Jean (John) "Petit" à Baignoux

Jean Baignoux (born say 1645 - died 1692) was known as Jean Petit. Other surnames were Baignoux, Baignue and similar names. He was a Hugenot, who emigrated to New Amsterdam about 1665. Before his untimely drowning, Jan lived on the Harlem patent where he had 30 acres. He had been in the service of Capt. Johannes Vermuelen.

Family

Jean Baignoux married twice and had three children. His first wife seems to have been called “Elizabeth Hall” in English records and “Anna Oedt” in Dutch; she was the mother of two girls shown as baptized in New York City in Dutch Reformed Church records. His next wife was Jenne Stephens, mother of Benjamin, who drowned with him in 1692.

1) “Marriage license granted in New York for Jean Baignoux ["Baignouix"] and Elizabeth [Anna Oedt], daughter of Ralph Hall [Hoedt], 6 Dec 1670.”

from New Amsterdam (New York City) Reformed Dutch Church Marriages 1680:

http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/church/rdcmarr1680.shtml

2) [betrothed] 11 dicto.[ 11 April 1680] Jan Bengnout, Wedr. Van [widow of] Anna Oedt, en [and] Jannetje Stephens, j. d. Van [unmarried woman of] Uytrecht, beyde woonende tot [both living at] N. Yorke . [married] 1 May [1680]. [Utrecht is a town south of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.]

from New Amsterdam & New York Reformed Dutch Church Baptisms

http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/church/rdcbapt.shtml

The baptisms are laid out in order as follows: The date of the baptism; the parents; the child; and the witnesses.

1) 8 Dec [1673]; Jean Bejonge, Anna Hodde; Anna; Nicolaes de Lapleine, Anna Reynouts

2) 17 Dec [1680]; Jean Bingou, Anna Hoedt; Marritie; Paulus Turck, Marritie Loockermans

3) 24 Mar [1685]; Jean Petit, Jannetie Stevens; Benjamin; Pieter Pieterszen Groenevelt, Clara Ebels

Biography

from The Revised History of Harlem, James Riker, 1904, p381 <Archive.Org>

Jean Baignoux bore a good character, but is little known. It was he, we presume, who, as Jan Binjou, joined the church April 12, 1665, at the same time with Abraham du Toict. Binjou (Beenyou) approaches his name in sound. Montagne writes it Benu; the English scribes usually benew. The cultured Vander Vin using a Latin prefix (se note p. 120), writes it Abignou, i.e., from Baignoux, the latter a Burgundian town, whence Jean probably came. Twice he calls him "Jean Abignou, alias Jan petit." The French called him Jean petit, the Dutch Klyn Jan, both meaning Litle John. Kleyn Jan was paid at Harlem 9 florins for "putting the drum in order." I suspect he had been one of Governor Nicolls' soldiers. He had license December 6, 1670, to marry Elizabeth, daughter of Ralph Hall, but his wife in and after 1673, was Anna Hoede. In 1680, he married Jenne Stevens. later, if we mistake not, sailing a coasting vessel, he met with disaster. Abraham Gouverneur, writing from Boston, October 12, 1692, relates "the sad mischance of Little John and his son," who bound thence for New York, "were cast away on Nantucket Shoals, and both drowned."

from History of Harlem, James Riker, pp. 427-428

Jean Baignoux sold his farm on Hoorn's Hook, May 15th [1683], to Isaac Deschamps, a French refugee, and well-to-do merchant at New York.

Deschamps eventually sold the Baignoux farm to John Spragge, Esq., of New York. The lands about this lower section of the town, already acquiring value, were thus passing from the hands of the sturdy yeomen who first settled and improved them, in part to become, under the touch of wealth and refinement, the charming rural seats of affluent tradesmen and shipping merchants, noted mariners and others. Later occupants of the Saw-kill farm were Capt. Samuel Bradley and his son-in-law, the famous Capt. William Kidd, whose wife was the former Mrs. Cox.*

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Excerpt of a letter from Abraham Governeur (in Boston) to his parents (in New York), 12 October 1692, translated from Dutch:

I hope that my two last letters came to your hands, and having now an opportunity I durst not omit letting you know how things are here, as also the sad mischance of little John (Jean) and his Son; they were afloat again from that place where they first drove on shoar, but were cast away on Nantucket Shoales and both drowned; all my clothes, linen, silver, pocket book, and bookes, all is lost, so that I have nothing but two Shirts and one cravat.

[Note: Abraham, Secretary to the former New York Governor Leisler, was collecting support from the neighboring Governors on behalf of the citizens of New York to petition King William of England for grievances against the current Governor, restitution of reputation for Leisler (unjustly convicted of treason and executed a year prior), compensation for his family and Leisler's supporters, and appointment of a new Governor. All these requests were granted by 1695. Jean Petit may have been Abraham's escort on the voyage.]

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Notes

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158814878/jean-john_petit_a-bai...

Jean's daughter baptized as "Anna" on 8 Dec. 1673, in the Reformed Dutch Church of New York, is thought to be the same as Elizabeth Benue (d. 1760), wife of Judge Henry Freeman (d. 1763) of Whitewood Hall, Woodbridge Twp., Middlesex Co., NJ. According to family tradition, Elizabeth was from a Huguenot family. Her age at death (she was in "her 87th year") fits well with the 1673 baptism. It is thought that her full name was probably Ann Elizabeth, as she gave her first daughter this name in 1696. Double given names were not uncommon in French and Dutch families, though rare in English families at that time.

The death of Jean Baignoux's first wife in 1679/80 (when Elizabeth Benew Freeman would have been about 6 years of age), and then his and his son's--apparently 11-year-old Benjamin's--drowning in 1692 (when Elizabeth would have been about 18), are thought to be the reason for the following epitaph on Elizabeth's gravestone (see Find A Grave memorial 11050741):

• Her days began with Trouble here,
• Our life is but a Span,
• And Cruel Death is always near,
• So frail a thing is Man.

Jean Baignoux's untimely death might also be the source of the Freeman family tradition that Henry Freeman's father had drowned when Henry was a minor. In other words, the story of the tragic loss of one grandfather of the 13 Freeman children might have been eventually passed down in the family as relating to the other grandfather.

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The Revised History of Harlem, James Riker, 1904, p381:

References

• http://dougwilson.com/family/reports/fam1559.html
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158814878/jean-john_petit_a-bai...
• The Revised History of Harlem, James Riker, 1904, p381
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Baignoux-2 cites

1. Brodhead, John Romeyn. Documents relative to the colonial history of the state of New York, Fernow, Berthold,. 1853 Albany.1n; O'Callaghan, E. B. (Edmund Bailey), 1797-1880. cn; New York (State). Legislature pg 4
2. New York Historical Manuscripts, English: Books of General Entries of the Colony of New York, 1664-1673 {Baltimore, 1982), p. 385.
3. Riker, James, A Revised History of Harlem, (city of New York). Its origin and early annals, Toler, Henry Pennington; Potter, Sterling. 1904 New York, New Harlem publishing company Collection

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158814878/jean-john_petit_a-bai...
• https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:G9RN-6G5 has errors