Guillet, Edwin Clarence. The Guillet-Thoreau Genealogy.  Toronto: E.C. Guillet, 1971. 247 pages, illustrated, genealogical tables, 29cm

This double-spaced typescript, bound, was donated with an inscription by the author before he died, and is now stored under the call number X.802/2433. Guillet, a Canadian historian, asserted that the family of origin of American author Henry David Thoreau, a mother evidently originating in the de la Lesroy family, came with a son Pierre Thoreau and two daughters Francoise Thoreau and Marie Thoreau to the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel shortly after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, from the Poitou district of France (which I take to be the same as the current district Poitou-Charentes). There is no mention of Lyon, and no mention of the Thoreau father of said family. The earliest record of this family on Jersey is said to have been the marriage of Pierre Thoreau, who had been born in Poitou in about 1675, with Jeanne Servant there, in about the year 1700. Unfortunately the records of both parishes on the island have been destroyed by the Germans during WWII -- but selected records had been copied down by this family and thus have been preserved.
        According to the system of genealogical notation known as "Ahnentafel," this great-great-grandfather Pierre Thoreau and great-great-grandmother Jeanne Servant of Henry David Thoreau would be listed as #16 and #17 respectively, and the mother who originated the emigration from the Poitou-Charentes district of France to Jersey via Richmond, England, presumably of the de la Lesroy family and married to an unmentioned Thoreau who did not accompany her and her three children, would be listed as #33.  

AHNENTAFEL ITEM 16. Great-Great-Grandfather Pierre Thoreau, born about 1675 in the Poitou-Charentes region of France, married on 1700 on the Isle of Jersey to Jeanne Servant, died prior to 1742

AHNENTAFEL ITEM 17. Great-Great-Grandmother Jeanne Servant Thoreau, married on 1700 on the Isle of Jersey to Pierre Thoreau, died in 1742 with her husband already deceased after bearing seven children. . . .

AHNENTAFEL ITEM 32. Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Thoreau, presently unknown

AHNENTAFEL ITEM 33. Great-Great-Great-Grandmother Thoreau, name presently unknown, presumably of the de la Lesroy family of the Poitou-Charentes region of France

[NOTE: Ahnentafel is German for "ancestor table," a device employed by genealogists. It's a way of assigning a standard number to each of the ancestors of a given person, depending on their position in the ancestral hierarchy. The person being genealogized is always assigned the number 1. Their father is always number 2 and their mother number 3 (other than the person being genealogized at number 1, an even number indicates a male ancestor and an odd number a female ancestor). To find the listing of the father of any person, double his or her number; for the mother, double his or her number and then add one.]

To the best of the information available to this Guillet author of this book now in the British Library, the closest relative to Henry David Thoreau at that date of publication, 1971, was a second cousin once removed who had died in 1949, Sir Herbert Du Parcq, Lord Du Parcq of Grouville, a member of the House of Lords and the Lord Justice of Appeal for England, or perhaps this lord's mother Sophia Thoreau Du Parcq in the remote possibility that at that point she still survived. During WWII this Law Lord had headed the relief for exiled Channel Islanders. I do not presently know whether this man produced any offspring. Also, I do not know whether he ever had been contacted in regard to his Thoreau ancestry.
        I will include below a general chronology of this English Channel island, from the Kouroo database, with focus upon the recovered record of the Thoreaus there. Warning: this is quite long --or, as the Brits would say, rather long-- so if you're not interested, please hit CTRL-d now.

100,000 BC: Early humans were using a cave at La Cotte near the coastal area now called Ouaisne/. They hunted mammoths and woolly rhinoceros, herding them over the cliff onto the rocks below, butchering them and leaving their bones to be discovered in the late 1800s. Lower sea levels meant easy access from the mainland to what is now the island of Jersey.

3,000 BCE: During what is referred to as the New Stone Age, passage graves were being dug all over Jersey. The largest and best preserved of these are to be seen at La Hougue Bie.

100 CE: The Romans denominated the island "Caesarea," a name still used to day in titles such as the Caesarean Cycling Club and Caesarean Tennis and Croquet Club. At high tide Jersey is about half the size of Santa Catalina off the coast of Orange County, California. However, this is a region of extremely high and strong tides, and at low tide the island is surrounded by such enormous flat beaches that the sea is hardly visible in any direction.

