| The
Ecréhous Jersey C.I. 1884 |
| Illustrated
by P. J. Ouless |
| Preface and
Historical Outline. |
| The recent events
in connection with the Ecréhous have brought those islets into
prominence, and have moreover proved how very little is known about
them, even by Jerseymen.
|
| It is with the
intention of adding to this small knowledge, and with the hope of
arousing a more lively interest in the dependencies of Jersey generally,
that this Album is now offered to the public. |
| Historical Outline |
| Before the separation
of Normandy from England little is positively known of the history
of the Channel Islands. The few documents, older then the thirteenth
century, connected with them, which have been preserved in the Chartularies
of some of the Norman religious foundations, relate to chiefly to
gifts of land or of the advowson of the Churches, and are as a rule,
couched in such general terms as to throw no light on the social status
of the islanders at the period to which they refer. Most of the judicial
and fiscal records of Normandy prior to 1200 perished in the wars
of which Northern France has been the scene; so that we are left almost
without any manuscript authorities to guide us in attempting to ascertain
the conditions of the Islands in early times. It is only by consulting
early chronicles and collecting and weighing collateral evidence from
them that any approximate idea can be formed of the ancient state
of our Islands, and of the vicissitudes which they have undergone;
and this process, modified in some degree, is the one which must be
applied in attempting to sketch the history of the Ecréhous
at any period.
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| The situation
of Jersey and of the adjacent Ecréhous has given rise to much
speculation as to their geographical position in relation to the adjacent
continent in early times; viewed however by the light which geology
has thrown on the subject, there seems to be every reason for supposing
that they once formed portion of the mainland. The beds of the straits
which now separate the two islands from France were then fertile tracts
extending in a southerly direction as far as Chausey; and thence terra
firma was prolonged by the forest of Scissy, which enveloped in its
gloomy depths Mont-Saint-Michel itself, then but a briar-encumbered
rock and as yet uncrowned by the fane which now adorns its summit.
Such no doubt was the appearance of the region bordering on the western
coast line of the Cotentin at the commencement of the Christian era;
but it was then in a state of transition, giving place to a new order
of things, as a preceding one had already made way for it. |
| How all this
rich territory disappeared, and the forest of Scissy (which had acquired
an almost sacred reputation as an asylum for recluses) succumbed to
the waves, is a question of some intricacy into which it is not necessary
in this place to enter; suffice it to say that in all probability
the submersion was the result of a gradual sinking of land during
the early centuries of our era. Such an hypothesis is far more preferable
then to assign, as many writers have done, the destruction of Scissy
and the isolation of Jersey to the almost instantaneous effects of
a storm which is said to have visited our coasts in March, A.D. 709;
for the earliest authority quoted as proof that such a storm even
occurred is a fifteenth century chronicle of questionable value; and
the evidence which can be linked together from earlier documents of
greater authority goes to show, that not only was the year 709 an
ordinary one, as far as natural phenomena are concerned, but also
that most, if not all, the land in question had already disappeared
at that date. (The whole of this question is very fully discussed
by M. de Chèvremont, in les Mouvements du Sol "Paris,
1882")
|
| Whatever may
have been the exact date of the insulation of Jersey, in all likelihood
it was already an accomplished fact when the Northmen began their
incursions on the North-Western part of Europe. From the fourth to
the tenth century these wild warriors, headed by their jarls, bore
down at intervals on Neustria and Brittany, dealing havoc and desolation
on every side; they established their strongholds in the islands along
the coast, so that they might deposit their plunder and plan future
expeditions in security; and they caused such terror and confusion
by their sudden and furious incursions; that in the Litany of the
Church a special prayer was inserted for preservation from them. The
names of certain localities in the Channel Islands show that they
were occupied by the Northmen; indeed it would have been strange if
they had not been, affording, as they do, so advantageous a position
for watching the opposite coast. No doubt the Ecréhous were
also thus utilised; but of that we have no positive proof, as the
waves have long since effaced any traces of entrenchment’s which
may have remained as evidence of a Norman station.
