268 SOCIAL LIFE IN GUEKNSEY. 



bequests of their ancestors being confiscated and made away 

 with by irreverent aliens. Dicey, writing in 175 1 , and evidently 

 repeating local traditions, tells us m " When Popery was 

 suppressed in the days of Queen Elizabeth the popish clergy, 

 in whose keeping the Ancient Records were, before they left 

 the Isle put them in Hogsheads and other large vessels, 

 together with their Church ornaments, plate, etc., and secretly 

 buried them underground in a small contemptible Chapel in the 

 Clos du Valle about the North East side, now quite ruined, 

 dedicated to Saint Maglorius, upon a point near the sea and far 

 from neighbours, that they might afterwards dig them up and 

 carry them to Normandy without danger. But some years 

 after, one John le Pelley, Schoolmaster in that Parish, did, in 

 the night time, take up all those Books, Vestments, Plate, 

 etc., and privately sold them at a low price to some Normans 

 at Coutances, who cunningly conveyed them away, so that of 

 all the Plate which they formerly used in the celebration of 

 their Mass, there was left but one Chalice of silver gilt 

 belonging to St. Samson's." 



Tradition says that this Chalice was dug up in the garden 

 of St. Sampson's Rectory in 1614. It probably was hidden 

 there by Thomas de Baugy, a loyal Guernsey Rector, who 

 went to St. Sampson's when Dean After had replaced him by 

 Baudouin in the Town Parish ; and he it must have been who 

 hid the St. Sampson's Altar Cross and Candlesticks in the secret 

 chamber under the Church ToAver, where they were only dis- 

 covered in 1913. 



On the first of March, 1562/3, one Ozias Fanuel, school- 

 master of the " Petite Ecole," was accused by the Crown 

 Officers of having found " ung tresor " in the Chapel of St. 

 Julien's. Whether he had been concerned with Peter Le Pelley 's 

 treasure trove we cannot tell, but the case was dismissed for 

 want of proof. But in 1585 a curious case came before the 

 Court. A Jerseyman, called Edmund Billot, was ordered to be 

 whipped at the Carrefours and banished from the Island for 

 having been to Normandy to consult necromancers (s'enquerir 

 des conjureurs et Devins ") as to how to find hidden treasure ; 

 and, according to their advice, hud dug and excavated, not only 

 the ground, but even the walls of various buildings ; and four 

 men of the Castel, Michel and Nicholas de Jersey, (2) Nicholas 



(1) Page 34. 



(2) Note. 1st September, 1563. The Commissioners of Queen Elizabeth sold to 

 Nicholas de Jersey, as Procureur of Thomas Fouaschin, Seigneur d'Anneville, the 

 Fief of St. George, the Chapel, and a house adjoining. 1st March, 1570, 

 Nicholas Martin of the Bosq sold to Nicolas de Jersey a house north-east of the 

 Chapel of St. George, which had formerly belonged to Thomas Toullez, Esq. ; 

 and in 1626 George Fouaschin, Seigneur d'Anneville, sold to Nicholas de Jersey, 

 son of Michel, the Fief and Chapel of St. George, which subsequently passed, 

 through the marriage in 1638 of Marie de Jersey, Nicolas's daughter, to Jacques 

 Guille, to the Guille family. 



Vers, et Meubles, T. 3, page 179. 



