Lieutenant Governor of Jersey


The lieutenant governor of Jersey, properly styled the lieutenant-governor of Jersey, is the representative of the British monarch in the Bailiwick of Jersey, a dependency of the British Crown.
Presently, there is no governor of Jersey, the role having devolved its responsibilities onto the lieutenant governors and then been discontinued in 1854. The position of lieutenant governor is now itself largely ceremonial, with day-to-day responsibility over most functions of government overseen by the Chief Minister of Jersey and judicial and certain other official matters overseen by the Bailiff of Jersey.

Duties

The lieutenant governor serves as the Viceroy of the Monarch in Jersey, performing various ceremonial functions and liaising between the Governments of Jersey and the United Kingdom. The lieutenant governor also exercises certain executive functions relating broadly to citizenship, including involvement with passports, deportation, and nationality. Jersey passports are British passports issued on behalf of the lieutenant governor, in the exercise of the royal prerogative, through the Passport Office which the States fund and from which the States retain any revenue generated. Deportation from Jersey is formally ordered by the lieutenant governor. Certificates of naturalization as a British citizen are issued by the lieutenant governor.
Ex officio, the lieutenant governor is a member of the States of Jersey but may not vote and, by convention, speaks in the Chamber only on appointment and on departure from post.

History

The unusual position of the lieutenant governor is a product of the unusual situation created when the once-Viking dukes of Normandy, vassals of the kings of France, became kings of England and subsequently claimed the French throne itself. Despite the Normandy by [Philip II of France">Duchy of Normandy">Normandy by [Philip II of France (1202–1204)|loss of Normandy] and failure of the First and main Hundred Years' Wars, the situation caused the terms of the 1259 Treaty of Paris to be generally maintained and the Channel Islands were organized separately from the Kingdom of England and its United [Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|successor] states and held directly under the Crown.
From 933, the dukes of Normandy and then kings of England held the islands directly. Beginning with Prince John on 8 February 1198, they began to be delegated to a series of princes and royal favourites like Peter de Preaux as feudal lords of the isles. Actual administrative control was separately placed with a warden of the isles, at first typically a member of the king's household knights or the royal council. This post was given wide autonomy in command and judgment alongside 12 sworn coroners charged to preserve and clarify the local traditions, obligations, and freedoms and some of its holders were greatly enriched by the provision of terra Normannorum, lands seized from previous owners obliged to swear fealty to the Capetian king of France to preserve their other holdings on the Continent. The wardens were initially appointed by the islands' lords but, particularly under the long and neglectful rule of EdwardI's favourite Otto de Grandson, some were appointed directly by the king to ensure the islands' allegiance and protection during times of hostility with France. This became standard after the lordship became hereditary in the line of Henry Beauchamp and then ceased to be awarded upon the line's extinguishment. As early as 1201, the lords and wardens were both sometimes described as the bailiff of the islands, but this gradually became a separate position held by a separate agent.
Following the capture of Mont Orgueil and Jersey's occupation by the French from 14611468 owing to the support of Pierre de Brézé, seneschal of Normandy, to the Lancastrian cause of his cousin Margaret of Anjou during the Wars of the Roses, greater attention was paid to the islands' organisation and defense. Upon its reconquest by Richard Harliston, he was named captain of the isles or captain-in-chief. Shortly thereafter in 1473, the previous captains or subwardens at Jersey and Guernsey were replaced by separate captains or governors overseeing the local garrisons. Jurisdictional friction with the islands' bailiffs culminated in legal disputes between the captain John Peyton and the bailiff Jean Hérault, who was attempting to usurp the title of "governor". A series of rulings by the Privy Council from 1616 to 1618 determined that Jersey's captain would be formally styled its governor but largely restricted to military matters, while the bailiff would exercise most civil and judicial responsibilities without his oversight; Guernsey's officials followed suit shortly thereafter.
After the Stuart Restoration, King CharlesIIwho had previously escaped to France via Jerseyrewarded the island with the power to levy customs duties. The post of governor of Jersey thereafter became a sinecure chiefly used for its incomes, with its responsibilities discharged after 1806 by lieutenant governors. Following the long and entirely absent "service" of William Beresford as governor, the post was left vacant. Since his death in 1856, the Crown has been formally and constitutionally represented in Jersey by lieutenant governors. The lieutenant governors have gradually lost various powers of their office. Jersey's custom dutiespreviously levied by an assembly consisting of the governor, bailiff, and juratshas been controlled by the States of Jersey since 1921, removing most control over the island's finances by the lieutenant governor; the States of Jersey Law 2005 abolished the lieutenant governor's previous ability to veto resolutions of the States; and the recommendation of future lieutenant governors was announced in 2010 to be the responsibility of a panel on Jersey rather than of the ministers of the United Kingdom.

