JERBOURG AND ITS FORTIFICATIONS. 257 



that he held his tenement in the said Island, by the homage 

 of the lord, the King in chief (i.e., he held directly from the 

 King), and by the serjeanty of being the third cup-bearer 

 of the King, so often as the King should come to that 

 island, and as long as he should remain there ; and acknow- 

 ledged that he owed the King, for his relief, 60 shillings and 

 one penny of small tournois. 



Then in 1319 we have in the Exchequer Accounts, 

 12 Edward II.*, " And he summoned Mattheu de Saumarez, 

 Thomas d'Estfeld, Alice his wife, &c, to answer the King- 

 by what warrant they claim to have wreck of the sea, 

 throughout all their land of Gereborough .... and the 

 custom of mackerel . . . and free warren in all their land 

 of Gereborough, &c." They come and say that they 

 hold in. pourparty (in common as coheirs) of the inheri- 

 tance of a certain Nicholas de Saumarez, grandfather of the 

 said Matthew and Phillipa ; and as to all the liberties, 

 they say that they hold them from the time whereof no 

 memory exists. He was again summoned to prove his rights 

 in 1323. 



So far then we have proof that Jerbourg belonged to the 

 De Saumarez family from very old times. Guernsey his- 

 torians favour the idea that the said Nicholas De Saumarez 

 was made cup-bearer to the Dukes of Normandy and received 

 Jerbourg as his guerdon for services rendered to Duke 

 Robert, when in 1029-30 his fleet was driven to Guernsey 

 (Jersey historians say Jersey) and he himself compelled 

 to pass a fortnight in the island. 



But no castle existed down to this date. T upper f 

 shows this clearly under date 1328. "The Federa con- 

 tains a mandate in Latin to Johanni des Roches, keeper 

 of the islands : Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark 

 headed : " De Castro vocato Girburg in insula de Gerneseye 

 perflciendo." By this mandate it would seem that the 

 Castle of Jerbourg had only recently begun to be built : 

 " nuper inchoatum fuit ad construendum," and was not 

 finished although Edward II. (1307 to 1327) had ordered 

 that it should be completed out of the revenues of the 

 aforesaid isles." 



Miss E. Carey gives me the same information; she puts 

 the date August 1 328. " The King learns that the Castle 

 of Jerbourg is not yet completed, &c, and orders John des 

 Roches to cause the castle to be made from such issues 



* Page 36. 

 t Ancient petitions published by the Soci6t6 Jersiaise, 1902, Page 20. 



F 



