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Brockhurst |
Taken from a letter to the Trust President from the States Architect:
I am at last in a position to speculate on the history of this house. I must state at the outset that you would have been kept waiting even longer had not Gill Lenfestey generously placed her own researches at my disposal.
The livre de perchage of fief le Roi, St Peter Port for 1706 notes the ownership of the site by Pierre Henry, as purchaser from the heirs of Philippe Cachart. At that date the premises were described as the 'jardin des Bouteilliers', with an area of 1 vergee 12 1/4 perch. This area remains constant in the livres down to 1781.
By 1732, the property had come to be owned by William Brock and his wife, Marie, the heir of Pierre Henry. The livre de perchage shows that by then either Henry or Brock had built a barn there.
In 1753, the property is described as vested in William Brock in the right of his wife. By this time its description indicates that a house had been built by the Brocks. The questions of whether they converted this from the barn, and whether anything survives of this mid-eighteenth-century structure would seem to warrant onsite investigation. The current house, presumably, is later than this.
The property duly was inherited by William Brock jnr, by representation of his father, from his grandmother Marie Henry. By a conveyance registered on 5 March 1781 Brock sold the premises to William Le Mesurier and Elizabeth Le Marchant, his wife. They were described as a house, stable and garden.
After William Le Mesurier's death his widow married Charles Le Marchant and accordingly the Iivre de perchage of 1793 records the latter as owning the house in the right of his wife. He is recorded as owner in 1814 but this refers, I think, to a usufruct, since by a conveyance registered on 8th June 1815 the heirs of Henri Le Mesurier son of William, (or in one case the saisis of an heir) sold the property to Pierre Etienne and Rachel de Beauvoir, his wife. It is described as a house, buildings and land.
Surprisingly, the livre of 1837 records the ownership of the house, stable and land, some 1 vergee 26 perch of the area late of Pierre Etienne, as vested in William Brock's widow. This probably is to be explained by the fact that the Rachel de Beauvoir (1745-1818), who married Pierre Etienne (or Stephens) in 1765, was a sister of Marthe de Beauvoir (1729- 1808), who married William Brock in 1750. Assuming these dates are correct, this would seem to mean that the widow enjoying the house in 1837 had married William jnr, a son of the latter marriage, and that William jnr was an heir, by representation, of his aunt. A retrait of the 1781 conveyance is a less likely possibility and certainly I have found no sale of the premises by Etienne between 1815 and 1837.
You have the deed of 1863 whereby William Brock, son of William jnr, made over the property to his sister, Judith de Beauvoir Brock, and her husband the Very Rev. William Guille, and succeeding transactions.