Clezy, Clezie connections

[lapun]

'Now in Remission - A Surgical Life' is Ken Clezy's memoirs, just published by Wakefield Press.   Three chapters about recent 6 years in Yemen, but most is about time in Papua New Guinea, plus some family history and upbringing.  Book Depository say they will have it from Oct 31. How they send books all over the world post-free beats me, but they do.  They have an email link to allow notification as soon as it is available.

[heiserca]

Apologies - I was too hasty and copied the last item in the Chirnside inscription wrong.  James Clazey or Clazie was born in 1802, so when he died on 8 Dec 1860 he was aged 58 years, not 88.  That is a big difference.

[LowrieT]

Sorry I didn't see you when you were over.  I live in Greenlaw so would have enjoyed meeting a Clazy relative.   I must go and look for the Clazey headstone in Chirnside. 

[heiserca]

I encourage you to go and see the stone at Chirnside.  A historical treasure!  It really makes the point that correct spelling is a modern concept.  Our ancestors wrote the name however it sounded to them - Claisey, Claizey, Clazey, Clazie, Clazy, Clezie, Clezy, Clisy, Clizzee.  They never imagined that we, their descendants, would dare to criticize their spelling. 

It would have been a pleasure to meet more cousins.   Paul Fergie, a descendant of Mary Sheriff Edwards Clazie, was my guide and chauffeur.  Highlights of our trip were:

 - Hutton Kirk, where volunteer guides led us up steep, shaky ladders into the belfry, to see and photograph the Flemish bell that Jon Clazie delivered in 1665.  We were even allowed to pull the rope, to ring the bell.  A thrilling, happy memory!

- Coldstream Bridge, where it is believed Agnes Middlemist and George Claisye wed on 2 June 1751, now 260 years ago.

- The National Archives of Scotland, where we found and made copies of dozens of birth, marriage and death certificates, even the Kirk Session Book of Hutton Parish, dated 1665, that recorded payment of 16 shillings to Jon Clazie "for drink", when he delivered the bell.


 

[fleck02]

Hi, this is the first time that I have read these posts. I am writing a book on the history of the STEELE family in South Australia, and for those who know, the CLEZY family are heavily intertwined. I met Peter Clezy a number of years ago who gave me verbal permission to use information from his book (which I have) to my book. Someone has a copy of one of my printouts (265 pages long). I would be really interested in talking with people who are related to John CLEZY. I have been researching him since 1993, the book is due to be published really soon.

[lapun]

I'm Ken Clezy, an eldest son, living in Adelaide now.   If you look us up in the phone book under Clezy JKA you'll find me. I'd be very pleased to see you.  My own memoirs have just been published by Wakefield Press, who tell me l'm their fastest selling author right now, whatever that means.

[heiserca]

A website has a list of the clients of notaries in Paris, 300 years ago, now of only historical interest.  Notaries handled legal matters, wills and estates, marriage contracts, property sales.  Among the names:

CLEZIÈ, Claude fourbisseur privilégié du roi x ROLLAND, Anne veuve, 20/05/1732

CLEZIE, Geneviève Emmanuelle x SORET, Pierre Etienne me-tonnelier, 22/06/1790 , le mari défunt.

CLEZIE, Hélène Théodore x DEDOYARD, Henri Joseph compagnon orfèvre, 22/06/1790 , épouse delaissée.

CLEZIE, Pierre Eustache me-fourbisseur x PARIGUET, Jeanne, 22/06/1790, tous deux défunts, parents des dames SORET et DEDOYARD.

(A supplier to the king married a widow; a woman married a widower, who made barrels; another woman married a goldsmith, who was deserted by his first wife.  The final entry was a married couple, both deceased, with two daughters.)

The relevance is, it indicates that the surname was French, yet was found at Hutton and Berwick-upon-Tweed as early as the 1600s.   

Paulin is another clearly French name, found in very early records at Ladykirk and elsewhere, sometimes written Palen, Palin, Paline.

How to explain these French surnames in Berwickshire?

[hdw]

I recently discovered an ancestor in Kelso with the surname Companion, and although the name seems to have disappeared from Scotland, it is current in French-speaking Canada, while the original French form Compagnon is still common in both Canada and France. Another Berwickshire name of French origin is Dippie, which seems to come from Dieppe. Of course, many old Scottish surnames derive from Frenchmen and Bretons who were given land in Scotland from the 12th century onwards, but in modern times there can be a variety of reasons for French people settling here. My home town in Fife is a former fishing village and in the 19th century families from Boulogne called Montador and Gen settled there. An Elisabeth Lecadit who shows up in the 19th century censuses of my home town was the daughter of a perfumer/hairdresser who shows up in the Edinburgh Register of Aliens.

One thing I can promise you - tracing a French or other foreign ancestor in Scotland will provide a fascinating research topic for you!

Harry

[heiserca]

An amusing incident was recorded at Hutton, 1665.  The kirk was being renovated.  Donations were solicited from wealthy patrons and the poor congregation, to buy a bell. 

Bells seem to have been imported in quantity, from the Burgerhuys foundry in Flanders.  When the Hutton bell was ready, Jon Clazie was sent bring it to town, maybe from Berwick-upon-Tweed.  I imagine him in a cart, pulled by a horse, mule or ox.

On 19 March 1665, the Hutton kirk session book recorded this payment:

"Given to Jon Clazie for drink qn the bell came home - 16 sh." 

This is our first record of the Clazie family at Hutton.  Jon Clazie is otherwise unknown.  His birth, marriage and death, not yet found.   

Then come scattered events at Hutton, with a variety of spellings:
1704 - Marriage of William Clasey & Catharin Scougal, baptism of their son, William Clasie
1706 - Baptism of Elizabeth Clasie, daughter of William & Catharin above
1717 - Birth of Katherine Claise, daughter of William & Catharin above
1734 - Marriage of Elizabeth Clasie & James Friskin
1777 - Marriage of John Clazie & Margaret Palen (Paulin)
1786 - Baptism of George Clazy, son of William Claise & Isabel Thomson
1787 - Baptism of George Clezie, son of James Clezie & Helen Kerr
1795 - Baptism of Margaret Clazy, daughter of George Clazy & Agnes Alexander

Ignore the spelling differences - they seem to be one extended family, all related.  How can we bridge the gaps, to link Jon Clazie in 1665 with these later family events?