Philippe Mourant/Philip Morant
Philip Morant
The article has been partly edited and the work will be completed when time permits
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Philip Morant, the antiquary and historian of Essex, was born in Jersey as Philippe Mourant. His parents were Estienne Mourant (1656—1727) and Marie Filleul (1662—1754).
No men of public life
Unlike many St Saviour families, the Mourants, or Morants as they were also spelled, had not by that time produced any men in public life, with the single exception of Jannyn Morant who was Denonciateur in the early 16th Century.
It was only at this time that any Mourants appear in the records. Philippe Mourant was born on 6 October 1700 at Les Pigneaux, St Saviour. The house took its name from the Pinel family, Pigneaux in the plural. It still stands, and is a good if modest example of a late 17th century Jersey house.
Les Pigneaux lintel
The lintel over the front door carries the inscription IAPDI) 16 EMR 78 MAB, though the first letter ‘I’ is in dispute. The inscription must record the marriage of Etienne Mourant and Marie Aubin, Morant’s grand—parents, in 1647, and the building style, with square chamfered doorway and windows, but no round arch, is entirely consistent with a date of 1678.
It seems, therefore, that Morant was born and brought up at Les Pigneaux, like his elder sister Marie (1683- ) and elder brother Etienne (1685- ).
The house had two rooms on the ground floor, with earth floors, and two rooms above. The two main beams are unshaped tree—trunks forking in two where they enter the north wall. At the foot of the stairs is a pouchette, a hiding place in the thickness of the wall, where valuables were kept.
The upper room is or was lined with 18th Century panelling which might have been installed in Morant’s lifetime. He was baptised on 16 October 1700 at St Saviour’s Church, probably by Jacques Tapin de Barhais. Tapin was also Regent of St Mannelier's School and was standing in for the Rector, the Rev Philip Falle, who had left for England.
The likelihood is that Morant received his primary education at St Mannelier's. It was only ¾ mile away across the fields. A small notebook, dated in 1709), and in his childish hand, sets out the rules and regulations of the school, and its twin at St Anastase, and this may be when he entered the school.
From the same year comes L’Alphabet de Philippe Mourant with a quatrain for each letter (‘Aaron Babilon’, ‘King Charles‘, etc), a chanson nouvelle sur le combat des deux flotes (which may refer to the Naval Battle of Barfleur in 1693) and some prayers in French. The Regent of the School was Philippe Mauger (1673—1740) who was also a family friend.
Grammar school scholarship
In about I713 Morant secured a scholarship to the Grammar School in Abingdon, then under the mastership of the Rev Thomas Woods. At that stage he was still writing personal notes in Norman—French, according to Rudsdale.
Like many schools of the time, Abingdon was very rough, even violent, and he nearly lost his life, for Philip Mauger wrote to Morant that he was worried that he had pensé perdre la vie a l'escolle d’Abington ou vous fuste blessé. [1]
At some time in or after 1714, Morant gave the school Cicero’s De Oratore, which had been published by the Clarendon Press in 1714. He must have gone back to Jersey during the holidays. There is a curious note about what passed in the Spring of 1715 between his brother Etienne and Jeanne Filleul.
They had a place of assignation among ‘the monsters of Rocbert’ on Sunday evenings, though Jeanne had promised herself to Jean Touzel (1702—1785) of St Clement, then at sea, and had reluctantly accepted two rings from Etienne’s cousin, Edouard Millais.
Two years later Etienne married Jeanne Filleul, and her sister later married Touzel.
On 7 October 1717 Morant was in Jersey, receiving his certificate of his first communion from Jean Rocques, Rector of St Saviour. When he returned to England, he stayed at the Three Tuns Tavern in Southampton, and proceeded to Winchester and Abingdon. On 16 December he was in Oxford and entered in Pembrook College, matriculating the next day.
He moved between Abingdon and Oxford in January and February 1718, and he recorded on 30 January that Mr Le Couteur in Oxford me donna ces avis; this must be Francis Le Couteur, who had been at Pembroke and was now a fellow, but unfortunately his advice has been blanked out.
Morant went back to Abingdon School for a week, attending the Founders Play Day on 1 March 1718. On 7 March he ‘left Abingdon School and came to College’, though it seems his place was for Michaelmas, 29 September; Mauger advised him to write to the College to remind them of the promised place.
