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Difficulty reading surname

Michel François Joseph TALMA, born in Poix du Nord (France) on 10 Feb 1733, married Anne Mignolet and had 5 children with her. One of them was the famous actor François Joseph Talma.
Michel left France for England, to set up a dentist practice in London. He met another woman, Charlotte, and had two children with her out of wedlock. Just before he died in 1806, he made a will in which he mentions his two children and Charlotte. For years now, I have been trying to figure out what Charlotte's surname is. I have enclosed a copy of one of the lines in which she is mentioned. It says: "... by the said Mrs. Charlotte *** the sum of three .. "
I would be very grateful if somebody could work out Charlotte's surname ! Any suggestions are welcome.

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Section from the Will of Michel François Joseph Talma.jpg, 44 KB

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Permalink Reply by Lynsey Shane Edward Jaques Talma on July 17, 2009 at 12:13am

Dunno not a 100% sure but the name looks like Charlotte STOWS to me... from what i can see comparing to the other words the S-T & O are similar compared the S in Said the T & O in Charlotte... however the last two letters are the problem looks like a W or an M... but im pretty sure the last letter is an S its similar to the S in Mrs or Said.

A good Graphologist might be able to tell you but from looking really carefully & after cleaning it up with imaging software I narrowed it down to two names STOWS or STOMS but thats my two cents i could be wrong... :-)

Permalink Reply by Sylvia Binch-Talma on July 18, 2009 at 7:48am

Thanks for looking Lynsey. I think Stows is a very good possibility. I came up with Stems myself, but I don't think that's a proper surname !
I will post the whole first page of the will, because some people asked to see more instances of the name.

Permalink Reply by Sylvia Binch-Talma on July 21, 2009 at 10:44pm

Leo, heel hartelijk dank dat je er even naar gekeken hebt ! Ik ga in de archieven op zoek naar Charlotte Stows ..

Permalink Reply by Sylvia Binch-Talma on July 21, 2009 at 11:10pm

Leo, uit het bovenstaande begreep ik dat je het eens was met de conclusie dat het Stows moest zijn ! Daarna ... las ik je e-mail, waaruit blijkt dat je er toch nog niet helemaal uit bent.
Mijn voorgaande reactie was dus iets te snel ... :- (
Ik beantwoord je e-mail even buiten de lijst om. Gr. Sylvia

Permalink Reply by Sylvia Binch-Talma on July 18, 2009 at 8:08am

Some people requested more examples of Charlotte's name and of the handwriting in general. I am therefore posting the first page of Michel's will. Charlotte's name occurs in lines 10 and 19.
Thanks for all your suggestions !

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First page will of Michel François Joseph Talma.jpg, 584 KB

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Swart on July 22, 2009 at 5:39am

I came across this book in a Google book search: Talma: L'acteur Favori De Napoleon Ier by Bruno Villien. Though you can’t see the full book, you can search for specific snippets. From page 216, I was able to piece together this:
…dont on découvre ainsi l'existence : Je prie mon fils d'être le gardien des orphelins que je laisserai. A Henry Joseph François Talma, fils naturel de Charlotte Skems, son père laisse 300 livres. Même somme pour Françoise Annette Cramer Talma, qui doit être déjà mariée puisqu 'elle porte le nom de Cramer. Henry et Françoise reçoivent surtout la maison du 13 Old Cavendish Street avec ses meubles. Michel lègue à son fils naturel sa garde-robe, sauf les choses qui ne lui vont pas, destinées à mon frère et à ses…
From the index:
Talma, Henry Joseph François (demi-frère de Talma), 216-217
Skems, Charlotte, 216-217
Searching Google Books for "Charlotte Skems" will bring up an additional book from 1969 with another snippet.
groetjes, Jennifer

Difficulty reading surname

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