HERIDITARY GOVERNORS. 



223 



the Earl was not deprived of his rights as Lord of the Isles. 

 The first of these documents is dated the 12th February, 

 1453, and is a letter of the Earl's in favour of Thomas de la 

 Court, of Guernsey, Seigneur of Trinity Manor, Jersey, 

 granting protection to him and his household from all molesta- 

 tions of his enemies : these enemies being his cousins the 

 de Saint Martins, whose ancestors had held the Manor for 

 centuries and who seem to have deeply resented its sale by 

 Thomas de Saint Martin, Seigneur of Trinity, to his brother-in- 

 law, the above-mentioned Thomas de la Court. The second 

 document is a letter of the Royal Court of Jersey of 1456, 

 referring to the petition of Collette de la Roque, mother of 

 Janequin de Saint Martin, demanding that the Vicomte be 

 ordered to certify to Otys Colin, Lieutenant of the Castle of 

 Goury, that the said Janequin was and is under the protection 

 and safeguard of the King and of " Monseigneur de Warryck, 

 Seigneur des lies," as she has reason to doubt and fear the 

 said Otys. Otys Colin, who is here rather contemptuously 

 referred to as " soy disant Lieutenant " had been Lieutenant 

 of John Nanfan in the Isles.* 



We gather from the Patent Rolls of this period some 

 interesting details of the history of John Nanfan. He had 

 seen long service during the wars with France under Henry V. 

 and became attached to the household of Richard, Earl of War- 

 wick. He was taken prisoner in France, and on his release was 

 appointed governor to the Earl's infant son Henry, after- 

 wards Duke of Warwick. For these services he was ap- 

 pointed Constable of Cardiff Castle by Isabel, Countess of 

 Worcester, the Duke's mother, and later forester of Glamorgan 

 by the Duke when he came of age, and also was awarded 

 a pension of £60 a year by the King. He was deprived 

 of his office as Governor of the Isles by Parliament, 33, 



* Note.— The following extract from the recently published Calendar of 

 Patent Rolls, Henry VI., 1452-1460, clearly shows that the Earl of Warwick was 

 Lord of the Isles only in right of his wife. It is dated after his attainture in 1459, 

 hence the reference " late by reason of Anne, his wife, Earl of Warwick, &c." 

 Patent Rolls, 38, Henry VI., Part II, memb : 24. 



March 12, 1460, Westminster. On the petition of Thomas, son and heir 

 of Thomas de la Court deceased, of the isle of Guernsey, showing that in 

 September, 1452, Thomas de Seintmartin, esquire, of the isle of Gersey, then lord 

 and possessor of a fee called "la Trinite " in Gersey, because he and Thomas, his 

 son, were taken prisoners by the king's adversaries of France, in order to deliver 

 their bodies from captivity, obtained license of the officers of the place to sell the 

 said fee, and sold it to the said Thomas de la Court, the father, in fee for a sum of 

 680 scutes of gold, which Thomas de la Corte the father paid, which sale Richard 

 Nevill, late by reason of Anne, his wife, earl of Warwick and lord of the said Isles, 

 ratified by letters patent dated 18 January, 1452, but the petitioner now fears that 

 the sale may be reputed invalid owing to an ordinance said to have been made in 

 the duchy of Normandy on the king's behalf, whereby if any man sell lands and 

 immoveable possessious, and within the following year and day withdraw from the 

 king's obedience, such sale shall be void, and the said Thomas de Seint Martin did 

 so withdraw :— the king has ratified the said sale. 



By p.s. &c. and for i mark paid in the hanaper. 



