Pierre Le Sueur - another hero to remember on Jersey Reform Day?

At a simple ceremony in the dark, on 16 January 2013, the memorial to 19th century Constable of St Helier Pierre Le Sueur in Green Street cemetary was rededicated.

Here is a video of the proceedings led by Constable Simon Crowcroft, with a brief historical background from Geraint Jennings and a few words and prayers from the Dean, Bob Key.

Below are some of Pierre Le Sueur's own words from 1847 as published by Norman Le Brocq in his little booklet "Jersey Looks Forward" in 1946 just a year after the Liberation of Jersey.

Pierre Le Sueur and Norman Le Brocq are among those who had humble beginnings in Jersey but went on to achieve important reforms and improvements for "working people".

The Dean referred to  "social conscience" and helping the disdvantaged as being the hidden side of so much that goes in Jersey society - largely unrecognised.

Both Pierre Le Sueur and Norman Le Brocq receieved some recogition within their lifetimes and afterwards but there are many hundreds of people who do not.

Jersey Reform Day on 28 September has now been officially recognised by the States of Jersey in response to the actions of a largely forgotten group of Islanders who campaigned for change during the 1760s.

That day should be an annual celebration and memorial to ALL those people who have fought for reform in Jersey over the years.

Nobody is perfect - we all have our flaws and it is necessary to see people within their own context and history is open to contradicting interpretations.

Pierre Le Sueur was not a saint but he clearly deserves to be remembered as part of the struggle for reform.

18 May 1847

Another Jersey day to remember!

Constable Pierre Le Sueur of St Helier issued this proclamation at 7.30am to the hundreds of starving protesting workers:

“To the Working Class,

All workers are commanded to return to their work immediately.

Measures are being taken to assure the distribution of bread to the working class at a reasonable price and to guard against all scarcity of essential foodstuffs.

A public assembly will be held in the near future to open a subscription for poor relief; but all aid will be refused to those who do not immediately return to work and severe measures will be taken against them.

Imprisonment with hard labour or banishment for five years is the penalty ordered in our Riot Act for all those who take part in riotous gatherings and who do not disperse when ordered to do so by the police.

If necessary, the military will be called out to reinforce the police.

The deserving poor will receive help; but all those who take part in any uprising will be severely punished.

Pierre Le Sueur

Constable of St Helier.”

Source “Jersey Looks Forward” by Norman Le Brocq published 1946

By all means remember Constable Pierre Le Sueur but who now celebrates the memory of the anonymous working Jersey people who bravely protested against terrible working and housing conditions and their starvation levels of wages in 1847?

During the 1847 protests, many hundreds - perhaps thousands – of working people joined in the marches and public protests associated with the strikes and food riots.

These protests took place over several months.

The protestors risked severe penalties. They had little protection against arbitrary dismissal from employment or their slum housing accommodation. Trades Unions were virtually non-existent. Democratic representation in government was unknown.

Similar protests took place with monotonous regularity in Jersey as in other places, over the centuries.

Similar conditions prevailed on 28 September 1769 when hundreds of protesting Jersey people overthrew the Royal Court.

That date is now officially recognised as JERSEY REFORM DAY and will be celebrated for the first time this year.

But where are the memorials to ALL the brave working peoples from the past who have risked their lives and property to improve social, employment and political conditions in Jersey over many centuries?

Who remembers now?

Jean Picot, George Sargent, Thomas Cundy, William Holland, Thomas Connor, Thomas Anthony, Frederick Pyke, Stephen Wilkins, Jean Le Gresley, John Dunn, Elias Selous, George Minton, Joseph Baker George Carter, Thomas Mouldoun, Denis Daly, John Gernam, Pierre Voisin, Richard Tucker and many others.

Most of those named above were charged with “forming part of an illegal assemblage of persons and for having caused a tumult in divers parts of St Helier etc”

Many were imprisoned and five years banishment from Jersey was the ruinous punishment commonly handed down by the courts.

Pierre Le Sueur’s memory for resisting the protestors was ensured by grateful parishioners who erected the grand Broad Street obelisk which remains to this day.

This year, on Saturday 28 September we shall all have the opportunity to join an OFFICIAL day of celebrations as JERSEY REFORM DAY to recognise the efforts of ALL those people who have fought to improve standards of living and democracy in Jersey.

Jersey political heroes - more dead than alive...?

Abraham Jones Le Cras – where are you now? Your Island needs you!

Like so many born outside Jersey, Abraham Le Cras believed in and campaigned for political and social reform in the Bailiwick over many years during the 19^th century.

He was probably a spin-off from the very wealthy merchant and naval family (such as Noah Le Cras) which had Jersey links but lived mostly in England in the 18^th century - but Abraham personally often struggled to scrape a living.

Abraham was born in Salisbury (Hants) during1798 and died in Jersey in 1869.

The short video above records an attempt to identify for certain his grave in Green Street cemetery this week.

It is somewhat ironic that he lies amongst the graves of many political campaigners and refugees from all over Europe that came to rest in Jersey during the reign of Victoria – but that is another tale that somebody should research and publish on…especially if the proposed new Police HQ is likely to bury any of the evidence…

That there is some uncertainty over his final resting place is typical of the official Jersey attitude towards reformers and we have just passed by 28 September – the anniversary of Jersey’s revolution in 1769 – yet again with no official acknowledgement of its importance.

We know that the official entry for 28 September was officially scribbled out of the official court records in 1769 and this simple act is typical of the controlling of the record and our memory of the history of the Island that continues to this day.

There is still an Island attitude that favours an “official” view of events whether this might be the Occupation or the image of the modern finance industry.

As in 1769 or during Abraham Le Cras’ lifetime, to speak out or to offer a different or challenging point of view is still likely to invite official condemnation or ridicule.