The choice of Pembroke is not surprising. In the first place, there was a well—beaten path between Abingdon School and Pembroke which, by the time that the Jerseyman Francis Jeune was master (1844 ~ 1864), had become ‘stultifyingly close’. Secondly, many Jerseymen had been to Pembroke. At least four had been educated at Broadgates Hall, precursor of Pembroke early in the 17th Century, and by the time Morant entered Pembroke, 23 more Jerseymen had already been to the College.
Most profited from King Charles Fellowships or Morley Scholarships. Morant had neither; he was a servitor, a subsidised class of undergraduate. He and his contemporary Philippe Dorey shared a scholarship from the will of Laurens Baudains. The scholarship was worth 11½ quarters of wheat each, or 115 livres a year, from the revenue of Dannemarche Mill. He received the money for the five years, 1718—1722. In March, Morant was confirmed by the Bishop of Oxford in St Mary’s.
He now began to keep letters from several family members which give us much information about their life in Jersey over the next 50 years, and because he often drafted a reply on the back of their letters, we learn something about his life and his reactions to the family letters. For example, his father wrote to tell him Captain James Lempriere would like some news from his son, George, who was also at Pembroke.
Apart from Philippe Dorey, Jerseymen who overlapped with Morant at Pembroke were Daniel Durell, Francis Ricard, Charles de la Garde, Francis Payn, Philip Pipon, Philip de Gruchy and George Lempriere. Durell, de la Garde, Payn, Gruchy, Lempriere and probably Pipon became clergymen; Philippe Dorey abandoned his studies after getting his BA, leaving for Ireland with an ‘Irish seigneur’; Francis Ricard died young.
Some of his contemporaries had a rather relaxed attitude to their studies. Pipon, Payn, de la Garde and Ricard, for example, spent some months in Jersey over the winter of 1719 — 1720. On return to Oxford they might bring letters, money, letters of exchange, linen and sheets from the family, as did casual visitors to Oxford such as Philippe Messervy, Rector of St Brelade, and Henry Durell, London merchant and half~brother of Daniel Durell." Morant later repaid this family support by helping to educate his nephews.
Morant’s university career went through the usual stages: he went for a liceat (a dispute on logic) on 14 November 1719, opposed Mr Thomas at ‘ye schools’ on 7 March 1720, ‘answered under a bachelor" (more disputations) on 23 March and 8 April, and juraments twice. In 1721 he made payment for being created Senior Sophmore. On 10 June 1721 he put on his Bachelor of Arts gown, which meant that he was ‘admitted to the degree’ though he actually took it later in Cambridge. Perhaps exhausted by his labours, he fell sick for the rest of the month.
Don Baudains continued to pay at the same rate, and it is possible that he also received the share Of Dorey who had disappeared. The payments were somewhat reduced when Dannemarche Mill was being rebuilt after a fire. What exactly he studied is not known, but it is likely that, in addition to divinity, he studied classical languages and Hebrew.
He must have heard many sermons, because he noted names of clerics, the colleges where they preached and, sometimes, the gist of the sermon.
Visit to Daniel Durell in Wales, 1722
Morant now set out to see Daniel Durell who was Vicar of Cowbridge in Glamorgan. Durell was the son of Thomas Durell and Marie de la Douepe. He had matriculated at Pembroke in 1711, received a Morley Scholarship, and gained his BA in 1719.
Morant claimed to have found a ‘Whig’s Creed‘ in Durell’s study at Pembroke, suggesting that Durell was a Calvinist.
Morant left Oxford on 11 July with a Mr Bates, went through Gloucestershire, saw St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol, and took ship to Cardiff. It was delayed by a storm and did not reach Cowbridge until 15 July. He found it ‘full of water, foggy and unwholesome‘, but no doubt he had stimulating discussions with Durell, with whom he had corresponded for some time.
While in Wales, Morant and Durell went to see the former High Sheriffs of Glamorgan, George Howell and John Aubrey, and other local worthies such as Mr Lambert, Mr Coldrick and Mr Gregory.
He returned with a Mr Thomas, riding a horse of Daniel Durell’s, through Chepstow, Monmouth and Gloucester, arriving back in Oxford via Burford on 1 February 1722. He had kept his study and books at Pembroke; Francis l’ayn advised that it would not cost above 11) shillings to get them to London by water. though they were later taken by wagon. Morant still owed small amounts to the College.
