 quarters; Elisha Tupper, 1,850 quarters; Nicholas Maingy, 
 sen., 1,650 quarters; heirs of John Brock, 1,420 quarters; Peter 
 Mourant, 1,400 quarters; and Richard De Beauvoir, 1,020 
 quarters. — In the tax of the 1st of March, this year, £30 a year 
 interest in the English funds were estimated at 40 quarters, and 
 £1,000 capital, at 50 quarters, as at this m<)ment, being the first 
 notice of the kind in the tax books. 
 
 ** In 1790, the assessment was 7,000 livres tournois on 77,100 
 quarters, at 2 sous each, for the hospital. There were seven 
 individuals rated at four figures, of whom two. at 2,000 quarters 
 and above, viz., Elisha Tupper, at 2,300 quarters, and John 
 Carey, son of John, at 2,030 quarters. 
 
 '* In 1800, two taxes were levied, both on the 22d of May, 
 viz. 10,000 livres tournois on 94,455 quarters, at 2 sous 2 
 deniers each, for poor strangers, pumps, lamps, rents due, &c., 
 and 14,000 livres tournois, on 94,455 quarters, at 3 sous each, 
 for the poor, and repairs of hospital, together 24,000 livres tour- 
 nois, or nearly 4|d. per quarter. This year we find fourteen 
 persons rated at four figures, of whom only one at 2,000 quarters 
 or above, viz. Elisha Tupper, rated at 2,450 quarters. 
 
 "In 1810, five taxes were raised, viz. on the 28th of June, 
 two sums of £800 sterling each, on 98,955 quarters, at 4d. each, 
 for the hospital and constables; 5th of October, £1,901. 3s. Id. 
 sterling, on 101,395 quarters, at 4|d. each, towards the high 
 roads to Vason and Rocquaine ; and 28th of December, £1,600 
 for the constables, and £1,200 for the hospital, on 96,075 quar- 
 
456 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 ters, 7d. each, making together, this year, £6,301. 3s. Id. sterling, 
 and the rates 15Jd. per quarter. — There were twelve rated at 
 four figures, of whom two of 2,000 quarters, or above, viz. Sir 
 James Saumarez, 2,800 quarters, and James Carey, 2,000 quar- 
 ters. It was in 1804 and 1805 that the calculations were first 
 made in sterling, and that those in livres tournois were dis- 
 continued. 
 
 '* In 1820, three taxes were also raised, the whole on 137,760 
 quarters, viz., 561,600 sterling, for pumps, lamps, &c., and 
 £1,600 for the hospital, both at 2|d. per quarter, and £600 for 
 the paiivres honteux, or external poor, at l^d. per quarter, toge- 
 ther £3,800, collected at 6fd. per quarter. — Twenty-six persons 
 were now rated at four figures, of whom seven at 2,000 quarters 
 or above, viz. Sir James Saumarez, 5,000 quarters ; John 
 Allaire, 4,900 quarters; Thomas Priaulx, 4,500 quarters; Car- 
 teret Priaulx, 4,200 quarters; Peter Stephens, 2,500 quarters; 
 Anthony Priaulx, 2,150 quarters, and widow and children of 
 Daniel Tupper, 2,050 quarters. — On the 10th of February, this 
 year, the royal court decided that the taxes should be raised, for 
 the present, on income as heretofore, and not on capital, as 
 sought by some of the parishioners, who urged the injustice of 
 their income, and not their capital, in the French and other 
 foreign funds, being taxed, those funds being then considerably 
 under par, and yielding 7 to 8 per cent, on the capital invested. 
 But, by an entry in 1824, we find that the system was then 
 changed, and capital became, as it now is, the basis of parochial 
 taxation, property of any kind, worth £1,000, being assessed at 
 50 quarters. Although this system is analogous to that esta- 
 blished in 1780, as already cited, yet it bears hard on those whose 
 income is derived from the English funds, — for instance, this 
 year (1854) the 3 per cent, consols were assessed at 88, and an 
 individual possessing £1,000 consols was charged for 44 quarters, 
 although the net interest is only £28. 5s., income tax deducted. 
 It is, however, manifestly impossible to establish any system of 
 taxation which will not press unequally on some individuals, and 
 we think the present mode as equitable as will ever be attained, 
 while the properly of the parishioners is invested in so many 
 channels quite unknown to our ancestors. 
 
 " It may be well here to observe, that the immense increase of 
 38,805 quarters between 1810 and 1820, was owing, first, to a 
 number of American prizes captured in 1811-12, one being a ship 
 from Calcutta worth about £60,000; and, secondly, in a great 
 measure, to the fortunate investments of many of the parishioners 
 in the French funds, after the peace of 1814, large sums having 
 been transferred from the English funds and other sources into 
 the French 5 per cents, under 60 and 70, by which means the 
 incomes of many were increased by at least one-third, and a 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 457 
 
 f)roportionate increase in the number of quarters naturally fol- 
 owed, income and not capital being then, as we have already 
 observed, the rule of taxation. 
 
 " In 1830, three taxes were raised simultaneously on 150,805 
 quarters, viz., ^1,400, at 2§d. per quarter, for the hospital ; 
 i700, at Igd., for the pauvres honteux ; and ^1,500, at 2|d. for 
 other parochial purposes ; together ^3,600, or 6^d. per quarter. 
 In this year, we find twenty-one individuals possessing incomes of 
 1,000 quarters and above, of whom five were assessed at 2,000 
 quarters and above, viz. John Allaire, 5,500 quarters ; Thomas 
 Priaulx, 4,200 quarters; John Carey, son of John, 2,120 quar- 
 ters ; Hilary Rougier, 2,075 quarters, and Joseph Collings, 
 2,000 quarters. 
 
 " In 1840, the following taxes were raised on 152,930 quarters, 
 representing a capital of ^3,058,600 sterling, viz. ^1,400 for 
 lamps, pumps, poor strangers, &c. ; ^1,800 for the hospital; 
 j61,100 for the external poor, or hospital out-pensioners; and 
 ^150 for the parish church, together ^,450 sterling, collected 
 by a tax of 7|d. per quarter, from 825 rate-payers, whose pro- 
 perty thus averaged j£3,700 capital, or about ;£185 annual income. 
 It is well to mention now, that the douzaine, to avoid fractions, 
 and to allow for the deduction of individuals over-taxed, usually 
 fix the rate a little higher than the amount actually required. In 
 this year, we find twenty-one individuals of four figures, of whom 
 seven of 2,000 quarters and above, viz. John Allaire, 7,000 
 quarters ; Thomas Priaulx, 3,200 quarters ; Mary Le Marchant, 
 2,450 quarters; John Carey, (queen's receiver,) 2,350 quarters; 
 Sir William Collings, 2,310 quarters; Hilary Rougier, 2,300 
 quarters; and John Collings, 2,000 quarters. In 1838, the 
 property of the parish was rated higher than it had ever been ; 
 viz. 156,350 quarters, on which .£5,537. 7s. lid. were raised at 
 8|d. per quarter. The decrease in 1840 was chiefly owing to a 
 serious depreciation in the value of the shares of the ' Bank of 
 the United States,' at Philadelphia, in which many of the rate- 
 payers were interested, to the extent, it appears, of about ^150,000 
 original cost, and of which nearly the whole was ultimately lost, 
 one gentleman losing ^33,000. 
 
 '* In 1850, the town parish was assessed for ^,413. 16s., at 
 12Jd. per quarter on 142,345 quarters only, the falling off arising 
 from the French revolution of 1848, and the consequent depre- 
 ciation of all the European funds. In 1850, nineteen individuals 
 were taxed at four figures, of whom five at 2,000 quarters and 
 above, viz. Mrs. May, 5,845 quarters; Mrs. Thomas Collings, 
 5,400 quarters ; (both born Allaire ;) John Le Marchant, 2,760 
 quarters ; Hilary Rougier, 2,700 quarters ; and Sir William 
 Collings, 2,550 quarters. 
 
 " In 1853, the parish of St. Peter-Port was assessed for 
 
458 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 £7,709. 16s. 3d., at Is. Id. on 142,335 quarters; and the nine 
 country parishes were rated together at 63,640 quarters, vrz. 
 St. Sampson's, 4,241; Vale, 6,258 ; Catel, 14,717 ; St. Saviour's, 
 6,4a3; St. Peter-in-tlie- Wood, 7,642 ; Torteval, 1,495 ; Forest, 
 3,330; St. Martin's, 12,853; and St. Andrew's, 6,671. Thus, 
 in 1853, the entire property of the ten parishes of Guernsey, 
 both real and personal, was valued at 205,975 quarters, or, at 
 £20 per quarter, £4,119,500 sterling. 
 
 " It has already been shewn that in the space of one hundred 
 and twenty-five years, (1715 tol840,) the wealth of the town parish 
 augmented nearly tenfold, the annual average being 1,091 quar- 
 ters ; although, considering the diflerence in the value of money 
 and the mode of living, it is certain that 500 quarters income in 
 1715 were fully equal to 1,500 quarters in 1840. In 1715, and 
 for many years subsequently, a considerable part of the property of 
 the higher ranks, which was taxed, consisted in * rentes fonci^res,' 
 or perpetual mortgages on the insular estates and houses ; now, it 
 is chiefly invested in public securities, and partially in shipping, 
 trade, houses, and furniture. Since 1838, there has been a down- 
 ward tendency in the total amount of the rateable parish property, 
 and it is of course very difficult to predict its future rule ; but 
 with the present paucity of resident strangers, the depression of 
 insular commerce and navigation, and the more expensive habits 
 and wants of the existing generation, it is too probable that the 
 decrease will continue. On the other hand, as long as the British, 
 French, and other governments, keep faith with their creditors, 
 no serious diminution is to be apprehended, unless indeed the 
 division by degrees of the large fortunes, lately and still existing, 
 have that tendency. Should, however, any sudden general check 
 arise in the payment of interest, either from national bankruptcy 
 or the resolve of the people to repudiate the large debts contracted 
 by their ancestors, often for unholy purposes, the result, in the 
 parish of St. Peter-Port, would be attended with effects too disas- 
 trous to dwell upon or contemplate. — The recent discoveries of 
 gold in Australia and California happily render the chance of 
 repudiation more improbable. 
 
 ** For the information of strangers, it may be well to add, that 
 a quarter of rent is estimated at £20 capital, or £1 annual in- 
 come : this has always been a general rule, but the income has 
 occasionally varied, as now, with the price of the funds. A livre 
 tournois is divided into 20 sous of 12 deniers each, and is worth 
 Is. 5>d., 14 livres tournois being equal to £1. sterling." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 459 
 
 ISLAND OF SARK. 
 
 In the Harleian Miscellany, vol. iii,, there is a " perfect description of th« 
 isle of Serke, appertaining to the British crown, and never before publicly 
 discoursed of," in a letter dated April 1, O.S. 1673, " from a gentleman now- 
 inhabiting there, to his friend and kinsman in London." He begins by stating 
 that " the Anne, of Bristol, touching here [probably Guernsey] homewards 
 bound, brought safe those commodities I gave you the trouble to send me;" 
 and, in describing the topography of " Serke," says : " Yet nature, as if she 
 had here stored up some extraordinary treasure, seems to have been very soli- 
 citous to render it impregnable ; being on every side surrounded with vast 
 rocks and mighty clifts, whose craggy tops, braving the clouds with their 
 stupendous height, bid defiance to all that shall dream of forcing an entrance. 
 Two only ascents or passages there are into it : the first, where all goods and 
 commodities are received, called La Soguien, where, for a large space through 
 a solid rock, there is a cart-way cut by art down to the sea, with two strong 
 gates for its defence, (wherein most of the storage for navigation, as masts, 
 sails, anchors, &c., belonging to the island, are kept,) and two pieces of ord- 
 nance above, always ready to prevent any surprise ; the other is La Frikeree, 
 where only passengers can land, climbing up a rock by certain steps, or stairs 
 cut therein, to a vast height, and somewhat dangerously ; nor is it possible 
 there for above one person to come up at once." 
 
 He next narrates the singular manner of its capture from the French, and, 
 speaking of the elements, says that the air was so pure that it was not rare to 
 meet with a hearty old man of four score, " although I know not one physician 
 in the island, and perhaps we live the longer for their absence." — " Our water, 
 I confess, is sometimes not very ready, and yet we have no less than six very 
 fine springs generally running." 
 
 " Our earth or soil is for the most part hot and sandy, yet fruitful enough to 
 afford all necessaries to its inhabitants ; excellent for bearing all kind of roots, 
 as parsnips, carrots, turnips, &c., and very well stored with fruit trees, for the 
 most part planted of late, furnishing us with cyder. Fern we have of most 
 sorts, but not in any extraordinary quantity ; our pasture is but short, yet 
 exceeding sweet, and therefore we have rare mutton, but no great plenty of 
 beef, and cows only enough to supply us with milk and butter ; for our cheese 
 ■we have generally from England. 
 
 *' Our firing is for the most part furzes, and sometimes turf ; for we have 
 but little wood, and no timber at all growing throughout the whole island ; so 
 that we are forced either to make shift with old apple tree for our houses, or 
 furnish ourselves as well as we can with deal, 
 
 " For belly-timber, our three staple commodities are fish, fowl, and rabbits : 
 of the first, a little industry will purchase us a hundred sorts, particularly a 
 large fish we call a vrack-&sh, which we split, and, nailing it to our walls, dry 
 it in the sun for part of our winter provision ; as also a large shell-fish, taken 
 plentifully at low tides, called an ormond^^ that sticks to the rocks, whence we 
 beat them off with a fossil or iron hook : it is much bigger than an oyster, 
 and like that good, either fresh or pickled, but infinitely more pleasant to the 
 gusto, so that an epicure would think his palate in paradise if he might but 
 always gormondize on such delicious ambrosia, (to borrow Aretine's phrase, 
 upon his eating a lamprey.) 
 
 " For fowl, your city cannot be better furnished with woodcocks or widgeons, 
 besides the abundance of duck, mallard, teal, and other wild fowl, with clift 
 pigeons, with which, at some seasons, almost the whole island is covered. 
 
 (1) Ormer {haliotis tuberculata) . The ormer, when cooked, somewhat resembles a veal 
 cutlet : in Guernsey, an immense number are brought to market in February, March, 
 and April, or are sent to Jersey. 
 
460 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 " Of conies, we have everywhere exceeding plenty, and yet, lest we should 
 want, nature has provided us a particular warren, placing at a small distance 
 in the sea an island^ of about half a mile every way over, which is inhabited by 
 nothing else, whither we commonly go a-ferreting, and have thence such abun- 
 dance, that it has been confidently told me some families here have made fifteen 
 or twenty pounds a year only of their skins. If all this rich fare will not 
 content yi)u, we have a most excellent pottage made of milk, baoon, coleworts, 
 mackerel, and gooseberries, boiled together all to pieces, which our mode is to 
 eat, not with the ceremony of a spoon, but the more courtly way of a great 
 piece of bread furiously plying between your mouth and the kettle. 
 
 " But, lest you should think we mind too much our belHes, take next a 
 survey of our political government. First, for our defence, we have a captain, 
 with about forty soldiers, who continually keep guard, and are maintained by 
 contribution of the inhabitants ; then we have a court of judicature held every 
 Tuesday, where an honest fisherman we call the judge ; another, at present 
 his son, that is entitled Monsieur Le Provost, a person that has the gift of 
 writing, and learning enough to read the obligation of a bond, serving as clerk 
 or recorder, with five other sage burghers that are justices, or some of them, 
 meet, and without any tedious formalities, intricate demurrers, special verdicts, 
 wire-drawn arguments, chargeable injunctions, multiplied motions, or endless 
 writs of error, briskly determine all causes secundum cequum et bonum, (accord- 
 ing to their mother-wit and grave discretions,) except in criminals where life is 
 concerned, in which case the ofienders are immediately sent away for trial and 
 punishment to Guernsey." 
 
 The writer next mentions that the islanders are of the reformed discipline, 
 and have an Huguenot minister, who " hath lately begun to teach grammar to 
 the children, with writing and arithmetic, erecting a school for that purpose." 
 Speaking of the mode of dress, he says : " Each man religiously preserving his 
 vast blue trunk-breeches, and a coat almost like a Dutch fro's vest, or one of 
 your watermen's liveries. Nor are the women behind hand with them in their 
 hospital gowns of the same colour, wooden sandals, white stockings, and red 
 petticoats, so mean they are scarce worth taking up. Both sexes, on festivals, 
 wear large rufi*s, and the women, instead of hats or hoods, truss up their hair, 
 the more genteel sort in a kind of cabbage net ; those of meaner fortunes in a 
 piece of linen ; perhaps an old dish-clout turned out of service, or the fag-end 
 of a table cloth, that has escaped the persecution of washing ever since the 
 Reformation. 
 
 " Let me conclude with a word or two of our trade, which, I confess, is not 
 very great to the Levant or either of the Indies ; Bristol, and some other of 
 your western ports, being the furthest places of our traffic ; for the grand and 
 almost only manufacture of our island being knitting, which our people per- 
 form with a wonderful dexterity, both for stockings, gloves, caps, and waist- 
 coats, men, women and children, being brought up to it ; so that you may 
 commonly see thirty or forty of them assembled in a bam, which you would 
 take for a conventicle of your sweet singers of Israel ; for, though all ply their 
 knitting devoutly, yet at the same time they tune their pipes, and torture some 
 old songs, with more distracted notes than a country quire does one of Hop- 
 kins' psalms. These commodities, when finished, we vend into England at the 
 places aforesaid, having several small vessels for that purpose, and thence in 
 return furnish ourselves with necessaries. 
 
 " All this, though you read it not till Michaelmas, was told you at Serke, 
 this first of April, O.S. 1673." 
 
 [Doubtless the trade of Sark was carried on through Guernsey. The writer 
 says that he went to Sark from Southampton ; and ho adds, that he will drink 
 his London kinsman's " health in a black jack of French wine, which, paying 
 no custom, we have here as plentifully cheap as in France itself."] 
 (1) Brechou, or Isle dcs Marcbands. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 461 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 MILITIA OF GUERNSEY, &c. 
 
 That a defensive force or militia existed in the Anglo-Norman 
 Islands from very early times, has been shewn by a mandate 
 of Edward III., dated in 1337, ordering an armed array of 
 the inhabitants ; and in Guernsey it was chiefly this array 
 which encountered Sir Owen of Wales, when he invaded the 
 island in 1372. Exposed as all the islands were, from their 
 frontier and isolated position, to constant attacks, it is evident 
 that the natives could only preserve their connection with 
 England, after the loss of Normandy in 1204, by some sort 
 of mihtary organization, which provided for the compulsory 
 service of every man able to bear arms ; and this obligation 
 was the more necessary, because, for several centuries, there 
 were no permanent English garrisons, excepting perhaps the 
 retinue of the governors. Indeed, it has ever been one of 
 the indispensable conditions of national existence that every 
 man should be prepared to defend his country against hostile 
 invasion. Accordingly, there was in every parish in Guern- 
 sey, not possessing a common, a small strip of land for the 
 exercise of archery, which land is still called " Les Buttes," * 
 anglice The Butts, or the spot on which the target was placed 
 — a practice doubtless derived from the Normans, who at the 
 Conquest excelled in the use of the bow, which had been 
 much neglected, if not totally discontinued, in England during 
 the Saxon era ; and to the arrows of the invaders the victory 
 of Hastings is generally attributed. In England, after the 
 Conquest, all who held lands by knight's service were bound 
 to attend the king in war, within or without the realm, 
 mounted and armed, during forty days, beyond which period 
 they could be retained only by their own consent and at the 
 king's expense, their vassals being also compelled to accom- 
 pany them. Independently, however, of these tenures, Ed- 
 ward I. and Edward II. made arbitrary levies of other 
 persons of sufficient estate, which levies, being unconstitu- 
 tional, were abolished by Edward III. on the petition of his 
 first parliament ; and thenceforth he and his successors, in 
 
 (1) " Butte, petite Elevation pour placer le but ou Ton tire en hlanc."— French Dictionary/. 
 
462 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 their wars with France, recruited their forces by contracts 
 with men of rank and influence, who procured voluntary 
 enHstments through means of very high pay. By the statutes 
 of Henry II. and Edward I., every man was bound to furnish 
 himself with arms and equipments according to the value of 
 his lands and goods, and such was the law in these islands ; 
 but that the arms were not very costly, may be inferred from 
 the report of the royal commissioners, Conway and Bird, who 
 reviewed the Jersey militia in 1617, and said : "The amies 
 specified are exceedingly defective ; those called by the gene- 
 rail names of bills, but many bare staves, with noe iron at all, 
 no cuirasses, not twelve pikes, few muskets." This descrip- 
 tion applied equally to the Guernsey militia, as Heylin, speak- 
 ing of it in 1629, wrote : " Their trained band consists or only 
 1,200, and those, God knows, but poorly weaponed." 
 
 The first ordinance extant relating to the Guernsey militia 
 is dated April 5, 1546,^ and commands all the male inhabit- 
 ants, on their allegiance, to obey their captains, who are also 
 commanded to see in their respective parishes that the haque- 
 buts,* bows, and bundles or quivers of arrows, {haquehuttes, 
 ars, et trousses,) are in order ; that the bulwarks (boulvars) 
 are constructed ; and that the munitions are always ready, as 
 they shall answer. And all those who are ordered by their 
 captains to provide arms shall obey. — The next ordinance is 
 dated May 15, 1549, and enacts that the bailiff shall have the 
 survey and charge of all the town parish, and shall cause 
 bulwarks to be erected wherever they are required : he was 
 also empowered to send, without any process, for the goods 
 of any man neglecting to work at the said bulwarks, after 
 being duly warned, and cause them to be sold by the market 
 crier, {au cry du marchy,) to pay the person employed at the 
 work in his stead. The bailiff* was also encharged to inspect 
 every man's " hacquebutte," and to furnish one, with its ap- 
 purtenances, to such as had none, fining each defaulter four 
 sols "et denier" per day. And to the captains in tlie other 
 parishes was granted the same authority as to the bailift*. 
 
 During the stay in Guernsey of the royal commissioners, 
 Gardner and Hussey, in 1607, the inhabitants complained 
 " that great sums of money have been levied upon the isle for 
 armour, namely, to buy rondaches and muskets, whereof 
 Mr. Peter Carey was factor, and received the money, but 
 
 (I) In 1543, long bows, cross bows, and all other weapons, were bv law exempted 
 from arrest for debt in Oaernsejr. 
 
 (3) " Haquebat, a sort of gun, called also a harqaebase.*'— £a{/«y*« Dictionary. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 463 
 
 hath hitherto given none account." Mr. Carey, then lieute- 
 nant-governor, answered that, " touching the armour," he was 
 appointed, in 1585, by Sir T. Leighton, to whom he had ren- 
 dered an account, and was "not bound to yield the same 
 unto the complainants " He, however, did so to the com- 
 missioners, who were quite satisfied ; but those who paid the 
 money, and certainly had a right to see the account, obtained 
 no redress. The inhabitants of St. Peter-Port complained 
 that the governor had taken upon himself to dispose of the 
 rents belonging to the maintenance of their parish church, 
 " to pay gunners at such stipend as he would himself;" and, 
 relating to the payment of gunners, the commissioners or- 
 dained "that the bailiff and jurats shall be judges thereof." — 
 The inhabitants of the " Valle" prayed that the parishes of 
 St. Peter- Port, St. Sampson, Catel, and St. Martin, should 
 " contribute with them towards the maintenance of their artil- 
 lery, as they are bound thereunto;" and "Mr. Lieutenant 
 (Carey) being desired by us to declare his knowledge thereof, 
 saith that the parishes of St. Peter-Port, St. Sampson, St. 
 Martin, and the Castle, do maintain a sacre of their own 
 within the parish of the Valle, and in a place called Lancresse ; 
 and that the other piece of ordnance, which particularly 
 belongeth to the parish of the Valle, ought to be maintained 
 by themselves and none other:" the commissioners in con- 
 sequence decided accordingly. — The inhabitants of St. Peter- 
 du-Bois having sohcited the commissioners " to be mediators 
 for them to his highness for the supply of some pieces of 
 artillery, that they do want by reason of the dangers of their 
 sea coast," the commissioners answered that they had " taken 
 the opinion of the Lieutenant (Carey) touching the desired 
 artillery, who assureth us that there is already more artillery 
 in the isle than the hihabitants are well able to maintain, and 
 therefore see no cause why we should at this time yield unto 
 their desire therein." 
 
 Returns of the militia of Guernsey, reviewed by Sir Peter 
 Osborne, 27th of August, 1621 : St. Peter-Port, 312; St. 
 Sampson, 57; the Vale, J 14 ; Catel, 120 ; St. Saviour, 130; 
 St. Peter-du-Bois, 120; Torteval, 45; St. Martin, 136; 
 St. Andrew, 63 ; Forest, 60 ; total, 1,157. 
 
 The following instructions for the Guernsey militia were 
 found among Sir Peter Osborne's papers, without date, but 
 probably written between the years 1625 and 1630 : 
 
 *' Orders to be observed by the captaynes and severall com- 
 panies. 
 
464 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 *'That upon alarme they come to the severall places appoynted 
 for theyre rendez-vous, as namely, for the towne, &c. 
 
 " That upon sight of any fleete, horses with saddles be sent to 
 the towne from each parish. 
 
 " That the constables, with the vinetaniers, attend the captayne, 
 or, in his absence, his lieutenant, or any other officer appoynted 
 by the captayne, to receave the word, upon setting of the generall 
 watches. 
 
 ** That the watch be duly survayde by the captayne, or some 
 other officer by his appoyntment. 
 
 " That every man be commanded to have no less than one 
 pound of powder and bullets, answerable of his own store and 
 provision. 
 
 **That Mr. BaylifF and the Jurates visit the powder to be 
 sold in towne, and to seaze upon that which is ill and unser- 
 viceable. 
 
 " That every parish have a close cart, covered also with a tar- 
 paulin, to transport theyre powder and math drye, and that they 
 have besyde a body barrell. 
 
 "That the powder and lead in towne be distributed to the 
 severall parishes that ca^n make just clayme to it. 
 
 " That the ordnance in all places throughout the island be 
 sufficiently mounted, and namely, those at Lancresse, the Pezari, 
 and Rocquaine, and viewed by the captaynes. 
 
 ** That there be good draught ropes and takling for all the 
 ordnance, to remove them upon occasion. 
 
 *' That such as are to attend the ordnance carry spades and 
 pickaxes, to cleare the way, if occasion be. 
 
 *' That the persons lyable to bring horses for the ordnance at- 
 tend that service, and come also with horse and cartes. 
 
 " That all the brest workes throughout the island be generally 
 and speedily repayred and made up, and especially the fortifica- 
 tions at Fermayne. 
 
 "That theyre be sufficient store of drumes, and those service- 
 able and fitt ; that provision be also made of heades, cords, and 
 hoopes. 
 
 " That all captaynes and lieutenants carry partizans,' and every 
 sergeant a halbert. 
 
 " That the beacons be made ready, and fired upon all occasion 
 of alarme. 
 
 "That every one repayre speedily with his armes to the place 
 of rendez-vous, upon the alarme given, and presume not to depart 
 from his cullers with out his captayne's order and leave. 
 
 "That every man watch in his turne, or finde one to watch for 
 him, and that none be exempt, except the captaynes only." 
 
 (1) The partizan was a light pike, with An axe affixed near the head, and used either for 
 stiiking or thrusting;. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 465 
 
 The following are extracts from the diary of Peter Le Roy : 
 
 *' September 16, 1656. — A general muster, held at the Grand' 
 Mielles^ by the * Honorable' Colonel Bingham, our chief gover- 
 nor, and with him the * noble' Colonel Squire, both members of 
 parliament, when there were : 
 
 "Two companies of the Town 340 men. 
 
 From St. Sampson's 60 ,, 
 
 „ the Vale 140 „ 
 
 „ theCatel 160 „ 
 
 ,, St. Saviour's 160 ,, 
 
 „ St. Pierre-du-Bois 140 ,, 
 
 „ Torteval 48 „ 
 
 „ the Forest 100 „ 
 
 „ St. Martin's 180 „ 
 
 „ St. Andrew's 90 ,, 
 
 " Thus the number of men who there appeared carrying arms 
 and keeping rank and file, amounted to 1,418,^ without counting 
 the captains and other officers, the old men and others exempted 
 from carrying arms, the absent and the sick, and a great number 
 of young men who had not yet been obliged to carry arms. 
 
 *' June 29, 1664. — At a general muster of the militia, before 
 Lord Hatton, there were eleven companies, consisting of 1,324 
 soldiers carrying arms, exclusive of officers and all those who 
 assisted at the cannon, others without arms, and the aged men 
 who were exempted." 
 
 Captain Waterhouse^ Lieut. -Governor, to Mr. John Le Gros. 
 
 " Sir, — Lieutenant Richard Winne, haveing urgent occations 
 to goe into England, I desire that in his absense you will take 
 care of the militia of the island of Sarke, and keep the said isle 
 for his highnes the Lord Protector of England. Not else at 
 present, but that I am your affectionat frind, 
 
 " Charles Waterhouse. 
 "Castle Cornet, April 14, 1659. 
 
 " ffor his respected frind, Mr. John Le Gross, 
 Judge of Sarke Isle, These." 
 
 Lieut. -Governor Darell to Captain William Le Marchant. 
 
 "You are hereby to take notice that when the right honorable 
 the Lord Hatton, our governor, shal bee upon our coast, I shall 
 give you warning thereof, by fyring three peices of ordnance from 
 the castle, and that you order the bells to bee runge, and that your 
 
 (1) A large common in the Cdtel parish, about half a mile to the N.N.E. of Cobo Bay, 
 much enclosed since the diary was written. 
 
 (2) According to the usual calculation that one-seventh of the inhabitants are fit to bear 
 arms, this number would give a population of fully 9,926 souls, and St. Peter- Port probably 
 contained about 3,000 souls. 
 
 2g 
 
466 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 ordnance bee fyred after the castle shall have answered the fri- 
 got's salutacon, and likewise that you observe the same order when 
 that my lord shal bee welcomed into the castle, which shal bee 
 made knowne unto you by the shooting of the ordnance ; and at 
 night that bonfires bee made in your parish. 
 
 " You are likewise to have a care that all the armes in your 
 company bee fixt. 
 
 " Nathaniell Darell, Lieut.-Governor. 
 [February, 1664.] 
 
