Jeanne Roi, PROG

A mere handful of miles west of Cabrières d'Aigues is Lourmarin. Here we find André Rey and his wife Jeanne Mille, with their two sons, Jean and Jacques.

André Rey, wife Jeanne Mille & their sons, Jean & Jacques Rey, of Lourmarin in Church Records: Genève 15.09.1687 Schaffhausen 30.09.1687 Frankfurt 31.10.1687.

Neither appear in the VOC list of proposed passengers on the China in Rotterdam Dec 1687, but Jeanne Mille arrives in the Cape, & is married Arniel before April 1690 - ship uncertain

We have 18 individuals who may have boarded the China and died on it. The names of all but two are on the VOC list of 23 December 1687 for the China. They are André Rey and his son Jacques Rey. As already seen, Jacques' mother Jeanne Mille and his brother Jean do eventually arrive at the Cape, but the ship is unclear.

Jeanne Mille, her two sons, Jean and Jacques, and her husband, André Rey, do not board the China. Jeanne Mille and son Jean do indeed eventually arrive at the Cape, but possibly on another ship. We know that Jeanne Mille and Jean “Roy” receive help at the Cape from the Batavian fund. The assumption is that André Rey and his son Jacques are destined to die on the voyage to the Cape on another ship; likely the Wapen van Alkmaar.

http://members.shaw.ca/cliffwoodfogge/Documents/China4thEdition.pdf

Reys & Mille in Boucher

Jacques and Jean Roy were at the Cape before 1690, but the former evidently died soon after his arrival. If Jean named his Drakenstein farm for his birthplace, his origins must be sought at Lourmarin. While church registers for that place lead to no certain identification, the baptism of a Jeanne Reyne, daughter of Jean Rey (Roy) and Francoise Roux (Rousse), is recorded on July 8, 1675. The godfather was Jean’s brother Jacques. There was also an Andre Rey at Lourmarin and this Christian name was given to one of the Cape settler’s children. Andre’s son Claude Rey married Jeanne Mille in August 1684: This marriage might indicate another connection between Cape refugee families. Jean Rey appears in Walloon church records in Amsterdam, but there was evidently more than one fugitive there so named. • M. Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA: Ch 7: Cape Settlers III: from South-Eastern France and Adjoining Territories p193

Who was Mathieu Amiel’s wife Jeanne Mille? A connection has been noted between the Rey and Mille families in Provence and Jeanne Mille was certainly from that part of France. The surname, however, is a common one in the region. If, as seems probable, she was Amiel’s second wife, the two male children who were with him at the Cape in 1690 could not have been the product of this marriage. Jeanne Mille was born in 1633 and thus past child-bearing age long before she left Europe. One of the children was perhaps Francois Amiel, known to have been at the Cape in 1706.

The name Mille appears in the records of assistance afforded needy refugees by the Walloon church in Amsterdam. The entries are confusing, but could refer to the Cape settler’s father. In 1685 a Jean Mille, of advanced age, was given a pair of shoes and a waistcoat; on November 28 of the following year a centenarian Jean (le) Mille, presumably the same person, was provided with a blanket. Longevity would seem to have been a Mille characteristic. The second of these Amsterdam entries mentions a place of origin, Le Val. This, it is suggested, is the village so named in southern-eastern Provence, near Brignoles, although no Mille appears in the church registers of Le Luc for 1670- 1679. Calvinists from the Brignoles area would certainly have made use of the temple there. However, in 1664, when an outbreak of the plague placed Le Luc in quarantine, a certain N. Mille was fined for entering the town with the minister in an unauthorized manner. • M. Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA: Ch 7: Cape Settlers III: from South-Eastern France and Adjoining Territories pp195-7