Coutanche

Origin of Surname

The name is derived from the town of Coutances on the Cotentin peninsular of Lower Normandy. The spires of Coutances Cathedral can be seen from Jersey's east coast.

Early records

The family is a relatively latecomer to Jersey, not being found in the 14th Century Assize Rolls and Extentes but first surfacing in the Extente of 1528. The Jersey Chantry Certificate of 1550 contains two Coutanches.

Jeanne Coutanche, who married Julien Vibert, was born in Jersey in about 1550.

There are very few church records for Coutanche (in its various spellings) before 1608, and records for many marriages in the 17th century have not been found

Variants

• Coutanche
• Coutanches
• Coutance
• Coutances
• Coustance
• Coustances

Family records

Church records

Tips for using these links

• Coutanche baptisms in Jersey
• Coutanche marriages in Jersey (groom)
• Coutanche marriages in Jersey (bride)
• Coutanche burials in Jersey

Family trees

In 2021 we reviewed all the Coutanche trees below, simplifying the structure and incorporating several existing trees into an enlarged tree, starting with the earliest known Coutanche ancestor in St John - Pierre (1545- ). This tree was further expanded with information from an online tree built by a trusted researcher. This has resulted in the creation of a large tree, which addresses most of the problems in the other earlier trees. It is still lacking in some detail, particularly dates for early generations, for which no church records can be found. We have now deleted a group of earlier trees which have been incorporated in their entirety into this tree

• Descendants of Pierre Coutanche (1545)
• Descendants of Pierre Coutanche - 5 A separate descent from Pierre (1643- ) in the above tree

Apparently unconnected trees for Coutanche families in other parishes

• Descendants of Regnault Coutanche: Originating in Trinity, ancestors of WW2 Bailiff Alexander Coutanche. Apparently unconnected to Trinity generations in main tree above
• Descendants of Jean Coutanche
• Descendants of Francois Coustances
• Descendants of Noe Coutanche
• Descendants of Noe Coutanche - 2

Great War service

• Coutanche family members who served in World War 1

World War 2 casualties

• Charles Coutanche
• Douglas Owen Wilbur Coutanche

Biographies

• Sir Alexander Coutanche (later Lord Coutanche), Jersey's wartime Bailiff

Occupation records

• Coutanche Occupation identity cards

Family wills

• Coutanche family wills from 1663 to 1980 held by Jersey Archive

Burial records

• Coutanche burial records 1820-1978

Related placenames

• Rue Coutanche, Trinity

Family homes

• Coutanche Farm, Trinity
• Manor House, St Lawrence

Family businesses

• Henry Vincent Coutanche was a draper at 17 King Street from 1880 to 1920, and possibly a few years either side
• Elizabeth Coutanche was a dressmaker at 42 King Street in the 1870s ...
• ... Perhaps the same as Eliza Coutanche, who was at 18 Queen Street in the 1850s
• Widowed grocer Ann Coutanche was at 32 Queen Street in the 1860s

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  In the mid-19th century Charles Coutanche was a prominent baker based in Stopford Road

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  Charles Coutanche was still in business in Stopford Road in 1891

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  1890

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  1887 advert from L'Almanach de la Gazette de Jersey

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  1920

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  1858

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  1881 advert

Family album

Click on any image to see the full-size version

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  Philip Coutanche's (1797- ) master's certificate from 1856

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  Henry Coutanche (1829-1894) picture by H Etasse

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  Clement and Matilda Hotton, nee Coutanche

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  Matilda Hotton, nee Coutanche, and Lillian

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  Maria Coutanche

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  Clarissa, Philippe, Adele and Ronald Coutanche

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  Ronald and Kath Coutanche

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  Julie, Russell and Philip Coutanche

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  Charles Coutanche

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  Albert George Coutanche

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  Margaret May Coutanche (1936-2008), daughter of Henry and Phyllis May, nee Moignard ...