555 CE: St. Hellier, a holy isolate on a lonely rock in St. Aubin's Bay, was offed by some pirates.

1066: William the Bastard, at this point re-creating himself as William the Conqueror, granted Jersey to some of the Norman knights who had helped him achieve the English crown.

12??: Construction of Mont Orgueil Castle on Jersey.

1240: King John, while losing most of his French territory, retained control over channel islands such as Jersey and Guernsey.

1373: The Breton knight Bertrand du Guesclin captured Jersey, although it would never become a permanent part of the French kingdom. (The French would regain control during the Wars of the Roses, but remain only for seven years.)

1600: Sir Walter Raleigh was sworn in as governor of Jersey.

????: An area on the eastern seaboard of the North American continent was named "New Jersey" after this island near the coast of France.

1643: Diarist Jean Chevalier recorded the impact of the English Civil War, during which Parliament and King held power on Jersey at various times.

1651: Parliament forces were victorious on Jersey.

1655: John Milton's "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont." Henry David Thoreau knew very well that he was descended from primitive Christians, the Waldensians and the Huguenots who had fled France to wherever in the world they could go such as to Saffron Walden across the water in England in the first wave of diaspora in the 12th Century and to the vicinity of Mount Wachusett in the Massachusetts-Bay Colony across the water in America in the second wave of diaspora in the 17th Century antinomians in regard to whom Milton had penned the lines:

Avenge O Lord thy slaughter'd Saints, whose bones
Lie scatter'd on the Alpine meadows cold.

[NOTE: As Thoreau reported in his Harvard classbook Autobiography, he was a man "of French extract" whose ancestors had been forced to take "refuge in the isle of Jersey, on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, by Lewis 14th, in the year 1685." Presumably the Thoreau family had fled from France to the isle of Jersey braving their fears of being sent to row in the galleys for this was the usual punishment if detected at roughly the same time that the Jacques Louis Guillet family had fled to that island in the English Channel, because the two families were intermarried. It is Jacques Thoreau's son Philippe who was the ancestor of Henry David. His daughter Jean's daughter Marie married Charles William Guillet in AD1796 and their son John Guillet emigrated in AD1832 to Cobourg on Lake Ontario east of Toronto, producing Edwin Clarence Guillet, the Canadian historian. Since the American branch of the Thoreau family came to an end with the unmarried generation of Helen, John, Henry, and Sophia, this Edwin Clarence Guillet (who died in 1974) was one of Henry David's few modern relatives. As we can see in the following footnote from page 230 of his The Pioneer Farmer and Backwoodsman (Toronto: The Ontario Publishing Company, Ltd., 1963), he was quite proud of Henry although reluctant to brag about being a relative:

The period of the settlement of Upper Canada was too late for the inclusion of religious refugees among its settlers. But a large number of descendants of French Huguenots, driven from France in the sixteen-eighties, came to the United States and Canada, where they have tended to retain an independent and non-conformist attitude. The greatest of them all, of course, is Henry David Thoreau, whose philosophy and example have been so influential in shaping the career of Gandhi, British labour leaders, and broader loyalties of every type throughout the world.

October 18, 1685: King Louis XIV of France declared the April 13, 1598 Edict of Nantes which had been issued by King Henry IV to be null and void and removed all religious and civil liberties of any French citizens who were Huguenot, and the eighth and largest mass out-migration of Huguenots began.
        In this year Pierre Thoreau, who at the time was approximately ten years of age, his two sisters Francoise and Marie, and their mother, fled from the Poitou-Charentes district of France, initially to Richmond near London and then to St. He/lier on the island of Jersey in the English Channel. Presumably this religio-political situation was what occasioned the flight, at penalty of being sent to row in the galleys had they been intercepted. It would be Pierre's grandson Philippe Thoreau who would become the ancestor of Henry David, but it would be his great-granddaughter Marie who would marry Charles William Guillet in 1796 and it would be their son John Guillet who would emigrate in 1832 to Cobourg on Lake Ontario east of Toronto, eventually producing Edwin Clarence Guillet, the Canadian historian. Since the American branch of the Thoreau family would come to an end with the unmarried generation of Helen Louisa Thoreau, John Thoreau, Jr., Henry David Thoreau, and Sophia E. Thoreau, this Edwin Clarence Guillet, who died in 1974, would be one of Henry David's few modern American relatives.
         As you can see in the following footnote from page 230 of his The Pioneer Farmer and Backwoodsman, Edwin was quite proud of Henry--although reluctant to brag about being a relative:

