Jean Poingdestre (1609–1691) was a native of Jersey and a supporter of the Royalists in the English Civil War. He was born in the parish of St Saviour, at the Poingdestre fief of Grainville. He graduated from the University of Cambridge, and was made a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford in 1636, after studying Classics, specialising in Greek. Poingdestre was offered the job of Charles I's Latin Secretary (foreign translator) during the war, but seems to have declined. In 1648 he was forced to take refuge in Jersey, where he participated in the defence of Elizabeth Castle in 1651. After the Restoration, Poingdestre returned to England before becoming Lieutenant Bailiff of Jersey, resigning in 1676. During this time, he wrote Cæsarea or A Discourse of the Island of Jersey, a comprehensive surv