Paul de Villiers

Pierre de Villiers, father of the three brothers, was born in 1615 in Burgundy. At some stage he moved down to Saint-Jean-d’Angély, near La Rochelle and stayed on a farm called Campagne. Exactly when is not clear, but there is a record of De Villiers marrying Elizabeth Secault in 1656 at the Temple de la Villeneuve, the main Protestant temple in the city. Eldest son Pierre was born the next year, followed by Abraham (1659) and Jacques (1661). To my astonishment I discover Pierre had a fourth son called Paul, born in 1663.

When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, Pierre de Villiers must have foreseen the hell that was to follow and probably insisted that his sons escape to Holland. As the King’s dragoons closed in on the farm in 1688, all four brothers fled, only for a homesick Paul to turn back. It was a decision that cost him his life – Paul’s date of death is listed as 1688. It’s likely that Campagne was burnt to the ground and its inhabitants killed.

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