The period of the settlement of Upper Canada was too late for the inclusion of religious refugees among its settlers. But a large number of descendants of French Huguenots, driven from France in the sixteen-eighties, came to the United States and Canada, where they have tended to retain an independent and non-conformist attitude. The greatest of them all, of course, is Henry David Thoreau, whose philosophy and example have been so influential in shaping the career of Gandhi, British labour leaders, and broader loyalties of every type throughout the world.

In addition to the above revocation of religious liberty at home, Louis also proclaimed a Code Noir for his colonies in the Caribbean. First, all Jews get out, you are to be gone within three months. Second, Huguenots may not observe their religion in any way. There was to be no intermarriage of non-Catholics with Catholics. Products of such unions were declared bastards. Slaves of Huguenots were to be baptized as Catholics. When the news of this reached the Caribbean, many Huguenot families fled from French islands to English and Dutch islands.
        Now I need to lay on you an analogy which you may consider, at first glimpse, to be severe. "Even with due allowance for exaggeration in contemporary accounts, one gets the impression of stark terrorism just as grim as the anti-Semitic nightmare in Nazi Germany." Yet the opinion I just gave you is that of a reputable historian. [Scoville, Warren C. The Persecution of Huguenots and French Economic Development, 1680 to 1720. Berkeley CA: U of California P, 1960, page 61] As an example, the king of France had declared that if any "New Convert" from Protestantism to Catholicism should recant his conversion on his death bed, all his property was to be seized by the authorities, and they were to have his "naked body dragged through the streets and tossed on a public dump." Of every six men captured in Huguenot worship meetings, one was to be executed and five condemned to serve as galley slaves, and in fact we know of at least 1,132 men who became galley slaves in this manner prior to the death of Louis XIV. Serving out one's sentence as a galley slave was no guarantee of release, and in fact a number of Huguenots were kept at their seats on the rowing benches, in their chains, for the duration of their lives, in spite of the fact that they had long since completed their sentences.
        It was in the Languedoc-Dauphine area of southern France, so impacted by the Catholic extermination of the Cathar heresy, that Huguenots were most concentrated. Under persecution, there were visions, people claimed they had heard choirs of angels in the sky and so on and so forth, and a belief arose that the Christian millennium was coming in the year 1689.
        Presumably the Thoreau family fled from France to Jersey in the Channel Islands in about 1685, at penalty of being sent to row in the galleys if detected, at roughly the same time that the Jacques Louis Guillet family fled to Jersey, because the two families were intermarried. It is Jacques Thoreau's son Philippe who is the ancestor of Henry David. His daughter Jean's daughter Marie married Charles William Guillet in 1796 and their son John Guillet emigrated in 1832 to Cobourg on Lake Ontario east of Toronto, producing Edwin Clarence Guillet, the Canadian historian. Since the American branch of the Thoreau family came to an end with the unmarried generation of Helen Louisa Thoreau, John Thoreau, Jr., Henry David Thoreau, and Sophia E. Thoreau, this Edwin, who died in 1974, was one of Henry David's few modern relatives. As you can see in the following footnote from page 230 of his _The Pioneer Farmer and Backwoodsman_, he was quite proud of Henry although reluctant to brag about being a relative:

The period of the settlement of Upper Canada was too late for the inclusion of religious refugees among its settlers. But a large number of descendants of French Huguenots, driven from France in the sixteen-eighties, came to the United States and Canada, where they have tended to retain an independent and non-conformist attitude. The greatest of them all, of course, is Henry David Thoreau, whose philosophy and example have been so influential in shaping the career of Gandhi, British labour leaders, and broader loyalties of every type throughout the world.

