Clays of Seine et Marne

The Clays of Seine et Marne

Some 8 miles from Claye - Souilly is Meaux and near Beverly in Yorkshire, where we have a hotbed of riotous Clay's there is also a Meaux. In the book, The Norman people and their existing descendants, printed in 1874 it states that the surname Clay came from there. However the earliest Clay they quote is 1199 and we now have much earler examples.

Baines, History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County of York states that William the Conqueror gave the Meaux Lordship to Gamel, who was born at Meaux in what is modern day France, a name he gave to the Holderness settlement which he populated with his own people. However, the Domesday Book records that in 1066 Ulf Fenman held the lordship, this transferring in 1086 to Drogo de la Breuvire who was also Tenant in chief to William I. Meaux is recorded in the Domesday Book as "Melse". At the time of the survey the settlement was in the middle hundred of Holderness in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Meaux contained 29 villagers, 5 smallholders, 6 freemen, and 4 men at arms.  There were 53 ploughlands, woodland, and 274 acres (111 hectares) of meadow.

From the History Books

The Archives de Seinne et Marne 

page 182

Sale before Adam, official of Meaux, at the Saint-Lazare maladrerie by Raoul de Saint-Soupplets, knight, of 3 arpents 70 perches of land near the Couture of Saint-Lazare, for 28 pounds; another sale by Bodin de Saint-Soupplets, of his rights in a meadow neighboring the Grange de Saint-Ladre, for 6 pounds; - treaty passed before Pierre de Cuisy, by which Simon de Saint-Soupplets, knight, gives to the brothers of Saint-Lazare, to pay them a sum of 47 pounds that he owes them, 100 sous and 3 muids of wheat valued at 3 pounds, all to be taken from his land in the said place; transfer before the 

pofficial of Meaux by Guillaume de Compans, knight, to the same brothers, of his right of champart on 14 acres of land, for 20 pounds 5 sous; donation to the said brothers by Guérin de Saint-Soupplets, leper, of 2 1/2 acres of land and approximately 3 quarters of meadow in front of the house of Saint-Lazare, in Saint-Soupplets; with subsequent amortization by Marie, wife of Simon, and Miss Eustache, widow of Raoul; donation of a third of 7 quarters of precinct in Saint-Soupplets and sale of the surplus, by Guillaume de Claye and Pierre Chapillart, to the maladrerie of Saint-Lazare. 1273

page 116

passed under the seal of Geoffroy de Tressy, bishop of Meaux, by: Raoul Le François, knight; Mathieu de Vinantes; Barthélemy, his brother; Jean de Claye and Luciane, his wife, of the donation of 10 acres of land made to the Hôtel-Dieu in Meaux, by Maunorriz de Vinantes, Bonnefille, his mother, and Comitissa, his sister; the said amortization also bearing a donation to the establishment, by Raoul Le François and Comtesse, his wife, of 8 other acres of land located in Monthyon.1274

page 108

the town of champouplier, abandoned children were usually left in the square in front of the Notre-Dame church, and it was customary, in the Middle Ages, to give alms to the children found to help with their care and upkeep. It is the will of Jean den Clefs, Chancine in 1348, which tells us this.

Inventaire des archives  Ancienne du Chateau Chantilly

page 188

Register of taxes and rents collected by Jean de Claye, squire, because of his fief of Maincourt in Longperrier, from 1397 to 1410. 

In 1388, Colard de la Clyte, knight, lord of Comines, held the property that a bourgeois of this town, named Simon Claye, had abandoned and which Marie known as Stassin claimed by right of inheritance. The Governance of Lille had recognized the good rights of the said Marie and ordered that the property in dispute would be returned to her by the lord and his bailiff.

Memoires de la Societe Edunne

page 63

On September 25, 1418, as we saw above, the child on whose head would later accumulate so many profitable profits, had preluded his advantageous career by collecting a vacant possession in Saint-Quiriace de Provins by ' The death occurred the very day before of Mr. Jean Chevrier, who had succeeded Mossire Jacques Claye, who died on June 13, 1418.