the merchant's house - family

The man who built the house, Philippe Nicolle Snr (1769-1835), inherited most of his wealth from his great-uncle Josué Mauger in 1788. In 1795 he married Esther Winter whose family were well established merchants in St Aubin. Together they, had thirteen children of whom eight survived into adulthood.

When Philippe died in 1836 he left the house to his daughter, Jeanne. She lived here with her brother, Philippe Winter, her mother Esther, who died of cholera in the 1849 epidemic, her sister Anne, and a nephew, Sydney. When Jeanne married Charles Ginestet, a French homeopathic doctor, in 1855 her brother moved out to his own house at Beau Desert in St. Saviour.

Charles Ginestet was born in Rhodez, Avegron in 1808 and trained at Montpelier University. He was an ardent socialist who had been imprisoned for his views at the time of the 1851 coup d'etat in France. Once released, he went into exile in England before moving to Jersey where he mixed with Victor Hugo and many of the other political exiles who had moved to the island following the failure of the 1848 revolutionary movement on the continent. He had three children from his first marriage, two daughters Berthe and Alice, and one son, Théophile. In 1861 they were aged 18,16 and 11. They all lived here until 1869, when financial difficulties forced the family to move to France.

The family firm, Nicolle and Company, was badly hit by the slump in the Newfoundland cod trade and ceased trading in 1863.

The house was bought by Josué Falle in the early 1870s and it was he who gave it to the Société Jersiaise in 1893 to use as a museum.