The will of Suzanne L'Homme, 1668
Transcribed by Edith Carey from the original (copy on film in the Library) into her Wills and Legacies notebook (41).
I, Suzanne L'Homme, widow of Jean Martin of St Peter Port, sick and weak in body. First, to the poor of the Town, three Spanish pieces of eight. Item, to Nicolas Martin my father-in-law, £36, 10 sols tournois. Item the same to his son Nicolas Martin. Item the same sum to the wife of the said Nicolas Martin junior, and as much again to their [grand-]daughter. Item to Marie Martin daughter of Jean of St Peter Port my best flannel petticoat, and two pairs of sheets, of her choosing. Item to Elizabeth Tremaillier wife of Jean Pezet a golden Spanish pistole.1 Item to Elizabeth Flaire [Flère] and her son Philippe one half of the boat that my husband gave me, fully equipped. Item to Thomas Le Mesurier junr. son of Sieur Thomas Le Mesurier of the Town, one of my gold rings. Item to the son of Sieur William Dobrée, another of my gold rings, and the son of the said Sieur Dobrée to have the choice of them. Item to Pierre Tourgis junr. son of the late Pierre Tourgis, my new bed I sleep in together with a bolster, two pillows, a quilt2 and two pairs of sheets. Item to my sister Elizabeth Martin daughter of Jean du Four, my mohair petticoat. As for the rest of my belongings, including the other half of the boat and its equipment, I give them to .... the four sons of the above-mentioned Tourgis, that is to say, Pierre, George, Robert, and Matthew Tourgis, to be shared amongst them equally and without quarrelling. And I request that the abovementioned Sieur Le Mesurier Senior be my executor. 5th January 1668.
Signed Josué Tramelier (witness); Andre Simon (witness). Registered 6th June 1669.
1 'Demie quadruple d'or d'Espagne,' literally 'half a golden Spanish double pistole,' which may or may not be quite the same thing!
2 She uses the Guernsey French word cadot [Marie de Garis, Dictionary &c., cados, m., counterpane, quilt; Pierre Mollet in his Commonplace Book 'cadau= Housse de Lit']. George Métivier gives a related meaning for the word, as part of his description of a typical medieval Guernseyman's clothing:
Le Cadâu [he gives the derivation as from the Celtic, meaning a covering or defence,] the chief article of a Guernseyman's winter costume, exactly resembled both in name and form, the primitive Irish mantle. Generally composed of wool, or of a kind of shag-rug bordered with fur, it descended in ample folds till it reached the heels. A surface of such extraordinary dimensions might have exposed the wearer to some inconvenience in stormy weather; but our fathers, no novices in the art of cloak-wearing, knew how to furl and unfurl this magnificent wrapper, and suit its folds and plaits to all changes of the season. In the first Charles' reign, the Jersey farmers, who still 'bartered the surplusage of their corn with the Spanish merchants at St Malo's,' were far better acquainted with that long-robed nation than we can now pretend to be. [From Sarnia's Calendar, No. 6.]