ENGLISH GARRISON OF GUERNSEY. 75 



and not used to such discommodities and travels, at leastwise, 

 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 do the same by any 

 extent of the king's rights and duties that can be showed." 

 The complainants prayed to be exempted from this service, 

 further pleading that the Governor received the whole 

 revenue of the island, out of which he should maintain a 

 sufficient garrison for the safe keeping of the castle. The 

 Commissioners decided that as ''the governor hath a suffi- 

 cient number 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 preparation 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."* 



This illegal system was no doubt the origin of Dicey 's 

 comment on the garrison of Guernsey. He 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 boatman, and the watchman. Besides, the governor may 

 command out of the island such number of the ablest and 

 most expert soldiers he shall think to make a choice of, who 

 are to have a soldier's coat given them every year." 



'• These soldiers were called to the castle retinue, and 

 were bound to repair thither whenever called upon ; especially 

 upon any alarm. But for many years past, by omission or 

 otherwise, that retinue of soldiers, and coats allowed them, 

 are out of 2:)ractice ; and the castle is principally garrisoned 

 and defended by soldiers sent over from England."! 



We have no official record of the number of men kept 

 in garrison under Sir Thomas Leighton, but, from the Report 

 of the Commissioners sent to Jersey in 1617, we gather that 

 the garrison of Elizabeth Castle then consisted of 20 soldiers 

 only, of whom five were Jersey men in receipt of pay, and the 



* Tupper, Chronicles of Castle Cornet, pp. 32, 33. 

 t Do., p. 34. 



