26th May 1764.
In the name of God so be it
Today twenty-sixth May seventeen sixty-four, at nine o'clock in the morning, before the undersigned Royal Notary registered with the Sovereign Council of Alsace residing in Strasbourg, was present François Isnard wood engraver residing in this city with his eldest daughter named hereafter, in the house of S. Soultzer, place of the Cathedral parish of St. Laurent, being sane of spirit, memory, judgment and understanding, even of the body as it appeared to the said notary and to the witnesses hereafter named and hereby present, being in his bedroom on the first floor overlooking the courtyard of the said house declared that to prevent any dispute between his children, after his death, he was resolved to make the present will by form of regulation and privileged disposition of a father between his children and dictated to said notary:
First: the Testator commends his soul to God.
2nd. the Testator Institutes for his universal heirs his three children Anne Marguerite Isnard wife of François Bouchot [sic] master Cartier & citizen of this city, Anne Marie Isnard wife of Mathieu Gabrié residing in Barr, and Pierre François Isnard Lieutenant in the Provincial Regiment of Strasbourg.
3rd. the Testator declares that all the furniture existing in the house where he lives with his daughter Anne Marguerite belongs to his daughter, without exception, and that she owes him absolutely nothing to this day, except the little he can give her in cash or otherwise which is by far not enough to recognize the care she takes of him in his advanced age, nor so that he can pay to her for the food and lodging that she has given him for more than four years, so that to prevent all difficulties and disputes that her brother and sister may want to raise up for her, he gives, bequeaths and pre-legates to his daughter all that she may have of him in furniture or in money cash, wanting that it belongs to her by principal and before any sharing and that she does not take it into account either to her brother or to her sister for any cause or reason whatsoever.
The Testator declared that the object of this preleg is of so little consequence & that it deserves no attention and that he only does it to protect his daughter Anne Marguerite from the difficulties that may be caused her.
The Testator having thus declared the above and the notary having read and re-read it to him, said that such is his last will that he wishes to be executed punctually after his death.
Having read and passed in Strasbourg on the day month and year above, in the presence of the Merchant Jean Baptiste Benoist and Boilermaker François Saur residing there, required witnesses who signed with the said Notary, the testator having declared not knowing how to write made his ordinary mark.
Mark of François Isnard Testator: F. I.
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François Isnard died, aged about sixty-six, a widower from his first marriage to Elisabeth Hübel, and of his second to Françoise Lisson, on January 19, 1765. He was buried in the cemetary of Saint-Urbain.
What we have of his work as xylographer during the half-century that he lived in Strasbourg is not numerous, if we consider only signed plates; but one must believe, on the one hand, that he did not sign them all, and on the other hand, that part of his time was taken up by the engraving of Queens of Hearts & Kings of Diamonds for his relatives and friends BOUCHARD and BENOIST, master cardmakers of Strasbourg.
[source: Translated from article in "Archives alsaciennes d'histoire de l'art" 1927, published by Istra, Strasbourg.]
Registration of baptism of Petrus Franciscus Isnard [Pierre Francois], son of Francisci [Francois] Isnard, engraver and Anna Elizabeth Hubel, May 25, 1727, with his father's mark 'FI':