Origin of Surname
By some authorities this family is said to come from a French source, but by others, to be identical with that of Gabriel, of England. Given the time that the family has been established in Jersey, we prefer the former, which suggests a derivation from the old French verb gaber, meaning to joke or mock oneself.
Early records
The ancestor of the existing branch, represented by John Gabourel, of La Colomberie, is supposed to have been a seventh son, who, absent on a voyage, escaped the fate of his six elder brothers, who fell victims to the plague which ravaged the island about the year 1536. These brothers were buried in the graveyard of the now demolished feudal chapel of St George, at Vinchelez de Bas, where the tomb erected to their memory is still remembered by some of the patriarchs of St Ouen.
The first recorded baptisms are in St Ouen in the 1650s.
Arms
As borne by John Gabourel,: Argent, an anchor erect, azure; on a chief or the last, three roses of the field. Quartering : Argent, a chevron between two roses slipped in chief, and a heart in base, all gules, for Benest.
Crest : A greyhound's head, couped, argent, collared and chained, or.
History
The Gabourel's of Jersey may have engaged in privateering and were definitely involved in the slave trade. The family appears to have been fairly wealthy during the 1700s and early 1800s, owning land in Jersey and in North Carolina. John Joshua Gabourel went into private banking in Jersey in the early 1800s until his partner embezzled funds from the bank. He made good on the debts out of his personal fortune, but only led a modest life after that.
Family records
Family trees
These are two trees of the same family from different sources. The second goes back a generation further, but the first has much more detail
Church records
- Gabourel baptisms in Jersey
- Gabourel marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Gabourel marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Gabourel burials in Jersey
Burial records
Newspaper records
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Gabourel family are now held by Jersey Archive. By visiting the archive site and using the names, dates and reference numbers shown here, it is possible to view a copy of each will. You will have to subscribe to the Archive's online service to do this. To find out more about this collection, which covers the period from 1663 to 1980, and how to search for your family's wills there, visit our Jersey wills page
- Amice Gabourel of St Peter 25 February 1760 - D/Y/A/10
- Jean-Josué Gabourel of St Helier, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, 600 livres of old French currency 20 October 1854 - D/Y/A/28
- Josué Gabourel of St Helier, desires to be buried in St Helier's Cemetery, bequeaths to the poor of St Helier, £12 of the order, to Jean Josué Gabourel, his grandson, £500 sterling in 3% funds in England makes further bequests of the same funds 14 October 1803 - D/Y/A/16
Further reading
The history of the Gabourel family of Jersey is discussed in John Richard Gabourel's book, The House of Gabourel - A Four Century History of the Gabourels of Jersey from 1500 to 1900, an in-depth study of C Langton's Gabourel Heraldry.
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
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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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