jaques mallandain + susanna motteux
Jaques was born in Spitalfields in 1710, the fourth child of Pierre Mallandain and Marie Houtville. He was baptised at the Threadneedle Street French Huguenot Church on 23 April 1710 and Jaques le Mounie and his aunt, Anne de Goulenne, acted as his godparents. In accordance with Huguenot tradtition, he was admitted to the French Church on 30 November 1726 on the testimony of his father.
Jaques was apprenticed to his father, a master weaver, on 4 November 1724 although his training likely began much earlier:
A weaver has generally two looms, one for his wife and another for himself, and as his family increases the children are set to work at six or seven years of age to quill silk; at nine or ten years to pick silk; and at the age of twelve or thirteen (according to the size of the child) he is put to the loom to weave. A child very soon learns to weave a plain silk fabric, so as to become a proficient in that branch; a weaver has thus not unfrequently four looms on which members of his own family are employed.
Jaques married Susanna Rachel Motteux at St Benet Paul’s Wharf in the City of London on 29 June 1736. The English baroque church was designed by Christopher Wren and built between 1677 and 1683 and remarkably, was one of only four churches in the City of London to escape damage during the German Blitz of WWII.
Susanna was the daughter of Jean Anthoine Motteux and Susanne des Pommare and she was baptised at Threadneedle Street on 11 January 1702 with Rachel des Pommare acting as one of the godparents. It is not known if Susanne or Rachel were any relation to Jaques’ grandmother, Anne Despommare.
Jaques and Susanna had two sons; their first, Jaques, was born on 2 November 1737 and baptised at Threadneedle Street one day later. In 1739, the family was living in the Old Artillery Ground in Spitalfields. Originally the outer precinct of the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital, the area was converted to an Artillery Ground in 1538 under Henry VIII for the use of The Fraternity or Guild of Artillery of Longbows, Crossbows and Handguns. This group was later known as the Honourable Artillery Company and used the Ground in conjunction with the Gunners of the Tower of London. In 1658 the Honourable Artillery Company moved to a new ground in Bunhill Fields leaving the Gunners of the Tower in sole possession of the area until 1682 when it was sold off to speculative builders. The area was later developed for housing but street names such as Fort Street, Gun Street, Artillery Passage and Artillery Lane recall its former use.
Their second son, Jean Antoine Motteux, was born on 19 February 1739 and baptised at Threadneedle Street on 8 March 1739.
Within months of his son’s birth, it appears that Jaques’ failing health prompted him to write his will. In April 1739, he claimed that he was ‘weak in body but of sound and disposing mind and memory.’ He left all his effects to his ‘loving wife Susanna Rachel Mallandain’ and a legacy to his sons James and John. Jaques died in September 1739 and was buried in the church yard of St Andrew Undershaft in nearby Bishopsgate. He was only 39 when he died and left a wife and two young children under the age of two.
Two years afters losing her husband, Susanna suffered another loss when her two year old son, Jean Antoine, died one month after his second birthday but he was buried in the nearby church yard at Christ Church on 24 March 1741.
Several months later, Susanna married widower Jean Des Claux on 7 August 1741 at St Mary Woolnoth. Like Christ Church Spitalfields, the church of St Mary was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and built in 1716. The church is located at the corner of Lombard and King William Street in the City of London — a fair distance from their residence in Spitalfields but not far from the site of the French Church in Threadneedle Street.
Jean Des Claux was also a widower; he married his first wife, Mary Sandell, at St Botolph Aldgate on 15 July 1725 and they had at least three daughters — Mary, Ann and Ellen. Mary’s death record has not been located but she died sometime between Ellen’s birth in 1736 and Jean’s marriage to Susanna in 1741.
Susanna, her son Jaques and new husband continued to live in the Old Artillery Ground following the marriage. Susanne and Jean had one son, Jean, born on 28 April 1742 and baptised on 12 May at The Artillery French Huguenot Church but he died two months later and was buried at Christ Church in Spitalfields. In the following year, Jean was listed in the Tax Records as residing on Steward Street.
In 1746, Susanna received a legacy of £100 from her half-brother Timothy Motteux, a prosperous ‘merchant and salter’ who lived on Leadenhall Street in the parish of St Andrew Undershaft. Two years later, another half-brother, Peter, left her an initial legacy of £10 but this would increase to £200 if his son pre-deceased him; if Susanna pre-deceased Peter, the legacy was to go to her son James. Peter Motteux was an apothecary in Spitalfields and his will was proved on 17 June 1748.
Jean Des Claux appears again in the Tax Records on Steward Street in 1761 and the record shows that he was paying a yearly rent of £18 and had a personal estate valued at £100 although there is no information on how this value was established. Susanna died in Spitalfields the following year and she was buried in the church yard at Christ Church on 3 August. In October, with his health failing, Jean signed his last will and testament and in it he requested that he be interred ‘in the Church Yard belonging to the parish of Christ Church Middlesex as near as possible to my late wife’. His wish was granted and Jean Des Claux was buried at Christ Church Spitalfields on 5 November 1762. He left a legacy of £100 to his step son, James, to be paid in instalments over the two years following his death but left the bulk of his estate to his three daughters from his first marriage.