# data[].attributes.headline
Free guided educational tours and in school visits with the Jersey Heritage Education Team for local schools 

# data[].attributes.subject
Free guided educational tours and in school visits with the Jersey Heritage Education Team for local schools 

# data[].attributes.body
Contact education@jerseyheritage.org for booking and more information.

# data[].attributes.body
This shows a photo of the original list of demands that the rioters had in 1769. After being written down they were scribbled out in a way that now stops them being read.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
People! Power! Protest! redacted document from 1769 Corn Riots

# data[].attributes.body
This photo shows the exhibition within the Jersey Museum.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The demands of the Corn Riots protestors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Lempriere already controlled many fiefs, or areas of land. He also filled the important positions with his relatives, like brother Philip as  Attorney-General  and Receiver of the Revenues. His father, father-in-law, cousins and brothers-in-law were  Jurats  and this was a time when Jurats were much more important than they are today.

The owners of the Fiefs, the Seigneurs, could demand payment from anyone that lived there; these payments were called tithes. Every year, most Islanders had to pay to their Seigneurs so many chickens or apples as a  rente . They also had to pay in wheat or corn, which most families needed themselves to make bread.

The Lemprieres would fix the value of the 'wheat rente'. When wheat or corn was scarce, the price increased, so the Seigneurs stood to receive more money and poor people couldn't afford to pay, either in cash or in wheat if there was a bad harvest. Even in a good year, Jersey did not have the land to meet the needs of the islanders for wheat or corn; 1768 was also a very bad year for harvesting. Prices went up as wheat was scarce, so many faced starvation.

Lempriere had gotten rid of the law banning wheat exports. The Lemprieres actually arranged to take wheat out of storage to ship to France in order to sell it at a high price, and they even organised for shipments from Southampton to be diverted there under false papers. Many people were killed at Cherbourg and other places in France in riots for this food.

Back in Jersey, 14 women were arrested in June on the quay for allegedly trying to ship small quantities of wheat in the vessel. Soon afterwards, several hundred more rushed to the harbour to prevent this or other ships from sailing and the Lieut-Governor, who had turned up with troops to calm matters, was actually persuaded to unload the wheat cargoes for sale on the quay, so that the Island women had something to feed to their families.

In Trinity about 200 people gathered together behind Thomas Jacques Gruchy whilst at St Martin, Amice Durell from St Helier, carrying a long stick with a lantern, was leading another group of about 100 into the capital. Within a few hours between 400 and 500 hundred "revolutionaries" arrived in St Helier and passed by the hospital, then under construction. The workers closed up the site and they all marched to the Royal Court.

The protesters went to the Court House and forced their way in, compelling the Governor and Court, then sitting, to sign an order consisting of 13 Articles. Lempriere and many of the Jurats ran off to Elizabeth Castle out of reach of the protesters and put themselves under the protection of a military force.

Several of the key figures were arrested over the next year. Lempriere wanted them hanged; Privy Council in England said no and issued a full pardon. Lieutenant Governor Ball then died, leaving Colonel Bentinck in charge. The Colonel soon discovered that there was good reason for much of the public discontent and eventually those involved received the King's Pardon.

Bentinck gathered together what regulations, laws and ordinances he could find, and massively limited the powers of the Royal Court. It also stated "that no political ordinances should be passed except by the whole Assembly of the States". This would be later known as the Code of 1771.

Lempriere would still carry on increasing wheat rentes, and clung to power until 1781, when he agreed to step down...so long as his son could take over. After his death, the first formations of political parties on the island started; it really was the beginning of democracy on the island.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Corn Riots of 1769 and the Code of 1771

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lempriere already controlled many fiefs, or areas of land. He also filled the important positions with his relatives, like brother Philip as  Attorney-General  and Receiver of the Revenues. His father, father-in-law, cousins and brothers-in-law were  Jurats  and this was a time when Jurats were much more important than they are today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This year, Jersey has an extra bank holiday, commemorating the Jersey Corn Riots! How much do you know about the Corn Riots and how local people made a change to the way Jersey was ruled?

Find out more on these pages and visit the People! Power! Protest! exhibition at Jersey Museum & Art Gallery to explore how the right to protest has shaped and influenced the Island that we know today.

Sign up for our Banner Making Workshops on Saturday 25 September, and stand out from the crowd.

