The Governor of Alderney was the title of the
Leader of the Channel Island of
Alderney
Alderney (; french: Aurigny ; Auregnais: ) is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependencies, Crown dependency. It is long and wide.
The island's area is , making i ...
between 1660 and 1825. The position eventually became a hereditary governorship after the fief was purchased from the
Crown.
History
In 1660, as a reward for his loyalty to the Crown during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...
,
Edward de Carteret was granted the title of Governor of Alderney by
King Charles II. De Carteret as Governor of Alderney superseded
Nicholas Ling, the leader of Alderney as Lieutenant-Governor under
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three ...
, as the leader of Alderney while Ling retained the Lieutenant-Governorship under de Carteret until he died.
When de Carteret died, the governorship was in abeyance with acting governors taking the titular leadership of Alderney until 1680 when his widow sold the title to
Sir Edmund Andros
Sir Edmund Andros (6 December 1637 – 24 February 1714) was an English colonial administrator in British America. He was the governor of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence. At other times, Andros served ...
.
In 1683, Andros was granted the island of Alderney for ninety-nine years in exchange for an annual rent of thirteen
shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...
s. This led to the Governor of Alderney holding a hereditary position similar to the
Seigneur of Sark
The Seigneur of Sark is the head of Sark in the Channel Islands. " Seigneur" is the French word for "lord", and a female head of Sark is called Dame of Sark, of which there have been three. The husband of a female ruler of Sark is not a consort ...
. When Andros was appointed as the
Governor of New York
The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor h ...
and left Alderney for
British America
British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas fro ...
, he delegated the role of governor of Alderney to
Thomas Le Mesurier, whom he was related to through marriage. After Andros died, the Le Mesurier family took control of the governorship with the initial grant being extended by
King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...
.
In 1825, the governor,
John Le Mesurier III resigned the grant of the island, returning it to the Crown in exchange for an annual pension of £700 (approximately £ in 2014) in an agreement which eventually expired in 1862.
[{{cite web, url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37773/37773-h/37773-h.htm#Page_22 , title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Memoir of Sir Edmund Andros, Knt., by William Henry Whitmore , publisher=Project Gutenberg , date=2011-10-17 , accessdate=2014-02-15]
References
Politics of Alderney