Clazie from France?

[heiserca]

First known record of the Clazie name in the UK was at Hutton, Berwickshire, 1665.  Records at Berwick-upon-Tweed, starting 1680, showed Clasie, Clasey, later Clazey, Clazy, Cleasie, Clezie, Clezy.

Now an earlier record, on FamilySearch, this one from France!
name:  Chaterine
gender:  Female
baptism/christening date:  9 Jan 1656
baptism/christening place:  Bram, Aude, France 
death date:  14 Oct 1667
father’s name:  Jean Jardel
mother’s name:  Jeane Clazie
 
Bram is a village in southern France, just 90 km / 55 miles from Spain.  The border wasn’t always there but other borders existed.  And the English Channel too! 

If the Clazie name originated in southern France, how did it get to Berwick and Berwickshire? 

Let the wild speculation start...

[heiserca]

What?  Nobody dares to guess?  Well, let me start the ball rolling...

We have the Clazie name in France, 1656, and then in Scotland, 1665 - just 9 years later! 

One theory is that they were Huguenots, French Protestants who fled because of religious persecution.  We know that Huguenots came as refugees to England, and to Scotland.  Some went as far away as South Africa! 

RootsChat has a string of posts about Huguenots in the UK.  Is there actual evidence of Huguenot families who settled at Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in Berwickshire?


 

[Sunlaws]

Hi

The Berwickshire Naturalists' Club has been discussing the history and natural history of Berwick and Berwickshire since its formation in 1831. There are two indices to its journals, covering 1831-1931, and 1932-1980, but there is not a single mention in either index of Huguenots, so I think it's safe to say there has never been a significant Huguenot presence in Berwick/Berwickshire as the Berwickshire Nats leave few stones unturned!

However, that doesn't rule out an individual family settling there for some reason.
(I also checked the indices for the Clazie name, but drew a blank)

Regards,
Lesley

[heiserca]

Thank you, Lesley.  It could indeed have been an individual thing, rather than clusters of families. 

It is known that French Protestants joined Scottish military regiments to fight against the Jacobites.  And then in 1777, Margaret Palen or Paulin, from Hutton, married John Claise or Clezy, who was described as "a member of His Majesty's Royal Artillery stationed at Edinburgh." 
 
Paulin and Clazie are seemingly French names.  How to explain them popping up in Berwickshire?  So much is obscure as we get farther back in history.





 

[heiserca]

Need to correct myself:  "At the time of his marriage to Margaret Paulin on 15 Sep 1777 he stated that he was attached to His Majesty’s Corps of Artillery at Perth."

How did Margaret from Hutton meet a military man from Perth?

[heiserca]

Lesley, interesting that you mentioned the “History of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club”.  It was our first tipoff to the Clazie presence in Berwickshire! 

Volume 7 described renovations to Hutton kirk during the 17th century, and quoted from the Kirk Session Book:

“19 March 1685 - "Given to Jon Clazie for drink qn the bell came home - 16 sh." 

That confirms the Clazie presence in Berwickshire by 1685!  But where did they come from, and when?

[heiserca]

Typographical error... the entry in the Hutton Kirk Session Book was “19 March 1665 not 1685.  Clazies have been in Berwickshire at least since 1665.

[richarde1979]

I'm struggling to find a mention of any such family in the records of the Huguenot Society, though interestingly there is a mention of four men, Cornlieus, John, Anthony and Nicolas, by the surname 'Clase', all Dutch Fishermen from Zeeland, settled each with their respective wives in Great Yarmouth in the 1570's. Of course Berwick also sits almost opposite Zeeland, so it's a possibility, perhaps more likely than Huguenots treking all the way there from South of France.

It was in fact relatively uncommon for refugees from that part of France to flee, because numerically they were strong enough to hold their own ground there, and far enough away from Paris and the seat of centralised power to contemplate and actively do so (See the Camisard War for example). Those who did flee would much more likely flee across to Geneva, which as the base of Calvin himself, was effectively the base of the French Huguenots, a safe haven amongst their co religionists and  a much more desirable place to reach then England or Scotland. Something like 90% of all Huguenots in England were from Northern France, in particular Normandy, Poitou or Picardy.

[heiserca]

Thank you, richarde.  How then to explain this seemingly French name in Berwick and Berwickshire? 

Records at Colchester, Essex showed families with surnames Claise, Clayse, Clayce as early as 1564, and clearly identified those families as "French Protestants".

Baptisms at Berwick-upon-Tweed showed surnames Clasie and Clasey, starting in 1666, with no indication of where the names came from, whether native or otherwise.

The Clazie spelling has been found in two separate spots, and not elsewhere: 1656 at Bram, in southern France, and 1665 at Hutton, Berwickshire.  The name is unusual and seems unlikely to have arisen spontaneously in two separate spots.  How might they be connected?