Decarteret, A Family History

Part 4

Legend of the Devil

Helier de Carteret was a protestant, a staunch supporter of the Established Church, whose influence on the minds and lives of the people was, in those days, as great as ever had been its predecessor's. Having, therefore, looked to the care of his companions' bodies, it was natural that he should next turn his attention to the cure of their souls.

Elie was the uncle of Dr Daniel Brevint, Dean of Lincoln and Prebendary of Durham, who married Anne de Carteret, daughter of Sir Philippe de Carteret, (1583-1644), who was Seigneur of St Ouen and Lieut-Governor and Bailiff of Jersey.

It is recorded that a fisherman who was indulging in witchcraft one day on Little Sark succeeded in raising the Devil, who asked him what were his commands. When the fisherman had recovered from his surprise and got back his speech, he said: "You must carry me wherever I order you".

The Devil agreed on condition that when they reached their destination the man, in his turn, would do whatever he commanded. So the man mounted on Satan's back and was carried over La Coupee.

"Allez plus loin – go on!" the fisherman ordered when the Devil paused for a rest. Being something of a linguist, Satan understood, and they went on until they came to the Port du Moulin, where the man's cottage stood, probably at L'Ecluse, which at that time was owned by William de Carteret, the son of Samuel of Little Sark.

As soon as they arrived there, the man cried out in a loud voice: "Au nom de Grand Dieu, arretez!" The Devil put the man down, and fled away shrieking, as the fisherman knew he must at the mention of God's name.

Sark is also reputed to have had a wizard in the 18th century. He was called Pierre de Carteret and nicknamed Le Vieux Diable – the old devil. He always worked at night, and fisherman who passed his cottage after dark swore that they heard him talking to the little devils who worked for him. They could not understand what he was saying, naturally, for he spoke in the devil's tongue.

He is said to have built a boat in a single night and to have launched it the next morning in Le Creux harbour, to the astonishment of his fellow islanders, who knew that he had used Black Art, since the boat was too large to go out of the door of the shed in which it had been built, and besides, the shed was nowhere near the sea.

Old Pierre was very wealthy, for his devils did all his work for him without pay. In addition, he had inherited a good sum from his French wife. He had crossed to France alone in a small open boat, and with an eye on the main chance had courted a young woman of gentle birth who believed him to be of equally gentle antecedents.

When he had married her, he was very cruel to her. He destroyed most of her furniture. Her parlour, for example, was mirrored from ceiling to floor, and into this exquisite room Pierre brought her horses, which, becoming frightened by their own reflections, smashed the mirrors with their hooves and destroyed the other furniture.

This young beautiful wife soon died of a broken heart. Pierre then returned to the Island where he married a Sark girl who was little more than a child.

When his hedges needed repairing, he merely gave an order to his little helpers, and the next morning the job was done. Every morning his daughter might be seen driving home the well-fed cow from the churchyard, where she had grazed it all night. Naturally, no one would buy milk or butter produced by this cow.

When Pierre had nothing else for his workers to do, they passed the time forging money. It has been suggested that this money was the origin of the Guernsey coin called a double, eight of which make one penney.