Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 27 - Le Quesne
Le Quesne.
The family of Le Quesne, in Jersey, is said to be of pre-reformation descent, the Channel Islands being ours as a remnant of the Norman dominions of William the Conqueror; and this family, like most of the neighbouring gentlemen, claims to be old Norman, and does not wish to be thought a refugee family. This I do not dispute; but I do dispute their claim to two persons whom I am about to name. John Le Quesne and David Le Quesne were naturalised in 1700 (see List xxiv.); if they had been Jersey-men, naturalisation would not have been requisite. There died in London, in 1741, Sir John Le Quesne, and in 1753 David Le Quesne, Esq., brother of the late Sir John (see Gentleman’s Magazine). Sir John, who was an Alderman in 1735, was knighted in 1737; in 1738 he married Miss Knight, of Hampshire, with £20,000; he was Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1739-40; he was a subscriber to Laval’s “History of the Reformed Church of France,” and a Director of the French Hospital. In 1676 there resided at Rouen Jacques Lequesne, avocat, whose daughter (Catherine), by Elisabeth Delavoye, his wife, was married in that year. (See my volume i., book i., chapter xv.)