Caucheteuxs in Boucher's 'French Speakers at the Cape'

Among the early Cape settlers from the Calaisis were the children Isaïe, Susanne and Jean Caucheteux (Costeux). Described as orphans in 1690, it may be assumed that they set out from the United Provinces with their parents Isaïe Caucheteux and Susanne Albert of the village of Marek. Isaïe was the son of Antoine Caucheteux and Elisabeth Clin­quemeur and at the time of his marriage on November 13, 1672 was twenty-five years of age and an agriculturalist. His mother, then a widow, had died at lower Marek on June 4 of that year at the age of sixty-nine. Susanne Albert, twenty-two years of age, was the daughter of Pierre Albert and the late Noelle de Bus. Her father died at Oye (Oye-Plage) towards Gravelines on January 21, 1681, aged seventy­ two. lsai:e Caucheteux was attended at his wedding by his first cousins Pierre Clinquemeur and Isaac Bonduel. 21

• The eldest of the Caucheteux children at the Cape, Isaïe, was born on September 23, 1673 at Fort-Brülé, near Guemps, and was baptized on October 8, with Isaac Carpentier and Sara Albert as godparents. Sara was Susanne Albert's sister and the wife of Abraham Mortreul of Marek.
• The second child Susanne was born on December 18, 1675 at lower Marek and was christened on January 5 of the following year with Jacques Clinquemeur and Anne du Ponchel as godparents. Her god­ mother died at Guines on October 28, 1676 at the age of twenty.
• Another son Pierre was born to Isaïe Caucheteux and Susanne Albert at Marek on May 21, 1679 and bap­tized three weeks later. Susanne had then recently lost a sister Cathe­rine, who died at Oye on February 15, 1679 at the age of twenty-one.
• The third of the Caucheteux children at the Cape, Jean, was one of twins born at Marek on December 7, 1682 and baptized two days later. The other twin Marie died six days after birth. Jean's godmother was his maternal aunt Anne Albert. [Rearranged paragraphs to reflect chronological birth order Sharon Doubell Sep 2016]

It is not known when the parents of the Cape orphans left the Calaisis, but the goods of several members of families mentioned here were seized after the revocation drove them out of the country. Jacob Cau­cheteux left a house and lands; Pierre Clinquemeur had possessed houses, lands and an oil mill at Marek, Frethun, near Calais, and Guemps; Jean du Ponchel had property and farms at Andres and Balinghem, east of Guines, at Guines itself and at Saint-Tricat, north­ west of Guines. The Caucheteux and Albert families are represented in the registers of the Strangers' church in Canterbury after 1685, while a Jeanne Caucheteux brought an attestation from Guines to Middelburg as early as 1653.23

Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA. p259