History of the Hue family
From the 1903 Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise. Original article by the Rev J A Messervy, part of his series Notices sur quelques anciennes familles Jersiaises, translated from French by Mike Bisson
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If there is a family which merits a place in the series of genealogical articles which we are producing to appear here it is assuredly that of Hue, which has given to the island two or three Jurats, a Dean, several Rectors, Constables, a Greffier of the Royal Court etc.
The authors of the Armorial did not devote a chapter to the Hue family and it seems to us that this omission needs correcting.
Derivation
We say at first that the name Hue does not appear to us, as has been suggested, to derive from the baptismal name Hugh, but that it is a more ancient word, meaning 'egg'. See the Bulletin des Antiquaires de Normandie.
The Hue family was established in Jersey from the start of the 14th century. In the Assize Roll of 1309 can be found the names of Thomas Hugh, cleric, of the Parish of St Saviour, and Petrus Hugh, of St Mary. Despite the difference in spelling, it is probable that these two individuals were part of the family which occupies us.
A little later, in 1331, Thomas Hue, perhaps the same as Thomas Huge, Jurat in 1331, is mentioned in the Extente of that date, as one of the jurors sworn to give advice on the subject of watermills belonging to the King, and Pierre Hue, who lived without doubt several years before, and is mentioned as having some time earlier ceded four acres of land to the ancestors of Colin Vautier.
Finally the name of Guillaume Hue is found in a list of inhabitants of Jersey who in 1339 owed tithes to the Abbey of Montvilliers.
Jehan Hue
In the 15th century we find a distinguished member of this family in the person of Sire Jehan Hue, priest, Rector of St Saviour, who has the right to be recognised as the first founder of St Mannelier’s School. From 18th century manuscripts believed to be genuine he was the son of Jehan Hue of St Mary, and his mother was from St Saviour, where she possessed property from which Sire Jehan Hue owed rentes to the Tresor of St Saviour.
We also find in these manuscripts a copy of the contract of 7 October 1477 by which Sire Jehan Hue, Rector of St Saviour, made a gift of a house and land situated close to the Chapel of ‘St Magneley’ for a school for six parishes (St Helier, St Saviour, St Clement, Grouville, St Martin and Trinity).
This donation is mentioned in an Acte of the Royal Court of 20 March 1661. One sees that Sire Jehan Hue, former Rector of St Saviour, long ago gave (to the public, without doubt) a house and two vergees eight perches of land, close to the Chapelle de St Mannelier, at St Saviour.
We note also a contract of 21 December 1498 by which Damian Poingdestre, son of Philippe, recognised having given to Sire Jehan Hue land situated on the Fief du Roi in St Saviour, and attached to the land ‘of the house prescribed to have schools’ and given by Sire Jehan Hue.
On 6 May 1481 the same Sire Jehan Hue, Curate of St Saviour, Jean Nicolle, Seigneur of Longueville, Jean Poingdestre and Guillaume Le Roux were elected procureurs by the residents of St Saviour to, in effect, maintain the house and land given by Jouynet de Fanolieres to house the poor of the parish.
One knows elsewhere that De la Croix, in his work entitled Jersey, ses Antiquites, son Histoire gives extracts of the Livre de Sire Jehan Hue which which is effectively a detailed and interesting register of the parish. He also includes an undated translation of the will of this generous ecclesiastic.
Other family members
The founder of St Mannelier should not be confused with his grand nephew and namesake, Sire Jean Hue, Rector of St Mary in 1548. An Acte of 18 May 1548 informs us that Jean Hue was put in charge of this parish.
Guiallaume Hue, brother of the Rector of St Saviour, was the ancestor of different branches of this family. A sister of this Guillaume and of Sire Jehan married Symon Dolbel of St Saviour. Strangely in 1691 his descendant Jean Dolbal, of St Etienne, son of Jean son of Jean son of Guillaume, challenged Helier Hue as being the principal heir of the late Sire Jehan Hue, Rector of St Saviour, founder of St Mannelier’s School and that he had no rights to the school.
