French Huguenots

came to America

During the period from 1550 and 1580, the Protestant Reformed church struggled with the Catholic Church in France. Many of the French Protestants, who were called Huguenots, wanted a life of simple faith in God, without the rituals associated with the Catholic Church. The persecution of the Huguenots resulted in armed conflicts. On March 1, 1562 dozens of Huguenots were massacred at Vassy beginning the Wars of Religion. This persecution resulted in the first wave of refugees to leave France. Ten years later, wealthy and prominent Huguenots came to Paris to celebrate the wedding of Marguerite, sister of the Catholic King Charles IX of France, to the Protestant Henri de Bourbon, King of Navarre. It is believed that Charles IX and his mother Catherine de' Medici ordered the massacre of the Protestants, beginning six days later on St. Bartholomew's Day, to eliminate the Protestant leaders. From August 24 to October 3, 1572 Catholic mobs killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris and other areas of France. Henri de Bourbon was forced to became Catholic. This resulted in the second wave of refugees to flee to other countries. After the deaths of all of Catherine de' Medici's sons, Henry of Navarre became King of France. He issued the Edict of Nantes on April13, 1598 to grant religious toleration to the Protestants and end the religious wars. Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, renounced the Edict in October, 1685 and viciously persecuted the French Protestants. Hunrdreds of thousands of Huguenots fled France for England, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland. About 6,000 came to North America. France lost many prosperous merchants, artisans, and craftsmen.

Many who first went to the Netherlands later traveled to New Amsterdam and established the French Church. Some went to Massachusettes, Rhode Island, or South Carolina. After the English conquest New Amsterdam, some of the Huguenots who had settled in Bristol, England moved to New York and established the city of New Rochelle. Among them were several of my ancestors.

Descendents of Huguenot refugees include Paul Revere, silversmith and a Patriot in the American Revolution, Henry Laurens, who signed the Declaration of Independence for South Carolina, Alexander Hamilton, who cowrote the Federalist Papers and served as first Secretary of the Treasury, Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox”, and Pierre L'Enfant: the engineer/architect of Washington, DC. So were the American Presidents George Washington, John & Quincy Adams, James A. Garfield, and Theodore Roosevelt.

The Badeau Family

Pierre Badeau was born in France about in 1620. By 1710 he was and his wife Marie Triau , both about 90 years old, were living in New Rochelle, NY. Their son Eli Badeau was born in St. Georges, in Saintogne, France about 1670. They fled to Bristol, England. On August 30, 1696 Eli married Claude, daughter of Don Fume, and widow of Francois Blondeau. The Badeau family came to America 1708 and purchased a hundred and twenty acres of land in what is now the town of New Rochelle.

The Guion Family

Susannah Guion, a French Huguenot who fled from La Rochelle in France, married in 1692 in New Rochelle, NY Jean "John" Coutant, who was born about 1658 in France.
Louis Guion was born about 1655 in La Rochelle, France, fled to England in 1681 then emigrated from England about 1687. He married Tomazo Anne Forestiere AKA Anne Thomas, born in 1656. They and their children settled in New Rochelle, Westchester Co., NY.

Are Susannah and Louis related?

The Coutant Family

Jean "John" Coutant, who was born about 1658, was a French Huguenot who married Susannah Guion in 1692 in New Rochelle, NY.

The Lasty Family

Jacques Lasty was born in Grenoble, France, the son of Joseph Lasty and wife Francoise Giraud. He was a French Huguenot who was naturalized in a private act of the British Parliament approved by King James on 27 June 1685. He had business contacts in Jamaica, West Indies. Together with his partner and son-in-law Guillaume Le Conte, he owned a ship called "Le Point de Sable"(Sandy Point) which probably transported goods to New York for trade with the Dutch. He purchased land in New Rochelle, NY. He died before September 09 1691 in Jamaica, West Indies. Jacques had two daughters, Ann and Katherine. Ann Martha Lasty and her husband Guillaume Le Conte were ancestors of St. Elizabeth Seton. Katherine Lasty married David Bonnefoy

The Sicard Family

Ambroise de Sicar was born in Morac, Charente-Maritime, France in 1631. He was a "saunier'' or salt maker who owned a small vineyard. In 1681 he fled to England because of religious persecution in France. In 1686 he immigrated to NYC with his wife Marie Or Jeanne Perron and five children. In 1690 he was one of the founders of New Rochelle, NY where he bought 95 acres in 1692.

The Mabie Family

Pieter Casparszen Van Naerden's name appears on the 1621 Leyden Petition by Frenchmen living in Leyden, Holland to the "Lord Ambassador of the Most Serene King of Great Britain" requesting permission to settle in America. He immigrated between 1621 and 1647; possibly on the ship the Soutberg which captured a Dutch Caravel in 1633.

Links
http://www.huguenotsocietyofamerica.org/history.htm
Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot
http://www.newrochelleny.com/dav.asp
h ttp://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-Traits.html
http://pages.prodigy.net/royjnagy/ressegui.htm
http://www.lycos.com/info/huguenots--french-huguenots.html

Reading

Seacord, Morgan H. Biographical sketches and index of the Huguenot settlers of New Rochelle : 1687-1776 New Rochelle, N.Y.: Huguenot and Historical Association of New Rochelle, 59 pgs
Ballard, Frank W. The Huguenot settlers of New York City and its vicinity: New York, 1862, 19 pgs.
Baird, Charles W. History of the Huguenot Emigration to America, 2 vols. New York; Dodd, Mead and Company Publishers, 1885.
Butler, Jon. The Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World Society. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press (1992).
Carlo, Paula Wheeler. The Huguenots of Colonial New Paltz and New Rochelle: a social and religious history. New York, New York, City University of New York (2001)
De Haelve Maen: a magazine of the Dutch Colonial period in America, a quarterly of the Holland Society of New York. New York, NY.

Lasty I Home I Badeau

This URL is http://jg245.home.att.net/fr_hug.htm

Last revised: 6/03/2009; © Copyright 2009 by J. Godlewski Co., all rights reserved;