264 SOCIAL LIFE IN GUERNSEY. 



moreover, the baby born of one of them being taken up and 

 cast into the fire again, four being executed, though only three 

 had been condemned." W 



I can only suggest that Hellier Gosselin's barbarity was 

 prompted, like the Dean's, by fear. He and the Dean arrived 

 from Jersey at the end of Henry VIII. 's reign. The Gosselins, 

 though a Guernsey family in the thirteenth century, were 

 landowners in Jersey as early as 1309, and Hellier was the 

 first of the family to leave Jersey, where his father, Thomas, 

 had been a Jurat. He was sworn King's Procureur in 1546 

 and Bailiff in October, 1549, when Edward VI. had been for 

 two years on the throne. According to the 16th Century 

 u Chroniques des Isles," (2 > two of his brothers, Guillaume and 

 Nicolas Gosselin, had been among the pioneers of the Refor- 

 mation in Jersey, and were noted as having "jamais voulu 

 assister a la messe," so that he will have felt that his family 

 record was against him under a Catholic regime, and possibly 

 his own private record as well, for the Catholic persecutions 

 and spoliation of the Churches in the reign of Edward VI. 

 could hardly have taken place without the connivance of the 

 Bailiff, and it is probable that he may have been implicated in 

 the rebellious proclivities of the late Governor.* 3 * For, in days 

 when there were no newspapers, no posts, and hardly any 

 communication with England, how could Guernsey countrymen 

 like Giret Ogier and Ollivier Le Feyvre know of local risings 

 against Queen Mary, and of her father's having branded her as 

 illegitimate, unless seditious meetings had been held and disloyal 

 speeches openly made ? Sir Leonard Chamberlain, the new 

 Governor, who had been knighted for his loyalty by Queen 

 Mary on her accession, would not be likely to overlook either 

 incipient Protestantism or latent treason. So it is probable 

 that these unhappy women were sacrificed as official scapegoats. 



Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, and again all 

 the official acts of the previous reign were reversed, and the 

 State of the Island — both civil and religious — was reduced to 

 anarchy. So much so that, in 1561, Queen Elizabeth sent 

 over Royal Commissioners to regulate matters. They ordered 

 Hellier Gosselin, Bailiff, the Dean, and the ten jurats to be 

 deprived of their offices and sent to England for trial. This 



(1) Calendar of State Papers. Addenda of Domestic Series, Elizabeth. 



(2) Page 76. 



(3) Hellier Gosselin was married 4 times. His 1st wife was a Miss Dumaresq 

 of La Haule, Jersey. His 2nd, Perotine Henry, was the mother of his 2 children, 

 his 3rd. was Emmet Blondel; and his 4th Thomasse Effard who survived him, and 

 in 1580 was sued by his heirs for claiming, not only her dower on his house 

 at Havelet, but the plants and even the stones in his garden, as well as the books 

 " tant de Saintes Ecriture que des loys " which belonged rightfully to his son's 

 children. He was buried December 14th, 1579. 



