The JOURNAL Of JEAN CHEVALIER he English Civil War was a turbulent time in Jersey. Some of the leading Islanders supported the King and some Parliament. Their struggle for control of the Island and of the two castles led to conflict and bloodshed. Meanwhile the general population found their lives disrupted by the fighting, the presence of the soldiers, and the measures taken by whoever happened to be in power to suppress all expressions of dissent. Jean Chevalier’s house overlooked the Market Place (today the Royal Square) in St Helier – here he wrote about the events of the years 1643 to 1651. As he explains at the start of the journal, he divided his account into three phases. The first covers the period when Sir Philippe de Carteret, the Royalist Lieutenant Governor of the Island, was blockaded in Elizabeth Castle by the Parliamentarian supporters who controlled the Island, whilst his wife and mother were besieged in Mont Orgueil Castle. The second recounts the arrival in Jersey of Lieutenant Lydcott, appointed Governor of the Island by Parliament, and his attempts to seize the castles, still in Royalist hands. It ends with the arrival of Sir Philippe’s nephew, Captain George Carteret, and other Royalists, and the flight of Lydcott and his supporters. The third deals with the period during which George Carteret controlled the entire Island, including the castles, until Parliamentary forces regained control in 1651. These illustrated extracts tell us about the life and times of Jersey during this tempestuous era, in Jean Chevalier’s words. 1
Royalist supporters are in control of Elizabeth Castle, Parliamentarian supporters are in control of the town of St Helier. From time to time during 1643 the Royalists bombard the town.
n the 29th of the current month a canon shot was fired from Elizabeth Castle. The ball passed through the gable of a mill into the chimney and fell down it into the hearth without doing any harm. The following night at about two hours after midnight six canon shots were fired at the town, which almost all reached the town. One made a breach in the wall of the cemetery. Another was miraculous, it fell between the roof and the wall of a house; once inside it broke a spinning wheel which was on a bed in which there were four people were lying, namely, a man and his wife and two small children. The shot was a lucky one, it neither killed not wounded any of them. This 30th day of the month of September the men of Elizabeth Castle hoisted their royal ensign high on the tower to give 2
Jersey was governed by two opposing forces. The Parliamentarians controlled the Island, but the Royalists held the castles. Major Lydcott, the ‘governor’, led the Parliamentarians with the support of Monsieur d’Assigny. ‘The old castle’ is Mont Orgueil Castle.
n this 28th the wives of two soldiers were sent to the castle to join their husbands. There were 8 children with them, and one of the women was on the point of giving birth. They were not allowed to take anything with them to the castle, where they were sent as night was falling. The wife of Monsieur Elie Hue was also sent with two children to the old castle to join her husband who had taken refuge there because he supported the royalist cause. She expected to find her husband but he was no longer there, having gone to Normandy. Not finding her husband there she thought to return but the guards stopped her and made her return to the castle. As they were taking her to the castle the guards searched her and stripped her to see if she had any letters on her to take to the 3
When Royalist supporters gained control of the Island, David Bandinel, the Dean of Jersey, and his son Jacques, who had been leading Parliamentarian supporters, were imprisoned in Mont Orgueil Castle. On the night of the 10 February, 1645, they tried to escape.
ith a gimlet they had the means of making holes in a plank in a door. They made the holes very close together then they broke the plank of the door which was between them and another room, which they then entered easily. This room was against the outer wall in which there was a latrine from which they extracted some stones and made a hole there through which they got out with great difficulty and reached a tall narrow window which was at the top of the battlements of the wall. They got out through this hole with great difficulty then making use of what came to hand attached the end of a cord and towels tied end to end to a ladle. They stuck it into a crevice in the wall of the latrine then let the rope drop down. They then got out through this window and climbed 4
The Royalists are in control of Jersey, Parliamentarians of Guernsey and Sark. Royalists sent four ships commanded by Captain Lane and Captain Chamberlain to capture Sark.