 ** Endorsed : * fFor my cousen, Captaine William Marchant, 
 captaine of the fForest.' " 
 
 Lord Hatton to the Captain of the Parish of St. Andrew, 
 
 *' Capitaine de la paroisse de St. Andre. 
 " (LS.) — II vous est expressement enjoint que vous ayes h 
 comparer devant moy, Mercredi, le29edu courant, a neuf heures 
 du matin, es Grands Mieles, avec touts les officiers et soldats de 
 vostre compagnie, fournis des armes et amunition suffisant. Et 
 que fasses trainer les canons de vostre paroisse a la mesme place 
 k faire moustres generates avec les autres compagnies de ceste 
 isle. Et entretemps vous feres par vous et les officiers de vostre 
 susdite compagnie une reveue des armes de chasque soldat de 
 vostre compagnie, afin qu'ils soient fixes et en bon ordre ; et 
 anparavant le jour appointe pour les moustres generates, il vous 
 est enjoint d'assembler les officiers et soldats de vostre susdite 
 compagnie, afin de les exercer et instruire en Tart militaire, et 
 qu'ayes h. m'advertir du jour que tiendres cette moustre particu- 
 liere. ffinalement, auparavant le dit jour des moustres generates, 
 vous estes enjoint de m'apporter une liste des noms et qualites de 
 chascun des officiers et soldats de vostre dite compagnie, et de 
 I'amunition, canons, et d'autres necessaires de milice appartenants 
 k vostre paroisse, et pareillement que m'envoyes au plustot que 
 pourres les canoniers de vostre paroisse : a quoy n'y ait faute en 
 aucun article. Donne au Chasteau Cornett, le 14e de Juin, 1664. 
 
 ^♦Chr. Hatton." 
 
 Towards the close of the seventeenth century, the militia 
 was divided into thirteen companies ; and, according to Mr. 
 Dumaresq, of Jersey, who wrote in 1685, the whole formed 
 in one body commanded by the governor, or his lieutenant. 
 In 1680, by an apparently official return, the captains and 
 strength of the thirteen companies were: St. Peter- Port, 
 four companies. Captains Daniel de Beau voir, William Le 
 Marchant, John Martin, and Samuel Dobree, 521 men ; 
 St. Sampson's company. Captain Abraham Carey, 103 men ; 
 Valle company. Captain John Bouillon, 119 men ; St. Mar- 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 467 
 
 tin's company, Captain John Andros, 198 men ; Catel com- 
 pany, Captain Charles Andros, 182 men ; St. Andrew's 
 company, Captain Isaac Carey, 105 men ; the Forest com- 
 pany. Captain John Bonamy, 120 men ; Torteval company, 
 Captain Nicholas Le Huray, 169 men ; St. Peter-du-Bois 
 company, (Captain Thomas De Lisle, 183 men ; and St. 
 Saviour's company, Captain George Andros, 202 men ; grand 
 total, 1,902 men: but this number, in a population of less 
 than 10,000 souls, is now incredible. These companies ap- 
 pear to have been embodied into three regiments early in the 
 eighteenth century, when the title of colonel was first esta- 
 bhshed, although in Jersey it was introduced about the year 
 1620, or a century earlier. — Amias Andros, bailiff, who died 
 in 1674, was major-general of the Guernsey militia. The 
 first mention that we find of the three regiments, with colo- 
 nels and lieutenant-colonels, is in an ordinance of the Chief 
 Pleas, in 1730 ; and by a commission granted by Lieut.-Gover- 
 nor Dollon, dated St. Peter-Port, September 20, 1727, Thomas 
 Le Marchant, Jun., was appointed " captain of one company 
 of militia of the parish of the Catel, in the regiment of the 
 Honorable Colonell WiUiam Le Marchant, Sen. Esq." 
 
 Lieut.-Governor Giles Spicer having intimated to the 
 royal court, in March, 1719, that, in conformity with an order 
 from the secretary of war, he had sent to Plymouth the sol- 
 diers who were in garrison in the island, so that Castle Cornet 
 was left defenceless, the court authorized him to appoint daily 
 such a number of the militia as he deemed necessary for the 
 guard of the castle, and of the harbour of St. Peter-Port. 
 At this time. Great Britain was in close alliance with France, 
 and at war with Spain, which government dispatched, in 
 February, 1719, a strong force from Cadiz under the Duke 
 of Ormond, with the design of landing in the west of Eng- 
 land ; but the expedition was dispersed near Cape Finisterre, 
 a few days after its departure, and rendered abortive. Ormond 
 was an adherent of the Pretender, who had many partisans 
 among the English, as well as among the Scotch and Irish. 
 
 AppHcation having been made to government, in 1740, for 
 twenty-five field pieces, muskets, barracks, &;c., the lords 
 justices decided that no cannon should be sent, because "so 
 lately as the year 1732, all the guns belonging to the garrison 
 in Guernsey, which were defective, were exchanged, and 
 thirteen iron ordnance, with stores proper for them, were sent 
 thither." They, however, empowered the lieutenant-governor 
 
468 
 
 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 to arm the inhabitants, on any emergency, with the 500 
 muskets lodged in Castle Cornet, " taking particular care that 
 they be returned safe, when the occasion for issuing them 
 cease." The barracks in Castle Cornet, being in a ruinous 
 condition, were ordered to be put into as good repair as they 
 were capable of, " for the accommodation of the two companies 
 in that castle." But, although muskets were refused in 1740, 
 1000, with bayonets, &c., were sent, in 1744, from England 
 for the militia ; evidently for the poorer classes only. 
 
 STATE OF THE THREE REGIMENTS OF MILITIA AT GUERNSEY, ACCORDING 
 TO A GENERAL REVIEW MADE THE 25th OF JUNE, 1750. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PQ 
 
 n^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 riA 
 
 ri 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 Colonels. 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 s 
 
 ^ 
 
 PQ 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 •J 
 
 1 
 
 to 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 a 
 
 -5 
 
 g 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 h-1 
 
 W 
 
 02 
 
 w 
 
 M 
 
 W 
 
 W 
 
 o 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 Elisha Le Marcliant, Esq. ... 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 600 
 
 350 
 
 350 
 
 350 
 
 2100 
 
 3500 
 
 William Le Marchant, Esq... 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 550 
 
 325 
 
 325 
 
 325 
 
 1950 
 
 3250 
 
 Charles Andres, Esq 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 21 
 
 58 
 
 7 
 
 650 
 
 325 
 
 325 
 
 325 
 
 1950 
 
 2250 
 
 
 Total 
 
 20 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 1800 
 
 1000 
 
 1000 
 
 1000 
 
 6000 
 
 9000 
 
 
 Thomas Le Marchant, Major ; John Andros, Major ; John Brock, Captain 
 and Acting Major. 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF GUERNSEY. Per Diem. 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor £0 10 
 
 Chaplain 6 8 
 
 First master gunner 2 
 
 Four other gunners, at Is. each 4 
 
 Allowance for fire and candle, at the rate of £40 per annum.40 
 
 In 1755, the governor visited Guernsey, and Sir John 
 Mylne, Bart., the lieut. -governor, on the 6th of June, directed 
 Colonel William Le Marchant to send " his part of the six 
 field pieces (which the king gave to the island) on the 15th 
 instant, in perfect good order, for to salute my Lord De la 
 Warr upon his arrival." The island had not been visited by 
 its governor since the time of the second Lord Hatton, and 
 Lord De la Warr was the last who visited it. 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 469 
 
 Sir John Mylne to Colonel William Le Marchant, of V Hyvreuse. 
 
 " Guernsey, July 4, 1755. 
 " My Lord De la Warr finding by the present establishment 
 of the militia in Guernsey that a regiment does consist of six or 
 seven companies only, which makes them too numerous to be 
 duly disciplined and commanded by the officers, his lordship has 
 therefore thought fit to order that every one of the three regiments 
 of militia shall consist of ten companys for the future ; and that 
 the three majors, with Captain [de] Havilland, do meet to take 
 the speediest and most proper methodes to accomplish the same 
 forthwith, by ordering all the captains of the three regiments to 
 give in to the majors the * vingtenier's' list of their companys 
 immediately. His lordship has likewise ordered the St. Samp- 
 son's company of the town regiment to be joined to the Catei 
 regiment. These orders to be communicated to all concerned, 
 and put in execution without loss of time/' 
 
 Appended to the preceding letter is the following general 
 militia order, signed by Sir John Mylne : 
 
 "It is my Lord De la Warr's orders that there shall be but 
 two stand of colours to each regiment, and these are to belong to 
 the colonels' and lieutenant-colonels' companys, the field officers 
 being each of them to have companys. 
 
 "The names of proper persons for to be captains, lieutenants, 
 and ensigns to the additional companys, to be given in to the 
 majors this day, remembering allwise his lordship's intention to 
 have captains of the best familys. 
 
 "The captains to give a list to the majors immediately of the 
 men that was ordered some time ago to be draughted out of the 
 militia for gunners to forts, &c., because of them two companys 
 of artillery are to be formed : one captain, two lieutenants, four 
 sergeants, four corporals, two drummers, and seventy privates 
 each company, to be the establishment. The majors must like- 
 wise have the names of proper persons to be officers to these two 
 companys." 
 
 In pursuance of Lord De la Warr's orders, the officers 
 reported that " we have, in obedience to your lordship's order 
 and Sir John Mylne's directions, reduced the companys, and 
 completed ten to each regiment, exclusiye of two companys 
 for the artillery, draughted out from the whole." — A docu- 
 ment without date, but evidently written soon after this 
 change, mentions that his majesty had granted " yearly, dur- 
 ing the war, fifteen barrels of powder to the indigent in the 
 thirty companies of the island, to be expended in reviews and 
 on field days." 
 
470 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 The following remarks are extracted from a manuscript, 
 neither signed nor dated, but evidently written about 1755 : 
 
 " The present great confusion and disorders in the militia of 
 Guernsey proceed from the great irregularities committed by 
 Lieut. -Governor Spicer. 
 
 "1. He created a captain-lieutenant to every company, which 
 occasioned many broils and disputes between those new officers 
 and the ancient lieutenants, for their posts when regimented. 
 
 *' 2. He created the captains of batteries, whom for the most 
 part were people, some that had a disgust for their captains or 
 other officers; some by laziness, to have but little or nothing to 
 do ; and others by pride, imagining not to be subordinate in that 
 new post to any officer, but to the governor alone. 
 
 " 3. He also formed a regiment of artillery officers, and gave 
 them those high titles of honorable colonel, &c., of artillery, 
 and this to many persons of the lowest extraction and meanest 
 character. 
 
 ** Many other ridiculous commissions were granted by that 
 governor to accumulate guineas, which he extorted from those 
 and all other officers for their commissions. 
 
 ** Lieut. -Governor Dollon, who succeeded him, did the good 
 office to break the captain-lieutenants ; but as to the rest, made 
 things rather worse, for he not only raised the price of commis- 
 sions, but also obliged the officers to pay for the renewing of 
 them, which he took advantage to do twice in about nine months 
 time. I have myself three commissions of captain drawn out 
 within the space of fifteen months : the first from Mr. Spicer, 
 dated June 16, 1726; the second from Mr. Dollon, at his first 
 coming in the island, dated December 1, 1726; and the third 
 from the same lieutenant-governor, at his majesty's accession to 
 the throne, dated September 20, 1727, for all which I was obliged 
 to pay as for new commissions. 
 
 " The same lieutenant-governor raised a troop of horse, or rather 
 a troop of men, whom upon any emergency were the seven-eighth 
 part of them reduced to run the country to borrow, or hire for 
 the day, very mean and pitiful horses ; and as that pretended 
 company were seldom said to be in a condition to make a proper 
 appearance, they were by that means often exempt from any duty, 
 which was the principal view ; and that occasioned a jealousy and 
 discouragement to the infantry, which I am afraid will not only 
 be tlie case if continued, but will also draw so many officers and 
 persons fit for those posts, as to render it impracticable to fill up 
 the vacancies in the infantry, and by that means screen several 
 gentlemen from doing their duty. 
 
 " Lieut.-Governor Graham, who was the next, continued every 
 thing much upon the same footing ; but he committed a great 
 irregularity in favor of Mr. John Brock, who was a lieutenant in 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 471 
 
 one of the country regiments, [the company of Torteval,] by 
 giving him the commission of captain in the town regiment, and 
 this over the heads of the lieutenants belonging to it, who, without 
 offending Mr. Brook, were at least as well qualified as himself 
 for that post, and which gave them so much discouragement that 
 they all laid down their commissions, and from which time there 
 has been no lieutenants in that regiment. 
 
 " Lieut.-Governor Strahan, though he had all the commissions 
 renewed, shewed himself more generous than his three predeces- 
 sors, by extorting nothing from them, as they had all done ; and 
 though he would not take upon himself to break officers created 
 before his time, he made however the captains of batteries subor- 
 dinate to the officers of militia, and in the last war issued out an 
 order that, in case of any attack, the officers of artillery should 
 obey the commanding officer of infantry contiguous to them, 
 which was very necessary, as those gentlemen before pretended 
 to be independent." 
 
 [Next follows a narrative of certain disputes relative to the lieutenant-colo- 
 nelcy of the town regiment, which is now of no interest.] 
 
 " February 21, 1756. — [Extracts.] — Whereas the commander- 
 in-chief of this island hath received a letter from Lieut.-Governor 
 Strahan, that a declaration of war by the French is expected every 
 moment in London,^ the island of Guernsey is therefore desired 
 to be upon its guard. 
 
 "As a watch will become more necessary in the night time than in 
 the day, it is the commandant's orders that a corporal and four 
 privates of the militia do parade at the several watch-houses at 
 five o'clock, p.m., and to come off" at seven o'clock, a.m., till the 
 1st of April ensuing, viz. at Jerbourg, Somraeilleuse, the Vale, and 
 the Roque du Guet, at the Catel 
 
 " The whole militia to hold themselves ready to turn out at a 
 moment's warning, according to former orders. 
 
 " Places of rendezvous for the country regiments, viz. the com- 
 pany of Torteval and those of St. Peter's, at the Catel church- 
 yard ; the Forest and St. Andrew's, at St. Martin's church-yard, 
 and the rest at their respective church-yards ; and the town regi- 
 ment, at their captains' quarters. 
 
 "That all the men of the militia, who are incapable to provide 
 themselves with arms and ammunition, be acquainted immediately 
 where the store-houses of their respective companies are kept, that 
 they may repair to them in case of an alarm, to be supplied with 
 them, and join their companies. 
 
 ** The visiting rounds (surguet) of the several watches to be 
 performed by the subaltern officers of the militia and the troop of 
 horse, each at their turn, beginning with the troop, two in com- 
 
 (1) Great Britain declared war May 18, and France June 9, 1756. 
 
472 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 pany, that is, four in all every night : they are to begin any time 
 betwixt ten at night, and end an hour before daybreak, which 
 rounds are always to have the parole j and so is the commanding 
 officer of each watch. 
 
 . *' In case of an alarm, the commanding officer of the watch is 
 immediately to light the beacon, and to dispatch one of the watch 
 to the commander-in-chief, and another of said watch to the nearest 
 commissioned officer of the militia, who is ordered to see the bells 
 set a ringing, and a cannon fired ; and this is to be done in every 
 parish. 
 
 " That the sergeants of the horse and foot do regulate amongst 
 themselves to see the watches set. 
 
 " February 28. — The officers that oversee the bulwarks, to re- 
 port every man that neglects his duty. 
 
 [Here follows a distribution of the watches, viz. seven companies each for 
 Jerbourg, the Yale, the Catel, and the Sommeilleuse, and two companies 
 for Pleinmont ; total, thirty companies.] 
 
 ** As the troop is quartered all over the island, they are to do 
 the above duty with the company nearest to them, with the subal- 
 terns of the companies. 
 
 " The bulwarks belonging to the town and Yale are forthwith 
 to be completed ; the town to begin on Monday next, and at the 
 Vale Wednesday next. The captains of artillery are to call for a 
 list, as the companies are now divided between the sergeants and 
 corporals, of the houses where the men are quartered, and the 
 batteries round the island to be equally divided amongst the com- 
 panies ; a sergeant or corporal appointed to command each battery, 
 and they to take out their men every Sunday to their respective 
 batteries to learn the exercise of the great guns : those of the 
 town to learn upon the pier. Fort Mansell, and Hougue-^-la-P^re. 
 The three guns nearest to the pier heads to be always kept loaded 
 with powder only, for a signal of alarm. 
 
 " March 3. — The majors to see that the covered waggons of 
 
 each parish are repaired The whole militia to provide 
 
 themselves with bayonets, fitted to their firelocks. 
 
 (Signed) " John Mylne." 
 
 Sir John Mylne having represented to the royal court that 
 the watch, at night, at "TAngle, an Clos du Valle" was ex- 
 tremely neglected, because the men of the town regiment did 
 not attend there, notwithstanding his orders, that body issued 
 an ordinance, dated August 19, 1758, that every person who 
 was bound to attend, and did not do so in person or by sub- 
 stitute, should pay 14 sols tournois for each default, which 
 fine was to be expended by the captain in getting the duty 
 properly performed, and in the purchase of fuel, candles, &:c., 
 for the men employed at " I'Angle." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 473 
 
 About the same time, the officers of the town regiment 
 drew up a long remonstrance in French, addressed to the 
 royal court, complaining of the great hardship of themselves 
 and their men being compelled to mount guard and go the 
 rounds {faire guet et surguet) at 1' Angle, in the north extre- 
 mity of the Vale parish, to reach which guard they often ran 
 the risk of being drowned in passing the Braye, from not 
 knowing the roads and tides : they urged, moreover, that as 
 the company of the Vale consisted of sixty or seventy men, 
 which was double the number of several of the companies of 
 the town, and that as the regiment of the Catel had been 
 augmented, and that of the town diminished of the company 
 of St. Sampson's, the regiment of the Catel ought to perform 
 the duty at I'Angle, the more so as the watch commenced 
 at sunset, the working man lost a day's wages by being 
 obliged to leave town at three o'clock, p.m., and not return- 
 ing until ten o'clock, a.m., on the following day. It does not 
 appear how the matter was arranged, but the complaint was 
 certainly well founded. 
 
 By a " state of the field train," &c., in the several parishes 
 of Guernsey, dated March, 1758, we find that the brass ord- 
 nance consisted of eighteen pieces, viz. one 6-pounder at St. 
 Martin's ; twelve 3-pounders, of which six on the pier ; one 
 2|-pounder; one Ij -pounder; and three l^-pounders. 
 
 During the summer of 1780 or 1781, three French priva- 
 teers, two brigs and one cutter, with 200 soldiers on board, 
 were despatched from Cherbourg by the famous General 
 Dumourier, to take the island of Alderney. Under the cover 
 of the night, the privateers came to an anchor within musket 
 shot of the guard-house of the Chateau a I'Etoc, where they 
 were perceived about two o'clock in the morning, it being at 
 that time moonlight. There being very little wind, the French 
 were attempting to land in Corbie t's bay. The militia guard 
 was only composed of four men, namely, John Ozard, Peter 
 Gaudion, William Harris, and another, who, perceiving the 
 object of the invaders, immediately opened a fire upon them, 
 which was so well directed as to kill several of the French- 
 men on board the privateers. There was, at that moment, in 
 Alderney roads, a large English privateer, mounting 18 guns, 
 commanded by Captain Chandler, who, upon hearing the 
 report of the guns from the battery, instantly beat to arms. 
 The weather being very calm, and every thing quiet, the 
 
474 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 alarm was heard by those on board the French vessels, and, 
 supposing- that the whole militia were under arms, as soon as 
 daylight appeared the privateers weighed anchor, and directed 
 their course towards Cherbourg. In the meantime, Captain 
 Chandler got under sail, and pursued the enemy. Having 
 come up with them, he gave them several broadsides, but 
 they succeeded in reaching their port of destination, and 
 Chandler directed his course to Jersey. Thus, by the 
 courage of four men, the enemy was prevented from landing, 
 and ultimately forced to retire without effecting their purpose. 
 
 By a deliberation of the parishioners of St. Peter-Port, in 
 1733, captains of militia were exempted from serving as 
 "collecteurs des pauvres ;" and, in 1761, one of the reasons 
 given for the purchase of the New Ground was, that the town 
 militia was obliged to go to the " Grand' Mielles," in the 
 Catel parish, to exercise. 
 
 In 1780, the regiment of field artillery, the service in which 
 corps had previously been confined to the batteries, was 
 formed by Colonel Nicholas Dobree, and the west regiment 
 of infantry by Colonel Peter De Lisle, when the Guernsey 
 militia became divided into four regiments of infantry and 
 one of artillery, as now; the parish of St. Peter-Port furnishing 
 the 1st or east regiment, facings white, and the regiment of 
 artillery ; the Vale, St. Sampson's, and the Catel, the 2d or 
 north regiment, facings green ; St. Martin's, St. Andrew's, 
 and the Forest, the 3d or south regiment, facings blue ; and 
 St. Saviour's, St. Peter-in-the-Wood, and Torteval, the 4th 
 or west regiment, facings black. Until about the year 1835, the 
 three country regiments were usually called by their facings. 
 
 In the year 1780, the royal court passed the following ordi- 
 nance for the compulsory equipment of the mihtia : 
 
 " On the representation of the lieutenant-governor, the Honor- 
 able Paulas ^railius Irving, that it would prove a certain and 
 considerable advantage for the defence of the island against inva- 
 sion, if the local militia were furnished with a red coat and white 
 stockings, when under arms, inasmuch as that would identify the 
 said militia in the eyes of the enemy with the soldiers of the line, 
 which would inspire greater terror into the enemy, however effi- 
 cient the militia may be, and because many persons are already 
 so furnished ; the court, having heard the opinions of the crown 
 lawyers, and desiring to concur in every thing which may contri- 
 bute to the defence of the island, has ordered that all persons who 
 have the means shall furnish themselves with a suitable red coat, 
 and the ornamental facings and collars of their regiments, and 
 white stockings, under the penalty of ten livres tournois ; and, as 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 475 
 
 to the poor, they are to be furnished by their respective parishes, 
 the whole within this day and the 1st of May next, after which 
 day every militiaman is prohibited from appearing under arms 
 unless dressed in a red coat, as stated above, and white stockings, 
 when ordered by their commanding officer, under the penalty of 
 three livres tournois. The said ten livres tournois to be applied 
 thus, eighteen sous to his majesty, and the surplus to the parish 
 of the delinquent ; and the three livres tournois to be ap|)lied thus, 
 eighteen sous to his majesty, and the surplus to the company of 
 the delinquent ; and the poor are bound to take care of the clothes 
 and stockings furnished, them by their parish, and return them, 
 from time to time, as may be required, to such officer as may be 
 appointed by their parish, without permission to use them, except 
 under arms, under pain of punishment. And the artillery regi- 
 ment is also ordered to furnish themselves with the uniform worn 
 by artillery regiments, and not to appear unless so dressed, for 
 artillery exercise when called upon by their commanding officer, 
 under the same penalties as stated above." 
 
 Against this ordinance deputies from all the parishes, ex- 
 cepting the Vale, St. Peter-in-the-Wood, and St. Peter- Port, 
 remonstrated, and represented that the generality of the inha- 
 bitants of the country parishes only possessed a very trifling 
 property, and especially those in Torteval, who were only taxed 
 for the most part at three, five, or ten quarters of wheat rent ; 
 that the charges, to which they had been subject "during 
 the present course of hostilities, had been excessive, since the 
 country paid two-thirds of the taxes for the public works, 
 according to the established rates ; and that they were obliged 
 to serve as watch or patrol, and to go under arms twice a 
 week, which occupied a great portion of their time. The 
 following is one of the numerous paragraphs in the remon- 
 strance of the deputies : 
 
 ** We beg the court to observe, that the militia of this island is 
 totally different from the militia of England, they being paid by 
 the sovereign, clothed by the government, and subjected to mili- 
 tary discipline; whereas the militia of this island are volunteers, 
 being simply a citizen militia, which receives no pay, which 
 recognizes no power but the civil power, but who, after the ex- 
 ample of their forefathers, are ready to fight against every enemy 
 who may assail their persons or properties.'' 
 
 The royal court having refused to repeal their ordinance, 
 a petition against it was presented to his majesty in council, 
 December 15, 1780, signed by the deputies of the whole of 
 the ten parishes of Guernsey, and several other inhabitants. 
 On the 17th of May, 1781, the lords of council took this 
 
476 HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 
 
 petition into consideration, and ordered a copy thereof to be 
 transmitted to the royal court, who were required to return 
 their answer forthwith in writing, and to forbear levying the 
 fines imposed by their ordinance, until the question, whether 
 the court had power to enact it, should be determined. Here 
 the matter dropped, in consequence of the government, in 1782, 
 sending over clothing and accoutrements from England ; ^ 
 and this practice has ever since been continued, the officers 
 only finding their own equipments. But every man in the 
 bailiwick, from the age of sixteen to sixty, is not only legally 
 bound to provide himself with the necessary arms and 
 accoutrements ; but to turn out whenever ordered ; to mount 
 guard at night in war time, in his turn ; to repair the 
 bulwarks, a duty not now exacted ; to keep the garrison, 
 when troops of the line are absent ; and, in short, to perform 
 every military service for insular defence. 
 
 During the last war, about the year 1 807, three natives of 
 the Forest, fishermen, were impressed by a ship of war, while 
 fishing near that parish. They belonged to the south regi- 
 ment of militia, then commanded by Colonel Harry Dobree, 
 who claimed them from Sir Edmund Nagle, the rear-admiral 
 on the station. He refused to release them, and the matter 
 was referred by Sir John Doyle to the secretary of state, 
 when an order was transmitted from the admiralty for their 
 immediate release. Sir John having claimed them as part of 
 the force under his command, and strongly urged the necessity 
 of the militia being protected from impressment. 
 
 In 1799, on the recommendation of Sir Hew Dalrymple, 
 the lieutenant-governor, an inspecting field officer of militia 
 was appointed from the fine, Lieut. -Colonel Sir Thomas Sau- 
 marez being the first ; but in 1818, after the peace, the office 
 was abolished. In 1810, an assistant- inspector was appointed 
 to each regiment of militia, with 4s. per day, and forage for a 
 horse : they were militia officers, and their duty was to attend 
 the drill of the recruits, take care of the arms and clothing, 
 and to go the rounds by night. Soon after the peace of 1815, 
 two inspectors only were retained ; and in 1830 the establish- 
 ment was further reduced to one deputy inspector, with 3s. 
 a day and forage. In 1843, the deputy inspectorship was 
 
 (1) Extract from G. O. for the Militia, Head Quarters, April 11, 1782. — " His majesty 
 having been graciously pleased to make a present of clothing and accoutrements to the 
 militia of this island, it is to be issued to them immediately ; and the commanding officers 
 of regiments and companies arc to see them served properly. And the lieutenant-gover- 
 nor recommends it to the men to have them fitted, and hereby directs that they are not to 
 be worn but when ordered. And he hopes they will be kept clean and in good order. — 
 Signed, P. JE,. Irving.— Peter de Jersey, aide-de-camp." 
 
HISTORY OF GUERNSEY. 477 
 
 abolished, and one chief assistant-inspector, with 3s. a day, 
 and £25 a year for forage ; five assistant-inspectors, with 
 2s. a day, and £25 a year for forage ; and five drill sergeants, 
 with Is. a day, were appointed. In 1853, the sixteen light 
 6-pounders of the artillery, which had been in use about thirty 
 years, were exchanged for twelve 9-pounders and four 24- 
 pound howitzers, with which they practised for the first tfme 
 in September of the same year, at I'Ancresse, before Lord 
 Raglan, master-general of the ordnance ; Sir James Graham, 
 first lord of the admiralty ; and several officers of rank. 
 
 In 1831, the militia of the Anglo-Norman isles was made 
 royal, with the distinctions thereof, by William IV. ; when 
 Lord Melbourne, December 30, 1830, wrote: "The 6th 
 January next will be the fiftieth anniversary or jubilee of 
 Monsieur De Rullecourt's defeat, and of the capture of him- 
 self and his whole force, after he had made good his landing, 
 and taken possession of the town of St. Helier ; and his ma- 
 jesty is desirous that that day should be the day fixed for 
 making his intentions known to the militia of the islands." 
 In consequence, the facings w^ere made blue at the next issue 
 of clothing. William IV. also first appointed a Jersey and 
 Guernsey militia aide-de-camp to the sovereign, ColonelJohn 
 Guille, of St. George, being named by a commission, dated 
 September 14, 1830, "aide-de-camp for the service of our 
 militia in Guernsey." Colonel Guille resigned the appoint- 
 ment in 1843, when he was made bailiff; and he was succeeded 
 by Colonel James Priaulx. 
 
 The militia of Guernsey now (1854) consists of five regi- 
 ments, viz. artillery, of four companies ; infantry, 1st or 
 east, of nine companies, including two of rifles ; 2d or north, 
 3d or south, and 4th or west, each of eight companies, 
 including one of rifles ; total available strength, in the event 
 of a war, nearly 3,000 men. The artillery is horsed by the 
 States, and free of expense to government. — In a G. M. O. 
 of June 30, 1854, it was announced that it " has been deter- 
 mined by authority, that whenever vacancies happen in the 
 royal Guernsey militia, lieutenant-colonels commandant shall 
 be substituted for full colonels ; " and, by the same order, an 
 assistant-inspector was appointed, for the first time, for 
 Alderney ; in which island all the militia are, in future, to be 
 employed in the batteries. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 
 
 SIR EDMUND ANDROS, KNIGHT, 
 
 Was born in London, in 1637, his father, Amias Andros, being then marshall 
 of the ceremonies to Charles I. From a boy, he was brought up in the royal 
 family ; and, in its exile, commenced his career of arms in Holland, under 
 Prince Henry of Nassau. Upon the Restoration, in 1660, he was made gen- 
 tleman in ordinary to Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia. In 1667, he was 
 major in the regiment sent to Barbadoes ; and in 1672 Major Andros was 
 commander of the forces in that island. In the latter year, the palatine and 
 proprietors of the province of Carolina, by patent in which allusion is made to 
 his merits and services, conferred on him and his heirs the title and dignity of 
 Landgrave, with four baronies, containing 48,000 acres of land, at a quit rent 
 of one penny an acre. In 1674, on the death of his father, he succeeded to 
 the office of bailiff of Guernsey, the reversion of which had been granted to 
 him by the king. The same year, he was commissioned to receive New York 
 and its dependencies from the Dutch, pursuant to the treaty of peace, when 
 he was constituted governor of that province ; and on his return from thence, 
 in 1681, he was knighted by Charles II. In 1683, Sir Edmund Andros was 
 sworn gentleman of the privy chamber to the king, and the same year the isle 
 of Alderney was granted to him, as already mentioned. In 1685, he was 
 colonel of Princess Anne of Denmark's regiment of horse, and the following 
 year James II. appointed him governor, &c., of Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
 shire, Maine, New Plymouth, &c., and soon afterwards of Rhode Island and of 
 Connecticut, thus comprehending the whole of New England ; and subse- 
 quently New York and New Jersey were also added to his jurisdiction. After 
 the revolution, William III. preferred him to the governorship of Virginia, 
 and his majesty honoured him by adjoining to it, at the same time, that of 
 Maryland. In 1704, under queen Anne, he was extraordinarily distinguished 
 by having the lieutenant-governorship of Guernsey conferred upon him, whilst 
 he also continued bailiff, as before related. Sir Edmund was married thrice, 
 but left no issue, and died at Westminster, in 1713, aged seventy-five. 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL SIR ISAAC BROCK, K.B. 
 
