Institut Archeologique du Luxembourg. Annales. 26e Fascicule. Arlon, 1880. Digitized from Cornell Library by Google Books. Vol. 12 and 13.
"Un Ancient Livre de Ville de Virton 1615-1790" by Dr. J. Jeanty de Virton
LInk to source: Google Books
I searched above source for references to Jean Descouvier and found the following references to the surname Descouvier:
1636: Jean Henry being dead we take Claude Descouvier in his place, quarantes . . . [page 169].
1636:
Dead 2,500. Hundreds took refuge in Virton and Faulbourg because of the war [30 Years' War]. At least 50 died per day. General Isolani was given a value of 2,000 francs to prevent his cruelty either by massacre or fire which he threatened in the event of their refusal to pay the sum. Note: Croatian general Isolani commanded the Austrian imperial outposts under Wallenstein at the battle of Lutzen it was through his bloodthirsty bands that Gustave Adolphe, although victorious, was killed 1632. [Page 171]
1646: Jacques descouvies = new echevins. [Page 175].
1648: Jaques de Couvy = rentrants [Page 180].
1651: Jacques de Couvy = eschevin [Page 158].
1666: Jacque de Couvier = lieutenant [Page 146].
1668: Jacque de Couvier, lieutenant [Page 147].
1672: Jacque de Couvier = homme quarante [Page 149].
Annales le l'Institute archéologique du Luxembourg, Vol. 13 [Google Books - did a search on Decouvier] [Same as above reference]
I checked the above source and found the following references to Jacques Descouvier:
Page 175:
On the 20th day of May 1646, the entire bourgeoisie being summoned with the forty men and justice present, it was decided first and foremost that justice would be re-established as of old without anyone being able to remain there except those who must return to their second rank of aldermen, of which after the decree was made by virtue of the charters was made as follows and the mayor cannot choose one of last year for his lieutenant Michael Billy, mayor was made by more and pluralities of votes without one being able to use connivance in the future as was done previously by pain of chastoy to the first offender of the chastres and orders of the Attorney General of Neuveforge, may God have glory."Verton [Virton] Saint-Mard - Messieurs les Maire et justice de Verton"
1651 - Jacques Decouvier eschevins de justice" 26 August [member of city council with judicial power].
1662 Jacques des Couvier is listed as mayeur in Virton.
1664 Jacque de Couvier is listed as échevin in Virton.
1666 - Jacque de Couvier lieutenant"
1668 - Jacque de Couvier lieutenant" [ lieutenant mayor].
1672 - Jacque de Couvier "homme quarante"
1679: Jacques d'Ecouviez, lieutenant 24 May [position under the mayor].
Annales de l'Institut archeologique du Luxembourg. Tome XV Vol 15 Arlon 1883
Page 42. "Un Ancien Livre de Ville de Virton 1615-1790 (Suite et Fin) Continuation and end.
See chapter XV page 183 "Lists of Mayors and Justice from 1615 to 1790".
Link to Google books: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Annales_de_l_Institut_arch%C3%A9ologique_du/7YkBAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
The almost complete set of Annales can be found here:
Family Search 949.35 D35bn Biographie nationale du pays de Luxembourg depuis ses origines jusqu'a nos jours/ presentée par Jules Mersch.
Norbert Thill, ORGANS AND ORGANS IN LUXEMBOURG, over 500 S, 27 x 22 cm, Verlag Emile Borschette, Larochette, 1993
Considering the remarkable large amount and also the exceptional quality of pipe organs (also equipped with harmonica and electronic devices) of a Luxembourg organ culture, it can be seen as a reflection of its importance It is important to note that in the past few years, old organs have been restored in small or damaged church rooms. They have also undergone extensive renovations or restorations. The church itself has been restored to its original size; the state has also been restored to its historically valuable works (such as St. Michael's Church, St. Johann's Church, Trinitarian Church in Vianden and Franciscan Church in Ulflingen).
In 1934, Dominik Schmit wrote his "Organ Arrangements of the Grand Chamber of Luxembourg"; in 1982, Patrick Colombo wrote a complete and updated organ composition. Norbert Thill, also the organist, has more than one complete and comprehensive composition before him. The arrangement of the round 200 selected church and concert instruments from 157 alphabetically arranged orchestras (of which more instruments were naturally found at large centers), only 14 house and studio organs So, their recently changed or strongly modeled organists come when they can speak, i.e., they are in the process of producing the necessary sources (e.g., also a chapter on the "Luxembourg organ chronology": it begins in 1532 with the creation of an organ in the Echternacher abbey church and ends in 1993 with the creation of a concert hall in the Echternacher Music Conservatory).
