236 ST. apolline's chapel. 



had not a document come to light within the last ten years 

 which makes the matter quite clear. It is an Act of the 

 Koyal Court en Plaids (V Heritaf/e of the 6th June 1452, in 

 which the Chapel is spoken of as " Id, cltapelle de Notre Dame 

 de la Pevrelle^ appeUeye la Chapelle Saint Appolyne." 

 It was then in the possession of Colin Henry, son of Jaccpies, 

 and grandson of Nicholas, who is described as the founder of 

 the Chapel. Forty years later it had changed hands, and 

 was in the possession of the Guille family, ])erhaps by inherit- 

 ance or by marriage with an heiress of the Henry family ; 

 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 pro- 

 bably remained until their possessions in this Island passed 

 by sale into the Fouachin or Fashion family, by whom they 

 came by inheritance to the family of Andros. 



From the Act of the Plaids d' Heritage to which we have 

 referred, we gather that a certain Nicolle Angot had held 

 the chaplaincy at some previous period and that he had added 

 a yearly rent of six bushels of wheat to the endowment. 

 Thomas Henry, as we have already mentioned, was chaplain 

 in. 1485, and at least until the year 1492. We have found a 

 clergyman of the same name designated as Chaplain of St. 

 Brioc in July 1477, and as Rector of the Castel in September 

 1478. If, as is not improbable, the Chaplain of St. Brioc, the 

 Hector of the Castel, and the Chaplain of St. Apolline are 

 one and the same person, we must suppose that the Rector in 

 his old age gave up the arduous duties of a parish for the 

 more quiet retirement of a domestic chaplaincy among his 

 own kindred, and perhaps on his own estate. As it is not till 

 then that we find him styled " Dom " and not " Sire " which 

 Avas the usual title of Parish Priests, we may conjecture that 

 in giving up his benefice at the Castel, he had assumed the 

 monastic habit. 



We do not know how it happened that the name of St. 

 Apolline came to be associated with that of the Blessed 

 Virgin, and at last, to have superseded it altogether as the 

 designation of the Chapel ; but instances of a like kind are by 

 no means uncommon. Perhaps the reason, in this case, may 

 be found in the fact that there were already no less than five 

 places of worship in this island under the invocation of Our 

 Lady — the Churches of the Castel, Torteval and Lihou, and 

 the Chapels of Poulias and le Chateau des Marais, commonly 

 known as Ivy Castle. Saint Apollonia — or as she is called in 

 France, Apolline — is said to have been a virgin of Alexandria 



