The Family Crests of the Cellier of Nods and La Neuveville
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The Family Crests of the Cellier of Nods and La Neuveville I have shown you already two different family crests of the Cellier of La Neuveville. The family crest that is still in use in my own family was created by Alfred’s and my direct ancestor Imer Cellier (ca. 1540 – 1603): It shows two crossed hooks (in French called “davets”) and a mallet, instruments used by coopers and wine farmers. Imer Cellier was the son of Jehan Cellier (ca. 1503 – ca. 1560), who had emigrated to La Neuveville from Nods as a young man, was mentioned in La Neuveville for the first time in 1524, and was offered the bourgeoisie of La Neuveville in 1538. Imer was a wine farmer and also the owner of the communal oven of La Neuveville, the “four banal” as it was called in French, a place where the women of the city could bake their bread (individual houses had a fire place for cooking, but no oven for baking – as most houses were built from wood in those days, ovens were dangerous as they easily led to fires that then could jump from one house to the next and burn down the entire village, as it happened many times over in medieval Europe). This was the time of the Swiss renaissance, a time when a burgeoning bourgeoisie claimed for themselves rights that hitherto only the noble families had possessed, such as calling a family crest their own. Noble families had carried family crests for several centuries already. The noble families were obligated to provide soldiers for the military endeavors of their rulers, and they painted their family crests (coat of arms) on the shields of their soldiers, so that the soldiers would be able to tell friend from foe on the battle field, and also as a visible sign of their wealth, as wealthy families were able to provide more soldiers to their king. Imer Cellier created his family crest around the year 1570 at about the same time as many of the other bourgeois families of La Neuveville created family crests for themselves. This family crest is still proudly displayed in the citizen hall of La Neuveville: together with those of 59 other bourgeois families of the city. We find a second, and distinctly different, family crest used by some of the Cellier of La Neuveville: This family crest is known to have been used by Jaques Cellier (1658 – 1718), who occupied the office of notary public of La Neuveville from 1674 – 1705 and served as mayor (“maître-bourgeois”) of La Neuveville from 1705 – 1714. It was also used by his son, Pierre Cellier (1677 – 1715), who occupied the office of notary public from 1693 until his death and who also served as secretary to the court (“grand-sautier”). Jaques and Pierre Cellier were, however, not descendants of Imer Cellier, but rather of Imer’s brother Jaques Cellier (1534 – 1624). It is not known whether their family crest was created by the younger Jaques during his time as notary public or whether it is in fact much older and was possibly created by the older Jaques at about the same time when his brother Imer created his own family crest. What we do know is that both the younger Jaques and his son Pierre used that family crest to seal their official letters. Here: is a picture of a letter sealed by Pierre Cellier on July 29, 1712. Pierre served also as a captain in the military. In 1712 he commanded a detachment of soldiers from La Neuveville to the Bernese government for fighting against the Catholics during the Second war of Villmergen. His family crest: Is clearly visible on the signet. It was probably pressed into the hot sealing-wax using a signet-ring. I remember well that my parents still used to seal their parcels in this fashion when I was a child, using a signet-ring that I meanwhile inherited from my father: This signet-ring, of course, displays Imer’s rather than Jaques’ family crest, i.e., the family crest that is used in my family. Jaques’ branch of the family died out one generation later as none of the sons of Pierre or of his brother François Charles Cellier (1687 – 1755), a well-renowned jeweler and watchmaker in his generation, had any male offspring. There is no reason to believe that any of the Cellier of Nods would ever have used either of these two family crests as the Cellier of La Neuveville separated from the Cellier of Nods earlier, around the year 1500. Pierre Alain Cellier showed me the family crest of the Cellier of Nods during a recent family gathering that took place in La Neuveville on September 6, 2012. I reported about this gathering on the family website. The family crest has been registered with the bourgeoisie of Nods and is on file there. Pierre Alain inherited the official document that he showed me from his father, Harry Cellier (1922 – 2000). I photographed both the front and the backside of this document: The document claims that the Cellier family has been cited in Nods as early as 1520. We meanwhile know that Collet Cellier (born ca. 1500), the older brother of the Jehan Cellier who emigrated to La Neuveville, was the first Cellier to be born in Nods. His father was called Jehan Junod dit Sallier, while another of Collet’s and Jehan’s brothers, Regnault Junod, decided to keep the older Junod family name. Regnault Junod also emigrated to La Neuveville together with his brother Jehan, and the two of them served together in the La Neuveville and Nods contingent of 60 soldiers sent to Interlaken in 1529 to fight the Catholics of the Bernese Oberland who had rejected the 1528 order from Bern to adopt the new religion and had entrenched themselves at Interlaken, which they declared to be the new capital of the independent Catholic region of the Bernese Oberland. The La Neuveville and Nods contingent stood under the joint command of Jehan Cellier and Jehan Chiffelle, both of La Neuveville. How old is the family crest of the Cellier of Nods? We don’t have an answer to this question yet. It may be as old as the family crest created by Imer Cellier since it was fashionable at that time for bourgeois families to create family crests for themselves. What we do know is that the same family crest is also in use by the Cellier living in Adelaide (Australia). Annette Cellier-Davenport sent me a copy of the family crest that her family uses: The nearest common ancestor of Annette and Pierre Alain is Louis Aimé Cellier (1805 – 1876). This means that this family crest is at least as old as Louis Aimé, but it is probably much older. Unfortunately, the archives of Nods are far less spectacular than those of La Neuveville. La Neuveville understood itself as a city and as the commercial center of an entire region, whereas Nods was only a small farming village, one among many. Consequently, La Neuveville invested much more pride … and money into preserving its history. There are not many Cellier of Nods who made it to name and fame. One Benjamin Cellier (1762 – 1796) served as mayor of Diesse but only for a few years as he died very young. Benjamin married in 1793 Marguerite Sophie Huguenet of Diesse who died one year later from childbed fever after having given birth to their first-born, Jacob Benjamin Cellier, of whom we know nothing more. We suspect that the child died as well before he was baptized. Benjamin himself died two years later. He was only 34 years old at the time. I may still be able to discover a letter sealed by Benjamin during his tenure as mayor of Diesse. I haven’t checked the archives of Nods yet but plan on doing so. If his signet can be found, we would be able to backdate the Nods family crest quite a bit further, because the nearest common ancestor of Benjamin Cellier and today’s Cellier of Nods is one Jaques Cellier (born 1648). … and here is another mystery still to be unraveled: We find the same family crest also in use by the Cellier of Besançon: Besançon is a city in the French Jura mountains not far from the Swiss border. We don’t know the reason for this coincidence yet. It may well be that a Cellier of Nods emigrated to Besançon maybe sometime during the 17th century and took his family crest along with him. If this is true then some of the French Cellier (but certainly not all of them) are also related to our family and there is a hope to further expand our family tree. References: [1] Clottu, Olivier (1970), Armorial de La Neuveville: Armoiries des Familles Bourgeoises Anciennes, Imprimerie Paul Attinger, Neuchâtel .