This Dolbel claimed his rights and papers he had lent to Richard de Carteret, Rector of St Mary. This was attached to the proceedings which took place between the Seigneur of Trinity and the Rectors of St Saviour and St Clement, relating to the right of nomination of Regents of St Mannelier.
This claim of Jean Dolbel is difficult to explain, without allowing that the father of Sire Jehan and Guillaume Hue was married twice.
The principal branch of Hues living in St Mary became extinct at the beginning of the 19th century. Their house, belonging today to M Desreaux, was next doot to that of the Journeaux, of St Mary, descendnats of Clement Jounreaux, Lieut-Bailiff in 1577.
From the middle of the 16th century, a younger son of this family, Nicolas Hue, settled in St Saviour and founded a new branch, now extinct in that parish. The Hues of St Saviour lived on the Fief du Roi. In the ‘’appariement’’ of the fief in 1671 we find that Nicolas Hue had 19 vergees of land on this fief, including Clos de Laell, and Edouard Hue, 13 vergees, including Clos de Ricard and de Messervy.
Their homes were called Maison de Haut and Maison de Bas, and several indications lead us to believe that they were situated close to La Hougue Bie. A younger son of the Hues of St Saviour settled in St Clement around 1687, where his descendents remained until relatively recently; this branch lived in the Vingtaine de Samares. One still sees today in St Clement other Hues, situated not far from Haguais, near the railway level crossing.
St Helier branch
In the following generation another branch of the Hues of St Saviour moved to St Helier around 1720. The Venerable Corbet Hue, Rector of St Helier and Dean of Jersey, belonged to this branch of the family. The St Helier registers inform us that Corbet, son of Jean Hue and Anne Dolbel, was baptised at home on 6 July 1769, and was presented at church on the 27th of the same month by Moyse Corbet and Sara Mitten.
Moyse Corbet, who became Lieut-Governor, and Sara Mytton, his wife, had already, in 1768, presented for baptism another son of Jean Hue, Edouard, who died the same year.
At the age of 16 in 1786 Corbet Hue matriculated as a student of Exeter College, Oxford. He obtained his BA in 1790, MA in 1792, BD in 1800 and DD in 1818; a Fellow of Jesus College from 1790-1820 he became Rector of Braunston, Northants in 1818, and was Rector of St Helier and Dean of Jersey from 1823 until his death in December 1837.
His younger brother Clement also had a distinguished university career. Born in 1779 he was presented at baptism by Clement Hemery and Anne d’Anthoine, wife of Jean Dolbel, the baby’s grandmother. He entered Pembroke College, Oxford in 1796, aged 17, became BA in 1801, MA 1803, BMed 1804, DMed 1807 and FRCP 1808. He was doctor of Foundling from 1815 to 1837 and St Bartholomew’s Hospital from 1823 until his death on 23 June 1861.
In the parish church of St Helier are two tablets commemorating Dean Hue and his family. Here is the text of the first:
- ”In memory of Jean Hue, merchant of this island; honourable man and true Christian, died in 1807 at the age of 82, as well as that of Jean, his eldest son, Lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment of Guards of his Britannic Majesty, died in 1803 at the age of 39.”
The second tablet, of which the inscription is in Latin, pays homage to the Venerable Corbet Hue, Rector of St Helier and Dean of Jersey, who died in 1837.
Hues of St Mary
Now we return to the Hues of St Mary, and give some details of their principal representatives.
Nicolas Hue, grand nephew of the founder of St Mannelier’s School, is known for the disputes he had with Bailiff Helier de Carteret over legacies, etc. He also undertook an action against the Attorney-General on the subject of the preservation of the rights of the King.
For many years he was Constable of St Mary and reached a very advanced age. The author of the Chroniques de Jersey recounts that Nicolas Hue ‘already an old man of 80 years’ was one night the victim of an audacious theft and housebreaking, committed by a ‘very wicked man’ who lived at Mont Orgueil Castle. This happened in the time of Henry Cornish, Lieut-Governor. It is known that Nicolas Hue was very rich. To prevent any loss of blood Jean Hue, his eldest son, opened his father’s chest for the robbers, from which they took ‘money, cups and silver vessels’.
