Philip Bechervaise Sr.

A  BÉCHERVAISE FAMILY HISTORY

By- Lynden Bechervaise-2019

Born at St. Aubin on the Island of Jersey, Phillip Béchervaise is the first person of our family to appear in the Canadian record when he appears as the captain of a ship named “La Paix” at Paspébiac in 1786. There is a record of sailing orders that Charles Robin gave him that Autumn for taking the load of cured fish to Portugal. See “The Robins of the Gaspe” by Robert Lee. He continued in Robins employ for some 20 years; picking up the fish from along the coast during the summer and delivering it to markets in Europe in the fall. (Robin never allowed his ships to enter a British Port for fear of Impressment)

His eldest son, also named Phillip, worked in Paspébiac as a ship builder. In 1808 the father learned from other captains that his young son was courting a Poindexter girl in Paspébiac and that he was also contemplating a return to Jersey.  His father wrote him a letter advising him not to return to Jersey and saying that if he ever made a union with the Poindexter girl, he would disown him. The young lad was in a quandary so he decided to return to JERSEY. He was captured by the French, as his father had predicted could happen. He spent 10 years in a prison camp in France before being liberated. During those years his father died; he was captain of a ship named “Amazon” which was anchored in Messina,,Sicily when on the same day he and all but 2 of his crew succumbed to -the black death- (courtesy of Martha Costello). His will was probated in 1812 which stated that Phillip Jr. was in a prison in France.

After he was liberated, he settled in Wakeham, P.Q. and started a ship building establishment which produced some of the largest ships in the region. At one time there was a huge forest fire that passed through the area that threatened “The Olive Branch” a three masted Brig which was on the stocks and it was only by a concerted effort of the whole community that the plant and the corresponding jobs were saved. See:(La Gaspésie -hiver 2007- Disasters of the century.)   Phillip brought in, from Jersey, a dozen or more ship tradesmen each summer which was co-ordinated by his uncle, Samuel Gasnier. - ( La Revue d’Histoire de La Gaspésie Jan-Mar 1974 Pg 61).     Soon after Phillips birth his mother, Marie Gasnier died and he was brought up by her family, The Gasniers, as his father was not often home.

Phillip Sr.  remarried some years later to Catherine Giffard which produced a second son named Jean, later changed to John. He had an interesting and exciting life which is documented in a book “THIRTY-SIX YEARS OF A SEAFARING LIFE- BY AN OLD QUARTERMASTER”  - This book has been reprinted and is readily available.

One of John’s descendants from Australia, also named John, was quite an explorer and led the Australian Antarctic expedition for many years; Bechervaise Island in Antartica is named in his Honor (check it out online) as is a Béchervaise plateau on the Island of Tasmania. He twice visited Gaspe.

In the Gaspe we have “Mont Béchervaise, the local ski hill; A Bechervaise Brook and Bechervaise street which is now mainly unused but at one time was the main route from Gaspe to the north coast and another Bechervaise mountain between Gaspe and Murdochville.

In Jersey there is also a Béchervaise Street which runs from Mont Remon to St. Matthieu, St. Peter.  I have researched the origin of the family name from Jersey records and the first mention of the name I found in legal documents is:  Bois Cervaise ; (   In the novel Braveheart there is a place in France named Bois Gilbert;))  I believe , in like manner, Cervaise must have been a proper name at one time and thus the name of a woods area. The family name has taken a number of variations through the years until it stabilized in the 1600’s, as Béchervaise.

Phillip Jr. married Margaret Coffin in 1824 and raised a family of fourteen. In the history of the family the eldest son for a period of eight generations, was always named Phillip. Gaspé for a long time held the largest concentration of the family name in the world. In Australia and England, the name has almost disappeared. Our Gaspe concentration has also dispersed and declined.

_{Additional and supplementary information will be available on the Go Gaspe website}

Ie. The 1808 letter; The evolution of the family name; Exerts from The Lee book, Annex II; Sailing orders from Charles Robin to Phillip Béchervaise; Family tree info; etc.

Contact: Lynden at  lgbech@gmail.com