The chapter contains the key to Norbert Thill's use of Luxembourg's organ builders: the names of which are known from other countries such as Breidenfeld (Trier), Cavaillé-Coll-Mutin (Paris), Dalstein-Haerpfer (Boulay), Klais (Bonn), Gebr. Muller (Reifferscheid), Nollet (Trier), Gebr. Oberlinger (Windesheim), Sebald (Trier), Walcker (Ludwigsburg) and others; for the Luxembourg organ buildings, it is self-sufficient, especially since the Lintgener firm G. Stahlhut-G Mainly by G. Westenfelder (we were grateful for the significant renovations and restorations of the past four hundred years).
In the workshop, a master photographer like Norbert Thill plays the image of a weighty roll, which is self-evident: illustrated by the organs, with beautiful details, a brochure and their sculptures, and the text. A handbook, not entirely suitable for organ builders and organists or church manufacturers, is suitable for all lovers of the "King of Instruments".
G. Thill
Search for surnames, places, periodicals etc. in https://eluxemburgensia.lu/en [Luxembourg digitized sources.
Search for Feuerstatten or "denombrement des feux"
Claude de Moreau de Gerbehaye, L'abrogation des privilèges fiscaux et ses antécédents. La lente maturation du cadastre thérésien au Duché de Luxembourg (1684-1774) . Information on St.Mard as well as other places in Luxembourg.
Claude MOREAU DE GERBEHAYE, The Abrogation of Tax Privileges and Its Antecedents. The Slow Maturation of the Theresian Land Register in the Duchy of Luxembourg (1684-1774), Brussels, Crédit communal, “History”, 1994, 609 p.
The important land survey undertaken by Maria Theresa of Austria for a large part of the territories under Habsburg rule, one of the cornerstones of the development of the Austrian monarchy, is studied here within the boundaries of the former Duchy of Luxembourg, one of the ten "Belgian provinces" constituting the Austrian Netherlands (the current Duchy and Province of Luxembourg in present-day Belgium, or approximately 7,000 km²), and in particular in the western Ardennes, bordering the Kingdom of France and reputed, since the 18th century, to be the most resistant to cadastral censuses, under the pretext of territorial disputes. The archives used, mainly the Theresian cadastre itself, are therefore preserved in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, due to Louis XIV's, then revolutionary and Napoleonic occupations The work, a thesis from the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, places the Luxembourg land registry in a broad time and space. The starting point is the earthquake represented by the establishment of the French administration during the War of the League of Augsburg, and, for the subject matter, by the establishment of the Pont-Chartrain poll tax. The end point, 1774, is the introduction of the land registry into ordinary tax operations. The geographical framework generously extends beyond the Duchy of Luxembourg alone. If the detailed study, including all statistical analyses, is limited there, it is after a vast confrontation with similar undertakings in Europe: Prussia, France, Savoy, Catalonia and of course the Habsburg states with the Lombard, Bolognese and Czech land registry. The exploitation-The use of the Theresian cadastre as a source of economic history and historical geography, present in the typewritten version of the thesis, will be the subject of a second volume, published by the Belgian Centre for Rural History. In the meantime, we regret the thinness of the cartographic apparatus of this first volume. Regional maps of physical, administrative and political geography would have been of great help to the reader who will not know the surface area or the number of communities in the duchy. He only knows that it had 250,000 inhabitants in 1766. Beyond this reservation, the specialist in French taxation of the 17th and 18th centuries remains astonished by the concordance of the problems, objectives, arguments, and means implemented on both sides of the border, and this in a precise chronological coincidence and down to the detail of administrative practice, and not only in the impact of canonical authors (Vauban, Bois-guilbert, Abbé de Saint-Pierre, Moreau de Beaumont, Marquis de Mirabeau). Maria Theresa of Austria, like Louis XV, pursued both the promotion of justice and the acquisition of new resources in their fiscal policies. But we can also, for example, compare term by term the reform of the taille tarifée carried out in the generality of Paris by the intendants of Bertier de Sauvigny, father and son, and the reform of the matriculation (the general distribution) carried out in the 1760s with the Theresian cadastre by Jean Philippe de Coblentzl, imperial commissioner, with advantage to the former when, unlike the latter, they developed a system of land valuation before beginning the measurement operations, and pushed the innovation to the point of introducing, for better or for worse, the progressiveness, absent in the duchy. The