Illustration from Historical and Topographical Description of the Channel Islands (1840) by Robert Mudie – “St. Helier’s, Jersey”

On the 29th March in 1871 a petition was rased in Jersey, Channel Islands. The crowd gathered in the streets of St. Helier (the Capital main town) and the harbour. On that day 343 signatures were collected on behalf of the merchants and seafaring men. The cause was a much needed harbour development in St. Helier.

In 1871 I had the following ancestors around at the time:

Isaac William Davey – age 49 – Shipwright

Isaac William Davey jr (son of above) – age 20 – Shipwright

William Davey (son of above) – age 18 – Shipwright

I do not see any of my ancestors names on the list of the petition. Does it not concern them? Are they happy with the size of the harbour as it is? Or have they been warned by their employees not to get involved maybe at the jeopardy of their jobs?

Maybe your ancestor is on the list, you can check it out here:

http://members.societe-jersiaise.org/lepivert/petition.htm

It is a great list and shows you a variety of people and their different professions that were involved including blacksmiths, drapers, merchants, ship builders and solicitors, etc.

Tip: The list is not in alphabetical order, bu tif you want to search for  a particular name hold down ‘command’ and ‘F’ on your Mac computer and a box will open up on the right handside at the top of your screen. Type in the surname and it will tell you how many there are on that page.

As a result of this petition a break water was built. I’m sure the event caused quite a stir in town on the day!