The Jersey Messervy Latter Day Saints

Josué Messervy and his family emigrated from Jersey to Utah in the United States in 1853, undertaking a monumental journey from east coast US to Utah with the Joseph W. Young Company.  The family first made a journey by sea to the United States, crossing to New Orleans on the Golconda and then made their way to Keokuk, Iowa to join the company of 402 individuals and 54 wagons.  The route they followed has been called the Mormon Trail. The Messervys were a long way from their island home, with its history and culture reaching back to approximately 1100.  Josué was not a young man, but forty-six years of age, with his wife Jeanne Robert, about forty-one years of age.  Joining them on this prairie trek were their children Josué , age 19; Henrietta, age 17; John, age 14; Joseph Robert, age 11; Jane, age 10, James, age 7 and Ann Elizabeth, age 1.[1] Tragically, their son Jacob, about three years of age, died on the sea journey.   They began the trek in January 1853 and by the time they reached their Utah destination on 10 October 1853, they had travelled by ship, ox team, and wagon, and frequently across gruelling terrain. Not the life they had known in Jersey. 

Mormon Pioneer Wagons, 1852[2]

How did this family become adherents of the Latter Day Saints so far away in Utah?  One of the first Latter Day Saints missionaries in the Channel Islands was Elder William C. Dunbar, who noted that in 1848 “…I found about 44 faithful Saints…I have baptised sixty old and young…”[3]   There is also mention of the church’s presence in nearby France and in England.  John Pack, a Mormon elder, arrived in Saint Hélier, Jersey on 22 June 1851[4] to provide baptisms due to the growing number of Channel Islanders attracted to the religion. In addition, the new members were encouraged to emigrate to the developing Mormon state in the west of the USA.  For members of the working class who lived on a small island steeped in the history of nobility and hierarchy, this may have seemed an irresistible chance to start a new life.  The economy in the Channel Islands was described as “less buoyant” during the years around 1850, with decreased shipbuilding and world trade.[5]  The population decreased by about 18%.  Josué was a carpenter and like many carpenters may have worked in the formerly robust shipbuilding industry.  As well, those who converted to Mormonism in a predominantly Church of England country experienced discrimination and were even shunned by some neighbours.  Emigration is often described as a result of push/pull factors, that is, what is pushing people to leave and what is the pullto the chosen location?  It is always fascinating to view your immigrant ancestors in this way: while no one factor is responsible, we can see how the Messervys experienced some pressures at home and once they became members of the Latter Day Saints, the expansion of this new world had a strong appeal. 

So, it was in this context that we see the Josué Messervy family plan their emigration. Vogler reports that the younger Josué is recorded as the first of the family to receive baptism on 20 July 1851, followed by his mother 14 August 1851 and finally Josué the father was baptised 10 September 1851. However, it was not until January 1853 that the family put their emigration plan into action.  Initially, the family settled in Tooele, Tooele County Utah.  As the Mormon territory evolved, members of the family were marrying and settling in other areas. Henriette (her name became Henrietta) married in 1855 but only remained in the marriage for six months due to mistreatment by her husband’s first wife.[6]Her second marriage was to Robert Dowdle in 1857, who became a leader in the community.  Sadly, only five of their eleven children lived to adulthood. They settled in Franklin, Idaho – boundaries of states and territories were changing at this time, and some settlements became Idaho not Utah. 

Josué Messervy, the son who was first baptised, became known as Joshua Meservy  ( most descendants of this family are known by the one ‘s’ spelling of the surname after a generation in the new land).  He married another Jersey Islander Jane Elizabeth Coutanche, in 1855 in Salt Lake City but she died in childbirth in 1864.  Their daughters were sent to live with their grandmother, Jeanne Robert Messervy in Idaho.  Joshua became a guide for new emigrants coming across the Mormon trail and met his second wife, Amelia Brindle through this journey.   Their marriage was conflicted and he was accused of cruelty – the marriage was ended by Brigham Young himself. In 1871, Joshua returned to Jersey and married Jane Martel.  In the 1871 Census[7], he is living at her home, with the parents being Edward and Jane Martel.  Despite having been a member of the Latter Day Saints for twenty years, the marriage to Jane, on 30 July 1871[8], took place in the Church of England in St. Hélier, Jersey.  Soon they were back in the United States, by September 1871. Jane died in 1891.  His last marriage was to Caroline Hansen, who was born in Norway and had emigrated with the Latter Day Saints. He married Caroline in 1893, and died in 1911.

The Messervy/Meservy descendants of Josué and Jeanne continued to play roles in the Latter Day Saints religion.  Many of the descendants are added in the Messervy website database.  The Missionary database contains a number of the descendants.   There are members and officials associated currently with the LDS church who are likely descendants of the Jersey Island couple. 

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[1] Pioneer Database. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/

[2] This was not the Messervy journey but perhaps from the year before, when the de la Mere family from Jersey undertook the trek. Posted on the islandwiki : https://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/Pioneers_from_Jersey_on_an_1852_Mormon_caravan_journey_across_America

[3]  Church of Jesus Christ.org: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1988/12/news-of-the-church/channel-island-saints?lang=eng    Accessed 29 Feb 2020. 

[4] Hodgson, Veldon R. Joshua (Josue) Messervy, 1807 – 181871, Biography.  Utah:  Pioneer History Sons of the Utah Pioneers Utah State Centennial 1996. 

[5] Boleat, Mark. Jersey’s Population - A History.  St. Hélier, Jersey: Société Jersiaise. 2015. Available Online: https://www.boleat.com/materials/jerseys_population_a_history_2015.pdf

[6] Biography of Henrietta Messervy Hamblin Dowdle. https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/15001999

[7] 1871 Census of England, Scotland and Wales. Available at: ancestry.com 

[8] Marriages Church of England Jersey. Jersey Heritage. Accessed at ancestry.com