Common report accused Mauger of being addicted to magical arts, and of having intercourse with a familiar spirit called “Thoret,” a name which brings to mind the thunderer Thor, one of the principal deities of his Scandinavian ancestors. By means of this imp, it was believed, he had the faculty of predicting future events.
Having embarked one day, with the design of reaching the coast of Normandy, and having arrived at St. Vaast, he addressed the master of the ship in these words:—“I know for certain that one of us two will this day be drowned; let us land.” The master paid no attention to what was said, but continued his course. It was summer, the weather was extremely hot, and the Archbishop was attired in very loose raiment. The vessel struck, Mauger endeavoured to leave the ship, but, becoming entangled in his garments, fell into the sea, and was drowned before any assistance could be given. When the tide retired, search was made for the body, and it was found wedged in between two rocks, in an upright position. The sailors carried it to Cherbourg, where it was buried.
It is possible that the prelate might have been entirely forgotten in the place of his exile, had it not been that a very numerous family, bearing his name, still exists in the island, and claims to be descended from him. No name indeed is more common in the parish of St. Martin de la Belleuse, and especially in the neighbourhood of Saint, than that of Mauger. An authentic document, the “Extent” of Edward III., proves that a family of this name held land in this parish in 1331.[228] All who bear the name, even in the humblest ranks of society, have heard of the Archbishop, and pride themselves in their supposed descent from him. Nor is this belief confined to Guernsey, for in Jersey also, where a branch of the family has long existed, the same idea prevails.
Ivy Castle.
There is also extant an imperfect pedigree of the house of Mauger, of Jobourg, near Cape La Hague, in Normandy, which connects them with the insular family, but endeavours to get rid of the stigma of illegitimacy, which would attach to the progeny of an ecclesiastic, by the invention of an imaginary brother, who accompanied Mauger in his banishment, and from whom, and not from the Archbishop, they pretend to deduce their descent. The family of Guille, long established in the island of Guernsey, and in the parish of St. Martin’s, claims the questionable honour of having produced the fair Gille, whose charms captivated the unscrupulous prelate.
There is one fact, however, of which the family of Mauger, of Guernsey, has just cause to be proud, and that is the daring and successful exploit of one of them in the service of the descendant of their ancient Dukes. An extract from a manuscript register of the Cathedral of Coutances, said to be preserved in the British Museum, tells us how, on Midsummer Night, in the year of grace 1419, Jacques Mauger arrived from Guernsey with his men, at the port of Agon, at the entrance of the river, and took by escalade the fortress of Mont Martin, near Coutances, and how Henry V., King of England, then in possession of the greater part of Normandy, rewarded the gallant act by a gift of the Seigneurie of Bosques, and the permission to bear henceforth on his shield the cross of the blessed knight of St. George, in a field argent, with his own paternal arms, two chevrons sable, in the first and fourth quarters, and, in the second and third the arms of Bosques, a lion rampant, also sable.
It may not be uninteresting to some to know that the Hampshire and Isle of Wight family of Major were originally Maugers from one of the Channel Islands, and that Richard Cromwell, son of the Protector, married one of them.