# Lieutenant Governor of Jersey

The lieutenant governor of Jersey (Jèrriais: Gouvèrneux d'Jèrri, "Governor of Jersey"), properly styled the lieutenant-governor of Jersey (French: Lieutenant-Gouverneur de 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 (French: Gouverneur de 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 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 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 (Latin: dominus insularum; French: seigneur des îles). Actual administrative control was separately placed with a warden of the isles (custos insularum; gardien des îles), 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 (coronatores juratos) 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 Edward I'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 (ballivus insularum; bailli des îles), 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 1461–1468 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 (capitaine des îles) or captain-in-chief (capitaine en chef). Shortly thereafter in 1473, the previous captains or subwardens (subcustos) at Jersey and Guernsey were replaced by separate captains or governors (gouverneur) 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 Charles II—who had previously escaped to France via Jersey—rewarded 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 duties—previously levied by an assembly consisting of the governor, bailiff, and jurats—has 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

Governors have been:
| Date | Governor |
| 1470–1483 | Richard Harliston (Captain in Chief of Jersey) |
| 1486–1494 | Matthew Baker |
| 1494–1500 | Thomas Overay |
| 1500–1502 | Jean Lempriere |
| 1502–1531 | Sir Hugh Vaughan (first to be known as Governor) |
| 1532–1534 | Sir Anthony Ughtred |
| 1534–1536 | Sir Arthur Darcy |
| 1536–1537 | Sir Thomas Vaux, Lord Vaux |
| 1537–1550 | Sir Edward Seymour |
| 1550–1574 | Sir Hugh Paulet |
| 1547–1590 | Sir Amyas Paulet |
| 1590–1600 | Sir Anthony Paulet |
| 1600–1603 | Sir Walter Raleigh |
| 1603–1630 | Sir John Peyton |
| 1631–1643 | Sir Thomas Jermyn |
| 1644–1651 | Sir Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans |
| 1651–1654 | Colonel James Heane |
| 1655–1659 | Colonel Robert Gibbon |
| 1659–1660 | Colonel John Mason |
| 1660 | Colonel Carew Raleigh |
| 1660–1665 | Sir Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans |
| 1665–1679 | Sir Thomas Morgan, 1st Baronet |
| 1679–1684 | Sir John Lanier |
| 1684–1703 | Thomas Jermyn |
| 1704–1722 | General Henry Lumley |
| 1723–1749 | Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham |
| 1749–1761 | Lieutenant General John Huske |
| 1761–1772 | George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle |
| 1772–1795 | Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway |
| 1795–1796 | Field Marshal Sir George Howard |
| 1796–1807 | George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend |
| 1807–1820 | John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham |
| 1820–1854 | William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford (Last Governor) |

## List of lieutenant governors of Jersey

Lieutenant Governors of Jersey have been:
| Title | Appointed | Name |
| | 1634 | Sir Philippe de Carteret (Royalist) |
| | 26 August 1643 | Major Lydcott (Parliament) |
| | 24 November 1643 | Sir George Carteret (Royalist) |
| | at least by 1689 | Edward Harris$^{:164}$ |
| | 3 March 1695 | Col. Thomas Collier |
| | 29 July 1715 | Robert Wilson |
| | 1723 | Magnus Kempenfelt |
| | 23 October 1727 | Col. George Howard |
| | 1732 | Peter Bettesworth |
| | 1738 | Maj-Gen. Jean Cavalier |
| | 1741 | Francis Best |
| | 1747 | Gregory Beake |
| | 12 August 1749 | William Deane |
| | 26 June 1753 | George Colingwood |
| Lieutenant Governor and Colonel on Staff: | 7 July 1770 | Lt-Col. Rudolph Bentinck (acting) |
| | 4 April 1771 | Major Moses Corbet |
| | 6 January 1781 | Major Francis Peirson (acting) (killed in action, 6 January 1781) |
| | 5 October 1797 | Lt-Gen. Andrew Gordon |
| | 21 June 1806 | Gen. Sir George Don |
| | 8 October 1814 | Gen. Sir Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner |
| | 9 May 1816 | Lt-Gen. Hugh Mackay Gordon |
| | 23 July 1821 | Gen. Sir Colin Halkett |
| | 26 November 1830 | Lt-Gen. Sir William Thornton |
| | 22 April 1835 | Maj-Gen. Archibald Campbell |
| | 14 September 1838 | Lt-Gen. Sir Edward Gibbs |
| | 16 January 1847 | Maj-Gen. Sir James Henry Reynett |
| | 30 April 1852 | Gen. Sir James Frederick Love |
| | 30 January 1857 | Maj-Gen. Godfrey Charles Mundy |
| | 18 September 1860 | Maj-Gen. Sir Robert Percy Douglas |
| | 5 October 1862 | B. Loch (acting) |
| | 23 October 1863 | Lt-Gen. Sir Burke Douglas Cuppage |
| | 1 October 1868 | Maj-Gen. Philip Melmoth Nelson Guy |
| | 1 October 1873 | Lt-Gen. Sir William Sherbrooke Ramsay Norcott |
| | 1 October 1878 | Lt-Gen. Lothian Nicholson |
| | 1 October 1883 | Maj-Gen. Henry Wray |
| | 1 November 1887 | Lt-Gen. Charles Brisbane Ewart |
| Lieutenant Governor and Commanding the Troops: | 1 November 1892 | Lt-Gen. Sir Edwin Markham |
| | 10 May 1895 | Lt-Gen. Sir Edward Hopton |
| | 1 November 1900 | Maj-Gen. Henry Richard Abadie |
| | 1904 | Maj-Gen. Hugh Sutlej Gough |
| | 16 June 1910 | Maj-Gen. Sir Alexander Nelson Rochfort |
| | 7 October 1916 | Maj-Gen. Sir Alexander Wilson |
| | 29 October 1920 | Maj-Gen. Sir William Douglas Smith |
| | 1924 | Maj-Gen. Sir Francis Richard Bingham |
| | 28 May 1929 | Maj-Gen. Edward Henry Willis |
| | 28 May 1934 | Maj-Gen. Sir Horace de Courcy Martelli |
| | 1939 | Maj-Gen. James Murray Robert Harrison |
| (German Occupation 1940–1945) | | |
| Head of the British Military Government: | 12 May 1945 | L.A. Freeman |
| Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief: | 25 August 1945 | Lt-Gen. Sir Arthur Edward Grasett |
| | 16 October 1953 | Adm. Sir Randolph Stewart Gresham Nicholson |
| | 15 November 1958 | Gen. Sir George Erskine |
| | 15 January 1964 | Vice-Adm. Sir John Michael Villiers |
| | 30 June 1969 | Air Chf Mshl Sir John Gilbert Davis |
| | 2 September 1974 | Gen. Sir Geoffrey Richard Desmond Fitzpatrick |
| | 26 November 1979 | Gen. Sir Peter John Frederick Whiteley |
| | 9 January 1985 | Adm. Sir William Thomas Pillar |
| | 1990 | Air Mshl Sir John Matthias Dobson Sutton |
| | September 1995 | Gen. Sir Michael John Wilkes |
| | 24 January 2001 | Air Chf Mshl Sir John Cheshire |
| | 1 April 2006 | Lt-Gen Sir Andrew Ridgway |
| | 26 September 2011 | Gen. Sir John McColl |
| | 13 March 2017 | Air Chf Mshl Sir Stephen Dalton |
| | 8 October 2022 | Vce 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.