The Brassier de Jocas Family, part 2

Posted By: Charles Brashear

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Subject: The Brassier de Jocas Family, part 2

Post Date: January 03, 2005 at 12:04:17

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Part 2 of The Brassier de Jocas Family, by Charles Brashear:

       b-3. Jean Brassier, II, born between 1465 and 1477, son of Jean de
Brassier de Jocas and Isabelle de Ricci, second of the name, continued the
posterity; married by contract, 12 Feb 1495, before Martial Boneti, Notary at
Carpentras, in the house of Perrin Bertrand, father of Etiene Bertrand,
Catherine de Bellesmanierres, daughter of Thomas Bellesmanierres, Lord
(Seigneur) d’Eiguines of the diocese of Uzés, and Dauphine Audigier.
       Jean Brassier entered a legal process against his brother-in-law, Louis de
Bellesmanieres, for the payment of 350 écus of gold, legacy from his mother-in-
law, Dauphine Audigier. Jean Ferrier, Archbishop of Arles and independent
Lord of Montdragon passed his judgement on the issue, 3 August 1513, and
ordered Lambert Gressier to carry it out.
       On 2 Jan 1521, before Isnard Jay, Notary at Pernes, Jean divided with
his nephew, Andre, the property (titre & beins) accruing from the succession of
his father and mother, and his brother, the “other” Jean de Brassier. He made
his will 28 Jun 1537, before Pierre Corneti, Notary at Pernes, in which he made
his oldest sons (fils ainé), Antoine and Barthelemy, universal legatees.
       Does that “oldest sons” phrase mean that he had other son(s), who were
being disinherited? See discussion later.
c1. Antoine de Brassier, a Priest, who was legatee of his father. In addition,
Antoine received a patrimony, 28 Jan 1524.
c2. Barthelemy Brassier-de Jocas, b. c1515, Pernes, France, d. c1556; m.
1548, Esprit Choicelat, daughter of Thomas Choicelat and Jeanne de
Avignon. Barthelemy was the first to join “de Jocas” as part of the
surname, rather than an identification of residence, and passed it to the
posterity. On 22 Dec 1556, Barthelemy made a will before Gaspar
Anglézi, Notary at Pernes, naming an only son, Esprit, whose
guardianship was refused by the widow and by cousin, Andre (on
grounds of very old age). On 23 March 1557, the magistrates called a
procedural conference to inventory the holdings (titres & biens) of the
Brassier de Jocas family, and did so on the following 28 September.
       d1. Esprit Brassier-de Jocas, b. c1550, Pernes, France; d. c1592,
Pernes; married by contract before Boniface Grossi, Notary at
Pernes, 25 Nov 1574, Francoise de Jarente de Maulsang , b.
c1553, Pernes, daughter of Francois Jarente de Maulsang and
Anne de Cabassole, of the City of Pernes. Francois was a son of
Antoine de Maulsang, and a nephew of Antoinette de Maulsang,
first wife of Jean Brassier de Jocas. On 3 February 1576, Esprit
received 2801 florins, a gift from his mother, at le chateau de
Marsan, before Pierre Arnaud, Notary of Pernes. He made his
testament at the Cloister de Chanoines Réguliers de Notre-Dame
du Grez, at Carpentras, before Pierre Arnaud, Notary of Pernes, 28
February 1592.
              e1. *Allemand Brassier de Jocas, whose line follows, below.
              e2. Francois Brassier de Jocas, called Knight (Sieur) of the
Sauvage, married by contract, 14 Oct 1602, Anne
d’Ambrun, daughter of Jean d’Ambrun and Gabrielle
Joaniss, of Caromb, diocese of Carpentras, by whom he had
only one dau.
                     f1. Catherine Brassier, m. about 1620, Guillaume de
Blégiers, Lord (Seigneur de) Pierre-Grosse of the City of
Vaison. Guillaume de Blégiers was a grand-nephew of
Hugette de Grignan, second wife of Jean Brassier de
Jocas.
              e2. Gaspard Brassier de Jocas, Canon of the metropolis of
Avignon, who made a will 10 April 1638, before Etiene
Mazellie, Notary of Avignon, naming a nephew, Pierre
Brassier de Jocas, his heir.
              e3. Thomas Brassier de Jocas, d. without posterity.
              e4. Marquerite Brassier de Jocas, married 20 June 1601,
Théodore de Sainte-Marie.

