17th century

I, Jean Vautier being sound of body [but] being of a profession in which I often fnd myself in danger of death because of storms at sea ... Firstly, to the poor of St Peter Port, 20 sous tournois. Item . To my two sisters, Marie and Elizabeth, 10 sous each and as for the remainder: to my beloved wife Catherine Le Poitevin for her to live the rest of her life in the house and land that I own at Fermain, in right of my mother, Marie Le Chevalier [La Chevaliere]. Drawn up at St Peter Port 9 May 1699. Jean Patron, witness, William de Putron, witness. IGBD   Reg: 4 May 1703

No. 9 in Edith Carey's Wills and Legacies 1

Translation from the French transcribed by Edith Carey in her Sark notebook in the Priaulx Library.

From An Account of the Island of Jersey, with An Appendix of Records &c. (1694), to which are added, Notes and Illustrations, by the Reverend Edward Durell, MA, Rector of St Saviour, Jersey. Jersey: Richard Giffard, 1837.

It took four years and several appearances in Court for Thomas Tramallier (III) to force Pierre Carey to hand over papers concerning Thomas' grandfather, Thomas Tramallier Senior's (I) estate. Carey's wife was Thomas (I)'s cousin, the daughter of his uncle, the late William Tramallier, and an heir to her father's estate. William had been appointed Thomas Tramallier (II)'s guardian, and Carey had come into possession of the relevant papers on William's death. Carey was fined several times for non-appearance in Court; the Court had delayed sittings at his request, and grew noticeably exasperated. Eventually, on the 12 February 1719, Carey produced a set of books and documents before them. Thomas (II) had appointed his son to act for him.  These documents are listed and bound in a ledger entitled Copie de l'Inventaire de partie des Ecrits de la Succession du Sr Thomas Tramalier. 1715. [Note: the surname is written several ways in various documents: Tramallier, Tramailler, Tramaillier, even Tramalier.]

Transcribed by De Guérin in one of his black-bound notebooks (Staff): 'Various MSS 1500-1606.'

More exceptionally interesting 17th-century observations from Elie Brevint. Brevint (1587-1674) was minister of Sark from 1612. His father Cosmé, also a minister, was a Huguenot refugee from Angoulême who had accompanied Helier De Carteret from Jersey in his colonisation of Sark. Transcriptions and microfilm of Elie's 14 Notebooks, which were found in a loft in Sark in the 19th century, are held in the Priaulx Library. They are written in French. The picture above is a detail from Boethius, In philosophia consolationem, Strasbourg 1501, one of the rare books in the Library’s collection.

From Edith Carey's Wills and Legacies, a MS transcription of early Guernsey wills from the Ecclesiastical Court records, p 112.

From Edith Carey's transcription Wills and Legacies I, nos 154 and 159.

A list of the nearly 200 wills dating from 1663-1707, transcribed and annotated by Edith Carey in 1916 in her notebook, Wills and legacies I & II, in the Staff collection at at the Library.