Origin of surname
There are few Jersey surnames which can be said to have originated in the island rather than being imported from outside, but de Lecq would appear to be one of them. As far as we know the word lecq is not found outside the island. It is well known in Greve de Lecq, a bay and area of the north coast of St Ouen, and also Pierres de Lecq, the French name for the Paternosters reef offshore from there.
The meaning of lecq is shrouded in mystery. As can be seen below, it has existed in a variety of spellings, Leyck appearing in records as early as 1299. G F B de Gruchy, in Medieval Land Tenures in Jersey, wrote:
- "Vic, usually a suffix, occurs in several Island place-names of small bays or creeks, often in a much corrupted form. In Jersey we find Lecq, Crabbé, Gorey, Le Pulec. The little port of Lecq gives its name to other places nearby and to the Jersey surname de Lecq; its earliest medieval form was La Wik and later Laic; the La- may be from Old Norse hlada, to load a ship...The terminal letters ... are from Old Norse vik, a bay or creek, hence the 'Loading Creek' to Norse raiders, who later became the inhabitants of the Island".
Early records
The manor, chapel and priory of Lecq are mentioned in deeds of 1215-1254 and are doubtless associated with the Fief de Lecq. On the St Mary side of Grève de Lecq is Le Câtel de Lecq, a hill with still visible earthworks dating from the Dark Ages, which was also, no doubt, a promontory fort. The surname derived from the above is first mentioned in the Assizes Roll of 1299. The family was represented in that of 1309 by Philippe, Jean, Guillaume and Geoffroi de Lecq of St Ouen and Jean de Lecq of St Brelade. In the Extente of 1331, Drogo (Drouet) de Lecq held half of the Fief Payn in St Ouen, whilst in 1405-6- Guillaume de Lecq, in all likelihood Seigneur of the Fief de Lecq, was Bailiff of Jersey. Lastly, Regnault de Lecq was living in 1494, on the Fief de Léoville, St Ouen.
The family tree below starts in the late 15th century, showing that the family was well-established when the first church registers were started. It is notable that the name Guillaume continued to be used in successive generations. The early members for whom a baptismal entry can be found, however, were all baptised in 16th century St Brelade, some distance from Greve de Lecq. No doubt a branch of the family which had been resident in that area of St Ouen had moved to the more southerly parish.
Strangely, although only six of the 58 recorded baptisms were registered in St Ouen, the others all being in St Brelade, and most of the men were married in that parish, all but one of the 16 burial records is in St Ouen.
Records exist for just the one family, the majority shown in the tree, and it appears to have died out in the early 19th century with the burial of Marie de Lecq, one-time wife of Jean Le Montais, because the surname is not known today, other than as a Christian name in the Le Montais family.
Variants
- de Lecq, 1689
- de Laique, 1607
- de Ley, 1528
- de Laicq, 1421
- de Laic, 1331
- de Laik, 1309
- Laike
- de Layck
- Leyck, 1299
- de Laic, 1494
- de Laye c1340
- Delay 1479
- Van der Lecq, found in the Netherlands where the surname of a family changed to this in the 16th century. Probably no connection with Jersey
Family records
Family trees
Church records
- De Lecq baptisms in Jersey
- De Lecq marriages in Jersey (groom)
- De Lecq marriages in Jersey (bride)
- De Lecq burials in Jersey
Family wills
These wills created by members of the de Lecq family are now held by Jersey Archive. By visiting the archive site and using the names, dates and reference numbers shown here, it is possible to view a copy of each will. You will have to subscribe to the Archive's online service to do this. To find out more about this collection, which covers the period from 1663 to 1948, and how to search for your family's wills there, visit our Jersey wills page
- Emma de Lecq du Val, of Woodlands, St Peter - 3 January 1947, D/Y/A/117
- Laurens de Lecq 25 August 1744 - D/Y/A/7
- Rachel de Lecq Dated 4 February 1673 - D/Y/A/4
- Rachel de Lecq, daughter of William 21 September 1667 - D/Y/A/1
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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