[346] From Mrs. Rowswell, Mr. Thoume’s daughter, Mrs. Le Patourel, Mrs. Charles Marquand, Margaret Mauger, Mr. Tourtel, and many others, inhabitants of St. Martin’s parish.
Les Câches.
There are two houses called Les Câches in St. Martin’s parish, situated one behind the other in the district so called, between the blacksmith’s forge at St. Martin’s and the Forest Road. Tradition says that they all formed part of one property, which extended as far as St. Martin’s Church, and was a nunnery, the nuns having a private lane of their own by which they could go to the church without the fear of meeting any men en route. There is a pond situated to the left of a long avenue which now leads to the front door of one of the houses, and for years it was believed that on a certain night of the year, a woman’s figure, dressed in grey, is seen walking up and down the avenue, weeping and wringing her hands, and then rushing to the pond. The story the people tell to account for this appearance is, that one of the nuns was discovered at the dead of night trying to drown her child and herself in the pond. They were rescued, but only for a worse fate, for the unfortunate woman and child were bricked up in a cupboard which is now situated in one of the outhouses, but is supposed to have been the old refectory. The people also tell in confirmation of this story that the night the ghost is seen this cupboard door flies open of itself though it is quite impossible to force it open at any other time.
It is possible that if this was an ecclesiastical establishment, it was one of those alien priories of which Sir Edgar MacCulloch says:—
“After the loss of Normandy the inconvenience of having so many valuable possessions in the hands of the enemy, led to the suppression of these priories, and in these islands, whenever there was war between England and France, alien ecclesiastics were compelled to leave.”
So probably the old conventual buildings, if there were any, were allowed to fall into ruins, and the land passed into the hands of the Patrys, and thence, through the marriage of Marguerite Patrys and Pierre Bonamy, into the possession of the Bonamys, who owned it for many centuries. There is an old document which tells the story of how the Bonamys first came to Guernsey.
“On their return from the Holy Land, whither they had accompanied the King of France, two brothers were driven by a violent storm, and thrown into a little bay, where their bark went to pieces. In gratitude for their preservation they made a vow to remain where Providence had placed them. One, a priest, founded a church, and the other married and founded the Bonamy family.” In 1495, John Bonamy, son of Pierre and Marguerite Patrys, was “Procureur du Roi” in Guernsey, and his old MS. memorandum book still survives, in which he describes a pilgrimage to Rome he made in 1504, through France and Italy.
The following extracts relative to building Les Câches have been deciphered from the old crabbed manuscript by Colonel J. H. Carteret Carey:—
1468.—Mo des gans quy mont aydy a caryer la pere … et des grant roquez … de le Cluse Luet—premez Gylome robert j jor &c.
1498.—Mo que je marchande de Colas Fyquet por ma meson, le but deverz le nort … par la some de viij escus.… Il comencest le xviijeme jor du moys de Maye—le Mardyt.