 Mr. William Brock, who died in 1776, had three sons and one daughter, 
 viz. William, married to Judith De Beauvoir ; John, married to Elizabeth 
 De Lisle, daughter of the then lieutenant-bailiff; Henry, married to Susan 
 Saumarez, sister of the late Admiral Lord De Saumarez ; and Mary, wife of 
 John Le Marchant, Esq. 
 
 The Baid John Brock and Elizabeth De Lisle had a family of ten sons and 
 four daughters ; and Isaac, the eighth son, was born in Guernsey, October 6, 
 1769. He entered the army, by purchase, in the 8th regiment, in 1785 ; and 
 although he was an ensign five years, he became lieutenant-colonel, command- 
 ing the 49th regiment, in 1797, having purchased the intermediate steps with 
 great rapidity. During the campaign in Holland, in 1799, he distinguished 
 himself at the head of his regiment, which, in the battle of Berghen, on the 
 2d of October, had two officers killed and five wounded. It was a very cold 
 day, and Colonel Brock's life was in all probability preserved by his wearing 
 over his stock a handkerchief, which was perforated by a bullet, but which 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 479 
 
 prevented its entering his neck. He was second in command of the land forces 
 at the memorable attack of Copenhagen by Lord Nelson, in 1801, in which he 
 was to have led the 49th in storming the principal of the Treckroner batteries, 
 in conjunction with 500 seamen under Captain Eremantle ; but the obstinate 
 defence of the Danes rendered the attempt impracticable, and Lieut.-Colonel 
 Brock continued on board the Granges, of 74 guns, one of the ships engaged. 
 His next younger brother, Savery, served under him in the 49th, and had his 
 hat torn from his head by a cannon or grape shot, while in the act of pointing 
 one of the guns of the Ganges. In the following year, Lieut.-Colonel Brock 
 proceeded to Canada with his favorite 49th, and there remained, with only one 
 intermission, (when he returned on leave to Europe,) until the period of his 
 death. In 1803, while in command at York, (now Toronto,) he was suddenly 
 informed that two or three companies of the 49th at Fort George, under the 
 junior lieutenant-colonel, with whom they were discontented, had formed a 
 conspiracy to imprison their officers while they marched to Queenston, seven 
 miles distant, and there crossed over by the ferry to the state of New York. 
 Lieut.-Colonel Brock instantly proceeded to Fort George, and suppressed the 
 conspiracy in a manner which justified the remark that truth is often stranger 
 than fiction ; four of the ringleaders being afterwards shot at Quebec. In 
 1806-7, Colonel Brock commanded the troops in the Canadas for above a year, 
 until the arrival of the governor-general. Sir James Craig. In 1811, he obtained 
 his promotion as a major-general, when the Duke of York at length consented, 
 in consequence of his repeated applications, to gratify his wishes for more 
 active employment in Europe, and Sir George Prevost was authorized to 
 replace him by another officer ; but when the permission reached Canada, a 
 war with the United States of America was evidently near at hand, and Major- 
 General Brock, with such a prospect, was retained, both by honour and in- 
 clination, in the country ; the more so as Sir George wrote to him that he 
 valued his services highly, and that he hoped he would not be deprived of his 
 assistance at that critical period of afiairs. 
 
 At the commencement of the second American war, in June, 1812, Major- 
 General Brock was administering the civil as well as the military government 
 of Upper Canada, and he could scarcely collect 1,500 troops for its immediate 
 defence. But he quickly received voluntary offers of service from the militia, 
 most easily embodied, while the Indian warriors, in considerable numbers, 
 soon after joined him at Amherstburg. The American government, previously 
 to its declaration of war, had detached to the Michigan territory an army of 
 about 2,500 men, under Brigadier-General Hull, an old revolutionary officer 
 of high reputation, who, said the president, in his message to congress, " pos- 
 sessing discretionary authority to act ofiensively, passed into Upper Canada, 
 with a prospect of easy and victorious progress," Having reached the Cana- 
 dian village of Sandwich, Hull issued, on the 12th of July, an ably written 
 proclamation to the provincials, in which he said : " Had I any doubt of 
 eventual success, I might ask your assistance ; but I do not. I come prepared 
 for every contingency. I have a force which will look down all opposition, 
 and that force is but the vanguard of a much greater." Brock was at Fort 
 George watching the enemy on the Niagara, when he heard of Hull's invasion ; 
 and, after issuing a proclamation to defeat the object of that circulated by the 
 American general, he returned to York to meet the provincial legislature, 
 which, on account of the war, he had called together for an extra session. ' 
 The session was short, and on the 5th of August, Brock again left York for 
 Fort George, and for Long Point, on Lake Erie. On the 8th, he embarked at 
 the latter place, with 40 rank and file of the 41st regiment, and 260 of the 
 militia forces, in open boats, which reached Amherstburg on the evening of 
 the 12th. Hull, after wasting nearly a month in preparations for the siege of 
 
 (1) James' Military Occurrences of the late war between Great Britain and the United 
 States of America. London, 1818. 
 
480 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 Fort Amherstburg, retraced his steps precipitately to Fort Detroit, whither he 
 returned on the 8th of August. Brock immediately determined, with his very 
 inferior and motley force, on following the enemy into his own territory, and 
 on attempting, by a sudden and resolute attack, the annihilation of his army 
 in that quarter. With this view the troops were marched to Sandwich, where 
 a few guns were placed in battery, from which a fire was opened against Fort 
 Detroit, on the 15th of August, on which day Brock sent across a flag of 
 truce, with a summons, demanding the immediate surrender of the garrison ; 
 but Hull replied that he was prepared to meet any force which might be at 
 the disposal of the British general. Nothing daunted, and contrary to the 
 opinion of the next in command. Brock issued orders to cross the strait or 
 river, which is here about three-fourths of a mile in width, on the following 
 morning, in the hope of inducing the enemy to meet his little force in the field. 
 Accordingly, on the 16th of August, 330 regulars, with 400 militia, and about 
 600 Indians, together 1,330 men, were embarked, with five pieces of light 
 artillery, in boats and canoes of every description, and soon effected a landing 
 without opposition. Contrary to Brock's expectation, the Americans aban- 
 doned a favourable position, and retreated into the fort on the advance of the 
 British. Ascertaining that the enemy had taken little precaution on the land 
 side, Brock resolved on attempting to carry the fort by assault. While the 
 various columns were forming for that purpose, a flag of truce was unexpect- 
 edly seen issuing from the fort, and soon afterwards the British trOops marched 
 in, Hull having assented to a capitulation, by which the Michigan territory. 
 Fort Detroit, with thirty-three pieces of cannon, the Adams, vessel of war, 
 and about 2,500 troops, were surrendered to the British arms. The success 
 that attended this first enterprize, in which the militia had been engaged, 
 produced an electrical effect throughout the two provinces. It inspired the 
 timid, fixed the wavering, and awed the disaffected, of which last there were 
 a few. It also induced the six nations of Indians, who had hitherto kept 
 aloof, to take an active part in our favor. Te-cum-seh, the celebrated Indian 
 chief, who was slain in 1813, headed a party of his warriors on this occasion. 
 Previously to crossing, Brock asked him what sort of country he should have 
 to pass through in case of his proceeding further. Te-cum-seh, taking a roll 
 of elm bark, presently etched upon it, with his scalping knife, a plan of the 
 country, with its hills, woods, rivers, morasses, and roads, which was perfectly 
 intelligible. Pleased with this unexpected talent and with the gallantry of 
 Te-cum-seh, the British general, after his entry into Detroit, publicly took off 
 his sash and placed it round the body of the chief, who received the honor 
 with evident gratification. But being seen the next day without his sash, 
 General Brock, thinking that something had displeased the Indian, sent his 
 interpreter for an explanation. The latter soon returned, and stated that 
 Te-cum-seh, not wishing to wear such a mark of distinction, when an older, 
 and, as he said, an abler warrior than himself was present, had transferred the 
 sash to a Wyandot chief! Leaving a small force in Detroit, Brock hastened 
 to the Niagara, a command he had relinquished for the purpose of undertaking 
 an achievement which his energy and decision crowned with such unqualified 
 success. His services on this occasion were, on the 10th of October, rewarded 
 with the order of the Bath, which was then confined to one degree of knight- 
 hood only, but he lived not long enough to learn that he had obtained so 
 gratifying a distinction, the knowledge of which would perhaps have cheered him 
 under the mortification of being subsequently restricted to defensive operations. 
 In transmitting his despatches to the governor-general. Brock expressed his 
 intention of proceeding immediately to the attack of the naval arsenal at 
 Sackett's harbour, on Lake Ontario. Had its destruction been accomplished, 
 of which there was then little doubt, the Americans would not so easily have 
 built and equipped the fleet, which the following year gave them the ascen- 
 dancy on that lake. But, unhappily, Sir George Prevost disapproved of the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 481 
 
 enterprize, and commanded Brock to remain on the Niagara frontier. The 
 latter felt the disappointment most acutely, and subsequent events too truly 
 proved that, had he been permitted to pursue that course which his zeal and 
 foresight dictated, his valuable life might have been spared, and a very different 
 series of incidents in that war have claimed the attention of the historian. 
 
 The Americans, burning to wipe away the stain of the capture of Detroit, 
 and apparently determined to penetrate into Upper Canada at any risk, con- 
 centrated with those views an army of about 6,000 men, partly militia, under 
 Major- General Van Eenssalaer. To oppose this force. Brock had under his 
 command only 1,500 men, including militia and Indians, but so dispersed 
 between Fort Erie and Fort George (thirty-four miles apart) that only a small 
 number was quickly available at any one point. A considerable number of 
 the enemy crossed over from Lewistown, before daybreak, on the 13th of 
 October, and gained possession of the shore near Queenston. Having arisen 
 before daylight, according to his usual custom, and hearing the report of 
 cannon and musketry, Brock galloped eagerly from Fort George to the scene 
 of action, distant seven miles, after directing Major-General Sheaffe to bring 
 up the troops as soon as they could be assembled. On his reaching Queenston, 
 he found the flank companies only of the 49th, with a few of the militia, warmly 
 engaged. Soon after, observing the Americans to waver, he ordered a charge, 
 which he personally accompanied ; but as they gave way, the result was not 
 decisive. Eetiring to the heights, the enemy opened a heavy fire of musketry, 
 and, " conspicuous from his dress, his stature, and the enthusiasm with which 
 he animated his little band, the British commander was singled out by the 
 American riflemen ; " and about an hour after his arrival the fatal bullet en- 
 tered his left breast, and passed through his right side. He lived only long 
 enough to utter this dying exhortation : " My fall must not be noticed, or 
 prevent my brave companions from advancing to victory." But his provincial 
 aide-de-camp, Lieut. -Colonel M'Donell, having soon after fallen, and Captains 
 Dennis and Williams, commanding the flank companies, being severely wounded, 
 the handful of British was compelled to retire. 
 
 In the afternoon, the British troops having assembled from various points, 
 and now equal in number, quickly compelled the enemy to surrender, upwards 
 of 900 men being made prisoners. So beloved was Brock by the 49th, that 
 his death is said to have cost the invaders many a life on that day, which 
 otherwise had been spared. After lying in state at the government house, the 
 deceased was interred with every military honor, in a cavalier bastion, at Fort 
 George ; and as soon as the funeral solemnities were ended on the British side, 
 the Americans, by a previous intimation from their general, fired a compliment 
 of minute guns on theirs ! ! ! In person. Sir Isaac Brock was tall, erect, and 
 well proportioned, his countenance was fine and benevolent, and his manners 
 were frank and engaging. — One of his brothers, Ferdinand, a lieutenant of the 
 60th regiment, was slain in the defence of Baton Rouge, on the Mississippi, 
 in the first American war ; and another, John, a lieutenant-colonel, was killed 
 in 1802, in a duel at the Cape of Good Hope, in consequence of his having, as 
 steward of a public ball, very properly resisted the introduction, by his anta- 
 gonist, who was a captain in the army, of a female of disreputable character. 
 Another brother was the bailiff, or chief magistrate of Guernsey j and the tenth 
 and youngest brother, Irving, who died at Bath in 1838, was "the accom- 
 plished translator of Bernier's Travels in India." 
 
 " His royal highness the Prince Regent," observed Earl Bathurst, in a 
 despatch to Sir George Prevost, " is fully aware of the severe loss which his 
 majesty's service has experienced in the death of Major-General Sir Isaac 
 Brock. This would have been sufRcient to have clouded a victory of much 
 greater importance. His majesty has lost in him, not only an able and meri- 
 torious officer, but one who, in the exercise of his functions of provisional 
 lieutenant-governor of the province, displayed qualities admirably adapted to 
 
 2h 
 
482 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 awe the disloyal, to reconcile the wayeriug, and to animate the great mass of 
 the inhabitants against successive attempts of the enemy to invade the pro- 
 vince, in the last of which he unhappily fell, too prodigal of that life of which 
 his eminent services had taught us to understand the value." 
 
 The American president, Madison, alluding to the battle of Queenston, in 
 his annual message to congress, said : " Our loss has been considerable, and is 
 deeply to be lamented. That of the enemy, less ascertained, will be the more 
 felt, as it includes, amongst the killed, the commanding general, who was also 
 the governor of the province." 
 
 A national monument was raised to the memory of Sir Isaac Brock in 
 St. Paul's ; ^ and a lofty column having been erected on Queenston Heights by 
 the provincial legislature to the hero of Upper Canada* as he is still termed in 
 that country, his remains, and those of his gallant aide-de-camp, Lieut. -Colonel 
 M'Donell, were removed on the 13th of October, 1824, from Fort Oeorge, in 
 solemn military procession, to the monument. One of his regimental com- 
 panions. Colonel Fitzgibbon, in transmitting a detail of the ceremonies of the 
 day, thus pathetically expressed himself : " Nothing, certainly, could exceed 
 the interest manifested by the people of the province upon the occasion ; and 
 numbers from the neighbouring state of New York, by their presence and 
 conduct, proved how highly the Americans revere the memory of our lamented 
 chief. Of the thousands present, not one had cause to feel so deeply as I, and 
 I felt as if alone, although surrounded by the multitude. He had been more 
 than a father to me in that regiment which he ruled like a father, and I alone 
 of his old friends in that regiment was present to embalm with a tear his last 
 honored retreat." 
 
 The column, which was 127 feet in height, and 477 feet above the level of the 
 Niagara river, which skirts the Heights, bore the following inscription : 
 
 UPPER CANADA 
 
 HAS DEDICATED THIS MONUMENT 
 
 TO THE MEMOBT OF THE LATE 
 
 MAJOR- GENERAL SIR ISAAC BROCK, K.B. 
 
 PROVISIONAL LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER OP THE FORCES 
 
 IN THIS PROVINCE, 
 
 WHOSE REMAINS ARE DEPOSITED IN THE VAULT BENEATH. 
 
 OPPOSING THE INVADING ENEMY, 
 
 HE FELL IN ACTION NEAR THESE HEIGHTS, 
 
 ON THE 13th OCTOBER, 1812, 
 
 IN THE 43d TEAR OF HIS AGE, 
 
 REVERED AND LAMENTED 
 
 BY THE PEOPLE WHOM HE GOVERNED, 
 
 AND DEPLORED BY THE SOVEREIGN 
 
 TO WHOSE SERVICE HIS LIFE HAD BEEN DEVOTED. 
 
 On the 17th of April, 1840, an Irishman, who had participated in the recent 
 rebellion, and escaped across the frontier, introduced a quantity of gunpowder 
 into the monument for the fiendish purpose of destroying it ; and the explosion 
 caused so much injury as to render the column quite irreparable. The indig- 
 nation of the Canadians was aroused, and at a vast meeting on Queenston 
 Heights, on the 30th of July following, resolutions were adopted for the 
 
 (1) This chief of the branch of the once great tribe of the Hurons visited England some 
 time ago. I afterwards saw him in Quebec, and had a good deal of conversation with 
 him. When asked what had struclt him most of all that he had seen in England, he replied, 
 without hesitation, that it was the monument erected in St. Paul's to the memory of 
 General Brock. It seemed to have impressed him with a high idea of the considerate 
 beneficence of his great father, the king of England, that he not only had remembered the 
 exploits and death of his white child, who had fallen beyond the big salt lake, but that he 
 had even deigned to record, on the marble sepulchre, the sorrows of the poor Indian 
 weeping over bis chief untimely slain. — Hon. F. F. De Hoos' Travels in North America, 
 in 1826. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 483 
 
 restoration of the monument.* The lieutenant-governor, Sir GTeorge Arthur, 
 presided at this meeting, which was attended by the principal inhabitants ; 
 a detachment of royal artillery, who fired a salute on the occasion ; a detach- 
 ment of dragoon guards ; and the 93d regiment, (highlanders.) The gather- 
 ing, as it was called, was observed in Toronto as a solemn holiday ; the public 
 offices were closed and all business was suspended, while thousands flocked 
 from every part of the province to testify their affection for the memory of 
 one who, nearly thirty years before, had fallen in its defence. History, indeed, 
 affords few parallels of such long cherished public attachment ! On the termi- 
 nation of the proceedings, 600 persons sat down to dinner in a temporary 
 pavilion erected on the spot where the hero fell, and after the queen's health 
 had been drunk, Chief Justice Eobinson rose and said : 
 
 " I have now to propose the memory of the late gallant Sir Isaac Brock, of Colonel 
 M'Donell, and of those who fell with them on Queenston Heights. That portion of you, 
 gentlemen, who were inhabitants of Upper Canada while General Brock served in its 
 defence, are at no loss to account for the enthusiastic affection with which his memory is 
 cherished among us. It was not merely on account of his intrepid courage and heroic 
 firmness, neither was it solely because of his brilliant success while he lived, nor because 
 he so nobly laid down his life in our defence ; it was, I think, that he united in his person, 
 in a very remarkable degree, some qualities which are peculiarly calculated to attract the 
 confidence and affection of mankind,— there was, in all he said and did, that honesty of 
 purpose which was so justly ascribed to him by a gentleman who proposed one of the 
 resolutions, — there was an inflexible integrity, uncommon energy and decision, which 
 always inspire confidence and respect, — a remarkable union in his whole demeanour of 
 benevolence and firmness,— a peculiarly commanding and soldier-like appearance,— a 
 generous, frank, and manly bearing, — and, above all, an entire devotion to his country. 
 In short, I believe I shall best convey my own impression, when I say it would have 
 required much more courage to refuse to follow General Brock, than to go with him 
 wherever he would lead." 
 
 About £5,000 having been subscribed for the purpose, the foundation stone 
 of a splendid new monument on Queenston Heights was laid in great state 
 and before a vast assemblage, October 13, 1853, the remains of Sir Isaac Brock 
 and his aide-de-camp being interred for the third time. The column, which is 
 of the Roman composite order, with its pedestal, is to stand on a platform, 
 and its entire height, including a statue of the hero, is to be 185 feet, there 
 being only one column in Europe higher, either ancient or modern, viz. that 
 in London, erected in commemoration of the great fire of 1666. 
 
 Among the numerous other testimonials of the estimation in which Sir Isaac 
 Brock was held, our limited space enables us to give only the following : 
 
 " Thus ended in their total discomfiture the second attempt of the Americans to invade 
 Upper Canada. The loss of the British is said to have been about 20 killed, including 
 Indians, and between 50 and 60 wounded. The fall of General Brock, the idol of the army 
 and of the people of Upper Canada, was an irreparable loss, and cast a shade over the glory 
 of this dear-bought victory. He was a native of Guernsey, of an ancient and reputable 
 family, distinguished in the profession of arms. He had served for many years in Canada, 
 and in some of the principal campaigns in Europe. He commanded a detachment of his 
 favorite 49th regiment, on the expedition to Copenhagen with Lord Nelson, where he 
 distinguished himself. He was one of those extraordinary men who seem born to influ. 
 ence mankind, and mark the age in which they live. Conscious of the ascendancy of his 
 genius over those who surrounded him, he blended the mildest of manners with the 
 severity and discipline of a camp ; and though his deportment was somewhat grave and 
 imposing, the noble frankness of his character imparted at once confidence and respect to 
 those who had occasion to approach his person. As a soldier, he was brave to a fault, and 
 not less judicious than decisive in his measures. The energy of his character was strongly 
 expressed in his countenance, and in the robu'^t and manly symmetry of his frame. As a 
 civil governor, he was firm, prudent, and equitable. In fine, whether we view him as a 
 man, a statesman, or a soldier, he equally deserves the esteem and respect of his contem- 
 poraries and of posterity. The Indians who flocked tohis standard were attached to him 
 with almost enthusiastic affection, and the enemy even expressed an involuntary regret 
 at his untimely fall. His prodigality of life bereft the country of his services at the early 
 age of forty-two years. The remains of this gallant oflficer were, during the funeral ser- 
 vice, honored with a discharge of minute guns from the American, as well as the British 
 
 (1) A public subscription was soon after opened for this purpose, and the six nations of 
 Indians contributed the (for their diminished numbers and limited means) large sum, 
 of ^167. 
 
484 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 batteries; and with those of his faithful aide-de-camp, Lieut.-Colonel M'Donell, were 
 interred in the same grave at Fort George, on the l6th of October, amidst the tears of an 
 affectionate soldiery and a grateful people, who will cherish his memory with veneration, 
 and hand to their posterity the imperishable name of BROCK." — Christie's Historical 
 Memoirs of the War in Canada. Quebec, 1818. 
 
 '* General Brock was killed at the battle of Queenston Heights, and the place where he 
 fell was pointed oat to me. The Canadians hold the memory of this brave and excellent 
 man in great veneration, but have not yet attempted to testify their respect for his virtues 
 in any way, except by shewing to strangers the spot on which he received his mortal 
 wound. He was more popular and more beloved by the inhabitants of Upper Canada than 
 any man they ever had among them, and with reason ; for he possessed, in an eminent 
 degree, those virtues which add lustre to bravery, and those talents that shine alike in the 
 cabinet and in the field. His manners and dispositions were so conciliating as to gain the 
 affection of all whom he commanded, while his innate nobleness and dignity of mind 
 secured him a respect almost amounting to veneration. He is now styled the hero of 
 Upper Canada, and, had he lived, there is no doubt but the war would have terminated 
 very differently from what it did. The Canadian farmers are not over-burthened with 
 sensibility, yet I have seen several of them shed tears when an eulogium was pronounced 
 upon the immortal and generous-minded deliverer of their country."— i/owison's Upper 
 Canada. London, 1821. 
 
 DANIEL DE LISLE BEOCK, ESQ. 
 
 BAILIFF OF GrEENSEY. 
 
 This able magistrate, the third son of John Brock, Esq., was born in 
 Guernsey in 1762, and closed a long and useful career in 1842, aged nearly 
 eighty. In 1785, he went by sea to the Mediterranean, and spent upwards of 
 a year in visiting Spain, Malta, Sicily, Italy, Switzerland, and France. In 
 1798, he was elected a jurat of the royal court ; and the greater part, if not the 
 whole, of the public documents of that body, were from that period written 
 by him. In 1821, on the death of Sir Peter de Havilland, he obtained (he high 
 and responsible appointment of bailiff,or chief magistrate, of Guernsey. 
 
 Between the years 1804 and 1810, Mr. Brock was deputed by the States 
 and royal court of Guernsey no less than four times, as their representative to 
 government, in matters connected with the trade and privileges of the island, 
 and in these missions he distinguished himself by his luminous papers. In 
 1821, he was again deputed to London on the corn question, which has been 
 narrated ante ; and the obnoxious corn law, as regarded these islands, was not 
 only repealed, but several important privileges were conceded to their trade 
 and navigation, especially free intercourse with the British colonies. So highly 
 were his exertions appreciated, that when Mr. Bailiff Brock returned to 
 Guernsey, July 24, 1822, he was received with the greatest enthusiasm ; and 
 at a numerous meeting it was decided to present a piece of plate to him, as a 
 testimony of the value attached to his public services. Upwards of £300 were 
 quickly raised for the purpose ; and other less valuable, but not less gratifying, 
 testimonials were presented to him. Nor was Jersey less grateful, as a public 
 meeting was also held in the town of St. Helier, when the thanks of that island 
 and a handsome piece of plate were unanimously voted to him. 
 
 In 1832, Mr. Brock was deputed to London with Mr. Charles De Jersey, 
 the king's procureur, to act in conjunction with the bailiff and procureur of 
 Jersey, in opposing the extension of the Habeas Corpus Act to these islands, 
 as also narrated ante. The mission was so far successful, that the attempt 
 was not persevered in. 
 
 The last occasion, being at least the seventh, on which Mr. Brock went to 
 London as the representative of ,Guemsey, was in 1835, when these islands 
 were menaced with the deprivation of the privilege of sending their com to 
 England, duty free. ( Vide ante.) The remonstrances of the several deputies 
 prevailed ; and so highly were Mr. Brock's services on this occasion valued by 
 both islands, that the States of Jersey gave him a piece of plate of the cost 
 of £100, while the States of Guernsey voted that portrait which now adorns 
 the interior of the court-house, and which will afford to succeeding generations 
 the means of contemplating his highly intellectual countenance and venerable 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 485 
 
 form. From this period, until within a few days of his death, Mr. Brock was 
 unremittingly engaged in his public duties. 
 
 Mr. Brock left one son, Eugene, a captain in the 20th regiment, who died at 
 Bermuda soon after him, unmarried, and one daughter, since deceased, also 
 unmarried. In features and robustness of frame, although not so tall, as well 
 as in vigour of intellect and decision of character, the bailiJOF strongly resem- 
 bled his brother, Sir Isaac Brock. 
 
 It is a proof of the sagacity and foresight of Mr. Brock, that when new 
 pier works were proposed in his time, he invariably advocated the junction of 
 Castle Cornet with the main land, as now being effected, and that he always 
 refused to support any other plan. 
 
 The royal court, having met to appoint a judge delegate to replace pro tem- 
 pore the late bailiff, unanimously requested the family of the deceased to allow 
 him to be buried at the expense of the States of Gruernsey, and the funeral was 
 in consequence a public one — an honor never before conferred on any indivi- 
 dual in Guernsey. " For though Mr. Brock," said the editor of the Star, 
 "had enriched his country with numerous and inappreciable benefits — though 
 he bequeathed to it an inestimable heritage in his deeds and in his example — 
 he died in honorable and ennobling poverty, resulting from his disinterested- 
 ness, his integrity, and his patriotism." The funeral cortege consisted of the 
 various civil and military authorities, the clergy, the officers of the 48th depot 
 and of the five regiments of militia, the constables and douzeniers of each 
 parish, &c. &c., the whole comprising nearly 500 persons, while the procession 
 was witnessed by about 8,000 persons. 
 
 COLONEL SAUMAREZ BROCK, K.H. 
 
 Born in G-uernsey, September 16, 1785 ; purchased, in 1803, an ensigncy in 
 the 52d, and, in 1804, became a lieutenant in the 48th, in which regiment he 
 obtained his company, by purchase, March 18, 1805, at the early age of nine- 
 teen. In 1807, he exchanged into the 43d, and served with it in the celebrated 
 light division at the battles of Yimiera, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, and 
 Toulouse, besides numerous skirmishes and affairs of outposts, viz. at Vera, 
 passage of the Bidassoa, Tarbes, three days near Arcangues, &c. At Vimiera, 
 August 21, 1808, Captain Brock had his ankle bone very severely shattered by 
 a musket ball which passed completely through, and he was compelled to 
 return to England. For his services in the Peninsula, he received the war 
 medal with six clasps ; and some doubt having been expressed by the Board of 
 General Officers of his having been present at NiveUe and the Nive, in conse- 
 quence of his name appearing as sick at Vera in the monthly returns of the 
 43d, Major-General W. Napier gave him the following certificate : 
 
 •' Colonel Saumarez Brock, serving as a captain of the 43d regiment, under my com- 
 mand, was present to my certain knowledge at the battles of the Nivelle and the Nive ; and 
 at the former action he was senior captain of two detached companies employed on a very 
 important duty, which was executed with every possible gallantry and success. 
 
 " W. Napikr, Major-General. 
 " Guernsey, August 24, 1847." 
 
 Captain Brock was also present at the sanguinary attack on New Orleans, 
 in January, 1815, and soon after at the surrender of Paris, the 43d arriving 
 from America too late to participate in the battle of Waterloo. He purchased 
 a majority in the 43d, in October, 1815, and was present in 1834, as lieutenant- 
 colonel of the 48th, in the Coorg campaign, in India. After having served in the 
 four quarters of the globe, and combatted the enemy in three, Colonel Brock, 
 who was a nephew of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, and a first cousin of Sir Isaac 
 Brock, died in Guernsey, in April, 1854, a few weeks only before the brevet in 
 June, in which he would have been included as a major-general. He mai*ried 
 Catherine, daughter of Thomas De Sausmarez, Esq., but left no issue. 
 
486 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 MAJOR-OENERAL THOMAS CAREY, late of H. M.'s 3d GUARDS. 
 
 This officer was the sixth son of John Carey, Esq., jurat, who was the father 
 of three general officers, and a member of a rery ancient Guernsey family. 
 
 In January, 1794, at the age of sixteen, young Carey obtained his first 
 commission in the 3d foot guards, and joined the battalion then serving in 
 Flanders with the army under the Duke of York, sharing in the hardships of 
 the retreat through Holland in the severe winter of 1794-5. before two years 
 had expired, he was so fortunate as to succeed to a lieutenantcy in the regi- 
 ment, with the army rank of captain. In 1796, he was appointed major of 
 brigade to the troops serving in Guernsey. In January, 1799, he rejoined his 
 battalion, and soon after embarked with the expedition to Holland. He was 
 at the landing of the army under Sir Ralph Abercromby, near Camperdown, 
 on the 27 th of August, and also in the severe action fought on the 10th of 
 September, in defending the position of the Zype, as weU as in the successive 
 battles of the 19th of September, and the 2d and 6th of October following. 
 During this period of active service, he was nominated to the adjutancy of his 
 battalion, a situation important in all corps, but more especially so in the guards. 
 
 In the year following this appointment of adjutant, when a brigade of guards 
 was formed and detached to Ireland, he was selected to accompany it as a 
 major of brigade, in which capacity he embarked with the expedition to Egypt, 
 and served throughout that campaign, for which he obtained the distinction 
 of a medal. He was present at the first landing of the troops in Aboukir bay, 
 and at the subsequent hard-fought battles of the 13th and 21st of March, on 
 which occasion England had to deplore the loss of one of her best and bravest 
 commanders, in the fall of the gallant Abercromby. He was likewise at the 
 reduction of Alexandria : during this campaign he suffered, in common with 
 many others, from a violent attack of opthalmia, which deprived him of sight 
 for a time, and threatened permanent blindness ; but this he happily escaped. 
 On his return to England, in 1802, he resumed the duties of adjutant, until 
 his promotion to a company, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in 1803. 
 
 With this promotion, a higher sphere of service opened the road to further 
 distinction. He was fixed upon for the responsible staff" appointment of 
 assistant adjutant -general to the forces, and, as such, was employed with the 
 army in Hanover, in 1805, as well as with the expedition to the island of 
 Zealand, in the following year, and was present at the siege and surrender 
 of Copenhagen. 
 