I suppose Abraham D. Lavender to be the poet here, since he did not attribute the poem and since the color lavender appears:

THE EXILE

Your sunny shores,
Your rugged peaks,
Your vineyards, fields, and forests,
Your flowery gardens in bloom,
With red, yellow, lavender, pink, and blue,
Your meandering rivers,
Your flowing streams,
Your roads that lead everywhere,
Your humble hamlets,
Your teeming towns,
Your courtly cities ablaze,
Your toiling farmers,
Your masterful merchants,
Your artful artisans and would-be scholars,
Your poor, pious, pampered, and princely,
Men and women of all nuances and shades,
Your lives so colorful,
Vivaciously vibrant,
But oppressive,
Struggling to be free,
To break the shackles of an ancient age,
Blood of my fathers,
Tears of my mothers,
Roots of my branches,
All intertwined in your soil so deep,
My mother earth,
My father land,
How my heart weeps for you,
From whom I was so cruelly exiled,
In leaking boats,
Over frightful borders,
Hurried journeys in the darkened nights,
Leaving behind so much of me,
Embittered, impoverished, but free,
Angered by the fearful tyrant,
The betraying countrymen,
The yoke of intolerance,

Saddened by the theft of freedom,
The rupture of dreams,
The hopeful hope of a speedy return,
A new beginning,
In a strange new land,
Different, engulfing, demanding,
But flexible, sensitive, and free,
This land that welcomed me,
Exhausted, lonely, afraid,
Sadder, but wiser,
Stronger and prouder,
Reaffirmed in honor,
From a life torn asunder,
This exile that became me,
Days turned into years,
And years into decades,
And generations multiply and divide,
A new language,
A new name,
A new home,
New loves to love,
In this no longer strange new land,
But, your sunny shores,
Your rugged peaks,
Your vineyards, fields, and forests,
Your flowery gardens in bloom,
With red, yellow, lavender, pink, and blue,
My colorfully vibrant memories,
That my mind cannot repress,
My meandering gazes ablaze,
That go with me everywhere,
My mother earth,
My father land,
How my soul dreams of you,
I am a part of you,
And you are a part of me,
The dreams,
The hope,
The faith,
That neither tyranny,
Nor time,
Can ever erase.

[NOTE: This movement of refugees is said to have been the "largest forced migration of Europeans in the early modern period." Refer to Jon Butler's The Huguenot in America: A Refugee People in New World Society. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1983.

The English word "refugee" would come about due to reluctance to employ the term "diaspora" which seemed to be reserved for the scattering of the Jews per John 7:35. The Huguenots amounted to some 1/4th million out of France's 20 million citizens, and during the years 1682-1690 were concentrated in the West and in the South. After some 50,000 had fled to England, they made up 5% of London town at a time when the London population was 10% of England. Genetically, the statistical probability that the next English person you meet in England will have at least some Huguenot ancestry is 75%. Refer to Bernard Cottret's The Huguenot in England and to Peter Steven Gannon's volume on Refugees in the Settling of Colonial America. In 1985 French President Mitterrand would issue an official apology, on behalf of the French government and the French people, for Louis XIV's diktat revoking the Edict of Nantes, and a commemorative postage stamp would be issued characterizing this our modern era as under the suasion of "Tolerance, Pluralism, Brotherhood."]

1700: In about this year Pierre Thoreau and Jeanne Servant were wed on Jersey. Jeanne would die already widowed in 1742 after bearing seven children:

1702 Pierre (died 1786)
1705 Jacques
1707 Francois
1710 Jeanne
1713 Josue
1718 Philippe (died 1800) who would marry Marie Le Galais in 1749
1720 Catherine

1701: In France, there were about 40 Huguenot "prophets" serving time on the rowing benches of the galleys, and more than 350 Huguenots were being held in French prisons for crimes of belief. The remaining Huguenots in France were being pushed to the point at which they were going to turn violent, and resist this abuse. As of about this time, at least 150,000 Huguenots had made good their escape and were living in the three primary destinations of the mass migrations: Holland, England, and Germany. In addition, smaller groups had made their way to various of the Channel Islands (such as the intermarried Thoreau and Guillet families on the island of Jersey), and to such destinations as Denmark, Scotland, South Africa, [James Michener's The Covenant has an interesting chapter on this] Sweden, Turkey, various of the islands of the West Indies, and the North American colonies.

17??: Construction of Elizabeth Castle on Jersey.

1720: Philippe Thoreau was born in St. He/lier, the capital city and main port of the island of Jersey in the English channel, the son of Jacques Thoreau, a wine merchant.