remonstrances of 1766 of the States of Luxembourg to Her Majesty the Empress and Queen, respond, idea for idea, to the remonstrances of Malesherbes of 1768: denounce-establishment of an authoritarian government by commissioners, marginalization of traditional justice systems, centralization flouting local freedoms. One could multiply the points of contact at will (taxation techniques, methods of calculation, taxed goods, declaration system, etc.). All of this leads to very similar tax systems, a distribution tax at the top, a large place for the quota at the bottom and local administration ultimately left to the institutions closest to taxpayers: communities of inhabitants in France, local justice systems in Luxembourg. The considerable weakening of the specifically Luxembourgish groups and governing bodies, to the benefit of the Brussels and Viennese power, however, allows the Austrian administration to succeed in subjecting the nobility and the clergy to tax, obliged to pass under the Caudine Forks of the land registry, after the last hurrah of the Order of Malta among others. The thing, thinkable and thought in the kingdom of France, was not achievable there, given the political and social strength of the first two orders and the structure of order in itself, backbone of the monarchical State. What emerges from this work is therefore much more than an illumination of an aspect of the history of the "Belgian provinces", but a putting into perspective of a question posed on a European scale and perhaps particularly well grasped thanks, paradoxically, to the cramped dimensions of the duchy. Luxembourg, land of Europe in the Age of Enlightenment, such could be one of the subtitles of this book which was crowned by the 1992 history prize of the Crédit Communal de Belgique.
The Duchy of Luxembourg at the end of the Ancien Régime. Atlas of historical geography. The Virton district
Atlas of historical geography-1/IX
First Edition
Claude de Moreau de Gerbehaye, Isabelle Parmentier Editorial coordination by Claude Bruneel, Joseph Ruwet
This volume constitutes the ninth issue of the Atlas of historical geography of the Duchy of Luxembourg at the end of the Ancien Régime. It covers the Virton district, in the south of the Duchy of Luxembourg. Economically, the heavily wooded region benefits from abundant fuel and waterways conducive to early industrialization. Administrative and judicial divisions are not easy to establish due to the overlapping of feudal ties, judicial structures, and economic realities. The work plan, borrowed from previous issues, facilitates comparisons between districts.
Le Duché de Luxembourg à la fin de l'Ancien Régime. Atlas de géographie historique. Le quartier de Virton
Atlas de géographie historique-1/IX
First Edition
Claude de Moreau de Gerbehaye, Isabelle Parmentier
Editorial coordination by Claude Bruneel, Joseph Ruwet
Ce volume constitue le neuvième fascicule de l'Atlas de géographie historique du duché de Luxembourg à la fin de l’Ancien Régime. Il aborde le quartier de Virton, au sud du duché de Luxembourg. Sur le plan économique, la région, fortement boisée, bénéficie d’un combustible abondant et de cours d’eau propice à l’industrialisation précoce. De leur côté, les divisions administratives et judiciaires ne sont pas aisées à établir en raison de la superposition des liens féodaux, des structures judiciaires et des réalités économiques. Le plan du travail, emprunté aux fascicules précédents, facilite les comparaisons entre quartiers.
DUMONT (J.), The accounts of the Virton-Saint-Mard estate from 1600 to 1656. Presentation, critique and exploitation for demographic purposes, U.C.L., 1989 (Bachelor's thesis in history). LUDADES DE Asia
Les comptes du domaine de Virton=Saint Mard de 1600 a 1656
https://archive.org/details/annalesi12instuoft/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater&q=dumont
Annales Vol. 12 1880
23
In any case, on March 23, 1341, the nobles, aldermen and bourgeois of Virton, all duly summoned, met in a solemn assembly to sign, with the religious crusaders of Suxy and Ivoix, a contract relating to the Maison-Dieu of Virton.
At the head of the nobles were Sirs Jacques de Virton and Jean, his son, both knights. Next came Jean d'Écouviez and Henrion de Iches, squires, then others also squires, clerks, and freemen. The last two shared with Jean de Isches the duty of guards of the seal of the provostship. The aldermen were Georges Mares, Alexandre Pasceis, Fidons Andrues, Jean Blondel, and Henrion, son of Rouillon. The two representatives of the crosiers were named Émeri and Germain; the former was prior of Ivoix
It was decreed that the Maison-Dieu and all its outbuildings would henceforth belong entirely to the religious crusaders, for as long as they remained there, on the condition that they maintain the common bull and house the poor, according to ancient custom. They still had to perform divine service, which required them to always be at least two people, one of whom was a priest.
