Le Cornu

Le Cornu family page

A Le Cornu family

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Direct links to lists of baptisms, marriages and burials for the Le Cornu family can be found under Family Records opposite. If you want to search for records for a spelling variant of Le Cornu, or for any other family name, just click below on the first letter of the
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The Le Cornu family, St Aubin's Road

Origin of surname

George Balleine does not offer any explanation for the derivation of the name, which is common today in Normandy and for which references have been found there as early as 1210 and 1305.

It is possibly derived from the ancient French cornu which means disagreeable. However, it may also have been derived from the pre-12th century French word Cornier, which describes a trumpeter or herald, and a position of considerable importance.

It is not a French Huguenot refugee surname, as the first of these are not thought to have arrived in Jersey until 1572, whereas the name was established in the island at least two centuries earlier.

Some French Le Cornus are known to have moved from France to England in the early 16th century, but this was at a date well after Le Cornus were first recorded in Jersey.

Others suggest that the name is an abbreviation of Le Cornuaillais, the Cornishman, or of La Cornouaille in Brittany, whose inhabitants had migrated ahead of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, from Cornwall to Brittany, retaining both names. Neither view found much original support. However, Stevens, Arthur and Stevens, in Jersey Place Names, Volume 1, 164, wrote that "early forms of the name suggest its origin was in Cornwall rather than Brittany".

French sources offer further suggestions. Was it simply a name for someone with corns? Or did it refer to an unfaithful husband?

Early records

The name had not been thought to appear in any pre-15th century Channel Island records Assize Rolls and Extentes, but Charles Stevens' Comprehensive list of Jersey surnames notes a record from 1309. This, however, relates to Guernsey, not Jersey, and includes several mentions of Peter La Cornaille. This is of interest, however, as it illustrates the middle point in the mutation of the surname from Le Cornuaillais to Le Cornu.

Charles Langton`s early 20th century manuscript genealogy of the Jersey Le Cornus starts with Denys Le Cornu of St Mary (of the property now called Les Colombiers), Seigneur of Le Fief au Vesque in that parish in 1479 [ABSJ, VII, 196]. His son Abel was mentioned in the same deed. Abel`s son, Denys Le Cornu dit des Colombiers, married a wife named Catherine and was seigneur of the fief in 1568. The fief then passed in a female line to Denys Le Bosquet, who was probably his grandson. There was, though, as shown by later litigation, a junior branch of this family, living from the mid-16th century in St Ouen, which had many descendants. This particular Le Cornu family, from its loyalty to the English Crown during the Lancastrian French Occupation of Jersey, 1461-1468, was latterly called Le Cornu dit Langeloyes.

Evidence of how well-established the family was in the north-west of Jersey in the mid-16th century is found in the number of different branches then extant, which Court records would suggest to have been at least eight in number. Variants of the surname included, in addition to the above, Le Cornu dit Conpeyre and Le Cornu dit Hastingue.

One branch was descended from Thomas Le Cornu, fils Drouet, who married the daughter and heiress of Thomas L`Amiral, owner of the property of this name near St Ouen`s Church, whence the surname variant Le Cornu dit L`Amiral. A son is likely to have been the priest, Sire Jehan Le Cornu dit L`Amiral, who was living in 1550.

Drouet, Jo and Perrin are listed in the Jersey Chantry Certificate of 1550.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms borne by one family of this name in Picardy is almost unique, and probably the second most distinguished in history. It is no less than a blue cross on a white field, and as such is second only to the red cross of the crusaders, on the same background. It was granted to a Le Cornu in Picardy in approximately 1390, at the time of the great wars between France and England. No connection, though, has ever been found between that family and the Jersey Le Cornus.

The arms borne in the late 19th century by Colonel C.P. Le Cornu, the Seigneur of La Hague, featured three hunting horns.

Variants

• Le Cornu, 1309
• Le Cornu dit lengloyes 1479
• Le Cornu dit Conpeyre 1510
• Le Curnelle (Cornouaillais) 1528
• Le Cornu dit Lamiral 1550
• Le Cornue 1607
• Le Cornu dit Hastingue 1659
• Cors c1340
• Cornuele 1203
• Cornu
• Cornau
• Cornuau
• Cornier

Family records

Family trees

• Descendants of Jean Le Cornu (1695)
• Descendants of Guillaume Le Cornu (1505)
• Descendants of Jean Le Cornu (1480)
• Descendants of Philippe Le Cornu
• Descendants of Pierre Le Cornu
• Descendants of Jean Le Cornu and Elizabeth Robin
• Descendants of Nicolas Le Cornu Added 2021
• Descendants of Elie Le Cornu Added 2022
• Descendants of Abraham Le Cornu Added 2022