 He afterwards accompanied Sir Harry Burrard to Portugal in the same 
 capacity, and, joining Sir Arthur Wellesley on the eve of the battle of Vimiera, 
 he shared in that well-contested action, in which he received a slight wound. 
 He continued with the army in its advance into Spain, under Sir John Moore, 
 and was in the retreat so marked by the privations and hardships to which the 
 troops were unavoidably exposed, and which was followed by the battle of 
 Corunna, in 1808. In conveying orders to the troops about to engage, he 
 met their gallant chief on his way to the position in which he was to fight his 
 last battle. On announcing to him that the enemy was advancing, the general 
 replied, with a countenance brightened by the intelligence, " that is just what 
 I have been wishing," and, putting spurs to his horse, galloped to the field 
 rendered for ever memorable by his victory and death. 
 
 On the arrival of the army in England, Colonel Carey was posted to the 
 eastern district, as assistant adjutant-general, and thence proceeded with Lord 
 Chatham, as his military secretary, on the expedition to the Scheld, in 1809. 
 He was at the reduction of the island of "Walcheren, and at the siege of Flush- 
 ing ; and, on his return home, resumed his duties in the eastern district under 
 his lordship, with whom he enjoyed the most intimate and lasting friendship. 
 Here he continued until promoted to the rank of major-general, in 1814. 
 
 In the month following his promotion, the major-general married Caroline, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 487 
 
 the fourth daughter of Mr. Samuel Smith, of Woodhall Park, Herts, M, P., 
 who died soon after giving birth to a daughter, now the wife of Francis Dickin- 
 son, Esq., of Kingweston, Somerset. In 1823, he married, secondly, Mary, 
 the eldest daughter of Mr. William Manning, M.P., by whom he had no issue, 
 but whose unremitting and affectionate attentions soothed and cheered the last 
 sickly and suffering year of his life. 
 
 In the course of his career, Major-General Carey was present at three sieges, 
 eight general actions, besides minor affairs, two retreats, and two disem- 
 barkations in the face of the enemy. But a severe acute disorder, contracted 
 in the service, and which paralyzed all exertion, rendered employment impos- 
 sible after the return of peace ; and, having displayed every Christian virtue in 
 his retirement, he died May 24, 1825, in his forty-seventh year. 
 
 MAJOR- GENEEAL SIR OCTAVIUS CAREY, C.B., K.C.H. 
 
 Born 1785, was a younger brother of the last named officer, and entered the 
 army in March, 1801, as a cornet in the 3d or king's own dragoons : rising 
 rapidly, he became a captain of infantry in August, 1804, a major in November, 
 1809, and a lieutenant-colonel in September, 1811. 
 
 He was present at the siege of Scylla, in 1809, and served zealously on the 
 eastern coast of Spain, from February, 1812, to the close of the war in 1814. 
 When a major, he was selected to command a free corps of Calabrese, which 
 soon attained efficiency and skill as light troops. Lieut. -Colonel Carey was at 
 the taking of Alcoy, the action of Briar, the battle of Castilla, the siege of 
 Tarragona, and the action at Ordal. At Briar and Castilla, he and his corps 
 achieved great credit by their dexterity and courage ; but it was at Ordal that 
 their conduct was most conspicuous. The Calabrese were attached to the 
 light division, which was posted at Ordal in advance, and which was thus 
 furiously attacked at midnight, September 13, 1813, by a very superior French 
 force from Barcelona. After a severe conflict and a heavy loss, the division 
 was compelled to retire from want of support. The Calabrese, having been 
 posted considerably to the left of the position, was separated from the main 
 body, and must have been taken prisoners had not Lieut. -Colonel Carey, with 
 great promptitude and daring, cut his way through the rear of the French 
 column, although with heavy loss, and reached Villa Nova, where he impressed 
 some vessels, on board of which he embarked his weakened corps, and rejoined 
 the army at Tarragona, to the infinite surprise and satisfaction of Lord William 
 Bentinck, who had given them up as lost. 
 
 Colonel Carey subsequently commanded the 57th regiment, and was made a 
 major-general in January, 1837 : having been appointed to the command of 
 the Cork district, he died in London, in March, 1844, after a severe and pro- 
 tracted illness, leaving a widow (Harriet Hirzel, daughter of Robert P. Le 
 Marchant, Esq., bailiff,) and thirteen children. He was created a C.B. in 
 1815, a knight bachelor in 1830, and a K.C.H. in 1835. 
 
 Of his sons, who have all entered the military service, two gallantly fell in 
 action, viz. the eldest, Octavius, lieutenant 29th regiment, at the battle of 
 Moodkee, Northern India, December 18, 1845 ; and the fifth, Hirzel, lieutenant 
 74th highlanders, in command of a company at Waterkloof, in the Kaffir war, 
 November 6, 1851, on which day Colonel Fordyce, of the 74th, was also killed. 
 
 THE REV. PETER PAUL DOBRfiE, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, AND BEGHUS PEOFESSOB OF GREEK AT THE 
 UNIVEBSITY OF CAMBBIDGE. 
 
 This eminent scholar was born in Guernsey, June 26, 1782, of a family 
 which had come from France, upon the massacre of St. Bartholomew, in 1572. 
 He was the son of the Rev. William Dobree, rector of St. Saviour's parish, in 
 that island, a clergyman eminent for tenderness of conscience, unaffected piety, 
 
488 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 and earnestness in the cause of religion, qualities which descended to him from 
 his father, Mr. Peter Dobree, merchant of the city of London, and author of a 
 treatise on the Lord's Supper, a work which has passed through many editions, 
 evincing considerable thought and learning, and written throughout in the 
 pious and affectionate spirit that distinguished the life of the author. 
 
 Mr. Dobree received the early part of his education at Dr. Valpy's school, at 
 Reading, and having been entered as a pensioner at Trinity college, Cambridge, 
 in 1800, he took his degree of B.A., in 1804, as a senior optime. He was sub- 
 sequently elected a fellow of Trinity college, an honor which he had to contest 
 with very able competitors. The present Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. Monk, the 
 biographer of Bentley, was another of the successful candidates at the election. 
 
 He had by this time acquired a name in the university, by his diligent at- 
 tention to classical criticism. The most eminent residents there became his 
 intimate friends, especially the celebrated Professor Person, Mr. Blomfield, 
 fellow of Trinity, now Bishop of London, Mr. Kaye, fellow of Christ's, late 
 Bishop of Lincoln, and the late Mr. Kidd, of Trinity, editor of Horace. Their 
 society, and the pursuit of congenial studies, attached him to the university, 
 and he continued to reside in college until 1811, when he accompanied his 
 relation, Mr. Tupper, the consul for Valencia, into Spain. The war was then 
 at its height, and the country presented scenes on every side which might have 
 been expected to alarm a man of his mild disposition and retired habits. They 
 did not, however, prevent his seeking all objects of interest within his reach. 
 He witnessed the dreadfiil defeat of the Spaniards, under General Blake, in 
 front of Valencia, by Marshal Suchet, in 1811 ; and but for his promptitude 
 in penetrating the French lines before they were completed, he would have 
 been made a prisoner on the surrender of that city, a few days afterwards. 
 He succeeded in reaching Denia, which was almost deserted by its population, 
 and the best accommodation he could find was in a church, which afforded an 
 asylum to his companions and himself, until the arrival of a ship that took 
 them to Majorca. He subsequently visited Cadiz whilst it was besieged by 
 Marshal Soult, and he used on his return home to display, with some exulta- 
 tion, a fine edition of Plato by Servanus, and the folio Stephani Thesaurus, 
 the spoils of an Andalusian monastery, which he had obtained at a very mode- 
 rate price from a bookseller who was in constant apprehension of seeing his 
 stock in trade fall into the hands of the French. 
 
 On his return from Spain, he entered into holy orders, but did not take a 
 cure. The remainder of his life was passed in his college, with occasional 
 excursions on the continent, chiefly for literary objects, during which he 
 acquired the friendship of many of the most illustrious foreign scholars. Millai, 
 Boissonade, and Coray, at Paris, and Thiersch, at Munich, were among those 
 with whom he lived upon very familiar terms. The best foreign libraries were 
 liberally opened to him, and he collected there a variety of Greek manuscripts. 
 Such was his taste for this pursuit, that he was once on the point of going as 
 far as Venice, merely to collate a manuscript of Athenseus, praised by Schweig- 
 hauser. The fruits of his labours abroad were diligently considered at home, 
 and he thus collected a store of most valuable criticism. He contributed to 
 the periodicals of the day, and amongst other writings of that description, he 
 had a share in the celebrated article in the Edinburgh Review, hy Bishop 
 Blomfield, on Butler's jEschylus, he being indeed " the learned friend " to 
 whom the author acknowledges his obligations at the close of the article. The 
 Classical Journal for September, 1824, Skewise contained his '* Greek inscrip- 
 tions from the marbles in the library of Trinity college, Cambridge," — a small 
 work, afterwards published separately. It was not until 1820 that he gave his 
 name to any of his publications. In that year appeared his " Porsoni Aristo- 
 phanica," ' containing the text of Plutus, with notes on Aristophanes, by 
 
 (1) The title of this work is, "Ricardi Porsoni notae in Aristophanem, quibus Plutum 
 Comoediam partim ex ejusdem Recensione, partim e Manuscri|>tis cmenda^am et variis 
 I^ectionibus instructam praemisit, et Collationum Appendicem adjecit P. P. Dobree, A. M., 
 CoU^gU SS, Trinitatis Socius, et Orncarum Literarum apud Cantab. Professor Regius." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 489 
 
 Person and himself. This work established his character as a scholar through- 
 out Europe. In 1822, he published his " Lexicon of Photius," from a tran- 
 script by Professor Porson. Not long before, a similar work had been edited 
 at Leipsic by Professor Herman, but it is generally regarded as inferior to that 
 of Dobree. In the following year, he succeeded the present Bishop of Grlou- 
 cester as regius professor of Greek — an office which, as we have already said, 
 had been held by Dr. Du Port, another native of Guernsey. 
 
 He did not long enjoy these honors, for in September, 1825, he was seized 
 with the cholera, which then prevailed at Cambridge, and soon became in 
 imminent danger. Conscious of his approaching dissolution, he shewed no 
 alarm, but having first desired that a feUow - collegian, whom he believed 
 anxious to obtain a living which he had thought of accepting, should be ap- 
 prized of his state, in order that the other might have the earliest opportunity 
 of obtaining the preferment, he awaited the result of the disease with the 
 calmness of a Christian philosopher. On the 24th of September he expired, 
 and was buried in the chapel of Trinity college, where a monument has since 
 been erected to his memory, with an inscription in Latin, by his friend, the 
 late Bishop of Lincoln. 
 
 In 1831, a collection of his remarks on classical writers was published by 
 his successor as regius professor of Greek, Dr. Scholefield, under the title of 
 " Dobrsei Adversaria." 
 
 The publications of Professor Dobree convey a very inadequate idea of the 
 extent of his powers. His extreme fastidiousness, and his indifference to fame, 
 caused him to shrink from authorship. Devoted to the acquirement of know- 
 ledge, which he cultivated for its own sake, and not for the applause it yields, 
 and possessing at the same time the native modesty of genius, it was only 
 through the importunity of friends that he was induced to send any of his 
 papers to the press. His hours were passed in laborious investigation and 
 patient study — the only means, as he well knew, of arriving at the true reading 
 of the classical authors. AU mere ingenuity in correcting and improving the 
 received text, which, unless based upon sound principles of criticism, serves 
 only to mislead while it dazzles, he utterly despised. The path he pursued 
 was a different one. His object was to ascertain what the Greeks had written, 
 not what they might or should have written. It will readily be conceived, 
 therefore, that German critics found no favor with him. Indeed, he was at no 
 pains to conceal his entire disapproval of that school, and spoke of Bohle's 
 Sophocles, and Schulz's -^schylus, especially the latter, in terms of indignant 
 censure. Notwithstanding these opinions, which were well known, he bore a 
 very high reputation in Germany ; and Professor Welcker, of Bonn, the first 
 Greek scholar in Europe, spoke of him to a Guemseyman, who happened to 
 pass a short time at the university, in terms of warm admiration. Had he 
 lived to complete his long projected edition of Demosthenes — his magnum 
 opus — he would have left an imperishable monument of his genius, such as 
 must have silenced all detractors. Unhappily he left it incomplete, and its 
 merit can only be imperfectly appreciated from the fragments which have 
 been made public. 
 
 It is only just to add, that he was more than a classical scholar. He had 
 read deeply in metaphysics, and was well acquainted with modern literature. 
 
 This sketch cannot be concluded without observing, that Professor Dobree 
 was passionately attached to his native island. He often regretted not having 
 settled on his patrimony at the Grange ; and to be a Guemseyman was a sure 
 passport to his kind consideration. He prided liimself on speaking the dialect 
 of the island with correctness, and at one time contemplated a work upon it. 
 He had all the simplicity characteristic of the Guernseymen of the last cen- 
 tury, and was, in an eminent degree, warm-hearted and honorable. 
 
 The professor never married, and his estate and property descended, on his 
 death, to his only sister, the wife of the late Mr. John Carey, king's receiver- 
 general of the island. 
 
490 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 SIR JOHN JEREMIE, LATE GOVERNOR OF SIERRA LEONE, 
 
 Son of Mr. John Jeremie, a talented advocate of the royal court of Guernsey, 
 was born in 1795. After having completed a course of legal study at Dijon, 
 in France, he was admitted to the Guernsey bar, where his career was marked 
 by uniform and eminent success. His eloquence and abilities having been 
 brought before the notice of the government, he was appointed, in 1824, first 
 president of the royal court of St. Lucia, in the West Indies. In this office, 
 he was called upon to revise and report on the slave laws then preparing for 
 that island. He was thus led to direct his attention to a subject to which the 
 entire energies of his mind were subsequently devoted. The more extensive 
 his inquiries became, the more deeply was he impressed with a conviction of 
 the enormous evils of the existing system ; and, on his return to Europe, he 
 published " Four Essays on Colonial Slavery," pointing out, with admirable 
 clearness, the general features of slave communities, the ameliorations intro- 
 duced in St. Lucia, and the practical steps to be taken in order to effect the 
 :final annihilation of slavery. This tract, which contained the results of per- 
 sonal experience, honestly and fearlessly declared, produced a great sensation 
 on the public mind, and, doubtless, contributed in no unimportant degree to 
 promote that great measure of emancipation which has shed an imperishable 
 lustre on the name of England. 
 
 In the year 1832, he was selected for the ofBce of procureur and advocate- 
 general of the island of Mauritius. Our limits will not allow us to enter into 
 the detail of the various and harassing difficulties which he experienced in that 
 disturbed colony. He had to contend against powerful interests, against deep- 
 rooted prejudices, against national antipathies, against fierce and angry passions. 
 Those difficvdties he has described in an ample vindication of his conduct, en* 
 titled, " Recent Events at Mauritius," published in 1835. 
 
 His exertions and sacrifices were justly appreciated and acknowledged. In 
 the year 1836, he was appointed puisne judge of the supreme court of Ceylon, 
 and, at the same time, he was presented by the Anti- Slavery Society with a 
 valuable piece of plate, bearing an inscription which testified, in the most 
 gratifying terms, their sense of his important services. 
 
 At no time did he lose sight of the question on which his thoughts had now 
 for many years been ardently fixed. In June, 1840, he published " A Letter 
 to T. Fowell Buxton, Esq., on Negro Emancipation and African Civilization." 
 It consists of practical recommendations to the government, with a view to 
 improve the moral condition of Africa — to draw forth her vast, but neglected 
 resources — to introduce order, industry, and contentment, into scenes of un- 
 exampled misery and crime, and gradually to effect, by a series of wise ^nd 
 comprehensive measures, the total extirpation of the most awful scourge that 
 ever afflicted mankind. It was from the same anxiety for the amelioration of 
 the negro race — increased, no doubt, by the appalling fact, which had been 
 lately and forcibly urged, that no less than half a million of human beings were 
 then annually reduced to bondage, or destroyed — that, reckless of personal 
 danger, undeterred by the most discouraging circumstances, he accepted, in 
 October, 1840, the high, but ill-fated office, of captain-general and governor of 
 Sierra Leone and its dependencies. On this occasion he received the honor of 
 knighthood. His friends, while they respected and admired his intrepid cou- 
 rage, could not but reflect, with deep emotions of regret and pain, that he had 
 gone to that fearful climate, where youth and strength are no protection 
 against wasting disease and premature death. Their melancholy apprehensions 
 were too soon realized. Four months had scarcely elapsed since his arrival in 
 Africa, before he fell a victim to the fever prevalent at Port Logo, to which his 
 arduous duties had recently called him. He expired on the 23d of April, 1841, 
 at the ago of forty-six. His death, afflicting to all the friends of humanity, is 
 peculiarly so to his surviving relatives. Their only consolation is, that he has 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 491 
 
 left behind him an honorable name, as one who, gifted with great talents, 
 devoted those talents to the cause of justice and mercy ; and who, in various 
 employments in the four quarters of the globe, laboured with unwearied perse- 
 verance and zeal, to spread the blessings of civilization, and to promote the 
 best interests of man. 
 
 JOHN MAC CULLOCH, M.D., F.E.S., F.L.S., F.a.S., &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Dr. John Mac CuUoch was born in Guernsey, on the 6th of October, 1773, 
 He was descended from an ancient Scottish family, who possessed considerable 
 property in Galloway, but who had suffered much from their attachment to 
 the cause of the covenant, and their opposition to the tyranny of Charles II. 
 He was the third son of Mr. James Mac CuUoch, a gentleman who was loved 
 and respected by all who knew him, and Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Thomas 
 De Lisle, of Smith street, one of the jurats of the royal court of Guernsey. 
 
 In his childhood, Dr. Mac CuUoch was thoughtful and fond of being alone. 
 He seldom played with other children, but when the hours of study were over, 
 was in the habit of going into a room which his father, who was a man of 
 Bcientific and literary attainments, and a good mechanic, aUowed him to call 
 his own, and the door of which he contrived to fasten with a large bent needle 
 in such a manner as to prevent his brothers from entering. Here he amused him- 
 self by drawing, carving various articles in wood and cocoa-nut sheU ; and, at 
 a very early period, in attempts to make gunpowder, and, after he had effected 
 that, in manufacturing fireworks. His family was at this time residing in 
 Cornwall, and the first school he was sent to was the grammar school at 
 Plympton. He was afterwards removed to one at Penzance ; and thence, in 
 1787, to the grammar school at Lostwithiel, where he remained three years, 
 and where his talents seem to have been appreciated by the master. 
 
 In 1790, he went to prosecute his medical studies at Edinburgh, where he 
 obtained his diploma of physician, at the age of eighteen, being the youngest 
 man who had ever passed the examination, which was then very severe. He 
 subsequently entered the artUlery as assistant-surgeon, and on the 5th of 
 April, 1803, accepted the situation of chemist to the board of ordnance. In 
 1807, he resided at Blackheath, where he practised as a physician. 
 
 About the year 1811, he was engaged by government to make various sur- 
 veys in Scotland. He in consequence gave up his practice, which he never 
 regularly resumed, although he was frequently consulted. The first business 
 on which he was employed in Scotland, was in a search for stones adapted to 
 the use of the government powder mills. The second was an examination of 
 the principal mountains, with a view to the repetition of the experiments 
 which had been made at SchehaUian on the density of the earth. The third 
 had for its object the correction of the deviations of the plumb-line on the 
 meridian of the trigonometrical survey. Whilst he was making these surveys, 
 be also employed himself in geological observations, and in coUecting materials 
 for a mineralogical map, as well for his own amusement and instruction, as 
 with the hope that they would become useful to the country at some future 
 time. In 1826, he was desired by government to complete the work he had 
 thus begun ; and this was the commencement of the last great public work in 
 which he was employed — the mineralogical and geological survey in Scotland, 
 which was continued every summer from 1826 to 1832, when he completed it. 
 During the winters of these ears, he put in order the observations made in 
 the summer, drew sections, prepared the map, &c. This gigantic work, the 
 labour of one individual, has never been surpassed by any undertaking of a 
 similar nature. 
 
 WhUe thus actively engaged. Dr. Mac CuUoch stiU found time to publish, 
 between the years 1819 and 1831, several works, the result principally of his 
 labours in Scotland. Two are on geology, three on subjects more exclusively 
 
492 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 connected with the country in which he was labouring. He also published a 
 treatise on the art of making wines, which reached a fourth edition ; and, 
 though unable to follow up the practice of his profession, he never lost sight of 
 it, the proofs of which we have in two elaborate works, one on malaria, the 
 other on remittent and intermittent diseases. He contributed many papers to 
 Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopsedia, and Brande's Philosophical Journal. 
 He published many articles in the Transactions of the Geological Society, and 
 wrote frequently in the Edinburgh and Westminster Reviews, and in the 
 London and New Monthly Magazine. 
 
 Dr. Mac Culloch's writings contain internal evidence that they must have 
 resulted from deep thought, based on an intimate knowledge of the subjects he 
 treated of. The acquisition of this knowledge was gained by intense study, 
 aided by a wonderfully retentive memory. The variety of his acquirements 
 was not less remarkable than their extent. Allusion has been already made to 
 his knowledge of medicine, geology, mineralogy, chemistry, and trigonometry. 
 He was also well acquainted with theology, astronomy, zoology, botany, phy- 
 sics, and the mechanical arts. He was skilled in architecture. He drew well, 
 and has left an immense number of drawings. He was a good musician, and 
 his musical compositions shew that he was conversant with the theory as well 
 as with the practice of the science. His accomplishments, as they are called, 
 were cultivated at times which nlany persons pass without employment. His 
 drawings were done whde others were employed in walking or riding. His 
 flowers and herbs were examined, dried, and painted before breakfast in the 
 long summer mornings. When he used to practise music, he did so during 
 the twilight hours. In short, no portion of his time was unoccupied. And 
 the magnitude of his labours appears still more remarkable, from the fact that 
 for many years he was, for a longer or shorter period every year, afflicted most 
 severely by the effects of malaria. 
 
 In 1830, he completed a work entitled "Proofs and Illustrations of the 
 Attributes of God, from the Facts and Laws of the Physical Universe ; being 
 the Foundation of Natural and Revealed Religion." It was intended for 
 publication in the following year ; but its appearance was delayed by the an- 
 nouncement of the Bridgewater Treatises. In obedience to his last wUl, it 
 was published in 1837, in 3 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Dr. Mac Culloch was fellow of the Royal, Linnean, and Geological Societies, 
 and at one time vice-president of the last. In 1820, he was appointed physi- 
 cian in ordinary to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg. For some years, and till 
 his death, he filled the situation of lecturer on chemistry and geology, at the 
 East India Company's establishment, at Addiscombe. 
 
 He married, in the summer of 1835, Miss White, whose famUy at one time 
 resided near Addiscombe. He was with her in Cornwall, on a visit to his old 
 friend, the Rev. John Buller, of St. Just, when the accident occurred which 
 led to his death, on the 21st of August, 1835. He was thrown out of a pony 
 phseton, by which, in addition to other injuries, his right leg was so shattered 
 that amputation became necessary. The firmness and calmness of his mind, 
 and his entire resignation to the will of God, were manifested during the 
 operation. From time to time he asked questions of the surgeons, and even 
 gave them directions. He, however, only survived the operation a few hours. 
 He was buried in the church-yard of Gulval, a village near Penzance, in which 
 his father httd resided for some years. 
 
 COMMANDER HENRY MAINGAY, R.N. 
 
 The family of Mainguy, or Maingy, has been seated in Guernsey from the 
 time of its earliest records. Thus, at the dedication of the Vale church, in 
 1117, "John Maingy" is said, among other parishioners, to have been present. 
 We have given from Duncan (page 66, ante) the copy of an act of the Chief 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 493 
 
 Pleas, passed in 1204 by the bailiff and eight of the jurats ; but in some copies 
 of the said act four other jurats, including " John Maingy," are named, in 
 place of four mentioned in Duncan's copy, the whole collectively making the 
 twelve jurats. Although such an act may have been passed at a later period, 
 and purposely or inadvertently antedated in the transcript, yet the authenticity 
 of aU insular documents anterior to the fourteenth century is very questionable. 
 There is a district situate between, and on the confines of, the parishes of the 
 Catel and the Vale still called " Les Maingys," which anciently took its name 
 from its proprietors. This name was evidently a corruption of that of Mainguy, 
 anciently, and still, existing in Britany : thus, in a MS. of the Extent of 
 Edward III., " Petrus Mainguy" was one of the jury (Inquesta) sworn to 
 value the lands in the parish of St. Sampson. Maingy appears, however, to 
 have been the usual orthography in Guernsey for several centuries, untU one 
 branch of the family, by the queen's royal license, in 1840, changed it to Maingay. 
 Henry Maingay was a midshipman in the Csesar, 80, the flag ship of Sir 
 James Saumarez, at the attack of the French squadron in 1801, in the roads of 
 Algeziras, and in the subsequent engagement in the Straits of Gibraltar. In 
 the former action, he was stationed at one of the bow ports of the Caesar, and 
 five men fell at his side. He obtained his first commission in the West Indies, 
 in 1806, and served as senior lieutenant under Captain Prescott, in the Fylla, 
 20, and Eridanus, 36, from the beginning of 1813 until the cessation of hosti- 
 lities, in 1815. He was appointed, in 1816, to the Spencer, 76 ; and in July, 
 1821, through the interest of Lord Graves, he obtained the highly-prized 
 appointment of first lieutenant to the Royal George, yacht, Captain Sir Charles 
 Paget, under whom he had the honor of accompanying George IV. to Ire- 
 land, in consequence of which his promotion to the rank of commander took 
 place in December following. Captain Maingay died in August, 1846, married, 
 but without issue. 
 
 MAJOE- GENERAL LE MARCHANT. 
 
 The family of Le Marchant has long been settled in Guernsey. There is a 
 tradition that it passed over from Normandy soon after the Conquest. A fine 
 old gateway, with the Le Marchant arms inscribed on it, stood near Cherbourg, 
 until the revolution. — James Le Marchant was a jurat of the royal court, in 
 the reign of king John. In the following reign, Robert Le Marchant acquired 
 an estate at Barsenhall, in the county of Southampton,! and others of the name 
 held lands in Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Herefordshire, in the reigns of 
 Edward I. and 11. One of them represented the borough of Wells in parlia- 
 ment.2 Peter Le Marchant was bailiff and lieutenant-governor of the island 
 during a great part of the reign of Edward I., having been the deputy of Otho 
 de Grandison, whose oppressive administration we have already had occasion 
 to notice. He died in 1335, leaving two sons, John and Denis ; John suc- 
 ceeded him as bailiff, and died without issue ; Denis married Janet de Cheney,' 
 and was the progenitor of the various branches of the Le Marchants, which 
 have since flourished in the island. Of the two chief branches, the younger 
 dates its origin in the reign of Henry VI., from Drouet Le Marchant, who 
 was captain of Beauregard, the citadel of St. Peter- Port, under the celebrated 
 Warwick, the lord of the isles. Others of the family appear likewise to have 
 been soldiers, and to have served with credit, as their honorable conduct is 
 referred to in the grant of the coat of arms now borne by their descendants. 
 It is not known that any of them settled out of the island vmtil the period 
 which we are now approaching. 
 
 Thomas Le Marchant, of Le Marchant manor, a younger branch of the 
 I'Hyvreuse family, and lieutenant-bailiff of the island in the reign of George 
 
 (1) Testa de Nevill, temp. Hen. 3, Edw. 1. (2) Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs. 
 
 (3) This illustrious Norman family appear to have held great domains in the island, up 
 to the reign of Henry IV.— Vide pp. 42 and 72-3, ante. 
 
494 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 II. ; married, first, Catherine Mauger, of the same family with the wife of the 
 Protector, Richard. Cromwell : by her he had issue two sons, Thomas and 
 John. He married, secondly, Mile. Hirzel, a French Protestant lady, of the 
 noble family of St. Gratien, near Amiens, in Picardy, and the heiress of Lewis, 
 Count d'Olon,! the lieutenant-governor of the island : by her he had no issue. 
 His eldest son, Thomas, the colonel of the west regiment of militia, was per- 
 haps the most accomplished of the Guernsey gentlemen of his day. He passed 
 many years in Italy and Germany, and was eminent for his taste in literature 
 and the fine arts. He commenced a history of Guernsey, or rather, a com- 
 mentary on Falle's History of Jersey, for which he is said to have collected 
 materials in Normandy ; but the work was never finished. He married Miss 
 Fiott, and died without issue, at an advanced age, at Exeter, in 1816. 
 
 John, the second son, was educated at Pembroke college, Oxford, but he left 
 the university without a degree, upon obtaining a cornetcy in the 7th dragoons, 
 with which regiment he served the last three campaigns of the seven years' 
 war, in the army of Prince Ferdinand, of Brunswick. He retired on half-pay 
 upon the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, when he married Maria Hirzel, of St. 
 Gratien, the eldest daughter of the Count de St. Gratien, a marechal-de-camp 
 of the Swiss guards, in the service of France, the niece and eventually heiress 
 of his step-mother. He died at Bath, in 1794, leaving issue two sons, of 
 whom the elder, 
 
 John Gaspard Le Marchant, entered the army as an ensign in the royals, 
 in 1783. He accompanied his regiment to Gibraltar, where he passed several 
 years without promotion, and, despairing of advancement in the line, he ex- 
 changed into the Inniskilling dragoons. The countenance of Lord Heathfield 
 brought him under the notice of the king, and in three years he obtained his 
 troop. In 1793, he joined the army in Flanders, under the Duke of York ; 
 and having distinguished himself in an attack on the French infantry at 
 Cassel, he was appointed brigade-major to the Hon. General Harcourt, with 
 whom he served the campaigns of 1793 and 1794. In the latter year, he pur- 
 chased a majority in the 16th light dragoons, then commanded by General 
 Harcourt, and returned to England. 
 
 In 1795, Major Le Marchant laid before the commander-in-chief a plan for 
 the introduction of a sword exercise throughout the service, which was adopted 
 and is universally allowed to have promoted, in a very high degree, the effi- 
 ciency of the British cavalry. For this he was appointed, without purchase, 
 lieutenant-colonel of the 7th light dragoons. His next undertaking was the 
 establishment of an institution for the military instruction both of officers and 
 of youths intended for the array ; and after many difficulties, which nothing but 
 his ardour and energetic spirit and perseverance enabled him to surmount, the 
 royal military coUege was founded by the king's warrant, in 1802, when he was 
 appointed the lieutenant-governor, with a salary and emoluments, amoimting, 
 with his regimental pay, to upwards of £2,000 per annum. 
 
 This office he filled for nine years with the most distinguished reputation. 
 Two hundred officers were educated for the stafi" of the army, under his eye, 
 the quartermaster-generals both of Lord Wellington's and Marshal Beresford's 
 army, together with most of their assistants, being amongst them. He also 
 found time to furnish the commander-in-chief with many useful suggestions 
 for the improvement of the army, not the least of which was the formation of 
 the staff corps, a department which proved so useful in the Peninsular war. 
 
