English translation of the French article by Tian UDDENBERG

This article is undoubtedly a bit long and technical but contains new information to the numerous descendants of these families scattered throughout the world.

Anthony Scopean

On the 16^th of May 1833 in the Swedish Lutheran Church of Maria Magdalena in Gustavia, Anthony Scopean, a sailor, marries Joanna Eliza Wood. Both native to the island, he is said to be 24 and she, 18 years old.

[Photo: Marriage banns in English of Anthony Scopean and Elizabeth Wood contains date of marriage – FRANOM FSB 288]

Anthony was born in Gustavia 10 October 1807, baptized 10 January 1808. There are two baptismal sources:

A certificate of baptism signed by C.A. Carlson, Government appointed Lutheran Church Pastor dated the 23^rd of January 1833 accompanies a request for Naturalization submitted by Anthony. His godparents are William CHAMBERS, Samuel Augustus MATHEWS (both father and son), Catherine DEVOYE and Eve SMITH.

[Photo: Baptismal Certificate of Anthony Scopean in Swedish dated 23 January 1833 signed by C.A. Carlson – FRANOM FSB 280]

There is also the entry in the record book of the Swedish Lutheran Church which was the source of that certificate.

There we learn he is the son of DOMINIQUE SCOPINICH, born in Italy, and of Susanna STREEDER from Sint Eustatius.

As indicated above, Anthony SCOPINICH requested Naturalization from the island Government.

In his submission of January 24^th of 1833, he writes “never having worked under a foreign flag, is desirous of being able to benefit from the rights and privileges of the status of Burgess.”

He must have had considerable financial means because his letter requests the status of Major Burgess. He is undoubtedly Captain, perhaps also a ship’s owner. He pledged to the King of Sweden the same day.

Noted: his surname is written differently depending on the document and even though he appears in the genealogical record as Anthony SCOPEAN, his true name is Anthony SCOPINICH as attested by his signature.

Even if his father Dominic SCOPINICH is said to be Italian, since the name has a Slavic consonance, I think we can posit he came from a port city on the Dalmatian coast then still under the rule of the Republic of Venice (until its fall in 1797). I have not found anything about Dominic, but I guess he was a sailor who probably met Susanna STREEDER during a stint in Sint Eustatius before he came to settle in Gustavia.

Joanna Eliza WOOD was born in Gustavia about 1815, she is the daughter of Daniel WOOD and Marguerite HYMAN. It seems the family originated in Saba. Joanna Eliza has two sisters: Catherine, who marries her cousin Engle James WOOD in Gustavia in 1842, and Mary Frances who marries Moses Leverock HASSELL in 1850 in Gustavia. Daniel WOOD has several brothers and sisters also living in Gustavia at this time.

Anthony SCOPEAN and Joanna Eliza WOOD would have two children of the marriage:

Eliza Frances born about 1826 in St. Thomas who marries Henry HASSELL in Gustavia 7 November 1864. He was a sailor born in Saba in 1835.

John Joseph, born in Gustavia on September 1 1833, a ship’s Captain who marries Eliza Palmyre LAGOIS 22 November 1864 in the Anglican Church.

We now focus our interest on this last couple SCOPEAN/LAGOIS since their descendants is still considerable today and as it allows us to shed some light on the ancestry of the LAGOIS family.

Jean Joseph LAGOIS appears in the genealogical history of St. Barthelemy when he marries Marie Marthe LEDEE on 18 March 1819 in Gustavia.

The document indicates he is “mature son of the legitimate marriage of Joseph LAGOIS native of Genoa, and Louise TRANCHARD his wife, native of the Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Quarter of Port Louis, Guadeloupe.”  There is nothing more known about the father. Using the mother’s place of birth as a start, I was able to locate the record of Baptism of Jean Joseph in Port Louis dated 25 November 1793 where his date of birth is given as 18 October that same year. Unfortunately, I have not found his parents’ marriage but records for 1790 online are missing. In any case, they were married before May 1791 because they had a daughter Anne Toinette stated to have been born “of the legitimate marriage of Jean Baptiste LAGOIS, navigator and resident of said Port Louis.”

Marie Marthe LEDEE was born in Lorient 22 October 1796 and was baptized on the 30^th of the same month. She is the daughter of Joseph or Pierre Jean LEDEE born in Lorient about 1760 (himself the son of Jean Rene LEDEE and Marie Suzanne LAPLACE) and Suzanne BORNICHE born about 1764 (daughter of Jean Baptiste BORNICHE and Catherine Francoise TESS dite VITTET).

