Jacques Hemery
Plaisance was built sometime before 1819, as Jacques Hemery is recorded as living there, and he died in that year. His son-in-law, John William Dupre, the Attorney-General, was living there from the 1830s to the 1850s.
John Dupre
The 1851 Jersey census records at Plaisance: John W Dupre, widow, aged 60, profession attorney general; his sister Eliza; his niece Mrs Weston; two grand nieces and four servants. He also owned a house called Meadowbank.
Clement and Portia Hemery moved in in about 1856; he lived there until 1877. Then it was sold to a member of the Falle family. Plaisance was situated not far from Colomberie House, the other principal Hemery residence, on the eastern side of St Helier.
Joshua Falle
After Joshua George Falle bought the property, Thomas Benjamin Davis (1867 – 1942), then a choirboy at the nearby St Luke’s Church, was punished for stealing chestnuts in the grounds of Plaisance, a common enough occurrence perhaps, except that he vowed to buy the house and demolish it when he became rich. Unfortunately for Plaisance he did become rich in South Africa and was able to do what he had vowed. His son Howard had died in the First World War and T B Davis demolished Plaisance in 1938 and gave it to the town as a park, which he named after his son.
When he returned to Jersey to see if his instructions had been carried out, he found the cellars had been left. He ordered that these, too, be destroyed. Only the billiard room, separate from the main house, was left, along with the boundary wall, railings and walled garden. The park was opened in 1939.
Plaisance in 1880 by Henry Knatchbull
Plaisance, photographed in the early 20th century