 In 1811, having attained the rank of major-general, he was removed from 
 the college to the command of a brigade of heavy cavalry, in the Peninsula. 
 He joined the army in the autumn of that year, and in the following January 
 was employed at the siege of Ciudad Kodrigo, where he attended Lord Wel- 
 lington during the assault. Being afterwards attached to the corps under 
 
 (1) He was ao ancient French refugree officer, and had attended Lord Galway as aide-de- 
 camp and secretary at the unfortunate battle of Almanza. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 495 
 
 Sir Thomas Graham, he gained great distinction by his conduct at Llerena, in 
 Estremadura, on the 19th of April, where, with only three squadrons of the 
 5th dragoon guards, he overthrew and dispersed two of the finest cavalry 
 regiments in the French service, with the loss of 500 men in kUled, wounded, 
 and prisoners. 
 
 At the battle of Salamanca, 22d of July, 1812, General Le Marchant's bri- 
 gade was posted on the right centre of the allies. The communication between 
 the centre and left of the French having been broken, partly by General 
 Thomiere's rash advance, and partly by his defeat, a bold effort was made by a 
 division of French infantry to restore it and save the day. General Le Mar- 
 chant saw the importance of the movement, and, notwithstanding great disad- 
 vantages of ground, as well as disparity of numbers, for he had only 800 horse 
 to oppose more than 5,000 of the enemy's infantry, he at once charged. The 
 result was glorious, the French division being completely routed, more than 
 1,500 prisoners taken, besides many kUled and wounded. The general led the 
 charge himself, and six of the enemy fell by his hand. Unhappily, his zeal 
 carried him unnecessarily forward in the pursuit, and he received a musket 
 wound in the groin, of which he immediately expired, but not until he had 
 witnessed the perfect success of the charge. 
 
 This charge is still considered one of the most brilliant made by the British 
 cavalry during the war, and the entire credit of it is due to General Le Mar- 
 chant, as his brigade was the only portion of the cavalry engaged in it. The 
 Duke of Wellington, in his despatch announcing the victory, said : " In this 
 charge. Major- General Le Marchant was killed at the head of his brigade, and 
 I have to regret the loss of a most able officer." 
 
 The general was only forty-seven years of age at the time of his death. Few 
 officers bore a higher character in the service, or could be more deeply or 
 generally regretted. He wrote several works on cavalry tactics, all of which 
 had a great circulation ; nor were his attainments confined to his profession, 
 for he was a skilful draughtsman, and possessed a considerable knowledge both 
 of music and architecture. He stood high in the personal esteem of George 
 III., and lived on terms of great intimacy and confidence with Mr. Wyndham, 
 Lord Grenville, and others of the leading statesmen of his time. A monument 
 was erected to his memory, at the public expense, in St. Paul's cathedral, and 
 a pension of £1,200 per annum settled on his family. 
 
 The general married, early in life, Mary, daughter of John Carey, Esq , jurat, 
 by whom he had a family of five sons and five daughters ; the eldest died in 
 infancy ; the second, Carey, is the subject of the next memoir ; the third is 
 Sir Denis Le Marchant, JBart., of Chobham Place, Surrey, barrister-at-law, 
 and clerk of the House of Commons, once M.P. for Worcester ; the fourth is 
 Colonel Sir John Gaspard Le Marchant, knight, lieutenant-governor of Nova 
 Scotia, who distinguished himself as a brigadier and adjutant-general of the 
 British auxiliary legion in Spain ; and the fifth son is Lieut.-Colonel Thomas 
 Le Marchant, of the 5th dragoon guards. Of the daughters, the only one who 
 has married and settled in Guernsey is the youngest, Anna Maria, wife of Daniel 
 Tupper, Esq., formerly in the army, and now receiver-general of the island. 
 
 CAPTAIN CAREY LE MARCHANT, Ist FOOT GUARDS. 
 
 The career of this gallant young officer was too brief to furnish matter for a 
 lengthened notice, but the early promise which he gave of distinguished merit 
 entitles his name to an honorable place in this work. 
 
 He was the eldest surviving son of Major- General Le Marchant, and was 
 born in Guernsey at the house of his maternal grandfather. Having received 
 a classical education at Eton, he was removed to the royal military college, 
 where he obtained the highest testimonial awarded to the students. In 1807, 
 he was gazetted to an ensigncy in the 1st foot guards, and on joining the 
 
496 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 regiment he received the appointment of aide-de-camp to Lieut. -General Sir 
 Harry Burrard, K.B., commanding the household brigade in the London district. 
 
 In 1810, he left England on an excursion to the Mediterranean and Turkey, 
 then almost the only parts of Europe accessible to an English traveller. He 
 made some stay at Constantinople, where he contracted an intimacy with 
 Count Ludolf, an officer in the Austrian imperial guard, son of the Neapolitan 
 ambassador in England, and himself since distinguished as a diplomatist, with 
 whom he visited Athens and the most celebrated remains of antiquity in 
 Greece. He afterwards partook of the hospitality of the well known Lady 
 Esther Stanhope, at her villa, in Asia Minor, and traversed a considerable 
 portion of the Turkish empire in that direction. Passing thence over into 
 Sicily, he devoted several weeks to a diligent examination of the splendid 
 monuments of art still to be found there, and narrowly escaped death from a 
 fever caught in taking sketches in the neighbourhood of Catania. In the 
 summer of 1811, he joined his regiment at the Isle de Leon, where it was 
 employed in the protection of Cadiz, and in the spring of the following year 
 he was, to his great delight, attached to his father's staff as aide-de-camp. 
 
 From this time he bore an active part in the principal operations of the 
 army under Lord Wellington in Spain and France, and displayed on several 
 occasions a zeal, courage, and capacity, which called forth the frequent and 
 warm commendations of the generals under whom he served. He fought by 
 his father's side at Salamanca. Having been subsequently appointed aide-de- 
 camp to Lieut.-General the Hon. Sir William Stewart, K.B., commanding the 
 2d division, he was present at the battle of Vittoria, where it became his duty 
 to conduct a Spanish division to the attack — an office of great personal danger, 
 in which he acquitted himself with his usual courage, and, to the surprise of 
 all, escaped unhurt. In the first of the battles in the Pyrenees, he was with 
 his general, when the latter was severely wounded, and his division nearly cut 
 to pieces. On finding himself unemployed in consequence, he joined Alajor- 
 General Pringle as aide-de-camp, and in the next engagement had the gratifi- 
 cation of sharing in the praise showered on Pringle' s brigade for its exertions 
 on that day. Captain Le Marchant was also present at the siege of San Sebas- 
 tian, and as the war was approaching its close, he was dangerously wounded 
 at the battle of the Nive, 13th December, 1813, in an attempt to rally a regi- 
 ment which had fallen into confusion. His gallantry — to use the expression 
 of Sir William Stewart, in a letter written at the time — was the admiration 
 of the field,! and appears to have attracted the notice of the enemy, as his 
 cloak and saddle were perforated with bullets at the same moment that he 
 himself was struck, in two places. Having been carried into St. Jean de Luz, 
 he expired on the 12th day of March, 1814, in the twenty-third year of his 
 age, and was buried in the ramparts of that fortress. Few young men have 
 left a more enviable reputation. His courteous and prepossessing deportment 
 was in unison with the excellence of his heart. Neither the elegance of his 
 person, his accomplishments, nor his success in his profession, could alter the 
 simplicity of his character. He was truly mourned by those with whom he 
 served, and in his own family, in which he had sought to supply a father's 
 place, his loss was irreparable. 
 
 COLONEL HAVILLAND LE MESURIER 
 
 Was of a family which has been settled in Guernsey as far back as any au- 
 thentic records can be traced, and the branch to which he belonged possessed 
 for above a century the government and lordship of the island of Alderney. 
 He was the grandson of John Le Mesurier, Esq., to whom the grant was renewed 
 
 (1) Sir Rowland, now Lord, Hill, in a despatch to the Marque^g of Wellington, dated 
 l6th December, 1813, said : •• I was witness to the activity of Captain Le Marchant and 
 Lieutenant Lord Charles Spencer, aides-de camp to the lieutenant-general." (Stewart.)— 
 See Naval and Military Magazine, (December, 1827,) vol. 2, p. 632. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 497 
 
 in 1763 ; the son of Havilland Le Mesurier, commissary-general ; and the 
 nephew of Paul Le Mesurier, M.P. for Southwark, and Lord Mayor of London. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was educated at Salisbury and Winchester, and 
 was destined for commercial pursuits ; but as he earnestly entreated his 
 father to be allowed to enter the army, an ensign's commission was obtained 
 for him in the staflP corps, in 1801. Haying been admitted into the college at 
 High-Wycomb as a lieutenant in 1803, he passed his final examination there 
 with the greatest credit in the summer following, being highly complimented 
 by the Board. In 1807, he accompanied, on the staff of the adjutant-general, 
 the expedition under Sir John Moore to Sweden, and on its return proceeded 
 with it to Portugal in the same capacity. During the campaign, he neglected 
 no means to acquire both the Portuguese and Spanish languages, in which he 
 finally succeeded. At the battle of Lugo, he had some very narrow escapes j 
 and at Corunna, where Sir John Moore fell, he had his horse shot under him. 
 Soon after his return to England, he was appointed one of the ofiicers to be 
 sent out with General Beresford to discipline the Portuguese troops, and in 
 consequence was promoted, in April, 1809, to a majority, which carried the ^ 
 further step of lieutenant-colonel in the Portuguese service. A few months ' 
 later, he obtained the command of the 14th Portuguese regiment, which was in 
 a wretched state, most of the officers being old and stiff, and had from 200 to 
 400 men on the sick list ; but with the aid of a very intelligent adjutant, who 
 he said had more of the Englishman in him than any Portuguese he had ever 
 met with, the discipline and efficiency of the regiment were gradually restored. 
 
 In April, 1811, Lieut.-Colonel Le Mesurier became Portuguese military 
 secretary to Lord Wellington, and arrived at head quarters the day before the 
 battle of Fuente d'Onore, in which, perceiving the 7th Portuguese regiment, 
 which had been ordered to cover General Houston's retreat, without a field 
 officer, he dismounted and assumed the command of the left wing : having 
 taken post on a rocky ground, he maintained it as long as was necessary, losing 
 eight or ten out of eighty men, and having his arm grazed by a musket ball. 
 Being somewhat disappointed with his staff appointment, he solicited leave to 
 return to his regiment, which after a little delay was granted ; and in October 
 he was gratified by the receipt of his commission as British lieutenant-colonel. 
 Lord Wellington, moreover, recommended for a commission his younger bro- 
 ther, Henry, who soon after, while ensign in the 48th, lost his right arm at 
 the battle of Salamanca, July, 1812, and is now a much- respected resident of 
 Quebec. In March, 1812, he was selected to command the fortress of Almeida, 
 at a time that Marmont's movements excited much alarm for its safety. On 
 his arrival, no time was lost in repairing the fortifications and disciplining the 
 garrison, which consisted of newly raised militia. But so completely had the 
 place been dismantled, and so insufficient were these raw troops for any serious 
 defence, that, upon Marmont's appearing before it, every one gave it up as lost. 
 Le Mesurier, however, shewed so good a countenance, prevailing upon his men 
 to accompany him in two sallies, and skirmishing with some of the more 
 advanced troops, that the enemy gave him credit for being stronger than he 
 was, and desisted from any attempt upon the fortress. His conduct drew 
 repeated commendations from Lord Wellington and Sir William Beresford, 
 and he was equally beloved by the inhabitants of Almeida and by the troops. 
 Becoming tired of the comparative inaction of a garrison life, his repeated 
 solicitations to return to regimental duty prevailed, and in May he was ap- 
 pointed to the command of the 12th Portuguese regiment. Some time after, 
 he joined the main army in the Pyrennees, and a few days before his death 
 became full colonel. His corps had scarcely entered into action near Pampe- 
 luna, July 28, 1813, when a musket baU penetrated his head, and he fell 
 senseless ; nor did he afterwards utter a word, although he Hved till the 31st. 
 At his death, he was little more than thirty years of age ; and it may truly be 
 said of him that he was an officer of uncommon promise, and of superior 
 
 2i 
 
498 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 military talents and acquirements. To these qualities Marshal Beresford bore 
 testimony, in his general orders of August 11 : " The death of Colonel Havil- 
 land Le Mesurier," he said, " will be felt by the service, as well as by all who 
 enjoyed his acquaintance." In 1809, Colonel Le Mesurier published a trans- 
 lation of La TriUe's Art of War, with notes, which has great merit. 
 
 Another brother of the colonel. Lieutenant Frederick Le Mesurier, of the 
 Blenheim, 74, the flag ship of Sir Thomas Troubridge, perished in that ship, 
 with all on board, when she foundered in the East Indies, in 1807. 
 
 LIEUTENANT PETER LE MESUEIER, 
 
 Second son of the late Mr. Abraham John Le Mesurier, of the Beaucamps, 
 was, in 1809, appointed to an ensigncy in the 9th foot, then commanded by 
 Lieut.-Colonel, (the late Lieut. -General Sir John) Cameron, and almost imme- 
 diately after sailed with the expedition to Corunna, under Sir David Baird. 
 He was with his regiment in the expedition to Walcheren, and afterwards in 
 Spain, at the battles of Salamanca and Yittoria, at the siege of Burgos, in both 
 assaults of San Sebastian, and finally was killed in action at the operations 
 connected with the passage of the river Nive, on the 10th of December, 1813. 
 
 CAPTAIN PHILIP SAUMAEEZ, R.N. 
 
 Was the follower and friend of Anson and Hawke, and the brother in arms of 
 Rodney, Keppel, and Saunders. Falling in the hour of victory, at the early 
 age of thirty-seven, his career was short but brilliant ; and the inscription on 
 his monument in Westminster Abbey justly records of him that " he was one 
 of those few whose lives ought rather to be measured by their actions than 
 their days." 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir was bom in November, 1710, and at the 
 age of eleven he was sent to Southampton for his education, as well as to 
 acquire the English language, which was then but partially spoken in these 
 islands. In February, 1726, young Saumarez was appointed a volunteer on 
 board the Weymouth, 50, fitting for the Baltic station, when he was induced, 
 in deference to the prejudice then existing in England against French origin or 
 connection, to change the ancient name of "De Sausmarez," (anglice Salt- 
 marsh,) borne by his ancestors, to that of Saumarez, which latter name was 
 also adopted by two of his brothers, the eldest, John, who possessed Sausmarea 
 Manor, alone retaining the original name, which is preserved by his descen- 
 dants to this day. In August, 1736, Mr. Saumarez was made a lieutenant 
 in the West Indies, and soon afterwards returned to England. 
 
 In the memorable expedition to the South Seas, under Commodore Anson, 
 Mr. Saumarez was appointed third lieutenant of the Centurion, November 28, 
 1739 ; but the squadron, consisting of six ships o£ war and two victuallers, 
 only sailed from St. Helen's in September following. Of these vessels the 
 Centurion alone returned to England with the commodore, anchoring at Spit- 
 head on the 15th of June, 1744, after having performed the voyage round the 
 world, and been absent from England three years and nine months, bringing 
 with her a freight of £400,000, the produce of her captures, besides destroying 
 the value of £600,000 more, which the captors were unable to take on board. 
 
 In November, 1740, Mr. Saumarez became second, and in February following 
 first, lieutenant of the Centurion. The various disasters which attended the 
 squadron have been so graphically described in the narrative of Anson's voyage, 
 that it is only necessary to add here that on the capture of the Spanish galleon, 
 June 20, 1743, on her annual voyage from Acapulco to Manilla, Lieutenant 
 Saumarez was appointed to the command of the prize, with the rank of post 
 captain. Ho proceeded in her to China, where she was sold, and in conse- 
 quence Captain Saumarez rejoined the Centurion, for a passage to England ; 
 the admiralty on his arrival confirming his promotion. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 499 
 
 After serving in the Sandwich, York, and Yarmouth, each for a few months 
 only, in September, 1746, he was appointed to command the Nottingham, of 
 60 guns and 400 men, which ship formed part of Lord Anson's squadron. 
 On the 11th October following, he captured the French ship Mars, of 64 guns 
 and 425 men, after an action of two hours, seventy-five miles S.W. of Cape 
 Clear. The Nottingham had three men killed and sixteen wounded, and the 
 Mars about twelve killed and forty wounded. In May, 1747, Captain Sau- 
 marez shared in the victory of Lord Anson's squadron over the French fleet 
 under Monsieur de la Jonquiere, when nine ships of war were captured from 
 the enemy. In September of the same year. Captain Saumarez joined Admiral 
 Hawke ; and on the 14th October following, the memorable action with the 
 French squadron took place off Brest. In this hard-fought battle, the French 
 were inferior in force to the English, but had the advantage of the weather 
 gage, and they fought with great bravery, with the exception of the Tonnant, 
 80, the admiral's ship, and the Intrepide, 74. These two ships, endeavouring 
 to escape, were pursued by the Yarmouth and Nottingham, which engaged 
 them nearly an hour, and would probably have overpowered them, had not 
 Captain Saumarez been killed by a shot from the Tonnant, when the Notting- 
 ham, having lost her master spirit, hauled her wind. 
 
 Thus prematurely fell Captain Philip Saumarez, than whom no officer in 
 the navy of his rank and time stood higher for ability and gallantry. By his 
 will he left £100 to the poor of St. Peter-Port ; and his corpse, being conveyed 
 to Plymouth, was interred in the old church there with all the honors due to 
 his rank and character. — A tablet, with a suitable inscription, was erected in 
 that church to his memory, as was also a monument in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 CAPTAIN THOMAS SAUMAEEZ, E.N. 
 
 A younger brother of Captain PhQip Saumarez, also accompanied Anson in 
 his expedition round the world. In November, 1757, while in command of 
 H. M.'s ship Antelope, he captured a large Bayonne privateer, and was em- 
 ployed in convoying the trade between the West Indies and Bristol. In 
 November, 1758, when lying in the Bristol Channel, Captain Saumarez was 
 informed that a French line-of-battle ship had been seen off Lundy Island, 
 whereupon he immediately slipped his cable, and proceeded in quest of her. 
 The next morning, he sighted the enemy's ship, which proved to be the Belle- 
 queux, of 64 guns : the French captain hove up his anchors, and made a shew 
 of fighting ; but, on receiving a few shots, struck his colours, thus surrendering, 
 with a complement of 470 men, to a ship of inferior force, both in numbers and 
 weight of metal. For these and other services rendered to the trade of Bristol, 
 its corporation, by an unanimous vote, presented Captain Saumarez with a 
 
 fold cup, valued at one hundred guineas, which is an heir loom in the family. 
 te died in 1764, without issue, at his seat near Eickmansworth, Herts. 
 
 ADMIEAL LOED DE SAUMAEEZ, a.C.B., &c. 
 
 The same necessity, want of space, which has compelled us greatly to con- 
 dense most of these memoirs, must apply equally to our biography of this 
 distinguished officer and excellent man ; and the following narrative is in con- 
 sequence a mere epitome of the services of one who, by his own gallantry and 
 personal merits, attained the peerage and the highest honors of his profession. 
 
 This history furnishes evidence of the great antiquity in Guernsey of the 
 family of De Sausmarez, and thus the name was spelt until the last century, 
 when, as we have shewn, the father and two of the uncles of Lord de Saumarez 
 anglicized it to Saumarez, Their remote ancestor received from Henry, tenth 
 duke of Normandy, (afterwards Henry 11. of England,) the fief of Jerbourg, 
 and was appointed hereditary captain, or chdtelain, of the castle of that name, 
 situate within the limits of the fief, in the parish of St. Martin. 
 
500 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 James Saumarez was born in St, Peter-Port, Guernsey, March 11, 1757, 
 and having early evinced a predilection for the naval service, he commenced 
 his glorious career as a midshipman at thirteen years of age, and spent 
 the next five years on the Mediterranean station, returning home in 1775. 
 Shortly after his arrival in England, he joined the Bristol, 50, Commodore Sir 
 Peter Parker, which ship formed part of a squadron, with a fleet of transports, 
 having on board a large body of troops, destined for an attack on Charlestown. 
 The first object of the expedition was to obtain possession of Sullivan's Island, 
 situate about six miles below the town, and strongly fortified. Accordingly, 
 the squadron began the attack at eight, a.m., June 28, 1778, by a furious 
 cannonade, which continued, with little intermission, until nine o'clock, p. m. 
 Never did British valour shine more conspicuously : the spring on the Bristol's 
 cable being shot away, she lay for some time exposed to a dreadful raking fire, 
 and at one period her quarter deck was entirely cleared of every one, except the 
 commodore. During this severe conflict, Mr. Saumarez had a very narrow 
 escape, as at the moment he was pointing a gun on the lower deck, of which 
 he had the command, a shot from the fort struck the gun, and killed or 
 wounded every man but himself. A few days after the action, he was appointed 
 acting lieutenant of the Bristol, which appointment was confirmed by Lord 
 Howe. From that period to 1779, Lieutenant Saumarez was actively employed 
 in America ; and while in command of the Spitfire, galley, he cleared the coast 
 of the enemy's privateers, and drove on shore and destroyed a ship of very 
 superior force to his own. 
 
 Having returned to England, Lieutenant Saumarez was appointed to the 
 Victory, and continued in that ship imder diff^erent flag officers until his 
 removal, as second lieutenant, into the Fortitude, with Vice- Admiral Sir Hyde 
 Parker. In this ship he participated in the battle with the Dutch fleet, under 
 the command of Admiral Zoutman, off* the Dogger bank, on the 5th August ; 
 1781. This action was so severe, that it reminds one of those dreadful sea fights 
 between England and Holland, which were witnessed in the preceding century. 
 
 In consequence of the bravery which he displayed in this action, Mr. Sau- 
 marez, although only second lieutenant, was promoted to the rank of com- 
 mander ; the first being wounded early in the action, his duty had fallen on him, 
 and shortly afterwards he was appointed to the Tisiphone, a fire ship. 
 
 When the squadron arrived at the Nore, Greorge III., ever desirous of 
 bestowing marks of approbation on his brave seamen, honored it with a visit. 
 On this occasion, Captain Saumarez was presented to the king, who imme- 
 diately asked Sir Hyde Parker : " Is he a relation of the Saumarezs who went 
 round the world with Lord Anson ? " " Yes, please your majesty," the 
 admiral replied, " he is their nephew, and as brave and as good an officer as 
 either of his uncles!" 
 
 After performing some valuable services in the Tisiphone, Captain Saumarez, 
 by rare good fortune, succeeded in the West Indies to the command of the 
 Russell, 74, in February, 1782, and thus attained the rank of post captain 
 before he was twenty-five ! Two months later, he distinguished himself in 
 Rodney's action, on the 12th of April, the Russell engaging the Ville de Paris on 
 the quarter for some time, until the Barfleur came up, when the Comte de Grasse 
 struck his colours. The war terminated early in 1783, and Captain Saumarez 
 returned to Guernsey to enjoy the society of his family and friends. 
 
 We come now to the commencement of a series of naval triumphs, which 
 will ever live in the records of the British empire. The French revolutionary 
 war broke out in 1793, and early in January Captain Saumarez was appointed 
 to the Cre8ccnt,3 6, In this ship he captured, ofT Cherbourg, in October fol- 
 lowing, the French 36-gun frigate Reunion, after a close action of two hours 
 fifteen minutes, in which the Cre'scent had not a single man hurt ! The 
 Reimion in tonnage and number of men was superior, but as her main deck 
 guns consisted of French 128, and those of the Crescent of English IBs, this 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. OUJ 
 
 difference of metal gave the latter ship a decided advantage. The Reunion 
 lost 120 men in killed and wounded ; and it is due to her captain to add, that 
 he did not surrender until after a very gallant resistance, "a measure the 
 more imperative," says James, " as the British 28-gun frigate Circe, which 
 during the greater part of the action had been becalmed about three leagues 
 off, striving her utmost to get up, was now approaching." This capture pro- 
 cured for Captain Saumarez the honor of knighthood, and the merchants of 
 London presented him with a handsome piece of plate. 
 
 The next exploit of Sir James Saumarez displayed in a striking light both 
 his nautical skill and his cool intrepidity, which were happily witnessed by the 
 people of Guernsey. We allude to the masterly escape of his squadron in June, 
 1794, from a very superior French force off the island, but as the details are 
 given ante, it is unnecessary to repeat them here. 
 
 From the period of Lord Howe's victory of the 1st of June, it was Sir 
 James' ambition to command a ship of the line, because he used to say : 
 " Though I shall lose the chance of getting rich, I must have a ship fit to take 
 part in such a triumph." Accordingly, on his own application, he was ap- 
 pointed, in March, 1795, to the Orion, 74, and on the 23d June following he 
 participated in Lord Bridport's action, which he may be justly considered to 
 have begun. In January, 1797, the Orion was one of a squadron sent to rein- 
 force Sir John Jervis, off Cape St. Vincent, and which joined him five days 
 before the battle of February 14. The Orion was for above an hour opposed 
 to a three-decker, the Salvador del Mundo, which finally struck to her, when 
 Sir James ordered his first Heutenant (Mr. Luce, of Jersey,) to take possession. 
 The Orion next stood for another three-decker, which, after resisting for 
 some time, also struck her colours, and hoisted an English flag over the 
 Spanish. Here again, however, we must add, that the Spanish fleet, although 
 vastly superior in point of ships and guns, was most wretchedly manned. 
 
 From this period to April, 1798, Sir James was employed in the blockade 
 of Cadiz, being nearly the whole time entrusted with the command of the 
 advanced squadron. His ship next formed part of a small squadron sent 
 under Sir Horatio Nelson to watch the armament fitting out at Toulon, and in 
 May this squadron encountered a violent storm in the gulf of Lyons. In June, 
 Nelson was reinforced by eleven sail of the line, and on the Ist of August the 
 French fleet was descried in Aboukir bay, at the mouth of the NQe. The 
 Orion was the third ship which came into action — an action singular, from 
 having been fought by one admiral with one eye and one arm, at night, and at 
 anchor ! In taking up her position, the Orion, by a single broadside, sank the 
 Serieuse, frigate, which fired at her. In this brilliant victory, Sir James, as 
 senior captain, was second in command : he received a severe contusion on the 
 side from a splinter, which killed Mr. Baird, his clerk, and mortally wounded 
 Mr. Miells, a midshipman, both of whom were standing close to him. On the 
 15th of August, Sir James sailed from Aboukir, with six sail of the line and 
 the captured ships, and at Gibraltar received orders to leave the prizes at Lis- 
 bon, and then to proceed to England, where the Orion was soon after paid off. 
 
 In February, 1799, Sir James was appointed a colonel of marines, and to 
 the command of the Caesar, 84, in which he joined the Channel fleet. During 
 two successive winters, he commanded the in-shore squadron, off the Black 
 Rocks, to watch more closely the enemy's fleet in Brest, an anxious and perilous 
 service fraught with difficulties ; and such was his sleepless vigilance, that not 
 a single vessel entered or left the port of Brest while he remained on the 
 station. On the 1st of January, 1801, he became rear-admiral of the blue, 
 and hoisted his flag on board the Csesar, still continuing off the Black Rocks. 
 
 In June following, Sir James was sent with a squadron to watch the Spanish 
 ships in Cadiz, being previously created a baronet. Soon after his arrival off 
 that port, he was informed that three French liners and a large frigate had 
 taken refuge in the bay of Algeziras, and he immediately proceeded to attack 
 
502 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 them ; but after a very severe conflict, (July 6, 1801,) in which the squadron 
 had to contend against the Spanish formidable batteries, as well as the French 
 ships, he was compelled to retire with the loss of the Hannibal, 74, which had 
 grounded, and to repair to Gibraltar to refit. This untoward event was chiefly 
 owing to the wind falling calm, which prevented the English squadron from 
 taking the position intended, and left the ships exposed to the enemy's fire, 
 while they were unable efiectually to return it. 
 
 As no doubt existed that the enemy's ships in Cadiz would come to the 
 rescue of their French allies, every efibrt was made to repair the British ships, 
 and this, by incredible exertions, was effected in six days, with the exception 
 of the Pompee, which was too much disabled. On the 9th of July, a Spanish 
 squadron of five sail of the line and three frigates was seen steering for 
 Algeziras, and the next day this force was increased by another saU of the 
 line, with a French commodore's broad pendant, the whole comprising, with 
 the Hannibal, ten sail of the line and four frigates, while the English squadron 
 amounted to only five sail of the line, a frigate, and a polacca. The admiral 
 determined, if possible, to obstruct the return to Cadiz of the enemy's ships, 
 which on the 12th, at dawn, were seen preparing to sail, while the Caesar was 
 still refitting. At one o'clock, they were nearly all under way, and two Spanish 
 three-deckers were already off" Cabrita Point, as the Caesar was warping out of 
 the mole. The enthusiasm of the garrison of Gibraltar, which had witnessed 
 the action of the 6th of July, at this exciting moment, wiU be easily conceived, 
 and the Caesar sailed out of the bay amidst deafening cheers and acclamations ; 
 even the wounded seamen begging to be received on board their ships, that 
 they might share in the approaching encounter. 
 
 The Caesar brought to off Europa Point, with signals for her companions to 
 close around her, and to prepare for battle. The enemy formed his line off" 
 Cabrita, about five miles to leeward, waiting for the Hannibal, which was the 
 last ship to leave Algeziras ; but at eight o'clock, unable to work out of the 
 bay, she anchored there again. The enemy then bore up through the Straits, 
 and was quickly followed by the British. At 11 h. 5 m. the Superb, 74, Cap- 
 tain Keats, which was not in the action of Algeziras, opened her fire, and very 
 shortly after the two sternmost ships of the enemy, both Spanish three-deckers, 
 were seen on board of each other on fire. A more grand, yet a more pitiable, 
 scene never presented itself : the gale was fresh, the sea running high, and the 
 flames, ascending the rigging with frightful rapidity, soon communicated to 
 the canvass, which instantly became one sheet of fire. The Caesar was follow- 
 ing these doomed ships so closely, that she had scarcely time to clear them by 
 shifting her helm. At 12 h. 30 m., one of the three-deckers blew up with a 
 tremendous explosion, as did the other soon after. The mind sickens at re- 
 cording this dreadful tragedy ; it must therefore suffice to add, that the San 
 Antonio, 74, was captured by the Superb, and that a French line-of-battle 
 ship would probably also have been taken by Captain Hood, in the Venerable, 
 had not his mainmast, which had been wounded at Algeziras, been shot away. 
 Altogether, the enemy lost three sail of the line and about 2,200 men miserably 
 blown into the air, besides those killed in the 74s, and taken prisoners. 
 
 The intelligence of this signal, but in our opinion melancholy,* success was so 
 unexpected in England, that it created the greatest astonishment, as it could 
 scarcelv be beHeved that the admiral, in so short a space of time, could have 
 refitted his squadron, and sailed again to attack the enemy of more than double 
 his force." The park and tower guns were fired, and there was a general illu- 
 mination, not only in London, but in several other towns. Sir James was 
 rewarded with the order of the Bath ; and when the thanks of parliament were 
 
 (1) The more melancholy, because probably at least three-fourths of the crews of the two 
 Spanish three-deckers were impressed men. One only wish is, that those who authorized 
 this man -stealing had been on board instead of their victims. 
 
