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Country
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FR
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Name of institution (English)
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Departmental Archives of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (Bayonne and Basque Country)
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Language of name of institution
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fra
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Contact information: postal address
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39, avenue Duvergier de Hauranne, 64100 Bayonne
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Contact information: phone number
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0033 0559039393
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Contact information: email
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arch-bay@le64.fr
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Reference number
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3 E 4566-4614, 4622/1-4622/2, 4623-4697, 17348-17368, 17717-17735
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Notarial deeds (Saint-Esprit)
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Title (official language of the state)
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Minutes notariales (Saint-Esprit)
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Language of title
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fra
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Creator / accumulator
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Notaries
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Date(s)
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1708/1857
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Language(s)
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fra
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Extent
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8 series
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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The notarial records of Saint-Esprit, Bayonne, preserved at the Archives départementales des Pyrénées-Atlantiques date back to the early 18th century. They are divided into eight series, arranged according to the notary: Jean Cassolet (records 1708-40), Pierre Cassolet (1742-65), Bertrand Forgues (1765-1813), Jean-Baptiste Cassolet (1755-93), Gabriel Comettant (1813-18), and Plantine (1708); and notary office: Étude I (1754-1857) and Étude II (1794-1857).
Considering the importance of the Portuguese "nação" (nation, community) settled in Saint-Esprit, this series contains valuable information on Iberian conversos and Sephardic Jews, in particular wills and contracts of different kinds. Some examples are the following:
Forgues (Bertrand), 3 E 4570, no. 130, September 7, 1769: the will of David Henriquez de Souza, in which he left thirty pounds to the Jébéra brotherhood.
Forgues (Bertrand), 3 E 4571: contains the will of Aron Gomes Rabelo, who died on January 17, 1770, and was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Saint-Esprit.
Forgues (Bertrand), 3 E 4576, no. 81: wills of Sara Lopes Netto and Esther Henriques de Castro. Published in Nahon (1977).
Forgues (Bertrand), 3 E 4576, no. 84: the will of Moses Henriques de Castro, who was a devoted member of the merchant community and a great contributor to the investments led by the Jewish community.
Cassolet (Pierre), 3 E 4658, January 1, 1756: deed of sale of the Campot Saint Simon, the former Jewish cemetery of the Portuguese community in Bayonne. It is signed by several members of the "confrairie de la Jébéra" (Jébéra brotherhood).
Cassolet (Pierre), 3 E 4666, November 16, 1762: contains a declaration about Gabriel Pereira Suares, a merchant with businesses with traders in Amsterdam.
These are only a few examples, among numerous others that can be found in these notarial deeds. See the bibliography quoted below.
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Archival history
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In the 16th century, important measures were taken to ensure the protection of French notarial archives. For instance, as early as 1539, an ordinance forced notaries to keep their minutes, although the protection given to these records was different according to the specific legislation of each French region.
A law on October 6, 1791, entrusted the records held by the former notaries — who were extinct after the French Revolution, such as those who acted on seigniorial jurisdictions — to the public notaries who replaced them.
On March 14, 1928, it was authorised the optional deposit of minutes with over 125 years in public archives. On January 3, 1979, the notarial deeds up to 100 years were compulsorily transferred to public archives.
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(source: Archives départementales des Côtes d'Armor website)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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In 1270, King Louis IX (1214–70) appointed sixty notaries with the jurisdiction of the Grand Châtelet de Paris. Years later, in 1302, King Philippe IV (1268–1314) extended the role of the French notary to all the lands governed and subjected to the king, integrating existing notaries under the Crown’s influence.
During the 16th century, François I (1494–1547) reorganised and promulgated new rules to be adopted by the notaries of France, including the mandatory rule to write deeds in French and how records should be archived and preserved.
The French Revolution confirmed the notarial offices by a specific law of 1791.
The 20th century saw several developments in the French notarial profession. In 1941, it was created the Conseil supérieur du notariat (High Council of French Notary), and the Republican re-foundation, with the ordinance dated November 2, 1945, provided the notary with institutional structures. Further legislation has greatly developed the profession since then.
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(source: Superior Council of Notaries, History of Notariat)
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Access points: persons, families
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Carvaillo, Jacob
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Correa-Vale, Abraham
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Gomes, Jacob Daniel
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Gomes Rabelo, Aron
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Gomes-Silva, Moizé
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Henriques de Castro-Solar, Moizé
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Lévy, Jacob
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Silveyra, David
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Soza, Jacob
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System of arrangement
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The series is organised by notary or notarial office.
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Access, restrictions
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Digital copies are available online:
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e-archives
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Author of the description
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Kevin Soares, 2022
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Bibliography
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Blamont, Jacques. 2000. Le Lion et Le Moucheron. Paris: Odile Jacob.
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Gaatone, Nimrod M. 2020. “Les Juifs de Bayonne et les corsaires du ‘Requin’: perspectives neuves sur l’intégration des ‘Portugais’ dans la société française au XVIIIe siècle.” Hamsa. Journal of Judaic and Islamic Studies, no. 6: 33–51. https://doi.org/10.4000/hamsa.304.
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Meron, Orly C. 2015. “The Marriage Contracts of Portuguese Jews from Bayonne, 1721–1816: Migration, Sub-Ethnicity, Gender, and Economics.” Hamsa, no. 2: 14–29. https://doi.org/10.4000/hamsa.771.
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Nahon, Gérard. 2013. “Exercice et train de marchandise: juifs portugais au fil des minutes notariales à Bayonne (1695-1795).” Anais de história de Além-Mar XIV: 201–23.
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Nahon, Gérard. 2015. “Deniers et Marchandises: Le Financement Commercial Des Juifs Portugais à Bayonne Au XVIIIe Siècle.” In The Festschrift Darkhei Noam: The Jews of Arab Lands, Carsten Schapkow, Shmuel Shepkaru and Alan T. Levenson, 151–67. Leiden; Boston: Brill.
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Nahon, Gérard. 2018. “La Jébéra et Les Confréries de La Nation Juive Portugaise de Bayonne Au XVIIIe Siècle.” In From Catalonia to the Caribbean: The Sephardic Orbit from Medieval to Modern Times, Federica Francesconi, Stanley Mirvis, and Brian Smollett, 154–84. Leiden: Brill. https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004376717/BP000013.xml.
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Szajkowski, Zosa. 1958. “Population Problems of Marranos and Sephardim in France, from the 16th to the 20th Centuries.” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 27: 83–105. http://www.jstor.com/stable/3622499.