|
| We must now take
a stride onwards in history—dismissing with a mere mention the
cession of Neustria to Rollo and the conquest of England by William—and
come to the period when King John ascended the English throne. Hardly
had he been crowned then he hurried away to Normandy and made a truce
with Philip of France; and while there, mindful of his own precarious
position and of the unprotected state of the Channel Islands, which
he once held as Lord, he made provision for their safety by confiding
them to the care of Peter des Préaux, a Norman Knight of some
distinction. The grant is dated at Roche d’Orival, the 14th of
January, 1200, and includes "the islands of Jersey, Guernsey
and Alderney, and sixty librates of land in "sterlings in Alton
(England), and one hundred pounds rent, Anjou money, in Rouen, "namely,
in the stalls of the market of Rouen, and in the fair of the Pardon,
and in the "fair of Notre Dame du Pré, to have and hold
of the King by the service of a fief of "three Knights until
the earldom of the Isle of Wight devolve upon Peter de Préaux,
with "the daughter and heiress of William Earl of the Isle, whom
the King had granted to "the said Peter, or until provision had
been made for him to their mutual gain in some "other marriage."
This gift was confirmed on the 21st of June following, and during
the next two or three years we find several orders from the King to
des Préaux to provide for the safety of the Islands. It is
to be noticed that Sark is not mentioned by name in the grant from
which we have quoted, being evidently included with Guernsey; and
we may safely say that all the Islets in the proximity either of that
island or of Jersey were included in it. That the Ecréhous
were, we find clearly proved by a deed of gift which des Préaux
made in 1203 in favour of the Abbey of Valricher; the following is
a translation of this document:— "To all the sons of the
Holy Mother Church to whom the present deed may come, Peter des Préaux
bids greeting in the Lord. Know ye all that I, by the impulse of divine
charity, have granted and given, and by my present Charter have confirmed
to God and the Church of St. Mary of Valricher and to the monks there
serving God, for the salvation of the soul of John, the illustrious
King of England, who gave me the Islands, and for the salvation of
my soul and the souls of my father and mother and of all my ancestors,
the island of Ecréhou in its entirety, to build a chapel there
in honour of God and the Blessed Mary, so that the divine mysteries
may there be celebrated daily; to have and to hold, freely and peaceably,
fully and gratuitously, in free, pure and perpetual almoyn, together
with whatever they shall be able to improve and build on the said
Island. I likewise have granted to the aforesaid monks whatever shall
reasonably been given to them through love of charity by the inhabitants
of Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney, my rights reserved. And in order
that this gift may obtain confirmation to be observed in future times,
I have confirmed by it by the present deed, and by affixing my seal,
Engelram des Préaux, Robert de Fréquiennes, Hugh Croc,
and Gilbert d’Ouville Knights, William the Chaplain, Richard
the Clerk, Nicholas de la Mare, William Cornuel, William, Clerk of
the Chamber, and several others being witnesses. A.D., 1203."
|
| It is necessary
for us while on the subject of this charter of Peter des Préaux
to advert to a passage which occurs in Mr. J. P. Ahier’s Tableaux
Historiques de Jersey, and which has been adopted by several writers.
On page 98 of that work we find the following: "Ce n’est
qu’en 1203 que nous trouvons les Ecréhos transformés
en une "grande Ile très peuplée, puisque l’on
voit à l’Evêché de Coutances une Charte de
cette même année par laquelle Pierre Dupratel donna toute
I’lle aux moines du Val Richer pour bâtir une Eglise ‘en
honneur de Dieu et de la Sainte Vierge, attendu que les habitans ne
peuvent plus venir entendre la messe à l’Eglise de Portbail.
" Notwith-standing much enquiry we have been unable to find a
trace of the document from which Mr. Ahier quotes. Whether he ever
saw it himself or only relied on second-hand information is a matter
of secondary importance to us; but he most certainly can never have
seen the deed of gift which we have printed at length above, as he
differs entirely from it as regards his conception of the state of
the Ecréhous in 1203. By the Terms of Peter des Préaux’s
charter, it appears that in the grant of the Islands, made to him
in 1200, the Ecréhous were included; we must therefore conclude
that they were separated from the continent at that period, and separated
in a very marked in order to be considered as a dependency of Jersey.
In fact the appearance of the sea-bed between them and France induces
us to think that it is an error to refer their insulation to so late
a date as the thirteenth century, and that their separation from the
opposite coast was very nearly contemporaneous with that of Jersey.
