Hi Helenna
Have just returned from the Archive Centre and they have confirmed that they have no records for Sion House Academy. I'm told that there were quite a few private schools around this time and they have none of the records.
However I have found out a few things about the school. Sion House is/was also known as Sion Hall and then later it was converted and became the Hotel L'Emeraude. It was only in the past few months that it was purchased by a property developer and is currently being used to house farm workers! I called in at the Societe Jersiaise to see if they had any information and the librarian was actually doing some research on the building for another person. She let me see an unpublished book which had the following comments:
Mr Elias Neel was a very prominent Wesleyan Methodist who had conducted a very successful private school at Sion House in the parish of St Saviour since 1825. ("Chronique de Jersey, December 10 1831"). He had been elected a Jurat on November 24, 1860 ("B.S.J., viii, P.353") and consequently not much time was lost on his being a member of the assembly.
The librarian also pointed me to a web-site called:
www.reg-garden.com/about_reg.htmWhilst this all about a garden in Jersey, the references to Reg's life show that his grandparents lived at Sion Hall and the pictures are taken in the front of the house. See those pictures of a house with pillars. If you want to know more detailed information it might be worth getting in touch with the librarian on 01534 758314 or look at their web-site. There are also pictures of Sion Hall to be found:
www.societe-jersiaise.orgAs regards Henry Grahame Montagu, what led you to Jersey? I can see in the 1891 census a man of the same name living in Walcott Somerset having been born 1839 in Canterbury. Would that be the same one?
Stewart