Maria Couteau 1
born circa 1659, Soudiere in the Dauphine 2
died 1 April 1718 3
will dated 18 December 1717 | | Notes: | Her place of birth was given in her will as Soudiere in Dauphine.
Maurice Boucher, in his book French Speakers at the Cape, 1981,
describes this as 'an inaccurate transcription in the Dutch East
India Company Records' but the place name is as written down by
the notary Jan Mahieu, presumably writing down what he heard
from the lips of Marie Couteau herself as she lay on her sick bed
in her house in Drakenstein that afternoon in January 1709, when
she and her husband made their joint will. One assumes it was
rather a mishearing - spoken d and b are easily confused.
Boucher suggests that it was most likley 'Soubiera, the old form
of the modern Soubeyran, near Crest in the strongly Calvinist
Drôme valley region ... north-west of Valdrôme.
Marie Coutau made a later will on 18th Decmber 1717 when she is
described as the widow of Pieter Lombart and once again sick.
She died possibly in 1718 for, although this will, number 97, contains
no filing date, the wills filed on either side of it were made in 1718
and therefore cannot have been filed earlier than 1718 and will
number 123 in the same file was filed in June 1720.
C.G.Botha, in French Refugees, states that she died 1st April, 1718
but does not give a source for this information.
LOMBARD. Pierre Lombard of Pontaix
in Dauphine and his wife Marie Couteau
(listed here as Contaux) were at Frankfurt in
November 1687. They were accompanied by
a child and by Pierre’s sister Madeleine
{Magdelaine). There is no mention of the
mother Eve mentioned in Dutch records, but
the Lombards were evidently travelling with
a member of the wife’s family, Barthelemy
Couteau, and his four children. The
Couteaus came from La Chaudiere South of
Pontaix, from which place the brothers
Daniel and Pierre Couteau, wool carders,
reached Frankfurt in September 1687. The
Lombards and Barthelemy Couteau brought
attestations from Morges, the Swiss town on
Lake Geneva, that they were in good standing
with the Reformed Church.
(FRANKFURT AM MAIN AND THE CAPE REFUGEES
M. Boucher, IN HUGUENOT SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA
BULLETIN 19, 1981, page 12) |
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