What were the Corn Riots all about?

A monopoly on power

During the 18th century, power in Jersey was concentrated in the hands of the Lemprière family. In 1750, Charles Lemprière (image 1) was appointed Lieutenant Bailiff, while his brother Philippe was named Receiver-General.

One of Charles Lemprière's major opponents within the Island was Nicholas Fiott. He was a captain and merchant who had disagreements with Lemprière going back many years. Things came to a head in the mid-1760s when Fiott struggled to find a lawyer to represent him in the Royal Court as they were all appointed by Lemprière.

Finally, Fiott took his frustrations to the Court. This was the opportunity for which Lemprière had been waiting. Fiott made his objections in writing and was prosecuted by Lemprière for insulting members of the Court. Fiott was fined and sentenced to 'amende honorable', which meant that he had to get down on his knees and pray for the forgiveness of God, the King and the Court. He refused to comply with the sentence and was sent to prison for a month.On his release, Fiott left the Island.

Rising food prices

In 1767, people protested about the export of grain from the Island. Anonymous threats were made against shipowners and a law was passed the following year to keep corn in Jersey. In August 1769 the States of Jersey repealed this law, claiming that crops in the Island were plentiful. There was suspicion that this was a ploy to raise the price of wheat, which would be beneficial to the rich, many of whom had 'rentes' owed to them on properties that were payable in wheat. As major landowners, the Lemprière family stood to profit hugely.

Acts of resistance

In the summer of 1769, a ship loaded with corn for export was raided by a group of women who demanded that the sailors unload their cargo and sell it in the Island. 'Let us die on the spot, rather than by languishing in famine. God hath given us corn, and we will keep it, in spite of the Lemprières, and the court, for if we trust to them they will starve us' (image 2).

The Corn Riots

On Thursday 28 September 1769, a Court called the Assize d'Héritage was sitting, hearing cases relating to property disputes. The Lieutenant Bailiff, Charles Lemprière, sat as the Head of the Court. Meanwhile, a group of disgruntled individuals from Trinity, St Martin, St John, St Lawrence and St Saviour marched towards Town where their numbers were swelled by residents of St Helier. The group was met at the door of the Royal Court and was urged to disperse and send its demands in a more respectful manner. However, the crowd forced its way into the Court Room armed with clubs and sticks. Inside, they ordered that their demands be written down in the Court book. Although the King later commanded that the lines be removed from the book (image 3), a transcription survives that shows the crowd's demands.

The demands of the Corn Riots protestors included:

* That the price of wheat be lowered and set at 20 sols per cabot.

* That foreigners be ejected from the Island.

* That his Majesty's tithes be reduced to 20 sols per vergée.

* That the value of the liard coin be set to 4 per sol.

* That there should be a limit on the sales tax.

* That seigneurs stop enjoying the practice of champart (the right to every twelfth sheaf of corn or bundle of flax).

* That seigneurs end the right of 'Jouir des Successions'(the right to enjoy anyone's estate for a year and a day if they die without heirs).

* That branchage fines could no longer be imposed.

* That Rectors could no longer charge tithes except on apples.

* That charges against Captain Nicholas Fiott be dropped and that he be allowed to return to the Island without an inquiry.

* That the Customs' House officers be ejected.

The aftermath

In the days following the riot there was relative peace in the Island. On Saturday the demands were published in the Public Market, and on Sunday they were proclaimed in the majority of the parishes. On Sunday evening, however, the Lieutenant Bailiff and the Jurats fled to Elizabeth Castle (image 4) for safety. Perhaps there was a threat received, or they thought it would look good politically if they seemed to be in danger.

On 6 October, a meeting of the States of Jersey was held at the Castle when it was agreed that Charles Lemprière, together with two Jurats, and Philippe Lemprière, the Attorney General, would journey to London in order to present their difficulties to the Privy Council, representing the Crown. (Image 5)

At first, the Privy Council was outraged by their reports and commanded that the demands of the rioters be erased from the Court records. On 1 November, a Royal Pardon and a reward of £100 was offered to any rioters who named the ringleaders. After the full situation in the Island became clear, the protestors were eventually pardoned.

Tom Gruchy

Tom Gruchy led the main group of protestors from Trinity during the 1769 Corn Riots. He may have been influenced by revolutionary political ideas from America where he lived for many years.