The inhabitants of Virton further promised to protect their property and even their persons, provided that it was not contrary to custom. Finally, for greater assurance, they submitted in advance to the decision that their dear and beloved lady, the Countess of Chiny, would make, and even to the penalties that she would pronounce against them.
The Maison-Dieu of Virton.
March 23, 1340 (st. of Trier; n. st. 1341).
We, Jehan d'Escouviers, esquires; Henrions and Jehan de Iches de Verton, guardians of the sail of the provostship of Verton, let us all know that, before us specially established, (appeared) at that time their own persons: lords Jaickes de Verton and lord Jehan his sons, knights; Jehan d'Escouviers, Henrions Iches; all the squires, the clerks and the freeman Georges Mares, Alexandre Pasceis, Fidons Andrues, Jeannes Blondel, and Henrions son Rouillon, aldermen; and the whole community of the said town of Verton, specially (summoned) for this thing, (and) have recognized and given, for God and in alms, the brothers of Xuxcy and of the house of Ivoix, of the order of the Holy Cross, the house of God of Verton and all affiliations, without any thing to be retained, both for the present time and for times to come, for all days
The House of God of Virton.
March 23, 1340 (st. of Trier; n. st. 1341).
We, Jehan d'Escouviers, esquires; Henrions and Jehan de Iches de Verton, guardians of the sail of the provostship of Verton, inform everyone that, before us specially established, (appeared) at that time our own persons: Messieurs Jaickes de Verton and Messire Jehan his sons, knights; Jehan d'Escouviers, Henrions Iches; all the esquires, the clerks and the freeman Georges Mares, Alexandre Pasceis, Fidons Andrues, Jeannes Blondel, and Henrions son Rouillon, aldermen; and the whole community of the said town of Verton, specially (summoned) for this thing, (and) have recognized and given, for God and in alms, the brothers of Xuxcy and of the house of Ivoix, of the order of the Holy Cross, the house of God of Verton and all belongings, without anything to be (retained), as much for the present time as for times to come, for all days
maix, perpetually, as an inheritance, without any recall; except that, as long as the said brothers (remain there), they must always raise a bull for the said town of Verton, and house the poor and comfort them, according to the customs and traditions of the former tenement.
And these gifts and grants are made in such a manner that the said brothers must perform divine service for the dead and the living every day, but, in the said house, perpetually, and have at least two brothers residing in the said house, perpetually, one of whom must be priests.
And the said town of Verton must defend and protect the said house and its belongings from harm and force against all to the extent of their right, and the said brothers except the ordinary ones
And this gift and this grace were received by the Emeris brothers, prince of the house of Ivoix, and the German brothers, his companions, for God and in kind, for all days, both for themselves and for all the brothers of the aforementioned; and who have promised that, as soon as they carry it well, they will fulfill the obligations that concern them, as before written. And all those of the said city of Verton named above have promised, by then given bodily into our hands, that the gift of the aforesaid things they will not recall, nor cause to be recalled by anyone or by others.
And to make it more firmly established, they have committed themselves to the jurisdiction and constraint of our dear and beloved Lady, the Countess of Chiney
And so that this is a firm and stable thing, we, Jehan d'Escouviers, Henrions and (Jehan de) Iches, guardian, of the said saiel, have placed the said saiel in these present letters, saving the right of our dear lady the Countess of Chiney and the others.
This was done and given in the year of grace of our Signour M. CCC. XL, on Friday before the Annunciation of Our Lady, in March (1).
Another document
July 3, 1343 (1).
We, Thieris, etc., make known and acknowledge to all, that our lords and cousins, the kings of Bohemia and count of Lucembourch, have purchased from us the provostship of Yvuys, the provostship of Verton and Laferté-sur-Cher, with all their belongings for the sum of eighty and fifteen thousand royal florins, and as is more fully contained in the letters on this document, let all know that the sum of the above-mentioned four hundred and fifteen thousand royal florins, of good gold and good weight, we have had and received, etc. (2).
By the testimony of these letters signed by my great seiel, made and given at Liège on the third day of June, in the year one thousand three hundred and forty-three (3).
