(Hoskins, i. 179, collecting Clarendon's remarks; see also Clarendon, Life, v. 4). Carteret joined Capel and Hyde in the articles of association for the preservation of Jersey, drawn up when Jermyn was suspected of designing to sell the island to the French (Cal. Clar. State Papers, ii. 279). On the second visit of Charles II to Jersey (17 Sept. 1649 to 13 Feb. 1650) he was further rewarded by the grant of the seigneuries of Noirmont, Melêche, and Belle Ozanne. He was also granted ‘a certain island and adjacent islets in America in perpetual inheritance, to be called New Jersey, and held at an annual rent of 6l. a year to the crown’ (Hoskins, ii. 385). Whitelocke records in 1650 the capture of a ship sent by Carteret to establish the new colony (Memorials, 455). But the growing naval strength of the Commonwealth rendered his position more difficult month by month; an attack threatened in May 1647 proved abortive (Hoskins, ii. 128), but a second proved successful, and Carteret surrendered on 12 Dec. 1651 (see the articles of surrender, Mercurius Politicus, No. 82). He proceeded to join the exiles in France, and obtained a command in the French navy, apparently that of vice-admiral, under the Duke of Vendome (Mercurius Politicus, No. 125; Cal. Clar. State Papers, ii. 275). In August 1657 he was arrested and imprisoned in the Bastille on the complaint of Lockhart, in consequence of some attempt to seduce the English forces then acting as auxiliaries of France in the Low Countries, or perhaps for giving secret intelligence to the Spaniards (Thurloe, vi. 421; Vaughan, Protectorate, ii. 241). He was released in December 1657, but banished from France, and went to Venice, intending to take service under the republic (Thurloe, vi. 681).
At the Restoration Carteret became a member of the privy council and treasurer of the navy, and also obtained the post of vice-chamberlain of the household, to which office he had been appointed by Prince Charles as early as 1647 (Kennet, Register, 167; (Hoskins, ii. 113). In 1661 he was elected member for Portsmouth. But it was as treasurer of the navy from 1661 to 1667 that his most important work was done. He was not a pleasant superior, for Pepys speaks of him as the most passionate man in the world, and Sir William Coventry describes him as one whose humour it was always to have things done his own way. This led to a long struggle between Coventry and Carteret, which lasted till the resignation of the latter. Yet Coventry ‘did not deny Sir G. Carteret his due in saying that he is a man that do take the most pains, and gives himself the most to do business of any about the court, without any desire of pleasure or divertisements’ (Pepys, 30 Oct. 1662). During the difficulties of the Dutch war, Carteret's personal credit with the bankers was of the greatest service. In 1665, during the plague, Carteret states that he borrowed 280,000l. on his own credit, and thus kept the fleet abroad when it otherwise must have come home (Grey, Debates, p. 170; see also Pepys, 25 June 1667). The fall of his friend Sandwich and the miscarriage of the Dutch war undermined his position, and he was only maintained by his great influence with the king when in June 1667 he exchanged his office with Lord Anglesey for the place of deputy-treasurer of Ireland (ib. 28 June 1667). ‘The king,’ Carteret told Pepys, ‘at his earnest entreaty, did with much unwillingness, but with owning of great obligations to him for his faithfulness and long service to him and his father, grant his desire.’ In spite of this retirement Carteret could not escape the censure of parliament. The report of the commissioners for the public accounts revealed gross mismanagement in the navy during the war, and especially great carelessness in keeping the accounts (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. 128–33). The House of Lords appointed a committee to examine into these charges, whose report, so far as it went, was favourable to Carteret (ib. 133). In the House of Commons, however, he was, on several articles, voted guilty of a misdemeanor, and finally, on 10 Dec. 1669, by 100 to 97 votes, suspended from sitting in the house (Grey, Debates, i. 214). The prorogation of parliament put an end both to the prosecution in the commons and to the proceedings of the lords' committee. In spite of this disgrace, when in 1673, on the resignation of the Duke of York, the admiralty was put in commission, Carteret was appointed one of the commissioners. He also acted as a member of the Tangier committee, and as one of the committee of trade and plantations. Outside the admiralty colonial affairs chiefly occupied his attention. In 1663 he appears as one of the original proprietors of Carolina (24 March 1663). To him, in conjunction with Lord Berkeley, the Duke of York assigned the land between the Hudson and the Delaware, to be called, in honour of Carteret, New Jersey (Bancroft, ii. 69; Cal. Col. State Papers, 1661–8, 607, 337).
By the government of Jersey, by successful privateering, and by the different offices he had held since the Restoration, Carteret had accumulated considerable wealth. Marvell terms him ‘Carteret the rich,’ and the ‘Flagellum Parliamentarium’ boldly accuses him of robbing the king of 300,000l. He himself told Pepys in 1667 that he was worth
