Marie Taillefert

According to Pieter Coertzen's book Paul came from Chateau-Thierry in Brie (Champagne) in 1694 [?not 1696? - Sharon] on the Vosmaer, and settled in CT. He married Marie Taillefert (who died on board ship, together with a daughter, Marie le Febvre) His children, if any, are unknown - although Paul and Marie are put down as possible children.

• Coertzen, Pieter. 1988. Die Hugenote Van Suid Afrika 1688-1988: Cape Town, Tafelberg.

Accordng to Boucher: ..from the transcription of the records of the Walloon church in the Zeeland capital we learn that the surgeon Paul Lefebvre and his wife Marie Taillefert had reached Middelburg at an earlier date and had been naturalized there on November 17, 1685. Paul Lefebvre played an important part among the Calvinists of the Chateau-Thierry election in his professional capacity. He attended the Nogentel pastor Jean Pages in his last illness and was a witness at his funeral in 1677.

The Lefebvre children who appeared at Middelburg with their parents were Paul, Pierre, Susanne and Marie. There are discrepancies here with the children whose baptisms are recorded in the surviving Nogentel registers. There we find the baptism of Jean Lefebvre on April 1, 1674, of Anne on January 12, 1676 and of Marie-Madeleine on May 16, 1677. The registers, however, do not cover a lengthy period and it is also possible that some of the children of Paul Lefebvre and Marie Taillefert died before 1685. Another daughter Marguerite was born to them in exile and christened at Middelburg on January 10, 1687.

It seems a distinct possibility that there were two surgeons named Paul Lefebvre, father and son, at the Cape, the former arriving in the service of the Dutch East India Company in 1694 and the latter two years afterwards. This hypothesis is suggested by entries in the log of the Vosmaar .. The Vosmaar carried ten French refugees. On June 27, 1696, in cold, wet weather, it was reported in the log: “Kregen dagelix veel volck jnde kooij door sieckte”. The first death occurred two days later and by the time the Vosmaar had crossed the equator on August 1, several more had succumbed to sickness and a sailor Jacob Hartog had fallen overboard and drowned. In southern latitudes the toll mounted rapidly, each fatality being faithfully recorded in the log. On Saturday, August 11 during the first watch a French passenger, Marie Lefebvre, died. Six days later we read: “Smorgens ... is overleeden maria taaljefaar (Marie Taillefert) van Schattoetire (Chateau-Thierry) in vranckrijck zijnde de moeder van den overleede maria La fever franse refugees overvaarende na de Caap de bon Esperance”. Here we have the first link with the family of Paul Lefebvre the surgeon.

• Boucher.M (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA (Search, using the individual Chapter Name below, to download each as a pdf):
  • CHAPTER EIGHT Cape settlers IV: from Burgundy to Picardy pp226-228