History Section
The History Section
Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday September 16th 2003 at 5.15pm
Members' Room
1. Members present :
Frank Falle (Chairman), Marie-Louise Backhurst, Mary Billot (Secretary), Mervyn Billot, Francis Corbet, Guy Dixon, Roy Dobin, Caroline Easterbrook, Mary Gibb, Nicolas Jouault, Georgia Le Maistre, David Levitt, Ian Machin, Alec Podger, Deirdre Shute (President), Gwyneth Syvret.
Apologies :
Jean Arthur, Anne Corbet, Alasdair Crosby, Sue Groves, Sue Hardy, Tertius Hutt, Sarah Jordan, Frank Le Blancq, Suzanne Le Feuvre, Bob Le Sueur, Richard Syvret, Bill Tower.
2. Minutes of the meeting of July 15th 2003 and amendments
4.5 The Tudor Great Hall (which is to be restored).
5.1 The current paid police force.
5.3 Bill Tower corrected the building date of Gorey Church to 1833 (not 1854 as he thought).
5.4 The Battle of Minden commemorations resumed after WW2 when people wore roses in their hats.
5.8.1 George Langlois (not Georgia Le Maistre) established that A.A. Le Gros and Dr Philip Langlois were two of the founders of the SJ.
Minutes of the meeting of August 19th 2003
Frank thanked Francis Corbet for showing us around the monuments of the Town Church; the tour will be completed at the February 2004 meeting.
3. Matters arising from the minutes not covered by the agenda
3 Mme Veron-Hambie will not come to St Martin this year as there is no planned joint Jumelage meeting with Mont Martin-sur-Mer.
Chairman's communications
Frank Falle welcomed Deirdre Shute, SJ President, to the meeting.
1 He reported the sudden death of section member Nelson Fauvel on September 8th 2003; he had been taken ill during the Variety Club walk around St Saviour on September 6th. Frank will attend his funeral.
2 Frank thanked Mary Billot, Prof. Meirion-Jones and Mme Catherine Laurent on the very successful Section visit to Morlaix, Brittany. He gave a brief resumé of the four day trip which included visits to four chateaux and manoirs in Léon, visits to calvaries and churches in the Enclos paroissiaux of Trégor and Léon and a town tour of Morlaix. There was a group photo in Le Télégramme of September 14th, arranged by M. Danguy des Deserts, owner of the Chateau de Maillé. Our hostesses appreciated the Jersey lilies as they were all keen gardeners. Our Christmas meeting in the Members' Room will provide the opportunity to show our slides and photos.
3 He said that Mme Laurent would visit Jersey in February 2004 to talk to the Amitiés Franco-Britanniques and to the Jersey Archive. Bertram Brée is arranging the 2004 trip to Avranches, Normandy. Prof. Meirion-Jones will lead the 2005 Brittany tour, provisionally based at Vannes.
4 There was some discussion about Mr H.T. Porter's bequest of £200 to the Section; no decision was made.
5 Frank will publicise the Autumn lunchtime lecture programme on BBC Radio Jersey on October 15th 2003 at 10am; details will also go to the JEP diary. Guy Dixon asked for them to be recorded.
6 The 2004 series has been planned and will focus on 1204 –
7 Frank has found out that a member of the family owns the Pitcher VC, marked by a window in St Martin's Church. His mother was a Le Geyt and he attended Victoria College.
4.8 He said that the Green Island bones were at Oxford University for dating. (See SJ bulletin 2001). Dr Mark Patton will give a talk in Jersey, sponsored by LloydsTSB There will be money available in January 2004 to test the DNA of local and Canadian Le Gresleys. Hans Norgaard is keen to test the DNA of local Jersey bulls in a Danish laboratory. Frank said that there were three types of Neolithic DNA found locally from the Blood of the Vikings research and he speculated whether they related to the three types of local graves (passage, gallery, cist in a circle).
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Members' contributions
- barter
- banking
- hoarding sterling
- exchange of Reichmarks into sterling
- payment of taxes and rates.
1 Mary Gibb wants to cover various topics at the October meeting –
Jersey Savings Bank.
2 Georgia Le Maistre circulated some GO photos bought at a car boot sale. She said that Family History Monthly for September 2003 featured merchant marine records which included a Grandin from the Lloyd's Register of Captains' Service (in the Guildhall Library).
She has visited the School of Oriental & African Studies at London University to track Lilian Grandin through the Methodist Missionary Society archives. She has found out about her work with her husband Edwin Dingle and his mapping company in Shanghai. She has also found Dr Grandin's will in the Calendar of Wills, which includes Jersey residents with UK wills of property. The will was drawn up under her married name whilst she was living in Dorchester in 1926; this raises more questions as to why she was there.
3 Roy Dobin enjoyed the visit to Morlaix. He said that Georgia's photos were German, dated June 1
4 Alec Podger wants more volunteers to input into the Friends of the Maritime Museum database, which needs a new computer. He said that 1910 Jersey registered vessels are listed, dating from 1782 to 1934. He was pleased to report that the Public Library's set of Public Record Office publications will soon be available in the Reference Department on the second floor. The Calendar of Close Rolls, the Papal Inquisitions and the Calendar of State Papers are all essential sources for local research; the Close Rolls has an early reference in 1296 to privateering, designed to defend the CI.
5 Marie-Louise Backhurst circulated Everything Offshore, Issue 2, 2003, which features the CI. She has found a CI history website http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~greef/channelislandshistory.htm.
6 Deirdre Shute has received a letter about 22 Oxford Road, which existed during the GO; the address still exists though it may not be the same house. The enquirer asked about staves and swords from Mont Orgueil Castle, which were hidden under the floorboards of the house during the GO. He wanted to know if they were still there.
7 Nick Jouault said that we saw some sundials on our Brittany trip. He gave information on Joseph Charles Eager (born 1838) and his colourful life at sea and on land. Nick is particularly intrigued as to why Lady Otway gave Mr Eager two vases. [Copy in Minutes file].
8 Guy Dixon asked about a 1938 poem about a dump in St Peter's Valley. He commented that he has worked on the Lloyd's Registers of Shipping and the information was duplicated in the Jersey Merchant Seamen's Benefit Society records.
Date of next meeting
Tuesday October 21st 2003, 5.15pm. In the Members' Room if available; otherwise in the Arthur Mourant Room