De La Haye family history

De La Haye
family history

De La Haye of St Martin from The Islander
(late 1930s) by Charles Langton

The earliest notice of de La Haye in Jersey appears in the records of the Cour d’Heritage 1532, specifically concerning the Le Bretons, and the heritage that had once belonged to a certain Collas de La Haye.

Further references both in Cour d’Heritage and Cour de Catel, dated 1570 and 1572, mention John de La Haye as a co-heir of Servais Le Breton, by right of his wife, who unfortunately is not identified by name.

So it is clearly evident that there was close relationship between these two families in the first half of the 16th century. Their pedigree, however, remains nebulous because the contemporary period gives no definite continuity. But the cumulative evidence establishes the fact of the family’s continued existence.

Court records

The Cours - d’Heritage, Catel and Samedi supply certain details:

• 1535 – Jean Bertram, by right of his wife, probably sister of both John and Philip de la Haye, succeeded to property (Samedi 1)
• 1569 – The wife of Thomas de La Haye was the widow of John Laffoley. (Samedi 7)
• 1570-71 – The Le Sueur family participated in part of the inheritance derived from Germaine, daughter of Louis de La Haye and Robine his wife. (Heritage 4)
• 1577 – Raulin de La Haye of Trinity was fined for a minor misdemeanour. (Catel 11)
• 1584 – Jean de La Haye, on account of his wife, widow of Pierre Beauchamp, was in default vers Jean Le Breton (Catel 13)

By the end of the 16th century we begin to get assistance from the parish registers, and find that de Le Haye was more specially established in the eastern parishes.

The St Martin registers, which commence in 1593, show the contemporary presence of three little branches, being the issue of Edward, Edmond and Thomas de La Haye.

There is no definite proof of their actual relationship to one another, but it is reasonably obvious that consanguinity existed.

The adjacent parish of Trinity gives further information of more specific interest. Thanks to the initiative of the Rector, who prefaced his register in 1621, a complete list of all the parishioners, classified under Vingtaines, is preserved. From this record it is affirmed that in the Vingtaine of Rondin there lived

• Jean de La Haye, sa fem et la fille
• Jean de La Haye et la fille
• Toussaint de La Haye et la fem

This Toussaint had two daughters, one of whom married in 1627, and the other died in 1630.

Three branches

By the first half of the 17th century there were three branches living in Croisserie, Trinity, descendants of Thomas, Vincent and Jean de La Haye, who were all probably brothers.

Reverting to the parish of St Martin, from which the family seem to have emanated, evidence is sought to definitely identify the first known ancdestor named Alexis de La Haye.

From entries in Catel in 1571 and 1576, and Heritage 1579, Alexis is mentioned in a sufficient sense to infer that he was connected with Nicolle and Le Bastard.

In the Land Registry, which commenced in 1602, Alexis appears no less than ten times up to 1612, in connection with minor sales of rentes and property. But in seven of the instances nothing is recorded of genealogical interest.

In the remaining three he is mentioned as Alexis fils Edmond more particularly in a sale of rente, on 22 May 1612, to Jeanne, daughter of the said Edmond, and widow of Jean Rolloux.

This Edmond de La Haye was a fouageur in St Martin in 1585 and appears to have married a daughter of the Mauger family. (Catel 10) He was buried at St Martin on 22 September 1597.

It seems evident that Edward, Thomas and Edmond de La Haye, all contemporaneously resident in St Martin, were brothers, but there is no definite proof to establish it.

The officers of the Crown in 1558, 1607 and 1668 drew up Extentes giving the names of tenants holding land under the Sovereign, and the rents due from them.

From these it is shown that Vincent de La Haye acquired 4 cabots from Pallot, in Grouville, prior to 1558, and that his holding continued in the family till 1668, when it passed to Phillip Payn, by right of his mother, Germaine Le Feuvure. In the adjacent parish of St Martin the 7 cabots held by Michell de La Hay in 1558 were still in the possession of his descendants in 1668.

