GUERNSEY OBJECTS to Sark

Whatever the pros and cons might be, however, the Guernsey authorities were not
prepared to lose Sark without acting, and a Commission was set up to study the
situation. Arising out of the deliberations of this Commission, a summons was served
on Helier de Carteret at the instance of the Guernsey Michaelmas Chief Pleas of 1581
to appear before the Royal Court of Guernsey and give an account of his actions. His
Seigneurship of Sark was disregarded, and he was described as merely as “a farmer of
Sark.”

Helier refused to obey the summons and as the Guernsey authorities could not compel
him to do so, they turned their attention to Philippe, only to meet with a similar
refusal. So on 31st May, 1582, Nic Carey, Andre Henry, Thomas Le Marchant and
Jean Andros, four of the Jurats of the Royal Court of Guernsey, crossed to Sark
accompanied by an appropriate guard, to make inquiries on the spot.

The outcome of this inquiry was that Edouard de Carteret, Bailiff, and two Jurats of
Sark, were brought before the Royal Court of Guernsey to answer the charge of
having set up a Court in Sark without due authority. Edouard was found guilty of
being a usurper and sentenced to imprisonment in Castle Cornet, then the official
prison. But as his offence was technical, he was freed on 21st July, 1582, on his own
petition, on condition that he would not return to Sark. He remained in St Peter Port,
dying there and being buried in the Town Church on 10th February 1601.