Now to come to the remaining chapels. The Extente of Edward III. speaks of the King’s Chaplain, John de Caretier, who received a salary out of the revenues of the island, and was bound to say mass daily for the King, and for the souls of his ancestors either in the chapel of Castle Cornet or in the chapel of His Majesty’s manor of La Grange. It is not exactly known where this manor was situated, but as the estate of the late John Carey, Esq., has always borne this name—the Grange—it is reasonable to suppose that it was thereabouts. The more so, as Richard II. founded the Convent of Cordeliers or Francisian friars on the ground now belonging to Elizabeth College, probably then comprised in the Grange estate. It must be said, however, that there are also reasons for supposing that the King’s Grange may have been situated elsewhere, probably in the vicinity of the Tour Gand, a fortress which defended the approaches of the town from the north, and this opinion derives some support from the fact that the Plaiderie, or Court House, is known to have existed in ancient times in this locality, and that in the middle ages a chapel was considered an almost essential adjunct to a Court of Justice.
To return to the Convent of the Cordeliers, it is known that the site of their church, called in Acts of Court “La Chapelle des Frères,” is said to have stood opposite to the entrance of Le Cimetière des Frères, which was the burial ground belonging to this church, and, together with the site of the church, a considerable portion of land appears to have been alienated from the college, probably by the arbitrary act of some Governor of the island. The church consisted of a chancel and nave, the latter, on the building being given for the use of the college, serving as a school-room, and the former being occupied by the master. After its alienation the burial ground fell into the hands of an individual of the name of Blanche, who turned it into an orchard, but, a plague having broken out in 1629, the Court made an order that all who died of that disorder should be buried there, since which time it has served for a cemetery for the Town parish. How the burial ground attached to the Town Church came to acquire the name of “Cimetière des Sœurs” cannot now be known, as there can be no doubt that from time immemorial it was no other than the parochial cemetery. There is no document known to exist which points to any conventual establishment for females in the island, though there are traditions to that effect. There was, however, among many other fraternities, a “confrèrie de frères et sœurs” connected in some measure with this cemetery, and which may have given it the name. At the Reformation the land and rents due to this fraternity were seized by the Crown, and the list of them is still preserved among the records at the Greffe, with the following heading—“Confessions de rentes dues aux frères et sœurs de la confrerye et fraternité de la charité, fondeye pour la dilyvrance des ames de purgatoyre, par les dis frayres et sœurs, constytuée, establye et ordonnée, en la Chapelle de Sepulcre estante dedans le cymetyere de St. Pierre Port,” &c., &c.
This proves the existence of a chapel in the churchyard, but whether it was the building known by the name of “Le Belfroi,” and which was demolished in 1787, cannot now be ascertained. “Belfroi” is the name given in the mediæval ages to a Town Hall. The edifice known by that name in St. Peter Port belonged to the Town, and was used latterly as a store-house for militia requisites. It is described as having been built of stone, vaulted, and divided into two apartments, an upper and a lower, the latterly partly underground. Probably the lower part of the building was used as a charnel house, in which the bones of the dead, after they had lain long enough in the ground to become quite dry, were piled up; for, among the duties to be performed by the officiating priest, we find that they were required to chant a “recorderis” over the bones of the dead. Such charnel houses are still very common in Brittany, and many country places throughout the continent.
Of the other chapels which existed in the Town parish the memory even has perished. The estate known as Ste. Catherine may possibly have derived its name from a chapel dedicated to that virgin martyr, but all that is known is that there was a fraternity or religious association under the patronage of this saint, which was endowed with wheat rents. Some of the rents seized by the Crown, and afterwards made over to Elizabeth College, were due to the “Frerie de Ste. Catherine,” and possibly this body possessed its own chapel. The site of the Chapel of St. Jacques is well known, and traces of the foundations were still to be seen till comparatively lately. It was situated in a field on the Mon Plaisir estate, on the right hand side of the lane which leads from the Rue Rozel to the back of the Rocquettes, at the head of a little valley, just where the roadway is at the lowest. The orchard to the east of this spot, on the opposite side of the lane, is still known by the name of Le Cimetière, and human bones are still occasionally met with in digging. It had some land attached to it by way of endowment, which was sold by the Royal Commissioners in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as we learn from the Livre de Perchage, temp. Elizabeth, in which it is called “La Chapelle de l’ydolle, St. Jacques,” and that Thomas Effard was in possession of land that had belonged to it. From the same document we learn that there was also a chapel called “La Chapelle de Lorette,” which, there is reason to suppose, may have been in the vicinity of Candie.
There was also a private chapel, of which we should have known absolutely nothing but for an old contract, still extant, of the early date of 1383, by which Perrot and Jannequin Le Marchant[85] sell a piece of ground for building purposes to Renolvet Denys. One of the conditions attached to the sale is that no edifice shall be erected on the land thus sold, which can in any manner take away from the view, or deprive the chapel of the manor and hall of the vendors, of light. The property in question was, without doubt, that to the south of the arch, leading to Manor Le Marchant and Lefebvre Street, and it is curious that the contract mentions the existence of a vaulted gateway leading to the manor, at that early period permission being given to the purchaser of this ground to build over this arch. An archway still exists in the locality, and continues to bear the name of “La Porte,” as it did nearly five hundred years ago.
Now, to come to the only chapel that still exists—Ste. Apolline. There is no reason for supposing it to be of such great antiquity as is generally believed. The vault is pointed, and it is well known that the pointed arch did not make its appearance in architecture until the latter part of the twelfth century—say about 1160—whereas all our parishes are named in documents anterior to 1066. From the Cartulary of Mont Saint Michel we learn that in the year 1054 William Pichenoht, moved by compunction for the many and great sins he had committed, and desirous of turning monk, gave, with the consent of Duke William of Normandy, his lands of La Perrelle with all their appurtenances to the abbey. These lands were, no doubt, leased out afterwards by the monks to various individuals, the abbey retaining the “Seigneurie” over the whole.