October 20, 1726: The 1st Thoreau burial listed in the St. Hellier, Jersey parish records was the result of a drowning:

Jean Taureau ayant este noye en allant au chateau pour travaille & ayant este retrouve fut enterre 20 Oct., 1726.

July 19, 1728: The 1st marriage of a Thoreau in the St. He/lier, Jersey parish records, now destroyed, read as follows:

Jaque Taureaux and Marie Quintar.

1729: The 1st Thoreau baptism in the St. He/lier, Jersey parish records:

Jaque, son of Jaque Taureau and Marie Quintar.

1746: Elizabeth Guillet was born to Jaques Guillet and Elizabeth Quintal (or Quintare or Quintore) Guillet, and the infant's godparents were listed in the parish records of St. He/lier as Jaque Thoreau and Marie Quintal his wife, who were that infant's uncle and aunt.

1749: On the Island of Jersey in the English Channel, Philippe Thoreau and Maria Le Galais were wed.

1754: On the island of Jersey in the English Channel, Marie Guillet was born to Jaques Guillet and Elizabeth Quintal (or Quintare or Quintore) Guillet, and the godparents were listed in the parish records of St. He/lier as Jean Perrochon and Marie Thoreau. In about this year, also, the Huguenot couple Philippe Thoreau and Marie Le Galais Thoreau had a baby boy they would have christened as Jean Thoreau.

1755: On the island of Jersey in the English Channel, the French Huguenot couple Philippe Thoreau and Marie Le Galais Thoreau had the other of their two baby boys, the one they would have christened as Pierre Thoreau. This child would become the ancestor of the closest living relative to Henry David Thoreau as of 1971, the Law Lord of England, Sir Herbert Du Parcq, Lord Du Parcq of Grouville, a member of the House of Lords and the Lord Justice of Appeal for England, through Pierre's marriage to Elizabeth Anquetil who would give birth to Pierre Thomas Thoreau who would produce Sophia Thoreau who would marry with Clement du Parcq and give birth to Herbert du Parcq (1880-1949) who would be created a Law Lord.

1773: Jeanne Guillet was born to Samuel Guillet and Marie Thoreau, and the godparents were Philippe Thoreau Junr and Anne Thoreau his sister.

May 3, 1773: Henry David Thoreau's grandfather Jean Thoreau (1754-1801) took the Protestant sacrament in St. He/lier, on the island of Jersey in the English Channel, in preparation for embarking on a privateering voyage that would eventually, after a shipwreck, dump him at Boston Harbor without any intention on his part of going there. Jean's father Philippe Thoreau was a wine merchant on Jersey but by family tradition the Thoreaus had originated either in Tours or in the Poitou-Charentes district of France. (Jean's mother's name was Marie Le Galais.) Some of the Thoreaus married English and it is said one descendant was a military officer. John would begin as a merchant in America on Boston's Long Wharf with one barrel of sugar, and would go privateering again, and eventually would possess a fortune of $25,000.00 and a home on Prince Street -- the American dream!

NOTE: On July 26, 1851 at Cohasset, while going along for the experience of it on a commercial cruise for mackerel, Henry David Thoreau would meet up with a Captain Snow who would be able to remember hearing fishermen say they "fitted out at Thoreau's."

1779: The French tried again to invade Jersey, but unsuccessfully.

1780: Charles William Guillet and his wife Marie, ne/e Thoreau, removed from Richmond near London to the Isle of Jersey.

January 7, 1781: A group of French soldiers landing on Jersey, at high tide but 14 miles from the Normandy mainland, were defeated in a brief but bloody battle in the Royal Square (Le Vier Marchi) outside the Royal Court despite managing to capture the governor and to kill the commander of the British forces, Major Francis Peirson. The French commander, the Baron de Rullecourt, was also killed. News of the battle was read in the London Gazette by John Boydell, an Alderman of the City of London. Boydell had an engraving business at 90 Cheapside in London and knew the American artist John Singleton Copley, who had settled in London and was painting historic subjects. Boydell would influence Copley to make a sort of art of this sort of slaughter, on a heroic canvas now at London's Tate Gallery.

1784: John Singleton Copley's oil of "The Death of Major Peirson" (having to do with a January 7, 1781 incident in which a group of French soldiers had landed on Jersey and been defeated in a brief but bloody battle in the island's Royal Square) was unveiled in London.