As to the assertion that the Ecréhous were well peopled, we
think that—unless supported by further evidence—it is effectually
disposed of by the words of the grant, "and whatever they shall
be able to improve and build on the said Island"; such terms
can at most, only refer to an almost uninhabited Island, bare and
desert, uncultivated and not apportioned in any way.
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| The Abbey of
Valricher cannot have enjoyed its new acquisitions peacefully for
many years. In 1207, John quarrelled with the Pope over the nomination
of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury; the breach between
them grew wider and wider as time went on; and at last, in 1209, John
was excommunicated. In retaliation, he confiscated the estates of
the clergy; and so early as the 26th of March, 1208 we find him issuing
letters patent to his Bailiffs of Guernsey and Jersey "and the
other islands," ordering them to deliver to Hasculf Painel "
all the Churches of the monks in all the islands of their bailiwicks."
That effect was given to the order we cannot doubt.
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| John’s submission
however to the Papal power in 1213 must have resulted in the restitution
of the Ecréhous to the Abbey of Valricher and the establishment
of monks on the Island. There they built a small chapel, of which
the ruins may still be seen on the Maître Ile; (The ruins are
marked on Mariette’s Map of the Diocese of Coutances, published
in 1687) and, amidst the howling of the tempests and the roaring of
the waves, the devine mysteries of the Church were celebrated as Peter
des Préaux had ordained. But the priests who served the Chapel
lived in a state of uncertainty; for their charge was on English soil
though dependent on a French religious house, since Normandy had passed
from the crown of England; and the outcome of a declaration of war
between England and France was the immediate confiscation, pending
hostilities, of all the English estates of the French foundations.
This in fact took place several times during the reigns of Edward
I, Edward II, Edward III and Richard II.
|
| The Abbey of
Valricher does not seem to have held the Ecréhous under Peter
des Préaux’s gift for any length of time; for scarcely
a hundred years after the date of the grant, the nature of the tenure
is found to be entirely different. In 1309, John de Fresingfeld, Drouet
de Barentin, and John de Ditton, Justices-in-Eýre, came to
Jersey; and, at the Common Pleas held before them, the Abbot of Valricher
was summoned by William de Maresk, Council for the Crown, to show
by what right he held a mill in the Parish of St. Saviour’s and
the advowson of the Priory of Ecréhou; and also on what ground
he claimed an annual rent of twenty sols from the Kings receiver.
(Public Record Office; Tower Assize Rolls, No 41.) The Prior of Ecréhou
appeared as general attorney of the Abbey of Valricher, and pleaded
that the Chapel of Ecréhou stood far from Jersey on a small,
barren and uninhabited rock; that he lived there with a companion
and a servant all the year round, burning a beacon nightly to warn
mariners of the dangers of the surrounding rocks, and performing masses
for the King and his ancestors; and that the Chapel had no other source
of revenue but the mill and the rent of twenty sols. It was further
stated in the pleadings that the Abbot of Valricher was desirous of
resigning the advowson of the Ecréhous owing to the poverty
of the endowment. The justices seem to have wished that the Chapel
should be maintained, possibly on account of the importance to coasting
vessels of the beacon which the monks kept burning there; and they
granted to the Prior of the Ecréhou, apparently not as attorney
but in his own name, the Chapel with its revenues, during the King’s
pleasure. |
| After this incident
we hear nothing further of the Ecréhous until 1337, when Gabriel,
Abbot of Valricher, sent two monks to maintain the Chapel of the Blessed
Mary of Ecréhou. (Gallia Christiana, vol, xi, col. 477.) This
proves that until that period, at any rate, the Abbot considered it
a duty to provide for the proper maintenance of the lonely Chapel;
but strange to say no entry is to be found in the rolls of the Crown
Receivers’ accounts of any such payment being made to Valricher
as that mentioned in 1309; though that no doubt was the origin of
the Rents due for Ecréhou, which we have extracted from the
various "Extentes" and tabulated. (See
Rents Page) These fell into the hands of the Crown in Henry
V’s reign, when the alien priories were suppressed. Then probably
the monks withdrew altogether from the Ecréhous, the Chapel
fell into decay and the little Islands were again left uninhabited.
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