In 1671, he was nominated for election as Jurat, together with Jean
Bonamy. When the election took place, the voting was equal, and the
matter was referred to the privy Council for decision. Charles II, no
doubt in view of the Parliamentarian proclivites of the Carey family,
gave his decision in favour of Bonamy, and by an Order in Council of
15 Sept 1671 he was sworn in as Jurat. Isaac did not however have to
wait long for election, and was sworn in on 24 Jan 1673, together with
William Andros.
He appears to have been very friendly with Lord Hatton, and in the
Add. MSS., in the British Museum, there are many letters from him. In
one, he sends, 10 Oct 1664, a beaver hat for Lord Hatton's acceptance,
and in another, on 23 Feb 1674, a cask of cider. On 13 July 1681, he
wrote to Lord Hatton for permission to resign his commission as Captain,
on account of his gout. He again wrote on 14 Feb 1682, to hasten his
acceptance of his resignation and sealed the letter with a coat of arms
of a bend with three roses, and a crescent in chief.
In addition to his position as Captain, he was Douzenier of St Peter
Port Parish, and as such took part in the completion of the Livre de
Perchage of the Fief le Roy of 1662, which is in the possession of the
constables, and is the earliest record of land-owners in the Town Parish.
In the Ecclesiastical Records of the Deanery of Guernsey, it is recorded
that on 15 Feb 1684, Isaac presented to the Rector of the Town and the
other Rectors on the Island, certain books, which he had put into a
certain cabinet in the Town Church, and which he had had constructed
at his own expense, and which books it was his intention that any one
might read them in the Church, but that no book might be taken away.
These books were mostly of theological nature.
He appears to have been very friendly with Sir Thomas Browne, a famous
physician of Charles II 's reign, and better known as the author of
Religio Medici, who, writing to his son, Edward, the fashionable Court
Physician, who attended to Rochester and others of the court, mentions
Isaac. Sir Thomas's daughter married one of the Lyttletons, and in 1680
or thereabouts they went to live in Guernsey. In his letter, Sir Thomas
wrote:
'Beside my daughter Lyttleton's letter, receaved
one from Mr Isaac Carey, one of the jurites or justices of Guernsey,
a civill person and great acquaintance of my sonne and daughter. Hee
sent mee one before, which I answered, and now another kind complimental
in French also. Hee hath read many English books, and I believe accomodates
my sonne and daughter with some.'
The Religio Medici was first published in 1643. Isaac's son, Pierre
(F8), whose legacy of books to the Rector of St Saviour's will be noted
in his Memoir, owned an early copy of this work, and from the above
letter, as Sir Thomas Browne and Isaac were on such friendly terms,
it may well have been possible that this copy was a present from the
author.
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