Ordination as deacon
Durell followed up the visit by advising Morant not to be too ‘Frenchity’d and Mercurial...You will never be a good Divine, except you are first a good Humanist.’ Morant was hoping to find a living, but he spent the summer in London, staying with Mr Dorey (who may have been his fellow Baudains scholar) and in Hackney. He saw Ben Jonsons Bfll‘f/IOIOHICH’ Fair in Drury Lane and witnessed the Duke ofMarIborough’s funeral in Pall Mall on 9th August.
Morant was examined by the Bishop ofNorwich’s chaplain on 211th September 1722, and the next day subscribed to ‘ye articles‘. At 6 a.m. on the 23rd, he was ordained deacon by the Bishop. Thomas Green, at St Martin in the Fields. His first living was as Curate of Great WaItham in Essex, the beginning of his lifelong association with the County and with Nicholas Tindal, the Vicar.
He preached there for the first time on 30 September 1722. He also conducted marriage services. and preached at Pleshey. By the end of 1725, he had received £11 for preaching on 77 Sundays.
Philippe Falle
The Rev Philippe Falle, author of Caesarea, was absentee Rector of St Saviour when Morant was a boy. They knew of each other and were related by marriage. As two clergymen and antiquaries from the same Jersey parish, and now living not far from each other in England, they were to exchange many letters and have many meetings. The first seems to have been in August 1723. when Morant was 23 and Falle 44 years older.
Morant rode the 40 miles from Great Waltham to Shenley, Hertfordshire, where Falle was Rector. He asked Morant to preach at his church, St Paul’s, but he could not as he had no substitute in Essex.
Morant referred to Falle as ‘this great and good man, with his sincere and unaffected piety”. Daniel Durell said that he did not ‘know a greater or better man than Mr Falle to whose acquaintance I could commend you”.
The triangular correspondence between Falle, Morant and Durell shows that they kept one another informed about what was going on in Jersey. For example, Thomas Cartault, Rector of Trinity, was sent to prison on 11 July 1723 for certain writings against members of the jurisdiction, and on 3 September his writings were condemned to be burnt by the public hangman in the square in St Helier.
Durell commented to Morant that Cartault could not be deprived of his benefice by the jurisdiction for this, as it was a matter for the Bishop of Winchester. Somewhat later FaIle wrote to Morant about Francois Parain de Durette, Rector of Trinity immediately after Cartault, and chaplain to Lord Cobham, the absentee Governor. Cobham was pushing for the deanery to go to Durette, but this was opposed by Rev Thomas Seale, Rector of St Clement, and other clergy, on the grounds that he was not a Jerseyman by birth, and did not have the right English degrees. In the event, the Deanery went to Francis Payn.
In August 1724, Morant stayed with Falle again. He found that Falle ‘could walk very nimbly for a man in his condition’. He visited him again at the end of the year.
Ordination as priest
On 20 December 1724, Morant was ordained priest by his friend and patron, Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London. Morant was casting about for a living, and Francois Le Couteur (1659 — 1734) Rector of St Martin, tried to persuade him to take a Jersey benefice, which would have pleased his parents. Thomas Cartault, Rector of Trinity, had died in 1723, and the benefice was open. Le Couteur noted that another one was unlikely to turn up for a great while.
But Daniel Durell reminded Morant how badly Cartault had been treated in Trinity and added that Le Couteur himself was glad to leave Trinity for St Martin.
‘If you stay in Jersey, farewell your studies, farewell your prospect of preferment, farewell your liberty. Baudains’ gift will ever and anon be hit in your teeth. And you are not yet preferred to the living.
How would you relish composing, learning and preaching by heart every week one, if not two sermons sometimes three, in French? Instead you can study with the excellent Mr Tindal. Besides are not Mr du Treppe and Joubert gaping for a church?’
Morant concluded that Durell’s letter convinced him ‘of the prejudice it would do me to go to Jersey’. In the event Pierre Joubaire, who had been vicar of Trinity since 1723, and ‘drudging’ at St Mannelier for seven years, was confirmed in his position, and made Rector in 1731.
Morant carried on as Curate of Great Waltham. On 13 October 1726 he waited on the Bishop of London, with a letter of recommendation from Philippe Falle; it is clear that he was soliciting a better living. Falle also suggested that Morant should present Gibson with his translation of Beausobre and Lanfant’s Notes on St Matthew's Gospel (1727).
