All Journal stories Witchcraft, Magic and Mystery
The Sark JournalSark's Old Devil
Imps, counterfeit coins and a boat built overnight: Peter de Carteret's strange reputation in Sark folklore.
Peter de Carteret was remembered in Sark folklore as L鈥橵i Diable, the Old Devil.
Peter was later said to command an army of imps that forged counterfeit money and built boats overnight.
These are folklore stories, not a verified biography of Peter de Carteret.
The imps worked for him
The imps reportedly worked at night, forging coins among their other tasks.
In one version, those coins were said to be the origin of the Guernsey Double.
The Double was a real historical coin. Its supposed supernatural origin belongs to the story.
The boat built overnight
The same imps were said to work through the night on a boat.
The best-known version has them construct it inside a barn, only for the finished vessel to be too large for the doorway.
In the story, the boat ends up at Creux Harbour anyway.
People also told other stories about Peter: his cattle grazing in the graveyard at night, and hobgoblins fleeing into the earth after his death.
More of the island鈥檚 old stories are collected in Sark folklore. The documented seventeenth-century prosecutions are separate, and are covered in Sark鈥檚 Witch Trials.