 (2) Sir James' flag lieutenant, afterwards Captain Philip Dumaresq, of Jersey, was 
 made a conunander. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 503 
 
 Toted to him, Earl St. Vincent, Lord Nelson, and the Duke of Clarence, 
 (William IV.) spoke in the highest terms of his achievement ; Nelson saying : 
 " The promptness with which he refitted, — the spirit with which he attacked 
 a superior force, after his recent disaster, — and the masterly conduct of the 
 action, — I do not think were ever surpassed." — The thanks and the freedom 
 of the city of London were also voted to Sir James, accompanied by a sword, 
 of the value of one hundred guineas. The inhabitants of the Anglo-Norman 
 Islands, justly appreciating the merit of their gallant countryman, were not 
 tardy in acknowledging the high sense they entertained of his services. The 
 States of Jersey voted him their thanks, and the inhabitants of Guernsey pre- 
 sented him an elegant silver vase, with an appropriate inscription.' 
 
 Sir James Saumarez, having been reinforced with five sail of the line, resumed 
 the blockade of Cadiz ; and on the renewal of peace, he was detached to give 
 up Minorca to the Spanish authorities, after which he proceeded to England 
 and struck his flag, July 27, 1802. Shortly afterwards he was oflPered the 
 chief command in the Mediterranean, which he declined ; and in 1803, a grant 
 of £1,200 per annum was conferred upon him. 
 
 On the commencement of hostilities in that year. Sir James was appointed 
 to the naval command in these islands, which he retained until December, 
 1806, when he was nominated second in command of the Channel fleet under 
 Earl St. Vincent. He was next offered the chief command in the East Indies, 
 which he declined. Soon afterwards, when war with Russia broke out. Sir 
 James was appointed to the command of the fleet destined for the Baltic, 
 which he retained until 1812. His duties were essentially diplomatic, and 
 among the many important services rendered by him on that station, was the 
 releasing from the power of France the Spanish army under General Eomana. 
 On leaving Gothenburg, he was presented with a superb sword, (the hilt set 
 with brilliants,) from the king of Sweden ; and during the visit of the Emperor 
 of Russia and the king of Prussia to England, Sir James received the personal 
 thanks of those monarchs for the services he had rendered to the common 
 cause of Europe. 
 
 In 1819, he became rear-admiral, and in 1821 vice-admiral, of Great Britain. 
 In 1824, he was appointed port-admiral at Plymouth, which command he held 
 three years, and then closed his long, arduous, and brilliant professional career. 
 It was generally thought that the peerage had been unjustly withheld from 
 him at the conclusion of the war in 1814 ; but on the coronation of William 
 IV., in 1831, Lord Grey, being the premier, handsomely repaired this injustice 
 by recommending Sir James to his majesty for that honor ; and on the 12th of 
 September he was created a peer of the United Kingdom, by the title of Baron 
 de Saumarez, of Saumarez, in the island of Guernsey. When his elevation 
 was known in the island, it created the liveliest satisfaction among all classes ; 
 and on the arrival of Lord de Saumarez, the States proceeded in a body to his 
 residence to offer him their congratulations. His lordship was shortly after 
 appointed general of marines, (which office was abolished at his death,) when 
 he resigned the appointment of vice-admiral of England ; and in 1834 he was 
 elected an elder brother of the Trinity House. In the same year, he received 
 a highly gratifying mark of favor from the king of Sweden, who sent him a 
 full-length portrait of himself, accompanied by a very complimentary letter 
 from that sovereign's minister for foreign affairs. 
 
 Towards the end of September, 1836, Lord de Saumarez, then in his eightieth 
 year, felt that his end was approaching, and he met it with the composure and 
 resignation which became his faith in a blessed immortality. He died at his seat, 
 Catel parish, Guernsey, on the 9th of October ; and, during the funeral, minute 
 
 (1) The inhabitants of Gnernsey to their gallant countryman. Rear- Admiral Sir James 
 Saumarez, Bart., K.B., whose suavity of manners and private virtues have long engaged 
 their esteem and affection, and whose brilliant achievements have not only immortalized 
 his name, but will for ever reflect lustre on his native isle, and add to the glory of the 
 British empire. 
 
504 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 guns were fired from Castle Cornet and Fort George ; the bells of all the 
 churches were muffled and tolled ; nearly all the shops were closed during the 
 day ; and the royal court and clergy were present, as were representatives from 
 numberless families in the island, all anxious to pay the last tribute of respect 
 to the memory of one who had lived and died among them, and whose affection 
 for the land of his nativity formed one of the noblest traits in his character. 
 
 In appearance, Lord de Saumarez was the very personification of a British 
 admiral : tall, well formed, erect, and commanding, with features denoting the 
 energy of his character and the excellence of his heart ; and well do we remem- 
 ber his noble presence, when, in 1818, in full naval uniform he laid the found- 
 ation stone of St. James' church, to which he was a generous contributor. 
 We may add, that his charities, which were unlimited, were often dispensed 
 in secret, and known only to himself and the recipients. 
 
 Lord de Saumarez married, October 8, 1788, Martha, sole child and heiress 
 of Thomas Le Marchant, Esq., and Mary Dobree, his wife. His eldest eon, 
 the present peer, is in holy orders ; and the only other surviving son, who is 
 heir presumptive to the title, is the Hon. John St. Vincent Saumarez, colonel 
 in the army, unattached. 
 
 THOMAS DE SAUSMAEEZ, ESQ. 
 
 Son of the attorney-general of Guernsey, by Martha, daughter of James Le 
 Marchant, Esq., was bom October 10, 1756. He received his early education 
 in London, and was originally intended for the army ; his relative, Colonel 
 Burrard, having offered to procure him a commission in the guards ; but upon 
 the death of his father, in the year 1774, he was induced, at the solicitation of 
 his mother, to change his views from the mihtary to the civil profession, and, 
 at tke early age of eighteen, he received his appointment as soHeitor-general of 
 Guernsey upon the promotion of Mr. Hirzel Le Marchant to the vacancy 
 which his father's death had occasioned in the office of attorney-general. 
 
 On receiving his appointment, Mr. De Sausmarez proceeded to Rouen, and 
 entered as an " etudiant en droit," devoting himself with much assiduity to 
 the study of the Norman law, and regularly attending the courts of judicature 
 in that city, which were then thronged by the most eminent practitioners at 
 the French bar. In 1777, he returned to Guernsey ; and, having been sworn 
 into office as solicitor-general, commenced his professional career in that capa- 
 city. In 1793, he was appointed attorney-general, and discharged the duties 
 of this office until the year 1830, when, after a period of fifty-three years' 
 service, he resigned his commission, and retired from public Hfe. From his 
 first entering the profession, Mr. De Sausmarez acquired and maintained, to 
 the period of his retirement, an extensive and respectable practice, in the con- 
 duct of which he obtained the veneration of the bar, and the confidence of the 
 bench. He was on many occasions deputed by the States and roval court of 
 the island to defend their interests before the privy council in England ; and, 
 in addition to the ordinary duties of attorney-general, he discharged for many 
 years the functions of deputy judge- advocate — an office of no small responsi- 
 bility during the war, when the garrison of the island amounted to several 
 thousand men, and courts martial were of very frequent occurrence. 
 
 On the 31st of March, 1837, when in the full enjoyment of his health and 
 faculties, Mr. De Sausmarez was visited by a severe fit of apoplexy, which 
 deprived him of speech, and the following day, surrounded by his family, he 
 expired at his seat, Sausmarez Manor House, at the venerable age of eighty-one. 
 
 Mr. De Sausmarez was twice married ; first, to Martha, daughter of Isaac 
 Dobree, Esq. ; and, secondly, to Catherine, daughter of Sir Peter De Havilland, 
 bailiff, by both which marriages he left a very numerous issue. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 505 
 
 GENERAL SIR THOMAS SAUMAREZ, KNIGHT, 
 
 "Was a younger brother of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, and in January, 1776, 
 at the age of fifteen, entered the army as a second lieutenant, by purchase, in 
 the 23d, or royal Welsh fusileers. Quickly embarking for North America, 
 where the regiment was, he was present at the capture and surrender of York 
 Island, and the capture of Fort Washington by storm, in December, 1776, when 
 3,300 men were made prisoners. 
 
 In 1777, Lieutenant Saumarez was promoted to a lieutenantcy, and, exclu- 
 sive of minor affairs, was present in the severe action at Monmouth, in which 
 the company to which he was attached lost its captain, and one-third of the 
 men were killed and wounded. In 1779, at the early aee of nineteen, he pur- 
 chased a company in the fusiliers, and from that period to the surrender of the 
 army under Lord Comwallis, at York-town, October 19, 1781, he served as a 
 captain in three general actions, several skirmishes, and two sieges, and dis- 
 tinguished himself on several occasions. Captain Saumarez was one of the 
 thirteen captains taken prisoners at York-town, who were ordered by congress, 
 in June, 1782, to draw lots that one might siiffer death in retaliation for the 
 execution of an American officer. Sir Charles Asgill was the destined victim, 
 and his life was only ultimately spared through the intervention of the French 
 government and the kind officers of Marie- Antoinette, the unfortunate queen 
 of France. 
 
 At the conclusion of the American war, in 1783, Captain Saumarez was 
 released, and was placed on half-pay, in consequence of the reduction of the 
 army. After several fruitless attempts to obtain employment, he joined the 
 7th, or royal fusiliers, in 1789, and soon after embarked for Gibraltar, when 
 his tact and judgment were so appreciated by his colonel, the Duke of Kent, 
 that he was honored with the appointment of equerry, and afterwards of groom 
 of the chamber to his royal highness. 
 
 In 1793, at the commencement of the war against France, Captaia Saumarez 
 was placed on the staff in Guernsey ; and the year following, being deputed by 
 the States of the island to present a congratulatory address on the marriage of 
 the Prince of Wales, he received the honor of knighthood. In 1799, he was 
 appointed inspector of the Guernsey militia, which situation he filled till June, 
 1811, when he became a major-general. In 1812, Sir Thomas Saumarez was 
 appointed commandant of the garrison of Halifax, N.S., and in 1813 he was 
 commander-in-chief of New Brunswick. When, in 1814, he was about to 
 return to England, he received a highly complimentary address from the 
 council of that province. Sir Thomas married Henrietta, daughter of William 
 Brock, Esq. He attained the rank of general in 1838, and died in Guernsey, 
 on the 4th of March, 1845, leaving no surviving issue. 
 
 COLONEL SIR GEORGE SMITH, KNIGHT, 
 
 AIDE-DE-CAMP TO THE KING, 
 
 Who was born in Guernsey in 1760, commenced his career, in 1778, as an 
 ensign in the 25th regiment, and shortly afterwards accompanied it to the relief 
 of Gibraltar. In 1793, being then captain, he embarked, in charge of a detach- 
 ment, on board the fleet under Lord Hood, and was engaged in the principal 
 affairs at Toulon, including the defence of Fort Mulgrave, a most important 
 post, when he received a severe wound through the thigh ; and, in acknowledg- 
 ment of his spirited behaviour, he was nominated to the staff by Colonel 
 Lord Mulgrave. In a sortie against the works of the enemy, he was a second 
 time woimded. 
 
 In the year 1794, he was at the landing in Corsica, the taking of St. Fiorenzo, 
 the capture and destruction of the French frigates and gun boats, and, subse- 
 quently, the siege and capture of the two principal fortresses, Bastia and Calvi. 
 He raised a regiment of natives, and was employed in several important com- 
 mands and distinct services. 
 
506 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 Shortly after the evacuation of Corsica, he returned to England, when he 
 was appointed assistant adjutant-general in the Yorkshire district, and held 
 this situation until nominated, in 1799, lieutenant-colonel of the 20th regiment, 
 with which he immediately proceeded, with the army under Sir Ralph Aber- 
 cromby, to Holland. An attack, on the 10th September, made by a vastly 
 superior force, on a post occupied by the British, near Crabbendam, and which 
 had been particularly confided to him, brought him again, in a very prominent 
 manner, to notice. In spite of the repeated and obstinate efibrts of the French 
 to carry this position, they were every where repulsed, and, after sustaining a 
 severe loss, were forced to retire. The following extract, from Sir Ealph 
 Abercromby's official despatch, best conveys the impression of this officer's 
 conduct : 
 
 " The two battalions of the 20th, posted opposite to Crabbendam and Zuyper Sluys, did 
 credit to the high reputation which that regiment has always borne : Lieutenant- Colonel 
 Smith, of that corps, who had the particular charge of that post, received a severe wound 
 in the leg, which will deprive us for a time of his services. 
 
 " Schuyer Brug, September ll, 1799." 
 
 In 1800, he was employed, with the 20th, in an expedition under Brigadier- 
 General the Hon. Thomas Maitland, which was destined to attack various 
 posts on the French coast. It was attended with partial success only, and, 
 the main object not being found practicable, it was given up, and the 20th 
 ordered to reinforce the garrison of Minorca. 
 
 The expedition to Egypt, in 1801, in which a part of the troops from Minorca 
 was taken to assist, afforded another opportunity to this officer of eminently 
 distinguishing himself. On the 25th August, Major-General Sir Eyre Coote, 
 anxious to push as near as possible to the enemy's works, employed Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Smith, with the 1st battalion 20th regiment, and a detachment of 
 dragoons, to attack and drive in the advanced posts. He commenced opera- 
 rations after dark, by turning the left of the enemy, and, scouring the hills as 
 he advanced, he effectually accomplished his purpose. The gallant perform- 
 ance of this service is thus noticed in the Gazette : 
 
 " The cool and spirited conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, and the corps and detach- 
 ment under his command, is well deserving of praise : not a man attempted to locul, and 
 the whole was effected by the bayonet." 
 
 At the close of the Egyptian campaign. Lieutenant- Colonel Smith proceeded 
 with the 20th regiment to Malta, and soon afterwards the reduction that took 
 place left him at liberty to return to England. Whilst preparing for his 
 departure, he received the most flattering proof of the sentiments of his bro- 
 ther officers, in a letter addressed to him by Lieutenant- Colonel Boss, the 
 same officer who afterwards acquired such distinction at Washington, and 
 whose death, in 1814, near Baltimore, was so justly deplored by his country : 
 
 " Sir,— I am directed by the officers of the first 20th regiment to state to you that, as to 
 your constant and unremitting exertions, they feel indebted for the honorable employment 
 upon which the first battalion has been engaged, they must ever with pleasure recollect 
 the period during which they were under your command, nor can they, without feeling 
 the utmost regret, find themselves deprived of a commanding oflScer to whom they owe so 
 much. Anxious to convey to you the strongest assurances of respect and esteem, they 
 request your acceptance of a sword, which, as a soldier, they trust you will receive as the 
 most marked testimony they can offer of the high opinion they entertain of your merit, 
 of the satisfaction you afforded while in command, and of the regret they feel in losing you. 
 
 " May you have health to wear it, and, when you draw it in defence of your king and 
 country, may it be tiie good fortune of the 20th to be under your command. 
 
 " Vittoriosa. March 15, 1803." " Robbrt Ross. 
 
 Such a mark of admiration and esteem, from a whole corps of officers, was 
 highly creditable to the character of Lieutenant- Colonel Smith, and could not 
 fail being extremely gratifying to the feelings of a soldier. The inscription on 
 the sword states it to be a token of regard from the officers, in testimony of 
 their high sense of his meritorious and exemplary conduct, and it bears the 
 dates " 10th September, 1799," and " 25th August, 1801," and the motto, 
 ** Te duce, quid non ? " 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 507 
 
 He next filled the situation of secretary to Lord Mulgrave, minister for 
 foreign aiFairs ; and, in 1805, was selected by government to proceed upon a 
 confidential mission to Naples and Sicily, Whilst traversing Sicily in the 
 execution of his duty, he was struck by malaria, and under its effects brought 
 to the brink of the grave, receiving a shock to his constitution from which 
 he never recovered. From Sicily he went to join the Archduke Charles in 
 Germany, to whose head quarters he was attached ; and, on his return to 
 England, was appointed to the 82d regiment, which he commanded at Copen- 
 hagen, in 1807. Lord Cathcart manifested his sense of Lieut. -Colonel Smith's 
 services in his public orders, as well as in his despatch of September 8 to Lord 
 Castlereagh, relative to the operations before that capital, as follows : 
 
 " Lieut. -Colonel Smith, with the 82d reg^iment under his command, held the post at the 
 windmill on the left, which, for the greater part of the time, was the most exposed to the 
 gun boats and sorties of the enemy, and the unremitting exertions of that officer claim 
 particular notice." 
 
 On this occasion, the honor of knighthood was conferred upon him. The 
 same year he embarked on a particular service, under the command of Lieut.- 
 G-eneral Sir Brent Spencer ; but the great change of affairs in Spain caused it 
 to be relinquished, and he came home with the result of some negotiations 
 entered into with the Spanish authorities at Cadiz. 
 
 On his arrival, he received an additional testimony of his majesty's own 
 approbation, by being appointed his aide-de-camp. His exertions amidst the 
 constantly recurring attacks of his disease rendered a short repose necessary ; 
 he sought it in his native isle, and was in a slow progress of recovery, when, 
 in 1809, he was again called for on a very important occasion, a mission to 
 Cadiz, and one of his majesty's ships, the Hope, was despatched to take him 
 to his destination. His high sense of military duty never admitted an idea of 
 hesitation ; he proceeded thither contrary to the advice of his friends, who, 
 from the weak state of his health, anticipated the fatal event which took place 
 on the 15th of February, within a month of his arrival. 
 
 Thus died Colonel Sir G-eorge Smith, in the forty-ninth year of his age, at a 
 period when, from the distinction he had already attained, the higher destinies 
 of his profession seemed to be awaiting him. 
 
 His remains were conveyed on board his majesty's ship Yiper with military 
 honors, the troops lining the streets to the water's edge, accompanied by Cap- 
 tain Stewart, of the 82d regiment, his secretary. This faithful friend had 
 determined not to quit the corpse till he had seen it interred at Gibraltar ; but 
 it was fated otherwise. The Viper was never heard of after leaving Cadiz, and 
 is supposed to have foundered, consigning all on board to one common grave. 
 
 Sir George Smith was in the army above thirty years, in the course of which 
 he had been three times severely wounded ; and though his death might not 
 be accounted so glorious as if he had fallen in battle, yet this consideration is 
 due to his memory, that his life was lost equally in the service, and from the 
 most manifest devotedness to the interests of his country. 
 
 Sir George, who was the eldest son of Captain Thomas Smith, royal invalids, 
 and Mary de HavUland, his wife, was united to his first cousin Carterette, 
 eldest daughter of Sir Peter de Havilland, bailiff" of Guernsey, and left his 
 widow with two daughters, one of whom married Augustus Frederick Dobree, 
 Esq., and the other Joshua Priaulx, Esq. 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL HAYILLAND SMITH 
 
 Was a younger brother of Sir George Smith, and, entering the army at an 
 early age, was a lieutenant of the 25th regiment in 1793. After serving at 
 Toulon, on the continent under the Duke of York, and in Corsica and Elba, 
 he was appointed, in 1800, major of the 27th regiment, having the brevet rank 
 of lieutenant-colonel. He commanded a battalion during the whole of the 
 memorable campaign in Egypt, and was present at the battle of Alexandria, for 
 which he received a medal. 
 
508 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 At Maida, in 1806, he was lieutenant-colonel commanding the 27tli regiment, 
 and, by his coolness and presence of mind in availing himself of the discipline 
 of his fine corps, contributed materially to the success of that glorious day. 
 Sir John Stuart, in his general order after the battle, said : " The manoeuvre of 
 the 27th regiment, in throwing back a wing to receive the enemy's cavalry, 
 was the strongest token of the excellent discipline of that corps." For this 
 victory, Lieut. -Colonel Smith also received a medal. 
 
 In 1810, he attained the rank of colonel, and in 1813 thai of major-general : 
 he served in the latter rank for a year on the eastern coast of Spain, and was 
 proceeding, with the English troops there, to join the Duke of Welhugton 
 when the war terminated. 
 
 In 1816, he was appointed senior general officer on the stafi" of the Ionian 
 Islands, and died the following year at Corfu, unmarried, after a long and painful 
 illness, in his forty-fourth year. 
 
 LIEUTENANT CAKEfi TUPPEE, E.N. 
 
 The common ancestor of the Guernsey family of this name was John Tupper, 
 son of Henry, of Chichester, Sussex, who settled in the island, temp, queen 
 Elizabeth, 1 on marrying in St. Peter-Port, December 10, 1592, Mary, sole 
 child of Peter Le Pelley, by his wife, CoUette, only daughter of Hilary Gosse- 
 lin, bailiff. The said John Tupper died young, leaving two sons and two 
 daughters ; to two of these children, Peter Carey, lieutenant-governor of 
 Guernsey, was guardian, and Eobert Tupper, of Chichester, to the other two, 
 as appears by art. 60 of the causes decided by the royal commissioners, in 1607. 
 The elder son, John Tupper, married his cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Hilary Gossehn, procureur or attorney- general of Guernsey ; and his elder son, 
 also John Tupper, (who married, in 1655, Jane Eoland,) was the father of John 
 Tupper, who received the gold medal and chain from William and Mary, as 
 related ante ; and the fatality, which of late years has attended the few lineal 
 descendants of the last-named John Tupper, will appear in the following 
 brief summary : 
 
 1. Lieutenant Carr^ Tupper, H.M.S. Victory, only son of Major-General 
 Tupper, slain at the siege of Bastia, on the 24th of April, 1794. 
 
 2. William De Vic Tupper, his first cousin, mortally wounded in 1798, in a 
 duel in Guernsey, with an officer in the army, and died the day following. 
 
 3. John E. Tupper, aged twenty, perished at sea, in 1812, in the Mediter- 
 ranean, the vessel in which he was a passenger, from Catalonia to Gibraltar, 
 having never been heard of since. 
 
 4. Charles J. Tupper, aged sixteen, a midshipman of H.M.S. Primrose, 
 drowned in 1815, at Spithead, by the upsetting of the boat in which he was 
 accompanying his captain to the ship. 
 
 5. Lieutenant E. William Tupper, H.M.S. Sybille, aged twenty-eight, mor- 
 tally wounded in her boats, Sunday, June 18, 1826, in action with a strong 
 band of Greek pirates, near the island of Candia. 
 
 6. Colonel William De Vic Tupper, Chilian service, aged twenty-nine, slain 
 in action near Talca, in Chile, April 17, 1830. 
 
 The four last, sons of John E. Tupper and Elizabeth Brock, his wife, and 
 nephews of William De Vic Tupper, already named, and also of Major-General 
 Sir Isaac Brock, K. B., of Lieut.-Colonel John Brock, and of Lieutenant 
 Ferdinand Brock, who all fell by the bullet. 
 
 7. Colonel William Le Mesurier Tupper, of the British auxiliary legion in 
 Spain, and a captain in the 23d, or royal Welsh fusiliers, mortally wounded 
 near San Sebastian, May 5, 1836, aged thirtv-two. — Colonel Tupper was 
 nephew of W. De Vic Tupper, and first cousin of the four brothers last named. 
 
 (1) Id May, 1593, queen Elizabeth grranted to " William Tupper, g:entleinao/' some 
 lands belonging to the crown, at Seaford, one of the clnque-portH, in Sussex. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 509 
 
 By a most extraordinary coincidence, Brock and Frederick, the sixth and 
 serenth sons of the said J. E. Tupper — both passengers in H. M.'s packets 
 from E-io de Janeiro to Falmouth — died at sea on the same day of the same 
 month, (August 15,) and the remains of both were committed to the deep, the 
 former in 1833, aged thirty, and the latter in 1837, aged thirty-three. 
 
 John Tupper, third son of Daniel, by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Elisha 
 Dobree, of Beauregard, obtained, in 1747, a commission by purchase in G-eneral 
 Churchill's regiment of marines, that corps being then differently constituted 
 to what it is now. He served as a captain at the celebrated defeat of the 
 French fleet in Quiberon bay, by Sir Edward Hawke, in 1759 ; as a major and 
 commandant of a battalion at Bunker's Hill, in 1775, ^ where he was slightly 
 wounded, and where the marines, having greatly distinguished themselves, won 
 the laurel which now encircles their device ; and as a lieutenant-colonel, in 
 Rodney's victory of the 12th of April, 1782, having been especially sent from 
 England to command the marines in the fleet, nearly 4,000 men, in the event 
 of their being landed on any of the enemy's West India Islands. At his 
 decease, in January, 1795, he was a major-general in the army, and com- 
 mandant-in-chief of the marines. 
 
 His only son, Carre, the subject of this memoir, born in 1765, was made a 
 lieutenant in 1782, a few days after he had completed his seventeenth year, 
 and appointed by Sir Peter Parker to the Sandwich, his flag ship at Jamaica. 
 
 The peace of ten years, which soon followed, proved a bar to his further 
 advancement, although during this period he was constantly employed in 
 different ships ; and, in 1791, being then a lieutenant of the Culloden, he 
 saved, in a most gallant manner, the life of a seaman who had fallen from the 
 fore yard into the sea, the ship being at the time under sail on her way out 
 with the squadron from Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes. 
 
 In the beginning of September, 1793, while serving in the Windsor Castle, 
 98 guns, Vice- Admiral Cosby, off Toulon, he volunteered to take the command 
 of Fort Pomet, near that city, the garrison of which consisted of 150 seamen 
 and soldiers. This fort was commanded by an adjacent eminence, on which 
 the enemy erected two batteries, one of two 12 pounders, the other of three 
 8-pounders, with a 12-inch mortar, and from which they kept a heavy fire on 
 Fort Pomet during the day, as well as endeavoured to surprise it during the 
 night. But by his activity and resolution, not pulling off his clothes for many 
 weeks. Lieutenant Tupper frustrated every attack, and the garrison having, 
 with very great labour and fatigue, strengthened the fort, by placing on the 
 walls large casks and nearly fifteen hundred sacks fiUed with earth, the defence 
 was protracted until the 9th of December following, when it was found neces- 
 sary to blow it up. For his services on this occasion. Lieutenant Tupper 
 received the repeated approbation and thanks of Lord Mulgrave, and Generals 
 O'Hara and Dundas, successively commandants of Toulon : and, on his quitting 
 Fort Pomet, Lord Hood immediately appointed him a lieutenant in his own 
 flag ship, the Yictory. 
 
 On the morning of the evacuation of Toulon, Lieutenant Tupper again volun- 
 teered to accompany Sir Sydney Smith in the perilous undertaking of setting 
 fire to the arsenal and French ships of war in the harbour. Lieutenant Tupper 
 having been charged with the destruction of the general magazine, the hemp, 
 pitch, and other store-houses, he was employed the whole day, with his boat's 
 crew of only seven men, in placing the combustibles, expecting that the gates 
 of the yard would be forced open every moment by the enemy, and that they 
 would be all put to death. On the preconcerted signal being made in the 
 evening. Lieutenant Tupper set fire to the different combustibles, (no ofiicer 
 being in the dock yard that night but himself,) but owing to the wind being 
 
 (1) Major Tupper succeeded to the command of the marines, of whom there were two 
 battalions at Bunker's Hill, after the fall of the gallant Major Pitcairn, and was honorably 
 mentioned in the general orders of the day. 
 
510 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 very light, the destruction, although great, was not so complete as the awful 
 blaze at first gave reason to suppose. Having performed his dangerous task. 
 Lieutenant Tupper proceeded, in his boat, to assist Sir Sydney Smith and 
 Lieutenant R. W. Miller * in setting fire to four sail of the line, which had 
 escaped the flames of the Vulcan, fire ship. 
 
 From Toulon, the British fleet proceeded to the reduction of the island of 
 Corsica ; and in February, 1794, while near the town and formidable batteries 
 of San Fiorenzo, Lord Hood detached the boats under Captain Cookes to 
 endeavour to prevent the destruction, by the French, of two of their frigates 
 at anchor under the batteries. One of the frigates was burnt, but the other, 
 although scuttled, was saved ; and as the boats quickly pushed on towards the 
 town, which the enemy were evacuating, Lieutenant Tupper, being the second 
 person who landed, immediately ran to the citadel, and hauled down the French 
 colours, which he afterwards delivered to Lord Hood. 
 
 On the 11th of April, Lord Hood entrusted Lieutenant Tupper with his 
 summons of surrender to the commandant of Bastia, and, singularly enough, 
 he who carried the summons was the only British officer who was slain before 
 the place. 
 
 On the 24th of April, 1794, Lieutenant Tupper having volunteered to obtain 
 information, if possible, relative to the state of the French garrison of Bastia, 
 he proceeded after dark on this perilous service, and his boat having unfortu- 
 nately grounded at ten o'clock, p.m., under the walls, he was endeavouring to 
 get her off when she was discovered by a sentinel on shore, who fired at her, 
 and the bullet unhappUy striking Lieutenant Tupper in the heart, he instantly 
 expired. 
 
 Thus fell, in the pride of manhood, a most zealous and intrepid officer, 
 whose fate was the more lamented because Lord Hood had promised him the 
 first commander's vacancy, for his services at Toulon, which vacancy occurred 
 only two days after his death, and was consequently conferred on the late 
 Vice- Admiral Sir John Gore. And we have heard, but cannot vouch for the 
 fact, that the Admiralty had promoted him for those services, and sent out his 
 commander's commission, before the intelligence of his death was received iu 
 England. Had his life been spared a few years longer, he would probably have 
 found an opportunity of distinguishing himself, in a higher rank, in the many 
 glorious engagements which soon after ensued, as did his more fortunate bro- 
 ther lieutenants at Toulon, Edward Cooke, R. W. Miller, and John Gore. 
 
 In person. Lieutenant Tupper was tall and uncommonly handsome, being 
 upwards of six feet in height, well proportioned, and of a most pleasing 
 countenance. 
 
 PETER CAREY TUPPER, ESQ., BRITISH CONSUL IN SPAIN, 
 
 Fourth son of John Tupper, Esq., jurat, is noticed at p 393 ante. In May, 1808, 
 he was named a member of the supreme junta of the kingdom of Valencia, and 
 was most active in organizing a rising of the Spaniards against the French : 
 in the following month, during the dreadful massacre of the French residents 
 in the city, he was exposed to imminent personal danger in his endeavours to 
 save them ; many were rescued by him, and among them the consul. (See 
 Sir John Carr's Travels in Spain, 4to. London, 1811.) During the siege of 
 Valencia, 1811-12, Mr. Tupper demanded the direction of the chief battery, 
 that of Santa Catalina, from whence the French camp might be much annoyed, 
 
 (1) Captain R. W. Miller, commanding the Theseus, 74, was killed in 1799, by the acci- 
 dental explosion of some shells on board his ship, employed under Sir Sydney Smith, in 
 the defence of Acre. He commanded the Captain, 74, at the battle of St. Vincent, and the 
 TheseuK at the battle of the Nile. 
 