Morant waited on the Bishop again on 14 March and 10 June 1727, and on 5 February 1729 the Bishop said that he ‘designed’ the living of Bromfield for Morant.
Meanwhile, his father had died. Morant noted somewhat drily ‘after my mother’s decease, I will be entitled to 23 livres a year”. Durell commented simply ‘God’s will be done’.
Baudains refund
In September 1729 Morant was surprised to receive a letter from Mr Marett asking him to refund what he had received from the Don Baudains unless he went to take up a living in Jersey. The rationale was that the purpose of the Don Baudains was to educate Jerseymen so that they could take up parishes in Jersey, not in England.
Morant was not aware that any Jersey livings were vacant, nor had he refused any. He had thought of applying for the Rectorsliip of Trinity in 1725, but was told that Cobham had already given it to Parain de Durette.
He had enquired about other livings in early 1729, but he been told that ‘there were some of my betters to be served before me' and had not been offered any; so he could not be said to have refused any.
He told Mr Aubin (probably Jean Aubin, the Denonciateur), that he was ready to serve his native country and would take any ‘destitute’ parish in Jersey, but could not in any case go to Jersey till spring 1730. He told Marett that he would be prepared to take a living in Jersey two or three years hence, and also told his friend Guillaume Dumaresq that if anything turned up in four or five years he would be at his service.
If any living became void and he refused it, he would refund Baudains. He had also thought of adding some valuable books to Falle’s proposed library for Jersey, easily worth what he had received from Baudains; but Falle’s project was stalled.
One reason for not wanting to go to Jersey was that he was deputising for Nicholas Tindal, his vicar, and helping him translating Rapin de Thoyras’s Histoire d’Angleterre. On 29 September, Morant resigned the Don Baudains, which meant losing the annual income of perhaps 230 livres, rather than refunding the whole sum he had received since 1718.
Cambridge
On 8 October 1729 he went to Cambridge, and on the 10th was admitted to the degree of Master of Arts, being incorporated at Sidney Sussex. Cambridge was much closer than Oxford, and there was no need to go to Oxford to convert his BA into an MA. His expenses were more than £15. He was back in Cambridge on 5 July 1731 to ‘conmmence’ his MA, still spelling himself Mourant. On 6 September he began to preach at Chignal Smealey and on 15 November at Little Waltham.
Visit to Jersey, April—June 1731
Morant, along with Falle and Henry Durell, Daniel Durell’s merchant brother, were becoming, concerned about disturbances in Jersey. They lasted from August 1730 to March 1731, and Morant composed or copied a long account of them. The States had determined that people would have to pay six liards instead of four for every sow they owed. For some reason, they were particularly incensed against the new Dean, Francis Payn, Morant’s exact contemporary at Pembroke. Payn managed to escape the rioters, but the house where he had been hiding was ransacked.
By January 1731 Morant was noting that the mechant feu lit in Jersey was not completely put out. This was the background to his visit to Jersey in 1731 , but the purpose of it was probably to see what it would be like to take a living in Jersey. Leaving from Southampton he spent some days in Guernsey before arriving in Jersey on Captain Perchard’s shallop on 29 April. He received the sacrament at St Saviour’s Church on 2 May, and preached there (presumably In French) two Sundays later. On 23 May he gave a sermon at St Helier, with a congregation of about a thousand. He also found time to preach to the garrison at Elizabeth Castle.
He no doubt remembered the advice of Daniel Durell that if he took a living in Jersey, he would have to compose, learn and preach by heart up to three sermons a week, and that he could say farewell to his studies, prospect of preferment and liberty.
This visit must have determined him to abandon any thought of ever ministering in Jersey, and to concentrate on seeking preferment and developing his antiquarian interests in England. In May, as though launching his new avocation, he surveyed ‘druidical’ monuments in Jersey, and ‘took minutes on the spot’.
These he imparted to Philippe Falle for his 1734 re—edition of Caesarea, who thanked his ‘ingenious friend’ for his pains. His notes record details probably not otherwise preserved, for example the measurements of prehistoric structures which have since disappeared, the fact that Le Couperon was called ‘Le Chateau de Colas Machon’ and that the tumulus which was presumably in the Clos de la Hougue (Field 1172 in St Helier) had the resounding name of La Hougue de la Gobarde de la Rocque.