It is not known at what time the five thousand reals that the king still owed were paid.
During these various negotiations, Thierry de Heinsberg had also sold other properties; but as they were attached to the County of Looz and not to that of Chiny, we will not dwell on them. Let us only mention the sale he made to John III, Duke of Brabant, of his advowson of Liège, from which he had difficulty collecting the income (4).
So many difficulties and worries necessarily prevented Count Thierry from presiding over the government of the County of Chiny himself. It is therefore not surprising that he is not mentioned in the documents where his intervention was not essential. It is doubtful, however, that this consideration is sufficient to explain the mention of Countess Marguerite in the document we are about to discuss and the silence it maintains regarding the account of her nephew Thierry de Heinsberg. Perhaps this is a discreet protest against the sale, already known at the time, of the provostships of Virton and Ivoix.
(1) We find in Du Cange, under the word Juignet, an example where this word has the meaning of July. New ed. 7th volume. Under the word July, Littré cites two other examples. French Diction
(2) Everything in this recognition seems to indicate that the total price of the two provostships is 95,000 reals, and yet we know elsewhere that this is not the case. These kinds of apparent assertions often give rise to misunderstandings.
(3) Wolters, Cod. dipl. loss., page 306.
(4) Wolters, Cod. dipl. loss., page 285
http://enmemoire.sudinfo.be/search/node/Virton
Death announcements
Sources published on the census records:
Archives de l'État en Belgique, Inventaire des archives du Conseil de Luxembourg. IV. Dénombrements de feux et d'habitants, 1472-1795, BE-A0521_701840_700998_FRE.
Publications: BECKER, Horst, Verzeichnis der Feuerstätten («dénombrement des feux») in den überwiegend deutschsprachigen Bezirken («quartiers allemands») des Herzogtums Luxemburg aus dem Jahr 1611. Veröffentlichungen der Westdeutschen Gesellschaft für Familienkunde e.V., tome 359.
GROB, Jacques / VANNERUS, Jules, Dénombrements des feux des duché de Luxembourg et comté de Chiny. t. I: Documents fiscaux de 1306 à 1537, Bruxelles 1921.
MOREAU DE GERBEHAYE, Claude de, L'abrogation des privilèges fiscaux et ses antécédents, la lente maturation du Cadastre thérésien au duché de Luxembourg, Bruxelles 1994.
MULLER, René, Unsere Mosel- und Sauerdörfer vor 300 Jahren. Streifzug durch die Feuerstättenverzeichnisse von 1656, in: Contact. Grevenmacher (1971-1973).
OSTER, Edouard, Unsere bäuerlichen Besitzverhältnisse vor 300 Jahren, in: Lëtzeburger Bauerekalenner (1978-1981).
PETIT, Roger, Les aides et subsides dans le Luxembourg de 1360 à 1565, t. 3 : Dénombrements de feux (1541-1561), Bruxelles 2013.
RACINE, Victor, Les recensements de la population et les «dénombrements des feux», in: La Voix du Luxxembourg (28.03.2009), p. 21.
REDING, Victor, La situation économique et sociale de la justice de Dudelange, seigneurie du Mont St. Jean, d'après les dénombrements et le cadastre de Marie-Thérèse, thèse non-éditée, Luxembourg 1972.
Les Amis de L'Histoire Vol. 8 (1970) https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/850421-collection-les-amis-de-l-histoire-v-08?offset=576122
See the article by Spunk:
Structures familiales et coutumes d'héritage en France au XVIe siècle : système de la coutume
Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 27ᵉ année, N. 4-5, 1972
https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahess_0395-2649_1972_num_27_4_422569/
There exists, in fact, very far from the Mediterranean zones from which Roman law carried out its successive conquests, a "preciputary group" in the Northeast and the North; it concerns to varying degrees Lorraine, the country of Verdun, the Vermandois; and especially Wallonia and Picardy, about which a systematic comparison with neighboring Flanders, whose customs are different, is instructive.
The preciputary zone of Wallonia-Picardy extends, roughly, from Amiens to Liège 53. It widely practices (in the 16th century of the writing of the customs) the "liberalism" of the father and mother of the family (in other words the freedom to benefit); the absence or dispensation of report, notably for donations inter vivos; the accumulation of the qualities of legatee and heir (almoner and parsonnier, in local language); the granting of a pre-emption or "pre-share"; the general maxim "to one more, to another less"; and "the possibility for the father, mother, and ascendants to voluntarily give to the dotal establishments in marriage a pre-emptive character" 54. Nowhere is this "liberalism" (in the worst sense of the term!) more advanced than in the heart of the rural and traditional zone of the bailiwick of Orchies and Douai where the texts proclaim both the total exemption from reporting, and the accumulation of the qualities of heir and legatee.
