Le Quesne

Le Quesne family page

Walter Le Quesne in 1917 in the Royal Flying Corps Record Search Direct links to lists of baptisms, marriages and burials for the Le Quesne family can be found under Family Records opposite. If you want to search for records for a spelling variant of Le Quesne, or for any other family name, just click below on the first letter of the family name you are interested in. This will open a new tab in your browser giving you a list of family names beginning with that letter, for which there are baptism records in our database of half a million church and public registry records. You can also select marriages or burials. Select the name you want and when the list of records is displayed you can easily refine the search, choosing a single parish, given name(s) and/or start and end dates. 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 From August 2020 we have started adding records from non-Anglican churches, and this process will continue as more records, held by Jersey Archive, are digitised and indexed. Our database now includes buttons enabling a search within registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These records will automatically appear within the results of any search made from this page. A--B--C--D--E--F--G--H--I--J--K--L--M--N--O--P--Q--R--S--T--U--V--W--X--Y--Z If you can help with information about the Le Quesne family, please contact editorial@jerripedia.org, using Jerripedia as the subject of your email. We are particularly interested in information which will help create further family trees, family histories and photographs A blue link anywhere in the text will lead you to another page with more information on this family

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

Tips for using these links

• 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

• LeQuesne family members who served in World War 1

Family wills

• Le Quesne family wills from 1663 to 1980 held by Jersey Archive

• Le Quesne burial records 1820-1978

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

Le Quesne and Co wine merchants, next to the Mechanics Institute in Halkett Place

Family album

This superb family photograph, complete with comprehensive details of the family members, was sent to us by descendant Richard Le Quesne in June 2019 in response to our request on our Facebook page for people to send us digital copies of family photographs and documents so that they can be put on the site, saved for posterity and accessible to all. This family is part of the existing Jerripedia tree Descendants of Jean Le Quesne and Jeanne_Barette. We have checked our database and can add that Anna Sophia married John Le Brocq, 20 years her senior, in St Helier in 1907. We welcome any further submissions, with or without such details. Please get in touch with editorial@jerripedia.org if you have family treasures to share with Jerripedia users

And here is another one of the same Le Quesne family in 1939. Fascinatingly it is said that Florence, in the back row, was not present for the family photograph because she was away in England. A gap was left and her image was added to the picture. A fine example of Photoshopping long before the practice became much simpler with digital technology

A coffee pot linked to Sir John Le Quesne (1687-1741). We have not been able to identify him in any of our records

Family gravestones

Memorial to Alfred Charles Le Quesne in St Helier Parish Church. The son of William and Mary Ann, nee Le Gallais, he joined the Indian Army at the age of 20, riging to Brevet Major in the Bengal Staff Corps, 5th Regiment, Hyderabad Contingent. He served in the Afghan Campaign and was due to return home in 1881 when he died of cholera in the Punjab

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

Notes and references