Bigrel family history

The Bigrel family

Bigrel Farm

This article by Henry Coutanche was published in the journal of the Channel Island Family History Society

Little known family

Very few people seem to have heard of the Bigrel family despite the fact that it existed in Jersey for well over two centuries. My own awareness of it came about in three ways.

My first knowledge of the name was topographical. In the northern part of the Parish of St Lawrence, near China Quarries, in the Vingtaine du Coin Motier, is a property called Bigrel Farm.

This started my interest. What was the origin of that name? I did not at first think of its being a family one. It remained in the recesses of my mind until, while researching the family Laurens, I came across an Elizabeth Laurens married to a Francois Bigrel in the late 18th Century.

Then, whils searching through some family documents, I discovered the draft copy made for my grandfather as one of the valuers of the land in the estate of the late George Bigrel in 1903. From these random pieces of information my interest developed, and so far I have discovered the following.

In the appendix to his artcle The Godfray Names <tef>CIFHS Jurnal 17</ref>, Philip Stevens, with the help of Dr Frank Le Maistre, includes Bigrel as a Huguenot name, which might well explain its non-appearance before the mid-17th Century.

The first reference so far to be found is at Trinity, in the church registers. On 24 December 1655, Jean Bigurel married Collette du Feu. Five children were baptised over the succeeding years: Francois (1656), Collette (1660), Jeanne (1667), Jean (1671) and Richard (1678).

Elizabeth Bigrel

It was not until Elizabeth, the eldest child of another Jean, was baptised that a tree can be made with any degree of certainty. She turns out to be the Elizabeth with whom my story began, but I did not appreciate this for some time.

The family, presumably involved in farming, moved parish quite regularly, probably as a consequence of judicious marriages and the resulting inheritances. In 1760 Francois Bigrel married Elizabeth Laurens, daughter of Philippe and Jeanne, nee Malzard.

In 1773 in the book of Les Chefs Plaids du Fief de Meleches I found that Philippe Laurens was representing his wife, who was the principal heiress of her late brother Abraham. The Laurens home was the meeting place for the fief court on this and other occasions.

Listed among the land held by Jeanne Malzard are holdings by her daughter Elizabeth, wife of Bigrel, at another meeting on 13 December 1798, and still in the 1903 Bigrel inheritance. Field names of interest which are repeated include Le Petit Clos des Filles (2-17-7), La Grande Lande (3-30-0) and Le Jardin de Barlet (1-39-7). La Grande Lande is, I have presumed, La Lande de Haut of 1903.

Oak Farm

Oak Farm

Later information enables the identification of the property as the one now known as Oak Farm, once known as Les Carrieres, on the same road as China Quarries. It was here on 15 December 1902 that George Bigrel, the last male member of the family I have been able to trace, died.

The 1903 document also refers to two sites of earlier properties, neither of which can be identified at present:

• L'assiette de certaine maison et offices autrefois communement appelee 'La Petite Maison , qui fut a Jean Nicolle', la Cour et les Cotils y joignant. This could be on the other side of the road from Oak Farm, where there is now a vast agricultural store.
• L'Assiette de certaine maison, offices, belle hogard et issues, gui fut a M Jean Simon. The latter name has been scored out in pencil with the following words added: dans le Clos des Filles.

Like so many of our ancestors who have been involved with land or sea, little has been written about the individuals.

Two brothers, the sons of Philippe Bigrel and Esther Renouf, deserve attention. Philippe, the elder, was baptised at St Lawrence, but in 1828 he was living at St Peter, where he succeeded his late father-in-law Jean Le Boutillier as Sergent du Roi.

In the election for Constable of St Peter in 1834, Philippe stood against Philippe Le Couteur, of Hamptonne. He suffered a convincing defeat – 115 votes to 10 – but as was the wont at that period, the defeated candidate objected.

His rival, who had been Constable since 1822, was faced with a remonstrance complaining that the parish rates had been enforced in an unfair way, that Le Couteur and his supproters had used illegal means during the election, and that the Seigneur of St Ouen, Charles Le Maistre, had used his influence against him.

After two years Bigrel gave up and Le Couteur was sworn. On the death of his father, perhaps with some relief, he moved to St Lawrence and the family homestead.

His younger brother George was described in the census of 1841 as a carpenter. He built the substantial residence north of Carrefour Selous, which cannot have been so named by him, as he died before the Crimean War, but which until recent times was known as Inkerman House, now Haut les Bois.

Tragic accident

George was only to occupy his fine property for a short time. In January 1852 the Chronique de Jersey reported a tragic accident. While walking on a slippery road at night he fell and died as a consequence of his injuries.

He, too, had been contesting an election result. On 25 June 1845, although not then resident in St Lawrence, he was the successful candidate for Centenier in the parish, by a margin of one vote against Jean Le Gros.

In his remonstrance Le Gros played unkindly on the various spellings of Bigrel's surname. Until his death the result remained unsettled. Within a week of Bigrel's death, Le Gros was immediately sworn in before the Royal Court.

With the death of George Bigrel in 1902, the male line appears to have died out. Related families include the descendants of John William Baker and John Sutton Mourant, who appear to be the heirs of the bigrels on the female lines.

There remains one problem – Bigrel Farm. I can only presume that, as a family of property, the farm also belonged to some members of the family. But why remember the family name in what is apparently not the chief house? Did the first Francois settle here before going to his wife's bigger home?