We leave the Red Lion public house to continue our journey along Halkett Place, encompassing the years from the 1841 to 1911 censuses. The 1841 census does not show street numbers for many properties, and almanac street directories would not become available until 1874, so we have to delay our start along this section of street until 1851, when the census shows that there were 11 new properties beyond the Red Lion, but it does not show us which sides of the road they were on.
This is difficult to reconcile with the view of Halkett Place shown on the 1834 Le Gros map of St Helier, which indicates that only eight years after the street was officially opened, it was lined with properties over its full length from King Street to Burrard Street. And properties already stretched northwards the other side of Burrard Street, along Grove Place, which would be renamed as part of Halkett Place by the end of the century.
It is likely, but by no means certain, that odd numbers were on the western side, as was the Red Lion at No 31, with even-numbered properties on the opposite side. Most streets as long as Halkett Place would appear in two or more districts in the 19th century censuses, and usually one side of a street would be the boundary of a block of properties forming one district, and the other side would be the boundary of another district.
Halkett Place broke this rule. It does appear in two different districts (the numbers vary from census to census) but it was both sides of properties at the bottom end from King Street to Beresford Street which appeared in one district, and the properties north of Beresford Street, developed from the 1840s onwards, which appeared in a separate district. Because all the numbers were changed when Halkett Place 'absorbed' Morier Lane to the south and Grove Place to the north at the end of the century, todays numbers are of limited assistance in working out where properties were in the second half of the 19th century.
Almanac listings don't help, either, because it was standard practice in the 19th century to show each street numbered consecutively, with no indication of which properties were on which side.
No 32
We assume that No 32 was opposite the Red Lion, and there in 1851 Philip Gallichan, born in St Clement in 1827, was in business as a Baker, living with his wife Jane Le Rossignol (1832- ) and her two children, both using her surname, and her widowed mother. By 1861 the family had moved back to St Clement, where Philip was shown as a wine cooper.
No 32 was then shown occupied by retired baker Hugh Noel and his wife Mary. Perhaps he took over Philip Gallichan's business before retiring, but that is only speculation. The 1871 census shows No 32 as an extension of the household at No 31, perhaps suggesting that it was actually next door to the Red Lion, and by 1874 the property was shown as occupied by auctioneers John Frederick Lesbirel and son, trading as Caesarean Auction Rooms, who later moved to 23 Duhamel Place. It does not appear in any further censuses, indicating that nobody lived there. and the auction business continued until at least 1895, although it cannot be found in Halkett Place when the properties were renumbered soon after.
No 33
In 1851 Napoleon Beghin, born in France in 1806, his Jersey-born wife Julie (1819- ), and their daughter Napoleonie and son Leon, were living at No 33, which was probably built just a few years earlier. With his father Paul, Napoleon founded the boot and shoe business which still bears the family name today, but we do not think that it traded at No 33. This must have been the young couple's first family home, on what was then the very fringe of St Helier's commercial district. The business was founded just round the corner in Beresford Street. See bottom of page for a photograph of a Beghin's shop which traded further up Halkett Place on the corner with Burrard Street
By 1861 Napoleon had moved his family a block away, across Burrard Street, where new properties were springing up in Grove Place. No 4, which he acquired, was owned by his son when it was renumbered as part of Halkett Place in the 1890s.
The first commercial undertaking at 33 Halkett Place was Abraham Pallot's bakery. Abraham, born in Trinity in 1809, lived there with his wife Jane Pinel (shown in some records as Pineaux). Their son Abraham and two daughters worked in the family business.
Ten years later Abraham jnr (1833- ) had taken over his father's business by 1871, and was living at No 33 with his wife Elizabeth (1836- ), born in St John, their baby son Abraham, and Abraham's aunt and two sisters. The business was clearly successful because the 1881 census shows that Abraham was employing two men and seven boys. He was still in business in 1886 but by 1891 Philip Le Brocq (1866- ) with his wife Julia (1864- ) was in business as a baker and confectioner at No 33, presumably having acquired Abraham Pallot's business.
By 1901, with the property now renumbered 57, Philip Le Brocq was still there.
No 34
The recently constructed 34 Halkett Place was home to Englishman John Thorn (1826- ) a hairdresser, his wife Ann and young son, William, and daughter, Mary, both born in St Helier, in 1851. It is not known whether they were just residents of were in business there.