He must have visited Mont Orgueil for he noted that there were several coats of arms round the top of the Inner Tower, which were a plain cross, whereas the arms of Henry Beauchamp, in whose time the Tower seems to have been finished, were a fess between six cross—crossets. He regretted that ‘so noble and stately structure’ as Mont Orgueil should be suffered to go to decay.
While in Jersey, he must have seen something of the countryside. He refers to Falle’s comment in his 1694 Caesarea that there is ‘little good timber for almost all our trees are pollards’.
Morant commented that this “is not so true as it was, for the trees that have since that time been planted along the roads, are not pollards, and will in time produce an incredible stock of good timber; they being generally Oaks. The shade they yield in summer is inexpressibly pleasant, for you ride along ye roads as if it was in an Arbour.’
At Falle’s request, he also compared the number of houses in each Vingtaine with the comparable figures in Falle's 1694 edition. It may have been now that he gave his portrait to Jeanne Estur, wife of nephew Philippe: Morant returned to Portsmouth on 8 June, on the jam’, Captain Philip Payn.
Later in the year, his mother, Marie Filleul, wrote wistfully that Hugh Grandin, Rector of St Peter, had died, and that his benefice was one of the best in the island; but it was too late for that. Jean Aubin wrote him that ‘the people are ‘moor ready to obey the King’s order that they were while you was here‘, suggesting that the revolt on the devalued currency had fizzled out, though a year later Morant was still referring to ‘our miserably divided island’.
Amsterdam avoided
In August 1732, Morant was nominated to the chaplaincy of the English Church in Amsterdam by Caroline, Queen Regent, and went to see the Bishop of London to accept. But his first curate there, Archibald Campbell, as well as Mr Davis and Mr Blomberg, gave such a ‘terrible representation’ of Amsterdam that Morant did not take up the living.
Gibson ‘indulged’ Morant by supplying a curate, Wigmore, until Morant determined not to go over; it is possible that he did not even visit Amsterdam. He formally relinquished it in September 1734, noting wryly that he had thereby deprived himself of £150, which earned a rebuke from the Bishop.
Further Essex livings
Morant left Great Waltham at the end of 1732, and became Vicar of Bromfield on 17 January 1733. On 17 June 1734, he became Rector. In May 1733 he had been inducted as Rector of Shellow Bowells. It was quite normal at this time for clergymen to hold livings in plurality; if they were rectors they could take the stipend and delegate the duties to a vicar or a curate.
Philippe Falle, who was Rector of Trinity, and then St Saviour, from 1681 to 1706, spent much of this time in England. Morant never held more than two livings.
Rapin de Thoyras
As stated, Morant’s Vicar at Great Waltham, Nicholas Tindal, was translating the Histoire d’Angleterre by Paul de Rapin Thoyras (1661—1725). Tinda1’s translation came out as The History of England in 15 volumes between 1725 and 1731.
Tindal was very fortunate that his curate was a native French speaker. One of the reasons Morant gave for not taking benefices in Jersey or Amsterdam, was that he ‘engaged to Tindal' in his literary work. Edmund Gibson, the Bishop, and himself an antiquary, approved of his clergy making books their diversion, which kept them from seeking it elsewhere, and did not insist on Morant going to Amsterdam while he was so diverted. Morant pressed a copy of Rapin on Philippe Falle and refused any payment.
Falle’s Caesarea
Morant and Falle had been meeting and corresponding regularly since 1728. Falle’s letters to Morant, which continued till Falle’s death in 1742, have been preserved in the British Library.
The first edition of Falle’s Caesarea was published in 1694. He had found that Jerseymen ‘were as great strangers as if these islands had been some degrees beyond the line’. He resolved to ‘remove prejudice and rectify misapprehensions’.
He was now preparing a Second Edition. He asked Morant, who was already an accomplished translator and researcher, to get him various books and citations. ‘Is there anything in Matt Paris concerning our island in the reign of John? Please transcribe it for me if so.’
He asked Morant to translate some charters, and likewise the inscription on the Mace. ‘This trouble your skill in translating brings upon you.’ Morant accepted this task with ‘abundance of pleasure’. Falle realised that even this second edition would not be definitive, and that a third might be necessary.
