Clement family history
Clement family history
By the Rev J A Messervy - This translation of a history written in French was provided by Mary Ann Minor
This surname was certainly at first a christian name, and was taken up in situ (in 'the place thereof’) as many others in our Island. [1]
St Brelade
The earliest Clement we have been able to trace lived in St Brelade in the year 1495, but we may suppose that the family was already settled there for several generations.
A junior branch had settled, by marriage probably, in the parish of St Clement, about the 17th cortury, but died out after two or three generations. Sore members settled at St Peter, where they also died out.
The chief branch of the Clement family remained in St Brelade until atout the end of the 18th century, when they settled in St Lawrence, and continued to live in that parish until recent times.
Through the marriage of the two brothers, Pierre Clement (1806) and Jean Clement (1812) with the two daughters of Richard Le Feuvre of St Lawrence the Clemkents inherited most of the estates of that branch of the Le Feuvre family, who had inherited the Bisson property. The extensive property comprised houses, lands, rentes, the fief Luce de Carteret, the Fief es Hatains, a mill, etc.
In 1813 a Letter of Marque against America was granted to Pierre Clement, commander of the ship ‘Venus’. In 1809 this same Pierre Clement had received a commission of Lieutenant of Batteries in the 4th or South Regiment of Militia, granted by Lieutenant General Don, Lieut-Governor of Jersey.
Clergy
Several members of the Clement family took Holy Orders. Sire George Clement studied divinity at Coutances, France, where he was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Coutances, on 15 December 1546.
The Rev George Clement, Honorary Canon of Winchester, became Rector of St Ouen on 13 April 1860, and remained in charge of that parish for over 30 years. It was during the Rev George Clement’s ministry that the final restoration of St Ouen’s Parish Church took place.
Notes and references
- ↑ Writing at the end of the 19th century, when French family records were not as readily available as they are now, Messervy believed that many long-established Jersey family names originated in the island. One by one these theories have been disproved. While it is possible that the Jersey family name Clement did originate in the island, as well as elsewhere, the presence of the name in Normandy as early as the 13th century would tend to suggest otherwise
