JERSEY.

NAME:

THE name by which JERSEY was known, in ancient times, is not decisively ascertained. Like other states, it has had several appellations; some so remote, both in sound and orthography, from others, as to elude every attempt to trace their etymology to one common source.

As navigators of different countries frequently distinguish the same spot by various names, as local or temporary circumstances dictate, so this island may have been known to the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians,* the Celta, the Gauls, the Romans, the Francs, and the Normans, under different denominations.

The names of Jersey, Gearsey, Gersey, and Jereseye,† are allowed to have been derived from Cæsarea, by which distinction this island was known to the Romans.‡ Some have conjectured that it was previously called

Probably both these nations had commercial relations with all the islands in the channel.

Called by this last name in the records of the tower and exchequer.
It is so named by the emperor Antoninus, in his Itinerary.

B

Augia: by this name it was indeed given by Childebert, king of France, the son of Clovis, to Samson, archbishop of Dol, in Armorica, about A. D. 550: but this being subsequent to the declension of the Roman power in Gaul, seems rather to corroborate a contrary opinion.

SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, FORM, AND EXTENT.

Jersey, at its N. W. point, is situated in north latitude 49° 16', and in 2° 22' longitude west of London.* It forms the most southern island of that groupe,† which lies in St. Michael's bay, on the coast of lower Normandy and Britany. That ample gulph sweeps from Cap de la Hogue, in the former province, to Cap de Frehelle, in the latter.

The distance from Jersey to Carteret, or to Port Bail, which are the two nearest French ports, is only from five to six leagues.

* These calculations are from Moore's Tables.

+ This groupe is composed of the following islands, viz. Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sercq: with the smaller ones of Herm, Jethou, and the rocky isles of Chausey, Ecrehou, &c.