 (2) Captain Edward Cooke, while commanding: the Sybille, frigrate, was mortally wounded 
 in 1799, in the capture of the Forte, a French frigrate of much superior force, in the bay of 
 Bengal. The late Commander N. Mauger. of Guernsey, was third lieutenant of the 
 Sybille on this occasion, and first took possession of the prize. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 511 
 
 and for the space of thirty successive days, he caused the French considerable 
 damage in killed and wounded. 
 
 The following is the conclusion of a letter written to him by the duke [then 
 Marquess] of Wellington, and dated Frenada, 25th of February, 1813 : 
 
 " I take this opportunity of expressing my sense of the services which you have rendered 
 to the interesting cause in which we are all engaged, in the different situations you have 
 filled on the eastern coast of the Peninsula. I have read your account of transactions 
 there with the utmost interest, and I sincerely wish you success." 
 
 In 1816, the king of Spain conferred on Mr. Tupper, his heirs, and descend- 
 ants, the title of " Baron de Socorro," (Baron of Succour,) at the solicitation 
 of the municipality of the city of Valencia ; but, by the established regulations 
 in England, he was not permitted to accept of this mark of distinction : a 
 pension of £600 a year was, however, settled upon him by the British govern- 
 ment in acknowledgment of his services, which we have not space to enume- 
 rate, and he was moreover removed to Catalonia as a better consulship. 
 
 On the second entrance of the French into Spain, in 1823, he accompanied 
 the British ambassador, Sir William A' Court, to Cadiz ; and, partly owing to 
 his services on this occasion, his youngest brother was selected by Mr. Canning 
 as consul for Caraccas, with a salary of £1,000 a year, when salaried consuls 
 were first sent out in 1823 to South America. The subject of this notice died 
 at Madrid, April 13, 1825 ; married, but without issue, in the prime of life, 
 while employed in that city in the commission for the settlement of the British 
 claims on the Spanish government. During his long residence in Spain, he 
 formed a very valuable collection of paintings and cartoons, part of which 
 were sent to England. ^ The present Martin Farquhar Tupper, M.A., of Christ 
 Church, Oxford, and the talented author of Proverbial Philosophy, &c., is 
 his nephew. 
 
 LIEUTENANT E. W. TUPPEE, E.N. 
 
 This officer, third son of John E. Tupper, Esq., by Elizabeth Brock, his wife, 
 was educated at Harrow, and commenced his naval career in 1810, in the 
 Victory, of 110 guns, under the care and patronage of the late Lord de Sau- 
 marez, with whom he continued some time in the Baltic. He served on the 
 American coast during the latter part of the war, in the Asia, 74, and was 
 present at the disastrous attack of New Orleans, in January, 1815, forming 
 one of a party landed from the fleet, to co-operate with the army. On the 
 night of the storm, this party, in conjunction with the 85th light infantry, 
 attacked some fortified works on the right bank of the Mississippi, and were 
 completely successful ; but the failure of the main assault rendered this success 
 unavailing. In the same year, he joined the flag ship of Sir Thomas Fremantle, 
 who, having been an intimate friend of his late uncle, Sir Isaac Brock, kindly 
 assured him of his influence and support ; but, peace taking place before he 
 had attained the requisite age for promotion, all the bright prospects with 
 which he entered the service were blighted. In November, 1817, on his return 
 in the Active, frigate, Captain Philip Carteret, from the Jamaica station, he 
 passed at the naval college at Portsmouth, and was one of four midshipmen 
 complimented as having undergone a superior examination. In 1823, he was 
 appointed to the Revenge, Sir Harry Neale's flag ship, in the Mediterranean, 
 and placed on the admiralty list for advancement. Early in 1826, he was at 
 length promoted into the Seringapatam, frigate ; but Sir John Pechell, under 
 whom he had previously served for a short time, prevailed upon the admiral 
 to transfer him to his own ship, the Sybille, of 48 guns, " a crack frigate," 
 in a high state of discipline, the crew of which was remarkable for its skill 
 in gunnery. 
 
 The Sybille was at Alexandria when intelligence arrived there of the plunder 
 
 (1) See Penny Magazine, vol. i. p. 350, and vol. ii. p. IT. 
 
512 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 of a Maltese vessel, under atrocious circumstances, by a nest of Q-reek pirates, 
 on the southern coast of Candia. Sir John Pechell set sail immediately in 
 quest of the delinquents. On Sunday, the 18th of June, 1826, at daylight, 
 two misticoes were observed under sail, near Cape Matala, standing towards 
 the frigate ; but, on discovering their mistake, they made for the land, and 
 were followed by the Sybille, into a narrow creek formed by a rocky islet, and 
 the mainland of Candia. On this island were posted armed Grreeks, the crews 
 of three or four piratical misticoes at anchor in the creek, and, in a desperate 
 attempt to cut out these misticoes, with the boats. Midshipman J. M. Knox 
 and twelve men were killed, and the first lieutenant, Grordon, dangerously ; 
 Lieutenant Tupper, mortally' Midshipmen William Edmonstone and Robert 
 Lees, both very severely ; and twenty-seven men were wounded, of whom five 
 died in a few days. Two of the misticoes were afterwards sunk, and many of 
 the pirates were killed and wounded by the frigate's guns. 
 
 Lieutenant Tupper commanded the launch, and, although severely wounded 
 in three places, he stood up the whole time, and retained the command of her 
 until he returned to the ship. The bullet, which proved fatal, entered his 
 right breast, and was extracted from under the skin over the false ribs. He 
 lingered until the 26th of June, when he breathed his last, in a state of deli- 
 rium, on board the Sybille, at Malta, where his remains were interred, and a 
 monument was erected to his memory by his captain and messmates. 
 
 The surgeon, in a letter to the family in Guernsey, wrote of Lieut. Tupper : 
 
 " When I first saw him, he was firm and cool. He asked me to give my opinion without 
 reserve, and, knowing him to be possessed of great fortitude, I told him that the wound 
 in the chest was of a most dangerous nature, but not necessarily fatal. He had by this 
 time lost a great deal of blood, but the internal hemorrhage, though the most alarming, 
 was slight. He remained so low for three days, that it was expected he would have sunk, 
 though he still continued collected and firm. On the fourth day he rallied, his pulse 
 became more distinct, and he evidently encouraged hopes. Need I say that I felt myself 
 incapable of destroying them, — indeed, I was not altogether without hope myself. The 
 principal danger was from hemorrhage upon the separation of the sloughs, and my fears 
 were fatally verified, for on the 25th, at noon, it commenced and increased internally, until 
 his lungs could no longer perform their functions, and he died at about three o'clock, on 
 the morning of the 26th. During the whole time he was resigned, evincing the greatest 
 
 strength of mind As it was with unfeigned sorrow that I saw a fine and gallant 
 
 young man fall a victim to such a cause, so it was with admiration that I witnessed his 
 heroic bearing when the excitement was past, and hope itself was almost fled. I have 
 seen many support their firmness amidst danger and death, but it belongs to few to sustain 
 it during protracted suffering, which is indeed a trial often too severe for the bravest, but 
 through which your lamented brother came with a spirit and resignation which reflected 
 lustre upon himself and family, and endeared him to all his shipmates." 
 
 COLONEL WILLIAM DE VIC TUPPER. 
 
 This highly gifted young man was a brother of the subject of the preceding 
 memoir, their father having had ten sons and three daughters. Having received 
 an excellent education in England, partly under a private tutor, and completed 
 it at a college in Paris, every interest the family possessed was anxiously exerted 
 to indulge his wish of entering the British army ; but, owing to the great 
 reductions made after the peace of 1815, he was unable to obtain a commission, 
 even by purchase.! Thus cruelly disappointed, he spent two or three years in 
 Catalonia ; but the profession of arms continuing his ruling passion, he pro- 
 ceeded, in 1821, to Chile, then struggling for lier independence. There hie 
 appearance and manners, and a perfect knowledge of three languages, (English, 
 French, and Spanish,) soon procured him active military employment. In a 
 necessarily brief notice, it is utterly impossible to detail the services of young 
 
 (1) Only five knights of the Bath have iJeen slain in action, viz. Abercromby, Brock, 
 Moore, Nelson, and Plcton. Abercromby's family was rewarded ; Nelson's two sisters 
 each received j6'10,ooo from government ; and those of Picton were pensioned, while a son 
 of Brock's only surviving sister, who had solicited or received nothing, was unable to 
 purchase an enslgncy, and than that son a finer young man never entered the British 
 army.— Of Moore's family we have no information. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 513 
 
 Tupper in the land of his unhappy adoption, and it must therefore suffice to 
 say, that he displayed the greatest talent and bravery, first against the Spaniards, 
 and, after their subjugation, in the civil wars which ensued. He was drawn 
 into the latter, when, in 1829, part of the troops, under General Prieto, at- 
 tempted to subvert the existing authorities, because, as he wrote, he " consi- 
 dered that no free government or orderly state could exist an hour if the 
 military were once allowed to throw the sword into the scale, and decide 
 points of legislation by the force of arms." In a battle fought near the capital, 
 (Santiago,) the rebel troops were defeated, but Prieto gained that by treachery, 
 which he could not effect by the sword ; and when Colonel Tupper resigned 
 in disgust, the earnest entreaties of his old commander. General Freire, unfor- 
 tunately induced him to accept the government of Coquimbo, which step soon 
 after compelled him to resume the command of his regiment. The rival forces, 
 after several partial conflicts, met again at Lircay, near Talca, on the 17th of 
 April, 1830 ; and Freire, although deficient both in cavalry and artillery, 
 having most unaccountably sought battle in a vast plain, was routed with great 
 slaughter, after an action of several hours. When all was lost. Colonel 
 Tupper escaped from the field with a slight wound ; but he was pursued, over- 
 taken, and " sacrificed to the fears of Prieto, who justly considered him the 
 sword and buckler of the irresolute and vacillating Freire." He was pro- 
 nounced by an English traveller as " the handsomest man he had ever seen in 
 either hemisphere ; " and undoubtedly, his tall, athletic, and beautifully propor- 
 tioned person, his almost Herculean strength, the elegance of his manners, 
 and his impetuous valour in battle, gave the impression rather of a royal knight 
 of chivalry than of a republican soldier. ' The influence and popularity which 
 in a few short years he acquired in his adopted country, by his own unaided 
 exertions, and under the many disadvantages of being a stranger in a strange 
 land, best prove that his talents were of the first order, and that he was no 
 common character. And, that affection may not be supposed to have dictated 
 this eulogium, the following impartial testimonies of its correctness are append- 
 ed, in justice to the memory of one whom a combination of cruel circumstances 
 drove to a distant land to shed that blood, and to yield that life, which he had 
 in vain sought to devote to his own country. 
 
 An English gentleman, of ancient family, and author of Travels in South 
 America, who knew Colonel Tupper intimately, thus wrote of him : 
 
 "He was certainly one of the finest fellows I ever knew, — one of those beings whose 
 meteor-like flame traverses our path, and leaves an imperishable recollection of its bril- 
 liancy I have often held him up as an example to be followed of scrupulous exact- 
 ness, and of a probity, 1 fear, alas ! too uncompromising in these corrupt times." 
 
 The American charge d'affaires and consul-general in Chile, in a letter to Cap- 
 tain P. P. King, then of H.M.S. Adventure, both strangers to the family, said : 
 
 " The heroism displayed by Tupper surpassed the prowess of any individual that I ever 
 heard of in battle ; but, poor fellow ! he was horribly dealt with after getting away with 
 another oflScer. A party of cavalry and Indians was sent in pursuit, and they boast that 
 poor Tupper was cut to pieces. They seemed to be more in terror of him, on account of 
 his personal bravery and popularity, than of all the others. Guernsey has cause to be 
 proud of so great a hero, — a hero he truly was, for nature made him one." 
 
 And one of the British consuls in Chile wrote : 
 
 " I trust you will believe that any member of the family of Colonel Tupper, who may 
 require such services as I am at liberty to offer, will be always esteemed by one who, for 
 many years, has looked upon his gallant and honorable conduct as reflecting lustre upon 
 the English name in these new and distant states." 
 
 An anonymous French traveller, who published in a Paris newspaper, 
 Le Semeur, of the 4th of April, 1832, his " Souvenir d'un sejour au Chili," thus 
 expressed himself : 
 
 (1) When he left Europe, in 1821, he was generally thought to bear a striking resem. 
 blance to his maternal uncle. Sir Isaac Brock, at the same age. In height, he was about 
 six feet two inches, smd his figure was a perfect model of strength and symmetry. 
 
 2k 
 
514 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 " Les Chiliens sont jaloux des Strangers qui prennent du service chez eux, et il est assez 
 naturel qu'ils le soient, quoiqu'on ne puisse nier qu'ils aient de grandes obligations k plu- 
 sieurs de ceux qui ont fait Chili leur patrie adoptive. Depuis mon retour en Europe, un 
 de ces hommes, digne d'une haute estime, a cess^ de vivre. Je veux paiier du Colonel 
 Tupper, qui a ^t^ fait prison nier d la tete de son regiment, et qui, apr^s avoir ^t^ tenu, 
 pendant une heure, dans I'incertitude sur son sort, fut cruellement mis h mort par les 
 ennemis. Le Colonel Tupper (§tait un homme d'une grande bravoure etd'un esprit eclair^ ; 
 ses formes ^taient athl^tiques, et I'expression de sa physionomie pleine de franchise. 11 
 se serait distingu^ partout oii il aurait et^ employ^, et dans quelque situation qu'il eCit 6t€ 
 plac^. N'est-il pas deplorable que de tels hommes en soient reduits k se consacrer k une 
 cause etrang^re ? " 
 
 And in a pamphlet published at Lima, in 1831, by General Freire, in expo- 
 sition of his conduct during the civil war in Chile, 1829-30, is the following 
 extract, translated from the Spanish : 
 
 " It does not enter into my plan to justify the strategic movements which preceded the 
 battle of Lircay. The disproportion between the contending forces was excessive. Nei- 
 ther tactics nor prodigies of valour could avail against this immense disadvantage. The 
 liberals were routed. Would that 1 could throw a veil, not over a conquest which proves 
 neither courage nor talent in the conqueror, but over the horrid cruelties which succeeded 
 the battle. The most furious savages, the most unprincipled bandits, would have been 
 ashamed to execute the orders which the rebel army received from Piieto, and yet which 
 were executed with mournful fidelity. Tupper — Illustrious shade of the bravest of soldiers, 
 of the most estimable of men ; shade of a hero to whom Greece and Rome would have 
 erected statues— your dreadful assassination will be avenged. If there be no visible pun- 
 ishment for your murderer, divine vengeance will overtake him. It will demand an 
 account of that infamous sentence pronounced against all strangers, by a man j who at 
 that time was the pupil and the tool of a vagabond stranger,^ indebted for his elevation 
 and his bread to the generosity of Chile." 
 
 CAPTAIN WILLIAM LE MESUEIER TUPPER, 23d ROYAL 
 WELSH FUSILIERS, 
 
 AND COLONEL IN THE BEITISH LEGION IN SPAIN. 
 
 This gallant officer entered the British army by purchase, as a second lieu- 
 tenant in the 23d, or royal Welsh fusiliers, on the 4th of September, 1823, and 
 on the Ist of August, 1826, obtained an unattached company, also by purchase, 
 being immediately re-appointed to the 23d by paying the difference. Thus, in 
 less than three years, he attained the command of a company in this distin- 
 guished corps. He spent the nine succeeding years chiefly with his regi- 
 ment, in garrison at Gibraltar, accompanying it in the expedition to Portugal 
 in 1827, under Sir William Clinton. Early in 1835, Captain Tupper, whose 
 reckless feats of daring will long be remembered at Gibraltar, returned with 
 the 23d to England ; and soon after an order in council was issued, permitting 
 and encouraging British subjects to enter the service of the young queen of 
 Spain, whose government had been unable to suppress an insurrection in favor 
 of her uncle, Don Carlos, in the northern provinces. Disappointed in his 
 wish of purchasing an unattached majority, as there was no early prospect of 
 his obtaining one in the 23d, and tired of the inactivity of a garrison life, 
 Captain Tupper was unhappily induced, in conjunction with other British 
 officers,' to exchange on half- pay, and to accept of promotion in the British 
 auxiliary legion, then raising, to be composed of 10,000 men, and commanded 
 by Lieutenant- Colonel Evans, M.P. for Westminster, with the rank of lieute- 
 nant-general. Disinterested almost to a fault, and possessed of an independent 
 private fortune, Captain Tupper could have no other motive in joining the 
 legion than that of seeing service and of acquiring distinction at the head of a 
 regiment. 
 
 (I) General Prieto. (2) Garrido, a Spanish renegade. 
 
 (3) Of the ten officers on full pay of the British army (including one of engineers and 
 one of artillery) who joined the legion, the only two killed in Spain were Gucrnseymen, 
 viz. Colonel Tupper, and Colonel Oliver Dc Lancey. captain of the 6()th or king's rifles, 
 who was mortally wounded at the bead of his regiment near San Sebastian, March 15, 
 1837, and died on the 2ad. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 515 
 
 Lieut. -Colonel Tupper was at once appointed to command the Gth, or Scotch 
 grenadiers, which regiment was raised in Glasgow, and whence he proceeded, 
 in August, 1835, with the first division of nearly 400 men, in a large steamer 
 to Santander, touching at Falmouth for coals and water. From Santander he 
 was almost immediately detached to Portugalette, a small town at the mouth 
 of the river leading to Bilboa, and which was then threatened by the Carlists. 
 Here he animated his young troops by his conduct and example, exposing 
 himself on every occasion with the utmost fearlessness. Bilboa itself being 
 closely invested by the Carlists, the 6th was one of the regiments which 
 effected its relief, and a few days after distinguished itself by driving the enemy 
 across the bridge near that town. From Bilboa the legion proceeded to join 
 the Spanish army in the interior, the Carlists in force endeavouring in vain to 
 prevent the junction, and spent the winter at Vittoria, where hundreds fell 
 victims to an epidemic fever arising from the greatest privations. 
 
 In the spring of 1836, the town of San Sebastian was vigorously blockaded 
 by the Carlists, who had been for some months employed in fortifying the 
 adjoining heights, and the legion was detached to its relief. The health of 
 Brigadier-General E,eid,i who commanded the light brigade, consisting of «the 
 rifles, 3d, and 6th regiments, having sufiered from fever, he was succeeded by 
 Colonel Tupper, who left Vittoria for Santander on the 12th of April, in com- 
 mand of the brigade, the other brigades, with General Evans, following on the 
 succeeding days. The light brigade arrived at San Sebastian on the 22d of 
 April, and the British were received there with every demonstration of joy. 
 The following is an extract from a long private letter, published in the Courier 
 of the 9th of May : 
 
 " San Sebastian, April 29.— Lieut.-Colonel Tupper, of the 6th regiment, from the high 
 state of discipline of his corps, has been promoted to the rank of colonel ; he commands, 
 ad interim, the light brigade, two thousand strong, composed of the finest and most efficient 
 men in the legion. Much is expected from the en avant dashing character of this officer. 
 Before the expiration of a week a blow will be struck. Notwithstanding the strength of 
 the enemy's lines, and the difficult nature of the country, I have no fears as to the result." 
 
 Brigadier Reid, however, reached San Sebastian, and resumed the command 
 of the light brigade, before any attempt was made to dislodge the Carlists 
 from their triple line of defences near that town. The greater part of the 
 legion having arrived. General Evans decided to attack at daybreak on the 5th 
 of May, and three brigades marched out in silence during the night for that 
 purpose. To the light brigade was assigned the assault of the enemy's right 
 and centre ; the first line was carried, but the second presented such formida- 
 ble obstacles, and was so obstinately defended, that the legion was there 
 repulsed with great slaughter, particularly of officers, and compelled to retreat 
 under shelter. Colonel Tupper having his left shoulder shattered by a bullet. 
 A breach was at length effected in a redoubt to the left, by shells thrown from 
 H.M. steamer Phoenix ; and two regiments of the legion having most oppor- 
 tunely arrived during the day from Santander, they were instantly led to the 
 attack of the breach, which they carried, the leading company being commanded 
 by the gallant Captain John Allez, a native of Guernsey, who fell covered with 
 wounds. While this attack on the enemy's left was in progress. Colonel Tupper 
 sprang forward, and headed his regiment in an assault of the entrenchments 
 on the right. Advancing under a heavy fire, he received another wound in 
 the left arm, and a severe contusion in the side, but pushed on, sword in hand, 
 until a bullet pierced his schako, and, entering the right temple, lodged in the 
 brain. Another bullet had previously perforated his schako near the top. 
 Thus the presentiment, which he had long entertained that he should fall in 
 the first serious affair, was unhappily accomplished, and thus the wish which 
 he had often expressed of dying in battle, was too fatally realized. He appears 
 to have commanded the brigade in the last attack, Brigadier- General Keid 
 
 (1) The present Colooel Sir William Reid, K.C.B., Governor of Malta. 
 
516 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
 
 having been previously wounded, and his regiment had nine officers and about 
 a hundred men killed and wounded. 
 
 When it was known in Guernsey that the British legion had attacked and 
 carried the Carlist lines after a severe loss, the general impression was that 
 Colonel Tupper had fallen, so responsive was the prediction mentioned in the 
 Times, — a prediction emanating from his well known daring and devotion. 
 When the prediction was verified, but one feeling of sympathy and regret was 
 expressed in the island for the gallant victim ; and his brother officers of the 
 23d evinced the same feeling, by going in a body into mourning. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the bullet had penetrated half an inch into the brain, 
 and could not be extracted, Colonel Tupper survived eight days, during the 
 greater part of which he was sensible, and spoke of his approaching dissolution 
 with the utmost composure and fortitude. He sufiered at first great pain from 
 the contusion in the side, and at last from the wound in the temple, from 
 which a small detached fragment of the bullet was extracted the day previous 
 to his decease. 
 
 Colonel Tupper was a tall and very handsome young man, muscular and 
 well proportioned, and on the 1st of May had completed his thirty-second 
 year, although in appearance he was considerably younger. 
 
 The favorable opinion entertained of him by his companions in arms will be 
 seen by the following extracts from the London newspapers of the day, the 
 more impartial as the names of the authors were not mentioned, and are quite 
 unknown to the family : 
 
 " San Sebastian, May 15. — On Friday, Colonel Tapper, who received a masket shot in 
 the head, whilst naost g:allantly encouraging his regiment, the 6th, (Scotch,) to the attack 
 in the action of the 5th instant, breathed his last. From the nature of the wound, the ball 
 having entered the forehead and come out behind the ear, little, if any, hopes were enter- 
 tained of his recovery. On his skull being opened after death, a large fragment of the 
 bullet was found imbedded in the brain. Yesterday he was buried with all due military 
 honors, his own regiment preceding the coffin, whilst detachments from all the others 
 followed it. In the procession were General Evans and his staflf, and nearly all the officers 
 of the legion ; all the civil, military, and naval authorities of the town, and the captains 
 of the British and Spanish war steamers that were in the port, the French consul, &c. 
 Colonel Tupper was a man of the most daring courage, and an excellent officer. Though 
 his loss is deeply regretted, yet his death may be said to have been expected, as almost 
 every one who saw him. and amongst those the Spanish officers at Vittoria, prophesied 
 that he would fall in the first serious afTair in which he should be engaged."— Tiwiea, May 23. 
 " Head Quarters, San Sebastian, May 15, 1836.— The remains of the lamented Colonel 
 Tupper, who expired on the previous day, from the severe wounds he received in the 
 action of the 5th instant, were yesterday consigned to the grave. He was buried on the 
 spot where he received his mortal wound, in front of the formidable redoubt which his 
 gallantry so mainly contributed in carrying. 
 
 " The news of his death pealed like a knell upon the ears of the legion ; but one feeling 
 appeared to pervade both Spanish and English— a feeling of deep regret, and an amiable 
 desire to pay the last tribute of respect to liis remains. 
 •• At twelve o'clock precisely, the procession moved off in the following order : 
 A firing party of the 6th regiment, commanded by Lleut.-Colonel Ross. 
 A Spanish Band. 
 The Horse of the decesised. 
 Pall Bearers. Pall Bearers. 
 
 Colonel Colquhoun. THE BODY. Colonel Godfrey. 
 
 Lieut.-Colonel Churchill. Colonel M. Ross. 
 
 Mourners. Mourners. 
 
 Inspectors- General of Chief Mourner. Deputy Inspectors-Gen. 
 
 Hospitals. Adjutant- General. of Hospitals. 
 
 Dr. CuUoden. Brigadier-General Le Marchant. R. Alcock, K.T.S. 
 
 Dr. Dicker. Dr. Wilkinson. 
 
 The remainder of the 6th regiment. 
 A detachment of artillery. 
 Officers, Spanish and English, in funeral order. 
 The Lieutenant General, 
 Accompanied by the Spanish Governor, Members of the Ayuntamiento, 
 Colonel Wylde, (his Britannic Majesty's Commissioner,) the French Consul, 
 Captain Henderson, and the Officers of his Majesty's ship Phoenix. 
 "Nothing could exceed the staid and respectful demeanor of the population of San 
 Sebastian on this moornfal occasion. The streeU through which the procession moyed— 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 517 
 
 the road, even as far as the spot where he fell— were lined with people, who were anxious 
 to pay the last compliment to the remains of the gallant soldier, who had, in the very 
 noon -tide of manhood, fallen in their defence. When the procession did reach the fatal 
 spot, where fell one of the brightest ornaments of the legion, it would require the pen of a 
 Scott to describe the scene that presented itself. At our feet was the broad expanse of the 
 Atlantic, and the fair white citj' shining brightly in the morning sun. Above us the dark 
 gloomy Cordillera of the Pyrenees — before us the ruined redoubt, and the grave yawning 
 for its prey, aroutid which stood a group of officers, of every arm, and a confused mass of 
 natives, in every picturesque variety of costume. 
 
 " The beautiful church service of the dead was impressively read by Brigadier-General 
 Reid ; and as the coffin was slowly lowered into the grave, the varying countenances of all 
 present but too deeply pourtrayed the feelings of grief and regret by which they were 
 agitated. 
 
 " Frank, open, and generous, the soul of honor, brave to a fault, the beau ideal of a 
 gallant and chivalric soldier. Colonel Tupper had gained the esteem and respect of all who 
 knew him. Irreproachable in his life, glorious in the manner of his death, to him may 
 fairly be applied the beautiful epitaph of Tacirus on Agricola: 
 
 •' Tu vero felix Agricola, non tantum claritate vitae, sed etiam opportunitate mortis." — 
 Courier, May 23. 
 
 "San Sebastian, May 26, 1836. — The brave Colonel Tupper, who belonged to General 
 Reid's brigade, had a presentiment of the fate that awaited him, and often mentioned to 
 the general that he should be shot before Christmas. General Reid assured him that he 
 should not, for he would not allow him to push on, as he seemed resolved to do. The day 
 before the battle, Tupper said to some of his friends, he felt convinced that he should be 
 killed ; yet such was his gallantry, that he entreated General Reid to allow him to pass 
 the river ^rs^ and the general, instead of restraining him, obtained permission for him 
 from the commander-in-chief that the 6th should pass first. Before he received the fatal 
 wound in the head, he had also got a severe one in the arm, which he studiously con- 
 cealed."— CowWer, June 1. 
 
 Extract from General Order. — " Head Quarters, San Sebastian, May 17, 1836. — 
 Here also fell, mortally wounded, the rebel chief Segastibelza. On the other hand, it was 
 in this last charge that Colonel Tupper received his wounds. He was leading on his men 
 with that daring ardour which those who knew him can conceive. He met the fate of a 
 brave soldier, and his honored remains now rest beneath the spot ennobled by his fall." 
 
 ADDITIONAL. 
 
 1796. — Commander Daniel Guerin, of the Sirbne, 16-gun brig, perished, with 
 his crew, in the Bay of Honduras ; day unknown. 
 
 1799. — Lieutenant Thomas Falla, 12th regiment, mortally wounded, April 6, 
 at the siege of Seringapatam, aged eighteen years and six months. A 
 cannon ball, weighing 26 lb., is said to have lodged in one of his thighs, 
 and so inflamed it that the surgeon did not discover the ball until his 
 death, six hours after being woimded, when it was extracted, to the sur- 
 prise of the whole army. 
 
 1809. — Captain Rawdon M'Crea, and Ensign La Serre, of the 87th regiment, 
 killed at Talavera, July 28. 
 
 1838. — Ensign Walter Carey, 15th regiment, perished in the conflagration of 
 the officers' barracks at Chambly, Canada, October 19. 
 
 1839. — Peter Le Pelley, seigneur of the island of Sark, and for many years 
 jurat of the royal court of Guernsey, drowned while crossing from Sark 
 to Guernsey, March 1. 
 
 1840. — Lieutenant B. G. Le Mesurier, of H.M.S. Talbot, mortally wounded at 
 the bombardment of Acre, November 3, and died on the following day. 
 
 1841 . — Captain R. B. M'Crea, 44th regiment, killed at Cabool, November 17. 
 
 1842. — Ensign A. D. Potenger, 5th regiment of Bengal native infantry, killed 
 in January, during the ill-fated retreat of the British army from Cabool. 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 A WORK, in two volumes octavo, entitled Charles the Second 
 in the Channel Islands, by S. Elliott Hoskins, M.D., F.R.S., 
 (London, 1854,) having been published while the last sheets 
 of this history were going through the press, we are enabled 
 to give here such extracts relating to Guernsey as will illus- 
 trate the preceding pages : 
 
 [To come in at page 278, ante.'] 
 Sir Baldwin Wake to Prince Rupert. 
 
 " May it please yo' Hip^h. — Accordinge unto yo' order, I doe 
 here presente yo' High, with my saufe arryvall in this importante 
 place. I would wilh'ngely have waited on yo' High' myselfe, to 
 have given your High' an accounte of y^ state of the castle & 
 island, and what I conceive is fitt to be done for the preservinge 
 of the one and the reducinge of the other, but necesiety forceth 
 my staye here ; I have, therefore, sent this officer to informe 
 yo' High. Humbly takinge leave, I am 
 
 " Castle Cornet, " Yo High, most humble and 
 
 y'' 14. Sept. 1648. faithfuU servant, 
 
 ** For his Highnesse " Baldwin Wake. 
 
 Prince Rupert." 
 
 [To come in at page 284, ante."] 
 Charles P. to Prince Rupert. 
 
 " Right deare and right entirely beloved cousin, we greet you 
 well. We are assured that it is not unknowne to you how much 
 it importeth the king our royall father and us, to preserve and 
 supply Castle Cornett in the isle of Guernsey. We intreate you, 
 therefore, if the ship now taken prove good prize, to send at least 
 five hundred pounds of the proceeds thereof unto our trusty and 
 well-beloved Sir George Carteret, Knight, lieutenant-governor 
 of the island of Jersey, to be employed in provisions, ammuni- 
 tion, and necessaries for the supply of the said Castle Cornett. 
 
 ** Given under our hand &c scale at the Hague, the -j-f of 
 January, 1649. 
 
 ** To our right deare and right entirely 
 beloved cousin, Prince Rupert." 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY. 519 
 
 [To come in at page 290, ante.'] 
 Mr. Trethewey to Mr. William Edgeman. 
 
