Lieutenant Governor of Jersey

The Bailiff greeting Lt Governor Andrew Ridgway in the Royal Square of St Helier on Liberation Day, 2010.

The lieutenant governor serves as the de facto head of state 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.[3]

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.

Bailiff Jean Hammond greeting Lt Governor William Norcott in an 1873 caricature.

Lt Governor Ridgway on Liberation Day, 2010

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.[4]

From 933,[5] the dukes of Normandy and then kings of England held the islands directly.[4] Beginning with Prince John on 8 February 1198,[6] 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).[4] 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.[4] 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.[4] 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.[7] 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),[8] 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).[9] 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.[10] 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.[10][11]

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.[12] 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;[13] 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.[14][15]

Governors have been:[16]

Lieutenant Governors of Jersey have been:[16]

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

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.

• Bailiff of Jersey
• Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey

• Official website