List of governors of Jersey

Wardens of the Isles:
13th century
Hasculf du Suligny 1206-1212
Philippe d'Aubigné 1207-1212 Guernsey) 1212–1214, 1214-1215 1217-1221, 1232-1234
Philippe d'Aubigné - nephew 1219-1224, 1232
Geoffrey de Lucy 1224-1226
Hugues de Saint Philibert 1226
Richard de Gray 1226-1227, 1229-1230, 1252-1254
William de St Jean 1227-1229, 1232
Henri de Trubleville 1230-1232, 1234-1239
Arnaud de St Amand and others 1232-1234
Nicholas de Meules 1234-1235
Gerard de Lambersard, Guillaume de Dampierre and Guillaume Blom 1235
Drouet de Barentin 1235-1239, 1241-1252, 1258
Guillaume de Bouelles 1240 - see Drouet de Barentin
Guillaume de Barentin 1267-1268
Raoul de Broughton 1274
Arnaud Jean 1271 - 1275
Philippe Burnel 1276-1278 - see Guillaume de Barentin
Guillaume de St Remi and Denis de Tilbury 1278 - see Guillaume de Barentin
Sir William Grandison and Henri de Bouvillars 1294
Sir Henry de Cobham 1294 - 1297
Sir Nicholas de Cheney 1297
Henry, Prior of Wenlock 1299
14th century
Jean de Newent 1304
Jean de Ditton 1306
Drew de Barentin 1309-1319
Thomas de Hamptonne 1313
Henri de Sully 1323
Gérard Derous 1323-1326
Jean de Clyvedon 1324-1325
Jean de Roches, Robert de Norton and Raoul Basset 1326 - 1331
Pierre Bernard de Pynsole and Laurens de Gaillard 1330-1331
Guillaume de Cheyny 1330-1331
Thomas Wake of Liddell 1331-1333
Guillaume de Montagu + Henry de Ferriers 1334 - 1337
Thomas de Ferriers 1337 – 1341, 1343 - 1347
Thomas de Hampton 1341-1342
Gautier de Weston 1336, 1338, 1343
Robert Wyvill and Thomas de Clifford 1348
Jean Mautravers 1349 - 1354
Guillaume Stury 1354 – 1357
Thomas de Holland 1357
Edmond de Cheyny 1359-1366
Gautier Hewet 1367-1373
Guillaume d'Asthorp and Jean Coke 1373
Edmond Rose 1373-1374
Hugh Calvilegh 1376 - 1393
Sir John Golafre 1393 - 1396
An 1826 book A Brief Description and Historical Notices of the Island of Jersey also shows Sire Peter Cornet appointed Warden in 1312 and John Cockerell, who is known to have been Bailiff as "Keeper and Bailiff" in 1357
15th Century
Jean Perraunt and Thomas Pykworth 1405
Richard, Earl of Cambridge 1409-1412
Henry Muslow 1416
Sir John Bernard 1436-1442, 1444
John, Viscount Beaumont 1447
Ralph Boteler 1447
William de la Pole 1448
William Bertram 1448
Jean Nanfan 1452-1457 1460-1461
Governors:
DateGovernor
1470–1483Richard Harliston
1486–1494Matthew Baker
1494–1500Thomas Overay
1500–1502Jean Lempriere
1502–1531Sir Hugh Vaughan
1532–1534Sir Anthony Ughtred
1534–1536Sir Arthur Darcy
1536–1537Sir Thomas Vaux, Lord Vaux
1537–1550Sir Edward Seymour
1550–1574Sir Hugh Paulet
1574–1590Sir Amyas Paulet
1590–1600Sir Anthony Paulet
1600–1603Sir Walter Raleigh
1603–1630Sir John Peyton
1631–1643Sir Thomas Jermyn
1644–1651Sir Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans
1651–1654Colonel James Heane
1655–1659Colonel Robert Gibbon
1659–1660Colonel John Mason
1660Colonel Carew Raleigh
1660–1665Sir Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans
1665–1679Sir Thomas Morgan, 1st Baronet
1679–1684Sir John Lanier
1684–1703Thomas Jermyn
1704–1722General Henry Lumley
1723–1749Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham
1749–1761Lieutenant General John Huske
1761–1772George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle
1772–1795Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway
1795–1796Field Marshal Sir George Howard
1796–1807George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend
1807–1820John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham
1820–1854William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford

