#did his channel islands relatives speak jèrriais? tbh i don't know

[clove-pinks]

As resident dundyologist I have a question to ask if it's not to much trouble. Sunday as far as I am aware was born in Jersey so did he speak jèrriais at all?

Hello! I am always glad to field questions about Henry TD Le Vesconte, to the best of my abilities. I think there's an autocorrect mistake in your ask—do you mean Dundy, not Sunday? Henry TD Le Vesconte was born in Netherton, Devon and his mother was a local girl (so he would have spoken English natively, even if he was bilingual).

His father, Henry "no middle names" Le Vesconte, was baptised in Jersey (Société Jersiaise 1932 bulletin), and there is conflicting information on Ancestry.com and in the Le Vesconte family records in St. John's Newfoundland regarding his birth year and birth place. Even if he was born in Stoke Damerel, Devon (which I think is correct), he had deep Jersey roots.

I don't know if Henry Le Vesconte, father or son, could speak Jèrriais. Circumstantial evidence suggests they could both speak French. There is a letter from Henry TD Le Vesconte to his father dated 17 October 1844 in which he ponders "going for a month or two into France with my old friend Philip Helpman – now a commander" (a fellow Opium War vet, not a known relative of Franklin expedition clerk E.J.H. Helpman). Maybe HTD Le Vesconte was willing to spend months in France without being able to speak the language, certainly other English tourists did, but he had francophone family. An 1836 letter mentions his younger brother Philip spending time in France, and Henry adds, "he talks of going over again in the summer. I should not dislike the trip if they would ask me."

I could swear I came across another reference from HTD Le Vesconte in which he talks about visiting France/speaking French and just spent a dizzying amount of time trying to find it; but this still doesn't answer your question!

tl;dr: I don't know, sorry! All of his archived letters are in English, and I am unsure of his fluency in other languages.