‘I know not whether I shall satisfy others but am too sure I shall not satisfy myself, for want of Books. I shall leave enough for others to glean after me, if ever my book should come to be reviewed for a third edition, which perhaps may fall to your share, and I know none more able. Were you at hand I could now have some assistance from you, which the too great distance we are at makes impracticable.’
The presses for the second edition stood still for two months after four sheets were ‘wrought off’ and sent to one of the de Carterets of Vinchelez and to ‘my Lord Carteret’, the Whig statesman, who wanted to add things about their family. The sheets were returned without answer. ‘Perhaps his Lordship is now grown too great to be willing to own the poor Country that bore his ancestors’, commented Falle.
Falle now suggested that Morant should write a commentary on that part of Selden’s Marc Clausum which deals with the neutrality of the Islands. Falle would furnish Morant with materials from the papers of Jean Poingdestre. ‘I would have your name to it, and so to commence as an author, having been a translator long enough.’ He added that ‘I am tempted to pray you to put in a word at the close by way of compliment for the service done by me illustrating our Native Country...’
Morant duly obliged, and his letter, dated 27 October 1733 from London, begins with an encomium of Falle, on behalf of himself, the inhabitants of Jersey, and posterity. The letter is printed in the second edition as ‘Remarks on the 19th Chapter of the second book of Mr Selden’s Mare Clausum.
With a range of reference, Morant rebuts Selden’s claim that the Islands had always been in possession of the King of England, rather than merely since the loss of Continental Normandy in 1204.
In commenting on Morant’s ‘remarks’ Falle writes that he had ‘erased the u in your name (it has crept in without reason)”. Falle had convinced himself that Morant was the original spelling (though both forms are found in Jersey) and that he was of the same family as people called Morant in England and Morand in France. Morant seems to have acquiesced in this.
In a draft to Falle of 16 September 1735 Morant says ‘I do not want good company here — all my friends are afternoon visitors - in the morning I always study. I keep sober company — tea, coffee and perhaps a bottle of wine and oftener ale. Mostly employed in the making of sermons.’
In a letter a week later, Falle complained that he was becoming deaf and averse to company ‘yet I shall always take pleasure in yours, tho’ we were to converse together by Signes’.
Educating his nephews
Morant repaid the support he had received from his extended family by funding the education of his three nephews. Philip Vivian, born in 1711, was the son of Morant’s sister, Marie, and Philip Vivian. In 1733, Morant paid £10 for half a year’s board at Mr Hammond’s school, probably in London, and in 1735 £14 a year at Daniel Martin’s school in Southampton.
Up to 1739, Morant had spent £65 92 11d on Philip Vivian. Later, he was concerned that Vivian should marry ‘as they have not a woman in the family’ but he did not put this right until 1751.
Philip Mourant, son of Morant’s brother Etienne and Jeanne Filleul, was born in 1719. He was at school in Southampton, probably Daniel Martin’s, in 1735, one of nine boys from Jersey.
He would send the bille to Morant, which might include board, books, shoes or hat. By 1739, Morant had spent £45 2s 11d on his education and £13 2s on his board.
Philip seems to have been rather accident—prone: he damaged an eye cutting wood or knocking down apples three or four times between 1760 and 1763.
More remarkable was the third nephew, Etienne, brother of Philip. He was born in 1720. He was at St Mannelier, where he studied oriental languages and mathematics for five years.
In 1737, it was suggested that the masters of the School should teach him ‘un peu d’Anglois’. By 1739, Philippe Mattingley, the Regent, found that he was well advanced in Latin. Morant sent £3 10s for Etienne’s education at Daniel Martin’s, but for one so promising he seems to have lost interest in his studies. He had wanted to become a cabinet—maker, but now he began to work for the firm of Bourgeois, tobacco—traders, in America.
In 1741 he was aboard the Elizabeth, Captain Richard du Parcq, in the James River, Maryland. Next year, he was on the Torbay in the Baie d’Hyeres, South of France, but he died aboard of fever. Morant had paid £14 7s for his education.
Chignal Smealey and St Mary at the Walls, Colchester
In September 1735, Morant got the Rectorship of Chignal Smealey. Here he transcribed the list of baptisms, weddings and burials kept by Thomas Emberson, the clerk, as the Rector, Thomas Cox, had failed to do so during his long incumbency of 54 years.
