25 Facts About George Carteret

George Carteret was one of the original lords proprietor of the former British colony of Carolina and New Jersey.

George Carteret acquired the manor of Haynes, Bedfordshire, in about 1667.

George Carteret was the son of Elias de George Carteret and Elizabeth Dumaresq of Jersey, who both died in 1640.

George Carteret was "bred for the sea" and served as an officer in various naval ships, being commissioned as a Lieutenant of the Garland in 1629, and later in 1631, serving under Vice-Admiral Sir John Penington on the Bonaventure.

George Carteret would join a small group of Naval Captains in presenting a memorial of the Navy to King Charles I, which according to Samuel Pepys, George Carteret was responsible for presenting and recommending the first use of frigates in the Royal Navy, from blueprints of a Frenchman in Saint-Malo.

In 1637, George Carteret became involved in raids in the Pirate Republic of Sale in order to rescue Christian captives that were held there.

In 1641, George Carteret was then a Vice-Admiral in command of the Rainbow.

George Carteret quietly tried to carry on his duties at Comptroller of the Navy during the political fallout that had erupted between the supporters of Charles II and the supporters of Parliament.

Many within the rank and file of the Royal Navy supported the Parliamentarian cause and the Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, a keen parliamentarian, was made the High Lord Admiral of the Royal Navy in 1642 over George Carteret's former commanding officer, John Penington, who was a royalist.

George Carteret governed Jersey with great severity, imprisoning Parliamentarian supporters and confiscating their property.

George Carteret organised the Jersey Militia along parish lines, creating twelve distinct units each with 150 infantrymen under a captain, a lieutenant, as well as a few light guns.

George Carteret had a small private army made up of Royalist veterans, who had fled from England after the defeat of Charles I, and a collection of foreign mercenaries.

George Carteret dispatched the militia of Grouville to defend the town of St Helier, the militia of St Lawrence to defend the harbour at St Aubin, and the militia of St Brelade to defend the Bay of St Brelade.

George Carteret noticed that some of the ships were heading for the shoreline and he gave the order for his army to prepare for battle.

George Carteret was determined to hold out at Elizabeth Castle, in the hopes that a royalist relief force from France would arrive, or in the hopes of frustrating the parliamentarians so much that they abandoned the siege.

Sir George Carteret was allowed to take a single vessel, sail with all his possessions to France, and formally join the household of the exiled Charles II.

George Carteret stayed in exile in France for a six years until he was imprisoned in 1657, thence he ventured to Venice.

George Carteret was sworn into the Privy Council, appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, and constituted Treasurer of the Navy.

George Carteret's influence seems to have been at its height in 1665, when he boasted to Pepys that the King did nothing without his knowledge; however, as the naval war dragged on, the Treasurer of the Navy was an obvious target of the opposition, and Pepys noted that by the spring of 1666 Carteret was being attacked on all sides.

George Carteret had, at an early date, taken a warm interest in the colonization of America.

In 1665, George Carteret was one of the drafters of the Concession and Agreement, a document that provided freedom of religion in the colony of New Jersey.

George Carteret was a signatory to The Several Declarations of The Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa, a document published in 1667 which led to the expansion of the Royal Africa Company.

George Carteret was, in fact, generally regarded as an honest man.

Shortly before Carteret's death, the king proposed to give him the title Baron Carteret, but Carteret died too soon, so the honour was granted to his grandson George.

George Carteret is seen as a divisive figure in Jersey, with some seeing him very much as swashbuckling local hero and others as a prolific slave trader who made his fortune through piracy and slavetrading.