aptain Lane who had the commission and the better ships and more men found himself very close to land where there was a sentry who spotted them and called out “Who goes there, where is that boat from?” They replied “From Guernsey”. The men on land, unwilling to believe them, fired two musket shots then the guard fled. Captain Lane was afraid that because of the bad weather the other ships had lost heart and gone back to Jersey, or that they were not going to land. He drew out to sea, having lost a fine chance which presented itself of landing which would have been very easy seeing that the guard which would have opposed them was only three men and could not have prevented them from landing at their ease. But they, who were not seamen, seeing themselves treated like this by fortune returned for lack of courage. There 5
his 16th day of the month of August there was a man killed in the town of St. Helier named Thomas Roger, an English soldier who had recently come from the ships which were cruising around to take prizes. As he was drinking with his companions from the ships they fell to firing a carbine five or six times which fell to pieces in their hands. The man to whom the piece belonged was one of those who had been captured in Captain Joseph’s ship and had taken the oath of loyalty to His Majesty, and had been with them cruising with Captain Jelf. This man seeing his weapon broken rushed out in a rage and the first whom he met was Thomas Roger who saw him furious on account of his weapon which had been broken. They had words together and this Roger called him a Parliamentarian, whereupon the other took the weapon which had been broken and gave him a blow on the head, and repeated the blow so that he smashed his skull into his brain. Then he struck him on the arms and then he knelt on the pit of his stomach. Notwithstanding this he rose to his feet and went to his house 6
ean Crispe was a drunkard and a thief. Some time before he had been discovered going about at night to steal sheep, and he had taken two youths with him to help him. These youths were from Elizabeth Castle. They were found and seized at the castle and condemned to be flogged. He was tied to the castle drawbridge and the two youths who had assisted him to steal the sheep were condemned to be dressed in two sheepskins and to flog their companion with a whip of knotted cord. he one who had stolen the sheep and been flogged was one of the ringleaders in the plot to steal monsieur’s frigate. As he had fallen into wrong-doing again the commissioners empanelled a jury of 12 men to hear his case. They charged him with having been the principal author of the conspiracy. The commissioners therefore condemned him to death and the executioner was summoned to town to carry out the execution. The condemned man was much distressed saying that he had a wife and children in England and what would they do and what would become of them after his death. So Monsieur the Lieutenant Governor had pity on him and saved his life promising to do so much for him that he would obtain his pardon from the king, and he kept him in his service thereafter. 7
Here is told how a Jersey boat was captured in the Fosse ès Dinanais outside the town of St Malo by the shallop of a Parliamentary frigate which lay off Cap FrÊhel and what became of it afterwards.
ne Thursday evening the 15th of October a small Jersey boat was captured while at anchor waiting for the tide to return to Jersey. She was a boat of five tons laden with merchandise of various kinds which they had taken on board at St Malo. On board were 8 or 9 poor young men who had most of what they possessed in the world with them. They expected to reach Jersey that night. There was outside St. Malo the shallop of a Parliamentary frigate which had seen them loading up during the day and which in the evening kept watch on them to see where they went to anchor while waiting for the early morning tide to depart, in order to board them. As soon as night fell they came alongside demanding where the boat was from. They replied from Jersey. Then they demanded their passport and forthwith leapt on board and captured the boat 8
t this time, that is to say the 7th of December, there was a murder committed at St. Aubin involving two Englishmen of the same nation and profession. One of them was lieutenant of St. Aubin’s Tower. The other was a seaman who held the rank of ship’s master. Now it happened that they were drinking together with other Englishmen in a tavern which the lieutenant of the Tower generally frequented. When the time came to part there was a dispute over the payment of the bill, whereupon this ship’s master threw his share on the table and left to go to town where he was lodging. The lieutenant of the Tower ran after him and found him very near the house in town to which he was returning and tried to make him return to the tavern, but he refused point-blank, saying that he had paid his share and that it was night and time for him to return to his lodgings seeing that night had fallen. The lieutenant, who had run after him with his drawn sword in his hand, seeing that he could not make him return to the tavern with him gave him an upward thrust in his groin which penetrated as far as his entrails, from which blow he fell dead on the spot. The poor man had nothing in his hand but a cudgel 9