As a young man, Gruchy had emigrated to America where he married Mary Dumaresq and prospered. He made his fortune in Boston as the owner and commander of a British privateer and as a smuggler. He and his wife lived in a grand house and kept an enslaved black girl called Tamuse as their servant. When his fortune was lost, he returned to Jersey where he became a churchwarden and parish official in Trinity.

At one Parish Assembly he was reported as reading out a list of reforms and warning of a potential revolt if the demands of the people were not listened to.

Law and order

Colonel Rudolph Bentinck, a Dutchman, was sent to the Island with five companies of soldiers in order to bring peace after the Corn Riots and to start an investigation. He discovered that the situation was not as serious as had been reported but immediate changes were still put in place. It was once again made illegal to export crops and a committee was set up to examine the distribution of grain. In 1770 Bentinck was named Lieutenant-Governor which gave him even more authority.

The Code of Laws of 1771

(Image 6)

In September 1770, Bentinck declared that a set of rules and regulations be written down to make the Law as fair as possible. The aim was that everyone '...be no more obliged to Live in a continual dread of becoming liable to punishments, for disobeying Laws it was morally impossible for them to have the least knowledge of.'

Bentinck's Code was introduced in 1771 and clearly laid down the Laws of the Island. It also divided the power to make the laws and enforce the laws between the States of Jersey and the Royal Court. Charles Lemprière remained as Lieutenant Bailiff but he had lost his monopoly on power.

The Corn Riots had started Jersey on the road to reform and a fairer society.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This year, Jersey has an extra bank holiday, commemorating the Jersey Corn Riots! How much do you know about the Corn Riots and how local people made a change to the way Jersey was ruled? Find out more on these pages and visit the People! Power! Protest!

# data[].attributes.body
The code of 1771 was created after the Corn Riots – the volume has 335 pages containing all the written laws and ordinances of the Island up to that time. It was printed in St Malo at a time when, we may assume, the art of printing was not well established in the island.

The Code of 1771 covered the legislation of several centuries in its 335 pages. The first volume of Jersey Laws immediately after the Code has 512 pages and represents local legislation from 1771 to 1850. The last volume of Jersey laws has 574 pages and is dated 1937 and 1938.

Most, if not all, of the restrictions in the code still in force in 1939 have now been repealed. The Code was updated in 1962, and it was only then that the regulations relating to Sunday observance and testing of cider lost the force of law. The Code in its revised form was republished in 2009.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Monday 29 March 2021

On the 250th Anniversary of the '1771 Code', the team responsible for drawing up Jersey's laws spoke to Express about drafting legislation in the age of covid, and what the future holds for their office.

250 years ago, Jersey brought together all its legislation into one comprehensive book for the very first time.
Pictured: The original 1771 code (left) is now available to view online in both its original, official version and the English translation.
Commonly known as the '1771 Code', the document was a direct response to the Corn Riots of two years prior, where one of the rioters' key complaints was that the island's courts were enacting laws without publishing them for islanders to see, leaving them clueless as to whether they were breaking the law or not.

Two-and-a-half centuries on, the Legislative Drafting Office is now an independent office working in tandem with the States Greffe, offering a service to both Ministers and States Members alike to help them draft laws in the appropriate and correct fashion, as well as publishing up-to-date laws on their website.

For the office, accessibility to the law for islanders continues to be a key concern. Launched yesterday, their 'Beyond 250' project looks to further increase the ease at which islanders can engage with and understand the rules that govern their day-to-day life.

"The Beyond 250 idea is that we're taking that forward in what we're doing on the website to make sure that Jersey people can access all of Jersey's legislation in one place, up to date and current," Senior Legislative Drafter Matthew Waddington explained.
Pictured: The 'Beyond 250' project aims to increase accessibility to Jersey's law, as part of celebrating 250 years since the 1771 Code.
The project is planned to run to end of September to mark the anniversary of the Corn Riots themselves, when the States Greffe will hold a 'Parliament Week', and proposals for an extra bank holiday at the time have been lodged.

One of the key outcomes the office are hoping will come alongside the initiative is the implementation of a brand new law.

