290 



AN EMINENT GUERNSEYMAN. 



ation of being niece to the Royal favourite, afterwards Duke 

 of Buckingham, and I can only conjecture that it was through 

 this interest that Henry got into contact with the Duke 

 of Buckingham's household and the Royal Entourage. For 

 I have come across a letter of his, written in 1617 — when only 

 a boy of twenty — to Mr. Nicholas, Secretary to the Duke of 

 Buckingham, pleading for the release of various ships of 

 Guernsey and Jersey, "the Sara, wherein Philip Brock is 

 Maister, the May Flowre, wherein Richard Pipon is Maister " 

 and others, and signing himself quite familiarly for that punc- 

 tilious age, as " your affectionate friende."* 



George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, although the 

 favourite of both James I. and Charles I., was heartily de- 

 tested by the nation. His famous expedition in which Henry 

 had accompanied him to the island of Rhe, for the relief of 

 the people of Rochelle, proved a most inglorious failure, and 

 Henry was subsequently employed by Charles I. to treat with 

 the Due de Rohan and the French Protestants for their co- 

 operation in helping to raise the siege. Buckingham endea- 

 voured to regain his lost credit with the nation by a second 

 attempt, but while preparing to embark at Portsmouth he was 

 stabbed to the heart with a penknife by one John Felton, a 

 lieutenant in Sir John Ramsay's regiment. This was in 

 August 1628, and Henry de Vic was at this time a gentleman 

 of the Duke's Bedchamber and married to Margaret de 

 Carteret, a daughter of the Seigneur of St. Ouen. Among 

 the Clarence Hopper MSS. in the British Museum is a letter 

 to him from her brother, afterwards Sir Philip de Carteret, 

 written early in 1628. It begins " Noble Brother" and goes 

 on to say 44 1 have had soe much care that your horse should 

 not be galled that, taking noe heed but to his forepart the 

 saddle hath wrung him behind as badde as it was before. . . 

 neither wolde he ever be fitt for your service. I thinke to 

 have him over to Jersey and to cosen some Frenchman. Soe 

 you take ten pieces of my money and buye you a better 

 with saddle and furniture — I shall lose nothing by it, for I 

 shall sell this horse, which is yours, for soe much, or more 

 if I happen upon a Frenchman, he is good for nobody 

 ells." 



After the Duke of Buckingham's death Henry de Vic 

 had been taken on as Secretary by Lord Conway and Elie 

 Brevint, the minister of Sark notes in his Diary that " Henry 

 de Vik, pompeux en habits est le 4me secretaire de Milord 

 Konway qui en a six." 



* British Museum Add. MSS., Clarence Hopper Collection. 



