18th October 1688
Thomas Waite is buried at St Saviour
Thomas Waite, Member of Parliament for Rutland, was one of the 59 men who sat as judges at the trial of King Charles I, which convicted the king and sentenced him to death. Waite’s signature was on the death warrant.
There was some doubt over whether he had done this willingly but, whatever the truth might be, he was unwilling to enter a plea when, 11 years after the king’s execution, notable authority figures who had committed crimes during the English civil war were themselves brought to trial. Thus, he escaped suffering a similar fate, but was nonetheless sent to Jersey and jailed at Mont Orgueil, where he remained until his death.
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Other events that occured in October
Hitler orders the Channel Islands’ fortification
- Hitler ordered that the islands be fortified as part of his plans for an Atlantic Wall. The defences would therefore include between 200 and 250 strongpoints on each of the larger islands
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Jersey holds its first modern marathon
- Jersey held its first modern marathon in 2006 when 300 long-distance runners set off on a route that took them across the island.
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Jersey Airport’s runway ‘moves’
- The coordinates of the runway at Jersey Airport needed to be updated to account for shifts in the location of magnetic north.
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The first train runs on the Jersey Railway
- The Jersey Railway Company, which owned a line between St Helier Weighbridge and Corbiere, ran its first services on 25 October 1870.
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