The Dart family

The Dart family
of St Aubin

Blanche Emily and Paul Oke Dart, 1887

This article by Pauline Taylor, nee Dart, appeared in the journal of the Channel Island Family History Society

In 1926 an elderly gentleman, John William Dart, wrote an account of the arrival of his forebears in Jersey. Later research has shown that he relied on family memories rather than census or parish records.

Nevertheless, the story reads freshly, especially the description of the journey over:

"On arrival at Plymouth they found that the only means of communication with Jersey was a small cutter called the Providence, and surely the sequel will prove how apropos was the name of this frail vessel. Hardly had they left port when a fearful storm hit the ship. The few passengers on board were battened down in the hold and for six long, weary days and nights, she was battling with the elements before they sighted the island.

"An incident is worth mentioning to show how little the children realised the awfulness of the situation. William's little boy, who was then eight years old, was found in the hold in great distress of mind and crying bitterly. The father was doing his best to pacify the child and trying to find the cause.

"At last the child revealed the cause of his sorrow by saying: 'I've lost the button of my braces.' How typical of the innocence of children. The father's reply by way of consolation was 'Never mind your button, my son, as long as we arrive safely in Jersey."

This anecdote has the ring of authenticity. John Dart must have heard it from the little boy himself – one of his uncles, or his own father, Paul Oke Dart, who arrived in the 1829s with his widowed father William, three brothers and a sister, to join his uncle and aunt, Henry and Elizabeth Dart, who had emigrated to Jersey some years previously and whose three children were born here.

William and Joan's five children were all baptised in Poundstock church. Joan Dart died in 1823 and when William decided to emigrate, he left his youngest son, James, behind with his grandparents. This child never rejoined his siblings for he died in 1827.

William and Henry were stonemasons by trade and established themselves with considerable success in Jersey. Henry's family left St Aubin and settled in St Helier. William remained in St Aubin and this is the story of his family, to which I belong.

Establishment in St Aubin

William set up a building business on the Quai Bisson. In 1839 he bought a triangular piece of land there and built a house, presently known as Le Paix. In 1833 he was married to Susan MacNeice of St Helier, but the marriage appears to have ended in separation.

There is no mention of her in the few family papers we possess, nor in the partage following William's death, though she outlived him, dying in St Helier in 1871.

One of William's sons, John, was drowned on a fishing trip off Noirmont in 1744. The inquest was reported in Le Chronique.

William may also have owned, or had shares in a trading vessel. John Dart says in his account that his uncle William John was one of the pioneers of the Jersey cattle trade.

"During the summer months, for many years, he took over to Plymouth eight or ten head of cattle. I have distinct recollection of accompanying him on one of these trips when he took over two beautiful heifers. We crossed the drawbridge at Saltash and walked them to Callington."

As William John died of scarlet fever in 1855 (the second of William's sons to predecease him) John must have been a mere lad of nine or ten when he did this trip.

The heirs

William died in 1867. He is buried in St Brelade churchyard facing the sea, on the curve near Fishermen's Chapel. He had done well for his family in Jersey. By the partage of 1870, each surviving child – Henry Symons, Paul Oke and Mary – inherited property in St Aubin, as did the eldest son of William John, another William John, then living in Canada.

He sold his inheritance – Le Paix – to his uncle Henry Symons. John Dart, writing in his account in 1926, was living at The Hollies, High Street, the property inherited by his father Paul Oke in 1870.

The builders

Through the descendants of Paul Oke, the Dart family proliferated in St Aubin and the business flourished. The workshops, with stables at the rear, were on the Bulwarks in the premises now occupied by Jackson Yacht Services.

Towards the end of the century an advertisement read: 'Dart and Sons, Builders and Contractors, Furniture stored and estimates given for its removal to any part of the United Kingdom'.

They also offered undertaking services. My father, Paul Oke Dart the third, rememb ered assisting with the funerals of German prisoners of war from the Blanche Banques camp in the Great War, who were buried in St Brelade churchyard. He also mentioned working on the building of an artist's studio at Grey Gables at the top of La Haule Hill.