Louis Decre

Louis Decre In Boucher

One young settler at the Cape was apparently born in or near Geneva about the year 1684. Although no baptismal entry for Etienne Gauch has been found, we are indebted to C. Graham Botha for the discovery in 1920 of the entry on January 13, 1683 of the marriage at Celigny of his father Andre Gauch from Le Pont-de-Montvert in the Cevennes to Jacqueline, daughter of the late Louis Decre of Sauverny.Celigny is in a small enclave of Geneva on the western shore of the Lake of Geneva towards Nyon. It is evident that Andre Gauch had left France some time before the revocation; his bride’s father was also probably a refugee, as Sauverny is in the Pays de Gex.

Andre Gauch became a member of the Walloon church in Amsterdam on April 16, 1690 and was accompanied to the United Provinces by his wife and son. A daughter Marie was born to them in the Dutch seaport and baptized on May 28, 1690.18 The family may have spent some time in Basle before leaving Switzerland. A Jean Gauch came to Amsterdam from that city in March 1697. Andre Gauch and his son Etienne reached the Cape in 1691 aboard the Amsterdam East Indiaman Spier-dijk, commanded by Siarwert de Jonge. Whether Jacqueline Deere and Marie died in the United Provinces or on the outward voyage has not been determined.

M. Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA: Ch 7: Cape Settlers III: from South-Eastern France and Adjoining Territories p173