Two months later he was appointed chaplain to Mary, the Dowager Countess of Cassilis. In 1738, Morant ended his Rectorship of Broomfield and moved as rector to his final berth, St Mary at the Walls, Colchester, where he was to remain for the rest of his life, although in his last three years he moved to London. He also retained the Rectorship of Chignal Smealey for a few years.
Anne Stebbing
In late 1738, Morant wrote to his ‘very dear mother' asking for her blessing. At the relatively late age of 38, he was engaged to one of his parishioners who was ‘bonne et agreable’ and furthermore had £2,000 sterling. Morant called it the ‘conclusion of my favourite business’. She was Anne Stebbing (1698—1767), daughter of Solomon Stebbing of Brook House, Great Tey. She came with her sister, who had been her companion for 36 years. Their daughter, Anna Maria, was born on 25 November 1739. At this time, Morant sold his Jersey wheat rentes (3 quarters and 4 cabots), which he had inherited from his father, to Henry Durell.
History of Colchester and Biographica Britannica
By December 1739 Morant was planning a book on Colchester. This appeared as The History and Antiquities of Colchester, 1748. A second edition was incorporated into his Essex (1768). In 1739 also he began to contribute articles to Dr Kippis for the Biographia Britannica.
Morant’s articles were marked ‘C’ for Colchester. The last article was published in 1765; and many more that he had prepared were never published. Morant wanted to write of ‘those doctors, our countrymen’, including Dr Brevint, Dr Durell and Philippe Falle himself. Falle reacted robustly to Morant’s request for information about himself: ‘But for God’s sake what do you mean by desiring likewise an account of myself to be joined with these two eminent persons? Are you serious, or do you only banter? Let me die in obscurity.
Daniel Dumaresq and other correspondents
When Philippe Falle died, Morant began corresponding with Daniel Dumaresq. Dumaresq (1712—1805) was the son of Elie Dumaresq of Augres and Elizabeth, nee de Carteret. He had a Morley Scholarship at Pembroke, getting his MA in 1736. He had a curacy under Dr Berriman, Rector of St Andrew’s Undershaft. Morant had clearly asked him to supply Lives for Biographica Britannica, for Dumaresq responded that 'only a gentleman might perhaps be prevailed upon to write the Life of Chancellor Fortescue’ and complained that he found it difficult to find people to write any Lives for so small a salary.
Dumaresq told Morant that on the death of Guillaume Dumaresq in 1746, the vice—dean ordered the clergy not to read Acts of the Court after morning service on appointment of Jurats, which some had already refused to do. This put a stop to elections for Jurats.
Morant also began corresponding with Dr Andrew Ducarel in 1751, an antiquary whose Huguenot parents came from Normandy. Ducarel greatly relied on Morant’s assiduity in composing his own works, for example on Alien Priories. Morant suggested various changes and additions, and entered a plea for accuracy: ‘Too many nations, and the French especially, are indeed abominably careless in writing the names of places, without any regard to etymology.’
He supplied Ducarel with information about the Abbey of St Helier. But Morant later complained that much of Ducarel’s work was wholly composed and written by himself, and this is certainly true of Ducarel’s works on the Hutton family, Lambeth Palace and the Hospital of St Katharine. Ducarel introduced Morant to Thomas Astle, who became Morant’s son—in—law.
Wickham Bishops, 1743—1745
In January 1743 Morant ended his Rectorship of Chignal Smealey and became Rector of Bishops Wickham (or Wickham Bishops) , all the time retaining St Mary’s at the Wills. He would relinquish Bishop’s Wickham for Aldham in 1745.
Bernard Fournier
Morant added some information on another Jersey case. Bernard Fournier, who had absconded from a French monastery and abjured Catholicism in Geneva, had in about 1733 become ministre officiant in place of the absentee Rector of St Peter, George Lempriere (Morant’s contemporary at Pembroke). On 9 October 1738, Fournier was in the Ecclesiastical Court in jersey for having injured Rachel Falle of St Peter. He was there again in 1740, on a charge of having spoken inappropriately to one of his parishioners, perhaps Rachel Falle. He said he had been interrupted and disturbed by her behaviour while he was conducting divine service.
Fournier appealed against the sentence of Dean Francis Payn in the Consistory Court in Winchester, and went to see Benjamin Hoadley, the Bishop of Winchester. Hoadley rejected Fournier’s appeal, but kindly and unwisely gave him a promissory note for 5 guineas to pay for his return to jersey. Fournier later claimed that Hoadley had promised him preferments if he did not pursue his counter—case against the ‘gentlewoman’.