       e1. Allemand Brassier de Jocas, b. c1575, Pernes, d. c1623 at Pernes;
married by contract, 18 Jun 1594, before Pierre Arnaud, Notary at Pernes,
Madeléne de Cheilus, b. Pernes, daughter of Jean de Cheilus, of Pernes, and
Louise Allemand de Chateauneuf.
       Gaspar de Fourgasse, Seigneur (Lord) de Grugieres and Louise
d’Allemand, his wife, made some admission or confession about a house in
Pernes, before Jean Giberti, Notary of Pernes, on 18 February 1611. The
French of this transaction totally baffled me. But I understand that one can
look it up, even get a copy, via the name of the Notary and the date. Then you
would have even more baffling French. I leave it to someone who knows.
       Allemand Brassier de Jocas made his testament before Benoît Perroqueti,
Notary at Pernes, on 12 Sept 1623, naming the five children below. I’m
guessing that he began having children c1595, the year after he was married
and they were spaced out by two or three years, with some gaps for still-born
children and infant deaths.
f1. Francois Brassier de Jocas, probably born about 1595, killed Sept 1621, at
seige of Montauban, where he fought as a volunteer in the company of
Marquis de Thor.
f2. *Pierre Brassier de Jocas, born about? 1597-98 (I’m guessing), who
continued the posterity,
f3. Catherine Brassier de Jocas, m. 1621 Gaspar du Pont du Bourg de
Thor, in Comté-Venaissin
f4. Catherine-Marie Brassier de Jocas, nun in the monastery of Saint George,
in Avignon, in 1615.
f5. Marguerite Brassier de Jocas, nun in Order of Bernardines, Abbey of La
Madeléne at Carpentras, in 1633.

       f2. Pierre Brassier de Jocas, son of Allemand Brassier de Jocas and
Madeléne de Cheilus, born about? 1597-98 (I’m guessing), married by
contract17 Nov 1649, before Felix d’Elbéne, Notary at Avignon, Marguerite
Teste, daughter of Gabriel Teste and Marguerite Silvestre de Marignagne.
Pierre Brassier de Jocas made his testament 14 May 1652, before Benoît
Perroqueti, Notary at Pernes; he names four children.
       NOTE and QUESTION: There must be something wrong with the dates.
Would he wait until he was past 50 to marry and then have four children
between Nov 1649 and May 1652? Maybe he was married earlier to the mother
of his children?
       g1. *Gabriel Brassier de Jocas, who follows later;
       g2. Louise Brassier de Jocas; married in the presence of her bother, 28
Jan 1678, Louis Francois des Henriques, of an old family from
Venaissin.
       g3. Catherine Brassier de Jocas; m. 1681, Barthelemy de Gardane.
       g4. Marguerite Brassier de Jocas, an Ursuline nun at Pernes.

       Up to this point, the generation of Pierre Brassier de Jocas, with the
exception of the phantom “younger sons” of Jean Brassier, II and Catherine de
Bellesmanierres, there has been only one male heir per generation. That is,
those “younger sons” are the only chance for a branch or corollary family to
have descendants. There are no other families of de Brassier unaccounted for,
who could have furnished a renegade, Huguenot Brasseur.
       In some charts, Allemand Brassier de Jocas is listed as a possible parent
of Benois Brasseur (our Huguenot ancestor in America), but we can now
document that Benois’ father was named Robert Brasseur, who was born about
the same time as Pierre Brassier de Jocas, Allemand’s son. Robert and Benois
Brasseur arrived in Virginia about 1635, when Robert had seven children, the
oldest being Benois. Within a generations Brasseur had become Brashear.
       One could be relatively sure that Allemand, with a brother who was
Canon of Avignon, two daughters who were nuns, and a son who died in a
religious war, would not recognize any Huguenot (i.e. Protestant) children— if
he had any. I continue to think these are two, quite distinct families and that
Peter Brashear was simply lying when he changed the names in American
records from Brasseur to de Brassier.
       The names that run in the Brasseur family are Benois (Benjamin),
Robert, John (Jean), Samuel, a quite different set of names from what run in
the de Brassier de Jocas family. However, there is one name (other than Jean)
that the two families share, and that is Maurice. See discussion later.