It is known that they were no longer there ten years later, and their absence from further censuses suggests that the family had left the island. In 1861 Guernseyman James Collas Le Mesurier (1838- ) had established a painting, plumbing and glazine business at No 34, where he lived with his Jersey wife Emma (1840- ). It was a substantial business, employing ten men and four boys. By 1871 this had grown to 20 men and 2 boys. James was described as a master painter, with 15 painters, four plumbers and three glaziers.
He appears to have died by 1880, when Mrs Le Masurier was listed in an almanac as owning the business, and a year later James Mallon, a painter, was in business at No 34, with 11 staff. By the time of the 1891 census, painter and decorator Charles de Ste Croix (1841- ) was living at No 34 with his wife Elizabeth (1841- ) and assisted in his business by his 25-year-old daughter Rosa. They were still listed there in 1895, but there is no sign of the family in Halkett Place in the 1900 trade directories or the 1901 census.
No 35
Possibly the first occupant of No 35 was butcher Thomas Charles de Gruchy (1804-1875), of Trinity, who was at the property in 1851 with his wife ELizabeth Le Maistre (1800- ), three daughters and two sons. The couple married in 1824 and, before becoming a butcher, Thomas was tavern keeper of the Old Jersey Inn in Halkett Place in 1841. We have not been able to discover where this establishment was.
The butchery business was short-lived because, by the 1861 census No 35 was occupied by Charles Thorn, born in England in 1827, his wife Lucy Ann (1826- ) and two daughters and a son, the last two born in St Helier. Charles was a brush manufacturer and also ran a toy warehouse, assisted by three men and two boys. The business was still there in 1871, but three years later the first almanac street directory for St Helier shows No 35 occupied by bootmaker T Perkins.
This, too, was a short-lived business because an 1880 almanac and the following year's census shows No 35 occupied by cabinet makers Fitch and Sons. The owner of the business was William Fitch , born in Brighton in (1831- ). He had three sons, two of whom joined him in the family business, and a daughter. His wife Elizabeth (1831- ) was an upholsterer.
The business had closed by 1886, when Henry Vint, an armourer, was shown trading at No 35. William Fitch's son, Henry William, appears in the 1911 census, living in Oxford Road with his wife of 19 years, Annie, and their son Albert. Henry William Fitch was a furniture dealer.
Henry Vint (1835- ), who came to Jersey from London, was shown in the 1891 census at 35 Halkett Place, working as a gunmaker. He was living with hiss wife Emma Elizabeth, nee Gee (1837- ), and three adult daughters. Also present in the household was Henry's older brother, also a gunmaker. The business was still in the same premises in 1895, according to the Jersey Times almanac, and by 1900 No 35 had been renumbered at No 16. Strangely the following year's census shows it as No 60.
No 36
The first record of 36 Halkett Place in the 1851 census is something of a mystery. The occupant is shown as innkeeper Elizabeth Monck (1795- ), living with her carpenter son George and a number of lodgers. There is no evidence that there was an inn at No 36, and by the 1861 census there was a large-scale shoe manufacturing business at the property. The head of household was widow Rachel Pallot (1809- ), described as a retired shoe manufacturer. Her sons Charles (1834- ) and John (1838- ), both born in Trinity, were running the business, employing 22 men and two boys.
By 1871 Charles was in charge of the business, assisted by his sister Susan (1843- ) and they were employing 30 men. A 1874 almanac listing shows the business as Pallot Brothers. By 1880 it had been taken over by J de Gruchy, who is also shown at the property in a Jersey Express almanac listing in 1886, but No 36 is not mentioned in the intervening 1881 census, perhaps because nobody was actually living there. It was also not mentioned in the 1891 census, but J de Gruchy is still listed in the 1895 Jersey Times almanac, and at the renumbered No 63 in 1900.
No 37
The censuses are full of stories of widows continuing their late husbands' businesses, often assisted, sometimes reluctantly, by their children, who would rather have been pursuing some other career. Mary Bigrel, nee Picot (1789- ) a seed merchant at 37 Halkett Place in 1851 appears to be a classic example. Her daughter Mary (1808- ) was a milliner, but son George (1811- ) is shown as a seedsman, daughter Ann (1813- ) a seedsman's assistant, and Mary's younger sister Elizabeth (1794- ) was also helping the business as an assistant.
The St John family had been in business elsewhere in Halkett Place in 1841 - the census does not identify the numbers of properties - and Mary, baptised Marie, was already widowed, and helped by her sister Elizabeth, both described as merchants.
By 1861 they had moved the business to 16 Halkett Place and Mary, aged 70, is still described as a merchant, as is son George, 50.
