AN EMINENT GUERNSEYMAN. 

 SIR HENRY DE VIC. 



BY MISS EDITH CAREY. 



To-night I am going to talk about Sir Henry cle Vic, one of 

 the most distinguished Guernseymen in our annals, and yet one 

 about whom much ignorance prevails ; in fact, I am afraid that 

 most Guernsey people have never even heard his name, so 

 that I should like, if possible, to rescue some details of his life 

 and times out of the oblivion into which they have been 

 allowed to sink. He lived from 1597 until the year 1672, less 

 than 300 years ago, but a vast gulf, not of time alone, but of 

 thought, custom and general atmosphere divides his day from 

 ours. 



It is not sufficiently realised what an immense difference 

 the last two hundred years have made to the standards of life 

 and society in general and to our island life in particular. 

 Great economic and social forces have swept over our com- 

 munity, that was only half conscious of what was befalling it. 

 A Guernsey document* drawn up in the middle of the 17th 

 century shows the exceeding poverty to which the islanders 

 were then reduced. It gives the population as being about 

 eight thousand, of whom " not above two have £200 per 

 annum, not ten £100, not thirty £50 per annum." Even 

 allowing for the greater purchasing power of money in those 

 days I think we may take £350 of our money as the maximum 

 income of any of our landed proprietors at that time. 



Naturally this would imply that throughout the island 

 there was a comparatively simple standard of living. There 

 was no such thing as a 44 leisured class," but it was at once 

 usual and expected that men, however old and reputable their 

 families, should have some trade or profession. Work was 

 both general and respectable, and women of the best social 

 standing took a share in the physical work of their households. 

 I think that an impartial examination of contemporary docu- 

 ments will prove that from a generation of men, to whom 



* " A declaration of ye condition of ye Islande of Guerncsey. 1651-1660. 

 (Guille MSS.) 



[1911.] 



