Some 3700 miles of the Atlantic Ocean separate Jersey from Gaspé in Quebec, Canada. But in 1843 this didn’t deter 29 year old Thomas Le Page from leaving his island home of Jersey to head across the pond to Gaspé. His incentive was to avoid the embarrassment of bankruptcy.

In a quest for a new life, Thomas left his wife and children to claim 110 acres of land just inland at Malbaie, an area already saturated by fellow Jerseymen all keen to cash in on the new and exciting cod fishing industry that had grown from strength to strength over the previous ten years. He, as many others had before him, built a traditional four bedroom Jersey home which still stands today.

Two years later his wife and four children joined him to help with a life of farming and fishing. Tragically, Thomas drowned off the coast of Gaspé but in true Jersey tradition left the farm to his son, Thomas David, and so life went on.

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