Origins of surname
The name may have come to England after the Norman Conquest, as both a personal and family name. It is derived from roi, meaning king, and probably referred to someone who behaved as if he were a king, rather than actually being one.
Early records
Le Roy is by far the oldest variant found in Jersey, with records as early as 1331. Among church records can be found the marriage of Henry Le Roy and Marie Le Brocq in St Brelade in 1673, followed by the baptism of their children from that year until 1681. This family line did not continue and it was not until the mid 18th century that a family became established.
Roy is found from the beginning of the 18th century, but again it was not until the middle of that century that a family became established.
There is evidence of some cross-over between the names in the same family groups. The marriage of Pierre Le Roy and Sara Le Manquais in St Brelade in 1802 is followed by the baptism records of their nine children in which he is shown as Pierre Roy.
Both names are first found in the St Brelade registers.
Variants
- Roy
- Le Roy, 1331
- Leroy
- Leroi
- Le Roi
Family records
Family trees
Church records
- Roy baptisms in Jersey
- Roy marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Roy marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Roy burials in Jersey
Family wills
These wills created by members of the Roy 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 1980, and how to search for your family's wills there, visit our Jersey wills page
- Marie Roy of St Brelade, widow of Philippe Laurens, bequeaths to the poor of St Mary, 6 livres of French currency 9 April 1853 - D/Y/A/28
- Philip Roy of St Brelade, now of St Saviour - 10 May 1893, D/Y/A/52
- George Roy, Franc Fief House, St Brelades - 21 August 1946, D/Y/A/116
- Maria Roy, La Rosiere, St Mary, widow of Charles Jeune bequeaths to The National Childrens Home and Orphanage £10; to The Foreign Missions of the Wesleyan Methodist Society £10; to The Internal Missions of the said Society £10; to Bethlehem Chapel £10; to The Fund of the Circuit Français in Jersey of The Methodist Wesleyan Society £10; to Florence Jeune the piece of land called La Butiere, St Brelade bequeaths to the National Childrens Home and Orphanage and The Foreign and Internal Methodist Societies an additional sum of £15 each, bequeaths to the Wornout Ministers Fund of the Wesleyan Methodist Society £25; to the Funds of the Circuit Français of the Wesleyan Methodist Church; to the Jersey Blind Society £5; to Emmeline Le Rossignol the property La Rosiere, St Mary, for life bequeaths to Emmeline Le Rossignol the piece of land called La Butiere - 21 December 1920, D/Y/A/80
- Frederick Roy, St Brelade - 20 July 1923, D/Y/A/83
Family album
Burial records
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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