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Return to Methodists name list from "Methodism in the Channel Islands" by R.D. Moore (1952)
Pages 78-81
De Quetteville lived until 184·3 and although because of infirmity his last twenty-seven years were spent in semi-retirement he saw—and shared in—the firm establishment of his beloved Methodism in the Channel Islands. No man made a greater contribution to it. He was always a powerful preacher and a faithful pastor, giving himself to his task with tireless zeal. Unwillingly and by sheer necessity, he became a writer too. We have noted the literary poverty of the French section of the work. Whatever he could do to meet the need de Quetteville did: composing, translating and publishing hymns; founding, editing and publishing Le Magasin Methodiste. He was no poet and he knew it—no one could have been more modest about his attainments —but for this work at this time it was he or no one, and he knew that too.
He accomplished, with but moderate abilities, by means of the energy of devotion a truly great work for God. He had begun when the first seed was being sown. When he died there were over three thousand Methodist members in the Channel Islands.
There were other memorable names among the 'home-grown' Ministers of this period:
AMIGE OLLIVIER. Born in Alderney, 1779' Accepted as a Minister in 1802. Notable (as the Rev. James Hocart recorded) for the intense sanctity of his life and for his work among the French prisoners-of-war. Retired from active work in 1840 and died (1860) in Jersey.
JEAN DE PUTRON. Born in Guernsey, 1789, accepted by the Conference of 1815 and sent as a missionary to Canada among the French Catholics. Soon realising his own defective training, he wrote to de Quetteville: 'How regrettable that our friends in Guernsey set themselves so much against education. . . . Ah! if I could redeem the past I would not spend it in dissipation, but in study. Our Guernsey jargon is odious— not only is it useless, but it is very prejudicial . . . the Canadians have often ridiculed it.' Returning to the Islands in 1825, he exercised until 1852 the ministry of a great evangelist.
PIERRE LE SUEUR, JUNR, has already been noted. He was led in 1812 to enter the ranks of the Ministry in order to work among the French prisoners. He returned in 1821 to his status as a Local Preacher and to his life in Jersey.
PHILIPPE TOURGIS, who entered the Ministry in 1820, was outstanding. He served first in Alderney and Sark. From 1820-9 he was sent to Paris, where he developed remarkable aptitudes and exercised great influence. He married in 1834 the Viscountess Arnault. She was converted under his preaching and joined the Methodist Society in 1827. She came back with him to Jersey and shared the modest home of a Methodist Minister until her death in 1841. His service to his native Islands continued until he died in 1880.
DANIEL ROBIN. Born in Guernsey, 1795. Entered the Ministry 1821. ‘Of a "Sweet and quiet temperament; active and greatly beloved.’ After his conversion he drew up a document, intimate and illuminating in itself, which discloses the mind of the writer better than the words of another could do:
"What are the reasons which for three years have kept me in constant slavery, in torment like that of the damned, and that left me seeking far in the darkness a salvation that was quite near? 1. I have looked only at the justice and the holiness of God without regard to His love toward men shown in the gift of His beloved Son. 2. I have sought salvation by my own merits: my repentance, my tears, my prayers, my sacrifices and my good works. 3. I have not understood the Scriptures. I was ignorant that the Gospel proclaimed salvation as a gift to believers. 4. I have been too reserved in myself and this has prevented me from confiding in Christians enlightened by the Word and by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ."
He was a victim of the cholera epidemic which afflicted Jersey in 1832, but his life was spared and he was one of the leaders of the revival which followed. His Ministry and his life ended triumphantly together in 1858.
JEAN RENIER of Alderney and WILLIAM JOHN HANDCOCK of Jersey should at least be named as distinguished among the builders who in their generation wrought nobly in the establishment of the Church of Christ in the Channel Islands.
One of the results of the Revolution was a stream of refugees from France. Among these were two young Bretons of noble birth who reached Jersey, were soundly converted, and became Methodist preachers: Pierre du Pontavice and Armand de Kerpezdron.
The first-named travelled for some time with Dr Coke, then in 1800 became a Minister in the Islands. In 1802 the short-lived Peace of Amiens gave him the chance of returning to France, where he worked for a time with William Mahy in the neighbourhood of Caen. He then entered the Ministry of the Reformed Church, and was later one of the leaders of a sorely-needed revival of religion.
The war conditions which prevented any further attempt to develop the Mission to France did at least provide another fruitful field of evangelism: there were many thousands of French prisoners held in captivity in England. The opportunity was taken by William Toase in 1810, who made himself such a friend of the prisoner held in the hulks on the Medway that without his knowledge they petitioned Conference to appoint him to this work. Dr Coke was quick to see the chance and wrote at once to de Quetteville for two more men from the Islands o help:
"My very dear friend. When you. will see brother Le Sueur and the French nobleman, ask them if they are willing to undertake the mission on behalf of the French prisoners, if I find there is enough to employ them. The Conference will not consent to their having a claim on our funds; they can only be employed as Local Preachers. Conference has made me responsible for their maintenance and that of their families, if they are employed. The first that must come is brother Kesmorden (or some such name, I have not got your letter to hand) the French nobleman. If he consents, I will settle his wife and child in that part of England most convenient for him, and I will undertake their charge and his at my expense. Let me know what he thinks of it. If he consents, I will at once ask Lord Liverpool for the necessary authority, and he will have news at the earliest possible moment.
The nobleman whose Breton name was so strangely misspelt by Dr Coke was Armand de Kerpezdron, who, like his friend, du Pontavice, had emigrated in 1789.