HEREDITARY GOVERNORS. 



225 



proved to be incorrect as we find that they must have been 

 restored to Richard, Earl of Warwick, along with all the 

 other possessions of the House of de Beauchamp on the 

 12th December, 1461. Proof of this is to be found in two 

 charters, one of the 21st March, 1464, in which he is styled 

 " Comte de Warrewyk et de Salysbury Seigneur de Glamorgan 

 et Morgannok et des Isles de Guernesey et de Jersey," 

 granting to Thomas de la Court the forfeited lands of his 

 cousins John, Guille and Raulet de Saint Martin in Jersey, 

 which had escheated to the Earl as Lord of the Isles, on 

 their adherence to the king's enemies, the French. The 

 other of the 12th August, 1466, is an inspeximus and 

 confirmation by the Earl of a letter of sale to John Henry 

 of Guernsey, of a mill at the Vrangue, by William Bertram, 

 Governor of the Isles under the Duke of Suffolk, guardian 

 to Lady Anne de Beauchamp, dated the 7th May, 1449. 

 These letters are of great value ; they not only prove that 

 the Earl of Warwick was restored to the lordship of the 

 Isles by Edward IV., but give us some idea of the extent 

 of his power and privileges. They show that these hereditary 

 Seigneurs were absolute owners of the Isles, and were 

 possessed of what had been previously royal privileges and 

 possessions. To them fell the escheated lands of traitors 

 and they disposed of them to whom they would without 

 any reference to the crown, they sold and confirmed the 

 sale of a royal mill as their own private property, and 

 further, as we have seen, they issued letters of Protection 

 under their own seal to people of the Isles and ordered 

 their officials to take cognisance of them as if they were 

 royal personages. 



There is not the slightest reason to suppose that Richard, 

 Earl of Warwick, was not in possession of the Isles at the 

 time of his death at the battle of Barnet, 1471. The fact 

 that a Jerseyman, Geoffrey Walsh, Seigneur of Handois, 

 who was Captain of Castle Cornet in 1456, and who is 

 said to have been Captain or Lieutenant of Guernsey in 

 1468, was killed in the same battle fighting under the Earl, 

 tends to show that he was still possessed of them. 



What exactly happened concerning the government of 

 the Channel Islands on the death of the Earl of Warwick 

 is uncertain. Richard Harliston, who had recaptured Mont 

 Orgueil Castle in 1468, was certainly acting as Captain 

 and Governor of Jersey in December, 1474, when he ordered 

 Thomas de la Court, son of the Thomas last mentioned, 

 to be given ppssession of Trinity Manor and the rest of 