Thye Extente of 1607 gives an interesting particular in relation to an additional 4 cabots held through the forfeiture of Catherine Bertram, because the close of ground concerned is stated to have been situated “by the great stone on the hill”.

Origins

Where did De La Haye originally come from?

Heraldic arms recently exhibited on their property at Egypt Farm and now transferred to the museum of the Société Jersiaise are shown as: Argent, a sun gules

These arms belonged to de La Haye of Hereford, and were borne by John de La Haye, according to the Acre Roll dated circa 1195.

Alternatively there were prolific families in France, especially in the districts of Poitou, Bretagne, Picardy and Paris, who were all armigerous. But the varieties of arms attributed to them can in no way be identified with Hereford.

The natural inference, therefore, is that de La Haye of Jersey was a branch of de La Haye of England. Unfortunately in Jersey this assumption has to be treated with a certain amount of reservation, because of a prevalent local custom of appropriation of arms of any family bearing the same surname.

This was curtailed in England by the periodical visitations of the Heralds, but no such individual ever appeared in Jersey, so the practice flourished to the ultimate confusion of everything armorial. It appears, however, unlikely that de La Haye of Jersey would exhibit the arms of the Hereford branch if they were not in some way related to them, in view of proximity of de La Haye of Normandy.

If some ancestor followed the unfortunate practice of illegal adoption, they would more naturally select the influential Norman section, to relatively unknown residents of Herefordshire. It is quite possible that the county records and Visitations would supply the necessary information, but these are not available here.

Pedigree

From the extentes and other records a theoretical pedigree can be outlined with reservation.

The main difficulties arise through the absence of definite proof that the Alexis of 1570 and the Alexis of 1628 are identical.

The many entries concerning Jean de la Haye are equally confusing, because it cannot be established whether they refer to Jean fils Edward, or Jean fils Thomas. The same applies to Thomas and Nicholas.

Three contemporaries of 1558, Jean, Michael and Vincent, were probably brothers, and in the next generation, Edward, Edmont and Thomas were, if not brothers, at least cousins.

Issue of Edward de La Haye seem to have become extinct in the first half of the 17th century. A peculiarity about them, however, lies in the fact that the only children mentioned are specially stated to be issue of a first marriage, but nothing is said about the second wife, who obviously existed.

The line of Thomas de La Haye, fouageur of 1579, continued till the middle of the 17th century and then loses itself into a maze of Johns and Clements, between whom it is difficult to differentiate. They lived at Faldouet and Anneville, at various early periods, and probably merged into the more clearly defined line of Alexis fils Edmond.

From approximately 1620 the position becomes clearer and the family can be sorted into two main branches.

• De La Haye of St Martin (later of Trinity). Alexis de La Haye was eventually succeeded by two grandsons of whom the younger, Gedeon de La Haye, lived to the age of 98, being buried at Trinity in 1731. He seems to have left St Martin about 1668, because in that year he purchased property at Trinity from Josue Neho, which was subsequently increased by furthyer dealings between them in 1683. His descendants have continued in the parish to this day.

• De La Haye of Crosserie, Trinity. (Croiserie? – Ed) This branch was firmly established by the beginning of the 17th century. There were no less than four families living at Crosserie, all probably issue of brothers, and the descendants of the eldest were still firmly entrenched there in the 19th century. Both of these extensive families must have sprung from a common origin.

The sudden invasion of Trinity and the many unconnected branches scattered in St Martin, all more or less contemporary, make this evident.

And the knowledge of the existence of earlier establishments in 1558 and 1587 suggest that they all originated from either Guille de La Haye or Nicholas de La Haye about 1520.

It would be very interesting to find definite proof to show whether the ancestor of the prolific family of de La Haye was a native of Herefordshire, or a Norman landowner.

(Editor’s note: Charles Langton makes a significant number of assumptions in this article, which has not come to be viewed as a definitive history of the de La Haye family. Some of his ‘probably’ should prudently be read as ‘possibly’)