La Manie des sobriquets: late 18th century nicknames
From Edith Carey's Scrapbooks, Vol. I.; the Lukis MSS.
The simplicity of manners, the early habits of the people, the frequent intercourse, whether on business or on other affairs, produced a familiarity tho’ respected between all families.
Nicknames were than common amongst all, independent of the familiar Dick for Richard, Bob or Bab for Robert, Bill for William, Jack for John; but from other sources, which may have arisen through some accident or peculiarity. Thus Monsieur Andrew Bonamy, pour his loud singing in church was known as Le Brailleur [The Bellower]. Thomas Le Marchant as Tom Sticks, 'Frayeur de la Mort [Fear of death].' Peter Dobrée: the Cardinal. Nicholas Mainguy: Le Misère (Uncle Misery). Mme Charlotte Champion:¹ La Crôteuse [Pock-marked]. Mme John Champion: La Trollope. Peter M. Mainguy: Penno. Nicholas Mainguy: Le Marquis et Comte de Dresden. J. La Serre Sen.: La Perruque naturelle (in the picture above, judge for yourself about his 'native wig'). Jean Allez: La Petite Cue [The Wee Pigtail]. George Corbin: Mahomet. Nicolas Mainguy of Havelet: God Bless Me! Sabre de Bois!! [Wooden sword!!] Peter Mainguy: Fox. Captain P. Mainguy (his son): Blue Peter. John Le Cocq: Patch. John Tupper (who married Miss de Havilland): Bandbox. Capt. Helier Gosselin of the Pierre Percée: Le Turpin (he was a privateer)². Louis Gallienne: All’s well. Then the names of the estates which they occupied were applied to them. Monsieur St George; des Touillets; des Piques; Mon Plaisir; Les Capelles; Les Caches; Groignet. Thomas Tupper (half-brother to Bandbox): Half Crown Tupper.
¹ Lukis notes: 'Mme Champion, who married John Champion, was a Miss Carey (last of the Careys of Blanchelande), Major Champion, their son, was killed by his sentry. James Champion married Miss Perkins.' Mary Charlotte Carey, daughter of William Carey and Elizabeth de Jersey, married John Champion in 1787 as his second wife. A miniature said to be of her very much resembles the miniature that the Library knows as a portrait of Mary Mourant, wife of Henry Frederick Brock. She had a daughter, Charlotte Flick Champion. Charlotte La Serre married Joseph Champion, a customs official. She ran an emporium in St Peter Port. Crôteuse means scabby or crusty, spelt craouteuse in Guernsey French, and came to mean pock-marked.
² "Captain Helier Gosselin, son of Monsieur Jean Gosselin, born 4 March 1756, was the able and successful commander of a Privateer. During the American War he once aided in the defence of a seaside town where, with some of his crew and some guns, he threw himself into a place threatened by the rebels and helped the weak garrison to make a successful defence. On his retirement he lived at La Pierre Percée and became Colonel of the Guernsey Militia Artillery, which he so improved that he was offered a commission in the Regular Army. By his third wife, Eliza, daughter of Mr John de Havilland, he became the father of an only daughter, Marie Mauger Gosselin, who married in 1815 Mr Thomas Utermarck and was the mother of John de Havilland Utermarck, Bailiff of Guernsey. EFC[arey]." See TransactionsSocGuern, 'Extracts from the Diary of Elisha Dobrée', p. 510 for 1779.
See also 'Nicknames', Quarterly Review of the Guernsey Society, Summer 1962, XVIII (2) p. 31; the Mauger family nicknames.