AX EMINENT G UERNSEYMAN. 



293 



lands " which time out of minde have been overflowed by 

 the sea without any endeavour us'd for their recovery," — or 

 so much of them as could be recovered, should be granted 

 to him. Various warrants were forthwith issued to the Bailiff 

 and to Mr. John Bonamy, jurat, to survey these lands and 

 to report upon them, but nothing definite was then done. 

 This is not surprising, for the events which led to the 

 Civil War and the execution of King Charles I. were crowding 

 thick and fast. Every month brought fresh trouble in its 

 train and such tiivial matters as submerged lands in a remote 

 island were speedily forgotten. 



In 1635 two Guernsey vessels, homeward bound from 

 the Newfoundland fisheries, were taken by Turkish pirates 

 and fifty of our finest seamen were sold into captivity* ; the 

 King was implored to ransom them as their relations were 

 too poor to do so, and in consideration of s- ch bounty it 

 was conceded that the arrears of pay should no longer be 

 demanded. But again no notice was taken of this petition 

 so that it is hardly surprising that in 1642, when the Civil 

 War broke out between Charles I. and his Parliament, that 

 the majority of the Guernsey people, heart and soul, took the 

 side of the Parliament. In Jersey the de Carterets, who 

 were Royalists to the backbone, influenced the people to 

 remain as enthusiastically loyal as themselves, and four 

 out of the five Guernseymen who remained staunch to the 

 Stuart cause — Henry de Vic, Amias, Edmund and Charles 

 Andros, and Nathaniel Darell — were either by birth or mar- 

 riage related to the de Carterets. From this time we may 

 date the traditional feud between Guernsey and Jersey — 

 Jersey Royalist and Guernsey Roundhead. 



As we all know, Sir Peter Osborne, the Lieut.-Governor, 

 remained loyal to the King, and with a handful of troops 

 intrenched himself in Castle Cornet, there to hold out for 

 the Stuarts against the island and the Parliamentary forces. 

 But if Sir Peter hated the Guernsey Roundheads much 

 he evidently hated the Jersey Royalists more, for among 

 the Guille MSS. at St. George is a letter from the Royal 

 Court of Jersey to Charles II. — then Prince of Wales — 

 complaining that Sir Peter Osborne, " commander of our 

 neighbour's Castle . . . though he hath had almost all 

 his bread from hence by wdiich he hath subsisted . j ett 



refuseth to admitt of our persons . . . [for the] reduction 

 of our neighbours to their due obedience, [although] that 

 there is nothinge in the world that wee are more ready and 

 * Actes, p. 177. 