Fournier now forged a note for £8,800 above Hoadley’s signature and tried to extract money from him. Fournier left Jersey for Suffolk where he took the name Baker and took a curacy at Aspall, whose owner, Clement Chevalier, took his side against the Bishop. Hoadley wrote to Morant on 9 June 1751, ‘If I was as wicked as Fournier's story makes me, I must have been mad also to have acted as his fable makes me.’
Hoadley finally got a judgement of ‘gross fraud’ against Fournier in the Court of Chancery on 23 July 1752, but this did not stop Fournier’s vendetta. Hoadley’s published letter to Chevalier, remonstrating about Fournier’s misrepresentations, comes to 39 pages of close printed type. Morant was to visit Clement Chevalier in 1761 and 1762; it seems unlikely that he would have taken the side of Fournier against the Bishop of Winchester.
Don Baudains
In 1752 Francois Guillaume Le Maistre, Attorney-General, wrote to Morant about the Don Baudains. He probably suggested that, as a beneficiary of the fund, Morant should consider taking a Jersey parish or, if not, refunding the original bursary. We have seen that Morant had stopped taking the Don Baudains money in 1720 when he realised that he would never take a Jersey parish.
Philippe Mourant, Morant‘s nephew, now wrote to say that the island needed pastors, especially during the illness of Jean Roques, Rector of St Saviour, who had not conducted any services. He added the inducement that the tithes of a rector were worth 1,500 livres a year.
Morant clearly was not interested in a Jersey parish, and the plea fell on his deaf ears. In 1752, he wrote ‘Within the compass of three days I was so unhappy as to lose my only brother and sister in law...” The other news from jersey was that Morant’s mother was failing. Philippe Mourant, her great nephew, told Morant that his mother was ‘bien troublesome’, sometimes asking two or three times a day who he was.
In a sudden change of tone, he wrote to Morant as Cher Mons Mourant, rather than Cher Oncle, asking how a man fort a son aise et en grande dignite could forget his birthplace and his own mother. Morant promptly sent him £5, and Philippe Mourant replied to Mon tres cher Oncle’.
Morant’s mother, Marie, died on 23 May 1754, aged 92, and was buried on 25 May. Morant used the inheritance from his mother - 3 quarters, 1 cabot and two and a third sixtonniers, and a field in Grouville worth 7 livres, 10 sous, to augment the Don Balleine. On 13 December 1764 a receipt from Thomas Durell, the Vicomte, said that the ‘donation de Laurens Baudains’ was ‘donné en double’.”
Society of Antiquaries
Morant was unanimously elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 20 November 1755. On 9 April 1761, he presented, but did not himself deliver, a talk on Jersey Antiquities, especially Le Dolmen du Mont de la Ville. His paper was read by the celebrated antiquary, William Stukeley.
The History and Antiquities of Essex
Morant’s great work, The History and Antiquities of Essex, for which he is mostly remembered in the county and beyond, was dependent on the works of some others, such as Thomas Jekyll and his friend Nicholas Tindal, who wrote a history of the county in about 1732.
The first part appeared in 1762, the second in 1763 and the third, incorporating the second edition of his Colchester, came out in 1768. His correspondence in connection with this work is in the British Library.
On 20 ]uly 1767, Morant’s wife Anne died, and he moved in with daughter and his son— in—law, Thomas Astle, at Battersea Rise. He kept the Rectory of St Mary at the Walls, Colchester, presumably passing the work to a curate.
Last years
In February, Morant was appointed, with Mr Topham, to collate the Rolls of Parliament, succeeding Mr Blyke, and he continued it to the 14th year of the Reign of Henry IV. As a native of Jersey, and excellently skilled in the old Norman French, he was particularly well qualified. After his death, work devolved to his son—in—law. He also began calendaring the Ancient Charters; the work was completed by Sir Joseph Ayloffe.
He had been planning to go to Colchester in September 1770, but probably did not do so. On return from Temple to Vauxhall he was seized by a violent cold taken on the Thames, and this brought on his death on 25 November. He was buried at his church at Aldham, in the south recess of the chancel. His epitaph is by Thomas Astle.
Notes and references
- ↑ Both his later correspondent, Andrew Ducarel, and his future son—in—law, Thomas Astle, lost the sight of an eye at Eton.
