This book is the product of work developed over the course of ten years, and the acknowledgements that must be made to those who have contributed it are extensive. It has been rewarding to engage with material that relates to a history that matters to people as individuals and as communities in a more immediate way than is usually the case for historians studying the centuries before the wars of the seventeenth century. It is clearly important to those who provide such careful custody for the manuscript materials in their keeping, whether it is those whose family holdings have played an important part, notably Mr Malet de Carteret of St Ouen's manor and Mrs S. Marrett Crosby of La Haule in Jersey, or the professionals and volunteers in the relevant local archive and library services. At the Lord Coutanche Library over the years Mary Billot and her successors have been notable for their kindness and willingness to accommodate me, as have, more recently, all the staff at the Jersey Archive. In Guernsey, it is fair to say that Darryl Ogier has been a consistently and exceptionally generous and stimulating supporter of my work on the islands, and his colleagues at the Island Archive Service remarkably hospitable and helpful hosts. The islands benefit from the work of learned societies which are a notable ornament to the local society and culture, and there the value of the labours of so many local scholars published through the Société Jersiaise and Société Guernesiaise will, I hope, be evident from the use I have attempted to make of them here in the following pages.