Church records

Tips for using these links

• Le Cornu baptisms in Jersey
• Le Cornu marriages in Jersey (groom)
• Le Cornu marriages in Jersey (bride)
• Le Cornu burials in Jersey

Biographies

• Charles Philip Le Cornu, aide-de-camp to three British monarchs
• John Le Cornu, emigrant to Australia
• Philip Le Cornu, another emigrant to Australia Added 2021
• Philip de Carteret Le Cornu, rose breeder and Jurat Added 2016

Newspaper records

• Thomas Le Cornu, 1848 land valuer
• Armand de Guelle appeared in the Police Court in January 1920 charged with the theft of fowls from Edmond Philip Le Cornu

Great War service

• Le Cornu family members who served in World War 1

Various early Le Cornu arms researched by Julian Wilson

Family wills

• Le Cornu family wills from 1663 to 1980 held by Jersey Archive

• Le Cornu burial records 1820-1978

Family homes

• La Hague Manor, St Peter
• Boulevard Avenue
• Ashley Court, St John
• Beau Parcq, Trinity
• Heath Mount, St Ouen
• Highfield,_St_O, St Ouen
• Vinchelez de Bas Manor, St Ouen

Family album

The wedding of Edmund Barette and Helene Le Cornu in 1912

A Le Cornu farming family in 1916

Ministers and lay preachers of the Methodist French Circuit in 1867, including J Le Cornu. The picture was taken by Asplet and Green a year after they set up in business at 18½ Beresford Street and also includes P Tourgis, Philippe Amy, P Le Gresley, Thomas J Desprès, Mr Ahier, Mr Benest, P Garnier, Mr Hamon, D Bisson, G Le Masurier, Abraham Pallot, J Syvret, P G Adair, G Skelton, T Binet, T Billot, Mr Vautier, E de Carteret, W Le Duc, T Lucas, H Collas and P Norman

Occupation curfew cards

Curfew pass issued to Clifford Le Cornu during the Occupation as a member of the St Lawrence Honorary Police ^[1]

Family businesses

What a magnificent Le Cornu business! This is the furniture warehouse owned by Jersey emigrant Philip Le Cornu on the corner of O'Connell Street, east side, and Archer Street, North Adelaide, Australia. In 1854 Phillip Le Cornu migrated to South Australia from Jersey. In 1861 he leased a small shop and stable in North Adelaide and started to produce furniture and, as a side-line, ran an undertaking business. The 1881 photograph shows a two storey building next to two single storey ones which are displaying furniture in every possible position; footpaths, balcony and under verandas. Some very ornate baby carriages can also be seen among the furniture

• Hairdresser D Le Cornu was at 14 Broad Street in the 1830s

A banknote issued by Le Cornu, Le Gresley and Co as Jersey Caledonian Bank

Wesley Flockhart Le Cornu (1872- ), the son of Adelaide furniture store founder Philip Le Cornu was a leading importer and seller of pianos in Adelaide in the 1910s and 1920s

Family gravestones

The impressive family memorial in St Lawrence Church cemetery

Click on any image to see a larger version. See the Jerripedia gravestone image collection page for more information about our gravestone photographs

Tips

The church record links above will open in a new tab in your browser and generate the most up-to-date list of each set of records from our database. These lists replace earlier Family page baptism lists, which were not regularly updated. They have the added advantage that they produce a chronological listing for the family name in all parishes, so you do not have to search through A-Z indexes, parish by parish.

We have included some important spelling variants on some family pages, but it may be worth searching for records for a different spelling variant. Think of searching for variants with or without a prefix, such as Le or De. To search for further variants, or for any other family name, just click on the appropriate link below for the first letter of the family name, and a new tab will open, giving you the option to choose baptism, marriage or burial records. You will then see a list of available names for that type of record and you can select any name from that list. That will display all records of the chosen type for that family name, and you can narrow the search by adding a given name, selecting a parish or setting start and end dates in the form you will see above. You can also change the family name, or search for a partial name if you are not certain of the spelling

The records are displayed 30 to a page, but by selecting the yellow Wiki Table option at the top left of the page you can open a full, scrollable list. This list will either be displayed in a new tab or a pop-up window. You may have to edit the settings of your browser to allow pop-up windows for www.jerripediabmd.net. For the small number of family names for which a search generates more than 1,500 records you will have to refine your search (perhaps using start or end dates) to reduce the number of records found.

New records

Since August 2020 we have added several thousand new records from the registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These will appear in date order within a general search of the records and are also individually searchable within the database search form

Notes and references

1. ↑ These cards are held by Jersey Archive. Visit The Archive online catalogue for more information. A subscription may be needed to view some of the site's content