Walloon liberalism, anti-egalitarian and precipitous, is all the more suggestive and clear-cut because it violently opposes, along a border that roughly coincides with the linguistic limit, Flemish customary laws, of which there are several hundred versions: these advocate, unlike the previous ones, a system of simple equality that uses the option, and which prohibits "making a beloved child," chier enffant, or lief kindr. In certain extreme cases (which are perhaps typical of the oldest stratum of Flemish customary laws), we even find, in Flanders, localized enclaves of complete equality, where forced intercourse is practiced, and which are reminiscent of Norman structures
Precisely, the Wallonia-Flanders comparison can be pushed very far: preciput and freedom to advantage, which characterize the French-speakers of the far north, are part of a general architecture of customs and even families, which opposes term for term to the Flemish counterpart. If Picardy-Walloon jurisprudence puts easy transport, broad attributions, and donations in the foreground
on the contrary, try to send to the most extreme ramifications and buds of the lineage an equal and fair portion of inheritance), it is in order to encourage (in Wallonia) the household community, functioning for the benefit of the spouses, then of the children who are willing to remain embedded there; and it is (in Wallonia still) to the detriment of the interests of the scattered members of the lineage, of the collateral branches, of the "detruncated" children; the scattered members of the lineage constituting, on the contrary, the cardinal concern of the Flemish world. In the same vein of ideas, common Wallonia advocates (but Flanders refuses) the revestissement (attribution, in the event of the death of one of the spouses, of the entire patrimony of the household to the surviving spouse); this re-vestment becoming possible as soon as the spouses have definitively proven that they are one flesh, by bringing a baby into the world, even a unique one, even if prematurely deceased; provided however that this baby has had the time, even if only for a moment "to bray and shout"! Thus contradicting the rule paterna paternis, and contesting the "lineage" vocation of the heritage to better exalt the "domestic" fusion of the spouses' property, Picardy-Wallonia can only quite naturally practice "sharing by beds"; and not of course, as so many Flemish cantons do on the contrary, sharing by head (without discrimination) "between the children of all indistinct beds". In this same spirit of preference given to the community fact, Wallonia (unlike Flanders, once again) also adopts devolution, which results in fact in granting the real estate coming from the father and mother to the children of the first marriage 55. Finally, we find, in Wallonia-Picardy, a similar consequence of an imperturbable logic, the classic measures of exclusion, dear to all the customs which (like the oldest Orléans-Parisian structures) place above all, even when it is at the expense of the interests of the members of the lineage, the perpetuation of the household community, and of its landed unity, intended if possible to survive beyond the death of the parents. Picards and Walloons therefore know to varying degrees the discrimination against children with dowers; the diminished situation given to girls; the exclusion of bastards (while Flanders, decidedly lineage-based and faithful to the end to the rule materna maternis as to the sovereign rights of the womb, proudly affirms that "no one is a bastard by his mother", "een moder maakt geen bastaard") 56. In the French-speaking countries of the far North, we also sometimes find the right of maineté (attribution of the mez or undivided family home to the youngest of the children, that is to say to the one who, according to all statistical probability, will live the longest
One of the inevitable reasons for this divergence of attitudes is the absence in Picardy-Wallonia of this curious institution called the Split (also absent in the old Orleans-Parisian customs). In the event that, as a result of the extinction of descendants without posterity, collateral relatives are called to inherit, the Picards and the Walloons attribute the furniture and acquisitions, which are in the patrimony of these deceased descendants, to the closest relative. On the contrary, the Flemish custom, faithful to the distinction of lineages and to the representation to infinity, literally splits, like a log, this escheated patrimony, to share it in half, between the members of the lines of the father and mother; or even by quarters or by eighths between the members of the lines of the four grandparents or of the eight great-grandparents 1
Edouard Oster: https://luxemburgensia.bnl.lu/cgi/luxonline1_2.pl?action=fv&sid=luxbio&vol=13&page=17&zoom=3/
Names in the 1611 and 1656 census of Luxembourg [Southern portion].