Visit
to Isle of Jersey
October 2000
Jersey
is a highly civilized business and tourist attraction. So we approached our
view of the small island, about 45 sq. mi. in size, as tourists. Jersey is
not actually part of the U.K. but owes its allegiance to the king or queen
as Duke of Normandy of which it was part. It has its own customs service,
currency, legislature, laws and taxes.
In
the Jersey Museum, an excellent historical collection, we found a lintel
with the Messervy coat of arms and a portrait of a man with a resemblance to
Roberta’s father, Robert Meserve.
We
also found a map from about 1790 which showed the location of two Messervy
homes, both at the edge of St. Helier, one of the parishes (like a town but
religious—based) that make up the Island.
We
went to the Jersey library where we found a book on Jersey in the 17th
century. It was mostly concerned about the English Civil War between the
Crown and the Parliament (Cromwell). A Philip Messervy was obviously a
supporter of Parliament and thus would have fallen into disfavor when
Cromwell was defeated. This occurred about ten years before Clement
emigrated.
We
tried to determine why he would have left. Two reasons seem clear. First,
there was primogeniture, so that only the oldest son inherited or, in the
alternative, the others were forced to sell their share of the property to
the oldest son, who had inherited the house and the most useful land. So
Clement may not have inherited, and the history states that such sons were
strongly encouraged to emigrate.
Secondly,
the dominant seigneurs (lords) on Jersey at that time were obviously bad
managers, and agricultural production was not what it could have been. As a
result, living was difficult as was finding food. A chance for more plenty,
at least for those willing to work for it, might have been attractive.
It
is possible that having been on the losing side in the Civil War, Messervy
offspring thought it advisable to leave. Philip had been a member of the
Jersey Government under
Parliament,
so it would have hardly been surprising that his family would suffer.
Where
to go? Jersey fishermen had become accustomed to fishing off Newfoundland,
so traveling that far west would not have been unheard of. Carteret, the
leader of the royal forces on Jersey, had been rewarded with land in the
colonies, known as New Jersey, and emigration there had been encouraged. Why
New Hampshire?
We
visited the area where the map showed Messervys had lived (more on this
below). Then we met Anthony (Tony) Messervy, a St. Helier lawyer. He
explained that there were so few Messervys left on Jersey because of the
predominance of female children and the continuous emigration thanks to
primogeniture, which had only relatively recently been abandoned. It is
possible that the Messervys, now less than a dozen, will die out in Jersey.
I concluded that the Messervys (still using that name in the U.S.) may not
be descendants of Clement and his brother, but from later and/or different
waves of immigrants. Tony stressed the Messervys in Canada as numerous.
In
a brief telephone chat with Tony’s brother, Michael, Roberta found that a
Charles Meserve from the U.S. was an occasional visitor. It was Tony with
whom Roberta’s parents had met perhaps 15 years earlier.
We
toured the island. St. Clement parish church was one place the Messervys had
been. We also returned to the area where their residences had been shown to
exist in the late 18th
century and found that, at one location, an old house still stood. They have
built houses of stone, more than of wood, accounting for their durability,
and it is almost certain that this house was the same as the one shown on
the map.
Knowing
exactly where Clement came from would be impossible. Messervys appear in
several parishes, and we found a large Messervy monument in the St. Martin
parish church cemetery. Tony confirmed that Messervys were all over Jersey
at the time of the emigration.
Then
as now, farming was a major occupation with a principal crop then of apples
used for making cider. Potatoes (for which Jersey is famous) and tomatoes
came later. Of course, cattle and pigs (now gone) abounded. Agricultural
produce went to the local and English markets.
Otherwise,
some fishermen were involved in a kind of triangular trade. They sailed to
Newfoundland, fished for cod, sailed for Spain and Portugal to trade the
fish for fruits, vegetables, raisins and port wine, which, with some fish,
they took home to Jersey.
A
neat and efficient place, with its narrow roads lined by excellent stone
walls, Jersey is something of a museum itself. At one museum, we saw one of
the better houses of 1640, actually quite small with a kitchen, living room
and bedroom.
On
Jersey, history is well preserved and the family survives. We urged Tony,
descended also from Clement’s father, to visit his relatives in the U.S.