1787: The founder of Methodism, the Reverend John Wesley, preached on Jersey.

1795: Daniel Guillet was born to Daniel Guillet and Susanne Thoreau, and his godparents were his grandfather Jean Thoreau and his aunt Marie Anne Guillet.

1796: Suky (or Luky) was born, a son, to Daniel Guillet and Susanne Thoreau. The godparents were Charles William Guillet and Marie Thoreau his wife, the infant’s uncle and aunt.
        The engraving shop of John Boydell in London offered, at four guineas each, copies of a fine engraving of John Singleton Copley's oil "The Death of Major Peirson," having to do with the January 7, 1781 incident in which a group of French soldiers had landed on Jersey and been defeated in a brief but bloody battle in the island's Royal Square.

1797: Charles Guillet was born to Charles William Guillet (1772-1809) and Marie Thoreau, and his godparents were Jean Thoreau and Marie Anne Tantin his wife, the infant's grandparents.

1800: On the island of Jersey in the English Channel, Philippe Thoreau died, in Concord, John Wyman (or Wayman) the potter died.

1801: Charles Guillet was born to Charles William Guillet (1772-1809) and Marie Thoreau, and his godparents were his uncle Jean Thoreau and his aunt Elizabeth Guillet, the widow of Josue/ Gaborel. (Apparently the previous Charles Guillet, born into this family in 1797, had died in infancy?)

June 26, 1801: Marie Le Galais Thoreau, the mother of six daughters and two sons, died.

1802: John Guillet was born to Charles William Guillet (1772-1809) and Marie Thoreau.

1803: George Guillet was born to Charles William Guillet (1772-1809) and Marie Thoreau.

1805: Mary Guillet was born to Charles William Guillet (1772-1809) and Marie Thoreau.

1806: Peter Guillet was born to Charles William Guillet (1772-1809) and Marie Thoreau.

1807: Ann Guillet was born to Charles William Guillet (1772-1809) and Marie Thoreau.

1809: James Guillet was born to Charles William Guillet (1772-1809) and Marie Thoreau.

1850: Jersey became a major center for the building of wooden sailing ships, and a codfish base during the last feeding-frenzy stages of the exploitation of the Grand Banks.

1853: Lillie Langtry, future actress and mistress of King Edward VII, was born a Jersey "bean." [The inhabitants of the island about a hundred miles from the coast of England and, on a clear day, within sight of the French mainland, speaking a native patois known as Jerriais which is a blend of Norman French and Norse, are known today as "Beans." Refer to the recent movie about "Mr. Bean," a contemporary comic character.]

1864: The Harvard Class book described Thoreau in terms of his Jersey ancestry as follows:

David Henry Thoreau died in Concord, Mass., 6 May, 1862, aged 44 years. He was son of John and Cynthia (Dunbar) Thoreau, and was born in Concord, 12 July, 1817. His father, who was a pencil-maker, son of John and Jeannie (Burns) Thoreau, was born in Boston. His grandfather came from St. He/lier, on the Island of Jersey, and was of French origin. A Burns left property in Sterling, Scotland, to his wife, the said Jeannie Burns, and said it was worth attending to; but the papers to obtain it, though three attempts were made, never reached Scotland. This was about fifty years ago. His grandfather had a brother Philip in the Island of Jersey. he was a cooper; but business was dull; and he shipped as a sailor on board a vessel in which John Adams went to France, in the American revolution. He came to this country about 1773. After the termination of the war, he went into business at No. 45, Long Wharf, Boston, in a very small way, in company with a Mr. Phillips, under the firm of Thoreau and Phillips. He accumulated a large property, and removed to Concord, where he died of consumption about one year afterwards, in consequence of a cold caught in patrolling the streets in Boston, in a heavy rain in the night, when a Catholic riot was expected, about 1801. His first wife died not long before he did; and he married a Miss Kettle, of Concord, sometimes spelled Kettell, by whom he had no children. Mr. Thoreau's mother was daughter of Asa and Mary (Jones) Dunbar and was born in Keene, N.H. Her mother belonged to the Jones family of Weston. Her father, Rev. Asa Dunbar (H.C. 1767), was a minister in Salem, and afterwards a lawyer in Keene, an eminent freemason; died 22 June, 1787, aged 42 years, and was buried with masonic honors. . . .

