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From Humble Beginnings | The Young Captain | Le Lacheur & Co | Costa Rica – The Early Years
Costa Rica – Building a Nation | The Legacy

From Humble Beginnings

Guernsey’s Forest Parish Church Baptism Register reveals that William Le Lacheur was born on 15 October and baptized on 31 October 1802. Christened Guillaume, or William, after his mother’s father Guillaume Allez, William was the third of five children: his eldest sister, Marie, was born in January 1797, Jean [John] in July 1799, Rachel in June 1805 and Judith in April 1808.

Both sides of William’s family had lived in the Guernsey parish of the Forest for many generations. His father, Jean, had lived at l’Epinel before he married Marie Susanne Allez, from La Carrière. It is not known precisely where William was born and brought up.

William’s parents’ families were farmers, but every so often one of them would go to sea, in search of a more adventurous life. His maternal grandfather was a sea captain and is thought to have been a major influence on William’s decision to pursue a career at sea.

William would have been educated for a modest fee, typically a few pennies a week, at the ‘école publique’: the parish school, which stood on the site of the present Forest School. He might have attended school from the age of six to about eleven or twelve, when he would have been considered old enough to work alongside his father, on the farm.

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