Le Geyt

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Le Geyt family page


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Charles William Le Geyt, Jersey's first postmaster, who fought at the Battle of Minden


Record Search


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

From August 2020 we have started adding records from non-Anglican churches, and this process will continue as more records, held by Jersey Archive, are digitised and indexed. Our database now includes buttons enabling a search within registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These records will automatically appear within the results of any search made from this page.

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Pre-1500 arms, as researched by Julian Wilson

Origin of Surname

Guy Fortescue Burrell de Gruchy wrote of Le Geyt: "One of the old Jersey names, still surviving. It means watchman." As might therefore be expected, the name also occurred from medieval times in Guernsey. A slightly anglicised variant that is listed for the name is spelt 'Le Gett', which would make it possible that the name was of similar derivation to the English surname Leggett, which comes from an old word for an ambassador or deputy - the same stem as 'legate'. It should be borne in mind that some of the English Leggetts will have been of Channel Island origin

Pronunciation of the Surname

The last letter of the surname, prior to late-19th century anglicisation, was not pronounced, whilst the first letter was soft, as in the French word "Je"

Early records

This family name first appeared in the Short Inquisition of 1274, with Raoul La Weyte holding land in Grouville that Robert La Geyte had previously held. In the Extente of 1331, Raoul Le Gay is mentioned as owning one bouvée of land in St Brelade. From the earliest surviving court rolls there have been three distinct Le Geyt families. These were differentiated by the `aliases` dit Le Maillier, dit Rauvet and dit Reide. A fourth branch of what was evidently all once one family, called Le Geyt dit Maret, is now believed to have descended from the Le Geyts dit Le Maillier. The latter family, which was very substantial in the late 15th and the 16th centuries, is probably the senior branch. From the dit Rauvet family came the fervent 17th century royalist Jurat, Philippe Le Geyt, who can be described as the founder of the once considerable fortune of the dit Rauvets. His branch gave to the Island the two Lieutenant-Bailiffs Le Geyt, both of whom were previously Jurats, another Jurat, three Constables and a Registrar of Contracts. The Le Geyts, formerly dit Le Maillier, have also played a prominent role in Island politics, furnishing the Island with two Jurats, one of whom was a former Registrar of Contracts, two Constables and a Deputy. Between them, the two families have held several fiefs and produced officers of the Army and Navy. The most illustrious of these were Vice-Admiral George Le Geyt, C.B. and Major-General Philip Harrison Le Geyt of the Indian Army

Payne's Armorial of Jersey

Conclusive evidence of the antiquity of this family exists by the mention of its name in the Extente of 1331. It appears also in various official documents of the Island, showing that its owners held positions of trust and emolument, at different periods, in their native island.

Philip Le Geyt, Jurat of the Royal Court, was one of those brave and devoted men, who, forsaking property and employment in the service of their exiled and then powerless king, Charles II, retired in defence of his crown to one of the last strongholds left him in all his dominions — Elizabeth Castle. His son, the eminent legal commentator, speaking of this event, says:" I can add, upon good authority, that my late father retired to Elizabeth Castle in the King's service, when the island was captured in 1651 by the Parliamentary forces of England; that, during the siege of the Castle, my father's residence was sacked, thus involving the loss of all his furniture; and further, that, by the articles of the reduction of the Castle, he was obliged to pay two years' value of his income."

His son, Philip Le Geyt, was born in 1636, and is well and deservedly known for his able comments upon the Laws and Customs of Jersey; indeed their value is so justly appreciated, that, in 1846, they were published at the expense of the States of Jersey of the Island. His biography, written by M Sorsoleil, was elegantly translated by Dr Shebbeare, and prefaces the second volume of his critical and learned History of Jersey.*

He was eventually sworn Lieutenant-Bailly of the island, a post which he filled with equal honour and dignity. He was, says his biographer, "a man of the ancient stamp of virtue; uniform in his different phases of life, and always equal to himself. In him, knowledge, politeness, and probity, were the inseparable companions of the love of religion and zeal for justice." He died on 31 January 1716, aged eighty.

Philip Le Geyt, the nephew of the preceding, was, shortly after his uncle's death, appointed Lieutenant-Bailly of the island. The grand-nephew of the first Lieutenant-Bailly, Philip Le Geyt, and grandson of the last named Robert Le Geyt, was for some years Wood-reeve to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, and was first cousin of the late Vice-Admiral Philip D'Auvergne, Prince of Bouillon. He married Jane, daughter of the Rev William Burch, Rector of St Mary, Dover, and of Mongeham, Kent.

His son, Vice-Admiral George Le Geyt is the present representative of the family. He married, in 1812, Rose-Marie, daughter of the late Rear-Admiral Heath (two of whose brothers, and their brother-in-law, Dr Drury, were successively Headmasters of Eton and Harrow, during the interesting period of the education there of Lord Byron, Sir Robert Peel, and other celebrated characters), and by whom he has had issue eleven children. An ancestor of the mother of Admiral Le Geyt, whose name was Dejovas, came over as a volunteer with William III, was with him in all his battles, and was wounded at the battle of the Boyne.

Arms

As borne by Vice-Admiral George Le Geyt: Ermine, a lion, rampant, gules. Impaling: Per chevron, sable and argent; in chief, two mullets of the second, in base a heathcock, ppr., for Heath.

Crest : A lion's head, couped, ppr

Motto : Quo fata vocant.

As borne by Noé Le Geyt of La Chasse, Maufant (1619): Azure?, three laurel leaves vert, for Le Loreur. It was anciently the Island custom, also found in mainland Normandy, for men inheriting and settling on maternal land, in this case that of the Le Loreurs, to adopt the arms of that family in lieu of their own. This practice also involved those succeeding to estates long held by another family. Jersey examples of both of these customs are to be seen in the arms of the Lemprière, de Carteret and Dumaresq families, whose arms are in fact those of, respectively, Daubigny, de Barentin and in the case of Dumaresq, both Le Fevre of Vinchelez and Payn!

Variants

  • Le Geyt, c1340
  • Le Geyte 1274
  • Le Geyt dit Rauvet 1581
  • Le Geyt dit Le Maillier 1491
  • La Weyte
  • Le Gay
  • Le Jayt
  • Le Gey
  • Le Gett
  • Le Geict
  • Le Geyt dit Maret

Family records

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Family trees




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Church records

Tips for using these links



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Family histories



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Le Geyt family members who served in World War 1



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Family wills



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Burial records


Family homes


Family businesses

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  • A button used by tailor J T Le Geyt

  • 1881 advert

  • 1881 advert

Family album

Philip John Le Geyt and family

Family gravestones

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

  • Old Mont a l’Abbe cemetery

  • Old Mont a l’Abbe cemetery

  • Mont a l’Abbe cemetery

  • Mont a l’Abbe cemetery

  • Mont a l’Abbe cemetery

  • St Ouen parish cemetery

  • St Peter parish cemetery

  • Surville Cemetery

  • St Saviour

  • St Saviour

  • Green Street Cemetery

  • Town Churchyard

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

A--B--C--D--E--F--G--H--I--J--K--L--M--N--O--P--Q--R--S--T--U--V--W--X--Y--Z

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