1876: Philippe Thoreau, the last of the Jersey Thoreaus, emigrated to New Zealand.

Summer 1936: Cephas Guillet, descended from Henry Thoreau's great-great-grandparents Pierre Thoreau and Jeanne Servant Thoreau, obtained the assistance of Dean Falle and the Reverend William Stedmond in researching Jersey parish records of births and baptisms between 1714 and 1830. He was, unfortunately, not so successful with the records of St. Savior parish as he was with the records of St. He/lier parish, so some records of Thoreau kindred may well have been missed and would be now unrecoverable due to the WWII occupation. To the best of this investigator's information, the closest living relative to Henry David Thoreau would have been, as of 1971, a second cousin once removed, Sir Herbert Du Parcq, Lord Du Parcq of Grouville, a member of the House of Lords and the Lord Justice of Appeal for England. (During WWII this Law Lord headed the relief for exiled Channel Islanders).
        According to Cephas Guillet's historian relative Edwin C. Guillet's The Guillet-Thoreau Genealogy, a bound volume that had been reproduced from doublespace typescript at the University of Toronto Press in 1971, which I found at the Library of the British museum under accession number X.802/2433 (this 274-page illustrated volume is stamped with a green-ink stamp which the curator of the collection informed me indicates that its status is that of an authorial donation), Henry David Thoreau was not only a "naturalist and philosopher of international prominence" but also a relative of the proud author of said typescript:

It is due to the researches of Cephas Guillet that we have details of the early families, both [Guillet and Thoreau] of whom lived in St. He/lier, Jersey, and besides a common descent, had intermarried at least three times. . . .  Both families were early characterized by non-conformity and independence of spirit, a natural result of their experiences at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685. Numerous books have been written on the life, writings, and philosophy of Thoreau, but this is the first to present the results of research on his ancestry. . . .  Our earliest knowledge is of the Thoreaus, believed to have lived in Poitou [the district of France now known as Poitou-Charentes?] until they fled to Richmond [near London], England in 1685. They were Pierre Thoreau, born about 1675, two sisters Francoise and Marie, and their mother, probably a member of the de la Lesroy family.... A quarter century after the Thoreaus left France, a number of Guillets escaped from France to Jersey. They attached themselves to St. He/lier Parish. . . . Marie married Louis Servant, and Pierre married Jeanne Servant, who was born about 1700 and died a widow in 1742; and three Thoreau-Guillet marriages are also registered, that of Marie Thoreau to Samuel Guillet in 1756, that of Susanne Thoreau to Daniel Guillet in 1794, and that of Charles William Guillet to Marie Thoreau in 1796. These entries indicate that the Thoreaus were in Jersey after the first quarter of the century, and this is substantiated by there being no Thoreau births registered between 1596 and 1724. . . . Henry David Thoreau was the great-great-grandson of Pierre Thoreau and Jeanne Servant, and I am their great-great-great-great grandson . . . the Guillets are his only relatives in America.

1940: Jersey and Guernsey were occupied by German forces. In England a resident of Jersey is known as a "Bean," thus supplying a possible new additional interpretation for Thoreau's remark that he was determined to know beans, so, now let's us know beans shall we? While Jersey was occupied by the Germans during WWII, the only part of Britain occupied, the historian David Cesarani asserts that "co-operation and fraternisation with the Germans was the rule. There were almost no protests against the application of Nazi race laws." Cesarani of course does acknowledge that it would have been difficult for Jersey and Guernsey to resist, but notes that in addition to the wartime collaboration, a government inquiry which describes the widespread unforced collaboration among the Beans was kept secret for forty years since the war--because it conflicts so utterly with the image the government wants to project of a British people heroically resisting Nazism to the last breath. "What happened in the Channel Islands can be seen as an indicator as to how the British would have responded in the event of a successful German invasion," he offers. Had the Germans been able to get across the Channel and occupy part of England itself, "Sadly, the evidence [what happened on Jersey and Guernsey while they were occupied] suggests that there would have been as many collaborators and quislings as in occupied Europe. The Jews [of the English homeland] would have faced the usual forms of persecution and would have received little help." Disturbing, huh? (I note that even today the island's homepages on the Internet sure don't say much about it, other than describing how there was this one little boat with maybe a squad of Germans, and one little pretence of resistance over one little police station.)