Francis Fontaine, III

A Patriot of the American Revolution for South Carolina with the rank of Private. DAR Ancestor # A134798

Revolutionary War Soldier

Francis Fontaine III, a patriot who was murdered by Tories in South Carolina during the American Revolution. The Fontaines were of an ancient noble lineage. The founder of this line was Jean de la Fontaine, a Crusader knight who fought at Jerusalem in 1099 under Godfrey of Bouillon during the First Crusade.

The Fontaines, beginning with a later Jean de la Fontaine in the 1300s, were the lords of the territory of Sevilly for centuries, and members of family were close advisors to the French kings Francis I, Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry IV. The Fontaines were Huguenots; and, as a result, members of the family were heavily persecuted, and in one case murdered, by the Catholic Church. After the family voluntarily renounced its noble standing, Rev. Jacques Fontaine III moved the family to England in 1685 and Ireland in 1694, where they resided in a castle at Bear Haven. In 1721, his son, Rev. Francis Fontaine I, sailed to America and settled in Williamsburg, Virginia. Contributed by: Dylan Edward Mulligan