List of lieutenant governors of Jersey

Lieutenant Governors of Jersey have been:
TitleAppointedName
1634Sir Philippe de Carteret
26 August 1643Major Lydcott
24 November 1643Sir George Carteret
at least by 1689Edward Harris
3 March 1695Col. Thomas Collier
29 July 1715Robert Wilson
1723Magnus Kempenfelt
23 October 1727Col. George Howard
1732Peter Bettesworth
1738Maj-Gen. Jean Cavalier
1741Francis Best
1747Gregory Beake
12 August 1749William Deane
26 June 1753George Colingwood
Lieutenant Governor and Colonel on Staff:7 July 1770Lt-Col. Rudolph Bentinck
4 April 1771Major Moses Corbet
6 January 1781Major Francis Peirson
5 October 1797Lt-Gen. Andrew Gordon
21 June 1806Gen. Sir George Don
8 October 1814Gen. Sir Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner
9 May 1816Lt-Gen. Hugh Mackay Gordon
23 July 1821Gen. Sir Colin Halkett
26 November 1830Lt-Gen. Sir William Thornton
22 April 1835Maj-Gen. Archibald Campbell
14 September 1838Lt-Gen. Sir Edward Gibbs
16 January 1847Maj-Gen. Sir James Henry Reynett
30 April 1852Gen. Sir James Frederick Love
30 January 1857Maj-Gen. Godfrey Charles Mundy
18 September 1860Maj-Gen. Sir Robert Percy Douglas
5 October 1862B. Loch
23 October 1863Lt-Gen. Sir Burke Douglas Cuppage
1 October 1868Maj-Gen. Philip Melmoth Nelson Guy
1 October 1873Lt-Gen. Sir William Sherbrooke Ramsay Norcott
1 October 1878Lt-Gen. Lothian Nicholson
1 October 1883Maj-Gen. Henry Wray
1 November 1887Lt-Gen. Charles Brisbane Ewart
Lieutenant Governor and Commanding the Troops:1 November 1892Lt-Gen. Sir Edwin Markham
10 May 1895Lt-Gen. Sir Edward Hopton
1 November 1900Maj-Gen. Henry Richard Abadie
1904Maj-Gen. Hugh Sutlej Gough
16 June 1910Maj-Gen. Sir Alexander Nelson Rochfort
7 October 1916Maj-Gen. Sir Alexander Wilson
29 October 1920Maj-Gen. Sir William Douglas Smith
1924Maj-Gen. Sir Francis Richard Bingham
28 May 1929Maj-Gen. Edward Henry Willis
28 May 1934Maj-Gen. Sir Horace de Courcy Martelli
1939Maj-Gen. James Murray Robert Harrison
Head of the British Military Government:12 May 1945L.A. Freeman
Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief:25 August 1945Lt-Gen. Sir Arthur Edward Grasett
16 October 1953Adm. Sir Randolph Stewart Gresham Nicholson
15 November 1958Gen. Sir George Erskine
15 January 1964Vice-Adm. Sir John Michael Villiers
30 June 1969Air Chf Mshl Sir John Gilbert Davis
2 September 1974Gen. Sir Geoffrey Richard Desmond Fitzpatrick
26 November 1979Gen. Sir Peter John Frederick Whiteley
9 January 1985Adm. Sir William Thomas Pillar
1990Air Mshl Sir John Matthias Dobson Sutton
September 1995Gen. Sir Michael John Wilkes
24 January 2001Air Chf Mshl Sir John Cheshire
1 April 2006Lt-Gen Sir Andrew Ridgway
26 September 2011Gen. Sir John McColl
13 March 2017Air Chf Mshl Sir Stephen Dalton
8 October 2022Vce Adm Jerry Kyd

Flag

The lieutenant governor has his own flag in Jersey, the Union Flag defaced with the bailiwick's coat of arms.

Residence

The official residence of the lieutenant governor is Government House in St Saviour, Jersey. It was depicted on the Jersey £50 note during the period 1989–2010.