In 1861 George Amy (1795- ) of St Helier, was a corn dealer at No 37, living with his wife Sally, daughter, two sons, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. His business is also described as 'Queen's weights', which suggests that he offered an approved service for weighing goods on behalf of customers.
This is confirmed by the entry in the 1871 census, which shows No 37 occupied by 'weighbridge keeper' Alfred Amy (1873- ) and his wife Eliza (1839- ), a fancy shop keeper. We have been unable to ascertain what would have been weighed at No 37, bearing in mind that the public weighbridge adjacent to St Helier Harbour had already been in existence for nearly 50 years.
All had changed at No 37 by 1874, when milliner A Amy is shown operating from the premises, followed in 1880 by draper A Amy. The 1881 census reveals that this was probably Eliza Amy, by then Alfred's widow, and shown as a haberdasher, living with four sons aged from 13 to eight. Mrs Amy was still in business in 1886 and 1891, when the census showed that one of her sons was a pianist, a second a violinist, a third a bank clerk, and the fourth, a grocer's clerk.
No 38
Master confectioner James Pope (1811- ), from England was at No 38 in 1851, with his wife Jane and 13-year-old son James Henry. He employed seven men in the business. James and Jane appear in the 1841 census with their son and two younger daughters. James was working as a pastry cook elsewhere in Halkett Place. James and his family do not appear anywhere in the 1861 census, although George (1808- ), who was living with him in 1841, and perhaps his brother, can be found nearby in Beresford Street, with his wife Mary and two school-age daughters. George was a confectioner employing five staff. His business was already established by 1851.
Further research reveals that James Richard Pope (1810-1880) was born in Hampshire, and married Jane Dacombe (1813-1873). We have found no trace of their marriage. Although only five appear in St Helier baptism registers, it is believed that they had ten children: Emily (1835-1862), James Henry (1837-1913), Mary Jane (1839- ), Caroline Georgina (1842-1901), Daniel Albert (1843- ), Ellen Louisa (1844- ), George Sidney (1846- ), Victoria Rosa (1847-1925), John Richard (1848- ), Albert Freeman (1851- ). Why only James Henry appears in the family's 1851 census return is a complete mystery.
Why there is no trace of the family after that is not, because records show that they emigrated to Australia later that year, or early in 1862. Emily, the eldest of the Pope children, died in Ballarat, Victoria, not long after they arrived.
By 1861 No 38 was occupied by ironmonger John Renouf (1828-1923), his wife Mary Ann (1829- ) and son John (1858-1933), all three born in St Helier. John was still in business there in 1871, but the census shows that he is now married to Albina (1824-1909), his third wife and stepmother to five-year-old Walter Francis, son of his second marriage to Elizabeth. The business continued until some time between 1881 and 1886, when it was taken over by George Alexandre (1857- ) whose wife was Elvina (1860- ). He continued in business at No 38 through to the 1890s, and was still there in 1900, when the property had become No 67, which does not appear in the following year's census. John Renouf junior had moved the business to Don Street, where it was extended, and his half-brother Walter opened his own hardware shop at 22 Burrard Street. Later, No 38, re-numbered 67, would re-open as a branch of Renoufs Ltd, selling domestic hardware into the mid-1950s.
No 39
Widow Susan Falle (1793- ) was head of household at No 39 in 1851, described as a gun maker and living with her 22-year-old son John. They had left by 1861, when another widow, Elizabeth Syvret (1818- ) was at No 39 with four sons and three daughters, all born in St Helier, and running a grocery business. By 1871 this had been taken over by son George (1840- ), who was married to Mary Louisa, born in Guernsey in 1836. They had a young son and daughter.
There was a complete change by 1880, when Louisa Ann Renouf (42) was running the Berlin Fancy Repository at No 39, living with her widowed 83-year-old mother Elizabeth. The business was not long-lived because in 1886 No 39 was occupied by stationer W Birch, followed by 1891 by Walter Filleul (1861- ), a bookbinder and stationer, who lived there with his wife Alice (1865- ) and three children. They were still there in 1895, and in 1900, by which time their property had been renumbered as 69. By 1910 Mr Filleul, who also ran a Bible Depot, had moved his business down Halkett Place to No 17, where it remained until it was swallowed up by an expanding Woolworth in the 1960s.
No 40
Yet another widow, Jeanne Nicolle (1797- ), had a thriving millinery business at No 40 in 1851, employing seven women and five apprentices. Her two daughters also worked for her.
