tresayle

From Middle French trisayeul, from Latin tris, tres (“three”) + French aïeul (“grandfather”). Compare besaiel, and see ayle.

tresayle (plural tresayles)

1. (obsolete) A grandfather's grandfather; a great-great-grandfather.
   • 1853, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, page 148:

     If the abatement happened on the death of one's grandfather or grandmother, then an assise of mort d'ancestor no longer lies, but a writ of ayle or de avo: if on the death of the great-grandfather or great-grandmother, then a writ of be sayle, or de proavo: but if it mounts one degree higher, to the tresayle, or grandfather's grandfather, of if the abatement happened upon the death of any collateral relation, other than those before-mentioned, the write is called a writ of cosinage, or de consanguineo.

   • 1874 February 4, W. H. Whitmore, “A New System of Denoting Relationship”, in The New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume XXVIII, Boston, Mass.: the Society’s House, , published October 1874, page 403:

     If any one wishes to speak of a great-great-grandfather (tresayle) through some side line, as his grandmother’s mother’s father, he has to use an explanatory mode like the above.

   • 1877 July, John Ward Dean, Notices of Recent Publications from the Historical and Genealogical Register for July, 1877, page 12:

     Thomas Boston Clarkson, whose genealogy is given in the third pamphlet, was born in Charleston, S. C., Sept. 4, 1809. His maternal grandmother was Christiana, daughter of Thomas Boston, V.D.M., whose ancestry is traced back five generations to her tresayle, Andrew Boston, born in Ayre, Scotland, about 1597.

   • 1878, John Ward Dean, Sketch of the Life of William Blanchard Towne, A.M., Founder of the Towne Memorial Fund of the New-England Historic, Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass.: the N. E. Historic, Genealogical Society, , page 9:

     […] in 1834, he prefixes to his diary a record of his ancestors, running back four generations to his tresayle, or great-great-grandfather, Joseph Towne, living in Topsfield, 1684.

   • 1960 January, A.L. Rowse, “Alltyrynys and the Cecils”, in English Historical Review:

     In April 1600 Delahay protested to Sir Robert that on a Sunday in March 'I was assaulted and violently pulled […] , and where men see Richard Cecil your tresayle [actually his great-grand brother] use'-by the procurement of John Arnold.

   • 2012, Jérémie Delorme, “The Double System of Descent Groups and Surname Adaptations in a Francoprovençal/French Diglossic Situation”, in Oliviu Felecan, editor, Name and Naming: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, page 80:

     However, two individuals a and b whose most recent common ancestor c is the quatrayle of the former and the tresayle (great-great-grandfather) of the latter may belong to the same lineage, because the genealogical chain connecting them consists of nine degrees of kinship.

• writ of tresayle

• ayle
• besaiel
• quatrayle

“tresayle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Easterly, easterly