t this wretched time which we have reached there came to Jersey on the 9th day of the month of February of the aforesaid year two English gentlemen, one of whom was called Colonel Pawlet and the other Master Mons. They had gone from Weymouth to France, whence they came to Jersey. They arrived wearing black scarves and with black ribbon around their necks to announce that the king had been put to death, having been beheaded in the town of London by his own subjects. This caused great sorrow and lamentation among the inhabitants of the Island inasmuch as everyone was greatly afflicted by it. Even those who had supported the other party regretted it greatly, and could not persuade themselves that they would have done such a thing. The news arrived on the Saturday and the rumour was carried all over Jersey, so that on Sunday there were ministers who did not pray for the king, only for the prince and the queen and the royal family; others prayed for the king and did not pray for the prince, saying that the prince represented the person of the king, the king being dead the prince succeeded to the crown in his place and that consequently the prince was king, but Sir 10
fter the certain news of the death of the king Charles first of that name Sir George had his Highness the Prince of Wales proclaimed king one Saturday the 17th of February two hours after midday. The proclamation was read by the Viscount in the usual place for making proclamations with the sound of trumpet and drum and the resounding noise of cannonades from Elizabeth Castle, from which eleven canon were fired when the proclamation was read and two from the town cemetery. Those in the cemetery were fired first as a signal to the castle that the proclamation was being read and the castle fired immediately afterwards. At the end of the proclamation Sir George raised his hat on high crying long live King Charles, second of that name, and all the people who were there cried long live King Charles, throwing their hats up.
‘Sir George’ is Sir George Carteret, Royalist Governor of the Island. The ‘Viscount’ is the executive officer of the Royal Court, his name is Laurens Hamptonne. 11
his Tuesday 29th of January 1649 a woman was executed in Jersey for having concealed her dead child and denied her pregnancy. She was a widow aged 38 or 39 years who was a native of the parish of St. Helier and was called Marie Canivet. She was suspected by the neighbours of being pregnant and it was not the first time since she was widowed. The neighbours not seeing her in the streets any more, inasmuch as she was in childbed, spread the rumour which came to the ears of the officers of the parish of St. Saviour where she was living at the time in the house of the man who was keeping her, who was a married man called Jean Picot; she had given birth there, where the constable and his officers came to arrest her. She flatly denied having had a child whereupon some women were sent to examine her. They found that she had had a child and she could not deny it. When questioned as to what she had done with the child she drew it out from a window where she had kept it some 15 days wrapped in some linen. When asked whose child it was she said that it was the child of an Irishman who had taken her by force. She was then taken in a cart before the court which on the 15th 12
his Tuesday 21st of August Sir Philippe Carteret convened the court to inform them of certain matters of state. Once they had assembled together he informed them about certain books which dealt with the trial and condemnation of the king and of the speech which he made when he was on the scaffold. These books had been imported by a man of the town of St. Helier who had come from the fair at Guybray and had imported three dozen for himself and another man to sell. The centenier of the parish had seized them and brought them to Sir Philippe and they were produced to the court, which read them and found that they extolled the House of Commons which had condemned the king to death too highly and also that they praised Bradshaw, who had pronounced the sentence of death against the sacred person of the king, too highly. Having considered the above the court condemned the man who had imported them to be sent to the castle until the following Saturday and the books to be burnt on the same Saturday by the hand of the executioner in his presence and in the presence of the other man who had had a share in the said books. This was done 13
t was between ten and eleven at night when the Parliamentarians landed. They had positioned their ships for landing laden with men and horses and armaments. As some drew more water than the others they could not all land at the same time. The infantry, who were the first to set foot on land, imitated the Turks with their war-cries as they landed, shouting out to terrify their enemies. Sir George’s cavalry having fired off their weapons as told above made their escape without any of them being killed except three men. One of them returned completely alone to fire. He did his best but he was wounded in so many parts of his body that the loss of blood so weakened him that he was captured still alive when he fell into the hands of his enemies who stripped him and left him there groaning. He lived hardly any time after that. He was called Roger Drew and was a soldier from the old castle. Another was called Colonel Boville, an Englishman, captain of the cavalry, a brave man who was wounded in the knee and his bones broken. He escaped from the battle and was carried into the castle much weakened in body by the loss of blood. He died in Elizabeth Castle about 4 or 5 days after he had been wounded. 14
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