Le Cocq v. Le Mesurier

In 1683 a new patent was granted to Sir Edmund Andros granting Alderney to him for 99 years at an annual rent of £13 6s 8d. Sir Edmund delegated his powers to Thomas Le Mesurier to whom Sir Edmund was related by marriage as he was off to the New World as Governor of New York. Thomas was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor May 31 1684. The Alderney population seem to have not taken to this too kindly and a feud that was to last for many years developed between Thomas Le Mesurier and Thomas Le Cocq who was elected Judge of Alderney in 1704. In 1713 Sir Edmund Andros died childless and left Alderney to his nephew George Andros. When George died a year later the island passed to his two daughters and when they both died by 1721 to his sister Anne according to the Alderney Guide. The plaques at the back of the church rather contradict this and say that John Le Mesurier became Governor in 1714 in the right of his wife. This John died in 1722 and the island passed to Peter who became Governor in 1722. Anne Le Mesurier died in 1729 and her eldest son Henry became Governor. The Le Mesuriers seem rather to have invented this title as they were in fact only fee farmers and were normally referred to as such in official documents. This was to cause even more antagonism to the Alderney populace and the Le Cocq family in particular. In 1738 Thomas Le Cocq was suspended as Judge and although he retained the title until he died in 1770 he could not perform the functions. In 1744 John exchanged his patent with his brother Peter for lands in Guernsey worn out with feuds of the lawless and insubordinate islanders‘ as quoted in the Guide. He is credited with building the jetty at Braye and some of the buildings there. The Guide explains how in 1747 John had to flee the island and seek protection from the Royal Court.

In the Guernsey Archive Office there are some documents that shed some light on the feuding that went on between the Le Cocqs and the Le Mesuriers. They are in a collection called the Phillipps Manuscripts, which are available to public view with the very helpful staff of the Service. The documents are an odd collection of letters, official documents and court records that seem to have been collected by a legal official called Sharpe. He worked for the Le Cocq family in London and seems to have been involved in the many petitions that Thomas Le Cocq fired off to the government in the UK. Portfolio 17 documents are mostly involved with the arguments over whether the Le Mesuriers were anything more than fee farmers or were entitled to call themselves Governor and command the Militia.

Portfolio 18 has documents, which throw some more light on the abrupt departure of John Le Mesurier in 1747. Included are some of the petitions that the two parties sent off to various parties in Guernsey and the UK.

In 1747 the Court of Alderney passed a law concerning quarantine that had been forwarded from London. This required that any ship coming from Santa Cruz or the Barbary Coast had to go into 40 days quarantine because of fears about the plague. An innocuous enough start to the story. Thomas Le Cocq obviously still wielded some power in the court because it seems that he took it upon himself to oversee the law. On September 1747 a boat entered the harbour from the East coast of England. It seems the Captain was asked a few questions down at the harbour on landing. Thomas Le Cocq though deemed this insufficient and demanded that the Captain be brought to see him. The Captain meanwhile appeared to have ended up in a pub down at the harbour run by a man called Sanford who is in the Le Mesurier camp. Thomas Le Cocq rang the alarm and dispatched John Simon and 12 men armed with muskets and bayonets to the harbour to get the Captain and Sanford (also spelt Sandford in some documents). John Simon arrived at the harbour to find that the Captain and Sanford have taken refuge in a warehouse belonging to Le Mesurier and have been joined by Le Mesurier himself. The door had been shut by Le Measurer’s clerk Mr Jennings. Le Mesurier asked by what right Simon was there and he replied that Le Cocq had told him to get the militia weapons and arrest Sanford. Thomas Ollivier, a jurat, now turned up and told the men to use violence to arrest Sanford. Ollivier and Le Mesurier were pushing against each other at the door when Le Mesurier got out his hanger (sword). In Le Cocq‘s version of events he was at the door and Le Mesurier had invited him in and then pulled out the sword. Ollivier grabbed a musket with bayonet and pointed it at Le Measurer’s breast and threatened to kill him. Le Cocq now arrived with more armed men. Le Cocq in a great passion‘ argued that he ordered the militia weapons to be used while Le Mesurier said that he was not allowed. Le Mesurier and Sanford were by now upstairs in the building with the door locked. Le Cocq said he would fire the building and burn the lot of them. In one document it mentions that Le Mesurier thinks that Le Cocq had killed‘ Mrs Sanford with a great rock but this was redrafted to say would have‘. Le Mesurier was by now quite worried! and told Sanford to give himself up as he had committed no crime. Apparently Le Cocq was not satisfied with this and wanted to arrest Le Mesurier as well. He told his men to be ready to fire at the top door and get more men to go to Braye to get some great guns. He also spotted a mast that could be used to batter down the door. The women got in the way to spoil this tactic. Finally Le Mesurier found a gun and threatened to kill the first man to break open door. Le Cocq and his men retire with the arrested Sanford. Le Cocq ordered that no one was to leave the island before September 21. Later John Le Ber, Sergeant offered bail for Sanford but Le Cocq told him that not even a thousand would do and repeated the threat to arrest Le Mesurier. On Tuesday September 22 the Court was assembled and Le Cocq petitioned that Le Mesurier should be seized. Also nobody was to let him off the island. This failed as the next mention is of Le Mesurier petitioning the Royal Court of Guernsey about the matter. The story then turns into a lawyer‘s dream as the case stretches out over the years.

The Alderney Court sat again on September 26. The Jurats were Peter Simon, Henry Barbencon, John Le Cocq and Thomas Ollivier. Le Mesurier was accused of rebellion. Meanwhile in Guernsey the Royal Court were trying to get Le Cocq to go down there to appear before them. On September 26 they sent for him but Le Cocq said he was unable to go because his son was away and being commander in chief of the militia he was unable to leave the island. The Royal Court did not accept this and again on January 26 1748 it demanded that Le Cocq be seized and brought to Guernsey. This apparently was received with sneers and opprobrious words‘ by Le Cocq.

The next mention in the documents that appear is in 1851 when the whole of the Alderney court was in big trouble for the remarks made about Le Mesurier and Le Cocq‘s petition to the crown was apparently thrown out.

Again in 1853 Thomas Le Cocq was in court but Le Mesurier was unhappy with the two witnesses. John Le Cocq was one and it was claimed as he was a jurat and was involved in the case. The other was James Ollivier who was Le Cocq‘s nephew. There the story ends though the Guide says that after the start of the seven Years War in 1756 the prosperity that the island gained from privateering put an end to the feuds.