Le Quesne family page
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Walter Le Quesne in 1917 in the Royal Flying Corps
Record Search
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Origin of Surname
From the old French for 'oak', the original Le Quesne probably lived by an oak tree.
Early records
The surname Quesnel is found in the Extente of 1331 and Le Quesne in that of 1528. Two Le Quesnes, Jean and Thomasse, are found in the Jersey Chantry Certificate of 1550.
Walter Le Quesne's history of The Le Quesnes of Jersey shows Clement Le Quesne (1440- ) as the earliest ancestor. Gautier Le Quen is shown as a Jurat of the Royal Court in 1318.
Payne's Armorial of Jersey
The old Norman family, or rather families, of Caineto, Kaiueto, or Quesneto, have existed from a very early period both in England and Jersey. Raoul de Kaineto was at Hastings with the Conqueror, and his grandson, William, is said to have made prisoner King Stephen, at Lincoln. From this source spring the various English houses of Chesney, Kaines, and others of less note.
A fief, named after this family, existed in Normandy in the time of Philip-Augustus, for in the roll of his fiefs it appears that "Domina de Quesneto tenet Quesnetum per servicium unius militis."
Sir Edmund de Chesney was Governor of the Channel Islands in 1366, where his family flourished for some generations.
The Jersey house of Le Quesne had settled in the island, and had attained social importance there, long prior to this date, for, in 1318, at the Pleas held at St Helier on the Tuesday after the feast of St Denis, Gautier Le Quen appears as one of the Jurats of the Royal Court, and in the Extente of 1331, Colin Le Quesne is recorded as one of the Surveyors of the King's Dues in the parish of St John, at that time styled St John de Caisnibus.
At the period of the Rebellion, John Le Quesne, of the parish of St John, suffered for his loyalty by paying the impost levied on the Royalists by the Republicans, as appears by an instrument dated 26 November 1655, and signed by Colonel Robert Gibbon, Governor, and Michael Lemprière, Bailly, of Jersey, under the Protector.
Several members of the family settled in London during the last century. The burial of Mrs Elizabeth Le Quesne occurs in the Registers of the parish of St Benet Fink. In 1739 Sir John Le Quesne, was an Alderman of London, and in the Registers of St Peter le Poor, is noted his marriage, by the Bishop of Norwich, with Miss Mary Knight, of Hampshire, a lady with a dowry of twenty thousand pounds. He died in 1741.
In the latter Registers are also noted the deaths of David Le Quesne, in 1753, and of Mrs Susanna Le Quesne, in 1760.
The eldest branch of the family is represented by John Le Quesne, of Mont à I'Abbé, and a second by Nicholas Le Quesne, [[Jurat] of the Royal Court, of Rouge Bouillon. To a younger branch belonged the late Nicholas Le Quesne, Jurat of the Royal Court, who died in 1847. The late Charles Le Quesne, Jurat of the Royal Court, and President of the Chamber of Commerce, was his eldest son. He was the author of "A Constitutional History of Jersey," and other works connected with the island, and was an active and intelligent member of the States of Jersey.
Arms
As borne by Nicholas Le Quesne: Argent, a lion, passant, gules, a crescent for difference
Impaling : Argent, a lion, passant, gules, a mullet for difference, for Le Quesne.
As borne by Giffard-Nicholas Le Quesne: Argent, a lion, passant, gules, a mullet for difference.
Impaling : Per fesse, or and sable, a pale counterchanged; in chief an ermine-spot of the first, between two trefoils, slipped, of the second ; in base a like trefoil between two like ermine-spots, a crescent for difference, for Simeon.
Motto : Suis ducibus ubique fidelis
Variants
- Caineto
- Kaiueto
- Quesneto
- La Quenesse
- Le Quen
- Quesnel, similar derivation but almost certainly a separate family in Jersey
Family records
Jersey family trees
- Descendants of Clement Le Quesne (1440)
- Descendants of Raulin Le Quesne (1555)
- Descendants of Leonard Le Quesne and Jeanette Anley
- Descendants of Richard Le Quesne and Julianne New Zealand branch added in 2021, with news cuttings
- Descendants of Richard Le Quesne and Catherine Giffard
- Descendants of Jean Le Quesne and Marthe Le Mottee
- Descendants of Clement Le Quesne and Esther de la Rocque
- Descendants of Helier Le Quesne and Marie Malzard
- Descendants of Richard Le Quesne (1790)
- Descendants of Clement Le Quesne and Marguerite Baudains
- Descendants of Philippe Le Quesne and Rachel Marett
- Descendants of Thomas Le Quesne (1480)
- Descendants of Jean Le Quesne and Jeanne Barette
Church records
- Le Quesne baptisms in Jersey
- Le Quesne marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Le Quesne marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Le Quesne burials in Jersey
Biographies
- Edward Le Quesne (1883-1957) - Politician and Occupation diarist
- The Jersey Leader (1935-1938), Edward Le Quesne's newspaper
- Ferdinand Simeon Le Quesne, one of only two Jerseymen to be awarded the Victoria Cross
- Le Quesne family members mentioned in a major history of privateering
- Sir Martin Le Quesne, diplomat and States member Added 2020
Newspaper records
- Charles and William Le Quesne appointed to reservoir planning committee in 1848
- Charles Le Quesne involved in meeting concerning reform of the States in 1848
- William Le Quesne appointed St Helier Roads Inspector in 1848
- A Le Quesne was a crew member of the schooner Maria which was feared lost in 1848
Great War service
Family wills
Burial records
Family homes
- Fernhill, St Helier
- Beau Desert, St Saviour
Family businesses
- Le Quesne pharmacy Added 2019
- Le Quesne burial records, index to records of the undertaker's business
- The Le Quesne family of Burrard Street, merchants and plumbers
1887 advert from L'Almanach de la Gazette de Jersey for Adolphus Thomas Le Quesne
Family album


Mr Le Quesne photographed by Ernest Baudoux
A photograph of Le Quesne children in the 1870s by Ernest Baudoux
Family gravestones

Click on any image to see a larger version. See the Jerripedia gravestone image collection page for more information about our gravestone photographs
Tips
The church record links above will open in a new tab in your browser and generate the most up-to-date list of each set of records from our database. These lists replace earlier Family page baptism lists, which were not regularly updated. They have the added advantage that they produce a chronological listing for the family name in all parishes, so you do not have to search through A-Z indexes, parish by parish.
We have included some important spelling variants on some family pages, but it may be worth searching for records for a different spelling variant. Think of searching for variants with or without a prefix, such as Le or De. To search for further variants, or for any other family name, just click on the appropriate link below for the first letter of the family name, and a new tab will open, giving you the option to choose baptism, marriage or burial records. You will then see a list of available names for that type of record and you can select any name from that list. That will display all records of the chosen type for that family name, and you can narrow the search by adding a given name, selecting a parish or setting start and end dates in the form you will see above. You can also change the family name, or search for a partial name if you are not certain of the spelling
The records are displayed 30 to a page, but by selecting the yellow Wiki Table option at the top left of the page you can open a full, scrollable list. This list will either be displayed in a new tab or a pop-up window. You may have to edit the settings of your browser to allow pop-up windows for www.jerripediabmd.net. For the small number of family names for which a search generates more than 1,500 records you will have to refine your search (perhaps using start or end dates) to reduce the number of records found.
New records
Since August 2020 we have added several thousand new records from the registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These will appear in date order within a general search of the records and are also individually searchable within the database search form
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