       But, suppose some “younger son” had embraced Calvinism— that is,
became a Huguenot. He would surely have been disinherited, and maybe even
erased from the records. I understand that the Church did, in fact, engage in
this kind of expurgation.
       Not long after Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation in 1517,
reform churches had become common. Ulrich Zwingli is said to have preached
reformation in Zurich, even before Luther got his idea. John Calvin gained
many followers in Switzerland and France. Bezanson Hugues and his “Eigots”
(a Germanic word meaning “confederates”) were soon nick-named “Hugues
Eigots,” which was soon corrupted to Huguenot.
       By the mid 1500s, Huguenots and other reform movements had become
fairly strong. Though Protestantism was rather structured and strict, it was
still much more lenient than the Catholic Church of the time. On 29 Jan 1536,
the Church pushed the government into issuing a General Edict, urging the
extermination of all heretics, as reformist were called.
       The first Huguenot Church was formed at Strasbourg in 1538. The
Reform Church in France encouraged its members to take part in the affairs of
their time: in politics, in business, etc, in strong contrast to the isolation and
“puritanism” advocated by some Calvinist sects in Switzerland (the Ahmish,
Mennonites, Brethren, etc). French Protestants soon became well-to-do and
dominated a number of useful trades, notably the cloth trade in southern
France. Their liberalism, strict as it was, tempted many a Catholic to defect.
       On 1 March 1562, war broke out and some 1200 Huguenots were slain
at Vassey, igniting a civil war that lasted for hundreds of years. On Sunday, 24
August 1572 (Saint Bartholomew’s Day), about 4000 Huguenots were
slaughtered in Paris, and the frenzy soon spread to the provinces. Some
estimates claim that as many as 50,000 Huguenots were killed before the craze
was controlled. The reign of Henry IV and the Edict of Nantes, 13 April 1598,
brought some relief for a few years, but murder, war, massacres soon broke out
again.
       Still, in spite of the dangers, the Huguenot population grew rapidly. By
the end of the century, they were in the majority in at least 75 towns all over
France and strong minorities in most others.
       For the most part, these defections were silent, leaving no record. But a
few did leave paper tracks. For instance, Giraud d’Agoult, son of Francois
d’Agoult (Jean Brassier’s witness), was disinherited by his father for having
embraced Calvinism (ref #3, v.2, p.129) about 1540. Giraud married well and
continued the posterity as Seigneur (Lord) of Chatelar & du Pinet en Provence,
a province further south. But Thomas d’Agoult, Giraud’s youngest brother, only
gets the line in the genealogy “j’ignore la destinée” (I ignore his fate).
       If we are going to find a connection the the Brassier de Jocas family, we
need some evidence of “younger sons” of Jean Brassier, II. We need some
renegade son(s) whose destiny was ignored by the church and state. But I don’t
know how to find that evidence.

       g1. Gabriel Brassier de Jocas, son of Pierre Brassier de Jocas and
Marguerite Teste, married by contract, 20 Oct 1687, before Benoît Perroqueti,
Notary at Pernes, Francoise-Therese de Buissy, only daughter and heiress of
Charles de Buissy and Dauphine de Rapallis, of City of L’Isle, in Venaissin.
Gabriel Brassier de Jocas made his will at Pernes, 7 Jan 1716, before Jean
Rigoard, Notary at Pernes, in which he made his oldest son his heir. Their
children:
h1. *Joseph Brassier de Jocas, Gentleman (Chevalier) and Lord de Jocas (ref
#2); continued the posterity.
h2. Jean-Baptiste Brassier de Jocas, Lt. in Walloon Regiment of Bourgogne,
in service of King of Spain, and died at Gironne, 27 Feb 1723;
h3. Gabriel Brassier de Jocas, who entered religious Orders and did not
marry;
h4. Pierre-Ignace Brassier de Jocas, Captain in the Regiment of Infantry of
Anjou; Chevalier de Saint Louis; called “Baron de Brassier” in record #2.
h5. Catherine Brassier de Jocas, married 1717, Gabriel d’Astoaud, titulary
lord of Cheminades in Gévaudan and co-Lord de la Fare au Bailliage du
Buix en Dauphiné, with whom she lived in Pernes in 1736.
h6. Anne Brassier de Jocas, sister in Order of Saint Francis at L’Isle in
Venaissin;
h7. Gabrielle Brassier de Jocas, sister in Order of Saint Francis at L’Isle in
Venaissin;
h8. Louise Brassier de Jocas, Ursuline nun at Pernes.