A direct descendant of this Nicolas, Helier Hue, married the heiress of the principal branch of de Soulemont, which persuaded him to go to live in the town where his wife’s inheritance was situated. At the time of the Civil War he declared in favour of the King, for which cause he was to suffer much. The Chevalier manuscript and an ‘’Acte de Billet’’ informs us that Helier and his family were evicted from their home by Andre Le Vavasseur dit Durell (Constable of St Helier) and other Parliamentary leaders.
Helier Hue was Senechal of the Fiefs du Roi from 1634 to 1645. He was sworn in as Greffier on 25 January 1644, or shortly after, and on 6 May 1644, not being able to fulfil both roles, he was replaced as Senechal by Salomon Journeaux.
In 1651 when the Parliamentarians sent considerable forces to take control of Jersey, Helier Hue, Greffier, was one of those who fled with George de Carteret to Elizabeth Castle to defend it against the King’s enemies.
At the Restoration of Charles II Helier Hue was made a Jurat in recognition of his good and loyal service.
His son Jean, son-in-law of the Lieut-Bailiff and commentator Le Geyt, also lived in St Helier, where he died without heirs. He willed 5 cabots of wheat rente to the poor of St Helier due on a field in the Fief de Collette des Augres, Vingtaine du Mont-au-Pretre. In 1785 this piece of land was called Clos de Hue, and belonged to Guillaume Patriarche, son of Guillaume, after having been owned successively by the Dumaresq, Le Gallais and Ahier families.
One reads in an Acte of the Royal Court of 1709 that Jean Hue of St Mary agreed that Jean Dumaresq, son of Elie, Greffier, should have the enjoyment of the pew in St Helier’s Church which the ancestors of Hue had enjoyed.
Helier Hue, grandson of Jurat Helier Hue, sold a house and land in St Helier to Charles Dumaresq on 14 November 1705. Some of this land was bounded by Rue du Val.
The Hues of St Mary possessed Fief Sotel and Fief es Cras. Fief Sotel, at St Peter, had belonged to the de Soulemonts and was sold on 9 May 1607 by Hugh de Soulemont to Jean de Carteret, Seigneur of Vinchelez de Haut, ‘for the sum of four chickens of rente’. This fief must have been reclaimed by the Hues because in January 1669 Jean Sue, son of Helier and Marie de Soulemont, in his role as procureur of Marie, was sworn in as a Senechal of Fief Sotel.
Fief es Cras, a dependance of Fief de Meleches, was taken by Helier Hue (later Jurat) in 1647 from Elie Dumaresq, son of Abraham.
The Hue family also possessed Gigoulande Mill; Hue Hue, son of Jean, sold it to Jean Fanouillere of Guernsey for 20 quarters of wheat rent.
Hue Street
The name Hue remains attached to different pieces of land and a street in St Helier. Hue Street had this name in or before 1753. There is a Clos de Hue at St Peter, on Fief de la Hagbue ‘to the west of the house of Jacques Robin’, and forming part of the inheritance of Perronnelle Hue, wife of Jacques Robin.
Another piece of land was called Clos de Hue; it was in the Maufant area and in 1693 belonged to Michel Lempriere.
An Acte of 1767 mentions a piece of land called ‘’mielle’’; or ‘’garenne’’ de Hue on the Fief of Meleches in St Helier, and in 1785 there was mention of Clos de Hue on the Fief of Collette des Augres in St Helier.
We do not forget, in conclusion, to mention that a family by the name of Hue, whose genealogy is given in the Armorial of Jersey, came from France about the beginning of the 18th century.
It is also necessary to note that the name of the Hughes family, originally from England, is oftenfound written Hues or even Hue, without having any connection with the Hues of Jersey.
There was a Guernsey Hue family, of which Thomas Hue graduated at Trinity College, Oxford in 1693. We do not know if there is any connection between the Hues of Guernsey and those of Jersey. It even appears that there was a family of this name in Sark at the beginning of the 17th century.
Finally there was in Jersey in the 17th century a Hamon Hue, stranger, who we do not believe left any descendants in Jersey.
A description of the arms carried by the Hues originating in France is found in the Armorial. We have not been able to discover if the Hue family of St Mary carried these same arms.
