Jean de Savoye

The second point concerns the link between Leyden and the Du Pont and Savoye families. At the time that Jacques de Savoye moved from Ghent to the Sas, both families had a long association with the Dutch university city and Jacques’s connection with Leyden was a particularly close one. He was to declare at a later date that his son-in-law settled in the city about the year 1690, but the names of Andre du Pont and Jeanne de Savoye appear as signatures at a baptismal ceremony there as early as August 5, 1685. They were not then necessarily permanent residents, however. A further link concerns Jacques’s brother Jean de Savoye who, like Jacques, was born in Ath and married a Du Pont. The baptism attended by Andre du Pont and his wife in 1685 was that of Jean, son of Jean de Savoye and Julienne du Pont, born that same day. Jean de Savoye had married Julienne at Leyden on September 12,1681. At that time he was a joiner and living on the Langegracht in the city. His wife, also from Ath, was a daughter of Benoist du Pont and Jeanne Due, who lived in the Paardesteeg. Their son Jean died in infancy, but at least two of their daughters reached marriageable age: Jeanne, born on August 19, 1682, and Marie, born on March 14, 1688. Their father died on January 5, 1692, when the family lived in Leyden’s Donkersteeg. It is worthy of note, in the context of Jacques de Savoye’s financial problems, that the Cape settler owed his brother money at the time of the latter’s death. Julienne du Pont clearly left Ath as a child to settle in Leyden with her parents, to whom several other children were born between 1657 and 1667. The surname Du Pont is, in fact, to be found in local records as early as 1600. That the Savoyes were at least visitors to Leyden before 1670 may be inferred from the fact that Jacques de Savoye, probably the Cape settler, was a witness at the baptism of Benoist’s son Jean on September 3, 1664 and Jean de Savoye at that of Benoist’s daughter Abigail on January 9, 1667. Interesting too, in the light of Jacques de Savoye's marriage into the Le Clercq family is the choice of Jeanne Carnoy as godmother to Benoist du Pont’s son Denis on March 9, 1661.

• Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA. CHAPTER NINE Cape settlers V: from Flanders to Alsace on the turbulent frontier pp265-9