Thomas James Gruchy (1719-1780)
Thomas James Gruchy
(1719-1780)
Leader of the Trinity Rebellion, 1769
Thomas James Gruchy was born in Trinity and baptised on 3 November 1719, the second son of Charles Gruchy and Susanne Marett, daughter of Pierre and Marguerite La Cloche, of La Haule. He went to sea as a young man settling, after some years, in Boston, Massachusetts, where his maternal uncle Philippe Marett lived, Boston being at that time a British colony.
Privateering
During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), which saw Britain and Holland pitted against their old foes France and Spain, Gruchy, who was already described in Boston as a 'shipping magnate', obtained a Letter of Marque for his 120-ton brigantine Queen of Hungary of which he was master, to serve, in effect, as an auxiliary vessel of the Royal Navy, namely as a privateer. Cruising in 1745, in consort with the privateer Prince Charles of Lorraine, Captain Potter, they took, when to the north of Bermuda, one of two French ships, of 400 tons, 18 guns and 80 men, carrying a cargo of sugar, indigo and quicksilver.
The prize was described as having surrendered after receiving “a shot in his his stern, that had rak`d him fore and aft.” [1] Later, off New York, Gruchy captured two more vessels after a long battle, in which he lost two men killed, with several wounded. One of these vessels was the 320-ton French privateer Valliant (12 guns), which was carrying a cargo of indigo and sugar, intended for Bordeaux.
Marriage
In 1741, he married in Boston, Mary Dumaresq, daughter of Philip, a fellow Jerseyman, who was also a privateer captain and merchant. From 1745 Gruchy and his wife lived in a brick house near Christ Church, the old North Church, in the north end of Boston, which had formerly been the home of Sir William Phipps, the sometime Royal Governor. Gruchy became churchwarden of the North Church, donating a fine chandelier and four polychromed wooden statues of cherubim, 'puffing their cheeks and blowing soundlessly into their trumpets,' [2] which he had captured after seizing another French ship. They remain in the church, as a lasting legacy to one of the town`s most successful merchant adventurers.
There was said to have been a tunnel from Gruchy`s wharves to his house, to enable captured items to pass directly to him for disposal, thus by-passing the Admiralty prize courts. In a community renowned also for its smuggling trade, the tunnel doubtless served both purposes. The construction of this tunnel was undertaken with both stealth and subterfuge. Two hulks were said to have been floated on a spring tide into two depressions on the shore in close proximity to his wharves. Around them, a gang of sailors and workmen built a wooden screen so that, out of sight, the tunnel could be excavated. Needless to say, rumours and suspicion on the part of Customs officers, for whom Gruchy was said to have `had little sympathy`, abounded.
Return to Jersey
It may have been this very factor or perhaps evidence of his evading either Customs duties or Admiralty Court rulings, that led to his sudden decision in 1758 to sell up in Boston and to return to his native Jersey. He was, after all, a Jersey landowner, his father having died in 1724 and his elder brother in 1733.
Back in Trinity, he became Procureur du Bien Public in 1756 and churchwarden in 1764. He was also appointed Receiver of the Jersey sailors` Greenwich Hospital sixpences, a form of social security. Five years later, political upheaval in the Island launched him to the forefront of events.
Politics
Discontent had been growing in Jersey at what was seen by the populace as the dictatorship of the Lieut-Bailiff (the Bailiffs at this date, were all absentees) Charles Lempriere who, in effect, ruled the Island. Through his many kinsmen, Lempriere had control both of the Royal Court and the States of Jersey, the legislative assembly.
He was thus able to pass laws and issue ordinances through the one body, and through the same people in the Court, to punish offenders. Among many such offenders, was Captain Nicolas Fiott, a substantial Newfoundland merchant, whose quarrel with Lempriere had become a major feud and focus for Island-wide discontent. When Fiott was sentenced to prison for contempt of Court and, forfeiting his bail, left the Island, new leaders emerged.
In 1767, suspecting that the price of wheat was being artificially raised by exportation, to the benefit of landowners and merchants, the new leaders of the populace placed placards on walls. These warned shipowners that: “Whosoever shall directly or indirectly presume to take any cattle or other provision on board for exportation, their vessel will be burnt, sunk, blown up or otherwise destroyed without distinction.”
The States were alarmed, and in 1768 banned such exportation, only to repeal the ban in 1769. The Salisbury Journal of 18 September 1769 reported, as a result, “great disturbances in Jersey”. On Thursday 28 September, the men of St Martin, Trinity and St John marched on the Town, armed with stout sticks, 300 coming from Trinity alone, bringing demands that included reduction in the price of wheat and the withdrawal of all charges against Fiott.
Riot
The rioters forced entry into the Royal Court, throwing the Usher over the railings and threatening members of the Court for about five hours. On Saturday the demands were met, but Lempriere and his Jurats fled to Elizabeth Castle, with Lempriere and three Jurats continuing their journey the following day, to address the King in Council. As a result, troops under Colonel Bentinck were despatched to restore order. A reward of £100 sterling was offered for information leading to the arrest of the authors of the riot, which proved fruitless.
Bentinck, having spoken to three Jersey half-pay officers, Major Moyse Corbet, Philippe Fall and Captain Charles William Le Geyt, a veteran of the Battle of Minden, soon realised that the grievances were just, and he requested them to be set down in writing. This led to excited parish assemblies being held. At one of these, in Trinity, Thomas James Gruchy stepped from the shadows. He outlined a list of reforms, but then added, amid thunderous applause: “Should a further revolt unfortunately become necessary, a third of the inhabitants may be murdered or burnt in their homes.” He was promptly arrested.
Others, however, continued the reform campaign and, when Bentinck was made Lieut-Governor in June 1770, he secured amnesties for all involved in the revolt, Gruchy included. A captain in the militia, he became ADC to the new Lieut-Governor and stood against Lempriere and his Jurats in an election for the office of Jurat. As elections of a Jurat did not involve the general public, but those already within the establishment, Gruchy did not succeed. Lempriere`s personal defeat had to wait until 1781. However, the necessary reforms were enacted and the injustice allayed.
Gruchy died in April 1780. He and his wife had one son, Thomas James, from 1763 a Captain in the North-West Regiment of Militia, who died without having married, and before the events detailed above, in 1766.
Family tree
Notes and references
- Trinity Parish Registers;
- Rev J A Messervy, in Notice sur La Famille Dumaresq, (ABSJ V)
- Marguerite Syvret and Joan Stevens, in Balleine`s History of Jersey, in which Thomas was wrongly called Thomas Jacques, and his age in 1769 given as 60
- Walter Le Quesne, Gruchy Genealogy
- Michael Dun, in Letter to the Jersey Evening Post (11 October 1993)
- File entitled "T J Gruchy", at the Société Jersiaise