In October, 1392, a certain Nicholas Henry, of La Perrelle, obtained the consent of the Abbot and monks of Mont St. Michel, as Lords of the Manor, to the endowment of a chapel which he had lately erected on his estate, subject, however to the sanction of the Sovereign as lord paramount. This permission was granted by Richard II. in July, 1394. The charter which is preserved among the island records at the Greffe authorises Nicholas Henry to endow the Chapel of Sainte Marie de la Perrelle for the purpose of maintaining a chaplain who was to celebrate a daily mass for ever, for the safety of the said Nicholas Henry[86] and his wife Philippa, for their souls after they should have departed this life, and for the souls of all their ancestors, benefactors, and Christian people generally. Beside the three vergées of land, which are described as being bounded on the west by the property of Guillaume Blondel, and on the east by that of Thomas Dumaresq, both of which families are still landowners in the district, Nicholas Henry also gave to the chapel an annual wheat rent of four quarters due on a piece of ground adjoining. The chapel once established, other gifts were made from time to time by pious individuals who took part in the daily service. In 1485, Johan de Lisle, son of Colas, and Nicholas de Lisle, son of Pierre, acknowledged in the presence of the Bailiff and Jurats that they owed jointly the yearly rent of a hen to the Chaplain of Notre Dame de la Perrelle; and the latter acknowledged, moreover, to the annual payment of one bushel of wheat. On March 2nd, 1492, Henry Le Tellier, of St. Saviour’s, also acknowledged that he owed two bushels of wheat rent to Sire Thomas Henry, who is also mentioned as Chaplain of St. Brioc, in 1477, and as Rector of the Castel, in 1478. He was also styled in an earlier deed, “Dom” Thomas, so was probably also a Benedictine monk, and it is not unlikely that he was grandson of the original founder of this chapel. Its identity with the building still existing is proved by an Act of the Royal Court “en Plaids d’Héritage” of June 6th, 1452, in which the chapel is spoken of as “La Chapelle de Notre Dame de la Perrelle, appelleye la Chapelle Sainte Appolyne.” It was then in the possession of Colin Henry, son of Jacques, and grandson of Nicholas, who is described as the founder of the chapel. Forty years later it changed hands, and was in the possession of the Guille family, perhaps by inheritance, for in April, 1496, Nicholas Guille, son of Nicholas, of St. Peter Port, sold the advowson of the chaplaincy to Edmond de Chesney, Seigneur of Anneville, in whose family it probably remained until they[87] sold their possessions to the Fouaschin family, from whom they came by inheritance into the family of Andros.[88]
We do not know how the name of Ste. Apolline came to be associated first with that of the Blessed Virgin, and then to have superseded it altogether. Possibly because there were already no less than five places of worship in the island under the invocation of Our Lady—the Churches of the Castel, Torteval,[89] and Lihou, and the Chapels of Pulias and Le Château des Marais, commonly known as Ivy Castle. Saint Apollonia, or in French, Ste. Apolline, is said to have been a virgin of Alexandria, who was burned as a Christian martyr in the year 249.
The chapel is twenty-seven feet long by thirteen feet nine inches wide, and is built of rough unhewn stone, except the heads of the doorways, the jambs of the windows, and the corner stones of the edifice, which appear to have been coarsely wrought. The vault is in solid masonry of small stones cemented with a strong mortar, and if it was ever slated or tiled all traces of the covering have long since disappeared. The interior is stuccoed, and was originally adorned with mural paintings, of which some slight traces are yet to be seen. Figures of angels, and part of a group which seem to have been intended to represent the nativity of our Saviour, are still to be made out. There are three small narrow square headed windows, which may or may not once have been glazed—one in the east gable immediately above where the altar must have stood, and the other two in the north and south walls, near the east end of the building. There is no opening whatever in the western gable, which was surmounted originally by a bell-cote, of which the base only now remains. The hole through which the bell rope passed is still to be seen in the interior. To the south of the chapel is a very ancient and substantially built farm-house, which is traditionally said to have been the residence of the officiating priest. It is quite as probable that it was the manor house of the founder, Nicholas Henry. In it were preserved the iron clapper of a bell, which is said to have belonged to the chapel, and some wrought stones, which probably formed the supports of the altar slab. A small silver burette, one of a pair, such as are used in the Roman Catholic Church to contain the wine and the water employed in the celebration of the mass, by tradition came originally from this chapel, it bearing the inscription “Sancte Paule ora pro nobis,” and on the lid is the letter A, denoting that it was the vessel intended to contain the water. It was in the possession of the ancient family of Guille, whose representative gave it to the Parish Church of St. Peter Port in memory of his father.
In the neighbourhood of Perrelle Bay there is a rock, standing at some little distance from the shore, never covered by the tide, and approachable when the tide is out, called “La Chapelle Dom Hue.” The appearance of the natural causeway, or, as it is locally termed “col” or “pont,” which leads to it, would induce one to believe that at some remote period it must have been a narrow neck of low land stretching out into the sea, which divided the bays of L’Erée and La Perrelle, and which has been gradually carried away by the constant action of the waves, leaving only the little hillock we now see. Probably, in ancient times, a small oratory, perhaps a hermitage, had been erected on this spot by a pious founder, “Dom” Hue, who, from his title, must have been a Benedictine monk, and, in all likelihood, a member of the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel, which was in possession of lands in this neighbourhood. There is still a small manor in the parish of St. Saviour’s which bears the name of “Les Domaines Dom Hue,” and which we may reasonably suppose belonged originally to the same person, and possibly formed the endowment of the chapel.