The couple would have three children:

A – Joseph LAGOIS who would become a merchant and ship’s navigator, born about 1820 and would marry Eliza Jane Barton WOOD on 15 February 1847. Eliza Jane was born in Gustavia about 1827, the daughter of John WOOD of Sint Eustatius, a sailmaker in Gustavia, and Mary BARTON originally from St. Martin.

Joseph LAGOIS would have three children:

A-1. Eliza Palmyre LAGOIS who married John SCOPEAN. They would have 6 children. The family emigrated to Curacao after 1879.

            A-1-1              Inez Josephine, 1 January 1866 who would marry 27 June 1896 in Curacao Ernest Gerald Van ROMONDT from St. Maarten

            A-1-2              Claribelle Beatrice, 8 September 1868 who died in Curacao in 1951

            A-1-3              Eliza Palmyre Christina, 16 January 1873, who would marry in Curacao 20 July 1907 Corneille Hubert JONCKHEER

            A-1-4              Augusta Wilhelmina, 31 August 1875 who would marry in Curacao 18 June 1913 Richard Philip DANIA

            A-1-5              Bertha Blanche, 29 March 1877 who would marry in Curacao 22 December 1897 JACOBUS MARCUS

            A-1-6              Sigrid Carmelie, 28 May 1879 who died in Curacao in 1951    

John Joseph SCOPEAN would die in 1896 in Curacao, and Eliza Palmyre LAGOIS would also die there in 1928.                     

A-2      Marie or Suzanne Josephine LAGOIS born 21 February 1852 in Gustavia – nothing more   on her

Joseph LAGOIS also had an illegitimate son with Miss Henrietta BOLIEU whom he does not seem to have recognized. Arthur James Bolieu was born 1 January 1852. Henrietta’s tomb still stands in the cemetery in Saint-Jean.

B – Jean Baptiste LAGOIS born 1 September 1822 in Gustavia, and was baptized 5 January 1823. He married his first cousin Anne Florestine LEDEE born in Lorient on the 12^th of February 1826.

She was the daughter of Jean Mondesir LEDEE (born about 1797, son of Alexis LEDEE and Catherine Francoise BORNICHE), and Marie Louise QUESTEL (born in 1793, daughter of Jean Baptiste QUESTEL and Magdeleine MUTREL).    

It appears the first marriage [1844] was annulled afterward because of their consanguinity in the 3^rd degree (the maternal great grandparents of Jean Baptiste LAGOIS are the same as the paternal great grandparents of Anne Florestine.) On May 28, 1855 appears in the Parish Register an entry as follows “ I have, having obtained dispensation regarding the impediment of consanguinity in the 3^rd degree, revalidated the marriage of Jean Baptiste LAGOIS with Anne LEDEE.”

Meanwhile, the couple had several children who were nonetheless duly baptized as ‘born of the legitimate marriage.’

B-1      Anne Louise, born 5 Feb 1846 in Gustavia, died 19 October 1893 in St. Kitts

B-2      Marie Euphrasie, born 5 July 1847 in Gustavia and died 12 April 1933 in St. Kitts

B-3       Turias or Horias Fortune was born 30 October 1849 in Gustavia and died at sea between St.Kitts and Antigua in 1887. He married Louise Ernestine TURBE who I have been unable to identify, and who I believe was not born in St. Barthelemy. They had several children in St.Kitts.

B-4      Emilie Octavie who was born 2 February 1852 in Gustavia and married Auguste Portelly UDDENBERG aka Emilien on 19 Feb 1873 in St. Kitts. They would have five children with numerous descendants, among whom Mr Tian Uddenberg, who helped me with this article.

B-5      Anne Florestine, 30 August 1855 in Gustavia, who made perpetual profession in Roseau, Dominica taking the name Mother Mount Calvary at the Convent of the Faithful Virgins where she was Superior 1896 – 1921. She died in Dominica on June 5 1937.

B-6      Emma Eugenie, 12 November 1857 in Gustavia who married Auguste DELISLE in 1892 in St. Kitts (descendant of a St. Barthelemy family also.)

B-7      Marie Elisabeth Zulma, 10 December 1859 in Gustavia

B-8      Agathe Eleonore, 14 October 1861 in St. Kitts

B-9      Josephine Matilda, 26 November 1865 in St. Kitts

C-        Eliza LAGOIS who was born in Gustavia about 1826 and died in Gustavia 15 September         1872

SCOPEAN and LAGOIS – two more forgotten names, families who migrating to Curacao and St. Kitts carried a little of St. Barth with them.

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