 "Jersey, 12—22 November, 1649. 
 [Extracts.] — ** Silly [Scilly] continues in a flourishing condi- 
 tion : they had four prizes brought in thither within these ten 
 dayes ; two of corn, one of coles, & another of sheepskins: you 
 must give us leave to make the most of small matters, for want 
 of greater. 
 
 '* Garnsey Castle is indifferent well, Coll. Burgess continues 
 lieutenant-governor, and I believe will be relieved again very 
 suddenly. Sir George Carterett is not well pleased that Lord 
 Percy is the governor there, ^ which may happen to hinder the 
 reducing of that island, which otherwise seemed to be feasible." 
 
 [To conclude Chapter XV., page 301, ante.^ 
 
 Charles I J. to the Marquess of Ormonde, 
 
 " Charles R. — Right trusty and entirely beloved cousin and 
 councellor, we greet you well. Having thoroughly weighed the 
 prudent propositions you sent us by Henry Seymour, concerning 
 the reducing of our island of Guernsey, which at present stands 
 out in rebellion against us ; we do not only yery well approve 
 thereof, but in order thereunto have employed several persons to 
 see if a competent proportion of shipping might have been hired 
 for transporting from Ireland to Guernsey two thousand, or two 
 thousand five hundred, landmen, but find it altogether impossible 
 for us in these parts to procure so much shipping. Wherefore, 
 that so advantageous and important a proposition as this yon have 
 made for reducing that island may not come to nothing, we have 
 thought good by these our letters (expressly sent by this bearer) 
 to desire you to use your best industry and endeavours to get (if 
 it be possible) in Ireland a sufficient number of vessels for trans- 
 porting of the said men into Guernsey : and we engage ourselves 
 that if, by your means and industry, our said island shall be 
 reduced, we will not only confer the government of the same 
 upon you, but also all the confiscations and forfeitures of the in- 
 habitants of that island towards reimbursement and satisfaction of 
 your charge and hazard in reducing thereof. And whereas for 
 your better effecting of that design, it will be necessary for the 
 ships you send with the said forces to put into the road of Jersey, 
 we shall presently give directions to our dearest brother, the 
 Duke of York, (who now resides at Jersey, and will continue 
 there for some months,) to cause all possible assistance to be given 
 to the persons you shall entrust with the execution of that design. 
 
 (1) " To us [Dr. Hoskins] it appears probable that Sir George had all along been desirous 
 of obtaining the government of that fortress ; a supposition which will go far to account for 
 his conduct to whatever governor was appointed to that command." 
 
520 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 And we likewise send him a warrant and an order directed to 
 the present 2;overnor in Cornet Castle in our isle of Guernesey, 
 requiring him not only to give such as you shall em[»loy in that 
 service his best assistance in that design, but to deliver into your 
 hands the command and possession of that castle, and to receive 
 such forces as the commander you shall send with them shall 
 direct, in order to the taking of the said island, not doubting but 
 you will vigorously pursue what you have so affectionately pro- 
 posed, and which may be of so great importance for our service, 
 which must now be put into execution with all secrecy and expe- 
 dition, lest the shipping of the rebels of England should prevent 
 you. And for the further encouragement of yourself and those 
 who shall assist you in this important enterprize, we do hereby 
 promise that in case you shall reduce our said island of Guer- 
 nesey, (which will be a work of singular advantage to our ser- 
 vice,) we will take effectual order that you shall have sufficient 
 commission and powers from our dear brother, the Duke of York, 
 and to have under your particular command all such ships, fri- 
 gats, and vessels, as well Irish as others, as shall put themselves 
 under you, or as you shall be able to draw thither unto you, with 
 such liberty and privileges as are due to the admiral of any 
 squadron. We had acquainted this bearer, Lieut.-Colonel Raw- 
 lins, (whom we employed about this service,) with several parti- 
 culars to be by you considered of in the pursuance of this design, 
 and desire you accordingly to give credit to him. Given at our 
 court at Beauvais, March 3-13, in the second year of our reign, 
 1649-50." ' 
 
 Henry to the Marquess of Ormonde. 
 
 " Beauvais, in our wav to Breda. 
 "March 15th, 1650. 
 " His majesty hath a most just sense of your services, and the 
 daily difficulties you struggle with in that pursuance; and your 
 further endeavours, by the proposition you lately made to him 
 about the reduction of Guernsey, which he conceives to be of 
 that consequence in the posture that his affairs are in at present, 
 that, next London, it is the place most to be desired, and he hath 
 at that rate laboured to hire shipping for the transporting those 
 men you promised; but his credit is not of that reputation to 
 speed. If it be possible to supply his failing from Ireland, his 
 majesty will give the fines of all the delinquents in the island, 
 (Guernsey,) which my information tells me did amount to 
 i20,00<J" in Jersey. The commission that Lord Percy had is 
 recalled, and his majesty intends to keep it in his hands till he 
 hear from you, whctlier it be possible for you to undertake it 
 from thence. Sir £. Nicholas, whose business his majesty com- 
 
 (1) Carte's Ckjllection, vol. i., p. 371. (3) <' More likely Uvr$* toumoU than pounda tterlinff." 
 
APPENDIX. 521 
 
 raands me to tell you was done at your request, and to whom 
 you gave me leave to impart this business to, has command from 
 his majesty to write to you at large, not only about the command 
 of this place, but of all such ships and frigates as you shall bring 
 with you, or shall come in to you, as absolutely as P. Rupert has 
 from the D. of York, who remains still at Jersey. 
 
 *' I had forgot in my letter to advertize you that the parliament 
 had landed 500 men at Guernsey." ^ 
 
 [In a foot note at page 300, ante.} 
 
 Our disbelief of the treachery imputed to Lord Jerrayn is strengthened by the following 
 passage in a letter, written from Jersey, in December, l646, by Sir Edward Hyde to Lord 
 Cottington : '• Ten days since, my Lord Jermyn took notice before much company of the 
 report of these islands, and said he believed the French had never such a thought j but if 
 they had, he hoped his friends had a better opinion of him than to believe that, upon any 
 grounds or pretences whatsoever, he could be made an instrument in so infamous a piece 
 of villany." 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 DOCUMENTS EELATINa TO GUEENSEY, &c. 
 
 Patent Roll— 10 John, A.D. 1208. 
 
 The king to the keepers of the islands of Gruernsey, and his other 
 
 faithful people of the same islands, greeting. — Know ye, that we have granted 
 to Gruy de Guivilla, that he and his people shall be received in your land to 
 annoy our enemies of foreign parts. And therefore we command you that, 
 for this purpo?e, you receive them. Witness, Gr. Fitz Peter, at Southampton, 
 29th day of May, in the tenth year of our reign. 
 
 Close Roll — lh John, 1213. 
 The king to Philip de Albeny, greeting. — We command you that, of the 
 land which belonged to Baldwin Wac, in the island of Guernsey, you, without 
 delay, assess twenty librates of land to Thomas Danies, which the afore- 
 said Baldwin bequeathed to the same Thomas for his service, and that you 
 keep the residue well in your hand. Witness ourself, at Winchester, on the 
 20th day of July. 
 
 Close Roll — I Hemj III., 1223. 
 
 CONCEENINOFOCAGE (HeARTHAGE) OF THE ISLANDS OF GtTEBNSET, JeESET, 
 
 &c. — The king to Philip de Albeny, greeting. — We command you, that you 
 cause to be rendered to us, by your own hands or your bailiffs, whom you 
 shall appoint for this purpose, the focage to us due from the men of the islands 
 of Guernsey and Jersey, and Sark, and Alderney, and Herme, as it used to be 
 rendered in the time of king Eichard our uncle, and in the time of the lord 
 king John our father, sparing no one therein, as you love us. Witness, H. de 
 Burgh, at Windsor, 19th day of October. 
 
 (1) Carte's Collection, vol. i., p. 366. 
 
522 APPENDIX. 
 
 Patent Boll — S Senry III., 1223. 
 C0NCEENIN& THE Islands op Jersey and Guernsey, committed to 
 G-. DE Lucy. — The lord the king hath committed to Greotfrey de Lucy the 
 islands of Jersey and Guernsey, and other islands of the lord the king, which 
 were in the custody of Philip de Albeny, with the castles which are in them, 
 and all their appurtenances, to be kept during the pleasure of the lord the 
 king. And it is commanded to the same Philip that, without delay, he deliver 
 to the same GeoflPrey the islands aforesaid, with the castles aforesaid, and all 
 their appurtenances. Witness, the king, at Westminster, on the 21st day of 
 October, in the eighth year of his reign. 
 
 Patent ~1Q Edward II., 1323. 
 The king to his faithful and beloved Otho de Grandison, warden of his 
 islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and Alderney, or his lieutenant, and to all 
 his bailiffs and faithful people in the same islands, to whom, &c., greeting. — 
 Whereas, we, on account of various errors which have occurred in records and 
 proceedings had before William de Bourne and his fellows, our late justices, 
 sent to the parts of the islands aforesaid, have caused the same records and 
 processes to come before us, and by examination of the same, it is found that 
 the same justices had without warrant, adjudged divers manors, lands, and 
 tenements, belonging to us, to divers men seeking them, and the same judg- 
 ments by consideration of our court, inasmuch as they concerned our 
 disinheritance, were revoked, on which account, by our divers writs, we 
 commanded you the aforesaid Otho, to take again those manors, lands, and 
 tenements aforesaid, into our hands, together with sums of money which by 
 reason of losses had been adjudged to complainants by the same justices. 
 And we are given to understand, that certain of the aforesaid islanders, 
 refusing to obey such our commands, have with an armed force so impeded 
 the servants of you the said Otho, to whom our said ct)mmands were by you 
 committed to be executed, that they can in nowise execute our said commands, 
 to our manifest contempt and prejudice. We, being willing to be fully 
 certi fifed in the premises, and further to do what shall seem fit I'or the preser- 
 vation of our right, have appointed our beloved and faithful Gerard Dorous, 
 and Robert de Kellesye, to inquire by the oath of good and lawful men of 
 those parts by whom the truth of the matter may be best known, the names 
 of those who have made such resistance, and where, and what resistance, and 
 how and in what manner, and the full truth of such contempts and resistance, 
 and to certify us thereof openly and distinctly. And therefore we command 
 you, that you be obedient and assisting to the said Gerard and Robert in the 
 premises, as they shall make known to you on our behalf. Whereof, &c. 
 Witness, the king, at Newark, on the 2nd day of February. — By the counciL 
 
 SUNDRY ORDERS IN COUNCIL. 
 
 April 20, 1551. 
 Letters to the lord chancellor for the addressing of a commission of Oyer 
 and Terminer to the lieutenant, bailiff, and jurats of Guernsey, for the punish- 
 ment of a rebellion attempted in St. Martin's parish there. 
 
 July 7, 1558. 
 A letter to the jurats and inhabitants of the isle of Guernsey to stand upon 
 their guard, and to do all that in them lieth to withstand such attempts as 
 should be offered against that isle, for the better doing whereof they were 
 required to follow such order as should be prescribed unto them by Mr. Cham- 
 berlain, their captain, and to be obedient unto him in all things that should 
 tend to the advancement of the queen's majesty's service there. 
 
APPENDIX. 523 
 
 June 22, 1565. 
 Order for the inhabitants of Jersey and Guernsey that their suits should be 
 heard in those isles, and not within this realm, and that no appeals should be 
 made but au roi et son conseil. 
 
 May 24, 1580. 
 A letter to Sir Thomas Leighton, knight, requiring him, according to a 
 priyy seal sent therewith, to send up the bailiff of that isle, and one James 
 GuiUe, for the answering of a complaint exhibited against them and the rest of 
 the jurats there by Nicholas Carey, of G-uernsey ; and that before their coming 
 he examine the matter substantially, and advertise the same. 
 
 April 13, 1581. 
 
 A warrant to one of the messengers of her majesty's chamber to 
 
 make his repair into the isle of Guernsey, and to bring unto their lordships in 
 his company, without delay, GmUaume Beauvoir, bailiff; Nicholas Martin, and 
 Henry Beauvoir, jurats. 
 They appeared. 
 
 [Seepages 152, 153, ante.'] 
 
 April 4, 1586. 
 
 A letter to Sir Thomas Leighton, knight, governor of the isle of Guernsey. 
 
 That whereas there were sundry fines set upon the people of Alderney by 
 
 him, in respect of their wilful and lewd offence in suffering certain Frenchmen 
 
 to pursue her majesty's subjects within her protection, without making any 
 
 good endeavours to resist them (two parts being paid) their 
 
 lordships think good to require them (if he should think it reasonable) that 
 the aforesaid third part uncollected might be remitted, and converted to the 
 public defence, &c. 
 
 November 6, 1586. 
 
 A letter to Sir Thomas Leighton, recommending the merchants unto him to 
 be courteously used, and not to pay any greater customs than in former time, 
 upon hke occasions of repair. 
 
 January 10, 1587. 
 
 Upon hearing of the matters in controversy between Sir Thomas Leighton, 
 knight, captain of the isle of Guernsey, on the one part ; and Thomas Wig- 
 more, bailiff; Nicholas Carey, his lieutenant ; James Feand, [?] jurat; John 
 Effard, and John De Vicke, of the said isle, on the other part : 
 
 Forasmuch as Lewis Savarte had exhibited to the whole bench of jurats of 
 the isle, articles containing reproachful words against their governor, being her 
 majesty's chief officer there, by the animating and procurement of the said 
 bailiff and jurats, proved by Lewis De Vicke, her majesty's procuror, and not 
 reformed by themselves, after their public hearing of the said articles. 
 
 And that the bailiff, his lieutenant, and feud, with some other of the jurats, 
 contrary to their oath, set their hands and her majesty's seal to a public in- 
 formation, and gave also certain instructions, in writing, containing divers 
 false and slanderous accusations that their governor, by tyrannous oppressions, 
 violences, and imprisonment, sought the overthrow of the estate of the whole 
 isle, the general inhabitants of the isle not being made privy or acquainted 
 therewith. 
 
 And that they imposed a general tax, &c. &c. &c., without the consent of the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 And that the said bailiff and jurats had also, since their coming into Eng- 
 land, conspired, &c., to slay or mischief the said Lewis De Vicke, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 The said Thomas Wigmore should be deprived of his place of bailiff. 
 
 Nicholas Carey, his lieutenant, of that office. 
 
524 APPENDIX. 
 
 And they, together with feud, committed to the Marshalsea during their 
 lordships' pleasure. 
 
 And the governor was ordered to choose a new bailiff, who also should place 
 some fit person to be his lieutenant. 
 
 And that the offenders should be bound to their good behaviour. 
 
 And that Eoswell, their instrument, for example's sake, should likewise be 
 committed, and afterward sent to Guernsey, by direction of the captain and 
 governor of the said isle, there to be imprisoned for a certain time, and to be 
 set on the pillory in the market place, with a paper over his head, whose 
 inscription should be, " For treacherously beating and intending to kill the 
 procuror, her majesty's officer, being hired thereunto, for money, by Eichard 
 Wigmore and his confederates." 
 
 That Thomas Wigmore should recompense the procuror, and the messenger 
 of her majesty's chamber, for his voyage into Guernsey, being sent for them 
 by warrant from their lordships. 
 
 That John De Vicke should by order of law, his charges for his 
 
 employment thither about the said matters against the said bailiff, and the 
 jurats that did set him on work, without charging of the inhabitants. 
 
 That the court of heritage and debts should be revived, according to the 
 ancient custom. 
 
 Nevertheless, that it is not by that order meant that the privileges or cus- 
 toms of the island should be in any wise infringed or violated, but rather more 
 strictly observed and maintained according to their charters, and her majesty's 
 gracious intent and meaning. 
 
 And that the cause of the Frenchman, Savarte, is to be ended, as already 
 was ordered by the consent of Sir Thomas Leighton and the said Savarte, by 
 order of law in the court of admiralty, which order, by their lords' command- 
 ment, is here entered into the register of council, to the end it may be duly 
 observed and kept. And that, also, upon the request of Sir Thomas Leighton, 
 the duplicate thereof should be delivered to him, that it might be registered 
 amongst the acts of that isle. 
 
 December 21, 1589. 
 
 A letter to Sir Thomas Leighton, knight, upon information given their 
 lordships that there were divers French gentlemen and merchants of that 
 nation within that isle, under his government, the number whereof being so 
 great that their continuance and abode there would by all likelihood breed 
 great dearth and scarcity of victuals there. 
 
 Forasmuch as they pretended that the cause of their abode there was in 
 regard of their conscience and religion, whereof they could shew no better 
 testimony than by serving their king in that time of so great troubles : 
 
 Their lordships signified unto him, her majesty's express pleasure was, in 
 those dangerous times, that he should not suffer any strangers thereafter to 
 abide and reside there, otherwise than they should have occasion for trade and 
 intercourse of merchants, or to pass to and fro. 
 
 September 6, 1591. 
 
 Order for the restitution of two barks, with corn and salt, belonging to tho 
 French king's subjects, taken by a galeass of Southampton, and brought into 
 Guernsey, and sold there as lawful prizes. 
 
 And because their lordships knew no authority given to the bailiff and jurats 
 of that island to take upon them to judge and determine of causes appertaining 
 to the office of the lord admiral, their lordships thought it meet that he should 
 inform himself from them how it happened that they had taken upon them to 
 intermeddle in the matter of these two barks, and that he should require them, 
 in their lordships' names, to forbear thereafter to proceed in any such cause 
 until thev could make appear unto their lordships by what right or privilege 
 they ought to do to. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Alderney...3, 6, 21, 49, 79, 87, 114, 
 140, 156-7,178, 197, 220, 276, 363, 
 381, 401, 404, 421, 427, 473, 477, 
 523. 
 
 Allez, , ........117, 515. 
 
 Andros, ,...42, 44, 204, 209, 210, 
 
 230, 232, 235, 242, 263, 326, 330, 
 331,334-7, 342, 354, 363, 467, 468. 
 
 , Sir Edmund... 263, 326, 335, 
 
 337, 354, 478. 
 
 Anneville, Fief of 42. 
 
 Anson, Lord 357. 
 
 ApoUine, Ste 39. 
 
 Armorici 11, 34 
 
 Atkins, Colonel 334-7. 
 
 Bailiff's Cross, Legend of 80. 
 
 Basire, Dr. Isaac 148. 
 
 Basset, Colonel 377. 
 
 Beauregard, Tower of 57. 
 
 Beauvoir, de...66, 81, 125, 152, 
 
 160, 169, 220, 222, 226, 269, 271, 
 
 306, 311, 326, 329, 478, 523. 
 
 , Dr. William de 394. 
 
 Bell, Lieut.-General Sir John 170 
 
 Berry's Guernsey 17, 107. 
 
 Bingham, Colonel 303, 316. 
 
 Blake, Admiral 303, 307. 
 
 Bonamy, , . . . 220,230,273, 283, 291, 
 
 293, 330. 
 Bowden, Captain ..222, 223, 238, 240, 
 
 241, 256, 265, 282, 286. 
 
 Bradshaw, , 320. 
 
 Brehaut, , 117, 272, 329. 
 
 Britany 17, 30, 58, 98. 
 
 Brock, ,...389,454, 455,468, 473, 
 
 505, 511. 
 
 , Bailiff. 400, 4X)4-7, 484. 
 
 , Colonel Saumarez 485. 
 
 , Sir Isaac 394, 478, 485. 
 
 Bruce, David, Invasion by 86. 
 
 Brunswick Oels, Duke of 391. 
 
 Burgess, Colonel... 289, 291, 299, 303. 
 
 Burning of women for heresy 138. 
 
 Burton, Henry 321. 
 
 Carew, Lord 180-185. 
 
 Carey, ,...47, 131, 158, 160, 171, 
 
 220, 222, 234, 248, 269, 270, 271, 
 
 292, 304, 329, 335, 370, 371, 407, 
 
 453-55, 462, 463, 466, 467, 489, 
 
 495, 508, 517, 523. 
 
 , Bailiff 75, 170, 395. 
 
 , Maj or- General Thomas 486. 
 
 , Sir Octavius 487. 
 
 Careys of Guernsey 149. 
 
 Carteret, Sir George... 213, 219, 241, 
 
 260, 318, 334, 519. 
 Cartwright, Thomas. ...158, 163, 319. 
 Celts and Celtic Kemains... 5, 6,7, 8, 10. 
 
 Charles 1 186, 208, 276, 279. 
 
 Charles II. in Jersey... 257, 264, 285-88. 
 
 Chefs Plaids 425-27. 
 
 Cherbourg, Capture of... 103, 123, 358. 
 
 Chevalier, John, Chronicle of 186. 
 
 Cholera in Guernsey 404. 
 
 Churches, Ancient 33. 
 
 Church, Discipline of the 205. 
 
 Colloquy, Acts of 162-66. 
 
 Communication with England . . . 337, 
 
 342, 367, 398, 449. 
 
 Comte, Fief le 42, 71, 73, 235, 369. 
 
 Con stables imprisoned 396. 
 
 Corn question 407. 
 
 Cornet Castle. 55, 76, 87, 90, 91 , 106, 144, 
 
 157, 179, 199, 302, 319, 324, 339. 
 
 Cotentm 2, 10, 19, 26, 31, 50, 54. 
 
 Coxe, Colonel 288, 290. 
 
 Coutances, Bishop of... 2, 21, 72, 79, 
 
 150, 154. 
 
 Cromlechs 5, 7, 392, 418. 
 
 Cromwell, OHver 308, 317, 318. 
 
 Commissioners, Royal 176, 424. 
 
 Danby, Earl of. .187-89, 204, 205, 217, 
 228. 
 
526 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Daubeney, Isaac, drowned 1 57 
 
 Dissenters 380,384, 432. 
 
 Dobree, , . . . 271, 292, 370, 398, 453, 
 
 454, 466, 474, 476, 504, 507, 509. 
 
 , Commander N 398. 
 
 , Peter Paul 394,487. 
 
 Doyle, Sir John 389, 390, 402. 
 
 Drayton, Michael 185, 
 
 Druidism 10. 
 
 Du Port, , 47, 131, 394, 489. 
 
 Earthquakes 27, 28, 54, 430. 
 
 Edward III., Declaration of. 96. 
 
 in Normandy... 99, 104. 
 
 Edward IV. in Guernsey 125 
 
 Elizabeth Castle, Jersey 286, 307. 
 
 Elizabeth College 146. 
 
 English language 114. 
 
 Eustace, the Monk 62, 70. 
 
 Fachion, , 42, 204. 
 
 Falla, , 117, 370, 517. 
 
 Fanshawe, Sir Thomas 254-56. 
 
 Feudalism, &c 37, 38, 82. 
 
 Fellowships, Oxford 206. 
 
 Fort George 376. 
 
 , Mutiny at 378. 
 
 Gloucester, Dukes of 385. 
 
 Gosselin, ,...117, 139, 145, 180, 
 
 269, 271, 272, 292, 369, 453, 508. 
 Governors, and powers of... 112, 117, 
 
 174, 177, 377. 
 
 Greeks, Shipwreck of. 400. 
 
 Guerin, , 416-18, 517. 
 
 Guernsey, Annual charge of 211. 
 
 , Bearings and distances of . . . 3. 
 
 , Charities of 405. 
 
 , Commerce of. 386, 435. 
 
 -, Description of... 2, 20, 198. 
 
 , Families of 47, 117. 
 
 •, Fisheries of 73,93. 
 
 -, Intestine troubles in.... 268, 
 
 273. 
 
 ., Invasion of. . .22,41, 87, 106. 
 
 •, Landed tenure in 450. 
 
 -, Manufactured of 448. 
 
 -, Naval engagement near . . . 
 
 96, 383. 
 
 , Revenue of. 211. 
 
 Shipping of... 110, 485-37, 
 
 444,446 
 
 , States of...... 114, 426, 427. 
 
 , Steam navigation to. ...449. 
 
 in 1775 364. 
 
 in 1780 438. 
 
 in 1854 481. 
 
 Guille, ,...40, 90, 220, 229, 230, 
 
 272, 293, 477, 523, 528. 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act 343, 402. 
 
 Haro, Clameur de 32. 
 
 Hastings, Victory of 46. 
 
 Hatton, Lord 328, 329, 330,331, 
 
 334, 338, 465, 466. 
 Havilland, de...ll7, 131, 222,226, 
 
 292, 293, 329, 330, 338, 394, 399, 
 
 449, 453, 469, 484, 504, 507. 
 
 Heart, frigate 281-84. 
 
 Herm...4, 24, 54, 74, 157, 199, 211, 
 
 354, 355. 
 Heylin, Dr. ...171, 173, 189, 191, 435. 
 
 Hougues 23. 
 
 Howe, Lord 356, 360. 
 
 Hutchinson, Mrs 323. 
 
 Islanders, French opinion of the. . .376. 
 Ivy Castle 36, 87. 
 
 Jerbourg 9, 36, 43, 376. 
 
 Jeremie, Dr. J. A 394. 
 
 , Sir John 490. 
 
 Jermyn, Lord 300, 521. 
 
 Jersey, ... 7, 9, 121, 187, 193, 200, 213, 
 230, 264, 281, 285, 286, 297-99, 
 307, 318, 343, 345, 353, 354-56, 
 
 380, 437, 440, 446, 447. 
 
 , Invasion of. ..120-22, 371-76. 
 
 Jersey, De, ,...215, 216, 369, 371, 
 
 381, 453, 476, 484. 
 
 John, King 58. 
 
 , Constitutions of 60. 
 
 Jurats, Imprisonment of three. ...222. 
 
 La Hogue, Battle of 347. 
 
 Lambert, General 322, 334. 
 
 Lefebvre, , 66, 230, 276, 379. 
 
 Leighton, Sir Thomas... 152, 153, 158, 
 
 174, 176, 436, 523-4. 
 
 Lihou, Islet of. 2, 39, 199, 355. 
 
 Lisle, de...ll7, 119,131, 370, 467, 
 
 474 478 491. 
 Lukis, -^,.!....6', 8, 34, 85, 392, 418. 
 
 MacCulloch, ,...120,131, 160,491. 
 
 MaeCuUoch, Dr. John 491. 
 
 Magloire, St 25. 
 
 Maingay, Captain H 492. 
 
 Mainguy, , 117, 131,455,492. 
 
 Maltravers, John 114. 
 
 Marchant, Le.42,57,66,74,95,116, 
 
 117, 131, 166, 169, 215, 220,226, 
 235, 331, 333, 354, 369, 377, 389, 
 468-56, 457, 465-69, 478, 487, 604. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 527 
 
 Marcliant, Captain Le 495. 
 
 , Major-GeneralLe... 394,493. 
 
 , Eev. Thomas Le...l89, 215, 
 
 330, 331. 
 
 Marlborough, Earl of 231, 232. 
 
 Martin, , .117, 153, 355, 466, 523. 
 
 Manger, Archbishop 40. 41. 
 
 , James 122. 
 
 Mesurier, Le, 117, 363, 453, 517. 
 
 , Colonel Havilland Le...496. 
 
 , Lieutenant Peter Le ...498. 
 
 , PaulLe ,393, 497. 
 
 Metivier, , 20,32, 57. 
 
 Militia. ...177, 324, 384, 386, 416, 461. 
 Mont Orgueil Castle. ...126, 130, 307. 
 Mylne, Sir John 361. 
 
 Napier, Major-G-eneral. . .408, 418, 485. 
 Neutrality, Privilege of ..127, 133, 436. 
 
 Normandy 28,30,99. 
 
 Norman Dukes 31, 32. 
 
 Seigneurs 47, 48. 
 
 Northmen 9, 21, 30. 
 
 Ordinances 160, 352. 
 
 Osborne, Sir Peter. . .186, 217, 219, 226, 
 
 233, 236, 243, 249, 254, 256, 260. 
 
 Owen of Wales 106-10. 
 
 Perchard, Peter 393. 
 
 Piracy and Pirates 41, 79, 155. 
 
 Poingdestre, John 20,23. 
 
 Population... 3, 198, 311, 318, 362, 386. 
 
 Precepte d' Assize 86, 111-12. 
 
 Presbyterianism... 141-44, 171, 214-15. 
 
 Priaulx, ,...42, 47, 235, 331-33, 
 
 456, 477, 507, 528. 
 Prince of Orange, Guernsey for... 345. 
 
 Privateers 335, 349, 388. 
 
 Privileges 53, 82, 96, 126, 154. 
 
 Quetteville, John de. . . 183, 218-20, 269, 
 
 329, 330, 333. 
 Quo Warrantos 82-84, 
 
 Rectors, Guernsey 364. 
 
 Robert I., Duke, in Guernsey .. .35, 105. 
 
 RoUo, Duke 29-31. 
 
 Romans in Armorica 11-16. 
 
 Roman Catholics 138, 154 
 
 Roman Remains 9, 10. 
 
 Roy, Peter Le 215, 328, 465. 
 
 Rupert, Prince 284, 302. 
 
 RusseU, Colonel 226, 229, 268, 276, 
 
 291-92. 
 
 Russian troops in Guernsey 384. 
 
 Saint Peter-Port 104, 364. 
 
 , Pier of. 77, 166. 
 
 •, Taxation of. 406,453. 
 
 Samson, St 24. 
 
 Saracens 22. 
 
 Saravia, Dr. Adrian 148, 163. 
 
 Sark...4,6,21, 25,26, 62, 79, 87, 135-37, 
 
 145, 157, 180, 183, 197, 220, 230, 
 
 235, 313, 345, 357, 404, 429, 459, 
 
 465. 
 Saumarez, Lord de...l3, 383, 390,394, 
 
 478, 499. 
 
 , Captain Philip 498. 
 
 , Captain Thomas 499. 
 
 , Sir Thomas 505. 
 
 Sausmarez, de...75, 90, 116, 235, 
 
 330, 453. 
 
 , James de , 162. 
 
 , Thomas de 485, 504. 
 
 , Fief of 43. 
 
 Scholarships, Morley 208. 
 
 Seal, Public 75. 
 
 Seaton, General Lord 401. 
 
 Smuggling 386, 389, 438, 440. 
 
 Smith, Major-General 507. 
 
 , Sir George 505. 
 
 Tupper, , . . . 274, 348, 369, 401, 406, 
 
 417, 453, 455, 495. 
 
 , Colonel W. De Vic 512. 
 
 , Colonel W. Le Mesurier. . . 514. 
 
 , Lieutenant Carre 508. 
 
 , Lieutenant E. W 511. 
 
 , Major-Gener&l 394, 509. 
 
 , Peter Carey . ...393, 488, 510. 
 
 ValeCastleandClose.28,35,87,342,355. 
 
 Vazon Bay 27. 
 
 Vic, Sir Henry De...326, 330, 333-34, 
 337. 
 
 Victoria^ Visit of Queen 419. 
 
 Tower 423. 
 
 Victory, Loss of. 356. 
 
 ^^ace 22 
 
 Wake, Sir" Baldwin.264J 280, 302, 518.* 
 Warwick, Earl of... 221, 225, 229, 278. 
 
 Wesley, Rev. John 380. 
 
 William, Loss of Prince 18, 52. 
 
 Witchcraft 189. 
 
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