On this day in 1618
Jersey governor Walter Raleigh is executed in London
Sir Walter Raleigh, responsible for bringing tobacco and – reputedly – potatoes to Britain, was governor of Jersey between 1600 and 1603, during which time he worked on strengthening its defences against a possible French invasion. Although he didn’t commission Elizabeth Castle, on which work had begun around 50 years earlier and been ramped up around 10 years prior to Raleigh’s arrival, he did name it in honour of the monarch of the day, Queen Elizabeth I.
Walter Raleigh in Jersey
Jersey Post issued a series of six stamps in Raleigh’s honour in January 2019. Speaking at the time, Melanie Gouzinis, head of the philatelic bureau, commented that Raleigh had been “very much a ‘hands on’ Governor, improving the militia and the Island’s defences, fostering trade and attending sittings of the court. The building of Elizabeth Castle in the bay of St Aubin in the south of the Island commenced 425 years ago, in 1594 and it was Raleigh who named it after Queen Elizabeth I, using the Latin words ‘Fort Isabelle Bellissima’ meaning ‘Elizabeth the most beautiful’.”
However, Raleigh’s time in Jersey was just a minor act in an impressive political career, during which he played an important role in the colonisation of North America. He was knighted in his early 30s and sailed to south Africa in search of El Dorado, a reputed city of gold. Unsuccessful on his first attempt, he conducted a second expedition, during which he raided a Spanish outpost which, being in direct contravention of Britain’s 1604 peace treaty with Spain that had brought the 19-year Anglo Spanish war to an end, put the king, then James I, in a very difficult position. Spain demanded that Raleigh be arrested and executed. Thus, the king had him taken into custody in Plymouth and brought to London. He was beheaded in the Palace of Westminster on 29 October 1618 and his head was placed in a velvet bag and given to his wife. She is reputed to have kept it through the remainder of her life – almost 30 years – after which it was reunited with the rest of his body in his tomb in Westminster.
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...and on this day in 1879
St Helier is ablaze
“But soon it became evident that the building was doomed. The flames were bursting through four windows, the premises being literally wrapped in fire.” So wrote a reporter for the British Press, quoted in Guernsey’s The Star, after witnessing a great conflagration in St Helier. No 12 Esplanade had caught fire some time in the later afternoon but nobody had paid the smell of smoke any attention, having been fooled by a similar smell the week before which turned out to be coming from some houses.
This time, it was a whole lot more serious. What was burning wasn’t wood in a grate, but a warehouse containing empty drinks bottles, six tons of potatoes and apples that had been packed for export to the mainland.
The fire gets worse
Residents from neighbouring houses and businesses did their best to put out the fire using buckets of water but, realising they were getting nowhere, called the fire service, which arrived eventually – after breaking down – and with a leaky hose that couldn’t pump the water quickly enough to prevent the flames from making rapid progress through the building and up to the roof.
News spread and spectators arrived by foot and train. Fortunately, the way the wind was blowing confined the fire to the warehouse and saved nearby buildings, but it wasn’t good news for number 12 which was gutted despite the arrival of 50 soldiers from Fort Regent. A similar fire 12 years later once again required assistance from soldiers stationed at the Fort.
Yesterday…
Jersey went into lockdown when it was struck by Spanish flu in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War.
Tomorrow…
Entrepreneur Charles Robin is born
Jersey born Charles Robin was a wealthy man by the age of 20 when he already had a shipping business dealing in cargo and fresh fish.