       h1. Joseph Brassier de Jocas, Gentleman (Chevalier) and Lord de Jocas
(ref #2); married 17 June 1726 by contract, before Jean Rigoard, Notary at
Pernes, Thérese d’Anselme de Grugieres, daughter of Joseph Francois
d’Anselme, called de Fougasse Seigneur (lord) de Grugieres, and Anne de
Cheilus-de Propiac, of the City of Pernes. They had one son and two daughters
(ref #2 adds a fourth):
i-1. Gabriel-Joseph Brassier de Jocas, Marquis de Jocas (ref. #2), married by
contract 8 Oct 1764, before Joseph Bressi and Jean-Joseph Castan,
Notaries at Pernes, the noble Marie-Susanne-Catherine de Bernardi (ref
#2). They had five children:
       j-1. Pierre-Ignance-Xavier-Isidore de Brassier de Jocas, born 1773;
       j-2. Joseph-Theophile-Calixte de Brassier, born 1775; still a student in
1782;
       j-3. Auguste-Simphorien-Joseph de Brassier, under age in 1782;
       j-4. Susanne-Marie-Therese de Brassier;
       j-5. Sylvie-Anne de Brassier, the last two “young ladies” in 1782.
i-2. Francoise-Thérese Brassier de Jocas,
i-3. Marie-Anne Brassier de Jocas, who was living in 1736.
i-4. Agathe de Brassier de Jocas, young lady (demoiselle) of Pernes; does that
mean she never married, or was just a child in 1782?

Maurice de Brassier

       Maurice de Brassier is not mentioned in the will of Jean Brassier de
Jocas, dated 9 March 1477, in Pernes. Perhaps Jean had made his will before
Maurice was born; perhaps Isabelle was pregnant when Jean died and the
child was born post-humously. We have only(?) his word that he was a son of
Jean Brassier de Jocas and Isabelle de Ricci. My hesitation is that note in the
genealogies that he was living in 1520, which means that he was mentioned in
some document. The best candidate for that document is the estate
proceedings of Isabelle de Ricci, his mother. (I have not seen these documents.)
       Maurice would have to have been born in 1477 or very near it. He and
his posterity are a chance that our Brashear family could possibly descend
from the de Brassier de Jocas Family.
       About 1500 Maurice de Brassier moved to Rouérgue in southwestern
central France, where descendants live even today.
       In 1667, a descendant of Maurice de Brassier, M. Bernard deBrassier,
Knight, Lord of LaPlane, commissioned a Mr. Pellot to do a genealogy of his
family, on the occasion of his installation as Knight in the order and militia of
Saint Esprit de Montpellier. This genealogy is the one printed in the Noblaire
Universel Racueil General des Genealogies Historiques et Veridiques des Maison
Nobles de L’Europe, published by M. Le Vicomte de Magny (ref #5); it borrows
generously from the earlier genealogies, but also goes to the Notarial records to
verify some things.

       b5. Maurice de Brassier, born c1477, Pernes, France. He moved about
1500 to Rouergue and formed the branch of the Lords of laPlane of Saint-
Simon; living in 1520; m. Marie Judith de Hautvillar, of Languedoc, who
proved her nobility in 1669. Two sons formed “noble” lines: (He may have had
more.)
c1. Maurice Brassier, II, who had children, but the line is not included in
Henry Sinclair Brashear’s book, nor in the genealogies. Considering that
Maurice (Morris) occurs twice in the Brashear Family, this line would
have been of considerable interest to me.
       When I was in France in 2003, I located in a phone book a Maurice
Brassier, living in the town of La Roquette, in the province of Tarn (two
provinces south of Rouergue). His phone number: (011, the international
access code) + (33, the code for France) + 05.63.68.01.09. I called him,
asked him in my halting French a few questions, which he didn’t
understand. Then I asked him if he understood English. He said NO and
hung up. If someone who speaks French well wants to call him, please
do, and get his family tree. I suspect he belongs here and is about our
only chance of being connected to the de Brassier family.
c2. Sigismond Brassier; m. 15 Jun 1554, Anne de Caucavanne, from a family
that was established in Guienne, where Jean-Pierre de Caucabanne, in
1698 (almost 150 years later) registered his coat of arms. Sigismond and
Anne had two sons:
       d1. *Henri Brassier, Knight of LaPlane, m. 10 Jan 1558, at Montauban,
Ann de Maniban, and had one son
       d2. *Jacques de Brassier, founder of the first branch of Saint-Simon,

       Henri and Jacques both had families that lasted for generations. They
were notable civil servants, some legislators, many high-ranking military men.
But I won’t go into them here. Their direct lines offer no possibilities, and the
branches and corollary families are not given in the genealogies, which are only
interested in the direct line of the “nobility.”

Cheers,
Charles Brashear
1718 Arroyo Sierra Circle
Santa Rosa, CA 95405-7762
707/545-3903

	Posted By:	Charles Brashear
	Email:
	Subject:	The Brassier de Jocas Family, part 2
	Post Date:	January 03, 2005 at 12:04:17
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/brasseur/messages/52.html
	Forum:	Brasseur Family Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/brasseur/