Thus many years after Le Cras had died it was just too painful for Jersey’s celebrated “historian“ (and man of God) the Reverend Balleine to put aside his own prejudices in order to assess Abraham for his volume on “Jersey Bibliographies”  wherein Le Cras was dismissed as an AGITATOR.

He was physically attacked on several occasions in the Streets of St Helier and is still dismissed today as a political crank by “the establishment” for his views that rubbished the status of “King John’s Charter” (still the foundation of Jersey’s Constitution according to the Senator Sir Philip Bailhache) or the powers of the States’ claim to be an independent “government”.

During his busy life, Abraham carried out the most extensive research into the history and constitution of Jersey and the other Channel Islands. How he gained access to many of the original documents is a mystery (bearing in mind that even the States was closed to the public). But some of his original writing survives in Le Societé and Public libraries along with examples of the several newspapers that he published from the appropriately named Hope Street in St Helier.

Now, there is a great deal posted about him and his career on the Internet – just Google Abraham Le Cras to enter a different world where the bravery of this man during a life-long campaign can be glimpsed.

Don’t expect such information to be offered in oven-ready, easy to swallow format here.

If YOU are interested to discover it is now possible to read on-line his 1839 book on “The Laws, Customs and Privileges and their Administration in the Island of Jersey”. This contains his 52 Articles Petition to the UK Parliament seeking REFORM and be amazed how so much of  this is bang-on relevant for Jersey TODAY.

It is even possible to purchase on-line a facsimile “print to order” copy of this book (he published others too) which is still a valuable source of relevant information about Jersey and its institutions. Then he wrote that the purpose of his 1839 petition and book was to expose;

“…the scandalous laws of Jersey and the wretched way in which they are administered in the fervent hope that it will provoke enquiry and be the means of causing such abuses as shall be proved to exist, to be forthwith reformed…”

The States of Jersey he decided  then "has become a useless body"so just what would he have made of today's shower?

So, don’t just sit there doing nothing in 2012 or wishing for somebody else to complain on YOUR behalf.

If you believe that Jersey government, the courts, legal system and their administration need REFORM it is still possible to petition the Privy Council, or the UK Parliament or have an input in the Jersey Electoral Commission or to lobby States’ Members or join a political or campaigning group….Abraham Le Cras would be amazed at the ease with which we can access information today and the failure of so many to put such a facility to good use.

Just because Abraham is now sleeping is no excuse for YOU to do nothing….

Raw Major Peirson project Jersey 1781-2012

A hot contender for the proposed Jersey memorial to Major Francis Peirson can be found displayed amongst all the Olympix stuff in London right now.

Presumably after all the fun and games are over the scrap merchants will be let loose to return these former "green field sites" ( in Roman times at least) to nature - just like the Plemont headland, and this little beauty will be seeking a new home?

Where better than Jersey's very own Canary  Waterfront Wharf  or how about the roundabout  in front of Lime Grove Police Station aka Ozo's Folly?

Followers of Jersey history will remember that the gallant Yorkshire-man Peirson was killed in a skirmish in the Royal square on 6 January 1781 fighting a band of French merceneries who were in turn supporting the Rebel Americans in their War of Independnce against the old Colonial British bad - guys.

Overlooking the battle on that very day was the statue of King (alias Duke of Normandy) George II just as he is today watching over the battle for Jersey Independence - now of course led by Senator Sir Philip Bailhache and his crew.

Back in history Captain Philip Bailhache commanded a couple of "Jersey privateers" to make war - officially - against the French and her allies  - but was more likely a smuggler or  loyalist spy.

His known little craft were the "Greyhound", a 30 tons cutter armed with just 2 x two pounder cannons with six swivels in the hands of twenty men. (in 1781) and the "Resolution" lugger of about the same size (probably about 40 feet long) and  similar crew in 1782 - when the now famous "Battle of Jersey" was already becoming a mere memory.

Such little vessels would often lurk around Chausey or the reefs off Jersey waiting for some lucrative catch to sail near-by and would be comparable with the Somali pirates of today.

Of course, their crews were either foolhardy, brave or maybe just desperate to make a living in a harsh economic world and there were hundreds of such vessels operating out of the Channel Islands.

Extraordinarily, there is no public space memorial to any of their commanders or crewmen who were often feted as heroes in their own life-times. What a contrast with the Corsaire City of St Malo just across the water which is proud to remember their own men such as Captains Surcouf or Duguay Trouin!

According to some sources the golden statue of King George was in fact secondhand booty too - donated by a Jersey merchant at the time to settle a debt but Jersey purists insist that it was commissioned through a London scupltor of the time.

Readers will also know that this blog is not very keen on the glorification of war or  death in battle or the whole campaign to remember the Battle of Jersey, Copley's painting and yet another proposed memorial to Francis Peirson.

Already having bronze busts, portraits, poems and a pub named after him seems enough for this man especially since his death for a colonialist cause is hardly appropriate  to celebrate today.

On the other hand we had Prince Charles ashore this week recounting his "familiy" link with the Kings and Queens of Britain over the past 800 years or so. But of course he did not remind us that King Henry the Eighth is reckoned to have had 70,000 of his subjects - besides a few wives - cruelly and  personally ordered to be executed during his reign - nor that he ordered Channel Islanders to send representatives to sit in his Parliament for Jersey and Guernsey.

There are just so many aspects of history that are overlooked when it suits the hour....

Maybe we could offer to fund the Prince and his 21st century pursuits if he revived the Duke of Normandy tiltle especially for us now as part of the Independence drive? - Now there's a new name for some tree lined avenue or other...

On the other hand, this a-sexual, raw London statue might well serve Jersey  as a memorial to all the millions of  anonymous people who have given their lives for governmental lost causes and wars over the centuries. Perhaps we should put in a bid?