Social Changes and the Witch Trials in Jersey

The witch trials begin in Guernsey around 1563 and end in 1634. In Jersey, apart from one case which ended in a banishment in 1736, they began in 1562 and ended in 1661. What was happening in the society at that time? If we look at the changes taking place, a pattern begins to emerge. The pattern is similar in both Islands, but this survey will concentrate on Jersey, and will look at the background against which Jersey became to degree isolated from England, and under that degree of autonomy, and the strictures of a Calvinism regime, the conditions are ripe for the failure of legal governance within the Island, and the consequent burning of people as witches.

The Burning Begins

In 1558, Queen Mary died, and Elizabeth came to the throne. The islands reverted to Protestantism, and the Calvinist form of Protestantism. The reason for this is simple - the Islands were French speaking, and persecution had driven the French Protestants (Huguenots) to seek refuge in the Jersey and Guernsey, bringing with them the French form of Protestantism, which took its lead from Geneva. During Mary's reign, some of the Protestant leaders in Jersey and Guernsey themselves sought refuge in Calvin's Geneva. So it is not surprising that, as Balleine's History notes that they "naturally gravitated to the French model." Under this model, there was "a complete scheme of government by ministers, elders and deacons", with Consistory courts for each Parish to watch, and where necessary impose penalties on those whose behaviour was deemed to be immoral and indecent. The iron hand of "La Police et Discipline Ecclesiastique" was a law which everyone had to obey, and the Calvinism catechism had four hundred questions and answers in which everyone had to be drilled to learn by heart!

As the Island was French speaking, the Geneva Bible was in use, and the services followed Calvin with a French Huguenot prayer book rather than the English book of Common Prayer. Jersey Churches were referred to as "temples", and the Reformation removal of church fabric continued, with a letter of 1561 noting the destruction of organs and stained glass windows. Unlike Lutherism, Calvinism had no place for rousing hymns, but only the chanting of metrical psalms.

In this new regime, there was no place for archbishops, bishops or deans, and while the Bishop of Winchester was nominally responsible for the Islands (from 1569), in practice a severely Protestant Channel Islands were a good bulwark against Catholic France, the old enemy, and Elizabeth I was too shrewd to interfere in the local ecclesiastical affairs of the Islands, if it was in her interest to turn a blind eye. In Jersey, she permitted the Huguenot prayer book in the Town Church alone "provided that the residue of the parishes continue the Order of Service ordained within this realm", but no efforts were made to enforce this order which was firmly ignored by the other Parishes.

There had to be a counter-reaction, and from 1559, we hear of night revels in Jersey, and masked men, seizing farmer's horses to ride through the countryside. Guernsey too had its masked revels, and young people in particular seem to have rebelled against the strict discipline imposed on every aspect of their lives.

It is with this background in mind that we can see how the witch mania developed. Clandestine meetings at night could fuel the suspicions of a severe Puritanical society, and unlike England until the Civil War, there was no judicial hierarchy to impose order from above and ensure good governance. Instead the local courts became the mechanisms by which injustices were perpetrated, and people were exiled, maimed, or put to death.

An End to Judicial Autonomy

It is only after the end of the English Civil War, the end of the Commonwealth, and the restoration of Charles II as King of England that we notice a cessation in the witch trials, and in 1661 Sir Philippe de Carteret became Bailiff on the resignation of Sir George de Carteret. The Royal Mace was presented to the Island by the King in 1663. Also in 1661, the Ecclesiastical Court was revived by Phillipe Le Couteur newly appointed as Dean of Jersey, and no infringement of Anglican Church order was permitted, and a French version of the revised prayer book, just issued in England, was translated by Jean Durel.

The Act of Indemnity and Oblivion (against any redress for any acts committed by Republicans short of regicide) expressly named Jersey, but Jersey Jurats tried to plead that it did not apply in Jersey, and only after English Law Officers had twice ruled otherwise, was on the third occasion registered in the Court Books to remove all doubt that it applied locally.

We can see here a vast change in the structure of Jersey society, from the removal of Rectors who still wanted to go the Calvinist way, and would not bow down to the imposition of the Anglican order, to the Jurats who also tried to implement their own rules of justice, and again, albeit more slowly, were overruled by the English Parliament in that body's ability to enforce its authority on the Island. With this background, we can better understand why it was that the witch mania ceased to have legal backing, even if the popular belief persisted. Once more the judiciary, while able to act independently, could be referred if necessary to the English Parliament (as in the case of the Act of Indemnity), and the kind of misrule in which the legal authorities, such as the Bailiff, could authorise burnings was no longer permissible because it ran counter to the English Crown's restoration of ecclesiastical and judicial oversight.

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