Oak Place
Historic Jersey buildings
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Property name
Oak Place
Other names
- Onesime Cottage
Location
Rue du Temple, St John [1]
Type of property
Village cottage
Valuations
Sold for £413,000 in 2001, £675,000 in 2009 and £637,500 in 2016
Families associated with the property
- Le Quesne: The earliest known owner was Josue Le Quesne, who was declared bankrupt in 1838, meaning ownership of Oak Place was transferred to two sisters, Elizabeth and Rachel Le Quesne.
- Simon: Josue Simon purchased the property from Charles Payn, a sailor and ship carpenter, who must have acquired it from the Le Quesne sisters
- Powell: The property was first referred to in a contract as Oak Place in 1919, when Susan Powell, nee Le Maistre, sold the property to Francis Perrot. Susan had purchased the property conjointly in 1893 with her first husband, *Walter Dallain Le Quesne, from Josué Simon.
- Perrot:Francis John Perrot (1895- ) was living here in 1941
- Hamon:James Hamon (1919- ) was also living here in 1941
Historic Environment Record entry
Listed building
This early 19th century cottage has an important site opposite the church. It has fine stonework on the front elevation and historic features from different periods of development. House set back from road. Single storey with attic, five-bay.
History
This synopsis of a talk in the Jersey Heritage Your Home, Your Story series was published by Bailiwick Express, based on research by Roland Quintaine, of Jersey Archive.
Oak Place was built over 180 years ago and has changed hands numerous times over the centuries. It is a picturesque cottage in an important position opposite St John’s Parish Church and next door to the village corner shop.
The purchase history of this property from the mid-1800s to 2022 is recorded in the Public Registry. Census records show who was living in the property and give a sense of what the area was like over the years.
At the time of the 1921 census, Oak Place was owned by Francis John Perrot, a blacksmith, who had bought it three years earlier. He did not live there at the time; instead, the property was occupied by his widowed mother and six of his siblings. Twenty years later Francis’ Occupation registration card records the cottage as his address. Unusually, this was not updated in 1944 when he sold the property, so it is not clear where he moved to.
1901 census
The 1901 census shows Walter and Susan Le Quesne living there with three children, including Elton John Le Quesne. Walter’s profession was listed as ‘grocer and shopkeeper’. He was not recorded as working at home, so it is possible that he was the shopkeeper of the village store next door.
He died in 1903, ten years after buying the house, at the age of just 41. On 12 October that year, the Evening Post reported that he was working as a carpenter and fell 15 feet from scaffolding on a building site near St John’s Rectory. He later died of his injuries and an inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.
In 1905 Susan Le Quesne married Edward Powell, a waiter from Hampshire, who had been living in St John. The ceremony took place in St Saviour’s Parish Church. The 1911 census shows Susan as head of the household at Oak Place. Her occupation was recorded as ‘grocery, wine and spirits and telephone exchange’. The same census shows Edward in lodgings in St Helier working as a commission agent.
There was also a lodger at Oak Place at this time; a Joseph Clelow of Rochester. His occupation was granite quarrier, a very popular profession in St John thanks to the quarry that existed for many years at Mont Mado.
Although the house is named Oak Place in more recent property contracts, in 1893 and earlier it was just called ‘a certain house’, which is a description that is common in older contracts.
The 1893 contract records the purchase of Oak Place by Walter Dallain Le Quesne (1862-1903) and Susan Jane Le Maistre from Philip Pinel, son of Clement, and his wife, Lydia Amy, daughter of Charles.
Lydia had bought the house from Elizabeth Amy, recorded as daughter of Philippe – so the two women were not sisters, although it is possible that they were relatives. [2]Elizabeth had inherited the house from her late husband, Josue Simon. The St John’s Parish Church burial register records that Josue died on 14 March 1885, aged 79 years old, of ‘old age’.
Charles Payn
The 1861 and 1871 censuses show the house owned by Charles Payn, a sailor and ship's carpenter born in St Martin. Charles, his wife Nancy, nee Marett, and her mother were present in the house, which was unnamed in 1861 but by 1871 had acquired the name ‘Onesime Cottage’. Onesime is the French name for Onesimus, a biblical character traditionally thought to be an escaped slave who converted to Christianity after hearing the gospel from St Paul.
Charles and Nancy owned the house for just over ten years. Before this it was in the hands of sisters Rachel and Elizabeth Le Quesne, both of whom were recorded on the 1851 census in an unnamed property in St John’s Village. At that time, both women were unmarried, in their 50s and described as ‘annuitants’; meaning they were receiving an income from lands or investments.
In 1849 the Duke of Godfray Map of Jersey was published. Many rural properties in Jersey are marked on this map with the name of the owner. A building on the site of Oak Place has the name F Le Quesne attached to it.
The Godfray map lists nearly all the house owners with the prefix ‘M’ for Monsieur. This gives the impression that women did not own houses in the Island at that time, but it is evident from the history of this house that this was not always true.
The Le Quesne sisters acquired the house in 1838 from one of the creditors of Josue Le Quesne, possibly a relative of theirs, [3]who had gone bankrupt and forfeited his property. There is no information about previous owners in that contract, so this is where the trail goes cold.
