Elie Le Riche (1612 – ⊥ 1667-05-21), sometimes written Élie or Helier (see below), was the father of Nicollas Le Riche, suspected to be the same person as my male-line American colonial ancestor Nicholas Rich, by his second wife Marie DuVey. He was also the father of Michel Le Riche, suspected to be the colonial figure Michael DeRich; see the Nicholas entry for a discussion of the evidence. If correct, that makes these two American colonists half-brothers.
Elie was the son of Jean Le Riche and Jeanne Valpy. His father died when he was 7 years old. A 1632-05-12 record says Elie had attained the age of 20⟮1⟯FamilySearch, presumably recently, which puts his birth in the spring of 1612. He likely was born in Trinity on the island of Jersey, since that is where his parents lived, and later moved to and was buried in St. Helier, Jersey.
Elie’s first wife was Elizabeth Le Breton (⊥ 1652-12-06). She was the daughter of Jean Le Breton (⊥ 1658-10-26) and Jeanne Gallichan (⊥ 1660-01-16).⟮2⟯Jeanne’s burial record provides the name of her late husband and her maiden name.⟮3⟯A 1664-11-12 land record describes “Jean Le Riche fs Elie de deffuncte Elizabeth Le Breton sa femme qui estoit fille de Jeanne Gallichan…”. They had these known children, with all but the first recorded baptized in St. Helier, Jersey:
There is a Thomas Le Riche son of Helier mentioned in some records, who may be of this family, but I have found no evidence beyond the name.
Elie secondly married Marie DuVey (β 1619-09-08 – ⊥ 1668-04-08) in St. Helier on 1653-03-01. This surname has several spelling variants, such as Duvey, Du Vey, Duvay, and Duval. She was the daughter of Thomas DuVey (⊥ 1662-02-03) and Marthe Cannivet⟮5⟯The 1616 marriage record shows Thomas marrying a Cannivet, with the bride’s forename absent. There was a subsequent sequence of expected baptisms of children of Thomas. The 1662 burial names Marthe DuVey, widow of Thomas. There is every indication that this is the same women he married in 1616, and indeed Thomas’s first child was named Marthe. The baptism of the child Jean below includes witnesses Thomas DuVey and Marthe de Carteret, raising the possibility that the Cannivet in the (known defective) marriage record was an error for de Carteret. However, on the whole this seems unlikely, and this is probably simply a different Marthe; Marthe de Carteret is not stated to be Thomas’s wife and she would not be expected to use her maiden name. (⊥ 1662-03-27), who married in St. Helier on 1616-11-25. She had siblings Philippe (the eldest), Pierre, Thomas, and Marthe (✝1638).⟮6⟯FamilySearch Elie and Marie had these children baptized in St. Helier:
The baptisms of Michel and Marthe name the father as “Helier”, which I had initially assumed was a different person. However, a Helier son of Jean with wife Elizabeth Le Breton is mentioned in two land records⟮7⟯FamilySearch⟮8⟯FamilySearch, which is clearly Elie. It is difficult to speculate on the accent of the 17th-century Jersey dialect of Norman French, but it is plausible that these names are homophones or near-homophones, which could explain the alternation.
With this identification, these baptisms make much more sense as part of a typical sequence of children of a couple, rather than a mysterious other man Helier Le Riche who leaves no other trace.
Several records name Elie’s father as Jean Le Riche. A 1652 record says, “Elie Le Riche fs Jean; et Elizabeth Le Breton sa femme…“⟮9⟯FamilySearch; see also the Helier records above. The aforementioned 1632 land record⟮1⟯FamilySearch names the widow of Jean, father of Elie Le Riche, as Jeanne Vallepy. There is a burial on 1652-12-22 in Trinity of Jeanne Le Riche, maiden name Vallepie, widow of Jean Le Riche.
Other evidence corroborates this. A 1656 land record for the eldest child Elie⟮10⟯FamilySearch refers to a property right held via Jeanne Le Riche, presumably an ancestor, and not his mother (Elizabeth) so likely his paternal grandmother. Research by Rosemary Hampton refined and available on Jerripedia⟮11⟯ documents the family of Jean Le Riche who married Jeanne Valpy “by 1610”. Many of Elie’s children have names that recur in this family: Jean and Jeanne, Nicolas was Elie’s uncle, Elizabeth was his sister, and Renault was his grandfather. He also had a cousin Michiel Le Riche.
