Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bandinel, David
BANDINEL, DAVID (d. 1644–5), dean of Jersey, the date of whose birth is uncertain, but who is supposed to have been of Italian descent, was appointed to the office of dean of Jersey on its revival by James I, about 1623. Paulet had been dean of the Channel Islands in Queen Mary's reign, when, if Heylin is to be believed, the persecution of protestants was carried to even greater excesses in this dependency than elsewhere. He retained the office till 1565, after which time, in consequence of the immigration of persecuted French protestants, the islands were inundated by a flood of Calvinism, and threw off almost entirely their allegiance to the church of England. The diaconal office consequently lapsed, the discipline of Calvin being observed under the direction of a consistory—a colloque and a synod. James I, on the understanding that this arrangement had been formally sanctioned by Elizabeth, confirmed it in the first year of his reign. He soon, however, repented of his decision, and appointed a governor, Sir John Peyton, who was expressly charged with the duty of urging a return to unity with the English church. Peyton's measures, provoking a storm of anger and irritation, resulted in an appeal to the court of England, whereupon Archbishop Abbot commanded the islanders, in the name of the king, to adopt again the English liturgy and make use of the Book of Common Prayer in all their churches. This act of authority met with resistance which, however, after a time relaxed, and by the twenty-first year of James's reign the opinions of the inhabitants had become so far modified that an address, drawn up by Bandinel in conjunction with others of the clergy, was presented to the king, begging him to restore the office of dean and the use of the liturgy. Upon this Bandinel was appointed dean, with instructions to draw up, for submission to the king, a body of canons agreeable to the discipline of the church of England, which were referred to a commission consisting of Archbishop Abbot, the lord keeper Williams, and Andrewes, bishop of Winchester. These were, after modification, confirmed, and the islands were placed under the jurisdiction of the dean, subject to the Bishop of Winchester, in whose diocese they were declared to be.
The chief personal interest of Bandinel's life lies in the part he took in the dissensions which convulsed the island at the time of the great civil troubles in England, his quarrel with the Carterets, and consequent tragical end. Sir Philip de Carteret was appointed lieutenant-governor of the island by Charles I, and, although a zealous protestant, was always an ardent loyalist. He is said to have been a man of ability and integrity, but of austere manners, and he was accused by his enemies of absorbing all the more lucrative offices in the island. He is charged with having attempted to deprive the dean of part of his tithes, an aggression that roused in Bandinel an animosity to the lieutenant-governor, which was fostered by subsequent events, and which endured throughout his life. At the time of the civil war in England, Bandinel was considered the head of the parliamentary party in Jersey, whose cause he is said to have espoused chiefly out of opposition to the leading loyalist Carteret. When the parties were in conflict in the island, Bandinel kept back all supplies from the fortresses of Elizabeth Castle and Mont Orgueil, where the lieutenant-governor and his wife were shut up. The rigours and mortifications which he had to endure brought Carteret to his grave, and in his last illness Bandinel evinced the bitterness of his enmity by refusing all spiritual and material comforts to the dying man, keeping even his wife from him until the last moment. On Carteret's death, in 1643, his son, Sir George Carteret, was appointed by the king lieutenant-governor in his stead, and he gratified at the same time his resentment for the treatment of his father, and his loyal zeal, by arresting Bandinel and his son on a charge of treason. They were confined first in Elizabeth Castle and afterwards in Mont Orgueil, where, after more than twelve months' imprisonment, they formed a plan for escape. Having made a line of their bed-linen and such other material as they could procure, on the night of 10 Feb. 1644–5 they forced their way through the grating of their cell, and proceeded to lower themselves down the side of their prison. The son succeeded in reaching the end of the line, which, however, being too short, he fell and was seriously injured; but the dean, by his weight breaking the line, fell from a great height on to the rocks below, where he was discovered insensible by a sentinel on the following morning, and only lingered to the next day, when he died. His son escaped for a time, but was recaptured and died in prison. Dean Bandinel was also one of the rectors of the island, from which office, however, he derived but small emolument.
[Ansted's Channel Islands; Cæsarea; Hook's Archbishops, vol. v.; Falle's History of Jersey.]