The Jersey
Law Review - October 2003
SHORTER ARTICLES AND NOTES
LE CONNÉTABLE ET SA PAROISSE
Steven Pallot
1 Jersey
has been divided into twelve parishes for a very considerable time. Owing to the lack of any documentary
evidence, it is difficult to assess how ancient these divisions are. The opinion has been expressed that the
five central parishes of Jersey – St Saviour,
St John, St
Mary, St Peter and St Lawrence
– date back to around 475.
Physical evidence would indicate that a church or chapel existed on the
site of St Lawrence church possibly as long ago as the beginning of the seventh
century. However, this was long before the ninth
century when the Vikings made their appearance and long before the year 911
when Rollo was recognised as Duke of Normandy. The Channel Islands
were added to the Duchy in about 933. According to Le Patourel, writing of the history of the Channel Islands before 1200, there is good evidence that
the Jersey parishes were fully organised and
that there was a considerable extent of ducal domain in the Island
and, that as early as the eleventh century, it had a
regular administration. The twelve
parishes formed one rural deanery.
The ecclesiastical parish developed early into an important unit of
secular administration and the parish must have been a social entity of some
antiquity.
2 The first known reference to a Connétable
in the records of the Island is dated 1462 but, if the parish had developed
into a unit of secular administration as early as Le Patourel suggests, the
office of Connétable must have been in existence long before
then. Bois links the office of Connétable
to that of High Constable which was created in England by statute in 1285 and that
of Petty or Parish Constable which was instituted at a time not definitely
known, but somewhere about the reign of Edward III (1327 – 1377). This is difficult to reconcile with Le
Patourel’s research, which points to the established organisation of the
secular parish well before 1285, let alone the fourteenth century.
3 Whichever is the accurate
historical analysis, it can fairly be deduced that the Connétable and
his parish represent an institution which has existed in one form or another as
an administrative unit for nigh on a thousand years.
4 Of the office of Connétable
Jurat Charles Le Quesne in 1856 wrote -
“The
chief officer [of the parish] is the Connétable …, who is elected
by the parishioners for three years.
To him is confided the general direction of the affairs of the
parish. He is mayor of his parish,
for the name does not convey to English minds the nature of the office. He is president of the parish assembly,
or vestry, and of all the parish committees. He is head of the police; and his
duties, in some cases, bear an analogy to those of a magistrate, or a ‘juge
de paix’. Being chosen
from among the best men in the parish, he is looked up to by his parishioners;
and he often quietly, in the country parishes particularly, settles many
disputes and differences. It is his
duty to see that order is preserved ….. The Connétable …, by
virtue of his office, is a member of the States or Legislative
Assembly of the Island. He is therefore a person of considerable
importance and influence in his parish; and, as a member of the States, he has
a voice in the general direction of the affairs of the Island. The office is one much sought after; one
highly considered; and, in some cases, it is a means of attaining a higher
office, that of Jurat, by affording opportunities of displaying abilities,
honesty of purpose, a talent and aptitude for public business, and a zeal for
the public welfare, which are the best recommendations to public favour and
regard.”
5 The role of the office of Connétable
in fostering the early growth of the Island’s
democratic institutions cannot be overstated. The democratic credentials of the Connétable
are of early origin. A Charter
of Henry VII, dated 17th
June, 1495, provided that –
“ .... les Connétables
de chacune Paroisse de la dite Isle soient franchement esleus et choisis par la
plus ancienne partie des Gens de la dite Paroisse sans aucune recommendation du
Capitaine ou des dits Jurés en cette partie”.
6 Thus, the electorate (such as it
was in the fifteenth century) of the parish was not to be influenced or coerced
by those in authority or by what today some might term ‘the
establishment’. Le Geyt, writing at the end of the
seventeenth century, recited that in affairs of grande importance the
Bailiff and Jurats had ‘from time immemorial’ possessed the power
and privilege to convene the clergy and the Connétables of the Island to form together “un Commun Conseil,
ordinairement appelé les Estats”. Thus, in this early insular parliament
(whose powers had yet to be separated properly from those of the Royal Court) the Connétable
was the true voice of his parish and the Connétables collectively
were the true voice of the people of the Island
or, at any rate, those who were pères de famille paying
rates. The importance of parochial
representation in this early Assembly was underlined by the right (indeed duty)
of the senior centenier to sit in the States if the Connétable was
unavoidably prevented from doing so par quelque réel et
légitime empeschement.