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  ... Malcolm Coutanche, Margaret's brother. Henry (1905- ) and Phyllis (1906- ) were married in St Helier in 1931. Henry was the son of barman George Henry Coutanche

Margaret Coutanche

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  Herbert Charles Vibert Coutanche

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  Roselle Coutanche (1923- )

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  Stonemason Herbert Coutanche working at Mon Mado

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  A postcard sent to Albert Coutanche in 1913. Although described as Mr on the card, he was 15 at the time, living with his parents, farmer Henry and Alice, and eight siblings, at Manor House, St Lawrence

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  A postcard sent to Miss M Coutanche in 1905

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  A letter of thanks to Miss Coutanche, of Ann Street, from Buckingham Palace in 1946

And a card sent to another Miss Coutanche in 1907. Normally the address and date would be sufficient to identify the recipient, but at the time there were three Miss Coutanches living at Clarence House. They were Virginia (1878- ), Eliza Mary (1881- ) and Annie (1883- ) and they were living with their unmarried brother John George (1867- ) and mother Eliza. Eliza was Eliza Boomer, the second wife of John Coutanche (1840- ). He was the son of builder Jean Coutanche and Nancy Cabot, and he became a baker. He married Mary Jane Boomer, sister of George, the first headmaster of La Moye School and founder of La Moye Golf Club, in 1866. John George was born the following year and Mary Jane died in 1869. Widowed John married again in 1871 to Mary Jane's younger sister Eliza, who was the mother of the three sisters. As far as we know none of the three ever married. John George carried on his father's business, working as a baker

New Zealand newspaper cuttings

These references to descendants of the Coutanche family from Jersey were found in New Zealand newspapers

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  Grey River Argus 1868

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  Grey River Argus 1874

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  New Zealand Herald 1926

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  Lake Wakatip Mail 1865

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  Lyttelton Times 1907

Family gravestones

Click on any image to see a larger version. See the Jerripedia gravestone image collection page for more information about our gravestone photographs

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  Old Mont a l’Abbe cemetery

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  Old Mont a l’Abbe cemetery

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  Old Mont a l’Abbe cemetery

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  Almorah cemetery

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  St Ouen parish cemetery

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  St Ouen parish cemetery

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  St Ouen parish cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St John’s Church cemetery

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  St Ouen parish cemetery

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  St Brelade parish cemetery

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  Sion cemetery

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  St Peter parish cemetery

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  Surville Cemetery

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  Surville Cemetery

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  Surville Cemetery

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  Surville Cemetery

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  Surville Cemetery

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  St Matthew’s, St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  St Lawrence

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  The grave of Great War casualty William Reginald Coutanche at Laventie Military Cemetery, La Gorgue

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  The grave of Great War casualty Alfred Henry Coutanche at Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery

Tips

The church record links above will open in a new tab in your browser and generate the most up-to-date list of each set of records from our database. These lists replace earlier Family page baptism lists, which were not regularly updated. They have the added advantage that they produce a chronological listing for the family name in all parishes, so you do not have to search through A-Z indexes, parish by parish.

We have included some important spelling variants on some family pages, but it may be worth searching for records for a different spelling variant. Think of searching for variants with or without a prefix, such as Le or De. To search for further variants, or for any other family name, just click on the appropriate link below for the first letter of the family name, and a new tab will open, giving you the option to choose baptism, marriage or burial records. You will then see a list of available names for that type of record and you can select any name from that list. That will display all records of the chosen type for that family name, and you can narrow the search by adding a given name, selecting a parish or setting start and end dates in the form you will see above. You can also change the family name, or search for a partial name if you are not certain of the spelling

The records are displayed 30 to a page, but by selecting the yellow Wiki Table option at the top left of the page you can open a full, scrollable list. This list will either be displayed in a new tab or a pop-up window. You may have to edit the settings of your browser to allow pop-up windows for www.jerripediabmd.net. For the small number of family names for which a search generates more than 1,500 records you will have to refine your search (perhaps using start or end dates) to reduce the number of records found.

New records

Since August 2020 we have added several thousand new records from the registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These will appear in date order within a general search of the records and are also individually searchable within the database search form

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