Since the Law Revision Jersey (2003) Law was brought in, the office has been publishing an annually revised physical edition of the legislation showing the changes as of 1 January of the published year. However, with the documents usually published in April, they would often soon be outdated, if not already by the time they were published.

With this new law, the online list of Jersey's consolidated legislation - which is currently updated as soon as a new law is passed - would replace these annually released books as the officially recognised version, and used in court as such.

"Since May of 2019, we've kept the law absolutely bang up to date [online], so what we're doing now is using legal powers to say that's the official version... the law also provides for duties on the Principle Legislative Drafter to publish everything and keep it up to date going forward," Principle Legislative Drafter Lucy Marsh-Smith said.
Pictured: The Jersey Archive has an exhibition detailing the 1769 Corn Riots, which led to the 1771 Code being collated.
As Ms. Marsh-Smith pointed out, collating the law solely as these books "would have been hopeless for covid, because I think we've done about 120 covid orders altogether now, and it's constantly changing."

The pandemic has led the team to work at a pace like never before.

"We had to produce legislation very quickly," Ms. Marsh-Smith said. "We had to produce an enabling law first of all to give us the powers to be able to do things by regulations, and regulations then to do things by orders so that the Minister could produce orders without the need to go to the States."

Even then, it was not as simple as just handing over the power to legislate to Ministers - safeguards needed to be put in place to make sure Ministers was not given absolute power, and ensure that any decisions were kept in check.
Pictured: The Draft Legislation (Jersey) Law 202- is due to be voted on by the States Assembly on 11 May.
"We had to have the safeguards in place by first of all the authority from the law, and then for the regulations to set out the framework of what the Minister can and cannot do," she continued.

"We've gone through a whole load of orders with limited duration, so that's forced the Minister to reconsider every so many weeks or whatever the time period is, whether they still need that legislation, and then we've just been modifying it."

She added: "It's not the way we normally work... we've fitted that round our normal schedule, and of course we had Brexit as well, and because we've got the election next year, it's a very busy time."

Though the urgency to keep up-to-date-laws as accessible as possible is one of the main considerations of the 'Beyond 250' project, another element they are deeply conscious of is making historic laws as easily available as possible.

"People don't necessarily need to know what the law is today, they want to know what the law was for the last tax year, or for a particular tax year in the past, or when a contract was made, or they might be getting advice for a lawyer who wants to know the law when the offence was committed," Ms. Marsh Smith explained.

The drafters are hoping the Jersey Legal Information Board website will be redesigned to incorporate what they call the idea of 'Point in Law', where users will be able to more easily search for a given law at a specific point in time, with specific emphasis on making the search engine easier to use.

Looking even further into the future, the office wants to become more involved in a global 'Rules as Code' initiative, which could see code for digital and app developers drafted alongside laws.
Pictured: The Legislative Drafting Office are looking at potentially following the 'Rules as Code' initiative, and having code versions of law drafted up too.
"It's about trying to, when we draft the legislation, produce some sort of computer marker of coding that enables a computer to pick up not just 'this is the... law' as of this date, but 'this is the definition, this is the defined term, here are all the cases in the rest of this law where that defined term comes up' and then it can flag back to them," Mr Waddington said.

"The idea would be the Government's publish that marked up basic coding, and then developers from outside use it to produce either something that helps somebody actually do whatever it is that's in the law.

"So [if it's to] make an application for Social Security, or help them understand what their legal position is, they can work it out."

Speaking to these overseers of our legislation, and looking back at the original documents that formed the roots of the very different laws we have today, reinforces just how malleable the presentation of law needs to be for changing circumstances - whether they be Brexit, a pandemic, or simply keeping up with the digital age.

With the 'the Draft Legislation (Jersey) Law 202-' now lodged and ready for debate by the States Assembly in May, the next step in that ever-evolving process started in 1771 is on the horizon.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Looking beyond 250 years of Jersey legislation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Monday 29 March 2021 On the 250th Anniversary of the '1771 Code', the team responsible for drawing up Jersey's laws spoke to Express about drafting legislation in the age of covid, and what the future holds for their office. 250 years ago, Jersey brought together all its legislation into one comprehensive book for the very first time.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Jersey Corn Riots of 1769. Produced by The States Assembly.

# data[].attributes.subject
The Jersey Corn Riots of 1769. Produced by The States Assembly.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
States Assembly – Jersey’s elected parliament