7 The Connétable
was (and is) of course the president of the Parish Assembly. Restricted in earlier times to
ratepayers, its membership now is that of the entire electorate of the
parish. The Assembly presumably is
of similar antiquity to the office of Connétable itself. Its officers (apart from the Connétable)
are –
(i) the
centeniers,
(ii) the procureurs
du bien public,
(iii) the surveillants,
(iv) the almoners,
(v) the
vingteniers,
(vi) the
constable’s officers, and
(vii) the inspecteurs
des chemins.
8 The Connétable is
required to convene an Assembly within eight days of receiving a request to do
so from four or more members of the Assembly. The official notice must be placed in
the Parish box (boîte grillée) in the Parish cemetery and
notice must be given in the Jersey Gazette at least two days before holding the
Assembly. The Connétable is
required to put every matter proposed and seconded to discussion and to the
vote.
9 The traditional functions of the
Parish Assembly were stated in the nineteenth century to be –
(i) the
general superintendence of the parochial police;
(ii) the
care of the roads;
(iii) the
promotion of local improvements (new roads or drains, the removal of nuisances,
etc);
(iv) the
administration generally of local charities;
(v) the
making of rates;
(vi) the
administration concurrently with the Constable of relief to the poor.
10 The functions in (i) and (iv) above have
largely given way to new statutory regimes. The Attorney General is titular head of
the Honorary Police and, in relation to charities, whilst parishes undoubtedly
continue to have much involvement, it can no longer be said that they have the
function, in a formal sense, of administering local charities. An important addition, however, to the
original list of functions is the consideration by the Assembly of licensing
applications under the Licensing (Jersey) Law
1974, as amended.
11 Parishes used to be responsible for all
roads within their boundaries and it became the custom to levy a small rate to
raise finance for this purpose.
There has, however, been some transfer of administration to the
States. The Loi (1914) sur
la voirie provides for main roads (grandes routes) to be
administered by the States and minor roads (chemins vicinaux) to be
administered by the parishes. Each
must establish a Roads Committee (Comité des Chemins) and roads
inspectors (inspecteurs du travail des chemins), two for each Vingtaine,
must be appointed by the Assembly.
12 Down the centuries to the present day, the
experience and insight gained by the Connétable from his
presidency of the Assembly have conferred on the holder of the office a unique
authority when speaking in the States on matters affecting the parish. In most cases, the Connétable will
previously have served in other capacities as an officer of the parochial
Assembly. Freely elected by the
same electoral process as that which applies to a deputy of the parish, the Connétable
is as much the authentic voice of the parish today as in earlier centuries
when the remainder of the States consisted not of Senators and Deputies, but of
Jurats and Rectors.
13 It has been proposed that the voice of the Connétable
no longer be heard in the States; that the States consist of deputies alone
and that the functions of the office of Connétable be confined to
the internal business of the parish and its Assembly. It is even thought that there exist some
Connétables who hold that narrow view.
14 To some it may seem ironic that, whilst the United Kingdom
is preoccupied with reform of a non elected second chamber, the office which
was the seed of democracy in Jersey might no
longer have a place in the Island’s
democratic forum. Some may think
that the severing of one of the most enduring links in European history ought not to be effected unless, in that link, some
real vice is apparent. What
conspicuous vice there is in the Connétable, freely elected by
the parish, possessed of unique experience, having a voice in the Parliament of
this Island, is not readily discernable.
15 Conversely others may believe that there is
a positive advantage, which has nothing to do with history, in maintaining a
direct link through the Connétables between the parish assemblies
and the States. The parish
assemblies are sometimes criticised for being sparsely attended and amenable to
manipulation by ‘packing’ with supporters. But a similar criticism might be levied
against the electoral system itself, particularly in by-elections, where a
deputy or even a senator may be elected to office by a relatively tiny
percentage of the electorate. For
democracy to flourish it is necessary that all the people play their part in
the democratic process. What has
been regularly proved in the context of parish assemblies is that, if the issue
is important, parishioners will generally attend. And even if the issue is not
particularly important, the assembly provides an opportunity for the airing of
local concerns and grievances. The Connétable,
who chairs the assembly, is bound to have regard to and to reflect those local
concerns and grievances in the States Assembly. The deputy, or one of them, may take up
the grievances of individual constituents.
But it is for the Connétable to represent as he thinks fit
the views of the parish as a whole.
That is healthy for democracy.
Steven Pallot is an advocate of the Royal Court of Jersey who is a Legal Adviser in
the Law Officers’ Department.