A Channel Islander, Daniel Dumaresq was the fifth of 11 children of Jurat Elie Dumaresq, Seigneur of Augres, and Elizabeth, daughter of Jean de Carteret of Vinchelez de Haut. He studied for six years at Pembroke College, Oxford, before being elected in 1740 to a Jersey Fellowship at Exeter College. Taking orders in 1744, he acted as curate to Merton parish, whose patronage the college held (1). From June 1746 he was curate at St Andrew Undershaft, London, under Dr William Berriman, the Boyle Lecturer in 1731. Then, on 24 July 1747, he was appointed Chaplain to the English Factory at St Petersburg upon the recommendation of John Carteret, the Earl of Granville (2). FIRST PERIOD IN RUSSIA (1747-1762) In Dumaresq’s case, it is as well to know what his motivating principles were at the outset. H e himself characterized them 53 years later when presenting his library to Jersey. To quote: From the time I became, in any degree sensible of the Benefit and Pleasure of acquiring useful Knowledge, I was ever desirous and ready to encourage and assist others in the Pursuit of it. This I practised at School, at the University, and in other Places; particularly in Russia, where the Sphere of action was immense; in a vast Country, gradually emerging from Barbarism and gross Ignorance. Mindful of the noble Saying: Homo sum ; Humani nihil a me alienum puto , and considering myself as a Citizen of the World , on whatever Part of it the Divine Providence should place me, I thought it incumbent upon me to study the Good of those [among] whom it was assigned me to dwell (3).