AN EMINENT GUERNSEYMAN. 



291 



At this period he was repeatedly commissioned to defend 

 our insular rights and privileges in the English Court, and had 

 also been deputed to buy arms and ammunition for the defence 

 of Guernsey.* The islands were then in a state of great 

 danger, their old fortifications and castles were crumbling 

 away, they had no resident garrison, and no possible defence 

 against the enemy. Moreover, besides the ever present danger 

 of an invasion from France, the Channel was so infested by 

 Barbary pirates and French privateers that commerce and 

 trade were practically at a standstill. 



After repeated requests to the home government to send 

 them either soldiers to defend the Castle or ships to defend 

 our harbour, in 1627 two hundred men were sent over, but 

 were unprovided with outfits (uniforms being then unknown), 

 with pay, or with lodging, for not more than 70 men could be 

 accommodated at Castle Cornet. The remaining 130 therefore 

 were billetted on the principal inhabitants, who had, out of 

 their scanty means, to maintain them at their own expense. 

 None of the many acts of oppression of the Stuart Kings 

 roused such fierce opposition all over the United Kingdom 

 as this compulsory billetting of soldiers on a free population, 

 and we find that petition after petition Avent up to the King 

 from the Guernsey people to relieve them of their burden ; 

 for the expenses came to about £60 a week,|| a debt which 

 the islanders could ill afford to pay, and, to add insult to 

 injury, the Avhole population, in time of peace as well as 

 in time of Avar, Avas placed under martial laAv.f Henry de 

 Vic was again called upon to intervene and in 1628 martial 

 law Avas done away Avith ; and in 1030, on conclusion of 

 the peace with France the soldiers Avere taken away, the 

 amount due by the Government to the islanders for their 

 maintenance being £l,393.§ 



In September, 1635, Henry de Vic Avas in Paris, as 

 Ave Ivuoav from a letter addressed to him by Sir Peter Osborne, 

 then Lieut.-Governor of Guernsey, || avIio, writing from Castle 

 Cornet, says that he has nothing to Avrite about " Newes being 

 a merchandise Ave trade not in," but that he hears that Sir 

 Philip and Lady de Carteret have just reached Jersey in 

 safety, " having been put to the patience to lye attending 

 upon a passage five or six weekes." While Sir Henry Avas 

 absent from the island his half-sister Martha, Avife of Mr. 

 James de Havilland, acted for him as his attorney, and on 

 June loth, 1638, the Royal Court decreed, at her request, 



* Actes des Etats, p. 71. 

 t Actes, p. 150. % Ibid, p. 183. § Actes, p. 156. 



II Brit. Museum Harl : MSS. No. 7001, f. 81. 