They had left by 1861 when Thomas Luce (1821- ) was a boot and shoe maker at No 40, living with his wife Ann (1823- ) who came from England, and employing 12 men. Ten years later he was employing 25 men, but by 1874 he had moved away and the premises were home to Pol Fleche, another boot and shoe business, run by Frenchman Honore Pol (1827- ) and his wife Reine (1821- ). They were in business at No 40 until at least 1895, although there is no sign of them after the street was renumbered.
No 41
Master confectioner Mark Saunders (1815- ) was at No 41 in 1851, employing two staff. He lived with his wife Caroline and six children.
The property does not appear in the 1861 census. Ten years later it was occupied by Mary Ann Wood (1827- ) a dressmaker and her milliner sister Margaret Vibert (1820- ). They had gone by 1874, when the premises had been taken over by draper C J Falle. Nos 41-43 are not shown in the 1881 census, but in the 1886 Jersey Express almanac Peter Hamon (1853- ) is shown as running a drapery and sewing machine depot at Nos 41 and 42. In the 1891 census he is shown only at No 42, living with his wife Georgina Simon (1852- ) and her widowed mother Mary.
Chapel
There is something of a mystery about the French Independent Chapel, which was on the site where the Halkett Place Evangelical Church was built in 1855. Neither building would be expected to feature in census returns, because nobody would have been living in them, but almanac listings are very confused. The first to carry a street directory was the 1874 Jersey Express Almanac, and that shows a French Independent Chapel at 43 Halkett Place. But the 1871 census had shown Richard Dodge, trunk maker, operating there, confirmed by the advertisement on this page. An 1880 almanac shows the chapel at No 41, together with draper C J Falle, but in 1886 it is again shown at No 43, along with W Roden's china warehouse. The 1891 census does not mention Nos 41 and 43, but by 1895 Peter Hamon is again shown at No 41.
Quite why there is no mention of the Evangelical Church in any of the street listings after it was built in 1855 until the Evening Post almanac began to mention it in 1920 is one mystery. Why almanacs post-1855 continued to refer to the French chapel it had replaced is another. Why the chapel does not get a mention in Deo Gratis, the otherwise comprehensive history of the Catholic Church in Jersey, published in 2007, is yet another mystery. It is almost as if it never existed from its construction in 1805, long before Halkett Place was started, and nearly 50 years before it reached the isolated chapel, until after it was demolished.
Nos 42-47
The last property in Halkett Place in the 1851 census was No 46, occupied by jeweller John Sullivan (1814- ), his wife Julia, two children and his brother. Ten years later four more properties had been constructed. John Thomas Latterly, an oil and watercolour artist from Guernsey lived with his wife Emma at No 42; Richard Dodge (1790- ), from England, was a trunk marker at No 43, employing one man and two boys; Joseph Shave (1823- ) was a saddler at No 44, living with his wife Charlotte (1824- ) and three sons, and employing one son and three other staff; John Heywood Marsh (1823- ), an English master at the recently opened Victoria College, was living with his wife Anne Marie (1823- ) and six children at No 45; and widowed haberdasher Esther Le Riche (1809- ) was at No 46.
By 1871 Richard Dodge and Joseph Shave were still in business. Mr Shave had been joined at No 44 by watchmaker John Allez Le Seelleur (1838- ) and his furrier wife Charlotte (1847- ); John Noel (1827- ) was a rope maker at No 45, and Philip Le Brocq (1838- ) was a hosier and haberdasher at No 46, where he remained until about 1886. By 1874 there was a No 47, where P Messervy was in business as an ironmonger. He appears in several almanacs in the ensuing years, but the premises were never listed in a census.
Almanacs of the 1870s and '80s show the Albion Club at No 45, but nothing else is known of this undertaking. Joseph Shave was still at No 44 in 1881, but by 1886 his saddlery business had been taken over by John Ashley (1826- ) from Ireland.
Other traders recorded at the far end of Halkett Place were Henry Vernon (1840- ), fine art dealer at No 45 in 1881, followed there in 1886 and 1891 by draper Mary Ann Moss; W Roden, china warehouse at No 43 in 1886, and the renumbeered 65 by 1901; and haberdasher Charles Pallot at No 46 from 1891 onwards. Mr Pallot (1859- ) was a Wesleyan preacher. He was married to Lydia Cabot (1860- ) and they had three children. In the 1901 census they are shown at No 56; this was not the renumbered 46, but a property further down the street.
